Shadowthorn's Princes of the Apocalypse

(What is the lighting like? Is Rubin invisible or not? He would be staying to darker areas if possible, just not certain if those exist or not...)

(Unfortunately the lighting is too good for Rubin to be fully invisible.  However, you can roll a stealth check to try to be at least hidden.)

(Correct me if I'm wrong, but you didn't take any uniforms from any cultists, right?)

Quote from konpk >>

As soon as Kethra hears "human bones" from Tyde she takes off the white robe she was wearing, throws it to the ground, and gives it a few good stomps.

((At this point no one is wearing cult uniforms anymore >_< ))

Not seeing an immediate response from the mounted cultist, Kethra bows politely, but alsoooo subtly bends one knee inside her cloak to take the ready action to dash to forward diagonally and a little up the side IF the dragon takes flight or takes a hostile action against them.

"If this dragon breathes fire," Kethra says under her breath quiet enough so it won't be picked up by the cultist, "I'll try to draw the creature away...I hope this dwarven god is watching over us trying to take back his place here."

Rubin stealth: 25

The guard looks faintly confused, then shrugs.

"Oh well.  Guess I'll have to kill you."

(Roll initiative.)

Cultist: 15

Mount: 19

((How far away is the guard? And as soon as the guard declares "Guess I'll have to kill you," can Kethra use her reaction to immediately use the action that was readied in #2672?))

Kethra's initiative: 9

Rubin's initiative: 10

Marros initiative 14

Xanranzan initiative: 14.

(Yes you can use your reaction, the guard is about 60 feet away.)

(Everyone is up)

Rubin sends a trio of bolts at the guard...

Attack: 25 Damage: 6
Bonus action Attack: 22 Damage: 4
Dread Ambusher Attack: 23 Damage: 7 Dread Damage: 5

Con save: 5

Mount save: 20

The guard is knocked off his mount and falls prone on the ground.  He also looks quite badly hurt, like one solid attack would finish him.  The mount however looks quite a bit sturdier and quite a bit pissed off.

(Kethra, Xan and Marros are up)

Recognizing the boom as a call of danger, Xanranzan immediately snaps out of idle thoughts and dashes to the source, crossing the bridge and drawing his swords in anticipation of things having gone terribly wrong!

(Not entirely sure how far away Xan would necessarily be from everyone else before the fight, but going to assume he needs to dash to even get into position to see anything.)

Marros briefly considers finishing off the guard but decides that Kethra may well want to question him. He leaves the kneeling warrior's fate in the white-haired woman's hands. He focuses on the mount.

In one single motion he sheaths his scimitar and flings his hand to point at the creature, releasing a bolt of orange light. It crackles its way towards the mount.

Attack: 23 Damage: 14

Kethra takes off like a wild beast as soon as the mounted cultist declared his intent to kill, circling to try to initially draw off the enemy, but then circling back after seeing the knight thrown off his mount by the Wizard's Magic.

Then acknowledging the Warrior of Light with a nod, her eyes blink bloodshot red (bonus action rage), stomps on the ground to stop, cracking stone but taking care not to desecrate dwarven decorations on the ground, bringing down a massive maul decorated with shark teeth.

Maul to-hit, advantage because prone: 22 Damage: 12

The guard goes down surprisingly quickly, but his mount still remains.  Marros's bolt of magic only skitters off its skin, and it shrieks in anger and flies up in the air 5 feet.  It then lashes out at Kethra with its claws, and then its tail coils around and reveals a dripping stinger that attempts to bury itself in Kethra as well.

Claw: 25 Damage: 16 piercing

Stinger: 11 Damage: 10 piercing and DC 15 Con save to take half of 31 poison damage

(Everyone is up)

Atop the stone pyramid there were now 2 craters. One created by the quick and angry barbarian/monk to gain the momentum for her attack, and the other created by the very attack, a bowl of depressed stone where the rider once was. 

This action seemed to displease the dragon mount when it flew up and jumped on her. She screamed in pain from getting struck, her eyes briefly flashing a red light through the stone debris kicked up by the dragon’s flapping wings. And when the creature’s barbed tail came down for a follow up attack, Kethra responded with an angry shout and her maul came clattering down the pyramid’s steps.

The dust cleared up with another flap of the dragon’s wings, blowing away a torn cloak and leaving behind a girl with flowing white hair having caught the dragon’s stinger tail away with her own bare hands, but struggling to keep it away as it continued to grease with venom that could probably kill her not just with its potency but also its sheer quantity. 

Kethra’s red eyes pulsed in time with her breathing as she struggled to keep the stinger away. Although these eyes flashed with the energy of ki mixed with rage, they also had a pleading expression as she could barely scream: “Help!”

(Sorry if I'm being too dramatic, just reaaally wanted to play this part out with our first dragon encounter 😁  I’ll take my proper turn later since I’m actually pretty low on the initiative. DM, what size is the dragon creature, anyways?)

Huffing and puffing in spite of the ultimately short run, Xan eventually gets in sight of everyone, spurred on by the calls and second thunderous boom. "Almost... There... A-wha?!?" Xanranzan stumbled to a stop seeing the dragon, and was for a moment taken in by it presence. "That's... Wow... Now that's... a lot smaller than expected." He admitted and was just about ready to cross his arms to start pontificating again before letting out a curse seeing Kethra nearly burrowed under the thing!

"H-h-hang in there, Smith! You, uh.. got this! It ain't nuthin but a flesh wound!"  He called out with words, rather intented or not, laced with a bit of magic that would soothe at least some of Kethra's pain. "And as for you, ya oversized chicken! That's right! I called ya a chicken, cause ya sure ain't no real dragon I bet!" He mocked it with the hope of at least distracting it a tidbit.

Bonus Action: Cast Healing Word at 2nd level on Kethra for 8.

Action: Cast Vicious Mockery at Cantrip level on Dragon. 4 Psychic Damage or none on a successful Wis Save[13]. 

The swift strike from the creatures tail shocks Marros into an offensive onslaught. He raises his hand to the sky and calls out incomprehensible words then points at the beast. A shimmering orb envelopes the beast and then seems to be absorbed into its skin. "Hurt one, you hurt us all. Prepare to feel the wrath of the Light foul creature!" At the utterance of the last word he unleashes a crackling orange bolt that streaks towards its bulking form.

BA - Cast Hex Targetting Str checks.

A - Cast Eldritch Blast Attack: 9 Damage: 14 plus 6 Hex

(The dragon thing is Large, so maybe a bit larger than a large horse.)

Con save: 14

Wis save: 10

It shrieks as it's buffeted around by the spells, but seems still remarkably healthy and remarkably pissed off.  Marros leeches its strength, but his bolt once more skitters off its chest.

(Kethra is up)