Two figures stand just outside the entrance to a large cave, peering into the entrance. The entrance could have been mistaken for some form of really big fox burrow if not for the abrupt change to rock once you enter. Their weapons are drawn, one holding a lute, the other holding a spellbook in one hand and a simple dagger in the other. The man holding the spellbook is a human. He shifts his off hand, tightening his grip on the dagger nervously. He chuckles nervously as he looks down the dark cave entrance, his partner shooting him a look. He nods his head, gesturing gently with his dagger.
His partner, a tiefling woman, merely rolls her eyes and takes the lead, lute at the ready. She keeps her eyes peeled for traps, but listening to the soft mutterings of her companion she trusts that he’ll point them out before she has to. The two of them slink their way through the dark cave, the woman leading the way strumming a small tune to summon a soft ball of light next to her. The light hangs in the air loosely, casting a cool glow across the walls of the cave.
The air in the cave is surprisingly dry, almost cozy, as the pair make their way deeper; the first hint that they are in the right place. Soon, the light from the outside world isn’t visible behind them as the winding cave passage obstructs their view of the exit. The woman leading the way looks over her shoulder tentatively at her partner, his eyes meet hers and she understands that he’s thinking the same thing she is. Where are the traps? Tightening her grip on her lute after the silent exchange, she continues at the same pace.
A sound in the near distance breaks the silence of the cave. Where before all the two of them could hear were their own quiet footsteps, voices can be heard nearby. The two of them approach and a familiar voice raises in volume, yelling at someone whose responses are much milder in comparison. The second voice is unfamiliar, but the first voice is very familiar to the two of them. Maybe more-so to the woman than the man.
The two pick up their pace, still taking care to watch their steps. The cave opens up into a large cavernous room that causes the two to slow their pace as they take in their surroundings. The ceiling of the room is higher than most houses, meaning they must be sufficiently underground at this point because the cave entrance was situated on the side of a hill smaller than this. Around the room there are several piles of treasures, silverware, jewelry, ornamental swords, and all manner of exquisite pieces of art organized and piled in a neat mess. The precious items seemed deceptively unguarded, but a quick glance back at her companion assured the woman that they were definitely protected magically.
Other than the precious piles dotted about the far corners of the room, there is a large amount of clear space in the center of the room. Scratch and burn marks litter the flooring all around the cave, the man can’t even tell whether the burn marks are magical in nature or just fire. In the middle of that clearing is the source of the two voices, two people. One of them is hanging in the air, caught in some form of magical netting.
The two immediately identify the netted person as their friend and the objective of their excursion, as well as the source of the yelling. The other woman is standing beside their netted friend very patiently being screamed at, replying in a calm tone whenever the other person lets them get a word in. The two of them can finally understand what the other two are saying and merely watch from the entrance of the cave patiently, weapons at the ready.
“GIVE IT BACK!” the netted person screams, struggling against their bindings to find a more comfortable position to be captive in. “I KNOW IT’S HERE!” Their voice is feminine and melodic, the voice of a singer. Not that they’re a singer of any sorts, but kenku’s have a tendency to use voices that aren’t their own. They struggle uselessly against the magical netting keeping them captive. They would be biting at the magical netting in a futile attempt to break out if they weren’t currently using their beak to scream at the other woman.
“Mhmm, quite.” The standing woman replies blithely. She’s starting to grow impatient with her little intruder. Little being the operative word at the moment, if her avian prisoner weren’t captive then they might have been the same height. “I’m still waiting for you to tell me exactly what it is you think I have.” She crosses her arms with a sigh, tapping her claws against the scaly exterior of her upper arm rhythmically.
The trapped being struggles against their bindings once more to get into a position where they can glare at their captor. “My instrument! My lyre! Jonsa!”
The woman holding her captive seems to consider this for a moment, nodding slowly as she thinks to herself. She doesn’t make any immediate comment and it seems like the screaming might start again, but she eventually responds. “You named your lyre?”
