Hand of The Eldritch God

It was within the dark and damp confines of a dilapidated hut that Ren awoke. The structure was made of bone, chitin, hide and various types of stone. The interior was covered in black grime sourced from a small oily fire burning at its center within a massive skull basin. Looking around Ren found himself on a mattress of hides, across the small hut was the Shaman working at a bubbling cauldron. The acrid smell coming from the bubbling cauldron only worsened a headache tearing through his head.

“Where are we?” Ren spoke, his voice low and a tad weak.

“My Lord, it is so very great to see you awake! The people witnessed your terrible power, yet still gaining, it is quite grotesque. Wonderfully so might I say.” The shaman smiled with his long and rotten fangs.

“Why did you put me up against one of those… things. The spore carriers, hosts of that infectious fungus.” Ren looked down at the shaman disgusted.

“Well, many of the Marked have believed them to be an insurmountable evil, generation after generation we have to find new homes, new towns, and new lives. The spores seek us wherever we go, some lost faith in the return after the devastation over and over again. You showed them you can surmount the evil within the Underdark, the evil that spreads, infects, and devours all in its wake.”

“I see that, but what if I died?”

“You cannot! You are Alkyri come again, you are what shall bring us liberation and vengeance to those above.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean…” Is this guy really that crazy? There’s no way he actually believes all this.

“We will follow you, and under your name shall we raise the world, turn it to ash and salt the ground beneath us. When you take the rightful throne from the Silver One, we shall again be the prize people of this world. There are few who would dare not follow you above during our ascendance as a people. Those who are not one of the Marked have long been rejected and thrown to the wilds of the great emptiness within the deep dark.”

“You mean there are humans who have lived down here?” Ren’s eyebrows raised in surprise as a plan started to revolve in his head.

“Yes, but we have ostracized them, for they do not belong amongst those who shall fight in the name of Lord Alkyri.”

“Where are these… evil people… I would like to avoid them, you see.” Ren tried him damn best to be deceptive, hoping the little gray goblin could not understand his contempt for the Marked.

“They are past the pit for quite a long distance. We will soon deal with them, so do not worry yourself.” The shaman smiled again and grabbed his bubbling mixture. Pouring out a cup, he handed some to Ren. The fluid looked a muddy brown swirled in an oily blackness that reminded him of some short of burnt oil he could not quite remember.

Trying to drink the mixture he felt himself begin to gag as he forced down a mouthful. A burning sensation mixed with an instant flush to his face. He felt his energies begin to better stabilize as his early ascension had taken quite a toll on him.

“So, I have some questions, firstly, why do you need to take care of the humans down here? Would it not be easier to just ignore them? Also, can you explain to me what might happen when someone continuously ascends prematurely?”

“Well, the humans are heretics against the true faith of Alkyri. As well, they seem to think of themselves as something greater than us, they believe lacking the mark of the Lord Alkyri makes them a more intelligent and powerful race.” The shaman shook his head as if the idea was prosperous and had to come out the mouth of a madman.

“I see, maybe I could go to them and try to… fix things.” Ren said, a tad awkwardly.

“You are too good for them my Lord! It simply will not do for you to lower yourself to the likes of those humans.”

“Well, then what about my second question?”

“Right, right, I apologize Lord. We no longer ascend, we being the Marked, as our marked souls no longer allow ascension due to our souls being bound to you. Only through your evolution can we evolve. In time, I soon will be able to reach a second ascension now that you have ascended yourself. So, our knowledge of ascensions and the evolution of the self might not be entirely accurate. Though, I shall do my best for my Lord. To continue ascending without reaching the usual physical requirements means the soul has been through enough stress and development that the body belonging to it is too weak. Not to insult you my Lord, simply your soul is so powerful it causes your body to more rapidly change to meet its needs. This can cause the body to be weaker for the level of ascension one is at, though not always.”

“I appreciate the knowledge, truly. Whether or not you can be an expert with the lack of ascensions within the Marked, you still know enough that you’ve helped me, thank you.” Reb nodded his head and attempted to finish off his vile drink.

The two soon parted as Ren wanted to feel out his new power within the caves outside of the village. Within a short walk he was isolated yet still in range to call for anything if needed, not that he believed he wanted anything from the vile little goblins anyways.

He began feeling at his newfound strength having gone through a second ascension, it made sense that he did not know the differences yet as he was asleep while his body truly changed mostly. He still wanted to ‘feel out’ the differences though.

He began by summoning his stats before him.

