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First Time Leading a Lair
by Bberke


It was my first time leading a dragon lair. Although I had been part of adventuring parties countless times before, I had never felt the need to lead one myself. In the past, it seemed lairs were being led everyday, but now lairs were led less often and those looking for help were more selective in who they asked for help. So, when a member of my clan by the name of Pann asked me to lead a lair I let out a disgruntled string of obscenities in my head, but agreed. "How hard could it be?" I thought to myself . What follows is the story of my first lair.

Bberke called to the heroes of the land announcing he was to run a lair and at first it seemed there would be no lair. The usual number of people to accomplish such a task was between fourteen and eighteen heroes. At first only two showed up, then two more. By the time five showed up the first who showed left saying to call them back if Bberke found more interest.

Bberke didn't give up though, he kept on announcing the lair. On every type of communication that availed the land, Bberke spoke about the lair. He stressed how it was a red dragon the kind whose hide increased the damage potential of those who wore it. He spoke about how there was already a large group of people formed and he only needed a few more. What started out as a trickle soon became a steady flow of interest in Bberke's lair.

With the eighteen people Bberke descended into the caverns of the evil red dragon. (A side note here, while Bberke certainly considered the dragon evil, this was not the case of the dragon's mate nor the dragon's hatchlings nor the orphans who the dragon had taught how to sneak up on slow-witted adventurers and steal their gold every Sunday in dragon school.)

As I was saying, Bberke swept through the lair killing all sorts of foul beasts until he descended to the very lowest lair of the dragon where the beasts of fire dwelled, there he encountered some difficulty. At this part of the lair, he knew from his experience, was always a four way intersection filled and surrounded by varying creatures of the fire breathing, throwing, and wearing persuasion. This meant he had to run into the intersection kill all the creatures there, quickly decide which way the dragon was and head in that direction before the constant barrage of fire killed everyone. This was complicated by the fact that the rooms leading up to and from the intersection were cramped requiring everyone to run single file towards the most hazardous part of the adventurer (besides the dragon itself). Bberke called the charge remembering to remind everyone, not to overshoot or run past the center of the intersection.

Everyone charged to the intersection and chaos ensued. A few people immediately died, which surprised Bberke a little making him forget that perhaps the twenty odd heal staves sitting in his satchel might come in handy at this moment. As a result though the monsters in the intersection were vanquished, the fifteen or so adventurers left standing had very little energy left. Consequently, when Bberke asked people to regain their energy and resurrect the dead, people had almost no energy. Bberke reminded everyone to cross heal, but for some reason only people whose names started with the letter K did so. As a result moments later when nine fireballs flew through the room (three at a time in rapid succession) almost everyone died. Bberke, however did not die, he and Kwetak, the only survivors walked north and around a corner where it was safe.

Deciding it would be faster to just start from the beginning Bberke teleported out of the lair and regrouped, but found he was short two or three people. He decided this was enough for a red dragon and descended once again into the lair.

Again the intersection of fire throwing mobs loomed before Bberke. There were new mobs in the intersection, but this time Bberke was ready, using many heal staffs to keep his form alive as fireball after fireball assailed the adventurers while they cleared the intersection of evil monsters. Unfortunately the monsters still managed to kill a good many adventurers, some of them even fleeing westward in an attempt to escape the carnage, but only resulting in dying at the hands of even more horrible monsters.

Quickly Bberke lead the charge westward, leaving the dead in the room for the moment lest everyone die as had happened before. It was a long and bloody fight, but in the end all who had fled west and died were brought back to life, as were those few who had died in the intersection. Except for three or four people who had succumbed to the call of the soul capturing necromancer and become undead corpses, cursed to roam the land until the God's lifted the curse upon them. It appears some people believed Bberke had abandoned them for dead, but no, he just had forgotten to tell them to wait... Finally Bberke left the intersection of so much death and headed towards the final stretch of underground tunnel that led up to the red dragon itself.

At this point only ten of the original eighteen adventurers remained, but Bberke pressed on unwilling to admit defeat. That is until Pann the second form leader and his one remaining form member dashed past Bberke and died at the hands of two fire jags. Bberke then decided to allow Pann to gather up eight more adventurers and bring them straight to the dragon while Bberke's group cleared the path to the dragon ahead of them.

At this juncture Bberke's group did as planned, arriving and sitting before the dragon, waiting patiently for Pann to arrive with the additional dragon food, err I mean dragon slayers! After a long wait, Pann arrived with the new group and Bberke began the dispense the staves of healing when the unexpected happened.

All of a sudden Damacon cast the magical words of transport sending Pann's entire group of adventurers back to the nearest clan town. Bberke cursed Damacon's mother for giving birth to him and prayed to the Gods for his own death lest he be forced to continue to suffer the ineptitude of those whose company he found himself sharing. After another long wait Pann's group arrived for a second time...

Bberke's group of adventurer's attacked the dragon like professionals, causing the dragon to flee the lair with only one adventurer dying. Many deaths later the dragon fled to a clantown, where it was eventually slain with the help of adventurers from across the land. Later that day Bberke received in the mail a suicide knife from Damacon.

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