#Necromancing the Stone

[kirythestitchwitch]

Klaroline WIP Wed!!! - 'Necromancing the Stone' - Time to Wine About It

Caroline's gone to Bonnie and Enzo's to tell them about Klaus for the first time in ever.

-----------------------

Enzo met her at the door, a glass of white wine ready for her. Handing it to her as he ushered her in, he waited until she was taking her first sip to ask conversationally, “So who do I need to kill?”

Caroline choked as her wine went down wrong, and coughed. “No one. Do not attempt to kill him.” The last thing she needed was Klaus pulling her best friend’s heart out of his chest.

“Him?” he said leadingly, as his hand making soothing pats on her back guided her to the kitchen table. She sat gratefully, taking another gulp of wine. Getting too far into the bottle was probably a bad idea for this conversation, but the edges of it needed to be blunted, or she was going to angry-cry, and then nothing would stop Enzo from attempting to kill Klaus, probably with Bonnie’s help.

“Bonnie will be here soon, let’s just wait for her for this conversation.” Nervously, she fiddled with her glass. They’d never had this conversation before. 

At the other end of the table, Enzo was putting together a sandwich that scoffed at physics. Apparently, she’d interrupted his lunch, which she’d feel bad about if he hadn’t been showing up at her homes unannounced for decades. Also, if this wasn’t a crisis worthy of home invasion, she’d resign as chairman of the board.

“Mm, she’s pulling up the drive now.” He spread more mustard on the bread and plopped the hoagie roll top on.

Caroline eyed the sub with an intrigued horror. “How are you going to eat that?” The veggies alone were two inches, the meat and bread another three or four.

Enzo cut down the middle with a butcher’s knife and arranged the halves on a plate. “Oh, I’ve got skills.” The sly look he slanted her as he stuffed sandwich components in the fridge left her little doubt about what he meant.

Groaning, she took another sip of wine. “I really do not ever need to know.” 

Bonnie came in through the garage door and threw her purse and jacket on the mud bench. “Okay, I’m here, what’s the emergency?” She paused halfway to kissing Enzo’s cheek as she caught sight of Caroline, her morose expression, and her large glass of Chardonnay. “It is only 11:30, what kind of day have you had?”

Rotating the base of her wine glass on the table, Caroline tried not to look guilty. “That’s a long story. A very secret long story.”

“Oh my god, are we going to talk about the guy?” Bonnie asked, shock dawning on her face.

Enzo leaned forward and pressed a slightly mustardy kiss to Bonnie’s cheek. She made a grossed-out noise and wiped her face, while Enzo looked at Caroline with keen interest. “There’s a guy? I haven’t heard about a guy recently.”

“Not a guy, the guy. The reason that all her dates go nowhere after a night, and she hasn’t had a relationship since the 90s.” Bonnie pulled out a chair and sat down.

Caroline made a noise of protest. “I’ve had relationships!”

Crossing her arms and leaning on them, Bonnie shot her a look that dared her to attempt a defense.

“Jason!” she said, quite defensively.

“Lasted three dates, canceled the fourth, never called him back.” Bonnie listed on her fingers.

“He had a weird Trine Goddess kink,” she mumbled into her glass and tried again. “Dana!”

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. “Two dates, one of which was coffee, and you faked an emergency during dinner.”

“She talked constantly,” Caroline sighed.

Enzo took a bite of the sandwich. “I happen to know,” he said around his mouthful, “That that is not your problem. You like it when they talk.”

“... About her chihuahua’s pageant rankings?” She held the glass of wine to her temple as if it could save her from this conversation.

“Los Angeles was so weird,” Enzo muttered.

“The point is,” Bonnie said with a jab of her index finger, “your love life is a disaster and your heart isn’t in it. So there has to be the guy that ruined things.”

Caroline set her glass down and spread her hands placatingly. “He didn’t ruin things, he just… set a very high standard. Until he didn’t.”

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Necromancing the Stone | Author: Lish McBride | Publisher: Henry Holt & Company (2012)

[feything-n-frothing]

when it’s the scary bone cultist’s turn to say prayers…!

[spielzeugkaiser]

GAUNTER AND JASKIER oh my GOODNESS I am like 👀

[MASTERPOST] For this to make even a semi kind of sense what happened in the Flowers Comic is not unimportant. And I did draw Jaskier and Gaunter here too. Necromancer!Jaskier is also still my favorite de-aged baby; I mean he is an adult, but he's still younger than Ciri - if it's not Geralt who will go full protect mode it's her!

