"It's not the end
It's not the end
It's false jeopardy
Every little pin it made
Hollowed out the daylight
I won't be let down…"
As the party left the laboratory, Del laid a shaking hand on Scion's shoulder. Though he himself was a mess for entirely different reasons, he wanted to at least try offering his friend some comfort. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I didn't know how bad it was, what she did to you. Let me know if you ever want to talk about it."
He realized he'd probably laid the sympathy on too thick, bordering on pity - but the dragonborn's scarlet eyes echoed that pity right back at him. "By the time I'm ready to talk about it, you'll be gone. No offense, but I don't think you'll be around in your current form much longer."
Del tried to crack a smile. "So I look that bad, huh? But don't worry. I should still be me on the inside, even after I turn into a mind flayer. The Emperor did something that will help me keep my memories."
Scion's blood-streaked face relaxed into a relieved expression. "That's good to hear. I barely know you, but… I'd miss you. Now I see why you like this Emperor fellow. Maybe I should seek him out, see if he can do anything with my own memories. There's something big here that I'm missing. I have history with these people, but what…"
He trailed off when the group came to another door. They could hear faint voices coming from behind it, but the sound was nearly drowned out by the dull roar building inside of each of their heads. Everyone else could feel it now, not just Del. They all grimaced simultaneously as the sensation made their tadpoles squirm.
"We've found it," the Emperor murmured inside Del's head. "The Absolute is behind this door."
They had hoped to enter unnoticed, or at least have some time to plan their approach, but the fleshy lobes of the doorway parted automatically in response to their presence.
"Well, I guess there's no turning back now," Shadowheart muttered.
Karlach, meanwhile, had gone stiff as a board. Del couldn't tell if it was her engine overloading or his own eyes playing tricks on him, but the tiefling's entire body glowed red-hot with shock and rage.
"Gortash?!" she said in disbelief, twin wisps of steam puffing from each of her ears as she clapped a hand over her own mouth to stop herself from yelling loud enough for the man in question to hear. Her next words issued in a half-whisper from between gritted teeth. "What's that motherfucker doing here?"
Del peered through the doorway to get a better look at the man whose very presence here had upset his friend so badly.
Three figures stood at the center of the large chamber in front of a large pool of liquid. One of them was Ketheric Thorm - ah, so that was where the bastard had fled to! - and the younger man in an oversized black robe with a flair for the dramatic must be the Gortash that Karlach was talking about. The third figure was a woman, slim and golden-haired, but that was where any resemblance to a fair damsel ended. Her skin was corpse-pale, perfectly matching her eerie white pupil-less eyes. She wore some kind of body-hugging red armor that looked more like a scorpion's carapace, and brandished a wicked-looking curved dagger as she spoke.
"Who's Gortash?" Del asked in a whisper as he peered around the edges of the doorway, trying to observe the scene inside the chamber. The people inside were still too engrossed in what sounded like an argument to notice their presence.
"I used to work for him!" Karlach sounded like she was about to go into hysterics. "At least, until that fucker turned around and sold me to Zariel. But he's from Baldur's Gate - what's he doing all the way out here? Ugh, I should've known he was involved in this shit somehow…"
"I know you're upset, darling - but if you hush for a minute, we may find out just how he's involved here," Astarion shushed her.
Del strained forward, trying to hear the exchange of words.
"What do you mean , Scion's here?" the woman shrieked suddenly. "I took care of that unworthy beast months ago! Left him dead on the ground with his brain juices leaking, then threw the meat-sack into the Oubliette for good measure. It should be crawling with grave-worms by now."
Now Scion's rage flared up alongside Karlach's, and it was all Del could do to prevent both of them from rushing in to confront their respective enemies.
"Just wait a minute," Del urged them. "We don't know what's going on. Maybe we can learn something here."
"I know them," Scion said, his pale tongue darting out like a lizard's to taste the air. "Both. If. Could only remember…"
"Calm yourself, Orin," Ketheric said heavily. "The former Chosen is no threat to you. I doubt he even remembers his own name."
"Tricksy slaughter-kin," Orin hissed. "Let me finish him, then! If a hole in the head wasn't enough, then this time I'll carve out both its eyes and eat its still-beating heart…"
"No!" Gortash snapped before she'd finished describing what she wanted to do to Scion. "There's no time for that - you're needed elsewhere. Go ahead of us and escort the brain to Baldur's Gate. And Ketheric, you know your part. Clean up the mess you've made here with the invaders, then gather your army. And chin up, will you? Try not to look so glum. You're supposed to be the conquering general, marching to invade the city."
