Ed: DMing; Paul: Zoozeki (high elf wizard 9); Scott: Smudge (shadar-kai rogue 7 / barbarian 2) and Martin (dwarf cleric 9); Matt G.: Roscoe (halfling bard 9), Dane: Tudo (dwarf cleric 9), Steve: Kristabelle (half-orc fighter 9), Sebastian: Xenon (high-elf wizard 9).
Last time, we engaged the Anaxagoras’s main fleet, sank him along with his flag ship and his wizard, and then a red dragon arrived!
Kristabelle and Xenon wander out of the island jungle near where Smudge has been hiding from the dragon.
With close observation (Arcana check), Xenon thinks the dragon is Adult.
Smudge sinks an arrow into the dragon.
Xenon’s skeleton minions fire arrows at the (unconscious/dead?) Anaxagoras. Being struck apparently revives Anaxagoras, who staggers to his feet to orate a fine speech about the rightness of his struggle against his uncle and the inevitability of his victory before dropping stone dead.
Anaxagoras’s Death Oration (see Jonah 2, KJV):
“The waters compassed me about, even to the soul, the depths close me round about, and I went down to the mountains under the water and there I learned, from Zeus my mighty patron, that I SHOULD HAVE DISOBEYED, my cause is RIGHTEOUS, and I will PREVAIL over my bastard uncle who is NO BLOOD OF APE ROYALTY!”
Whereupon Anaxagoras fell dead.
Kristabelle charges the dragon and carves a horrible, sizzling gash in its neck with her flaming sword Rahalt the Combuster.
The dragon makes a wing attack, slamming Kristabell to the ground, and takes to the air, glowering balefully over everyone with frightfull presense.
Tudo uses control water to surf the ship with himself, Rosco, and Zoozeki onboard, The Grampus, to the fight.
The dragon wheels in the air, and breathes fire at Kristabell, raising big blisters on her charred green skin.
Kristabell psi-powered leaps into the air like a super hero, landing securing astride the neck of the flying dragon!
Meanwhile, Zoozeki’s invisible talk has stolen all the sails from three enemy cogs. And, on shore, Xenon animates the damp, shaggy body of Anaxagoras.
Zoozeki shoots forth a lightning bolt that annoys the dragon more than harms it.
The dragon tries to swat Kristabelle off his back, but she uses her extraordinary athletic ability to remain astride its neck despite the blow.
Smudge shot an arrow at the dragon for 32 damage.
Martin, who had been treading water since sinking the enemy flagship last session, lift dripping into the air.
Our heroes (mostly Kristabelle) have managed to inflict 247 damage on the dragon, but it’s still throwing around its frightful presense and trying to dislodge Kristabelle like a bucking bull.
Zoozeki, noticing how many injuries Kristabelle has sustained, dispels his invisible stalker, casts fly on himself, and soars the dragon.
With one last, desperate, devastating thrust, Kristabelle plunges Rahalt into the neck of her unwilling mount. The dragon falls limp and starts to tumble in a crimson twist toward the waves.
Zoozeki has his blue-footed booby familiar (who’d been flying near the dragon) touch Kristabell. Zoozeki releases concentration of his own fly spell to cast fly on Kristabell through his familiar. Kristabelle flies, while Zoozeki drifts down hither and thither toward the ocean, slowed by his ring of feather falling.
As Kristabelle launches off the dragon’s neck, she notices a pack strapped to the back of the dragon and cuts it free. The pack squirms and something inside shouts for help in Goblin as Kristabelle deposits the it on the deck of the Grampus.
Martin, still floating over the water like a dark cloud, casts control water and begins to suck enemy ships under the waves. The courage of the enemy sailors fails at the specacle of so many of their sunken ships, and they set sail to the northwest.
Zoozeki polymorphs into a mosasaurus (HD 9) and pulls the red dragon corpse to shore.
Several goblins, freed from the dragon’s pouch by Kristabelle, watch with trepidation while squeaking that they had been destined to be snacks for the dragon.
Plan for next time: find the dragon’s lair and treasure, and maybe pursue the remaining enemy fleet.
Monsters defeated: Anaxagoras, an adult red dragon, eight enemy ships
Treasure: Anaxagoras’s bronze short sword and breast plate
Abominations raised from the dead: Anaxagoras (rebellious nephew of Ootherion, apeman king)