LI. White Flight

Edward described the party’s encounter with the creatures to Abbot Ceril. "Small wonder we have seen no traders from Chalons in recent days. If these creatures were able to thwart you, who knows what may have befallen others?"

"I fear they did not live to tell of it," said Elana.

"What in the name of Pholtus were those monsters?" asked the monk.

"We’ve never seen the like," answered Firiona. "From what little I know, I think they’re called thorciasids. They live by draining their victims of strength and life energy, and other abilities as well. We were lucky to survive."

The abbot offered full healing and resupply to the party, who were always welcome at the monastery. "What do you intend to do next," he enquired.

"If we can’t go under the mountains," replied Elana, "then we’ll go over them."

After recuperating for a day or so, the party, without Firiona and Lina but again with Fulk and Edward’s griffon, teleported back to the entrance to the underground passage. From there, the party took flight, with the griffon bearing Edward, Fulk and Green Arrow, while Arimir and Elana flew separately. They rose high into the air, as the Griff Mountains themselves were high peaks.

At ten thousand feet and well into the Griffs, the party suddenly saw, far off in the distance, a group of white spots. The spots were flying toward them. Immediately, Edward activated his winged boots, as did Elana. The paladin gave Fulk a potion of fly. Green Arrow also quaffed a fly potion. The two fighters of the group also cast shield on themselves. Edward also gave himself a potion of rage. The extra ferocity would prove most useful.

The spots came into focus. A flight of four white dragons, including two great wyrms, a wyrm and an adult. And all of them big and ferocious-looking.

Edward instructed his griffon to watch out for fallen members of the party. No sooner had he done so than the dragons closed for battle.

Green Arrow got off the first volley of arrows against the adult white dragon, severely wounding it with five hits. But one of the great wyrms flew by Edward, doing serious damage then rising back up fifty feet. The monster’s frightful presence shook Green Arrow and Fulk. Arimir, unaffected by the creature, retaliated against it with an empowered cone of fire, striking both the great wyrm and the adult. The heat-vulnerable creatures took serious damage. Edward chased the great wyrm and wounded it.

The adult dragon flew steeply upward and turned right, then breathed a blast of cold that struck the entire party. Elana, however, cast mass cure moderate wounds to restore some of the damage.

Now the other great wyrm flew by the party and blasted them with its breath weapon, before winging over its foes for its next attack. Fulk, although shaken, was able to spontaneously cast mass cure serious wounds to partially compensate for the damage. But then the last of the four dragons flew by for yet another breath weapon attack.

Shaken though he was, Green Arrow fired an arrow of death at the adult dragon, but failed to kill the beast. Another likewise failed to slay it, and still another! But two more arrows from the eleven archer’s bow also found their mark, severely wounding the monster. Meanwhile, the first great wyrm renewed its assault on Edward, attempting an awesome blow that would knock him right out of the air. But the mighty paladin seized the opportunity to strike with the full power of Hieroneous. With one incredible slash of his sword, he felled the colossal monster, and it plummeted to the mountainside below. Wasting no time, Edward then flew toward Fulk and the griffon, charged into the adult dragon, and smote its deathblow as well. Two dragons down, two to go.

Meanwhile, Arimir cast mass resist cold on the other party members. Elana cast mass cure serious wounds, while Fulk added a mass cure critical wounds. The battle was shifting toward the adventurers’ favor.

The remaining great wyrm used its solid freezing fog power to block the party, then flew back two hundred feet to regroup. The wyrm white dragon did likewise. The fog didn’t prevent Green Arrow’s seeker and phase arrows from finding the wyrm, and they seriously wounded the creature. Nor was the great wyrm able to evade Arimir’s chain lightning. But the wyrm white dragon flew straight to Arimir, bit him for heavy damage, and knocked him ten feet back into the air.

Edward raced to the edge of the fog, while the griffon, with Fulk, flew out of the thick icy distraction. Elana did them one better. She made her way out of the fog, then cast greater dispel magic to get rid of it. But the great wyrm, undeterred, simply recreated it.

