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>>5533885
Over the last year-and-a-half, your mission to subjugate some unruly descendants of your ancestors’ kobold slaves has ballooned into something else entirely. You have toppled pretenders to the ancient Dragon Kings’ legacy and seized it for yourself. You have earned the favour of many a god, become champion of one and been forsaken by another. You have defeated legendary monsters and acquired equally-legendary weapons from their butchered bodies. You have conquered corporations, repatriated their resources, and killed or converted every surface-scum or unruly underling who dared to stand against you.

You bred one lover to sired strange spawn, sacrificed another in the pursuit of your dark designs, and confessed your love to your first and truest love.

Now, while your motley multicultural militia prepares for a war which will secure your claim to the Red Dragon King’s ancient heartland—and the Red Dragon Kings very soul slumbers in your heart—you prepare for an altogether different conquest. Your people have fallen far from their ancient glory. They have hidden in shadows, behind a veil of conspiracy. There was prudence to that decision, and it bought them time… But even as you acknowledge that, you fear the time for secrets and subterfuge is nearing its end. In Hawksong, the great city-on-the-hill of the human Paladins and their weakling subjects, the Great Conspiracy has been breached.

The Green Knight, last scion of the accursed Yosef bloodline, has captured a Serpent Priest—alive.

You were born now far from Hawksong, albeit miles underground. Now, you return to the same base where you were conceived, laid as an egg, hatched an infant, raised to be a Dragonborn Antipaladin. You return not with your head bowed in supplication and subordination, but lifted high with the pride of a True Dragon! You return to tell the Serpent Priesthood that their ways—the ancient ways they have followed for centuries, even millennia—are wrong. You have returned to rally the people to a new way, YOUR way… The way of LOVE!

You’re hoping they won’t try to execute you for heresy, and force you to stage a coup.

But before all that, there is one last thing you need to do…
>Check on your sons, and teach them to hunt—you are their father, after all
>Finally consummate your relationship with your true love—she is in heat!
>Give a speech to remind your forces why they fight, and command them in the first battle of their new campaign
>Commune with the Dark Gods—you are their champion, and you would ask their advice and for their blessing
>Write-in

header by the QM called Bananas or Nosewise.
Statblock portrait by stratraphell on Fiverr
Previous threads and predecessor quest at https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=reptoidqm

>>5533887
>Commune with the Dark Gods—you are their champion, and you would ask their advice and for their blessing
damnit, novice is finally in heat right after we turned down the BB fix? call him up right now! we will pay ANY price

>>5533887
>Check on your sons, and teach them to hunt—you are their father, after all

Im not sure how but lets do it

Pretty sure the sons are still worm like iirc

>>5533887
>>Commune with the Dark Gods—you are their champion, and you would ask their advice and for their blessing

Should probably get this squared away since our main detractors will likely be the serpent PRIESThood.

>>5533887
>Check on your sons, and teach them to hunt—you are their father, after all
>Commune with the Dark Gods—you are their champion, and you would ask their advice and for their blessing
Love my boys and theyre growing big and will likely be huge when we come back to bloodrise, itll be good to reach them this valuable lesson before we head off, and preferably we speak to the serpent ascending to give us a good hunt for our us and our sons
Id rather not bone Novice since we still have our affliction, and we dont need to battle rally our forces for the return trip unless were bringing our mammal vassals too which I think we should discuss as a group first before bringing them into the base

>>5534056
[Please pick ONE last thing, if you please]

>>5534062
Facts, my bad bossman
>Hunt with the wyrmy boys

>>5533887
>>Check on your sons, and teach them to hunt—you are their father, after all
Without the.... repercussions... of mom's mating I would had pick the Novice

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>>5534121
>>5534066
>>5534042
>>5533901
>>5533898
It has a been a full season now since your battle with Hapo the Necromancer, the kobold who dared to ascend to some facsimile of dragonhood and to challenge your claim to kingship. In that single spring, your sons—nine in total—have grown considerably. Your own race has a notably short youth—you were essentially physically mature by your tenth or twelfth year—but your ‘wyrmling’ spawn take this to a new extreme. It seems every week or two they moult, and each time they emerge from their skin they are larger, better armoured, more complex in configuration. At first, you had difficulty telling them apart, by their most recent moults have granted them clearer distinction. The reddish, mammal-like hair they inherited from you has thinned out, parting to reveal armour-like exoskeleton. Their grublike bodies have broadened and elongated, segmented more clearly into something mid-way between the head-abdomen-thorax configuration of their mother (the ‘greatworm’ who you nicknamed ‘Glowie’) and your own tetrapodal body-plan.

“Zzoldierz!” Glowie enthuses in her sing-song buzz, gushing over your peculiar heirs with a mother’s pride. “Warriorzz!”

“Hunters,” you agree. “I will teach them to hunt, before I leave.”

Glowie is sad to see you go. Despite your explicit and public alliance with the insect-queen, she and your sons are largely isolated from the rest of your empire. Even in Bloodrise’s mixed and multicultural society, they are an alien breed, and unsettling to most. Oddly enough, they seem to find the most kinship with the Drow—the blackish elves of Wevenore—who keep many great insects and arachnids as pets and familiars. Most preeminent in their esteem is the Centipede Lancer Hamaraska, who has served as tutor and babysitter to them these last few months.

“How have their minds developed?” you ask, confiding in this androgynous mammal your concerns. “They seemed… Less than sapient, before. Their bodies have grown, but…”

“They have trouble speaking Dark Elven or the humans’ Northern Common-tongue,” the Lancer admits. “But they understand it well enough. Now that they have… Well, grown HANDS… They can even write in it. It is the mouthparts that are the problem.”

“They cannot ‘speak’ with psychic assistance, like their mother?” you inquire.

The Lancer shakes their head.

“That’s unique to elite females, the Queen thinks.”

You look sharply at Hamaraska. That these Wyrm Princes are your sons, that Glowie was your mate, this is a secret kept even from the elven caretaker. Only the Novice knows of your mating. IT takes you a moment to register Hamaraska’s confused expression, and to realize the elf means ‘Worm-Queen’, and does not mean to imply she is YOUR queen.

“Yes,” you say, “Good. Thank you.”

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>>5534181
Your sons assemble before you. By now, they are each nearly as tall as you were two years prior, before you adopted your <Dragonshape> as a nigh-permanent state. If you were to measure them lengthwise—for they are constructed in almost centaur-like configuration, with elongated hindquarters—some would be larger than you are now. How much larger might they get, with a much greater concentration of True Dragon blood in them thanks to the Novice's craft? They have plateaued for now, but you doubt this is the end of their development.

At present, the Princes vary slightly in size and shape, but each has eight limbs: two pairs or legs, dextrous forelimbs ending in manipulating ‘hands’, and (much to your delight) wings!

“Fall in,” you command.

Each of your sons bows his head in turn. One by one, you acknowledge them by the prestigious Draconic names which you granted them:

“Tudyvak, the Scout. Jepvysk, the Hunter. Lopfivik and Fidiefvik, the Terror Twins. Telovvisk of the Deep. Noptivisk, the Singer. Tonupask Ironclad. Gohjavisk Half-Dragon. Natvodask Unknowable.”

Your sons hum and chirp in delight at the names you gave them. You congratulate yourself silently on your foresight, for each seems apt. Tud is eager, energetic, strong-winged. Jep’s wings are not so large to allow flight as yet, but he is ravenous and savage, long-snouted like a crocodile and big of belly. Lop and Fidi are still close, always backing each other up against their larger siblings, just as heavy-shelled and flightless Ton continues to defend stubborn, defiant little Gohja—the runt even now, the only one of your sons smaller and lighter than you. Telov is cryptically-coloured, almost hairless, and a low-slung crawling thing; Nop is a scarlet-tinged peacock of a being. Nat… Is Nat. He has more eyes than the rest, an they often stare past and through you, in a way that is both frustrating and a little unnerving.

“You are finally large enough, and wise enough, to receive instruction,” you tell them.

Your sons buzz, shriek, and crow in foul, fellborn voices, speaking nonsense but plainly understanding you even as you speak the rue Speech. This makes them trilingual, you suppose, even as the remain nonverbal. The latter troubles you, but since they are not even two years of age, the former is astonishing enough to make up for it.

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>>5534182
“We will be hunting near to Bloodrise,” you announce. “The surface is full of game—sheep-goats, deer, foxes and badgers, lesser unicorns, woltpertingers, and leucocrota. Most humans steer clear of those areas where the kobolds hunt, for fear of them. The mountains have less game, and are harder to navigate, but offer greater safety from prying eyes.”

Telo taps his limbs erratically in a queer dance, drawing your attention, and hiss-rattles. He gestures downwards, toward the stone; when you fail to grasp his meaning, he produces a charred branch from a cervices in his carapace and draws a crude elven scrawl: “Down?”

“Yes,” you say, “There is game in the deep as well, but most of it is scrawny and sickly. The healthier, more challenging quarry dwells topside.”

Then again… The realm below is the safest of all, since the Bogbarri (or ‘bugbears’) were re-tamed by your ally of that prickly race, the kobolds doubly subjugated, the Shoggoth slain and mastered and Devourer defeated. Maybe that would be better?

Where will you take your sons hunting?
>The mountains
>The forests below Bloodrise
>The underdark

How will you instruct them to hunt?
>Independently—they are rival heirs, and there can only be one crown prince
>As a pack—your are a King of Love, and a champion of community and cooperation
>With you at the head, directing them as a unit—you are their patriarch, and they are still very young and inexperienced
>Write-in

Do you pay special attention to any of them?
>Specify if so, or specify if not

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>>5534183
>forest
>With you at the head, directing them as a unit—you are their patriarch, and they are still very young and inexperienced

Backlinking incase my ip changes (i phonepost)

>>5534192
>also dont pay special attention to one particular son

>The mountains
>As a pack—your are a King of Love, and a champion of community and cooperation
>Gohjavisk
Teach him that he can overcome his nature through efforts and motivation

>>5534183
>The forests below Bloodrise
>As a pack—your are a King of Love, and a champion of community and cooperation
>Yes
More just see how they use their skills, and see who takes charge, I hope we can use each of them but managing infighting between them will be important

>>5534183
>The mountains
>As a pack—your are a King of Love, and a champion of community and cooperation
>With you at the head, directing them as a unit—you are their patriarch, and they are still very young and inexperienced

>>5534183
>The forests below Bloodrise
>As a pack—your are a King of Love, and a champion of community and cooperation
>As packmates they should learn to compensate for each other's weaknesses and turn their unique abilities to strength. Focus on those with perceived issues and show them how apes dragons together strong.

>>5534183
>The forests below Bloodrise
>With you at the head, directing them as a unit—you are their patriarch, and they are still very young and inexperienced

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>>5534493
>>5534413
>>5534282
>>5534203
>>5534198
>>5534195
>>5534192
[Locked and writing!]

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>>5534572
Your sons share your boldness, by and large. They show greatest excitement for the forest. You can’t blame them, either—the best game is there, the verdant oak-and-spruce forests below the sun-drenched spires of your kingdom are beautiful hunting grounds. Each dawn, gazing out at that expanse, you wish it was more entirely yours, and that you had the freedom to explore them more fully.

Well, today is the day!

“Very well,” you tell the Wyrm Princes, to a chatter of clacking mandibles and happy hums. “The forest!”

You lead the procession of your monstrous progeny down through the kobold-worn footpaths. You were never a master of stealth or tracking, alas, and the Fearsome Presence of you and your sons puts off many small game—they sense you coming and flee before you can even set eyes on them.

In short: a nice nature hike with your children, but hardly a HUNT.

“Whatever beasts remain will be more impressive, though.”

You look over at Hamaraska, who has accompanied you. The Lancer shrugs.

“I could go flush out something simpler, but if the Wyrms are hunting together… Simple, small, or weak prey will be no challenge once it is in range.”

A fair point. You are glad to have brought the dark elf, for they know bugs in general—and Glowie’s children in particular—better than anyone else except their mother… And Glowie is far too large and cumbersome these days for extended woodland hikes, much to her disappointment. She simply requested that you visit her once more before you depart on your mission to the northern forward base—a request you were happy enough to acquiesce to.

Your thoughts are interrupted by a pang of your <Danger Sense>--the spark of divination-driven reflex that forces your mind to empty and your muscles to move before you even know what is happening. You flatten out, as something unexpected sails through the air above you, barreling through the space you just occupied. It is…

Rolled 76 (1d100)

>>5534589
let's try that roll again

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>>5534590
>>5534589
>>5534590
...

...


"What is that?" you mutter, staring in consternation at something that looks mid-way between an elk or great cow of some sort, but with a shaggy blue pelt and a thick mane. It has a horned head, and bulging, furious eyes, but its maw is that of an omnivore, with an eclectic collection of teeth. It looks to be at least ten feet in length, not counting a short, thin tail, and it is easily eight feet at the shoulder. Bulging below its throat is a wattle, like that of your basilisk back home, but as it wheels about to face you it balloons up like that of a toad.

Your Lancer mounts their centipede Honemdym, but you signal the Drow to hold back. The frightened mystery-beast cries out in a long wailing moan as it sees your Wyrm Princes closing in, having heard the commotion and quickly grouped up.

“You have your quarry,” you tell them. “Work together. Bring it back, alive.”

Rattling hissing and chattering erupts from all around you, and the hunt is on.

You and your dark elf companion follow at a distance. Your sons make quite the racket, all moving as a pack in pursuit of the fleeing blue-beast. Even if they did not, the beast itself is no subtle thing—presumably why it charged you to begin with, hoping to frighten you away since it knew it could not evade you with stealth. It is now terribly swift, either, but its strength is admirable—when trees are dense enough to impede progress, it simply bashes them down with a throw of its great armoured skull.

However, that skull is not a shelter for any special cunning… Certainly nothing to match that of Telov, Nopti, and Tud. Your swiftest son took quickly to the air, with some clumsiness but a seed you find yourself envying; from his vantage point, he signaled his musically-inclined sibling, who sang a terrible dirge to direct the skulking Telov. The Terror Twins and Tonu Ironclad herded the beast into position, and Telov struck, lashing out with snapping jaws and seizing with pincer-like claws upon his middle pair of limbs!

Unfortunately, it was then that the creature revealed the purpose of its throat pouch.

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>>5534606
You hear a sound you have never heard before, but instantly recognize: your son screaming in pain. You exchange a glance with the Lancer, and you both hurry, to where you find Telov clutching at his face, which is steaming and giving off smoke. You hurry to him, as Jepvysk and Gohjavisk find you next.

“What happened?!”

It is a silly question, you realize almost immediately. Your sons are helpless to communicate with spoken word or telepathic implication. You move Telovvisk’s hands away from his face to find the scales and chitin scalded and scorched, as if by hot water or potent acid. Gohja pantomimes as if vomiting, and you understand: the blue-beast regurgitated something from its pouch in a foul stream, burning your boy.

Jepvysk snorts, and immediately turns to go after it, following the obvious path of smashes timber. Gohja lingers a moment, then does likewise.

