David looked around the room, he kept his tone quiet. “Are we sure that we are alone unobserved” Vivian checked around using her heightened perception, she could not hear or see anything. Alice felt for any magic she could sense none. Martin held out his holy symbol trying to detect anything. They all concluded that they were unobserved.

“OK” Vivian said, “What do you know about agents”? Alice spoke up “while adventurers are government sponsored bounty hunters and pest exterminators, agents are direct government employees. They have more power and more authority than local sheriffs and mayors only a bishop a duke or a trade commissioner could over rule them”.

Martin nodded, “they were probably established to fight larger threats, like the thieves’ guilds or the vampires. Monsters and criminals that have their talons in more than one place more than one jurisdiction”.

Alice looked around, “I hear that there is an even more senior level with grand masters called Emissary’s, only the patriarch, the king or the high gild master could overrule them”. Martin shrugged, “I suppose if we survive to level 75 or over then one of the triune might try to recruit us, but that’s in the future”.

David looked about the room, “Do we really want this, are we not painting a bigger target on our heads I have said it before we accept”. Vivian looked at him her eyes narrowing, “we swore an oath we work together to advance our position in this world any reasonable methods. I consider working for the triune directly an improvement”. David sighed, “OK I think we might be going against the free company charter doing this”. Vivian shook her head, “It allows us to be employed as guard captains’ sheriffs and still hold to the charter. We are covered, anyway when were you following the letter of the charter”? He shrugged obviously nervous about the unknown.

Martin tried to hide a look of disgust on his face, he tried to keep his voice calm. “Look we swore an oath before god, it is recognised as legally binding. I for one relish the opportunity to lead the fight, you will get prestige money and equipment we all win”. Alice looked about the others, “personally I think it helps our goals. But if we find it more a hindrance than an assistance it was only a provisional position, we still have the chance to decline when this is settled”.

David shrugged, “what about this mentoring thing”? Vivian looked at him trying to calculate his reaction, “its training for being an agent obviously. The bishop wants us to get used to working with a variety of people. We get more experience he gets better agents its win, win”. Martin looked at them considering his words to try and sell the idea to David. “When we all reach master status and when we become full agents we gain a bit of responsibility. That means the triune would expect some leadership from us. I mean not just setting an example but leading others into battle. Small tactics holding the line during sieges, actively leading big punitive hunting parties against monster nests or vampire lairs all of that”.

Alice looked like she was going to throw up then she swallowed it down, “I don't like that idea but, that can be managed, mages can work in small groups. These are skills we can each learn, I probably have the most to learn. The tower mostly teaches young mages one role in a group, in the hunters or the mercenary free company I presume that they teach more”.

David shrugged, “I know how to run a platoon of militia or levies, a few simple tactics but I suppose it’s a start”. Martin nodded, “as hunters we are trained to work in four man squads that can lead guards or work with other squads in platoons. It’s been some time since they gathered several hundred of us together to kicks something’s ass”.

A moment of clarity occurred to Alice. “The bishop might also want us to befriend these specific people because he might suspect one or more of them. We should keep our eyes and ears open and our mouths shut”. The rest of the party weighted her words and agreed, they ended their little meeting and headed downstairs for some breakfast. One of the deputy hunters brought Vivian a letter, she opened it she downed her tankard and opened the note. “The merchant’s guild has raised a contract on a dragon, a red one”.

Alice looked at her intently, “the one that the duke was talking about the one on the tin mine,” she nodded. “Yes the contract was initially awarded to the emerald bows mercenaries. However they want additional support, so we head over to the merchants guild and see how many ways this bounty is going to be split”. They finished up and grabbed all there equipment, then headed over to the guild craft hall. There was a small barracks that the mercenaries on guild contracts used.

