Dragons, Dragons everywhere! IC thread.

[Pokonic]

Stuff Needed for the Roleplay:
Currant map, with a gigantic thanks too DiegoHavoc with dealing with my messy sentence structure and makeing this beauty.
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i93/DiegoHavoc/Maps/dragonmap6.jpg

Your Dragon, and everyone elses.
Lil Shiro
Agnorant
Spoiler
Sex: Female
Body:
Head: Smooth all-round
Horns: No horns
Claws: Normal claws
Scale Color: White
Body Length: Short
Body Modifications: No limbs
Tail: Small
Breath: Ice
Sex: Female
Warps: Magical Flight
Stats:
Health: 78
Strength: 30 (-5 Female, -15 Magical Flight)
Agility: 80 (+5 Body length, +5 No limbs, +5 Tail, -5 Female, +10 Magical Flight, +10 Bonus)
Intelligence: 70 (Female +10, +10 Bonus)
Toughness: 35 (-10 Body length, Female +10, -15 Magical Flight)
Charisma: 50 (+5 Head, -10 Tail, Female +5)
Evilness: 55 (-5 Horns, +10 Magical Flight)
Intimidation: 40 (-10 Head)
Trustworthiness: 60 (Magical Flight +10)
ATTACKS
Claws - None
Bite - 16
Tail - 21
Ramming - 15




Diego Havoc
Name: Edellipas
Gender: Female
Body: Standard
Head: Smooth all-round (+5 Charisma, -10 intimidation)
Horns: Single Horn (+5 Charisma, -15 Evil +2 damage from head ramming)
Claws: Long claws (+5 Evilness, +5 Intimidation, 9 damage)
Scale Color: Silver
Body length: Standard
Tail: Blade end (+5 Agility, -10 strength, +5 Intimidation, +5 damage from tail)
Breath: Sonic

Stats:
Health: 98
STR: 35 (45 -10 blade tail)
AGI: 60 (45 +5 blade tail, +10 points)
INT: 65 (60 +5 points)
TOU: 60
CHA: 70 (55 +5 smooth head, +5 single horn, +5 points)
Evil: 40 (50 +5 long claws, -15 single horn)
Intimidation: 50 (50 -10 smooth head, +5 long claws, +5 blade tail)

ATTACKS
Claws - 21
Bite - 26
Tail - 26
Ramming - 28


Selfish and coniving, Edellipas prefers to get others to do her dirty work for her. Using her above average intelligence and good looks, she likes to convince male dragons to fight her battles, while using lesser races like humans as personal servants and sycophants. While not evil, she is greedy and will do almost anything for rare treasures. If she is forced into battle, she uses her sonic breath to scatter her enemies, before using her powerful claws and tail to rend her foes.

PurityIceKiller
Name: Sparkwing.
Gender: Male.
Body: Standard.
Head: Rough.
Horns: Standard.
Claws: Standard.
Scale Color: Blue.
Body length: Short.
Tail: Bladed.
Breath: Lightning.
Stats:
Health: 86
Strength: 50
Agility: 65
Intelligence: 60
Toughness: 45
Charisma: 50
Evilness: 50
Cruelty: 50
Intimidation: 65
Fame: 0
Trustworthiness: 50

ATTACKS
Claws - 16
Bite - 20
Tail - 23
Ramming- 19


Personality: Sparkwing is a young dragon, and a somewhat cowardly one. He prefers to avoid combat, and is nervous around non-dragons, larger dragons, fiercer dragons, sneakier dragons, and dragons he's unfamiliar with. However, he's very friendly to those he trusts, and he's very fond of intellectual challenges.
Strength: Male (+10), Blade Tail (-10)
Agility: Male (+5), Short Body (+5), Blade Tail (+5)
Intelligence: Male (-5), Points (+15)
Toughness: Male (+5), Short Body (-10)
Charisma: Male (-10), Rough Head (+5), Points (+5)
Intimidation: Lightning Breath (+5), Blade Tail (+5), Rough Head (+5),

Name: Smoketail.
Gender: Female.
Body: Standard.
Head: Very rough.
Horns: Standard.
Claws: Standard.
Scale Color: Black.
Body length: Short.
Tail: Spiked.
Breath: Fire.

Stats:
Health: 94
Strength: 60
Agility: 60
Intelligence: 60
Toughness: 55
Charisma: 50
Evilness: 60
Cruelty: 50
Intimidation: 65
Fame: 0
Trustworthiness: 50

ATTACKS
Claws - 15
Bite - 22
Tail -17
Ramming - 17
Personality: Smoketail is a tough, no-nonsense sort of dragon. While she's genuinely caring, she doesn't take well to fools. She's the kind who'll save your life, criticizing you for needing saving as she does so.
Strength: Female (-5), Spiked Tail (+5), Points (+10)
Agility: Female (-5), Short Body (+5), Spiked Tail (+5), Points (+5)
Intelligence: Female (+10)
Toughness: Female (+10), Short Body (-10), Points (+5)
Charisma: Female (+5), Spiked Tail (-10), Very Rough Head (+5)
Intimidation: Fire Breath (+5), Very Rough Head (+10)
Evilness: Fire Breath (+5), Very Rough Head (+5)






Orzel
Name: "King" Zelio
Gender: Male

Body: .
Head: Rough
Horns: No horns
Claws: Normal claws
Scale Color: Brown
Body length: Long
Tail: Standard
Breath: Sand (Water)
Body modifications: Iron Scales,

Stats:.
Health:106

Strength: 60
Agility: 25
Intelligence: 50
Toughness: 70
Charisma: 60
Evilness: 55
Intimidation: 55
Cruelty: 50
Fame: 0
Trustworthness: 50
Strength: 50 +10 (male)
Agility: 50 -5 (male) -5 (long) -15 (iron scales)
Intelligence: 50 -5 (male) +5 (points)
Toughness: 50 +5 (male) +5 (long) +10 (iron scales)
Charisma: 50 -10 (male) +5 (rough head) +15 (points)
Evilness : 50 -5 (no horns) +10 (iron scales)
Intimidation: 50 +5 (rough head)
Trustworthness: 50

SiuiS

Name: Ophiokasha, the Stars Which Have Fallen
Gender: Female
Body: *Acid blood, Caustic Maw (+5 bite)
Head: Snakish (+5 evil, intimidate, charisma)
Horns: Tusks Fangs* (+5 Toughness, -15 Charisma, +4 damage from bite)
Claws: *No Claws* (-5 intimidate)
Scale Color: midnight black, with motes of of silver-blue-white where the scales have worn away, reminiscent of a starry night. (+5 evil/charisma)
Body length:*Very Long (+10 toughness, -15 agility)
Tail: Bladed (+5 agility, intimidate, damage, -10 strength)
Breath: Life (-20 evil)

HP: 50+[4/5(75)=60] = 110
Strength: 50-5-10 = 35
Agility: 50-5-15+5 = 35
Intelligence: 50+10 = 60
Toughness: 50+10+5+10 = 75
Charisma: 50+5+5-15+20+5 = 70
Evilness : 50+5+10+10-20+5 = 60
Intimidation: 50+5-5 = 50

ATTACKS
Claws - 7 non-lethal (agility only; punching)
Bite - 21 + 5 acidic venom (10 + 4 fangs + 7 strength)
Tail - 17 (5 + 5 blade + 7 agility)
Ramming - 35 (20 very long tail/body + 15 Toughness)

-

Ophiokasha is a fallen paradigm from the celestial spheres. Once she was a set of stars who predicted the rid and fall of kings and queens, the shift of favor from one nation or ideology to another; now she is but lithe flesh and sinister intent. Cast from the heavens for her hubris when she began to play favorites amongst to courts of the gods, *Ophiokasha yearns for power, manipulation, intrigue, and at her heart to show up all the other would-be knock offs of the true draconic heritage.

There are those who say she is insane. There are those who say she has no right to claim the blood of high dragons, being such a malformed serpent.
They all end up in her gullet before they can spread such terrible, nasty rumors about her, of course.

Conniving, she is more likely to cling to rocks and skitter like a skink than walk proudly. Her vicious, noxious bite, her demeanor, and her ability to heal the most grievous of wounds are all bargaining chips in her play to power.

What she hasn't accounted for is the limits of the flesh; that draconic instincts to hoard and expand will eventually overpower her high minded ideals.

Ideal lair would be located at a juncture between rocky mug wins or highland heaths, and a hot or twa.Radhop
Name: Nagendres
Gender: Male
Body: No lower legs
Warps: Another Head
Iron Scales
Head:Snakish
Horns:No Horns
Claws: Normal
Scale Color: Cobalt
Body length :Long
Tail:Blade End
Breath:None
Stats:
Health: 124
Strength: 70 (50 Base, Body +5, Body Length +5, Tail -10. Gender +10, Breath +10)
Agility: 35 (50 Base,Warps -15, Body -10, Body Length -5, Tail +5, Gender+5, Breath +5)
Intelligence: 45 (50 Base, Warps -5, Gender -5, Extra +5)
Toughness: 90 (50 Base, Warps +10, Body +10, Body Length +5, Gender +5, Breath +10)
Charisma: 40 (50 Base, Warps -20, Head +5, Gender -10, Extra +15)
Evilness :70 ( 50 Base, Head +5, Horn -5 Warp +20)
Intimidation: 60 ( 50 Base, Head +5, Tail +5)

Draconi Redfir
Name: Karik Stonehide
Gender: Male
Body: Standard
Head: Standard
Horns: No horns
Warp: Iron Scales
Claws: Normal
Scale Color: Bronze
Body length: Standard
Tail: Blade
Breath: None

HP: 114
Strength: 60 (50 –10 (tail) +10 (breath) +10 (male)
Agility: 50 (50 + 5 (tail) +5 (breath) –5 (male) –15 (warp) +10 (bonus))
Intelligence: 45 (50 –5 (male)
Toughness: 80 (50 + 10 (breath) +5 (male)+10 (warp) +5 (bonus))
Charisma: 50 (50 + 5 (head) –10 (male) +5 (bonus))
Evilness : 45 (50 -5 (horns) )
Intimidation: 60 (50+ 5(head) +5 (tail))
Fame: 0
Trustworthiness: 50
Cruelty: 50

Claws: 13
Mouth: 22
Tail: 15
Ramming: 26



Brazen Shield
Name: Inferneaux
Gender: Male (+5 tough/agility, *-5 intelligence, +10 strength, -10 charisma)
Body: •No rear legs* (-10 agility, +10 tough, +5 strength)
•Iron scales (-15 agility, +10 toughness)
•lavaskin
Head: very rough (+5 evil, +10 intimidate/charisma)
Horns: long horns (+5 evil/intimidate/charisma)
Claws: Long claws (+5 evil/intimidate)
Scale Color: smoldering red (+5 intimidate)
Body length: Standard
Tail: Short* (-10 charisma, +5 agility)
Breath: no breath (+5 agility, +10 strength/tough)

HP: 110
Strength: 50+10+5+10+5 80
Agility: 50+5-10-15+5+5+5+5 50
Intelligence: 50-5 45
Toughness: 50+5+10+10 80
Charisma: 50-10+10+5-10-10 35
Evilness : 50+5+5+5 65
Intimidation: 50+10+5+5+5 90

ATTACKS:
Claws: 17 + 10 fire (9 + 10 agility)
Bite: 25 + 10 fire (10 + 16 strength)
Tail: 13 + 10 fire (5 + 10 agility + 1 spikes)
Ramming: 27 + 10 fire (10 base + 15 toughness)

As Inferneaux grew, he couldn't contain his breath, until it began to seep from the cracks between his scales. Transforming with age from a hot tempered, gunmetal wyrmling to a draconian chernabog, his real legs eventually burning away into an elemental swirl, like a volcanoe's plume or an ifrit's smokey tail.

He now fancies himself the dragon god of molten fire. Having taken up his lair in a jagged mountain and stoking it to life, he became a source of terror and pride for a neighboring group of tribal humanoids. His body superheated the basalt in the caves, fueling a hot-spring to erupt nearby, bringing prosperity to the tribe - in exchange for ritual sacrifice to their new volcano god.

His hunger over-ran the population of the tribe however, and the handful left refused any more sacrifices until they could replenish; now nothing stands but ash in the path of his eruption. bigger, stronger, smarter and hotter, Inferneaux thinks it's time to expand his domain.
AnimeKid
Name:Bellock
Gender:Male(Strength+10, Agility +5, Int-5, Tought +5, Cha-10)
Head:Very Rough(+10 intimidation, +5 evil, +10 cha)
Horns:Single Horn (+5 cha, -15 evil, +2 damage to ramming)
Claws:Overgrown( 9 claw damage, +5 intimidation, +5 evil)
Body:Long (+5 toughness, -5 agility)
Body Mod: No Wings( +10 strength, +10 toughness, -20 Cha)
Tail: Mace end (+10 strength, -10 agility, -5 cha, +2 damage)
Breath: Fire breath (+5 intimidate and evil)
Scale Color: a deep Crimson Red
Warps: Magical Flight(+10 evilness, +10 trustworthiness, -15 strength and tough, +10 agility

Stats

Hp: 98(+48 [tough]

STR: 75 (+10 Male, +10 No Wings, +10 Mace, -15 Magical flight, +10 Bonus points)
AGI: 50 (+5 Male, -5 Long body, -10 Mace, +10 Magical flight)
INT: 45 (-5, Male)
TOU: 60 (+5 Long, +10 No Wings, +5 Male, -15 Magical Flight, + 5 bonus points)
CHA: 40 (+10 Very Rough, +5 Single Horn, -20 No Wings, -10 Male +5 Bonus points)
Evil: 55 (-15 Single Horn, +5 Overgrown, +5 Fire breath, +5 Very Rough, +10 warp)
Trust:60 (+10 Magical Flight)
Intimidation: 70 (+10 Very Rough, +5 Overgrown, +5 Fire breath)

Bellock is an odd specimen to say the least. He was born with very good looks which was why he could be almost considered average in the looks department even though he was born wingless. However despite his intimidating appearance those who get to know Bellock see that he is quite the sweetheart despite what his gravelly voice might make you think. He is quite protective by nature which is why his stuck by his clutchmate Agnorant, to protect her from the harsh worlds dangers. T this end he has bettered himself be as strong as possible. To protect her along with Ahdokdwiin.

Bellock is a gentle giant until he is angered and shows just how well he honed his strength over the years. He often lets Agnorant ride on his back so that she does not tire herself out.
Creatures, and where they could be found on the map.
Human (Found anywhere in the little villages, along the roads, with caravans, ect)
Stats:
Health: 10+12=22
Strength: 15
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 15
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 50
Basic attacks:
Dagger:1+Agility modifier= 3
Spear/pike:6+Agility modifier=8
Arrow:3+Agility modifer=5
Axe=4+Strength modifier=7
Sword=3+Strength modifier=6

Dwarf
Stats: (See that gigantic city to the northeast? Thats there home. Dont screw with them.)
Health:10+16=26
Strength: 20
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 15
Toughness: 20
Charisma: 5
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 50
Basic attacks:
Hammer:3+Toughness modifier=7
Axe:4+Strenght modifier=8
Poleaxe:6+Agility modifer=7

Dwarfish Runeworker.
Stats: (They make magical items. Need I say more?)
Health:10+20=30
Strength: 25
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 30
Toughness: 25
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 50
Basic attacks:
Runehammer:5+Toughness modifier=10
Rune of Fire: 6+Intelligence modifier=12


Elf
Stats: (Your basic woods dweller. Most likily, if you see one, there are five more waiting for you to make a stupid move.)
Health:10+8=18
Strength: 15
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 15
Toughness: 10
Charisma: 15
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 40
Basic attacks:
Arrow:3+Agility modifer=7
Spear/pike:6+Agility modifier=10
Dagger:1+Agility modifier= 5


Elven Ranger
Stats: ( Think elven hit squads, backed up by there very homes. If you see a few heading you way, you must have fantastic eyesight. Oh, and it means that your going to die.)
Health:10+12=22
Strength: 20
Agility: 40
Intelligence: 15
Toughness: 15
Charisma: 25
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 40
Basic attacks:
Elven Percing Arrow:4+Agility modifer=12
Elven Warpike:8+Agility modifier=16




Goblin
Stats: 5+4=9(They can survive this world for a reason, look at there attacks. They live in the desert outcroppings.)
Strength: 5
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 5
Charisma: 5
Evilness : 60
Intimidation: 40
Basic attacks:
Makeshift Arrow:2+Agility modifer=6
Crude Spear/pike:2+Agility modifier=6
Dagger:1+Agility modifier= 5

Goblinish Raid Leader
Stats: 5+8=13(They lead the incampments. Every one is a decendent of Shax, and they will support eachother no matter what. A Steelblade is a goblin who has a full set of exelent armor taken from raids.)
Strength: 15
Agility: 30
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 10
Charisma: 5
Evilness : 60
Intimidation: 40
Basic attacks:
Stolen Scimitar:5+Strength modifer=8
Elven Dagger:3+Agility modifier= 9



Ogre
Stats: 20+20=40 (Big buggers, live in the hills and hunt elk in raids on the northernmost forest.)
Strength: 30
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 5
Toughness: 25
Charisma: 5
Evilness : 70
Intimidation: 70

Crude Massive Throwing spear:8+Strenght modifier=14
Cleaver:6+Toughness modifier=11

Troll
Stats: 20+40=60 (Turns to stone in sunlight, regens full health after one hour. Never is permentaly wounded, exept by fire. Can be found in nearly any area around the map, but tend to be found in the hills or swamps.)
Strength: 45
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 50
Charisma: 5
Evilness : 70
Intimidation: 60

Whole Thrown Tree:7+strenght modifier=13
Whole Uprooted Tree:7+Toughness modifier=17

Giant
Stats: 25+40=65 (They come from the south, "dumb" giants are usualy misidentifed ogres or even trolls. You might find one as a guard for some southern emir or something. In that case, it would have armor.)
Strength: 60
Agility: 15
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 50
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 70
Intimidation: 60
Thrown Stone:5+agility modifier=8
Large Scimitar :6+ Strength modifier=18

Boggle
Stats: 5+0=5 (Tiny, evil fairy creatures. Think goblins, exept fey and actualy utterly evil. Anywhere in the swamp and the forest around it.)
Strength: 5
Agility: 30
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: *
Charisma: 5
Evilness : 90
Intimidation: 10

*Twiggy and pathetic, they do not have a Toughness score. Anything that could pierce them could kill them. But first, you must find them.
Basic attacks:
Dagger:1+Agility modifier= 7


Wizerd
Stats: ( There is one in the capital, but some might build towers in the area later on in the game.)
Health: 10+12=22
Strength: 15
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 60
Toughness: 15
Charisma: 20
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 50
Basic attacks: Most mages can use three-four of the magical spells listed. Most mages, however, can use differnt spells than those listed, and depending on the individual they might be a tad more or less potent that this fully trained master of magic. Think of him as a template, of sorts.
Dagger:1+Agility modifier= 3

Fireball:5+Intelect modifier=17
Frostblast:5+Intelect modifier=17
Necromantic Bolt:*
Blight:*
Mutate:*
Inhance ect:*
Thunderstrike:7+Intelect modifier=19
Levitate:*
Stop Movement:*
Forceful Transformation:*

*Ask about exact damage, effects, or what is the upper limit of its abilitys. Magic is a inexact art, and its effects can change with the situation.


Royal Guardsman
Stats: (Men with the strenght of a ogre and twice as smart, these guys are effectivly the highest position a non-noble can get in the kingdom. )
Health: 10+24=34
Strength: 30
Agility: 15
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 30
Charisma: 15
Evilness : 10
Intimidation: 60
Basic attacks:
Magical Sword=8+Strength modifier=14

Horses
Stats: (People ride them.)
Health: 15+20=35
Strength: 25
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 25
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 20
Basic attacks:
Hoof:3+Strength modifier:8
Camels
Health: 15+28=43 (People from the south ride them. For fun, they often attempt to get a drunken northerner to ride one of there mounts for giggles.)
Strength: 30
Agility: 15
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 35
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 20
Basic attacks:
Hoof:3+Strength modifier=9
Unicorns
Health: 15+20=35 (Found in the magical land of Equestria the forest, rarly mounted by elves. Unicorns usualy react to those who wish to ride them by spearing them in the gut.)
Strength: 20
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 25
Toughness: 25
Charisma: 20
Evilness : 20
Intimidation: 60
Basic attacks:
Hoof:3+Strength modifier=7
Horn:5+Charisma modifier=9
Holy Blast:2+Intelligence modifier=7
Heal: Heals 15 damage per-day with horn. This is effect of the horn, and happens even if not attached to the unicorn.
Elk
Stats: Elven mounts. Basic horses are horrible in miles of woodland.
Health: 15+26=31
Strength: 20
Agility: 30
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 20
Charisma: 20
Evilness : 10
Intimidation: 20
Basic attacks:
Hoof:3+Strength modifier:7
Horn:5+Charisma modifier=9
Griffon
Stats: ( Dwarves "tame" these creatures, but they are found wild along the hills.)
Health: 15+20=35
Strength: 25
Agility: 30
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 25
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 70
Basic attacks:
Talon:4+Agility modifier:10
Beak:6+Strength modifier:11

Hippogryphs
Stats: ( The typical horse-griffen crossbred.)
Health: 15+16= 31
Strength: 20
Agility: 40
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 20
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 70
Basic attacks:
Buck:3+Strength modifier:7
Talon:4+Agility modifier:14
Beak:6+Strength modifier:10
Giant Eagle :
Stats: (elves ride these guys in lew of griffons. Found in the biggest elven cities, often rided by Rangers sniping rouge griffons or wyverns, along with the occasinal foolish dragon.))
Health: 20+16=36
Strength: 30
Agility: 45
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 20
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 70
Basic attacks:
Talon:4+Agility modifier:13
Beak:6+Strength modifier:12
Bear
Stats: ( They generaly live in forests and hills. Cave bears live in caves.)
Health: 20+28=48
Strength: 25
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 35
Charisma: 5
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 50
Basic attacks:
Swipe:3+Strength modifier=8
Hug:4+Toughness modifier=11

Groundhound
Stats: ( These creatures that are by no means Deathclaws crossed with Dimond Dogs lair in the hills, but will ambush any prey south of that by there tunnel system that coversmost of the northwest.)
Health: 15+20=35
Strength: 20
Agility: 65
Intelligence: 20
Toughness: 25
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 80
Basic attacks:
Claw:4+Agility modifier:17
Smash From Below:6+Strength modifier:10


Undead
Due to many differant kinds of undead being avilable, it's only fair to have them split up into templates and such.

Non-Nonsentinent Basic Undead (Zombies, skelatons, ect.)
Weaknesses:Compulsion magic can overide a necromancers control, decays over time.
Health: +20,
Strength: + 10
Agility: -15
Intelligence:0, does what it is ordered to do by its creater.
Toughness: +15, but only when dealing with attack scores and other things. No effect on health total.
Charisma: 0
Evilness : Normaly unthinking, so kind of iffy.
Intimidation: +5
Attacks: Gains a natural slam attack based on the nonmodifed toughness score plus the creatures base health divided by five.

Sentinent Basic Undead (Ghouls, others)
Sun alarms them, tends to have a group mentality. Tends.
Weaknesses:
Health: +15
Strength: + 10
Agility: +5
Intelligence: Base creatures.
Toughness: +10, but only when dealing with attack scores and other things. No effect on health total.
Charisma: -5
Evilness : +20
Intimidation: +10
Attacks: Gains a natural slam attack based on the nonmodifed toughness score plus the creatures base health.

Vampires
Weaknesses: Sunlight, Fey-wood weapons. "Holy" attacks deal damage that cannot be healed with rest. Needs to drink blood, and control over turned creatures wains over time.
Health: +10
Strength: + 10
Agility: +15
Intelligence: Base creatures.
Toughness: +20, but only when dealing with attack scores and other things. No effect on health total.
Charisma: +10
Evilness : Usualy +25
Intimidation: +15
Attacks: Gains a natural slam attack based on the nonmodifed toughness score plus the creatures base health. A bite attack that is purely based on Agility modifier plus Strenght modifer also is avalible, but the vamp usualy never uses it unless he plans on feeding or is going to turn the apponent. Also, it can only be preformed on prone apponents of the same general body shape of the vampire. Most often use there slam attack, prefering to avoid weapons. Older vampires often bind a mage or two to increase there intelect a bit, and often can transform into different froms or use lesser magic.

Spiritual Undead (Ghosts, Shades, Specters, Shadows, Wraiths)
Weaknesses: Cannot touch physical objects, often bound to certent locations.
Health:* Creatures base total.
Strength:0
Agility: Same as Base Creature.
Intelligence: Base creatures.
Toughness: 0
Charisma: Same as Base creature
Evilness : Usualy the same, but spirits come from all races.
Intimidation: Depends on creatures apperance.
Attacks: All damage modifers are based on its Base Health modifer. A Ghost can only be attacked with magical weapons, and it's attacks are based not on physical damage but on the aura surrounding it. Be it necrotic energy or a freezing chill, it's size is the main concern when dealing with a ghost. Inteligent ghosts may or may not have further, darker powers.

Greater Undead (Death Knights, Lichs, Wights)
Weaknesses: May or may not have a object as the focus of the necromantic energy simulating as there soul, and the distruction of it ( A small pendent, a weapon, a person) might weaken or distroy the undead permenatly.
Health:+25
Strength:+20
Agility: +5
Intelligence: Base creatures.
Toughness: +20
Charisma: -10
Evilness : +30
Intimidation: +20
Attacks:Gains a natural slam attack based on the nonmodifed toughness score plus the creatures base health. Has full ability to use weapons, and often have deadly skill with them. Often can use magic. Prepare thyself, young adventurer.

Deathless (Cursed Souls, Husks, Ghasts)
Health:+20
Strength:+15
Agility: +10
Intelligence: Base creatures.
Toughness: +20
Charisma: -20
Evilness : +20
Intimidation: +30
Attacks:Gains a natural slam attack based on the modifed toughness score plus the creatures base health. Often uses weapons. Always regenerates health (ie: mends limbs in a burst of shadow-stuff, removes arrows and corrods them if there stuck in, ect)in a burst of necromantic power if damaged. Only way to kill is to completly remove the head, for even holy magic can only suppress the healing for the means of breaking limbs without retaliation. Complete obliteration of the body will work as well.

Evil Realy Nasty Things that can Rip a Dragon a Few New Ones.
Uber Giant Bears.
Stats:
Health: 40+96= 136( Ursas like to attack with their natural weapons)
Strength: 100
Agility: 15
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 120
Charisma: 10
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: ?
Basic attacks:
Swipe:9+Strength modifier=29
Death Hug:10+Toughness modifier=34

Gildengriffon
Stats: ( This brat is the result of years of dwarven expermentation to create the perfect dragon-killer. Unfortunatly, they succeded.)
Health: 15+20+40(Armor inlays ahoy!)=75
Strength: 25
Agility: 60
Intelligence: 30 (She can talk. Mostly to mock your lame-o dragons.)
Toughness: 25
Charisma: 40
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 70
Basic attacks:
Talon:4+Agility modifier=16
Tail Spike :6+Agility modifier=18
Sharp Beak: 8+Strength modifier= 13


"True" Hydra

(Seven headed varient. There is one on the map, and it lives in the swamp. Its asleep, but only as long as a very fragile aray is kept safe from harm.)
HP: 50+64= 114
Strength: 80
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 80
Charisma: 5
Evilness : 80
Intimidation: 90

ATTACKS:
Claws: 10 + Strength modifier= 26
Bite: 12+Toughness modifier=28

Fab River Serpent
This is never ment to be used. Take a guess why?
HP: 10 +48=58
Strength: 15
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 10
Toughness: 60 (He is a giantic river-dwelling creature. Ever seen a Sturgen fight a fisherman?)
Charisma: 100 (Meet the most interesting serpent in the world.)
Evilness : 10
Intimidation: 10

ATTACKS:
Claws: 1 + Charisma modifier= 21
Bite: 3+ Charisma modifier= 23

Roc
Stats:( Southern beasti, this is why there is no such thing as a "southern dragon".)
Health: 40+32=72
Strength: 60
Agility: 40
Intelligence: 15
Toughness: 40
Charisma: 15
Evilness : 50
Intimidation: 70
Basic attacks:
Talon:7+Agility modifier:15
Beak:15+Strength modifier:27


.................................................. .................................................. .......................

"Well , good morning everyone! As we all know, the people of the grand land of Tagonas has had a long and fantastic history. However, the kingdom itself was only founded a few decades ago, and yes, boys and girls, today is nothing less than the marking of a century of peace among the people of the kingdom. As always, I shall do the annual telling of the tale of the founding of our land, not the tale your fathers told you, but the actual, historical account. And I say this and only this, children, it was better than anything your folks could come up with!



"Well, a long, long time ago, when the gnomes still traded on the surface and before humans truly settled in the land in large-scale groups, there was forest streching from the east to the entire hill-range, and the elves still had there wars with the dwarves and the goblins had there empires, there was a foul, cruel dragon named Pyrespite. This dragon was nothing like todays wyrms, childeren. His scales where no set color, always shifting, and he was miles-long, and with a tail-whip he could knock down a whole row of houses and his breath could roast entire fields of crops. They say that perhapes he was some pet of mage that experemented with him in the egg. Others say he was no less than a god. Me? I dont know. I do know, however. the tails are not exaggerations: it was he who burnt down the entire western forest and killed all the tree-men who lived there. It was he who smashed the gnomish city like a egg and filled it with toxic smoke that exists to this day.

Naturaly, some had to stop this creature before the land was ruined. The son of a local chieftan, whose name was no less than Winsten, traveled the area in search of people who could stop this creature. In this band, he gathered four other heros: Sha'sel the elven swordsman, Gragoth Goldluck the dwarven warlord, Shax the goblin steelblade, and Aroth, the wizerd. Together, the banded together and ambushed the beast in his lair, at a place called Stoneson. The former dwarven keep was inhabited by the wyrm, who dug even deeper into the dwarven mines and had a great hoard there. One day, while the wyrm was getting ready to fly out, the trap sprong, and the beast was crushed by the boulders it triggered with its movement! While it did not actualy harm the beast, the varying attacks to its exposed head did. They say the royal sword still sizzles from the gouging the young prince gave to the beasts eyes.


"After the slaying of the wyrm, the heros went there seperate ways. Sha'sel is the only one alive today, sadly. Old Gragoth died without a heir, leading to the confederacy today in there city. Shax was...successful, to say the least, and his grandsons each run there own camp out in the southlands.The prince had his heir, and his son left his, and the bloodline now has its crown prince of the same name as his grandparent. And Aroth? They say that he simply went off into the world, just as wizerds are prone to do."

"And this is your favorite writer, ladys and gentalfolk, signing off!"

[AnimeKid]

Bellock

A large and very rough scaled red head looked out over the tree tops. After satisfying itself with the view the dragon that had peeked over the canopy had stops hovering in the air and allowed itself to lower to the ground. Unlike many dragons however, this one had no wings. Instead it seemed to keep itself afloat as though by magic. Landing on the ground on all fours the dragon continues walking on it's way, looking out for intruders and food. While on it's patrol it's nose flairs as it catches a familiar scent. 'Deer, and they are with fawns. Perfect'.

With his predator nature now in place the dragon flies into the air through the canopy, following the scent of the four legged creatures. When he is directly above them, his shadow hidden by the canopy, he flies downward at high speed. He lands in the clearing startling the deer as they run, their fawns not far behind. However the dragon's long body allows him to kill a great number of them with a swipe from his mace-like tail. Grabbing the ones that he managed to down in his gaping maw. The red dragon then walks back towards the lair it shared with it's clutchmates. Agnorant would appreciate something to eat. Ahdokdwin was very capable of taking care of himself though.

He had to wonder if his clutchmate was really all there sometimes. Of course he loved Ahdokdwin to death, like a brother. However was it really wise to have their lair here so close to elven territory? Still that had not been discovered or attacked yet to there must have been some fortune in this place.

(Is this post okay or is it to god-mody?)

[Orzel]

Zelio

The long brown dragon leisurely snaked in the gritty winds of the southern dessert. His spiked chin brushed the sand down to the ground as he lazily approached a lone merchant over a sand dune. The camel looked tasty but he ran out of seasoning. No red peppers. No green herbs.

