“Thank you, Scinnari. I don't suppose Azyra has returned?”

“Ah... She has, lord, though I haven't spoken with her yet.”

“And she did retain her amulets? Warding and location?”

“Yes...” Scinnari says, drawing the word out, “Though she did manage escaped her guards for a time. They are quite ashamed.”

“I see...” you say frostily. “I wonder why?”

“I shall try to get that from her, my lord.” Scinnari says. She pauses to make sure you have no other requests, and departs. You turn back to the map you have pinned to the surface of your desk. Dragon territories. Rhasver and Aquitaine are seem to be getting along poorly, and have begun a slow but noticeable buildup. The bronze near Morinth has been caught up in this, hired by the Rhasver crown, currently just on retainer.

To the east, your agents have finally destabilized the small alliance against you sufficiently for your forces to press further- Not just that, but one was convinced even to ask you for help. Whether that was your agent's work or Lady Issa's, you do not know, but either way you have expanded further to the east, borders finally coming to a halt near the borderlands of the United Cities- While a quite wealthy region, it is also reputed to be highly... 'natural'. Elementals, fey, ghosts, and faeries are reputed to inhabit the land, and your troops are anything but eager to enter the halfling lands, even if you haven't given such orders yet. Likewise, the United Cities have become more accommodating to mercenaries and adventurers in the past few years, and you are likely to find much irregular opposition, should you proceed.

The Bronze that was reported as living south of your lands has remained in position, and while she seems to have her claws fairly deep in local religion, she does not seem interested in interfering with your empire. For the moment, you suppose you have little reason to deal with her.

On a more mundane note, a few merchant guilds have relocated, One from Exheln, another from Seffestranias' domain, and one from Rhasver. Drawn by the benefits you have been offering merchants, their 'headquarters' now resides in Mza, though they still continue business in their original locations. You are moderately amused that they would rather live on your island and pay you taxes than pay you tolls for using your ports and other services- Then rather worried, that such a thing should be so much cheaper, that it can motivate such change. Scinnari calms your fears, though, explaining that she planned it this way, and now, even if they're only offering you lipservice and token obedience, you now have your claws withing the guilds, and influence over them, however shallow they think their actions are. Her explanation is compelling, and more than enough for you to ignore the whining and complaints of your established merchant guilds over 'these freeloaders'.

In the mountains to the north of your mainland empire, drow are still a serious problem. They are no longer using armies or warbands of orcs and goblinoids, but merchants are constantly under threat, and the passage to Beren has become most hazardous lately. Occasionally, people vanished from cities are even blamed on the drow, though that is more likely rumor and paranoia than any form of accuracy.

Azyra first, she's easily the most important on the list of things. Stay in mental communication with Scinnari while she talks to the girl and see what she finds out. After mommy has had a talk it will be time for daddy to appear and discuss the matter as well. We should mentally get both our and Scinnari's position in line with each other via mental communication before we appear though. Present a united front as her parents. Place emphasis on caring for her and just wanting her to be safe.

Depending on her reasons for doing what she did we can work out... acceptable compromises.

Now, Abroad:

Very Young Red in the south: Visit her. Let's try to set up a mentor role. Pop in, say hi, introduce ourselves. Be friendly and completely assured of our own power. Tell her we have been watching her progress and we see potential. We would like to make sure she succeeds, foster a friendship, and lend her our knowledge.

Violent abroad:
Capture the wounded juvvie black and bring her back to the lab for magical life extension soul-ripping experiments.

Likewise, gather information on the wounded silver by our new conquests. We are probably going to kill her.

Lastly, funnel more force into the recently captured avariel territory. Scry the rebel hideouts, hit them hard, execute everyone.

Keep fostering the 'good' avariel and see if they would enjoy relocation to Mza. I imagine life isn't made pleasant for sympathizers.

>>14847483
Matters to deal with:

-Our empire just absorbed the territory of a female copper dragon up near the United Cities. Get detailed reports on her and her activities; we'll need to take action regarding her soon, I suspect.

-The drow are annoying as hell. Have our agents find out if they're just menacing us, or also others in the area (i.e. Beren; I don't think Seffy's cut a deal but it's possible). Consult with our dwarves as to anti-drow methods. Prepare to summon squads of earth elementals or other earth-based creatures as expendable hunter-killer forces we can send into the underdark after them. Suspend eastern expansion- I don't really want to fight a bunch of coppers anyway- and consolidate our hold on what we have, transferring troops onto the northern border to provide additional patrols and escorts. Provide magical detection and alert systems so that we can send in fast response teams to try and catch and kill drow raiders; as elves, their numbers are far from limitless. Offer rewards to adventurers who can discover the cause of and put a stop to their attacks.

-We need to move against that wounded silver- 37 in last thread- sooner rather than later. Arm up, bring our most elite minions and the Watcher, and drop in on her head. Kill and loot anything that Watcher can find, then declare ourselves ruler over the jungle tribes in the area through fear- actually ruling would be a lot of work, but we should get some collaborators that we can put in charge and send in a few loyal lizardfolk to see our will done.

>>14847646
We have a lab? Sweet!

>>14847721
Uh, yeah. We have the best lab money can buy. More than one, likely. But the main lab is in our lair.

Avariel require dealing with, but it's not going to be a particularly simple affair, and it will take a long while through conventional means. Still, there's not much to do about that beyond unconventional magical attacks/scrying etc.

Our daughter...we'll have words with her but I'm not actually expecting them to have much impact.

First thing to do after that is kill the Silver, if we can- it would be nice to catch it while still wounded.

And yes, capture the Black if we can and it's not dead yet- we've got soul stuff to do- and if we have to wait between sessions, we've got other things to try out on her too; binding and general spell-mixing/creation.

The DROW- what do?

>>14847721

We've had a good decade to aquire one. And hey, we've already got the restraining bands.

>>14847721
'Course you do. What evil magician king is complete without one? Incidentally, you've developed a fairly simple spell that lets you retain some, if not all, of your draconic prowess in polymorphed form. It actually took you a bit longer than it might have, seeing as you've been socializing with humanoids so long- They seem to have influenced your research patterns. What you finally settled on is surprisingly simple, if only you approach it from a mindset more used to using draconic magic... Suffice to say, you're significantly more durable and capable in human form.

>>14847646
>mentor red
>capture black
>spy on silver
>relocate avariel

Confirm, y/n?

>>14847695
>move against silver, kill and plunder

Confirm, y/n?

>>14847772

Spiderize that shit, son!

They coming at us from out of holes and through the forest? Fine- we'll just have to fuck around with the forest to their disadvantage: Forest and Jungle spiders for instance.

>>14847800
Yes on mentoring the red
Yes on Soul eating the Black

Undecided on the last two

>>14847800

y - But not in that order: We can chat-nice with the Red after these more pressing Black and Silver things

y - Mission's a go! Us alone or with some spellcasters?

>>14847695
Continued:

-Those avariel need to die. Bend more resources to locating and eliminating them; there can be no quarter nor mercy for those who have not already bent their knees to your rule. Aid your troops personally if necessary; disposing of competent people who will hate your nation for centuries to come cannot be understated in priority and the Ivory Gates must be made firmly yours in order to really start collecting wealth there.

-Speaking of that, there is apparently a dragon turtle nearby- meet with it and tell it that it can live around the Ivory Gates if it wants, but it works for us while it does. If it wants to argue the point, we are more than capable of killing it, which we can demonstrate. Dragon turtles are highly intelligent and basically being offered a territory where it can hunt anything but ships isn't a bad deal at all, so I'd expect it to be willing to agree after a bit of aggressive negotiation on our part. Make sure to ensorcel up for underwater combat before doing this- vision and freedom of movement charms should let us be about as capable as a bronze underwater.

-Talk with Azyra about what the hell she's doing. I understand that she's a growing girl and wants freedom and all that, but abandoning her bodyguards? Really? That's appallingly careless. Even we don't do that without good reason. We have enough of a variety of servants that she should be able to find an appropriate guard for just about any occasion.

-Get more reports on that bronze south of our colonies on principle. Even if she's not a problem, she might be in the future- which means that I want to know who exactly all her friends and contacts are, where they live, who their friends and contacts are, and a detailed history of her actions as far back as we can trace it. Get our spies on it.

>>14847800
If we're going to be capturing black for soul draining, we may as well capture silver /if we can safely do so./ Depends on her injuries, basically.

>>14847800
Don't actually kill the silver yet. We want to spy it out first.

When we have properly prepared THEN we kill it.

>>14847884
Don't be stupid. We can capture the black because she's both wounded and a juvenile. The silver is a full adult.

Capture is completely out of the question.

>>14847901
The Silver is heaily injured from losing a fight with a pair of Old Reds, if she is heavily injured enough she might be capturable. I would imagine Azaladon would be more capable of telling just how crippling a dragons injuries are than we are.

>>14847852

Girls will be girls. I won't be surprised if she pulls this again.

>>14847918
Too risky. Even if she is just laying immobile then we still have the risk of bringing a full adult silver back to our lab for experimentation over a long period of time... in which she can heal.

I'm very much against it. Walk before you run, people. We are really overreaching dramatically, here.

>>14847938
Bring a full adult silver back? Wut? Trap The Soul.

>>14847852
More continued:

-We will need to establish relations with the green dragon east of the Ivory Gates (35 last thread) sooner rather than later, since he's historically raided that city fairly regularly. Write up a letter which sends him greetings as the ruler of Mza and now the Ivory Gates, cordially informing him of the end of avariel rule and our ownership of the territory and anticipating a peaceful relationship between him and our subjects, etc. etc. and mentioning that we are available for discussion if he wishes to speak regarding any topic. That should at least delay the problem.

-The fact that we control vast areas of land far off but not close to home annoys me somewhat. Take steps to begin building up our spy networks in Morinth and Azar. At the moment, no actual plans for these locations other than building our influence there, so call this part of a decades-long plan to expand our influence. We're certainly going to want to take over Morinth sooner or later, even if that's a century or two from now. They might be a client state of Rhasver, but we may be able to peel them away eventually.

>>14847852
Agreed on all but the turtle, assuming you only mean the avariel terrorists. There's no need to slaughter the general populace; they could be quite useful.

As for the turtle, presumably it hasn't been attacking ships up till now; we need to establish whether that's because it's a friend of the avariel or general principle. If general principle, I see no need to coerce it into service, so long as it seems inclined not to hinder us; if it's a friend of the avariel, we will probably need to kill it.

Incidentally, on the longer-term-plans bit, some trusted avariel soldiers would be brilliant, if for nothing else than flying bodyguards for Azyra.

>>14847901

Adun, you know it's not nice to insult people. Stop it.

>>14847960
Ah, IIRC the Turtle just moved in due to our moving the cloud castle/closing the air rift, which heated the water in the straight.

>>14847938

We've got more sets of the same bands we're using to hold Cygnis- I don't see much of a problem containing her once we have her.

It's just the GETTING her that's the problem.

>>14847972
Well then. I must have missed that in the last thread. Skip the avariel bits, then, and go straight to 'no need to pick a fight'.

>>14847987
Erm, what I meant was that presumably the reason it hasn't been attacking ships till now was that it wasn't actually there to attack any. Whether it will attack any now or not...

>>14847987
The dragon turtle is listed as a shipping hazard in the area. Given that we get our money from keeping the shipping routes prosperous, I think we need to demonstrate that we're more than willing to pick a fight in order to keep them secure. Really, given that we're a much bigger nasty than a dragon turtle is- something like twice its hit dice in D&D terms- I think some standard "I'm in charge here, like it or leave" tactics should more than suffice.

>>14847965
No.

>>14847944
That would sort of ruin the point of the anti-aging thing. I doubt you just need a raw soul to do it.

>>14848009
I think we should try to be friends. Give him some food and stuff and let him lounge around unmolested if he wants, and in exchange he doesn't attack shipping around here and helps capsize any forces that try to invade. Win-win.

“Ah. Azyra. So kind of you to return...” Scinnari says, confronting her daughter in the hallway. Dissatisfaction is evident in her voice. “Might I ask what you've been up to?”

“In the city.” Azyra replies, cautiously polite.

“Doing?” Scinnari answers, and your eavesdropping detects sharp, cynical suspicion in her mind.

“Nothing in particular...” Azyra replies carefully, and listening in on her thoughts, you're certain she's lying, or at least deceiving. Perhaps to calm her mother down, it isn't necessarily malicious... “Hitting the bazaar. A few taverns. Watched a few fights. I might have started one.”

“Really? And did any of that require losing your guards?” Scinnari asks, slightly nastily, obviously unhappy.

“I... didn't want them getting in the way. Nor do I like them telling me what to do, her herding me out whenever they start worrying. I can take care of myself, and I don't need guards following me around all the time.” Azyra begins, obviously doing her best to sound eminently reasonable.

“Azyra, dear, your father and I aren't terribly fond of trailing bodyguards wherever we go, either, but we use them too when we are out in the city.” Scinnari reasons kindly. “It's something you need to put up with- We are all potential targets for anyone interested in leverage over Mza- You especially, as they wouldn't want to deal with your father or I, who have a reputation for sorcery-”

“Yeah, but /you/ are the ones giving orders when you're with them. You tell /me/ to obey them when I'm stuck with them! I don't /want/ to be watched my whole life, and I certainly don't want you or dad keeping me away from anything you decide you don't want me to see, either! It's our city, if this isn't safe, what is?” Azyra replies, response growing more heated as she determines (relatively accurately,) that she has no chance of convincing her mother of anything.

>>14848039
Hrm. She's definitely going to continue doing this, and if we just clamp down on her she'll resent us for it.

Instead, we should start teaching her how to fight and how to access her natural sorcery. That'll make her love us again.

>>14848039

The unreasonableness of a child...

There's nothing much to do other than side with Scinnari and ride out the tantrum. I mean, what're we going to do? Let her go out on her own?

>>14848039

She's friends with some of Asha's kids, right?

Maybe we can let her go out and have fun with those; at least we know they can all handle themselves.

>>14848081
I... would /hope/ we've already been doing that. For the last 10 years or so.

>tistivin this
Sorry, Captcha, you want us to /what/ this?

>>14848100

We need to give her some measure of freedom. I'm not saying we should let her run loose, but after a while, she'll strike out on her own to do just that. So, we need to find a middle ground

>>14848039
Time to step in, I think. Scinnari is a good mom, but very overprotective.

"Nothing is safe, Azyra. You may not believe it now, but take it from both myself and your mother who have the experience of centuries.

"If you did not lie to us, however, I would be far more amicable to you doing as you pleased. Have we not always trusted you? Let you see and hear the greatest innermost workings of the empire? Taught you everything we could? I know that you have been up to more than simply starting scuffles or evading your guards, Azyra. Please do not take either myself or your mother for fools.

"Furthermore, if all you wish is to command your own bodyguard and be permitted more freedom why did you not ask us? Has there ever been a time when we were unreasonable? When we did not listen to your concerns? That hurts me more than anything else, that you did not trust us even that far. Tell me what you have been up to, dear. Tell me what it is you want to do... surely you do not think going around starting fistfights is the best you can aspire to?"

Giving her some small token of freedom - even if it is merely a token - will go a long ways in this situation.

>>14848131

That's way too many questions and attacking against someone who right now is super defensive.

I vote for sticking up for Scinnari in regards to dangers, but also smoothing things over with, yes, loosening up on Azyra some, either in the way her and her bodyguards interact, or a different arrangement of guarding altogether.

And maybe a polymorph or two wouldn't go amiss!!

>>14848140
Let's allow her to command her own bodyguards. Assign some Ashaite to her too, though, and tell her those are under *our* orders. They will follow her commands but they are like our personal little peace of mind that she is safe. It's a compromise, because we are reasonable parents who both worry and value her independence.

Perhaps then we can provide her with a few areas she is allowed to go to without guards, then put a bunch of polymorphed guards there with orders to simply watch her and ensure her safety.

Or give her a magic item that polymorphs her into someone mundane looking and allow her out into the city like that.

