Forsythe

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Skyra can join Diamond in the orphan brooding corner xD Others might be there as well

The Strumpet Inn (Open)

myself waiting on tae'o and possibly veda to abandon drink and inspect the world outside... Or decide to ban mushrooms since people are now so high they see dragons :D

The Strumpet Inn (Open)

not sure how I feel about that rule, more from the side of never having been in a game with one rather than any dislike for it. Kinda interested in seeing how it is going to work.

The referencing of Iwaku rather than Guild strongly evokes the "Betaread you drunken galoot!" feeling tho =D

The Strumpet Inn (Open)

Taraah - Dealing with the polite plebians

As expected, the reaction of most people was to pick up their most valued possessions and necessities and leave on a hasty vacation. What surprised Taraah was the relative calm that remained in the Inn. Do they think me so small?! she growled mentally, although her more reasonable side told her it was probably a state of controlled panic as she was blocking the only obvious exit. That, and if memory served, this particular inn attracted tougher crowd than the usual peasant. Hopefully none of them would be too rude - it would be a shame to have to burn this place down when she only came to make nice.

Speaking of which, there were always those either too clueless, brave, or simply curious enough to treat her perhaps with less reverence than she was worthy of, but with respect nonetheless. There seemed to be two here - a man whose appearance displayed perhaps not the largest wealth but good upbringing, and a pixie - Indeed a strange place this Inn, it seemed to even attract members of the more secluded races like herself.

Deciding to answer the man first as he was the first to speak to her, she turned her head. Her amber gaze burrowed deep into the human's own eyes, as if the dragoness' slit pupils could judge man of his worth. She couldn't sense anything arcane about him, and with his good manners and herself slumbering for a long time, she decided not to be offended by him not knowing of her despite there not being that many dragons left not to recall them all.

"I have many names, good sir, yours refer to me as Ashwing." The dragoness spoke with a slight bow of her head and without her lips moving once. Her voice was distinctly feminine one could notice, once they got over the notion of her words somehow worming themselves into their mind regardless of what their ears heard, or whether one covered them with their hands.

The large mass of amber and ash scales moved a step aside to allow the good gentleman a passage before looking at the pixie with the same gaze. "You are most kind and correct. Your wings are rather radiant themselves. And you are at the correct place." Turning her head back, she addressed the human again: "Mister Montmorency? Would you please be kind enough to call the Inn's owner to me? I am indebted to the old kind fool, I came to ask if he is ready to make his wish."

The Strumpet Inn (Open)

Seems like what happened, and my char's always open for interaction.

The Strumpet Inn (Open)

Taraah - A mountain not so far from the Inn

The Claw was a supposedly inactive volcano. There was no eruption in hundreds of years, however if you asked the locals, the older ones would claim that often the mountain would spew fire and the ground would quake. Not in the recent years though. There would be talk of a monster living beneath the mountain - ancient by their standards that would rain fire on the land if they angered it. Others however would tell you stories of a spirit of the volcano that protected the local villages form bandit raids. And the more educated folk would simply write both of the theories off as simple exaggeration of what were most surely natural disasters and accidental fires.

Only a few would have ever seen the truth, and they would not tell of it - no one would believe them. A monster was an ambiguous term, so was a mountain spirit. But who has ever seen a dragon? They were myths, fairy tales told to children.

But today, the world would see the truth once more.

An amber eye slowly opened in a cave deep beneath the Claw. For the first time in ten years it took in the sight of piled up gold and gemstones. The other eye popped open as sunlight shone over it's lid from the crevice leading into the mountain's innards. Beneath the earth a dragoness awoke.

Raising on her legs, Taraah stretched and shook off the numbness form her body. Has it been a decade already? She felt like she could sleep another one - was she getting old? It couldn't have been. She was timeless! But the world has likely changed, just as it did through her previous slumbers. Her still idle mind wondered to the last memories she had before falling into her magical sleep, and the root of one of her wings ached a little.

She recalled a promise to a kind fool. Yes, perhaps that was where her first steps should take her. Be rid of her debts so she could soar through the skies as she saw fit. A yawn escaped her lips, although a lesser being would be forgiven for mistaking it for a terrifying roar.

