May Event Log B: Return to Einjar

[usirmods]

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🜙 Mod Note
	Return to Einjar's resolution is dependent on the choices the involved players make and will affect the resolution of Song of Suffering. It is not too late to sign up There will be a comment below for plot-specific questions and exploration we encourage everyone to use to help drive the resolutions/plot of the event. After you have read through this post please respond to This Poll as soon as you feel comfortable making the choices in it. Please respond even if your character is not participating in either event as the choice made effects the game world/all players.
🜙 Trouble in Preciposte April 26th
	The first stop on the excursion is Preciposte. Arrival to the Northern Outpost is greeted by near silence. Only a handful of people remain in the deserted outpost and all of them are waiting for the excursion team within the town's tavern. Stew and Hot Mead are available to anyone who needs or wants it and the outpost's designated healer has one of the larger rooms set up with beds for rest and recovery if anyone is injured during the side mission. The mountain goat satyr and her assistants, a very short kobold and a cheerful blue orc, are around to offer their help where needed but they won't leave the tavern. Once everyone is off the airships and crammed into the building, Ser Medraut has a few of his men hand out supplies and split the group into teams with different dedicated tasks. He explains the dangers of the mountain cliffs and the creatures that live at this altitude, including the cliff hawks that do not often differentiate between an easy animal meal or a person. He says that reports from Preciposte citizens that have been relocated to Krimnos claim a large flying beast with scales has been picking people off, and that at dusk its roars and screeches can be heard throughout the outpost. As he finishes and the teams are formed up the kobold in the tavern gets up on the bar to speak to the group. He explains that the little outpost might not look like much but for a lot of folks it's home and they'll do what they can to help the team while they search for the cause of the attacks. Whatever is hunting the mountains is big enough to take on the cliff hawks and it has already carried off a few of the Krimnos mountain horses (Clydesdales). The excursion company is split up into three teams with the Defensive team being made up of people on both teams to allow them to rotate. Team Task: Team Members ⤛ Search Track down, identify, and capture or kill the creature terrorizing Preciposte. Daenerys Targaryen Nike Lemercier Lauralae Robb Stark Poe Dameron Sypha Belnades ⤛ Rescue: Find any evidence of the missing Preciposte travelers and residents and return them or their bodies to the outpost if possible Alucard Jon Snow Trevor Kylo Ren Sansa Stark ⤛ Defense Protect Preciposte and the airships/supplies from attack, provide backup for the other teams where needed. Nike Lemercier Jon Snow Robb Stark Trevor Kylo Ren Sansa Stark Poe Dameron Search team is tasked with tracking down the beast, identifying it, and making the decision to kill or capture it and put an end to the terrorizing it has been doing to the outpost. The paths through and around the mountain Preciposte rests on the precipice of and its immediate surrounding mountains are their search area. While seeking out the creature the usual mountain threats (Cliff hawks, cave spindles, frost manticores, mountain trolls, dire bears, dire wolves, dire snow leopards, avalanches, rockslides, and crumbling cliff ledges). Scorch marks cover swathes of mountain sides and deep claw marks are scored into areas of stone. Scattered weaponry, destroyed and burnt carts, and an odd assortment of crumbled stone piles line the small ravines and sloped sides of the mountains, and a series of caves to explore dot the paths and dangerous off-path areas. A portion of the team is made of trackers and beastfolk to help track down and understand how to contain or kill the creature Rescue team's job is a grim one. Recover the bodies and any evidence of lives lost from the ravines and paths. Collect any obvious personal belongings and remains and send them back to Preciposte for the loved ones of those lost or for proper burials. The same risks exist for both Search and Rescue team, but Rescue team's instructions are to get to cover and hide immediately if the threat is spotted. A portion of the team is dedicated to stealth and illusion to help the team get through their tasks without having to directly confront the creature causing the disappearances. A tracker is on the team to help locate signs of life in the mountains and avoid following beast tracks rather than people ones. The Defense team is made up of members of both teams and their job is to protect the ships and Preciposte from cliff hawk/creature attacks or thieves. A company of around 12 knights goes with Search team, 3 with Rescue team, and the other 15 knights and Ser Medraut remain in Preciposte to help with Defense team. All three teams can encounter the creature, though only search team should directly try to contain or kill it. Being bitten by the creature or looking into its gaze will cause the characters to begin slowly turning to stone from their extremities or the point of the bite. The injury starts with a slow, creeping discoloration of the skin to gray and a stiffness of the limbs. It progresses to a hardening of digits and then lower extremities followed by upper extremities and eventually the entire body will turn to stone. The whole process takes about 1-2 weeks depending on the size and health of the individual. The creature is small, only around nine feet tall with an eighteen foot wingspan. It breathes fire and unusual metal fixtures on its chest, wings, legs, and tail appear to be armor and spikes made of a golden alloy of some kind. It is highly aggressive but will attempt to flee back to the caves if wounded. When the creature is killed, or contained in the airship hold if captured, the excursion company boards the airships once more, sends word to Krimnos of their progress, and continues on to Einjar.
