Academia Nut wrote:I'm going to need erinyes for the next chapter. Female readers can volunteer names and some traits for the seductive fallen warriors of the Nine Hells if they so wish.
Many devils and demons in D&D have Greek, Celtic, or Latin names. Don't use Biblical/Hebrew titles, as canon Eva used them a lot. Also, names that are double entrentrees with a sinister meaning are fun in a fantasy setting: Aislinn ("dream vision, inspiration"), Breanna ("noble" or "dark maiden"), Caoimhe ("gentle beauty"), etc. As another option, devils are renowned for holding grudges and patiently waiting eons to get revenge, so an Egyptian or Babylonian name has a primordial appeal: Aziza ("precicious"), Jendaya ("thankful"), etc.
For possible personality traits of female characters:
= a woman whose emotions are tempered by intellectual curiosity, perhaps a scholar of some sorts.
= The victim of an ironic punishment, like a wound that never heals, or a Seer who can only see visions of evil and despair.
= Hell in known for both its pleasure gardens and fiendish plantlife, so maybe a devilish version of PoisonIvy from "the Batman" series?
= Are you going to mention the endless Blood War between Baator and the Abyss?
= In regards to the Lawful aspect of Baatar, have you ever seen "the Last Samurai"? The rebels aren't fighting against the Emperor, but on BEHALF of the Emperor whose divine duties cannot be carried out by the current administration. Is it possible to be sincerely loyal to someone in a society founded on corruption and tyrany?
Not really, the heads pretty much have to be completely redone to get it the way I see it in my mind.
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
Devils often fight the undead minions of Orcus and Yeenoghu, so Lars might run into an Erinyes she-devil who specializes in combat against undead opponents, which could be an interesting alternative to the whole scheming seductress stereotype.
Lars is aware of the Necron and C’Tan threat Chaos Undivided will one day face, so he’d pay close attention to alternative methods on fighting undead and necromantic foes in the hopes that when he gets back home such information might get him a ‘slightly’ lighter sentence for eating those drow children.
The Dirgesinger bardic class from “Libris Mortis” can affect the undead with their melodies, and the Bone Collector or Ghost Slayer classes in “Ghostwalk” work for any alignment and doesn’t require the ability to channel positive energy or turn undead like a good cleric.
1) Necrons aren't undead, they're robots controlled by the souls of ancient Necrontyr.
2) New Chaos isn't fighting the Necrons as the War in Heaven was won before the Necrontyr were tricked into becoming the Necrons.
3) New chapter.
Chapter Fifty: Negotiations
The people of Nesmé were normally a hearty, if somewhat grim, lot, used to weathering the dangers of the Evermoors and in particular the Trollmoors. The start of the Time of Troubles had been hard on them, but they had all closed ranks as a community and were prepared to ride out the worst of it, if indeed the disaster could be ridden out. Already the entire north had seemed to have nearly fallen apart just a few days ago. It was horrible. A day after that the Trollmoors had been filled with horrific roars, sounding like trolls but tinged with fear and pain to such a degree that unless the skies had opened up with fire it surely could not be those fearless brutes.
But for all the hardships the people of Nesmé had endured over the years, nothing prepared them for the sight of a contingent of trolls marched out of the mists of the moors carrying exhausted looking people on their backs and gently in their clawed hands. Admittedly, they weren’t the first ones to show up, for ragged looking humans had started appearing a few minutes earlier, followed by strange looking dwarves and gnomes, then other creatures like orcs, goblins, kobolds, an ogre or two, and even drow elves.
A few of them, especially the drow, were armed, but most of those in the strange procession out of the mists looked like they had not seen the sun in years, if they had ever seen it at all. Many of them bore the look of escaped slaves, eager to flee from their masters, but despite the polyglot collection, none of them seemed inclined to fight with each other or with the defenders of Nesmé.
Then the trolls started showing up, carrying those too sick and wounded to walk, and in their arms was the largest number of surface elves in the group, along with a small gaggle of children. Surprisingly the overwhelming majority of the children were drow.
Then, to top it all off, a massive litter, although mobile platform was really more the case considering it was carried by four of the largest trolls the town had ever seen, was carried into view. Laid out on it were the worst cases, along with the apparent leadership. A young woman, a girl really except for the stern set of her face, sat on a throne adorned with polished skulls while a stout dwarf stood to her left and a freakish looking drow to her right. It seemed they were directing both the trolls and the efforts to keep the invalids comfortable and alive.
Apparently too heavy for the platform, there was also either some sort of construct or someone in an incredibly expensive piece of armour gliding along the ground, keeping a perimeter around the trolls.
Upon reaching about a bowshot’s length from the walls of Nesmé, the group stopped by some unspoken agreement and the four trolls gently lowered their burden to the ground, keeping their heads bowed and deferential to the girl at the centre of all of this bizarre activity.
It was then that the veterans of Nesmé noticed what in particular was bugging them about the whole thing. The four trolls carrying the platform had massive scars across their faces, something that should have been impossible. Given time, trolls could eventually regenerate even damage from fire and acid, just not in times associated with combat. Trolls didn’t get scars.
The terrifying young woman walked down the platform, the sick holding up hands to her that she graciously passed her own hands over. One of the trolls, having deposited its cargo of children except for one walked over, a little drow girl riding gleefully on the beast’s head… only the creature actually seemed terrified of the giggling girl.
Then an enormous pair of grey wings sprouted out of the young woman’s back and she took to the air, gently floating up a point where she was level with the walls.
A faint smile crossed her face and she said in a soft voice, “People of Nesmé, I have a proposition for you.”
There was a long, tense silence punctuated only by the creaking of bows and the ringing of the shell casing on the hard stone floor as it rolled away. Neither Lars nor the creatures surrounding him made a single move. The creatures might have never seen a shotgun before, but they weren’t stupid and when a stranger teleports into their stronghold bearing a strange weapon, they were not inclined to make the first move.
Especially when aforementioned stranger brags about killing a major devil and wounding a god while showing no signs of bluffing.
Finally a particularly ornately dressed member of the group broke off from the crowd and approached. Surprisingly, amongst the supernaturally beautiful creatures this one possessed a few tinges of grey in her hair about the temples and some fine but noticeable lines about her eyes. She was either going for the MILF look or she was extraordinarily old, considering Lars could tell that these were not mortal creatures. Still, considering the quality of her armour and weapons, it was pretty clear that she was the one in charge.
Her nostrils flared broadly for a second before she said, “You have the stink of chaos about you, and you dare intrude upon us.”
Lars glanced warily about him before he said, “Considering that you don’t look like the types to accept ‘my bad’ as an excuse, I’m wondering why you haven’t opened fire yet. I’m guessing you want some sort of explanation as to how I breached your defences so you can correct any flaws. Thus I’m not going to tell you how I got here as that would give up the only thing keeping me alive right now.”
