Arc 9 Chapter XXIII: A Light Bout of Conquest (Patreon)

Many felicitations upon our local purveyor of gremlin behavior for its assistance.

Light edits were cast upon the previous chapter to make it a touch better.

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(Reyvin's POV)

Having inevitably won my debate against the dread bird-

'The fuck you did.'

And ignored his whining. Or else.

'...'

'That's what I thought.' I smirked and returned to observing the outer courtyard.

My followers were, as one might expect, rifling through the goblins' supplies for anything useful they might find, while Gale and Astarion were crouched in front of the corpse of a particularly pale goblin, or specifically its heavily blackened veins.

Well, Halsin was also there but he was too busy pacing around and stopping himself from growling like the furry treehugger that he was as he read and re-read Kagha's little correspondence with the Shadow Druids over and over again.

"I would advise against tasting that, Astarion." I drawled as I approached the duo "It is not nearly as tasty as it looks."

Gale's head snapped to the vampire so fast it nearly snapped, but he said nothing to the startled elf even as realization danced in his eyes.

Astarion shot me a glare that lasted far shorter than one might expect of someone truly pissed and asked "Oh, and why so?"

"Because I spiked their drinks." I nodded with deserved smugness before looking to Gale "Manage to decipher anything?"

"No." He seemed a touch peeved at that fact "I'm not the best alchemist out there, it simply isn't my focus, but I don't recognize a thing about this."

"Unsurprising." I nodded "It is a modified brew inspired by a... tribe." I wasn't wrong exactly, the Nords were technically a tribe "Allied to me, it grants strength at the cost of increased aggression. Naturally its origins are rather distant."

"So you created an enhanced version of what?" The Wizard of Waterdeep furrowed his brows "Some kind of large scale berserk potion?"

"Correct!" I snapped my fingers.

"That is..." He paused "Terrifying."

"Try useful." Astarion added with a huff as he stood up and stretched his back "I can think of a few good places that need a bit of extra spice."

"Well, I'm certainly not trusting you of all people with my spices." I rolled my eyes, ignoring the centuries old elf's pout "The world would burn before I could so much as blink."

The vampire had the temerity to start whistling innocently.

Shaking my head in exasperation, I looked back to the encampment's entrance and found that the Tieflings were done with their self appointed task and were cautiously marching over the bridge.

Waving for the rest to continue what they were doing I strode to the band of militia and met them at the camp's center "Zevlor." I greeted lightly, scanning the other Tieflings and briefly nodding in approval as I saw Rolan, the apprentice wizard, among them.

A few gasps rose as they felt their wounds, light or not, heal as if they were never there.

"Lord Dagoth." The paladin, obscure as his order supposedly was, inclined his head "Was your attack a success?"

Quirking an eyebrow at the honorific I did not ask for, I merely half-turned back to the scene of butchery and spread my right arm out as if to show it off "As you can see, the vast majority of the goblins will not trouble us anymore."

Cue many Tiefling exhales, and their leader allowing himself a small satisfied smile "Good." He nodded in gratitude "What of the druid?"

"Halsin is hale." I pointed at said imposing elf who was currently rifling through the goblins' herb stash "Your people's woes should pause, for a while at least."

"However." I preempted his response as I turned back to him fully "What made you follow us here? You had no way to be certain of our success."

"Maybe." He agreed, directing a quick look to the surprisingly bashful Rolan "But we decided your odds were good enough that it was worth pressing them, just in case."

My face remained completely impassive, while my mind quickly dissected his words.

'So he believed we were unlikely to lose, and decided to boost morale and unity amongst his people as well as ensure his authority through victory. He got the most powerful to follow him in the wizard and organized their armory to monopolize force, and thus keep order.'

'And the demonfucker probably got word of you offing the hag.' Scorch chirped smugly 'The dumbfucks you freed should have reached the grove long before we ungoblinated the place.'

'Dear fucking Dagoth...' I allowed myself to think 'Was he actually... competent!?'

Scorch let out a loud and clearly fake gasp.

"Well you've definitely made the right decision, even if it might have been unnecessary in the end." I allowed "There are supplies here enough for your people to subsist for a few weeks at least, the goblins will certainly not be needing them anymore."

The man barely held back his relief as he bowed his head "We are in your debt." 

He had nothing I could ever want, but I wasn't going to shit on him for no good reason, and merely made a vaguely agreeable noise "You might also wish to relocate here for a while." I said instead "The druids might let you stay now that Halsin is free, but I doubt their supplies will last for much longer no matter what their stance is."