🜙 Eroding Memories April 28th
	The flight from Preciposte to Einjar is tense. The ship crews have to call out to one another as the airships drift through dense, freezing cloud cover. Silence hangs heavy over the whole excursion team other than the echoed call outs for jutting rocks or turns. Progress is a slow drift in the blinding white and gray, and freezing condensation clings and freezes to the ships and everything on board. The air clears as they approach Einjar without hindrance, and the ships grind to a rest on stone dwarf reliefs carved out of the cliff edges. Before the excursion company, in the clearing air, is an unsettling sight. The doors to Einjar lay in crumbled ruins at their base, blocking up the rivers that flowed down Einjar's steep staircases. An overflow tunnel beneath the great landing pours forth torrents of clear water and at the base of the waterfall the lake that rests in the valley before Einjar and the river that flows from it are now visible below the clouds. The lake is a deep blackish-red, and the river sluggishly flowing from it runs red like blood. Ser Medraut calls his knights and volunteers together, the company of knights and a few hands worth of volunteers is small, but the vast landing and doors of Einjar make the team feel impossibly small. Scorch marks in arcing lightning bolt patterns and hardened ice cover the open entrance and crumbled doors to Einjar, the 3 foot deep stone doors have been smashed like clay and lie in a rubble heap blocking the lower half of the entrance in. Ser Medraut gathers Alucard, Trevor, Lauralae and two of his knights and asks them to go over the rubble and quietly, carefully, check ahead into the entrance. They will be the first group back inside of Einjar. He sends Daenerys, Sansa, Poe and Robb to seek out the kobolds the last excursion team met in the hopes of getting information from them. Medraut says Daenerys should be able to lead the group back to the kobold's home a little ways back along the mountain. Nike, Jon, Kylo, and Sypha are tasked with guard duty while the rest of the knights work to clear the rubble, and will quickly have their work cut out for them, as large dire wolves begin to appear on the cliffs to the left and right of the landing, their lips curled back in threatening snarls.
🜙 The Enemy Within April 28th-May ??
	Once the team enters Einjar they find the city bathed in an eerie reddish-purple light. The dome above the city's mountain spring fed lake is cracked and stained red, a slow and steady drip sounding from the back of the city. Many of the buildings inside Einjar have been damaged, some cracked and others now housing crumbling holes where something caved part of them in. The waterfalls barely trickle down into the river, the water pinkish-red. The river, partially drained, is at half its level leaving the heads and helms of stone kobolds and dwarves visible in the canals. Deep claw marks scour the stone floors and some of the buildings and bridges are coated in a thick, beautiful white-blue ice. Each time a drop falls from the dome and hits the lake a ripple of ringing sound echoes through the city, sending a shiver of Paranoia Reflection through anyone who hears it. Touching the water or disturbing it in any way causes the Song of Suffering to ring out, while direct contact and prolonged contact cause the excursion team members who touch or drink the water to be overtaken by Fury or Desperation. Reflection Cause & Symptoms ⤛ Paranoia Caused by exposure to the ringing song of suffering. The sound of the ringing roots out and pulls to the surface every negative, lingering, violent, uncertain, or angry thought the person has had toward or about others and amplifies it, transforming emotions over a simple comment or fleeting thought into defined certainty and righteous fury. Twisting even the clear-minded or pacifistic until they are willing to kill others to protect themselves or those they are defending. While under Paranoia's influence they are beset by an unquenchable thirst and hunger, but no other physical symptoms. The only way to 'cure' someone affected is to disable their hearing or relocate them far enough from the river that the ringing can no longer be heard. ⤛ Fury Caused by any physical exposure to the water itself. Contact with the liquid causes a surge of wild, furious power that infects those it overtakes with a fury that is not their own. This fury is undirected and will cause the affected to lash out at anything near them, living or non-living. Once a target has been found they will not stop until that target is dead or completely destroyed. While under Fury's influence their skin begins to harden and grey starting at the hands and their strength, physically and magically, doubles. Fury can only be cleansed by fresh water or light magic. ⤛ Desperation Caused by ingesting the water or prolonged exposure to the water. If submerged, the person will find their vision quickly adjusting to the water and if they open their eyes they will feel as if something is looking back at them from the depths, reaching out to them. Once they emerge from the water or cease drinking the water they will either see or feel the thick coating of red liquid that does not drip or move, clinging heavily to their skin or muscles. The liquid seeps into their skin or muscles and their eyes turn bloodshot and then solid red. While under Desperation's influence their eyes remain solid red and their movements become sluggish with erratic bursts of speed and wild strength. Until they are doused with fresh water or light magic they will be consumed by desperation and singularly focused on their last goal or thought as if letting go of it would kill them. Without direction or a goal to latch onto the desperation becomes a consuming need to stop the noise and fighting around them through any means possible.