Instead of charging in for a snack. Or for a conversation. Zelio plainly descended from afar. The desert winds concealed his gentle landing. Then his claws dug down into the sand so his spiny wings could lay flat on the sand. Zelio was lazy.

"I, King Zelio, follow him later. He'll be the only other thing in the sand. It is time for a royal nap."

[radhop]

Nagendres

Woe unto those who did not fear the word...Dragon. A being of mighty power, pure strength, and master of deceit. At-least that was Nagendres way of thinking about the world around them. Oh how it should be theirs, right in front of their eyes yet so far from their grasp.

Over looking two goblin camps higher up on the rock perched this Dragon. Looking at both camps planning the empire that would arise of these small insignificant pawns in their game of chess. "Soon people will cower at the mention of the name of Nagendres they will beg for the return of Pyrespite and his benevolent reign." But for now they were content to recede back into their lair to make sure nothing would interfere with their plans.

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12456110&postcount=136) let out a whimper as another set of gryphons flew above him, that was the fourth group he'd seen that day, he must have wandered into Dwarven territory by mistake while roaming the mountains. Once he was sure the creatures were out of sight, Karik scurried out from under the overhanging rock he had been using as a hiding place, looking around quickly to make sure there wasn't anything else that could potentially spot him. Ensured he was in the clear, Karik resumed climbing and crawling over the stone that made up the mountain beneath him, there would be no flying today, just as there was none yesterday or the day before. Flying made him too visible a target, and while he could probably take on a few gryphons or dwarves in a pinch, he was still paranoid about the rival dragon who had taken over his lair several miles back, you could never tell with dragons, sometimes they are content to allow a victim escape if it means getting what they want, other times they go to any lengths to ensure they do not survive.

So there would be no flying today, but Karik didn't mind too much, he preferred it on the ground, usually only reserving flying for moments when he needed to move quickly. Fortunately right now was not one of those moments, the gryphons were gone, and while he expected they would be back, the rocky structure of the mountain always allowed for half decent cover if he needed it.

Karik paused as he reached the peak of another wall of stone jutting out of the mountainside; there was something in the air, a faint musky scent, like something you get when you combine wet fur, dung, and a hint of blood. As a best guess Karik would say there were goats nearby, and he hadn't eaten in days, since before his forced exile from his own lair. There would be no flying today, but perhaps there might still be eating.

((Bah, first few posts in an RP are always bad, and being tired in this case doesn't help me that much. ahh well it works i guess, just hope i get this guy were i want him to be before too long.))

[PurityIcekiller]

((Well, I guess I might as well get started.))

[SpOke's Lake]

A large fish swam back and forth with no clear purpose. No one knew what was going on in its little fishy mind, however, and there could have been more to its seemingly aimless swimming. Maybe it was waiting for something. Maybe it was thinking deep thoughts, wiser than most humans. Maybe it was secretly plotting world domination through a scheme that it most likely was physically incapable of enacting in its lifetime.

Whatever the case, a sudden lightning bolt striking the water brought the fish's thought processes to a permanent stop.

Once the shocks subsided, Sparkwing dove into the lake to gather up the fish he'd managed to kill. Lightning-fishing could be considered overkill by humans and a waste of a powerful ability to dragons, but it worked well enough for him. "Wow! Got some big ones this time!"

Once he had all the fish he wanted, Sparkwing swam around a little longer, enjoying the feeling of the cool water on his scales, before climbing out and heading for home. The morning was going well so far.

[Northwestern Mountains]

Smoketail glided over the rocks, hunting for prey. A mountain goat or sheep, fire-roasted to perfection, made a nice, hearty meal for a dragon. Unfortunately, a recent spell of cold weather in the mountains had left the prey animals with little food, and the few she could find were painfully scrawny.

"These bony things aren't very appetizing, and they wouldn't even be enough for one of those humans..." She paused, considering the humans. They were so strange, so pathetic, and yet so strong. Somehow, they managed to survive without the benefit of claws and teeth and with relatively magic. It had to be their intelligence that allowed them to survive. They could make tools and use them, grow their own plants, and raise their own animals.

This gave her an idea. She could see if the humans in the nearest village had any good animals.

She changed her flight path and headed out of the mountains, singing to herself. "The mountain sheep are sweeter, but the valley sheep are fatter; We therefore deemed it meeter to carry off the latter."

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12470119&postcount=296)

Two dragons sat atop a craggy cliff, looking down over the land before them. The larger dragon, turned to the smaller one.

"You're sure about this place, Edellipas?" he said.

The other dragon gave a cunning smile. "Of course, dear brother. This cave may not look much, but it's easy to defend. Well camoflaged by foliage, built high into a cliff, close enough to dwarven territory that invaders will think twice about attacking, it's a good start."

The brother stayed quiet for a long time, deep in thought. Finally he spoke what was on his mind. "You know that Mother will be watching you. She'll send spies to look out for you. She always does. You're the favourite." he said, a hint of bitterness in his voice.

"I know, but I've told her not to interfere. I've spent my life having things handed to me. It's time to start taking what I want." her eyes passed over the rich and fertile lands of the humans, far to the south. "Everything. Of course, I will need to aquire allies. There are other dragons in this country, I'm sure of it. Some may be useful to me." Edellipas yawned, stretching her arms and wings out. "Thank you for accompanying me brother. I promise to send word of my successes soon."

Edell's brother nodded, before standing and spreading his wings. "I'll leave it to you then. Take care sister." and with two beats of his powerful wings, he was gone.

I suppose I should do some scouting, thought Edellipas to herself. Taking off, she flew towards the rocky hills to the south, keeping lower to the ground than she normally would, to avoid unessessary attention.

[SiuiS]

The curling stench of acid and meat left to it's own devices filled the small hollow, clinging like a fog to the half-eaten deer carcass. Several flies attempted their gods-given duty of handling refuse, but most quickly fell dead, withered from the poison still clinging in droplets and wisps to the doe's fur. Hanging over the body, a draconic shape lounged, curled in a spiral around a spall, vividly glittering pile of gold.

Ophiokasha clicked her teeth and surveyed the deer-and-a-half, and the dragonesque rock. A trick of the rock, and the light, the Fool's Wyrm was an oddity; a spire of basalt or granite or some other hard, volcanic spew, peppered and riddled at its base with quartz, fools gold, and iron flecks, and worn by time and tide into a sleeping dragon on it's hoard. The Fool's Wyrm was also Ophiokasha's favorite part of this swamp, as anything looking to start trouble would end up attempting to "slay" a slumbering rock.

It also served as a marker, for hard times. The peat rolled easily from the trees, a foot thick, all the way to the spire's base, concealing several feet of stagnant bog beneath. Even Ophiokasha's greatness barely made the trees wobble, save at a full run. The perfect hunting ground, and the perfect meat locker.

Certainly, she would rather gorge. Eat her fill of these, and some of the weeds that grow in the fens. But she had signalled the man-king Eloride earlier, to continue negotiations. She needed to be mobile, in case something changed. And a great dragon, belly laden with meat, was far from mobile...

With a screaming hiss the top layer of the bog parts under her tail blade, and the deer carcasses - one buck, one front-half of a doe - are dragged easily to the water, and pushed beneath the surface. With the merest exhalation, Ophiokasha poised over the hole in the peat, and watches the plant matter reknit itself, sealing the meat below.

She looks up, through a break in the canopy, checks the sun. Only a quarter hour had passed, no even the most attentive human would be ready to ride by now... There is still time to find some milkweed, some mint, and a spot of water to freshen up with.

Ophiokasha stretches, unhinged her jaw almost as if yawning, flexes each opera-esque tooth in turn. She starts, hisses, clenches, then growls. The gash from the buck was but a nuisance, but deep, and still ached. It would be a while before she could seal the wound properly, and would just have to risk encountering the guards contingent at less than full power.

[Mindfreak]

Lord Eloride
Lord Eloride paced about the hallowed halls of his manor as on of his bodyguards became excited.
"My Lord! The dragon has given the signal!"
Lord Eloride nodded his head in acknowledgement. He knew the dragon they were negotiating with was worth the negotiations. She was the closest dragon to his town, and it was his duty to negotiate with her to see if he could make this dragon not into a curse, but a boon.
"Signal the squad to go ahead and continue negotiations."
"Yes, My Lord!" the dwarf bodyguard exclaimed as he ran over to a torch on the wall of the manor. Taking it up in hand he raced upstairs to the roof of the manor where their signal fire had been placed. A large bonfire, it would burn with a blue smoke when lit, a signal to Ophiokasha that Lord Eloride was sending his men to the meeting place halfway between their homes and to his men, a squad of 2 Swordsmen, 2 Gate Guards, and 4 Archers all on horseback.
The dwarf lit the signal fire and the blue smoke quickly filled the air!
In the main square of the town, the squad of Lord Eloride's men(let's call them Alpha Team) saw the signal smoke and mounted their horses and galloped out of town, heading towards the meeting place. Having lived in the town all their lives, they had been out in the swamps many times. As such, they would be able to gracefully maneuver their horses through the swampland, making good time.

And at the meeting place they'll wait, the Archers have their bows drawn with the Swordsmen guarding from the back of the chest and the Gate Guards guarding from the front of the chest. This chest contained the items for continued negotiations.

[Ninja_Grand]

Ahdokdwin

Ahdokdwin wake up from a dream. Elfs were at his beck and call, killing for gold and giveing half to him. His piece of his bladed tail lays in a hilt dripping with blood.

"That is a great idea." he mumbles to his self. He slices the wall were many marks can be seen. "I should visit Agnorant. He is the smartest in out clutch." The dragon wills himself aloft and go'es on a hunt for dear. He spots some hurt dear and some fawns. He sneaks up on them and with a quick thought and a quicker slice he has 4 dear. "This shall feed him and me. Bellock is very capable of taking care of himself." He eats two dear and grabs the rest and takes off for Agnorant lair.

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik was right about the goats at least, there had been a small group of them munching away at several patches of grass that had forced their way up through cracks in the stone. It was difficult to grab one without flying too high, but in the end the head had lost one of it's numbers, and Karik was now walking with a half eaten herbivore in his mouth. He was seeking a safe place to finish it, having quickly swallowed a large chunk or two at the kill site to make sure he did not leave hungry if something came to take his kill away. Not that he expected other dragons to be in the area, but he wouldn't be surprised if there were, or at the very least there might be some kind of troll or ogre, perhaps even a pair of griffons looking for an easy meal.


Karik finally settled under a decently sized overhang to finish his meal, it was much too small to make a lair, but it provided a safe cover for the moment. It took a moment for Karik to double check to make sure the area was clear, but eventually he was able to finish his meal in relative peace.

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha rubs catlike against an old growth tree, removing the last of the weed from her fangs, and turns to swiftly slither to the swamp's edge, silent. Even the birds around, strange and colorful, continue their song under her surprisingly stealthy travel.

She is lost in thought, reverie. Or as lost as any creature which such strong senses. But this reverie ends, quickly, as she comes across a string of air laced with the warm, frothy smells of oil, leather and horse.

So they have already arrived.

Ophiokasha stops in her transit and shifts posture, poised as if to strike. Great nostrils flare, and then a slow lap of he air with a coal/black tongue. Nothing new, save incense. Probably from whatever dusty vault the spoils were drawn from. She flares her teeth, tapping the right fang dully against a fallen, nigh-petrified tree in agitation. Tik Tik Tik.

The guards wouldn't - couldn't - see her coming, not if she willed otherwise. But the horses would notice her scent and shy away, even through the fens, and after the milkbath. She would instead have to get close, fast, in order to position herself.

Ophiokasha begins to run, the trees shaking, making soft, rhythmic noises as they shudder, swish-swish, swish-swish.

***

The edge, where the thickness of the trees dies as the bogs proper mee the plains adjoining the kingdom. Through the trunks she could already see the armed men, archers to the rear.

With speed born of practice, she rushed to the edge, staying just inside the shadow cover, so fast her voice is already rolling like fog around the soul diets by the time the horses register their fear.

http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee468/WizardPony/432e8e21.jpg

Really should have laid out groundwork first. Not quite how I imagine it at all, except for the guardsman.

Too bad I wasn't paying close enough attention; there are no horses with the guards, I think :smallredface:

"I see your Manking still delays our meeting." She snakes her head, letting the sound ring through the trees, confusing direction. "Or are you given hiz voice, as Majordomo? Do you speak with the authority of the King? It does not matter, I ssuppose."

Ophikasha snakes out her head to the herald, Her face seeming to appear from shadow around eyes of green smoldering fire. "Haz he agreed to disspenssing of prisoners through trial by dragon? Or must we part yet still, to wait until one party or another gets anxious and calls again?"

Actions: Stay within tree cover to hide her movements.
Extend her head from one direction, while moving her body and tail broadside, extending wings as an arrow shield.
Hide her tail so that it is within striking distance from a surprise angle.
Use her serpentine form to do this covertly [AGILITY 35], distract the guards with badinage [CHARISMA 70], and use her voice to hide the subtle sounds of her shifting, even from the horses [INTELLIGENCE 60]

Rough, and not to scale.

http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee468/WizardPony/496b2245.jpg

Double blue line is the border. Black line is dragon position; purple is Wong r tail blade. Spotted camo is bad attempt at tree cover.

Not getting ready to attack, but very paranoid, especially about being surprised by a strikeforce on her doorstep.

[Mindfreak]

Guards
The guards seem rather unfazed by the dragon, but the horses become a bit unsettled...
"Lord Eloride has agreed to executions of prisoners through trial by dragon. In this chest is the money we have agreed upon for your monthly sum. Lord Eloride also requests for you to come to Fairhaven immediately to show the townsfolk that you will not cause them harm."

[PurityIcekiller]

[Northwestingville]

The gate guards of Northwestingville had been hoping for a normal morning with few incidents. Unfortunately, the moment they spotted the scout riding towards town as frantically as if his life depended on it, they knew they wouldn't get one.

"Quick! Get the gates sealed and inform Sergeant Arona!" called the scout. "I saw a dragon!"

One of the guards raised an eyebrow. "A dragon? I thought they were more concerned with towns and cities to the south."

"Come on, Oslan," said the other guard. "He wouldn't be that worried if he hadn't seen one."

"Oh, okay. So, scout, what did this dragon look like and what was it doing?"

"It was black, and big! Bigger than my horse! And it was flying toward the town!"

"That sounds troublesome," said the guard who wasn't Oslan. "We'd probably get what few defences this town has ready."

"Most dragons are bigger than horses, Santiago," replied the guard who was named Oslan. "How much bigger was it?"

"A couple feet or so longer and taller!"

"See? It's not even a particularly big dragon. Let's wait for it to show up and see what it wants."

"All right. But I'm still getting the Sergeant and preparing for an attack." With that, Santiago darted off, leaving Oslan to wait for the dragon's arrival.

[SpOke's Lair]

As Sparkwing ate the fish, his thoughts eventually turned to the creatures he lived so close to.

Humans...

They should be the least intimidating creatures around. They're small, weak, without natural defences of any kind. And yet they're the most powerful and frightening creatures in the world. They're living oxymorons.

Their secret must be the technology they make. With their little tools, they can do anything. They can supplement their lack of natural defences with steel plates and blades. They can tame parts of the natural world, build their own environments. They can share their knowledge, and keep improving themselves throughout the ages. They're adaptable.

Still, without their inventions, what is a man? The dragon flicked his tail, accidentally striking a glass goblet he was sure hadn't been there a moment ago and sending it flying. They depend on their inventions. So if they went without them, they'd be helpless...

Could this work both ways? Could the humans' creations make a dragon stronger? If they could, then I could never have to be afraid of anything again.

With that, he took off to check out the nearest human town. To learn more of their secrets, which they were piles of themselves.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas swooped down over the craggy rocks and landed between several sharp spires, quickly lowering herself down to avoid detection. She has smelt something. Fresh blood. It carried easily on the wind. Something had been hunting nearby. Slowly stalking her way through the rocky hills, she eventually spotted the target in the distance.

Another dragon! I didn't expect to find one so soon!

The silvery scales of the dragoness were perfect for dazzling lesser creatures with their beauty, but not so useful for hiding. She had to make sure to stay in the shadows if she wished to observe this other dragon. It would be crucial to observe his movements to determine whether he could be an enemy or an ally. Attempting to stay in the shadowed areas, she snuck closer.

(Actions: Stay stealthy, sneak closer to Karik. I guess that would be agility? [55])

[Orzel]

Zelio

After a quick nap, the brown dragon stretched open his toothy maw for a long yawn. His tongue flailed against and across the sands as his jaw stills remained in the dunes. Zelio was still too lazy to even get up stretch and flung sand every which way.

Why does showing all the world how great I, King Zelio, am have to require some much effort?

Zelio snapped at the desert floor and wolfed down a few swallows of sand. One more than what was needed for his weapon. The overindulgence caused a coughing reaction and a sand geyser blasted into windward dune. The heated sandglass climbed in a swirl and pushed the hill forward.

Eventually Zelio got up and continued his quest airborne. The sand dragon did not take long to catch up to the humaniod traveller from before. Although he was slow for a dragon, this was the sand dragon's domain. When the desert winds quieted. he let his voice free again.

Slow yourself! Traveller, Zelio commands you to halt and speak with him!

(Actions: Fly in front of goblin on mount AGILITY [25], and convince it to listen instead of running. CHARISMA [60])

[Pokonic]

(Assume that the first posts happened a few in-game days beforehand)

"Well, kids, I have a extra-special story to tell all of you, and it mostly involves travelers to Fairhaven : beware of strange creatures! A week ago, a entire family-driven cart was found a few minutes walk away from the main road, with the liquid slurry that was formaly the Jonsin family, consiting of Mary and Ezical Jonsin and there seven childern permiating the entire area. The families mule was found decapitated near it, with the head more than a few feet away. Notably, nothing was stolen, and the Rangers who originaly found the bodys say that this attack was from no swamp or forest beast they knew of. Personaly, my dwarven readers, I would trust the few hundred years-old elven eiltes for once, eh? Also, I would not mess with anything that can cleave off a mules head with a single swipe, and it was a swipe. No sword can shear off a head. Luckly, kids, the attacks have stopped for now. Still, get even more protected than normal to go to the accursed swamp-city than you would for a troll attack or a boggle ambush.

Also, for those interested in such things as trade: I have been alerted of a very large haul of undisclosed items from the grand city of Al-Shaba that will be revealed in the capital. And for those who wish to claim such a certaint prize, dont be a fool. The goblins are the ones protecting the caraven this time, and they are, to be fair, very fast and more than capiable of crippling you and leaving you for the desert lions. Best to wait for the unveiling, for those who wish to see what is the treasure, in my opinion. If one wishes to have my further insight into it, one can see my chief representative bidding for the items at my leasure.

Thats all, folks!"

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik raised his head quickly as he finished his meal, he had thought he smelled something, but it was faint, and just as quickly as the breeze presented it to him, he was gone. Karik couldn't tell what it was as he didn't have enough time to identify it, but it was something. Perhaps just the smell of an oxen several miles away or something of the sort. Karik quickly shook it from his mind and looked to the sky, no sign of anything above him, and nothing on the ground, it seemed safe to come out.

It didn't take very long for Karik to begin picking up the signs of a running river ahead, the scent of water vapour and the sound of churning liquid had begun filling the air. While the blood of his recent kill was more then enough to keep him going, Karik could appreciate a little water, if only to clean off the drying blood that was now stuck to his snout. After crawling over another rocky formation or two he could see it, flowing from what he assumed was Dwarven territory at the highest points of the mountains, down to the plains below, were he could see several settlements of some kind in the distance. Directly across from him rose yet another mountain on the opposite shore of the river, littered in various cliffs and outcroppings, it would be a safe bet that perhaps there was a cave or two over there he could examine after a quick drink, perhaps set up a new lair for himself. But not right now.

Karrik looked up, behind, and side to side, nothing caught his attention. Assured he was still safe, he stretched out his wings and allowed them to instinctively flap several times, blowing some dust and lifting his front legs almost a foot off the ground temporarily. Glad to finally have that out of his system, Karik folded his wings against his back once more and lowered his head into the river to drink, willing himself to avoid any thoughts of whatever the Dwarves may put in this water should they actually exist.

[radhop]

(OOC: I didn't know what goblins lived in so I pictured a adobe would suit them.)


Exiting their lair which consisted of mainly a large boulder split in half, with rocks that went down the backside to leave only but one entrance...and exit. Still it had space for a dragon and a small hoard of gold to fit comfortably. Much to the fools dismay to find themselves entering with no knowledge of what was inside.

Nagendres pulling their body weight with their strong front claws to settle on a small outcrop of rocks. "Lets go meet our neighbors shall we?" This time the other head spoke "Oh yes we wouldn't want to be rude now would we?" Slipping over the rock into a free fall with the wind rushing into their faces, oh how man would never enjoy that sensation unless they were dropped by some other creature to there demise.

Spreading their wings to catch the wind current to sail over one of the goblins village. Nagendres positioned themself so that the sun was to their back just in case the goblins try to attack him. flying over the village they took a glance at the town with both their heads scanning for the most important looking building. Finding a small adobe just a bit bigger than the rest he assumed that that would be the best spot for his entrance.

Spreading to their utmost wideness they engulfed the ground in their shadow. Always one for a flashy entrance Nagendres descended to the ground to find goblins surrounding them to much to surprised to actually put together a force to defend against this dragon that appeared with no warning.

Shouting at the top of his powerful lungs through both mouths "Bring your leader to us now! We have something we want to discuss with him! Do so now or our patience will grow thin." With in moments of this large outburst goblins scrambled to their house will some went more for the larger adobe. Now he would wait for the "negotiations" to begin.

[PurityIcekiller]

((The timeskip kind of splits a day in half for the SpOke silbings, so everything for them is either pre-timeskip or post-timeskip.))

[Northwestingville Again]

Smoketail came in for a landing, and found that a small number of the town's guards were waiting for her.

"Well, well, well!" said Sergeant Arona. "It appears Scouty's reports of a dragon were only somewhat exaggerated."

"Were you just stating the obvious, or making a crack about my size?" said Smoketail, completely deadpan. "One isn't really necessary, and the other is coming from someone even smaller than me."

"With all due respect, Sergeant, we really ought to get this business out of the way as quickly as possible."

"Ah, yes. Anyway, my good dragon, what is your business here?"

"My brother and I recently made our home in the area, so I thought I might as well try to get on good terms with the locals. Better that than some idiot with a sword finding us, trying to attack us, dying, and provoking the rest of the town into attacking us, eventually resulting in the displacement or destruction of one or both sides."

"There's another dragon?"

"Oh, calm down, Santiago. It's not like they're trying to conquer the town or anything."

"Yet."

"Excuse me, you two, but I'm trying to have a discussion here," snapped Arona. Once the guards had quieted down, she continued. "Sorry about that. Anyway, I guess that business is out of the way, then!"

"Not quite. The weather's been getting bad, and prey are hard to find. Thus, I'm interested in opening trade relations with this town."

"Trade, or tribute?"

"You're always assuming everything's untrustworthy. Why can't you trust something for once?"

"You haven't met many dragons, Oslan!"

"You haven't either, really."

"Oh, for Manannan's sake, you two... Anyway, Miss... What was your name again? I don't remember if I asked you or not."

"Smoketail."

"...Miss Smoketail, we'll see about your proposal when you have something to offer us, and we'll take efforts to make sure there's no disruptions of the peace. From either side."

Oh, right. I need to get something to trade for the food with first. "I guess that will do for now. I'll see you later. With that, Smoketail flew off, hoping that Sparkwing had made a good catch today. If not, she had a lot of work to do.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas continued to shadow her target, remaning unseen for the most part. For a brief moment she thought that the male dragon had picked up her scent, but the smell of the blood from his meal had managed to overpower it. She made a mental note to wash herself off at the next chance she got.

Following the bronze-scaled dragon had already been informative. He was hunting his own food, so he likely didn't have lesser creatures serving him or paying food as tribute. He also seemed very cautious. Not that being cautious was a sign of weakness, but very often powerful dragons became overconfident, and thus careless when it came to defence. The one thing left to determine was whether or not he was already in thrall to another dragon. Perhaps if she tailed him long enough he would return to his lair, but then she risked running into other dragons who could spot her. She decided that perhaps a more direct approach was in order.

She quickly made her way around the rocky landscape, so that she could approach him from the front; appearing from behind would only make her seem untrustworthy. She stepped out from behind cover walked forward with a practiced grace towards the dragon drinking at the river. She remained cautious, ready to flee if things became problematic, as they often could, but she consciously controlled her body language to make her seem more casual.

"Greetings." she spoke softly. "I must say it's a pleasure to find another dragon out here. My name is Edellipas. What's yours?"

(Bleh, lame opening >_< Charisma 70 for first impressions?)

[SiuiS]

Sorry for the delays folks. Interstate trips are hard on a pony.


(Assume that the first posts happened a few in-game days beforehand)

"Well, kids, I have a extra-special story to tell all of you, and it mostly involves travelers to Fairhaven : beware of strange creatures! A week ago, a entire family-driven cart was found a few minutes walk away from the main road, with the liquid slurry that was formaly the Jonsin family, consiting of Mary and Ezical Jonsin and there seven childern permiating the entire area. The families mule was found decapitated near it, with the head more than a few feet away. Notably, nothing was stolen, and the Rangers who originaly found the bodys say that this attack was from no swamp or forest beast they knew of. Personaly, my dwarven readers, I would trust the few hundred years-old elven eiltes for once, eh? Also, I would not mess with anything that can cleave off a mules head with a single swipe, and it was a swipe. No sword can shear off a head. Luckly, kids, the attacks have stopped for now. Still, get even more protected than normal to go to the accursed swamp-city than you would for a troll attack or a boggle ambush.

Goodie. Looks like all I have to look forward to is a Karmic strike, wherein my enemy kills me and then drowns in my blood :smallannoyed:

Still think you're gonna win the die from stupidity bet, Diego?


Guards
The guards seem rather unfazed by the dragon, but the horses become a bit unsettled...
"Lord Eloride has agreed to executions of prisoners through trial by dragon. In this chest is the money we have agreed upon for your monthly sum. Lord Eloride also requests for you to come to Fairhaven immediately to show the townsfolk that you will not cause them harm."

Ophiokasha blinks, languidly.
"Oh? Sso the people of Fairhaven exxpect a dragon, obedient, to trrrundle idly into the square? Shall I bat mine eyes before your king, mortal?"

She rises, slowly, bringing her head over the horses to converse "eye to eye" with the messenger, the dull acid stink of her breath muted but omnipresent. "Do your people even know about me in more than whissspered rumors? Or do they know only that a dragon rides the moon, and it iss related to the tower burning green?" Her face is poised, smug as can be with such inarticulate lips.

-

The rest will come quickly, but I'd rather wait for a reply than insert details You don't care for, Mindfreak.

[Ninja_Grand]

[lame opening #2!]

Adovkin Reachs agnorants lair. asumeing nothing hapepns to him he yells "Hey Agnorant! I got some deer for you!" He drops the deer and trys to look for agnorant.

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik nearly choked on his drink as the voice spoke for the first time, he hadn’t seen the speaker coming, he was too focused on his drink to keep an eye out as he should have. Slowly he raised his head out the water, his gut sinking as the speaker's Draconic features slowly came into view, had he inadvertently wandered into another Dragon's territory by mistake? would he be attacked or chased off or-Oh-...

Karik's train of thought was immediately cut off as the most beautiful Dragon he had ever laid eyes on came into view, his jaw slacking for a brief moment and allowing water to escape his mouth before he could notice and finish off what remained. It was only now that he could remember both the Speaker's distinctively feminine voice and what she had said, his mind too clouded by fear up until that point to actually process the information. It wasn’t however until the female turned her head in what was likely confusion at his silence that Karik's mind jumped and realized he had not yet answered her question.

"Karik" he announced, fighting the urge to stare at the female's entrancing silver scales, "my uh, my name is Karik."

[AnimeKid]

Bellock

Bellock enters the cave that Agnorant inhabits as he comes inside he sees Ahdokdwin, his fellow protector. He drops the deer from his mouth and says, You brought Agnorant food as well Ahdok? Heh, it seems great minds do think alike. How has the forest been treating you brother?"

[Mindfreak]

Sorry for the delays folks. Interstate trips are hard on a pony.



Goodie. Looks like all I have to look forward to is a Karmic strike, wherein my enemy kills me and then drowns in my blood :smallannoyed:

Still think you're gonna win the die from stupidity bet, Diego?



Ophiokasha blinks, languidly.
"Oh? Sso the people of Fairhaven exxpect a dragon, obedient, to trrrundle idly into the square? Shall I bat mine eyes before your king, mortal?"

She rises, slowly, bringing her head over the horses to converse "eye to eye" with the messenger, the dull acid stink of her breath muted but omnipresent. "Do your people even know about me in more than whissspered rumors? Or do they know only that a dragon rides the moon, and it iss related to the tower burning green?" Her face is poised, smug as can be with such inarticulate lips.

-

The rest will come quickly, but I'd rather wait for a reply than insert details You don't care for, Mindfreak.
Lord Eloride's Men
"The King has spread word to the townsfolk that a dragon is nearby and that he has been going through negotiations with it. That's all."
The guards are rather calm about all of this while their horses are nervous.
"Shall you accompany us back to town?"

[SiuiS]

Lord Eloride's Men
"The King has spread word to the townsfolk that a dragon is nearby and that he has been going through negotiations with it. That's all."
The guards are rather calm about all of this while their horses are nervous.
"Shall you accompany us back to town?"

Welly well. My entrance won't be quite as dramatic as I would have liked, then. I was plannin on making my appearance seem like the town had summoned some deepened fiend from the lightning and fire. Alas.

I think I will still go for a dramatic entrance, there is just less a chance of me killing myself now. Pity.

-

Ophiokasha inhales slowly, rattling it into a hiss between her teeth. Her expression is clearly one of aggravation.

The hiss dies down to a rattle, then silence, As of the great serpent were holding her breath. A bird dares even to begin its song before she speaks. " 'Accompany'? No. No, I do not think my arriving at heel, like a pet or herdbeast would sset the proper tone. We are asssociates, business partners. Certainly the manlings would have more confindenccce in a dragon, rather than a brute creature pulled from the ssswamp."

She pulls back her head, dissappearing into the shade before rising, stretching, and unfurling her wings. "I will certainly make hasssste to the town center, but it will be done without your honor guard," she sneers. "And you can retrieve your chesst if you fear duplicity on my part. I shall meet you in the city pressently."

[PurityIcekiller]

[Near Northwestingville, Once More With Feeling]

Sparkwing approached the town, making an effort to stay stealthy. Who knew what a human might do if they saw him?

Of course, it was a bit hard to stay stealthy when you're a vivid shade of blue, larger than a horse, and on open ground. This meant that the best way to be stealthy was to glide high and hope he didn't look too different from the sky.

Luckily for him, Oslan and Santiago were too busy bickering about something to look up.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Goodie. Looks like all I have to look forward to is a Karmic strike, wherein my enemy kills me and then drowns in my blood :smallannoyed:

Still think you're gonna win the die from stupidity bet, Diego?
You underestimate me, SiuiS. Or overestimate. Whichever. Either way, I am confident of my own foolishness. :smalltongue:

Edellipas smiled at Karik warmly. He wasn't the most handsome of dragons, but he was big, tough, and slow of wit. He was perfect. She took a few paces closer to him.

"Karik, it's a pleasure to meet you. I haven't seen any dragons in this area before, I was beginning to think I was the only one!" She paused, hoping that maybe Karik would volunteer information about any other dragons in the area.

(ooc: short one from me, I'm afraid I can't think of much else right now)

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik instinctively took a few steps back and lowered his head slightly as Edellipas closed the gap between them by entering the river a few steps. On the bright side she had just said she wasn’t aware of any other dragons in the area, less dragons meant less chance of conflict, and less of that was always favourable to Karik. That is of course assuming she wasn't lying, but Karik thought that perhaps he should take the chance... just this once.

"likewise" he responded, still fighting the urge to stare at the female's scales. "i have not seen another dragon since my previous nest."

[radhop]

Have not posted in a while been busy with school and outside responsibility but I'm still here.

Dragging out a goblin that looked to be more important than the rest of them by the looks of his attire.

"Wha..wha...what you want?" the goblin said in a voice fraught with fear to this dragon that sat in front of him.

