Tales of the Flesh
What with Atropos’ shears having been ‘misplaced’, the departed souls of the slain were left roaming the Basin circa Roarkian, 396. The mortals who went about gathering these ghosts on Atropos’ behalf were sometimes regaled with tales from one of the past lives of the ghosts, though words of warning were to be heard from some as well. These words cautioned about a weapon of the Old Empire, known as ‘eaf’, that had been hidden away but was in danger of resurfacing.
And resurface it did, nearly a month after the ghosts started their cautioning. In the middle of Estar, 397, the ghosts joined together, using their voices in unison to warn those still living. Shortly after, a green cloud was seen to escape from the Razine Mountains, dissipating briefly after erupting. Those who went to investigate discovered a portion of the wall in one of the tunnels had been broken, revealing a crumbling pillar. Pushing his way past the debris about the pillar, Synkarin became the first mortal to have entered the laboratory since the days of the Nature Wars.
As others came to see this forewarned place as well, they began exploring the five-storied laboratory. And a laboratory it was, for three of the floors seemed devoted to studying various stages of the creature the ghosts called ‘eaf’, referred to properly as ‘eaf’Chanoru’ according to reports found about the lab. These three floors also housed failed results of the experiment, eaf’Chanoru who were driven insane by the deformed shapes the experiments had caused. But then Synkarin and a group of city-mates arrived at the bottom floor, and discovered the heart of the laboratory, a device called the ‘Fae-Fleshpot’. The fragmented reports implied this device to be the most crucial to the experiments, without it the eaf’Chanoru could not be created nor evolved into the weapon the scientists were seeking.
The fragmented reports were not the only source of information here, as Trueflight Iytha came to find, for within the lab was a giant vat filled with peculiar fluid. Within the vat, Iytha found pulsing brains which conversed telepathically with her, shedding further light on the laboratory and its purpose. Between the brains and the fragments of reports, the experiment, and its threat to the forests, became evident, for the eaf’Chanoru could not be made without the flesh of dead fae.
When a few of the communes heard of this, they went quickly to the lab to see what this threat was. Meeting with some of those already inside, a brief discussion was had involving politics and preventing the experiment from being performed again. This may have been futile at first, as the workings of the Fae-Fleshpot were not fully understood by interested parties, but those against the experiment were either unaware or wished to be thorough. Splitting up, they raced through the lab’s floors, intent on killing, breaking, or stealing anything that might look crucial to the experiment. After some time of this, when it seemed the experiment could not be performed for the time being, many departed to their cities and communes, telling those their what had been seen in the horrific laboratory.
But a small party had remained behind. Intent on seeing the result of the experiments, they gathered the fragmented parts, talked to the pulsing brains, and recalled what they had heard others discuss. Comparing all the information together, and with a little trial-and-error, they were able to figure out what was needed to create an eaf’Chanoru from the Fae-Fleshpot. Soon after their hard, dangerous, and sneaky work, not one but two eaf’chanorus were brought into existence, loyal to those who had made them. Not satisfied in stopped with this small victory, the party set out to complete the steps detailed in the reports to evolve the eaf’Chanoru, but into what they did not know.
After a few days of work, they were able to successfully evolve one of the eaf’Chanoru into a small piglet-like creature called an eaf’Eramich. Rushing to the stables to place the beast there, the joyous owner found the stable-hands were at first unwilling to house such a creature, but a small bribe in the form of wine soon resolved any issues, and there the beast was placed.
But what will this small piglet grow to be? What of the forests, who mutually see this place as a threat? And what of the single Glomdoring who snuck in and created his own eaf’Chanoru, taking the creature not to be completed, but to the Dark Forest to be studied?
