Gwen

"You... Where did you -get- that??" Atawhai asks, staring at the pale, glowing sprite sitting on Noy's back. Noy shuffles a bit and proudly displays her Light Sprite, the small familiar looking around a bit nervously.
"Well, you remember those harpy punks, right?" Atawhai smiles, tapping her hands together. "Oh! You managed to strike up an honest deal with them? My goodness! ...What on earth did you throw into the deal to get them to part with one?"
Noy smirks a bit. "Well, uh.. There miiiiiight have been a couple genetically-enhanced inferno possums from Gwen involved and I maaaay have let them loose in the roost and miiiight have taken the opportunity of everything in panic and on fire to nab one of these babies."
Atawhai blinks, processing the tale. "....So it's stolen." "It's totally stolen, yeah."

"Hold still, stop your blubbering." Victiln grabs at Kukulan's swollen tongue, dipping a claw in the pot of honey beside her and slathering it over a particularly nasty boil. Orestes sits nearby, shaking his head at the older ridgeback. "It's well known that the Wyrmwound is not to be approached, let alone lapped at for some outlandish dare. What kind of stunt was this??"
"Ish wuth frr alahda threathure!" the rebellious dragon slurs, spitting unidentifiable mucous at the mirror's feet. Orestes sighs, batting his tail in restrained irritation. "Well, I certainly hope it was worth it. You could have gotten yourself killed. On top of that, we've lost good profits from this whole ordeal. Materials from the training fields aren't worth much, as you know."
The ridgeback chuckles, more of a sputtered cough than anything, gagging as Victiln crams another glob of honey down his inflamed throat and gulping it down. "Whll, athk Gren aburt it, pipthqueak. Thumthin' bouht thienth. I jutht **** it'b be coohl." Orestes squints and brings a claw up to his forehead, giving it a rub. Of course, of course Gwen was involved in this somehow.

The group of dragons rattles their bag of stones as they walk, a good near hundred of the foggy rocks sitting inside after their runs through the Crystal Pools. "Goodness, getting the locals to part with their possessions is much harder than it sounds in stories! I couldn't even sweet-talk most of them!" Noy grumbles, scuttling alongside the larger imperials. "Shoulda just beat'em up. Or pick-pocketed. Woulda been a lot easier."

Orestes shakes his head. "No. That would have caused a lot of bad image on our heads and of our clan. We have the amount we searched for. ...Ah, there it is." He leads the others towards a small Talonok establishment, looking down at the masked harpies manning the stall. "Greetings. We heard that you are a sanctuary for endangered creatures, am I correct?"

The bird-folk look at each other, mumbling before looking back up at the visiting dragon. "Hang on... isn't that the dragon that stole those mantles? Half the clan was after your hide." Noy coughs and shuffles back, hiding behind Atawhai's tail. "...Ah. Terribly sorry about that whole event, some other fool in our clan thought it would make a nice holiday gift. He has been reprimanded accordingly."

The harpies grumble skeptically, but Orestes drops the bag of stones onto the counter, and they momentarily reconsider the group. "We've heard that you keep quite a few sprites here. Would you be willing to part with, say, one of the illuminated ones?"

The talonok chuckle, opening the bag and counting out the collected stones and pondering them over. After seemingly coming to a satisfied conclusion, one of them leans over the counter while the other slips the stones back into the bag. "It's a tempting offer. Tell you what, I can let one go for this bag... aaand about a couple thousand more of them."

The harpies are quick to laugh at the dragons' stunned expressions, handing the clueless draconians their bag back. "How much did you honestly think those were worth?! They're rocks!" Orestes holds out a wing to restrain Noy from jumping at the laughing avians, simply grabbing the bag and turning the group around. He would definitely be confronting Gwen about his "extensive research" on the value of these stones when they got back.

Gwen grumbles, shaking off the excess water from his mane. "Well, I'd have to say that was a pretty mediocre run. The whole point was to get more allies, and we only got the one new one!" Even though Korak seemed happy with his new group of gorgeous mer friends, he sighs, looking over the pile of shells and tentacles they'd managed to amass. All he could think of making with these was some average-quality sushi, unless...

"See, with these, you'll always get the drop on your enemies! They won't suspect the ceiling!" Noy looks over the strange invention, a couple of seashells with tons of sucker pads attached. Did he expect her to just strap those stupid-looking things to her claws and hope they worked? She looks up at him incredulously, raising an eyebrow. "So, uh.. won't they make weird noises? And how much weight can they-"

"Oh, details, details. Just give them a shot! It's for science, after all!" Yep, that's what he was expecting of her. She grumbles, grabbing the improvised gloves from him. "Well, uh.. did you at least use the rest of the tentacles for food?" The imperial laughs. "Oh, no, no. The meat got too shriveled while I was collecting the suckers. A small price to pay for science, no doubt!"

The mirror scowls, keeping the gloves close. "I'm... I'm sure." She turns around, taking her leave. Maybe she could throw these stupid things in a lake somewhere. At least the lake might have a snack she can grab.

Gwen sighs, stepping back and looking at his handicraft. Several large blankets, all woven together with foo mantles and gale wolf thread, a warm and festive looking pile of materials. He diligently piles up a few of the blankets, stepping out of his lair and heading to the neighboring caverns and treading into the slight dusting of snow.

