Session 16: The Dreams Dragons Bring Part 1

The Vision

Azhantis player was back for this session so we had a bit of a flashback to his vision from the ship sailing too close to the prison of Sopias.

Scene 1: The Ship of Dreams

Azhanti emerges from his sleep standing alone on a vast sandy desert. It is a desolate, heat blasted and lonely place. Far to the south he can see a line of mountains and from them blows a slight breeze with barely audible voices carried by it. They seem to be calling his name.
Determined to find their source he sets off. The sun is at its zenith and refuses to move. Heat beats down at him, slowly baking him in his armour. He refuses to relent. An elder Dragonborn warlock joins him and offers him a place to rest and seek shade. He nearly turns away but resists temptation. He continues, his shield and axe now drag at his limbs, pulling him to lay down and rest but he wont stop, he cannot stop. The voices call him on. The elder returns and offers him water to ease his raging thirst. He refuses, the mountains are close now but he is faced with a long hard climb.

Steeling himself he shrugs off the elders continued distractions and makes the climb. The sun sets behind him and his shadow flows out ahead of him, driving him to the head of a narrow gully cut into the rocks. As he reaches the head of the pass into the mountains he collapses, exhaustion finally claiming him.

He is awoken by the beating of wings and a gust of wings. A huge golden dragon descends on him demanding to know who intrudes on the domain of the Dragons. He pulls himself to his feet and declares himself, "I am Azhanti, the Stormlord." The dragon backhands him across the pass and pounces, "That remains to be seen."

Snatching him up the two of them fly at breakneck speed through the mountains until he is dropped onto a tall column in the centre of a wide valley. Out of the sky more dragons descend in many different colours, gold, silver, bronze, white, green, red and more. They interrogate him closely, eager to learn who he is and what he wants. Azhanti declares his goals, to achieve dominion over the next cycle for the Dragonborn. His worth is questioned, "The Emperor is more worthy than you." "But he has been corrupted by the softskins" he replies.

As the sun rises the Dragons turn. "Behold, Azhanti, your promise to the future." Beyond the valley lies a vast grassy plain and in the sky wheel dozens, perhaps hundreds of dragons of every colour imaginable. As his vision begins to fade he turns to face them and behind him, carved into the face of the mountain is a vast statue of a dragon, a statue with his face. Their voices resound in his mind "We are the shape of things to come, your enemies seek to disrupt the timeline, call on us in your hour of greatest need."