Thar Be Dragons!

**"Thar Be Dragons"** or **"Return of the Lichemaster: Intermission Part 2"** is Chapter 12 of *The Vagabond Chronicles* series. After the devastating death of fan favorite Vandor at the hands of a big red fuck-off dragon, our heroes are facing off against evil doppelgangers of themselves.

## Summary

We begin with Teddy, who has been hiding in the trees overlooking the battlefield, dropping down and moonwalking stealthily to his equipment which was being kept in a box. Ziggy is facing off against his doppelganger, but chooses to turn his back on it and charge the dragon instead. Rattigan calls out to try and stop him to no avail. Ziggy hits the dragon, but his hit doesn't do much damage and no one witnesses him hit it. The dragon rears back a bit and shows it's claws, which have a buzzing energy between them. It drops back down to the ground and roars at Ziggy, engulfing him in a fireball. Rattigan is hanging upside down having fallen from the air after casting *Flight of Amar*, his bathrobe is covering his head and his evil doppelganger is charging him. The doppelganger misses at the last second after Rattigan pushes himself away and launches himself across to another tree. Bondo is going up against Ziggy's doppelganger, he swings at him, but isn't able to land a hit. Ziggy, who has been blown back from the dragon's fireball lands in a heaping pile, he is smoking, but whole.

Teddy takes a shot at Ziggy's doppelganger, which staggers him and allows Bondo to land a hit. The doppleganger reals and it's Ziggy skin peels away revealing a skinless looking human with glowing yellow eyes, sharp teeth, and claws. Rattigan, who is still hanging uselessly in the tree is joined by his ferrets Noodle and Mr. Spidge. Mr. Spidge draws Rattigan's attention to Ziggy who is still lying on the ground after being blown back by the dragon. Rattigan aims Mr. Spidge at Ziggy, like a ferret cannon and says, "do what you gotta do, girl!" and gives his tail a gentle tweak. A strange sonar beam emerges from the ferret toward Ziggy, but doesn't quite reach him. Rattigan pushes off and floats closer to Ziggy's location. Bondo takes a huge swing at what was ZIggy's doppelganger, it doesn't do much damage, but continues to push the creature back. The dragon shoots butterflies out of it's nostrils at Rattigan and they begin to spin around him and land on his nose. Rattigan grabs Mr. Spidge and rubs him against his nose. The ferret squashes one butterfly and eats the other, Rattigan also thinks one of them flipped him off before dying.

Teddy takes a shot at Rattigan's doppelganger, who is hopping around trying to get at the still floating Rattigan, but his shot goes wide and misses. Ziggy, who has somewhat recovered from his dragon encounter gets up, but is still a bit out of it and confuses Rattigan and his doppelganger. He begins swatting at Rattigan who is floating above him, mistaking him for his evil doppelganger. Rattigan attempts again to use his ferret to zap Ziggy and is able to heal him a bit. Bondo strikes a hit with his axe against Ziggy's doppelganger shoving him into the pot where poor Vandor was being cooked. From the pot a half melted arm and head emerges and Vandor can be heard begging for help. Bondo kicks over the pot, but upon further inspection it was just the doppelganger pretending to be Vandor, Vandor is really and truly dead, as is the doppelganger.

Teddy notices that there are now two Ziggy's once again, but is able to distinguish between them, because the real Ziggy looks like he's been barbequed by a dragon. He takes a shot at the doppelganger and makes a hit. Ziggy backhands his doppelganger screaming, "there can be only one!", the doppelganger takes the hit without flinching and parrots the phrase back at him before attacking him that Ziggy is able to parry. Rattigan shoots himself into another tree and topples through it landing upside down and zaps Ziggy's doppelganger with a petty lightening bolt, which causes him to jolt a bit and his face half morphs into Rattigan's. The dragon has reverted back to being Merry and is starting to look a bit nervous, he panics and runs off. Bondo turns to Ziggy/Rattigan's doppelganger and kills him with a mighty blow from his axe. Ziggy takes off after Merry through the forest.

Teddy has begun rummaging around and comes across Vandor's backpack and claims it for himself. Rattigan and Bondo reclaim their belongings from the battlefield. Rattigan follows ZIggy to chase after Merry. Teddy and Bondo are riffling through a hut in the clearing. Teddy comes across three test tubes with various colored liquids in them. Bondo stumbles across a bed with a sailor outfit and hat and on the floor is a beautiful gnome sized utility belt, he takes them all.

Ziggy arrives at a clearing and finds Merry, who is wresting with a pouch trying to get something out. Rattigan arrives soon after, but isn't seen. Ziggy charges in with his sword while Merry attempts to fire a blow dart at Ziggy's neck. Rattigan fires butter fingers at Merry and he drops the dart, Ziggy barrels into Merry knocking him to the ground and puts his sword to his throat. Ziggy knocks Merry out and they bring him back to the clearing where Bondo and Teddy are waiting. They've bound his arms behind his back and put him in the pot and begun to interrogate him. Merry suddenly crunches something hidden in his mouth and kills himself. Ziggy examines Merry's body and finds a tattoo of a purple hand behind his ear.

## Quotes

* **Neil:** "... So these little butterflies like land on your nose and start like doing tap dances and trying to be chummy, but you're not buying it. You know that this have come out of the nostrils of a dragon, and it's not to be trusted."
**Tom: "**I know that they're dragon booger butterflies."
**Neil:** "They are! They're dragon booger butterflies."
**Tom:** "Dragon Booger Butterflies."
**Neil:** "That's right! Which is also now my new tongue twister for the next time I have to do voice over..." -*discussing dragon booger butterflies*

## Trivia

* This episode was titled Thar Be Dragons! in the Twitter post announcing it, but was changed to Return of the Lichemaster: Intermission Part 2 when it actually aired. There was a poll on Discord where it was decided Thar Be Dragons! was cooler so it's been added as part of the title because yay democracy.
* Rattigan had to use a fate point during his fight with his doppelganger to avoid an untimely death this episode.