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Race: Draconian

Bloodline Powers: Improved Strength+, Rending, Firebreath+

Greater Mysteries: Fire (Noble) 6, Wind (Noble) 5, Sound (Advanced) 2

Lesser Mysteries: Heat 4, Oxygen 4, Embers 4, Pressure 4, Current/Flow 4

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“Thank you for this opportunity, Magus,” Charook gushed happily. “It is a shame that I was forced to leave Krattle behind to look after the rest of my people, but Goorku and Zapnik won’t let you down.”

“I appreciate your assurances, but I didn’t realize that their weapons would be so… grim,” Samazzar replied, motioning toward the pair of spears wielded by the goblins, both of which appeared to have been grown and molded from solid bone.

“Ah, yes,” Charook said excitedly. “The goat femurs. As you know, I am a practitioner of the mystery of bone. I know the community is low on iron at the moment, so I took the initiative to grow some new weapons for the goblins. They aren’t as strong as metal or even wood, but they’re much sharper than a fire hardened spear head. Obviously they aren’t a perfect solution, but against ordinary creatures such as the cave rats that we have been hunting as of late, they are more than adequate.”

“Your weapons are fascinating,” Samazzar replied, stepping past the shaman and reaching for one of the goblins’ spears. “May I?”

The goblin cocked their head to the side, gibbering something meaningless at Charook. Underneath the loose rags that passed for the creature’s clothing, Samazzar saw a ridged breastplate made of bone. He only was able to glimpse it for a second, but it looked like a person’s ribcage if the ribs were smoothed out and spread into interconnecting plates.

“Yes of course you should give it to him,” Charook snapped. “Even if he isn’t the reason why you have plump, juicy rats to eat for dinner, I’m your boss and he’s my boss. Listen to what the Magus says.”

They yammered something back. Samazzar could only understand the words “rat” and “yum,” but the massive smile on the goblin’s face in addition to the way it gleefully rubbed its stomach made their point clear. At least they gave Samazzar the spear.

He held the weapon up, squinting at it in the dim glow given off by the milklight sap rubbed on the hats that Barsa, Charook, and the goblins were wearing. The blue light didn’t illuminate much, both kobolds and goblins were adept at traveling in the half-dark.

Now that he was inspecting it closer, Samazzar could see that the spear was crafted from a femur. The bone was elongated until it was almost two paces high, a bit taller than the goblins wielding it. The weapon’s head was out of place, a sharp and barbed length of bone about the length of Samazzar’s hand that looked out of place on such a simple weapon. Rather, it appeared more like the stinger of a scorpion or hornet.

Samazzar swung the weapon experimentally before thrusting with it. He didn’t have much experience with spears, but it appeared to be fairly well balanced. Certainly it was better than any of the weapons crafted by the kobolds before Dussok introduced modern forges.

“There certainly is a lot of potential here,” Samazzar remarked, turning the spear over in his hand one more time before handing it back to the goblin. “I’ve seen the armor you’ve fashioned too. Bone might not be the sharpest or most resilient material, but your control over it is beyond what I could have hoped. It will be a while before Union City is able to start making the goods it needs from iron. With your help we might be able to start putting out ivory substitutes long before the smithies are up and running at full speed.”

“Thank you,” Charook replied excitedly. “Right now I’m using growth pits, holes carved in the rock that I fill up with water. Once I put the base bone in it, I am able to modify its shape by adding bone dust to the growth pit and using the mysteries to slowly bond the dust to it. I can make simple changes much quicker than that, but the bones are almost always brittle or unbalanced.”

“It’s impressive work,” Samazzar agreed. “I don’t think I’ve seen practitioners actively growing objects out of any other material but wood, and wood isn’t terribly useful for weapons. Even the hardest variants struggle to pierce the weakest of metal armor.”

“I’ve only been able to set up three growth pits,” the goblin gushed, their eyes bright as they recounted their work. “Anything more than that and I don’t have the focus to work on them all at once. The process is very slow, but I can feel my control over the mystery growing every day.”

Samazzar half flapped his wings, generating a puff of air that he quickly twisted to his will. It spread outward, worming its way into the crevices and hidden paths that branched out from the cavern they were walking through.

