Disclaimer: I don't own Overlord or Dungeons & Dragons
The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown
Book : Adventuring with Avatars
Chapter 6: Educating the Kuo-toa
Beta:
Like when they'd sacked the Illithid colony, the party were under Gaul's Greater Unknowable as they observed the entrance to the Kuo-toa city that was to be their target today. Hidden behind a small rock outcrop close to the city's gate they spied on the massive clam shell acting as the gate itself. It stood at the centre of a rickety wooden wall sealing of an opening between two rock formations that led into the city. Walking out of the raised calm shell was a large Drow caravan leaving with a long line of slaves in tow.
Looks like we have pretty good timing. Falgrim thought to himself as he watched the slaves being marched along with their various restraints chained together to prevent escape and to make leading them easier. At least we'll get a chance to free those poor souls too.
Though the party's plan for this assault was likely to get them killed. That said, death was better than slavery by far in Falgrim's book, so they'd still be showing them mercy.
"What's with the Drow?" Neia asked curiously.
"They have an enclave in this city if I remember correctly." Falgrim informed the party.
"So we'll have to deal with Kuo-toa and Drow?" The archer asked.
"Unfortunately." Taana confirmed.
"Just great." Neia hissed in irritation.
"Don't forget the Monstrous Lobsters too." Taana added teasingly. "Look, there's a pair of them swimming laps in the moat in front of the gate."
"That doesn't change anything. We accounted for the possibility that the Kuo-toa would have allies. Just like with their passive ability to cause madness." Drau noted before inquiring. "Everyone have their Rings of Psionic Immunity equipped? They'll protect us from the madness effect."
Everyone made affirmative responses.
"Good. Then it's time to get started with our plan." Drau said once everyone had replied. "Then Gaul, begin phase one."
"Gladly," the necromancer said with a grin that was hidden from the others by the closed visor of his helm. "Widen Magic: Gate!"
His spell created an oversized oval portal of swirling darkness some distance away from the Kuo-toa's city gate from which his now vastly expanded army of undead surged forth. With all the killing the party had been doing lately, he'd plenty of opportunity to ply his necromantic arts and had thus greatly added to the number of his minions. They remained largely simple Skeletons but they numbered in the hundreds now and were backed up by twenty two Death Knights. His army was thus not to be trifled with.
It was because of this that caused both the Kuo-toa guards and the Drow caravaneers to panic as the undead horde charged towards the gate. The guards were trying to form up into defensive formations while the caravaneers were trying to rush back into the relative safety of the city. This lack of coordination between the two groups created absolute chaos.
Just like we wanted. Gauldoth thought with a smirk even as the rest of the party added to the mayhem.
The buzzing sounds of Drau's rifle firing preluded the two Monstrous Lobsters' heads exploding into clouds of gore as their leader sniped them. Neia meanwhile had used her skill Rain Arrow to send a shower of deadly projectiles over the area of the gate, killing dozens and sowing even more confusion.
"Don't just admire the scenery. You're up again." Falgrim said jokingly as he nudged Gaul's shoulder though how he managed to aim that correctly was beyond him considering they were all still invisible.
"I know." Gaul said with a roll of her eyes. "Explosion!"
In response to his casting, a large detonation spontaneously occurred at the gate. The blast destroyed it and thus allowed his undead army to rush into the city beyond unopposed.
Following behind the undead army, the party had entered the city as well and as per the plan split up to cover more ground. It was thus how Neia found herself teamed up with Gaul, protecting the necromancer as he repeatedly used Undeath Army on the various corpses they created to raise more undead.
It was a boring affair for the most part. Most of the city's inhabitants had seemingly fled the undead advance or were butchered, thus they faced little to no opposition and Gaul was uninterrupted as he raised what corpses they came across into unlife. That changed however when they began nearing the Drow enclave. It was noticeable by its exotic architecture that contained numerous obsidian-cast spider motifs carved into elegant structures reminiscent of hollowed out giant stalagmites. Structures that stood out greatly in a city dominated by ramshackle buildings covered in various marine embellishments.
"We have company." Neia said as a squad of male Drow Fighters backed up by a female Drow Wizard broke away from the melee against some of Gual's undead around their little quarter and began heading their way.
"I see them. Their fellows are covering them, my minions can't intercept."
