ArcOfCorinth
First Post
I've been enjoying this as well. 
Whatever happened to your deity creation project in the Rogue's Gallery?
Whatever happened to your deity creation project in the Rogue's Gallery?
-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Metamorphosis: From Dretch to Demon Lord - Ascension Released!
- Thread starter BLACKDIRGE
- Start date
BigFreekinGoblinoid
First Post
BLACKDIRGE said:
*** ahem ****
-- impatient on Sunday afternoon
BLACKDIRGE
Adventurer
Hey all,
Sorry for the delay, I had really planned on posting the next installment today but an unforseen case of severe writer's block has put that on hold for a bit. I will soldier on and try to have it done in the next couple of days.
Thanks for your continuing support and your patience.
Dirge
Sorry for the delay, I had really planned on posting the next installment today but an unforseen case of severe writer's block has put that on hold for a bit. I will soldier on and try to have it done in the next couple of days.
Thanks for your continuing support and your patience.
Dirge
gloomymarshes
First Post
Bump. Can't allow this great story to get to the 2nd page now can we?
BLACKDIRGE
Adventurer
Howdy all,
Well, sorry for the delay, I know I made some promises I couldn't keep, and for that I apologize. In truth I had most of the installment written last week, but on rereading what I had written I realized that it was utter crap and unworthy of this thread or its readers. So I scrapped the whole thing and started over. Hopefully you will like what I ended up with.
************************************************************
Part VIII - The Planes of Despair
Rage and flame streaked across the gangrenous green abyssal sky with each beat of two great leathery wings. The mighty balor Hedrenatherax soared with a casual elegance, in complete command of his powerful, lethal body. The huge fiend fumed as he flew, his rage a palpable presence, manifesting in a crackling red nimbus of flame about his body. Never in all the millennia of his existence had he been so humbled, so utterly humiliated. The great bloated devil Gemnez had done what no enchanted blade or mighty spell could, he had struck at Hedrenatherax’s most glaring weakness and wounded the balor deeply. Gemnez had taken his pride.
Hedrenatherax was no fool, he knew that that he was not the most powerful creature in the abyss, and was in fact satisfied to serve those who had achieved greater stature than himself. But, even Pyrak, the master whom he so ably served, left the balor’s pride intact. It did not need to be said that the great demon lord could slay Hedrenatherax if he so willed it, there was no need to prove such a thing. Pyrak respected him and his abilities, and this was enough to ensure Hedrenatherax’s loyalty, such as it was.
Gemnez however was different; he had seen fit to prove his superiority in direct physical confrontation, not once but twice. And to add insult to injury he had allowed the balor to live and bear the full brunt of his humiliation. There was little Hedrenatherax could do, he knew he could not defeat Gemnez in a direct confrontation, and if he did not serve the baatezu his failure to contain the faithless petitioner would reach the ears of Pyrak ensuring his destruction. Never had Hedrenatherax felt so helpless, a very dangerous state of mind for the powerful fiend.
Reduced to little more than Gemnez’s errand boy, Hedrenatherax had scoured the area surrounding the spawning pit for any sign of the faithless petitioner who had caused such an uproar in the last few weeks. Hedrenatherax himself had brought the dangerous creature from the fugue plane hoping to curry favor with Pyrak, but his master had been uninterested and the balor had brought his prize to Gemnez.
Hedrenatherax let loose a sudden shriek of rage as the events of the last few days replayed in his mind and the flames around his body burned brighter with the heat of his anger.
To add to his growing list of defeats, the balor had suffered under the magical assault of the very creature he now searched for. The faithless petitioner had been thrown into the spawning pit of Gemnez Drak, more for curiosity’s sake than anything else. But to Hedrenatherax surprise and horror it had arisen from the roiling green pit like a phoenix rising from the ashes of its demise. The petitioner had become a dretch, a pathetic example of the lowliest of demon kind, but had retained all of the formidable power it had wielded as a mortal. Hedrenatherax had felt the full impact of the new demon’s magic and had been sorely wounded. The dretch had escaped, much to the consternation of Gemnez, who had suddenly become quite interested in the transformed petitioner.
So Hedrenatherax had gone looking for the newly formed dretch, searching in conjunction with Gemnez’s horde of babau servants. He had found traces of his quarry very quickly in the form of four mutilated babau demons in a small ravine, not far from the pit. The babau had been slain by powerful magic, their corpses ripped open and their hearts devoured. Hedrenatherax had brought his finding s back to Gemnez, whose interest in the faithless petitioner had now begun to resemble an obsession.
