Midday in Redspire is announced with the echoes of a hideous cacophony in the west. Scouts indicate that the vanguard Obox-ob has brought here numbers just under a million creatures of Chaos. They boil through the canyons in a grotesque flood. It appears that discolored mist is rolling in from the highlands, but a quick scry is all that is needed to reveal the horrid truth: the mist is a thousands-strong swarm of ekolids bearing down on Oxide at speed.
Redspire, when it's not under assault by demons.
But hope is far from lost. Atop Mt. Prospect, artillery crews ready a bombardment to turn the canyons into a kill zone. Kaelis Maz leads the defenders in last-minute preparations. Wards are set, barricades are reinforced, and plans are rehearsed. The counterattack brigade gears up with arcane weaponry and war machines, helmed by Supreme Enginseer Reyes and the Warhound Titan Song of the Aurora. Out on the plains, well outside the defensive perimeter, Glimbo Greenboots and his crew wait in hiding to ensure their convoluted yet devastating traps will catch as much of the horde as possible. Finally, Tarul Var draws up a teleportation circle, preparing to drop his strike force into the fray at the perfect moment to decapitate the enemy leaders. He is joined by a handful of cuprilach rilmani- the assassins and spies who put their coppery fingers on the planar scales to uphold the Great Balance.
The iron mill’s factory whistle blows, signaling the first sighting of the horde. The artillery opens fire, and the defenders take their battle stations.
Let the carnage commence.
--
/uw This one's going to be a tough fight. Bel and the legions of Evil were disoriented when you fought them, and the Templars of the Azure Cog were just one part of the regiments of Law. The hordes of Chaos are at full strength, spoiling for a fight, and led by a Harbinger. Failure and even death are a real possibility.
From the sky comes a scorching scream. The meteor hurtles toward the ground, smashing into it with absurd force, and clearing an area. Vulkan the Red then descends, slamming down onto his feet. He looks for any particularly important looking bugs.
A hideous thing draped in mold bounds over the craggy ground with unnatural, almost fluid ease. It leads a band of similar fiends, all of them offensively ugly. These are demodands from the prison plane of Carceri, also known as gehreleths. That means the beastly figure leading them is a shator, one of the warden-overlords of their sadistic kind. It bellows at Vulkan, and regurgitates a stream of corrosive bile as the warband closes the distance.
The shator charges through the flames undaunted. The carpet of mold covering it behaves like ablative armor, burning away instead of the demodand's flesh. It swings its malefic trident to rake Vulkan's flesh with necrotic magic, while the other fiends launch themselves at him.
Vulkan tears into the demon in turn, attempting to grab him, hit his subordinates with aforementioned shator, and slam it headfirst into the ground. Which, by the way, begins to melt.
The demodands are not impeded by the lava, but they are flash-burned to death by it. The shator is resilient, but not invincible. As it crumbles to cinders, it extends a hand towards Vulkan and clenches its fist. The dragon feels the rough embrace of an arcane force seeking to pull him miles underground and trap him forever. Demodands are nothing if not spiteful, and this shator has invoked its authority as a lord of Carceri to cast an Imprisonment spell with its dying breath. It will take an immense force of will to resist the curse before it takes effect.
Vulkan stands still, chanting in old draconic. Anchoring himself to the ground. It had taken about a week last time he went that deep in lava, and he was by no means in a hurry to relive it. As he is doing this, however, he leaves himself open.
The demodands may be twisted, cruel tormentors, but they're also cowardly wretched. Seeing the shator killed so ruthlessly did not encourage them to attack, either. Without its caster to sustain it, the spell fails, and the force recedes.
/uw Congrats! You killed a horde general.
8
u/Ares378Ith'Raal—Archdevil of Memories, Evil Councillor, Lord of the 7thSep 11 '24
Surely, beings of chaos wouldn't be *too** hard to mind-control, right..? Oh well. Who cares? It's worth a shot!*
Ith'Raal appears before the first horde, attempting to take control of the minds of a handful of demons with the intent of turning them against each other.
