Quote from DragonDenn >>

Holding his head Yrsaintinth closes the book. "Bad book." He says, handing it back to Leto. "Throw it in the ocean..." (He just barely made his save, or he would have had a bad mental shock, with lots of debuffs...)

 "I barely made it out sane as well," Leto says to his stoic companion, putting the book back in his bag. "Ever seen anything like this before?"

To the group he says, "Wine on solid ground will be nice. That which we brought just isn't the same. And a soft bed certainly does sound nicer than the hammocks we've got. Do you think you'll be able to handle the Red? Or the one in the Castle?"

"If some of us dont wish to go," Naivara says. "Perhaps we should move on ahead on foot and they can stay on the ship."

Latrius snorts.

”No need to ‘handle’ the one in the castle, he’s acting on my orders.”

He calls out to the axial.

”Can we come up?  If so, how?”

„Well, we have dragons to fly and if we really need to, i can make one person float and we can pull her or him up with us. As for the Dragons, i have a decent shot at taking it out for some time, but first i would need to get around those pesky resistances.“

“Perhaps if we’re lucky the axial up there might know the local terrain a bit better; give us more of a fighting chance.” Kierro says. “Considering he doesn’t appear to have been driven away yet by the red one; I would assume the rest of the dragons are fine for now as long as they don’t transform out in the open or otherwise have their cover blown.”

Latrius would sense that the dragon heard him. The dragon has no ability to speak mentally over that distance though. A moment later though the flying castle turns and moves towards the ship. It lowers down to just above the waves, low enough that a ladder can be dropped down to the ship from the castle. A few moments later the axial dragon, in his human form, strides out and does just that, tosses a rope ladder down to the ship.

As the castle is lowered down, you would be able to see multiple constructs resembling a rolling ball of shield-like plates.
Gearkeeper Construct

Latrius climbs up the ladder, nodding his thanks to the axial.

”Find anything interesting?”

"We arrived only the day prior to this one." The axial says with a bow to Latrius. "The town below though seems to be paying tribute to some red dragon that they report lives in one of the volcanic islands south of here." He glances in that direction with a mechanical-turning of his head, then it swivels back to Latrius. "As of yet I have not been able to ascertain if this report is false or true." He glances down towards the ship and then back to Latrius. "From my dialog with the humanoids of this location, there is a sea-level entrance to the dragon's lair, where they leave their offerings. They say that most other access points are likely to end with fatality. Again this report has not been proven true or false."

Latrius nods again.

"Yes, these islands are said to be the domain of an ancient red.  Could this castle take us near to there?"

"Of course, this conveyance can move closer to the volcanic mass to the south without difficulty." The axial responds without hesitation. "Would you like me to do so?"

Latrius purses his lips.

”In your opinion, would that lead to the red attacking us?”

"Red dragons are chaotic brutes." Piazet says with a shrug. "It seems this brute has some inclinations in wishing adventurers to come to his lair, as the humanoids I spoke with indicated that this red is known to drop other humanoids in distant cities, and those humanoids are required to tell everyone about the treasures held in this lair. Seems that he wishes adventurers to come and try to take the treasure. A stupid brute in my opinion."

Latrius nods, thoughtfully.

”Hmm . . .in your opinion, how much of a chance would we have against this red?  All of us, dragons and Gith and all.”

"Red are brutes." The Axial says with a shrug. "Should not be a problem."

"Oh, so now you want us to get an entire village killed again," Naivara says

Latrius sighs.

"Let’s put it this way—we try to sneak in, grab our items and run.  Even if we make it out, we still piss it off and it takes out its anger on the village.  Option 2–we fail at sneaking in and out.  We die, the village may or may not survive.  Option 3–we kill the dragon or at least drive it off.  If it’s dead, it can’t harm them.  I would say they have the best odds of surviving if we do attack the dragon.  There’s also option 4, run away and leave our items, but somehow I don’t think that’ll fly.  May I remind you we tried it the peaceful way the last time, and a whole village got wiped out while we did nothing?  Or have you only remembered the convenient bits?"

"I dont really see why everyone wants to find this stuff," Naivara says. "After all, we're clearly being punished for something. Maybe the lesson is learning not to be so power hungry."

Latrius looks at her oddly.

"Clearly being punished?  I wouldn’t say so.  It seems more likely that someone felt threatened by us, or felt that this world needed us more."

Kierro pulls himself up, helping others who wish to board the castle up as well. He bows to the Axial Dragon. "My name is Kierro. May I ask yours, sir?"

 "We honestly don't know for sure." He replies to Naivara and Latrius. "It could be anything from that, to something we failed to defeat back in our world, to us being purposely sent or called here to accomplish something."

"Either way, we do have to get back to our world. There's surely people who need us there too." Kierro ponders for a bit.

"My personal theory is that the people in the ice village were guarding the only entrance to the white's lair. We got through, and the white saw it as the village having failed him."

Pacing closer to the volcano, and staring out at the city, strategizing, he adds: "I don't believe the local townspeople have the same sort of relationship with Hoondarrh - its lair entrance is probably guarded by his own minions. If we successfully manage to get in and out, I don't believe he would attack the town. His lair's also a few miles away, so I believe it's separate enough to be safe."

Esmeralda climbs up into the castle with Ronaldo close behind, but upon arriving, she takes her husband off to the side and just waits there with him while listening to the others talk.