[Quest] Enter the Dragon

[Paragon]

P A R A G O N

Jac observed the rising of the wards without much comment. He felt the shift in temperature in the air giving little more than a grunt of affirmation as to their function. When Iselya displayed the manifestation of the Dawnfire, its appearance captured his attention. Once it was dismissed, he looked between Imogen and Iselya with a curious expression.

“Interesting.” As the others gathered their wits about them, the mountain of a man knelt down upon the deck of the ship and retrieved a pouch from his hip. He opened it and began pouring its contents upon the surface of the smooth wood. A glittering black sand pile soon formed. After a moment, he ceased pouring the sands, returning the pouch to his hip. With one hand he smoothed out the sand pile, patting it down until it formed a canvas upon which he could do his work.

“The dragon’s name is Exathun, called the Horror Who Dreams. He is an Ancient. Old enough to have known the world before Kaitos folly burned the heavens and scorched the earth.” Jac retrieved from another pouch a single white scale which he placed upon the canvas of black sands. It was a pristine alabaster white that had blackened at the edges. The hunter began tracing symbols into the sands as he spoke, forming a pattern around the scale.

“He was the guardian of something sacred. An object known only as the Voice of Tekrah.” Jac looked up at the gathered. “The Voice was stolen. I suspect its thieves have nested nearby.”

Looking back down at his sands, Jac finished drawing his symbols. He passed a hand over them, black mist flowing from his hand as he did so. The mists infused the sands causing them to emit a soft violet glow. To any with the gift of Semblance, the sands would seem to almost whisper. Voices of dozens muttering varying pitches that hissed, gasped and giggled. None of them distinct enough to be discernible through casual observation but unsettling enough to know that some manner of communion was taking place. Jac listened quietly as the whispering continued, his brow furrowed in concentration. After a few moments, the black sands all began to pop and turn a dusky grey as they became dust and ash. These ashes were caught by an aethereal wind that wrapped around the white scale with its blackened edges. The ash formed a black cloud that became infused with violet light that soon gathered into the scale. The dust and ash funneled into the scale with a low whispering moan until they were completely absorbed by the scale. When the display was finished, the scale had veins of violet running through it. Jac picked up the scale and rubbed it with his thumb.

His left eye flashed briefly with that same violet light and he looked to the east.

“We go east.” Jac stood up and walked to the railing of the ship to peer eastward. He scanned the horizon. “Our journey will not be without a challenge. Exathun has stirred spirits of Ice and Shadow into a frenzy. They will seek to kill us as the dragon seeks to kill those who have stolen its charge.”

Jac rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck.

“We should be off. The spirits will grow stronger as daylight lessens.”

Off Topic

Please post by Tuesday, November 1, 2022 @1159 PM EST.

[Vanessa Quill]

The Every Waking Moment heaved eastward under Vanessa's almost effortless control. Though the movement itself was swift for a ship of her size, Vanessa made it feel smooth. It was almost odd how much care she put into directing the ship. She hardly looked the type to care for safety, all furrowed brows and frown lines. Even the tattoos on her knuckles helped give her away. But safety had always been a matter of practicality for the former cutthroat, and was one of those droll parts of reality that never seemed to get mentioned in pub songs.

"Stolen, eh?" Vanessa said as she moved across the deck to adjust the sails. The wind was easy enough to track, and soon the sails snapped to full bellow and the ship cut a path ever eastward while Vanessa kept her eyes to the horizon. "So, what do we get if we bring this thing back to him?" Vanessa had heard stories of dragons and debts, but knew better than to trust the words of blowhards. "If that's even possible, given his current state." She added, entirely an afterthought. Her mind was fully fixed on recovering the lost plunder. She was no stranger to ransoms, though she wasn't sure they could argue from a position of power when the other party was a dragon. Still, it was appealing. First time for everything.


