Iskierka Perscitia / Shimmerscale, the Gold Dragon

Iskierka is a prominent Gold-ranked member of Lothal's Adventurer's Guild. The elven archer boasts great skill as a ranger and spends much of her time in the untamed wilds when she's not training up new groups of adventurers. Secretly, she is the gold dragon Shimmerscale and watches Urthemiel's prison under orders from her god Bahamut. She has kept this post for centuries with her youth occasionally restored by the time-altering powers of a sphinx colleague. While fully aware that Mesogog was not the true Destroyer, Iskierka could not sit idly by while he and Levira ravaged Lothal. She proved to be an instrumental ally to the Headhunters in their campaign to destroy Levira.
Table of Contents

History

Early Life

Iskierka is almost as old as Nexus itself, though she admits that her memory only goes back so far. In that time, she has done everything she can to keep the area that became Lothal stable to prevent anything from awakening Urthemiel, the Destroyer. She assisted the founders of the Adventurer's Guild when they originally defeated Mesogog and maintained a friendship with the group afterward. After all of them (save Dume) passed away, she took on a mortal form and joined the guild to continue assisting with their activities. Every so often she would change identities but always played a (mostly) silent part in the guild's history.
As Shimmerscale, she largely stayed in the background until The War of Sea and Sky where she assisted the natives of the area in repelling the invading armies of aarakocra and tortles. Though she was unaware of the Morlocks' involvement in the conflict, she was more than willing to help the oppressed people of the area push the invaders back over their borders. Since then, she's taken a more active role helping the Guild train new recruits. It was one such group that later became the original members of the Headhunters.

A Busy Dragon Woman

After spending a few years mentoring the original Headhunters, Iskierka wished them well when they graduated from Trainees to Bronze-ranked adventurers. After turning her proteges loose, Iskierka made her rounds in Lothal to check up on local events. The local fey informed her of issues they'd been having with some corrupted druids worshipping Zuggtmoy, the Demon Lady of Fungi. Iskierka located the area where they'd been growing corrupting magical mushrooms and partnered with a group of Eladrin to do a controlled burn that cleansed the area with fire. The Headhunters witnessed Shimmerscale setting fire to the area, unaware it was actually their old mentor.
Later, Iskierka was noted as one of the handful of adventurers wise enough to not use a Gravestone. The Headhunters tried to recruit her to investigate a sighting of Levira on a nearby island, but she declined (due to having a meeting with King Shapechanger as Shimmerscale). When their mission went south, Nergalee sent Shimmerscale to retrieve the Headhunters from the island and she gave them a ride to shore (minus Chigiri, who teleported to avoid Stronmaus' ire). The party later saw her in Stonescore while chasing Mira, though Iskierka's only "contribution" to the chase was accidentally destroying Artie's familiar.
When the 7 Swords showed Chigiri potential methods for combining them, Iskierka was one of the options revealed to him. Seeing as she was in the same room and the other options were scattered across the country, he filled her in on his quest for the swords. Iskierka realized instantly that the weapon he sought was one of The Four, the weapons created to destroy Urthemiel, the Destroyer. And in that moment, resolved to take a more direct role in helping her former students take down their enemies.

Fighting the Morlocks

Iskierka guided the Headhunters to the Dragon Forge, which she explained was well guarded by constructs she herself had put in place. Once there, they found the drunken adventurer Vinnie Vice Vice, who had inadvertently caused the constructs to go berserk. She helped the adventurers fight through her own defenses until they finally arrived in front of the Forge, which Iskierka unsealed with a prayer to Bahamut. Things seemed to be going well until Mesogog arrived and summoned Shadow Skulls, distracting the party while Nadira snuck into the Forge. Iskierka told her fellow adventurers to go inside while she revealed her true dragon form and battled against Mesogog.
It was a ferocious battle with the fury of an elder dragon pitted against the rage of Orcus' son. Ultimately, Shimmerscale lost the battle due to the Morlocks' sheer numbers and found herself at Mesogog's mercy. He began to use the Purple Quintus Gem to drain Iskierka's power for himself, reverting her into a smaller adult dragon. When the Headhunters emerged from the Dragon Forge with Chōmei, it distracted Mesogog long enough for Shimmerscale to dive into the magma and save herself. She swam through the lava tubes under Lothal and made her way to her lair to begin healing.
The Headhunters later found her there while investigating reports of a gorgon that turned out to be one of her constructs harvesting healing herbs. She warned the party that Mesogog's sword carried a curse that made any wounds it inflicted slow to heal, even with the aid of magic. She also warned that forging Chōmei had the side effect of weakening Urthemiel's seal and that assembling any more of The Four would have the same effect. Leliana was able to undo the curse affecting her wounds and Iskierka rewarded the adventurers with magic items from her hoard.

The Battle for Lothal

When Gentleman Jack warned the Guild about the Gravecannon, Nergalee sent word to Iskierka. Shimmerscale, mostly but not fully healed, rushed for the mountain to aid her companions and countrymen against the threat. She arrived late on the field but proved to be valuable back-up to the exhausted adventurers, raining fire down on the Morlocks' allies and monsters. She rescued Gentleman Jack from a Void Beast and the two arrived at the cannon while the Headhunters fought Mesogog, clearing away the Shadow Skulls that the adventurers had snuck past.
Shortly thereafter, when Levira launched her flying castle in her final attack on Lothal, Iskierka provided transportation for Vinnie Vice, Chigiri, and Cordelia to assault the flying fortress. She dealt with the outer defenses and distracted many of Levira's troops and Void Beasts alongside the Goose while the Headhunters invaded the castle. When they emerged victorious and the castle began to crumble, she helped them evacuate to safety and watched the sunset together with her former students and their newfound friends, proud that their accomplishments had ended Levira's terror and kept Lothal safe.