You…
>Stay with Telov, and use what little Fleshweaving you know to help mitigate the damage
>Hope Telov will use this as a learning opportunity, and continue to supervise the hunt
>Call the hunt off—this mysterious creature is too dangerous of quarry for your sons’ first chase
>Draw your bow and set out to aid your sons in avenging this affront
>Pull out the newly-mastered shoggoth-sword—this means WAR
>Write-in

>>5534607
>Stay with Telov, and use what little Fleshweaving you know to help mitigate the damage
dang we gotta teach these bois to talk

>>5534607
>>Stay with Telov, and use what little Fleshweaving you know to help mitigate the damage

>>5534607
>Hope Telov will use this as a learning opportunity, and continue to supervise the hunt
I dont mean to be a tool, but in the wild they wont have fleshweavers to heal them,well rn at least Brush it off bubba, get back in the game with your brothers and make that acid spitting moose pay for what it did

>>5534607
>Hope Telov will use this as a learning opportunity, and continue to supervise the hunt

Telov is likely fine some boiling water wont deal Signiant damage through his scaled carapace. And our sons shed and molt their skins anyway.

>>5534607
>Stay with Telov, and use what little Fleshweaving you know to help mitigate the damage

>>5534607
>Check briefly to ensure there will be no permanent damage

>Hope Telov will use this as a learning opportunity, and continue to supervise the hunt

>>5534621
>>5534625
>>5534653
>>5534627
>>5534667
>>5534704
[Inconveniently for me, but conveniently for the quest, i think I'm experiencing some mild agoraphobia. That's new! Alas, we have a tie, so though I have time to post we need a tie-breaker. I'll wait another 30 minutes and then go for it anyway.]

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5534830

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>5534830
>>5534873
“Let this be a lesson to you,” you criticize your stealthiest son. “Do not become so overconfident in your approach that you underestimate an adversary, particularly one you don’t entirely understand.”

Telovysk thrums in quiet understanding, as you use what Fleshweaving you can recall from your lessons with the Novice to repair your son’s face. The damage is surprisingly deep despite his armour. This is actually the first time in several moultings that you have examined one of your insectoid offspring so closely, and you find that their armour—while fearsome—is not exactly platemail. There are many gaps and crevices, the chitin fitting together like scales over an expanding membrane of thinner skin as they outgrow their current skin and cause it to bulge and thin like overfilled clothing. These gaps were where the boiling regurgitant lingered and did greatest damage. Perhaps the wyrms are really not yet fully mature after all, to still have such relatively fragile exoskeletons? You do what you can, and focus on preserving the sight in Telov’s four eyes.

“Hang back,” you instruct him.

You assign Hamaraska the Lancer to his care, and go to rejoin his brothers in the hunt of the strange blue beast.

When you locate the rest of your children, you find that they have chased their dangerous quarry down the hills and to a great river. It is slow here, rather than rapid, but deep. The elk-like entity has waded out as far as it can go without swimming, and by the look of it has filled its strange throat-pouch anew. Smoudlering, foul-smelling streaks across the ground remain as a testament to it having expelled the contents and refilled it at least two other times while you were tending to your injured son.

Tud alights in a tree, having tired himself out with prolonged flight, while your other sons linger at water’s edge, uncertain how to approach. Seeing you approach, however, they seem to feel a renewed surge of purpose, perhaps out of a desire to prove themselves. Gohjavisk Half-Dragon, scrawny creature that he is, must feel it most keenly, for he lets loose a terrible hissing shriek and launches into the water…

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>>5534902
>1

…Which seems to be exactly what the monstrous animal was waiting for. It does not retreat, or spit another deluge of boiling bile at him, but charges to meet him. With its long legs and dense body, the deer-thing has a much better bodyplan for wading through the water than Gohja… Who, you realize, has never swam before. Your bold and reckless child is quickly caught by the huge creatures great maw and, with a sound between a chirp and squawk, he is dragged under the water. His head is forced down, so that his many flailing limbs can only kick and grasp blindly at air and water. Aside from the punctures inflicted by the blue-beast’s assortment of teeth, and the crushing force of its no-doubt impressive bite, Gohja faces a far more harrowing threat…

The water itself. The beast is trying to drown him.

><Aquaphobia> flaw: activated
><Water Weakness> flaw: pending

You feel your heart seized by terror. Water has ever been your nemesis. Muscular and athletic though you have become, you were never a strong swimmer. You tried, Serpent Ascendant KNOWS you tried, but it was one force of nature you could never master. You’ve nearly drowned three times in your journey. You know well the horrifying sensation which your smallest and weakest child must now be feeling… The air in his chest struggling to free itself, the water pressing in, the oppressive darkness. Is there anything worse than the conscious knowledge that your life depends on NOW opening your mouth and trying to breathe, even as your body stubbornly refuses to believe you and forces you to gulp down liquid death anyway?

Your other sons watch impassively. The Twins chatter nervously, while Tonu the Ironclad—heavy of body, late to arrive—sees his treasured sibling in mortal peril and rushes to aid him… Only for Nat, quiet and mysterious, to hiss quietly, and cause Nat to stop.

At first you’re a little taken-aback. Why aren’t they all rushing to assist? Then again… Your sons ARE of their mother’s race, and of the race of Dragons. Young dragons were said to be violently competitive with their siblings as a matter of youthful instinct, while Glowie’s race is perhaps even more dispassionate than yours about matters of life and death. These same sons, in their first few weeks, sometimes required interventions to prevent them eating one another.

What will you do?
>Dive into the fray to save your son
>Let Gohja try to free himself, and thus prove his merit
>Command one or more of your sons to intervene to aid their sibling [specify who, and if you have a plan]
>Use your bow (or perhaps another spell or piece of equipment?) to aid from afar
>Write-in

>>5534923
>Use your bow (or perhaps another spell or piece of equipment?) to aid from afar
Bow is fine

aaaaiiiee lake sama we kneel

>>5534923
>Dive into the fray to save your son
Auqaphobia can suck it. If there's one way to overcome fear it's parental instincts.
>Command one or more of your sons to intervene to aid their sibling
Fighting and moving in water is a valuable lesson, best learned young. That being said, maybe only have the strongest enter to back you up for now.

>>5534923
>Dive into the fray to save your son

They're collectively our heir until one proves himself more worthy than the others; ignoring your blood who have done nothing to wrong you is not something we should reward.

>>5534923
>Dive into the fray to save your son

>>5534923
>Dive into the fray to save your son
Id rather not have any of our kids die on their first outing, and Gohja is the runt. It may not be the norm but the boys are their own species and I feel like we have to teach them to look out for eachother, seeing Dad do something hes terrified of may put their fragility into perspective, no one wants to dissappoint dad

>>5534923
>Use your bow (or perhaps another spell or piece of equipment?) to aid from afar

How deep is this river?

Also backlink to
>>5534192
>>5534195

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>>5535049

>>5535049
>How deep is this river?
[At least six or seven feet where the struggle is taking place (essentially up to Theral's abdomen or just below his chest), though it seems to get deeper closer to the centre.]

Rolled 3, 19, 20, 19 = 61 (4d20)

>>5535049
>>5535001
>>5534970
>>5534965
>>5534944
>>5534929
You’ll be damned to the Hellish Realms without the protections of your Dark Gods if you’ll let fear rule you over pride, or over love. This is your first expedition with your only children, and you’ll not lose one to some oafish mammalian beast, nor to the deep.

“What are you doing?!” you chastise your other sons. “Do you think I will reward any of you for thinning your numbers? I instructed you to work as a team. Are you just going to ignore your father… Your King?”

The expressions of the Wyrmlings are difficult to read, their faces stiff and queer, but their blood is dragonblood, and your inherent empathy for all things Reptilian communicates their embarrassment and shame. You waste no further time on words, though—it is time for action. You strip out of your heaviest pieces of armour and leap into the fray… And into the water. Gohjavisk Half-Dragon will NOT drown today, if you have to rip him from the mouth of this animal with your own two hands!

[4d20 athleticism, 1d20 for Gohja; DC 16 for you (18 for Aquaphobia/Water Weakness, reduced by two for Dragonshape) and DC 16 for him (he is half-drowned and injured)]

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>5535173
[Forgot one die, but with your rolls... Well, he oughtta' be okay.]

>>5535177
>>5535173

>20, two 19s

The blue-beast is so focused upon drowning your child that it doesn’t notice your approach—not until your fist is meeting it square between the eyes, anyway. Its skull is strong, but you are animated by mortal terror for yourself and your boy; you strike with Draconic force, and the mammals’ fortitude cracks and its jaws open in a cry of shcok and pain, freeing Gohjavisk.

Paternal instincts are not encouraged by your faith or by your culture, but you feel them surge up within you and are grateful for them; it is that latter fear which allows you to enter the water at all, and to seize Gohja’s body from the water and drag him to the shallows. The blue-beast advances, honking and howling and with its head lowered to gore, and you brace for impact…

>15 (aided by your crit)

…But the impact never comes. Gohja, even in his weakened state, lashes out with his venomous bite, distracting the amphibious adversary. A moment later, Natvodask Unknowable gestures and chatters, and your other children enter the shallows as well. Tonupask Ironclad crashes into its side, unable to match its sheer bulk but certainly with enough of his own to throw it off-balance. It splashes and sputters, attempting to right itself, but the Terror Twins are quickly upon it in a frenzied splashing-about. It throws both of them off, but not before being so badly gouged by claws, fangs, and sharp-edged carapace as to colour the river-bank red with hunt-blood.

And then, Jepvysk the Hunter is upon the blue-beast, and its life ends in carnage quite quickly thereafter.

You watch all this from the shore, where you quickly scrambled for the soul-comfort of dry land. Gohjavisk lies beside you, wheezing and coughing, unattended by his brothers. Telovvisk approaches you two with the Lancer, hangdog of appearance as he watches the other brothers shred the carcass and savagely dispose of the spoils. Only when this triumphant bloodlust is abated do they assemble around you.

You stand and…
>Congratulate them on a successful first hunt, though you have some notes…
>Criticize their performance, priorities, and unit cohesion most thoroughly
>Impart some specific fatherly advice to individual sons [who and what?]
>Think you need to have a talk with their mother about their attitude, and what you expect from your sons...
>Write-in

>>5535200
>>Congratulate them on a successful first hunt, though you have some notes…
Some pointers on preferred terrain and what being pack means.

>>5535200
>Congratulate them on a successful first hunt, though you have some notes…
and
>Talk with their mother about their attitude, and what you expect from your sons...

Competition amongst our sons is healthy - but abandoning one another in the face of death is not on

>>5535219
+1 to this, yeah. Nothing wrong with striving for glory, but not at the expense of your brethren

>>5535200
>>Impart some specific fatherly advice to individual sons [who and what?]
stick together and have multiple plans incase things go wrong

>>5535256
*advice for ALL sons

>>5535200
>>5535219
+1
Also clarify water isnt exactly our friend

>>5535219
supportin'

>>5535200
>Congratulate them on a successful first hunt, though you have some notes…
water scary
stay away from water

>>5535219
>>5535256
Support

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>>5535911
>>5535798
>>5535377
>>5535283
>>5535258
>>5535256
>>5535231
>>5535219
>>5535216
[Locked and writing!]

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>>5536442
You offer heartfelt praise and congratulations of your sons. The meat of the blue-beast is ruined by their feasting, their venom… And, you suspect, by its own burst organs and acrid secretions, unappetizing to you or any other subject of Bloodrise. You leave it where it lays.

“You did well!” you tell them. “This foe was unexpectedly dangerous, but through coordination and perseverance you brought it low.”

The Wyrmlings sing their strange songs and jiggle and wriggle in obvious jubilation at their father’s praise, Nptivisk leading the chorus… But you are conflicted. You look to Gohjavisk and Telovvisk—both ostracized, apart from the others and one another. Natvodask sees your celebratory mood waver, and quiets somewhat, tilting his head in curiosity. For all his eeriness, you recognize this as one of your own mannerisms. You wonder what he is thinking.

“Remember,” you tell them, “terrain is a key aspect of any campaign. You must deprive your enemy of his advantages. Whenever possible, choose the field of battle. Deny him shelter. Letting that beast get to water was a misstep that almost cost you a brother. Better teamwork would have allowed you to prevent it from ever reaching that point.”

Water is to be avoided, after all. It is safety and succor to the enemy, and it is bane to the likes of you—and nearly to your son.

The brothers seem to take it under advisement, quieting and chittering amongst themselves in hushed voices. Tonupask, at least, moves to rejoin his shamed siblings. They trail a little behind the others on the way home, but with your encouragement the full party of nine is eventually joined as one column again on the march home.

“They are good zonz!” Glowie enthuses when you tell them of your hunting trip’s success. “They will be good zoldierzz for uzz.”

“But they are not being good BROTHERS.”

Glowie hums thoughtfully, but you know her body language well enough by now to tell that she does not understand, and is humouring you.

“Healthy competition is fine,” you try to explain. “but not at the expense of their brethren. They abandon one another too readily in the face of death.”

“It izz the way for the weak to fall and zztrong to feazt, yezz?”

You hesitate before answering. That IS the way of things, isn’t it? The Red Dragon King said as much, even as he preached love. It’s what makes Draconic Love stronger than the weak mammalian concept propped up by the Gods of Light. But… Well, YOU couldn’t leave your sons to suffer or die, even to secure victory or teach them a lesson. You faced your greatest fear to save them from the wages of ‘weakness’.

(You remember the last words of Davora the Herbalist, your lost lover, and shake off a sudden wave of tumultuous emotion)

“That is not the love in my heart,” you pronounce. “That is not the way of Bloodrise, or of our family. It cannot be.”

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>>5536485
Glowie hums comfortingly, and takes your hands in her chitin-claw grip. You do not resist. Your talons are larger now than hers, in your nigh-permanent <Dragonshape>.

“I underzztand, my king,” she reassures you. “I will do azz you command. They are your zonzz, too, after all!”

You don’t thinks he does really understand it. This… Being… She is your friend, has been your mate and ally, and you KNOW she has great capacity for love. She nearly died for you, once, in a truly heroic act of devotion and affection. She fawns over you even now, delights at your presence, treasures every soft touch and kind word… But like the Master Race, her concept of love is unlike your own. She was so eager to bear your sons, and yet now she seems unbothered by the prospect of any of their individual deaths.

“You are leaving zoon,” she notes, with a touch of sadness.

“Yes,” you agree.

She squeezes your hands more closely, and hums her ‘love song’.

“Be zzafe,” she asks of you. “Come home zzoon, my love."

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>>5536488
You rest, recovering from your day’s ordeals and meditating to clear your mind and refresh your spirit for the journey ahead. You take your torpor alone this evening, rather than with the Novice (as is your usual way) or in Glowie’s chamber (an occasional treat for the insect matriarch, but one which fills you with mixed feelings right now).

