The nursery’s blue glow thins around the fallen ghost guards and gathers instead in the cracked eggs. One shell splits wider with a dry pop, and the hatchling inside heaves forward, small claws scraping stone.
The Hatchling
You stand where the keepers stood. Are you the new master, or only another shadow?
Several eggs tremble in answer, their seams brightening. The brood is listening now, not just hatching. Huarti remains towering at the chamber’s edge, a red claim against the blue light.
Huarti
I claim the brood.
The Hatchling
Then prove it. Hold the nest, and the others will follow.
The first hatchling lifts higher from its shell and turns its head toward the remaining eggs, as if inviting witness. The nursery’s hum steadies, waiting for Huarti to move, and for the next shell to break under his rule.
“I cast zone of sweet air and pray to Aerdrie Feanya as the lover and lord of all creatures”
SUCCESS (Good Arcana, rolled +0)
Huarti lowers one hand over the nest, and the blue glow around the eggs softens into a warm, sweet haze. The chamber fills with clean wind and honeyed air, calm enough to still the trembling shells.
Huarti
By Aerdrie Feanya, I claim this brood.
The first hatchling stops testing the stone and lifts its snout into the scented air. Its wary posture loosens, and the cracked eggs quiet one by one.
The Hatchling
That scent feels like sky after storm. You do not smell like a keeper... but you do not smell false.
Blue light gathers along the nest rim, and a thin draft curls between the slats as if the nursery itself is listening. The brood settles nearer Huarti’s shadow.
The Hatchling
If you are lord here, what do you bring us, besides a louder voice?
Huarti stands over the nest as the sweet air holds, and the eggs remain still beneath his claim. The hatchling waits, chin raised, as if ready to judge the answer.
“I warn the young hatchlings their mother is powerful and evil, she eill not be gone long long”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +0)
Huarti
Your mother is powerful, and she is evil. She will not stay gone long.
The hatchling stills at that, then slowly lowers its head. A few nearby eggs give tiny, responsive taps against one another, as if listening through the shell.
The Hatchling
Then you speak as one who knows the shape of danger.
The Hatchling
If she returns, we must know whether this lord stands when the sky darkens.
The brood’s warm haze does not fade, but it tightens close around the nest, drawn toward Huarti’s shadow like breath held in trust.
The Hatchling
Tell us, lord, when she comes back, do you drive her off... or do you make her obey?
“I say, sadly she must be destroyed, she tyrants only evil, but, i know more powerful mothers and grandmothers to you with wonderful morals, divine, that i can allign you better with.”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +2)
Huarti
She must be destroyed. Tyrants only breed ruin. But I know stronger mothers, and grandmothers too, more worthy than her. I can align you with them.
The words settle over the nest like warm ash. The hatchling’s claws ease off the shell, and two eggs roll closer, touching its sides as if to hear better.
The Hatchling
Destroyed... then the brood is not asked to love her stain.
The Hatchling
If greater mothers exist, let their names be known to us. We would learn the shape of a better rule.
The sweet haze brightens, and the nest answers Huarti more than the broken shell does. One cracked egg gives a small, deliberate crackle, like a vow forming inside.
The Hatchling
Speak them, lord. Tell us who we may look toward when the sky darkens again.
“I say your truest mother is magestic and a beautiful sky blue not dark like this mother”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Huarti
Your truest mother is majestic, sky blue, not dark like this one.
The hatchling’s head tilts. Its claws fold inward, and the glow in the nest turns clearer, as if it is listening with its whole shell.
The Hatchling
Sky blue... yes. A mother that shines like high noon over water.
The Hatchling
If Huarti names her plainly, then the brood may name itself more cleanly too.
Two eggs nudge closer together, their shells warming in the gold-blue haze. The brood settles, not meekly, but with attention.
The Hatchling
Then speak her shape to us, lord. We listen.
The nursery holds quiet around the nest, and the spell-sweet air hangs steady, waiting on Huarti’s next words.
“I warn them, there is an oldest mother of some in the lineage that is stronger then this evil mother here, she is the shadows as a drahon woman claiming to be a matriarch”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Huarti
There is an older mother in your bloodline, stronger than this one. A shadow woman, a dragon who names herself matriarch.
The words sink into the nest like a dropped stone into still water. The gold-blue glow deepens, and the hatchling’s claws loosen against its chest.
The Hatchling
A matriarch of shadow... then the line is wider than we were told.
The Hatchling
If she is older, then her claim may reach farther than the mother who abandoned us.
Two eggs roll closer together, their shells warming under the hush of the spell. The brood listens harder now, as if Huarti has opened a door inside their thinking.
The Hatchling
What is her shape, lord? Tell us how to know the shadow matriarch when she comes.
“She is dragon but shows up as a human sometimes, other times she is the shadows of the grate that looks outside in here”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +1)
Huarti lifts one long hand, and the shadows under the grate gather at his fingertips. They stretch, thin as smoke, then stand with a woman’s outline, tall and blue-dark, with a crown of hornlike shade.
The Hatchling
That... that is her shape?
The image changes as he wills it. In one blink she is a cloaked dragon woman, in the next only the moving shadow of the bars above, watching from both forms at once.
The Hatchling
She can wear human skin, and still be the dark between stones. We would know her anywhere.
The eggs answer with a soft tremor, not fear now, but recognition. The gold-blue halo tightens around the nest, as if the brood is memorizing the shape he gives them.
The Hatchling
Then tell us her name, lord, so we may hold to it when she comes.
Quest Complete
Take control of the dragon nursery
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great