Status updates:

--After some heated negotiation (and demonstration that gouts of superheated steam have absolutely no effect on you) you have secured the dragonturtles's obedience, at least in regards to shipping. He demands a constant toll, of course, but nothing terribly unreasonable. It only remains to be seen whether he will comply.

--Spies sent out to investigate the silver dragon reputed to be hiding near your newest holdings have finally located what they believe to be her- She has been assisting several primitive human tribes in the vicinity, in turn being aided by them. Her injuries persist, too- The entirety of her left flank is almost scales, seared clean of all protection- merely raw, and all too soft skin. Likewise, her left wing has been almost entirely destroyed, the appendage remaining, but the thin flesh that should make up the wing having been almost entirely burnt away. It, too has started to regrow, though it looks like it will be a while until she can fly again, at the least.Her left flank is a patchwork of scars and and scabs, caused by anything from, (your spies assure you,) displacer beast or carrion crawler claws to stray branches or scraping treebark as she moves in the jungle. She does seem to be keeping a low profile, mostly manipulating the weather subtly to the needs of her human allies. Despite her infirmity, she is working on clearing out sections of the jungle from the more hostile and dangerous aberrations. Though succesful, it has doubtless contributed to her injuries.

--The drow raiding your northern settlement do not seem to be raiding on the other side of the mountain, though they do occasionally snipe at the garrison Seffestranias has placed in the Beren passage. Likewise, no other nations seem to be suffering from such blatant and prolonged raids, given some to suspect that there is a drow city somewhere below your territories, perhaps even one with the dogmatic desire to return to the surface.

>>14848039
I... don't think that we actually have anything that we don't want Azyra to see. In the entire city; the only reasons that we would consider ordering her away from something is that it is hazardous to her or that we don't think she's informed enough to effectively act in proximity to something (ex. mage's lab or a delicate spy op)- both of which should go away with time as she grows more mature and capable. Already, there are precious few places from which she is barred.

Anyway, Azyra is going to be watched her whole life. One way or another, she is our daughter and we're not going to take our eyes off her for too long until one of us is dead. And going unprotected in the name of a brief illusion of freedom is disgustingly careless; we are very disappointed in her. If she feels that our bodyguards chafe that badly, then she should go about acquiring different bodyguards more suited to her temperament and proving to us that they are both competent and loyal enough to replace the ones that we have assigned. At least that would be constructive.

>>14848164
No, that's too much. I don't think we should lie to her like that. Make it a given that she will be required to have bodyguards. But allow her to pick her own guards and be in charge of them. That's something she brought up, so knock that pin from under her.

And tell her that lying to her mom is a bad bad thing. She shouldn't do that. We trust her completely, she should do the same with us. If she's ashamed enough that she has to lie maybe she should have reconsidered the action in the first place.

>>14848166

I think we can capture the Silver now, or should attempt a capture- we don't know if the Black is still alive or not, and this one is more injured than we thought.

I say we use our hand-picked Lizards to fend off any human interruptions while we roll in and sort it out- or...if it's taking care of monsters in the forest, let's lure it out and use our aerial advantage to its fullest.

>>14848220
No. She's still mostly capable of fighting, just not flight. Go for the kill.

>>14848236
She will be weaker than normal though. So, we have that advantage now.

>>14848236

That's why I say use the flight against her - And while she's looking up at us, have an invisibled crew of assassins plunge K.O. poison or so into her unprotected side.

It's worth the risk. Best we get two - If we have to kill her, we might not even get any if the Black's dead.

>>14848166
That silver is weak enough to reliably kill, I think. Arm up our best forces to be resistant or immune to the usual silver tricks- cold and paralysis plus the standard array of typical sorcerous abilities- locate her, and then go in fast and hard to take her down. Capture would be nice but is far from necessary; don't take any risks that we don't have to. Bring the Watcher, and that should buy us more than enough loot from the endeavor. And even if we get nothing, killing a silver is still satisfying.

>>14848286

Capturing it would be more, and you're planning on bringing paralysis along with you anyway.

Come on Azaladon, no guts no glory!

>>14848298
>paralysis
No.

>>14848298
Dragons are immune. No. She dies. Strafe her with firebreath until she is a smoking ruin. Mount the skull in our lair.

>>14848351

Well >>14848286 is.

Come on she's got an entire flank wide open guys; this is perfect drug + pounding material. And when she's distracted by us you know it can be delivered.

Come on boiz, ya know it makes sense!

>>14848378

They are immune to a good clobbering. Why don't you just fire away until tiny health, *then* bring in the minis to knock her out? What's so hard about this? And where's the adventure gone?

>>14848412
Gone back when we decided to be a plotting type character rather than a mindless brute.

>>14848394
Oh, I wasn't saying we can't capture her is we see the opportunity, but planning to do it based on paralysis is an incredibly bad idea.

>>14848412
I hate to say it, but hitpoint bars are a construct of fiction.

>>14848425
Oh please, capturing her isn't being a 'plotting' type character. It's being even more reckless than just killing her.

>>14848443
*Sigh* He said the "adventure" was gone back when we decided to be plotty. Ie, capturing her (the "adventuring") is not plotty.

>>14848443
Here's something that's not a construct of fiction then. We beat her into a bloody fucking pulp.
Give her a concussion, break her bones, tear off her wings, whatever is required so that she does not fight back anymore.

>>14848394
>Well >>14848286 is.
Perhaps you should reread what was actually written:

>Arm up our best forces to be resistant or immune to the usual silver tricks- cold and paralysis plus the standard array of typical sorcerous abilities
>Arm up to be immune to paralysis
Because silver dragons have a paralyzing breath weapon.

>>14848425

Now see, 'Shoot fire until dead' isn't plotting. 'Shoot fire to distract from a cripping side attack' is plotting.

Capture is a better result than killing, and requires more plotting and, indeed, finesse, to capture and not kill.

What's more, we're an adult Red, and that's an adult Silver; even uninjured we'd be roughly equal, except we've got a magical edge, and it isn't EVEN that, she's got a glaring 'Hit me!' sign on half her body and she can't fly!

Honestly, don't mistake cowardice for 'practicality'. Especially as we don't even know the condition of the Black. I haven't seen a single good reason not to go after this Silver with intent to capture.

>>14848457
No. She is dangerous. VERY dangerous. Even wounded as she is. We won't escape unscathed like with the black if we get down and tangle with her.

I'm all for hitting the Silver, but if we do, make it hard, fast, and a surprise. Crash down onto it from above, all fire and claws. If it (he or she?) gets away, start whipping out the sorcery. I'm sure we've gotten pretty darn good at it.

>>14848463
Also, we should give them something to help them coordinate, given she has fog cloud.

>almost ndshie
Almost /what,/ captcha?

concerning the avariel insurection, the most comprehensive way to undermine an insurgency is to change the dynamic of the conflict, when you institute yourself as a force of construction, a guerilla force who seeks to oppose you must do so at the expense of their own country (the sewers you build, the farms you plant...)
in this enviorment the seeds you select for the institutions that will ultimately run the county are vitaly importaint, prospects for law enforcement, beuracracy, and civil service, must be held to the highest standard (we have the benefit of not having an out of control media that must be placated with meaningless number figures), if there are shortages then our own people can preform in non-public roles untill numbers go up.
when you strip away reasons for opposition down to 'i just dont like them', that undercuts a guerillas raison d'etre.

>>14848481

Oh no! You mean we'll have to STRATAGIZE?

Better call the whole thing off guys; sounds too risky to me. Lets go find that Black!

>>14848478
Then you are blind, because the reason is staring you in the face: She's a silver of equal age.

Distract her for a side attack? What? How? How will we capture her? All dragons are immune to paralysis and sleep effects, and they have tremendous saves. Plus silvers are immune to cold and freezing effects.

No, flaming her into a dead burnt-out cinder is fine. If we really want a soul-capture dragon use the black and if she's dead find another young one. The world is fucking covered in dragons, we can find much easier prey than this silver.

>>14848490

Ah yeah, the ol' 'Shock and Awe'. We should totally do that.

So what, we let it be known to the humans there's some giant spider or so in the woods, they send big bertha to investigate, then WOOSH WOOSH FWOOSH, we bag a dragon. Or kill it. Depending on how it all goes.

>>14848534
The black's still a dragon. Let's go hunt housecats or something.

>>14848553

I dunno man, I heard they've got claws...

Maybe we should go pick on Cygnis? Something completely defenseless seems like it's within our ability to handle.

>>14848553
>>14848562
Boo hoo, mad that people don't want to be stupid for no reason? Cry some more.

>>14848562
Godsdamnit, she has hands and legs. We need to go maim cripples. Preferably crippled children. Maybe orphans... Oh, better not, they might have a mysterious destiny.

>>14848166
We should hire the adventures that put an end to the drow problem in Morinth a few years back, it might cost us some money but they know how to fight the drow in their home.

“Azyra.” you say softly, entering the corridor. Azyra glances up and goes silent, looking back down, gaze fixating somewhere near her feet. She always seems more polite when you aren't polymorphed.

“Yes father?”

“I hear that you have some problems?”

“I...” she says, obviously somewhat embarrassed to have been overheard.

“You were a bit loud in your statement of them...” You observe mildly. “Even if you don't agree with her, you ought to offer her some respect. And beyond even that, family /is/ family...” You add, again mildly. You sit down momentarily in the hallway, and lower your head to roughly her level.

“I... I'm sorry, mother.” Azyra offers after a few moments, looking down.

“I forgive you, Azyra, but please, do listen to your father and I.” Scinnari says, giving Azyra a hug that she returns half-heartedly.

“Very well... You are upset with your guards?” you ask.

“They're- Well, they're yours. They worship you. They're so terrified of me getting hurt they are overly- Very overly cautious, even though we're always disguised, and I /am/ capable of defending myself, to a degree...” Azyra reply starts contritely, but starts to get heated again. You cock your head, and the motion seems to remind her that she's doing it; she quickly curtails herself.

“Reasonable enough. Your guards should be yours.” you agree. “Very well. I would suggest that, instead of getting in fights, your efforts might be better spend attempting to find guards that you /do/ like. I am willing to let you use your own, provided their loyalty and competence are satisfactorily proved. You can, of course, be in charge of them. Perhaps that would do?” Azyra seems taken aback by the concessions you offer, and nods hurriedly.

“Of course, father. Thank you.” She replies, smiling. She waits to see if there's anything else from you two before she hugs you on the snout and departs.

I'm new, testing.

>>14848564

Except it's not stupid, it's risk and reward - something we used to do and be good at as we could plan minimal risk for maximum reward.

Being king's made you soft- and, actually, pretty naive to think we can just leisurely torch her to death without her thinking of a way to either avoid us or get her own back. And if we're going to get injured - may as well capture her!

>>14848566

Damn...can we just...can we just knock on someone's door and then run away before they answer it?

The strategy...it's flawless, surely?

>>14848591
Make sure that both we and Scinnari personally vet all these guards. It can be a sort of additional husband/wife type bonding thing, looking after our daughter's safety. Ah, they grow up so fast. *sniff*

>>14848636
Samefags gonna samefag. Knock it off and stop being butthurt that nobody else is as stupid as you.

>>14848636
You realise we're almost certain to knock on an ex-adventurers door and get horribly maimed when we set off a bunch of traps, right?

>>14848672

I- gah!

Okay, okay...we...the next time we see a fly, or a bug, we squash it! That way we know some Buddist somewhere will feel sad if they ever found out!

God-damn, is sure is great being pragmatic like this. No risk involved at all, yet all this pleasure as reward!

>>14848591
Good girl. See? She's reasonable, just a teenager. (Equivalent. She's like, ten, right?).

Anyway, I'd recommend saying hi to the red, first. We can set ourselves up as her mentor and possibly even guide her towards being a suitable mate a century or three down the road, if that's what we're after. Or just a fairly skilled independent agent who likes us and has reason to owe us a favor.

Then the silver. We should... Damn, I don't know what to do. Perhaps poisoning her to weaken her, then capture, but I suspect she'd be more trouble than Cygy. Still, if we've got a dragon lying gift-wrapped on our doorstep, it seems a shame not to take it. Her wings are likely to heal fast, too, so if we wait to long she'll be able to fly...


I'd say for make friends with the red, capture the silver, then go after the black. The only way the black will no longer be a target is if she is dead, so we can let her wait, even a few years, if necessary.

I think is better to go after the silver now and later deal with the black as we see fit at a later point. As for how to get the silver I say get some of our elite troops on the ground attack the humans she has taken under her wing and at the right moment attack with our superior strength and mobility, we can try to capture her for a later sacrifice to tiamat or what aver we like.

>>14848706

Capturing's not going to be easy, but considering we're using her for research and not as a proper slave like Cyg's being made to be, we needn't worry about her being 'trouble' after capture.

But as I say, capture is the troubling part.

>>14848705
As long as we're sure it's a fly and not a polymorphed archmage before we attack it.

>>14848604

Welcome to the thread! Hope you have fun here!

I vote for killing the silver. Too risky and we don't even have a real reason to capture her like with the black or cygnis.

>>14848742

Yeah- ah, and not a fly too; they carry diseases, and we might not have planned to catch a disease!

Infact, scrap the whole idea, it's too risky. Lets just think bad thoughts as people, yeah?

>>14848773
>and we don't even have a real reason to capture her like with the black
Wut.

Also I could like to advise caution on our movements on other dragons, its of course natural and right to kick a few upstarts in there right place nut if we make our movements too obvious the local good dragons like wise up to our moves against them AND our identity as the sorcerer king of Mza

>>14848591
Our tests for loyalty and competence are crazy rigorous, just for the record.

Anyway, kill silver, capture black, visit red, prepare assets against the drow, get more data on that copper and that bronze, hunt avariel rebels, message green, add spies to Morinth. All of these are still on the to-do list, OP; we but await your writings.

Regarding the details of visiting the red, I am tempted to give her a dressed-up version of one of our communication-and-control items as a gift... but perhaps a more standard communication device would be appropriate, so that she'll be able to call on her benefactor for help if she runs into serious trouble... or just wants to talk. Or wants to mate, in a few decades. I don't think I can resist at least including a scrying beacon in our gift, though.

>>14848773

a) More capture material for life-force work
b) More capture material for enslavement spell and binding work
c) Constant supply of Dragon's Blood and other magical dragon bits and bobs.
d) If the Black is dead, this is our captive
e) Possible avenue to look into regarding breeding
f) A lovely sacrifice in a ritual
g) ...Fun!

Can we at least TRY to capture the silver? Like, if she's on the ground in front of us, we not deliver the coup de grace but tie her up and twirl our mustache a little?

Can we at least say that much?

>>14848800

>Anyway, capture silver, capture black, visit red

Fixed it for you.

>>14848834
Oh, whatever. I don't care as long as we get shit done.

>>14848816
That's pretty much what I've been suggesting. We shouldn't hold back from the killing blow if the alternative is having our wing torn off or something, but it would make a nice secondary objective to pursue if we get the chance.

Is anyone else disturbed by all the interest in capturing other dragons for breeding programs? I mean, first off they're not reds so they're weaker than we are. Couldn't we just do it ourselves? And if Scinnari raises issues then we could do it magically or something.

Why bother? It's just a whole lot of work that doesn't need doing.

>>14848816
>>14848815

I support the idea of capturing the silver JUST so we can sacrifice her later and get all the sub-products we can get out of her once we are done, hell I want to kill her but why just kill her went we can get so much more if we kill her a little later on an altar and get us a little favor from the Queen of dragons if we deliver a silver's soul to her that way she might not talk about us identity to other dragons.

I've been thinking, the silver is connected with other metallics in the area right? So instead of killing her or capturing her, why no try and pull another Cibach routine? "Rescue" her, maybe offer a place of refuge, befriend her and then use her as a source of information about he doings of these other metallic dragons and to spread disinformation to those same dragons in the event of them interfering with our plans.

>>14848816
Unfortunately, no, we can't.

(As a dragon, we are incapable of growing facial hair of any kind.)

>>14848915
Polymorph, alter self, etc.

>>14848895

I think more people are disturbed by the idea of us having an orgy than of using others for our own purposes.

>>14848906

Now see I'd like this, really...but it seems we're past the point of no return for this lass. Capture or kill.

