🚀 go-pugleaf

From: dparsons@jarthur.claremont.edu (Daniel Parsons)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Navero XVI
Reply-To: dparsons@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Daniel Parsons)
Distribution: world
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Keywords: Navero, of the Correct and Unalterable Way


The battle with the Red Dragon.  Scorecards available on request.

	Navero, male human cleric, 3rd level
	Dania, female 1/2-elf MU, 3rd level
	Rourk Ravensbane, male drow cavalier, 3rd level
	Kortul, male human fighter, 2nd level
	Razuli, male human fighter, 2nd level
	Arlor, male dwarf thief, 2nd level

For a moment, everything paused.  We stared into its gold-flecked eyes like
they were the only thing in the world.  Then, as agreed, we scattered.
Kortul and Arlor ran to the right, Kortul to the fore, aiming his longbow,
and Arlor about 15 feet to the rear.  Rourk and Razuli went left, Rourk
forward with weapons drawn and Razuli loading his crossbow.  The Dragon all
too quickly shook off its sleep and stood, and moved its claw in a curious
way.  Navero and Dania hid behind the rocks, Navero starting a Chant which
would encourage his friends, and Dania fired off 2 magic missiles.  The
missiles streaked over across the room, and fizzed out on an invisible
barrier; a Shield spell.  So far, except for spellcasting, not a sound had
been made.

        The Dragon roared.  The earsplitting noise echoed enormously in the
cave's confines; we quickly realized it had been chosen partially for it's
great acoustics.  The noise was so loud that Navero was shocked out of his
chant, and Arlor and Rourk were stunned.  Then it breathed, a mighty gout of
flame, in the direction of Rourk and Razuli, at an angle guaranteed to get
both.  Razuli ducked behind a lump of stone, but Rourk, stunned as he was,
could not possibly get out of the way.  The flames blazed around them both; a
great blast of steamy residue flew off as the Shimmer mold which had coated
them was seared into ash, but they were alive.  Kortul fired two arrows; one
bounced off the invisible shield, the other from the creature's metallic
hide.  Dania swore and cast a Web spell about the Dragons feet.

        Kortul and Rourk charged; Arlor approached more cautiously.  Razuli
lifted his crossbow, but discovered that the string had been burnt through,
so he drew his blade and moved forward.  Navero resumed the Chant.  Dania
cast Cause Blindness; the Dragon shrugged it off.  The Dragon reared up and
lifted the web, gold showering from it.  It tore completely away from its
scales, and then it threw the sticky mass over Kortul.

        Rourk charged up the pile of treasure, but never reached the Dragon
itself.  One wing swung out, battering him away and almost throwing him into
Razuli.  The great tail swung out and knocked the struggling Kortul down,
and then the Dragon ripped into him with its claws until he lay still.
Razuli ran up beside it, and threw his entire weight behind his longsword,
stabbing into its leg; blood hissed out and the blade snapped.  Arlor threw
a dagger, which skittered across the scales of it's neck.  Dania moved from
the rock to a column which was closer to the action, while Navero continued
his entreaties to his gods.

        The Dragon paused, as if considering, and then breathed again.  This
time, the fire arced across the room, and enveloped Dania and her column.
Hair shriveled, and Shimmer mold boiled away.  Rourk got up and swung both
swords into one forelimb; he drew blood, but not nearly enough.  Razuli drew
his dagger, laughed at his own foolishness, and looked in the treasure pile
for a weapon.  Arlor tried to run around and get behind it.  Dania dropped
without a sound.  Navero ran forward to Dania, and quickly used his last
spell point to Cure Light Wounds.

        Kortul got up; he wasn't quite dead after all, and was able to rip
away the tattered web in one motion.  Rourk stabbed into the body, one blade
merely scratching the steely scales, and the other not penetrating nearly as
far as it should have.  Arlor threw his other dagger; the Dragon merely moved
out of its way.  Razuli saw a naked sword in the pile, gleaming in the red
light of the lava, with a blackened and bony hand still around the hilt.  He
took it without thinking.  Dania was still unconcious, and Navero began to
hear something from the lava pit; a crackling sound, unfamiliar.

