Arthurs "Stats" (list of magic spells and natural abilities)-

Spells:

1st lvl: Unseen servant

2nd lvl: Enlarge/reduce, invisibility, pyrotechnics, misty step

3rd lvl: Fireball-(at will), haste, dispel magic

Natural abilities:

-breath weapon

-dragon fear

-Dragon shapeshift

-legendary actions/resistance

{Arthur}

Arthur soared through the sky, enjoying the calming wind on his face and scales. In his clutches was a scorched troll, limp and unresisting. He found out it was easy to get trolls to cooperate with a little fire.

He turned his gaze below, onto the forest. It would be so easy to burn it all. He shook his head and focused on flying. He wasn’t dense, especially with his new brain. Arthur knew if he did something violent or pleased his draconic instincts because he simply felt like it, it would snowball and he would lose himself in the liberating and FUN sensations that came with destruction.

It was gonna be a couple of minutes until he reached the town at this speed. His mind wandered.

Was the decision to put his lair next to Mirfield, and so quickly after he was reincarnated, bad? Should he not explore this new world first? He turned the thought around in his head, mulling it over. Eventually, Arthur decided no. He liked this area, traveling the world would very likely be dangerous (in a general sense) and draining, and he was an introvert at heart. He wouldn’t be able to keep up with meeting so many people. Even if he was making excuses, the fact remained that Arthur had already settled down. He couldn’t just up and abandon all of the minions he had gathered so far, couldn’t abandon Kaia and the kobolds. It might break their tiny little hearts, maybe even literally.

Enough thinking for now. The town of Mirfield came into view, and he started to gradually descend.

He landed and saw guards on top of the two watchtowers shouting to people inside the town. A minute later the gates of Mirfield opened and a big, portable cage was rolled out by multiple humans. Arthur held the defeated troll up by one leg and exhaled a small gout of fire directly into its face for good measure, making it emit a cry of pain as the guards slowly pushed the cage towards him.

The humans opened the cage and presented it to Arthur with apprehensive smiles. He felt a moment of prickling doubt as he glanced at the troll. Was this… slavery? From his knowledge, trolls devour anything they can get their hands on and are chaotic evil. They often work with giants and whatnot for the promise of food. He knew their blood was valuable. But they were also sentient.

He eventually decided it probably deserved whatever came to it. For the troll’s sake, he hoped the wizard that’s going to study it wasn’t some sort of mad scientist. Arthur stuffed the singed troll into the cage unceremoniously and closed it himself. He turned to the humans.

“My gold?” The closest human guard bowed, out of breath, and replied quickly,

“Your reward will be retrieved quickly, lord Arthur!” The guard did another hasty bow and ran back to help his fellows push the now heavy cage, leaving him.

His fiery eyes wandered to the town as he waited. He didn’t usually look into the town all that much because all of the eyes on him made him slightly agitated, along with an unwelcome prickling feeling to preen at all the attention. The Commoners of the town openly stared at him through windows and cracked doors, pointing and talking to one another.

Something caught his eye, and he looked over to a big building that had some sort of replica of a dragon mounted up above its front door, with a sign that read “Dragons Lair” in big red letters. It was his turn to stare, as Arthur was almost certain that tavern was named something else the first time he came here.

It made sense for the tavern to base itself on him, but it still gave him the weird uncomfortable yet smug feeling. Arthur was snapped back to reality when the guard finally returned with his gold.

The man tried to say something to Arthur but instead wheezed, out of breath. The guard held the bag out and Arthur wordlessly pinched the gold bag gently with two claws. He backed away from Mirfield and took flight in the direction of his lair.

{Kaia}

Kobolds were naturals at making tunnels. With the right tools and a lot of them, one could say kobolds can tunnel through anything.

Kaia has never made something as big as what Arthur wanted, however. She didn’t want to let her god down, but it was seeming more impossible the more progress they made. The kobolds simply did not have enough people or tools to get this done in any reasonable time.

Kaia would have to take this up with Arthur.

“Alright everyone,” Kaia half-shouted, “Let’s stop and eat.” The kobolds reluctantly set down their various tools and began to head outside, where the prey caught by the bugbears is stored.