Ironically I have something in the queue for later that makes it somewhat clearer why Gaunter could have some interest in Jaskier.

[rcrisdraws]

Woe upon those who question the love and wrath of devotion.

[Image ID: Illustration featuring two men dressed in Japanese clothing. The man on the left is slightly slouched, with his left arm clinging to the back of the man on the right. He has tan skin, short, choppy, black hair and beard, and round glasses that glint in a way that reflects light. He is dressed in a green kimono with its sleeves held up and deer hide chaps. in the bottom left corner a piece of the red war bow he's holding can be seen. The man on the right is standing with both arms at ease beside his body, his back slightly turned to the camera. He has pale skin, auburn-red hair tied up in a high ponytail and a thick beard. He's very thin and wearing a dark purplish kimono with the sleeves held up and black samurai pants. A pistol and a katana can be seen hanging by his belt. The left arm of this man, facing the viewer, is covered in bright red blood.]

[monerelluvia]

Since work has been very stressful lately I don't have anything new to show, but there's one character I never posted here - Petra! A gem Dragonborn (black topaz) who's a necromancer warlock to some ancient lich creature. The second drawing is her form of dread - a sudden burst of hardened crystal all across her body (oh the poor clothes) and a bit more wild draconic instinct coming on top.

She was initially offered as a sacrifice by the lich's cult, but hatched from her egg before the ritual could be finished. This was taken as a sign to keep the baby dragon and raise it instead. Around the same time a tiefling boy was born, and per the tradition of the cult, the two were taught together and raised together to become the perfect duo of mage and his protector. Petra is his shield and blade while he's the tongue and the soul of their cause. Recently, they were both sent out into the world to share the teachings of their religion and find their "god" if possible.

At least that's the theory, I didn't get to play her yet, but maybe soon! The tiefling will be played by my partner, and we totally didn't try to copy the necromancer - cavalier tradition from the Locked Tomb series. Nope, not at all!

[toaarcan]

I've talked about the Bionicle-flavoured D&D game I was a part of a few times on here, but I kinda want to go over our take on Makuta.

Makuta was, of course, the ultimate villain of the story, and while we didn't finish the game for a host of reasons, we know how it would've gone down had we completed things, and so I can ramble about everything rather than merely speculating.

Makuta and Teridax were separate characters. This was an idea I've seen a couple of times, but here it happened organically. My first PC was Ahkmou (shocker), a Warforged Stone Sorcerer, and as such I gave him a backstory featuring an antagonist based on 01-03 Makuta. One of my friends' first PC was Miserix, a Dragonborn Moon Druid, and as such, he had a backstory featuring an antagonist based on 05-10 Makuta.

These two characters couldn't be the same (well I suppose we could've finagled it so they were, but we didn't), so I avoided naming mine until we landed on the solution that Ahkmou's old nemesis was Makuta, and Miserix's old nemesis was Teridax.

Makuta and Teridax's initial appearances, respectively.

Teridax ended up being a charismatic and manipulative High Elf with a Wizard/Sorcerer multiclass that sought ultimate power and knowledge, while Makuta was the ancient and terrible Fiendish God of Magic, Power, and Destruction that had ravaged the world in the Great Cataclysm, all that stuff.

They also took inspiration from G2 a bit because this was just after G2 died and we weren't wholly ignoring everything from it yet.

But something happened with that.

See, Teridax was the (apparent) BBEG of the game, and therefore he didn't appear all that much. He would show up every now and then (and most of his appearances were very memorable and tense), but Makuta was different.

Makuta was a PC.

Ahkmou had a passenger. Formerly a servant of Makuta during the Cataclysm, he had turned against his former master and helped the previous generation of heroes stop him. However, when Makuta was shattered into six shards, the smallest and weakest of the bunch buried itself in Ahkmou's core and laid there, dormant, for decades afterwards.

Then, during our first adventure, Ahkmou came close to death, and in a moment of panic and weakness, reached out to the Shard for the power needed to survive, and he got it.

Makuta's power rippled out of Ahkmou's body in an enormous shock wave that ripped up the floor of the room we were in and killed the antagonists we were fighting. Ahkmou began to levitate a few inches off of the ground, his formerly blue eyes burning golden, and started to speak with two voices, the second much deeper and much smoother than his own rather high-pitched and scratchy one (I typically give Ahkmou the voice of Prime Starscream, for reference). The armour on his left hand began to turn black and red, and shortly after leaving the dungeon, he fell into a comatose state.