“Clever… but another reason stays our hand. You have the smell of chaos upon you, but you are not a tanar’ri or even one of their older kin. No… no, I have been in existence for eons beyond count and the scent upon you is not of any of the children from the Abyss. You are one of the Elder Evils, one of the beings from beyond the deepest reaches of the Far Realm. Perhaps you are a minor one, but you are of the same type of the creatures that the gods before gods made war on at the beginning of time,” the old woman explained.
“Probably not my group or our admittedly ‘more likely to do that’ relatives, but yeah, I know of the type you’re talking about,” Lars replied.
“You have power and potential, and we can all sense the power of the weapon in your hand. So tell me young Elder Evil, what do you intend to do?” The woman asked.
“I intend to find my wife and daughter, get back to either my wife’s home or my home, and then probably settle down somewhere quiet for the rest of eternity. What is probably going to actually happen is that I will end up dragged across a multiverse bigger than you can imagine fighting for my life and the lives of my loved ones against monstrosities that make me look tame. But you know what? I think I can come to accept that fact so long as I can keep those I care about safe and we can enjoy quiet moments eating ice cream or just relaxing in the sunshine every once in a while,” Lars explained.
The winged creatures all around Lars seemed confused and discomforted by his response, possibly because they expected something more evil from him. Frowning slightly, he added on, “Oh, and if I have to wade through an ocean of blood and pave the road before me with the skulls of my enemies, then so be it. Where I come from that sort of thing is considered sweet.”
“I see…” the leader replied quietly, obviously not understanding. “So you intend to fight your way out of here?”
Lars shrugged ever so slightly while not relaxing his aim with his shotgun. “Where I come from, we have two phrases that come to mind. The first is: Walk softly but carry a big stick. The second is: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for I am the baddest motherfucker in the valley. Right now I’m carrying the biggest stick down here and I’m not afraid to use it, but I would prefer not to get into a fight. So let’s make a deal. I leave you alone, you leave me alone.”
The leader pursed her lips and said, “I am afraid that our laws are absolute on this. You must die for your trespass.”
Lars rolled his eyes and he said, “The fact that you haven’t opened fire yet means that you are either not so devoted to those laws that you will fanatically attack, or you have loopholes you are currently using. Like for instance, I’m sure that there is some way you could allow an emissary into your territory.”
The leader pursed her lips and said, “You are… unexpectedly clever about such things for a chaotic being.”
“You’ve obviously never had to fill out paperwork in Europe,” Lars muttered under his breath.
“But I am afraid that we do not accept emissaries within our domain so lightly. You would have to offer us something rather substantial, an alliance that we do not wish to be accepted by our laws,” the leader replied.
Lars’ eye twitched for a moment before he said, “You want protection from my kind.”
There was a general fluttering of wings and creaking of bowstrings, but silence remained.
“You see me standing here and you think, ‘Oh no, the Elder Evils are returning!’ because I obviously made it in here, where I’m not supposed to be. You’re scared because you’re not the baddest motherfuckers in the valley anymore. So you’re keeping me alive, maybe so that you can cut a deal and get your little slice of the pie left alone,” Lars suggested.
The leader frowned deeply, her face crinkling ever so slightly before she replied, “That is not our thought on the matter… but it is close enough that we can work off it. We are the Erinyes, former angels who have sided with the devils in their struggle against chaos. The Heavens are deluded in thinking that they can stop the demons, and the worse things that lurk beyond the Abyss, with half measures. We remember the Elder Evils and the effort it took to drive them off far enough that only the things spawned in the Abyss remained. You stink of chaos, and yet there is reason in your mind.”
“Where I come from, Chaos is all things, including Order. We are… what we are. We have no particular side in the struggle between Order and Disorder, and in fact Disorder does not align well with our current goals,” Lars replied truthfully.
“So it would seem. We want assurances that whatever domain of the Far Realm, or worse, that you come from, you will not harm us or our goals,” the leader demanded.
“Now we’re talking. I cannot exactly make air tight guarantees on the behalf of my superiors, but… but… I am empowered as an emissary,” Lars said, conveniently leaving out the fact that he was an emissary by accident and default. “There are a few things we can talk about. For example, a non-aggression treaty should be sufficient. You leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone, provided you don’t break some of our more important rules.”
“You have rules?” The leader asked, clearly shocked by a chaotic creature having a rule important enough to include in negotiations.
“Yes. Really, just one major one. No harming of children. Okay, if there’s a war and some kids get hurt in the cross fire, that’s war. Not fun, but there was nothing intentional. Our gods just don’t like to see children get hurt intentionally, although neglect is pretty bad too, and have rather strict opinions about it. Ones involving unpleasant things happening to transgressors… and judging from the atmosphere of this place, you all know a great deal about such things.”
There was the slightest shuffling amongst the winged warriors before the leader admitted, “The reason we are so… adamant about our laws here is that only the greatest of allies may step foot within our rookery. This is where the next generation of Erinyes are born, where the past and the future of our species meet. It is protected from all others, including other devils. Only Asmodeus has permission to walk here without requesting an audience, and only the dukes and archdukes of Hell or gods that we have particular alliances with may come at all.”
Lars grinned before he asked, “Is it because they are dukes or gods, or because they are your allies?”
“The latter, but they are the only ones worth allying with,” the leader replied.
“But if a sufficiently powerful being were to request an alliance it would be permitted?” Lars inquired.
“So long as said alliance did not interfere with any prior agreements or our own laws,” the leader replied.
“I see… well, I do happen to have the ear of a local goddess, sort of as it is a rather strange tale to tell, and I am certain that my own gods will listen should I present to them an agreement. You wish your rookery protected from any potential attack by my people… and you also wish to learn more, do you not? This is why you speak of such things to me. You wish to fill my halls and the halls of my allies and superiors with vipers under the guise of allies, do you not?” Lars asked.
“Clever. And yes, this is what we desire. We have our tithes to Asmodeus in souls gathered and in military service rendered, but that ancient contract does not take up our entire population. We have other contracts, but there are always a few who remain to either protect the colony or perform tasks for the benefit of the rookery. Our contracts are binding, both ways,” the leader explained.
“Non-aggression from those I personally command and guarantee of opening diplomatic ties with the intent to expand the pact to all my people and free and safe passage for me and my family through your land and around your people. Name your price and we will begin negotiating,” Lars replied.
“Twenty of my daughters to accompany you and for you to never come here again unless invited, nor mention how you got here to others,” the leader demanded.
“No contest deal on the second condition, but I only want five devils around me,” Lars replied.
“Thirteen,” the leader countered.
“How’s about eight? It’s a sacred number to my people, although six through nine are all sacred in different ways,” Lars offered.
“Ten, its round and neutral to both of us,” the leader offered.
“I can live with ten of your vipers. I assume they will act under their own command?” Lars inquired.
