"Dragons make great opponents. they make better allies."
-Anonymous."The first time I saw a dragon upon my arrival in Aramar, well, other than the initial panic, was just plain awe. Short of commercial airplanes and military transports, I'd never seen anything that flaming big flying.
"There had been some preconceptions of course, to think of them as dinosaur-like or as big reptiles, but the body structure is all wrong for lizard. There is no single terrestrial analogue for them though thinking of them as a scaly sort of cat with wings gives you the general build and way they move.
"The dragon was a bronze, and I could clearly see veins and shadings of green among the dull bronze color when it passed over the street I was on. Also unlike my preconceptions, this one was wearing stuff. A sash of brilliant blue, wrist bands of some electrum-colored metal, and horn caps with tassles. That the sash had enough material to make three or four circus tents was not lost on me. As I was to later learn, this was a dragon in the 'Great Wyrm' category of about 1300 years age making one last great pilgrammage before returning to his lair and awaiting the 'Twilight' of his life. "The first dragon I saw, though hardly the last. The founding Emperor of Shadar had met many dragons in his time, some of evil bent, and managed to forge an alliance between them and the races of Shadar. How he managed such a feat is beyond me, but even some thoroughly vicious and nasty red dragons not aligned with the Empire apparently speak of Mannin Shades with respect.
"The first time I saw an angry dragon, it was merely a wyrmling - a baby dragon. On second thought, there is nothing 'merely' about a dragon at any age."
-A Wanderer's Tale, Keian the Wanderer.
The cave had a small entry but was larger inside among other things.
"Hmmmm, old work this. Illithid?" asked Jaim as she fingered a carving that appeared to resemble some octopus creature.
"Looks that way, must be two or three hundred years since the brain-eaters were here though," pointed out Tamlyn. "A stavanzer is hardly likely to move into their territory unless they're long gone."
"What's an 'illithid'?" predictably asked Ranma.
"One of these," said Jaim, now inspecting some wall decoration.
Ranma looked at the picture and made a disgusted noise. A thin, sort of spindly, creature in robes. Purple skin, yellow eyes, bulbous head with veins prominent. Instead of a lower face it had these long thin tentacles hanging down that seemed to be tipped with some hard material. "Ugly suckers."
"Not half as ugly as they act," said Jaim. "They eat brains and regard any other species as either cattle or enemies."
"Not that they're the only species that does that last," said Krioness. "Looks like this was a base at some point."
"So what happened to them?" asked Ranma, wondering why the picture made him nervous.
Marain spoke up from where she was. "They went up against the Mu."
"I thought illithid were supposed to be smart," said Krioness as she prodded a statue.
"What's a 'Mu'?" asked Ranma, thinking those must be fairly nasty too.
"Large crystalline creatures, a Hive mind or collective consciousness. Sort of insect like. Psionic," said Erma. "Very powerful psychics when you're dealing with a full Hive. Not very aggressive though, they tend to be more philosophical in direction. Marain? Why do you think they fought the Mu?"
"There's a dead one back here, they probably isolated one and were going to try converting it into some psionic artifact. If they did that and their shielding slipped for even a split instant," said Marain.
Ranma went to see this new thing and found it easily enough. Sort of like an ant except that it was twice his length and made of white mainly transparent crystal. "That was alive?"
"Yes, I've seen the Mu," said Erma. "They don't bury their dead, just process the consciousness back into their Hive mind. They're not like any of the other sentient races in many respects. They have trouble just understanding us in some vague way. One by itself isn't even as powerful psychically as I am. A Hive of a few thousand though, it's one big mind drawing power from all its parts."
Marain finished looking around. "No secret doors or traps. This was a living base when it fell. There's some old robes and stuff around the dead Mu, they probably exploded from within the moment it made contact with its Hive. For a psychically active race it would have been pretty nasty."
"Not that you'd want to collect any treasure that was originated from illithid." Erma pointed out. "Any artifacts or gadgets they have are likely tainted."
"Gold and gems are always good to find," responded Marain. "But it looks like they aren't present. Why couldn't it be a dragon's hoard?"
That earned her a hostile look from Kironess of course.
"Just kidding," complained Marain.
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(Posted Sun, 30 May 2004 09:51)
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