It took him a few minutes of near meditation to feel that there was now a slight gravity or pull to the core that he had not previously felt. Feeling a bit silly and more than a bit morbid, Xander reached out towards the corpse with a spear in its guts with closed eyes and tried to see if he could somehow guide Gaellus to reclaiming the man’s body. He was slightly stunned by the instant and powerful reaction of his magical core. Clean and clear magical energy flooded into him like a tsunami, and his eyes snapped open to see the body decaying rapidly. Pale motes of light seemed to flit out of it and evaporate into the surrounding air and his own core as flesh, muscle, and internal organs melted away. It was a horrifyingly grisly sight, but Xander found himself unable to look away.
The disintegrating flesh left behind the skeleton, yet at the same time the vegetation exploded with rapid growth for dozens of feet around it. Flowers, tall grasses, berry bushes, and even a couple of young saplings all sprouted and grew as motes of the light touched down to the soil nearby. Xander stared in shock and awe as the vegetation went rampant. He let the ability cease when only the bones were left and just gaped at the insanely verdant patch. “What in the… what… how? I mean it's magic, obviously, but still…” He was at a loss for words, but was struck deeply by the beauty of it. The murderous Asshat had been returned to the Cycle, and his body had fueled this small garden, and Xander’s own magic core. Far from feeling dirty or soiled by having that man’s energy inside himself, It felt… right, proper somehow.
“Fuck, maybe I am becoming a psychopath…” he muttered. He didn’t feel like he wanted to go on a murderous rampage or anything, rather it just felt like he hadn’t really done anything wrong. There was still regret there, but he had tried to reason with them, damnit. Feeling conflicted, he turned and repeated the action with the other man. It played out in much the same way, only the plants included some different varieties, and left him feeling overstuffed somehow.
Xander could also hear the overlapping chatter of the new vegetation. He had been purposefully blocking out most plants, but those freshly grown by his powers seemed… louder and harder to ignore.
After a time he managed to tune them all out thankfully. Sighing to himself again, he decided to continue the recycling trend, and bent over the skeletons to finally acquire some clothes for himself before setting about adding additional minions to his ‘party’.
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It was a bright and beautiful day out as Augustus strolled down the road, sword swinging on his hip. He smiled and whistled a jaunty tune as he walked, a carefree bounce to his step. Hjuldain and Jeraska had been right, coming out to this charming little backwater and taking a few easy jobs had been just what he needed after repeated near-death experiences in the Krandak Labyrinth. Taking out some aggressive rats and chasing away a few hunting wolves had been simple and rewarding. The current contract had said that some low level bandit wannabes were harassing traffic between the city of Crandor and the village of Little Bend. Maybe he wouldn’t even have to kill them, just give them a good beating and send them back to their families to find honest work.
He didn’t hold out too much hope for that, many men just couldn’t be reasoned with, but there was always a chance, and at level 32 he was likely the strongest person within a couple hundred miles. Well, at least outside of a few nobles and the Adventurer’s Guild guildmaster. The sun was rather warm today, and he was just happy that he could wear light leather armor instead of his usual heavy plate in this relatively low threat part of the countryside. A few more miles of walking through the gently rolling plains brought him to the edge of the forest where the path turned and skirted the trees in a wide arc instead of having cut through a shorter path to get to the village.
With the change in terrain providing more places for his unfortunate quarries to hide, he began to pay a bit more attention and more actively search for threats, though his good mood remained. After following near the forest’s edge for another mile or so, he followed a gentle bend in the road and came to an abrupt halt as he took in a slightly bewildering scene. In a field of riotous colors, a strange woman with light green skin and dark green hair was cursing at a skeletal monster as it attacked her with a ribcage. She was probably an elf, being too tall for a goblin and too short for an orc. His heart quickened, and he reflexively drew his sword in the smooth motion of long practiced muscle memory.
He started to charge forward, but unlike amateur adventurers he didn’t give a battle cry or raise his sword unnecessarily high. A quiet approach would give him a better advantage of surprise, and holding his sword loosely at his side until he swung would preserve his stamina. She was several hundred feet off still, but would just have to survive on her own for a minute longer. “Oowwwwww, sonofabitch!!” she growled, then smacked the skeleton with an open palm. “Acckkk, it doesn’t fit yet!! Stop trying to shove it, these stupid sacks of fat are still too big!!”. The skeleton paused for a moment, then lifted the ribcage back up and just held it over her head.
