The Dragon's Lair

Lullaby of Sorrow

It has been months since the Dragon Lord's army appeared in the land, subjugation and death following in their wake. Though the Dragon Lord rarely revealed themselves, mainly using their lieutenants and commanders to carry out their will. Five souls brought together for the common goal of defeating the army of kirin and driving them back to wherever they came from. Each of them has had something taken from them by the malevolent and bloodthirsty kirin and now they had a chance to settle the score.

Our heroes approach the gate of the castle, managing to avoid the eyes of the Dragon Lord's soldiers and wyverns. It had been a hard journey to get here. Marching through the hotlands was arduous and taxing, but the group had finally made it. Now they stood before the lair of the Dragon Lord. The fate of everyone, possibly the whole world depended entirely on their defeat. They had faced the armies of kirin and come out on top. Now it was time for the final challenge.

From what they had gathered, the Dragon Lord was likely to be at the top of the tallest tower in the keep. Not exactly easy to get to, and their constant encounters with kirin soldiers meant that they were likely expected. They also knew that the Dragon Lord was Desperate to defeat the heroes, and was likely to be performing dark magics in order to gain the strength to sieze control of the continent. Their champions too would likely be partaking in dark spells and rituals, so our heroes would need to be extra careful.

But for now, the question remained. Out here with no backup and what little supplies they could carry. How would they infiltrate this mighty fortress?

For a place called the Badlands, there was something to be said about the conditions in which this castle stood. The heat was absolutely unbearable. Even with light gear - consisting of simple pants, a thin fabric shirt and a backpack of essentials - Oathbound's forehead felt like a mobile oasis. At times like this he wished he had learned to control his neckpiece's magic more.

Unlike others, his magic came from an enchanted silver necklace with a sapphire gem. And while others had more control over more aspects of magic, his was limited in scope. Conjuring of certain weapons and telekinesis with a range of up to 15 meters were the only things he was comfortable using for any lengthy periods of time.

Comfort however was a luxury that few could afford in these trying times. Oath had helped defend some outlying villages that were among the first to fall in the Dragon Lord's path to conquest. The kirin were not something he had fought before but he'd quickly realized that heavy armor was not something he'd want to wear against them. Their flames, while not as powerful as that of the dragons, proved to be the bane of the heavily armored cavalry that were deployed, as being cooked inside your own armor was not something that they could easily deal with.

After the first few battles against the Dragon Lord's army went south, the resistance started to adapt. Battles raged on for longer, casualties started to mount up in the conquering horde. But there are too many of them. Even when he assisted in bringing down a dragon the horde did not relent. It was like they were possessed.

That's when he decided to join this small group tasked with taking out the problem at the source, citing his experience in fighting against the horde and its various creatures. Nobles at the court called it a suicide mission. He agreed. But there was some sense in it. If the Dragon Lord fell, the army could fall into disarray without a single unifying influence over it. And if nothing else, this could be a distraction that might give the besieged domains a chance to mount a counter assault.

The plan was made, in motion and at last, after avoiding several patrols and killing those they couldn't, Oath and the group had made their way through the desolate, burning wastes that the Dragon Lord called home - the Badlands and made it to the castle. In some ways it resembled the castle he walked in when he signed up, though with a lot more lava. And a closed gate.

"No guards at the gate... And I didn't spot any on the battlements or towers. Either the Dragon Lord is confident enough in his victory to throw all his nonessential soldiers in to crush the opposition quicker or our battles thus far have had a more lasting impact than I thought. Or a trap is waiting to be sprung." He said and then looked at the others. "Any of you have an idea how we could get past this gate?"

Wearing some basic leather barding, with her mane cut roughly short, one of the later additions to this group frowned up at the towers. Column growled softly and shook her head at the question, looking to her fellow travelers. "If it's anything like the other checkpoints, I won't be able to pop in unless we're sure it's not a trap. I don't like my odds alone against a kirin squad hiding just out of sight.

