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Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

At Skobeloff's question, the two younger drakes exchange a look. "Well, we have a good idea of when it happened," Tamba began. "We're a little more fuzzy on the 'how' and the 'why'."

"She's been acting strangely ever since we got here," Pleexem interjected. "Even before things started going wrong, she's just been so jumpy."

"You're one to talk," Tamba said with a snort. She turned her head back to Skobeloff. "Besides us two and her, there were four other dragons with us. Vipereyes and Alto were among them." Skobeloff will recognise those names as members of Myndoth, a bearded and long-tooth dragon respectfully, and from he knows of them, it's easy to see why they were chosen for this specific mission: Vipereyes is Myndoth's expert on poisonous fauna and flora, while Alto - short for Altostratus - was a budding crafter who was known for rarely speaking the common dragon tongue but preferred instead to either use sign language or one of the elemental languages, all of which he was fluent in.

"There's also Maug, who's from Tessith, like me and Fogdance. And finally, there was Kyte."

"They're the other member of our clutch," Tamba explained, motioning between herself and Pleexem. "They're from Semscale. Since we're still new to working together and me and Pleexem were already going to be here representing our Houses, our Sponsor thought they should come along with us, as a team-building exercise of sorts."

Pleexem grimaced. "Obviously, they weren't expecting things to turn out like this."

"The island was perfectly fine for the first few days," Tamba continued. "Fogdance was on edge, yes, and we were having a couple of disputes with the local pixie village about expanding the stronghold and how that would cut into their territory. That was a whole mess, but we seemed to have come to agreement." She sighed. "Then one night, we just started hearing strange sounds. The next morning we found claw marks on the trees. We thought the few pixies who still disagreed with us were playing some sort of trick to try and get us to leave, but when we went to confront them about it, they got mad at us. Apparently, some of the pixies had gone missing the night before, and they of coursed blamed us."

"That went on for a couple of days," Pleexem added. "More pixies disappeared, more weird sounds in the middle of the night."

"We noticed how quiet the forest was during the day, too. Vipereyes noted how she saw less and less fauna around the place, and Alto told us he hadn't felt the presence of elementals either. We decided after a while we should send word back to the Capitol. Maug offered to act as messenger, so they left." Tamba lowers her head solemly. "We never saw them again, and we never heard anything back."

"Until you showed up, that is," Pleexem pointed out. "You're the first word we've heard from anyone in weeks." He looks at Skobeloff with a mixture of hope and dread. "Did... did Maug ever reach the Capitol? Are they okay?"

---

Stargaze's explanation did nothing to ease Alpin's surprised expression. "You had a vision? About me?" he says, looking up at Fellwing. He looks a little embarrassed. "I wasn't doing anything stupid in your vision, was I?"

He then looks to Stargaze when she mentioned Echo. "Echo..." Alpin repeated, a hint of recognition in his voice. "Right. She's the elemental who lives near that willow tree." He nods. "Yeah I think I know the way to her place. Thankfully, it's in the more watery part of the swamp, which means we're not likely to run into any more brownies. Not many of us really like swimming." He frowns as he gestures to his surroundings. "I mean, I ain't particularly fond of it myself but if keeps us safe, it keeps us safe."

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Jub the Peculiar

Jub had spent the rest of the journey enjoying his new wings. The group had to tolerate him flying circles overhead and occasionally calling out "Hey, hey, guys, check this out!" before pulling off some trick. Eventually, the magic wore off and his wings disappeared. Thankfully, he wasn't too far up in the air when it happened, though he doing a somersault at the time and ended falling face-first onto the raft. Once he'd recovered, he had sat for a bit while just staring at the origami horse they had gotten from the wisps, considering all that had happened over the past few hours. In particular, he was recalling how he'd turned one of those giant snakes to stone with a magic missile, and wondering if he should see if he could do that again. Was that just a fun side-effect that occurred because they were in the Feywild? He was thinking about how he could test it out, even eying up Bob as a possible test-subject, when the group finally reached Telemy Hill. Aurora was just asking Talarvar where they could find this Jingle Jangle when Brutrumukk suddenly announced he was going looking for food.

