RP:How To Make A Monster

From HollowWiki

Part of the On Stranger Tides Arc

This is a Necromancer's Guild RP.


Summary: Khitti shows Quintessa the new project she's been working on and Quintessa gets her lesson in basic reanimation.

Dragon Graveyard, Vailkrin

Khitti had been lurking around in this part of the cemetery for a few hours before she was even supposed to be meeting with the changeling. Object permanence had since been achieved with her previous project of creating a hand for the Healer’s Guild’s leader (mostly thanks to the fact that Emilia had been kidnapped and it gave Khitti more time than she thought she’d have on it). And now? Now, Khitti had a new idea in mind. It wasn’t exactly part of her quest to find the other two shadow elements, but it dealt with her magic nevertheless. Whenever Quintessa would arrive, she’d find Khitti reconstructing a small dragon--not quite a baby, but certainly not the full-grown living adults she’d dealt with in the past. With the bones present, all Khitti had to do was focus on the muscles, tendons and ligaments, and some semblance of scales. Wisps and tendrils of shadow magic would create themselves in Khitti’s palms and were ultimately released. They sewed themselves together, layer upon layer upon layer, like some thick, intricate quilt. Every so often, the redhead would stop, look her work over, take a few steps to another side of the not-so-recently deceased creature and started again.


Quintessa was a bit distracted. Her mind was on other things as she wandered through the area that was supposedly the territory of a new psychopath in town, but had yet to enforce his claims. A pity really, Quintessa had set up quite the trap for him in the past few weeks but it all proved a waste of her time. Finally, the young spellcaster was ready to get back to work improving her necromancy and she was eager to meet Khitti in the graveyard once she finally read the notice from the Guild. Balancing on an old, worn, stone fence the changeling nears, hopping down where the ledge became too difficult to walk upon to kick an errant brick away from the path. Quintessa liked studying under Khitti, so when she discovers her teacher reconstructing a dragon she stops to gaze upon it in awe. "Wow," she whispered, her aura passively reading the magical imprint left behind by the task. Still yet a student, Quintessa was quite familiar with the process though she had never tried something quite so complex before. It was always invoking control over other undead- never creating her own. What Khitti was doing was beyond her ability to preform, but she knew deep down she could become infinitely closer to catching up if she continued to work at it. Slow steps brought the girl closer to examine the monster, her lithe hand lifting to touch the flesh. "This is excellent. I did not know you were capable of this." Quintessa grins, moving around the dragon to grin at Khitti, "Teach me."


Khitti || “I wasn’t aware I was capable of it either, until I offered to construct a new hand for someone. The theory was there: shadow-ice for bones and skin, shadows themselves for the sinew. It wasn’t until I was speaking to Bradyn and he instructed me to teach you and Joan--if she ever makes herself known to me again--how to do a simple reanimation, so that you too can reach higher ranks within the guild. I no longer have this ability. It’s been cut off from me. So… if I can create something like a hand, give it the ability to move when a person makes it so, then… why can’t I do something on a greater scale? It’s not the exact same thing… and perhaps I could make it really close to it, were I able to summon shadow creatures… but, it might be enough for me to pass and get my job back. Reanimation was never my strong point to begin with. I’m not really fond of messing with the dead,” Khitti said, a frown forming somewhat as she stared at her project. With a hand wave, her work vanished, leaving nothing but the bones behind. “You, however, need to recreate flesh on bone and give it an unlife. No souls. No messing with free will. Just a puppet to do your bidding. Once you can do that, you’ll likely be able to do the same with shadows just as well.” There’s a sigh, and a hand raised to Khitti’s face to pinch the bridge of her nose in slight annoyance, “I think Bradyn is taking quite a bit of pleasure in this. He knows it’s not my forte. It should be -him- doing this. He’s the damned mortician after all.” She shook her head, then continued, “How much do you know about anatomy? Not all the intricate details. Just the bare bones. Muscle. Skin. Bones. The bits that attached them all together. It’s necessary to know it in order to properly reconstruct something from scratch.”