The feathers on the back of the trapped Kenku’s neck raise as they respond. “So! What if I did. Jonsa is important to me. Important enough that I had to get her engraved!” The Kenku manages to slip an accusatory claw out to point at her captor, “which is how I know you stole it!”
The second woman just quirks an eyebrow at that, deigning to diplomatically ignore the rude gesture. “What makes you think I stole it?”
“Because it’s here! In your hoard! The hoard that is probably full of other stuff you’ve stolen!”
The woman scoffs, but she doesn’t respond. Instead, she notices the two new intruders at the entrance to the cavern. The moment that she meets their eyes is intense. The pair of newcomers are rooted to the spot, not through any magical means, but by sheer presence alone. It’s then that the two of them realize that this isn’t just any random woman that just happens to be inside this cave, it’s the owner of this cave. Looking into the smaller woman's golden eyes, the pupils shaped like slits, they both come to the same conclusion.
This woman is the Scourge of the Valley, the Copper Dragon.
The Copper Dragon looks away from the two of them and back at her suddenly silent captive. The Kenku in the net is, in turn, struggling with the netting to get a better look at whoever just arrived. Once they notice who it is, though, they chirp happily, attempting to wave at the two of them. The Dragon woman pinches the bridge of her nose, silently wondering if she could just kill them all and get back to her relaxing. She wouldn’t, of course, but she thinks about it. Turning back to the two new intruders she curls her claw inward a couple times, gesturing for the two of them to come closer.
The Tiefling woman looks at her partner and he nods, no traps in the way yet. Tentatively, the two of them step closer, weapons at the ready. The woman considers what to say as they inch closer, but once they get sufficiently close the Dragon woman speaks up instead.
“Is this one yours?” she casually points a claw at the bird person she has caught in a net.
The Tiefling woman steps forward a step, drawing the Dragons attention and nodding as she does so. “Yes, they are ‘ours’.” She shoots the Kenku a stern look that they can’t help but flinch a little at. “I don’t know why you have Kriket trapped, but I don’t suppose you’d be willing to let them out?”
The Dragon lady seems shocked for a second once she hears the woman's voice. It’s exactly the same as the voice that the Kenku was using, inflection and all. She cools her expression as she responds, “If you can keep them from rummaging through my collection anymore, then yes.” The Dragon lady waves her hand at the net holding the Kenku apparently named Kriket, dismissing the bindings. The pair rush forward to look over their friend, the man glancing at the Dragon woman furtively a couple of times. The woman makes no immediate moves towards them, though, allowing them to gather their wits for a moment before they all turn back to her.
The woman holding the lute relaxes a bit at the sight of seeing Kriket is fine, but she doesn’t drop her lute. She turns back to the Dragon Woman, the two women are sizing each other up. The woman is surprised to note that she is several inches taller than the Dragon woman, almost an entire foot taller. That’s not even counting the fact that the taller woman’s horns are longer than the Dragon womans too, mostly because the Dragon womans horns are a completely different shape than the Tiefling womans. The tiefling chuckles lightly, her expression one of amusement. The Dragon bristles at the action, her face going red. She doesn’t say anything though, turning away indignantly and changing the topic.
“If that’s all, you know where the door is.” She humphs, glaring at the group from the corner of her eye. Before anyone else can say anything though, Kriket speaks up.
“No! My instrument! I want it back you thief!” The dragon lady looks back to the group properly, her eyes locking with Krikets. The kenku’s feathers bristle gently, but they don’t back down. Instead, they take a step forward in determination, meeting her steady gaze with a glare.
The woman with the lute steps between them, breaking their eye contact and causing the dragon to direct her stare upwards and into her eyes. “Did you take their instrument?” she asks, suspicion tinting her tone.
The Dragon rolls her eyes in response, “Of course not. I’m not a thief.”
“Then why is my instrument here?” Kriket asks accusingly.
“Because I liberated it from the actual thief the other day.” The dragon snaps, the whole group wincing back a step at her tone. The Tiefling takes a breath before taking a step back towards the dragon, steeling her nerves.