Makuta had single-handedly ended our part of the adventure (we split the party, oops) with his morning stretch. And he didn't go away.

When Ahkmou awakened, he'd changed a bit. He'd become spikier and meaner, and the subsequent adventure saw the last of his idealism die, when he managed to prevent a conflict with a big redemption speech, only for the BBEG to kill off most of the people he'd saved with a killswitch. After that, Ahkmou became much more aggressive, his biting sarcasm got much crueler, and he began strongly advocating for solving all of our problems with murder.

Originally, Ahkmou had been snarky, but well-meaning, and somewhat cowardly. He secretly held a great admiration for those that saved the world from the apocalypse he helped cause, and used the story of his redemption at the hands of Takanuva to try and inspire others to be better.

But now, there was another voice in his head, encouraging him to take the darker path.

As this was my character, I was the one playing the Makuta presence, and though he was based on 01-03 Makuta... I have a preference for the later characterisation, and so I quickly began to play him more as a thinking, scheming being.

Things got worse in the next adventure. During his coma, I had instead played Aisling, a ruthless and cynical death-worshipper who the party had inadvertently stomped on all the trigger buttons of during their first adventure together. Aisling had returned for vengeance, and the party went to try and stop her. Ahkmou stayed behind, though, because the place the fight would be happening was the resting place of another of Makuta's Shards, the Shard of Fire.

See, Ahkmou dreaded being in close contact with the other Shards. To his knowledge, the Shard of Stone was weak and directionless. It was a lump of power, more power than he could normally wield, but nonetheless it wasn't even sentient. If he were to be in close proximity to one of the bigger, smarter Shards, however, he feared they would merge, and overwhelm him, reviving Makuta in his body. As such, he didn't go to the Charred Forest to confront Aisling.

OOC, this was largely an excuse for me to not have a character on both sides of the conflict.

This ended up being a bad idea. In the battles that followed, Aisling effortlessly exploited the weaknesses of her former allies, soundly beat them at almost every turn, and killed Miserix when he attempted to challenge her alone.

Ahkmou was left feeling terribly guilty, that he could've prevented Miserix's death and helped turn the tide if he were present. At the same time, he largely found himself agreeing with Aisling's motivations, if not her methods, given his own ruthlessness. Even still, he liked and respected Miserix. And the icing on the Cognitive Dissonance Cake was that Aisling had been killed by another villain, revived by her girlfriend, excommunicated from her cult, and essentially forced onto the redemption path. She was still here, still rubbing shoulders with everyone else, and still in the "But I did nothing wrong" phase of the redemption process.

This complex mix of feelings left Ahkmou largely absent for the following few adventures, with Aisling and my third character, Gavla, being my mains in that time.

Worse still, it was during the confrontation with Ash that Teridax revealed himself, and claimed the Shard of Fire, which was all around very bad news.

Two adventures later, we had another run-in with Teridax wherein he also revealed ownership of the Shard of Earth, and this confirmed Ahkmou's worst fears. Someone, somewhere out there, was trying to reunite the pieces of Makuta for some unseen purpose.

Takanuva had done his best to suppress all knowledge of the Shard of Stone. Across the whole world, the only people that knew of it were him, his trusted inner circle, Helryx and her representatives in the guild we were working for, and Ahkmou and his comrades specifically. As far as anyone else knew, there were only five Shards. That his one's element was so similar to Earth only helped them hide it more.

But if Makuta were reunited and revived, he would know he was incomplete, and he would know where to look to find the last piece. No mortal soul would be able to contain and control even half of Makuta's essence, let alone the majority of it, so the odds that Teridax would survive completing his mission were low.

In that moment, Ahkmou should've thanked the party for their support, and left to make the journey to Solspire, the home of the Order of Light and Takanuva specifically. He should've joined forces with his oldest ally, and had his own Shard suppressed or removed.

But he didn't. In part because this was a D&D game and I wanted him to stay with the party, but mostly because Ahkmou was wrong about the Shard.

It wasn't non-sentient. It was, in fact, not just sentient, but sapient. It had grown smarter and stronger ever since he awakened it, with more and more of his body starting to mutate as it reached its corruptive essence further and further into him, and it was already starting to influence his decisions.

Makuta did not want to be suppressed, and he definitely didn't want his host to be purified, so he instead pushed Ahkmou to a different course of action: Breaking the party away from their previous allegiances and going on a personal quest to find and destroy the rest of the Shards before Teridax could get them. If he only had two, maybe that would be a problem they could stop.

