Cauldron Festival

[Corwin]

"Left for Beyond, you think?"

[Anastasia]

Murmurs at that, but it is the same voice that replies. "It may be. We are Io's children, and what are we? We are proud, we are powerful, we are arrogant. What are we but perfection over lesser races? You are Io's child, look at what you did to gain more, to become more. Io is the father of rising above what you are and ascending."

[Corwin]

Seira nods slowly as she takes that in. "And you reside here," she decides to ask again, "because after Io left to seek further perfection, you have decided on attempting to do the same on this ageless plane?"

[Anastasia]

"It is the nature of dragons to seek more. More treasure, more power, more perfection. What is our hoard but a reflection of that?" The dragon speaks.

Oraga rumbles softly, "Perfection, a false dream. None can achieve it."

[Corwin]

"The pursuit of perfection is one of the best out there, I believe," Seira muses. "Making the attempt and bettering yourself is quite worthwhile."

Deciding she loses nothing by making the proposition, she voices, "Another reason I wondered about your reasons for settling here was whether you would be interested in making another change and allying more closely with the Cauldron. If we did that, the Gith would no longer be the undisputed power on Astral. That nicely handles the power aspect, while the realm's position and my planar ties will lead to an increase in trade, which brings wealth with it. As for the pursuit of perfection, the Cauldron is where the latest advances in magical theory have come from, and there, too, we are not resting upon our laurels."

[Anastasia]

"Show us something worthy of those words." The voice that speaks is stronger, louder than the others. "Prove your advancement."

[Corwin]

"The Cauldron now boasts a trinity of deities," Seira tells the dragons. "You've seen the signs as Amaryl ascended recently, and she will not be the last. Where Ao had blocked such matters in the past, we stay the course undaunted and deliver results."

She assumes her combat form, and after summoning a target conveniently to the side where none will be harmed, calls upon her Three-Fold Breath!

'Research into the arcane to advance our innate talents continues apace, and this is just one small fruit of its labors,' Seira speaks directly into their minds. 'What took Tiamat divinity and Io's direct gift to attain will one day be available to all of our allies through our research and their innate power.'

As the cacophony of goldenfire fades, Seira is once more floating in the Silver Sea with her usual adventuring outfit, cloak fluttering dramatically behind her! She breathes fire anew, and in those flames come vivid images of the mighty clash of elements as she forms the All Elemental, then offers her hand for him to take. The image changes, and now it shows Afina instead in all her prismatic glory!

"The power of the prismatic spectrum, that of the elementals, the primal forces of life-- we advance it all, and without crossing forbidden boundaries. You've spoken of Baleruk, yet this same power was attained by the Cauldron without crossing Io's edicts. You are not lacking in imagination, so you can see how all of us can benefit from this proposed partnership," she concludes, awaiting their answer.

[Anastasia]

Gimme a Diplo check, +6 bonus.

[Corwin]

21:49 <Lucille> roll 1d20+52+4+6+15
21:49 <Rei-chan> Lucille rolled : 1d20+52+4+6+15 --> [ 1d20=20 ]{97}

[Anastasia]

Silence. Dead silence after your words and magic.

"You can create prismatic dragons?" Dozens of voices speak at once, undercurrents asking much the same in different words.

[Corwin]

"I'm not the Perfect One, so it takes more than just snapping my fingers or twitching my nose, but yes. We have the means for becoming prismatic dragons, if the dragon is strong enough."

[Anastasia]

"Then a pact can be made. Give this to us, offer it to us and we will do as you wish."

[Corwin]

Seira inclines her head. "Join me, join Cauldron and follow my path," she offers, "and I will have Sanzha present each of you so interested with the opportunity."

The pact is a basic one, but that very simplicity will serve to keep it foolproof. And in the end, beyond help with advancing her goals on the side of Good and universal harmony, Seira doesn't desire servitude or riches from her draconic allies. Perhaps, in the end, following such a path will even show them the value in Good?

[Anastasia]

"Bring it to us and we will agree."

Go ahead and sketch out OOC-wise what you want this pact to cover real quick?

[Corwin]

Right! So they're scary powerful and probably-evil-by-nature-but-not-actually-acting-evil-for-real ancient dragons. I'd like them to join my forces! The exact means are however is comfortable for you, like whether they are an army, or there is a named squad of cool dragons while the rest serve as home defense in the background, whether we get a lot more dragons all over the Cauldron in a bunch of areas like finance/trade/research and so on. I think it'd boost my home a great deal, and all of my Node's people can benefit from strong, cool dudes helping them out. Maybe there's even a Tepen dragon (more likely Vul'lath but still).

Aside from having more options, it'd allow us to project our power better across the planes and even on Primes, since even if all the dragons can't go to a Prime their mere presence would free the rest of our forces who can. As stated, it should also give us some semblance of parity with Vla'akith without being too confrontational given she has her own alliances with dragons and can't begrudge me the same.

Sanzha will also gain a lot of volunteers who would be happy to go prismatic (or maybe one of the other options we have, since the behemoth stuff is pretty cool!) Of course, this also means they will have to do it in order and with delays to follow the Afina model, but they're immortal anyway.

Perhaps it will even push me over, DvR-wise. Who knows? It's certainly the fulfillment of a cool goal and the advancement of my cause.

One thing that wouldn't be in the pact itself but I hope comes as a consequence of it is that if cooperation and mutual advancement helps them, they'll give Good a chance or at least be firmly Neutral, and we'll rehabilitate the reputation of red dragons. I'd like that a lot! But I'd settle for the pact preventing some douchebag evil acts in non-offensive language that will be palatable.

Now, I have a question of my own! I can't 'bring it to them' because it's like a process that happens in Sanzha's labs. If 'have a prismatic template' was a thing I could just give to people left and right I would've done it already! I told them as much, albeit in IC language. Why are they telling me to bring it anyway?