Sile rested while I patched everyone's wounds, then created a portal to get us to the Jarls fortress in the Skellige isles. We were greeted by the Jarl and he held a banquet that evening where there was a lot of drinking and singing. The Jarl was quite the chauvinist pig and seemed to think women existed only to do housework and be bedded.
The Jarl offered an opportunity for us to earn 9000 duckets. Recently pirates with the help of a dragon from the island of Ingdalen had been attacking shipping around the Skellige islands. The job was to find the dragons lair and slay the beast. We were given 3000 up front but most of that was spent buying Letho new armour.
We rested until Scathes wounds had healed and were then provided with a drakar ship to take us to Ingdalen. The weather was bad and the crossing was slow. About a third of the way there we saw a ship in the distance with what could have been a dragon flying above.
I fired on the dragon as it attacked, hitting it several times before the dragon, which was a green specimen, breathed super heated steam across our ship. Bulgar manoeuvred our ship into ramming the other ship as it approached then Scathe created a vortex of fire on their ship, burning some of the oarsmen. The pirates started boarding our ship so I started firing on them, killing two as the dragon made a second attack.
The vortex started setting fire to their ship as our ship reversed oars and backed away. Their ship was now on fire and eventually sank. Meanwhile I killed another two pirates who had boarded our ship as our crew also attacked the pirates, killing many of them. The pirates who boarded our ship were quickly overwhelmed and captured then put to work rowing.
They were interrogated and told us the dragon priest Sost can talk to the dragon which was called Vsicant. He was normally found in the dragon temple which is in their capital city Scrape, in the leaders quarters. The city was ruled by an ogre called Yoren. The four quarters of the city were the ogres quarter in the North East, The commoners quarter in the South East, The leaders quarter in the North West and the promenade in the South West.
We sailed on to Ingdalen and there and looked for a fishing boat we could board and sail into the harbour. Bulgar managed to hit and sink the first one we found. The three slaves we rescued were missing their tongues and had been manacled. We found a second fishing boat and Bulgar was more careful with his approach, pulling along side it. There were two pirates and eight slaves on board, so Bulgar jumped on their ship then threw the pirates into the sea. The slaves were in as bad a shape as on the first fishing boat.
We took the fishing boat to Scrape and docked at one of the piers. We kept the slaves on our ship and several of the sailors sailed the fishing boat. The pirates on the dock were a human and an ogre, and were quite stupid and easy to intimidate as they seemed to be expecting to have to unload fishing boats. Once the boat was unloaded the sailors left with in in the presence of going to get more fish. The pirates said don't be late to the service tonight.
As we walked round the streets we saw a pack of dire wolves sniffing about. No one seemed bothered by them. We headed towards the leaders quarters and were approached by a pudgy middle aged woman. She greeted Scathe and said she had not seen us before. Bulgars medallion was vibrating. She had recognised the witchers and invited us back to her shop where she sold weapons.
She said she was a Jan, a sub form of Jinn. The gods believed Scrape was a festering boil which needed to be eradicated, and she had been sent to ensure that happened. She seemed to think we would help her. We waited until the evening then went to the dragon temple to watch the service. Sost was dressed in brightly coloured robes and performed a ceremony which dragged on for an hour. It ended with him saying Vsicant had accepted our offering and she would protect us in the next raid. During the collection after the service Letho refused to give a donation to 'the pirate scum'. Sost came to see what the commotion was about, recognised Bulgar and called for guards.
Letho charged Sost, hitting him several times. Scathe created a portal and shouted to get Sost through. One of the ogre guards dragged him through the portal and Scathe followed them. Bulgar forced his way through the portal and I followed. Letho followed me and Scathe then closed the portal.
Having got Sost isolated from the crowd Bulgar tried to trick him and the ogre that we were aiding them, but Letho was too thick to understand what was happening and a fight ensued. Sost quickly teleported himself away leaving us with the ogre so I quickly put an arrow through its forehead. Scathe was not happy with what had happened and told Letho he would need to wait here until we needed him to fight the dragon. I am not sure where 'here' was. Scathe had created the portal us to the top of a mountain somewhere.
We waited a few hours then Scathe created a portal back to the temple behind the statue at the front. There were three ogres inside the temple on guard, one guarding a door behind the statue and right next to the portal. Bulgar stepped through the portal and attacked the nearest oge, killing it as the other two threw javelins. I fired at another ogre, seriously wounding it, while Scathe dispelled a glyph that had been cast on the door, then opened it and went through.
In the room beyond Scathe found a cage with 4 malnourished humans inside, a closed closet, and a small bathing pool. There was a trap door in the floor and a set of stairs leading upwards. Inside the closet was Vestments, sacrificial silver knives, and a jar with unguent.
Bulgar killed the ogre I had wounded as the third ogre attacked him. After a short exchange of blows, Bulger killed the 3rd ogre as well. We set the prisoners in the cage free then went up the stairs to a training room where we heard the sound of rocks being moved in an adjacent room. Bulgar burst in and found an animated idol of Tiamat standing over a chalice. Sost and two ogres were also there, and Sost immediately ordered the idol to attack.
Bulgar killed one of the ogres but was hit by the second. I hit Sost with an arrow before Sost cast a spell at Bulgar, summoning fire snakes which he barely avoided. The idol was breathing various dragon affects at us but froze when I hit Sost in the chest with another arrow and killed him. Bulgar then killed the last ogre with a blow to its head.