Jonathan Swain was a tall lean man, with strong well developed upper arms. He certainly looked like he could pull a bow or swing a forge hammer. He had a certain roguish charm, he dressed in all green a padded gambeson. He had a bow reinforced with octium bands, it was strung with a string that was made from mithral strands. It was one of the hall marks of a successful mercenary, to have such fine equipment. They found him in his office going over the details of some shipping, where his archers would be protecting a few caravans.

They waited for him to finish up and dismiss his men. He looked up catching Vivian's eye as she handed out the note from the bishop. He shook her hand firmly and warmly, “you must be the eagle eyed archer I have been hearing so much about. It’s good to see a fellow mercenary who knows what to do with their strength, the bow is by far the superior weapon”. David swallowed a scowl at the comment. Vivian was grinning “Thank you for the welcome, we came to enquire about the dragon hunt, and to negotiate the reward”. He grinned reaching for the contract, “It all comes down to tin. Due to some market fluctuation they want a hell of a lot more of the stuff.

“The dragon is sitting in the tin mine, now we need to kill it or wound it so badly it decides to move off. I was hoping originally to get some of the mages from the chapter house, a few hunters and crusaders as well but you will do nicely”. He looked over at Martin, “I presume you know explosives” Martin held out a bundle of dynamite. He looked at Alice “and you have one hard hitting spell”? She grinned “Acid strike and fire ball”. He looked over to Vivian's bow and arrows “you seem quite qualified for the job”. David was a little more irritated at being ignored, but when hunting a dragon a suit of full mithral plate would probably be a minimum if any foot soldier was seriously considering attempting it.

Vivian smiled, “the bishop has asked you to mentor me. You have probably heard everything that I have done. what about you and your company”? He smiled back, “I am a long range sharp shooter equipped in a similar fashion to yourself, I have picked up the trick-shot skill to earn a little coin at shooting contests. I am also a blacksmith that concentrates on spear heads and arrow heads. The same spear heads can be used on ballista and bolt thrower ammunition without much alteration, I can forge Damascus and mithral”.

“The emerald bows were a support company once, started by my great grandfather who won the big shooting contest in the capital. The emerald bows were formed 50 years ago when the archery instructor from the grey company split from them. We are specialised sharp shooters an elite band we train only a few, we do focus on monster extermination support. With our company we including an engineer core with a few portable siege weapons. We have the big girl Bertha, a custom made six limed ballista that can punch well above her weight. She is currently at north port, you might see her one of these days. She can be packed down onto three large wagons and takes 2 hours to disassemble, three to put back together”.

Vivian listened, “what are the details of this contract exactly”? “Well the emerald bows are contracted to kill a young dragon, it’s been assessed at level 20. It lives on-top of the local tin mine, the mine was once very profitable. Now there is an even larger demand for tin so the reward on this contract has been put up to four gold or four hundred silver pieces. It has also been hinted they will sign the emerald bows on for another twenty years for guild security, if we can get it done. The tin mine is several hours out by cart, we bring three carts with a team of veteran sharpshooters a team of engineers with two small ballista in carts and you four. Then following a good mile behind we have several other wagons to harvest the dragon or recover the first team’s remains.

Vivian looked at him, “Ok so what will you be willing to pay us”? In the Negotiation Vivian knew that they have a reasonably good bargaining position. Jonathan concentrated, I can propose an 80/20 split in the emerald bows favour. We are providing the siege equipment after all.” Vivian shook her head “you can do better than that. I hit almost as hard as one of those siege bolt throwers and I fire a lot quicker”. He shrugged “you have a point we could improve the offer say a 70/30 split.” Vivian shook her head again, she put a hand on Alice. “You’re not just getting offensive magic but elemental shield spells and healing spells, the full package of magical support”.

Jonathan looked a little happier, “I suppose I can take that into consideration. I could go to a 60/40 split”. “You’re forgetting the vampire hunter has a lot of defensive blessings, he could take six hits from its breath weapon and still keep going”. He nodded again “you make good points, I agree to fifty fifty split, the contracts that this gains us will be worth far more in the long run”.

