The Dragon Hatchery

Clarice eyes the plain, dust trunk up and down, then lays her hand on the top above the latch.

"NO!" shouts Grim from the edge the room. He leaps toward Clarice, arms outstretched. Half pushing her, half tackling the wee girl.

Clarice hears a gear turn. She hears a CLICK. And the corner of her eye sees a single dart fly through the air.

Grim, well, grimaces..... then hits the ground. The dart deeply buried in his chest.

Linston jumps forward.

I can heal him, but I have no knowledge on poisons. Any good with that kind of stuff? If so, get it out and I will cover the damage.

"What was that for!?" Clarice calls out, picking herself up from the floor, not realizing that Grim has been injured.

"A simple warning would have..." she stops mid sentence when she sees that her friend is not moving and rushes to his side.

"Help him, Linston!"

Grim makes a hushed gurgling sound in Linston's arms, as his eyes roll back in his head.

"I'm no healer either!" Elceran says kneeling next to Grim.

Possible the most unsettling thin one can witness, is the indescribable energy that adds "light" to our eyes slowly dimming, and finally going...... out.

It can't really be seen. But we all see it. And when it fades, we feel it go.

Grim's light has faded now. And although none of you are healers, or skilled with medicine. You all know it. The room feels suddenly colder. The world a little bit more harsh.

Linston casts Spare The Dying and Cure Wounds. Just in case.

Realizing that Grim is beyond saving, Clarice removes some of the linen from the bed to cover her friend's body.

"We can take him with us after we're finished with the eggs. I don't want to leave him here." she says quietly.

Sounding more somber than any of the group have heard. "I agree, let's finish this and get him back."

With the death of her friend, Clarice is no longer interested in anything other than doing the job they had set out to do. Forgoing any interest in the trunks, she looks to see if there are any exits out of the room.

"Let's destroy these things, retrieve Grim, and burn the camp to the ground!"

Clarice looks for a way out of this room that has become a morgue. There doesn't appear to be one, until she sees a strange wrinkling in the thick rugs. There's a depression, and just a bit of extra wear on one corner. Peeling it back reveals a chute that drops down into the dark room below. A rope ladder is fixed in the chute for climbing up and down.

"I'll go first." Elceran carefully descends the ladder.

As best as Elceran can tell, the ladder drops about 30' throgh a dark, stone shaft. Then a chamber opens up below him. Quiet, lit dimly by flickering lights or candles somewhere.

Clarice will wait until Elceran has made it to the bottom of the ladder and then join him.

Elceran and Clarice drop to the ground silently, and find themselves is some sort of shrine. Black dragons are painted on all the walls, each facing the statue of Tiamat on the west wall. A hulking form kneels at the statue. Langdedrosa Cyanwrath! The half dragon champion that beat Grim so viciously back in Greenest!!

Elceran and Clarice are in a dark corner about 10' south of the half dragon, when two brutish looking humans enter the room from the north. Dragging an unhappy elf with them.

"after them others escaped, this theif is the only prisoner we got left..... whadda we do wit'im?' one of the thugs asks Langdedrosa.

And the half dragon rises to answer, his back to you.

Working......

Riardin keeps his eyes down to not compromise the shadowy figures. He's not sure of their intentions, but they can hardly make his situation worse. The enemy of my enemy, and all that...

With his head still down, Riardin glances at their belts for something he might arm himself with, should the opportunity present itself...

They each only have some rough furs under their black cult robes. No belts, but a great axe strapped to both of their backs.