The monster in the circle looked at its creator with awe, reverentially observing the thing in the shape of a devilish man that created it. And through the sand, which relaxed and fell to the ground, its creator looked back at it, impressed by the monstrosity he had created.
The thing in the circle was a perfect recreation of the terrifying image in Althos' mind. It was as big, or perhaps as small as he suspected it would be, standing perhaps a meter and a half tall, and three times as wide. It was as chimerical as the image of the thing that stealthily snuck its way into his mind was, with a wasplike body, atrophied wings, and an odd featureless bulb for a face.
It took a careful step forward, carefully advancing on both of its thin, lanky legs, and placing a careful, clawed hand in the desert sands to ensure it remained steady after its first step didn't result in its legs finding much purchase in the sand. It watched its master carefully, somewhat afraid of the odd entity in front of it, but also feeling eager to serve the creature who gave it a body. Its next step was more sure, more steady.
Moments later it began to take even surer steps, even steadier ones so that it could approach its creator.
Althos watched it, joy dancing in his sinister eyes as he observed the first of his creations to have both a physical form and a divine soul stare at him in wonder and fear and then begin to approach him. He felt powerful before the creature's gaze, and before he knew it he found himself taking his own careful steps to reach the creature. When he was close to the thing he reached out his hand and smiled at it. And he opened his mouth to speak.
"You're a cute little thing aren't you?" He said, grinning at the odd entity before him. The Mi-Go, surprised to understand his words, took a second to respond.
"Cute? I... find myself mysteriously knowing this language, but I don't know what that word means." It confessed, its voice eerie and insectile.
The creature's voice was like the buzzing of a thousand locust someone forcibly transformed into words. The words it spoke were careful ones, cautious ones, ones that revealed its uncertainty. In response to this, the fungoid's creator, the god Althos, smiled at it serenely and spoke again.
"I was... making a joke." He confessed, laughing while he spoke, though more at his inability to recognize that the newborn before him wouldn't understand humor, than at his piss-poor attempt to be funny. Even he only understood it secondhand, having learned of it through the memories of a goblin whose mind he created a copy of, and then gaining more familiarity with it as he explored the memories of the desert titan Mahmud Suti.
The god in the desert relaxed as he felt a notification caress his mind, lovingly gracing him with more knowledge. His eyes turned a slight shade of green, as his vision suddenly accommodated a notification alerting him to knowledge about the creature he had just created.
[New Species Knowledge Notification: Mi-Go
Mi-Gos are a powerful servitor race, a term which refers to a species that was directly created by one of the ancient gods, and immediately sworn into their service. The Mi-Go in front of you was created by you and recognizes you as its creator and the god it is meant to serve. It can convince other Mi-Gos it meets to serve you, and you can convince them as well, quite easily in fact.
Mi-Gos are fungoid monsters who served the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods two groups of alien, often-malignant gods or god-like creatures with incredible, dark powers. Mi-Gos served them as scientists, dark priests, colonizers, torturers, and inventors.
Mi-Gos possess few supernatural abilities themselves. They are capable of flight, and they are highly dexterous creatures. Their real power isn't their direct combat ability, but the sorts of resources they create for their eldritch masters and the monstrosities they create from lesser lifeforms. To them, piety and scientific research are very similar.
They are capable of transforming other creatures in two ways. The first way they can transform someone is physically; through artistic and macabre surgeries and through plying them with potent, sometimes mind-altering as well as body-altering drugs. They can also spiritually transform someone via indoctrinating them into the terrifying occult religions they themselves are adherents of, including now at least, Althos' faith.
Mi-Gos don't evolve but can continue to gather strength indefinitely.]
The devil in the desert willed away the notification with a smile etching itself onto his confident and handsome face. I like this. He thought, excited that the strange thing in front of him was his newest creature and his newest servant.
At that moment the Mi-Go in front of him extended its own, long arm and placed the clawed thing gently in its master's hand. It looked to him, its bulbous and featureless head staring at him with one of the thick antennae in place of a nose or any other discernible feature, and spoke once more.
"Master... where do we go from here?" It asked, its buzzing voice filling Althos' ears and mind. Its creator smiled at it and spoke softly, turning to lead the thing while he did so.
"We go home. You have a family awaiting you." He told the Mi-Go, excited for his servants to meet his newest creation.
