Waking up to a headache and something else within myself felt strange, it felt like a wall over my eyes was lifted and I could feel pieces of my mind that were there behind a glass pane. I could feel their exertion over my mind, since becoming a familiar I had been rather civilized and acted as though I was a human, even preferring cooked meat over raw with me eating bread and greens. However now I felt revolted at such a weak past of myself for having to eat hand outs while also not being in charge of this group. I also wanted gold for some reason, but after thinking about it for a second my other half reminded me that the shiny stuff looks good and I simply had to agree.
Sofia: “Is he alright, he still looks kind of broken.”
‘Me being broken, never I am a perfectly fine dragon.’
Colbert: “Well I wouldn’t consider a wild animal eating at a table to be normal, however I guess that the world is a large place.”
Allelu: “I am assuming then that this is just the new norm, well its better than having a fake Zutal until something like this potentially happens in a real combat situation.”
‘There is nothing wrong, just me here with my usual desires of shiny things and lots of food.’
Marie: “Colbert I thought that you met with dragons, how come your acting fine when Zutal is a self entitled monster on a short leash. Zutal currently has the self control of a toddler but the power of, well an adult lizardman with dragon heritage? Anyway it matters little what relations Zutal has to dragons, the main part is how do we now account for this oversight.”
Colbert: “Well if you hate his entitled attitude then we put him back under the full familiar spell, the chances of encountering something that can break his bindings is low but never zero as shown by the temple.”
Sofia: “Please, both of you stop being so dramatic and look at Zutal. He can barely understand what happened to him let alone try and replicate it, lets instead worry about how we are going to proceed now that we know more about the impacts of the familiar contract.”
Colbert: “Well all enslavement contracts have some sort of mental impact on the monster enslaved, if you never asked others for advice then you wouldn’t know that the more animal parts of the lizard are getting suppressed until you do an in depth analysis. The same exact thing happens to Slave contract monsters when they think of escaping, by having any such thoughts be locked away behind the spell, so the real decision goes back to you Sofia as this is your contract and familiar.”
Sofia: “Letting Zutal run under partial control feels better since we get to see what sort of animalistic emotions get supressed by the full contract control, so it would be more beneficial to garner control and understanding without the familiar contract than with it in case of its removal.”
With the final judgement the party proceeds to approach Zutal, standing around him in a circle while he kneels.
Sofia: “How are you feeling Zutal?”
Looking into Sofias hazel eye’s Zutal can seen no malevolence.
Zutal: “I feel free and in control of a greater whole.”
Sofia: “That is good, I have loosened the hold of our contract to allow more emotions and acts of disobedience, however how we proceed further depends on your behaviour. Do you think that you can behave with the others in the party?”
Zutal: “Yes, I am thankful for the opportunity to feel myself fully once more after so long, and I will not strike out against anyone based on a grudge.”
Sofia: “Well that is as good as it gets.”
Zutal and Allelu walk up front to the rooms double door followed by the rest of the party eyeing each other and the grey dragonkin due to uncertainties in their own opinions about what is truly happening within the temple and if the grey lizard can be fully trusted.
With the party having done multiple detours everyone decides to camp out by the double doors, since past them is another large corridor that would require the parties full attention for any traps that could potentially trigger, even with a being like Zutal who is believed to be considered to have unrestricted access in the temple.
Thoughts occupy my mind as I process what is happening, all memories between my contract and now feel like they are wrong, feel as though something else has been living my life while the new me was sitting behind a window. However, I do not regret all of my actions, the act of getting a black robe from Bella felt fair as an exchange of shiny gold for a magical robe felt like an upgrade because of it covering a great weakness of mine and neither have I felt…
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Thoughts are put on hold as while walking through the maze of corridors we end up at a massive underground room. ‘I will try to think more in depth about the thrumming in my chest later, as well as deeper into my feelings regarding everyone else but for now I have to focus.’
Before the whole party is a truly large room befitting of the Draconic empire, a 50 metre (164 foot) by 50 metre (164 foot) wide room that reaches 100 metres (328 foot) tall. Inside the space there was a pyramid half of that size and reflecting the same architecture as the temples exterior, with a pedestal at the very top holding up an unknown item from a distance.
Colbert: “Fine, I will throw out any previous misconceptions about this temple since a room this large is too big to simply exist this far down.”
Sofia: “So… does this mean that the tunnel could actually go to the heavens and underworld?”
