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Company of Chaos - All Around Golarion
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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5792075" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>Late update, chronic eye infection acting up. Could not write as much as I wanted either, maybe I manage more later today. </p><p></p><p>The characters of Brenn and Mook are undergoing a semi-planned change, so will the others over time (hopefully) as they are supposed to be our Golarion's epic heroes eventually. Turned out different from what I originally envisioned (of course <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> ) so I now need to flash out a new oracle archetype. </p><p></p><p>--------------------------------</p><p></p><p></p><p>Mook stood at the entrance to the ruined brick building they had picked to stay at for the night that was none and crawled her wolf's ears. The everlasting green light was beginning to annoy her. While she had slept fine enough thanks to exhaustion, once Cajun had woken her for the last hours of nightwatch, she was getting more and more nervous and irritable. And that had mostly to do with the dragon skeleton still guarding the bridge. </p><p></p><p>In her desperate want to help what must have once been a beautiful being, she had called upon all gods good and merciful, but was not sure if she had gotten a response worth mentioning. She had had visions in her dreams, of a young golden dragon being captured and tortured, then turned into the undead guardian she saw now. The gnome could not be sure how much reality those dreams had, her experiences from past dreams hinted at a fairly good chance that most of it was true. </p><p></p><p>She had to admit to herself that she was astonished to have this urge to help a potentially deadly creature. Yes, she had always been one to aid any being in need; if it had been up to her, the cultists they had met late last evening would not have had to die. Most of them had probably been tricked into the cult and brainwashed. While the world was a harsh place, there was no need for her to make it an even harsher place. </p><p></p><p>There was one option, she thought, but she had never used that particular spell for anything else than slapping Zaza out of a frenzy or stopping Samin from panicking when he had learned one too many spells and started to mix them all up. With the right god to call upon, Desna in this case, there was almost no failure chance. If she could just gather her courage and...</p><p></p><p>"It will not work." </p><p></p><p>Mook swirled around to see Brenn-Krell standing behind her right shoulder, a weird smile on his face fitting his snarling voice. "Wh-what will n-not? You d-don't kn-know what I had in m-mind."</p><p></p><p>"Not the details. But, I am guessing you know some kind of spell you think can help, maybe something that, strictly speaking, never fails because one of your gods or the other grant it to you. And you are forgetting that a spell is only so strong as the wielder, unless the gods personally intervene. Which I consider unlikely. What is it? Some kind of stun?"</p><p></p><p>"N-no. It is a s-spell to m-make it calm and c-clear again. I used it b-before." Mook frowned, considering what he has said about spells and wielders.</p><p></p><p>"On your friends? Some hostiles, maybe? Certainly nothing like this." Brenn-Krell made a wide gesture with is arms to drive the point of the city's strangeness home. "So it will work. You will have a clear, sound minded undead dragon for a moment. Which is not to say that it is not still evil. But even if it is not, the evil of its existence, the millenia of being isolated, the memory of whatever has happened to it will be right there, working on its mind again. You may have a few minutes before it is insane again. I can feel its insanity, it is immense. Only that it seems to be bound to this place stops it from acting it."</p><p></p><p>Mook felt the tears rise up inside her and forced them back. "There h-has to b-be a way."</p><p></p><p>"As it is undead, I can shift it to the shadow plane. Not an ideal solution, as that plane will just twist it more, but it will be gone, at least."</p><p></p><p>Turning back to the dragon pacing on the other side, Mook could still feel the weight of the strange man's stare. "I can still t-try," she whispered. "And wh-when it doesn't w-work you can... d-do whatever it e-exactly is you are doing."</p><p></p><p>Brenn-Krell chuckled as he realized she had drawn him into her plans, quite cleverly so. "How do you want to get over there without it killing you while approaching?" </p><p></p><p>"This," Mook explained and lifted the second horn of fog they had found in the undead dragon's meager hoard. "It'll w-wake e-everyone else but I sh-should be over there in t-time."