[IC] Table of Monsters

[Eklispe]

Dorisma shrugged. "Okay." It had seemed like a bad idea from the start but it seemed they'd gotten no further. She'd been confident that one of the dragons had known something, but she wasn't exactly a people person. Dorisma gave a quiet sigh and waited for her partner to signal. Perhaps the other group had found something more helpful.

[Lugia]

"I think I might be testing their patience enough... they might not look like it right now, but I'm pretty sure they won't appreciate us staying here for longer than we have to," I commented on the situation, adding "We're going to have to look for him, and I'm not sure if these guys really want to tell us where one of their own members lives," I then gestured towards the dragons, who have gone back to betting on some sort of animal fight, and leave the building, much to Backstabs' disappointment. The princess... seemed to be gone for now. Maybe she's just staying at the pub, or something, but either way, it was nice to have her away from us for a little while. I walked back out to the street, and added "I guess you'll have to tell the team what we heard, that is, about the new guy, and about how-" I get cut off by someone, particularly a troll running past me and shouting "PARDON ME, MISS!" whoever he was, he seemed excited about something. Perhaps he was excited about the large, vaguely egg-shaped thing he was carrying, or maybe, he was just running from something. I looked in the direction he came from, and didn't see anything. I even checked the skies, and still nobody seemed to be chasing him. "Trey... alert the others, I'm going to see if I can catch up to this guy. Uh, he headed in... thataway," I then pointed to my left, and added "And I'm wasting time by explaining this to you," I then ran off after the guy, and thankfully, he must have needed to take a short break or something, because I actually managed to catch up to the guy as he raced towards some building in the distance that might have been his home. "Hey! STOP!" I tried to shout at him, however, he simply continued onward with what very well could have been the egg in hand.

[Riddles]

Trey nodded when Robert advised against staying there. "I guess you're right."
As they headed outside, a troll, probably from the village, pushed his way through, carrying what appeared to be a dragon egg. Robert, for some strange reason, felt the need to explain everything before chasing after him.
"Just go!" Trey said. "I know what I need to do."

He took off, and began searching for Miles and Dorisma. He found them near a group of dragons, who they had either already questioned or were just about to.
"Don't bother questioning those dragons." Trey said. "We just saw one of the trolls from the village with what we think is the egg. Robert started chasing him, but I'm not sure how well that went."
He began flying back to where they were before. "Follow me. I'll take you to where we saw him."

[KaBling]

"What? Blimey, we just had to put on an act for those dragons." I exclaimed, peeved at what we did earlier just for some information. Considering we finally had a clear lead though, I smiled and brushed off earlier as just a part of our adventure. "Alright Trey, lead the way." I patted off coarse dust from my leggings (these weren't exactly cheap clothes) as Trey flew off, leaving me and Dorisma in the dry and rough lands. I tugged at a shirt of mine before jogging to the direction of the stronghold, not running since walking was hard enough as it was. Gotta get back at that ninja I guess, he took away my strength after all. There was definitely a sharp transition between parched land and lush growth of the valley, as well as an increasing amount of undisturbed rubble that littered the land. Come to think about it, it only took 10 minutes to walk from the stronghold to out here. I ended up stopping at the entrance of the stronghold, a big cracked arch held in place by a looming keystone. I was after all waiting for Dorisma to catch up to the rest of us, as I gripped my throwing knives in case things got nasty.

[Evanist]

As the troll started to run pass, Deravan frowned. One of his kind would do this? Was he stupid or what. He started to run at him also, seeing the egg and fallowing, using his own speed to try to get to the guy, hoping to be able to stop him, before thinking rapidly and then getting one of his daggers out. He then threw it full force towards the troll at his leg, actually hitting hard at a weak spot, making the troll fall onto the floor, dropping the egg, which fortunately didn't break from this. Deravan then rushed forwards, hoping to be able to pin the guy down.
"Stealing from a dragon, what are you, crazy!" he then yelled at the thief, before he took his katana out and rushed forwards. Lucky he hit the guy at least in the leg using his dagger like that. He would need to go and grab his dagger again afterwards.

[Eklispe]

Dorisma followed Miles and Trey quietly, easily keeping pace with the drake. Them Miles stopped waiting for something apparently. Dorisma simply stood behind him thinking to herself. It would be bad if the dragon managed to decay through its stone casing, then when un-petreifed they would be left with a corpse. It would also be troublesome if the grey matter kept expanding at the rate it was. It could quickly become troublesome if it could affect even a dragon. Which brought up the question of how they were to bring the sample back. If one of them simply grabbed it and brought it back then they would become infected, but they were also bringing it back for a cure anyway right? Hm...

