Reborn- Journeyman

by Luka Petrov

  Agnes asked, “Well, what is it? I am still confused.”

  “This must be a mad alchemist. One who was deluded by the power of created homunculi,” Yves explained.

  “Well, what’s a homunculi?” Agnes asked. I was glad that Agnes asked because I was wondering the same thing, as I had not run across such a creature in all of my studies. I did not want to appear as if I did not know.

  “Funny! Agnes. A homunculi would be a homunculus,” Yves responded with a laugh. “It’s only proper English, well, in this case, a derivation from Latin. You know, those words we use as our spell words for certain spells.”

  Wow! Yves is really giving it to her. I am glad I avoided this verbal lashing. Usually, I appreciate Yves’ know it all attitude and it has saved us in over one occasion, but she is just sounding like a pompous ass I am actually offended.

  I needed to take Yves down a peg, “Yves, I thought you would explain it. If you can’t then I will,” I bluffed. Knowing full heartedly she would bite at the chance not to be outdone.

  “Oh, that’s right. I would explain what a homunculus was or homunculi in the plural form. Well, that was before someone’s use of language offended me,” Yves stated.

  “Yves, I’m more than willing to jump in. This delay in explanation makes me think you do not know what it is,” I baited.

  “Oh right. Let me explain, a homunculus is a little person. It’s a representation of a small human being. Alchemists usually create them for servants. Usually, they appear like small grown men, and appear like their masters or those who provided the sperm cell for their creation,” Yves explained. “Do you understand?”

  Both Agnes and I nodded, I was in shock at the creation at such a thing. Yves continued, “Alchemists were masters at creating things, especially gold. However, they also delved into the creation of life. I’m fairly certain this alchemist was probably a Transmutation Wizard with a Minor Alchemy. If this is the wizard of whom I am thinking of, he was burned at the stake for his practice in homunculi. This laboratory is abandoned,” Yves explained.

  “How do you know this?” I asked. Now I was impressed and perplexed at her vast knowledge of everything.

  “Well, my parents had told me about a crazy Transmutation Wizard who created homunculi of all the villagers. These homunculi were not well constructed and became sickly. Many of them that he sent to their masters died in horrific ways. It was just ghastly. The master would ask the homunculus to carry firewood and things such as that, and the homunculus would have a heart attack or seizure while they were doing the chore and die right there on the floor in front of the master. This made the masters feel guilty for stressing the homunculus out. They soon realized that the homunculi were too fragile to do any chores and blamed the alchemist who created them. One night, they stormed his mansion and drug him out. They burned him at the stake. My parents were friends with some of these masters, and that is how they told me about him one day. I would not have to know if it weren’t such a coincidence,” Yves delved further in her topic.

  “Very interesting,” I stated. “And very impressive that you just happen to know the exact wizard of the abandoned home we are at,” I said with a smirk. “Very convenient,” I continued.

  “It’s purely a coincidence, I can assure you,” Yves replied.

  “So, what do we do now,” Agnes asked.

  “Good question,” I replied. “I have no fucking clue,” I said. I gazed around at the various jars on the shelves, “Huh! Those must all be some sort of homunculi or a failed experiment. Crazy! These jars with organs in them were going to be miniature people. Wow! Crazy to think about this,” I surmised.

  “It is, and creepy,” Yves chimed in. “His horrors would be forever locked away in this abandoned laboratory. I wonder why the dragon brought us here. Clearly, there is no one here,” she affirmed.

  I read a passage from one of the opened books that laid on the counter in front of a shelf that was full of jars with organs in it. It read:

  That the sperm of a man be putrefied by itself in a sealed cucurbit for forty days with the highest degree of putrefaction in a horse’s womb, or at least so long that it comes to life and moves, and stirs, which is easily observed. After this time, it will look somewhat like a man, but transparent, without a body. If, after this, it be fed wisely with the Arcanum of human blood, and be nourished for up to forty weeks, and be kept in the even heat of the horse’s womb, a living human child grows therefrom, with all its members like another child, which is born of a woman, but much smaller.

