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#1
Tower of Art / Pax Draconica 2 - Chapter 26 (...
Last post by Tapewolf - April 22, 2026, 07:23:04 AMChapter 26 - Dragon politics
Terry was up early the following morning, but had forsaken his body armour for the black catsuit he clearly preferred.
"We still need to decide how to deal with with Hunter base," he sighed as Lady Silver approached him, with Fardon and Mermul coming up behind.
"Clearly, going up to the front door is out of the question," Lady Silver said. "We know exactly what that leads to... They'll slay me like a dragon! Again!"
Terry looked at the snow leopard with a wrathful expression.
"It's just a figure of speech!" she protested. "Yes, it was ill-considered and I apologise. But a lifetime of habits like that isn't going to go away quickly!"
"She's trying," Fardon pointed out. "An about-face like this is going to be hard."
"Apology accepted," Terry sighed. He glanced around as Mermul craned his neck, watching the sky as a small, black shape approached with the drone of aero-engines.
"Right," the blue-grey dragon said. "Think that's probably Jake. Either that or another sent in his place."
"It is surely the case," Terry mused, "That he has not single-handedly accounted for all the UFO sightings. If they can turn one dragon into some kind of aircraft cyborg, they have doubtless modified others too. He said as much himself, though I truly hope that such conversions are not the fate of all the youths they have kidnapped."
"If that was the case, you'd surely have encountered them before," Fardon remarked, watching as the creature came in to land on the grass. Mermul winced as the landing left a gouge in the pristine lawn.
"Zarnak has already requisitioned some landing mats," Terry said, sensing the fluff-dragon's discomfort. "I had expected the capital and the south in general to be the vanguard of my dragon integration project," he remarked wistfully. "But perhaps my neglect of the north has had unexpected benefits in that regard. Not all unintended consequences have to be bad."
Jake uttered an exaggerated cough and stood before Lord Terror, bowing his head low. "Your lordship," he started. Mermul also glanced at Jake expectantly for a moment and then looked away, embarrassed.
"I am glad you have shown up," the dragon-man remarked coolly. "As I believe I made clear yesterday, your faction's deeds have sparked a serious political issue, and there will be consequences."
"My superiors offer their apologies," the plane-dragon replied hastily. "I was instructed to inform you that we shall not make further acquisitions for the time being, not until our leaders have met you in person, that we can settle our differences and plan a way forward together."
"That sounds like you are trying to put off the day of reckoning," the dragon-man growled irritably. "Must I remind you that abducting dragon children is usually punishable by decapitation...?"
"It's not my decision!" Jake blurted. "My superiors would like to arrange a face-to-face negotiation to convince you of the merits of our project, and yes, to reassure you and the parents that their offspring are safe and happy. But as you are may be aware, the Hunters are up to something. Surely that should take priority? Recriminations are no use if we're all dead!"
"Many dragon lords would pin you down for such an impertinent remark," Lord Terror said, eyeing the plane-dragon with a venomous look. "And helpless, you would be forced to tell all with their teeth to your neck. Luckily for you, I am too small for such things... but even like this, I could do to you what I did to Sedrak."
"Please," Jake cringed, beads of sweat dripping from his hair and trickling down his visor like raindrops. "Spare me, your lordship! I'm just the messenger! I wasn't trained as an envoy! I'm only here because you know me already and because we are short-handed!"
"You are also young," Terry said softly. "And for all your faction's technical expertise, it seems that their grasp on the political ramifications is somewhat lacking," he remarked irritably. "Understand, Jake... You have put me in a very awkward position, and I do not like that. And yet, I suspect that you are as much a victim of this as any of us," he sighed.
Jake bowed his head, an unhappy expression displaying on his electronic visor.
"Very well," Terry decided, shaking his head. "As I say, even 'Lord Terror' can be merciful. It shall be as you say - we shall cooperate in the matter of the Hunter threat. But after that has been negated, I will turn my full attention to your leaders, and I hope for their sake, that they have a good explanation for their gross violations of my territory and the Pax Draconica in general.
"And Jake... if you violate this agreement or otherwise betray my trust, I shall come down hard on you and your masters."
"Thank you, your lordship," the plane-dragon said, looking relieved. "I shall not let you down, you have my word as a fellow dragon.
"I shall tell you everything I know about these Hunters. I am one of our scouts, so I have been making it my business to understand their movements.
"The Hunters have been making regular sweeps of the area," he continued. "They have been using an antigrav spy drone containing dragonbone parts. We have discovered a means of tracking it from a distance, and the sensors for this have been installed into my augmentations. It's been paying particular interest to dragon lairs, but none of us have ever seen them actually send armed forces out of their base. We aren't aware of any dragon-slaying operations which they have attempted."
