by C. M. Carney
That is an apt if incomplete comparison. At my height, I could not only communicate over vast distances but also influence the very fabric of the Realms. Those abilities were long ago lost to me, but in recent days there has been an increase in the number and complexity of the ripples that flow through the Aether.
Ripples?
Fragments of potential future events echoing from the Aether.
Are you saying you see the future?
I can perceive iotas of these futures, but none can see what will be with certainty. There are far too many variables at play. The ripples I have sensed represent turning points, confluences that can turn fate one direction or another. Under normal circumstances, these ripples are few and small, but over the past several hours many more ripples have formed, and nearly all of them lead down the road to ruin.
A few hours ago? That’s when Gryph disappeared.
Yes, forces beyond my ability to assess have sensed his absence, and nature abhors a vacuum.
His disappearance formed these ripples.
Many, but not all of them. Another ripple formed the moment you offered to take Simon with you. This ripple worries me greatly, for it is jumbled and chaotic and I cannot see a clear path beyond it. All I know is that what you do over the next several days will affect all the Realms and that Simon is at your side in many of them.
The weight hovering over Lex increased, and he wanted to collapse. Are you saying that I will save the Realms?
Or destroy them. I cannot see a clear path, but there is a third possibility. You may be nothing more than a piece of driftwood carried along by the tides of fate.
So, you’re saying I’m gonna be a huge hero, a mega villain or just some poor schmoe tugged along by forces he could not control?
Correct.
In other words, you know nothing. Lex's mental voice raised in irritation, and fear.
That is an accurate assessment of the current situation. But take some solace, for I will allow Simon to join you.
What if I end up destroying creation? You gonna accept some of the blame?
That is the worst-case scenario and an unlikely one. I can conceive of no situation in which your influence is such that it could destroy the Realms, but if it is to be the end, I believe Simon deserves to experience life outside of the Barrow. He should spread his wings and sow his seed, as you humans say.
Not sure you get the full implications of that expression, Lex sent with a shudder. But I get what you mean. And I gotta say, your ability to make me feel simultaneously better and worse is uncanny.
You are welcome, the Barrow sent missing the sarcasm in Lex’s tone.
So, you won’t be mad if I get Simon killed?
A deep rumble flowed through the Barrow. Try not to let that happen. However, if his current host body perishes, Simon should survive as long as there is another corpse in the proximity for his spirit to inhabit.
Are you suggesting we kill people as an insurance plan? Cuz, I rarely have spare corpses just lying about.
No, but the road you walk is likely to be littered with bodies. I am merely suggesting options for the proper allocation of these resources, should the need arise.
And that makes me feel much better.
Simon is an adequate host and while I would survive his demise, it would take considerable effort to find a new one should he perish, the Barrow sent, the weight of the emotion pressed down on Lex with considerable force. Bonding with him has given me something I have not had in quite some time. Something I do not wish to lose.
And what’s that?
Hope.
The sentiment surprised Lex and helped ease his stress over potentially being the engine of the universe's destruction.
Good luck, Lex. Please take care of Simon. After a slight pause, the Barrow continued. I have grown fond of him.
I’ll do my best man.
The heaviness of the Barrow’s presence lifted from him, and a moment later Lex’s perception flashed back to the throne room. Simon still clutched his head, fully embracing the undead revenant role. “Uh, kid. I’m back. You can let me go now.”
“Oh, sorry,” Simon said, releasing his grip, his skeletal fingers clacking as if he were shaking a cramp from them. “So, what’d it say?”
“Your daddy says you can come on our field trip and that he loves you very much.”
“Yes!” Simon said, his joyous grin turning sour on realizing Lex had jabbed him. The irritation lasted mere moments before Simon extended his hand out to his side. With a rush of wind, the Barrow King’s staff flew into Simon’s skeletal hand. Then he rushed over to the Port Gate “Okay, I’m ready, let’s go.”
Lex smiled uncomfortably and his apprehension surged. “This might be a bad idea,” he mumbled under his breath.