Gemnez had ordered Hedrenatherax to search once more, this time alone, as the baatezu did not wish to endanger anymore of its servants needlessly. The balor had not and still didn’t understood Gemnez’s reasoning for continuing the search, Hedrenatherax wished to simply tell Pyrak that the petitioner had perished in the spawning pit and be done with it. But Gemnez would not be refused, and Hedrenatherax had set out once more to find what was quickly coming the bane of his existence.
The domain that belonged to Pyrak was huge and sprawling, consisting of little more than a barren windswept plane and the huge chain of black mountains known simply as the Onyx Peaks. Hedrenatherax had started his search in the mountains, flying over and between the looming peaks in a near constant crisscrossing pattern. He had covered thousands of square miles of mountains before moving on to the plane that stretched into perpetuity beneath them.
Gemnez had told him that he would be looking for a babau, as the baatezu had divined that the hearts of the four babau Hedrenatherax discovered had most likely fueled another transformation in the petitioner. This was not encouraging news as babau were fairly common demons and there could be countless millions of them in Pyrak’s domain alone. In addition, Hedrenatherax had no reason no to suspect that his quarry had simply moved to another layer of the abyss or even another plane of existence all together. But he searched nonetheless, for as much as he hated Gemnez he did not wish to rouse the devil’s ire again.
Hedrenatherax flew on, speeding over the barren plane below like flaming arrow. His keen eyes scanned the horizon ahead for any sign of movevemnt but so far he had encountered nothing save the occasional vrock. The vulture demons wanted nothing to do with the balor and fled screeching from the huge flaming fiend as soon as they sighted him.
Hedrenatherax was beginning to entertain thoughts of ending his search prematurely when his keen eyes picked up a lone shape moving slowly on the very edge of the horizon. The figure moved upon the ground and as Hedrenatherax grew closer he could make out a definite man-like shape.
Hope flared within the balor as he thundered overhead and saw that the lone creature was indeed a babau. Hedrenatherax wheeled his great body with a flip of his massive wings bringing himself around to make another pass at the slow moving demon below. He knew that babau rarely traveled alone as they lacked the power to defend themselves against the more powerful demons in the abyss; hope burned brighter within the balor as he concluded that he had found his quarry at last.
Hedrenatherax had been stung by the petitioner’s magic twice, once on the fugue plane and once again after its emergence from the spawning pit. He had no desire to suffer that particular humiliation again, and had come prepared. Across Hedrenatherax’s broad back was large round shield, large enough to cover a man from neck to knee, but little more than a buckler to the huge demon. It was carved seemingly of a single piece of obsidian, but was extraordinarily light for all its ungainly appearance. Gemnez had given the shield to Hedrenatherax before he left the pit of Gemnez Drak, calling it the Ebon Ward, and instructing the balor in its use. The shield was powerfully enchanted and purportedly could repel even the mightiest of spells.
Hedrenatherax unbuckled the shield’s strap from his chest as he homed in on his prey, deftly maneuvering it in mid air so that it rested upon if left wrist. He then plucked his ever-present sword from his brass kilt and took it firmly in his right hand. The balor had been given instruction not to kill the petitioner, but he was not about to risk his own skin if the battle was going against him, Gemnez be damned.
With a mighty burst from his massive wings, Hedrenatherax plunged headlong into a dive towards the lone babau on the ground. The smaller demon seemed oblivious to his presence and plodded on slowly, head down. Hedrenatherax filled his lungs with stale abyssal air and loosed a savage howl as he descended, sword drawn back for a massive killing strike.
***
A lone babau trudged solemnly across a barren landscape of cracked dry earth and fiercely howling winds. Behind the gaunt fiend a mammoth range of black mountains thrust insolently up into the blasphemous green sky, ahead stretched only nothing.
Hazergal had left his small ravine days ago, fleeing into the abyssal night shortly after slaying the four babau whose hearts he had consumed. The terrible pain of his most recent metamorphosis was a haunting phantom of spiraling emptiness and irrational fear that drove him recklessly on. His perilous journey through the towering black mountains was a twisting blur of fear and flight that had finally led him here to the barren wind-swept plane that now stretched on infinitely before him
The wind howled around him like a banshee, digging claws of blasting sand into his skin and deafening him with its constant keening wail. He was heedless of the noise or pain, and simply occupied himself with the putting one foot in front of the other. He had found his new body to be far superior to that of his most recent form, stronger, faster and much tougher. The change had, in addition, added a host of new abilities to his already staggering array of powers but all this did little to soothe the clamor of despair that hammered into him with each footfall.