They followed Jonathan, he stopped one of the trade guild apprentices. “Tell the others that operation tin dragon is a go, I want them ready in twenty minutes to head out”. Fifteen minutes later they were loaded up onto a cart heading out of the settlement. Half an hour from that they split off from the main road onto an overgrown track, there were a few warning barriers but they ignored them and pushed on.

Martin looked at the others, “This situation is surprisingly common, it is often called a barrier monster. The vampires will block us from using a resource by moving a creature near to the location. They will prevent us having access to the resources without destroying those resources, in this case they could mine the tin deposits with thralls or slaves and put coin in their own pocket”. Alice looked about the group, “necromancers and sorcerers have been known to do the same for artefacts and sources of magic, a few elite demons or a few large bone golems even a reanimated dragon and they have their own magic on tap”.

There were two cart lodes of the mercenaries from the emerald bows with them. They were arranged into two squads of four. One group of veteran bowmen with a squad second of four engineers, they were specialists in using two man bolt throwers. The bolt throwers were arranged into several pieces and stowed onto the carts.

They got to the tin mine, it was a large deep cut into the earth. The dragon was inside the hollow basin, the ballista teams set up a killing ground before the dragon. The bolt throwers were put together from a series of three tripod legs, held together with pins to form a frame. Then the body of the bolt thrower was mounted on the frame. Followed by the bow in two sections a winding handle and some rope work and they were ready to go. Four boxes of bolts were placed next to the ballista’s. Short wooden defences a couple of feet high were left by the bolt throwers, something for the crews of engineers to hide behind. If the dragon got close enough to breath on them, it would probably not be enough.

The dragon had 20 uses of its breath weapon based on its level. They had no plan on getting close to it, they had no way to disable or deplete its primary ability. The group carefully looked over the lip of the basin. The Dragon was sleeping on the bottom, it had its scaly wings pulled back. Its tail and neck were coiled around its body, it was not paying much attention to anything. They could get a few free hits in on it. But then the creature would still be awake and alive. There was a large bolder quite close to the dragon. David saw it and moved as quietly as he could round to it, Martin saw what was going on and moved back to act as a distraction should it be needed.

David carefully sheathed his sword then levered himself into position against the rock. He had the strength of at least eight men, a few pushes with his legs his back braced against the rock and it started to roll over. He gave it a nudge to the right to direct it at the last minute and then scrambled back. Over it went it crashed into more rocks dislodge them, the dragon shopped snoring and started to rouse, David had caused a small landslide.

Several tons of rock landed on the dragon, it was suddenly trying to pull one of its wings out of the rocks while flapping about with the other. David's idea, had pinned it in place temporarily, which had also really pisses it off. Vivian and Alice get got in some free hits on the dragon, acid strikes and fire balls, iron arrows backed with power shots disappeared into its red hide. They didn't go very deep but they still ate away at the dragon’s life blood.

It was very very pissed off, it screamed and roared in pain as the arrows continued to hit it. The beast finally pulled itself out of the rock and set about looking for the one who dared to wake it up. It was bulkier than a wyvern another ten feet longer than the one they had killed, its scales were thicker closer together than the wyvern. A red dragon was the physically most resistant type. It had a main of long red scales going down its neck and along its spine and tail. It had four limbs ending with razor sharp claws a long tail that ended in a series of bony protrusions. Smoke from a chemical reaction slowly began to fume from out of its mouth. The dragon squatted down then jumped up, launching itself into the air. Its wings began to beat in a blur, forcing the creature up into the air.

Martin drew its attention he used his guardian angel and guardian seraphim angel blessings for protection. While the beast attacked spewing red hot fire into the path of the angelic light that turned it aside every time. He sprinted away from it using his massive endurance to propel him forwards, Martin survived six breath attacks. As he lead the dragon it moved into the cross fire of archers and bolt throwers. They were doing quite a bit of damage, but there was a lot of dragon. At least the ballista bolts punch hard, causing the dragon to flinch each time it was struck.

