#### Author's note ####
And here we go, the room created by DrDankness arrives! Hope you all enjoy it, it is a lot of fun!
Also the room's story was made by him, with some input from me to make sure it worked in the setting.
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When morning came, they had the option to get up and leave right away, instead deciding to wait until breakfast was served from the hotel they were staying at before going. As they had talked previously, Hera had to remember that she could slow down. Everything was not time sensitive. There were no massive issues waiting to be solved at every time, meaning she could stop and rest properly. This also gave the group a chance to buy more supplies they might want for the road, not that they really needed it, but it was just an option that was now on the table.
But in the end, there wasn't much they could buy here that could help in the dungeon. The only thing that they found were a couple of snacks that they failed to find in the Aerie. Aside from that, they had nothing else to buy. There were more traps and gear they could use, but Pandora explained it was better to get those bigger items in the Thornspire Vale itself. If they tried to buy those items now, it would be hard to carry them to the destination.
The rest of the path was pretty simple. Moving from one room to the next, taking a small amount of time to reach each doorway since they were not that far apart from each other. The one that would take the longest was the last, but it was just a quick one-hour walk from the entrance to the exit without passing through any dangerous areas.
Hera was trying to enjoy herself without worrying too much about everything. But just like how it happened in the bar, anytime something appeared, she would be ready to engage with what was coming. It was clear that there was something going on with her and she wasn't the only one to notice that. On more than one occasion, Alex and Bonnie pulled her to the side and asked if she was doing okay or if she had any bad dreams the previous night.
But there was nothing. As a matter of fact, her previous night was great. She slept through the night without any dreams and without anyone waking her up. She assumed it was just a habit she picked up during the war. Being required to always be ready for anything to go wrong was not something easy to forget. But with time, she would get rid of it. Everybody would just need to be a bit patient with her. She made a mental note of talking with Sammy and confirming if she was on the right track by trying to lose this kind of reaction but that would only happen once she had a moment to be by herself, which wasn't going to happen for a while since they were going to run a dungeon.
As Pandora explained, Thornspire Vale was an island, but what she was unable to convey was the absolutely thriving community that existed in the room. Just by the entrance there was a pair of harpies who had set up a shuttle service. But instead of taking people across the land, they would take them across the sky. They were here because the path to the main settlement was a bit tricky and it was much easier to access it through the sky. And they were more than happy to take the group for the ride since they were the only ones to show up at this time.
The island, which was called just Thornspire because of the name of the room, had an outer layer of wasteland. The beaches, the cliff, everything on the outer edge of the place was empty. The only thing that could be seen were old bones and chitin from large creatures. They should've been at least bigger than a person and maybe even bigger than Livy in some cases.
The pair of harpies also worked as tour guides, explaining what they had learned about the room. According to them, a very long time ago, this was the home of an ancient civilization. Maybe not a home, but it was a place that belonged to them. They were called the Scale Hearts and called themselves descendants of dragons. Which was fair considering that their appearance very much indicated that.
Their bodies were covered in scales and their heads were lizard-like. In many aspects, they resembled Livy quite a bit, and it was something the harpies took note of, even asking Hera if she would be willing to share any new information she got from the dungeon.
The Empress agreed, of course. She never really liked that idea of hiding what happened inside the dungeons from others. It was one thing if she was going for a reward that could only be given to one person or something, but to her, general knowledge should be shared instead of being sold. That was just another thing the guild used to do that in hindsight, was really scummy. During her months of isolation before becoming an Ophidianite, she had a lot of time to think about that kind of thing.
The airbus, which was a large basket attached to several hot air balloons, was guided by the two harpies. They left around one hour after Hera and her group had arrived in the room. They had a schedule which they followed to the letter. That way, people wanted to come and go, always knowing when they could expect a ride.
In the air, they took the long way around the island, showing everything to the newcomers. The massive lush forest that covered most of the terrain between the wasteland and the center of the island. The vale from which the room's name came from. It was completely covered in a spiral, thorn-like structure that looked dangerous to touch. To the north was a mountain with snow-covered peaks that spread for a few kilometers before dropping down to what was almost a rocky desert with some small sand dunes.
When they reached the very edge of the Veil in the middle of the island, the harpies showed a specific opening on the ground. One that, according to them, would lead to an underground network that was filled with all different kinds of mushrooms and monsters. They also added that there was a specific area down there were people could find the remnants of an ancient dragon.
Hearing about that made Hera's entire group perk up, with the exception of Pandora, who was already aware of the remnants.
"Are you serious? An actual dragon?" Bonnie asked.
"Yep. An actual bona fide dragon. Or at least, the remnants of one," the harpy on the front of the basket, driving the airbus, replied.