The next day, you set out for your first ‘home’, if ever it could truly be called that: the northern forward base of the Reptilian Master Race’s infiltration and subversion operation, where the Novice’s Chaplain father reigns as local hegemon. Your mission is twofold: preach your New World Order to the lowborn and lesser Reptilians that they might understand the new Age of Darkness and Love, and to convince the Serpent priesthood of its wisdom that they might officially proclaim Bloodrise a new Dark Kingdom and ratify your kingship thereof.

You spent the morning finalizing your party for this auspicious return. Some should remain behind to maintain order and good governance in your absence. Others are necessary to lead your troops in their campaign to subjugate or slay all dwarves in Bloodrise who will not submit to your reign and follow your faith. But you cannot journey alone—or, at least, you never have before, and allies would be valuable to communicate your successes and help legitimize your movement.

Who will you bring?

>Write-in all who you wish to bring, from among…
>>The Novice Fleshweaver
>>The Junior Novice
>>The Thief
>>The Bastard
>>The Pit-Guard
>>The Pit-Guard’s Apprentice
>>The North-merchant
>>The South-merchant
>>The Translator
>>The Hunter and/or his retinue
>>The Wevenore Ambassador
>>The Bugbear Boss and his retinue
>>The Throat-singer
>>Hamaraska the Lancer
>>Azonia the Duelist
>>Ivno the Kobold
>>Agno the Kobold
>>The Engineer
>>The Geologist
>>Any of your sons
>>Glowie
>>The sundry Drowgons, Duergar, Kobold elders
>>Your imprisoned and enslaved adventurer from many months ago, still languishing in chains
>>Your fire-lizards
>>Your basilisk
>>Your lightning elemental
>>Any others I forgot

>>5536489
[Right! Also...]
>>Olu the Archer
>>The Occultist

>>5536489
>>Ivno the Kobold
>>Agno the Kobold
>>A few of the Kobold elders- not all of them
>>Olu the Archer
>>Your fire-lizards
>>The Throat-Singer and a Duregar honor-guard
>>Azonia
>>Bugbear Boss
>>Drowgons

I'm not 100% sure about bringing any of the non-Reptilian companions. The Kobolds and fire-lizards are all Reptilian, as is Olu; question is whether we should bring a representative of each of the constituent races under our burgeoning kingdom.

>>5536489
>>The Novice Fleshweaver
>>The Junior Novice
>>Olu
>Any other reptilians that want to visit home, except the Hunter and his retinue because we need his competence holding down the fort
>>Ivno the Kobold
agno is too fiery and rebellious
>>Your imprisoned and enslaved adventurer from many months ago, still languishing in chains
as a slave we'll sell so it's ok
>>Your fire-lizards
>>Your basilisk
>>Your lightning elemental

this is already gonna be a risky endeavor without bringing non reptilians to the secret reptilian only base

once they're sold on the us king deal we can begin the cultural integration

>>5536489
>The Novice Fleshweaver

For obvious personal reasons and to assist with diplomacy against the Priesthood

>The Junior Novice

To defend the novice

>The Thief

In case we need subterfuge

>The Bastard

To intermingle with the lower classes and to guard us

>>The Hunter and/or his retinue

For defence and to help persuade the warrior class

>>The Wevenore Ambassador

To see the glory of the Master Race (even at a far flung outpost)

>The Throat-singer

To provide us with counsel and represent the Dwarven citizenry

>Ivno the Kobold

To provide us with counsel and represent the knobold citizenry

>Your imprisoned and enslaved adventurer from many months ago, still languishing in chains

To either sell or sacrifice to the dark gods

>Your fire-lizards

For defence and awe

>Your lightning elemental

For defence

>>5536489
>>The Novice Fleshweaver
>>The Junior Novice
>>The Thief
>>The Bastard
>>Olu the Archer
>>The Occultist
>>Hamaraska the Lancer
>>Azonia the Duelist
>>Ivno the Kobold
>>Agno the Kobold
>>The Engineer
>>The sundry Drowgons, Duergar, Kobold elders
>>Your imprisoned and enslaved adventurer from many months ago, still languishing in chains
>>Your fire-lizards
>>Your basilisk
>>Your lightning elemental

>>5537102
+1

>>5535049
Backlink incase

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>>5537488

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>>5537488
>>5537271
>>5537241
>>5537102
>>5536871
[Locked! Post incoming.]

You bring the Novice (obviously) and the Junior Novice (equally obviously, for his frequently-altered body is prone to failure without his namesake, and the Novice would benefit from a guard-dog). Ivno the Kobold has been a loyal servant and a reliable watch-dog of sorts himself, so it seems fitting to being him as a representative of his race. Your fire-lizards (two remain, both reasonably docile by now), the basilisk (outfitted with a hood to prevent accidental discharge of its terrible stone-gaze) and lightning elemental (still not fled, still an uneasy ally) should prove an impressive menagerie to showcase yours strength of arms. The rest of your militarily-capable allies are allocated to the war-effort, where their talents will be better utilized…

Well, save for one.

“And why this one?” asks your Archer ally, Oluwadamilare.

The half-elf adventurer whom he hauls up by his metal collar has looked better. Even recently savaged and hobbled by kobolds after his defeat, this ranger was once a prized specimen of mammalian athleticism. Now, though hard labour has hardened him, reduced rations have hollowed his cheeks, and battened have all but broken his spirit and scarred his bared skin. He glares at you with a hatred that is without any bite. He does not struggle, not even to make himself more comfortable; he has become accustomed to discomfort.

“I have not decided yet,” you admit. “To sell? To sacrifice? The Dark Gods will guide our hand.”

Olu the Archer is assigned the keeper of this half-elf, whom he treats with grave discipline. Throughout your journey, the wastrel adventurer never steps out of line, shuffling with elven grace but without his parent race’s pride or dignity. Then again, perhaps it is his humanity which grants him the hardiness to persist at all? Even the hard-living Drow seem scantly suited to the backbreaking labour of the dwarves and kobolds, which he shares in with far fewer rewards or amenities.

Ivno is put to the task of wrangling your animals, something he asserts Agno is the better at… But his efforts do not go unnoticed, or unappreciated. Only the lightning elemental proves to be beyond his capabilities, but then that storm-spirit is no mere animal, and ALL of you give it wide berth at rest.

Your perpetual <Dragonshape> and your impressive cadre of warriors and predators helps clear your path through deep darkness, such that you are untroubled by the typical threats and enemies of the underdark for the first half of your journey. This gives you time to think, and to speak with those whom you would have words with.

>>5537584
Who do you speak with?
>The Novice—wasn’t she, ah, in estrus? You have walked close with her, and the characteristic pheromone-odour is now… Gone…
>The half-elven prisoner—to goad him a little, and to learn what value he may hold
>Olu the Archer—how are things with he and his lady love, with whom he has lately had only distant relations?
>The Junior Novice—perhaps you can teach him some proper True Speech, in preparation for your return?
>Ivno—how does he feel about the Master Race these days? What about life in Bloodrise, under your regime Perhaps an underling of low birth can best help you bridge that gap…
>The Lightning Elemental—it needs a firmer hand to tame its willful spirit, lest it be needed in battle
>The Red Dragon King’s spirit—awaken your most noble ancestor from his slumber in your chest, and meditate on what advice he can offer about diplomacy, fatherhood, and love
>Write-in
[Please pick no more than two.]

>>5537586
As you reflect on your recent triumph over the blue-beats with your sons, you find you have some useful takeaways from the experience as well. Perhaps some of these lessons are applicable to the challenges ahead? In particular, you feel that your fatherly expedition improved your understanding of…
>Fisticuffs
>Athleticism
>Leadership
>Reptilian Empathy
[Remember: only three stats can be “maxed” at 5 stars.]

>>5537586
>Red Dragon King
>Novice

>Leadership

>>5537588
>Ivno
>Novice

>Reptilian Empathy

>>5537586
>Novice
>The Lightning Elemental

We really need to bring the thing under our control

>Leadership
A King is a leader first and foremost

>>5537586
>The Lightning Elemental—it needs a firmer hand to tame its willful spirit, lest it be needed in battle
we don't want this thing to fly off the handle when we're making our case about unconspiracying
also damn novice is unheated already? we only had like one update to smash

>Leadership

>>5537586
>The Lightning Elemental—it needs a firmer hand to tame its willful spirit, lest it be needed in battle

>The Red Dragon King’s spirit—awaken your most noble ancestor from his slumber in your chest, and meditate on what advice he can offer about diplomacy, fatherhood, and love

The novice probably just used a potion to shorten or temporarily suppress her cycle, i doubt its of any long term importance.

The lightning elemental needs control, last time we let it lose it attacked everything in its vicinity indiscriminately which we can't afford to have happen in our home base.

The red dragon likely has decent political knowledge.

>>5537586
>>The Novice—wasn’t she, ah, in estrus? You have walked close with her, and the characteristic pheromone-odour is now… Gone…
>The Lightning Elemental—it needs a firmer hand to tame its willful spirit, lest it be needed in battle

>Leadership

Am >>5534121

>>5537586
>The half-elven prisoner—to goad him a little, and to learn what value he may hold
>The Red Dragon King’s spirit—awaken your most noble ancestor from his slumber in your chest, and meditate on what advice he can offer about diplomacy, fatherhood, and love

>>5537588
>Reptilian Empathy

>>5537586
>The Lightning Elemental—it needs a firmer hand to tame its willful spirit, lest it be needed in battle

>The Red Dragon King’s spirit—awaken your most noble ancestor from his slumber in your chest, and meditate on what advice he can offer about diplomacy, fatherhood, and love


>Reptilian Empathy

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>>5537997
>>5537851
>>5537742
>>5537717
>>5537633
>>5537612
>>5537605
>>5537591
[Locked and writing!]

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Rolled 8, 8, 4, 13, 5 = 38 (5d20)

>>5538617
Your conversion efforts will require a keen understanding of the Reptilian mind – this much is true. However, what is more important than the arts of the empath or sophist are the tools of a true leader—presence, command. It is better to be loved than feared, you have learned, but to remain in control requires something greater than either: it requires RESPECT.

>+1 Leadership
>>DARK PROPHET II: The faithful of your cause are more resistant to enemy effforts to demoralize, and their rebellious tendencies can be more readily stifled.

Among the followers most in need of your leadership, the lightning elementals stands out. The last time you let this electrical entity off the leash, it fried several elves—orphaning a few Drowgon, and weakening your ally Jazkarmel’s borderguard. You brought it along to aid in impressing the agents and intelligentsia of Reptilian society… But if the abrasive elemental goes berserk again in your birthplace, you can only imagine the dreadful political fallout of THAT. It MUST be brought to heel.

Thus, you approach it.

The elemental immediately tracks your advance—it has no eyes, but you see its flickering go from a low-level and arrhythmic sort to something pulsating; its low energetic hum becomes an angry buzz, such as you’ve heard from your frustrated sons, but amplified as if by a hive. You pause, not cowed but cautious.

“Come,” you command the elemental, pointing at the ground before you. “This wilfulness will no longer be tolerated. An accord will be reached—something more permanent.”

The elemental sparks in irritation, but you do not flinch. The air is charged with ionic tension.

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>>5538632
The lightning elemental flickers and flares, bucking against the force of your draconically-amplified will. You stand strong—you will not show weakness to this entity! You feel the building frustration in the silence, like a calm before a storm, and you unconsciously brace for an explosion…

>13

…But it never comes. Instead, the flashing strobe of the blue-tinted ball of light recedes…

And recedes…

“Have you calmed down?” you ask, hopefully.

It recedes further…

And is gone.

>Lightning Elemental has left the party

You blink a couple times, staring at the empty space, and waiting for its return… But no. The Lightning elemental, like its fiery counterpart, is gone. It was never truly yours to command and, under the pressure of true obedience or rebellion, it chose the coward’s way out: it abandoned the field entirely. Only the third denizen of your Ring of Elemental Command now remains: the ice elemental, still trapped within its gem.

“You should have sought my assistance,” the Novice criticizes you later, when you relate the tale. “That elemental was powerful. You’ve weakened our position with your silly little hemipenes-measuring contest, you know.”

Your tail thumps the ground with a crack before you catch yourself. The female doesn’t flinch, but simply watches you curiously.

“Youa re behaving erratically,” she notes.

You scoff, but wonder internally if she is right. Did you overplay your hand? If so, why? Is it nervousness about the coming conflict with the Chaplain? He is the Novice’s father, but has also been the closest thing to a father figure you have ever known. He and his daughter are also the only members of the Master Race to know your true nature as a ‘false dragonborn’, a dragon-man facsimile created by the illicit breeding and authorized fleshweaving of your Degenerate Infiltrator mother. You KNOW he will not relinquish sovereignty to you… Just as he would never relinquish his daughter to you.

Is that why the Novice ended her estrus early?

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>>5538649
“What?” the Novice Fleshweaver laughs when you ask her, rattling with cruel mockery. “You are kidding, yes, Oh Meatheaded OneÉÈ

“You must have,” you assert. “I was not ignorant of your pheromone patterns, your increased physicality… And yet, within only a single weak, your heat-cycle was over. You negated or suppressed your cycle.”

“I fail to see why it is any concern of yours,” the Novice fires back, a little miffed. “We are not MATES, Dragonborn.”

“We are more than mates,” you correct her. “Mating is a temporary arrangement. What we have is love.”

The Novice laughs more loudly at this, and a touch bitterly.

“So you say. ‘Love.’ You speak on this subject not infrequently, oh Degenerateborn. It has become almost your watchword! But you KNOW it means nothing to me.”

You flinch a little, and she pauses in her abuse.

“You seemed to indicate otherwise,” you note, “at the Winter Gala, and ever since.”

The Novice stares at you, and fidgets slightly, at a loss for words.

“I do not think… It means to me what it means to you,” she finally answers.

“You would not be my mate?” you press.

“It is… Not a good time.”

You stare, awaiting clarification. She sighs, and provides it grudgingly.

“My father will not be positively inclined towards Bloodrise as a kingdom, let alone with YOU at its head,” she explains. “If you were to… If we… If I arrived fertilized form my VERY FIRST breeding, with a… BEING… Like yourself… What would he think, except that I had betrayed him and his plans for bloodline diplomacy with other Serpent Priests? What would he think of YOU, but that you had defied him and violated his clan with deliberate intent to subvert him? It would sabotage the whole alliance!”

“Then why not persist in the heat cycle and just… Not breed?”

The Novice Fleshweaver’s stern, stolid gaze falters, and she looks away, hugging her midsection and squirming slightly.

“Because… I wanted it,” she finally admits, her voice a quiet hiss of self-betrayal. “Badly.”

“It?” you ask.

“You,” she spits, glaring. “I wanted YOU. When my heat cycle came on, I wanted… To be impregnated, by YOU, you stupid, incorrigible Degenerate of a False King! Must I spell EVERYTHING out for you, you borderline illiterate ape?!”

