Fantasy Terrorchild: Awakening

[K0mori]

Option 1: 7 Votes (88% - Range: 1-88)
Option 2: 1 Vote (13% - Range: 89-100)
Fae Roll: 66

1. Face Veralt - "...Let's go then," you say, accepting Kulka as an ally for the battle ahead. "Even if I'm less suited to killing Veralt, if you want me to trust you, I need you to trust me, first." As you make your request, you realize it is also, ultimately, a promise.

Kulka puts up her hood. "Very well. Lead on, Terrorchild."

You know that her tone carries a whispered mockery. You realize that if you fail, it will mean not just your own death, but hers, your other allies', and many more once Veralt finds himself at the head of a fractured and unstable pact across Turadal. Your inability to trust anyone else with the task of preventing it must seem arrogant, but you can't care about that - Syrith's design has left you with a path to trace that's so thin it could fit through the eye of a needle, so the last thing you're going to do is surrender control to anyone else, especially someone you just met.

As you depart the Mage College, Kulka volunteers to assist your party in raising even more undead followers, and so you share access to the Door. The lich is unbothered by Embryx's request to avoid reanimating the bodies of children, and simply leaves them where they lie - pointing her cane this way and that and instilling constructs into the freshly-dead, all the while casually carrying on conversation.

"That mob you lot raised is good work," she remarks to Jannava. "I can see why Diala sought you out. I'm sure she was hoping for more, though."

Jannava looks back at her. "What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean."

The tiefling pauses and then nods. "...Right. I'm sure she'd have rather had a lich on her side."

"Until I showed up," you interject, "she must've had a different plan for taking on Kulka. Maybe the first part of that plan was extending her life."

"Obviously," Kulka confirms with a bit of annoyance. "I've been around for a hundred and twenty years, and it's been sixty-five since I died. Poor Diala probably only had another seventy years or so left to her with her elven half-blood and thought to herself, 'that's not enough time!' ...And she'd have been right. She could've spent a dozen lifetimes trying to catch up to me, and it never would've made a difference."

Embryx snickers at the comment. "Because you'd still have forty years' lead on her?"

"That, and because everyone hated her," you reply.

Kulka smiles, finally pleased with something you've said. "...That's right. She spread her poison all over the west of the Kingdom, making enemies of everyone, and convincing them to make enemies of each other. You couldn't kill her, Agranne, not alone. But you and just one more...?"

"We were lucky her guard was down," Embryx says, wistfully.

"Maybe so," Kulka agrees, "but she was not unlucky. She died exactly as her choices made appropriate. Once we've finished with this adventure, I hope that you'll take her lesson to heart, and be better than she was - all of you - but especially you, Sister Agranne. Mardenaal will need someone who can organize its circle back into unity, and direct its malice against its true enemies."

You shake your head. "It won't be me, at least... not immediately. I have something I have to do in Zuklanar."

"Oh? Have someone you want to resurrect?"

"Did you read my mind again?" you ask, uncomfortably.

She laughs again. "No... But why else would you be headed for Zuklanar in the dead of winter? Everyone at our level knows of the red comet's coming. At least I know why you want to keep the Door, now."

You sigh, increasingly frustrated with Kulka's overbearing wisdom. "...Then you know, but I don't, sister. Why do I need the Door?"

Kulka pauses uncomfortably and turns to face you, her humor gone and replaced with concern. "I- I'm sorry, but do you not know that only one can be resurrected...? The elder sisters of all Gondia will be converging in the Edniewebotm to face one another and grant that choice to the strongest and wisest among us. I had assumed you knew this, and you were keeping the Door to increase your chances of being selected. But then I would've warned you... It would do you no good. You are no one in the eyes of the elders, collectively - my own thoughts aside."

"What?"

Somewhere deep inside of you, in the ugliest, darkest pit of your soul, a smile rips its way across a set of lips which you can hardly recognize as your own. No, something has broken. Too much has been denied to you in life. This is not a desire you will relinquish, or else your heart would be consumed by that hungering shadow. The other sisters stop their work as well and look to you in fear. Only Kulka remains unshaken as she stands with her cane at rest, her rotted face hidden beneath her hood and yet still exuding empathy for your lost cause.

Embryx finally tries to break the silence, but is cut off by your anger shearing you apart like an over-wound spring finally brought to snap. "Agranne-"

"RaaaaaAAAAAARGH!!!"