As she walked towards the mouth of the cave Taraah's stomach let out a growl of it's own and the idea of visiting the Inn was even more appealing. After all, how better to start the next fifty years than on a fine home cooked meal?

Standing in the full sunlight, the dragoness let her lungs bellow the fresh morning air a few times before taking a running leap into the air, followed by the beating of her wings.

It felt reinvigorating to fly through the clouds and out on the sun, the moisture form the air condensing on her scales and turning her into a magnificent glittering jewel. She was the most beautiful creature in the world and the gods in the skies should avert their gaze lest their eyes be burned by her radiant beauty!

The dragoness stretched mid-air, falling into a dive before performing several feats of acrobatics for the joy of it, uncaring of her shadow passing over the sparse villages on the land below and scaring the souls out of the peasants. Before long she picked up a course and headed towards her desired destination.

---

Her memories true, it was but a half an hour flight to reach the familiar building. Taraah made a couple of fly-bys at high altitude before soaring down. She took in a deep breath of the thickening air and bellowed out a deafening roar that would no doubt alert everyone on the ground not yet aware of her magnificent presence.

With a final beat of her wings she rose twenty meters above the ground before folding them and landing hard on the ground making it shake a little. Raising herself to her full height, Taraah waited with interest to see how would the patrons react to her presence.

The Strumpet Inn (Open)

Reporting for duty, working on intro =3

The Strumpet Inn (Open)

Taraah

Name:

• Dragon: Taraah
• Human: Ashwing
• Elven: Pyrona
• Dwarven: Amberscale
• Orkish: Ember
• Pixie: Flare

Age: 245
Gender: Female
Occupation: Being the self-appointed most majestic result of divine creation to ever exist, or anything else she feels like, perhaps a drunken galoot.
Race: Dragon

Race details

Written as Wizard's guide to Dragons.

Chapter 1: Dragon biology


Dragon bones are very resilient. In ancient times, dragon bone was used to make the most reliable tools, as the pieces were big enough to carve a monolith tool. The surface of the bone is hard, while it's softer insides gives it it's tough properties. This makes dragon's bones relatively safe from a physical attack from almost anything, save for high mass-velocity projectiles (using earth magic or siege weapons is recommended), or attack by another dragon or stronger animal.

Dragonbone doesn't have good magical properties on it's own. Several attempts have been made using dragonbone as a wand core, but none could match existing wands in power. The bone is however very useful when ground into fine powder. It can be infused and hold tiny amount of magic (not anywhere near gemstones or artifacts), and then be used to strengthen potions or, in the hands of a skilled wizard, metal equipment.



Dragons are undoubtedly very strong creatures. While the strongest of them can break toughest materials with bare hands, even the less muscular ones are still a threat up close to magically unprotected enemy.

Dragon muscle is composed of two kinds of tissue. String muscle tissue can contract very rapidly, giving dragons superior speed and agility in favor of strength. The rope muscle tissue has thicker individual cells, and while they take longer to respond, this muscle can pull with enormous force. Unlike humans, dragon hearts are not a special muscle type, but rather the combination of the above, woven into a fast yet strong pump. Dragon hearts have several layers reinforced with membranes and bone plates, making them a very poor target without proper equipment. The final tissue is the smooth muscle tissue, which makes majority of the other organs. An interesting fact is that this muscle making up dragon veins can contract in a wave function to aid the heart when necessary, like while under extreme physical strain. This leaves the dragon tired very quickly though.



On the outside, dragons vary in look greatly. The most noticeable is usually the difference in number of wings, from none to multiple pairs. Dragon skin is high demand goods, as it is flexible, tough and usually covered in scales, making it the best material available for inner layers of armor. The scales themselves have very sharp edges, and mechanical properties between those of plates and chain mail, resilient to many kinds of damage. The easiest way to go around them is to use a piercing weapon with the trajectory of the hit against the direction of scale growth. There are again various types of scales. Some dragons do not have any. Their hide is the least valued. The smallest scales are so tiny that they can barely be seen by naked eye. These hides are great as sandpaper. The regular scales are on highest demand for the purposes mentioned above. The extreme case of scales are the armor plate type scales, where the individual chips grow together to form a living plate armor. Be warned that no dragon with these have ever been brought down to study. The scale plates are stronger than any pure metal known and cannot be harmed by conventional means. The final type of 'scales' are dragon feathers. Dragons only possess quills, and they are usually too large to be used for writing, but due to their relative rarity are often traded as luxurious item.