"And where are you going, little tyrant?" Orin grinned maliciously, leaning in close to Gortash. "You didn't include yourself in these pretty little plans of yours. Am I to lead the murdermarch to Baldur's Grave alone?"
"None of your business!" Gortash's voice was strained and oddly defensive. He raised a hand as if to strike her, but Orin blurred into motion and within a moment her blade was at his throat. The two of them stood frozen for a moment in a tableau of repressed violence before Gortash broke the standoff. "Hurry now," he said in a low voice as his eyes flicked back toward the entryway. "Get the Brain and go. We have company."
Ketheric and Orin followed Gortash's gaze, seeing Del and his companions for the first time. Suddenly they were all business, their personal quarrels forgotten.
"The lash of Bhaal!" Orin cried out, raising her crimson knife aloft as a gemstone set into its hilt began to glow brightly.
"The edict of Bane!" Gortash added, raising his gold-gauntleted hand to reveal a similar-looking purple gem set into its wrist.
"The testament of Myrkul," Ketheric boomed, almost as an afterthought, and a green stone set into the chestplate of his armor glowed in synchrony with the other two.
"What is this magic?" Gale whispered in amazement as the surface of the pool behind the three figures began to ripple. "The sheer power of it!"
The ripples turned into waves, and something enormous rose from the dark depths of the liquid. It was a massive brain, shining so brightly with psionic energy to Del's emerging senses that he had to look away. Which, of course did nothing - the Elder Brain's presence was still there just as strongly in his mind's eye.
"Is that… the Crown of Karsus?" The urgency in Gale's tone made Del look back at him. If the wizard was amazed before, now he was truly awed by the glowing crown that sat incongruously atop the wrinkles and folds of the Elder Brain's frontal lobe. "Just look at it! It radiates power unlike anything I've ever seen."
Del wanted to ask what the Crown of Karsus was, but it was all he could do to stay standing. A wave of dizziness washed over him, and the engorged tadpole in his head squirmed frantically as it recognized its master.
Temporary salvation arrived in the unlikely form of Orin, who raised her knife higher, aiming the glowing gemstone at the brain, and said some kind of incantation. With a flash of spellglow, both she and the enormous brain were gone.
"No!" Karlach cried out, seeing their chance to destroy the Absolute literally vanish before her eyes.
Gortash, too, disappeared a moment later, though Del didn't think he'd gone to the same place as Orin. It felt as if his presence was lingering here somehow, but Del couldn't put a finger on it. Was he really gone?
But Del didn't have long to think about Gortash's whereabouts. With the brain and his two mysterious allies gone, Ketheric Thorm's attention was now solely focused on the intruders that had entered his chamber.
Del was no stranger to violence and pain, but this was one of the most brutally difficult fights of his life. Even when he was an adventurer facing monsters ten times his size; even when he was a thrall in Oryndoll being forced to fight in the arena without armor; even in all the battles to date during this quest to destroy the Absolute… He'd never experienced anything quite like this. And ironically enough, the reason for his difficulty had nothing to do with their enemy.
Oh, Ketheric was definitely a worthy opponent, especially considering that he faced a party of six alone. The odds were further stacked against the General once Karlach and Shadowheart managed to free Aylin, who Ketheric had trapped in an arcane cage at the back of the chamber. But Ketheric summoned a dozen undead minions to defend himself, each of which was far more powerful than the skeletons Kressa and Maghtew had conjured earlier.
No, the main reason Del was struggling was his impending ceremorphosis. Due to the Absolute's influence, his symptoms had resurfaced earlier than the Emperor's promised twelve to twenty four hours, and it was nearly impossible to fight effectively when his body felt like it was falling apart every time he moved. Del's reaction time was far slower than it usually was, and his greatsword seemed to weigh a ton.
At some point during the battle, one of Ketheric's undead servants got ahold of Del's hair, grabbing his dreadlocks in a skeletal grip. Del raised his sword to chop through its bony arm, only to find that he was already free and the skeletal warrior was holding an entire section of Del's hair in his hand.
Things only devolved further from there. He caught a blow across the face from another skeleton's mace that left him spitting out teeth, and after that it became harder and harder to tell the difference between injuries suffered in battle and further symptoms of ceremorphosis.
At one point he looked up briefly in between opponents, seeking a momentary break from his misery... And met the yellow eyes of a single illithid that had appeared in the corner of the room. It floated silently high above the action, not making a move to help either Ketheric or Del's party. Del was reminded of how Eldriss used to watch his fights in the arena, and the sight drove him to dive into battle once more - though he couldn't tell whether it was due to inspiration or anger at how the thing just floated there smugly as if it were above all their petty mortal squabbles.