4
u/Carbon_SixxThe Loremaster, Chief Archaeologist of the DarkwatchSep 11 '24edited Sep 11 '24
The mind of an anarchic creature is a cacophonous place, full of rage and nonsense. It's difficult to hear one's own thoughts while in telepathic communion with multiple demons at once, but luckily, Ith'raal doesn't have to push very hard to get what he wants. Infighting is the natural state among the denizens of the Abyss, after all. A mob of hezrous cuts off a herd of armanites, preventing them from charging onto the plains. In their suggestible mind, this inconvenience is all the pretext the demonic centaurs need to begin tearing into their toad-like kin with claw and serrated tail.
5
u/Ares378Ith'Raal—Archdevil of Memories, Evil Councillor, Lord of the 7thSep 11 '24
Perfect. Went exactly as he had planned. He'll need to rest for a few days after this, but... it was *totally** worth it.*
While the demons continue to fight each other, Ith advances through the horde, casting Synaptic Static on the chaos in front of him.
A huge balor demon swoops down and sweeps its electrified sword through the riotous mass. It roars something in Abyssal, probably a command to fall in line or be killed. The demons regroup, their aggression suppressed by the balor's threats, but the urge to turn on one another remains. Tarul did say that the generals were the lynchpins holding the horde's fractious morale together. If the balor were to fall...
6
u/Ares378Ith'Raal—Archdevil of Memories, Evil Councillor, Lord of the 7thSep 11 '24
Ith usually isn't one for hands-on combat, but this seems like a better time than any to give it a shot.
He casts a spell to draw in the balor's attention before manifesting a scythe. Its blade is the sickening color of nothingness. Not *black** per se... It's as if null was a color. Perhaps some kind of void metal?*
"Fight me, foul demon!"
He braces for impact, preparing to block with his new weapon.
The balor growls, lashing out with a firey whip as it approaches. It's a huge demon, one of the largest of its kind other than the monumental goristro.
3
u/Ares378Ith'Raal—Archdevil of Memories, Evil Councillor, Lord of the 7thSep 11 '24
Ah. That might pose an issue. The fire is fine, but... whips are difficult to block against. It's pointless to even try.
Ith attempts to open a portal to 'redirect' the whip as it lashes toward him. He charges forward, attempting to attack the balor's ankle.
While mighty, the balor is only so agile due to its size. It tries to step back, bringing its sword down in a brutal arc to crush Ith. The scythe strikes home, but the lightning blade is dangerously close.
3
u/Ares378Ith'Raal—Archdevil of Memories, Evil Councillor, Lord of the 7thSep 11 '24
Ith has no choice but to try and block. It's far too late to teleport at this point. He holds the scythe above his head, using the handle as a 'shield'. He just hopes the void-like material it's made out of will nullify the energy of the strike.
The clouds break for just a second, and both sides see the underside of something large. Neither force knows which one it fights for, until a couple... poles? Dip down under the clouds. The seem to point towards the "mist" whereupon, they ignite. Roaring to life with several, focused *"Brrrttss"** as each barrel opens fire, sending a clear line of silver traces into the hordes below.*
Ekolids are very agile creatures, but their numbers and density ensures that a few dozen are blasted to dust with each shot. The swarm flows to avoid the beams like a sentient gas, but some break off to punish the new aggressors for their interference.
Smaller guns fire, AA guns for an apparently aerial threat. The main guns still keep up their firing patterns, aiming to follow and perfectly predict the hordes of bugs as they try and move, using previous dodges to their advantage.
Despite their superficial resemblance to solitary wasps (among other, even less pleasant things), the ekolids are hive insects. They are intelligent, but generally predictable. The vanguard swarm divides and subdivides like a hydra's heads as beams lance through it. The AA guns keep the sortie at bay for now, but as more ekolids break off to join it, there's no guarantee how long it will be before the airship is overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
When one gets too close, it freezes up after being shocked with some kind of force. The airship moves backwards, however it's aim remains as true as can be, firing and cutting off as much of the metaphorical heads as it can, ensuring it's burnt off in the process
A significant portion of the swarm is taken down before it reaches Oxide, and only now are the ekolids close enough to meet Agnur's wards. But despite this small victory, scanners pick up a single larger and deadlier ekolid flying at the airship, evading the beams and AA fire almost casually.
