It was midday in Zhentil Keep when the line between devil and man was crossed for the first time.
Cordwin Callen wizard in the service of Zhentil Keep, lieutenant in the army of the Zhentarim, known to the clergy of Cyric as the herald of death cried out for all he was worth. His very skinned was being peeled from his flesh, separating with a wet tearing noise, spraying blood across the room.
The Ritual of Bonding it was called, the replacement of one's own flesh with that of a devil or demon's, it was painful and if found out most any society, even Zhentil Keep would cast you out for undertaking it, but in return you received power the likes of which few could possibly understand.
And in Cordwin's mind it was well worth it, every drop of blood, every howl, and every tear it was worth it all.
The devil across from him, Sarphos, screamed even louder than he himself and even in the throes of agony Cal had to congratulation himself on thinking to place a globe of silence over the walls of his room, and for making sure to numb himself beforehand to take the edge off the pain. Still no matter what spell you cast or herb you took to prevent it, being skinned alive hurt, it hurt a lot.
But Callen didn't mind, what were a few hours of agony when compared to a lifetime of power? Nothing thought the vain, self absorbed and power hungry wizard. The only thing that really annoyed Cal was that when he caught a glance of his bare muscle's with the skin stripped away, he looked just like anyone else, despite all of the arcane might he had amassed in his studies, all that he had accomplished to this point he was a merely a sack of flesh and bones like anyone else.
Depressing was the word that came to mind, but he soon recovered, he was about to become much more than your 'average' mortal, even your average wizard—not that he'd ever actually considered himself average—could ever dream of becoming.
The skinning was complete, now came the truly hard part he figured, absorbing and integrating the devil's flesh. The magic of the ritual took affect and suddenly the devil's flesh appeared wrapped around him, it was sort of like clay thought Cordwin to himself. Of course just wrapping it around him wasn't enough, it had to attach itself, otherwise he'd never be able to function in it as he would need to.
And by Bane's black hand did it hurt, Callen had experienced many thing in his life but never a pain like this. His jaw clenched and made him bite through the tip of his tongue, forcing him to open up his mouth and slit it out, or at least that's what he meant to do instead he found himself puking the contents of his stomach out through his new lips.
Power, remember the power he repeated several times in his head trying to ignore the feeling of a thousand little acid tipped daggers piercing his flesh. It didn't work.
A fresh round of pain racked his body and a fresh scream escaped his bloody lips.
It'll all be worth it, he reminded himself once more, even as a tooth cracked from the pressure of his clenched jaw.
It'd been a month since the ritual, and to his relief the Zhent found that the hardest thing about the change wasn't accessing his new abilities, no those came easily but simply adjusting to the new skin. Not that that was really a problem for the wizard it was just like adapting to any other polymorphed form, something wizards, especially Zhent's had to do quite often.
And the powers his power's continued to surprise him, week-by-week more of his devilish attributes and abilities revealed themselves. With a simple gaze he could stun those of weaker wills and give pause to thus of stronger. Than of course there was the matter of the horns and wings. He looked at the wings as a way to fly without memorizing the spell, though he'd yet to find any use for the horn's they were for melee fighting, something that he didn't engage in much of. That first weak he'd be scared only that his newfound flesh might spawn a tail, but it never did and Cal expected he'd the last of any physical changes he might have to endure, and a simple polymorph covered those and left him looking like his old self again.
Cal stopped by the mirror in his bedroom once more to examine himself in his new body. His long black-brown horn's swept back into his short cropped brunette hair blending in almost perfectly, and his blue and white wing's when spread out were as long as his well muscled upper torso, which was now a shade of light blue, his teeth he noticed as well, were now pointed no doubt a side affect of the ritual of bonding. Smiling at his work Cal was sad when he touched his ring and repeated the command word, "Rivilis Maltius" Almost instantly the fangs, the horns and even the wings disappeared, as Cal reverted back to his former self through the aid of a polymorph. His skin turned back to its normal tanned color and his brown hair lightened a shade, though his brown eyes stayed the same.
Moving over to his wardrobe Cordwin produced a pair of black breeches and a brown shirt, along with a belt where he kept his two wands holstered and a cloak enchanted to act as armor for both physical and magical attacks, it also held an array of pockets sown on the inside to hold his spell components.
Callen knew he couldn't stay in the city as he was and he knew it, he'd known it from the moment he started researching the ritual. And he accepted it, court politics' and striving to go further in his career than any of the other mages had grown boring, predictable. And if there was one thing Cal disliked it was predictability.
