Animus Ex Nihilo - A God Quest

When you flew back to the lands of the Sea People, you had plenty of time to ponder your choice. What was the point of waiting? While your might had grown since your last battle, so had that of the beast. And now it was preparing another ritual. One much larger than the last and likely for the same purpose. If Skerhogis could just make more servants of equal strength to the creature you fought in the mountains, it was just a matter of time until they had gathered enough to overwhelm you. So, the choice was made and your path led not back to the comfort of the reef, but to the skies above the forests and to the Sky Child roaming them. The wind spirit was troubled by the idea of fighting the Devourer where it was strongest, yet it was clear to both of you that it could not be avoided. The beast had steadfastly denied to give battle, and they agreed with your worry of what the beast would do with the power gathered on the frozen islands.

The Harsh Mountain was not as easy to convince. For them, to agree to this plan meant to risk their servitor yet again and while you would already not risk your herald lightly, the gruff spirit was even more reliant on it. It took some talking from you, and cajoling from the Sky Child, but they relented in the end. There was nothing the three of you could do to protect the village of Silver Cliff, should the Devourer try the same surprise attack as the last time, and losing even more of his mortal servants sat quite ill with the Harsh Mountain. They would have preferred some more time to prepare, though the threat of whatever ritual the Devourer was preparing convinced them that there was nothing that could be worth any further delays. Again, it fell on you to lead the Walking Mountain and while the Harsh Mountain still said nothing on the matter, you took it as confirmation that they truly were unable to leave the mountain that gave them their name.

Only a few days later, everything was in place. You would have preferred to attack even earlier, but the Walking Mountains ponderous pace made that impossible. It had walked without rest the entire time, crossing through the forests and the cold plains north of them, until it arrived at the shore close to the jagged shards of ice rising from the sea. The servitor had waited there for a day, with the Sky Child hiding behind the clouds and you beneath the waves. The Devourer knew you were there, you had felt its presence on the edge of your senses a few times while you had escorted the ponderous stone man on it's way, so by brazenly waiting in front of its lair, you had tried to lure it out. But it did not come. The next day, the Sky Child began to weave insults and taunts into the wind, throwing it at the frozen island to mock Skerhogis. But again, it did not take the bait. And worst of all, you could not even reliably tell where the monster was, as it seemed to appear and disappear to your senses without rhyme or reason.

The next day was a cloudless one, the summer son promising to leave a faint warmth even on the coldest ice. You had no illusions that it would make much of a difference, but if it made even the tiniest one, then it was worth taking even that sliver of an advantage. The enemy was not so kind to come to you to fight on neutral ground and so, with no other choice and committed to this attack, you ordered the Walking Mountain into motion again. It would walk towards the islands, crossing the sea by using the thick sheets of ice, while you would trail it in the sea and the Sky Child in the air. That way, you would see the Devourer approaching no matter which of the two ways it approached. It was as good a plan as the two of you could think of, given the circumstances. The land itself was arrayed against you and you had to draw out a foe that had crafted it to their own whims, while you knew not in the slightest what to expect. You knew full well that the plan might fail. And it did.

It happened as the Walking Mountain was right on the ice connecting the first island to the coast. You could see the great stone mans shape from beneath, a large blotch of grey visible behind the thick curtain of blue ice above you. The sea was shallow here, barely a few mortals high of water between the ice and the seafloor, so you did not expect the massive shape of the Devourer to even fit, let alone that it would try to cram itself into the narrow gap. Your thoughts were more on how to quickly break through the ice and take to the sky when the serpent would show itself in the sky. So, when the sinuous shape appeared above you, wings stretched out, your power urged the waters to strike against the ice without even thinking. The sea was sluggish, reluctant even to obey your call, yet the ice cracked under your onslaught. Part of you already felt for the tiniest rivulets of saltwater that you could follow through the ice to the surface while your thoughts caught up with what you saw. The Devourer was not flying in the sky. It was not swimming through the sea. It was floating through the ice that was solid even to you as if it was not even there, it's massive wings beating almost lazily to propel it forward.

Skerhogis emerged from the ice with a burst, breaking it into slippery rubble right beneath the Walking Mountains feet and thus letting it sink into the ice. All around you, the ice was cracking, the seas waters pressing upwards through the cracks and you with it, just as a rapid wind carried the Sky Child down from the clouds. But while you moved as fast as you could, the Devourer was already there. It had changed since you last saw it. No longer was it a broken thing, cobbled together from rotten fish and shattered bones. Now it was covered and white and blue scales made from purest ice, jutting out of shrivelled flesh the colour for frostbite. Only its wings were devoid of scales. They were only thin, black skin stretched over spindly bones. With a great gulp it sucked in air and when it breathed out again, it had become colder than the darkest winter night, freezing the ice solid once more around the Walking Mountains legs.

Both the Sky Child and you tried to diver the monsters power as it seeped into the ice, while the Harsh Mountains servitor struggled physically, but it was like fighting the turn of day and night. The ice wanted to obey Skerhogis' will and even with the three of you struggling together, you could only barely prevent it from closing around the Walking Mountains legs. Great chunks of ice as solid as the stone clung to its form, as the Devourer flared its wings and slithered around it, circling the prey that was failing to strike at it. From above, the wind slammed into your foes back, tearing its wings and nearly threatening to slam it into the snow covered ice. You reached out as you had done the last time, seeking to add your strength to the wind spirits attacks, but there was nothing to grasp onto. The wind itself felt cold and dead, just like the sea had before and while your essence resonated with the waters, there was not even the most tenuous connection to the air that you could leverage.

