Chapter 22

Side Quest, Climax!

* You gained 0 experience by defeating a dragon minion. 600 experience points should be transferred to Shard #31.

* Alignment quest assigned to Olier: defeat all evil creatures in the Green Dragon lair; rescue any non-evil creatures.

"Looks like Moonlight is at the lair," said Star to the others.

The raid group had swelled to nine, with two second level goblin warriors with them. There was quite a debate about whether they should go with them to kill the dragon, but ultimately, Star left it up to them, and they wanted revenge on the dragon minions' master. They made a couple of spears for them.

They had actually rescued the only female goblin of that set of eight warriors. They had no idea about the others; after all, the dragons had fled in all directions. It was getting dark, so they settled in for the night, wanting to regain all of their hit points and mana before taking on the dragon. The dragon would recover some more, but it was worth it in Tira's opinion. They didn't want to get too close to the lair.

Star looked at how close the party members were to leveling up. She cycled the goblins in and out to look at their status sheets as well. It looked like Raythiel was the closest. Zip was going to be a fourth level heroine, so she needed more experience than Raythiel and Twixia to get there. Star remembered she was already second level when she arrived at system day; I'm guessing she had around 2,000 like I did. Either that, or she has been off killing stuff in the middle of the night.

Tira  Star Twixia Olier Zip Raythiel Goblins Level 5 4 3 7 3 3 2 Experience 16,453 7053 4353 22,233 7303 5353 1143 Next level 21,000 10,000 6000 28,000 9000 6000 3000

It seemed like a long time ago, but the goblins had actually only been captured less than four days ago. They were in pretty good shape, mostly because they had leveled, so they had regained hit points and gotten more from leveling. They actually had more health points than Twixia, even though she was only third level, as the perfection spell had failed for her and Dragon Food. Not that Raythiel would actually name him that, but she had better make up her mind soon before the poor boy started responding to it.

"How do our levels affect our experience, Tira?" asked Star. "The average level of the party determines the range you can get experience in. At the moment, we get experience for anything half a power level or higher. If the encounter is too high for everyone combined, then we get less experience; in this cast, it would be over power level eight, but we also have the summons and the goblins, so they also factor in. So we would only get full experience between power levels one and nine.

"What is the power level of the dragon?" asked Star.

"The one Manuel fought was at power level eight, but it might be wounded and be assigned a lesser power level. This dragon will be a seven, most likely. Two fully healthy power level eight Green Dragons would be a power level ten, so it is a good thing there are not two of them." Tira cringed as she realized what she had just spoken of.

"Yes, that would be almost suicide," laughed Star. "But we have the earth elemental protection potions and a wounded dragon, so we should win. I was thinking, though, that maybe we should leave Twixia and Dragon Food out of this fight since they have the lowest hit points. We can give the goblins the potions instead, and let one of them wield her long sword two handed. If I leave Twixia in the party, she will still gain experience."

"Good idea, Star; let's do that," said Tira, worried about the flag that had been set.

The next day, the party was creeping towards the entrance to the lair, and Raythiel whispered with Moonlight's communication spell. "Should I use my vanish spell as a concentration or a timed spell?"

Concentration: use it on yourself and both goblins. The rest of us can take the breath weapon's hit better. Once you start healing people, being invisible won't matter anymore.

Now that they were this close, Moonlight threw a ward to stop the first ten points of damage to everyone and a spell to increase their attack by one. Tira threw an ice touch spell on her blade, and Raythiel made herself, the goblins, and Olier, since she could include one more since her pet was not coming along. Olier used his rogue ability to make any traps appear, but there did not appear to be any. So they all rushed in; the dragon would sense them in their lair, and there was no reason to let her get ready.

Star was hoping she could talk the dragon out of fighting. She had a lot of diplomacy; maybe the dragon would see reason and surrender? As the party rushed into the lair, which seemed like a natural cavern, they sent Tira riding on Moonlight first. The others would enter and split up after that to try to not lose their potions right away. There was a natural bend in the cavern, which made this an even better plan. Just as Tira and Moonlight entered the main cavern, a powerful voice spoke.

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"Let's have that one and that one go next!"

"Good idea!" said a second voice.

Moonlight and Tira rounded the corner to see a group of elven villagers in a cage made of thorny vines; they were all naked. The Green Dragon siblings, who were laying on a pile of treasure and enjoying their show, looked up. Moonlight let out an enraged roar, an aura springing up around her; there would be no diplomacy. The battle was joined.

"Star just had to set that flag," sighed Tira.

* Shard #31 yelled out loud, "Roll for individual initiative."

* Shard #31, "The order is Tira, Zip, Mr. Green Dragon, the female goblin, Moonlight, the male goblin, Raythiel, Star, Olier, and Miss wounded Green Dragon."

Tira waited for Moonlight to go to the dragons.

Zip ran into the cavern and to the left as far as she could to get the three of them out of a breath weapon cone.

Mr. Green dragon loped forward and breathed on Tira and Moonlight for 6d10 acid damage, -1 per die for Tira for 40 and 34. They both managed to dodge the worst of it, and the ward and the potion stopped all the damage. The Moonlight ward had been broken on her and Tira.

The female goblin ran towards Mr. Green Dragon, stopping 10 feet from him.

