Private Tales I Follow the Danger Not the Other Way Around

[TheDungeonMaster]

"Don't get eaten! Don't get eaten! Don't get eaten!" Penny frantically chanted as she spun her body behind a tree the wet slithering of a scaly body against the nearby riverbed alerting the girl to her enemy's presence. Shaking, scared of what she might find Penny's hand ran down the left side of her face the jarring sensation of stone and skin meshed together was abysmal to the senses. She took one look at that serpent thing and it was like time was frozen and her body began to numb. She pulled away so fast she hadn't even noticed that her feet and hands had morphed into rock and that the serpent had left its cave in pursuit of her.

"Stone, stone, stone...Stone!" Penny's hands sealed her mouth shut as she silently cursed herself for being so loud. Almost on autopilot, Penny's left hand called forth her Journal from the pocket of her green shirt the charcoal pen that's stained its many pages held in the other hand. "As I sit here my body decorated by the dancing shadows cast by the treetops above my back pressed against the firmness of a tall oak tree I ponder how I could be so audacious as to write while I stare defiantly at the precipice of death. My enemy a conniving slithering Basilisk the length of the Cairou river with the odor of a Frost Troll trapped in the desert pursues me endlessly his hunger enough to eclipse the Akiva sea like a monumental black blanket of famine and infinite desperation." Penny inched her head around the tree, her eyes failing her as she peered through the Falwood's endless thicket.

How could she have lost sight of something so big!? Could she be so lucky as to have it lose her as well? No. A predator so sloppy as to botch prey as vocal as she wouldn't survive in the Falwood and certainly not long enough to get as big as this Basilisk was. "His insatiable will to eat and my indomitable will to survive are about to clash in an epic display of power a spectacle for any who would witness! Should I fall here let it be known that my blood ran hot with the thrill of battle and not the despair of death in my great crescendo!" Penny's journal slid back into her shirt the confidence she so gleefully spilled onto the paper fading along with it.

Well, there was no taking it back now. She's already given up too much time she can't afford to make revisions before the Basilisk loses patience and-HIIIIIIIIISSSSSSEEEEE!!! Penny didn't dare to turn toward the vile beast before her legs took control of themselves and threw the girl away from the tree a loud boom sending tremors through the ground as she hopped away. Risking a glance behind her Penny's heart dropped as the tree which just a second earlier shrouded her in shadow was torn from the ground its roots exposed and its trunk shredded into a million splinters. Okay this is getting a bit dangerous...

Penny bumped up against another tree her back now pressed against it as the Basilisk having missed his shot slithered back around his body slowly rising into the air until his coiled form stood above the treeline and his ruby red eyes radiated with the power of petrification. The glint from the sun shined on the serpents onyx scales as high noon approached. In a sick kind of way it was almost like the Basilisk had a schedule and that Penny was now the serpents timely lunch. Had her curiosity not bested her and Penny not have gone into his lair at the rumors of a beast larger than life then she wouldn't have found herself here before the maw of a snake whose slumber had been broken.

Far be it for Penny to learn anything from this of course.

Garrod Arlette

 

[Garrod Arlette]

It had taken days to find the creature's lair, and hours to set the trap. Garrod and the other monster hunters, a gang of brothers who called themselves the Talons, all laid in wait for the right time, when the creature would emerge from its cave, smelling the strong scent of its favorite prey, giant bush rat pheromones, which mind you, could only be acquired from scent glands located in the most unpleasant of places. And while he was no stranger to the work, Garrod certainly wasn't fond of butchering, especially not giant rats, even more especially giant rats for in order to harvest scent glands that reeked of rat musk and required careful knife work around the creature's hindquarters and endtrails.

Still. He had done it. Because the pay for this basilisk was more than enough compensation for him and the gang of four brothers to come out with much fatter purses.

At least, until they saw the girl venture into the cave.

"What? that's not part of the plan!" Gregor whisper-near-shouted to Garrod who had the fowl glands sealed away in a sack at his hip.

"I know its not the plan!" Garrod near-shouted back.

"Then bloody do something, Garrod!" Reginald demanded.

"What?"

"Yeah, go on, use that big-" the roaring rumble of stone come loose and set to slide cut Bertran off.

Out from the cave ran the young woman, stride off kilter, clumsy. "Dragon shit, she woke it up," Garrod muttered.

"What do we do now?!" Cestus asked bewildered, large crossbow in hand.

"Improvise!" Garrod cried out, and emerged from the shrubbery with his own crossbow drawn. His eye aimed down the length of the bolt and set on the shimmering scales of the marauding serpent. His finger pulled the trigger and the bow-arms snapped forward with a clank, and the bolt spat forward. Instinctively, his gauntleted arm dug into his pocket and he pulled a potion, popped the cork and he glugged it down as a chorus of crossbows set loose their missiles. It was a bitter brew, but it would keep the monster's gaze from working. If only for a blink or two.

Garrod gripped the sack of stink that hung from his waist and squeezed it hard until he felt it pop. Stench poured from it, and he tossed it toward the clearing in front of him, as the brothers, perched in the trees, reloaded their weapons.

"Did we hit it?!" Cestus cried out.

"Fuck if I know," Garrod growled and drew his runed-greatsword, eye looking out for the snake.

TheDungeonMaster

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

"As I peer into the inevitability of demise slithering before me, my maker beckoning me from beyond the maw of death I cannot help but wonder if I should have washed my hands after that Ham breakfast so I wouldn't smell so so enticing." Penny mused as she readied her feet to dart away at any given time. An attack finally launched as the serpent hissed and charged at Penny just as voices began to rise in the distance.

Penny held her prized journal firm as she dipped out of the Basilisk's path, his venom dripping jaw splitting itself on the ground where its prey once stood. The sharp whistle of an arrow shot through the foliage and silenced itself as the arrow's wooden shaft shattered on the serpent's armored skin.

A volley of arrows fell from the sky and onto the beast, their iron tips and wooden shafts meaningless against the creature's scales. She would have thought them to be elves if not for their inaccuracy. From behind a tree, an armored figure emerged and quickly chugged something down before unsheathing a blade that could cut the heavens in two. In such mayhem, a lesser author might find themselves overwhelmed but a lesser author is something Penny is not.

"A warrior perhaps untried but true nonetheless gallops out from the emerald thicket his brow resolute and his armor exquisite with a shiny finish that radiates like gold in the midday sun! As he steps into the fray I can only muse at what-AUUAUGAHH!!" Leaning back to the point her head nearly touched the ground, Penny nimbly avoided the serpent's tail and it swung over her head in the monster's pursuit of Garrod Arlette. The snake was far faster than it had any right to be as it launched into the air and plummeted toward the earth his mouth wide open as though it intended to fall on Garrod and swallow him whole.

"The beast rockets into the air like an arrow shot by a master archer! His shadow races towards the ground along with the rest of his onyx scaly body as ooze trails from his mouth! I reach out to the poor sap," Penny stretched a hand toward Garrod, "Get out of the way!" She shouts as her pen goes back to the page. "I only hope I am timely."

 

[Garrod Arlette]

Crash and crack and break of branch, the giant serpent came hard through the woods, a small body ever just ahead of it. Garrod cursed, let magicked words spill from his lips as he held his sword out before him, the runes along its great blade glowed an electric blue and webs of white charged electricity crackled and bounced along its dark steel.

He scraped his gauntleted hand down across the length of the blade, as he saw the great serpent speed toward him. He growled and motioned his hand down in a forceful thrust, a circle of lightning webbed about his feet, glowed faintly.

The violent glow of the serpent's gaze caught Garrod's own stare, and he felt its magic punch through his senses, felt it try to claim his own flesh. It was flying right for him.

