No sooner had Bizir and Xozos, two red dragons who made their home in Lotharingia’s formidable alpine mountains, been killed than the other red dragons who laid overlapping claims to these parts began to close in and claim their share of their treasure hoards. Cirlolth had escaped the fighting that had led to the death of the other two, and holed up in her own lair she prepared for the worst. The regions four remaining red dragons descended on Bizir and Xozos’ now vacated lairs and began the process of claiming a portion for themselves.

Baddrener, a male red dragon was the first to reach the lair of Xozos. Right behind him was a female named Yndrit. The two circled each other warily in the treasure-filled cavern as each looked for a weak spot in the other’s defense. Two mountain peaks away a similar dance was being carried out by a female named Rytherth and a male named Chilrog who had arrived at the very same instant in Bizir’s now abandoned cave. Surrounded by ill-gotten loot the two draconic couples found themselves inevitably drawn together by the closeness of the space as well as the allure of the gold and gemstones, the magical items, and the scattered artworks that their fallen ilk had hoarded here with such care. Here was a scene filled with the potential for epic battle being played out in two different locations. Two pairs of dragons, each keen to claim the treasure that their rivals sought. Circling and growling, claws and teeth ready for action.

Now one might expect a battle to break out at any second, and had the pairing been two males in one lair and the two females in another, that is exactly what would have occurred. As it was though, the results were headed in an entirely different direction. It wasn’t combat although it was violent. Intoxicated by the allure of the treasure hoards the two pairs of dragons did that other thing that red dragons do in these situations. Instead of trying to best their opponent and drive them away from the loot they opted to engage in tumultuous mating instead. Any non-dragon observer would have thought that it was in fact a battle because one type of roaring hissy fit is as terrifying as any other. Had the coupling dragons been interrupted there would have been actual hell to pay. But uninterrupted the two couples made an absolute mess of the two lairs. Coins scattered everywhere, gemstones embedded in the most embarrassing of places, and more than a couple works of art completely trampled in an unfettered display of dragon lust. In the heady afterglow of this violent and endurance taxing event the coupled dragons opted to split the loot more or less evenly between themselves, and this being the only time a red dragon will keep its word they rested before beginning the process of hauling away their portions of the hoard to their own lairs.

Yndrit and Rytherth were now going to have to make room in their cavernous lairs for the eggs they would soon lay. Baddrener and Chilrog descended the mountains in search of food to replenish their energy. There hadn’t been a red dragon mating session in Lotharingia for many decades and now all at once there had been two. When the humans of this land found out there would be considerable concern, and rightly so. In the mountains of the land were two easily provoked mother dragons and two jealously defensive father dragons. This is what gold can do to a person, especially if one is of the dragon persuasion.