“Of course, it is,” Vonn said. “But I’ve seen many of your idiot decisions somehow weave a path through stupidity to victory.”
“So, you’re saying you have faith in me?”
“More like a thin sheet of cautious optimism drawn over a bed of pure dread.”
“I’ll take it,” Lex said with faux cheer and walked to the Port Gate. He tapped several runes and then paused. “Do you think we’ll run into any more of those damn bunnies?” To reach Harlan's Watch they'd have to journey to the Morphic Dungeon, for it held the only Port Gate within a hundred miles of the town. All three men had been there only weeks before when they’d faced off against a huge killer rabbit and its chaotic spawn. It was not an experience any of them wished to repeat.
“Only one way to find out,” Vonn said.
“Perhaps we should have brought some carrots,” Errat said. “With poison interlaced in their meat.”
“Well, it's too late for shoulda woulda couldas,” Lex said, trying not to let the lack of poisonous carrots, or any strategy at all, weigh him down. He tapped the activation rune, and the gate shimmered to life.
The reality-warping energies surged and then calmed and then another place lay on the other side of the archway. Lex turned to his friends and took a cleansing breath. Then he motioned Simon towards the arch.
“After you.”
Simon’s eye lights turned to slits, but he said nothing and took a step through the arch. Instead of passing through his skull and robes smashed into some unseen barrier, like a bird flying into a window. The clatter of bone melded with a distant tinkling of crystal.
“Ow,” Simon said the way a flesh and blood human does when they bang their arm on something, but it is more irritating than painful. “What the hell?” Simon cocked his head to the side and Lex knew he was conversing once again with the Barrow. After a moment, his shoulders slumped again, and he turned towards them.
“So, what’s the deal?” Lex asked.
“This body cannot leave the Barrow. It is bound to this unhallowed ground.”
“Does this mean almost friend Simon cannot join our adventure?” Errat squeezed Simon’s shoulder attempting to comfort the depressed lich lord.
“It’s not fair,” Simon whined.
“What about one of them?” Vonn asked, nodding towards the nearest dread knight.
“Why would we take one of them?” Lex asked. “They’re dumber, more rotten versions of Simon.”
“Hey,” Simon yelped.
Vonn waved Lex off and spoke to Simon. “If I’m understanding this whole lord of the dead thing you’ve got going, then that body doesn't really belong to you, right?”
“Yeah, what of it?” Simon asked, his tone reaching the depths of offended as only a teenager could.
“Can you exit that body and use one of the dread knights’ instead?”
“Huh?” Simon brought a skeletal hand to his bony chin and stroked it like a philosopher deep in thought. “That might work, but I’m not sure I wanna go out in public looking that gross.”
“This guy doesn’t look too bad.” Lex slapped the nearest dread knight on the back and its rotten right arm fell from its body. “Okay, fair enough. Nobo
dy wants to go out on the town with someone else’s hand-me-downs.”
“Maybe we can make friend Simon one of those robot bodies from Lex’s wondrous stories of Earth.”
“What?” Lex squinted in confusion. “Are you talking about the Terminator? Cuz if you are, then you really missed the point of that movie. And there's also one small problem. We have no idea how to make one.”
“Too bad, it would be cool,” Errat muttered, saying the word cool as if it were a foreign language and he was trying to be it.
“It would be cool,” Lex agreed.
“You guys are geniuses!” Simon exclaimed, his eye lights flaring bright.
“We are?” Lex asked and gave a sideways glance to Errat, who shrugged.
Simon rushed to his throne, sat and extended his hand before him. Purple-black death magic flowed around his fingers and then he pointed at a spot on the ground. For a moment nothing happened, but then the earth buckled as if something was digging its way out of the ground.
A hand punched through and then a man pulled himself from the ground and stood. His skin was the sallow gray of a day-old corpse, but a fierce intelligence burned in the man’s eyes.
“Great, this guy again,” Lex muttered, recognizing Simon’s oft-regenerated minion Dirge.
