Begat by Berserkers

Metaphysical / Paranormal event

The Council of Dragons meets to discuss the five new dragon eggs. Danger is called away to save Snow Hide from herself among the goliaths.

The party leads the yellow man toward Haven Battlefield when they are set upon by a crew of bandits. In the skirmish, the yellow man grabs Danger’s bag and pulls out the dragon eggs. He starts performing specific rites on them and, by drawing symbols in the dirt, conveys to the party he’s incubating them. They decide that’s not his call to make and force him to hold off on it until the Council reaches a verdict.   They return to Haven Battlefield and the Council Chamber within it. Here we go again. The other dragons arrive, all except for Braes and Ivory, who also neglected to send Snow Hide. The council begins, sidelining Danger and Lyr.   In almost a direct divide, half the dragons, Sable, Virescent, Seolfor, and Cyrpium Aes agree the new dragons should be born. Meanwhile, Cerulean, Sanguine, Gould, and Birinj take the opposing side for different reasons. Sanguine wants to keep the eggs as treasures, Gould thinks they’ll be more chromatics and thinks they should be destroyed before the balance is thrown off, Birinj doesn’t trust the yellow man and doesn’t want to make plans until they know more, but Cerulean’s reason isn’t one she shares out loud. She tells Daryl that she has the pieces of her original egg and it looks nothing like these.   One is a gradient of red, another is almost a hunk of stone, a third bears markings that look like clouds, then there’s the one that’s a deep shade of aqua, and lastly, one that resembles the night sky. If they aren’t chromatic or metallic, the thought of elemental dragons crosses Daryl’s mind.   Outside the council, Danger and Daryl see a figure appear from nowhere. It’s Clanleader of the Kortoo clan of Goliaths. He tells them Snowhide is attacking their village. She’s gone berserk. He has a helm of teleportation with two more trips in it. It can bring 2 people with him. Danger knows he’s going to save her, or stop her if worst comes to worst, but when Lyr offers to join him he’s against it. He sees Lyr as a nuisance and not helpful so he interrupts the council.   Daryl and Indigo move for a recess, but they tell Danger they can’t exactly leave right now. Danger is mad, but accepts Lyr as his companion. Clanleader teleports them to his village. There they find Snowhide attacking Goliaths with the Berserker Axe, right by the other, the prime Berserker Axe, still embedded in stone. Danger clashes with Snow Hide, whose strength breaks his greatsword. He moves back toward the prime Berserker Axe, in case of emergency, but still has a safer backup axe to wield.   The councilors aren’t positioned the same as their dragons, but it’s still just about an even split, leaving Indigo to be the tiebreaker. The new dragons will be born. But they also need to learn more about what they’re dealing with, which means they need to speak with the yellow man. Aarden points out that there’s a spell for comprehend languages. He’s sure a wizard at Magiston University would know it. Daryl offers to find a translator at the school of magic, but someone should stay there to watch the yellow man while he incubates the eggs. They decide the most honorable chromatic and metallic dragonborn, Bastion the Black and Leonis the Gold, should remain. Once they understand what the yellow man intends for these eggs they can make an informed decision.   Lyr fires a crucial shot at Snowhide, weakening her enough for Danger to knock her out. The Goliaths emerge from behind cover, eager to get rid of both axes. Danger doesn’t know how, but for now, he thinks he can put them somewhere nobody can use them. He puts a net around Snow Hide’s axe and then, with Lyr’s help, he picks up the stone that the prime axe is embedded in and tosses it into the same net.   The axes make contact. Two of the same axe. They start rumbling. The snow around them starts swirling into the air. Looking around, Danger and Daryl see an army of strange mummified people in rags watching from all directions. Something is about to happen and Snowhide is in the area of effect, so Danger dives on top to protect her. KABOOM! The axes explode into millions of tiny points of metal. They reconverge in the center, creating a chaotic mass through which different times are glimpsed. The past, the future, other seasons, it’s different every time you blink. The mass of time spins around, touching upon both Danger and Snowhide as it moves, and then recedes into itself, vanishing. Lyr even notices all those onlookers vanish as well.   Clanleader hands Danger the helm of teleportation to take Lyr and Snow Hide back to the Council. She tells him she needed the axe so she wouldn’t have to feel shame. She killed a baby as the berserker. Danger forgives her and suggests she visit their son Earlang.   Danger, Lyr, and Snowhide return to the Council. Snowhide tells everybody what happened to her and agrees with the party’s plan for the eggs. Another ally in the council.   After the meeting ends, Ilmatar approaches the party. She tells them the monk theory from her monastery that time is the fifth element. For generations, monks have been trying to control it like they can fire, earth, air, and water, and there’s even a theory of a Chronalmental to rival the other elementals. They figure the Chronalmental is benign. It didn’t hurt anybody. But they really don’t know what the future holds for it.   Hopefully, they can find answers on that and more at Magiston.