Dungeons and Dragons Day 10: Great Ape
The Transformation:
The party left the City with all haste with a full moon flickering in the night sky. Despite the group’s best wishes to escape the city unnoticed, this turned out to not work. They were attacked by a young Red Dragon who proclaimed that “In the name of Lady Orabaras, the Death Knight would be reclaimed.”
The Monk was having none of this and looked at the full moon. His Saiyan Blood caused him to transform into a Great Ape which towered over the Dragon. With a brutal set of attacks on the Dragon, the Monk quickly turned the battle into the group’s favor.
The Death Knight, realizing that the Dragon refused to attack him, stood near the now Ape Monk and the Dragon did not breath fire. The entire group followed his lead and attacked the Dragon at such angles that they could not all be picked off by the deadly breath weapon.
Unfortunately, this same positioning almost proved fatal for the group. Spread out as they were, the Dragon found a blind spot. Into this area of weakness, the Dragon breathed deadly fire. The Ape Monk as well as Gonk the Warrior were hit. Both avoided the deadliest part of the attack but were burned nonetheless.
The Death Knight continuously goaded the Dragon into surrendering while both Gonk and the Warlock/Barbarian failed to make a single dent in their enemies armor. Finally, the Red Dragon turned and admitted defeat. The Monk Ape moved in for a brutal attack, but as it turned out, that had been the Dragon’s plan all along.
The Lightning Javelin
Instead, the Monk found himself in a trap. Thanks a brutal roll of the dice, the Dragon took out the Monk and knocked him out of his Ape form. Unconscious now, the Monk started to die. However, the rest of the party did not give up hope. With renewed morale, they fought the Dragon into defeat. And not too soon, as they got the Monk to his feet.
The entire group had many questions for the Monk, but especially Gonk. The Dwarf had already explained his hatred for Wereboars and wanted to ensure that the Monk was not an enemy. This was quite different and the Saiyan had no problem explaining this to the Dwarf. Content, the group decided to look around.
Searching for spoils from the Dragon’s corpse, the party discovered a magical javelin. A weapon capable of manifesting lightning. At first the Death Knight desired the weapon as his own, but just as quickly he lost interest. The Barbarian/Warlock, who possessed high strength was deemed most worthy. They were eager to test out this new item as the group then pressed on.
Horde of Undead:
Gonk showed the group the cave where he intended to bring them towards the Dwarves. However, the Rogue decided to scout ahead to be safe. What he found was far from pleasant. The inside was swarming with Undead!
Rushing out to inform the rest of the group, the Rogue came up with an idea on how to begin this fight with a massive advantage. Grabbing the very eager Gonk, the Rogue threw him as a living weapon towards the front enemies. The first Skeleton which had stood guard shattered at the assault.
The rest of the group pressed the attack and many of the enemies were slain before they could even act. In the battle, the Barbarian/Warlock managed to hit an enemy with his Magical Javelin and attuned it to himself. The Rogue continued with his unusually good number of ideas and charged headlong ready to assassinate the Wight which led the rest of the monsters. However, this creature was made of much tougher stuff than the rest and even after a series of deadly strikes, the monster endured.
The Monk, regaining his composure after his earlier transformation, made use of his Amulet and managed to figure out that the Shopkeeper from Iron was once again causing trouble for the group. This horde of Undead had been tasked with hunting down the Necromancer. Sadly for the Undead, said person was not even present.
The Exiled Prince:
Once the cave was cleared of enemies, which took quite a bit of effort in the case of the Wight, Gonk paused for a moment and waited to ensure more enemies did not approach. The entire group hoped that the two encounters had just been simply enemies hunting them and not some sign of an even worse future. Once he was sure the group was in the clear, Gonk knocked on the far wall multiple times, and eventually it opened.
The group entered a fancy room hidden almost in plain sight. After some introductions, Gonk revealed his new companion to be an exiled Prince of the Dwarven City. He asked for their help in regaining his birthright. In exchange, he would grant the Death Knight the items he needed for a Magical Armor set. The Monk was not convinced and wanted to know what he would get out of the deal. The exiled Dwarf promised them all rewards to help.
The Monk still had suspicions and asked why the Dwarf was in exile in the first place. As it turned out, he was a bit too progressive for the Dwarven Nobles. They wanted to live a life of luxury and ignore the peasants. This Prince however wanted to change up the status quo drastically.
Searching for Answers:
The Monk used his medallion again, still not trusting the Dwarf’s words. His fears only intensified when the Exile managed to resist the magic of the item. The Rogue suggested slipping something in the drinks to try and question him while he slept. However, unlike his many other exploits that night, this plan failed miserably. Now, Gonk mistrusted the Rogue and would no longer let him near the Exiled Prince.
The Monk came up with a new idea though and simply waited until everyone else had gone to sleep. This time the Amulet granted him access to the Dwarven Prince’s mind. While he found that the Exile had spoken true, there was a whole lot of powerful emotion in there as well. This individual did not only want to changer up the system, he wanted to shatter it.
There are grim tidings afoot. As the party marches towards the Dwarven City, they know that its only 14 days not only till the next full moon, but until the world drastically changes as well. Will they be able to deal with political intrigue of a massive magnitude in time?