The others, Kulka included, are shaken and step back as your primal scream is accompanied by a blast of power - not telekinetic force, nor a soul-rending swipe, but pure, unbridled power. It ripples through the ground in every direction, a swirl of black magic escaping your hands as you clutch your head and jaw, and giving way to a reddish hue - one you've seen once before, but since forgotten. That day in the woods, when you first met Corrinth... The last time you felt so hopeless and yet so unwilling to accept it. All of them can sense it: your power washing over them, as if their mere presence was a compulsive struggle which you were winning.

"Agranne, please don't...!" Embryx urges you. "Please...!"

And then, with a screech of agony and despair, you collapse to the ground and master that horrible strength again. "...Come on," you demand, barely able to prevent yourself from breaking into sobbing. "...We have to stop Veralt."

"I- I didn't mean to upset you," Kulka rasps. "If... If I can help you-"

"First, Veralt! Nothing else, until he's dead!" you roar at her.

---
​

You reach the castle. The approach is nothing but a blur to you, but you vaguely recall killing a few dozen guardsmen who attempted to ambush you at points along the way, and whatever it is you did to them was enough to ensure that their bodies couldn't be raised again. Behind you, beyond your capability to grant attention, your pact sisters and Kulka discuss you and your future - their voices quiet and full of uncertainty.

Ahead of you, the bridge across the castle's moat - a thin, steep stone trench that encircles the walls outside the keep - is raised to its vertical position. You reach out with telekinesis and rip it free from its chains, setting the bridge across the gap with an ominous crash that leaves the chains dangling in the air. The fortress within is a byzantine complex, and your entrance has alerted friend and foe alike, but you only see red. You turn to your amassed army of thralls and ghouls and wave them in, and they charge ahead with murderous intent.

1. Accompany the Charge - You'll take out your anger on the royalists in the yard, leaving no one standing as you carve a path into the keep, toward Veralt and his pathetic scheme. Kulka mocked you for your ignorance before, but you'll show her how badly she's underestimated you.

2. Move Ahead Alone - You no longer care about the "battle" beyond this point. All you care about is destroying Veralt, Fiola, and anyone else who sought to betray you. You take off in flight, searching the castle grounds for the rest of your pact.

3. Come at the King - You can fly and teleport through walls; no defenses can slow you down. You decide to decapitate this Kingdom first, and then meet Veralt from the opposite direction from where he expects you.

 

[hardcore.munchkin]

3

 

[Infab]

3

 

[Breadman]

1

 

[joshuadim]

2

 

[dikdik]

1

 

[turtwigwins]

2

 

[CHUUYAS_HAT]

1

 

[bat_hacker]

1

 

[K0mori]

Option 1: 4 Votes (50% - Range: 1-50)
Option 2: 2 Votes (25% - Range: 51-75)
Option 3: 2 Votes (25% - Range: 76-100)
Fae Roll: 53

2. Move Ahead Alone - You no longer care about the "battle" beyond this point. All you care about is destroying Veralt, Fiola, and anyone else who sought to betray you. You take off in flight, searching the castle grounds for the rest of your pact.

From the air, they look like maggots wriggling in spoiled food - the living and the dead, "friend" and foe... Your burning eyes scorn them from above, your shadow sweeping over them from the silvery sky. You soon find the entrance to the central tower, rising above the rest of the keep to its highest point. You're certain that if you were to simply teleport into the highest level, you'd find the King and his family cowering there, just like Count Caspan... But the rage burning inside you, that flame you can barely control, deserves nothing less than the one you hate the most.

You come to ground at the entrance and sweep through the doors, your toes dragging limply on the stone tiles as the freezing air caught in your cloak flows over the burning braziers inside the great hall, extinguishing them down to the glowing embers within. You look like a banshee, and everyone you pass recoils as if you are one. It's here that you finally notice that the Door, having always been as black as night since you discovered it two years ago, is glowing red in your hand - only visible in the low light that you've created.

"E- Elder sister Agranne!" stammers a dying witch.

"Where's Veralt!?" you demand.

"Th-the pact has moved d-downstairs; you have to go down to go up," she answers, blood bubbling out of her mouth. "They're running low on magic... I'm s-so cold... W- Where have you been...?"

You snatch the soul out of her body to grant her a quick and merciful death before drawing all your strength into a strike at the stone floor below you. The rock explodes out of the way, tumbling down onto barrels and crates in the storehouse below. You drop yourself through a moment later, and find a scene of carnage trailing from one end of the room, where the initial staircase reached bottom, and the spiral stairs at the far end where a mass of dozens of witches, some of them wounded, are crowded around, searching for an opportunity to advance up the stairs.