Get out of the way! Came a voice, and the jut of a limb poked out from behind cover. He grunted and pulled himself away, his whole body lurching into a dive that saw him roll off the path of the serpent's crash and strike.

It landed where he was but a moment ago, with a massive pound against the earth that seemed to shake the very dirt which Garrod stood upon once he popped up. He huffed and brought his sword out infront of him, angled it point first as the serpent coiled and slid across its own mass.

Magick energy glowed bright and hot in the arc circle that he had planted, and in a flash and a zap the magic surged through the monster, and Garrod grit his teeth and charged forward. He aimed to skewer the beast clean through with the full run of his great-sword.

---

TheDungeonMaster

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

"The vile serpent lunges at the warrior but gains no purchase, his hopes of a quick meal dashed away almost as quickly as the warrior did." Penny's eyes widened at the sight of Garrod's lightning magic her pupils dilated and her smile broadened in an almost insane veneer as a line of drool formed at the base of her mouth. What seemed like a doomed expedition before had swiftly become a fearsome battle that would fit nicely in the pages of her epic. That potion he drank earlier seems to have made him immune to the Basilisk's power. I must ask him what he put in there!

Penny's hand went to shield her eyes as a sea of white light flooded the forest a massive arc of energy shooting into the Basilisk's armored hide. Like a spider, the energy crawled over the beast frying its scaly skin before dissipating prematurely. Steaming with eyes full of hate the Basilisk coiled its defense breached but otherwise unscathed. It was almost as though it had...absorbed the magic.

"The beast, fueled by some horrendous evil has caught a thunderous strike of lightning with its ebony flesh its crimson gaze as menacing as ever!" Penny's pen became a blur on the page the action happening faster than she could reasonably track. She dashed over and drew her iron dagger unsure as to what she really planned to do in this situation. Arrows still pelted the beast from above and stuck into the ground below but from the look of things, none of it was getting through.

"Gods! How is it this damned strong!?" Penny charged at the serpent picking up a rock on the way over. Garrod's blade swung towards the Basilisk only for the beast to raise its tail and parry the blow with its armored club-like rear. The monster hissed and tried to grab Garrod with its body as Penny approached from the rear. "Earth Magic: Rock Thrower!" Penny chucked the small rock at the beast who barely registered the throw. "Come on! At least pretend it hurt a little!"

Penny turned toward Garrod her pen at the ready. "Hey, armored guy! Try shooting one of those blasts through the thing's mouth! I highly doubt it can armor its insides too."

Garrod Arlette

 

[Garrod Arlette]

Sword batted away with a clang against stonelike growths. He cursed under his breath, and tried to bring his sword back up, but the beast was already slithered around him, and before he could angle his blade proper, it knocked him with its mass, forced him back only to find a wall of its flesh there behind him too. "Fuck!" he cursed louder, and the beast closed its snare about him with a sudden crush of strength.

Wind knocked out of him, the edges of his sight went fuzzy. But his armor held strong, and he wasn't turned to paste. Not yet anyway. His greatsword was pressed against him, but the snake was still trying to find the right grip, coiling and twisting as it did.

"Oy lads!" one of the brothers called out from the trees, "It's got garrod right trapped! We gotta help! Aim for its eyes!"


They took aim with their shots.

"No," Garrod choked, as bolts flicked by and pinged off its scaly hide. One ricocheted and its feather smacked him across the face. "Gods damn it!" he shouted as he shook it off.

The small voice came again. Through the things mouth.

His eye opened wide, and he would find the beast's great head before him, red eyes glaring down at him, its magic trying to turn him to stone. And while his flesh did not yet petrify, thanks to to concotion of grey-lilly and strix essence, he could feel his limbs cry out in pain at the constriction, could feel his nerves going numb from what magic still leaked through the resistance.

Through the things mouth. His brain remembered.

One of the many bolts that were loosed plunked into the beast's red eye. In agony, it hissed as it wailed back, baring its fangs as its body loosened its death grip. Enough for Garrod to think. He closed his eye, let out an ancient cant, and when his eye opened next, flames licked at the corner of his mouth, and as the creature reared its head back towards him, maw opened wide, fangs splayed and dripping, he opened wide as well, and belched out a searing wash of flame.

---

TheDungeonMaster

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

"A wall of arrows and one breaks through! The unassailable teeters his iron snare loosened and his prey unconstricted! A gout of flame, like the sun itself, channeled in the warrior's breath like a monstrous dragon, the taste of death it shoots down the Basilisk's throat his tongue flailing in agony." His mouth engulfed in flame the Basilisk drew away from Garrod as black smoke escaped his searing maw. The serpent glared at Garrod its wordless expression enough to convey the contempt it held for him.

Another wall of arrows crashed on the Basilisk they're, aim finding no purchase except in a small crack on the beast's scales. The viper was injured, and his prey's danger outweighed the effort it was taking to hunt them. Its survival, something the Basilisk had become accustomed to having assured was now being questioned and by such a motley group no less. To retreat from them...was going to be a stain on his ego. With a hiss, the beast poured all of his energy into Garrod its hatred spilling over like a teapot boiling on the stove.

Just as the beast's anger reached its climax, all expression faded from its body, and a cold air flowed around the creature. Its ruby eyes once filled with hatred and frustration were replaced with globes of emerald light, cool and collected.

The humid forest environment was turned to ash and then blown away by a strong gust of wind that brought a massive cloud of grey dust with it. The ground once made of dirt and peppered with life, was now a barren sandy plain with massive stone obelisks for miles in the dark expanse. The sky's blue color was corrupted and replaced with dark swirling energy like malice itself. All that was left was Garrod and his foe, now more colossal than before.

"We..."

The beast's jaw unhinged itself, and a voice dark and demonic echoed from within its gaping mouth. It was as though something was talking from inside the creature's stomach.

"Will meet...again. Perhaps Artorious should have left the rat in its sewer."

The world of darkness faded, and Garrod was in the forest again...or what was left of it. In his trance, the Basilisk had retreated and destroyed what had been left of the clearing. "If he's perished, I'll be more than happy to write the most stellar obituary the worlds have ever seen." "You'd do right to zip your mouth, lass!" "Fine! Fine. Just throw the water on him I think he's finally getting up."

Evidently, by his very altered surroundings, Garrod had been gone for much longer than that instant he endured.

Garrod Arlette

 

[Garrod Arlette]

Green, emerald green, and all the world blew away in so much ash. Gone was the pain of constriction and the threat of magic eyes turning him to stone, and in their place was the endless expanse of sand, soot colored, and tall sentinels that loomed on the horizon.

Larger loomed the dread serpent. And while his mind was weary, and the whole world felt to spin and swirl about him, Garrod righted his weapon, point angled high to catch its open maw upon its pointed tip.

It spoke to him. In a voice that felt all too familiar. In a voice that shook him down to the very bone and stirred in him his own green flame, pale and sickly, hungry in its wrath.

You dare?! Belephus challenged in return, a green specter of long teeth and singular eye that wreathed itself like a blazing flame about the kindle of the man, and flashed along the road of his sword.

But the great serpent paid the lesser demon no mind.

The world came undone. Garrod was left to fall through the sands with a scream. Belephus, however, only gnashed their teeth and glared back at the abyss.

Water splashed across Garrod's face. He grunted and groaned and mumbled as he stirred back to the land of the waking. "What..." his eye cracked open, and the light had him blink away the burn. The time of day had changed.

"Oy, Garrod m'lad, you're back!" Gregor smiled toothless and wide.

"The little lass thought you'd gone and died she did," Reginald added with a narrowed stare shot at the girl.

"Tell it true, I called dibs on your sword," admitted Cestus.