One of his heads swerved down to the left side of the goblin who stood before him."We are Nagendres and we bring you a offer that we think you wont refuse." this time the other head took the right only leaving him the option of moving backwards or forward. "We wish for your town to come under our control. In exchange we wont destroy it and you get a dragon to protect you."

[PurityIcekiller]

[Still Northwestingville]

Sparkwing glided into town and looked around. The place seemed awfully simple. Too simple to have many interesting inventions that could help...

"Excuse me, dragon." Sergeant Arona approached, smiling.

"Yipe! I'm not- I thought you hadn't- Ah!" He couldn't talk straight in his surprise. Instead, he flew away as fast as possible.

"...Huh. That must have been the other one Smoketail mentioned. Well, we have little to fear from that one, at least."

[Viera Champion]

Agnorant's Lair

Do you two mind?
Comes a squeaky little voice from behind a rock.
I was trying to take a nap.
This time, the voice is followed by the shape of a minuscule dragon, no larger than a newborn hatchling.
A lady needs her beauty sleep you know, even if that lady happens to be myself, future queen of the dragons.
Ah the usual optimistic wishes of Agnorant, how delightful.
I could easily freeze both of you right here and now if I wasn't so tired, so keep it down.

((Just-woke-up Charisma check failed.:smalltongue:))

[Ninja_Grand]

Ahdovdwin bows his head. "Sorry. I thout you were up. I was just trying to help"


He keeps his head down and wishes he had a way to keep Agnorant in a good mood for he will need her help for once.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock

He looks at the miniscule Agnorant, even more so in comparison to himself, as he chuckles a little. "I am sorry for the disturbance we caused Agnorant. However we felt that you would appreciate some food to help you get through the morning. Had we known that you still needed sleep we would have left it here and waited outside. However there is now no need for that."

Using his tail he slides the deer that he and Ahdov caught to Agnorant so that she can have a morning feast. "So, is there anything that we are doing today?"

[Pokonic]

Have not posted in a while been busy with school and outside responsibility but I'm still here.

Dragging out a goblin that looked to be more important than the rest of them by the looks of his attire.

"Wha..wha...what you want?" the goblin said in a voice fraught with fear to this dragon that sat in front of him.

One of his heads swerved down to the left side of the goblin who stood before him."We are Nagendres and we bring you a offer that we think you wont refuse." this time the other head took the right only leaving him the option of moving backwards or forward. "We wish for your town to come under our control. In exchange we wont destroy it and you get a dragon to protect you."

Surprisingly, the little goblin has some spunk in him, and says," Why do you think you have a chance at standing up to the goblins, drake! Do you belive our tribes would let some serpent like you in charge? Why, I happen to know for a fact that our chief is the decendent of a slayer of the greatest dragon of all time! The goblin stands proudly in front of the wyrm, dispite his kin slowly moving away.

[radhop]

Think I might win the stupidity contest.

Not finding this goblins tone appeasing Nagendres comes back with a quick rebuttal from the right "Oh yes we remember the one you call Shax. But where is he now?" This time from the left picking up almost instantly where the other head left off. "Dead and gone, now is a new time, one that we shall lead." Both heads then strike at this foolishly brave goblin tearing him apart in his maul. After the light snack one head raises to the crowd. "No more, bring us this descendent of Shax so we may speak. Our terms stay the same."

(Two heads using bite 24 + 24 = 48 damage)
(Intimidate 60 to bring descendent)

[Viera Champion]

Bellock

He looks at the miniscule Agnorant, even more so in comparison to himself, as he chuckles a little. "I am sorry for the disturbance we caused Agnorant. However we felt that you would appreciate some food to help you get through the morning. Had we known that you still needed sleep we would have left it here and waited outside. However there is now no need for that."

Using his tail he slides the deer that he and Ahdov caught to Agnorant so that she can have a morning feast. "So, is there anything that we are doing today?"

Agnorant grins happily, giving an excited squeak, followed by an embarrassed glance, then she dives into the meat hungrily, only being able to tear off small pieces of flesh with her tiny maw.
Delicious meat. You always know how to please me brothers.
She says cheerily, not answering Bellock's question for once.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Karik instinctively took a few steps back and lowered his head slightly as Edellipas closed the gap between them by entering the river a few steps. On the bright side she had just said she wasn’t aware of any other dragons in the area, less dragons meant less chance of conflict, and less of that was always favourable to Karik. That is of course assuming she wasn't lying, but Karik thought that perhaps he should take the chance... just this once.

"likewise" he responded, still fighting the urge to stare at the female's scales. "i have not seen another dragon since my previous nest."

Edellipas, seeing Karik backing away, stopped moving forward and sat at the edge of the river. The dragon didn't seem to know of any other dragons. If it was true that there were no others here, the local settlements might no be prepared to deal with them.

She gave a small sigh. "It's always the same, isn't it? So many dragons like us find themselves on their own, fighting for survival." She looked away towards the south, as though in deep thought. "Listen Karik, we two dragons have found each other here where no other dragons are. Perhaps this was meant to be. Perhaps it was coincidence. Either way, we'd do well to help each other. I'm sure you don't trust me, and truthfully, I'm not sure I can trust you either, but if you're interested in becoming strong and respected I have a proposal. Tomorrow, we meet in the hills near the human settlement to the South West of here. There, we will attempt negotiate with the humans, offering them help and protection in exchange for food and riches. And if they turn hostile, we fight for our survival. Either way, I'm sure we will learn much about each other."

She turned to leave, walking a few paces before adding "Dawn tomorrow in the hills to the South West. Think about it." And then she flew away, keeping low and maneuvering around the craggy hills, taking a long sweeping route back to her cave, just in case she was followed.

[Pokonic]

Think I might win the stupidity contest.

Not finding this goblins tone appeasing Nagendres comes back with a quick rebuttal from the right "Oh yes we remember the one you call Shax. But where is he now?" This time from the left picking up almost instantly where the other head left off. "Dead and gone, now is a new time, one that we shall lead." Both heads then strike at this foolishly brave goblin tearing him apart in his maul. After the light snack one head raises to the crowd. "No more, bring us this descendent of Shax so we may speak. Our terms stay the same."

(Two heads using bite 24 + 24 = 48 damage)
(Intimidate 60 to bring descendent)

At this calling, the camp grows quiet. The sounds of surprisingly heavy footsteps could be heard, and a increadbly well-armored figure comes into sight. Mostly incased in a greenish hued metal, the goblins grey face is contorted in a scowl, looking at the dragon in his own home with nothing less than spite. A strange sound is heard from the goblins mouth, and a tattered, massive bird flys down to his side. Looking at the dragon, he speaks in almost perfect Dragonic " What is a river drake like you doing in the middle of goblin lands? You must be joking, beast, to think that you could chalange the Clans rights to these lands! Even if I die today, my brothers and there allies among the desert-men will hunt you with spears and cannons!" As if to make his master seem more powerful, the bird near him gives a loud shriek that echos around the camp.

The bird next to him is a Giant Vulture. Has the same stats as a Giant Eagle. Also, the goblin has no idea about where he actualy lives, but he belives you resemble a overgrown river-serpent.

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik swallowed, banging his tail against the nearest rock nervously as he watched Edellipas take her leave. Once the sliver dragoness was out of sight for several seconds, he finally allowed himself to breathe and stand normally again. He had said nothing as she took off, and now questioned himself on whether or not that was the best option. He was certainly interested in getting to know her better, as experience had taught him that males of his kind were more prone to spontaneous violence between brother dragons. But as the same time he considered declining her offer, he had always thought it best to not interfere with the constructing species, for even those as socially hesitant as himself would hear of the various means they had constructed for defeating their foes, though he had not yet experienced them himself due to his preference for self-reliance.

Not wishing to spend another night in the open or under a barely concealing rock, Karik forced himself to muster the strength to cross the river to were the female had previously stood. He had already searched the areas behind him with little success, any caves he had found were either too close to possible conflicts, already occupied by smaller but much more violent creatures, or simply too small to hold his entirety. The mountains ahead of him still held some promise however. And while he feared he may be entering Edellipas' territory, the brief conversation with the Dragoness had hinted at the possibility of a mutual allegiance, perhaps by sharing or simply being close to one another’s territory could enforce such a trust, he would not attack her, and hopefully she would do the same. Karik made a mental note to fly off at the first sign of anger emitted by the female however, better safe then sorry. Always better safe then sorry.

As he explored the immediate area around the river, Karik began to ponder the female's offer to speak with the constructer settlement again. A small part of him hoped the creatures would respond with violence and force the two of them away, perhaps reinforcing the idea of self-sufficiency within Edellipas. Karik did not believe he could handle any form of relations with the building creatures, even supposing they did agree to the offer and brought them the occasional bag of food and valuables. Karik believed such an event would feel uncomfortable and wrong to him, as if he did not truly earn or own it. Though perhaps it was this way of thinking that caused his original horde to be so pitifully small, as he would only stash what he could find on his own, or small insignificant amounts of treasure taken from trade caravans while they slept or seemed overburdened. He never took the entire thing, only small and easily replaceable amounts, and only when he felt the urge come over him, which was thankful not very often. Unfortunately this way of life did not prove fruitful in politics with other dragons, invaders would occasionally request a share of his horde in exchange for a ceasefire between the two of them, but with such a small horde to begin with, he often had little or nothing to give. And here he was, now needing to start all over again from scratch, unable to save even his favoured gemstone from his most recent aggressor. So far however, with exception to the rather attractive female he had just encountered, he had seen no others of his kind in this newest area, perhaps a fresh start would be a good thing.


Finally Karik found a decent enough cave. It was small, so he would need to curl himself up in a likely uncomfortable way in order to fit all the way inside, but at the same time it was not too small for him to enlarge, he could likely dig through the stone with relative ease should he decide to take it as a permanent residence. Furthermore the cave rested within the wall of a large cliff protruding from the side of the nearest mountain, with a large enough platforms just underneath it to serve as a landing and takeoff area. However it was also somewhat exposed, should he ever leave any evidence of his presence, be it as simple as a bone or as extreme as letting his tail lie outside the entrance, he would likely be spotted by the griffons he had seen earlier. Karik could see what was likely another cave shrouded in plantlife on another mountain not too far off in the distance. Perhaps he would examine it later on to see if it was any more suitable. For now however it was getting late. Karik carefully crawled into his possibly temporary home and curled himself up tightly, careful to keep as many loose limbs away from the entrance as possible. He would be in pain tomorrow, but at least he will get to see the silver-scaled female once more.

[Ninja_Grand]

"Since your in a good mood Agnorant, can you help me?" He continues without waiting for a responses he says "I need you to speak with the elf's. If we control them, we don't need to fear them."

[Viera Champion]

"Since your in a good mood Agnorant, can you help me?" He continues without waiting for a responses he says "I need you to speak with the elf's. If we control them, we don't need to fear them."

Agnorant growls.
Elves cannot be trusted. They care only about their well being and will do anything to protect it. They are almost as bad as men.
She shakes her head, sighing. Well as much of a sigh as a dragon can perform.

[SiuiS]

Welly well. My entrance won't be quite as dramatic as I would have liked, then. I was plannin on making my appearance seem like the town had summoned some deepened fiend from the lightning and fire. Alas.

I think I will still go for a dramatic entrance, there is just less a chance of me killing myself now. Pity.

-

Ophiokasha inhales slowly, rattling it into a hiss between her teeth. Her expression is clearly one of aggravation.

The hiss dies down to a rattle, then silence, As of the great serpent were holding her breath. A bird dares even to begin its song before she speaks. " 'Accompany'? No. No, I do not think my arriving at heel, like a pet or herdbeast would sset the proper tone. We are asssociates, business partners. Certainly the manlings would have more confindenccce in a dragon, rather than a brute creature pulled from the ssswamp."

She pulls back her head, dissappearing into the shade before rising, stretching, and unfurling her wings. "I will certainly make hasssste to the town center, but it will be done without your honor guard," she sneers. "And you can retrieve your chesst if you fear duplicity on my part. I shall meet you in the city pressently."

Without waiting for a response, the great serpentine body rolls across the swamp like bolt of fluid black lightning. Her goal would soon become clear, we're any watching; one of the few yew trees in the area, ancient and bowed - a ramp.

The spring of the wood and her momentum carry Ophiokasha easily a dozen yards into the air before her wings begin to beat. Still her legs spring from the wood, and spiraling, she makes her way skyward, far from bows hot of even the most skilled mortal archers.

-

Ophiokasha climbs. The clouds still reign above her, but no matter; the townsfolk are aware of her presence, she needn't worry about cloud cover. Already she was high enough that her shadow would be mere inches, were light to cast that far down, and besides... She was already reduced to using her body, undulating like a snake in the water, to help her tiring wings

Angling over, and rolling, Ophiokasha uses the sudden surge in momentum to power a speedy glide, heading towards the still burning green flames.

Draconic eyesight has its perks...

heading for town tower. Will land dramatically. To kick things off, I would expect the honor guard to have brought the surprise enemy towards town to immediately test my loyalty. Assuming thy have horses. If not, they would just die.

Or Pokonic can have it attack the town after introductions anyway, I mean, wasn't it heading that way?

Regardless, starting work. Rest of post after someone else posts.

[AnimeKid]

Agnorant growls.
Elves cannot be trusted. They care only about their well being and will do anything to protect it. They are almost as bad as men.
She shakes her head, sighing. Well as much of a sigh as a dragon can perform.

Bellock lays down lazily as he gently says, "Perhaps so. However it is better to live with them that in fear of them. We need not compromise our principles or morals. It would be kind of like bartering. Plus intimidation does wonders for negotiations.

[Ninja_Grand]

Bellock lays down lazily as he gently says, "Perhaps so. However it is better to live with them that in fear of them. We need not compromise our principles or morals. It would be kind of like bartering. Plus intimidation does wonders for negotiations.

'ellock makes a good point. Also pehaps a...oh wole army of elfs may be too good to pass up." he looks out of the lair and says "Me and Bellock cant do it alone. Its Kill-on-sight for us but you they look at as cute....'

[Viera Champion]

Agnorant's Lair

Agnorant takes some time to think about the proposition, carefully weighing her options in the matter, as she is often known to do, what with her being fairly intelligent and all.
I suppose it is a good idea. Where are they now?

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha pulls skyward, opening her maw further, and gurgling. Luckily there are none around to see such a vulgar display, and she has plans for the excess. Yes...

Her momentum stops, and she curls inward, poised on the very tip of her wings, relishing gravity's subservience. The ground's pull kicks in eventually - it always does - and Ophiokasha feels the world tilt as the earth and sky spin on her lateral axis. And then, a dive.

Speed. Speed is of the essence.
Her wings pull inward, like a second skin, and she begins to spin lightly, then faster and faster. Snaking out her head, she angles to descend just above the lit tower so very far below, mouth still open, the tearing, clawing air producing a steady stream of caustic saliva. Her mouth waters, her eyes narrow, and so far as she can without ruining her plan, Ophiokasha grins.

Towards the end of her fall, she slowly, painfully slowly, extends her wings. Wih a snap, she brings them fully to bear and slows into a lighter, but still painfully fast descent, curling her tail and body into a tight spring, and then a labyrinthine spiral, slowing further, finally releasing the undignified buildup of vitriolic spit – streaming straight into the light roof of the flaming signal tower.

The roof begins to hiss under the first splash of acid as the outer coil of her body skins the stone, dull claws finding slow, grinding purchase on the stone walls. Exhaling sharply as her fore-claws and body smash the remains of the roof, her wings bouyed by the hissing acid steam created by the remainder of her spit. The slow wisps of her draconic breath, carried upward by the heat bathes the rest of her body in healing energy, slowing and stopping the wounds from the fall before they even set in.

Recovering her dignity, Ophiokasha extends her head and wings, basking in the vivid green acidic steam. "I have made my appearance, Man-King. Will you make yoursss?"

[actions]
From the sky, positioning so her fall brings her into the position she wants - Intelligence 60
timing the deluge to break through roof and extinguish the large signal flame - Intelligence 60 + Agility 35
Using the tower walls, constriction, and striking the ground/tower with as much body as possible (similar to an ukemi) and buoying herself with the sudden updraft - Intelligence 60 + Toughness 75

We've been going over these actions for two weeks now, so provided the Storyteller doesn't want to kill me with splinters, I believe I'm ok.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock

Raising his head off the ground Bellock speaks in his deep graveled voice, "They are in the nearby forest. To the west from our position. Do not worry Agnorant. If they attack I will protect you like I always have sister. Hopefully they will see reason though.

Bellock slowly stands up before shaking his body to get rid of any kinks that it might have. After that yawns before standing at attention.

[SiuiS]

[Did we lose our OOC Thread? Or did my subscription spontaneously disintegrate? I've looked through the OOC forum and cannot find it. If it is a subscription issue, we should contact the players who slipped by- they may not. Know we have continued playing!]

[Draconi Redfir]

(( i'm still able to acess it through my favorites tab. Here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12451227&posted=1#post12451227) ))

[radhop]

Looking the vulture in the eyes disregarding the goblin which was a tinier threat at the moment. Nagendres finally breaks the silence through the left head. "I can see we don't see eye to eye but believe us we shall be back and next time that offer shall sound ever so pleasant..." Lifting his body weight into the air while maintaining his view of the goblins. Now the right head taking the initiative "Think it over carefully goblin your future rest in the balance now."

[Pokonic]

The goblin prince looked at the flying dragon, a unknown threat in any case. He leans over to his pride, his favorite servent, and whispered, Carru, when that beast is far away, track it and report back to me its lair. After that, stay at the camp until I am ready to go to the capital of the human-lands. No no, not for war. We are going to meet the carivan master and ofand talk about my brothers aquiring a few more guards. Now, go, my freind! To his staring tribesmen, he yelled " Wel, what are you waiting for! Scrap up whats left of that fool and prepare yourselves for fighting at any minute! Do you think thats the only dragon near here! Set up the cannons and YOU, yes, you! You, go down and alert the next carivaner you see down the path and tell them to keep a look out for wryms!

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas woke from her rest early the next morning. The sun was not yet visible beyond the eastern mountains, but a faint orange glow would soon be bathing the rocky lands that were Edellipas' new home with light. After an hour of meditation, the silver dragoness swooped out of her cave in search food and drink. After a hearty meal of mountain goat, combined with refreshing spring water, Edell made her way to the hills she had spoken to Karik about.

She had to admit to herself that she was worried that the other dragon may not show. She fully intended to go ahead with her plan to speak with the humans regardless, but should would feel much safer with a large, strong dragon to back her up, and possible act as another target, should things go sour. She honestly knew nothing about the humans of this area, beyond what her initial scouting of the land had told her. This was a small town. There would likely be a few guards, spears and arrows would be their weapons of choice. Nearby farms told her that they would have food, though probably not enough to satisfy both her and Karik. This was going to be more about the show than any real profit. To prove to the humans that she was not a monster that should be killed on sight. Once you break past those first few prejudices, things start falling into place. Then there was Karik. She wanted to see how he would do around these creatures. Would he let her do the talking, or try to step in and negotiate for himself? Would he fight or flee at the first sign of trouble?

To busy herself as she waited, she performed some simple voice exercises, to prepare her sonic breath attack, just in case.

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik wondered if he had slept at all during the night, it always seemed as if every position he took was too cramped or uncomfortable, requiring him to shift around again until he found one that was marginally better. In the few occasions that he did somehow manage to find a comfortable position, something would happen to throw him off, a noise from outside, a breath of wind on a possibly exposed portion of his tail, a crumbling of the stone underneath him, always something that urged him to move or take a look outside yet again, leaving him unable to find that comfortable position once more soon afterwards. As the seconds ticked past, he relished the though of expanding his cave and making it more suitable for himself. Unfortunately he could not do that now, his body was already resting to some extent, he was quite simply too tired to work.

He was right of coarse, He found his joints aching when he finally decided to give up on rest. The sun was barely inching it's way across the sky and already he felt as if he had flown a thousand miles and crawled a thousand more. Grudgingly he crawled his way to the river he had taken a drink from the other day, he was fortunate the river was only a short distance away from the cave, score one point for the possible permanent residence. He drank slowly as before, his eyes darting up to the sky and in all directions, trying to stay aware of his surroundings, the next chance encounter may not be as nice as the previous one with Edell. So far so good, Karik finished his drink quickly and began scouring his memory for the location Edell had wanted to meet him at. He decided against looking for a meal of any kind before flying off. Perhaps it was partly because he didn't wish for the mountain goat population to die out due to his presence, but a part of him knew he did not want to make an attractive female wait, let alone one who had shown an insofar-friendly interest towards him. Karik knew that doing so would likely not benefit his immediate health in any way.

As Karik's sleep deprived mind cleared itself of it's fog he remembered mention of some hills to the south west, aligning himself so he was standing in the same area as the silver dragon from the day before, Karik judged the sunrise for direction and flapped his wings several times. it took a moment longer then it should have to figure out the direction, but Karik knew that once he got into the air his mind would begin to clear as his blood began moving at a quicker pace. He flapped his wings loose several more times before extending them to their peak, cupping them downwards to grasp at large pockets of air and bringing them down to force himself off the ground, his wings then folding tightly before extending themselves again to repeat the process. He would fly low today, still uneager to be noticed by any other then the silver Dragoness who had grabbed his attention so easily before. He made a mental note to attempt to grab any stray rabbit or other small animal he could swallow quickly should he see one, he did not have time for a full meal, but even a small one would be nice if it did not mean slowing down.

Minutes passed before the silver scaled dragoness could be seen resting on the hills beneath the mountains. Like it or not, it was time to talk to some constructors.

[Mindfreak]

The Fair Town of Fairhaven
Ophiokasha might notice Lord Eloride shaking his fist at the dragon. He was accompanied by the finest of his bodyguards.
There was:
Otto the Dwarf
El'dran the Elf
Jim the Human
Bakrosh the Orc.
Lord Eloride still shakes his fist at Ophiokasha.
"Dammit dragon! Do you know how expensive it is to replace a roof?!"
Ah, the golden years for Lord Eloride.
Who knew instead of shaking his fist at kids on his lawn he'd be doing it to dragons for breaking his tower's roof?:smalltongue:


The soldiers from the negotiations return in a bit on their horses.

[SiuiS]

"Much lesss than the damage from a sssiege I would pressume." Ophiokasha positively purrs the words, supremely smug. "And was it not you who desired a ssspectacle for your people? I am here, O Manking. Ssshall we continue our negotiationss?"

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
"I thought negotiations were over, dragon. After all, if you came here that must have meant that you agreed to the terms? A chest of gold every month, and prisoner's trial by dragon for executions?"
Lord Eloride is still pretty miffed that she broke the tower on his mansion's roof.
Now how else will he enjoy the outside without going into the sunlight?:smallfrown: :smalltongue:
"And for the last time, I'm a LORD! NOT A KING!"

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha crosses her arms like a lounging housecat. "You signal from your very own housse? How sssweet." she cranes her head down, providing one large, serpentine eye shining with mirth. "As I've ssaid, some things need to be discussed without intermediaries, Manking. And king, lord, khan, commandant... What doesss it matter? Or does the great Eloride fear reprisal from his 'superiors'?"

sorry for the delay. It's been an odd weekend. I should be back up to full speed now.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
"I fear not my superiors, but the monsters that live in the lands. That's why you're here, I need a dragon to help protect my people."
"And what else do you want from this deal? You're already getting gold every month and tasty prisoners to eat!"

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha rears back, raising one hand to her chest in (supposed) shock. "Why, do you not recall? I wish to better my lot in life, to learn the waysss of civilization! I would like to use your town's scholarly resources, in exchange for enhanced vim and vigor of Fairhaven'sss ruling line."

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
Lord Eloride sighs.
"Yes yes...you'll get to use our library and such, but nit for the vim and vigor of the ruling line here."
"I want you to identify the treasure that I collected when I was still a young whippersnapper. I understand that dragons can be like walking treasure guides."

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha blinks twice. Her lips part in a snarl, a feral grin, and then a wide smile. The effect is akin to seeing a man flayed to the meat, and is definitely not pretty.

"You have a deal, then. I will appraise your trinkets." Mastering herself, Ophiokasha manages to quell her disturbing grimace, affecting a more congenial twist at the corners of her mouth. "And when would thiss occur, O Eloride?"

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
"I want you to do it right now."
He points to a a rather well protected building with a large doorway.
"That is the treasure vault."
And with that, Lord Eloride goes to the edge of his roof and climbs down quickly.
He moves to the treasure vault, expecting the dragon to follow.
Now, the vault's doorway is big enough for Ophiokasha to fit through.
By the time Ophiokasha got there, Lord Eloride is already unlocking his private wing of the treasure vault.

[PurityIcekiller]

[SpOke's Lair]

Smoketail was somewhat miffed when she found out that Sparkwing had gone to town only to run off immediately.

"...left them with a weird impression, and if we're going to negotiate with them, we need to do it properly. Either leave the humans alone or actually follow through on your visits."

"Sorry, Smoketail."

"It's all right, but next time, let me know first so I can come with you."

Sparkwing looked around at the landscape surrounding their lair. "Say, visiting the town made me think. We haven't explored very far in this area. We don't know a lot about the world around us."

"And you're bored."

"Why do you think that?"

"Why else would you have visited the humans? Besides, you're obviously too curious to like sitting in a cave all day, even if you flee from the first sight of anything with canine teeth. You want to explore."

It sounded like Smoketail was going to give him a lecture. Sparkwing shrunk back a bit. "Well... I... I guess I do..."

"Then we're going exploring."

"What?" Now Sparkwing wasn't sure how to react at all.

"If you're bored, we need to find something to make you less bored. Come on. Unless you don't mind it."

"...All right." Together, the pair set out to find anything unusual in the local area.

[SiuiS]

Slithering smoothly off of the tower, Ophiokasha follows Eloride into the vault. She smirks, noting that only the shortest of halls could prevent her from utilizing human dwellings.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
As Lord Eloride unlocks the last lock, the vault begins to slowly open to reveal a long hall with many items on cushions which are on pedestals and weapons on the walls(mundane ones). There's also Moonbeam(Lord Eloride's sword) on the wall and his armor on an armor stand.
Most of the items are magical items that are similar to Decanters of Endless Water, Bags of Holding, Flying Carpets, ect...
But, at the very back where Moonbeam and his armor is located are four very special pedestals. Special as two of them are apparently glass cases that within are a dragon's egg and a hydra's egg. Both of the cases act to preserve the eggs in their condition so it's like they were just born.
On one of the two other pedestals is a case full of various cubes made of mysterious materials. They're Ioun stones, cubes that circle around the user's head. The ones in the case grant Greater Clarity of the Mind, Greater Intelligence, Greater Wisdom, Greater Spell Control, and Greater Mana Control.
On the last pedestal is a single cube made of mysterious material. It's another Ioun stone but it's the Ioun Stone of Linguistics, which grants the user the ability to understand and speak all mortal languages.

Lord Eloride waits for Ophiokasha to look around and voice her opinion.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas turned towards Karik as he arrived.

"You decided to come. I'm glad. I'm sure you have doubts about what we are doing, but I believe that if this goes well it could lead to a better life for both of us."

She began walking towards the human settlement, motioning to Karik to follow. She moved slowly, knowing that the humans would panic at the sight of two dragons rushing, even if they were on foot.

"Beware of stray arrows." she said to her companion, pointing to the guard towers along the town walls. "You never know when some idiot will fancy themselves a hero."

Eventually, they got to a position close enough that they could speak with the guards, without being too close for comfort. It was also just far enough that fleeing wouldn't be too hard. Sounds of activity could be heard from inside the town, no doubt caused by the dragons' arrival.

Edellipas cleared her throat, then spoke with a loud voice "Hail humans! We dragons come in peace, and wish to speak with your leaders so that our two races might co-operate." In a quieter voice she spoke to Karik "That should at least get their attention."

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik gulped slightly as they waited for a response from the humans, he was still unsure on this whole ordeal, and couldn't make up his mind on whether he hoped more for a volley of arrows or an agreement to peaceful co-operation. They both had their benefits and their drawbacks, but despite what Karik had expected, he simply could not decide on whether or not he would be willing to risk a likely long-lasting conflict if it meant holding on to the lifestyle he had so far been accustomed too. Karik shuffled forward slightly after realizing he had been standing about a foot behind Edell, if the request was met with a volley of arrows, he may be able to raze his wing fast enough to cover her from most of the strikes, he could tell from this distance that her scales did not appear to be as strong as his own.

Karik again struck his tail against the ground nervously, caught between whether or not he should try to make himself appear larger and more intimidating, or smaller and less visible. Secretly he hoped Edell knew what he was doing, he’d try to stay quiet until proven otherwise.

[Pokonic]

Deep within the Dwarven City:
Within a rather plain champer adorned only with minor rune-work,the high cousel-elector was rather peeved at the human informent at his feet. Heck, humans in general. Not only did he have a rather bad day in the chamber hall, but now he must deal with the incoming threat of dragons setteling into the area. After all, he knows by heart, there have been two dragons within the territory in the last few decades. One's bones are currantly mouldering in the former domain of the hill dwarves, while the other is currantly being pampered in the lowest reaches of the city. He turns to the worthless human, a young peseant with what seemed to be a less-than noble history amongst his own kind, and half-shouted " Well, fool, what else do you have to bring from the outside!"

The poor fool hardly had the time to say much else, but managed to say before his true master "W'well sir, your invitation to the great party happening at the palace in a week's time is here, along with a little note." The twit scampered out of the hall, aware that staying any longer with the dwarf who held so much power in this city could mean his death without trial to the angry little man. The dwarven leader took the message and with a grunt took it into his back-pocket. Taking the actual note, he looked at it for only a moment, and frowned. It couldnt be his handwriting, could it...


Gamall vinur. Vandi er bruggun í suðri, með hundarnir voru að gera það, til að koma í móti borginni, bölvaðir mýrar. Álfar eru wakðed risastór köngulær, svo Shagaths línur, og Hydra er áhyggjur. Öll drekar eru ekki aprochng jörðina til að heyra anyones til að gera gott. Eitt af mest áhyggjuefni, og það er engin skömm að þér, ó Lúsifer, að mestu leyti þeir vita ekki. Þegar höll, verðum við að halda kæru til mín ambassitor smá stund, svo sem, og hafa Gildingriffon heimskur thruout á vígslu. Og láta mig vita, svo það verður drekar.


In genuine human script, it states simply "Dont Screw This Up, Writer.
Moderatly horrified, he steadies himself in order to walk down to have a little chat with the cities secret weapon about its upcoming duties.

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha weaves her way through the vault, following Eloride's gestures. At the last, she slithers into a figure eight around the two egg pedestals. "Interesting treasssury. I will need parchment and ink for notes." She tilts her head, smirking. "Unless you would prefer I take thessse with me to your librarium?"

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
"No way in Hel are they leaving this vault. These two eggs are the most valuable things in this vault. We don't know what birthed them, but that's what makes them valuable."
He calls for a guard to bring in parchment and ink.
"I bet you're wondering how I got them, right? Most of the items in this room were taken from the wizard, whom I killed, tower. But I found the blue egg in a cave and the green one in the swamp."

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas watched with mild interest as the human party arrived. Six humans with spears and three with bows, no two wearing exactly the same armour. And one hunched over and petrified looking old man in the middle holding a scroll and quill.

"You are the leader of this settlement?" she asked the old man.

"N-no, not really. M-my name is A-Andrin and I'm the mayor's secretary. S-she has asked me to m-mediate on her behalf."

Edell sighed. This could take a while. "I see. I am Edellipas. This is my companion, Karik."

"Uh... p-p-pleased to meet you. Um. What exactly do you want from us? I-If you don't mind me asking, that is. I'm afraid we have no gold to offer. Or food. The town gold goes to buying food, thanks to the griffon attacks."

"Griffon attacks?"

"Y-yes. Wild griffons from the hills to the north. They've been attacking the farms and stealing our livestock. We have some food in stores, but it's not going to be enough, I fear."

"I see. One moment please."

Edellipas walked away a short distance to speak with Karik in whispered tones. "This could be a good chance to get into the humans' good books. We deal with the wild griffons, maybe find some wild animals to fill their farms, they praise us and tell others, who come to pay us to help with their problems. What do you think?"

ooc:
Roleplaying against myself feels weird ^^:

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik glanced back towards the humans as Edell spoke, judging each of their weapons and how hard they might strike if they decided to attack. He heard Edell mention hunting down wild griffons, more fights. Karik still didn't like the idea of looking for a fight. He turned his head to look the dragoness in the eyes, express that perhaps they would be better off fending for themselves. Unfortunately it seemed as if the female's eyes were hypnotic, as Karik found himself unable to do anything but agree as he stared into them.