There was only death that spoke to you in this blighted land and it did not struggle as you commanded it. The raw potential imbued into the world knew neither friend, nor foe, and it eagerly obeyed one master as the next. You tore and twisted on it, making it flow around the Devourers form and seeking to tear away its own essence as you had done to the bird in the mountain. But the power obeyed one master as readily as the next. The storm that you had conjured, the storm that could have snuffed out even your own herald in an instant. It slipped right off the scales of the Devourer, it's own will and essence far too great for you to overcome. And as the currents of power touched, the essences mingled, you heard it's voice for the first time. "Weak," it called to you.


"So weak," it spoke again, though you knew not if the others could hear it. Again its form bloated with air. "You are barely more than the things that spawned you." You knew what would come next and so did the Sky Child. It almost felt as if you were fighting on the mountain again. Trying to keep your allies servitor whole just for one more moment, as the few battered it. A struggle mixed with desperation, knowing full well that the fight would turn, should you lose the strength of numbers. Your power flowed over the stones of the Walking Mountains body, forming a crude warding, the best you could offer against what was to come, and so did the Sky Child. The Devourers breath washed it aside as if it was nothing, leaving only frost in its wake. Every nook and cranny of its form filled with new ice and you could feel the servitors essence drawing back into its core once more. It was like fighting on the mountain again, but this time, the foe was not your equal.

With desperation you commanded the storm of essence again, just as the Sky Child whipped the air into another frenzy, but it was no use. Skerhogis did not even deign the few more tears the wind tore into its wings with a reaction, and your attack glanced of its dead hide once more without causing even the slightest discomfort. The Devourers attention was solely on the Walking Mountain as it folded its wings and slithered closer to the frozen form. In a quiet monotone, it spoke again. "The only purpose you have is what can be drawn from your shattered forms." You knew what was to come. You had seen it attempted once before.


All the power that you had gathered around it was drawn into the monster as it drew breath once more and a tone of jubilation entered its voice. "Yes," it almost cried. "The Silent Night will come upon this world again." You drew on every scrap of power that you could muster, trying to force a warding on the frozen body of your ally while needling the Devourers efforts to concentrate. "Once more, there shall be nothing," it's voice rang in your mind as a black breath shot from its mouth, engulfing the Walking Mountain. You tried to push it aside. You tried to stop it from creeping into the frozen stones. But bit by bit, Skerhogis was forcings its own essence forward. You could feel the light within the stone man's chest. You could feel as it dimmed. You could feel as it died.

As the Devourers breath snuffed out your ally, you knew that the battle was lost. Above you, a heavy wind began to blow, and it was easy to guess why it was moving southwards and straight away from this place. For you though, the way out was harder to find. Briefly you tried to sense your far away shrines, but in between the ice and the churning essence left by your fight, you could not feel the faint bond that tied you to them. Worse yet, most of the cracks that you had used to come up through the ice had been sealed by the cold again and a solid wall of even more ice divided you from reaching the sea by another way. It was just a moment that it took to find a crack to slip through and into the sea, but that was all that your foe needed.


There was none of the grace of its approach as its massive form slammed into the ice, shattering it in its wake. For a moment you thought it had been careless, but then the ice began to move on its own. The chunks sunk to the bottom at once, then piled on and on to block your path, costing you precious moments as you had to weave and dive around the thrice-cursed ice. And then it was no longer around, but within you. You could hear Skerhogis' mocking voice as the monster's essence was driving itself into yours and froze the water solid all around you. "You won't leave yet, carrion feeder. Not before I have taken what you stole." More and more ice grew around you as frost spread over the sea floor. You could feel the cold. You had never before truly felt the cold, but you remembered. The fear. The sluggish thoughts. The dim acceptance as you sunk beneath the cold waves. The last moments of so many fishermen lost to the winter sea came to your mind, yet this time, it was no mere memory.


Desperately your searched for a way out of the ice. A way away from the cold. Wherever your senses turned, there was more of it. More cold. More ice. Again, the Devourers essence bored into you, taking and taking something of you that you could not truly name. You dove between the ice, no longer sure if you were searching for a way to escape or merely to escape the serpents breath for a short moment. Skerhogis no longer spoke, instead tearing and mending the ice to find you while keeping you trapped. Would this be your end? Frozen in your own waters while hiding from your enemy? No. If nothing else, you would not face your end cowering before the blighted thing. You cast your power out once more, not even knowing if you wanted to find an escape or strike one last time at the Devourer. Nothing but ice around you, you had already half resolved to throw one last, useless strike at the thing that would kill you when you finally felt it.

Just above the seafloor was a tiny gap in the icy, the warm current forcing itself into the rapidly cooling prison made for you. But it was enough. You called upon the waters with all you might, guiding them to rage and twist around the Devourers form. All you needed was a moment. Chunks of ice and half-frozen seafoam slammed into the serpents form as the waters became tumultuous and then you had the chance you needed. Through the gap you slipped, immediately calling up a new current to carry you further away from the frozen isles. Carefully you drew yourself tight, letting no hint of your essence slip from your control. It was only fitting that you used Skerhogis' own trick against it, even if doing so meant blinding yourself to its presence. Yet, in the end, it had been the right thing to do. You were halfway back to the Bay Village before you dared to cast your senses out once more, but when you did, there was no sign that the monster was still pursuing you. You had escaped. Barely. Wounded quiet badly. But you had escaped, and for now, that had to be enough.


The attack ended in defeat. What now?

[] Return to the Deep Reef to heal and rest. Hopefully you are safe there for a while.

[] Try to find the Sky Child. They should have escaped, but you would rather be certain about their fate.

[] Travel to the Harsh Mountain. The other spirit deserves to know what became of its servitor.

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AN: Background rolls were pretty average, and the combat rolls were mostly around the mean for the respective pools too. None the less, you were one attack away from learning first hand what happens when spirits die.