Anime Addventure : New Gods

by tutcat

Stories that are from that place that have been saved Ranma becomes a Drow god (all stories up for adoption)

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or any other crossover characters. They are owned by there respective owners. Not out to make any money or fame on others work.

This is a collection of fic's I was able to save of a web archive that has shut down recently. Some had been edited so my text reader would work better. So original authors and extra stuff was removed from the fic .

On the ones that have not been edited I will be editing them so the original authors will get credited for their parts. Also if you have the parts that I'm missing let me know in a PM will edit them in. Same with other fic's if you have them will post for others to be able to read.

New gods

Restart: A web of possibilities [Episode 56105]

by Kestral

She was the dark goddess Lolth. The spider queen, the goddess of the drow.

She was in the form of a spider the size of a mountain and was currently hurrying along a strand of the DemonWeb Pits as she felt something twist and shake those strands of cable.

Considering the thickness and strength of the strands of the webbing that made up that layer - no mortal creature was likely to be responsible. That meant an intruder here where her power was the strongest.

Fully confident in her power, Lolth shot forward towards the bright spark she sensed turning to flee.

Only to feel something ripping apart her essence - a stabbing blow that rent deep into her carapace.

Cyric twisted his blade deep, feeling there was room for only one god of treachery and intrigue and murder. That would be HIM!

Lolth was quickly sealed away using the mechanisms he'd purloined.

Then Cyric sat back in amusement. He'd done it. He'd used his talents to steal back his rightful portfolio. Lolth was dead, at least in this branching of the Prime Material. Now he could take the prize, betraying the gods of evil that he'd allied with for this end, and-

Where was it?

The segment of the portfolio that was all drow was missing. The precious fragment of godstuff that would have made him the god of an entire race that he could have used to such good effect. WHO COULD HAVE TAKEN IT?!

A little black cat, some sort of mouse (or was it a spider?) in his mouth, pranced along a strand of webbing.

Now who, wondered the cat, would be a good god of the drow? Now if there was ever a bunch of no-fun people who needed a good stirring up - it was the drow elves.

Flicking from universe to universe as easily as cleaning a whisker, the cat decided to make the new god(dess) of the drow:

Restart: New demigod on the block [Episode 96037]

by Kestral

Ranma was still falling when he stopped in midair and began glowing brightly.

He flashed and flared, especially at points on his forehead and the crests of both cheeks.

Finally the glow stopped and he lowered himself to the ground.

"Whoaaaaa," said Ranma - and vanished.

The newly pandafied Genma looked around in astonishment. When had Ranma learned such an impressive manuever. And why did he feel furry?

"Many tragic stories here, Mister Customer, but that one I no hear of before now." The Guide turned the panda back into a human with a splash of hot water. "Not have any idea what go on here. Do you?"

With the priestesses no longer receiving spells, things would eventually become very different. The clergy of Lolth controlled all aspects of their civilization and kept the infighting among the Houses from getting out of hand.

The weak were culled, as were the diseased or cursed. Only the strongest and most ruthless, the cleverest and the cruelest, could thrive in the cities of the drow.

There were those who failed those tests. Some became drider, their bodies and minds twisted into shapes that would help to "test" unwary drow and keep them strong - as well as being a lesson of what happened to any with less than perfect loyalty to the spider-goddess. There were those who were taken as 'battle captive' and geased with powerful spells to be the slaves of the more favored. There were still others who successfully fled the Underdark for other parts, and found other divine patronage. These were rare, very rare, and their tales were not spread where others might gain heart from them.

Still others were outcast from their House and lived lives much like those teeming throngs of slaves and the hangers-on of the cities, their slums providing more amusement for the cruel masters who had not fallen from grace.

Finally there were those who were used in other manners, such as those who found themselves in the Arena.

Dirai was of no House, and of less than noble birth. She had been the child of a soldier of low social standing attached to House Svithrae. Svithrae had slowly built up some trade and developed some goodwill with trade partners in the Underdark, reasoning that it was in their best interests to offer something the bigger cartels wouldn't - fair dealing with the lesser races. When they began to generate greater profit and get better deals, the inevitable occurred. Two of the more affluent Houses manufactured a scandal and slew the matrons of the House, divvied up the wealth, and killed or enslaved the remainder. Life as usual among the drow.

Dirai, known in Chad Nespair as Dirai The Blade, was doing something that amused a number of cellmates. Praying, and not to Lolth.

That was okay amongst them - though forbidden by their jailors. They were a group of misfits, any hour might see them thrown into the Arena and slain for the amusement of the higher ups. They were Arena slaves, and any abuse could be thrown upon them and they had no say in it.

The others were amused because none of them knew the names of other gods to call upon them. Oh - there were whispers of Vhaeraun, who was Lolth's sometimes bed-mate. There were the gods of the various other slave races, but speak them aloud and at the very least your tongue might be cut out.

Dirai had recently gotten a nasty wound along one side and the priestesses had not bothered to heal it completely. As it would slow her down in the next match, it would likely kill her through that indirect means. Hence turning to prayer.

"I direct my plea to any god or goddess that might help me and my sisters to win free from this life, send us a sign that we may gain hope from it," said Dirai, kneeling on the cold stone floor.

thump!

A young human boy appeared in the center of the cell, scratching his head and peering around in what to him was nearly total darkness. Then, while thinking about it, he realized how he could adjust his eyes to see like the elves around him.

"Someone answered?" asked one of the astonished cellmates.

"That can't be," said another, though lowly so as not to attract the priestesses and their damn serpent-flails. "There are wards and protections against any teleportations within these walls."

Dirai swallowed nervously and approached the boy, her red eyes gleaming in the darkness. A human boy? Was this the messenger of a human god or some cruel prank of the priestesses?

The boy looked into her eyes, and Saw her.

He saw the young girl whose parents had been slain in front of her. He saw the girl trained to be a warrior and fight in the Arena against horrific monsters and other slaves. He saw her raped, beaten, raped again by male and female and monster and -

There was pain there, and while he was not very powerful at present, he could do a little now. Lord Ao had proclaimed that one's power was dependent on the number of worshippers, but he could accomplish a little at present.

"I can do this little for you," said Ranma, reaching out to the kneeling girl and touching her forehead. He thought he could do this at least, and he was the sort to do things as opposed to thinking them out beforehand. For now at least. "Be Healed."

The wound closed. Tissues reknit. The horrors of the past receeded within her mind.

Dirai blinked now blue eyes as she felt fresh strength flow into her. Strength and a purpose. "Hide him! He is our one chance out of here!"

Not all of the others were as ready to turn their backs on their heritage or culture, but all were heartily sick of being the lowest of the low. They hid him as the priestesses, agitated by something, marched past the barred wall of their cell.

"What is he?" asked one of the others after the priestesses had passed by.

"A newly forged god, I think," said Dirai. "A new Time Of Troubles or something else, I do not know. Yet I have some clerical spells now, and I can heal your wounds Iranae."

Iranae's eyes narrowed as she considered all the angles. Though by nature she was more like one of her captors than Dirai, she realized that here was a great opportunity. "Your eyes changed color, they are now the shade of bright sapphires. Are you taller now?"

"The mark of favor," said Dirai with confidence. "My prayers were answered by Wild Stallion, and as he grows stronger, so too may his priestesses."

Iranae looked first to the taller, blue-eyed, Dirai then to the tired looking boy. It was said that the strength of the worshippers gave strength to the gods they worshipped, which was why Lolth wanted only the strongest drow to survive.

New gods: the faith starts to spread. [Episode 96049]

by Kestral

"Not much of a god yet if just healing you, teleporting through all the wards against it, and investing you as a member of his faith tired him out," pointed out Iranae.

She was more cold and calculating than Dirai, and she quickly added things up. If this human was in fact a new god, much like that Cyric fellow she'd heard about, then this was a risk and an opportunity.

Oh, she could turn the boy in - the priestesses would rip his heart out and feed it to a draegloth or something to regain the favor of the Spider Queen. If it didn't work they'd go on to something else maybe.

On the other hand, if this boy was on his way to becoming a deity - and one that clearly accepted a ditzy naive girl like Dirai as a high priestess. Well, she wasn't willing to switch faiths or philosophies at least by much - but being an interested hanger on would allow her to reap benefits. She could always betray them later if there was more profit to it.

"Count me in," said Iranae out loud. "A chance of getting out of these damn pits strikes me as better than no chance at all."

The society of the drow was run by the clergy of Lolth. The clergy was run by the most vicious and sadistic of their ranks, as well as the oldest and most accomplished.

They had scrolls and magical items, which allowed them to cover for their loss of spells - for now. It was only a matter of time before the word got out. They were not going to admit their current lack of resources and lessening power, at least if it could be avoided.

Still, old wounds festered. Slights and petty feuds were ready to erupt into full scale warfare. The eye of the goddess was not on them - and so there were many who thought this the perfect opportunity to advance their own quests for power or vengeance.

"Never Trust A Drow." While this was not true in certain individuals, it was certainly the case in the majority. A drow's word was good - up until the point honoring that word was inconvenient or potentially harmful.

The minor city of Chad Nespair was not quite as bad off as some of the other cities. It was simply a matter of size. Chad Nasad was a major tradesport. The capital of Menzonobarrenzen was huge and had the individuals who had risen to the heights of their profession.

Chad Nespair by contrast had roughly 1/6 the population of Chad Nasad. The higher echelons were not nearly as competent or vicious as those in larger cities. If you wanted to borrow human terms, you might describe it as 'Hicksville' or a 'backwoods hamlet' by contrast.

This carried some benefits and problems. If one wanted to strike back at the drow, one usually thought of other cities. The wealth wasn't there - being mainly off as tribute to other cities, and the place was off the beaten path - even as regarded the traffic of the Underdark and the chasms and tunnels that were used for travel.

A lake of water that trickled down from the World Above surrounded three quarters of Chad Nespair, and large thick walls blocked the last quarter except for the two gates. Problems with duergar and the occasional illithid had caused those walls to be erected and maintained.

Chad Nespair had no tower of Sorcere. There were a few mages, but they too were hardly the ones who held the reins of true power or ambition. If they had ambition and power - they wouldn't be here.

With a few exceptions - people who'd rather be skilled and powerful in a minor city rather than be average in a major city.

Pentas Vourl was one such. In a major drow city, one with a tower of Sorcere or similarly powerful group of mages, he might have been able to rise to the ranks of the ruling council. He had the power but not the subtlety nor the innate cleverness to reach further. Whereas in Chad Nespair - he was the most powerful mage in the city.

After the first day, he knew something was up. The priestesses were as tight-lipped as ever, but they had spent four hours in session with doors closed during the later part of the day.

Matron Kavriel missing her mid-afternoon Reverie and meal - something BIG was up. Matron Acherea had been seen scurrying to the temple despite one of her caravans being due today - completely out of character.

He knew, liked was not even vaguely applicable, most of the Matrons of the city and their habits. The best to avoid them and their attention for one thing.

Pentas Vourl looked out over his city and wondered what it meant as he prepared and cast a few minor spells. As he had expected, most struck anti-eavesdropping wards and barriers.

To his delight and surprise, one got through. Clairaudience cast on a point where the walls of the chamber were not thick, and a storeroom that was crowded with odd supplies was a good place to spy from. Especially if one didn't have to be physically present.

Pentas heard the arguments, though not all the voices could be heard. Lolth had turned her back on them? The Spider Goddess was not answering their sacrifices and pleas?

That brought a brief smile to Pentas' face. Until he heard his own name mentioned. They hadn't sacrificed sufficiently and maybe a mage would make a better sacrifice?

Pentas Vourl mentally drew a circle around the name of Matron Kavriel. She had just gone to the top of the payback list.

Being a mage, he didn't rely on a being as fickle as the drow goddess to cast spells. Pentas quickly gathered the ingredients for a spell.

New gods: civil unrest [Episode 96575]

by Kestral

Pentas sent the word out. He used Whispering Wind to a few well known ears, then spread it among a few others by means of the Magic Mouth spell and a courier service.

The lesser races, the thralls and slaves, couldn't be permitted to know about this. However, as Pentas well knew, they'd find out eventually if the goddess continued to spurn her followers. When that knowledge became public, there might be trouble from that quarter. Until then he knew a lot of men like himself who'd suffered for centuries from the matriarchy. He'd known promising wizards knived in the back by scheming sisters or mothers, or ended up dying over days on an altar.

Then, messages sent, he could just sit back and watch the show. Much better than taking direct action himself.

There were six of them. Six disciples to a new faith. Six warriors who had been used for sport in the arena, passed around as toys for the amusement of higher caste drow, and generally leading unhappy lives.

Dirai directed a healing spell into the injured leg of Iranae and didn't notice the crafty look in her patient's eyes.

Dirai The Blade who was a specialist in using twin short swords. Now standing taller and stronger, with her eyes blazing the blue of sapphires. She still seemed a little "not there" and was entirely too soft (by the standards of the other drow) to be a leader. Yet, apparently, now she was.

Iranae The Chain was the sort of exotic-weapon user that the Arena liked to put out. Cruel, calculating, yet attractive enough and flashy enough in battle that she was well favored by the crowds. Her kusari-gama had been known to strangle beasts four times her size before she used the blade to slice open the chest and present the heart to the priestesses presiding over it all.

Ch'yo was another story. Dirai could be seen as the Kind Hearted Ditz, though tempered in fires that had caused her to lose any innocence she might otherwise have claimed. Iranae was the dispassionate actress - able to take any role if it would further her station in life. Ch'yo was the Waif. The innocent that even Iranae tried to protect from the harsher realities, though that was hard to do. Looking much younger than she was, as if a human child of perhaps twelve, she was the most recent inductee - and her past had been stolen by spell so there was no telling what horrors she had endured before then.

S'kaki the consummate athlete whose favored weapon was the chain-spear. However, she hadn't been quite right in the head since a gorgon's hoof had caught her in a doubles match. Dirai had saved her life, and S'kaki tended to listen more to Dirai than anyone else since then. For her, she strove to find her physical limits and surpass them.

Kagura had long claimed not to be a drow elf at all but a human warrior from some faroff land transformed by magic and dropped here. Since the entire thought of someone of a lesser race turned into a superior drow was blasphemy, she'd been thrown into the Arena as soon as she could be subdued. That she had survived clearly meant that she was NOT a human and merely deluded. She prefered to use an oddly curved two handed sword that had been made to her specifications after a particularly tough battle.

Tlisi was a spy, used and discarded in one of the battles between the houses. Not being as skilled in battle as any of the others save Ch'yo - it had been speculated that the rogue would be among the first to fall in the year-end skirmishes.

Six followers of a new god. Not the most auspicious start.

Iranae sized up the others. Dirai was in, obviously. It had been her prayer and she had enthusiastically adopted the cause. Ch'yo would go along with whatever everyone else wanted. The child was intelligent and whatever she'd been through had left her shuddering just at the sight of blood, a fate other than to fight and die on the sands of the arena would appeal mightily to her.

S'kaki would follow Dirai to the hearts of the Nine Hells. Complaining and trying to suggest they go somewhere a little less daunting - but she'd go. She was one of those weird drow who would do everything possible to repay a debt.

Kagura had a rivalry with S'kaki, but given a chance to escape would take it. She also had some weird thing called a "warrior's code of honor" though Iranae had met a number of warriors over the years she had yet to see some code that went beyond the next pay period.

