- Yerkan meets two beings while wandering in the Garden: A tawny trickster and a Spawn of Earnaness from the Icy Wastes; i.e, a dragon.
- The dragon is destructive. It reveals that it is here to deliver something secret.
- Volatilus leads a hunt for both creatures. The tawny creature proves elusive and the dragon proves strong.
- During the hunt, they find Crystal Trilobites, multitudinous bugs whose crystal eyes see a ways into the future, and cut off attempts to scry with other future-prediction or divination magics.
- The trickster seems to be a mix of a cat, a monkey, a nut, and machine.
- The Council uses the hunt of the dragon as an oath-bonding exercise. They seek to slay the dragon. Eventually, converging in their war shapes, the gods surround the dragon in a pit and unleash their might upon it.
- Volatilus' spear takes on a little of the dragon's magic. The dragon is not mortally wounded, but slinks off to recover from severe injuries. The gods must also heal before they can move from the site of the battle.
- They pursue and threaten it again. It promises to reveal the delivery's location - it is a transmitter that calls more "Heralds."
It knows nothing about the trickster, and elaborates that the trilobites alter perceptions.
Yerkan, you are wandering amidst the clay statuary of the Diamond Garden, acclimating to the history of the space-spanning infinite world you have so suddenly found yourself in. Many of the statues do not seem to depict any historical element whatsoever, and many have been tailored to meet aesthetic principles you do not share.
As you round a statue of what seems to be a potbelly stove with legs and teeth, you hear a splintering noise. Shadows immediately flare out from the base of the statue. The fire does not come from the stove, nor the torches which dot the Arboretum. Rather, you leap back just in time from a burst of dragonfire, warned by some deep-seated hero instinct. The snakelike head of the wyrm unfurls around the statue to stare you down.
You hear a stifled guffaw coming from a tree overhead. A small quantity of frosted Eitr dusts you from above and runs down the back of your raiment and you hear another guffaw, then a rustling.