One week ago, in the Adventurer’s Tavern in Trespia, the town closest to the Duke’s manor.

“So I’m thinking we should hire a hunter with sleep arrows.” Blake was telling Rueban as they sat at a table towards the back of the large room, talking quietly so as not to be overheard. “Just have the man dip his arrows in sleep toxin and then dip his arrows in Rex, and done! One sleepy hatchling in the bag.”

Rueban replied with a noncommittal “hmmm” before pulling out a strange gem. “Let me show you something,” he said, “this is possibly my favorite enchanted item I’ve made.” He told Blake holding up the oddly cut dungeon core.

“What is it?” Blake asked.

“It’s a pentagonal trapezohedron,” Rueban explained, “Or a ten sided die. I’ve marked each side with a number from 1 to 10. And I’ve enchanted it to let me predict the odds.”

“Predict the odds?”

“Yes it reads the possible future outcomes of a given choice. Quite impressive really, all I know is that it uses the chaos affinity bound within this dungeon core to do so. A million possible futures, and then it tells me, roughly, how likely something is. All I have to do is ask and then toss the die.” Rueban paused dramatically, holding the dungeon core die in his hand, “For example, what if I ask, “What are the odds a single hunter armed with sleep arrows will successfully capture Rex?” then throw the die, it will give me a result, like so.”

As Rueban asked the question, the die began to swirl with multicolored lights that rapidly mixed into a single white glow. When the glow settled into uniform white, Rueban tossed the die on the table in front of him. The die rolled strangely, seeming to twitch from within, contorting until the die abruptly stopped, showing a “1” on it’s upper surface.

“That means there is less than a 10% chance of success.” Rueban explained, “That’s the lowest possible result.”

“But why though?” Blake asked.

“No idea,” Rueban admitted with a shrug, “if I had to guess, it may be that Rex is somehow immune to poison. What are the odds of killing Rex using only poison?” Rueban asked, throwing the die again. The result was also a “1”.

Blake shook his head in amazement. “You’ve got so many cool toys with your enchantments. How come you’re the only enchanter I’ve ever heard of that can do these things? I’d think these things you can make commonplace among the wealthy nobles at least.”

“Well part of it is that dungeon cores aren’t exactly common. I have to hire adventurers to go into a dungeon and claim them. Sometimes they break the damn things too.” Rueban sighed. “But mostly it’s because you need to attach a dungeon core to your head to be able to do this sort of enchantment. The fools at the Mage Guild called me mad and dismissed my work as worthless, just because I’ve given myself a death sentence by letting a dungeon core dig its roots into my brain. That’s a serious drawback, sure, but it just means more research is needed to figure out how to fix the side effects. If I had their support I could have… well, the die doesn’t lie. What are the odds that I could save my life if I understood Rex’s secrets?” Rueban threw the die, a “10” was the result. “See, this is why I need him.”

Blake frowned. “Ok, but how do we capture him?”

“I already confirmed that Rex will rush headlong into danger if we capture the catgirl and that our best window of opportunity is the week of the king’s birthday.” Rueban muttered, “We just need to find the right mix of adventurers.” Rueban pointed at the stack of seven names written on small scraps of paper. “These are the people who expressed willingness to take the mission we posted on the quest board.”

“Can you afford all of them?” Blake asked.

“Maybe, but watch. What are the odds of capturing Rex if I send all seven of these adventurers?” Rueban asked. Then throwing the die, it gave a result of “1”.

“How is that possible?” Blake asked, confused, “With so many…”

“Rex is too smart to fight so many, most likely. You told me he’s fast, so he probably would just run away from a large group. We need him to be willing to fight. What are the odds Rex will engage a group of seven adventurers?” Rueban asked, throwing the die. A result of “1” was visible.

