Theta Campaign - Return of the Dragon Queen – Episode 35 Pt. 2

Written by: Flamereptile

Written: 07/08/2026

Theta Campaign - Return of the Dragon Queen – Episode 35 Pt. 2

This part of this week’s tale begins with Prinze shouting, “Skjalvarn!” after remembering the Ice Giant had not yet been cured of the influence of the Wish Dragon Sylverfang.

Allistair, Alonzo, Beezul, and Prinze sprinted towards the large dome house of the Ice Giant Skjalvarn, who had been saved from his freezing prison months prior in the frozen north.

As they dashed, Allistair reconjured his shadowy blades, Beezul reloaded his Bee-Bee Gun, and Prinze cocked his fists in preparation of the coming savage battle.

Once they had closed the distance to Skjalvarn’s door, Prinze reached forward and banged on it with his fists. A moment passed, and the Ice Giant ducked down to stare at the dragonkin and his party.

“Yes my lord? What brings you here on this day? Is it about the shifting of Sky’s Reach?” asked Skjalvarn.

“Get him Beezul! Hold him down… wait. You aren’t being influenced by a dragon are you?” asked Prinze.

“No my lord.” Replied Skjalvarn.

“Very well. Continue on. We’ll call upon you for battle one day soon.”

“Yes my lord.” Said Skjalvarn as he reached for the door.

Beezul, who was still riled up from the recent battle, and half way through a lunge at the giant, instead beat him to it, slamming it before Skjalvarn could grab ahold of it.

The four stood there and looked at one another for a minute.

“Alright, I guess it’s time to cleanse this problem.” Said Prinze.

“I thought we already took care of her?” replied Alonzo.

“To which problem are you speaking of?” asked Allistair/

“You aren’t killing my kobold brethren!” shouted Beezul, “Oh, wait… you mean Sylverfang.”

“No, I also mean the kobolds.” Replied Prinze.

“You aren’t killing my kobold brethren!” shouted Beezul once again, “They aren’t that kind of problem!”

“How do you know Charlos isn’t being controlled?” asked Prinze, “He’s part dragon, right?”

“No more than you or me.” Said Beezul.

“My point exactly!” replied Prinze, “but the deal is I take myself out, then take you out last.”

“Who was Charlos again?” asked Alonzo.

“He’s the Toragon chef that we saved from the ruins of our old keep. We actually saved him a few minutes before we met you.” Said Prinze, “And he’s probably a dragon cult spy!”

“He’s not part of the dragon cult! And neither are the kobolds!” shouted Beezul.

“Let’s go see then.” Said Prinze as he marched off towards the newly renovated kitchens.

Clear on the other side of Sky’s Reach, and nested upon the lower level, were the Kitchens, now aptly named the Sky’s Reach Kitchen by a magically glowing sign set above the door.

Prinze burst through the doors, followed behind by Allistair, Alonzo, and Beezul, expecting to find its normal chaos. Where he had hoped to make his case over kobolds swinging from a chandelier, taking a dip in the soup of the day, and chasing each other across the filthy floors, as he’d observed many times before, he was instead greeted by Order.

Now, she hadn’t always been called Order, in fact, just a few weeks prior she went by the name of Krig Brark, Gnawer of Ankles, but once the kitchens had been renovated, and the new housing for the kobolds had been constructed, the big mean turtle, which some called Chief Charlos, had given all of them new names.

Order, as she had been named, was responsible for seating customers and taking their orders.

“Eeh… Good dey.” She said in a squeaky voice, “How minny can I seet yew for?”

“What?” aske Prinze in surprise.

“Four will be fine.” Said Allistair.

“Come wif me den.” Replied Order as she let the party to a clean table adorned with a pristine white cloth.

“What?” repeated Prinze, “What happened here?”

“They’ve been gentrified.” Replied Beezul.

