THE TIES THAT BIND ||| THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA

The Traitor In Our Midst

Inside the grand Palace of Emon, General Krieg stood at the foot of the Sovereign's golden, overbearing throne with his armour scorched and blackened while his crimson cloak and lining were all but singed to nought but a crisp. His usually immaculate blonde hair and moustache were bedraggled and coated with a thin layer of ash along with his paled complexion. The illustrious General had clearly just undergone a horrific ordeal of his own, being one of only thirty survivors of the military detachment deployed outside the walls in some ill-fated attempt to slay the beast that burned their lands and slaughtered their people.

"And you saw it?" Uriel interrogated as the scarred soldier before him bowed his head, ashamed to look his ruler in the eye. "What did this?" he demanded, surrounded by the other members of the Council, including both Lady Kima and Allura whom had safely made her way back to the keep aboard the Skyship.

All eyes bore down upon the once mighty warrior as he picked himself up and straightened his fatigued posture. "The beast, is a blue dragon, sire. Only a few of us managed to escape." he growled sorrowfully unleashing a rasping breath as the faces of the dead and dying clouded his mind.

Atop his throne anguish shuddered through the Sovereign's soul as a horrified look fell on his face. "My Gods. Allura, you've dealt with such creatures in the past. How do we fight it?" he questioned glancing toward both the human Councillor and her armour wearing, halfling companion stood side by side.

"Oh, that was a red dragon, years ago." she began as her eyes darted between the many members of the Council. "But to my experience, dragons are fiercely intelligent, calculating creatures. Their machinations run deep." she revealed tearing her worrisome gaze to the floor.

Suddenly, the towering entrance door to the chamber clanged open as quiet footsteps trudged toward the raised platform. As quickly as his legs would carry him, Sir Fince made his way toward the raised platform, coming to a stop before it looking up at the few Councillors present. "Ah, Sir Fince finally joins us. I hope this crisis hasn't kept you from your skulking." Krieg sneered at the pale skinned Drow draped in his usual black clothing.

Fince stood firm against the humans insults, refusing to acknowledge them, "I've been gathering intelligence we sorely lack. Seems your band of fools has gone missing." he twitched, locking both hands behind his scrawny back. "Safe to say you've sent Vox Machina to their doom?" he questioned venomously. However, just as Krieg opened his mouth to reply, the chambers pearly doors once again swung open as the battle weary party in question strutted through, stopping just behind the sullen Drow.

"Doom? We don't know the meaning of the word." Scanlan called out as Fince's smug expression twisted to one of contempt, dropping his shoulders ever so slightly as he along with the other nobles turned to face them.

As usual, the party's resident, ashen skinned knucklehead leaned forward, standing between both Keyleth and Percy quirking a confused eyebrow at the overdramatic Gnome. "Uh, I certainly don't." he uttered in confusion receiving no reaction from both the Air Ashari or Gunslinger alike.

Scanlan, having seemed to have taken the role of the groups mouthpiece took a single bounding step forward. "Sovereign, hold on to you goddamn crown. We've discovered that the monster is none other than..." The bard paused for a few tense moments, his habit of making everything a performance shinning through as he dramatically dabbled his finger tips against his forehead and outstretched one of his arms toward the expectant Council. "A blue dragon!" he announced proudly pointing his stubby finger toward the Sovereign himself.

The Council and Uriel alike simply wore unsurprised looks upon their faces, "We know!" every one of them spoke at once, deflating the Gnomes now pointless bravado, much to the pleasure of the parties newest addition.