2021 DRAGONS REBORN STORYLINE: Teaser 2

Authors: Joseph Valenti & Christopher Spencer

 

Date: March 26, 2021

 

OVERVIEW

You’ve cared for the Dragon Egg as best as possible. Your family / friends protect you and the homestead from the Orc attacks, but the elderly urge you to seek the advice of the Nobility, the Earth and Celestial Guilds by visiting one of the Noble Gatherings with your Dragon’s Egg.

The dreams and nightmares have continued to leave you restless. You have found it hard to get a full night's sleep in quite some time - awakening from dream or nightmare it seems each night. As the days go by the dreams and the nightmares become less hazy and you have been able to think through many of them. You begin to receive vision from and of a powerful red dragon.

There is still significant Orc activity all around Avalon and perhaps beyond, as the village continues to be attacked by green Orc warriors looking for Dragon’s Eggs. It’s as if they can smell the Egg in the general area but not the exact whereabouts.

A NEW ROUTINE

Daily you lift the egg from its blankets. When you touch or hold the egg, your entire body is filled with a soft warm energy. The shell of the egg shimmers and seems to react to your touch. When you found the Dragon’s Egg, and lifted from the rubble, you realized it's not as fragile as the livestock eggs you’re used to. Its shell feels almost leathery, is not as hard as livestock eggs yet doesn’t crack when pressed. Often, you sit with the egg in your lap, enjoying its warmth, fascinated by the small movements you can feel. You can feel the presence of the baby moving about inside, giving you the sense that this egg may begin to hatch soon. 

DREAMS

You continue to have dreams about your childhood home. They speed about quickly and intensely, recapping the previous dreams you had about the cave. You see flashes of brilliant white light and your eyes fall upon the Dragon’s Egg behind the loose stone. The cave walls seem to flex and stretch about so that you can move through the corridors. 

In other dreams, you’re walking and smell smoke, like a burning campfire being carried on the slight breeze. As you approach the cave mouth to investigate you see smoke in the distance. The smoke begins to wisp and swirl into a vortex, and your vision blurs before you shoot awake. As you sit up in your bed you can still feel the warmth of the egg coursing through your veins.

Another intense dream you remember well, is standing next to a person of the same race, soaring through the skies. You’re a dragon-rider upon the back of a great dragon, looking at the mountains below, reigns in your hands. The hero you ride with teaches you how to stay upon the back of the great wyrm; it's not as simple as “digging your boots under the small scales of its shoulders and back”, though that's the best way to describe it. 

While soaring through the air you see a large cavern opening in the side of the mountains overlooking a massive field, leading down into a thick forest. The great Wyrm lands outside its entrance. You look over your shoulder one last time at the deep forest, its trees swaying in a syncopated movement, and follow those who flew with you into the mouth of the Cave. You enter the deep cavern and navigate its pathways to a large open room with a deep pool of water. As you lean your head over the water to drink, the reflection of yourself flickers on its surface. As you quench your thirst a powerful red dragon, known as Skundriss, looks right into your eyes, and it speaks to you.

 “You have done well to protect the Egg from the Orcs forces, as they know not how to parlay. Be ready to hunt the Orcs, into the hold of the enemy, to reclaim the Eggs of my Kin they have  taken. The Hunt begins soon.”

 The dragon disappears from your vision. You continue to move about the caverns pathways to the back of the caverns halls and visit another large room that appears as a small stone nesting area, in the middle of a Circle of Power another shining dragon egg. Swirls of flames caress the surface of the egg as it pulses with a great light. You walk towards it and admire its beauty, but before you can reach it, flames seem to erupt from the Egg and wrap the entire circle of power it lies within in a blinding fire, growing into a great white flash that springs you awake.

NIGHTMARES

The first of several nightmares that plague your sleep over the past weeks is the sight of a small village. A hamlet of sorts, it is home to only a handful of wooden buildings and a few dozen families. It is late night, and darkness rules the scene aside from the flicker of a few torches at the forest's edge. As you begin to look closer a band of Orc raiders rush from the forest with loud shouts. They charge into the village and begin to ransack all of the stands and animal corals. They kick in the doors of the homes, the screaming of the families can be heard as they are startled from their beds. The people are dragged to the outside of the small village and held at its center paralyzed in fear. All of their belongings are ransacked, doors and windows broken as the Orcs desperately search for their prize.

 After some time, the orcs begin to interrogate the families, before a young boy reveals the hidden treasure. He quivers in fear, crying heavy tears, and points at a small horse barn. The orcs rip the gates from the front of the barn and the horses are scattered and run into the forest. After several minutes of pillaging, a large green orc emerges from the barn, a gray dragon's egg in his clutches. He cheers in victory as two more Orcs move to the barn with torches and set it ablaze. The dry hay of the stables sends it up in flames almost instantly as the Orcs retreat back into the woods.

As you begin to give chase, you pass into the wood line where you are met with a large club to the face. You can taste the blood dripping from your nose into your mouth as you thud hard into the ground. A large blue Orc stands over you with the bloodied club, and your vision blurs as you lose consciousness. You shoot awake from your sleep drenched in sweat, and there is dried blood on your lips having dripped from your nose.

Another nightmare is at the mouth of Skundriss’ cave again. The darkness of night is splintered by the light of the dozens of torches held by the gathering Orc hordes at the foot of the hills leading to its entrance. As the orcs charge up the hill with the shouts of battle, Skundriss smashes the first few as he dives from the skies into the battle. He breathes jets of fire at them, taking out several as he lifts into the air with 2 in his clutches before dropping them back to the ground, where they cease to move any longer. The orcs hurl javelins and fire crossbows at the beast, most missing, some lodging themselves within his scales. Small trails of blood can be seen leaking from behind the Reds scales, but this doesn’t seem to relent his assault. 

Several bands of orcs charge past the ensuing battle towards the cave while another band moves a large ballista into the battle from the wood line. As Skundriss attempts to flee toward the cave mouth, they fire a massive harpoon into one of his wings tethering him to the ground. The marauding orcs exit the cave again, carrying the flaming dragon's egg, as Skundriss continues to fight off a dozen or more Orcs attacking him in his prone state. He rips the harpoon from his wing and takes flight again, raining blood over the entire scene. He crashes into the side of the mountain before and pulls himself up again and attempts to escape. The Orcs charge back to the cover of the woods, clutching the egg, leaving their fallen behind. As the Orcs disappear from your sight, you are startled awake by a loud roar from Skundriss. Unsure if it was heard in your nightmare, in your head, or with your ears while sleeping, that day you visit the cave and you notice that many loose stones appear to have tumbled down the mountainside.

END