Approximately six months after the betrayal and quick apology from Sir Kenneth the party had gotten through a massive amount of quests in a short time. When they started the leaves were just starting to change color in what would be the start of August on Earth and it was now the second month of the new year. Zero two zero five sixteen buy the calendar Racknar created in his youth. But by the calendar of this world it was the year two thousand as the calendar started with the formation of the Empire and the Church.
Some of the months held the same names but different spots as the party was used to. For example the calendar of this world also had an October and a December but they were the eighth and tenth months respectively. The first month of the year was call Longinur after Longinus with the second month being named after the first Emperor, Ran, who named the Empire after himself. The third month, March on the old world’s calendar, was called Rūb after the brother of the first Emperor. During the first day of this month is held a celebration called “Fool King’s Day” created to mock the idiocy of Rūb who was made king for a day as a joke.
Little side track aside, it was on the fifth day of Ran that the party found themselves on the last of the many quests they pre-registered for six months ago. A quest that took the party back to Ackeron, the Sparta of this world. As they exited the gate outside the city, a likely standing silence was broken by Ariagoria. “You know what's funny that I just realized? After all this time we've spent together I don't think we've ever exchanged birthdays based on the calendar and our birthday in this new world.”
Racknar hummed. “Ah, right you are. That is rather silly. I'll start. By my best estimate my birthday is on Hextember the fifth since I was the second to last to hatch in the brood batch I was from. So I'll turn sixteen then.” Ariagoria chuckled. “You're two days older than me if I adjust for the time difference between realms and only count this world.” Davy thinks for a moment. “I think my birthday would be in October according to this world's calendar. The seventeenth.” Krys'tal chuckled. “I guess that gives me the most time in this world. Rūberary the twenty sixth.”
Marinette sighed. “I arrived on Ran the eighth making my birthday the closest. In just a few days. Though technically I wasn't reborn and more mentally translocated into a construct.” Racknar grunted. “Splitting hairs honestly. Krys'tal came from a geode, Davy was grown in a tube, and I hatched from an egg. How we got here isn't important. Let's meet up with the quest giver and find out exactly what we're doing.”
The group were surprised to find the quest giver was none other than Laz’drek the black scaled komodo lizard-folk they got the lyre from. “Are youz the onez that accepted my requezt? Took youz long enough.” Racknar chuckled. “We took a bunch at once. What could a proud lizard-folk warrior of Ackeron need from a group of muddy adventurers?” Laz’drek sighed and lowered his head. “Iz personal izue, so military no help. Can't do it alone.”
Racknar nodded. “Okay, makes sense. What's the problem?” Laz'drek becomes a bit animated as he talks. “Some tribe memberz fall victim to dragon lich. Uzes magic to control like puppetz. Laz’drek not strong enough for elder dragon lich alone. Can youz help?” Racknar thought about it for a moment. “Elder Dracolich? Do you know what kind it was before becoming a lich?” Laz'drek nodded. “It waz a black swamp dragon.” Racknar thought for a bit more. “It's up there as far as difficulty, honestly under normal circumstances I wouldn't recommend it. But out gear is a lot more impressive than it should be at our current level.”
Laz'drek made a confused face. “You take job or no?” Racknar checked the scrolls and potions he had available. “I think we can do this. We'll just have to be careful not to kill the lizard-folk serving the dracolich. Any Kobolds are fair game though, they worship dragons and won't stop attacking if we kill their god. Show us the way. “Laz'drek makes a big nod before he started walking to the Yggdrasil gate near the city, taking the party as close as he can to the layer. He leads them to a large cave entrance outside a mountain.
Racknar looked at the entrance. “We can't just bomb it out this time, well maybe we could use the sands of Morpheus to put the lizard-folk and Kobolds to sleep. However, that would take time to get and do nothing on the dracolich except warm it. We're already here so we might as well just go for it.” Racknar cracked his knuckles but didn't summon his weapons. “Non-lethal measures it is.” The party starts making its way in with Racknar, Ariagoria, and Laz'drek in the front and Krys'tal, Marionette, and Davy hanging back a bit.
