Theta Campaign - Return of the Dragon Queen – Episode 34 Pt. 1

Written by: Flamereptile

Written: 07/06/2026

Theta Campaign - Return of the Dragon Queen – Episode 34 Pt. 1

This week’s tale begins with the party finishing several expensive renovations upon Sky’s Reach, inclusive of erecting numerous pieces of siege weaponry, and establishing several new residences for the new residents of Sky’s Reach.

***Prinze***

Five days have passed that Prinze has overseen the construction of nearly twenty new houses upon the surface of Sky’s Reach. Each house, a thirty-foot diameter stone dome, had cost Sky’s Reach several thousand gold, but the druids that had constructed them had done so quickly, and furnished them to  boot.

Prinze stood in the shadow of Blagothskul’s Tower, next to the mopey Cloud Giant, and said, “Well Blagothskul, you wife has gotten an upgrade.”

Taken aback at his abruptness, which he had yet to become accustomed to, Blagothskul replied sarcastically, “Almost as beautiful as she used to be my lord.”

“Did you see the new ballistae?”

“Yes my lord. They are very nice.”

“And the Sunlance?”

“Yes my lord. A fine addition. You adorn Sky’s Reach with the jewels of war.”

Smugly, Prinze replied, “I do, don’t I? Speaking of war… We need a new heading to expand our theater. Do you know how to get to the Veiled Forest Blagothskul?”

“I do my lord. Is that where you seek to take us next?” he replied with all of the enthusiasm of a single father of twelve who drove to work for an hour at before the sun rose, worked his shift, returned home to sup, and returned for a second shift shortly after acknowledging he was still in fact a father of twelve.

“I think so.” Replied Prize, “We haven’t paid a beating to the greens yet. Let’s get them involved in our conflict.”

“It will be done my lord.”

***Blagothskul***

Prinze sauntered off, out of the sight of Blagothskul. He stood there, wondering for a few moments. How did it all come to this?

Months ago he had commanded a vast force of his own kin, preparing to bring war to the coastlands beneath him for the death of his wife. He had raised this island, Sky’s Reach in her honor. Then as quick as he had set upon his first victim, another Skyland, he was instead beset upon by a flurry of dragons commanded by his soon to be new masters.

The next thing he knew, he was crushed and kneeling before them, five oracles, their justiciars, and their grand speaker, the breath of their queen. Once called Blagothskul the Great, he had become nothing more than a war dog for those he hated most. Sycophants and dragon worshippers.

Then he had been filled with hope once more. A group of adventurers had besieged his island, his wife, and slaughtered one of the oracles, and her justiciar. Something that wouldn’t be permanent, he knew from experience, but a shining hope below his tower.

Blagothskul had descended his tower to test these adventurers, and observe if they were truly worthy of Sky’s Reach, but something was odd about one of them. A dragonkin, one he would have spit upon the ground at before crushing beneath his boot, but it was filled with the spirit of his true master.

Master Jotunn inhabited this dragonkin, a thought Blagothskul would have never imagined possible, and yet, it stood there before him. Through this creature, Jotunn spoke to Blagothskul, and he knew the return of giantkind was upon this plane, and the end of dragonkind would surely follow.

But his new master had not been all that Blagothskul had hoped for.

Wild. Reckless. And on a war path that was unsustainable. Blagothskul had surmised the fury of Jotunn was contained within the dragonkin he now called master, but it was without the wisdom needed to truly bend dragonkind to its knees.

But there was little Blagothskul could do. A broken man, destined only to serve the remainder of his days, he would ferry the fury of Jotunn as it saw fit and let it be unleashed upon this plane. Blagothskul only hoped that there would still be a world left for him to be reincarnated into once this shard of Jotunn had finished its work.

He turned and slunk back into his tower, setting course for the Veiled Forest.

***Everybody***

Two days had passed since Prinze had Blagothskul set course. In that time, the party had rested, trained, reminisced on the disappearance of Blagothskul’s griffon, and concluded that the word poison was simply a dyslexic spelling of the word potion, presumably originally of the healing variety.

Near midday, of the third day of their travels towards the Veiled Forest, Blagothskul sounded the alarm, alerting the whole of Sky’s Reach to the presence of an attack.

Breaking from his meditation, and jumping into action, Prinze rushed towards the island’s new shield generator. After reaching it, Prinze called out to Blagothskul’s tower, “Blagothskul, what’s happening?”

“A voice boomed from the top of the tower, projected my a magical enchantment, “We are being attacked by dragons my lord. Two of them. One red and one blue.”

Prinze fumbled in his pockets, producing a single gold piece as Alonzo and Beezul joined him by the generator. He slotted it into the generator and waited a moment, hoping it would spring to life… but nothing happened.

Alonzo asked, “What are you doing?”

Prinze replied, “It’s coin operated. Isn’t it?”

“Yes, but that’s not how you use it.” Said Alonzo as he produced a golden coin imbued with magic, “This is how you use it.”

He slotted the magical coin into the generator and it sprang to life, emitting a eight-inch diameter icosahedral orb. The orb floated above the generator for a moment before emitting a wall of force that covered the whole of Sky’s Reach.

