Alan roars loudly, beckoning Professor Cuddles back to him. If he spies Professor Cuddles in danger, he immediately rushes to the aid with a relatively low temperature blast of fire; low enough to not affect the crocodilian dragon, but enough to kill any dangers to the pet. He inhales deeply through his nostrils, attempting to somehow discern the scent of his target, wherever he is, from the other scents around him.
Alan was fighting an inwards battle now. Nothing too big; not an identity crisis, or something like that. No. He was worried. About his name.
People don't quite fear the name ALAN. People don't cower in fear of "Alan... the evil dragon king". No. People were scared of names like Malicus, Evilicus, and Dreadicus. Alan wondered; what should he call himself now. Probably didn't matter. People would invent their own names for him. And he probably couldn't speak. He'd have to try that sometime.
Your beconing call leaves something to desire for. It seems you need to practice roaring a bit more. Perhaps somewhere alone where nobody can hear your bad attempts. Anyway, moments later Professor Cuddles springs to the skies behind buildings and lands on nearby rooftop. It creaks under his weight, threatening to give in. He's actually smaller than you now. Small enough that you could carry him on your back with minor difficulties.
The smells that enter into your nose are decidedly more detailed than ever before. Fire, smoke, delicious burned flesh, hundreds humans, sick and healthy, rotting sewage, rats, dogs, cats... All kind of new smells you easily identify. But not your target. Actually, you don't even know his smell. That makes tracking him down bit more difficult.
As for your inner fight, you have thick and flexible tongue. You could probably imitate all kinds of noises like a parrot.
"Use yours mother there is less chance of something going wrong I live if you do it."
Your last words are buried under a loud... roar? It's like when a teenager tries to sound manly and strong but his voice breaks and betrays him. There's probably an intent behind it, but it ain't clear. Or even particularly threatening for that matter.
Mother stares stairs up before nodding and focusing on magic, thinking how to do it with least amount of backlash. Then you find yourself suddenly on top of the stairs leading into the hidden cellar. After hesitating a moment you descend the stairs again. You find her in the cellar looking at a book and casting a spell. Déjà-vu? The table the book was on turns blue. Your mother studies the table, the book and herself few confused seconds.
"This is not what I expected 1 to be at all." She turns to you worried. "Are you allright? Did magic do something to you?"
"Give it... A moment..."
The throbbing pain doesn't appear to leave you any time soon. You clench your fists hard to distract yourself from the pain and rise your gaze. Your new eye sees world differently from the another. Black waves washes over the room many times each second, scanning for changes, numerous black knots on walls observe ongoings here carefully, feeding information to the fortress. Tlaco before you is nothing but infinitely complex darkness focused on you. She twists her hands restlessly, wanting to do something to help you. The electrified scaps of cloth floating around her have their strict orbits unfold before you, hundreds paths they can take to protect anything from approching the dress they are attached to, wing shapes they default to when the dress is falling clearly visible behind. Behind her in another room unbreakable cage of containment circle and thin treads of dispel array ready to rip apart anything made of magic.
Then you look at the lone Die of Order resting on the table. Your natural left eye sees it. The True Eye does not.
"Okay. I think we're safe from our friends now, CenTreepede, you can slow down. Guys, we wild mages really are a danger to friend and foe alike. I continue to seriously question the nature of our mission. And that thing about the chaos emissary. And all kinds of other things. Welcome to the team, statue. Now, what shall I call you? Enchanted Statue is too ordinary, and Horrible Example, while being true to my intention in creating you and dragging you around like this, doesn't quite have the proper ring to it.
Dominic slows CenTreepede to a calmer stride and attempts to aim it toward the capital, preferably going into the woods at a point nearthe city but out of sight and stopping where we have a reasonable view but aren't conspicuous. I know this is asking much, but we'll try it.
Along hte way, and once we find a decent little camping spot, Dominic ponders the meaning of all this, piecing together clues from his various experiences, especially a) the dream that gave him his quest, b) the more recent dream of a chaos emissary, and c) his interactions with Soleus. Oh and his pamphlet on Wild magic and the poem from the base of his statue.
There isn't any woods around this city. It's grassland and gently rolling hills as far as eye sees. And cows. They raise cows here. Or some other bovine species. Asking for inconspicuous location is quite too much. A massive piece of rock falling like meteorite does ask for attention. Not from bovines, no. They are moving directly away. But from a party of horsemen approaching from the city. Time to skedaddle away, now isn't time to be picky for hiding places.