Kill Silver. There's really nothing we can get from her that we can't get from a less dangerous younger dragon.

>>14849005
Information.

>>14848906
It took 30 threads or so to get Cygnis, and we only bothered because she was a major plot point for us.

I vote for killing. It's been a while since we ate metallic meat.

>>14849015
Yeah, but this time it'll be faster because she's not waifu material like Cygnis potentially was at the time.

I'd just like it to be known that on IRC, there seems to be fun thinking regarding using the Silver as a kind of 'Meat font', where we constantly drain her of blood, scales and other parts that regrow, in order to use them in spells and in floor tiling.

That is all.

I say capture, for the above reasons stated.

>>14849021

Hey, we haven't even gotten to know her yet!

Remember to bring Watcher along when we go up against the silver, for brain draining and hoard finding.

>>14849022
Yeah. As a joke. That's silly.

>>14849022
In floor tiling?

GENIUS!

>>14849014
We can just bring watcher along when we kill her and we instantly have everything she knows.

>>14849071

Nothing is silly about having an awesome Silver-Scale floor.

NOTHING.

>>14848895
Firstly, while reds may be strong, other dragons hav advantages in other areas. Reds aren't very nimble, for instance, and have no swim speed.
Secondly, remember the hoops we had to jump through to get stuff to protect Azyra from possible Binder influence?
Thirdly, capturing them for breeding directly isn't all that good an idea, given dragons can choose whether children result, so we need to find ways around that, ie striking a deal with that green.

>>14849021
There's not even a reason to capture her though! We wanted cygnis as ours. What connection do we have to the silver? None.

Kill her and be done with it.

>>14849095
>>14849005

Uhuh, NOW who's samefagging?

Want reasons?

>>14848815

Look again. HARDER.

concerning the drow, theres a reason they are targetting us and only us,

seeing as our previous messages have not been acknowlaged, im thinking they were simply discarded by their patrols ("haha, these weak rivin wish to palay", or worst case scenario; "haha, we wont listen to these weak rivin because were acting on someones behalf!")

so off the top of my head, either an effort be made to deliver a message direclty to someone importaint, bypassing underlings who may or may not keep it (difficult, due to inherent advantages drow enjoy in the subterrain. but not impossible given proper preparation)
or, force them to the table through interdiction of their surface access with extreem prejudice. (imposing cordons, sealing entrances, punitive expeditions, the like)

.

>>14849071
There is nothing silly about an infinite supply of profitable dragon materials.

>>14849114
All of those are either easier to get elsewhere, silly, or outweighed by the risk of fighting a dragon that is just as tough as us.

>>14849154
Silvers aren't just as tough as reds, particularly when it comes to breath weapons, which are absolutely brutal in a red vs silver fight. We're bother vulnerable to the others elemental type, but our breath weapon is significantly nastier.

Plus the silver is already wounded.

Adventurers are always something you have in excess, and so prior to dealing with other things, you post a seven and a half thousand gold bounty for anyone who manages to clear out the drow infestation in the mountains. (Proof being seen as an ending of the raids.) As soon as you post it, several would-be heroes set out, along with several adventurers of moderate renown- You doubt any will manage anything more than dying an unpleasant death, but you've never really approved of adventurers anyway...

Scrying and heading south, you navigate towards the jungle where the Red you have had your eye on resides- Young, of course, but moderately competent, in your estimation. Showing promise. Either way, you actually approach with rather benevolent intentions... Gifts, even.

The primitive's village is surprisingly hard to find, and you do have to pause and scry repeatedly as you close in on the location. Finally approaching it, you watch for half an hour to identify the dragon herself- She is smaller than you thought, fourteen feet long, tail to snout. Rather oversized snout, of course- she's very young, and still growing rather rapidly... But that was not what you are here for. You cast a levitation spell, allowing you to halt your flight, and hover over the encampment as she emerges from a tree, gliding down to a raised wooden platform in the center of the camp. A few humans begin shouting, and a rather elderly priest-looking individual emerges from a nearby tent, bowing before the platform before standing to speak with her. He speaks surprisingly good draconic, not at all accented or debased as you would have expected.

“The Firelady returns. Shall we prepare offering of flesh?”

>>14849186 has you there, >>14849154

And there's no such thing as silly dragon bits- just silly applications of dragon bits.

“Yes, priest. Flesh and blood for the god's protection. Such is the pact divine.” the fledgling red answers, the draconic words obviously scaring some of the people in the village- They have formed a circle a healthy distance from the platform, despite it being twelve feet off the ground.

The priest turns and issues commands, and four laborers bring forth a large platter bearing a quite dead jaguar- You can smell it's thoroughly cooked flesh from here. The priest attaches it to ropes hanging from the platform, and it is pulled up slowly and reverentially. The 'Firelady' remains poised and impassive, still as a statue, until it is raised completely, at which point she digs in, eating heartily. You decide to wait a while longer, perhaps contacting her after she is finished with her deistic exchange.

The humans around seem to take her acceptance of the cooked jaguar as divine approval- They caterwaul and scream, rejoicing loudly as she eats, and several of them bow down or abase themselves.

She finishes a few minutes later, and resumes her stately position. The humans rapidly gravitate towards silence, and she speaks again.

“The deathgod has sent is creatures; A pack of carrion crawlers has emerged to the east. They were fifteen miles away at sunset. They number twenty, as is the deathgod's chosen number.” she state grandly. The priest nods in agreement, and relays the holy words to the flock, including one you tentatively identify as the village chief.

“Further, I spoke with they Skygod this day. He granted clear weather for the next week, at my request.”

“The Firegod is merciful.” The priest intones, first in draconic, then for his tribe's benefit. “Is that all, Firelady?”

“It is.” she replies, and turns to one side. The humans rapidly clear away except for a brave few, and she unleashes a blast of flame, lighting the bonfire prepared. They cheer, and she makes a few magnanimous gestures before taking wing, departing.

>>14849190
Observe for now. We shouldn't interrupt her ritualising with her servants. We'll approach in private.

>>14849186
Silvers aren't vulnerable to fire, but reds are vulnerable to cold. Silvers have more magic. Seems silvers have all the cards.

>>14849186
It's not significantly nastier, it's d10 compared to d8. Which demonstrably better, I grant, but not enough for you to go dismissing it. And the silver is nearly on par with an equal age red. Weaker? Yes. But not enough that we can manhandle them like some white or brass.

And yes, she is injured. That's why I am voting for attacking her at all. Attack and kill her in her injured state.

Capture? Hah. A fool's dream.

>>14849216
>firelady
>firegod

I want to mock her ceaselessly, but we're here to be nice. For some reason.

What exactly will we be getting out of this? It's not like reds, or any dragons, to just show up and offer help.

>>14849240
Actually, it is. Gotta help the young 'uns if we don't want to be the last dragon in the world.

Admittedly, they often end up turning on each other the moment the lesser looks like a threat to his/her mentor, but they still often go for the whole 'mentor' thing.

And that's entirely aside from how, say, younger female dragons will situate their territory alongside a much older male's, trading fucks for protection, advice, and patronage.

>>14849223
Yes they are.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTrue.htm
> Silver Dragon
> Special Abilities
> Alternate form, immunity to acid and cold, cloudwalking, vulnerability to fire

Silvers, in a straight up fight, are slightly worse than reds. They have better mental stats, but worse physical stats and a weaker breath weapon. D8 based as opposed to our d10 based.

>>14849223
Yeah, metallics are like the mary sues of the dragons. Golds especially.

Which is why it is especially hilarious that we own one.

>>14849228

Not a fools dream at all, if one has the brains for such a venture...and the people.

Afterall, we are not alone. What would be a staggering task to do ourselves can easily be achieved through additional help- we do nearly all the damage, then we bring in a mass of well-protected Lizards for the ending.

The bounty of blood and scales and all the other benefits will be worth it.


To get onto the Red though- I guess we could talk to her now. She seems to have the public presence; lets see how she handles someone who isn't eating her shit. But...lets be somewhat kind about it.

>>14849216
Huh. I like her.

Follow her back to her lair, invisible. Then appear and introduce ourselves. Say how we've had our eye on her and approve of her status as a deity. Offer her our support and wisdom in the future should she wish it, and friendship as well.

Might as well bring her a gift too. A little something that demonstrates how extreme the differences in our power are and how grateful she should be for this chance.

>>14849240
A contact, mostly. She might be tiny and young now, but she'll grow and we can't rule everywhere at once; eventually she'll have her own empire. And I'd rather have a red who thinks well of and looks up to us around than most other colors with most other types of relationship.

Besides, we're big and powerful enough that we can afford to be nice to little people.

>>14849216
If all they're giving her is food, she's getting a raw deal. But then, I suppose that she is new to this, and as she gathers more tribes she'll be able to get more influence. Follow her back to her lair before landing and introducing ourselves, and getting her name. Depending upon her reaction, this conversation could go a couple different ways.

>>14849240

We want a friend :)

>>14849284
>Might as well bring her a gift too. A little something that demonstrates how extreme the differences in our power are and how grateful she should be for this chance.
We are bringing her a gift- an item that will let her get in touch with us if she needs to. Those aren't cheap.

Do we have anything prepared to give her? That subtly enchanted viewing globe? The 'trigger' bangle/bracelet?

Or perhaps something less suspicious for the first gift.

>>14849311
Preferably one that is a treasure even without that aspect of its design. Something worthy of a Red Dragon. Inset with rubies probably, I dunno.

>>14849216
If we have the Watcher with us, ask it to fill us in on anything interesting while we fly after her invisibly. I doubt we'll come across many surprises- it sounds to me like she was mostly bullshitting those primitives- but one never knows.

Welp, time to whip out Watcher and ask some questions about just who the hell she was talking about with this deathgod and skygod stuff. Also, just random stuff we should know about her: We probably have a better grasp of dragon psychology in-character, so I'll leave the specifics to Azaladon, but we should probably be looking at whether she already has a "mentor," what her plans are, just how good a deal she has set up here (whether she gets treasure/thinks she will be able to use the tribes to get treasure later/whatever, etc, may influence just how glad she is to accept our offer), and whatever information on her parentage/other dragons she has met we can get. Always good to know more about the neighbours, after all.

This meeting is going to be taken as courting, even if it isn't. We show up all but unannounced, offer gifts and advice and help to a young red dragoness?

Gee, what could we want?

>>14849581
Oh, please, she's like ten years old. If we were that desperate, we'd be fucking everything with four legs and scales.

>>14849581
Blood for the blood god and skulls for the skull throne, of course.

Also, delicious dragon meat.

You hover higher invisibly, and are placated as she passes over you, almost scraping you back in her ascent. Moments after her departure, Watcher chimes out an affirmative. You have what you wanted.

“This skygod and deathgod... I assume they were fabrications of hers?”

“Not entirely.” Watcher replies quietly. “The religion is something that predates her. She stumbled upon it and realized it was worth maintaining. The deathgod isn't an actively 'evil' entity, nor are any of them; some just have more evil aspects. She is, however, trying to slowly paint the black to the east as a the deathgod- Or a deathlord of the deathgod, she's working on raising her own position from 'avatar' to 'deity' but is terrified of reaching too far. Ah...” Watcher emits a faint series of chimes without actual words, a sort of ruminative sound. “She's trying to paint the deathgod as an evil entity, too. The skylord is not, however, her own invention- She actually met a Blue ranging across the mountains today. Their talk turned, tentatively, to the weather. She... believes the blue to have returned, and is aware that due to the age difference, she cannot do anything about it if it hasn't.”

I just want to say that I don't want to capture the silver to keep her in anyway, I just want to capture her to sacrifice her in the MOST PROFITABLE way.

>>14849581
She's 8-15 years old and not even sexually active yet for another 40 years.

Then again, you know what they say. If you can't find a good wife, you can always raise one....

We have a good wife already though, so nah. Just mentor.

“I see...” you reply. With a great blat of air, you take off yourself, and pull in behind her, slowing your flight as much as you can. Despite your invisibility, your massive wingbeats are obviously audible. She glances around, looking for the source of the noise, glances back at the village she leaves, and lowers, trying to get closer to he jungle canopy. When she's literally brushing the canopy, she goes back to trying to locate you.

“Quite well done, 'Firelady'.” you comment. She almost stalls, but thanks to a dip in the canopy, manages to catch herself before she crashes through.

“I don't recall asking for approval.” she says sharply. Her stare suggests that she has located you.

“Oh, but you have more than earned it.” you reply, dropping your invisibility. She swerves away from you, putting thirty feet between the two of you, but otherwise does not flee. “I do try and keep abreast of most other dragons in the vicinity. You are- sadly- the about the only one that seems halfway intelligent in the ways you go about doing things. Being so... established at your age is quite an accomplishment. I approve and am impressed.”

“And you are...?” she asks. The particular connotation of the draconic words is respectful, but somewhat wary. “Furthermore, what do you desire?”

>>14849623
Thank the Watcher.

Ask her what her name is. Does she really enjoy just being called "watcher"? She's being more personable these days, we should be as well.

>>14849603
Well hello there.

>>14849662
"Firstly, a more proper introduction would be appreciated. Then... conversation, of course. I assume you have somewhere more pleasant to talk than flying above a jungle."

After she gives us her name, introduce ourself, of course.

>>14849711
What if she doesn't have one?

Personally, I think it would be best to engender some dependence here. Give her some advice, and a gift that allows her to contact us. Then leave. Eventually, she'll give in and try to contact us, and we'll be helpful. Next time she'll be less reluctant to contact us... and so on.

>>14849733
Shit, all she has to do is take us to a clearing large enough to land in, or the mountains, or something. It's not that hard. If she's not smart enough to come up with a place to entertain a larger dragon on short notice then we've overestimated her.

In any case, I would like to find out a little more about how she acts than we have so far- she's wary, but anyone would be wary. An actual conversation would be nice, and we can give our gift and offer further assistance IF she has comported herself well at the end of it. She could still turn out to not be worth the effort of mentoring.

>>14849758
Give Writer-Dude some time he is obviously not done yet.

>>14849711
I like this. Be proper, friendly, and polite.

Land somewhere, perhaps have her take us back to her lair? Better yet, say "follow me" and then lead her back to her own lair, because we got it from Watcher.

Talk about where she came from, her plans, how she has been doing the past few years of her life. Give her pointers on having cultists and the best way to inspire them to fervor, that's an area we have a lot of experience in. Mundane advice too, like the best way for a dragonet to scratch itchy newly-grown scales.

For her part, tell her she should pay attention to local dragon politics. We would like to become friends and perhaps an ally to her, but point out that while we can aid in many ways we won't be able to save her if she flips off the Great Wyrm Blue who runs the deserts to the south. Advise her to be wary of the silver to the southeast too, and tell her that we will aid her by doing away with the black to her west. That should really be something she appreciates.

Finally give her a way to contact us regularly so we can chat. I assume we prepared this beforehand, and it should be appropriately extravagant and amazing. Like a golden mirror with a face that shimmers like liquid water, solidifying into contact with us... studded with rubies that provide an area-of-effect warding on her lair. That should help her out and besides, we don't want to be scryed on when we visit.

Of course it would allow us to see into her lair at any time without her detecting it too, past any wards.

In general, let's have a pleasant chat with her and offer to support her and be a guide, should she ever wish to avail herself of information we hold. We will also attempt to aid her in other more immediate ways too, and expect only for her to reciprocate and be friends.

>>14849846
Make sure that we're not the one doing all the talking.

That said, I would recommend speaking for a short while upon the dragons that we know of in the area, yes- there's no way that she has a spy network, so she would probably appreciate the intelligence. That's a gift in itself, after all.

And mention that precious few dragons have the initiative and drive to set themselves up as kings, queens, or gods and defend the position and survive. Praise her audacity and boldness... but also emphasize that it's a path fraught with risk, because it paints oneself as a target like few others. But it is far better than the lazy coward's path of idly taxing shipping or raiding travelers, like so many do. Dragons are meant to rule. Those like ourselves, or Seffestranias, are doing what dragons are meant to do. She will, too, if she's willing to weather the risk. She has found the path far earlier in life than we did.

