Fantasy Terrorchild: Awakening

[K0mori]

Dawn
​

You stirr, you limbs stiff from the cold air. As you blink away the dreamless night, you come to find yourself only half-dressed, cradled in Embryx's arms in the middle of temple floor. Quietly so that you can avoid waking her, you gather yourself up and make sure that the Pandemonium Door is still in the pocket of your coat. With everything proven safe and sound, you breathe a sigh of relief and check around for everyone else.

On the far side of the room, the new pact sisters - Fiola and Stalna, both humans, and Wag the goblin - are all asleep on their bedrolls at the far edge of the room, gathered around the only remaining enchanted flame with any kindling, while Corrinth and Veralt are... Oh. You turn away to give them some privacy, silently cursing yourself. Seeing Corrinth's naked body wasn't exactly high on your agenda, and you feel stupid for having looked for her. It really shouldn't be a shock that she parties just as wildly as any other fae creature, but Veralt being so open to her advances is pretty shocking. You hope she didn't find a way to take advantage of his vulnerability, or worse.

The only one who isn't around is Jannava. You struggle to remember how last night even ended as you put on your boots. The drinking and music went on until the moon was high, and more than a few of your sisters are going to wake up with their minds a bit altered from the experience. You remember the way Jannava tried to pull you aside, before your speech and after Embryx took part in the wine, trying to get you worried and thinking about the coming battle... But your mind was elsewhere, and you didn't listen. Now, as you step out into the gray morning light, you fear that she might have abandoned the camp.

That notion, however, is quickly put to rest, thanks to the fact that a number of other things were disturbed from their own. The skeleton you raised yesterday has been joined by more than a dozen others, and as you turn the corner to look over the cemetery, you find it pockmarked with dozens of defiled graves - far more than the few which were labeled with stone headstones. Jannava, spots you from the other side of the field and shuffles over, her eyes sunken from a sleepless night.

"Agranne...!" she greets you less-than-pleasantly. "Or should I say something like, o mighty prophet? Or how about... my Queen of self-made Royals? She who moves the world?"

You sigh and take the sarcasm lightly. "I see you've been hard at work..."

"Someone had to be," Jannava replied, almost annoyed that she isn't getting under your skin. "...Look. a few dozen of us decided not to drink last night, and have been focused on keeping the rest of you safe. We already killed one intruder and chased another one off, but it won't be long until they're on us; they saw enough of the disarray in the camp that they know we're not in fighting shape, so I took the liberty to teach a few sisters how to raise a few recruits. We could really use the Door right now."

You look back over the scattered camp around you, at the lack of order and obvious signs of debauchery. Some of your new fae allies are sleeping out in the open with the equally disheveled and half-dressed witches in literal piles... Jannava's right; this isn't a good sign. You take out the Door and offer it to her, and she palms it quickly before whistling for the others' attention. They come trotting over, eagerly accepting a chance to touch the mythic object and feel its effect. "You know what I'd like to know?" you say to Jannava as they file past. "I want to know where this thing has been for all these years, and why they took it out of hiding two years ago."

Jannava shrugs as she leans against the wall of the temple, tiredly. "The King probably knows, if he didn't order it himself," she replies disinterestedly. "...If we're going to make it to Thandan to ask him, we can't lose today. I tried to ask you last night, but now we really need to know. What's the plan, Agranne?"

1. Await in Ambush - You think about it a moment, and realize that the apparent weakness of the encampment could work to your advantage if you act quickly enough to prepare. "You said one of their scouts got away, right? If they go back and report that we're in poor shape, they'll charge right in. We just need to turn this place into a death trap..."

2. Infiltration - You want to think about the task at hand, but your anxiety is mounting. You did a great job whipping everyone into a frenzy last night, but things obviously got out of control, even within your inner circle. And at that thought, you realize you need to get Corrinth away from Veralt and figure out what happened between them, before it turns into an ugly surprise that unravels what you've built. "I think we should send Corrinth over to their camp. She can disguise herself as a royalist and sabotage them before the battle happens."