Tlisi was the most likely, excluding herself silently added Iranae, to betray the group. Even then, she had lost her faith in Lolth and the Houses and many similar things that were just part of life as far as Iranae was concerned. It was more likely that if she saw an opportunity, Tlisi would bolt and try to find a life as far away from her own kind as she could.

Their new godling was tired out and apparently asleep. Not very auspicious at all.

"Wait a minute," Tlisi interrupted Dirai. "That was a Cure Serious Wounds. What rank of priestess are you?!"

"I think that was about my limit," admitted Dirai.

Tlisi got an unfamiliar gleam in her eyes. If the godling could do that, then maybe he could-

"Hey, little god," said Ch'yo, shaking the boy awake. "So what's your ethos?"

"'Ethos'?" asked Ranma as he slowly came out of the trance. "What's that?"

"Some philosophy that you see as central," said Ch'yo seriously. "With the Spider Queen, it's always been that evil is strength, the strong enslave the weak, the weak die while the strong survives. That sort of thing."

"Oh," said Ranma. To him it sounded like the sort of code villains in martial arts epics bellowed about before the righteous young hero redecorated the guy's face. He had to have a code? Hmmm. Maybe -

New gods: First precept - adaptability? [Episode 96580]

by Kestral

Cyric thought of himself as a master manipulator, planner, and consummate god of murder and intrigue. His plan to become a multiplanar god was based on the jealousy and hatred of Lolth, who had long preached that her followers and herself would one day triumph over all others and that she would devour the gods themselves.

If he had succeeded, the drow would have received visits from his image - he would have had a base of worshippers, and he would have become a multi-planar deity. As it was, the worship of spiders wasn't going to maintain his hold in those other planes and he was already under attack by those other traitorous planar deities that he had sought to betray.

His attention was elsewhere, trying desperately to grasp power that was slipping from his fingers.

Vhaeraun noticed the change almost immediately, and his clerics and agents sought to destroy what they could of Lolth's images and worship immediately. Since he knew only that Lolth's back was turned, by weakening her in this manner would his own power be increased.

Though he could sense her presence still vaguely. Strangely twisted. And oddly masculine. Perhaps she had taken avatar form and disguised herself?

Whatever, this was his best chance to expand his domain, and he was taking it.

Another god turned his eyes from the chaos going on elsewhere.

He had access to much lore and much wisdom, and quite frankly - he had a score or two to settle with Cyric.

On finding that Cyric had such ambitious plans, it hadn't taken much in the way of motivation to find a summoning a powerful entity and explaining the prank that would cause the whole thing to collapse.

The odd thing was, that in this manner, balance would be maintained at the end of the whole thing.

As to the one that this being Toltiir had chosen, he could develop in several ways as he came to terms with his new power and responsibilities.

Though a little nudge here and there might be helpful. Fortunately, he had an agent suitable for such a task in place.

Ranma wasn't sure what to call an 'ethos' - he had the feeling that it was important though. Maybe it was like the martial artist's code. Defend the weak and stuff like that. The problem was that his stupid father (who had turned into a panda the last he'd seen of the old fool) had pretty much run roughshod over typical martial philosophies. There were stories he'd heard over the years though, so...

Stories? THAT might work!

"Okay, it's like this," began Ranma, trying to remember a story that involved martial artists and personal honor. Especially after seeing what Dirai had gone through - he wanted to suggest a really different attitude to these new acquaintances/friends. He quickly, and with skills he hadn't known he had (mainly because he didn't have them until he decided he needed them) - gave them the story of the old couple where the wife turned sick and the husband left despite the wife's pleas to follow a story of a cure. Only to perish and the wife to die and wait as a ghost eternal whose wailing could be heard among the mountains.

Dirai heard the story and picked up on the message that you had to live while you could, because you could never tell when you were going to end up dying. Even if you weren't an Arena slave.

Iranae heard the story and its ending and picked up the message that pursuing strength for its own sake could lead to self-destruction, and you should always try to keep some healing potions in reserve.

Ch'yo was taken with the idea of better preparedness. If the old couple had taken better precautions, then maybe they could have avoided getting sick.

S'kaki heard the story and interpreted to mean that sometimes you had to let go.

Kagura wondered why that story had sounded familiar. Not realizing she'd heard it as a ghost story years ago herself.

Tlisi got the message that they who hesitated - lost. Speed and adapting to changing circumstance would have saved both of them. Obviously, the importance of good intel was the message meant to be conveyed.

Six people, six messages, one story.

An alarm began to sound elsewhere in the complex.

"I wonder what's going on?" pondered Ch'yo.

Pentas had spread the word to a number of other males. Some of whom had not been as close-mouthed about it as they perhaps should have been.

The word about Lolth not answering calls for spells was having ripples the further that word spread. The priestesses still had clerical scrolls, wands, and other equipment. Those were finite and carefully hoarded resources though.

Tensions might have merely built up for some time, and the priestesses might have retained control save for two developments.

One, the desperate sending of messengers to a more major city to determine if their plight was limited to their own city.

Two, the decision to make a truly grand sacrifice in order to potentially placate Lolth and regain her favor.

The messengers/spies were intercepted by illithid who quickly determined that the clerics weren't at their full power, radiating fear and anxiousness, and ambushed them to find out more about what had set the drow to such fright.

The second was a more immediate disaster as the priestesses came after Pentas Vourl with the intent of sacrificing the old male to the goddess, as obviously the male being so powerful was an affront to both the priestesses and therefore the goddess.

Pentas not particularly wanting to die in a gruesome ritualistic manner, or even in any particular manner, responded in what he thought of as an appropriate manner.

Golems made of black rock rumbled to life, fireballs went flying, summoned monsters charged the priestesses.

The priestesses had expected to catch Pentas by surprise. Instead they found themselves dealing with a forewarned and forearmed archmage who had been kicked around most of his life, and was now quite prepared to take a few priestesses with him.

At which point the fighting drew other combatants, all with a score to settle, ambitions to reach for, or just plain panicking and running amok.

Summoned spiders fought elementals who battled summoned monsters which attacked golems seeking to crush mages fighting warriors being backstabbed by thieves who were being maced by clerics who had lost control of their summoned spiders.

Chaos and evil were being done with a fine disregard for who was a victim and who was a perpetrator.

The thralls, the slaves, the oppressed, didn't need much encouragement to add their two coppers to the whole mess - and did so with the fervor of those who had nothing to lose. Though they were late comers to this, as most of them had just stood around gawking while it all went to pot around them.

If the thralls had been the first to strike, as they had in other cities, the drow would have united against the threat. As it was, most of the drow in question had already been involved in the battle and saw these new attackers as more evidence that some other Houses were using any means available in their attacks.

It was made worse by the lack of strong leaders in Chad Nespair. Many of the priestesses saw this as an opportunity to rise higher and then unite the clergy under themselves.

New gods: handmaiden, spy [Episode 97058]

by Kestral

Ranma was being beseiged by a lot of things he didn't understand, but he was coping.

"Uhm, Dirai-chan?"

"Yes, Lord?" the high priestess asked of her god, wondering what the proper terms were for addressing a deity.

"There's a lot of people dying," said Ranma, and he could feel their deaths. "I'm not sure what I should do."

"Well, too bad you can't wave your hand and give us the ability to escape," said Tlisi.

"Ability?" Ranma asked, his eye catching the spider embroidered onto Tlisi's thin build. "I think I know how but..."

"He's a beginning god," explained Dirai. "To invest you, you'd have to be of his faith."

"If he can get me out of here, I'll be his personal spy, bodyguard... Abyss, I'd take him as a lover and dance for his pleasure if it would give me the power to get out of here," drily said Tlisi, who had her doubts about this being for real. Maybe the boy was just one of those mind-mages or something?

Ranma realized something had just opened, and that spider stitched onto her leather battle costume gave him an idea. "Okay... I think the words are 'The Pledge Accepted, The Oath Stand True, By Your Own Choice, Your Service Due.'"

The flash was blinding, especially to the drow, though Dirai didn't seem more than slightly discomforted. Tlisi rotated around in a column of light, a blue and red spider dropping onto her from a mid-air flash and biting her before fading away.

Ranma blinked and smiled. "Hey. I think I did it! Why's everyone up against the wall like that?"

"Just checking the wall," S'kaki announced. For a proud drow warrior and gladiator to admit she'd come very close to pissing in her drawers was unacceptable.

"Oooh," said Tlisi, briefly wobbling on her feet. "Whoa. Hey, what did you do, Lord?"

"It was like I could briefly see how to do somethin'," admitted Ranma. "I got the idea from your spider there and I remember this gaijin comic book. So now you can climb walls, spin webs, sense danger and that stuff."

Tlisi considered her earlier words, tried a few gestures to finally find how she could fire off brief bits of webbing, and snapped the lock to their cell as she tested her strength. "Very well, it looks as if the deal has been made and I'll abide by it."

"Not that you have much choice," said Dirai, clasping the girl on the shoulder. "Though being a spy for a god strikes me as being not an unwise career decision."

Tlisi shrugged, then got a frightened expression. "You don't suppose... it's not required."

Dirai shrugged in reply, being drow enough that having the other girl sweat over the potential duties of the position she now held would be enjoyable.

"The door's open," pointed out Iranae. "We need weapons and equipment."

The room shuddered. Considering that the room itself was dug beneath the floor of the city's cavern gave that some degree of impressiveness.

"Let's go," said Ranma, wondering what he could do about it.

"The dominions I have spell access to are Healing, Combat, and Protection," said Dirai. "It's a pity that Divination is not one of your strengths, my lord."

"STOP! You slaves, return to your cell!" A group of priestesses charged forward, the lead one brandishing a flail whose heads ended in hissing serpents.

"I think I used up my webbing for now just figuring out how to use it," said a disappointed Tlisi. "What now?"

New gods: god mode, not needed [Episode 97433]

by Kestral

Ranma was actually fairly happy to see four armed women come charging forward, ready to commit an act of violence.

This was a fight. Something he was familiar with.

What he did notexpect was quite the results of his combat.

The snakes of the lead gal shot out towards him, and he tied the heads up in knots before throwing it back to slap into the gal's face. That went as normal.

Then he recognized these gals from Dirai's memories. Bad people.

Gal waving some wand at him, he knew it would be bad and dodged out of the way. Lightning stabbed out and hit one of his followers. THAT he didn't like and hadn't expected, and he kicked the knife out of another priestess' hand to then split that wand with it. He also sped up considerably.

An open palm strike to the armored chest of another priestess, flip backwards, kick that one right in the decorative spiderweb of her helmet, launch from her to bring both hands down on the head of the fourth priestess.

With a sound like a wrecking ball had just impacted a steel pan, priestess #3 became airborne and sped down the corridor as if shot from a cannon.

Priestess #2 dropped her useless wand and slumped to the ground, her helmet shattering like fine glass.

Priestess #4 went down, slammed into the stone pavement with enough force that her magic armor actually imbedded itself.

Priestess #1 was screaming as her serpents erupted in white flame and began flailing around on her as they died.

"Whoa," said Ranma, not having meant to do quite that level. Sure he could remember what he'd seen from Dirai's life and not be too upset about these being hurt, but still.

"Loot the bodies, quickly," said Tlisi, bending to the task on the head priestess. "We needed weapons and equipment and our Lord has seen fit to provide."

"Yeah well," said Ranma, unsure about this.

"Hey! Let us out too!" yelled someone from across the hall.

"Okay," said Ranma, walking over and snapping the lock.

The one who had called out stared, having expected that he would have to make a deal or threats. Not that he was anxious to make threats after seeing those four priestesses get crushed so easily.

"This one's still alive," said S'kaki, holding a dagger up and ignoring the healing spell Dirai was casting on her. It hadn't been a very big lightning bolt. 'That which did not kill her, wouldn't get a second chance' and that sort of thing.

"Not for long," growled one of the prisoners, stepping out of the doorway. "I'll make her suffering last."

"No, you won't," said Ranma.

"Little human, do you think you can stop me without your magic tricks," growled this less intelligent of the hobgoblins.

Ranma's fist blurred. The hobgoblin shot back into the cell and made a crunching noise when he hit the far wall. "Hmmm. Gotta watch my own strength."

The hobgoblins were of a society that respected strength. One got to be leader usually through an act of strength. This little human had just taken their strongest member and thrown him around like an angry dragon might have.

There was a difference between being stupid and being THAT stupid.

Most thought it likely that this was a transformed dragon or other major beast that the stupid priestesses had tried to keep on a leash. Well, they knew which way the wind blew and there was a precedent for following a dragon's banner.

"Lord, what is your name that we might properly address you?" said the first of the hobgoblins who'd called out.

"I'm Ranma Saotome," said Ranma. "Ya want to get out of here, you can tag along."

The first of the hobgoblins nodded and turned to the others, quickly explaining the situation. This being (dragon or what he wasn't sure) would give them escape from these drow if they accepted his service. One, a bugbear in the back, voiced a concern. Thinking about it, the hobgoblin turned back to Ranma to address this issue.

"Milord Ranma of House Saotome," said the hobgoblin. "I am Kakresh, formerly of the Bloody Fist Mercenary Company. Is it my understanding that you will not eat any of these soldiers who pledge to follow you in battle?"

Ranma blinked. "Ah, no. I pretty much guarantee I won't eat any of you."

Kakresh turned back to his mercenaries and assured them that if they pledged allegiance to this lord, they wouldn't be eaten.

"Huzzah!" came the roaring response.

"They are lesser races," said the sneering Iranae.

Tlisi fitted what she could use of the High Priestess' items onto her own form and leaned close to Iranae. "So? We let them go first into battle. You have a problem with this?"

Iranae closed her mouth with a snap, then smiled as sweetly as she could. Actually, put in those terms, having sword fodder around didn't seem so bad.

Tlisi looked at Ranma with a new light. Perhaps her choice of words, unfortunate as they had been, had been responsible for Ranma's choice instead of (as she had first supposed) his need to increase his power base? In that case, particularly with this physical prowess he had demonstrated, the offer became more interesting. Perhaps... Need to get some additional women though - made for better variety.

"What's in this cell?" Ranma asked, noting one was bricked up. The odd chill he decided to ignore.

"An eye tyrant is within there," said the hobgoblin.

"A whoozi-what?" asked Ranma.

"A sphere about so big that floats in the air," said Tlisi. "Atop its head is a crown of eyes on stalks, each eye can cast a beam with a different magical effect, and the main eye can cancel magic directed at it. It is a foul beast that is used sparingly in the arena, for controlling it is a difficult thing."

"Oh. And this one?" Ranma pointed down a corridor.

"A cage for prisoners, beyond that be a young dragon," said Tlisi. "A recent capture. It was injured greatly in a battle, and lies near death."

"Oh..." said Ranma.

New gods: Room reconn [Episode 97733]

by Kestral

Pentas Vourl smiled and casually tossed the blood-red gem while whispering a name. "Matron Luvrinne Kavriel ar Virumire. Then the others."

The gemstone sped off in a red blur and struck the unprotected back of the neck of the plump priestess. Her hand went back to the spot but it was already too late.

Pentas Vourl smiled. No, subtle was not his strength. Payback was something all drow of his station spent long months plotting though. This idea had been a good one, something a clever apprentice of his had developed while sipping wine from the World Above.