“We’ve been elevated into a higher class.” Said Charlos in his deep, raspy draconic voice as he approached, “Thanks to Allistair here.”

Allistair nodded smugly.

“While you were busy building catapults and lasers, he came here and put in some new infrastructure.” Said Charlos, “Welcome to the new Sky’s Reach Kitchens.”

“What happened to the kobolds?” asked Prinze, “They act like real people.”

“Eh, that? Just took a little bit of whipping and training. It’s not that different from kneading dough or baking a cake. Just takes time and a little bit of elbow grease.” Replied Charlos as he flexed his scaly elbows.

As Charlos raised his arms, and flexed his elbows, each kobold within the Sky’s Reach Kitchens instinctively flinched in fear before returning to work with a renewed fervor.

“Kobolds do like to serve dragons.” Said Beezul.

“That they do.” Said Charlos as he produced a cloth, wiped his hands on it, and dropped it to the floor.

Order lunged for the cloth, catching it, folding it, and placing it back into Charlos’ pocket before it could hit the ground.

“Well done Order.” Said Charlos, “Now, take these folks’ orders while I get back to the kitchen.”

“Yes sir.” Replied Order.

The party looked amongst themselves before Allistair asked, “Can we get a menu?”

“We don’ have menyooz.” Replied Order, “Fizz exploded the press, an’ Rivet couldn’ fix it.”

“What is being served today then?” asked Allistair.

“Todey we have spice’ sky nuts as ‘er app-e-tyzer. An’ eye-ron kettl’ chili, an’ thun’erberd cutlets. As desert we have ‘earth crisp app-les. An’ fer bev-er-ages we have fros’glass warter.”

Allistair, Alonzo, and Beezul pondered the choices given to them while Prinze’s eyes grew wide, trying to wrap his mind around what was just said to them.

“I think I’ll have a cutlet, the apple crisp, and a glass of the water.” Said Allistair.

“I’ll have the soup and water.” Said Alonzo.

“I’ll take an order of cutlets, the apple crisps, and some tea.” Said Beezul.

“Sorry ser, but we don’ have any tea. Jus’ warter.” Replied Order.

“Is there any tea in the back?” asked Beezul.

“Nosir.”

Beezul sighed loudly, “Fine. I guess I’ll take a glass of water.”

“I’ll just take a glass of water.” Said Prinze.

Order nodded, curtsied, and departed from the table.

The four stared across the table at each other for a few moments before Alonzo said, “They really turned this place around.”

“Have you ever been here?” asked Beezul.

“Not, but seeing the rest of this place, they really turned it around.” Replied Alonzo.

After a few more moments the food arrived, first with a glass of water for everybody, then a bowl of soup for Alonzo. After a few more moments, and order of cutlets came out for Allistair and Beezul, then, once their main courses had been finished, an order of apple crisps.

Allistair, Alonzo, and Beezul chewed happily, making pleasant conversation with each other while they ate. Prinze sat in silence with his glass of water, albeit, likely the freshest glass of water he had ever had, with the slight twang of an exotic citrus fruit that he loved so much.

Charlos returned to the table once the meal had been finished, asking, “Well, how was it? Money well invested?”

“Excellent.” Said Allistair.

“It ate good.” Said Alonzo.

“More please!” said Beezul.

“Was that water poisoned?” asked Prinze.

The other three stared at him for his rudeness.

“No, I don’t reckon it was.” Replied Charlos.

“Because I wouldn’t be able to tell if it was.” Interrupted Prinze, “But the water was good.”

“Glad you liked it. One of the giants said she harvested it from an iceberg a while back. Awfully generous of her to give some to the kitchens.”

“That was a good army soup.” Said Alonzo, “Were you in the army at some time?”

“I’ve done my time in the military before.” Said Charlos.

“The dragon cult military?” said Prinze as he began to stand.

“No.” chortled Charlos, “Nothing like that. Besides, if I worked for them, why would they have left me how they did?”