We found Sost's chamber and searched round. There was a tiny brazier with red cones on incense hidden behind a book which Bulgars amulet vibrated when it was near indicating the brazier was magical. There was also some other items of value which we liberated. Scathe created a portal back to the Jarls palace and sent the prisoners we had rescued through, then we went back downstairs to explore through the trap door. We paused at the bottom of the stairs below the trapdoor but two creatures Bulgar identified as slyzards appeared down the corridor almost immediately.
Bulgar attacked them but they were very tough. Scathe cast a spell at them which malfunctioned badly and he was hit by the magical backlash. My arrows seemed to have little effect. Bulgar pressed his attack, stunning one of the slyzards then hitting in in the face, but the other hit him a vicious blow, shattering Bulgars right arm. Finally Bulgar killed one of them in another flurry of blows but the other kept up its attacks. Scathe summoned a bolt of lightning which it dodged, then fled back up the stairs. I fired a last salvo of arrows at it then quickly followed Scathe. Bulgar followed and we shut the trap door, but it just smashed through.
I was hit and knocked unconscious. When I recovered I found Bulgar had slain the creature and Scathe had cast a healing spell on me. I patched up Bulgars arm and put it in a splint then we went back through the trapdoor to see what the slyzards had been guarding. We found a very long tunnel with a speck of light at the end. We explored and found some excrement at intervals down the tunnel. As we approached the end we heard sounds of bird song. The tunnel ended in a wooded countryside. In the distance was a mountain range with a flat topped mountain in the centre and there appeared to be several creatures flying over the top. Possibly they were harpies which would point to the dragons lair as harpies were collecting the offerings for the dragon from the pirates according to the service Sost had given earlier.
We found a small cave which gave us a safe location then Scathe created a portal back to the Jarls palace so Bulgars arm could heal before we began the assault on the dragon.
When we were prepared we collected Letho, then returned to the cave and began the trek to the mountain. The flat topped mountain, a mesa, was about 300ft high and 1000ft in diameter. We saw more harpies which seemed to disappear into a sink hole on the top of the mesa when they landed. It took two days to walk there. There was no obvious way up or into the mountain, but after some investigating we found a large set of wooden double doors on the western face.
The doors were closed, and we found them to be locked when we tried to open them but there was a tiny gap at the bottom and we could see light beyond. I drilled a peep hole through the door and beyond I could see two harpies guarding the door. The door was barred from the inside so Scathe looked through the peep hole then created a portal to the corridor beyond. Bulgar and Letho ran through to engage the harpies, then Scathe and myself followed.
The corridor beyond the door opened out into a huge cavern which was full of harpies. The way forward was blocked by an 8ft wide chasm with a barricade on the far side. Letho quickly killed the two harpies by the door as Bulgar leapt the chasm and clambered over the barricade towards the rest of the harpies. I killed two of the harpies with some good shots from my bow as Scathe hit another with a spell. Most of the harpies took flight and started firing back with bows from high up in the cavern, one hitting Scathe in the arm.
Letho charged into the chasm and killed another of the harpies. Bulgar pressed his attack, killing another two, and I killed another before Scathe teleported us both beyond the barricade to catch up with the witchers. The harpies continued firing at us but we avoided the shots. Letho and Bulgar had no effective ranged abilities so they continued through the cavern towards two other tunnels while I continued to thin out the harpies.
Letho found more harpies in the tunnel and proceeded to attack then while Bulgar pulled out a bow and started to fire on the harpies as I killed another two. The last three harpies then flew at Bulgar, one of which got past after knocking him prone. Letho took a nasty blow to the chest from the harpies he was fighting as I killed the fleeing harpy which had got past Bulgar. It had flown through the tunnel into another huge cavern full of water. When it fell, some huge creature surfaced and took the body. The final harpies were killed, then I patched up Letho and Scathe.
The tunnel Letho had entered ended in a dead end. The one Bulgar had entered lead to the bottom of a sink hole, the bottom of which was full of water to the level of the tunnel, and there was a raft moored at the edge. In the north side of the sinkhole was a ledge with a tunnel behind, about 50 metres above the water. Scathe created a portal up to the ledge and we stepped through.
The witchers medallions started vibrating and Scathe spotted two glyphs, one each side of the tunnel creating some form of magical barrier. As he examined it a dragon appeared down the corridor and breathed steam at us before retreating back into the darkness. Scathe said the dragon had talked to him, then walked past the glyphs. As he did so he disappeared, then we heard him falling towards the lake behind us before he teleported back to the ledge.
Bulgar smashed at the wall, destroying one of the glyphs, but the dragon reappeared and breathed steam again before disappearing back into the darkness. Letho charged after it and the rest of us followed more cautiously. I saw the dragon round a corner standing before a pile of treasure and fired my bow at it, inflicting a minor wound.
Bulgar and Letho both attacked it but it was extremely well armoured and their blows did not bite deeply. More harpies arrived and I had to start focusing on them. Scathe held back, recovering from all the spell casting he had been doing but he did release his elementals to help with the fight. The fire elemental went to guard the entrance as the air elemental attacked the dragon. The dragon turned on it and it was quickly destroyed, though the fire elemental started dealing with the harpies allowing me to focus on the dragon again.
Scathe cast a bolt of lightning at the dragon, hitting it in the chest, but then collapsed under the strain of all the spellcasting. Bulgar and Letho continued their attacks on the dragon, as did I. Bulgar and Letho both took multiple serious injuries in the fight, but finally we were victorious. Amongst the pile of treasure we found a tome which described how to repair relic items, which pleased Bulgar as his armour was beginning to look quite tatty.