The beast was persistent, it tracked Martin eventually on the seventh attempt he took a hit from the edge of its breath weapons flame. He lost more than 600 hp, even with his fortress of faith blessing active. The fire had chewed through the defensive blessing and part cooked him. He still had inhuman vitality, which was the only reason he survived. Another hit would be fatal. He had a blessing in reserve, he turned and faced the beast. He used “hand of judgement”, above the dragon a white light formed into a translucent mailed fist. It struck down onto the dragon’s skull with fearsome force, it deal holy damage but also knock it out of the sky. Ten tons of dragon plummeted to the earth with the least dignified and most humiliating landing that this dragon had ever suffered.

The fall causes damage and stunned the creature, Martin threw what blessings he could at it as quickly as he could. Four smites sent lightning bolts arching into its hide, two pillar of salt turned some of its scales to salt stripping it of defences. He used two wrath of the almighty blessings to cause a bit more damage. The beast would not fall but it would all help weaken it. It was not tremendous damage against a dragon with around 14000 hit point’s total.

His next attack was quite powerful, if he got the opportunity to properly use it. Martin released his best attack, “chain smite” on its ass, bombarding it with a seemingly endless barrage of lightning bolts. David was not idle either he started to pummel it with his blade one adrenalin strike after another tearing out chucks of scale blood and muscle on its tail and back legs. He was there almost as soon as it hit the ground. David was sensible enough to turn and run away when it started to stir. In the meantime the mercenary archers and ballista units were hitting it more and more. They desperately tried to empty every arrow and bolt into the serpentine juggernaut, before it could get close enough to flame them to death.

Vivian was using her bodkin and enchanted mithral arrows on the beast, doing a lot of damage to its weaker neck. Alice continued to hit it with spell after spell, first off with fire balls but it seemed to be somewhat resistant to fire. So she switched to her acid strike spell, corroding its scales away and putting holes into its defences. The dragon tried to get some distance it lunged into the air flapping its wings again, it was not completely steady as it lifted off again, one wing had received more damage than the other.

Alice started to throw her acid strike spells at its wounded right wing joint. Vivian had seen it go down with Martins blessing, she had a similar idea of how to achieve the same effect. She hit it in the left eye with her last bodkin arrow, the beast took a moment to register the pain as the arrow buried into its eye socket. It screamed in agony down it went again followed by two more siege engine bolts buried into its flesh.

The Dragon was very far from dead, but it couldn't can’t aim straight due to eye. Its fire missed Martin by a mile, the first time it renewed its attack. However its second try was a lot closer as it compensated. David had taken the opportunity to get back on its tail attacking it, he headed for its wounded left leg cutting into the armoured joint. The dragon staggered as two more ballista bolts hit it among the hail of arrows.

Alice dissolved a massive hole on its wing membrane, it would not be able to get up in the air again. The beast finally had Martin dead to rights when it screamed again in rage and in pain as its left leg collapsed under David's attacks. Martin was to closet to the end that fire came out of so he ran for it, breaking the chain smite attack, but not before he had delivered a lot of damage. The Dragon crawled forward, Martin might be disappearing out of range but it had other targets close by.

Martin had exhausted most of his offensive blessings, but he still could add something to the battle. He started taking pot shots at the dragon with his pistols, from beyond its breath range. The dragon finally got close enough to send a breath of fire at the archers tormenting it. Alice was embedded in the same group, she had enough time to cast her elemental barrier spell. It saved her and Vivian from the dragons breathe attack. One of the engineers had dived for cover under the thick wooden barrier, a fraction of a second to late he was wounded. David took his place loading bolts into the weapons mechanism. Alice turned round and send a couple of her low powered ranged healing spells, into the engineer’s wounds he would survive.

