BECMI Chapter 141 – Something for Later

The device was probably also the primary source of betathaumic radiation in this cavern, if I was reading things right. I didn’t know if someone had arranged for that, altering the bomb to provide it, or it was a simple reaction to higher radiation bands with magic. In either event, it was not natural, was markedly hostile to natural life forms, and it didn’t have any place in the natural world. A spell could completely unmake up to a ten-foot cube of solid matter, and this thing did not measure a thousand cubic feet… not that I couldn’t also the spell if needed. The green beam lashed out, stole across the durasteel, the high technology within, the fusion warhead concealed there, the nuclear material powering it, and reduced them all to inert wisps of dust, the mass and energy shunted who knew where as they basically ceased to exist, not even releasing a final burst of energy before they were gone. I was pretty sure this hadn’t happened in the primary timeline I came from, and this thing might even have been used to accentuate what the Doom of Darkmoor did. In any event, I was done in here, except for a scouting trip around the perimeter, verifying if there were any other tech forts… and I was sure I’d seen the glimmer of durasteel from higher up in the distance at two locations. I turned around and saw motion there at the edge of the clearing. Ah. Unleashing a combat spell naturally had broken on myself and Duum. Easy enough for to put back in place, but disposing of this nuclear device had broken it again, and I wasn’t hovering above the treetops at the moment and out of sight. There were morlocks, and quite a few of them, crowded just beyond the acid range of the Qiliver trees, looking out at me and my giant Bat from a safe distance. They wouldn’t be able to make out much, but they could definitely see us here, getting rid of a shiny something in the middle of the misty field where the Yellow Musk Blot used to be. Well, that was probably going to stick in their minds, but nothing I could do about that. I swung up onto Duum, and wiped us away from visible sight again. -A tour on the outskirts of this place, and then we go back,- I /told Duum, who unlimbered his wings and began to make some speed for us. We should be out of here in an hour. I didn’t know what legends were going to spring up about the figure in black and red who’d killed their devouring yellow god and removed the betathauma contagion, but had to wonder where it might lead. Huh. Not human DNA to stabilize the Beastials, but more specifically, DNA? Changed as they were, getting absorbed into the Beastial genetics would be nothing, the Beastials were likely to accept them as things of their own, and they’d blend right in. Given the location, I was pretty sure that was what had happened, in the end. The relative die-off in fecundity of this place I was pretty sure was a result of the removal of all technology from here, including the sun lamps, water pumps, and ventilation shafts all at work, making sure the raw materials of life were pleasant. But if the Beastial races were the targets of evil souls being sent back as a punishment in a hilariously warped reincarnation punishment or reward schema, it was all madly appropriate, too. I wouldn’t know until the events happened. Which… begged another question that wasn’t, well, nagging at me, but something to concern me. I had basically tricked an Immortal into talking about the Immortal Paths. Fine and dandy. There was no way I was going to become an Immortal by their methods and be bound to whatever hellaciously malfunctioning paradigm of behavior they operated under, even if they eagerly wanted me to. Two ways out of that. The first was to find a Power of Ten solution, which generally meant going after godhood, or becoming Eternal. The latter seemed more reasonable than the former, as I didn’t want the mess of restrictions and limitations that came with being a deity, particularly a lesser deity very bound to their people. I wasn’t at all sure doing such would give me anything resembling an equal footing with these Immortals, and the limits on my power would be the faith of my followers… who could be massacred willy-nilly by these Immortals. The other was the fact I was a dhampir-elf, and for a mortal, I probably had an ungodly long lifespan. Even if I couldn’t become a true Eternal, and I was pretty sure I could, all I really had to do was break the mortal limits on Levels imposed by these Immortals, and show them what it meant to become Legendary, what back on Terra-Luna would be the post-Twenty destinies of mortal races. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I could indeed live long enough, especially alternating time between the two timelines, to grow to great power and change the world. There was no way I was ever going to join the ranks of the Immortals, so I would have to find a different path. Breaking mortal limits sounded like a fine thing to do, especially if the Immortals didn’t want me doing it! -------- The pulse through the Mark was enough to warn my Marked and get them rising as Duum and I glided out of the unnaturally perfect drainage tunnel. “Given the time you spent in there, that must have been an interesting trip, Lady Edge,” Prince Ukker noticed as Duum settled to the ground. “Yes, although it has no true bearing on our mission here.” Except morlocks might become some Immortal’s favorite pet race and expand to fill all the areas that the Beastials didn’t when it came time for