Makuta also implanted the idea in Ahkmou's head that only the Shards could find and destroy each other. Therefore, Ahkmou would need to keep him alive and around in order to achieve his goal.

After all, if Ahkmou is going near the other Shards, then Makuta has a chance to reunite with the rest of himself.

The first we found was the Shard of Water, in a sunken city in an acidic sea. Ahkmou still had enough control to refuse to join the mission below the waves, but nonetheless supplied the others with a specific plan: They should go down there, recover the Shard of Water, and bring it to the surface, so he could destroy it.

In reality, Makuta was just trying to get it brought to him so he could absorb it.

But then, things went differently to his expectations. The fight for the Shard of Water was grueling, having to confront a genocidal fish-man who wanted it for himself, a gang of pirates, and in intensely creepy Wight named Gorast who had been one of Makuta's original followers.

(Gorast got a model despite her relative non-prominence because I like making nasty-ass zombie-looking creachers in HeroForge)

In the battle that followed, the party had managed to trick Gorast into taking the Shard of Water into herself, and then Nurghal, the party's main Paladin, had been able to bait her into sticking around to try and drain his light and morality with her powers instead of immediately teleporting away, long enough for him to smite her and kill both Gorast and the Shard of Water.

Because Nurghal Ironhide is just that cool.

Ahkmou's theories about what could kill a Shard proved to be wrong. In any normal situation, this should've been cause for jubilation. Ahkmou could safely purge his own Shard and they could continue the quest without Makuta growing stronger.

But Makuta wasn't happy. In fact, Makuta was fucking steamed. A part of himself had just been killed, perhaps permanently, and he would never be whole again. He was so close, only a few hundred metres from reclaiming part of his lost power, and now it may be gone forever.

So instead, he accentuated the negative. During the drop, Gavla almost died, and Ahkmou has caught feelings for Gavla that he doesn't know how to process, and that gave Makuta a wedge.

Rather than congratulatory and relieved, Ahkmou got snippy with Nurghal, saying his plan was far too risky and could've allowed Gorast to escape with her prize. They almost lost, someone he can't lose almost died, and next time, he's going with them to prevent that.

Over the course of the next few missions, Makuta's influence ramped up, as Ahkmou tapped more and more into the Shards in an effort to survive an attack by the Gravesworn and a hellish jaunt through the Underdark, bargaining more and more of his soul away to protect himself and his comrades.

By the time they reach their next breather spot, he's laser focused on the Shards, and he starts getting aggressive and threatening anyone and anything that would impede his progress toward that goal, even other members of the party.

Because all these detours and distractions and sidequests are hindering him. Stopping to help all these... small, insignificant people, well it won't matter if Teridax beats them to the Shards of Air and Ice, and everyone dies because the world is destroyed.

He doesn't realise that his reasons for being so forceful are increasingly just a mask that Makuta is wearing, even as he articulates them when the others call him on his attitude.

He apologises for his pushiness, for not accounting for the needs of others. He doesn't mean it. He's not really in control any longer. He thinks he is, he's got both hands on the wheel, but Makuta tells him where to go, and he goes.

And then, they finally meet Teridax again. Makuta feels the other parts of himself within his opposite number, and it drives him crazy. Two more parts of himself are within his reach, held by another... and he isn't even using them right.

Teridax isn't mutated like Ahkmou is, and that's not a glamour. He has the Shards within him, but they're dormant. If they weren't, he'd be most of the way to full transformation and completely controlled by Makuta.

Ahkmou was unable to stop him, and Makuta overrode him and attacked.

Still, Teridax was too powerful for the party... and that was exactly what Makuta wanted. Even in his rage, he's scheming. Backed into a corner, Ahkmou had little choice but to give himself fully over to the devil within.

Makuta has won. Over the course of the last few months, he's chipped away more and more at Ahkmou's mind and soul until he can finally wrest full control from his host.

He effortlessly defeats Teridax. He easily dupes the others into thinking he's still Ahkmou, and feeds them a plan that requires them to distract an adult Dragon while he peacefully searches for the Shard of Air, the only person accompanying him being the one member of the party that happens to have the worst WIS save and the worst luck, the one person he knows he can escape.

And he very nearly miscalculates. He's so convinced of his superiority and inevitable victory that he forgets that his companion as a Ring of Spell Turning. He assumes he can just drop a Heightened Hold Person and lord his victory over a captive audience of one, and it almost blows up in his face.