He was already using his heat vision and passively mapping the topography of the cave with the mystery of wind, but neither of them had the range of an active breeze. There was something about stale air. Samazzar could still use it, but its magic was dormant and muted. Even the slightest current caused it to jump to life, expanding his range and the sensitivity of his searches.

“It’s a useful ability,” Samazzar replied, his eyes half lidded as he scanned through all of the information provided to him by the mystery of air. “In Vereton, there weren’t many bone practitioners, and I don’t seem to recall that there was a magus of the mystery in the entire city, but artwork molded from ivory went for high prices. At a minimum, I expect that you will have a lucrative career producing trade goods for Union City once we are established.”

“To the right,” he continued, “there is a narrow passageway that hasn’t been surveyed yet. On the left there are only a pair of rat traps with a half dozen cave rats in them and the usual tunnels that our scouts have explored time and time again.”

One of the goblin guards, possibly Goorku, yipped excitedly. They opened their mouth to reveal rows of misshapen teeth, dripping with saliva.

Samazzar bit back his immediate response, acutely aware of Barsa standing by his side and judging. It wasn’t the goblin’s fault that it was disgusting. They just couldn’t think properly yet, or-

A puff of warm, sour air assaulted his nose. Goorku was leaning closer than Samazzar had remembered, and the smell of curdled milk was making his eyes water just as much as the disgusting creature’s mouth.

Feeling guilty, Samazzar willed an air current into being around his head, blowing away the awful scent pouring off of his subordinate. He didn’t think Barsa noticed, but even if the kobold didn’t, Samazzar couldn’t quite shake the weight of hypocrisy as it descended upon his shoulders.

“Sorry little one,” Samazzar said weakly, smiling down at the overly happy goblin. “There isn’t any time for us to eat the rats today. We have a new set of caverns to explore.”

Goorku, drooped, mumbling something unintelligible to themselves as they let the butt of their spear drag across the stone with a dejected clatter.

“Who knows,” Samazzar said quickly, unsure why he was bothering to try and cheer the sad little thing up. “There might be cave rats or something else equally delicious in the new caves. That’s the beauty of exploring the unknown. There might be a monster, a secluded stream, a magical herb, or even delicious and new flavors that no kobold or goblin has tasted before.”

“But whatever is down there,” Barsa grumbled, “it certainly won’t be more paperwork.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong, friend,” Samazzar replied, happy to be distracted from the moping goblin. “There will be plenty of paperwork, from mapping our course to cataloging the resources and threats that we find. I expect that it will take days to finish recording all of that information.”

“That’s my job isn’t it,” Barsa replied, his voice sinking. “That’s why you brought me along on this ‘wild adventure’ of yours. So that after it was over you could saddle me with all of the writing and note taking.”

“I also enjoy your company” Samazzar responded, patting the kobold consolingly on the shoulder. “Plus, you can scamper up surfaces better than the goblins, and I’m too big to get into all of the smaller cracks and sub chambers we find. It would be foolish of me not to bring along at least one kobold to round out our exploration team.”

“I agree,” Charook interjected with a fervent nod. “Samazzar makes good points. Even if he were not our chief, it would be wise to listen to his words.”

Barsa looked from the goblin back to Samazzar in the dim blue light of the sap slathered on his hat. He sighed.

“This isn’t fair. You brought Charook along because you know that they would side with you in anything. If you said that the sky was purple the goblins would go along with it.”

“At a very minimum we would investigate why someone as great as the Magus said such a thing,” Charook agreed. “Perhaps it is our idea of ‘blue’ that is wrong. After all, the sky could have been purple all along without our knowing. Who am I to say that Samazzar’s knowledge of the mysteries didn’t grant him some information that isn’t available to you or I?”

Barsa glared accusingly at Samazzar, but he didn’t respond to the irate kobold. There wasn’t really much he could say to calm Barsa down, after all, the former chief was right. Instead, Samazzar pointed out the small cave they would be traveling through a second time.

The goblins and Barsa were able to walk through into the next cavern without much trouble, but it was a tight fit for Samazzar. He had to pull his wings to his side and duck down in order to slip through the narrow crack.

It took almost five minutes of careful travel, occasionally on his hands and knees, for Samazzar to emerge into the cave on the other side. His scales were a bit sore from where he had scraped them against the narrow stone walls of the tunnel, but beyond some aches and grime, Samazzar was no worse for the wear.

