Racknar slowly stirred awake to the feeling of a warmth next to him. It took some time for his brain to fully process where his body was and what the warmth could be. His eyes shot open and his head snapped to the side to see that Elizabeth had snuggled up to his side while they were sleeping. He slowly and carefully worked himself from her loose grip and started putting on his equipment and tucking his morning wood under his belt of bull’s strength. Elizabeth gripped at the now empty bed and shot upright with a light shout. She then noticed Racknar already preparing to leave. “Don't tell me you planned on sneaking out while I slept.”
Racknar sighed. “This arranged engagement isn't anything other than a step in a long term plan. You agreed to this knowing exactly what this was. We're not romantically involved and once your father passes on the crown you can find someone you love to be your king consort.” Elizabeth puts on a fake pout. “You really are no fun sometimes. All business, no pleasure. Why don't you just slow down and let yourself feel something for a change. It'll take a while before you're ready to take on Lolith and it's not like there's a deadline. Stop and smell the roses.”
Racknar spoke with a growl in his voice. “Whenever I stop to smell the roses I find thorns or get stung by a bee. Besides, I don't feel much of anything anyway. I closed myself emotionally before we met for the first time.” Elizabeth sighed. “You can be vulnerable, you know, you don't have to walk around with this wall up. You clearly are capable of caring you said you care about people yourself. Just… be honest. Because the only person you seem capable of actively lying to is yourself. What is it you want? Personally I mean. Something you want for yourself and not someone else. You can be a little selfish for once.”
Racknar allowed a long silence before sighing. “I just… want to be happy. But I kinda don't know how. I can't have my happiness be dependent on the existence of another. I'm responsible for my own happiness. I'm not responsible for the happiness of others and no one else is responsible for mine.” Elizabeth nods. “Start small then. Start a hobby or something.” Racknar tilted his head. “Well I've taken up silk weaving but it was mostly for armor. Maybe I should try doing it just because.”
Elizabeth gestured at Racknar with a hand. “There you go. Now get out there and make the world a better place one quest at the time. And most importantly, come back to me alive.” She walked over and kissed him on the cheek. “Don't go dying on me a second time. I'll be waiting for you.” Racknar smiled with his fangs before putting the ring of illusion back on as his last item to re-equip, handed Elizabeth a sending stone, and started his journey back to Camelot to gather the rest of the Monster Mashers.
Racknar wasn't even thinking of grabbing a quest before rolling out and arrived at Camelot Castle before he realized it. He entered the castle to find everyone, including Ivory and Lisa, in the lobby of the castle. “Why do I feel like I've walked into an intervention?” Ariagoria chuckled. “No intervention. So how was it?” Racknar grumbled. “I had to stay in her room because of some tradition, nothing happened.” Ariagoria pouted slightly. “Oh, that's disappointing.” Marionette gave Ariagoria a playful shove. “Speak for yourself, I'm glad Racknar didn't try to take advantage of the situation or the princess. Shows real character.”
Ariagoria rolled her eyes. “You're just saying that because you have a crush on him.” Marionette did not respond. Racknar waved his hand in the air as another rubbed his head. “I'll give us an extra night's rest because I forgot to grab a new quest before I left Londinium.” There was then a loud knock at the door. Racknar looked over to it. “Who in the nine hells would come here? Especially with all the goblins and kobolds we let roam freely in the city.”
Racknar opened the door to find it was a mail carrier. “I've got a letter addressed to the Monster Mashers.” Racknar grabbed the letter, thanked the carrier, and closed the door. He carefully opened it and read the letter. “It's a special request. Unidentified dragon spotted in area, I guess when you kill three dragons you're officially a dragon slayer. I'll still let us rest for the day. We can head out in the morning.” And so, that was exactly what they did. Making the trip to the equivalent of Germany in this world to locate and potentially fight an as of yet unidentified dragon.
Since the party had yet to go to the nation in question, this meant activating new gates and doing things the long way once on the other side of the border. Once the party arrived at the location of the request to meet up with the person who sent the letter things went about as expected. They mentioned hearing about the Mashers and the fact they've killed dragons. They mentioned not knowing what kind of dragon it was but listing where it's been sighted. Finally they handed over a map of the local area with spots that would be typical for a dragon to hang out.
Racknar agreed to take the mission and off they went. The party visited a few areas for first hand accounts to try and get some description of the dragon based on what they saw in hopes the party could narrow down the type. One person said they thought the dragon looked green, another said it looked to have feathered wings, a third said it had a white mane or tuft of fur on its neck. Racknar scratched his head while looking at sketches of the monster and a list of descriptions of it. “Well this is a new feeling. For the first time I'm stumped as to what type of dragon this is.”
