>>5308517>>5308528>>5308284>>5308275>>5308236>>5308185>>5308179>>5308164You flex your muscles to full attention, then relax them, again and again. You control your breathing, directing it in and out, willing it to bring energy in and release impurity of blood and spirit. You focus on all things Dragon, and you let the mana build, and flow through you, from your spiritual core to the body around it. Your form shifts and transforms—a sensation you’ve felt before, but still unfamiliar to you. You grow taller, stronger. Your skin darkens and thickens, growing more heavily-scaled and metallic in hue beneath your armour. Your face expands outwards, snout lengthening and broadening, teeth elongating and multiplying as your talons do likewise. You force yourself to limit your growth so as not to burst your plate asunder with the sudden expansion.
Even with your self-limitation, you are MUCH more powerful than you were mere moments ago—physically and mystically. Your will, previously a force of nature known only to the reptiloid races, is now altogether more tangible… And it is tangible to ALL beings, regardless of their origins. The tongue-monster certainly senses it—its beady eyes fix on you, and you feel an instinctive fear and respect well up in it. Ohle, ensnared by this hungry beast, is similarly transfixed. He must see in you his salvation, for he regards you with the adoration appropriate to a living dragon even as he is moments from being eaten. So too do the other kobolds… Even (though you can see it mingled with bitter envy in his expression) Hapo.
>18 for Spellcraft>19 for Fearsome Presence>19 for enemy action>Result…The bloated carnivore attacking your vassal slowed its assault to behold your terrific transformation, buying Ohle the Kobold precious time. Now, however, it acts. It recognizes in you an apex predator, a threat to its life and CERTAINLY a risk to its peaceful repast. As such… It flees, Ohle still in its clutches. This, in turn, breaks the spell you have over the disappearing kobold.
“W-wait! HELP! No! AAAAAA-”
This bulbous thing stealing your subject is not exactly FAST, but it is climbing a natural shaft in the stone, squirming and shuffling away into some unknown hidey-hole amidst the long-dormant channels through which magma once flowed to the surface to become lava. If you are not going to let it escape—or spend precious time pursuing it—you will have to act fast.
What do you do?
>Use firebreath—though the heat may afflict Ohle, also>Draw your bow and unleash arrows upon this thing, hoping to penetrate its blubber somewhere vital>Climb up after it, hunting it down to its lair if necessary>Let it go—you have secured MOST of your party’s safety, and no more creatures like this will dare approach you in Dragonshape><Jump> after the thing and slice it open with your moon-blade>Write-in 