The Litany of Dragonsong
The Litany of Dragonsong has many names: the Song of Storms, the Lament of Ages, the Song of All Time. The Litany of Dragonsong was once known to dragon cults across the world. In the face of an immortal dragon, who could not name it a god? Mother Kos, Slumbering Gotric, the Nameless Wyrm of World’s End: there were once many. Not so many remember in this age. Even fewer sing.
To perform a verse requires singing it with all the force you can muster. If you perform a verse of the Lament of Ages two or more times before resting your voice overnight, there is a 1-in-6 chance that you lose your voice, rendering you unable to speak above a rasping whisper for a week.
In combat, performing a verse requires using your action each round to sustain it. It must be focused upon as if concentrating on a spell.
Krataeis the Sea Dragon
There is something below you in the pitch-black sea. Below you, a shape, an outline. Too large. Like a fish but not, like a snake but not. A sinuous shape below you, thicker than a ship is long. It watches you with a baleful eye.
A sea dragon is neither a leviathan nor a kraken. A sea dragon is a creature large enough to feed on leviathans, on giant krakens, large enough to drown whole islands in its wroth. Or to be a whole island. Ships sail the whale-roads; sea dragons dwell in those places in between, those unmapped places where no sailor dares steer his ship. The seas where Mother Kos and her children still swim.
Krataeis is the most audacious of Mother Kos’s children. She swims the whale-roads just as ships do—to feed on those ships. The leviathans sing in worship the histories and praises of the dragon as she feeds. They sing the Song of Storms beneath the waves.
The Lament of Ages is beautiful to hear, though hearing it might kill you. The force of their singing will break your ribs; it will pop your eardrums. But you will know: this is the song whose rhythm the waves repeat. This is the song whose notes the birds attempt to sing. It crushes you with its sorrow; the whales sing of ages past. A priesthood’s ritual.
There are many verses that make up the Song of Storms, but Krataeis was born too late. She knows not the first verses of the song: those of draconic triumph. She can teach her priests only the lamentations of its ending. These are those.
Verse: The Age of Man
The onset of humanity was ants spoiling a picnic. Anthills began made of mud and wood; they eventually became carved in marble. Roads were marched into the earth and ships were built to infest the sea: a net of economics. They found their way even to Mother Kos’s back—she had to sink beneath the waves to rid herself of the irritation.
While performing this verse, you and all creatures within 30 feet of you who can hear the song have your travel pace doubled and may walk across any body of water as if it were solid ground. The ocean depths thus reject mankind. This verse takes one hour to complete.
Verse: Coda
The Song of All Time fittingly ends with the end of the world. Man has proved an immortal dragon can die. The dragon priest forsook his god for his fellow man and was killed for it by his new lords. Humanity destroys itself and the world in one fell swoop.
While performing this verse, all creatures within sixty feet of you who can hear the song fall prone and be unable to stand up as they weep uncontrollably. Creatures continue to weep until you complete the verse or stop performing it. Afterward, you and all creatures who were affected by the verse age 2d4 years. The ages weigh on you. This verse takes ten minutes to complete.
Synergistic Performance
When these two verses are performed together in succession, a body of water will weep for you. Afterward, it may be commanded to allow passage through it or to rise up and flood an area.
Other verses may have different synergies. What might happen were you to perform the whole song?