"Leave them to me." Neia replied confidently as she raised Ultimate Shooting Star Super.
"Ray of Enfeeblement!" The Wizard cast, sending a stream of green mist spraying from the her curled fingers towards Neia.
"Spellbreaker." Gaul cast absently, negating the Drow's spell midflight with the white beam of his counterspell.
Even as this was happening, Neia had already loosed her first arrow and activated her skill.
"Gatling Arrow." The archer whispered under her breath as she fired arrow after arrow at impossible speeds that were comparable to the rate that an automatic firearm could spit out bullets. All of which, excepting the very first, were in fact constructs conjured from her magical power. As such she had no worries about running out of arrows.
Something she was fairly sure the half dozen Drow warriors charging ahead of the Wizard dearly hoped would happen as her arrows turned them into pincushions. Despite that however they somehow found the will to keep coming. This until one of Gaul's Death Knights and a squad of its Zombie Squires managed to intercept them. Neia immediately stopped her skill, not wanting to risk the reduced accuracy caused by Gatling Arrow leading to friendly fire. Instead, she switched to using her normal skill with a bow to support the undead squad with precise shots whenever the opportunity arose.
Not that the undead need much help. The archer thought as she put an arrow through one of the Fighters' eyes as the rest were either hacked to pieces by the Death Knight or torn apart by the Zombie Squires.
With that threat eliminated, Neia turned to Gaul to see that he'd entered into a duel with the Drow Wizard. Judging by the traces of destruction that surrounded both their positions, they'd already traded a fair number of spells already. With the Drow currently sending a frigid blast of freezing white air streaking towards Gaul who casually shielded himself his familiar Shell Barrier. Even as the power of the Drow's spell, a Ray of Frost if Neia was remembering what she'd learned of arcane magic correctly, was still permeating the air around Gaul's barrier, he counterattacked.
"Chain Dragon Lightning!" He shouted in annoyance at what the archer could only assume was a needlessly drawn out duel.
Well, Gaul that's what you get when you decide to play with your food. The Paladin of Ainz Ooal Gown thought with a shake of her head, even as she absently shot an arrow through the head of a Kuo-toan harpooner who had been trying to take advantage of her apparent distraction to line up a shot.
Glancing away from her latest kill back towards magical duel, she was just in time to see the Lung Dragon shaped lightning bolt that Gaul conjured finish reducing his opponent into a smoking, charred corpse before it slithered through the air to strike a dozen or so other enemy combatants. The holes this single spell created in the line of the Drow forces defending their enclave were large enough for the undead to shatter it with a single decisive push.
"Should we help them finish off the Drow?" Neia asked, as she took out a Drow crossbowman as he reloaded his weapon. "Or move on?"
Gaul shrugged even as he silently cast Undeath Army and raised the surrounding corpses into Skeletons. "Either is fine with me."
"Then let's go see if the other need help."
"Lead on then."
If any group needed help it was not Yorha and Kuro. They were marching through the heart of the Kuo-toa city largely unimpeded. Thanks to ample feeding since its rescue Kuro when he assumed his true form was now a large sized creature, thus expanding to his full size he charged through the enemy ranks using it and his destructiveness to easily roll over any opposition.
He was not invincible however and as he and Yorha discovered, he was vulnerable to magical attacks. She thus took it upon herself to take out the handful of magic casters that were brave enough to attempt to stop them.
Such as the trio of Drow Wizards trying to take Kuro down with Fiery Bolts while guarded by a squad of Drow Fighters.
"Is this really what the Drow call skill?" Yorha commented derisively as she easily dealt with the Wizards' guards and advanced on them herself.
"S-Stay away!" One of the Drow, a young female said. "You two stop her!"
The other two Drows, both males, shot the female a disgusted look but nevertheless obeyed and prepared to send spells Yorha's way.
"Sword Blitz." The android swordswoman said as she activated her skill.
Using her skill, she raced forward so fast that to an outsider it looked like she'd teleported from her current position to one just behind the female Drow wizard. Swinging her sword to the side to toss the layer of dark elven blood that covered it, Yorha walked away even as the three Wizards dropped dead behind her.
She was just in time to see Kuro recoil from being shocked by bolts of lightning.
