Episode 49: Coldwing and Dirrhaas Report

Nia attempts to stall the dragnoborn officer on the second floor, but it isn't challenging to take a moment as a flurry of reports and activities resound through the citadel. The crew mentally debates some strategies, knowing time is limited. The white wing reports the missing officer corps, who were slaughtered on the upper floor. They initiate infiltration proceedings, switching to Draconic and begin potion chugging. The war priest approaches Nia and barks in Draconic, 'All hail the new avatar.' Spark provides translation and tries to help Nia reply in kind, but even Nia, pretending to be another person she's heard for ten seconds while speaking a language she doesn't know, isn't perfect. The priest calls for an alarm, and battle begins.

Spark opens up with a lightning bolt, Nia with a synaptic static, Lance with a thunderball, and El begins using the Glaive of Wonder as a mop, wiping up the remains. Backup from the lower level flies up and starts engaging, focusing on Nia. She shields herself long enough for the others to back her up while she blasts her assaulters into a corner. Then, a door opens, and a dracohydra waltzes in. El proceeds to give it the one-two, but the dracohydra has enough heads to bite back every blow. So, Lance paralyzes the beast for Spark and El to beat it into oblivion. On its corpse, they find a label reading 'hand-stitched by Father Oznias Zug.'

With the upper floor suppressed, the crew takes a second to consider what to do. A flurry of breath weapons has wounded the crew. Nia tries to get her mind-controlled abishai to scream out 'For Othulyssus!' and make some comments about the new leadership of the Talon, but the white wing reveals they know the identity of the Blackjack officers, and they have countermeasures. Illiana also messages from the Blackjack that a big white wyrm is incoming.

So, Nia assembles everyone, including THC, who was cavorting in a field of weed(s) sprouted by the Glaive of Wonder, and recalls to the Blackjack. Aboard the Blackjack, the crew takes a minute to heal and prepare for the incoming dragon. They get the crew on board and find the dragon is not alone. There is another nyxekspawn, Diirhaas, the general, on his back, and a wing of wyvern riders and a dracohydra as well. They approach quickly.

Spark hastes El and tries to spread himself away from the Blackjack. Lance speeds off into a corner far ahead of the ship to enjoy the protection of distance. Nia puts the general in a mental prison, but the dragon's movement drags his mind psychically through a hell of mindflayer tentacles. Two wyverns close on Spark, but can't pierce his armor. One of their riders leaps onto the Blackjack though; Wicked Mind and Havila, the shadowdancer Shadar-kai, intercept. Crocodile Kate rushes to the rear spell cannon and fires an amplified fireball from the wand of fireballs. It wounds about half the wyverns, their riders as well as Coldwing the White.

Then, a hasted murder machine El shoves the Glaive of Wonder up Coldwing's cloaca and fires an Ashaya-assisted lightning bolt up there for good measure. The unbelievable crit-smiting nearly takes the dragon's life in a single turn. However, the white ancient wyrm has enough life to breathe cold over most of the deck, taking down Bazzanuth, the mind dryad. Illiana hellishly rebukes the dragon over the audacity of breathing on her without permission, and the dragon begins a death plummet.

The dracohydra and its priest rider release some attacks on the crew, knocking out Crocodile Kate, but Wicked Mind is nearby for the save. The last wyvern is ridden by a dragon-blessed, and she flies down to revivify Coldwing, a clever move, but Spark simply magic missiles him back down. Then, Diirhaas uses the magic of the White Dragon Mask he was wearing to revive the dragon again for a retreat. The White Wing flees the fight and Tempest Tide in disarray.