- Location
- Australia
Nice to see this is back.
Finding Our Way: A Warring States Naruto AU/WHFB Quest
- Thread starter Heresy
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- yorkshire
Indeed but we will have to wait till next year
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
I should hope not. After this the QM is going to be trying to make shorter and faster updates instead of mini-novellas like this.
- Location
- yorkshire
I hope so as its kinda hard to get involved in the game when it updates once a year
Heresy
My Brother’s Keeper
- Location
- nowhere everywhere
Yeah it's bullshit, I already got another action done and another one is being worked on as quick as possible with a hard limit of 2k max I'm hoping to get as many as I can done this week since I'm sick of still being stuck on turn one.
- Location
- yorkshire
I liked the romance as straight romance from a female perspective is a bit rare on this site
I'm not trying to be rude
I did skim read so I missed a lot as I'm still a bit iffy on sinking my time into something that My just die if updates are like 5 a year then I'll commit to the quest happly
Last edited:
Heresy
My Brother’s Keeper
- Location
- nowhere everywhere
Oh you aren't being rude, it's a very fair criticism and it's one I very much agree with.
- Location
- California
Neat, but I have no idea what's going on. Will need some time to double check what we voted for.
- Location
- USA
From what I remember the Asur still had a colony in Naggaroth that would probably gladly offer missions to fuck with the dark elves and like the QM said fuck slavery.
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
Ulthuan: Awkward silence
Sabaku-No-Kin: Oh don't tell me you do it too.
Ulthuan: Well kinda. They're called indentured servants here, but we do have laws about their treatment.
Sabaku-No-Kin: Even more awkward silence
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
Did people already tell them about Asur lifespan? I think surviving to fifty is incredibly rare and impressive for a Shinobi.
That would probably be a massive culture shock, but would probably make them much more hopeful for their future if others could live for thousand years, and actually use that lifespan.
I think this transport, despite chaos and the beastmen, or skaven, dark elves, orcs and vampires, they are still safer here than they were back in the elemental nations.
That would probably be a massive culture shock, but would probably make them much more hopeful for their future if others could live for thousand years, and actually use that lifespan.
I think this transport, despite chaos and the beastmen, or skaven, dark elves, orcs and vampires, they are still safer here than they were back in the elemental nations.
- Location
- yorkshire
Heresy
My Brother’s Keeper
- Location
- nowhere everywhere
You are absolutely correct which is why I'm going to update right now with the completed action.
Piety: Study Wicked Chi
Heresy
My Brother’s Keeper
- Location
- nowhere everywhere
[X] Study Wicked Chi: For all that there is goodness and safety in this land there is also wickedness. The priests and priestesses report that they feel a malignant energy coming from many creatures and things that surround us and they would like to research it to determine what it is, how it will affect us and what can we do to defend ourselves from it.
Open up anti-dhar and chaos options.
Cost: 500 Gold.
Chance of Success: 70%
Study Wicked Chi: 74 + 18= 92
Chunin Kamaria was tired and it wasn't a physical malus that plagued her. The horror of the mission against the wickedness of the ghouls had robbed her of the vitality she would normally possess. She had come to the temple in hopes that paying her respects to her lost kin would help but she exited it still feeling broken.
Praying at the temple was of no use; it did not bring her peace it usually did. Maybe what her mind needed was to surround herself with vital life instead of the dour funeral shroud of death, she walked out of the compound towards the grasslands and meadows around it.
Walking around for a bit she finally found a nice spot to sit down and accommodated herself. Her mind slowly found peace, the solitude and quiet pushing away nightmares that plagued even her waking hours.
The warmth of the sun kissed her skin while the gentle breeze of the wind caressed her hair and her ears were tickled by the songs of distant birds. Smiling, she thought that it was a good reminder that the world was not just a place of brutality and cruelty but also one of unmatched beauty.
A prayer of thanks slipped through her lips as she gave glory to the gods for the bounty they had provided her and the clan.
"Hello there stranger!" Like a musket shot a man's voice rang out and Kamaria's solitude was broken. A look of intense bitterness crossed the chunin's face; she contemplated telling the man to fuck off but she imagined Jounin Akeem would be disappointed at her for being unkind to a stranger just for greeting her.
She took a moment to grit her teeth before turning to acknowledge the man.
He had a lithe and athletic body that was framed by fine leather armor and boots. On his back he carried a bow made out of bone alongside a holster full of arrows and a pair of daggers on his hips. His features were handsome and boyish with puffy curly hair, bright brown eyes and a roguish smile. His skin had the healthy tanned color of a man who spent much of his time outside in the sun.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you want?" The man approached the chunin and reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment and presented it to her.
It was a notice Akeem had spread across the local towns asking for the counsel of priests and sages in warding away the malignant spirits and energy that tainted this world. "I am Alexis and I am a Longshank of King Taal, Sovereign of the Forests and Lord of Rivers. My wife and I saw it and we thought it would be prudent to share our knowledge as theologians ourselves."
Kamaria looked at him in bafflement, the man looked more like a hunter or a mercenary than a priest. "What kind of priest is called a 'Longshank'?"
"The kind that fights his God's enemies in both the physical and spiritual realms." The man puts the paper away and nods at the Chunin. "Something in which I hope to find some common ground with Lord Akeem."
Although he did not appear a priest, his words were filled with enough solemn conviction that he certainly sounded like one.
Kamaria nodded in understanding, her company felt much the same about their own dedication towards the gods. "Battle is prayer and every enemy slain is a tribute in their name."
The man chuckled for a moment before his face adopted a look of firmness. "I see we do indeed share common ground then please take me to Lord Akeem. We must organize the meeting between him and my wife's sisterhood as quickly as possible, there are many things your people must be made aware of."
'No rest for the wicked' she thinks. But he is absolutely correct; the campaign against the ghouls proved they were sorely lacking in the tools to counter the black magic the monsters of the world wielded. And as the saying goes, the best time to prepare was yesterday and the second best is today.
"Wait here then, it will be quicker for me to get my lord and come back with him than to take you and your horse to the city." With those words Kamaria began to run as fast as quickly as she could hoping to reach Lord Akeem's office in a few minutes.
Her mad dash crossed several dozen meters of field within a few seconds but as she neared the gates she finally noticed a presence next to her, looking to the side her eyes widened in shock that Alexis was running by her side matching her speed. He beamed at her with a friendly smile. "I didn't come riding a horse Miss." Kamaria's jaw dropped.
And her jaw continued to drop as Alexis successfully matched her movements in jumping from rooftop to rooftop, running up walls and even walking across the water from aqueducts that crossed the town! "How can you do this if you don't even have chakra!"
Alexis laughed in mirth. "King Taal is the lord of all Rivers and he has blessed me with the ability to walk through his domain!" Unable to speak and wanting to tear her hair out, Kamaria screams in her mind. 'Of course with my luck I meet another person as openly blessed by Gods as Jounin Akeem is!'
Within moments they reached the aforementioned Jounin's personal office. Everything was neat, orderly and in place but its occupant was not busy with work but staring out his window towards the clan compound in silent contemplation.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. Sensing the chakra of one of his Chunin behind it. "You may enter Kamaria." As the door opened he turned to see her walking in with a peculiar guest. Akeem banished his previous thoughts from his mind, glad for a distraction.
Eager to speak to someone, Akeem offers them both to take seats. "Make yourselves comfortable, my schedule is clear, we'll have plenty of time to talk business."
Alexis stays standing. "Lord Akeem, I appreciate your hospitality but I came to speak with you on a very tight schedule."
The jounin raises his eyebrow. "No time for even one cup of tea?" Alexis shakes his head. "We must leave now, my lord. My wife and her sisters are preparing a ritual of purification, one that will cleanse parts of the land and it must be performed as quickly as possible lest our enemies be given the chance to disrupt it."
With the force of a bolt fired from a crossbow Akeem leaps up out of his seat heading towards the door. "We will leave right now! I will not keep you from protecting your people! Kamaria please accompany us and bring some scrolls, brushes and ink!"
Kamaria respected her commander too much to deny completing his request even if it wasn't an order and she was utterly exhausted.
The three set out at dusk and found the camp where the priestesses were stationed when the moon was high in the sky.
It was a large and active affair with a dozen men dressed similarly to Alexis patrolling and keeping the perimeter secure with sharp eyes, the strings of their bows pulled taut ready to fire.
The women wore robes that covered the whole of their bodies, with gloves while they covered their necks with chokers or scarves.
Akeem noticed details that Kamaria's less experienced eyes missed, such as that many of them padded their breasts while a few wore wigs that blended in so well the Jounin was impressed.
At first he thought it might've been a religious procedure but the women were all dressed in ways that suited them more as individuals than as part of a greater whole.
It was an odd thing to him but Akeem understood that these women did what they did for a reason.
It was not his place to question it especially since it was harmless and it made them happy.
The group is approached by a woman with very white elegant robes. She smiled and nodded her head at all of them before introducing herself. "I am Gianna, Head Priestess of the Sisterhood of Sacred Hearts. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Her pleasantries done she strode towards Alexis to place a deep and passionate kiss upon his lips. "Welcome back my love, it makes me happy to see you safe and in my arms."
Kamaria turned to the side, blushing while Akeem smiled and chuckled. Such tender love is a beautiful thing that warms his heart to see it.
Alexis smirked at his wife. "I was gone for simply a few hours, not even a day my love!" The Priestess puts her face deeper into his chest. "The land is dangerous. I do not know if when you leave it will be for the last time.'
The Jounin nodded at her words; it is a sentiment the family of any Shinobi would understand. Like the friends and family of all the Genin that were lost against the ghouls. The smile on his face fades as he's reminded once again of the failings of his leadership.
"Lord Akeem, Lord Akeem!" The jounin snaps out of his memories and notices that Alexis was calling his attention. Flustered, he bows to the couple. "Forgive my rudeness. I didn't mean to ignore you. I was lost in thought with my own problems."
The priestess giggles. "No offense taken, we all have our personal problems to face." Her smiling face hardened. "But I know exactly the problem you are facing and the damage it wrought upon your people."