“They will be under your command, ally. Shall we seal the deal?” The leader asked.
Lars rolled his eyes and said, “Let me see the full contract first.”
The Erinyes snapped her fingers and a long parchment covered in ink appeared in her hands. Taking it with a tentacle so that he could keep his gun up, Lars went over it, summoning up the Infernal language from one of his recently acquired souls and he began making little marks while humming slightly.
“What are you doing?” The leader asked nervously.
“Removing clauses I didn’t agree to. You’ve never dealt with a Ministry of Fish and Game the way I have, although technically I’ve dealt with about three dozen different forms of the idea over about a hundred different lifetimes. Ha! Look at this fine print! It’s a joke! Back before they were all killed any slick shit attorney fresh out of law school could tear this apart,” Lars replied, one eye on the contract, two on the Erinyes.
The devils looked… miffed… at the suggestion that their ability to produce binding legalese was lacking, but when Lars handed it back for their review, the leader just looked at it, blinked, and shouted out, “What did you do to our poor language?”
“Ah, sorry, I was importing legalese from French bureaucracies and applied the English language’s ability to pin down another tongue and horrifically violate it to your own Infernal. Is the meaning clear?” Lars asked.
The devils carefully examined the altered document for a long time as a group, carefully annotating it in places while giving Lars evil looking glances before they said, “For a being of chaos you have quite the art for making laws dance to your whim.”
Lars shrugged and said, “We’re a bit looser than before but we have a tradition of extremely lawful and organized societies, just not in any sort of way that you would recognize or understand at first. I’m sure you would adapt well… although maybe not to the current incarnation… but upon initial contact you would be overwhelmed by the alien structure. You would actually be considered uncultured primitives in all likelihood.”
This left the Erinyes silent for a moment before they handed the contract back to Lars. Looking over it, Lars made a few minor corrections before handing it back. The leader then nodded her head and bit into her thumb, pressing a bloody print into the bottom. Lars shrugged and pressed his own thumb into the parchment, extruding some warp-stuff to make his mark.
For a moment there was a small stain of shifting colours before it morphed into a black star of Chaos. Lars was almost content with it before he noticed the symbol starting to shift once more, the arms of the star starting to twist and braid about until there was a new and unique symbol. The lower three had formed what vaguely looked like a nautical anchor while the top of the symbol looked almost like tree branches twisted together, with the central up pointing arm widen out to produce a distinctive hammer effect.
Lars looked at it for a while before he sighed and realized he had just figured out the Chaos symbol for him and Skuld.
Oh, and judging from the cries of surprise on amongst the Erinyes, Lars figured that all of the ones assigned to him had just been marked as well. He gave their leader a blank stare and said, “Honestly, I had no idea that would happen. Sorry.”
“The fact that the contract hasn’t magically informed me of a break indicates that what just happened was non-hostile, so I’ll let it pass. Now go, get out of our colony,” the leader demanded.
“Right away. Umm… which way is out? I got here via a portal accident,” Lars admitted, now that he had secured safe passage.
There was a collective groan from the Erinyes.
---
There is an example of Lars' symbol on the previous page.
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
Awww, little Gunnhild has new playmates! The description of the arriving refugees was well played. How many are there? Hundreds? Thousands?
Nesme is a great location, close to Silverymoon and Mithril Hall but far away enough to maintain its independence.
Giants, or 'jotunn,' play many roles in Norse myth, such a villains or spouses of the Asgard gods. Will Skuld's heritage compel her to seek out 'greater jotunn' like stone giants or frost giants? Her emotions and instincts may have been heightened or altered by the Shadow Weave or Lar's sliver of daemonic essence.
Academia Nut wrote:There are three points you should know:
1) Necrons aren't undead, they're robots controlled by the souls of ancient Necrontyr.
2) New Chaos isn't fighting the Necrons as the War in Heaven was won before the Necrontyr were tricked into becoming the Necrons.
Sorry about my misunderstanding in regards to the Necron, although the concept of an undead hunting she-devil erinyes sounded cool.
Anyway, very nice dialogue for Lars negociating an Infernal contract. One of Lars' new "interns" might pester him for legal advice.
I didn't know there was a devil subrace capable of self-propogation. Are the Erinyes asexual or hermaphrodites? Do they lay eggs or give live birth? I ask because depending on how they conceive, long-term exposure to Lars' "wild magic aura" could get them pregnant.
Lars: *sigh of relief* "Atleast I'm not the mother this time..."
Erinyes: ???
Lars: "Long story. I'll explain later."
Academia Nut wrote:There are three points you should know:
1) Necrons aren't undead, they're robots controlled by the souls of ancient Necrontyr.
Soul/spirt-based magic (and ablities) would probably still work on them though. Which means that you might be able to use just about anything meant to affect incorporeal undead to affect the Necrons. Well, other than holy water and the "turn undead" family of class abilities.
Mind-based magics might actually be less affective against the Necrons than soul/spirit-based abilities, IMO. The lower-level Necrons seemed (IMO) to be at least as dumb as 3.x golems and/or skeletons. And, in regards to the higher-level Necrons, you'd probably have to deal with whatever loyalty imprinting the C'tan pulled on the Necrontyr.
2) New Chaos isn't fighting the Necrons as the War in Heaven was won before the Necrontyr were tricked into becoming the Necrons.
Yup. So Mind-based magics would probably be cheaper and more effective than most soul/spirit-based magics. But why not give into your inner pyro and fireball them all? Unless you and/or yours are too close to them, or you want to loot the corpse (or the small room said corpse will be in) afterwards.
The people of Nesmé were normally a hearty, if somewhat grim, lot, used to weathering the dangers of the Evermoors and in particular the Trollmoors. The start of the Time of Troubles had been hard on them, but they had all closed ranks as a community and were prepared to ride out the worst of it, if indeed the disaster could be ridden out. Already the entire north had seemed to have nearly fallen apart just a few days ago. It was horrible. A day after that the Trollmoors had been filled with horrific roars, sounding like trolls but tinged with fear and pain to such a degree that unless the skies had opened up with fire it surely could not be those fearless brutes.
It's interesting that you've chosen Nesme. In addition to being a touch prejudices/trigger-happy, I think they were one the communities that fell (and were never rebuilt) to Obould's "evil horde alliance". In a different timeline, that is.
Is the comment about the North faling apart a reference to the new "sinkhole" over where Skuld indulged in her first underground nuclear weapon test? Or is this just a general comment on how a bad situation's gotten even worse since the Weave went wonkier (since Mystra's death)?
<Snip!>
I have to agree with the comments over on Spacebattles, that the sentence structure and/or tenses being used make the trolls/refuges/more trolls paragraphs a bit harder to enjoy.