He had forgotten his own name.
This revelation had struck him soon after his transformation to babau. His memory had simply drained away like some much water through a sieve leaving only the faintest traces of self. The agony of knowing that he had been much more, that his mind was once filled with a lifetime of experiences now beyond his grasp was maddening. The demon that was once a man knew that the flesh holding his mind was not his own, it felt alien and coarse as if his thoughts and soul were unused to the confines of his own body.
He had traced the length of his remaining memory a hundred times, hoping that at its end there might be some inkling of what lay beyond the invisible barrier of amnesia. He remembered the Fugue plane, his capture by Hedrenatherax, and the floating citadel of the winged demon lord he been brought before. He remembered the terrible pit of Gemnez Drak, the burning stench of the spawning pit as it filled his nostrils just before he pierced its hellish green surface. His mind had also retained the pain of that first transformation, the horrid realization of his new body and the growing emptiness that had sprung to being within his soul. He remembered his flight from Gemnez Drak, the small ravine where he had sought sanctuary and finally his most recent change.
His former life had been stolen from him, leaving in its place only fear, doubt and loss, this was his to keep.
Dazed with despair, Hazergal trudged on, experiencing his new body with a detached interest. The babau form, although strange was much preferable to his last form. It lent a raw physical power to his formidable arcane ability that had sorely been lacking in his dretch body. He had taken to augmenting his physical power with his magic so that he might vent his frustration on those that challenged him in a very close and personal way. Such was the fate of the two vrocks who had sough to make meal of him less than a day ago. The two vulture demons had descended from the sky in a screeching tornado of talons and feathers, reckless in the perception of easy prey. Hazergal had seen and heard them coming from miles distant and had cast an array of spells upon himself to increase his strength, agility, and endurance. He had also cast a number of protection and warding spells to thwart the slashing talons and beaks of his foes.
Hazergal had calmly waited for the vrocks to draw near and then simply torn them to pieces with a relish he could scarcely understand. And just as he had done with the four babau in the ravine, he had torn open the vrock’s bodies and ate their black stinking hearts, moving like a creature in a dream barely aware of his own actions. When he had come to his senses again, covered in gore and feathers, he was relieved to see that he had not changed again and remained a babau. His relief was quickly extinguished by a rasping atonal voice that suddenly filled his head with the reeking thrum of power and malevolence. Seek the fiend of the pit. The voice boomed, filling his entire consciousness with its enormity, and then once that single phrase had been uttered, it disappeared leaving him empty and alone.
He had sat there for quite some time dazed and reeling from his ordeal, trying to puzzle out the cryptic message that had been planted in his mind. The answer came to him suddenly and his mind filled with the image of the massive from of Gemnez, the baatezu master of the pit of Gemnez Drak. He could not imagine why in all the worlds he would wish to return there, and dismissed the voice in his mind as nothing more than an extension of his rapidly failing sanity. He rose to his feet and moved on.
Hazergal had walked for what seemed an eternity, the landscape never changing, only the infrequent dawning of the abyssal night separated day from day. He neither hungered nor felt any thirst, his demonic body had no need of such things, leaving his mind free to agonize over all he had suffered and lost.
The wind never let up here, shrieking constantly over the flat cracked earth, and blocking all but the most invasive noises. Hazergal had to rely upon his eyes, which had grown much keener, to spot potential dangers. Just as he spotted the flaming body of Hedrenatherax streaking across the sky towards him, howling in fury.
Hazergal recognized the balor instantly and was gripped with a seething rage at the sight of one of his tormentors. His mouth began to emit a stream of arcane power, his voicing rising above the wail of the wind. Hazergal felt strength and power flow into his body at the completion of each spell. He became stronger, faster, and the long talons upon his hands glowed blue with eldritch flame. Hazergal had time for a mere handful of spells before Hedrenatherax was upon him, he did not attempt to strike at the balor from a distance as he had done before, he wanted to get close and feel his claws sink into the demon’s flesh. Hazergal realized he had little chance of overcoming the balor in hand to hand combat, but at least would inflict some of his own misery before succumbing once again to the void.
