The Sea Dragon turned its gargantuan mass and looked over the tribute of False Gems. Though they were not clear, the polished surface of the dark and cloudy substance was pleasing in its own way. Enough that it saw it as sufficient to grant the Fire Giants the power they sought from it. "Well done, the beauty of this tribute is enough to add more beauty to my garden. Now then, on to the matter of that blessing…" The Sea Dragon said through telepathy before reaching out to the Fire Giants who knelt before it through its ever present companion, the Magic Spirit floating and coiling around each of them as the contract was formally established. "You shall be blessed with greater strength, dominion over water, the ability to breathe even while submerged beneath the waves, and lastly you shall be given the ability to find shiny treasures to add to my collection." The Sea Dragon informed the Fire Giants, the ones given its blessing, who grew patches of scales matching its own across their bodies as a symbol of the pact they had established.
All arranged in a way to enhance their aesthetics, of course. Having ugly servants would only serve to bring down its own magnificence. The thought reminded it of that…unpleasant experience with the strange creatures that it's new servants called Laganor. It suppressed the shiver that went through his now titanic form, keeping up their regal appearance. It made a note to have its servants keep those creatures away from its domain.
Ragnocor gazed upon the mass of boiling water as he willed it to move according to his own desire, watching as it snaked through the air like a serpent guided by only his own thoughts and the power given unto him by the Sea Dragon. He looked over to see a mass of something vile approach the shoreline of the Golden Isle, and lashed out at it with his new power alongside several of his fellow blessed, causing the water around the spot to rapidly compress and heat up until the filth was crushed and boiled to death by their combined power. Ragnocor looked over to one of his fellows and nodded to them, an unspoken understanding of what they must do passing between them. The two Fire Giants waded into the waters, submerging themselves beneath the waves and entering the depths.
They bent the water around them to carry them forwards and confronted the abominations that awaited them in the depths. Ragnocor and his ally reached out and commanded the water around them to boil, to let the heat of their bodies to extend and bring the wrath of summer upon this realm of darkness and monsters. Ragnocor could not help but grin at the masses of the accursed filth as it died from the heat, before he and his brother in arms began to twist and rotate the water, commanding it to spiral and turn to create a whirlpool that gathered the dying monsters into a center point with the suction. Then, once the beasts were all gathered, the pair of them willed the water to compress and crush them, making the pressure increase more and more until they were sure the monsters were good and dead.
It had taken years for Ragnocor to master his new powers to be able to do all of this with only a single partner to assist him, and he had taken to the blessing particularly well! He reached out with his other sense to see if perhaps the scum had brought up any treasures for him to bring back to the Sea Dragon, but found nothing. Just like every previous time.
Ragnocor still had no idea what a gem was, and began to suspect such things were from the mysterious lands beyond that their second God had come from, which was mildly disappointing to him. They must have been magnificent things, for the Sea Dragon to desire them so. He knew their master was one who put an intense emphasis on beauty, though he only somewhat understood it. Things that looked nice were nice to look at, simple logic and easy to grasp, he was sure even the Cold Demons could at least agree on that… he wondered when the next hunt would be?
When he returned to the shoreline, he put such thoughts out of his mind when he saw one of the younger blessed lifting a Laganor with his strength, and sighed when they started to scream.
"Darkest Cold Take You, Hulnak! You know better than to touch a Laganor! Restrain him!" Ragnocor commanded, while thinking of what manner of punishment this idiot would need in order to free him of having to deal with it.
Screw it, I thought of an alternate way to get even with these giants that doesn't necessarily require their extinction.
Authored
[X] Curse of the Frost Giant
-The extermination of its sacred Penguins has provoked the wrath of a ___. "Those who destroy my pets," it declares, "shall find themselves replacing them." The Isles hear, but they do not understand until the true nature of its decree makes itself known.
Over the Age, those Fire Giants who participated in the wholesale murder of the Penguins find themselves increasingly uncomfortable and sickly on the Golden Isle that is their homeland, until one day they are forced to abandon it for the wintry regions beyond. As their skin and hair pales, and they develop the ability to wield the accursed Cold for themselves, they recognize the true curse that the ___ spoke: No longer are they Fire Giants; no, they have become beings of the very Frost they so malign. Further, those who slay a victim of the Curse, as well, are subject to it.
Supported
[X] Rise, O Lady of Night and Sea
[X] A Light in the Dark; Altruism is its own reward.
In the image of the Divine Dragon, an equal in power and longevity, yet opposite in theme is crafted. With black scales adorned with eldritch blue markings and silver horns, claws, and fangs. Six draconic wings of blackest night that can double as large fins keep them aloft in the sky. An aura of darkness that can be shaped into weapons, drain the force and energy of attacks, and siphon away the vitality and life of those who oppose the Abyssal Dragon shall adorn them, along with dominion over the waters as the Divine Dragon commands fire. This Darkness and command of Water may be combined to create a liquid shadow that silences all sound around it, the water of a Silent Sea that can disrupt, unravel, and devour the supernatural powers of others it comes in contact with, and even strip it away entirely from those who are completely submerged in the dark water, it can even slowly Unmake beings such as Magic Spirits and Undead, condemning them to silent nothingness. Yet despite such insidious power, they have a gentle and alluring presence that mesmerizes and draws in others, an ethereal and unnatural beauty that entrances. They are made Guardian of the Penguins and Pendrakes, and those who call winter their home. They also have the same Immortality and lack of need for sustenance as the Divine Dragon.
Supporting
(Free to Trade.)
[X] Curse of the Frost Giant @Sir Plusse
[X] Nemean Mammoth @Zakelga
[X] A Light in the Dark; Altruism is its own reward. @Razzocnor
[X] The Ghost Moon Beast arises @SeaTheTree
Remind me, what kind of Blessings can the Sea Dragon actually give out?
...I'll be honest, I thought this quest was dead. Time to reread.
Authored
[X] Nemean Mammoth
A new animal is made on the Golden Isle. It appears as a wooly mammoth, but with a lion's mane around the neck. They travel in herds with a male watching over several females. The most distinct features are their super tough hide and tusks, which can withstand extreme amounts of punishment. Most weapons will fail to pierce the hide, while the tusks are strong enough to break stone. Because of this, Nemean Mammoths value strength above all else. Adult males will constantly seek out fights and display feats of strength in order to win over females. Hunters must either be super strong or skillful with traps to bring down such hardy beasts.
Support(pending)
[X] All's Well and Super Cells @Nigerian Duck
Thinking about it, there's no guarantee that I'll finish the Sidestory in time. If so, then I'll just edit my vote to include that the Avian Blobs steward the Egg away. No point in hatching early—even if it's to help the Isle. Authored Act
[X] All's Well and Super Cells
As the avian within the Egg grows stronger and stronger with each passing day, its mind comes closer to being as whole as it could. The ___ sees this, and decrees the second-to-last step of its gestation.
First, it heightens the mind of the avian, just a little, and moves it to give out a message. Using the same electrical signals that are put into it, the Egg sends out its own wave of electrical signals, reaching all the avian blobs there are. The message is simple. It grows in power and maturity, the red and black showing its next stage of evolution. It is not a disease, not a malignant force, but a sign of its ever growing strength. It appreciates the Egg stewards who've taken care of it for so long, caring for it with the tender hand of a parent.
However, it must ask for more, as it cannot grow alone. "You've given me much, but more I need. More to grow, more to know, more to see, more to hear, to smell, to taste, to feel, to think, to experience, to understand, to be Free."
The avian blobs, whose deep and buried devotion to the Egg has been the catalyst for their entire existence, feel this wave of mental power and the emotion behind it. And so they order themselves in reasonable amounts to go into the Egg and fuse themselves into it, giving their small piece of solid oxygen to the Egg, growing its own bit by bit and fusing the material to its body.
This only serves to deepen the Egg's unnaturally beauty and perfection, as it becomes a pool of power reforming into an even greater entity. An opaque pearly white exterior that gives way to a shockingly scarlet red, that itself gives way to a deep and all-encompassing jet black.
Though it is a long and meticulous process that won't be finished until a little after the dawn of the next Age, it ensures the slow but strong and steady development of the Egg, slowly transforming each and every one of it's body part and cells stronger than ever before, imbued with the power of the avian blobs. The Egg Stewards view this with the greatest honor and pride, being able to sacrifice themselves in order to become apart of the Egg and progress its growth.
But that isn't all, for the ___ senses that the time for the the touch of the ___s on the island is fading, and they will have to soon depart. And so like nearly every singular avian before, it gives it the power of the Divine Duck Force.
He imbues it into the Egg, and spreads it around, allowing it to sleep in the avian entity who is semi-aware of it. The Force is dyed by the experiences and abilities of the Egg and avian blobs that fuse themselves to it, and just like the DDFs before it engrains that in anything "related" to the Egg.
But a most curious reaction happens. The Divine Duck Force, connected to the avian of origin that it given to, is spread around to every single Egg Steward, a byproduct of the electrostatic discharges that carry signals that act as neurons.
No longer do they Act as only neurons, but rather full-blown cells that move to serve the Egg and its interests. Minds and sentience of their own they do have, but they derive their existence from the Egg itself, and it is the progenitor for all of them. If it were to be described in words, the Egg is the "Mind", and the Avian Blobs are the "Cells", building blocks of the body that carry out functions they're meant to do.
That elevation also gives them a new ability; an offshoot of their power to create more of themselves. Rather than
laboring over the work to create another Avian Blob through their power over air, they can instead permanently split themselves into to two or three smaller copies. Starting from three equidistant points on their body, they'll morph outwards and begin deforming in shape, coming apart in equal amounts until they reach the solid core (in which it would follow one clone, leaving the others to form their own). These clones, smaller than the original, can just absorb energy from the atmosphere to return to their original size.
