The Bargain
This will be my Halloween story for this year. A little late.
I had the idea for a while, a way for Kleet to become more powerful than your standard-but-smart kobold.
There was even an amusing bit about 6 kobolds walking up to the slave market in a line with chains between hands and wrists - only not actually bound together. It was just to make them fit in until Kleet flashed some gold and got an orc. One that could be bound in the chains and dragged away by his small team.
But who would want a common orc as an offering? Someone long forgotten, maybe.
Consiousness slowly came back to the orc. His eyes opened to darkness - no, not darkness. He could SEE through darkness. This was - this was black. Instinctively, he reached up to his face to pull away whatever was blocking his view - but his hands were bound. The aches in his muscles washed over him again as he tried to move.
Something was wrong. VERY wrong.
Don't panic... Think... Where was I? Where am I?
Answers were not quick to come. He remembered being i n the slave market, being chained to a post with his ankles fettered and wrists cuffed behind him. Some kobolds - had come to the holding cells. One had a club...
Fucker knocked me out? Fucker BOUGHT me?!
He could feel a lump on the back of his head - he must have been struck from behind. Then where was he now? Why couldn't he see? He moved as far as he could - which wasn't far. He was kneeling, his back against a rough stone pillar. His hands must have been lashed behind it. But he couldn't feel anything against his eyes - couldn't feel ANYTHING on his face or head. Then why can't I SEE?!
Time passed. He couldn't judge how long, but it couldn't be hours - he wasn't hungry yet. Just angry and frustrated. His muscles were still cramping when he felt a sharp pain on his thigh - a blade scraping his skin, drawing blood. Going deep, but not stabbing.
"WRRRAGH!" the orc bellowed - but he couldn't hear it. Deaf and blind - fucking magic!
"Release me, ya fuckin' warlocks. FIGHT ME!"
Suddenly a blue light flared into existence - coming from below his face. From his thigh. From the glowing rune that had been etched into the skin and muscle. It was the only thing he could see - he couldn't even see the blood or flesh. Just the glowing rune.
"The fuck - THE FUCK! I'll eat ya soon as I get free, ya - Aahh -AARR!"
Something cold and metallic grabbed his tongue, pulling it out of his mouth. He thrashed his head as much as he could, but there was no escape. And then a scorching pain - the smell of burnt flesh filling his nose as he realise his tongue was branded.
His eyes screwed closed in agony, not that it changed anything. There was still darkness - until he opened them again. Then the blue of the rune became visible... and a distant glow of that same ethereal blue, moving - moving towards him. Something BIG moving towards him. The single glow splitting into - into countless points. Like eyes. And then a darker, an edge barely defined. A colossal thing.
Terror gripped the orc. Sweat running down his whole form, his eyes shutting to block out that horrific visage. But he could sense it. It was there and it was coming closer. The dread became too much. He had to open his eye, had to peek - and it was upon him.
Those shining blue eyes stared into his own, that darker blackness wrapping his neck - his skin crawling from the unnatural sensation, stomach twisting with nausea. Then it stopped touching him and started penetrating - moving _through his flesh, coiling around his nerves and bones. He tried to scream again, but it was in his mouth - in his throat - in his spine. In his head. Stars flashed in his eyes, his tongue shaking. And then he heard it speak. Its dreadful, incomprehensible words, burning themselves into his brain and out of his mouth. His tongue numb - no, his tongue uncontrollable. _
Spasms shook his body, his head snapping as the speech ended. He could taste blood in his mouth, feel it dribbling from his nose. And he could faintly hear a response. The yapping of a kobold. His owner? His captor? His torturer?
Again, the unknown entity spoke through him, having no regard for his life or body. He could taste the bile in his mouth - then the pain faded into - into nothingness. His neck went numb, his head flopping down to the side slightly. A lance of pain through his eye, the taste of blood growing stronger. With horror, he realised it wasn't just a ghostly touch in his head. It was INSIDE his skull, destroying his brain - destroying his LIFE. His heart pounded, suddenly drowning out everything else - racing... and going erratic. Pain gripped his chest, his lungs burning. The voice - his unnatural voice - ceased again. His body went slack.
The blue, the darkness, it all converged inside his head - behind his eyes. He could hear it laughing, this unknowable thing enjoying the destruction it was inflicting on him. Coldness gripped him, an unnatural chill. The kind he had never felt - except when the shaman brought him back from the brink of death. The chill of the grave? Of necromancy?
So cold. Everything was so cold. The blue, the black, it faded. Everything faded - except the cold.
He thought of the Bone God, the one he had sacrificed his enemies to. The one that had blessed him, once. He could sense that divine might there, a figure just out of sight. Could almost hear Him - there was noise but he couldn't comprehend the sound. A dismissive snarl. And then the presence faded.
My... my soul... for the Bone...
Your soul is mine, whelp. Body and soul. All of existence. IS MINE NOW
The orc's jaw dropped, his mouth gaping open. His tongue slack. The colour faded from his skin, a pallid hue washing out the vibrant green. An empty husk of flesh and bone remaining.
Kleet watched as the Unknown claimed the orc's soul. It wasn't a great offering, but it was what he could afford.
It had taken a month to dig out the old altar. He was lucky one of the mine workers spotted it; most kobolds wouldn't notice etchings and runes unless they were in draconic. He had rewarded the team well for their discovery.
A little research and he knew what the alter was for. Then, it was a simple matter of finding an offering and branding it to take his place in the bargain. He could already feel the headache receding, and could think of many new ways to improve the operations of his workers. And of how to control the local lord a little more. And some very nice ways to extract information - things he couldn't consider before. The offer was made, bargain struck - and he had been paid handsomely.
I wonder how much a half-elf would fetch... they do cost a lot more. Would it be worth it..