02/01/2010 | 00:52 - 12:52 PM
Location: Abandoned Trainyard, Northern Brockton Bay Area, Abandoned Factory.
Killing people was easy. Healing them? Not quite.
Energy pooled at his fingertips as he stirred the cauldron, the hooked corpses with several lacerations upon their bodies hanged from the ceiling. Their bodies were hanging from crudely built chains from scrap metal, stones, and bones thanks to the goblins using slimes and their acidic ability to melt through most things to cause the rusted metal scraps that they found to undergo oxidation before they began to mold them. With a hundred goblins working surprisingly well and in good coordination thanks to the memtal links they shared, a quick production line was created to satisfy their leader and king. Hooks were made barbed, so the corpses would not fall, and the chains were made of interlocked bones that were taken from the many supply boxes that belonged to the slimes- they wouldn't need it anyway!
Damien stopped the slime production and focused on upgrading his cauldron to Rank D while a group of three goblins stood guard of the prisoners- Since he needed the blood of only five people but couldn't exactly leave witnesses, he ordered his goblins to kill five of the eight men who clearly belonged to the infamous Empire Eighty-eight while taking three of them hostage alongside the two victims. One older black woman, age probably between forty and fifty years old who had blood all over her face, and her daughter, a small girl between the ages of six to eight years old who was now playing with a goblin after meeting Damien.
What? He's not gonna kill a kid!
"Gorblo, is my grama gonna be ok?"
"Uhhh- yeh! Boss is smart! He'll know what to do."
So instead, he took the girl with him- she was playing with the goblins by slowly molding mounds of earth with her bare hands, having clearly triggered when her mother went down. Had he not intervened tonight, this young girl would've either been killed or kidnapped by those men to be sold to the Gesselshaft by the Empire Eighty-eight group because she was black. So instead, he took her with him, gave her a box of goblin berries, and went to work on upgrading his cauldron while some goblins kept an eye of everything for him and would notify him if something went wrong through [Telepresence]. As the blood dripped from above into the open maw of the cauldron beneath, a mystical green flame alighted itself beneath the cauldron, drip by scarlet drip of life liquid mold by death caused the cauldron to vibrate and glow a soft pale green color.
Within a few moments, the cauldron that normally sat by the ground suddenly had three "legs" to stand on, a pair of handles, and the metal itself became a dark, black iron-like metal.
[Congratulations, your Rank-E Cauldron of Monsters has been upgraded to Rank-D!]
[New Monsters Available]
[New Sigils Available]
That same familiar liat appeared before his eyes, making Damien grin- He read through it for a moment before frowning for a split second and making his decision.
Two monsters, one sigil.
He needed security, protection. So he chose a monster that didn't exactly look like one- it took three whole minutes, minutes which spent by him organizing his thoughts about what he wanted to do to moving forward. He selected two monsters and one sigil, he needed more power, and the upgrade for the next upgrade? It required him to hold his base for one week, sacrifice ten enemies to the cauldron, and sacrifice one enemy parahuman to the cauldron. Having done that, his cauldron would go from being a Rank D into a Rank C Cauldron of Monsters, and that would grant him a lot of options to choose from- He already was planning which sigils he would consider taking next when from the cauldron, a pale white orb that looked like an egg floated out. It landed softly by the ground next to the cauldron, releasing this warmth.
Born from one of the artificial Sparks of Divinity within the cauldron, connected to the Divinity of Home, emerged an older man dressed in pale orange robes and a quite imposing scar that ran down from his left eye down his chin, making his lack of a left eye seem very, very visible. "My Lord." The older man bowed with respect, acknowledging Damien's authority over him- for he too was a "monster", a creature born from the Cauldron. He was wearing leather armor beneath his pale orange and quite warm colored robes, carrying with him a staff of metal that had a very flat rectangle at the tip, which made it clear that the staff also acted as a weapon in case of it being needed: "It is an honor to be here and able to serve you and spread the warmth of the Everloving Hearth."
[Priests]
Takes 180 seconds to produce.
Priests appear to be normal humans in the prime of their life. They possess a magical link to an artificial divinity imprisoned within the Cauldron of Monsters, which they may use to draw forth slivers of its power. You must choose four magical effects your priests are able to produce from their deity, such as healing, teleportation, undead creation, mind control, conjuration of metal, or even physical augmentation.
Though they cannot permanently augment living beings, a valid magical effect might include the permanent augmentation of items; this retains the same limitation in scope- a valid example is the ability to lay down runes that increase the physical resilience and protective capabilities of any object inset with them. Priests are universally literate, but have a very poor education by modern standards.
"Greetings, before I know your name, I ask that you heal that wom-" He did not even finish his sentece before the old man turned around to see the older woman being taken care of by the goblins to the best of their abilities, which were... not quite as extensive as they could be. The staff on the old man's hand glowed for a split second before the scent of freshly baked bread and cookies emanated from him like a wave of homely love and protection, healing the old woman's body. Her body glowed a pale red-orange color for a moment before all injuries were burned away by warmth and light, leaving her as if she had never been hit! "-good work." Damien lamely finished his sentence before he turned to look at the little girl, who stopped playing with Gorblo and went directly to who he thought was her mother.