Garrod smirked and worked himself up off the clearing floor. "Sorry to disappoint," he said, and dusted some of debris off his shoulders, only to wince and twitch back into a shrunken and pained posture. "Everything hurts,"

"Aye, being near eaten by a huge basilisk'll do that to a man," Gregor added, and handed him a skin. "Eer, have some wine,"

"Thanks," Garrod said as he took the offer. He uncorked it with a clear and hollo pop. "What were you doing in there anyway?" he asked the young woman, and then took a long drink from the skin. The motion hurt, but the drink was sweet, and the alcohol tang was like medicine for his aches. If only mentally. Finished, he stopped the skin and wiped his lips clean, tossing it back to Gregor. "And why were you.... narrating everything,"

Gregor looked down at the skin, then at the girl, and offered her some too.

And what in the world was that dream... that voice. It echoed in his head.

Ignore that pretender. Belephus hissed. And to have his demon so upset put a small smile on Garrod's face. If only for the moment.

---

TheDungeonMaster

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

Penny's face fanned with a smile as Garrod awoke the need for an epitaph erased with it. Expectedly the girl immediately got to work recording everything that had happened between the warrior's slumber and the serpent's retreat. "A victory snatched from the ravenous jaws of failure but a victory nonetheless. The beast had retreated and our savior undefeated except by his own exhaustion it seemed." Penny added a wink at the mention of exhaustion. She quickly slipped the pen back into her pocket before turning back toward the rest of the crew.

Garrod awoke with questions, ones she was expected to answer, and seeing as he likely saved her life she'd oblige to answer them. "All good questions my friend! Where to begin...hmmm...well I guess I should start with how I came to know of the cave and the beast inside. You see in the town just over yonder there's was a wanted poster and a reward for anyone who could put that Basilisk down. Truthfully I wasn't really in it for the reward and I just wanted to go on an adventure so I got a couple of hunters together and we went after that thing..."

Penny scratched a spot on her hand still stone from the beast's magic. "We weren't...we weren't ready for that...thing. As soon as we stepped into the cave it was like being slapped by a hand made of evil and before I knew it we were being turned to stone. I only got out because the serpent was too busy killing everyone else to get to me proper. It was horrific! He wasn't even eating us he was just killing!" In her rant, Penny failed to notice the wine-filled skin now hovering before her face. She thanked the man profusely and took a chug of the wine its sweet taste calming her rattled nerves.

"Anyway, I was able to um...masterfully evade the serpent when I ran into you lot." Fighting the urge to consume the rest of the wine Penny passed the skin back to Gregor. Wiping her chin she listened to Garrod's inquiry about her "narrating." A common misconception. "No no no no no. I wasn't narrating anything I was writing, talking simply helps me keep track of my words. Don't worry I won't embellish much and I won't go too heavily into your failure to kill the beast. Just consider going down in history as a fearsome warrior my gift to you for saving my life." Penny waved away any response Garrod might have had. "And I'll hear nothing of a thank you. My reward is inspiration."

Penny grinned and finger gunned Garrod. "Your welcome! Now I have a Basilisk that needs slaying and a reward that needs claiming soon after. Though before I'd go I'd like to ask you what that whole blacking out thing was about. After the monster let you go you should have been breathing fine so I know that wasn't it." Penny reached for her journal and pen. "Lets go man, spill it!"

Garrod Arlette

 

[Garrod Arlette]

Garrod listened to the tale, thought of the party of adventurers played in his mind. How they had ventured into the beast's lair, and how it might have torn through them, one by one. Ever present was that sound. That voice. Otherworldly and so full of malice. Like ripples in the waters of his mind.

How delightful. The demon in the jewel whispered in his mind, and it only deepened Garrod's frown. You should have let me taste it, Garrod, you should have let me have a piece of that wretched thing. It went on. That foul pretender.

The young story teller moved on to her get away, and explaining her... process. "A good story tends to help business," he said with a soft smile, but before he could add more the youth went on, a roil of words and gestured, despite their partially petrified extremities. He didn't dare correct any part of it, or interject. It was obvious she was a passionate sort, and he was not sure how well she would take to criticism of her work.

"Thank you," he added, post finger bolts. But then came her question about blacking out. To this, he frowned again, his eye hard and its gaze distant. He got up to his feet, and the Talon brothers woahed.

"Easy now, Garrod, no need ta go an rush yourself after an encounter like tha, crazy lass or no," cautioned Gregor.

Garrod dusted himself, and saw that Cestus had already clutched the monster hunter's sword. Garrod motioned for the younger man to hand it over, and with some reluctance, the youngest Talon brother obliged.

"I'll help you kill it," Garrod said. and worked his sword back into its straps upon his back, the thick leather adjusted toward his shoulder so he could work the wide slab of metal in, then he let gravity pull it into place. "And I'll tell you all about what I saw if we survive," he said with a fire in his eye, and a devilish smirk cut across his lips, his hand checked his belt pouch, rummaged inside, felt a couple of vials still intact. The soft potions were still in tact.

Gregor stood up, and thumbed his nose with a hot huff of breath. "Well, shit now,"

"Shit indeed," Bertran agreed.

Reginald nodded, and Cestus kind of just stood there looking dumb as his eyes moved between his brothers and the monster hunter.

"So, uh... we are going after it?" Cestus asked.

Garrod glanced at them with an eye narrowed with worry, and the look of fire all but extinguished. "You- you don't have to go and do that,"

Oh? worried for them? Belephus laughed.

"Nonsense, man," Gregor dismissed. "T'wasn't for us, then you'd have been snake food, most like!"

"Aye, our crack shooting gave you the opening you needed!" Bertran grinned with pride.

"Make sure you put that in the story," Reginald whispered to the young story teller.

"Plus," Cestus chimed in. "We don't get money unless we help bring it in,"

Gregor punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!"

Garrod shook his head and looked to the storyteller, "What's your name, anyway?" he pulled one of the vials from his pouch, and offered it to the story teller. "Should help get rid of the petrification," he said as he handed it to her. "If we are smart, we will stock up on this before we head back out."

---

TheDungeonMaster Sorry for the delay!

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

Penny smiled sinisterly as Garrod and the others made their intent to pursue the monster clear. That's good for her, in all honesty, Penny wasn't quite sure how'd she survive another encounter with the beast let alone kill the damned thing. Penny so absorbed by her writing didn't even notice the vial being handed to her until her eyes flashed up at the sound of Garrod's voice. Penny slipped the journal back into her shirt and downed the vial unaware of its simply vile taste.

She would have retched if it wasn't for her muscles suddenly relaxing and the stone climbing up her face finding itself no longer welcome. She hadn't even realized how tense the Basilisks magic had made her. "Many thanks, comrade! My name is Penny Coppersnatch and well...you already know what I am." Then Garrod made mention of stocking up on more of that strange potion which gave Penny the chance to ask a question that's been tugging at her. "Just what is that strange concoction of yours? It could come in handy should I ever encounter one of these things again." Penny spun toward the trail of carnage left by the snake and eagerly skipped down the path.

"Come on! You can tell me on the way!"

In the Meantime...

".........H......T.......I......S......S....Y......A.......F....." Whispering in an arcane tongue the monstrous serpent released a vile incantation over his domain, the effects of which prove deadly to those who come to know of its power. The damage done to the serpent's mouth had already healed and the eye previously shot out regenerated. It was quickly becoming clear that this Basilisk was no phenomenon of nature but one of dastardly creation.

Finding a cool spot in the corner of its huge enclosure the serpent collapsed on the floor its body almost lifeless as it went limp. Orange light shined through its mouth and eyes as the sound of energy whirled inside it like a hurricane. Flooding from its mouth like a swarm of angry bees wyrms slender and speedy flew from the mouth of the Basilisk their scales and body comprised entirely of pure concentrated mana. Drool also formed of magical energy dripped from the mouths of the ravenous summons as they jet across the cave, like a school of fish pursuing a meal.