Del's view of their silent watcher soon changed when a moment of distraction led to his near-decapitation by yet another undead servant. Right before its blade met the flesh of Del's neck, the zombie flew backwards, thrown all the way into the brine pool by a force that felt more like telekinesis than magic.
"...Thank you?" Del thought up at the watching illithid, not seeing who else could have done this, since his companions were all otherwise occupied chasing down more skeletons or trying to land a blow against Ketheric himself.
"The battlefield is no place for you at the moment," was all the mind flayer said before slowly drifting backwards into the shadows.
Del wanted to see where it went, but his attention was drawn back to the center of the chamber. At that moment, Dame Aylin finally sank her glowing blade through Ketheric Thorm's armor and deep into his withered heart.
"No…" General Thorm said hoarsely as dark blood bubbled up from between his lips. "I cannot… die…" He pitched forward, but as he hit the ground his words were proven to be more than just the ramblings of a dying man in denial of his own mortality.
A chill wind whipped up around the chamber, making everyone shiver as they were touched by the necrotic energy bubbling up from Ketheric's corpse. A caul of shadow lay thickly over the limp body of the General, and they watched it grow rapidly, expanding from around the corpse to cover thrice the area in mere moments.
Everyone jumped back, clearing the area. Even Dame Aylin faltered, unsure of what new trick Ketheric was playing from beyond the grave.
And then the shadow rose. As it did, it quickly solidified, turning into an enormous skeletal figure standing as high above the brine pool as the Elder Brain had floated earlier.
"What in the Hells is that thing?" Karlach voiced the thought in all their minds. "I thought it was over!"
But unfortunately for Del and his party, the battle was not yet over. They now fought an avatar of Myrkul himself, as Shadowheart and Gale deduced in frantic shouts across the battlefield while trying to find a strategy that would work to take down a being possessing this amount of sheer power.
Del tried to join in the battle, but his weapons did little against the gigantic entity. As he drew back to try slashing at it from another angle, he was hit with a wave of necrotic energy that slammed him backwards onto the blood-slick floor and made his heart falter in his chest for a moment. He tried to get up and rejoin his friends, but found that between his wounds and the blast from the Myrkul-thing, he was now barely able to move. It was all he could do to slowly drag himself backwards in an attempt to stay out of the crossfire.
As Del lay on the ground gasping for breath, he was the only one to notice when the man called Gortash suddenly appeared right behind Scion.
Del's earlier instinct had been right - Gortash had never really left the room. He must have turned invisible and hidden somewhere this whole time, not even making a move to help Ketheric as his ally had fallen. Scion seemed unaware of his presence, taking down undead minions and occasionally trying to land a hit on the Myrkul-thing itself, just as Del had been doing before he'd been hit with the death magic.
Gortash crept up behind Scion, muttering the words of a spell under his breath as the golden gauntlets on his hands began to glow.
Del tried to call out and warn the white dragonborn, but his voice faltered in a gurgle of blood as he spit out yet another tooth. So instead he spoke telepathically. "Scion! Behind you!"
Scion whirled around, sword in hand, but it was already too late. Gortash clasped his hands around Scion's shoulders, and the dragonborn went rigid for a moment, then fell to the ground. Some kind of paralysis spell?
"Ah, my dear Slayer…" Gortash crooned, leaning down to caress Scion's cheek possessively as the immobile dragonborn glared up at him in impotent rage. "You'll thank me for this, once you come to your senses."
Then the tyrant straightened up and locked eyes with Del, who had struggled up onto his hands and knees and begun to painstakingly crawl toward them.
"He's mine, you worm," Gortash gloated. "I'm taking him back and never letting him out of my sight again. And when he remembers his true heritage, he'll kill all your little friends here. I'd say he'd kill you too, but…" the man's face twisted into a sadistic smile. He covered the distance from Scion to Del in three strides, then raised his black-booted foot high and deliberately stamped it down onto Del's outstretched hand. "What's the point? You're already dead."
There was an audible crunch as the bones in Del's right hand broke and their fragments crunched together. Del pulled his hand back the moment he could, cradling it to his body as the white-hot stabbing pain forced him fully to the ground once more. He tried to clear his head enough to warn the others, but by the time he came to his senses, Gortash was back with Scion once more. He laid his gauntlet on the dragonborn's unmoving body and spoke a brief two-word incantation.
And just like that - just as Shadowheart let loose a glorious beam of radiance that seemed more Selûnite than Sharran in origin to strike a final blow against the Avatar of Myrkul - Gortash and Scion vanished into thin air.
Author's Note: I know, I know, another cliffhanger... Poor Scion, we may not see him for a while. But Gort gotta Gort, ya know?