-----As Dread sits at the table, watching the man eat, he suddenly slaps his hand on the table and declares, "I think I know a way to defeat the dragon. Or at least seriously weaken it enough so that we have a chance o' killin it in hand to hand combat. Well, hand to talon combat anyway. It involves buyin some sheep though."
-----Seth nods as Dread begins to suggest a plan to kill the dragon and interrupts him to add, "You know we have some vials of water the priest in Oakwood gave us as well. If we had a priest he could explain how to use it or make it into bucket loads. Imagine if we had bucket loads and sprinkled it from the back of the dragon, providing we could make the dragon carry us on his back."
-----He now turns to man with no name and asks, "Are there any priests left amongst you?"
-----The Dread Pirate nods his head, "Yes, that would be an excellent way to kill the undead. Hose 'em down with holy water whilst safely perched upon a dragon's back. Unfortunately, I don't think the dragon sounds like the cooperative sort. However, if you want to broach the idea to it, I'll be more than happy to hold yer gold fer ye, while ye talk to it. In any case, my plan would probably exclude any negotiations we might have with it."
-----Gimplefwick reveals his plan, "We need to look at what dragons are notorious for. Besides slaughtering hapless adventurers and sleeping on top of huge piles of gold. They eat. According to what I know of dragon lore, they eat everything in sight. Probably all that flyin' about and killin' gives 'em an appetite. In any case, we should exploit its weakness. We can buy about a half dozen sheep and some pig's bladders. We fill the bladders with the most potent poison we can find, seal them up tightly, then stuff them into the sheep. We then take the sheep out into a nice clear area somewhat near the dragon's flight pattern and wait. One of us can stand out there and pretend to be a shepherd, to keep the sheep there. Preferably someone with me boots and Kazel's ring. When the dragon shows up and drops down fer a quick and easy meal, the shepherd runs away and the dragon gorges on poisoned sheep. Thus the dragon is poisoned, possibly killed, maybe just seriously sick and weakened. I'm hopin' fer killed, but if it's weak and pukin' then we still have a much better advantage than we did before. Anyway, that's the best plan I can think up fer dealin with it. What do ye think?"
-----Kazel looks impressed with the discussions. She pokes at her own cheek as she thinks. "You know I really don't see what the dragon has to do with the undead and who knows which is more of a threat right now. But how about this, instead of sheep we take all the corpses in this town and have them stuffed with this poison you speak of. We then pile them up outside of town and let the dragon eat the whole lot of them. That way we take care of both problems at once. Of course, I don't know if dragon prefers sheep over humans or dead over alive, but I'm betting at least it'll like humans better. We can dress up the corpses and prop them up on chairs in tents and make it look like a country fair. Who knows, if there are morticians still in this town, and I'm betting they are having a lot of business right now, they can help out. The fact that the flesh is dead and full of embalming fluids as well couldn't hurt our goal of killing the dragon either, right?"
-----"Oh yeah, we can also throw some rusty metal and caltrops and the like into the corpses while we are at it, too!"
-----Between bites, the man answers the Dread Pirate, "Call me Abbar." He then answers Seth. "The priests of Justice have long been done away with." Leaning closer with a bit of meat hanging from one corner of his mouth, he whispers, "Those who rule the dead have been most thorough."
-----After listening to the plan for offing the dragon, Abbar looks down at his plate of slim portions and says, "A noble plan, no doubt, however, finding a herd of sheep maybe a problem. The dragon is why no one has left the town for weeks. The supply of food is growing smaller by the day. You will not find a herd of sheep here. Going to look for one in the countryside may be foolish."
-----Abbar looks at Kazel with an uncertain expression although his eyes still blaze. "As you saw," he begins slowly and cryptically, "there would be many bodies to move. Too many to move before the night comes."
-----"You mean to say the dead rise every night? Or is tonight special?" Kazel replies. "We may not need that many bodies to poison the dragon. Maybe we can let the dragon eat as much as we can move and we'll deal with the rest of the undead later. Or perhaps use that potion of yours and march the undead out into the open for the dragon to eat."
-----"Anyway, now that you've got your meal, tell us more about what's going on in this town. Are these priests of the dead still here? Nevermind the priests of Justice, they never were that much use to begin with."
-----The Dread Pirate, obviously liking the imagery of hordes of undead, all in a line, marching efficiently down the dragon's gullet, says, "Well, I'm not much in favor of the undead getting up and walkin about every night. I hear they like to eat brains. O' course if yer potion works then we can just line 'em up all in a row and set off fer the dragon's cave. Maybe we'd get lucky and the dragon would choke to death. I don't know if dragons eat carrion though. I'd imagine it prefers its meat to be somewhat fresh and unstinkin'. I know if it were me, I'd prefer to eat a sheep rather than some weeks dead, stinkin corpse. Fer Joren's sake, how could you possibly eat the armpit area? Disgustin. Blech. And let's face it, most humans have less than perfect hygiene. I'm gettin sick just thinkin about it."