The hatchling’s trill rings out, bright and thin. Deep in the breach, a heavy thump answers, then another, slow as a waking heart.
The Elder Knight
That is no echo. Something else stirs back there.
The Scarred Knight
Hold, both of you. Keep the hatchling by the alcove.
The Fighter-Butcher
I hear it too. Stone and breath, maybe more eggs, maybe worse.
The pale light around the niche swells over the fractured shell. The newborn presses close to the first dragon, while the knights shift into a ring of guard-stance between the nest and the dark tunnel beyond.
Erma
The sound comes from deeper in the tunnel.
The thumping comes nearer, measured and deliberate, and dust trembles from the ceiling. Whatever waits in the breach now knows the clutch is awake.
✓ Quest Accepted
Investigate the thumping in the tunnel
“I wince a potent highpitch noise down the hall at the thumping”
SUCCESS (Superb Electric offensive, rolled +2)
The first dragon draws breath and sends a thin, shrieking pulse of green crackle down the tunnel. The sound skates along the stone like a blade of frost and vanishes into the dark.
Deep ahead, the thumping breaks. For one held heartbeat, the tunnel goes still.
The Elder Knight
It heard that.
The Fighter-Butcher
Aye, and it hated it.
Dust spills harder from the ceiling, but not from collapse. The rhythm shifts, turning wary, then answering with a lower scrape from farther back.
Erma
The sound meets a chamber ahead.
The newborn dragon presses closer to the first dragon’s side, while the wardens tighten their ring and angle their weapons toward the dark seam beyond the bend.
The Scarred Knight
There is a space back there, and something in it has woken.
“I cast harmonizing light”
SUCCESS (Poor Arcana, rolled +1)
The first dragon lowers his chin over the nest and lets a soft green glow gather in his throat.
The light spills out in a slow pulse, not sharp or bright, but even and warm as it washes the alcove and the trembling air around the newborn.
Dust hanging in the tunnel turns gold at the edges, then settles more gently instead of falling in a rush.
The newborn dragon’s shoulders unclench. It leans into the glow, head lifting from a startled tuck to a quieter, steadier watch.
The Elder Knight
Easy now. The dark likes a challenge, but this... this calms it.
The Scarred Knight
The scrape is still there, yet the tunnel no longer feels hungry.
Far down the passage, the unseen presence answers with a single, low shift, and the wardens tighten their ring around the nest while waiting for what comes next.
“I use echo hissing to detect its image”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +2)
The first dragon lets his hissing answer slip through the tunnel, thin and steady, and listens for the shape it makes in the dark.
The sound comes back wrong, split by stone and depth, then gathers into a clear outline, broad-backed and low, crouched beyond the bend.
It is not the thump alone. Something larger is moving with it, dragging a hard body along the wall as it turns toward the nest.
Erma
There is a second chamber beyond the bend.
The Scarred Knight
You have its measure now?
The Elder Knight
Then speak, dragon. What waits down there?
The newborn shifts at the nest edge, and the wardens tighten their line while the hidden shape pauses, listening to the echoes it has just answered.
Quest Complete
Investigate the thumping in the tunnel
Skill Upgrade: Arcana Poor→Mediocre