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>>5538651
You at the Novice linger in pregnant ironic!) silence for a time, until finally you…

>Embrace her, non-sexually but tenderly, and reassure her that her decision as wise, and that you can wait
>Open up and admit that, even if she’d been willing, you’re not sure that you are able—after all, there is the matter of the <Dark Goddess’ Affliction>
>Renounce her father’s schemes and defy her fears—and yours—and take her here and now, breaking down her artificial hiatus to reignite her estrus and impregnate your true love!
>Lambaste her for her defiant folly—you are not just her love, but her KING, and the Red Dragon King counsels a forceful and commanding patriarchal love which you will carry forth to the New Age of Darkness
>Write-in

And what of these challenges? They are strategically and emotionally taxing, to say the least. You are a week from the northern forward base, and you are down an elemental, afflicted by a goddess, and second-guessed by your chosen companion. You are… Vexed. What will you do about it?
>Press on with your head held high—you have overcome worse, and you will do so now
>Meditate on the matter—perhaps the Red Dragon King, once awoken, can lend personal and political advice?
>Pray to one of the Dark Gods for guidance [whom?]
>Delay your return home to locate, hunt down, and forcibly domesticate your defiant elemental
>Write-in

>>5538664
>Renounce her father’s schemes and defy her fears—and yours—and take her here and now, breaking down her artificial hiatus to reignite her estrus and impregnate your true love!

Unless she disagrees… I don’t want us to rape her.

>Delay your return home to locate, hunt down, and forcibly domesticate your defiant elemental
It’s been very useful - we will likely need it in the future

>>5538664
>Embrace her, non-sexually but tenderly, and reassure her that her decision was wise and that you can wait
Shes right its better we didnt do anything that will make Chaplain more mad then hes gonna be
>Press on with your head held high—you have overcome worse, and you will do so now
Elemental being free isnt that big of a deal to me, Im hoping after we use all the charges we can try to get some druegar to help us refill it with elementals we pick and tame/contract preemptively, maybe have a fun planar adventure

>>5538664
>>Open up and admit that, even if she’d been willing, you’re not sure that you are able—after all, there is the matter of the <Dark Goddess’ Affliction>

>Press on with your head held high—you have overcome worse, and you will do so now

>>5538664
>Open up and admit that, even if she’d been willing, you’re not sure that you are able—after all, there is the matter of the <Dark Goddess’ Affliction>

She might be able to help us about that with a potion Or healing.

>Delay your return home to locate, hunt down, and forcibly domesticate your defiant elemental

The lighting elemental is one of our strongest weapons, I dislike delaying our return but I leaving it wouldn't be worth it.

>>5538664
>>Embrace her, non-sexually but tenderly, and reassure her that her decision as wise, and that you can wait
>Pray to one of the Dark Gods for guidance [whom?]
Daddy serpent, Mommy egglayer bullied us. Could you get us unbullied pretty plz?

>>5538664
>Renounce her father’s schemes and defy her fears—and yours—and take her here and now, breaking down her artificial hiatus to reignite her estrus and impregnate your true love!
>Lambaste her for her defiant folly—you are not just her love, but her KING, and the Red Dragon King counsels a forceful and commanding patriarchal love which you will carry forth to the New Age of Darkness

>Meditate on the matter—perhaps the Red Dragon King, once awoken, can lend personal and political advice?
>Pray to one of the Dark Gods for guidance [Beholderbro]
>Delay your return home to locate, hunt down, and forcibly domesticate your defiant elemental
I ain’t leaving our elemental to fuck around just because anons decided to get cocky and push the issue.

>>5538664
>Open up and admit that, even if she’d been willing, you’re not sure that you are able—after all, there is the matter of the <Dark Goddess’ Affliction>

>Press on with your head held high—you have overcome worse, and you will do so now

>>5538664
>Embrace her, non-sexually but tenderly, and reassure her that her decision as wise, and that you can wait

>Press on with your head held high—you have overcome worse, and you will do so now

we don't want to lead our whole procession on a detour of unknown length to recapture one sparky boi

we still have chilly boi

>>5538664
>>Open up and admit that, even if she’d been willing, you’re not sure that you are able—after all, there is the matter of the <Dark Goddess’ Affliction>

>Delay your return home to locate, hunt down, and forcibly domesticate your defiant elemental

>>5538664
If it comes down to a tie, you can consider me voting for
>Embrace her, non-sexually but tenderly, and reassure her that her decision as wise, and that you can wait
than the affliction vote.

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>>5539757
>>5539480
>>5539171
>>5539167
>>5538857
>>5538803
>>5538749
>>5538713
>>5538699
>>5538698
[Locked!]

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>>5539829

You step forward. The Novice glowers, tail lashing and gracefully long hunch loweringa s she enters a defensive crouch.

“I am not in heat any longer,” she reminds you.

You spread your arms, and wrap them around her. She awkwardly wavers in place, clearly not sure how to respond.

“I know,” you say.

You muster your courage.

“In truth,” you admit, clearing your throat to avoid a strange hitch in your voice, “I am not sure it would matter if you were.”

The Novice looks at you queerly, and you cringe a little at her searching expression. In truth, you had almost been dreading the Novice’s heat, because you knew, on some level, it would lead to this conversation. But then… What is love, but the opposite of fear, right? You resolved to be done with hiding yourself away.

You tell her of your spiritual dream-mating with the Dark Goddess called Lady of the Rookery and Mother of Dragons—a mating you initiated in a haze of power-lust and with ambitions to demigodly legacy, but which ahs haunted you ever since.

“Well, perhaps she has done all we of the female sex a favour,” the Novice Fleshweaver jokes. “ Your <appetite> was always overactive.”

“But it is now nonexistent,” you lament.

The two of you are seated beside each other now, upon some bare and blackened stone. The Novice makes no physical contact with you, the emotional intimacy you are displaying clearly more than she is used to coping with even WITHOUT any physical contact.

“But… No offspring ahs yet been produced,” the Novice states, with a hint of a question.

You confirm as much.

“And the Nothic,” she says, referring to your messenger-tutor, sent by the Master of the Insightful Eye and God of Wisdom, “This is the ‘affliction’ he spoke of?”

You nod again.

The Novice adjusts her red-and-white robe-of-office, and is quiet for a moment.

“This may be serious, “ she eventually acknowledges. “I TOLD you that you were over-trusting of the Dark Gods. They never give freely—it is in their nature! She has taken something from you… Or given you something roe, more than what you believed you were receiving… More than you wanted.”

You look at her, faintly alarmed, and cannot keep the pela from your voice as you ask:

“Can you fix this, Fleshweaver?”

The Novice hisses and grimaces at this.

“My aptitude is FLESHweaving, not… Spirit. But… Maybe. When we return to our home, MAYBE I can find a way to make this right, with help!”

You cannot help it—you embrace her again, clinging to her. The Novice is stiff and uncomfortable for a time, but eventually she sighs and ebraces you about your waist, curcling her head and neck against your own.

“You are genuinely defective,” she murmurs, like a sweet nothing. “A helpless hatchling. A broken little thing masquerading as a monarch.”

“I love you too,” you reply.

She scoffs, but doesn’t renounce the implication outright.

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>>5539849
Your return home to resolve these matters carnal and kingly is unfortunately delayed by the OTHER matter-that of the elemental. You got cocky, you now realize. You overestimated your ability to cow the storm-spirit by Fearsome Presence alone. To subjugate and tame such a being requires a firmer hand, or perhaps a better incentive. Whichever approach you take, one thing is certain: you are not done with it yet!

“The lightning elemental is too useful a tool to lose without a fight,” you announce. “The Novice’s experiment, ‘Junior’, will track the thing with its sense of smell and its psionic ability.

“We will be fighting it, then?” your Archer asks, not without trepidation. “It is a mighty thing, Superior One, and my arrows… Well, I have a few made with orichalcum which might harm it in some way, but most will be useless.”

“Fire-lizards will resist its zap-scorch, but can’t killfight back,” Ivno the Kobold muses. “Basilisk… Can’t stone-freeze that. No body.”

“We could try to distract it,” the Novice suggests with muted enthusiasm, still clearly dwelling on your earlier conversation. “I know some demon-binding techniques after our lessons, of course, and even before then… But it isn’t my specialty, and elemental spirits are different.”

“I know a few Southern rituals that could help weaken it for binding,” Olu the Archer suggests.

The Novice snorts, then seems to pause in her mockery and shrugs.

“Why not?” she says, uncharacteristically generous. “A half-human Degenerate doing magic… We have seen stranger things.”

Olu merely inclines his head graciously to the Holy One who has given him this faintest of praise. It’s a reminder of the ancestral attitudes towards mixed-blood and casteless Reptilians which will soon rally against your ascent… But the Novice’s modicum of open-mindedness at least gives you some hope.

What will you do?
>Attempt the attack, distract and bind the elemental by magical means with your allies’ assistance
>An all-out combat is a better bet, you feel, using your magic to duel the dangerous spirit and defeat it
>There’s no need for violence and coercion—not yet, not when diplomacy ahsn’t been tried [what will you offer?]
>Defiance must not be tolerated—you will hunt down this spirit and, with your recently-mastered shoggoth sword, you will slay it and absorb its power to further augment the blade
>Write-in

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>>5539851
>Attempt the attack, distract and bind the elemental by magical means with your allies’ assistance

Backlink

>>5539851
>Defiance must not be tolerated—you will hunt down this spirit and, with your recently-mastered shoggoth sword, you will slay it and absorb its power to further augment the blade

shogsord is more impressive anyway

>>5539851
>Defiance must not be tolerated—you will hunt down this spirit and, with your recently-mastered shoggoth sword, you will slay it and absorb its power to further augment the blade
Lightning shogsword? Sounds badass

>>5539851
>Attempt the attack, distract and bind the elemental by magical means with your allies’ assistance
>An all-out combat is a better bet, you feel, using your magic to duel the dangerous spirit and defeat it
I’d rather have it as a controllable entity than a sword upgrade, it’s just more useful as a magic tank.

>>5539851
>There’s no need for violence and coercion—not yet, not when diplomacy ahsn’t been tried [what will you offer?]
We'll build you a lightning rod in top of bloodrise, and we'll channel thunder for you to feed exclusively.

If that fail (or I am the only one voting to be nice to zapbro)
>>Attempt the attack, distract and bind the elemental by magical means with your allies’ assistance

>>5540054
Support the offer, it’s certainly inspired.

>>5540054
+1 to the idea; if it does not work I support:

>Defiance must not be tolerated—you will hunt down this spirit and, with your recently-mastered shoggoth sword, you will slay it and absorb its power to further augment the blade

>>5540054
Supporting the offer

But if it fails then
>Defiance must not be tolerated—you will hunt down this spirit and, with your recently-mastered shoggoth sword, you will slay it and absorb its power to further augment the blade

>>5539851
>Attempt the attack, distract and bind the elemental by magical means with your allies’ assistance


Or


>There’s no need for violence and coercion—not yet, not when diplomacy ahsn’t been tried [what will you offer?]
We'll build you a lightning rod in top of bloodrise, and we'll channel thunder for you to feed exclusively.

If vaild.

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>>5540761
>>5540605
>>5540233
>>5540153
>>5540054
>>5540024
>>5539910
>>5539895
>>5539856
[Locked!]

>>5540807
Even with the aid of your allies-most especially the draconically-augmented ‘dogbold’ ghoul whom you and your beloved know as ‘Junior’, it is no easy thing to track down the lightning elemental. You have faint energetic trace and the smell of zone to follow, but the spritely entity leaves no other tracks or traces. Perhaps with the Occultist or Hunter along, you might have had an easier time of it, but as it is, it take you the better part of three days of scouring underdark passages to din it. This is lengthened to four days when the trail leads you to a rushing underground river, which fills your heart with a primal fear and forces you to find a way around. You follow the scant clues and psychic senses at your lackey’s disposal, though, and they lead you round and round, up and up, until finally you find your quarry.

The path leads to the surface. There, the lightning elemental is standing with surprising stillness for such a frenetic being. Rain is beating down upon the round, while it sizzles and evaporates inches from the energy-field which forms the ‘silhouette’ of your wayward servant, so that the lightning elemental is clad in a cloak of steam. It looks… Peaceful, almost.

“Elemental,” you announce yourself, “your master is here.”

The elemental does not turn to face you, not exactly. Rather, its silhouette shifts and shimmers, fluctuates and warps, and when it resolidifies to some extent it ahs the appearance of facing your way. At least it doesn’t immediately attack, as you’d feared it might.

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Rolled 11, 8, 6, 15 = 40 (4d20)

>>5540819

The Novice Fleshweaver called this approach damnable weakness and simpering sentimentality, but she also uses the same sort of verbiage when you are holding her, so you dismissed it. Besides, while you MAY feel some lingering affinity for the being which helped you best the Ghoul Supreme and the Necromancer, the lightning elemental’s primary value is strategic. You COULD feed it to your shoggoth-sword—still MIGHT, in fact—but as a separate entity it can serve as a quite literal ‘shock troop’ in a way it cannot while strapped to your hip, bound within the aberration you wield like a weapon.

“I am not here to fight,” you thus inform the runaway. “I am here to bargain.”

The lightning elemental buzzes and flickers with confusion and agitation, as if to ask: ‘what can you offer me?’

It spreads its arm, its steam-cape swirling about it, as if to say: ‘I have all I need right here!’

“What if I could give you all this and more?”

That gives the elemental pause. You’d been considering this all the way here, wondering what you could offer a sexless and virtually immortal entity which does not eat, or drink, or hold name or status. Seeing it here and now, you know your supposition was well-reasoned.

“I will have the Engineer build you a home,” you pronounce. “An apparatus, to draw forth the lightning from every passing storm, and to funnel it to you. You will have the privilege to feast on every bolt of power which provenance provides.”

The lightning elemental sizzles and snap-cracks in agitated uncertainty.

>6. You must not break an oath or promise given

“I promise this,” you tell it, “on my oath as a Knight Ascendant of the Dark God of Glory, He Who Swallowed the Sun.”

[Clever write-in, DC reduced to 13; further reduced to 12 by Dark Prophet II]

>>5540822
>15
The lightning elemental ‘stares’ at you eyelessly and silently. You do not flinch, nor do you rush ahead to fill the silence. Eventually, your unflinching oath wins out. Slowly, the faintly-humanoid figure shrinks, curling in on itself until it has receded once more into a spherical spark. It slowly lowers towards the ground, as if bowing… And sinks down low. A you depart, parting your anxious followers before you, the elemental is as an electric blue extension of your own tail.

“Why not just subjugate the thing?” the Novice asks you later, less exasperated than genuinely befuddled. “We had the means!”

“It was no sure thing,” you point out. “If we’d failed, it would have been lost, and we would have suffered injury. It was far from ideal. My way was better.”

“Your way wasted time,” she points out.

“Most of the time ‘wasted’ was on tracking it, not on negotiation,” you correct her.

“Bah, we could have just left it then!”

“No.”

The Novice crossed her arms and turns her head sharply with a hiss, but doesn’t argue the point.

“We brought enough food for a two week journey, with enough to last a couple extra days,” she eventually says. “our provisions are running low with this entire additional week of hunting and backtracking.”