Moments later, a huge blued dragon slammed into the port side of Sky’s Reach’s shield, and another moment later a red dragon, even larger than the blue, slammed into the starboard side.

“Neither of those are green.” Said Alonzo, “I thought we were going after the greens this time?”

“Well, no… but also yes.” Said Prinze, “We’re going after the greens, but Blagothskul said we’re being attacked by a red and blue. I wonder what they’re doing out here?”

“Maybe they’re making purple.” Called out Dolgrak from atop a stone tower in the center of the island.

Alonzo, Beezul, and Prinze stopped and turned to stare at Dolgrak, believing they had just heard in that instant the least intelligent thing they would hear all day. Little did they all know, but Dolgrak was correct, and his only blunder, thus far, was entering that tower uninvited.

Dolgrak, nor Alonzo, had been present months prior when Prinze had set off several bombs along one side of the brick tower set within the center of Sky’s Reach, felling it upon several mutated wyverns, and the Justiciar of the Ember Faithful. At that time the party were merely invaders of Sky’s Reach, ignorant of most of its denizens.

One denizen, and the owner of the tower Prinze had just felled, was Sandria Mortessa, a vampiress who served the cult of the Chromatic Queen in exchange for an endless supply of blood and vampire relics.

After Prinze had felled her tower, Sandria had emerged from the shadows to attack him, but she quickly shied away from the sunlight and back into the depths of her lair. Weeks later, after noticeable disappearances and signs of vampire activity upon Sky’s Reach, the party had inquired with Wiglof, quickly learning of Sandria and her brood.

Bravely, the party had ventured into the lair of Sandria, awakening her and her thirteen vampire children, none of which she had actually birthed herself. After Sandria Mortessa had revealed her trump card, the massive skeleton of a blue dragon buried within the core of the island, and her chambers, and a demonstration that she could control it with enchantments she had woven throughout it, negotiations began.

The party had agreed to rebuild Sandria’s tower and supply her with a constant supply of blood, which took the form of a regenerating troll, and in exchange, Sandria and her children would not prey upon the party, or the denizens of Sky’s Reach.

Dolgrak stared back, unsure why the party stared at him when there were two dragons attacking the Skyland.

Alonzo, Beezul, and Prinze looked back at one another, shrugged, and looked back upon the dragons as they scratched at and breathed upon the shield.

“Well, it looks like the shield’s working.” Said Prinze.

“I told you Anthony was a trustworthy source.” Replied Alonzo.

“Maybe we can just ignore them until they leave us alone?” asked Prinze.

Simultaneously Beezul and Dolgrak set to inspecting the violent creatures as they attacked at the skyland’s shield, each surmising of their own accord that these dragons were both adults.

“They both look like they’re adults, so a few hundred years old.” Said Beezul.

“They don’t look that big to me.” Replied Prinze as he sized them up.

“I think the shield distorts them a bit, making them seem smaller. But believe me, they’re adults.”

Prinze raised his fist and began taunting the dragons as they snarled at the shields. Their attacks seemed to focus in on Prinze because of his mockery, yet they left no marks upon the shield.

“Blagothskul! Stay the course until we’re a day away. They’ll lose interest in us.” Called Prinze towards the navigator, “Then if they aren’t gone by then we’ll gank them” he muttered under his breath to the rest of his party.

Sky’s Reach kept is course as the hours of the day ticked on, and eventually, once the skyland began to leave their territory, the dragons broke away from their attacks and departed.

“Now!” shouted Prinze, commanding his party to attack.

Alonzo dropped the shield, rendering Sky’s Reach undefended, but this was a necessary risk. Without dropping the shield, Beezul would have been unable to fire the Sunlance.

Hot golden light streaked from the magical cannon set beneath Sandria’s tower, striking at the blue dragon, but it banked left a moment before the beam could hit it square on. White smoke and a spray of blood trailed from the right side and wing of the blue dragon as it twisted around.

Both of the dragons rolled and twisted in unison, turning one-hundred and eighty degrees in an instant. They streaked back towards Sky’s Reach. As they crested over Blagothskul’s control tower, they targeted Prinze as he stood upon a wooden tower. They reared their heads back, breathing in deep and charging their breath weapons, but before they could release their fury, Prinze called out once more.

“Fire!” he shouted.

Two tall towers that flanked the Sunlance, each outfitted with four ballista, spun and fired at the dragons. Their payload,  projectiles that looked like four cannonballs chained together, creating in iron bolo. Each tower focused their fire on one of the dragons, four shots at the red, and four shots at the blue.

All four iron bolos struck the red dragon, winding and twisting together around it, binding its wings and limbs tight against its body. One struck the dragon’s head, stunning it for a moment as it wrapped around its snout, becoming entangled in its horns. Like a torpedo, the red dragon streaked above the party and over the side of Sky’s Reach, plummeting to the earth below.

Only two of the bolos struck the blue dragon, wrapping around its left side and pinning its wing flat to its back. Its damaged right wing was unable to stabilize it, and the blue dragon spiraled over the edge after its mate.