An attempted expeditious retreat by Green Arrow proved ineffective, so he moved back into one of the fog clouds. Arimir was more successful in casting greater invisibility, then flying away to reposition himself.

Suddenly, a prismatic spray sprang from Edward’s helmet, striking the wyrm with a fiery ray that singed its scales. The griffon flew up from Fulk’s position to a spot behind Edward.

Elana’s attempt to dispel the second fog failed, so she left the fog. The great wyrm, trying to knock its assailants out of the sky, cast gust of wind.

A heal spell, previously prepared by Fulk, restored Edward to full strength and vigor. This was followed by a flamestrike at the great wyrm, which burned the monster for serious damage. But then the wyrm dragon breathed again, blasting Fulk and the griffon but missing the rest of the party.

The adventurers continued their assault on the flying monsters. Green Arrow sent five arrows speeding toward the great wyrm. All of them hit, and the monster bellowed in pain. Arimir’s chain lightning inflicted further damage. Edward, seeing his chance, charged at the great wyrm, shrugging off its opportunistic attack, and delivered a tremendous blow to the monster. The damage was so massive that the great wyrm fell from the sky and crashed to earth, stricken dead!

While Edward was dispatching the great wyrm, Elana cast cure critical wounds on Arimir, restoring the airy adventurer. Fulk likewise cast cure moderate wounds on Edward. He was ready for the final assault on the remaining white dragon.

That last dragon, however, decided that escape was preferable to death. It turned tail and flew off at great speed.

"Well, that was a bit of a row," observed Arimir understatedly.

With the dragons slain or driven off, the adventurers continued their flight over the snowy peaks of the Griffs. After several hours of travel, they at last approached a large valley deep in the heart of the range. They descended to get a better view. As they descended, they spotted a road emerging from the mountains. The adventurers decided to follow the road.

The road led onward into the valley. After several miles, the party spotted a city off in the distance, to which the road led. They marked its location on the map they had brought from the monastery, committed its location to memory, and then teleported back to the monastery.

Back at the monastery, the party met with Firiona and Lina, and with the abbot and other monks, and described what they had found. "Looks like we’ve found Chalons," Green Arrow concluded. The party promptly made plans for their journey to the city. The monks provided heavy winter clothing for the adventurers, and resupplied them with provisions and various magic items. They then took their leave and returned to their quarters for the night, preparing for the morning’s departure.

Firiona found it difficult to sleep. Lina did as well. Finally, they both drifted off, though still uneasy. Suddenly, each of them became aware of a presence in their dreams . . . .

They opened their eyes. Dawn had just broken. They rose, dressed, and went to rouse the rest of the party. Once all of them were awake, Firiona began to speak.

"Last night I had an ominious dream," she began. "You too?!" exclaimed Lina. "So did I!" The two women both proceeded to describe their dreams. It appeared that they both had had the same dream.

"A might being appeared to me," said Firiona. "He was clad in shining armor. He spoke. I looked at him, and I knew who he was. He was an avatar of Hieroneous!"

"And he had a message for us," continued Lina. "In this portentous voice, he said: "It has been observed that you persist in assuming evil forms while you accompany my paladin. Such behavior causes scandal to my church, and offense to me. Therefore, henceforth, whenever you attempt to do so, I shall instead see to it that you assume a non-evil form, fit to accompany a paladin. Hieroneous has spoken."

The women eyed Edward, who pondered the import of this vision. "We’re neither of us too pleased with this," said Firiona. "We’re not even followers of Hieroneous, and here he goes depriving us of some of our best battle tactics!"

But Edward replied, "I’ve warned you about this before. It seems that my lord has plans for me, and they don’t include any more appearances in the company of devils and demons. Be glad he let you keep that spell at all. At least you’ll still get some use out of it."

Neither Firiona nor Lina were satisfied with Edward’s answer, and both left in a huff to finish their preparations on their own. "They’ll get over it," said Green Arrow. "They’d better," said Edward.