New Veras Vengeance 1: Fire Cleanses All

That's Drachon, if I ever get these sigils of bounding off. Thrice-damned mortal thinks he can control me? I'll prove him wrong, the [weird sigils].

What? Yes, yes I'm writing down what you're saying. Just because you're too lazy to write yourself while walking you think you can-!

What was that? Ya, your mother!!

Just because I have wings doesn't mean it's easier!!

....

....

Just because you can order me doesn't mean I'll like it.

Well yes. 

Fine.

I, the dumb git, wish to record, using my poor abused slave, how my first mission at the Veil went. Well aren't you special you yes yes yes I'm only writing what you're saying. Blah blah blah Skrom came in and informed us we had been assigned our first mission, and told us we could requisition a certain amount of materiél for use. We ended up requisitioning an airdrop and a Dropcloak for all of us, and once we were prepared [No one asked me if I was ready, I was just stuffed into the cloak] we went to the roof to receive our transport, which turned out to be a Dragon, of all things. You can imagine my surprise, and the trip was exhilarating, to say the least [More like terrifying]. After a while's journey we arrived at the towers where we were ordered to investigate a disturbance, and rather than make a landing, we were simply-- dropped. And not entirely accurately either. The others immediately activated their drop cloaks, while I attempted to conjure a more reusable way to land, I was suddenly accosted by Skrom, who activated his cloak to slow both of our falls. We made it to the roof, and I rolled to absorb the fall, and before I could right myself Skrom had flown further without landing, drifting now towards the ground. Already the mission had turned sour, but we had no choice but to soldier on. 

We were horrified to discover that our impromptu landing spot had a number of kobold corpses littered about, all having been brutally slain. I feared the worst: demons. [You're right that demons are the worst! I swear, once these wardings-] We discovered that Skrom was making his way up, but was being slowed by civilians, so we had to investigate on our own. We looked around, not finding much, and eventually decided to use a greater ritual given to us by someone at the Veil to speak with the dead kobold. We were transported into the last memories of a group of dead kobold adventurers (the dead bodies we had found) and watched in vain as our attempts to fight a monster were all for naught, and we were virtually slain. On the bright side, my guess of demons had been wrong, but it was not much of a bright side: I identified the beast as a Flesheater, a vampire gone feral. This was utterly surprising, since I had read that the vampires were all but gone from New Veras. 

At this point we began to hear noises, and in haste attempted to construct defenses, only to suddenly be covered in a black mist and attacked ferociously- the Flesheater had found us. We managed to fight it well and it backed off, and we held our position while I set Ahriman around the other direction to scout out where it had gone and prevent being snuck up on. I followed from a distance, and unfortunately I was on the other side of the room by the time we found the beast. I closed in, only to suddenly find its mate behind me. [Better you than me!] Our fire split, we attacked as best we could, and eventually overwhelmed the monsters with the unsatisfactory ending of the last one dead atop me [I'd say that was quite satisfactory]. Kaidar, a yeti assigned to our team for this mission, proved quite valuable for this encounter, despite his odd habit of using his shield more than his actual melee weapon.

Regardless, we contacted Skrom again to report in, and he was still some ways away, and instructed us to move upward. We eventually managed to get up, and discovered a nest of the things-- they were breeding. I promptly set it on fire, and killed some large number of them while others ran burning and screaming towards us, only to pop on their own accord in a disgusting manner. We moved on and found a small door, with an aged and obviously senile Kobold behind it. I changed to match its species in order to interact with it, and after a long and painful series of exchanges managed to convince it to open the door, where it offered us the gift of a strange pyramid-shaped piece of metal that gave off a distinctly malevolent air. I could tell Ahriman wanted it, which is never a good sign. [You should have given it to me, it would have been great]. He had not much more to say, and we decided against trying to use his tunnels (which he claimed went all over the tower, all the way to the ground floor). We continued on, and found another nest... and then another, and another. All 3, warned this time, began disgorging young. While they were all very weak, there was a great number of them, and Kaidar bravely charged off to distract a large number of them to himself while I slowly managed to set all 3 on fire. Skrom arrived towards the end, once we had everything practically under control, and proceeded to take credit, naturally not improving my view of him at all. However, since we had secured the top floor, it seemed we had solved the problem of the mine. However, we found an odd door at the end of the room; it seemed it was an old Eladrin crypt, which didn't look like it belonged and was distinctly odd. We investigated it, and besides lacking some of the bodies in the coffins, all seemed normal, so we eventually departed. Our mission accomplished, we headed back towards the Veil at a leisurely pace, which is why I'm not able to dictate this account for later study. Overall I feel we acquitted ourselves well for our first mission, although I hope that every foe we face is not quite for lethal as the Flesheaters. At least I know we can handle them, though. Ok, Ahriman, you can stop now.

[-HTMC]