>>5339760Admittedly, changing the world is a PRETTY big departure from your initial mission in this place, which was… Well, to put a stop to some rowdy kobolds who were drawing mammalian attention to the mountain with their increasingly-daring raids, and risked exposing a hidden cache of ancient artefacts from the last Age of Scales and Darkness. You DID that, yes, but now here you are, working with those kobolds (among others) to plan a daring raid of your very own! A part of you still worries about what the Chaplain (the Serpent Priest who practically raised you, and granted you this assignment) will say when he finds out. Then again, it’s not as if you’ve been unproductive in your ambitious deviations from your main objective, have you? Since leaving your home, you have…
>Beaten back a nest of savage carnivore-plants and slain a great devouring terror of the underdark>Acquired an impressive cache of wealth and a small arsenal of magical items—including a legendary elven moon-sword!>Made the acquaintance, and earned the allegiance, of a Drow leader (apparently a Princess, no less!)>Uncovered a long-lost dragon nest and harvested the materials for alchemical research>Befriended (and, uh, impregnated) a caterpillar-being to beget a great and terrible race of worm-wyrms>Bested mammal adventurers, kobold heretics, barbarian bugbear burglars, and others>Earned those same bugbears’ allegiance and aid>Tamed some rather fierce fire-lizards (And whatever the Junior Novice is)>Developed an ever-more-powerful array of spells and abilities, most impressively your amulet-augmented <Improved Dragonshape>>Earned the attention—sometimes favourable, sometimes not—of virtually every major Dark God of your race’s faithAnd anyway, there is no time to waste sending a missive back through the winding, dangerous tunnels of the underdark to request permission. Your uneasy and tenuous three-way alliance with the outcast “Drow” elf-clan and the barbarous “Bogbarri” hunters DEPENDS on tangible results, and soon… And that’s not even taking into account what you promised the kobolds themselves, to secure their lasting loyalty. Sometimes, you wonder if you have been too generous, too benevolent… But then you see the gleam in the eyes of your allies and subordinates when you speak with them about your plans for the raid, and for the future of these mountains. They look to you with an awesome admiration, which sets your dragon-soul ablaze with a warmth to stir even the coldest blood. At times like that, you reflect on the self-knowledge gifted to you by The Dark God of Secret Knowledge, he who is called Master of the Insightful Eye, The Baleful Beholder:
To be feared is good; respect is grand; but to be loved is your deepest desire.
And your people here LOVE the idea of these mountains becoming the heart of a new empire, and the start of a new and better life for all of your starved, harried races of the deep dark.