"You hungry again?" Jub said. However, he had to admit, the smell was quite tempting. When announced Gabriel announced he was going with the bugbear and called for the goblin to join them, Jub gave a resigned sigh and stood up to follow them. Before he went, though, he turned to Aurora. "If, err, we need to find you again, I'll send up some fireworks with Prestidigitation. Good luck on finding the key!" And with that, he followed after Gabriel and Brutrumukk.

Adventure (A D&D 5E Game)

"I... see," was all Flicker could say in response to Mixer's dismissal. They decided not to push the point and risk upsetting the goblin more. If she was fine possibly getting into legal trouble - or worse - with disgruntled customers, well, that was her choice.

At Aura and Cascade's insistence that they try the potion, Flicker made a face. "It's not the lightning I'm worried about," they said. They nodded towards Jørmund. "I don't exactly want to have hallucinations of past enemies or people I've... harmed in the past." They lowered their voice slightly. "I think about that stuff enough without having hallucinations about it." They gave an awkward cough. While that mentioned their previous problems with their temper and powers to Aura, Jørmund and Rala, it still wasn't something they enjoyed talking about. Plus, with Cascade still being new to the group, this wasn't exactly how Flicker wanted to broach the subject. They quickly changed the subject. "Besides, you heard the goblin," they said, motioning to Mixer. "Apparently the side-effects are numerous, and I'm not a fan of leaving things to those kind of chances. Too many things could go wrong."

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

I'm tempted for Jub to take the origami, just I feel like he'd find it amusing.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

I'll get a post up tomorrow.

Aesithas (D&D 5e Homebrew)

Vigil

Like Francesca, Vigil remains near the back of the group as they make their way further into the tomb and keeps his eyes and ears opened to make sure no one followed them. He doesn't pay much attention to the statues or really any of the chamber's contents, instead keeping his eye on each member of the group. He didn't want any of them to go wandering off alone and get themselves into trouble.

It was only when a marching order was suggested that he turned his attention towards the pathways. "I, ah, could go first," he offers. "While I am not the most nimble, I have honed my senses living in the badlands, and should be able to detect any threats." He sweeps his tail upwards to indicate his shelled back. "Besides, even if I do set a trap off, I'm well enough defended to take a hit."

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

While I was writing that scene, I suddenly imagined Skobeloff in an interrogation room with Tamba and Pleexem playing good cop-bad cop trying to figure out if he's corrupted or not xP

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

It didn't take much effort for Skobeloff to wake the other two drakes, namely because it turned out neither were actually asleep: as Skobeloff went to nudge one of the sleeping forms, he was immediately greeted with it opening its eyes, registering who was standing before them, and then wrapping their wings around the trickster in a relieved hug.

"Thank the moons, a friendly face at last!" Skobeloff would recognise Tamba's voice immediately.

The other figure in the room also sits up. "Careful, Tamba," he says in a hushed voice. Skobeloff can probably assume this other dragon is Pleexem, and from what it seems, the two of them had also been pretending to be asleep. "For all we know, he could be corrupted too!"

"Oh, you're right!" Tamba immediately lets go of Skobeloff, takes a step back before craning her neck forward to look the blue drake up and down. "Hmm, it's actually hard to tell in this light, gimme a sec." She takes another step back before lifting up a claw, and glancing up at the sky. She mutters some sort of prayer, likely to one of the moons, before a small spark of light appears in her claw. It doesn't do much to light the room, but it does at least allow Skobeloff to better see Tamba and Pleexem's faces. While Skobeloff hadn't recognise Pleexem's name, he did recall seeing this dragon with Tamba a few times before. He also will notice a similarity in colour schemes and body shapes of the two other drakes, indicating that they're not only clutchmates, they're also probably related in some way. "Well, at least it's something," Tamba says as she looks at the light in her claw. "Do you know how tricky the moons have been since we've got here? I've been barely able to do any magic. Not sure if it's because of the Darkness being present on this island or simply because we're in a shaded area. Now, if you'll just..." The green dragon looks at Skobeloff again, scrutinizing him as if she's looking for something. After a moment, she glances over at Pleexem. "He seems alright. No wierd black veins OR any change in his colouration."