"These dragons, they can bond with people, yeah? Give 'em power n' all that?" Vanessa had voraciously consumed almost all of the children's books in the Michaelis estate when she'd first begun to read, and there were too many mentions of dragonriders to be completely unfounded, right? "So... if we cure his madness, and retrieve this 'Voice of Tekrah'..." She looked expectantly to Jac, waiting for him to either confirm her suspicions or dash them terribly across the rocks. She also looked to Anton, and hoped he agreed. This could be just the thing they needed to cement Zaichaer's future. This expedition had already been a chance for glory, fame and legitimacy, but adding a dragon to their spoils? Well that certainly had a way of removing any doubt.

[Imogen]

Imogen nodded as Iselya lit her blade with silver flame, registering little surprise. She'd known the woman was a Dawnmartyr, of course, and she'd seen Mr. Maze invoke the mark of Eminence recently enough to recognize that the Demigod of Light's power still remained at large in the world. Still, it was a strange feeling to be in the presence of one of the fabled knights. She could hardly gauge a Stiltori's age, but she wondered if this was one of the old Order who had gone into hiding or the new recruits whom Nurse Kala had spoken of in her visit to Kalzasi a year prior.

"Well there you have it, that's twice the odds of curing the dragon." Imogen announced, conveniently omitting the fact that doubling a dismal base rate wasn't good, and that she had frankly no idea how powerful Iselya's mark was. Actually, weren't the Dawnmartyrs meant to draw directly from Arcas? Maybe that would help out, in some way. Whatever- Imogen Ward was not a theologian, an elemental sage or, frankly, a competent mathematician of any sort.

Following Iselya's brief display, Imogen was content to listen, eyes closed, as Anton and Jac spoke, until:

"Before Kaitos' folly...'" The orc took a moment to try to remember the history she'd learned as a girl, then let out a low whistle. "Wooo, that's big. That's big big, if I'm not mistaken."

It also cast serious doubt on the motley crew's ability to so much as wound the creature. Vanessa had proven a very capable fighter back at the Pfenning, and the prowess of the Dawnmartyrs was legend, and Imogen fancied she could hold her own in a scrap; but she tried to imagine the three of them charging something really big, like the Vonaid Koid, and she did not see it going well.

(She did not even factor Anton in, figuring that he probably couldn't fend off a mugger, let alone a dragon)

Imogen had never heard of any "Voice of Tekrah" and wasn't terribly interested in treasure-hunting, but she took immediate note of the fact that Jac had brought the topic up at all. The Scrivening which he was using to track the dragon was unfamiliar, but she immediately fixed her eyes on the battered white scale the hunter had used as a focus. Unless she was very mistaken, that was almost certainly a scale of Exathun himself, which meant that Jac was very familiar with the wyrm somehow.

Imogen pondered this for a moment as Vanessa- er, Captain Vane- er, Captain Quill, spoke, asking some bizarre question about marrying the dragon. Wasn't she married to Anton already? The Sunsinger supposed that she would leave the callow scholar for a dragon too, in Vanessa's position.

Damn, that train of thought had run aground and into a canyon fast.

"Actually, Jac, and speaking of bonds with Exathun- I'd like to know what yours entail. I expect a professional to know what they're about, but you seem pretty much fully acquainted with the wyrm. Not that I care to pry into your personal affairs, but is there something afoot here you're not saying?"

[Anton]

For the first time in his life, Anton truly believed he had committed himself to more than he was capable of accomplishing. Dragons were potent creatures, that much everyone knew, but if he had known that it was an Ancient whose wroth had been awoken he may have played things closer to his chest. At least he wouldn't mourn the expense of any shot expended in weakening the creature, there was no price in mere gold too high for the work that they were embarking upon.

Anton's train of thought was utterly derailed for a moment as Jac willed the sands to life, the chattering din annoyingly remaining at the very edge of perceptibility. The ultimate effect was clear though, the resonance between the dragon and his scale showing the way forward. It was a useful trick, especially for a bounty hunter, and not for the first time Anton considering learning the art of true writing himself. But there were more important matters to deal with than admiration of art well made.

