The Legend of Vox Machina: The Power Within

Chapter 4: Dragonslayers

Vex'ahlia was helped to her feet by Vax and Percy. The party now faced down the now-revealed traitor General Krieg.

"Of course it was me. I championed you because you're a bunch of witless oafs no one gives two shites about," he admitted with a sinister smile. Raising his sword, Krieg threatened, "You've been lucky so far, but you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into."

After a beat of silence, Vax said, "I've gone him," and lunged forward while throwing three daggers at the knight. Krieg simply batted them away with a single smash before retreating up the stairs behind him.

As Vax recalled his daggers to his belt, Keyleth remarked, "Finesse, huh?"

The rogue didn't dignify that with a response, instead opting to lead the party into running after their new enemy. After sprinting up the dark steps for a little bit, a light appeared at the top. The first two people to burst into the room were the half elf twins, weapons ready as Vex shouted, "Krieg!"

To their surprise, they found an empty study. Well, not empty per-se. It was filled with books and artifacts of all sorts. That said, the General was nowhere in sight, and no other exits besides the one they had come through were immediately visible.

Once the rest of Vox Machina had filed in, Yin glanced around and commented, "Sheesh. Y'know for being such a big guy in plate armor, Krieg moves really fast!"

"There must be a hidden exit of some kind," Percy looked around inquisitively. Keyleth and Yin were already checking out at all of the strange objects on the shelves along the walls when the gunslinger added, "Fan out. Look for a fulcrum."

"Wait, a fuck room?" Grog asked, confused.

"I mean, that's what I heard," Vax joked while fanning through a few journals on a nearby desk for any clues.

Percy sighed exasperatedly, "A lever, a button, just...stand over there, Grog," he pointed to the other end of the room where a...rather interesting painting hung, "And for gods' sakes, don't touch anything."

As the rest of the group began to split off, Pike grabbed her medallion and focused. When she opened her eyes, they were emitting a gold light. As she looked around the room, she could see many of the objects within glowing.

"Woah," she said, "Guys, just about everything in this room is magical."

Vex and Vax were busy investigating the contents of the sole desk in the room, Percy tried to search for a mechanism hidden anywhere, and Scanlan was actually trying to help out instead of dick around. In the corner of the room, Keyleth was examining a strange jar with what appeared to be a miniature lizard skeleton inside. Looking to her right, she noticed Yin staring at an empty, elaborately designed ceramic bowl on one of the shelves.

Of course, his first instinct was to take it off, flip it over, and wear it as a hat. Looking back over at Keyleth and Vax, he noticed the odd looks he was receiving, so he just gave a dumb grin. While Vax was clearly better at repressing his amusement and only smirked, a small chuckle escaped Keyleth's lips.

Yin glanced down, trying to avert both of their gazes, and he noticed the carpet had a particular pattern. It featured five dragon heads, each of a different color, all in a ring shape.

Keyleth seemed to noticed too and commented, "Huh. This guy's definitely got a thing for dragons."

Soon after, the Ashari noticed Grog ogling the painting he was standing near. The reason being, of course, that it depicted a Dragonborn that was...less than decent. Keyleth groaned at the Goliath's perversion.

"Grog, it's rude to stare," she scolded. Of course, he paid her words no mind, too enraptured but the painted female's curvature.

"Grog, you're being gross!" Keyleth continued to complain, only to once again be ignored. With a huff, she grabbed the bowl off Yin's head and chucked it at Grog's. It shattered and did absolutely no damage to his thick skull, but some of the shards flew past his head and hit the painting.