We awaken on our third day in the city, eager to begin our journey to find the red dragon in the

Ice Mountains. Before we could set off, however, we had to wait for the Paladin to collect his Lions saddle. With the rest of the party forced to wait we decided to spend the morning in the company of some beautiful women down at the local brothel. Upon our return to the inn to collect our gear, I found a letter waiting for me from the ever mysterious Athena. It stated that the Alsohl for the Blue Dragon we were seeking might just be found in the company of the Red Dragon, a bonus to the mission we were already planning on undertaking. I spread the contents of the letter to the rest of the party and we eagerly began the planning for the journey. We decided that the dangers of the desert warranted some help from the locals in the form of a guide to navigate the ever changing dunes for us. We spent what was left of the morning searching the encampment for someone willing to act as our guide to the foothills of the Ice Mountains. I finally got a lucky break when I ran into an Half-Ogress Ranger who, while attractive enough in a tall and rugged, looked as though she just got back from the desert. She agreed to lead us through the desert to the foothills of the Ice Mountains for 15 gold. Before I could attempt to haggle with her, Trogdor ended any chance of a reduced price by agreeing to her price and paying with his own gold. With that taken care of we set out for the desert and the mountains beyond. I began having second thoughts about hiring this ranger almost immediately, as my idea of a nice safe journey across the desert was shattered by the appearance of a pair of rust monsters. We instantly swung into action against the monstrous foes before us; Monk, Trogdor, and the Sashas lion charged into them while the rest of the party supporting from a distance. The battle was brutal, but the knowledge we gained from our earlier battles with the rust monsters was invaluable, and, with the help of some Magic Missiles and well placed sling stones from Dumb Dumb, we managed to defeat them without any major casualties to the party. We reached the first oasis without further incident and everyone settled in to wait out the day. During the first watch we were assailed in our sleep by a group of Giant Scorpions, the leader of the group larger than most small houses. As is their norm, the close combat specialist in our group, namely Dumb Dumb, Trogdor, and Monk, charged in to face the foe head to head. However, they hadnt fought such a foe as this one arrayed before us and soon found themselves caught in the clacking claws of our enemy. I knew that I would be of little help in a close combat fight, so I did the best I could from a distance. Unfortunately, the first scorpion shrugged off the sleep spell I threw at it while the rest of the party attempted to break the crushing hold of the enemy. In an act of ultimate sacrifice, not mine (I am way too important to the epic being written as the writer), I moved forward to get all three of the scorpions in range of my Burning Hand Spell and it was a doozy of a spell. My team mates managed to avoid the worst of the damage, but the scorpions were not so lucky. They all three took substantial damage from the spell and the largest lost his hold on Trogdor. The rest of the party took advantage of the chaos my spell caused to quickly finish off the scorpions before they had a chance to regroup and re-attack. After scavenging anything of value from the dead scorpions we again settled in to wait out the day. The second watch passed without incident, but we were not so lucky during the third watch.

We awoke during the third watch to find ourselves buried to the neck in mud, and if that wasnt enough our struggles were being watched by a fairly bemused Copper Dragon. Our first instinct as a party was to panic, pray to our respective gods, and then die with honor. However, my philosophy that knowledge is power again proved itself on the battlefield. I knew from my travels that Copper Dragons, in general, are epic pranksters and are fond of not only pranking but also of a good joke or riddle. So, slowly sinking into the morass that had once been solid ground, I put on my best Bardic face and proceed to try and joke my way out of a sticky situation. My first few attempts, while entertaining, were unfortunately all jokes and riddles the Dragon had already heard, but, after searching my mind, I produced to gems in rapid succession that soon had the Dragon rolling on the ground grasping his massive sides. After climbing out of the mud the Dragon made a deal with us, he would keep watch for the remainder of the day if we could pass on a message to a gnome he knew, Glorri Googleberry. The messages was, Cethalis is looking for a good time at Oakwood Manor, in Oakheart. Bring your sassy wife. The rest of the day passed with no further interruptions to our rest. That evening we awoke to make plans for the rest of our trip. Our guide had been following our request for the shortest route to the letter, but was becoming distressed at the amount of danger she was being subjected to. She told us of a safer route that would steer clear of most of the dangers of the desert, but it would add a day to our trip. We discussed the choices amongst the party but decided to take our chances on the shorter route and continued on our way. The decision would soon come back to haunt us. Within an hour of starting off Monk and I spotted a group of some 20 skeleton warriors in the path before us accompanied by the largest skeleton we had ever seen. We instantly raised the alarm in the party and the decision was made. To try to avoid a long, protracted battle that might draw the attention of something more sinister, we would attempt to circumvent the group of undead. The quick thinking of our guide was the only thing that kept us out of combat as we spent the rest of the night dodging roving bands of undead warriors. After a long night spent on the run, we eventually made it to an easily defensible position in a volcanic bowl and settled in for the next day. The day passed peacefully, the only disturbance to the peace was the appearance of another Giant Scorpion which passed our hiding spot without noticing our presence. The next evening we arose well rested and continued our journey towards the mountains. The evening passed swiftly with no real encounters or dangers and we safely made it to the foothills of the Ice Mountains. Our guide found us a safe place to bed down for the day and then informed me that due to the dangers we forced her to face she demanded further compensation for our passage. It soon became obvious that she was talking about more gold, apparently my performance for the dragon had shown her what a handsome and witty man I was and she liked witty men. I followed her out of the camp and discovered what a good choice that was as she proceeded to rock my world for over an hour. With her payment taken care of, she took her leave of us and we settled into to discuss the next leg of our quest to collect the Al Shols.