  I closed the book to read the cover of it. It was from The title of the book was called De Naturalizations Rerum and it was by a man named Paracelsus. Clearly, this wizard studied the works of others in order to concoct his own recipe for created humans. I continued to explore the laboratory. I found it both disturbing and fascinating.

  While I was skimming more books that were laid out on the alchemist’s workbench, I saw another title. This one was called The Beauty and Wonderment of the Abyss. Interesting, I was under the impression that the Abyss was a place that no one wanted to go. “Hey, Agnes, Yves. Look what I found. It’s a book about the Abyss. Why do you think he would have a book about the Abyss?” I asked, puzzled.

  “Good question,” Yves responded.

  Agnes chimed in, “Perhaps he was eviler than just making deformed servants for the wealthy villagers?” Interesting thought. What was this mad mage trying to do?

  I flipped through the book and skimmed the pages. A passage I read stated:

  The Abyss is a plane known as the 666 layers and is of absolute and complete chaotic evil. The Abyss is inhabited by demons and other chaotic evil beings. There are four types of demons: those that are classical, religiously inspired, ancient demons, and those that are not specified into the aforementioned categories. The structure of the Abyss is that of being spatially infinite and constantly expanding. The layers are in a total of 666 and are numbered in order based on discovery.

  The layers of the Abyss are not sequential and some of the layers overlap each other. This characteristic of the Abyss may seem unique to an outsider, but those who reside inside of the Abyss find this to be normal. Also, since the Abyss is infinite, there is an infinite number of sub-layers within each of the 666 layers, so each layer could expand based on its energy level.

  The Abyss is a colossal pit of death, destruction, and despair. Many souls find that this is their eternal home because they gravitate toward these types of things. Many souls who floundered in physical realms found solace in the Abyss. They felt. Out-of-place in other realms and found that the chaotic evil nature of the Abyss was right up their alley. They recommend the Abyss if one feels that are out of place in their original realm, then the Abyss might just be the right fit.

  There are portals scattered all over the plane of the Abyss, so travel is extremely easy for someone. Some might enjoy certain layers of the Abyss. For someone who has lived a troubled life, there is a layer that will steal your memories, therefore you will have no recollection of the bad things that have happened in your life. Not all layers are as nice. Some layers will rot your flesh, and some will freeze every living creature into stone. Those layers are mild to the more destructive layers of poisonous are and layers that will melt the flesh off of the creature and they will melt into the ground like molten lava.

  There is a place for everyone in the Abyss. If one prefers to be a hermit, there are layers that are very desolate, and one will not run into another creature for an eternity. On the other hand, there are cities and towns of the undead and keeps of the tormented souls. If a creature prefers to be around others, then one of these places would be ideal. Trade has not been what it once was since the Blood War, but it is starting to pick back up, and many are finding they are getting items that they really wanted.

  Before the universe was created, Thaddeus, the Chained God, planted a seed of evil at the heart of the Elemental Chaos before the world was finished. This brought the e
nergies of the Abyss together, creating a chaotic evil entropy and elemental power, creating demons and turning primordial beings into demon lords.

  I kept reading a little longer, understanding more how the history of the Abyss came to be and better realizing the entity that we were up against, Lord Abraxas. “Hey guys, this passage was interesting about the Abyss. Seems like Lord Abraxas climbed his way out of the Abyss and is here to take over our universe.”

  Yves replied, “Right. That’s what Balfomeir was telling us about. Lord Abraxas had found a key, which allowed him to use the portals to come into our realm. But, what did this mad mage want with the Abyss?”

  “That is a good question, Yves. I am uncertain why this mad mage would be involved with such evil of magic,” I replied. I continued to noisy around the laboratory looking for clues about why the construct brought us here and what was to do.

