Dorisma sighed quietly to herself. Good thing they weren't in a rush, or else this whole thing would've been a huge waste of time. As it was... it was still kind of annoying. Regardless Dorisma started walking again, asking would be ineffective given her shaky use of common and she wasn't particularity inclined to talk to any haughty dragons anyway. They would either find the egg or a clue that would lead them to it or not and that was that. She hoped the drake had two daggers on him, because she sure didn't. Pah, even if he didn't they didn't need the others even if they did find a dragon. So Dorisma continued walking along the edge of the city searching for any clues, suspicious dragons, and occasionally peeking inside the odd building now and again.

Trey approached me and told me about a change in plans. I then finally said "Funny... I was actually thinking of leaving this place, obviously, I'd only do that after telling you so you could still find us... but I have a feeling this place doesn't have any more clues or leads," I then got up out of my seat, and shouted to Backstabs, who was still trying to threaten a dragon, and failing hilariously, "Hey! We're leaving! We're going to go look around the place, starting from the middle!" Backstabs and the princess, who was enjoying the bar's most expensive drink both got up, and followed me out of the place. Considering how loud I shouted, Deravan probably heard me, as well, and would probably join me shortly. The area just outside the tavern was filled with passers-by, most of them drakes or dragons of various colors, and, while I felt the need to glare at one of the drakes, they all seemed oddly passive towards me, even if drakes were our sworn enemy... right? Maybe they just don't think of us kobolds as enough of a threat to be considered a 'sworn enemy'... or, maybe they're just allied with the dragons of the area. I thought as I continued walking through the stone stronghold. My wandering made me somehow end up on the marble side of the stronghold again, though, to be honest, I was paying more attention to the people than I was where I was going, just to see if I could spot anyone carrying a white dragon egg... or a silver one, I didn't actually ask the mother dragon which color the egg was, heck, for all I knew, it could have been grey, or even black. Sure, some groups formed that hate each other, but that doesn't mean they ALL hate each other.

Deravan just fallowed Robert, not saying anything right now, actually rather silent in all this. He was looking around at each dragon and monster around, inspecting them. He was unsure where he were to find the culprit of all this. He didn't know where they would find the egg exactly. He just stayed silent as he fallowed, not saying anything. Even if dragon's looked at the group here and there, he didn't care. He was on his guard right now, and if one of the dragon's were to think that someone in the group was tasty... well... they would soon meet a katana right in the face. But right now was not the best time to start a fight, expecially with the amount of people here. He just moved outside, fallowing Robert towarsd the middle, looking for any clues.

Trey nodded. "I'll keep an eye on things from up above. If I find anything, I'll tell you."
He flew up into the air, and began soaring above the city. His eyes darted from dragon to dragon, and he paid special attention to any black-scaled dragons he happened to spot. Unfortunately, most of them didn't appear to be carrying any eggs, and the ones who were were carrying black eggs, and not the white egg that they were looking for. With what little info they had, finding the egg would be difficult. The chances of them finding it were low, and for all they knew it was already too late.

Okay. This was getting tedious, walking around and risking our lives (against bandits and heat), and with nothing to show for it. Seems as if the fallen tree I had passed died of boredom rather than lying plane on the ground. I stumbled over an old pile of marble rocks while dug in thoughts, flailing for an imaginary crutch but ultimately falling onto my elbows. "Argh..." I didn't moan out of pain but frustration, while I was still lying rather comfortably on the hot and cracked ground. Rolling onto my back and sitting up, I appreciated the view we got from up here as I slapped away dust from my clothes. Seemed as if the stronghold really was our new home, and a grand one at that. "Well, at least we don't have to keep running." I didn't grin when I realised we were entrenching ourselves against an unstoppable force, instead just hoping we'd have some god feeling pity for us. Funny, gods have odd and quirky ways of showing their emotions from above... assuming they exist of course.

Not a moment too soon (because I didn't want to spend too much time here), I stood up and stretched out my arms, looking to my left to a bunch of travellers. They were Kobold, but considering they almost blended in with the more dusty environment, they were presumably native to this area. Seemed as if they were just travelling as most Kobold did, well-equipped with a rack of weapons and several bags on their cart. "You mind if I try to make some money off these people, Dorisma? It's unlikely we'll find anything useful around here, unless you can somehow track dragons down."

Dorisma shrugged. "As you wish." she said simply and waited to see what the drake had in mind. Dorisma waited calmly quite curious to see what he had in mind for procuring money from the kobolds. Perhaps she could learn something, certainly knowing how to gain money was a helpful skill no matter where you were. It was a pity they were on a wild goose chase with this whole egg thing, for all they knew it had been taken out of the city.

