Dragon Soul Punch

Well well well, look what sits here before me. W'at were once 'undred an' some odd souls we've whittled 'way an' tossed the chaff and now I sees twenty hardened an' trained men and women standin' afore me! Warriors! Soldiers! Heroes! Men an' women worthy ta be one of the Iron Dragons! Ye've all come so far and earned yer place. But 'ave ye earned the respect of yer fellows. Have ye earned yer dragon soul? We've nary a conflict ta throw ye into yet, ta get fire and blood in yer belly, ta test ye proper and true. Things be peaceful right now, and goblin hunting nary cut it for this rite of passage. However lucky fer ye bonny lads and lasses we developed just the thing. A brew so potent, so foul, so aggressive that it would fell a drake or wyvern in an instant. 'Dragon Soul Punch' we calls it. Tonight we'll all partake as equals, but I warns ye now and I warns ye true. This will be a final test, a test of your gut, your will, your constitution. This drink will test yer desire ta succeed. Ta win above all else. A flagon of this? Can fell three ordinary men.

But we are the Iron Dragons! We are nae meant ta be ordinary men!!! So ye'll waste nary a drop, and you'll quaff it all, and prove ye bear the right ta the title of Dragon. So come, take a seat 'round the table, and let us begin. This feast and celebration is in yer honor. But first ye must pass this final test. As we raise a glass ta those who didn't make it, those who couldn't hack it, and those whom came before ye who's seats ye now take, cause one day they didn't make it home."

First Scale Azril Grunarmac to the latest batch of Iron Dragon recruits being placed under his command before they are put through 'earning their Scales'.

Summary

Like many such organizations, the Iron Dragons have a sort of hazing ritual tied to a sort of mythos. The mythos is the idea of the Soul of a Dragon. It is this elite units doctorine that one who has joined them and passed training is simply not one of them yet, not until they've earned their scales through fire, blood, battle, or....surprisingly, a drink.

Now to be crystal clear, this beverage is not any mere beverage. It is designed to torture the drinker's mouth, tongue, gullet and stomach all the way down. It is meant to test their will, commitment, constitution and drive to win at all costs, even pain, discomfort and arguably some level of medicinal risk. This myth holds a lot of weight with those in the Iron Dragons and they take it super seriously, almost comedically so, but it really matters to them, they really believe in it, for some reason, despite knowing its just a beverage. Perhaps its more about the symbolic nature of the actions? Who knows. However the beverage, aptly named Dragon Soul Punch, well its recipe is below for those bold or foolish enough to wish to attempt to make it. Oh and a note. The drink is downed after adding two heaping spoons of smokepowder, mixing well, lighting it aflame, and downing the entire flagon in one go. Anything less is considered failure of the mission.

Dragon Soul Punch Recipe

• 1/4 a pint of 80 year old pine tar whiskey, a viciously burnable drink, strong as coal, twice as mean.



• 1/4 pint of clear shiner booze, a liquer best described as cheap and dirty, from fermented potato skins and black lichen.



• 5 dashes of a thick cinnamon syrup, or alternatively a spoon and a half of raw cinnamon powder.



• 2 spoons of hotroot pepper oils



• 1/4 pint of an ale of your choice



• 1/4 pint of a strong and heavily aged rum.



• Mix in the two spoons of finely ground smokepowder until it is barely visible, until the drink is merely a little cloudy. Strike a match or fuse, light the drink, and down it before the powder has all burned up. If you succeed without passing out or throwing it back up, congratulations you've earned your scales as an Iron Dragon. You've burned away your weak humanoid soul and forged from its remains the soul of an Iron Dragon.