Velon grabs Poljen from Elia and gets ready to try to heal him when the mighty barbarian is already coming back to them thanks to healing magic from the wizard (and possibly Lia).

Meanwhile, Perry and Shadowsnacks watch the recent developments from above in horror.  "Oh no Perry, the big dumb one is down!"  "Velon looks fine to me Shadow, a bit wet maybe, and be nice, he treats us pretty well at least."  "Not the one who thinks he's a dragon, Perry, I meant the other one."  "Oh, you have to be more specific Shadow."

Perry and Shadow swoop down and offer either a ride back to the beach.  As Poljen wakes Perry yells to him "I have an idea to get you back into the fight!"  "This might feel weird.  You can ask Mari for tips!  She's a pro at this now.  Actually, we'd better hurry, hold your bre...well, never mind."  At that Perry casts Polymorph on Poljen, turning him into a Giant Shark.  

Poljen let's go of Poljen as he turns into the dangerous beast and, despite his surprise, loves Perry's idea.  "Here, this will help too.  Go get em!"  The Paladin climbs aboard Shadowsnacks and casts haste on Poljen the shark, stunning himself in the process as his own haste spell fades.  He counts on Shadowsnacks to carry him back to the beach to recover.

  Lia cries out in horror as the scene unfolds in front of her.  " Velon, Polhen....No!" She jumps astride her broom racing towards her friends.  As she gets within range she holds her amulet aloft and a bright white light envelopes Velon and Poljen.. She then gestures rapidly towards her friends and more bolts of light surge towards her friends. 

  Mari grits her teeth in anger as she sees Poljen fall.  " It's time to end this damn game.  '" She soars towards Hoondarrh with bared steel in each hand.  Approaching cautiously she will attempt to flank the drake with Cratol.  Not seeing Hoondarrh she studies the water below carefully.  Seeing a pattern she grins.  " I can see which way Hoondarrh went.  He is heading towards deeper water.  Shall we pursue or fall back to watch the mask exchange?" 

 Poljen regains consciousness.  As his vision clears he sees the other members of the Blaze and grins.  At the offer of returning to the fray, and possibly finding his axe, he nods and feels his body change, and finds himself with gills, fins...he thrashes his enormous tail and bares the hand-sized teeth and dives back down, seeking his opponent. 

 Poljen growls and replies, "I'm going after him!"  He darts off in the direction Mari indicates, glad for the extra speed Velon's magic has imparted.

OOC:  Still holding off on raging for now.  Wait until Red is spotted.

Shadow carries Velon and they and Perry return to the meeting site to ensure all is going well there.  Velon dismounts and drinks a healing potion in anticipation of more trouble.

12

Lawrance 'wings' over to the rest of the group at the meeting place, ready to make more magic as needed. 

Poljen swims in the direction Mari indicated. Unfortunately the trail of disturbed silt fades pretty quickly. His newfound senses can detect traces of blood in the water, but the strongest traces seem to be coming from two different directions.

---

On the beach, Dessarra is looking rather smug at having successfully tricked Hoondarrh into attacking the wrong target. "Lets get that chest open shall we?" Two of her men lug the heavy thing over to the table. Meanwhile, the phistophilus appears to be almost giddy with anticipation.

  Lia flies back to the meeting place with the others.  " I don't like this.  Poljen going off by himself like this.. There is no way that any of us can help him or even know if he needs help.  " She checks her companions to see if they need any more healing.  

  Mari looks down as Poljen swims deeper in pursuit of Hoondarrh.  Torn with indecision, she rejoins her companions at the meeting place. She watches over the exchange consumed by worry. 

Poljen growls underwater.  He pauses as he detects two different trails of blood, unsure what to do.  He finally opts for the one that is heading slightly more in the direction of the beach meeting, swimming with all the speed his form and Velon's spell can offer.

Poljen swims on, following the taste of blood growing stronger and sweeter in the water. Soon enough he spots a form resting on the bottom in the Gloom. A huge body with golden scales.

Protanther is missing a forelimb, and his throat appears to have been ripped open. Fish and other sea life have gathered around the corpse, nibbling at the exposed viscera.

The giant shark turns and immediately heads in the other direction he had detected earlier.  The others hear his voice in their heads.  "Protanther is dead.  I'm still hunting."

Lawrance hears Pol's report and says through the link. "Where'd did you find him? They will want to retrieve the body and possibly bring him back. Keep us informed on your hunt!"

Poljen doubles back and searches in the other direction. Unfortunately the scent of blood begins to fade away. Soon enough no trace remains.