I continue walking around the dead center of the stronghold/city, trying to keep an eye out for anything unusual. The stones were nice and warm under my feet, and it was an appropriately sunny day. Of course, given that the area is in the middle of a desert, these things were completely normal, as was the horribly dry air. Unfortunately, water was still one silver at that bar, so I found myself needing the stuff pretty quickly. I was used to the more moist air of the ocean, so this dry air felt horrible to me. It almost felt as if breathing hurt, just due to a lack of moisture in the air. After what felt like hours of walking around in this place, I found something that caught my eye. A black dragon who appeared to be checking around for anyone who might see him. I pretended to not look at him, but he caught on and start to run away for some reason. I started running after the thing at full speed, and somehow caught up to him. "What are you doing?" I asked the dragon, who growled at me and tried to start flying. I tried to jump to get on his back, but I failed miserably, and landed on my face. I then turned back to my teammates, and wait for them to catch up to me before saying "I almost had him... he was looking around, did you see that? Wherever he was going, it HAD to be that Black Smoke gang, or whatever. Ugh, if only I was a little better at jumping on things," I then thought that maybe a green hat would help, somehow... and just dismissed that thought as my brain being a little weird from that fall. I then looked around for Trey as I headed back to that alley where the dragon was at. Maybe it had something to do with something.

Despite having a bird's eye view of the stronghold, Trey didn't find anything that would lead them to the egg. There were a few black dragons here and there, but they didn't appear to be doing anything suspicious. They were just going about their daily lives, like everyone else. Their culprit could be anywhere at this point, including outside of the stronghold.

After flying around for a while, Trey spotted Robert in a nearby alleyway. Thinking that maybe Robert had seen something that he happened to miss, he flew down, and perched next to him.
"Did you find anything, Robert?" He asked. "I haven't seen anyone that looked suspicious, yet."

So, after getting some assurance from Dorisma, I began walking towards the nomads. They pointed their weapons and poles at me, but I assured them that I was nothing more than a gambler looking to make some money. They raised their weapons as an old and hunch-backed Kobold (presumably their leader) waddled towards me, strafing around and sniffing at every corner of my body. "Er... so, you guys willing to make a few extra bucks for the journey ahead?" I asked, somewhat uncomfortable but ordered by temptation of money to stand my ground.

Though, immediately the village elder raised his head and scowled at me, cracked teeth showing as he quickly crawled back to his cart and ordered his men to move. "Hey, come on!" I felt as if someone just warned them that I was conman, pretty unfair considering I just wanted to break the silence. Perhaps being a Drake scared them. As the cart and the nomads trundled away, I walked back to Dorisma with my head pointed down. It took me a few seconds to raise my head up to Dorisma's height when I got to her. "Right, where were we?" I slipped my packet of cards into my pocket and started looking around like a meerkat, nothing of interest in the drier area. I swore I saw the outlines of the dust, but that was likely my imagination and a mirage playing with my mind.

"Oh, right! Dragon! Er..." I grasped my chin and - to my surprise - spotted a small but intimidating gang of dragons that seemed to be bragging about their latest exploits. I raised an eyebrow at the fact we could hear them from all the way here, as if- IT'S A TRAP. That, or they're idiots for thinking they're alone. "Hey, Dorisma... you mind accompanying me over to those dragons?" I asked, unsure what good would come from questioning them. However, the more time I spent questioning myself, the less chance we'd actually find that damned egg.

"Lead the way." Dorisma said quietly gesturing for the drake to go ahead. She could play the part of muscle just fine, she had had no trouble letting someone else be the brains. Or the mouth at the very least. Hopefully the drake was smart enough to not get in a fight. She might be able to take a dragon but more than that would probably be pushing. Fun as fighting was Dorisma wasn't suicidal, not to mention getting into a fight would likely get them kicked out of the city.

Deravan fallowed and unfortunately, was not fast enough to grab hold onto the dragon. He sighed and he looks towards the alley that the dragon was. He fallowed Robert and though a bit.
"You know, we should get some kind of rope or a large net next time to trap the dragon and stop it from escaping or at least grab hold onto it and give us time to fight it..." he then suggests to him. He then looked around, trying to find anything that the dragon would have left behind, frowning. We were so close to actually catching that thing and have clues... but it seemed that the best way here would be to fallow every time dragon's of this type in the shadows and strike at it if it has the egg. At least that is what he though.

