Ash turns the corner and is alarmed by what he encounters. Ryparin has gone mad. Or rather, some demonic creature has seized control of him. His eyes glow red and his veins bulge as though his blood is coagulating within him. Something terrible has happened.
Ash immediately takes a defensive combat stance. Ryparin turns and his foul eyes zero in on the monk. It is then that Ash sees Nyneve strewn upon the ground, knocked out and bleeding from a wound on her head.
“What have you done?” Ash asks Ryparin accusingly.
Instead of Ryparin answering, a creature of boiling blood evaporates from Ryparin’s bloated veins and then condenses outside of him to mold together and form a demonic creature. The creature snakes out of Ryparin’s body from a bloody tendril. Its head takes a defensive position behind Ryparin and then speaks for the cleric. The voice is slow and loud. It makes the earth rumble.
“I am making things right,” it says. “Correcting old wrongs.”
A silence hangs. The monk holds his position. He hopes that delay works in his favour. Surely others have heard this booming voice and will come and help. To Ash’s eyes, Ryparin is currently the victim of some kind of demonic possession. Ash’s mind starts to spin on ways to harm the creature without harming Ryparin.
The demon whispers a command in Ryparin’s ear and Ryparin’s glowing red eyes brighten with flame. He begins to cast and then raises his hand slowly to point his spell at Ash.
Ash delays only long enough to be convinced that Ryparin’s movements are slow because the real Ryparin, the one currently being subjugated inside his own body, is fighting the creature inside as hard as he can. The monk dives out of the way of the dark beam of energy Ryparin casts. The beam explodes a cask of rainwater behind Ash, showering him with raindrops.
Ryparin begins to cast again and Ash yells out. “Enemy in the keep! Enemy in the keep!” He dives again before the blast is fully aimed and a pile of dirt explodes high into the air.
Ash dodges and weaves and manages to get closer to Ryparin. When he does, he belays his attack as in that moment he can see the turmoil in the poor half-elf’s eyes. Ash also sees that whatever power invades Ryparin, squishes him down further and locks him in a box before returning to the fight at hand.
By then, Ryparin cannot find the monk who has blended into the darkness. The monk stalks the creature, wondering what suspension of time has caused his companions not to come, nor the many soldiers on the wall.
Ryparin sniffs the air to track the monk. Ash realizes he is on his own in this. And the prize is Nyneve.
[Ryparin – this was always going to happen to you. It is happening now because you are away. I’ve been setting groundwork for this for a long time, including last session when I had you read that comic book. The good new is, it’s all good. By the next session – I mean the one after the one on April 27 – all this stuff will be resolved. Think of yourself as a pinnate full of stories. Lots of fun stuff coming your way.]
[Nyneve, you’ll probably be fine too.]
[One more story post coming before April 27]