Rolled 13, 18, 7, 18 = 56 (4d20)
>>5372813You meet your prisoner’s eyes. A part of you feels that killing her could quell this turmoil inside you—this regret. But… No, no. This is not the way. You drop her, eliciting a grunt of pain from the little mammal on impact with the floor.
“You wish to ssserve as an exxxample to your kind?” you ask rhetorically. “Very well, then. They shall all learn what it meansss to ssserve the Dark Godsss… Or to ssstand againssst them.”
You replace the traitor’s gag, and summon the kobolds back to the room, to mind her. You, meanwhile, make preparations.
The next day, you summon your prisoners, slaves, and allies alike to stand before you upon the ramparts of the keep you have stolen and subdued, to bear witness to a great and glorious thing: a ritual sacrifice, as you performed above the basilisk pit in the kobolds’ mountain-home.
“Dark Godss Below and Beyond,” you cry out, in Northern Common-tongue so that all might understand, “I offer thiss ssacrifice not in MY name, but in that of the Her—”
You stop.
“In the name of Davora, the Dwarf! She who sserved me, and you, sso well! She who lived, and died, for our caussse!”
Her name feels strange and alien on your tongue. You’ve spoken it before but… So casually, in front of so many? Still, you can see the dwarves watching you through narrow eyes, grumbling and glowering… But perhaps fewer than had you been impersonal. If you are to rule a multi-species empire, perhaps It behooves you to better comprehend even the lowly and mammalian customs and mindset. Not to ADOPT them, of course, but to know them, so you may bend and subvert them. Trust is a foolish thing, but UNDERSTANDING is paramount.
>Dark Prophet: +1 Religion, +1 Leadership 