RP: The Tempering

"We've landed on Haven!" yells a rough voice in the crew's quarters informing all they had indeed arrived to their destination. Wiping the last of remnants of sleep from her her eyes Tannyll makes her way past sailors carrying the ship's goods to shore. These men had proved pleasant company although their occasional passes towards her did leave them with more than few scratches along the way. Indeed she was a strange and unusual sight to see on a trader vessel, and alone to boot. Her flowing long blonde hair and bright blue eyes suggested a noble heritage but her otherwise unceremonious appearance told a difference story. A short branch stuck out of her hair in place of fancier adornments, her high boots were trimmed with white fur and had small tufts of hair along their shaft and her scarse leather attire would have been deemed unsuitable for public use in a more civilized city. With her usual cheerful and heartily style she greeted the captain once again, however this was to be their last time seeing each other, she would not not return tonight. "Cheers Cap. It was a fun trip!" Tannyll grinned from ear to ear. Before the captain got a chance to retaliate back she had already ran off. The old captain didn't really mind, the girl had been enjoyable to converse with. On the docks she managed to avoid the customary overly eager welcoming committee of the different Companies, her hightened senses revealing few of them having honourable intentions. Tannyll retrieted to the bustle of the commoners. Haven was little of what she had imagined, this fetid falling apart disgrace was the Empire's latest outpost? A tale she hadn't believed until now. Unsure and uneasy Tannyll begun wondering the streets of Haven, looking for a place where she would rest and hopefully learn of what the city had to offer. "Think positively." had been her mother's advice. To this she would stick, most definitely. For a few blocks she was met only with piercing glares of the laborers, receiving friendly greetings only from small children who had yet to learn to avoid the alien folk who arive with the boats. Now hunger had also begun to lift its ugly head, she hadn't had the time, or patience, to have breakfast with the crew of the Red Parapet. Again Tannyll was saved from a predicament by her sharp senses, she smelled the sweet smoke coming from the fish market clouded by the stench of the city as it may have been. A few copper lighter and stomach filled with smoked macaril she was once again ready to continue her adventure in this less than passable Imperial city. A rather large building with a sizable crest above its doors caught Tannyll's eye. On the crest were some symbols she had never seen before but it did also say something she did understand: "Healing". Surely clerics could assist her in finding a place to go, perhaps even offer to shelter her for a night. Mentally preparing her most alluring smile she stepped in through two huge creeking wooden doors. Immediately whe was met with questioning looks so conspicuously geared she was. "Watcha want girlie?" quetioned an old dwarf sitting behind a counter nearest to the entrance. "I was just wondering if I might find, eh, assistance, If I could find assistane here. I'm not sick it's not that, I'm just new to your city and, how should I put, eh, lost." Tannyll felt quite uncomfortable asking help, she was ashamed having to rely on others on such meanial matters. "Sure we can help ye' out. One night free of charge under our wing and directions to a Company ye' can trust. Those ar' what we offer to new arrivals. Anythin' mor' and ya' will have to cough up some gold. An' as a word of warnin', put on less indecent clothing will ya'." The dwarf turned to pull a map out of a drawer and show it to her. "Here." said the dwarf. "That is the Tipsy Mermaid tavern. Their' always happy to help newcomers along. I'd speak to the big man in charge, Adolfo." Just as those words had left the dwarf's lips Tannyll was already gone, quickly jogging her way to the Tipsy Mermaid. Her visit to the Mermaid lasted only a short while during which she was told of the Companies of Haven and of the city in general. She left with an enthuastic attitude. She was soon going to be an adventurer like the many she had seen in the tavern. Soon. But first she was going to spend the night with the clerics. The dark succummed Haven as quickly as ever before that night. It was a restless night for Tannyll. This she thought to be due to her exitement for the day to come. For the first time in months Tannyll slept, and dreamed, properly. The next morning came in silence, no sounds from the outside penetrated the walls of the clerics' abode. Only faint sunlight was there to annouce the arrival of a new day. Tannyll packed what little she had and went downstairs to give her thanks. "So very kind they are." She though to herself. As she was coming down the stairs she noticed two peculiarly dressed men talking to the dwarf she met the day before.

After noticing the weird lady, who Reskin could not quite tell if was noble heritage or not, he gestured to Meren to follow him, and proceeded out of the tavern to find where this lady had gone. Soon, both him and Meren arrive at the temple, where it would seem this girl had slept for the night. Making small to the dwarven cleric, they soon noticed the woman heading down the stairs towards them. Grinning slightly, he gestures for her to head down the stairs, and towards him and Meren.