"So, are they mapping the locations of dragons for some later attack?" Mermul asked nervously.
"Possibly. But I, and our analysts, got the impression they're searching for something, covertly. If they were looking for targets, they'd be paying more attention to active lairs, but that's not what we're seeing."
"You're sure they're not spreading biological weapons?" Fardon looked worried. "Spraying something in and around the lairs that will kill us but leave the Small Races unharmed...?"
Lady Silver shook her head. "Doubtful," she said. "We largely abandoned that line of research."
"That's a very... forthcoming statement from you," Terry said, staring at her. "Are you supposed to be telling us that...?"
The snow leopard shrugged. "Not long ago I'd have been hanged for revealing military secrets, but things change. And besides, it was a dead end. Turns out, it's really hard to make something that will only target dragons. And given your larger size and robust metabolisms, anything potent enough to harm a dragon at all will instantly kill humans or furres by the dozen. We don't want to give the likes of Thurr any ideas, either - before he grew a conscience, I mean."
"That wouldn't have appealed to him anyway," Mermul said. "Before he... uh, changed, Thurr wanted to hunt the Small Races for sport, to watch them die. Wiping them out en masse would deprive him of that spectacle. Now, he did want to do a targeted strike against Atlantia to remove the Hunter threat, but... Uh. You probably don't want to know about that."
"You're kidding, right...?" Lady Silver yelped. "If he could do that, damn right I want to know about it so I can warn people and help devise a countermeasure!"
"It was a one-off threat," Mermul said, shrugging his wings. "He won't be able to do that now. His plan was to capture Fiskul the Devourer, and eat them. He figured he could absorb their powers and take their place as the Eater of the World. That way, he'd be able to devour Atlantia, erasing it from reality - along with any other territories who did not bow down to his demands."
"Gods protect us!" the snow leopard whimpered. "And you're sure he's not going to try that again...? How did you even get him to... calm down... at all?"
"We seem to be sharing a lot of secrets with the Hunters lately," Mermul sighed. "He, uh... ate something that didn't agree with him."
Fardon and Mermul looked at each other for a moment. "You're the king's knight," Mermul said. "Think we should tell her?"
"You are a lord," Fardon said, bowing theatrically. Mermul made a sour expression. "True, but you have much more experience with politics, Sir Fardon," he countered. "On the other paw, if she's genuinely trying to normalise relations with dragonkind, I think she deserves the truth. We know that she's not on the same page as the splinter group, and her help would be useful. Besides, she just told us about one of her weapons programmes."
Fardon nodded. "True. This must remain confidential," he said. "It could threaten the peace and progress we have seen if this were widely known, but basically, Thurr murdered Zeelah, one of our top mages. He ate her soul. Using an ancient artifact, Mermul was able to disrupt that process, and Zeelah managed to assume control of Lord Thurr's body. The real Lord Thurr has been soul-trapped, and he will not be released for the foreseeable future. Zeelah, assuming his identity, has been trying her best to introduce more liberal policies. Even if the truth were known, it could be argued she has vanquished Thurr and assumed his place by right of conquest.
"Regardless, we are worried that she may be challenged or spark a revolt if it becomes generally known that Thurr is gone before she has fully consolidated her power."
"That explains a lot," Lady Silver said. "I will keep it in confidence now I know that we are not imminently at risk from some super-weapon Thurr has developed. That was my worst fear."
"And talking of super-weapons, you are sure that they have not finally perfected some kind of anti-dragon biological...?" Fardon pressed. "Something specific to monotremes, perhaps?"
"There are monotremes among the Small Races too," Lady Silver said. "Among the Hunters, even. Traditionally we have had problems with dragons, but a weapon which also slaughters allies such as platypuses, avians and gryphons was too much even for the radicals to contemplate.
"So no - I can't rule out some new breakthrough, but it's incredibly unlikely to come from here! See, we know about most of the researchers involved in this project, and they are not biologists. They are engineers, physicists, and computer scientists. If they are making something, it will be a physical weapon.
"Most likely it's some kind of vehicle, since avionics is a common theme among their recruits. This is just a guess... but my superiors figured it was most likely either an energy weapon, or some new kind of aircraft. But I'll be honest, none of it quite adds up."
"If it is a secret aircraft and it crashed, they would assuredly use these drones to search for it." Terry remarked.
"See, that's the weird thing, your lordship," Jake said slowly. "That's exactly what we assumed at first, but the drone movements don't add up. I've been investigating where it spent most of its time, and it's invariably been exploring caves and potential lair sites. Ones that appear to be abandoned get special interest, and they've sent it inside to look.