</p><p></p><p>"And once you are close he notices you, and if you get to touch him and he stays evil, then you are just prepared to die?"</p><p></p><p>"I d-don't think I'm p-prepared for anything," the oracle admitted. </p><p></p><p>"Could help you, I think, but you will not like it. For anyone not from the plane of shadow, it is a strange experience." Again, he flashed his weird smile. </p><p></p><p>"S-stranger than all th-this?" Mook imitated his gesture from before, including him.</p><p></p><p>"Point taken. Hold on, then! And be ready with your spell." Before Mook could ask what he was planning to do, Brenn-Krell lifted her and her gear up as if she was light as a leaf and started running towards the bridge, just like he had done the day before when going for the ogre skeletons. Mook felt dizzy, as if the world around her would blurr and lose all color. It did not agree too wel with her stomach, but before she could really think about it she noticed they were on the bridge and the dragon had noticed them. </p><p></p><p>Dropping her and circling the dragon, Brenn-Krell did all he could to center the dragon's attention on himself. Mook tried to ignore the fetchling and instead ducked under the bony wings of the undead foe. A part of her was watching everything, unbelieving what was happening and scared beyond belief. The other part of her was acting as if she had done this her whole life. She could feel the blessing of the gods – all good gods – with her. Fascination and repulsion was both present as she touched the dragon's gilded form. The spell flew from her lips and then she jumped back. Where the fetchling was, she could not tell. </p><p></p><p>Then she saw the bony tail of the dragon hit the fetchling, depositing him close to the edge of the golden canal. The skeleton opened his fangs and roared. The roar from the skeleton sounded wrong, and for a moment Mook pressed her hands on her ears. Then she saw the change in the dragon's aura. She was not good at seeing auras, despite her father trying to teach her. But it was all she needed to find the ourage to speak up." "Hey, d-dragon? Y-you with the b-big head!" </p><p></p><p>The head turned to stare at her, just a hand from her face. The gnome had trouble breathing, and she half expected to see her life flash before her eyes, but instead she heard herself say the first thing you usually ask strangers you meet. "I'm Mook. W-what's y-your name?"</p><p></p><p>The silence seemed to stretch. "Mar'Karthon..." the dragon then replied. "Mar'karton.... Mar'karton.... I do not remember my full name!" As much as you could say with undead, there was a distinct confusion in the eerie voice.</p><p></p><p>Mook remembered what she had been told about the spell not lasting long. "Y-you are the g-guardian here, yes? "W-what is inside?"</p><p></p><p>"You shall not pass. I cannot help it, I must defend this place, I'm enslaved, I am..." It seemed to be already happening. </p><p></p><p>"Oh we d-don't want to pass," Mook hurried. "W-we just w-want to know w-what that woman is l-looking for i-inside."</p><p></p><p>"You come here not knowing what is the heart of the city?" The dragon skeleton sat down on his hind legs, sparkling in the everlasting green light like a small sun. It looked beautiful. "The Jewel of Everlasting Gold, of course. But no one will own it, and it cannot be removed." The dragon said that with much certainty. </p><p></p><p>"So, the b-bearer of they key to the city can't r-remove it, either?" Mooks eyes went wide with the implications. If that was true, Iramine could only hope to come back later and take as much gold as possible from the city. </p><p></p><p>She must have stuttered that aloud, because the dragon's creepy laughter echoed off the walls around them. "The gold created by the Jewel cannot be removed. It will always return to the city." There was new malice in his voice, the effect of the spell was already ending. </p><p></p><p>"If that is s-so, we would not have n-needed to c-come here, s-save for the k-key that was not ours t-to begin with," she whispered. "Thank you, M-Mar'Karthon-can't-r-remember-full-n-name." From the corner of her eye, she saw the fetchling was still not moving. </p><p></p><p>"Mook?" Zaza's panicked cry came over the canal. Of course, the others were awake now after all the commotion. </p><p></p><p> "You are welcome, Mook-with-name-so-short," the dragon replied, and it sounded amused. "I do not feel well. Can you do that again?"</p><p></p><p>"W-what?" The oracle saw Brenn-Krell was moving his legs now, and seemed to slowly edge away from the canal. That was a relief. </p><p></p><p>"T-touch m-me. F-feel me." Mar'Karthon's empty eyes caused Mook to shiver as he moved his head even closer. "You... made me wake up form... something. What has happened to me?"