—

Skill Evolved

Omnivore —> Devourer

Devourer

Bloodline Skill (Monstrous)

Rank 1 - Evolution Possible

Passive

Rank 0:

-The Monster derives sustenance from anything, and its digestion produces no waste. Its teeth and jaws can chew through most substances with sustained effort.

-The Monster's consumption of flesh restores its Corpus, and consumption of magic restores its Gnosis. All caps for Corpus and Gnosis, regardless of source, are removed.

-The consumption of refined metals will permanently increase the Monster's Armor and the damage of its physical natural weapons, such as claws, bite, horns, talons or spines. Damage and Armor gains are proportionate to the quantity and purity of metals consumed.

-When the Monster consumes the flesh of a creature possessing a Skill, it will adopt that Skill as its own at Rank 1. If the creature possesses multiple Skills, the Monster will acquire that creature's highest Ranked Skill. If the creature possesses more than one Skill tied for highest Rank, the Monster acquires them all.

Skills obtained in this way increase in Rank by whatever process the Monster gains in power, if any.

-When the Monster consumes weapons and armor with special qualities, it may allocate those qualities to its physical natural weapons, such as claws, bite, horns, talons or spines, if it possesses any. Armor qualities may be allocated as long as the Monster possesses a natural Armor bonus. If the Damage and Armor Penetration values of a consumed weapon are higher than that of the Monster’s natural weapons, the natural weapons will gain the difference between the two as a permanent bonus.

The Monster may also consume Talismans and Vestments, thereby inheriting whatever bonuses or special qualities they conferred while worn.

Rank 1:

-The Monster consumes the souls of sapient beings it has eaten.

The souls of consumed beings take residence in the Monster’s Soulspace, and may speak to and hear one another and the Monster as if all were physically present. If the Monster no longer wishes to speak or listen to souls occuyping its Soulspace, it can block communication from them at any time.

If the Monster possesses a Skill capable of creating a minion, it may imbue the minion with the soul of a being previously consumed by Devourer. The soul retains the ability to use all its Skills, provided the form it occupies possesses sufficient Gnosis to use them. If the minion in question is slain or dismissed by the Monster, the soul returns immediately to the Monster’s Soulspace.

At any time, the Monster may destroy the soul of a being it has consumed, granting it a sum of Gnosis proportionate to the strength of the soul in question.

—

Redmane could read it, in theory.

In reality it was a bit difficult at the moment.

His body was full of fire.

Every last shred of his being was being remade. Reforged. Power flowed into his muscles, reinforced his sinews, hardened his bones, energized organs and tissues, burned away imperfections. It felt like being immersed in a volcano. Joining with it. Molten energy flooding into every shape, inside and out, immortalizing it in steel.

Redmane immediately identified this as the most painful experience he’d ever had.

The pain was transformative.

At some point it occurred to him that he hovered in midair. The ball of red and his torso occupied the same space.

His vision began to clear, bringing him back from the world of crimson fire to the world of the endless corpse field.

Redmane felt himself slowly descending, to the point where his feet once again stood on solid ground. Echoes of the awesome pain reverberated through his body, but that was nothing next to the exhilaration of its newfound strength.

He looked down at himself. At his hands. He’d gotten a bit taller, he thought.

Pietr sat where he left him, a rapturous smile on his face.

“Lord…” he said, breathlessly.

Redmane found himself feeling much more like a Lord now.

Now that he was lucid, he called that Skill Evolution screen back, so he could properly read its description.

He looked down at Pietr, priest of Kraal.

“You said you wanted to become one with your god,” said Redmane.

Pietr nodded slowly.

“Then rise.”

Pietr shakily rose to his feet, looking awed.

Redmane walked over to him, so they were face to face. They were equal in height now.

Then Redmane bit into his neck. Tore his throat out.

The priest’s eyes went wide. A curtain of blood flowed down the front of his robes as he gurgled and fell limp against Redmane, who gnawed through his spine, pulled his hood back to seize the hair, and then devoured his head as if it were a piece of fruit.

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Corpus: 2779

Something came into him with that Corpus. It felt like gaining Gnosis, but not quite. It felt sort of like eating an enchanted weapon, except the cluster of crystallized energy was far larger and more complex.

Pietr’s headless body fell to the ground, blood pouring from the ragged stump of his neck.

And then an instant later, his translucent phantom appeared right next to it.

I… I live!

Pietr looked around the Soulspace as if he were doing so with new eyes. He was certainly having a religious experience now.

“You were right about that thing,” said Redmane. “But you were wrong about what would happen to me.”

The priest looked at Redmane curiously. What do you mean?

“I feel no closer to this being, Kraal. Nor the man who came before him, Karalis. I remain who I was. Redmane.”

Pietr chuckled. Haltingly, incredulously at first, and then he broke out into peals of rapturous laughter.

It scarcely matters what you call yourself, my lord! For you have returned!

“Now how do we leave this place.”

This Seal is broken, said Pietr. Your Soulspace will no longer be closed to you. Simply focus your mind, and you will return us to the material world.

Redmane closed his eyes.

What he said was true. He could feel his physical body distantly, as if it were a Spawn. Focusing brought the sensation closer, so close he could feel evening air on his skin and hear the murmuring of a throng of beastmen all around him.

Redmane returned to his flesh. Opened his eyes in the church.

Pietr’s body fell to the ground face first.

Pietr, High Priest of Kraal Slain

Tasks Completed 4/5

Level Up

Level 52 —> 53

Quality Points awaiting allocation: 1

A collective gasp swept through the whole congregation. To include the two cultists flanking the now deceased High Priest of Kraal.