Like a great flaming missile Hedrenatherax arrowed towards Hazergal, shield raised, sword drawn back to end the conflict in a single blow. Hazergal waited, standing calmly as the balor descended. He waited until he could fell the heat of the demon’s body flames and then simply sat down. Hedrenatherax was unable to slow his dive and felt a sudden searing pain rip through his left wing as he passed over his foe. Hazergal had reached up as the balor thundered overhead and let his talons rake the fiend’s wing, using Hedrenatherax’s own momentum to drive the ragged claws through the thin leathery membrane.
Hedrenatherax wheeled crazily in the air as his left wing crumpled to his side and slammed into the ground a good fifty yards away in a mammoth spray of dirt and flame. With a bestial howl of triumph Hazergal jumped to his feet and raced over to the fallen balor.
Hedrenatherax was struggling to rise from the small crater he had created on impact as Hazergal reached him. The balor had risen to his hands and knees, his mingled wings hanging over his body like a shroud, he heard the pounding of Hazergal’s taloned feet approaching and turned his head to see the crazed babau leaping towards him talons extended. Hazergal landed upon Hedrenatherax’s back, letting his magically hardened claws sink deep into the balor’s flesh. Black ichor burst from the wound, burning Hazergal with its caustic heat, but still he clung like an enraged cat and raked. Hedrenatherax bellowed in pain and surged to his feet, arcing his back spasmodically and flinging Hazergal to the ground. The babau rolled lithely and sprang instantly to his feet to charge again at the wounded balor.
Hedrenatherax had managed to hang on to his sword despite his crash landing but his shield, the Ebon Ward, had been knocked from his grasp. The balor took his blade in both hands as Hazergal surged towards him and awaited the smaller demon’s charge. Hazergal was not well versed in the hand-to-hand combat and had relied mostly on luck or vastly superior strength and stamina to win the battles he had fought in the last few days. Hedrenatherax on the other hand was a veteran of countless confrontations and had emerged victorious from all but a scant few.
Hedrenatherax aimed a vicious sidelong cut at Hazergal’s head as he raced in, a blow which he purposely telegraphed causing the inexperienced Hazergal to duck. The balor let his blade pass over the babau’s head as Hazergal’s talons reached out to gut him, he then reversed the arc of his stroke without turning his wrists, bringing the blunt unsharpened edge of his blade against Hazergal’s skull with a ringing crack.
Hazergal dropped like a felled ox, his knees buckling as he crashed to the ground stunned. Hedrenatherax snorted in derisive mockery, wondering why he had feared this pathetic thing that had succumbed to a single blow of his sword. The huge balor walked off a short distance to retrieve the Ebon Ward, which had skittered a dozen paces away upon his untimely landing. He picked up the shield and stripped it to his wrist once more and then turned back to his fallen enemy.
Hedrenatherax’s eyed flew wide as he saw Hazergal had climbed to his knees and was pointing one thin taloned finger at the balor, the words of a spell dripping from his mouth like venom. Hedrenatherax was too far away to stop the casting and watched horrified as frosty blue line of magical energy lanced out towards him. Reflexively the balor brought up his shield, hoping Gemnez had not lied about its properties. The ray struck the shield’s mirrored surface, and Hedrenatherax could feel a chill so intense that it sucked the breath from his lungs and caused the fames about his body to shrink away. He felt the shield grow cool against his skin and then the spell simply dissipated harmlessly, its energy completely negated by the Ebon Ward.
Hazergal’s mouth fell open in shock, but Hedrenatherax wasted no time in counting his blessings and thundered across the short distance between himself and his foe. Hazergal still dazed from the balor's initial strike, attempted to rise to his feet, but was far too slow to react to the balor’s descending sword. The blunt edge of Hedrenatherax's blade crashed into the fragile place between Hazergal’s neck and shoulder, the force of the blow driving the babau to the ground accompanied by the sickening crack of bone. Hazergal lay motionless, wracked by spiraling waves of pain from his broken collarbone and fractured skull. Victory at hand Hedrenatherax did not waste his advantage and his sword rose and fell twice more, the last blow sending Hazergal finally into the darkness of unconsciousness.
The battle won Hedrenatherax sighed deeply and tested his injured wing, it had almost healed thanks to the supernatural speed at which his body repaired itself. He would be able to fly in a few minutes and carry his prize back to Gemnez. The balor looked down at the unconscious babau, and was sorely tempted to turn his sword around and simply cleave the troublesome creature’s head from its body. But Hedrenatherax simply sighed again and hung his word at his belt, Gemnez had a long reach and to thwart the devil this way would surely lead to his destruction. Hedrenatherax stooped and plucked Hazergal from the ground. Throwing the babau over his shoulder the balor spread his wings and leapt into the air to once again deliver Hazergal to the pit of Gemnez Drak.