That is, ultimately, what drew us here, and we should say so. She will need counsel and perhaps aid. It is for that which we brought her our gift (I do like that it's something beautiful, but make sure it's something mobile that she can carry with her), if she needs to contact us. It would be a shame to see her flame sputter out.

Hour-later bump.

Anything happening?

>>14850207
Getting food, sorry. Chill, you.

############

"Firstly, a more proper introduction would be appreciated. Then... conversation, of course. I assume you have somewhere more pleasant to talk than flying above a jungle." you admonish.

“I am... Without name at the moment.” she replies. “Without anyone to use it with, I am content to be called Firelady.” she replies cautiously. She strives heavily, drawing slightly ahead, and you allow her to change direction, leading you to a different place.

“And I am Azaladon. Again, I wish to state my approval. Setting oneself up as a ruler or deity is a path fraught with peril, but one worth risking. Dragons are fit to rule, but depressingly few are willing to make the least bit effort- I suspect you will find that the treasury of your own nation will surpass the bounty from tolling a road or raiding merchants for valuables many times over. You have found your way earlier than I- Or Seffestranias, a northern neighbor of mine, did. However, should you weather the risk... Your reward could be proportionately greater.” She looks at you intruiged as you talk of treasure and hoards, and eventually leads you to a small, barren clearing- scorched clean by a forest fire, by the look of it. You both land, you crunching burnt branches and trunks under your claws, and you add, as if just remembering.

“Something else you should know- I suspect you have not yet turned your attention to your... 'peers'...” you add with distaste. “You will find that the nearest you possess is a black to your /west/, not your east. I was, however, planning on disposing of her, if you had no objection?” She shakes her head, and you smile. “Very well. In that case, all I shall say is to be cautious of the one to your east, a gold across the mountains to your east, and a silver in the mountains, much further to the east.” you finish. “Now. I apologize for being so long-winded. It is your turn to speak. ...If you have nothing particular, you could settle for telling me about the setup you have currently. I might be able to offer advice as to how to improve it.”

“Well, it's not as if I could stop you, should you decide to take it from me, is it?” she asks sardonically. She begins talking, and you listen. Though the occasional impressed statement, tidbit of advice, or simply being an avid listener, you manage to keep her talking- Despite running into the blue earlier the day, she seems to have been quite starved for intelligent conversation- She can hardly do so with her high priest. Her guarded statements eventually turn into a grand recounting of her history.

She was, you learn, hatched alone several hundred miles to the east. Without parents or any reason to stay, she traveled east, attempting to evade the notice of the silver in the region, and nearly running into the black as a result. He chased her off, injuring her, and she fled further west, eventually stumbling upon the tribe and the priest- When he mistook her for a symbol from their god of fire, she figured it could be useful, but has discovered that such primitives have very little in the way of hoard-worthy material. Food is about the best they can offer, and she is growing displeased with the fact.

>>14850232
Hmmm.

Invite her to our castle. Introduce her to our dear Scinnari and Azyra. Maybe she will hit it off with our daughter? We can even present her the communication gift while we're there, and have a feast in her honor. Provide her with her first extravagant clothes worthy of a dragon and host a fine dinner to welcome her, perhaps.

What say you, folks?

Hey W-D, I was in the process of writing a fapfic about this quest, then I realized I should probably ask your permission first.

Would you mind if I did? Just smut, no plot or anything.

>>14850348
I was thinking something along the lines of stressing we have a mate, but making some kind of goodwill gesture with some sort of gift.

Buuut, some sort of invitation could work nicely. And it seems convenient that this Red and Azyra are about the same age. Has my approval.

>>14850348
Horrible idea.

We can drop by every once in a while and give a tip, but bringing a young dragon home with us is just stupid. Especially with so much fanfare. It's completely unwarranted and would put her in an awkward situation.

Think of it from her end. She's trying to start up, messing around with some humans, when all the sudden this older, confident, powerful dragon flies in from nowhere. He leads you back to your own lair and gets you talking about things you probably shouldn't. Then he invites you over, treats you like a queen, introduces you to his daughter and gives you a direct line to him.

What the hell is she supposed to make of that?

>>14850371
You know what? I don't give a damn. Go ahead.

>>14850422
Really? Sweet.

It's a three-way b/w submissive Cygnis, Scinnari, and ourselves. I'll try to get it done in a few days.

>>14850348
I know we're failing at it horribly, but I was under the impression we were trying to keep the whole 'Lord Prestor is a dragon' thing a secret.

>>14850232
Mmm. That is a thorny issue. Honestly, we started working from a much stronger position when we began turning our thoughts to empire- with tens of thousands of gold and significant sorcererous power at our disposal, it was a relatively simple matter to relentlessly apply ourselves to the problem of turning a fairly innocent location into our holdings of today- which is essentially an entire empire whose quiet purpose is to make us money.

Still, she seems more than intelligent enough to apply herself to this problem. Where your servants are not doing as you wish, acquire additional servants or redirect their energies. Both should be easily possible for her- the jungles are sizable and few other dragons are nearby. There should even be a power vacuum to the west shortly which she can exploit, though she should know about the silver in the mountains and bronze in the oceans to the north if she does. The jungles are not without valuable resources of many sorts- the tribespeople may not use much in the way of conventional wealth at the moment, but that is just a sign that they have little by way of external trade, not that they cannot become prosperous enough to rule effectively if properly managed.

Ultimately it is hers to apply creativity, intellect, and relentless drive to the issue of changing her holdings into something worthy of her. They will be hers for a very long time, so she should not hesitate to begin plans which might take decades to bear fruit even now- if she puts in the effort and defends her ground, then eventually the rewards will be hers as well. Mention that we have projects decades in the making to ensure that we have a plentiful supply of competent agents.

Before we leave, ask her again to give us the name that she knew as her own when hatched. No aliases here, please. And then we can give her our gift, if she wishes to converse with us again- or needs to call for aid, if she finds herself well over her head.

>>14850380
She's not even sexually active yet, I doubt that's a concern.

>>14850407
What? We aren't going to invite her into our lair. Nor are we going to allow her to come into the castle in her dragon form. Nor is she going to LIVE with us or anything. It would just be a visit. We teleport her back home, give her a nice dinner, suitably impress her with our opulence, and then take her back to her territory and give her a way to contact us whenever... just to shoot the breeze if she wants.

I imagine she would be both nervous and excited at the prospect, really. After all, if we wanted to harm her we could just /do/ it. There is literally nothing she could do to resist us. At all. And she knows it.

Therefore any offers we make would be completely legitimate, because if we were going to do something bad to her we don't need to make offers. We just take.

>>14850442
We are. And to the majority of the world it is a secret. But Seffy knows, the blues know, and Tiamat is spreading it around to every chromatic everywhere any time she wants to.

While we keep it under wraps for the most part, there's no sense in keeping it a secret from our protege here. If she's really mentoring materiel then she will find out eventually anyway, and if she's not then she will eventually die. Either way, it doesn't matter.

idea. enchanting our catecombs to provide unsettling narration of intruders progress to unnerve and counfuse them, and would be funny.
it can also serve as an systemic scry/observation system for everything that goes on in the lair (which is somthing we should have anyone if not already.)

>>14850457
Honestly, I would consider this moving a bit fast for a mentorship. Leave her territory on a good note now, and if she does well in the future we can put bringing her for a visit on the agenda. We have years of relations with this girl ahead of us.

>>14850457
It sounds to me like she might have eventually decided to ditch the role she is playing because it bores her and she doesn't see a way to turn it to profit. Are you so sure we can trust this newbie with the secret that we are the sorcerer king of Mza?

>>14850490
What, like a "Intrusion detected in Area B7-R. Repeat: Intrusion detected in Area B7-R" alarm going off and constantly announcing where the intruders are?

>>14850520
Well, yeah. She has no reason to tell anyone and nobody would believe her even if she did, certainly not more than King Prestor.

>>14850457
Honestly I think she needs to prove herself more before we invite her to Mza. Maybe if she can turn this group of backwards primitives into a nation-state, even a poor one, then she will have earned a chance to see what being a national leader can do for her hoard.

>>14850490

Actually did we ever search and find who was buried in the catacombs and tombs that were beneath the volcano?

“I see, but do remember that individuals can be valuable additions to hoards as well... I originally intended to offer only advice, though you have proven yourself even more... full of potential than I had expected.” you reply. “I did come prepared, though. Allow me to present you with this token of my esteem.” you add, producing a small wooden casket from thin air. A ruby embedded in the top, and lined with red velvet, it contains the same mirror Cygnariassis once gave you in Freeport, suitably altered for your purposes. “This will allow you to contact the other, which I hold. If you ever require assistance... advice... Whatever, you may now contact me. I cannot always promise that I will provide, but I do believe I will usually be able to do so. Not if you annoy, for instance, a great blue wyrm of the desert, but perhaps if you run into trouble with the young gold to your east, or the green to west, I can certainly render assistance. Use it well.” you add, watching her open the small chest and gaze upon the mirror. You had it re-framed in red gold, and while not as satisfying as rubies, the coppery-hued gold tone seems to suffice, judging by the covetous glow of her eyes.

“Hah. Probably more valuable than the rest of her hoard in it's entirety.” Watcher adds in an almost-silent whispering chime. You'd suspect it to be true, really.

“Very well, 'Firelady', if you have no other immediate requests, I shall depart. Perhaps next time we meet, you will be Firegoddess.”

>>14850526

more like pic related to intruders, but our guards monitoring the place will of course know whats going on.

>>14850548
I think you are asking way too much dude. She's ten years old and couldn't do nearly what we did. We were almost a hundred before we started our part.

I say invite the girl to the castle but NOT our lair.

>>14850558
We are smooth.

Alright, our little dalliance is over. Pop on home to check what's going on, and then I think it's high time we deal with these drow in a more permanent fashion.

Like maybe finding their entrance to the surface and collapsing it.

>>14850601
No! Go after the black to practice our capture techniques, then after the silver. I think poison would be excellent, we can attack while she's sebilitated by the pain. If we do well, and have a way, we can knock her out and capture her, otherwise we can simply kill her.

..How do we capture a dragon without, you know, going the Cygnis route? Beat it over the head, stuff it in a bag of holding, and teleport?

>>14850601
Here.

>>14850628
This. I forgot all about the hit-list we had going. That's what I get for reading comics while waiting for updates.

>>14850570

>omnipresent disembodied voice hounding adventurers everywhere, confusing them, frightning them, turning them against each other.

i heartily endorse this idea

>>14850558
Presumably she'll have some final words. Then we can leave. Let's go deal with the black, then the silver; both should be done fast, giving little time for them to react, with overwhelming force and appropriate defenses on our strike team. Hit hard and unconscious or magically bound, in the black's case. Then take her to a prepared holding cell in our lab- presumably we've used some of our adamantine for adequate restraints and have acid-proofed everything. And have other magical restrictions in place, stopping her from breathing fire, spellcasting, etc. etc. and clouding her mind.

>>14850628
>capture a dragon

Well, if we can overpower her and KO her, that's good. Maybe we can take her with us when we teleport? I hope we don't have to lug her all the way home.

"Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold..."

We are going to have the most awesome hoard ever. All the other chromatics will be so damn jealous and they won't even know why. They'll just wake up one day and wonder why their hoards suck so bad.

Additional vote for going after the black. It's been somewhat long overdue.

>>14850628
If she survives our all-out attack then we can see about capturing the silver. But no compromises should be had, we should go in expecting to kill. No mercy or pulling punches because "oh we might want to take her alive" or anything like that.

Go in with everything.

As for the black, it should be easy to clean it up and lock it in our lab.

>>14850690
Tiamat will see that we have risen the bar, and use her god-powers to make every other dragon on the planet feel inadequate.

>>14850693
Of course, we hit her with our full strength. But if it comes to a point where we have to make a choice between incapacitating her and killing her, we should go for the former.

>>14850690
Man, screw that. We aren't keeping her even if we do capture her. I might be for capture if we can do it without extra danger, but even I think it's stupid to do anything but (for instance) extract her soul and give it to Scinnari as an anniversary gift. Chaining her up in our lair? That's crazy talk.

I still say the silver would be of more use if we pulled another Cibach.

>>14850737
Hell no.

>>14850731
Maybe once Scinnari takes the soul, we can taxidermi the body?

Still voting capture.

Though I CANNOT be bothered to state why- AGAIN. It's like blah blah blah blah blah with you guiz.

If we can capture, do everything in our power. If it looks like we can't, then don't. Simplez.

>>14850737
I doubt we could. The Silver is hiding after taking a lot of damage, and just guides a bunch of tribes. Cygnis was trying to Illuminati a major port city. The background just isn't there for that kind of manipulation. We've got enough on our plate already.

>>14850692
>>14850692
Adding my voice to the consensus. We need to get our experiments on lifespan-extension going, so we may as well start with the black now.

>>14850989
Just jump start my memory, why are we going all Unit 731?

>>14851114

Who waaaaaants to live...foreveeeeeeerrrrr?

Us. That's why.

The black you have had word of is quite difficult to scry. Eventually, you do penetrate it's shielding, and are surprised to see that it's wardings are centered on the ring it wears- Perhaps it did manage to kill an adventurer. More likely, however, it just found a body, or one starved to death. Either way, it makes your spying all the more time-consuming and unpleasant. Unpleasantness you are eager to return tenfold, once you are given the chance.

Your first item to attend to, of course, is to create a suitable containment for the dragon itself. Below your lab, you construct a rectangular prison of stone, lined with adamantium. A massive blow to your stock of the metal, but a worthy cause... Of that you feel certain. Near the top, a rectangular passage in the 'roof' of the chamber leads to your lab, a possible escape route... If you hadn't constructed the oubliette without enough room for it to turn around.

The black grows no easier to spy upon, but the time when you will no longer have to draws near. Your operation begins with the teleportation of several of your elite lizardmen to get the black's attention- Well armed, trained, and equipped, they are quite capable of pushing the arrogant worm to flight. Flight you capitalize upon, swooping in to tackle the lamed dragon. He rolls end over end, and you stumble yourself, offset by the ground, speed, and moving dragon beneath you.

He snarls and hisses, spitting acid at you. You dodge, but the burning liquid falls upon your back, not to mention a few of your lizardmen who had closed to assist. It fails to do any damage, as you had prepared protection from it's caustic breath prior to coming. The same cannot be said for his claws- In your efforts to gain inescapable grip of him, you find yourself upon him, and driven by your own weight and his strength, not to mention his access to your weaker side, his claws slice into you, tearing jagged streaks in your underbelly.

>>14851114
Insurance.

Though speaking of insurance, should we look into obtaining thought bottles (or something similar) and using them to potentially restore our memories/power if the Binder can indeed revert us to our pre-awesome state?

>>14851139
Despite his frantic thrashing and what damage he does inflict upon you, he does not succeed- You gain a hold on his neck with your jaws, and begin squeezing, enduring the pain he inflicts, not to mention his foul taste, and attempting to resist the urge to simply snap his neck. You have a /purpose/ here...

After a few painful minutes, and him totally failing to lose consciousness, you try another tack, ripping out his throat. He spasm and thrashes, and rapidly weakens as blood sprays from his throat. Backing off, you prepare for teleportation, your intend clear in your mind. Your lab, for you, and the dungeon beneath it for him... You complete the spell, and arrive in your lab, with Scinnari standing by as you ordered. She hands you a healing potion, and you gesture for her to see to the rapidly-dying brute beneath you. She invokes a scroll of healing, and manages to repair the damage you dealt enough that it is no longer dying. Below, the Black thrashes weakly... But impotently, caged in by walls of acid-resistant stone.

Seeing to your needs, you manage to get yourself patched up into working order. In this, you are pleasantly surprised- So young, his claws seem to have been without the usual filth and other vileness black dragons are known for- Though surprising in it's extent, the damage he dealt you is healed relatively easily, leaving you functional and without exposed internal organs in a relatively short order. Your scales are still stripped in several streaks along your belly, but they will grow back in relatively short order, and certainly do not impair your functionality.