Kaia led the group of kobolds, walking confidently. Outside the lair the bugbears were busy, building various structures. Already small huts were beginning to replace the tents that the bugbears had previously been sleeping in. The kobolds were given a glance but otherwise ignored by the bugbears, who returned the same apathy.

As soon as all the kobolds had settled around a small fire pit and began to eat various meats and fruits, Kaia saw Arthur’s form in the distance. The kobolds all got to their feet immediately to watch Arthur flying towards them, grins on their faces.

Kaia felt nervous. She hoped Arthur wouldn't throw her out as he did to that satyr.

{Arthur}

He landed, shuffling past the kobolds surrounding him. Arthur cast an unseen servant and made the invisible force take the bag of gold and dump it onto his growing hoard. It was really dusty in the lair…

Arthur looked over to the kobolds behind him, an idea popping into his head. Looking closely, the kobolds were really grimy and dusty-looking. And now that Arthur was thinking about the kobolds’ wellbeing, their clothes barely passed for loincloths, simple animal skins. Kaia was the only one wearing any civilized piece of clothing! He was hit with a wave of guilt. He was treating the kobolds as slaves and barely caring about any of their personal wellbeings.

Arthur had to amend this.

Where to start? Getting new clothes should be the priority, but the kobolds were also really filthy. Before he could make up his mind, Kaia stepped out of the crowding kobold group and approached Arthur. The raggedy cloak she always wore was dusty, he noted.

“Um, Arthur? I would like to talk about the second floor you asked us to make…” Kaia looked at him nervously, and he gestured for her to continue.

“Well, to be straightforward, I don’t think we can finish it with our current numbers or tools in a reasonable amount of time.” Kaia seemed to wince before looking up at him again.

He resisted the urge to sigh. “That’s no problem, Kaia. I was thinking of making you all stop anyways. Speaking of, I have noticed a much more important problem, you and the other kobolds’ attire and hygiene.” When Arthur said this multiple kobolds looked shame-faced and picked at their clothing. Kaia seemed to sigh in relief, any nervousness she had previously draining out of her.

“Until you are all wearing fresh clothing and clean scales, I will not be happy.” The kobolds immediately started talking to each other, coming up with ideas. Eventually, though, all the kobolds turned to Kaia.

“Um, we can make new clothes out of the animal skins we have from the bugbears, and we can wash off in the river nearby.” She frowned for a second and glanced at Arthur.

“If animal skins are not acceptable, we can buy cloth and other supplies from the human town?” She looked at Arthur with a tilt of her head. He nodded.

“Very good, Kaia. Lead the other kobolds to the river and I will buy supplies.” Kaia nodded happily and herded everyone outside. Arthur turned to his hoard and scooped up gold with a wooden chest that was nearby.

Twenty minutes later Arthur has bought a sizeable amount of spare cloth from a slightly confused Mirfield along with many sewing kits, cramming whatever he can in the chest and carrying the rest. As a last thought, he also bought a few pairs of commoner’s clothes so the kobolds had something to base the cloth off of. Arthur asked the guards for their smallest sizes, getting kid-sized clothes in exchange. He should go about making some sort of backpack for himself…

Another few minutes of flight and he was back at his lair, laying out the cloth and sewing kits on the stony ground. Arthur was about to go out to find the kobolds but then thought better of it. He would wait.

He looked around the dusty lair, grimacing, and eventually decided to take all of the cloth and kits outside.

Kaia and the kobolds came back looking much better. They immediately surrounded Arthur, waiting for him to speak.

“Much better.” He casts a glance at each of them. “Now, onto proper clothing.” He gestured to the cloth and sewing kits with one massive claw. “I’ve prepared some basic cloth and sewing kits. Use these clothes as a starting point.” Arthur taps each item lightly with a claw as he says this, and the kobolds started chittering amongst themselves at once before Kaia organized them all and started to distribute the sewing kits. He was content to watch and let Kaia take over, so Arthur laid down in a comfortable position and prepared to stay there all day until the task was done. His thoughts began to drift…

{Kaia}

She barked orders at her denmates, making sure everything was going smoothly. She briefly glanced at her god, who seemed to be slightly detached, before returning to coaching the kobolds on how to sew.

