The World of Skara Brae

Between Aaron's spell and Mal's spell, most of the people in the square about 30 feet or so from Aaron and Mal stopped panicking. Drek then re-iterating his call for them to move into the tower, and they did so.

Orren then said: "Alright, looks townsfolk that didn't calm down are fleeing the square, so they're safe for the moment."

Zelph said: "Great, but how to we hurt that thing? It's enormous!"

Meanwhile Micheal was still fighting the dragon, throwing off fire-bolts, lightning arcs and blasts of energy at the thing. The dragon was bleeding where Micheal's spells had hit the thing, but it didn't seem like it was in distress. The Dragon, in turn, was blasting Micheal with a steady stream of acid-breath, which was splattering against his magic force-field and then falling away to the cobblestone floor to the town square, where it was raising a small cloud of acrid smoke as it dissolved the tiny specks of organic matter in the dust, dirt, and mud.

Peter said: "I doubt my illusions would work against that thing... but it's worth a try." Peter took at deep breath, aimed his fingers at the dragon, and then cast Dizzying Display at the dragon. As soon as he did so, a bright, dancing, multicolored display of blinking lights leaped out from Peter's fingers, and were projected directly to the dragon's face like light from a lantern. The dragon stopped breathing acid at Micheal and it reared up at bit, and shook it's head from side to side, but the illusion continued to stay in front of it's face. It then stumbled a bit and unleashed a wildly erratic spray of acid against the various shops and vendor's stalls in the market square, partially dissolving many of them Peter, surprised said: "Ugh... his mind is strong, he's resisting... don't know how much longer I can keep this up...but I gotta keep concentrating on the spell or it will stop working."

Drek said: "Now's our chance, then! Go for the belly, that's it's a weak spot. Either that or poke out it's eyes." Drek notched his bow and began fireing arrows at the underbelly. The arrows were hitting home and sticking it it's belly. Green blood then welled up around the wounds.

Usually James would hide his lycanthropy from the public eye. Right now however, there was a dragon rampaging and he needed to be at his best to fight the beast.

James transformed to his hybrid and rushed towards the dragon with his glaive, he was going to impale his weapon into the black creature's underbelly!

Following James' lead, Orren and Zelph readied their weapons charged in after him.

Kalan pulled out two long knives from their sheathes under his shirt and rushed toawrds the dragon. The boy intended to go for the eyes as he realized that even thoug h he could penetrate the skin of the underbelly his knives would probably not do enough damage.

Sklav, close to the dragon now, decided that his claws would be useless against it, and he took out his mace.

He slammed it into the dragon's chest.

edited 2nd Mar '12 4:57:46 AM by Falkon

Sam for her part was tempted to rush with her blade... however, it was a small thing compared to the weapons of her companions and that dragon was quite impossing with its sheer size.

So, she recurred to her trusty longbow, notching an arrow to the string and pulling back on it with all the strength her arms would allow her. At the moment it was worth it to slow rate of fire down a bit in order to get more power behind her arrow.

Thus, Sam let fly her shot aiming at the dragon's weak underside, straight at the upper left side of his chest.

James' attack sliced open a small section of the dragon's belly, exposing blood and guts and an acrid smell. However, James was now painfully aware of just how big this thing really was. If it even rolled over, it would surely crush the entire party into pancakes.

Zelph followed up James' attack with some fast dual-weilding slicing and slashing with his two swords, but they did little damage and he was unable to penetrate the dragon's hide.

Orren also charged in, lancer-style with a spear. He managed to penetrate the belly with his speak, but when he tried to pull it out, all that came out was the haft: The spear-head had apparently broken off.

Deimos and Gerrarg then entered the fray, but neither were able to do much damager. The two Orc brothers also ran in, but they too found that their best attacks did little dammage.

As Kalan got closer to the Dragon, he realized that the dragons face was a lot higher up that he'd thought it was. Perspective will do that to you. From further back, it has seemed lower to the ground, but now he could see that he'd need a ladder to even get close to it's face. Perhaps if he got up on top of it's head?