Dragon horns are an interesting material, as they are non newtonian solid. The behave smoothly when just brushed against but if impacted with greater force, they roughen and sharpen. This makes sense on evolutionary basis, as permanently hard horns would tend to damage dragon wing webs (which themselves are best to make musical instruments). Dragon claws on the other hand are even tougher and harder than plate scales, their properties outmatched only by magical alloys like mithrill or adamantium.

Dragon wings are not of much use, but they are what makes a dragon that dangerous. While some dragon types do not have wings at all, those who do can use them to travel large distances easily or outmaneuver just about everything. There are three criteria for wing classification:
WING SPAN: How wide the dragon's wings are. Usually measured in percents of body length and above 100.
NUMBER OF PAIRS: While most dragons only have one pair of wings, some have none or more pairs.
WING SIZE: There are only two types of wings as far as size is concerned. Gliders, with very large surface, serving mainly to travel easily without much effort, and Flyers, which are of small in size and serve rather for direction changes.



Dragons vary in size greatly. While they're the size of a German shepherd when freshly hatched, depending on their parentage and lifestyle, they can grow to massive sizes. Largest recorded dragons are only bested by the whales. Dragon females are usually larger than males, but their features like horns are much smoother.

Chapter 2: Dragon magic

With proper training and centuries long life spans to gain experience, Dragons can become very formidable spellcasters indeed. Being supposedly borne of magic itself, dragons are their own sources of magic and thus requiring no other resources to cast than food. However, majority of dragons do not like to use the arcane, as they have been hunted as it's source by other races for eons.

The greatest mistake a wizard can make is to consider dragon's firebreath a magical attack. Their breath is a natural inborn ability that is not affected by magic whatsoever. The common spells used by dragonkin are healing and shapeshifting, although the true variety of dragon magic knows no bounds. Unlike humanoid races, dragons do not seem to use magical formulas or any aides, driving their magic through emotions, thought and will.

The one spell that can control a dragon is to simply know their true name. Aware of that, the dragons almost never share those, even among themselves. Such privilege is usually reserved for permanent mates, family and the closest of friends.

Chapter 3: Dragon life cycle
Egg
Dragon eggs are one of the most desired wizard accessories. During the egg phase, a lot of the future dragon's features can be altered, both magically and simply by taking care of it. Note that all dragon eggs that are laid are fertilized (unlaid eggs are absorbed and recycled by the female's body), and thus unfit for consumption, no matter how desperate the situation is. Shattering the shell of such egg prematurely results in a magical explosion measurable on the TNT weight scale. The eggs need heat to mature, though unlike birds, they survive dormant in extended periods of cold, to resume growth once the conditions are more favorable. The higher the temperature, the stronger the dragon usually is, although there are exceptions to that rule. The future dragon's personality can be mildly adjusted by talking to the egg. Some dragon mothers will spend hours talking to her future children in order for them to be mentally healthy and strong. It is rumored that the egg can even be sung to a certain gender, but the claim lacks any support in evidence. The females are extremely aggressive during the period of guarding eggs, often instructing their permanent mates (if applicable) to leave the den. It is thus extremely difficult to gain a dragon egg. The more successful ways include summoning a natural disaster in the den's vicinity, forcing the mother to transport or hide the eggs while she flees and waits out the bad conditions elsewhere, or localizing abandoned eggs.

Hatchling
Once all the magical energy in the egg shell is absorbed by the little dragon, it breaks through and hatches. Hatchlings are depending on their parents for the first year of life, but often remain with their parents until late youth.
Obtaining a hatchling is even greater peril than obtaining a dragon egg, as BOTH parents are usually present. Once captured / raised from obtained egg, Hatchling's mind can be bent easily to your desire.

