[] Capture Sulqueum. She has given you a ferocious battle and thus proved herself a worthy foe. Defeat her then let her survive in return for a tribute of wealth, a portion of her undoubtedly massive hoard. If she does not pay up? Destroy her cities and let her be known as a dragon not worth letting live. This would also demonstrate to other dragons that you are not seeking dragonicide and so can be dealt with reasonably. (Gain 40ish Wealth with 4 points of infused magic, plus not be Dragon Enemy No 1. Might get cut up by Sulqueum, she can still fight back).
Your body aches, blood dripping thick across your torn scales, but you are not going to let your foes simply leave after all of this. You beat your wings and surge toward the retreating Sulqueum, still surrounded by the glowing bubble of protective light you summoned, riding the outward blast of air from the detonation.
She twists in flight as it becomes obvious you are after her, Maven vanishing into the water below as she exhales and your barrier is hammered by a concentrated blast of dragonfire, washing over and around it before you expel the hoarded magic toward your foe. The bubble transfers to a cylindrical hammer of concussive force that spears through her flame before broadly impacting the already injured dragoness and staggering her in the air as she snaps her jaws shut too fast, left unbalanced and unready as you bodily slam into her.
Your talons lock into her scales and flesh, one hind leg getting proper purchase and tearing wide gashes across her flank even if you fail to lock your jaws around her throat. Her own claws rip into the membrane of one of your winds and you both end up falling as you forgo flight for inflicting bodily harm. You both move with blurring speed despite your fatigue and injuries with several dozen clawings, bitings and burnings taking place over mere seconds.
Finally though you manage to fasten your jaws around the base of her left wing and bite down hard, sinking your fangs into flesh, twisting your head as one of her claws almost takes an eye. More pain and blood as you secure your position then, finally, you get to where she knows you could cripple her ability to fly. That is when she finally growls out.
"I yield." You let go then, spread your own wings, a stab of pain from your own torn pinions as yo arrest your motion just above the heaving, storm tossed ocean. "You yield." You are both rather terse in your injured, aching state but after a few breaths you follow with. "You know what that means. Your hoard. I want twice as much wealth as might be expected in one of those whelps meagre pile. I want you keeping your little minions out of my affairs for a mortal lifetime and no directly opposing me for the same span. Break this pact and know none will spare you in future!"
She looks at you with pure, utter hatred, which is to be expected after all, forgoing taking flight herself to flop heavily into the sea then float atop it with her wings splayed over the surface, shifting with the choppy waves. A frustrated snort is coupled with an exhalation of flame that boils a few hundred yards off sea off to the side. "Fine. But this is not going to help with controlling those whelps. I will send you the treasures and tell them whatever they do will be on their own idiot heads. There are still thirteen more I did not bring to this..." She lashes her tail before slamming it down. "Meeting though along with some unreasonable number of annoying hatchlings.
A pause for a moment before she adds. "This does not mean your human pets get free reign in my lands either. Send your preachers but if they extend their dragon pogrom then that will, again, be treated as war. Do not think we cannot break their home in orbit if pushed."
You are to put it mildly surprised at the lack of pushback when it comes to her treasure, that is where you expected her to bargain and her immediate acceptance of the unreasonable sum... Well you love precious things.
"I will expect all of the treasure to be delivered to the square of the faith in Hatwar within two months and will begin destroying the cities of your humans if you short me Sulqueum! Your other points though, are fair, outside of one thing. If any of your dragon 'allies' wish to shelter under your wing then are found acting against my interests I expect compensation. A fifth of your current ransom again."
You continue to swoop above as she lounges in the crashing ocean, even if flying does hurt right now and you are bleeding.
"A fifth! Ridiculous. A twentieth!"
This gets rather heated, with more angry fire breathing to each side but you eventually settle upon a tenth along with the dragon in question being placed outside of any agreement of 'peace', if you can prove they were acting to harm you. Of course there is no real neutral third party to arbitrate this but you feel you have one a 'moral victory' especially as it involves you potentially getting more money in future.
Finally though you and Sulqueum part ways, non of the juvenile dragons having made a showing, then you laboriously head north and west. As you reach the coast of the main islands you find the coastline devastated, settlements reduced to shattered and flooded ruins, but the nearest major city was on the sheltered side of the island and is untouched.
