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Chapter 7
The Well Worn Path
After far too much dirt-tasting tea, Daniella, Bran, Dog, Jayce and Eornan (the elf guide) again headed back to South Reach, this time on a more commonly used road than the footpath to Dane's Turn.
Daniella, Bran, Jayce, Dog and Eornan arrived back in South Reach. They found Landon deep in his studies, and told him to prepare to depart the next morning! Landon questioned the need for an armed elf ("Why does your cheese-boy have a sword?"). Drakes blood was needed, and Eornan knew where to find some. Bran bought some leather bota bags to carry blood in, and we replenished our traveling supplies.
1000 experience points
Our Heroes departed from South Reach, heading east over the hills and into the Brecilian Forest.
While traveling, the group saw a dead deer, with huge bite marks. Wyvern? Drake? Something else? We had to cross a stream in a deep ravine; an old rope bridge was only useful for the lightest, most dextrous members of the party (Eornan and Daniella); the rest of us (Bran) began chopping down a tree to span the gap. Eventually Daniella found a reasonable path through the ravine, a few hundred yards upstream from where Bran was hacking at the forest giant. The party made slow time through the detour as Bran hacked at the underbrush and fallen wood to clear the way for a speedier return.
The road leading into the Brecilian Forest wasn't too overgrown, thus the party made good time.
Mid-day, we saw several dragonlings cavorting on a talus slope a few hundred yards away. We chose a good spot and attracted them (Bran yelled!) ... eight of them came to attack. The battle was short and bloody, but Our Heroes easily dispatched the dragonlings.
Around the other side of the hill, we came upon some ancient ruins, and a massive gate set in the hillside. A creek running past the gate had eroded a hole into the chambers beyond the gate, and washed out the road. Thorn hedges, tumbled rocks, and the ruins provided cover near the hole, which seemed to be a likely draconic lair. As the party took up positions, dragonlings ... many dragonlings ... rushed up to attack!
Besides the juvenile reptiles, a full-sized drake soon appeared, no doubt attracted by the squeals and snarls of the dragonlings. Bran ripped open the drake's underside and left it on the brink of death for the Warden to finish off but Jayce struggled mightily with the drake, and in the end it took Landon's magics to put an end to the beast!
(heh, if you're the scribe the account sounds better! (so true! ) It only had 1 hit point left.)
The swarm of dragonlings used pack tactics to shred and claw their way through the party. Nearly destroyed by the battle, Our Heroes staggered to their feet among the gore and corpses of nearly a score of dragonlings and the drake. Jayce was filled with dread at the thought of more dragons ("Where there's one drake, there's always another!"). We set to butchering the beasts, and filling the bota bags with drake blood; improvised travois are filled with dragon horns, teeth, and scales. A single dragonling had been spared, and was trussed up and tossed into one of the travois.
Eornon took enough of the drake's blood to make the potion for the Fade and went on ahead to the Dalish camp, leaving the rest of the party to drag the gory trophies through the woods, thankful that several frosts had already come and killed off most of the flies in the forest. Assuming we could make it back to South Reach at the same speed of the trip out, Our Heroes would arrive about the 27th of Firstfall ...
onward to Into the Fade or 'A Brief History of Lycanthropy, Part 1'