Cave Robbers
Two gryphons get much more than they hoped for as they try to steal a dragon's treasure.
Two gryphons had decided to pull off the greatest robbery in all the land. They planned to enter the cave of the great mountain dragon and steal all of the untold treasure within. Nobody had ever attempted such a feat, for fear of experiencing the wrath of the dragon god. The two gryphons believed the treasure was real, but though the dragon was long dead. Nobody had seen the thing ages.
Under the cover of darkness the pair approached the most nearest and most forgiving slope to try reaching the cave. The village the gryphons had grew up in was surrounded by mountains on three sides, with two ranges coming together at a formation that marked the location to approach the cave. This formation was a pair of hills that were much less steep than the surrounding landscape, but were of a much finer material and had a strong curvature to them that made starting the climb difficult. A nearby temple to the dragon luckily had a tower, which the gryphons used as a base for their brief flight onto the hills. (The gryphons weren't particularly good at vertical flight and wanted to conserve their energy for the heavily laden return trip.)The surface of the hills was slightly damp, with large cracks along the surface and a large ravine between the two hills. The mountain had a strong earthy scent, despite its lack of soil, which only increased as the journey continued.
It would take three days to cross the highlands and up the steepening slope to the cave. The cave sat near the base of another distinct feature, an outcropping that jutted out from the point the ranges joined and then curved along to meet back up with the northern mountains. The scents that had seemed strong at the highlands were overpowering as the gryphons neared the cave. The cave itself was a huge opening with many smaller cracks in the face coming together to form a passage a hundred times larger than a wyvern would need. The air was still and a strong heat radiated out from the cave entrance, perhaps there truly was a dragon within. The gryphons had gone so far, but the conditions had really tired them out. They decided not to turn back empty handed and grab the most valuable thing they could carry.
After a few minutes sliding their way down the slick cave entrance the gryphons realized that the cave walls were moving. They thought they must have set off a trap as the cave entrance shut behind them. They were trapped within the dark, hot, and humid cave. The search for treasure proved fruitful, as the gryphons found an entire golden city, long lost and all the citizens long dead. The gutters of the city were filled with rare gemstones. In fact, all that seemed to be in the cave were precious metal and gems. An earthquake shook the city and the gryphons as the cave suddenly became filled with even more riches, pushed out from deep within. The gryphons were crushed by the treasure that they had searched for.
The colossal dragon that wiped out the gryphon empire continued his extended nap; all that countryside took a long time to digest, especially with all of that gold covering everything.