"It seems my choice has been made for me," the lord said with a lazy smile to his knight. "We shall recover the Voice of Tekrah, free Exathun from his madness, and return the Horror Who Dreams to attend to his charge. Simple enough." It was not, in fact, simple at all, but at least it was a plan. "I don't suppose you happen to know what the Voice of Tekrah does though?" he asked Jac, not really expecting an answer. Still, any thing could be useful in what was to come. Especially in a situation as inherently mad as attempting to confront an Ancient. Why couldn't small dragons ever need cleansing of chaos magic? They could've easily handled that.

"He bore witness to the Sundering," Anton explained to Imogen with a nod of his head, his own history lessons having been far more recent and professional. He didn't know many details, but Kaitos and the Godspire were difficult to forget. "If I had to guess, he was likely already old by the time the Clockwork Empire first rose. I imagine that even dragons suffered when Kaitos' ambition set the heavens aflame."

[Laveriel]

The Horror Who Dreams. A rather ominous name. As she listened to the giant of a man, Iselya wondered what sort of horror the creature had inflicted to earn itself such a title. A creature from the time of Kaitos was terrifying enough, but to know that it was probably corrupted and enraged… She suddenly started to doubt the ability of their ragtag group to tame a legend such as Exathun.

When Captain Quill talked about bonding with the dragon, the siltori's eyes light up with interest she had heard in passing, mostly in stories. If that was the woman’s end goal… well, it would be quite the feat.

“Yes. The object, what is it exactly?” she chimed in after Anton's question. Though she wasn’t part of the Spellforged, she had heard Ryo talking about a thousand different artifacts before and she wasn’t quite sure if she’s ever heard about the Voice of Tekrah. "And what group of thieves could manage to steal from a dragon?"

Iselya walked over to the walls of the airship, trying to peer out its windows, wondering what sort of ice and shadow creatures the man might be talking about. It felt like any second one might suddenly appear. Feeling the unease settling on the pit of her stomach, she summoned Iratallin in her left hand, the familiar weight of its blade never failing to soothe her. "So, we follow the dragon and find the thieves before Exathun does… I'm guessing that'll make it go after us instead. Then we return the Voice to it and hope it will be thankful and won't kill us." Which seemed like an awful idea, but it was not like she had any better ideas.

When Imogen brought up the man's knowledge of the dragon, the siltori admitted that it did seem odd. He knew very much about it, definitely not another bounty hunter. "Anything else we need to prepare to go against this dragon?"

[Paragon]

P A R A G O N

“Careful, Captain.” Jac glanced at Vanessa. “Exathun may be tempted to give you what you desire.”

His words were a sharp warning that in and of themselves confirmed Vanessa’s question in the affirmative. The undertone of his statement was one of caution however. He did not elaborate on the consequence of an ancient dragon granting such a request but it was clear he did not think it was a positive thing. To Imogen, he eyed her for a moment before speaking bluntly. Was there more between him and the dragon? Was there something more afoot?

“Yes.” Again, he did not elaborate. To both Anton and Iselya, he blinked at them.

“I do not know what the Voice does. Only that Exathun was to guard it until the Speaker came to reclaim it. Who that is? What their role is?” He shrugged his massive shoulders. “Only the dragon knows.”

“I know little about the thieves. As far as I can tell, they are opportunists who took advantage of recent chaos in the world. There was an opening. They took advantage of it. Exathun has hunted them as a result. But, I do agree. Our best bet to pacify the dragon may be in reclaiming the Voice and then presenting it to him.” As the ship turned in the direction of the east, he looked to the west where the shadow eclipsed sun was drifting across the skies. He hoped they reached their destination before nightfall. Attempting this in the dark of the night would prove far more hazardous.

Again, in the distance, the echoing roar of a mighty beast sounded. With the ship sailing in the eastern direction, the roar sounded clearer. Jac frowned. The cold in that direction was sharper.

“If there are gods you would pray to, make peace with them.” With that, Jac settled himself down upon the deck of the ship in a meditative pose. He kept the dragon scale firmly in hand, his eyes closing and his head tilting slightly as though he were listening to something or someone. He would speak occasionally in order to offer direction to Vanessa on where to guide the ship. He otherwise remained silent.