But before he left he had some business to settle, a kind of test to see if his magic was truly as powerful as he suspected it was, or if he was fooling himself. A pang of doubt swept through his body, a foreign feeling to the always self confident mage, the same mage who thought that if Azuth the god of mage's himself came down to earth and threw a spell at him Azuth would miss.
Cordwin's gaze fell to the shag carpet his resolve shaken, the man no, the thing for which he readied himself to fight was a lich after all, could he honestly take on the undead mage, the same mage that had sold him to the slavers as a boy, the mage who'd beaten him as a child when he served as a servant, the same mage that had killed his mother and father both blackguards of Bane, the same mage who only a year ago had laid waste to him in a spell duel in front of his betters?
Yes, yes he could do all of that and more he decided, in that same thought banishing his own doubts.
Callen smiled wrapping his sinister cloak close to him, smiling for all the word like a man with long withheld vengeance on his mind.
Callen left his room, his home, for the last time that day leaving the thick oaken door wide open and his wards still in place let the other wizards and priests deal with those, and hey if they ended up killing a mage or two than maybe he'd be doing the word a favor.
Damacarus Drezz frowned hearing a creaking noise from down the hall, hadn't the servant's left already? Pale dead eyes looked out the rain splattered window peering at the dying moon, curious the only person who would've been in the manor at the time would be his manservant Marlo, and he wasn't scheduled back for two days still.
The lich sat back in his chair and reached out to snatch the crystal orb that sat on his desk, whispering a few arcane words and waving his hands through a complex gesture he commanded the spell to reveal the main hall to him. The spell didn't work.
Voluminous green robe's fluttered around his frail spectral body as he rose from his seat warily, his hand inching closer to the ring on his hand. A whispered spell bathed the dimly lit room in the light of day showing the room in all of its integrity, nothing was there. The lich's cold eyes gazed at the door waiting for it to burst open in a hail of spell fire, swords and arrows when nothing came he stepped closer to the door throwing it open and shouting the words to a invisibility detecting spell. Nothing.
Unfortunately for Drezz, he forgot to look behind the ceiling to roof tapestries that decorated the hall.
Drezz returned to his library, feeling ultimately foolish for being so jumpy, and yet still on guard for any would be intruders. Which is why when he heard the door open up behind him he wasted no time to twisting the ring on his finger erecting a magical globe around himself and spitting out the words to a powerful slaying spell.
Green energy exploded from his fingertip's cutting across the room in a flash of brilliant light. The figure standing in the door simply disappeared along with the door behind him, turned to ash. Drezz was about to smile when suddenly he heard a hissing noise as his conjured globe of invulnerability disappeared from around him.
Despite his surprise Drezz reacted in the same heartbeat that he realized what was happening, that hadn't been an intruder his spell had cut down but an illusion created by the attacking wizard who must have seen the interior of the room when Drezz opened the door and teleported inside. Than used a spell to make it seem like the door had opened and topped it off with an illusion.
Drezz had to admit it was a brilliant move, but it didn't mean the intruder could call checkmate just yet.
The green clad wizard knew the intruder had the advantage as he spun to face his attacker hearing every word as the mage started on his next spell, so instead of casting to kill he spun his next spell to prevent. It was one of the first spells taught to younger workers of the art and in this case it would be the winning point. Five green bolts of energy flung themselves at the bookcase behind the enemy wizard, it was only than in the magic light of the magic missiles that he saw his attacker.
Something about the blue skin, the horns, the wings and the fangs that the devil revealed when he smiled at one of the missiles that missed and hit the monster instead and was, the lich noted, absorbed by his cloak struck a cord within him as if he knew what the thing was.
The missiles hit their intended target, causing the books on the shelf to catch fire and the bookcase itself to fall forward. The blue skinned mage sensed the falling bookcase at the last minute and threw himself to the side to avoid the full weight of the bookcase. Despite his attempted dodge the devil's foot had been caught underneath the bookcase and to the lich's relief he clearly heard the sound of bone being crushed.
And like that the battle turned, Drezz was the one to start his spell first, which meant unless the monster could cast impossibly fast he had the advantage. Spell duels really were just one giant game of chess thought Drezz.
But Drezz never completed that spell, the devil swung his vengeful gaze at the lich, the rage within those eyes seemed almost tangible to him, as if that monster could make him drop dead with only those piercing brown daggers of his. Drezz was stunned, the words of his spell dying on his lips.