Pentas wondered if that apprentice was still alive somewhere. The only apprentice he'd had that hadn't tried to kill him. It had been disappointing at first. Promising student as far as power and talent of the art was concerned, but no head for politics or intrigue at all. Worse, the thin fellow had become convinced somehow that knowledge itself was the goal and noas power.

Still, he'd had a nice vicious streak when the mood set upon him.

"Kavriel? What are you doing?" asked the whip thin Matron Acherea, her normally sneering hatchet-face a little off now from swelling where an orc slave had gotten her with a thrown rock. "We don't have time for your silliness."

"Gahk," said Matron Kavriel, eyes and mouth almost comically wide open. "Uhk vung."

"Stop that and help us erect a protective ward in this room!" commanded another priestess.

"We can't control the guardian spiders, they're running amok!" cried out another priestess.

"Vehk," said Matron Kavriel, her body quivering.

"Stupid old bat," said Acherea, ready to slap some sense into her associate.

Matron Acherea had slain over a thousand in her time, a high priestess who had offered their still beating hearts on the altars to Lolth. The more beautiful and exotic the better. She'd spent days delighting in the twisting of the knife - proving that Lolth's way was true and that of those who worshipped other gods was the way of a lesser being. She'd valued Kavriel's clever little suggestions for psychological torture of prisoners, but loathed the way the chubby Matron had spent her life largely eating and doing as little physical as she could.

She was therefore surprised when Kavriel's body exploded outward in bloody chunks and a more lithe form stepped out.

Carved entirely of red stone and lit from within by a ruby pulse, the figure made a spear-blade of one hand and plunged it deep into Acherea's chest. As the Matron tried feebly to pull herself away from it, she saw the pulses within the golem strengthen slightly. Then she felt a rushing sensation and the world turned red.

The other priestesses snarled and unleashed their weapons on the statue. It grasped one snakehead from a flail and there was an odd flare of light before the snakeheaded flail went limp and unresponsive.

"Some kind of vampiric golem," reasoned one of the older Matrons. "Blunt weapons!"

S'kaki was first into the room, looking for a measure of payback/release. Unfortunately, she could see nothing within to vent upon.

The cages of prisoners were quickly sundered by Ranma, who wasn't using divine power for this. A precise blow, struck at the right angle and with sufficient force, was enough to open these cages.

He had the Bloody Fist Mercenary Company, or what remained of it - twenty hobgoblin warriors with a pair of bugbears. He had Dirai the Blade, his cleric. Iranae the Chain and S'kaki were excellent warriors who had survived the Arena on many occasions. Tlisi was now his spy, sworn to his service, with spider-powers. Little Ch'yo was watched over by Kagura, the swordswoman. Add to that five prisoners bearing severe wounds and smashed limbs.

Ranma looked over each as Dirai cast her remaining healing spells on the worst injured.

The next room brought Ranma up short. "What in the HELL is this?"

"It's a torture chamber," replied S'kaki as if she couldn't understand why the appearance would surprise him. It was highly specialized equipment, so a seperate room was usually used for its operation. Humans had them too, didn't they?

Ranma's eyes flicked from one to the other, noting the hooks and blades and straps and chains. Some of it he couldn't figure out until his eyes would settle on it and dim images of the item in operation came to his mind. The pain and anguish of the drow and others here were enough to impinge on his god-senses.

"The dragon should be in the next room, milord," said S'kaki.

"A little girl died here, watching her parents being..." Ranma had let one hand rest on an oddly shaped chair but now he snatched it away as if burned. "What kind of people?"

"The worship of strength, the showing of strength by causing others pain, my lord," softly said Dirai. "It is understood you are a different sort of god."

"Damn straight," snarled the youth. "Any idea what's behind this wall?"

"Probably the priestess' chambers," offered S'kaki, shuddering at her own memories of this room.

Ranma drew back his fist and lashed out, striking the wall.

The small army he'd been accumulating stirred as Ranma walked away from it, leaving a small dent in the stone.

crack rumble went the wall, a spiderweb of cracks appearing before it collapsed.

"LOOT!" cried a number of hobgoblins, it being a dear subject to their hearts.

"We get first pick," said Tlisi, moving forward into the chambers. "I'll use my skills to defuse traps."

While the hobgoblins had been ready to protest the 'first pick' - the reminder of traps set them back. It would be just like the spider-lovers to do that sort of thing.

Ranma was mainly alone with his thoughts as these others grabbed up weapons and strapped on armor and prepared themselves. He wasn't used to thinking things through. One of the major tenets of the Saotome School was 'Action Before Thought' but this situation wasn't a typical one for someone of his school. Currently he was shepherding a bunch of weaker (than he was now at least) characters through a situation unlike anything his father had trained him for.

These people he was fighting were not good people. Quite the opposite. He was familiar enough with martial arts movies and stories - these were MAJOR league nasty epic villains he was up against. What did the heroes do in those stories?

They gathered together and proceeded to whomp major league nasty epic villain butts. That's what they did. Kurosawa did a couple of those, Ranma was fairly sure.

Ranma nodded to himself, now that his course was clear.

New gods: dragon in the dark [Episode 103970]

by Kestral

Ranma leaned back and once again "saw" deeper than eyes could see.

He snarled and the torches ringing the chamber erupted into blue flames.

"cold. so cold. dark." The dragon raised her head, ruined eyesockets seeking something. "I'd spit my last breath at you except that doesn't get past your enchantments and... you're not a drow."

The drow behind the human moved carefully to the sides. The hobgoblins watched from the doorway.

"Hold on," Ranma said, climbing down into the pit.

"Whatever you are," the hatchling said, "you're too late. I die. They bespelled me so that if I escaped, the worms they set in my wounds would consume me as soon as I left their care. They didn't renew the spells. I..."

Toltiir had played more than one joke, and had placed a meaning in setting Ranma up. One of the things he'd felt the humorless drow needed more than anything else was healing. It was therefore one of Ranma's major areas of control.

The dragon felt something reaching out, touch her. She could have resisted and gone into that dark night. She could have chosen to resist.

A god of healing and fighting prowess? Death and freedom, life and service? I choose life.

FWOOOM!

"He's going to have to work on all the flashy lights," complained Tlisi.

"I... see? I SEE AGAIN! Strength flows back into my limbs!" The little black dragon strained briefly against the chains. She turned towards the others and hissed. "DROW! Seek you to harm him and you'll suffer agony over a DRAGON'S lifetime."

"We're with him," quickly said Tlisi pointing at the male the dragon was protecting.

Tarre looked about uncertainly, rattling her chains as she stood over her human/god. Who reached out and touched her as soon as he was able.

Tarre's form blurred and shrank, revealing a drow excepting for her golden eyes. "WHAT?!"

"Easier to get you out this way," said Ranma simply as he moved past her.

Tarre was about to protest but looked at the thin corridors and acknowledged the point. They'd been able to herd her down those with lashes because it was so difficult to try and turn. Well, these drow might not be enemies, but if she saw just ONE of those spider-priestesses she wouldn't even stop to chew! Besides, she knew she could shift back easily enough. It was easy. Sort of.

The hobgoblins were momentarily nervous but then realized that this was another ally.

Grins began appearing on tusked faces. Their leader had promised they wouldn't get eaten - didn't mean they were going to provoke the dragon but it was something to lend them additional heart.

"All right," said Ranma, yawning. "We're..."

"PRISONERS HAVE ESCAPED! KILL THEM... oh abyss..."

Ranma, the gladiator drow, the hobgoblins, and the others all turned towards the group of formerly charging priestesses.

"Can you read that Gate spell now?" asked one of the Lolth priestesses to another as they saw the group at the other end of the hallway.

New gods: Dance Dance Revolution [Episode 103975]

by Kestral

Ranma was wearied and needed to catch his breath. This deity stuff was hard work!

That was actually kind of okay with his followers.

Especially one of them.

"YOU!" With a thought she shifted back to her real form.

She was small, even for her age, as far as black dragons go. Just a hatchling less than a full year out of her egg.

However, as has been pointed out by sages and warriors and adventurers for a great many years - any dragon is dangerous. A recently healed and up to full health dragon is very dangerous. A pissed off beyond all reason healthy dragon pointed in the direction of its former tormentors is not something to discount simply because it is only slightly larger than a wild boar.

As has been pointed out, the corridors were fairly narrow going into the torture room.

Clerics among the drow pulled out scrolls and started reading from them. Arrows and thrown rocks soared over the charging dragon to delay those spellcasters.

Then it was too late of course.

The drow followers of Ranma were drow. The hobgoblins, bugbears, half-orcs, and other mercenaries were mercenaries of the Underdark used to all sorts of violence. Neither group was particularly squeamish as the roaring, snapping, rending, and other grisly sounds commenced.

Tlisi did feel the need to comment. "Excuse me, Miss Dragon? If you could leave the scrolls and some of the magic items, we would appreciate it."

"Why does she have this yellow crescent shape on the top of her head, anyway?" asked Dirai.

"I dunno," said Ranma. "I'm kinda new at this stuff."

"Apparently," said Tarre, her tongue flipping the circlet off one priestess' head in order to swallow the fleshy portions whole. "Hmmm. Tastes like chicken. Oh, the crescent moon shape. I think that's where you stored my transformation magic, boss-sama."

Somewhere, a little black cat whistled an offkey tune and tried to look innocent.

Seeing the chance to make a few points with the 'sword fodder', Tlisi handed an especially large spiked-head mace to the hobgoblin.

"I need to recover," said Ranma. "I think I can Gate home and sleep. You all are out of immediate danger."

"Ah," said Ch'yo. "If you did it in a Magic Circle it'd probably work better."

"A what?" Ranma asked.

"You know about Magic Circles?" Tlisi was impressed.

"I don't know from where," admitted Ch'yo as she found some chalk and began sketching a circle out.

"I think..." Ranma finally passed out from his efforts just as the final line was placed. As he'd thought, going unconscious in this manner meant he was snapped back to his home plane.

What he hadn't counted on was:

New gods: Following Panda [Episode 123101]

by Kender

For Ranma, there had never really been a place that had been 'home'. Sure he knew about the world that he'd come from, from television to the basics of his home culture. It was just something that he'd grown used to. But if he'd had to chose even simply a certain city to go 'home' to, it would have been extremely hard, as he'd spent his life basically travelling from one end of Japan to the other.

But the one thing that did not change after all his travels was the fact that he'd gone on all of them with his father. The old man might have been a pain in the ass and one of the biggest fools that he'd ever met, but the idiot was also the only relative that he knew he had. He had an emotional connection with Genma, and his most familiar memories were of being at campsites with him.

So, when given the opportunity to go 'home', he'd centered on the only constant in his life.

If that was for good or bad would have to be seen.

Genma had seen his son vanish into thin air, and had for the first time in his life, been speechless. Not that he hadn't been quiet before, but he had always had things he'd wanted to say and been unable to in those instances. However, this time was one where he didn't know how to react. His son, the only child of his loins and the person that would secure his future, was simply... gone.

That had taken him a few minutes to comprehend, and when he had, it left him even more out of it.

He recovered quickly though, and had started to harangue the Guide about the whole thing. Unfortunately, all the other man could do was to inform him that he had no idea of how that had happened, and that it had never happened before. And as such, he'd been unable to come up with an idea on how to get the boy back.

So Genma was left alone, without the boy he'd worked so hard to raise for so long, and having the only good thing be that he learned that hot water could turn him back human. That wasn't much, and it didn't help him figure out just what he was going to do. All of his plans were moot, since they'd all pertained to the boy in some manner or fashion.

As a result, he'd decided to travel onwards, and hoped that something would come to him as he did. If nothing else, he could come up with some plan to salvage what he could. At best, he could come across something that would allow him to retrieve his son. And he'd come to this place, simply because it would be the next stop on his journey.

What he didn't expect was for the sky to open up, and for his son to drop onto him without so much as a 'hello'.

He sat up from where he'd been knocked down and saw his son rubbing his head on top of him, making him wonder if the boy'd returned simply because he'd come to the:

New gods: Village Idiot & Son [Episode 123172]

by Kestral

Ho hum. Another year. Another challenge. Another tournament. Another day of Amazons giving speeches and fighting each other on the log to prove who was the strongest.

After three hundred years, they all begin to look the same. Boring boring boring.

Hmmm. That sumo wrestler over there with the Jusenkyo Guide had a strong chi. Waitaminute. What was this? The sky opened up and dropped a boy with some really odd aura on the overweight individual.

And someone else it appeared.

New gods: Little 'Lizard' [Episode 123361]

by Kender

Cologne had seen many things over the years that she had been alive. There had been many warriors that had trained for the Tournament, and many an amazing fight had occurred there. All sorts of special techniques had been used, and the healers had managed to work on injuries that she knew that outsiders might have found fatal. Many items of Power had resided in secure Amazon hands. And all that was just in the village.

The sight of a boy dropping from an opening in the sky to land on an outsider was new.

However, that was nothing on what came after him. A rather large lizard like being came from the same opening, and landed nearby. The creature seemed to be rather confused, and out of it. If the blinking was any indicator, it seemed to be rather surprised to be out in the light. But even then, this was not something to take without caution.

Of course, wary looks followed its path as it sniffed slightly. Something seemed to interest it, and the assembled warriors had stopped to see what that could be. When they saw what it was, they knew that it was not the worst thing that could happen.

"That... that... It's eating the prize?!" Shampoo blurted in surprise.

Her great-grandmother raised a brow. "It's better than some things I could mention."

However, Mousse didn't see it that way. "That was meant to be Shampoo's prize!" he declared, and pulled out a chain, "I won't let some... thing eat it before she can win it!"

Tarre merely turned at the noise and wondered what it was all about. She'd gotten some vengence on those that had hurt and imprisoned her, but drow priestesses weren't exactly the most appetizing things. The food in front of her had seemed to be a much better meal, though she hoped that the indigestion she'd been feeling wouldn't be such a problem.

But she did wind up burping a bit, and let a little cloud of gas out. Terribly embarrassing for her, especially as it had escaped her control, but not the worst thing that could happen.

Then again, Mousse wasn't thinking that way, as the lizard-thing had put out a puff of gas that had just melted his chain, and had nearly gotten the rest of him.

Not that Tarre was paying attention as she'd simply hit her chest and muttered "Damned acid reflux," before turning back to eating while:

New gods: The language gap. [Episode 123409]

by Greyman

"What the frell?" Genma wondered and rubbed his bumped noggin. "Who threw thaa– ah, HA! So you've finally shown up, you ungrateful brat. Where have you been?"

"«Ah, whusup?»" Ranma came to then groggily took in the situation and, with a display of his finite divine wisdom, began, "«ah, well, if Tarre ate the prize, it will be alright if I challenge you and wump…»" only to be knocked aside and ignored.

"‹Chiibooya!›" exclaimed Shampoo as she belted passed Ranma and swept Tarre up into a rocking embrace. "‹It's so cool and cute! Useful too! Did you see what it did to Mousse?›"

"‹Yes, oh yes, I did,›" confirmed Cologne as she pogoed up sedately and watched Shampoo wrestle with the little beast. "‹And with that in mind, do you really think you should pick it up like that? I mean; you don't know where it's been.›"

"‹Aiya! Look, it's trying to rip my face off!›" Shampoo chirped proudly while fending off Tarre's teeth and claws. "‹Is itty bitty Snookums hungry? I think it is! Snookums is hungry, isn't it? Yes it is. Would Snookums like some broiled fishie?›"

"Grrrr… Huh? Hmmm!" Yes, yes, she would, apparently.