3. Lead the Attack - "If they think we're in disarray, they're wrong," you declare, getting increasingly frustrated at the situation. "Every one of us has had to flee from our homes at one point or another; we know how to pack up and get moving." You pick a rock off the ground and toss it into the air, high above your head, before striking it with magic hard enough that it explodes into fragments, letting out a loud crack that echoes through the camp. "Wake up!" you scream at them. "Wake up and prepare yourselves!"

 

[joshuadim]

2

 

[Infab]

1

 

[hardcore.munchkin]

1

 

[Breadman]

3

 

[turtwigwins]

1

 

[Damian0358]

1

 

[bat_hacker]

1

 

[K0mori]

Option 1: 5 Votes (71% - Range: 1-71)
Option 2: 1 Vote (14% - Range: 72-85)
Option 3: 1 Vote (14% - Range: 86-100)
Fae Roll: 36

1. Await in Ambush - You think about it a moment, and realize that the apparent weakness of the encampment could work to your advantage if you act quickly enough to prepare. "You said one of their scouts got away, right? If they go back and report that we're in poor shape, they'll charge right in. We just need to turn this place into a death trap..."

"So we're staying put, then, and laying an ambush" Jannava summarizes approvingly. "Honestly, that seems like the only realistic option to me, too. I just never know what to expect from you, or how you'd react if I were to suggest it."

You had considered other options; depending on how quickly you could rally the coven to move, you could have gone on the offensive and really shocked the royal opposition, but a more sensible part of your mind kept its grip. Surely, a large number of the sleeping witches will be suffering from hangovers when they awaken, and some of them will be ill. Forcing them to move quickly so soon after sunrise would be a recipe for disaster.

Another part of you considered the poor example your inner circle had set, drinking and partying with reckless abandon - without any care for the threat awaiting you to the west. Perhaps you should have discouraged it, like Jannava apparently did. Now, you have to wonder whether Corrinth is about to unravel your plans for the second time since re-entering your life just days ago via whatever underhanded means she used to seduce your newly-recruited shadowmancer, before you could learn a thing about his strange craft. You wish you could come up with a way to keep them separated so that you could learn from Veralt what really happened, but you keep stumbling over the idea of sending Corrinth on some sort of mission - one that you clearly couldn't trust her to carry out.

So, instead, you'll find a different way. You've always had to make and remake plans, changing them as your needs require. Today is no different, as you explain to Jannava your intent: "...Right now, the royals are probably going to take the shortest path to confront us, and they know the woods are fae-infested, so they won't stray from the road - not even the mages. So we need to get off this road, and go north and south so that we'll be on either side of them. Once they get to the temple and realize the camp is abandoned, that's our moment to close in from both sides."

"That'll divide the leadership up at the same time," Jannava warns. "Who's in charge where you're not?" she asks.

1. Jannava - "You are," you reply immediately. "You're awake and thinking straight, which is more than I can say for most of our sisters. You can take the level-headed ones to the south side... Veralt, Fiola, and Stalna never had any of the faerie drink. I'll take Corrinth, Embryx, and Wag. Just do me a favor and see if you can get Veralt talking about what happened last night. I'm worried Corrinth might have... Well, she didn't leave him alone. Let's leave it at that."

2. Embryx - "Out of our little circle, nobody understands close-quarters fighting like Embryx does. I think we might be able to make use of that, sending those that want to get up close and dirty to the south side, while those of us who'd rather fight from a distance can stay to the north side," you explain. You don't want to acknowledge it, but your choice also subtly highlights Embryx as your top lieutenant.

3. Corrinth - "Might as well be the fae," you grumble. "Corrinth can head to the south side and gather up as many of her allies as she can, and anyone who wants to fall in with that circus can volunteer for it. The rest of us? Up north."

4. Who Says I Won't Be Everywhere? - You grin. "I can teleport, remember?" you remind her, since you had only just demonstrated the technique last night. "I've got the Door, I might as well just pop in and out, giving everyone I can reach a bit of a boost here and there, and organize the whole thing single-mindedly!"