Well, sorry for the delay, I know I made some promises I couldn't keep, and for that I apologize. In truth I had most of the installment written last week, but on rereading what I had written I realized that it was utter crap and unworthy of this thread or its readers. So I scrapped the whole thing and started over. Hopefully you will like what I ended up with.
************************************************************
Part VIII - The Planes of Despair
Rage and flame streaked across the gangrenous green abyssal sky with each beat of two great leathery wings. The mighty balor Hedrenatherax soared with a casual elegance, in complete command of his powerful, lethal body. The huge fiend fumed as he flew, his rage a palpable presence, manifesting in a crackling red nimbus of flame about his body. Never in all the millennia of his existence had he been so humbled, so utterly humiliated. The great bloated devil Gemnez had done what no enchanted blade or mighty spell could, he had struck at Hedrenatherax’s most glaring weakness and wounded the balor deeply. Gemnez had taken his pride.
Hedrenatherax was no fool, he knew that that he was not the most powerful creature in the abyss, and was in fact satisfied to serve those who had achieved greater stature than himself. But, even Pyrak, the master whom he so ably served, left the balor’s pride intact. It did not need to be said that the great demon lord could slay Hedrenatherax if he so willed it, there was no need to prove such a thing. Pyrak respected him and his abilities, and this was enough to ensure Hedrenatherax’s loyalty, such as it was.
Gemnez however was different; he had seen fit to prove his superiority in direct physical confrontation, not once but twice. And to add insult to injury he had allowed the balor to live and bear the full brunt of his humiliation. There was little Hedrenatherax could do, he knew he could not defeat Gemnez in a direct confrontation, and if he did not serve the baatezu his failure to contain the faithless petitioner would reach the ears of Pyrak ensuring his destruction. Never had Hedrenatherax felt so helpless, a very dangerous state of mind for the powerful fiend.
Reduced to little more than Gemnez’s errand boy, Hedrenatherax had scoured the area surrounding the spawning pit for any sign of the faithless petitioner who had caused such an uproar in the last few weeks. Hedrenatherax himself had brought the dangerous creature from the fugue plane hoping to curry favor with Pyrak, but his master had been uninterested and the balor had brought his prize to Gemnez.
Hedrenatherax let loose a sudden shriek of rage as the events of the last few days replayed in his mind and the flames around his body burned brighter with the heat of his anger.
To add to his growing list of defeats, the balor had suffered under the magical assault of the very creature he now searched for. The faithless petitioner had been thrown into the spawning pit of Gemnez Drak, more for curiosity’s sake than anything else. But to Hedrenatherax surprise and horror it had arisen from the roiling green pit like a phoenix rising from the ashes of its demise. The petitioner had become a dretch, a pathetic example of the lowliest of demon kind, but had retained all of the formidable power it had wielded as a mortal. Hedrenatherax had felt the full impact of the new demon’s magic and had been sorely wounded. The dretch had escaped, much to the consternation of Gemnez, who had suddenly become quite interested in the transformed petitioner.
So Hedrenatherax had gone looking for the newly formed dretch, searching in conjunction with Gemnez’s horde of babau servants. He had found traces of his quarry very quickly in the form of four mutilated babau demons in a small ravine, not far from the pit. The babau had been slain by powerful magic, their corpses ripped open and their hearts devoured. Hedrenatherax had brought his finding s back to Gemnez, whose interest in the faithless petitioner had now begun to resemble an obsession.
Gemnez had ordered Hedrenatherax to search once more, this time alone, as the baatezu did not wish to endanger anymore of its servants needlessly. The balor had not and still didn’t understood Gemnez’s reasoning for continuing the search, Hedrenatherax wished to simply tell Pyrak that the petitioner had perished in the spawning pit and be done with it. But Gemnez would not be refused, and Hedrenatherax had set out once more to find what was quickly coming the bane of his existence.
The domain that belonged to Pyrak was huge and sprawling, consisting of little more than a barren windswept plane and the huge chain of black mountains known simply as the Onyx Peaks. Hedrenatherax had started his search in the mountains, flying over and between the looming peaks in a near constant crisscrossing pattern. He had covered thousands of square miles of mountains before moving on to the plane that stretched into perpetuity beneath them.