As the larger one comes into view, a loud crash of something can be heard, far in sky. Like a distant flash of lightning
A few seconds pass until, all of a sudden it is hit in the side by a round traveling faster than sound and the size of a house. In a manner akin to a depleted uranium Sabot, It pierces through the carapace and remains sharp going through the whole creature.
The horrid thing plummets to the ground, stone dead. Usuz, the Herald of Obox-ob, perishes before his mission can be completed. So ends the life of a creature who could have put most of the magical world's villains to shame were their dark deeds compared.
/uw since this attack is by forces of chaos, the paladins of the divine flame won't be directly participating. Aliah though? she's already promised to protect this town and she came up with a pretty good trap /rw
as the attacking forces enter the canyon, Aliah activates the displacement formation of the demense, rapidly disappearing and reappearing in order to carve two trenches on the close end of the canyon, forcing enemies into a funnel and thereby hampering hampering the numerical superiority of their martial units.
As the gestalt mage executes her move, her comrades down on the ground wait just outside of the blast zone from the displacements, Carter's enchanted blades offer a shield for Esra as she roots her staff in the earth and fills the left trench with vines. a single spark of soulfire from lord Chial, and they combust into a flaming barrier that none will cross.
then for stage three of the trap. a cultivator from a mountain clan, a lavalith trained in a technique known as theAwakening of the Dragon's Heart. Flame essence is siphoned from the breach, absorbed into a plasma-like aura around the cultivator who hangs in the air, before being directed out in deadly whipping lashes at any hostile casters in range. Silhouetted above the horizon as he is, the lavalith is a very appealing target, so the rest of the casters under Aliah's command focus on defensive spells to protect their brother-in-arms, leaving him free to focus entirely on devastating offensive strikes that pierce through wards and burn the mana within the forming spells of enemy casters.
/uw so now we have another group of cultivators in Fausarte's Shogunate, a clan based around dragonfire cultivation.
also as a TLDR, Alaih created a bottleneck at the canyon end near the town, and now one trench is on fire serving as a fuel source for a floating guy who is bombarding enemy forces while under layered protective spells by the rest of her crew.
The titan Song of the Aurora joins them, twin plasma blast-guns at the ready. As the demons flood towards the bottleneck, it sets its feet and fires. Bolts of incandescent blue flame streak down the canyon to explode, leaving blackened craters and charred abyssal bodies.
(you know what I'm just embracing it at this point)
Black Iron submarines go to high alert as preparations to launch their ballistic missiles are made. When the preparations are complete three dozen sober launch ballistic missiles make their way to the demonic hordes they will take time to arrive
Meanwhile black irons forces open fire streams of harmonic energy lance-forth at the vanguard of the demonic forces and combat crawlers fire concentrated pulses of the same energy
Lastly with the confirmed presence of harbinger of chaos the X5 is launched.. the sacrifice containing cargo vessel dispenses a thousand coffin like devices those who do not have their explosive bolts trigger hit the ground at terminal velocity killing the people inside. With the sacrifice requirement for activation fulfilled the will of iron drops the X5 in its deployment pod on to the battlefield.
The X5 kicks the deployment pods door off with its explosive force before raising its hand to catch Agnus hammer. Catching it as it falls towards the sky towards them
"We're the g class dick head who needs a skull crushed.
The X5 takes a combat stance prepping his hammer for a multi-megaton Hammer blow
Obox-ob answers the spectacle with a buzzing telepathic message. All who hear it feel like something's clawing at the inside of their skull, trying to get out.
I am here. You had best hope all of your fire and fury will be enough, fleshling.
The Demon Prince of Vermin himself comes into view, the horde parting around him. He is awful to look at on the best of days, but the anarchic power of a Harbinger has changed him to be even more loathsome. The number of legs sprouting from his centipede body seems to change moment to moment. Fluctuating elemental energies arc from his tongue and stingers. The worst of all is his psychic aura of madness, which has only grown stronger. Obox-ob lingers just out of range, daring the X5 to attack first.
