Dragon Turtles are the terrors of the sea, behemoth threats that can sink ships and send entire crews to their watery grave. While not as intelligent as their draconic brethren, they’re still smart enough to act as more than a simple beast, avoiding threats and dangers until they can easily strike.
This one in particular has no right being here. All large enough monsters have been driven from Andire’s shores through violence and diplomacy. They wouldn’t even consider letting one this big just live around. Ulgrin then remembers he’s not exactly in their territory anymore. Who’s to say that the fey would even care about having a giant turtle sitting in their waters? The fact of the matter is there’s one right in front of their boat.
“Hard to port!” Captain Venora demands with a lilt of panic in her voice as she urges the crew into action. “All crew to the oars, and row as hard as you can!”
The draconic creature sucks in a breath. A moment later a cone of superheated, scalding steam washes over the area. Crewmembers scream in pain as the edge hits the Fish and Tonic and sends droplets of the burning liquid all over the deck. Ulgrin holds up his arm and steps in front of his friends, feeling the heat from here. Above them they can hear the laughing chitter of fairies watching their demise.
Ulgrin begins to move towards the back of the ship as it turns rapidly. “With me!” He calls to his allies, already beginning to channel magical energy. “We need to keep it off our tail for as long as possible!” Its size easily rivals the ship they ride, but they have to try. Those snapping jaws could easily tear huge, gaping holes given the chance.
A quickly powered bolt of lightning bridges the gap between them, striking the huge turtle right in the nose. That only seems to annoy it for a moment despite having enough power to easily fry a man. A fist-sized scorch mark is left behind, but not much else. This is going to suck, isn’t it? Ulgrin asks himself, already knowing the answer.
Powerful legs begin to propel the Dragon Turtle through the water, carrying its cabin-sized shell with ease. “Any ideas?” Alyss asks, already throwing bombs towards it. They explode midair, but fail to do much of anything to the creature’s adamantine shell. “I don’t think any of my ordinance is going to put a dent in that thing’s armor.”
Saezz stares deeply at the creature. “Perhaps not its outer layers, but inside? Saezz things if we can get it to open its maw long enough then we might be able to do something. The flesh is weaker inside.”
“Good luck with that,” Raelza suggests, her crossbow aiming. She fires, but the bolt plinks off of the dragon’s armored brow. “This thing is a bitch to hit with it swaying around like that. Sure, it’s a huge target, but the mouth isn’t that big, at least from this distance.” She quickly pulls back the string. “It’s getting closer, by the way.”
“We know.” Alder replies, frustratedly sending simple bolts of force. The boy’s magic has just as much effect as throwing rocks with how durable the creature is. “Teacher, what if I give you my energy? Will that help?”
“It’ll help, but I’m still not sure a fully charged blast will stop this thing.” Ulgrin replies, staring at his staff. The casting focus has taken a beating over the past few weeks, but can still support this level of channeling. “This thing is on a whole ‘nother level. It’s called a dragon for a reason.”
Fleeting Wind places a hand on his shoulder. “Please accept mine as well. I am no spellcaster, but my fey blood has its benefits. Magic runs through my veins, especially in a place like this.” He sends a glance back to Maya, gesturing for her to run to the other end of the ship. “And if need be, a sacrifice can be made.”
“Blood magic is…” Ulgrin grits his teeth, unsure of whether or not to accept. Sacrificing one’s life force to empower spells is a well known, if immoral tactic. It’s especially popular amongst necromancers and the like who have no problem using someone else’s strength to fuel their own rituals. Even if you were to use one’s own, it’s incredibly easy to draw too much and end up lowering your life span in the process. That isn’t even covering the days, if not weeks of recovery time as your organs and bits stop hemorrhaging.
“Necessary in a time like this, if need be.” Wind states, ignoring his disgust. “I have the least to lose, given my relative vitality. This will not kill me.”
“No.” Ulgrin replies. “I’m not taking your essence. Besides, I’m not casting the spell alone, am I?” He leaned into the presence at his side, grateful for Lorekeeper.
[Of course not. Ready the attack. I shall aid the ritual.] She replies, confident.
Saezz gives a thumbs up. “We’ll keep that bastard off of you all. Saezz will distract it.” The lizardfolk nods at them before taking a running leap into the waters. Ulgrin knows that his ally is the most capable underwater fighter, but it still tugs at his heartstrings to see the man rush right into the jaws of death. Is this what his friends feel like everytime he does something similar?