The mare was smaller than most of her compatriots and was the least combat capable of the group, if you went by sheer power, magical or physical. Once the owner of a well liked tavern sitting on a road between two major towns, her livelihood had burned down during the latest push from the draconian forces. Several good patrons had died in the inferno that claimed 'Column's Comforts', and only the mare's unique ability allowed her to escape, mostly unscathed. Her mane's length had been claimed by the blaze, thus her cut lengths.

She hadn't cared that she was likely throwing her life away when she signed on for this mission. Her life's purpose had been destroyed right behind her and she was now a changed woman. She'd kept almost entirely silent during the traveling, only responding to questions directed to her, and otherwise keeping her thoughts to herself.

For such a terrible looking environment, it wasn't such a surprise to the mare upon why this place had got it's name. Badlands seemed to be something of an understatement, it looked more like a graveyard surrounded by a bunch of volcanoes. The heat alone is enough to make the tall amazon-esc mare start sweating like she was in a sauna.

The mare herself was taller then a lot of stallions, appearing powerful with her form and perhaps supernaturally beautiful at the same time. She had come prepared for this journey, wearing a light blue tank top that allowed her coat to breathe and not restrict her movement, a thick leather belt and almost militaristic appearing bottoms and combat boots.

This mare, who her companions would come to know her as Winter, would not be a powerful magic user. She had dabbled in the past with creating her own healing potions and some alchemy, but she was not talented in the arcane arts. It wasn't like she needed magic anyway, instead preferring to get 'intimate' with her opponents by carrying around a gigantic enchanted great-sword. Her unbelievable strength allowed the mare to use the heavy weapon with merely one hand if she needed to, swinging it around like she had picked up a stick.

And now, here she was within the Badlands, ready to deal a great amount of damage to whatever twisted plans that the Dragon Lord had. She had already slain a great amount of his mooks, now she was ready to take the fight directly to him.

"No clue on how we can get past the gate.....but look at the location of this place!" Winter laughed warmly as she traveled with her companions. If she felt like she was going to perish in the next few hours, then she might as well make the most of the remaining time she had left.

Out of everyone in the group to make it to the gates while avoiding more attention being drawn to them from the armies abroad, the young toned unicorn in ordinary grey gambeson and light armor felt he wasn't really deserving to be there. Sugary had been directly supporting one of the most elite group of warriors at the front lines, until one day seemingly without warning their leader, his idol, was struck down by one of their own in the middle of battle.

The traitor was caught before they could defect, but their group suffered a major defeat in morale and injuries. Sugary was the last one out of this group to remain intact. His spirit frail, he nearly turned down teaming up with the current group as a greenhorn "elite" who just happened to be in fighting condition. But two things motivated him to stand in front of the citadel now as he let out a light red aura around him slowly spreading to his companions to resist the intense heat flowing: The traitor's motivations, who claimed he did what he did expecting a grand reward from the Dragon Lord far greater than gold.

With an intense gaze onto the gates, standing at an unimpressive 5'3, the 18 year old warrior was on a quest for a personal vendetta, out to defeat the one who promised the traitor a reward and to destroy the reward itself if it existed, for he was certain both were vile and evil. "... I can help silence the air if we need an explosion." Was all he said.

Sauntering along the road through the blasted badlands and clad in heavy plate armour and maille, Stygian Sunrise and his tall, statuesque form really stuck out from the rest of the group. His breath came out his bascinet’s breathing holes as a chilly mist. From the moment they’d crossed into this magma blasted hell he’d simply kept up a  simple ice spell so he’d stay nice and chilled for the whole uncomfortable journey. A few of the Dragon Lord’s soldiers had even “volunteered” to both assist him with some impromptu sword practice and help keep the spell going along the way.

Everyone is so helpful around here.

Stygian was also different from the rest of his compatriots in that unlike them with their tragically recent losses of all kinds as a result of the Dragon Lord’s expansion across the continent Stygian hadn’t really lost anything. After all, he didn’t exactly have much left to lose of late so the “problems” brought on by recent events had actually proven to be an opportunity for two things; to regain some of the wealth he’d once been quite fond of, and to meet a foe that might finally make for some good sport around here...