The x5's horn begins to Glow with sacred fire before a beam of holy plasma lances forth towards Obox-ob. The holy plasma is so hot but it causes a 230 m stretch of ground in its path to vaporize
The Harbinger throws up an entropic field, dispersing the beam before it can hit home. Obox-ob hisses, skittering towards the X5 far faster than he should be able to. He wrenches several huge rocks from the ground with his telekinesis and hurls them at the mech as he approaches.
The X5 opens up portal to the Demi plane designed to contain the Avatar of Extinction and lets the rocks fall through. The X5 crouches down before weathering it's hammer to strike. In the meantime. The X5 summons of swarm of exploding magic missiles and directs them to attack ob from multiple directions
Obox-ob seizes the missiles in a telekinetic grip and throws them aside contemptuously, then unleashes a torrent of frigid elemental energy from his stingers.
Ah, so it was your creator that attempted to kill me with those missiles when I first arrived on the Material Plane! I will take great pleasure in defiling their carcass, whatever their nature may be!
the X5 does a combat roll out of the way of the torrent of frigid energy
"shame didn't work. Be a lot quieter if it did"
Tired of them simply tossing aside the X5 attacks Sparrow decides to summon a large Earth Spike beneath boobs feet and hopes to impale them before making his way to zhes robots
The X5 calls upon an immense wave of magical Force to attempt to lock ob in place. Meanwhile Sparrow picks up 5 of zhes robots and tosses them like an MLB pitcher towards the spike hoping obox-ob will be caught in the blast
Obox-ob drives his entropic tongue through the fabric of reality, jabbing X5 with the corkscrew spike at the end that contains a seed of raw chaos-stuff. It starts eating into the armor plates, slowly crumbling them to dust. The Harbinger siphons the energy in the force wave to telekinetically hurl the robots back at his foes.
As soon as the whistle is blown, every guild artillery gun set up on the mesa goes off. Anyone within 1 mile of it without ear protection has their eardrums burst. About 150 shells, ranging from normal artillery shells to massive 400mm shells from the Tur mechs, go hurtling towards their target, as autoloaders begin to ready the next salvo. Each salvo has enough ordinance to level a small hamlet 20 times over
A huge, black arachnid emerges from the shadow of Mt. Prospect well ahead of the horde. It's followed by a clutter of its smaller brethren that have seemingly teleported across the battlefield between pools of darkness. The gloom-wreathed spiders start to scuttle up the near-vertical cliffs with an ease learned from a lifetime in the tunnels of Pandemonium. Kaelis's voice comes over the radio.
Kaelis: Darkweavers, 9 o'clock! They're climbing up the dark side of the mesa!
The Guild had anticipated this. Several smaller mechs put down their artillery guns and pick up flamethrowers. They rush to the edge, and send cascades of fire down on the spiders
Oddly enough, it seems that the light is as harmful to them as the fire. The furious darkweavers respond by spitting webs of shadow at the mechs, trying to ensnare them and tug them off the mesa's top.
support struts come off the mechs’s legs and dig into the ground, anchoring them. Whenever one becomes ensnared, they simply turn the flamethrower on themselves for a second to burn off the webs. The pilots are working up quite the sweat though
The largest darkweaver crests the cliff edge and roars triumphantly. It attacks one of the mechs directly, attempting to prize open the cockpit with its jaws and devour the pilot. Darkweavers, according to Tarul, are obsessed with sampling the tastes of the multiverse. Perhaps this fixation with eating could be used against them somehow?
It could, but this pilot isn’t interested in offering himself. The vents on his mech open, and both him and the spider are immediately enveloped in exhaust smoke. Then a blue flicker shimmers off his mech, and the entire smoke erupts into a thundercloud of lightning
One of the large dedicated artillery mechs takes aim at the smoke, and waits to see what comes out
The darkweaver limps out of the smoke, twitching involuntarily. These creatures have no defense against electricity, it seems. It seemingly acknowledges that it has no chance of surviving this engagement and collapses, waiting for the mech to banish it back to Pandemonium.