The jounin's eyes also harden, his mind sharpening to a razor sharp edge as he prepares to analyze crucial information. "You heard about our fight with the Ghouls I'm assuming."
She nods. "Yes my lord, who has not heard of the great campaign led by the dwarves and the powerful mystical mercenaries from the tribe that has carved for itself a magnificent barony in the Border Princes." She clasps her hands together in prayer. "May Rhya bless your people with fertile fields and good harvests for the sacrifices you've made in stopping that threat."
Akeem returns the gesture and tells her in his native tongue. "Peace be upon you and may live well for your kind words Sister."
The two theologians then began discussing the finer details of the wicked chi the Clan feels surrounding them.
Giana shared the lore that was passed down to her mother by the previous Head Priestess and was then given to her when she was deemed worthy of it. The collected knowledge of dozens of generations was shared with Akeem and Kamaria.
Stories, tales and legends of what had occurred millenia ago. Of an ancient civilization so mighty its influence could be felt across the entire world from the northern peaks of Norsca to the lands of the mythical dragon empire that lay to the east, to the mythical island of Ulthuan to the west and as far down south as the Jungles at the bottom of the Southlands.
Even with so much history he felt that it was cursory. More was forgotten than could've been spoken of even if they talked for months on end.
This empire ruled for thousands upon thousands of years until a great titanic war that saw it, the greatest empire in all of human history, be rendered extinct.
As a final curse upon the world the sorcerer kings of this civilization slaughtered the populations of former vassals and outer territories turning their corpses and souls into soldiers and fuel for their armies before cursing the lands and rendering them sterile so that the few who were left would starve and perish.
Akeem then takes a moment to observe the Border Princes, to really take it in. He looks to the west, then the east before spreading out the senses of his Jiton. It is utterly massive, incomprehensibly big in a way that his mind hurts trying to comprehend what he is looking at. He then tried to imagine it all being inhabited at one point, that all these empty spaces once had thousands upon thousands of souls residing within them.
Then he feels it, the metal speaks, far beneath the earth unreachable to all but him the bronze and copper constructs still haunted by the ghosts of people long dead beg for someone, anyone really, to listen. For a few moments he hears the wails of agony, sorrow and despair from thousands upon thousands of different voices batter themselves against his mind before he pushes them away.
Then the land itself speaks.
"INTERLOPER THIS LAND IS NOT YOURS! LORD NAGASH RULES ALL! LEAVE OR BE DESTROYED!"
Akeem stepped aside for a second, the scale of the truth he had just internalized was making him sick. There was nothing left, not even ruins for that is how complete the genocide was. A people so thoroughly extinguished that not even the smallest bit of ash remained, only phantoms tied to little pieces of bronze and copper. 'So much death! So much cruelty! Even back home only the most vile of the demon sects would have sanctioned this!'
Kamarai was shaken by the stories but found the courage to suppress her own ill feelings to comfort Akeem with a hug, one which the Jounin reciprocated. The small moment of comfort helped reorient them to the task at hand, there was still more knowledge that they needed to obtain, more lessons and secrets to be learned.
Priestess Gianna led the group to a wide open field; it was barren of all life, dust-choked earth being all that was left, more desolate than the deserts of Araby. "Look upon the curse of the ancients and despair! See how their tyranny has reached forth from the time of my ancestors millennia ago to darken this day!"
The winds howled a death rattle in response, the ugly sound of a man's lungs getting the air crushed out of them. "Now watch as our Goddess liberates this land from the cold grip of death!" Giana's sisters rushed out to the field with Alexis' men setting up torches in a circle around a pyre to burn sacrifices while drawing symbols in the dirt with wine.
With the efficiency of a well oiled machine they worked frantically to set up the ritual circle before the sun rose. Within moments they were done and they positioned themselves for what was to come. The Priestesses circled the pyre while the longshanks stood watch, their veteran eyes scanning the horizon for any threats.
Giana walked towards the center of the ritual circle, in her hands she held a basket brimming with meats and produce. She walked past the priestesses, who then took each other's hands to form an unbroken chain, to stand in front of the pyre.
Once everyone was properly in place only then did the ritual actually begin.
The Head Priestess began to chant mournfully in a tongue that was new and foreign to the Shinobi. With every line of her chant that was completed she threw something from the basket into the fire which did not burn what it received but consumed it as someone or something was devouring it.
Akeem's eyes widened as before his him verdant vines sprouted forth from the wine-marked symbols, the modest dresses of the Priestesses crinkling and fluttering in gusts of a suddenly affectionate wind.
His battle-sharpened Shinobi instincts prickled at his neck as eyes not of mortal ken looked upon him. Something he had felt the like of which before: the divine.
Rising from the east the sun began to erase the darkness of the plains and illuminate the ritual. Literally as when the first beams of sun hit the women a golden aura coruscated round the fire forming an iridescent halo of the dawn promised in nights marked by unhallowed green.
The dusty baked earth upon which the pyre rested began to split and churn as vines crawled from underneath it to the Head Priestess and her acolytes. The veins delicately wrapped themselves around the women before continuing to expand ever outwards from the circle spreading their roots deep into the land.
A heartbeat started to pulse, but it was not from any mortal in the area it was coming from the fire! With every beat the flames, the lights and the vines quaked! Dark green veins that pulsed with the fire started to spread across the land as if pumping fresh blood into it!
As the sun rose from the east until it reached high contours that marked it was nearly noon the ritual continued and Akeem watched how the tyranny of the dead was banished.
Lifeless dirt became rich, dark and moist soil that sprouted small patches of grass that then grew outwards into larger plots that then bloomed into a massive meadow a few kilometers wide!
All while the priestesses chanted to the pulse of Verdant Queen's loving heart.
When it was finally noon and the sun was at its highest point, the ritual ended. A great howling wind that carried with it thousands upon thousands of sweet smelling flower petals that were a rainbow of colors passed through all of them to smother the fire of the pyre with its sheer mass.
The petals swept into the pillar of holy flame that centered the rite, and in that crucible melted and reformed into living butterflies that formed a vortex where the pyre once was! The tornado of butterflies moved, showing that where the burning pit once was there was now a strong tree, tall and brimming with ripe apples to pick.
The rhopaloceras became shades of light pink, light blue and white before wrapping themselves around all of the priestesses including Head Priestess Giana and covered the whole of their bodies. Akeem felt power then, pure raw unfiltered power on a scale he never thought possible pass through the air towards the priestesses. But on an instinctive level he understood it meant no harm to them, it reminded him more of when his mother took him into her bosom as she hugged him, enveloping him in love.
The butterflies pulsed for a few moments before gently peeling themselves off the priestesses and flying off into the sky, far, far away from it all.
Screams filled the land but of joy and euphoria. "Queen Rhya has blessed us! She has made our bodies true to our souls!"
Every priestess began to remove their wigs showing heads full of luscious silky hair. They threw out their paddings as their womanly forms now had their proportions filled out or shifted in ways that removed slight hesitations he observed in some of their movements. Last to go were the gloves and scarves revealing the lack of protrusions or the hairy backhands Akeem had noticed but kept silent about earlier.
Their celebrations revealed that the men were fathers, brothers, cousins, and in one case a grandfather, to the women.
Head Priestess Giana, her chestnut hair wild and untamed framing the soft mocha of her skin approached her beloved Alexis and hugged him. "My love Queen Rhya has blessed us at long last we will be able to have children." Tears streamed down the warrior's face and he could do nothing but hug her tighter. "My dear, even without little ones we were already a family. I am happy because you are happy. That you can at least be who you've always wanted to be."
Akeem smiled, it warmed his soul to see even in this brave new world the Gods still provided for their children.
He bowed and gave thanks to this Queen Rhya for being so kind to her daughters and he smiled when he felt acknowledgement from the same presence he felt before, even if his head pulsed in agony from the contact.
Rewards:
Made contact with the Sisterhood of the Sacred Hearts, a small but capable Rhya and Taal cult who have been retained with a donation of 500 gold! Piety actions unlocked!
Observing the ritual and how the land was healed from ancient black magic curses taught Akeem much about the nature of magic in the world and how to counter it, he also learned that the magic of this land, whether from a ghoul or a god, is poisonous to chakra cultivators. Piety actions unlocked!
11 Longshanks of Taal and Alexis are available for deployment on martial and intrigue missions that involve the woods and/or fighting beastmen for an extra 500 Gold each. Each is a Chunin level warrior barring Alexis who is Tokubetsu Jounin level.
11 Priestesses of Rhya and Head Priestess Giana are available for deployment on martial and intrigue missions involving the woods and/or fighting Slaanesh for 500 Gold each. Each priestess hired provides a 2% bonus to success. Giana provides a 5% bonus.
Priestesses are also midwives and can be donated to so they can focus on providing these services for a year. Each priestess can be hired for a year for 1'500 gold and they provide a 0.1% boost in population growth.
Open up anti-dhar and chaos options.
Cost: 500 Gold.
Chance of Success: 70%
Study Wicked Chi: 74 + 18= 92
Chunin Kamaria was tired and it wasn't a physical malus that plagued her. The horror of the mission against the wickedness of the ghouls had robbed her of the vitality she would normally possess. She had come to the temple in hopes that paying her respects to her lost kin would help but she exited it still feeling broken.
Praying at the temple was of no use; it did not bring her peace it usually did. Maybe what her mind needed was to surround herself with vital life instead of the dour funeral shroud of death, she walked out of the compound towards the grasslands and meadows around it.
Walking around for a bit she finally found a nice spot to sit down and accommodated herself. Her mind slowly found peace, the solitude and quiet pushing away nightmares that plagued even her waking hours.
The warmth of the sun kissed her skin while the gentle breeze of the wind caressed her hair and her ears were tickled by the songs of distant birds. Smiling, she thought that it was a good reminder that the world was not just a place of brutality and cruelty but also one of unmatched beauty.
A prayer of thanks slipped through her lips as she gave glory to the gods for the bounty they had provided her and the clan.
"Hello there stranger!" Like a musket shot a man's voice rang out and Kamaria's solitude was broken. A look of intense bitterness crossed the chunin's face; she contemplated telling the man to fuck off but she imagined Jounin Akeem would be disappointed at her for being unkind to a stranger just for greeting her.