And with that, the ___ is satisfied, having accelerated the Egg's growth and preparing what would happen thereafter. It pats the Egg, giving off an imperceptible feeling of tenderness, and leaves.
This got way too long, so included truncated descriptions within the act itself.
If you just care about what the Act does on a mechanical level, or if you're @MangoFlan just read the colored text.
The rest is a whole lot of narrative fluff.
Edit: Just to clarify something I forgot to put in the act, this thing in its 'villain form' is about the size of a mastiff.
[X] The Heart of Darkness
*Narrative Version* At the bottom of the abyssal seas, where there is only the cold and the dark, there is yet something even colder and darker. Everywhere, there is a heartbeat; sounds travel farther through the medium of water, and this sound is an ever-present reminder of the presence of that thing, the thing that even true Monsters know should not be. But the heartbeat continues in staccato rhythm, it accelerates, at first slowly, but more and more over time, as the blood spilled grows richer, as it sups upon death and pain and fear and knows its time approaches.
Then it happens- Arrhythmia. Wherever this irregular heartbeat passes, all who hear it know total despair and fear, surrendering from their very primal instincts; the Monsters would rather die than come to face this thing, and so they do, the Monster's Blood within them answering the call written into their genetic code. And yet- the villains, they cannot escape, as much as they know this to be their inevitable death. They know with their primitive, insectoid minds, that they must flee- to at all costs, preserve their lives. But all they can do is move closer to the beating of that black heart.
Thousands, millions, perhaps billions- Every single Villain comes to answer the call of their instincts, to drink from the mutagenic ponds, to eat the desiccated bodies of their fellows polluting the great lake of mutagen, to feast upon the wretched scum until their stomachs bust and heal and burst again, until even the seabed has patches clear of the forbidding ooze. They gather around that terrible presence calling out to them; they know, somehow, that this is the next stage of their life. That this is what they were born for, what is natural for them.
Wherever there is Wretched Scum, wherever there is Villains, this shall be the conclusion they eventually reach in the pursuit of their sadism. They arrive at the heart- And they die. Passing on nothing but power, becoming merest fertilizer for the amusement of the ultimate horror to plague this corner of the world. The heart explodes, itself so frightened of what it nurtured that it can bare no more the suspense; with its death rattle, it dooms the world.
*Simple Mechanical Explanation: All Monsters and Villains are consumed into the Heart of Darkness to fuel the birth to follow below. The Villains first gorge themselves on Wretched Scum and Mutagen against their will before being subjected to psychological torment that shouldn't technically be possible for such base organisms, mechanism likewise explained below. This is all established as the prototypical lifecycle for this ecosystem, into perpetuity.*
*Narrative Version* The Super-Villain is born.
Like a Villain made large, it is an insect with too many legs, eyes, and mouths; its shell is impossibly blacker than black, standing out even in utter darkness for having a deeper contrast than even a void without any light. This is not its true form- for that is beyond description, so horrifying that to see it is to forget that this creature even exists, the memory of terror so tremendous that one's own subconscious erases all thoughts of it. To look into its soulless eyes is to catch a glimpse of enlightenment into cosmic nihilism; to feel yourself be tortured as a spiritual entity and reduced to stupid atoms, nothing more than stupid meat, obeying stupid instincts.
If one wishes to even begin comprehend this Enemy to All Things, they must be of at least immortal stature. If one wishes for their mind to survive contact, they must abandon reason and reject all that it represents, to refuse to even imagine what it truly is as anything other than banal, uncomplicated evil, to see no farther than the bug that it pretends to be; for to investigate farther is to be subject to a mental poison that destroys even the soul.
Within the body of the Super-Villain are no organs but one- the Demon Seed. From within pours forth incredible, unholy vitality, which graces the Super-Villain with life beyond life- sufficient to endure all mundane sufferings of age, hunger, disease, and injury without pause, so long as it resides within its body. This seed gives it the Right of Control, dominion over all that is born of its flesh- much needed, as it is a hive of Villains, their ordinal spawning ground, and a wellspring of Wretched Scum besides; an ecology to itself, self-contained.
It is intelligent, super-intelligent. Its mind developed enough to understand not just survival, the tactical acumen of its inferiors, but finer things as Pride, Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Envy, Greed, and Gluttony. Within it is instilled a command even it cannot recognize- the need to cultivate more Demon Seeds. To do this, it will rationalize, above all, through Ambition; desires which can only be fulfilled by collecting more Demons Seeds, from other places full of life- it is woe to over-predate the pastures it roams.
The Super-Villain drinks deeply of the mutagen that remains, draining the deep sea of it all. For two hundred gallons, it satisfies its thirst, draws it into its Demon's Seed, and refines it down into a single drop of the Ambrosia of Sin. With this sweetest nectar, it may call upon its own power, or grace another with its foul blessing.
It is only by the Ambrosia of Sin as fuel that it may assume its true form, the collective power of the lingering vestiges from so many monsters reawakened to torment the world beyond death. To give this boon to another is unlike the Super-Villain, but they may come to find that it is their own preference to make other creatures into their playthings rather than food; their love as awful as their hatred, should one receive it, they would become the Super-Villain's slave until death, capable of seeing the Super-Villain's true form and not forgetting it or rejecting it, of significant strength as the Monsters from which they inherit their perfected nature, but unable to deny the Super-Villain at any point.
*Simple Mechanical Explanation: The Super-Villain is created. At first, it is alone, and knows nothing, but it is a genius and even capable of processing emotions, however its emotions are twisted in the extreme. It only has one vital organ, which provides for all base needs; it is immortal excepting through having this organ extracted. It wants, instinctively, to create more of its kind, which it believes is because it has an ambition that can only be brought to fruition through collecting multiple Demon Seeds; this is only possible by limiting the capacity of its native ecology from completely destroying the global biosphere, as it needs other functioning ecosystems to parasitize with Wretched Scum to create more Super-Villains. In order to access its full power, when it transforms into its true form and taps into the abilities of all the different residual wills and biological traits inside of it, it needs to have Ambrosia of Sin as a power source, which it converts 1 drop of from drinking a cubic meter of mutagen. It can give other creatures Ambrosia of Sin to elevate them to high monster level without any of the flaws, which makes those creatures into its servants.*
Supported Acts: TBD, up for Trading. @ me if you're interested.
Alright, let's do a thing. It's about time someone got up and incentivized actually being nice to people.
Authored
[X] A Light in the Dark; Altruism is its own reward.
-Stirred by the preponderance of death, evil, and naked greed in the land, the slumbering maker of the humble glow bulbs steps forward and lets loose a new power into the land.
-Thinking beings now have the potential to access the power of Virtue, gained through acts of genuine kindness and altruism. For everything that a being does that benefits other living beings more than itself, it gains a small amount of Virtue. Gathering Virtue gives the holder greater strength and intelligence, and particularly increases their resistance to damaging mental effects or diseases. Of importance is that there is no true limit to this power; while each act of kindness may yield only a little bit of Virtue, such that it may seem to be hardly anything at all, it continues to build up without limit; those who have gathered much over months and years can reach a point where their Virtue begins to shine forth from their bodies in an aura that strengthens and protects others nearby, and become known as Paladins, champions of Virtue.
-It is not without restrictions however; to retain the power of Virtue one needs to continue aiding others without needing reward. Acts taken purely to increase one's own powers of Virtue will instead sap it away by the amount that would have been gained, unless intentionally done in service of accomplishing some grander act of altruism.
Supported
[X] Nemean Mammoth
[X] Rise, O Lady of Night and Sea
Alright, with this the pengdrakes, and numerous other creatures, should be able to at least be able to enter the waters around their side of the Glass Mountain. And even if the villains get dealt with it will still exist as a place of healing.
I just remembered I wanted to make a monster to place inside the Caves of Glass. Ah well, guess it'll just be a beautiful place. Not the worst way to end things really.
Authored Vote [X] The Cleansing Drop
In the waters by the Glass Mountain, where the remaining pengdrakes mate and swim, a single great lake's worth of liquid that glows a pale gold light appears. The liquid holds together, refusing to mix with the water or split apart and generally staying in the same spot. Despite this, creatures may enter the liquid like normal and breathe it like water or air. The liquid purifies all that it touches, removing ailments and destroying corruption.
Supported
[X] Curse of the Frost Giant
[X] A Light in the Dark; Altruism is its own reward.
[X] Nemean Mammoth
[X] All's Well and Super Cells
Next generation of arachnids and their descendants receive a weak gift of magic. Through research, training, and/or hard experiences, they can feel their potential and begin to look for patterns in it in order to turn talent into multiple effects. Of course, the larger the effect, the more complex it is and the more it violates the laws of the world, the harder it is to master and use. Magic exhausts the nervous system and the body, if one misjudge their own strengths. Memorized movements, specific mental images, additional tools and materials can help ease the load and improve mastery of spells. All possible spells are pretty weak, at the level of cantrips. Although their proper use and judicious combinations can be beneficial in any area of life. (Possible effects may be something like these cantrips and 1st-level).
Supported:
[X] The Ghost Moon Beast arises
By @SeaTheTree [Traded]
[X] The Ghost Moon Beast arises
-The ritual made of divinity magic is not so easily broken, this is seen as the shards of the broken Frost Moon arises from the ocean and returns to its ritual site where it bathes in the light of the False Moon and the Frost Moon ice takes on a semi incorporeal nature, this new Ghost Moon rock connects to its left over shards in space and begins to ascend into the sky where it will combine with the remaining shards to form a massive moon sized creature. This creature resembles the Frost Moon but translucent in its inert state, and like a ghostly being with an obscene amount of tentacles in its active state.