Youth
Young dragons become nigh independent at the age of three, when their size is comparable or greater than most threats, although theoretically they are capable of taking care for themselves at the age of one. At the age of five, they are usually allowed to leave parents for extended periods of time, which is why a young dragon is the easiest to capture, however these can hardly ever be convinced to aid you and need to be broken or mind controlled, as their child personality will make them do everything in your spite. At late youth, dragons leave the parents.

Prime
At the age of twenty, a dragon is officially an adult. This period lasts usually to their mid two hundreds. At this age, dragons are competitive, as those who seek long term mates compete for their attention. It is possible for them to start a family, which is very common for dragons that have already been through a lot in the short time they lived. Very common after wars, as the psychological effect of the war and the concept of "this day might be your last" tends to make them want to continue the dynasty as soon as possible.

Adulthood
Dragons older than 200 years may still search for long term partnership, but seasonal ones are much more common. At this age, dragons spend most of their time building a den and accumulating sometimes insane amount of wealth by human standards. Single dragon can hoard even a metric ton of raw precious materials, who's value is usually further increased by it being processed and or magically enchanted. It is pointless to try and kidnap an adult dragon, but finding it's treasure is a dream of every human.

Old age
After 600, dragons are considered elders and like humans, their bodies are starting to degrade, as is the level of their magic. While the average life span is from 800 to a thousand years, the oldest dragons recorded are of age over 1500 years.

Death
Nothing is known about a dragon soul after the body dies, though some form of afterlife is presumed as dragons are highly magical creatures. Whether this level allows for spiritual existence or even reincarnation is unknown. After death, the dragons put their dead on display in a special volley, encased in magical crystal seals. Wizards may want to extract dragonbone from the corpses, though such old bone is usually of poor quality.

Slumber
Every 50 or so years, dragons enter a long slumber lasting for about a decade in their adulthood, longer in their elder years.

Appearance:

Source

Height: 250 cm
Withers height: 170 cm
Length (head to tail tip): 450 cm
Wing span (% of body length): 110

Compared to other dragons and to her unending frustration, Ashwing is tiny. She is barely larger than a big horse, and thus is more of an agile fighter than a powerhouse of physical strength. She has a single pair of flyer wings, giving her reasonable agility in the air, although she needs to rest more frequently on long flights. Her scales are the regular kind, mostly amber and black in color.

Personality:
Taraah is driven by two things: Greed for luxuries and lust for adventure. She is in her element when fleeing from angered guards after kidnapping a royal heir she will get paid handsomely for releasing, or just poaching a very nice piece of jewelry from a traveling merchant.

She doesn’t shy from other races, although like any dragon she considers herself above them. It could get her in a spot of bother as she tends to underestimate her opponents.

The dragoness is a good companion to have around, ready to help with whatever is needed just as long as she gets something from it in the long run. She is calm even when angered, and will usually punish the culprit through carefully planned humiliation rather than eating them as long as someone doesn’t insult her personally.

She has somewhat grey morality, but unless your deal is really lucrative, she tries to stay true to her promises.

Biography:
Ashwing is one of the last dragons left in these lands, the rest long gone beyond the seas to free themselves from the nuisance of the lesser races. She chose to remain because her opposition decreased drastically with the exodus and she saw an opportunity to add to her hoard easily.

True to that, she razed many castles and forts, often demanding ransom for kidnapped princesses and toying with the knights that came to ‘slay’ her. The Golden times ended though with her inevitable need to slumber once more. Thus she returned to her den constructed in the crater of an inactive volcano.

On her way she was injured by a bolt from a ballista and crash landed near a certain inn where the innkeeper took care of her wound and aided her recovery. She promised him her aid after she slept when his need was greatest.

Bag:

"I'm sorry, what? Why would I take any of my prized posessions with me in some leather thing? They are safely in the den!"

Extras:

• Her voice has an ethereal reverb to it, as she uses a form of telepathy to speak the usual languages making her words be sensed rather than heard.
• Since there are only a few dragons left in the lands, Taraah can be recognized instantly by everyone familiar with legends about her. Since she does not share her name with any of them, every race has a different name for her.

The Strumpet Inn (Fantasy Tavern)

Interested, although I'm not sure I'll have time to do a CS during the weekend because I am visiting someone. Would a dragon be too over the top? =3

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

except diamond already did, right after the briefing xD Dude and I thought my memory sucked.