Quintessa listens intently, already imagining in her head the different ways she could recreate Khitti's spell. Using shadow magic was tricky for the hex blade in the beginning but she was a scholar at heart. She practiced and improved her technique for hours until she got it right. Animation would be no different for her. "Yes, I see. You must be talking about the Ice Genasi- Have you seen her by the way? A lot of people are looking for her, including her daughter who I've been looking after. As far as wards go she pretty interesting... But anyway, I should be able to replicate this. In my duel with Vexar I used a planar sigil that tapped directly into the shadow realm, but I took advantage of the arcane anomaly during that fight. Without all that raw power fueling me it'll take time to develop a safe method for me to recreate this." The changeling pulls her hand away from the creature to practice drawing the sigil in the air, muttering the words without putting any mana behind them. "Flesh on bone..." Quintessa idly repeats, imagining the tendons and muscles reattaching themselves. "Anatomy?" The student pauses in her practicing to look over at Khitti, mismatched eyes meeting her own. "I take it you haven't seen a rough draft of my book? I go over anatomy in it- basic stuff. I've dissected many things, humanoid and otherwise, but that's taking things apart. I'm good at cutting things up, but putting them back together?" Quintessa shrugs sheepishly. "Not so much." A chuckle escapes her lips dispite herself. "But it can't hurt to try, right?"


Khitti shook her head, that frown of hers returning, “No, I’ve not seen her. That healer, Penelope and I, and the druid Kailani, are going to be putting together a search party for her soon. I’m rather knowledgeable in the art of getting kidnapped, so I know for a fact she didn’t just… walk into the ocean and die or something, like it seems might’ve happened. Emilia’s not the type, anyway.” Moving on to the task at hand, Quintessa was given a tilt of Khitti’s head, “No. Not as of yet. The toxin one, yes? You should show me, next time we’re not in the middle of a cemetery.” The changeling’s words on taking things apart and putting them back together was heard of course, and to that, Khitti could only shrug, “It does take time to recreate every little tendon and ligament to make sure the body is stable and well put together. But, doing it in repetition should hopefully help. It’s what I was doing with the hand. Thankfully for you, you don’t really need object permanence for this type of reanimation, so… you’ve got it rather easy.” Pointing down at the bones she’d been working on, Khitti continued, “You’ve got the bones already. Now, you need a bit of blood to start you off with the muscle. Something to build off of. Yours or mine--your choice.”


Quintessa nodded her head as Khitti spoke of Penelope, the odd girl placing a finger on her bottom lip as she considered the idea of somebody kidnapping Emilia. "Yes, Miss Halifax was the one who informed me of Ms. Leteir's disappearance, but I didn't realize it was so dire a situation. Count me among those willing to join the search party. I won't sit around while somebody harms Kiilynn's mother." Missing mothers, unsurprisingly, was a touchy subject for Quintessa and she could do nothing to hide the pain in her eyes when she spoke about it. Taking a deep breath, Quintessa tried to push those thoughts from her mind. "Necromancy, right." She forced a smile at the mention of her book, something she was legitimately proud of. Thanks to Odhranos, her latest draft was well a organized representation of all the changeling's collected knowledge on the subject. "I'm happy you want to read my book. I'll bring what I've got so far to your library sometime to show you what I've got so far." Talking about it reminded her that she needed to finish it, but more pressing matters always seemed to rear their ugly heads whenever she sat down to add to it. It was the curse of being stretched so thin throughout Lithrydel. "But I should focus on this lesson first- 'Blood' you said?" Quintessa removed a mithril scalpel from her alchemy belt and raised it to her flattened palm, wondering if her false-vampire rouse would be discovered through this act somehow. The changeling was starting not to see the point of pretending anymore, especially around Khitti. "Gwaed am waed." The young necromancer said as she ritualistically cut into her flesh, letting her blood collect necrotic energy from her spell before dripping into the bone. "So this is what serves as the basis, right? And then I just..." Quintessa clenched the injured hand as she put the scalpel away, waving her free over the bones while channeling her mana into them. "Fy nghnawd yw bywyd... Fy ngwaed yw eich caethiwed..." She chanted, inspiring the blood to twist and morph slowly under her direction.