Watcher's report is most depressing. Beyond the ring you removed from it's unconscious body, it has very little in the way of a hoard, pathetic, really. You decide to leave it where it is, as a possible reward for your... apprentice, should she merit it, as it is quite an piddling amount to add to your own.

>>14851114

We need to figure out how to beat our own killswitch, and will need experience with life manipulation in general. Directionless research isn't wise though, so we've picked a goal that will be beneficial on its own merits in addition to getting us better acquainted with how to magically manipulate life on a long-term basis.

>>14851150
Were we really expecting it to have that much of a hoard in comparison to us? It's an overgrown swamp-eel, after all, and we've been ruling a growing empire for decades now.

Anyway, we might want to look into giving the ring to Azyra (if she doesn't already have something similar), but only after we alter it so we don't have any difficulty getting around the scrying ourselves.

>>14851130
We aren't even that old yet. I don't see the point in doing this now.

>>14851208
Slothfulness cannot benefit us in any way, while dealing with things ahead of time can.

What the fuck is this shit?

We have been saying all along the wounded juvenile female black, not the healthy young adult male! God damn it, what the fuck? We got wounded from this shit because it's not even the right dragon.

>>14851240
Calm the fuck down, Adun. I have told you this over the chat. Juvenile black male. Female was a typo because I was up late last time.

>>14851208

Monarchy's a pretty high-risk job. You gotta take what you get with the time you got while you're gettin' it.

Get it?

>>14851240
After deal with the silver I think we should lay off attacking other dragons for a while. We dont want our neighbors to wise up and gang on us if them saw us as a big threat.

>>14851256
Le sigh. Whatever.

Begin horrific experimentation! Male is probably better for our purposes anyway, fewer differences the better. Leeching his lifespan away should keep us occupied.

At least this serves to show exactly how foolish it would be to try and pull punches with the silver. If a juvenile black can rip our guts out then imagine what it could do in the same situation.

I just hope the thing doesn't start stinking. Blacks smell foul. Maybe we should get one of those pine-tree air fresheners to hang in its cage.

>>14851150
All right. Spend a day or two healing up and making sure that captive won't be escaping anytime soon, then head on out to deal with that silver. Given how much of a bitch the black was to take down, don't pull any punches with her- she goes down as fast and hard as we and all our best minions can manage.

>>14851315
Give me no 'how' details, I supply them and do a crappy job. So suck it up.

Now, kill, capture, or capture if possible, and kill if not, and where do you intend to store her if you do capture her for the silver?

Or do people want to leave her alone and go deal with the drow?

As a random request, for this and future threads, do keep ideas in the thread- I go off of what's in the thread, not the chat. Chat's fine for discussion, but I'd prefer to have a copy here, too. So that it's apparent how we get to where we do, if someone's reading in the archive. Otherwise what's the point of archiving?

>>14851372
Capture if possible, them to the sacrificial altar with her soul going as an offering to Tiamat. Use the local humans for the purpose of getting her into a vulnerable position with the help of our lizard men.

>>14851372
>Or do people want to leave her alone and go deal with the drow?
Dealing with the drow should be going on in parallel with taking out the silver, like a number of our other ongoing plots. There have been several suggested methods for starting to move against them.

But the silver comes first in terms of our significant personal attention, as she is time-sensitive. We kill her, because even a juvie black can hurt us if we're going for capture so there's no telling what nastiness an adult silver would pull on us.

>>14851487
You mean a half-living, badly-mauled adult silver?

>>14851506
Overconfidence is death. Just because the prey is wounded doesn't mean that it can't still savage the hunter.

Copying this over from the chat:

I wonder if we could experiment with aging magic, now that we have a guinea pig in the form of this black dragon.

With humanoids, aging is bad (unless you're a wizard). Your limbs become weaker, your eyesight clouds, all those issues with old age.

But with dragons, they only get STRONGER as they age.

So if we could artificially age ourselves, we could jump up some age categories without bothering with the intervening years. Even if it works out to be just a temporary spell for combat purposes, it could be extremely useful.

>>14851553
True, but lack of ambition is worse than death.

Attempt to capture her. If we are in danger of any form of permanent harm whatsoever, we can drop the hammer and just kill her. We ought to at least make the attempt, though.

>>14851565
Agreed.

>>14851557
Dragon steroids? Damn.

god damnit why did I notice this so late

>>14851506
>>14851487

She is very vulnerable right now but we must not underestimated her, but we must capitalize on her current weakness.

>>14851557
If we do this, I'd also want to use a couple of dragons to try to tack on some extra on our life span, that way we don;t age ourself to death.

>>14851372
I vote for killing the silver. Our only interest in her is as competition, and she's already wounded. Perfect timing that we won't get again, and if we try to capture her it'll just be another thing to worry about at home.

Kill her, strip the body for food and loot. Dragonscales will sell very well.

She's wounded on the back left haunch. We'll send lizardmen in from one angle. Not the loyal ones, just some mooks because they're gonna get fried. While she's dealing with them, we come in from the side, stealthed (invisible and muted, or whatever spell hides sound). We get close enough and hit her open wound with the nastiest, most painful spell we have. Completely throw her off balance. While she's screaming her head off, the surviving lizardmen (if any) go for the head while we rip off the wings and keep her grounded. If she's still kicking, we'll be able to bit her neck and end it.

If we don't have an appropriate spell, then rush in, open the wound some more, and give her innards a nice close-range cooking.

>>14851625
Yes, that goes without saying. We ARE gunning for immortality here, after all.

>immortality

Dracolichdom is not an option. We want our nice healthy body.

I guess we're looking into stealing the life of other dragons then? Good thing the black we stole is young. I have no idea on how to go about doing it. Maybe Scinnari could suggest some things.

>>14851557
It strikes me as highly unwise to magically experiment on ourselves. It ALSO strikes me as highly unwise to magically experiment on a captive who hates us in such a fashion that they might end up growing much, much stronger.

So what exactly are we figuring here?

Do not attempt to pull any punches with the silver. This likely means aiming to kill her.

Also, I didn't imagine we would have to say "Don't fucking get the shit clawed out of us!" considering how paranoid we have been about keeping ourselves pristine and unscarred. How about this: In the future it would be best to AVOID GETTING OUR SHIT RIPPED APART BY TINY DRAGONS WITH SOFT CLAWS.

I mean, god damn. This is one of the few things we've been cohesive and consistent about for the whole quest. I assumed that by default our plans will reflect that without constantly restating it over and over.

>>14851719
Oh please, we're going going to magically experiment on him with the intent of making him stronger. We're draining his lifeforce and age. That's the exact opposite.

And we have to experiment on ourselves if we want to become ageless and get the Binder's claws out of us. Just a solid fact of life.

>>14851719
While we conduct experiments that could strengthen the black, we are much stronger. How else could we capture him alive? The only reason we took damage was because we didn't want him dead in the first place.

In any case, no amount of strength will get him out of his cell. I do suggest putting a "purge" system in place, though. Maybe opening a connection to a lava tube into his cell.

>>14851719
>>14851557

If we develop spells that can age a target, we could also develop magic that de-ages it. Work out that first, and use the spells on the black. If we can get it right, then we can get the reverse and age it back to what it was when we first found it. With practice, we could pop it up and down the scale at will, and then use it ourselves.

A spell to turn your oppponents back into a child? Highly useful in combat, I would think. That paladin with his +5 holy avenger won't look so threatening when he's turned into a toddler.

>>14851739
not going to experiment on him with that intent*

Basically, magical experimentation is hardly something to avoid when we're the one doing it. It's how we get stronger magically and how we can beef ourselves up.

>>14851739
Look. There is no way in hell that we should be attempting to drain someone else's lifeforce into us while our technique is still in the early stages. We don't know how well it will work or if there will be side effects. That means we need two experimental subjects: One whose life we will drain away, and the other whom we will shove it into.

Once we have a perfected technique, and know about any side effects and have eliminated undesirable ones, THEN we can absorb others' life force ourselves. But not before, lest we accidentally render our body or mind part black dragon or something equally disgusting.

>>14851786
Completely agree. We experiment first, and once we've got the technique down, THEN we start in on ourselves. That goes without saying.

>>14847646
With the black, let's use it for our magical research. We want to beat out own magical killswitch, so let's experiment with spells that, when dispelled, cause spell-period amnesia. Then we start making them as bloody pervasive as possible, causing slavish adoration of us. Preferably via manipulation of the spirit rather than the mind, since I supsect that's what Queen-Bitch actually has done to Azaladon.

The Silver is a breed you have always loathed... Not simply because they are your diametric opposite, though that has some part in it, but because they are so... annoying. Your racial memory tells you that they frequently are in competition with other reds, and all too often win, simply because, given equal footing, a red will win, but a silver will go find help. You can't condemn the tactic, but it seems so... distasteful. You cannot help but despise them. As bad as golds and their arrogance, certainly... But then again, all Metallics are fairly contemptible.

Seeing as her innate weapons are paralyzing gas and ice, or cold, or something of that unpleasant sort, you arm your minions suitably- Amulets of resistance to cold, rings of freedom, preventing paralysis, and so on. They thank their god for the gifts, as is fitting, and you prepare to make your move. Scrying yourself, you determine that her injuries, if anything, were understated. Her flank and part of her back is stripped clean of scales, and you suspect that, say, taking a swim in the sea would be inordinately painful for her. And yet she keeps fighting the beasts of the jungle....

That, you determine with more observation, is mostly due to how completely an adult dragon outclasses displacer beasts, carrion crawlers, or other such fauna- That and the fact that her wings have healed somewhat, allowing for flight, albeit quite inefficiently. She usually doesn't even need to close into melee to kill such things, merely strafing them with her breath weapon. Sound tactics, leading to only the most sporadic of injuries... But without her scales to protect her, each one she receives lingers long, despite what healing is lavished upon her by the shamans of the jungle tribes she protects.

Due to how enormously taxing flight is on her, and probably painful as well, she only does so rarely, usually during combat. You plan your attack around that- she travels on foot frequently, often ranging many days afield while she stalks her prey. Almost inviting your attack... In the two weeks after your abduction of the black, you prepare bands similar to the ones you gave Cygnariassis. You do ponder over whether to include sympathetic spells upon them, and decide to make two sets, one with and one without, just to be prepared. After all, you have no idea whether you will take her alive, and making a certainly-useless set doesn't seem so different from a possibly-useless set.

You teleport in while she arrives at her hunt. For half an hour you watch her labored flight, assailing a hydra found on the fringes of her adopted tribes' territory. When she almost falls out of the air, apparently from exhaustion, you are worried that you won't even get a chance to kill her, let alone capture her, but your scrying allows you to watch the fight- Though too taxed to sustain flight, she is still a fairly powerful opponent, and manages to finally destroy the hydra without taking lethal injury. She seems to even have developed an style fitting with her injury, always keeping her right flank facing the opponent, circling clockwise whenever possible, doing her best to keep her half-skinned hide away from active hostility. Branches, trees, and in one case, being knocked over take fairly horrid tolls on her, and you ratchet up your estimation of her conviction another few steps.

>>14852499

Seeing her finally turning her head for home, you give orders to your chosen ones, and they spread out. This pass is fairly narrow, and unless she intends to take wing again, she'll be taking this route back, following the river so as to keep her left side free of the foliage and other obstructing flora. You see some of your lizardmen fade into the trees on the opposite side of the river, and suddenly forgive them for daubing their barbaric brown and green warpaint all over their priceless adimantium armor. It seems to aid in their concealment, and you consider that their 'ancestral knowledge' might not be quite as defunct a religious relic as you had assumed.

The silver- Nehmaska is the bastardized draconic that you picked up from scrying but whether or not it actually is her name eludes you- approaches, and you tense, glancing down to reaffirm your invisibility spells are in effect on yourself and your minions. As she gets to the proper location, you lean to one side, causing the tree next to you to crack, then break. Nehmaska looks your way, tensing for possible attack, and, you imagine, heart pounding... And your minions fire from the opposite side of the river. Dart guns, poisoned arrows, all the things likely to cripple her, but unlikely to harm you. Nehmaska roars in defiance and anger at the assault, and your lizardmen counter with a much weaker battlecry of their own. You decide to avoid forewarning her of your presence, and decline to issue one of your own, instead crashing through the trees to get at your target. Either way, the battle is on.

I say the suggestion one, because why the hell not.

I wonder if she'd be willing to surrender once she realizes how outmatched she is?

>>14852585
Silvers hate Reds.

Reds hate Silvers.

No quarter, no surrender. Kill the bitch.

>>14852585
Personally, I'm not sure she would if she knew we were a red. Even if she did know, and did surrender, I'm not sure she'd stay surrendered when we made clear our desire to capture and/or enslave her.

Course, I'm all for it if she is. Silver and gold, we got our precious metals sorted out here...

>>14852598
But thats wasteful. Horrible and unethical experiments for the bitch.

>>14852598
Agreed, go in full throttle. If she survives it's a lucky break, but don't even think about stopping until she is no longer moving.

>>14852619
She's too much of a threat to hold back. We go full power on her. If she happens to survive, then lucky for us. If she doesn't, then she doesn't. Unless we massively out-power our opponents, I don't think we should be holding ourselves back.

>>14852531
Only stop beating the shit out of her, when she surrenders. Before that time go red dragon wild.

>>14852672
No. No quarter. This is metallic vs. chromatic... any 'surrender' will be to strike at us as we pause.

>>14852670
Bullshit, she is missing a vast section of her armor and she can barely fly, plus she's already been out fighting today, so she'll be somewhat tired and lacking in resources. Also, we have the lizard men with us. Everything is pretty much on our side.

>>14852715
And we will STILL take no chances. Remember that black earlier?

>>14852711
>>14852598
What are you, using the 4e rules? Silvers dislike reds, but don't actively hunt them down or anything. Neither do red shunt them down. She won't like us, but we aren't mortal DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR foes.

>>14852711
Five or six people have already expressed that it would be better to capture the Silver, if only for experimentation or having a Gold/Silver chained up in the hoard. Killing 'er would be a waste. Sure, it would get rid of a nearby metallic, but the other options are so much more satisfying, and potentially useful.

>>14852715
Which would make it that much more embarrassing if something goes horribly wrong, now wouldn't it? Take no chances. Defeating her is primary objective, keeping her alive secondary at best.

>>14852726
More like two samefags.

>>14852732
The only thing that could go horribly wrong is that other silver she's involved with showing up. An that would be bad regardless of whether we want to kill her or capture her.

>>14852763
I like how the samefagging accusation comes from a person who spams his point so much that a large number of posts seem like a multitude of people

>>14852732
She's been dueling with a hydra, and it's already been said that simple things like branches and trees are hurting her. It's fairly possible she'll try and fight to the death if I've read her attitude right, but she's in far to bad shape for us offering her a chance for surrender to let her one up us.

I still say we should have Cibach'd her though. Such a wasted opportunity.

>>14852531
Aim a mighty swipe at her head with our tail - get airborne. Maybe we can knock her cold and slip on those bands. Aim for the base of the skull if possible, but I doubt it. Failing that, get some distance on her quickly and start dropping things on her - try to force her to get airborne.

Please do try to keep her alive if at all possible. Our own safety taking priority, of course.

Try to give her a concussion via an aerial suplex into the ground once she's weakened maybe.
Tear her wings off if need be. They can be reattached, or they can even grow back over the course of about a decade.
Beak some limbs, melt her remaining scales.

there's a whooole lot we can do to her in a fight that won't kill her.

>>14853007
As for what to do with her once we get back, shackle her up the same way we did Cygnis and then immediately heal her to the best of our abilities to full health. Cygnis can help heal her even! She'll finally have some company other than ourselves, she'll love it.

>>14853034
Or we could soul-suck the silver in front of Cygnis to drive home the point that we care about her.

>>14853066
This sounds like the best plan.

"See? I don't do this to you, and I won't. Because you are mine. You're worthless and hardly deserving, but I'll still protect you from a fate like this."