But ultimately, it doesn't matter. He claims the Shard of Air and he escapes to begin his plans proper, and now that he has more of himself again, he finally comes to grasp the totality of the Plan, the goal that the other pieces of himself have been steering Teridax and Ahkmou and any other Shardbearers out there towards.

He prepares for open conflict with Teridax, because one of two things will happen. Either he will kill Teridax, and claim Fire and Earth, or Teridax will kill him, and claim Stone and Air. Either way, the result is the same: Four of the six Shards, in control of one body. Then, they are free to find the last of them, the Shard of Ice.

The Shard of Ice rests in the Winterlands, the home of the cult that Aisling hailed from. In fact, it rests within Vasyana, the leader of that cult, and it has been growing stronger and stronger by feeding on the cult's faith for the Raven Queen. For a piece of a god, the leader of a religious organisation is the about the best place it could end up.

And once they have control of the seat of the Gravesworn, they can open the door to the afterlife and reunite with the Shard of Water, becoming whole again, Makuta reborn in totality.

But if, by some twist of fate, the heroes of this world actually manage to kill them and their host? It doesn't matter. Because they know how the afterlife works. They know that they will simply go there, and reunite anyway, and it will be child's play to resurrect himself.

Because he's Makuta. He's been three steps ahead this entire time.

For all the things that got messy with R&R, I think we translated the character of Makuta into the game perfectly.

[the-punforgiven]

Decided just now that it'd be really funny to have a whole bunch of different d&d characters who are all like former knights of the same order or crestfallen sellswords from the same mercenary company but also have all of them individually believing for their own reasons that they are the last surviving member of their group

[thatsmyfetish]

...Will Not Hesitate to Kill a God

[possumkingluca]

And that's 3/4! No I don't know why this one took me so long I am literally never satisfied with the finished product when I draw this man I think I'm cursed 🤩

anyway

Alex! A Sapphire Gem Dragonborn Rune Knight Fighter and the only reason we're alive 90% of the time.

Quandrix uniform and the post-module homebrewed second half outfit as usual.

only one left now and despite having the most basic of designs he continues to give me so much grief because of course he does

[bawdabaw]

A WIP of a "tiny" trash comic I am working on. I was just so proud of Liz. I had to share. This is @thatsmyfetish babydoll.

[kirythestitchwitch]

Klaroline WIP Wed - Necromancing the Stone - The Way to My Heart is Coffee

Caroline found a very nice bottle of wine from Klaus on her porch and she decided a bath and a few more glasses to accompany her deep thinking were just what she needed.

--------------------------

By the next morning, what she decided she really needed was an ice pack and a bottle of Excedrin. Having pulled a stool up to the kitchen island, she rested her head against the cool marble surface and groaned. Idly, she wondered if she could raise herself from the grave, because surely being dead would hurt less. The full might of the Forbes ancestors behind her, and she could do nothing about a hangover.

Resentfully, she eyed her phone and thought about sending Klaus her displeasure.

The Excedrin would be easy to solve, if she could just make herself move from the barstool. It took a great deal of willpower, but eventually she crawled her way to the bathroom cabinet, and then into the shower, and then into some clothes. By the time she made her way back to the kitchen–the wallpaper paste flavor in her mouth ruthlessly scrubbed away–she was starting to feel moderately optimistic that she would survive, eventually. 

The temptation to send her ex pithy messages had not abated.

Her mug from yesterday was still sitting in the Keurig, filled with cold coffee, and she dumped it out and got a new mug from the cabinet. “Take two,” she muttered, picking another pumpkin spice k-cup and popping it in the machine. 

She glanced at her phone again.

A ridiculous amount of creamer was dumped into her coffee, and she sighed at the first sip. The concept of eating breakfast was completely out the window for the foreseeable future, but a caffeine infusion was exactly what she needed, all wisdom to the contrary aside. Leaning on the counter, she picked up her phone and checked her messages, like she did every morning. A text of concern from Bonnie, several social media updates, two emails from potential clients. Complete silence from Klaus.

Setting her phone down resolutely, she wandered back to her workroom with an eye to check on her progress on the protection amulet she was weaving for a mother who was very concerned about her daughter’s first year at university. It was delicate work, very fiddly until it was completed. Would take all her concentration.

Caroline was back at the island in three minutes, pulling up her texts and glaring at the “Hello love” sitting on her screen.

‘Not that I’m accusing you of trying to murder me, but a hangover is a particularly cruel way to go.’ she typed out, and then sent before she could think about it too much. Savagely, she turned her screen off and left her phone there. Klaus was an antique, who knew how long it would take him to respond.