Augustus’s heart dropped as he got closer and was able to process more details about the woman and the undead. Her clothes were simple, but soaked in dried blood, and she had bracers of bone on her forearms and shins. The skeletal zombie was large and powerful looking, the skull clearly not that of a human, while a smaller humanoid skeleton stood nearby idly. That's when the meaning of her words hit and he realized that they weren’t attacking her, they were under her control! Memories of an earlier fight against a necromancer and his undead hordes reared their ugly heads and sent fear coursing through him.
“No you idiot…” she grumbled. “Bring it back down here…” she commanded, and the skeleton lowered it in front of her, where she set a hand on the bleached sternum. The bones elongated and expanded somewhat as Augustus’ concern only grew. What should he do? Should he continue the attack while the necromancer was distracted? Should he run back to the guild and report the sighting of a practitioner of dark magic? His pace slowed as he quickly decided on the latter option, but it was already too late. The woman’s head whipped up and her violet eyes focused on him.
“Oh goddamnit, can’t I get just like one fucking moment without some dumbshit attacking me?” she complained angrily, flipping her head in a practiced motion to get some hanging hair out of her face. She scowled at him, and Augustus reflexively took a step back. He identified her to see just how screwed he really was.
Dryad (Mage), Level 6. Threat level: Very Low
“Huh?” he wondered aloud “A necromancer… dryad?”
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Xander glared at the newcomer as he stood there gawking at him. The man was wearing a much nicer set of armor than the bandits had been using, and it looked like it might even have been polished with the dull gleam it held. The sword on the other hand had nothing dull about it in the least. It looked sharp as hell and had a wicked curve to it, and the man holding it was heavily muscled and looked like he knew what he was doing. He sort of looked like a well kempt blonde viking with his short hair and long braided beard. This was no half assed bandit; his instincts told him that this man was truly dangerous. A fight against this guy seemed like a horrible idea, so even though he was pissed off, he tried to answer the guy’s question as calmly as he could.
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“Yes, I am a dryad apparently, but no, I’m not a fucking necromancer. The last two morons didn’t believe me, but hopefully you are at least slightly more intelligent?”. Xander crossed his arms, which only served to accidentally accentuate his stupid chest and make him blush. Luckily, or unluckily, the man barely seemed to notice, his knuckles white around the hilt of his sword as Xander hastily let his arms drop again. “But… but…” the man stammered slightly and waved at the two skeletons with his free hand “I’ve fought the undead before, are you really trying to tell me you’re not commanding these zombies?”.
Well that was a refreshing change, the guy was actually willing to talk, not just attack. And he also wasn’t slinging any slurs around which was nice too. “No really, I’m not a necromancer. These aren’t undead, they’re plants.” Xander insisted. To show what he was talking about, he had his first minion’s head lift off on the thick vines coiled inside, on manual control of course. The gesture did not seem to make the man any less nervous. “By the Nine, what strange magic is this?” he breathed, taking another step back, before asking “Then… are you saying those aren’t real bones?”
Xander winced slightly and had to make a snap judgment call. The man was clearly quite nervous and quite powerful, not a great combination for his own immediate future. He could lie and say that they were just wood or something, but he had never been great at deception. If he told the truth though, would the man actually believe that he wasn’t a necromancer after all? Well, he wasn’t really good at manipulating people anyway, so honesty was probably the best course of action.
“Errrr…. Uhhh… that’s actually kind of… erm, yes, they are… real bones that is.” He stumbled through his words, hastily adding “But the big one was something called a gnoll that I think wanted to eat me, and then these other two were bandits who thought I was a necromancer and were trying to kill me, but really I just wanted some kind of armor for my plants because they’re like, really weak to attacks usually, and I mean is it a crime to think that the goth aesthetic is cool?” his words came out in a nervous torrent. Xander really didn’t want to fight this guy for multiple reasons. He didn't want to kill anyone else today, or be killed by this seemingly powerful warrior for that matter.
The warrior blinked at his rambling diatribe before saying “Huh…” in a more thoughtful tone that gave Xander some hope. “Sorry Miss, but I uhh… I thought that dryads stuck to their woods and were… y’know… peaceful? And what’s a goth?” the man asked with some hesitation, clearly not sold on the whole idea just yet. Xander frowned slightly “I’m actually a male you know, but you can just call me Xander.” he corrected a bit angrily “I don’t know about other dryads or anything, but no one told me I couldn’t defend myself from those idiotic thugs. It was just self defense. Oh and goths are like… errmmm… well it’s kind of hard to explain but.. I suppose a gloomy dark style with bones and black roses and such?” It was surprisingly hard to explain that part of his culture without being able to reference anything.