"And transporting the goblins' spoils would take us manpower we do not have." Zevlor agreed "I will consider this."

"Just make sure to warn your people first." I added quickly "The place will need a fair bit of cleanup."

"A day's work should do it." He waved it off "At least we will have walls for everyone to shelter behind before we are forced to move again."

"Excellent." I clapped my hands lightly "You may join my followers in their ransacking, and take anything they themselves do not want. I have other matters to deal with."

Taking the dismissal for what it was, the band of Tieflings quickly got to work helping the party of adventurers and I returned into the temple to inform the spiders of the new arrivals and to see what I could discover about the 'True Souls' and their creation.

---

I kept the Artifact hovering above my left hand with careful telekinesis. Whatever it was, I wasn't about to risk doing it with psionics and even then I still wasn't fully decided on how best to design a countermeasure that would last.

A simple artifact made of tin or lead would work well enough on Tamriel, but the Mind Flayers' own psionics were far more complex than anything I had ever seen on that plane of existence.

Even Mora felt much more brutish when compared to the overly cerebral race of parasites.

Though that was only when it came to the degree of refinement, a Daedra like him would still crush them in an instant.

Or well, would have crushed them.

He can't do shit anymore.

Heh.

"Probably should just find a local example and build from there." I muttered to myself "No point in going into it blind, even if it could prove mildly interesting."

"Bitch, where did your sense of whimsy disappear to?" Scorch chirped.

"My sense of whimsy is perfectly fine, you feathery fuck." I clicked my tongue "I'm just don't feel like spending days on enchanting shit when I could gawk at how unreasonably beautiful some of these places are."

"Well shit." Scorch shrugged his wings "I got nothing then."

"Whatever, I'll just shelve it for now." I shrugged.

It wasn't like I was under any risk of getting brain-shanked.

"Let's focus on our guest instead." I sneered down at the unconscious irritant and immediately narrowed my eyes as I gave her a few scanning spells "Repeated torture, everything from beatings to less than temporary wounding. Healed over and over again, would have likely calloused to hell and back without some high grade magic."

"Could be she was resisting their bullshit?" Scorch asked "The other 'True Soulcucks' seemed perfectly aight, except for the whole" He waved his wings about while pointing at his head "Brain pregnancy thing."

"You scanned them already?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"Eh." He shrugged "You were being boring and shit, letting the plebes play with the gobbos, so I had to do something."

Snorting, I shook my head "Never change, Scorch." 

But then I turned serious once again and looked back to the Drow "Now then... how to unfuck her conditioning without breaking her brain..."

As if to answer my question, the Artifact began shaking, and letting out waves of psionic energies.

I glared at the thing but whatever was hiding inside sent me a feeling of reassurance.

My eyes moved to the Drow, and then back to the semi-sphere.

Oh well, if she died it'd be no great loss.

I sent back a little spark of agreement.

The Artifact leapt from my grip and began levitating above the Drow's head, tendrils of impressively precise psionics shifting from within it and into the elf's head for only a few seconds before retreating and hovering back to my hand.

My eyes narrowed suspiciously, but I already knew there was nothing to be done just yet.

Instead I decided, it was time to kick awake the filthy name thief.

(General POV)

Her head felt like an overheated cauldron as she snapped back into consciousness, the sudden assault of sensation leaving her unwilling to open her eyes as she let out a pained groan.

What in the Abso- Lolth's-

Her brain ground to a halt and suddenly the sensation in her head spiked and she sat up with a scream, as a storm of memories she would not ever wish to remember blurring through her mind.

But much to her misfortune, she found she was not alone.

A figure that she could only barely remember, despite how recently she saw it, stood above her, lazily leaning against a crumbled wall of the temple library while staring at her with an expression she would usually find on the face of one of her sisters.

It definitely did not belong on a male.

Said male's eyes danced with amusement as he saw the shift on her own face "I will admit." He said, completely uncaring for her glare "I was wondering when I'd meet the true assholes of these lands. The Gith came close but they feel too dumb and honest to reach the truest heights of spiteful hate only the most entitled children of a megacunt are capable of*."

The Lolthsworn paladin felt her blood boil.

"Ah, ah, ah!" he waved his index finger and tutted as she went to lunge at him for the implication "Do remember what happened to the few gifts your failure of a goddess bestowed upon your worthless self before you were brainwashed into betraying her."

