And Now for Something Completely Different . . . . well . . . . maybe not for some...

Okay, now what happens next could well be overly complex for some folks. Hey, they could well be overly complex for me (and I'm chronicling this stuff)! Therefore let us just skip some of the more complex (and incidental) aspects of just HOW some of it comes about and just get down to the basics of the situation....

Well...

Maybe not quiet that...

Alright, here is something....anyway...

Note: Part of the next comes from episode 21309 by JH.

He has had many names in the past and probably would have many names in the future if things had been different. You might have heard of the chap from a horror author named Stephen King: Randal Flagg? Oh, he's really BIG in The Stand and as well as many others from King.Well, this particular version of hm gained something (memories) that we'd rather he had NOT and for a long while it looked like everything would go to Hell! Maybe almost literally. Not to go into overly complex details, this Flagg fellow fell into a plot with some ladies known as the Norns who waned to gain vast power over all of the Multi-verse....basically taking over the roles that those within the Dark Tower (the center of all creation and it's lynchpin) served. Flagg would have, if the plan had succeeded, been probably very high if NOT the top dog in the new order of things...in as far as evil goes....

In the end he and the others of that faction failed and were destroyed. However, because of the fact that time travel is possible and available to Flagg and his cronies (like the Brazen Man and that one evil Scott Chen with Author Powers) to travel back and forth through time means that while they all came to an end....it doesn't mean that they have finished making trouble!

Point in fact in one particular time stream (thread...parallel universe.....whatever) that Scott fellow was able to stumble across one interesting batch of germ warfare weaponry that had been brewed up not by the Americans of the reality that mimicked The Stand. No, it was brewed up by those wily Russians! Some would say it was even worse than Captain Trips (that super, "incurable" flu that had been released there).... Ah, never mind. The whole of the espionage/black project situation before everything collapsed on that particular Earth could only be summed up in on word: insane!

Well, that germ warfare weapon had been released on one Andrea's world and the results were....amusing for some. Might even be amusing to outside observers, until they realize that the plague carriers (95% of all humanity, eventually) would suffer from increasing bouts of delusions, manias....psychosises as the viral agent ate into the victim's brains...eventually either leaving them dead, vegetables, or dangerous and animalistic creatures without a trace of humanity (or intelligence).

One such victim, of course, was named Andrea. She came to believe she must get some kind of Dishcloth of Righteousness or some such...

Silly stuff made all the sillier by Scott, who'd basically fed this delusion by creating situations and scenery to reflect Andrea's delusional beliefs.

However, it soon got a bit dull for Scott and so he decided on doing something a bit more . . . . mean.

It involved some magical water. One dip and a metamorphosis began and Andrea began to grow silvery scales. Soon her metamorphosis was complete. Andrea was now a: Silver dragoness.

Now, this did two things to Andrea. One which you might say was good and one which wasn't so good. She had been in the early stages of infection so no permanent damage to her brain had happened yet and thus with her transformation was no longer affected by the virus. The thing had been created for humans in mind, not fantastic creatures! She still had it running throughout her body (making her a carrier), but it wasn't an issue for her....

Would be for any humans she might meet who still weren't infected...but not her.

The other thing was that she was a "Terra Prime" variant of dragon who's condition was multiplied when Scott decided to...er....advance her stage in maturity from the present (prepubescent) form into a mature (wyrm) form.

Problem.

She was now a dragon with no Hoard. With no Hoard.

Dragons of her species need treasure like....perhaps....a person need food to survive. So what we have now is a female dragon who's very...hungry...in such a way she's never been before. Something more akin to perhaps a drug addict needing a "hit".....but a thousand times worse.

At least this "addiction" has the benefit of the substance in question being able to last a LONG time. Oh, eventually a dragon needs more and more treasure for their Hoard since their life forces (and powers) are linked to it (the magic that is a vital part of their metabolism comes through their Hoard, btw).....but that's about the only good thing about it.