The dragon was close enough to breath on them, but the ballista crews were also close enough to hit it very precisely. They had trained with a monster tamer pulling a target behind a wyvern, now they put their practice to use. A ballista bolt landed precisely into the dragon’s throat, it completely killed its ability to use its breath attack and probably would have been fatal eventually. The dragon choked on the bolt lodged into its throat. It can’t do anything but crawl forwards, its wings and one leg trailing behind it, the beast was not giving up. The dragon would try to get into melee range, Vivian emptied her quiver using the last bleed arrows and silver arrows.

The sharp shooters from the emerald bows, ran out of arrows a few seconds later. They still had a few ballista bolts which they loaded and fired. The wounded engineer slowly started to come round. Alice sent a few more acid strikes at the dragons face into its throat. The dragon screamed in pain then kept dragging itself forwards. Its one good eye focused on the group in front of it. They backed off further and further, it was a stale mate, the dragon was in very bad shape. They were not sure how much it could heal if they left it. Alice was almost out of mana, including using the reserve in staff. She still had a potion of mana that might be enough. Martin had a few blessings that might hurt it.

David point upwards “you see the big rock on top off cliff, Martin you have dynamite what do you think”. He considered it “Thy will be done” his eyes narrowed he saw a different way forward. He used a focus re-load then delivered a, focus shot into dragons other eye, he used a mithral bullet. That penetrated deeply empowering the attack with “divine retribution” to do a little more damage. The dragon screamed more gasping for breath frothing at the mouth spitting bile and blood with every ragged breath. The dragon tried again to get closer it could still hear them. Vivian the archers and the engineers working together, rolling the rock down onto the dragon. David charged forwards using his power attack to finish off the wounded creature opening up its neck. The beast screamed and died.

They were hit with the Level up, several of the engineers gained a few levels. As for the party David went from level 39 to level 42 the shock of gaining three levels was quite substantial. David picked up the same class level Vivian had and gained two ranks of the bonus sword damage ability. It was a skill that allowed a little twist of the sword at the right moment to do a bit more damage. Alice and Vivian were still slightly ahead going from level 40 to 43. Vivian picked up three ranks of the pierce armour skill, allowing her to be far more effective with heavy duty arrows like the bodkins.

Alice mastered her elemental shield spell and picked up another one called icy tomb, it would allow her to freeze one target in place dealing frost damage. Against something the size of a dragon it would slow them down a bit. It was one of the few spells that a mage used where the cost of the spell increased as it became more powerful. Usually the spells became more efficient as they were mastered, this one became more powerful but demanded more mana.

Martin was stuck at level 50 until he could find a monster suitable to perform a feet of martial strength by defeating. He sighed reloading his pistols. Vivian the archers and engineers got together to start recovering all there arrows. Martin felt his own flesh and sighed, he used his healing blessing on himself. Being cooked alive was not a pleasant sensation, at least young dragons had fire that didn't burn for very long.

With their ammo recovered they sat down around one of the carts, David was wiping dragon blood off his armour. Alice looked at them her eyes big and wide, “well that was a dragon”. The injured engineer looked at her, “thanks for the assistance, without the elemental barrier and the healing we would have been dead”. The emerald bows pulled a couple of bottles of wine and some bread out of one of the carts. The mercenaries shared the wine and food with the adventures.

There was a health amount of respect from the emerald bows, they could see the power of a master and those close to that level. Eventually one of the mercenaries walked away from the group he waved a red flag from high ground, signalling the rest of the group to come over to them. Martin used his purify blessing to remove the thrall taint from the dragons remains, they wanted to avoid being infected with the taint from its carcass.

There were several more crews of civilians arriving now, cart drivers some different engineering specialist to look at the mine. There were work crews from the trade guild and alchemists. They quickly started to use hammers and chisels to strip the armoured scales off beast.