</p><p></p><p>Mook stretched out a hand and touched the gold plating of the skeletal frame again. Once more she was a conduit for divine energy, more confident this time. And even more aware of the little time she had left now that the poor undead would want to find out about his – the name sounded male, anyway – existence. </p><p></p><p>Brenn-Krell now rolled around, carefully getting to his knees. He didn't feel harmed, but his shapechanged form was probably also protecting him from new damage. The fetchling had heard every word. It was time to act, to send the dragon to the shadow plane before it would succumb to madness and evil again. He was very surprised that the spell worked so well and could even be renewed. On wobbling legs, Brenn-Krelll got up. From the corner of his eye he saw the paladin stride onto the bridge, surrounded by a golden glow of divine protection. Soon there would be too many visitors to this party, he knew, and staggered over to where Mook was still talking to the dragon. </p><p></p><p>As he readied himself, swirls of shadow seemed to emerge from his body. All he needed to do was to become half-solid and then sink his hand into the undead creature. The sensation was both familiar and new, the constant confusion of his momentary state. </p><p></p><p>Mook's head turned towards the fetchling as he came closer. The gnome's eyes went wide as she realized Brenn-Krell was about to send Mar'Karthon to Krell's native plane. "No!" she shrieked, making the dragon back off in confusion. The thought of Mar'Karthon being stuck on that plane, even losing the fake gold color he was spouting now, was too much for Mook's mind. She was already hovering on the edge of losing it since Braan had almost died the day before. Following the dragon who turned to attack Brenn-Krell, she touched the creature once more, shouting a word in her gnomish language her friends did not understand. There was a bright flash of purple light, reacting eerily with the green-golden light reflected from the gilded skeleton. For a heartbeat or two, time did not seem to move, then the dragon blinked out of existence and Mook, losing her support, fell to her hands and knees.</p><p></p><p>Bjön arrived just in time to grab her and drag her into his zone of protection as the negative energies stored during the creation of the undead unleashed and danced around them. It lasted but a moment, yet to the paladin it seemed an eternity. The spell fizzled out, and a deafening silence fell over the area. Then he heard the footsteps of the kobold, Zaza and Cajun, all of them muttering in worry. Brenn-Krell reappeared from somewhere and Samin cursed. "We have company." </p><p></p><p>Bjön wanted to turn around to see what the young man meant, but the a raspy voice now speaking made it all clear. "Impressive, very impressive," the leader of the lizardfolk mutants snarled. "We saw the trail of deaths in your wake. If the last of the trespassers are in there, we want them."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5792075, member: 53286"] Late update, chronic eye infection acting up. Could not write as much as I wanted either, maybe I manage more later today. The characters of Brenn and Mook are undergoing a semi-planned change, so will the others over time (hopefully) as they are supposed to be our Golarion's epic heroes eventually. Turned out different from what I originally envisioned (of course :) ) so I now need to flash out a new oracle archetype. -------------------------------- Mook stood at the entrance to the ruined brick building they had picked to stay at for the night that was none and crawled her wolf's ears. The everlasting green light was beginning to annoy her. While she had slept fine enough thanks to exhaustion, once Cajun had woken her for the last hours of nightwatch, she was getting more and more nervous and irritable. And that had mostly to do with the dragon skeleton still guarding the bridge. In her desperate want to help what must have once been a beautiful being, she had called upon all gods good and merciful, but was not sure if she had gotten a response worth mentioning. She had had visions in her dreams, of a young golden dragon being captured and tortured, then turned into the undead guardian she saw now. The gnome could not be sure how much reality those dreams had, her experiences from past dreams hinted at a fairly good chance that most of it was true. She had to admit to herself that she was astonished to have this urge to help a potentially deadly creature. Yes, she had always been one to aid any being in need; if it had been up to her, the cultists they had met late last evening would not have had to die. Most of them had probably been tricked into the cult and brainwashed. While the world was a harsh place, there was no need for her to make it an even harsher place. There was one option, she thought, but she had never used that particular spell for anything else than slapping Zaza out of a frenzy or stopping Samin from panicking when he had learned one too many spells and