 

[Infab]

1

 

[Breadman]

4

 

[bat_hacker]

1

 

[joshuadim]

1

 

[turtwigwins]

1

 

[hardcore.munchkin]

4

 

[Damian0358]

1

 

[K0mori]

Option 1: 5 Votes (71% - Range: 1-71)
Option 4: 2 Votes (29% - Range: 72-100)
Fae Roll: 44

1. Jannava - "You are," you reply immediately. "You're awake and thinking straight, which is more than I can say for most of our sisters. You can take the level-headed ones to the south side... Veralt, Fiola, and Stalna never had any of the faerie drink. I'll take Corrinth, Embryx, and Wag. Just do me a favor and see if you can get Veralt talking about what happened last night. I'm worried Corrinth might have... Well, she didn't leave him alone. Let's leave it at that."

Jannava nods and agrees to do as you say, but doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic about the situation. The hint you dropped about Corrinth's encounter with Veralt causes her to pause, as well. "...I'll do my best," she says, uncomfortably. "We should get everyone up and around so we can tell them about the plan. We should be able to clear out of here within a quarter of an hour, thereabouts."

You decide to excuse yourself to the temple so you can rouse your inner circle and get the pact sisters and Veralt dispatched to their own followers. You push through the door into the stale air to find Corrinth thankfully already getting dressed. "Oh, hey!" she whispers loudly before tip-toeing over to you, unaware that you intend to wake everyone up anyway. You try to keep yourself from rolling your eyes at her faux-friendliness, which is much more easily noticed since she allowed her mind to slip. "...How'd Embryx do?" she asks. "Still the same girl? Or does she finally have a sense of humor?"

"She always had one," you say. "It's not her fault that your idea of what qualifies as 'humor' is shaped by a pixie-shaped hole in your brain." You had intended it as an insult, but Corrinth nonetheless snickers approvingly at your reply, and so you don't wait for her to cook up a comeback. "Everyone," you say a bit more loudly, "it's time to get up... We have work to do."

The human pact sisters, Fiola and Stalna, rise from their sleep quickly and with little reluctance, having avoided heavy drinking the night before. The two had apparently formed a natural friendship en route to the temple the previous morning, and had done well to keep each other out of trouble despite sharing very little in terms of background. Fiola was a free-spirited woman in her late 40s with long, unkempt brown hair. When she introduced herself to you, you learned that she had been born to a wealthy family in Thandan and had inherited a sizable estate near the city, which she immediately sold for a sizable letter of credit which she occasionally draws upon to carry on with her whimsical lifestyle.

Stalna, on the other hand, was a tightly-wound woman in her mid-20s, whose jet-black hair was perpetually tied into a tight bun at the back of her head. She had also introduced herself yesterday, but in far fewer words - you know that she, like you, came from a peasant family, although instead of farming, she had watched her father break his back as a miner in northern Zuklanar for her entire childhood. As far as you know, Stalna still wishes to return to her family out in those frozen wastes, but this time with the power to alter their destiny. You hope that she doesn't suffer a similar fate to Rigatte.

The irony isn't lost on you, either, that Fiola's money could easily solve many of the problems faced by Stalna's family. Yours too, if you would ask. But you wonder whether they'd accept any mysterious windfall gifts after losing their daughters to Lythrefang... Perhaps they'd fear invoking some deeper suffering upon themselves. They ought to be begging us, you suddenly find yourself thinking, a bit to your own surprise. If they would only love and support us, they could all be free of poverty and all the torture that comes with it.

Regardless of the reasons for their friendship, you're pleased to see them dutifully preparing for the day, getting their boots on, and so on. Next, you notice Veralt beginning to pick himself up and shake off his dreams in a bit of a stupor. You just hope that you weren't wrong earlier, when you stated to Jannava that he hadn't had any fae wine last night. "You doing okay, Veralt?" you ask him.

He rubs his eyes, nods, and then takes out his wand. With a casual flick of the implement, compulsion settles again on Corrinth and she speaks on his behalf, wearing the same blank expression that the shadowmancer wears: "We were up too late; I only had a few hours' rest. Regardless, I'm ready to fight, Elder Agranne. I kept my mind intact and avoided any fae tricks."