With the scales removed they used a massive two handed saws with mithral in the cutting edge, to cut the main joints, helped with saw, axes and pick axes etc. They worked to dismember it as quickly as possible, they didn't want to face a zombie dragon as unlikely as that could be. Dragon hide was cut away for clothes and leather goods, striped off in two meter wide sections.

They harvested, sinew very good for high level crossbow and arrow strings. The Teeth were hammered out, claws pulled and cut free. The skull would be a trophy for the duke to sit above his aviary. Bones were recovered, flesh was piled up pickled, blood and guts barrelled. The alchemist pointed out the various important organs, liver hart etc. They were more carefully treated placed into large brine filled barrels. The less important pieces were chopped up and stuffed into large barrels haphazardly.

The bolt thrower engineers lend a hand with winches and A frames to move the carcass about. The mercenaries were physically strong, they had no trouble doing the rough work chopping up and cutting up flesh. Martin and the rest helped out carrying crates and boxes or putting scales into sacks. Between them thirty skilled people turned the 26 foot long monster into about nine tons of preserved dragon. They loaded up on five carts to be taken back to the guild hall for processing. They would not have been able to defeat the dragon without the party. Otherwise they estimated that they could not do much to it, without four times the number of archers and siege weapons perhaps even more to guarantee victory.

They rode on the piles of boxes on the way back, Alice looked at the party “We never want to face a dragon over level 50 they gain sentience. They start to think and develop their own personality an old one would remember the blood alchemists that created them from thousands of years ago. Or they would have been told about it they can hold a grudge. Either way they are capable of planning and wouldn't have been as easily tricked or disrupted as that dragon was.” Martin nodded in agreement, “it’s one of the few creatures that can slip the thrall taints control, though some vampires are rumoured to have negotiated with such beasts, rather than to subjugate them”.

A few hours later they were back at good ford. The entire convoy was checked at the gate, then they were let in. The carts were taken to the merchants craft hall and it was contract complete. Jonathan went and saw the merchant Gavin for his company's pay, and the signed agreement extending their contract another twenty years. The party gathered round his office, their share of the reward was 200 silver. They had effectively been a sub-contractor to emerald bows mercenaries, but they were taking home half the profits on the table.

Jonathan took Vivian aside, “I need to talk to you about the emerald bows, why don't your friends take some time to buy equipment from Gavin or some ale or to go and see there mentors”. David looked surprised at Jonathan's friendly attitude to Vivian, he was about to say something when Martin stopped him “come on there are things we need to do”. “But”! Alice tapped him with her staff, “come on she is old enough to look after herself”.

He grinned at her, “Vivian I have a bow a reward for you, I am the quarter master of the emerald bows, you want the best I have it”. He placed something wrapped in green cloth on the table, “this bow is as powerful as a siege engine. It has been constructed with yellow yew heartwood at its core from the holy mountain. It’s reinforced with spring mithral and gryphon's sinew”.

She held it up her mouth open, Jonathan continued, “The tips and grip are dragon tooth I finished them off half an hour ago from the dragon you helped kill. The string is a cable made from steal and octium thread. The sighting is mechanist manufactured from mithral, it would be accurate to two miles at its max range, if anyone had the strength to pull it that far. It is enchanted with stability piercing paralysis and fear. You are asking are you worthy of this bow? Have you got enough gold to afford this bow?”

Jonathan Swain grinned as Vivian held onto the bow with a death grip, he grinned “are you worthy of this? My men tell me that you shot a dragon out of the air hitting it in the eye. You are worthy. You should join us Vivian Tanner, we could switch your mercenary contract from the glass bay mercenaries to the Emerald Bows. You could lead your own crew a four person squad. We have deep pockets I have atmantite arrow heads, you fill a few hunts for us and we could even find some ultramite heads for you. Imagine having ballista support on every hunt”.