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The desert-delving party of assorted creatures found themselves on the floor of the grand plaza not far from the masterfully crafted statue of Mahmud Suti, the sand sultan in his prime. They were far from alone on the floor next to the plaza.
They weren't on the floor just to enjoy the sensation of worked cobblestone on their backs though. Each of the creatures either held meat in one of his or her arms, or their meat was placed gingerly on the floor in front of them and they steadily ate it. They, like the nearly a dozen other creatures around them, all of whom were desert giants themselves, were carefreely eating while sitting on the floor.
Only the unnamed dire-scorpion familiar of Althos and his second will ate the meat on the floor rather than in its hands, and the others were carefully popping the meat-lined skewers in their hands into their mouths chunk by chunk.
The first time Althos' second will, currently disguised as a handsome desert giant, popped one of the cooked bits of meat into his mouth, he ran his tongue over the meat before he bit into it. He was pleasantly surprised to find that he tasted was delicious!
The meat-lined skewer in his hand, one of several he had purchased for his party following the simple theft of a few coins by the newly minted Jackaloid thief Kuzco, was lined with spiced camel meat. It was one of the many things a nearby stall was selling, and Althos skillfully watched as the skewers he and his allies were eating from had been cooked on a simple iron pot, heated by low-level fire magic.
Althos had carefully watched as a desert-giant chef heated his pot, placed the meat inside of it, and applied copious amounts of assorted spices to it. He watched as the meat grew hotter and hotter, and as the giant skillfully flipped the chunks Althos himself had selected for his party until all sides of each chunk had been equally cooked.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Before his eyes, the meat had turned from the dark red it had been prior to being cooked, to the vibrant shade of golden yellow it was while he and his companions eagerly ate their full. He was delighted to give the chef the price the two had agreed upon for the cooked food and deposited all of the coins Kuzco had given him earlier in the giants' hands.
As Althos bit into and then swallowed the camel meat his mind was lit up with a notification.
[New Species Knowledge Alert: Humpback Camel
Humpbacks are a mutant form of camel often found among civilized peoples dwelling in deserts. These creatures aid settlements in deserts by acting as pack-animals and can also be butchered to serve as part of exquisite meals.
Humpback camels are a rare sort of domesticated animal, animals that have come to enjoy a near-species-wide bond with humanoids or other "sapient" creatures and are naturally inclined to aid such creatures. Domesticated animals form an important part of civilization, and collaboration between humanoids and beasts is as old as most species are.
Humpback camels evolve into other, stronger pack-animals and can be tamed quite easily.
New General Knowledge Alert: Domestication
Domestication is the process by which kinds of animals are tamed and then made into pets or other parts of humanoid and sapient life. Domesticated animals fall into a range of categories, but the most common are hunting partners, food, pack-animals, suppliers, and war-animals.
Hunting partners are vicious animals that aid their trainers and sapient partners by bringing muscle, violence, and fearlessness to a hunting party. These include wolves, sharks, bears, many fierce types of insects, and other more vicious animals.
Food animals are animals that are tamed and raised for their ability to either produce food or become food. Many farm animals are well-suited for this function, as are some pack animals. Examples include chickens, cows, many types of insects, fish, and other animals.
Pack-animals are animals that carry either people or goods from location to location. These are commonly referred to as beasts-of-burden, and they are strong animals with a high amount of physical endurance. These include horses, donkeys, camels, elephants, dolphins, and certain types of large birds.
Supplier are relatively rare domesticated animals who produce something other than food. Most animals produce somethings in common, like fur, blood, or claws, but what's being discussed here is something rarer still. Spiders produce spider silk, certain magical animals produce gemstone-like eggs, and some animals produce acid. Domesticated supplier animals are these sorts of animals, animals that produce useful things that can be harvested.
War-animals are among the more common domesticated type of animals though not the most numerous. These are dangerous animals that if tamed, trained, or otherwise forced to fight for an army can become a powerful tool in the right hands. These include gigantic digging monsters, massive insects, rare types of animals that can fire ranged attacks, and animals capable of safely transporting numbers of troops from one place to another.
Domesticated animals can be instantly created via one of the few sorts of relics at Althos' disposal, a wand of awakening, a magical tool that replicates the effects of Althos' first unique ritual a number of times a day with no magical energy cost. Such a thing can be created via the religion menu and it is one of the first truly powerful gifts Althos can give to his followers.
