Huarti stands at the terrace edge and sends his will through the nursery wards. The amber hush answers, and the air below the Obsidian Spires stirs with heat and wings.
One by one, the red dragon guardians answer the call, circling down into the terrace light. An lands hardest, still faintly smoking from the skirmish, his claws scraping stone.
An
The black dragons probed the north seam first. They tested our reach, then withdrew when the wards bit back.
The guardians gather in a rough crescent before Huarti, heads low, tails still, waiting for judgment and orders. Their attention stays fixed on him, not the desert.
An
They were not hunting the brood. They were measuring the border, and listening for a weak law.
Huarti answers without haste, and the terrace seems to narrow around his authority. The ward-lights brighten at his feet as the nursery recognizes the gathering as a court of defense.
An
Name the rule again, and we will carry it farther than their flight.
The guardians wait in silence, ready to bind the border to Huarti's word, while the nursery's hidden chambers remain just beyond the next command.
✓ Quest Accepted
Bind the border to Huarti's word
✓ Quest Accepted
Track and attack the black dragons
“I say im for tracking amd attacking now or soon as possible, what is it that you 3 think most”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +2)
An
Track first, strike second. If the border is yours by word, then let us hear where it bends and where it bites.
The Red Dragon Guardian
I say we follow the black dragons from above the sands. Their turn was not random, it was a signal.
An
And I say we take the ledger marks with us. Ward-lines, footprints, scorch traces, all of it. The nursery paths stay guarded while we hunt.
The guardian unrolls a narrow strip of marked hide and lays it across the terrace stone, pointing out three pale crossings where the dark flock veered inward.
The Red Dragon Guardian
Those crossings are old, deliberate. This is not a wandering pack.
Huarti
We track them now. We attack when the trail gives the best opening.
Both loyal guards bow their heads at once, and An presses a ward-token into Huarti's hand, already warmed by the terrace glow.
+ New Item Acquired
Ward-token
“I ask them, if we all leave, we leave the nursery ungaurded, if some go and some stay we fight at both. If they plan for us to attack right now in retaliation then they'll have it likely planned that their eldest or strongest attacks here while we are there attacking less important dragons”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +3)
Huarti asks it plain, weighing the terrace and the nursery together. The ward-lights hold steady as the two guardians listen without interrupting.
An
If we all leave, yes, the nursery sits lighter. But not empty. The ward-lines still answer to your token, and I can leave runners on the inner paths.
The Red Dragon Guardian
And if they strike back at once, they will expect us to be absent. They may send their eldest where the border feels thinnest, to make us choose.
The guardian taps the marked hide, then turns it so Huarti can see a second, overlooked crossing where the route forks near the sands.
An
So we do not take the whole host. We split it with purpose, one wing to hunt, one wing to keep the nursery under your word.
The Red Dragon Guardian
Better still, let the hunt be bait. If their strongest comes hunting here, the nursery answers as a fortress, not a prize.
Both guards fall quiet after that, waiting on Huarti's choice, the hide strip held open between them like a map already half-conquered.
“I summon a powerful red dragon named "Ghorrik Sul, the 7th" an elder warrior/sage powerful physically, at arcane and sage lore, to gaurd the nursery while we leave to attack. Ghorrik stands upright usually and can appear small enough to fit in the nursery and gaurd it. Ghorrik prefers to be summoned in dire times such as this as a duty”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +1)
Huarti lowers the ward-token toward the hide strip and lets his power settle into the mark. Red light gathers along the forked crossing, then sinks inward as if the map is drinking his word.
A hot seam opens in the air beside the nursery seal, narrow and upright. Within it stands Ghorrik Sul, the 7th, scaled in warrior red and sized small enough for the vault, his posture straight as a spear.
Ghorrik Sul, the 7th
I answer the old duty. Point me to the threshold, and I keep it.
An
Good. The paths hold if he does.
Ghorrik turns once, reading the ward-lines with a sage's stillness. He sets one clawed hand to the nursery seal, and the amber light deepens into a steadier, brighter ring.
The Red Dragon Guardian
With him here, the nursery is not left thin. It is anchored.
The hide strip shivers, then settles with the bound crossing marked in red. Beyond the terrace edge, distant wingbeats answer from the sand routes, as if something out there has noticed the change.
Quest Complete
Bind the border to Huarti's word
New Gift: Border Warden
“I cast a identify location glowing becon over the black dragons main location”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +2)
Huarti lifts the ward-token again, and the red mark on the hide strip answers at once. A bead of glowing force rises from the crossing, hangs above the terrace, then stretches into a steady beacon pointing into the sandward dark.
Ghorrik Sul, the 7th
There. I can read the trail from here. It points beyond the broken dunes, to their main gathering.
The beacon thickens, its light braided with Huarti's arcana, and the distant wingbeats shift as if the far flock has turned under its notice.
An
Then the route is fixed. We strike the place it names, not the shadows around it.
The Red Dragon Guardian
The nursery holds. Go, and return with their path cut.
The marked hide strip glows at the crossing, now a clear signpost in the air. The beacon holds steady, waiting for Huarti's next command.