>>5645595>>5645643>>5645770>>5645800>>5646030>>5646454A dozen desperate plans of varying plausibility flash through your mind like so many demonic and divine dreams. Most involve casting some sort of spell to even your odds and ensure your victory. The notion which lingers longest is to simply relinquish your body to your great and noble ancestor, the Red Dragon King of Bloodrise, whose might and magic far outstrip your own. If it comes down to it, you could even bargain with the Dark Gods themselves, those Beyond and Below whom you have pledged to serve. You know that such an ask will incur a steep price, but what do you have to lose? You MUST win here—for yourself, your friends, your family, your race, your religion! You must win because victory here, against the Paladins, is your very reason for BEING! To be an Antipaladin is your entire PURPOSE!
At no point, not even for an instant, do you consider fleeing to save yourself.
>DC lowered by 1 for your sword roll AND death roll, in deference to your unwavering courageA sense of calm and confidence overtakes you, coming from within and without at once. The dying embers of the sun smoulder to ash, and the uncanny darkness-turned-light of the God of Glorious Bloodsed rises from that’s elf-same spot where the sun extinguishes itself each night in the bay. The Sun-Eater grants you his blessing, and you are glad for it.
Your place in his kingdom awaits.
You reach up with your other arm, pulling yourself close to the winged gryphon’s breast even as Sir Chase wrenches upon its reins and seeks to rouse this chimera—this ‘Battlebeak’—to wakefulness, and to pull it from its death spiral. You grab a handful of its feathery mane for leverage, and to cling to, and pray you will not pluck them by your weight as you remove the sword which previously held you aloft.
The gryphon screeches in pain as you rip the bug-eyed, slavering-mawed shoggoth-sword free with a wet squelch and a shower of hot blood.
“Chase1 Chase, the damned lizard! He’s—”
“Battlebeak! Gods damn you, boy, wake up! Please I need—”
