Prologue: The Barony of Harkenwold

".......Goodbye, Sleestak."

Kat is briefly disarmed by the dissonance of this farewell considering the circumstances of this situation. "Uh, yeah, goodbye."

Zoe's ears twitch in dismay but she manages to say, "Goodbye, Sleestak. May you sleep well."

John just looks massively uncomfortable but Ilyanna says, "Make sure you drink plenty of water. Dry mouth is a known side effect of the draught I gave you."

"Okay, I will."

Brooke pops herself onto the shore, with her tail still in the water. "Come, lay down." She pats her lap.

The massive lizardman carefully lays on his side, with his head on Brooke's lap. She begins singing him a song, which puts him to sleep almost right away. Sarah and the halflings both fall asleep too, accidentally caught up in the effect of the sleep spell. Brooke summons a knife made of water to her hand and places it in the lizardman's armpit. She says without rancor or malice, "Goodbye, Sleestak." And then jams the knife into the sleeping lizardman's heart. He awakens, but the naiad and the rest of her sisters hold him down, until finally, his struggles come to an end.

They roll the corpse into the water, so that he is floating back-up. That's when Brooke re-enters the water and begins carving off the tail. When she's finished, she offers it to Hunter. The green blood of Sleestak is all over her face, hands, and chest and it gives her a fearsome countenance.

Seeing Brooke that way reinforces her fearsome reputation, and Hunter gracefully accepts the tail and slips it into a sack, twisting the top shut. "Thank you, Brooke. We've still gotta blow up that cave, but you'll know the job's done when you hear the kaboom."

Kat lets out a sigh of relief when she sees how gentle the Naiads are with the lizardman. She shakes her head once it's over, feeling conflicted by what she just witnessed, but she doesn't seem to disapprove of it either. She instead looks at Illyana to watch her reaction, after which she'll approach her and say, "Do you need any help with the bomb?"

Carlos remains stern, but visibly struggles to process what just happened. Once Hunter gets his tail, he speaks up - "Can we just end this now, please?"

His voice sounds tired.

Zoe caught Sarah as she fell asleep and has shaken her awake again. "Oh, thanks." The cleric smiles and nods and then stands up and does the same for the halflings.

Ilyanna turns pale when she watches the naiads execute the lizardman. She looks like she might say something but walks away instead. John follows her and they are quietly talking away from the group when Kat approaches and asks her if she'll need help with the bomb. The teenager wipes away a tear with the back of her hand and says, "No, we'll just need to make sure everyone is clear first. Jojo is still inside, right?"

John looks around for Jojo but doesn't see him. "Yes, that's right. He said he'd be at the camp. I don't see him here so he must have meant the camp inside the cave."

Meanwhile, Brooke says to Hunter and Carlos, "Then our part is done. We shall wait for this kaboom and then be on our way. Safe hunting, warriors." She dips under the water and swims back a good twenty feet, joined by her sisters. Gilly waves goodbye to Hunter.

"Okay, I'll go get Jojo then," Kat says. Before she leaves, she gives John a look, silently telling him to keep looking after the alchemist.

She then goes back into the cavern to tell her friend it's time to leave.

Hunter waves back to the naiads and then follows the group around.

The way everyone (well, almost everyone) is acting in response to the death of the reptile thing causes Noble to whine softly. Feeling thirsty, he takes a drink straight from the river and then follows Hunter.

"I'll go with ya." - Carlos follows Kat, back towards the dark cave and away from this scene, though not quite as far as he'd like.

When Kat and Carlos head into the cave to find Jojo, Hunter and Noble take up the rear, though the hyena wines a little bit, not being too enthused to smell stinky bullywug corpses again. The four find Jojo sitting on some piled rocks close to the fire at the camp carefully studying the Eye. It's still inside Kat's satchel, which he is using to avoid skin contact with the artifact.

"Be careful with that," Kat says. "The lizard told us it contains the souls of innocent folks. It didn't do anything weird to you, right?"

Jojo pops his head back in agitated surprise, almost dropping the Eye. He just manages to get it under control without touching it directly. "That's what's floating inside!? Bleh. That explains why it feels like a receptacle but that doesn't explain this great feeling of uneasiness I have. Like someone or something is watching me."

"Yeah be careful with that, we dunno a thing 'bout how it does it's... thing. I'm gonna go give the place another once-over, eh. Make sure we din't miss anything." - Carlos walks off.

