A dragon city? Terex repeats, a bit incredulously. That's... wow, things have really changed a lot in the rest of the world. I didn't think dragons would ever work together that closely. I mean, even the handful in Kotelia mostly just do their own stuff unless we're attacked. How long has this been happening?
A chill goes down his little spine. There's not... someone powerful enough to order them around, is there? For that matter, how did the ogres avoid getting wiped out? I'd think dragons would be able to overpower them easily, unless there's not very many.
He very carefully did not say anything about dragons attacking Kotelia.
The Kapitan waggles her hand. "I do not know why, dragons were not in the habit of answering our questions. They seemed to find us tasty enough, but other than that..." She snorts. "As to the ogres, they were as deadly to us as the Ogres. The ogres were ruled by Ogre Magi, and were allied with the Snake People. Between the Magi and the Snakes, the dragons couldn't make a great deal of headway..." She rubs her scar again. "Although, to be honest, it was mostly the younger dragons who attacked, often. Sometimes it almost felt like were just being used to train them and weed out the weaker dragons." She frowns. "There is a tale in our histories of great dragons falling from the sky, they were fighting a flying ship, and a dozen fell to the earth, dead, with great holes in them. We have a skull that was part of a pair that was supposed to have come from the battle. We kept them to remind us that Dragons could die. I can show you if you like."
Oh. Terex fell silent for a few moments as he mulled over this information.
He looked over at the rest of his squad, then back at the Kapitan. I think it would be good if we did. You see... a bunch of dragons attacked Kotelia a while ago. But like you said, it was mostly younger dragons, with only a few older ones. We killed them, of course, but... it's worrisome. And then with this news of the merchants trying to make everybody suspicious to each other... Well, maybe I'm just worrying too much, but if I was planning on attacking somewhere, I'd probe their defenses first, and try to convince everyone that they're crazy and evil so that they might help me attack them. I really really really hope I'm just being paranoid here, but if not...
The speculation and tales of elder Wyrms being slain by flying ships made Kincaid's head spin. "It's a big world out there Terex, with luck it's just coincidence. Still I guess it's better to be paranoid than caught by surprise. Anyway I'd be interested to see this Skull, it is hard to imagine mortals actually killing an Elder Wyrm."
'Flying ships armed with giant dragon slaying ballista, whatever next?' thought Kincaid.
The Kapitan nods, and then gets up and leads the group down the stairs and back to the underground portions. Down past the cells. Gav tags along, muttering "Dragon!" under his breath the whole time.
Finally she leads the group into a room that has a massive dragon skull that takes up half the room. One horn is shattered off, the other still intact. All the skin and scales have fallen off, but Terex can tell it was an elder blue dragon, and quite a large one at that. The massive forward fangs are 10 ft tall.
She holds a torch up to the eye socket, and the wall behind it is lit as light shines through a hole in the back of it's skull as big around as Kincaid's head. "Whetever killed it seems to have entered the eye here, and punched through the skull on the other side. If you look through there, you'll also see about a third of the jaw is missing, torn free." She points through the teeth on the left hand side, and shows that indeed, the last third of the right hand jaw is gone. She also pushes her fist into a hole in the front left tooth that's doesn't go all the way through. "There is metal in the tooth, lead. We don't know why. We think the dragon may have filled a hole put in it to keep it from rotting."
The rest of the room has 'trophies', dragon scales, armor and weapons made from dragon body parts, as well as dragon hide on the walls, a trophy room of sorts. "These are all things we took from those who hunted us. We keep them here to remind us that no matter what may come, we will survive it." All the body parts and scales are chromatic.
"My Goodness! That's huge!" exclaims Kincaid awed by the sheer size of the monstrous thing. After a few moments of shocked silence, Kincaid adds, "Well this just goes to prove the old Adage Kapitan, where there's a will there's a way..."
The Kapitan nods. "We say, 'No matter how big and ancient, it can die'. It was difficult to bring with us, we had to shrink it to fit in our carrier, then restore it when we arrived. We took the smaller of the two to make it easier."
When Terex first saw the skull, he couldn't quite form words. Instead, he sent out a general feeling of awe, terror, shock, surprise, worry... a tangled mess of emotions. After a few moments he managed to form words again.