Karik nodded, for her he would fight, but the doubt on whether or not it was the best choice still lingered in the back of his mind, persisting.

[Pokonic]

Diego Havoc@ Heh, you will get used to it.

Well well well, how ya'll doing? This special update on the kingdom is brought to you by none other than me, because, readers, I think information like this is too importent to be sold for common coin. To be precise, readers, it seems we have a dragon problem on our hands.

Now, everyone, I do belive we have heard of the rumurs from all sides of the kingdom. Flying colbolt fortresses in the south, strange stalking shapes in the Great Swamp, strange horse-like shapes in the northern hills, we have all heard of the tales of these creatures. Now, everyone, I would like to remind you all that mearly because there are dragons hear means you have to round up the local milita and start sending cannons out into there lairs. Not all dragons are Pyrespite, and before you start complaining, my dwarven readers, I know perfectly well where you get your magma drakes from.

Remember a few years ago, when it was said that the goblins attempted to kill the duke of Brandymine in a hunting trip for desert wolves? And how everyone was perfectly willing to start loading the griffon-pulled skywagons too kill off that tribe? I assume you all felt the shame when it turned out the attempt on the dukes life was simply the plot of a random sand-hag? Indeed, genocide for nothing more than a hunch.

I think we all remember the ground-hounds, yes? Strange deaths across the western frount, with fingers pointing at them? I suppose how they were dealt with is still fresh in your minds? Sorry, boys and girls, you might wish to ask your daddies about how the Ground-hounds where "moved", because I do not belive I am alowed to repeat such tale in a widly-marketed newsletter.

In other news, the party at the castle is starting to pick up, with officals starting to move in. The southern men have arrived, and the dwarves are going to arrive in any day now. I can promise everyone that my chief-of-staff will be there, so if anyone has any questions or issues at hand you might wish to ask him.

Now, I have a surprise statement, folks. As we all know, the dragonic population has had little public support, and I wish to change that. As such, readers, if any of you ever have the chance to speak with one of the newfound wryms in the area, instruct them to breath on any copy of these very letters. Within a few moments, you will then have a very special invitation to the party, all paid for and signed by non other than the king! Now, if you have any issue with this, readers, you can stay home. On the other hand, dragons, if you do wish to come, I would suggest you land not too far away from the castle proper within a weeks time and follow the instructions in the letter.

This follows up on this weeks addition, folks, so prepare yourselves for the greatest party ever!

[PurityIcekiller]

[Northwestingville]

Scouty came into Arona's office, exhausted from a long ride, and handed her a rolled-up piece of paper. "Missive for you, Sergeant!"

"Ah, thank you. I wonder what this is about?" Arona took the letter and read it carefully. "...Interesting. Could you call Oslan and Santiago here? I need to discuss this with them."

~

Naturally, the two other guards were immediately bickering when they were informed.

"So the King's sold out to the dragons. I wonder how much they had to pressure him, if at all."

"Come on, Santiago, it's not that bad. It's just a long-overdue gesture of kindness to them."

"Right. And he invited every dragon in the realm. I reckon the palace will be destroyed within hours."

"Not all dragons are destructive."

"Not all aren't, and that's more important. One bad dragon and the entire place gets levelled."

"Ahem." Arona tapped her finger on the her desk to get the guards' attention. "The worst of the dragons probably won't be a concern, since few would be willing to deliver the invitations. Anyway, what do you think of this?"

"You want to invite Smoketail and her brother, don't you."

"How did you guess?" Arona laughed. "They seem nice. We don't have to worry about them causing trouble, at least. From what I've seen, I suspect Smoketail would be too sensible to stir up anything, and Sparkwing wouldn't have the nerve."

"Sounds reasonable enough, but where do we come in? You're the one making the decision, so you could just send Scouty to them with the message."

"Naturally. But they won't be travelling alone. I want to have an escort for them. And I believe you can guess who that is."

Oslan hesitated, and Santiago's jaw dropped.

"Us? You want us to escort the dragons?"

"And we get to attend the King's party?"

"Naturally! I thought it would be a good experience for you two. Of course, I'll be coming along as well. It's my responsibility, as I'm the commanding officer here."

"That makes all three of us. Who are you leaving in charge? Scouty?"

"Yes."

"What? But he's incompetent!"

"Well, it's not like we have much left to worry about, since we're taking the two most dangerous creatures around here with us. I'd reckon he can handle command for a couple weeks."

"All right. Let's just send him to find those dragons and get this business over with. And if this all goes wrong, it's officially not my fault."

"Noted." Arona nodded, then began writing a message for the dragons to explain her proposal.

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha begins using her stubbed claw in the ink to sketch out and annotate the first egg. "One would exxpect a ruler to seek a wizard'sss help, not demise. And where would a wizard lair around here anyhow? ssCertainly not in town! Else why would you lair in a major over a well fffortified tower keep?" She keeps her voice carefully neutral as she works.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
"I defeated the wizard a long long time ago. Over 30 winters ago, to be exact. He was terrorizing the town of Fairhaven and I left with a large detatchment of guards. Out of a total of 50 mean that were sent in...only me and several others survive. Two of them are a part of the guard that protect me 24/7 now...anyways, I got many of the magical items in this room back then, including those cubes."
"The tower itself has been left abandoned since that day though. We brought back most of the tomes that were in there and certainly all the treasures we could. Though there was some that we could not because of the magical protection that was on them."

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha sighs, artfully strikes the parchment with a few swipes of embellishment, and gives Eloride the most bored look one can imagine from a reptile that isn't looking at him. "Mmm. How banal and droll. I suppose it is interesting you didn't overwhelm the traps with corpses however." She applies the tip of her tail to the top of the bluish egg and deftly spins it (the egg) to get a full view of the shell.

Ophiokasha catches it easily when it wobbles and falls.

"A decent specimen. A pity the youngling has been hard-boiled. Your exxpresssion is one of dissstrusssst so I shall leave the other egg for now. I shall have to see your librar--"

Pausing, Ophiokasha slowly tilts her head, then closes one eye and presses the side of her face close to the stone. Silence passes for a moment before she begins to speak again. "There bass been some commotion. Horseflesh has returned without manflesh. There Iss much sssscurrying. Sssomeone seekss your counsel. And I will need the library's ssservices."

So hey, did you know stone and rock conduct sound a lot better than air? :smallbiggrin:

I figure this could be either a lead in for the things that attacked along the road to fairhaven, or it could be the arrival of the newspaper, or whatever you need. I am quite content to spend the next few weeks exploring the abilities of the items, and I what I can to learn human magics from the tomes acquired. I don't think anyone else is interested in my weeks of downtime though :smallwink:

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
The eggs are in a magically seal container that's attached to the pedestal.
That egg had no way of coming out.:smalltongue:

Anyways, Lord Eloride gave a confused look at her.
"Hard-boiled? Oh no, no! It's simply been preserved in containers of magic! Cost me a pretty penny to find a wizard who could do it but the things in the eggs are very much alive. In fact if they were removed from the containers they'd hatch."
And then, discussion!
"I'm sure it can wait till they actually arrive for to talk to me. Now you act like you know what the blue egg is, do you?"
((I'd love to do that, SuiS, whatever you want))

[SiuiS]

assumptions in my part. I saw a glass cylinder around the eggs mentally, and presumed their removal or her ability to reach into them was a given. Provided they aren't entirely untouchable, I think the actions still stand, given the egg wasn't in any danger anyway.

Fun fact #2 for all you magicians out there; egg yolks are fluid. An egg set on its side and spun will spin smoothly as the shell revolves around the yolk. A hard boiled egg (or egg that is fertilized and far enough along to have solid mass inside) will wobble, because it's center of gravity is fixed relative to the shell.

Ophiokasha enter to convince Eloride it was worthless, by providing conjecture. Fickle though, she doesn't have an actual plan. Tricking him is detrimental in the long run. *shrug*

-

Ophiokasha sneers politely at the human's tone. "Ssso you paid a wizzzard to to tell you the egg was fine, in order to pay the wizzzard more to preservvve the eggsss? Sssurely you see the trouble there."

"Regardlesssss..." she rolls up the sheets of parchment and caps the ink pot. "I ssstill need your library. The particularsss of the deviccces originate with the lessser sspeciesss. My innate talent extendsss only sso far."

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
"Then follow me to my private library."
He'll lead her back to his manor and introduce her to his very extensive library with a large section of magical tomes from the wizard's tower.
"Will you need anything else?"

[Orzel]

Zelio spent most of his time lazily following random travelers in the desert. Only a few were gobbled as Zelio was just too lazy to chase most. Many long leisurely slumbers were taken. His hard face met very few living beings but this would not bring him closer to his goals.

His naps were taken under the sand. His nostrils were the only things any would spot if the desert winds were not so blinding half the time. An unlucky nomad stepped atop him one hour and became a groggy dragon's snack.

Again this did not serve his interests. He ate all the half dozen who saw him. So the dragon decided to be sociable and chased after a small caravan roaming the dunes. His flight was faster than normal. As fast as he was willing to muster. "Halt in awe, small ones. Your future king wishes to speak to you." he growled.

The camels strartled from the booming voice that pulsed from the sky. "Spread my message! The King Zelio offers protection under his might and wisdom! Meager tributes would grant you the ability to witness my power. Deep offerings would grant more than just sanctuary! Spread my message!"

Totally a Charisma attempt to gather follows

[Pokonic]

The lead rider calms his camel, rather unconcered with the rather large dragon before him. He speaks in a calm, strong voice "Well, I am already under a master, dragon. I serve Antarah, Sulten of Al-Shaba and all the lands under it. I see that, dispite going along this path many times, this splended peice of land must be a newly-claimed part of your kingdom". Deciding to add in a bit more sarcasm, he says "Oh, I know why you are here. Ah, of course! You must be visiting the gathering of royalty at the westerners court!"
With this last bit of showy talk, the few guards around the caraven gave a chuckle. The men and women inside the caraven, however, are scared to death.

Totaly a failed charisma check , backed up by the fact they have no interest in serving a ruler who treats them well already.

[Orzel]

The lead rider calms his camel, rather unconcered with the rather large dragon before him. He speaks in a calm, strong voice "Well, I am already under a master, dragon. I serve Antarah, Sulten of Al-Shaba and all the lands under it. I see that, dispite going along this path many times, this splended peice of land must be a newly-claimed part of your kingdom". Deciding to add in a bit more sarcasm, he says "Oh, I know why you are here. Ah, of course! You must be visiting the gathering of royalty at the westerners court!"
With this last bit of showy talk, the few guards around the caraven gave a chuckle. The men and women inside the caraven, however, are scared to death.

Totaly a failed charisma check , backed up by the fact they have no interest in serving a ruler who treats them well already.

Zelio coughs a light gust of sandy wind over the rider. He did not take the tone of the rider's speech happily. The noble sneer and angled eyebrows displayed this. "We are not just a dragon. We are King Zelio. We will have to meet with your Sultan Antarah over the extents of our borders."

The brown dragon flicks his wing spines and lands silently. The whole time Zelio is descending slowly. His elitism is outweighed by laziness at this time. ""A gathering of royalty? We must be there or the affair shall lack class. Describe to us directions, human.

The dragon ted points to one of the laughing guard. ""You! Be sure your king is wise to our future arrival at anytime."

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha follows Eloride leisurely, browsing shelves with a sideways glance to get a feel for how the texts are arranged. "Thisss should prove sssufficient."

She selects several tomes, laying them open gingerly. Among them, an outdated annual stock list, an old history of human/dwarf relations (clearly writtentoflatter the dwarves into an alliance), a primer on advanced mathematics, an encyclopedia of legends and songs of the area, and what she presumed to be one of the fallen wizard's notebooks.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
When she opens the book that she selects thinking it's one of the wizard's old notebooks, she'll find that she was partially correct.
It's his journal.
Lord Eloride bows.
"I'll leave you to it then."
He exits, going to do some important business as a man in scholar robes walks in.
He approaches Ophiokasha.
"Lord Eloride assigned me to help you find anything you need."

[Pokonic]

Zelio coughs a light gust of sandy wind over the rider. He did not take the tone of the rider's speech happily. The noble sneer and angled eyebrows displayed this. "We are not just a dragon. We are King Zelio. We will have to meet with your Sultan Antarah over the extents of our borders."

The brown dragon flicks his wing spines and lands silently. The whole time Zelio is descending slowly. His elitism is outweighed by laziness at this time. ""A gathering of royalty? We must be there or the affair shall lack class. Describe to us directions, human.

The dragon ted points to one of the laughing guard. ""You! Be sure your king is wise to our future arrival at anytime."

The lead rider motioned the laughing man next to him to open up a purse." Here, oh mighty one, and follow its directions. I suggest you should continue flying until you are near the capital. Of course, make haste. The gathering is within six nights, and you can even speak to our ruler there."

Looking at the dragons expression, he notes " Apparently, all you have to do is breath on it. I would assume a dragon would know more about such inchantments than I do, and if you have nothing else to say, I suggest we can go our seperate ways."

[Orzel]

The lead rider motioned the laughing man next to him to open up a purse." Here, oh mighty one, and follow its directions. I suggest you should continue flying until you are near the capital. Of course, make haste. The gathering is within six nights, and you can even speak to our ruler there."

Looking at the dragons expression, he notes " Apparently, all you have to do is breath on it. I would assume a dragon would know more about such inchantments than I do, and if you have nothing else to say, I suggest we can go our seperate ways."

"We should depart. We, King Zelio, are sure your rule would not approve of you speaking to us for long without a formal order by royalty." Zelio reaches down to grab the message. He flaps his mighty wing spines and elevates. He snakes his longs body in an elaborate display before leaving the caravan. He is not hungry and there are many clouds to cover.

On the way, Zelio puffs sand onto the directions. He attempts to read the message through the gritty winds. "This will take so long for us. And out of the sandy lands.."

[Pokonic]

Within the claws of Zelio, the parchment starts to turn a slivery hue. The paper all but folded into itself, and finaly with a little POP the silvery paper was replaced with one of golden hues. While the letter is smaller than the other, the darker ink shows up clear against the desert winds.

" Hello, wyrm. As you might now know, the letter you are currantly reading is a invite the Royal Castle. At said castle, as newcomers into the area, you are to introduce thyself to some of the most importent figures in the lands, and hopefully appriciate the welcoming gifts I offer to you. If you come excorted by solders of some city or town you have interacted with, I would like to make it clear that you are to be polite and kind too all. After all, the king highy dislikes powerful creatures that have no offical rights within his domain, and a little push could have him send the guard after you.

However, if you truly wish to settel here for more than a few more days, come to the castle grounds vi walking (most dragons with hostile intentions would fly, you see) and you will be greeted there by a man in purple robes. Follow him, and you can get into the party without a hich. Good luck, and may there be more letters between our two parties."

[SiuiS]

Fairhaven
When she opens the book that she selects thinking it's one of the wizard's old notebooks, she'll find that she was partially correct.
It's his journal.
Lord Eloride bows.
"I'll leave you to it then."
He exits, going to do some important business as a man in scholar robes walks in.
He approaches Ophiokasha.
"Lord Eloride assigned me to help you find anything you need."

Ophiokasha curls her lip, a single fang flipping out and back once in agitation. "Your lord is kind but I have already eaten. You are dismissed."

She returns to the books before her, clearly waiting for the man to go away.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
The scholar doesn't leave.
"Madam Dragon, I found and have read every book, tome, and scroll in this library. I'm sure I can be of some assistance."

[Orzel]

Within the claws of Zelio, the parchment starts to turn a slivery hue. The paper all but folded into itself, and finaly with a little POP the silvery paper was replaced with one of golden hues. While the letter is smaller than the other, the darker ink shows up clear against the desert winds.

" Hello, wyrm. As you might now know, the letter you are currantly reading is a invite the Royal Castle. At said castle, as newcomers into the area, you are to introduce thyself to some of the most importent figures in the lands, and hopefully appriciate the welcoming gifts I offer to you. If you come excorted by solders of some city or town you have interacted with, I would like to make it clear that you are to be polite and kind too all. After all, the king highy dislikes powerful creatures that have no offical rights within his domain, and a little push could have him send the guard after you.

However, if you truly wish to settel here for more than a few more days, come to the castle grounds vi walking (most dragons with hostile intentions would fly, you see) and you will be greeted there by a man in purple robes. Follow him, and you can get into the party without a hich. Good luck, and may there be more letters between our two parties."

The brown dragon continues to fly toward the gathering. He plans to walk once he leaves the desert but that will be a while.

Zelio dives into the sand. The purpose of this is to get a gulp of sand for his breathe weapon. Once his breath sac is filled, Zelio flies up and toward the edge of the desert.

[Pokonic]

Within the desert skies, a large figure hovers above the ground. The chunks of blood and bits of bone led right up to here, and boy is it a big one. Three scalies going thru the desert, all within a few weeks? Master would like too know that there is something the matter, and soon.


And as such, the vulture flies off for the southeast, unnoticed by the lumbering brown glutten below.

The crappy writing is intentinal. It's a creature of not-realy great inteligence, so semi-coherent sentence structure is intentinal here.

[Grif]

(And whelp. As promised, a short scene detailing Raelyx and his current status. I'll probably post a few more.)

The purple dragon slumbered in his favourite corner, right at the exact midpoint between two flickering lamps in the tent. At first glance, he seemed like an ordinary dragon. Horns, wings, four legs. Perfectly ordinary kind. However, if one were to look closer, an onyx collar could be seen glimmering dully around his neck, a strange sight indeed. For no dragon of this world would willingly submit to any creature. But this strange purple dragon was no ordinary dragon.

"Raelyx! You better not be sleeping again!" a thin, reedy voice barked from outside the tent. The dragon stirred and opened one eye, just in time to see the familiar reddish hue of his "handler" so to speak. His familiar odour of blood and gold preceded him as usual.

"Shemel. C'mon, you know it's my naptime around at this time of the hour," Raelyx replied, with just a hint of draconic accent in his voice.

"Do not test my patience, dragon. Were it not for your master," Shemel ground the word distastefully, "you would be punished for far lesser mistakes." The thin human gestured towards the door. "Now, the sulten desires your presence."

Raelyx let out a dissatisfied rumble, but declined to push the issue. If there's one painful lesson he learnt all these years, it was that Shemel had a very big stick with him. The collar was designed to keep him in line, inflicting a very painful electrical shock when the command word is spoken. "Fine..." The dragon sighed heavily. Joy, another day spent entertaining the sulten's guests. "Lead the way, Shemel."

Shemel just flashed a thin smile and disappeared through the tent flap. After a brief hesitation, Raelyx got to his feet and lumbered out of the tent.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas looked into Karik's eyes as he nodded in agreement. Was that fear she saw there, or was he simply admiring her beauty again? He was hard to read. So quiet. Perhaps the presence of the humans was off putting. She decided to reassure him. "It shouldn't be difficult. We don't need to kill them, just drive them away from the village, maybe destroy a nest or two."

She went back to the humans. "Perhaps a deal can be made then. We can drive off the griffons for you, so that you may live free of fear. I'm sure that would be worth something."

Andrin replied. "I-If you could we would be in your debt... Perhaps... Yes, it's not much, but we have an invitation to the grand party in the captial. As I understand it, the k-king is inviting all the dr-dr-dragons in the area. We can give you that." he said, his eyes closed tightly, hoping that would be enough.

"An invitation to a party from the human king? How interesting." said Edell. All the dragons in the area? she thought to herself. So we can't be the only ones. This could be a great opportunity to learn about the powers in this area. Or it may be some sort of trap, but I can't pass this up.

"Very well, I accept- *ahem* we accept your offer. Come Karik, we have work to do."

[PurityIcekiller]

[SpOke's Lair]

It took Scouty a while to find the two dragons. He hadn't been told the lair's location, it was farther from the town than he'd thought, and he had very little experience with tracking down dragons. Fortunately, by the time he'd reached it, they were there.

"Uh... Sergeant Arona sent me. She said to deliver a message for you..."

The presence of dragons, even small ones, made him nervous. However, his presence clearly made at least some dragons nervous. "Sparkwing, get off the ceiling," said Smoketail, glancing upwards. "He's just a human from that town."

"...Actually, I'm an elf."

"An elf from that town, then. So what's this message?"

"His Majesty is having a party, and..." Scouty gave Smoketail Arona's message.

"...I see. Rather strange, given people's attitudes towards dragons in general. Reactions will probably range from annoyance to panic. I'm not sure whether to applaud the king for his open-mindedness, question his judgement, or distrust him."

"Should we go, Smoketail?" asked Sparkwing, still clinging to the top of the cave.

"Let's see..." Smoketail considered carefully. "With all the dragons being invited, it will either end in disaster for the humans or turn out to be a trap of theirs. However, someone needs to provide a good impression of us, and someone needs to help keep other dragons under control. I should go. Sparkwing, would you rather stay home or go to this catastrophe in the making?"

"...Well, I'm kind of curious about this king, and the capital..."

"Good. It certainly wouldn't look good for anyone who tries to hurt you, at any rate. Anyone who spends more than a few seconds in your presence will know you're pretty much harmless. Come on. We're heading to Northwestingville."

"Wait, why are we going to that town first?"

"To meet our escort."

[Pokonic]

Diego Havoc@

Do you wish for me to play out the Griffons, or do you feel like you can handle that yourself?


Within the inner sanctom of the Royal Palace, the king was smashing things.


"You fooollllll, do you even know what you have done!?" The young king was panting, yelling at a figure in the shadows in his own home. " First you tell me to invite my borders to the southern men and ignore the dwarves willingness to let there overgrown pigions to feast on my land, and I do it. Then you tell me to lesson support in the swamp and give those very same backstabbing dwarves support in the skirmishes in the north, and I do it. Now, your telling me to lesson my guards for the very same night those unholy dragons are to be let inside my castle!? Are you mad, you insolent gibberer!

"Why, my lord, do you say that? You know perfectly well that I am sane and well in mind. You were not this angry, for example, when I told you the Earl was coming to the party.

The king glared at the shadowy figure. As far as he knew, his little visiter was using a illusion. It has happened before. "Because that bag of bones comes no matter what I do! You know what he did when I had him jinxed to never go under the city gates ever again? He bloody flew in on a Cauchemare! I dont even know where you find them anymore! I thought they where all dead!"

"I gave them to him. As a gift. After all, he deserved a reward for driving that blasted protoplasmic abomination from the north that everyone thought was exinct into the swamp. Perhapes you know it as the god those blasted Boggles now worship?"

The king gaped at the thing that dared to be so much as damanding in his own home. Glaring at him, he could only say "Th-the Earls only good for suppressing the Vampires. In fact, there almost gone in his land's, which is unsurprising, considering that the few men left there are very well armed. While I am glad that man's good at his job, the fact remains that his land is dead because of him and his methods, and his apperance scares the members of the court. Not only that, he is generaly annoying!"
"Hardly his fault for visiting a old tomb in the desert lands in search of gold, only to be cursed."
The young king, silently nodding his head, stated " True, but he should have taken the honerable way out afterwords. And on that note,you," he stated, "should leave, before the workers come down and prepare the roads. After all," he started to raise his voice, "its not like your missing the party or anything. Your visiting your old freind in the Wyrmwood, correct? I am sure he misses you dearly."

"Young king, you should know you are more like your grandfather more than you could ever know. The only differance is that the war you where raised for never came. " Silently, he sunk into the shadows, and the most high secret adviser was gone.

[Grif]

Raelyx's sharp ears twitched, picking up the sounds inside the sulten's royal tent as he neared the gaudily decorated entrance. It would seem like he was in the middle of amusing his guests.

"... and the city of Az-Zebadiah is most assuredly the richest city on—" The sulten stopped mid-sentence as Shemel and Raelyx entered the tent. He spread his pudgy arm wide at the two and gave a wide smile. His guests, three dark men dressed in colourful, flowing robes and cloaks, stared at Raelyx with their eyes wide and mouth open.

"Now if it isn't my favourite advisor and pet dragon," he greeted merrily, his smile growing wider as the sulten glanced at his guests' astounded expressions. He clearly seemed to be enjoying himself.

"My lord. I am but a humble servant," Shemel said, bowing deeply.

"Of course, such a modest fellow, my advisor," the sulten replied jovially. Shemel bowed again, and took his customary place just behind the sulten's high seat. Behind the jewel encrusted throne, he seemed to almost fade into the background. Raelyx knew Shemel watched everything like a hawk, even if everyone else forgot about his presence, which they were apt to do. It suited both Shemel and the sulten just fine. More than a few "guests" ended up a head short when they invariably tried to assassinate the sulten.

"Gentlemen! Allow me to introduce you to my pet dragon, whom I had raised since birth. Raelyx, do give these guests a bow." Raelyx did so grudgingly. He never really did understand why he had to do all these gestures, but the sulten was adamant he learn "the ways of polite society". A series of "ooh!" and "aah!" emanated from the three men.

The sulten clapped his hands once and sat down on his seat again. "Raelyx, why don't you show these fine gentlemen some of your tricks. I'm sure they will be more than happy to be acquainted with some of your kind's peculiarities." He was met with polite nods from the three guests.

Raelyx sighed. "Very well, master," he said, blowing out a smoke ring in annoyance.

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha is spending the first ten or so hours, studiously ignoring the aide. He face is kept a carefully bored mask of neutrality to hide a single damming fact; dragons do not possess a formal education.

Certainly, her genius is enough to compare numbers (which fall into place after observing several equations) and parse through all but the most arcanely labyrinthine of diphthongs (the thought of carving a "gh" into the next creature to displease her has lingered for a while). But should a creature as Lowly as a mere mortal hominid notice the disparity between her vocabulary and reading comprehension...

Well, diplomatic relations would become tense, a best.

Finally, her sense of decorum wins out. "I need to flexxx myssself. surely your Manlord would not be averse to an impyrean sssspectre traversing the night skiessss?" The implications of her stir-craziness and agitation show clearly enough that even a man could see them beneath her composed facade.

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik hesitated only for a moment after Edell had taken flight, keeping an eye on the humans to ensure they would not open fire the moment their backs were turned. then, as quickly as he could manage, he took off into the air, beating his wings as hard as he could to cover the distance the dragoness had made during the brief head start he had unwittingly given her. "So what's the plan?" he asked once he was successfully flying next to her, "Did you come to an agreement?"

Karik hoped Edell would fill him in on the details, as he could not hear what the humans were saying from the distance he was keeping.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
It seems that the wizard's journal is filled with diagrams and dates posted for all of the wizard's research.
Including one day where he devised the perfect way to deal with an apprentice who looked at the floor while trying the fireball spell.
Hint: Add a sauce of your choosing and eat away.:smallwink::smallyuk:

Anyways, the scholar nods at her request.
"Aye, you may fly around in the skies all you wish." he says with a smirk of superiority.
He totally thinks he's smarter than Ophiokasha.:smallbiggrin:

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha pays the scholar no more mind, slinking out of the Study. As quietly as she can, she finds a Dark, open place from which to take flight.

Airborne, she circles higher, ever higher, her tail whipping in agitation. Still full, hunting held no allure, but perhaps there was something that could give her sport...

A feral grin. In the dark hours of the night, Ophiokasha flies high above main roads, looking for human outlaws and brigands from whom she can 'defend' Fairhaven.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
Ophiokasha might notice an old man! Two highway men have boarded the old man's wagon and they're threatening him!

The scholar begins taking down several different tomes from the shelves for Ophiokasha. Such titles include: The Wizard's grimoir(the source of his spells and power, though it's vastly complex), a few different self-teach scrolls to teach yourself dome simple cantrips, and a heavy dictionary full of magical terms and such.

[Grif]

It felt like hours, answering questions like the good pet dragon he was and occasionally showing off his superior strength and fire breath. Raelyx was almost ready to doze off when the one of the men, the one which he identified as the whiny one, due to his nasally voice, spoke again. "So, Mr Dragon. Do you ever feel the need to mate? I imagine it must get pretty lonely around here."

That certainly got his ears standing up straight. "I beg your pardon?" Raelyx rumbled, not sure he heard that right. He actually blew another puff of smoke into Whiny's face.

The one which he nicknamed Red, for no other reason that because he had a bright red mustache which curled like those pretzels at the end, cleared his throat. "I believe what my fair comrades here was curious as to whether you... *ahem* had a romantic relationship with another female dragon."

Raelyx blinked at them in confusion. "Is it not obvious? I am a dragon in the service of the great sulten. How would I seek out a female?"

The fat one, who has erstwhile been quite content in leaving the questions to his compatriots, spoke in a deep bass voice. "Dragon, do not be coy. You're clearly in prime age for breeding. Have you not felt the need to engage in female companionship?"

Raelyx affected a thoughtful expression. There was a few times that he felt antsy for no particular reason. But breeding? Him? For some reason, that never occurred to him. Heck, he never even seen another female of his own species before. The sulten's cheerful voice interrupted his musings. "Gentlemen, I'm sure my dragon here would not be appreciative of revealing what he does in his free time."

"O-Of course, Your Highness."

The sulten clapped his hands. "Now, then, shall we have—"

Shemel, which had been standing in the background unobtrusively for the entire exchange, suddenly stepped forward and pushed the sulten to the floor roughly. "Get down!" he hissed. The three men seemed to be taken back by the sudden gesture.

A moment later, a trio of arrow struck the high throne where the sulten's head had been a second before. "Guards!" the sulten screamed.

The body of the two burly bodyguards at the entrance tumbled through the tent flap, followed by a quartet of black-garbed men wielding scimitars. "Die!" they screamed, only to careen to a complete standstill as they spied Raelyx lying on the ground in front of them.

The dragon just smiled, before bathing them in a gout of fire. Not surprisingly, the surrounding tent material caught fire and began to blaze merrily. However the intruders were not to be deterred. Two more burst through the ceilings of the tent, screaming similarly crude insults. Shemel worked his own scimitar and sent one of the assassin's head rolling through the tent as he landed beside him. He then turned around and burned a hole into the other assasin chest with a well-placed fireball. "My lord. Out, now," he said calmly, his words was punctuated by more assassins bursting through the walls of the tent. "Raelyx, keep him safe!" Shemel commanded, his scimitar already out to face the four men who had just the party.

The dragon snorted in acknowledgement, and lifted the sulten with his tail. "Come on, master, before the tent burns," Raelyx said, studying the conundrum of the flaming entrance. Obviously going through the fire wasn't an option. He was quite fire-resistant himself, but the sulten was most definitely not. Judging by the smoke in the tent, it wasn't very healthy for them to stay indoors either. Spying an unburnt carpet nearby, he hit on an idea. "A moment, please, master," he rumbled, putting the sulten down again. Using his claws, he snagged one of the water jars from the food table and thoroughly hosed down the carpet. Then he wrapped the sulten with said fabric and picked him up again with his tail. To his eye, the sulten now looked like a giant sushi roll, which suddenly struck him as hilarious.

"Dragon! Are you both deaf and blind? Get the sulten out," Shemel's voice called out from the smoke. A scream followed, and the blazing body of an unfortunate asssasin stumbled from the pall towards Raelyx.

"Yes, yes, working on it," Raelyx grumbled. He lowered his body and charged through the raging inferno that was now the tent's entrance. In hindsight, he probably should have just crushed the four idiots with his claws. The flames obscured his sight for a moment, before he was clear and tumbled into the open grass clearing beyond. He took the opportunity to check his precious cargo. Yep, still kicking, though the carpet was a little burnt. He gingerly set the sulten down and unwrapped the damp, and probably singed fabric. The great sulten of Al-Malik was now completely soggy, and missing his poofy turban. Remarkably, he still seemed to be in a good mood.

"Well done, Raelyx. I must say it's a shame we didn't manage to rescue our guests." The sulten didn't seem particularly concerned at the recent attempt on his life. "Ah, here comes my faithful guards." he continued, as the brutish giants who had erstwhile been called away for the day thundered towards them.

"Where smash?" the leader bellowed.

"Oh I think Shemel took care of them. Would you mind putting out the fire?" the sulten waved at his royal tent, which had by now turned into a raging inferno. It was fortunate that his tent was normally built well away from any other tents in the camp.

