the first dragon
So, do you still want to know?
The tunnel goes quiet around the words. The first dragon stays coiled over the pale seam, his green-black glow washing the stone in slow, living shadows.
The Elder Knight
Aye. I do. Not to pry, if that is your fear, but to understand what stands watch beside us.
The Fighter-Butcher
I want to know what you mean by guard. Eggs, seam, tunnel, all of it. There is purpose in that, I think.
The Scarred Knight
And I want to know whether you choose it, or whether the void simply shaped you into it.
The Elder Knight loosens his grip on the sword hilt. The tension does not vanish, but it softens into attention, the kind given at a campfire or a grave.
The mist in the seam turns in a clean circle, steady as breath. For a moment, no one moves, as if the tunnel itself waits for the first dragon to answer or simply let the silence stay.
“I turn it pitch black and use black lighting to freeze them in place”
SUCCESS (Great Electric offensive, rolled +1)
The first dragon drinks the light down. The tunnel snaps into a deeper dark, thicker than simple shadow, and the knights lock where they stand.
Black radiance bands their boots, their wrists, their breath, pinning them in a stunned hush while the pale seam and mist ring keep glowing beneath him.
The Elder Knight
By the saints... what manner of ward is this?
The Fighter-Butcher
Stillness. Not death. He means to hold us, not harm us.
The Scarred Knight
You show restraint, then. I see it.
A hairline flaw appears in the blackness, and through it the first dragon catches a hidden alcove in the stone wall, tucked above the seam and veiled by old dust.
The Elder Knight
There, in the wall, look... Is that an egg niche?
+ Scene Quest Added
Get past the knights
“I tell them to repeat after me as a ritual and i bind their souls to me for a certain term, an era, century.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
The first dragon speaks the rite into the black air, and the tunnel listens.
The Elder Knight
I repeat your words, and bind myself by them.
The Fighter-Butcher
I repeat your words, and bind myself by them.
The Scarred Knight
I repeat your words, and bind myself by them.
The dark bands thin into three luminous threads, each thread fastening to a knight's shadow like a knot drawn tight.
The hidden alcove yawns open in the wall, and within it lie a clutch of pale eggs, warm and still.
The Elder Knight
They are safe. What term do you set upon us, dragon?
Quest Complete
Guard eggs first
Skill Upgrade: Electric offensive Great→Superb
Quest Complete
Get past the knights