Step freely, you're a dragon after all. Big feet, etc...

The witch puts a friendly hand on your shoulder ‘now, now, child, all is well…. We, the living, always suffer for the departed… but we must take comfort in what we have around us. If you know nothing else then, at least, I can tell you your mother’s name might have been Ovnyrth. It’s old language, I’m told it means something ‘lady in white’, from what I heard, she was a wee bit on the pale side… feisty temper…. But there may be many reasons for that… dragons are complicated…’

She then turns to Vermillion wondering why he think ancestry has anything to do with current troubles, he explains he believes there might be a possible link between these dragons that have suddenly appeared and your mother and father, the dragons that is. The witch nods ‘that may be…’

She stays in thought for a while before saying ‘I can tell who your parents may have been and, as you can see, not much witchery is involved, I can look into your past, what I cannot do is look into their past… I’m not sure I can give you all you want…’

Well as long as you say I'm pretty! =p=p=p=p

I feel a bit awestruck and it probably shows on my face. "You can tell that without spellcraft? Maybe you already knew, but it doesn't sound that way. You can see the past just by looking at people?"

She chuckles. Or cackles, probably a more apt thing for a witch.

'I wish it was that simple... no, some witchery is involved, but I know a lot from folks' tales. It's not often that we get a dragon these days, it's even less often when someone brings it down... all tales have your dragon father as being one Kymog, which is supposed to mean 'eternal' or something like that. What's odd, he never made it up north so, the tales don't actually say a lot about him. I still wonder why would your mother come up north to lay the egg. Maybe that's a dragon thing? What do you know of dragon's habits?...'

Am I supposed to make things up? Or should I know some things? Or just say I don't know?

It's either / or. It's an opportunity for you to introduce something you may want, if there's not anything, you can just answer 'dunno' and we'll take it from there.

I don't often get the chance to expound on something intellectual, so I jump into it without thinking too much:

"Not as much as I would like. I had never met another dragon until a few months ago." I gesture vaguely with my left hand. "I know that I'm exceptionally large and strong for my age. I put it down to diet; I imagine that, since we're apex predators, dragons are hungry most of the time. We don't need as much food as you'd think for our size, build, general muscular development, or the ability to breathe fire, so that's a little odd."

I pause for a while because the next thought I have is very...well, it's uncomfortable to talk about.

"Most egg-laying animals have a cloaca. Like birds. They eliminate waste and lay eggs out of the same thing. Dragons don't have that. In fact, we don't make waste at all. Or lay eggs. I don't know exactly how it's done, but it has to be something taught, because I don't have an instinct to do it. Dragon eggs are constructed, somehow, which is why there are so very few of them. Treasure might have a lot to do with it; the drive to have treasure can't be just an attraction to shiny things or we wouldn't be drawn to ugly but valuable objects."

I'm blushing because of how strange this is to talk about, but I otherwise maintain composure.

"If I was guessing why the dragons who made my egg came this far North, it would be that. Something about making eggs requires secrecy, privacy, a lot of treasure, or something else that was here but wasn't where they came from before that."

She nods. Vermillion becomes somewhat alive and starts lecturing.

'It would make sense if it was treasure driven. Back in the day, there was something called the three dragons. Supposedly, for a brief period, well, brief for dragon standards, three dragons ruled over their folk... well, other dragons that is. They had some sort of objects of power that allowed the three of them, if they worked together to be much like gods. In isolation, the objects served no purpose. The last place of rest of the objects was the Spine of the World, but there are many legends that end up in the Spine, I don't think that many of them ever proved true...' he then looks at you and says, somewhat cryptically for those not in the know '...that's my best guess right now for what the shield or mirror might be...' 

The witch listens to him and then says '...I think you will know when the time comes for the egg, nature is wonderful at that... and speaking of nature...' she finishes mixing some herbs into a glass of wine '...drink this, and we'll get started into your past...'

"Ah, I was just about to ask if one of the objects was a very large mirror or shield." I wink at Vermillion.

Witches are known for their herbal brews. I wonder if it will work on a dragon. Our constitutions are far sturdier than humans', if my ability to drink anyone I've ever met under the table is anything to go by. And I don't even drink that often.

I thank the lady and down the wine politely, then set down the cup she provided and wait.

"Thank you again for your help."

As you drink it you feel no change. Well, it's a nice concoction to drink but other than that...

'...your dreams... that's what's going to tell us a lot more... or not much, that's the way with dreams, they are hard to understand and sometimes just do not happen...'

Will jump a bit here, to catch up with days of not posting. Bad GM.

You end up having a rather restless night. The dreams are intense, vivid, you wake up drenched in sweat, and it's still the middle of the night.

