War dragons are also known as Battle Dragons or Conflict Dragons and are an oddity even amongst the planar dragons. They are born from conflict large enough to create empathetic echoes throughout their home plane and while able to breed are not capable of doing so with members of their own species and their decedents lack most traits of the Battle Dragon unless the other parent had them too.

They have great power and skill in the weapons that were used in the conflict that spawned them, magical or otherwise. They are driven by the emotions and logic of those that were, or still are, involved in the conflict that birthed them. This leaves them to generally be violent, cruel and other such negative emotions. While it is possible for them to be created from resolution of a conflict or extreme peace, this variant tends to be both rarer and weaker than the normal version.

Adrian

Once we are all inside I hear tearing paper and turn to my mother.

“Don’t destroy it” I say a little too loudly pulling the journal from her hands.

“I wasn’t, dad told me to take this page out. It has a message in lemon juice” she says with all off her built up displeasure from the journal's contents leaking out.

I wave my hand without asking and will a focused burst of heat over the torn page in her hands. It became discolored as writing became visible.

“I should have something to wake up your dragon powers within a few days.”

She nods but is more attentive on the paper. I can see tears in her eyes and anger.

I pull her into a hug but she pushes me away after a moment, “later, I need to think” she says.

I nod but after I finish what I need to tell the others I’m going to have to comfort her. Dad isn’t here, I have to. I hope Frank isn’t mentioned in that note. . .

My mother walks off into one of the bedrooms as I turn to the others. “There is something I want to try in the Grey Dream after my mom calms down.”

“What?” Kythia asks.

“Group sessions, try to request it when you go there tonight.”

I get some weird looks from the trio and Ria even though everyone nods. With that I turn and take a few breaths before following after my mother.

When I walk into the room I get an angry glare from her and close the door behind me. I sit next to her and glance at the note, it isn’t much and not even fully coherent but after reading the journal it gives a very clear message.

My younger brothers are Fabricio and Antonio Ravnos not the souls that they should have been, and they were sent because of me. More specifically because I could do magic and that he killed them after they tried to kill me.

I don’t say anything, guilt welling up inside me. “Did you know? Are you like them?” she asks with venom in her voice.

“I’m sorry” I mutter.

“Did you know? Are you like them?” she repeats.

“No, I’m not like them. I didn’t know anything until I read that journal.”

I wrap my arms around my mom as she begins to give herself completely over to her crying. I rub her back and tell her comforting words as the emptiness left by Frank’s death gets filled, with hate for what this put my mother through.

I will kill whoever is responsible for this and I will make them suffer. I lose track of time and I do not know how long it took for my mother to cry herself to sleep but she would not let go once she did.

When the trio opens the door and looks in I motion for them to come closer.

“Are you coming to bed?” Lysan asks.

“I want to, but. . .” I point at my mother and move a bit away only for her to pull herself closer.

“You could easily get out of that” K comments and I nod. It is true, I am a lot stronger than her.

“But she needs the emotional support, we can talk though. Even if she does wake up she won’t understand us.”

They frown a bit, except for Lysan who decided to just sit next to me.

“Do you think your plan will work?” Talia asks sitting nearby.

“I think so and if just using something stronger doesn’t work, I’ll look into age regression. There is also the thing I did to Thrane, that dragon magic imbued and awakened abilities in him even if I don’t know what. I’m almost certain I didn’t do it right either.”

“Do you need any help?” Lysan asks though I think Talia was about to.

“Yes, but you might not like everything that is going to be involved. To concentrate the draconic essence into something my mom will be able to eat without popping her stomach some blood magic will be needed, not to mention that the other two options I have to look at will require experimentation to get right and I’m not going to practice on someone I care about.”

The twins both frown, even if Lysan’s is only a slight one, before Talia turns to K. “You agreed with this?”

“I did and no its not demonic. The planed sacrifices are either the soldiers who tried to or Althaen who have done the same.”

“Do you have to?” Talia asks me.

I nod and she continues, “will it work for awakening non dragons?”

It takes me a moment to think through her question, “the first one would mutate some draconic traits if it worked but would probably have to work together with the second. Age regression would not cause any awakenings but could make other methods more likely to succeed. Why?”

“Sister and me, we aren’t all our parents were.”

“Then what were they?”

“Royal elves.”

“Which is?” I ask not knowing what that sub species would even be.

“A racial group of elves like High Elves, usually blessed by a natural element or a type of magic.”

I gesture for her to continue, I’m going to need more resources than I thought.

“Dad was blessed by fire, he could command it and it wouldn’t hurt him while Mom could create a healing light.”

“Do you know which you inherited?”

Both of them shake their heads. I suppose it doesn’t really matter. The same idea I have for mom won’t work for this, concentrating elven blood and feeding it to them isn’t something they would permit even if I could gather the ingredients. Maybe I can figure out how Dragon’s Blessing works and manipulate it?

Learning to cause age regression could still work. EP would be reenabled and EP hasn’t been to hard for me to gather. Life gave me a discount in the Grey Dream, could I use it to force a racial awakening?

“If you want it, I’ll do everything I can.”

The twins smile, I’m not going to mention what I’ll probably end up having to do to get this to wok.

“There is something else you should know” Lysan says and I turn to her.

“Before your father had us run away he wanted me to pass on a message to soak his book in human blood. I don’t know why.”

I nod, that isn’t going to be difficult with my forming plans. I wonder what that is supposed to do though. Normally it would ruin anything that was written on the paper but maybe he put some magic in it?

I shift myself slightly to lean against the headboard of the bed before speaking, “well we still have stuff to do in the Grey Dream right?”

They nod and find places to get comfortable before drifting off to sleep.