“We won’t need an explosion,” Stygian replied bluntly to the... minuscule? Yes, minuscule stallion in the group, at least compared to him,  “I’ll deal with the gate.” With that he simply continued towards the gate, barely picking up the pace and conspicuously not even reaching for his sword...

Stygian would go unopposed as he casually strolled up to the bridge that led across the moat. Hot lava boiled and bubbled beneath the stone structure as he stepped over it towards the gate. About halfway over the bridge, however, Stygian would trigger a magic trap. A magic seal quickly appears, formed by black fire starting from the point where Stygian stood. A high pitched whine quickly builds and Stygian would feel his excess mana pulled from his reserves, fueling the seal until it all was released in a huge explosion.

The black flames and smoke dissipated, leaving in its wake the scorched stonework and a lightly damaged victim of overconfidence.

Column rolled her eyes as Stygian approached the gate. The high confidence warrior had gotten on her nerves, but still there had been no reason to comment on it, as he could hold up his boasts for the entirety of their mission. He had singlehandedly decimated all the smaller kirin soldiers they'd worked their way past.

However, when the circle popped up around the warrior, she started towards him reflexively before shaking her head and diving directly away from the apparent trap. She only raised her head after all the noises and explosions and debris had finally settled down. She looked around as she got to her feet and looked towards the center of the explosion.

Oathbound was not sure about the giant stallion that had joined their group. While he was glad to have an extra set of hooves about, especially one with proper training like him, Stygian's attitude gave him pause. In a situation like this overconfidence would lead to trouble for both him and the whole group. He about to ask what the giant stallion was going to do to solve their gate situation when he saw the trap being sprung.
"Speak of the centaur!"
Soon as he saw the black fire his weapons sprang to life and launched towards Stygian in an effort to push him away. However, he gritted his teeth when he saw his weapons melting like butter upon impact with an invisible barrier right above the seal before they were sucked into the floor and into the seal that was quickly charged and detonated, forcing Oath to dive for cover & shield his eyes.

"A mana leech trap!? Here!? What if the bridge collapsed from the force of the explosion! This Dragon Lord must be mad!" He exclaimed more in order to hear himself than anything else as the smoke dissipated. Once he saw that Stygian was still standing he summoned more weapons and put them to work, skimming on the surface of the bridge in order to trigger any more traps that might still be remaining. Hopefully any further mana leech traps end up not being charged by such a miniscule amount of energy. But if they do stay active after the weapons are drained, at least the group will know their locations and be able to avoid them.
"No silent option now, then. Pretty sure that blast alerted half the creatures in the Badlands." He said, his eyes still ringing from the blast.

With all of this chaos taking place, it would be more than enough to cause some annoyance among the taller mare among the group. She looked upon the leech trap, unimpressed that the Dragon Lord would have snooped to such a low level to place a trap upon his bridge. But this did confirm that he was certainly expecting some company, something that Winter would relay upon the back of her mind.

Rolling her eyes, the muscle-bound amazon would whistle rather loudly despite the mere explosion taking place. It was a miracle that the bridge that the group were standing on remained in-tact, otherwise breaking into the fortress that was before them would have become far more difficult. Then again, she had never expected this to be an easy quest, there was a very real chance that she could leave seriously injured or even worse.

"Did you guys really think that this was going to be easy?" She said before chuckling, reaching over towards her back and placing her grip on an enormous steel great-sword. She didn't want to admit this to the rest of her group, but the explosion was still leaving her ears ringing...

Sugary felt a jarring sensation on his spine just before the trap went off, focusing solely on making a barrier ahead of him when he tried going after Stygian to keep the fast explosion from spreading towards the group. He was glad things turned out how they did so far, the wounds seemingly being mild, but he rushed over to the giant to check on them properly while others scanned the area ahead now that the trap had been used up. "So much for stealth... There's no way they don't know we're here now. Let's get you patched up and raise a ruckus instead." With a rub of his hands and humming horn, he began to cast a mild light onto them to mend their state.