"‹Stop that,›" Cologne displayed her annoyance as Tarre decided being held to Shampoo's bossom was not so bad when food was being brought to her by dainty fingers. "‹Show a little dignity at least. You're supposed to be the village champion not ….›"

"«It's so comfortable and useful,»" Tarre decided with a happy chirup, "«I think I'll keep it for a pet.»"

"‹But it's so cute and useful,›" Shampoo unwittingly echoed, "‹I think I'll keep it as a pet.›"

"«I'm fairly sure that's not a good idea,»" Ranma observed and rubbed his head as though he had a headache; which he did. It was big one, named Tarre.

"‹I'm certain that's not a good idea,›" Cologne agreed unknowingly.

"Would someone mind speaking plain Japanese!" Genma complained.

New gods: Sleepy Time [Episode 123573]

by Kender

Ranma passed a weary gaze over the group and tried to figure out what he should do. Despite the odd way he'd arrived, and the fact that Tarre had apparently decided to help herself to the food, only one person had really gotten angry at the moment. And that boy had wound up with his weapon being turned to liquid by a burp.

However, it was readily apparent that things did not look so bad. The girls and women milling around seemed to be holding themselves back for the time being. Tarre was apparently quite pleased with the attention that she was getting, and the girl holding her was acting totally happy right then. About the only problems he really had at the moment was his confused father, and that boy in the white robes that seemed to be checking his eyebrows at the moment.

So, he made the only decision that he could, given that he could find no immediate dangers around him.

That was why the assembled Amazons got to watch as the boy stumbled over to a corner, laid down, and curled up for what looked to be nothing more than a nap. One moment, he was teetering on his feet, and the next, he was snoozing away. Not that they could blame him, if he looked as tired as he seemed.

Of course, once Tarre saw him, she turned from the latest tidbit of food she was getting, and looked towards him. "«Boss-sama? Are you okay..?»"

"‹Huh?›" Shampoo muttered as the cute lizard thing seemed to be pulling from her. "‹What's it doing?›"

Looking over the situation, Cologne realised that this could be problematic to say the least. She had inklings of what Shampoo's little 'friend' might really be, and could tell that this boy was not one to simply ignore. As such, this had to be dealt with carefully. ""‹It seems that the creature is concerned about the boy.?›"

"‹It is? There must be something going on there then...›"

"‹Yes, but fortunately, it seems that he's just very tired. ›"

"‹Then what do we do?›"

"‹We make sure to care for them for the time being.›" the Matriarch replied and turned to look and point at several Amazons, "‹I want you to carry him to the Healers' hut, but make certain that you take care to treat him gently. I don't know what is going on, but I'd rather not risk trouble at the moment.›"

"‹And this cute one?›" Shampoo asked, nudging her chin at the dragon hatchling in her arms.

"‹Bring it too. We don't want to risk trouble.›"

Tarre was troubled as she saw several of the strange elves go around the slumbering godling, but when she saw how reverently they were carrying him, her concerned lessened a bit, and it almost vanished when she realised that they were taking her along with him. Not that she was totally unworried at the moment, but she thought it only right that they show him some respect. "«I hope you're taking him someplace good...»"

Left standing alone, Genma watched in dull shock at the woment took his son, and the... whatever it was, away, while:

New gods: Midnight Trip [Episode 123627]

by Kestral

Ranma snoozed on, but sensed he had some unfinished business.

Poof!

"He's back," said S'kaki.

"Wha?" Ranma woke up and glanced around. "Something seems different."

"Would someone explain exactly what's going on?" asked Cologne politely.

"I can!" a little drow girl held her hand up. "We found a Gate scroll and used it to summon the god Ranma from his home plane to here."

"He's a god?" asked Cologne, pointing at the young boy.

"Not terribly powerful or experienced, as I understand it," said Kagura. "He's new to the job, in other words."

"And since the power of a god in this realm is tied to the number of those who worship him - he keeps running out of power," said Iranae.

"He's a god? You're dark elves?" said Cologne, peering about her.

"I don't know about 'worship' being required," said Tlisi. "Just swearing to follow his cause seems to be enough from tales I've heard of some of the human gods."

Cologne digested this while the various Amazons discussed this amongst themselves but kept an eye on the matriarch to see what SHE would do.

"Oh yeah, that's what I had to do, I gotta go see that bee-holding thingie," said Ranma, snapping his fingers.

"Excuse me, can you do something suitably miraculous?" asked Cologne.

"Besides teleporting us into a dark spooky area where the air is uncomfortably thick," pointed out Lilac.

"Besides apparently giving us the ability to speak all the same language?" asked Tarre, who was otherwise fairly content with the situation.

"Huh?" Ranma looked up, then over at the group. "So you're saying if they swear to follow me, I won't tire out so quickly?"

"Essentially," agreed Tlisi. "That's the basics."

"Hmmm," hmmmed Ranma. "Okay. How about THIS."

Dirai saw the energy flare out, and Ranma go back into unconsciousness again. "Looks like he wasn't recovered enough."

Cologne on the other hand, was suitably impressed as:

New gods: Rejuvenation... Sort Of [Episode 124776]

by Kender

"Well, this is new," murmured the figure who was standing where the Amazon Matriarch was. But unlike the wrinkled and bent figure that most of the Amazons present had grown up knowing, this was a taller woman with a lithe and dark skinned figure. Taking a long lock of white hair from behind a pointed ear, she moved it around so that she could look at it, giving a smile full of whimsy at the sight.

"Hmmm..." Lilac frowned slightly as she tried to figure out just what had happened, though she could swear that it would be easier than she thought. It took her a moment to look at the person standing before she started blinking in surprise. "Cologne?!"

"That's the Matriarch?" blurted one of the Amazon males, "But she's pretty and the Matriarch is like fruit that's been out in the sun too long, wrinkled and sour!"

That earned him a whack from Cologne's staff. "I am still the same person, so no backtalk from you."

"Ow..."

"But you do have to admit that this is astonishing. If I didn't have the other... changes, I'd swear that you look just how you did eighty years ago," the Healer Elder commented.

"Oh... Well, I'll have to take your word for it," the Matriarch replied.

"Trust me on this, if one really looks, you'd be instantly recognisable."

Shampoo turned to the Healer with with an amazed expression. "Great-grandma looked like this when she was young?"

"If you change the ears, and coloring, sure. She's the image of the girl she was. Did you think that she always looked the way you knew her?"

"No... It's just the only way I've ever seen her."

"Trust me girl," Lilac murmured, "You had to get your looks from somewhere. Though I'm sure that she's probably enjoying a respite from all her aches and pains."

Cologne gave her fellow elder an irritated look. "I happen to like my aches and pains."

"Why would you?"

"Because I earned them, and I know just why I have... had them, thank you."

"But still, it's nice to see you so young," Shampoo commented.

"Actually... she's still at the same age," Kagura corrected.

"Excuse me?"

"She's been turned into a drow. Because of that, she'll live much longer."

"Really?"

"Oh, yes... So long as someone doesn't kill her before she gets old enough..."

"You see," Dirai pointed out, "Our lives are stretched out compared to yours. We may take longer to grow up, but we live longer. So... when you start 'feeling your age', we're still young."

"But why did he turn my great-grandmother into one of you?" the lavander haired girl asked.

Lilac raised a brow. "I'd say that he did it because they're his followers."

"Oh..."

"Still, much as I enjoy the return to something approaching my youth," Cologne drawled, her expression turning serious, "Are we in danger of him changing all my people?"

"You mean making you follow him?" Dirai asked.

"Yes."

"Hmmm... So that would include making you fight each other for his favor, using trickery to gain power, asking you to sacrifice peopl to him, follow priestesses who'd torture you for anything they don't like and basically suffer your whole life?"

"That is something that we would not follow."

"That is what he's saved us from. Or at least get away from. He has freed us from the cells we were in, and given us the power to fight for our own lives."

New gods: problems [Episode 125209]

by Kestral

The Amazons were a proud people, and female-dominant. The society of the drow was apparently female dominant, but they had a male god. Even if he was prone to narcolepsy and new to the job.

Seeing him change elder Cologne into a darkskinned elf that resembled her younger form, and watching her go through a high speed kata that proved she wasn't slowed down or handicapped in anyway, they decided to discuss this development.

The really really ugly male mercenaries had all been listening and now were grinning. Sure they all had deities of their own races, but that wasn't a big deal to a mercenary warrior. They would call out oaths to foreign deities as they went, their own deities when applicable, and otherwise rely on their own skills.

Kakresh was the head of the Bloody Fist Mercenary Company, the former leader now imbedded in a wall back in their cell. He had initially thought dragon, but was quick to update his resume when he'd heard these others speaking. Mercenaries of a new god? He explained this to the others, pointing out the positives and negatives involved. Four members had left the company at that time, wanting no part of it.

Others had been less than enthusiastic but no others had left. Great dangers to be sure. On the other hand, the potential rewards were likewise great.

As it was pointed out to the Amazons, the mercenaries had already accepted Ranma as a god. Two of them had already done sacrifices in his name, to the amusement of the drow contingent. They might not be proper priests, but they'd gathered up a large number of scrolls (mostly spider-related spells) and magical items (that looked "iffy" by majority opinion) and sacrificed them in Ranma's name on an altar they'd made out of an altar that had formerly been used by the Lolth priestesses.

Unfortunately, it had seemed that something else had been attracted by the events and they'd spotted the blurred shape of something a couple of times. Tlisi had nearly caught whatever it was before it faded through a wall.

Which was why they'd used that Gate scroll. If it was a big nasty, best to deal with it with their god backing them up.

Ranma slept. And as he slept, he dreamed.

"Hello, Ranma Saotome."

Ranma looked around at the wooded forest fading in around him. "What the heck?"

A woman who looked similar to his followers on that one world stepped out of the shadows. Just an incredibly good looking one. "Well met, warrior."

"You know my name," said Ranma.

"I am Eilistraee, drow goddess of non-evil drow, dancing, and swordcraft," said the goddess.

"Okayyyy," said Ranma. "Just stop by to get acquainted?"

"Not quite," admitted Eilistraee. "I am here to explain a few things and to see what your plans are."

"I don't know what's going on at all, so that would be a good thing," admitted Ranma.

"Sit down, this will take awhile," said Eilistraee. "Not long ago, Lolth planned a ceremony to increase her power and do something else that I'm not sure of. Whatever her plan, she ran afoul of the god Cyric."

"'Cyric'?" asked Ranma.

"One of the human gods of the World Above, a god of intrigue, murder, and lies," said Eilistraee. "This Lord Of Murder sought to kill Lolth and take her own power for himself, vastly increasing his influence and power as he took over the portfolio of drow elves. He acted, slaying a major portion of Lolth and binding the remains. He planned on betraying his allies thereafter, but one already had betrayed him and summoned forth an extraplanar deity sometimes known as Coyote. Coyote, for whatever motive, stole away the portfolio of drow elves and gave it to you."

"I don't know any 'Coyote' unless that's the one in those American cartoons chasing that Roadrunner," confessed Ranma.

"A trickster god, and an Elder god at that," said Eilistraee. "Most likely motivation would be that he thought it would be amusing."

"Ah," said Ranma, nodding. "Most of my life I felt like some Being up there was jerking me around and laughing at my expense. Now it all makes sense."

"In any case," said the goddess, "you have watched through the eyes of your chosen champion Dirai and know her life. You have touched on similar things with the others. You are more than you once were, Ranma Saotome."

"I suppose," said Ranma. "These people ain't exactly had a happy life so far. What I saw in her life... man. She went through living hell beyond anything the Old Man put me through."

"And there are others of the drow pantheon seeking to increase their own followers now, appearing in visions and whispering in the ears of those who are inclined towards their own philosophies," stated Eilistraee. "Speaking of which, I've got a minor miracle scheduled in fifteen minutes, so I'll have to make this briefer than I'd like. Your power level is dependent upon the number of followers you have and your portfolios. The more useful your area of control, the more you are invoked, the more power you use and receive."

"Like using a muscle?" asked Ranma, getting it in those terms.

"In a way," Eilistraee allowed. "This is your current status."

Ranma Saotome.

Drow god of martial arts, trickery, and healing.

Favored Weapon: Staff or katana.

Domains: Chaos, Healing, Knowledge, Trickery, War.

Symbol: not chosen

Animal: Pegasus

Align: ?

Worshippers Align: ?

The drow goddess tapped the display. "You're going to need to lock down some of the undecided values."

"That's... strange," admitted Ranma. "Wait a minute. If I'm the god of martial arts -"

"Only applicable while you're on the plane of existence which houses the Realms," pointed out Eilistraee. "Back in your home universe you're mostly the same boy you used to me. Just that you have a lot more chi and a few new tricks and abilities such as going from your home universe to the Realms and to your Outer Plane. There are also places you can't go - like the City Of Sigil. Our time is up, Ranma Saotome."

Ranma awoke. He had to go see a beholding thingie. He'd promised, and he was betting that promises carried weight with the status.

A thought brought a grin to his face. If he was the drow god of martial arts, then THAT meant. He'd have to look into that. It could be helpful.

Genma sweated heavily as the Amazons continued to glare at him.

He had no idea where the house containing their elder and a few guests had gone. He'd been sampling the wares of that vintner. Why didn't anyone believe him?

New gods: Panda Problems [Episode 126013]

by Kender

Genma didn't understand how this could have come about. This had not been in the plans that he'd put together, as it were. For years, he'd lived in a nicely balanced world where one simple philosophy had worked for him: 'So long as martial arts are involved, no cost is too great.' Of course he'd gotten into a whole lot of trouble with that attitude, what with studying under an old pervert, stealing things, and constantly getting into trouble.

But his son vanishing and reappearing, giant lizard things, and all the other wierdness were not helping matters. As it stood, things were going off on some wierd tangent, and at the moment, survival was simply the only goal at the moment. He had to keep breathing to get the boy to meet Tendo and any daughters he might have, so that made it a little more important. And with the assorted Amazons glaring at him, there was a bit of danger in his situation that needed to be immediately addressed.

Especially since, as he turned to show all of the women a nice and soothing smile, he saw them setting up a cookpot that would fit just about any panda he could think of. By the way that they were looking at him, and were already preparing the water, they had a specific 'foodstuff' in mind.

Not that he thought that he deserved any sort of animosity. He was as confused about the situation as they were. That had led him to need a refreshing drink to calm his nerves. Fortunately there was a vinter nearby, with some wares that he could use to do the job. And he couldn't simply drink on an empty stomach, so a little snack wouldn't hurt. Added with a comfy seat, he had plenty of opportunity to chomp down... get something in his belly as he focused on his son's disappearance. It was simply not a good thing, and he was sure that he'd have a katana meeting his neck if he returned home alone. That would only be possible if the Amazons didn't try to kill him for making their hut disappear.

Of course, for all he knew, the women could have caused it themselves, thought he didn't know how or why they'd do such a thing.