started to mix them all up. With the right god to call upon, Desna in this case, there was almost no failure chance. If she could just gather her courage and... "It will not work." Mook swirled around to see Brenn-Krell standing behind her right shoulder, a weird smile on his face fitting his snarling voice. "Wh-what will n-not? You d-don't kn-know what I had in m-mind." "Not the details. But, I am guessing you know some kind of spell you think can help, maybe something that, strictly speaking, never fails because one of your gods or the other grant it to you. And you are forgetting that a spell is only so strong as the wielder, unless the gods personally intervene. Which I consider unlikely. What is it? Some kind of stun?" "N-no. It is a s-spell to m-make it calm and c-clear again. I used it b-before." Mook frowned, considering what he has said about spells and wielders. "On your friends? Some hostiles, maybe? Certainly nothing like this." Brenn-Krell made a wide gesture with is arms to drive the point of the city's strangeness home. "So it will work. You will have a clear, sound minded undead dragon for a moment. Which is not to say that it is not still evil. But even if it is not, the evil of its existence, the millenia of being isolated, the memory of whatever has happened to it will be right there, working on its mind again. You may have a few minutes before it is insane again. I can feel its insanity, it is immense. Only that it seems to be bound to this place stops it from acting it." Mook felt the tears rise up inside her and forced them back. "There h-has to b-be a way." "As it is undead, I can shift it to the shadow plane. Not an ideal solution, as that plane will just twist it more, but it will be gone, at least." Turning back to the dragon pacing on the other side, Mook could still feel the weight of the strange man's stare. "I can still t-try," she whispered. "And wh-when it doesn't w-work you can... d-do whatever it e-exactly is you are doing." Brenn-Krell chuckled as he realized she had drawn him into her plans, quite cleverly so. "How do you want to get over there without it killing you while approaching?" "This," Mook explained and lifted the second horn of fog they had found in the undead dragon's meager hoard. "It'll w-wake e-everyone else but I sh-should be over there in t-time." "And once you are close he notices you, and if you get to touch him and he stays evil, then you are just prepared to die?" "I d-don't think I'm p-prepared for anything," the oracle admitted. "Could help you, I think, but you will not like it. For anyone not from the plane of shadow, it is a strange experience." Again, he flashed his weird smile. "S-stranger than all th-this?" Mook imitated his gesture from before, including him. "Point taken. Hold on, then! And be ready with your spell." Before Mook could ask what he was planning to do, Brenn-Krell lifted her and her gear up as if she was light as a leaf and started running towards the bridge, just like he had done the day before when going for the ogre skeletons. Mook felt dizzy, as if the world around her would blurr and lose all color. It did not agree too wel with her stomach, but before she could really think about it she noticed they were on the bridge and the dragon had noticed them. Dropping her and circling the dragon, Brenn-Krell did all he could to center the dragon's attention on himself. Mook tried to ignore the fetchling and instead ducked under the bony wings of the undead foe. A part of her was watching everything, unbelieving what was happening and scared beyond belief. The other part of her was acting as if she had done this her whole life. She could feel the blessing of the gods – all good gods – with her. Fascination and repulsion was both present as she touched the dragon's gilded form. The spell flew from her lips and then she jumped back. Where the fetchling was, she could not tell. Then she saw the bony tail of the dragon hit the fetchling, depositing him close to the edge of the golden canal. The skeleton opened his fangs and roared. The roar from the skeleton sounded wrong, and for a moment Mook pressed her hands on her ears. Then she saw the change in the dragon's aura. She was not good at seeing auras, despite her father trying to teach her. But it was all she needed to find the ourage to speak up." "Hey, d-dragon? Y-you with the b-big head!" The head turned to stare at her, just a hand from her face. The gnome had trouble breathing, and she half expected to see her life flash before her eyes, but instead she heard herself say the first thing you usually ask strangers you meet. "I'm Mook. W-what's y-your name?" The silence seemed to stretch. "Mar'Karthon..." the dragon then replied. "Mar'karton.... Mar'karton.... I do not remember my full name!" As much as you could say with undead, there was a distinct confusion in the eerie voice. Mook remembered what she had been told