>>5552628“Now, with our numbers diminished, the Dark Gods and their Serpent Priests have seen fit, in their wisdom and with the Dark Gods’ own guidance, to begin a NEW Age of Scales, of Dragons, and of Darkness! They have given you the Dragonborn!”
You gesture to the Red Dragonborn who, after a few whispers and a nudge, roar in (near) unison. Your elder brother, picking up the cue a little later but with greater volume and no less enthusiasm, joins their chorus, and the cavern quakes while the crowd cowers.
“They taught me to commune with the Dark Gods, and by their will I became a Knight Ascendant. With the very power and by the very will of the God of Blood and Honour, I took these imperfect creations of mortals and stoked their flame with that of the Red Dragon King of Bloodrise… To whom I have been anointed his successor, in his ancestral empire!”
This draws still more fervor, including hisses and jeers, but many more watch is (respectful?) silence. They watch with hushed expectation. You pause for effect, waiting for the vocal few to die down.
“It is by this power,” you continue, “that I have perfected them into perfect instrument of the Dark Crusade—this one, or another to come, where they will serve as commanders of LEGIONS… DRACONIC legions, helmed by these resplendent kings and queens and comprised of the very children of light who deposed us.”
You expect the roaring and hissing of betrayal and disbelief which come next.
“No, no, it is TRUE! I have tamed dwarves and elves in Bloodrise, made large goblinoids into deadly assassins, just as I have tamed THESE…”
The two fire-lizards emerge, trailed more sluggishly by your blindfolded basilisk, which Ivno must prod along with a dagger to keep cooperative. You turn up your Fearsome Presence a little to help the little kobold along—which has the added effect of cowing the crowd, and reclaiming their attention and your momentum.
“…And THIS.”
THAT is when the lightning elemental does its part for your great performance, appearing with a cacophonous thundercrack and near-blinding explosion of flashing iridescence. It coalesces into a shape that is less a humanoid than another winged, draconic figure, hovering above the stage and behind the others.