She took a moment to grit her teeth before turning to acknowledge the man.
He had a lithe and athletic body that was framed by fine leather armor and boots. On his back he carried a bow made out of bone alongside a holster full of arrows and a pair of daggers on his hips. His features were handsome and boyish with puffy curly hair, bright brown eyes and a roguish smile. His skin had the healthy tanned color of a man who spent much of his time outside in the sun.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you want?" The man approached the chunin and reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment and presented it to her.
It was a notice Akeem had spread across the local towns asking for the counsel of priests and sages in warding away the malignant spirits and energy that tainted this world. "I am Alexis and I am a Longshank of King Taal, Sovereign of the Forests and Lord of Rivers. My wife and I saw it and we thought it would be prudent to share our knowledge as theologians ourselves."
Kamaria looked at him in bafflement, the man looked more like a hunter or a mercenary than a priest. "What kind of priest is called a 'Longshank'?"
"The kind that fights his God's enemies in both the physical and spiritual realms." The man puts the paper away and nods at the Chunin. "Something in which I hope to find some common ground with Lord Akeem."
Although he did not appear a priest, his words were filled with enough solemn conviction that he certainly sounded like one.
Kamaria nodded in understanding, her company felt much the same about their own dedication towards the gods. "Battle is prayer and every enemy slain is a tribute in their name."
The man chuckled for a moment before his face adopted a look of firmness. "I see we do indeed share common ground then please take me to Lord Akeem. We must organize the meeting between him and my wife's sisterhood as quickly as possible, there are many things your people must be made aware of."
'No rest for the wicked' she thinks. But he is absolutely correct; the campaign against the ghouls proved they were sorely lacking in the tools to counter the black magic the monsters of the world wielded. And as the saying goes, the best time to prepare was yesterday and the second best is today.
"Wait here then, it will be quicker for me to get my lord and come back with him than to take you and your horse to the city." With those words Kamaria began to run as fast as quickly as she could hoping to reach Lord Akeem's office in a few minutes.
Her mad dash crossed several dozen meters of field within a few seconds but as she neared the gates she finally noticed a presence next to her, looking to the side her eyes widened in shock that Alexis was running by her side matching her speed. He beamed at her with a friendly smile. "I didn't come riding a horse Miss." Kamaria's jaw dropped.
And her jaw continued to drop as Alexis successfully matched her movements in jumping from rooftop to rooftop, running up walls and even walking across the water from aqueducts that crossed the town! "How can you do this if you don't even have chakra!"
Alexis laughed in mirth. "King Taal is the lord of all Rivers and he has blessed me with the ability to walk through his domain!" Unable to speak and wanting to tear her hair out, Kamaria screams in her mind. 'Of course with my luck I meet another person as openly blessed by Gods as Jounin Akeem is!'
Within moments they reached the aforementioned Jounin's personal office. Everything was neat, orderly and in place but its occupant was not busy with work but staring out his window towards the clan compound in silent contemplation.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. Sensing the chakra of one of his Chunin behind it. "You may enter Kamaria." As the door opened he turned to see her walking in with a peculiar guest. Akeem banished his previous thoughts from his mind, glad for a distraction.
Eager to speak to someone, Akeem offers them both to take seats. "Make yourselves comfortable, my schedule is clear, we'll have plenty of time to talk business."
Alexis stays standing. "Lord Akeem, I appreciate your hospitality but I came to speak with you on a very tight schedule."
The jounin raises his eyebrow. "No time for even one cup of tea?" Alexis shakes his head. "We must leave now, my lord. My wife and her sisters are preparing a ritual of purification, one that will cleanse parts of the land and it must be performed as quickly as possible lest our enemies be given the chance to disrupt it."
With the force of a bolt fired from a crossbow Akeem leaps up out of his seat heading towards the door. "We will leave right now! I will not keep you from protecting your people! Kamaria please accompany us and bring some scrolls, brushes and ink!"
Kamaria respected her commander too much to deny completing his request even if it wasn't an order and she was utterly exhausted.
The three set out at dusk and found the camp where the priestesses were stationed when the moon was high in the sky.
It was a large and active affair with a dozen men dressed similarly to Alexis patrolling and keeping the perimeter secure with sharp eyes, the strings of their bows pulled taut ready to fire.
The women wore robes that covered the whole of their bodies, with gloves while they covered their necks with chokers or scarves.
Akeem noticed details that Kamaria's less experienced eyes missed, such as that many of them padded their breasts while a few wore wigs that blended in so well the Jounin was impressed.
At first he thought it might've been a religious procedure but the women were all dressed in ways that suited them more as individuals than as part of a greater whole.
It was an odd thing to him but Akeem understood that these women did what they did for a reason.
It was not his place to question it especially since it was harmless and it made them happy.
The group is approached by a woman with very white elegant robes. She smiled and nodded her head at all of them before introducing herself. "I am Gianna, Head Priestess of the Sisterhood of Sacred Hearts. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Her pleasantries done she strode towards Alexis to place a deep and passionate kiss upon his lips. "Welcome back my love, it makes me happy to see you safe and in my arms."
Kamaria turned to the side, blushing while Akeem smiled and chuckled. Such tender love is a beautiful thing that warms his heart to see it.
Alexis smirked at his wife. "I was gone for simply a few hours, not even a day my love!" The Priestess puts her face deeper into his chest. "The land is dangerous. I do not know if when you leave it will be for the last time.'
The Jounin nodded at her words; it is a sentiment the family of any Shinobi would understand. Like the friends and family of all the Genin that were lost against the ghouls. The smile on his face fades as he's reminded once again of the failings of his leadership.
"Lord Akeem, Lord Akeem!" The jounin snaps out of his memories and notices that Alexis was calling his attention. Flustered, he bows to the couple. "Forgive my rudeness. I didn't mean to ignore you. I was lost in thought with my own problems."
The priestess giggles. "No offense taken, we all have our personal problems to face." Her smiling face hardened. "But I know exactly the problem you are facing and the damage it wrought upon your people."
The jounin's eyes also harden, his mind sharpening to a razor sharp edge as he prepares to analyze crucial information. "You heard about our fight with the Ghouls I'm assuming."
She nods. "Yes my lord, who has not heard of the great campaign led by the dwarves and the powerful mystical mercenaries from the tribe that has carved for itself a magnificent barony in the Border Princes." She clasps her hands together in prayer. "May Rhya bless your people with fertile fields and good harvests for the sacrifices you've made in stopping that threat."
Akeem returns the gesture and tells her in his native tongue. "Peace be upon you and may live well for your kind words Sister."
The two theologians then began discussing the finer details of the wicked chi the Clan feels surrounding them.
Giana shared the lore that was passed down to her mother by the previous Head Priestess and was then given to her when she was deemed worthy of it. The collected knowledge of dozens of generations was shared with Akeem and Kamaria.
Stories, tales and legends of what had occurred millenia ago. Of an ancient civilization so mighty its influence could be felt across the entire world from the northern peaks of Norsca to the lands of the mythical dragon empire that lay to the east, to the mythical island of Ulthuan to the west and as far down south as the Jungles at the bottom of the Southlands.
Even with so much history he felt that it was cursory. More was forgotten than could've been spoken of even if they talked for months on end.
This empire ruled for thousands upon thousands of years until a great titanic war that saw it, the greatest empire in all of human history, be rendered extinct.
As a final curse upon the world the sorcerer kings of this civilization slaughtered the populations of former vassals and outer territories turning their corpses and souls into soldiers and fuel for their armies before cursing the lands and rendering them sterile so that the few who were left would starve and perish.
Akeem then takes a moment to observe the Border Princes, to really take it in. He looks to the west, then the east before spreading out the senses of his Jiton. It is utterly massive, incomprehensibly big in a way that his mind hurts trying to comprehend what he is looking at. He then tried to imagine it all being inhabited at one point, that all these empty spaces once had thousands upon thousands of souls residing within them.
Then he feels it, the metal speaks, far beneath the earth unreachable to all but him the bronze and copper constructs still haunted by the ghosts of people long dead beg for someone, anyone really, to listen. For a few moments he hears the wails of agony, sorrow and despair from thousands upon thousands of different voices batter themselves against his mind before he pushes them away.
Then the land itself speaks.
"INTERLOPER THIS LAND IS NOT YOURS! LORD NAGASH RULES ALL! LEAVE OR BE DESTROYED!"
Akeem stepped aside for a second, the scale of the truth he had just internalized was making him sick. There was nothing left, not even ruins for that is how complete the genocide was. A people so thoroughly extinguished that not even the smallest bit of ash remained, only phantoms tied to little pieces of bronze and copper. 'So much death! So much cruelty! Even back home only the most vile of the demon sects would have sanctioned this!'
Kamarai was shaken by the stories but found the courage to suppress her own ill feelings to comfort Akeem with a hug, one which the Jounin reciprocated. The small moment of comfort helped reorient them to the task at hand, there was still more knowledge that they needed to obtain, more lessons and secrets to be learned.
Priestess Gianna led the group to a wide open field; it was barren of all life, dust-choked earth being all that was left, more desolate than the deserts of Araby. "Look upon the curse of the ancients and despair! See how their tyranny has reached forth from the time of my ancestors millennia ago to darken this day!"
The winds howled a death rattle in response, the ugly sound of a man's lungs getting the air crushed out of them. "Now watch as our Goddess liberates this land from the cold grip of death!" Giana's sisters rushed out to the field with Alexis' men setting up torches in a circle around a pyre to burn sacrifices while drawing symbols in the dirt with wine.
With the efficiency of a well oiled machine they worked frantically to set up the ritual circle before the sun rose. Within moments they were done and they positioned themselves for what was to come. The Priestesses circled the pyre while the longshanks stood watch, their veteran eyes scanning the horizon for any threats.
Giana walked towards the center of the ritual circle, in her hands she held a basket brimming with meats and produce. She walked past the priestesses, who then took each other's hands to form an unbroken chain, to stand in front of the pyre.
Once everyone was properly in place only then did the ritual actually begin.
