Tanrith grinned to himself as he stood there, scratching a claw gently against the base of the back of the small cat's ear. In the end, they may sometimes be too proud to admit it, but in the end, the awakened beasts of Faunel were still the same beasts. And this one in particular did still have that sweet spot he remembered most cats on the Material possessed. The cat had tried to deny it, but sure enough, that head was practically leaning into his palm at this point.
It would be a strange sight to those residing in Faunel at the moment. First, there was the awakened cat, though that part was an average enough sight here in Faunel. The cat was perched on the shoulders of a small, frilled kobold, adorned with goggles strapped around his frills and resting on his forehead. He was armored in a mixture of what seemed to be leather and small, scale-shaped pieces of metal, all decorated blue, and a small mantle around his shoulders consisting of fluffed fur and a string of claws. One might think such a decoration would be bizarre in a group of sapient animals, but Tanrith's armor had been crafted using things collected willfully, a fact he was always happy to share if the armor's construction risked causing trouble. He was no hunter; he had made it out of respect for beasts. So while he himself may have drawn some eyes, that wasn't what would be the most bizarre thing here.
No, the most eye-catching feature present was the large, walking mass of metal beneath the Kobold. The construct seemed to be fashioned in the shape of a blue dragon, most notably judging by the size and proportions, a wyrmling. Despite being made of obvious metal, the likeness was uncanny, even possessing wings comprised of metallic spines and a leathery fabric between them. It almost looked like a Blue dragon sporting the colors of a Silver, though with a complex series of interconnected plates rather than scales; though the plates were fitted with cloth and leather painted to match to keep the plates from rubbing against one another. He had always wanted to give Zyrech a paint job better befitting his design, but he was never confident enough in his own artistic skills just yet.
So there they were: A cat on the shoulders of a Kobold on the back of a mechanical dragon casually stepping through the town; a stack of creatures of gradually decreasing size. He'd promised the little guy a ride since it was on the way toward the portal to the Beastlands. Not that he'd had any plans on actually visiting the place right now, but it was always worth a look to see who might be coming and going.
It was at this point, however, that Tanrith suddenly heard a voice. But it was a voice he recognized, spoken inside of his head. He immediately recognized this and stopped scratching the cat for a moment.
"Hm?" he murmured, stopping and looking up into the air as though that would help him understand the message any better.
"Oh, sorry man, gotta take this," he said quickly to the cat before reaching his claw up to the side of his head, just beneath one of his frills. Again, he certainly didn't need to, but....
"Oh, hey buddy!" he would say out loud as well as in his head.
"Wait, what did you say!? Missing!? Tir na Og, huh? Yeah, I'll head over right away! You can count on the Lightning Fang to get to the bottom of this!~" Not realizing that his message would have been completely cut off at the word "Lightning", he smiled, content as he turned back to look at the cat on his shoulder.
"Hey, sorry buddy, but I gotta fly. Kind of an emergency. I'm gonna have to drop you off here. Good luck, and try to be more honest with yourself, huh?~"With that, once the awakened cat had disembarked the Zyrech Express, he immediately ordered his ride to turn around and race through the town toward the west. Now, he was a kobold on a quest!
Luckily for him, the trip there was largely uneventful. And when he finally arrived at Tir na Og...he had to stop himself. He double checked his directions for a moment, but...no, this was the right place. The place where Tir na Og was
supposed to be was more akin to a vast meadow. Nothing like this had ever existed here in the Outlands as far as he was aware. It was actually bordering on eerie...though that fog that was starting to set in didn't make things any better. Though the Wonderhouse or whatever it was called on one end seemed to have made it through at least. He couldn't help but grin a bit. Hey, maybe this could be just the excuse he needed to find a way to get an audience with Gond. It was something he'd always wanted to do once he realized the Wonderbringer actually physically lived here. But no, not yet. He had to stay focused! He had a task at hand, and he needed to focus on it for now. For his buddy at the society.
Realizing that the society might like it better if he felt the area for himself, he quickly descended his mechanical dragon companion and began to step his way out into the empty field. He reached down, patting at and rubbing his claws along the ground and whatever other surfaces he could.
"Wow...he wasn't kidding, the place really is just...gone...." he murmured in awe.
"All this...feels real at least, so it's not just illusion magic or anything. Plus all these people around...."Finally, Tanrith's attention was drawn to the groups who had apparently beaten him here. He took in all of their outfits and attires and logos and searched his mind to see if he could recognize them....
But just as that was crossing his mind, he caught a little bit more going on through the fog than he had before. By the lake was a small commotion, and there seemed to be a number of others wandering about, looking nervous or concerned or...well, just around. Interestingly, there seemed to also now be a new arrival on the scene just like himself across the way, or two to be more precise. The first was what appeared to be a young human lady? Judging by her looks and the way she carried herself, probably someone better off than himself. Especially given that she seemed to have what he could only describe as a servant or a butler with her.
Although curiosity got him interested in wondering what someone like her could be doing wandering the Outlands without some kind of actual guard around...somehow, some instinctive part of him was telling him to avoid her. There was just something in his scales telling him that he may not want to get involved with her quite yet if he could avoid it....
So he instead directed his attention to the area of the field where the biggest disturbance seemed to be coming from. He quickly reached up, gripping the harness he's fashioned into his dragon's design and pulled himself up and into the saddle-like seat.
"C'mon, Zy, let's go see what the big hubbub is about, huh?"The mechanical dragon began to trudge its way through the meadow, headed toward the lake where the two firbolgs were having an argument with one another.
"Hey, hey, excuse me you two, sorry, but if I could just interrupt here for a sec?" he would call out to the two as he approached them. Now that he was closer, he could get a better look at their individual outfits, attempting to place just what kinds of factions or sects they might be related to, if any.
"You guys are making a huge fuss over here, it's kinda hard to think or get a feel for what's going on. What's the big deal, why all the vocal sparring?"He stopped and looked between the two in question as he approached on his miniature mech dragon...though he made sure to keep an eye on the two armored goons in the back as well. He certainly didn't want to get caught off-guard if a fight broke out. Though as he did, he couldn't help but notice the water shifting around unnaturally. Was there something there, too? Was it a monster lying in wait, or perhaps a resident of an underwater town listening in?
Well, if it was the latter, he had no reason to interfere with their own desire to listen in. But he had to be prepared just in case it was the former as well. For the time being, he maintained his primary focus on the argument at hand. Maybe if he was lucky, he could find a way to resolve it and send them both on their way peacefully!