the Doom of Darkmoor… but something was going to come into being down here, it just likely wasn’t going to be very friendly no matter who and what it was. Ah, well, I could only do what I could do. “Allow me two hours of Meditation with the Sublime Chord, we will Greet Aru properly, and then resume our course, if all is well with everyone?” I inquired calmly. There were no complaints. At the end of the day it would be time for our normal withdrawal for rest and recovery, which everyone was looking forward to, and in any case they’d kept busy with Burning down and Infusing the mana from some of the crude magic items of the creatures here, maintaining their gear, or simply resting while I went on my scouting expedition. In Markspace, the -fed map, sprawling over thousands of miles and in particularly fine detail for all these subterranean living areas, filled in a black space that had simply been empty of all details before, a hole in the map matched by several others scattered across uncounted miles here and there. The areas behind us were as rich in detail as the surface areas that the Marked had walked personally and filled in with personal experience and sight. A whole lot of caves and caverns formerly inhabited by Beastials were now cut off and isolated from one another and especially from the tribes down there, and none of their kind remained alive in them. With limited inputs, the ecologies in those places would grow enough to sustain themselves, then drop into a constant status that could endure for ages if it was needed… or until it was disturbed by Immortals with more grandiose ideas about expanding the Underdark, because that would be moody and cool and certainly never rise to bite the surface populations in the arse at some later date at all. Whatever. I couldn’t stop all of the shit they were going to kill, and if it was morlocks instead of the Beastials who rose to become the savage, barbaric threat to the surface, well, then I’d just have to replicate this task I was doing here and begin the process of wiping these devolved cannibalistic savages. It was a grim world, and I was doing grim things and good things to stop what was coming… and to survive it. When we got done here, Belle was probably going to be ready to go home. But that was months off, as yet, an entire campaign of extinction and exploration hand-in-hand, and what more great secrets were going to be revealed in the earth before we were done? ------ rippled out and settled across everyone, stopping the telepathic messages seeking to infiltrate the thoughts and minds of the band. The sudden cessation of the broadcasts brought the fighters right out of their rest and meditation, many of them leaping to their feet with weapons in hands as the scrabbling dark presence in their heads was driven away by a shining silver Light and the horror of its thoughts and pressure upon them vanishing abruptly. Everyone staggered at the release, turning their eyes to where an obsidian skull floating above jeweled tip was surrounded by jagged, silver-edged black roses, shedding a Light upon them that restored clarity and strength to those gazing upon it, chasing off nasty dreams and images none of them truly wanted to retain. “It appears,” I noted to the warriors of the company, “that there is something nearby that wants to take advantage of us, and thinks we are just soft persimmons to be crushed and devoured at its leisure,” I noted acidly to all of them, and hard eyes and grim smiles met my own cold stare. “You will all join me in shielded Meditation, and then we will go to see just what it is that thinks it can tempt us into madness and gibbering worship like it has the locals.” There was no argument from any of them as they hurriedly gathered up and sat in the glowing circles I up to guide them. The Heartsong soon rose, stroking the dance of magic here… a dance that had rather more Entropic energies present than was safe for the continued mental health of any mortal being. Which probably explained the wigged-out berserkers and rather large number of ghoulish undead among the Beastial forces here, gibbering obscenities and erratic prophecies of praise and glory to something which doubtlessly should not be worshiped at all. Something had been prodding the demented Beastials and their undead minions to frenzied madness here, and it looked like it wanted to infect my people and turn them batshit crazy, too. Duum took great offense to that. They weren’t worthy of becoming batshit, after all. Safe behind walls of abjuration magic that would last a good chunk of the coming day, the Company fell into Mediation as magic danced to the Sublime Chord. Then we were going to get up, Greet Aru from so far underground the sun never came here without help, and then we were going to go out and kill everything. The locals looked like they’d die happy, going savagely and mindlessly to their deaths at the commands of the voices in their heads. ------- Belle jerked her head back around the corner, swearing something that didn’t make it past her lips, polite as she was. She joined half a dozen others rubbing at her eyes and temples, while the rest of the Company just looked at their cocky leaders with really perturbed expressions on their faces… and then me, sitting there, pulsing faintly with a black light in front of my nose, around which I was viewing whatever was out there. None of the now extremely-experienced killers looking for vengeance tried to peek around the corner. “What,” Belle asked softly for everyone, “is that?”