Likewise, the comments made there regarding making it clear *why* Skuld's arrival automatically gives her an Aura of (Dangerous/Evil) Badass +3, to the people of Nesme, makes sense to me. I've read the novels/sourcebooks, so I know why anyone who can command the trolls to obey her would scare them, but not all of your readers will understand that.
I'm not surprised that Skuld seems to have drow followers.
First off, the drow are attracted to power and to winners. All that wonderful new inventions - especially the military kind - would appeal to the drow. Going from slave (an extremely well treated slave, admittedly, but...) to goddess would definately fit both criteria.
Second, although I can't remember any similar breakdown in any 3.x FR canon books, I recall the second edition's Drow of the Underdark commenting that approx. 10 to 15 percent of all adult drow are *not* evil. The reason why El. doesn't have a bigger portion of the drow worshipping her three-fold: A) Most of them aren't good either; B) The vast majority of the drow live in cities where the dominate god(s)/dess(es) are evil; C) Said neutral drow don't want to get bent over a sacrificial altar.
The leader pursed her lips and said, “I am afraid that our laws are absolute on this. You must die for your trespass.”
Lars rolled his eyes and he said, “The fact that you haven’t opened fire yet means that you are either not so devoted to those laws that you will fanatically attack, or you have loopholes you are currently using. Like for instance, I’m sure that there is some way you could allow an emissary into your territory.”
The leader pursed her lips and said, “You are… unexpectedly clever about such things for a chaotic being.”'
You might want to change the beginning of the third paragraph here to something like "The leader pursed her lips again", or change it to something else - given this is the exact same way the first paragraph began.
“But I am afraid that we do not accept emissaries within our domain so lightly. You would have to offer us something rather substantial, an alliance that we do not wish to be accepted by our laws,” the leader replied.
Again, the Spacebattles crew has already commented on the "an alliance that we do not wish" bit not making sense as it's currently written. Given how often that I forget a few words in my sentences, or start to write things one way and then erase part of a sentence and re-write the rest without modifying the first half of the sentence from my old train of though, I can't really throw any stones.
The leader frowned deeply, her face crinkling ever so slightly before she replied, “That is not our thought on the matter… but it is close enough that we can work off it. We are the Erinyes, former angels who have sided with the devils in their struggle against chaos. The Heavens are deluded in thinking that they can stop the demons, and the worse things that lurk beyond the Abyss, with half measures. We remember the Elder Evils and the effort it took to drive them off far enough that only the things spawned in the Abyss remained. You stink of chaos, and yet there is reason in your mind.”
This paragraph is very nice, particularly for someone who isn't familiar with either DnD and/or the Forgotten Realms. In just a few lines it spells out *why* most - if not all - of the original devils fell from grace. And why there's a three-way war between the various Heavens, the devils, and the demons.
“Yes. Really, just one major one. No harming of children. Okay, if there’s a war and some kids get hurt in the cross fire, that’s war. Not fun, but there was nothing intentional. Our gods just don’t like to see children get hurt intentionally, although neglect is pretty bad too, and have rather strict opinions about it. Ones involving unpleasant things happening to transgressors… and judging from the atmosphere of this place, you all know a great deal about such things.”
There was the slightest shuffling amongst the winged warriors before the leader admitted, “The reason we are so… adamant about our laws here is that only the greatest of allies may step foot within our rookery. This is where the next generation of Erinyes are born, where the past and the future of our species meet. It is protected from all others, including other devils. Only Asmodeus has permission to walk here without requesting an audience, and only the dukes and archdukes of Hell or gods that we have particular alliances with may come at all.”
Lars really hit the jackpot by telling the Erinyes that family - or at least children - is/are *important* to (new-style) Chaos.
If I remember my 3.5 lore correctly, Erinyes are pretty much unique among the various devils. Except for fallen celestials, almost all of the current devils are damned mortal souls - who made deals with devils while they were alive - who managed to both survive and prosper in the Nine Hells. The exception being the Erinyes, who have to be born with an Erinyes as their mother. I *think* that the father has to be another (male) devil, but I could be wrong.
(I also can't recall if Erinyes can be "promoted/evolved" into a different form of devil, like the others can. Or, for that matter - if it's possible for this to occur - if any Erinyes actually *wants* be "promoted/evolved".)
Of course, with the way that Murphy seems to enjoy Lars' company, we might soon learn that daemons can (accidentally) knock an Erinyes up without any sexual activity between them.
“I see… well, I do happen to have the ear of a local goddess, sort of as it is a rather strange tale to tell, and I am certain that my own gods will listen should I present to them an agreement. You wish your rookery protected from any potential attack by my people… and you also wish to learn more, do you not? This is why you speak of such things to me. You wish to fill my halls and the halls of my allies and superiors with vipers under the guise of allies, do you not?” Lars asked.
.... Adding Erinyes, even indirectly, to the list of divine servitors that Skuld will have in the Realms? That will be interesting to see. It will, of course, make it harder for her to seem like she's a "good" goddess. Of course, given that she's married to a Daemon, that was probably going to fall through anyway.
And I shudder to think what her father will think of this.
I also think that the Erinyes - and Asmodeus (because you *know* he's going to find out about this, even if the Erinyes don't tell him right away) - are going to be pleasantly surprised by new Chaos. And not just the mortals and daemons either, I can see the four gods becoming quite interested in the devils (or at least the Erinyes).
Lars rolled his eyes and said, “Let me see the full contract first.”
Wise, he is. Yes.
“Removing clauses I didn’t agree to. You’ve never dealt with a Ministry of Fish and Game the way I have, although technically I’ve dealt with about three dozen different forms of the idea over about a hundred different lifetimes. Ha! Look at this fine print! It’s a joke! Back before they were all killed any slick shit attorney fresh out of law school could tear this apart,” Lars replied, one eye on the contract, two on the Erinyes.
Was this a deliberate decision of the gods of new Chaos, or just something that happened during "Third Impact", or the actual and "official" conquest of the world afterwards?
Either way, deal-making and legalese obviously hasn't dropped *completely* out of style on new Chaos' version of Earth.
The comments about using (snooty?) French legalese and English's habit of violently mugging other languages - in regards to the "poor, innocent" Infernal language - was nice.
The devils carefully examined the altered document for a long time as a group, carefully annotating it in places while giving Lars evil looking glances before they said, “For a being of chaos you have quite the art for making laws dance to your whim.”
The last sentence doesn't quite sound right. I'd suggest changing the last bit to something like "quite the grasp of the fine art of making laws dance to your whim."
For a moment there was a small stain of shifting colours before it morphed into a black star of Chaos. Lars was almost content with it before he noticed the symbol starting to shift once more, the arms of the star starting to twist and braid about until there was a new and unique symbol. The lower three had formed what vaguely looked like a nautical anchor while the top of the symbol looked almost like tree branches twisted together, with the central up pointing arm widen out to produce a distinctive hammer effect.
