There is scrub forest on Kolvir, even extending up beyond the city, in places. Here it is mostly pine, although there are a few oddities of mountain oak. There is also a small expedition, with Colonal Tanya, left hand still bandaged lightly, glaring at everything that is not neatly organised. They are out in the wildes. This means *everything*. Her court shoes are surprisingly good for the surface, and her robes do not tangle with the undergrowth, but she is still apparently not enjoying herself.

The point of the expedition is, of course, to find the source of the spring that feeds the upper part of Amber.

Danielle picks her way along behind with extreme care, watching everything looking for approaching danger

Tanya pauses to ask, "Would it be too much to plant these in rows?" She gestures to the magnirifent landscape on her left. "It's so messy and organic!"

There are sounds. That brings a stir and the sound of brush rustling off to the side and ahead of the group.

The short, grumpy, blackclad colonel glares that way, bringing her staff around to bear on the area. "What wildlife is out here?" she asks. "Bears? Tigers? Ghouls?" She does not sound hopeful.

Danielle laughs "Some disorder is a good thing a long as it doesn't endanger someone. some serendipidity enriches life"

The sounds stop, and then there's a long lengthy yawn. A flash of light on purple, gleaming in the not so distant distance.

"..." Tanya has no answer to Danielle, save, "Alright. What here is bright purple and might hurt us?"

The trees mockingly continue to be not straight and orderly. The ground is not paved. All is natural.

Danielle hms "ILet's hope it's Amy and she doesn't want to eat it

From around a tree, a head pokes out. It's purple alright, and very dragon-like. Okay, it's a dragon.

"Amy?" Tanya does not look away from the area, but when the dragon head appears, she does not fire off any magical attack either. "I don't get paid enough for this. I don't even get paid."

Danielle waves " Are you stuck in dragon form? That could be problematic

Tanya blorts laughter, briefly.

Dragon? Where? The dragon head actually turns to look back behind it, and then steps out from behind the trees. About the size of a large war horse she is, wings furled, and apparently looking to figure out where the dragon is.

"Rawr!" goes the dragon, trying to say "eeeee". Apparently that only scares her again, and the wings unfurl as instinct brings her up off the ground with a massive wingflap.

Tanya leans back, couching her staff beneath her arm, but only in readiness, not attack. She uses her left hand to shield her eyes; the bandage on it is fresh and any bleeding seems to have stopped.

Danielle sighs "That's a yes. Lovely. Let me see what I can see

When no /other/ dragon appears, the purple dragon settles back to the ground, furling wings again. She moves forward a bit, warily watching Tanya. At least she doesn't roar again? "mrargrarh agraw ahrr" comes out of her mouth - a sort of mumbling that resembles words not at all.

The colonel grounds her staff, looks around for other problems, and says, "I have mornings like that too. Rum helps."

Danielle rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 20, using occult, magic sense.
The result is a success.

To Danielle's senses, this is a wholesome, healthy, dragon. There's little to nothing magical about it - Tanya glows far more in magical sight. It's like this is just... a dragon. Maybe the pulse of the breathing is magical. Mayhe she just needs to get closer.

The dragon does shine with magic, but more like it has an innate ability rather than it's under any sort of spell.

Danielle hms "Well that's intersting, not helpful because if it's an ability you have. i might not be able to help from the outside

"Ah. Rum helps that as well, I hear."

Tanya likes rum, it seems.

The purple dragon hunches down, apparently suddenly realizing she's bigger than the others. She eyes the group there, and adds in, "Maraskaf Daaa Daaaaannnnrawar." Nope still not quite there. "Rhharrmmm."

Tanya looks at the dragon. "We don't understand your language," she says. "Unless it's a really bad accent."

Lucafrase keeps the sun off with one of her basket-hats, and wields a pole with an iron nail at the end, but is otherwise Luca in the flesh. (Did she bring snacks? She might've brought snacks.) As she crests the incline, she offers: "... someone sent for me?"

Danielle waves to luca "Hi. We're trying to help Amy turn back into a human"

The woman in black turns, sighs. "Lucafrase?" she checks, peering under the basket hat.