You navigate CenTreepede through all low areas always keeping something taller than you between you and rest of the world. You keep going until you lose your sense of direction and keep going even after that. You finally stop at someone elses camping spot. A ring of square rocks to host a campfire, now hosting only ash. One lonely bedroll. No one in sight. It's probably as good as any you are going to find.
Now then, pulling clues together... Well, the dream quest. A major task to produce eternal life to all people. Why? Surely not because of goodness of the entity wearing face of dog. It clearly must benefit it somehow. A change, as it said. Breaking rules. Defying order. The Order. What or who benefits from that? Chaos does. Change is the very basic concept of Chaos. Unpredictable constant change. Your quest will benefit Chaos. Was it Chaos itself who you brokered a deal with? Maybe. As a wild mage you are essentially agent of Chaos anyway, so what you are doing is just taking it up a notch.
Next the vision of the emissary. That was less a dream and more a memory, you think. A memory from past.
Very distant past, because you don't remember hearing anything about Emissaries of Chaos ever. Forgotten past even. Forgotten intentionally or accidentally? No way of knowing. However it made it clear it will be back. That someone will open the way again. Did someone already do it? Or is what you are currently made to do it? It claimed immortality in abyss. Nothing of what you know about
anything conforms to that. It appears that a lot of important knowledge has been lost to ravages of time.
Thirdly, Soleus. Self proclaimed mage of order. He said he had a dream quest too. Probably from the very same entity. He said his task was to ensure others would do theirs. Plural. You are not the only one with a task from Chaos. Multiple mages doing multiple tasks, probably each different. From nature of your own quest you would say they all aim to
change rules. A fundamental push for change, for chaos. Without knowing all facts here, you could presume that increased chaos only makes Chaos stronger. Despite what he said about his task he's still letting you go and not chasing after, entirely ignoring what his job was. Did he lie? Unkown. Maybe. Perhaps if you were to make contact with other mages Chaos assigned tasks for you could make more sense of this.
Lastly, the pamphlet and its modified counterpart. You read the now bloodied pamphlet once again to refresh your memory and then its... Oh would you look at that. You left the statue pedestal at Soleus's front yard. Too hasty retreat. Oh well, gotta work with what you remember. Both were results of 3. Basically incomplete. But if you put two incomplete things together what do you get? Something. The pamphlet is incomplete truth, you think. Only well known facts. Or facts that people think are facts. Just because observed facts correlate, it doesn't mean that underlying rule is understood correctly.
Binding all thoughts together produces something to think for. Basically Chaos is attacking Order on multiple fronts and... apparently Order isn't doing anything about it. Your knowledge of things is sorely lacking or outright wrong. It appears that past long forgotten contains answers and knowledge that were forgotten... long time ago. If you want to get full understanding of the current situation, you need more information. Get it from those who have it. From other mages, or from magic itself. Clearly magic has all the answers, and if you catch it on a good mood it may even tell you. Which is another interesting thing. Wild magic is apparently better in touch with basic nature of Chaos than the Chaos entity giving quests around. What's the deal with that?
Future Wild Magic (8): 6 6 3 3 2 6 3 2
Mind:
Knowledge of best investigator in the world
Skills of best investigator in the world
Basic spear training
Body:
Lung issues
Echantments:
Artifacts of power:
Home:
Family reunion
Followers:
Other:
Legend of imperial investigator
Quest: Mage hunt
Future Wild Magic: 3 3 2 1 2 5 6 3 1 4
Body:
Massive black dragon
Breath weapon
Echantments:
Artifacts of power:
House:
Followers:
Dragonified crocodile: Professor Cuddles
Other:
Quest 1: Kill Soleus Arendar
Quest 2: BIG SPELLS
CHAOS RECKONER ARRAY (7): 2 3 1 4 5 1 5
Body:
Mane
Broken shoulder. Set
Echantments:
Magical video conference between Arken Frost, Samuel Marr and Soleus Arendar
Artifacts of power:
Eye of Forbidden Sight
Flying villa:
Expanded land
Scorched spot on front yard
Controlled by magical orbs
Holographic command room
Fully shieded with forcefield
Protects from: Everything, repel.
Small elevating platform
Servants:
Huge bearded butler: Joshua Higgs
Down
Young pervert butler: Brian Klein
Foul mouther maid: Noel Peck
Silent statue maid: MARIE CONLEY SIR
Pedestal for statue
Poem of "Wild Magic" carved on
Followers:
Magical mail order wife: Anna
Damn perfect
Golden wedding ring
Nature of self
Steel spider bot: Tec.