“How do you know which instrument they’re talking about? You have, like, twenty instruments around this place at least.” The Tiefling woman asks.
“Because it’s not amongst my main collection. It’s in my private one.” she says. The Tiefling woman quirks an eyebrow, frowning gently and wondering if the Dragon woman will even be willing to part with an item from her personal collection. The Dragon’s scaly tail flicks behind her impatiently as her eyes wander the small party of adventurers in front of her. “Tiefling, what’s your name?” She asks.
The Tiefling woman considers the Dragon curiously, thinking for only a moment about giving a false name. Seeing no point to it, she answers truthfully. “Panacea. My name is Panacea.” The Dragon woman quirks an eyebrow, part disbelief and part curiosity. She doesn’t comment on the name though, instead turning around swiftly.
“Follow me, Panacea. Your friends should stay where they are.” The Dragon commands.
“Um, partners.” Panacea corrects. The dragon turns back around to look at the party, her eyes flicking up towards Panacea’s. “They’re my partners, we’re um, more than just friends.” She explains, rubbing her neck gently. The Dragon turns back away from the group, stalking back towards the back of the cave.
“Right, your partners.” The Dragon grumbles, her unseen cheeks a shade of crimson in her humanoid form. She grumbles to herself quietly about lesser beings, Panacea following behind her at a respectable pace. Much to Panacea’s confusion, the Dragon woman leads her directly over to a rocky wall. With a wave of her hand, though, the wall melts away, revealing a small cave tunnel with a door at the end of it. The tiefling is guided down the hidden tunnel towards the door by the smaller Dragon.
Panacea notes that the door is a normal size, despite how big dragons normally are. The dragon produces a small key from what seems like nowhere, unlocking the door with a click. She opens the door outwards, heading in first. Panacea follows behind carefully, taking in the sights of the room.
The Dragon who was leading the way seems to have stopped guiding for a moment while Panacea looks around. Panacea, happy to be given time to look around, does so freely. The instrument momentarily forgotten, the Dragon woman wrings her claws nervously as Panacea takes in the room. This is the most precious part of her horde to her, something she’s only ever shown to a handful of people.
Panacea walks over to an object along the side of the room and picks it up, turning it over confusedly. “A bowl?” she asks, looking for something that could make the bowl special.
The Dragon woman lets out a suspiciously cute sound, something close to a squeak, and she rushes over to pull the bowl out of Panacea’s hands. She retrieves the bowl gently, placing it back down. She glares at Panacea, her glare cutting into the woman like daggers. “No touching.” She growls venomously.
Panacea takes another look around the room, keeping her hands to herself, careful not to draw the Dragon's ire. She had been expecting untold riches, magical items, the best art ever. Instead, it was all just… stuff. After failing to find anything worth looking at, she turns to look at the Dragon. The fearsome Dragon who had threatened her life for touching a bowl seems to be looking at her expectantly. She considers her options before deciding on what to say.
“I don’t get it,” she exclaims, shrugging her shoulders.
The dragon's shoulders seem to slump at that, her tail stilling completely. A frown crosses her face. Panacea starts to think that maybe it wasn’t the answer she was hoping for. She doesn’t say anything, pushing past Panacea and towards a familiar instrument on a nearby shelf. “Here’s your partner's instrument.” She says coldly, folding her arms after Panacea takes the instrument.
Panacea turns to leave, but she hesitates. This room full of stuff, clearly it means something to the Dragon. This is her self proclaimed private collection, hidden behind an illusory wall and a locked door. Panacea’s eyes scan all the items, none of them looking particularly spectacular. Panacea turns back around carefully, catching sight of the Dragon looking at a nearby object caringly. Finding a nearby space on a shelf, she sets the Lyre down briefly, walking up to the Dragon carefully.
Her approach doesn’t go unnoticed, causing the two womens eyes to meet. The Dragon merely glares at Panacea, but Panacea looks past that. One picks up many skills as a Bard, and exceptional social skills are one such skill that many have told Panacea she possesses. Taking a deep breath, she considers her next words carefully. It wouldn’t be helpful at all if she insults the Dragon’s private collection after all.