She got as far as the hallway to the back of the house when her phone buzzed against the counter. It was embarrassing how quickly she managed to have her phone unlocked, in hand. “Stop it,” she told herself sternly. “You’re mad at him.”

‘It sounds like you did some thinking. I could bring you coffee? As I recall, that always helped.’ Oh, that smooth motherfucker. 

“‘See really, I remember you, Caroline, also please invite me into your house, so I can stalk you more thoroughly,’” she mocked to herself, taking a picture of her coffee mug. The porch light hadn’t been forgotten yet, the puzzle on her mind of what human he’d gotten to unlock her front door, flip the light from the porch, and then relock the door. Her house wards hadn’t been set off by someone stepping into her living room, her wards showed no signs of tampering, and clearly the parameter wards hadn’t gone off in her absence.

Also, there was the bone deep feeling that Klaus would never mean her physical harm. The opposite, in fact, to a sometimes infuriating degree.

Sending him the picture of her mug, she typed out, ‘Thanks, but I’ve got it covered.’ Sitting with that a minute made snakes writhe in her belly. Was she being too bitchy? His apology seemed genuine, and while something petty in her wanted him to suffer for the past year, Caroline had spent more time hanging onto that love than not. 

Her throat stuck a little as she noted the message had been read. Before she could change her mind, she kept typing. ‘I could go for another cup around 1. There’s a coffee shop on Beaudecker St.’

His reply was almost immediate. ‘I’ll meet you there?’

She agreed, and then set her phone down for the final time, resting her still pounding forehead against the counter. It wasn’t a weight off her shoulders, and in fact the snakes in her stomach seemed to have spontaneously turned to birds, but it was something. Not a promise to forgive him, but at least a step in a direction, instead of the circles she’d been running in since he’d left her porch the day before. At least she could ask him how Kol and Rebekah were.

[doomedandstoned]

THE DOOMED & STONED SHOW

~Season 8, Episode 24~

This episode, Billy Goate (Editor, Doomed & Stoned), John Gist (Vegas Rock Revolution), and Bucky Brown (The Ripple Effect) play their favorite tracks from the September edition of the Doom Charts. Upcoming episodes will look at the October and November rankings, as well.

Support the show by becoming a monthly patron and get access to seven seasons of past shows and more! Visit: patreon.com/doomedandstoned.

PLAYLIST

INTRO (00:0) 1. Spiritus Mortis (no. 12) - "Martyrdom Operation" (00:31)

HOST SEGMENT I (05:30) 2. High Tone Son of a Bitch (no. 31) - "Ten Mountain High" (17:41) 3. Umbilicus (no. 25) - "I, Human" (24:36) 4. Sonic Flower (no. 37) - "Swineherd" (28:49)

HOST SEGMENT II (35:47) 5. Gone Cosmic (no. 13) - "Crimson Hand" (41:26) 6. Trippelgänger (no. 35) - "Ride" (45:03) 7. The Necromancers (no. 11) - "The Needle (47:37)

HOST SEGMENT III (53:01) 8. Abrams (no. 10) - "Like Hell" (59:53) 9. Tornet (no. 9) - "Förlorad" (1:03:52) 10. Colour Haze (no. 8) - "Goldmine" (1:08:23)

HOST SEGMENT IV (1:12:59) 11. Spellbook (no. 7) - "Night of the Doppelgänger" (1:22:20) 12. Clutch (no. 6) - "Slaughter Beach" (1:29:33) 13. Frayle (no. 5) - "All The Things I Was" (1:33:14)

HOST SEGMENT V (1:38:42) 14. Robot God (no. 4) - "Ready To Launch" (1:57:23) 15. Mutautu (no. 3) - "Lost Shoes Blues" (2:04:27) 16. Freedom Hawk (no. 2) - "Comin' Home" (2:10:50) 17. King Buffalo (no. 1) - "Mammoth" (2:16:34)

OUTRO (2:22:47) 18. Witchsnake (no. 14) - "Full Moon Wizardry" (2:23:48)

CREDITS:

Theme Song: Dylan Tucker

Incidental Music: Hellvetika

Thumbnail Art: Gone Cosmic

[terra-tortoise]

i was thinking abt my own lore n was like "oh well its Well Established that there are dragons that are just living objects bc of changes in leyline patterns" and then was realized how silly it is to call it well established when its all in my head and based on a petsim

[theobliviousunluckybastard]

CALE HENITUSE:

A Commander wearing a black uniform.

