Session 16: Of Scales and Shells

General Summary

The Dauphin's Offer

The red eyes hadn't moved. Draxelas broke the silence first, not with words, just a low appreciative sound, like a man who had waited a long time to be in a room where everyone finally knew the truth. Then Gammoranth spoke again. He asked what they wanted, and then he told them what he already knew.

The offers came telepathically, each one fitted to its recipient like a key to a lock.

To Nyxek: drakascendence, not the half-measures he had been chasing, but the real thing. Paragon Prophet elevated and legitimized as his mate. The return of the First World and an end to the Emperor's grief. Everything Nyxek had devoted his life to, handed to him by a dead dragon who shared his beliefs.

To Tad: answers. The truth about the dula-dulas extermination. And a female, alive, somewhere in the Empire, findable. The only being in the Dragon Empire who could give Tad his people back.

To Vutha: drakascendence, and a legacy. Baethra and his children elevated, the founding line of something that would survive whatever came next. A dragon's inheritance, not a soldier's fate. Vutha heard the offer and answered plainly: the offer was grand, but he would have these things already. What he wanted was simpler. The Empire's enemies had to be destroyed. The Red Dome had fallen before. Safety for anyone required the threats to be hunted down and slain. Gammoranth listened.

To Kal, the Dauphin said only: "Help me save my son. Please."

And through the fox pin, another voice, quiet and immediate: "If you agree to this, Skorjira will die."

The Interrogation of Vox Memory

It was Tad who spoke first into the silence. "Are you our secret patron, and you've come here to reward us for a job well done?" "No," said the dragon turtle. Vutha's paranoia surfaced immediately. "He wants something from us that he cannot have from our corpses." Nyxek sensed the truth in that and made his position clear. "I will never act against the Emperor, no matter the threat." Gammoranth roared in denial. "Everything I do, I do for the good of the Empire. If you serve me, you will be serving it."

None of the Claw dared refute the Dauphin directly. But Vutha pressed. "You have abandoned your flesh and given your memories to this fish of the Fallacy. How is that good for the Empire?" Nyxek offered a correction. "The fish is an abomination, but one that predates the Empire and the Red Dome. It is from a realm beyond this one, and they are not servants of the Empire. How can you trust this one?" Gammoranth's answer was measured. "You do not understand what must be done. My Memory is required, and he serves the need as our interests align." Nyxek's inquisitorial instinct sharpened. "Do they, though? Will he prove it under the compulsion of truth?" The Dauphin considered. "He can, if he wills it." All eyes went to the aboleth. The ancient creature was ready for their doubt. "I will allow it, and prove my usefulness."

Nyxek cast Zone of Truth. Vutha moved in immediately. "Have you ever lied to the Dauphin?" The aboleth saw the trap and stepped around it. "Our relationship is one that has not always called for the complete truth." Vutha pressed harder. "Do you truly possess the Dauphin's memories?" "The ones entrusted to me, yes." "Have you ever lied to the Dauphin about those memories?" "No." The Godeater grunted in frustration as his repeated blows landed on nothing.

Nyxek changed direction. "What are your goals for the future?" The aboleth answered with complete frankness. "The ascension of my people and our domination of reality." The Claw's surprise was visible. The creature continued, untroubled. "Time is no object for me. We will rise long after all living things have passed, when even the most powerful undead have crumbled to dust. We will rise. Until then, serving a powerful guardian like the Dauphin is valuable, and the First World was a beneficial one for more than just dragonkind." Nyxek: "And you can help restore it? You can restore it?" "There is a ritual to restore the Red Dome. The Dauphin and I can complete it."

Nyxek knew the aboleth was still evading something. Tad spoke before he could press further. "Who slew the dula-dulas?" The aboleth answered carefully. "The dula-dulas young were overharvested for their age-defying properties by one of the major clans. It was not Clan Turtle, I know that from the memories I possess. Which major clan is responsible, I do not know." Nyxek turned from the aboleth and addressed Gammoranth directly. "There is something the fish is keeping from us." The Dauphin was unmoved. "He is loyal to me and will serve my purposes. Whatever you cannot glean from him even with the Emperor's truth is your concern, not mine."