Gemnez had told him that he would be looking for a babau, as the baatezu had divined that the hearts of the four babau Hedrenatherax discovered had most likely fueled another transformation in the petitioner. This was not encouraging news as babau were fairly common demons and there could be countless millions of them in Pyrak’s domain alone. In addition, Hedrenatherax had no reason no to suspect that his quarry had simply moved to another layer of the abyss or even another plane of existence all together. But he searched nonetheless, for as much as he hated Gemnez he did not wish to rouse the devil’s ire again.
Hedrenatherax flew on, speeding over the barren plane below like flaming arrow. His keen eyes scanned the horizon ahead for any sign of movevemnt but so far he had encountered nothing save the occasional vrock. The vulture demons wanted nothing to do with the balor and fled screeching from the huge flaming fiend as soon as they sighted him.
Hedrenatherax was beginning to entertain thoughts of ending his search prematurely when his keen eyes picked up a lone shape moving slowly on the very edge of the horizon. The figure moved upon the ground and as Hedrenatherax grew closer he could make out a definite man-like shape.
Hope flared within the balor as he thundered overhead and saw that the lone creature was indeed a babau. Hedrenatherax wheeled his great body with a flip of his massive wings bringing himself around to make another pass at the slow moving demon below. He knew that babau rarely traveled alone as they lacked the power to defend themselves against the more powerful demons in the abyss; hope burned brighter within the balor as he concluded that he had found his quarry at last.
Hedrenatherax had been stung by the petitioner’s magic twice, once on the fugue plane and once again after its emergence from the spawning pit. He had no desire to suffer that particular humiliation again, and had come prepared. Across Hedrenatherax’s broad back was large round shield, large enough to cover a man from neck to knee, but little more than a buckler to the huge demon. It was carved seemingly of a single piece of obsidian, but was extraordinarily light for all its ungainly appearance. Gemnez had given the shield to Hedrenatherax before he left the pit of Gemnez Drak, calling it the Ebon Ward, and instructing the balor in its use. The shield was powerfully enchanted and purportedly could repel even the mightiest of spells.
Hedrenatherax unbuckled the shield’s strap from his chest as he homed in on his prey, deftly maneuvering it in mid air so that it rested upon if left wrist. He then plucked his ever-present sword from his brass kilt and took it firmly in his right hand. The balor had been given instruction not to kill the petitioner, but he was not about to risk his own skin if the battle was going against him, Gemnez be damned.
With a mighty burst from his massive wings, Hedrenatherax plunged headlong into a dive towards the lone babau on the ground. The smaller demon seemed oblivious to his presence and plodded on slowly, head down. Hedrenatherax filled his lungs with stale abyssal air and loosed a savage howl as he descended, sword drawn back for a massive killing strike.
***
A lone babau trudged solemnly across a barren landscape of cracked dry earth and fiercely howling winds. Behind the gaunt fiend a mammoth range of black mountains thrust insolently up into the blasphemous green sky, ahead stretched only nothing.
Hazergal had left his small ravine days ago, fleeing into the abyssal night shortly after slaying the four babau whose hearts he had consumed. The terrible pain of his most recent metamorphosis was a haunting phantom of spiraling emptiness and irrational fear that drove him recklessly on. His perilous journey through the towering black mountains was a twisting blur of fear and flight that had finally led him here to the barren wind-swept plane that now stretched on infinitely before him
The wind howled around him like a banshee, digging claws of blasting sand into his skin and deafening him with its constant keening wail. He was heedless of the noise or pain, and simply occupied himself with the putting one foot in front of the other. He had found his new body to be far superior to that of his most recent form, stronger, faster and much tougher. The change had, in addition, added a host of new abilities to his already staggering array of powers but all this did little to soothe the clamor of despair that hammered into him with each footfall.
He had forgotten his own name.
This revelation had struck him soon after his transformation to babau. His memory had simply drained away like some much water through a sieve leaving only the faintest traces of self. The agony of knowing that he had been much more, that his mind was once filled with a lifetime of experiences now beyond his grasp was maddening. The demon that was once a man knew that the flesh holding his mind was not his own, it felt alien and coarse as if his thoughts and soul were unused to the confines of his own body.