An excellent strategist.

Can flip a whole continent over within a few hours.

Has a super smart black dragon by his side 24/7.

Many other powerful dragons follow him.

Covered in blood ... most of the time.

Mostly smiles coldly like a villain or a scamming smile.

Curses quite often.

Has committed all sorts of crimes like arson, torture, kidnapping, forgery, property destruction, looting, killing, scamming, fraud, stealing, blackmailing etc.

Will loot you dry if you're his enemy.

Lives in the middle of the forest of darkness, a forbidden region which is a habitat of the most ferocious monsters of the continent .

Has a 10,000 years old black castle in the middle of the said forest .

Often surrounded by a crazy amount of black crows(thanks to gashan).

Owns a whole flying monster skeleton brigade.

Has a whole army of dark elves, necromancer, wolves, tigers, swordsmasters, powerful mages, dragons, assasins, torture, and poison experts by his side living at his home with him.

Uses a strong ruling aura as well as an aura that reminds you of blood and death.

Can basically control nature at this point with the number of ancient powers he has.

Has a whole mine that produces dead mana magic stones.

Okay, if one doesn't know who Cale is and has no idea about the context, I swear Cale would seem like an extremely scary final boss villain with this list of descriptions to them!! 🤣🤣

[spacebarbarianweird]

@ramlightly graciously let me write a fic based on this comic. Check it out, it's so cool!

"Dominate Person" is a nasty spell that can fully submit a humanoid to your power. It's unclear if the victim has self-consciousness in the moment but since it's possible to throw Wisdom saving rolls I think you can feel that you are controlled.

Thanks @bhaalbaaby for beta-reading!

Puppet Master

Synopsis: Astarion is enchanted by the "Dominate Person" spell and almost kills Tav.

Tags: angst, comfort

TW: A description of physical violence

Read on AO3

Masterlist

Headcanons

Astarion wants to move. To hide in the shadows and shoot the necromancer from there.

You are surrounded, but you keep doing your work.

But he can't.

His body is paralyzed, and he feels a wave of panic. 

No, not this. Not "Hold Person"!

He can't do this. He can't make it.

Paralysis is like being sealed in a tomb with too little space to move. Helpless, voiceless.

What if something happens to you when he is like this?

"Astarion, use your daggers!"

Is it you? Or one of the adventurers you've teamed up this morning to kick necromancers out of the town?

Astarion just has to wait. The spell wears off when the spellcaster is down. Or a healer manages to find a way to get rid of the invisible chains.

Or...

USE THE DAGGER

The voice is intimidating, too loud, and too powerful.

It's like the Cazador's voice in his head again. Suppressing. Ordering. Torturing.

No, no...

Astarion feels his hand move toward the dagger. The strings make him move.

It's not "Hold Person".

It's "Dominate Person".

Full control of the victim. The voice your body cannot resist. You become one of them, fighting for them.

Murdering your loved ones.

KILL

Astarion rushes forward to you. To the only person he loves and cares about. The only person in the entire world who has never hurt him.

"Astarion! Help me! Astarion, what's wrong?"

Astarion pushes you into the ground with all his newfound vampiric strength.

No, no, please, stop it!

MURDER THEM

The dagger stabs through your stomach, causing an internal rupture. The second dagger wounds your chest.

You stare at him in pain, in silent prayer. You watch your lover killing you.

Blood. So much blood. Your blood.

A strong hand pulls Astarion from you, but it's not enough.

Astarion has an order from his new master.

To kill you. To make sure you are dead.

It is the worst type of dissociation. He is just an observer.

His hands rip you apart as if you are a prey he's found in the woods. Your eyes are full of terror and pain.

VAMPIRE, DRINK THE BLOOD.

No, no, I won't do it. I don't take the blood without consent... NO!

His fangs pierce into your neck, taking the blood non-stop. To satiate him, to let him feel alive.

And to drain you.

He is less than a slave. A puppet. With his locked mind in agony.

CRUSH THE SKULL

Astarion grabs a handful of your hair to smash you against a stone. Your body is motionless. Broken. Almost dead.

And then...

The agony of death pierces the mind. It's an acid flare of horror - too familiar for the undead.

It happened to him once, many years ago. When he was killed by Cazador and revived as a vampire spawn.

That's how death feels.

But he isn't dying. More than this, his body is his again.

Astarion stands up, feeling the nightmare wearing off.

Your body lies on the ground in blood and gore.

Astarion falls to his knees, his hands shaking.

