As time resumed our heroes continued to discuss how to invade the castle. Mitsui insisted on going in through the main entrance. The rest of the party wanted to sneak in, but Mitsui insisted she would walk in, maybe be a distraction. The party didn’t want to split up so they decided to go in together.
Going around Sansuri’s castle they hoped off and landed on a bridge. Two Air elementals that were there grabbed Mitsui and Kida, although they didn’t seem to be aggressive. A couple of identical looking aarakocra started squawking as they then approached our heroes with their spears out. None of our heroes moved, and after a few minutes a couple of cloud giants opened the gates, asking our heroes what they were doing.
Explaining that they had come on behalf of Hekaton, and wanted to speak with countess Sansuri, the cloud giants took our heroes to an auditorium as one of them went off to find the countess. Our heroes then heard another long draconic cry, and a few minutes later they came back with the countess. The countess had a mask of a happy face on, and she greeted our heroes and listened to them. She told them she wasn’t happy with the ordning and wanted to take the opportunity to rise in the ranks. She would not entertain the thought of going to Hekaton.
Our heroes also asked about the dragon cries, and Sansuri explained they had a dragon that had been attacking caravans. Our heroes questioned her but didn’t get anything more on the dragon or the ordning, but did offer our heroes accommodations for the night. She left an attendant with our heroes, and Zesh had Mitsui distract him while she cast gease on him. He brought our heroes to the room the dragon was in, as Kida broke the door’s lock to get in. Once in Seraphina managed to open the collar around the dragon’s neck, allowing him to shapechange and escape the rest of the manacles and the muzzle.
It turns out this dragon, who introduced himself as Felgolos, and Mitsui were friends, and the only caravans Felgolos attacked were Zhentarhim caravans. The group quickly escaped out the window, riding on Felgolos back. He talked with our heroes for a bit, before dropping our heroes off in Calling Horn.
Our spent a bit of time here, before teleporting back to the Maelstrom. Mitsui immediately went in to the meditation cave. The rest of our heroes spoke with Hekaton, and began to get ready for their attack on the dragon. They decided Seraphina would take the claw of the wyrm rune, sneak in, and use it to create the anti dragon zone.
The storm giants lead our heroes to some whales, where each hero was accompanied by a storm giant, and road them to an island where another group of giants greeted them. They had rocs, which our heroes and the giants rode to the desert.
Once in the desert, Seraphina snuck in to the ampitheatre that was Iymrith’s lair. She saw a number of gargoyles, as well as a camp with some tracks leading away she determined to be yuan-ti tracks. She successfully set up the anti dragon zone without being caught, as she returned to the giants and her friends. This time came to a standstill once more.