So, he held his ground, knowing that at any moment, he'd need to bolt.

"‹He's a thief, and a pig, for all he's a panda. But is this really what we should do with him?›"asked one Amazon.

The Amazon next to her nodded. "‹Certainly. He's been grabbing any sort of food that he can see. Would you like to deal with having nothing to eat on top of having the Healers' hut vanish?›"

"‹Well, no...›"

"‹Then this is the best option. Besides, he ate all our food. So why shouldn't we get what we were supposed to?›"

"‹That idea's not too appetising.›"

"‹It's supposed to be that way. Maybe he'll get the message this way...›"

New gods: The Eyes Have It [Episode 126231]

by Kestral

Pentas Vourl stood before the others, reflecting that the situation had not only changed but that things had come to this level.

"Some of you have heard of a frozen water phenomena called snow," began Pentas. "A tiny fleck of which supposedly can move down a mountain slope, accumulating layers of other snow droplets until it is a mighty avalanche that can sweep a village in its path away. We are seeing just such an avalanche through our society. Here we have the priestesses who have long dominated our society being swept aside as they battle amongst themselves as much as against any of us. Meanwhile we ourselves, the downtrodden males, have organized and pulled together."

"That's as much because we were threatened to die alone, together we have strength," said one of the warrior types. "If you're attributing it to this new god, I'm skeptical to say the least."

"Perhaps, perhaps not," admitted Pentas. "In any case I have been monitoring the faithful of this new god, and am prepared to convert to this faith myself."

The males stirred at this measure, too conditioned by their old faith to easily accept this changeover as if discarding an old cloak and selecting a new one off the rack.

"I urge us all to accept this," said Pentas smoothly. "I will get further details but it is obvious that this fledgling god is still so new that his worship mainly consists of swearing by his name. This is our chance to take the initiative and forge a new clergy with a new doctrine. WE can help determine the path this new faith takes, but only if we move quickly."

"Why don't we simply kill this new god and take his power for our own?" asked one of the other wizards.

"Because, new to the job or not, he is still a god. Such are not easy to kill," said Pentas, who'd considered the option himself at first. "They also have allies, enemies, and other problems. Besides, who would get the power? Would any of us trust one of the others of our number with such?"

There were frowns and mutterings, but that last point clearly scored home.

"I'll call for a vote," said Pentas, "then go and deliver that decision to the god himself. Frankly, an added bonus is how well this is going to sit with the spider clergy. They should be most displeased with the idea."

Mystra nodded to Lathander. Things were progressing well. It had to do with Magic - her own domain. It had to do with new beginnings - Lathander's domain. It had to do with knowledge and lore and studies - Oghma's domain. It had to do with justice - that was Tyr's territory.

Each of them had some problems with Cyric in the past. None of them had wanted to see Cyric's power increased.

All within their portfolios, naturally. It was entirely within their duties to keep track of the new godling. Finder even had some hand in it somewhere down the line.

It wasn't a conspiracy, per se, it was merely that all of them had some common interest involved.

Such as slipping a word to Eilistraee, who was the one most likely to be affected by the new godling. As expected, she was quite intrigued with the developments.

The vote amongst the wizards, who were currently the law within that city, was as expected. A shrine to the new god was created through arcane magic, and two of the fighters swore oaths to make themselves priests of this new deity. They would then go and spread the word, but just because those gathered were the current administration of the city, that meant that the city itself was now converted to the new faith.

The godling was no longer the deity of a few scattered people, he was the god of Chad Nespair. Not a particularly big city, but a city nonetheless.

It was a start.

Ranma walked into the room, not sure what to expect.

Four beams hit him, sizzling briefly as they played along his skin.

"Hey now, none of that," cautioned Ranma. As a deity, even low level, the petrification and death magic beams were ineffective. Likewise he couldn't be charmed by spell at least. The disintegration beam kind of stung though.

"Free me or die," said the orb, hovering menacingly.

"Well, that was what I wanted to do anyway," admitted Ranma. "Free you, that is."

The beholder shut its mouth. Anti-magic ray seemed ineffective. Target couldn't be disintegrated and seemed to have some powerful magic resistance. "You're letting me go? You fear me, as you should."

"No," said Ranma. "I just remembered I had promised to let ya go, so I'm opening this cage. Just don't do anything to any of the people on my side and we'll call it even."

"Ah," said the beholder. It understood this now. This humanoid was letting him go specifically to sow destruction among his enemies.

"I'd teleport ya out of the city, but I'm kinda tired out," admitted Ranma. "So, uhm, later."

The beholder paused as it began floating out. "How do I know who are 'your people' amongst those arrayed against me?"

"No problem, I'll tell em ta get out of yer way and not attack you or nothing. That way if you do get attacked, it ain't my group," said Ranma before he vanished.

The beholder nibbled a lower lip in concentration. The boy had been standing in the beam of an anti-magic ray, but he had clearly teleported away. This bore some consideration.

New gods: To Steal Power... [Episode 126969]

by Kender

In another pantheon, such a situation might have been ignored, or quietly returned to a balance, but that was not the type of grouping that Vhaeraun belonged to. That would mean some sort of cooperation or at least laziness, and the Drow gods tended to be neither. Each of them wished to garner more power for themselves, and if that meant taking advantage of chaos, then so be it.

This was a plum opportunity after all, and no Drow god worth his salt would have left it alone.

As such, Vhaeraun was smiling to himself as he considered what was going on. There was a new god on the block, and one that was growing in power. Not a sign was around of where he'd come from, but that did not quite matter. What was important was the fact that this mere boy was able to give the Drow God of Thieves more power, and in this case, this was the perfect time for it. After all, Lloth was nowhere to be seen, and as such, her domains were up for grabs. If on was wise, then one could grab up her power for himself.

And the boy could possibly grow into a credible threat. It was simply smart to get rid of him before he could actually become powerful enough to actually turn out to be dangerous.

Not that he'd actually deal with this himself. There were others to send for that task.

There was one thing that Ranma noted as he walked down the hallway, and that was the fact that the place was rather depressing. It was as if someone had sucked out all the light and life out of the place and left it almost like a pit. But then, from what he could tell, that was exactly what happened.

It was just that he'd been in caves back during his training journey, and those had been full of life. There had been bats, bugs, and lichen, not to mention all the other critters that had made the solid spaces their homes. He hoped that something could be done, since he knew that this was not quite what one could call a home. Not that he'd had much experience with having a place to live, but this was not a comfortable place to stay.

Of course, the prickling on the back of his neck didn't help his unease, but it did let him sense the figure standing in the shadows. He turned around and faced the watcher, certain that he had to keep on his guard. There was something about his guest that told him that this was not to be a pleasant situation. Perhaps it was the fact that all he could see was a cloak, as the individual in question was completely enveloped by the shadows under it. However, it was more likely that this 'being' was standing unnaturally still, and obviously was waiting for him.

And all question about the other's intent was gone as the figure leapt at him, quite obviously in an attempt to slay him,

New gods: The Entirely Wrong Assassin To Send [Episode 126981]

by Kestral

Ranma dodged the strike the shadowed figure sent his way, the blow instead cratering a section of wall.

Naturally, as this wasn't far from where the temporary encampment of his 'followers' were - the sound drew them to investigate.

Ranma reached into himself and shifted his eyes again. Now he could see in the shadows and he could see that his opponent was...

"C-c-c-c-CAT?!"

The creature turned, snarling in a fashion that showed all sorts of teeth. It rushed again. Ranma dodged again.

"What the heck is that?!" one of the Amazons asked as the creature went back to being a blur of motion.

"It looks sort of like a six-limbed tiger crossed with a man," said Cologne. "It seems to change color to fit in with its surroundings."

"A magical assassin-beast," stated Ch'yo. "A devilcat, an unimaginative name for such a rare creature summoned from Baator. They are said to be godspawn themselves and only four exist."

The hobgoblin mercenary Kakresh already had his crossbow cocked and fitted a bolt into place. Assassins were always trouble, he knew from personal experience with such things. They'd go in and kill off your employers and that meant no pay. Very bad for business. The only problem was trying to hit the correct blur. Well, that and he really doubted he could do more than annoy some powerful demon with a bolt purloined from a secret compartment in a spider-priestess' armoire.

Ranma was faster and stronger than the average human before becoming a godling. Now that he was a godling, he was somewhat more impressive. Unfortunately, panic tends to cloud one's tactical awareness.

The blurs resolved themselves as Ranma ran out of places to dodge. Pinned to a section of corridor he watched as the creature resolved itself, the blood on its fangs and claws completely foreshadowing its intentions upon his own flesh. He met its eyes and saw his worst fear rising up to meet him as the creature used it's Cause Fear ability on the inexperienced godling.

It shouldn't have worked. Even a minor godling like Ranma was immune to the vast majority of compulsions and charms.

"murRRRRRRRRRaow."

The devilcat momentarily paused, this not being something expected.

The two went into blurs again.

"The Nekoken?" asked Cologne of no one in particular.

"The whozee what?" asked Dirai.

"A martial arts technique that involves some serious psychological problems," answered Cologne. "This is interesting."

As noted, Ranma was faster and stronger than the average human. When in the Nekoken he was faster and stronger than when not in the Nekoken. Becoming a godling had upped the bar significantly. Put him into the Nekoken while he was a godling and...

Pentas Vourl didn't know what was going on, but he was currently invisible and saw his chance. When blood was fountaining from one of the blurs, he collected it. You could never tell when something like that would come in handy. Hmmm. Demonic ichor. Useful in a number of spells. It looked as if association with the new god on the block was going to be quite handy.

Walls began blowing apart as the two blurs took their battle elsewhere.

The fight began to draw attention from others in the city as it passed over their heads. Fireballs exploded. Poisonous shuriken made of black crystal were deflected to lance through entire buildings. Prismatic rays were fired.

The two eventually stopped, hanging in midair over the city. The devilcat was bleeding from dozens of cuts along its body, and for the first time in a millenia long existence it knew what it was to be the hunted. Facing it was a fierce looking red-furred tiger with black wings. It visibly smirked at its opponent.

The devilcat snarled and charged, growing in size as it fought with all its might now.

The red tiger returned the snarl and size change, then raised the bet by a dismemberment.

The devilcat crashed to the ground, twitching as it tried to move again.

It would have disgusted human Ranma, but for the godcat this was just something necessary. The godcat began to feed on his former opponent, taking in its power and adding it to his own. Each munch and crunch and slurp echoing through suddenly empty streets.

The godcat turned and slunk off with a final lick of its ichor-stained muzzle. To rest and recover, and to digest this meal.

"Urp."

Vhaerun felt the connection to the assassin dissipate and frowned. It had failed? Unthinkable, for a new god to be able to destroy such a thing. Unless...

The drow god of thieves frowned thoughtfully. Tyr was a god of the human populace. He was originally from offplane, where he'd been a major deity himself. Could this new god of the drow actually be an established god from another universe much as Tyr was?

Vhaerun nodded to himself. The simplest explanation was often the best one - and that meant instead of facing some new godling like that whelp Cyric, he was facing an established godling of some offplane pantheon who was now establishing himself here in Realmspace.

In that case, he'd have to be more careful in the future dealings with this new god.

New gods: Noticing Problems [Episode 128406]

by Kender

With the disappearance of Lloth, it was a free for all, at least in regards to divine power over the Drow. 'Business as usual' in such an atmosphere had not been good one to begin with, but now it was a complete time of chaos. The power balance had been seriously disturbed, and all that had been Lloth's was up for grabs. And for the more... ambitious dieties, it was a chance to grab up power from other rivals as well.

Yet, the death of a devilcat was enough to break through the focus of most of them. Many could feel what had happened, and at first, the idea that someone could have unleashed that was a reason for concern. But the death of that same creature was both a relief, and a worry. Despite the fact that it could not come after them, the idea that someone could actually survive and win against such a being was not good news at all.

Kiaransalee was one of those, and she knew that this was not a good thing for her health. If the one who had slain the creature was to come after her, it would be that more dangerous. However, as she considered what was going on, she was certain that she could still handle the situation. A human godling might be a problem, especially one that could slay a devilcat, but immediately killing him was not the only option. Sure, destroying this neo-deity might be the fast way to power, but he'd already proven to make that useless.

However, he was a godling after all, and only starting to come into his power. For the most part, he was a child, and a parentless one at that. In such cases, there were ways to act that wouldn't be a problem at all.

He would need things that a young man in his position would have to find eventually. A 'mentor' would guide him in the... 'proper' use of his position, and abilities. Then again, an ally would likely suffice if he was too headstrong, and she could be close as his 'friend'. The ultimate way to keep him from acting would have to do with being his bedmate, in that someone like him would likely be inexperienced in such matters. No doubt someone like Nocticula had already thought of that particular path.

After all, what better way was there to get close enough to manipulate, use, and possibly kill him than to be his lover? Besides, he might be worth a momentary diversion if nothing else.

Though, she did have to wonder whether that would be worth it, or even if it would be neccessary

New gods: Waking up in strange places [Episode 128466]

by Kestral

One moment the hut was there, then it was gone. Now it was back.

Cologne sat through three hours of interrogations to prove her identity.

In that time, the sleeping boy was watched over by a number of the warriors and a dragon and two others.

Ch'yo was a repository of arcane knowledge, though she didn't know how she knew it. Those memories, like so many of her personal memories, seemed lost. She studied the spellbooks she'd acquired in the raiding of the arena's offices, and was struck by the feeling of deja vu. She knew this stuff for the most part, it was more like she was revisiting familiar territory than learning something new.

Kagura simply meditated, lost in thought. She had been swept along by recent events and was trying to put them in perspective. Though the drow mainly seemed to think she was crazy, she half-remembered odd bits and pieces of her life prior to her transformation. She had been human once, of a distant land in Kara-tur. She was a warrior, of a warrior house. Samurai - she had been trained in bow and sword and tanto knife and naginata spear. Most of the details were fuzzy, but she had a few vivid images from that time. She had reconciled herself to dying in the arena, as sport for the cold-eyed dark elven matrons. Now her future was less certain, but her prospects for survival higher.

Shampoo was likewise uncertain about things as a simply damn HUGE winged tiger had shrunk to the size of a housecat and curled up asleep in her lap. The transformation had ended in his sleep, and now the normal-sized boy was sleeping in her lap.

Shampoo thought he was fairly cute, but innately dangerous. An interesting combination that she was still exploring her feelings regarding.

Though things had shifted, one person was constant in his plans. That was, of course, Genma Saotome.

Even now he was planning on snatching Ranma away from this village and zipping all the way to Japan where the boy could at last marry one of Soun's daughters and provide for his long-suffering father's retirement. There were a few obstacles to these plans, but soon they'd lower their guard and that would be when he made his move.

Unfortunately, they were about to run into another problem,

New gods: So Blind... [Episode 129810]

by Kender

Mousse was not a stupid boy by any means. He was quite capable of thinking things through, learning foreign languages, and dealing with the problems that came his way. Many girls who had met him were aware of the fact that he was an attractive young man, with a lithe musculature, and a face that was rather appealing. Only two things kept him from being dragged off to some Amazon's home.

One was the fact that he was almost so blind that he could mistake a warrior's horse for the warrior herself.

And he was totally and utterly obsessed with Shampoo.

