The statues shift easily to point toward the dragon constellation. The moment the fourth statue locks into place, you hear the sound of grinding stone... A semicircular section at the center of the floor begins to glow as a spiral staircase begins to form, descending into the tower...

As you proceed down the staircase, your nostrils take in the stale air heavy with the scent of old parchment. The walls are lined with shelves stuffed full of old tomes and yellowing scrolls. Glass display cases, toppled over and shattered, have strewn their contents across the stone floor. In the center of the room you find a large pile consisting of several thousand coins - a mix copper, silver and gold.

The sound of splintering wood echoes through the space, and a moment later you see an agitated bronze dragon the size of a bear, picking himself up from the wreckage of the old desk he apparently crashed into. The dragon blinks a few times, shaking its head as if in disbelief and finally asks, "Who are you?"

Z struggles to not begin looking at the scrolls and tomes.
At the sound of the voice, Z turns to look to the bronze dragon and bows. "My name is Ziegler. May we presume that you are Aidron?"

Augustus, relatively more comfortable around these smaller and more aerodynamic dragons, will bow lightly when Z does, chiming in, "Augustus Silver of Clan Silver, we're here with diplomatic intentions."

Sir Beauregard says, “I am Sir Beauregard Bonecrusher, Knight of the Ruby Rose, and Vinn and Morlock round out our number.  Runara sent us because she feared you might have fallen in with the wrong crowd.  We have just made the acquaintance of one ‘Sparkrender’ who tried to kill us.”  He gestures to the black sooty scorch mark on his armor.  “We hope to be better friends to you than that desk if you give us the opportunity.”

Vinn gives a toothy grin at the dragon. "I guess diplomatic mission also became a rescue mission. Don't worry, the kobolds are cool with us, plus we almost beat up Sparky just a little while ago. We're pretty brave, except for Augustus, kind of."

He then peers at the pile of coins. "Give me a second... I've always wanted to do this." He then then plops down on the ground, lays on the pile, and rolls over. You hear the swishing of metal, and Vinn winces in pain with how the coins dig into his back. "... this is not as fun as you think it'd be."

Augustus huffs at Vinn's comment, a bit offended, "Careful now, Vinn. Courage is not the absence of fear. I remained to fight against my very nature because I care for you all, and that must take priority over my self-preservation. It's not cowardly to be afraid, only to abandon those that need you. My hand may shake, but my shield remains steady and at your side."

Z holds back a grin at Vinn's antics.
"Let's see, how do we perform said 'rescue'?, " Z asks, observing the locks and chains to determine how best to free Aidron.

Vinn lazily rolls off the pile of coins, scattering  the small pile everywhere. "It's okay, Auggy. You're only not scare of this one because silver beats bronze, right? At least, in the athletics competition that my hometown hosts every four years."

He stands up, and tries to catch the few coins caught in his clothes before they fall off.

Auggy chuckles at the nickname. "Aye, silver is a metal of no equal, but as far as our friend here," he says gesturing to the dragon, "he's barely larger than two harpies. When they're older, they can grow to massive sizes. There's something wrong with a creature the size of a ship taking flight, that's all I'm sayin. Things of unreasonable size fit best on the ground or in the water, not in the air."

Morlock looks and says "Cousin. I believe it has already been said, so all I will add is that we are on a noble mission."

A somewhat chagrinned expression crosses the dragon's face as you make your introductions.

"Rescue, you say... Did... Did Mistress Runara send you then?" He bows his head, humbly. "I owe her an apology... She told me there was nothing left in these ruins but bitter memories and bad magic. She was right."

He looks up again, remembering the urgency. "But you say you bested Sparkrender? Is he dead? Did he complete the ritual first?"

Sir Beauregard glowers.  “The beast flew off before we finished him.  What is this ritual and how can we stop it?”

Z will begin trying to free Aidron.
"Yes, Aidron...Runara sent us. I pray that we are not too late to stop this ritual."

A look of relief and fear crosses Aidron's face in response to hearing Sparkrender is still alive.

He between Sir Beauregard and Zeigler to explain, "If he's fled like you say, we should be okay for now... But he may come back and there may be more we can do... See, his goal was to awaken the spirits of the five ancient dragons who died on this island in hopes of bending their immortal will to his own... To do that, he'd need some sort of arcane focus to attract and bind these spirits. He and I had spoken about using crystals or building effigies... One for each of the five... but we had our... well... falling out before we landed on a specific plan..." 

Shaking away the distracting thought, he continues. "Either way, if we can destroy whatever he's using as a focus, that should disrupt the ritual... At least until he can rebuild."

He looks to you all, eagerly, "Have you seen anything like that?"

Vinn gives a serious look. "That's some real bad hokey pokey you're getting yourself into..."

Augustus will rub his chin with a furrowed brow, thinking back through everything they've seen recently. "I'm not sure about any kind of focus for a ritual... he was having kobolds paint a few dragon statues is their various chromatic colors, but other than the model planets in the middle, I didn't see anything that would make me think of a focus.

With a nod to Augustus for his insight, Z suggests, "Those dragon statues must be involved in this ritual. Perhaps if we hide one or take it away? Aidron, maybe once we free you, do you think you'd have the strength to carry one or two of those back to Runara?"

Aidron avoids eye contact with Vinn and turns his attention to Augustus. "The statues. Yes. That would be them.... an attempt to draw the spirits of the fallen wyrms to the material realm by recreating the physical form they once held."

In response to Zeigler, the dragon shakes his head. "No. We should destroy them. Quickly. Then flee before Sparkrender returns."

It takes one to know one, and Vinn recognizes how unreliable Aidron's words could be. The genasi narrows his grey eyes. "Hold up one second, Aidron. You just said that you and Sparky were conniving to do this ritual thing together. Plus, you picked that jerk over Mistress Runara. How can we trust you?"

Vinn then looks to the group for some support. "Or more importantly, how do we make sure you don't fly away? We need to come to an agreement, handshake and all, if we're going to do this."

"Vinn. That IS a great point." Turning to the Brass Dragon. "Why were you working with Sparkrender in the first place? What changed?"

Insight: 8