Nyxek pressed on. "I want the truth from you. Why were you conspiring with my wayward son, Diirhaas?" Gammoranth's answer was cold. "It is good to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Knowing his schemes helps me act appropriately, and I have been unable to lure him here directly to end him." Nyxek: "A pity. Still, it gives me the chance to end his treachery myself. What do you know of these strange monsters and their origin?" "Your son has commissioned their creation. I know little beyond that." Nyxek: "And why leave your own son to battle them alone?"

The dracolich's red eyes moved to his sleeping heir. "He is heir to Clan Turtle. He will need great strength and to overcome adversity. If he cannot survive such foes, he may be better off slain." Kal stepped forward immediately. "Skorjira has overcome so many epic challenges in pizza eating. He is already a champion eater!" The dracolich fixed his glowing red eyes on the tortle and said only: "He will need to overcome more than that."

The Dauphin's Request

Gammoranth spoke the offer aloud. "Help me. Help me save the Empire. Pledge yourselves to my side and my cause, and we can ensure its safety." A thought passed between the aboleth and the Dauphin. Then: "Now, you must go. I am told your son has sent you a gift." He pressed an old decayed scale into Nyxek's hand. "Use it and the Rod of the Red Dome to return to me when you are ready to help."

Before the teleportation could take them, Vutha moved to the fallen Khabroth. "We are taking the Rune Carver back with us." The aboleth shrugged. "Yeah, that wasn't me." Kal crossed to the sleeping Skorjira. "We're taking my bro back too." The aboleth protested immediately. "No. The heir should stay here." Nyxek's inquisitorial senses burned. "Why?! Why do you think the son of the Dauphin should stay?" The aboleth, still bound by Zone of Truth, answered before it could stop itself. "He is needed for the ritual." Nyxek leaned forward. "How?!"

The Claw was teleported away.

A Moment in Between

The teleportation deposited them briefly in an unknown chamber somewhere in the Empire, a momentary pocket between departure and arrival. Draxelas used the seconds. He pulled Nyxek aside and spoke quietly and without theater. "Now that we have a moment, I wanted you to know that I have been helping the Dauphin with his memory sucking, and I know he has long sought access to a Red Rod of Heaven so that this ritual of his will have the legal authority of the Emperor."

The teleportation completed.

The Wyrm's Oven

They came home to fire and constructs.

Midori, the Jade Fang, a green abishai leading an oni and a coordinated force of valoks and a servok driller, had come through the second sewer entrance while the Claw stood on Gammoranth's back. The Wyrm's Oven was under invasion. The driller had found Mico Nyxekspawn, Nyxek's silver half-dragon steward, and pinned him to the ground. As the construct's grip tightened, Mico looked up into the smoke and shouted: "Witness me, Father! I am shiny and chrome! Witness me!"

Mico then attacked the driller with fury, attempting to prove his worth to his father.

Diirhaas wanted the children.

Vutha smashed into the abishai and bit down, his teeth finding metal underneath the flesh. Nyxek banished the oni before it could anchor the fight. The abishai attempted to seize control of Tad's mind, and Nyxek banished it into the future where his own spell had already failed. Tad and Kal dismantled the constructs. The abishai reappeared furious, announced his name as Midori the Jade Fang, and threw out a wave of confusing magic that found little purchase against the Claw.

The constructs fell, the driller was stopped, and Mico was freed. As the construct body of Midori powered down, it delivered its final message: Diirhaas looked forward to meeting his father.

Nyxek answered the corpse of the puppet.

The body went still. Somewhere outside the Boundary, the real Midori had been watching through its eyes the entire time. Vutha filed that away as a problem to be solved personally.