As the ship sailed across the skies, it became noticeably colder. The temperature dropping to the point that frost had begun to form on the hull of the ship outside the boundaries of the temperature controlled space. The further they travelled, the more the sky became overcast with grey clouds that appeared dark and pregnant with a budding storm. Snow had begun to fall lightly, blanketing the ground below in a dusting of white. The journey saw them travel away from the immediate vicinity of Zaichaer proper and into the countryside. A forest of trees eventually came to their view and with it, evidence of the dragon’s presence.

Spires of icy explosions covered portions of the ground. Entire swaths of trees had been frozen solid and from that ice arose wisps of cold shadow. Ghostly entities hovered around these clusters of ice and on the ground, the forms of people who had been frozen solid could be seen. By then, the sun had dipped lower toward the horizon as late afternoon had settled upon them. As they entered the vicinity, a deep, bellowing roar echoed across the landscape. It boomed in the ears, making the very air shake with the force of its ferocity.

And in the distance, a beast spread its wings and took flight. White scales glittered as though coated with ice. Shadows billowed out from its wings like a dense fog ready to blanket the world. Its head rose, emitting another roar before circling a spot in the sky. As it looped back around, it opened its maw and from within it there came a glow that was a mix of both shadow and icy blue. A blast of cold and darkness shot out of its mouth, smashing into the forest and immediately freezing everything it came into contact with. Trees became pillars of ice. Shadow cascaded outward from where the breath of the dragon hit, twisting and warping everything it touched, reducing some of those very trees to little more than dust.

It was then that they realized, it was not snow that was drifting through the air, it was dust.

“Captain.” Jac opened his eyes. “I suggest taking cover in the clouds.”

[Vanessa Quill]

Though Jac had tried to cool her ambitions, Vanessa only heard the possibility of success. A familiar, invigorating rush seared through her veins, sending a tittering tingle in her mind and dilating her pupils. "I'll keep it in mind." She replied to Jac, though it was hardly convincing. It wasn't lost on her that she had had not yet seen the beast, only its grim work. That uncertainty was the singular gossamer thread that kept her from latching onto the plan like a war-hound.

Well that wasn't entirely true. But surely Anton understood how necessary it was to be bold, now more than ever. No, of course Anton would understand. Of course Anton did understand. He was the one that suggested keeping the damned beast alive in the first place! Even still, she found herself staring forward, avoiding his gaze for all the good it did.

"Aye. A sound plan." Vanessa agreed with Jac. She paused, and then corrected herself. "Good as we'll get, anyway." No sense inviting disaster by being too sure.

She looked out past the prow of the ship, and watched as the great swathes of destruction came into view. It was not her first time seeing them, having witnessed the dragon's artistry when flying to meet Jac, but seeing them again did fill her with some measure of dark awe. It was beyond anything she had heard of, let alone seen. A small part of her did think then to take Jac's advice and leave well enough alone, but such power had its own allure.

Not so alluring that she forgot to offer a prayer to Salt and Storms, a duo of deities in which some sailors believed. Whomever actually heard these prayers was, like many things regarding the gods, unknown. She drew her flask from her coat pocket, took a swig, then poured a generous portion over the railing as an offering. She was glad that she had, as soon afterward she got her first look at the behemoth. And she knew they would need all the help they would get.

The deafening roar rumbled even the runeforged timbers of her ship, and sent the sails mad. However big she'd thought the dragon might be, it was orders of magnitude larger. It was enough to make her feel a trickling of ice in her veins. A brief moment where she wasn't certain they'd succeed, or if success was even possible. Even when flying into the Doom of Zaichaer, Vanessa had felt more in control than this. That had been a disaster, but one her skills behind the wheel had at least made her feel in control over. This was something else entirely.

But it only lasted only until her pirate spirit kicked in, and her veins once more lit with fire. No brass balls, no treasure hauls.

Lurching back to the wheel, Vanessa kicked one of the levers forward with her boot, sending the nose of the Every Waking Moment pitching upward uncomfortably as she ripped through the sky and punctured one of the lowest hanging clouds. It damned their visibility, a great disorienting fog pulling in around them. She brought the ship level once again and eased up on the magitek engine while trimming the sails. The end result was the ship moving with the cloud cover, and she only adjusted their direction to move from one cloud to the next.

