House Kemler and the Lost Hatchling

House Kemler and the Lost Hatchling

Dwahain had been playing hide and seek with his mocking stone (mini Maui) all day, and finally found it shortly after sundown. The streets were a mixture of lamplight and moonlight, as twilight descended upon Volanthia. The mocking stone was down a side street flexing its muscles in a taunting manner which had gained the interest of a tiny copper dragon hatchling, who seemed far more curious than threatened by the stone’s posturing.

Shortly after this, a young nobleman approached, dressed in a fancy suit and trying his hardest to look important and distinguished despite the fact that he was even younger than Dwahain.

Though he did not immediately identify himself, he could easily be goaded into giving up his name if he thought it would help him win an argument by virtue of his breeding. His name was Lord Nolan (3rd son of House Kemler). He was secretly a neophyte member of the Cult of the Wyrm and had been tasked with tracking down a lost hatchling.

An argument was inevitable between Dwahain and Lord Nolan, which drew the attention of a passing VCG patrol which approached to see what the disturbance was about. When they noticed the hatchling they got more aggressive and started asking about permits. Dwahain had to take a REP test to see how aggressive the VCG got. Lord Nolan panics and tries to claim that the creature belonged to Dwahain and that he was also questioning the Dwarf about his permit to have an underage dragonkind within the city limits. The VCG threatens to bring both of them in for questioning, which escalates the situation.

This altercation drew in Dindle and Raethu, who happened to be walking by on the continuing (and largely fruitless) quest for knowledge regarding demonic containment vessels. Io was flying around somewhere overhead, always on the lookout for the opportunity to make new friends. He saw some of his new best friends in some kind of altercation and swooped down to see if he could help.

This led to some form of encounter with the VCG patrol, either talking their way out of it or fighting them down to 75% strength before they retreated to get reinforcements (either way the party got ¼ of the XP for 4 VCG constables) and potentially had VCG rep impacted one direction or the other. (Dwahain and Io lost, Raethu gained one)

While this was happening, masked cultists were preparing to ambush and capture everyone who had seen Lord Nolan (including Lord Nolan himself) in an attempt to prevent anyone from tying Lord Nolan to the Cult of the Wyrm. As consciousness faded, someone in the group overheard a masked cultist chastising Lord Nolan in a muffled hissing voice.

“Idiot boy, you had one simple task and you not only failed us, but you gave away your identity and put all we were working towards at risk. Now we must dispose of all of you. It is lucky for us that our sacred wyrms are ever hungry.”

Everyone woke up in a pocket dimension feeding pit and had to fight for their lives against two wyrms. Despite the fact that the cultists had left him to be food for Wyrms, young Lord Nolan attempted to remain loyal and would not fight the wyrms. Once the battle was over the group might have tried to convince Lord Nolan to show them the way out (Dwahain had been in one of these Cult of the Wyrm pocket dimensions before, but without Arthur and his Lens of Truesight, he didn’t know how to get out). Instead, Lord Nolan dies at the hands of the wyrms and though the party eventually defeats them, they become trapped in the pocket dimension for the time being.

Results: Everyone lost 1 Cult of the Wyrm rep and is currently trapped.

From previous Cult of the Wyrm pocket dimension:

“To exit required drawing the same draconic rune within a magic circle that allowed them to enter, however it was not apparent exactly WHERE to draw it. Only the Cultist knew where the invisible exit portal lay, so without his aid they were searching at random. Taking too long to find the exit could have resulted in the entire party dying from Exhaustion. If only someone had a means of detecting illusionary doorways…”