Exhausted, you then land upon the outskirts in some manner of expansive sports field, sprawl, then demand of the shocked humans who start accumulating. "Bring me the high priest of Etorix and command them to bring their communicator!"
It takes a good hour or so before a delegation from the local temple arrives, a terrified high priest with a coterie of minions, one of their vehicles carrying the temple's ground to orbit communicator. Ignoring the priests for the moment you have it brought to you then casually raise a field to dampen sound. This is not a conversation that you want widely shared and the media is very much in force.
"Admiral Whyte." You only have audio communication so you cannot see his expression but you let your impossibly deep voice rumble with controlled anger. "Why did you interrupt my parley with nuclear weapons?"
His own response is immediate, tone clipped. "Because she was obviously planning to kill you Etorix and this was an excellent opportunity to weaken our mutual enemies. Unfortunately we lost the Ascendant Pyre and Platform Eight along with fifteen of our fighters and all of their pilots. You are not the aggrieved party here Etorix, I have just lost fifty seven of my troops."
"Losses that might have been avoided if we had cooperated, admiral." You allow your tone to warm ever so slightly whilst remaining utterly serious. "Those were Lammergeier G75, craft last manufactured fourteen hundred years ago at the high of both magic and technology. They were piloted by dragons and are fully capable of extra atmospheric flight once repaired. Fortunately, despite being outnumbered, I was able to defeat the enemy and force them into a truce on our terms. Keep the Ark well guarded however. Also do coordinate your actions in future, these will not be the last words we speak on the matter."
Then you, very satisfyingly, toggle off communications with a delicate tap of one claw. Also you are not bleeding any more though you are obviously torn, battered and not in pristine shape, not a good look for a god. Dropping the barrier of silence you then straighten in as dignified a manner as you are able to.
"Faithful! Let it be known that I have defeated Sulqueum and her allies from the dragonarchy despite their attempts at vile treachery and ambush! Her minions are broken, dead or fled, her own self bested. Whilst the forces unleashed in the battle were terrible and vast destruction wrought she will be paying a mighty tribute and no longer menacing the lands of the Republics!"
This generates cheers and adulation though you suspect the full extent of the damage to the eastern coast of their island has yet to be communicated.
Over the next few months, how do you plan to spend your time?
[] Healing, Resting, Recouperating. You hurt, you are badly injured and it is plausible that a fresh juvenile dragon, either particularly potent or willing to expend magic, could defeat you right now if you were caught alone.
[] Disaster Recovery. The east and south facing coasts of the island chain off the east of the Hatwar Republics have been devastated by tsunami thanks to the detonation of the Ascendant Pyre. This is not the most populous region but does include a minor city with a population in the hundred thousand plus range. Help out with relief efforts, healing people, restoring buildings and similar.
[] Return to Hatwar. You have a full schedule with your uplift efforts and did accept an invitation to the upcoming ball. It is important that you stick to the long term plan rather than being distracted.
[] Head Into Orbit. Obviously you need to give closer supervision to the Benefaction Mission and whilst their technology is impressive they are not really able to content with relics from the last era or magic wielding dragons on even terms. Added to that they have just lost one of their only real warships and a good portion of their fighters. They need help with uplift.
[] Other. Write in.
Also Sulqueum will be coming through with her tribute payment and it is larger than expected. She will be transferring 50 Wealth to you, though only 2 points of magic are infused in it. Actually most of this wealth seems to not actually be from her hoard, she apparently had the equivalent of 2-3 trillion USD worth of jewelled statues, coins, tapestries, etc stockpiled somewhere. This takes you to 120 Wealth and 4 Magic (50 Wealth not securely hidden).
What do you do with it?
[] Pile It Up. You have been holding court in the square before your high temple. Pile up all of the stuff in the square so that you can do so in proper style, you will know if anyone steals any of it.
[] Hide It. Find a secure location where you can hide the wealth in preparation of transferring it into your lair, given the location of your lair this might be tricky but you can take decades over securing it.
[] Establish A Dragon Palace. Right now you are 'living' in an admittedly fancy square, you would rather not completely re purpose your existing temple either. Spend some of the wealth, only portions which are not infused, to have a massive temple palace constructed where you can then recline upon the rest. (Expend 5 Wealth, start construction of a ridiculously ostentatious and dragon sized palace).
[] Other. Write in.
You do not have an option to spend any of the wealth on disaster relief because you are both a dragon and a greed deity.