As Slkav struck the dragon with his mace, there was a satisfying crushing sound as bone broke and tissue were rendered apart. However, Sklav could now see that there was an even weaker spot that Drek had apparently failed to notice: The dragon's feet and knees were well-armored on the top, but their undersides were just as soft as the underbelly. If he smashed the proper joints and cut the correct tendons, he could cripple the beast's legs. Now, how to do it without getting stepped on?

Orandious was at the tower door, trying to get everyone into the tower without anyone getting trampled.

Through all this, the dragon had barely even reacted at all to the damage the party was doing to it.

Meanwhile, Sam's arrow had found it's mark, penetrating the upper left side of the dragon's chest. The Dragon flinched and cried out when the arrow hit, it's entire body shuddered like an avalanche letting go, and it's tail swiped left-to-right about 20 degrees in an instant. This did three things: Firstly, It jarred Zelph, Orren, James, and Sklav, knocking them back about a foot. Secondly, it knocked over a two-story brick house at the rear of the market square. But most importantly, it revealed a critical spot. Micheal said: "Sam, you hurt it!! The spot your arrow hit must be a tender spot. Everyone, I'm gonna mark a spot, concentrate your attacks there." Micheal then waved his arms about in a complex pattern and a light shone out from his hands. The light zeroed in on where Sam's arrow had hit, drawing a small red-and-white bulls-eye on that spot. One problem, though: This spot was too high about about five yards for any of the melee fighters to reach standing on the ground.

Orren said to James: "We need a way to get up there. Any ideas?"

Peter said: "Hurry up and kill that thing, I can't keep this illusion up much longer..."

edited 4th Mar '12 12:25:23 AM by TheSarge

[GM's mood music: This is the ultimate boss-battle music, from the PC game Icewind Dale. Enjoy]

Kalan then attempted to run around the dragon, passing under it's wing as he did so, and jump up on it's back

"A tender spot, eh? Well then... I won't hold back!" Mal'wae grinned as she begun to chant, her sword aimed at the dragon's chest. She sped up and run, charging all the whole way through towards the target.

"Destruction" She ended up saying, still aiming at the weak spot.

Sklav got up. Running toward's the leg closest to the spot, he leaped, claws unsheathed, at the leg. He hoped to climb the dragon using it's scales as footholds.

edited 4th Mar '12 5:51:45 AM by Falkon

I hurt it...

Such a big thing and yet her arrow had hurt the mighty dragon. It could bleed, it could feel pain... and then, surely, it could be defeated.

After that epiphany, Sam turned and ran towards the buildings, hopping on a street cart and from it to jump and cling on to a beam of a certain abandoned shop. She climbed upon the roof of the place and then turned from her vantage point to look at the dragon from the front. Planting her feet firmly, she notched yet another arrow on her bow and with slow but precise movement she pulled on the string until the hard wood of her bow bent and groaned with the force upon it.

Samantha the Hunter wasn't a very wise girl but spending a life by the bow had taught her to look into the future with her mind's eye. The world seemed to slow as she saw the dragon, saw her target right upon the dragon's chest. And as she saw the dragon trashing in his ire and pain she predicted where her target would be a couple of seconds from now, when he arrow would strike at it and bury itself within the softest part of the beast's armor.

Only then did Samantha release her arrow and let it fly into the place she imagined in her mind's eye.

edited 5th Mar '12 6:27:58 PM by daltar

As tempting as it was for James to cut open a hole in the dragon he could enter and do damage where the creature's scales weren't providing protection, it was way to easy for him to get crushed and even werewolves can only take so much damage.

He than proceeded to follow Sklav's example. A werewolf's claws were more durable than a lizzardman's, so if Sklav can climb, James can.

Peter yelled out: "Can't... hold.. it......."

Kalan was running around to the back of the dragon, but since the dragon was so very large, this would take a few minutes.

Meanwhile, Sklav and James were climbing up the belly of the dragon towards the tender spot. It was a tough climb, seeing as the dragon was leaning forward and they were climbing up it's front. However, both Sklav and James were up to the challenge, and unless they fell off they would both be at the tender spot in less than a minute.