"But if there are still the remnants of one, why haven't people picked it up and taken it somewhere else then?" Alex asked.
"Because it's not really worth it. You can find out more in the dungeon. The main dungeon, I mean. There's a couple different ones here, but the one that everybody wants to run is the historical one. If you get to the Hard Mode of that, you can get the full story, but I'll give you the shortened version. A dragon came here, liked this place and decided to use it for his experiment. But eventually they died and were stuck on the underground," the driver harpy explained.
"The reason why the remnants are still there is that they are mostly worthless. The dragon was tree based. We don't know if it was some sort of plant or what, but it was pretty much a tree," the other harpy, who was on the back of the basket, added.
"We call it a Feywyrm," the driver harpy said with a smile.
The harpy on the back rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's the word a few people use. I'm not entirely sure if that's the right way, but either way, the dragon was part tree. Because of that, when it died, its body kind of collapsed into itself. Or that's what the people who studied it properly say. What's left is just a shell. No better than any of the trees on the island. There were people who tried taking samples to see if they could do something more interesting, but they all agreed it's the same type of wood that you could find anywhere here. In the end, out of respect and honestly, because it's a great way to attract tourists, we decided to keep the shell of the dragon as it is. We do a tour to visit it every weekend if you are interested. We don't do it every day because it's kind of complicated to get down there with a ship like this and gear and mana crystals we need to use take a week to charge."
"I see. That kind of makes sense. But did no one really find anything else about the dragon? Their heart, scales, nothing?" Hera asked. She always dreamed of seeing a dragon and it felt like a shame what she was going to see was just a shell.
"I don't know if people found stuff like that. But it was discovered a very long time ago. Just a bit after we found the room. The crafters went nuts about it and there are some artifacts from the dragon that still exist in the Queen's Palace to this day. I don't know if you've ever been there, but do you know the desk she usually uses for non-official situations? The one where she spends most of her days when she's not appearing in public," the driver asked.
"Oh yeah. I've seen it a few times. What about it?" Hera replied.
"That table is made out of the original scales or bark. We still don't know what's the best way to call them. It's the skin of the dragon. Not the really thick parts that could be looking at weapons and armor, after all, no crafter would waste dragonhide to make the table, but the parts that couldn't be used became that table."
The Empress's jaw dropped after hearing that. Over the last month, she had been having regular meetings in Typhera's private office. The one that had a very beautiful and intricate wooden table. A table that, on more than one occasion, Hera used as a pillow to sneak some sleep while the queen had to attend to official business.
"If memory serves me right, someone also used some of the branches to create a nest for the Royal family. I'm not sure if that one lasted, though," the harpy on the back added.
"Oh no. That one did. I know it's for a fact," Shane had a massive grin from ear to ear. But she refused to elaborate whatever she was thinking about. At least while they were in the sky.
She did feel a bit bad for not sharing that with the two harpies that took them to the settlement, but it was too juicy of a gossip to share willy-nilly. Once they finally landed, Farica was the first to pull the enchantress to the side and gesture for Hera to cast a soundproof bubble around them.
"Okay, spill. What is so funny about the nest?" the dwarf asked.
Shane held back a laugh. "I'm not sure if you are aware, but Rutigan and Typhera have been quite close lately."
"Yeah, I know it. They are both trying to set up the two rooms and everything. Since we have an alliance between us and the harpies, it makes complete sense that they are close," Callena replied.
Shane opened an even bigger smirk. "No, no. Even closer than you might be thinking."
"Shut up. You're not saying that they are..." Farica had a massive smile.
Shane nodded in confirmation. "The Queen showed me a nest that is supposed to be part of the royal family for generations, and that was carved out of the magnificent, powerful beast. It was this round thing full of wood shavings, woods and strands of branches and various other things, but I do remember the shavings quite well because they had a strange green tint to them. Almost like there was a spell circle carved on the shavings at one point to me. I was removed later on. Flash forward a couple of days, I was leaving a meeting with a few other harpies and saw King Rutigan coming out of the bathroom. He had one of those wooden shavings stuck to his hair. To the back of his head. They were unique and the same type that you could only find on the nest that I could show me. Now, personally, I can't think of how many reasons why the king would be lying on a random ass nest in the harpy castle. I mean, if he wants a bed, there are countless there for him to pick. And if he just slipped and fell, the shaving wouldn't be on the back of his head, you know."
Everyone gasped and started to gossip, which ended up taking the better part of an hour. They were all excited about the prospect, especially since Rutigan never seemed to be interested in anyone romantically.
But once that was over, they turned around to see the settlement in the Thornspire Vale.