Images of her favored pets turning on her with a mere look of the elf before her flashed through her mind and Minthara of House Baenre felt a familiar creeping of ice spread through her veins.

"Speaking of that." The male elf went on, tone that of a disappointed teacher who had just disciplined an unruly child "I've dealt with that light bit of conditioning for you, you may grovel in thanks, as is your place."

The mere fucking idea-

She stopped her furious thoughts, forcing them under an iron grip, and glared up at him "I'd rather die, filth."

"Ah, the n'wah finally shows its teeth." He merely rolled his eyes and made a flippant wave of his hand "Don't worry, I am not that petty despite you definitely deserving it."

She could swear she heard the chirp of a bird that almost seemed disappointed.

But she could not give it much thought as the elf's previously amused eyes flashed threateningly "You will however share everything you know about the Cult of the Absolute with me, this you will not escape no matter what."

She kept her glare up, but allowed herself to consider the demand despite her ever growing hatred for her jailor.

She was a daughter of House Baenre, she could be patient before exacting vengeance.

The cult... she remembered being sent on a delegation, being lulled into a false sense of security, meeting... her.

Images and flashes of the torment she was put through before the parasite was placed inside of her eye blurred in her mind and she felt a groan approaching her throat.

One she immediately forced down even if her right hand reached for her eye in dreadful realization.

"Finally awake?" Her jailor mocked.

Her head snapped up at him and she felt her flimsy grip on her emotions finally snap "You will beg me for death." She hissed and went to rip him into as many pieces as she could.

Only she found she could not move at all.

To her morbid surprise she found her terror induced hatred could somehow be stoked even further as the male's amusement only seemed to grow, his blank expression slowly twisting into a cruel smirk.

"I will certainly enjoy your attempt." He drawled "But do be sure to call your patron for a teamup..." He leaned forward slightly and whisper-hissed "If she forgives your desertion that is."

She went to retort as poisonously as she was able-

But she had not spent so long learning under her Matriarch to end up a fool.

The realization the male was playing her like an expert would a fiddle was a proverbial bucket dumped directly on top of her head.

Internally admitting defeat for now, she ground her teeth and spat "What do you want to know?"

The bastard's grin nearly made her lose it again.

(Reyvin's POV)

I whistled most merrily as I left the library and its sole humanoid inhabitant under the manifold watchful eyes of my newest duo of pets, waving at my gathered followers in the main hall I tossed my gathered notes on the cult to Gale and sat in front of the bonfire they were all sat around.

"Where is the Drow?" Karlach asked.

"Resting." I shrugged "The day's events took quite a lot out of her."

"You left her alone?" Astarion cut in, looking baffled.

"Of course not." I deadpanned.

And then proceeded to tell them exactly what I did while giggling like some kind of cartoon villain.

Truly, making the spiders now gleefully following my will be the ones yanking the Drow's chains was ironic cruelty Mephala would no doubt have found hilarious in the extreme were she able to reach this realm.

I almost regretted not using the 'my spider goddess is better than your spider goddess' card but that would have demanded an explanation, and no one liked explaining their own jokes.

That way lay the deepest of cringe.

"What if she regains her patronage?" Wyll of all people asked the smart question.

"Don't worry about it." I waved him off "If they leave my grasp for even a bit they will blow themselves and their charge up."

Went unsaid of course was the fact I had left a hidden arcane mark on her heart and unless she was some kind of hidden super lich she had no chance of escaping that.

"What were you lot doing while I was tinkering with the Drow's brain?" I asked after a moment.

"Well, we managed to convince Zevlor to start moving early." Wyll said "He left some of his warriors to watch the outer gates while he brings the rest of the Tieflings here." He paused "Halsin also left with him."

"He did, did he?" I asked, frowning "I hope he isn't trying to spare his little bitch of an apprentice."

"Does it matter?" Wyll asked.

'Did he grow an actual brain overnight? He was actually trying to maneuver around moralizing at me again...'

'Mindworm osmosis.' Scorch chirped wisely.

"No, I suppose not." I sighed, hiding my thoughts "Anything else you found?"

"Well." Gale spoke up, tucking the stack of notes into his robe pocket while giving me a long look "There was this staircase to the Underdark on the lower floors."

"Oh?" I perked up "Do tell."

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*Just look up Lolth and the Drow, they deserve all of the hate.