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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1574842" data-attributes="member: 15043">An ‘Expert’ on Dragons“Holy mother of Pelor,” Shaun whispered softly, “Xanadu would have leveled this place if he had come.”  The same thoughts ran through all of their heads, and Siabrey fully realized why Aeron didn’t want to speak of this in front of the silver dragon.“Um... its not Alkor!” Aeron called over the books, “It is Aeron, the minor mage!”  The latter title might have caused the party to laugh, if the situation hadn’t been so tense.“Ah?  Aeron!” a spectacled face rose just barely above the masses of books, “It has been quite a while since I’ve seen you!  You have need of more roc feathers, or tarrasque hide?”  The man was now fully visible... his elderly, wrinkled face filled with the large smile of someone looking for gold coin.“Aeron... what the hell does this Gunter do?” Siabrey hissed.  “Kill good dragons!?”“Gunter collects exotic spell components,” Aeron whispered back, “they tend to come from major beasts...”“I only see good dragon parts laying around!” Tess complained, slightly too loud.“Who is with you, Aeron?” the old man’s voice comes again.“A few patrons of mine,” Aeron called back, before turning back to the party, and hissing, “I know it looks bad!  It is!  But like him or not, he’s the only available source for rare spell items!  Unfortunately he specializes in supplying the parts of good dragons!”“Patrons!” the party heard scuttling from behind the bookshelves, and the small, bent old man puttered out.  He was dressed in black pantaloons, a red tunic and black coat.  Several arcane runes seemed to be tattooed to his forehead, their lines and forms blazing with color.  “Excellent!  Gunter Melachis!” he extended a hand, before motioning them to follow him back.The man led them behind the bookshelves that had blocked their view, and the party members, save Aeron, immediately felt like retching.  Stretched out on a mahogany desk, with papers, notes, tomes and gems laid out alongside, was the laid out form of a wyrmling copper dragon, its innards splayed open, and a few instruments sticking out of the hole.“So?  How may I help you today?  I have some excellent claws from a young golden dragon!  They’re fresh from Mytrazil!” the old man sat behind the desk, and started probing inside the draconic corpse.  He gave a grunt, as he found something inside that was to his interest.  He started tugging, and fussed quietly to himself about hearts behind difficult to remove.  Shaun started coughing desperately, to keep himself from throwing up.“Gunter is an extremely powerful mage... please... I know it looks bad” Aeron whispered again, “just ask him your questions...”“We found a beast that is most unusual... a prismatic dragon,” Tess began slowly, forcing back her vomit as the old man continued to probe the little dragon.  As soon as she said the word prismatic, his fingers gave a sudden jerk, and he looked up at the party eagerly.“Prismatic, you say?” he asked.  When the party nodded their heads, he gave a slight cackle.  “I’d be willing to offer a great deal for such a rare creature!  How does... twenty thousand platinum sound, along with in-kind goods?”“We aren’t here to sell it!” Siabrey snarled, before a firm grip on her shoulder from Luke made her calm just slightly.  “We have questions about it, however.”“Shoot,” the old man crossed his arms.“It appears that its mother abandoned it or got lost, and we are trying to find her,” Tess started, “before she comes back angry, and seeking some vengeance.”“Hmmm,” the old man pursed his lips, “you could go to Celestia... Bahamut’s Palace might know where the great mother’s are, though something tells me if this little one was left behind, it was left for a reason,” Gunter said in thought.  “However,” his eyes lit up frighteningly, “if you tell me where this little bugger is, I could have the whole problem handled for you.”“No!” Siabrey snapped.“Okay!  Okay!” the old man raised his arms in acquiescence, “No need to get touchy!  Its just a dragon we’re talking about!”“Celestia?” Tess cut him and Siabrey off before the Empress’ rage could explode out.  Tess could tell by her friends eyes that she was ready to begin knocking over bookshelves and clocking the old man on the head.  “Where on Celestia?  And ‘great mother’s?’ What are those?”“Oh, well I used the phrase ‘great mothers’ euphemistically.  Great mother as in ‘older dragon – female,’” Gunter smiled.  “At the very least, they’d know where said mother is... considering how rare prismatics are.  Like I said,” his eyes slipping back into their glinting, gold coined look, “hand the little boy over to me and I can take the issue off of your hands.”“That won’t be necessary,” Tess jumped in quickly, as Siabrey’s mouth worked open and close, her rage so great that no sound could come out.  “We have another problem... what do young prismatic dragon’s eat?  And their social life?”“Well,” Gunter sat down slightly dejectedly, “considering its been five centuries since I’ve seen a prismatic dragon, let alone a baby one, my knowledge might be rusty.”  He reached towards his instruments, and began probing the baby copper body again.  “They are not very social, from what I understand... little or no family structure.  Some legends say there is only one for each world... and that a mother lays the egg and leaves it behind to colonize other worlds.  I think that is rubbish,” he waved his hand dismissively, the thongs in his grasp waving a piece of dragon gore through the air.“It goes against the social nature of the metallics... though technically, prismatic dragons are neither metallic nor chromatic.  Nonetheless, because of their close relationship with Bahamut, Io and other deities... have I confused you?”  “Yes,” Tess admitted.  She’d heard Xanadu mention Bahamut occasionally, and he’d said something about an ‘Io’ when he was in the midst of cursing one time several years prior.“Dragons, just like people, have gods... deities.  Bahamut is one such deity... the... um...Hieroneous of Draconic deities,” the party noticed Gunter did not say Hieroneous, rather spat out the word.  “Prismatics, according to legend, are eyes and ears of Bahamut.  It is my personal opinion that this is rubbish made up by prismatics to make themselves seem special.  They are very clever... took me nearly two years of stalking to hunt down the only one I’ve killed... and that was a millennia ago...”Tess heard a deep intake of air behind her, and she could tell Siabrey was tensing, and the bard guessed it was only a minute or two before the fighter started to draw her katana.  Realizing that she needed to act quickly, Tess quickly moved to excuse the party.“Thank you for you words of wisdom, Gunter,” she said quickly, “however, I am afraid we need to be taking our leave at this time.”“Hmm... no problem.  Always a delight to help the patrons of customers,” the old man said rather sullenly, as it became apparent his source of prismatic dragon parts had suddenly dried up.“AERON!” Siabrey snapped once they were out in the street, “By Imperial Decree, you SHALL NOT EVER purchase supplies or sell supplies to this man again!”“But Majesty-“ the wizard started to protest, before Siabrey’s snarling voice cut him off.“No ‘buts!’  There are undoubtedly other suppliers of said items in Sigil!  I don’t care if they’re more expensive!  You shall not assist that... man... anymore!”  Her already copper skin was a deep red, flushed with fury.  “I fully intend on letting Xanadu know all about this man, and his... ‘occupation!’”“Majesty, the other supplies charge nearly double what Gunter-““No!  Don’t give a damn!” she growled as the party strode up the streets of Sigil.  “If I had my way, his place would be leveled.  NO ONE has the right to assault good dragons like that!  And NO ONE has the right to talk about grabbing and killing wyrmlings of good dragons like that!”  Aeron looked around the party for support, and to his chagrin, found everyone’s eyes looking at him with disgust.“So... we go to Bahamut, on Celestia?” Shaun asked quietly.  “Tess, you’ve been to Celestia right?”“Parts of Celestia,” the bard corrected, as she glanced uneasily towards the furious gaze Siabrey was still raining down on Aeron.  The wizard had shrunk back, fear in his eyes.  “The lower areas... fortunately, that’s where Bahamut’s Palace is.”“Really?” Lucius asked, hoping to draw his wife into the conversation and away from plotting the punishment for the Chief Court Mage, “What is it like is Celestia?”Tess gave a distant smile.  She’d delivered Amarine on Celestia... Pell had asked a few archons, and won permission for that.  Since the formation of her little organization, she’d visited Celestia several more times... most of them to talk directly to archons of Pelor, Hieroneous, and once, to an obscure deity named St. Cuthbert.  She knew the areas bordering the Celestial Ocean fairly well... though inland she didn’t know well at all.“Celestia is glorious,” Tess smiled, her mind tasting in memory the sweet smelling air, and the cool breezes over the sea.  “The whole world is bathed in radiant light from the home of the gods on Mount Celestia, archons, angels, and good beasts abound... you don’t need to set watch, unless you’re a demon or devil,” she grinned.  “Along the coast is a massive city of white marble and silver... Bahamut’s home.”“Have you ever been inside of it?” Siabrey, now caught in her fantastic description, asked.“No,” Tess gave a sigh, “I’ve never had reason to be there.  Most of the times I’ve been on Celestia it’s been on business... its not a resort or summer home.  I think in the nine times I’ve been there, I had only fifteen minutes with myself... or should I say, with Pell,” she smiled at her husband.  Pell had changed to a small monkey, and was sitting cutely on her shoulder, and his small hands gave her head a scratch of thanks.“So... how do we get there?  And what is the proper protocol to use in Bahamut’s palace?” Shaun asked.  “I mean, the last thing I want to do is to insult the Hieroneous of Dragons.”“Great, great respect,” Tess answered.  “Use your common sense. Imagine if you were trying to talk to a very very important client, and you wanted to treat them as respectfully as possible.  Multiply that by ten times.”“So,” Shaun grinned, “I should try to teach Bahamut street slang?”“No!” Tess and Siabrey shouted at the same time.  Luke caught the joke, and chuckled.“Don’t worry, he is only tripping,” Luke laughed, causing Siabrey and Shaun to groan for far different reasons.“Augh...” Tess added her own groan to the others, “we get there as we would any other world.  Teleportation, you remember?  Celestia, like all other worlds, is connected to Sigil.”“Can’t Pell just flash there himself?” Shaun asked, hoping to keep Tess’ new course of conversation going so Luke could not abuse the lower dialects of Common anymore.“Yes, I can,” the angelic monkey on Tess’ shoulder replied.  “And Tess can as well... special gift from the archangel Redavner for a...” his furry head flashed to Tess’ face, and when the bard shook her head ‘no,’ he stuttered.  “...um... past favors.”“Ah... mission you can’t talk about?” Shaun nodded quietly, “I understand.”“So?” Tess said suddenly, shifting the conversation again as fast as she could, “let’s get going to Celestia, and try and head off this mother dragon!  Pell.. get back into solar form... I might need you to talk to some people..."</blockquote>

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