Orren could not climb something that steep, so instead he chose to assist Kalan. He ran after Kalan and said: "Hop up on my back, kid!"

Without a viable way up the front, and seeing he wasn't doing much damage to the belly, Deimos decided to follow Kalan, and so he sheathed his weapon and ran after Orren & Kalan.

Gerard, though, decided to try and climb up the dragon. He got out his rope with the grappling hooks on the ends, and tossed up one end, but it failed to hook onto anything. Unfazed, he caught the rope when it fell down, and prepared to try again.

The two orc brothers saw what Gerard was trying to do, so they got out their ropes and tried to do the same. They had more luck, though, and both managed to hook onto the neck of the dragon, first time. Happy with their luck, the orcs started climbing up the rope.

However, just then Peter's illusion spell broke, and the dragon immediately regained it's sight. Seeing what the two orcs were doing, it unleashed a stream of deadly acid at them, dissolving their flesh and burning them away, right to the bone. They died almost instantly. The acid-stream missed Gerrard, but just barely. However, he was forced to retreat, lest he be dissolved too. He abandoned his rope and ran away to the rear of the dragon.

Zelph was going into a frenzied state, seemingly oblivious to what was going on around him, and he began so slash his blades ever-faster, slashing away at the belly of the beast. This began to slice tiny chunks of dragon-flesh away, but it still wasn't doing much damage.

Sam's arrow hit it's mark, and again the dragon screamed in pain, writing and thrashing about. Once again, the tail of the dragon swiped sideways and once again it demolished a building.

Drek followed Sam's lead and climbed up on top of the building, standing next to her, and notching his bow.

Orandious had just about finished getting the townsfolk into the tower. He had just three more people to get inside. However, just then Claire ran out, and before Orandious could stop her, she was outside.

Micheal was throwing more fireballs at the dragon, this time at the weak spot Sam had chanced upon, but the dragon didn't even react to this at all. He said: "This thing has an incredible resistance to magic. I don't think I'm hurting it. It's a wonder Peter's spell worked at all."

Drek said: "If your magic can't hurt it, then switch tactics. Can you entrap it? Bind it's limbs down or tie it's mouth shut somehow?"

Micheal said: "Oh course! Why didn't I think of that?" Micheal cast a new spell, waving his arms about in a geometric pattern and uttering a complex arcane phrase. When he finished, suddenly a giant spider-web appeared, wrapping around the face of the dragon. This effectively put a big blindfold made of spider webs around the dragon's eyes, and bound it's mouth shut too. Micheal said: "That won't hold it for long, but at least it can't breath acid on us again without breaking free first."

Just then, Mal reached the Dragon with her sword, and her Destruction spell triggered when she hit the target. The spell disintegrated a fair-sized chunk of the Dragon's skin and muscle. The wound was shaped like a crack, as if someone had taken a giant axe and split the dragon's skin apart. The top of the crack was directly at the center of the tender spot, while the bottom of the crack was the point where Mal's sword he hit it's mark. The crack was widest in the middle of these two points, and was about a meter wide there. Inside the crack was a mess of blood, bone, and gore.

In response to this painful wound, the dragon darted up, crying in sheer agony, it's body undulating along it's entire length and it's wings flapping wildly up and down. It shot directly up, like a rocket, it's feet coming about 100 meters off the floor of the market square in a matter of seconds. The flapping of it's wings blew the remaining market stalls over and very nearly blew Orren off his feet. The building Sam and Drek were on was fine, though, and Peter and Aaron were not in harm's way. It was only Orren's incredible strength and sheer determination kept him upright. This only forced him to pause for a moment, though, and then Orren then kept going.

Gerard and Deimos were initially shielding from the wind turbulence created by the dragon's wing-blast by the body of the dragon, but even so they were sent tumbling ass-over-teakettle into the buildings that lined the edge of the market square. They were both a bit banged up and somewhat dazed by the rough ride they'd gotten, but it was lucky for them that they ended up where they did. If they'd ended up under the dragon they would have surely been crushed into a misty pulp when the dragon came crashing back down, landing down on it's belly, it's legs splayed out like a spread-eagle. The force of this massive beast dropping 100 meters in a matter of seconds shattered the floor of the market square into a thousand little pieces and sent out a shock-wave that knocked everyone, even Orren, off their feet. Sklav and James only hung on to the dragon's skin through sheer force of will, because they dug their claws in as hard and deep as they could, and were hanging on for dear life when the dragon hit the ground. Even so, both ended up hanging by one hand, just happy to be in one piece and not splattered all over the market floor.