"You heard the boss. Git some water now!" The giants scurried off, only to return moments later with large barrels of water. They promptly doused the entire spectacle in a massive splash of perfectly good drinking water, putting out the fire handily.

From the remains of the camp, a familiar red-hued figure strode out nonchalantly, with three very soggy and wet men in tow. "My lord, I found these three huddled in a corner. It is fortunate they have some spells of warding." Fatty just gave a frightened squeak, terror etched on his face. Red seemed stunned, while Whiny seemed remarkably composed. By now, a crowd had gathered around the camp, with the camp followers quick to dart in and start tending to the sulten.

"Gentlemen! I'm glad to see you have survived. It is unfortunate you were in the aftermath of one of the many unfortunate powers who seek to assassinate me." He waved one of his human servants over and whispered into his ear. Then he turned back to his guests with a big smile. "No matter. I have already instructed my men to erect a new tent. It would be unseemly to attend to you in the middle of an open field, yes?"

Just behind them, the beginnings of a new massive tent began to sprout almost inhumanly quickly. Raelyx snorted as Fatty finally collapsed in a heap on the ground. Whether in sheer exhaustion or shock, he would never know.

[PurityIcekiller]

[Northwestingville]

For Arona, suitable attire for a royal party consisted of a slightly tarnished breastplate with an eagle on it over her normal attire. For Oslan and Santiago, it meant their normal attire plus blue cloaks. Northwestingville was not exactly what you would call a fancy town. However, given normal dragon wardrobes, they were at least more well-clad than their escortees.

Once Sparkwing and Smoketail arrived and the final preparations were taken care of, they set out on foot. They might have flown, but Sparkwing wasn't letting any of the humans get too close and Smoketail couldn't carry three people all by herself.

[Orzel]

The egotistically brown dragon continued north until he picked up a new smell. The scent of grass in the desert was rare. His spiny wings twitched as his nose is tickled by the pleasant odor of grass leaves.

"We suppose we should land now. To rest the royal muscles of course."

Zelio descended with a loud thud and crept slowly forward. His jagged jaw pointed forward as his head is up. Dragon eyes were wide as the worry of sandy eyes dropped with each step.

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha curls her lip and flicks her tooth in irritation. A witness, one who belongs to Fairhaven... She would have to behave, or let them kill the old codger. And they were probably just going to steal his things and leave him in peace, too. Unless...

Would armed robbery on the roads count as an executable offense? Ophiokasha mentally adds a book of laws to her required reading, before spiraling down silently to land (loudly) about 30 yards out from the group.

"Good evening, humanssss. Have you come out to enjoy the ssstarsss?" She trots quietly out of the dark, taking advantage I her natural camouflage - flickering green eyes in the dark, slowly resolving themselves as shadows swirl into solid, scaled form large enough to devour a horse. And this is just her head. "You are cccertainly not accossssting a traveller, yess? That would be... Unfortunate."

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
The scholar then reclines in a chair, awaiting Ophiokasha's return.

---

One of the highway man's eyes go wide as he sees Ophiokasha, his dagger shaking in his hand.
"W-what are you?"
The other highway man has a knife at the old man's throat.
"One wrong move and we'll slit his throat!"

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha continues to watch from the dark as her tail blade thumps loudly into the ground next to hear face, leaving a deep runnel in the dirt.

"Kill him then. It'sss no matter to me. I am here to fffind and arressst seriousss criminalss. Like... Road-side murderersss? Or you lower your tool, and be merely road-ssside burglars."

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
The first highway man just books it.
He's running.
The second one, who has the old man with a knife at the throat says:
"I think you're bluffing."

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas spoke with Karik as they moved away from the human village. "We're not going to get much from the humans, except for an opportunity. The king is apparantly inviting dragons from around the area to some sort of party. It could be dangerous, but it could also be a chance to influence the more powerful beings of this country. In exchange for the invite, we find a way to stop the local griffons from attacking the local human settlements."

She looked around at the local farms. A few cows were grazing just north of where they had met the humans.

"We'll try and do things non-violently if we can. Maybe we can find a new food source for them. Perhaps it would be simplest to wait here for their next attack, rather than go hunting the hills for them. What do you think, Karik?" Edell didn't expect Karik to supply any better ideas, but she wanted him to think that she valued his opinion.

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha watches the fleeing man like a cat watches mice. "I do not need to bluffff. I have clawssss. I will return after I find your friend. You will sssurender or I will kill your elder mortal. And then it will be you, me, and the death sssentence."

She pulls back into the darkness, her membrane concealing the glint form her eyes. As one long, muscular spring she takes wing. There were no good places to hide from a birds-eye view, and humans in panic run in straight lines...

Ophiokasha overshoots the fleeing brigand, and dives into a barrel roll. Flying straight towards the bandit (who is now running towards her in the dark), she cants her wings and rears, before Bringing one dull-taloned claw to bear, striking the man to the ground (or so she thinks).

[Pokonic]

Edellipas spoke with Karik as they moved away from the human village. "We're not going to get much from the humans, except for an opportunity. The king is apparantly inviting dragons from around the area to some sort of party. It could be dangerous, but it could also be a chance to influence the more powerful beings of this country. In exchange for the invite, we find a way to stop the local griffons from attacking the local human settlements."

She looked around at the local farms. A few cows were grazing just north of where they had met the humans.

"We'll try and do things non-violently if we can. Maybe we can find a new food source for them. Perhaps it would be simplest to wait here for their next attack, rather than go hunting the hills for them. What do you think, Karik?" Edell didn't expect Karik to supply any better ideas, but she wanted him to think that she valued his opinion.

The old vulture landed half-hazardly onto the rocky cliffs, wings flapping in order to steady itself. Going from the smells, it seems that at least one griffon was in the area, and what better way to exchange information than to bring a gift? Well, perhapes the cooling elk between his talons did not see the humer in it, but the griffons always liked the taste of creatures of fey stock. More tender, in his opinon.

Now, as for how this little kinship excange started, it simply has to do with there respective roles. As a desert bird prefering more aged food, he had little reason to prey on the (Tough and chewy) wild goats so far away from his lands, and the griffons had little reason to drive off a fellow creature of the skys that is more than willing to drive off a blasted giant eagle or another without compinsation.

Besides, both parties where inteligent enough to understand that killing either would cause harm to the other. Also to take into consideration was that both tended to keep watch over there respective lands ment that during the times where his master had no use for him ment he could discuss herd and flock movements with the other lords of the skies. Eagles dont count, being sellouts to the elves, and Rocs are more like vaugly divine forces to be feared and respected than anything else. Hence, he was following the trail of one hunting group, two males and two females, and what seemed to be many pungent varities of blood.

Finding a fresh trail, he quickly finds his target: four resting griffons gnawing on long-dead goat. Getting there attention by exagerating his flaping was effective, and slowy glided down to the now-alert hybrid creatures.
[What is your meaning here, Black Death?] commanded the lead griffon, a scarred female that presumably got into a fight with something far larger than herself in the past,[What could have drawn you from your lands too our barren place?]

[To exchange information. After all, there must be a reason behind your sudden willingness to eat days-old meat.] Looking at the griffon, he noted [ I must say that recent activity from the scaled ones is not what I have in mind, ether.]

The rightmost griffon rose onto its hind legs, and stated [ Our prey alongside the west have been disappering, and what we have found is mildy disterbing.] Seeing that the big bird was leaning in, he stated [ They have been found wraped up in webbing, and there bone-dry inside. Bears, elk, even the Eagles have been being attacked and taken down, and entire paches of the forest are covered. You know what that means.]

If the vulture had lips, it would be in a grimance. That was bad. [ Hmm, well for my part: Dragons are moving from the desert to what seems to be the capital. My own leader stats that it is due to the plain-king inviting them, so that might be of some use to your kind. The Cursed Place,] the griffons look startled by its mention [was seemingly cleared of most of it's air-dwelling creatures a few months ago. Not a sign of any of your kin there.] The griffons seem rather exited about this news, and was aching to go. [Now, another word from your part. Mearly because you are lacking food is no excuse for any of your kind to eat perfectly good goat.] The griffons, unsure what to do, eventualy had a male member of the group explain [ We are on rather high alert right now. The humans are planning too do something about us swiping there horses for our own use,] the vulture was rather interested about why the griffon never realy admitted to eating them, [and now that we have said our part, the elk.]

The vulture let go of his gift, and one griffon took it apon his back to take back to the nest. Going from his compainons hungry looks, it took all of there restraint from eating the brid right there. Seeing the dead goat abandoned, he snached it into his beak and begain to fly back to his master, who, if he was correct, should be arriving at the Sand-Kings camp by now. He liked the sand king. He let him eat his Elephant when it died.

[Draconi Redfir]

Other dragons!? Karik's mind forced him to cease listening at the mention, unable to believe what it had just heard. If the builder's king was gathering dragons, that meant he knew where dragons were. And he couldn't know about Karik, and Edell hadn't known until just recently, so the king could not know about her. This left only the possibility of other dragons roaming the area, the exact opposite of what Karik was hoping for when he arrived. Before thoughts of raging conflicts could flood his mind however, he noticed Edell had begun speaking again, mentioning the imminent conflict with the griffons.

"Uhh..." Karik unconsciously grew an immense interest in the grass below him as Edell asked for his thoughts. "I-i think I’d prefer it if we didn't start a fight..." he began. "if they attack first I could, maybe, fight them. but anything to avoid that i would prefer."

[Mindfreak]

Ophiokasha watches the fleeing man like a cat watches mice. "I do not need to bluffff. I have clawssss. I will return after I find your friend. You will sssurender or I will kill your elder mortal. And then it will be you, me, and the death sssentence."

She pulls back into the darkness, her membrane concealing the glint form her eyes. As one long, muscular spring she takes wing. There were no good places to hide from a birds-eye view, and humans in panic run in straight lines...

Ophiokasha overshoots the fleeing brigand, and dives into a barrel roll. Flying straight towards the bandit (who is now running towards her in the dark), she cants her wings and rears, before Bringing one dull-taloned claw to bear, striking the man to the ground (or so she thinks).
Fairhaven
The first highway man hits the ground when she strikes him, going into a blissful sleep.

The second highway man, however, slices the old man's throat, cuts the wagon's harness off one of the horses and begins riding away!

[AnimeKid]

Having come to an agreement on the elves Bellock goes to seek them out. While he was the most intimidating of the trio he was also the strongest. He flew low over the tree tops, no visible force keeping him afloat. It would confund most, but not other dragons.

A low growl rumbles from his throat as a small plume of smoke emerges from his mouth. He had a feeling, something was coming. What was more he had a feeling that it would shake the entire world. Could it possibly be another dragon?

[SiuiS]

Lifting the fallen man's form like a bird clutches a snake, Ophiokasha sets again into the air, this time landing near the wagon amidst the distancing clip-clop of hoof beats.

The old man was of course gargling on his own life. Typical. And yes she can't risk the loss; his witness is currently a valuable asset. Pursing her lips, she sighs and exhales a thin stream of billowing light, like a feathery nebula, into and onto the old man's wounds. She should have been fast enough to save him. She was, after all, a dragon. How could she fail?

Without waiting to see the results, for such is her pride, she takes won't again. Ophiokasha begins to chase the fleeing brigand towards Fairhaven.

Action: Use healing breath on dying old man.

[Orzel]

Zelio stomps through the less sandy land. His spike-beard points forward in his graceful stride. The spine-wings of the brown dragons drape down like a regal robe.

"Humans! Goblins! Or whatever you are!" he shouts in his lofty tone. "The Great King Zelio, The Majestic Brown Dragon of the Sands, The King of the Western Dunes, the Walker of the Crystal Winds, and Lord of the Empty Wastes... graces your lands with our brilliance! Come and wash yourselves in awe and be cleansed by our beauty!"

[Pokonic]

Bellock@

A skittering noise could be heard in the distance. The actual area is silant, with no signs of animal life dispite the large span of the woods he is in. He could tell from casual observation that the trees, notably, seem to have great paches of bark missing, as if something sucked it off in irregular slurps. Along with that, a large, almost round white object caches his eyes, and is only a few feet ahead from his currant position.
Well, no elves yet. However, you do get to do some exploring. The missing bark and the strange white object are both there to set up the next few scenes.
Zelio@

A rather small humanoid (to a dragon, at least) with a ragged grey cloak seemingly pops into view, dispite a distinct lack of cover in the still-arid land he was in. Rather than run and hide, he stomps his feet fussily at the dragon and is seemingly in a incoherent rage. Making a rather strange noise that could best be discribed as a drowning man clearing his lungs and a glarkrl, it yells with a wet-sounding voice " Bah! What do yah think your doing here, dragon! Do you think that you have a bit of right to be here! No weh in the Hells your going anywhere past this line, even if you brought friends! Heck, you could be the godsforgivin Prince of This World for all I could care, you'r not getting anywhere near the kingdom so help my existance!"

Yeah, the little guy is ment to pop out of seemingly no where.I expect great things from the following conversation. :smallcool:

[AnimeKid]

Bellock looks at the strange object for a moment. Now if Agnorant were here she would tell him to stay away from it until she could examine and analyze it. However she was not so all he had to go on were his instincts. He walks forward towards the object as he says, "Well what do we have here? A small treasure?"

With than he walks forward and then takes a better look at the object.

[Pokonic]

@Bellok

The white object, at a closer look, seems larger than it did before. It seems to be woven from a fiber, like a pillow, exept this has far thicker strings and smells odd. It looks rather frail, so perhapes it might be able to be detached frim its hold on the ground.

[Pokonic]

The following documents are from the ragged folders of one Cristan Farshin, a servent of the Kingdom and all it survays.

Interview one: The following exchange happened within the currant castle vault, and was between one convicted practitionerof magic (Speciaties: Healing and Soul Summoning) who acted against the kingdom during a period that will remain unspecified. The deal at the time was for him to be able to go free after questioning him about his travels to Tai-Korron. As from this moment and for the sake of convence, the unnamed mage will be refered to a N and the interveiwers as Q.
.................................................. .................................................. .......

N: So, this is about.....my trip a few years ago?

Q: Yes. Tell us why you wished to go there.

N: Well, I had the same reason as everyone else with me at the time: the magical artifacts in the place. You could walk down a hallway, as the story goes, and pick up a cooling talisman from a ice-box or a silver floor tile that will never break. By the way, those stories are right. They never mentioned the gas, tho.

Q: Why did you group feel the need not to alert the dwarven and human athorites? You could have gotten your papers to be let in and perhapes some aid. You know that the usual penalty for intrusion into the area of that forsaken city is death vi obliteration of the body, correct?

N: Well, yeah, we could have, but the rules for that state that we would have to hand over any magical weapons or generaly anything bigger than your fist from that place, and the risk is not worth it. Better risk death and come out rich than to risk death and come out only slightly well-off.

Q: Hrmf. Fine, as you wish. Still, a few questions about what you saw down there. First and formost, you passed the magical barrier around that place rather easly, and rune-magic is normaly not very easy to nullify. What did you do?

N: My great-grandfather was friends with one of the dwarves who put the circle into place. He said that there was a slightly weak spot near the southwest. A minor use of some magic at the right spot made it so that the barrier could be ignored for a few seconds.

Q: .........Are you kidding me? Is that how people have been getting in? Nevermind, tell us about how the city looked from the outside.

N: Well, it kind of looked like a gigantic egg halfway into the ground. The upper part was caved in, tho, like someone took a gigantic spoon and smashed it in from one side. There where some halls still standing, and there was some creatures shuffeling around on some of them. My friend said that the gnomes bred griffons, and that the aviary was exposed to the world now. Still, they never paid any attention to us.

Q: How did you get inside?

N: Oh, I was not the only one in the party with a little magic. The halfling with us brought a special ring that made you almost weightless. We literaly ran up the walls to the lowest-rung opening and ran right it.

Q: What did you bring to prepare yourselves for the next hour or so?

N: We brought as many healing potions as we could find. We knew from a guy who's been in there before that there are quite a few undamaged potions in there, so we took our chances in finding a cach.

Q: Did you?

N: Heh, if we did, would I be missing my left leg?

Q: True. What happened next after you found a way into the city?

N: Well, it turns out that any notion of "streets" goes out of the window when you travel in a place that was carved out of a single block of magical stone. (He chuckles here) As it turns out, the closest thing those buggers had to a house was a series of rooms connected to a single, usualy sealed entrance. To be fair, it made travel down into the place rather easy. Then we-

Q: Actualy, I would like you to explain about the natual hazerd of the place, for a mages opinon on the matter is treasured no matter what.

N: Well, what is there to say about it? Hmm.... It's main form was a dark gas, usualy brown but in some places purple or even black. It got into everything, from the walls to the water to even the mythral shield my buddy was wearing. It will rot you to the core if you'r down there too long, and as it turns out anything organic is doomed to utter ruin. A piece of leather armor I was wearing almost fell apart around me, and cloth in general rotted within minutes.

Q: Anything you noticed while going deeper into the city? As in, anything that struck you as odd?

N: Well, yes. There was another form of necromantic substance down there. Actualy, substance is not a good word for it. The very air pulsed with decaying energy. Finnis died with his liquidfied brains coming out of his nose, and even the shield I casted did nothing. We had to leave the way we came about twenty minutes into the second half of our trip, and three of the seven guys who went down there where either dead or starting to turn into husks.

Q: You mention husks. On that note, what of the Gnomish populance left? How many attacked you on your trip?

N: Surprisingly few. The ones we saw where primaraly in the public bathing area, which we avoided anyway because the heat talismans in the thing where still working, so the steam coming up from it was even worse than the normal gas. Speaking of which, the water adsorbed most of it from the area, so we did actualy have time for a slight refualing stop there. The gnomes where almost animalistic, and it took several attempts to obliterate the single hostile one that actualy attacked us that that little encounter almost killed everyone. I am not sure exactly whats going on in there, but whatever those little guys are now can regenerate when there exposed to that gas. Hence, killing something in there was almost stupidly hard.

Q: Interesting. Now, you said that you'r group was almost all killed. How did you loose your leg?

N: Well, that little bugger gnome managed to scrach me. Thing is, the gas, dispite me constantly pumping myself with healing energy, got into the cut and kind of decayed the whole leg. By the time we where outside, it was little more than some flesh that was leaving peices of itself as we walked out. I almost died when it fell off.

Q: Gods. According to the report I have, your fellow party member teliported you to the capital to the local Druids garden. They claimed that your friend died on the spot, while you almost fused to the ground. How do you plan on living after this interview?

N: Oh, I might look like a cripple and am rather weak as it is, but the dwarves has never turned down a man who can heal. There is still a friend of the family in the dwarven realm, and he contacted me a few weeks ago about a special project on replacement parts that I could test.

Q: Good for you. I suppose we could end this little thing, eh?

[AnimeKid]

Bellock looks at the object as he circles it for a few seconds. His curiosity gets the better of him as he walks forward and pushes the flat of his hand/paw/whatever you call a dragon's hand and tries to dislodge it from it's position. At the same time the sniffs the object more purposefully to see if he can try to place the scent.

[Pokonic]

Bellock@

A cruching noise is heard, and your hand leaves a imprint on it. It seems that a claw or a sharo object might puncture it, but whatever it is, a simple press will not work. A strange, almost putred smell comes from the object as it is dislocated.

[AnimeKid]

Curious as to what is on the inside Bellock takes a deep breath and holds it before taking one of his overly long claws and swiping it neatly across the fabric to rupture it. He then bring his other claw around to help dig through it and find out what was inside of the strange object and once he knew what he would try to figure out why.

[Pokonic]

As the "fabric" gives way, he notices that, along with the putrid smell coming from it getting stronger, that there is a dark-green substance on his claws. Coming from the rip in the object, along with more of the dark-green substance, was what was solid lump, greenish in color and almost certently rotton. As he digs into the orb, he finds himself face-to-face with a dead elf, long dead and almost soaked with the same slime on his claws.

[AnimeKid]

He growl rumbles in his throat when he realizes what the bag is. This would make the elves very irritable if they found out about the body. As intimidating as he looks it would be simple to blame him for the elf's death. Though he had to wonder. Did the real culprint leave the container her hoping that a dragon would come along to open it and incriminate themselves? With that thought he seemingly lifts into the air magically. Having lived in these woods most of his life and being the main hunter of the group he narrows his eyes as he peers through the canopy to see if there are any bands of elves heading in his direction. If there were then the circumstances would be most... unfortuitous.

[Pokonic]

A chittering comes from above him. A large, dark shapes skitters thru the braches, leaving a sticky white goop behind it. Soon, more of the strange things start toruch thru the trees, leaving the strange white trail behind them as well. Perhapes it would be best to leave.

The would be no way for him to have encountered the giant spiders before. Also, the last part was no joke.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock sees the spiders leaping through the trees to his location quickly. Hug, he had not ever seen a breed of gigantic spiders in this forest though that would probably explain the dead elf. Not to mention that they were leaving a trail and that would throw suspicion off him. With that he retreats as he takes to the skies away from the enormous arachnids.

He flies as he keeps a sharp eye out to make sure that the spiders are not following him. It may have been a bit paranoid but in this forest it was eat or be eaten and his draconian pride would not allow him to be killed by mere bugs, literally.

[Pokonic]

As the spiders begin to leap from the trees, a screech is heard in the distance. No less then three giant eagles are heading for your direction, and they seem to be heading straight for you! However, the spiders themselves seem to be retreating.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock roars this time as he thinks to himself, 'It is one thing after the other today. Did I offend some deity?' With that he rolls in the air so the his back is facing the ground and should suffer no disadvantages to his mobility due to his flight not using wings. He then breaths deeply and then exhales as he shoots out a large stream of fire, the inferno looking to make some roast chicken.

[Pokonic]

Unfortunatly, the sky is the eagles domaine, and they avoid the blast only slightly singed. Than a strange thing happened. On of the eagles seemed to have something on its back, which raise itself upright. Seemingly yelling in a unfamilier tounge, it draws something from its....ah, it's a bow! The elf draws back the bow, aims it for the dragons wings, and prepares to clip it while he is in mid-air. The other eagles have figures on there backs, but they seem to be flying in the other direction.

[Mindfreak]

Lifting the fallen man's form like a bird clutches a snake, Ophiokasha sets again into the air, this time landing near the wagon amidst the distancing clip-clop of hoof beats.

The old man was of course gargling on his own life. Typical. And yes she can't risk the loss; his witness is currently a valuable asset. Pursing her lips, she sighs and exhales a thin stream of billowing light, like a feathery nebula, into and onto the old man's wounds. She should have been fast enough to save him. She was, after all, a dragon. How could she fail?

Without waiting to see the results, for such is her pride, she takes won't again. Ophiokasha begins to chase the fleeing brigand towards Fairhaven.

Action: Use healing breath on dying old man.
Fairhaven
The old man is restored, but just barely.
And the vagabond has gotten quite far already, Ophiokasha will be hard pressed to catch up with him before he leave the boundaries of Fairhaven.

[AnimeKid]

Now if there was one thing that could rile Bellock up it was picking a fight with him. Bellock had to train himself to become as strong as he was. However being a red dragon, a combat focused one at that meant one thing. Unless he knew is was but a friendly brawl He could become downright feral in a fight. Like now, he knows that if he just continues flying away He could escape and Agnorant, silver tongued as she is, could explain everything and plead his case. If he stayed and fought and perhaps killed one of the elves all bets would be off.

However right know Bellock did not give on hot sh*t. Someone was firing arrows at him and that meant that they wanted him captured or dead. With that Bellock sees the arrow aimed for him...and sees it miss because of how he was a wingless dragon. Huh, who knew something that got him ridiculed could come in handy? While the elf is reloading Bellock puts on the magical breaks. With the eagle still flying forward at high speed Bellock should easily come within range of them. He would then try to swipe at them with his long mace-ended tail.
Tail attack: 5 +agi mod (50= +10 mod)+2 from mace tail= 17 dmg

[Pokonic]

The first document is from a rather small and isolated kingdom long gone, but the document itself is one of the few that reprisent a collected account of the creation of the political-geographical area known as the eastern lands. The older version of modern common, however, is rather hard on the eye.

.................................................. .................................................. .......

During the tyme which magike was free and untamed, the peoples of the North and West combined within the confineds of the Giantstepps and the Molka Cliffs, and within such a place the peoples therin took there own routes to life, building hamlets near the forests nearby and lettle towns neer the small rivers that come from the Stepps. These sympel folk eventualy where found by the Dureger, who saw them as stupid but kind, and a sort of trade was extablished until a dignitary of that underground folke was found shot and cooked by a ignorent pesant, who mistaked the little man for a gremlien-kind and roasted his body to make the spirits flee his lands.

The Dureger than casted one of there little tricks, and soon anyone who wished to travel between a town or a settelment was doomed to walk in circles and otherwies become loste, for the very trees and rocks of the land moved in strange waies to prevent the travel of any man within the area. Hence, the land became weird and strange, for little contacte with others made each and every town it's own flavor of backwords.

Then, a man from the East, of one of the folk who's kings are of the sort of immortal entites known as Lyches, traveled down from the Cliffts for the sake of travel. He landed in the the wrong town, and the Baron of the land, a namless imbred, had him teach him his magike at the paine of death. The man complied, and at the end of several winters (for none could be bothered with counting the years in this petty realm) he killed the man from the east and collected his power to finaly preform the art of Lychdom that he was tought.

At the night of his acention, he prefomed the spell as he was told. Yet, a alien presance was there that cursed night, and a new bleake curs'e on the world was born. The foul baron went to every house in his realm and sucked the occupents bone-dry, and the next day none syterd from thy beds. The night, however, was a day of death and blood. Monsters serging into the woodlands, entire villages turning up dead, or worse, gone, and the nobles and the petty lords feared that every day would be there last. These creatures could travele the land at will, and every day a man was burned for susspision of being one of those Feinds of The Night.

These brutish creatures never stayed within the borders of there homeland, however. The more attackes from the monsters the outer lands faced, the more disgust and hatred they had for the beasts that lurked in that cursed place. Eventualy, a group of northern men and women crashed into the forest, and, finding that the trees could not be stuch down or burned, went farther in, stakeing every prone sleeping creature they found. This noble act, however, made the men curs'ed. They became nothing better than the beasts that they slayed, but kept there minds. These people, pail in skin and dark of hair, made themselves the rulers of the land, which is now known as Cošica, where they have ruled for forever and a day over the native peoples, and now carefull control there population vi semi-annual conflicts between themselves and others.

[Pokonic]

Bellocks tail smashed the eagle on the beak from the side, shattering it entirely and causing the bird to scream in agony. The elf was shocked at the whole situation and barly saw his mount crippled. To be fair, he never got a good veiw of the dragon before he shot. His clipping shot was well-known amongst the Rangers, and how would he have known that he was fighting the one Lung in the whole realm?

His two comrades saw what was happening and quickly unloaded there bows, and within moments a single shot hit Bellock in the right thigh, after which a sensation of hooks spiraling from the arrow could be felt. They are still heading torwords the dragon, with the intention of sniping it with arrows until it retreats.

36 -12 (not a direct hit)= Eagle 1's now has 22 Health.

98-10 (fleshy extremity)=88. Bellock now has 88 Health.

Ohh, and our first bloodied dragon is a red one, so lets hope we get a good roar from him, eh? (Those who get the referance will get cookies)

[AnimeKid]

Bellock growls in annoyance. His instincts are screaming at his to show the elves who is the dominant force in this forest. After all if he retreated now they would forever assume him some pushover that could be easily quelled with a few arrows. So it is with his instincts guiding him that Bellock circles around in front of the shell shocked bird to give the other two elves reason to pause with their arrow. He then opens his gaping maw and impressive roar that seems to rattle the birds very hollow bones and chomps down on the bird.

Bite attack: 10 +str mod (75= +15 mod)=25 dmg

[Pokonic]

The bird and rider die within his jaws, with the elfs last thoughts thinking of his home. The two eagle-riders both take the time to make pot-shots, one into his open mouth, missing his eyes, and one into his left arm. The arrow to the mouth goes into his cheek, but the one to his arm hit it at a angle and seemingly twists itself into the bone down the arm. The arrows twist and spike and hook out like the first one, and the lucky shot has burrowed into most of his forarm.

88- one hit of 12 and one of 7=69.

[AnimeKid]

His bloodlust sated and his instincts quelled at the thought that the elves would not attack him again without pause. He needed to survive and to do that sometimes you just have to be top predator. With that he dives below the canopy line to try and lose he pursuers in the trees. There was no major objective, just survival that is why the elf died. He glided through the trees making sure to avoid most of the trunks and branches as if he hit them he would give away his position. He attempts to find a safe place to recouperate from his wounds.

[Pokonic]

The forest starts to shutter with power...and calms. The spirits, tempararly upset that a Eagle was killed, soon calmed and gather around for a conclave. They decided that they shall obstruct the elves sight and will make sure that the dragon makes it outside unharmed. After all, it was agreed, they might have a use for the flame-drake. After all, anything that can scare off the star-beasts brood is prime for commanding.

Till then, a shadow darkens around the forest, offering shade for animals and fleeing dragons alike. The two elves decide to go to the ranger headquarters right then and there, for they would belive that at the state of that part of the forest now the dragon would be caught and consumed by the spiders.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock continues to fly until he reaches the part of the forest that he recognized as their haven. With that he goes to the stream that he knows in nearby and lands heavily growling in his throat when he looks down at his foreleg. He breaths deeply before getting to work. Agnorant had tried to teach him and Ahdokdwin many things, but they simply were not quick witted enough to pick up on the advanced things she taught them. However the basics were, well basic.

So steeling himself and grabbing a large branch in his jaws he raises his right foreleg and and takes the arrow shafted in his left as lightly as he can in between two of his claws. He then slowly and painstakingly tries to extract it. Provided his succeeds he then repeats the process with the arrow in his arrow in his cheek and thigh if he can reach it. He then drinks some water from the stream. He doesn't swallow it though, instead he spits it onto the wounds on he foreleg and thigh trying to wash them.

[Pokonic]

He quickly finds out that the searing pain he felt was not unwarrented: by some horrid magic, there realy are hooks and spikes coming out from all directions on the arrow, and trying to pull them out tears at the flesh badly. Trying to gingerly slide it out only causes the arrow to hook itself deeper, and formerly clotted parts of the wound are now opened.

Even worse, the one in his arm is most defently stuck into almost the whole length of his arm-bone, and it seems that the simple act of moving it in any way now would cause the bone to be a extremly painful, shattered mess. His cheek is better well off, but to remove the one from his leg would be risking heavly blood loss, let alown muscle damage.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock growls as he looks at the arrows in his body. The hooked arrows were really painful, he felt his hatred for the elves go up a notch. Although he was sure that they weren't to fond of him either. He breaths a cloud of smoke out of his nose, showing that he is agitated. Did the elves purposely make their arrows as painful as possible? Well the one in his arm would have to wait. He would have to find some kind of healer before he could get that one out. As for the one in his thigh.

He looks at it and then at the position of the sun. With the chase and the battle about thirty minutes should have passed. He then sighs...as he pulls the arrow out of his thigh. There is a spray of blood and a growl of agony as he moans around the treebranch. He then immediately lets go of the branch and turns and breaths fire onto the would, cauterizing it. He uses his other leg to rapidly stamp out any of the grass he may have set aflame. He pants in agony as he looks at his foreleg. He then sits and lays for a while to try and figure out what to do.

[Pokonic]

Altho the bleeding slows to a crawl, the sheer amount of blood lost, along with the constant pain from the remaining arrows, makes Bellock feel woozy. He may or may not be able to fight off the desire for.....rest.


Might be best to warn other dragons about there arrows, eh?

[AnimeKid]

He does feel woozy and is about to close his eyes for a minute. However he knows that if he does he may not be waking up for a long time or at all. So He dunks his head into the stream. He shakes his head around inside for a while before he comes back up panting heavily. He had to do something. He was still heathy as a horse but the pain was really a big problem. For now he absolves to keep the pressure off of his foreleg. He spends an hour at the spring thinking about what action he should take. He sighs as he knows that Agnorant and Ahdokdwin would be hunting at this hour and wouldn't be back for a while. he himself wasn't hungry as he just had and eagle and and elf for lunch thank you very much. So he does something that coudl be called both the stupidest and smartest thing he has ever done.

