[Based on The Wyrm Of The Golden Lake, copyright Alessandro Colella]

Lured by fame and fortune, our heroes headed southwest to the beautiful golden woods. They discovered that the golden bark on some trees was veined in black, and the golden metallic leaves on those trees were brittle. Despite it being summer, leaves fell like it was autumn. The party was then ambushed by a squad of kobolds, hissing that outsiders were poisoning the Mother. Kermit strifed the kobolds from above while gliding, Khari smashed, and Gorp eviscerated hapless kobolds as a panther. Some of the kobolds' scales were veined in black.

The group continued through the woods to the village of Goldmere, next to the golden lake of the same name. The village seemed off. No one was selling in the market square. Women weren't out gossiping. Men weren't playing dice or cards. Villagers looked at them hopefully, before their eyes started darting around in paranoia and they scurried inside, barring their doors. Children huddled listlessly together like puppies looking for comfort, with empty thousand mile stares. Crops were wilted.

Galina Brewster, the proprietor of the Lucky Stag tavern filled them in: about 6 months ago, the corruption started. Trees veined in black, crops wilted, and while physically healthy, the children seemed traumatized. The lindworm, great wingless golden dragon that called the lake area home, had protected them and caused fertility for time immemorial. They believed that she was sick, and the sickness was causing the corruption. Galina offered the party a chest of gold if they cured the dragon. The town elder, Tovo, told the group that there was an ancient dragon shrine in the hills that might have lore that would cure the dragon. Elias, the hunter, was summoned, and mentioned he'd seen kobolds sneaking to the lake shore at night, carrying various plants and rocks, possibly healing items. Elias could show the party the path to the shrine. Exploring the lake, Kermit swam out to the dragon's sunning spot, and found a golden scale on the stone island, while Gorp in hawk form discovered that the kobold tracks were only on the village side of the lake.

In the morning, the group followed Elias to the foothills and the path to the shrine. He left them to hunt. The path looked like it used to be smooth and well-traveled at one time, but was now overgrown. As they approached the top, the path became choked by thorny vines and brambles. The path opened up into a clearing before the ruins of a small stone shrine. An ancient kobold knelt before the shrine, praying in a language older than even the shrine. He had a feathered headdress and many charms hanging around him - a shaman. Upon hearing the group approaching, the kobold climbed to it's feet, bowed to them, and held it's hands out open. "Please, have you come to cure the Mother?" He asked.

The shaman explained that the shrine held tablets of lore, but he was unable to enter due to a violent corrupted creature within. Entering through a curtain of vines over the open doorway, the party saw a square room, overgrown with thorns, vines, and brambles. Large stone tablets sat in niches on all the walls. Faded colorful murals on the walls showed dragons of many types and colors. A crack in the roof let in a beam of light that illuminated a golden tree. As the party entered, a large pile of bramble rose and attacked. They defeated the deeproot defender after a brief struggle, then an insane corrupted dryad emerged from the tree and screeched, summoning a swarm of large-dog sized rolling brambles. Another struggle in which Kermit ended up in a thorn cage, Khari smashed, and Gorp summoned fire, and the party were again triumphant.

The shaman peeked in once the sounds of battle stilled, then entered to help the party read the lore on the tablets. Types of dragons, breath weapons, favorite lair sites, hatching, food preferences. One tablet contained a dragon purifying ritual that the shaman said Kermit could perform to heal the dragon. The shaman said he would summon the tribe to obtain the necessary ingredients for the potion part of the ritual (because fetch quests are boring as hell). He set Kermit to memorizing the words and actions necessary to complete the ritual.

In the morning, the group met the shaman and his apprentice by the lake shore. The apprentice ground bark, roots, and leaves; pulped berries for their juice; crushed and powdered gems and rainbow obsidian. It put the powders and juice in a bottle with lake water. Meanwhile, the shaman chanted over a kettle melting precious metals. The fire and kettle should not have been able to melt metal, but a blue sparkle around the shaman indicated earth magic at use. Cooling the kettle of melted metal with more magic, the shaman poured the liquid metal into the potion bottle. It was a grainy, gloppy mess that shouldn't have come together into a smooth potion. Swirling it and chanting, the shaman used more magic, and the potion became a smooth liquid. He handed it to Gorp. "Please, heal our Mother."

Gorp followed the kobold tracks, then used subtle nature cues to determine the entrance to the dragon's lair. Massive tree roots formed archways and tunnels. In a large underground chamber, the party found the golden dragon coiled on a deep bed of gold coins. In a nitch in the back, protected by yellow sparkling fire magic, was the dragon's hoard of magic items. Then the party saw that the dragon was coiled around a dragonling, black veins snaking across it's faded gold scales, shaking with fever, breathing labored. Eying the party, the dragon moved it's tail so they could approach the dragonling, but with a rumbling growl. Her tail moved to block the only exit. There would be no escape should they fail.

Khari gently pried the dragonling's mouth open, careful to avoid the hand long razor sharp teeth. Sweat dripped down a temple as stress made Khari wobble, since even a baby dragon's jaw strength was considerable, and yet everything had to be done gently under the mama's suspicous gaze. Gorp poured the potion into the dragonling's mouth. Khari held the snout closed while Gorp massaged the throat, making the dragonling swallow. Meanwhile, Kermit chanted the ritual words, beseeching his Green Goddess to transmute the potion into a purifying potion, and heal the dragonling to give it strength to survive the purification.

Success! A green glow surrounded the dragonling's body, the black veins of corruption began to fade, and it's breath eased. A black cloud rose above the dragonling, as the potion ousted the malicious spirit that had invaded it to feed off it and the land. In that green glow, the spirit dissipated and was no more. The dragon thanked them profusely for saving her child. In thanks, she offered them one item from her hoard. The party requested the fire elemental stone, flickering yellow, orange and red. Gorp took the stone, which was warm to the touch. Upon exiting the lair, the kobold shaman also thanked them for healing "the Mother," and gave them 5 precious gems as a token of the tribe's appreciation. In the village, where people greeted them warmly and children ran around screaming once again, Galina provided the group with the promised chest of gold. The party enjoyed more of the excellent Golden Ale before setting out to find the next elemental stone.