"Go now and feast on our stalkers. Ensure that they NEVER set foot in my domain. Do this and we will be one step closer to our destination. But before that."

With a wag of its beaded tail, the remainder of Penny's team were released from their petrified state their muscles still numb and their mouths frothing from being in stasis for so long.

"Build up strength."

With screeches of joy, a feast given to them the Wyrms descended on the poor adventurers and consumed not their bodies but their life force before flying out the mouth of the cavern and making a B-Line for Garrod and the Talons.

"SCRRRREAAAAAUUUUUUCCCGGGHHHH!!!"

Garrod Arlette Your all good

 

[Garrod Arlette]

Garrod listened to the young storyteller, Penny, she revealed, Penny Coppersnatch. A memorable name if he had ever heard one. The sort that hinted at parents with humor, and good nature. Or caretakers with such. What was a parent, anyway, if not a person who cared for you.

Why are you thinking about that right now, you mopey fool? Belephus yowled.

And Garrod's face scrunched up. Luckily, Penny had already spun away, and was moving along the beast's path of destruction. Why had he been thinking of that?

Don't you dare let that... pretender go getting in your head now, oh bearer mine. Only I can do that, you understand?

His demon was jealous. Garrod laughed small and to himself. It wasn't that strange, but for once, the foul tempered curse he was bound to pulled him back to reality. That thing. Whatever it was that hid inside of the basilisk, it had mentioned Artorias. How?

"Garrod," Gregor, called back to him, "Ye alright?"

The monster hunter stood there, his eye looked up at his accomplice. "Yeah, just, thinking about something is all,"

The broad shouldered Gregor, with his wispy hair and thin mustache motioned him to follow. "Well, come on then, she wants to know about them soft potions ya got,"

Garrod nodded and followed after. When he caught up he explained, "They can be hard to come by, on account of the Strix essence," he shook his head. "Horrible things, those strix, kind of like a cross between a wolverine and an owl," he closed his eye and shook his head. "Well, if you manage to kill one, make sure you keep its carcass, at the very least the liver and bladder,"

"Oy, you mean essence is just piss?" Bertran replied.

"No, not exactly-"

A horrid screech pierced the sky, and from on ahead came the shimmering forms of beings made of a foul magic.

"Fuck," Garrod cursed, and drew his sword as the creatures approached, "Careful!" He cried out, "They don't look to be corporeal!"

"Corpori-what?" Gregor called out, squeezing the trigger of his crossbow. The bolt flew straight through one.

"They have no physical body!"

"Well blody fuck!" Cestus cried out.

They'll die, Garrod. Belephus cooed, delighted.

"Time to use that holy learnin you did, lil Cestus!" Reginald called out as he dropped his crossbow and drew his sword and dagger.

"Don't call me little!"

Garrod grit his teeth, and traced a circle in the dirt around him, "Get behind me!" he called out, as the shrieks grew louder. Closer. His body was already feeling the strain from the earlier encounter, each jerk of his arms and bend of his legs panged with a dull throb of red hurt. The rune work he etched into the ground was set in a wide band, and the lines in the earth glowed a feint zephyr green as magicked words poured from his lips. The ancient runes scribed Wall of Gales.

You won't make it. Belephus hissed. Not without my help.

Cestus pulled forth a mace, and chanted his own spell, his weapon glowed with a holy light.

---

TheDungeonMaster

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

Sweat trickled down Penny's hand as she wrote Garrod's recipe into her journal. If she had asked for the contents of the vial BEFORE she drank it she might've just opted to stay encased in stone. Oddly enough she has encountered her fair share of Strix in her travels however bizarre that may be, now she was kicking herself for not cutting out the bladders when she had the chance.

"Liver and piss...one thing I know I hate eating and another I just discovered. Please tell me that was the most outrageous of the ingredients? Actually, scratch that. If there's more don't tell me." Garrod went about explaining the true nature of his potion when horrible screeching shook the forest and commanded the birds to fly out of the trees in fear of a threat they didn't comprehend. "What...?" Penny watched in horror as a sparrow terribly behind the rest of his flock exploded before melting into a pile of gore as an orange translucent creature flew through it. The creature was fast and left almost nothing of the bird's carcass intact as it and the rest of its swarm focused their attention on Garrod and the others.

"Holy hell! Don't let them touch you! It'll take your life away in a snap!" Pen and Journal in one hand with her iron dagger in the other, Penny ducked behind the other Talon brothers and made her best attempt at writing whilst dodging the ravenous wyrms.

"A swarm of flying serpents translucent and glowing with magic! The energy-fueled constructs descend on us fellows with a vengeance! They hover across the grass and cut through branches with ease leaving a trail of browned flaking death in their decaying wake!"

Penny slashed at one of the golden creatures but found her blade was ineffective against its incorporeal skin. What made things worse was the noticeable rust that crept its way onto her once well-kept blade. It was like the wyrms stole life energy so quickly that it aged away anything they touched, even metal. Garrod shouted for the others to gather behind him and Penny did nothing to question it as the wyrms surrounded the group in a whirlwind of their brethren. It was like looking into a cloud of shifting malice with an occasional mouth biting at your clothing.

"These things are so fascinating! They don't act like golems or some other summoned monstrosity. These things have a mind of their own, a will to feed. But a Basilisk shouldn't be able to cast this caliber of magic, right!?"

"SCRRAUUUUUUAAUUUGGGGHH!!!!"

Like birds trapped in a cage the hive of wyrms closed in around the group of adventurers and poured in on themselves like a block of ice being melted in an instant. Pouring down on the group the ravenous maws of the wyrms opened, their drool was enough to rot the air around them as they dove in for a grand feast.

Garrod Arlette

 

[Garrod Arlette]

Round and round the wyrms did go, swirling and turning as they screeched, the sound of metal against metal, scraping and alive, claw through bone, wind through broken glass.

Penny spoke of flaking death, life being sapped. This was no normal magic. This was wyrd. Eldritch.

If you do not use me, Garrod, then they will die. Sucked as dry as a fly upon a spider's web.

Garrod growled. Not yet. He told himself. I can't use Belephus yet. The last rune complete, he hefted his sword back up as the magic wyrms' noose grew closer and closer.

"Any time now, little Cestus!" Reginald called out.

Bertran, nervous, his eyes darting back and forth, left and right, swiped at one of the creatures with his club. The iron weight fell through the monster, the momentum of his swing, with nothing there to catch it, fell through one creature and his hand was caught in the wispy body. Flesh dried and and cracked, as if burned instantly by a fire. As if all the moisture and life there in were quickly cooked away. He yowled an pulled his hand back, club falling to the ground.

"Brother!" Cestus yelled, swinging out at one of the monsters with his mace. The magicked weapon, wreathed in holy golden light, crashed toward a wyrm.


Garrod closed his eye and focused his energies, both hands on his greatsword. Its runes glowed to life, pale green like gusts across fields of grass in the spring, and he hoisted it up with a growl and a shout. The Circle of runes that bound them glowed brighter, and a magicked wind blast out from their position, like a ripple of howling air.

---

TheDungeonMaster

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

Touched by magic where arms could do nothing, the massive zephyr summoned by Garrod's massive blade scattered the advancing wyrms breaking their assault. "A gust of wind, the greatsword radiates power like a conduit between our world and the world of the gods!" Penny had sheathed her dagger by that point, seeing no purpose in gaining the injuries Bertran did in his attack.

