March 23, 118
A total of five drakes approach Kaplan as the rest of the party scramble into position, and they breathe freezing cones of ice towards him. The sum total of five breath attacks is enough to drop him to the ground frozen, though not enough to kill him. The rest of the party arrive, and Calanon moves in to assist Kaplan while Elvish heals him.
It seems that the drakes cannot immediately breathe ice again, and they instead approach to attack by biting and clawing at the party. The battle is joined, and the drakes are much less dangerous without their ice attacks. Only a few manage to work themselves up to a second breath attack before the party finish off all five drakes.
With the immediate threat of the drakes taken care of, the party stop to examine their surroundings. The room that they're in is much wider than the diameter of the pit that they climbed down, and they cannot see any of the walls. On closer inspection, the room is not a natural formation at all - one of Ellyanna's fire spells has melted through a patch of ice, and they see stone floor underneath.
More worryingly, they realize that, during the fight, the White Elves above pulled the ropes back up, and they have no easy way back out. Furthermore, they can hear a low snoring noise off in the distance, like that of a great beast.
During the time that the rest of the party is searching the area, Dark Star instead decides to cut apart one of the drakes, looking for whatever internal organ allowed them to breathe ice. He isn't terribly knowledgeable about anatomy, though, so he ends up with several interesting-looking bits that may or may not be what he was looking for.
The party decide that they need to get their bearings before going anywhere near the source of the snoring, so they move in the opposite direction from it, hoping to run into a wall. Eventually they do, about 100 feet away from where they started. There, they decide to rest for a bit, to recover from the previous fight.
An hour later, they're ready to continue again. During this time, there's been no change in the snoring sound. They start following the wall, hoping to get an idea of the size of the room. As the go, they quickly realize that the room is circular, with a diameter of about 200 feet. However, like the floor, the walls are iced over, so if there are any doors or passages, they're hidden behind the ice.
Eventually, they circle all the way to the opposite side of the room from where they rested. Here, a twenty-foot wide passage exits the room and appears to lead towards the source of the snoring. The ice looks much rougher and more irregular, indicating that the passage isn't iced-over stonework like the room they're in.
Before entering the passage, they decide to circle back and follow the wall through the other side of the room. They discover the same thing - the room is indeed a complete circle, and they cannot see any doors or passages on the other side of the room either. Their only obvious option is to continue into the passage towards the source of the snoring.
The passage goes forward for about 50 feet before emerging into another room, smaller than the one they just left but still quite large. The walls are covered in crystalline ice, and as they enter, the ice reflects and refracts Ellyanna's Light spell such that the entire room is covered in a soft glow.
The most obvious feature of the room is the source of the snoring - a white dragon! The dragon, luckily still asleep, is nearly twenty feet long, not counting its tail, and resting atop a mound of treasure in true draconic fashion. Additionally, a group of black-cloaked figures stands towards the far end of the room.
When the party enter, one of the figures move forward until it is standing next to the dragon and, in Elvish, demands to know who approaches the lair of Ferelon, King of the White Elves. From the sound of the voice, the party can tell that the figure is a woman, and she tells them that, while Ferelon sleeps, she speaks for him.
Calanon and Ellyanna, the two Elvish-speaking party members, explain the entire situation with the undead to the woman, before requesting that they be granted permission to pass through White Elf lands to continue on their quest. The woman considers their words, before asking the other figures in the back of the room (four in total) to join her.
Flanked by her four companions, the cloaked woman informs the party that, unfortunately, they've a miscalculation. She lowers her hood to reveal the pale and rotting features of an undead creature! She and her escort begin advancing menacingly towards the party.
As the five figures advance, Calanon asks the woman how she became an undead monstrosity and what happened to her, hoping he might be able to reason with her. She responds that she willingly chose to become as she is now. Deciding that reasoning with her is probably impossible, Calanon instead signals to the rest of the party to attack.
The woman and her four companions draw swords from under their cloaks as both sides advance, with Calanon and Kaplan taking point for the party as usual. As battle is joined, the woman shrieks and flies into a screaming rage, charging directly at Kaplan. Attacking with lightning speed, she badly injures him before he even has a chance to defend himself.
The party attack back. All five of the creatures are quite fast, but the woman in particular seems to be unnaturally quick, able to dodge most of the attacks directed at her. Elvish tries using a Heat Metal spell on her sword in order to disarm her. It works, in that she is forced to discard the now red-hot weapon, but she simply switches to attacking with her clawed hands. As her claws strike Kaplan, he feels his life-force being sucked away from him.
The party quickly realize that they are outmatched by the creatures, and they'll need to think of something quick if they hope to get out of this situation alive.
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