Oathenor 2

"I'm not sure we can open the vault right now," Velendo says cautiously. The dwarf looks at him with concerned, twinkling eyes. The more perceptive members of the party notices a hardness in the gaze, a savage hunger that is barely constrained. It flickers somewhere deep inside, sizing up Velendo in the same way a glutton might size up a plump roast rabbit.

Nolin picks up Velendo's lead, grabbing the lie and embroidering it skillfully. "We simply don't have the right spells prepared. We expected to open the vault tomorrow. I'm sorry; I know you're eager for the treasures to be in the proper hands, but there's nothing we can do." He shrugs apologetically. Oathenor the dwarf grunts, glares, and then sighs.

"Well, it's lasted this long." He pats the vault door fondly, if a bit too hard. "I'm glad my people made this sort of door to last." Sure you are, thinks Velendo, but keeps his mouth shut.

The group turns to leave the unstable hall, picking their way carefully through a maze of rubble. "We're going to go rest in our extradimensional fortress," says Velendo. "You're welcome to join us, but I'll warn you that as a matter of course we subject any visitors to a barrage of detection spells. We don't want you to be offended."

Oathenor seems to consider the offer, stroking his long beard in a most dwarfly manner. "You're kind to let me know. I don't take with all that magical business; I'm a simple hunter, and don't like people peering at me with magic." He gives no sign whether or not he knows of Malachite's, Agar's or Tao's magical detection spells. He nods his head in finality. "I suppose I'll sleep out in the cavern, then. The city can't be too dangerous, what with all the undead missing."

Or what with you being a big honking dragon able to eat anything dangerous, thinks Velendo over the mind link. Thank Calphas he's staying out.

In the tumbled cavern outside of the palace, Velendo creates a Calphas's Comfortable Castle, and then seals the whole group inside a sovereign wall. Since some of the Defenders still don't entirely trust the pessimistic deep gnome Priggle, he's left outside of the Castle, sleeping on the stone and keeping watch from inside the wall. Everyone else troops inside the extradimensional haven.

Glibstone's bells ring defiantly. "What did you mean, cutting me off like that and then lying? Why, that was a fine –"

Malachite interrupts him. "It was a dragon, polymorphed to look like a dwarf."

Nolin interjects gleefully. "And I bluffed it!"

Glibstone stops dead in mid-sentence. "A... dragon?"

Tao nods. "A big one. I didn't recognize the type. Brown and rock-like, with gem-like eyes and teeth..." She examines the dwarf. "Teeth about the size of your body."

Nolin is still talking to the group, although no one is listening. "A dragon! And I lied to it! It had no idea!" He grins in self-satisfaction and blows on his fingernails before polishing them on his tunic. "Go, me."

The dwarven loremaster gulps, and his jester bells begin to jingle again slightly, this time out of fear. "I know a joke about dragons..." he hesitantly begins.

"Not now," interrupts Malachite curtly.

"That explains it, then." Splinder speaks up from the corner, a mug of dark beer already gripped in one fist. "One of my boys found a niche under some boulders. A bit of miscellaneous treasure was scattered there: loose coins, silver spoons, odds and ends like that. Sounds like a makeshift hoard while he's away from home."

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Galthia, who has been listening in silence, speaks up. "Do we fight it? Or ally with it?"

Velendo sinks down with his head in his hands. "We're so doomed," he complains to no one in particular. "A dragon! We can't fight a dragon! It'll kick our ass." Across the room, Tao snorts in derision. Velendo looks up and focuses on her. "You saw it. How big was it?"

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Tao gestures with one arm. "Maybe 40, 50' long not including the tail. I couldn't get a good look." Velendo groans again, shaking his head, and Nolin grins.

"Well, let's see what we can find out about the thing, huh? Maybe we don't have to fight it after all."

They spend a few hours discussing strategy. Tao posits that the dragon might be a divine agent of some kind, since it showed a mix of divine and arcane spell ability to Agar's arcane sight. No real conclusions are reached, although Splinder discerns a number of interesting and effective battle strategies. Later that evening, both Tao and Velendo prepare commune spells. One after another they cast them, trying to learn whatever they can.

"What the hell? That's all of them!" complains Velendo.

"Could we be forgetting any?" asks Agar.

"No. I've got to think that Calphas won't give me any misleading answers."

Tao scratches her chin. "What if it's something like water? That's an elemental attack, but it isn't one of those. Maybe it's going to flood the place and drown us." Velendo looks doubtful.

"I suppose. Let's go on."

8. Does the dragon know that we know it's a dragon? The whole group holds its breath, waiting for the answer.
YES.

"Crap!" someone groans. "There goes the element of surprise."

Tao fixes Nolin with a sarcastic glare. "You bluffed it, huh?"

Nolin looks offended. "Don't blame me. Blame Velendo. He's a lousy liar."

9. Is there is treasure within the Mrid vault that could significantly increase our chances of breaking the spine of the White Kingdom?
YES. The group perks up at this.

11. Could the dragon be trusted to honor any deal it might make with us?
NO. Everyone groans.

12. Was the dragon displaced from its former home by undead forces?
NO.

13. Is the dragon currently working with or for undead forces?
YES. Everyone groans louder. "Double crap!" spits Nolin.

14. Did this dragon observe the sack of Mrid from a distance and then move in to take the treasure once it was done?
YES.

22. Does the dragon think we pose a serious threat to its life?
YES.

"Crap, crap, crap!"

Galthia frowns. "Do your Gods ever deliver any good news?"

23. Does the dragon believe we will launch a pre-emptive strike upon it?
YES.

27. Is the dragon a Divine Agent?
NO.

Glibstone speaks up. "Hrrrm. Perhaps I ought to wait here tomorrow morning. In case it can read my mind and learn how to open the vault itself, I mean."

"That's a fine idea," Velendo decides. "Good thinking." Glibstone looks embarrassed, especially with the looks of derision being aimed at him by Splinder's troops, but he seems much more relieved.

"Well, that's it," announces Nolin as he grabs a soft towel and heads for the baths. "Unless that dragon is actually a polymorphed fluffy bunny, I'm out of here."