Vivian could tell the man was canny, he was trying to recruit her before she hit level 50 and the cost to transfer her contract jumped exponentially. He did genuinely see her as a powerful mercenary very well suited to his particular companies’ specialised fighting style. She considered it for a few heart beats, she sighed slowly placing the bow on the table. “I am sorry Jonathan but I must politely decline, my current team are all the family I have left in the world”.

He nodded picking up the bow, “you have earned this bow, the contracts that the trade guild signed with us will be worth hundreds of gold over the next twenty years. Take it, it’s a one-time offer”. Vivian had the bow in her hands, she had a grip round Jonathan hugging him. It would make a bear hug feel like a gentle snuggle by comparison. “Thank you I appreciate the sentiment, please let me breath”. She looked at him “take my old bow in part exchange, I don't need it any-more”, “it will be a lovely addition to my stock”.

She looked at him, pulling out a piece of folded cloth, “some time ago we killed a vampire with a mithral steel alloy sword, these are the remains of that sword, with the fragments could you turn them into arrow heads”? He looked at the pieces, “yes I can do that it’s not uncommon, I can do that in a couple of days say five silver on delivery”, she nodded.

He grinned looking at her lapel seeing a shining object, “you need to use every trick for example that voice amplification pin, make a noise get someone to turn so that they are exposed for your shot when it lands”. She nodded in understanding “you know how to compensate for wind, but what about a magical storm”? Vivian slowly soaked up the knowledge from Jonathan, as he imparted various tricks he had learnt and some exploitable weakness of some monsters.

Martin had tried a little experiment, he found that dragon meat was not very tasty. It was very oily and fatty, and chewy, if he dumped enough spices on it he could remove its taste. Which kind of defeated the point, it was also very poisonous. Martin had greater poison resistance and over fifty points of endurance he would be fine, and he was surprisingly the only one to try it. He spoke to an apothecary some of it distilled down would be used for a special brew, he would see if he could at least drink it.

David was getting some pointers from the sheriff, “it’s amazing how good a shield your opponent can become, if you have the right footwork. You can keep one big guy in front of the rest of their allies”. So it went on as David was shown techniques to make his sword and shield flow together even better by the bounty hunter. Martin found Reginald he got some pointers from the crusader, “you never faced a siege ghoul, remember that they are both a ranged weapon and a battering ram on two legs”. Martin nodded some of the patched repairs to the town’s outer wall made sense now. Meanwhile back in her room Alice was reading her book, holding the letter of introduction with the seal, nervous about meeting other mages. she would put it off for today tomorrow she would go through with it.

David and Melcher went to the green duck tavern and found a barrel of orange ogre ale. Vivian and Jonathan joined them a little later. Reginald Martin and Alice wandered in after that, Martin had high hopes that there was some form of alchemically imbued alcohol that could bypass his poison resistance and actually get him a bit tipsy.

Vivian showed off her dragon bow pointing out the bits made from its remains, “tips and grip dragon tooth”. Alice came closer “can I have a look” Vivian nodded Alice gently held the bow as it was propped on the table feeling the magic in it. “It’s made from strong materials good for enchanting. It’s the work of several enchanters each adding one effect, stability piercing paralysis and fear. Effectively it adds +60 points of damage to your physical attack, a 20 point accuracy boost. This could be powerful a 20% chance to cause 5 seconds of paralysis on a human sized target, with a much smaller chance on higher level creatures. It had a 30% chance to causes a 5 second fear response. But then most things that would affected by the paralysis and fear would be dead through and through with the power that Vivian can put into an attack”.

Martin looked at it “not necessarily, even a vampire fledgling would still be standing after one regular attack, it could be really good on low level vampires”. Alice could feel the enchantments, “the accuracy one is very powerful”. David look at it “congratulations Vivian a good prize that must be very expensive equipment, will you need to upgrade your arrows and quivers to match? He whispered to her out of ear shot for Jonathan, “I wonder if this bow was partially a reward from the bishop”? She nodded, “perhaps” they drank into the night celebrating their victory over the red tin dragon.