  “So, this alchemist was burned at the stake for his practice of forbidden magic,” I began contemplating out loud.

  I looked through some books were on a bookshelf while I pondered the reasons why the construct had brought us to this place.

  “Where do you think his soul went when he was burned at the stake? And why does he have books about the Abyss” I asked.

  Yves looked at me and responded, “What if he was trying to take over the Abyss? What if he was creating these little people to act as an army of minions and he wanted the Abyss under his control?”

  “Interesting thought,” I replied. “That would require a high-level power to accomplish such a task.”

  “I think I remember my parents telling me that the mage was driven mad by his pursuit to find a way to control the Abyss. As you would expect, the more he learned about the Abyss, the more insight he could gather into the interworking of such a place. And as a result of gaining such a vast amount of knowledge from knowing such evil, he was driven crazy. He must have seen unworldly things. The more unworldly things he saw, the crazier he must have gotten,” Yves explained. She seemed to be so smart. I am sure she knew how smart she was. It was nauseating that she knew so much all the time. I was supposed to be the one with superior intelligence.

  “So, let me get this right. You believe that this mad mage was trying to overtake the Abyss and as he learned more and more about the Abyss, it drove him crazy?” I clarified. It made sense, just seemed a little far-fetched. “And on that note, why do you think the construct brought us here?”

  “I think we are supposed to stop the mad mage,” Yves replied.

  Agnes added, “That part does make sense, now. We are supposed to stop the mad mage from taking over the Abyss.”

  “Why would we need to stop him, he would never succeed at such a feat,” I unceremoniously cutoff Agnes’ thought.

  Yves came to Agnes’ rescue, “Because the mad mage must have made a portal, and we must shut it. Otherwise, Lord Abraxas will use it.”

  “Seems plausible now,” I replied. I continued examining the books in the bookshelf that was in the laboratory. Some had titles on their spine, and some were not marked. I attempted to pull one of the books off of the shelf. As I pulled the book while I looked at both Agnes and Yves standing in front of me trying to put the pieces together, the floorboards opened up beneath us. We plunged down into a secret chamber beneath the laboratory.

  The fall was only about twenty feet or so, and we landed hard on a stone floor. We fell into a secret dungeon of the mad mage. The dungeon seemed to be a minor crypt and had the stench of putrid rubbish and rotting flesh. The broken stone floor covered in dead vermin. Further ahead from us was a single path. Its twisted trail led us past long lost rooms and tombs. I grabbed a torch from the wall and used Flame Spark to light it. The light was bright enough that I did not need to utilize mage light. We passed through the twisted trail of a hallway where we passed piles of skeletal bones cast off to the side of the passageway. Some were burned and charred. “What happened in the place?” Agnes Asked.

  “I don’t have a clue,” responded Yves. She finally did not have an answer to a question. I actually felt relief come over my body rather than complete terror, which is what I should have felt given our surroundings.

  As we moved through the passageway and passed by more and more skeletal remains, we reached a dead end. The dead end comes to a room enclosed by an enormous metal door.

  “This is where it ends,” I stated.

  “Interesting,” Yves concluded.

  “What is that you hear?” I asked, hearing something scratch against the metal door.

  “It must be related to the mad mage,” Yves concluded. There she goes again.

  I do know how to open metal doors by using thermal conduction and having the molecules contract. I muttered a few words and an icy cloud of cold air emerged from my palm. The Ice Frost spell knocked on the door, causing it to ice completely over. As the metal contracted from the intense cold exposure, the door fell from its hinges and crashed on the stone ground with a massive crash.

  We moved quickly into the final room. There, we encountered a human, no larger than five feet tall. It appeared to be vicious with the scowl on its face. It had a disproportionately large head for its body. It’s dark hair covered the enormous skull, it had short little arms and legs, but they looked mighty. “What in the world?” I muttered to myself.

