"Damn!" Aaron mutters to himself and pauses before the runes. "This is not good."

As he stares at the runes for seconds that seem like hours.

"Not good at all."

Steeling himself he crosses the runes and follows the others.

Mort followed along as well.

Inside the room, there is a large alcove on the right, carved out of the very rock. In this alcove is a circular iron cage hanging from the ceiling. Inside the cage is...

...a small dragon!

Even from the entrance you can tell that it is seriously undernourished. It looks gaunt, its eyes are sunken into its skull, and its ribs are showing.

Can we tell what color it is?

Mort will hold up his torch close to the mini-dragon to help have a better look.  "You sure are small for a dragon, look hungry too.  What kind of food do you eat?"  Mort got out some of his food rations and offered it to the little dragon to see if it was of interest.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:20, Thu 14 Jan 2016.

Fando can inform you that it is definitely a true dragon, not a pseudo-dragon or one of the mundane dragons. That makes it a wyrmling... a very young dragon. It's not old enough to have yet developed the telltale features of its species (crest, tail, etc.), nor is the color that fixed.

It has tinges of green but those could vanish as it gets older.

"Dragons are omnivores--they eat anything and everything if they have to," Fando replies to Mort. "They are fond of gems and coins, but usually eat meat."

"This little fella has been starved for weeks, maybe months. Sure, feed him your rations. Just give him a little bit at a time, though. Otherwise, he'll scarf it all down and make himself sick."

Fando began offering the dragon some of his rations, too. He just gave him a little bit at a time.

"Aww, you poor little fella. Whoever left you here to starve should be horsewhipped! Do you have a name?"

As he fed the dragon, he gave it a closer inspection, trying to determine if it had any other problems. No one really knew much about dragon health or life style, other than they were usually ravagers of country-sides.

Fando, how much will he eat at this size?

OOC:  How big is it? Can we tell if just the edges of its' wings are tinged in green or what?

Tom studies the dragon while listening for other sounds of trouble.

Elwood watches with obvious curiosity in his eyes as Fando feeds the baby dragon. "Yes, who put you in a cage like this and left you here? That's not right."

The baby dragon is about 8 feet long, nose-to-tail. About 1/3 of that is tail, which will probably grow longer as it gets older.

The tinges of green are in its joints, areas that will darken as it grows older. It's probably a green dragon, but it could also be a blue, red, black or copper.


When it is offered food, it tentatively sniffs at it first, but then gingerly eats it.

"Water?" it says after it eats a bit.

"Don't have a name. Caught me with nets. Woke up here in cage. His name was Krondar."


Fando's examination sees that the dragon's wings have been clipped. If it doesn't get healed, it may never fly again.

I give it a little water from my water skin.

I hope it is a copper dragon. Whispered to Fando.

"Well... it's an animal," Fando answers, "and it's growing, so I'd guess it'll eat it's weight in food per day. It can probably get by with half that, but it'll also depend on how active it is. It'll also depend on the quality of the food."

"I probably don't need to point out that a dragon isn't a vegetarian. It'll need meat for growth, but sweets for energy."

"Not sure at what point it'll start eating metal."

"Can we get him out of this cage? Do we set him free or take him with us?"

"I guess that last part is up to it," Elwood answers. To the dragon, he says, "Well, how 'bout it, pard? Willing to come along with us if we help you out of here? Maybe we can find this Krondar and pay him back for putting you here in the first place."

Although it's not his specialty, Elwood will examine the lock on the cage.

To the Dragon:  How long have you been in this place?

OOC:  I know dragons don't have a sense of time that humans or even humanoid races have, but it should have some idea right?

To Fando:  If it is a chromatic dragon could we teach it to be neutral or good given it's relatively young age?

"Don't know much about dragons, but as for the cage, them bars don't look that strong."  Mort walks over to the cage and gives it a looking over before grabbing hold and pulling with his might to open the gate.  "Now don't go trying to bite at me."

"Yeah, that's the age-old question: nature versus nurture," Fando replies. "Can something be born bad?"

"In the case of dragons, they have free will, so, in theory, they can choose to be good or bad. I've never heard of a chromatic being raised in a good environment, so I have no idea. I suspect, however, that if you teach it properly that it will be able to make the correct decision if that situation ever comes up."

"I have been here ever since I can remember," the dragon replies. "There was light, and I was in a cage, though I did not know that at the time."

"I learned quickly. They fed me once a day... by their reckoning. So I have been here 209 days while I was fed. Once they stopped feeding me, though, I did not have any sense of time."



Mort has no problem forcing the gate open by breaking the lock.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:28, Sat 23 Jan 2016.

Mort commented, "There you go, you strong enough get out?  And no biting at the people that help you save you."

"did them people talk any to you?"

Tom says to the dragon as he gives it some more water: Do you have any idea why they locked you up in this place?

Elwood steps back a few paces and watches how the dragon reacts to being freed. Hopefully it will be grateful to its rescuers, but it never hurts to be cautious.

The baby dragon peers around the outside of the cage for a few moments before it sort of slithers out. It's not a big drop to the floor, but it apparently has never attempted to change elevation before, so rather than hop down like most creatures would, it kind of uses its rear legs and body to lower its front half to the floor.

"Why should I bite you?" the dragon asks. "Are you tasty?"

It moves about on the floor rather gingerly, flexing its wings, stretching out to its full length, and just generally shifting into different positions.

"Oh, this is marvelous! So this is what it is to be free!"

"I would not say that they talked to me... certainly not like you are doing. I don't know if they thought I was intelligent or not. They talked around me. They did not seem to care if I heard what they said or not."

"I believe they were intending to sell me somewhere... at a bazaar."

He moves over to the door, and peers out, but then looks back at you... as if asking if it okay for him to go through the door.

I look at the others.

Sure you could go through that door if you wish.  If that is what you truly want.  I hope that you will be careful in your dealings with humans and other 2 legged beings in the future.  However, not all humans and humanoid creatures will take kindly to you just because of your race and color.  They may attack you first and ask questions later.  If my friends here are agreeable, you would probably be welcome to accompany us.  I caution you that some of our companions will be surprised at your appearance as they are up on the upper level and don't know about you yet.   

After holding his tongue, Aaron finally spoke "Before you step through that door, I have a question for you."

"I have no idea whether you mean well or ill and only time will say which, but these is some strange writing at this doorway which makes me ill at ease. Are you able to read it?"

"They seem familiar," the dragon answers. "I think they are Draconic. I don't know how I know that, but I cannot read them. I cannot read anything. I know that these symbols represent words, but I do not know what words."

He approaches the door more closely, and extends his nose to sniff at them. There is suddenly a spark that flashes from one of the symbols to the dragon's nose. He lets out an odd sound of surprise.

"Why did it do that?"

"My guess would be that someone or something ut them there to keep you, or others like you, inside."

Elwood will more closely examine the stonework the glyphs are carved into. Would it be possible to ruin the magic by defacing the stones?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:09, Tue 02 Feb 2016.