D&D: The Dragon's Lair

[x-scion.livejournal.com]

The party reaches the Dragon's Horde Room.

"Wow," Doreen breathed. Sure, seeing a lot of money on paper in comic form was one thing. Or seeing it in the movies, but this was something completely different. This was pretty much real.

"Look!" Doreen said, pointing with a clawed finger, "There's your staff, Nico! It looks kinda at home, doesn't it?"

While Nico considered the Staff of One was better suited in a room surrounded by skulls and bats, she had to accept the whole look inside of the cave, with the gold piled in little mountanis here and there had certain appeal. "And I'm almost tempted to just leave it there..." But they couldn't do such thing if they wanted to go back. "Alright...I'm going to get it...slowly; you guys watch over and tell me if anything happens, all right?"

"Perhaps we should take some gold also, for the townspeople who helped us so much?" Yvette suggested. "It would be the right thing to do."

Artie gave her a tick of approval and showed himself and Yvette giving gold to a grateful crowd of townspeople. There was so much gold. No-one would miss just a little bit, right? He took off his hat and shook it out, assessing the size. He'd not be able to carry much in it.

Julian was already scooping copious amounts of the golden metal into his arms using his telekinesis. "I don't know if this stuff will come with us or not when we go back home, but I'd rather have some with if it does, ya know?"

Nick crossed his furry arms over his chest. "Really. We're here to help out villagers, and you're trying to steal gold?" He let out a loud snort as he turned to the side. "Typical..." Gleason was already looking around the cave, trying to better get a hold of his surroundings, doing his best not to let his eyes linger on the gold. He had to do his best to seperate himself form his rival morally, right?

It was best to give money to the villagers, Klara thought. Everything felt real, so she pocketed a single coin while assembling a pile of the gold to give to the villagers. If all of this was real rather than a dream or a shared telepathic illusion, or something else that would make all of this make more sense than it did, then chances were that when they eventually found their way back home, the coin would still be there in her pocket when they returned. And then she'd give it to her brother. If it was worth anything, he could use it to buy something for his wife and children.

Yvette had moved higher up in the pile as the others gathered gold, her eyes on a cluster of jewels she thought would raise plenty of money for those kind villagers who had helped them... With a small snort, she shook her head. Apparently she was thinking like an elven cleric of good now. Kneeling down, she began scooping great handfuls (because who else had bigger handspan than she did?) into her pack. The pack was about a third full when she encountered resistance - with a frown she dug harder into the pile, sinking her fingers in as far as they would go. Perhaps it was a suit of armour, or an echanted shield, or something similar.

Or perhaps it was a dragon's butt, as an outraged roar echoed throughout the cavern, treasure cascading off a giant scaly body as the dragon rose from its napping place under its hoard.

"Oww!" the beast bellowed as it came about, between Nico and her staff, to look for the source of the distress to his hindquarters. Gold and jewels cascaded off his golden scales, tinkling to the stone floor or on piles of even greater riches. Suddenly he spotted the adventurers and licked his snout. "Oh good, lunch, has come to me. I do so hate to hunt." He took a step toward Nico only to be confronted by Julian with his sword drawn. "Hey, you, outa the way, wait your turn."

Nico was speechless for a moment. "This is not happening." Turning to Julian, she slowly made her way towards him, always keeping an eye on the massive dragon, which wasn't too hard to do anyway. "So much for being silent."

Picking herself up from where she had tumbled to the floor, Yvette turned a stricken face to her friends. "I am so sorry! i did not mean to poke the dragon in the butt!"

Nick took his position between Yvette and the dragon. "We know, Yvette, we're not blaming you." Dropping his head, he thought that it still didn't change the fact that they now had a big problem to deal with. "Anyone have any ideas on how to take down a dragon?"

"I can think of one or two," Julian said, grabbing onto the dragon's arms with his telekinesis and pulling them forward, sending the creature to the ground so hard that it shook the room, sending mountains of carefully stacked treasures toppling.

The dragon got up from the ground and shook his head once, then gave a long pause before saying, "Ow." Rearing up on his rear legs, the dragon began to take a deep breath and the air began getting colder.