The man’s eyebrows crinkled in confusion, and this time he did look up and down Xander’s figure briefly. “But… uhh…” he started, then shook himself and seemed to break out of his temporary stupor. “Sorry Miss– I mean, Xander, it's generally okay to kill bandits I suppose, but those are just skeletons?” Xander’s eye twitched slightly, but he shrugged “Oh, I helped Gaellus consume everything but the bones to feed the local flora. That… doesn’t sound good does it? I’m not really helping my cause here am I?” He tensed slightly, getting ready to draw on his magic if the man made an aggressive move.
After a tense minute, the man seemed to take a deep breath and force himself to relax slightly. “I’m not entirely sure why, but I think I believe you. I’ve seen some really weird things as an adventurer, and while I didn’t expect to find anyone so strange out here, I don’t think you’re lying to me. My name is Augustus by the way, and I’m a member of Hammer’s Song.” he said, clearly expecting Xander to have heard the name before. He didn’t offer his hand or lower his sword, but he didn’t seem quite as tense either.
Xander couldn’t think of anything else to say, so he just gave an awkward thumbs up. “So, we good then? I mean, you’re not going to try to kill me when I’m not paying attention or anything, are you?” Augustus looked offended at that “No, if I meant to kill you I wouldn’t hide behind some trickery!” he glared. Xander put up his hands “No offense dude, but I’ve had people and monsters try to kill me multiple times already, and I just got here.”
Augustus sighed and put away his sword, though one hand still rested on its scabbard at his hip. “So… about those bandits…” he started. Xander hastily interrupted, “No seriously it was self defense, they attacked me and wanted to kill me for money or something. I didn’t exactly want to kill them but I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter…” his explanations died off as the warrior held up a hand “Sorry, that’s not really the problem” Augustus said, “I was going to ask if there was anything left that could identify them. There is a bounty on them you see, and I was going to claim it.”
Xander chuckled at that, relieved that he wasn’t going to be hauled in for murder or something, but then had to shake his head in the negative. “Uhhh... no… there really isn’t anything except their clothes and weapons left. Unless you want some of their bones?” he asked, fairly certain of the answer. Augustus shook his head vigorously “No, that would just raise way too many questions. Errr… so about those… errr… skeletons, you’re not… planning on bringing them into the city are you?” he asked hesitantly “Because I’ll tell you right now that it would be a very bad idea. After some of the things I’ve seen and talking to you up close, I can sort of believe that you aren’t using dark magic, but the town guards would just shoot you on sight, no questions asked I’m afraid.”
Xander scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably and sighed “I have no idea what range my spell has that controls them, but I doubt I could leave them far enough away to have them remain hidden. And I kind of don’t want to discard them either, the materials aren’t exactly… uhh… easy to come by.” He thought for a long minute. It wasn’t like he had a lot of money anyway, only the few copper coins that had been on the bandits. That might be enough to buy him a meal or two but he oddly still wasn’t very hungry. Looking up he asked “This might sound like an odd question, but what do dryads eat?”
His new acquaintance looked slightly confused by the question “What do you mean what do dryads eat? Don’t you know?”. “If I knew, would I be asking you the question?” Xander shot back irritably, but then shook his head “Nevermind, I suppose it's not really important at the moment. I guess going into a town isn’t really a great option… so what do you think I should do then?” Augustus raised an eyebrow “I don’t really know that much about dryads, but I thought your kind looked after trees and such.” He seemed to think for a moment then shrugged “Level 6 is pretty low for surviving in the wilds in most places, but the forests around here aren’t too dangerous. You could easily live off the land, so that’s probably your best option.
That option sounded absolutely terrible to Xander. He hadn’t ever had much use for other people when he was surrounded by them, but now that he was alone in this new world he found himself wishing to at least have someone to talk to, and to learn more about Gaellus in general. In fact, if he was ever going to be able to make it home, he was absolutely positive that he would have to find someone with a crazy amount of magic and knowledge, or become that person himself. He shook his head at Augustus “No, that isn’t me… I need to get stronger, much stronger. I refuse to die here.” he stated firmly. The warrior just nodded slowly “Well, there are certainly ways to get stronger, but most of them involve lots of fighting, lots of studying, or lots of crafting. Which one of those things appeals to you?”
Xander chuckled ruefully, “Oh, I wanted to be an artist, a sculptor of dark gothic curios, a painter of the morbid and sinister. I was starting to get pretty good at it too, before coming to this… errr… before coming here.” he hastily corrected himself before he could give away that he wasn’t from this world. Augustus was looking at him like he had a few screws loose already, so he just pressed on. “And maybe I can still do that on the side, but something tells me that I’ll need personal power and strength to survive.” His new acquaintance nodded slowly, “Yeah, that… sounds about right really, though it's still surprising to hear from a dryad. Well then, there is only one good place nearby to practice fighting and to gain levels. The Bramble Den Dungeon.”