[Abe Sargent]

Alzar talks to one of the barbarians who returned, and gets more details on the dragon, it’s location, and more, and then heads out to do some scrying. He teleports out and grabs some of his information gathering stuff like a crystal ball, finger nail, and so forth. He scans the area, uses the Flying Carpet, and nears the place of the dragon.

As he does, he spies the large crevice that supposedly opens to a cave halfway down. It’s has a gentle slope down, and Alzar spies it from a distant. Alzar’s scrying shows a small cave, and then an extremely old and powerful looking black dragon is moving about, and sorting its treasure. It’s probably a venerable wyrm, and that’s a lot more powerful than Alzar has normally faced. He teleports back and spends some time learning a few different spells and reading some anti-acid tactics as well as some quick research on dragons that old.

He doesn’t have a lot. Acid is harder to protect against. But he does have a scroll of protection against acid. It’s not going to be easy to win this battle with melee weapons it’ll have a hard-to-hit AC and lots of hp. But, if Alzar shuts off its breath attack, and forces it to use magic and melee only, the dragon could just leave. Alzar wants to maximize his scroll, and he’ll use some magic to collapse the crevice. He didn’t spy another way out.

The morning arrives, Alzar learns some different spells in places, and then heads out.

A quick check shows that the venerable dragon is still there, but not asleep, just counting its treasure. Alzar moves closer, then uses his Scroll of Protection Against Acid, and flies in, casting Dig and after two rounds of digging has dropped the crevice enough to block a dragon and flies in

The Venerable Black Dragon – AC-5, Breath Weapon – 20d4+10, 18 HD, 103 hp, THAC0 – 1, 35% magic resistance, knows spells.

Alzar flies in, preparing to cast his next spell – Strip Resistance. When he casts it, and abjurative force flies from him, and tries to knock out the MR of his foe. It will reduce the MR if it breaks through by _24% (Alzars spell level – no save) and if it can’t crack the resistance, each round it will attack the resistance again until it gets through. Alzar rolls 54, and it racks, and drops the dragon to 11% MR. The acid breath from the dragon rolls over Alzar but nothing happens, it fades against Alzar’s defense.


Let’s roll init. 1 vs 7. Alzar casts Time Stop. It works, and he flies to the dragon to close the gap and casts his Faithful Shield Maidens, activate the Zoster of Zeal , and he’s wearing the +4 ring of protection rather than the Ring of Quick Action, which drops his AC to -11. Then the dragon unfreezes.

Game on!

3 vs 5. To hit, Alzar needs: THAC013, so an 18, -3 for skill, 15, -4 for axe, 11, -3 for Zoster, 8. He needs a 14 with the Bright Barrier. Here he goes – 7, 3, and 7. He misses with everything. The dragon attacks. To hit Alzar’s -11 he needs a 12, and he gets 3 attacks for 1d6, 1d6 and 3d6. None hit (Cloak).

Next round. 4 vs 3. The dragon Hits twice with claws for 7 damage. Alzar rolls a 13, 14, and 4. That’s a hit for 4 and 2 so 32 damage.

4 vs 3 again. Seeing how strong Alzar is, the black dragon flies up near the ceiling and out of melee range and tries another acid breath, but it doesn’t work. Alzar casts Ray of Ondovir at it. He rolls a 51, and cracks the MR. Will the dragon fail its save, even with the penalty to it? The dragon rolls a 17. Nope.

3 vs 7. Alzar casts Major Globe of Invulnerability, and the dragon, which was going to start using magic, sees the spell for what is is, and then decides to plummet to the ground and pin Alzar. He rolls a 2 and Alzar scrambles away easily enough.

6 vs 7. While beside him, Alzar takes advantage and tries to carve the dragon again. 10, 8, and 9 were rolled. 2 axe hits – 3 and 2, so 31 damage this time. The dragon tries to snatch Alzar, this is a bite, but if it hits, he’ll be able to carry and lift Alzar up. It rolls a 9. Nope.

8 vs 2. Once again, the dragon tries to snatch and…it rolls an 8. Alzar carves it with a 6, 10 and 16 for 6 and 3 for 30 damage.

1 vs 9. Alzar’s axe stabs and kills the dragon in one hit and it dies. Dead dragon. 18k XP for him.