Khitti nodded in response to the subject of Emilia. With her mother long since dead, it wasn’t particularly the fact that the genasi was a mother that perturbed her so about this situation. Instead, it was the fact that whomever took Emilia was likely not the sort to be saved, should Khitti ever cross paths with them. Kidnapping people was one thing, but kidnapping them when they’re also one of the people trying to do the most good in Lithrydel? It was infuriating. And if Emilia herself could not be saved? Khitti, at the very least, would take comfort in exacting revenge on her captors and the fact that their souls, and the genasi’s, would be safe with Vakmathras. “I’ve been meaning to go on another cull soon. I’ve taken a few walks lately in the dark forest and it’s crawling with spiders again--and some are rather a bit more bitey than usual. I suppose I should ask, considering you are a part of House Dragana and live there as well, but likewise you already know the need for doing so and I figured that, if I’d not seen you before them, I would ask my sister or someone else to join me. I still might. But, that aside, have you experimented with their venom much? Would it actually be beneficial for you in that regard?” She’d let those words hang on the air as she watched Quintessa slice into her palm with the scalpel, a tilt of her head given towards the shiny knife. It seemed so much smaller than what the girl likely preferred in a blade and if Khitti had not known that girl liked her research in many different fields, she’d be pretty damned confused about it. “That’s exactly it. Keep building on it until you feel it’s ready to be finished. There’s no need to worry about organs. All your effort should be focused on the outside. Toughen its hide, so that it can survive as long as necessary in battle should you need it. If you feel that it might be too taxing, however, say so and we’ll find another set of bones that’s smaller in size. There’s no need for you to wear yourself out just because I decided to take on a larger subject.”


Quintessa let her eyes flicker over to Khitti briefly as she casted her spell, skilled enough in arcane magic to carry on a conversation even while she worked. As long as her mana still continued to pulse into the flesh on the bone it would slowly continue to grow. "Cull?" The changeling curls her digits into claws as she evokes more power, her aura shifting to a light lime-green. The flesh began to rapidly grow, snapping to the ends of the bones to connect them like rudimentarily joints as it stretched along the length. "Yes, I'm quite familiar with them and their venom. I even have a trap I set up to control and contain them. You should see the research I've conducted on them, you might be interested to see my progress in weaponi- er, I mean, my progress controlling their aggressive behavior- yes." Quintessa begins to sweat, but not because she was worried about Khitti finging out she'd been letting the spiders reach high populations as part of her research, but because the spell was taking more of her mana than she first anticipated. With a second pulse of necrotic energy, Quintessa lifted up her still bleeding hand to join the process, motioning upward to cause the bones and muscles to jerk themselves upright, helping the flesh reach new places to expand. "No-no, this is fine," The creature looked vaguely correct, but more like a boated, bleeding lizard than a zombie dragon but it was functional enough to keep its balance as Quintessa switched from muscle to hide and scales. The intricacies of dragon scales escaped the odd girl, however, so she opts to just thicken the skin to horrifying levels rather than give up. By the time she is finished she is out of breath, but her monstrously still remains standing, a silent sentinel still bleeding from the eyes and mouth as Quintessa maintains a magical link upon it. After a once over the changeling grinned at it, satisfied with what she'd created. It wasn't pretty but it worked. "So?" Quintessa looked over at her teacher, trying not to frown when a hunk of flesh dripped from the bulbous tail of the saurian, slapping the ground with a disgusting squishing sound. "It's a start, right?"


Khitti || The changeling’s almost-word was not lost on Khitti. So much so that she even continued that part of the conversation, despite Quintessa’s attempt to cover it up. “I’m also aware of what it’s capable of. I’ve seen it first hand: my husband was bit by one, long before him and I even got along. I did my best to cleanse his wound of the poison with my vampire blood. Would’ve worked a hell of a lot better if I’d been feeding from the living then. So, to know that you’re trying to weaponize it, I imagine it’d do great damage. If I could find a way to contain it, I’d let you have some of Francis’ venom--it’s corrosive. You should see what happens when he’s in a bit of a feeding frenzy.” Khitti smirked as she watched the girl throw together her creation. “It’s definitely a start. There’s a word we used for things like this in my homeland: a frankenstein.” Khitti’s accent was not entirely gone after her long stay in Lithrydel, but as she said the word, her voice took on the guttural, yet lyrical tones of her Dhavislaavian dialect, giving the word its proper pronunciation. “It was even used on me a few times, by myself and others.” Booted feet took the steps needed to make a full circuit around the horrific creature, the redhead taking in all aspects of it. “It is good for your first try. Now, you get to do what you do best and dismantle it. Find out what you’re missing. What you made too much of. Then put it back together again. Some people don’t have the ability to detect undead or know so little about them that they’d not be able to identify them right away if they’re put together properly. That should be your goal. Bradyn knows full well what you’re capable of and likely expects that sort of thing from you.”