The wiry Aegyptian assassin looked from Errat to Vonn to Lex, before settling on Simon. “Hello master, I am pleased you have called me to your service again. How may I be of…”
The silky tongued corpse never finished the sentence, for a length of rusted steel had stabbed through the front of his throat. All eyes turned in shock to Simon, who pulled the huge greatsword from Dirge’s neck. The body collapsed in a heap.
“Am I the only one who finds that guy really annoying?” Simon asked, before handing the sword back to the nearest dread knight.
“Why’d you do that?” Lex asked.
“Duh, I can’t inhabit a body that’s already inhabited, now can I?” Simon walked to Dirge, knelt and opened the corpse’s mouth. Simon closed his eyes and the greasy, black smoke that made up most of his spectral body flowed down his arm and into Dirge’s throat. After several seconds the oily essence disappeared, and Simon’s skull clattered to the floor.
Nothing happened for several heartbeats, but then the Dirge body sat up with such force, that it would have strained the muscles of any living being. Eyes opened, blazing with eldritch fire. The corpse stood, cracked his neck and jumped up and down a few times, like a man forcing blood through numbed appendages.
“Woah, this is cool,” Simon said in a voice that was both deeper and scratchier than his normal pubescent squeak. He noticed and grabbed at his throat. “Woah, I sound badass.”
“And all it took was a sword to the throat,” Vonn said. “Shame we didn’t think of that earlier.”
“Ha,” Errat blurted, drawing Simon’s momentary ire.
“You look great kid,” Lex said. “But I’m more interested in whether you have Dirge’s skills. From what Ovyrm said, this dickhead was deadly.”
The green flames in Simon’s new eyes flared, and he smiled the sly smile that had served Dirge so well in life. He drew a pair of long daggers from his waist and turned to the closest dread knight. “You, attack me.”
“Nnnnggggg.” The walking corpse drew its greatsword and attacked. The knight might be nothing more than a rotting corpse, but it was still a deadly fighter, and for a moment Lex feared it would skewer Simon. But then, like a man riding a bike for the first time in decades, old skills resurfaced. Simon was a blur of shining steel and soon the dread knight fell to the ground in several pieces.
“Well, that’ll work,” Lex said and gave Vonn an ‘I told you so’ look. Vonn nodded in acceptance that perhaps he had judged Simon too harshly.
“Oh man, I cannot wait to do that again,” Simon said, childlike glee in his voice. “Will there be people to cut up in Harlan’s Watch?”
“No!” Lex yelled. “Control your homicidal tendencies, or you get left behind.”
“Fine, whatever,” Simon pouted, and then in a softer, almost sad note. “But Dirge really enjoys killing people.”
Vonn gave Lex his own ‘ I told you so’ stare and Lex grinned uncomfortably, before turning his attention back to the open Port Gate. He could not know what fresh chaotic horrors awaited them in the Morphic Dungeon, but if he wanted to find Gryph, there was no other way but forward.
“After you,” he said to Simon once again. With a proud grin, Simon strode past Lex and through the arch like a man going for a night on the town after his release from prison. Lex hoped the image didn’t prove prescient.
4
The skin on the nape of Lex’s neck crawled as he passed through the archway. Traversing that much distance in a single step still made him queasy. Lex knew, in his heart of hearts, that if the ancient Nimmerian transport system ever failed, it would do so while he was midway through its threshold. It was just the way things worked.
Only when his second foot hit the loosely packed dirt floor inside the Morphic Dungeon did he realize that he’d squinted his eyes shut. He heard the rush of air as the Port Gate deactivated and forced them open to find Vonn looking at him with one of his 235 patented looks of disapproval.
“What?”
“You inspire great confidence in me, oh mighty and courageous leader,” the half-elf rogue said in a mocking tone.
“Shut up,” Lex shot back and then glanced around the room. It looked significantly different than it had on their last visit. Mostly due to the lack of giant murder loving rabbits. For the briefest of moments, Lex relaxed, but then something tickled the edges of his nerves, a feeling he couldn’t explain.