He had traced the length of his remaining memory a hundred times, hoping that at its end there might be some inkling of what lay beyond the invisible barrier of amnesia. He remembered the Fugue plane, his capture by Hedrenatherax, and the floating citadel of the winged demon lord he been brought before. He remembered the terrible pit of Gemnez Drak, the burning stench of the spawning pit as it filled his nostrils just before he pierced its hellish green surface. His mind had also retained the pain of that first transformation, the horrid realization of his new body and the growing emptiness that had sprung to being within his soul. He remembered his flight from Gemnez Drak, the small ravine where he had sought sanctuary and finally his most recent change.
His former life had been stolen from him, leaving in its place only fear, doubt and loss, this was his to keep.
Dazed with despair, Hazergal trudged on, experiencing his new body with a detached interest. The babau form, although strange was much preferable to his last form. It lent a raw physical power to his formidable arcane ability that had sorely been lacking in his dretch body. He had taken to augmenting his physical power with his magic so that he might vent his frustration on those that challenged him in a very close and personal way. Such was the fate of the two vrocks who had sough to make meal of him less than a day ago. The two vulture demons had descended from the sky in a screeching tornado of talons and feathers, reckless in the perception of easy prey. Hazergal had seen and heard them coming from miles distant and had cast an array of spells upon himself to increase his strength, agility, and endurance. He had also cast a number of protection and warding spells to thwart the slashing talons and beaks of his foes.
Hazergal had calmly waited for the vrocks to draw near and then simply torn them to pieces with a relish he could scarcely understand. And just as he had done with the four babau in the ravine, he had torn open the vrock’s bodies and ate their black stinking hearts, moving like a creature in a dream barely aware of his own actions. When he had come to his senses again, covered in gore and feathers, he was relieved to see that he had not changed again and remained a babau. His relief was quickly extinguished by a rasping atonal voice that suddenly filled his head with the reeking thrum of power and malevolence. Seek the fiend of the pit. The voice boomed, filling his entire consciousness with its enormity, and then once that single phrase had been uttered, it disappeared leaving him empty and alone.
He had sat there for quite some time dazed and reeling from his ordeal, trying to puzzle out the cryptic message that had been planted in his mind. The answer came to him suddenly and his mind filled with the image of the massive from of Gemnez, the baatezu master of the pit of Gemnez Drak. He could not imagine why in all the worlds he would wish to return there, and dismissed the voice in his mind as nothing more than an extension of his rapidly failing sanity. He rose to his feet and moved on.
Hazergal had walked for what seemed an eternity, the landscape never changing, only the infrequent dawning of the abyssal night separated day from day. He neither hungered nor felt any thirst, his demonic body had no need of such things, leaving his mind free to agonize over all he had suffered and lost.
The wind never let up here, shrieking constantly over the flat cracked earth, and blocking all but the most invasive noises. Hazergal had to rely upon his eyes, which had grown much keener, to spot potential dangers. Just as he spotted the flaming body of Hedrenatherax streaking across the sky towards him, howling in fury.
Hazergal recognized the balor instantly and was gripped with a seething rage at the sight of one of his tormentors. His mouth began to emit a stream of arcane power, his voicing rising above the wail of the wind. Hazergal felt strength and power flow into his body at the completion of each spell. He became stronger, faster, and the long talons upon his hands glowed blue with eldritch flame. Hazergal had time for a mere handful of spells before Hedrenatherax was upon him, he did not attempt to strike at the balor from a distance as he had done before, he wanted to get close and feel his claws sink into the demon’s flesh. Hazergal realized he had little chance of overcoming the balor in hand to hand combat, but at least would inflict some of his own misery before succumbing once again to the void.
Like a great flaming missile Hedrenatherax arrowed towards Hazergal, shield raised, sword drawn back to end the conflict in a single blow. Hazergal waited, standing calmly as the balor descended. He waited until he could fell the heat of the demon’s body flames and then simply sat down. Hedrenatherax was unable to slow his dive and felt a sudden searing pain rip through his left wing as he passed over his foe. Hazergal had reached up as the balor thundered overhead and let his talons rake the fiend’s wing, using Hedrenatherax’s own momentum to drive the ragged claws through the thin leathery membrane.
Hedrenatherax wheeled crazily in the air as his left wing crumpled to his side and slammed into the ground a good fifty yards away in a mammoth spray of dirt and flame. With a bestial howl of triumph Hazergal jumped to his feet and raced over to the fallen balor.