Pleexem gives a small, somewhat skeptical 'hmm' but he does walk closer to the two of them, taking a seat next to Tamba. "If you say so," he mutters. "You know him better than I do, after all."

Aesithas (D&D 5e Homebrew)

Gonna get a post up over the weekend.

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

As Skobeloff pretends to fall asleep on his feet and rests his head against the older dragon, he feels one of her wings fold over him and press him closer to her. He can hear Fogdance's heart racing inside her chest, revealing that despite her attempts to appear as gentle and welcoming as possible, she is actually on the verge of complete panic: the Darkness has warped her perception of the world around her, causing her to see threats round every corner. However, instead of being afraid for her own well-being, her focus seems to entirely be on protecting those under her care. It's likely, from what Fellwing shared about her vision, that Fogdance is holding Tamba and Pleexem here against their will in an attempt to 'keep them safe', and plans to do the same with Skobeloff. This suspicion is confirmed as they reach one of the rooms, and Fogdance has to pause in order to go through her keyring in search of the correct key. This gives Skobeloff time to consider his options.

Over the many centuries since the Moonlit Isles were first raised into the sky, much work has been done in an attempt to understand the Darkness, with Houses Myndoth and Kebros taking the most active role in research. As such, Skobeloff has a decent amount of information to go off of concerning shadow selves: when the Darkness fully overtakes someone, it targets a trait or belief that is core to that individual and twists and exaggerates it until they are a dark parody of themselves. The best way to return someone to themselves is to challenge this belief. From what Skobeloff can tell, Fogdance's normally nurturing soul has been turned to an over-protectiveness, bordering on possessiveness. Her desire to love and care for those smaller and weaker than herself has been poisoned so that she no longer able to recognise them as individuals with their own needs and wants, but objects that need to be hoarded and kept safe at all cost. Because Skobeloff has been playing along, Fogdance has been rather docile. Should he start exercising his own will and independence, however, he will likely bring out a viciousness in the older dragon, the viciousness of a mother trying to protect her young but to absurd, self-destructive degree. Skobeloff needs to find a way to convince Fogdance, either through word or action, that her smothering nature is at best unnecessary and at worst harmful to those she seeks to care for.

At last, Fogdance seems to locate the correct key and opens the door to a small, dark room. The windows have been closed and no light sources are visible, but Skobeloff can just about see the sleeping forms of two small drakes, likely Tamba and Pleexem. He feels Fogdance start to gently nudge him into the room. What will Skobeloff do?

---

Alpin leads the dragons away from his corrupted brethren and deeper into the marshier part of the jungle. At first, the young brownie is quiet, keeping his pace quick and his eyes in front, only pausing when he hears a sound or detects movement. Whenever they encounter one of the other brownies, he stops completely and raises his hand to signal that the dragons should do the same. Once the threat has moved, he starts scurrying forward again. After walking long enough without encountering another living creature, to where the trees are sparse and the ground is more water than soil, he finally starts to slow down a little and will often look over his shoulder at the dragons. In particular, he keeps looking at Fellwing. Obviously, the seer calling him by name has confused the brownie, and he appears to be trying to recollect if they may have met at some point.

Eventually, he gives up trying and just says what he's been thinking this whole time. "So, hey, I'm Alpin," he introduced himself, still walking forward as he speaks. He then tilts his head towards Fellwing. "But then, you already knew that. Somehow. And can I say, that's very strange because I haven't met many dragons in my time - they don't have much reason to come round here - and I certainly haven't met a pure black dragon before. So I'm afraid, friends, you have me at something of a disadvantage, because you know me and I don't know you." He tilts his head towards each of the dragons, as if he's waiting for them to finally introduce themselves.