The Head Priestess began to chant mournfully in a tongue that was new and foreign to the Shinobi. With every line of her chant that was completed she threw something from the basket into the fire which did not burn what it received but consumed it as someone or something was devouring it.
Akeem's eyes widened as before his him verdant vines sprouted forth from the wine-marked symbols, the modest dresses of the Priestesses crinkling and fluttering in gusts of a suddenly affectionate wind.
His battle-sharpened Shinobi instincts prickled at his neck as eyes not of mortal ken looked upon him. Something he had felt the like of which before: the divine.
Rising from the east the sun began to erase the darkness of the plains and illuminate the ritual. Literally as when the first beams of sun hit the women a golden aura coruscated round the fire forming an iridescent halo of the dawn promised in nights marked by unhallowed green.
The dusty baked earth upon which the pyre rested began to split and churn as vines crawled from underneath it to the Head Priestess and her acolytes. The veins delicately wrapped themselves around the women before continuing to expand ever outwards from the circle spreading their roots deep into the land.
A heartbeat started to pulse, but it was not from any mortal in the area it was coming from the fire! With every beat the flames, the lights and the vines quaked! Dark green veins that pulsed with the fire started to spread across the land as if pumping fresh blood into it!
As the sun rose from the east until it reached high contours that marked it was nearly noon the ritual continued and Akeem watched how the tyranny of the dead was banished.
Lifeless dirt became rich, dark and moist soil that sprouted small patches of grass that then grew outwards into larger plots that then bloomed into a massive meadow a few kilometers wide!
All while the priestesses chanted to the pulse of Verdant Queen's loving heart.
When it was finally noon and the sun was at its highest point, the ritual ended. A great howling wind that carried with it thousands upon thousands of sweet smelling flower petals that were a rainbow of colors passed through all of them to smother the fire of the pyre with its sheer mass.
The petals swept into the pillar of holy flame that centered the rite, and in that crucible melted and reformed into living butterflies that formed a vortex where the pyre once was! The tornado of butterflies moved, showing that where the burning pit once was there was now a strong tree, tall and brimming with ripe apples to pick.
The rhopaloceras became shades of light pink, light blue and white before wrapping themselves around all of the priestesses including Head Priestess Giana and covered the whole of their bodies. Akeem felt power then, pure raw unfiltered power on a scale he never thought possible pass through the air towards the priestesses. But on an instinctive level he understood it meant no harm to them, it reminded him more of when his mother took him into her bosom as she hugged him, enveloping him in love.
The butterflies pulsed for a few moments before gently peeling themselves off the priestesses and flying off into the sky, far, far away from it all.
Screams filled the land but of joy and euphoria. "Queen Rhya has blessed us! She has made our bodies true to our souls!"
Every priestess began to remove their wigs showing heads full of luscious silky hair. They threw out their paddings as their womanly forms now had their proportions filled out or shifted in ways that removed slight hesitations he observed in some of their movements. Last to go were the gloves and scarves revealing the lack of protrusions or the hairy backhands Akeem had noticed but kept silent about earlier.
Their celebrations revealed that the men were fathers, brothers, cousins, and in one case a grandfather, to the women.
Head Priestess Giana, her chestnut hair wild and untamed framing the soft mocha of her skin approached her beloved Alexis and hugged him. "My love Queen Rhya has blessed us at long last we will be able to have children." Tears streamed down the warrior's face and he could do nothing but hug her tighter. "My dear, even without little ones we were already a family. I am happy because you are happy. That you can at least be who you've always wanted to be."
Akeem smiled, it warmed his soul to see even in this brave new world the Gods still provided for their children.
He bowed and gave thanks to this Queen Rhya for being so kind to her daughters and he smiled when he felt acknowledgement from the same presence he felt before, even if his head pulsed in agony from the contact.
Rewards:
Made contact with the Sisterhood of the Sacred Hearts, a small but capable Rhya and Taal cult who have been retained with a donation of 500 gold! Piety actions unlocked!
Observing the ritual and how the land was healed from ancient black magic curses taught Akeem much about the nature of magic in the world and how to counter it, he also learned that the magic of this land, whether from a ghoul or a god, is poisonous to chakra cultivators. Piety actions unlocked!
11 Longshanks of Taal and Alexis are available for deployment on martial and intrigue missions that involve the woods and/or fighting beastmen for an extra 500 Gold each. Each is a Chunin level warrior barring Alexis who is Tokubetsu Jounin level.
11 Priestesses of Rhya and Head Priestess Giana are available for deployment on martial and intrigue missions involving the woods and/or fighting Slaanesh for 500 Gold each. Each priestess hired provides a 2% bonus to success. Giana provides a 5% bonus.
Priestesses are also midwives and can be donated to so they can focus on providing these services for a year. Each priestess can be hired for a year for 1'500 gold and they provide a 0.1% boost in population growth.
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- Location
- California
Neat, and I was almost concerned about the land bit. Would have been wild if everyone heard the ground tell Akeem about Nagash.
Heresy
My Brother’s Keeper
- Location
- nowhere everywhere
It's not a secret, people who are involved in the mystical arts and ask about history know it was Nagash that cursed the border princes and turned Nekehara into what it is today.
Similarly outside of the empire the Skaven are a well known and loathed threat. Especially because they don't have the option of ignoring them in most cases like Tilea which is right next to Skavenblight and a Skaven was responsible for the death of their goddess.
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Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
Plus Nagash was one of the then-mortal Sigmar's enemies, so his existence, at least in the broad sense, is expected to be known by any Imperial.
Same. At least for the population growth.
Huh these last 2 chapters have been pretty great. I really liked how the journey was the focus rather then rushing to teeting where the actual rewards for wuccess were. Also the ritual and introduction to the Taalites and priestess of Rhya was really well done. Now I am kind of curious what the afterlife looks like for the clan since magic is poisonous to them.
- Location
- yorkshire
Heresy
My Brother’s Keeper
- Location
- nowhere everywhere
You already did, the first military actions you took were annexing the villages surrounding the compound and one of the stewardship actions was building roads to connect them all.
Also keep in mind the cult of the Sacred Heart is the first example of how Auxiliaries from the warhammer world will work. Take certain actions and follow some infrastructure trees and you'll get access to more or even create some wholesale for different tasks.
Canon Omake: The Golden Serpent
- Location
- yorkshire
The golden serpent
In the dark, something stirred—something immense, something very old. Its mind dreamed of the past, to the moment it had hatched, its serpentine body sliding out of the remains of its egg before its siblings, which it gleefully devoured before they could eat it. Then it spent a century hunting the darkness below the earth, consuming anything that crossed its path.
In its Borrowing through the rock, it often came across veins of yellow and silver-gleaming rock that applied to it so much that it took great care in sniffing out these veins of rock and bringing them back to its Cavan, filling it high with the treasures that it found. Before cleaning it with its tongue and then moulding it into a pillar with her corrosive saliva so that it could rap its serpentine form around the piller to sleep.
Over that century, its scales began to match the colour of its horde, as did the pillar. Started to take on an inner glow, and the air took on a metallic taste like that of its prey. Over time, the walls took on the same golden splendour.
Then one day, while hunting prey, it breathed a breath of vaporous essence that should have made its prey collapse dead in fright but instead turned its victim into a shining yellow. While annoyed at the loss of a meal, it could not be too unhappy at the fact that it had acquired more of the yellow rock in the shape of its prey, which was not a loss to it.
Soon, the golden figures and bits of prey that it did not eat littered its horde; it was the Ruler of the Underground and all it surveyed. But upon waking, it no longer was ruler; it had slept through the sharp rhythmic tapping and the sudden crumbling of rock that had made her growl in annoyance before returning to deeper sleep. All the while, the tapping and crumbling of rocks grew louder.
She would not wake, waiting for the primal need to feed to drive her to hunt comfortably in the knowledge nothing save her kind could challenge her. As the two of them, now golden half-eaten remains in her cavern, attest too.
When the bearded things intruded upon her cavern before retreating for a time after seeing her, she did not rouse, not even when they returned with their rock things, led by a dozen Silver bearded things and hundreds of regular bearded ones.
Only when the harsh clang of the silver collar around her neck woke her up and let loose with an earth-shaking roar did she attempt to kill the interlopers, who were barely as tall as the fangs in her maw, and lunge forward.
But she was held down by the rock things, and chains were hammered down into the rock by silvery pegs with glowing shapes by the bearded things as her long body writhed. Her tail teeth and talons failed to amount to much, but her breath tuned one of the rock things' legs to golden splendour, startling some of the regular bearded things.
Then, All the while this was going on, the silver beards conducted shapes into the air that lit up one of the runes on her collar, making it a much harder struggle against them; it was as if a mountain had pressed down onto her mind. but she struggled on no matter what, refusing to be chained. Even when the thought of just sleeping and having delicious dreams suddenly entered her head as one shape lit up, she struggled still, although feebly.
Then one of the silver-bearded things marched up to her grumbling while shrugging off her golden breath as if it were a mild breeze; however, it did tinge the edges of its hair gold, elating slightly louder about her grumbling. Before the bearded thing slammed the collar with its hammer, it lit the final shape in a flash of blinding light, driving the last of her resistance away and leaving her in her captor's hands as she fell into a deep, unwilling sleep.
She had awoken in an enormous vaulted room with both smooth walls and floors, and one wall had an odd squire that was grey but shined in a way that no rock could. The collar she now wore was attached to a thick chain on the floor, which was unnecessary as she could not move a muscle. With every furious attempt, the shapes on her collar flared into light, only dimming when she stopped trying.
But still, her fury had not dimmed in the slightest; now all she could do was wait. It was a long while enough for hunger to begin to bite, and then the doors opened, and one of the silver-bearded ones walked him with a cart pulled by two bearded ones that struggled under its weight, only for the silver beard to turn and bark at them before advancing towards her grumbling.
She had attempted to breathe her golden breath, but the shapes on her collar lit up, sending a shock of pain that made her growl in pain, making the silver beard chuckle at that before aiming some of his pointless sounds at her. He had then stood there, looking her up and down, while his fellow bearded kin struggled with the cart behind him. Then the silver-bearded thing got to work using what she later learned was an anvil of doom. He forged bright silver manacles, for he made a shape that quenched her rage at her captors ambivalent content. Her forelimbs were her paws, and her legs received them.