“That bottle. I recognize it.” Panacea says, nodding to the bottle the Dragon was looking at only moments ago. The Dragon blinks, her rage subsiding momentarily. She looks back at the bottle, and then at Panacea, and then the bottle again. Finally, she nods, looking Panacea in the eye and waiting for her to continue. “Nice Orchard, South Brinstershire. Lovely people that run the place. The La Claras, I think was their name?”
The Dragon looks at the bottle a little wistfully, nodding gently. “That’s the one.”
“You like their wine?”
“I guess you could say that, yes.” The Dragon sighs, her tail flicking gently behind her. “I used to date the woman that ran that Orchard.” Panacea blinks, understanding dawning on her. She looks at all of the nearby items, trifles, knick knacks, sentimental items. Panacea gestures to a knife next to her and the Dragon nods, thinking. “A Chef I knew gave me that knife when he moved to a bigger city. He wanted to cook for royalty.”
“All of these items have stories like that?” Panacea asks, looking around at all the items.
The Dragon shakes her head, walking over to a worn Journal. She picks it up and leafs through the pages with a surprising gentleness, her claws barely touching the parchment. “Not all of them. Some I’m just holding, or their stories are lost. I collect trivial objects, things that are of no importance to most people, but mean something to someone.”
“That’s why you kept Kriket’s instrument back here?” Panacea asks, picking up the Lyre gently.
“Like I said, some I’m just holding.” She responds, folding her arms. “That Lyre is well cared for. I’d hope that it doesn’t end up back here again.” Panacea nods, taking a last look at the surrounding room. She looks down, furrowing her brow in thought.
“You’re actually really nice, aren’t you?” Panacea asks, a small smile on her face.
“Of course not. I’m the ‘Scourge of the Valley’, aren’t I?” The Dragon huffs, blowing a small smoke ring.
“Why do they call you that, though? You don’t seem like the type to steal or anything.”
The Dragon just shrugs. “Sometimes I do. Countries have laws and I guess I’m not the best at following them or anything. It’s not my fault that they can’t enforce their own laws.” Panacea stares at the Dragon for a long time and the Dragon just stares back. Panacea’s own tail flicks from behind her and she laughs. The Dragon blinks, cheeks going red as her own tail flicks behind her in agitation.
She grumbles, pushing Panacea out of her collection room. “Okay, you had your fun. Now get out of here before I eat you or something.” Panacea doesn’t resist being pushed, but she does look over her shoulder to catch the Dragon’s eye.
“Oh? I dunno, that sounds like it could be fun too.” Panacea says with a wink.
The Dragon attempts to sputter out a response, her cheeks somehow going more red. Eventually, she settles on a not very menacing growl, pushing harder against Panacea to get her out of the cave. Panacea realizes that the cave is starting to feel warmer than normal, and she takes that as her cue to get a move on before anything spontaneously combusts.
The two return to Panacea’s party, Panacea moving ahead to give Kriket their instrument back. Kriket makes some happy squawks at having their Lyre returned to them, packing the cherished instrument away carefully. The wizard of the party is looking from Panacea to the Dragon, who is making a point of not looking in the direction of the party at all.
The Dragon woman clears her throat to speak, still not looking to see if the party is even paying attention to her. “If that’s all, then please leave. There are things I wish to do.” Had the Dragon woman been looking at the group, she might have seen Panacea’s wink to her wizard partner. The wizard seems to look between Panacea and the Dragon several times before his eyes light up and he chuckles. The sound causes the Dragon to turn and affix him with a glare. He blushes at the stare, smiling sheepishly before clearing his throat.
