Dragons and Alchemy
Since there have been dragons, humans have wanted to hunt them.
They drove them into the lands of Faerie hundreds of years ago until all that remained of them were legends. Tales spoke of the devastation their fire could cause and of the brave men who hunted and slew the beasts so they could never destroy villages again.
What was rarely spoken of, however, was the suffering the dragons had endured for years before being driven to destroy a village.
Their kind had been taken by sorcerers for their bodies and blood so their magic could be drained away to fuel terrible spells.
Their bones had been crushed for snorting powders and elixirs, and scales and horns sold off as trophies.
The dragons had fled Albion before there were none left to make the journey. They found a home in Faerie, where all creatures, no matter how strange or wild, could find sanctuary. A curse sealed the doors between Faerie and Albion, and for fifteen hundred years, they were safe.
Now, the doors had been reopened. Magic had been restored, and Albion was beginning to discover it still had a few dragons left. But they weren't the only ones who had learned of their existence.
There were those who still had records of a time when dragons were the key to great spells and ancient workings.
Blood mages and alchemists who hungered for those rare ingredients that had once fueled their spells.
Time had only armed them with the technology to dissect, study, mutilate, and murder their way through a whole variety of new species, all at their leisure.
One type of dragon was prized above all—the gold dragon. Legends said that their blood was the key to creating the Philosopher's Stone. Turning lead into gold was the fairytale. What the stone really represented was true and lasting power. They only needed a gold dragon to achieve the impossible.
Unfortunately, someone had found out that a certain magician was on the cusp of becoming the dragon they so desperately needed. Such a prize could not be overlooked, and now, the hunt was on.
What they didn't know was that someone else was hunting the golden dragon, and they had no intention of letting anyone claim so much as a hair from his golden head.