One of the shapes was brighter than the others on each manacle; these were placed to make her more loyal, and both combined made attacking the bearded ones unthinkable. The final rune was to make sure that the manacles would only break under the most titanic of forces.
The next object that the silver beard made from the silvery metal would go around was her very long serpentine tail. For when equipped, she understood the silver beard and listened to his folk's commands, while the final rune of the tail band was to strengthen the metal so, like before, it would not break.
Then the helmet was forged, and with it came the highest of the runes that adorned her. One rune would make sure the helm and her bindings grew with her, and another was the Master rune of ruling; from this, her thoughts would be etched on her very mind, so even the loss of all her bindings would keep her tame.
It would tell her what she could and could not do, who she could kill and devour, and who she could not even think about. However, her mind was left mostly untampered with, and only a Runelord could change any of the instructions or any knowledge she would receive. But there were many to prevent her from being used against the Dawi.
The final rune made sure that the helm would never leave her. Finally, at last, the silver-bearded dawi seared on the helm the name Aurinax Zorn Drakk-a-Galrn-a Zorn Dum.
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Centuries passed, and in that time Aurinax was put to work, aiding the Dawi in sniffing out gold and other precious things and excavating entire tunnel networks for their miners and traders.
Her uses were not as limited as Aurinax's, as she was called, and she was used to turn stone artworks into gold for the pleasure of her master's custemers, who commanded her to slaughter entire Urk and Gorbi tribes at her master's behest. As those she did not engild were eaten as she was encouraged to feed upon. Over time, the runes etched by her master imparted his contempt for the green-skeined savages, making it her own until Aurinax, if allowed, would hunt them.
Then one day she felt an overwhelming outrage from her master like nothing she had felt before, and master and rider Runelord Brurban Truebreaker stormed into her stable, muttering furiously about treachery. And then he prepped her for war with the unfaithful Elgi.
First, her highly decorated Gromril armour was placed upon her by crane; its segmented plates covered most of her body; the rest, like her belly, was left alone as it would impede her fluid movement. Once in place, the runes on the armour flared to life. Then her throne saddle was strapped onto her neck, lowing her head to allow master Brurban Truebreaker, bedecked in his war finery and carrying his rune axe and tome, to mount her throne saddle.
The last thing he did was chain the axe and tome to the throne so he would not lose them, and with a barked command, Aurinax went to war.
The war against the Elgi was bloody for both sides, and Aurinax did not care. All that mattered was that the Egli died and her master, Brurban Truebreaker, approval of her.
As the war progressed, she destroyed entire regiments from below before the rest were rendered silent by her tail-tooth claw and gilded breath. Afterwards, she was allowed to feed on the dead; the ones that turned to gold were melted down. Much to the grim satisfaction of the dawi and much to Elgi's horror, they give her many names in fear and hate. Names such as the terror from below, the chained dragon, the dwarf slave, the golden serpent, the widower Dragonsbane, and many more.
Aurinax cared not for the names, nor did she care when she and her rider clashed with the Dragon princes riding her winged kin, who saw themselves as kings of the world and looked down on her kind with disgust. Aurinax, in particular, earned their ire for her bindings, and they threw many an insult at her.
Aurinax took great pleasure in crushing the life out of them with her coils while her rider beheaded any dragon prince that challenged him. She greatly enjoyed feeding after these hard battles while her rider would grumble about the damage to her armour as he repaired any rents and punctures brought about by elven lances, dragon claws, and fire.
However, during one battle where Aurinax was ripping her way through Elgi ranks with glee as she tossed an Egli soldier into the air, sending his blood spraying everywhere, she silenced his screams. With a puff of her gilded breath, she allowed his body to fall to earth, crushing his fellow Elgi while her talons were scything aside rank-and-file soldiers.
Brurban Truebreaker was not ideal, as he fended off spells and crushed the Elgi under the might of his runes. Then there was a roar that shook the heavens when suddenly something slammed into Aurinax, sending her flying while there was a clang of metal on metal and a grunt from her rider.
Quickly righting herself, she let out a roar of indignation before looking to the skies for the dragon that had likely attacked her. She soon saw a dot in the sky rapidly closing on her, growing in size. Aurinax knew how to deal with skyborne enemies and coiled her body like a spring, waiting for the right moment to spring.
Suddenly her rider barked for her to move, and she did, as another dragon had dived at Aurinax while she looked at the other one. But she had not managed to dodge completely, and the dragon's claws managed to tear through gromril into her flesh on her flanks to the bone. letting out a roar of pain and indignation, she let loose a large steam of transmuting breath into her attacker, whose talons had caught in the gromril plate, dragging her across the ground.
But that allowed her to turn the side and, more importantly, the base of the moon dragon's wing into gold, making it shriek in agony, reducing its movements, forcing it to land, and stopping her from being dragged further away from the Dawi army.
Striking out like a snake, she bit down hard on the moon dragon's throat as her serpentine body made her able to strike from angles other dragons could not. And now that she had, she could wrap around this dragon's throat and body to crush the life out of it while her sharp fangs exsanguinated it, ensuring its doom.
However, this dragon and its rider had not come alone. The first thing Aurinax knew was something was wrong was a cry of pain from her rider when an enchanted Egli dragon lance pierced through the saddle throne from behind and into Brurban Truebreaker's back, pinning her master in place.
Only his stubborn dwarf nature kept him fighting the Egli rider, whose dragon she was mauling. At the moment of her rider's wounding, the rage that shard dragons were known for combined with runic conditioning to seek vengeance against those who harmed the Dawi was truly unleashed.
Her first action was to tear her head back, ripping at her victim's throat and making blood fall like rain. Her plan would have been to lash out, bite down on, and kill the Elgi rider, but the other dragon took this opportunity to bite down on her neck. But dragon fang met runed gromril, which saved Aurinax from having her neck broken.
With a snarl and great swiftness, she uncoiled her victim, who would almost certainly die soon from blood loss, and if it did live, then it would never fly again. Aurinax then attempted to rip a tear and crush the life from the dragon, all the while it tried to crush and burn her neck, but the Gromril held. The other dragon attempted to help, but its wounds soon took their toll, and it died, not before inflicting a large gash along her belly.
As this went on, her rider fought a difficult battle with his opposite, as since he was pinned to the saddle, he was fighting defensively as his enemies spells hissed through the air like vipers, only for it to be desperately blocked by his axe.
Then Brurban Truebreaker's wound took its toll as his axe came up to block and was slightly slower due to his injury sapping his strength which was more than enough for the dragon prince to pierce his neck. Aurinax could smell the new blood well from her master and rider, Brurban Truebreaker, whose final words were a gargled order.
"flee.....protect......Oba..y...Dawi "
And so she did as the runes compelled her to, but not before taking the eye of the dragon that held her neck with one of her claws and making it release her. And with that, she dived into the ground borrowing and fled, leaving her rider's killer behind but not forgetting that she would avenge this grievance.
Aurinax dreamed, and lighter than ever before, she could feel the tramping of iron feet through the earth. Even in this deep cave that she slept in from a thousand miles away, there were so many that a creature of the earth could hear the familiar roars of Urk, the sound of battle, and the sound of another thing much closer, so very close.
The roar and chanting that sounded like trolls were very different now from what she was used to; there was skittering like rats, the cackling of Gorbi, then a dawi died, and soon the sound of battle reverberated through the earth.
Then the earth rumbled
Aurinax's eyes snapped open the runes on its bindings that drew a steady amount of Chamon from the dragon that charged faster as it grew older and flared to life, a strong northern wind of magic hastening their activation.
Aurinax let out an earth-shaking growl. She had grown to a prestigious size, close to the apex of her kind—not there yet, but close. Her Dawi masters would classify her as a great Drakk who had survived long enough to grow. But that was an unimportant thought as the runes and her orders were screaming at her to protect or avenge the dawi.
However, Aurinax had two orders conflicting with an old protocol placed upon her: to return the mummified remains of her rider, who was still pinned to her throne saddle and deserved a proper dawi burial, and to return to the dawi.
The other was to fix the worn and torn Gromril armour that now barely covered her flanks or a fifth of her tail due to how much she had to grow.
Fortunately, the solution was simply to save her masters; she would complete the other commands as well as Brurban Truebreaker's final instructions. She had fled, and now that she was healed and stronger, by saving the Dawi, all commands would be fulfilled.
And with that she let loose a roar that could be heard for miles, she began to borrow upwards, her mind was fillled with with thoughts about her masters and their killers and foes would rue the day they encountered Aurinax Dragon of the golden doom bane of Urk Elgi Garbi and Drakk eater.
Part 2
In a dusty corner of Karaz-a-Karak lie deep archives that date back as far as the time of the Ancestors. Is a tome containing everything about the Dawis bound shard Drakk it was an unfortunate necessity to the Dawi as at the time, the Drakk in their natural state see anything that breathed as food, and only centuries under the Master rune of ruling and the runes of calm and loyalty can the denigrated kin of true Drakk gain the gift of thought and the bindings removed of the Shard Drakk that have exemplary service or deed.
diligently recorded by loremaster Sidug Brownbrand, who wrote of the details of many Drakk within the Dawi service. Many have great deeds to their names, such as the young Makocreog, The Strong, who gave his life so that several Urk tribes could enter the war, saving many Dawi lives. To Ezzin Goldfinder for its services to Karak, Ungor to bring great wealth, and granting its name to the hold, take up page after page, some deeds great and some more humble. However, near the end of the tome, there is a Drakk whose service to Dawi would be a legend if not for the tome being forgotten.
The Title of this Drakks record simply reads as follows:
The deeds and accomplishments Aurinax Zorn Drakk-a-Galrn-a Zorn Dum terror in gold, Empress of the underground bane of the Elgi destroyer of cities, Humbler of the princes of Caledor, and enemies of Karaz Ankor
The passage would then go on to say:
The bound drakk Aurinax Zorn Drakk-a-Galrn-a Zorn Dum is a long, golden serpentine Drakk with only two forelimbs that come from its shoulders and long, sharp talons that come from its five-toed paws. Its eyes are amber in colour, and its head is like that of a fire Drakk. It breathes a wide golden transmuting breath that can create a temporary false gold that turns its target into oathgold.