Lucafrase keeps the pole between herself and the petitioner, although 'deadly as a carpenter' is probably not a widely-spread aphorism for a reason. A huff happens. "... I don't suppose we gain any time or sense in denying it, so yes. Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

Amy Dragon rawrs again, sounding somewhat exasperated. "Rawying. Round rooooaarrrrghgggh." The dragon takes a step forward, then crouches down again, gaze going to Lucafrase as she arrives. "Rrrawrrrrrrafffaraaassss"

"Colonel Tanya Garin. Night Watch. Which doesn't actually exist here." She glances back at the dragon, as it moves. "Did that first word round like 'roaring' to you?"

A moment later she amends, "'sound'. But there were round sounds."

Lucafrase mms. "Based on context, if-- that's Amethyst and-- she understands Thari. Maybe 'trying.'"

Danielle hms "Anyone have a language spell?"

"I do forces," Tanya admits. "Not needs or wants. But speaking of that, yes, I am after you, Lucafrase. I need my staff made into a broomstick.

The dragon steps forward again, just one step and nods her head, mostly in Luca's direction. "Raawound rrrwaaarrhhhong."

Tanya mouths, "Round tongue? Wrong tongue?"

Lucafrase's eyebrows pop? "You cannot possibly mean 'I do not know how to make a broom.' So you want to... fly?" She smiles fondly at Amethyst. "I'd conjectured the thing stung you as it fell? Still working on how to undo that on paper." A determined 'moue.' She starts... pacing. To Tanya: "... why are we flying?"

Tanya holds up her left hand. "It's precision magic. A bundle of things that are effectively wands." Under her bandages, she is probably missing a couple of fingers on her left hand. "And it needs to be removable. We're flying because I'm air cavalry. And the dragon seems to fly because she forgets not to take off."

Amy Dragon unfurls her wings at that conversation, letting them spread out. She might be showing off a bit.

Lucafrase starts gathering (for lack of much else) some of the tough, weedy stuff that grows stubbornly atop mountains. Going about the process of stripping the brush down to twiglets, gradually it becomes clear her intent is to use them for bristles. She begins laying out her intent, both in chalk on the mountainside and 'through forces.'

Meanwhile, Tanya demonstrates what Lucafrase is up against. "This is a battering ram, when I use it," she says of the staff, "But you can balance the forces with a sufficiency of minor wands." And she points casually at the forest edge, and a few moments later a tree fifty feet away rocks, and small branches break. There was maybe a little hint of air shimmering on the path between staff and tree.

Lucafrase rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 20, using Repair, Enchanting and spending will.
The result is a failure.

From 'there is a dragon here' to 'I am shooting trees' did not take Tanya long. She can, however, also show another trick - she levitates a rock the size of her head, and moves it around, managing to weave it in and out of trees before she loses control of it and it falls, severely traumatising a weasel.

Lucafrase gathers her sticks, binding them to the shaft with-- do carpenters all carry 'magic string?' It is to wonder. Her incantations set, she attempts to imbue the assembly with the power of flight! Just like in the dime-novels. Candles lit, entities entreated, the !broom... rises... and thence clatters to the stone. Luca, out of breath, reports: "I can't, it's... too thin?"

"I think you're fighting against it," Tanya replies. "I can provide the force. I can send what I need through here. I just need something suitable to channel it. Something that won't blast off and leave me - and this has not happened but you hear about it - on a staff without any serious control. Although I've used one for an emergency landing, I got onto it in that state."

Amy curls up, head propped on her forelegs, and watches now. Her wings furl back in, as she yawns again. Apparently she's sleepy.

Lucafrase starts another diagram, whereupon the world is her blackboard? "If they're just meant to hold the power, that is a different... balance. Making a bottle is possible. Lots of little ones if I have to."

"They're conduits," Tanya explains. "Take the force I push out from the staff, and use it to propel it and keep it upwards. A lot of people have them pointing down, or weave threads into a carpet, or something, but I need to pack light. One staff. Only about six wands, one sword, and a bit of chalk. Lots of little wandlets in a bundle is how a broom is traditionally done, but there could be other ways."

Lucafrase says, "Thrust, then. This'll be 'fun.'"

Lucafrase's voice clearly translates 'fun' into 'recklessly dangerous,' but.

