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The party was left having routed the Siarrans from Tor's Cloud Peak. They chased down a Siarran that they'd nicknamed "Sting" and interrogated him. They found out that he was part of the Siarran military, that they were intelligence for an invasion force, and got rumors that his boss, Senet, was breeding dragons. Rumor had it that they wanted Siarrah for that. With the help of a storyteller and the mayor of Fenneldale, they also mostly put together that Siarrah used to live in Tor's Cloud Peak, and that dragons used to live there... suspicions were running that Siarrah was half-dragon. They also found out that Siarrah was being taken to Caer Anaurech, or "Castle Gate-of-the-Gods", in the mountains south of Fenneldale. They hired a guide to take them there, through foothills inhabited by Bariaur, the goat-centaurs who the players are strangely ; ) very wary of.So-- the party went up into the mountains, along the way encountering some youthful bariaur who were feeling their oats and made a show of 'hunting' the party before running, yowling, at the first sling shot. Once in the forested mountain valley that leads to Caer Anaurech, they saw signs of magical battle-- lightning, then thunder, but low in the valley rather than in the sky. They dodged to one side of the site and the small smoke plume that eventually rose from it, figuring that Senet was out having his dragons hunt. They eventually heard draconic shrieks, too. They checked out the site and found carnage-- two dead humans and two dead bariaur with a bunch of scorch marks and dragon tracks leading out of (but not into) the clearing. They warily wandered off to make camp for the night near the edge of the forest, and just before settling, they came across a badly fatigued and battered Siarrah. They questioned her, and she explained that her abduction party had been attacked by a dragon that came out of nowhere. Senet escaped, and she didn't remember much. The party camped for the night and had strange dreams, as Senet sent out some of his Dreamers to hunt for Siarrah. One player dreamed of the hunter finding Siarrah... whereupon Siarrah called to a dragon that stuck it's head into the clearing, addressed it joyfully as "Khaela" before siccing it on the Dreamer. This dashed the party's assumption that Siarrah was a dragon, and made them wonder whether she in fact could summon or influence them. Senet appeared to want her to help raise some baby dragons.
Well, the Dreamer escaped and reported back to Senet, so the following morning the party woke to Siarrans in the trees. We ended the session there, but the group spent the next week planning the battle and talking about how unrealistic it was for them to have been snuck up on. ; )
Hired a local guide, Palin. Took him to talk to Valin - got directions to Caer Annaurak. Should cut down on aimless wandering. Valin amused by notion of us storming the fortress - apparently was quite a fortress. Oh well. As long as you're going up against impossible odds, might as well provide entertainment for foreign invaders, I suppose. Valin says Shiarran goal is invasion/occupation - why would he admit this? But if not true, what could they gain by humans thinking so? Fenneldale mayor is sending messengers up the chain of military clue. Unclear how high chain goes, what resources humans have. Clanlore says "it's harder to get there than sit there", so if smart should identify where Shiarrans are entering Correllendor and cut that off. We might be able to learn more at Caer Annaurak to give humans some clues, but promises to be long-term problem. Ugh. Glad dwarfclans in nice defensible caves.Other good thing about caves: no rain! Stupid nasty rain. Thank god for new boots. Hiking, hiking, hiking. Kanton has large cat-friend. Just never know with these people. On second day charged by two small bariaur - laid a good sling hit on one. Damn kids. But got some good info off older bariaur (friend of Palin's?) - layout of valley and ruins, that party with Shiarra had been through yesterday.
And then things got interesting (human slang for "bad"). Partway up valley, spotted lightning, smoke in forest. Found remains of battle in clearing - two humans, two bariaur, pretty serious carnage. Grepping huge footprints. Big signboard saying "Dragon was here." Could see where it left from, but not how it got there. Looks like dragon can call or control (or breathe) lightning. Great.
According to Valin, dragons hatched not summoned - don't know how long ago. Could these footprints, big as they were, belong to a hatchling? Really hope not... dwarven legends of dragons tend to describe size as "huge", "impossibly huge", "big as the great hall it was" (whatever great hall you happen to be in at the time) or occasionally just "Aaaaaaargh!" (Great-Uncle Spode's last word when entering chimera cave, according to family legend). So maybe babies mere 20 feet long and adults really hundreds. On the other hand, have seen goblet supposedly made out of dragon egg - about as big as two mens' fists. Would not fit big toe that made those footprints.
Things kept getting weirder. Found Shiarra, injured and magicky, in woods. Carrion in clearing her captors minus one - the much-referenced Senet (of sneaky ass-kicking talents, if you go by Valin). No clear memories of what happened - figures. Then during the night it's back to *dreams* again - Lucan in forest, sees sleeping Shiarra, grey-cloak man, Shiarra scared, dragon shows up (*huge*, of course), Shiarra says "Chayla!" in happy recognition, dragon chases grey-cloak. Nixes theory that Shiarra turning *into* dragon? Very unclear what is going on here. Then Kanton goes up valley, sees fortress, sort-of sees crowd of not-there four-arms coming through closed gate. Past? Future? Fear? Nonsense? Night uneventful out in real world. But in morning, Lucan tracks prints to feet, gets whack in head... sneaky ass-kicking time? Great. Just figures.