Which you are about to be able to find out. The drow continue their escape and suddenly change tactic by suddenly dispersing in random directions. One thing you are able to see is that they are clearly well trained and competent but... there's seven of them now and inevitably one of them is caught by your claw. Suddenly, you are gliding with a drow in your claw.

Hey, get back here!

I'm having a great time and not paying attention to all of the terrain I'm surely destroying by running and flying around. I really wanna eat my prey; it's an instinct. I should eat it. I caught it and it's mine! But on the other claw, my rational mind knows that I shouldn't eat it. Yet.

I let out a big sigh, which comes with some fire, and fly back to the mini-caravan with my prize to leave it as a prisoner, so that the guards can interrogate it or whatever. Boo. I tell myself I'll eat it later.

There is a general commotion and panic as you fly back, with Randulf and Vermillion in general panicky mode as you have 'brought back a drow and now they will chase us all'.

The drow is far more at ease than your people in the caravan, or even the guards, who are now finding every excuse in the book to return swiftly to Waterdeep.

The bandits have not materialized, the fields are on fire, plumes of smoke rising and your caravan and the Waterdeep guards are all starting to look like headless chicken. The drow seems amused.

"Should I eat it?" I ask, as innocently as a dragon can ask anything, with a booming three-tone voice that echoes off the trees and hills.

"I don't know what the problem is. Don't we want to capture the brigands?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:35, Fri 26 May 2023.

Even a dragon would note the silence... nobody says 'eat it' but nobody says 'don't'.

Shouting, probably because he's not sure you can hear him from your towering heights Randulf is the first to speak 'THE BANDITS! NOT THE BLOODY DROW! THESE ARE NOT BANDITS BUT SOMETHING FAR WORSE!...'

The drow laughs loudly and then says 'Listen to him oh dragon, for this, the Spider Queen will get you all...'

"They look like brigands to me. They're robbing travelers."

Short pause.

"Speaking of which, what happened to the humans who tried to waylay us?"

One of the just arrived guards answers your question 'Both dead, one shot by the drow the other by us...'

I let out a sigh, which is a lot of air moved and blows some trees in wind.

"So no bandits, then. That is disappointing. I do not know anything about drow, so I will defer to your wisdom in dealing with them."

That probably isn't something these people are used to a dragon bigger than a barn saying (assuming they're used to a dragon saying anything at all), but it's true nevertheless. Drow live underground and take slaves, but who doesn't take slaves? Refusing to take slaves is the exception to the rule.

Passing the buck instils even more panic amongst the locals. They were clearly hoping for someone to take a decision and control.

An exasperated Randulf sorts the issue, not much to the guard's pleasure. 'I'm the ...ahem... official emissary of the mighty lady dragon here (he points at you) you (he points at the guards) will immediately escort the prisoner (pointing at the drow) back to Waterdeep. C'mon, get a move it will be dark soon (which it wouldn't).'

The guards take a while and a bit more cajoling but finally leave with the drow. Your little caravan is left in what would be an idyllic landscape, if it wasn't for the fields still burning.

'Can we continue our way now?' Randulf asks.

Am I allowed to interrupt when Ataraxia sees spreading panic? I was going for the humble deference to experts angle, but if people are panicking because they want the big dragon lady to make a decision, then she can make one.

Absolutely. Interrupt way. Stomp your authority.

I see that the people under my charge are starting to panic. Their earlier confidence, especially Randulf's, in Waterdeep had led me to conclude they were largely cool-headed people. However, circumstances must.

I stomp on the ground, shaking the earth with the booming impact.

Sharply and with thundering authority, "Control yourselves!"

I wait then, for the panic to be arrested, before continuing: "These are no different from petty bandits. We will find them, drive them from their holes, and deliver justice."

I loom over my captive, taking up most of his view of the sky. "How many have you killed, how many have you taken, and where are they? Speak truthfully."

I've never leveraged it before, but perhaps the dragonfear will compel speech.

The drow looks bemused. An irritating attitude.

'I see you have never dealt with the drow, oh dragon. Eat me, split me into pieces, that would not be a worse fate that what the spider queen would do to me if I betrayed my brethren... besides, I have no quarrel with you.'

I roll my eyes at the pretention. Evil is so droll sometimes.

"Bind him, gag him, and make sure he has no weapons. Keep at least two guards watching him at all times, in sight of each other," I instruct.

Of Randulf, I inquire, "Do drow observe the custom of ransom? If I were to inform the city's lords that drow had been found, would they second soldiers to find and root out their surface passage?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:37, Thu 22 June 2023.

In reply to Ataraxia (msg # 40):

Randulf scratches the stubble on his face... 'Well, they are drow, secretive at best, but they have an hierarchy, with nobility equivalents et all. If this one is some sort of noble by their standards they are bound to come for him...'

If I were wearing my human shape, I would click my tongue. I can't do that as a dragon, though, so I tap my claws on the ground instead.

