The Menace of Blixteem
Seaton’s Cove, Duchy of Salinmoor — 10 Readying, 576 CY
Session 3 — September 9, 2023
Adventurers: Arenir Stormrider, Cyr Baggins, Haldir Sorenson, Hugo Baudelaire, Galborn Valgwyn, Darrak Goldenforge
Level: 1st
Adventure: RX-01B — The Menace of Blixteem
Weather: Partly cloudy; cool morning, mild afternoon, light sea breeze
The dragon beneath Seaton’s Cove had been given time to wait.
The adventurers had spent the intervening days learning what they could about green dragons, seeking rare ingredients across the Fogfen and the Good Hills, and preparing Potions of Viridian Defense against the creature’s poisonous breath.
Now the preparations were complete.
It was time to go back underground.
Return to Under Seaton’s Cove
On the evening before the descent, a cool breeze moved in from the Azure Sea as the party gathered at the Salty Net & Fishery Hall. Tamily Tanderveil had reserved a private room for them, and the table was crowded with seafood, fresh vegetables, and ale. The warm hearth and steady flow of food did little to hide the reason for the meeting: by the next day, they intended to return to the caverns beneath the town and confront the dragon again.
The gathering also brought the expanded company together for the first time. Haldir Sorenson introduced Galborn Valgwyn, the elven ranger who had accompanied him in the search for the ingredients needed to make the Viridian Defense potions. Galborn had already proven himself during the journey through the Fogfen and into the Good Hills, and his skill with bow and woodcraft would be welcome underground.
Arenir Stormrider introduced another new companion, Darrak Goldenforge, a dwarven fighter associated with the Seaton’s Cove guard. Captain Lardus Longsaddle had vouched for Darrak’s fighting ability and believed his experience would strengthen the group when they faced the dragon again.
Haldir and Galborn recounted their journey for the others, including the search for Luminescent Pollen in the Fogfen, the Orius centaurs, the Shrine of Lady Kayle, and the Starlit Nectar used to complete the potions. Arenir had spent part of that time training at the garrison and shared what he had learned about fighting as a coordinated group rather than as six individuals.
The conversation repeatedly returned to the same subject. They knew more about their enemy now. They had better protection. They had added experienced fighters to their number.
None of that made a dragon safe.
Tamily kept the food and drinks coming while the party went over their plans one more time.
Council at Menhemes Manor
The following morning dawned cool and partly cloudy over Seaton’s Cove. Broken clouds moved above the cliffs while a light breeze came in from the sea, and the temperature began climbing toward a mild Readying afternoon.
Before returning underground, the adventurers made one final visit to the Menhemes estate.
The mayor’s elven butler, Ichabod, received them and led them into the manor’s library. Mayor Oseph Menhemes waited behind his desk while his daughter Dorianna sat nearby with a large book open before her. Vandy Banderdash and Captain Lardus Longsaddle were already present, speaking quietly when the adventurers entered.
Worliwynn arrived soon afterward, followed by Lyrielle the Seer. Once everyone was assembled, Ichabod escorted Dorianna from the room and closed the door behind her.
The first reports were practical. Longsaddle confirmed that the entrance beneath the Salty Net had remained secured. The basement door had been barred, a guard had been kept on watch, and there had been no reports of strange noises or disturbances from below. Tamily, he added, remained understandably unhappy about losing access to part of her storeroom.
Arenir reported that he had continued training at the garrison and was ready to return below. Worliwynn then recounted Haldir and Galborn’s successful expedition and confirmed that the rare ingredients had been used to produce the Potions of Viridian Defense.
For the first time since the dragon had been discovered, the party possessed a defense specifically prepared against its most dangerous weapon.
Lyrielle’s news was less reassuring.
She had consulted the signs available to her and warned that the green dragon might represent only one part of a larger danger gathering around Seaton’s Cove. Whatever shape that danger eventually took, she believed the town had not yet seen the whole of it.
Mayor Menhemes took the warning seriously. The Founders’ Fair was only a few weeks away, and visitors and merchants from across Salinmoor and farther afield would soon be arriving in Seaton’s Cove. A dragon beneath the town was dangerous enough on an ordinary day. During a public celebration, panic or violence could be disastrous.
The fair carried another importance as well. In Seaton’s Cove, the mayoral campaign traditionally began during the Founders’ Fair, when prospective candidates made their intentions public and began seeking support among the townsfolk.
Oseph admitted that he had heard rumors that Carman Rajani intended to announce his candidacy this year.
Carman was a local blacksmith with a difficult reputation: quick-tempered, confrontational, and known for carrying grudges. Oseph expected him to challenge the current administration aggressively once the campaign began, and any failure to protect the town would give him an immediate issue to exploit.
For Oseph, that made the dragon more than a hidden danger beneath Seaton’s Cove. If word of it spread badly, or if anything happened during the Founders’ Fair, the consequences could reach well beyond the caverns below the town.
Whatever political problems awaited Seaton’s Cove, the immediate threat remained beneath the streets.
The dragon had to be dealt with first.
Tharion’s Request
As the adventurers left the mayor’s residence, Worliwynn accompanied them outside.
She had one final message.
The cleric-alchemist Tharion, who had prepared the Viridian Defense potions, wanted the dragon’s body if the party succeeded in killing it. He hoped to study the remains and determine whether anything useful could be made from them. He could offer 50 gold pieces for the corpse, and if his experiments produced additional potions, he promised one to each member of the company.
It was a strange request, but a practical one.
If they survived the battle, they would bring the dragon back.
Back Into the Caverns
Later that morning, the party returned to the Salty Net & Fishery Hall.