Even Vella, the Justiciar in their midst, looked cowed. She stared at Redmane with the same wide eyed expression of shock as the rest of them.

He had no idea how much time had passed, but it couldn’t have been long. The night was just as dark as it was the moment Pietr’s Skill went off.

Just then, Radovid and Irina stormed through the doors of the church with their weapons readied, their faces flushed from the sprint, but clearly it hadn’t taken so much out of them that they couldn’t fight and fight well. If they were arriving now, it meant that what transpired in his Soulspace had been mere moments in the world of flesh.

Redmane’s eyes leveled on Pietr’s prone corpse.

“I have taken his soul,” he said, to anyone who cared to listen. “For he wished to be one with his lord, and I suppose that’s me.”

You suppose correctly, said Pietr.

First he looked at the two cultists of Kraal, who both took half a step back when his eyes shifted their way.

“But I am not Kraal, the Devourer. I am called Redmane. I intend to conquer these lands. If the Cult of Kraal wishes to be of use to me in this endeavor, you may bend the knee and swear allegiance, I make this offer now, and I shall not make it again.”

The cultists looked at each other, fear in their eyes. Then they fell on their faces.

“We swear fealty!” one barked.

“We follow Redmane!” said the other.

Redmane let them kneel for a few moments. He turned to address Vella and Radovid and Irina.

“The offer extends to you as well,” he said. “As Imbued, you’re welcome to join my Faction as your comrades Valtr and Vengarl have. But I won’t press you. If you would rather move on from this place, you’re free to leave in peace. Know only that if you one day stand in my way I won’t hesitate to slay you all.”

He delivered those words as gently as he could, though Radovid and Irina still flinched from them a bit.

Vella, meanwhile, looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“Oy, redhead. You’re the thing these beast folk worship?” she asked.

He looked at her. “I’m what they were waiting for, but not what they were expecting.”

It appeared to take her a moment to riddle out what he meant. He noticed her looking at his System tag, her eyebrows rose a bit and she let out a low whistle.

“Valtr and Vengarl joined your outfit?”

Redmane nodded.

“Alright then mate. I’ll jump on the wagon too, see where it goes.”

Radovid and Irina let out a sigh at the same time.

Redmane’s attention returned to them. “If you have misgivings, I take no offense. Do whatever you wish.”

The two of them conferred with each other for a moment in whispers. Radovid shook his head. Irina made an exasperated gesture.

“We’ll consider it, ser,” said Irina, with a smile.

Radovid didn’t much look like he wanted to consider it, but he said nothing.

Redmane strode toward the church’s open doors, and passed them by on his way out.

“Consider it then. I’m going to deal with the burgomaster. You’re all welcome to come along and bear witness, if you like.”

While he was thinking about it, he spent his Quality Point on Fortitude.

Fortitude 37 —> 38

Now he felt sufficiently sturdy.

Vella hopped out of her seat and ran after him.

The cultists of Kraal looked at each other, nodded grimly, and bid their congregation to rise.

Hundreds of beastmen rose from the pews and filed out of the church after them, as if they were all of one mind, the Dirge of the Devourer keeping them tractable, like sheep.

One more foe to slay, and Barograd was his.

Barograd. Midva Forest. Häerz Castle. The beginnings of a fine domain. One which would only grow.

As for how to run a growing domain, he’d sort those matters out later, one way or another.

----------------------------------------

Magister Helmold sat with Valtr and Vengarl at an outdoor table in the castle yard, eating bowl after bowl of blue Gnosis fruits served to them by three Floras dressed as kitchen maids. After every serving, they paid Gnosis into the Faction account for House Redmane, steadily increasing the number until they could activate the Sanctuary’s Pharos.

The table they sat around was no table at all, but a mass of living vines and roots Flora had shaped perfectly into sets of outdoor furnishings. The castle yard was truly beginning to resemble something out of fairy tales. Helmold noted that one used to be able to stand at the gatehouse and see across to the chapel on one side of the keep, and the stables and kennels on the other.

Now someone coming through the gate would likely be confused, thinking they had just left the forest behind for the castle, only to be faced with more forest.

“What should we call these things,” said Vengarl, as he stuffed another into his mouth.

“Dunno,” said Valtr, his voice muffled by the mouthful he was chewing. “Do they already have a name?”

“Oy, Flora!” Vengarl stopped a passing Flora.

She turned and smiled. “How may I assist thee, ser Vengarl?”

“You got a name for these fruits?”

The green haired girl pursed her lips, took a moment to consider the question. “Verily, I cannot recall what they were named, or if I even took the trouble to bestow one upon them!”

“They’re like peaches, but blue,” said Vengarl. “Could just call em Blue Peaches.”

“We could call em Flora’s Fruit,” said Valtr.

Vengarl looked across the table at Helmold, noted his frown and the tension at the corners of his eyes, and smirked.

“How bout we call em Magister’s Delight,” said Vengarl.

Valtr laughed and nodded. “Aye, that’s a good one. Does it meet with the Magister’s approval?”

Helmold realized he was being spoken to a bit late, so it took him a moment to nod and smile sheepishly. “You honor me, sers.”

“Everything alright there Helmold?” asked Valtr. “You look like you’ve got somethin weighing on your mind.”

“Just anxious to get the Pharos working,” said Helmold. “The last few days have been eventful. I’d like to see what’s become of our surroundings, hear from the other Factions around us.”

Valtr’s eyes narrowed a bit.

Helmold looked away from him, took another fruit from the basket and had a bite, glanced at the System screen to see how much more they had to go.

Not much left. But it couldn’t come fast enough.