The damsels have found themselves inside a cave system occupied by the Cult of the Dragon. They are currently exploring a bedchamber they discovered at the end of a hallway. The group drags a trunk out from under the queen bed. Nymby (gnome ranger) tries to open it, but it is locked. Looking for keys, Vola (half-orc wizard) rifles through the drawers on the desk, and then through the sheets on the bed. Unfortunately for her, she only finds dust mites. Issa (tiefling druid), tired of waiting, takes a hammer and smashes the trunk’s lid. Inside is a fancy purple dress and purple cloak that would fit a medium-sized humanoid. 

Meanwhile, Phoebe (human paladin) has a map in her hand of the cave system. On the map she sees this bedroom is connected by a small passage to another room. Glancing around the room, however, there are no other visible doors. She feels along the walls for any triggers, but the walls are smooth. She shows the map to Zelena (elf wizard), who is currently reading a textbook on dragon lore that she found on the desk in this room. Zelena agrees the map clearly shows a passage out of this room separate from the hallway they used to enter. She looks down on the floor at the rugs. In one section of the room she notices the corner of a rug is flipped up. “Aha!” she exclaims with glee. With one hand she swiftly yanks the rug up from the ground, revealing a small three-foot hole in the floor leading downward. She can’t see the end of it but can faintly hear echoing footsteps. “This explains where the guards went that ran off from the bunks.” No sooner does she say this than her foot slips and she actually falls straight into the hole. Phoebe immediately jumps into the hole after her. 

The two slide down this hole about forty feet before dropping into a new room. This room has been carved out to create a space much larger than the original cave. The floor and the walls are smooth, and all the stalagmites and stalactites have been polished and bedazzled with jewels. The smooth walls are covered in beautifully artistic carvings of dragons whose tails spiral and twist in symmetric patterns. The hundreds of small dragons carved into the walls pale in comparison to the one in the center of the room, depicted as a monstrous beast with five heads crawling out of a volcano. In front of this five-headed carving, a real-life, blue half-dragon (more dragon than humanoid) is kneeling next to a golden chest. She has one long horn protruding from her forehead and wears studded purple armor. Standing at the ready behind her in the chamber are five armored guards and four drakes, all now looking with malice at Zelena and Phoebe.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group is still in the bedroom above. After stuffing the purple clothes into a backpack, they suddenly realize Zelena and Phoebe are gone. A quick scan of the room reveals the hole under the overturned rug. Issa curses in infernal and jumps after them into the hole, followed closely by Vola and Nymby. 

The blue half-dragon at the shrine reaches for a greatsword on her hip and stands to face the two intruders as the rest of the party falls from the hole in the ceiling with a loud crash. She snorts, “My name is Rosa Cyanwrath, and you all are trespassing in my cave.” Then she growls and opens her mouth to breathe a bolt of lightning at the party. Zelena and Phoebe leap out of the way, but the lightning strikes Vola, Issa, and Nymby before they can even stand up. Zelena reacts, shooting her own lightning bolt back at Cyanwrath, but the lightning doesn’t phase her. However, the guards on either side of her yelp in pain, drop their daggers, and their hair stands up on end. Phoebe reacts next, drawing her broadsword and rushing toward Cyanwrath, but she is quickly blocked by a guard. They spar a few blows before the guard is felled. The two guards with static hair then strike Phoebe with their shortswords, but she parries every blow. Then another guard whistles and points towards Zelena. The four drakes flank her and take turns lunging toward her legs. Issa wild shapes into a tiger and jumps into the drake circle to defend her wizard friend. Nymby sits up and shoots a few arrows toward Cyanwrath, striking her shoulder. Vola reaches for the closest drake and burns its back with her white-hot burning hands. The fifth guard in the room holds his necklace and murmurs a short prayer with his eyes closed, and as he does the wounds of the static guards, drake’s back, and Cyanwrath’s shoulder all heal immediately. He smiles and then darts away from the fight to the opposite corner of the room behind a glittering stalagmite. 