“I’m watching you.” Said Prinze as he narrowed his eyes.

A few more pleasantries and compliments were exchanged before Charlos saw the four off, back into the streets of Sky’s Reach.

They went their own ways for a while after that.

Allistair ventured out to check on the state of affairs with the denizens of Sky’s Reach, taking it upon himself to act as a sort of administrator for their affairs. He checked up on the groundskeeper’s family, the various giants and ogres, even the smiths, ensuring all was in order for their operations to continue as normal.

Alonzo went about similarly, checking if any other of the denizens of Sky’s Reach had been possessed as the giants had. Accompanying Allistair for much of his rounds, he found nothing out of order, but felt oddly awkward while around the barmaid.

Beezul spent much of his time inspecting the new housing for the kobolds, intent on discovering signs of abuse or mistreatment. To his surprise, he was unable to. The large housing complex was built in place of the old one, into the sturdy, stony side of Sky’s Reach. It was close to the kitchens where most of the kobolds worked, provided ample space for them inside, and even gave each their own small bedroom to sleep in.

Prinze, however, did not conduct his business as peacefully as the others. For the next several hours he wandered around the surface of Sky’s Reach, shouting towards the ground, the sky, and even the rocks, trying to elicit a response from the hiding Sylverfang. His time, however, would be wasted, and he would not get a response.

After some time had passed, the four had naturally reconvened with each other at the pile of loot taken from the dragon’s hoard. Much of the rest of the evening would be spent bringing coins back into the reserve, separating out treasures and gems, and arguing over the spoils of war.

Before all of the hoard had been sorted through, Allistair and Prinze broke off from the group, debating the usefulness between spoons and forks, incorrectly agreeing that spoons were more useful.

Upon arriving before Hamblin’s Smithy and Funda’s Enchanting, Allistair handed Prinze an onyx fork.

The two entered the combined shop, greeted the shopkeepers, a pair of dwarves. Hamblin, an elderly dwarf with a beard that dragged across the ground and musculature that could crack a dragon’s teeth should it bite down upon him without caution, greeted the two in his usual gruff tone. Funda, a much younger dwarven woman with dark stubble around her chin, greeted in a far more pleasant, if not shrill tone.

“Howdy. Wadda you need?” asked Hamblin.

“Hello.” Called out Funda, “Did you bring us anything fun to work with?”

“I need you to make me some onyx studs for my wraps.” Said Prinze as he leaned close to his wrist wraps and whispered, “You’re going to get piercings.”

Prinze produced a book from his bag and handed it to Funda.

“Here. Educate yourself on this.” He said.

“A manual of onyxcraft huh?” replied Funda, “And what exactly do you hope to accomplish with this?”

“We need onyx weapons to keep some of these higher ranking cult cronies down. Otherwise they just come back… at least we think.” Said Prinze.

“When do you need these by? This is a pretty dense tome, so I reckon it’s going to take some time to parse through it, and learn Hamblin on it.” Said Fund. Hamblin looked up from his works at her. “Also, what are you paying us for this? This seems a pretty hefty project.”

“Rent is due, so that’s your payment.” Say Prinze.

“I don’t think so.” Said Funda, “We don’t pay rent here. You asked us on to work commissions for you.”

“Do this and we’ll call it even then.” Replied Prinze as Allistair rolled his eyes.

“We’ll do it alright, but you’re gonna pay us!” said Funda.

“Fine.” Conceded Prinze, “You can kneecap some of the kobolds. Here’s a fork.”

Prinze handed the onyx fork over to Funda.

“I’ll take a look at it and tell you what I’ll need, and what it’s going to cost you.” She said.

“Can you have if finished before we get to the Veiled Forest?” asked Prinze.

“I haven’t the slightest idea where we are, so I can’t make any promises.” Replied Funda.

“You know… I also don’t know where we are.” Said Prinze.

Allistair and Prinze departed Funda’s and Hamblin’s shops, and the group split once more.