Testing the odds repeatedly with smaller and smaller numbers, Rueban found that Rex was between 70% and 80% likely to engage three adventurers; a roll of “8”. “That’s the largest group that he is likely to fight.” Rueban mused. “Now we need to pick the three adventurers from this pile that are most likely to beat him…”

The single most important member of the team to boost the odds of success was a “Blizzard Mage” who possessed the affinities of magic, ice, and wind. Any team that didn’t include him had a “1” or “2” odds of success. “Fascinating,” Rueban observed on discovering this fact. “I wonder if the ice magic is needed to succeed. Does Rex have fire breath, perhaps?”

“Why not just roll the die, asking if Rex will breath fire?” Blake asked.

“And spoil the surprise? No, I’d rather just watch the fight and see how it plays out. I just care about the odds of winning, not the small details. Besides… I think my dungeon die is close to its limits. It screams in pain in my head every time I roll it. Hah, just a few more rolls and you can rest.” Rueban told the now overheated die; it was getting rather hot to the touch.

Using the die sparingly, Rueban picked out the other two members of the team. A paladin of the Golden Hand, a follower the patron god of Commerce and Mercenaries, and a female assassin with melee, dagger, magic, and shadow affinities.

In the end, Rueban picked out a group that gave a “9” on the roll, meaning between 80% and 90% odds of successfully capturing the hatchling. “I’m surprised that this is the best we can do,” Rueban muttered. “I would have thought that we could have put together a 10.”

Assembling the three chosen adventurers, Rueban explained his plan.

“All this to capture a smart hatchling?” The assassin asked, “I could handle it alone.” She said boastfully. This wasn't an idle boast, however, as the highest level of the three adventurers, and the only one who had earned a 4th affinity, she felt confident she could handle this task alone.

Rueban did not explain what he’d discovered using his dungeon die, not wanting more dangerous people to know about his “toys”. Blake was a weak man who wouldn’t try to betray him because he was scared, but letting the adventurers know everything might mean they’d simply rob him rather than do their jobs. Instead, he simply said, “Well, I’m a big spender, and I’m willing to pay a little extra to make sure you catch Rex unharmed.”

The paladin nodded, “The client is always right,” he said, repeating one of the axioms of his faith. “But expect to pay me a surcharge if you are forcing me to work with a disreputable assassin like her.” He added. “The Blizzard mage and I could win without her.” He suggested with a glare at the black leather wearing woman.

“Just immobilize the hatchling and put this on him.” Rueban told the bickering adventurers. “It’s made using a dragon’s beast core. I’ve etched a sleep spell on this metal plate, and using sympathetic magic it will force Rex’s core to emit a sleep spell from within, bypassing his magic resistance. This collar is specially designed to work on dragons, and only dragons. It is guaranteed to put him in a permanent sleep so long as he is wearing it.” Rueban held up a large faintly red glowing gem attached to an etched metal plate with two straps; the collar was meant to be easy to put on and tighten.

“Why not just tell the mage to use a sleep spell?” Blake asked.

The sleep spell was a basic spell that everyone with magic affinity learned, but it had some drawbacks. “That would work, but we would need to stun him or daze him first. Usually when they hunt dragon eggs up in the dragon wilds they will hit the mother dragon with a lightning bolt to stun her, then use the sleep spell. It won’t work if the target isn’t weakened somehow; too easy to resist.” The Blizzard mage explained.

“I’m concerned that Rex might have tricks up his sleeves. Unknown magics, possibly a resistance to lightning.” Rueban had a lightning affinity mage to choose from, but found that adding him to the team hadn’t helped the odds of success at all. “I don’t know what he will do, you should all be alert to unexpected tricks. All I know is, this will work on him, I guarantee it.” Rueban explained, handing the dragon sleep collar to the assassin who wrapped it around her arm, trusting that it wouldn’t affect her. Rueban didn’t add that he’d already rolled the die on the question of whether the collar would work, getting a “10” as a result.

“Well, you’re the client,” The paladin said with a shrug, “If that’s how you want us to do it, then we will. All that’s left now is to haggle for how much you are going to pay us.”