Smoke, being the stealthiest of our group, led the way to the cave's entrance. The mouth of the cavern is wide and tall but, luckily, not large enough to fit the dragon that had attacked Greenest.

Smoke spied two guards, humans dressed in black armor adorned in spikes and horns. She notched her bow, taking the first guard down with a headshot. Yuldra shot a quick firebolt at the other, burning his arm, with Agran finishing the job with a quick swing of his staff.

I dragged the bodies behind some boulders; we did not want the kobold coming back and finding them.

Agran, Yuldra, and I were not quick to see it, but Smoke was able to spy a secret entrance at the side of the chamber. We decided to stick with the main path, which led to a chamber full of fungus. There were two paths leading out, one leading left and the other right. A rancid smell crept in from the left pathway, so we agreed to go right.

I tucked some of the fungi in my herbalist's pack before we left—I wonder what properties they carried.

The next room was large and lit by multiple torches. The walls were carved in ornate drawings of chromatic dragons. On the farthest wall is a carving of Tiamat herself, crawling out of a volcano and worshipped by the others. After a bit of study, I noticed that most of the carvings were those of black dragons. I wondered if they were favored over the others. A large chest sat at her feet in tribute. In the center of the shrine room stood Langdedrosa, the half-dragon from Greenest. She seemed mostly healed, except that she was now missing an arm. Two human guards accompanied her.

This room had no place to hide, so there was no sneaking by the group. Langdedrosa quickly caught our scent, her face twisting into a feral smile. "I don't know whether to be disappointed or pleased to see you here; I suppose a bit of both. You took my arm, and now I will take your life!" she snarled.

This time around was different—I was not alone, and with my companions we were able to quickly defeat the two humans accompanying the half-dragons. Between Yuldra's, Agram's, and my spellcasting and the quick shots of arrows from Smoke, we were able to defeat Langdedrosa for good.

Smoke wanted to take the treasure with us and with a keen eye spotted the trap it was connected to. Working swiftly, she was able to disconnect the trap and lockpick the chest, revealing pearls, precious stones, and a ring. I am sure they belong to Greenest, but I think the Tabaxi had plans to keep them for herself.

The next chamber was incredibly moist; the air was thick and had many stalactites descending from the ceiling. The room is dark and smells of copper. A thin layer of liquid lined the floor, and after looking closer, we noticed it was blood. Most of us have dark vision and were able to make out the silhouette of three large eggs in the center of the room. Small chirps and knocking noises seemed to be coming from them, making me worried that they were going to hatch soon…and wondering where their parents were.

Yuldra, being human and not being able to see, cast a spell to light the cavern… alerting the two guard drakes hiding in the corners! On the other side, a stalagmite seemed to move of its accord… It immediately gave me the creeps, so we made sure to stay as far away as possible.

We had to fight the two guard drakes and unfortunately took quite a bit of damage after it was all said and done. I had a deep slash on my right leg, and Yuldra suffered a bite to her shoulder. Agran came out of the fight almost unscuffed, but Smoke had lost part of her tail. Working together, Yuldra and I were able to stop the bleeding, but Smoke would have a stubbed tail for the rest of her life.

The final chamber we entered belonged to a human woman in deep purple robes, speaking to a group of guards. I overheard her speaking of someone named Rezmir and that they were to meet them in the north with the rest of the treasure…but then she spotted us. Yelling at her guards to stop us, she grabbed her items and fled down the pathway at the other end of her room.

By the time we had defeated the guards, the woman was long gone. We searched through her belongings but did not find anything truly of use.

The final chamber of the hatchery cave was once the treasury, but now is an empty room with a few coins scattered here and there. A sleeping cultist lay in the corner, surrounded by several bottles of wine. We let him sleep.

We contemplated returning for the eggs but decided to let them be. With the rest of the cultists flushed from the cave and campsite, this place could do no more harm to the people of Greenest. We agreed to return as quickly as we could to deliver the news to Nighthill and Leosin and to let them know the cult has headed north.

We exited the treasury through a dark pathway and found ourselves back at the start of the cave. We had been here longer than I thought; the sun had started to set. We headed down the dirt trail once more to Greenest, this time taking half the night since we let our horses go.

The city was asleep by the time we returned but was already looking better than it had when we left. Multiple tents were set up for refugees, and the keep was alight in the centre of town. Guards greeted us as we entered Greenest and showed us a tent to rest in until the next day.