Chapter two: Worm FoodAfter Bor had announced he was going to wake up the Worm, he had refused to elaborate, and Bralbaard had not tried to bring up the subject, knowing that it would get him nowhere.
It had been a long journey. They had traveled south from Eldergraves, around the mountain range, and then back up North. They had mostly stayed away from civilisation, but by chance had passed through the camp where the cave dragon Nirmek had lived. After that they had crossed frozen wastes of the tundra of heroes. The fog had been as thick as pudding, and they could not see two feet ahead of them.
The Demon had been quiet. It was preparing a new attack, Bralbaard was certain of it, but for now it did not stir.
Finally they had made it to the other end of the tundra, where they emerged in a strange alien landscape. Stalked eyeballs grew from the ground among strange pinkish tendrils that tried to grasp and hold your feet when you walked across them.
Bralbaards mind was drawn to the subject of the worm again.
He of course knew about the Worm. There had even been a museum submission, way back in the year 825 by Ezif Aroirum: Slinspa Esh, “The Worm of Emptiness” The figurine that depicted humans worshipping a Worm, while the sun withered away. Ezif claimed that the Worm, an entity that lived in the space beyond, or perhaps inside our world, was responsible for the unexplained complete destruction of Gor and Duskhome.
Ezif had gone mad during his research, and this was not unusual among those who had seriously studied the Worm. It was a question among philosophers if the Worm was the cause of madness, or that only truly mad people believed in the Worm. Bralbaard doubted the sanity of any necromancer but Bor had appeared reasonably stable until he had brought up the worm. He was glad the necromancer had not brought it up again, and had nearly forgotten about it when suddenly Bor stopped and spoke.
“We are there. Once we are out of this glumprong forest you will be able to see it.”
"See what?"
"You probably think that worshipping of the Worm started with Ezif, in the ninth century. Well it goes back much further than that, this site is at least two centuries old. Beyond this hill lies the Charcoal Pit. Here reality can be broken or altered. This is where we will wake up the Worm."
When Bralbaard emerged from the forest his shattered mind had great difficulty to comprehend the scene before him.
8 pilars of fire rose from the ground, burning as fiercely as dragon fire. Within each pilar was a pedestal, and on top of each of them there was a worm, convulsing in the fire in spastic movements, while screeching noises filled the air. The eight roaring columns of fire were build around a structure that housed a shallow pit. For some reason Bralbaard immediately knew the names of all the eight worms.
Eight worms to summon the power of Slinspa Esh, The Worm of Emptiness!” Bor spoke with a feverish look in his eyes.
The tone of Bor's voice frightened Bralbaard, but he decided to pose his question regardless “What exactly is the Worm?”
Bor seemed to calm down. "Yes.. I need to explain.."
“It is hard to say, it is associated with corruption, not the usual kind of corruption, but a rot of time and space itself. Many think the Worm is the cause of this corruption, but I think this is not right. I think it cleanses corruption, or tries to, even if it causes a lot of destruction in the process. The world is being torn apart by the forces that control us, forces more powerful than the gods. The worm is there to fix the damage they have done to our world. Ezif, who published about the Worm before, indicated that the initial time-corruption was much larger than Gor and Duskhome, but the worm seems to have fixed it by taking these two sites, sparing the rest.”
“The area around us is of interest to the worm. This evil land is infused with the power of necromancy, but in an incomplete form. Any creature raised by this power is inherently broken, corrupted. This is the time-corruption the worm feeds on. I discovered this when I used this land to raise a Roc from death, long ago. Calovi the roc was taken by the worm after I raised it, whereas a roc I raised later was not, as it was raised by normal necromancy. I did not fully understand at the time, but I think Calovi was not actually killed by the Worm, only cleansed of it’s corruption. This is what we are here for. Now that I know what is going on we can exploit it. “
They came to the centre of the pit, and to Bralbaard’s shock, he was staring at the corpse of a charcoal brute. A near exact copy of Pis the Mucuses of Raunch. The beast lay to the side of the pit, a massive form, with menacing horns and teeth.
Bor saw the shock on Bralbaard’s face and tried to reassure him; “This is the corpse of the demon that founded this site; Handbane the Legendary Slayer of Bugs. He has been dead for centuries and is of no concern.”
But this was not the demon Bralbaard was worried about, that was the demon in his head, and seeing the corpse had been a trigger. Suddenly he could feel the presence in his mind, pain and terrible visions overcame him, blurring everything else.
This was a battle he could not win, but he had understood enough from Bor’s words to know what had to be done. The demon now took full shape in Bralbaard’s mind, it roared at Bralbaard, and spoke; It is done! There is no escape. GIVE IN TO ME. WE WILL BECOME ONE. But Bralbaard did not give in to the demon, he gave in to death, his lifeless body falling to the cursed ground of the charcoal pit. A bloodied dagger clattering to the ground next to him
Bor had been left behind in shock. He had planned for Bralbaard to be reanimated by the powers of this land, but had been unable to explain it properly. Something was terribly wrong for Bralbaard to take his life like that, and Bor suspected the demon was involved, but there was no way to know what was going on on the other side. Bor had to act but he could do …. nothing.
Bralbaard had to be raised by the ambient necromancy, or the Worm would not wake up. If it happened soon he might have a chance against the demon, but time passed and nothing happened. Bor performed all the rituals he had heard of and some more, but the body failed to move. For two full days he waited, other corpses at the site had shuddered into life in a matter of hours, and were stalking the site now, but Bralbaard’s corpse had not moved. Bor raised the corpse form death using his own magic but saw the effect was wrong, the zombie was too perfect. The Worm would never come for it. He killed the corpse again and waited. Another day passed and he gave up. Bralbaard’s body would just not reanimate. It was in good enough condition, but perhaps there was a limit to how many times a creature could be brought back to life? If anyone had reached it, it would be Bralbaard. He packed up his belongins and dragged the body away from the pit, through the Hill of Bogs. It was only then that the body twitched and came back to life.
It was clear immediately that the battle between Bralbaard and the demon had continued in the afterlife. Worse, the demon had won. What stared back at Bor from the reanimated corpse was pure evil. The undead are naturally friendly to necromancers, but he felt the demon was breaking through this resistance at great speed, he could only keep him in check for a brief time. But there was hope. The reanimation had worked, and the corpse before him was unmistakably broken and in breach of the laws of proper necromancy.
Bor walked up to the corpse and looked it deep in the eyes. It took great mental effort to stop it from attacking him. Bor spoke, with tears in his eyes; I know a part of you is still in there Bralbaard. I have to leave now! Hang on, the Worm will find you soon...
With tears in his eyes he fled the scene. Slinspa Esh had been awoken, and it would come to feast on the corruption, as it had done before at Gor and Duskhome.
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Topic: Museum III, adventure succession game (DF 0.47.05) (Read 474866 times)