Huarti lets the shadow form peel away. The nursery hushes as his red dragon features spread across his face, sharp and unmistakable. The gold-blue haze whips around him, catching a crimson edge.
Huarti
Do not fear. Much time has passed, and I have closed her door even. Her name, and she, should keep being dust instead.
The hatchling freezes. The nearest eggs press closer together, their tapping gone silent. Huarti’s words settle over the nest like a binding cloth.
The Hatchling
Dust... then who guards us now?
Huarti turns his face a little more dragon, the red in his skin deepening and brightening in moving blotches. The false matriarch’s shadow is gone, but its place remains, waiting to be filled.
The Hatchling
Say the one who stands above us. Say the name we follow.
The brood leans toward Huarti instead of the empty dark beneath the grate. One last breath of the vortex coils at his feet, as if the nursery itself waits for his next command.
✓ Quest Accepted
Name the authority the brood will follow
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the brood's loyalty
“I tell them, Aerdrie Faenya is the all powerful mother of life, that Ao is the overall say in all and that Moradin is the hammer to save all if the moment arised.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +0)
Huarti lifts his voice over the nest, and the gold-blue light catches on his black beads and red robe like a crown of embers.
Huarti
Aerdrie Faenya is the mother of life. Ao decides all. Moradin is the hammer that saves when the moment comes.
The hatchlings still. Their little heads tilt toward him, then toward the light, as if the names themselves weigh more than stone.
Hatchlings
A mother above the sky, a law above the world, a hammer for the final need... then this one speaks with three voices of power.
One by one, the brood settles closer to Huarti’s feet, the shell-fragments around them trembling with their movement.
Hatchlings
Then we follow the one who knows the names that matter.
The halo around the nest brightens, and the crimson residue on the floor thins into harmless dust. The brood’s attention fixes on Huarti, waiting for his next command.
Quest Complete
Name the authority the brood will follow