🜙 Einjar's End
	As the last member of the team enters Einjar a thunderous roar sounds from outside the city, and the screech of a dragon sounds, deafeningly loud through the cavern. A blast of blue and white light blinds anyone who looks back at the entrance, the sound of crystals shattering and bumping against one another accompanying it. With the muffled sound of wing beats the excursion team looks up to see the entrance barricaded by a thick wall of blue-white ice at least ten feet thick. The team is temporarily trapped within Einjar and the heavy beat of wings and further screeches and shattering sounds can just barely be heard outside the thick stone and ice walls. With the effects of Paranoia gradually increasing, affecting more and more of the excursion team more strongly with the passage of time and the trapped waters of the Einjar river gradually rising the clock is ticking. Behind the team comes the sound of cracking stone and shifting earth. From out of the broken ravine a creature crawls, leather skin pulled tight over dense bones, ancient armor hanging loosely off its thin form. It slams its axe into the stone and pulls itself up out of the ravine, glowing blue eyes fixating on the nearest knight. It pulls itself up and charges with its axe raised, taking four arrows to the head and chest without slowing before bursting into flames with a horrifying shriek. Behind the draug the familiar tall form of Monty stands, his hands glowing with yellowish-orange light. "Come on, quickly." Monty forms a ball of light in his hand, throwing it down into the ravine to the shrieks of the draugs below and waves his other hand with urgency, breaking into a sprint for one of the towers that had previously appeared to be made of solid stone in an earlier visit. He leads the excursion team along and over the river, the sounds of the emerging draugs echoing behind them until they reach the building. Monty shoves his shoulder into a large circular stone slab covered in runes at the entrance, encouraging others to help him push it. It takes the force of four of them to roll it over in time and they just barely make it, the stone slab dropping down slightly and sliding forward with a thin flash of light until it forms what looks like a solid wall between them and the draugs. A pack of frightened young kobolds are huddled in the back of the main tower room and a large table rests at its center, a single dwarf sitting at its head. Closer inspection reveals the dwarf to be entirely made of stone, a grim expression on her face, her eyes locked on the now solid former doorway and her hand clasped tight around something. Monty pulls off his hood and warily greets the knights before going to check on his siblings, looking them over for injuries and asking them questions with reassuring head pats or back rubs as he goes. A series of five doors cover one circular back wall of the cavern room and stacks of papers and books cover the table, covering dwarf history, dragons, draugs, curses, the long night, and various other events. Ser Medraut sets the volunteers to work on the documents and the kobolds to try and find some answers about what is going on. The knights and their leader climb up the tower to the upper levels, watching the draugs through the barely visible arrow slits, keeping an eye out for trouble, ready for another fight. Ser Medraut descends to give the team the good and the bad news not long after. They can't count how many draugs are out there, but the draugs don't seem to know where they are. The bad news? The river is starting to flood the city, and the ringing sound from everything the water hits is gradually growing louder.
🜙 Escape From Einjar
	After the fifth of May the dragon's roars can no longer be heard outside the city. The water's levels have risen, covering the ground in four inches of red water. The draug's numbers have been considerably cut down, and the creatures themselves seem to mill about, sloshing through water and adding to the constant ringing echoing throughout the cavern. Their weapons drag in the water and the blue glow to their eyes has lessened. They appear to have grown sluggish, but their speed will return if they realize there are still living among them. With the dragon gone, at least one way out is available to the excursion team: Through the ice wall at the city's entrance. Once out of Einjar the team will discover the wreckage of two smoldering airships, covered in ashes and ice and shattered against the stones far below the cliff. The ship whose hold contained the creature from Preciposte remains intact, listing slightly where it is anchored to the cliff. The knights immediately go to check on the ship and grow concerned when there is no sign of the creature that was captured in the ship's hold. They begin to open up the side of the vessel to search for damage and fire blasts outward from the hold, catching several of the knights in its path. The basilisk emerges from the hold, its scales shimmering back into their normal coloration. Its tail slams into part of the team, trying to sweep them off the cliff, and it makes a horrible crowing hiss as it charges out of the ship. Free of the ship the feathers around its head extend out like a mane and shake threateningly. After that display it ignores the team, running straight for Einjar's entrance and launches an attack on the stone statues that stand guard outside the city. Any dragonets present when the basilisk crows will become temporarily paralysed by fear.