Hot
16 bladed legs on octahedron core
Other:
Aspiring educator
Golden wedding ring
Memories stolen
Book: Excavation of Zaaerath
Quest: Connect Order nodes
Node connector crystal
Destroyer of the world
Future Wild Magic (7): 3 1 6 2 1 2 5
Body: Shredded clothes
Shitty
Echantments: Protection from Giant Orange Juice Barrel
Communicate with Giant Orange Juice Barrel
Reflect Spell
Pulsing blue light on forehead
Artifacts of power: 7 Seeds of defiant life
Giant wooden centipede mount: CenTreepede
The house: Comfortable
Three stories
Kitchen:
Bit burned
Obsidian weapon field
Wheat grows through floor planks
Popping
Broken miniature pirate boat
Papercut whirlwind
Front yard:
Sucking mudfield, charmed
Iron bed (torture device)
Wooden bone throne
Two green man blocks
Flying great white shark
?
Flying giant squid
?
Followers: Animated grotesque statue of dead mage
Other: Scale mail pants (appearance only)
Quest: Resurrection trees for capitals
Artifacts of power:
Interactive worldmap ball
So damn heavy
"Doombox"
Controlled
Mark of Green Man
Traveling crapsack
Multilegged
Charmed
Echantments:
Regeneration: Absorb plant matter selectively
Other:
One step ladder
Mapball holder log
"Wild Magic for Dummies" pamphlet
Long drinking straw: Blocked
Future Wild Magic (10): 6 3 2 1 2 6 3 1 4 2
Body:
Bandaged
Touch of Phoenix: Flaming red hair and eyes
Hairy
Left arm
Hot
Echantments:
Magical video conference between Arken Frost, Samuel Marr and Soleus Arendar
Fire breath
Toggleable fire aura (off)
Artifacts of power:
Whispering Staff of Earth (1d4+2)
5 Balanced spell scrolls
Calin's Shredder
Heartbane
Scroll of Teleporting [5]
Scroll of Summon Weapon [6]
Tent in Tenhe:
Ward of Ignorance
Ancient tower:
Teleporting
Something is missing
Reinforced impenetrable stone dome
Hidden gate
Grid of miniature suns
Simple boulder sentinel
Five simple golems
Siege engines
Silly face carriage
Ermonous animated granite statue of Samuel Marr.
Granite statue: This is a ermonous granite statue. All craftsmanship is of the highest quality. It's encrusted with diamond, ruby, quarz and gold. On the item is an image of Calin the Crime Lord. Calin is missing arm. Calin is crying. This artwork relates to thievery of Calin's Shredder and subseguent mutilation of Calin.
Mystery plant in iron and fire cage
Ward of Ignorance: Dome undetectable to Calin and those who associate with him
9 treasure boxes from Tenhe
The Forest: Now Ashlands
Ashlands: Two huge broken stone arms
Ashlands: Forest gone
Followers:
Water Banshee
Weapon grade water absorption
Other:
Lots of maps
Three empty paper sheets
Owner of Calin's severed arm
Book: Autobiography of The Most Glorious King Cotlal the First
Pair of sandstone cubes
Polished steel hauberk
Quest: Terraforming path. Done 70km of 200km
Future Wild Magic (6): 3 2 4 5 2 6
Body:
White dragonish scales
Right eye replaced
Echantments:
Magical video conference between Arken Frost, Samuel Marr and Soleus Arendar
Ageless
Immortal
Shapeshifter
Telepathy
Artifacts of power:
Staff of Generic Crafting [2d3]
Slippery scrying orb
In a loose fitting copper bowl
Personal teleportation bracelet
Grand Kinetic ring (3)
The True Eye
The Fortress:
Flying
Reconstructed many times
Skeletons in closet
Precision mining beam
Folds space at whim
Telepathy
Architecture is:
Impressive
Luxurious
Intelligent
Self-replenishing
Self-modifying
Overtly helpful
Throne room
Ornate skylight
Mage's workshop
Self-replenishing
Containment circle
Dispel array
Forge
Inhabitants: Lots
New species
Bloody handsome reformed thugs
20 Personal teleportation bracelets
Monster army
Tied to fortress's power
Chrome shelled
Followers:
Laudata
Lizard girl: Tlaco
Wild mage: 6 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Otherworldly beauty
Nice, moral, safe
Artifact of power: Electrified dress
Animated lightning and shadow dragons
Floating silk scraps
Other:
Quest for godhood: In progress
Quest: World war
Small Favours
Glimpse of magic
Eight large tetrahedrons
Three has #3 on all sides
Other:
Damn hot
Firstborn of new species
Minor arachnophobia
Artifacts of power:
Personal teleportation bracelet
Kinetic ring
Echantments:
Shapeshifter
Strategic genius
Telepathy
Followers:
5 giant demon wolf golems
Army