Arthur Explains the Dragonborn Army

Arthur's explanation kept expanding until the maze felt less like a prison and more like a junction point for every crisis pressing against Jericha. Castro forces had conquered nearby planes. They had followed an old planar transport route to Jericha and found dragonborn trapped or concentrated in the Lonely Islands. From there, the horror became strategic: imprisoned dragons, captive dragonborn, and the beginnings of a dragonborn army. That reframed the enemies inside the maze. The dragonborn were not only maze prisoners with heart pieces. They were part of a larger captivity and militarization thread. Castro's presence near Arthur, the dragonborn fear, and the Lonely Islands crisis all belonged to the same spreading void-power escalation. Arthur also mentioned the side roads of his own survival: traveling with Pink Pony Tavern girls, losing Nymeria Duarte in the Whisperwoods, and Stratkaia's Black Ward trying to turn her best friend into an Albert clone. Every answer opened another door. Every door led to someone using void power badly. That was Arthur's thesis. People were using void power badly, and he was trying to stop it. The party had escaped enough of the maze to understand the scale of the thing waiting outside it.