"The poor sod's hand, now cracked and bleeding, greyed and decaying, found victim, to the hunger of these currs and what terrible gluttony it is. Grass rendered lifeless, trees rendered-gods!" Nearly dropping her pen and journal, Penny dipped below a wyrm soaring at her head, their ranks not entirely broken by Garrod's attack. Even still, there were noticeably fewer wyrms than before.

"I think I understand now. Since the damned things consist of magic, only magic can reach them? Guess this blade isn't worth anything here." Penny inhaled deeply, truly feeling the air coursing through her lungs. It smelled foul due to the attack of the wyrms, but that didn't break her focus. "That's not going to stop me from helping, though. I refuse to stand around and be dead weight!"

Rolling up her sleeve, Penny stepped toward the glowing wall of enemies surrounding the group once again. Even though they're so hungry, these things are also lazy. Penny knelt and ripped a handful of grass out of the ground. They ate those birds and the treetops earlier because they were closer. Honestly, there's no telling if all of the wyrms even decided to come this way and if some just went off in opposite directions.

Sprinkling the blades of grass on her right arm, Penny held it high in the air, trying to make it look as appetizing as possible. Even creatures like these should see that a raised arm is easier to eat than a group of warriors.

Seeing the opportunity for a feast they'd so far been denied, the wyrms dived toward Penny's open arm, her left hand vigorously jotting away. "They've taken the lure! Like fish, on a hook, they descend toward my exposed flesh like a dog drooling at the sound of the dinner bell!" Writing and holding her journal with one hand was becoming harder as the threat of being devoured by these constructs became more and more real.

"I suggest you lot do something about this lest my hand is amputated and your opportunity at striking missed!"

Garrod Arlette
(Truly sorry for the long wait! Writer's block is a B )

 

[Garrod Arlette]

Some foes dissipated, blasted away by the gust of wind, but many horrid specters still slithered about. Penny poured out her prose, swelling up with a fool's courage as the creatures went on with their encircling snare once more.

Cestus growled, his mace enchanted still with his god's holy light. He swung at one of the monsters, felt the heavy head of the mace smack against one of the ethereal creatures. It caught, bent, and screeched in agony as it fell to the ground. He raised his club and smacked it once more with a yelp.

Before Garrod could warn the young adventurous writer, she rushed off, arm covered in grass, a shield of nature, of life, perhaps to act as armor against the creature's magic.

"Penny!" Garrod shouted as he watched the young woman rush away, a trail of phantasmal death running after her. He grit his teeth, set his sword back behind him, and took in a deep breath. Casting spell after spell was starting to drain him, but he had to do something.

"Cestus!" Garrod growled out. "Enchant my blade!"

The youngest talon brother nodded, and began to spit a prayer from his lips, and Garrod did the same, eyes closed, ancient words fell from his lips like winds through craggy mountain peaks. Air swirled about him, and a current of wind swept around him, pushed him forward. He opened his eye and leapt after the girl and the horrid things that chased her. His ancient sword glowed with holy light, and his eye traced the line of his foes.

With a speed far faster than that of any man so armed and armored should have, Garrod dashed forward in bounding strides. Winds carrying him forward, his sword a long tail behind him. He leapt up, high and with the lift of warm currents he seemed to fly after Penny and her trail of monsters. Some of the creatures turned and hissed as they darted for him, but most kept on after Penny. He brought the sword down, cleansing light from Cestus' magic enwreathed around its cruel road of steel. He bellowed his challenge, hot blooded and fierce, and ran the first few creatures through.

A thrust forward, and the winds behind him shot him forward in piercing line that sought to cleave through those foes, so neatly in a row behind the fearsome writer. He only hoped his gambit payed off.

TheDungeonMaster
(No worries at all, happens to the best of us Happy to see you come back though! Let me know via dm if any additions or edits or direction would help kick start the words!)

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

"Why did I do this!? Why did I do this!?! WHY did I DO this!?!?!" Penny could do nothing but curse her bad decision-making as the flesh melted from her grass-covered arm, a tidal wave of death devouring the tasty offering. Bringing her arm back to her side, Penny shook at the steaming mass of muscle fiber her skin withered away as bone began to show. Every synapse Penny had told her to scream, but she couldn't. All the feeling had already gone from her arm.

"A warning ignored, into the fray. Caution thrown to the wind along with my skin, a river of death swirling around to send me to the afterlife." Even now, Penny continued writing, never giving up her fervor. A streak of light split the school of wyrms in two, a wide swath of their forms shattering like glass. So magic IS their weakness! I honestly didn't think I was right...

With their deaths, the life energy stored within the wyrms was released, and patches of green began to crop up around the dead forest. Leaves sprouted from dead branches, grass grew at an exponential rate, and the mutilated skin that had become Penny's arm was beginning to restore itself.

"Oh, thank the gods! I thought I would have to start writing with my toes..." Penny flexed her fingers, bits of her skin and tissue still missing. But if they aren't consuming the energy then where is it going? Are they just holding it, for what? The longer this escapade went on, the more questions and fewer answers Penny had. It was becoming...redundant.

With a deafening screech, the wyrms swirled in the sky like water going down the drain as the considerably smaller force of pests spilled over the treeline in desperate retreat. Their numbers were destroyed by holy weapons and Garrod's devastating zephyr attack, but there was something more that called the wyrms from battle. It was like a beacon that called them to base, a pull one could call it.

"Hey, you still have the rest of my arm!!" She fired off into the distance.

Meanwhile...

Eyes glowing and its mouth agape, the Basilisk laid motionless like a corpse as a river of magical energy flowed into its terrible maw, never to be seen or felt again.

"This is nothing. Like a dream almost, I could eat and eat for days, years, eons and still lose it all when I awake."

The serpent spoke with the same dark overtone he had when speaking with Garrod.

"I grow weary of this body and its constant need to feed, the whims of gluttony have a hold on this world that I have never seen before."

The serpent's mouth closed and his eyes lost their glow as the power funneling into him stopped or rather exhausted itself.

"I don't know...how much more of this I can take..."

Garrod Arlette

 

[Garrod Arlette]

With the creatures felled, Garrod stood hunched, the weight of his sword felt greater in his arms as the blade rested on the earth, and his limbs were racked with the strain of fatigue. Labored breaths left his lips in heavy pants.

"Don't," he growled between the pump of his lungs. "Do that again, you hear me?" He wore a hard look in his eye, and his brow was down turned and serious. "Next time you might lose more than just your arm," his eye examine her wound. It still looked pretty bad. He hefted his blade up, and rested its weight upon his shoulder, his body leaned back to carry the weight more easily. He dug into his potion pouch, and pulled from it a red tincture. He handed it to the verbose young adventurer. "Should ease the pain, and help with the healing,"

The Talons came up, Bertran's arm looked a little better too. Had the creatures held onto the very essence of their flesh?

My, what a monster you hunt, oh bearer mine. The demon in the jewel of his gauntlet whispered in his mind. What will you do, if but its minions have taxed you so?

"Oy, lass, that was mighty brave of ye," Reginald let out.

"More like mighty stupid if ye ask me," Cestsus chimed in.

"Well no one bloody asked you, litl' brother," Reginald chided.

Gregor smacked both of them upside the head. "Garrod," he called out. "What we going to do, champ?" Gregor asked.

Garrod's brow knit tighter, his lips downturned. "I... "

What will you do, oh bearer mine? Belephus laughed. They look to you.

"I will press on," He looked to the others. "You lot, all of you, should seek help from the adventurer's guild, or perhaps send for aid from the Greendawn Academy," he remembered the capable mage he'd met from among their number. "With some luck, we won't need it," he gave them a wink.

"On acount of what, ye daft bastard? You being dead and the creature moving off?" Gregor scolded.

