Lester

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Character Stats

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Lester ist Pseudonym (und menschliche Gestalt) des Drachen Embertongue. Und hier ist seine Geschichte...

## Embertongue

> Childe of Phlegethon, Far Scholar, Mankind's Friend, Keeper of Secrets, Guardian of the Ruby of fiery Remeberence and Master of the Vale of Scalding Stone
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Before the time when the snow smothered the land the great dragons of old roamed the world. When I was hatched in the clutch of one of the five ancient mothers of dragonkind, oldest of the salamanders, eternal Phlegethon, my kind howbeit small in numbers ruled supreme.

Over the next century I was raised to be a scholar - a keeper of the lore and secrets of dragonkind. Preserving knowledge was my duty and in time it became my obsession. My appetite was not sated by the learnings of dragonkind. There was so much more to know! The younger races although supposedly inferior started to tackle problems and obstacles from completely different angles. And in disguise I lived in their midst teaching and - to an astounding degree - learning.

I learned to appreciate the young - but others of my kind were not pleased that much by my liking of them. Especially my fondness of humans my brothers and sisters ridiculed. After only a few decades they called me "Mankind's Friend" - not exactly an honorable title among the Children of the Five. Nonetheless I let my curiosity for their ingenuity carry on. And the developments I was able to observe in a mere half of a millennium were - to put it mildly - marvelous. Dragons were around for literally eons depending on traditions of old oppressing every ever so faintest glimpse of progress. But they evolved so fast both society-wise and scientifically that they almost rivaled the dragons' reign.

After a few more centuries, nearing my 30th score of years, I was ready to relocate to my first own hoard. I moved into an underground complex of caverns beneath the volcanic landscape called the Vale of Scalding Stone by the humans dwelling in the lush grasslands nearby. Over the following years my hoard had swollen into a vast stash of knowledge and wisdom gathered from all over the land out of prehistoric times even measured by dragon standards to most modern and progressive designs brought forth by human innovation. As caretakers I had brought with me the clan of most loyal and fanatically devoted Kobolds, the Smoldering Tails, to settle in the tunnels above my private chambers. I also founded a network of faithful agents to keep my claws at the pulse of human society. Although laughing at me throughout my youth dragons came to get counseled on human affairs by me now. But as in every classical play nearing the climax of my influence disaster struck.

In essence there is one flaw inherent and prevalent in being human. Greed. And in the end they envy each other to the point of self-destructiveness. The humans settled in the vicinity of my dwelling had developed into a great nation state warring with another super power over some ideological dispute and after a lengthy period of cold war their relationship was eroded into full-out war. As they were unable to defeat each other and collect the spoils of war in the end they longed for each other's peremptory destruction. Some of my agents had told me about some kind of technomagical bomb called a tectonic bomb some years prior - much to devastating to use - only expedient as a weapon of deterrent. But in their all-consuming fury they dropped a multitude of them on one another.

I cannot determine who started the planned mutual destruction - but the third barrage against the sprawling city situated south of the Vale where once the lavish grassland sprouted hit the Vale itself. Lava erupted beneath my hoard sealing of the main portions of my vault and my private study. As I ascended to the Smoldering Tails' abodes to ward them against the molten stone and the avalanche of ash and debris I was caught in another stream of hottest magma. In seconds I was swept down to the caverns far below my havocked home. Unable to move I was able to gather enough focus to put myself into a deep form of dragon's torpor. My senses dulled more and more as my body became numb. As the stone around me cooled to become my tomb my mind slipped away into deepest slumber.

After unending nights in the bowels of the earth the underground volcano erupted again - and I was rudely awakened from my disquiet dreams. From my dark prison I was thrown into icy wastes seemingly occupying my ever steaming Vale. Where once the gaping main entrance to my lair had been located now an immense caldera dominated the cold, snowy landscape. And in the gloomy freezing nothingness a monstrosity of steel and stone spawned smoke and fire. The Last source of heat in miles on end. Everything I knew gone anger started to boil in my mind.

In an almost mindless fit of rage I wrought havoc to the small alien structures in the crater. Death and destruction reigned for endless minutes as I destroyed buildings, pipes and machinery and killed dozens until I finally came back to my senses. I was "Mankind's Friend" after all...

After I found an old side entrance still passable to my old lair I descended down to my private chambers. The magma had sheltered the caverns from the outer world and  it was only small effort to re-excavate  my home. It had to be quite some time I had spent in hibernation - but a luminescent crystal in my private study gave me assurance. It had grown from a small half foot long gem to a massive shard of mineral the size of a grown man. 500 years I estimated.

The Clan of the Smoldering Tail still lived in the tunnels I had given to them but their numbers had grown significantly and within around 50 generations they remembered only in legends and myth about me and their purpose. Also a large band of Goblins had mingled into Kobold society what didn't help either. So for the next few years I started to bring them into the fold again. Also I tried to reestablish a network of human agents which turned out to be an endeavor a lot harder then 600 years prior. The humans had forgotten about most of the past. Elves, dwarves, orks were largely seen as fairy tales. As were dragons. And indeed I haven't met any Child of the Five for the last two and a half centuries.

The humans of the bleak settlement placed in the frozen remains of my beloved Vale, Paremu, recovered from the accident. As told more then once already I always was an admirer of humankind but by now they had shown to be capable of coping with events that had obviously wiped out most of their competitors. In the end I had ruled to support them whenever possible and without revealing myself to them. I owed them because of my negligence - and they deserved due to their past accomplishments...