The Flame Dragon Labes

Labes

This flame dragon lives on the Mount. Very little is known about it as few who have encountered it have lived. When I heard of one adventurer who had survived her wrath, I knew I had to record his story. Putting my current research on a forest dragon aside, I headed for Berif to hear his story. It was a wizard named Enir who began his story as follows:

“It was two of my friends and I who had been traveling to Lambrod to trade some of our magical artifacts at their annual Wizaar. We had made excellent deals, exchanging what weapons we had looted from a wizard’s tomb for some wands and staffs. Satisfied with our trade, we made our way back home.
“You must note that we traveled around the Mount on our way to Lambrod, but with our new arcani, we thought we might be able to save a days worth of time by climbing it.
“We began our ascent of the Mount without the knowledge that only one of us would make it down alive. Three miles up the mountain, we began to experience a heat not natural for heights such at which we were.
“A roar erupted from ahead of us, drowning out our loudest of thoughts and sending a cold wave of fear washing over us. We had forgotten all about Labes living up here, and, in our complacency, forgotten to raise magical shields.
“The first flume of lava barely missed us as it sailed over our heads. A great mass of red scales, claws, and wings appeared in front of us, approaching rapidly. She said with her terrible voice, ‘All those who cross my mountain must pay homage, or be destroyed!’
“We knew no fear, had looked death in the eyes several times, and wasn’t about to let one dragon take our artifacts. We were foolishly going to take on the most powerful dragon in the world. ‘We will not submit to you, dragon! You die now!’ Gusimy, my female companion yelled in her face.
“With another defiant yell, she launched several shards of ice up into the dragon’s maw. Unfortunately for her, they all melted before they reached Labes. Smiling wickedly, the dragon let a stream of lava flow from her mouth and onto Gusimy. My poor friend was unprepared for such an attack and was melted on the spot.
“Gonalon and I were so enraged at the dragon that we rushed it, throwing our staffs at her so they struck her eyes and simultaneously cast spells, mine which threw rocks and other pieces of earth into her mouth and his bringing lightning down out of the sky upon her.
“A roar of pain filled our ears as both our staffs and magic hit home. However, they only served to annoy the dragon further. As with Gusimy, lava spewed out of her mouth but this time in a torrent.
“Thankfully, it mostly missed me, and what little did hit me was defected by my shield. Sadly for Gonalon, he was hit with the brunt of the attack, and his shields weren’t able to protect him from that much force.
“Labes turned her massive head toward me, taking me in with her head-sized eyes and said, ‘I offer you a compromise, wizard: You may take your leave of my mountain, in one piece, if you give me everything you currently have on your person.’
“So, I decided my life was more important than my arcani, and I took everything off my body and waited for the dragon to leave. ‘Don’t ever cross my mountain again, mage, for I will not be so generous next time. Oh, and don’t bother with gathering a revenge group to come back and kill me. They wouldn’t even make it up the mountain.’
“She flew off, my belongings trailing her in the air. I waited until it was off the Mount to summon any clothes to my body, just in case she attacked me for not giving her everything I had.
“People in Berif gave me strange looks, as all I was wearing was common clothes instead of my normal wizardly robes. When I reached my tower, here, I immediately put up tons of magical shields, in case Labes decided to pay me a visit.
“I slept none that night, awaiting an attack. Obviously, it never came and I was able to breathe a little easier. I let no one enter my dwelling without casting several mind-reading spells on him or her and then making them swear they wouldn’t harm me, and if they did, they would die. To this day, she hasn’t attempted such an attack.”

Labes divides her time between terrorizing small caravans of merchants passing nearby and stagnating and thinking of new strategies for the aforementioned in her mountaintop cave.
It turns out that Labes later paid a visit to Enir, and was very nearly destroyed in doing so. He had installed so many Dragonkill spells in his house that almost as soon as she walked into his tower, she was attacked.
Enir, though, had no idea that Labes managed to breach his tower without his knowing it and continued to live his life as if he had never encountered the beast.