I open my eyes and unlike the other times I’ve entered the Grey Dream it is not an empty grey mist. Bryan and Abagail are standing next to each other as he helps her with something. Ria is sitting off to the side waiting and the trio are slowly appearing next to me at what is apparently the entrance to this shared version of the Grey Dream.

“Well, it worked” I say as the trio bump into me.

Ria jumps up and runs over to us. “I told her not to purchase anything here until she talked to you about it” K says.

“Alright, should we just share all our information with each other than?”

They all think for a minute before nodding, Ria did not hesitate though and I got a pop up from here before I even finished my sentence.

Name: Ria

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Skills

Attributes

Class

SP: 215

Traits

Magic

Languages

EP: 138

Name: Kythia Bloodclaw

Gender: Female

Age: 23

Skills

Attributes

Class

SP: 58

Traits

Magic

Languages

EP: -

Name: Thalia Alanthíer

Gender: Female

Age: 122

Skills

Attributes

Class

SP: 21

Traits

Magic

Languages

EP: -

Name: Lysan Alanthíer

Gender: Female

Age: 122

Skills

Attributes

Class

SP: 19

Traits

Magic

Languages

EP: -

Talia’s name is actually Thalia?

“Alright I can’t go over everyone’s stuff at the same time so who should be first?” I ask as I send the trio my own information. I actually do hope that they find something I can use. Last time a fresh pair of eyes looked over it dragon-me found out you can buy traits.

“You should help Ria, the rest of us don’t have much to do” K says and the others nod. It does make logical sense so I move the other three screens to the side and open up panels about what Ria already has. I motion her to move next to me as I do so.

STR 9

DEX 16

CON 12

INT 20

WIS 14

CHA 20

APR 24

HP: 44

Mana: 210

Kitsune 10

Sorcerer 6

School

Highest Tier

Spells Known

Abjuration

1

Armor, Shield

Conjuration

0

Divination

5

Identify, True Strike, See Invisible, Know Direction, Detect , Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Next of Kin, Scry, True Seeing, Oracle, Invisibility Purge, Infravision, Ultravision,

Enchantment

2

Resist Fear, Calm Emotion, Sleep, Laughter, Scan Thoughts, Societal Invisibility

Evocation

1

Burning Hands

Illusion

4

Light, Ventriloquism, Dancing Lights, Darkness, Shadow Evocation, Image , Reflexive Illusion

Necromancy

1

Minor Drain

Transmutation

2

Eagle’s Splendor, Benign Transposition, Clean

Kitsune Tail

Proficiency

Powers Available

1 - Fire

3

Manipulation, Generation,

2 - Shadows

0

Generation

Brittle

Kitsune are physically weak and have poor tolerance to pain and injury. -8 CON

Chi Senses

You are able to passively sense a variety of energies making it easier to learn to control them as well as notice when most supernatural abilities are being used.

Darkvision

Empathetic Bond

Your bond is currently empty

Fey Body

Your Appearance has also increases Constitution for things other than your Fortitude.

Keen Senses Greater

Your senses are more acute and sensitive.

Kitsune Traits

Brittle, Fey Body, Scent, Infravision, +4INT, CHA, +6 APR, Each tail increases your total mana capacity

Infravision

Scent Greater

Your sense of smell far surpasses the regular man.

She can definitely teach Bryan some shadow magic. I wonder how she has such a high constitution with the negative eight, probably from needing it. I’m not sure what to do with the tails or how they work, I’ll have to ask about that. I don’t know what that bond is for but combat wise it won’t matter. Chi Senses and Fey Body give me some ideas though.

“How do your tails’ magic work?”

“They let me spend mana to create and control energy directly related to some trait” Ria answers, it is a bit similar to my abilities. Could I teach her to create the weird fires I’ve made? Chi Senses probably lets her feel them. . .

“How do you get more tails?” that question is probably the secret to her growing more powerful the fastest.

“Kitsune stuff.”

“Like. . .”

“Being awesome and fun and stuff.”

Alright I’ll have to ask someone else what Kitsune stuff is; probably acting fox like so pranks and what not.

“Alright then, lets look at EP.” She opens it up, the Grey Dream seems to have a security against others spending your points. Good feature, an override would be nice but what Ria and the others end up being should be up to them.

Elemental

Kitsune

Mana

Senses

She opens up Kitsune without a wasted second.

Empathetic Sense 50

Fey Bond 150

Fey Spirit 150

Kitsune’s Eyes 75

Prehensile Tails 50

Potent Tails 75

We look over the list and like mine there are no descriptions of the abilities given until after they are purchased. Even then they are not always given. Logically from what she already has Fey has to do with appearance affecting something else, otherwise they seem semi-self-explanatory.

“What should I get?” Ria asks and I answer her after a moment.

“I’m not sure, both Fey abilities should be good if they are like the one you already have. Finding and noticing things should be easier with Empathetic Sense. I don’t know what Kitsune Eyes can do but they should be helpful in doing Kitsune stuff. If you want stronger magic go with Potent Tails.”

“You’re not going to tell me what I have to be?”

“No, I’ll give advice but you should get to choose what you want to be.”

She buys Prehensile Tails and Kitsune’s Eyes. I don’t know why she took the first choice when she isn’t a melee fighter but maybe the extra ‘hands’ will help her in spellcasting?

Next, I have her open up the Trait menu for purchases and we limit it down to the following.

Accelerated Learning 50

Endurance 50

Quick Step 50

Perfect Recall 50

Ria already has guesses at what each of these do and she takes two of those I already have but the SP dropped by more, she bought something else too. I don’t know what it is but hopefully it wasn’t something stupid.

“What should I do with the rest?”

“Buy skills or increase your attributes.”

She smiles and nods as I dismiss what panels I still have open for her. Now I’ll go over the trio’s pages before I’m done here. I glance around and everyone else is already gone.