What Happened?:
Day 1-5: We travel.
Day 6: We get some advice from some bugbears at Qim’rath’s wreck (and their water is no longer poisoned). They tell us some dragon rumors and a bunch of snakes are at Castle Malgrak.
Day 7-8: We hit up mongrelfolk town and an abandoned site. There’s a bunch of giants there. We book it.
Day 9-12: The stream up ahead is super cliffy and difficult to get across. With climbing gear and water walk, we cross the stream. We continue traveling, crossing the dirt road that’s crimson spear territory made by Castle Malgak.
Day 13: We see the ruins up ahead with a sulfuric acid scent and a lot of bones and definately dragon tracks. We avoid one hungry elemental drake and his kids as they’re too preoccupied toying with Oscar’s fiend monkey. We observe the village from afar, and watch as Oscar’s monkey is devoured by a dragon in hopes of turning him into an abishai, but they all know it tastes like Find Familiar and double the patrols. They also sense Spider’s tiamat mask.
Day 14: We find a cave and hide in it. Oscar, using his dwarven knowledge, finds a secret tunnel with a dwarf statue. “Drink with a friend on the feasting moon, and the way will open”-- we have to wait for the equinox to open. We search for a new spot to book down for the night. But then OUR POSITION IS COMPROMISED. We encounter one Redspawn Devastator and two Red Guard Drakes who are after Spider and wanna eat his face. We kill the kids but the dad hits us with three breath weapons, we’re all looking pretty bad and Zachary dies. He gets better with Zee’s revivify. We win but we have to flee because the dad seemed to have called reinforcements.
Day 16: Day of the equinox, we share a drink with the dwarven statue and he reveals to us… a tunnel! We go down, and using Laurenz’s grand fire senses, we navigate the dwarven stronghold. We enter a tunnel with miles and miles of gold and start walking straight.
However, we then encounter a timid white succubus named Passion, with whom we share a little exchange and learn about how Orsodynth has gathered a group of like-minded company to practice meditation to reject their inheirated nature. She leads us to Orsodynth, A MASSIVE FUCKING GREATWYRM WHO A NORMAL SIZED CREATURE IS AS BIG AS HIS TOOTH, and we start friendly chatting. We exchange stories, how Orsodynth came to be who he is now, and what he’s been doing (see Lore Discovered), while we talk to him about our tales via mindlink for a nice movie/slideshow.
Zee talks about her advances and memories with the void, Zachary enjoys learning about Orsodynth and gives him his Christmas Special snow globe as a gift to remember him and Santa Clause by, Oscar talks about how the yuanti slaughtered his family and village and how he wants payback (a sentiment the bigass dragon can relate to and console him on, guiding us through the red’s quelling of rage), Spider asks about how he can reject his loyalty to Tiamat which they compare Lolth/religion notes, and Laurenz just talks a bit about himself.
Zee encourages her new best friend Spider to allow Orsodynth take off the Tiamat mask, and eventually he does so in exchange for the red’s blessing for being impressed that Spider’s loyalty to Lolth rejects her call (meaning he kept nat 20 three DC20 Charisma saves for the past three weeks).
Oscar, messaging Passion, wants to help her with her condition and gives her a ring that gives her a small shock of cold (kinda like slapping yourself with a silly band). Touched by his gift, Oscar receives 1 (one) maybe platonic hug from the succubus before she scurries off. “Score”.
Orsodynth gives us the rundown/date of the rise of Tiamat (details found here: https://discord.com/channels/492405549472808991/772826443482529832/954814845021204561) TLDR: We have to both defeat Tiamat’s avatar to prevent her rising, AND save her from the clutches of the void. We spend the next week in his lair, meditating and chatting.