Chern, 44/50 AP, No Name Oasis
It was mid-afternoon, and the sun's heat was at its unbearable peak. Luckily the palm trees provided ample shade, and the spring water was cool and refreshing. Mila reclined beside a pile of fresh dates, the scroll of the Path of Squalor propped up against the knee of her good leg. She'd spend a month now recovering in the oasis, entirely alone since Cherlie had died, with the exception of one day when a pair of scouts had shown up speaking a foreign language. Other than that one incident, she passed the time by gathering food, swimming, and studying the mysterious scroll.
The information it contained was... Mila didn't quite know what to make of it. Parts of it were fascinating and quite invaluable to her, but other parts just seemed so eldritch. One thing she did know for certain was that it couldn't be a coincidence that she'd ended up in this place, and found this obviously sacred text. The hand of Kahar-Djin had to be guiding her... Or at least the hand of something just as powerful.
She was just reading a very useful section on the squalid travellers ability to subsist in poverty, which was highly pertinent to her current situation as the oasis's bounty became more scarce, when she heard a sound. Rustling in the undergrowth. Again? How many people came through this damn desert? Mila set aside the scroll and pushed herself up with her crutch.
"Who's there?" she demanded. Now she saw the plants visibly twitching, as whatever it was drew closer. Then, with a final flourish, the foliage was whipped apart to reveal two strangers. One was an oddly familiar man in a snug brown toga, hair and chin a luscious salt-and-paper grey around his lavishly engraved white domino mask. The other was an alluring young woman with raven hair and dark make-up, her jewellery and clothing bearing designs strangely reminiscent of those she'd seen among the followers of Ymon-Thal in Boa Jungle, but fashioned in ways obviously far more advanced. Mila goggled at them, crutch raised in self defence.
"Aha!" exclaimed the man. "So you are still here! I'm so glad that you're okay Mila."
"Is that... Cherlie?" Mila gasped. "I saw you die!"
"Nonsense," said Chern, "I feel better than ever."
"A vulture was literally eating your corpse."
"A passing nuisance, nothing more. But where are my manners! Mila, meet... Er..."
"I don't see how you can keep forgetting my name." the woman said quite matter-of-factly, hiding her offence with a swig of some richly shimmering brew from a crystal goblet. "Can't you just read my mind with your god powers or some lofty crap like that?"
"A gentleman never invades a woman's psyche!" Chern blustered with indignation. "Plus, I have had rather a lot to drink."
"Did I hear that right?" Mila interjected. "Did she just say you have god powers?"
Chern didn't have time to give input on this point. For something else had been creeping through the oasis, with much more stealth and menace than Chern had, and at that moment it revealed itself in a flurry of teeth and claws. The moody necromancer's daughter shrieked as the raptor fell on Chern from behind, knocking him to the ground and chomping down on his head. Chern barely had time to shout, before the raptor tore his head clean off with its powerful jaws, and flung it into the air. The god's decapitated head landed between the two women, eyes widened stupidly in surprise behind his cracked white mask.
"Oh gods, oh Ymon-Thal..."
"Kahar-Djin preserve us. What is that thing?"
"Ugh... Damn it, Grawissen."
While the raptor busied itself with devouring Chern's corpse, Mila and the necromancer's daughter wheeled around to find another Chern crawling out of the sand. He'd reverted to his usual form, his frail and filthy body clad in rags, his eyes bulbous and glowing deep in the sockets of his mask like the fungus that he so often used to manifest his will. He stooped, picking up the head of his much handsomer self.
"It was never going to last..." Chern rasped despondently at the head.
"Chern what... What happened to you?" his date asked, failing to hide her revulsion.
"I think it's time you go home now." Chern dropped the head and looked at her. "This was fun while it lasted. Come visit the ruins some time."
Chern tossed her one of his hour glass diviworld devices, then before she had a chance to say anything dissolved her into dust. She'd reappear back on Sanctuary, safe and sound. Meanwhile, the raptor had sensed the new intruder, and was now glaring back at him and Mila. It hissed.
"Cherlie, Chern- whoever you are," Mila stammered, backing away, "can you kill this thing?"
"I can," said Chern, "but I won't, Mila. This is no ordinary beast. It is more like you than you think."
"What?"
The raptor sprung again, again at Chern who was the closest. Its massive toe claw swiped at the god, tearing him open from neck to groin, spattering the sand with foul-smelling guts and ichor. Chern slumped, and the raptor turned itself towards Mila. She raised her crutch once again. Before she had a chance to use it, Chern once again appeared out of the sand, directly between her and the blood-stained beast.
"Go to the water and submerge yourself in it," Chern ordered Mila, staring down the snarling raptor, "take your scroll. Don't leave until I come to you. You'll be safe there."
"What the hell are you doing?!" Mila demanded, picking up the scroll with her free hand as she limped backwards.
"Call it forging an understa-" The raptor fell on Chern once again, roaring furiously as it rent him limb from bloody limb. Mila turned and ran as fast as she could for the oasis springs.
Spoiler: Action!
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Influence about ten thousand raptors, plus Mila and his date I guess (10 AP/6 DC)
+4 decay, as Chern is allowing his avatar to be repeatedly destroyed in this endeavour
Chern is going to attempt to wrangle all the raptors around the Three Deserts, by allowing them to attack him as much as they like until their bloodlust is satiated. As he does so he will lead them back to the Oasis, grouping them together where they'll have ample water and food (I'd like to point out here that the raptors can eat glowloam just like the ceratopsians, despite being carnivorous, and the oasis was made above a glowloam hollow so there will be plenty of the stuff around for them).
By doing this Chern is hoping to accomplish several things. Firstly, he wants as many raptors as possible to be safely isolated from other non-raptor mortals, preventing needless bloodshed and concentrating them together so that they can have a chance to build a level of community amongst themselves. Secondly, he wants the vent the raptors bloodlust so much that their more civilised side has a chance to assert itself for a moment, allowing them to mature into something more than mindless killers. Thirdly, Chern wants them to know that he is divine, and that his creed is that of self-sacrifice for the downtrodden.
Re: Pan-aeons: a God Game
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