A Tyrant, Sort Of

Sable dropped the defeated corpse of the [Frostfang Titan] off with Skatikk, which produced quite the clamor. Even by Sable’s estimation, the beast was gigantic, so to goblin civilians, the mass of fur was quite nearly a mountain.

Like with the hivemother, she gave instructions to have the beast’s body harvested. The pelt would look quite nice adorning her new home’s wall. Perhaps that was a waste from a practical perspective—it might make good armor—but at the same time, she was allowed to be slightly impractical. Homes needed to be decorated. And if nothing else, the pelt would add value to her hoard.

The teeth, claws, and possibly more would make good weapons. In fact, she was worried the relatively low-level craftsman of Skatikk wouldn’t be able to put it to good use. She instructed them simply to harvest and prepare the raw materials; she would decide if she wanted Skatikk to make actual magical equipment with them later. She might instead take it all to Wastehaven.

Following that event, she went through the tedious task of scooping up her hoard and relocating it to her new mountain cave retreat. That included Ignisfang who, fortunately, wasn’t put off by the cold. A level sixteen draconic creature himself, he was durable enough to withstand the harsh temperature. The cave was surprisingly warm, too. At least, relatively. Still cold by objective standards, but not as freezing as the exterior of the mountain.

She doubted Aylin would want to live up in the cave until it was made more hospitable. She needed to start working on the creation of a proper lair. She might give Granite instructions to clean the space up at some point, but also didn’t want to waste his time; he needed to be leveling. She did eventually want an elegant lair, though, not a simple pile of treasure surrounded by animal bones. She would think more on the problem.

Until the mountain cavern was made more hospitable, though, it was best Aylin stayed in Skatikk. She’d been sleeping at Lake Plateglass along with the rest of Sable’s minions, but perhaps that was no proper way for someone to live—regardless that Aylin had seemed ecstatic at her recent change in circumstances. The goblin girl was certainly more than willing to live ruggedly if it meant a chance at a glorious future, but for practical reasons, Sable would leave her and Granite in Skatikk for the short term.

With those necessary errands taken care of, it was time Sable got started on her plans to invade—er, interact with—the humans. Her highest priority as it stood was improving her skill with the Enchantment keyrune—namely, spells that could conceal her presence from diviners. Perhaps she would look around Wastehaven for artifacts that did similar, since Roman had mentioned those existed, and might be better than a level ten’s attempts to conceal herself, dragon or not. Or even enlist a powerful enchantment mage to cast the spells themself. There were several paths she could take. All of them required her to go to Wastehaven, though.

Before leaving Skatikk she handled another task she’d been putting off—requesting grooming supplies. Her human form was quickly becoming messy looking, and while Sable figured adventurers were given quite a lot of lee-way in that regard, she still ought to clean herself and tame her hair. Several hours spent down in a dungeon had especially taken its toll.

Finally, with her adventuring supplies packed, and no other pressing matters to handle, Sable set off southward, headed for human lands.

She didn’t have a specific town in mind, but rather, some small but not tiny piece of civilization that she could explore without worrying overmuch about her situation. Adventurers wandering through towns was a completely mundane event—if intriguing to the locals—and Sable’s arrival would draw attention but ultimately not linger in anyone’s minds. So Roman had said, at least.

The patch of the continent that made up goblin territory was isolated in four ways: to the east, the Endless Peaks, to the west, the ocean, to the north, a desert cutting them off from orcish lands, and to the south, a perilous—by geography rather than monsters—swamp biome. With Sable’s ever-growing speed utilizing [Soar], it took only half an hour of full-speed flight before she arrived to the swamp.

From as high in the air she was, she couldn’t make out much. As a simple matter of precaution, she traveled as high into the sky as was comfortable, so that should someone look upward, Sable wouldn’t even be a speck. The air was thin and chilly at that altitude, though it was the lack of oxygen that bothered her more. The distance also made picking out details to the environment far, far beneath her difficult, especially since much of the sky was clouded. But she cared more about staying safe than sightseeing.

Soon, the swamp loosened its grip on the land, and sprawling plains revealed themselves. Human lands. The wilderness, with no roads or towns in sight, but still human-claimed territory. Sable found herself oddly anticipatory for the upcoming day. Wandering into a random town for maps and other basic supplies ought not to be some major event, but she couldn’t help but feel like it was.

When she caught first sight of a winding road working through the plains, Sable studied her surroundings with careful scrutiny, then, a good distance away from the road and any other possible civilization—and thus people who could see her—she transformed. Her bulky dragon body disappeared, replaced by her human one.

Naturally, no longer wearing wings, she plummeted. From miles up.

Sable had never gone sky diving. Accustomed to being high in the sky, though, the experience didn’t frighten her; she plummeted, unruffled, and if anything, a bit annoyed at her wildly flapping hair. The white tresses went down to her hips normally, which was a truly unwieldy length; Sable had always kept hers a bit below shoulder length.

A white speck, she hurtled toward the earth.

She hadn’t wanted to risk diving down in dragon form and being spotted. She’d carefully searched her surroundings, but even so, why risk it? This was the safer method for descent.

Plus, while not quite as exhilarating as it might have been before she started spending much of her time in the air, dropping thousands of feet at terminal velocity was still pretty fun. Wildly flapping hair or not.

Idly, she checked her left pointer finger, where her [Ring of Feather Fall] sat. She wondered whether her human body was tough enough to survive an impact at terminal velocity. The ring might not even be necessary. In freak incidents, even regular humans did, so she halfway figured she would have no problem—though it might be a bit jarring or daze her slightly to hit the ground so hard. And, on second consideration, those freak incidents regular humans survived through usually included snow or trees or similar to break the fall.

But being dozens of times stronger had to count for more than that, right? She wasn’t sure about the physics behind it all. And for all she knew, this world worked on special fall damage. So, in short, it wasn’t something she wanted to just test. Hence the ring.

The grassy plains rushed to meet her, and at about a thousand feet up, she triggered the [Feather Fall] effect.

The slowdown didn’t happen all at once, which was why Sable had given herself ample time.

Terminal velocity was a bit over a hundred miles per hour, so a ninety percent reduction put her in a comfortable landing range, especially as durable as she was. Eleven or twelve miles per hour straight into the ground was still a decent pace, though, but not worrying in the slightest. She adjusted her falling position—she’d been spread out, stomach down, to reduce speed—and pointed her feet down. Crouching as she impacted the ground, her empowered body handled the force easily. A nice, comfortable landing, all things considered. [Feather Fall] had been as gentle as she’d hoped. There were definite reasons to collect a smattering of dungeon loot, even if the stats weren’t all that great. The utility effects could be useful in all sorts of scenarios.

Sable looked around. Grassy plains splayed out in all directions. The road was to the south, and from there, she would follow it to a town she had spotted on the horizon.

Stretching, then, with a frown, running her hands through her recently ruined hair to organize it, Sable set off southward, wondering with some amusement what that would have looked like had anyone been watching. Probably quite odd. It wasn’t everyday people fell from the sky.

Or, well, she assumed. Who knew what it was like in human lands?