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[dorzalta]

Gaze on the younger kobolds, Dany's brows are slightly pinched together. Of all the thoughts that crossed her mind when her group discovered the kobolds' home, not once had she imagined they would find one another like this. Surely they'd escaped, seeing as the cave had been abandoned... mostly.

The younger kobolds look tired; one in particular with his silvery skin, holds her attention for a beat too long. None of them looked that way when last they met.

"A group of us tried to find you earlier. I'm glad you're safe." If a little worse for wear. Balerion sits on her shoulder, not as a dragon, but a winged cat. Once Monty approaches, he sits up, sudden in his attentiveness. When she reaches for the canteen, he goes to move with her, leaning closer, trying to--she's not sure. Taste the air? There's a light snuffing sound coming from him. "What attacked you?"

[usirnpcs]

"Safe." Monty parrots softly, his gaze drifting toward the stone wall between them, the river and the draugs. He drops his arm slowly, the canteen still grasped in his scarred hand, but he doesn't openly refute her claim so close to his younger siblings. He drops his hood back and rubs his fingers over the jagged scar across the bridge of his face, the only one that used to be there before the events of the last month.

His blue-eyed gaze drifts to Balerion, lingering, carefully lifting his other hand without touching the apparent feline, just curiously observing as if he has never seen such a creature.

"It has not been a good month for our family." There is a thickness to his softspoken voice, his bright grin gone and replaced with a distant look in eyes that have seen too much in a month for one person.

"There were strangers in the mountains. They said they were here to help the mountain, that it was sick and they could fix it." He trails off and sets the canteen on the table, idly shuffling books and papers around without really looking at them.

"They weren't good people."

[dorzalta]

The 'feline' makes another huffing sound, then moves to bump his snout against Monty's hand. Though the illusion remains intact, there is no cat nose or furry snout, but something scaly. Dany's jaw tightens, eyes bright but steady as she watches Monty. And then carefully, she'll spare the knights as casual a glance as she can. They're paying the two no mind.

Good enough, for when Monty moves, so does Balerion. He stumbles from her shoulder to the table, scamping after the other.

"There were statues." Of kobolds. Could those have been like the dwarves and dragons in-- "What did the strangers look like? There was word of a creature attacking the nearby outpost. It's why we came back."

[usirnpcs]

Monty's eyes focus on Balerion at the touch of cool scales against his own, an almost tangible ripple of magic passing between the two and ebbing out near Dany. He doesn't say anything, but gently reaches out to stroke a couple scaled fingers over the top of Balerion's head the way he would to soothe his siblings during a storm. It takes him a moment to focus back on her words, partially due to the distraction of the dragonet and partially due to his own reluctance.

"They were trying to buy us time to get away." He murmurs, his voice lower now. "The strangers wore black robes and masks over their faces. We didn't trust them immediately but one of them was different. He had a wooden mask but a kind voice and it was hard not to listen to him." He shakes his head, like he's still trying to push that voice out, and tries to focus on the creature.

"They had a..." He hesitates, leaning in closer to her and lowering his voice to a whisper. "They had a dragon with them." His volume returns to normal after he whispers the word.

"After we helped them into Einjar they used it to fight something they called the City Ender. They fought all through the mountain and then the dragon killed it and the man took its eyes and pushed its body into the spring lake. The water started to turn red and another, smaller one of the creatures appeared from the mines and attacked us. It bit one of my brothers."