So, when he'd seen that the hut had vanished with 'his love', he had been rather disturbed by the whole thing. Others had been concerned by the fact that a large group of their sisters were gone, but he was too busy worrying about that one certain girl. She was everything to him, and he was sure that the two of them were meant to have a lifetime together.

When he had heard that the hut had reappeared, he'd been sure that something was going on. He'd already been singed by some gas, and by the time he'd recovered enough to notice, she was gone. But now he had the chance to do something to help her.

Nothing would stop him from doing so, and he ran full tilt over to get to the place in question. He wasn't about to let anything stop him, and didn't even bother with any show of manners. After all, 'his' Shampoo needed him, and he simply went to enter the hut.

Unfortunately, he hadn't realised that he'd accidentally walked into the women's bath, but they were used to his antics, and were immediately able to provide the impetus for him to leave the place.

Stumbling out and wincing from the various objects launched at his head, he thought as quickly as he could manage, and figured out the route to the hut as best he could. This time he wasn't about to screw up, and he made sure to follow the proper path to his destination. And he actually made it, this time with no problem.

"Shampoo!" he called out.

"Stupid Mousse," said a familiar voice that set his heart soaring. "You be quiet."

Turning to face his 'beloved', he found himself ready to leap over to her. But first he wanted to be sure that she was safe, and so he put on his glasses. That was when he got a major shock.

Laying in her lap was a boy, and not just any boy. It was one that was about the same age as them, and if he remembered correctly, he'd seen him earlier. However, that did not matter, as the interloper's head was near her magnificent bosom, and his body was so close to... to... there.

It was obvious to Mousse that the boy was doing something perverted to the lovely Shampoo, and so he charged fowards and yelled out, "Don't worry Shampoo! I'll get the pervert off of you!"

"You is pervert," she replied, not even looking as she backhanded him away. "And no bother him."

Sitting up from where he'd landed, the Amazon got set to protest... and discovered a group of not at all happy warriors who were standing around him.

They were definately not pleased by his actions. This boy had popped up out of nowhere twice, brought an acid breathing creature and two dark skinned girls with him, transformed the Matriarch into something like the girls, and had teleported an entire hutful of Amazons to another world. No one thought that it would be a good idea to bother this boy.

As such, Mousse wound up getting hit by a great many young women as they decided to make sure that he didn't bother their rather powerful, and cute, visitor.

Shampoo simply nodded in approval of the beatdown before returning to her ruminations on the boy in her lap

New gods: Blinded by the light [Episode 129829]

by Kestral

It was one thing to be a newly forged god. It was another thing to be a teenager. Both were difficult things, full of new possibilities and new limitations.

Of course, some were more limited than others.

Mousse leapt past two Amazons and thrust out with a spear that he'd pulled from one sleeve.

Ranma, apparently still asleep, rolled off Shampoo's lap.

CHUNK!

"(Mousse?)" asked Shampoo. "(Where exactly did you think you were aiming?)"

Mousse grimaced. Now that horrible boy was off Shampoo. A clear shot!

Roll back into Shampoo's lap.

THWUNK! went a spear into the floor.

"(Stupid Mousse!)" began Shampoo.

roll, stretch, shift, twitch, went Ranma.

whack, thunk, thud, stab went Mousse.

Several Amazons looked at each other, not sure whether intervening was a good idea or not. The boy seemed to be handling things fine, but Mousse was now flailing around with the spear.

Bleeding now from several wounds, Shampoo arose. If she had ever glared at Mousse in icy fashion, the look she sent his way could now be measured in degrees Kelvin. In the single digit range.

Mousse didn't immediately notice.

Shampoo reached gently out, closed her fingers around Mousse' shoulder, tenderly drew him closer, and hit him in the jaw so hard he spun around three times.

Then she collapsed, bleeding rather heavily.

Ranma stretched and opened his eyes. "Did I miss something?"

New gods: Edge Of End [Episode 130813]

by Kender

One of the Amazons looked at the godling and shook her head. "Idiot on floor is Mousse. He stabbed at you, missed, and hit Shampoo."

"Oh..," Ranma murmured with a wince as he looked down at the girl who was laying on the floor, and was obviously heading into shock. "But why did he do that?"

"Likes her. You were in lap."

"Man... That ain't right... I've gotta do somethin'..."

Shampoo managed to give a smile, and understood that he felt responsible. But she didn't blame him, as she'd always known Mousse was too stupid to see that he could do something like this. However, she knew that it had happened, and by the feelings running through her body, she knew that it was only a little while until she was gone. It was not the honorable death of a warrior, and she regretted that, but the goddesses did not always allow that. She could feel the strength seeping from her body with her blood, and the darkness crept in on her even as she saw some healers trying to rush to try to save her life. But she knew that they could do nothing, as the inevitable came, and all was black.

But then a bright light burst through her vision, and suddenly she could feel again, and for a second she was disoriented.

"(Is this heaven? I'm breathing..,)" Shampoo muttered to herself, and reached up to pat her chest. "(And I'm not full of holes. What happened?)"

"Ahh... Good. Ya are still with us..," commented a voice and she blinked away the glare of the bright light as she saw a visibly tired Ranma standing in the Healers' hut.

"What you do?"

"I brought ya back."

"So... You heal Shampoo?"

"No."

"But I no be bleeding..."

"That's 'cause ya were dead for a moment there, but I managed ta bring ya back ta life."

That set the Village Champion back a little, and she sat up, brushing her hair away from her ear as she did so. "Okay... I..."

"(Why does Shampoo have pointy ears?)" asked one of the Amazon warriors.

Ranma saw where they were all staring, and knew that he had to say something. "Uhm, sorry about that."

Several Amazons simply gave him level looks, and he found himself feeling sheepish

New gods: not the same destination after all [Episode 130881]

by Kestral

"(I'M A KID AGAIN?!)"

"(Look at it this way, Shampoo,)" counseled Cologne. "(At least you're too young for Mousse now.)"

Shampoo looked thoughtful in a sort of cherubic way. "(Put that way, this isn't so bad. How come I don't have dark skin and white hair?)"

"(You're not a dark elf, I expect Ranma was trying to broaden his scope a bit,)" explained Ch'yo. "(Most likely by trying NOT to turn you into a dark elf, he ended up with you becoming another sort of elf.)"

"(You speak Mandarin very well,)" noted Cologne.

"(It's a Tongues spell,)" said Ch'yo with a shrug and self-depreciating grin.

"(So what kind of elf am I?)" asked Shampoo, thinking that at the very least that she had the opportunity to play games again instead of having to take so much so seriously.

New gods: Amazon Air [Episode 131943]

by Kender

Ch'yo studied her briefly before making that decision. "(I'm pretty sure you're an avariel. Once you get the hang of those wings you'll be able to fly.)"

"(Wings?)" Shampoo asked dully before realising that she'd been accommodating a weight on her back without even realising it. A part of her also noticed that no one else had consciously that they were there until it was pointed out, as their expressions showed. She worked her shoulders for a bit, and then tried moving them, finding herself giggling in delight when they moved with her thoughts.

"(I see that you like them.)"

"(I do!)"

"(Well then, that won't be so bad, will it?)"

The former teen shook her head, happily imagining herself using her wings to do everything from flying away from Mousse to gliding high over the mountains. Of course, she did miss her former age, and had been proud of how attractive she'd been, but if she had to trade in her bosom for wings, it wasn't such an awful exchange. Besides, she'd get to get her shapely figure back once she got old enough, and this time she'd know what to expect.

"(So now the Matriarch has white hair for a different reason, and the Village Champion is a child with wings,)" murmured one Amazon.

Another raised a brow. "(Is that so bad, considering what a godling could do here, especially with what has happened?)"

"(Not really. Of course, Rin Rin and Ran Ran will probably be pleased that their big sister can play with them like just another kid now.)"

Several of the other humans there nodded at the words, but didn't say anything about them.

New gods: Discussions [Episode 131997]

by Kestral

There were ripples sent out by the alteration. Lolth was dead in several planes at the moment - the victim of Cyric's ambition to become a multi-planar deity.

However, Cyric had not benefitted from this plan. Instead a new god had been born.

Ranma Saotome, drow god of healing and excellence in battle.

He had started out a cocky youth focussed entirely on martial arts, however he had wanted to understand some of the people following him - and had utilized a thread of power to do so with his chief follower - Dirai The Blade. (Actually she was a specialist in using twin weapons, so it should have been Dirai The Twin Blades, but there hadn't been room on the posters for her debut fight.)

Ranma was still sorting out those added memories.

The new god was reinvesting most of his power out again as soon as he obtained it, taking an approach to this new profession much in the manner of his approach to martial arts. In fact, he had come to terms with the whole thing by thinking of it as a new style of martial arts.

There was also Tarre, a black dragon hatchling who had been tortured by the drow and was now Ranma's follower. She had a pet avariel whom she was tolerating on her back at that moment.

There was an avariel child named Shampoo, who was not exactly a follower of Ranma, but who did think that the dragon was her pet and was currently taking advantage of her smaller size to ride dragonback.

Cologne was now a drow elf, and other than the pointed ears and coloration resembled herself from her youth.

Ch'yo was an apparent youth, but a magical prodigy and genius girl.

Back on Toril, there was a small but growing group of supporters.

He had rescued several prisoners (97733), five of whom were in this small army. Of these five, two were dark elves, one was a dwarf, another a human, and the last was something very unusual. A half-ogre named Harold, who had a kind heart and gentle manner despite being something of an idiot and having the sort of strength and stamina that even demons from the pit would be respectful of.

There were those he'd rescued originally, though Ch'yo was with him on Earth, all of whom had been drow women gladiators. Dirai The Blade, now his chosen head priestess for all the lack of ceremony. Iranae The Chain, a specialist in chain weapons. S'kaki the chain-spear weapon specialist. Kagura, who was a dark elf but apparently cursed to think she was a transformed human. Finally there was Tlisi, empowered by a transdimensional warp of a genetically engineered spider to bite her and give her spider powers.

There were the males of the city, whom had formed an impromptu alliance and now were standing behind the new god. Some gave lip service, others were more enthusiastic, all of whom were counting that they were not considered suitable for living sacrifices under this new faith as a good thing.

Led by a hobgoblin named Kakresh, the newly reformed Bloody Fist Mercenary Company was also counted among the followers. Two were now, in addition to their skills as warriors, getting minor clerical spells in response to their sacrificing of a large amount of scrolls and other loot and decision to follow this new faith. Those new priests couldn't cast anything more powerful than Cure Light Wounds, but considering how useful that was to mercenaries - nobody was going to complain. There were fifty two members of the Bloody Fist Mercenary Company, not counting those who had left or the former commander now a crushed corpse against the wall of their cell. There were some bugbears, gnolls, a couple of goblin scouts, and a minotaur. All of whom respected strength and fighting prowess and had seen this new god demonstrate such.

This was all the subject of much discussion.

The drow and mercenaries had talked to the Amazons that had become displaced, who had been spreading the news around the village ever since returning.

Some of the Amazons wanted to chase the god out of the village, or at least have nothing else to do with him. Two of their number had already been transformed, though one had apparently challenged this fellow to show his power and the other had been returned from the dead. These also argued that this wasn't exactly a competent or experienced god since neither had apparently been intended with quite those results.

Some of the Amazons were saying to heck with tradition, to heck with status quo, and to heck with the first group. Elder Cologne was young again and from the sound of things could expect several centuries of renewed vigor as a result. Shampoo might be a child again, but she had wings and the cutest little monster any of them had seen. Epic quests, good versus evil, magic and melee! They wanted whatever they could get out of the new situation and if that meant cozying up to an outsider male, that was hardly the worst that could happen.

A third group of the villagers was neither enthusiastic about this new god, nor completely opposed to his continued presence. There were always those who wanted to "sit on the fence".

As for Ranma, he was sleeping again. Not only trying to recover power used, but to assimilate the memories he'd copied from Dirai and the energies of the Baator devilcat that he'd eaten while under the Nekoken.

Genma was still wondering what was going on and figuring out a way to steal Ranma and make it back to Japan with him. All this craziness had started in the Amazon Village, and the sooner he got the boy out of here - the better.

Vhaeraun, god of drow thieves, was recovering from his efforts and wary of the new godling. He had used a lot of power to summon and control that magical assassin, and he didn't dare sleep it off when so many of the other drow gods might check up on him and try to cut the competition down. He was under the impression that this upstart was actually an established human god just setting up in Realmspace as a newbie.

Kiaransalee was another matter. Having interpreted the ripples from Vhaeraun's attempt, she was ready to seek the new god's seduction or mentoring if either chance presented itself.

Eilistraee had already introduced herself and had offered her alliance.

New gods: Plenty Of Ideas [Episode 133665]

by Kender

For most of the gods, things were in a major shake up. Lloth was not an easy being to get rid of, and the idea that she had been... slain on several planes was a big one. That meant opportunities and problems for the rest of them, and they all knew that they had to watch what was going on, even if it was only through the corner of their eye. And to those who had helped to ruin Cyric's plot, it was exactly what they wanted.

Of course, Toltiir this was working out a lot better than he'd planned. After all, it was thing to shake up drow culture, but it was quite another to bring together all these odd races, including the Amazons. The warrior women might not be as dark and dreary as the Drow, but they were a bit hidebound and arrogant, and the chance to get them to learn that their vaunted 'history' wasn't going to solve everything was a good thing. Luckily, they weren't of the sort who would be thinking to kill any of Ranma's followers, at least not yet.

But then there were ways of handling those sorts of people.

It had quickly become clear that Lloth was not about to answer the call of her followers. Whether that meant that she'd removed her favor from the Drow, been blocked from answering them, or had simply been slain, the result was always the same. No power flowing from Lloth meant that the priestesses were severely weakened. And though that was a cause for celebration for some, to others it meant that there was much to be concerned about. The spider goddess had true believers, and they were not about to give up on their diety.

So, having heard that some drow were turning against their 'true goddess' to go and worship some human godling, they were incensed. That sort of situation meant that they had to act quickly and decisively. If they were too slow in their reaction, it would give the godling a chance to garner more followers, and would deal a blow to their own reputations. With the priestesses out of action for the most part, warriors were to be used, and were sent out through all the 'secret' places that most Drow were unaware of. They had a map and things empowered to help them, but they didn't make it to where this so called 'god's' followers were hold up. However, they did learn some new things.

First, one had to realise that once a map falls into enough liquid for the ink to run, it becomes rather useless.

And second... dracolichs really don't like being disturbed, especially by humanoids throwing arrows in their general vicinity.

As far as Genma was concerned, none of the incredible strangeness surrounding him was good. He wanted nothing more than to take his son away from all this, as nothing but oddities continued to be piled upon the boy. Somehow these women had managed to transform two of their number, and could transport huts, but he didn't know how. There was a temptation to learn, since the women obviously had some mystical powers.

However, it was not part of his Art, and so he could leave it be. What he really needed to do was to get his son away so that this way the boy could get back to training, and the both of them could return to Japan. Tendo was waiting for them, and if all the interest that the women were showing his son was an indicator, his old friend's daughters would be fighting over his boy.

Unfortunately, there were women looking to protect his son from him, and others who were intent on keeping the boy isolated, even from his loving father.

As a result, all he could do at the moment was sit and pout.

