Rolled 17, 19, 3, 15, 6, 11 = 71 (6d20)
>>5248625>>5248639>>5248657>>5248853>>5248949“Holy One, is it not precisely my ambition, pride, and deceit that won Hawksong with no Reptilian blood spilled?”
The Chaplain’s glare is such that, thanks to Irinnile’s senses, you can feel his irritation without looking up, but he does not speak.
‘You tell ‘im, Hotstuff!’ Irinnile eggs you on.
“Recall, Holy One: is a human that wove the corrupted form of the current Dragonborn this creche has access to.”
“And it is a corrupted form!” he interrupts. “The human blood—”
“The corrupt human blood is necessary for the process,” you say. “How is my offspring any different?”
“You well know!” he snaps. “By your devising, we are starting with a base of draconic material—a foundation of strength and Reptilian intellect—and using human blood merely to connect and build outwards, to fill in gaps with a material with greater plasticity.”
“Perhaps then, plasticity is a human strength.”
That silences him, though it redoubles his outrage.
“Degenerates are tolerated precisely because there are things which they—which WE—are better at than a full-blooded Reptilian. And humans, for all their weakness… Have they not advanced surprisingly far? Is it not telling that our advances in fleshweaving have, in fact, derived from a human and a Degenerate?”
“You go too far,” The Chaplain hisses quietly. “It is their access to the STOLEN riches of the surface which allow them this ‘advancement’.”
“Perhaps,” you say, looking up at last and steeling yourself for a defiance which goes against your upbringing. “But perhaps there is something of them which encourages it. Perhaps that is why I dreamed as I did—why the Dark Gods themselves deigned to speak to a ‘mere’ Degenerate like myself, and why they do not strike me down for my ‘heresy’, Chaplain. Perhaps they desire my Champion… My son… To fulfill a role in the Grand Design, as they did with me twenty-seven years ago.”
“What right have YOU to speculate on the will of the Gods?!” he demands.
You stop just short of invoking the <FAVOUR>, something telling you that it is not yet time—that you may yet have use of such a boon. Instead, you say:
“You would be doing the Dark Gods themselves a disservice to deny such a champion to them. If you will not see reason here... what will it take?”
[-1 DC for solid logic, -1 DC for invoking the Grand Design of the Dark Gods. +1 DC for challenging racial hierarchies and +1 DC for bringing up human achievements. DC started high, at 17. 5d20 politesse, +1d20 bonus die for Arcane Studies since you can argue from a place of knowledge on matters magical.]