The elderly looking dwarf with the staff beckoned the team forth. They were unsure of his intentions... however, the staff he held could not be mistaken. It was the fabled Dragonstaff of Ahghairon! It definitely had Enigma's interest... Feeling he could be trusted, though, Ray stepped forward. The dwarf introduced himself as Barok Clanghammer, and he had been in this vault for 'quite a while'. He asked the party to step forth, as he could tell there were many people present. With everybody out in the open, the conversation began. However, it was clear the party was being coy - not being direct about what they were really here for at first. Barok walked from his pile of glittering gems and coins over to an absolutely massive hoard of gold! This was it - Dagult Neverember's stolen treasure. It was all here - five hundred thousand gold dragons all accounted for. Barok asked the party several questions - mostly analyzing their intent. It was explained that Dagult had been ousted from power and that someone else was in charge now, and that the money had been stolen. However, when asked for proof, the party could not provide it, and Renaer himself admitted that he had not been in contact with his father for years. Barok said he remembers Renaer as a child, although Renaer could not remember the dwarf. Peculiar... It seemed, however, the dwarf was a bit temperamental, as if anybody else besides who he was addressing spoke up, he clamored his staff against the floor, and demanded silence. He was clearly in control of this conversation - no others. The elderly dwarf's commanding presence certainly caught the group off guard. Maybe he wasn't who he appeared to be... As the conversation dragged on, though, Enigma become increasingly agitated for some reason. He was eyeballing that staff... Barok commented that he sensed a kindred spirit within him, whatever that meant. At the time, it was not clear, but soon enough it would make itself apparent... Unfortunately, for the party, the dwarf stated that several years ago, he had made a deal with one Dagult Neverember, and he gave his word that he would protect this vault, in exchange for payment - the small pile of gems and the Dragonstaff. To that end, his hands were tied, and his fate was sealed, as a dragon does not hold their honor so cheaply. Without the presence of Dagult or one of his vassals, or proof of wrongdoing, he could not relinquish the gold. The only one who might know anything - and indeed, the one possibly responsible for leaking the existence of the stolen money to begin with, explaining why Dagult tried to get rid of him - was one Gai Supamu, Dagult's former court wizard and the one responsible for binding Golorr the aboleth into the stone, informed to Enigma by none other than the Stone of Golorr itself! It looks like the party was out of luck, and about to head home empty handed, when Enigma interrupted the conversation by shouting ENOUGH! in a voice that was clearly not his own. Suddenly, a massive disembodied draconic hand snatched the Dragonstaff away from Barok, and Enigma underwent an epic transformation, becoming a massive black scaled dragon with blue markings! The dragon then challenged 'Aurinax' for the treasure, and it was then that the die was cast - this dwarf was actuall Aurinax the gold dragon in disguise! The rest of the party was blown away by this sudden transformation - some more literally than others, especially for Yuan and Jalester - and they began scrambling and panicking. Yuan however realized that there was no way out of this - they had to fight through Aurinax to have any chance of claiming the treasure, and delivered the first blow with a pair of acidlight arrow strikes, as the others began to join into the fray. Aurinax revealed his true form in the face of this adversity, taking on the form of a massive golden dragon, and began squaring off with the party! Marcellus took the opportunity to grab the fallen Dragonstaff, and began running with it, but Aurinax beat his wings and knocked away those around him to catch up with him and tried to strike him down. Marcellus, being beaten within an inch of his life, kept up the distraction by handing Ray the staff, who used a Mage Hand spell to grab, and instantly the staff reacted from his presence by hitting Aurinax with a blast of enchantment magic! However, he was able to fight it off, and the fight raged on. Aurinax demonstrated his power easily, sending Yuan into a dream plane and removing him from the fight temporarily while nearly striking down Sigurd with a bevy of claw swipes, also nearly taking Marcellus' head off with a bite but just narrowly missing. He was a force to be reckoned with, and Karnage, the black dragon, wasn't going to let him get away with it, the two locking into combat once more with each other. The others did their best to help, such as Sigurd using Heroism to bolster Karnage and fighting back with his rapier while Valetta boosted the group with a Bless spell, the others trying to pepper Aurinax with their weapons, but he proved to be a tough, fearsome cookie, scattering the team with his