"Even saying this sounds crazy, but if I didn't know better, I'd say they've had a dragon go missing and they're desperately trying to find them again."
Terry was up early the following morning, but had forsaken his body armour for the black catsuit he clearly preferred.
"We still need to decide how to deal with with Hunter base," he sighed as Lady Silver approached him, with Fardon and Mermul coming up behind.
"Clearly, going up to the front door is out of the question," Lady Silver said. "We know exactly what that leads to... They'll slay me like a dragon! Again!"
Terry looked at the snow leopard with a wrathful expression.
"It's just a figure of speech!" she protested. "Yes, it was ill-considered and I apologise. But a lifetime of habits like that isn't going to go away quickly!"
"She's trying," Fardon pointed out. "An about-face like this is going to be hard."
"Apology accepted," Terry sighed. He glanced around as Mermul craned his neck, watching the sky as a small, black shape approached with the drone of aero-engines.
"Right," the blue-grey dragon said. "Think that's probably Jake. Either that or another sent in his place."
"It is surely the case," Terry mused, "That he has not single-handedly accounted for all the UFO sightings. If they can turn one dragon into some kind of aircraft cyborg, they have doubtless modified others too. He said as much himself, though I truly hope that such conversions are not the fate of all the youths they have kidnapped."
"If that was the case, you'd surely have encountered them before," Fardon remarked, watching as the creature came in to land on the grass. Mermul winced as the landing left a gouge in the pristine lawn.
"Zarnak has already requisitioned some landing mats," Terry said, sensing the fluff-dragon's discomfort. "I had expected the capital and the south in general to be the vanguard of my dragon integration project," he remarked wistfully. "But perhaps my neglect of the north has had unexpected benefits in that regard. Not all unintended consequences have to be bad."
Jake uttered an exaggerated cough and stood before Lord Terror, bowing his head low. "Your lordship," he started. Mermul also glanced at Jake expectantly for a moment and then looked away, embarrassed.
"I am glad you have shown up," the dragon-man remarked coolly. "As I believe I made clear yesterday, your faction's deeds have sparked a serious political issue, and there will be consequences."
"My superiors offer their apologies," the plane-dragon replied hastily. "I was instructed to inform you that we shall not make further acquisitions for the time being, not until our leaders have met you in person, that we can settle our differences and plan a way forward together."
"That sounds like you are trying to put off the day of reckoning," the dragon-man growled irritably. "Must I remind you that abducting dragon children is usually punishable by decapitation...?"
"It's not my decision!" Jake blurted. "My superiors would like to arrange a face-to-face negotiation to convince you of the merits of our project, and yes, to reassure you and the parents that their offspring are safe and happy. But as you are may be aware, the Hunters are up to something. Surely that should take priority? Recriminations are no use if we're all dead!"
"Many dragon lords would pin you down for such an impertinent remark," Lord Terror said, eyeing the plane-dragon with a venomous look. "And helpless, you would be forced to tell all with their teeth to your neck. Luckily for you, I am too small for such things... but even like this, I could do to you what I did to Sedrak."
"Please," Jake cringed, beads of sweat dripping from his hair and trickling down his visor like raindrops. "Spare me, your lordship! I'm just the messenger! I wasn't trained as an envoy! I'm only here because you know me already and because we are short-handed!"
"You are also young," Terry said softly. "And for all your faction's technical expertise, it seems that their grasp on the political ramifications is somewhat lacking," he remarked irritably. "Understand, Jake... You have put me in a very awkward position, and I do not like that. And yet, I suspect that you are as much a victim of this as any of us," he sighed.
Jake bowed his head, an unhappy expression displaying on his electronic visor.
"Very well," Terry decided, shaking his head. "As I say, even 'Lord Terror' can be merciful. It shall be as you say - we shall cooperate in the matter of the Hunter threat. But after that has been negated, I will turn my full attention to your leaders, and I hope for their sake, that they have a good explanation for their gross violations of my territory and the Pax Draconica in general.
"And Jake... if you violate this agreement or otherwise betray my trust, I shall come down hard on you and your masters."
"Thank you, your lordship," the plane-dragon said, looking relieved. "I shall not let you down, you have my word as a fellow dragon.
"I shall tell you everything I know about these Hunters. I am one of our scouts, so I have been making it my business to understand their movements.
"The Hunters have been making regular sweeps of the area," he continued. "They have been using an antigrav spy drone containing dragonbone parts. We have discovered a means of tracking it from a distance, and the sensors for this have been installed into my augmentations. It's been paying particular interest to dragon lairs, but none of us have ever seen them actually send armed forces out of their base. We aren't aware of any dragon-slaying operations which they have attempted."