When the party started to encounter kobolds and lizardmen in the cave they didn't hesitate to get right to work. Racknar punched the first kobold he saw, knocking them out in a single blow before hitting three more and sending them to the floor. Laz’drek grabbed a kobold and threw it into another kobold. Ariagoria covered her mace in magic to keep it from killing her target as she knocked a lizardman out in a single heavy blow. Krys'tal was able to cover their arrows in psionic energy to make them blunt as they fired three shots into a single lizardman, dazing them.
Davy then hits the dazed target with a magic missile knocking them out. Marionette teleports behind a kobold and cuts it down with three attacks, killing it since the kobolds are free game to kill. She then tossed a dagger at a second one. The party, despite holding back as to not kill any lizard-folk, still seem to make relatively quick work of any Kobolds but have to take a bit more time on the much stronger lizard-folk. Racknar has to use four full attacks to knock one out compared to the one it takes for a kobold.
Even with that and even with the party taking hits as they slowly work their way through the many lizard people the party didn't have to use any limited resources as the basic healing was enough to recover any injuries they sustained until they made it to the final chamber. The dragon's den where the dragon and its horde lay. Surrounded by a number of kobolds and mind controlled lizard-folk the large zombie looking mudfish dragon sat on a pile of scrolls in a large carved out portion of cave with large bookshelves. The undead dragon perked up when the party entered. “That explains all the ruckus. I guess I have no other recourse but to dispose of the rubbish myself.” Its lumbering body lifted up and the dragon let out a mighty roar.
Davy didn't hesitate to lift his staff and cast Eldritch Hunger. However, the incantation was slightly different then normal. Instead of a blob of shadows the spell summoned what looked like a blob of dark water. “I figured a zombie swamp dragon would be immune to necrotic and acid damage, so I used my staff to swap necrotic for cold and the acid for blunt.” Racknar chuckled. “Great job, we can take a round to clear out the minions while the Dracolich is blinded.” Marionette was already on it as she teleported behind some kobolds, cutting down two of them with two attacks each.
Krys'tal fired at the Dracolich whose head was in Davy’s spell with their ice knife arrow hitting nearby minions with a burst of cold before firing three more shots at a kobold to kill it. Ariagoria fired her crossbow at a kobold to injure it before swapping to her mace and charging at a lizardman to knock it out. Laz'drek kept his weapons sheathed as he simply punched another Lizardman a few times sending to the floor. Racknar ran in and punched another Lizardman out cold needing four attacks to do so.
The Dracolich roared as it slowly moved enough to get its head out of the dark water blob, its face covered in frost and whip marks. “How annoying!” It then started charging up its dragon's breath. Marionette and Krys'tal focused on taking out the last of the kobolds between the two of them both using four attacks. Davy was focused on keeping his spell up and couldn't cast another. Ariagoria knocked out another Lizardman leaving Racknar and Laz'drek to finish off the last two. Everyone then ducked behind stalagmites to avoid the necrotic acid breath of the dragon. However, this took out what little cover the party had and injured some of the lizard-folk that were knocked out on the ground.
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Ariagoria had to use a mass heal to keep the lizard-folks steady and alive rather than fight. Marionette tossed four daggers at the dragon with only one getting through the partly rotten scales. Krys'tal fired four arrows with two sinking into it as half bounced off. Laz'drek reached into a satchel of infinite javelins and tossed five of them in quick succession with all of them hitting their marks.
The dragon let out a roar of frustration and pain as its body was hit by Davy’s spell. “This is getting tiresome. Fireball!” The cave was enveloped in flames that hit the entire party plus the minions meaning Ariagoria would once again have to spend her time healing. Racknar summoned his weapons from the rings of light on his wrists and charged in with his body igniting in blood red flames. “Being an undead will be your undoing dracolich! You're weak to fire and radiant damage now!”