“Um, thank you, Dragon woman? Is there anything you’d like to be called other than Dragon woman, though? Because I’ve been wanting to ask about your name for a while, but I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to ask? I mean, all the townspeople call you ‘the Scourge of the Valley’ which I don’t know if I buy the title? But I mean, I guess if that’s what you want to be called, it is a really good title, I was kind of just hoping that maybe you have a real name too? Cause then you can have both a cool name and a cool title and-” The wizard trails off after a moment, shrinking under the Dragon woman’s glare. After a moment, she sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose between her claws.
She straightens her posture, looking the group over one last time. She poses casually, clawed hand on one hip, her tail flicking gently against the floor. “My name is Ny’raxi Sassyrth,” She unfurls large wings from her back, dropping onto her hands as she drops her semi-human form for the first time in front of the group. She grows to about five times her previous size, going from one of the smallest creatures to the largest in the room by far. From her new towering position over the party, she smiles a toothy grin, showing off her terrifying maw before continuing her introduction. “The Copper Scourge of the Valley.” She keeps her wings half splayed, adding to her imposing size. The three adventurers look at her in awe, but to her disappointment, none of them looks the least bit scared.
Panacea’s mouth opens in a silent impressed “wow”, nodding her head approvingly at the change. The Wizard for his part is looking thoroughly flustered, trying not to stare at her too much. Kriket is a little hard to read, on account of their beak and not very expressive facial features. If there was any confusion about Kriket’s thoughts on her transformation though, it’s cleared when Kriket lets out a short whistle.
Ny’raxi the Copper Dragon’s mouth opens as if to say something, anything, but no words come out. Her brain feels like it’s short circuiting somewhat as she takes in the various reactions. Eventually, she snaps her jaw closed, unable to form any words. Instead, she tries to put all the rage she can muster into a glare at the party. A sinking feeling in her chest tries to remind her that the heat filling her face currently isn’t a fiery rage, but she tries to ignore that thought too.
Panacea clears her throat, “Ny’raxi?” She says, rolling the name around her mouth. “Kinda a mouthful. Can I just call you Roxi?” she asks.
“You may...” Roxi growls, the rumbling of her voice in her chest reverberating through the caves other occupants.
“Well, while we’re getting acquainted,” The wizard speaks up, dusting off his robes. “I’m Alex. Uh, just Alex. Well, technically it’s Alex Corville, but I don’t think you care about my full name. Actually, I think I might have the most boring name here. Should I maybe try out a different one?” Alex asks, turning to Panacea.
Panacea shrugs, “Sure, why not. We’ll workshop it.”
“Cool, Alex ‘name in progress’ Corville.” He says, holding out his hand for Roxi to shake. She looks at the hand dismissively, raising a scaly eyebrow at Alex. He chuckles after a second, pulling his hand back nervously. “I guess we should, uh, leave now, huh?” Roxi doesn’t say anything. There is a part of her that desperately wants them to stay around, but she silences that part viciously.
The three adventurers gather their gear, weapons stored safely away in their packs. Roxi blows out a small smoke ring as she watches the group leave. When the three of them reach the entrance, Panacea turns back around to wave her goodbye. Roxi turns her head as her cheeks glow a gentle shade of red, a familiar feeling of embarrassment swelling within her at the gesture. When Roxi next turns her head back to the exit, it’s devoid of adventurers. Roxi sighs deeply, retreating to another large wall to her cavern. She waves a claw and the wall falls away, another illusion.
It opens to a large expansion to the cavern, one she uses as a bedchamber of sorts. Roxi finally settles down to rest, lamenting the interruption to her day. Despite the disruption to her paltry plans for the day, she had to admit that the group was amusing. Besides, a group of cute creatures isn’t the worst interruption to have.
Did she just say cute? She meant annoying. “Yeah, they were annoying,” she chides herself mentally.
The three adventurers are mostly silent as they make their way out of the dragon's lair. Alex speaks up as they finally exit the tunnel and return to the daylight that shines down on the hillside.
“So… Was it just me, or was she kind of hot?” Alex asks his partners.
“I definitely thought she was kind of cute…” Panacea says thoughtfully.
“Both. Definitely both.” Kriket agrees.