Prinze cheered, “Let’s go hunting lads!” as he charged the edge of the Skyland. He produced two vials, handing them off to Dolgrak, then called out to Wiglof and Hulda, shouting, “We’re going to kill some dragons. Support us how you can from up here.”

“Yes my lord.” Called the giants in unison.

Dolgrak, who was keeping pace with Prinze in his charge towards the edge, pocketed the two vials Prinze handed him before being promptly pushed over the edge. Dolgrak wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve this, nor why nobody seemed to remember that he couldn’t fly, as he plummeted below with no landing strategy.

The rest of the party followed in tow as Prinze leapt from Sky’s Reach. While plummeting, Alozo began weaving protective spells over the party, warding them from death and aiding their vitality before catching himself with his cloak and safely flying below.

Reassured that, although his landing would hurt, he would survive due to Alonzo’s spells, Dolgrak braced himself for impact. But it never came, rather there was a sharp tug at his collar as Prinze caught him and set him down gently.

Beezul, the most inclined towards natural flight, gently buzzed down behind his plummeting party. As he descended, Beezul procured his Bee-Bee Gun, loaded it with a nasty little stinging bee, and charged it with the electricity of a lightning arrow.

The party landed safely and approached the dragons as they writhed and snarled. The dragons cursed in draconic as the party approached and split. Alonzo and Dolgrak broke off towards the blue dragon, and Beezul and Prinze approached the red.

The dragons became still for a moment as Prinze leaned in close to the red dragon. Flames flickered across Alonzo’s fingers. Dolgrak loaded his crossbow. And Beezul took aim with his Bee-Bee Gun.

“They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, “ said Prinze, “But I’ve always seen them more as doors.”

The dragon blinked in confusion then snorted a puff of smoke from its nostrils at him.

Prinze leaned forwards, through the smoke, “I am going to turn your eyes into doorways…” he said as he took flight.

Beezul trailed behind, and the red dragon’s pupils became slits in preparation for an attack. But before the three would meet, its eyes would again dilate as it watched the flames dance from Alonzo’s fingertips and surround its mate.

The blue dragon cried out in pain as Alonzo’s flames immolated it. It writhed, trying to break free, to claw, to gnash, but it couldn’t. Its left side lay bound, and its right lay broken by its impact. Its mouth was bound by an iron bolo. There was nothing more that the blue dragon could do than the red. Then, it went silent.

The red dragon began to lurch forward on broken, bound wings and limbs, but before it had moved more than an inch it also fell silent, then limp.

Prinze had flown up over a hundred feet while the dragon was distracted, then rocketed down for a powerful kick that carried him through the red dragon’s eyes and skull. As he stood from the corpse, covered in its blood, Beezul and Dolgrak fired their weapons. Beezul’s bee streaked through the air in a line of arcing electricity, punching a hole clear through the new corpse of the red dragon. Dolgrak’s bolt bounced harmlessly off of the burning scales of the blue dragon, clanging to the ground behind it.

The party stood there for a moment in silence, staring at the corpses of the dragons, then at one another.

“Well… congratulations everybody. We killed them.” Said Prinze.

“Yeah, and by killed you mean we wandered into their territory, insulted them, then mogged them when they turned their backs to leave, right?” asked Alonzo.

“Well… yeah. But we still killed them!” replied Prinze.

They all stared at each other blankly for several more moments, all but Prinze a little disappointed at the ease of their kill.

Prinze called up to Wiglof, “Wiglof! Come get these dragons and bring them up to the island for harvest.”

“Yes my lord.” Replied Wiglof.

He looked back towards the party, “Food doesn’t come out of nowhere. It comes from dragons.”

Wiglof and his wife Hulda descended from Sky’s Reach upon a block of stone Hulda commanded. Once upon the ground, they grabbed the corpse of the red dragon and dragged it to the stone.

“Hey Alonzo, can you do that clergy thing where you can speak with the dead? Maybe there’s a lair somewhere?” asked Beezul, “Maybe they have some loot?”

“I can eat their brain.” Replied Alonzo.

Baffled, the whole party stood and stared at Alonzo for a moment as he began to dig into the dragon’s skuill and produce a small chunk of its brain. Mortified, yet curious, the party watched on.

As Alonzo consumed the morsel of gray matter, he began his spell. Memories flooded into Alonzo’s mind, almost overwhelming him. Memories of hatching, memories of scheming, even memories of attacking Sky’s Reach.

He said, “Her name was Sarathra. She was mating with Vharax, the red one. They were trying to hybridize. I know where to find their lair too. I think there’s eggs in it.”

“Are you sure it’s not a trap?” asked Prinze.

“No, not a trap. They only attacked us to protect their lair and their nest.” Replied Alonzo.

“But is their lair trapped?

“No. They’re dragons. They don’t need to trap their lair.”

Wiglof and Hulda loaded the corpse of the blue dragon and returned to Sky’s Reach to begin harvesting it.

Following behind, Prinze commanded Blagothskul to follow Alonzo’s directions to find the dragon’s lair.

After several hours Alonzo told Blagothskul, “Here. It’s right below us.”

Blagothskul nodded, bringing Sky’s Reach to a halt above a rocky hillside.

That is where this part of this week’s tale ends, and the next part will begin.