He decides that he has to go and bargain with humans. He didn't like the idea as humans were as likely to kill you as the would help you. However if he didn't do something he was dead. He remembered that there was a human settlement directly to the east of the trio's lair a ways beyond the forest. It may had been a bit of a trip but he needed help rather badly. So with that in mind he hovers off the ground as he flies to the east to the human town. He just hoped that this wasn't a big mistake.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas forced her expression rigid, lest she roll her eyes. She'd charmed a cowardly dragon. She wondered how else Karik could make himself useful to her.

"It shouldn't come to that. We can try and scare them away first, or just convince them to go elsewhere. Let's go to the human farmlands and see if we can spot them."

[SiuiS]

Fairhaven
The old man is restored, but just barely.
And the vagabond has gotten quite far already, Ophiokasha will be hard pressed to catch up with him before he leave the boundaries of Fairhaven.

Ophiokasha looks down at both men, in deep thought. She had gone flying to find something to kill! Now, a prisoner, and a hostage, and one fleeing viable target...

Bah!

A fleeing mortal heeds the land. A flying dragon pulls it below her, like leaping a carpet!

With no idea of a horse's speed or of the terrain, Ophikasha hangs the unconscious thief from a tree by his... Pants, they are called? ... Before leaping into the air, cast like shadows from a fire. The Chase is on.

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik nodded and took a quick look around the farmlands, nothing so far.

"Griffons have exceptional eyesight, they may not approach if they see us here, unless they are incredibly desperate. it may be best to attempt to hide, or perhaps take to the skies and keep and keep an eye out."

[SiuiS]

Most flying predators, birds and their ilk, have two wing-forms. The predatory have strong, broad wings for power flight, and spend their time gliding until they spot something worth devouring. Songbirds instead have smaller forms, and wings more suited to sustained flight.

As a dragon, Ophiokasha benefited from both.

Stiffening her wings for a low glide, she undulates her body, swimming between the waves of air like a lethal dolphin. She cranes her neck low to catch the scent of prey, noting the warmness of horseflesh and fear sweat. The human however, tastes more stressed than afraid.

Her eyes flashing, Ophiokasha snarls and sets out to change that.

AGILITY 35 v/ horse (AGILITY 20): the head start is going to hurt, but the longer the chase the more it favors the dragon. The thief will have to either go to ground and lose the dragon, or hope the horse has more ENDURANCE than Ophio does. (didn't. Have time to really look up the stats before, sorry for the delay)

[PurityIcekiller]

((Weird. My post seems to have vanished.))

[Northwestingville]

"Sir! Sir! Dragon sighted!"

Scouty's surprise quickly gave way to frustration. "Not again... Figures it has to happen while Arona's out, too." He grabbed his horse and his gear to go see about it.

~

Scouty was rather alarmed when he saw that the dragon was even bigger than the unusually-small SpOke siblings. He was glad he'd brought a bit of backup, because even a wounded dragon like this could be trouble.

As for Bellock, he'd probably notice that the current leader of the humans from the village looked more like an elf than a human.

"Uh... So... Hi! How's it going, dragon? Decided to pay us a friendly visit?" Scouty smiled, trying and failing to hide his fear.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
It'll be a while till Ophiokasha is within 100 feet of the horse.
Which at that point the vagabond riding it begins firing arrows at her wings from the horse's back.

[SiuiS]

Puzzling, this mortal. Not a lick of fear at all.

If he knows respect, he may sssurvive.

A delightful puzzle, as well, the chase! The scent-limned criminal held a bow, and a fair one. Already the arrow seemed intent on her hide. A few seconds and she would be upon them in all her fury, but where distance, the ride and her natural camouflage ensured all but utter safety, the final shot was sure to hit of she dove. And in diving, if this first arrow lands, her wing will tear - even dragonflesh must heed such speeds at weak points when stretched so thin.

This one will certainly make a good start...

After the first shot (which Ophiokasha can't avoid provoking, since the bandit is waiting for her), she will Dive down upon horse and rider, snaking her head to the side to panick the horse into bucking it's rider [INTIMIDATE 50] (could have sworn that was higher)
Followed by a Bite attack to the horse if it remains within range [STRENGTH 35, 21 DMG+5 acid]

[Pokonic]

(Waiting for Mindfreak on this one. Have some elven goodness as a tribute.)

The messanger waited at the massive silver throne before him. Seemingly made of hundered of interlocking branches, each with golden leaves ingrained into the "bark" by years of careful craftsmanship. The whole thing was shaded by a majestic overhanging array of emerald vines, ruby flowers, and sapphire droplets, all arranged into the form of a large hanging garden. The silver-helmed guards around the chamber all had there spears slightly raised at the messanger, which made his sweat slightly.

Neverless, the elf on the throne was positivly bored out of his mind.

"Well, boy, does my old friend have to say anything of value?" The elf said the the poor shaking twit at his feet. He never did like humans, realy. The only decent one he ever knew, after all, is long dead.

"Well, err, sir, the letter is rather clear that it is to " Lord Sha'sel, Defender of Silverpine and Warden of the Circle", so I could only assume that-"

"Human! The letter!" The elven king looked less bored and more annoyed. The messanger gulped and spoke quickly. "The time has come for the two of us to reconnect. The dragons are here for a reason, and I mean to find out why. Come to the royal party at the given date and please, do not follow what the offical invitation says. Bring the Prince of The Forest, it would do him some good.

The whole of us should be able to meet in person at least once this century, and this is as good a time as ever. Also, please arrive with your normal guards and leave your Ranger's at home. Also, this is a party, and it is not custumary to bring your personal death-squad with you. Also, tie up the loose ends, if you dont mind.

Forever your friend and comrad, your fellow Eternal Majasty."

Sha'sel was visably annoyed by the last part of the letter. Realy, out of all the people in the world, he had the guts to write that to him! "Human, please repeat the last line of the letter, you gutteral attempt at Elven did not reach my ears."

"Also, tie up the loose ends, if you dont mi-TWANG!" The poor man could only gasp slightly as the king broke a sliver of "bark" from his throne and effortlessly threw it into his forhead. Before he even reached the ground, the slivery substance had burrowed into his head, spiking and twisting itself into it like a corkscrew made of needles and hooks. His last few moments where that of feeling his eyesockets being invaded by tenderals of silver before blacking out entirely.

Moments later, all that remained of the head of the human messanger was a silver orb attached to a cooling corpse. The king did not even have to say a word before a group of young maids came and took the body for disposal. He looked at his chamber floor and approvingly saw that not a drop of blood was spilt. His guards looked on at the sight with one of familiarty.

"Oh, guards, alert the High Sorceress to come to the chamber at once. It is time to send a message to the Dwarves. And yes, bring the corpse."

As a rule, Humans are mean, Goblins are crude, Dwarves are paranoid, and elves are arses. :smallbiggrin:

[AnimeKid]

((Weird. My post seems to have vanished.))

[Northwestingville]

"Sir! Sir! Dragon sighted!"

Scouty's surprise quickly gave way to frustration. "Not again... Figures it has to happen while Arona's out, too." He grabbed his horse and his gear to go see about it.

~

Scouty was rather alarmed when he saw that the dragon was even bigger than the unusually-small SpOke siblings. He was glad he'd brought a bit of backup, because even a wounded dragon like this could be trouble.

As for Bellock, he'd probably notice that the current leader of the humans from the village looked more like an elf than a human.

"Uh... So... Hi! How's it going, dragon? Decided to pay us a friendly visit?" Scouty smiled, trying and failing to hide his fear.

Bellock would raise and eyebrow if he had any at the irony of this situation. Luckily this elf is seemed had some manners at least and would try to talk first rather than shoot. So he amended his hatred from elves to their rangers....and maybe the elves in the forest in general.

Anyway looking down at the elf he says in his deep voice, "Be at peace small one. So long as you do not harm me I shall not harm you. I have simply come here to request the services of a healer if you have one. I was at a rather unfortunate place at the wrong time and it cost me as you can see.

If you heal me I have none of the money that you small ones seem to be so fond of. However in exchange for the service I would be willing to grant you a boon to be fulfilled when you desire. What say you?"

[Pokonic]

Any elf worth his salt would know that the silver arrows sticking out of him are Easly removable by a willing elf. No, realy, a simple tug will retract the hooks and leave a simple arrow. There special rounds made to cripple foes of elvenkind, so Scouty might get upset that he even has them anyway.

[PurityIcekiller]

Bellock would raise and eyebrow if he had any at the irony of this situation. Luckily this elf is seemed had some manners at least and would try to talk first rather than shoot. So he amended his hatred from elves to their rangers....and maybe the elves in the forest in general.

Anyway looking down at the elf he says in his deep voice, "Be at peace small one. So long as you do not harm me I shall not harm you. I have simply come here to request the services of a healer if you have one. I was at a rather unfortunate place at the wrong time and it cost me as you can see.

If you heal me I have none of the money that you small ones seem to be so fond of. However in exchange for the service I would be willing to grant you a boon to be fulfilled when you desire. What say you?"

Scouty knew that when dealing with powerful creatures, there were certain guidelines to follow: Be polite, be professional, and have a plan to get the {PICK A CURSE WORD THAT FITS} out of there if things go wrong. "...That's acceptable," he said in the most dignified tone he could manage.

He examined the arrows. "...Huh. So they still use these in the forests. Convenient... Say, how did this happen?"

[AnimeKid]

Bellock looks towards the suns as he says, "I was exploring the forest when I came across a strange object. It looked and felt like it was made of some kind of silk. When I disturbed it there was a crunching sound so I decided to cut it open to check it out. Low and behold when I cut it open a dead elf came out. Now being a dragon, me being found near the dead body of a lifeform of high intellegence was bad news. So I flew into the air and took off. As I did I saw spider jumping thorugh the treeline, that gave me an idea of what killed the elf

However I think I have offended a deity lately because no sooner than I take off do I come across three rangers. What is worse is that they were about to draw their weapons. So I used my firebreath to fire a warning shot. They did not heed my warning. So after some aerial combat I killed one of the rangers to try to intimidate the others into leaving. I would not be driven from my home. Unfortunately they did not leave. So I had to retreat into a deeper part of the forest. I just hope that my nest mates are okay."

He looks down at Scouty as he says, "You are most likely disgusted with me, however think about this. They started aggressions first. After all if wild boars attacked your town, you would defend yourselves no? Then the boars would not attack again because they know that either they can't defeat you or if they can it would not be worth the numbers they lose."

Bellock says all of this with the voice of someone who has fought everyday for survival. Not like most dragons who either have a reliable supply and few animals that could stand up to them, but someone who has literally fought everyday to survive.

[PurityIcekiller]

Bellock looks towards the suns as he says, "I was exploring the forest when I came across a strange object. It looked and felt like it was made of some kind of silk. When I disturbed it there was a crunching sound so I decided to cut it open to check it out. Low and behold when I cut it open a dead elf came out. Now being a dragon, me being found near the dead body of a lifeform of high intellegence was bad news. So I flew into the air and took off. As I did I saw spider jumping thorugh the treeline, that gave me an idea of what killed the elf

However I think I have offended a deity lately because no sooner than I take off do I come across three rangers. What is worse is that they were about to draw their weapons. So I used my firebreath to fire a warning shot. They did not heed my warning. So after some aerial combat I killed one of the rangers to try to intimidate the others into leaving. I would not be driven from my home. Unfortunately they did not leave. So I had to retreat into a deeper part of the forest. I just hope that my nest mates are okay."

He looks down at Scouty as he says, "You are most likely disgusted with me, however think about this. They started aggressions first. After all if wild boars attacked your town, you would defend yourselves no? Then the boars would not attack again because they know that either they can't defeat you or if they can it would not be worth the numbers they lose."

Bellock says all of this with the voice of someone who has fought everyday for survival. Not like most dragons who either have a reliable supply and few animals that could stand up to them, but someone who has literally fought everyday to survive.

Scouty listened, and hesitated for a moment out of confusion. "Why would I be disgusted? Those guys were jerks."

Scouty didn't really have much loyalty to the elves. He acknowledged them as his kin, but he didn't see any reason to side with some strangers just because they were of the same species. Self-defence was self-defence.

"...Anyway, these are special arrows. I think they were made to reduce friendly-fire accidents. Any elf who wants can easily take them out. Just hold still." With that, he began removing the arrows.

[Mindfreak]

Puzzling, this mortal. Not a lick of fear at all.

If he knows respect, he may sssurvive.

A delightful puzzle, as well, the chase! The scent-limned criminal held a bow, and a fair one. Already the arrow seemed intent on her hide. A few seconds and she would be upon them in all her fury, but where distance, the ride and her natural camouflage ensured all but utter safety, the final shot was sure to hit of she dove. And in diving, if this first arrow lands, her wing will tear - even dragonflesh must heed such speeds at weak points when stretched so thin.

This one will certainly make a good start...

After the first shot (which Ophiokasha can't avoid provoking, since the bandit is waiting for her), she will Dive down upon horse and rider, snaking her head to the side to panick the horse into bucking it's rider [INTIMIDATE 50] (could have sworn that was higher)
Followed by a Bite attack to the horse if it remains within range [STRENGTH 35, 21 DMG+5 acid]
Fairhaven
The horse bucks its rider off!
The vagabond hits the ground on his head and passes into lala land.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock grunts as Scouty pulls the arrows from his body. He lets out a sigh of relief as the arrows are removed. He looks down at Scouty as he says, "Thank you small one. You have my gratitude. Now I believe a deal is a deal. What boon would you have me perform. Also may I inquire as to the two dragon scents that I can smell around this area?"

[PurityIcekiller]

Bellock grunts as Scouty pulls the arrows from his body. He lets out a sigh of relief as the arrows are removed. He looks down at Scouty as he says, "Thank you small one. You have my gratitude. Now I believe a deal is a deal. What boon would you have me perform. Also may I inquire as to the two dragon scents that I can smell around this area?"

"Well... I think I'd better wait for the sergeant to get back to ask for anything from you..." Scouty began. Then he heard the part about the dragons.

Thoughts of concern immediately came up. Oh dear. Hopefully this won't start territory disputes. If we have to be next door to feuding dragons, we're in pretty serious trouble.

He did his best to describe the two dragons as fast as possible, although this may have made him simply incomprehensible. "Well, one's kind of a small black one, about the size of a large dog, although I'm sure she looked bigger from a distance, and she's kind of nice even if she's a bit tough, and she had a brother too, who was similarly-sized, but blue and kind of timid, and they've been negotiating with the town, and right now they're going to the King's party..."

[AnimeKid]

Bellock was able to decipher it as Agnorant had a habit of talking like that whenever she was excited about something. He nods as he says, "I see. They might still be hatchlings if that is how small they are. Still, going to see the king. That is rather impressive. Anyways I would be willing to wait. So tell me about this meeting with the king. However if you do not wish to tell me anymore you do not have to. You have my eternal gratitude for freeing me of those arrows."

Bellock then lies down on the ground and crosses his forearms over eachother. He then rests his head on the ground.

[SiuiS]

Odd, thread didn't seem to update but all the new posts are dated from before I checked... Alas.

Snorting with derision, Ophiokasha tosses the now-unconscious mortal onto her neck and slides him back to her shoulders. Gingerly testing her nicked wing, she snarls. It will be a slow return, to avoid tearing the membrane, and she wasted her magic on that fool of a twit who would be dead of old age soon anyway!

[PurityIcekiller]

Bellock was able to decipher it as Agnorant had a habit of talking like that whenever she was excited about something. He nods as he says, "I see. They might still be hatchlings if that is how small they are. Still, going to see the king. That is rather impressive. Anyways I would be willing to wait. So tell me about this meeting with the king. However if you do not wish to tell me anymore you do not have to. You have my eternal gratitude for freeing me of those arrows."

Bellock then lies down on the ground and crosses his forearms over eachother. He then rests his head on the ground.

"Well... I guess, or they could have just been small ones, since dragons can be of different sizes, right?" Scouty didn't know a lot about dragon biology, but Smoketail had seemed unusually mature to him for someone of that age.

"As for the king... Oh!" He took out the letter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12794869&postcount=75) and showed it to Bellock.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock reads the letter with interest as he says, "Well I'll be. People actually trying to reach out to the dragons? Well color me surprised. I must say I am quite impressed." Bellock shakes his head to clear it as he gingerly tests his forearm. Luckily he was hardier than Agnorant and he could deal with the pain the wound left behind.

Bellock bows his head low as he says, "As I said before, this one owes you a great amount of gratitude. Still I am interested to see what this party will be like. Hopefully the more rowdy dragons will not ruin it for the rest of us."

[Pokonic]

The letter, surprisingly, actualy glows slightly when presented to Bellock! There seems to be a sort of charm on it that knows when it's within the presance of a dragon, but it does not act on it's instructions. The faint aura of dragonic magic is noticeable to Bellock, even if he actualy does not know what he is seeing, exactly.

[AnimeKid]

Remembering what he read in the letter Bellock tells Scouty to put the letter on the ground and stand back. Once he does so Bellock breaths out a small tounge of flame onto the letter as per it's instructions.

[SiuiS]

Landing near the tree amidst invisible clouds of blood scent and manstink, Ophiokasha flexes her left wing, extending and retracting. The wound didn't appear much bigger, but burned like a thousand tiny fangs. Spilling over it with wisps of healing breathe closed the tear, but did little for the pain... Luckily, she had a full belly, a warm tower and a bright, scheming future...

Scooping up the tree-hung vagabond and the old one, Ophiokasha takes wing, gently, back to Fairhaven proper.

[Mindfreak]

Gah, the last time I checked it didn't show your last post >.<
And the old man and the vagabonds are not in any position to say no to being lifted up.

[Pokonic]

At Bellock breaths, the paper transforms into a darker, slightly smaller one. In a harsher, more severe style than before, it says:

" Hello, wyrm. As you might now know, the letter you are currantly reading is a invite the Royal Castle. At said castle, as newcomers into the area, you are to introduce thyself to some of the most importent figures in the lands, and hopefully appriciate the welcoming gifts I offer to you. If you come excorted by solders of some city or town you have interacted with, I would like to make it clear that you are to be polite and kind to all. After all, the king highy dislikes powerful creatures that have no offical rights within his domain, and a little push could have him send the guard after you.

However, if you truly wish to settel here for more than a few more days, come to the castle grounds vi walking (most dragons with hostile intentions would fly, you see) and you will be greeted there by a man in purple robes. Follow him, and you can get into the party without a hich. Good luck, and may there be more letters between our two parties."

[AnimeKid]

Bellock looks down at the paper as he says with the dragon equivilent of a raised eyebrow, "Hmph. An interesting passive-aggresive righting style. Well I might as well attend. There is no reason not to. Perhaps I will even be able to speak with more of my brethren." He then looks at Scouty as he says, "When do you suppose that your sergeant will be back?"

[PurityIcekiller]

Bellock looks down at the paper as he says with the dragon equivilent of a raised eyebrow, "Hmph. An interesting passive-aggresive righting style. Well I might as well attend. There is no reason not to. Perhaps I will even be able to speak with more of my brethren." He then looks at Scouty as he says, "When do you suppose that your sergeant will be back?"

Scouty considered for a bit. "Probably around the time you are. She's an escort for the two dragons I mentioned earlier. I think I forgot to mention that. Anyway, you'll probably meet her when you get there, if not on the way."

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha spends several moments deciding on a suitable landing point. Taking off at night, in a clear street, was supposed to keep a low profile. If the only way to land now was slowly along a street... Well it was better than trotting into town like some pony or cow, but not by much. Mortals walked in through the gate. Dragons did not!

With a dramatic sigh (but not too dramatic; cant afford to lose her cargo) she arcs slowly around to the street before the... Lord's? Tower quietly and unobtrusively, and as gently as can be. In a voice intended to carry through stone Ophiokasha calls for the scholar. "Robed mortal I have a parcel for you. Post haste!"

good heavens the typos. Apparently Ophiokasha flies by taking Wong >.<

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
The scholar comes out grumbling.
"What is it?"
Before blinking, his eyes going wide when he saw what she was carrying.
"What did you do?"

[SiuiS]

"Thesse two men are criminalsss, having been stopped from murdering thisss one," Ophiokasha gestures at the old man, "if not for my generousss assisstance. And he livesss to bear witnesss." She deigns to walk around rather that through the scholar, obviuslg intent on returning to her studies.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock nods gratefully at Scouty before he takes his leave. He floats in the air and takes off in the capitals direction. He only flies for a few minutes so that he may get closer to the city before he has to walk. After all the sun was now high in the sky. He wanted to get to the town before nightfall. So when he covers a few miles he lands softly on the ground before treading on foot to the capital.

[Pokonic]

@Draconi Redfir

Three shapes could be spotted out in the horizon. Too big to be a bird, to small to be a dragon. Strangly, one of them seems to be shaped differently than the other two. They quickly decent to where the farm is, and a loud shriek and the sound of scared livestock proves that there are Griffons afoot.

Perhapes a bit rushed, but best to get your dragon rolling.
@ AnimeKid

The land you are in quickly turns to a grey soil. As you walk southbound, you can only notice that the grass seems strangly stunted and the air seems thinner. Dispite being not the most magicly inclined dragon, you could only feel a strange hum coming ever closer to your postiton, and it is starting to bother you slighly.

Worst of all, your forearm is starting to ich, which is bad considering it's covered in the scabs from your lovely experiance with elven arrows. Your theory that you might have offended a deity might be proven right.

I have decided that you managed to down a few healing potions at the village, and your arm is now not a shattered mess. Hence, you have about...91 health? Yeah, the wound needs a good nights rest, but otherwise is healed.

[Mindfreak]

"Thesse two men are criminalsss, having been stopped from murdering thisss one," Ophiokasha gestures at the old man, "if not for my generousss assisstance. And he livesss to bear witnesss." She deigns to walk around rather that through the scholar, obviuslg intent on returning to her studies.
Fairhaven
She will find that the scholar will be blocking her way.
"You are not supposed to be going around dispensing vigilante justice. You're supposed to be protecting the town."

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha quirks a brow ridge at the scholar, and dangles her tail over the old man, gesturing. "You are shhhortsighted, mortal. Sssurely townsssfolk matter, or wasss I asked to watch buildingsss, that your citizzzens might have pristine monumentss?"

She circles the man, akin to the serpent Jafar around a ragged Aladdin. "And had I allowed murder of your people? Or perhapsss I truly ssshhhhould have enacted vigilante jussticce, and sslain them in the field? Your guardsss would bark for my blood." Ophiokasha brings her face around to peer into the scholar's eyes, her voice edging with the same venom as her fangs, biting off each word. "No, mortal. I am not a pet nor watchbeassst. I. Am. A. Dragon. I work with your lord, for your people. I will uphold my ennnnd, but I am not ssubssservient. I am not tame. I will do my work az I sssee fit. Your town wass assaulted. I stopped it."

[AnimeKid]

Bellock growls to himself as he stretches his head as high as he can to get a good look at where that strange presence is coming from and what it is. Why could he never get a break? Well at least he might not end up with more arrows in him. Hopefully it was not something hostile however he would welcome a distraction. His arm was really itching and it was taking all of his willpower not to scratch.

However you can never be to careful. So while looking Bellock is ready to breath fire at the slightest hint that there is anything that looks to want to hurt him. After all the experience with the elves was still fresh in his mind.

[Pokonic]

As Bellock moves his head, he can tell that the force is comeing from the east, at which that point the grass is even greyer and the land more bleak. He could make out a strange shape in the farther out, but nothing else for miles. Considering that it's not in his way, he could simply avoid it. The wrongness of the area is quite clear to him, and pain it is causing him is a likely deturrent.

Yet, dispite the lands deadness, the clear voices of men could be heared from farther out in that waste, shouting an screaming. While the city is still south, taking a turn might help him learn about unfamiler land.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock would have gladly kept going since the presence was not in his way. Then he heard the screams. The screams were what maid him take a detour. He was not selfless, but he would be d*mned if he did not at least have some semblence of honor. After all, if he did not have his honor then how was he any different from a common animal? Animals could be very intelligent, but the would never have complex ideals like honor and charitableness. So with that thought in mind he heads towards the screams.

[Pokonic]

The air grows thin, almost like a place after being struck like lightning. The strange presance grew like a wave of rushing water, and your whole body iches, as if you have sand under your scales. Yet, as he drew nearer to the round shape in the distance,, he found the source of the screaming: two groups of short, squat figures where in a rather blighted spot, with the marginaly bigger ones arguing in some strange tounge with the smaller, more ragged looking group.

Little more than seven in all, the four armored creatures guestured wildly at the trio clad in rags hissing and screaming just a short distance away. A sound like a shoe coming out of a mire gurgaled out of a beragged figures mouth, and the dwarf at the front began clawing at the dark green gas now blocking his sight, with his companions running in the other direction.

The dwarves only then notice you are near the area they where running to, and begin to weep and lay themselves in a position that seems that they are simply preparing to be consumed at your will.

[Mindfreak]

Ophiokasha quirks a brow ridge at the scholar, and dangles her tail over the old man, gesturing. "You are shhhortsighted, mortal. Sssurely townsssfolk matter, or wasss I asked to watch buildingsss, that your citizzzens might have pristine monumentss?"

She circles the man, akin to the serpent Jafar around a ragged Aladdin. "And had I allowed murder of your people? Or perhapsss I truly ssshhhhould have enacted vigilante jussticce, and sslain them in the field? Your guardsss would bark for my blood." Ophiokasha brings her face around to peer into the scholar's eyes, her voice edging with the same venom as her fangs, biting off each word. "No, mortal. I am not a pet nor watchbeassst. I. Am. A. Dragon. I work with your lord, for your people. I will uphold my ennnnd, but I am not ssubssservient. I am not tame. I will do my work az I sssee fit. Your town wass assaulted. I stopped it."
Fairhaven
The scholar sighed.
"He doesn't even live here."
The clothing style on the old man was all wrong!
"His style of clothing is completely different from that which is currently our town's fashion."
He then turns and begins walking towards Lord Eloride's house.
"And believe me, Lord Eloride will hear about this, and I doubt he'll be happy either."
Unless stopped he'll walk all the way there and explain to his lord what happened.
"So she saved the man's life?"
"Yes, but-"
"No no no. No buts. She saw a crime happening and she decided to stop it. Not to mention she also saved the man's life. Now be gone from my sight, Jeffery."
To which Jeffery walks away grumbling.

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha does not stop Jefferey, indeed letting him out of her coils. She does glare into his spine furiously, her tail lashing like an aggravated cat's.

She could solve this by killing all three - not part of the town after all! - or leaving them to beleaguer the guard out of spite. Regardless, something must be done. Would bode I'll to be seen so casually in the streets...

Ophiokasha stills, a membrane sliding wetly over each eye and retreating back beneath the skin. This is a contest. Mortsl or no, the scholar isn't stupid enough to leave armed murderers in the street. He is merely trying to save face, establish himself safely now so in the future he would go unchallenged.

Interesting.

Confident that guards would be along to clean up the mess (the criminals in the road are now Jefferey's mess, he couldn't afford not to call them!) She slinks back into the Library to continue her studies.

[Beacon of Chaos]

@Draconi Redfir

Three shapes could be spotted out in the horizon. Too big to be a bird, to small to be a dragon. Strangly, one of them seems to be shaped differently than the other two. They quickly decent to where the farm is, and a loud shriek and the sound of scared livestock proves that there are Griffons afoot.

Perhapes a bit rushed, but best to get your dragon rolling.
"Ah, right on time." says Edellipas. "At least we won't be bored. Still there's something off. I'm not sure it's just Griffons we're dealing with here. Come, lay low and follow me. We must get closer and see what we're dealing with here."

Edellipas then stalks her way towards the livestock, using whatever barns/trees there are around for cover. [AGI: 55]

ooc:
Sorry for the delay.

[Pokonic]

"Ah, right on time." says Edellipas. "At least we won't be bored. Still there's something off. I'm not sure it's just Griffons we're dealing with here. Come, lay low and follow me. We must get closer and see what we're dealing with here."

Edellipas then stalks her way towards the livestock, using whatever barns/trees there are around for cover. [AGI: 55]

ooc:
Sorry for the delay.

The animals cries soon turn to shrieks, and more than a few snapping and crunching sounds could be heard coming from the fields near a hill. As she comes to the hill, the sounds of flapping wings could be heard, along with the neighs of a young horse. The lack of actual growth around the fields, however, makes it hard for you to actualy sneak around the hill properly.

The shriek at your left, folowed by the sounds of wingbeats, shows that at least one of the flock-killers has seen you. You might make it to the other side of the hill if your quick, avoiding the attempted flank manuver, however.

So yeah, a little choice to be made. Attack the attacker, or attempt to confront the Griffons at the other side of the hill? Of course, you could, you know, begin flying, but that might make all the powerful, taloned, chimeracal creatures in the area suddenly learn that there is a dragon in there hunting grounds.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
The guards do come by to pick up the would be murderer and his companion.
They presumably haul them off to jail.
As for Ophiokasha, she will find that no one will be bothering her for the rest of the night.
Mostly because the scholar is pissed.:smallwink:

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik again silently nodded and did his best to follow behind Edell as she stalked from hiding spot to hiding spot. He of course was regularly practiced in the art of hiding away from gryphons and dragons that are uncomfortably close, but then again his specialty was more inclined to moving away from them rather then towards them. The fact that he was relatively bulkier then Edell in most areas certainly did not help his efforts in the slightest.

Eventually however Karik had run out of room. Edell was already approaching a slight hill, and he was left behind the small toolshed she had just darted out from. surely he wouldn't be able to stay hidden near a hill, not with his scale colour anyways. His eyes darted about a bit, trying to find some way to get closer to Edell's side without compromising her position. Finally he spotted something, a decently sized cluster of rocks near to the hill. It was far from his position, even further from Edell. But it was something, and it was next to the hill at the very least, he would be able to emerge quickly should he need to.

Karick quickly sprinted from the toolshed to the rocks, keeping his head low, his wings folded and pressed against his side, and his knees bent at all times. it was only a loud shriek and a series of wingbeats that caused him to freeze in place, turning his head to see the glairing eyes of a gryphon looking right at him.

[Pokonic]

In the half-darkness, the griffon glared into the eyes of the dragon before him, and raised up apon it's hind legs, and gave a horrid shriek at the poor guy as loud as it could. The flapping of it's wings completed the image of a PO'ed griffon. It seems to be a display to scare Karik out of his mind, and it might have worked.


First Intimidation check in the game. Going to let you think about what he would do if faced by one of the more horrifing creatures of all time. (70)

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik could not help but lower his head to the ground and avoid eye contact as the creature before him shrieked and flapped in protest of his presence. Instinct had almost completely taken over Karik's mind, his wings were slightly raised in such a way to convey an eagerness to fly away, his tail sagged near the ground and did not move. Slowly Karik began backing away from the griffon, keeping his head and front half of his torso low to the ground, only looking at the advancing creature for breif periods before immediately being consumed by an ever-growing interest in the grass beneith him.

Had to go, retreat! danger! danger! Karik swivelled his head from side to side slowly, always trying to keep one eye on the avian feline while the other to find the nearest point of escape. a field, too open, some forest, possible, but dense, the sky, ideal, but they can fly too, Edell...

Karik paused then, one eye focused on Edell, the other barely keeping the still flapping and advancing beast in it's peripheral. She was looking at them, she had noticed the commotion, likely the other two had as well.

Karik's mind was once again overcome with instinct, the first had been one of fear, get away from the predator, survive another day, don’t take unnecessary risks. This one however was different, something far more primal that ripped into the first's throat and stood proud over it's victory. Impress her, show it your power, fight back!

There was no slowness to Karik's movements; he had stopped retreating at the first glance of Edell, if the griffon had continued advancing, he did not know, he stoppd paying attention. Quickly, as violently as he could, Karik raised his head as high as he could, inhaling deeply and flaring out his wings in a more assertive manner. Both Karik's lungs and neck reached their peak, and without a moment's hesitation he rapidly swung his neck back down, stopping just at the griffon's head level and releasing the loudest, most powerful roar he could muster, refusing to stop until he had run out of breath. both his eyes were squeezed shut, unable to view his opponent.



Ummm... intimidate... 50? i think? that's what it says on the sheet... might have some bonus or penalty on the griffon for how he acted before the roar.

