#ch: Blausiferious

[roll-for-world-building]

Blue dragons tend to be somewhat more gregarious and curious than other chromatic dragons; while they prefer to make their lairs deep into desolate, arid climates, they will often venture away from them to investigate travelers or towns near their territory. These interactions are not always positive for those being observed, sometimes from cruelty but more often from simple carelessness on the dragon’s part. But this is certainly not always the case, and sometimes blue dragons cross paths with travelers with much happier results.

Blausiferious is a young blue dragon who has established her domain in the Sunscar Desert near where the West-wind trade route runs through it. She enjoys pranking passing travelers by flying low above them, or burrowing into the sand nearby and then suddenly emerging. As frightening as these encounters can be to the unwary, Blausiferious has no interest in eating people and much prefers conversing with them; the only threat she poses to the average caravan is the delay caused by a large dragon obliviously laying in their path eager to have a nice chat. She is particularly fond of jokes and riddles, and will sometimes stop travelers simply to ask if they know any good ones she hasn’t heard. To the mind of most travelers, however, these inconveniences are more than balanced out by Blausiferious’s willingness to escort them through the hazards of the desert in exchange for a small fee. She is not picky about the nature of this fee, either, and will happily accept food as well as interesting trinkets or cool rocks for her hoard; in truth, she enjoys having the company of the travelers as much as the gifts, and will often rest at their campsites when they stop to chatter with them. Those who take the West-wind regularly have taken to packing a token for Blausiferious as a necessary part of their supplies, considering it a small price to pay for the guidance and protection of a dragon during the most dangerous part of their journey. The discovery that Blausiferious is especially partial to sweets has led to the invention of dragoncakes, huge pastries stuffed with nuts, dried fruit and honey, which bakeries in cities along the West-wind make to sell to travelers who need a tribute.

Traders taking the canyon roads between the scattered port towns on the Saltbreak coast and the dwarven cities in the Ashthyngar badlands may find themselves approached by what appears to be a middle-aged human merchant with a stout frame and an impressive salt-and-pepper mustache, traveling alone. This is in fact the preferred disguise of Thasviquellvar, a blue dragon who dens deep in the canyon wilds. Thasviquellvar is a gourmand with a keen interest in all kinds of food, and especially loves sampling new recipes. If he spots any travelers that he suspects to be transporting some interesting food or spice, he will wait for them to stop and then introduce himself as a lone, friendly merchant willing to pay handsomely for a good meal. Thasviquellvar loves to talk about food, and loves finding someone willing to talk about it with equal passion as much as he loves finding a new dish. He will always pay well for a meal, but those that impress him with especially good cooking or fine hospitality will be rewarded generously indeed.

Occasionally Thasviquellvar will travel to one of the port towns to visit the markets, where he will use his merchant disguise to purchase large quantities of ingredients to take back to his lair and cook himself. Having spent years perfecting his act—developed after discovering that his initial approach of simply waiting in the middle of the road in his true form only resulted in everyone screaming and running back down the canyon—he has gotten quite good at it, and most people who only meet him once never suspect him to be anything more than a wealthy and somewhat eccentric merchant. Over time, though, travelers who take the canyon roads often and have seen a blue dragon flying over the canyons have put two and two together. It is generally agreed, however, that bringing it up to Thasviquellvar himself would be both rude and foolish—annoying a dragon is always a bad idea, but people are especially disinclined to annoy a dragon who’s just complimented their grandmother’s soup recipe.