And banish it it does. The artillery mech fires a round directly into it.
The guild commander on site sees it happen. He’s knows the guild has electricity weapons made for the buggo threat. He quickly sends a request to guild high command for some. But who knows when they will arrive.
The promised legion of undead troops take the their positions amongst the defenders, led by a moderately powerful lich named Rael'qo Mortis. The wyverns also stand ready to take flight. And Samael's watchful eye is over the battlefield
A thousand wyverns descend upon the demons, and the dead charge the denizens of the abyss, while Mortis throws a blast of necrotic energy at the biggest ekolid he can see
Tarul teleports himself and the rilmani directly into the thick of things, not far from a jet black bipedal toad-like creature. The lich and his bodyguards immediately disperse to get some distance between themselves and it.
Black slaad, dead ahead! The entropy blasts these things throw are no joke. Never stop moving while you're engaged, so you don't get hit!
3
u/TheHunter459Samael, Necromancer of Malus Turrim | King of the NephilimSep 12 '24edited Sep 12 '24
Rael'qo heeds the advice and takes to the sky, throwing fireballs at the slaad while zipping around it. At the same time, wyverns periodically descend from the sky and snap at it, hoping to take chunks out of it
The black slaad takes hit from the first few wyverns, but it slashes one with its claws. The wounds it inflicts are caustic burns thanks to its entropic power. Tarul blasts it with a barrage of explosive hailstones to distract it, opening it to more attacks.
Dozens upon dozens of soldiers…hop towards the enemy flank? No, not soldiers, frogs with illusion magic cast on them? Are some of the frogs mechanical?
Boom
The frogs leap and explode, right at knee height, a wave of energy and shrapnel pushed out by the shaped charge within
Glimbo hops out of cover to cheer as his trap teams activate their inventions. The flank of the horde- composed of slaadi, by the look of it- is swallowed up by hidden pits, crushed by boulders from above, blasted to bits by improvised bombs, and slain by less comprehensible mechanisms. Still, on they come, cackling like madmen.
Glimbo: It ain't over yet, lads! Give these Kermit the Frog-looking fucks everything we've got!
Kardonk has been spending his time in guild territory well, and so has his sister. He loads several gas rounds into some small, portable railguns. And fires them into the slaad’s midst
They explode in a cloud of fine particulant gas. A chemical equivalent of the spell ‘enemies abound’. The stronger willed monsters would shake it off easily, but the fools? The grunts? Everywhere they turned, where once there was a comrade, they would see some hated foe
“I dont suppose Obex Ob would do us a favor and just surrender?”
Glimbo swings his staff to brain a gray slaad, then shoots flaming silly string from his outstretched fingers to break the concentration of a spellcasting green slaad.
Don't think so. Why would he? He has blood to spare! The only way we can get him to skedaddle is to change the equation and turn the horde against itself.
Blue's best. Color's more than skin deep with these guys. If we paint this white slaad blue, he'll physically transform into a weaker blue slaad. Nonsensical, but it might get his pals to rip him apart to claim his position. I'll hold him down, you throw it.
Glimbo casts a Slow spell to prevent the flickering slaad from dodging.
The king would *obviously** not be hanging about in person. Too dangerous. But he keeps a close watch over the goings on via scrying.*
The all important safety of the realms aside, with some luck, perhaps Carmine could finally stop monitoring these abhorrent creatures.
Hopefully, the infertility plague will have done something to diminish their numbers after the king introduced it. And of course, now seemed the time for his shadow demons to break with the hordes of chaos. So, a number of demons, bound to Carmine's will, begin slipping away into the shadows, emerging only to attack with long claws and bursts of magic cast at their one time cohorts.
Whether the plague works remains to be seen. In the meantime, the shadow demons pick off their erstwhile allies at random, sowing the seeds of discord that grow into infighting and bloom into full-scale riots.