Before the old lady could wake up, Damien sent a mental message to all goblins present (besides Glorbo) to leave and hide, making the large and empty abandoned factory look desolate and even more abandoned than previously thought. He also asked his newly created Priest of the Everloving Hearth to dim the light of his staff so the older woman nor the young child could see the corpses hanging from the ceiling since the other three prisoners were being kept deep down in the makeshift cells, guarded by three goblins each and fed with Goberries. As a final touch, he turned to the old priest: "I apologize, but this world's culture on powered individuals dictates that you wear a mask and hide your identity- only for now, however, seeing as I we need to extract information from this old lady."
"Please, do call me Luxian, my lord." The old man, now known to him as Luxian, smiled like a grandfather as he patted the head of the little girl, who now stood by his side as the injuries on the older lady faded away with the warmth of the hearth: "For that was the name I took upon joining the Everloving Hearth's faith, the Home." His staff thuded against the ground of the factory, making this echoing sound that momentarily made Damien remember his second chosen monster before he focused back on the matter at hand. He used [Telepresence] to request information directly from the Luxian about his capabilities because upon his creation he was focusing only on the "healing" part.
"Very well." Damien nodded- Oh, the information he received from Luxian directly was neatly compacted, almost like a beautiful essay written by an artist in cursive! The Everloving Hearth gave him power over Warmth, Cooking, and the Home! He could use warmth to slowly heal his target or harm it by conjuring fire, he could protect a home by creating a field of magic around a building by burning a circle around it, and he was a killer cook! Seriously, he could cook like crazy and every meal he made carried the warmth of home, giving those who ate of his meals the ability to come back home whenever they ate of his food. Basically, an over time healing ability, a fire-based attack ability, a defensive ability focused on protecting one's home, and a recall teleportation ability focused on bringing others home (with the added bonus of culinary delights).
"Grannie!" The little girl said, rushing towards the older woman- who turned out to be her grandmother instead of her mother -with her arms wide and tears at the corner of her eyes, looking and sounding relieved. She hugged her grandmother unafraid, seeing as her powers were Manton Limited and could not affect living flesh at all, only other materials. Because while she was playing with Glorbo, he was helping her figure out her power under his King's orders- that's how they all learned that the longer she stays in one place the stronger her control over it grows and the range of her control over the region also increases. She was a Shaker mixed in with a Striker too, a combination that gave insight into her trigger event; a physical confrontation with the environmental pressure that has been haunting her her entire life.
Quite telling.
"-and then Glorbo and his friends came to help-"
Oh, right, there were conversations to be had. Damien blinked for a moment as his mind refocused, already having chosen more appropriately for the next Priest and their abilities- he focused more on illusion, memory, boundary and protection, wanting a Priest that could hopefully hide his base from prying eyes -he turned to look at the older lady who was looking at him, Glorbo, and Luxian with fearful eyes. Mostly Glorbo, with a hint of dread in there too... It seems like Nilbog gave the world a bad case of Goblinphobia, huh? Or rather, Biotinker-phobia. Him and Bonesaw, for that matter. "Glorbo, can you entertain Little Emilie for a few moments? I wish to speak to her grandmother privately-" He turned to look at the little girl, feeling a bit bad about separating the two of them: "-if her majesty, Queen of Clay Emilie Rosette allows me to?"
That was what he used to distract her- he gave her a title. Due to her power making whatever she's controlling to look like clay while she manipulated it, Damien gave her the title of Queen of Clay and told her he was also a King, but a different one.
"Hmm... Can I, gramma?" She innocently looked at her grandmother- all Trigger Events are bad, but the warmth of home, the immediate care Damien took, and the swift distraction that he employed to keep her young mind distracted from internalizing her trigger and making it more of a traumatic event to be either processed later or completely forgotten, she was more pliable for... distractions. Not every child was the same, but Emilie's mind clearly wanted to do anything but think about her trigger. And what a better distraction than playing with a goblin? "Please? Please?" Doing her best puppy eyes, the young girl looked at her grandmother-
"Emilie, we need to-"
"-stay a bit longer." Seeing that the old woman was about to refuse, he called upon a few other goblins with his [Telepresence]. From the shadows of the dark factory, three other goblins came crawling, the unspoken threat clear and loud: "After all, Glorbo and his friends really want to play with you, and me and your grandmother are going to have boring adult talk, about taxes, politics, and watching paint dry. Horrible, boring stuff I asure you." The three goblins also held crude clay-like figures that little Emilie had been making with her powers: "See? Gibbly, Gibba, and Gebbon wanna play- you know what? Why don't you go with her, Luxian? Keep the lights dim, keep her warm and safe, while I speak to her grandmother."
"Yay!" Into the darknes, the little girl rushed. Her power subtly but clearly giving her the confidence of not having to fear it, plus the warm and inviting aura that Luxian had clearly made him feel almost like her grandmother, so it was fine, right? "I wanna build a castle-" Taking Luxian's hand to pull him along, she began to bubbly speak about what she wanted to build using her power, which all sounded suspiciously like a ranch full of ponies.
Regardless, as they walked away leaving him and the grandmother in the darkness with their only light coming from afar and being very dim, Damien took a seat. "Let's talk, shall we? I have a few questions I wanna answers for, and you surely have them."