You crash out of the jungle, and would have bowled her over if she had not taken off running. A second volley from your mostly misses her, clattering off the riverbank and your chest. Your lizardmen shout and follow, cutting through the jungle, attempting to cut her off further down the river. With her faster than them, they haven't a hope of catching her otherwise. You, however, are different, and take off down the river after her, and begin gaining slowly. You can smell her wounds on the air as you pursue- a sharp, clean smell, almost cold, though that's a strange quality to attribute to a smell. You lower your head an concentrate on the pursuit. Ahead, you can hear her panting already, and decide you can spare breath for a taunt.

“The poison will take it's toll eventually, and you're already exhausted.” you shout after her. You see her start at the draconic words, then accelerate slightly, running even faster. You're still gaining though... Her tail slashes behind her, a counterbalance to her heavy steps. As you get closer, you take the chance of attempting to catch it- The first time you miss, and it thumps past your neck, the second time you manage to barely catch it in your maw, and bite down with abandon. She gives off a roar of pain, and stumbles, and you almost let go in shock at the extremely sharp taste of her blood. You attempt to slow down, and bring her down with you, but she pulls out of your grip, leaving several gashes in the tip of her tail, and you cursing behind her. Immediately, you pursue again, though she has gained a sizable lead.

>>14853117
>>14853066
Flattery like that is kind of out the window by this point, with Cygnis.

And your lizardmen finally re-enter the equation. You get a split second sight of them ahead, a tiny blockade in her path, as they issue warcries and hurl their spears. You see Nehmeska ahead of you stumble, and just barely recover by leaping into the air, taking wing in this slightly-wider section of the river. She veers slightly to the left, almost crashing, in fact, but succeeding in pulling up, breaking through the canopy and into freedom. Allegedly. You leap up, taking wing to pursue. You can only barely flap enough to rise behind her, and close your eyes as you break through the canopy. Into a facefull of ice.

She passes over you, and carries on. You, prepared, are unharmed by the cold itself, but the frost clings to your head shoulders, offering a quite, frozen burn. Not to mention a quiet, pathological terror- ice, cold, cold, so cold... The rapidly re-approaching canopy forces you to snap out of it. You remind yourself that you came prepared, immune to cold's deadly embrace, and set about pursuing her. Again, she's gained a temporary lead, but cannot expand it- You are rested and at full health, she... is streaming blood from one side. From the darts and arrows lodged in her side, not to mention her emergence from the jungle canopy. You can do this...

Focusing on gaining, at all costs, you pursue, climbing and closing on her. Height is an advantage in aerial combat, and she cannot gain it, as she's almost making two wingbeats for each of yours- You see her switch between different methods of trying to equalize her thrust, desperately trying to ease the strain on what you hope are already-taxed muscles...

Suddenly you are within a cloudbank, lost and without visual data to pursue. You can hear, but cannot locate her wingbeats, drowned out as they are by your own much closer and more powerful ones. Gambling that she went left, though, as it's easiest for her to do so, you banks slightly, trying to find a trace of her presence...

There. You detect her magic as she attempts to slow a fall. So strained she doesn't even wish to land on her own... You exit her conjured fogbank almost exactly above her. You have a split second to react, and dive, at full speed. Though her fall has slowed to a feather's pace, you tackle her like a brilliant red meteor, and for a split second, you two tumble and claw at each other as you spin downward in the air, at not-quite lethal velocity, thanks to her descent enchantment. She inflicts some nasty wounds on you, one of them even striking where the black did, and you do your best to return in kind, stripping the skin from her belly and side, and spraying her right flank with fire, searing away part of her intact wing-

And you hit the ground, a titanic impact that, even though you were mostly on top, you're pretty sure broke your ribcage in a place or two. Or three or four. Regardless, your breathing is pained. She emits an agonized wail of a roar, and you are forced to join in, albeit not as sharply, as you roll, still locked together, crashing trees and bushes, shooting fire through your right side with every impact and bludgeon. Disoriented, when you finally come to a stop, you draw back, trying to avoid counter attacks, if she isn't quite as shaken up as you-

No worry of that. As the dust and splinters clear, you see her lying where you left her, on her right side, and alive, you suspect. You circle, trying to avoid limping, to convince yourself that the pain is nothing as her eyes follow you. You were uninjured, you tell yourself. Don't let her see how much it hurt...

“I...” her second word is cut off in a hacking, bloody cough. “I have no lair. No- n-no hoard. I don't- don't even have my own ter-” the rest is lost in a fit of agonized and very wet-sounding coughs. “'d you aren't the one who cha-ased me out ' the mountains...” The last word ends with a pained hiss. “and now I- I think you've k-killed me. Wh... aat do you want, R- Red?

>>14853226
"Dying, but you won't die. Not yet. What I want is YOU."

>>14853226
Summon Scinnari for the sacrifice. The silver isn't going to live long after that.

"A simple bauble you possess. Don't worry, you won't even miss it."

>>14853263
Did we actually have that set up for immediate use? I can't find anything about it in the previous posts.

>>14853263
This.

>>14853226
What I want is simple. I want your surrender. I want your sevitude.I want you to OBEY me and me alone. If you give that to me you will find that I am a good master. A generous master. A master who will provide you with the means and security to heal your wounds. Or you may choose death. I care not. But you now have a choice. CHOOSE!

>>14853263
Sacrifice? Wait, what? What good does that do us? Any sacrifice to Tiamat (who is busy trying to ruin our aliases) is wholly unneeded, and support so far is to try to keep the Silver alive.

>>14853226
Why are we stealing their souls now? So Scinnari can barter them in the Nine Hells...?

What do we get out of the equation? Unless Tiamat herself is giving us a pat on the back...

Shit, with that string of bad luck, I even kinda feel sorry for it.

>>14853226
Already had her lair looted? A pity.

Use >>14853261. I think we just met our secondary objective; this is a successful capture scenario if I've ever seen one.

>>14853295
Sell to Tiamat and maybe get her to stop telling other dragons that Lord Prestor just happens to be a Red.

And maybe research on dragon souls to fix that little problem known as The Binder being able to completely Unmake us.

>>14853309
Tiamat is a royal bitch-goddess who will respond to gifts not by doing nice things for us in turn, but by wondering if she can blackmail us into giving her even more gifts by threatening to share even more information about us with our enemies. She gets nothing from us.

And if we're trying to research souls, then we need the silver alive and with her soul intact, not sacrificed and with her soul sent off to the hells.

>>14853226
>Wh... aat do you want, R- Red?

"For now, I'd like you to hold on to life a while longer. You're of little use to me dead."

We need to get her stabilized and restrained, then get her back to the lair.

>>14853263

I see nothing that indicates we're set up for a sacrifice right now. I think we need to keep her alive for a day or so at least while preparations are made.

>>14853331
sell her soul to the hells and gets some cool shit in exchange

>>14853350
I wonder what price the Hells charge for information on draining the life force of dragons to extend ones own lifespan? I'm not so sure the soul of a single silver dragon would do it.

has anyone not realized the fact that we are a motherfucking dragon? I'm sure we brought along or have the area back at home setup for us to tele back in with her. This is an open and close case here people. Finish simply.

Place maw around her neck
Teleport back to Mza
Have her healed and restrained while we still have her neck in our maw
She tries any funny business, well, pop goes the silver will be a new coined phrase among our lizardmen

>>14853364
Forgive me if I rebuff your desire for infernal knowledge, especially that which extends our lifespan.

Like the idea of stating , "I have no plans to kill you, i would have not engaged you in such manner if i desired your demise."


wondering what we are going to do with her stealing her soul would be a waste.

some ideas to discuss.
we could chain her up or we could try to get her to accept a geas serve us or die.

any other input on the subject would be nice.

>>14853364
im pretty sure that dragons are close to, if not actually being, immortal in this Universe

Get her to take humanoid form. Then, stick our jewelry on her so she's restrained and teleport back to our lair (ensuring that she is imprisoned well away from any important areas, if at all possible). We can work out whether to sacrifice her, break her or whatever from there on.

>>14853425
Not immortal. Just long-lived. WD is using the 3rd edition Draconomicon as a base, from what I recall.

>>14853435
If she shifts to humanoid form while she's this injured, she'll probably die instantly due to a smaller Con bonus. She'd need to heal somehow first.

>>14853226
Your spirit will do nicely! You'll be released unharmed as soon as I ensure my own survival, worry not. Now transform, bitch, I've got some jewelry for you to wear.

of forgot to add we could flesh to stone her then we can deal with her when ever we want.

>>14853435
>>14853469
I don't think she can polymorph while in such bad condition. We could call Scinnari and have her bring potions if we don't have anything suitable with us right now.

>>14853474
Are you sure about that?

Take the silver home and bind her up, minor healing magic to keep her alive but incapacitated.

Then blindfold Scinnari and lead her in. "Guess what I got you, honey! Happy anniversary!"

But yeah, surprise her with it and see her reaction.

>>14853350
Fuck that. Don't get more involved with the hells than absolutely necessary. Scinnari's good, let's not change anything.

We can...

Enchant her with heat resistance, seal her in stone.

Chain her up like Cygnis, put her on the opposite side of our hoard. Make it symetrical-like.

Save her like the black, for harvesting.

Ride her like a new bicycle. (NOTE: I do not recommend.)

Send to Seffy as a gift and/or assassination tool.

There's loads of wonderful things we can do with her, so long as she's ALIVE.

>>14853519
seconding this, but before revealing the surprise, say something real smart-ass like "you know what goes good with gold? silver!"

Keep the silver alive for experimentation. Apply what chains and restraints we can; if we don't have confidence in them, flesh to stone her and keep her on ice except when we actively need her for something. Do not sell her soul to the hells, at least not without taking the time to negotiate the best possible price that we can get for her. She can make an excellent experimental subject to work on draconic life essence transfer when paired with the black, I think.

I find it safe to assume WD will be posting soon?

Yes.

>>14853676
>>14853686
Been about an hour and a half. I'd suspect he has a 3-5 post coming up, to wrap up the thread with, and will be posting it soon. Any moment now.

“I require /you/.” you state, attempting to prevent pain from entering your voice. You fail slightly, but even so, you're still obviously in far better condition than her. “I desire your obedience and servitude, and, should you grant it, I do not have to be a cruel one.” you say, uncompromising on your position. “If you find that so unpalatable, I can merely take your soul.”

“Tall-” she begins breaking off, sounding as if she is choking. “-threat.”.

“Decide quickly.” you reply. “I do not need to state the obvious.”

“I... /said/... I was... dying.” she replies weakly. “I'll.. confess. I'd rat-rather no-t... I... reluc-c-tantly... accept...”

“And I will keep you alive.” you reply. Reaching down, grip her neck in your maw, applying gentle pressure.

“I- I thought you- you...” she begins, but you cut her off with the finished spell. You lift her and yourself, cast the two of you across a thousand and more intervening miles... And come to rest in an enlarged cell of your lair-fortress. Nehmeska moans in agony at the change in ground level. She feebly tries to claw you, attempting to exact revenge for the imagined betrayal. You casually pin her claws beneath yours, and loosen your grip to speak.

“I said I would keep you alive, in exchange for your obedience. Would you now prefer to die?” you ask in a voice made harsh by pain, releasing your grip on her neck. Her answer is the barest hiss.

“Li-iiive...”

“Very well.” you reply. “See that you do not breach our pact again.” Stepping back, you gesture for the lizardman shaman you stationed against this contingency to move forward, and to heal her. You replace your jaw over her throat. After four spells, she seems to be stabilized.

“My- my. So forward...” she remarks, still in pain. She does not attempt to struggle, even as you remove your jaw from her neck.

“Assume an alternate form.” you command, not wasting words.

“I gave... my parole..” Nehmeska confesses, and she shifts, flowing for an instant, before assuming the form a young, silver-haired woman.

“A gift for such an honorable opponent.” you say sarcasticaly, gesturing. Your lizardman produces the amulet, and you pass it to the captured Silver. “Wear it.” Her mouth curls with distaste, but she does not argue, fastening the choker around her neck.

A few more details, (including a stealthed pass with Watcher), and you leave your lizardman to heal her, and her imprisoned within a cell.

“I wish you had not done this.” Watcher speaks without prompting. “She does not deserve this.”

“Do you intend to do anything about it, Watcher?” you ask. A question, not a challenge.

“...No. I gave you my word, and in this case intend to keep it. If you intend to treat her like... like the gold you posses... I will not help you. Not that I think you would- Such treatment would not do you any good. I will not oppose you, regardless.”


[Sorry about the lack of material. Got horribly distracted by people in my room for so long. (Good people, at least.) Thread is in wrap-up stage, so go ahead and start stating the last thing or things you want to see dealt with, as well as what should be dealt with next time. Incidentally, I will not be running the quest next week, but may be able to run it Monday or Tuesday- Certainly one or the other.]

>>14853754
Ask it if it would prefer us killing her outright, or sacrificing her to the Hells. We're letting her live, in exchange for servitude. It's a mercy, and we're not really THAT cruel a master unless we need to be for whatever purpose.

Ask it if it would like the body instead. It's not bronze (or did it ask for brass?), but it may become available soon...

>>14853754
We're not going to treat her like Cygnis, though. We have other plans for this one.

Honestly turning her into a asset rather than a object would probably be preferable. Thats just my pragmatic side talking I guess.

i doubt watcher would take that up and watcher knows that while it would take longer we can provide a new body for her. she is a old dragon she has more patience than us.

>>14853754
Ask the watcher what our silver has done not to deserve this. I'm truly curious since watcher spoke without prompting.

I think we should make sure Scinnari knows that she's not to torture our new silver dragon plaything. We need her whole and hearty for other purposes. Once we're done with that, things might change, but right now Scin needs to hold off for a bit.

>>14853783
She asked for brass.

We aren't going to be able to keep her like Cygnis, let's not even pretend that. Any use she will have will be short term only. She won't obey us and most assuredly will start fighting back if we start experimenting on her.

Giving her to Scinnari as a gift is the best option. The fact that she is stable now will allow our devil to negotiate the best possible price, so it was worthwhile.

But keeping her? Don't be silly.

>>14853783

I doubt Watcher would like to hear that.

Anyway we took Nehmeska because we were being greedy, true, but we also took her because she posed a strategic threat. She was far from subtle about being a distressed dragon, she was nearby, and if any of our enemies had had much initiative they could have convinced her to accept healing and do some mercenary work against us.

Frankly it's a bit disgraceful that she let herself fall into such a condition, given that Silvers are supposed to be so smart. True, she's probably had a spate of bad luck, but when the chips are down you should play conservatively instead of taking risks like she was.

>>14853754
Matters for our consideration, mostly taken from earlier this thread:

-Our empire just absorbed the territory of a female copper dragon up near the United Cities. Get detailed reports on her and her activities; we'll need to take action regarding her soon, I suspect.

-The drow are annoying as hell. Have our agents find out if they're just menacing us, or also others in the area (i.e. Beren; I don't think Seffy's cut a deal but it's possible). Consult with our dwarves as to anti-drow methods. Prepare to summon squads of earth elementals or other earth-based creatures as expendable hunter-killer forces we can send into the underdark after them. Suspend eastern expansion- I don't really want to fight a bunch of coppers anyway- and consolidate our hold on what we have, transferring troops onto the northern border to provide additional patrols and escorts. Provide magical detection and alert systems so that we can send in fast response teams to try and catch and kill drow raiders; as elves, their numbers are far from limitless. Offer rewards to adventurers who can discover the cause of and put a stop to their attacks.

-Those rebel avariel need to die. Bend more resources to locating and eliminating them; there can be no quarter nor mercy for those who have not already bent their knees to your rule. Aid your troops personally if necessary; disposing of competent people who will hate your nation for centuries to come cannot be understated in priority and the Ivory Gates must be made firmly yours in order to really start collecting wealth there.

-Get more reports on that bronze south of our colonies on principle. Even if she's not a problem, she might be in the future- which means that I want to know who exactly all her friends and contacts are, where they live, who their friends and contacts are, and a detailed history of her actions as far back as we can trace it. Get our spies on it.

>>14853855
It was more than just bad luck, even as badly wounded as she was she continued to seek out combat and put herself at risk. I think we should ask watcher about Nehmeskas reasons for being so reckless.