“Dumbass lizard!” Alyss yells into the water, readying several bombs. Vials of acid smash into the Dragon Turtle’s back and neck, splashing it with sizzling liquid. That seems to discomfort the creature and it roars, filling the air with a tidal wave of sound that flutters the undrawn sails.
Raelza for her part takes slow, deep breaths as she lines up a shot. Waiting for an opportunity to take out an eye.
Ulgrin trusts she’ll make the shot when the party needs it most. In the meantime he quickly pulls out a handful of chalk and begins to write a runic circle. Alder joins him, frantically scribbling lines on the floor boards. Sweat drips down Ulgrin’s forehead as he writes as fast as possible. Channeling power between casters is simple if you don’t care about efficiency, but they need every last drop of aetheric energy they can get.
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Behind him, the Dragon Turtle leans its head down to gulp down as much water as possible, readying itself for another go with its breath attack, but Saezz surprises the creature by scampering up its shell. He lets out a roar of his own, leaping down at the creature’s neck and beginning to worry away at its relatively softer scales.
In response, the turtle’s eyes narrow in anger. It reaches up with one of its forelimbs, pawing at the lizardfolk clinging to its neck. Saezz slips to its underside, clinging tightly. The dragon rears backwards, slamming its body into the waters. That serves to knock the lizard off, sending him hurtling down into the depths. As the Dragon Turtle lowers its head to try and bite at him Raelza fires a shot. This one is closer than before, managing to scrape past its eyelid and deflect off, just an inch short.
That distracts it long enough for Saezz to swim away, as fast in the water as he is on land. He propels himself back towards its stubby triangular tail, choosing to gnaw on that instead. Frustrated bellows fill the air as the turtle slaps the tail against the water, but fails to knock him off.
Ulgrin finishes with the last etchings and stands up. “It’s a triangular ritual. You two stand behind me.” He orders, taking the front position and lifting his staff. He breathes deeply and a spell matrix forms in front of him, the runic sigils spinning slowly as he powers it up. “Start giving me your power.” Behind him, Alder and Wind urge their reserves into the ritual, sending it along preordained channels of power. Light fills the air, a bright yellow for the boy and a deep purple for the changeling.
[Efficiency at maximum. Throttling power. This may become painful.] Lorekeeper advises him, aiding him in managing the influx. A surge of energy washes over him as the conduit, pricking at his skin and causing his hair to stand up on end. The heat washes away the condensation covering his armor.
“Steady.” He growls out, staff tracking the beast as it tries to shake his friend off. “Steady…” His allies slump, their power fully drained in order to fuel a spell of this capacity. “Saezz, get clear!” He calls, voice cutting through the air as he spins up the spell’s firing sequence.
Just as he sees a green figure swim away, Ulgrin lets loose. “FIRING!” Rather than his usual propensity towards lightning, the spell this time seems to suck all heat from the air in front of it, a chilling vacuum that rapidly fills in with air. A ray of blinding intensity launches forth, aiming to strike the Dragon Turtle directly in the chest. Its eyes widen in shock and it sucks in a breath. A counter-attack is launched. The scalding spray of steam hits the beam, and a cloud of icy fog rapidly fills the air around it.
Ulgrin pauses, all his energy spent. He weakly holds himself up, watching as the fog lifts. Snow falls on the lake surface, the fog glinting in the dim light. Then he sees the Dragon Turtle slumped against a flash-created berg of ice. It roars angrily, almost two-thirds of its body stuck fast. He lets out his breath, glad to see their spell worked.
A scaled fist pulls himself over the railing as Saezz climbs back up. The lizard is violently shivering, covered in a thin patina of ice. “S-s-s-aezz wishes to l-leave now. G-g-good job.”
“Glad to see you’re alive,” Raelza says, hugging him tightly and wrapping her cloak around him. “That was a close call. Suck on that ice, big bastard!” She gives the Dragon Turtle an archer’s middle finger as they rapidly make distance on the creature. The ice surrounding it cracks, but holds for now.
Alyss quickly shoves a potion into his hands. “Warming tonic. I suppose that’s one of the downsides of being cold-blooded?”
“Y-yes. Saezz very much dislikes the c-c-old. But it seems t-t-to have been worse for him.” He takes a moment to give a toothy grin, watching their escape.