"I do not care about the money. If these creatures are as dangerous as you all claim, dangerous enough to threaten me directly, then the people who live near here cannot possible defend themselves from them. We will find where the drow came from and seal their holes. Let us gather the rest of the caravan and return for that purpose.

Go. I will meet you soon; first, I will put out these fires before they burn farmland."

It will take a while, I imagine, but I learned a spell to put out fires for exactly this reason. After I bumbled and burned down my twentieth building and second woods, I felt guilty enough to put every gift my parents gave me and what money I earned myself towards finding my first tutor and grimoire.

I take to the air and start chanting, to put out the fires I've started.

OOC: One thing to note. You would know, even if vaguely, that the drow are not just a bandit group, but an entire race that is sort of the bogeyman of these lands. Fair enough, because they are so secretive, a lot of what is heard can be taken as myth, but you would certainly have heard how dangerous they are.

With your knowledge of extinguishing it does not take long to put down the fires. As the smoke dissipates and whilst the caravan gets organized, you can see the hole through which you assume the drow went underground. It was probably well camouflaged in the vegetation, but your fires destroyed the vegetation and made it visible.

I didn't want to make assumptions or metagame. Would my character know anything else about drow? They're pretty serious bad news, as far as I, the player, know.

She'll know the myths and bogeyman stories, but she will also know there's a good deal of truth to the bad things, so she will know enough to know, as you correctly say, they're very bad news and their appearance and the surface during daylight is, at the minimum, suspicious.

My birthday was two days ago. I am partied out for a good six months.

I declare my intention to collapse the tunnels the drow used to get to the surface and ask if anyone in our caravan knows how to find any more of those tunnels. If they do, we need to find and seal the rest. If not, then so be it. Either way, I'm off to stomp around and roar into the tunnels to collapse them, then send three people back to Waterdeep on our fastest horses to bring news of the drow and their ambush location back to the city lords.

Belated congratulations! Hope you had a great day!

Vermillion is very sceptical of your plan. He notes that unless you intend to go around the entire north, you are unlikely to seal the drow by collapsing these tunnels. You notice he keeps a very safe distance from the nearest tunnel.

Randulf also notes a problem in another part of your plan. You don't really have 'fast horses' only caravan teams and a couple of horses for scouting ahead. Besides, the only people that can go are himself or his sister. Since the sister is needed for scouting, he volunteers to go.

Then you notice yet another problem (not your day today!) , the drow may not be dwarves but the tunnels (human sized, so you can only roar from the outside at the tunnel's mouth) are surprisingly sturdy and the few you find are particularly hard to collapse.

Thank you. It was pretty nice. The rest of the week was awful though. Everyone wanted to have parties outside. In the humid summer heat. 41C with 90% humidity for hours, every day.

Well, drat. That's all quite unfortunate.

If the drow really are as much of a danger and problem as has been said, then the people of the countryside are in grave danger, aren't they? How do their lords handle the problem of the drow? We have seen no patrols of knights or militia, and the people are, by definition, not soldiers. Are the villages fortified?

They are not our people and this is not our land, so if the locals have the situation in hand, it is best for us not to meddle overmuch. Still, I think we should make some effort. Does anyone know who the local lord is or how to conduct siegecraft? Collapsing tunnels under walls is an important part of siege warfare.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:27, Sun 09 July 2023.

41 and 90? Bloody hell. That would be horrendous. We get 90 humidity easily but, the temp very rarely reaches 40, I already struggle with 25c and 90 cannot even imagine 41c and 90...

Vermillion comes into his own here. He starts a long tale on the drow peculiarities that, when your question is finally answered, comes down to the fact the drow are quire terrifying when they show up but they don't show up that often. In fact, their appearances are so rare that it makes it quite an event when they do, which is probably a good deal of the reason for the mythology surrounding them. It would be rather unfeasible economically to be in a state of continuous alert, or pay for the upkeep of fortress type defences, against such an elusive foe. He concludes by noting that, technically, you are all still under the Waterdeep area, so the Lords are responsible for all of this land. He suggests (as everyone would expect coming from him...) to get a move on whilst you still have daylight on your side.

Sorry for the delay again.

I listen patiently, but ultimately the information isn't very useful.

Since there's nothing else for it, everyone should get back to the main caravan and continue on the planned route. Also I'm going to eat the captive drow. Death is a fitting punishment for brigandry and murder. They can loot him first if they want.

I may or may not just be a dragon and want to know what elf tastes like, but nobody needs to know that.

It tastes like chicken. Or so they say. You cannot really tell. For the first time since his capture, you see actual horror and panic on the drow's face. Not for long though. A gulp later it is over. For some reason you cannot immediatelly understand (you are a dragon after all, what did they expect?) Vermillion and Randulf avoid you for a bit, and Randulf's sister goes on recon for a very long time.

As night falls your very silent caravan approaches a small copse by the road. Randulf's sister is there waiting for you.

'There is not any other shelter for a long while, I think we would do well to set-up camp here in this copse.'

OOC : your location, at the eastern limit of the highlighted hex.