Just as you arrive, Rowgu's dead body comes tumbling down to rest at the bottom of the climb, and a cry of fear and dismay sounds from her sisters. She was a strong one in combat, and without her, the coven's chances of clearing the final stairway to the crown of Turadal would've become so long that it would likely mean defeat and death for all of those in Veralt's care. But you're here, now. You teleport into the middle of the crowd, shocking them into silence only a moment later. "WHERE. IS. VERALT?" you demand again.

"You... You're working with Kulka, aren't you!?" Fiola exclaims, emerging from the crowd. "Have you really betrayed us as well!?"

You nearly end her life on the spot when Wag suddenly leaps out between you. "WAIT! Zizter, she waz manipulated!" She spits out the words as if they've been burning her tongue all morning.

"What!?" Fiola cries out indignantly, before Wag turns her wand on her and, with a puff of black smoke, breaks the manipulation she placed Fiola under the prior night and leaves the human confused and angry.

"Zizter," Wag reveals, pleadingly, "Corrinth compelled uz to hex each other lazt night, before zhe dizappeared! Don't you remember?"

"Then... Then my spell wore off first..." Fiola mutters before turning flush and furious at the goblin. "So why didn't you do anything!? Or say anything before now!?"

"I zent a crow to warn them when no one waz looking, but I waz too zcared to confront you all myzelf! You'd've killed me! Kulka didn't betray uz, and Agranne hazn't abandoned uz either! It waz Corrinth and Veral-" her voice catches in her throat as her eyes go wide in horror. You act instantly, creating a ring of enchanted fire around Wag that races into the air, radiating light in all directions as the other witches scream and scatter, but it's done what it needed to do: banish Veralt's necrotic constructs that thrive in shadow. One had seized onto Wag's legs in the dark and induced instant death of the flesh below her ankles, but she had been compelled to not even scream, even as she was being eaten alive. She collapses to the floor a moment later, but still can't scream.

At the rear of the pack, near the corner of the storehouse, Veralt stands unmoved with his wand outstretched.

"...Where iz Corrinth?" he asks calmly, through Wag. "You and Embyx were plotting againzt uz, weren't you? Did you kill her, Agranne?" A smile creeps across his face as he releases Wag, who begins to howl in pain while clutching her festering lower legs. He then points his wand at you, expecting to compel you into answering his questions, and expecting you to cooperate, as he's never seen the extent to which your rage has driven you before. But the moment you feel that icy grip close in on your mind, you break through it with ease.

"She's alive, but not for long," you answer. "I thought I needed to fear your betrayal, Veralt, so I kept her around as a bargaining chip. But now that we're here, and your magic has dwindled after you tried to compel Kulka and failed, and you're terrified of losing what's left..." you explain, savoring each degree to which you recognize his confidence leaving him as the moments pass, "...It's so much simpler: I am going to kill you, I am going to kill her, I'm going to kill the King, his son, and his daughter, and then I'll kill everyone else who stands in my way from here on, all the way home to Zuklanar until I either get what I want - or I'm dead and it doesn't matter anymore."

Fiola draws her wand on Veralt and crosses the room to stand beside you. "Elder sister, please forgive me," she quietly begs. The rest begin to follow her lead, until only Veralt and a scant few who're under hexes are remaining in his corner. You wonder just how many he had managed to put under spells, or compelled others to put under spells, only to watch them throw their lives away against the royalist forces while your undead were outside the city gates. He must have assumed you would rush to his aid if he attacked early, providing him a better opportunity to betray you. Whatever he believed would happen, it isn't happening.

Not even close.

1. Dig a Hole - You show him what compulsion really is as your magic overwhelms him. You order him to claw his way into someplace soft and warm...

2. Leave Him in the Dark - You reach for his soul. You grip the thread of anima. You break it.

 

[Infab]

1

 

[CHUUYAS_HAT]

3/2 = (Whatever that is...)
" Leave Him in the Dark - You reach for his soul. You grip the thread of anima. You break it. "

EDIT: 2

 

[bat_hacker]

2

 

[hardcore.munchkin]

2

 

[dikdik]

2

 

[Breadman]

2

 

[Damian0358]

2

 

[K0mori]

Option 1: 1 Vote (14% - Range: 1-14)
Option 2: 6 Votes (86% - Range: 15-100)
Fae Roll: 96

2. Leave Him in the Dark - You reach for his soul. You grip the thread of anima. You break it.

They try to stop you - Veralt's allies desperately cast their magic, but you teleport back and forth - a dozen times in just seconds - weaving between their attacks in a cloud of dark magic while never breaking your concentration on your primary foe. As their discipline falters in favor of sheer panic, they move away from Veralt as he collapses onto his knees, wracked with pain that's spreading through his gut from an invisible wound. While mysterious to everyone else, his expression as he lifts his head one final time tells you that he knows the nature of his own doom. His eyes plead for mercy - but failing that, he wants a chance to speak.