The Ghost Moon Beast is an eldritch being containing the previous properties of the Frost Moon such as its extreme durability and regeneration, it causes Moon Madness to all those who view it up close, the being can use this power to cast illusions and use moonbeams, its size is that of the previous Frost Moon and it burns with a new flame compared to the Frost Moon, This flame is called the Ghost Flame and its power is the nullification of energy of all sources, whenever any form of energy comes in contact with this flame, whether chemical, light, sound, heat, etc and even magical energies the value of that energy is rapidly burnt away by the Ghost Flame until the energy is nullified. This being can freely control the ghost flame at will using it to defend and attack at will.
This all comes at a cost however, this being can only remain quite far away in orbit around the planet as the planet is full of energy and going to the surface will result in its own Ghost Flame overpowering everything around it including itself. The being also remains in an inert state during most of its life acting like a celestial body unless attacked and is incapable of moving far away from its position orbiting the planet although it can attack from afar using the Ghost Flame.
This creature is only active during the eclipse where the position of the sun and the planet will grant it immense energy which it will use to ascend its believers into stars to create more stars in the sky, any creature that tries to attack it or its believers during this period will turn it hostile and it will attempt to burn them away with its Ghost Flames.
Should this creature die, it will reform itself after collecting energy for 30 solar eclipses( about 10 years).
Okay. I'm thinking of giving you one more omake point because I liked it so much.
Also, by extra votes, I meant you could support 2 more act on top of the 4 you could support. I'm interpreting you meant to use your omake points on you act, but I'll apply it when I start counting.
Ever since the frost moon rose unto to the skies and cast the world in its chilling light, countless things that were unseen became seeable. It was a age of discovery and of exploration! But not all things are bound to be positive....
The astronomer's of Arachnid observatories tell of something that is arriving unto the world.
It leaves behind trails of light wherever it goes, many smaller trails of light follows it as well.
If it was just that then everything will be fine...
But its path was reported curving... Curving straight to their world... Curving ever so slightly, but surely.
Perhaps I should start by explaining the context, as this is a new journal- note, all of my previous journals have been lost at sea recently, only a few weeks ago. We were travelling by boat to deliver our humble outpost's research back to the School of All Thoughts, when apparently we were overweight capacity, or maybe the ship had partially melted at some point and it had never been caught in any routine inspections; there is no confirming the exact cause, we were unable to examine the wreckage of our vessel.
Fortuitously, we had all survived, an honest miracle with the state the seas are in these days, and our annual reports were better protected than my own writings. Though, it was quite an embarrassment in any case. As such, I must transcribe much of the relevant information into new journals from memory, requisitioning enough chitin at once to draw suspicious looks from my fellows, which has kept me occupied outside of my work for a week; there has been a substantial gap in new updates to my event log in this time, something which I find must now be rectified.
As for a summary of where we are and how we came to this point; I, Atlach, am something like the Head of Staff here at the prestigious Iceberg Isle. Where once the false moon once was visible only here, it has since apparently spread much farther- note, this is highly concerning for reasons to be explained in the following paragraph. This, perhaps, will, in the future, lessen the importance of this place as a research outpost in studying paranormal forces; all the more reason, I say, to diversify our project proposals.
These moonscorched fools would spend hours under that baleful light for a glimpse of the Spark of Genius; honestly, I've been quite tempted myself, but I have too many other things of interest to study, and too much time before my statistically inevitable expiration to do something so low-caste. Should this spread far beyond an isolated place as this to the rest of the sea, it will unfortunately have quite severe implications on both sea travel and any work preformed above ground; anywhere the light of the moon has to be within walking distance of ceiling cover now, which means establishing outposts like this will now be much harder, and even expansion will be more difficult. Moreover, a great number of hairbrained will bumble out into the moonlight anyway. This is a looming disaster for our society! Note - write a full report on this later.
Where was I? Oh yes, I am something of a bureaucrat, really; I do some of my own research and experimentation as well, as any Thinker should, but my primary occupation is determining who should pursue which lines of inquiry.
Note- for all that this research station is of utmost importance to the inborn purpose at the heart of all good and sane Arachnids, the pursuit of magic, we have often found it to be nearly fruitless and unsatisfying. Nearly, because we have dissected many moonscorched over the years, and I have personally have had the privilege of vivisecting a rare fire giant outside of Anomaly Isle and beyond the protection of their wonderous dragon, which has proven quite enlightening as to the mysterious nature of their biology that continues to defy all conventional understanding of the basic energetic reactions between substances as observed and recorded in The Treatise on Biology by Great Thinker Ukku.
Obviously, this all is of no discouragement to us, and still we dedicate ourselves to the advancement of knowledge, but still, many have come to see transfer to our particular outpost as a punishment assignment, especially as...ill rumors spread, of the lot of us being afflicted with madness, which has lead to many of the stereotypical outcasts and aberrant Thinkers to arrive here. While I am not one in particular to judge, no one wants any of these people in charge of sensitive research, which is why my job is even necessary; woe is me, I have to keep these people busy all day, somehow.
It gives me a lot of disposables to watch die in dangerous experiments, and no one looks too hard at the casualties of a place like this, so I'm pretty grateful, all told.
- Atlach
...
- Personal Log, Day 3
Good news and bad news recently. The bad news is that we were attacked overnight by one of the Wretched; the good news is that the Warriors made themselves useful and managed to even capture it, with minimal casualties. Though, truth be told, it was already half encased in ice by those penguins by the time we saw it; too bad so few of them are left, their sudden manifestation of cryogenic abilities may provide great insight into our understanding of magic.
Of some minor hindrance to the creature, it helped us greatly in containing it. I have been occupied with preparing a space for study of the beast, and designing a list of safety protocols to avoid a repeat of the disaster that killed all the Thinkers that first came to this place. Note- make sure to put someone trustworthy and competent in charge of the dissection. The Scum at least, though it is not particularly dangerous on its own, must be disposed of quickly and thoroughly. I should ask if we have any glow-bulbs available for requisition. I will mandate that the experimental area should have an airlock design and be consistently cleaned any time a Thinker passes in or out.
...This could be our big break, our chance to make another major contribution to the School of All Thoughts. It's been months since the Frost Moon was destroyed and everyone went into a frenzy over the potential opportunity of being allowed to make another one, but after those experiments fell through, we're back to studying the moon, and even that isn't producing much usable data; it's hard to get coherent research out of Thinkers who have been even partially moonscorched. I've been pushing for a new avenue of study for a while now, and this is a golden opportunity to make ourselves relevant again.
For all that the Wretched are troublesome, there is something clearly unnatural about them, perhaps even supernatural. Moreover, it is evidently transmissible. I, of course, will not advocate for infecting anyone with this disease, but if we analyze it, if we just figure out how it manages to turn natural lifeforms into monsters, if we could replicate it...just the chance alone is enough to put our lives on the line.
- Atlach
...
Personal Log, Day 8
The monster expired in containment today. I didn't even know that could happen; by all accounts, these fiends are supposed to be nigh-immortal. From what Nacha, whom I had decided to install as the project lead for this due to his long tenure and proven record, explained, it must be true; the creature was long like a rope of pure muscle with no clear head, was covered in scales like a fish, and from within, countless snapping tendrils like nothing we'd ever seen burst forth. While he had been quite meticulous, it was clear the strange beast would not die any time soon as recently as two days ago. Even after taking extensive samples, the monster's vitality filled the holes with Wretched Scum, and before his eyes the damage was healed, albeit, still slowly.
And yet, for no cause at all, the creature became quiescent; It stopped reacting to injury entirely, meekly submitting to vivisection, even as it had thrashed so badly days before that we could not hope to hold it still for long enough to complete the examination. We have learned much from this animal, which we have determined to have once been a Green Fish, but this is worrisome. Note- from the samples of Wretched Scum we have left to use in various secondary experiments, we have managed to isolate the compound which we believe causes the mutations, but still we do not know what triggers them. Even after several doses were administered to a few spare Worker Caste with Warriors on standby to exterminate them should they become Wretched, it did not prove to affect them in any notable way. This line of study must be advanced, there is certainly some kind of magic involved here to have converted a harmless green fish into a creature half again the length of the entire Iceberg Isle.
Still, no clear cause for the beast's deal has been determined. There are many features of it's biology which are unexplainable...the purpose of many organs has been a topic of discussion, as well as the seeming absence of a brain analogue. There is also an unidentified substance replacing much of the lifeform's blood- but not entirely, which makes it unclear what exactly it is for. Some kind of immune system, to prevent the infestation of Villains into their flesh? Note - This, likewise, is of vital importance; if we can discover a reliable cure for villain infection, we will surely rise to the highest esteem in the School of All Thought.
- Atlach
...
Personal Log, Day 12
This unknown substance, this monster's blood, it is alive still. Under the constant watch of Warrior Caste and Thinker Caste alike, it still almost slipped through the cracks and escaped, but we managed to contain it in a separate section of the laboratory. It must have been slowly congealing ever since the beast that played host to it died; a black glob of gelatinous flesh, it can't be much larger than a penguin all told. No other part of the monster, which remains under vigilance since the initial break out attempt, appears to be reacting in such a way; I am having the corpse thoroughly dismantled and the parts isolated from each other in blocks of ice, just in case another specimen tries to escape.
I'm transferring most of the research staff to this project as it continues to develop and reveal new insights. Note- we have finally discerned the cause of mutation to be an intense stress response, which is relatively simple to trigger. We're already preparing the necessary facilities to allow for the production of more of Compound X, with the help of those members of our outpost who have been fortunate enough to hold sparks of genius; the problem now is providing the necessary nutrients to facilitate larger mutations. Perhaps this is why Wretched Scum is needed by Monsters? To maintain their demanding metabolic processes? Wretched Scum itself seems to violate our understanding of the conservation of mass and energy, but that's not new, even if I personally now have a clearer understanding of the mechanisms behind it.