Blue skinned devil took full advantage of the pause not only complete his own spell, but to beat his strong wings powerfully, freeing his foot and than took to hovering in favor of standing on a broken foot. By the time Drezz recovered from whatever effect's those damn eyes had had on him and torn his gaze from the devil, his opponent had summoned a shimmering green sword into existence and had it on course to plunge through his cranium.
Drezz recognized that he didn't have the time needed to launch a counter spell so instead as the blade came nearer he jerked his dead body upwards so that the sword struck him straight on in the chest instead of the mouth were it would inhibit his spell casting abilities. Sometimes it was good thing being undead. Before the sword could withdraw and strike again Drezz waved his hand through the proper counterspell and shattered the summoned blade. Drezz continued his assault with a scroll he drew out from a pocket in his robes, the only one he carried on him in his own home, and quickly read off the spell activating the inscribed magic. A banshee's wail filled the room ruining the blue devil's own spell and causing him to clamp his hand's over his ear's to resist the slaying magic of the call.
Drezz smiled and began another spell, knowing that he had once again taken control of the battle with that last spell. At least at the time that's what he thought. Drezz didn't see that when the devil had first moved his hands over his ears that the he had also drawn and palmed a wand, but he found out soon enough. Drezz saw the devil at the last moment brandish his wand and heard him shout out the command word just in time to recognize that he was being thrown back against the wall.
And the battle turned once more.
The monster cast his next spell finishing by pointing his finger at the lich, from that finger came a white ray of polar energy. Drezz did the only thing he could; he threw up his right arm to intercept the attack, which in effect froze the undead wizard's arm. Drezz cursed under his breath without his arm his choices of spells to choose from were extremely limited until he could properly dispel the ice.
And the intruder didn't mean to give him that time. His attacker used the same spell that Drezz had used to reduce the door behind the illusion to ash. The lich in turn cast one of the few spells still available to him in his current state, he reversed gravity. Drezz fell upwards fast enough for him to avoid the ray, which left a fair sized hole in the wall that looked out over the city.
The change in gravity briefly confused the blue skinned devil but only briefly as his wings allowed him to easily adapt. Still Drezz took advantage of the pause by yelling out a melting spell freeing his arm; though it was still too stiff for the more complicated spells it was better than nothing.
The monster spit out his next spell summoning a large magical hand between himself and the lich that raced towards the lich and wrapping him up in its grip holding him far too tightly for him to make any kind of movements with his body.
Drezz began to cast a purely verbal dispel magic but soon found, to his ultimate despair, that the blue skin had cast a silence spell over him.
The battle was over, and Drezz knew it.
Cordwin Callen smiled, as of that moment all the pain he had endured to reach this point had been worth it, revenge was his. Cal smiled at the grim look on the lich's face and the question it clearly held, "Well know this is rather amusing if I do say so myself, you unable to cast spells and I, a wizard that only a year ago you defeated in combat holding your fate in my hands."
The Lich didn't try and speak only raised an eyebrow in question, "That's right Damacarus Drezz you defeated me, what you don't remember?" asked Callen chuckling evilly, "Well before we get to that you'll probably wondering why I don't destroy you right now aren't you?"
The lich nodded his head slowly, very slowly fearing the answer. "It's really quite simple, if I kill you than as a lich your merely respawn, unless I destroy the gem that allows you to do it first and to do that I need to know where it is. Which is where you manservant came into play, I figured if anyone knew where you kept it he would so I paid him a little visit him during his little vacation in Luskan and inquired about it, and we wizard's can be very persuasive can we not?"
For the first time that day the lich's face showed fear, honest fear. "Don't worry though I killed him for you, can have loose tongued servants now can we?" The wizard couldn't help it when he broke out laughing.
"I decided to save myself the worry of having to go find the item after the battle and found it beforehand." From a pocket within his cloak he produced the green gem.
That was when the fear kicked in for the lich.
"You know what, I got an idea why don't we, I mean I, see if I can destroy you and the gem with the same spell?" He paused to hold the gem up close to his eye and looked at the Lich's scared face, "You like that Idea don't you?"
Cal sneered at Drezz's cowardice who fiercely shook his head obviously scared, why couldn't he just die with a little dignity?
Shaking his head disapprovingly he placed the gem on the lich's head and started the spell.
A brilliant white flash of energy was the last thing the lich known as Damacarus Drezz The Mourning Vulture ever saw.
