Quoted By:
Rolled 9, 1, 7, 3, 10 = 30 (5d20)
You choose to hold your ceremony in honour of the Dark God who has most closely aligned with your beliefs and ambitions: The Serpent Ascendent, Swallower-of-the-Sun, Feathered Serpent and Lord of the Night Sky. The kobolds are less familiar with him than with the Mother of Dragons, granted, but you know just how to make the appeal.
On the evening of the festival, you have each of your captives brought before you, one at a time, by the kobolds who accompanies you in their capture. The assembled throng behold as the thrashing, snarling berserker, the forlon and silent half-elf ranger, and the weeping warrior are brought up to the raised rock-shelf where you stand, beneath a crude altar to the Dark God you honour tonight.
“Kobolds of Bloodrise!” you cry.
All eyes turn to you. This includes the Bastard’s, standing at the head of this uneasy vassal-army; it includes the Novice, lurking at the back of the festivities only begrudgingly, eager to return to her work. It includes the Translator, eyes narrowed, expression scrunched, unhappy with this whole populist event. It sadly doesn’t include Glowie—she is busy recovering from the surgical and magical procedures which have secured your shared offspring their future.
“You have long been lost in the darkness, in the lingering past of this place,” you begin. “You have been left alone, forsaken for your perceived weakness, servility, uselessness…”
The kobolds rumble and squawk with displeasure, but you put up a hand.
“PERCEIVED,” you say, “but not REAL. You ARE strong. You ARE capable. Y our are skill hunters. Scouts. Asssassins. WARRIORS.”
A hush falls over the crowd.
“I have seen in! You are slaves by birth, weaklings, pitiful by nature… But in the absence of your masters, in your isolation and desperation, you have found strength. You have grown! You have become TERRORS! Miniature DRAGONS!”
You gesture to the humans, forced to their knees before you.
“TOGETHER, we have defeated these foolish mammalian adventurers. Together, we have become MIGHTY. WORTHY. That is what tonight is about. THAT is what the Serpent Ascending values, he who is called Lord of Strength, Father of Victories! Not strength of blood—strength of WILL. Will to POWER. Strength of SPIRIT!”