As the black flames roared around him, Stygian’s only outward reaction as his exes magic reserves were drained was to simply cock his head slightly and start turning on the spot. “Hmmm, how quain—“ He started before being cut off by the blast.

Now standing in the middle of a scorched patch of stonework and feeling quite uncomfortably warm, Stygian let out a snort of frustration as Sugary approached and even gestured for him to stop casting long before his admittedly minor burns had been fully healed. “Save it. No sense wasting time and magic on the bites of flies.” He said, continuing along the bridge at a slower, more deliberate pace, “Better to watch for more... annoyances.” ‘Bites of flies’ or not Stygian was hardly keen to experience that kind of trap again...
“Maybe if we’re lucky something more fun took notice of that.”

Berserkir

Now that the party was standing near the gate, the iron barrier creaked and shook, beginning to lift on its own, inviting them to dare come inside. Beyond the portal was the massive courtyard, likely used for drill and ceremony, or rank inspection. The wind kicked up some dust in the area, and about midway between the gate and the entrance to the large castle a figure was waiting reverently, down on one knee with their head down as if in prayer.

They were clad in black plate armor, sinister in design but with a certain visual appeal. On their left lay a large roundshield, banded with steel and bearing the Dragon Lord's seal on the front of it. On their right was an axe. The blade facing to the right and a deadly spike facing the left. And just in front of them was an unimpressive cup of stone containing a certain liquid inside. As of this moment, they did not pay the party any attention, simply muttering to themself quietly.

Column peered at the kneeling figure and quirked an eyebrow, letting her gaze drift to her compatriots before returning to the armored warrior. Shrugging, she bounced twice on the balls of her feet and lightly sprinted towards the rising iron portcullis, letting the twisting energy of chaos run ahead of her to foul any more such traps before taking a bounding leap to land upon the rising metal. Looking down at the rest of her group, she nodded her head towards the figure before beginning to climb up the iron and the gateway itself.

Stygian continued along the bridge, only picking up the pace after Column had sprinted past him with no apparent issues and came through the gates going at a light (and noisy) jog.

Coming to a stop in front of the black armoured figure, Stygian took a moment to give them a good looking over. Apparently he wasn’t the only one around here rocking the sinister armoured warrior look. “Heh, someone after my own heart I see.” He remarked with a quiet chuckle as he glanced around for any other trouble in the courtyard he might not have noticed initially before scrutinising the cup and its contents, “Guessing we shall not pass?”

With a snap of Stygian’s armoured fingers, one of his gauntlets suddenly started crackling with arcane lightning, “Because we got places to be so how about we get this over with?” He snapped his finger again and the other gauntlet crackled much like the first. “Just try to make sure you’re a good opening act, alright?” One could practically hear Stygian’s grin under his helmet as he took up a decent stance and put ‘em up, “I’d hate to get bored before the main event.”

The young stallion halted his aid of the large warrior and returned to granting heat protection to the others, switching between spells steadily and efficiently to not strain his yet inexperienced body. However, the sight of the new warrior, on top of the way being opened for them, gave him a small chill down his spine as he raised his shield in silence... and hoped that what he thought he smelled in the air for a moment was not what he dreaded as his gaze was more drawn to the drink than the warrior. "Something doesn't feel right... They're too calm... And that liquid... I swear I've seen it before, but where...? What was it called???"

Oathbound's sweep over the bridge seemed to confirm the lack of any other traps, alleviating his concerns of the bridge collapsing under them as he levitated his axes back into his hands. His frustration with Stygian was rising by the second, though.
"You're not invulnerable, you know! I don't want any of us to get killed because of-"
He didn't even get to finish his sentence when the portcullis was raised as an invitation to the lion's den.

