The shadow is perhaps the weakest of the incorporeal creatures. It bears the shape of whatever creature it was in life. Its grasp will chill the blood in your veins, and should you die to it you will join in its hunt of the living. While not destroyed by light, a shadow is considerably weaker in it. – Common Monsters
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Adrian
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As I finish the food the children run over to me. I can see Abagail talking with the woman that was looking after them. The two of them walk over to me and Abagail speaks.
“They want to know if they can travel with us.”
“No” I respond. There is no way I am going to keep track of a half dozen children. We have no way of keeping them safe and fed even if I wanted to.
“But we need help.” The women interjects.
I let out a sigh before answering her.
“We are walking across town, and having to fight. We can’t defend you, we also don’t have food to feed everyone long term.”
“But there has to be something you can do.”
“We can tell you where there are some others but that is it.”
She doesn’t speak for a moment and I continue; drawing a map on the street with a piece of chalk.
“Two days in this direction there is a group of survivors being led by the gangs. They are not the nicest people but are better than the other choice who live over in this part of town. They are from another world and would see you as slaves.
You should move to where these gangs are, they have food and you should be able to live long enough for society to move toward normalcy. We as in my friends are heading this way and will end up fighting our way out of town and leaving.
We won’t stop you from following but we can’t feed and protect you. You are safer here than traveling with us.”
I hear a growl from the side and turn to look at a child trying to steal some of K’s food. That does not seem like a good idea.
“If you are hungry ask for more from the pot. You don’t want to upset her.”
I don’t think K would really hurt the child but I would rather not have to find out how far someone can bug her. The child runs over to me and I give him another bowl. There is not much left, these little things eat almost as much as me.
“Are we going to stay near here for the night” asks K.
“Yes, we could get to my house by midnight but I want to arrive there during the day. Can you get everyone situated while I scout?”
“Sure, but I want to ride you as you fly later.”
“Only if I get the same privilege under the full moon” I say with a smirk.
K nods, she probably thinks she will never have to honor that. If I shift due to lycanthropy it wouldn’t be possible. I hope she takes it well under this next full moon when I don’t change. Or is it her wolf half that needs to take it well?
I would just shift to dragon form here, but I don’t think that I should in front of children. Some of them are in dresses. So, I think those are little girls. It’s harder to tell when they are dirty and hungry. I walk to the corner of a building, not letting any of the kids follow me.
Once there I magic away my clothes as I start to shift forms. I am surprised Void Cache worked to do this. I never would have thought of it before last night. The children and woman scream as I jump out from the side of the building and fly over them.
I make sure to fly just over their heads, might as well mess with them, right? I think that the woman passed out. What was her name? I never asked, Abagail will know and tell me if it is important later.
I circle around the intersection that we made a makeshift soup kitchen; there doesn’t seem to be anything else nearby. They should be safe, I’ll scout around for an hour or two. Let my wings soak up as much light as they can.
I fly along the path we will take tomorrow morning. There are a few goblins roaming about. Should I just leave them and deal with it tomorrow? The others might need the XP for the Grey Dream.
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I swoop down and tackle a goblin, we are about the same size physically but I am a dragon so my body is much stronger. Its chest cracks and I crush its ribcage as I land on it. There are a few others that were traveling with the one I landed on. I breathe black fire out at them, mimicking the appearance of a shadow dragon’s fire.
Soon the small tribe is dead and I launch to the sky again. A bit of blood dripping off my claws. A few other stray goblins were around, and slowed down my arrival to the air above my home.
There are people in tents outside of the house. Not my family, who are these people? Why are they here? Where are my family members? Are they inside the house or down in the cellar? I have keys to all of that on me, but that doesn’t make it any better.
They have a sentry looking out over the garden and driveway. That person is armed with a gun, but they don’t have anyone looking over the woods behind the house. There seems to have been a fight here recently too.
I land near the woods and shift back to human. I hold a loaded pistol as I approach their sentries from behind and knock them out. Idiots were too busy talking to each other to notice me. I move to the tents, there are some people sitting at it.
