Running Out Of Steam But I Had To Mess Around With The Colors, Cant Wait To Finish This In The Next Few

sur le pas de la porte,

a3,

pastels

Koki Tsujimoto — Auspicious Rainbow Dragon: Kou Kou  (mineral pigments on japanese paper mounted on wood panel, 2019)

Cosmic ghost: Dark nebula in Orion © marsrader

Comet Leonard

Deity: Bahamut the Martyred Wyrm

He does not answer our prayers, we answer his, the dying plea of a selfless creature who wished only that someone would stand up and care for his people after he had given his last for them.

We Stand for Bahamut,

Would you Stand With us?

The Dragon is dead, but he is remembered. One of the earliest heroes in mortal history, ever bright Bahamut turned against the proscribed order of the world and his very being to fight on behalf of the innocent; Sacrificing himself when it became clear that he had no other means of unseating the tyrant that ruled over them. His actions resound into the present day, somewhere between a folk hero and a saint for many cultures where his story and example have taken on a power all their own, called upon by the fearful and the righteous in their greatest times of need.

There is no one church of the platinum dragon as such, but there are organizations that claim him as their inspiration. Often these temples will feature some local hero or great exemplar that they claim best exemplified Bahamut’s virtues, though these “aspects of the dragon”  vary extremely in their actions, ethos, and representative philosophies.

Since he embodies reckless benevolence, courage in the face of adversity, a willingness to overturn established orders, Bahamut is often seen as the patron of more noble adventuring types, who may too often chafe under the responsibility and goody-two-shoes  reputation the mythic dragon has garnered over the intervening centuries.

Hooks:

If you want to prove yourself daring and brave they say, go up to the shrine of the platinum dragon in the mountains. Make offering and meditate by the altar fires, and by dawn you will know if Bahamut has deemed you worthy or not.   It’s only a few hours into the party’s vigil when the party hear distressed cries and the sounds of the skirmish resonating off the walls of the ravine, likely coming from the river at its mouth. Do they head out into the darkness and abandon their rite, or do they stay put and do as they’ve been told? Given that they’re at the shrine of a god of righteous bravery, the question should not be that hard to come by.

The party receive a glimpse into their possible future as they watch a pair of higher level adventurers brawling on the steps of one of Bahamut’s temples, interrupting the service for their own fallen companion. Once a close knit group of friends, this adventuring party has been sundered by the death of their paladin, a devout of the platinum dragon who gave his life so that the others could escape from a rampaging monster. One of the adventurers, mourning the loss of her best friend screams that the paladin’s sacrifice was stupid, while another won’t hear ill of the dead on the day they’re set to bury him. Some time later, one of the presiding priests will ask the party’s help in reconciling the grieving pair

Descended from a celebrated champion of Bahamut famed for battling a dragon on his own, a noble house has become increasingly arrogant and ambitious, seeing themselves as favored by the dragon god and claiming their ancestor’s virtues as their own. Their hunting of drakes and other minor wyrms has esiclated over time, and now the scion of their house wishes to mount an expedition and hunt a true dragon lairing in the nearby wilderness and he wants the party to help. Whether or not the heroes decide to tag along, the scion manages to give the dragon a nearly mortal wound, only for its mate to show up a few hours later and begin razing the countryside in a fairly justified rage. The party are then faced with a choice of either killing both dragons or playing against type figuring out a way to heal the first of the pair and quell their mates anger.

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Halberd for the Bodyguard of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, 1580–1600. 

Death and the Maiden, oil painting by Ana Sanchez