Name: Ren

Race: Human

Alignment: N/N

Class: Rough level 10, Tier 2

Skill: Ritualism

Marks: Gate-Walker, Ascendant Slayer

HP:120/120 SP:110/110 MP:125/125

Attributes:

Str: 14

Vit: 24

End: 22

Dex: 43

Wil: 25

Int: 24

Free Points: 0

Abilities:

Combat: Sneak Attack, Eldritch Touch, Eldritch Sight, Eldritch Tongue, Eldritch Horror, Eldritch Blast

Skill: Ritualism, Ritual Corruption

Misc: Stealth, Tracking, Analyze, Systemic Itemization,

Eldritch Touch: The power of something vast and unknowable has left its mark upon the user. The power to call upon the mark is deadly to all. To destroy and destroy oneself. Empower objects, attacks, and abilities with this to strengthen them.

Eldritch Sight: Eyes that gaze at the face of the void are fooled by none other. The abominable eye has seen you, and you it. The auras of Celestial, Fiendish, Living, and Undead are shown to you.

Eldritch Tongue: The voice has spoken to you. No other tongue shall meld your mind to their liking. You may speak to all, and so to all the voice may reach.

Eldritch Horror: The buildup of eldritch touch has begun to permeate your being. The release of this buildup can reveal the true essence hidden within abilities. A combination skill, or to be released as a singular outward wave of eldritch touch.

Eldritch Blast: Expend eldritch energy to blast forth a beam of pure void affinity. One who welcomes the end shall inevitably bring it.

Having over forty dexterity now he tested out his reflexes. Doing small acrobatics, flipping, jumping around, running off walls, he noticed how easy these tasks had become. Attempting to stretch he noticed the flexibility he had gained, now he could easily beat out any non-magical human in an acrobatics competition.

His dexterity was not the only thing to change although. He noticed it was easy to even pick up large rocks throughout the cave that he could have never even lifted an inch prior to the changes. While doing all this he quickly realized he had barely noticed his breath, its speed, had never changed. Neither while doing acrobatics or picking up giant rocks did; he need to begin breathing heavily.

After taking note of all his physical changes he began trying to check his new mental abilities. His ability to process and perceive his senses had rapidly changed as well. Even far off conversation in the distance of the cave was able to be heard at great distances. His eyes could find the smallest traces of light, and he noticed the smallest changes within the air and small movements in the cave.

All in all, he was getting really badass in his point of view. There was an idea in his mind, a memory of a guy everyone used to make jokes about. But the joke floated right out as his memory again was held from him. Maybe one day I’ll remember everything…

Ren attempted to conjure a firebolt and it soon blazed within his hand in a mere moment. The time it required to be summoned had drastically quickened as well, the total mana he required to create it had dropped multiple times in severity. He questioned if it was finally time to upgrade the attack.

With his new mental acuity, he believed his prior twin summoning of firebolt would be far easier, he was right. Within a few more moments two firebolts appeared in his other hand as he held onto three of them at once. He attempted to add the two other bolts to the singular one in his primary hand. When he tried to hold onto all three at once an idea sparked into his mind. He allowed all three to burn out of existence and returned the mana to himself.

Refocusing Ren created a fistful of fire. Within it three budding bolts appeared, they were not yet focused into a direct shape. They held the will to become three separate bolts whenever he released the attack all at one. He pushed forth the blaze within his hand as it separated into three streaks of fire that blasted in rapid succession. Each individual one slammed into a separate large stone within the cavern. The range of this seemed to be quite diminished compared to a singular firebolt.

Testing the attack again he felt the strain begin to build up on him. Realizing he would only be able to use the attack a few times between resting and regenerating resources, he used it for a final time. He blasted three fast rays of scorching flames into a boulder and felt himself weakened with the lack of remaining mana. Three casts, that should kill almost anything.

Warily he tried to focus on his new eldritch blast ability. The skill seemed to be tied to some metaphysical energy rather than his stat points as he felt at the connection between himself and the being beyond.

The instinctual knowledge that came with having a new skill made him feel confident on trying it out even though he lacked much of any mana.

Ren remembered back to when he had chosen rouge as his class, and I really dreaded being a mage, eh? Lucky for me, I still get to deal with bullshit magic anyways.

Pulling on the bound between him and his eldritch patron, he channeled the devouring energy that had destroyed the spore host. Feeling himself damaged like the backlash of eldritch touch, the energy quickly stopped attacking him and instead began to focus into the palm of his hand. Purple light swirled like a collapsing wave inside his hand as he outstretched his arm before him.

With a stream of purple lightning that neither created light to illuminate nor sound to hear, a large stone portion of the cavern wall pulsed. The purple lightning pulsed within the wall as the energy ate away at it and began disintegrating the stone.

A heavy weight dragged at Ren as he felt his body ready to collapse and fall into a deep sleep yet again. He fought the urge and instead spent the day practicing with his eldritch eyes within the deep darkness of the Underdark.