A timely write-up, given some of the recent discussion.
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 384
The Thing Dranko Becomes
“What sorts of food do you like?”
Ernie asks the question of Galdifain, who stares at the mansion’s magical banquet as though she’s never see food before.
“I haven’t eaten in over eight hundred years,” she says quietly. “It all looks delicious.”
Before bed, the Company reviews the prophecy of the Croaking Oracle. They think they understand quite a bit of it now.
“One brings many, flame’s design” seems like it could refer to Galdifain, sent from the Abyss, to bring forth horrible creatures to kill Dranko. And “…one hates one” certainly sounds like Galdifain’s (or perhaps Tapheon’s) hatred for Dranko.
“One trip started, one trip done.” They’re pretty sure about that one: they themselves have started the trip downward through the Underdark, while the Evil Trio has finished theirs.
“Three are bringing, now in place, Three have won the downward race.” That would be the Evil Trio again.
“Seven haste, and roll the dice, Spun by fortune’s sacrifice.” The Company numbers seven, and “fortune’s sacrifice,” while unclear, could be related to Morningstar’s magic item,
Laramon’s Jade Clover. (Laramon is the Kivian God of Luck, counterpart to Corilayna, who the party has surmised fled into the Crosser’s Maze with Drosh.)
“Four are needed, ‘fore the end. One to take the shell and rend.”
They’re certain it will be Kibi who will “take the shell and rend.” Years ago, Kibi had a dream in which the earth itself spoke to him. It said: “Kibilhathur Bimson, child of Gela, child of Cranchus. You are still the Opener. The splinter has encased itself, I and it crying out together. It must be you who cracks its shell. Bless it with its lover’s kiss, the watcher’s hour come, and together we will cleanse Abernia.”
They believe the splinter is the Hand of the Adversary, and so it seems that Kibi will need to break through some sort of protective shell around it, using the Watcher’s Kiss.
“One for what is in his head.”
Certainly a reference to Dranko.
“One to channel what makes dead.”
They still have no good guesses about what this refers to.
“One at last, but not yet known.
One forever dead as stone.
One to drive the spike clean through.
One to die, and hope renew.”
Nor this, though it sounds like one of them is destined to die.
“One last journey then to make.
One last prison bar to break.
One last thread of fate to pull.
One last circle to come full.”
They assume the “prison bar” refers to the prison in which the Adversary is confined, and that the whole verse refers to the end of their quest, one way or another.
/*/
The next morning, with no good leads as to how best reach the next Leaping Circle, Ernie casts
find the path. It’s difficult to pick up the proper divinatory threads, and it costs him life-force to cast the spell at all, but Yondalla can answer his prayers even beneath the Iron Barrier. He senses the best way to go, and they go – westward, over the ocean, wind-walking a mile every minute. Galdifain assents to travel in the
flask of body pouring, a measure taken largely for her own safety.
“It will be boring,” says Aravis.
“That sounds perfect,” answers Galdifain.
They reach the western shore of the ocean about twenty minutes later, and concurrently the end of the cavern itself. Ernie’s spell indicates the leftmost of three similar tunnels bored into the wall, and in they go. It narrows and grows twisty, making it faster to become solid and travel on foot. The tunnel has no branches, so they keep following it after the
find the path runs out. It’s rough going; this is a natural formation, its uneven meanderings requiring many four-limb scrambles. The motes grow dim, and they continue on for another hour by dint of their darkvision, before weariness brings an end to the day’s journey. Aravis casts another
magnificent mansion for them to sleep in.
That night, Dranko dreams. He is back in the place between Leaping Circles, suspended in a place of madness. There are whispers all around him. “Dranko… you are failing. You are failing…”
He turns to see the whisperers, but they are always behind him, like mischievous children darting out of sight. “You are failing, Dranko. Failing!”
The
thing in his head seems to grow heavy. It sloshes in his mind like mercury in a bottle being tilted back and forth. It roils, hot and foul.
Then one voice, louder than the rest, sounds in his ear. “Dranko, you have failed!”
He snaps out of sleep, covered in sweat. Morningstar is beside him, sleeping peacefully. But his relief at waking is short-lived; something still churns in his head… and it is breaking free. He looks down to see his body receding from his head, then realizes his neck is stretching, his vision graying. Slimy, sinewy limbs are extruding themselves from his body, even as his head becomes long and narrow, losing its features, until it is nothing but a thick gray tentacle ending in a sharp black spike.