Racknar swung down hard with a fire boosted swing of his sword shouting “Infernal Strike!” As he did, he then quickly followed up with fire boosted attacks from his three other weapons before striking a second time with the swords. The dragolich’s body burned with an intense fire as Marionette, Krys'tal, and Laz'drek once again pelted it with ranged attacks. Ariagoria focusing on recovery and Davy focusing on keeping his spell up. The dragon charges up its necrotic acid breath much quicker this time and focuses all of it on Racknar who unfortunately couldn't dodge in time. “(Damn it, I don't get my evasion boost when I'm holding shields.)”
Racknar was clearly injured but still standing, his natural armor partly melted and decayed. “I'm a barbarian in rage, you moronic bookwyrm! I only took half of the damage after any reductions!” “(Average attack output of his breath weapon. One ten. Amount of damage taken with damage reduction and resistance. My max health at level eight should be eighty eight assuming average if I don't have toughness. One fourteen if I do. If not for the damage reduction from my massive armor score and the fact I take half damage from anything that's not psionic while raging I'd be at death's door.)”
Once again the dracolich was slammed with ranged attacks from everyone except Davy and Racknar. Racknar came in with another flurry of blows hitting the dragon six more times with the first being an Infernal Strike and all of them being boosted with fire damage from the active enchantment gem. “(five d eight six times, twice, with double damage… wait greatswords are two d twelve normally. The hell am I thinking d eights for? Did I calculate based on an upscaled short sword the first time and run with it? Upscaled greatsword would theoretically be two d fourteen. So that's five d fourteen plus bonuses and weakness damage for one ninety six damage from just me.)”
“(Eighteen from three rounds of Eldritch Hunger, sixteen from the attacks of my other party members that landed and fifty four from Laz'drek. Eighty eight. Two eighty four.)” “Just a bit more, it's nearly dead!” The dracolich charged up its breath weapon one last time, this time adding a spell to it. “Chain lightning!” “(You can't cast a spell on top of a breath! Unless…)” Racknar is hit near point blank once more with Racknar now looking really rough despite constant healing from Ariagoria. Lightning jumped to Laz'drek and Ariagoria. The party minus Davy and Ariagoria once again makes a set of ranged attacks followed by Racknar whacking it with six attacks, beating the first with Infernal Strike for a third and final time with the charred corpse hitting the floor.
Once it's on the ground Racknar opens a dimension door to load the lizard-folk into it. “Mari, if you have a black soul gem on you, show it to Davy while he's using detect magic. We're looking for an artifact here with the same kind of energy. Find it and destroy it. We have three days to do so before this thing returns to full health.” Marionette gestures to herself. I'm basically run by a black soul gem, Davy should already know what that looks like. Though I have no idea why we're looking for a black soul gem.”
Davy’s eyes light up with magic. “I'm not. I'm looking for the lich's phylactery. It's an artifact created to gain a sort of immortality. The lich puts its soul on the artifact and it can restore the body when the lich dies.” Ariagoria and Krys'tal both have a realization. “Oh, it's like a horcrux” Racknar lets out a sigh. “Yeah, that plot point was likely inspired by the way liches work. Anyway, since Davy knows what to look for we don't have to worry about the thing resurrecting.”
Davy eventually finds a hardcover book that has a cold leaf overlay and gems embedded in it. “Damn, that's a shame. He used the most powerful and rarest spellbook in here.” Davy opened the book and purple magic covered it. After a minute the book burned in purple flames. “My patron made a copy of the knowledge before I burned it.” The dracolich corpse dissolved into dust. Racknar started loading the rest of the books and scrolls into the dimension door. “We should take the bookshelves too, because the castle could use some new ones.” Ariagoria continued healing Racknar's wounds as they spent the next few hours clearing out the layer.
Once that was done the party and Laz'drek returned to Ackeron where the still unconscious lizardman were unloaded and healed. Laz'drek handed Racknar some coins to split among the party and a slip of completion and payment to show the guild. “I thank you, my brotherz are saved from that horror thankz to youz.” Racknar put the coins in his bag of holding. “Think nothing of it, it'll take us a while just to sort through what we took from the dragon. You probably don't even have to pay us.”
