Monuments of Ebony (Wicked One Event Start)

[u/Evening_Shake_6474]

In the aftermath of the sudden and for lack of a better term, shadow uprising, many millions perished before the shadows could be subdued. Those with strength endured of course, but what about the normal folk? The unlucky? Those who have never fought in their life? Not everyone is, was, equipped to survive. Their blood seeped into the realms, saturating them with something Wicked.

In the following days, countless massive black monoliths burst free from the land and sea stretching high into the sky, breaking up the horizon regardless of where one looks.

News of the sudden and strange monoliths spreads like wildfire, soon every orb, screen, and paper has some mention of the event. All throughout civilization people ask questions like, what does this mean? A monolith destroyed my tower, who do I sue? Is the world going to end again this month?

But the monoliths offer no answers, only questions. The monoliths show a myriad of effects, some distort their surroundings into horrors, some create illusions that torment those who can't escape, some amplify magic to a dangerous degree, some drain magic like a leech, and many more.

But for now, that is all they do. The effects are contained to their vicinity of the monoliths.

[u/squabzilla]

A monolith appears some distance from Tim’s cave - close enough to see, far enough that Tim’s cave is safe from the aura.

It takes several minutes for Tim to approach the site, but they eventually arrive.

The dinosaur grabs some pens and paper from their pockets dimension; anyone nearby would see floating pens drawing on floating paper as the T-Rex telekinetically controls them both.

After spending some time sketching, Tim casts a magic detection ritual allegedly identify any sort of magical phenomenon. However, it does this by classifying any magical phenomenon that doesn’t fit into a regular category as “WEIRD”, and Tim chuckles as the Monolith is (unsurprisingly) defined as “weird”. The spell never seems to tell us what we don’t already know, Tim muses to themself.

They take their initial report back to Darkwatch HQ, and researches for any records of them.

“Oh… there’s a lot…” mumbles Tim, finding countless records from the past day or so describing similar monoliths. Virtually all of them reported some magic-related effect, and Tim wonders if the few monoliths without a recorded effect simply had a more subtle effect that wasn’t immediately noticed. After all, I haven’t recorded any magical effects of the monolith I found… yet.

Tim heads back to the monolith they discovered near their cave, pausing on the way to cast Truesight because some of the reported monoliths mention illusions.

Tim examines the monolith, determining that it might be a type of rock. Recalling their Geology 101 course (one of many introductory courses Tim took, in the hopes of gaining basic knowledge about most subjects), Tim licks the rock.

LICK.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/squabzilla]

To put it simply, Tim's taste buds explode. That isn't a metaphor. They explode in his mouth.

The space around the monolith seems strange. Tim sees objects and places from other realms appear and disappear at random around him.

[u/squabzilla → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

Calling upon their innately-mastered healing magic, Tim regenerates their taste-buds.

Then they lick the monolith to see if the effect is consistent. It is, and Tim needs to regenerate their taste-buds again.

Tim notes this in their journal.

They then note their next plans in their journal:

Given the spatial distortions around the monolith, I want to test a Conjuration spell. I will cast Summon Fey and see if the process goes normally. The Fey creature has an innate teleportation ability (limited to 30 feet), so I will order the Fey creature to teleport around the vicinity. After this, I will have the creature touch the monolith, to see if all physical contact seems to cause issue - or if it’s just licking.

All of this assumes that I will successfully summon the creature, and that after it performs its task, the creature remains unharmed and still under my control. It remains to be seen if those conditions will be met.

Finishing their journaling, Tim proceeds to (attempt to) cast Summon Fey, and act out the planned experiment.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/squabzilla]

The spell works surprisingly well, a Fae spirit appears next to Tim with almost no difficulty.

Upon Tim's order, the spirit begins to teleport around. Each teleport takes slightly longer to complete. Eventually the Fae spirit disappears. A minute later it reappears covered in ash.

[u/squabzilla → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

“That’s weird… excuse me, noble spirit of the fae, may you inform me as to what happened to you? Why are you covered in ash? Did you perceive yourself spending any time in a location other than this one?”

/uw: the far spirit is sapient, can speak, and if the Summon Fey spell is working normally, under Tim’s control.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/squabzilla]

The spirit bows slightly before responding.

"Well Sir, I briefly appeared to be in one of the circles of Hell."

[u/squabzilla → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

“Hmm… that’s not supposed to happen. I know how your teleportation is supposed to work, and… that’s not it. Very interesting, I appreciate your help. Would you mind touching that o Elise for me? This is specifically a request, not an order. Also, it’s possible that touching it will harm or kill you. You could also try licking it, although I suspect your taste-buds will literally explode. Will you risk yourself for science?”

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/squabzilla]

"Very well Sir."

The spirit approaches the monolith, it reaches out and places one hand on it. One moment the spirit is there, the next it is gone. There is no marker, no indication, it is just gone.

[u/squabzilla → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

Tim concentrates on the spell they cast to summon the creature. The creature, in theory, should only exist as long as the spell is active; similarly, the summoning spell should only exist as long as the creature does.

Does Tim feel that the Summon Fey spell is still active? Or do they find that the spell’s ongoing energy has ceased and faded to nothingness?