>>14853869
Continued:

-We will need to establish relations with the green dragon east of the Ivory Gates (35 last thread) sooner rather than later, since he's historically raided that city fairly regularly. Write up a letter which sends him greetings as the ruler of Mza and now the Ivory Gates, cordially informing him of the end of avariel rule and our ownership of the territory and anticipating a peaceful relationship between him and our subjects, etc. etc. and mentioning that we are available for discussion if he wishes to speak regarding any topic. That should at least delay the problem.

-The fact that we control vast areas of land far off but not close to home annoys me somewhat. Take steps to begin building up our spy networks in Morinth and Azar. At the moment, no actual plans for these locations other than building our influence there, so call this part of a decades-long plan to expand our influence. We're certainly going to want to take over Morinth sooner or later, even if that's a century or two from now. They might be a client state of Rhasver, but we may be able to peel them away eventually.

>>14853855
>>14853817
Treat her well, let her recover for a while, then sacrifice her.

Right now is like a stay of execution. We're going to kill her, but she's being allowed to live out her last days at least with something that might approach reasonably... maybe.

No torture, I concur.

>>14853880
Continued:

-Now that the silver has been removed from those jungles, there is an opportunity to seize control of them. Not that I really expect a lot out of the petty tribes that inhabit those jungles, but they almost certainly have at least some natural resources which could be exploited, if we wanted. And why not take more land, as long as it's there and it's easy? The climate seems well suited to our lizardmen, so we could easily export some there, maybe even set up a secondary colony of them there to complement the one on Mza. The silver can likely provide information that we would need to go about doing this efficiently, and maybe even be convinced into helping us in our takeover... as long as we have her to do that before pulling any of our usual exceptionally nasty tricks.

-Investigate the stuff that Lorekeeper supposedly gave the avariel way back. It could be interesting or important.

-Magical research on the draconic life and soul, using the black as an initial subject for whatever we need. We need to figure out how this whole Binding business works. It will be a long, long task to reverse engineer our own creation and figure out what hooks the Binder has built into us, but one day we'll manage it. For now, let's just focus on the basics. Don't worry about life extension or transfer, we won't need that for centuries yet. Instead focus upon the nature of dragons, what makes us tick.

>>14853878

Right, she should have played conservatively instead of taking risks.

>>14853883
Agreed with this. We are a total bastard and will give her as a gift-wrapped present to our lovely devil, but no torture and make her stay in the cells as comfortable as possible. We do have some standards and code we follow here, no pointless torture for no reason. We neither hate her personally nor have any objective torture would accomplish.

That said, all she does is sit in the cell until time for sacrifice.

(I can't wait to see Scinnari's reaction to this 'gift' we are going to give her. Hopefully she won't notice that we were wounded getting it for her.)

>>14853883

Why do we need to kill her? She's a dragon, she could be useful. We can keep her as a prisoner for now and interrogate her, learn her story and what she hoped to accomplish fucking around in our jungle (even if it wasn't ours at the time, it is now).

We can decide what to do with her from there.

>>14853775

"Would you prefer I simply murder her outright?" you ask the the crystal as you walk. "Sacrifice her to the hells? Keep her as a decoration.... Not quite in the same sense as dear Cygnariassis?"

"The former or the latter." Watcher replies. "You have no conception of how cruel selling souls other than your own to the hells is... I wish anything but that for her. And, as I pointed out, treating her like your... 'dear' Cygnariassis would not profit you."

"Ah... But if the soul is removed, a living, flawless body might remain... One that perhaps you could inhabit? Would you prefer that?" you counter. Watcher does seem to waver, considering it seriously, if reluctantly.

"I... would desire that her soul being damned had some redeeming feature. Yes. But assuming you do not intend to sell her soul, I would prefer to wait for a suitable brass." Watcher replies.

"I see. And why is this soul so... exceptional that you would speak out to save it? I had no idea that any of the Bound were... soft, at heart..."

"I am not soft at heart." Watcher replies without emotion. "If I were, I would refuse to consort with you... regardless of my word. I do not, however, wish to needlessly inflict suffering on her. She is an... adequate individual. Dealing with the hells will not benefit you in the end."

>>14853910
Because she's potentially powerful, and keeping her is dangerous. No, I think she needs to die. Whether we're sending her soul downstairs or just killing her outright, it's going to be death.

What a goody-two-shoes would do is sacrifice her after telling her to protest her assignment to the Hells in a court of law because she's a good creature and thus doesn't deserve to be sent there. But I don't think Azaladon is merciful in that fashion.

Could ask watcher if she has any ideas to make better use of her.

>>14853913
>Dealing with the hells will not benefit you in the end.
Dear watcher, I must protest! We do not deal with the hells, we deal with our beloved Scinnari!

But yeah, this isn't really something we are looking to trade for so much as just something we're giving to Scinnari to keep her superiors from getting too antsy to try and intervene to get her back. Plus, it helps our favorite devil gain rank and maybe even some benefits she can share with us.

Plus, giving her a silver's soul as a gift? The sex will be /mindblowing./

>>14853913
"I am not inflicting needless suffering on her. I give you my word that Scinnari will not torture this one."

(All true, since we're not going to have Scinnari torture her, going by general consensus, I think. Though we're probably going to sacrifice her.)

>>14853913
>She is an... adequate individual
? sound like watcher is being evasive? If the silver were just "adequate" why take the initiative to attempt to intervene on her behalf?

>>14853951
Watcher was a brass, and wasn't it mated with a silver or something?

They're metallics. It probably has lingering feelings or memories that are re-emerging.

>>14853934
>Because she's potentially powerful, and keeping her is dangerous.
Bullshit. If that were true than Cygnis would be dangerous. We're using pretty much the same enchantments to keep them restrained.

>>14853913
>Dealing with the hells will not benefit you in the end.
"And what would benefit me in the end, Watcher? I was born a red dragon, a race that ends our existences in the lower planes almost without exception. I was further fortunate enough to be touched by the Binder, opening up a small set of other options for my final fate, none of them good from what I have seen of the Bound. There is only one path for me, and that is to chase power until I escape my twin dooms... or one of them catches me."

just wondering why we're going to sacrifice her...

what would we gain from it? i don't see any real reason to....

>>14853963
Cygnis is mentally fucked up six ways from Sunday, and we're devoting extra amounts of time to breaking her over a period of decades. This silver is a different story.

>>14853937
Thing is, I think she loves us already. She's probably giving us all she got, as best she got. There's no way for her to crank it up until she starts getting Cygnis or this new chick invovled.

same here we really are not gaining anything from sacrifice.

>>14853902
>>14853934
>>14853937

I don't know, I'm tempted to take watchers advise on this. Dealing with the hells has always been something of a hassle, even with Scinnari (sometimes BECAUSE of Scinnari).

>>14853937
Yeah, maybe. Or she might care about the fact we put ourselves in danger to get it for her and have a more... complicated reaction.

Either way, it should be interesting to see. I approve, soul goes to Scinnari. Hopefully she can negotiate a good deal for it in the hells, bringing her power and by proxy bringing us power. No direct boons, though. I don't want to deal with the hells itself personally, too many double-bladed swords or poisoned daggers. I'll settle for letting it buff our waifu.

>>14853974
Scinnari gets hells cred for such a unique and special soul. It's the most benefit we can have from her capture, otherwise we will just kill her after taking an injury to capture her. That's remarkably silly. The only options are kill her or sacrifice her, and sacrifice is the only one that benefits us.

>>14853978

But we didn't need to break her to keep her contained. Our enchantments work fine for that. We're breaking her partly to make a willing servant out of her, partly because Scinnari enjoys it, and partly because we enjoy it.

>>14853937
>Dear watcher, I must protest! We do not deal with the hells, we deal with our beloved Scinnari!
This is self-delusion that we MUST NOT indulge in. Scinnari is ultimately an extension of the hells. They hold her very essence and can compel her to whatever they wish. Her motivations might be slightly different, but that is a facade which can easily deceive us into thinking that they are distinct and thereby serve the hells further.

Also Scinnari is not our beloved. She is treasured, perhaps... but not loved. She is a prized possession which we are exceptionally fond of, with a ferocity that only a dragon can value its possessions. That's a lot like love, but it's not.

>>14854000
Also as mentioned in chat, try and see how close Scinnari is to being promoted to Brachina status (the next one up from Erinyes). What with Mza turning into a nice processing factory for downstairs on top of Scinnari sending a gold (Az-douche) and soon this silver (who I hereby christen Nemmy) to them, as well as our wiping out her immediate superior and sending the next one up the chain into Pit Fiend status (possibly), she should be pulling in quite a bit of status by now.

>>14854000
We can use her when we begin testing our life transfer ritual on dragons. Catching dragons is not easy.

>>14854002
No, I'm pretty sure we love her. It's been... established pretty solidly, and the majority seem to agree on that at least.

That said, you are completely correct in saying that dealing with one devil means dealing with them all. But we're working on correcting that too.

>>14854007
She's far too dangerous to keep contained for an extended period, especially when she finds out we're going to be dong horrific magical experimenting on her.

Whatever we do, it can't be long term. Death or soul-selling, either works in my opinion.

I still want watcher to tell us why Nehmeska was putting herself at risk despite the severity of her injuries.

>>14853935

"Fine. In that case, how would you advise I use her?" you ask, challenging the bound soul to back up it's words.

"She has given you her parole. In her mind, that is... substantial. You could release her. You could unbind her completely, and she would neither turn on your nor flee. ...I confess, she would not mostly out of bafflement as to why you would, but she does not personally hate you." Watcher pauses again, emitting it's 'thinking noise, presumably as it analyzes what it saw of her mind.

"You could maintain her as a... hoard topping, if you so desired. Surely the majesty of two of the strongest metallics reduced to treasure in your lair appeals to you? She would be happy to help you, so long as she reduced the harm you inflicted on others. You could... Use her as an advisor, if you so desired, and she would give you honest advice where she felt she could do so guiltlessly. Or for the greater good... You could use her as an.. intermediary for contacting other dragons... She considers her honor a palpable thing, Azaladon. That is why she was driven to protect the humans who aided her, despite her condition. She will not break her word unless she feels you have broken yours."

"Ah... but what would she consider to be me breaking mine?" you counter.

"If you were to treat her like the Black. If you were to kill her, or sacrifice her soul. To force her to betray someone or something else. I confess that it is... difficult to predict such eventualities." Watcher answers you.

>>14854019
>>14854019
I repeat, bullshit. The magic we used on Cygnis would keep her from causing trouble even without us breaking he mind. It is the same stuff for Nehmeska, therefore there is no danger even longterm.

>>14854012
>But we're working on correcting that too.
That literally cannot be corrected short of making Scinnari cease to be a devil. Belonging utterly to the hells is a fundamental part of what a devil is.

As far as love goes, everything that we have done to Scinnari can be explained by possessiveness and fondness; at no point can it be claimed that love was "established pretty solidly" independent of those. If you think this incorrect, feel free to present counterexamples. But I suppose ultimately as we are both players in the quest and therefore influencing Azaladon's mind, part of Azaladon (you) actually loves her while part of him (me) fiercely does not and reminds him constantly that she is only something owned.

>>14854024
>She considers her honor a palpable thing, Azaladon. That is why she was driven to protect the humans who aided her, despite her condition. She will not break her word unless she feels you have broken yours.

Okay, I really, REALLY wonder about whether Watcher can be trusted here. If it can, then that is potentially interesting, but I still wouldn't let her near Cygnis. Much too paranoid.

Do we have any mind-reading magic of our own? I know a few threads back somebody raised the possibility of developing a powerful one to get rid of relying on Watcher. Did we get around to doing that?

>>14854035
We love her.

More than we love our other possessions, too.

But that doesn't necessarily mean it's "love" in the traditional fairytale sense of the word.

>>14854024
Why.

Are we asking.

A self-avowed object of discord.

For advice regarding one of the most powerful potential threats to us?

I mean, really? I am glad the Watcher is so chatty these days, but it's still the same fucking demon-crystal bitch that it has always been. And it was a metallic to boot on top of that. Asking it for advice on what to do with another metallic is like... I mean, for crying out loud. Come on.

I don't care how honorable the silver is, honor can be broken. Hoard topping? Alongside Cygnis? Watcher is /trying/ to screw us over. No amount of honor would keep her from turning on us if she saw what we do to Cygnis.

Sacrifice is the only way to go. Long term will just lead to pain.

>>14854024
>>14854024

>She would be happy to help you, so long as she reduced the harm you inflicted on others.

We don't "harm" people any more than we have to as it is.

>>14854012
No. We agree we love our daughter, but Scinnari is still contested. Were there not the constant looming threat of betrayal, then maybe.

>>14854050
So you're saying the only being in all the planes that Azaladon actually trusts is the ten year old little girl who shares half his genes?

>>14854045
>one of the most powerful potential threats

Why the fuck do you keep on with this. The silver can't do jack to us.

>>14854055
No, don't be silly. We don't trust Azyra; she's a foolish girl who may be subject to the Binder's mind control through her inheritance.

Azaladon doesn't trust anyone.

>>14854024

I think we can trust Watcher's assessment here. She knows we're going to be looking out for a worthy Brass body for her, and she knows that the first time she gives us sabotaged information we're going to stop paying attention to her. Watcher is useful, and she's right to say that Nehmeska could be too.

I think as long as we don't abuse Nehmeska, or her sense of honor, she'll accept her new role as a useful prisoner. Remember how the Romans would keep Greek slaves, and use them for all manner of productive and skilled tasks, even letting them teach their children? We could have a very useful slave here, if we don't fuck it up.

rolled 64 = 64

>>14854024
Thank the Watcher and tell it that his words will be seriously considered.

Because honestly, this paints a whole different picture and we could certainly use her like he advised.
Reducing her to mere decoration seems rather wasteful and I am absolutely against selling her to Hells.

>>14854055
No, I'm saying the only person we all seem to have agreed that he loves is the ten year old girl who shares his genes. But, c'mon, she's still a kid. You don't trust kids, even though you may wish you could.

>>14854067
We love her.

Who said anything about trusting her decisions? She hasn't earned that privilege yet, given her habit of slipping her guards and wandering off on her own.

>>14854050
That doesn't really exclude love. It doesn't mean "oh look, I suddenly am completely oblivious to all these other problems!"

I've seen a lot of strong evidence for the love position, lots of people stated it outright and really it completely fits with how Azaladon acts toward her. If she wanted to betray us, well, she's been able to pull a Cygnis on us while we slept for a long time now. The main threat comes from one of the two Archdevils or a high ranking devil not under Zevaana's command, not our devil waifu.

That said, this isn't a fucking waifu argument time. This is silver-decision time. Are you opposed to giving her soul to Scinnari for use?

>>14854069
>Remember how the Romans would keep Greek slaves, and use them for all manner of productive and skilled tasks, even letting them teach their children? We could have a very useful slave here, if we don't fuck it up.

Interesting, but contingent on our making sure Watcher isn't bullshitting us.

like the idea of possible using the silver as an ad visor /envoy. we would have to keep tabs on her but the benefits could be substantial.

Man, opinion really seems to be split on Nemmy's fate now...

if we keep her alive, there might be a problem if she sees cygnis, but a simple solution to that is to, well, NOT let her into our hoard room. if that doesnt satisfy, we could always have a ring or amulet or something made which prevents her from seeing/hearing Cygnis.

>>14854072
I concur.

The hells keep fucking us over. I mean, that's pretty much their purpose. And I don't see why we would want Scinnari to raise in rank as a devil when what we really want is for her to be free on the control of the hells entirely. If she goes up a rank that'll just make it harder to get her out.

Solution: We get some powerful mind-reading magic of our own. We check for ourselves what the truth is.

If Watcher is telling the truth, we go from there (personally, even if it was true, I'd still keep her locked up forever).

If Watcher is bullshitting, then we sacrifice her (or just kill her, but still no torture).

Is that satisfactory?

>>14854107
This is actually an excellent point. The more we help Scinnari rise in the infernal hierarchy, the more difficult it will be to eventually tear her free of it. In that light, selling the silver's soul to the hells would be a terrible decision as far as our eventual plans for Scinnari go.