I believe the only person qualified for the dissection of the monster's blood is Nacha. I will interview him as soon as he is done to record as much of his insights as I can claw out of him.
- Atlach
...
Personal Log, Day 13
There has been an accident...Nacha has been infected by the specimen. But, it is unlike any other infection I or anyone else in the outpost has ever witnessed. Ordinarily, the signs are obvious- black mud pouring out of their orifices, unhealing wounds, crawling with Villains, all of these are common and expected; we've had to put down quite a few Warrior Caste who showed signs after first contact with the scaled monster. Note- We have possibly found a cure for Villain infestation in the use of Mutagen, but we are not yet sure of this method is safe for mass implementation. The test subjects have been acting highly suspect since they had been injected with the mutagen and miraculously healed of their undead state. More observation is necessary.
This is obviously different. The blob creature, Nacha says that it jammed itself down his gullet before anyone could react. Note- this is inconsistent with the accounts of the other Thinkers, who had determined that it was consistently looking for an escape into the sea. There were no other witnesses, but Nacha is reputable, so clearly this is some kind of ploy to use him as a vehicle to leave. I would not usually ascribe such clever tactics from monsters, but in this case, I feel it is warranted, as we do not yet know much in detail about the capabilities of these monsters due to their inconsistent manifestations; as far as anyone can tell, all of them are exceptions in some way or another, so nothing is totally implausible.
Nacha has been isolated to a chamber of his own since he has been infected. He has molted twice in this time, mere hours, and already, he resembles more a monster than an Arachnid; snapping jaws at the end of tentacles breach from his joints, he is nearly twice his original size, and even after submitting to preliminary dissection, he shows no signs of feeling pain or suffering long from injury, shortly regenerating as the scaled monster did. In the interview I conducted with him, he appeared not fully in control of his faculties, distracted. He says that he can hear a voice in his mind, though he has not divulged what it has said to him, simply calling it gibberish. I played a game of 'Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How' with him as an examination of how his mind has been affected, but seemingly, he remains as intelligent as ever, if not even more so than usual.
I'm concerned. Who shall I have vivisect him? He was my most reliable Thinker on staff, and even in his current state, he still might be.
Will I have to do it myself?
- Atlach
...
Personal Log, Day 22
I can't believe it. Nacha, that crazed fool, has killed the contingent of warriors set to keep watch over him and attempted escape, spreading villains and wretched scum all over the facility while he was doing it. Apparently persuaded by the voice in his mind that the magic we all seek is a gift that can only be found through the Wretched Scum at the bottom of the ocean, he went on a rampage with the newly gained strength from the parasite inside of him.
The fighting dragged on for days; he was a much tougher opponent than even the monster which had initially brought on this whole mess. But apparently, it wasn't a fluke that the scaled monster died; overtime, Nacha grew weaker and less coherent, until eventually he expired on his own, the Monster's Blood soon bursting forth from his corpse to run for the ocean at surprising speed for something with no solid appendages. This time we were prepared, and managed to catch the creature into an ice box, now under constant guard by at least three Warrior Castes at all times, and I have declared that the creature is to be handled with special measures as chitin leather restraints and pinning.
It's likely this would kill the specimen sooner than our usual practices, but this is to be certain it does not manage to again infect another Thinker Caste during dissection. I will simply have to be quick with my evaluation. Note- we have managed to determine that there are some minor side effects to use of the mutagen on subjects infested with villains, most problematic is that they retain Wretched Scum infection, which appears to be a more complex problem. Worse, they show signs of sadistic temperament, leading to violent behavior. Those who were injected as a control group that were not infested with Villains have shown no signs yet of either case, leading me to the conclusion the problem is Villains somehow becoming merged with the host in the process of healing. Arguably worth it, if the side-effects can be mitigated or directed outwards.
- Atlach
...
Dissection Report: Subject - Monster's Blood
Description: The creature is a mass of cytoplasm which appears to be self-motive by no mechanism yet discernable. Though it is not large, of comparable size to a common penguin, this animal has perhaps the most bizarre biology ever seen by Arachnids, being a single, massive cell, containing the complete genetic information of both Subject: GREEN ONE, and Subject: NACHA. Its flesh, though behaving like liquid muscle, is almost entirely structurally composed of tiny fibrous strands, and fat. There is no identifiable nervous system. It apparently contains enough energy within its body to substantially enhance any creature which consumes it, and in the process of integration, is able to influence their mental and autonomic processes, though how any of this is possible has yet to be determined; more samples are required to make a definitive assessment of whether or not explicitly paranormal phenomena are involved.
Addendum: It has been determined that any creature which imbibes the mutagen produced by the Wretched Scum can potentially develop one of these organisms within their veins. The critical threshold is quite high relative to body mass, ~3% by weight with a margin of error less than 0.4%. All test subjects exposed to mutagen are to be terminated post haste, by Royal Decree. @MangoFlan
I haven't said so far that bounties could only be claimed once *wiggles eyebrows*. More omakes makes me more happy and more powerful. I do have some tentative rules I'm considering.
Voting Closed! I may have forgotten to rate for Perk Benefits.
Big Act:
The Ghost Moon Beast arises
A Light in the Dark; Altruism is its own reward.
Rise, O Lady of Night and Sea
Nemean Mammoth (+2 Lifebinder)
All's Well and Super Cells
Potatoes (+2 Lifebinder)
The Heart of Darkness (+2 @Zipf)
Small Act:
Curse of the Frost Giant
Veneficium
Winter Bonzi (+2 Lifebinder)
Non-passing Act:
The Cleansing Drop
The Light on the horizon.
Voting Closed! I may have forgotten to rate for Perk Benefits.
Big Act:
The Ghost Moon Beast arises
A Light in the Dark; Altruism is its own reward.
Rise, O Lady of Night and Sea
Nemean Mammoth (+2 Lifebinder)
All's Well and Super Cells
Potatoes (+2 Lifebinder)
Small Act:
Curse of the Frost Giant
Veneficium
Winter Bonzi (+2 Lifebinder)
Non-passing Act:
The Cleansing Drop
The Light on the horizon.
The Ghost Moon Beast arises
A ritual made of divinity magic is not so easily broken. The shards of the broken Frost Moon arises above the waves and return the ritual site upon which it was born. It bathes in the light of the False Moon, and becomes false like its light. It becomes a ghost of itself, incorporeal. The shards fuse into a wholly new thing, the Ghost Moon Beast. When inactive, it cannot be distinguished from any other celestial body, but when active, it appears as a ghostly being with an obscene amount of tentacles.
This eldritch being possesses the properties of the late Frost Moon, such as its extreme durability and regeneration. It causes Moon Madness to all those who view it up close, and the being can cast illusions and use moonbeams. Its size is that of the previous Frost Moon, and it burns with a new flame; this flame, called the Ghost Flame, has the power of energy nullification, negating the energy of all forms of enerfy that come in contact with this flame, whether they be chemical, light, sound, heat, etc, and even magical enerfies. This being can freely control the Ghost Flame, using it to defend and attack at will.
To prevent the eldritch being from reducing the planet into a barren world and overcoming even its own control, the Ghost Moon arises from the world, far far away in orbit of the planet, away from your reach, and in the place of the former Frost Moon. It remains in an inert state during most of its life, acting like a celestial body unless attacked, and is incapable of moving far away from its position orbiting the planet, although it can attack from afar using the Ghost Flame.
The Ghost Moon Beast awakens only during a lunar eclipse, when the shadow of the world falls upon the Ghost Moon, where the position of the sun and the planet will grant it immense energy which it will use to ascend its believers into stars to create more stars in the sky. Any creature that tries to attack it or its believers during this period will turn it hostile and it will attempt to burn them away with its Ghost Flames.
Should this creature die, it will reform itself after collecting energy for 30 solar eclipses (10 years).
The Night Spirits and the Frost Sprites rejoice as the glorious celestial object they have crafted return to the sky. The Arachnids whisper among themselves as they observed the distant object and noted down every crevice and crack upon the translucent moon. The cold light of the Ghost Moon shone upon the cold sea, intensifying the year-round freezing chill. The creatures of the Golden Isle regarded the anomalous object with great concern, shocked of its return after it had been shattered into uncountable pieces by the Divine Dragon.
When the first lunar eclipse befell upon the Ghost Moon, the Ghost Moon Beast awoke. The heavenly body cracked open like an eggshell as innumerable tentacles emerged from the gaping fissures. Its pockmarked surface was dyed as eerie red as it shone its unholy light upon the world. The creatures of the earth and sea screamed at the maddening sight and quickly ran for shelter away from the open sky. The night spirits danced with joy under the heraldric red while chanting praises and dispensing facts about the sky above. The Ghost Moon Beast beamed its blessings upon its believers, sending down cosmic energy and elevating them to skies above. By the end of the night, multiple twinkling stars have appeared beside the moon in the sky.
Urged on by the call of the faithful, the Divine Dragon would once again take for the sky, to battle the eldritch beast that dwelled beneath the moon's surface. The Divine Dragon was a star that shone brighter than any other star elevated to the sky. It smote the eldritch monster lingering in the sky with its purifying light. Bright blue flames licked at it, leaving behind dark marks upon its immortal form. The night was made day by the violent nova of blue and red that was their battle. The wretched ones fled from the upper waters as the Dragon's divine radiance bathed the cold sea.