Ariagoria looked at the notes and squinted. “Well you're the guy who knows every monster and thing from Creatures and Catacombs. You're saying this isn't a dragon from those books?” Racknar shrugged. “Its that or the dragon doesn't look like it's traditional depictions. I was thrown for a bit of a loop when that first black dragon was a swamp dragon so it wouldn't be the first time I was surprised.” Racknar looked at notes for the direction the dragon was spotted going at each location. He then put a circle on the map. “Based on the sightings the lair should be in this area. Thing is, there are no caves or anything you'd expect to be a dragon nest here. So unless the thing is sleeping in the open…”
Davy scratched at his face tendrils. “Well we've met a dracolich, so maybe this dragon has templates added to it. It's a thing in the book but there's no official art for template hybrids.” Racknar nodded. “Things like that are rare in the lore of the books. Either created artificially or by special circumstances. Either way we'll scope out the area trying to find the dragon. Keep an eye out for kobolds as they tend to flock to dragons.”
The party started making their way to the area Racknar marked, taking far away from any main road or even side roads and settlements. As they walk through the woods Racknar spots a dense patch of trees and brush that block the view of an area. The trees had slightly bioluminescent moss growing on patches. “That right there could work to isolate an area from most people that might come by hunting or something as well as larger monsters that can't fly. Also that moss isn't normal. So if not a dragon there's definitely something interesting going on here.”
Racknar led the party to the thicket and through it. The thicket turned out to be a wall right before a clearing. Inside the clearing was what looked like a garden. Flower bushes, trees, and patches of loose flowers growing out of the ground in patches. There was a massive beehive placed on the ground next to one of the trees. The hive had a massive entrance hole. Shortly after entering the hidden garden a large creature flew over to them out of what was likely curiosity.
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When the creature hovered in front of them the party realized it was a massive bumblebee-like creature the size of a housecat. It has large wings that resembled those of a moth with almost feather-like frills at the edges that had eye-like shapes at the tip. The fuzzy yellow and black creature hovered around the party observing them. When it was stationary in one spot near Ariagoria she slowly reached out and gently pet the creature.
The thing seemed to enjoy the gesture and landed to allow itself to be pet more for a while before flying off. Ariagoria was still in awe with her outstretched hand reaching for the creature as it left. “Beautiful.” Racknar hummed. “New. There's a giant wasp in the book but that's more like a bumblebee or honeybee. I'm guessing that the hive at the foot of the tree is its home. This place is a good spot for a pollinator but I don't think this garden could support such a large vespid.”
There was then a sudden gust of wind as a large winged monster resembling the form of a dragon landed in a flower bed that sat at the center of the garden. The party had to shield their eyes from the wind but once the monster had finished landing the party could get a look at it. It had a large, muscular looking quadrupedal body similar to what one would expect from a red dragon. Its wings had grilled tips that made them look like feathers like those of the ocean dragon. Its body was mostly green, with white circle patterns at the tip of the frills and a tuft of what looked like white fur around its neck. Its tail looked like it had a white mace at the end of it at first but on closer inspection was actually the head of a massive chrysanthemum flower.
It was then Racknar realized the white mane wasn't fur but a bushel of chrysanthemum flowers. It was some sort of plant dragon. A living garden that laid down in the bed of flowers. Racknar slowly started walking towards it with the party behind him. Once they got within a hundred feet of it or so it looked up at them and stood but did not attack. It simply watched them and observed. It seemed it was just as curious and cautious of the Monster Mashers as they were of it.
The thing spoke, but not in Draconic. It was a language Racknar did not recognize. Luckily, Davy had access to magic that could translate languages for him. “She says her name is Morning’s Glory. She's saying if we threaten her garden she will defend it.” Racknar lets out a single chuckle. “Heh. Morning's Glory, as in the flower morning glory. It would be a lot more clever if she wasn't a fucking Chrysanthemum Dragon. Seriously, whoever is writing this shit should be shot. Her name's a pun of a completely different flower and it's irritating the shit outta me.”
Davy sighed. “So I just tell her we have no intention of damaging her garden and only came looking for her because we thought it might be a feral dragon? I'm just going to go with that. As long as you have no intention of harming innocent humans we'll leave you alone.” Racknar looked over the garden a second time. “If we leave her heart there's a chance someone else will track her down. Someone less reasonable than us. Maybe we should ask her to migrate herself and her bees to Bramble. Specifically Camelot where she can be safe.” Davy looked at Racknar. “Are you sure about that? She may not be a true dragon but I highly doubt Sun’s Messenger would like that.”
Racknar put his hand on his chin. “Dragons do tend to be territorial. However, I'd rather not risk some murder hobo destroying this nice place and killing such a rare creature.” Davy nods and conveys the concerns and offers to migrate to the dragon. There was some back and forth before Davy spoke to Racknar again. “She's asking if it's possible to move the entire garden.” Racknar nods. “It would take time but we can pack away all but the big trees in my dimension door.”