frightful presence and shaking them to their core, with only Ray, Sigurd and Valetta able to face down the dragon's fear unabated. Marcellus tried to hold the dragon down with a Web spell, but Aurinax's strength was simply too great to be held by such mild magic. Would anything work on him!? However, things got ugly as Aurinax, in response to Karnage using his disorienting breath weapon, fired back with his own fiery breath, completely annihilating everything behind Karnage. While the black dragon himself weathered the storm well, Yuan, Valetta and Sigurd did not fare so well and were flattened immediately, burnt to a crisp. It was clear that Aurinax wasn't going to give up this treasure without a fight, and any chance of diplomacy had gone out the window... He had the advantage of home turf, too, giving himself special insight and making Karnage's life difficult, the others doing what they could to aid the black dragon. Ray tried to command the dragon down, but could not force him to bend the knee, and Marcellus fired a Thunder Ball in Aurinax's direction, but seeing him weather the blast drove him from the battle in a fright, unable to grip the horror he had just witnessed of watching his friends go up in smoke. As Aurinax banished Io, Sigurd's steel defender, to the dream realm, Karnage took advantage of the lapse and blasted him with a psychic shock, sending the dragon reeling! The turning point came, though, when Jalester had managed to hide away using his Cloak of Invisibility, and being put in a corner, fired a lucky arrow at Aurinax's head. The arrow lodged itself in his face, making the mighty dragon screech out a roar of agony. Finally, Yagra, angered that her friend had been felled, fired a volley of arrows desperately at Aurinax, screaming terrified bloody murder. One of them managed to land, and staggered the dragon by taking his leg out from under him and forcing him to the ground. It seemed this had finally pushed him over the edge... Aurinax shouted through gritted teeth, "If I am to be finished, may it be by your hand..." he said to Karnage. Karnage gladly obliged, gripping him in his claws and dragging him through the stonework of the vault, before slamming him into the floor and blasting him point-blank with a vicious psychic breath attack. Aurinax, the mighty gold dragon, fell limp to the ground at Karnage's feet. He had been defeated. Another casualty of Dagult Neverember's greed... When the dust finally settled, and the party made their way back to investigate and heal the wounded, Karnage took a more manageable, smaller form and introduced himself, handing a business card of sorts to Jalester. He had been lying dormant all this time within Enigma, it seemed, and his goal had been the Dragonstaff of Ahghairon - without it, he was not able to manifest because of Ahghairon's Dragonward, and using the staff's power to become physical was his entire goal. The party was a bit wary, but it was reasoned that if he wanted to wipe out the party, he could have done so already. Fortunately, nobody else had died in the fighting, but it was shameful that things had turned out this way - Aurinax was bound by his word to Dagult Neverember, and in that moment, three years ago, his fate was sealed. Karnage asked for the Dragonstaff, stating he could aid the party one more time, and Ray obliged. He used his own power and channeled it through the staff, clearing the party's minds and refreshing them, restoring their stamina and power. A great wave of lethargy swept over him though, and he realized he had overexerted himself. For now, he would have to rest, and in doing so, his form changed back to that of Enigma, who had been aware of everything that had happened but was powerless to control it. It was over. With Aurinax dead, the vault was free to be looted. Renaer realized something, though, staring at Aurinax, that he recognized now who he was - it was a faint, distant memory, but he had remembered as a child meeting a mighty golden dragon with his mother and father. He realized that this dragon was Aurinax, and he was kindly, gentle, and merciful. That even Aurinax's fate had been sealed by the greed and cruelty of his scheming father, Dagult, hit him hard... even dragons were not immune to the machinations of Dagult Neverember it seemed, and it appeared the death was unavoidable. Still, Renaer gave his heartfelt thanks to the party, for sticking with him throughout this entire journey. They could have easily left at any time but chose to see things through to the end, from all the way back at the Zhentarim warehouse, their first meeting, to now. Renaer expressed his gratitude and thanks. As the party began to think of how they would cart the gold out, something occurred to Sigurd. Something had just triggered his Alarm spell that he set in the secret doorway to the Vault! An extremely unsettling feeling fell over the party at that point. Who could it be? It seems that their struggle was not quite over... One last deal had to be made... Find out what happens next time in the finale of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!!