Their battle lasted for hours, yet eventually, the shadow of the world would leave the face of the moon, and the eldritch limbs of the Ghost Moon Beast would retreat to the dark innards of the moon. Though its wakefulness was brief, its was not for naught, for in the nights after the lunar eclipse, tens of twinkling dots was visible beside the Ghost Moon, having ascended a number of its believers.
The Divine Dragon would not let up in attacking the Ghost Moon above, lighting up the night for days afterwards. Tiring itself, battering the tremendously durable rock that so made the frozen moon. It only made a handful of fissures running across the Ghost Moon when it descended back to the world below to repel the malignant cold of winter. The Divine Dragon would return to the sky the next lunar eclipse, to battle the eldritch beast, and to fail once again to defeat it in a timely manner. The clash between divine light and eldritch fire regularly lit up the night sky almost yearly.
The lunar eclipse would then become seen as a time of hope for all the people of the Frozen Isles. The night spirits celebrated their brethren receiving the change to become companions of the moon, and all the other creatures celebrated the purified seas, purified by the Divine Dragon's radiance, freed from the taint of the wretched ones from deep beneath.
A Light in the Dark; Altruism is its own reward.
Stirred by the by the preponderance of death, evil, and naked greed in the land, the slumbering maker of the humble glow bulbs steps forward, and lets loose a new power into the land.
Thinking beings now have the potential to access the power of Virtue, which is gained through acts of genuine kindness and altruism. For everything a being does that benefits other living beings more than itself, it gains a small amount of Virtue. Gathering Virtue gives the holder greater strength and intelligence, and particularly increases resistance to damaging mental effects and diseases.
There is no true limit to this power. While each act of kindness will only gain pittance of Virtue, such that it may seem to be hardly anything at all, it will continue to build up without limit. Those who have gathered much Virtue over months and years can reach a point where their Virtue begins to shine forth from their bodies in an aura that strengthens and protects others nearby, becoming known as Paladins, champions of Virtue.
It is not without restrictions however, to retain the power of Virtue, one needs to continue aiding others without needing a reward. Acts taken purely to increase one's powers of Virtue will instead sap it away by the amount that has been gained, unless intentionally done in service of accomplishing some grander act of altruism.
Many creatures of this patch of the world would benefit the power of Virtue, and the creatures to benefit the most are the immortal beings presiding upon this sea. The bodies of the dragons watching over the isles would find their bodies begin shining with Virtue, and shining brighter than any other was the radiant form of the Divine Dragon. The Virtue coursing through its body instensified its purifying light, and now its glow became a beacon for all the isles, visible in the darkness of the night and shining like a watchful star at the isle's summit.
Few mortal creatures could match the Virtue of the immortal dragons. Only the brightest sparks could match the Virtuous light of the Sea Dragon, the most selfish among the dragons. These bright sparks would appear among the inchlings, where they would become figureheads of their communities, pillars upon which their people could lean on for their wisdom and strength. These bright sparks would appear among the fire giants, where they would the Virtuous shine as a sign of the Divine Dragon's favor. Some would be sent to the cold Winterlands to wage war, only to discover their light stagnating and even diminishing in their invasion of the cold. Many would go to the Divine Dragon, to gives thanks, offer praise, and ask for training from the confused dragon. Nevertheless, the Divine Dragon takes them in. They would accompany the Divine Dragon in protecting, preserving, and helping the Golden Isle, forming the Paladial Order of the Sun's Child.
Meanwhile, in the wintry sea, another virtuous light would shine second to the great radiance of the Divine Dragon.
Rise, O Lady of Night and Sea
It is crafted in the image of the Divine Dragon, an equal in power and longevity, yet opposite in theme. It is clad with black scales adorned with eldritch blue markings, and armed with silver horns, claws, and fangs. Six draconic wings of the blackest night unfurl upon its back, wings that can double as fins underwater. An aura of darkness that can be shaped into weapons, drain the force and energy og attacks, and siphon away the vitality and life of those who oppose the Abyssal Dragon shall adorn them
The Abyssal Dragon has dominion over water, as opposed to the Divine Dragon's command over fire. This darkness and command of Water may be combined to create a liquid shadow that silences all sound around it. The water of the Silent Sea disrupts, unravels, and devours the supernatural powers of others it comes in contact with, even strip it away entirely from those who are completely submerged in the dark water; it can even slowly unmake beings such as Magic Spirits and Undead, condemning them to silent nothingness, yet despite such insidious power, they have a gentle and alluring presence that mesmerizes and draws in others, an ethereal and unnatural beauty that entrances. They are made Guardian of the Penguins and Pengdrakes, and those who call winter their home. They also possess the same immortality and lack of need for sustenance as the Divine Dragon.
The Abyssal Dragon watches over the residents of the cold sea. Unseen beneath the ice and dark waters, the fearful penguins, the mourning pengdrakes, and the traveling inchlings could feel the dark one's embrace. They could feel it watching over them, sweeping the wretched ones with its shadow and driving away the sinister arachnids and impassioned fire giants. It would be branded as a demon when it emerged from the water, cloaked in shadow, coming into defense of the poor penguins. It surfed the shadowed waves, washing away the fire giants and eating at the fire the burns at their core and the magic spirits blessed by the Sea Dragon. Those that survived encounters with the Abyssal Dragon hid in the cold icelands, dying to the cold, grief-stricken by the loss of their fire.
The penguins and the pengdrakes would come to follow the Abyssal Dragon. For the first time in many years, the penguins and pengdrakes felt relief. When they slept beside the great beast, their hearts were clear of fear and trepidation and felt safety and gentleness, as though they were cuddled by their mothers. So alike was the Abyssal Dragon to the mysterious statue on the Glass Isle, the pengdrakes began building nests and laying eggs in the presence of the Abyssal Dragon. They would cry whenever they saw the Abyssal Dragon leave the spike and iceberg they built their homes and welcomed it with glorious song. The Abyssal Dragon was a god that had come to cleanse the sea and take back what is rightfully theirs.
When the Abyssal Dragon encountered the cursed frost giants fleeing from the Golden Isle, the Abyssal Dragon would be confused. It looked upon these creatures that so defiled the Frozen Sea with their crimes against the penguins and saw that they've been hollowed. The fire that once burned so proudly in their belly, extinguished and replaced with a harsh wintry chill. They would sit in their lonesome upon the drifting icebergs, crying, grieving for their lost flame and their warped home. These creatures, though born as subjects to the Summerlands, are now a lost race of the Winterlands. At first, it turned them away, much like what it did to their brethren from the Golden Isle, yet later on, it would change its mind, welcoming the lost race into its fold, welcoming them as adopted children of the Eternal Winter.
In its regular patrol of the Frozen Sea, it would encounter the Sea Dragon. It guarded against the foreign dragon, encasing itself in a bubble of silence, while the sinuous form of the great Sea Dragon made lazy spirals around it, surrounding it with its leviathan bulk. The Sea Dragon attempted to speak with the Abyssal Dragon, but the bubble of silence that so surrounds it absorbed and neutralized its voice.
The Sea Dragon flicked its tail into the bubble and coiled around the Abyssal Dragon's form. Through its contact through its tail, the Sea Dragon projected its voice. It asked the same as what it had asked of the Divine Dragon, a question the Abyssal Dragon could not answer. The Sea Dragon and Abyssal Dragon parted with the Sea Dragon disappointed.
Nemean Mammoth
A new animal spawns on the soil of the Golden Isle. It appears as a wooly mammoth, but with a lion's mane around its neck. They travel in herds with a male watching over several females. Their most distinct features is their super tough hide and tusks, which can withstand extreme amounts of punishment. Most weapons will fail to pierce the hide, while tusks are strong enough to break stone. Because of this, Nemean Mammoths value strength above all else. Adult males will constanctly seek out fights and display feats of strength in order to win over females. Hunters must either be super strong or skillful with traps to bring down such hardy beasts.
The Nemean Mammoths would become known to be great nuisances in the Golden Isle. They would leave behind torn forests, pastures barren of prey, and razed villages in their wake as they migrate throughout the summery isle. Not even the nightmarish visions of the Boofaloo can effectively scare away a Nemean Mammoth. The fire giants would send many teams to hunt and curb their number, but very few would succeed in even crippling one and many teams would be wiped out. Their weapons broke against the tough hide, and one could live long enough engulfed in flame to charge upon the hunting team.
As the fire giants scattered from their broken homes, they beseeched to their gods, the Divine Dragon and the Sea Dragon, to assist them in their plight, in cowing the rampant Nemean Mammoths and retaking the homes these beasts have besieged. And their gods answered.
The Divine Dragon descended upon the herds, its shining form blinding to mortal eyes. The beasts stared awestruck upon the Divine Dragon as it smote them with beams of light and pillars of flame. Each one downed a Nemean beast, but that did not wither the foolhardy courage burning in each beast's heart. They charged at the Divine Dragon, jumping and dragging the aloft dragon down to the ground where they can clobber and gore it, yet despite their great strength and numerical advantage, their strength were insufficient to defeat the Divine Dragon. The draconic deity is simply on another level, countering their forceful strikes with twofold force. Herd after herd, the Divine Dragon smote and reduced, enrolling them to the balance of the isle.
Despite the fire giant's prayers and offerings of glass, the Sea Dragon did not appear, and brought upon them its blessing in its stead. Teams of hunters blessed by the Sea Dragon was assembled, and was sent to cull the mammoth's numbers. They achieved moderate success. They only managed to slay half of all the mammoth's they encountered, but that is a monumental increase from the previous teams' barely nothing. They offered the tusks and bones of their kills to the Sea Dragon, but it refused all but the most exquisite specimens. The fire giants would find the Nemean Mammoths' tusks to be excellent material for spear heads and used them to arm their champions.