Lars looked at it for a while before he sighed and realized he had just figured out the Chaos symbol for him and Skuld.
It sounds like a nice symbol. Admitted it's easier for me to imagine it, due to your sketch.
It does seem odd to me, however, that a non-noble daemon would *have* a personalized symbol....
“Right away. Umm… which way is out? I got here via a portal accident,” Lars admitted, now that he had secured safe passage.
There was a collective groan from the Erinyes.
I'd say that Lars suckering them like this - about his penetration of their security - will actually increase their opinion of him. Not only does he understand Law, contracts and the importance of children, but he's also good at bluffing.
BTW, are we going to see a canon WH40K character - like Eldrad, Gaunt, or maybe Abbandon - do a massive spittake because he sees the "Chaos Eagle" symbol?
In any event, thank you for another wonderful chapter.
Lars got knocked up by the Almighty's baby girl. Can't get much more noble than that, especially since there was the whole share essence bit involved during conception.
Fragment of the Lord of Nightmares, release thy heavenly retribution. Blade of cold, black nothingness: become my power, become my body. Together, let us walk the path of destruction and smash even the souls of the Gods! RAGNA BLADE!
Lore Monkey | the Pichu-master™
Secularism—since AD 80
Av: Elika; Prince of Persia
TheClueless wrote:Soul/spirt-based magic (and ablities) would probably still work on them though. Which means that you might be able to use just about anything meant to affect incorporeal undead to affect the Necrons. Well, other than holy water and the "turn undead" family of class abilities.
I feel that Chaos Undivided is WAY too dependand upon Psychic abilities to compensate for the relatively small size of their population. One of the guidelines in "the Evil Overlord List" is to actively explore alternative weapons/powers/magic/whatever. Learning about soul/spirit-based magic would help create niche-roles for civilian non-Psykers as an institutional infrastructure for those who don't have what it takes to join the military. Also, their prayers would act as a secondary fuel source for the Chaos gods aside from absorbing/eating souls.
And little Gunn built Mommy a skull throne! Arts and crafts is fun!
Skuld’s little band included a lot of drow children. Is Liriel Baenre among them? She’s a prodigy wizard with +18 intelligence.
An idea on how Lars could indirectly help the Erinyes: In Savage Species, there is an XP-expensive ritual where a subtype can be added or removed on a creature. If Skuld the new goddess of the Shadow Weaved performed such a ritual on Lars’ Erinyes entourage to give them the “Native” subtype, the altered Erinyes could found a new rookery on the Material Plane outside of Baatar, or perhaps evolve into a new race.
Furthermore, outsiders don’t have an Afterlife like the mortal Faerunians have; their essence is simply reabsorbed into the plane that spawned them. A “native” Erinyes might possess enough of a mortal soul to enjoy an Afterlife (or be imprisoned in the Wall of the Faithless like Rask mentioned), as all outsiders with the Native subtype can be raised, reincarnated, and resurrected just as other living creatures can be.
P.S. I just skimmed Races of the Dragon and it goes on about how kobolds are the distant cousins of dragons. It’s an odd recon of a “cannon fodder” race in combination with the Draconomicon, Dragon Magic, and Dragons of Faerun.
Kobolds were created from the split blood of first Dragons. Not only are they Dragon-blooded, some Kobolds (the Dragon-Wrought?) are dragon-subtype and can take Draconic feats.
As SirNitram about his Kobold named BlackClaw. He's terrifying.
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
Academia Nut wrote:Chapter Forty-eight: In Concert
... Well, better to make a few late comments than none at all, right?
It was why they had gone to Canada and avoided the shockwave of a massive explosion several universes away that caused the whole world, but especially Japan, to light up with spectacular auroras. It was why he had accepted their help to avoid Haruhi’s imagination from sparking too radically as all of the reality warping she had already done interacted with the strange radiation from other worlds.
Poor Kyon, you have to feel sorry for him. Here he is, knowing that his past is a fake - or at least that he existed before his (current) mother got pregnant - but the rest of the family (and the world as a whole) still thinks he's a normal teenage boy.
On the other hand, if *you* have this set of memories, and everyone else *also* has matching memories, who says that it isn't really real. For a given value of "real", of course.
And learning that you're a cosmic horror yourself certainly helps to explain Kyon decision to continue working with the gods of new Chaos.
“This is a light hearted assignment, let’s just do it and have fun and… oh good gods, they’re here,” Jose said before planting his right hand over his face in embarrassment.
“MAIDEN! MAIDEN! MAIDEN!” The gods whooped in excitement while marching along with the crowds, wearing somewhat aged, adult versions of their human selves wearing the most stereotypically over the top heavy metal clothing possible.
Once she picked her jaw up off the ground, Vita griped, “I hope the bastards assigned to security detail around the Emperor Penguin are having a better time than us.”
I imagine - to the Assassins - that this is a lot like accompanying your parents to the concert?
I also take it that Misato didn't age herself here, and maybe even took off a year or two?
“You saw nothing,” the other giant replied angrily while moving to block things off her view.
His name wouldn't happen to be Shultz, would it?
“MOSH FOR THE MOSH GOD! PYRO FOR THE PYRO THRONE!”
“MA’AM, IT’S REALLY HARD TO KEEP AN EYE ON YOU WHEN YOU CROWD SURF!” Maria cried out as she tried to follow Asuka across the ocean of jumping, head banging, moshing fans in front of the stage.
Well, the Assassins are certainly earning their pay today.
“Okay, let’s check in here. Misato, how high are you exactly?” Maria asked.
“I can see SR-71s beneath me,” Misato said dreamily.
“Right…” Maria noted. “Asuka, you… is that a necklace of teeth?”
Asuka shrugged and said, “Mosh got crazy, what can I say? I donated a couple of my own, but they grew back.”
“Rei… Rei, what happened?” Maria asked, dreading the answer.
“It is advisable you not be informed until after the mission so as to not turn your stomach and thus decrease your effectiveness,” Rei replied as softly as possible in the crowd as Bruce continued his story up on stage.
“Goddess of disease tells me not to ask, I’m not going to ask,” Maria said with a shake of her head.
You know, at first I intended to ask what Rei did that got Maria so concerned. But, after thinking it over, I've decided that I'm probably happier remaining ignorant on this matter. And, to be fair, it's more amusing to imagine what Rei did - and what visual signs of said activity caused Maria's concern.
Then their faces split into grins and Misato said, “I think the god of this reality just got laid! Go Kyon!”
"Now he just has to figure out how to arrange for an orgy with the other two girls!"
(Oh, come on. It's Misato/Mislaato. You know that she's thinking about it.)
This is Lars, although I was separated from the[/i] Stiletto a few months back after the attack on the Borg. Umm… could you get back to me in a day or two, sir? I’m kind of in the middle of something.
