Enter the Spawn of Earnaness

[Diamond Master]

Volatilus feels a thrill of ***** excitements as the dragon stalks slowly round to cut off Yerkan's escape as he climbs the scrubby tree where the noises came from and finds only a small patch of disturbed frost.

[Yerkan of Elish]

Heh. My grin grows even wider as I wonder who exactly is hunting whom.

Assuming the dragon is at least some distance away I will do the following. First, I will melt some frost and use the water to mask my scent. Second, I will leap from the tree in a trajectory that is seeming of a nice but fairly short loop that would take me around the dragon. However, I will instead zigzag to the opposite side of the dragon and create a much larger loop. I will be making extensive use of Thrash's bunkers for hiding and appearing to be moving in different directions than I actually am. Over the course of this whole thing, I will be reapplying snow to myself to further mask my scent. So instead of curving around the right (for example) I'm going to swing wide to the left and end up pretty close to my escape route (assuming the dragon goes for the bait). From there, I'll have access to escape and the dragon, depending on whether I decide to subdue or flee.

Durin, what exactly was its weakness? Also, anyone else wish to help me subdue the dragon and get it out of the gardens? No mind if you don't.

The dragon is steeper than anything in the mortal realms, but how much steeper is it than me and Thrash? Can we tell?

[Diamond Master]

Your evasive tactics, especially masking your scent, works very well.

Just to clarify, most areas of the Garden are not covered in snow. Instead, everything is lightly frosted, like a morning dew that has frozen and will thaw with the dawn.

The dragon is of Bezel Tier.

[Volatilus]

Volatilus will stay and observe... for now. The element of surprise is still his and will wait for a weak-point to present itself, on who is also the question...

[Steepest Durin]

ON th' Icy Wastes we fought no less then four dragons. Earnaness I and Thor and Odin fought to submission, but she still lives. Remember they are gods. They can't be so easily struck doon forever.

Earnaness was a poisoner.
One of her brethren was a digger like I'self, and another was a speedy thing of quicksilver. Summat like yerself, Yerkan, mayhap.
The patriarch on th' Icy Wastes was Nidhogg, and a bigger more fiery dragon you never did see.

As far as I and the Brazen Head know each is entirely immune to anythin' havin' the slightest thing to do with its primary ability. I'd take a new spawn of Earnaness to have th' same strength. An' they can all breathe fire, of course.

[Yerkan of Elish]

Well I have no intention of striking this one down permanently. It is merely in my way and must be removed. I am patient though. Let's see how it reacts to more things.

I leave some inscriptions in some of the earthen bunkers as I pass through them; if there's no bunkers where I am, I leave a sheaf of paper or draw in the dust. I also modify my path so that these inscriptions do not leave a breadcrumb trail to my location, but seem instead to lead in another direction to further grant me evasion.

"What do you seek, Spawn of Earnaness? Surely little that I have is of utlity for you, and I am useless to you dead."

"But where are my manners? I am Yerkan of Elish, the first and foremost Pioneer of Thrash."

"Do you hear the howling of the wolves? Do you feel the coming of the hunt?"

"If you breath is poison, so is my blood. If the speed of mercury flows through you, know there is quicksilver also in my veins. If you are the digger, see how I revel in these bunkers of Earth."

[Diamond Master]

"Hngha! I am here as herald for one of many following forms, who are in turn heralds themselves! I'm none of the spahwn you describe. I am the strongher son of Poisonbhreath, and I come mhnerely for sport - and to deliver sohmthing. You whon't knowh what it is until it's too late, so if I were you, I wouldn't worry about it! I don't fear the hungt. I don't fear the howhling. My brethren will move here and have their sport. The Tree, the Hypercone, will fall to my father's gnaw, though that is far in the futurhre. Don't think so hignhly of yourself, hero!"

You see it speeding away in a different direction. It seems to harbor a particular dislike of plants.

[Yerkan of Elish]

Sigh.

Well I guess I'll spend some time seeing if I can analyze any of the mutterings I transcribed from earlier, especially now that I've heard the dragon speak.

[Diamond Master]

Feel free to post in IF-THEN format for speed of play. Any discrepancies can be corrected.

None of the mutterings make sense to you. They feel heavily obscured.

[Yerkan of Elish]

I will attempt to follow the dragon at a safe distance. If I sense that the dragon has noticed me, however, I will immediately head for cover; perhaps an area on the other side of a grove of trees.

In which direction is the dragon heading? Is there anything there that might be of value to it?

I also want to check out the area where I first encountered the dragon; if I can't immediately find a trail or anything else of note there, I will drop the search on that front. However, I do make a copy of my transcription and hide it in the area. I'll check up on it frequently in the future.