The coming twilight found Cordwin safely concealed by his polymorph spell pacing the length of his commandeered room. The original owner's of the small shack were crammed in the closet, safely under the effects of a sleep spell of course allowing him to replenish his magical repertoire for what he assumed would be his last battle in Zhentil Keep, he had no doubt that with all the powerful clerics and mages within the city guard they'd have figured out what he'd done.
And when they found that he wasn't in his room, or some importantly found his ward's cutting down the initial investigators in a array of spell fire, they'd have posted extra guard's at every gate armed with wands of true seeing to dispel any illusion. He dared not teleport and run the risk of being redirected by a spell ward or have the authorities be alerted to his presence.
So he'd have to force his way through the gates than, no matter that's why he'd undergone the ritual of bonding for, battle. Cal closed his spellbook placing it within the bag of holding sown into his cloak along with the normal pockets and stood, readying himself mentally for the upcoming battle. Battling multiple opponents with only ones spells is by far more complicated than a spell duel even one with as skilled an opponent as Drezz.
Wizard's often compared spell battles to a game of chess, this was because if the two wizards were close to each other in terms of relative skill their choice of spells would be close to the same. Which meant that in a spell dual it didn't matter how strong the spell they threw was, it was how they used them that was the important part. In chess even the queen arguably the strongest and most useful piece on the board could be taken out by the pawn if used incorrectly, and on the flipside a well played pawn could be more useful than the queen. An example of this would be Drezz's magic missile the spell itself was pitiable in the face of his defense spell, but when played as Drezz played it, it became more than that.
But while in a spell duel you only had to play that game with one player and one mind against multiple foes it was like playing that same game of chess only with twenty people at once. And while the individual players might not be as skilled or have as many pieces their sheer numbers could and would overtake that more skilled player.
It was these thoughts that occupied his mind as he threw open the door to his borrowed resting place. It was these thoughts that occupied his mind as he made his down the busy streets of Zhentil Keep safely hidden by his polymorph spell. It was these thoughts that occupied his mind as he approached the gate he'd chosen to make his escape through.
And it was these thoughts that occupied his mind as he threw his first spell at the approaching guard, filling the area with a sunburst killing some and blinding more. Cal closed and turned his eyes away to avoid the light produced by the spell and in almost the same heartbeat began casting his next spell.
Just as he finished his spell erecting a globe of invulnerability around himself two spells collided with it, spells he recognized as a flame arrow and ray of exhaustion. And so the knights reveal themselves thought Cal as he mentally marked where they were levitating. Before he could offer a counter attack though Cal found himself facing off with a group of pawn's charging forward sword's drawn and at the ready.
Cal waved his hands through the course of his next spell, once complete a freezing sphere materialized in his hand. As the approaching bramble of soldier's drew nearer Cal commanded the sphere forward where it collided with the first soldier, knocking him to the ground before shattering into several smaller shards and hurling themselves in a circler pattern slaying the pawns that stood around him.
The enemy mage's intoned their next spells as well, the first causing the sphere of protection around Callen to disappear and the second casting one of the most over used offensive spells known to man, the lightning bolt. Cal stood and watched the spell veer towards him without blinking, and smiled up at the mage when his cloak deflected the spell.
"Come now my good man, surely you can be more original than that can't you?" Cal called out before casting his next spell, using the same spell to take out both of them in one fell swoop. It was a simple charm really one that ripped from the subject's mind their deepest fear and shaped it into an illusion that only the recipient could see, more importantly in this case was the fact that it was an area effect attack so while it was directed at one mage, the other was standing close enough to feel the effects too, effectively removing both knights from the board.
The remaining soldier's moved to circle him obviously not wanting to face another of his spell all grouped together like that, Cal couldn't help but smile at quickly his countrymen reacted and adapted to their situation on the battlefield. But than that didn't mean he was going to let himself be checkmated so easily. Allowing his polymorph to slip, his wings sprouted once more from his back Cal than took to the air.
From there, there wasn't much the soldier's could do as Cal launched another spell, causing the water in their bodies to evaporate killing some and leaving the rest unable to fight.
From there he simply lit the two mage's still screaming their head's off on fire with a fireball, unoriginal yes but effective.
The Acolyte of the skin looked around once more making sure there were no arrows flying for his heart. Seeing that thing's were indeed in a state of utter case the malevolent wizard walked through the gates leading out of Zhentil Keep, running was more like it, knowing he had to get a safe distance away from the place before he could risk a teleport spell without the danger of a block.
Next time, he decided, I'll bring a horse.