Velon is not surprised to be welcomed back amongst the living by the Silver Blaze.  He is quite surprised, however, at the level of support for him as leader after some of his squabbles with the others and an excellent replacement available in the captivating cleric of Sune.

Velon's shock that Cratol had so much to say is quite evident on his face.  "Well said, and thank you Cratol.  A weapon you say?  By all means, I say we make the time.  I'll be curious to see exactly what you are speaking of."

The paladin listens intently to what Poljen has to say.  He nods as he finishes as says "yes, who could argue with that?  It takes a lot of metal and magic for me to come even close to your hardiness, and you still have me beat.  Bahamut has to step in to keep me upright, after all!  Next time we will do it together, brother."  He raises his mug to Poljen.

As the wizard breaks down the situation for everyone Velon replies "how, ah, very logical of you, Lawrance."  "Spoken like a true wizard."  He does recover and gives the wizard a sincere smile and another raise of his mug.

Velon simply gives Lia a sincere smile and slow nod acknowledging his love's words.  He does playfully ask "does doing the same thing but bringing Poljen along next time count as more or less caution?"

"Thank you friends.  I am quite thankful to still be here to have the chance to fight beside you, to the end."

As Velon sits back down and is about to take a sip of ale he looks back at Poljen and says curiously "livelier than the last time I was on my feet?"  He shrugs his shoulders, looks back at his ale, and takes a large swallow.

"Oh yeah, you were a zombie for a bit there but not actually. I stopped the crystal and now we think you're fine."

"Oh ok, yeah, I thought it was an odd comment because the last time I was on my feet I ran through the bone swarm a few times to pull people out then teleported into the room to smash the crystal."

Velon freezes after actually taking in what Perry said.  "Wait, what?  Zombie?"  He looks around at everyone.  "think?!"

Poljen nods.  "You were down, then our tormentor raised you up, and was going to use you against us.  But Perry somehow blocked the magic from the crystal so you simply stood there...literally, DEAD ON YOUR FEET!  Ha!!!!"

  Lia is smiling happily as Velon seems back to his old self.   Hearing Perry mention the fact that Velon had been a zombie causes a scowl to replace her frown.  She is about to address Perry when Poljen chimes in.   The raven haired beauty covers her face for a moment.   She then glowers at them.  " What are you two trying to do? Velon didnt need to ever know about that. He just returned from the afterlife and is very weak right now. " She looks at Velon.  " You have nothing to worry about Velon.   I channeled Sune's power to drive all of the necromantic energy from you before bringing you back to us   It would have been impossible to do so if you were under that necromantic influence still.  " She caresses his hair. " Just take it slow Velon   It will take a few days until you are fully restored.  

 Mari looks with shock at hearing about Velon being a zombie. " You look normal to me Velon. Just a little cleaner than normal thanks to Lia. " She winks at him.  " At least you werent a turtle. You just cant imagine the experience.   " She grins at Perry.   

Ooc: Velon is at a -4 to all rolls for now. The penalty decreases by 1 after each long rest.   

"Sorry Lia," Perry says as he hangs his head in shame. "I was trying to lighten the mood. I didn't think we should hide it from him forever, but we should've let him rest and process things a bit before unleashing that one."

Velon's frequently red cheeks get a bit whiter as Poljen explains that he was temporarily 'dead on his feat'.  He tries to play it cool and laugh but it is the most uneasy laugh any of them, even Lia, have ever seen from him.  Lia's words regarding Sune and the expulsion of necromantic energy makes him feel much better about it though.  He responds to Lia "ok, I'll take it easy.  I think you're right, I really could use some rest and lots of pampering..."  He returns to his normal smile and winks at Poljen.

"It's true, Mari, only Cratol can relate to life as a turtle, I'd imagine.  Unless of course Perry has ever spent significant time as a turtle, for some sort of recreational or experimental purposes perhaps, maybe in college?"

"Ok so I'm sure I'll be fine, thanks to all of you."  He gives Lia a sincere smile.  "Where to?  We need to identify those items and talk to Old White Death, yes?  Then what, other than Cratol's home?"

  The cleric studies him with worry as he doesnt seem himself.  She prays silently to Sune that he takes this well. Lia relaxes some as he goes back to his normal self again or so it seems. 

 " I'm glad that you are seeing sense Velon Rodaan. Some people can be stubborn sometimes. I'm grateful that you are not and see reason. "  There is a far off look in her eyes for a minute before she snaps back.   " That about sums it up Velon.  We will be done here and moving on to our next task.   Another successful mission for the world renowned Silver Blaze.  " She looks lost in thought as she contemplates how she failed in keeping him alive. 

 Mari nods in response.   " Im sure that Perry has experienced life in many forms.  Sune only knows what he will do next.   " She smiles at the bard. 

Poljen scoffs at Lia.  "Lia, your beloved is tough, else he'd not be here.  He can take the truth, and be honest.  The 'dead on his feet' line was pretty funny, eh?"  But after that the large man drops the topic. 

"Once we deal with the white dragon, yes we can do whatever Cratol wishes.  But may I suggest we get a good rest before meeting the dragon?  Lovely Lia may trust him, but I still do not completely.  If he sticks to his deal, we should have no trouble, but he is still a chromatic dragon.  We would be wise to remain careful."

  Lia shakes her head at Poljen and restrains her tongue with a roll of her eyes.  