You step forward and kneel to his level, nodding as you invite him to possess your tongue one final time, as he doesn't have long.

"...Don't kill her like this, please," he says through you, your voice wavering. "...make it painless..."
​

"She snuck into our shelter and tried to kill Embryx in her sleep. I'll make her death worse than yours, you conniving, back-stabbing filth! I made you my pact brother, I gifted you a circle of our strongest sisters... and you wasted their lives for that fae-brained whore!"

Veralt's face contorts as unimaginable torment rolls through him, but he's unable to scream. Instead, it's the other witches who scream and recoil as his blood and viscera suddenly begin to pour out from the hem of his cloak onto the stone floor, a potent smell of rot escaping from him as the necros spreads in the shadows of his body cavity. You know that it's eating him from within, moving up from his intestines and into his lungs.

"...I'll tell her your last words," you offer, your shadow once again fed and sated.

"...Tell her I'm sorry."​

The compulsion fades as his wand hits the floor, clattering amidst the sounds of dripping and sloshing as his hunched body erupts into innumerable oozing sores, all of them on his back, facing away from the ring of fire you created around Wag. You raise your hand and, with a simple twist of the wrist, you dispel the flames and leave everyone in the dark - and instantly Veralt's body rears back, jaw flying open in a silent scream as his flesh liquefies and sloughs off of his bones, foaming and sizzling as the aggressive necrosis devours everything that was once him.

His lifeless bones fall forward onto the ground, cushioned only by a paper-thin layer of dry, flaking, fur-coated skin.

You look over the hideous death you've caused and embrace your personal victory. After everything that Veralt and Corrinth have managed to put you through in the short time you've been traveling together, you realize that not even the destruction of the royal family could give you as much satisfaction. You even consider reanimating Veralt's bones, just for added insult, but you quickly let it go, as every other living witch from your circle - less than half of those who departed Enthaan with you - are already terrified out of their wits. It's time to move on and get a victory for them.

"Sisters," you say calmly, "I'm going to go kill the King and his children. You've done well getting us this far. Leave this place and gather in the bailey with Kulka's circle."

"...I can't move," Wag says as the others sprint away from you toward the daylight you've left behind. "Don't leave me... I can't feel anything below my anklez...!"

"Your feet aren't much better than his body, Wag" you reply. "At least a cleric can fix you, though..."

As the goblin groans in pain, you walk over to the spiral staircase place your hand on the central column. The steps curve away to your right, making it impossible for any attacker in your position to get a decent angle on someone above them unless they happen to be left-handed. You shake your head; you don't need to play into their trap, like your sisters - you can simply appear wherever you want to appear. Right now would be a good time to carry Wag to safety and report on Veralt's death.

---
​

Another cloud of shadow announces your arrival as you appear in the open yard of the castle with Wag. You straighten up and turn around, quickly spotting Embryx, Kulka, and your pact sisters all gathered together. Fiola is there, frantically explaining what she witnessed below ground before turning and seeing you - the color draining from her face instantly as she seems frozen in place like a frightened animal. While Stalna comforts her, Embryx hurriedly trots over to you.

"Agranne, is it true?" she asks. "Fiola says you used Veralt's own technique against him..."

You nod. "It's not as hard as it looks," you reply, bleakly. "I'm going to skip the stairs and take care of the royal family. Is that cleric still with us? We need someone to heal Wag's feet."

"Uh, yeah..." Embryx replies, looking over her shoulder in search of the cleric you enthralled earlier before giving up and returning to what she meant to bring up in the first place. "I'm sure Stalna can take care of it. What's going on with you?"

You shrug. "I'm just at the limits of my patience, you know?" you reply. "No matter how strong I get, the whole world keeps lining up to stand in my way. And apparently, the coven's elders don't think much of strength, either, so they're going to just stand between me and Rigatte until I deal with them, too."

Kulka, having taken her time to follow after Embryx, now ambles up to you, her cane thumping against the stone tiles. You look to her, expecting her to say something, but the hooded goblin merely sneers at you. "...You really think it's that simple?" she asks.

1. Yes - You nod. "Yeah. It's that simple."

2. No - You stare back at her, waiting for her to elaborate.

3. Shut Up - Without even sparing her a glance, you shove Kulka across the entire courtyard with a telekinetic push.

 

[CHUUYAS_HAT]

3

 

[Infab]

2

 

[Breadman]

3

 

[hardcore.munchkin]

1

 

[Damian0358]

2

 

[turtwigwins]

3

 

[dikdik]

2