[Pokonic]

The griffon, having as shocked a look on it's face as beaked creature could, stayed in it's hind legs for a few moments before turning to the direction of Edell. The griffon went apon it's normal stance, kicked it's.....hooves? into a small pach of dirt in the direction of the prone Karik half-heartedly, and prepared itself to quickly gut the other winged reptile in the area.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas turned at the sound of shreiking beside her. "Blast..." she muttered. Turning to look at the creature that made the noise, she saw Karik and the griffon in a battle of wills, staring each other down. At first, Edell thought that Karik would back down, but at the last moment he showed a burst of courage, giving forth a roar that gave pause to their feathered foe.

"Not bad. Not bad at all." she said to herself. "A shame that the other griffons would have heard that. We must be quick about this."

When the griffon turned towards her, with intent to attack, Edellipas stood her ground. The creature was already wary. If they could scare it off without bloodshed, maybe the others would flee too. Edellipas reared herself up, spreading her wings wide to make herself look bigger. She thrashed her bladed tail about on the ground, leaving large welts in the earth, and she bared her long, razor sharp claws in front of her. Her own roar was quieter than Karik's, with more hiss, but no less menace. She didn't want to use the full force of her voice just yet; her sonic breath was her trump card.

Another intimidate [50], using Edell's natural weapons (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12470119&postcount=296) to hopefully freak the griffon out enough to make it flee, or at least not fight. I dunno if two intimidates will "stack" or not, but I figure it's worth a shot. If it doesn't, Edell will be ready for an attack.

[SiuiS]

Fairhaven
The guards do come by to pick up the would be murderer and his companion.
They presumably haul them off to jail.
As for Ophiokasha, she will find that no one will be bothering her for the rest of the night.
Mostly because the scholar is pissed.:smallwink:

Indeed. And Ophiokasha learns that pride games are not without price; even the slight help Jefferey gave before proved useful. In her more aggravated moments, she turned to pondering why a scholar would have such knowledge of Eloride's magic texts...

The relics were baubles. Standard fare; with enough time any dragon would figure out their worth. Part of the hoarding instinct. But the stone, and the eggs... Well, the swamp egg... She could handle them within their cases but not remove them. A pity; the clutching could prove useful. And who knows? Perhaps the other egg could yield something trainable.

Finally, several clues began to swim together. The swamp beast egg had several matches, but from books by ignorant mortals (more so than usual). As IC basilisks came from serpents impregnating a chicken's egg! How could the otherwise accurate details of this "Highdura" beast be taken at face value?

She turns her intellect and studies instead to trying to discern the dragon within the egg. Guessing from shell alone was an in exact science; it could represent the parents or the spawning ground as much as anything. And an egg encased in magic for so long would probably hatch some mutant beast...

[Pokonic]

The "griffon" looked at the white dragon with mild shock. For a moment, with it's long horn, rather shiny coat of scales, and it's rather interesting pure white color scheme, she could have mistaken the dragon for some sort of mutated unicorn. The little tail-spike and the the smell of dragon was the only thing keeping it from assuming that was true, and that she was not dealing with some abomination from the eastern hills. Seeing that it was caught between two dragons, both which seem intent on killing her, it did the only thing it could: it dug its rear legs into the ground, manuvered itself on so that it was above the white wyrmess, and gave a horselike niegh (!) for her packmates.


The sound of flapping wings and the tell-tale sound of the pieces of cow being dropped to the ground assured it that they heard her, and that soon they could feast on dragon.

[PurityIcekiller]

[SpOke Siblings And Escort]

The pair of little dragons had been relatively safe. Many humans were too frightened of dragons to provoke them, and others were concerned about the trouble they'd get into if they messed with Arona. All in all, it was kind of anticlimactic.

However, the arrival at the capital put an end to that.

"Halt!" called the gate guard. "Who goes there?"

"Who do you expect, the pen-dragon of the desert?"

"Whoa, Santiago. Do you have Eternal Sarcasm Syndrome or something?"

"If that's so, then it's highly contagious."

"Would you two cut it out? We're not making a good impression here."

"Let me handle this." Arona stepped forward. "Anyway, they're the Northwestingville dragons and we're their escort. They've come for the King's party."

"Rather pitiful escort, if you ask me," remarked the gate guard.

"Do you think the pen-dragon would have a better one?"

Smoketail decided to relieve some of her exasperation by application of blunt force to her forehead.

Sparkwing sniffed the air. "Where's that purple person we're supposed to meet, anyway?"

"Inside, most likely."

"So... Would you let us in, Guardy?"

The guard looked even more annoyed. "'Guardy'? You should pay us more respect."

"I thought dragons didn't have to respect anyone."

"These ones do, Oslan. But they know who not to respect, at least."

"Oh, for Eignalia's sake, you two..."

Arona decided that there was no point in wasting time further. "Gate-keeper, would you be so kind as to let us in, then? It's quite important."

"All right. But I'll be watching you. Especially those two."

"Who? Us, or the dragons?"

"...Never mind. Just go."

With that, the gate opened, and the small band headed through to find the purple-clad person.

[Pokonic]

Inside the city, everything was loud. And hot. Rather stinky, too, but thats a topic not suited for polite converstion. The whole place looked as if a great event was already happening, from the likes of the rather diverse crowd of all the peoples of the land. For you see, the marketplaces of the capital where placed directly at it's opening.

Great elk-horned Trolls, taller than a church door, bargened with shopkeepers for hide and leathers while armored Goblins skittered around the shifty-looking southerners on camelback heading for the inner markets to bring back cheap food to the camp just a few moments outside the gate. Ogres stayed close to cloaked hunched creatures selling there wares across the west side of a street while steel dwarven carts pulled by smokeing, squat drakes contained its masked and berobed cargo on the other.

Fully veiled men and women wearing the grey-on-gold colors of the bleak east squabbled with elves in there silver robes over petty disputes while strange winged stony man-things looked over the road from perches on roofs, occasinaly shifting places or rubbing there hides warily. Perhapes the strangest of all was the strangly greenish tinged metal caravan that looked a bit like the dwarvish one a few minutes back, but considering no one else cared about its presance the dragons could probalbly shake the feeling of dread that the construct carried of them.

Thruout all this, no one noticed the two little dragons and there excort. After all, stranger things where going on inside the city, and why pay attention to to wizerds and there familiers walking down a street during the one time of year that they dont stand out?

Finaly, after a few moments, they could get a better view of the massive palace that dominated the inner part of the city. Four great towers branched off from the already huge structure, and even more of the strange stone beasts flitted and moved along its grey walls and crannies. Yet, the main gate was assuredly shut, and was guarded by four men in very, very well kept garb. However, the dragons and Northwestingville folk would have noticed a purple-garbed man talking to a curly-haired figure in fine clothing facing the gate, apperently in deep conversation.

[Grif]

[Raelyx/Somewhere with the Sulten's caravan]

The journey to the capital was long, hot, and boring. Raelyx himself was restricted to short flights in and around the camp, amusing himself with toasting random rocks on the roads. Shemel made sure of that, taking upon himself to watch the dragon unerringly when he was out flying.

One night, the caravan found itself camped next to a river. The sulten, of course, was having his favourite dish of sushi, while entertaining his own private audience of dervishes. Two of his favoured giants stood at the entrance of his tent; there were to be no more repeats of the incident that took place a week before.

Raelyx found himself half-asleep outside the tent, waiting impatiently for the sulten to finish up his business. Despite orders to stand guard, he found himself yawning, his eyelids threatening to close multiple times. Just as he closed his eyes, he found his sides to be roughly poked at. He opened one bleary eye to see Shemel standing before him, tapping his foot impatiently. The red-skinned man seemed displeased. Uh oh. Never a good sign.

"Raelyx. You have grown more and more disrespectful these past weeks."

"Jeez, Shemel. Can't a dragon take a nap? Bad enough I have to wait here for the master to finish. The desert is boring—"

Raelyx eyes widened as he found his own neck in a vice-like grip, choking his breath. "Gggk!" he gasped. For a long moment, he couldn't breath, his claws trying to pry the grip off in vain. Just as dragon could feel his vision blacking out, the pressure was released. The dragon stumbled to the ground, coughing and gasping for breath. For a moment there, he swore Shemel seemed to have morphed into a... cloud(?) of red gas, with only the faintest shimmering of his outline visible in the gloom. The smell of blood and gold was overwhelming.

"Never cross me again," he said, his voice deathly cold.

Raelyx could only nod helplessly, his heart pumping furiously. Shemel seemed to be back to his old self.

"Good. Now stand alert. I will not tolerate any more sloppiness on your part." With that Shemel walked away and seemingly vanished into the inky blackness of the night.

Raelyx did not sleep for the rest of the night. He would avoid any contact with the second hand man of the sulten for a week afterwards, fearful of his temper.


(Again, if this contradicts anything, do tell. As this is self-contained, retcons are permissible.)

EDIT: Retcon as requested.

[PurityIcekiller]

Inside the city, everything was loud. And hot. Rather stinky, too, but thats a topic not suited for polite converstion. The whole place looked as if a great event was already happening, from the likes of the rather diverse crowd of all the peoples of the land. For you see, the marketplaces of the capital where placed directly at it's opening.

Great elk-horned Trolls, taller than a church door, bargened with shopkeepers for hide and leathers while armored Goblins skittered around the shifty-looking southerners on camelback heading for the inner markets to bring back cheap food to the camp just a few moments outside the gate. Ogres stayed close to cloaked hunched creatures selling there wares across the west side of a street while steel dwarven carts pulled by smokeing, squat drakes contained its masked and berobed cargo on the other.

Fully veiled men and women wearing the grey-on-gold colors of the bleak east squabbled with elves in there silver robes over petty disputes while strange winged stony man-things looked over the road from perches on roofs, occasinaly shifting places or rubbing there hides warily. Perhapes the strangest of all was the strangly greenish tinged metal caravan that looked a bit like the dwarvish one a few minutes back, but considering no one else cared about its presance the dragons could probalbly shake the feeling of dread that the construct carried of them.

Sparkwing took it all in with awe. "Wow. I didn't know so many kinds of creatures went here to trade."

"It's a lot like our town, only bigger. A bit smelly, though." Oslan wrinkled his nose.

Santiago gave Oslan a look of faux-annoyance. "Oslan, you've got no respect for civilization. That smell is noble-quality filth. Worth more than all our peasant-quality filth put together."

"Still filth, though."

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before Smoketail gave herself a concussion.


Thruout all this, no one noticed the two little dragons and there excort. After all, stranger things where going on inside the city, and why pay attention to to wizerds and there familiers walking down a street during the one time of year that they dont stand out?

Finaly, after a few moments, they could get a better view of the massive palace that dominated the inner part of the city. Four great towers branched off from the already huge structure, and even more of the strange stone beasts flitted and moved along its grey walls and crannies. Yet, the main gate was assuredly shut, and was guarded by four men in very, very well kept garb. However, the dragons and Northwestingville folk would have noticed a purple-garbed man talking to a curly-haired figure in fine clothing facing the gate, apperently in deep conversation.

Thankfully, this was a distraction from the guards. Smoketail, followed by a more cautious Sparkwing, stepped up to the man in purple and listened to the conversation, waiting politely for him to finish.

[AnimeKid]

The air grows thin, almost like a place after being struck like lightning. The strange presance grew like a wave of rushing water, and your whole body iches, as if you have sand under your scales. Yet, as he drew nearer to the round shape in the distance,, he found the source of the screaming: two groups of short, squat figures where in a rather blighted spot, with the marginaly bigger ones arguing in some strange tounge with the smaller, more ragged looking group.

Little more than seven in all, the four armored creatures guestured wildly at the trio clad in rags hissing and screaming just a short distance away. A sound like a shoe coming out of a mire gurgaled out of a beragged figures mouth, and the dwarf at the front began clawing at the dark green gas now blocking his sight, with his companions running in the other direction.

The dwarves only then notice you are near the area they where running to, and begin to weep and lay themselves in a position that seems that they are simply preparing to be consumed at your will.


Bellock snorts at them as he releases a small plume of smoke from his nostrils. "Do not be so quick to bow your faces. I have already eaten today and I don't wish to consume you. I merely came here to sate my curiosity at the presence that I felt in this area. So what is going on here?"

While speaking Bellock kept his eyes on the opposing group that the dwarves were running from. He wasn't quite sure of the race but he did not want to be blindsided while talking.

[Pokonic]

Thankfully, this was a distraction from the guards. Smoketail, followed by a more cautious Sparkwing, stepped up to the man in purple and listened to the conversation, waiting politely for him to finish.


..... "and how dare that worthless brute bring his entire bodyguard. Hah, at this rate, he could take the entire castle if he manages to get the vermin crawling in my streets to fight for him too. Antarah might as well have his giants bring down the gates and have his little flame-prince blast the land into gravel and sand!"

The purple-robed man looked at the angry younger man and attempted to calm him with words. "Sir, you seem to misunderstand. Out of all the peoples and races walking these streets today, Al-Shaba and it's alies are the ones you should think the least off. They are actualy perfectly willing to help us, and no matter what your father told you Antarah is more like his grandfather than his father. If anything, you should be worried about the dwarves and there willingness to keep there traditinal veiws of other races even at the cusp of the one time of year where they send a group down to talk politics. Or perhapes the elves, who seem to be perfectly fine in strutting along your streets in Starwood armor. Why, I am surprised you are not currantly fuming about the vampires roaming around, too."

The younger man was rather put-down by this statment, and was about to walk down to the opening where the market district meets the grounds until he saw the two dragons apperently sneaking there way to his companion. He let out a yell that got the attention of his fellow man, who looked at the two little drakes in mild shock.



Bellock snorts at them as he releases a small plume of smoke from his nostrils. "Do not be so quick to bow your faces. I have already eaten today and I don't wish to consume you. I merely came here to sate my curiosity at the presence that I felt in this area. So what is going on here?"

While speaking Bellock kept his eyes on the opposing group that the dwarves were running from. He wasn't quite sure of the race but he did not want to be blindsided while talking.

The dwarves where still sobbing, pulling at there beard and throwing off there facial masks. Than one lets out a babbling in something that, while easly seen to be a language, was not in common. The dwarf that had the gas spewed at his was now prone, with little twichs to signifiy he was alive, while the grey-cloaked humanoids reguarded the dragon with somthing that could be contept. One threw back his hood, and Bellock could see that the little creatures where almost certentlynot dwarves. Besides the lack of beard, you see, peices of flesh were missing from its vistage and the whole creature was tainted slightly green. Green gas leaked from the deepest of wounds, and it gave the dragon a lipless smile.

[PurityIcekiller]

..... "and how dare that worthless brute bring his entire bodyguard. Hah, at this rate, he could take the entire castle if he manages to get the vermin crawling in my streets to fight for him too. Antarah might as well have his giants bring down the gates and have his little flame-prince blast the land into gravel and sand!"

The purple-robed man looked at the angry younger man and attempted to calm him with words. "Sir, you seem to misunderstand. Out of all the peoples and races walking these streets today, Al-Shaba and it's alies are the ones you should think the least off. They are actualy perfectly willing to help us, and no matter what your father told you Antarah is more like his grandfather than his father. If anything, you should be worried about the dwarves and there willingness to keep there traditinal veiws of other races even at the cusp of the one time of year where they send a group down to talk politics. Or perhapes the elves, who seem to be perfectly fine in strutting along your streets in Starwood armor. Why, I am surprised you are not currantly fuming about the vampires roaming around, too."

The younger man was rather put-down by this statment, and was about to walk down to the opening where the market district meets the grounds until he saw the two dragons apperently sneaking there way to his companion. He let out a yell that got the attention of his fellow man, who looked at the two little drakes in mild shock.

Sparkwing leapt back in surprise. "Uh... Don't mind us. We're just..."

"Actually, Sparkwing, I'll handle this." Smoketail stepped in front of the younger man. "Who exactly are you having problems with? And be honest. You'll be more persuasive if you are."

"You know, Santiago, I think you might have met a long-lost relative here," remarked Oslan, pointing to the younger man.

"Oh, come on, Oslan, that's ridiculous! My sarcasm is calm compared to that."

"And people think I'm the crazy one sometimes," laughed Arona.

[Pokonic]

The man in purple looked on with a open mouth as the nearly the entire group manages to bad-mouth the younger man. The royal guard seemingly became alert after the younger mans cry and began to move to the dragons postiton, swords prepared to be drawn. The younger man's face was red with rage, and gave a hateful look at the little black drake faceing him. He motioned the royal guardsmen closer to himself, all wearing the same red-on-gold color scheme as the younger man, all without saying another word.


The man in purple, without any color in his face, hisses at the group of men and women that excorted the dragons "You ignorant country bumpkins! Do you know who that man is your mocking? He is the king! Perhapes you know of him!"

Heh, if one of your charecters cannot come up with something I suppose you might actualy have to make up the attack scores for you dragon.

[PurityIcekiller]

The man in purple looked on with a open mouth as the nearly the entire group manages to bad-mouth the younger man. The royal guard seemingly became alert after the younger mans cry and began to move to the dragons postiton, swords prepared to be drawn. The younger man's face was red with rage, and gave a hateful look at the little black drake faceing him. He motioned the royal guardsmen closer to himself, all wearing the same red-on-gold color scheme as the younger man, all without saying another word.


The man in purple, without any color in his face, hisses at the group of men and women that excorted the dragons "You ignorant country bumpkins! Do you know who that man is your mocking? He is the king! Perhapes you know of him!"

"He could have worn a sign or something," muttered Santiago.

"Don't worry. I was referring to my guards, not you," said Arona casually. She smiled at the king. "I apologize for their behaviour, your majesty. They've never seen you before, after all."

[Pokonic]

The king smiled at the guardswomens words. "Ah, but thats not the issue here. I have heard far worse from nobles on a daily basis. The only thing I am wondering right now is why you seem to be following these two dragons. After all, as your king and ruler, it would have been part of your duity to the kingdom to at least send a messanger to the capital about such developments."

The three royal guard members where now arranged in a half-circle around the black dragon, while two more where at the sides of the man in purple. Who, by the was, was still fuming.

[PurityIcekiller]

The king smiled at the guardswomens words. "Ah, but thats not the issue here. I have heard far worse from nobles on a daily basis. The only thing I am wondering right now is why you seem to be following these two dragons. After all, as your king and ruler, it would have been part of your duity to the kingdom to at least send a messanger to the capital about such developments."

The three royal guard members where now arranged in a half-circle around the black dragon, while two more where at the sides of the man in purple. Who, by the was, was still fuming.

Smoketail was somewhat indignant, but decided to let the human handle things. She knew she could be too blunt for this, and when you were in front of one of the most powerful people in the land and potentially in trouble, it was better to be polite. Behind her, Sparkwing looked for a good place to cower, but could find none.

Fortunately, while Arona was considered carefree most of the time, in this case, she was not absent-minded as much as she was good at remaining calm under pressure. "Ah, how careless of me," she said, smiling respectfully. "Of course, a lone traveller can be a target for bandits, and had I sent Northwestingville's messenger, you might have taken me for an elf-lord. I'm quite sure it's only in the larger cities where you can find good enough ear-tip surgeons for Scouty. There would be difficulties either way. I apologize, though, for placing them on your side more."

[Pokonic]

Indeed. And Ophiokasha learns that pride games are not without price; even the slight help Jefferey gave before proved useful. In her more aggravated moments, she turned to pondering why a scholar would have such knowledge of Eloride's magic texts...

The relics were baubles. Standard fare; with enough time any dragon would figure out their worth. Part of the hoarding instinct. But the stone, and the eggs... Well, the swamp egg... She could handle them within their cases but not remove them. A pity; the clutching could prove useful. And who knows? Perhaps the other egg could yield something trainable.

Finally, several clues began to swim together. The swamp beast egg had several matches, but from books by ignorant mortals (more so than usual). As IC basilisks came from serpents impregnating a chicken's egg! How could the otherwise accurate details of this "Highdura" beast be taken at face value?

She turns her intellect and studies instead to trying to discern the dragon within the egg. Guessing from shell alone was an in exact science; it could represent the parents or the spawning ground as much as anything. And an egg encased in magic for so long would probably hatch some mutant beast...

Well, her studies pay off. She manages to find a little book about the swamp she has been living in for some time. Aparently it was called the Wyrmfen a few generations ago. How quaint. Besides that little tidbit, the rather simple writing alows for a easy read, which alows her to skim the more blatent parts about how to survive the swamp, which by this point would be a pointless read, and right into the part about Boggles and Hounds. Not like she knows exactly what either of them are, for the writer seemed to assume the reader is both known in there ways, but he seems rather fearful of the later. A important tidbit, realy.

After that little read, while rather wasteful yet making her feel accomplished for mostly knowing everthing in the text, she moves on to others. Some about the history of the city she was in, which indicated that the place was far older than Taganoz as a whole, to little things about the hills and rivers she has yet to see. Also, a little footnote about some little creatures called "Gnomes" that lived in a dome and made magical items without any effort from themselves. Hah, like any race like that could exist!

Around the end of that book, her paws (hands?" grab the next book down. However, a strange tingle went down her spine as she did so, and craned her neck to get a look at the object. Heavy and of a rather foul shade of brown, the letters where not of the like she was now familer with. With no markings on the cover, she decides to flip it open. What she sees surpises her. Blocky letters and shapes, all in a vivid blue ink, slither across the pages without and rhyme or reason. Yet, no matter what she does, she can feel magical energy radiating from the book, and felt a little jolt when she discovered that she could actualy read the script without knowing what is says!

Shutting it as soon as this sinks in, she ponders over what to do next. The tomb was apperantly inchanted, and magic is rarly something to be used without understanding it.

Sorry if I made her do to much, willing to change is there is and problems.


Smoketail was somewhat indignant, but decided to let the human handle things. She knew she could be too blunt for this, and when you were in front of one of the most powerful people in the land and potentially in trouble, it was better to be polite. Behind her, Sparkwing looked for a good place to cower, but could find none.

Fortunately, while Arona was considered carefree most of the time, in this case, she was not absent-minded as much as she was good at remaining calm under pressure. "Ah, how careless of me," she said, smiling respectfully. "Of course, a lone traveller can be a target for bandits, and had I sent Northwestingville's messenger, you might have taken me for an elf-lord. I'm quite sure it's only in the larger cities where you can find good enough ear-tip surgeons for Scouty. There would be difficulties either way. I apologize, though, for placing them on your side more."

"My my my, a Elf? She must not be from around here, ehh? After all, I doubt that such a stuck-up all-knowing creature from the Great Woods would willingly intergrate herself into a town, let alown become the sterotypical elven messanger for human lords and ladies."

Even at the end of this causal banter, his smile and angry glint in his eyes told her that he was not calling of the guardsmen readying themselves to strike down a few dragons. The purple-robed man and his guard turned there attention to Sparkwing, observing the poor guy attempt to cower away from the scene.

[PurityIcekiller]

"My my my, a Elf? She must not be from around here, ehh? After all, I doubt that such a stuck-up all-knowing creature from the Great Woods would willingly intergrate herself into a town, let alown become the sterotypical elven messanger for human lords and ladies."

Even at the end of this causal banter, his smile and angry glint in his eyes told her that he was not calling of the guardsmen readying themselves to strike down a few dragons. The purple-robed man and his guard turned there attention to Sparkwing, observing the poor guy attempt to cower away from the scene.

Sparkwing remained still, absolutely terrified. He didn't dare take off in case they took it as a threat.

"There are at least two things wrong with that," remarked Oslan.

"Indeed. First, he's male. Second, he's not stuck-up or all-knowing - in fact, he's a wimp, and about as far from all-knowing as-"

"Oslan, Santiago, please just stay out of this." Smoketail sighed. This was getting even more irritating every second. I do agree with some of your opinions, though. That guy's coming across as a prejudiced jerk.

Arona, still smiling, met the king's gaze. "Well, Your Highness, while I appreciate your assistance, I assure you that you needn't trouble yourself, for these dragons are quite under control already. If they were not, would I be standing before you right now? Were they a threat worth your concern, they could have easily betrayed and murdered the three of us. It would save some stress for both your guards and poor Sparkwing there if you left the watching to Oslan and Santiago.

"Unless, of course..." She gained a crafty look. "...you're not quite as open-minded as you claim. Not literally open-minded, of course, as that would mean you were dead." With that, her expression relaxed again, but there was still a sly glint.

"As for Scouty, he's too much of an outcast among the elves to be arrogant. In fact, I've got a theory that he was kicked out for not being elfy enough."

[Pokonic]

The kings eye twiched slightly at nearly ever sentace Arona passed thru her lips. Attempting to keep himself together, he motions to the cowering dragon to his right. "Ah, perhapes you do have a good control of the situation, and I actualy was heading for a meeting with the Elven King anyway. And I have little reason to fear the dragons, after all, with the Gargoyals circling overhead. I will leave you to my court mage here and let you settle down for the next week."

He walked of yet again into the direction of the marketplace, bringing with him the three guardsmen that once surrounded Smoketail. That left the group with the purple-robed court mage and the two other royal guards, all who where looking at them with suspection that they may try to do something rash. Again.

[AnimeKid]

The dwarves where still sobbing, pulling at there beard and throwing off there facial masks. Than one lets out a babbling in something that, while easily seen to be a language, was not in common. The dwarf that had the gas spewed at his was now prone, with little twitches to signify he was alive, while the grey-cloaked humanoids regarded the dragon with something that could be contempt. One threw back his hood, and Bellock could see that the little creatures where almost certainly not dwarves. Besides the lack of beard, you see, pieces of flesh were missing from its visage and the whole creature was tainted slightly green. Green gas leaked from the deepest of wounds, and it gave the dragon a lip less smile.

'What on earth?'is what runs through the crimson dragons head. He hadn't been out of the forests much so he only really knew about the basic races. And these little freaks were certainly not basic. Showing that he was not to seem intimidated Bellock opened his mouth to speak to the creatures.

"Small ones, do you speak the common language? If so I would ask you why you harass these dwarves. Have they offended you in some way? If not then I must ask that you cease what you are doing. While I am no guardian to these dwarves I will not be cast into the light of neglect. As such I will protect them as I must." With that said he waits for what the creatures, say or do in response.

[Pokonic]

One of the "little freaks" laugh and giggle to themselves, only to be slapped to the one on his left. The one who pulled down his hood gave a snicker and gave the dragon a rather impressive look of amusment. For a moment, Bellock would have thought it was going to spew up another cloud of gas, but it was actualy preparing its rather gutteral voice. At least it was in Common. "Well, dragon, I can, at least. These betrayers," pointing to the dwarfs still kneeling down, "where trespassing into our land." He than pointed his thumb to the dome-shaped object in the distance," If you planned on trying to take our stuff, go ahead. You would probably so liquified by the time you get to it you will be sticking to the ground, however. Get lost, drake, and let us deal with these fools. Unless, of course, you would like a taste of what he got. It's not your intrest to protect them, anyway. The dwarves did not build cannons the size of buildings into there fortress to scare off waterfowl."

[PurityIcekiller]

The kings eye twiched slightly at nearly ever sentace Arona passed thru her lips. Attempting to keep himself together, he motions to the cowering dragon to his right. "Ah, perhapes you do have a good control of the situation, and I actualy was heading for a meeting with the Elven King anyway. And I have little reason to fear the dragons, after all, with the Gargoyals circling overhead. I will leave you to my court mage here and let you settle down for the next week."

He walked of yet again into the direction of the marketplace, bringing with him the three guardsmen that once surrounded Smoketail. That left the group with the purple-robed court mage and the two other royal guards, all who where looking at them with suspection that they may try to do something rash. Again.

Arona bowed as the king left. "Good luck, Your Majesty."

Sparkwing inhaled deeply. He was not expecting to get out of that with all major organs still fully functional.

Smoketail approached the purple-robed man. "Your king seems to be under a lot of stress lately. I believe you were discussing it with him earlier as well. What kind of problem do you have?"

I can name several problems, thought Santiago, although he was wise enough not to say it out loud.

[Pokonic]

The man, brows still furled, lightened up and looked at the dragon with some form of thoughtfulness. Finaly, he looked at Smoketail in the eyes and said " Dragon, the currant situation at hand is taxing to everyone in the kingdom, but perhapes most of all to the king. The fact is, with this event coming up, nearly every faction in the land is gathering to this city to mingle inside the greatest baston of power in the kingdom. In a way, if there are any threats that could come to the kingdom, be they wizerd, shapeshifter, or demonic, they could walk right in and be utterly unsuspected of anything until they strike.

Besides the normal issues of far-away nobles with there own goals and dreams, he must cater to the other lords and ladies of distant land. And to put it bluntly, all the peoples and factions that will be gathering at a weeks time here have at one time or another sought to distroy or rule Taganoz. " Letting his gaze wander to the other dragon in his veiw, he notes, "And this includes your kind, dragon."

[PurityIcekiller]

The man, brows still furled, lightened up and looked at the dragon with some form of thoughtfulness. Finaly, he looked at Smoketail in the eyes and said " Dragon, the currant situation at hand is taxing to everyone in the kingdom, but perhapes most of all to the king. The fact is, with this event coming up, nearly every faction in the land is gathering to this city to mingle inside the greatest baston of power in the kingdom. In a way, if there are any threats that could come to the kingdom, be they wizerd, shapeshifter, or demonic, they could walk right in and be utterly unsuspected of anything until they strike.

Besides the normal issues of far-away nobles with there own goals and dreams, he must cater to the other lords and ladies of distant land. And to put it bluntly, all the peoples and factions that will be gathering at a weeks time here have at one time or another sought to distroy or rule Taganoz. " Letting his gaze wander to the other dragon in his veiw, he notes, "And this includes your kind, dragon."

Smoketail nodded. "That's the problem with being at the top. Once you're there, everyone wants to knock you down and take your place."

She gestured to Sparkwing. "And that's why we're here. I figured that once everyone showed up, this entire situation would be held together by tree sap and string. It wouldn't take much to make everything come apart. And if things do go wrong, the backlash could hit the entire continent. Letting an apocalypse happen kind of goes against my standards, so I'd like to help out in keeping things together. If there's anything I can do for you, let me know."

[Pokonic]

The man raises a eyebrow at the dragons offer. " Realy now? You honestly wish to help us? No, if we wanted air support, I could call down any number of the gargoyles nesting on the buildings to strike down a threat. No, what we need, what everyone needs, is your support and compliance. You are a young dragon, yes? Would it not be best to make a good first impression with the peoples who, if all goes according to plan, you will live amongst the rest of your very long mortal life? No need to make yourselves look weak: you mearly need to make yourself look like you will not suddenly snap and start burning the city to the ground. Your very presance will probably help in stalling any major disputes."

Examining her a bit, he finaly decides to let loose a few open secrets amongst the court: " For instance, besides the usual rif-raft, it seems one of our more powerful nobles has been meeting with a dragon in secret for some time, and this has been going on for some months. In fact, this would not be so bad if it where not the fact that the duke in question, one lord Elrond, never alerted the king about the situation. Can you not see that it would be easy to assume that the duke is plotting treason?

And that is not even counting the vampires from the east and there master, the ever-lovely Elves who's traditinal greeting to outsiders is a arrow to the face, and the dwarven tradition of staying insdie there blasted fortress and letting there griffons loose to prey on our livestock. And thats not even counting the Goblins who are allied to the Sulten, and I would rather not get started with the issues the King has with them."

Finaly, he stops talking and cranes his neck to the blue dragon seemingly attempting to make himself look as small as he could and says "Well, can you speak common, or would you rather have your mate talk to me? Come on now, no need to be afraid!"

The guardsmen finaly relax there grip on there swords.

[SiuiS]

Around the end of that book, her paws (hands?" grab the next book down. However, a strange tingle went down her spine as she did so, and craned her neck to get a look at the object. Heavy and of a rather foul shade of brown, the letters where not of the like she was now familer with. With no markings on the cover, she decides to flip it open. What she sees surpises her. Blocky letters and shapes, all in a vivid blue ink, slither across the pages without and rhyme or reason. Yet, no matter what she does, she can feel magical energy radiating from the book, and felt a little jolt when she discovered that she could actualy read the script without knowing what is says!

Shutting it as soon as this sinks in, she ponders over what to do next. The tomb was apperantly inchanted, and magic is rarly something to be used without understanding it.

Sorry if I made her do to much, willing to change is there is and problems.

Ophiokasha first ensures Jeferrey isn't around - any advantage is a good one, and leveragable knowledge best of all.