"So, are they mapping the locations of dragons for some later attack?" Mermul asked nervously.
"Possibly. But I, and our analysts, got the impression they're searching for something, covertly. If they were looking for targets, they'd be paying more attention to active lairs, but that's not what we're seeing."
"You're sure they're not spreading biological weapons?" Fardon looked worried. "Spraying something in and around the lairs that will kill us but leave the Small Races unharmed...?"
Lady Silver shook her head. "Doubtful," she said. "We largely abandoned that line of research."
"That's a very... forthcoming statement from you," Terry said, staring at her. "Are you supposed to be telling us that...?"
The snow leopard shrugged. "Not long ago I'd have been hanged for revealing military secrets, but things change. And besides, it was a dead end. Turns out, it's really hard to make something that will only target dragons. And given your larger size and robust metabolisms, anything potent enough to harm a dragon at all will instantly kill humans or furres by the dozen. We don't want to give the likes of Thurr any ideas, either - before he grew a conscience, I mean."
"That wouldn't have appealed to him anyway," Mermul said. "Before he... uh, changed, Thurr wanted to hunt the Small Races for sport, to watch them die. Wiping them out en masse would deprive him of that spectacle. Now, he did want to do a targeted strike against Atlantia to remove the Hunter threat, but... Uh. You probably don't want to know about that."
"You're kidding, right...?" Lady Silver yelped. "If he could do that, damn right I want to know about it so I can warn people and help devise a countermeasure!"
"It was a one-off threat," Mermul said, shrugging his wings. "He won't be able to do that now. His plan was to capture Fiskul the Devourer, and eat them. He figured he could absorb their powers and take their place as the Eater of the World. That way, he'd be able to devour Atlantia, erasing it from reality - along with any other territories who did not bow down to his demands."
"Gods protect us!" the snow leopard whimpered. "And you're sure he's not going to try that again...? How did you even get him to... calm down... at all?"
"We seem to be sharing a lot of secrets with the Hunters lately," Mermul sighed. "He, uh... ate something that didn't agree with him."
Fardon and Mermul looked at each other for a moment. "You're the king's knight," Mermul said. "Think we should tell her?"
"You are a lord," Fardon said, bowing theatrically. Mermul made a sour expression. "True, but you have much more experience with politics, Sir Fardon," he countered. "On the other paw, if she's genuinely trying to normalise relations with dragonkind, I think she deserves the truth. We know that she's not on the same page as the splinter group, and her help would be useful. Besides, she just told us about one of her weapons programmes."
Fardon nodded. "True. This must remain confidential," he said. "It could threaten the peace and progress we have seen if this were widely known, but basically, Thurr murdered Zeelah, one of our top mages. He ate her soul. Using an ancient artifact, Mermul was able to disrupt that process, and Zeelah managed to assume control of Lord Thurr's body. The real Lord Thurr has been soul-trapped, and he will not be released for the foreseeable future. Zeelah, assuming his identity, has been trying her best to introduce more liberal policies. Even if the truth were known, it could be argued she has vanquished Thurr and assumed his place by right of conquest.
"Regardless, we are worried that she may be challenged or spark a revolt if it becomes generally known that Thurr is gone before she has fully consolidated her power."
"That explains a lot," Lady Silver said. "I will keep it in confidence now I know that we are not imminently at risk from some super-weapon Thurr has developed. That was my worst fear."
"And talking of super-weapons, you are sure that they have not finally perfected some kind of anti-dragon biological...?" Fardon pressed. "Something specific to monotremes, perhaps?"
"There are monotremes among the Small Races too," Lady Silver said. "Among the Hunters, even. Traditionally we have had problems with dragons, but a weapon which also slaughters allies such as platypuses, avians and gryphons was too much even for the radicals to contemplate.
"So no - I can't rule out some new breakthrough, but it's incredibly unlikely to come from here! See, we know about most of the researchers involved in this project, and they are not biologists. They are engineers, physicists, and computer scientists. If they are making something, it will be a physical weapon.
"Most likely it's some kind of vehicle, since avionics is a common theme among their recruits. This is just a guess... but my superiors figured it was most likely either an energy weapon, or some new kind of aircraft. But I'll be honest, none of it quite adds up."
"If it is a secret aircraft and it crashed, they would assuredly use these drones to search for it." Terry remarked.
"See, that's the weird thing, your lordship," Jake said slowly. "That's exactly what we assumed at first, but the drone movements don't add up. I've been investigating where it spent most of its time, and it's invariably been exploring caves and potential lair sites. Ones that appear to be abandoned get special interest, and they've sent it inside to look.