"Mr. Freckle!" she said, calling to the oversized dire-squirrel she had tamed, "Sic him!" she called out, knocking an arrow. In real life she had never done this outside of gym class back in middle school, so she hoped she at least came close to hitting him...

A spell, she needed to do a spell. What hurt dragons? They breath fire so... Well, it was worth the try. Nico waved her hands at the dragon, feeling the magic flow easily. "ecI mrotS!" And lo, a barricade of ice was launched at the beast. She was so envious of herself right now.

The dragon's fire blasted against the barrier and a mountain of steam suddenly filled the room. "Where have you gone you little...ah." The one who had tripped him was glowing, that would make it easier to gobble him up. "Oh boy, dinner time," the beast said with a hint of amusement in its booming voice, then charged toward Julian.

Julian was stunned as the dragon suddenly emerged from the cloud of steam. Nico had managed to move away, but he couldn't seem to move himself. A giant, clawed hand reached out, diving toward him.

Nick instantly spun into protector mode, clawing against the ground, he sprung forward, diving across the dirt and jumping over the rocks in the room. He didn't care that it was Julian in harms way, all that he knew was that he wanted everyone to get out of here safe and sound. Thinking back on his mentor's words over the past few hours, he knew that he would sacrifice anything to protect them. As he got to Julian he reached his clawed feet forward, pushing them towards the boy's chest, closing his eyes and hoping that he got their before the clawed hand.

Julian was suddenly falling back as Gleason pushed him. "What the-!" he said as he hit the ground. Before him, the dragon punched where he had just been, which was now occupied by Nick. The boy flew over his head and hit the wall of the cavern with deadly force. Julian was in shock as Gleason fell to the ground with a thud like a rag doll.

"Nick!" Both healers were on their feet, running for the limp figure, Yvette getting there first and rolling him over carefully. Blood covered her hands as she touched him and she didn't need to feel his pulse to know he was dead. It seemed like every bone in his body was broken.

Julian slowly got to his feet. The mist began to clear and the dragon began to guffaw. In anger, Julian reached out with his abilities and found the dragon's neck. His eyes glowing green, Keller wretched two directions at once, stopping the booming laughter abruptly. The beast blinked once, then fell to the floor with a monstrous thud.

She had had enough. Closing the distance between her and the staff, Nico got a hold of it, sensing how the link between them was still pretty much there. She hated the feeling, but she wanted out, now. And like other times, she allowed the Staff of One to guide her, speak through her. "There is no place like home"

And it all went blank.

*****

The smell of death was suddenly replaced by the scent of dusty, old books. Julian blinked once and looked around the room, they were back in the library. "The hell?" he said looking down at the spilled soda at his side and then around at his friends who were all waking up as well. "We're back!" he shouted, getting up to his feet quickly, noting the absence of gold in his pockets. "Damn."

She wasn't taller anymore, and the magic...it was gone. "Yes, back and apparently time waited for us. Is everyone...alright?" She hoped the travel back had brought everyone safe.

There was no blood on her hands any more. Yvette looked down at herself to confirm that she was back to normal as well, and let out a shaky breath. "I think so," she quavered, before immediately looking for Nick. "Nick? Are you...?"

As his eyes quickly pulled open, Nick's lungs were suddenly filled with air. His hand shot forward as he quickly kept filling his lungs. In exhaustion and shock, he let himself collapse down onto the floor. "Dead?" Despite the gravity of the word, he couldn't help but let a smile spread across his face. "No." He never thought that air would ever taste this good again. It was time to saver it.

A distracted check of herself showed that Meggan no longer had panpipes, slightly pointy ears, or darker hair. She let out her own shaky sigh after nodding that she was physically fine. She wasn’t sure whether or not it would be okay to give Nick a huge ‘so very glad you’re not dead, please don’t do ever do that again’ hug right at that moment, but it was something she was seriously leaning towards.

"We're all alive!" Doreen shouted triumphantly, "That was totally the best session EVER! Except for the Nick death. That sucked."

"Yeah, it sucked," came a voice from the floor. "Sorry if my whole dying ruined the experience for anyone." The boy was half teasing, but still was getting used to breathing again. It was a strange experience, but he was still happy to be doing anything at this point.