Ash Breaks the Dragon's Neck

After the portal closed, the lair felt uneven. The Voiling forces were gone. Oskar was gone with Jeremiah. Ash had been denied passage by something that knew him well enough to promise a later conversation. The young green dragon remained, weakened but alive, still wearing General Falafelsnout's head as a crown in the ruined treasure room beneath Aleklot's Rest. Ash hesitated. That moment mattered. The dragon was not only an enemy by then. It was proof that the world had lied, or forgotten, or been carefully misled about what remained of dragonkind. It was also connected to the same void forces that had just stolen Oskar away. Killing it would end the immediate threat, but not the questions around it. Then Ash chose action. His tentacle lashed out and broke the dragon's neck. The living dragon died in the lair, beneath a town that had turned dragon memory into tourism. Gumbo moved to claim the dragon materials promised by his deal. The party had defeated a creature Jericha believed should not still be present in the world. But victory had arrived with Herman dead, Oskar missing, and Ash more uncertain than before.