Who dares hurt him! Yorha thought as she surveyed the area for the source of the electric attack whilst simultaneously cutting down a pack of Kuo-toan Fighters that were trying to attack her with a single Grasscutter Sword.
The suicidal rush of the googlers did reveal the lightning wielders. As they fell, Yorha caught sight of the half dozen Kuo-toan priests who rather surprisingly for such weak looking creatures were responsible for the lightning shocking Kuro.
They were too far away for a Sword Blitz and it was still on cooldown besides, so the swordswoman instead chose to rush towards them the conventional way. With her holofield active, she looked like an evermoving blur that danced across the battlefield as she rapidly closed the distance, slaying anyone or anything that stood in her way. Egged on by Kuro's visible pain as he writhed under the lightning that continued to strike him.
When Yorha finally got close enough, she leapt into the air and landed right in the middle of the cluster of the Kuo-toan priests with her Masamune firmly planted in the head of the googler whose body she'd used to cushion her landing.
"Sword Bloom!"
Her skill conjured a host of energy blades in a vaguely flower like arrangement, blades that prompted proceeded to impale the closest enemy. Since she was in the center of the group of googler priests, this meant them. Thus within moments the entire group were reduced to corpses.
"Kuro," Yorha shouted to her pet as she pulled her nodachi out of the corpse. "Eat up and heal."
The Slime's response was immediate as he extended a forest of pseudopods from his body to scoop up the many corpses around him to fuel his regeneration.
Good boy. Yorha thought with satisfaction as she looked around for anyone else she could kill to feed her pet.
Yorha would have limited luck in her search as most of the city's residents had by this point fled to the city center. A circumstance that Drau, Falgrim and Taana were finding very vexing as it forced them to fight their way through the mobs of Kuo-toa trying to hold them at bay as they make their way to the temple at the heart of the city. The temple was a large ziggurat constructed within a shallow pool encircled by stones shaped liked the seats and stairs of a crude amphitheater. Around it, menfish priests were hastily performing some kind of ritual. One complete with the live sacrifices of sapients.
"Whatever they're doing we need to stop them." Drau said as she gunned down dozens of Kuo-toa with her plasma carbine.
"Easier said than done!" Flagrim shouted back as he barely evaded being ensnared by a net thrown by a googler and slammed Doomhammer down on the head of another. "There's too many of them in the way."
"Arc of Lightning!" Taana cast, targeting two very distant targets and causing a line of electricity to arc between them, killing both and striking a number standing between them as well. It took out at least two dozen Kuo-toans, either through death or debilitating injury, but it was not nearly enough.
"There goes my last AOE spell." Taana bemoaned as she parried a spear thrust at her with her sword and using skill drilled into her by Falgrim spun closer to her attacker to jab Joltfang into its neck before slitting it in one smooth motion. "It didn't even do much good."
That girl is getting pretty damned skilled. Drau noted with some pride as she blasted apart a Kuo-toan trying to backstab the Shadar-kai, before she sidestepped another of the googlers trying to do the same to her who she rewarded with a plasma round to its head. Though there's still a ways to go.
Turning away from Taana, whose back was now being covered by a squad of the Skeletons that they'd brought with them in their push to the town center, the oldest of Ainz Ooal Gown's avatars saw as Neia and Gaul rushed over to help along with a sizable number of the latter's undead. The ranks of which kept growing as the necromancer raised more and more minions. Not far behind them were Yorha and Kuro, the former of which was rather ironically riding the latter as a mount in an inversion of their usual practice.
Good. We're all together. Time to make the final push. Drau thought as mowed down ever more Kuo-toa with her carbine.
As she turned her attention to the temple to plan just how they'd managed said final push however she was horrified to see that the Kuo-toan ritual had reached a climax and the air became filled with an oppressive weight of raw power. Slowly but rapidly growing in speed and size, a whirlpool began to form just in front of the temple. A maelstrom that sucked in the Kuo-toan priests that had conjured it as well as the many other googlers that had been seated around the ziggurat's amphitheater joining their prayers to the ritual. From the heart of this watery vortex rose a massive twenty feet tall nude Human female with an articulated shell covering her shoulders, a crayfish head and crayfish's claws. It was so tall that the newly summoned creature's head was scraping the roof of the cavern.
"Shit!" Taana cursed, expressing what she was fairly sure was the opinions of everyone in the party at the sight of the thing the Kuo-toa had summoned.