"Aye Garrod, I don't quite like being condescended to, you know?" Cestus added.

The other two brothers nodded in turn.

"We still got bolts left. Perhaps we can lure it out?"

Garrod grumbled, shook his head, but heeded their words. The Talons were a hard headed lot, and he should not have been surprised. In fact. He was not. "It does seem hungry, doesn't it?" He looked to Penny and Bertran. "You wounded should stay back, maybe man the crossbows?" he looked at Penny, "At the very least don't go all crazy like," he let out a long breath and dug into his potion pouch, felt the couple of vials he had left. Should be one of Strix Essence, and another of Mage-nectar. He pulled the vial out, blueish purple that seemed to glow. He uncorked it, and took a drink.

It did little to rid him of the strain he felt in his limbs. But there was a sizzle. A charge. He could feel his energies grow again.

"Well," Garrod said to the party. "I'll lead," he stepped toward the mouth of the cave.

You still don't understand, do you, oh bearer mine? Belephus chuckled softly. You will die if you do not let me feed. They will die if you hold on to this fool's pride of yours. Just as they died before.

A shift to the weight of his blade against his shoulder, and his eye had trouble seeing in the dark.

Cestus cast forth a wandering light. Gold with holy magic, the little orb ventured before them and illuminated their path.

TheDungeonMaster

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

Scribbling on a page, Penny felt the weight of a pen in her melted hand and winced. Still usable...somewhat anyway. Won't be the most legible thing I've ever written that's for sure. Ripped from her monologue an object floated in Penny's vision, this one medicinal. "Many thanks, oh fearless one!" Throwing back her head Penny downed the entire elixir, energy pouring through her body. Her wounds refused to close, the essence stripped away, but the steaming ceased, and the blood began to cauterize, containing the bleeding.

"If you were any other, I'd give you a shallow nod and a barren vote of confidence. But you, my faithful warrior, have done right by me twice now," Penny gave a cheeky smile, "So I'll try not to get injured next time." It wasn't entirely true, but it was still more than most got. Delving back into her work, the young writer let the group have their squabble until Garrod nudged her in the direction of retreat, which caused her to flare up.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Did you honestly think you could convince me to be anywhere except in the middle of the action, my hair split from dodging and weaving? You're a fool." Reaching for her small dagger, Penny ran the rusted edge along the tip of her left index finger, a string of blood running down the blade. "Call it a blood pact. Penny Coppersnatch does not run from danger, and that includes whatever I'm going to contract from doing this."

Throwing the worthless knife to the ground, Penny set off in the direction of the Serpent's lair, journal in hand and her mouth muttering in hushed whispers. "Into the fray, I step intrepidly, my brow drenched and my spirits higher than the sun..."

-Insert Wipe Cut Here-

"No. Keep pushing."

A silhouette shifting within the darkness pushed a stone ring forward, its jagged surface supported by a group of twenty other figures holding up the massive structure. In the very back of the cave was an unfinished marble walkway with a row of amethyst fire burning from a trench dug on either side of the pathway. Save for the fire the cave was pitch black and silent apart from the hammering of stone and chiseling of rock.

"A little more...to the left."

The stone ring groaned as it pushed across the marble flooring, its movers in dismay at having to move the colossal object. With each passing moment, the cavern lost its natural element and began shifting into the halls of what one would call a temple of sorts. Marble pillars replaced stalactites, warped abstract paintings hung from the rune-lined walls, and a red carpet lush with gold-encrusted tassels led to the massive stone ring built into the wall.

The Basilisk's position in the room had become a thing of imagination, a conceptual idea as it was both here and not here. The Serpent would have been in the middle of the chamber, but it wasn't, and only a throne carved of bone with a purple pillow for a cushion served to fill the void where its demonic presence still lingered. There wasn't a shape to make out but a feeling, a sense of danger, and a voice that seeped into the halls of the throne room but came from no mouth, not a voice but a presence.

"If it literally costs an arm and a leg for them to overcome just the force of my will..."

Sullen darkness fell over the transmuted temple like a pair of crimson predatory eyes were gazing at the entire room and gravity increased itself tenfold.

"...Then it's a good thing I'm still sitting down."

Garrod Arlette

 

[Garrod Arlette]

"Into the fray," Garrod parroted, half-hearted as he re-gripped the hilt of his great-sword.

Yes, in we go. Belephus said, oh so happy. To meet this pretender, and show him what is for. Thinks he can muscle in on my turf. EAT MY BAG OF FLESH?! The voice of his demon was a pang of pain at the center of his mind. A thing that cracked and fractured the ice of his calm. If only so that it would freeze over once more.

"Listen," Garrod said, as the party stepped further into the dark. "Penny shared that one band had already died, yes?"

"Ayy," Gregor replied, sucking air through his teeth. "What of it?"

"Well," Garrod muttered, scrunching his brow as their footfalls panged off of the cavern walls. "I, I am not sure, but, if a band of guild adventurer's were slain, that just feels....off."

"What of it, Garrod, adventurers lose their life all the time," Bertran said testily. "Don't mean we will,"

Ah, he tried to piece it out. Belephus laughed. Like a little rat trying to grab the cheese without springing the trap! Go on, keep thinking, little rat.

Garrod growled in his throat. "I Gregor, Bertran, I have earned your trust, yes?" He managed, though there was a heat in his voice as his footfalls shuffled foward.

"Aye, you have that, man, what of it?" Gregor replied.

Garrod stopped. and turned to them, his back toward the shadow. "Let me be the bait,"

"Oh not this again!" Reginald groaned.

"Listen! It's minions near took Penny's arm off in but seconds, same with your hand, Bertran,"

Bertran winced back, and looked at his less wounded appendage, flexing his fingers some. Felt the stiffness still there.

"A whole party, and with some luck, Penny survived it. But they went in."

Cestus stepped up. "And you are saying we should lure it out?"

Garrod nodded. "We survived its attack once, and were able to fend off its... fiends."

"Why do you think you'll even be able to escape boy? It'll just send them flying things after you again!" Gregor refuted.

"I'll go with him, brother," Cestus said. "And the girl, she's... nimble enough it would seem. Slipped the thing one already."

Garrod half smiled. "Aye, a smaller party would give us more mobility, and it seems affected by magic, at least..." he rememebered how it had taken his lightning web. "To some degree."

"Piss on me shoes, the man makes a point," Reginald moaned.

Gregor scowled at Garrod, Penny, and his youngest brother. Huffed, then turned back toward the entrance. "Alright then, you three press forward, the three of us will double back, and set up an ambush once more at the mouth of the cave,"

"We gonna what?" Bertran asked.

Gregor smacked him upside the head. "Them monster's take yer ears too? I said what I said, now lets go back," Bertran scowled, but turned about. Reginald nodded and headed back aswell. Gregor looked to Cestust, Penny, and Garrod. "Ye better not let that fuckin thing take any one of ye, or you'll have me to deal with, in this life and the next, ye understand?" He spat for good measure. "Good huntin," and made back to the mouth of the cave.

Garrod nodded, a smile on his face. At least three of them would have a chance of surviving this if he failed.

Oh, sweet fool. Belephus laughed. All you must do is trust in me, oh bearer mine, and this all could go away.

Garrod winced, and adjusted the weight of his sword as he looked to Penny, and to Cestus. "Penny," he asked before he set forward once more. "How deep into the cave had you and your first party made it?"

TheDungeonMaster

(OOC: Sorry for the huge delay! Had a bit of traveling the last couple of weeks, and am a teacher, so this last week hit me really hard x_x I am getting back into the swing of things though!)

