>>5493563>>5493595>>5493609>>5493918>>5494185You answer the Novice thusly:
“I will prove to the Serpent Priesthood—even to your father—that Bloodrise is a worthy project. This Dark Alliance will form the foundation for a new AGE of Darkness.”
“But not an Age of Scales,” the Novice Fleshweaver notes. “Or not ONLY an Age of Scales. Dwarves, elves, even BUGBEARS… This alliance of yours is as impure as its founder. Do you really think MY sire will back such an endeavour?”
>+1 Seduction“I guess I will just need to keep my own Serpent Priestess close at hand, to keep an eye on me and to ensure I walk a righteous path.”
The Novice narrows her eyes.
“We both know whose eyes linger longer upon the other, Degenerateborn.”
“Would that it were more than eyes,” you muse.
The Novice scoffs, her tail whipping the stone beneath her talons irritably. With your knack for <Reptilian Empathy>, you sense the distinct admixture of embarrassment and pride which such statements are wont to invoke in your beloved mage-companion.
“They will see that OUR efforts deserve their recognition and support,” you assert.
The Novice glance back at you, and you sense… Uncertainty in her.
You and your company are close now to where you set out from a month hence: the border-camp of the Drow scouts, commanded by Princess Jazkarmel. This camp itself is a scant week from your own base-of-operations in the Bloodrise Mountains. You wonder how things have developed in your absence—the projects of development and veiled trade which you ordered? And then there’s the matter of the bugbear raids…
In your own travels, you encountered some of those furry fiends, and discovered them to be no mere raiders, but undead minions of that false prophet and thieving traitor, Hapo. Despite a clever ambush, they were no match for you and yours—not without the power of the envy demon which you keep trapped and separated from the kobold. It dwells within a ring, within a box, within your back, sealed away from Hapo. Without it, he can be no match for you… Right?
And then there is the Green Knight—the emerald-clad adventurer who slew your mother, and who periodically plagues your dreams. Since you arrived in Wevenore, the city-state of the Drow, the dreams have abated… But as you make your glorious return, those most inglorious visions of this destined adversary have returned, such that even resting your head in your Novice’s lap is insufficient to banish them entirely.