"Is that what I think it is?" Gaul asked, surprisingly calm despite the situation.
"Yeah," Neia said nervously. "That's an avatar of Blibdoolpoolp, the Kuo-toa's goddess."
"Who dares threaten the children of Blibdoolpoolp!?" The divine avatar bellowed, causing every member in the party to flinch even as her Kuo-toan subjects cheered.
Cheers that were drowned out by the fickle goddess' next action. "Die!"
With that one ominous declaration, Blibdoolpoolp swung one of its claws and conjured a tidal wave out of nowhere. Kuo-toa were able swimmers but even they could not swim against the awesome currents of the tsunami and were swept away by their goddess' wrath. In the face of which, the party stood no chance.
Taana was no exception and was sent hurtling through the water by the powerful wave. She was not entirely helpless though as for the first time since joining the party, she used one of the runes Master Falgrim had stitched into her armor outside of practice.
Activating the Minor Rune of the Spider by channeling some of her magic through the section of glove where it'd been stitched in, she burned one of the rune's four charges to gain the ability to cling to surfaces. Once she was sure it was active, she promptly reached for the nearest stalagmite and once secure, began climbing out of the water.
I hope that my Mage Armor spell and the Minor Runes of Defense Master Falgrim put on my clothing and armor holds up. Really wishing I could use the Stone Body or Iron Body spells though.
Unfortunately for Taana, she had not been able to obtain the arcane material component needed for either transmutation spells. They along with Haste and Mage Armor were among the handful of spells in the Tome of Lightning Magic not linked directly to the electric element. Thankfully, her Mage Armor and Minor Runes of Defense proven enough even though she was struck by various objects throughout her climb, allowing Taana to make it above the waterline of the flood after only suffering a few bruisers.
Quickly surveying her surroundings, she sought out her family amid the devastation of the flooded Kuo-toa city. Much to her relief they were all okay.
Yorha, Kuro and Drau had managed to outrun the wave to make it to the high ground offered by a rocky outcropping. Neia and Gaul had weathered the wave inside a barrier created by his Shell Barrier spell. And last but definitely not least, Master Falgrim had taken the same route that Taana had and used the Minor Rune of the Spider to grab hold of something, in his case it was a particularly well built tower, and climb out of the water.
"Hit her!" Drau shouted. "Hit her avatar with everything we have!"
"You think that'll be enough, you insignificant fools?" Blibdoolpoolp's avatar taunted. "But very well. I'm feeling generous. Try and feel despair when you discover how powerless you truly are!"
We'll show you powerless! Taana thought angrily as she cast the most powerful of her remaining prepared spells. "Ball Lightning!"
Her balls of lightning joined the barrage of attacks sent hurtling towards Blibdoolpoolp's avatar by all the ranged capable members of the party.
"Monster Slaying Arrow." Neia said shooting an arrow charged with mystical energy.
"Triplet Maximize Magic: Reality Slash." Gaul cast, sending three tears in reality itself screaming towards the avatar.
"Beast Cutter." Yorha shouted as she slashed her sword and sent an energy blade flying towards their enemy.
Drau meanwhile fired shot after shot, as quickly as she could, at the avatar's head.
Distantly, Taana heard Master Falgrim bemoan his inability to help. She was too distracted by her mounting horror as one by one her family's attacks failed to cause any damage to comfort him. She'd expected her spell to be useless. She knew how weak she was compared to the others. But she hadn't expected Blibdoolpoolp to completely ignore the armor piercing shots from Drau's rifle or Gual's powerful spell or Yorha and Neia's deadly skills. Yet she did.
"That is the best you can do? It barely tickled." The monstrous divine avatar said with a chuckle. "Let me show you what a real attack feels like."
With this Blibdoolpoolp waved one of its claws again, conjuring another tidal wave. One even bigger than the last. Waving her other claw, the divine avatar sent the wave hurtling towards them.
We're doomed! Taana lamented as she saw her watery doom coming towards her at high speed.
"No! Not on my watch!" Drau screamed suddenly as she leapt into the air and was enshrouded in a brilliant white light.