He has Become, and he has become something horrible. His blackened spike drips with Essence.
Morningstar is bodily shoved out of bed by Dranko’s metamorphosis. He looks upon his wife, and sees only prey. The Thing He Has Become has a mind of its own, and it seeks to shove Dranko’s consciousness downward where he can only watch its predations. The Thing is intelligent, malign, and absurdly powerful. Dranko’s mind fights desperately against it. The thing wants to tear Morningstar apart right there, but Dranko manages to nudge its strategy. It casts
maze upon her instead, and she vanishes, cutting off her screams. But they had gone off long enough for her to have woken the others. No matter. He can kill them too.
He casts
time stop, and prepares himself.
Haste.
Stoneskin.
Displacement.
Shield. He knocks the bedroom door free and charges into the common room, just as Flicker arrives from the opposite side.
The little halfling screams. It’s a pleasing sound.
The others spill into the room, bleary-eyed, having grabbed their equipment and rushed to the sound of danger. They stop short when they see Dranko in his new body. He sees them cast their meaningless spells:
mass doughy folk from Ernie,
xorn movement from Kibi,
shapechange from Aravis.
Flicker calls out. “Dranko, are you okay in there? Come out so I have someone to flank with!”
Silly little person. He doesn’t understand. No matter. Soon he will be dead. Dranko quickens a
disintegrate aimed at Flicker, but the old Dranko is still struggling, and the distraction causes the beam to go wide, neatly removing a round section of wall.
His tentacle-head is stretchy. He whips it toward Grey Wolf, intending to spear him through the chest, but once more the half-orc Dranko screams in frustration within him, and Grey Wolf is able to dodge. But that uses up the last of Dranko’s will; the monster he has become takes full control. He spears again with his black-spiked head, and it pierces Grey Wolf’s side. He knows that in addition to the searing pain and terrible damage, his enemy’s wisdom has been badly drained.
“When you are dead,” he tells Grey Wolf. “I will plant Bostock in your body.”
Flicker tumbles and tries to strike him with his dagger, but is fooled by the
displacement. Grey Wolf hits him with an
acid orb, and the acid stings a bit. He shakes it off like a dog drying itself. Ernie casts both
bolt of glory (which he easily dodges) and
energy drain (to which he is immune). He laughs, a terrible gurgling laugh. He knows the capabilities of these pathetic mortal creatures. They cannot best him.
Against logic, Morningstar appears in the doorway of her room. She has escaped the
maze unexpectedly soon.
“Where’s Dranko?” calls Ernie.
“
That’s Dranko,” answers Morningstar, pointing at him. “He turned into that, and put me in a
maze."
He delights in the horror on the faces of his former friends.
Kibi announces that he’s put Dranko into a
forcecage. How cute. He sees the others readying spells for when he inevitably escapes, but hardly cares. What’s the worst they can do? He gurgles and once more casts
time stop. First he casts
dimension door, arriving near to Grey Wolf. Of all the enemy’s spells, he knows that Grey Wolf’s
acid orbs pose the greatest threat to him, as they bypass his various resistances. Then he places a floor-to-ceiling
wall of force that divides the mansion interior into two subsections, one containing himself and Grey Wolf, the other holding everyone else. Finally he casts
true strike, then readies a spell.
Time returns to normal, and he casts
disintegrate. Annoyingly, Grey Wolf saves, taking only incidental damage. Morningstar casts some kind of mind-spell that fails. Flicker charges straight into the
wall of force. Pathetic. Grey Wolf casts
xorn movement from a scroll and sinks into the ground. (Aravis always creates his
magnificent mansions with a thick stone border around its surface perimeter, for just this sort of emergency, but Dranko knows it won’t help.)
Ernie and Kibi choose to wait out the
wall of force, but Aravis does not. He quickens a
teleport over to Dranko’s side, then has the gall to cast
Disjunction on him. This not only strips him of his various protections and buffs, but it dispels the
magnificent mansion in its entirety. Everyone is ejected into the uneven stone cavern where they had finished the day’s march.