Now that Meren gets a better look at the woman he knows Reskin's senses weren't wrong, there's certainly an aura around her that is different to any other he has felt before. We do indeed want this woman. Meren relaxes his posture, mustering the best smile he can and says: "Ah, good morning miss, we were just talking about you. Do come down so we may have proper conversation." Tannyll glances over the two strangers once more, they don't seem to be armed.  "And why would have interest in me? You don't bring trouble with you I hope." She clasps her pack tightly and continues down the stairs. Something about them is suddenly making her uneasy. "No no, not in the least. Our friends in the Mermaid informed us of a new arrival and so we took it upon ourselves to make sure you are properly welcomed." Meren pauses for a small moment.  "And if luck is with us you'll join us in the Sashes, haha." Tannyll briefly thanks the dwarf behind the counter for all the help she received after which she follows the two others to a side room. Something about this felt odd, very odd. She was even having hard time keeping up her trademark smile.

Reskin would frown slightly at the woman's hesitancy, and attempts to calm her, and says 'Don't worry my lady, we are not here to harm you. However, you can help us with something.' He gestures to Meren, and then continues speaking, 'You see, me and my friend here need... help, with a certain project of ours. We need three people, and you do fit the description of the third person we need. If you would be as so kind, we would require your help.' Reskin would not turn to the woman once during this, hoping to not allow her to see the feral grin that crossed his face.

"In a hurry are we?" Meren grins to Reskin while pulling something from under his cloak. Tannyll looks very puzzled by the men's conversation, and before she is able to react Meren leaps over the table with an incredible speed burying two small knives between her ribs. The expression on his face has now reached the same levels of malice on Reskin's. Tannyll feels a sudden shock, her limbs stop moving. " Help!" She cries, but the there is no sound.  "Pardon us fair lady, we need you for,.. an experiment." Meren holds the daggers in place for a few seconds until he has confirmed his victim incapacitated. "Quickly now Reskin!"  The other man holds a shining orb in his hands, its mesmerizing light amplifying the madness on his face.

Reskin, holding the orb gifted to him by the Abloteth, reached out to his patron, feeling the corruption and rot that seemed to linger around her. After gathering a fairly large amount of said energy, and then using the orb as a focus, slowly infused the woman with it, letting the essence of Moander corrupt and deform her energy. Whilst doing this, the surrounding plants with and die at an astonishing pace, and from the rotten biomass of the dead plants, tendrils form, creeping over towards Tannyll, and when they reach her, they curl around her, smothering her. Then eventually form a cocoon, rot spreads through her physical form. With that, Reskin lowers the orb, exhausted, and turns to Meren with a triumphant grin.

Awestruck by the events he is witnessing Meren stares silently at Tannyll and the mass engulfing her. Sounds caused by the snapping of bone, severing of tendons and innards fills the room. A tap on the shoulder by Reskin finally awakens Meren from the hypnotic state he seemed to have drifted to. "Ahm. Sorry, something about this was just so, wonderful, ominously excellent. Which reminds me..." Meren reaches for his bag and pulls out a small emerald spike. "The dark elves tell me this is was made for torturing purposes but I have a hunch it might work here as well. It's worth a shot if nothing else." And so he begins to carve a circle and runes within it around the cocoon. A short while later he is finished and starts channeling his magic to the circle which ends up being less needy than most spells, most of the power comes from the runes themselves. "That should do it I hope, the instructions I received weren't very detailed except on the runes themselves. Now we wait a while." An hour or so passes without much more than little bubbling inside the cocoon but then a face emerges from the rotten mass, the face of Tannyll. The skin is full of holes and gray liquid oozes from her eyes, a miserable attempt at breathing is heard every few seconds resulting only in the gurgling and coughing of blood. Meren looks curious and disgusted at the same time. "Access to the mind even when the body is in shambles." he whispers, mainly to himself. "The dark elven methods of torture are evil indeed."

Reskin would grin, his smile turning more feral at the sight of this torture, and his left eye would flash a vibrant purple, glowing ever so slightly. "Indeed, this torture is a malicious one, though one that currently looks to be rather affective in its methods. However, I do bieve to much torture would make her an ineffective servant, so perhaps I should speed the process up a bit." With those words, Reskin would lay his left hand on the cocoon of eldritch tendrils, and then the rot on the back of his left hand would spread slowly up his arm, and as this happened, the moaning and gurgles from the cocoon would raise in frequency and pitch, and you would see the tendrils throb with a dull brown light. After about an hour of this, Reskin would look up at Meren. "It is done. Now, to see the results of our experiment." The tendrils would then pull back, retreating up Reskin's arm and then burrowing under his skin.