Above them all, the flock of fairies has joined their ship, sailing amidst the trees and cackling. “An icy tomb narrowly spares them their doom.” One of them calls. “But that is just the entree, for they must entreat the true masters of this land. This one thinks they have earned a boon, yes sisters?”
“Of course. We shall show you the way! The main course awaits. Let us hope thy hunger for a conclusion will not spell the end of today’s dinner.” The feminine creature cackles. “Come, come! The path you take is dreadfully slow! Our path is as fast as a crow!”
Captain Verona quickly approaches, a concerned look on her face. “I’m glad you all managed to stop that monster. Gods above and below, I’ve only heard tales of a Dragon Turtle before. Thought they’d all been banished to the far corners of the globe. But do you trust these fey creatures to take us where we need to go?”
Fleeting Wind grunts. “While unsavory in their desire to play tricks, Fairies do not lie. We’ve earned a quick passage, that much is clear. If we don’t want to be stuck sailing through unknown waters and risk running into worse creatures than the dragon we just faced, then it’d be wise to follow them.” He looks up just as Maya cannonballs into his midsection, eliciting a low groan. “I’m alright.”
“Then we follow.” Ulgrin declares, his body aching and mind fuzzy. Using that much mana at once is more exhausting than an hour long spar. “And hope that they’re leading us where we want to go, rather than where they think we want to go.”
The crew settles down, treating what wounds were taken during the brief moment of chase. Plenty of scalds to go around, but nothing major. They turn to follow the flock, guided by their whispers and laughter and dance. Ulgrin allows himself to rest, hoping to regain some of his expended mana for the next inevitable encounter.
An hour of relative silence passes, guided beneath the glowing fairy light. Time seems to almost be a nonfactor here, as it always seems to be dusk. There’s no trace of the suns through the dense banks of fog everpresent over the landscape. At least the aura of oddity seems to have faded, albeit not entirely. The place will always be weird. That much is certain. But it’s starting to make sense.
Ulgrin watches as the boat is rowed forwards towards a strange area. The treescape has halted entirely in a circular area, much like a forest clearing, but on a scale far beyond normal. The empty lake stretches for miles around in a perfect sphere where all vegetation has halted its passage. He blinks, confused. “Is this it? Where is the Murky Court?” Above them the fairies laugh and cackle at Ulgrin’s expense.
Wind merely clears his throat, pointing downwards. Ulgrin turns his gaze that way and is shocked to see his perspective shift. An entire city can be seen just below the water’s surface but is… inverted? Buildings go down, rather than up, with their foundations set into the water itself. The image is murky, but he can see gleaming white marble towers extending far below. A massive castle is just below their ship, far surpassing any humanoid construction in scale.
Looking at it almost hurts his eyes. The image is warped, twisted. Staircases and passageways twist and invert into each other, leading nowhere, but they watch as murky figures climb and appear elsewhere. Gravity seems to be more of a suggestion than anything as stairs spin into loops. Ulgrin can’t make heads or tails of it. It’s as if the architect was stricken with bouts of schizophrenia partway through building the castle, but he was certain no mortals had a hand in making this palace.
Canals fill the streets through which gondolas float with their bottoms facing upwards. “How the hells do we get down?” Raelza asks, confused as the rest of them. “Oh. There’s a staircase in the middle of the water.” She gestures and they all follow her pointing towards a simple wooden set of stairs that end a few feet above the surface. That hadn’t been there before.
A very tall individual stands there, shrouded in shadow. No, they are literally made of shadow. The entity is more akin to a walking silhouette than a proper figure. They all stare for a moment. Then the shadow waves towards them. Ulgrin glances at his friends before nodding to Captain Venora to sail towards the staircase.
Their boat glides closer until the prow is a mere feet away. The captain seems confused on whether or not to drop anchor, but ultimately decides upon caution.
“Welcome.” A seemingly normal voice calls from the shadow, sounding more like a bored old man. “Welcome to the Court of the Murky Waters. We’ve been expecting you, scion of the Three Houses.” They all look around before settling upon Alyss, who seems to shrink up for a moment. “We’ve been expecting all of you.”
The party narrowly avoids their doom and arrives at the Murky Court. I'm also closing in on the Writathon's goal of 55k words. Only one or two more chapters, and just in time too. Thank you all for reading! See you next chapter.