Sumika

The border region between the Starfall Isles and the Scarred Wasteland is an unpredictable place. Some parts are safe enough, but others sit at the intersection of arcane radiation and plague disease and are lethal to basically anything that has even considered being alive. What does grow of other can be found there is rare, valuable and uniquely deadly. So a dragon like Sumika, who willingly goes to these places, must be brave like few others are. Or particularly foolish. Probably both.

Sumika is one of a very small group of delvers who plunder such dangerous regions for the rarest of spellcrafting materials. Dark pits full of alien plants and loose body parts with crystals growing out of them are some of the least horrifying place that Sumika explores. The air is full of viruses strong enough to topple a plague imperial, and even the most unobtrusive stone could be outputting extreme amounts of radiation. As a plague fae, she's one of few who have some natural resistance to both of these dangers, but what the deities have given her is nowhere near enough to survive by itself. All that keeps her safe is the life support equipment she wears, the creation of some arcane and lightning dragon actually working together for once. A sealed mask and tanks of air let her breathe safely, and enchantments on the equipment wards away radiation poisoning for long enough for Sumika to get in and out safely. Everything else she wears partially for camouflage, and partially because everything that isn't irreplaceable is burnt after each excursion for the safety of the Isles as a whole. No point in wearing anything fancy in places where no other dragon dares to tread. The things that do live there have no fashion sense anyways.

But why does Sumika risk such danger? Well, it's partially curiosity, and partially pride. Even if the things she finds would be considered horrendously repulsive by most of Sornieth, Sumika can't help but wonder what even worse things are out there. Even as she's holding very still and praying to the deities for her life, Sumika is also looking out in wonder though her muck-covered goggles at whatever new mutated monster is hunting her down. Sumika's been keeping a field journal back at Clan _______, filled with descriptions and drawings from memory of what manages to live in these places. She also likes to speculate on their biology and behaviour, even though there's no way to prove anything she comes up with. Most dragons can't tell the difference between these sketches and their deepest nightmares, but Sumika's begun to even find some of them cute. The smallest mutants are often too misshapen to even move around properly, and that's adorable.

Sumika also takes pride in what she does, both in that she faces more danger than most dragons ever will, and that she's seen more things than most dragons will ever see. She likes to rub it in sometimes, describing her experiences in visceral detail whenever one of her clanmates is acting a bit too full of themselves. Few things are more fun than watching a dragon a hundred times her size squirm.

Okay, and mages and researchers will pay quite a lot for some of the things she finds. Sumika's one of the richer dragons in Clan _______, not that she lets anyone else know. Her hoard of mammertee plushes shall remain secret until the end of time.

It might seem odd that a dragon so invested in the plague borderlands would make base near the Southern Icefield instead. But the truth is that a lot of what Sumika finds is quickly deemed so dangerous that it needs to be locked away in ice for the safety of everyone. There's a gaoler outpost near the border where she drops the hazardous objects, never to be seen again by anyone outside the ice flight. Annoyingly, the gaolers won't pay her for any of it, no matter how much Sumika tries to imply that she'll start selling it to careless arcane mages if they don't.

If speaking to a fae can be difficult in normal circumstances to their monotone voices, talking to Sumika can be considered the extra hard difficultly level of communication. Goggles cover her eyes, a hood covers her crests, and the respirator makes her flat voice sound even more removed from emotion. Unless you're a skydancer, it's impossible to know how Sumika feels about anything. And that's just the way she likes it.

For that reason, she's actually able to hold a conversation with Crowthorne, who would prefer it if nobody had any feelings about anything. That, and the wildclaw does respect Sumika's bravery. Not enough to to say she likes Sumika at all, but enough to tolerate her presence. One more thing Sumika can say she's accomplished that few other dragons ever will.