Cyanwrath pulls the arrows out of her healed shoulder and lunges at Phoebe, striking her ribs twice. Zelena puts two hands on her staff and bangs it on the ground. A thunderwave booms out from her staff forcing Issa and the drakes ten feet away from her. Phoebe says a small prayer to her own god, and the next blow she hits on Cyanwrath also echoes out with thunder and pushes her down onto her back. The guards still flank Phoebe and spar with her a few rounds, cutting her arms open. The drakes stand up, a little dazed, and bite anyone close to them including Nymby and the guard that whistled commands to them. Issa as a tiger lunges at the closest drake that is currently gnawing on Nymby’s foot. Her claws sink into its head and her powerful muscles tear it in half. Vola navigates through the room, putting herself within the line of sight of the healer-guard. Finding him in the corner, she sends out a scorching ray of fire toward him, burning his hair and part of the wall behind him. He jumps up towards Vola with his halberd, but he hits a magical shield of force around her instead. 

Cyanwrath, seeing an opportunity, jumps up from the ground and uses her momentum to push herself toward Phoebe, cutting through her armor. The sword slices all the way through to her back and Phoebe falls unconscious. Cyanwrath speaks, “See you are overpowered here. Surrender now and I’ll let the rest of you live.” Zelena yells in frustration and also shoots out a scorching ray of fire, hitting Cyanwrath right in the face. Phoebe groans on the ground, still clinging to life. The two guards flanking Phoebe leave her and flank Vola next, but their shortswords only hit the magical shield around her. The other guard whistles again at the drakes to get them to refocus, this time pointing towards Issa the tiger. There are three drakes left, and they all pounce onto the tiger’s back, causing enough damage for her to drop her tiger form and reappear as a tiefling. Nymby, now covered in blood (both her own and that of the drakes), shoots a couple of arrows at the drakes on top of Issa. One arrow shoots straight through the drake and pins its heart to the wall behind it. Vola uses Zelena’s trick of using thunderwave to push the two guards flanking her out of the way. One of them slams against the cavern wall and his spine snaps. The healer guard grabs his necklace again and whispers a prayer. Cyanwrath, the guards, the drakes, and himself all heal from their wounds again. 

Cyanwrath walks over to Vola and raises her sword, “You look familiar.” She slashes down, but Vola dodges out of the way. “Seriously, where have I seen you before?” She slashes again, this time cutting her left arm. “Oh, now I remember. Did Nerovain send you here on this suicide mission?” With that last comment, Cyanwrath plunges her greatsword into Vola’s stomach. Vola falls unconscious on the ground next to Phoebe.

Zelena, furious that her friends are dying, sends another scorching ray toward Cyanwrath, burning her eyebrows off. The guards walk over to Nymby and Issa, whistling at the remaining two drakes to continue their assault on Issa. Issa, instead of defending herself, yells over to her friends on the ground, “Phoebe, get your ass back up there. This fight isn’t finished.” At the sounds of her voice, Phoebe suddenly sits up blinking. Nymby shoots a couple arrows through the guard that had been whistling to the drakes, also pinning his heart to the wall. The healer guard with the halberd runs to strike Zelena, but a magical shield protects her from his blows. Cyanwrath goes to strike Zelena as well, but her greatsword only lands blows on the magical shield. 

Zelena raises up her hands. As they begin to glow red, she lays them on Cyanwrath’s arms, burning the scaly skin and causing her to yell and drop her greatsword. Phoebe, conscious once again but bleeding severely, thrusts her broadsword through Cyanwrath’s back. She pulls back and stabs her again, twisting the blade to cause more damage. Cyanwrath inhales sharply, topples over, and lies still on the ground, dead. The second-to-last remaining guard stares at the dead body of Cyanwrath in shock before crying out and making a half-hearted attack on Issa and Nymby. All his attacks miss their mark. The two remaining drakes, without direction, attack this guard and maul him until he dies. Issa points at the ceiling above the healer-guard, and a beam of moonlight drops down, enveloping the man. He screams and jumps out of the light. Nymby then shoots him with her arrows; one goes straight through his forehead, affixing his head to the wall. 