Hedrenatherax was struggling to rise from the small crater he had created on impact as Hazergal reached him. The balor had risen to his hands and knees, his mingled wings hanging over his body like a shroud, he heard the pounding of Hazergal’s taloned feet approaching and turned his head to see the crazed babau leaping towards him talons extended. Hazergal landed upon Hedrenatherax’s back, letting his magically hardened claws sink deep into the balor’s flesh. Black ichor burst from the wound, burning Hazergal with its caustic heat, but still he clung like an enraged cat and raked. Hedrenatherax bellowed in pain and surged to his feet, arcing his back spasmodically and flinging Hazergal to the ground. The babau rolled lithely and sprang instantly to his feet to charge again at the wounded balor.
Hedrenatherax had managed to hang on to his sword despite his crash landing but his shield, the Ebon Ward, had been knocked from his grasp. The balor took his blade in both hands as Hazergal surged towards him and awaited the smaller demon’s charge. Hazergal was not well versed in the hand-to-hand combat and had relied mostly on luck or vastly superior strength and stamina to win the battles he had fought in the last few days. Hedrenatherax on the other hand was a veteran of countless confrontations and had emerged victorious from all but a scant few.
Hedrenatherax aimed a vicious sidelong cut at Hazergal’s head as he raced in, a blow which he purposely telegraphed causing the inexperienced Hazergal to duck. The balor let his blade pass over the babau’s head as Hazergal’s talons reached out to gut him, he then reversed the arc of his stroke without turning his wrists, bringing the blunt unsharpened edge of his blade against Hazergal’s skull with a ringing crack.
Hazergal dropped like a felled ox, his knees buckling as he crashed to the ground stunned. Hedrenatherax snorted in derisive mockery, wondering why he had feared this pathetic thing that had succumbed to a single blow of his sword. The huge balor walked off a short distance to retrieve the Ebon Ward, which had skittered a dozen paces away upon his untimely landing. He picked up the shield and stripped it to his wrist once more and then turned back to his fallen enemy.
Hedrenatherax’s eyed flew wide as he saw Hazergal had climbed to his knees and was pointing one thin taloned finger at the balor, the words of a spell dripping from his mouth like venom. Hedrenatherax was too far away to stop the casting and watched horrified as frosty blue line of magical energy lanced out towards him. Reflexively the balor brought up his shield, hoping Gemnez had not lied about its properties. The ray struck the shield’s mirrored surface, and Hedrenatherax could feel a chill so intense that it sucked the breath from his lungs and caused the fames about his body to shrink away. He felt the shield grow cool against his skin and then the spell simply dissipated harmlessly, its energy completely negated by the Ebon Ward.
Hazergal’s mouth fell open in shock, but Hedrenatherax wasted no time in counting his blessings and thundered across the short distance between himself and his foe. Hazergal still dazed from the balor's initial strike, attempted to rise to his feet, but was far too slow to react to the balor’s descending sword. The blunt edge of Hedrenatherax's blade crashed into the fragile place between Hazergal’s neck and shoulder, the force of the blow driving the babau to the ground accompanied by the sickening crack of bone. Hazergal lay motionless, wracked by spiraling waves of pain from his broken collarbone and fractured skull. Victory at hand Hedrenatherax did not waste his advantage and his sword rose and fell twice more, the last blow sending Hazergal finally into the darkness of unconsciousness.
The battle won Hedrenatherax sighed deeply and tested his injured wing, it had almost healed thanks to the supernatural speed at which his body repaired itself. He would be able to fly in a few minutes and carry his prize back to Gemnez. The balor looked down at the unconscious babau, and was sorely tempted to turn his sword around and simply cleave the troublesome creature’s head from its body. But Hedrenatherax simply sighed again and hung his word at his belt, Gemnez had a long reach and to thwart the devil this way would surely lead to his destruction. Hedrenatherax stooped and plucked Hazergal from the ground. Throwing the babau over his shoulder the balor spread his wings and leapt into the air to once again deliver Hazergal to the pit of Gemnez Drak.
sithramir
First Post
Excellent as always. I just feel lucky that I checked this and then read another story hour update and saw this one updated after I was done! A very special treat for me before I go to bed.
You're writing is great and I love the story. Are there stats for Hazergal in each of the forms?
You're writing is great and I love the story. Are there stats for Hazergal in each of the forms?
gloomymarshes
First Post
Yay! Both yours and Sep's story hour updated today! And what an update it was... very nice. Although I would've liked to see hazag kick hedrethenax's butt, you probably needed him to lose so he could be delivered to Gemnez fast and advance the plot, I think.
Very nice update!
Very nice update!
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