art by  lovepuma69 her post

In an infinitely large subset of the infinitely large multiverse, this is your/pipers origin story.

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You woke with the sun, eager to break camp. Your goal was only a few miles away. It would be a rough climb, but you could be there by lunch. You looked at your tent and decided to leave it. Then you looked at the rest of your gear. Very little of it would be helpful today, nor was it particularly valuable. You decided to leave all of it.

You donned your armor, checking the three gems on your belt. They cost you a small fortune, but their magical protection has saved you many times. You check your blade before securing it to your back and leaving.

You arrived sooner than you expected, but then you were traveling light. The cave mouth was huge, giving you pause. What needed such a home? You checked your belt again, seeing a slight glow in the left gem. You wonder what it's resisting. You draw your blade and discard your scabbard. You don't need its weight or its noise against your plate. A hero would shout or march down the center of the cave; they would also die.

You slide in at the edge where the cave mouth narrows. Any beast that lived in this large cave would likely have trouble getting to you in the narrows at the edges. Immediately, you smell rancid animal fats and dung, a beast has definitely lived here. You also smell char and sulfur, they seem out of place. You creep in slowly, conscious of every rock and stalactite, careful not to make a sound. If you're lucky, the beast will be asleep.

You stop when you realize there is a light ahead of you. Your hands dropped to your gems, the notices in town had said beast, but this was the steady glow of magic. The right gem burned hotter, protecting you from detection. You quickly wrap a cloth around it, not for the first time wondering why the mage had made an anti-detection gem that glowed.
You stand for a few moments, waiting, but nothing comes. Then you venture deeper. The passage opens up onto piles of gold, and you stop. You stare for a full minute. Who cares about some silly bounty? There was the wealth of three kingdoms piled up before you.

Two things then happened at once. You realized what type of beast has magic light, smells of char, and collected these quantities of gold. Also, a rumbling tremor sent some of the treasure cascading down its pile. You barely hold back a curse as you turn silently searching for the thing.

A few other things happened which escaped your notice. Masked by the sound of rolling treasure, your anti-detection gem broke and fell from your belt. Besides it, your magic resistance gem also shattered and fell. A small fissure opened in the green gem, the one that shielded your mind, but it held.

The red aura around your body told you that you were too late to flee. It was probably too late, but you had to try and fight. You charged deeper, running towards the gold hoping to find the Dragon. Your only hope was to slay it quickly. You faltered as your hands grew tight inside your gloves.

You raised your off hand in time to see sharp claws cut their way free of the leather. As you watched, a snout protruded from your face. Your body began to itch, and the snout turned black, covered in short velvety fur. Your helmet clattered to the ground, as the sounds of the cave changed. Your eyes burned for an instant, and the world grew brighter. A small ball of pain formed at the base of your spine, it built till you felt a new appendage slide out between your pants and your mail.

With these new senses, you quickly located the large dragon. Your new eyes saw what your human eyes hadn’t, the beast was hiding in the dark of his cave. His eyes glowed the same red as the aura enveloping you. Your new ears were better at sorting the sounds of the cave, they heard the chink, as your last gem broke and fell.

You bowed to your master.