>>5760410You discover that the Serpent Queen has used her considerable authority to expand her laboratory and to requisition assistants—other Serpent Priestesses, kobolds, and more. It is here, rather than the rookery, where the familiar egg now sits, amongst coveted surfacer cotton and woolen blankets forming an almost bird-like nest—or something akin to a throne—atop a raised dais of gathered stone. The surface of your child’s eggshell is covered in the swirling flowing elegance of Reptilian calligraphy—spells and runes, and magical circles as well—and basins of blood and other, less-certain fluids are placed around it, along with an array of crystals which you can tell from a glance are magically-charged.
“You returned very late into the development process,” the Serpent Queen tells you, her tone a little accusatory. “There is only so much I can do, of course… But the False Degenerate disease can ALSO be sued as a vector to expedite development or modification of physical traits.”
You nod in half-understanding, staring at the egg and trying to picture what will soon hatch from it—what you WANT to hatch from it. This is the being you have chosen to be your legacy here in Bloodrise, after all.
“The more changes we make, and the more drastic they are, the greater chance of… Complication.”
You turn from your inward thoughts of the future and back to the egg’s mother—your queen. You find her looking back at you, expectantly.
“Deformation, sickliness, stillbirth, all are possible,” she says, with chilling casualness in her voice. “The chimera-plague can be sued to modify the embryo, but it is almost fully-grown. It will require careful attentions to maintain stability, at this phase. YOU were modified before your egg was ever lain, I strongly suspect, and look at YOU—barely a dragon at all, save for MY amulet.”
She taps the Amulet of the Dragon resting upon your breast with a claw, and almost fondles it as she admires her work.
“However,” she continues, “there is also the matter of your LATEST hunting trophy, oh Adventurous One.”
It take you a moment to parse out her meaning.
“The Great Green Dragon’s heart,” you whisper.
“Yes!” she agrees brightly. “We could use THAT to make this hatchling TRULY draconic—after all, I had precious little material to work with from the Red Dragon’s clutch after all we have already done, but with the HEART of a fully-grown dragon king of such PURE stock…”
You narrow your eyes, and she sighs.
“I know, I know,” she laments. “Your little demon-dragon-ascendancy ‘project’. Yes, yes…”