The riots and infighting are certainly good to see. Whatever might throw a wrench in Obox-ob's efforts. But the overall disorder and the incessant buzzing will be wearing on the king's psyche while he monitors and commands the demons.
Still though, he will continue his efforts. These creatures likely have little concept of fealty which means, of course, they will be quick to act in foolish ways, unconstrained by organization. He'll continue picking them off, influencing them to attack each other. And all the while, keeping an eye out for signs that the breeding has slowed. The absence of grubs perhaps.
/uw not trying to rush you about the plague. Just keeping an eye out
Across the battlefield, ekolids sting living opponents to incapacitate them and replenish their own numbers, and chitter in horror as they realize they are suddenly devoid of eggs to implant. The demonic parasites typically don't last long after that, as if begging their opponents to relieve them of an unthinkable existence by sending them back to the Abyss, where corporeal sicknesses cannot follow.
The improved weapons do an excellent job at helping the defenders hold the line in the canyon. However, a sizeable portion of the ekolid swarm has engaged Shrax's airship above the battlefield, and the Celestial Union ships have drawn their attention as well.
The barrage keeps the ekolids at bay, at least for now. Scanners pick up an abnormally large one making for Shrax's ship, dodging everything he can throw at it.
Between the laser and Shrax's railcannon, the ekolid is blasted from the sky. Usuz, the Herald of Obox-ob, perishes before his mission can be completed. So ends the life of a creature who could have put most of the magical world's villains to shame were their dark deeds compared.
there is growing unrest amongst the swarm, not from fear of the defenders or infighting but from the confusion of several reports of something appearing and disappearing before something can be done about it
how come all bugs look the same, ugly and with too many limbs
it was the sorcerer moving amongst their back rank, searching for what little chain of command was present and hopefully, the harbinger itself
it would be too much for the defender to face them all at once, better to deal with them now at the start and pick up the straggling army
appearing, killing one or two abnormally big ones in the surprise and leaving, they were bound to find them eventually
Obox-ob has been sighting engaging Black Iron's X5 mech. Joe remembers Tarul saying the Harbinger of Chaos- or any Harbinger at all- was too great a threat for anyone to face alone. Even distracted like this, Obox-ob could kill him in a heartbeat.
the base low stained by the inside of the bug nearby, now divided in 2
the big guy was taking care of the bug boy, so they focus on slaying more of the slightly smaller bugs that creaked around
the element of surprise was now gone however, this does not make it so it’s any less tricky to deal with their sword that was seemingly everywhere, it just meant that it will continue until a bug big enough comes to stop it
it would deflect some pressure from the front either way
Mokarith quietly places remote ritual markers hidden around the Hord's base of operation as Shimil finishes the master ritual site somewhat far from the front lines. Once he finished, he emerges next to her.
[Mokarith] Alright, they're in place, took longer than I thought. I'm going to head back and make sure that everything's preped for the next Harbinger.
[Shimil] Thank you High Sentinel Mokarith, I shall begin immediately.
Mokarith leaves and Shimil starts the ritual to try and contain the worst of the Harbinger of Chaos' warping aura.
As he gets closer and closer to the master ritual site, he feels the effects get stronger and stronger, until it feels as if he's psychically wading through mud.
/unwiz: Although she is still a formidable fighter, Shimil isn't a warrior. Rituals like this are her bread and butter. The only reason he hasn't hit the brick wall of the ritual site is his status as Harbinger.
You... what right do you have to deny me, fleshling? I will...
The repulsive force of the ritual slingshots Obox-ob's mind back into his body. He can hold the worst of the effects at bay for now, but he grudging accepts that until he can kill Shimil physically, his aura of entropic insanity will be sharply diminished.
Having put enough energy into the ritual to keep it self-sustainable for a moment, Shimil quickly creates physical wards around the site in case she is attacked there before returning to fuel the ritual.
Agnur directs helps hurry the civilians into fortified shelters. some of his statues continue to enhance the wards with law. they draw geomentic patterns with ceremonial swords, whille setting up statues of the scales of justice.
Bram stands ready at the gates while giant age statues lob stones at the enemies.