about the spell not lasting long. "Y-you are the g-guardian here, yes? "W-what is inside?" "You shall not pass. I cannot help it, I must defend this place, I'm enslaved, I am..." It seemed to be already happening. "Oh we d-don't want to pass," Mook hurried. "W-we just w-want to know w-what that woman is l-looking for i-inside." "You come here not knowing what is the heart of the city?" The dragon skeleton sat down on his hind legs, sparkling in the everlasting green light like a small sun. It looked beautiful. "The Jewel of Everlasting Gold, of course. But no one will own it, and it cannot be removed." The dragon said that with much certainty. "So, the b-bearer of they key to the city can't r-remove it, either?" Mooks eyes went wide with the implications. If that was true, Iramine could only hope to come back later and take as much gold as possible from the city. She must have stuttered that aloud, because the dragon's creepy laughter echoed off the walls around them. "The gold created by the Jewel cannot be removed. It will always return to the city." There was new malice in his voice, the effect of the spell was already ending. "If that is s-so, we would not have n-needed to c-come here, s-save for the k-key that was not ours t-to begin with," she whispered. "Thank you, M-Mar'Karthon-can't-r-remember-full-n-name." From the corner of her eye, she saw the fetchling was still not moving. "Mook?" Zaza's panicked cry came over the canal. Of course, the others were awake now after all the commotion. "You are welcome, Mook-with-name-so-short," the dragon replied, and it sounded amused. "I do not feel well. Can you do that again?" "W-what?" The oracle saw Brenn-Krell was moving his legs now, and seemed to slowly edge away from the canal. That was a relief. "T-touch m-me. F-feel me." Mar'Karthon's empty eyes caused Mook to shiver as he moved his head even closer. "You... made me wake up form... something. What has happened to me?" Mook stretched out a hand and touched the gold plating of the skeletal frame again. Once more she was a conduit for divine energy, more confident this time. And even more aware of the little time she had left now that the poor undead would want to find out about his – the name sounded male, anyway – existence. Brenn-Krell now rolled around, carefully getting to his knees. He didn't feel harmed, but his shapechanged form was probably also protecting him from new damage. The fetchling had heard every word. It was time to act, to send the dragon to the shadow plane before it would succumb to madness and evil again. He was very surprised that the spell worked so well and could even be renewed. On wobbling legs, Brenn-Krelll got up. From the corner of his eye he saw the paladin stride onto the bridge, surrounded by a golden glow of divine protection. Soon there would be too many visitors to this party, he knew, and staggered over to where Mook was still talking to the dragon. As he readied himself, swirls of shadow seemed to emerge from his body. All he needed to do was to become half-solid and then sink his hand into the undead creature. The sensation was both familiar and new, the constant confusion of his momentary state. Mook's head turned towards the fetchling as he came closer. The gnome's eyes went wide as she realized Brenn-Krell was about to send Mar'Karthon to Krell's native plane. "No!" she shrieked, making the dragon back off in confusion. The thought of Mar'Karthon being stuck on that plane, even losing the fake gold color he was spouting now, was too much for Mook's mind. She was already hovering on the edge of losing it since Braan had almost died the day before. Following the dragon who turned to attack Brenn-Krell, she touched the creature once more, shouting a word in her gnomish language her friends did not understand. There was a bright flash of purple light, reacting eerily with the green-golden light reflected from the gilded skeleton. For a heartbeat or two, time did not seem to move, then the dragon blinked out of existence and Mook, losing her support, fell to her hands and knees. Bjön arrived just in time to grab her and drag her into his zone of protection as the negative energies stored during the creation of the undead unleashed and danced around them. It lasted but a moment, yet to the paladin it seemed an eternity. The spell fizzled out, and a deafening silence fell over the area. Then he heard the footsteps of the kobold, Zaza and Cajun, all of them muttering in worry. Brenn-Krell reappeared from somewhere and Samin cursed. "We have company." Bjön wanted to turn around to see what the young man meant, but the a raspy voice now speaking made it all clear. "Impressive, very impressive," the leader of the lizardfolk mutants snarled. "We saw the trail of deaths in your wake. If the last of the trespassers are in there, we want them." [/QUOTE]
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