She is right about that, at least—retracing your steps is fasters, but you will still be stretching your supplies thin. Any further delay or interruption would leave your party—your large carnivorous animals in particular—desperately hungry.

What will you do?
>Use <Guidance> to seek a shortcut
>Drop your <Dragonform> and thus reduce your own caloric intake
>Force your forces to take less food each rest, to stretch out rations at the cost of morale
>Go hunting for game on the surface
>Kill and eat one of the fire-lizards
>Write-in

>>5540863
>Use <Guidance> to seek a shortcut
>Drop your <Dragonform> and thus reduce your own caloric intake

Backlink
>>5539856

>>5540863
>Use <Guidance> to seek a shortcut
>Drop your <Dragonform> and thus reduce your own caloric intake
>Cut rations just a bit, enough to have a large meal the day before you arrive


Can always bring the Dragonform back up if needed, and full bellies before we arrive will keep spirits high

>>5540863
>Use <Guidance> to seek a shortcut
>Drop your <Dragonform> and thus reduce your own caloric intake

>>5540863
>Go hunting for game on the surface
Any interesting game we can hunt for Serpent Ascendant?

[Today's my mom's birthday, so I will probably be updating late.]

>>5541628
I hope you enjoy yourself (and the cake)!

>>5541628
Take your time rqm dont worry about it

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>>5541030
>>5540945
>>5540931
>>5540898
[Home! Locking vote.]

>>5541949
>>5542157
[Thanks! Mom's on a diet, so no cake, but thematically-appropriate beer was imbibed at the blues jam.]

>>5542167
While bringing a smaller group of stalwart allies proved disadvantageous in some ways—no trackers of spirit-specialists to guide you earlier—it now proves a boon. You have fewer mouths to feed, meaning that all it will take to stretch your provisions while maintain morale is to lower your group’s caloric intake just a little, and to speed the trip just a titch. You know just what to do to accomplish both: you drop the <Dragonshape> and cast <Guidance> instead.

You first relax the subtle spiritual tension which has locked your augmented appearance and ability in place virtually every moment since you joined yourself to your ancestor’s mana-rich soul. This immediately shrinks you several feet in height and sheds a hundred pounds of bone, tissue, and muscle, making you feel queerly diminished and vulnerable after all these months. You shake off the feeling, and next remove the Novice’s specially-created Amulet of the Dragon, further reducing your size and strength—but also your prodigious appetite. Of course, this ALSO leaves you clad only in your somewhat ratty old cloak, since your resized armour is designed to fit a ten foot-tall uberlizard, not your ‘mere’ seven-foot height in your base form.

“At least I won’t need to crane my neck to look at you anymore,” the Novice notes, strangely approving in tone.

You suppose it is in her nature to delight in any return to a more favoruable power dynamic between the two of you. Even now, with all your progress, she cannot help but see an ally—a potential mate, even—as a rival and a threat to her own boundless ambition.

Neither Olu nor Ivno comment upon your shrunken state. You still dwarf the two of them, after all, and they are loyal allies who have known you since before your ascent to the heights of true draconic power. They merely wait respectfully while you channel you still-abundant mana towards a new end: guiding your forces home by the fastest route possible.

>>5542177
Your meditation gleans two distinct possibilities, but the divination spell forewarns you that neither will be without hazard. The first is one known to you: the same ‘shortcut; you took on your last journey, which includes the crossing of an underground waterway. The rains above in the surface region which feeds that river are not so torrential, apparently, so it is a more manageable thing… But it is still WATER, your eternal elemental enemy.

The second route… Well, something hostile lurks there, you sense. Something dark and wild. One of the underdark’s many native predators? It seems likely, but they are so varied and rare that for every one of these entities catalogues, a dozen are suspected to remain mysterious to black magic and the dark biological arts. You don’t know whether you should fear it or not, and whether it is the sort of danger one can pass by with diplomacy or stealth or whether it will require combat to best.

Which path will you take?
>The river-route, water by damned
>The predator’s path, for you fear no foe (except the river)
>Shortcuts were a dumb idea, actually, and you’ve decided you will just tighten everyone’s belts and take the original, safe route
>Write-in (???)

>>5542179
>The river-route, water be damned

>Ask the Novice to prepare to aid you in binding the elemental, when the time comes

We always have the ice elemental to ford the river, and can get ahead of the ball here a bit.

>>5542179
>The river-route, water by damned

We cant use our armor effectively right now — cant afford a fight

Backlink>>5540898

>>5542179
>The predator’s path, for you fear no foe (except the river)

aaaiieee river sama mercy I kneel

>>5542179
>The river-route, water by damned

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>>5542182
>>5542183
>>5542211
>>5542278
[Locked, writing!]

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>>5542624
You again swallow your fear of a watery grave, and opt to take the river-route. It is, in spite of your own experiences, safer than plunging into the territory of some unknown a predator-of-the-deep, and also less certain to spell doom than starvation and exhaustion along the longer route. You repeat these facts like a mantra as you walk the faintly-familiar course back towards the underground river.

As your divinations foretold, the river is shallower and calmer than when last you dove in, in vain effort to rescue a drowning Reptilian. That was when you first learned of how very close the green Knight was to exposing your race’s existence and operations—something which, it seems, has become grim reality. How much do the surface-scum now know of the Master Race?

You shake your head. You have no way of knowing the full extent of exposure and disclosure, not yet. You re merely trying to avoid focusing on the river before you.

It is still too dep, wide, and fast to ford by simply striding across. Even in <Dragonshape>, the perpendicular passage between this ‘riverbank’ (if indeed hard stone on either side of a harshly-eroded path can be called that) and the opposite side is too narrow and low to fly across. You consider forming a <Wall of Stone> across its surface, but this would result in a narrow gap and a similar issue—neither you nor your basilisk would fit (and perhaps not the Novice Fleshweaver’s egg-laying hips, either).

“I could use the Ring of Elemental Command,” you theorize aloud. “This could block up the river, so we could pass, or form a sheet over top of it.”

“If it fails, and bursts like a shoddy dam, we will be battered by many tons of water and shards of ice, and hurtled into the dark deeps.”

>>5542647
You glare at the Novice, but… Well, she’s not wrong. Likewise, if you form a raft or bridge of ice, you would need to be sure it could support your weight. The Ring of Elemental Command shoots short streams of elemental energy—well, just cold now, with the fire elemental long gone and the lightning elemental now following you like a dogbold. You have never sustained such a concentrated blast as would be needed to form a solid structure, capable of holding fast, and not washing or crumbling away.

“We could swim it,” Oluwadamilare says with confidence. “It is not that fast, or that far.”

You glare at him, and unlike the Novice he withers form your wrath. You rein it in. The Archer is… PROBABLY not wrong. It is difficult for you to objectively analyze the speed of this river, after it nearly killed you less than a year ago Your fear of swimming, sinking, and drowning is too great. Your half-human attendant is a practiced athlete, too, though. He probably knows what he’s talking about. Then again, he IS given to feats of bravado at times…

“Hm.”

You tap your talons against the spikes of your chin, thinking. Eventually, you…
>Decide to plug the river up with ice magic and hurry across before your impromptu dam shatters
>Try to form an ice bridge to carry your party across
>Just swim it—it can’t be that bad, and you haven’t drowned YET… [disadvantage to rolls]
>Write-in

>>5542648
>Try to form an ice bridge to carry your party across

>>5542648
>Try to form an ice bridge to carry your party across

>>5542648
Could we use our JUMP or WING spells?

We have a lot more mana to work with while not using Dragonshape after all…

>>5542811
pretty sure post says ceiling too low

>>5542811
[Ceiling is too low and passage too narrow for flight. You could probably sue <Jump>, but you'd need to carry each of your followers across, and in particular the fire-lizards and basilisk would present issues there. It's allowed as a write-in, and isn't doomed, but it'll require a roll!]

>>5542648
>Try to form an ice bridge to carry your party across
Go from lightweight to heavyweight. If it shatters, Superman-jump to save the day of the falling person, then proceed supermaning people

>>5542648
Question: would <Wall of Stone> be applicable here in conjunction with the ice?

>>5542870
[Clever! A very low (but still structurally-stable) bridge would be more finnicky than your basic control of earth magic can allow, but you could try to use it in tandem with ice to block the flow of the water more effectively or for longer. It wouldn't be an auto-success, but if you chose the "plug" option I would reduce difficulty for this.]

>>5542648
>Decide to plug the river up with ice magic and hurry across before your impromptu dam shatters.
+
>Write-in: Wall of stone to reinforce the ice dam.

>>5542873
Yeah, in that case I'll switch to:

>Decide to plug the river up with ice magic and hurry across before your impromptu dam shatters + Wall of Stone

>>5542873
switching to that then

>>5542911
+1

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Rolled 19, 10, 7 = 36 (3d20)

>>5543036
>>5542965
>>5542919
>>5542911
>>5542811
>>5542869
An idea strikes you, all of a sudden, in a flash of brilliance. What if… You were to sue <Wall of Stone> to block the food of water then shore up any cracks or leaks with strategic blasts of the Ring of Elemental Command and its entrapped ice elemental? After all, you have more than enough mana to achieve such a thing, with the Red Dragon king’s soul burning in your breast and no <Dragonshape> to fuel! What you lack in precise control of terrakinesis, you more than make up for in power and cleverness!

You pitch the idea to your party, and even the Novice Fleshweaver struggles to find any reason to criticize it. That’s all you need to hear (or NOT hear, as the case may be) to know it is a legitimately good idea. You love her, sure, but you know damned well that the young Serpent Priestess would rip into your idea immediately if she thought she had a better one.

You take a deep breath, plant your feet in a powerful stance, and lift a wall of stone from the deep earth to slowly block the stream. At first, the partial plug merely speeds and diverts the water, spraying you and all around you with water. The fire lizards hiss and steam, and shrink away rapidly, but no simple splashback will drive you to flight You hold steady until the rocky blockade is complete.

“Alright,” you bellow, “go!”

Ivno the Kobold and Olu the Archer hurry ahead, with the Novice hesitating in doubt for only a moment before she joins them. Her build and lack of athleticism holds her top speed back, such that the fire-lizards and the basilisk rapidly pass her by, but she is still making good time when—

CRACK!

–the makeshift levee breaks. You feel a pang of panic, visualizing in your overactive imagination your beloved one swallowed up by so much water, dragged away and down, swallowed up by earth and drowned in water, even her body forever beyond your reach and her spirit and warmth and sneering, strangely-endearing wit gone forever and…

“No.”

You Raise your fist high and blast the leaking crevices forming in the earthen plug with concentrated cold, a ray of energy dispersing heat and leaving only an energetic vacuum which quickly seals the stone. With a sweeping motion, you form a ring of solid ice around the outside edge, anchor the plug in place, before firing again and again where the centre is slowly giving way to building pressure. The Novice sares in a mxi of awe and terror.

“MOVE!”

For once, and probably ONLY once, the Novice obeys your command without protest. You hurry to follow, ignoring the wailing migraine of your <Danger Sense>.

[Elementalism, DC 11/13 for clever write-in]

>>5543068
>19
Your own pace quickly brings you to the Novice, who you grab about the waist and swing over yoru shoulder.

“Y-you cannot just—” she sputters and hisses indignantly. “It is… This is so HUMILIATING!”

“Better than drowning,” you say, with the sagacity of one who knows the truth firsthand.

You <Jump> clear just in time for the magically-created blockage to give way behind you. You land amidst your fellowship just as a torrent of water gushes like a horizontal geyser behind you, filling the long-eroded channel all at once and splashing up over its edges to further soak your robes and hers. The Novice makes a squeal of alarm and clings to you, suddenly no longer so ‘humiliated’ to be sheltered and held fast by your strength.

“You know,” you note casually, “you are quite heavy, when I am in this form.”

She curses and assails you, but it is muffled, for your great love’s aristocratically-short snout is buried in the fabric of your cloak, despite its dampness. Her tail lashes you repeatedly in muted outrage. The Archer barely stifles a laugh and hides his bemusement behind a rigid soldier’s posture. Ivno and the Junior Novice diplomatically look away while you stroke her fine scales until she is calm enough to set down upon solid ground once more.

That evening—is it evening? Without sun and moon, it is so difficult to tell, so easy to fall into the arbitrary and somehow less-restful cycles of the darkness below—you start a fire with some scavenged fungus and moss, and the heat of your lizard companions. Using this, you dry your attire and the Novice’s, to prevent hyppthermia. You’ve become gradually less susceptible to the vagaries of external temperature, but a true cold-blood like the Novice Fleshweaver is particularly prone to suffer from such things.

“And how am I meant to stay warm while NAKED?” she demands.

You spread your arms and beckon her to you. She wraps her arms and tail around herself in a defensive posture, protecting her dignity against your eyes and talons.

“I have seen you in the nude before,” you remind her. "We even embraced."

“I was wearing a false form!” she protests.

“You have seen ME naked many times.”

“I am your physician!” she retorts.

“You have no other option,” you assert.

>>5543099
She stares wordlessly, helplessly, and eventually scoots close to you. You take her in your embrace, holding her close. It isn’t long before the pleasant radiance of your inner fire melts away all resistance, and she is actively pressing closer to you, her cloaca tantalizingly accessible.

“Do not get any funny ideas,” she notes.

“How could I?” you counter. “You are not in heat, and I…”

You wince, your <appetite> aroused but your loins and gut knotting themselves in coils, trashing and lashing out as if a furious serpent was fighting to burst forth from you.

“…We will have to fix that swiftly,” the Novice eventually says. “You are much less fun to tease like this.”

You force yourself to adopt meditative mindset, to banish the otherwise-enjoyable sensations of your loved one’s soft rear and thighs. Eventually, torpor finds you both.

It is only a few days later that your party finds your way to the familiar tunnels of the forward base where you and the Novice were born—where you will make your case to your people and your Priesthood, where you will be reunited with your ‘brothers’ old and young—the other, ‘truer’ Dragonborn. The Novice shoves you away, creating distance between the two of you for the sake of propriety. The Archer and Kobold fall back, and lower their heads and shoulders in an instinctive posture of inferiority. You marshal your basilisk and fire-lizards with your Fearsome Presence, suppressing their natural responses of fear and aggression as the first Silkscales and Steeltalons notice your approach.

You had resolved to take a two-prong approach here as you did in Wevenore, appealing to the underclass and calling for an audience with the Serpent Priests.

Which will you do first?
>Rally the rabble
>Speak with the Serpent Priesthood
>Bypass both, to see the Great Green Dragonborn and the new hatchlings of the Dragonborn Project
>Write-in

>>5543101
>Rally the rabble

We are a king. We do not simper or ask for permission- the Priesthood will see the error of their ways, or they will be washed over by a great tide of scale.

>>5543101
>Bypass both, to see the Great Green Dragonborn and the new hatchlings of the Dragonborn Project

We need to se our brother!

Plus, reinstate our <Dragonshape>

>>5543101
>>Speak with the Serpent Priesthood

We need to see what their opinions and options for dealing with the fact that the green knight Exposed and captured the chief operation manger in hawk song.

