From the Egg to the Stars (A Dragon Quest)

[X] Despair

Like before, you fall through the dreamscape. But this time it's easier, more comfortable. You think on what your mother said, and on the three other presences you felt while you were still in the egg. You'd found one, but two more remained a mystery.

As if attuned to your thoughts, the dreamscape shifted and changed around you. You started to fall faster, carried on a current through the dream towards a new presence, deep within a troubled dream.

This presence is familiar, but has somehow changed from when you last knew them. With caution, you descend into their dreamscape, and are horrified by what you see.

Will-Test – Difficulty 6 (5 -1 (Dreamwalker) +2 (Flood of Pain)) Rolled: 6, 10, 3, Rerolled 9, 3 Successes, Good Success!

But you push through. You have felt the loneliness the presence feels, and you can hold their pain at bay. And as you look at it, as you see what has been done to this creature, you don't feel pity, you feel fury.

You see her reappearance, taken in by a kindly old witch. Her hut had smelt of drying herbs and she'd fussed and doted over her, but then night had fallen, and with it had come a knock at the door.

The witch died before she could even greet the man who stood in her doorway. As she slumped to the floor, the man stepped forward, cloaked in darkness, and immediately looked towards the hatchling. Frozen in fear, she could do nothing as he approached and wrapped her in a bubble of magic. Then he spoke a spell and they both vanished.

After this, the dragon's hell began. Confined, she could do nothing to stop the man as he took her blood for his potions, and though he never took knives to her flesh, he had spells whose only purpose seemed to be to cause pain, and it was these that he used.

Barely keeping her nourished, the cage in which she was kept grew cramped as she grew. The man rarely interacted with her more than take her blood and cause her pain, leaving her weak and breathless when he was finished. When it came time for her to shed, he offered no help, only watching and taking notes, then gathering up shed scales to use as reagents.

Knowledge (Dragon-lore)-Test – Difficulty 5 (5 -1 (Dreamwalker) +1 (New to the field)) Rolled 3,1,7,10, Rerolled 1, 2 Successes -1 Success, 1 Success!

He was waiting… Waiting for her fire to ignite… and then he would turn her into a weapon. Going what you'd learnt from Catherine just yesterday, you now know that dragonfire is one of the hottest flames known to the world at large. The man sought to break her to his will and turn her into a weapon of war, like some of the dragons Laurel read to you about today.

But he'd never counted on someone like you occurring. Even as a new-born, not even a full week old, you were still a dreamwalker, and you were still a dragon. It was possible that he was monitoring her dreams to come up with new ways to torment her, so you shrouded yourself in the dream. Becoming invisible to anyone who might look for you.

Stealth-Test – Difficulty 6 (5 -1 (Dreamwalker) +1 (The Searching Eye) +1 (Shrouded by Pain)) Rolled 6,2,7,3,2, 2 Successes!

Wrapping yourself in the memories of pain makes you feel uncomfortable, and you need to concentrate to maintain your stealth, but you do so. And your idea pays off as you continue onward, a glowing searchlight of an eye appearing within the dream and scanning around for a moment before disappearing.

Faster now, you dive towards the heart of the dragon's spirit, rushing past memories of pain and loneliness, of hopelessness and despair, to where you can see her, curled in on herself. Armoured in scales of obsidian and crimson, she huddles, shivering from imaginary cold and very real misery.

Your claws touch stone, cold and hard, and you find yourself standing in a corridor. Dark stone walls, jagged and menacing, tower around you on all sides. You walk forward, cautious in unfamiliar surroundings, as you hear sobbing, quiet but heart wrenching, coming from a cage set into the wall before you.

As you approach, the sounds from within the cage cease, and you hear shuffling before, almost alarming in their brightness, eyes the colour of molten silver appear.

Chains clinking, she drags herself forward, up to the bars, and while you know the wounds that have been dealt to her body have been little beyond neglect, the wounds dealt to her mind are much more severe.

The dragon before you is a wreck of her former self. Scales torn and patchy, her open wounds still seep golden blood. Her wings, held close to her body, are ragged and ruined, and her body shows the tell-tales signs of other abuses. But there is still a spark in her, and on seeing you, she forces her body into an aggressive stance, claws extending as the chains that bind her legs jangle against her cell floor.

"Who goes there?" Her voice, despite her obvious weakness of body, demonstrates a tenacity and strength of spirit that you doubt you could match.

Persuasion-Test – Difficulty 2 (5 -1 (Dreamwalker) -1 (Strength of Will) -1 (Kinship of Dragons) -1 (Tormentor's Absence) +1 (Defiant to the Last)) Rolled: 2,4,10,7, Rerolled: 8, 5 Successes! Great Success!

By way of reply, you send forth memories. You show her your time in the egg, and as she recognises you, tears begin to roll down her face and fall to the floor. The tension in her body leaves her as quickly as it had come, and she collapses, shaking, to the floor in a jangle of chains.

Moving forward, you send forth your other memories, of Sorella, your mother, of Alaina, of Harmony and Laurel and the rest of the people you've met since your hatching, all while maintaining eye contact with the Dragon before you. Shrinking yourself, you slip between the bars of her cell and nuzzle her face with your own.

"Family…" You hear her voice murmur as she continues to shake. "He said you were all dead… That I was all alone… Forever…" Her voice is pained, but as you watch, her shaking ceases and some of her wounds patch over. She breathes more easily, but still, she is bound by the shackles around her ankles, which you can now see attach her to the back wall of the cell.

"He keeps me here. All alone in the dark." Your sister says, her voice tired as she follows your gaze. "When I'm awake, he takes blood, and when I sleep, he locks me here, so that I cannot call out." A slow smile appears on her face as she looks to you. "But you still found me… Thank you. He rips what he can from my mind whenever he enters, so tell me no more. But… Perhaps…" She musters herself, looking you in the eye. "Could you name me? I believe I could hold that close to my heart, to strengthen me in the days to come whilst I wait for our family."

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Will you name the Dragon

[] Yes
-[] Hope
-[] Tenacity
-[] Write-in
[] No

Will you try and do something about the Dragon's situation?

[] You Have a Plan
-[] Plan (Write-in)
[] You don't have a plan.

You have a two hour moratorium before votes will be counted, idiotic plans will be vetoed by me, as will insulting or inappropriate names. You may ask me questions about the dreamscape, but please, discuss things before you jump on an idea.

The persuasion test was supposed to be harder, but then you went and succeeded on all the other tests, making it a whole lot easier.