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

Penny stood outside the serpent's lair vigorously etching her journal with writing. With each passing moment, with each word these fine warriors spoke, the narrative grew in epicness and for a while, the girl almost forgot that she was chosen to head into the literal jaws of death. Not that she would have it any other way. Throwing her bag off her shoulders, Penny reached into the cumbersome pack and retrieved a melting slab of meat ridden with mold, rot and whatever vile substance oozed from its melting carcass. “Rotten meat,” Penny said as she wrapped the stinking mound in a worn brown cloth, “a wandering hunter managed to cheat me out of thirty copper. But it worked out! Even a leviathan like this one surely detests diarrhea!”

Pulling a red ribbon from her pocket, Penny pulled and tied her hair away from her face in a tight bun. “Gots to be light on my feet, lest I be chewed in two.” Smiling the girl began lacing up her slippers while Garrod questioned her on the encounter she suffered prior. “Well you certainly saw earlier that I was no match for the beast,” she chuckled half-heartedly, her focus still on her feet, “I remember walking into the mouth of the cave with my fellows, a group of hunters looking to strike it big with the serpent. Just as the light of the cavern had faded and our torches proved ineffective against the inky black, the beast struck.”

Penny finished lacing her shoes and set about rolling up her sleeves. “In an instant, the beast whipped two of the four off their feet and petrified the third with nothing but its piercing crimson gaze. With no other choice, I and the poor fool dashed to the exit and somewhere along the way, I don’t really remember…I ceased to hear his footfalls and the boy never left the cavern.” Penny caressed her neck. “I’m…not going to pretend to be proud of that one…but things are different now!”

Penny rolled up her right sleeve and flexed the muscles she wished she had. “We’ve got a plan! Rotten meat! Friendship! And most importantly: Strix Piss! With the holy four on our side victory isn’t just possible, it’s inexorable!” Penny twirled her charcoal pen between her fingers as she opened her journal. “Just think of all the gold we’ll get once we put that thing down. All the ink and paper I’ll buy…” Penny wiped away the drool flooding her mouth.

“Nevermind that. Shall we? And try not to get scooped up again, we won’t have a volley of crossbows in there.” The moment her pen touched the paper, Penny was off into the cave, her eyes darting rapidly between her surroundings and the page.

Around six minutes of walking later…

The light had all but faded from the cavern painting a picture of dread with the stalactites running up and down the cave shaping themselves in the form of a ravenous row of teeth. It was so menacing in truth that Penny wouldn’t be surprised if the serpent chose this place simply for that fact alone. As the group pressed on the air became dry and stale and the soft pitter-patter of old murky water became deafening with no other noise to contrast it.

“Trudging through the realm of darkness once more I feel death and danger crawling under my skin like spiders waiting to burst through my flesh.” Penny had dropped the idea of searching for the serpent and instead left that duty to Garrod and Cestus. If she were to die in this cavern her tale needed to be impeccable after all!

“So you’ve dared to step foot in my domain? Belephus? You have an impressive caliber of hubris, even by imp standards which were already extremely high.”

The voice ripped through Garrod’s head like scissors cutting through paper, or a fork on a chalkboard.

“You and that blood pocket you pretend to pilot don’t have the power to oppose me anymore.”

The ground began to rumble and rise up shaking the trio off its…scaled surface? Crimson daggers pierced the oppressive darkness eyeing the trio with visible killer desire. Falling to the ground, Penny gazed at the monster her body struggling against its magical glimmer as every muscle she possessed began to constrict.

“Let us see the street urchin wither. And die.”

Garrod Arlette
(It's all good in the hood! With summer about to start everyone's been a bit busy including myself! Besides a break just means our writing can only be better )

 

[Garrod Arlette]

Doubled over in pain, the monster hunter grasped at his head as he groaned. Teeth clenched in agony as that voice sliced through him, and dragged its needle scrape sound against the walls of his sanity. His eye sealed shut, but he could see it there. The creature that took the form of a basilisk. It looked like something else. Something more. But he could see without doubt those daggers of crimson that stabbed through him.

And it spoke to Belephus.

Do you see, Oh bearer mine? the demon sealed within the jewel of his gauntlet whispered, hot and half a laugh. He can stop you with but a word.

Penny fell to the ground, as did Cestus. Their bodies seized, their limbs set to shake with their effort to resist.

Garrod cursed beneath his breath. Still able to stand as the eye of his gauntlet gleamed pale and milky white. He kept his eyes squeezed shut. As his mind felt as if it were to shatter and all his body burned. Nothing so hot as the flame that devoured his arm. The same flame that licked at the depths of his mind.

A green flame.

Let me out, Oh bearer mine, let me show this pretender what strength we have. The laugh was gone, and in its place a hunger. An excitement. Let me veil you, as I once did, against this dark power. Twas why you paid my price, was it not? The light of one eye for an ounce of my power!

A growl, animalistic, rumbled in the swordsman's throat. Burned through his flesh as he bent back and shout as his flesh trembled. "Belephus!" He cried out, and heard the demon's laugh, like a crackling fire. His jagged teeth bared, long and shimmering in the darkness of his mind.

From the pale jewel upon his gauntlet, there burst a wyrd fire. Eldritch in its color, it wreathed around the swordsman's arm, and he bore his own teeth in happy grin.

"Well, pretender," the swordsman spoke in a voice not his own. Visage painted in pale green. A light that mocked life itself. His voice reverberated, his chords produced the sound of another's tongue and his mouth spilled out one voice, echoed by another. His voice, shadowed by the crackle and hiss of Belephus. A sound that poured out like curling smoke around the flame of the swordsman's own small voice.

Garrod, possessed, raised the sword up, and its ancient runes glowed with that strange green light. "It would seem that you cannot bind this proud imp, just yet,"

-
TheDungeonMaster
(OOC: Uh, sorry if I am powerplaying a bit, but I've wanted to go full Belpehus for a while. Question! Would Belephus know the demon's name?)

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

Penny writhed on the ground in an all too familiar agony, the very blood in her body congealing and turning to bedrock. Muscles constricted and bones freezing it was a complete bodily shutdown and yet there was one thing running through the girl's mind.

History.

I…Made a promise, nay! A DECLARATION to be the greatest author in history! To write a story so beautiful that when people read it they blinded themselves because no story would ever be worth reading again! Penny strained against the magic flooding her body, forcing her muscles to move and her joints to turn. If something…as STUPID…as magic could stop me…I would have died a long time ago!!

Penny rose from the ground, her eyes bloodshot and her back defiantly arching to bring the girl to her feet. Twitching and convulsing, Penny ordered the blood in her body to flow not just normally but better than before! “The only thing stronger than my writing…is my willpower-” Knocked off her brittle feet by a blast of emerald energy, Penny was expecting to be swallowed by the serpent who quickly turned his attention toward…Garrod?

“I would have thought the disciple of a famous Monster Slayer would have skills beyond relying on a low level demon like Belephus.” The serpent spoke his voice tearing at the very foundation of what Garrod knew to be tried and true.

“How hypocritical can you be? To rely on one of the very abominations you SWORE to hunt till the sun falls under the horizon for the final time. It’s disgusting. YOU’RE disgusting. Does it never cross your mind that perhaps the beasts you slaughter may have the same thoughts and feelings as you do? Does it ever occur to your feeble human chassis that all the leviathans you fell might just have the same right to life as you do?”

The Basilisk slit its eyes at the man and his sharpening teeth.

“No. Of COURSE not.”

His killer intent weighing down the room the serpent bolted toward Garrod it’s mouth agape to swallow the man whole. As the Basilisk came down something began bubbling inside the beast’s maw and before anyone could discern what it was a shower of burning ash blasted from the serpent's mouth like hellish brimstone.

