Harvest 6, 802

The nightmare continuesÉ

Elensul, Blackhawk and Stephen had disappeared. (We found out later that Elensul had moved them 880 feet away from us, overshooting the dragon. Hence, the dragons were now between us.)

Raven cast a spell to summon nature's ally, which in this case, was an air elemental.  It spun across the ground toward where the dragon fell, stirring up a great deal of dirt.

Since we had no idea where the others were, we were hamstrung. One shouldn't cast an area effect spell if one's friends might be in the area.

Meanwhile, Blackhawk healed himself a little, and Elensul and Stephen found themselves hampered a bit by the brush. Stephen cast a spell which caused a large blue sphere with golden swirls to appear near the fallen dragon. One of it's siblings went to investigate, while the other landed near the body.

I cast greater magic weapon on my bolts in preparation and Raven cast resist elements on herself. I must mention here that Raven used her stronger spell, protection from elements, on me, for which I was exceedingly grateful. We saw an orange whoosh in the sky (the dragon flaming Stephen's orb) and heard a blood curdling scream from the dragon on the ground. I readied my teleport spell, and quickly discussed with Raven the possibility of her shape shifting to something smaller so that I wouldn't have to cast reduce on the party before teleporting. We heard more dragon roars and saw another burst of orange flame. Raven felt the air elemental's life snuff out. Raven cast a sleet storm as with twin trumpeting roars the remaining dragons appeared over the ridge. I cast ice storm, which was gratifying for a moment, dusting them white with frost, but they continued on, relatively unscathed. Raven turned into a falcon, first informing DeVal to be ready to teleport. I seriously thought that we were done for, as the dragons were screaming toward us, when I heard Stephen singing in the distance. I couldn't make out the words at first, but the melody seemed familiar. I began to remember the tower with the fire elemental, and the song of peace that Stephen sang to subdue it so we could flee. Yes, Stephen was singing a song of peace and the dragons had stopped their mad flight and were drifting above him, enchanted.

I was almost in tears from relief when I saw an arrow fly up and strike one of the creatures. The wounded dragon screamed and dived toward Blackhawk, setting some of the woods on fire. Blackhawk managed to avoid the brunt of the blast, but was still hurt badly. The other dragon was fortunately still under Stephen's spell, but in shock, he had stopped singing. Raven and I heard his voice cry out, "Save yourselves. Meet me on the beach at equinox!" Of course Raven would have none of that, she flew off toward the sound of Stephen's voice. He had taken on gaseous form, and, insubstantial as a ghost, was floating through the woods. I could hear Elensul shouting insults at the dragon as he made for Stephen. All of us rushed to each other, with Blackhawk taking a moment to use some Keotohm's ointment to heal himself a bit and to summon two dogs to worry the dragon as we escaped. Elensul cast his spear once more, and as it returned, the dragon shot a blast of fire at us and I teleported us back to New Turlough.  Raven cast a healing circle on us, Blackhawk, near death, babbling his remorse at breaking the spell, the rest of us, charred and blistered, garments in shreds, not quite ready to forgive him his foolishness.

An ill conceived plan from start to finish, and I am much to blame.

Respectfully submitted by Maxfield Jaden Fox