Marie: “Lets not worry about that now, I can see humans directly in front of us.”
Colbert: “Where?”
Marie: “Look at the base of the stairs leading up to the pyramid, there appears to be a haze in the air that is no doubt created by an invisibility spell.”
Colbert proceeds to take out a scroll from his back pack, then with a practiced hand he removes the wax seal depicting a closed eye and unfurls the scroll fully, casting it on the party with the effects being immediate as we are now staring at a five tent encampment. Smoke rises from a campfire in the centre as the tents are pointed inwards at the empty camp. Outside of the tent are eight people all of whom are fully kitted out and ready for a fight, although one of the people looks familiar.
Colbert: “Why don’t we go and say hello to our competition, highly doubt that we can ask them to leave or walk away ourselves.”
I take a backseat in this short walk, trying to repress my emotions for battle as I walk close to Colbert in case magic or a physical weapon gets thrown at him. The walk to the adventurer party is short and we stop 10 metres (33 foot) before them, so that a conversation can happen but we can not be surprise attacked in the inevitable negotiation breakdown.
Marie: “Long way away from home are you not.”
The group of eight consists of melee specialists and magicians, although one person looks more scholarly and less mage with attack magics. This is in stark contrast to our own group being the party of four with Colbert and his two slaves making a group of seven. The numbers advantage is not missed by the human in front, wearing heavy steel armour comparable to Allelu in terms of design, however the man is much smaller at around Maries size rather than the demon. The humans are overall all normal sized when compared to someone like myself who is a beast of raw muscles and scales, even when some of my scales are soft, I could easily charge in there and rip our enemies asunder.
Paladin: “I think the same could be said for you, walking around in Deep Wood with such a weak party.”
I visibly bristle at this, my long tail running over the stone floor and creating a dragging sound, ‘a little gnat like that dares to call me weak when he is made like a protein bar covered by tin foil.’
This movement puts both parties on edge, I am most definitely the biggest worry for the opposition as their overconfidence to allow us to get close to them is coming back to bite them. Numbers advantage means little if I carve them down to size before they can respond.
Looking over the other seven members of the human group the scholar in priestly white robes, in laden with gold and silver jewellery, while carrying a metallic stave with incense burning a minty smell and smoke seems to be in the far back and the easiest of them all to rip and tear through. Next to him is a mage in a green medieval kirtle, similar to Sofia in a magical feel and therefore possibly a druid with a staff, so I should be careful of any poison thorns coming my way, especially around the softer scale areas.
In the groups middle is the thought to be dead female bandit, living through the fake hydra blood bath seemed to turn her into a religious zealot in order to hide her now heavily burned body. Instead of wearing leather armour and a sword like in the past she now wears a brown stola with dual maces in her hands and a brown hood over her burned bald head. I have been around her enough to know not only her distinct smell but also know the smell of human fear, when they start sweating heavily and tighten a grip on their weapons, I will enjoy ripping apart the prey that was unjustly taken from me.
Past the only scarred member of the enemy adventuring group I see short man, half the length of the paladin he seems like a child but I can smell he is not human. Dwarf is the correct term, with them living next to the jagged peak mountain range so it is not out of the realm of possibility that they and the Claret Confederacy have close ties. He is wearing chain mail with iron boots, as for his weapons they are a shield and axe, I believe that his lighter armour and a shield will allow for more defensive actions to protect the parties casters or keep the zealot in line.
Past the dwarf is a woman and two men who position themselves between their leading paladin and the back line, these people have leather armour with bucklers and short swords. The leather helms with nose guards made of steel protect them well against most light damage, with their equipment giving them a focus on speed while the leader takes the brunt of enemy attacks and punishes anyone who tries to disengage from him to focus at the more nimble supports.
Colbert: “I do believe that the local masters of the temple, the Great Bear Rulers, did not hand out visiting rites to the temple to anyone else. Care to explain this blatant disregard of Deep Wood customs.”
Paladin: “Listening to the words of monsters is not how the Claret Confederacy guild operates, we do not deal with demons either, however just this once I will allow you to leave.”
I decide to interrupt and tell my findings at the same time, not wanting to let a fight good fight escape me just because the enemies do not know my potential. Or maybe they do with the bandit there hiding in the back.
Zutal: “Why don’t we take back our property first, the woman in the brown stola is this demons slave, you are not thieves right?”
The paladins face of neutrality turns into a sneer, clearly the vicious mockery having struck the man as intended.