“My crown…” Vainqueur mourned, as he rested on the ship’s deck. “My imperial crown…”

“I know, Your Majesty,” Manling Victor reassured him, while his undead dwarf lackeys oversaw the pirates. After salvaging whatever they could from the shipwreck and raising their dead minions with the power of Victor's cup, the adventurers had spent hours in that Devil’s Triangle, with no shore in sight. “We will get you another!”

“You better, minion!” Vainqueur had taken the captain’s hat as a replacement—after the birdkin pirate kindly ‘gave’ it to him—but it wasn’t the same! Neither did his accommodations befit his station!

After the pirates offered Vainqueur the ship out of the goodness of their hearts, the dragon had climbed on its deck and managed to fit between two masts. It was incredibly uncomfortable, but the dragon considered himself too good to fly when minions could transport him instead.

He still mourned the destruction of his Piggybank with all his heart though.

So he had renamed the ship the Piggybank II.

“Troll Barnabas will have to remake another crown from scratch, even shinier!”

“I will try to contact him again, as soon as we leave the triangle,” Friend Victor said, turning to the two pirates who tried to rob him. “How far are we from civilization?”

“I dunno, traveling in the Triangle is weird,” the birdkin grumbled. “The currents, magnetic forces, and even the skies change at random!”

“We rarely venture there, and only after storms wreck ships there,” the orc added.

“And it would be way faster if our ship didn’t have weight in excess,” the birdkin said, glancing at the dragon. The Emperor wondered if he was supposed to understand something, before brushing it off.

“That is not an answer,” Vainqueur replied, his bitterness making him sound raspier.

“Give us a few days, until we find the way out again,” the birdkin said hurriedly. “Then we can reach the pirate city of Port Damné and resupply there.”

“And then you’ll let us go?” the orc asked, pleading.

“Of course not,” Vainqueur replied. “Minionship is for life, and death.”

“I used to think Averagism was the only form of equality,” a revived dwarf muttered. “I stand corrected. Undead Averagism, where all are equal in death, is the purest equality of all.”

“How about we make everyone undead?” another dwarf added. Like his fellows, except a paler skin, he looked as he did in life.

“Patience, my equal fellow. Patience. All comes to Death.”

Obviously, the exchange made the living work harder to reach civilization.

“I tell you, Friend Victor, Wotan will pay tenfold for this humiliation.” Vainqueur hadn’t felt so vengeful since Batling Lavere.

“Actually, who was that guy?” Friend Victor asked. “We were lucky to survive one round, but I’m pretty sure he will come back for another.”

“He is a fomor who styles himself as ‘King’ Wotan.” Vainqueur loathed the title since he had copied it from the dragons. “When they were younger, when fairies and dragons fought one another, my fellow Grandrake taught him his place and took his eye.”

“I assume they didn’t see eye to eye afterward,” Manling Victor joked.

“Ever since he has hunted my kindred so he could practice his vengeance against his target,” Vainqueur said. Once he had disdained the fomor’s victims as handicapped dragons but now knew better. “By using fake princesses called Valkyries, he lured many of my kindred to their death. We nicknamed him Dragonbane, but he retired to his northern domain after the fairies sued for peace…"

"Until Your Majesty declared war on them again," Victor finished, "I’m surprised he didn’t break his agreement like Melodieuse.”

“Wotan is many things, but tricky and treacherous he is not. When he gives his word, he abides by it, and he only believes in strength.” Vainqueur remembered the battle, and the pain he felt from the fomor’s lightning. “Stronger he has grown, if he can wound my pristine scales.”

But his previous tactic only worked because of the surprise. The dragon would take him down next time they crossed paths.

“About that, there’s something that bothers me,” Friend Victor said. “He used [Charged Attack] right before using his devastating lightning attack.”

“Like me with my breath,” Vainqueur nodded.

“Yes, like you.”

Intelligence check successful.