Post by Beets The Beetle (Feenix) on Dec 14, 2023 17:00:06 GMT
One minute she was doing festive shopping with the Rooftop Beetles at The Dawn Market.
The next she was hurtling through streets towards Portal Plaza, stopping just quick enough to flit into her attic room and grab her new scythe-Windbreaker, the calls to Vorthold's aid echoing from heralds of The Watch in streets below amongst the clamour of steeple bells.
———
Another waive of nausea overcame Beets, pulling her briefly from her swimming memories as she stood back amongst the mixture of Dawnland adventurers and Vorsthold soldiers and civilians. Barely registering their presence as the figures patched wounds, expressed relief or desperately searched for friends or family amongst the strangely diverse crowd that now gathered within the grounds and fortifications before the mighty metallic forms of The Thundergates.
She recalled hovering above a group of familiar folk after she had emerged from the portal, Felix, Florian, Tayz, Laurel and Poppy, and an old Watch Officer Derthadd had greeted once named Grimble-or Grimey?
As orders for assignment began to ring out above the clamour of weapons and increasing earthen rumbles, a wizened but no less stoic looking dwarf wreathed in black leathers with twin arcane purple flames glimmering within two dark chained lanterns swinging in his grasp suddenly formed from the shadows in front of them. His wrinkled pockmarked face moved slowly to fix them all in turn with his lantern-matching violet gaze before announcing, “You lot. You’re with me.” They barely had chance to nod in response before suddenly they had all been wreathed in shadows and were whisked away to their deployment-on the frontline.
———
He was Duronn Cragshin, aka Inferno-an extremely powerful and renown Archmage Beets had learnt from one of the nearby Vorstborn soldiers as a cleric-team had descended upon them, and led the reluctant yet stumbling dwarf away to a medical tent after shadow stepping the group once more back into the courtyard before the still standing Thundergates.
Beets hadn’t seen much of Duronn in action during the battle, but she had seen the vibrant flashes of his flames and waves of heat that that had followed her as she hurtled towards her focused quarry for the battle. A dragon. Quite flittin’frankly-the ugliest dragon she had ever seen. It’s wings sagging and pallid, the scales on its back bulging and bubbling as hundreds of rubbery slimy tendrils pierced out beneath it and latched onto the skull of the creature like some horrible organic form of reins.
She’d barely made it close before the thing had turned towards her, convulsions wracking its body before it unleashed a torrent of sickening green burning slime from it’s maw. Cries emanating from her friends behind her whilst she gritted her teeth against the pain, trying to ignore the itchy piercing wiggle at the corner of one eye.
The thing had been a sickly coward, retreating each time she got close as the others had torn through it’s smaller forces, filling her head with piercing shrieks and the cavern with the smell of fire and lightening scorched flesh.
Finally in the shadows ahead had appeared Duronn, Florian and Laurel clinging to a lantern chain as he swung another out towards her, “Need a lift?!”
A ripple of shadow later and the ‘dragon’ had been right there ahead of her, a slimy pink tendril whipping out towards her and then-
Nothing…
She’d found herself on her knees on the cavern floor, the last of an furious beetloid roar leaving her throat as she felt thick trails of familiar unwelcome black ichor melt down from her face before her gut squirmed and she retched, bringing up mouthfuls of rancid dragon flesh that tasted like the very worst that Port Ffirst smelt.
———
The ‘dragon’-Infernum had fled along with the sole remaining member of a summoning squad that their group had dispatched before they could complete..summoning whatever they were summoning. The invading forces that had made it into the city had been dispatched and the Kundar adventurers guild had caused hell with a rockfall. Beets wasn’t really listening to the reports and discussions going on around her though.
She’d done it again, lost herself to her rage in the heat of battle…What if that Infernum hadn’t ran away? W-what if she had died? Would she even had known about it?
Propping herself up against a wall she felt her stomach give a final squelching squirm and turned and vomited, bringing up the last of the fetid dragon flesh, along with a splattering of black incur from within which something writhed. A small monstrous combination of what appeared to be fish and squid, the ‘creature’ squealing as if the black incur coating it was hurting it. Beets watched in horror before suddenly her eyes turned a deep inky black, their gaze vast and empty of any empathy as she bought up one of her beetle toed feet and stomped on the creature. Silencing it. Grinding it’s remains into the stone. “Insolent Parasite.” Droned a voice through Beets’ mouth, “She is-MINE!”
