The Belligerents #10

The Belligerents sat down to a meal at a table in the middle of the swamp of Ephemeraldion, a meal of gorilla, prepared by Glum, he claimed he had magically coerced the gorilla into giving up its life for the meal

Throughout the meal, many topics were discussed and many questions were answered, including:

• Caster was the one responsible for creating monstrosities. He saw himself as a creator, jealous of the gods and their ability to make new things. He used the "ichor" to bring different animals together

  • Glum claimed dragons, to a certain degree, being the first creatures the gods made, were partially bestial. In that way Glum was able to control them with his power to suggest things to beasts to do his bidding. But because they were also creatures of high intellect, they made for the perfect grafting partners.

  • Caster explained the only perfect graft, or mixture of creature he ever made was a dog and a dragon, who the group knew immediately was Gork

  • Dragons then were the key to the perfect graft. Mixing a creature with a dragon using the black ichor was, to Caster, a pure act of creation

• To that end, the group learned Caster was in search of Lithenlight's Clutch, a fabled nest of eggs lost to time, in order to use them to create entirely new creatures. He had hired a group to find them, Nefaria, but presumed them dead as he hadn't heart from them in some time

Soon, another person joined the dinner, a man looking very close to Caster, his brother Klem

• Klem was generally unpleasant and changed the dynamic of the dinner immediately. He claimed a god helped him escape prison and he had returned to help Caster finish what they'd started. Caster seemed intimidated by his brother and unhappy about his return.

Hukbi was appalled that Glum was coercing animals, especially dragons, to their deaths at Caster's hands, so he followed the firbolg to the kitchen and killed him there, Brine the Baleful witnessing it happen and agreeing to help the Belligerents take Caster down

At that time, however, Vainya caught up with the group and attacked, nearly felling Flapjack while he showed off his purpled-scaled skin and black blood

• Klem decided to fight alongside Vainya to kill the group and summoned an ichor creature from seemingly beyond the material plane

  • Raithe attempted to name the creature but it was not who he had thought it had been, though it did ask Raithe why he was attacking it, considering Raithe part of its family now

Caster escaped towards the temple where, as the group soon discovered, Gork was being kept

Vainya was taken down, but Hukbi took time to ensure she didn't bleed out. Akaris held Klem back while the group chased after Caster and toward their old Drakadog friend, Gork