  " I do believe Old White Death.   If he planned betrayal he missed the perfect opportunity.   He could have been waiting for us as we surfaced having already taken out the sky castle.   It is a good idea to get rested up though.  We would have a tough time against anything right now.   Since im the only one that feels he is sincere, I will be glad to meet him alone. Everyone else can watch from the skycastle and come help if needed.  Im positive that he wont attack me.  " 

With the discussion of dealing with the Dragon, Lawrance speaks up "Honestly, Lia, I'm surprised by your immediate trust in his Ancientness after a meeting of at most a few minutes. While he seemed reasonable with the bargain we struck, he has lived hundreds of years- longer than most elves. He has schemed and dealt  with beings the likes of which we have never seen, has experience in deception greater than a hundred con artists and knowledge that rivals entire libraries. What special insight did you achieve that gives you such unwavering belief in his trustworthiness? It's almost...magical." He ends, warily.

  Lia looks at Lawrance for a moment before answering.  " I am good at reading people.  I have less experience reading dragons but i have spoken  to dragons of all types now. He is an old dragon that wants his things back. He isnt out terrorizing the area.  Old White Death honors his word with the villagers.  If he had wanted to betray us he would have done it by now.  We meet him away from his lair and at full strength  now.  He will have lost the advantage he had. He could have easily overcome us as we reached the surface.  It just makes sense to me. " She shrugs.  " As i offered before, i am more than willing to meet him by myself.  The horn we seek isn't here.  We hand over these items of his and leave. Then we are done here.  " 

At the comments of Perry's potential experience at transforming into other creatures, he nods as he says matter-of-factly, "Oh yes, I've been many animals before on several occasions, especially in college as Velon mentioned. I've been small turtles, big turtles, black bears, brown bears, a walrus, swallows from multiple regions, sea otters, large cats like pumas, bats, penguins, a walrus, all manner of monkeys, a dairy cow, a puppy named Pupper Woofington, an elephant with tusks and an elephant without, a horse, a house cat, a walrus, and even a large boar."

---

During the discussion regarding Old White Death, Perry stands up and says, "Absolutely not! I cannot in good conscience allow you to face that probably evil ancient dragon alone, Lia! It would besmirch my honor as a Pennington! As such, I shall accompany you out to meet him. But what Lawrance says is also true I think. I must admit, I do not trust any creature more than one size larger than me on principle, but I do trust my best friend, Lia Galanodal, High Cleric of Sune and the most Beautiful and Radiant elf this world has ever seen." 

With that, Lawrance shrugs, unconvinced, and gets back to inventory and identify of all the objects found, careful of traps or runes or anything cursed that may have been planted in the treasure of the mad scientist. 

Poljen scowls.  "Lia, please don't be offended.  We trust you.  Why else would you follow you as Velon's second?  But we don't trust the dragon.  That is no reflection on you or how we feel about you.  We will stand with you when it is time to meet."  He pauses, then grins.  "If this white dragon tries anything, then we will slay him and take all that is his, yes?  But most likely it will go as you hope.  But I refuse to count on that."

  " That is reasonable Poljen.  I can understand everyone's apprehension.  We will be cautious and plan for a betrayal.   It's best to be prepared just in case.  I could be wrong. That happens every once in a while.  " She winks at them . 

 She walks over and hugs Perry tightly.  " You are the best of friends Perry.   We would not have made it this far without you.   Thank you for joining our group and being so indispensable.  I look forward to you recounting our adventures in taverns all over the realms.   Just remember, dont leave out all that the finest swordsman in the realm has done.  " 

Once the scowling and winking has concluded, Perry goes to find Maccath hoping that she has had enough time to eat and rest up a bit. 

"Hello there," he says. "Maccath, if I may call you that, how are you feeling? Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Peregrine of house Pennington from Neverwinter, but please just call me Perry. Listen, I...I cannot even begin to imagine the horrors you've been subjected to in that...place for an entire year, but you're safe now. Well, relatively safe anyway. There's still an ancient white dragon flapping about somewhere, not to mention the cult of the dragon and whatnot, but *ehem* right. Anyway, the people I travel with are all powerful adventurers collectively known as the Silver Blaze and their overall goal is to stop this evil group known as the "Cult of the Dragon." We had learned in Candlekeep that you went on an expedition to study a magical horn about a year ago. Now, I have a great deal of experience with horns myself, being both a bard and a tiefling, but we learned that this specific horn was some sort of special, dragon-calling doomsday horn. We had hoped to find it and keep it out of the cult's nefarious hands, and rescue you while we were at it, but it seems as though we failed at the former. Before going into that place to rescue you, we had made a deal with the old white dragon, whom I believe you are familiar with, to basically return all of his marked items to him in exchange for the location of both yourself and the horn. However, now we are in the awkward position of explaining to him that the horn was taken by some other party."

"If you would, could you explain to me everything you know about this horn, the people who took it, and the deal you made with the white dragon? We're trying to come up with a plan for how to proceed, but it would be prudent to gather all the information we can get first."

When Lia refers to Perry as, 'the finest swordsman in all the land,' the Poljen snorts softly, but goes back to eating and drinking.

As the meeting in the hall was wrapping up, a young man comes running in. You recognize him as one of Callahan's men, a recent recruit often sent to carry messages. He's out of breath as he stammers out, "Dragon! Big one coming our way. Thought you ought to know." He then goes dashing out of the room once more.

  Lia is startled out of their conversation.  " Old White Death coming to claim his items i suppose. We need to stop them from firing on him.   We dont need this.  " She races after the messenger.   

 Mari goes racing swiftly after her friend to get a look at who is rapidly approaching.