It's a lot for Monty to talk about right now, and he takes a moment just to stroke Balerion, seeming to take comfort in the small creature's presence.

"The one with the wooden mask said some words I didn't recognize and those things, the draugs, started coming from everywhere and attacking the creature. We thought he was helping us, but then they left. They were gone as if they had never been here. The dragon smashed the doors apart from the inside and left, and the creature followed after it. We fled back home but the man with the wooden mask was there. He wanted me to come with him and..." Monty pauses, shaking his head with a grimace.

"Part of me wanted to but I told him my place was here, with my family. I made him angry." He doesn't finish the story, crouching down by the table and scratching under Balerion's chin gently with a claw.

"We're all that's left." Monty, and just over a dozen of his youngest siblings.

[dorzalta]

Whatever the two share, she doesn't understand it. Not really. There's the ebb of magic, though, the tinge of it tickling her periphery. If there was any doubt of Monty's blood, the way he acts with Balerion and the way her dragonet responds wipes that away. It's like recognizing like.

Also why she doesn't stop Balerion from following him on the table. Though, part of that reason also has to do with the people and situation he describes. Masked strangers in black robes with a dragon. The City Ender is another line of thought she'll pursue after she addresses the immediate:

"The one with the wooden mask--was it shaped like a skull?"

She already knows the answer. It has to be. And with that realization comes a sick twisting in her stomach, a phantom ache in her chest as she recalls the pit and her death.

"He did something to it with some sort of ritual in the pit. They were torturing it when they brought us down to the cavern it was chained in." She's leaning closer to Monty as she speaks, her voice as quiet as his was when he mentioned the dragon. Carefully, she drags her fingers along her dragonet's spine. "It's where I found his egg. They kidnapped so many people, but left a group of us behind when the ritual was done. The one in the wooden mask said we were tainted."

And then, later, after she'd found Balerion's egg, she'd fallen to her death. This place seems to want to resurface memories she's tried pushing behind her, forcing her to face them when they're best left forgotten. Though perhaps they're not--she'd wanted to find the one who did this to them, and in a way, she had. It didn't require the black market after all.

"His name's Balerion," she says softly. Just as carefully, she'll press her palm to Monty's forearm. A light touch, easily gone if he shows even the slightest aversion to being touched. "We're going to find him... and we're going to bring him fire and blood. He'll die screaming for what he did to your family."

[usirnpcs]

Monty nods in response to her question before adding his own observation.

"With a crown." The red jewel at its center had been almost mesmerizing. Monty listens, his brows pinching together above his eyes as she talks about a pit and the dragon in it. His focus is on her, but his hands stay on the table, near the dragonet in disguise. When she mentions the comment the masked individual had made Monty looks down at his own hands, lifting them off the table and rubbing over the leathery soft scales over his palm.

"I don't think they bothered to chase us, but the dragon did. It looked at me like it wanted nothing else but my life." He looks over his shoulder briefly toward his siblings and back to her. "I left them here. I didn't think they would be safe with it after me, but they were attacked by another one of those creatures, a smaller one. It bit my brother and now..." Monty trails off and shakes his head.

"I know what happened to the rest of our family. I don't want him to end up like them. Those creatures belonged to the dwarves they must have something here on how to cure him." Later he might focus more on Balerion, who keeps drawing his focus, or the masked people who broke his family, but right now Monty's primary focus is on protecting what is left of them.

"I had never seen one before in anything but drawings." He adds as an afterthought. "This isn't what I imagined they would be like." He does not specify if he is referring to the one outside, Balerion, or both of them.

"Do you think they're related?"

[dorzalta]

"It wasn't violent before, not really--it was tired and in pain." Though that's no reason to forgive what the creature had become, or what this group planned to do with the dragon. She'd still want to find a way to save it, but if it attacked Monty, his family, perhaps it was beyond saving? "Whatever that ritual was, the man in the mask used the light from those he didn't believe were tainted. It took from some of his followers, as well."

Her gaze trails back to the younger kobolds. They'd called her Diamondscale as she'd told them stories of the outside world. Why would they ever wish to explore it now, if this is what's become of their families?

"The City Ender, you called it. What did that one look like?" As she asks him this, she's making to remove her staff, which had been hooked around her shoulder during the trip. It's still blooming and alive. She gestures to Monty's brother. "May I?"