Its a bit aggravating that the chaplain refused our request to go hunt down the green knight previously, before he had hard evidence of our races spy network in hawksong.

But whatever the Chaplin and the other higher ups will need our help just as much as will need theirs's to dig ourselves out of the predicament.

>>5543101
>Speak with serpent priesthood

>“I have seen you in the nude before,” you remind her. "We even embraced."
“I was wearing a false form!” she protests. “You have seen ME naked many times.” “I am your physician!” she retorts. “You have no other option,” you assert.

Hehe cute

>>5543101
>>Bypass both, to see the Great Green Dragonborn and the new hatchlings of the Dragonborn Project

>>5543101
>Speak with the Serpent Priesthood

Let's get a sitrep from their side before doing anything hasty

>>5543785
>>5543452
>>5543198
>>5543193
>>5543185
>>5543146
Before anything else, it behooves a king such as you to meet your opposite number… Even if they aren’t yet ready to acknowledge that equality of station. Surely, with them having failed to stop the Green Knight while YOU bested a powerful mage and made major military and diplomatic gains, they will be inclined to see the error of their ways? Best to approach them before you attempt anything... Desperate.

Imagine your irritation, then, when your meeting with the Chaplain is denied.

“I would meet with the Chaplain of the Northern Forward base,” you again repeat yourself, more forcefully this time, to the silkscale stenographer supplied to you in his stead.

“The Chaplain is in conclave,” you are told. “It is for Serpent Priests only.”

“Then I should be allowed to see him,” the Novice inserts herself.

“He is meeting with the Heralds of Distant Starlight and Secret-Keepers of Deepest Dark,” the Silkscale Stenographer addresses her, with only a slight bow of the head. “A Novice of the Weavers of Flesh is not… On the same level.”

“I am his daughter,” she notes icily.

“You are,” the Silkscale acknowledges diplomatically, but says nothing more.

The implication is clear: it’s not enough. You can understand why, as well. The Chaplain of the Northern forward base is the most highly-born and highly-ranked individual of Reptilian society with whom you have had regular contact… but he is, in the end, merely an Operational Chaplain of the Grand Design. Dark. The Secret-Keepers are privy to the Akashic Records and the Hidden Histories. The Star-Heralds are those who interpret, record, and direct the Grand Design—those tasked with determining when the strs are right or wrong for major actions. They outrank him nearly as he outranks you, and in this time of crisis they will be taking a particular interest in recent events.

“My sire will be groveling before them, shifting blame for his action and inaction,” the Novice mutters sullenly to you, quietly enough that the stenographer will not overhear. “He has always aspired to be among their ranks. This… Green Knight situation… If he can resolve it to their satisfaction, it will be a badge of honour for him, a true victory such as our race’s defensive position rarely allows.”

“And if he fails,” you infer, “it will be a black mark.”

>>5544337
“He will be demoted,” she agrees, expression and body language ambivalent. “They may even execute him.”

What will you do?
>Pump the stenographer for information of the situation in Hawksong
>Intimidate the stenographer into revealing where the Priesthood is meeting, that you might join it and…
>>Denounce the Chaplain
>>Defend the Chaplain
>Distract the stenographer while Ivno searches the Chaplain’s quarters for clues and blackmail material
>Wait patiently and obediently—you may be a king, but the Chaplain is still like a father to you
>Try to use divination to spy upon their meeting
>Write-in

>>5544338
>Intimidate the stenographer into revealing where the Priesthood is meeting, that you might join it and..

>Defend the Chaplain

At least at first. He did, after all, send us up to Bloodrise in the first place.

>>5544338
>Intimidate the stenographer into revealing where the Priesthood is meeting, that you might join it and
>>Defend the Chaplain

We have no reason to try and throw the Chaplin under the bus at this juncture.

>>5544373
Supporting

He is not to blame for the Green Knight situation, and defending him might afford us his support to deal with the matter

>>5544338
>Intimidate the stenographer into revealing where the Priesthood is meeting, that you might join it and…
>Ignore the Chaplain and make your own case

lmao star heralds interpret, record, and direct the grand design of the dark gods? the grand design we know doesn't exist? I bet they know too. I bet they talked with the dark gods and now they're grifting the reptilian race hard.

>>5544373
+1

Backlink to>>5543198

Rolled 5, 14, 10 = 29 (3d20)

>>5544751
>>5544451
>>5544412
>>5544373
>>5544750
If you’ve not always seen eye-to-eye with the Chaplain on the matter of the Green Knight—whom he denied you the opportunity to hunt down and destroy—it still does not follow that the Chaplain is directly RESPONSIBLE for this turn of events. A part of you feels it is fate, perhaps, or at the very least the inevitable eventuality of the current strategy which the Master Race pursues. If you lurk in the shadows, poking and prodding, eventually your adversaries shall shine a torchlight upon your activities.

“Who have they sent? Who is meeting with him, and where?”

The stenographer looks up from some notations in the flowing, serpentine scrawling of his True Script to regard you skeptically.

“Though you may ask,” he says, “I am not permitted to answer.”

The Novice rattles quietly, drawing the stenographers gaze for a moment… until, rising from your seat to your full height and assuming the <Dragonshape> once more, you thus dwarf the little Silkscale and recapture his full attention.

“I was not ASKING, Stenographer.”

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>>5545335
>14
>>A narrow success, only due to <Dragonshape>
The little lizard held his forked tongue with admirable effort, telling you little. Eventually, though, he buckled under implied threats and looming presence.

“You are lucky I was there,” the Novice murmurs quietly.

…Well, yes, and the Novice’s casual bluff that she had devised a sort of truth serum from local fungi of the dark elves’ lands, which she threatened to administer with a rather wide-bore syringe. That probably played a part, too. Still, he told you remarkably little.

“The officials from Heralds and Secret-Keepers were of middle-high rank,” he said, “and a chiefly priest of the Fleshweavers, assigned to the Dragonborn Project, was also there. He is the only one whom I know directly.”

“What are they discussing?”

He was mum on that, even under pressure; perhaps he didn’t know.

“Where were they?”

He was more forthcoming about THAT, at least, which is why you and your female companion now stride towards their clandestine chamber. He also told you one MORE thing:

“There was another… An agent from Hawksong, a Reptilian Infiltrator of some seniority.”

It makes sense, you suppose. The Serpent Priests will want proximate knowledge of the situation above and to the north from someone who is well verse din local particulars. Apparently he is a Dragonblood of some description, but the name which the stenographer provided meant nothing to you.

>>5545371
You and the Novice arrive at the chamber and, after you have taken a moment to collect your breath and adjust your cloak as best you can to preserve your majesty and dignity, you push open the doors. They are unlocked, the assembled Holy Ones having counted on secrecy to protect them—well, and the knowledge that in this room is enough accumulated muscle and magic to easily detect and defeat any simpleton spy. In fact, as you stand in the portal, you find that several tall and sagacious reptiles of that most ancient and noble class are already looking to you with a mix of irritation and expectancy.

The Chaplain glowers at you from his place, apart from and before these elders of his race. Beside him is a race-scaled Dragonblooded One with characteristically-pointed chin, clad in human attire as if fresh from the field; his tail remains tucked away, shapeshifted out of physicality to accommodate a pair of heavy trousers, behind a sort of leather apron; on his side, tucked in a thick and riveted belt, is a simple but well-crafted sword. You size him up quickly, feeling as if you have seen him somewhere before. However, the Chaplain’s death-glare, and the somehow far-more-intimidating quietude of his superiors, makes it hard to focus upon such matters.

You enter anyway. The Novice, cowed by their attentions or simply more politically prudent, remains in the doorway, and keeps her face hidden in her hood, head low.

The Master Race all are possessed of what is termed a ‘negligible senescence’ compared to mammalian races—even elves. You grow and mature swiftly, but thereafter age’s ailments and outwards changes come quite slowly to even the lowliest of your people (well the pure-blooded, at least), such that a Reptilian of 200 years is nearly indistinguishable of one your own age at a glance. Serpent Priests are something of an exception, in that while they do not pale or wrinkle, nor grow decrepit or stiff, they also do not truly stop growing. These learned elders, in this chamber, are each nearly as tall as you are even in your augmented and empowered for, and when they crane their necks they force you to tilt your chin up to meet their eyes.

“The Dragonborn of the Bloodrise Campaign,” one addresses you. “We sensed your approach.”

>>5545372
You bow your head slightly, a barest incline of respect. This, in and of itself, draws some hisses; it is evidently felt that you should be falling to the floor in reverent supplication, or better yet making a swift and apologetic exit.

“The Chaplain,” you say instead, “is not to blame. The Green Knight is a festering affliction, a human of the accursed Yosef bloodline which has long fought us. The Dark Gods have seen fit to grant me visions of his exploits. His approach was inexorable. This conflict was inevitable.”

“Does any Serpent Priest here recall asking this Lesser One’s opinion?” another of the elder Serpent priests asks rhetorically, casting his gaze about. “Did we invited this Young One, to hear his side of the story?”

The Chaplain, suddenly surprised to you here on his behalf, says nothing. The representative of the Novice’s profession, Chief Fleshweaver of the Dragonborn Project, speaks up instead:

“Apologies, Honoured Masters,” he says, bowing his long neck in a swanlike curl of submission. “This one is not my BEST work. As we earlier discussed, we have since devised a purest strain of the Red Dragon bloodline, which we are prepared to grow to maturity and deploy in defence of our Master Race as needed.”

“Or to strike with directly?” one asks.

The Chief Fleshweaver hesitates, but nods.

“Whatever will best serve the Grand Design, of course.”

“What do you believe, Infiltrator?” the largest of the present priests asks, clad in star-spangled black velvet robe, and wearing a tremendous and face-concealing hood, capped with a golden crown of office.

>>5545375
The Dragonblooded male fidgets slightly under the sudden focused attention. A moment earlier he’d been glaring at you strangely, with a deep resentment at your interruption if you had to guess. Now, called upon to speak in this auspicious assembly, he straightens his back, juts out his proud chin, and answers:

“This… ‘Green Knight’… he is just a mere adventurer. I do not pretend to know where he got his sword, and I have heard it is magic, but magic weapons and OFFENSIVELY decorated armour cannot protect a weakling ape from the might of the Reptilian Master Race! There is no need to deploy something as blatant and VISIBLE as the Dragonborn against a single foe and his small party of misfits.”

“He has beaten the assassins which your Chaplain has sent so far,” notes one of the senior Priests.

He hesitates to respond, but the Chaplain swiftly responds in his stead, saying: “This was a small, subtle force. A larger group could achieve better results, while remaining hidden behind false guises.”

“And if the humans, already suspicious of us and now knowing what to look for, expose them?” another of the Priests presses. “If they are exposed?”

“We can send Degenerates,” the Chaplain suggests. “We need not even directly engage him-poison and subterfuge are weapons of the Great Conspiracy, and they may yet preserve it.”

The Dragonblooded Infiltrator scoffs, but quickly goes silent when the Chaplain turns his harsh gaze upon him.

“Even if we did no use Degenerates,” another elder Serpent notes, “it would only expose Steeltalons and Silkscales, not our most secret project, in the Dragonborn. They are a resource which it would be terrible to lose.”

“Then let us ask the Dragonborn among us,” the largest and bleakest of the Dark Masters then suggests, and suddenly all eyes are on you.

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>>5545377
You are a little caught off-guard. You’d come to speak your piece at length, to propose your bold new vision for all of Reptilian society moving forward, but had found yourself surprisingly intimidated by this assembly. Though not attacked or forced out, your initial announcement and subsequent dismissal had killed your lofty speeches in your throat, and blasted them from your brain. You realize what it is now: it is like when you faced the Ghoul Supreme, or even the lingering spirit of the Red Dragon King. It is the effect of their Fearsome Presences, massed against your own—more powerful, but singular, engulfed by the black mass of their accumulated age and status, their mystic power and spiritual authority.

“Tell us, Oh Dragonborn,” the eldest Serpent Priests beseeches you again, “what would YOU have us do? You came here with a course of action in mind, surely, to so PRESUMTUOUSLY intrude where you were not requested?”

The Dragonblodoed Infiltrator looks furious and almost OFFENDED at this, as if he wants to speak, but he does not. The Chaplain, to your surprise, is looking at you almost pleadingly… But what does he want you to say?

>Back the Chaplain’s plan—a subtle cadre of assassins is the best course of action, subtle enough to end the threat while keeping your darkest secrets hidden in the deep for future deployment
>The Dragonblodoed Infiltrator has the right of it—you should strike swiftly, and brutally, but not expend all your resources at once… And the use of the new Dragonborn, your ‘replacement’ rankles you
>Back the Chief Fleshweaver—you think the other Dragonborn should be aged to maturity, and YOU would lead their force to strike at the Green Knight in a blazing nova of retaliation and flame
>None of the above—you would request the resources to make yourself a special Amulet of Disguise, and go to face him personally, alone, and to end the threat yourself with a duel to the death in the name of the Serpent Ascendant!
>Hiding in the shadows? No, you came here to put an end to this way of things, and you still believe in this course. Exposure isn’t just inevitable, it is IMMINENT, and it is time to rise as a true power and to strike with the force of an invading army!
>Why engage at all? Move your most valuable assets away from this place, deeper underground… Or perhaps to Bloodrise? You are creating quite the haven for the Forces of Darkness there…
>Write-in

>>5545379
>Hiding in the shadows? No, you came here to put an end to this way of things, and you still believe in this course. Exposure isn’t just inevitable, it is IMMINENT, and it is time to rise as a true power and to strike with the force of an invading army!

The 1v1 sure is tempting though, we can probably still pull it off

>>5545379
>Hiding in the shadows? No, you came here to put an end to this way of things, and you still believe in this course. Exposure isn’t just inevitable, it is IMMINENT, and it is time to rise as a true power and to strike with the force of an invading army!
Just some flavor but can we channel big reds presence back at them when we answer, I feel like we'd already be pretty up in arms over this since its what we came to preach, but big red surely isnt one for hiding and can se through our eyes at least I assume he can

>>5545379
> send a Dead Spy (read up on that from Sun Tsu)
> an ill-qualified Infiltrator is given the Task of spying on the Green Knight. He is given the information that we have a new superweapon (eg. necromancy). He needs to find out whether rhe Green Knight can counter it. Afterwards, he is to bring the information to our research centre (eg. the dwarfen outpost we destroyed).
> Of course there we wait and challenge the Knight for a duel away from prying eyes.

>>5545511
+1

Mincemeat time.

Backlink>>5544751

Supportin'

>>5545558
[Wait supporting which one?]

>>5545379
>Hiding in the shadows? No, you came here to put an end to this way of things, and you still believe in this course. Exposure isn’t just inevitable, it is IMMINENT, and it is time to rise as a true power and to strike with the force of an invading army!

+1 to the idea of channeling Big Red, and our <Radiant Aura>.