This is a freak occurrence man, I don’t know if I’ll be able to replicate it. You and the ship have been out of contact for nine years.
I take it that it's been a *much* shorter period of time in the Haruhi-verse? Given that Kyon's thoughts at the beginning of this chapter suggested that the trip only recently occurred.
Poor Lars. He seems to be the sort that would jump out of a burning plane, and parachute into a canibal's extra large stew pot. Filled with boiling hot water, of course.
I notice that Lars forgot to mention eating children (or at least their souls) because they going to be murdered anyway. Ah, the advantages of a "condenced" report.
As far as Kyon knows, he only has memories of this lifetime, but he's been shown evidence that his peers agree is legitimate that demonstrate that the game they have played out with Haruhi of trying to keep her entertained has happened countless times before. It's really just an extrapolation of what has happened in the series. If she could create a more interesting universe, what stops her from eventually getting bored of her own form and changing into an alien, an esper, or what have you herself? What if she changed her form so much she forgot what the previous ones were like?
And Kyon gets dragged across each iteration of time and space with her.
Sucks to be Kyon. Swimming in the past he might have been something like a migou or a Cthulhu star spawn or even a dog, hauled along from form to form as the entity currently called Haruhi experiments with every imaginable thing that she fancies trying out.
Also, next chapter, something like 140k words in, I think I will finally give an explanation as to what happened to the multiverse to screw it up so bad. A partial one anyway.
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
Hey, can Skuld bless Shyft with shadowy enchantments like she did with Lars’ gun and bullet shells? If you have a black knight around, you can quote Monty Python jokes.
“Behold the city of Silverymoon!”
“It’s only a model.”
“Shhhh!”
“On second thought, let’s not go to Silverymoon. ‘Tis a silly place.”
Aside from Asmodeus, other devils like rakshasa will notice Lars traveling through Hell and send their own spies to keep tabs on the wayward daemon. Rakshasa are humanoid tigers that can shapeshift and read minds. Other catgirls in Faerun include weretigers, sphinxes, and Wemics of the Shaar, because no manga/anime series is complete without catgirls.
=^_^=
Meow!
Later on, to help protect Skuld from her own inexperience, maybe a divine being could be appointed to help purge the rage and loss out of the Shadow Weave and serve as a neutral liaison between Skuld and the reborn Mystra/Midnight. A demigod like Sharess, Red Knight, Lurue, or Savras would be ideal for this task. Shar jealously prevented most spellcasters from accessing the Shadow Weave, so depending on how open Skuld is with sharing its power, it’ll drastically redefine Mystra’s role as the goddess of all magic.
LadyTevar wrote:Boy, Valorie, are YOU behind on the Kobolds.
Kobolds were created from the split blood of first Dragons. Not only are they Dragon-blooded, some Kobolds (the Dragon-Wrought?) are dragon-subtype and can take Draconic feats.
As SirNitram about his Kobold named BlackClaw. He's terrifying.
*sobs* I’m sorry! I only started reading Dungeons and Dragons to keep up with Open Doors, and now I’m hooked like a crack addict!
Okay, so large kobold tribes often foster dragon wyrmlings, like Meepo from ‘Sunless Citadel.’ On the black market, a healthy dragon egg goes for 5000-8000 gold pieces, so it’s possible for some of the freed kobold to pool their resources and present a dragon wyrmling to Skuld and Gunnhild as a religious offering. Kobolds are lawful evil, so deference of a superior is a key part of their culture.
Somehow, Gunnhild having a pet dragon seems appropriate from the troll-bashing preschooler. And after it eventually dies, the dragon’s soul will either go to Skuld’s Afterlife realm, or “Auntie Asuklon” will reshape it into a daemon of unsurpassed might and terror.
Ao sat quietly at his study, such as it was, poring over the reports on the search for Skuld. This couldn’t have come at a worse time as he had intentionally limited his own personal servants over the millennia, preferring to work through the gods rather than his own agents as he attempted to shield himself from the drawbacks of his position. Unfortunately, with the gods kicked out for unruly behaviour, he had to scrounge together the resources he needed to search for Skuld.
At least when he had explained it to the Almighty he had agreed that if his underlings had already defied him then letting them know about Skuld would probably just endanger her further. He had still been chewed out for letting it get to that point, but the Almighty had agreed that this made things more difficult. Especially since Skuld and her ally, along with anything they produced, would be undetectable to divine senses, including Ao’s. Unless he was physically looking at her, any scrying, divine or mortal, would just miss her. This had to be done the hard, needle in an infinite haystack way.
At least now Ao had a lead. Someone had blown up a large chunk of Northern Faerun a few days ago by causing a huge explosion in the Underdark, which while possible for one of the Avatars to pull off seemed unlikely. It smacked of something an outsider to the Realms would do.
Ao was also not surprised when one of the few beings still capable of travel between the planes showed up in his office. He had ‘left the door open’ anticipating just such a thing happening.
“General,” Ao noted, not taking his attention off the reports in front of him.
“I have not been called that in a very long time,” a silken, sibilant voice noted.
“You still retain the rank, not matter what the others say. And while I feel you are far too ambitious and treacherous for your own good, you perform your appointed duties as demanded of you. More than can be said of many of the current crop of deities,” Ao replied.
“Thank you, sir,” Asmodeus said graciously, bowing slightly.
Ao, in no mood for the games of the leader of the archdevils, rolled his eyes and said, “Cut to the chase. I’m extraordinarily busy right now and if you have approached me with something pertaining to my current task, I want to know. If not, I want you to leave. Quietly.”
“Ah, the Tablets of Fate? No, but I feel that this is a matter of somewhat greater importance, and as part of my duties, I felt it critical that I ensure that you are aware of it,” Asmodeus replied before reaching into his luxurious, astronomically expensive robes and pulled out a scrap of parchment with a symbol on it.
“A few days ago, a colony of Erinyes under my command made a contract of employment with a creature that used this symbol as a personal mark, a creature their leader, one of the eldest devils still in existence, insisted came from an Eldar Evil. All attempts to locate this creature or the Erinyes that accompanied him have failed,” Asmodeus explained gravely.
Ao looked at the symbol and how it was charged with alien magic for a second before he asked, “That’s not an original, is it?”
“No, it seems that the very geometry causes it to accumulate magic of a like I have not seen since… well, you know,” Asmodeus replied.
Nodding, Ao said, “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, it does relate to my current concern. The first thing you should know is that the Void Born, or rather the Elder Evils as you call them, are not returning. This is an isolated incident and I want the creature brought to me if you find it. Alive and unharmed. Got that?”
Asmodeus grinned slightly and bowed magnanimously before he said, “Of course.”
Ao was quiet for a long moment before he said, “There is… one other thing. But before I tell you anything more, you must swear a binding oath not to leak any details of what you learn to any other being. You’re a snake, but I know you keep your word, even if you like to twist it. Don’t make me compel you, because you know I can.”