Kaia did a lot of menial work in the ten years she lived among humans for coin, including sewing clothes for others.

She also recalled a lot of stabbing as well…

Thinking back, Kaia wondered what would have happened to her if she never got sorcerer magic. Or if she had never met… She looked over to Arthur once more.

Kaia was one lucky kobold, she would say that with pride. She will repay the safety and kindness her god bestows on the kobolds daily tenfold!

She started working with fervor, going into overdrive to make sure every kobold was sewing correctly.

{Bivran}

The bugbear leader watched dispassionately over at the kobolds and the boss. Making clothes? What was the point? An animal skin loincloth and armor is all any creature needs! He never understood humans and there weird looking clothes. He once raided a carriage with his old boss, (something about a noble? He only paid attention to the money part.) and when all the guards had been smashed with their clubs, (almost died to one, dodged just in time.) Bivran himself had opened the carriage door and inside was a human female wearing some amalgamation of frills and colors. (They had let out a high-pitched shriek, which made him laugh.)

Bivran the bugbear turned to his brothers in arms.

“Let’s go out and hunt, done building for today.” He said gruffly. The other bugbears grinned savagely and hoisted their various weapons. Bivran unholstered his magic greataxe, his old boss’ weapon. He also grinned down at the blade, his smile being reflected in the slightly glimmering metal.

Bivran the bugbear enjoys the simple things in life.

{Donald}

Donald, the town master of Mirfield, sighed. Arthur the dragon was of course the target of his distress. All over town, the only thing on people’s lips, every single conversation, even the tavern’s rebranding could not stop with the appeal that is Arthur.

That was to be expected of course, and it was already happening since day one of the red dragon’s sudden appearance. Many people decided to uproot and leave once a red dragon decided to lair near Mirfield, which was fair. Others decided to stay either because they were too deeply tied with Mirfield, had nowhere else to go, or were simply fascinated by the dragon.

And now, people were trickling into Mirfield specifically because of Arthur, and the hubbub only seemed to rise each day. Pretty soon Mirfield is probably going to be expecting even more ‘peculiar’ guests than simple citizens looking to get a peek at a red dragon that won’t enslave or kill them.

Donald the town master sighed again, reaching for his tin cup of coffee and finding it empty. Grumbling, he stood to fetch some more.

{Arthur}

I want to practice my magic. Should I get a new quest? I want to burn something. Wait, no. Should I get more minions?

Idle thoughts raced through Arthur’s head, thinking of the future. He wondered what would happen if he went out into the world and tried to find a lich. That would be a perfect place to get as much magic as he wanted.

Should he be abusing his knowledge more? If he did, Arthur would undoubtedly be able to accomplish a lot. Every victory would make him snowball…

Should he infiltrate a town in his humanoid form?

No, no, no. Doing any of that only invites trouble, chaos, enemies… All he wants at the moment is to occasionally take quests from Mirfield, build up trust with them, make sure his minions are taken care of, and collect gold for his hoard. He doesn’t want to do something irreversible by accident and regret it. Arthur is perfectly fine with the kobolds, no more dealing with any drama or complications!

He realized smoke was venting out of his nose, and the air around him was growing hotter. He calmed down by taking a deep breath. Arthur waved off the kobolds’ concerned glances and complimented them on the work so far. Kaia and the kobolds beamed at him before getting back to sewing, happy.

Arthur decided to live in the moment for now. He got a fun idea and turned to Kaia, who was hard at work.

“Kaia, do you mind if I cast a spell on you? It will make you faster.” The kobold turned to him with a curious look.

“Yes, go ahead!” She smiled. Arthur raised a claw and pointed at her, though it was unnecessary, and spoke a few magical words. He cast haste on Kaia, who immediately seemed to be a blur of movement as if she were testing her speed.

“Try sewing now.” He swore he caught a quick nod from Kaia before she started to sew with surprising speed and dexterity. The other kobolds oohed and ahhed at Kaia, who was speeding around and finishing every kobold’s clothes in record time.

The sight made him grin, snorting up smoke.