You dream of dragons. There are a multitude of dragons, all colours, including some misty dragons like the one you just saw recently. There are no mirrors, but there is a substantially sized red dragon, hard to figure out if it's you at first, you then understand it is protecting something, again you do not see it clearly but you assume it's the egg. You also dream of humans. Your parents. They fight the red dragon and kill it. They seem to be aided in this by another human figure, a figure you cannot see clearly enough to identify. This third figure then battle your parents over some object, your parents defeat the figure and retain possession of the object. It's a confusing sequence and the object might be a sword or some sort of long stick. The egg finally shows up again, the red dragon was protecting both the egg and the object, your parents take both, and you wake up.

No worries. We all get busy, and you've had a lot on your plate.

I look around. Where am I? What time is it? If this is one of those mystic visions with dreams inside dreams, things are about to get weird.

When you wake up you are in the room you were when you went to sleep. Pinching yourself results in pain. To all appearances you are in your reality, in your time. Nothing seems amiss. There is one thing that just clocks in your mind. You saw the red dragon protecting the egg and the object, but you could not figure if it was protecting both or one, also, you didn't actually see the red dragon 'produce' the egg.

Well okay then. Whatever magic was in that drink, assuming it was magic and not a potion - but aren't those magic? - worked pretty well. That was supposedly my past. The natural conclusion is that the egg hatched into me, but that's not the only possibility, not by a long shot.

I get up and go look for the witch, Vermillion, or both to relay what I saw in my dream. I don't plan to keep anything secret.

Vermillion clinches to the object, he sees it as the cause of the entire dispute, potentially one of the three objects of legend, 'no disrespect' he says but the egg was a side show.

The witch sees it slightly differently. She's rather curious about the third person, she sees in it a sort of dark presence that may have engineered things to suit their own purposes and she disagrees with Vermillion that the object might have been the lure whilst the egg was the real objective. She wonders if the entire thing was not a plan to get your parents to raise the dragon for the mysterious figure that for some reason or another possibly could not do it...

I agree that Vermillion is probably correct, but the theory that my parents were somehow manipulated or duped into raising me has merit and should be investigated. It's a disturbing idea, but I can't afford to flinch away from it. If it really is the truth, I must accept it, rather than try to hide in a comforting illusion.

Hopefully, such an object, a magic sword or staff or something of that kind, should be relatively easy to find. I don't know of any particularly special thing like that my parents had, but they were clever enough that they wouldn't have made a big deal of something they were trying to hide. We'll need to look around the estate, then the lands, for it. Hopefully it's hidden in the manor somewhere; I don't relish an exhaustive search of my domain.

Vermillion offers to cast some sort of 'locate magic object' spell. It will probably flag more than one thing, but at least should help reduce the search radius...

The witch has a final word of warning, cautioning you regarding involvement with elder beings such as dragons. Their disputes are often bitter and last for a long, long time. The ancient dragons are also formidable opponents, never let your guard down with them, remember, you are but a baby in terms of what a dragon is...

Maybe it will reveal multiple magical treasures. Wouldn't that be great?

I make sure to thank Adaire for her help and hospitality. I insist that she and her family come visit me at my manor. I will do my best to heed her warnings but I can't avoid investigating

Is this village part of my domain? Are these people my subjects?

One of those border villages that is in everyone's and nobody's domains... Since tax determines this, no, they do not pay tax to you, but you are the closest Lord, well Lady to their village. This far out in the Spine, they probably just hope nobody remembers to tax them...

Back to the manor, start a search? Any specific plans, other than Vermillion's spell?

We'll start with his magic. I assume Ataraxia also knows where all of the locked treasure areas are. She can also search the solar and apartments, then the manor in general. In a lot of medieval manors, the spice chest and buttery (where they stored wine) were also where the treasure was kept, since they tended to be very securely locked.

The outcome of the initial magical search is disappointing. Other than confirmation that the shield / mirror is indeed of a magical nature, which was no news at all, Vermillion’s search returns some possible leads, but these all turn out to be objects related to magic, rather than magical objects. There’s a tome that probably belonged at some time to a wizard, some sort of jar that, creepily, may have contained the ashes of a magic user, and other such joys.

Well then, time to make an exhaustive search of everything in the manor. Then my parents' tombs. This is going to take a while, but I have time.

Was about to type this but then remembered something, what resources are you putting into this? Is this you, Vermillion and Randulf, will you use your people, if so how and how many?... Just need an understanding of the strategy here.

Since it involves searching for treasure and family secrets and looking for magical doodads, I'll put myself, Vermillion, Randulf, and my most trusted retainers on it. Vermillion and Randulf will accompany me personally.

I won't even begin to mention it, but I want them with me because I don't entirely trust them to not steal important things they find. I am playing a dragon, after all.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:06, Fri 13 Jan 2023.

I was thinking how to do this, it's going to take a while. There's two ways we can do this, we can do a random clock, it will just tick away until something is (or not!) found, and we can continue the story with anything you want as the search goes on, or we could just jump forward to the end of the search. Your choice!

Currently I'm just waiting. The expedition to the desert will be in the winter and my scouts are getting info on the border raiders. And of course I need to manage my territory. So, skipping to the end is probably the best course.

-> We move to the 'Autumn - Year 1' thread