Alonzo, knowing the foes they were going to be fighting, began preparing a magical feast to bolster his companions. Allistair convened with Blagothskul to determine their distance from the temple hidden within the Veiled Forest, reporting “Near midnight.” Back to Prinze. All the while, Beezul and Prinze plotted and bickered about finding a new wife for Blagothskul, but because neither knew any other Cloud Giants, they filed that argument away for another time.

Before their dispute could conclude, however, Prinze began to feel a rustling within one of his bags. He waited to depart from Beezul before checking, but noticed that the four eggs that he had received from his Ssarathi fling, Zistra, had began to pip.

Excitedly, Prinze brought the eggs to the table Alonzo was setting up for their presumed last supper before mounting an assault on the temple hidden within the Veiled Forest.

Setting them on the table excitedly, Prinze waited in anticipation for the little creatures to break through and be born under his watch. The last time he had hatched eggs given to him by Zistra, the very eggs he had initially believed to be breasts but were actually nestled tight against her chest in a cloth sling, they had had hatched into two Ssarathi boys. He had named them Yormun and Gandir.

The next time Prinze was in the capitol, he had delivered the children to Zistra, who was elated by her children, lay with her once more, and was gifted another four eggs. These eggs, however, had taken much longer to hatch, and he had even been gifted with another four on another visit he had made later.

An hour had passed, Alonzo had finished his preparations for the meal, and all four of Prinze’s eggs had hatched. The offspring, however, were not merely more Ssarathi children, but they appeared partially draconic in appearance. Not unlike Prinze himself.

As the party ate, with their newly hatched underlings, Prinze’s fatherly instincts fought against his innate hatred for everything draconic. But one would not have known it by looking at him. He sat there, feeding these babies their first meal, a feast for heroes, and they ate without fuss.

Once the meal had concluded, Prinze took the hatchlings across the thoroughfare towards the Swift’s house. He knocked on the door, then went inside.

Half an hour later, Prinze emerged from the stone dome without the children and rejoined the party.

“Where are the hatchlings?” asked Allistair?

“I left them with Frank.” Replied Prinze, “Once we’re done here we need to take them back to Zistra. Our lifestyle is no place for children.”

“What did Frank say?” asked Allistair.

“Turns out, he also hates Kobolds.” Said Prinze as he departed to Blagothskuls’ tower.

“Interesting.” Said Allistair, “So, when are we planning to attack?”

“How about the morning?” asked Alonzo, “I could rest and recuperate some of my mana.”

“That sounds good.” Said Prinze, “I’ll let Blagothskul know.”

Prinze departed to inform Blagothskul of the plan to rest for the night, then instructed him to bring the skyland down to attack the temple at dawn.

The party had separated and planned their evening rests.

Alone, Alonzo spent some time attuning to his newfound spear, becoming connected with the weapon and learning of its properties. Once he had finished, he began to doze off. But sleep did not take him. Instead, he remembered a chest he had discovered upon the ship where he met this odd band of adventurers.

He reached beneath his bunk and grabbed at the chest, pulling it upon his bed. Playing with the lock for a few minutes, Alonzo managed to get it unlocked. He opened the chest, expecting some sort of treasure, but was instead greeted by a single rubber duck that looked back at him. He wondered what the purpose of such a toy could have within the cult, but decided not to dwell on it any more.

Sky’s Reach fell silent as its denizens drifted off to sleep. But not all slept soundly.

Beezul, safe within his magnificent beehive, twisted and turned. He couldn’t get comfortable. He couldn’t hold still. He had nightmares of Sylverfang, taking from him what he had earned. Taking from him all that he had.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded across Sky’s Reach. Beezul awoke and thumped to the floor. It was much lower than he remembered. He looked over towards a reflective piece of honeycomb and beheld the reflection of a kobold once more.

“Son of a bitch!” he shouted.

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