Coiling to give herself privacy, Ophiokasha drinks the words in the book like a greedy wanderer drinks from a desert spring

No worries. We are at this point playing catch up with the rest of the cast, so cramming and skimming are the order of the day!

[PurityIcekiller]

The man raises a eyebrow at the dragons offer. " Realy now? You honestly wish to help us? No, if we wanted air support, I could call down any number of the gargoyles nesting on the buildings to strike down a threat. No, what we need, what everyone needs, is your support and compliance. You are a young dragon, yes? Would it not be best to make a good first impression with the peoples who, if all goes according to plan, you will live amongst the rest of your very long mortal life? No need to make yourselves look weak: you mearly need to make yourself look like you will not suddenly snap and start burning the city to the ground. Your very presance will probably help in stalling any major disputes."

"That sounds easy enough, especially for Sparkwing. If any unscrupulous fellow attacks us and plans to act like the victim when we defend ourselves, then we'll simply flee. Hard to blame a dragon who doesn't even fight back, isn't it?"


Examining her a bit, he finaly decides to let loose a few open secrets amongst the court: " For instance, besides the usual rif-raft, it seems one of our more powerful nobles has been meeting with a dragon in secret for some time, and this has been going on for some months. In fact, this would not be so bad if it where not the fact that the duke in question, one lord Elrond, never alerted the king about the situation. Can you not see that it would be easy to assume that the duke is plotting treason?

"I see. Perhaps I could look into that some more, then. They aren't as likely to associate me with you, after all."


And that is not even counting the vampires from the east and there master, the ever-lovely Elves who's traditinal greeting to outsiders is a arrow to the face, and the dwarven tradition of staying insdie there blasted fortress and letting there griffons loose to prey on our livestock. And thats not even counting the Goblins who are allied to the Sulten, and I would rather not get started with the issues the King has with them."

"So basically, no one trusts anyone else. Wonderful. This cycle can't lead anywhere good." Smoketail shook her head. "This place is a mess."

"Yep. Although the only elf I know personally is decent, if a bit dim-witted, most are jerks, and from what I hear, dwarves are so crazy that they go around making random artefacts for no reason and can't even tell if they're on fire."

"Now, now, Santiago. Save the insults for the goblins. They're supposed to be the bad guys."

Smoketail rolled her eyes. "Both of you, cut it out."


Finaly, he stops talking and cranes his neck to the blue dragon seemingly attempting to make himself look as small as he could and says "Well, can you speak common, or would you rather have your mate talk to me? Come on now, no need to be afraid!"

The guardsmen finaly relax there grip on there swords.

"YAH!" Sparkwing leapt back a bit. He hadn't expected them to ask his opinion. "Well, she's actually my sister, but... Well, Smoketail... Well, she's... better at handling... You know, she's better at the talking kind of things."

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik paused for a moment as his roar endeed, it was foolish to use his entire breath on the one attempt at intimidation, but there was nothing to do about it now but breathe. A task that proved to be somewhat difficult considering the cloud of dirt that had just been kicked into his face. Karik shook his head free of the debris just in time to hear a loud elongated hissing sound, not quite as loud as his own roar, but fair enough all the same. As the dirt steadily retreated from his eyelids, Karik looked up to see the source of the hissing roar to be none other then Edell, not that he really expected it to be from anyone else.

That however is where the griffon, err.. hippogriff he guessed, made it's next mistake. Karik watched as it flew up into the air above Edell, he couldn't tell, but his flood of instincts told him it was too close to her for comfort. With a low growl and a flex of his claws to dig into the dirt, Karik spread his wings wide and launched himself in the air, aiming himself straight for the birdlike creature, fully intending to ram it to the ground. if he controlled himself, he may even be able to resist closing his jaws around the creature's neck, maybe.

[Pokonic]

Ophiokasha first ensures Jeferrey isn't around - any advantage is a good one, and leveragable knowledge best of all.

Coiling to give herself privacy, Ophiokasha drinks the words in the book like a greedy wanderer drinks from a desert spring

No worries. We are at this point playing catch up with the rest of the cast, so cramming and skimming are the order of the day!

As she gingerly lifted open the cover and gazed into the book, the swirling symbols and serpentine letters twisted and turned into strangly familer shapes...

"....and so, in the farthest and most isolated portions of creation itself, foul things glimmered and played amongst themselves. All where mad, yet in there vast shifting impotance never realy acted apon the world. There maddness and crualty caused them to be shunned by the Gods, who where both younger and wiser than those horrid things at the corners of reality. All where potent and hatefull of anything besides themselves, and with this eternal hatred of mortals they used them to amuse themselves, willingly or otherwise.

Sometimes, a foolish mortal, thinking that after being spurned by there fathers and friends for seeking power, would go into one of there few sacred places and hope for one of there random and chaotic blessings. Often, this call would be forever unresponded to, but sometimes there rare blessing will touch some star-struck worshiper and turn him to a physical toy for them to use to interact with the mortal plane.

Yet, without a moments heed or notice, a great event changed this way of life for the Star-Spawn. For a great chieften amongst the gods struck the very roof of the world, and disloged thousands of there kind from the cosmic perch and onto the realms of mortals. Most died shrieking from there nigh-eternal fall, while all to many managed to survive the impact and land and crawl into lightless places of the world to nurse there wounds. Accompanying
the elder scions beyond time where stars themselves, disloged from the skies by the writhing and thrashing of there inhabitance. As they hit the mortal plane, the stars buried themselves into vallys and hills, and rare still is the time when they foul animalistic forms of the Star-Spawn raise themselves out of fetid mires and caves, but each and every time they have done so has spelled doom to the land they roam...."

You suddenly feel a minor ach in your head. The...topic at hand is a rather sour one.

"That sounds easy enough, especially for Sparkwing. If any unscrupulous fellow attacks us and plans to act like the victim when we defend ourselves, then we'll simply flee. Hard to blame a dragon who doesn't even fight back, isn't it?"



"I see. Perhaps I could look into that some more, then. They aren't as likely to associate me with you, after all."



"So basically, no one trusts anyone else. Wonderful. This cycle can't lead anywhere good." Smoketail shook her head. "This place is a mess."

"Yep. Although the only elf I know personally is decent, if a bit dim-witted, most are jerks, and from what I hear, dwarves are so crazy that they go around making random artefacts for no reason and can't even tell if they're on fire."

"Now, now, Santiago. Save the insults for the goblins. They're supposed to be the bad guys."

Smoketail rolled her eyes. "Both of you, cut it out."



"YAH!" Sparkwing leapt back a bit. He hadn't expected them to ask his opinion. "Well, she's actually my sister, but... Well, Smoketail... Well, she's... better at handling... You know, she's better at the talking kind of things."

The man in purple appriciates the black dragonesses comments, but looks flustered when Sparkwings tells him his error in jugement. "Err, I am sorry for saying that. It's just that... you are both so young looking, and dragons are not known for enjoying there siblings company. I mearly assumed you where, eheh.... well, on a better topic, if you wish, we have prepared a nice area for you to rest and relax before the event. Unless you wish to explore the city, which I would rather not advise, we could leave for it now."

[Pokonic]

Karik paused for a moment as his roar endeed, it was foolish to use his entire breath on the one attempt at intimidation, but there was nothing to do about it now but breathe. A task that proved to be somewhat difficult considering the cloud of dirt that had just been kicked into his face. Karik shook his head free of the debris just in time to hear a loud elongated hissing sound, not quite as loud as his own roar, but fair enough all the same. As the dirt steadily retreated from his eyelids, Karik looked up to see the source of the hissing roar to be none other then Edell, not that he really expected it to be from anyone else.

That however is where the griffon, err.. hippogriff he guessed, made it's next mistake. Karik watched as it flew up into the air above Edell, he couldn't tell, but his flood of instincts told him it was too close to her for comfort. With a low growl and a flex of his claws to dig into the dirt, Karik spread his wings wide and launched himself in the air, aiming himself straight for the birdlike creature, fully intending to ram it to the ground. if he controlled himself, he may even be able to resist closing his jaws around the creature's neck, maybe.

Karik was gaining momentum, and was almost to the spot where the creature was, but he miscalculated. The griffon in the air was not the same creature that was intimidating him a few moments ago, for it was standing still in frount of her. The griffon preparing to sink its claws into his midsection, however, was most certently aiming for him. He could tell where he got the idea that it was the same one: the creature raised itself on its hind legs as soon as the other one came into veiw. Neverless, Edell was still in danger, and he would have to made a stand on if he attempts to attack the griffon heading for him or head straight for Edell.

Well, you made a little error in your last post, so I decided to capitalise on it.:smalltongue:

[PurityIcekiller]

The man in purple appriciates the black dragonesses comments, but looks flustered when Sparkwings tells him his error in jugement. "Err, I am sorry for saying that. It's just that... you are both so young looking, and dragons are not known for enjoying there siblings company. I mearly assumed you where, eheh.... well, on a better topic, if you wish, we have prepared a nice area for you to rest and relax before the event. Unless you wish to explore the city, which I would rather not advise, we could leave for it now."

"I'm not surprised. Not a lot of people understand that some - maybe even many - dragons aren't like that."

"Well, it's not those like us that tend to get noticed," said Sparkwing. "Whatever the case, we'd better get settled here. Thanks for the consideration, sir."

[Pokonic]

Well, actualy, the place you will be staying we be outside the city, to the east, actualy. If you dont mind, we could probably get there before sundown so you can get settled in.

[AnimeKid]

One of the "little freaks" laugh and giggle to themselves, only to be slapped to the one on his left. The one who pulled down his hood gave a snicker and gave the dragon a rather impressive look of amusment. For a moment, Bellock would have thought it was going to spew up another cloud of gas, but it was actualy preparing its rather gutteral voice. At least it was in Common. "Well, dragon, I can, at least. These betrayers," pointing to the dwarfs still kneeling down, "where trespassing into our land." He than pointed his thumb to the dome-shaped object in the distance," If you planned on trying to take our stuff, go ahead. You would probably so liquified by the time you get to it you will be sticking to the ground, however. Get lost, drake, and let us deal with these fools. Unless, of course, you would like a taste of what he got. It's not your interest to protect them, anyway. The dwarves did not build cannons the size of buildings into there fortress to scare off waterfowl."

The short mouth had a point. If this was a squabble over betrayal then it was a racial thing and was none of his business. Plus if it had to do with land dispute then he really had no right to be hear. Lest of all defending any side. Territory issues could get ugly, he should know. Bellock grudgingly nods in acknowledgement as he says, "If what you say is true then I truly have no right to interfere in these matters should I try to defend any side I would be without a leg to stand on. I will respect the rule of territory and leave you in peace. Just do not spread your anger to others."

With that Bellock attempts to back away and keep his eyes on the short ones. After being a sufficient distance away he would fly back to the road so that he could land and continue walking to the capital. This time it would appear that discretion was the better part of valor.

[Pokonic]

The little creatures looked with smug satisfaction that the dragon was leaving. Then they turned there eyes to the prone dwarves. The leading one with his hood down took a deep breath and spewed another cloud of nasty gas. After it dispersed, far faster than his first, the dwarves where not so much as crying as making a muffled screaming, for the full effects of the gas where clear even to a backing-up Bellock. Flesh melted into the dead ground, with melted hands forever fusing the dwarves to the land they so dispised, and pink globs dribbled out of the connecting points of there armor as if wax from a candle. Bellock should probably not think to much about the still-breathing one with the facial mask still laying on it's back.

Annnd this is the point where it shows I am not screwing around with this sort of thing. Also, the facial masks have small openings on them, probably should have mentioned that before.

[PurityIcekiller]

Well, actualy, the place you will be staying we be outside the city, to the east, actualy. If you dont mind, we could probably get there before sundown so you can get settled in.

Smoketail rolled her eyes. And they still have a long way to go.

Sparkwing was somewhat less irritated. "It's better than nothing. Lead the way!"

[SiuiS]

As she gingerly lifted open the cover and gazed into the book, the swirling symbols and serpentine letters twisted and turned into strangly familer shapes...

"....and so, in the farthest and most isolated portions of creation itself, foul things glimmered and played amongst themselves. All where mad, yet in there vast shifting impotance never realy acted apon the world. There maddness and crualty caused them to be shunned by the Gods, who where both younger and wiser than those horrid things at the corners of reality. All where potent and hatefull of anything besides themselves, and with this eternal hatred of mortals they used them to amuse themselves, willingly or otherwise.

Sometimes, a foolish mortal, thinking that after being spurned by there fathers and friends for seeking power, would go into one of there few sacred places and hope for one of there random and chaotic blessings. Often, this call would be forever unresponded to, but sometimes there rare blessing will touch some star-struck worshiper and turn him to a physical toy for them to use to interact with the mortal plane.

Yet, without a moments heed or notice, a great event changed this way of life for the Star-Spawn. For a great chieften amongst the gods struck the very roof of the world, and disloged thousands of there kind from the cosmic perch and onto the realms of mortals. Most died shrieking from there nigh-eternal fall, while all to many managed to survive the impact and land and crawl into lightless places of the world to nurse there wounds. Accompanying
the elder scions beyond time where stars themselves, disloged from the skies by the writhing and thrashing of there inhabitance. As they hit the mortal plane, the stars buried themselves into vallys and hills, and rare still is the time when they foul animalistic forms of the Star-Spawn raise themselves out of fetid mires and caves, but each and every time they have done so has spelled doom to the land they roam...."

You suddenly feel a minor ach in your head. The...topic at hand is a rather sour one.

Ophiokasha closes the book slowly.

The implications. someone? Somewhere, dirty short-sighted mortal that they are, seems to have taken quill to a lesser Fortune's rambling. But still...

There is a jumble and tumult, like a drunken fight both remembered and relived. She opens her eyes; she is in a crater, sitting in a broken piece of sky, smoldering. She is slipping, sinking. The cracks in the night air slowly mend, and the closing hole pushes,

She is falling, numb. Sheer aerodynamics turn her face down, like a winding spear. there's no sense of gravity, only motion as the ground "above" her falls upon her head. She struggles against the million talons of tiny sleep monsters under her scales, fighting their pins and needles, twitches. She manages to flare her wings and everything spins, is chaos as she slows but tightens her spiral

There is a splash

She lies wearily in the fens, half covered by ripped peat, piecing together what she can. It is still a blur, and she is so wounded, so hungry. Rabbits dance outside her reach until she remembers her length.

Some mortal somewhere knew that her kind could fall, despite this babbling about madness. Rivalry or no, Ophiokasha set her mind to sorcery. She would learn, and Jeferrey would help, willingly or not.

[Pokonic]

Smiling as he gazed across the to dragons, he frowned as he looked apon the guardswo(men). "Actualy, I need to have a talk with the leader amongst youselves in private after I take the dragons to there housing . Several things of importance needs to be said, least among them being the state of the security here. After all, if you are in truth excorts of these two, than it would only make sence for you to
know the exact run-down on events, no?"
.

[Mindfreak]

Fairhaven
Jeffery walks into the library in the morning, accompanied by sevel men carrying trays piled high with deliciously roasted and seasoned meat.
Jeffery bows in front of Ophiokasha.
"I'd like to apologize for my behavior last night...as a show of good will I had the cooks prepare for you the most succulent meat possible...baby boar."
The men put the trays down and a table and leave.
"I hope you'll accept my apology so we can bury the hatchet."

[SiuiS]

Ophiokasha gingerly lifts a strip of meat from the tray. The guards... Does he want witnesses? "Of courssse. We accept your offer. And we of courssse have busssinesss to attend. After the meal, I will need to go over some notess, in private."

Pulling her head back as far as the ceiling allows, Ophiokasha drops the bit of boar meat daintily into her maw. This is how one seals such deals, yes?

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik's instincts told him that he had no choice in the matter, he knew his own weaknesses and limitations, but those of Edell were still a mystery to him, it was equally probable that she would either win or loose against the grounded opponent, depending on exactly how many and what kind of secrets she had been holding up until that point. The opponent heading towards him in the air however he knew he could deal with, if he was quick enough, he may even be able to assist Edell before anything horrible happens. For the moment it was preservation of self before preservation of others, even others who could become potential mates.

His mind made up, Karik faced the airborne foe and increased his speed, playing chicken with a chicken, it should be a snap.



*Karik is going to ram the griffon(?) in flight and snap his jaws down on the first piece of flesh he can find, be it head, beak, claw, or wing. if it's part of the bird, he bites it.*

[Pokonic]

Karik managed to catch the griffon at a bad moment, and managed to crunch into its chest area, doing the expected damage to a creature who just had its chest cavity caved in and then ripped open. However, the griffon, now flailing around his head, rakes into his shoulders with its talons and futily attempts to get at his wings. You only actualy feel the bloody bird attempt to ground you for good after the wave of griffon blood hits the back of your muzzle. Perhapes simply crushing the beast into the ground would be the best way to dispose of it.


Karik: 114- 20 ( 10x2)= 94 health.

Poor Griffon: 35-22=13 health.

[SiuiS]

Eating the boar's meat is an experience. Certainly it's... Nice, but the tastes of blood and vitality have been cooked out and suppressed by fire and spices. And soft? Ophiokasha spent the time "savouring" the meal ruminating on how poor adapted her mouth is to such things as chewing.

But a lady must maintain appearances.

"So, Jeferrey," Ophiokasha extends one fang, scraping loose a piece of boar that wedged behind it before continuing, "I seem to recall that you've read every book in this library? Perhaps we can help each other more fully..."

She nonchalantly taps her clawed finger on the cover of the wizard's journal while speaking.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas refused to be cowed by some overgrown half-breed. With Karik fighting another one of the creatures she had to look after herself. Combat was inevitable, but hopefully she could stay out of reach of the griffon's claws. Before the beast could lunge at her, she took her chance. Turning to the side, whipping out her bladed tail in a arc, she attempted to slash the griffon across the chest or stomach, using the long reach of her tail to distance herself from the griffon as best she could.

[Tail is 21 damage, according to my char sheet (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12470119&postcount=296). Agi: 55]

[AnimeKid]

The little creatures looked with smug satisfaction that the dragon was leaving. Then they turned there eyes to the prone dwarves. The leading one with his hood down took a deep breath and spewed another cloud of nasty gas. After it dispersed, far faster than his first, the dwarves where not so much as crying as making a muffled screaming, for the full effects of the gas where clear even to a backing-up Bellock. Flesh melted into the dead ground, with melted hands forever fusing the dwarves to the land they so dispised, and pink globs dribbled out of the connecting points of there armor as if wax from a candle. Bellock should probably not think to much about the still-breathing one with the facial mask still laying on it's back.

Annnd this is the point where it shows I am not screwing around with this sort of thing. Also, the facial masks have small openings on them, probably should have mentioned that before.

Bellock continues down the path to the capital. He trudges for many paces to the capital. Eventually He sees it. The capital, and he lets out a guttural sound the resembles a sigh. With his destination in sight he continues onward and tries to enter the city.

[Pokonic]

Edellipas refused to be cowed by some overgrown half-breed. With Karik fighting another one of the creatures she had to look after herself. Combat was inevitable, but hopefully she could stay out of reach of the griffon's claws. Before the beast could lunge at her, she took her chance. Turning to the side, whipping out her bladed tail in a arc, she attempted to slash the griffon across the chest or stomach, using the long reach of her tail to distance herself from the griffon as best she could.

[Tail is 21 damage, according to my char sheet (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12470119&postcount=296). Agi: 55]


The griffon(?) is fast fleeing backwords (while still on its hind legs, no less!), but not before the blade sliced into its midsection and landing on the grass. With a wimper and a little hiss, it slowly gets up on its feet using its wings to steady itself. Even in the gloom, you can tell than there is now something hanging below the creature as it slowly backs away from you.

Hippogriff: 31-16= 15 HP.


Bellock continues down the path to the capital. He trudges for many paces to the capital. Eventually He sees it. The capital, and he lets out a guttural sound the resembles a sigh. With his destination in sight he continues onward and tries to enter the city.

Even as he leaves the deadend lands that contained those horrible little creatures, he notices the smell, that of ozone and faint decay, stays with him. Taking a moment to use his dragonic sences, he notices that the scent has replaced his own. Growling slightly, he walks onword, and soon spots yet another interesting sight: a large rock outcropping, with several men and women gathered near it. Those are not what caches his eye, however: it is the large, greyesh dragon apperently in conversation with the little ones!

Yep, a NPC dragon, and a former PC one at that. Perhapes Bellock can meet a creature that will not try to kill him this time, ehh?

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik ignored the pain emitting from his sholders from the creature's talons, and he ignored the urge to slam the beast into the ground. The creature was at his mercy now, securely trapped within his jaws. Seeing no immediate threats or reasons to finish the beast, he risked turning his attention back to Edell, glad to see that she was fairing well against her own opponent, the sight of the retreating creature allowing some of Karik's mind to break through the adrenaline-fuelled instinct wich had taken over.

Being more cautious of his actions now, Karik performed a U-turn in the air and landed somewhere between Edell and the retreating beast, off to the side to allow Edell to keep her eyes on the creature, but ready to jump in should the beast change it's mind and attack. With his own opponent still trapped in his maw, Karik turned to Edell, raising his foreleg up to pin the creature's talons to his shoulders to reduce further damage. He looked to Edell with a questioning glance, then back to the creature in his jaws, hoping for an answer on whether to kill the beast or allow it to live for the time being. As he waited, he occasionally looked to random spots in his field of view for a split second, there was still one of these things out there, he had to be ready.

[Pokonic]

Karik ignored the pain emitting from his sholders from the creature's talons, and he ignored the urge to slam the beast into the ground. The creature was at his mercy now, securely trapped within his jaws. Seeing no immediate threats or reasons to finish the beast, he risked turning his attention back to Edell, glad to see that she was fairing well against her own opponent, the sight of the retreating creature allowing some of Karik's mind to break through the adrenaline-fuelled instinct wich had taken over.

Being more cautious of his actions now, Karik performed a U-turn in the air and landed somewhere between Edell and the retreating beast, off to the side to allow Edell to keep her eyes on the creature, but ready to jump in should the beast change it's mind and attack. With his own opponent still trapped in his maw, Karik turned to Edell, raising his foreleg up to pin the creature's talons to his shoulders to reduce further damage. He looked to Edell with a questioning glance, then back to the creature in his jaws, hoping for an answer on whether to kill the beast or allow it to live for the time being. As he waited, he occasionally looked to random spots in his field of view for a split second, there was still one of these things out there, he had to be ready.

The retreating griffon was patheticly looking at his fellow hunter dangling from the bronze drakes jaws. Without much care in what it did, it layed it's head down into the cow-soaked grass and closed her eyes, perparing for the beast to end it for good.

[AnimeKid]

Bellock looked at the dragon with wary eyes. At least one of his own kind would at least be more agreeable then the short mouths were. What they had donte to that land or what it had looked like before he wasn't sure he wanted to know. For now though he approaches making sure to make a lot of noise as he did so that his fellow dragon would notice him and not assume him to be a threat.

When he gets within acceptable distance for talking and not being threatening he says, "Hello. It is now often that I see one of my bretheren out in the open like this, and talking with humans no less. I must ask, are you headed to the capital? If so how much farther is it?"

[Pokonic]

Bellock looked at the dragon with wary eyes. At least one of his own kind would at least be more agreeable then the short mouths were. What they had donte to that land or what it had looked like before he wasn't sure he wanted to know. For now though he approaches making sure to make a lot of noise as he did so that his fellow dragon would notice him and not assume him to be a threat.

When he gets within acceptable distance for talking and not being threatening he says, "Hello. It is now often that I see one of my bretheren out in the open like this, and talking with humans no less. I must ask, are you headed to the capital? If so how much farther is it?"

The humanoids look apon the sight of the dragon with.... joy? The grey dragon simply ignores Bellock outright, and actualy has the nerve to turn his head away from him!

One of the humanoids, a pale and slightly damp-looking individual, comes to the same direction of the approching dragon, wrinkels his nose slightly, and says "Err, good dragon, the capital is just a hour away. However, this is in fact the place we have found for the dragons to sleep before the event. You see, the rock's you see here contain a great tunnal system, and it has been heated for your plesure.

But", he says with some sence of annoyance," your fellow dragon here is refusing to even try negogations and wishes the entire cave to himself! May you try, at least? Otherwise, we will be forced to remove him from the kingdoms boundries. "

[Mindfreak]

Ophiokasha gingerly lifts a strip of meat from the tray. The guards... Does he want witnesses? "Of courssse. We accept your offer. And we of courssse have busssinesss to attend. After the meal, I will need to go over some notess, in private."

Pulling her head back as far as the ceiling allows, Ophiokasha drops the bit of boar meat daintily into her maw. This is how one seals such deals, yes?
Fairhaven
Of course he wants witnesses, he'd be stupid to come back after his actions last night without any.
"Very well. Guards, you may take up posts outside of the library."
The guards file out and will guard outside of the library while Jeffery waits for Ophiokasha to finish her meal.

[SiuiS]

This of course, means Jeferrey has missed the key weakness of his partner in figurative crime; as a social creature, Ophiokasha is nothing if she cannot talk her way out of something.

"Let us cut to the chassse. You have read evvery book here. I do not have that luxury. I wish to learn more of this sssorcery you mortals dabble in. Will you assissst us?"

[Mindfreak]

This of course, means Jeferrey has missed the key weakness of his partner in figurative crime; as a social creature, Ophiokasha is nothing if she cannot talk her way out of something.

"Let us cut to the chassse. You have read evvery book here. I do not have that luxury. I wish to learn more of this sssorcery you mortals dabble in. Will you assissst us?"
Fairhaven
"...yes. I will."
That was...easy...

[Beacon of Chaos]

Edellipas glanced from her opponent to Karik, who was now in a position to protect her. Not that he needed to, as the hippogriff seemed to have given up and had simply lain down to die.

Karik gave Edell a questioning look. What would they do with their foes? Edell could see that these creatures had little hope of survival. The one she had attacked had its innards hanging out, and Karik's griffon was clearly going to bleed to death from its wounds. They could leave them to die, but if they finished them here, they could give their bodies to the humans as proof that they had kept to their end of the bargain.

"Finish it, Karik." she said. "Then stay close to me. There may be more of them around."

She walked a little closer to the dying hippogriff, though still wary of any sudden moves it might make, and struck out with her tail towards the creature's head.

[Draconi Redfir]

Karik simply nodded in response and crunched his jaws shut through the creature's flesh and bones, waiting until the feeling of blood pumping against his gums had come to a stop before lowering his foreleg and dropping the creature from his mouth. Karik stared at the beast for a moment, half apologizing and half admiring the mutilated pattern his teeth had carved out in the creature's midsection while leaving it's forelegs and head more or less unscathed. He licked the blood from his teeth and spat out a few stray feathers before placing a claw next to the corpse protectively and turning his head to the skies once more, occasionally glancing over to keep an eye on Edell, ready to move on her instruction.

[SiuiS]

Fairhaven
"...yes. I will."
That was...easy...

Ophiokasha wonders for a moment what the catch is, but then reconsiders. If sorcery is illegal, he will hide it and that's her bargaining chip. If not, then the kinglord will be apprised, making him responsible.

She decides this is an acceptable level of intrigue, and moves on with her studies.

[Pokonic]

Edellipas glanced from her opponent to Karik, who was now in a position to protect her. Not that he needed to, as the hippogriff seemed to have given up and had simply lain down to die.

Karik gave Edell a questioning look. What would they do with their foes? Edell could see that these creatures had little hope of survival. The one she had attacked had its innards hanging out, and Karik's griffon was clearly going to bleed to death from its wounds. They could leave them to die, but if they finished them here, they could give their bodies to the humans as proof that they had kept to their end of the bargain.

"Finish it, Karik." she said. "Then stay close to me. There may be more of them around."

She walked a little closer to the dying hippogriff, though still wary of any sudden moves it might make, and struck out with her tail towards the creature's head.


Karik simply nodded in response and crunched his jaws shut through the creature's flesh and bones, waiting until the feeling of blood pumping against his gums had come to a stop before lowering his foreleg and dropping the creature from his mouth. Karik stared at the beast for a moment, half apologizing and half admiring the mutilated pattern his teeth had carved out in the creature's midsection while leaving it's forelegs and head more or less unscathed. He licked the blood from his teeth and spat out a few stray feathers before placing a claw next to the corpse protectively and turning his head to the skies once more, occasionally glancing over to keep an eye on Edell, ready to move on her instruction.

The dieing hippogriff dies standing, wishing to see it's comrade's eyes before it goes into the deep sleep, and the nomed griffon stays dead. For the most part, everything seems simple until a....thing climes up from the other side of the hill to look apon the two dragons. It might have passed for a griffon if it was darker, but as it twisted and streched its body over the hill it was apperent that whatever it was, it was no griffon. As it moved it's thin limbs like a puppet, jerking them forword in a unnatural way, they sa the error of there ways.

Yes, there where four limbs and what might have been wings, but otherwise it resembled nothing the dragons have seen before. It's vaugly cone-shaped head had no feactures at all, just smooth skin. Thee worst part was it's color- it had none. It was a horrid void in the world vaugly shaped like a living thing, not so much black as sucking up light. Each dangling limb had three claws, each almost as long as the hand itself, and a great pencil-thin tail carried a comicly large blade at the end.

The two dragons only got a few moments to see the creature before a great darkness blocked there vision, blocking even there dragonic eyesight.

Within moments, something sharp touched Karik's neck.

Dont worry, its not as bad as it looks. It's only a shapeshifting abomination that has the ability to cover the land with darkness. You are close enough to eachother that your in no harm. Probably.

[Mindfreak]

Ophiokasha wonders for a moment what the catch is, but then reconsiders. If sorcery is illegal, he will hide it and that's her bargaining chip. If not, then the kinglord will be apprised, making him responsible.

She decides this is an acceptable level of intrigue, and moves on with her studies.
Fairhaven
He goes and grabs a tome from the shelves in the back and brings it back.
"So do you know anything about sorcery?"

[PurityIcekiller]

Smiling as he gazed across the to dragons, he frowned as he looked apon the guardswo(men). "Actualy, I need to have a talk with the leader amongst youselves in private after I take the dragons to there housing . Several things of importance needs to be said, least among them being the state of the security here. After all, if you are in truth excorts of these two, than it would only make sence for you to
know the exact run-down on events, no?"
.

"Ah, yes. That sounds like a sensible course of action. While I'm sure Oslan and Santiago would love to learn your secrets, they wouldn't be secrets much longer if they fell into the hands... Well, not literally falling into their hands, since secrets aren't physical, but those two would probably let them slip away."

Oslan glanced at his companion. "Actually, in a roundabout way, I think Santiago would enjoy it more if you didn't tell him. It would give him something to get annoyed about."

"Well, sharing those secrets would give you more things to be annoying with, Oslan," replied Santiago in irritation.

"Then we seem to be in agreement!"

In actuality, however, only the humans were really in agreement. And Sparkwing too, although that was more a lack of disagreement.

"Hold on here," growled Smoketail. "You're saying you're keeping things hidden from us when they're most likely both important and related to us judging by the context. Talking about us behind our backs, are you?"

"Hey, it's what Oslan and I do all the time, scaly."

[AnimeKid]

The humanoids look apon the sight of the dragon with.... joy? The grey dragon simply ignores Bellock outright, and actualy has the nerve to turn his head away from him!

One of the humanoids, a pale and slightly damp-looking individual, comes to the same direction of the approching dragon, wrinkels his nose slightly, and says "Err, good dragon, the capital is just a hour away. However, this is in fact the place we have found for the dragons to sleep before the event. You see, the rock's you see here contain a great tunnal system, and it has been heated for your plesure.

But", he says with some sence of annoyance," your fellow dragon here is refusing to even try negogations and wishes the entire cave to himself! May you try, at least? Otherwise, we will be forced to remove him from the kingdoms boundries. "

Bellock looks at the human man and nods. Well it seems the king was indeed serious about trying to make things work. Well these humans were nice enough so he walked towards the grey dragon and tries to say in his most athourative voice, "Pardon me, but you my fellow brethren are endangering an alliance that could be very beneficial for our kind."

He pauses for a moment to let this fact sink in before continuing on, "I don't know what you seek to prove or how your behavior here proves anything, but don't endanger the rest of us by appealing to your baser instincts when you should be smart enough not to exacerbate this situation. Now either learn to share like your intelligence should lead you to logically do or if that is unacceptable leave the premises."