        Rourk swung again.  Both blades grated across the scales.  Kortul
swung his great blade, and felt its weight come to a satisfyingly sudden
halt in the Dragon's neck.  Arlor finally reached it's hindquarters, and
tried to pick a spot to plant his short sword.  He chose the tendons of the
leg.  Razuli stabbed it beneath the tail, where he thought there might be
SOMETHING vital; the blade sank in almost greedily, and the Dragon actually
screamed. (Critical strike, genitals.)  Dania was jarred awake at this, and
cast another Web spell, but this time into the Dragon's open mouth.  The
cracking sound was getting louder.  The Dragon's eyes blazed, possibly with
pain but more likely with rage, and kicked back with both legs; Razuli was
torn from crotch to throat, and hurled back into a wall.

        The Dragon grabbed Kortul, and threw him into Rourk; both dropped.
With it's other claw, it tore away most of the web in its mouth.  Arlor cut
at it's leg, but it was like trying to cut through stone or steel.  Rourk
got back up; Kortul did not.  He had been thrown onto one of Rourk's swords.
Razuli lay there and bled.  Dania and Navero looked on in helplessness.

        Arlor ran to Razuli, and grabbed the shining, bloody blade from his
hand.  Rourk swung twice, cutting across the deep wound Kortul had made in
the Dragon's neck.  A good amount of blood rewarded him.  The Dragon looked
down at him, and its left claw came streaking in out of nowhere, followed
closely by the right; both hit, but the bite miraculously just grazed him,
ripping his chest plate to tatters.  Rourk was hurled away to the floor.
Dania cast Magic Missile; it somehow snuck past the Shield and made a slight
wound in the Dragon's side.  Navero threw a rock, but it fell far too short.

        The Dragon looked out across the room, to where Dania and Navero
were huddled behind the stone.  It seemed to be at the same time insulted,
and horribly triumphant.  Its breath roared out again.  Navero grabbed Dania
and threw his mold-laden cloak about them both as the flames surrounded
them.  The fires seemed to last minutes.  When it was over, Navero almost
gently dropped to the floor; Dania had been shielded by Navero's body, and
was nearly unhurt.  Rourk hacked at the Dragon again; it seemed to finally
be slowing down, although he did no significant damage.  Arlor ran up behind
it and chopped at it's leg again.  The sword was almost as long as he was,
and very unwieldy, but the slash cut nearly to the bone.

        The Dragon slipped down the pile, it's leg no longer supporting it.
Rourk smashed it over the head, striking for the eyes; he missed them, but
the Dragon seemed jarred by the impact, indicating it was weakening.  Arlor
swung, but the heavy blade was too much for him and he missed.  Dania cast
her last Magic Missile; they sputtered against the Shield.  The Dragon swung
with its great wings, blowing dirt up from the floor; Rourk and Dania got it
in their eyes.  It kicked back with it's good leg, and tore Arlor's legs out
from under him.  He dropped with two broken legs (Critical strike) and
fainted from the pain.

        Rourk struck blind.  He hurled himself onto the Dragon's sagging neck
and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed.  Blood hit him in the face and burned;
he ignored it.  Dania cleared the dirt from her eyes, and started limping
away from the column back towards the entrance.  The Dragon snarled weakly
and shoved Rourk away, slamming him to the ground and holding him underneath
one claw.  It looked into his eyes, and Rourk felt it trying to take hold of
his mind and Charm him, but he was one of the Dark Ones, and not to be so
manipulated.

        The Dragon's last desperate maneuver had failed.  Rourk stabbed up
into the golden eye.

        The Dragon seemed almost indignant.  Then, slowly, with a great
clash like steel on stone, it fell back onto its pile, and it's last breath
left it.  The thing was dead.


Dan Parsons
NAVERO XVI
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