And yells.

**

You wake up, your body sore and in terrible pain.

Astarion.

Your mind reacts with a panic attack - a near-death experience causing mental anguish. Your body remembers how Astarion jumped on you with his daggers.

How he ripped your throat.

How he almost crushed your skull.

You try to collect yourself. "Dominate Person". One of the nastiest spells necromancers know. Create a humanoid puppet and make them kill their friends and loved ones. While they silently scream, locked in their minds.

Some people never recover from that. Offing themselves, not being capable of dealing with what they did.

Damn, and what did it do to Astarion? It's what happened to him during his enslavement. Orders impossible to resist.

You want to call for him, but your body refuses to act. It remembers.

His hands, his fangs.

And his eyes in such desperation you've never seen.

Before you manage to collect yourself again, you fall into oblivion.

**

Astarion is silent.

His nails pierce his scalp. His teeth are clenched. His eyes open wide as he stares at the wall.

The companions who murdered the necromancers ignore him, but he doesn't feel any hostility.

Just a spell. It happens.

"Astarion... Is this your name, right?" a young fighter approaches him. "You need to take a bath."

Astarion looks at himself. His clothes are covered in blood. Your blood.

"Tav will be fine. We have good healers here. Don't blame yourself."

As if enchanted again, Astarion walks away. In silence, he locks himself in the bathroom - a small wooden room with a tub full of hot water. But instead of putting off the dirty clothes, he submerges himself fully clothed.

The fabric clings to the body, and Astarion hugs his knees. The blood mixes with water.

His back hurts as if his scars are bleeding.

He doesn't know how long he spends there. An hour? A day? A week? The water is cold. but he can't care less still hearing your cries.

The door creaks, and he notices familiar soft steps.

"Astarion? Are you alright?"

He can't look at you. Can't make himself. Can't witness the damage he caused.

"I almost killed you, and you ask how I am doing?" his voice breaks.

"The necromancer almost killed me," you say firmly. "Not you. Hey, look at me!"

Your head is heavily bandaged. There are bruises all over your face, and he knows there is much more evidence of his violence below your shirt and trousers.

"It wasn’t you. It was them. You would never do this to me."

"I did."

"You didn't. Come on, take off your clothes. They’re all wet."

He wants to make you go, make you leave. He will be happy knowing you are somewhere safe and far from him.

You touch his neck, and he can't resist. Astarion allows you to pull off his shirt and then manages to take off the trousers as well. 

"I am sorry," he whispers.

"Don't." You start rubbing his back, and he flinches when your gentle fingers touch the edges of the scars.

"Tav... You need to rest..."

"Don't be selfish. I need this, too."

"What? Why?"

You take his chin and make him look up at you. "Because my body remembers you killing me. Because my subconscious tells me to run away. Because I remember these gentle hands of yours driving blades into my chest. I need to forget it before it's engraved forever. So please, don’t push me away. Not now..."

You keep rubbing his back, hands, and chest. You plant kisses on the clean skin. You wash his hair, stained blood, and gore, and make sure your touches are light and tender.

"If you want to talk about it, I am here. I know what exactly it reminded you of," you whisper in his ear.

And at that moment it's too much.

His body shudders as he starts crying, hiding his face from you in his palms. You drop the rags and wrap your hands around his neck.

You sit like that for an eternity, lulling each other until the healer starts banging into the door, demanding you to return to bed. You reluctantly let Astarion go.

You kiss him goodbye and leave, hoping the darkness won't hold his mind again, and he won't run away from you and his guilt.

**

The bed is comfortable as you lie motionless on a blanket. The healer did a great job patching you together. But you will need to fully recover. And gallons of healing potion.

Astarion enters the room. He wears fresh clothes, and if it wasn't for his facial expression, you could think nothing bad has happened.

"Come," you ask him. "I am sorry, but the night of passion isn't an offer today."

"Don't be ridiculous. How are you feeling?"

"Beaten. Wounded. Tired. And you?"

"Violated"

You both are silent. Finally, Astarion lies beside you and wraps his hands around you.

Your body stiffens against your will. Astarion feels it and tries to let you go.

"No. Hold me like that!"

He obliges and gently places your head on his chest. His cool skin feels nice.

Astarion loves me. He won't hurt me.

You repeat it like a prayer before finally being able to fully relax.

"I love you," he mutters. "I won't hurt you. You hear me?"

You nod.

"I love you, too," You smile, and your heart rejoices when he smiles back.

--

Tag list

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