“You. And that smelly fool on the ground. And that insufferable child. And the poor sods waiting for your signal outside. Are all going to die here. There is no other outcome.”

Garrod Arlette

 

[Garrod Arlette]

Within his own mind, Garrod grit his teeth. Whipped by the words of the being that was so like the demon he wore upon his arm. But when he opened his mouth to shout his response. To scream his denial of what the creature claimed, no sound came. And it was not the weight of his work that caused his want to roar. He had long known the costs. Had been raised up in the weight of the trade.

It was simply that to scream and to shout. That was all he could think to do against something so large. Something so much greater than he. The sort of thing Old Sinns had warned him of. The very thing that gave cause to his mentor to gift him the very curse that saved him now.

A shout of rejection came from the monster's mouth, a surge of strength rippled through its body and a spew of super heated ash and fire washed forward.

The body of Garrod moved through the pressure of the greater demon's field, strain in the muscles, pain deep in the bones. But the gauntlet had sunk its ethereal teeth into his mortal coil. Magick vines and roots and tangles of unholy strength let the human frame resist. Let it stand against. It willed magick forward, without incantation or channel, but from the stores of the timeless jewel.

Garrod brought down his greatsword in an overhead arc, and a gale of wind blast forward. Honed and hardened, like a wall of slashing blades, it cut forth through the jet of ash and fire, only wide enough to let the walls of billowing death wash about each side of the swordsman. Not a breath later, the chassis leapt back, the force of the gusts propelling him further till he landed by the other two.

"Come now, Otucatse," the double voice rippled from Garrod's throat. "You know better than most, to exist is but to suffer," his grin grew wider, and wilder. "To fight for the very pleasure of carrying on through this wretched truth. All who fall are simply too weak to stand!"

The chassis grin snapped shut. His lips curled down into a frown, and his eye widened with surprise as he grunt and growled.

"No," the double voice cried out. "No you idiot, not yet! I haven't had enough-" his hand, unbound by the white gauntlet, let go of the sword's hilt, dug into his pouch, and with trembling fist pulled free a potion. The weight of the room suddenly crushed down on him and he bent low, one knee cracked against the ground.

"Strix...piss..." he managed, and looked back with his eye to Penny. He tossed it back to her, and hoped to the gods she caught it.

TheDungeonMaster

 

[TheDungeonMaster]

“A dim…gust of hope...against…insurmountable…evil! The blade strikes…true! An ocean of ash split…in two…Garrod? No…something foul….stands against the…tyrant! A blaze against blaze, fire against…fire…a beast…against beat…Garrod’s movement proves unholy…his body falters…the weight of death begins to…”

Penny struggled to speak, let alone write against the strength of the Basilisks magic but prevailed even still as her pen glint across the page soaking up every crumb of action and glory until Garrod lost his footing and the ominous green light pouring out of him. Pushing under the weight of what felt like gravity itself, Garrod tossed a vial toward Penny, its brownish-rustic color filling her mind.

Strix Piss! She realized.

Forcing herself through the magic field, Penny cursed herself for all that wasted time she could have spent working on her twig arms and noodle legs. All that writing and running and she hasn’t built up even a little muscle? What a cruel and unjust world they lived in. The internal cursing ceased in favor of silent blessing as Penny’s slender fingers wrapped around the vial which she quickly uncorked and coughed down.

She would have gagged if not for the magic but its vile taste made it easier to conserve enough for Penny to pour the rest down Cestus’s throat. He did manage to gag. Now there was nothing standing between her and Garrod except for a brimstone vomiting leviathan that could swallow her and her group without biting down. If she wanted to help Garrod she had to be smart, getting herself killed wouldn’t do anything except ensure her story had the tragic ending she always envisioned it would.

Her line of work was dangerous and as girl stories with dark or bittersweet endings always left a bigger impact on Penny. Besides, this may just be teenage angst but Penny’s always thought of herself more as the martyr that spurs everyone to fight on rather than the heroic gods-send that saves the world from cataclysm.

Dashing across the cave her joints free from the shackles of the serpent, Penny’s eye widened as the Basilisk stared her down with its ruby daggers it’s maw agape as an amber glow bubbled inside.

MOVE!

Penny slid behind a stalactite formation as the wall of fire washed over the area spurring ash and cinder on the floor, sparks and embers in the air and endless grains of rocky ash on the ground. The heat was abysmal even behind the safety of cover. The copper haired girl felt as if she was inside a furnace buried within the depths of the underworld itself. It erased any doubt in her mind that she could survive such an attack.

If I get hit by that I’ll die, no question. Guess it’s time to use my secret technique…

Penny dared to peek her head out at the stream of ash scoring the stone. That thing can't spray that stuff indefinitely…It’ll have to recharge sooner or later which is when it’ll close its mouth. If I’m right I’ll have a split second window to-

The wall of fire sputtered out the creatures magic expended.

Go on the offensive!

Penny dashed from behind the rocks. “Gross Magic: Rotten Weeks Old Meat Missile!!” Penny chucked the slab of green meat into the maw of the beast who was helpless to do anything besides swallow the melting piece of garbage.

And then there was nothing, just a moment of silence between Penny and the serpent who couldn’t even comprehend what the girl intended to do with her attack. Is she even here to kill him? It wondered. All she’s done is scribble in that book of hers and throw rotten meat at him…what was her goal? What did she want!?

The serpent looked back to Penny who had already left the rocks and shuffled over to Garrod placing a hand on his armored shoulder.

“You did a good thing bringing these along, friend! Had you not we’d all be tinder right about now.” Opening his bag and trifling through his thing’s, Penny retrieved another vial of piss and poured it down the warrior's throat. “And after all this debauchery you’ll tell me the dealio with your sword, clear?” Penny stepped back and-SHHHKKK!! The girl didn’t even have time to move before a stalactite ripped through her hip and hoisted her upwards of about ten feet off the ground.

Blood poured down the spike as it continued rising toward the ceiling taking the poor author along with it. “A feat of magic like none before! The terrain, our foe, the rocks, our adversary, this beast of nature proves to be a monster of the arcane!” Even now hoisted up by the meat of her thigh, Penny refused to abandon her art even to free herself. Soon the entire cave seemed to spring to life with the ground coiling and shifting like a rug being shaken and the stalactites and boulders jumping up and down up and down like waves on the ocean.

“He can control the cave!? Is this some kind of extension of his stone gaze? I swear if they don’t give us a bonus for all this…”

A pair of spikes moved to impale Cestus who tried his beast to fell the beast with his crossbow, for his bravery two rock spears shot through his shoulders and pinned him to the wall. The serpent's eyes and mouth flashed green several times before going back to normal. It’s ruby jewels locked on Garrod.

“I’m going to correct Artorious’ mistake and put the rodent back in its hole. Look at me, look at the power, the ambience. Look into my eyes and tell me I can’t kill you. Look into my eyes and tell me that you can beat me. I don’t even know…”

The serpent slithered toward Garrod faster than before, the cave moving with the beast to box Garrod in and puncture his flesh, mar his skin and rend his bone. An endless jet of fire and brimstone spewed from the Basilisk’s mouth and at the no doubt already taxed fellow having to dodge the spikes and the advancing beast. Ruby eyes filled with hate and even more with magical energy pierced the air and locked on Garrod to lock his joints and petrify his body like a statue created by the finest sculptor. Three attacks, all of them designed to set up the other two…what a dastardly opponent this Otucaste was. But one could one expect from a demon after all?

“I don’t even know…what you planned to accomplish here…why did you think you could kill me in my domain? Why did any of you think you could kill me in my domain?”

Garrod Arlette
(Apologies if this is a bit much but it won't be this hectic for long, promise! Besides I think your guy can handle it!)