Drek jumped up, mostly unharmed, and immediately began to rapid-fire arrows at the open wound. As a master-archer, and at this short range, he could fire arrows as fast as one per second. All his arrows hit their mark, causing the dragon to continually writhe in pain. However, he was quickly running out of ammunition.

Peter fell to his knees, exhausted from the battle of willpower he had fought and lost against the dragon and kncked flat on his back by the shock-wave on the dragon's abrupt return to tera-firma. His nose was bleeding and he couldn't focus his eyes. He said: "Aarron? I could use your help here."

edited 10th Mar '12 4:44:54 PM by TheSarge

Sklav, reaching the wound, grabbed his mace and began to attack, driving the weapon in, and pulling it out, repeatedly.

Kalan nodded as he heard Orrens voice and turned around to jump up on his back

James got to the tender spot like Sklav and when Sklav was preparing to swing, the werewolf poked the area.

Aaron was a safe distance away from the dragon. All he would be is a hinderance. It didn't stop him from noticing the fight though and irking at the sight of two orcs getting hit by acid. Nobody should deserve to die like that. Nothing he can do for them now though, as his healing magic can't bring back the dead, let alone the dead that have everything except their corpses dissolved.

When Peter called out, Aaron was quick to respond. He went up and used his healing magic on the lizzardman.

OOC: Err... sarge,I'm under the impression you didn't really read my post. Mal was aiming an spell, not sticking the sword.

Sam for her part continued with her slower rate of fire. She really needed to put as much strength behind each shot as she possibly could.

OOC: Sorry, Atomic Nut. I misunderstood. Since Mal was charging with a sword I thought she was trying to skewer the dragon, and the chanting and yelling was like a battle-cry. My bad. What kind of spell-effect do you want "Destruction" to do? Tell me and I'll edit my above post accordingly.

EDIT: OK, I inserted Mal's destruction spell into my above post, creating a retcon. This includes the reaction of the dragon, and the consequences of it's reaction. In-game reality remains mainly unchanged, except that now Deimos and Gerrand are down (but not out), Orren and Kalan were knocked down (but got up and kept going), James and Sklav were nearly killed but got right back at their objective, Peter's in slightly worse shape than before, everyone else got knocked down by a shock-wave but is otherwise unharmed, and both the dragon and the market square are in MUCH worse shape then before the retcon. Mal's spell finally did some serious damage to the dragon, and now it's got a gaping wound that everyone can now exploit. Oh, and in case you didn't notice, we've now discovered that this dragon has little or no resistance to Mal's spells, unlike Micheal's spells which just seem to bounce off like bullets bouncing off Superman.

And so......

edited 10th Mar '12 5:34:32 PM by TheSarge

The damage that Sklav and James were doing to the dragon was considerable; They were rending muscle and breaking bones left and right, literally tearing out big chunks off dragon flesh with a savage fury. Sam's "Power Shots" were puncturing right through to the internal organs, and Drek's rapid-fire shots were peppering the dragon with arrows. The dragon was now bleeding profusely, shooting out blood like a sprinkler at the end of a garden hose set on full pressure. Then, James and Sklav broke though to the internal organs, and the beast was all but finished. James and Sklav got right up into the beast with their weapons, literally carving a man-sized hole in the thing that was surely destroying something vital.