Peace blossomed on the Golden Isle as the number of Nemean Mammoths were brought to a manageable level, but despite their reduced numbers, they remain a nuisance, albeit an acceptable nuisance. The lesser prey would become acclimatized to the presence of such intimidating creatures, no longer scattering but instead keeping a respectful distance from the beasts. Teams would occasionally be dispatched to keep this balance.
However, that burning courage never truly faded from their heart, even when faced by the great power of the Divine Dragon. They saw it as a challenge. When the Nemean herds convened during one year after the great purge, they held a tournament to determine the strongest and allow the females to observe and choose a mate. The champion of that year was large bull that amassed a large harem, but it felt it was not enough. To defeat its brethren in battle was a great feat, but its opponents had been mortal, and what is a mortal before a god. The champion bull turned to the great tree in the heart of the Golden Isle, whereupon dwelt the Divine Dragon.
The Nemean bull ascended the summit of the Golden Isle. Fire giants guarding the mountain and seeking pilgrimage to their god scattered in its path as the Nemean bull charged up the hill, and there, at the foot of the Summer Tree, stood the Divine Dragon, with its six wings folded upon its back, shining like the sun. The bull would prove itself to be a king of its kind by challenging the king of the isle.
It challenged the Divine Dragon. The Divine Dragon, not understanding its advances, entertained it in turn. No matter how many times it was smitten by the Divine Dragon, it would stand up and up again until it could no longer stand. The Divine Dragon was impressed by its strength, being able to endure more than any of its kind it has encountered before, but the kindly dragon could not bring itself to kill the upstart beast (their number has been brought to balance, no more should be taken). The Nemean bull refused to leave the Divine Dragon's abode so the Divine Dragon lifted the crippled beast's body and carried it to the gathered herds, and before it left its body there, it focused its shining aura upon the injured beast, and healed it of all its injuries. The bull's harem would halve, but many remained by its side and some even changed partners with him, attracted by its bravery.
Next year, the herds would convene again, but the bull of yesteryear did not win the tournament. This year's champion would mimic the bull of yesteryear and climb the summit to challenge the Divine Dragon, only to be clobbered all the same and its battered body brought down to the herds below. The next year, another champion, another challenger to the Divine Dragon's throne, another defeat. It became an annual tradition of the champion of the tournament to challenge the Divine Dragon. Each and every one of them would lose badly to the Divine Dragon.
With its similarity to the Divine Dragon, the Nemean Mammoths would also take notice of the Sea Dragon in its occasional visits, and come to challenge the foreign god.
All's Well and Super Cells
The duck patron touches the egg and completes the Egg. Enough power has accumulate within the Egg, waking the avian up. A wave of electricity pulses through the Egg, reaching all the avian blobs, sending a message into their minds. Black and red bands appear on the stormy shell of the Egg, but it is not a disease or malignant force, but a sign of its evolution and ever-growing strength.
The message is of appreciation to the Egg stewards who have taken care of it for so long, but it must ask for more, for it cannot grow alone. "You've given me much, but more I need. More to grow, more to know, more to see, more to hear, more smell, to taste, to feel, to think, to experience, to understand, to be Free."
So great is the devotion to the Egg of Egg stewards, that they have fused with the Egg, becoming a catalyst to its further growth, becoming but body parts to the yet unborn being. They feel its mental power and the emotion behind it. This furthers the unnatural beauty of the Egg. The opaque pearly white exterior gives away to a shocking scarlet red then to a deep jet-black. However, this process wouldn't complete until the dawn of the next age.
As the duck patron feels its touch upon this patch of the world begin to fade, it imparts upon it the power of the Divine Duck Force, like all the ducks that came before it. The Force is dyed by the experiences and abilities of the Egg and avian blobs that fuse themselves to. A curious reaction happens. The Divine Duck Force is spread around every single Egg steward, who now carry signals and act like neurons. They become the cells to the nascent mind within the Egg, the building blocks to its will. No longer do they have to labor the creation of an Egg steward for they could achieve reproduction through division, just like cells undergoing mitosis.
And with that, the duck patron is satisfied, having accelerated the Egg's growth and preparing what would happen thereafter. It pats the Egg, giving off an imperceptible feeling of tenderness, and leaves.
Potatoes
Potato plants appear on the Golden Isle. While it is a well-known and well-loved plant in another world, but here where it is a new and unknown plant, it is actively avoided, for it is bitter and toxic. Everywhere a potato plant is green, it is poisonous. Many ignorant ones die from foolishly eating potato plants. This leads to the edible potato tuber mostly ignored.
The tribes on the Golden Isle would find good uses for the plant. Many would attempt to find medicinal uses for the poisonous plant, but all they would produce would be poison used by their hunters and champions to take down Nemean Mammoths. Some tribes would plant potato plants around their villages to deter hungry beasts from simply wandering into their settlements. Particularly bored fire giants would begin breeding potato plants for their flowers, leading to potato bushes sporting stunning reds, bunches of white, and mesmerizing purples. Over the years, the potato tuber would become a hot commodity among the tribes as a means of exchanging potato varieties.
The Heart of Darkness
In the deepest reaches of Wretched Deep, a sound rings in the silence. Arhythmia, an irregular beat rings from the Mutagen Sea whereupon a black beating core dwells. The sound swepts throughout the Frozen Sea, and all those who hear will only know total despair and fear. The wretched monsters and villains would rather die than come to face this thing, yet they cannot escape; the call is etched directly into their genetic code, made irresistable by the call of the Monster's Blood. Even the villains, creatures with primitive minds, could feel the fear and forboding of their inevitable death that would otherwise impossible to produce by their neurology. They try to flee - at all costs to preserve their lives, but they could not. The attraction is too strong, and all they could do is come closer to the beating black core.
Every villain comes to the shores of the Mutagen Sea, forced to this place by irresistible instincts. They slake themselves with mutagen and feed themselves with wretched scum until their stomachs burst again and again until the very seabed becomes bare of the forbidding ooze. They gather around that terrible presence calling out to them; they know somehow, that this is the next stage of their life, what they are born for, and what is natural to them.
They reach the core, and upon touching its evil surface, they die, disintegrating rapidly as every bit of useful energy was siphoned to the beating core, to become nutrients ot the ultimate horror nurtured within. As though frightened of the very thing it nurtured, the core explodes with great violence, ringing into the sea like a death rattle, an ominous clarion declaring the world's doom.
The Super-Villain is born.
It is a large insect with innumerable legs, eyes, and mouths. Its shell is darker than darkness, standing out even in complete darkness, but this is not its true form. Its true form is even more horrifying to witness; it's true form resembles the crossbreed between a chihuahua, an isopod, and a slime mold. So horrifying is its true visage that your own mind rebels to erase the offending memory from your very psyche.
The Super-Villain has no vital organs save for one: a Demon Seed. From within this evil seed pours forth incredible unholy vitality, providint it with life beyond life - sufficient to endure all mundane sufferings of age, hunger, disease, and injury, but not complete eradicating them - so long as the Demon Seed remains within its body. This seed gives it the Right of Control, dominion over all that is born from its flesh - much needed, as it is a hive of Villains, their ordinal spawning ground, and a wellsping of Wretched Scum; an ecology to itself, self-contained.
It is intelligent, super-intelligent. Its mind is developed enough to understand not just survival, the tactical acumen of its inferiors, but finer things like Pride, Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Envy, Greed, and Gluttony. Within it is instilled a command even it cannot recognize - the need to cultivate more Demon Seeds. To accomplish this, they must overpredate their pastures, cleansing all joy and extinguishing all hope from the Frozen Sea.
The Super-Villain drains the Mutagen Sea, satisfying its thirst. It replaces the foul sea with a much smaller pond of refined Ambrosia of Sin. With this sweetest nectar, it may call upon its own power or grace another with its foul blessing.
It is through the Ambrosia of Sin it can assume its true form, the collective power of the lingering vestiges from so many monsters reawakened, tormented and suffering even beyond death. To give this boon to another is unlike the Super-Villain, but they may come to find that it is their own preference to make other creatures into its playthings rather than food; its twisted love as awful as its hatred, should one receive it, they would become the Super-Villain's slave until death, capable of seeing the Super-Villain's true form and not forgetting or rejecting it. They gain significant strength as the Monster from which they inherit their perfected nature, but unable to deny the Super-Villain's desires.
The Frozen Isles would breath a deep sigh of relief as the first quarter of the age finds itself relatively bare of wretched monsters roaming the open seas, yet all did not doubt that the wretched ones will return, for they have the utter despair radiate from the deep; it is mere a matter of when. The Super-Villain lurks in the gloomiest deep, amassing a great army to strike the light unaware.
Then that time came. The sea boiled with their vileness as their despicable forms surged to the surface like an unending flow. Such is the force of their arrival that the waves they caused swept away many gardens of glow-bulbs. All the races of the Frozen Isles called to arms as the wretched ones washed ashore like seafoam.
The shores of the Golden Isle reeked of burning scum as the pillars of conjured flame formed a wall on their shores. The unsightly horde attempted to pass through the burning wall, but just behind it stood platoons of fire giants wielding glass spears standing ready to obliterates those that pass through. The Divine Dragon regularly circled the island, providing divine flame wherever the burning wall is struggling. Soon, its sight would extend overseas as it saw the tides swell with their wretched numbers.
The Sea Dragon was caught unaware when the wretched horde attacked. It was surrounded with their unsightly forms and the Sea Dragon screamed with terror at the possibility of being corrupted. The sea around it boiled with its breath and magic as it attempted to keep them away from its precious body, but alas, a particularly strong monster managed to swim past the boiling bubble and injecting wretched scum and villains into its tail. The sea around around it vaporized as the dragon raged. It despaired as it looked upon the hole in its tail, fearing that it would soil all it touches.