Davy nods and explains the plan to Morning's Glory. She hesitates to respond but eventually nods. “She agreed. I guess we'll need to get some pots to move the flower. Not sure how you'll move the giant beehive.” Putting all the flowers, bushels, and small trees into pots took the party several days of physical labor. Eventually l Racknar carefully separated the hive from the tree root and placed it in an empty pot. With everything in the Dimension Door space the party were offered a ride back to Camelot on the back of the dragon. Racknar quickly agreed and within an hour they were back in Camelot and setting up a garden with the help of kobolds and goblins.
Obviously they had a kobold explain things to Kha’makal. She agreed to share her draconic domain understanding it was in the interest of conservation. Once settled she offered a humble thanks to the party and gifted them with a few jars of honey made from her flowers. Racknar packed it away and sent a report to the guildhall that the unidentified dragon situation had been handled, sending drawings made by Lisa as proof.
One thing that had Racknar excited was the fact Morning's Glory told Davy that she wasn't the only floral dragon to have manifested in this world. There were other types that existed. That this new type of creature is nature trying to protect itself and preserve areas from the expansion of civilization. This meant an entire type of creature he knew nothing about with multiple variants. Although knowing everything about a creature is great for fighting it, this kind of surprise was more than welcome.
“I'm glad this went smoothly and the new monster type is an exciting prospect if I'm not suddenly blindsided with combat.” Racknar dusted off his hand after he finished placing the beehive at the foot of a new tree that was in the garden the group set up on the castle grounds. “Spending like two weeks on moving plants kinda sucks and it's already early fall. Hopefully this fall goes smoothly like last year and Morning's Glory is able to manage through the winter “
Davy stretched himself out. “Apparently floral dragons hibernate in winter. Makes sense. She'll be fine but vulnerable if we're attacked in winter.” Racknar grumbled. “Considering a chunk of our defence are reptiles and spiders that also hibernate, winter is our most vulnerable time of year all around. I'll talk to Mari’s dad and Lisa about automated defenses. We have animated armor so it should be possible to sure up the gap. I'll hand a plan to Lisa and Giuseppe to get started on.”
Ariagoria looked to Racknar. “Are you expecting an attack?” Racknar shrugged. “Not exactly. I mean we have pissed off the church a few times but there's also the chance of monster raids. Who knows, maybe trolls will show up. It's better to be prepared for an attack that never comes then to be left defenceless when one does.” Marionette nods. “Some may call it paranoia, but we live in a world with monsters now and have made genuine enemies. If we keep messing with the church they might send one of their summoned heroes after us.”
Davy sighs. “And considering how the Isekai genre of anime normally works, a summoned hero would likely start out with a massive head start compared to a normal person. Some overpowered gear or broken ability. Meaning even if he was summoned after Marionette was born he's probably gotten more experience and is a higher level than us.” Racknar nodded. “Though to be fair, by my best estimate we are currently level twelve by Creatures and Catacombs terms. Meaning we’re one level away from Davy and Charity learning seventh tier magic. From what I've seen in this world, that's a high mage.”
Davy played idly with his tentacle beard. “So we'll be at the equivalent of some court mages but not the archmages that kings keep. I've also noticed that fifteen is seen as on the higher end here. Eighth and ninth tier magic are considered grand achievements. Although I know they were only a thing in one edition, I've heard people talk of but not achieving without using group rituals, tenth tier magic. So it should be possible to get since in that edition one could reach level thirty rather than the cap of twenty in most versions of the game.”
Racknar nodded. “Though since you and I are the only ones familiar with the system with me knowing all versions by heart there's little point in mentioning it in reference for everyone. I just think it's neat to use as a reference point but have moved away from solely depending on it. We've seen a few things not in the books and there's also oddities where a monster is depicted differently between versions. A cyclops or a group of them would be troublesome for me because every time they were printed in a book they were different. Flipping back and forth from being servants of gods to being rebellious.”
Davy grumbled. “Yeah but that didn't affect how they functioned in the game. Mechanically they were always one of the more boring monsters. Especially considering they had a ranged attack they got disadvantage on if you were more than thirty feet away. So even the abilities they did have were lackluster. Just big damage sponges that hit hard. No special abilities or flavor.” Racknar nodded. “I often wished they would do something to spice them up. I tried to homebrew something but could never think of anything that worked with what they already had.”
Racknar sat on a rock. “Though I did play around with the mythology around them being blacksmiths a little to enhance their culture, it did nothing for them in combat outside of giving them different weapon options.” Ariagoria sighed. “Let's head inside. Racknar needs to prepare himself mentally for late fall. Distracting himself with work might not be enough this time around.” Racknar grumbled and got up. “I'm not a wild animal, Charity. Though having time to meditate does help. I can manage the increase of hormones on my own. I'm not a slave to the Black Iron Spider mating season.”
Racknar gets up. “Let's take a long rest before the next mission.” Racknar goes inside followed by the rest of the party while kobolds tend to the needs of Morning’s Glory. Another relatively smooth mission.