He wanders into Noy's lair, the spastic mirror quickly eyeing him and standing guard. "Hey, if that's some sort of experiment of yours, I definitely don't want anything to do with it, no sir!" She states, glaring as he reaches back and pulls a blanket from the pile, throwing it over the mirror who skitters back, pulling her head out of the part she couldn't avoid. "Relax, Noy. It's really just for the festive spirit. It's starting to get cold out."

Noy squints at him, cautiously feeling the material. He was right, it did indeed seem warm and very thick, and it didn't seem to be electrocuting her or anything, and the stitch work seemed very deliberate. She sighs and shuffles it onto herself, letting the heavy cloth lay over her cool scales. "...Alright, fine. I guess even you can do something nice every once and a while." Gwen smiles, letting the mirror get comfy in her new covers as he heads out to the next lair.

He estimated that it should only take about a week to see whether the rumors of wearing a foo's mantle would mark you as a target of the Talonok were true or not. The harpy screeches would be glorious.

Gwen finally pulls back and shuts off the welder, raising his goggles to look at his newest contraption. A scrappily put-together Stone Borer, almost as good as the real thing. He nods to himself, grabbing a few loose wires and sparking them together. After a few near fur singes, the mechanical familiar rumbles and screeches to life, shakily standing on its feet, albeit a bit lopsided.

He feels as though he should be surprised, but he isn't as the metal mess begins to walk forward, slamming into everything in its path and crushing it. He cringes a bit as it stomps into the wall of the lair, eventually smashing into it enough to crack the fleshy plague wall and tear through it, before smoking and grinding to a halt, collapsing in a heavy metal heap as a spooked Atawhai peeks through the new hole.

Well, if it had gone a little further, he might have saved this clan the purchase of a lair expansion. Back to the drawing board.

Gwen stands before his work, tying the last wildwood owlet to a strange net. Ninety-eight other owlets peep and chirp, hopping about with their brethren as he steps back, looking at his work, a whole flock of peeping green owlets all tied to what seems to be a fishing net. He grins and walks around, easily directing the excited pack of owlets towards the outside, where the whole lot of them take to the skies.

Before long, he's standing before the Redrock Cove, his owlet netters flying towards the sea. If this worked out, they'd never have a shortage of seafood again. Distracted by his slight twinge of hunger, he looks over to see the owlets successfully drawing out a small net-full of fish and stray crabs, calling them back over. He only stops as a Spiney Whale suddenly bursts from the ocean, leaping into the air and gobbling up the concentrated mass of food, only a few stray owlets managing to frantically flutter away in terror.

He sighs. Science was all about trial and error, he supposed. Back to the drawing board.

"So, you're certain this stuff is magical? I'm not putting this on my coat if it's going to... rub stuff off." asks Sefrond, looking over the grounded up celestial horn powder. Gwen nods, dipping a claw in the soft dusty powder and rubbing a small test amount onto her snout. "Certainly. Celestial Antelope horns are known to have magical properties, I don't see how maintaining one's good looks would be out of the question for such a thing."

It's only later that he hears a very angry screech and the very upset flapping of wings at his lair door, turning around to see Sefrond once more, wings blotched with blue and face and feathers a sickly green color. "I thought you said this was magical! It totally undid and ruined my feathers!" He smiles, reaching for his notes and looking over the distraught dragon. "I may have been mistaken. Apparently, removing the celestial horns ruins any magical properties they may have had. You've basically been rubbing sandy grit all over your wings this whole time."

He just manages to duck as a piece of loose shalerock is tossed at his face. Back to the drawing board.

"Really?? The colors can do that??" Korak's eyes light up as Gwen continues to string together his makeshift shell armor, setting the hypnotic shells over the ridgeback in some makeshift armor pattern. "Of course. It's known that the colors on these shells are confusing to many predators. You'll be able to get up close and personal and finally be able to make those, albeit somewhat terrifying, friends."

He bounces and the shells around him clatter, excited to wander into the Redrock Cove and attempt to cozy up to the Deeprealms and Spiney Whales. Gwen finishes tying the last drilled shell onto the bubbly dragon, finally giving him the okay and watching him take off like a bolt straight into the waters. Honestly, he's pretty sure this isn't going to work, but bless this silly dragon's enthusiasm.

He sits back, gathering his notes in preparation for having to explain why Korak got eaten by leviathans, until he hears loud, heavy splashing, looking up and seeing the ridgeback leaping into the air on the back of a Deeprealm Hunter. He lifts his goggles, the sight almost unbelievable. By jove, he'd done it. It actually worked.

"I've mixed it up quite well. It should help with your ailments." He offers it to his fellow imperial, Orestes, who takes the strangely colored concoction from him. "I don't know. This seems like it.. may make things worse." Gwen hushes the leader, tapping his notes. "Nonsense. Controlled exposure to common allergens is a good way to build up immunity to them. You'll be handling those Budwings like normal in no time." Orestes nods uncertainly, taking the dragon's word for it.

Before too much later that evening, Gwen is interrupted from his latest works by the sound of approaching sneezing, a rather drippy-nosed Orestes coming towards him. He stands before the leader, who's definitely looked better without the mucus and baggy eyes. "...Didn't work?" His only answer is the mixture being shoved back into his paws and the quiet dragon turning and leaving, but not before shooting a rather wet sneeze over the floor of his lair.

Maybe the fact that the butterflies only perched on the most vivid and most poisonous flowers didn't help. Back to the drawing board.