[Lugia]

While I was chasing the troll, Deravan ended up stopping him with a dagger to the leg. The guy fell down on his face, as a result, and he dropped the egg, which thankfully, didn't break. "Alright, we got it... now... why the heck did you take that egg, anyways?" the troll stuttered, and eventually responded with "Um, uh... I w-wanted breakfast, and I thought they just had giant ch-chickens... I'M SORRY!" I glared at him, and took the egg, myself, adding "Don't let this happen again. We thought the dragon mafia took the thing... actually... WHERE did you get it?" the troll, somewhat more calm, said "It just sort of fell from the sky... a black dragon was overhead, and this dropped from him... I think. Maybe it was a 'her'... anyways, this egg just dropped from some random black dragon in the sky," Wow, either that was a stroke of luck, or these eggs are MUCH more resilient than other eggs. I thought as I started heading over to that building where I'd probably meet the others. It kinda sucks that they didn't really find anything out, themselves, or really help in any way, but at least we got the egg we were after. "Thanks, Deravan. I'm not sure if I would have been able to catch up to him," I commented before gesturing for my team to follow me. Backstabs shook her head at the troll as she passed by him, and the princess was still missing for some reason. I took advantage of this, and whispered to Deravan "Hey, do you think we could ditch the princess here? I mean, I can't find her, this would be a PERFECT time to just leave her somewhere," worst-case scenario, she'd be a little miffed, and would somehow find us once we left the city... but, in the best-case scenario, she actually STAYS there, waiting for us to return.

[Riddles]

Trey spotted the rest of the group as they were headed back to the place where they encountered the troll. Robert was carrying the egg, which meant that he was able to catch up to the thief.
"I see you got the egg." Trey said, landing nearby. "The mother's probably worried sick at this point."
All they had to do now was find the mother and return the egg, which shouldn't be too hard. Not anywhere near as hard as finding the egg, at least.

[Evanist]

Deravan smile but then shake his head at what he heard from the troll. He grabs his knife, and put it in the bag.
"You know you would have ended up eaten yourself if you would have gone to eat the egg... dragon's don't appreciate when someone takes their egg...." he says annoyed, before looking up.
"We best go and bring the egg back... and inform the mother about what happen." he says, before hearing what Robert said, and smiling softly.
"That would be a good idea.... would be less annoying on our journey." he whispers back, smiling softly at him. He hoped everyone else would get to them so we could figure out what to do next.

[KaBling]

As it turned out, Dorisma was in fact trailing us quietly. She was somehow subtle for a giant ogre. "Oh, apologies! I thought you were a while back, Dorsima." Wasting no time, I moved on ahead with Trey as he flew over objects that stood in our way. We were after all in the stronghold, where things got more cramped what with the dragons taking up so much space, and the inflow of refugees just making things more crowded. Seemed as if we all looked out of place as shanty-towns took up any available space (we Kobold (I still consider myself one (I know it's strange when I'm physically a Drake, but you realise I wasn't always like this (I wonder how many brackets I can use)) no matter how others think) aren't known to be master craftsmen, what with being nomads and all) beside majestic marble buildings, drawing the ire of the local Drake population who spent years here away from their ancestral enemies.

One spot in particular struck me out - two buildings of same size built beside each other, one being an elegantly carved marble inn filled with stylish Drake patrons, right next to a hastily-assembled Kobold pub that seemed to be brewing its own alcohol- a stark contrast when it came to our cultures. It was interesting to see the rather drunken insults being thrown around, such as 'go back to being begging nomads' and 'traitors to the draconian line.'

Er, let me get back to the story. World-building's always a long pain in the arse, but someone's gotta do it. Trust me, nothing's better than mixing fantasy with realism. Anyway, we stumbled across the petrified statue earlier. Looking at it gave me chills, and I intended to move forwards just to be safe. I admittedly got jealous of the fact that Trey could just avoid all the stupid obstacles in his way, while Dorisma and I had to brush past numerous drunken mobs, carts and dragon legs. It was certainly painful and bruising to run over malformed paths and rubble paths, while also crossing through lines of busy walkways and commotions. We could hear the voices of our party over the busy sprawl, and sooner than later we reached an enclosed area surrounded by wooden shacks. Briefly skidding on the paths, there we spotted Trey reuniting with the group, casting a shadow on the figure on the floor.