“This place is boring,” Simon grumbled, his gruff new tone at odds with his teenage bitchiness. “When you said chaos dungeon, I was expecting giant blobs with a hundred fang laden mouths and staring eyes and … and … more death.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Vonn responded, his demeanor also tense.
“This place makes Errat feel odd. It is too…”
“Quiet,” Lex finished. The lack of a rampaging bunny horde trying to kill them was pleasing, but the place was not only unnaturally quiet, it was also far too clean.
“Aren’t dungeons supposed to be creepy? Filled with bones, and lit torches that no one ever lights, and random howls?” Simon asked. “The Barrow is way scarier than this place.”
“Then why are my innards rumbling like I’m a few seconds away from soiling my britches?” Lex asked.
“Perhaps you are not the complete idiot you play at.” Vonn knelt and picked up a handful of dirt, moving it through his fingers before letting it drop. “Where are all the bones? I doubt a cleaning crew has made the rounds since we were last here.”
He’s right, Lex thought. “We left this place a damn mess. Guts, fur, half-chewed corpses and tons of giant lucky rabbit’s feet. But there’s nothing.” He looked at Vonn and the fearful look in the rogue’s eyes made his own terror surge. “Something is very wrong here.”
“Oh, you guys are a bunch of wussies,” Simon said, turning to face them and taking a few steps back. “Let’s just get out of here and get to town. We’ll find Gryph, have a happy reunion and maybe go meet some girls after.”
A low scritching sound rose and the dirt at Simon’s feet began to move. Before Lex could yell a warning, the ground erupted like a burst boil. Hundreds of pale white worms flush with angry orange swirls exploded from the pustule. They landed on and around Simon’s foot and began to pull themselves together like a stringy wad of taffy in reverse.
“Eww,” Simon said and kicked his foot, trying to dislodge the oddly cohesive mass of wriggling maggots. The mass surged towards him, forming into the shape of a hand. It grasped his ankle and inched its way up his boot. Beyond him a dozen other pustules exploded, revealing yet more worms. They came together as masses and moved towards the first.
Simon yelled in disgusted horror as more worms melded into the writhing hand.
The hand pushed further up, now a full forearm of pulsating white. The fingers wrapped around his calf above the cuff of his boot and the maggots began to feed.
“Hehe ha, ah, ah! That tickles,” Simon said with a horrified giggle.
Lex activated his Analyze skill, and a prompt filled his vision.
CHAOTIC MAGGOT SPAWN (Chaos Aberrant) – Level: 0.
Health
Stamina
Mana
Spirit
1
1
0
0
Chaotic Maggot Spawn are formed when normal maggots become infused with chaos energy. Individually these creatures pose little threat, but when swarms are present, they gain a hive mind that can exponentially increase their powers and intelligence.
Chaotic Maggot Spawn exist for one reason and one reason only, to consume. They will eat anything organic and given the time and the lack of other food, even some varieties of stone or metal. They are voracious scourges that cannot be reasoned with or slowed.
Strengths
Immunities
Weaknesses
Hive Mind, Swarm, Coalescence, Shape Morphing, Regeneration, Assimilation.
Sleep, paralysis, stun.
Resistant to: Stabbing and blunt damage
Fire.
Lex’s face screwed up in disgust, and on instinct, he tried to share the Analyze window through the Adventure Groups’ Telepathic Link. It failed, and he cursed himself for his stupidity. Of course, it doesn’t work. No Gryph, no Adventure Group. It was time to resort to old-fashioned methods.
“Move you, idiot!” Lex yelled, drawing mana to his hand. Simon jerked his leg, but the hand gripped tight. His panicked eyes went to Lex’s. “Cut it, cut it,” Lex roared as he readied his spell Flames.
Simon’s hand flashed and his dagger sliced through the worm hand at the wrist. The maggots grasping his calf lost some of their cohesion allowing Simon to pull away. He stumbled and would have fallen onto his face had Errat not caught him.