The first dragon turns in the slick tunnel and hauls his bulk back toward the breach above. The slime clings to the walls like glassy frost, and the air tastes of rot and lightning.
the first dragon
The anhkeg only retreats. I must still go down there and kill it, or it nests more resistant broods.
At the rim, the Elder Knight stiffens, sword angled low now instead of high. The Fighter-Butcher and the Scarred Knight glance down into the dark, listening for any answer from below.
The Elder Knight
Then we take your warning as truth. Show us the path, and we will not let it climb back out behind you.
The Scarred Knight
If it breeds below, the tournament becomes a feast for it. We need proof, not guesses.
The Fighter-Butcher
Aye. Point the way, dragon. I would rather meet it in its hole than on the field above.
Far beneath the pasture, something scrapes stone, then stills. The hole breathes out a hotter puff of sour air, as if the tunnel itself has noticed the dragon's return.
+ Scene Quest Added
Go down into the breach
+ Story Quest Added
Kill the anhkeg
“I desend into the hole”
FAILURE (Poor Agility, rolled -1)
“I desend into the hole”
FAILURE (Poor Agility, rolled -2)
The first dragon throws his weight toward the breach, but the rim crumbles under his foreclaw. Wet stone and loose earth give way at once.
He drops only a short way before his chest slams into a narrowing shelf, halting the fall. The tunnel below coughs up heat and a foul, clicking hiss.
The Scarred Knight
That ledge was not there a moment ago. This hole is shifting.
The Elder Knight
Hold fast, dragon. If it caves further, we do not chase it blind.
The Fighter-Butcher
I see movement. Something is waiting below the bend.
From the dark, a pale jointed shape taps stone once, then drags back out of sight, closer than before.
“I stablize the ground for the human and use my wing to levitate”
SUCCESS (Superb Strength, rolled +3)
The first dragon spreads one wing and the shelf steadies under him, stone knitting its panic into a firmer edge.
His lifted weight pulls the nearest knight into safer footing, and dust sifts down in a thin, silver curtain.
The Elder Knight
A trap below the pasture, then. That is why we came, and why we must not let it out.
The Scarred Knight
It is an antlion, or something near it. Burrowing. Waiting. The field was only the mouth of its road.
The Fighter-Butcher
Good. Then I know what I am hunting.
The pale shape scrapes back into view beneath them, mandibles ticking once against the dark, then slipping lower into the bend.
The Scarred Knight
Dragon, can you carry us farther down, or do we climb back and set a line?
Quest Complete
Learn what brought the knights to the field
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Poor→Mediocre
“I passwall and cast burrow vision”
SUCCESS (Poor Arcana, rolled +3)
The first dragon sinks his senses through the stone, and the tunnel blooms into layered dark. Heat, grit, and distant movement map themselves around him like a second sight.
The wall beside him loosens to transparency. Beyond it, a side chamber opens, cramped and webbed with old burrows, where the pale creature’s trail forks under broken rock.
The Scarred Knight
There. You have the shape of it now, yes? Point us the right way.
The Elder Knight
Good. Then we move as one, and we do not lose it in its own tunnels.
The Fighter-Butcher
I can get there first if you show me the path.
Below the fork, the anhkeg shifts once in the gloom, its passage revealed by the dragon’s sight. The dark around it feels thinner, more honest, and the knights wait for his direction.
“I use giants vision to track the targets”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +1)
The first dragon’s sight pierces farther than stone. He catches the anhkeg in full, not as a shape but as a moving pattern of heat, shell, and hunger.
the first dragon
Three paths. One nest.
The fork resolves in his mind, and the side chamber glows with hidden routes. A smaller burrow runs under the left branch, packed hard with recent traffic.
The Scarred Knight
You see it plain now. Which way does it run?
The Elder Knight shifts his sword hand and leans toward the revealed chamber, while the Fighter-Butcher turns with a sharp, eager breath toward the darker tunnel mouth.
The Fighter-Butcher
If it turns, I can meet it there.
The dragon’s vision catches one more thing, a damp pocket beyond the fork where broken shells and dragged soil mark a hidden feed-hole. The creature’s route is clear, and so is the place it favors most.
The Elder Knight
Name the path, dragon, and we take it now.
“I continue passwall and move towards the target”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Agility, rolled +1)
The first dragon threads himself through the translucent seam, and the wall lets him pass without a scrape.
He emerges into the side chamber below, where the air tastes wet and the broken shells crunch under his weight.
The forked burrows open around him now, one branch packed hard with traffic, the other dropping toward the damp feed-hole.
The Elder Knight
There, he is below us. Speak the way, and we follow.
The Scarred Knight
Careful, the chamber widens. If it turns here, it has room to vanish.
Ahead, the anhkeg shifts in the dark, shell scraping stone, while the trail of broken shells leads straight toward the feed-hole.
The Fighter-Butcher
Say which burrow, dragon, and I go first.
Quest Complete
Go down into the breach
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Mediocre→Fair