Godkiller Chapter Summary - 68 - The Meddlesome Mages

• Chapter begins on the extremely early morning of the the 68th of Spring, Annum 4466
• Our heroes had escaped the Ger’zar bandits, but two remained in peril. Just not in any ordinary way.
• Cyrus and Mal… or… Ventril and Dell were still fleeing the Dungeons of Vertex.
• Go’igi, who had connected himself to The Evildoer in The Grand Nothing somehow managed to manifest some of his presence in The Glassius Reach. An ethereal shadow bound to Ventril. It was through this connection Dell managed to communicate a method of escape for The Street Dogs in The Grand Nothing.
• Unfortunately their path was stopped by an arcane threat. An Omnicura, a powerful, remotely operated sentinel that was gathering escapees and Ikas Feather alike.
• Behind our cowering mages Vincet finally escaped his magical bonds, closing in and pinning The Street Dogs against the threat of the Omnicura.
• Preferring a fight with Vincet over the monolithic sentinel, they threw all of their magical power against the sadistic foe. Dell’s prowess, limited in his current state, was still more than enough to unravel Vincet. Killing one of Ventril’s long time rivals and the recent killer of his friend.
• This act however was not without cost. Dell had pushed too hard on the timestream. Without warning an immense machine appeared. A marut. A celestial of Kaszu. The otherworldly thing did not hesitate before crushing Dell’s clone like an insect. Leaving only an arm marked by a tattoo of a dogs head.
• The Marut left as soon as it appeared, leaving Ventril no choice but to run. The Omnicura however did not allow this to occur. Trapping Ventril in its web of glassian magic.
• Before Ventril could make an attempt at escape, something tore from the sky. Like a rock thrown by a catapult. But this was no stone. A man, one emanating a vivid aura of anger slammed into the Omnicura like a comet.
• Thresh, Damian Ikas’ champion, made the thing look like a toy. Destroying it in moments.
• Freed from yet another trap Ventril immediately found himself under the press of a spear. A recognizable one. Death’s Distance, wielded by Damian Ikas himself.
• Damian laughed, remarked Ventril as “The Devil of The Reach”, then did something extremely odd.
• Damian waved his spear and unfolded the space next to him. Unveiling a door. An Elsewhere door. Grabbing Cyrus by the scruff of his shirt Damian flung Ventril into its maw just as his consciousness waned, and flipped back into the body of Cyrus.
• But before Cyrus awoke, Deimos had to have a private conversation with Mal.
• Mal had been near when Deimos spoke the name of the thing inside his mind. And now it was in him.
• For the first time, Deimos explained ‘The Feeling’.
  • A god like entity with ill intents.
  • The Feeling is not its true name, but a moniker given to an invisible terror.
  • The Feeling cannot touch you, until you know of its existence. Only a description of its power, or its true, silent name can infect a person with its malice.
  • Paranoia, a sense of dread, anxiety, an urge for violence, and the distinct sensation of something banging on a door. Wanting to be let in.
  • The Feeling exerts an immense, spiritual pressure on those who harbor it. The force of it trying to escape.
• This pressure is the only metric by which The Dreadslayers, Diemos’ kin, the wardens of this dark secret, manage and interface with this power.
• On its own, The Feeling will slowly build in its pressure. Spiking when immense sources of terror are created by widespread disaster, or when 7 or more individuals infected by The Feeling are within the same place.
• Only one thing has been found to quell the pressure. The slaying of monsters.
• The pressure within has a certain direction to it. Giving the afflicted a constant bearing towards Fort Bramble, home to the Dreadslayers.
• Deimos’ kin would kill any non-dreadslayer who harbored The Feeling.
• However… not all of what Diemos’ shared lined up. Mal could not sense Fort Bramble… but Diemos. Beyond that, Deimos harbored powers that went beyond what The Feeling was said to bring.
• Experimenting, Deimos found he could siphon something off of Mal. Relieving the vast majority of The Feeling’s influence on his friend.
• This was bad for both Deimos and Mal, but potentially not all bad. Now he wasn’t alone, and had a very clever friend who may be able help him understand what was happening to him.
• When Cyrus awoke he shared what had happened to him. Go’igi corroborating the tale. Mal was slow to accept the information, but based on what he understood about Chronomancy, Mal was able to explain some of what had happened to Ventril.
• In the morning our heroes made way south east.
  • It was evident Go’igi had sustained some immense injury, and would die soon without repairs. Repairs only available at once place in The Grand Nothing. Camp Ger’zar.
  • Crossing The Canyon Deep, a gigantic, raging, salt water river they landed near Site Heron. Deciding to investigate why the area had gone dark
• At the Site they were greeted with a tall, foreboding tower. One that lent a wrong, almost sickly feeling. Before they could get close, their skimmers all shut down, coming to an ugly drift down a sloped dune.
• Uncomfortable, but curious Cyrus and Mal decided they would venture close in arcane disguise.
• A little over half way to the tower Cyrus tripped on a discarded object. A lone shoe that had, for lack of a better term, blossomed. Its toe split open and from the yonic portal irregular out of place matter reached out like the petals of some alien flower. Crystalline, organic, metals, stones, plant life, something that looked like coral, and even what appeared to be some collection of living slug-like creatures that writhed in the brutal sun. Their tails melding with the shoes otherworldly form.
• It was only then did they spot the individual on the steps of the tower. Frantically waving for them to run towards them. Towards safety.
• Chapter ends on the early evening of the the 68th of Spring, Annum 4466