The humans in the enchanted heavy armours kept slowly advancing towards the dragon covered in the dark smoke standing at the edge of the cliff.
"Graaaa!" the dragon growled at them, spitting magmatic saliva all over the ground. He flapped his wings, sending smoke through his surroundings and rose from the ground.
"Quickly! Use chains. Don't let it escape!" Few of the hunters unwrapped long chains ending in spikes from their shoulders. However, the dragon opened his mouth and sent a wave of almost pitch black clouds erupting out and moving like a tsunami towards the hunters.
The dense cloud wept through the hunters, covering everything in smoke and sending them flying a few meters backwards under the massive force. Their armours creaked and slightly turned red as the pyroclastic cloud surrounded them. Runes on their armours brightly glowed as enchantment worked hard to absorb heat and shock.
Vesuvius used that moment and flapped his wings, flying into a distance. Just a second later, another huge bolt drilled itself into the soil and exploded on his former position.
Vesuvius wasn't stupid to fight them when he was at a disadvantage, 'They ambushed me. Next time I will ambush them. They must have a camp somewhere, the ideal place to strike them. I even have agents that can help me locate that camp.'
The air vibrated behind him again, so he tilted his wings abruptly, changing his direction and a long glowing bolt passed by him.
'Well, they definitely aren't elite. They don't even have these flak-like bolts.' Shivers passed through his scaled body s he imagined a bolt exploding next to him, even if he avoided a direct hit from it.
He finally entered the mountains, quickly flying behind peaks and tall rocks, exiting the reach of the ballistae.
He felt frustrated, 'I just solved the problem with players, and now some stupid low noble from this shithole wants to cause trouble.' Rage burning in him, he grinned, hot magma raining on the snow-covered peaks under him, 'Just wait, I will turn your small little dirty castle into a lake of lava!'
Vesuvius looked at the sky. Sun was already relatively high, 'Damnn, I still need to meet with my minions.'
The dragon quickly rose up above the clouds and flew towards his lair.
POV BoobaFet's party:
Three players stood at the base of the mountain, warily looking around themself, expecting some kind of attack. The wind was howling around them, bringing back the memories of them getting demolished by the wind attacks the last time they entered this place.
"Where is that dragon? He said he would be here in the morning, and we are already waiting here for almost an hour." Booba was impatiently playing with his spear, rotating it and stabbing toward invisible enemies.
Then a shadow moved above them. All three of them looked upwards. The big dragon, surrounded by the dark smoke, glided down from the mountains with the big draconic skull hanging from his claws.
Suddenly the dragon dropped the skull, letting it fall down. Skull hit the hard rock, creating a loud banging noise echoing through canyons accompanied by clouds of dust.
When the cloud vanished, it revealed the pristine white skull without any visible damage from the fall. The skull felt even bigger as they looked at it from closer; its massive teeth were so big that they were almost half of their height.
Booba gulped at the thought of fighting such a huge flying and flames-spitting beast.
"Damn, such a beast! That was probably some kind of a boss!" FatHammer walked forwards and tapped with his axe against the surface of the skull.
In the meantime, the dragon slowly glided and landed on top of the cliff. His shadow looming over the players and smoke slowly spreading through the surrounding covering everything in its suffocating hug, "Well, here is the skull. Now tell me, who are these people with ballistae spread through the whole forest."
Booba opened his mouth, ready to speak; however, Lili outsped him, knowing that he was bad at explaining stuff, "Your draconic highness, baron Azerlisia hired the nearby troupe of hunters specialised in the hunting your kind. They are well equipped and well trained. They are not some cheap mercenaries."
Suddenly the stone cliff that the dragon stood on cracked, a piece from it falling down, "Just as I thought. Do you know where they have camp?"
"We noticed a few tents surrounded by a wooden palisade outside of the forest in the direction down the river."
The dragon stood there quietly as if he was thinking. The three players were also quiet, watching the dragon surrounded by the dark smoke.
Suddenly Lili spoke, "Is your draconic highness thinking about burning down their camp? If yes, then don't do that. That would bring too much attention to you."
"There is no choice! I can either passively wait for them or attack when it is advantageous to me! Now, make a distance. I will make this site look more like after a battle."
The dragon flapped his big wings, hot wind washing over the players. They looked at each other and quickly retreated. Then the dragon opened his mouth and washed the surroundings in a stream of fire. Vegetation growing from cracks in stones burned away, and stones turned black. A wave of searing heat spread over the surroundings.
"Go and spread the story!"
Ding!
// New repeatable faction mission:
Objective: Spread the story about the fight with the drake and about the reward of the elder wyrm
Reward: 1 silver coin / per person informed about the story
//
Booba pointed his spear at the dragon, that visibly tensed, his eyes hidden under the smoke piercing all three of them, "We have a problem!"
Lili and the dwarf looked at their companion, visibly startled by his sudden move. He ignored them as if nothing had happened and continued, "How can we contact you? It feels kind of wrong to just hope that we will randomly meet. There is no way that we will be so lucky."
The dragon remained quiet as if thinking, and the dwarf quietly murmured, "You lack everything except for luck, so I do..."
The cold and clear voice of the dragon spread through the canyon, "I will fly every day in the morning above this canyon. Just be here if you want to meet with me."
Booba nodded and spoke again, "Your draconic highness, can you speak a little bit quieter? You know that you speak so loudly that anyone in a wide range can hear you?"
The dragon didn't react and just flapped his wings flying back to the mountains.