Dragons on the River of Time [First Quest - "Dragons of Death"]

[Salinus]

"Enough! I know you are there, I don't play well with being toyed with. Show yourself."

Simone walked out slowly from the doorway.

"So you knew I followed you." she declared indignantly "You needn't act so belligerent. I was merely cautious of the large bear in the room."

The young woman made her way into the room, keeping the aforementioned animal some distance away.

"While not known for attacking humans," she continued "they will react accordingly if threatened, and you are not exactly exhibiting a calm demeanor."

It seemed as though she was about to continue her lecture when a sudden thought apparently halted her speech. She turned to the large man who had just introduced himself.

"Waylon Wyvernsbane?" She asked with a curious look in her eyes. "Were you named after the Waylon Wyvernsbane? The one who battled the Ghoul Queen Sylvyana and was placed in a magical... slumber...?"

Her voice trailed off as her eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the man's ancient looking armor.

"It can't be..." she said quietly, more to herself than anyone else.

[rogue]

"I wasn't speaking to you or the bear," Ulin countered amusedly. "Do you honestly think we all just stumbled here? Look around. There are magics at work here beyond my ability to comprehend. Are you all that dense?"

Ulin began searching for other doors and ways out.

OOC: Dave, please roll me a Perception as I have no dice.

[Tauren_Kai-Jere]

It didn't take very long. A quick glance around the room revealed no obvious ways in or out of the large circular chamber. Even a more detailed search revealed nothing, although he was rushing his search. The man in the hammer adorned cloak and heavy armor was watching him suspiciously the entire time and saying nothing. It was unnerving. There was something about the man's demeanor that the sorcerer found instinctively off-putting.

OOC -
Ulin, Perception check (d20+6): 9. Finds no other ways in or out of the room he appeared in besides the open double doors.

[SuperBall]

Daevan followed the others, brooding over the events of the day. He didn't bother with an introduction to the man with the bear. Whatever strangeness had befallen him, the Divine Hammer knew that it couldn't be permenant. The godpriest would never allow it.

The nearest he could figure, this all had to be the work of that Apostate. The Black Robe was obviously more powerful than he'd let on. He was obviously employing sort of plot against the godpriest,and Daevan was caught in the middle. Until he figured it out, he would keep an eye on the lanky lad. He professed to knowing more about magic then was healthy, in the Hammer's opinion.

[Majere]

Hearing the moniker of his former lover, Waylorn whirled in the young woman's direction with a look of fury painted across his handsome features. Colbert picked up on his friend's agitation, and subtly crouched into a ready a position. Simone had unknowingly poked two bears.

"And why can't it be, young lady?! Krynn is a world rife with magic, and I had powerful friends that did me a favor! I have slumbered a long time, perhaps longer than I meant to. And beyond that, have you taken a moment to gaze upon your/our companions? A strange bunch we are: a skinny man that even Colbert fears, a knight with some of the oddest insignia I've ever laid eyes upon, the requisite dwarf, an overly obnoxious and opinionated young female, plus myself!"

Waylorn began to glare even more menacingly at Simone as he strode purposefully toward her. With a brief hand motion, he commanded Colbert to stay where he was. "I would very much apprieciate it if you did not call the woman I loved a 'Ghoul Queen'. She did horrible things, tis true, but I loved her still. Now, I am the Waylorn Wyvernsbane," he added at last, much more politely.

"Might I be honored to learn your name, young woman?"

[Salinus]

Simone's eyes went wide as the pretense of confidence and composure she was trying to maintain all but faded away. Her beautiful face began contorting into a pitiable disarray of sobs.

"I didn't know..." she stammered, unsure of what she had said wrong. "My books only ever referred to her as the Ghou-... as such."

She caught herself and looked back with fear, hoping not to offend the apparent time-lost hero further.

"It never mention that Waylorn..." she paused, choking back another sob. "It never said you loved her. Only that you stopped her from turning the Elvenkind of Krynn into undead abominations."

Her voice hardened as she seemed to regain a sliver of focus, almost subconsciously, at the mention of the undead. There was a quiet pause before she finally continued.

"My name is Simone Belmonte." she finally answered in a still frightened tone. "And according to my studies you have been asleep for well over a thousand years. That is why 'it can't be'."

She shied away, obviously ashamed that she had wept so openly in front of the group of strangers assembled in the room.

[Majere]

Waylorn shrugged his shoulders as if that where no consequence. Really it wasn't, but a thousand years was a bit of a long stretch.

"As I said, magic and powerful friends," he repeated and then the human man jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Colbert. "The bear can double as a snot rag if you ask real nice. Either way, dry your damn tears and let's help the one that called me old find out what's going on here. And it's nice to meet you Simone."

That said, Waylorn began looking around the room. As he did so, he thought that the man who had helped him up might have been more right than he knew. Waylorn was actually over a millenia old, if this Simone was right. He guffawed out loud at that thought. "Colbert, come," he barked. He didn't want the bear getting into trouble. Colbert was known for doing that occasionally. As if reading his friends thoughts Colbert uttered a low growl. Waylorn didn't really pay attention, but he figured the bear was either disagreeing with his thought, or grumbling something like, 'Do you want me to stay or come you moron?'.

"Shut up, Colbert."

Colbert growled again.

OOC: Perception Check. 1d20(20)+15=35. Crap. I'm gonna end up dying in the first fight with my first roll being a 20. :/

[Salinus]

Simone did not not know how to react to Waylorn's wild swing in demeanor. After angrily scolding her for speaking poorly of a loved one, he shrugged off his apparent millenia of slumber, and joked about using a bear as a kerchief. After a few moments of processing the recent transaction with the look of someone who simply could not figure out how to react, she turned and walked towards an empty corner of ther room. She went through the motions of searching around as she attempted to calm herself and recover from her recent breakdown.