"Keep your eyes downward. If ya got skill with cannons, stand near one. Elsewise, be ready for anything."

[Imogen]

So Jac was that kind of mercenary, was he? She supposed that an honest refusal to speak further was better than actually lying, at least insofar as the Arbiters would have had it, but it made for a bad working relationship. Had it been rude to pry, perhaps? She strove to be polite to both principals and colleagues in every endeavor, as to do otherwise was both a detriment to any mission's success and, what's worse, unprofessional.

But no, it was perfectly reasonable to ask the mysterious hired guide who seemed to know so much about the ancient dragon they were chasing what his sources were. Having concluded that she was justifiably irked by Jac's answer and demeanor in her professional capacity, Imogen permitted herself to feel annoyed. Internally, at least- there was clearly still no point in arguing with the huge man.

As the frost wards worked their (literal) magic and the deck of the Every Waking Moment began to warm up, Imogen finally felt comfortable leaving the warmth of the radiator she was leaning against and walking the deck. She didn't wish to bother Captain Vanessa with idle chit-chat, and Anton she knew, so she instead sidled up to Iselya, making her way to the smaller elf casually.

"Iselya. I'd heard last year, before all the nasty business here and in Kalzasi, that they were trying to 're-form' the Dawynmartyrs up north. Were you recruited there?"

It was a casual question, but carried most of Imogen's interest. She'd observed the Avialae training in Reaving last year and they were good, but not especially impressive when compared to the acolytes at Raxen's temple in Drathera, for example. The new order of Dawnmartyrs being recruited were, it seemed to her, just another order of magic knights unless they had real ties to Ailos. The gods knew that some silver fire and a little skill with swords had never been enough, on their own, to give someone a right to heroic title.

