The Legend of Vox Machina: The Power Within

Chapter 3: Investigation in Emon

Back in the capital, the council was in session once more. The night prior, after Vox Machina had left to fight the mystery creature and hadn't returned, Uriel deployed a group of soldiers led by General Krieg (at the man's insistence) to scout an area a little closer to the kingdom and report back the next day if anything new was discovered. By sunrise, Krieg had returned, battered quite a bit by some unknown foe.

"And you saw it? What did this?" Sovereign Uriel asked the knight as he stood before the council.

Krieg regretfully informed them, "The beast is a blue dragon, sire. Only a few of us managed to escape.

"My gods..." Uriel turned to the resident wizard, "Lady Allura, you've dealt with such creatures in the past. How do we fight it?"

"Oh, that was a red dragon, years ago," Allura recounted, "But in my experience, dragons are fiercely intelligent and calculating creatures. Their machinations run deep..."

The council session was interrupted as the doors to the large chamber opened to reveal Fince entering the building. As he approached, Krieg commented with some slight agitation, "Ah, so Sir Fince finally joins us. I hope this crisis hasn't kept you from your skulking."

The drow leveled his perpetual glare at the knight before speaking to the council, "I've been gathering intelligence we sorely lack. Seems your band of fools have gone missing," he raised and eyebrow and remarked with apparent mirth, "Safe to say you've sent Vox Machina to their doom?"

"Doom? We don't know the meaning of the word!" a new voice declared. The council looked past Fince, who's resting bitch face was perfect for the situation, to find the party themselves, Scanlan of course being the one announcing their entrance.

"Uh, I certainly don't," Grog commented.

Scanlan ignored him and announced, "Sovereign, hold onto your goddamn crown. We've discovered the monster is none other than," he paused for dramatic effect, "...a blue dragon!"

""We know,"" was the unanimous reply by all the council members, taking the wind out of his sails.

"Did you kill it?" Allura asked.

Keyleth nervously chuckled, "Well, I wouldn't say 'kill,' really."

"We're still kinda working on that," Pike admitted.

Krieg laughed good-naturally, "Well, I can't believe you lot made it out alive! How'd you manage to survive anyway?"

"Mm, trade secrets Kriegy!" Scanlan answered with his usual bravado.

"We hid and it flew away," Percy deadpanned.

Grog guffawed at the exchange, especially at the second blow to Scanlan's confidence, before wondering aloud, "Yeah wait. How did we survive that?"

Yin noticed Vex'ahlia clutch her head in obvious pain. He remembered what she said earlier, but didn't speak. Openly accusing a council member of working with a dragon that was actively attacking the nation while having zero evidence outside of migraines was not enough to prove anything, no matter how hard he kind of wished it was.

Especially given Fince's attitude as he claimed, "These blabbering fools are useless, sire. Perhaps if we made an offering to the dragon. Gold in exchange for piece?"

"Why don't we shake its hand and offer it a fucking pint while we're at it?" Vax rolled his eyes.

"A dragon cannot be bargained with," Vex, being the resident dragon expert, cautioned, "If it desires Emon's destruction, it will not relent!"

Krieg turned to the Sovereign who was processing all of the information in quiet contemplation. The knight gravely pointed out, "You heard her, sire. You know what must be done."