"There you are lads! What's all this then?" Whilst we apparently found the egg, we also had an unarmed troll on the floor. He certainly looked mad with bloodshot eyes though, upon moving closer to the group and noting the pungent smell of wine. Everyone seemed to crowd around him whilst Deravan (or someone else, I only made a guess) swiped the egg of him and left him in the dirt. I was annoyed that we had to spend roughly a month- I mean half a day looking for an egg, but at least we'd probably get some award out of this. Weapons? Family heirloom? Money? First two I can sell for money, depending who's around in the black market. I know an ogre who's willing to swap his (spare) golden teeth for an intricate dagger. Don't ask how I know this.

So then, we wandered outside the enclosure and made it out into sunlight, though longer shadows meant a degree of time had passed. "Okay, so we have to return the egg now without breaking it. Then we go check up on our gear and investigate the prog ress of the dust." Whilst saying that, I saw a child ogre behind us (roughly the size of myself) throwing a nasty punch into another ogre and knocking him down, apparently as 'play-fighting.' I brushed it off with a sore expression and decided not to remark on it, as to avoid offending Dorisma. (In fact, just narrating about it might've insulted her; I hope she can't read this.) I slipped my hand into my pocket and brushed the cold handles of my knives, noting their existence while the group and I went ahead to turn in our quest. A pretty boring one at that.

[Eklispe]

Dorisma smiled slightly when she saw the egg. Good, this hadn't been a total waste of time. Dorisma saw that it seemed no one else had any interest in picking up the egg which meant it was left to her. Which was alright, since Dorisma was the strongest one anyway. Dorisma easily picked up the egg and said, "Lead way to dragon." Dorisma certainly had no idea where the dragon was at this point, perhaps at the bar still. Regardless she would wait for someone to lead the way, as it way slightly hard to see with the large egg partly obscuring her vision. She also had a mild feeling that she should be offended by something but she wasn't sure what.

[Lugia]

Miles asked about the situation as everyone arrived, and I did my best to explain. "Apparently, this guy found the egg, and was about to eat it for breakfast... in the middle of the day," after my short explanation, Dorisma took the egg, and asked someone to lead us to the dragon. I tried, but I only ended up lost thanks to my poor sense of direction. I passed by a couple of buildings that seemed to contrast one another as I tried to find my way back... a fancy, marble inn, and a hastily-constructed wooden pub. The inn was run by a female drake, while the pub was run by a male desert kobold... the two didn't get along very well, that much was obvious. I then took a left, and found the group again. "Maybe... someone else should lead, huh? Hey, why didn't you guys follow me?" I asked the group, noting that they didn't leave from their spot since I tried to lead them. Maybe they already know that I'm a horrible leader with an even worse sense of direction... maybe they're planning to leave me in a ditch somewhere just so they could let Miles be their leader, or Deravan, or someone... I thought as I awaited everyone's response to my questions. The troll was still on the ground, and he was still mad about something, but he didn't say anything for some reason. He probably thought that we'd attack him if he said anything else, which, granted, we DID actually attack him, earlier, so it made sense for him to think that way. I then noticed that if we found the mother dragon fast enough, we'd still have time to help out the petrified dragon... wait... that also reminded me... "Hold on... didn't we actually explore a cave full of the dust? Why hasn't it effected us, yet? Heck, I even ate some bread that had a little of the stuff on it... weird..." I accidentally thought that out loud, though, I didn't take it back, that WAS weird, and so far, there didn't seem to be any explanation of it.

[Evanist]

Deravan listened to what Robert just said, and nod, looking down a bit.
"Ya...we kinda did explore a cave full of it, and we ended up alright. That is really weird? Maybe that dragon got hit by an attack that was doing this to him? Maybe he was hit by the real source of this dust... not sure." he then says, looking at him before breathing deeply.
"Let me get us to the house of that dragon. I kinda have some sense of orientation at least. No offense Robert." he says before moving forwards and going towards where the dragon was before. At least they got the egg now. Although... a dragon started off by stealing it and then that troll... who was stupid enough to steal a dragon egg anyway. When he though about it, the group will need to be on their guards. If the dragon that did this decide to go and attack them for taking the egg back, this could be bad.

[Eklispe]

Dorisma frowned. This was not a very hard concept. "Someone lead way to dragon." she said bluntly. Gods how hard was this? This town wasn't that big, she would do it herself if she could see past the egg. Maybe she could just roll it. It seemed they were talking about the gray dust stuff they were by earlier. Apparently they were immune to it or something. Dorisma really didn't care that much and was more interested in a nap or hitting something at this point. Or someone.