“To swear an oath must mean that what I will hear is very important and presumably very dangerous. What incentive do I have to keep this knowledge?” Asmodeus asked slyly.
“Do the tasks related to this knowledge and I will heal your wounds,” Ao replied flatly.
Asmodeus was quiet for a long moment before he said, “I, Asmodeus, Ruler of the Nine, Archdevil of All the Hells, do swear a binding oath before Ao not to reveal or insinuate any facts or details revealed to me in this meeting.”
Ao nodded, knowing that the fiend was now bound by his own nature. Ao then said, “You remember the most ancient ages, when the Abyss was the crack in reality that the Elder Evils poured in from, when the Far Realm was more than just a skin surrounding the Realms like an infection. You know how the demons are the remnants of those invaders, the stain of their destructive ways still part of the Abyss.”
“I do,” Asmodeus replied darkly. It was the issue of how to fight those ancient wars that had resulted in his exile from the Heavens to the Nine Hells. The Blood War was the continuation of that conflict.
“Well my people called them the Void Born, or alternatively in our darker moods ‘Things That Should Not Be’,” Ao replied.
Asmodeus was silent for a long time, and Ao broke it when he said with a grim chuckle, “Are you surprised that I am not unique? That there are others like me? Do you want to know my full name and title from all those aeons ago, when the Realms were not even imagined yet?”
Asmodeus nodded, his curiosity overwhelming his sense of personal, detached decorum. He suspected he may have been the first being to ever know these things and he did not want to spoil it. The knowledge, even if he was bound not to tell it, could prove far too valuable.
“I am Ao Inkfingers, Naval Clerk in the Logistics, assigned to the 3rd fleet, serving aboard the dreadnought Magnhildr. I am a Third Generation Lord in the House of Space, and one of two remaining members of that House, the other being the Third King of the House, the Second Generation Lord Odin Allfather, also known as the Almighty by his own people. I am perhaps one of a dozen beings in all the multiverse that fought in the Extinction War and one of perhaps two beings that knows even a piece of the history of the Disaster. I am older than you can imagine, older than most of the surviving Void Born, the beings you call the Elder Evils,” Ao explained in fully deific glory.
Asmodeus absorbed this for a moment before he asked, “What happened?”
Ao frowned, obviously dredging up painful memories, before he said, “My people, the Lords of the House of Space, were the descendents of a truly elder race with full command of their reality. I only know a tiny piece of the full history as the Almighty is the only one still alive who knew anyone from that age. I have no idea exactly what happened, but there was a Disaster, something so horrible that it forced the construction of a wall about a collection of billions of realities just to protect the rest of infinity. Many of the survivors fled to the still stable outside multiverse to establish their successor states. My people were left behind to attempt to clean up, or at least contain, the mess. There were unforeseen complications.”
“The… Void Born,” Asmodeus concluded, pausing to use the correct term.
“Yes and no. The Void Born were an unexpected problem, but alone they would have been manageable,” Ao said before he waved his hand and summoned forth an image of the Realms and the planes that composed it. He then started to zoom out, and out, and out, until the Realms were a tiny glowing point amongst an ocean of countless billions of such points, all contained within a great sphere.
“This is a map of the multiverse as we know it, although it hasn’t been updated in… well you know how tricky time is to measure for beings such as us. But even then, it has not been updated in a long time, not since before the Realms were founded. There are seven points of interest. There are the four Gates, the Eye, and the two Houses. As you can see, we are quite close to one of those Houses, my birth universe, the House of Space. On the opposite side of this construct is the House of Time,” two points at the top and bottom of the sphere lit up to punctuate Ao’s words.
“The Gates control access in and out of this great construct and into the realms consumed in the great storm caused by the Disaster. For safety purposes we made them unable to connect directly to each other or to the Eye or the Houses. A rather fortunate thing considering what happened next. You see, our ancestors did not fully understand what they had unleashed and the turbulence of the cosmic storm triggered two protrusions of energy above and below the Eye. Destructive, destabilizing energies swirled up to crash into the Houses and cause massive devastation. The magic of the Far Realm is but a taste of what we faced. The Houses were insulated, but not to the same degree as the much more heavily fortified Gates. We lost complete contact with the Lord of the House of Time. No idea what happened to them. If they survived they probably wonder the same about us. Around the same time the Void Born struck,” Ao explained.
“Such chaos…” Asmodeus muttered while looking fearfully at the map laid out before him and the destruction implied. It offended his sensibilities greatly for such a neat order to collapse so.
“It gets worse. The Void Born were… things that emerged from the Disaster, semi-sentient engines of destruction, birthed in the Eye Wall, the universes inundated with energy. We sterilized them all as a last act, but their attacks on the Gates were particularly troublesome. The Houses were being damaged by the energies kicked up by the storm and our responsibilities involved controlling our prospective domains. Space and time were breaking down without our input and the Gates were being attacked by horrific monstrosities. One by one they all shut down before we could even get to them. The first to go was completely invaded by the Void Born and only managed to prevent an outbreak to the rest of the multiverse by sealing them all inside. The controller went insane last we heard. One of the Gates next to it went similarly mad at the loss of its companion and shut the doors. The other two shut down shortly after, isolating their control programs into artefacts with no will of their own, locking away the majority of their power,” Ao detailed out.
“And the Realms?” Asmodeus inquired.
“While bombarding the Eye Wall at long range, and I mean really long range, we were attacked by one of the more powerful Void Born and our fleet was wiped out. I got to an escape pod and was the only survivor. I drifted about until I managed to make contact with the new ruler of the House, Odin. He was the last remaining Lord there, although I suppose if you count his wife at the time that would make three of us, but Hild was not born to the House but was an ambitious vassal so she doesn’t exactly count. Out of pity and a sense of loneliness, he started sending me the information I needed to start building my own bubble of stability. Then the gods started popping up and a few lesser Void Born started attacking and you know the rest,” Ao said.
“Then what is this creature that has arrived in the Realms?” Asmodeus asked suspiciously.
Ao frowned for a second before he said, “The Almighty did some research into the oldest files and he thinks it is the product of an experiment by the Lords of the House of Time into the creation of Void Born. They jammed two universes close together such that they would leak into each other and the beings they seeded each realm with would come into conflict. The last report states that they produced some rather interesting results before the Extinction War went into full swing and we lost contact. The creature is by all accounts quite rational and intelligent for being capable of travelling in the Void unprotected and the Almighty wants to thank him for his actions… in saving the Almighty’s daughter. Who is also here.”
Asmodeus suddenly got why Ao was being so open with him. “Your superior’s daughter is here, within the Realms?”
