CH. 11: Dark Side of the Mond

[Breila]

"You could always ask me, then you would know one wizard's mind" Ouragana replies coolly to Val.

[BishGada]

Ignoring everyone around Baeros tries to inspect Takit wound. Suspecting the creature tried to plant something in his dog body, he pokes at the wound, again ignoring his dog whimpers and bites. While doing it he keeps saying quietly "What did it do to you?"

[JadedDM]

Inspecting the wound carefully proves difficult, as the dog keeps trying to scratch at it. Baeros is finally forced to restrain the dog and hold it down, so he can get a better look.

As he inspects the wound, he sees a small lump in the dog's flesh rise up and move a bit across the dog's skin before sinking down again. Something was crawling around inside the dog.

[HorizonsDream]

"Come on. We should keep going," Jocelyn says. "We can see if the others from the ship have returned, and maybe they can look over these itchy wounds."

[Nuke]

"Well then Ouragana, what is the point of calling these beings?" Val asks.

[Breila]

"Isn't it obvious? They give you power, they do things for you you can't do yourself" Ouragana answers flatly. "What can happen, of course, is that you lose control over them. I can't tell yet if these are under someone's control or not."

[BishGada]

"Gods below! That creature put some parasite inside Takit! And maybe in the rest of us too." Baeros tries to follow as gently as he can where the creature dived in, hoping to make it come to the surface again and then to cut it out. "Ouragana, since you are an expert on those other planar creatures, any idea on how to make it leave it's host body? Or how to kill the parasite? If it can be summoned, can it be banished even when it is inside another body?" he asks while digging and poking in Takit's wound. "The rest of you, try to see or feel if something is crawling under your skins."

[JadedDM]

Takit yelps and whimpers in pain at Baeros' prodding at its wound, but the ranger's attempts to drive whatever is in there to the surface have the opposite effect. It seems to burrow in even deeper.

[HorizonsDream]

"Baeros, you are hurting him," Jocelyn points out. "It is best to leave it to someone that might know what they are doing, otherwise you are going to risk killing him," she explains.

[Breila]

"I'm sorry, Bearos, I'm not an expert at all. I know that they exist, and that mages more powerful than I am can call and somwhat control them" Ouragana says apologetically. "My best advice now is the same as Jocelyn's. Let#s get back to the ship. Perhaps their storm sorcerer knows more than I do. I wish the Bullrig was here, Thaddeus might know something..." her voice drifts off.

[BishGada]

Baeros clears off Takit but his frustration and concern is written all over his face. "This parasite will feed upon his flesh, grow inside his body and eventually will kill him when it will crawl out. We need to find a way to drive it out as soon as possible. And to check ourselves too." He looks around searching for the explosions and fire that brought them there in the first place. "Ok, let's get back to the ship and take with us any survivors we see on the way."

[JadedDM]

For the time being, it would appear the explosions have stopped. Although there are still several fires blazing further north.

Deciding to keep moving, the party continues to backtrack the way they came. They come across the area where they found all those dead bodies and the wounded elven man that Jocelyn healed.

The scene is quite different now. For one thing, all of those dead bodies are back up on their feet. Their wounds, burns and other injuries persist, but now they are standing and swaying slightly. They have also been joined by additional standing corpses. All of them moan every now and again, as if in eternal pain.

The corpses surround two men and a dragon. The men both wear voluminous, dark robes. One is a very pale human male. He practically looks like a corpse himself, or perhaps someone who has never seen the sunlight before. The other literally glows with his own light, his hair a quite literal fiery red--a fire genasi, most likely.

It's the dragon, however, that seems to grab the most attention. It's about adult-sized, but it has no scales, no flesh and no muscles. It's just a dragon's skeleton, although somehow still held together and animated.

The two men haven't noticed the party approaching yet, and seem to be doing a headcount on the corpses. "Remember, stick with your buddy so you don't get lost!" says the genasi. The corpses respond with more moaning.

[HorizonsDream]

Jocelyn was pretty sure that she didn't like what exactly was going on, and most of the party wasn't in any shape to deal with another fight. "Try to stay out of sight, everyone," she says softly to the others. "Let's just see what they are planning on doing here."

[Nuke]

Val finally sees something she can identify with the cause of all this. She looks to sneak away and find a way to approach the pair un-awares.

[Breila]

"You bet I'll stay out of sight" Ouragana whispers back and looks for a hiding place.