>>5545379
>None of the above—you would request the resources to make yourself a special Amulet of Disguise, and go to face him personally, alone, and to end the threat yourself with a duel to the death in the name of the Serpent Ascendant!
Y’all are too eager to expose the Grand Conspiracy. Call me old school, but I prefer the option that discredits the Knight as a hack and a charlatan, not vindicates him and the Yosef line. Turn the exposure into a coverup for the Southern Espionage, the last Yosef is practically a foreigner come to graverob his family’s legacy, is shouldn’t be hard to twist his reputation into a suspected Southern sympathizer.

>>5545802
Two reasons why I didn't take this option- the Green Knight has shown the capability of seeing through Amulets of Disguise, and since he's captured a live Serpent Priest, I think he'll have a fair bit of knowledge about us.

Not saying necessarily change your vote, but I do think the switch in methodology is warranted here.

>>5545816
His capability of seeing though our disguise is meaningless, we simply need to convince everyone that he’s a fraud trying to play up the late Lord Yosef’s delusions.

As for the Serpent Priest, he shouldn’t know much, or else this Grand Conspiracy truly was doomed to be exposed regardless of current circumstances.

I’m fine with whatever preserves the Conspiracy, not outta any love for it, but simply to deny the enemy the satisfaction and prestige of being right. Plus, visiting Hawksong again (pre-conquest) would be neat.

>>5545824
My bad, I misspoke- he can expose our disguise amulets, not just see through them; as in ruin the magic. Fair point about the Serpent Priest though, you would definitely expect compartmentalization.

>“Way I hear it is there’s some knight who came from south and east. Wandering type, adventurer or demon-hunter or some such, all in green. He showed up in Hawksong and revealed some kind of… Disguised lizardman. Looked just like a normal guy, but then this adventurer strings him up and starts poking at him with his sword, and BAM! Lizard.”

Quote from last thread.

>>5545379
>Hiding in the shadows? No, you came here to put an end to this way of things, and you still believe in this course. Exposure isn’t just inevitable, it is IMMINENT, and it is time to rise as a true power and to strike with the force of an invading army!

We have the drow, the bugbears and possibly the glow worms as allies. We can also strike hawksong from multiple directions and the dark gods were pleased with our previous invasion of the dwarf companies.

>>5546090
>We have the drow, the bugbears and possibly the glow worms as allies. We can also strike hawksong from multiple directions
Anon, we have like 200 soldiers - max.

They’d be going up against hundreds of trained human regulars, paladins and mages from the Circle - it would be an incredibly tough battle

>>5545511
Supporting this

We need to draw the Knight away from prying eyes

But don’t just fuel him, ambush and destroy him with all our forces

>>5545687
>+1 to the idea of channeling Big Red, and our <Radiant Aura>

Supporting this too - push back against their Fearsome Presence with our own

>>5545869
Honestly sounds like he got lucky and destroyed the amulet itself.

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>>5546123
>>5546090
>>5545802
>>5545687
>>5545521
>>5545511
>>5545468
>>5545384
[Writing! Vote is locked.]

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Rolled 7, 18, 2, 15, 1, 12 = 55 (6d20)

>>5546658
“That is the problem,” you mutter quietly.

“Speak up,” commands the Elder Priest.

“THAT,” you repat, raising your voice sharply, “IS THE PROBLEM.”

There is an awkward, indignant silence for a moment, as all take in your youthful defiance. You burn with trained shame, but you fight the urge to bow, kneel, apologize and appeal.

“You all WAIT to be invited—by fate, by circumstance, by the stars. You never presume to act except defensively, reactively. You hide in shadows, rather than striking!”

“Now listen here—”

“I did not come here to LISTEN.”

You are burning now, burning in your heart. Dwarfed and diminished by these powerful and ancient auras, you woke a sleeping giant. The Red Dragon King stirs in your chest, uncoiling from where his spirit slumbers in your heart. Your own Fearsome Presence rises and expands outwards like a growing blaze, meeting and battling their own.

“I came to rectify the ROT in the heart of our people,” you declare. “To PRESUME. To INTRUDE. To serve as a REMINDER of the greatness you have forsaken. The Serpent Ascendant—why are none of HIS high priests here, in attendance of this war council?”

“It is not a war council,” one of the elders spits.

“It SHOULD be!”

You step forward. None shrink back, though the Chaplain and the Dragonblooded Infiltrator look at you strangely, and subtly move to grant you more space as they quietly observe.

“The Great Conspiracy has drained us of our vitality, or verve. We scorn our males of action. We drain our Master Race’s body of blood until we it is thin, and weak, to maintain our sad existences in the name of safety and secrecy. But that era is OVER! The Green Knight has seen to it, but WE ought to have done so well before now. IF he will bring a war to OUR doorstep, though, we must be prepared to return the favour.”

“You speak, says the eldest, advancing towards you and lifting his head until he stands taller even than you, “of things you cannot comprehend, on timescales unimaginable to one of even twice or thrice your lifetime, LITTLE One.”

His own Presence presses down on yours, threatens to squash it. The council of Serpent Priests (and their lone Infiltrator in attendance) all watch breathlessly, to see what your fate shall be...

[The Serpent Priests were the harder sell, so you're looking at Leadership (bonus for Reptilian Empathy) DC 16. If you fail here, they will poison their agents against you, making that check DC 17; otherwise, DC 15.]

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>>5546675
>18

“I understand better than you, Old Snake.”

The voice which emerges from your maw is not wholly your own; rather, it reverberates with three inflections. The first is yours, surprising even you with its insubordination. The second is that of the Red Dragon King, awakened and alert, watching this drama unfold. The third is that of the Serpent Ascendant, or some echo of his godly glory channeled through you as his Antipaladin. As these words burst forth almost involuntarily, so too does your <Radiant Aura> explode from you, causing the Serpent Priests to hiss and screech, and shrink away. Even the greatest and eldest among them recoils slightly, lowering his head and shielding his body with his voluminous velvet sleeves and cloak.

“What is this?!” he demands.

You find yourself once more in control of yourself, and your mouth. You do not hesitate, just as your people must no longer hesitate.

“This,” you announce, “is the dawning fo a new era. A NEW Age of Scales!”

You step forward again, and the Eldest steps back. Another step forward, and he stumbles. You spread your wings, and push more mana into your aura… And eventually, he yields, bowing his head in bitter defeat. Only then, seeing the master of this ceremony so cowed, do the others in attendance stop their wailing and cursing of you… And only then do the other venerable Priests cease to burn beneath the glare of your aura.

They are, in short, no longer enemies.

“Our forces are not enough,” the Eldest eventually addresses you, once he has returned to his seat. “We would need to call every active agent back from the field, all across the surface and the depths of the deep darkness, in order to even stand a chance against the forces of Hawksong alone. You speak of our race as reduced, but we TRULY are, Dragonborn.”

“Then perhaps,” comes a familiar female voice from behind you, “it is time to deploy the Dragonborn after all.”

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>>5546693
The Novice joins you at your side—only now, when victory is assured and her open association with this pseudo-coup is no damning liability. She remains a shrewd and sensibly selfish snake, herself.

“They may not be enough,” the Chief Fleshweaver admits. “For a single deadly strike, yes… But not for prolonged war. Not without doubling their numbers.”

“We have forces in Bloodrise,” she counters. “They are engaged with dwarven corporations now, but this war will not last.”

“And also in the South,” the Chaplain seizes upon. “the Southlands’ humans and beastfolk are more insidiously infiltrated at all levels than those in the North or even East. We could bring them to bear, yes?”

“…Perhaps,” acknowledges another old Serpent Priest.

The elders go back and forth. You’d be more annoyed at your love’s stealing of your thunder at the moment of your triumph… But honestly, employing your <Dragonshape IV> and <radiant Aura> at full power, and allowing so much spiritual and divine power to flow through you, has left you drained. You place a hand upon the Novice’s shoulder, claiming her ideas and arguments for your own and also subtly transferring your weight onto her. She looks at you curiously… But shifts her stance as well, to keep you standing.

At the conclusion of the debate, it is decided that…
>The forces from Bloodrise will split their attentions between the dwarf-war and a deployment against Hawksong’s allied baronies, and redirect all their power towards human lands at first opportunity
>The Southland leaders will be led by secret means and sinister insinuations to war against the North, and you and yours will the join them in the open as allies
>The Red Dragonborn will be fast-aged to maturity, though it will damage their physical and mental development, and deployed as shock troops
>The Greatworms—Glowie’s kin—will be revealed, and called to aid your efforts in the name of the Dark Gods
>Your Wyrmlings are better ‘Dragonborn’ than any made in a Fleshweaver’s secret chambers, and you will summon THEM to join you in glorious battle
>All Infiltrators and other agents will be called to the northern forward base, to rally beneath your banner
[Choose as many as you would like, though every demand you make has potential positive and negative consequences for detection, logistics, and cohesion, as well as the war against the dwarves which you already committed to. Write-ins are also allowed.]

>>5546694
Once the groundwork is laid for this great Dark Crusade against Hawksong and the Green Knight, you and your elders and one-time ‘betters’ empty from the chamber. You have regained enough strength to walk on your own, though the Novice stays close at your side—either to lend you aid if you should need it or, more likely, to acquire some of your prestige by dint of close association. You and she are the last to leave… And before you, that strange Dragonblood and the Chaplain. As they exit, they both watch you with a wary respect.

The Chaplain: your closest analogue to a father figure, the one who oversaw your very creation, your one-time commander and now co-conspirator… And the one who holds control over the Novice Fleshweaver’s breeding.

And this Dragonblodoed Infiltrator: a denizen of Hawksong, the only living Reptilian who has seen the Green Knight in the flesh-and-steel… And so strangely familiar, in a way that calls to you and eats at you.

You brow furrows, and you…

>Ask to speak with the Chaplain about something [what?]
>Order the Dragonblood to wait, so you can speak with him about something [what?]
>Let them both go—you need rest, and you have a great deal of work ahead of you [specify if you have any specific personal tasks in mind]

[Please choose one]

>>5546696
>The Southland leaders will be led by secret means and sinister insinuations to war against the North, and you and yours will the join them in the open as allies

They can start the war while we finish up with the dwarves, and then be inducted into our grand coalition. It'll be almost like we're coming to their rescue lmao.

also
>The Greatworms—Glowie’s kin—will be revealed, and called to aid your efforts in the name of the Dark Gods

and maybe
>Your Wyrmlings are better ‘Dragonborn’ than any made in a Fleshweaver’s secret chambers, and you will summon THEM to join you in glorious battle
>Ask to speak with the Chaplain about something [what?]
i'm king snek now and im gonna preggers your daughter. your blessing is appreciated but not required

>>5546694
>The forces from Bloodrise will split their attentions between the dwarf-war and a deployment against Hawksong’s allied baronies, and redirect all their power towards human lands at first opportunity
>The Southland leaders will be led by secret means and sinister insinuations to war against the North, and you and yours will the join them in the open as allies
>The Greatworms—Glowie’s kin—will be revealed, and called to aid your efforts in the name of the Dark Gods

>i'm king snek now and im gonna preggers your daughter. your blessing is appreciated but not required

based +1

>>5545521
Backlink

>>5546694
>>The forces from Bloodrise will split their attentions between the dwarf-war and a deployment against Hawksong’s allied baronies, and redirect all their power towards human lands at first opportunity
>>The Southland leaders will be led by secret means and sinister insinuations to war against the North, and you and yours will the join them in the open as allies
>The Greatworms—Glowie’s kin—will be revealed, and called to aid your efforts in the name of the Dark Gods

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>>5545377

>>5546694
>The Southland leaders will be led by secret means and sinister insinuations to war against the North, and you and yours will the join them in the open as allies
>The Red Dragonborn will be fast-aged to maturity, though it will damage their physical and mental development, and deployed as shock troops
>The Greatworms—Glowie’s kin—will be revealed, and called to aid your efforts in the name of the Dark Gods

Another generation of Red Dragonborn can always be bred…

>i'm king snek now and im gonna preggers your daughter. your blessing is appreciated but not required
+1 - based af

>>5546694
>The forces from Bloodrise will split their attentions between the dwarf-war and a deployment against Hawksong’s allied baronies, and redirect all their power towards human lands at first opportunity
>The Southland leaders will be led by secret means and sinister insinuations to war against the North, and you and yours will the join them in the open as allies

>>5546696
>Order the Dragonblood to wait, so you can speak with him about something [How did you fail to contain this breach of the Conspiracy? And tell me more of this… Green Knight, and our assets in Hawksong.]
As amusing as the ‘preggers’ joke is, we need to actually get more information about our enemies and their situation.

>>5546694
>The forces from Bloodrise will split their attentions between the dwarf-war and a deployment against Hawksong’s allied baronies, and redirect all their power towards human lands at first opportunity

>The Geologist and Engineer will make you REAL siege weapons, this time

>The Southland leaders will be led by secret means and sinister insinuations to war against the North, and you and yours will the join them in the open as allies

>The Greatworms—Glowie’s kin—will be revealed, and called to aid your efforts in the name of the Dark Gods

>Your Wyrmlings are better ‘Dragonborn’ than any made in a Fleshweaver’s secret chambers, and you will summon THEM to join you in glorious battle

>Order the Dragonblood to wait, so you can speak with him about something [How did you fail to contain this breach of the Conspiracy? And tell me more of this… Green Knight, and our assets in Hawksong.]

>>5546696
>The Southland leaders will be led by secret means and sinister insinuations to war against the North, and you and yours will the join them in the open as allies.

>All Infiltrators and other agents will be called to the northern forward base, to rally beneath your banner

>The Greatworms—Glowie’s kin—will be revealed, and called to aid your efforts in the name of the Dark Gods

>Your Wyrmlings are better ‘Dragonborn’ than any made in a Fleshweaver’s secret chambers, and you will summon THEM to join you in glorious battle
>All Infiltrators and other agents will be called to the northern forward base, to rally beneath your banner


>Order the Dragonblood to wait, so you can speak with him about something [what?]
>>Any information he has regarding the green knight.

We should gain more information regarding the green knight skills and allies. Since we probably going to meet him on the field of battle.

By comparison novice suppressed her heat cycle, and we still need to figure out why we cant consistently get it up since the mother of dragons.

So telling the Chaplin we want his daughter will just make him mad, for no real gain before the war.

>>5546693
Also qm, why are the new dragonborn red??? I thought they were infused with blood from the green dragons heart? Shouldn't they be either green or yellow (if their mixed.)?

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>>5547139
>>5546996
>>5546971
>>5546940
>>5546747
>>5546742
>>5546733
>>5546696
[Leaving this open for a bit longer, rolling if no decision is made by bedtime.]

>>5546747
[Any preference who you talk to? Would break the tie.]

>>5547176
[I'll address it soon! You are correct, though.]

>>5546747
Supporting

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>>5547736
[Don't suppose you could break our tie, could you?]

>>5547769
Chaplain, Roth didnt raise us

>>5547813
Actually, I’d like you to vote on the content instead of the character. It’s quite important that you’re vote is an informed one.