Three to be exact a woman and two men, like the sentries they are dirty. There are probably a dozen in the tents. I walk into the light of lantern while making sure to shift my image a few feet to my right.
“What are you doing at my home?”
The three look over startled. There is a bit of panic on the face of the woman. The men however point their guns at my fake image. One of them answers my question.
“This place is ours now, find your own place. Mike how did you let . . .”
I cut him off and ask another question. My voice is louder than his.
“What of the people who were living here?”
“There wasn’t anyone. We got here yesterday” answers the woman.
That means if my family is still here they are in the cellar.
“Did you have a battle here yesterday or today?”
She nods, “midgets and green people.”
The men fire their pistols at the false image of me. The bullets pass through without doing anything. They start to swear and I feel a tiny amout of backlash building. Shit, these people have had little exposure to magic.
I drop my false image as I take two quick shots at the men. I turn to the woman and can hear those in the tents waking up.
“You should all leave before I come back tomorrow, and if the family that lives here is dead I will kill all of you.”
I step out of the light and shift into a dragon again. The woman screams and I release a gravity breath at the tents. They collapse under their own weight as I fly off into the night. There are too many people and too many guns for me to easily win on my own.
As I fly around I can also see a large fire near where the Althaen are. I guess the undead arrived then.
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Jason
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A lot of the Althaen have died the last few days. I heard that those that were sent out to assassinate Adrian also ended up dead. Good I want to be the one to kill him, but only after I take his women in front of him.
I look out into the night, but to me it is just as clear as day. The dead minions of some death mage are marching towards us. I get down from the wall, and walk closer towards the center of camp. I haven’t seen the shadow man in a few days. I don’t care anymore about him, I got what I wanted.
Another voice of a shadow person cries out for me to help them. They are not the shadow man. They just look kind of like him. Whispers of how to give them physical form and allow them to serve me have bothered me for days.
Maybe I should just try it. Shut them up. The war horn sounds, one of the other sentries finally noticed the giant hoard of corpses moving towards the camp. I think those gangs will act too tonight. The dead passed through their territory and yet I can still smell that they are near. These dead are working with them.
One of the magisters that serves High Lord Andrus is taking a piss. No one can see him right now. I smile, I haven’t gotten to consume a magister yet.
I get my hand over his mouth and knee him in the groin, stunning him long enough to start draining. He already looked old, but his life force is much tastier than the others I’ve had so far. He groans and wheezes for a few breaths before I drop him and he falls to the ground.
I have never felt so great. I want another one, the whispers of the shadow people tell me they’ll bring me some if I help them get physical form. That might be a deal I’ll accept.
As soon as this thought crosses my mind I feel a pain in my head. I scream in pain but no sound comes out. The world has changed I am in a grey mist and the shadow people are tearing me apart.
Then it stops they and me are all pulled back together. I stand up in the physical plane and smile. We have returned. We test the body’s strength, it is enough but the mana is weak. We need to consume more magi.
We smile, there are still a few in this camp and a Ravnos within reach. We lick our lips, cannibalize the last few mages here and then we will eat Ravnos. Tear his gift from him and consume it. We will be whole again.
We walk into the tent where the last few magi of this Althaen camp are. Our body reverts to its natural state; demonic wings, tail and claw can be seen on us. They panic and we start the spells that will prevent them from acting, a dome of force containing an antimagic field.
One of the magister charges us with a blade made of mana, it winks out of existence just as it is about strike us. Our cage is set and we grab the old man. He is nothing without his magic. We tear out the throat and drink some of the blood, powers other than mana still work in our cage.
He withers and we turn to the other three. The start to run, screaming that we are a demon. Our laughter fills the tent as they run into the dome of force. They will all be ours. We consume them and delight in the terror the others exude as we feast. With this we have enough to maybe fight that young Ravnos.
Our claw tears at the fabric of space, there is enough flesh and blood being spilt tonight for our weaker siblings to be let into the world once more. Red light and screams of torment spill out of the split in the planes.
A rush of abyssal power fills us, and we grow. We shall be half again the size of a man before we are done. Small red beings with bat like wings flood out of the small portal. They will bring others to feed the arrival of our kin and us.