Episode 46: The Ashes of Goblin Town Report

General Summary

The crew of the Blackjack gets word of a disaster in Goblintown. They rush back, leaving Coyote Rose to help the kobolds and some troupers build the volcano base. They find a decimated Goblintown. They find a rescue crew, of the Revenge, the Rebellion with In the Gully, the Moss, and the remaining carnie-riders digging through the debris looking for survivors. They are spotted across a demolished bridge over some raw sewage and begin shouting updates. Goblin Town is pretty much ravaged. Rebellion is mad that goblins had a little bit of hope and the magisters let the dragons just crush it. Spark apologizes and blames himself. Elenwe reassures him that it is the fault of the attackers.

Speaking of which, two Alhoons and a Death Dragon rise out of the sewage, surprise attack. They were left to ambush the Blackjack crew upon return. Only Nia noticed them, but the Alhoon's mind blast prevented her from initiating countermeasures. The second Alhoon surrounded El in a Wall of Force to keep her out of the fight. The death dragon unleashed its dark flame of death breath and everyone hated it except for the now protected El.

Spark, in a fit of rage, pulled out the Xenobuster and unloaded all he had. In his bloody haze, he absolutely whiffed the first few shots, but landed a shot on the concentrating Alhoon and got El free, and scratched the dragon a bit too. El tried to calm the combatants, but her spell couldn't cut through their defenses. Nia ignited her crown of Stars and began lighting them up. Rebellion ignited his lightsaber and force jumped to cut down the Deathdragon, who announced his name to be Bonemeal or something.

The dragon did some evil fly around nonsense, but proved to just not have what it takes to hurt Spark. The alhoons tried more mind blasting and spellcasting to little effect. Spark brought down the comet staff and beat the dragon with an inch of its unlife. The dragon took a cowardly flight across the sewer, but not far enough from El. Oh yeah, Lance is off preparing for his wedding, maybe escorted away by secret agent Turd Burglar.

Anyway, El backed up before taking a running leap off the edge of the broken bridge. Her magically boosted strength allowed her to easily cross the distance. As the flying pole dancer pierced the gap with her leap, she took a mighty swing with the Glaive of Wonder that absolutely whiffed. The momentum of the swing started her spinning like a yo-yo down toward the raw sewage as chaos magic spewed from Ashaya's chosen weapon. With a plop and a giggle, Elenwe gently rolled down on a sprawling bed of grass that had sprouted over the sewage and created a new bed of vegetation over the sewage stream. Embraced and buoyed by Ashaya's blessing, El spun up to her feet and finished the death dragon with her whirling glaive.

Nia mind lanced one Alhoon and Tiik took a big disgusting bite. Rebellion started on the other who tried to magic himself away, but El counterspelled his escape attempt. Defeated both tactically and spiritually, the alhoons saw the end only briefly before the crew delivered it. Nia then began using Speak with Dead to extract info from the defeated foes.

The dragon told them that the Blue Talon of Shago has Way, and they intend to use him as a battery for their experimental mass mind control device. He also explained that he donated his hoard to Shago for research and the only weakness to the base in Kaneyama (which he pointed out as an island on a map) is that mortals are involved at all in its defense. The alhoons revealed that they will betray the Blue Wing once their mindflayer dragon is complete (the eldritch horror being birthed near Eladriel). There is an underwater entrance into the Blue Wing base, and their takeover of the base is being prepared by their agent Drourath Nyxekspawn who has been taken over by an intellect devourer. They also want Way's brain to eat.

Intel nabbed, the crew turned to the survivors. Rebellion talked to his 'boss' about how horrible these dragonkin and aberrations are. Spark explained that he regrets not being there for Goblin Town, and that Rebellion has proven himself to be a capable leader as his father raised him. Spark asked Athos' eye to take back Vengeance's memories and abilities from him then handed it over to Rebellion along with the Comet Staff. He told Rebellion that he should be the new boss of the goblins. Rebellion asked if Spark was sure. Spark said, "I just proved that we goblins can carve out a place of peace on our own if we try, but now it'