Epyllion: Capture the Flag

Back to Dragonia! Here's last time.

Our clutch is traveling across a hilly expanse, and up on a hill in front of them they see four dragons! (We reflected that in many RPGs this would be a real pants-shitting sort of occurrence.) The dragons swoop down to them, and they see that these dragons are raw-scaled drakes, just like them.

The first one to land is long, sinewy, and red-scaled. Dre introduces themself as Arloquoren, and then introduces the rest of dris clutch. Plum is colored deep purple and has huge, somewhat awkward wings but a boxy, stocky body. Tavi is light-blue and has a wooden cap on dris tail (because dre has a stinger and dre doesn't want to accidentally scratch anybody). Tavi also keeps dris hands folded in close to dris chest when flying; that's not relevant but everyone thought it was cute. Finally, Niche is grey-and-black, small, and low the ground. Dre doesn't have obvious wings, but when dre leaps into the air, skin flaps open and dre glides down the hill.

Arlo, clearly the voice of this clutch, challenges the characters to a game of Capture the Flag. Zeblek and OB have played before, but Stars and Toverinn haven't, so they go over the rules. They set up an arbitrary dividing line in the meadow, and each side takes a flag and hides it. The opposing team then has to get onto that side, find the flag, and get back to their own side with it to win - but if they get tagged, they get taken to dragon jail! ("Oh, no!" says Stars.) Magic is allowed, but you can't hide the flag entirely (like, no putting it under a big rock or sinking it into a lake). 

Stars points out that dre can't fly, so maybe it would be fair to have one of Arlo's team stay on the ground? Niche agrees (dre's fast anyway). 

The dragons agree, and break to their respective sides. Stars comes up with a brilliant plan - there are grackardinals in this area (beautiful red birds that are just absolute jerks). Dre suggests that Toverinn talk to one and have it take the flag to its nest - still visible but out of immediate sight. Toverinn finds one and bribes it with some berries, and the bird takes the flag and flies it up into a tree. 

The clutch takes up positions. Zeblek hangs out in the trees, directing his illusory duplicates. Stars, too, takes up a defensive position (dre isn't very fast or athletic, so probably that's best). Toverinn sneaks onto the opposing side, moving a bit and then vanishing (dre can disappear, but only when stationary), while OB sneaks from hiding spot to hiding spot. 

Unfortunately, OB doesn't notice that the big rock dre chose to hide behind is, in fact, Plum using magic to disguise themself, and Plum boops OB on the snoot and takes them to jail (it's a clearing with the word "JAIL" scratched into a tree). 

Meanwhile, back on the other side, Arlo swoops in and makes for the trees. Stars spots this, but then sees Niche scampering in and taking advantage of the chaos. Stars manages to tag Niche and put them in jail, and notices that Niche's paws are covered in creek mud. The flag might be near or in the creek!

Toverinn, meanwhile, sneaks in and rescues OB, and the two of them start heading back, but Toverinn gets tagged. Dre use dris time in jail to talk to a teedle (toad-beetle), who informs them that the flag is just a few hog-flies away (how else would a teedle measure distance?). When OB gets back to rescue them, Toverinn heads to the creek and finds the flag, and heads back to the line.

Tavi, however, is right on dris tail! Toverinn calls on the storm moon and pushes the flag over the line, and Zeblek grabs it. Winners!

The dragons get together and high five ("good game, good game"), but Arlo brings up that dre isn't sure if magic-ing the flag over the line counts. Did Toverinn cast the magic before or after dre got tagged? Toverinn is pretty sure that it happened almost simultaneously, and no one but Arlo really cares much about winning, so dre lets it go, but everyone decides that next time you have to carry the flag over the line.

They all decide to play another round, and instead of sticking with their respective clutches they decide that Stars and Niche are captains and pick teams. In practice, it winds up being just a swap between those two, though, because Niche picks OB, Toverinn, and Zeblek. They play another round, and then Arlo builds a fire and all of the dragons sit around it, chatting, telling stories, and so on. Tavi sings the Hummsinger's Song and plays dris little lyre, Plum recites a little poetry, and the clutches stare up at the moons together.

Next time, we'll here some dragon campfire tails tales!