Zelena tries to calm the drakes who just killed the last guard by offering fresh venison, but to no avail. They are mad with bloodlust and jump onto Issa. Phoebe slices one open, its guts slipping onto the floor. Issa shoves the last drake off of her and moves the moonbeam over to consume it. At last, all enemies have been slain, but Vola is still unconscious, and she is struggling to breathe. Issa places a hand on her head, and as it glows a soft orange Vola’s wounds stop bleeding. She opens her eyes and sits up, fists ready to fight. Looking around at the carnage, the women feel lucky to be alive. 

“Oh my gosh, is everyone okay?!” Zelena trembles. “That was crazy! You guys almost died!”

“No, we are not all okay,.” Issa huffs. “What are you doing jumping into holes by yourself?”

“I wasn’t by myself, Phoebe was with me. Plus, it was an accident. I fell into the hole,” Zelena puffs back. 

“A whole lot of good Phoebe was, you both could have died! Be more careful next time.”

“Hey, I resent that,” Phoebe chimes in. “I delivered the killing blow. And we are all alive, thanks to you. Thanks for coming after us.”

Issa shakes her head and casts a few more healing spells on everyone. Meanwhile, Vola finds a quieter corner of the room and lies down. Nymby asks her who Nerovain is, but she says she doesn’t want to talk about it. So instead, Nymby explores what is left of the shrine. Much of the wall carvings have burn markings now, but she spots the golden chest that Cyanwrath had been kneeling beside when they entered the room just minutes ago. It appears unharmed and it opens without resistance. Inside are six potions in glass bottles and a note written in Elvish. She hands it to Zelena, who reads it out loud, 

“Wine is just wine. 

Honey Jack will transport you back. 

When you wish to be small, 

reach for the fireball. 

If the answer seems clear, 

one will harm and one will heal.” 

Nymby immediately reaches for a bottle that appears to contain red wine and gets drunk after just a couple sips. Zelena snaps it back from her hands, “Wait! We have to be more careful and think about this!” 

“Wine is wine it said, and it’s really strong too,” Nymby retorts and grabs it back from Zelena. 

“I suppose you’re right about that one. I wonder what it means about transporting.” Zelena says and pops open the Honey Jack bottle. When no one moves to stop her and Issa just rolls her eyes, Zelena takes a sip. Her body phases out like a cloud dissipating, and she reassembles in a tiny room alone surrounded by stone. There are only a couple of shelves carved into the cave wall and a chair. Rummaging around the shelves she finds a healing spell scroll, several letters between Rezmir and Cyanwrath plotting an assassination, a string of pearls, and a handheld dragon figurine carved out of crystal. Not seeing another exit, Zelena sips the Honey Jack again. Once more she dissipates like a cloud and reappears in the previous cavern with the rest of the group.

Meanwhile, Phoebe gets curious about wishing to be small with fireball. She shoots the fireball whiskey back, and her body rapidly shrinks. Her armor and sword clatter to the ground, and emerging from underneath wriggles a baby rabbit. As Zelena reappears, she hiccups and feels lightheaded from the Honey Jack whiskey. She points at the rabbit on the floor, “The rabbit ate Phoebe! Why are you all just standing around?” She takes her staff in both hands and tries to smack the rabbit. Pheobe hops away behind Issa. 

Nymby grabs the staff away from her, “Stop! Calm down, she IS the rabbit.” Issa picks up the rabbit and calmly pets it, shielding it from Zelena. 

Zelena just points at it, “But, people are not rabbits. I don’t understand.” She sits down on the ground with her head in her hands. 

Nymby pats her shoulder, hiccups, and offers her staff back to her, “That’s okay dear. It’s been a long day.” The rabbit hops around the room happily for an hour as the rest of the party takes a short rest and sobers up.

-Cyanwrath was written in the book as a male NPC, but I rewrote the character as a woman because I am the DM and I can do that. Also Frulam Mondath the healer guard was written as a woman, but I changed it to be a man because I can also do that.

-Recreating a fight from 3+ years ago with no notes on how it went is difficult. The only thing I knew was all enemies died and all adventurers survived.

-Zelena assisted in the editing of this episode.