It is also a fairly new creation of the young god's, only becoming available to him hours ago when he first gained the lowest tiers of influence over the domain and subdomains of nature, animals, and plants.]
Althos' second will blinked the notification away, quickly doing so so that he may enjoy his food in peace. As he did so he and his party were approached from behind by a figure who sought to express his admiration for the unusual adventurers who had boldly entered into a city he felt was his own, and had done so without so much as a letter of introduction, while ignoring one of his guards.
Bold indeed. The strange figure thought to himself as he voyeuristically watched the odd party.
The desert-giant had politely waited until the party was mostly done consuming their food and had wanted the followers to eat their fill and enjoy the bounty of the strange city. I bet they are having fun. Look at them... they're so cute, acting as if they belong here. The giant condescendingly thought to himself, a smug grin etched onto his face.
The fellow was dressed well, in thick silks and luxurious fabrics that warmed him up considerably in the desert heat, but personally, the several meter tall man enjoyed the searing discomfort that came with his impeccable style. If this is the price I must pay to look good than it is a price I am all too willing to pay. He told himself every morning as he stood in front of a mirror and examined his wardrobe choices for that particular day of activities.
When Althos finished swallowing the last of the meat he had on his skewer, he heard the odd gentleman approach the party from a healthy distance, and his ears perked up as he wondered if the odd fellow was approaching him and his friends.
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Back on the other end of the infernian desert Althos and his newest creature reached the settlement the dark lord was creating. Althos was surprised to see that it was beginning to change before his very eyes.
The duo had walked to the settlement and in doing so they approached it from the ground. The first thing they saw wasn't a simple forest-like area inexplicably in the middle of a desert but instead, they saw a lone figure hard at work setting up what appeared to be the foundation for a wall.
As they approached Althos quickly realized that the fellow who was hard at work was a solitary hulking devil, one of the sorts of devils that had accompanied the two parties who failed to defeat Narcolept inside of Agowraith's tomb. The creature was hefting logs that it would conjure itself and place at will, and presently the thing busied itself by lining logs in a decent effort to build a feature that marked where Althos' territory ended.
The devil was massive, standing at about 3 and a half meters tall, covered in rippling muscles and dense fur, and had a fang-filled maw that unpleasantly moved in reaction to physical labor. Despite that, the thing didn't complain about its work and instead nearly mindlessly devoted itself to its odd task.
When Althos and his newest creation drew close enough to the creature to be noticed by it the thing looked at the future arch-devil and nodded respectfully. Althos nodded back and drew closer to it before asking it a simple question. "Hello there. What are you doing?" He asked, curiously. Next to him the Mi-Go stood and stared at the odd devil before it, its head bobbing up and down as it watched the devil at work.
The hulking devil looked up at Althos, curiosity filling its gaze as it spoke in response to its new master. "Why Master Althos, I'm just doing as ordered. I've been told to begin to build defensive fortifications around the border of your settlement by General Malefactor. So I came here and got to work putting up this wall." The laborer informed him, much to the god's surprise and delight.
When Althos heard this he grinned at the devil, just as he received a notification outlining the creature's species. What he read there excited him deeply.
[New Species Knowledge Notification: Hulking Devils.
Most mortals are under the impression that there are only two routes along the infernal hierarchy of devils: military and soul-harvesting. Those people are wrong. There are at least three meaningful routes along the infernal hierarchy, and the third route is the route of city-management. Hulking devils are the lowest ranking members of that route along the hierarchy.
These devils are powerful laborers whose whole purpose is to build, expand, or destroy settlements. They can work for mortals, devils, or other creatures capable of bargaining with devils and so they are frequently seen in regions under the control of devils or regions deeply influenced by Infernius.
Hulking devils themselves serve higher ranking devils of any route along the infernal hierarchy without question, though they prefer military devils or other city-management types, over the devils whose purpose is to tempt mortals into surrendering their souls.
Hulking devils provide the labor needed to build massive infernal settlements, bases, forts, and cities. Their muscular bodies are perfect for such roles as are their abilities to conjure critical materials out of nowhere, such as logs for walls, stones for homes, or other useful construction materials.
Smarter hulking devils become avaricious city architects, a type of devil responsible for the actual planning out of the cities and other settlements before delegating the inevitable task of actually constructing their idealized plans to one of their lessers. Hulking devils can also be mutated to be better suited to building settlements in unorthodox places like lakes, volcanoes, and other challenging places.]