Veralt then put his wand away, and Corrinth, who had accepted the compulsive hex without protest this time, now appeared shaken. "Wha...?" she blurts out. "Do you not remember...?"

The shadowmancer suddenly smirks at her darkly, and if it weren't for her porcelain-like skin, she'd have probably gone pale from the expression alone.

"...Remember what?" Embryx says groggily as she drags herself off the ground. She notices the look on Corrinth's face, but before she can ask anything else, Corrinth starts for the doors.

You, however, grab her with telekinesis and slide her backwards so that she remains in the center of the room, sensing something embarrassing about to befall the changeling. "Glad you asked, Embryx. I've got a few questions myself," you say, a grin creeping its way across your face. "Do you know what I saw when I first woke up?"

Now, you see a change come over Corrinth that isn't just nervous or embarrassed. She's mortified. You haven't even compelled her into silence; whatever secret Corrinth is keeping right now is tormenting her like nothing you've ever seen. Embryx looks from you to Corrinth, amused and excited at the turn of events, waiting for the big reveal with barely-contained giddiness. "Please," Corrinth begs you.

"Well, would you look at this, Corrinth. Looks like she's having fun!" you taunt, savoring the delicious irony of her comments moments earlier about Embryx's sense of humor. You turn back to Embryx, who's begun to laugh, as you finally reveal the secret: "I saw Corrinth... Like, all of her. She was naked, and cuddled up with Veralt like she had the time of her life last night-"

The words catch in your throat.

"That's enough," Corrinth says, and you look back to her in shock, only to realize that she's not the one compelling you to silence, nor is she the one who's speaking. Veralt is holding the two of you at the point of his wand, which is slowly emitting a trail of smokey shadows as he walks to Corrinth's side. "Respectfully, nothing happened last night that calls for any of your speculation. You saw what you saw. If there was a problem, I would have told you myself."

He releases you both from his magic, and Corrinth buries her face in her hands. "...You knew the whole time I was manipulating you," she says before turning to the tabaxi. He gives her a look. "...You knew I was trying," she corrects herself, and this time, Veralt nods. Corrinth's embarrassment gradually fades and turns to disgust. "Goddammit," she curses under her breath. "Okay, well, that's the big reveal, Embryx! Veralt and I had tender, consensual sex last night, I guess," Corrinth summarizes with a palpable annoyance at the word consensual.

Embryx laughs harder than you've ever heard her laugh, and you can't help but join her. Only at the sound of your cackling does Wag finally awaken from her drunken slumber, sitting up and looking about in confusion before joining in on the laughter simply to ease the awkwardness of it all. Corrinth storms out of the room, followed by Veralt, Fiola, and Stalna.

As you finally calm down, Wag ventures to ask: "what happened?"

---
​

After a short explanation and another round of laughs, you head out of the temple to find that most of the camp has been roused and is gradually sorting itself into the two halves you requested before you sought your circle. Jannava has already gotten her side moving, leaving you to somehow gather your sisters into a fighting formation with Embryx, a slowly-sobering goblin, and Corrinth, who probably wants to boil you alive in hot oil at this point.

Regardless, you set to work, and it isn't long before the last remnants of the camp, largely fae folk and those whose minds were altered by the revelry, are headed northward into the woods to find a safe position from which to launch the attack you expect to come. It isn't more than a few minutes after you settle in that the first few riders arrive in the camp, guarding a group of young men and women on horses of their own. They begin to dismount and gather their weapons: staves, mostly, but also bows and short swords. They check around at the patterns of wear on the ground before looking upward at the tree line.

"They're in the woods! It's a trap!" one of them calls out, and they immediately set to work on creating magical barriers, preventing your hexes from reaching them. With more royalists arriving behind them, you only have a few moments before your "ambush" becomes moot.

1. Teleport in with Embryx - Let's bust some skulls.

2. Teleport in with Corrinth - How unfortunate it would be for their little barrier to suddenly contain a rabid predator?