"Even saying this sounds crazy, but if I didn't know better, I'd say they've had a dragon go missing and they're desperately trying to find them again."
#2
Jayhawk HQ / Re: [Pax Draconica Chapter 3]
Last post by Tapewolf - April 21, 2026, 11:58:19 AMQuote from: AmigaDragon on April 21, 2026, 11:27:58 AM03-05a intermission dragon pants. I'd call them leggings or chaps, unless there's some connection between the leg parts we aren't seeing.
I call each one "a pant".
#3
Jayhawk HQ / Re: [Pax Draconica Chapter 3]
Last post by AmigaDragon - April 21, 2026, 11:27:58 AM03-05a intermission dragon pants. I'd call them leggings or chaps, unless there's some connection between the leg parts we aren't seeing.
#4
Jayhawk HQ / Re: [Bounty Project Chapter 14...
Last post by Merlin - April 19, 2026, 12:53:46 AMQuote from: ProfesseurRenard on April 15, 2026, 11:49:18 PM14-06 - Talking Heads
I'd ask how Fairwater is speaking without an air supply to his truncated larynx, but I suspect the answer would be along the lines of "'Cubi magic, laddie".
it's much less dramatic when it's just a bunch of wheezing noises
but im sure he can shapeshift his way out of that situation
#5
Jayhawk HQ / Re: [Bounty Project Chapter 14...
Last post by AmigaDragon - April 19, 2026, 12:07:11 AMI'm thinking it could even be an illusion that she beheaded.
#6
Jayhawk HQ / Re: [Bounty Project Chapter 14...
Last post by Tapewolf - April 18, 2026, 07:01:42 PMQuote from: AmigaDragon on April 18, 2026, 11:42:58 AMAnd prepared ahead of her arrival. Was it cast specifically for her or just a general daily precaution?
What was done, was done on the expectation that Featherstone might try something given what Ben and Daniel had learned.
#7
Jayhawk HQ / Re: [Bounty Project Chapter 14...
Last post by AmigaDragon - April 18, 2026, 11:42:58 AMQuote from: ProfesseurRenard on April 15, 2026, 11:49:18 PM...along the lines of "'Cubi magic, laddie".And prepared ahead of her arrival. Was it cast specifically for her or just a general daily precaution?
#8
Jayhawk HQ / Re: [Bounty Project Chapter 14...
Last post by ProfesseurRenard - April 15, 2026, 11:49:18 PM14-06 - Talking Heads
I'd ask how Fairwater is speaking without an air supply to his truncated larynx, but I suspect the answer would be along the lines of "'Cubi magic, laddie".
I'd ask how Fairwater is speaking without an air supply to his truncated larynx, but I suspect the answer would be along the lines of "'Cubi magic, laddie".
#9
The Villa / Re: Feeling a lil nostalgic, t...
Last post by Boog - April 15, 2026, 09:05:59 PMThat tracks! I'll keep an eye out and tune in
#10
The Lost Lake Inn / Re: 2026-04-01 - DMFA 2168 - ...
Last post by Cassi-kun - April 15, 2026, 07:10:32 PMQuote from: Anders71 on April 15, 2026, 10:16:44 AMWell, the first assassin seemed to think that as Hizell's son, Pyroduck would be able to figure out a way to evade the assassins, and even wished him luck with it before going in to strike him.Quote from: Tapewolf on April 15, 2026, 09:16:40 AMShe certainly doesn't feel like someone who's perfectly in line with what Hizell wants from his followers.Quote from: Cassi-kun on April 14, 2026, 05:33:56 PMI think it may be a bit dramatic to send someone apparently high-ranking as the second assassin, but we don't know anything about the first assassin at all. And also Hizell is pretty dramatic, so sending a high-ranking follower for the second round doesn't seem all that unlikely.
I have to wonder if this is Hizell's way of retiring her.
Quote from: Tapewolf on April 15, 2026, 09:16:40 AMCould be. She said she was on a holy mission, and the first assassin brought the message "kill the assassins or be killed," so she's probably expecting to die - either fighting Pyro, or even getting squashed by Hizell for killing his son, even though he was the one who told her to.Quote from: Cassi-kun on April 14, 2026, 05:33:56 PMI think it may be a bit dramatic to send someone apparently high-ranking as the second assassin, but we don't know anything about the first assassin at all. And also Hizell is pretty dramatic, so sending a high-ranking follower for the second round doesn't seem all that unlikely.
I have to wonder if this is Hizell's way of retiring her.