Session Date: 10/07/2024
Session Start
The train had stopped due to a dragon on the tracks. We all sigh from how nothing seems to ever end and decide to go see what the dragon is specifically doing. It seems to be sniffing around. The dragon is more snake-like and doesn’t have any wings. Faylen is aware that this is a linnorm - it is more animal-like than traditional dragons. They don’t really speak, but they understand some languages. It’s looking at the train and might be considering the train as a larger, weirder dragon - a larger linnorm, perhaps scared of it, perhaps territorial.
Bosch says that we have some questions to ask and we all follow Bosch on the way out. Serapion offers to come with us as well.
It is day time, and one side of the tracks has a forest while the other is a country road of some sort. There are no people on the road. As we approach, Faylen recalls these are usually rather large, so this one seems to be pretty young. He recalls there is no breath weapon, but they have a pretty terrible venom. It seems to be a crag linnorm type. Ones that are grown are typically capable of spellcasting, though this one probably isn’t - it seems a bit too young. Perhaps there’s a parent somewhere nearishby, or perhaps it has been released. They are weak to cold iron, and unless they are struck by cold iron they tend to regenerate. Linnorms are definitely lesser dragons.
Faylen shares all of this, and Mary starts to try to talk to it, with Bosch coming up behind saying that we are investigating the mystery of it being on the tracks. We try numerous things that include talking to it, trying to lean into the animal nature of it to try to make it chase a light orb around like a laser, Bosch tries to climb on top of it. The linnorm is being very bratty and contrary like a teenager.
Mary notices that it is trying very hard to act like its unbothered. She notices that it was wounded in the stomach in some way, and that’s why it’s keeping low to the ground. Bosch and Tabby also notice the wound. Faylen hears voices and horses off in a direction, and Faylen mentions it to the group. He asks the linnorm if the people were hunting it, and it nods after giving Faylen a startled look. Mary convinces it to go into the forest so she can tend to the wound.
Faylen can’t tell where the hunters are but we start to talk about what to do. The hunters begin coming up and Tabby and Faylen notice that they’re War Hawks. We are aware that this gang doesn’t have any specific symbol, but most of them have a hawk somewhere on their person. The lead hunter has a hawk breathing fire, and a swanky wood and leaf armor, a helmet with horns - we both know equipment that’s never been used looks.
We begin lying our butts off talking about how the dragon went off towards the lake in the other direction, lying to say that the mom was with the baby and she was spitting mad.
Mary
Mary tends to the linnorm and notices that the wound on the dragon does seem to be a lucky shot more than anything else. She recognizes that with the wound - as long as the dragon isn’t caught by them, it would heal on its own. Mary treats him anyway and does a great job patching him up, and his features does soften some and he bunts his head into her affectionately.
Tabby, Faylen & Bosch
Bosch attempts to steal a weapon from the captain but was caught, and he back pedals to say that he’s scared and needs a weapon to defend himself. Tabby backs him up and the leader makes it known he’s racist. 😔
Faylen notices that the armor will fight for him should a fight arise. Faylen knows that this guy is probably pretty rich, or the guy above him in the organization is pretty rich - though it’s hard to tell which at this time.
The lead hunter asks for information on the larger dragon, and Bosch says that he didn’t see the bigger one, but starts to ask if he killed a big one it could start a war. Faylen leans into it and backs him up and says that the Kingdom of Ascal have some sort of treaty or something like that to protect creatures such as linnorms. Faylen’s not sure that’s 100% true, but it certainly sounds like it could be real for them.
The lead hunter says that there definitely isn’t some sort of treaty like that - he admits that they’re weird and would do something like that, but he’s pretty sure they don’t have anything like that actually.
Tabby mentions that the mom might eat them so none of it may matter. He spooks the schmucks behind the leader so badly they leave, and the leader tries to convince us to let him have Bosch so he can feed the dragon. We say absolutely not and Bosch scurries away as soon as he realizes what the implication is. The captain leaves and we encourage him along, and Mary and the linnorm come out of the forest once it’s safe.
The Party Together
It occurs to Faylen as the captain leaves that creating the automatic fighting gear like he has is pretty difficult, and expensive. It’d be made much easier with a piece of the Seal of Infinity, which would make enchanting this type of gear near trivial. The linnorm nuzzles each of us in thanks and Mary encourages him to tell the others about what’s going on with that guy and his armor. She warns that the armor is not incompetent like the man inside of it is.
Faylen grumbles that we should get free tickets the next time we use the train, but once we are on the train we tell people what happened. Mary and Faylen gives the full version of events to Onabelle, and Bosch gives numerous versions of the events to everyone else.
Tabby and his minotaur friend speak about what happened, and the minotaur admits that he finds the idea of waging empty war rather sick. It’s a huge waste, especially when you could have duels instead. They continue to talk in this vein for a while.
Mary and Faylen do take some time to work on the magic translation stone for Talitha.