Karrul knew that most of his current companions thought him to be just another human that had been taken by the drow. That, in and of itself was true, since he had been unlucky enough to be caught when his path had crossed that of a drow raiding party. He hadn't expected them, and since there were more of them than him, he eventually wound up being beaten.

Then had come the enslavement, where he'd been played with by bored drow women who had entertained the idea of using and abusing an exotic male. There had been times when he'd found 'mistresses' who enjoyed using his back as a whipping post. However, he'd never died, but he'd also kept himself from seeming too strong. He'd walked a fine line until Ranma Saotome had set him free, as he'd kept himself just interesting enough to stay alive, though being thrashed into a bloody pile each day was not his idea of fun.

But he never revealed his true self to the drow, since he liked breathing, and they'd kill him, or worse,

New gods: Nameless The Wanderer [Episode 133706]

by Kestral

One of these things is not like the others. One of these things didn't belong.

In a world like Toril, where ancient empires had enjoyed centuries of progress before one thing or another caused the civilization to collapse and become lost to time - there were a lot of odd bits surviving. Sometimes ancient evil survived, waiting for a chance to claim new victims. Sometimes it was what had killed that civilization in the first place. Sometimes it was lore, magic, or artifacts of power. Sometimes it was a legacy.

In the case of one human warrior, it was himself.

He had started out as a thief of sorts. A young boy who'd heard of a massive and powerful spell being cast at the capital that day. He'd snuck a look, curious. Also hungry - he was a street urchin and had to steal things in order to find the money for food.

He was still convinced that he hadn't been detected, but there was a suspicion within him that somehow his presence had helped to throw things off somehow. A guilt that had remained with him for a very long time indeed.

The spell had gone wrong. Horribly wrong. Things had started going wrong all around him and some massive energy charge had picked him up and slammed him around until everything went black.

When he'd awakened, the civilization of his birth had collapsed and the desert was claiming it. Ten years had passed, or so he would eventually discover.

He couldn't die. Whatever that magic had done when it had unravelled like that, it had passed through him and altered him somehow. Every time he got to old age where his body was giving out, he'd just blur and be that young boy again - and have to walk out of that damn desert once again.

At least nowadays he was sure to make his way back there and leave supplies. The first few times he'd not thought that far ahead.

He'd taken up weapons training when he found those who could teach him. Being a fighter meant that you could find steady work, and he still ate and drank and slept. Eventually he'd tired of the constant killing, sending people and things to where he himself was denied. He'd had his fill of thievery, and so turned his hand to the magical arts only to turn out not to have any major talent in that regard. At best he'd only be a mediocre mage.

Clerical studies likewise went over his head. Thievery had no great interest for him. All he knew at that point were the Arts Of War.

He'd spent centuries working a variety of jobs. Blacksmith, weaponsmith, armorer, field hand, trader, tinker. Nothing had really fit his style, no calling in life had suddenly materialized. All the comrades in arms, neighbors and friends, associates and rivals and enemies - they were briefly here and gone again.

He'd been the bad guy, then the good guy, then the indifferent guy. Nothing had broken his curse, and now he was convinced that it was indeed a curse. For his guilt on a single day in a kingdom long vanished, he was cursed to continue to walk the lands until he'd been made up for that loss.

About five centuries ago, or was it six? Whatever the case, he'd run into some magic that would allow him to progress in the magical arts. It had at least been something new to try, a different path to take.

That hadn't cured him, but it certainly made his once-a-generation trips from the great desert a lot easier to deal with. He'd gradually risen through the magical arts, made more difficult because he usually preferred a simple and direct approach to problems and not waving his hands around and fumbling with spell components. Once he'd reached as far as he could, he turned the interests together and begun fashioning armor and weapons with enchantments.

It had been that interest in manufacturing enchanted weapons that had brought him to the Underdark, though it was only a drop of interest in a bucket of ennui. He was simply looking for something interesting, and even being whipped by the drow had been... boring.

Now here he was, with a group that seemed as unusual as any he'd found. A bunch of penitent drow, a half-ogre whose strength seemed to rival a storm giant's, a group of goblinoid mercenaries, a fledgling god, and warrior-maids from another dimension. All involved in a set of civil wars erupting in the underground cities of the drow.

This... just might be interesting.

New gods: Approaching Thoughts [Episode 136400]

by Kender

Genma Saotome had a problem.

Well, he had plenty of problems, but at the moment, he had only one certain one, as far as he was concerned. He needed some way to get his son away from the girls playing warrior, out of the Village, and on his way to meeting Tendo's daughters. That it might cause others difficulties was not a concern of his, since it was his plans that he held to be most important.

Since no one was bothering to explain matters to him, he didn't know that his son was now a godling with a growing number of varied followers. Instead, he just saw it as odd powers being presented by the locals, and that they were apparently trying to maneuver his son away from him.

Fortunately for him, his son seemed to be needing sleep because of the stress they were putting on him. That would be helpful, since the boy would be so out of it that he could be moved without him making a sound. Such an advantage would be of great assistance, since the boy would not be inadvertantly alerting anyone. All that would be left to plan out would be to figure out a way to get the boy without the Amazons realising what he was doing.

Going at night should solve that little dilemma, since everyone would be likely sleeping. With just a little creeping, he could sneak in, get the boy, and sneak back out without anyone knowing. His son would be safely on his way to Japan, and quickly forgetting all this mess. And if someone were to notice something going on, he was sure that his innate abilities would allow him to sweettalk to the person into helping.

That was part of the 'Saotome charm' after all.

Having thought up a plan, he reacted with anticipation, but tried to hide it as best he could. Seeing a man who was rubbing his hands, smirking, and laughing to himself would normally be a concern. When a panda did the same thing, it was clear that something was up.

Not that Genma noticed, as he was too busy trying to plan out how to feed himself the best before his trip would start.

The Amazons remained split on the idea of what to make of this godling. On the one hand, he was an inexperienced being with lots of power. That could mean trouble for their entire village. However, he was also a boy who was able to not only heal injuries, but gave powers that any Amazon would love to have. Then there were just those who thought that a cute, strong and completely open young man was rather attractive.

Of course, he didn't know about any of this. He'd merely brought together people who had needed his help, or had accidentally gotten involved in his things. As far as he was concerned, he was stuck with what he'd gained, and he knew that his worldview was shifting.

What he was about to find out was that one of the Amazons was actually about to voluntarily put herself at his mercy. Though all of them were rather sure that he was a boy of his word, fear of what might happen kept them back until a single young woman decided that she would go forth and find out if she could get what she wanted from the godling.

So, as he sat and watched the practices going on, an Amazon girl stepped up to him, and cleared her throat as best she could, hoping to get him to agree to what she wanted,

New gods: Not exactly a virgin birth. [Episode 136500]

by dogbertcarroll

Lilac wasn't what one would normally consider a young woman, unless of course one happened to be a deity purposefully looking beyond the flesh to the soul within, or in this case a newly created deity who was just waking up and allowed his gaze to slip a bit deeper then he was currently aware was possible.

Lilac had been waiting patiently for Ranma to awaken. Her hair was grey and the years had etched themselves into the lines of her face, but her back was unbowed and her bright green eyes were untouched by age.

Ranma had been dreaming, vague unfocused dreams about a battle taking place miles beneath the earth, with his viewpoint flickering from place to place.

Here he was facing a much larger warrior armed with a mace. A quick snap kick cracked his opponent's breastplate and sent him flying back, knocking down several warriors behind him.

Here he was holding a bow and firing arrows into a group of spider-like creatures. The archer next to him had dropped his own bow and just kept giving him arrows. He kept having to shift targets as he fired. It was really annoying to watch the arrows fly so slowly that he was already on his fifth target before the first one was struck.

Here he was in the thick of battle with a broken sword in his hands. Dropping the sword, he quickly moved through the enemy, opponents falling all around him as his arms and legs blurred into action. Weapons cracked and armor shattered under rock breaker blows, while simple kicks and sweeps seem to have more far more power then he had tried to put into them.

The males of Chad Nespair had quickly put new truth to the saying 'In the trenches there are no atheists.' and as their skills had expanded so too had their belief.

Ranma had been unprepared for the surge of belief that had hit him, so accidentally wiping the years from Lilac's aging body, as he wiped the sleep from his eyes upon waking, was perfectly understandable.

Looking at the young woman in front of him, he could tell she wanted something. She had a hopeful look about her, like Ryoga when he had wanted to find his way home, wanting to ask, but not sure if anyone would help him.

People were always asking the Kami for something, hell he'd done it a lot himself, of course his requests were mostly for another hour of sleep or for something to eat. Hopefully she wanted something more important then that. It'd be nice to be able to do something… well nice for her, besides Eilistraee had said exercising his power would make it grow.

"I'm Ranma. What'ch need?" Ranma asked, trying to be subtle.

Feeling quite hopeful at his friendly greeting and smiling face, Lilac spoke. "Greetings Ranma, my name is Lilac. I was hoping that since you were a kami there was something you could help me with if it's not too much trouble?"

"Nah, I'm up. As long as it's not something stupid like wanting a pet or nothin' I'd be glad to help."

Lilac's answering smile lit up the tent. "I was married to a wonderful man when I was younger, but we weren't able to have children. All my skills at healing and our numerous 'attempts' did nothing to change matters. All I have left of him is a lock of his hair. It's the only real regret I have of our life together."

The newly youthened healer pulled a pouch on a thong out of her shirt and opened it revealing a lock of brown hair tinged with grey and brittle from age.

Ranma plucked the hair from its container. The grey washed away at his touch, becoming the dark brown color of it's youth.

Lilac felt a little of her nervousness return as Ranma played with the last remaining piece of her Douglass.

"So, boy or girl?"

Lilac blinked in confusion. "Pardon?"

"Do ya want a boy or a girl?"

"Well, Douglass always wanted a boy and I always wanted a girl, but after all this time I don't really care anymore as long as it's ours."

Ranma smiled. This should be easy. Summoning a small red and blue spider from another dimension and speeding up the effects of it's bite on Tlisi had been complicated. Bringing Shampoo back to life and not making her a Drow had been tiring, but simply making a young woman pregnant when he had some part of the chosen father in his hand? Easy as can be, even for a new god like himself.

*rumble*

"Storm coming?"

"No. The skies have been clear for the past week. We don't expect any rain for another month or so."

Shrugging it off as unimportant, Ranma began his work.

'Now how exactly do I do this…?'

Cologne had been sitting, balanced on top of her walking stick, puffing on her pipe, as she was wont to do, when Lilac had stepped out of the healer's hut minus a number of decades and looking about 8 months pregnant.

*flump*

Lilac looked over at the matriarch, who was lying sprawled out on the ground.

"Cologne, are you alright?"

Cologne looked at her pipe suspiciously. "That depends. Are you about 70 years younger and extremely pregnant?"

Lilac examined herself and with an obviously fake air replied, "My word, you're right! I'm pregnant! Well that explains why he rolled over and went to sleep then. Men, even when they're gods, are still men. Knock a woman up and go right to sleep. They never change."

Giggling like a school girl, Lilac actually skipped off, leaving Cologne to stare suspiciously at her pipe once more.

'I'm really going to have to have words with our tobacconists. I want to get some more of this blend before they run out.'

Harold discovers Dowel and vice versa. Harold's quick explanation that being defeated

in battle means he has to marry her shows he isn't as dim as everyone thought. Who

would have figured that women built like a brick wall were considered the height of

beauty to a half-ogre?

New gods: New gods: The Nameless [Episode 136635]

by Kestral

Actually, Nameless wasn't that uncommon a name. There had been Finder Wyvernspur, for one - his name sealed by the goddess Mystra. Another was a somewhat absent-minded fellow in Halruua, though that mage was called the Professor more often than Nameless. There were tales told by minstrels of a warrior named Nameless, some of which were thousands of years old. There were some Nameless bandits, Nameless heroes, and Nameless swordmasters who taught their craft only to the young and obstinate hero who annoyed the teacher enough to be taught just enough that they'd go away.

In the case of the Nameless currently participating in the civil war in the drow lands - he was at least a fair number of those legendary Nameless.

In a city of the drow, Nameless pulled a sabre out of a stack of weapons and began testing its balance and heft. When that proved unsatisfactory, he did similar exercises with a spear. When he discarded that he turned his attention to a longbow and shot a few test arrows.

Few paid attention to just one more mercenary, and so he turned his own eye to selecting a set of arrows. Many he discarded, sitting them next to the fire. A few ended up in his quiver.

"You any good with that?" asked one of the Amazons, who had been watching the rough and weatherbeaten figure.

In reply, Nameless turned and fired an arrow that thunked into something in midair. A moment later the arrow fell, along with a body whose invisibility spell was slowly fading.

"I get by," said Nameless.

Chad Nespair was a hicksville, a small city of the drow. Hardly worth mentioning next to some of the other drow cities.

When Chad Nespair's weakness had been discovered by some illithid, they had briefly considered ransacking that city. When the idea had been broached of going after targets truly worth plundering, Chad Nespair had been relegated to "second choice" target.

Elsewhere, alchemical stone fire was destroying the burgeoning trade city of Chad Nasad and even the drow capital was experiencing problems.

Yet in those cities, as in others, something different was happening.

Small shrines were being erected. Prayers offered.

Here three minotaurs menacing a child were cut down as the child suddenly grew her hair out into a pigtail and began lashing out with strikes and kicks that had a strength far beyond her size. The strength fled again as soon as the battle was done, the braid of hair remained - a sign of favor it was thought.

Here another of the drow was cornered and prayed with all his heart that if he could just get out of this, he'd turn over a new leaf. He was answered as he found his arms moving, deflecting the strike that should have reduced him to a fine red paste so that it smashed into the wall instead. He was quick to flee through the resulting hole, leaving the baator confused by the escape of its prey.

There were not many monastaries within the drow society, yet there were a few. Most drow lacked the drive towards order found within such places, and so only a bare few ever set foot within those halls. In one such, while a young group of acolytes might have found concepts like justice and mercy to be alien - they had no such problem with the concept of excellence in battle. Their prayers were answered as they found renewed strength to fend off the challenges of other students who still called upon the spider-goddess who had never really shown them any favor anyway.

And so it went, with those in turbulent times calling out for the favor of the Wild Stallion. Sometimes it was just a renewed strength as if one had gotten a second wind. Other times it was as if someone had whispered in an ear allowing a moment's notice to avoid the knife strike from another. On rare occasion it was a brief possession where traces were left of an alien set of thoughts and feelings, and dead enemies around oneself.

New gods: Self Inserting [Episode 138676]

by Kender

Ranma wasn't quite sure of what he was doing, but knew that it was working out so far. There wasn't exactly a manual on how to be a god, even a beginning one, and so he'd had to make it up as it went. Fortunately for him, he hadn't had to deal with too much of a screw up as he didn't want to turn some poor girl into a mindless creature who only followed his will, or blow someone to little chunks.

Besides, every time he did do something, he wound up having to sleep, and even if it was getting shorter every time, it was still a bit of a pain in the ass.

Still, he found that the situation wasn't all that bad. He was being fed nicely, the villagers seemed nice, and the drow who followed him seemed to be happy to have him as their god. At the moment, he was getting a moment to relax, finding himself enjoying the chance to not have to practice the Art, fight monsters, or try to figure out his powers. It was just him, his thoughts, and the peace and quiet.

