Session 5 AP: Part 2

The next morning the group gather at the base of the mountain with a small escort of desert warriors. The Clan Hunter Calis leads the group to the ruins of the ancient temple, recently exposed by one of the dangerous sand storms which plague the desert.

The ruins are old and scarred by wind and sand. Crumbling yellow walls decorated with strange animal motifs surround a high domed chamber decorated with the symbol of the sun. Splitting up to cover more ground Agamon and his nephew Isaac head off with a few hand picked bodyguards while the group make for the domed chamber.

Picking their way across a bone littered courtyard they avoid the attentions of grasping skeletal remains and enter the main chamber. Rising from the altar at the end of the room is the beast, a long lizard like head filled with teeth, serpentine neck, bulky black scaled body, dark wings, dagger like claws and a whiplike tail. A dragon!

Deciding they cannot fight the creature in the open temple they regroup to the mouth of a sloping tunnel leading into the depths. Azhanti and Morn form a defensive wall the creature cannot penetrate. Both take significant punishment but they refuse to yield and healing power now flows from three members of the group. Overmatched in the narrow confines the dragon retreats, daring them to follow it into the open space. They decline and retreat further down the corridor and the dragon smashes the stone lintel above the doorway sealing them in! (Many thanks to Matt, one of the players, for that idea. It hadnt occurred to me at all!)

The group takes the opportunity to rest and recuperate what they can. The creature has left the entrance, waiting for them somewhere else in the ruins. The blocked passage is no barrier to them and Morn demolishes it with the Hammer of the Earth Titan. Carefully they begin to scout the Temple heading back into the courtyard. There is no sign of the creature. As they emerge into the hot morning sun the ground buckles and the Dragon rears up, stone slabs and sand cascading down its body. Battle is joined again, fiercer and more deadly than before. In the wide open courtyard they cannot contain it and it pursues Artemis with deadly intent. Putting his speed to good use he gives his companions a moment of respite and blood is spilled on the ancient altar, prayers to a dead God restoring some of their strength. As the dragon emerges spells and swords strike again and again. Rearing in pain and bellowing in fury Artemis finally finishes it with a few well placed arrows to the throat.

Exhausted but victorious the looting begins. The creature has plundered many homes and caravans and its wealth is significant. Azhanti takes his own prize, removing the dragons horns and some of its scales for a new cloak.

As our heroes congratulate themselves Isaac returns with his guards carrying the body of Agamo. The Chieftain is dead, killed saving the young man from some deadly trap in the ancient ruins. As the group returns to the Clan Seat the young Isaac is silent, thinking of what his Uncle told him as he lay dying in his arms.

*cut scene*

As our band of heroes leaves the ancient ruins the blood and power they have spilled on the ancient altar, theirs and the dragons, drips through the cracks in the ruined temple. It seeps down and down, into the bowels, to a crypt where it drips onto the lips of a sarcophagus. Something stirs, blood and power feed it, awaken it. Stone grinds on stone as a mummified hand pushes the lid of its prison aside. K’shatta, High Priestess of Ashura makes her way to the surface. As she does so the bandages fall from her body revealing fresh new skin and the woman once known as the Scourge of the Dawn feels the touch of sunlight on her face for the first time in four thousand years.