When the light faded, it revealed that their leader had transformed into a Dragon with a serpentine body, a pair of large wings and covered in scales that radiated a sky blue like color except for her abdomen region which was a brillant white. She was so huge, even bigger than Blibdoolpoolp's avatar, that she barely fit inside the cavern.
Thus despite having originally been standing hundreds of feet from the incoming wave, post-transformation it was seconds from hitting Drau. Seconds were more than enough however and she unleashed a chilling breath weapon that froze the entire wave turning it into a single massive ice sculpture. Even as the cold continued to spread and froze the water flooding the city.
"Y-You are- His- Ainz Ooal Gown's-" Blibdoolpoolp muttered as she recoiled from Drau's draconic form in visible shock.
"Yes, we are his champions." Drau replied, flapping her wings once to shatter the wall of ice she'd created to provide a clearer view of Blibdoolpoolp.
"My deepest apologies then," Blibdoolpoolp said with an apologetic bow. "I did not know. I will take my followers and leave now. Farewell!"
Before anyone could say or do anything, the avatar along with any Kuo-toa, dead or alive, in sight vanished.
"Well, that happened." Drau noted as with another burst of light, she returned to the form they were all familiar, scratching her head in confusion.
Is that all you can say Drau!? You just transformed into a Dragon and scared away a god's avatar!
Taana exchanged a nervous look with Master Falgrim. What had happened was just insane. Getting a goddess to flee and even apologize while doing so just for fighting another god's champions!? Just what kind of god was Ainz Ooal Gown to inspire such terrified respect from his fellow deities?
They wouldn't get answer hanging to the side of a stalagmite, so she climbed down to the frozen ground thankful that the Minor Rune of Enduring worked into her clothes kept her from suffering from the supernatural chill that now permeated the area.
My runes sure are proving useful today. Then again today is probably the most intense fight we've had so far.
Not even her fight against the Illithid Psion when that scout party had ambushed them in the ruined Drow outpost had she been in as much danger. It was only now that she was in extreme danger that she had need of them.
"Drau are you actually a Dragon?" Taana asked warily as she and Master Falgrim made it over to their leader.
It was an important question indeed. Dragons on Laerakond were notorious for their evil nature, especially the chromatic dragons which Drau's draconic form greatly resembled.
"Yes," Drau admitted. "Thanks to the YGGDRASIL system I managed to evolve into a Dragon. But I'm not any Dragon you and Falgrim would be familiar with."
"What's that mean exactly?" Master Falgrim asked warily.
"Just what I said. I'm a Felmidian dragon." The Dragon explained. "We don't follow the same rules as those you'd find here on Toril."
"Mind explaining the differences."
"Sure. But after we mop up the place alright?" Drau said, gesturing to the largely empty city. "Blibdoolpoolp took her Kuo-toa with her but I'm thinking there's still plenty of enemies around. Even after the flooding. If we survived, we have to assume at least some of our enemies did too."
"And surviving slaves to set free." Neia added as she and the others made their way over.
"Why don't we go handle the mop up." Yorha suggested, gesturing at Neia, Gaul, Kuro and herself. "Then Drau can explain herself."
Drau shot the android a betrayed look but didn't countermand her suggestion.
"Fine," she said with a defeated sigh. "Let's do things your way."
Gaul chuckled at the exchange as Yorha led them off into the city to start mopping it up.
"Now as I was saying-"
Done!
I finally get to show off Falgrim (and a much lesser extent Taana's as well) skills with runes. I've been struggling the last few chapters thinking of how to do it but never came up with a good one mainly because any effect the runes Falgrim can cause are outdone by spells or skills the other members of the party can pull off. Thankfully, I came up with a solution to that problem. Was it alright? Do let me know.
As for why Blibdoolpoolp only recognized that she was facing avatars of Ainz Ooal Gown when Drau transformed into one of her draconic forms, please do keep in mind that Drau and her siblings are meant to not be recognizable. They are meant to fit in and let him explore the world. If they advertise what they truly were to everyone who can tell, then the experience would be marred to a considerable degree. However, certain displays of power on their part, like Drau assuming a draconic form, makes it impossible to hide the connection.
You might be asking why Blibdoolpoolp fled so quickly after learning the truth. Just go reread what Ainz has accomplished so far since he arrived in Realmspace. No one, not even gods, want to upset someone capable of such feats.
Well that's it for me today, so till next time abschied!