But its hope would reignited as it witnessed the Divine Dragon screen the Frozen Sea with its radiance. The sea boiled as it unleased its sunfire to scrub the waves of scum and monsters. The Sea Dragon coiled around a great spike before reaching out to its cousin.
Cousin! The Sea Dragon called. I am in need of your powers.
The Divine Dragon heeded its call, and flew close. "What is it you need?"
The Sea Dragon raised its tail and showed the Divine Dragon the hole in its tail. Cousin, I am need of your powers to purge it of corruption.
The Divine Dragon obliged and breathed sunfire to the wounded tail. The Sea Dragon winced at the pain, but endured and did not let the fire up until its tail is nothing but a stump. The Sea Dragon would return to its Secret Grove to recover, laying in a bed of glow-bulbs. It continued to paranoidly observe the stump, even going to Divine Dragon year after year just to make it had remained uncorrupted.
The Abyssal Dragon created a Silent Sea. The waves were stilled as its powers of water, shadow, and silence. The wretched horde disintegrated against its stilling aura. Penguins, pengdrakes, green fishes, and lodsilungur fled to its side, seeking asylum in its purifying sea. The Abyssal Dragon focused its power on the surrounding sea, imbuing it with silence and expanding the stilling Silent Sea.
The Abyssal Dragon would bear witness to the descent of the Divine Dragon. Many times have the dragon witnessed the shining star ascend and descend from afar, but it had never quite seen the Divine Dragon up close. The two dragon were frozen in mutual awe as they absorbed each other's image. Never have the Divine Dragon witnessed a creature so alike to itself that the two of them might be seen as sibling. Never before have the two creatures known each other, yet there was an undeniable link that the two of them are sewn from the same pattern.
The inchlings were hard struck, and barely hung on the elevated prowess of their paladins. Many of their communities were sundered and sunken by the wretched horde. The communities fled for the Pretty Palaces where the wretched horde could not reach them. Many virtuous sparks ignited that day as many gambled their life before the despoiling wave of the wretched.
The arachnids are just about as hard struck. Without any patron immortal, their civilization would be broken by the wretched horde. Many of their towns and outposts beyond the Glass Isle would sink beneath the wretched waves, never to be seen again for ages. While the arachnids fought against the waves in front, their supporters would fight another incursion from escaped wretched subjects in the back. They wielded their Veneficium against the enemy, but their paltry cantrips weren't enough to turn back the tide. However, their race would survive, the Glass City and Wandering Outpost remains intact, but not without cost; three quarters of their number would die, and their dearest King Kartub would be slain in battle.
The Attack of Wretched Horde lasted for days. It did not stop at night, it did not stop at day, and hundreds died during its attack. The Abyssal Dragon continued to expand the Silent Sea, soon threatening to encroach upon the wretched deep. The Super-Villain did not show itself, but it watch intently the conflict that occurred on the surface. Its servants did well, spreading despair and despond wherever they went. It halted its assault seven days after it began, and it stalled the expansion of the Silent Sea. It would careful to not aggravate the Abyssal Dragon, or else it might accidentally expand the Silent Sea over its tiny pond of Sinful Ambrosia.
Curse of the Frost Giant
The extermination of its sacred Penguins have provoked the wrath of a ___. "Those who destroy my pets," it declares, "shall find themselves replacing them." The isles hear, but they do not understand until the true nature of its decree makes itself known.
Over the Age, those fire giants who participated in the wholesale murder of the penguins find themselves uncomfortable and sickly on the Golden Isle that is their homeland until one day, they are forced to abandon it for the wintry regions beyond. As their skin and hair pales, and they develop the ability to wield cold for themselves, they recognize the true curse the ___ spoke: no longer are they Fire Giants; no, they have become the very beings of the very Frost they so malign. Further, those who slay a victim of the Curse, as well, are subject to it.
For most of the first half of the age, the curse mostly goes undetected. The hint of white hair and patch of pale skin mostly go unnoticed, but when the pallor came to consume their whole body, the fire that so burns within them began to die, and the heat of the Eternal Summer became unbearable and uncomfortable to them. Worse, in place of their sacred fire was the demonic cold. The discovery of such powers would lead to them being branded as demons, much like the penguins that came before them. They would taken, killed, and burned at the pyre, spreading the curse to the whole tribe. Some would seek audience with the Divine Dragon, seeking its divine power to exorcise the demon that so possesses them, but none of them could sneak past the guards watching the pilgrimage site. Some would flee the isle that they called home to the Winterlands beyond the Shell of Summer, where they would be treated with cold distrust and displeasure, leaving them in isolation and leading some into depression and self-hate.
This would come to a head in the middle of the Age when the curse-afflicted tribes would turn white and their inner fires turned cold. Panic swept across the Golden Isle as they attempted to eradicate the cursed ones much like how they have eradicated the penguins before them, but this only backfired, causing the curse to spread like an epidemic. Entire tribes would be "cleansed" of their cold taint, only to curse yet another tribe. There would be tribes would willingly stepped into the burning pyre, yet there are those fearful of their lives fleeing the land they once called home on ships and sailed for the Eternal Winter.
The cursed tribe of Kixalu offered large pile of glass to the Sea Dragon for their help and their blessing, not to cleanse them of this curse but to bring them away from this isle, away from the burning tribes who eyed them like a diseased wound upon the isle. The Sea Dragon obliged and carried the tribe upon its great back and brought them to some faraway spike where they will live without fear of their burned at the pyre.
The Panic of the Curse rang throughout the isle, and this time, it wouldn't escape the Divine Dragon's notice. No longer could they hide in the golden brush. No longer could their tide be stemmed by the guards. The cursed tribes ran the Divine Dragon, asking, praying, crying. To the confused dragon, they asked for forgiveness, for strength, for safety, for curative, for many confused things. Their bodies sizzled under the Divine Dragon's harsh radiance, but its Virtuous aura gave them them the strength to withstand summery heat.
The Divine Dragon looked upon the cursed tribes, shocked to the core. More than their pale skin and white hair, their bodies were riddled with bleeding wounds, broken bones, and tender bruises. When the angry mob carrying spears and brightly burning torches emerged from the brush, in pursuit of the escaping tribe, they came face-to-face with the Divine Dragon. The Divine Dragon ushered the scared tribe under it, and shielded them with its sixfold wings.
"What is the meaning of this?" The Divine Dragon demanded, letting its displeasure be known.
Temeru, the head hunter of the hunting party, stepped forward and addressed the deity's concerns. "These people possessed by demons, Eagenkurg. They must be cleansed of the taint, lest they bring the horror of winter to this place again. Can't you feel the cold they bring to this world?"
The Divine Dragon turned to the cursed tribe huddling beneath it. They cold bodies sucked away the heat it exuded. Their battered bodies hugged tightly to its legs, pleading heavily to protect them. Overwhelming fear could be read from their battered faces, some the Divine Dragon could recognize, with bloodstained tears flowing. Despite burning under its summer radiance, they clung to its feet, having complete faith in it saving them, and the Divine Dragon could not bring itself to betray that faith.
"Temeru, Lira, Olando," the Divine Dragon softly said. The fire giants perked at the mention of their names. "Is this how you treat your fellows? Do you not recognize the faces of your fellows?"
The fire giants were shook. "Yes, Eagenkurg. We can fully recognize who they are, but they are tainted and their frozen hearts must be thawed."
"Do not listen to them, Eagenkurg," one of the cursed giants beneath it called. This one the Divine Dragon knew by name, Eltiro, one of the paladins serving under it. "It is not cleansing they are doing, it is execution. They will throw us into the funeral pyre where we will die screaming in pain until nothing is left of us, but ash."
The Divine Dragon turned to the hunting party inquisitively. They answer: "Their bodies may not survive, but their spirit will be free."
"So you admit that they will die."
"Ah... Yes, none has yet survived the ritual."
The Divine Dragon growled. "None of you shall be touching these people. They are under my protection. Disobey my will, and you shall die."
The offending fire giants bowed their heads to the command of the Divine Dragon. The cursed tribe huddling beneath its wings cried with joy as the Divine Dragon repulsed the hatred of the burning tribes. They would be brought to the foot of the Great Tree where they would be cleansed of curse by the Divine Dragon's radiance and virtuous aura. Upon hearing the Divine Dragon's actions, the cursed people yet to flee the isle would flock to the Divine Dragon, seeking asylum in its unending kindness and incomparable Virtue. After they've been cleansed, the cursed tribes did not return to their tribal lands, some fleeing the isle entirely, and many staying by the Divine Dragon's side, establishing Misenkurg, the City of the Sun, at the foot of the gigantic tree.
At the end of the age, five years after the Panic of the Curse, the fire within all the people and tribes outside Misenkurg would die, succumbing to the Frost Curse. They turn to the Divine Dragon in the City of the Sun, groveling for forgiveness.
Veneficium
A gift would be given to the arachnids. The next generation and their descendants would receive a weak gift of magic. Seeing the strange spark within their newborns, the arachnids would take their children to their laboratories where they would open them, to find and examine that strange wonderful spark. When they isolated it, though they've never encountered this flavor of spark before, it was uncannily familiar; they have found it, the force they have been born to find: Magic. The arachnid race would rejoice. Magic has been found. No longer do they have to search. The answer has been given to them.
Through research, training, and experience, they can feel their potential and begin to look for patterns in it in order to turn talent into multiple effects. The larger the effefct, the more complex it is, and the more it violates the laws of the world, the harder it is to master and use. Magic exhausts the nervous system and the body, if one misjudges their own strength. The arachnids found out the hard way after they have several of their magical offspring passing out and some even straight up dying after using a spell beyond their capability.