All seemed pretty lost after that dragon escaped by grasp, but then, Trey flew in and asked if I had seen anything. "Yeah, actually, there was a dragon here, a black-scaled dragon who was looking around as if he was about to do something suspicious or illegal. Of course, he already flew away, but this alley, right here, was where he stopped to look around, so... maybe it's an entrance, or something?" I then jumped in surprise as Deravan just appeared behind me and started talking. "Er... right, a rope, or something," I didn't have much time until Backstabs rejoined us, and, as usual, appeared behind me. "So, he was looking around suspiciously, huh? And YOU were able to notice it? He must be a new guy, then... dang, he would have spilled EVERYTHING if we caught him... too bad you're slow, and I can't jump," I then told Trey "Hey, if you could tell the others where we are, and that this might be an, if not THE entrance, that would be great... I'm going in if you need me," I then ran off into the alleyway, knowing that with it being three against one, and with me having defeated a dragon before, we could probably at least hold our own until the rest of the team arrives, and, if there's too many, I could just try to intimidate them by reminding them of how I beat a dragon one against one, and that now I have teammates who are most likely hidden somewhere, and who both know where to attack for the most damage possible... yeah, that sounds like it would work against them... unless there was, I dunno, twenty of them in a room together at this time? Nah, that would never happen.

Deravan just listened to what Backstab said and shake his head slightly.
"Well... I do guess it was a new guy. If it wasen't, he probably would have been more careful. I do wonder though what we will find here..." he says before starting to search, maybe for a entrance or anything, wondering. Maybe it was a password door or something... If that was the case... maybe a good magic attack and sword strike could break the door... or something else. If the door was make of steel... then that might not work unfortunately... but... it would make it that we could bring the autorities to go and attack... or force those dragons outside to attack the group, possibly cause they don't want others to know the location. He breath deeply. He keeps searching, his blade to the side of him. It felt strange to use a big blade like that instead of daggers... but he guessed it would do the trick here. He continued to search for any clues.

Robert had found what appeared to be the entrance to the black smoke dragon's hideout. For some reason, he decided to just run in without any sort of plan.
"Robert, stop!" Trey called out, trying to catch up to him. "What do you mean 'you're going in'? Do you have any idea how dangerous that would be?"
He hoped he would be able to talk some sense into him. His victory over that other dragon must have been getting to his head.

So, er... this is where things started to get quite rough. Never before had I felt so threatened in my life - Kobold guards and patrons I could handle, but dragons... I suppose they'd take it easy on a Drake. I suppose. I inched closer and closer to the party of black dragons, whom they contrasted heavily against the bright and dry landscape. One of them noticed me and scoffed almost, making me stop in my tracks. Knowing Dorisma probably wouldn't settle on being defeated on mere intimidation, I went against all my senses as I started walking with pride and my chest out, even if I barely had one as a weak Drake.

It helped they continued with their business as I got closer, brushing me off as some messenger or apprentice studying the lands or something. I wasn't fearful for my life because I knew I had two back-up plans: my party members or running. The latter seemed admittedly favourable as I got within talking distance of the dragons, who seemed to be chilling on some rough boulders and munching on oversized fruits. "Evening dragons-"

"Whaddya want, kid?" One of them unexpectedly spoke out, an odd chap who seemed to have a large scar on his neck. I was taken back but decided to listen to the dragon, who didn't seem (explicitly) hostile. "So, you lads seen an odd egg lately? The constabulary's looking all around the stronghold, but goodness... my friend's desperately looking for her baby back. It was kidnapped." Okay, I told a lie and went through with it. However, the people we were dealing with were DANGEROUS. According to Trey, these people were gangsters... I had to get to them somehow, and it didn't seem as if violence was an option. Maybe talking it through would get these guys to open up, assuming if one of their own had taken it. "She's absolutely heart-broken and has been crying all day, but we can't find it anywhere in the stronghold. Does anyone here have any thoughts on who might've taken it? My other friend here hasn't had sleep for days-"

I ended up gesturing behind my back for Dorisma to act tired, with two fingers and a hand falling flat - as stupid as it was, I needed to go overkill on just about anything for information, considering how scarce the outskirts of the stronghold were. For all we knew these dragons did in fact have the egg, just behind their backs or something.

"-and I've had to hold off my studies for days now. So, guys... can you do anything about it?" I finished my speech, feigning sadness and despair that was soon replaced with real feelings. I was reminded on how I was gambled away, with no one working as hard as myself to reunite me with my mother. This egg was definitely going to grow up well, because unlike myself at the time there were people looking out for it before it was even hatched. I nearly sobbed but I held back tears, because I didn't want to seem like I was patronising the story I made up.

In the end, I got a range of faces: one dragon was staring at me, the other was looking left and right quickly, and another was trying to find something to say but decided to stay silent. Hopefully we would actually get something out of these dragons.

Dorisma stepped up managing to look both grumpy and tired at the same time. Something she was getting used to. "You. Talk." Dorisma said bluntly in a direction between the dragon that had decided to hold his tongue for some reason and the one that was looking around for help, so as to incentivize either of them to answer. Hopefully they wouldn't be annoying and clam up like she had a feeling they would or this would be another useless attempt at finding the egg. Given how large the city was it seemed that them finding the egg how getting more and more unlikely. That and Dorisma was getting sleepy.