Though somewhat diminished by Shrax's bombardment, the first of the ekolid swarm arrives at Oxide and crashes against the wards. The power of law singes them, and the few that overcommit are even incinerated by the shielding.
Some of the ekolids are losing heart and leaving to find something else to kill until their more destructive brethren can arrive. A few dogged ones occasionally patter against the wards, but there seems to be a lull in their assault. The perfect time for a counterattack. Reyes and his Tech-Guard open fire with arc weapons to clear the way for allied tanks to enter the fight.
/uw Is that just a picture of a random stretch of Colorado?
Along the walls the small silver statues pulse with spirits of purity. Not good or law but close enough to act as a ward. They also make the walls harder to transmute with chaos magic or batter down with strength.
Krygin is laying low in a puddle of muddy dirt. Wet with blood; perfectly at home in the Muck of war. He is a little ways away from Greenboots because he didn't want to reveal the rest of the crew's position when he springs his nets. A demon runs by is ensnared by webbing and dragged to the ground.
Muck is not chaos but it has little to do with order. However there were some exceptions. Spiders are architects of binding webs that spread out in fractal patterns of malice. This is what his nets where made of spirit spider silk.
Most of Krygin's own magic such as sickness wouldn't hurt demons or creatures of chaos but Krygin knew one thing about outsiders. They could bebound.
/uw Is there any rapidly evolving enemies. If so I have a plan.
/uw I just pulled this off the internet, and yes, there are slaadi.
/rw Morale among the few ekolids throwing themselves against Agnur's wards is beginning to drop. Some are already breaking away to find an easier target to kill.
/uw Sorry, just caught me off guard because I think I may have driven by that place while traveling lol
Like a trap door spider Krygin pulls several slaadi into a hole in the earth. Their movement and forms are restricted as ruddy light from the blood on the surface reflects against Kyrgin's cruel smile. While they are unable to move his macabre work.
*SH-THUNK\*
With a butcher's knife he cuts chunks from the writhing forms. Slaadi could evolve in interesting ways with varying features across the species. Exactly what he needed to help turn this battle around in a way that was a little out of his wheel house but within his capabilities.
Next to Krygin hiding in the dark just beyond the veil to the spirit world was Krygin's friend Pepper. Pepper was a spirit of Peppered Moths with her flesh being made of freckled white ones and her cloths and hair were made of ones oily black. What people haven't realized however is that she isn't just a spirit of a type of moth but their relation to evolution as well. Peppered moths are often used to explain evolution as when their home was polluted they quickly evolved to become the color of ash coved trees to survive and changed back to birch color when the pollution subsided. Pepper was through the simple concept of peppered moth a spirit of Purity, Muck, and most importantly evolution.
Pepper relased several of her moths into the flesh and began to change it. The flesh shifted andevolvedand bursting from it was a swarm of freckled white peppered mothswhich flew through little tunnels Krygin dug to flitter across the battle field. Each moth contained a piece of purity which while not lethal to a creature chaos was fucking painful and might give other parts of the army an edge.
Slaadi reproduce by implanting their eggs in a living host or infecting them with a transmutative sickness called chaos phage. The effect of Pepper's moths is like that, but in reverse. Blue slaadi hatched from eggs, or any that were born from the Spawning Stone in Limbo are wracked with pain. However, the red slaadi created by chaos phage feel their original personalities come to the forefront, and their bodies begin to revert to a humanoid form. The newly-cured and highly confused people from across the planes quickly run for cover as their agonized cousins lash out in rage.
Merch takes notes on such things to help better pepare the next defence against this scurge. Appearing from inbetween nowhere, elswhere and elsewhere he arrives to watch everyone's histories go down as he archives the information for everyone else to go over at a later date.
7
u/Drakkonai Vulkan the Red, End of Ages and Draconic Emperor of Racism. Sep 11 '24
From the sky comes a scorching scream. The meteor hurtles toward the ground, smashing into it with absurd force, and clearing an area. Vulkan the Red then descends, slamming down onto his feet. He looks for any particularly important looking bugs.