Memorized movements, specific, mental images, additional tools and materials can help ease the load and improve mastery of spells. All possible spells are pretty weak, merely cantrips, but their proper use and judicious combinations can be beneficial in any area of life.
The arachnids would turn inward after the discovery of magic. They would begin noting down its patterns and their observations. After five years of continuous research, King Kartub was compiling their collective knowledge of magic, from observations, spell reagents, and spell patterns. The compilation would have been called the Grimoire of Magic: First Edition, but alas, the wretched horde would attack, halting its creation. During the Defense of the Glass Isle, King Kartub would fall to the wretched, leaving the first edition of the Grimoire of Magic unfinished.
After a quiet funeral, King Kartub's remains would be cleaned of all flesh and scum before frozen in a block of ice and stored away in the royal vault. A new king to replace King Kartub would be born. His name is King Szesser, and like all of the subsequent generations, he would possess the spark of magic. Time only knows if he could follow up the greatness that preceded him.
Winter Bonzi
The Arachnids receive a new breed of Frost Tree. These ones are tiny and suited for decorative use inside their dwellings. These Winter Bonzi are rather ordinary and unassuming things, and as such were received with little to no fanfare. There is little to know of these things that they haven't already known. Nevertheless, these plants would become staples in any Arachnid home decoration kit. The plants even proliferated beyond the homes of Arachnids, becoming part of Inchling communities. Winter bonzi parks would be established within inchling communities, allowing them to experience nature indoors and allowing them to easily farm ice cream moss in the confines of their communities. And the world so turns. Having enough of the wretched the Sea Dragon would leave the frozen sea, to search for the next egg somewhere else, but little did it know, a sneaky wretched one would follow it to where it was going. We can only pray that it would die in the barren sea before reaching anywhere.
Your hold upon this world melts away as surely as ice under the sun. The world sighs, asleep to your inquiries, but soon enough it would wake, yearning for your touch.
Assessing...
Choose one of the following perks:
[ ] [Perk] Brevity II
Acts with 150 words or less may pass as Great Acts.
[ ] [Perk] Windsinger II
Acts that modify the weather and climate may pass as Great Acts.
[ ] [Perk] Thematic Coherence
During the first turn, select a one- or two-word theme. Acts that fit the theme may pass as Great Acts.
The world expands. The world reaches out to you to fill this barren land with your glorious creations.
[ ] [Island] Concrete Platform
A concrete construction that's mysteriously and inexplicably rigged in the middle of the ocean. A random man-made structure may generate.
[ ] [Island] Island
A deserted island in the middle of the ocean. Has gentle shores and soft fertile soil, and is surrounded by a stretch of shallow sea.
[ ] [Island] Iceberg
A frozen mass of floating ice. It possesses an unbreakable core, a piece of the broken Frost Moon, keeping the floating isle perpetually cold.
[ ] [Island] Open Ocean
A stretch of ocean without any land rising above the waves. Everything is underwater.
A/N: I know I've been harsh to certain other participants of the quest, I think I'm over it. I'm sorry that I've been hurtful.
Escaping the Curse
A lone child wept upon the ice. She sat upon the edge of an iceberg, desperately washing away the paleness of her skin to no avail. All she did was make herself cold and miserable. As the seawater began coating her arms in frost, she reminisced in the events that led to her being on the ice, drifting, living in misery. She once had a family: a father, a mother, and a brother.
It was such a joyous day that her father had returned from overseas that she could scarcely believe it was spark that ignited all her misery. It started slowly when her father began changing color, becoming paler, his red locks turning a snow white, and the fire within him dying. The shaman advised their mother in performing an exorcism, to purge the demonic cold from his belly. It didn't work. She could remember it clearly, as her father was laid above the heart, screaming and bleeding in the burning the bonfire, yet mother did not relent, will not relent until the paleness of his complexion burned away, but it did not burn away, turning her dear father into nothing but ash.
She could not speak for a long time afterwards. The neighbors offered condolences to their ashen father, and then life went on. Until they were woken in the middle of the night by the sound of their mother screaming. She and her brother rushed to the side of their mother and they saw her inspecting with horror the paleness of her skin and whiteness of her hair. Her brother grasped her mother's hand and remarked how cold she was. Her mother pushed her brother into performing an exorcism on her. Her brother was hesitant in doing so, but her mother repeated her command as she laid herself atop the charred hearth.
She screamed. "Hotter," her mother screamed. Her brother shook as he kept control over the pillar of flame as his sister bend on the ground as she tossed more and more firewood into the fire. Her mother's screams grew shriller, but the pale cold in her flesh did not leave. She burned. Her voice faded, ash took her place, and she was gone.
She collapsed to the ground, with tears running down her face. Her brother rushed to her side, embracing her in his warm arms. Their neighbors would come, offering condolences to their loss, and the painful words were committed to memory. With a dead mother and father, they would leave home and enter the community home, where the kinless and disowned go. There, the memories of pain would fade, but the hope that that was the last time they would see of the pale curse was flimsy.
Months thereafter the cremation of their mother, the comforting warmth of the Golden Isle would grow increasingly torrid. No longer could she have fun under the glorious sun as the uncomfortable heat would sap her of all her energy. It would come to a head when she woke up one night with pale patches on her skin. She whimpered as she covered the pallor with her hands, but it did not go away. She ran to her brother, only to find him sitting on his bed, gazing upon his shaking hands. Strands of white intermixed his red hair and his arms were daub with frosty skin.
She ran to her brother, embracing him. His once warm body was now cool, comfortably cool compared to the golden heat. She felt the tears of her brother fall upon her. "No," she quietly cried.
"We... we need to run," her brother stated.
"Why?" She asked.
"They will exorcise us. It will not work. We will die," her brother said.
They would leave that very night, carrying nothing but a bag of food. They would run to the shores of the isle, and push a log onto the waves which became the vessel which carried them away from the isle. Her brother looked onward the Winterlands with trepidation while his sister looked behind them as the Golden Isle and its many shining fires shrank from view. The sweltering heat would be replaced with a wintry cold when they passed through the Summer Shell; they would be unnerved to find the cold their race had so reviled welcomed them, embraced them, comfortable in a way the warmth once was.
When they came across an iceberg, they would disembark from their log at the first time they get. The siblings would drift across the Frozen Sea for days. All day, they would sit upon the iceberg's edge, watching out for any ship and monster of the deep. At night, they would cover themselves in snow. However, her brother would sleep very little, continuing to look for monsters even in the deepest night. He would eat little, so that their food would last longer and his sister could eat more.
One day, a ship made of frost would come across their floating iceberg. Curious arachnids disembarked from the frozen vessel. The arachnids were very curious of the strange fire giant specimens standing upon the ice, and so they changed course to investigate the strange creatures. They bore their strange bodies and strange magics to immobilize the siblings so that they may investigate them, but her brother shielded her fully. Despite the hunger and fatigue he had experienced in keeping his sister safe, he felt just as refreshed as they had left.
He called to his sister, "Run!" Her brother stood in between her and the arachnids. There, the once imperceptible glow ignited, becoming evident to the world. Virtue. Her brother harnessed the power bestowed upon it to push back the arachnids that so desired to open them up and find every magical thing about them.
His sister jumped to the waters, not desiring to see her brother be torn. She swam in the frigid waters without stop, not looking back. She would only rest momentarily on floes before taking for the water to swim as far as she could from the marauders. When night fell, she would stop upon a large iceberg. She would sit upon the iceberg's edge, despondent, weeping. She attempted to wash away the curse from her flesh, but the pallor remained, and she only caused frostbite to her arm.
One should know that beneath the frigid waters lurks the wretched ones. Born from the wretched scum, they come to the surface to wreak misery upon the world. The child had little to no warning when she saw shiny orbs beneath the water. If she had not leaned back in time, the wretched pengdrake that emerged from the water would have lopped her head clean off.
She backed away from the water's edge. The wretched pengdrake emerged from the water. Its skin was rotten and torn, its bones visible and its flesh scarce strings holding the bones together. Wretched scum leaked out of its open wounds and orifices. Its voice cried with litanies born from the pained screams of villains.
The child shivered as she backed away from the wretched one. She shivered with terror. Her legs felt weak and she felt like liquefying under the intensity of its horror. The wretched one licked its dagger-like teeth with its sharp spear-like tongue. It slowly waddled forward, taunting the child, letting it weaken itself with terror before striking, but the chance to strike would never come.
A dark aura would emerge from the waves. The wretched ones screams with indignation as it turned to the great splash appearing behind it. It was a draconic beast with slate black scales and sixfold webbed wings. It gazed upon the scrambling wretched one with harsh judging eyes before enveloping the wretched pengdrake in a wave of dark water. The wretched opened its mouth to scream but no sound emerged. When the wave of dark water retreated, the wretched one had disappeared, reduced to nothing but dust.
The Abyssal Dragon turned to the frost giant child. The child found the abyssal beast a strange but alluring creature. Involuntarily, the child's feet unsteadily stepped forward, toward the judgemental being, but was halted when four pengdrakes emerged from the water in defense of their mistress. The child turned her eyes to the face of the Abyssal Dragon, and found its features tantalizingly familiar. Many times have the Divine Dragon passed through their home and many times have the child gazed upon the Divine Dragon's radiant face, and now she has come face-to-face to another being that might as well be the Divine Dragon's spitting image. The slate-black dragon might as well has been the Divine Dragon's divine shadow.
The child fell to her knees, tears freely flowing from her eyes, and she began to pray. She prayed the prayers and praises of her people, but instead of being toward the Eagenkurg, it was to this being that she called Eagengaerik.
A/N: This was supposed to be part of the Lady of the Night Act, but decided to cut it off as its own thing.