Wow. That's... that's one of the really really big ones. And it looks like your people have killed a lot yourselves, afterward. Do you know how long ago this happened?
Terex looks over things silently for a little longer, then adds, You know... I think your people and Kotelia have a lot in common. We're both proud of all of the things we've been able to survive through.
The Kapitan rubs her wound again in thought. "I'm not sure, about 12 or 15 generations ago, I think." Gnolls aren't known for writing history books, a strong oral tradition.
Rokas follows the conversation quietly, still upset about what happened. Self righteousness... hypocritical... I'd like to see how she would take it if the roles were reversed. When the group head down to see the dragon skull, Rokas tags along. As he sees the damage that the skull received, Rokas gets closer. He starts inspecting and measuring the holes. Trying to get an idea of what kind of projectile could have done this type of damage.
Abbo admires the incredible skull, failing at his effort not to show himself impressed by it. He keeps his usual silence, but his gasps are audible and his sharp eyes navigate the bones with the curiosity of a child.
As the meeting apparently ends while examining the skull, the Kapitan rubs her scar again. "You are welcome to stay as guests tonight, in a guest room, rather than the cells." Then she chuffs. "Or in the cells, if you found them comfortable, if that's your preference."
Terex's mental laughter rings bright and clear in the minds of those around him. I think I'd prefer a nice place to perch rather than a cage. Thank you, Kapitan. I hope we're able to visit again in the future with good news.
The night goes well, and the group is fed, if not copiously, at least well. They killed a couple of their flock in the field and made soup out of the meat.
Kincaid muses, "I'm glad diplomacy had a chance to work in the end, it doesn't bear thinking about how close things came to bloodshed. Anyway we should be going, these folk have been most generous but we mustn't outstay our welcome."
The group departs with significantly more ease than they arrived. The forest closes in on them again and shortly thereafter they lose sight of the tower.
So next we visit these Lathan, right? Terex 'says' to his squad. Did we get that letter of introduction from the Kapitan?
As they walk away from the tower, Kincaid replies to Terex's suggestion, "Yes I agree we should visit the Lathan. Before that however we should try to send a report. I don't know if HQ will listen but I feel strongly it would be right if we can broker a deal on the Gnoll's behalf."
Yeah, and they'll want to hear we're okay after that first report we sent, probably. Terex agrees. But that just takes some time, so we can do it along the way, right? Let's get going!
As they walk Kincaid replies to Terex, "I'm going to start writing a letter when we stop for lunch. Anyway we should keep our eyes open, we don't know these lands and there may be surprises."
From their Kapitan Bel'gra'grah we learned a number of things of note:
* The Gra'Vall came from the east, across the Plains of the Lathan.
* The Lathan are Centaurs and are described as prickly, but honorable. We secured a letter of introduction from Kapitan Bel'gra'grah.
* The Lathan have at least one trade city south of the tower.
* We where advised to go east and south to avoid Minotaurs and their goblin slaves.
* Far to the south there is apparently a city of demons in the forest.
* The Gnolls have a massive dragon dragon skull with 10 feet fangs. According to their tradition it was killed 12-15 generations ago by a flying ship armed with some kind of siege engine.
* The Gnolls themselves find their current location marginal, with poor hunting, yet their tower appears to be in a very strategic location. I believe they are honorable and a trade and a mutual defense pact Kotelia would be welcomed.
We are currently marching to visit the Lathan, will update again when closer.
Regards, Kincaid.
Two days after you send the letter, you open the case on the morning to find a return missive.
Report acknowledged. I've dispatched a squad with a diplomat, and 2000 lbs of dried meet from one of the storehouses as a present of honor. I assume the gnolls are like our gnolls and can only eat meat. Authorization to alter course granted.
Graythan
I hope they like salt, bring me a souvenir. He had to get the council to make someone a diplomat first, we didn't have any. After we looked up in the records what a diplomat was... In case you didn't know either, it's someone who lies for you to your allies and enemies.
How droll. I hope these actions ease the relationship into something more positive.
While marching, Rokas can't get the question of what could have killed that dragon that he saw. Also the idea of a flying ship should be something to look into. He tries to come up some idea of how could this be done. It would make scouting a lot easier in a way, if he could make the thing camouflage, or even better invisible.