I turned towards Trey, and said "I'm sure I'll be fine, but if you'd like, you could try to back me up here... I mean, I AM kinda running low on magic, now," I then decided to finally knock on the giant, iron door obviously forged by dragons. Soon after, a dragon approached the door, and from the other side, asked "What's the password?" I started stuttering, and mumbling before coming up with "Is the password 'pie'?" the dragon laughed at my response and I looked off to my right only to see Backstabs picking the lock. To my surprise, the lock eventually gave in, and allowed me to open the door. "Lockpicking... it's the only password I'll ever need," she said with delight, as if she legitimately enjoyed picking locks, and breaking into buildings. I then hesitated for a moment... they kinda didn't want me in there, and maybe they'd be a little hostile... maybe this wasn't the best idea. Then again, I didn't want Backstabs' effort to go to waste. I took a few steps into the dragon's hideaway, only to see them betting on some sort of fight between smaller animals. I didn't exactly expect that, but something else I didn't expect was the fact that none of them tried to attack me for some reason. "Uh... I know you have the egg in here somewhere? The facade is over? Um..." I didn't really know what to say, until one of them decided to pay attention to me, only to ask "What are you talking about? An egg? Do you really think ANY dragon would steal another dragon's egg?" to be honest, I didn't know much, if anything about dragon culture, let alone psychology. "Um... maybe?" the dragon laughed at this, his laugh really being more of a stuttering roar and he responded with "Only an idiot, or a psychopath would do that sort of thing... hey, have you seen the new guy around here? He said he had some important news for us, or something," I had no idea how to respond to this, and it showed. I suppose I could at least count myself lucky for the fact that they weren't attacking me at this moment.

Deravan was surprised by Backstab's skills at lockpicking. Well... that was really something to say the least. She seemed to have done a good job here. As he enters, he hears the conversation and what was being said. And then the last words that the dragons responded. Only a idiot or a psychopath... but they did have a new guy here. He frown a bit.
"If only a idiot or a psychopath, it might be the first option with the new guy..." Deravan whispers softly, before looking at the dragon's.
"Important like maybe having stole an egg? Cause we kinda saw him but he then flew off really rapidly when we approached him..." he then says, frowning. If that was the case... then maybe he was the one... not knowing the rules, he would want to hurt the other kind of dragon's.. and by doing so he would do something like this.
"With how he was acting, that is exactly what we suspect... I suggest you keep a eye on your new recruit... I think he did something really stupid here..." he then says... before thinking something.
"Do you know where he lives? We are still searching for the egg, and he might have it in his house or something." he then says.

Robert attempted to guess the password, to no avail. Thankfully, they were able to enter after Backstabs picked the lock. Trey expected these dragons to be hostile, but he was wrong. In fact, they were being surprisingly civil. Apparently, none of them were behind the egg theft, but the new guy they mentioned seemed pretty suspicious.
"So, we have two options now." Trey said. "We could go out and look for him, like Deravan suggested, or we can wait here until he comes back."

I was surprised to know that Dorisma acted alongside me. I expected hesitation and reluctance, but it seemed as if she was really on-board for this quest. That or we were really tired and pissed over this. Could've at least given a check or fight; lack of tension meant we were about to be bored to death.

However, instead of a fight or some dice roll, we were given something rather unexpected... "Say what?" The dragons seemed to get rather defensive, rousing from their rest and paying attention to us. One of them was still rather confused, but the others were definitely willing to talk, surprisingly enough. "What sort of idiot would take a mother's egg?" One of the dragons with a shorter snout followed on from his friend's sentence. I forgot about the fact these dragons were in fact civilised (somewhat) and not just your regular wild variety, therefore they would have some sort of morals and standards - they were definitely concerned about the equivalent of a Kobold's egg being taken. I took a few steps back as they began stretching their wings and yawning loudly, much to my amusement. I kept a straight face though, listening and curious as to what they had to say. The first one spoke again, almost as if to breath fire at us, but rather just lowering its head to our level. They were in fact quite tall, after all.

"Drake, go back and study. The constabulary's going to catch that scumbag and get back your friend's egg, alright? We don't know anything about a lost egg, 'cause we haven't seen anyone around sorry." As colloquial as a giant dragon sounded, I felt defeated, but at least it meant there was lesser chance of an egg being found here. "Okay... thanks again." I said to all three of them, waving at them as they went back to sunbathing and relaxing. I looked back at Dorisma (who legitimately looked tired) and shrugged my shoulders, preferring to just return to the stronghold and look with the rest of our party. "Sorry Dorisma. Nothing out here in the dust. Let's go signal Robert and find something more useful to do."