Quintessa blinked thoughtfully at the new word she learned today. "Frankenstein," the changeling repeated, mimicking the accent pretty well. The lass always was a natural copycat. "Yes, the venom. The theraphosidae that dwell in the forest are quite dangerous, even at a young age. I almost got killed by a youngling during the Red Skull fight- you were there, I'm sure you remember." Quintessa gave her a cheeky smile, remembering how Khitti had booed her and how angry that made her back then. It was all so funny to her now. "But I shall take my 'Frankenstein' back home to my laboratory... Perhaps reference his flesh next to living dragon flesh..." The changeling immediately thinks of Berrentam, the red dragon child that had been left under her care. So far he'd been sparred Quintessa's experiments but the temptation was only growing. Perhaps just a single scale would do no harm... "Yes, Bradyn has high hopes for me. It's refreshing, honestly, probably for the both of us. It must be nice to see young necromancers take their studies seriously."


Khitti smirked at the mention of the Redskull fight the two had more or less met at. “I remember. And be careful around dragons, Quintessa. They don’t mix well with vampires.” The word vampire brought a frown to Khitti’s lips, even moreso when the thought was mixed with the thought of Bradyn. “I think he’d take far more interest in my own studies if I were still like ninety-nine percent of the rest of Vailkrin.” If she were still a vampire, of course. “It’s a wonder he tolerates my existence at all and even joined my guild. I swear, you could feel the disgust radiating off of him like heat on a pyromancer.” She knew she’d never be BFFs with the guy, but… sheesh. Sigh. “But yes, take it home. Take it apart, put it back together, until you’re certain it’s up to His Royal Highness’ standards.” Khitti did her best to force the frown away, leaving not much in the way of emotion as she glanced around the cemetery. Well. Now she needed to find a new subject. Something different than a dragon maybe? Perhaps something as equally as large though. Or close to it.


Quintessa seemed excited when Khitti brought up the fact that dragons and vampires did not mix. "Ooo- Especially the blood," She chimed in. "I saw some guys reduced to a puddle because of a little dragon blood- It was fascinating." She moved her cloak aside to show the red vials on her waist. "Dragon blood, vampire blood, and vampire blood with silver flecks." A small giggle followed, "I'm an expert in poisons- I know all too well how effective using cursed or magic blood can be, and dragons aren't the only things that don't mix well. I used vampire blood on a Lycan once and he barely made it out alive." That was an interesting story that she didn't want to explain. It made her look a little crazy telling the story how she almost killed her best friend's boyfriend. "But I will make sure that I impress his Royal Highness Lord Mahara. When I next see him I'll be ready, you can count on it."


Khitti || That lack of emotion was soon replaced by another smirk. “I’d almost suggest you seek out Orikahn, the big kitty that runs the Redskull fights. He’s the head of the Ranger’s Guild that I’m in. You’ve definitely got hunting skills, even if they aren’t exactly the conventional sort. But, honestly, neither are mine. He brought me in when I was a vampire and had full range of necromantic abilities, despite his distaste for dark magic. He calls it ‘bad juju’. Perhaps when you’re not quite so bogged down with things, like finishing your book? Though, I suppose you get quite a bit of hunting of sorts in the Warrior’s Guild as it is...” Khitti shrugged, “I am glad you have something you’re so passionate about, however. Go rest yourself for now though. You’ll need your strength before you can attempt piecing your friend here back together. I need to go find something else to plunge into utter darkness, as is my way of things.” And with that, she’d give Quintessa a wave before wandering off further into the dragon area of the cemetery.


Quintessa nodded her head again, "Yes, Orikahn, the massive feline that carries the skulls of his victims on his belt- I know of the man. He seems like an interesting fellow but perhaps you are right. I'm spread pretty thin as it is- adding a forth guild to my list might have to wait." The mention of 'Bad Juju' made her smile though. Quintessa's magic was definitely the worst of jujus. Another chunk fell off her undead abomination and the changeling frowned at the rapid deterioration already setting in. "Yeah, I need to get him back quickly. I'll catch up with you later, Khitti." By the time Quintessa looked back the Templar was already gone, but this didn't bother her. Leading her undead dragon back northeast, the changeling too soon disappeared into the darkness of the graveyard.