Worse, if she doesn't get it....she'll die very painfully. And she doesn't even have the beginning of a Hoard....making her desperate indeed. She can feel her life and vitality (as well as maybe untapped magical powers) slipping away as we speak....

As an addict who's desperate, she might not be able to....er...control herself in the way she goes about getting her "hit".

The world then whirls and twirls about her and the disoriented dragoness finds herself in front of a quaint building with writing on it that she can't read at ALL. If she could she'd read "The Bank of the Republic of Nantucket".

Scott's master had told him about this one place and it struck him as a nice place to spread more despair and destruction. . . . just to add to what Flagg has done already. Problem is, he's a bit off because it's a few years after those events.

Scott, being like the Scott we've seen as the incompetent Scott as seen back in Addventure Game 3, has bungled it....yet again....

Hard to get good help nowadays, some would say....

That said, she's now there....

However, all she knows right now is her NEED. It's inside this building....but their is a rival nearby. Enraged, she hisses and takes is about to take to wing when....

Meanwhille, in another reality Flagg watches from the shadows...and smiles something you would not like to be around....

He's watching yet another Fred. Another annoying Fred and Astra analog!

Seems like there's a plague of them....

At least he had some fun back in Nantucket, spreading war and distrust amongst the population, he thinks.

Didn't really happen that way, but that's what his memories tell him (re:15660 ).

Note: Part of the next comes from episode 22317 by Anableps.

Anyway, he sees Fred looking over at the now draconized Astra. He looks grim . . . . . He also pities the princess, as she is trapped in a horrible, although powerful form. Sadly, Fred had more experience in fighting than in reversing enchantments. Then Fred has an idea. Fred examines the book, and notices a feather marking a place.

It is the feather of a crow or such......

That's about all that registers before a arcane phrase from the shadows echoes throughout the chamber....and the world seems to explode. Rather, it shall turn out, it is the feather that explodes into flame, catching the unfortunate knight full in the face. It burns him horribly as well as pretty much destroying that book.

Checkers, Fred's companion, rushes over to see what can be done for Fred. She thinks that their might be some ointment or such in Belboz's lair. A sharp popping sound behind her causes her to turn briefly, worried that yet another disaster looms.... Perhaps something form the dragon?

With everything else, despite her reasoning that the dragoness really is a princess Astra, it wouldn't surprise her too much for trouble from that quarter.

However, the dragoness is now gone.

Flagg, remembering that special relationship that several Astras share with those named Andrea...almost like a sisterly relationship....

Without checking his servant's work (and seeing the mistake), he sent her (with a few.....adjustments....to the same place).

"What fun," he chuckles, disappearing.

The dragoness Astra appears a few blocks away and awakens to a need just like Andreas...and is reacting to Andrea's presence just like she is with her...

Just as planned. Potential sisters in all but blood turned enemies....it looks like will happen her

That's when something happens to...interrupt the incipient mayhem....

A bit of something the dragons call "When Eye meets Eye."

"Ever wish sometimes you weren't a dragon," one dragon mage sighs to the other, brother to brother.

It was getting....kind of lonely..... Oh, they had family, but..... Indeed, the rest of the demifox brothers had secretly revealed to them their plans on traveling back to Nantucket to propose to those other female demifoxes there: Exotica and Sovay.

Their other dragon brother had fallen in with the beautiful Malachi from that other Terra where that blood curse had been.

Strange business, that curse. Made the dragons glad things had gone better on their worlds...

However, that was besides the point right now. Talks with those other dragons had....pretty much lead nowhere. Cool, polite....but nothing more, alas.

"Pardon," a melodious voice calls out, interrupting whatever the other Synizn was to say.

They know her, but....not....

See, there is this one silver tressed elfin lass named Ti'mma who'd interrupted some dragon mages talking about how their brothers seemed to have all the luck with . . . life companions. . . .

1. However, the Ti'mma they know is still too young to be a Champion whilst this one is.

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