As soon as he made it out of the narrow passage, he stretched his wings, flapping them once again. The sound of his movement echoed back as Samazzar inspected the cavern with his mind.

It was almost as big as the cave that they had just walked through, easily two leagues long and ranging from a couple hundred paces to a half a league wide. A river ran through the center. He couldn’t tell how deep it was using only the mystery of wind, but it was at least five paces wide, making it a bit of an obstacle for any of his companions that didn’t have the ability to fly.

There were a number of exits branching off from the cave, but by far the largest was near the other end of the chamber. The slosh and rush of the river increased as its banks narrowed before finally tumbling downward into another cave entirely, boring a gap that was at least five paces wide in the stone of the floor.

Samazzar had a hard time peering through the mist and roar of the waterfall, but a faint glimmer of bluish white light, barely visible at a distance, filtered up from the gap in the floor. He leaned to the side prodding Tarxis with an elbow.

“So apprentice,” he remarked, rolling his eyes as the kobold stumbled backward, his motions wild and over exaggerated. “What do your senses show you? After all, I didn’t just drag you down here for your health.”

“They tell me that I’m blind and probably about to be eaten by a rock monster or something,” Tarxis chattered, blinking wildly as he looked back and forth, straining his tiny eyes against the darkness. “I don’t know what you expect me to do here. All of the food is miserable and dry, and it's almost as chilly as the outdoors. Why couldn’t you have just left me to work in the smithy with Mister Dussok?”

“If you aren’t learning anything on your own, I can try submerging you in the river that runs down the middle of the cave,” Samazzar said cheerfully. “After all, that’s one of the ways I learned the mystery of currents and flow. Also, by the feel of things, you could probably learn a lot about the mystery of cold by being dunked in the water. It’s absolutely frigid.”

Tarxis froze in place. Samazzar doubted the kobold could see him, but his eyes widened anyway.

“I can feel the cold and I can feel a line of something moving under the ground in front of us, but that’s it, I swear.” Tarxis took a step away from Samazzar while speaking, waving both of his hands back and forth in a warding motion.

“That’s a good start,” Samazzar said agreeably, beginning to walk toward the side of the underground waterway, “but it isn’t enough. The goblins and Barsa will start surveying this cavern for any rare plants or minerals, but I’m going to need you to focus your senses. Once you truly begin to understand your mysteries they will open up a whole new world for you to perceive.”

Barsa and Charook shared a glance, nodding at each other. Charook clicked his tongue and one of the pre molt goblins followed him as he began walking toward the left. Barsa, commendably, managed to bite his tongue and prevent his disgust from showing as he took the other goblin to the right.

“But what am I supposed to see with my mysteries?” Tarxis whined, scampering to catch up with Samazzar as the two of them walked into the dark. “I can see the air currents when you flap your wings, and I can tell when something is cold, but I don’t know how either of those are useful down here in the dark.”

Samazzar chuckled, increasing his pace. A second later, the clatter of claws on stone increased behind him as Tarxis hurried to catch up.

“Master Samazzar,” the kobold begged, “slow down. Your legs are twice the length of mine, if you walk that fast I’ll never be able to catch up.”

He stopped suddenly, noting through the mystery of heat that Tarxis managed to skid to a halt right before he ran into Samazzar.

“There you are.” Samazzar couldn’t help but let a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. “You’re doing it already. Look around yourself Tarxis and tell me, what do you see?”

The kobold squinted. After a second, he held a clawed hand up in front of his face, opening and closing it three times before he gave up.

“Nothing but darkness Master Samazzar,” Tarxis replied mournfully. “I can’t even count the talons in front of my face.”

“But you were able to follow me through the darkness, even when I changed speeds,” Samazzar responded, reaching out to pat the kobold on the head. “Think about it, Tarxis, how did you know where I was? Without the mysteries, you shouldn’t have been able to walk over the uneven surface of the cave floor without tripping, let alone track me.”

“Oh.”

Samazzar shook his head at Tarxis’ single word response, and began walking once again.

“You can tell I’m moving right now, right Tarxis?” He asked, turning to follow the course of the river once he reached its rocky banks.