The guard removed the bar from the basement entrance, and the adventurers descended once more into the passages opened by the earthquake. Their destination lay on the lower level, where a heavy door had been sealed with spikes after their previous expedition.
Removing them proved more difficult than expected. The spikes had been driven deeply into the wood and resisted every effort to pull them free quietly. Eventually the last obstruction came loose, and the party gathered themselves before opening the way into the chamber beyond.
Arenir entered first.
The room was familiar. It had been the site of fighting during their earlier descent, and they expected to find the bodies of the kobolds they had left behind.
Instead, the chamber was empty.
Hugo noticed the smell first—the unmistakable odor of death lingering in the air. Haldir quickly realized what was wrong.
Every kobold corpse was gone.
A dark trail marked the floor and led away from the chamber in the direction of the dragon’s lair.
The party followed.
The next room told much the same story. The bodies that should have remained there had disappeared as well. Cyr Baggins caught another trace of the death-smell, weaker than before but still present.
Something had moved through the caverns since their last visit.
And whatever had taken the dead had carried them toward the dragon.
The Dragon’s Lair
The trail led the adventurers back to the vast natural cavern where their previous expedition had ended.
Towering yellow mushrooms rose from the cavern floor, their strange glow throwing pale light across stone, broken barrels, scattered debris, and kobold bones. The chamber was large enough that much of it disappeared into shadow beyond the reach of ordinary sight.
Arenir and Darrak moved to the front while the others spread out behind them. Galborn and Cyr searched for positions from which they could fire without striking their companions, while Hugo and Haldir prepared to support the fighters.
The dragon did not give them long.
It emerged from deeper in the cavern and attacked.
Arenir and Darrak met it at close range. Many of their first blows glanced away from the creature’s hide, but enough struck home to prove that the dragon could be hurt. In return, its claws and teeth tore into the two warriors whenever an opening appeared.
Behind them, Hugo Baudelaire unleashed magic missiles that struck where ordinary weapons struggled to penetrate. Galborn searched for a clear line of fire while Cyr maneuvered through the cavern, looking for any advantage the strange terrain might provide.
Haldir found himself without a useful spell for the immediate struggle and closed with his spear.
The fight became a contest of position as much as strength. Arenir and Darrak tried to keep the dragon occupied while the others sought angles from which they could attack safely. Cyr climbed onto one of the giant mushrooms, gaining elevation above the melee, while Galborn shifted repeatedly until he could finally loose arrows past the fighters.
The dragon responded by changing the battlefield entirely.
It leaped onto the top of one of the enormous mushrooms.
Then it breathed.
Viridian Defense
A cloud of poisonous gas rolled through the cavern.
This was the attack the party had prepared for.
The Potions of Viridian Defense did exactly what Haldir and Galborn had risked so much to make possible. Instead of collapsing beneath the dragon’s toxic breath, the adventurers remained standing.
The dragon had gained height, but in doing so it had also exposed itself.
Arenir and Darrak could no longer reach it with their weapons, but Hugo, Galborn, Cyr, and Haldir could attack from a distance. Arrows and spells began finding their mark. One of Galborn’s shafts penetrated the dragon’s hide, and the sustained ranged attacks forced the creature to abandon its perch.
The dragon returned to the fight believing its breath had crippled the warriors below.
It was wrong.
Arenir and Darrak were still on their feet.
The creature struck again with tooth and claw, but the party now understood that their preparations had taken away one of its greatest advantages. The dragon could still kill them, but it could no longer rely on poison to end the battle.
The melee closed around it again.
The Death of the Dragon
The dragon fought savagely as the party pressed in.
Arenir and Darrak kept it occupied at close range while Galborn and Cyr attacked whenever openings appeared. Hugo continued using magic where he could, and Haldir remained close enough to strike with his spear.
The accumulated wounds began to tell.
Then Haldir found his opening.
His spear struck true and delivered the final wound.
The young green dragon collapsed in the glowing mushroom cavern.
For several moments, there was little triumph in the chamber. The adventurers were battered, bloodied, and in need of healing. The creature that had driven them from the cavern during their first descent was finally dead, but defeating it had taken nearly everything they had prepared.
Only after their wounds had been tended did they begin searching the lair.
Beyond the Lair
A more careful examination of the cavern revealed a raised ledge where the dragon had made its resting place. The party also discovered another passage leading away from the chamber.
They followed it.
The route did not go far.
Ahead, the passage had been buried beneath a recent collapse. Broken stone and rubble filled the way, likely another consequence of the earthquake that had opened the passages beneath Seaton’s Cove in the first place.
The adventurers considered clearing it but decided against disturbing the unstable debris. They had already accomplished what they had come below to do, and bringing another section of the underground complex down around them would accomplish nothing.
Whatever lay beyond the collapse would have to wait.
Return to the Surface
The party returned to the mushroom cavern and faced one final problem.
Tharion had asked for the dragon.
Getting a dead dragon out of the caverns was considerably less heroic than killing one, but the adventurers managed the task. They hauled the creature back through the passages, past the chambers where the missing kobold bodies had first warned them that something had changed, and finally up through the basement of the Salty Net.
They returned to Seaton’s Cove battered but successful.
The dragon beneath the town was dead.
The Viridian Defense potions had worked.
And the party had proven that the thing which had once sent them fleeing through the tunnels could be defeated with preparation, discipline, and a willingness to return to the place where they had failed before.
For the moment, the threat beneath the Salty Net had been ended.
But Lyrielle’s warning remained.
The dragon might have been only one piece of something larger.
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