"Forgive me if I seem to pry; I just ask on account of curiosity, having heard many tales of the old Order in my youth." That was certainly true enough. Uncle Lewis loved tales of Ecithian heroes, and Ailos was close enough to count by his reckoning.

~~~

Imogen did not really notice when, hours later, the air filled with dust. That was to be expected, really. She'd been told many times, in many exasperated tones, that her obituary would begin with "Ms. Ward died violently after failing to notice-", and conclude with virtually any deadly thing in the wide world. She didn't pay much attention to the shadows in the sky, which seemed content not to bother the Every Waking Moment and its stalwart crew. She even missed the violent obliteration of the trees below.

She did notice the dragon, though, and immediately regretted that.

When she'd received the missive containing her orders from the Captain, she had approached the whole mission with what she'd thought to be an appropriate wariness. She'd been in Ecith only recently, and her meeting with the ancient red dragon who led the Librarians of Drathera was fresh in her mind. That had informed her baseline assessment of the dangers of the situation, and she'd determined that if this Exathun were as big as the elder Librarian--or perhaps a little larger, since she'd heard that Red Dragons were not known for their size among the species--he would be a tremendously troublesome quarry, but potentially within their powers to subdue.

But Exathun was not somewhat larger than the Librarian. Exathun was somewhat larger than the cavern the elder Librarian had *dwelt in*. The wyrm was maybe comparable in size to the Vonaid Koid itself, and she had just spent two seasons unsuccessfully scheming to design a way for a half-dozen master mages to kill that titan, even wracked with thoughtless agony and rage as it was.

"Ack." Imogen produced a choked sound, almost like a laugh, as the behemoth spread its wings and blanketed the whole horizon with ice and shadow. Instinctively, she felt like it was time to crack wise and say something like "That's a little bigger than I'd thought, to be perfectly honest." or perhaps "I'd say we've bitten off more than we can chew, but I don't think we can bite off any of that!" However, when she opened her mouth, what came out was another pained "Ack."

Thankfully, Jac's sudden voice broke the spell. Vanessa maneuvered the ship to a steep incline towards the clouds, and Imogen carefully made her way midships. Her skill with a cannon was probably just sufficient to accidentally blow a chunk out of the Every Waking Moment itself, so she decided instead to prepare elsewise.

The Sunsinger produced her staff, which she'd kept manifested for much of the day. Inset at the top was the illumite she'd pilfered from the Railrunners' storehouse under the Pfenning months ago, and essentially the only thing which had kept her from seeking cover until the damned eclipse ended. The sunstone cap shone wanly with the aether she coaxed from it, and Imogen took a moment to close her eyes and meditate, focusing on the connection between herself and the dragonshard. It grew slightly brighter, the artificial sunlight illuminating the deck of the ship, and the Ork felt the effects of the night recede. An argent aura crept up the quarterstaff, as the Sunsingers' fire awakened over the weapon.

Imogen kept an eye on both sides of the ship, and readied herself to manifest a spear if anything happened.

[Laveriel]

A Speaker that would wield the Voice. It was clear enough that Jac was not interested in offering anything more to them, but it was enough to make the siltori wonder. Her thoughts were swiftly interrupted as she noticed Imogen approaching.

“Iselya. I'd heard last year, before all the nasty business here and in Kalzasi, that they were trying to 're-form' the Dawynmartyrs up north. Were you recruited there?”

Lately, it had been nearly impossible to keep her past in the dark. More and more people had learned of her true identity and perhaps it was fitting considering that her Order had announced its presence to the world once more. Also, Imogen was a sunsinger and considering her business with them there was no point in hiding. So, Iselya gave the woman a mischievous smile. “Actually, I was recruited about… one hundred and forty years ago, I think, give or take.”

She waved off the apology. “No need to apologize. Ever since the Order revealed itself earlier this season, people have finally remembered us again. Although it’s truly not as glamorous as the tales I’ve heard these days say.”

After a few beats, Iselya asked, “What have you heard?” Through her years in hiding, she was very well aware of the varied sentiments of the world regarding the dawnmartyrs, about its fall. “I know that it’s not all good things.”

For a while, their journey seemed quiet. The air had gone colder and the skies darker but nothing interrupted them. Iselya made the effort to take in the sight outside the airship, the frozen wasteland the dragon had created beneath them. This creature would be unlike any adversary she had ever faced before.

As if the thought had summoned him, she watched as Exathun took flight and spread its massive wings. Even from the distance, the dragon was enormous - much bigger than she had imagined. The whole ship shuddered when it roared. As she watched its breath blasting the forest and disintegrating its surrounding, all Iselya could think was: what have I gotten myself into?

In silandris, the siltori asked Myshala to grant them safety and the strength to fight. To Arcas she asked for him to lend her his powers as she summoned Iratallin, the sword flickering with divine flame. Yet as she said her soft prayer, she could not help but be reminded of the ring of darkness wounded together with her mark of eminence. No, it was a concern for another day. Right now they were facing a dragon that could obliterate them at any moment.

Even though she never really operated a cannon before, the elf walked over to one on the left side. Her sword seemed like a sewing needle in comparison to the dragon, so if there was no option left, cannons certainly wouldn’t be the worst of ideas.

[Paragon]

P A R A G O N

As the dragon vented his wrath upon the landscape, soaring upwards into the skies were blackened creatures with bat-like wings. They rolled out of the pillars of darkness spewed forth by the dragon. Some of them even had icy protrusions on their bodies. At least a dozen of the creatures soared upwards into the skies, making a line straight for the Every Waking Moment. It looked like a tattered wraith that had been dragged up from the Warrens. Shadows rolled off of it translucent form in waves. An icy blue light comprised parts of its body. Whether that was the product of the dragon’s powers or some other dark magic was unknown. Around it drifted smaller creatures that began emitting shrieks that worked to penetrate the skull. Darkness encroached upon the vision of those ensnared by the bone-chilling screams as the flight of wraiths began descending upon the skyship.

The time had come for them to defend themselves!

Off Topic

There a dozen of these wraiths. The largest and most imposing of them is drifting away from the skyship and seems to be directing the movements of the other eleven. The shrieks of the wraiths cause painful headaches and work to tug at sensations of fear, pain and panic. Defend yourselves!