“I guess I can.” Tarxis' claws clattered against the stony ground as he hurried to follow Samazzar. “I don’t really know how, but I just sort of know where you are.”

“Concentrate Tarxis. The cave is full of cold air, and I’m a warm spot in all of that cold. Once you can sense all of the cold at once, you’ll start to see warm spots sticking out like sore thumbs. It’s the reverse of my heat vision and a bit harder to learn, but once you get the hang of it, no room will be truly dark for you.”

Tarxis paused for a second to close his eyes. He took one hesitant step after Samazzar. He faltered on his second, almost stumbling on an uneven ledge of stone. Then, the kobold seemed to find his rhythm, and he began to pursue Samazzar at a slow jog.

“I did it Master Samazzar!” He shouted excitedly. “I think I have the hang of it now that you’ve explained how it works.”

“Great,” Samazzar replied happily. “Now the next step is to learn how to tell the difference between the cold in the air, in the water and in the rocks. All of them will be different temperatures, and being able to find the borders between those different temperatures will allow you to see the outlines of the world around you.”

He waved a hand, willing heat into a nearby limestone boulder. Tarxis immediately flinched, sensing the magical change in his environment.

“Start with that rock,” he continued, still walking alongside the edge of the river. “It is much hotter than its environment, so it should be easier for you to tell where it ends and the air begins. Remember to follow me while you concentrate. A practitioner is worthless if they can only use their abilities inside a sealed laboratory. Someday, you will be using your magic in combat, and you will need to be able to sort out swinging blades and counter magic all while enforcing your will on the world. It’s best that you start learning how to divide your attention now.”

They continued walking, only for Tarxis to stumble, tripping and landing on his hands and knees barely thirty seconds later. He jumped back to his feet, hissing in pain as he rubbed the thin scales on his tiny knees.

“It’s hard,” Tarxis whined. “If you let me stand still, I’m sure I could get the hang of it in no time, but I can’t see both the rock and the floor under me.”

“And that is why I am making you do both at once,” Samazzar replied smoothly. Still, he didn’t want to make things too hard on his mopey apprentice. A touch of will and a heated path appeared on the ground running parallel to the riverbank and running right up to the edge of the waterfall that the two of them were approaching.

Tarxis nodded a quick ‘thank you’ without opening his eyes. This time he didn’t stumble as he walked. Samazzar could see the kobold’s tiny hands trembling as he clenched into fists, and at one point a couple droplets of steaming hot blood spattered onto the cave floor as Tarxis put everything he had into concentrating on the mysteries.

Finally, after almost ten minutes of walking in silence, the two of them made it to the edge of the waterfall. Samazzar exhaled into his hand, creating a fist sized ball of fire that hung there, providing light to the scene so that the two of them could see color for the first time.

It didn’t change much, the water was deep and black other than the froth and churn just before the precipice of the falls. Around them, the rock was a dull gray other than a few seams of glittering stone that Samazzar marked mentally for further investigation by a mining crew.

“There you are Tarxis,” he said with a smile. “You were walking much more steadily near the end there. Do you think you’ve gotten the hang of observing your surroundings through the mysteries?”

“Yes,” the kobold said hesitantly. “I don’t think I could run through an obstacle course or pick a specific tool out of a bucket, but I should be able to get around on a dark night without a torch now.”

“Great,” Samazzar replied happily. “You’re better at understanding the mysteries than you know Tarxis. Right now, your greatest enemies are your own mind and your laziness. If you actually apply yourself, you have the potential to become a powerful practitioner. You only need to work hard and believe in your own abilities. For now, you just need a little push.”

“Thank you,” Tarxis responded, brightening noticeably.

“Now,” Samazzar continued. “There is only one problem with your work so far today. It has only focused on the mystery of cold.”

“What do you-” Tarxis eyes widened as a gust of wind picked him up, throwing the flailing kobold a couple paces through the air and into the waterfall that plunged into the lightly glowing depths of the next cavern.

“Samazzar!” Barsa’s accusing shout echoed through the empty cave as the irate kobold started running toward the waterfall.

“What?” The draconian replied languidly. “I told him I was going to give him a little push. Plus, it’s not like I’m going to let him fall. I’m going to catch him.”