"Make sure to light a torch too," she tells her friends before they leave. She then turns to Jojo and says, "About that orb... the lizard called it one of Tiamat's eyes. I'm not sure what that means, but Shadowmire wanted to use it to ascend to her side... and I think he's rallying the monsters to his side to do it."

Kat will give him a full report of what she heard if Jojo wishes to hear it.

Jojo recovers the Eye and puts it down and then insists on a full explanation, which Kat gives him. At the end, he is striking an agitated pose again, "This is terrible! What should we do with it? This will bring all kinds of trouble wherever we take it!"

"Don't worry, Jojo," Kat says confidently. "I'll ask Eni if she has any ideas what to do. Maybe we could even drop it somewhere safe in the Feywild. But whatever happens, we'll figure it out."

She smiles and puts a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

Jo is still clearly upset, but a plan of action does get him to stop posing at least. "That's a good idea. Maybe Eni will know what to do with it."

"Of course she will; she's almost as old as the gods themselves!" Kat chuckles and puts her arm around Jojo's shoulder. "Come on, we should go help the others."

The two friends join the search for potential secret passages in the cavern.

And find secret passages they did.

The first one they checked out led to a chamber with four sarcophagi containing four undead skeleton warriors. Each warrior was associated with one of the heads of Tiamat: Black, White, Green, and Blue. After a fierce battle, in which Carlos in particular distinguished himself, the four warriors were defeated. Three of the warriors wore cursed armor made to control whoever wore it, the only exception the Green caster. After looting what the party could, they proceeded through the eastern hallway and then west again into a fancy chamber containing ceramic braziers and a final sarcophagus on a raised platform.

Understandably weary of traps, Zoe and the others carefully searched, discovering that the area between the braziers was full of pressure plates. Checking to see what happens when one is pressed, Hunter was accidentally peppered by poisoned darts shot from the northern and southern walls. He got lucky and dodged most of them but one was able to find a chink in his armor. After Hunter successfully identifies the poison as Yota Root, Illyana is able to treat it using her medical kit. After his brush with death the ranger decides to keep some of the poison for later use.

That particular disaster averted, the party decides to hunker down and solve the riddle of the braziers. After searching carefully, Kat finds that two braziers on their side of the trap have inscriptions along with dragon's heads of each type corresponding to the heads of Tiamat. After a brief huddle to decide their next move, Carlos and Kat jump across the trapped floor to the other side, calling out the remaining inscriptions and their associated dragon heads.

Here is what they said and what dragon was associated with them:

Spoiler:

Remembering the dragon head effigies they found on the undead priests in the previous room, Hunter deduces the connection between the wooden dragon effigies and the order of the inscriptions being the order they must be burned in. Putting their heads together, the party decides on the following order:

Spoiler:

After a loud CLUNK, Carlos tested the trapped floor to see if it was still working by whacking the tile with his maul. No darts fired, the trap was disarmed. Plenty weary of danger by now, everyone approached the final sarcophagus with great caution, readying their weapons and spells for whatever might pop out. What they found were the dead remains of the dragon cult's high priest laying atop a bed of gold and jewels, wearing his over the top read dragon priest hat and clutching a large book against his chest.

Jojo pries it from his grasp and opens it up, reading aloud:

Spoiler:

After having a laugh at the petty and arrogant priest, the party gathers the gold and jewels and presses on to the next secret chamber. Using his knowledge of stoneworking, Carlos quickly identifies

to be continued later.

Now that Toadswallow has been blown up, Kathryn eyes the wrapped halfling bodies and the dragon skulls near the shore. She turns to the survivors and asks, "I'm sorry, but we don't have enough horses to carry the bodies of your friends with us... But I'm sure Baron Stockmer or the Rangers would help you with that! I'm sure we could ask them to send a wagon."

Sarah looks at the halflings, who are clearly in no shape to take charge right now and steps in. "Give me a ride to the nearest village and I'll get a rescue party put together to move everything and everyone."

She's barely standing and covered with dirt, blood, and injuries, but there's a steely resolve to her that brooks no argument. She has said she will do this and by the gods it will get done!

"Aye, we can do that. But you should come over to the Baron's once that's taken care of. I'm sure he'll help you get back on your feet."

Carlos then takes his canteen and offers it to Sarah.