Not bothering to finish as he'd most likely either gotten his point across or been ignored entirely judging by Stygian's reaction to the trap, Oath instead began to walk towards the castle entrance with the rest of the group, halting right next to Sugary. He didn't like this. A lone warrior willingly waiting to fight against a party of 5 meant something bad was ahoof. He glanced at Sugary and saw where his eyes were fixated. His grip on his weapons tightened when he saw it as well.

Winter would stare down the enemy that had confidently stopped her and the rest of her party from advancing into the citadel before them. She had made her movements across the bridge easily enough, moving to travel light out of a fear that the bridge would collapse under her feat. Yet despite this, she was clearly expecting something far more troublesome in the travels ahead.

And that fearsome concern was realized as a lonesome figure in black armor simply stood before them. She looked at this foe, determination in her eyes but yet having an annoyed expression. She felt as if she was going at a snails pace, but it was all for a good reason. She raised her arm and placed her grip upon the grip of her blade, readying herself just in the event that something really bad would happen...which it probably would, given the nature of this place

The figure, as the groups would now see as female, didn't react to any of them approaching at first, still mumbling under their breath to herself for a few more words before finally looking up and and peering through the eyes of their helm. What of their body did show under the plates of their armor was yellow scaled, and their helm neglected to cover the bottom half of her face, likely to allow for their fire breath to be unimpeded. "You do not impress me, chaff." She says, not bothering to look any of them in the eye.

She takes up the cup and brings it to her lips, drinking down the contents and then reverently setting the cup down in front of herself again. "I was asked to kill you here, so as not to make a mess on the castle floors. If you wish to make peace with your gods, I'll allow you to do so." She reaches to pick up her axe and shield, standing up and showing herself to tower over even Stygian. "But I won't wait forever."

The wind shifts and a red glow begins to seep from they eyes of the warrior. Her large wings spread out in defiance of their presence and a black smoke starts to drip out of her armor as her muscles bulge and she begins baring her teeth, a growl coming both from her throat and the ether of existence. She hefts her roundshield and readies her axe, then gives a battle growl. Not one of a sapient being, but an animal.

The next thing to happen would be the kirin breaking straight into a sprint, directly towards Stygian, shield bared at the ready it appeared she was going to barrel into him with the full force of her body, but at the last second she moves the shield aside, axe swung in an upward strike that collides with Stygian's armor, driving the spike into his chest and lifting him off the ground before being slammed into the ground and knocking him out cold. Not dead, but in far worse condition than he had entered.
(Perms given by Jammex)


Otar The Foul

The young stallion was going to attempt to knock the cup out of an ever growing concern at the back of his head about it, but the large stallion and the Kirin's gear were too much in the way to get a good aim on time. And when the Kirin finally drank and roared, the scent confirmed his fears as it reminded him of a berserk inducing wine. But the swift and mighty strike onto the mighty stallion that crippled them stunned him in that their foe was far sharper than it looked; Whatever they drank was truly abnormal in his eyes.

Now however, hotblooded anger boiled in the little stallion as he conjured a second shield and made a magic empowered dash ahead of the others as Stygian fell, trying to slam onto the warrior before they could ready for another swing. "Not again! We're just getting started, I won't allow this again!!" Shaky as their resolve was, the death of his master was still fresh in Sugary's mind. He could at least stagger the warrior and hoped to bide time to get Stygian to safety somehow...

And just as Oathbound had thought, things went south almost immediately. Stygian's overconfidence causing them all a whole heap of trouble.
"Faust dammit!" He roared as he hurled his weapons towards the armored kirin, right past Sugary, aimed at the joints in between the shoulders of the berserker. But at the last possible moment, the axes change directions, surging upwards and over the figure before curving back down, this time directed towards the base of the wings. They likely couldn't fly with all that armor but even a backhanded slap with one of those could possibly crack a rib or two if the effects of that mystery liquid did even half of what he imagined it would.

At the same time, he dashed forwards behind Sugary, hoping to maybe get Stygian out of the way and maybe check if the armored stallion had still a bit of life in 'em. While he didn't know healing magic, he could at least fight while dragging a wounded pony if he maintained concentration.