[Computer, Audio Only]

[proudbraveandtall]

For anyone in Vegas, if you find an opening into that mountain, don't go in it.

[There's a clink of ice against glass, a muttered curse in a language that's not English, liquid pouring.]

There could be a dragon inside.

Comments

[espigeonage]

I know! Ugh. We've got a lot of people with weird powers... I don't know how many of them saw Wise Snake. The fire thing - this is a fire-breathing dragon, right?

[proudbraveandtall]

Fire breathing and incredibly hard to kill. It pretty much pounded the army Erebor had.

[espigeonage]

Par for the fucking course. [perversely, he's enjoying himself just a touch. Julien kind of likes to make plans.] Are we going to have to find a way in to see if it's there? Maybe just like... passive sensors to pick up if there's something big breathing.

[proudbraveandtall]

[...You know, that's actually not a bad thought. Hjalti even puts down his drink as that starts processing.]

Maybe some sort of echolocation tech? Or maybe something that can read heat signatures, if there's something sensitive enough to get through all that rock. Dwarves went for straight, long lines and sharp corners so anything that doesn't fit that profile in shape would be an outlier.

[espigeonage]

I was thinking earthquake monitors, but that sounds better. [he wants to mutter something about how Aaron would have been great for this but no he had to go off-network, but Julien refrains.] I've known a couple geologists, I can send some emails.

Presumably if there are caves or whatever in there, they're not airtight. If there was a crevice we could lower a gas-analyzing probe in, I don't know what they're actually called, it should be able to pick up on breath.

[proudbraveandtall]

All of the above, if we can get it. We've got some influential people on our side, and with the mountain just showing up out of the ground you can bet the geologists and other science types'll be showing up quickly.

-Or wait, we've got people with real magic on the network, maybe one of them can do some sort of scrying.

[espigeonage]

Right. We'll see, I guess.

I haven't heard about... scrying. But that'd be useful all right. Danny might be useful.

[proudbraveandtall]

Danny? That loud, mouthy kid?

[He's not the best at keeping tabs on the other Numbered, but that one's incredibly hard to miss.]

[espigeonage]

There's a lot of those...

He's loud and really excitable, but more innocent than some of them.

[proudbraveandtall]

[You're right about that, Julien.]

I haven't been keeping up - why would we send a child in there to see if there's still a dragon in the mountain?

[espigeonage]

He can go intangible and invisible - and he thinks of himself as a "superhero" [yeah Julien's a little bemused by that] not a civilian. He's used to putting himself in danger.

[proudbraveandtall]

...Huh.

[There's kind of a war going on right now about that, for him. On one hand, he's always tried to protect and look after children, because children. Losing Killian had that effect on him. But invisible, and more importantly intangible - well, he probably couldn't get hurt then, could he?]

"Used to" doesn't mean he's smart about it. How good's his track record at walking away without any damage?

[espigeonage]

-You know, I'm not sure. We were tighter when he was new, but the superhero teens stuff is kinda out of my depth. You could ask him?

[proudbraveandtall]

Probably best. If he's good at it, he could walk in and it wouldn't matter even if he did get noticed.

[espigeonage]

He might... wake it up or provoke it by being noticed, but honestly if there's a giant dragon in there I don't imagine it'd be dormant forever anyway, what with the city. Aaah, boy.