Before he can kill Aravis, the wizard shapechanges into a xorn and vanishes into the rock. Dranko can’t blame him. Hiding is their best option.
Ernie casts
destruction on him, which barely scratches his skin. The little halfling quickens something else, something meant to lower his magical resistance, but of course that fails. Kibi casts his favorite spell –
Otto’s Irresistible Dance – and risks getting close enough to touch him. The spell has no effect; Dranko’s new mind is inviolate. Kibi quickens a
teleport to escape.
Morningstar heals Grey Wolf, but it’s a futile gesture. Viper-quick, Dranko scuttles over to where Grey Wolf is struggling to his feet after the dissolution of the mansion. He plunges his head spike twice into Grey Wolf’s chest. The first hit nearly kills his target. The second one blasts a hole all the way through Grey Wolf’s torso, leaving a hole as big around as a frying pan. The rim of the hole drips with Essence. The others gape as Grey Wolf’s dead body slumps to the ground, but Dranko's not finished. He whips around to face Morningstar, and casts
energy drain upon her. It’s a good one, and he knows that he’s forced her best spells out of her head – her
mass heals, her
miracles, her
prismatic sphere, her
firestorms.
The halfling Flicker starts to babble at the sight of Grey Wolf. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.”
Aravis pops out of the ground and casts
reality maelstrom behind Dranko, a spell which briefly opens a sucking void that in theory could suck him into and eject him to another plane. Dranko ignores its childlike tug on his body.
Ernie uses
miracle to spoof
bolt of glory, which Dranko evades entirely. Ernie then quickens
flame strike, which damages him a little, but he’s nearly back to full health as it is. His new body regenerates very quickly.
Dranko can see the despair of inevitable defeat start to settle onto the faces of his former friends, but they’re not ready yet to give up. Kibi quickens an empowered
earthbolt that is maximized by his
Pulse of Abernia. By dumb luck it bypasses all of his natural and supernatural defenses, and for the first time since Becoming, Dranko feels significant pain. Then Kibi summons an elder earth elemental that towers over him, but Dranko is unusually strong; he bats it away as it tries to grapple him. Finally, Kibi sinks again into the ground. Coward!
Morningstar tries to
revivify the fallen Grey Wolf, but the wound in his chest already festers with Adversary blood. The spell fails. Grey Wolf is gone for good. Dranko gurgles out another hideous laugh and sends a massive
chain lightning crackling through the Company. Then for good measure he drives his head spike into Aravis, severly wounding him and draining away a goodly portion of wisdom.
Flicker activates the
fly spell from his armor, and charges at him. Not smart. He swats the halfling away, again dealing massive damage and draining away wisdom. Flicker’s none too wise as it is; the little fellow is lucky to still be conscious.
Aravis casts a spell on him, and everything vanishes. He’s in a magical labyrinth with shifting walls. Adorable. Aravis has put him in a
maze. He sees the way out immediately.
When he emerges, he can see new magical auras on his friends; they were not idle while he was gone. Morningstar has a protective spell upon her, something from Ernie. Kibi is surrounded by the protective gray discs of
effulgent epuration. Morningstar and Ernie have healed themselves, and Morningstar has moved into a flanking position with Flicker.
They had also readied some spells. Aravis casts
disintegrate on him, but its damage is minimal. Kibi tries another
earthbolt, but this one is much weaker than the last. A fleabite.
The elemental grabs him in a powerful grip, obliging Dranko to waste time killing it – which he does, easily, plunging his head-spike until the thing goes comatose from wisdom drain. Then he leaps atop a nearby boulder and unleashes a
prismatic spray upon his foes.
Aravis and Kibi take severe damage from acid and electricity, respectively. Ernie and Morningstar take smaller amounts of damage. Flicker is lifted bodily in the air and flung backward; his body strikes the stone wall with a sickening crunch. Another one dead. The others, he knows, are running out of spells, running out of healing. He continues to regenerate from the little damage they’ve been able to do.
Now he senses their despair, a palpable thing. They know they’ve lost. He has Become their deaths.
/*/
Dranko is thrashing wildly in his sleep. Morningstar watches with concern for a few seconds, then decides she should wake her husband from whatever nightmare afflicts him. She gives him a gentle shake.
He wakes up, screaming.
“Dranko, you look really pale. Are you okay?”
…to be continued…
.