As he hunts around for something to follow, he stumbles on Elia. The Silver Dragon is searching the ocean floor, clearly looking for any kind of traces left by Hoondarrh.

Poljen will assist in the search, but also keep an eye out for his lost axe.

Poljen and Elia continue to search the sea floor without success. However on a pass nearer to shore, Poljen does spot his dropped axe.

---

On Shore, Darressa moves to open the iron bound chest with a flourish, and presents a white dragon mask for all to see. Ziervess, the wounded copper dragon, steps up to take possession of it.

Darressa declares, "You have your prize, and now I await mine."

The harpers move to open the chests with them, but Ziervess holds up a single claw, stating bluntly, "This mask is fake." "Impossible! I triple checked it myself, I..." Darressa trails off as Ziervess easily crushes the mask in his paw, pieces of fine, but otherwise quite ordinary, pottery crumbling as they fall away.

When he is done, a small crystal remains behind, amongst the broken shards. A few moments later, it begins to project an image, A human man, finely dressed, with a sneer on his lips, "Hello Darressa, you always were too quick to seize a bargain. I told you once that one day that was going to be your end. Well, guess what day it is!"

"I assume some Harpers are listening to this as well, don't worry, the mask is safe, and we haven't given it to the cult. At least not yet. But if you want it, we're going to have a proper bidding war. Be ready to pay dearly, we want more than the pittance already offered. Oh, and you might be wondering about the contract? Well, dear Darressa has been fired! formally booted out of our organization for her incompetence in negotiating this deal. She certainly isn't capable of signing anything on our behalf any more. Only, we erased her memory of that event, so she didn't have a clue that only she and the men she brought with her would be liable."

"Darressa, I do hope you enjoy being a lapdog of the harpers, and always remember," The man's sneer falls into a look of utter hatred, "This is for Sarah you vile *****." The illusion fades away.

The harper agent in charge looks on coldly as events unfold. When the illusion is done, he states, "So, they have made their choice. I think it is safe to say that I can at this time invoke the default clause, for failure to produce the mask as required." The phistophilus nods, and makes a notation on the contract, signing it with his own flourish. Immediately, Darressa falls to the ground, crying out in pain, as do her men on the shore, and all of those you can see on the ship. In each case, a tiny bright blue flame appears to be quite literally burning an arcane sigil into their foreheads.

Intrigued by the effect of the magical contract on the failed transaction, Lawrance observes the runic branding, wanting to read the details of a default. Once the effect has ceased, he turns to the Harper representative and hands them the false mask he created and enchanted "Here. Maybe you can find a use for this, perhaps as a decoy for Hoondarrh. I'm going to ask for volunteers to retrieve Protanther's body. I can provide the ability to breathe water for as long as needed, and we can bring the corpse back up for possible recovery. We'll need some way of getting him up here - does anyone have the Robillard's Reduction in mind?" (Reduce spell)

Morgaine seeing Poljen extremely hurt, her heart breaks and cries out, "NOOOO.."  it is short lived when she sees members of the Blaze come to his aid. Seeing Perry turn him into a shark is a bit overwhelming, but she knows he will be able to get back  after the great Red that way. Morgaine wishes him speed in his pursuit of the Red, but as she starts to head back to the meeting place; worry hits her and she stays to make sure Poljen and the silver one make it back alive.   

Poljen growls in frustration at losing the tack of the red dragon, but is slightly mollified upon finding his axe.  He tries to grab it in his teeth and head for the surface to find his companions.

OOC:  If he can't grab it in his teeth, he will point it out to Elia.

Seeing that things seem to be at a impasse Cratol will nod to the others around and say,  "We need to see about getting our castle back airborne before the red dragon returns.  I would rather be away from here than work at facing him again."  He will begin heading towards where the skycastle came aground at.

  Mari growls as the trickery is revealed. " A waste of our time. Very foolish of the Zhents.  One day..." She sheathes her blades and glares at the Zhents as she leaves.  Mari heads over to the skycastle to check up on things there.  

 Lia's jaw drops as the fake mask is revealed.  " What a shame... we held up our end of the deal.  " She looks at the harpers.  " I wouldn't be too hard on the zhents here. They had no idea about this.  I almost feel sorry for them. I would be infuriated to be put in a situation like they are by my own people.  " She walks out to see how Poljen is doing. 

Perry drops the polymorph when Poljen reaches the beach.  Regarding the Zhent's betrayal, he looks worried and simply remarks "oh dear...".  Shadow looks at him, rolls his eyes and says "told you so."

Velon grits his teeth in frustration at the betrayal but says little.  He looks to the dragons and asks in draconic "what now?"