[Tauren_Kai-Jere]

Waylorn stopped and turned around. He thought he'd seen...Yes, there was a wooden door towards the front of the temple-like room, in the east wall. The pillars around his crystal bier had blocked it from view. Then again it might have never been there to begin with. Waylorn wasn't sure.

Suddenly Sylvyana was before him, her beautiful chiseled features just inches away from his own. Her cold gray eyes locked with his. He felt her hot breath on her face as she smiled that smile that filled him with love and loathing.

“My love,” she cooed in the ancient tongue of the druids. Her next words became a warm hiss on his mouth, “Rot in the Abyss.”

Waylorn felt her plunge her sylvan scimitar into his chest, slicing through his enchanted leathers like it was parchment. It was so fast. He never saw the elven woman draw the blade. Never saw her appear. She was just there, killing him, cutting out his heart once and for all. He heard Colbert roar with fury, a sound that reverberated throughout the strange temple. In that final moment between consciousness and dreaming, his lost love's face became a nebulous black cloud of hate as the nightmare took him.

Simone was startled from her hollow search of the room by the bear's enraged roar. She turned in time to see Damon Greymantle split open the chest of the man who claimed to be Waylorn's Wyvernsbane with a brutal heave of his battle-axe. Hovering in a cloud of unholy black mist in the center of the room the vampire warlord looked positively demonic in the torchlight of the temple. His dull black plate seemed to absorb the light around him, except where Waylorn's blood had spattered on the armor. The red of the man's insides were hellish beacons of color on the black metal.

Damon turned and grinned at her. His thin upper lip twisted his villainous black mustache into a snarl as he bared his unnaturally sharp canines. His green eyes locked with hers as he motioned to her casually to come to him with a clawed gauntlet.

Bhatair, standing not more then a few feet from Waylorn saw the nebulous black figure appear from thin air from just above the crystal bier and lunge at the man before he could shout a warning. What he saw as the man fell was incomprehensible, a horrible shifting form with no dedicated features. One moment the thing was humanoid. The next it was some kind of savage beast, then man and beast together without being either one. It was pure chaos give form and the devout war priest of Reorx felt his stomach knot in terror as he tried to comprehend this anarchic presence. It defied every tenet of his beliefs by existing. He could do nothing as it plunged a murky claw through Waylorn's chest. He watched the man fall and was ashamed.

The black-robed wizard that Ulin and Daevan saw appeared from nothing to plunge his staff of bones through the heart of the awakened sleeper. The deadly mage flew effortlessly through the air to make his lethal true strike. Ulin could not see the man's face beneath his cowl, but Daevan could. He nearly bit his own tongue as he frothed with sudden fury. The wizard was the Godpriest? It could not be true! It was a lie! A mage's trick! Yet, the Knight of the Divine Hammer felt sick despite himself. Ulin on the other hand felt oddly satisfied to see the grand manipulator of Dalamar's latest scheme reveal himself. He would end this endless running hell that his life had become today or die trying.

. . . . . .
| . .T. . |
| .x. .x. |
| . . . . {
| .x.b.x. |
| .B.M.C.S|
| .x.W.x. |
| . . . . |
| / . . \ |
|s.D.s.s.s|
|s.s.s.U.s|
|s.s.s.s.s|

1 square = 5 ft.   |= wall   T= treeman statue   
x= marble pillar   b= crystal bier   {= wooden door
s= stairs   M = mystery attacker   B= Bhatair
W= Waylorn (dying)   C= Colbert   S= Simone   
D= Daevan   U= Ullin

OOC -
Waylorn, DC 5 Perception check succeeds. Notices a wooden door in the northeast corner.
Waylorn, DC 39 Perception check fails. Does not notice the attacker hidden behind him.
Simone, DC 39 Perception check fails automatically. Does not notice the attacker hidden in the room.
Surprise round! Simone and Waylorn are considered flat-footed this round.
Mystery Attacker takes a 5 ft. step and Waylorn (d20+16): 25. Hits. Damage (6d8): 24.
Waylorn, DC 21 Fort save (d20+8): 22. Succeeds. Nothing happens.
Initiative! Party (d20+3): 5. Mystery Attacker (d20+4): 16. Mystery Attacker wins!
Round 1
Mystery Attacker attacks Waylorn (d20+16): Natural 20! Confirm critical (d20+16): 34. Critical. Damage (6d8): 30 (x2) = 60 damage. Waylorn is dying.

Sorry Caleb, my dice seem dedicated to making your prediction come true! Feel free to act for Colbert for this rest of this fight until we know what will happen to Waylorn. The rest of you – have at it! And good luck!

[Salinus]

Simone's sulking was prematurely ended by the sudden appearance of the large man's attacker. While, up until this point, she had been spared the distress of meeting the Belmonte family's greatest nemesis in person, the description matched all too perfectly for her to mistake his identity.

Her eyes went wide as she briefly afforded a glance at the fallen form of what was presumably Waylorn Wyvernsbane. The great hero she had read about was skewered and discarded easily by the Vampire Lord. There was no way she could convince herself she was ready for this battle, but she knew she had to keep Damon's attention, lest he feed on the time-lost hero.

Simone reached into her cloak and fumbled to free the Mantis Barb as she circled around the bier for a clear shot, never breaking eye contact with her target as she backed up against the arboreal statue. The family relic certainly felt different in her hand than her training whip, but there was a certain warmth and confidence to be found in its grip. It took but a brief moment for a flash of leather and metal to bridge the gap between the red cloaked young woman and Waylorn's assailant.

OOC
- Move action to tile south of the Tree statue while drawing Mantis Barb.
- Attack on M, 6 +12 = 18, damage 4 +4 = 8.