Laz'drek waved dismissively. “Take coin. Laz'drek insistz.” Racknar nodded. “Come on Monster Mashers, time to hit the guildhall for another set of quests that'll last just shy of six months so we can be in Bramble two weeks before Elizabeth's deadline.” Ariagoria sighed. “Okay, but we're taking a long rest before we do the next quest. You looked nearly dead just a moment ago.” Racknar chuckled. “That's because I was. In fact if not for resistance during rage and apparently having the toughness feat I’d be dead.”
The group went to the guildhall and grabbed another set of quests, showed the person the completion slip, and registered another set of quests to last then several months. Then they booked rooms at the inn for some much needed rest. However, the party members had a surprise waiting for them when they rested.
Racknar passed out quickly and shortly after he opened his eyes to see a black room with a desk and a robed figure sitting at it. They looked up at Racknar. “Oh, it's you again. You must be putting in a lot of work out there “ Racknar was a bit confused. “What… where?” The figure tapped a set of cards on the table. “It'll come back to you what this room is for. Then you'll forget about it when you wake.” Racknar walked over to the table and looked at the cards. “These are… prestige classes.”
The figure nodded. “You have a few options based on your classes and species. You technically have two since you're an angel-blood giving you more options to pick. Just like with regular class you can pick two. They can both be from class, you can pick one for your race, or both. I really don't care. The border color represents synergy based on how you're acted and built yourself so far.”
Racknar looked at the cards, he already knew what ones he'd pick if he could pick long before now and grabbed two cards. They dissolved into glowing dust that floated away as the others turned to ash. Racknar felt his soul being etched on. “Alright, I guess we're done here.” The person groaned. “Not exactly. You see you've created a slight problem. As did that demon-blood friend of yours. You've both accessed two opposing energies and this has been kept stable by the fact your souls are kinda split in two. So you've got three options here.”
The figure held out three cards. “You can reject one of the energies and fully embrace the other, or you can risk death to mix them. So what'll be Racknar? Infernal, Celestial, or Purgatorial?” Racknar looked at the cards. “But I've had no issues holding both before now. Can't I keep things the way they are?” The figure sighed. “Not forever. The more powerful you get the harder it'll be to keep the two halfs separate. They'll mix naturally and then you'll either die painfully or live with the mixed power.”
Racknar paced back and forth a number of times. “(If I pick Celestial I'll lose my Barbarian subclass with it being swapped out. If I pick Infernal I could lose my tattoos and my connection to Arachne. Risking it for the biscuit might be my only option.)” Racknar grabbed the Nephilim card. The figure tilted their head. “Are you sure? Are you absolutely positive this is the route you want to take? Are you sure you are satisfied with your choices?” Racknar nodded. “I've never been more sure of anything in my lives.”
Racknar then awoke to an intense burning situation with no idea what exactly was happening as the memories of the black room faded. He writhed in agony for quite some time before eventually the burning stopped. His chitin cracked and fell off, molting as a new one formed. He let out a primal and guttural growl. Racknar then heard screaming from the next room and sprinted over running right in to see it was Ariagoria who had screamed. She had fallen out of her bed and was holding a sheet to cover herself with one hand and a mirror with the other. Her bright red skin has turned white. As white as Ivory’s. She poked at her face as she looked in the mirror.
She slowly turned to Racknar and her eyes widened. “R-Racknar?” Marionette also looked over, then covered her eyes but peeked through her fingers. “You've uhh… got a little friend.” Racknar looked down then quickly covered his crotch. “It's a common morning issue for men. What's important is what happened to Charity.” Ariagoria tightened her grip on her sheet. “Me, what about you? Your tattoos have changed. They are now a sickly green and read “fate breaker” and “veil walker”.”
Racknar looked at his tattoos then back at Ariagoria. “I think you might have gone from Infernal Bloodline Sorcerer to Celestial Bloodline. Because your dad was once Celestial the potential must have been inside you to purify the Infernal energy.” The white flakes away revealing her red skin but now she had glowing white tattoos that moved like those of an angel-blood. Racknar looked at himself again. “I'm guessing we reached a point where the two opposing powers couldn't coexist anymore and had to either purge or merge.” The group got dressed and took some time to adjust before heading out on their next quest.