[Riddles]

"We don't know much about the dust yet, Robert." Trey said. "Physical contact probably isn't enough to get infected. I'm going to agree with Deravan's theory, that it's spread by some kind of attack."
Dorisma seemed to be getting impatient, since they were all talking about the dust instead of completing the mission.
Trey nodded. "Right. We've still got a mission to finish."

[KaBling]

"I'm just following around for a bit of excitement, really." I replied, scratching my forehead before laying my claws by my waist. My belt seemed a bit dustier than usual but one could always wash their clothes, just not now at least. Wasn't exactly the best response to Robert, who looked genuinely dumbfounded at everyone. Especially as he raised the concern about being apparently immune to the dust. "I have no idea what you lads are on about, honestly." Honestly, I wasn't the only confused one here. They were talking about being immune to the stuff that was taking over the land and the dragon we saw earlier. I just shrugged my shoulders and took a few steps backwards. "Sorry, just being cautious. Though you probably would've infected half the village already if you guys aren't currently infected." Dervan seemed to nod and was thinking, before the rest of the group started to exchange questions and ideas. I mostly listened to Dorisma, who seemed the most pragmatic around here (and she only grunted about five words). "Let's just go and turn in this quest, I'd rather not be reminded of the boredom we faced earlier." I started walking ahead with my hands in my pockets, eventually looking back and gesturing to go forwards.

[Lugia]

Apparently, Dorisma didn't get the memo, as she asked someone to lead the way well after Deravan already took off, and me after him. "Um... Deravan's kinda leading the way, Dorisma... dunno how you missed that," I responded as I followed him past random, various buildings, each of which seemed to be remade from their old human version, or just simply built from the common, local stone in the area. A few dragons gave me a weird glare every once in a while, though, none of them attacked, thankfully. Why are they glaring at me like that? Maybe they just really don't like sharing their city with a bunch of nomads, huh... I thought as I continued towards where the mother dragon was, hopefully with Dorisma finally following Deravan rather than me and my poor sense of direction. The strangest thing was the fact that the same dragons who glared at me seemed to greet Miles warmly, as if he was their distant relative, rather than some stranger. I chalked that up to Miles being a drake, now, and decided to not let that get to me. We finally made it back to the mother, who still looked worried about her egg, and... I remembered that Dorisma took it from me. "W-well? Do you have it? My egg, I mean," I stuttered, and looked around for Dorisma, who wasn't here yet just due to her relative speed. "Um... it's on its way. We have it, and it's safe, but it's just not here yet," this prompted her to nearly roar at me with "YOU'RE JUST USING THAT AS AN EXCUSE! YOU'RE PLANNING TO STEAL IT, AREN'T YOU!?" I would have shouted back, but that would only make the situation worse, as she continued "I KNEW I COULDN'T TRUST YOU KOBOLDS, LET ALONE TROLLS!" I kinda just waited for her to calm down before assuring her "I didn't steal it, and if I did, do you really think I'd be talking to you right now, or do you think I'd be trying to find the nearest way out of the city at this point?" this made her think, and had her eventually say "Y...you're right. Sorry about that... so... where is it? Who has it?"

[Eklispe]

Dorisma growled at the kobolod's disrespectful tone. Maybe if the troll wasn't so quiet she would've noticed him. Regardless she found the troll and followed him through the winding city, nearly losing him a couple times. She turned the last corner to the sound's of screaming, presuambly from the dragon. "Here egg." She said roughly and set it down gently despite her anger. She needed a nap. Or someone to punch. Maybe both.

[Evanist]

Deravan looked at the dragon and looked annoyed at what she said. He breath deeply.
"There is your egg, and stop yelling. The one that you should not trust is a certain dragon. Someone found the egg after it fell down from the sky from a dragon, and we got it back from him." he says, not wanting to tell the plan that the troll had with the egg. He breath deeply.
"So I sudgest you keep a closer eye on your egg, cause some idiot is out to try to hurt your family I am expecting." he then adds, looking at the sky.
"What idiotic dragon would steal an egg... it's like taking children's from someone. It is just wrong." he says. He hoped that dragon would not question him even more about this.

[Riddles]

The mother began screaming at Robert, but thankfully calmed down rather quickly. Now that they'd gotten the egg back to its mother, that mission was over, and all they had to worry about was getting samples of the dust. It would probably be best to get started on that tomorrow morning. If they were to leave now, there was a good chance that they would have to spend the night near the dust, which probably wouldn't be the best situation to be in.