Before he can answer, she's already stepping away from the table, smiling down at the younger kobolds. Balerion makes a noise, making to jump upon Monty's arm and scurry up his shoulder with Dany further away.

"They could be related," she says, glancing back to the two. The sight's enough to have her lips twisting in faint amusement. Then she's kneeling. "Or perhaps they're not, with all the nests that were down there. The colorings are different. What do you think?"

[usirnpcs]

Monty reaches up a hand to rub along the back of Balerion's neck, following after Daenerys once she starts moving. He feels the claws and the scales, well aware that there isn't a cat or a furred creature on his shoulder, but just seeks to both offer and take comfort from the small creature. His touch on the dragonet is light and gentle, careful not to catch his claws on the scales.

"It was as big as the dragon," Larger than the creature Daenerys would have encountered. "With a head and claws like a bird and a body like..." He hesitates to compare it to the dragon, the memory of the blue and white creature that held that name still fresh in his mind. "Like a different kind of dragon. It had a big metal collar around its neck."

He kneels beside her, his mind drifting to wonder what the dragonet looked like under the illusion over it.

"I don't think so." He has nothing to base that verdict on other than the way he felt about the large dragon that had wanted to rip him apart, and the dragonet on his shoulder that he felt a growing need to protect and a strange kinship toward that he had previously only felt toward his kobold family. He has a question he wants to ask her, but not in front of his siblings, so he keeps it to himself for now.

"Do you think you can heal him?" His voice is hopeful but his eyes are dark with worry. His light magic had done nothing against whatever affliction was overtaking his brother.

[dorzalta]

"You said a second one rose from the mines. A second City Ender?" She's reaching for Monty's brother's hand, ducking forward to smile at the younger kobold. I remember you her look says. "Did it have red feathers on it?"

Her thoughts still dance around what Monty said earlier: that the masked man took the City Ender's eyes. Pushing the body into the lake turned it red. So... if they retrieve the body, could they stop what's occurring in the lake?

They would need to reach the lake, first, and with so many of those creatures lingering outside, ready to attack... not to mention the effects of the lake. No, she doesn't want to experience that again. Not unless she had to.

Balerion is nosing his way to Monty's neck, huffing and snuffing like she'd imagine a wolf would. Though he remains under an illusion, she imagines he looks exactly as the cat he mimics, lazy and curious all at once, arching under the attentions of a hand on his neck. Those two make quite the pair.

"My magic is fire." She meets that hopeful gaze with a steady look, aching over the fact that she can do so little. "The staff--it might work. It's worth trying."

If they can escape Einjar, perhaps Christine would know of something stronger. Or maybe Strange, with all his knowledge of forbidden things. But until then, there's this and what they have here, now. So she turns back to Monty's brother and presses the doe's head of her staff to his left arm.

[usirnpcs]

"Smaller, but yes. They looked very similar. It was green I think, with feathers that were orange or red." Monty responds, rubbing exhaustion from his eyes and blinking a few times to clear them. He watches her touch his brother without concern, and the younger Kobold stiffly tries to squeeze her hand, his fingers barely moving.

"It made an awful sound." Monty takes a slow seat beside his brother's unaffected side and carefully puts his arm around the small kobold, one hand gently squeezing a stiff gray shoulder and the other rubbing a pair of fingers over Balerion's spine.

There's hope in his eyes when she touches the staff to his brother's cursed arm, and the staff seems to work for a moment, the bite marks healing and closing. Then, the wood of the staff begins to gray at the Doe's head, the staff growing heavy as stone slowly tries to overtake it, traveling up the staff with increasing speed and heading for Dany's hand.

If she doesn't drop the staff or pull it away, Monty will quickly react, knocking it from her hand. In either case, the staff returns to its depleted state, the stony covering disappearing but leaving it resembling a dead branch, uncharged and dormant. Whatever Monty's brother is suffering from, the magic of the curse is powerful and seems to be actively protecting itself.

Monty doesn't let the disappointment in him show, offering his brother a warm smile and pointing out to him that the wounds are gone. He reassures Bridd that he'll be all better in no time. On his shoulder the dragonet grows uneasy, abruptly jumping from him back to his caretaker where he feels safer.

Monty gets to his feet, leaving his canteen in his brother's hands and telling him to save his energy for healing up before turning back for the table. If she follows him, she will find his grip cracking the table under his hands as he stares down at the piles of books and loose papers. There's a barely visible golden glow to both his hands and his eyes.