3. Teleport in Alone - It's time for them to meet the Terrorchild.

 

[Infab]

1

 

[hardcore.munchkin]

2

 

[Damian0358]

2 (drop Corrinth in there and get back to Embryx stat)

 

[Breadman]

3

 

[turtwigwins]

2

 

[joshuadim]

2

 

[dikdik]

22222222

 

[K0mori]

Option 1: 1 Vote (14% - Range: 1-14)
Option 2: 5 Votes (71% - Range: 15-86)
Option 3: 1 Vote (14% - Range: 87-100)
Fae Roll: 42

2. Teleport in with Corrinth - How unfortunate it would be for their little barrier to suddenly contain a rabid predator?

You grab Corrinth by the arm and grip the Pandemonium Door in your offhand. "Corrinth, wildshape!" you order. The changeling barely has time to look at you in confusion before you're both whisked to the center of the camp, appearing from a puff of black smoke right between the enemy mages. You let go of her, and then teleport yourself back to safety - ignoring her shocked cry of "Agranne!" as you reappear next to Embryx. You look over your shoulder just in time to catch her transformation, once again into the form of a peryton, so that her wide, indigo-colored wings loom over the mages like a specter of death.

"What the fuck!?" one of them screams as Corrinth's jagged, demonic stag horns rip through the smoky cloud to gore his friend, pitching him upward with a spray of blood that reaches the tree line. "WHAT IS THAT!?"

The mages all turn their attention to Corrinth, who dumps the maimed body of her first victim to the side before leaping onto another with her talons out, forcing them to the ground under her weight. Although a powerful magical strike clips her in the wing, causing her to let out a pained screech, the witches amidst the trees begin to act with the knowledge that their magic would not be halted by any barriers. The riders at the edges of the royalist vanguard draw arrows and fire them at those who linger too long in the open, casting hexes. Within a split second, two witches lie wounded on the ground, but the riders are rewarded with compulsions to kill one another for the deed - their minds twisted into sympathy for their own undoing.

Not far behind this initial group, the bulk of the royalists ride in gallantly, unaware of what fate is befalling their brethren. As they see the massive beast Corrinth has become, they fail to deduce the rest of the camp's whereabouts or their involvement, thinking that the peryton is the only threat. At the same time, one of the royal mages catches Corrinth with a magical strike which dispels her wildshape in a bright flash of light. However, in this brief moment that the mage is unfocused on his surroundings, Veralt emerges from the trees and points his wand at his shadow. The mage turns to find his own shadow growing strange and amorphous, bubbling up like tar, before crying out in horror like you've never heard.

He falls to the dirt, except his legs seem to fall into it, as if it were a hole or a pit full of some foul liquid, and from the way he thrashes about in pure agony, you can only imagine his torture. You remember Halfiya's explanation: the shadow which is slowly consuming the man is necrotic, killing and rotting his flesh as he falls into it. He claws at the dirt, trying to pull himself away with his arms since his dead legs provide no leverage, but the shadow his limbs cast on the earth is connected to that deadly pool, and suddenly as his hands touch down, they too are pulled into the abyss, and you watch as his pale, withering face contorts into a final howl - as his unsupported body falls through and into that dark place from your dreams.

Corrinth staggers away from the scene, and so you teleport in to grab her once more and guide her to safety amidst a hail of arrows. The royalists have flooded into the camp now and are equal in number to your forces, but have no idea how little protection they have against the onslaught of magic they're about to face. While dozens of royal mages are mixed into the enemy ranks, they're still outnumbered and now, badly out-schemed, as the enemy commanders desperately try to call a halt to their advance into the camp clearing in favor of a more dispersed approach. While they would rather their soldiers fan out and locate the witches still hiding in the woods, it's difficult to communicate such things to men and women who are watching their fellows be gored by fae monsters and eaten by their own shadows.

Instead, they charge in, blindly heroic and stupid, unable to grasp how truly staggering your power is. You just need to keep up the pressure.

1. Sic the Fae - It's time to open a melee with the fools. The way Embryx is gripping her mace, you just know she's ready for a good fight, along with Rowgu and quite a few others you've spotted carrying close-range weapons today.

2. Match Your Rivals - You can't allow Corrinth and Veralt to have all the fun and take all the credit. It's time you get out there and make yourself known to the royalist scum in the best way you know: reaching out to hearts and minds.