During a deep mining expedition, South of Karak Azul by clan stoneheart miners broke into a giant cavern that was from wall to wall, ceiling to floor, in oathgold of the highest quality with nary a hint of grey rock. The first Dawi to gaze upon a bounty of this magnitude shamefully went into the throes of gold fever and had to be restrained and then silenced as a rumbling growl echoed through the cavern, indicating that some beast occupied it. The beast within was a golden shard Drakk of unusual size.
The beast had clearly changed from a normal shard drakk, and the royal council of Karak Azul began preparing to slay the beast, but the Elder Runelord Brurban Truebreaker of Karak Zorn interfered. claiming that the Drakk's youth made it possible for him to be bound into the service of the Dawi, and if not, he would simply Kill the Drakk.
And so, after some deliberation, it was decided that Elder Runelord Brurban Truebreaker would be given the Dawi and equipment, while his gronti would perform the dangerous work of keeping the beast still while the dwarf warriors would restrict the beast's movements with chains. The honoured elder and the other runelords would do the rest.
After a mighty struggle and a lot of luck, it became one of the easiest bindings in history. Many Dawi later said that the beast was in such a deep sleep that the only thing that woke it was the rune collar snapping around its neck. Making subduing the Drakk ludicrously easy, the only real loss was one of Elder Runelord Brurban's Gronti that had its legs tuned to immovable gold by the beast's breath, which also gave the Elder his nickname of Gildbeard.
With the successful capture of the Drakk Elder Runelord Brurban Truebreaker, he departed with the Drakk to Karak Zorn, where he would complete the binding, as no true dawi would ever do a shoddy job.
After working tirelessly, Elder Runelord Brurban was done, and the Drakk gave him the name Aurinax Zorn Drakk-a-Galrn-a Zorn Dum and put him to work. Aurinax was first used in the total annihilation of the Urk Git Puncha tribe for the destruction of dawi holdings, and the newly bound Drakk with a contingent of dawi and the honoured elder marched to destroy the tribe and the new Drakk, like a new tool, needed testing, and so Aurinax, the shard Drakk, was tested. And performed adequately enough for the elder runelords to grunt their approval. High praise indeed for something so untested.
But such an experienced elder would not allow such an umgak to exist, so over the next century, Aurinax the Drakk was put through its paces, destroying any Urk or Gorbi that dared to breathe within a hundred miles of Karak Zorn's outposts as well as gaining experience against the fearsome wildlife.
The honoured elder runelord was quick to utilise Aurinax's ability to turn anything into gold. he had trained the drakk to breathe its transmuting breath, for longer. When the drakk's stables started to slowly turn to gold, it was quite the shock for the elder as Aurinax's presence slowly turned her surroundings to golf.
Soon the Drakks' worth had been more than proven, and the elder Runelord became awash with requests. To have Aurinax's gilded statues and other artworks, from mundane to grand and complex, as well as Runelords and Runesmiths who need oathgold in Master Runes and other things, making him a very rich dawi.
This gave rise to the foolish beardling rumour that all the dawi of Karak Zorn wore blindfolds so that they would not go mad from gold fever from how much gold Aurinax crated. Which is nonsense; only beardlings go mad from gold fever, but the rumour of Karak Zorn's meteoric rise in wealth was not an exaggeration thanks to the Drakks aid.
However, the Elder Runelord Brurban almost certainly spoiled the Drakk, from feeding it the finest goat meat to even having Gronti polish and tend to its scales, teeth, and claws so that it shone and never wanted for anything. The drakk getting its own gromril armour certainly caused grumbling from untraditional behaviour and a few raised eyebrows, but not more.
However, Elder Runelord Brurban, with hindsight, was likely preparing Aurinax to be introduced to a male shard drakk, as Aurinax was only one drakk, and the usual beard-twisting politics were slightly envious of the drakk's ability to make Oathgold. And wanted gilded shard drakk of their own, and the king of Zorn did not want a squabble over it and asked if Aurinax could be used for a breeding program for the betterment of Karaz Ankor.
Agreeing to this project, Elder Runelord Brurban spoiled his drakk before introducing a male of Aurinax's species. It was hoped that Aurinax would not kill and eat too many of her potential suitors, as Shard Drakk were very territorial and not picky eaters.
Thankfully, Aurinax only killed one of her suitors before mating; she tolerated a male long enough for the deed to be done. Then, by some miracle, Aurinax did not eat this male afterwards, allowing the dawi to retrieve the Drakk before Aurinax changed her mind.
After Aurinax laid two dozen eggs, they were separated from her as Shard Drakk abandoned the nest after laying so that they did not kill their young when they hatched. It is an utterly shoddy process, as if the hatchlings are not devoured in their eggs, they will eat each other, leaving one or two drakk that survive the first stage of life.
Fourthly, Elder Runelord Brurban was having none of it, and properly, each egg was separated in a runed incubation room. The golden-coloured eggs proved to be of great interest after the plinth, as their surfaces were marked with a golden, rune light marking these eggs as potential candidates for being gilded shard Drakk.
Over the next few centuries, slow but great progress was made. The golden eggs proved that Aurinax's gilded breath scales and aura could be passed down; however, the golden eggs were in the minority unless two gilded dragons mated. Which made the work slow as new blood from the carefully managed non-golden stock had to be injected now and again to prevent inbreeding.
Occasionally, Aurinax was used for this when the blood would be distant enough for it to work. As well, the gilded hatchlings she produced had a more even temperament, which was slowly but surely making the Drakk more tolerant of the dawi. To the point that by the fifth generation of Drakk, they would sometimes listen to the Dawi without bindings but most of the time ignore them. This made the required binding runes less powerful.
Any Drakk that did not display traits that were not desirable would simply not be allowed to breed and would be released far from any Dawi.
However, the dawi and Elder Runelord Brurban noted that the drakk they bred then released seemed to have slight increases in intelligence, but they were so minimal that they were only picked up by the third generation of the diligence dawi.
After some deliberation, Elder Runelord Brurban deemed it an acceptable side effect, as the released Shard Drakk were far more cunning than their wild brethren. One of his personal goals was that all Drakk under Dawi service would not require binding, insted could be trained.
It was a quarter of the way through the project, and Aurinax had laid more eggs. Throughout it, there had been rumblings of a new guild forming to take over the breeding of the drakk when the news came through. The Elgi had betrayed them, shaved the high king's son's beard, and then whipped him. Enraged by this, Elder Runelord Brurban went to Aurinax to prepare his Drakk for war, but not before ordering all Drakk eggs to be stored in runed stasis along with the notes of the project in the deepest vaults.
While other of the breeding adult stock would march to and only leave the most promising gilded and non-gilded drakk behind with their handlers so that the work may continue after the war.
The war of vengeance was fought most effectively by Aurinax, and the Elder Runelord Brurban, along with her two hundred children, allowed for a string of early victories against the Elgi, acting as siege engines to breach Elgi cities and settlements and providing a dawi army as a means to outmanoeuvre their opponents and cause carnage among Elgi regiments.
However, Aurinax's children soon became prime targets for the dragon princes, who made it their mission to hunt down every Drakk wherever they might be. Until only Aurinax and her rider were left, her children fell one by one but never died, easily inflicting great damage on their killers and making more than one dragon prince pay the ultimate price.
But Aurinax and her rider, up until her final battle, could clam a half-dozen of the Elgi's drakk and riders, avenging many a grudge and turning the tide of many a battle or siege in the dawi's favour.
Aurinax and her rider are now presumed dead after being seen fighting tooth and claw against two Elgi moon dragons that had likely been hunting her as the battle began, which ended in a draw with us, Dawi, having to withdraw to regroup.
A grudge has been laid down in the book of grudges against the dragon princes for the death of Aurinax and her rider that can only be repaid in blood or twice the amount of gold Aurinax produced in her lifetime for the death of such a valuable Drakk and Runelord that brought prosperity to Karaz Ankor.
@Heresy here is the omake
In the dark, something stirred—something immense, something very old. Its mind dreamed of the past, to the moment it had hatched, its serpentine body sliding out of the remains of its egg before its siblings, which it gleefully devoured before they could eat it. Then it spent a century hunting the darkness below the earth, consuming anything that crossed its path.
In its Borrowing through the rock, it often came across veins of yellow and silver-gleaming rock that applied to it so much that it took great care in sniffing out these veins of rock and bringing them back to its Cavan, filling it high with the treasures that it found. Before cleaning it with its tongue and then moulding it into a pillar with her corrosive saliva so that it could rap its serpentine form around the piller to sleep.
Over that century, its scales began to match the colour of its horde, as did the pillar. Started to take on an inner glow, and the air took on a metallic taste like that of its prey. Over time, the walls took on the same golden splendour.
Then one day, while hunting prey, it breathed a breath of vaporous essence that should have made its prey collapse dead in fright but instead turned its victim into a shining yellow. While annoyed at the loss of a meal, it could not be too unhappy at the fact that it had acquired more of the yellow rock in the shape of its prey, which was not a loss to it.
Soon, the golden figures and bits of prey that it did not eat littered its horde; it was the Ruler of the Underground and all it surveyed. But upon waking, it no longer was ruler; it had slept through the sharp rhythmic tapping and the sudden crumbling of rock that had made her growl in annoyance before returning to deeper sleep. All the while, the tapping and crumbling of rocks grew louder.
She would not wake, waiting for the primal need to feed to drive her to hunt comfortably in the knowledge nothing save her kind could challenge her. As the two of them, now golden half-eaten remains in her cavern, attest too.
When the bearded things intruded upon her cavern before retreating for a time after seeing her, she did not rouse, not even when they returned with their rock things, led by a dozen Silver bearded things and hundreds of regular bearded ones.
Only when the harsh clang of the silver collar around her neck woke her up and let loose with an earth-shaking roar did she attempt to kill the interlopers, who were barely as tall as the fangs in her maw, and lunge forward.