"Oh, you know that definition as well? What does the phrase 'good news' mean to you?" Tanya's tone says she does not believe in the joy and goodness of the world.

And now there's a bored dragon. She gets to her feet, a bit awkwardly, and then stretches out wings. Wingflaps. Again. And then takes off, going .... somewhere.

Dust. So much dust.

Lucafrase chortles. "Something like 'take cover,' or 'bring body armor.'"

The colonel sighs. Add 'and then you will get to report about who shot at you'. She leans down to look at what Lucafrase is making. "Try an interweaved zigzag of thread? Two zig-zags, the one towards the front - the top - sharper?" She is not so rude as to mess with diagrams, but her left hand makes the gestures.

Lucafrase shades her expression beneath the hat, but does reluctantly take suggestions. "A colonel in a faraway army and a dangerous magician. Just when I think *I've* led an interesting life..."

"I'm also an archivist," says the colonel. "And probably not a handmaiden any more. A good liar, though."

Lucafrase rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 20, using enchanting, repair and spending will.
The result is a success.

The colonel does have interesting suggestions, some of them magically impossible, to make.

Lucafrase steps back from a broom, dusts her hands. "That might be all I can give it," she reports. "... try it out?"

"Tradition says you tell me 'good news' first," Tanya says with a smile, and takes the broom, checking the two parts can come apart, and go back together, and then... she carefully holds it out, concentrates, and opens her hand; the broom butts against her palm, moves forwards, get grabbed. "A bit forward-going," she says, like she is talking of a spirited horse.

Lucafrase shrugs. "Good news, I've never built one before?"

"Perfect." Tanya gets on side-saddle, lifts her feet gingerly, and then wooshes too fast, dismounting to run alongside and slow it. "Alright," she says from some distance away. "Less oomph, less panicking."

Lucafrase asks: "... d'you do anything about the bugs in your teeth? Asking for a friend."

"Yes. I don't get them. A shield in front is pretty much required at faster speeds anyhow." Tanya returns. "But right now, I don't have that ability. So... toothpicks?"

Lucafrase nods. She casts an eye toward the direction Amethyst departed in? "So, what happens next?"

"Depends. We're out looking for a water source, but we haven't found it yet. And we're trying to work out why magic is strange. Like... some of the things you're doing, I can't do, and I don't know how they work. Well, I'm trying to work that out. The dragon may be trying to work out vocal folds."

Lucafrase says, "You know how it is, you wake up with an assortment of hazy memories in a featureless land that looks like a chunk of your former life. Typical Monday. I just have the sense that some of it is habit from 'before,' and some of it is puckish stubbornness"

"I must admit that being chased by ice golems in the palace of a winter queen and rescued by someone who later turned into a dragon is odd only in that I didn't know dragons still existed." Tanya shrugs. "Maybe we make our own luck. But if so I'd like to find that water."

Lucafrase says, "She's pretty upbeat, generally. No angry dragons can be purple, right?"

"I cede the floor to the expert in dragons. Do you happen to have a hip-flask to hand? I'm about to come down from the high of using magic." Tanya gives Lucafrase a bright smile. "For some reason it's sharper up here."

Lucafrase looks relieved. "Abso-friggin'-lutely." Revealing a small ornamental canteen she has a sip of brandy and passes it over.

The colonel takes a chug large enough to be rude, but hands two flasks back. "Thank you." Hers is utilitarian and battered, and has initials on it that have been covered at some point with an ornamental plate, now lost. The initials are 'C P'.

Lucafrase ohs? "... we're getting wasted? On a mountaintop?"

"No, but you were kind, and that's a brandy that's literally out of this world. It won't keep." Tanya shrugs. "Then I'm going back to looking for water. The most boring of drinks."

Lucafrase has a sip, since it would be impolite not to. 'C P' goes back to its owner.

'C P' had amazing taste in brandy. Tanya finishes it with a smirk. "Here's to him. Right. Dragon has gone, Danielle is busy, and I need to keep quartering the area. But now I can probably do it by air. Thank you, Lucafrase. Do you work by invoice?"

Lucafrase says, "Barter? Barter. Can y'owe me one?"

Tanya nods. "Any time you need an artillery barrage or some really good archiving work." She bows, twirls the broom in her hand, and brings it to a halt where she can mount up.