As the vileness over the cocoon withdraws a humanoid shape begins to form inside of it. The previously severed body parts connect to each other and suture themselves in mere moments. The now hardened shell appear more brittle by the second. At last the surface of the cocoon cracks and reveals its contents. Where Tannyll used to be now lies an unconscious woman who, although looking much like her, is not quite the same. Her hair flows stronger and her body is taller and sturdier and her sides are decorated by many short black spines in symmetrical pattern. Meren cautiously steps closer to the woman eyeing Reskin at the same time. Excitement fills his voice:  "Quite an achievement wouldn't you say? Our first experiment seems to have been a successful one." Meren drags the woman onto a bed and urges Reskin to pass control of her over to the Aboleth as soon as possible.

At the mention of the Aboleth, Reskin would say, "Perhaps... However, She is not infused with the essence of the Aboleth, but instead the essence of Moander. Perhaps their power is incompatible, and Moander's essence will prevent control. Maybe though..." Reskin's eyes take on a vacant look, and it seems his is thinking about something. Finally, he seems to agree on something with himself, and you see him raise the orb once more, and as he does this, the familiar rotten tendrils wound burrow out from under his skin. And as Tannyll takes on the glassy eyed look that all creatures controlled by the orb take, the tendrils would lash out, burrowing beneath her skin, and leaving Reskin's. He would stand there, looking nervous that this would fail, but after a while, he sighs in relief, and turns to Meren. "It now seems we have our slave. I have given the majority of the control to the Aboleth, but I did need to give partial control to Moander, and thus me, for this to work."

"You know the ways which the stone works better than I Reskin. As long as someone can bend her will I'm fine with it." A few minutes pass as the pair observe their newest subject when she suddenly blinks her eyes in quick succession and raises to sit. Her body stinged all over and her head felt heavy, as if she wasn't the only one occupying her mind. A strange thought that one, however she knew it to be true. What had the two men done two her and why? As she tried to remember only the terror of the suffering she had gone through came to her. Memories of unparalled agony and despair, things she never wanted to go through again. However it was likely she would have to if she were to do what these men wanted her to and so she begun thinking of a way out. Just as her first thought towards a violent solution reached her mind a sharp and sudden transformation took place. Her arms warped into massive claws, curved horns sprouted from her forehead and the spines in her sides grew longer. Meren and Reskin jumped back in surprise. Although this had been something they were aiming towards the reaction's strength caught them off guard. Tannyll, now more confused than ever, bellowed at the two with her now deep and raspy voice. "What have you done to me you slime?!" She took slow, determined steps towards Meren and Reskin who had now assumed defensive positions on the other side of the room.

Reskin would raise his arm slowly, and would blurt out some guttural sounding words, "Fhtagn! Ch'Ftaghu li'hee orr'e. Gotha mg ya wgah'n! Halt, and Obey! Uaaah!" With these words, dark, shadowy chains wrap over her arms and legs, and halt her movement. A thin sheen also appears in front of Reskin and Meren. Whilst the wild look has not yet left her eyes, she does seem calmer, and almost submissive. Reskin would then speak again. "Tannyll, your will is bound between our patrons. Your mind belongs to the Broken God, and your soul, to the Lady of Corruption. You shall serve us, but with servitude comes power. Considering your... violent behaviour, I was forced to shackle you. Do not make me do this again, or we may be forced to submit you to the Eldritch Gauntlet again." With that, Reskin would shout out another word, "Zhro!" and the shackles would melt away, but the sheen would remain in place. As this happens, he would mind speak to Meren. And she is ours to command.

Meren nods to Reskin, relieved. "We know now that she can be forced into submission."  He then turns to Tannyll who is sluggishly reverting her shapeshift and with a piercing glare from his blue left eye he begins pouring knowledge into her mind. "Just what is necessary." Tannyll's face twitches as information enough to fill a bookshelf is forced upon her, but she cannot resist. After a minute the glow in Meren's eye starts fading, "Nearly done." he says just as a greater presence erupts from within him causing the light to strengthen and his muscles spasm involuntarily. " Ooh, one of my favorite sports" , the burbling voice proclaims. "I'll offer you assistance." Tannyll feels an immense pain in her cranium as the dweller bombards her with visions of monstrosities of the deep and creatures long lost to time. She falls to the floor holding her head screeching with the firm belief, and hope, she is going to die on the spot. "Go now. I shall make sure this one remains loyal." The three cackle in unison. And with that Meren and Reskin make their way outside leaving Tannyll in the torment of their master. /END OF RP