But she was held down by the rock things, and chains were hammered down into the rock by silvery pegs with glowing shapes by the bearded things as her long body writhed. Her tail teeth and talons failed to amount to much, but her breath tuned one of the rock things' legs to golden splendour, startling some of the regular bearded things.
Then, All the while this was going on, the silver beards conducted shapes into the air that lit up one of the runes on her collar, making it a much harder struggle against them; it was as if a mountain had pressed down onto her mind. but she struggled on no matter what, refusing to be chained. Even when the thought of just sleeping and having delicious dreams suddenly entered her head as one shape lit up, she struggled still, although feebly.
Then one of the silver-bearded things marched up to her grumbling while shrugging off her golden breath as if it were a mild breeze; however, it did tinge the edges of its hair gold, elating slightly louder about her grumbling. Before the bearded thing slammed the collar with its hammer, it lit the final shape in a flash of blinding light, driving the last of her resistance away and leaving her in her captor's hands as she fell into a deep, unwilling sleep.
She had awoken in an enormous vaulted room with both smooth walls and floors, and one wall had an odd squire that was grey but shined in a way that no rock could. The collar she now wore was attached to a thick chain on the floor, which was unnecessary as she could not move a muscle. With every furious attempt, the shapes on her collar flared into light, only dimming when she stopped trying.
But still, her fury had not dimmed in the slightest; now all she could do was wait. It was a long while enough for hunger to begin to bite, and then the doors opened, and one of the silver-bearded ones walked him with a cart pulled by two bearded ones that struggled under its weight, only for the silver beard to turn and bark at them before advancing towards her grumbling.
She had attempted to breathe her golden breath, but the shapes on her collar lit up, sending a shock of pain that made her growl in pain, making the silver beard chuckle at that before aiming some of his pointless sounds at her. He had then stood there, looking her up and down, while his fellow bearded kin struggled with the cart behind him. Then the silver-bearded thing got to work using what she later learned was an anvil of doom. He forged bright silver manacles, for he made a shape that quenched her rage at her captors ambivalent content. Her forelimbs were her paws, and her legs received them.
One of the shapes was brighter than the others on each manacle; these were placed to make her more loyal, and both combined made attacking the bearded ones unthinkable. The final rune was to make sure that the manacles would only break under the most titanic of forces.
The next object that the silver beard made from the silvery metal would go around was her very long serpentine tail. For when equipped, she understood the silver beard and listened to his folk's commands, while the final rune of the tail band was to strengthen the metal so, like before, it would not break.
Then the helmet was forged, and with it came the highest of the runes that adorned her. One rune would make sure the helm and her bindings grew with her, and another was the Master rune of ruling; from this, her thoughts would be etched on her very mind, so even the loss of all her bindings would keep her tame.
It would tell her what she could and could not do, who she could kill and devour, and who she could not even think about. However, her mind was left mostly untampered with, and only a Runelord could change any of the instructions or any knowledge she would receive. But there were many to prevent her from being used against the Dawi.
The final rune made sure that the helm would never leave her. Finally, at last, the silver-bearded dawi seared on the helm the name Aurinax Zorn Drakk-a-Galrn-a Zorn Dum.
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Centuries passed, and in that time Aurinax was put to work, aiding the Dawi in sniffing out gold and other precious things and excavating entire tunnel networks for their miners and traders.
Her uses were not as limited as Aurinax's, as she was called, and she was used to turn stone artworks into gold for the pleasure of her master's custemers, who commanded her to slaughter entire Urk and Gorbi tribes at her master's behest. As those she did not engild were eaten as she was encouraged to feed upon. Over time, the runes etched by her master imparted his contempt for the green-skeined savages, making it her own until Aurinax, if allowed, would hunt them.
Then one day she felt an overwhelming outrage from her master like nothing she had felt before, and master and rider Runelord Brurban Truebreaker stormed into her stable, muttering furiously about treachery. And then he prepped her for war with the unfaithful Elgi.
First, her highly decorated Gromril armour was placed upon her by crane; its segmented plates covered most of her body; the rest, like her belly, was left alone as it would impede her fluid movement. Once in place, the runes on the armour flared to life. Then her throne saddle was strapped onto her neck, lowing her head to allow master Brurban Truebreaker, bedecked in his war finery and carrying his rune axe and tome, to mount her throne saddle.
The last thing he did was chain the axe and tome to the throne so he would not lose them, and with a barked command, Aurinax went to war.
The war against the Elgi was bloody for both sides, and Aurinax did not care. All that mattered was that the Egli died and her master, Brurban Truebreaker, approval of her.
As the war progressed, she destroyed entire regiments from below before the rest were rendered silent by her tail-tooth claw and gilded breath. Afterwards, she was allowed to feed on the dead; the ones that turned to gold were melted down. Much to the grim satisfaction of the dawi and much to Elgi's horror, they give her many names in fear and hate. Names such as the terror from below, the chained dragon, the dwarf slave, the golden serpent, the widower Dragonsbane, and many more.
Aurinax cared not for the names, nor did she care when she and her rider clashed with the Dragon princes riding her winged kin, who saw themselves as kings of the world and looked down on her kind with disgust. Aurinax, in particular, earned their ire for her bindings, and they threw many an insult at her.
Aurinax took great pleasure in crushing the life out of them with her coils while her rider beheaded any dragon prince that challenged him. She greatly enjoyed feeding after these hard battles while her rider would grumble about the damage to her armour as he repaired any rents and punctures brought about by elven lances, dragon claws, and fire.
However, during one battle where Aurinax was ripping her way through Elgi ranks with glee as she tossed an Egli soldier into the air, sending his blood spraying everywhere, she silenced his screams. With a puff of her gilded breath, she allowed his body to fall to earth, crushing his fellow Elgi while her talons were scything aside rank-and-file soldiers.
Brurban Truebreaker was not ideal, as he fended off spells and crushed the Elgi under the might of his runes. Then there was a roar that shook the heavens when suddenly something slammed into Aurinax, sending her flying while there was a clang of metal on metal and a grunt from her rider.
Quickly righting herself, she let out a roar of indignation before looking to the skies for the dragon that had likely attacked her. She soon saw a dot in the sky rapidly closing on her, growing in size. Aurinax knew how to deal with skyborne enemies and coiled her body like a spring, waiting for the right moment to spring.
Suddenly her rider barked for her to move, and she did, as another dragon had dived at Aurinax while she looked at the other one. But she had not managed to dodge completely, and the dragon's claws managed to tear through gromril into her flesh on her flanks to the bone. letting out a roar of pain and indignation, she let loose a large steam of transmuting breath into her attacker, whose talons had caught in the gromril plate, dragging her across the ground.
But that allowed her to turn the side and, more importantly, the base of the moon dragon's wing into gold, making it shriek in agony, reducing its movements, forcing it to land, and stopping her from being dragged further away from the Dawi army.
Striking out like a snake, she bit down hard on the moon dragon's throat as her serpentine body made her able to strike from angles other dragons could not. And now that she had, she could wrap around this dragon's throat and body to crush the life out of it while her sharp fangs exsanguinated it, ensuring its doom.
However, this dragon and its rider had not come alone. The first thing Aurinax knew was something was wrong was a cry of pain from her rider when an enchanted Egli dragon lance pierced through the saddle throne from behind and into Brurban Truebreaker's back, pinning her master in place.
Only his stubborn dwarf nature kept him fighting the Egli rider, whose dragon she was mauling. At the moment of her rider's wounding, the rage that shard dragons were known for combined with runic conditioning to seek vengeance against those who harmed the Dawi was truly unleashed.
Her first action was to tear her head back, ripping at her victim's throat and making blood fall like rain. Her plan would have been to lash out, bite down on, and kill the Elgi rider, but the other dragon took this opportunity to bite down on her neck. But dragon fang met runed gromril, which saved Aurinax from having her neck broken.
With a snarl and great swiftness, she uncoiled her victim, who would almost certainly die soon from blood loss, and if it did live, then it would never fly again. Aurinax then attempted to rip a tear and crush the life from the dragon, all the while it tried to crush and burn her neck, but the Gromril held. The other dragon attempted to help, but its wounds soon took their toll, and it died, not before inflicting a large gash along her belly.
As this went on, her rider fought a difficult battle with his opposite, as since he was pinned to the saddle, he was fighting defensively as his enemies spells hissed through the air like vipers, only for it to be desperately blocked by his axe.
Then Brurban Truebreaker's wound took its toll as his axe came up to block and was slightly slower due to his injury sapping his strength which was more than enough for the dragon prince to pierce his neck. Aurinax could smell the new blood well from her master and rider, Brurban Truebreaker, whose final words were a gargled order.
"flee.....protect......Oba..y...Dawi "
And so she did as the runes compelled her to, but not before taking the eye of the dragon that held her neck with one of her claws and making it release her. And with that, she dived into the ground borrowing and fled, leaving her rider's killer behind but not forgetting that she would avenge this grievance.
Aurinax dreamed, and lighter than ever before, she could feel the tramping of iron feet through the earth. Even in this deep cave that she slept in from a thousand miles away, there were so many that a creature of the earth could hear the familiar roars of Urk, the sound of battle, and the sound of another thing much closer, so very close.
The roar and chanting that sounded like trolls were very different now from what she was used to; there was skittering like rats, the cackling of Gorbi, then a dawi died, and soon the sound of battle reverberated through the earth.
Then the earth rumbled
Aurinax's eyes snapped open the runes on its bindings that drew a steady amount of Chamon from the dragon that charged faster as it grew older and flared to life, a strong northern wind of magic hastening their activation.
Aurinax let out an earth-shaking growl. She had grown to a prestigious size, close to the apex of her kind—not there yet, but close. Her Dawi masters would classify her as a great Drakk who had survived long enough to grow. But that was an unimportant thought as the runes and her orders were screaming at her to protect or avenge the dawi.
However, Aurinax had two orders conflicting with an old protocol placed upon her: to return the mummified remains of her rider, who was still pinned to her throne saddle and deserved a proper dawi burial, and to return to the dawi.
