Scenario:A True Dragon's Gaze

A True Dragon's Gaze

A massive, golden true dragon named Lindwurm appears before (Captain) and the others. Lindwurm calls (Captain) a singular pigment muddying the colors of the world. Declaring that it must judge (Captain) in the name of the true dragons, it attacks.

---

???: ...

In a corner of the sky inhabited by neither skydweller nor beast, a great creature stirs.

???: So this is the pigment muddying the world's colors.

A sinuous body materializes, golden scales reflecting the surrounding sky as it gradually manifests itself into corporeality.

???: Blemish on the canvas... You who beckon calamity from the depths...

???: "May my gaze glitter with reflected flame."

???: "May my gaze sink into the watery depths."

???: "May my gaze sprout in the fertile earth."

???: "May my gaze befriend the wandering wind."

Newly awoken, the creature intones an ancient incantation. The light of the skies' component elements dances in its eyes.

???: Hmm...

It observes an isolated point of light shining in defiant contrast to its surroundings. It flies toward the discrepancy.

Vyrn: ...

Lyria: ...

While anchored on an island, (Captain) and the others sense the approach of a strange aura and raise their eyes to the clouds.

Vyrn: H-hey... You guys feel that?

Lyria: Something's coming this way. I'm getting a prickly feeling, like the wind is shivering... Is that what you feel, (Captain)?

(Captain) nods. The captain has the distinct impression of ripples spreading across the surface of a pond after a stone is cast.

Something massive is wending its way toward them. Something very different from a primal beast.

The strange bite to the air cedes to a tangible vibration.

(Captain) recognizes the sensation as emanating from the distant, radiant golden shape and makes ready to meet it.

Vyrn: Gulp...
We're gonna need a bigger airship.

The creature descends through the clouds, its golden coils long enough to cast the entire island in its shadow.

Lyria: I think... I think it's here to see us, (Captain).

(Captain) can feel its attention focusing in on all of them.

???: Oho... A mortal who paints with such a singular pigment? I expected a dragon, or at the very least, a primal.

Vyrn: Who... who the heck are you?

???: Well-met, kinsman. A true dragon should never neglect proper greetings. Pray forgive me—I awoke but moments ago.

Lindwurm: I am called Lindwurm. I am distantly related to the forebears of this era's true dragons.

Lyria: The true dragons... You must be really powerful too then. What brings you here?

Lindwurm: Haha... I am endeavoring to use that power to repaint the world where its colors have been muddied.

Lyria: The colors... of the world?

Lindwurm: Just so. There is a stain which must be washed clean without delay. The time is nigh, mortals. Here and now...

Lindwurm: You must submit to my judgment.

The creature's jaws part, and a crackling torrent of lightning spills forth.

Vyrn: What're you tryin' to pull, you dirty sneak!

Lindwurm: Painter of the singular pigment, fall prostrate before me and the world may be restored to rights.

The lightning which scorched the ground at (Captain)'s feet appears to have been some sort of preliminary test.

Certain that no judgment the dragon delivers will leave the crew unscathed, (Captain) draws.

Lindwurm: Gwahaha! You mean to lift your paltry claws against me?

Lindwurm: So be it, fearless fools!

A True Dragon's Gaze: Scene 2

In the midst of a fierce battle, the space around them suddenly changes. Lindwurm says it is the six dragons, forebears of the true dragons, awoken by (Captain) and Lyria and no doubt now bent on the crew's destruction. By attacking and judging the crew, Lindwurm had hoped to protect them. Apologizing for its failure to do so, Lindwurm departs, leaving the crew to prepare for battle with the six dragons.

---

Lindwurm: Rrraaaagh!

The battle is unimaginably fierce.

Lindwurm twists through the sky like a raging river of golden light, bent on (Captain)'s destruction.

Lindwurm: "Deliver now light's verdict."

(Captain) and the crew must appear like grains of sand from that great height, and yet the creature's attacks find their mark with deadly accuracy.

(Captain)'s blade flashes from left to right, up and down, countering each bolt of lightning that cannot be evaded by fleetness of foot.

Lindwurm: Yield. Fall to your knees and beg for leniency.

The dragon's eyes burn into (Captain)'s as it delivers its ultimatum.

Its jaws seem poised to snap shut around (Captain) depending on the young mortal's answer.

Vyrn: Grr! Don't give up, (Captain)!

Lyria: Ngh... I can't... believe this...

(Captain) is all that bars Lindwurm's path to Vyrn and Lyria, so the battered captain stands firm.

Lindwurm: Gwahaha... I must applaud your tenacity.

Lindwurm: Very well!

Lindwurm's tail whips around toward the three skyfarers.

Lindwurm: Hrm...

Vyrn: What... just happened?

Lindwurm: The time has come.

Lindwurm speaks, sadness in its eyes.

Lindwurm: This world is painted in a palette of six colors. Imagine four orbs of vermillion, azure, gold, and emerald resting upon a dais of black, a white altar balanced atop them.

Lindwurm: The four orbs are volatile, locked in perpetual flux. The four archons oversee their equilibrium, lest disparity fracture the dais and altar, thus bringing about the world's end.

Lindwurm: The true dragons' forebears were born from the color which overflowed when the balance between the four orbs faltered.

Vyrn: You're talkin' gibberish, big guy. Wanna put that in skydweller?

Lindwurm: The six dragons, forebears of the true dragons, have awoken. Mortal. Child in blue. They shall come for you both.

Lindwurm: Wilnas, the vermillion.

Lindwurm: Wamdus, the azure.

Lindwurm: Ewiyar, the emerald.

Lindwurm: Galleon, the golden.

Lindwurm: Lu Woh, the white.

Lindwurm: Fediel, the black.

Lindwurm: The four archons have no control over them. These dragons hold the power to devour the sun, to freeze the land, to repel miasma, to transform into soil, to illuminate the moon, to hide the sun's splendor.

Lindwurm: Mortal. Child in blue. You, too, are beyond the four archons' control. That fact has woken the six dragons.

Lindwurm: The six dragons will destroy that singular pigment which pervades you. My judgment was intended to quell them, but I was not equal to the task. Forgive me, mortals.

Lindwurm: "Pray in the name of the true dragons."
Let there be winds to speed the mortals on their way.
This too is a trial you must endeavor to overcome.

Lindwurm rises into the sky, its golden scales glittering like stars before melting from view.

Vyrn: So, if I understood all that... some major players have their eyes on us?

Lyria: It sounds that way... Once Lindwurm disappeared, that prickly feeling in the air came back...

Could it be the weight of the Six Dragons' attention the three of them sense? Unseen eyes are focused on them, and their gaze feels like neither hatred nor curiosity.

The Six Dragons, forebears of the true dragons. (Captain)'s jaw clenches. Foes even more powerful than Lindwurm await, watching unseen from who knows where.