“Yes. And he wants her safe. I don’t think you quite comprehend how powerful he or his daughter is. I can erase you and every mention of your name with a snap of my fingers, although the damage to the Realms means I won’t unless you push me. I was a paper pusher, if a military one and a good one, in my previous life. The Almighty controls the language that permits the existence of everything in the Realms. He can literally take away my power at a whim. And if he gets mad enough, he’s going to send a battalion of his best warriors, probably led by a veteran from the Extinction Wars if I had to bet, and start tearing the place apart looking for his daughter. His Valkyries will kill anything that stands between them and their objective, including power holders such as you or me. So it is imperative we find her and fast,” Ao said.
“But someone had to go and steal the Tablets of Fate,” Asmodeus said, seeing immediately the problem the Lord of the Gods was in.
Waving it off, Ao said, “The Tablets are incidental, I don’t need them. It’s the fact that several of the gods no longer respect my authority. Skuld can, if she puts a little effort into it, rewrite reality as effectively as her father. If I let the same gods who stole the Tablets know about her, I highly doubt they will respect my commands or the commands of her father, and since I don’t know which of them did it or knew about it…”
“But since I am not a god I and my servants cannot access the domains where the Tablets were stored, except for on occasions of open invitation such as this one, it couldn’t have been me,” Asmodeus summarized.
Ao narrowed his eyes slightly at the devil before he said, “Let me be clear here Asmodeus. I didn’t agree with your exile, but neither did I stop it. You’re too ambitious by far. Don’t even think about trying to seize Skuld for your own purposes. She could destroy many of your rivals and bring you power supreme, but she is strong willed and her family is strongly opposed to the sort of order you represent. If you find her, turn her over to me and content yourself with my favour and the favour of her father. Push the issue and you will quickly find yourself gone removed from reality as if you never existed, and it won’t necessarily be at my hand. You’ve never broken the rules in your entire existence, even if you have played the system and bent the laws, so don’t start now.”
“I would never dream of doing such a thing,” Asmodeus replied with a toothy, aristocratic grin.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t. Deploy your fiends as you see fit to Faerun to find Skuld and the creature. You are not to interfere with local affairs, just search. Divination will not work on either of them or those near them, they are outside such things. Do not push a confrontation, just find them and report back to me. If your forces find her, I will heal the wounds to your body, at the very least,” Ao offered.
“A most generous proposal Lord Ao. I will begin the preparations immediately. It will take a week perhaps to marshal the forces I can trust to not step out of line or ask any questions. Is that acceptable?” Asmodeus inquired slyly.
“Most acceptable. Now go. The faster we get this resolved, the less likely we’ll have a battalion of pissed of unstoppable warrior women rampaging through the Realms burning everything in front of them and supplying spear enemas to those who failed to find and protect Skuld,” Ao said before waving dismissively, returning to his reports.
Asmodeus bowed and then disappeared in a puff of sulphurous smoke.
Lolth had been at the heart of her army of drow when the explosion and collapse wiped out her most faithful followers. She had spent the past week trapped under a mountain of rock, her skin burnt off and slowly regenerating by the terrible forces unleashed. The damage had been painful, but at least it had healed, unlike the maiming that had occurred to her when she had been struck in the breast. That had been a divine weapon to do that, and as Gruumsh could explain, such wounds never healed. Lolth would remain with but a single breast for the rest of her existence.
Her priestess’ had not exactly enjoyed the demands of emulation, but after the first couple of executions the ritual maiming had begun in earnest. Unfortunately all of those so marked had died, so it would take a bit more time to spread the word. Once Lolth got out of this situation. That could take until the gods were allowed back into their domains, as while she could keep the tons of rock above her from crushing her for an indefinite period, she could not actually escape.
Some time into the interminable wait trapped under the stones, she felt the vibration of large metal poles scraping on rock, and then the rumble of massive amounts of stone shifting. While not quite enough to escape, it did allow Lolth a little breathing room.
“Ha ha! My followers! You have come for me!” Lolth cried out triumphantly.
“Not quite…” Shar replied into the crevice where Lolth was wedged.
“Shar! You bitch! That whore was using your magic!” Lolth cried out.
There was a slight hiss before Shar said, “Yes, she was. She stole it from me. Hence why I am here. Now, on the one hand, I could have my minions shift these rocks and crush you, claiming your portfolio for my own and taking the Underdark completely uncontested from this point on. On the other hand I find that my rivalry for the races of darkness with you seems currently outweighed by my seething hatred for the bitch who stole from me and who presumably also maimed you. Thus I find myself at a crossroads. Kill you now and accept a little more power later, or let you out so that the two of us can hunt her down and then share in the revenge. Combining all the avatars of our pantheon together, we should be able to kill her quite nicely.”
Lolth was silent for a long, long time before she said, “Let me out, I hate you less than her.”
“I agree,” Shar said before the stones started shifting again and Lolth found herself pulled out from under the crack by smooth, pale hands. In a tiny bubble around the rubble a half dozen shadow giants working with a pair of adamantium poles had managed to pry open the rocks, while the avatar of Shar stood in their centre, grasping Lolth.
There was a slight exchange of sneers between the two goddesses. Shar looked greatly, if subtly, diminished without the power of the Shadow Weave coursing through her, while Lolth was maimed and still suffered burns from the blast that entombed her.
“Go Lolth, gather your Dark Seldarine and your demonic allies and I shall rally my allies Loviatar and Talona and any allies they might bring. We will make war upon this usurper and take revenge for the wrongs she has inflicted upon us,” Shar said in a seething voice.
“You can have your Shadow Weave back, but I want access after and the bitch’s tits for a hat… and to participate when we let Loviatar loose on her,” Lolth demanded.
“Of course. You know, this could be the beginning of a useful alliance,” Shar said with a smile.
“It may very well be,” Lolth replied with a grin.
Nothing unites rivals quite like hatred for an external third party.
The Riders of Nesmé watched quietly from the bushes as the creatures approached their town from the road to Silverymoon. They had landed a few minutes ago, having spotted the town from the air before landing and cloaking themselves in illusions. But the Riders had seen what they were. They were devils. Abominable creatures only deserving the sword and the axe.
And the creature that the wicked goddess described as her consort was with them. They had known that any being that could command such abominable creatures as was in her following must be evil, but this sealed the cake.
Slowly and quietly bringing back his bow, the leader said, “Shoot to kill and don’t let them get back to their dark goddess.”
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
Oh yeah, I did. Sorry about that. The arms of the Chaos Star are a bit too thick and long, but otherwise its well structured. The wings could use some work, but overall I think most people have figured out what I was shooting for.
Also, as to the kobold thing, those little bastards have been getting a better lot with each edition. Once they turned into trap makers people started to realize that they were just defending their homes, at which point their PR started to improve greatly. Still not a full fledged PC race, but they're not quite treated like total cannon fodder anymore.
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
Yes, the Lords of the House of Time are the Time Lords. And they are responsible for 40k.
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