"HI!"

Or it had been until he found himself facing a rather pretty green eyed Amazon girl bending, with her curtain of blue hair draped on one shoulder, over so that she could stare him in the eye.

"You're awake!"

"You're... perky," he grunted.

"They say that a lot, and I like it. Why shouldn't I be cheerful? It's a lot nicer to really enjoy what you like."

"I'd suppose so."

"I'm glad you think so," the girl told him, and looked apologetic. "I'd kind of really like to ask you for something."

"Ya would? Well, if I can help..."

"Oh, you can! You see, my name is Mao Yin and I want to be transformed!"

"EH?!" Ranma blurted, rather surprised by her request. He'd changed people before, but never exactly because they'd asked for transformation. It just sort of... happened.

"I've got a lot of possible choices here!" she chirped, and pulled out volumes of comics that she'd apparently brought with her.

"Ya want me ta change ya accordin' ta what ya saw in a comic?"

"Uh-huh. I've been reading stuff out of Japan, Hong Kong and Korea since I was little, and I've always loved it all! And now I have a chance to live out what I've wanted for so long! You will help me, won't you?"

"Don't ya know what this could mean for ya?"

"I do! But it'll be fine. That'd be part of what I want. So you'll "I guess..."

"Thank you!"

"But ya'd have ta pick somethin..."

"Ooh... You're right! This'll be so cool! Almost like you're the 'great mystical being' that grants a girl her powers. Actually... I think it is. This one would be nice... And so would this... Being a dark elf might be fun... Oh... and this..."

Blinking, the godling knew that it was highly unlikely that she'd just pick one, and so he made a simple choice. He'd just give her at least part of what she wanted, and to do that, he started calling up his power, surprising her as he infused her with it.

Not that she minded one bit once she realised what he had done.

"YAY!" echoed from the Healer's hut.

It took only hearing it to let Cologne to be able to place the voice. "Dear heaven, please tell me that they didn't let her near him."

"Wow... This is really real!"

"Well, at least now she'll stop playing those pretend games... Who am I kidding? She'll just get worse. Oh well. Just have to deal with it."

"Should I wear the maid costume or the sailor seifuku for my debut?" asked the newly dark skinned girl to herself as she bounced up and down on her toes, and let her new tail wave behind her.

Sugar looked in from where she'd been coming in to visit the godling herself and turned to her companion. "Kinda scary, isn't she?"

Rather than saying anything, Spice merely nodded,

New gods: Sleeping Ranma, Hidden Catgirl [Episode 138706]

by Kestral

There were many things that the multiverse might have shuddered over, particularly with a newly invested god running around and exercising his power.

One of the problems was that Ranma Saotome was not big on restraint. Nope. Nor was he iron-willed in the face of cute girls who wanted something from him.

Still, the creation of a Chinese amazon teenage mutant dark elf catgirl ninja was bad enough. When she got out her hand-made cosplay outfit of "Kasumi" from "Dead Or Alive" and made alterations so that it had a tail hole...

It was enough that Cologne was walking away from the Healer's hut, hoping that this would be it for the night. Then she saw something.

Seeing the half-ogre named Harold exchanging sweet nothings with a blushing Dowel nearly made her go hit a bottle of that stuff Jettu made from squeezing the juice out of corn.

Staggering off, her current height made pogo-sticking on her staff impractical, she heard voices at the weaponsmith's?

"You have the feather of a what? Here now fella, let me show you how to forge a sword with that."

Cologne blinked at the sight of Razar letting someone handling his tools, the weaponsmith normally being as possessive of the special hammers and tongs as if they were his children. Or something even more precious considering how some people were with their kids.

At least Mousse was still chained up and in that cage. She could clearly see him, and he was apparently watching Shampoo and Tarre playing tag in the skies over the village. They'd decide what to do with him much later.

Had to give people time to calm down and get... creative.

Cologne grinned evilly, went up to the board next to the pole which held Mousse's cage suspended and added a suggestion in a few quick pen strokes. She hadn't seen this done in quite some time. Could be quite amusing.

Lolth was dead.

The word went out but not among the mortals. No, this was among the deities - some of whom were incurable gossips.

Of course, because the drow gods used misdirection and lies far more often than the truth - some were slow to act.

There was one thing new and unexpected developing though, and this was causing even greater problems for the drow deities. Sveltarm was her name, and with the shiny mindwebs cast by her mother severed, she had gone completely and rather messily insane. She rampaged through the Demonweb Pits like an incarnate force of destruction. Well, she was an incarnate deity of destruction - so she was certainly entitled.

This had the additional effect of causing much disturbance among the drow gods, none of whom could focus much on the new kid when something was stalking THEM.

There were, however, those who paid attention to such beings as were newly installed as deities.

"How the heck am I doing this?" asked Ranma, asleep in a hut in an Amazon village. Yet he was also here in a cave where an escaped drow slave hid from his drow masters. Yet he was also here where a martial arts prodigy among the drow struggled to understand the philosophies in this human text. He was standing here alongside a drow sorcerer whose spells had been used up and was facing an illithid. He was the invisible hands guiding an older drow to escape as duergar invaded the mansion where she served. He was the whisperer who spoke of another path when a group of young drow looked from their balcony to see the attacks destroying their city.

"You are doing this, young godling, because you have not been told it is impossible and because it is something you must do. You are Ranma Saotome, the Wild Stallion, god of hope and of healing for the drow."

Ranma discovered he was in another place, and turned to the figure speaking. "Who are you, then?"

The shadowy figure soldified slightly and inclined his head. "I am Lathander, god of the dawn and of renewal. I hope that we have the opportunity to work together, Ranma Saotome."

"This is all so weird," confessed Ranma.

"You might want to pay attention THERE," said Lathander, pointing.

"The monastery," realized Ranma. "There's a power struggle."

"Unless you intervene, the more old and set in their ways will prevail," pointed out Lathander. "Change is only possible in this one faction of the younger."

"That guy's the ringleader of the change faction," said Ranma, observing. "They have a trial-by-combat rite?"

"Proving that your philosophy is stronger than another's is typical of their methods," agreed Lathander. "Though normally poisons, trickery, bribes, and other cheating behind the scenes are the deciding influences."

"Well then, time for a few things to change," said Ranma.

There was the sense that Lathander was managing to raise a brow without moving. "Then you're going to involve yourself?"

"Ya bet I am. I ain't 'bout ta leave them ta fight alone," Ranma replied.

"So, what will you do? You can show them ways to win the fight."

"But they shouldn't have ta be just doin' it alone."

"Hmm?"

"They need help," the godling said simply, and I know where ta get it."

Cologne knew that things were getting rather strange around the Village, but knew that if nothing else, there was one benefit that made it all worthwhile. She hadn't quite seen life like this in anything she could remember. In tales told over the generations, there had been all sorts of descriptions which spoke of days when her people did not have to be insular and alone. At one time, they had been known by travellers and locals alike, and they could fight, trade, and talk with outsiders as part of the world.

But as time passed, and the rest of humanity seemed to be leaving the old ways, the Amazons were being forgotten more and more. And up until recently, she was certain that they'd stay as the small tribe in the mountains that they were.

However, there were now all sorts of signs of new energies around her.

That included the inlaid circle of light that was on the ground, with her at the center. Amazons blinked and got defensive as the glowing shape seemed to start spinning without moving any earth. No on was sure what was going on, but they knew that this was not normal by any means.

It wasn't until Ch'yo came along and stopped to stare that they got an explanation. "(This is a magic spell...)"

"(What?)" Cologne asked... and got an answer rather unexpectedly.

"Cologne. I need ya and some of your Amazons ta fight," said what looked like a translucent version of Ranma as he floated high above them. "Ya have ta go now."

"We do? Why?"

"People need help, and ya gotta protect them from the kinda jerks who'd fight and kill 'em for believin' different."

"(Followers of the old ways of my people,)" Ch'yo murmured.

"Exactly."

"Well, we'll do whatever we can to help," the Amazon Matriarch replied.

"Thank you," he said and seemed to focus on her with eyes that both saw and didn't see the neo-drow. Other Amazons found themselves drawn to stand near her, carrying their weapons, and they looked around in confusion as the edges of the circle sent up a shimmering sheet of light as it began to spin faster and faster.

Then there was a flash, and when those watching could see, there was no sign of those who'd been standing there, the magic circle, or the floating boy.

The leader of the 'change faction' was ready to fight for the new path that had been opened to the drow. It was proving to be both easier and more satisfying than anything the Spider Queen had ever given them. So, when the old guard had given them this challenge, it had been accepted, as it would mean death no matter what form failure took. Giving in would mean agreeing that the old ways were better, and losing without dying would only delay being killed. But success would mean a chance at a new direction of things.

Yet, the sight of what looked like a summoning circle appearing between the two factions was still a bit of a surprise, as was the sight of a group of human females, with one drow female, showing up in the middle of it.

"Who are you to be interrupting our work for the great Lloth," growled one of the old guard.

"The boy asked us to come," the drow woman replied, "but I'm beginning to think that young Ranma could have just done it without asking..."

"You work for this false godling?"

"We're... helping him out."

"Then you shall die!" the Lloth believer replied, and attacked.

It was a rather quick one, but one of the human girls got in the way, and swung her war hammer at the spider lover. The weapon caught the attacker right in the gut, and the drow went flying backwards to slam into a wall, to the point where the surface cracked as the body hit it.

The other followers of Lloth saw that, and reacted in the only way that they could.

"Oh, this should be interesting," Cologne murmured as the battle really got started, while:

New gods: Changing Pace [Episode 141886]

by Kestral

This was a monastary where martial arts were practiced by experts. It was a rarity in that it was a DROW monastary, and it was going through a sort of civil war at the moment.

The older and more experienced ones had been about to put down the rebellion of these younger ones when these interlopers had come into the picture.

Cologne was smiling. Her staff blurred and deflected a set of throwing knives heading her way, then jabbed out forcibly at one of her opponents. This was not a martial arts tournament fight, the rules were considerably different.

Her Amazons were eagerly throwing themselves into the fray as well. Those who had wanted a good fight had come forward. Those who had not had stayed. Now they found themselves dealing with what was apparently a battle between two similar forces. The odd thing was that after Mao had said something about not knowing who the bad guys were, they were all able to tell who those were.

It wasn't that the older ones were the bad guys, or that those who had slightly better uniforms and equipment were their opponents. No, it was the big red "X" signs floating over the bad guy's heads.

The young girls and boys who had seen an opportunity to improve their lot now were fighting. Some were fighting the newcomers (and getting red "X" marks) and others were fighting their original opponents.

"They're using poisoned weapons," cautioned Cologne. "They fight with lethal intent. Fight to kill, not to subdue. Special manuevers are optional."

The Grandmaster finally came forward. Old even for a drow elf, she recognized something of a rival in the young warrior woman who had just spoken. Time to crush the opposition.

Cologne dodged the incoming strike just barely, defended herself by a hair from a set of manuevers that would have seperated her head and limbs had it connected, and dodged an odd strike she hadn't seen so much as felt coming. If anything, her smile intensified. This would be good.

Ranma slept. As he slept, he was with Cologne and the others as they fought. As he slept, he visited the Promenade under Waterdeep and added strength to a healer who was struggling with a sentry's wounds. As he slept, he walked the ruins of a human monastary called by some The Yellow Rose and grabbed secret scrolls. Well, if he was to be a god of martial arts he couldn't exactly allow insects and mildew to take them, could he? It was the duty of a martial artistry god to make sure these techniques didn't die off, wasn't it?

Ranma slept, and he visited a hidden valley inside a place called the Great Glacier and he looked over the tower of sorcery there - and the young martial artist who was doing laundry suddenly had an idea about great battles occurring under her very feet.

Ranma slept and soared over the spires of Kara-Tur and its neighboring kingdoms. He observed the samurai and the ninja and the shukenja and wondered about maybe getting some teachers for his followers. He thought the idea of drow samurai and ninja had a kind of appeal to it.

New gods: Small Thoughts [Episode 149455]

by Kender

This was not how things were supposed to go, at least by Genma's reckoning. There had been the 'Plan', such as it was, and he'd been certain that it'd work out well enough. All that he had to do was have a child with his wife that could marry one of Soun's children, take his Heir off on a ten year training trip to make the kid into the greatest martial artist possible, go to the Tendo home for the meeting and get the couple married. It had been elegant in its simplicity, and up until recently, it had been running rather well. Sure, there'd been bumps in the path over time, but he had done well enough.

Unfortunately, he'd run into a major snag before he could get his son to meet his future bride. This village seemed to be filled with all sorts of magic and odd happenings that seemed intent on screwing with his plans. He merely wanted to take his own son out of there, but these people kept on preventing him from doing so. They seemed to think that their desires were more important than his rights as a father, but he wasn't about to let a few women keep him from doing what he wanted.

So, they were all caught up in some other spectacle, he crept into the hut where they were keeping his boy. That was a bit of a feat for a large panda, and he was rather pleased by it, but he wasn't about to let himself get caught up in the moment. He had something to do, and he was too close to stop.

His son was laying there, totally unwatched by anyone else, and that meant that it was the most opportune moment to do what he'd come for. Reaching down, he went to grab his son and heir.

The boy turned onto his side. So, Genma merely shifted and reached over towards where he was laying. Ranma flipped onto his other side. Growling under his breath, the elder Saotome swung his hand to grab the boy on the back. His son slapped his hand away, and backhanded him across the face, both while sleeping. Stumbling back, the panda shook his surprise off before leaping onto the boy. However, the boy in question curled up into a ball, and thereby avoided the attempt.

Groaning to himself, Genma rolled onto his back and tried not to scream in frustration. He wasn't totally successful, as he barely managed to only blow his breath out in a single try. This was not going as planned, and he couldn't think on how he could manage to get his son into the sack that he'd brought, never mind getting the boy over to Tendo's place. Totally annoyed with his problems, he hit his arms onto the floor on either side of him, smacking the open sack onto the floor.

That incidentally also put the opening of the sack right over Ranma.

It took him a moment to realize just what had happened, but once he did, Genma took no time in taking advantage of his change in fortune. Jumping on the opportunity, he shoved the sack around the sleeping boy, and stuffed his son down as deeply into it as he could manage. Once he had managed that, he hung the sack over his shoulder, and slipped out of the hut, and the village, as quietly as he could manage.

However, once he was out of that place, he ran for the hills, certain that he'd finally gotten away from the source of all the strange troubles that had shown up in his path. With this action, he was back to following his plan, and was certain that nothing would cause even a hiccup all through what he'd been waiting so long for.

He never even considered that it could be his son that could be a source of the oddities.

"What will this do?" one Amazon asked of the pointy eared sorceress.

Ch'yo didn't even look up from the pool of water that the locals had brought when she'd asked, and that she'd just enchanted. "It's called a 'scrying pool'."

"I know what a pool is, but..."

"Yes, but it's a special one. You see..."

"Our fellows," another Amazon murmured. "How's that possible?"

"Magic. A scrying pool lets the one who uses it see what's going on in another place. Since I thought that we'd want to see this..."

"Ah, it is good. Though... She looks like she's enjoying fighting for her life."

An Elder snorted in a most undignified, though seemingly proper way. "That's Cologne for you."

The drow girl merely took this in stride, and looked down at the battle