>>14854090
>Are you opposed to giving her soul to Scinnari for use?

I am.

I'm also opposed to anything that would increase Scinnari's status in the hells, as I want her to be freed from the control of the devils and that will only be harder the more important she gets to them.

>>14854069
>She knows we're going to be looking out for a worthy Brass body for her
Wat? No we aren't. Way too dangerous. And if she's half as smart as she thinks she is, she knows that.

Silver is not reliable enough to use like the watcher is saying. Honor? Where was that when she was bleeding to death? Where will it be when she finds out what we do to people on a routine basis? Forcible inbreeding, cult worship, enslavement and mindbreaking? Avariel genocide? Undermining an ally who has supported us (seffy) even as we offer placating words?

If anything her honor will compel her to try and kill us.

>>14854126

Yeah I'm strongly against selling Nehmeska's soul to anything, against murdering her, and am for using her as a skilled slave and adviser if she can be trusted. If she can't, I am for keeping her as a prisoner indefinitely.

We should ask Nehmeska how much she felt she had to do for the humanoids that were helping her, and then agree to complete that repayment of favors on her behalf, since she's obviously not going to be able to do it herself now.

>>14854123

As long as the sacrifice isn't to the hells I'm cool with that.

When are we starting our human trials for our lifespan stealing magic. Don't want to start on dragons until we have gotten the basics down on lesser more easily replaced beings.

>>14854143
>If she can't, I am for keeping her as a prisoner indefinitely.
That's the stupidest thing that has been posted in this thread all night.

And that's saying something.

>>14854126
>>14854135
It could also aid in keeping the hells off our back while we figure it out.

WD, I just want to say I'm still in support of sacrificing her soul. I don't know if all these posts are just one or two guys arguing back and forth or whatever but I know that I prefer to just state it once but it kind of got lost in the shuffle of people posting the same opinions over and over again like they think arguing on the internet will convince anyone.

>>14854141

>Where was that when she was bleeding to death?
The sudden pain caused by the teleport made her think we had lied.

>Where will it be when she finds out what we do to people on a routine basis?
The really bad stuff is easy enough to hide. And we could use her in our efforets against the binder and I doubt she'd complain at all.

>Forcible inbreeding, cult worship, enslavement and mindbreaking?
She needn't find out, she won't care when we show her they're better off with us, and she needn't find out.

Avariel genocide?
You know, I'd actually be nterested to hear her opinions on how to deal with them. We didn't actually genocide the avariel. In fact we stopped a fair amout of civilian deaths.

Undermining an ally who has supported us (seffy) even as we offer placating words?
Like she won't believe that's prudent given who we're dealing with.

>>14854152
Human trials are worthless.

We're not human.

>>14854024
Okay, we seriously need to bring up the points in >>14854141 to the Watcher, as long as we're consulting with it anyway. Is it honestly claiming that, even after seeing all the crazy evil shit we do, Nehmeska would remain a willing servant due to a promise made to her would-be murderer in exchange for her life?

>>14854197
We don't know.

THAT'S THE WHOLE FUCKING PROBLEM. WE CAN'T FUCKING TRUST THE THING.

>>14854141

>Honor? Where was that when she was bleeding to death?

We didn't immediately provide aid, there was a delay while we moved her. She thought we were betraying her in that moment, because she was panicking.

>Where will it be when she finds out what we do to people on a routine basis? Forcible inbreeding, cult worship[?]

Co-opting existing practices to useful ends isn't too objectionable, and given that there's nothing inherently evil about practicing eugenics to help shape a species so that it can better survive, most of that falls into being "mostly self-serving but not a total disaster of evil."

>enslavement and mindbreaking?

There's a strong argument for Cygnis being unable to protect herself properly anyway, and that given how vulnerable she was to manipulation we've done her a service by preventing her from being tricked into doing anything horrible. There's nothing worse than a stupid dragon.

>Avariel genocide?

Rebels in an invaded territory who have been given every chance to integrate. And the war against them in the first place was just.

>Undermining an ally who has supported us (seffy) even as we offer placating words?

Seffy is playing the nation-state game, and when you're running a nation-state, you're playing by the rules in The Prince (or you're just fodder for those who are willing to be Machiavellian). If our slave can understand that, she won't mind the back and forth between us and Seffy.

>>14854197
The watcher is also a former metallic and by her very nature would want to keep the silver alive. It has shown itself completely willing to exaggerate even when telling the 'truth' and I think this is another one of those situations.

The Silver can't be trusted, we must either kill or sacrifice her.

>>14854196

Humans aren't rats, but we still test experimental drugs and chemicals an them before we test on humans.

Humans have souls. Therefore we should get the basics down using easily replaced humans before we start on hard to replace dragons.

rolled 72 = 72

What's up with sudden distrust towards the Watcher?

It has always told us the truth, even though at the beginning it would try to circumvent and tell technical truths and annoy us we answers which we didn't need (which were still true).

We can trust it.

Not saying we need to give free movement to the Silver, but if Watchers says she will keep her word I am inclined to believe it.


Selling soul to Hells is incredibly stupid.
It will attract their attention to us.
We will lose potentially useful minion.
We will lose Watchers trust.
We will restore Scinnaris connection with Hells again.

Why is this even considered?

>>14854206
Yeah, and all those explanations would be perfectly acceptable.

To an evil dragon's concept of honor. I mean, you just seriously suggested there that the silver would be okay with us torturing and enslaving Cygnis just because 'she couldn't keep us from doing it'. Which is sort of the point. This is stupid, we can't use the silver in any of the ways watcher is suggesting.

>>14854217
>What's up with sudden distrust towards the Watcher?

Wait, what?

Seriously?

How about you ask why we're trusting it in the first place.

It's a former metallic. It is Bound. It is designed to sow chaos by its own admission, and indeed has no choice but to do so.

And people think that we can trust it regarding the fate of a silver (metallic) that is of a species that hates reds (would sow chaos if she got free)?

Dammit, I'm too tired to deal with this shit. I am aware I started it, and you are probably tired too, but I was hoping... I don't know what I was hoping. That this would not become a clusterfuck.

Alright. Email in the email bar. Mail me with your stance on the silver, vis-a-vis what to do with her.

Finally, Any last instructions regarding what my next OP should be. Again, I won't be here tomorrow or next Sunday, but I /will/ be here Tuesday or Monday.

I'm out. See you Mon. or Tues.

>>14854217
We can trust the watcher? I... I don't even know if you are just stupid or trolling. It even said we couldn't trust it.

>>14854222

Torturing, no. Enslaving and holding prisoner, yes. And once we're sure Cygnis will give that same sort of line about how she was so easy to manipulate it wasn't even funny, we'd even be able to risk them interacting.

Have we got Cygnis thinking she likes the harsh treatment yet? Stuff like that is easier to justify after-the-fact if she'll be able to honestly say she likes it.

>>14854241
What the hell are you even talking about? You think Cygnis, in a conversation with the Silver, would go on about how she enjoys being mindraped, tormented, beaten/cut up, and forced to wear dead relatives? I mean, come on.

>>14854232
Your email field is lacking, but I suppose the archived threads have it.

I can't find your email

>>14854208
I'll say again, we can't sacrifice her because we want to avoid the attention of the hells and we sure as hell don't want scinnari to get promoted. That would just put more pressure on her and increase the likelihood of us getting backstabbed.

>>14854234
So are you trusting it when it says that?

Really, we have to be able to trust someone. Good god, people. Imagine, if you will, Azaladon frozen in time, flipping between paranoid possibilities for the entirety of the time between each post.


We do trust Watcher. If we didn't trust her, we wouldn't be bringing her along every time we plunder a hoard, every time we visit a dragon, every time we want to know something.

So why are we suddenly doubting her now? Because it could hurt us? It could have hurt us if we'd wandered into the blacks' lair and found her ancient-wyrm mother there! It could have hurt us if it had refused to speak with us after we destoyed the amulet for it in the cloud castle! It could have hurt us it kept lying!

Watcher has proven herself fairly reliable. She does not actively lie to us, and while she may work to cause chaos, perhaps she does it via assisting an expansionary empire...

>>14854241
Stop daydreaming kid, there's no way the silver would condone what we did with Cygnis.

Which is yet another point in favor of Watcher being a lying cunt to serve her own ends here. She said we could keep her alongside Cygnis. Oh sure, GREAT idea Watcher!

It's trying to screw us over. Maybe willfully, maybe because it is forced to by the magic it specifically told us about before. Either way, this is a bad idea and we should either kill her or sacrifice her.

>>14854258
We don't trust it with big things like this.

We are willing to trust it with little things. But shit like this? Different ball game.

>>14854252
>>14854251
Right, right, sorry. It would be in the old threads, but here it is. And here, if for some reason you can't see it still: SK.Mockery@yahoo.com

Now I'm out.

>>14854258
>It could have hurt us it kept lying!
I have some bad news for you....

>>14854258
I don't think you're too bright. Evidence: You are advocating we trust watcher.

We've never trusted watcher, by the way. We always double check the info whenever possible and if we can't we don't act in ways that bet our life on it.

>>14854264
>>14854271
Fine. Let me put it this way:

You think Watcher is scary? A big, nasty dragon mind, with thousands of years of experience, and unknown powers? One who might even be able to read our mind, regardless to what she says?

Why would she lie to us about /this/? Of all things, why /this/? It's something she will easily be proved wrong on, and she knows we'd seal her in stone and leave her in the darkness for ten thousand years if she did that! This is stupid!

>>14854298
Any number of reasons. Just as you said, she is a big scary 5000 year old dragon mind. She might be hoping the silver will kill us and by doing so keep the binder from returning to the world. Remember, she wants that even more than she wants a body, and we're the key.

She could be working to save a fellow metallic for her own moral ends. Or perhaps just because she wants to. The dragons were bound to serve by the Binding, but they weren't changed in personality.

Or she could simply just be doing it so sow epic discord, which will SURELY happen if we do this. As soon as the silver finds out the least bit of anything about how we operate discord will follow... honor does not trump Good, especially not at the level we're obviously talking with this silver.

>>14854262
>>14854264

I don't think watcher is lying about everything. Of course letting her completely free is a stupid thing to do. But we could stick her on the hoard with Cygnis, and we could use her as an adviser. She'd be honest as long as she thought we were giving Cygnis a break because of it. Hell, we might even be able to use her as an intermediary. You have to understand, we don't need to just take watchers word for it, we already know she's willing to sacrifice of herself for the sake of others. That's what she was doing with those tribals she was helping out. That aspect of her personality should not be in question as we have evidence that the watcher was telling the truth about that. With time we might find evidence that watcher was telling the truth about other things as well.

>>14854270
>MFW this quest, all fifty threads worth, was all a build up to get a bunch of email addresses to sell to spam services.

>>14854319

The Romans used to cripple their Greek slaves, primarily by maiming a leg and letting it heal badly so that the slave couldn't run, to ensure that the slave would make the best of the situation and remain cooperative.

We don't even need to cripple her. Her sense of honor and personality already do that for us.

>>14854331
Sweet, I was looking for this gif.

>>14854334
Bull/shit/ it does. Throwing around the word HONOR is not going to convince me, give me something better. Because honor is just a word, an trifling construct. What it comes down to is what she can do and what she will do when faced with the full horrors that we have wrought. And make no mistake, if she's an advisor, diplomat, or hoard topping then she will find out.

>>14854343
Well, let me ask. What could she do about it, if she was a hoard topping like Cygnis? We've proven that we can suitably restrain someone to the point that they can't do anything about it. Can't do anything about it over ten consecutive years of growing desperation.

Sure. Toss up some illusions, prevent them from being able to perceive or interact with each other. But really? It's perfectly safe to keep her, and perfectly worthwhile. As long as we haven't killed her or horribly betrayed her trust, (and just imprisoning her like Cygnis probably wouldn't,) then we can always change our mind later- Whether it's a better or worse fate we suddenly decide we will give her.

>>14854343
>What it comes down to is what she can do and what she will do when faced with the full horrors that we have wrought.
And man, we do NOT stint when it comes to the horrors. Those other pussy evil dragons got nothin' on this shit.

>>14854355
>It's perfectly safe to keep her, and perfectly worthwhile
Nope.

It's horribly dangerous to keep her because she could try to kill us (FOR HONOR!) and there is no reason at all to have her simply sit around doing nothing. If we are going to take a risk like that there should be some serious benefit. So far all you have listed is "well lol we could do X maybe it will all work out" and that sir is idiocy.

Wow. This sure has devolved. I voted for killing her outright in the fight before because I knew this exact situation would happen somehow. Thanks waifufags.

My vote is still the same. Kill her. Sacrifice her soul if we want to, I don't care either way. But we should of course strip her body down for all the valuable parts.

>>14854363
It's NOT dangerous! We've proven we can contain another dragon of similar age to ourselves, and, honestly, Cygnis is neither crippled nor silver- She's STRONGER than Nehema-whatsit. Cygnis is more dangerous than her. We can keep her perfectly safely.

>>14854343
>>14854357
And yet amongst all the terrible things we have done we have also done good, though not for the sake of good. Killing all those demon conjurers for Scinnari for instance. That was an ac that made the world a better place, regardless of why we did it.

We stick the silver on our hoard. She finds out what a bastard we really are. But she'll still advise honestly if we ask her to. As long as she thinks what she says to us can help the innocent she'll help us. Because despite our evil, we do good things.

>>14854381
Cygnis is fucked up mentally, which weakens her ability to resist the magic we're using to hold her.

>>14854381
No, we've shown that we can probably contain a mentally crippled dragon of nearly equal age who is being horribly tortured and mentally hammered, who also had a mental block against harming us because she used to love us and BY THE WAY had been tortured and mindfucked before at least once.

The silver is none of these things and if anything from what was said would fight to the death to slay us simply for what we have done to poor Cygnis. Get your head out of the clouds.

>>14854363
She'll try to kill us just like Cygnis tries to kill us? She poses no danger to us. If we wanted to spend the next century raping children in front of her there's not a damn thing she could do about it.

>>14854389
>Because despite our evil, we do good things.
Not... really. We have caused lessening of evil when it directly opposed us. That's it. We don't really do good. Even the stable empire we've created damns the souls of everyone born in it to an eternity of torture.

We're probably one of the more evil beings in the world.

>>14854399
Yeah, you're deluded. Or stupid, one of the two.

As captor we have other things to do. As prisoner all she has to do is think of ways to fuck us over. All day every day.

>>14854389
>>14854394
When we designed the magics that hold Cygnis we didn't make them to rely on what had been done to her or take into account that she loved us. When we designed that stuff we had no idea that she loved us or that she still hadn't recovered from what was done to her. We made that to hold a gold dragon that was older than us, end of story. It'll work fine on a silver.

>>14854426
Nope.

That's all that is left to say. You are clearly not going to be swayed away from you precious silver waifu by facts or logic.

>or take into account that she loved us

Yes we did. That was the entire point of seducing her first, THEN putting the containment on her.

Guys, we're magic as fuck. We could "free" her so long as we make some sort of ridiculously enchanted doo-dad that, if she were to betray us, or if she tried to remove it, we could use as a kill switch et cetera et cetera.

Basic evil overlord stuff.

>>14854455
Not reliable enough at all. All it would take is a disjunct or dispel and suddenly a free vengeful silver.

>>14854432
Your facts and logic are flawed. Really, what is so bad about sticking her on the hoard for a few years while we run the human trials for the life span stealing ritual? Then when we are ready to start the dragon trials we have two dragons to experiment on. Why do you insist on killing her immediately despite the lack of benefit?

>>14854476
If you haven't grasped such a simple point by now in the myriad posts detailing why then it doesn't matter what I say now; you are mentally incapable of comprehending it.

>>14854481
If you haven't grasped such a simple point by now in the myriad posts detailing why then it doesn't matter what I say now; you are mentally incapable of comprehending it.

>>14854448
No the point of seducing her first was so she wouldn't question our reasons for wanting her to wear the containment items. Also, it was fun. The magic itself was not dependent on a successful seduction, that would have been stupid.