  Yves heard me and replied, “This creature is a homunculus that was once the mad mage. His experiments finally went wrong, and he was forever enthralled and distorted by this terrible magic. I recollected from what my parents had said. Even though the villagers burned the mad mage’s body, his homunculus still resides in here.”

  Before I could realize what was going on, Agnes sprang into action and cast Protective Shield over us.

  The battle began with Agnes casting protective ward of the group, granting everyone a plus 2 to AC.

  I got my act together and cast burning hands at the Homunculus. Flames shot from my fingers in a fifteen-foot cone.

  The Homunculus missed his Dexterity save and took damage.

  Edward is next on the list; he casts burning hands at the Homunculus for 6 points of damage.

  Yves cast magic missile, and three glowing darts emerged from her. Each dart dealt damage as they hit the Homunculus dead on.

  Yves comes in with magic missile for 6 points of damage. It is now the Homunculus’ turn.

  The monster was getting weaker as we had a fantastic round of offensive magic. However, the Homunculus picked up steam. First, he dealt a melee weapon attack of biting at me. He bit my face, rendering me nearly unconscious.

  The Homunculus used Bite Melee Weapon Attack +4 to hit with a reach 5 feet at the opponent. Hit: piercing damage. Target failed on five DC 10 Constitution saves and was Poisoned for five minutes and became unconscious.

  I became unconscious, incapacitated, and was unable to speak or move. I was not aware of my surroundings and I did not know what happened while I was unconscious.

  The Homunculus used a contested Strength vs Dexterity against Agnes to constrict her. Agnes failed the contest and was now constricted and lost her turn and took 5 points of damage per round. Yves cast Poison Spray at the Homunculus, dealing 5 points of damage, the Homunculus failed the constitution save and received 3 points of damage per turn.

  I came out of my unconscious state. Confused as to what occurred while I was incapacitated and tried to quickly gather my wits. It seemed as though Yves was able to deal out some damage to the miniature human. Thanks to her, we now had a fighting chance. I noticed that Agnes was constricted and unable to cast spells. For the first time, it bothered me to see Agnes this way. She was always so nice and caring; I did not want to see her like this. I mustered up all the strength I possibly could. I muttered under my breath and I sent out three glowing green darts at the monster. The darts all hit the beast dead on, and the body fell to the ground, limp.

  Edward cast magic missile at the Homunculus, dealing 12 points of damage. The Homunculus is now dead; the group
regains all spell slots and health. The group gains 100xp each.

  We had engaged in a long battle. This trial was much harder than the last. We all used every last ounce of spells we had in them in order to put the mad mage out of his misery. After we killed the Homunculus, the mage’s magical energy encapsulated in the Homunculus turned into a blood red gemstone. We each grabbed the gemstone at the same time. Upon the first touch, we were transported back to the construct once again.

  We transported in the dragon's presence construct in the dragon graveyard. Once again, our spells were replenished. The construct announced, “You have done well little apprentices. Much better than anyone who has come before you with the same quest. Once you complete this final trial, I will grant you the ancient map. The map to what you seek. The map to the Magi Staff. Take heart young ones, you will be sent to a place that will be very difficult. A place of torment and despair. It is a place you have never felt or seen before, but I gather you might have read about. You must free a lost soul. The soul is being tortured repeatedly. Once you free this soul, I will grant you the ancient map of which you seek.”

  We all looked at each other in complete amazement. We were so close to the map to find the Magi Staff. The exact thing I needed to use against Lord Abraxas and to save my village of Gilmore. The exact thing that would assist in my endeavor to become the greatest mage of all time. I could almost taste it. The feeling of accomplishing a goal overcame me and I was prepared to meet my challenge and rise. Nothing would stop me now. The dragon construct muttered what I recognized to be ancient words, and a rift opened up yet again. As I felt the power vibrate through my body and the taste of success right on my tongue, the gourd below me separated and I and my party plummeted down into the depths of the planet.