Moonlight pounced on the dragon, absorbing its reach attack. Mr. Green Dragon bit her for critical damage, doing 39, 10 of which was negated by her personal ward, which is out for the round. Just like that, the most powerful of the raiding parties' hit points were cut in half. Tira's sword hit the dragon as she leaped off Moonlight, doing 21 points of damage with her spell and sword. Moonlight hit with her claw, doing 20. And just like that, Mr. Green's hit points were cut in half.

Raythiel slowly entered the cavern, seeing celestial and dragon blood flow everywhere. She kept her distance, not wanting to get rid of her invisibility spell just yet.

Star rushed forward, right up to Mr. Green.

Olier moved to where he could charge Ms. Green next round and maybe stop her from hurting the elves in the cage made of plants.

Ms. Green Dragon moved up and breathed on her brother and the intruders in the area. Green dragons are immune to their kind of breath weapon. She breathed in 34 points of damage for Moonlight and the female goblin, and 28 for everyone else. Everyone but Moonlight failed to make their save. Moonlight took 17, the female goblin took 14 after the potion and ward, Star took 8 after the ward and potion, and Tira took 31 with her potion only having a ward of 3.

Shard #31: "Round 2!"

Zip charged Mr. Green, hitting him with her sword, flanking him, and doing 9 damage.

Mr. Green decided to attack Moonlight until she was down, then Tira, then Zip. His bite nearly finished Moonlight, but his first claw hit as well, dissipating the summon. His last claw missed Tira, and he hit Zip with a wing attack for seven.

Tira cast a 10 mana ward into her sword to protect her, which would protect her for the next 45 points of physical damage. She used all her spring dance to heal 28 damage on herself as a free action, then swung at the dragon, critically hitting it for 26!

The female goblin missed with her great sword attack.

The male goblin charged and missed Miss Green.

Raythiel healed the female goblin for 10 hit points.

Star missed with her first attack and critically fumbled her second attack, dropping her sword and falling to the ground.

Olier, now visible, wanted to use a flank attack and charged Mrs. Green, but failed to notice a small pile of dragon excrement and slipped and fell.

Mrs. Green looked at the tiny green creature, trying to hurt him with a club, and thought it would be a great addition to their entertainment cage. She mentally altered the cage, then she picked him up and threw him into it, shooting, scoring, and doing 5 damage as the goblin rattled through the open hoop and fell to the ground.

Shard #31: Round 3, fight!

Zip failed to penetrate Mr. Green's thick dragon hide.

Mr. Green once again directed his main attacks at the next most dangerous, Tira. He missed with his bite and one claw; the ward took 20 points of damage from the other. The confident dragon looked concerned; he turned a bit, lashed his tail at Zip, and launched a wing attack at Tira. He missed with his tail, as woodlings are very short, and did another wing buffet for 11 to Tira's ward.

The female goblin hit for four points of damage.

Star picked up her sword, drawing a free attack of a bite for 18 points of damage. Then she used a single attack, missing, and used her dance of spring on herself, healing for 15 hit points.

Raythiel healed a star for 8 hit points.

Olier stood up and partially charged Mr. Green since the other dragon could not be flanked at the moment. He hit for 9 damage, dropping Mr. Green.

Dragon Food ran into the cavern, chased by Twixia, who was holding a club.

Mrs. Green wished she could breathe acid again; unfortunately, she could not. Using appraisal, she calculated her odds. They were terrible without her breath weapon, and her still frozen bits hurt a lot. Her favorite brother was down and could be slain with a sword thrust. She dissolved the cage and grabbed a villager and the male goblin and said, "Parley?"

Olier's face went pale. If she killed that villager, he would fail his quest. He looked pleadingly at Star.

"What are your terms, dragon?" said Star, placing her sword at the dragon's throat.

"How about we trade all these breakable villagers, our treasure, and your goblin friend for a healing spell on my brother and letting us go? And we will take the oath not to attack elves. That is my first and final offer," said the dragon.

"Deal," said the star, She realized nobody had any more healing spells, but Raythiel simply used a point of mana to stabilize the dragon.

"Ok, say your oath for you and your brother, then leave," said Star.

"I swear by the system to no longer hunt or harm the elven people in accordance with the pack of Rethmathor. I swear by the system; my brother here will take the same oath when he wakes, or I will slay him."

Shard #31: "The pact has been made." Combat rounds end.

Miss Green put down the elf and said she would drop the goblin off safely once she had her brother in a safe place. She wrapped the goblin in her tail, grabbed her brother, and dragged him out of the cave. Goblins were not part of the pact after all, and the quest didn't say Olier had to keep the rescued goblins safe, so it was agreeable. They just hoped for the goblin's sake that he would not be safely dropped off at 10,000 feet.

* Shard #31, "For safely completing his quest, Olier regains his previous alignment and avoids becoming a dark elf. The party gains a bonus of 6,000 experience and an alignment boost for saving him. For winning a power level nine encounter, the summoner, the goblins, and everyone in Star's party gain 711 experience. I will also grant your request to talk, Star, but it will have to be later. Raythiel has leveled up. By pure happenstance, Zip and Twixia have also leveled up. I am sure there are some things you will need to talk over with Zip as she freaks out. Good day, Star, and congratulations on your soon to be intelligence advancement, Raythiel."

Shard #31, "Day star, ha ha ha ha."

As the mad laughter faded from hearing, Zip and Raythiel yelled, "Status!"