Chapter 12 - Interlude 1 (Valeria)

Valeria was impressed as she observed the slaughter from her invisibility. James was a terrifying force when up close. And Skadi was as scary as any high level and highly intelligent Wolf. That is: very.

When the green glow of the room intensified, Val was as surprised as James was. This kind of ritual should fail the moment the leader is killed. Instead all the extra bloodshed seemed to have attracted something greater than what had been intended. The moment a tentacle came out of the ground she drew on one of her emergency measures. The protective soul chrysalis. In a moment, after she cast the spell, Val was encased in an invisible crystal. It should block her completely from the outside world. Soul, thoughts, light, nothing can escape, or be detected through the chrysalis. She can’t move or act either, but this thing was perfect for weathering a storm.

After an hour the crystal faded. Val emerged to see Skadi peacefully sleeping and James completely knocked out sprawled on his back, as usual. Val breathed a sigh of release, until she realised something. “Where is the dungeon heart?” she asked herself out loud. Normally a dungeon heart would manifest over the slain dungeon master between five and ten minutes after their death.

It had been an hour. She looked at James’s unconscious form. Did he?

No sense in speculating. She used a 6th level divination spell to replay the last hour in this room. She started right after the tentacles retreated. Even in a recording great old ones were not to be trifled with.

After they went away Skadi went to sleep, while James stood still, staring into the distance. Then he said:

H̸̱́̑̈ṳ̴̃̾ṋ̸̢̧͔̄́̾̈́g̵̣̝̖̹͊r̷̫̘̳͑̈́̌̏ý̵̲̓̊̈́͑

He had a green-ish glow in his eyes. And he promptly started to devour the corpses around him. Not ‘eat’, devour. Hair, clothes, bones. Everything. He even licked all the blood off the floor. At this point in the recording Val had to admit that she didn’t even recognize the lack of corpses when she emerged from her chrysalis.

After the floor was spotless, James stood up and another noise escaped from his mouth.

S̵̥̻͔̿̓t̶̲̰̿̀̅͂̑̈́i̵͌͜l̶͉͖̏̚͜l̸̠͎̟͉͍̭̀́͗̈́͂͠ ̸̢̡̳͉̫͇͙̊͂̀̓̃ş̸̩̬̙͓̮͍͑o̵̦͓̱̎̇͜ ̵̠̞̘̏͘ḧ̷̬̝͕̥́̑̏̽̑͂̄u̶͇͈̱̫͔͌͐̈́̑̚n̷̤͋̈̉̄͒̇ḡ̵̥̬̳̄̓͝r̴̻̎̂̚y̸̧̰͖̩̪̜͐͊̄͛͑

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Now he turned to the terrified villagers. They only saw a terrifying goblin, so naturally they had tried to run when James had started the feast. They didn’t get far enough. His flesh undulated for a moment, then a massive tentacle shot out of his chest.

It flew through the hallway for dozens of metres, until it reached the terrified villagers, as they tried to escape through the maze.

The tip of the tentacle opened up, to reveal rows upon rows of jagged teeth. It then opened wider and wider, the villagers were frozen, as they gazed upon the bizarre appendage. Then it attacked. Without mercy or even a second thought it ate them up. Swallowing them whole. Within three minutes the remnants of James’ Village had disappeared down his tentacle gullet.

Val didn’t know how she would tell him of what happened here. He likely wasn’t conscious during these scenes and would hopefully not remember them, but he still would have to be informed somehow.

Now the tentacle was retreating, leaving James just as he was before, green eyes and all. Although his next move terrified Val. James was standing in front of where her chrysalis had been. Somehow he could sense her. That should be impossible. He liked his lips and raised a claw to strike, the claw glowing with that same green glow, but luckily something tastier emerged.

At this point the dungeon heart started to manifest above the point where the dungeon master’s corpse used to be. The thing was as big as a human head and was softly glowing blue with spots of green. James swallowed it in one bite. He must have used [Shapeshifting] to get that thing in his mouth. When he swallowed the dungeon heart he finally looked satisfied and collapsed right where Val found him 50 minutes later.

A quick diagnostic spell showed her that James was still alive, not only that, but he was actually filled to the brim with vital energy. More than some trolls she had seen. Valeria really needed to prepare her poker face for the story James was about to tell her, when he woke up. But first she would have to drag him out of here. Good thing this wasn’t technically a dungeon anymore. That made opening a portal a lot easier.

She quickly transported the three of them outside to a nearby clearing, which they had used as a makeshift camp. After she made sure Skadi and James were actually knocked out, she conjured a bubble of silence around her face and had a good old scream.

An old one. A fucking great old one had apparently taking a liking to James. How the everliving shit-fuck am I supposed to deal with that? I can’t scry on them. Fuck, I can’t even begin to comprehend their motives. She screamed a bit more for the droplets of catharsis that would bring. Then she tried to steady herself. On the other hand, if he gets powers connected to the eldritch, then this could be so much more than just a distraction in exile. This could be my ticket. I just have to rework all my plans and contingencies … and make twice as many to be sure. But I can do this. I’ve spent centuries looking for exactly this. I am not going to let this opportunity slip through my fingers. If those eldritch bastards think they can steal my little monster away from me, then they have another thing coming. Val knelt next to James, sensing his mana, sensing that his body was digesting whatever the eldritch tentacle had deposited AND the dungeon heart. Oh yes! I will make you magnificent and terrifying. With all this you can be so much more than a distraction. Together we will achieve so much. She looked James right in the face. The face of a goblin. The face he had adopted without hesitation. No doubt he would become a true-shifter in a matter of weeks. Yes, under my wing it won’t be long until you will not have a face. Valeria laughed into her bubble of silence. But you will wield them all!