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>>5547813
>>5547736
>>5547139
>>5546996
>>5546971
>>5546940
>>5546747
>>5546742
>>5546733
You cast the Dragonblood from your mind. It is no difficult task: he is just some unknown Infiltrator, after all. Instead, you request an audience with the Chaplain. This, too, proves no tremendous undertaking: he might be ambivalent to you, but as his technical ‘subordinate’ and a creation of his base, your unexpected dominance of the council with his fellow Serpent priests has brought him status and acclaim by proxy.

Like father, like daughter, you suppose.

“You would discuss this strategy of yours, then, Dragonborn?” he replies. “Wise of you, Young One. You have a tremendous power in you—we all witnessed as much—but you are still inexperienced. You have never led a campaign before.”

“Nor have you,” the Novice Fleshweaver chimes in with malicious mirth tinting her tone.

This draws the umbrage of her sire, but you quickly resolve the conflict and recquire his favour thus:

“Sseztlussth, you are dismissed.”

This draws sputtering outrage from your chosen female, though it quickly turns to a furious and embarrassed silence. The Chaplain watches you thus disarm his daughter with her True Name in a silence equal parts amused and confused. She storms off, and after a moment, her father—the male who raised you, if anyone truly did—beckons you after him, to join him in the room which is his confessional chamber and holy office.

“I am still not certain I understand how you plan is even meant to work,” your Chaplain admits. “The humans to the south may be ingratiated to us at their highest levels, but they will still take time to move to war in any great number. They are not so politically unified as the Paladin king’s troupe of baboons. We have ensured that they stay that way—easier to subvert and manipulate, turn against one another or lead in different direction. Better for our eventual conquest.”

“From what I understood of my briefings and readings,” you reply, “we have repeatedly implicated ‘Southern Demonists’ in terrorist activities against the Paladin King’s realm.”

“A task made easier by the overwhelmingly southern human heritage of our Degenerates,” the Serpent priest readily acknowledges.

“So we need not convince the South to strike at the North,” you reply. “We can instead convince the NORTH of imminent danger from the SOUTH. We can reveal only a titillating implication of our Southerly subversions, and thus lead the Green Knight and his paladin backers on a crusade against the South, even as we leak and exaggerate their fears and hatreds to the Southern realms. The South will naturally grow wary and begin to rally against the North in turn, stoking hostilities until…”

“…War,” the Chaplain finishes, looking impressed.

“Yes.”

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>>5547860
“And then we join the war, coming to their aid as we reveal ourselves?” the Chaplain asks, drumming talons on his desk and craning his neck over it. “This is where you lose me. Our forces are still limited, even with your amassed slave-troops in Blodorise.”

They aren’t slave-troops, not really, but you don’t bother to correct him.

Instead, you say: “That is where the Greatworms come in.”

“Ah, yes, the worms,” the Chaplains recalls with distaste and skepticism. “These crawling… THINGS… Which you say are the product of the Dark Gods?”

“I have had it confirmed for me,” you say, carefully failing to mention that the original purpose of Glowie’s race was to replace and supplant your own.

You also neglect to mention your hybrid children, as your spawn or otherwise. Your sons are mighty for their age, of course, but the hunt prior to your departure confirmed that they are no more ready for deployment than these ‘True Dragonborn’ of the Fleshweavers… Curiously RED ones, you are told?

“They are worthy of such a war?” the Chaplain presses.

You hesitate. To your knowledge, only the Queen has any great physical prowess in battle, in terms of defensive exoskeleton or grasping hands. The rest, large and small, primarily employ sticky silken traps, wave tactics, and their toxic fangs to defeat their foes… And have never done so on the scale of a military campaign.

“They have potential,” you answer to mask your uncertainty. “Since I discovered and allied with them, they have been integral is transporting materials and messages between my troops… And even as far as this forward base.”

The Chaplain seems shocked to learn of their proximity to his own operations… And, again, impressed.

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>>5547862
“At any rate,” you press your advantage, “they need only shore up our own efforts, and that of the Southlands, long enough for my troops to secure Blodorise. Then, they will rejoin us, and together we can strike a deadly blow against Hawksong, and the Green Knight!”

The Chaplain nods along. You can see him internally analyzing weaknesses in the plan as you have presented it, and devising ways to mitigate these failings or to correct them completely.

“It relies much on bugs and mammals,” he eventually says. “Maintaining such alliances will be… Difficult. They are unreliable, weak things, compared to the master Race.”

“It can be done,” you assert. “I have done it.”

“You have learned much in your time in Bloodrise,” the Chaplain acknowledges. “Perhaps your cloying grab for power did more than bolster your own physical and mystical might.”

The Novice clearly inherited this male’s talent for backhanded compliments and faint praise, but you bow your head slightly in acknowledgement of this out of polite deference—and, admittedly, childhood habit.

“This is why they call you King?” he asks.

You pause, attempting to read the Chaplain’s body language… But unlike his daughter, he has a cold-blooded male’s talent for strategic stillness of face and body.

“I AM King.”

That draws a lash of the tail.

“You SERVE as King, maybe,” he attempts to correct you, voice smooth as velvet over a dagger.

“I RULE as King,” you reply, not backing down. “I shall continue to do so.”

“At our pleasure. The pleasure of the Serpent Priesthood.”

“A Dragon King,” you say through gritted teeth, “serves at his own pleasure.”

The Chaplain watches you in wary, silent judgement, eventually ceding to respectfully changing the subject.

“This will be a great undertaking, uplifting all of our race,” he says. “My own station, and yours, will be greatly improved if we are successful.”

“Your bloodline will see its star rise,” you note.

“Yes,” the Chaplain happily agrees.

“Mine also.”

He looks strangely at you again, as well he might. You are a hybrid, the spawn of a Degenerate. Despite your cryptic, undisclosed Wyrmling sons, you were never actually AUTHORIZED to breed… Nor, you suspect, would you ever have been under the old regime.

“Yes,” he eventually concedes. “Maybe.”

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>>5547863
You meet his eye, and finally make your intention here clear as the space between stars: “Our bloodlines, through myself and your daughter, will rise as one.”

The Chaplain’s eyes widen, and his mouth opens in a shocked gasp that turns into a shrieking hiss.

“You go too far now, Degenerate!”

“Not ‘Degenerate’,” you correct him. “Dragon King.”

“You are NO such thing!”

“I am,” you insist, “whether you agree or not. I have already won victories with Serpent Priests greater than you. I have already won her heart, for that matter.”

“Her HEART?” the Chaplain laughs. “I thought you over-familiar with that fool offspring of mine… And I KNEW you to have the blood of a monkey… But I never suspect you would delude yourself into thinking you could ROMANCE a member of the Master Race. Even your MOTHER was never such a silly thing as you.”

You rankle slightly, feel an urge to retort… But no. There is no need.

“Your blessing is appreciated,” you say calmly, “but not REQUIRED. This is a new age, Chaplain. MY star is ascendant. My KINGDOM is ascendant. You can rise with it… Or fall away.”

“You cannot just—”

“This meeting is adjourned,” you tell the male who molded, shaped, and trained you from your very hatching.

You stand and leave. He does not stop you.

With this matter made clear, and your Dark Crusade in motion, you take a moment for yourself. You NEED a moment for yourself, after all that! Specifically, you think it best to…
>Speak with Olu the Archer about your plans—and how he might help with them
>Pay a visit to Glowie’s mother, to discuss her role in events that are to unfold
>Pay a long-overdue visit to your brother, the great Green Dragonborn, and to these ‘Red Dragonborn’ hatchlings
>Rejoin the Novice, to brief her on your discussion with her father… And to see about curing your ‘affliction’
>Write-in

>>5547850
Hello anon, while I admire you trying to change my vote, Im not going to, I know who Roth is, MC doesnt, yknow who he does know? His dad, Chaplain I mean, the guy who raised us, not our biological creator who I highly doubt we wont see again, we need to deal with what just happened with who we know in character in my opinion, sorry not sorry

>>5547866
>>5547850
[I hope the topics covered above can appeal to you both, to some degree.]

>>5547866
Anon, you just told the guy who raised us that we’re going to make his daughter pregger and to stuff it with his opinion. I just wanted you to know what you were voting for.

>>5547873
It isn’t that, I just wanted him to be aware of the actual content of the conversation rather resort to ‘Chaplain raised us, fuck Roth’ logic.

>>5547873
It does gracias
>>5547865
>Pay a long-overdue visit to your brother, the great Green Dragonborn, and to these ‘Red Dragonborn’ hatchlings
I wanna see the bro, meditate with him and talk about life, see the new bros, set an example

>>5547865
>Rejoin the Novice, to brief her on your discussion with her father… And to see about curing your ‘affliction’

We need a true heir if the Green Knight kills us too.

>>5547865
>Pay a long-overdue visit to your brother, the great Green Dragonborn, and to these ‘Red Dragonborn’ hatchlings
Time to impress our siblings. I do want to rally the rabble later, though.

>>5547865
>Speak with Olu the Archer about your plans—and how he might help with them

>>5547917
Eh we have time


Backlink>>5546742

>>5547910
Oh dude, I completely knew what we were doing, he gained a lot of respect towards us, we may have challenged his way of thinking but he knows we have divine right and if he doesnt were going to teach him, the world within this quest has repeatedly told us the master race responds to authority, weve often been at the end of the the chaplain and novices quips but they are going to respect us and follow us into the age of darkness hopefully through our love of his daughter he will see us as something he raised right despite our genetics

>>5547914
This is me btw

>>5547936
Anon, you clearly don’t know Reptilian Master Race culture like you think ya do. I just want to make that clear.

>>5547865
>>Rejoin the Novice, to brief her on your discussion with her father… And to see about curing your ‘affliction’

>>5547865
>Pay a long-overdue visit to your brother, the great Green Dragonborn, and to these ‘Red Dragonborn’ hatchlings

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>>5547954

>>5547865
>Rejoin the Novice, to brief her on your discussion with her father… And to see about curing your ‘affliction’

>>5547865
>Pay a long-overdue visit to your brother, the great Green Dragonborn, and to these ‘Red Dragonborn’ hatchlings

>>5548883
Anon, love is a disease to them. If the Chaplain thought he raised us right, we’d be acting more like this
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpC_hO15IoA

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>>5549042
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>>5547914
[Locked and writing ASAP! Sorry for the late post -- I had a date.]

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>>5549213
Hope the date went well qm

>>5549213
It has been too long since you last saw the Great Green Dragonborn—your first friend, your brother in spirit, and the first of your kind. For many years, when the Chaplain was a distant authority and the Novice and her compatriots your tormentors, he was your closest (maybe only) companion. If you owe your capacity for love and community to your mother’s blood or her meddling, you owe its realization and continuation to those days of quiet, meditative communion.

They are not so quiet anymore, though.

You are used to the unobtrusive—if occasionally enticing—presence of the Great One’s ‘harem’ of svelte and talented Silkscale females. These attendants were glorified serving staff given the size disparity between they and your towering predecessor, and mostly existed to provide for your brother in food, massage, and other petty entertainments. They knew well not to speak unless spoken to, and never interrupted your time together. The new arrivals, though, demonstrate no such tact of consideration.

Around him scamper a nine smaller, redder facsimiles of his glory personage. They have his curiously curling, ram-like horns, his elongated and proud-chinned Draconic profile (albeit more well-shaped than your unlucky forebear’s slightly-malformed features). Their slim builds, proportionately-larger heads, short necks, and spadeless tails mark them as hatchlings, yet each of these nine—nine of them! Like your sons!—is almost as large as you when they stand on their hind legs. Still possessed of youthful vigor—and perhaps some of the famous dragon hatchling aggression, you find them clambering across you brother like a great gymnasium, while others hound and harrow the cowed harem-females.

“Children are exhausting,” you readily sympathize (though, in truth, Glowie and Hamaraska the Lancer have taken most of that burden off of you).

“Hrrruuuh,” your brother mightily sighs, elbows on his knees as he hunches over in apparent defeat.

“It is true, then,” you observe. “they are… Red.”

“Yyyus,” he says. “They urr.”

>>5549254
You had expected these creations of the Fleshweavers’ biological manipulations to be green of hue, like the Great Green Dragon which provided their material to create them or the Great One who preceded them. Instead, they are…

“…More of a Brown, actually,” you note. “Orange, maybe…”

They are not unlike a rust monster’s hue, derived from its iron meals. You suppose it is a result of the Green Dragon blood mixing across a medium of pinkish and beige human sacrifice-blood, intermixed with the refined bloodlines of the purest of the Dragonblooded Ones. Like the Bastard, the occultist, and like the Hawksong Infiltrator whom you encountered earlier—and like you yourself—all other Dragonblooded Reptilians of the master Race are distant descendants of the Red Dragon King as well, lending most of them reddish scales.

“Still, they are impressive,” you admit hopefully.

“Hrrrm,” the Great One groans noncommittally.

“The company must be nice?” you suggest, your uncertainty turning it into a question.

“…Luukk forwurrd to when they KWAI-UTT,” he merely answers. “Kwai-utt like yooouu.”

“I missed you too, brother.”

Your brother has never been much of a conversationalist, so you do not spend much time catching up-you tell him some of what has transpired in Bloodrise, and he vaguely apprises you of the last few months of paranoia and panic just outside his chamber at the developments on the surface, and of the hatching and homing of the growing young Red Dragonborn.The entire process takes only a few minutes. He is like Glowie in that way, you suppose—perhaps his penchant for direct communication and quality time spent in thoughtful silence preconditioned you for your friendship with the worm-woman. Instead of her lovestruck songs and hand-holding, though, the two of you have always preferred to allow your Dragon Souls to settle near to one another, and for your deep natures, intuitions, and feelings to attune. This is… Easier said than done, with all the commotion.

What will you do?
>Take command of the situation—assert dominance over the Red Dragonborn, with your fatherly spirit
>Attempt o befriend the young ones, to tucker them out, and to teach them the wonders of meditation as well
>Call for the Chaplain and Chief Fleshweaver, and demand to know why these irritating whelps have not been given separate accommodation from The Great One
>Ignore them—tune them out!—and find your peaceful place of spiritual fulfillment deep within, so that the two of you CAN bond properly!
>You know... These things are meant to be your replacement, and they're rather troublesome, so maybe you should see about culling their numbers...
>Write-in

>>5549257
>Attempt o befriend the young ones, to tucker them out, and to teach them the wonders of meditation as well
Little brothers, rough house with them until they are tired, those who stay awake and calm can learn with big brothers, love for our fellow reptile is the way yall
>>5549107
I meant more along the lines of us being a flawed creation actually amounting to something that will bring him praise but please continue flapping your gums

>>5549257
>Take command of the situation—assert dominance over the Red Dragonborn, with your fatherly spirit
>Attempt o befriend the young ones, to tucker them out, and to teach them the wonders of meditation as well
Take command, and then play with the cute little buggers.

>>5549290
I think you confused yourself on what the Chaplain values, because being the ‘Prince of Love’ ain’t one of them.

>>5549257
>Take command of the situation—assert dominance over the Red Dragonborn, with your fatherly spirit
>Attempt o befriend the young ones, to tucker them out, and to teach them the wonders of meditation as well

Both