Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

Nineteenth Day of Ashinu-ezna (Ashinu Ascendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

Overnight clouds boil up from above the eastern woods, a cold wind snapping at their heels, then swift and thick a cold rain that leaves the land kissed with frost that glitters in the morning light, much to Inge's surprise. She had seen frost before of course, but never so much of it as to coat the land like this. You smile at the wonder in her eyes, but at the same time share a worried look with Antonio. The weather is turning far sooner than any of you had hoped, sooner than Ulrk had promised as well. Granted it is less dangerous to travel in winter by ship than by land, but that does not mean you wish to sail into the teeth of an ice storm or try to return on the wings of one.

You half expect Antonio to press for leaving before the hour, but he says nothing of the matter as you saddle Silver to head to Willowbrook on the next morning, the promise of dragon's treasure more than enough to stay his hand on the rudder. Inge had read him aright then, but you are more surprised that Zaia seems to willing to entertain the notion of facing the beast in battle at need.

"Few beasts have there been which have seen more ink spilled on their account than a dragon, and one might be surprised how many ailments are to such beasts attributed. I would see one with my own eyes so that I may at least to myself finally disprove some of that folly, even if I will never get the chance to share it with the fools who champion it."

"I know that dragons are said to bring sickness from poisoning wells and streams, but..."

"Hah," he snorts, almost unbalancing himself in the saddle doing so. "If that is the worst you have heard then you are lucky. I once had to argue with a lackwit who was convinced that leprosy was the result of dragon's piss raining down upon them from on high, and when I argued that the dragons must then have some love of returning to those they had pissed on and spraying all around them he accused me of 'impious levity'."

Laughing you turn to Esha and ask if you should have to worry about what comes out of both ends of the dragon.

"Some are said to have a poisoned stinger in their tail like a scorpion," she replies, promptly causing Inge to giggle.

Abruptly you are struck by how unlikely a company heading into battle against a mighty and sorcerous beast you all make; a knight bearing a sword and shield of bronze, a lady wrapped in a fur lined mantle against the unseasonable cold, a scholar carrying around a heavy book to write his travels in and a child still too young to be set alone even atop a pony... and yet you would not exchange them for any knights you had ever met.


Your arrival at Willowbrook is met with the excited yipping of the pups who had, from the excited mental volley of questions, never seen anyone quite like Esha before, which leaves the sorceress bemused but not unhappily so. She is clearly more accustomed to dealing with suspicions than a mob of children rushing to greet her, stopped just short of trying to pull at her cloak or climb atop her only by the eyes of their elders on them. By the time you had been ushered into the hall she is poorer a few pieces of ivory and amber that she had meant to use for her spells, though she insists on adding: "I have more of them, don't worry."

The mood turns graver when you ask the Voice about the chamber where Listens-to-the-Wind had found the beast all those years ago. At first he is reluctant to reveal where it might lie, fearing that some evil might cling to a place where the beat had laid for so long. As Esha and Inge both show they have 'the touch of the spirits on them', each in their own way, and all of you vow to be weary of traps and curses he finally relents and offers to show you the way himself, for this path only the Voice knows... alas it is not quite that you had hoped for.

The four of you are left standing on the edge of a perfectly round pond carved down into the bedrock behind the otter's hall. Beside it, now covered in moss, is a perfectly round stone plug that had once served as the gate. After sealing the back way through which Listens-to-the-Wind had passed the Voice-Before had flooded the Jade Beast's chamber by diverting the stream into it as the only means of sealing it from the world the diligence of the otters could manage.

"We do not have time to wait for this to drain away," Zaia says after examining water level. "We are going to have to swim down there. Thankfully we have the blessing of the waters for it..." He offers Inge a brief smile. "But I do not think it would be wise for all of us to go down at once."

Who do you send down to examine the flooded dragon's lair?

[] Write in (include any preparations you wish to make)

OOC: I started writing this early since if the preparations won all I would have to do was slot them at the start of the update. Also the part about dragon urine causing leprosy is based on a documented medieval legend about it causing skin to turn to stone and then the limb in question to fall off. It is close enough to be reasonable IMO and it makes for a fun character moment for Zaia.