The other was to fix the worn and torn Gromril armour that now barely covered her flanks or a fifth of her tail due to how much she had to grow.
Fortunately, the solution was simply to save her masters; she would complete the other commands as well as Brurban Truebreaker's final instructions. She had fled, and now that she was healed and stronger, by saving the Dawi, all commands would be fulfilled.
And with that she let loose a roar that could be heard for miles, she began to borrow upwards, her mind was fillled with with thoughts about her masters and their killers and foes would rue the day they encountered Aurinax Dragon of the golden doom bane of Urk Elgi Garbi and Drakk eater.
Part 2
In a dusty corner of Karaz-a-Karak lie deep archives that date back as far as the time of the Ancestors. Is a tome containing everything about the Dawis bound shard Drakk it was an unfortunate necessity to the Dawi as at the time, the Drakk in their natural state see anything that breathed as food, and only centuries under the Master rune of ruling and the runes of calm and loyalty can the denigrated kin of true Drakk gain the gift of thought and the bindings removed of the Shard Drakk that have exemplary service or deed.
diligently recorded by loremaster Sidug Brownbrand, who wrote of the details of many Drakk within the Dawi service. Many have great deeds to their names, such as the young Makocreog, The Strong, who gave his life so that several Urk tribes could enter the war, saving many Dawi lives. To Ezzin Goldfinder for its services to Karak, Ungor to bring great wealth, and granting its name to the hold, take up page after page, some deeds great and some more humble. However, near the end of the tome, there is a Drakk whose service to Dawi would be a legend if not for the tome being forgotten.
The Title of this Drakks record simply reads as follows:
The deeds and accomplishments Aurinax Zorn Drakk-a-Galrn-a Zorn Dum terror in gold, Empress of the underground bane of the Elgi destroyer of cities, Humbler of the princes of Caledor, and enemies of Karaz Ankor
The passage would then go on to say:
The bound drakk Aurinax Zorn Drakk-a-Galrn-a Zorn Dum is a long, golden serpentine Drakk with only two forelimbs that come from its shoulders and long, sharp talons that come from its five-toed paws. Its eyes are amber in colour, and its head is like that of a fire Drakk. It breathes a wide golden transmuting breath that can create a temporary false gold that turns its target into oathgold.
During a deep mining expedition, South of Karak Azul by clan stoneheart miners broke into a giant cavern that was from wall to wall, ceiling to floor, in oathgold of the highest quality with nary a hint of grey rock. The first Dawi to gaze upon a bounty of this magnitude shamefully went into the throes of gold fever and had to be restrained and then silenced as a rumbling growl echoed through the cavern, indicating that some beast occupied it. The beast within was a golden shard Drakk of unusual size.
The beast had clearly changed from a normal shard drakk, and the royal council of Karak Azul began preparing to slay the beast, but the Elder Runelord Brurban Truebreaker of Karak Zorn interfered. claiming that the Drakk's youth made it possible for him to be bound into the service of the Dawi, and if not, he would simply Kill the Drakk.
And so, after some deliberation, it was decided that Elder Runelord Brurban Truebreaker would be given the Dawi and equipment, while his gronti would perform the dangerous work of keeping the beast still while the dwarf warriors would restrict the beast's movements with chains. The honoured elder and the other runelords would do the rest.
After a mighty struggle and a lot of luck, it became one of the easiest bindings in history. Many Dawi later said that the beast was in such a deep sleep that the only thing that woke it was the rune collar snapping around its neck. Making subduing the Drakk ludicrously easy, the only real loss was one of Elder Runelord Brurban's Gronti that had its legs tuned to immovable gold by the beast's breath, which also gave the Elder his nickname of Gildbeard.
With the successful capture of the Drakk Elder Runelord Brurban Truebreaker, he departed with the Drakk to Karak Zorn, where he would complete the binding, as no true dawi would ever do a shoddy job.
After working tirelessly, Elder Runelord Brurban was done, and the Drakk gave him the name Aurinax Zorn Drakk-a-Galrn-a Zorn Dum and put him to work. Aurinax was first used in the total annihilation of the Urk Git Puncha tribe for the destruction of dawi holdings, and the newly bound Drakk with a contingent of dawi and the honoured elder marched to destroy the tribe and the new Drakk, like a new tool, needed testing, and so Aurinax, the shard Drakk, was tested. And performed adequately enough for the elder runelords to grunt their approval. High praise indeed for something so untested.
But such an experienced elder would not allow such an umgak to exist, so over the next century, Aurinax the Drakk was put through its paces, destroying any Urk or Gorbi that dared to breathe within a hundred miles of Karak Zorn's outposts as well as gaining experience against the fearsome wildlife.
The honoured elder runelord was quick to utilise Aurinax's ability to turn anything into gold. he had trained the drakk to breathe its transmuting breath, for longer. When the drakk's stables started to slowly turn to gold, it was quite the shock for the elder as Aurinax's presence slowly turned her surroundings to golf.
Soon the Drakks' worth had been more than proven, and the elder Runelord became awash with requests. To have Aurinax's gilded statues and other artworks, from mundane to grand and complex, as well as Runelords and Runesmiths who need oathgold in Master Runes and other things, making him a very rich dawi.
This gave rise to the foolish beardling rumour that all the dawi of Karak Zorn wore blindfolds so that they would not go mad from gold fever from how much gold Aurinax crated. Which is nonsense; only beardlings go mad from gold fever, but the rumour of Karak Zorn's meteoric rise in wealth was not an exaggeration thanks to the Drakks aid.
However, the Elder Runelord Brurban almost certainly spoiled the Drakk, from feeding it the finest goat meat to even having Gronti polish and tend to its scales, teeth, and claws so that it shone and never wanted for anything. The drakk getting its own gromril armour certainly caused grumbling from untraditional behaviour and a few raised eyebrows, but not more.
However, Elder Runelord Brurban, with hindsight, was likely preparing Aurinax to be introduced to a male shard drakk, as Aurinax was only one drakk, and the usual beard-twisting politics were slightly envious of the drakk's ability to make Oathgold. And wanted gilded shard drakk of their own, and the king of Zorn did not want a squabble over it and asked if Aurinax could be used for a breeding program for the betterment of Karaz Ankor.
Agreeing to this project, Elder Runelord Brurban spoiled his drakk before introducing a male of Aurinax's species. It was hoped that Aurinax would not kill and eat too many of her potential suitors, as Shard Drakk were very territorial and not picky eaters.
Thankfully, Aurinax only killed one of her suitors before mating; she tolerated a male long enough for the deed to be done. Then, by some miracle, Aurinax did not eat this male afterwards, allowing the dawi to retrieve the Drakk before Aurinax changed her mind.
After Aurinax laid two dozen eggs, they were separated from her as Shard Drakk abandoned the nest after laying so that they did not kill their young when they hatched. It is an utterly shoddy process, as if the hatchlings are not devoured in their eggs, they will eat each other, leaving one or two drakk that survive the first stage of life.
Fourthly, Elder Runelord Brurban was having none of it, and properly, each egg was separated in a runed incubation room. The golden-coloured eggs proved to be of great interest after the plinth, as their surfaces were marked with a golden, rune light marking these eggs as potential candidates for being gilded shard Drakk.
Over the next few centuries, slow but great progress was made. The golden eggs proved that Aurinax's gilded breath scales and aura could be passed down; however, the golden eggs were in the minority unless two gilded dragons mated. Which made the work slow as new blood from the carefully managed non-golden stock had to be injected now and again to prevent inbreeding.
Occasionally, Aurinax was used for this when the blood would be distant enough for it to work. As well, the gilded hatchlings she produced had a more even temperament, which was slowly but surely making the Drakk more tolerant of the dawi. To the point that by the fifth generation of Drakk, they would sometimes listen to the Dawi without bindings but most of the time ignore them. This made the required binding runes less powerful.
Any Drakk that did not display traits that were not desirable would simply not be allowed to breed and would be released far from any Dawi.
However, the dawi and Elder Runelord Brurban noted that the drakk they bred then released seemed to have slight increases in intelligence, but they were so minimal that they were only picked up by the third generation of the diligence dawi.
After some deliberation, Elder Runelord Brurban deemed it an acceptable side effect, as the released Shard Drakk were far more cunning than their wild brethren. One of his personal goals was that all Drakk under Dawi service would not require binding, insted could be trained.
It was a quarter of the way through the project, and Aurinax had laid more eggs. Throughout it, there had been rumblings of a new guild forming to take over the breeding of the drakk when the news came through. The Elgi had betrayed them, shaved the high king's son's beard, and then whipped him. Enraged by this, Elder Runelord Brurban went to Aurinax to prepare his Drakk for war, but not before ordering all Drakk eggs to be stored in runed stasis along with the notes of the project in the deepest vaults.
While other of the breeding adult stock would march to and only leave the most promising gilded and non-gilded drakk behind with their handlers so that the work may continue after the war.
The war of vengeance was fought most effectively by Aurinax, and the Elder Runelord Brurban, along with her two hundred children, allowed for a string of early victories against the Elgi, acting as siege engines to breach Elgi cities and settlements and providing a dawi army as a means to outmanoeuvre their opponents and cause carnage among Elgi regiments.
However, Aurinax's children soon became prime targets for the dragon princes, who made it their mission to hunt down every Drakk wherever they might be. Until only Aurinax and her rider were left, her children fell one by one but never died, easily inflicting great damage on their killers and making more than one dragon prince pay the ultimate price.
But Aurinax and her rider, up until her final battle, could clam a half-dozen of the Elgi's drakk and riders, avenging many a grudge and turning the tide of many a battle or siege in the dawi's favour.
Aurinax and her rider are now presumed dead after being seen fighting tooth and claw against two Elgi moon dragons that had likely been hunting her as the battle began, which ended in a draw with us, Dawi, having to withdraw to regroup.
A grudge has been laid down in the book of grudges against the dragon princes for the death of Aurinax and her rider that can only be repaid in blood or twice the amount of gold Aurinax produced in her lifetime for the death of such a valuable Drakk and Runelord that brought prosperity to Karaz Ankor.
@Heresy here is the omake