As they travel, Terex scouts ahead, sometimes popping up above the canopy to look out over the forest for a while, but usually staying in the safety of the branches.
Hylar has a few suggestions for Rokas on the matter of camouflage, being one for not being noticed as he is. Kasha of course has her own ideas, which Hylar shares.
Abbo follows up with his companions. Like his friends, he's quiet; still thinking about the last happenings, and how to move forward. He thanked the gods for no fighting had been needed with the gnolls - despite the needless animosity. One can only hope their mission kept as one of peace.
As they get further away from the Gnoll's territory into the unknown, Kincaid worried that they could be walking into danger. Over the evening meal, he suggests, "We've probably been a bit complacent after leaving the Gnolls. We should step up the scouting. Terex is a great asset there but he shouldn't shoulder all the burden. Perhaps Xaeken and Abbo can range ahead tomorrow?"
The group spends a week traversing the jungle heading southeast.
Eventually, toward sunset on the 7th day, they come to the edge of the woodline, the trees suddenly petering out as if they had finally given up on being a forest.
Before them a sea of yellow grass stretches as far as the eye can see. The grass obviously dead from winter chills, although the snows don't reach quite this far south, so the grass is just dead. The grass has long since lost it's wheaty like kernals at the top, the seeds having fallen, ready to produce a new years worth of grass in a month or so in the spring.
The dead grass is broken only occasionally by a lonely tree holding up the good fight against the sea of yellow all by itself. At a little over 3 feet tall, it provides excellent cover at a distance, and even up close.
It is, quite the most open and expansive thing the group has ever seen.
Abbo stands tall, walking calmly and looking around with sheer curiosity.
Rokas looks at the open field with some anxiety. He can feel the agoraphobia crawling into his head and he as to fight the urge of just heading back to the city. Eventually, reason overcome emotions and he manages to step foot into the field. But still, he tries to keep his eyes everywhere to make sure nothing will sneak up on him.
"See, flying ship... This would be so much easier with a flying ship!"
"Wow that's quite the view!" remarked Kincaid, glad to be out of the claustrophobic forest. He claps Rokas good naturedly on the back and remarks, "Maybe one day we'll find you a flying ship, but remember nobody from the city has seen this in hundreds of years if ever. You'll have quite a story to tell your grand children round the fire!"
Xaeken offers a firm flat expression but muscles through the discomfort.
It's... Terex hovers, transfixed by the sight, awed fear tinging his thoughts. It's... so BIG...
Rokas looks at Kincaid. "Find? I don't plan to find one, I want to build one. Just need to figure out how to get it up there." He points to the sky and then he looks at Terex with a smile. "Say... Terex? How much weight can you carry? And how big is your family?"
Looking back at the field in front of them. "You know, grass this dry would be a major fire hazard. If someone would light it up while we are in the middle of this, we would get cooked in instant."
Beneath his armored helm, both of Kincaid's eyebrows raise, "Oh I see. I wouldn't have the faintest idea how you'd make a ship fly, probably magic. As for the grass being a fire hazard, delightful thought by the way, it's probably just as well I've given up cigars. I suppose we'd better start heading in..."
Addressing Terex he asks, "Can you see any landmarks on the distance to guide our way?"
Terex is still staring in fearful awe at the vastness before him, too caught up in the sheer size of it to respond.
After a few minutes, Kincaid notices the little pseudograon is uncharacteristically silent, staring at the wide open expanse. Gently he tells him, "Hey there you OK? I guess none of us have ever seen anything quite so wide... It's really quite something, beautiful yet unforgiving, perhaps even scary in its own way. We need to cross it if we're going to find these Centaurs. We know that's going to be a long way, the key I think is not to dwell on how far or how long. Besides even the longest journey starts with a single step or perhaps in your case a wing beat... Come on Terex it'll be OK I promise, and we'll all be here right by you every step of the way..."
Terex snaps out of his reverie with a mentally audible gasp.
Oh! Um, thanks, Kincaid... He shoots a glance out at the wide expanse and shudders. Ummm... would... maybe one of you mind letting me ride for a little while? I think it will take a while for me to get used to... all of that.