The dragon was in trouble, and it knew it. It's had gotten the wind knocked out of it, and was dazed, both from by the impact of it's fall back to the ground. Also, it was feeling weak and dizzy due to the massive loss of blood. In a desperate attempt to get away, it staggered to it's feet and ripped off the webbing on it's face by rubbing it against the ground. This scraped much of the scales on one side of it's face off, but it didn't care. This stopped Sam and Drek from firing because now the dragon has turned it's body 90 degrees to their left, and so it's belly was facing away form them. That didn't stop Sklav and James, though, so they kept right on hacking away at the thing's insides, though they were smart enough to not crawl inside. However, the dragon had stood up too fast. It had overexerted itself, and the blood pressure reaching it's brain dropped quickly enough to make it black out. Now unconscious, it couldn't maintain it's balance and it fell over on it's side, smashing the entire left side of the market square where Deimos was still lying. Deimos scrambled to get out of the way, but if he got free in time or not was not visible because he disappeared from view, hidden by the bulk of the dragon's torso. The dragon ended up with one wing crushed and broken under it's torso, with it's head was laying sideways on a partial-crushed house and it's tail curled up onto it's back.

Meanwhile, Aaron had healed Peter to the point that Peter's nose stopped bleeding and he was no longer dazed. Peter, not quite aware of what had gone on while he had been down, sat up and said: "Thanks... that's better. I just gotta rest a moment, and then I'm gonna try again."

Micheal dropped his protection spell, and then promptly lay down on his back. He was exhausted from the all the high-level spell-casting he'd done in such a short time. His head was pining, and he felt sleepy, but he was otherwise alright.

Drek yelled out: "YES! IT'S DOWN! Now to finish it off. We need to something that can get past it's skull and pierce it's brain, break the ribcage and puncture a lung, take out one or both of it's hearts. A log sharpened at one end could do it...."

Micheal said: "Won't it just bleed to death?"

Drek said: "With your average dragon, I'd say yes, but with a dragon this size I don't know what kind of regeneration powers it might have. I'd rather not take that chance if we don't have to. Mal, you up for some more of that disintegration magic of yours?"

edited 10th Mar '12 5:40:40 PM by TheSarge

Kalan jumped up onto the dragon and started to walk up to it's head. He looked at his knife as if he were wondering it were long enough before kneeling down by it's eye and start to try and bend the eye lids open

As Kalan did this, he could hear the muffled sound of Deimos yelling: "GET THIS THING OFF ME!" At least he was alive. Kalan soon discovered that this dragon's eyelids were scaly, slimy, and smelled disgusting. Kalan's eyes were being irritated by something that was emanating from the dragon's eyes, like the effect you get when you chop onions, only worse. However, he managed to get one eye open and stab it, which ruptured the eyeball like a balloon filled with water... only this was acid, not water. Kalan's reflexes were quick enough that he manged to get out of the way before the acid burned him, though one of his boot-heels got burnt a bit by a splash of acid.

Orren followed Kalan up. He said: "Acid-filled eyeballs. This just keeps getting better and better."

Gerard got up on his feet, shook his head, and said: "I can barely believe we beat that thing."

Orandious ran over to Micheal and said: "Master! Speak to me! Oh my gods and stars!" Micheal calmly replied: "I am merely resting, my faithful apprentice. Calm yourself. Panic and worry does not become you." Orandious, sufficiently chastised, took on a sober, or somewhat chagrined look, and said: "Y..yes, master. Do you.. um, require anything?" Micheal said: "Actually, I could use a shot of whiskey. But I'll settle for glass of water." Orandious said: "Right away, master." Orandious waved his hands in front of his mouth, uttered a few arcane phrases, and said: "Aqua". A glass of water then materialized in his hands.

Claire ran over to Sam and said: "Sister-Sam! Sister-Sam! You're alright? I was so worried. Hey, where's Zelph?"

edited 11th Mar '12 12:59:05 AM by TheSarge

Kalan swore as he stared at the acid swelling fourth from the eye. Then he had an idea and produced a small glass vial and attempted to scoop some of the acid into it while covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve. He made sure to not touch the acid and that even if it would melt the glass he would not get some of it on his fingers

"Claire! I'm fine don't worry" Sam said, trying to reassure the young girl and showing how she wasn't hurt at all. However, Claire's question did bring her some doubts "Last time I saw him he was charging the dragon... we better go look for him, Claire"

Looking at the party with intelligent eyes, a golden eagle lay perched on the ruins of one of the buildings destroyed by rampage of the great black dragon.