In these strange planes

by The pen or The sword

Ainz Ooal Gown finds himself stranded in a strange new world, can he ever make it home? What new adventures await him in this alien yet familiar land

7. Chapter 7

Fezzerk couldn't keep the grin from his face as he dug into a haunch of dwarf, the raid on the village had been far easier than he expected, they'd even caught a wandering caravan on its way through. Ever since swearing his fealty to the absolute everything had been coming up Fezzerk.

The mark burned into his face still ached but the authority, the power it offered over the lesser swine following the absolute made it well worth it. Brek was positioned to the east with another horde of goblins to shite to remember the names of, they were waiting for some ogres that were meant to help with the raid. He wondered if it'd be a problem if they'd all but cleared the town already.

Hopefully, Slice would find some stragglers hiding for the ogres to devour, stupid bastards could be a pain to deal with when they couldn't eat or kill.

He'd left his own group to finish gathering what they could from the caravan while he enjoyed his dwarf meat, perks of leadership. He'd left Grock in charge to make sure the idiots didn't get themselves killed somehow.

The absolute must have been smiling upon him as he spotted a gnome trying to weasel his way through a hole in one of the walls. After knocking him on the head and tying him up he wasn't sure how to kill the bastard.

It seemed a right waste to kill him without having some fun, they could give him to the ogres when they arrived…Though as the thought entered his mind his gaze shifted to the slowly turning windmill as a devious idea filled his mind. Chucking the rest of the meat to the side for now he quickly slung the gnome over his shoulder.

It took longer than he'd like to admit but he'd managed to stop the windmill long enough to get the gnome secured to the blade, though the annoying bastard had woken up before he was done and he'd had to knock him on the head again.

Slapping his hands together to remove the nonexistent dust he couldn't control his grin as he climbed up the back of the tower and threw the lever. The despairing cries of the gnome informed him he hadn't knocked the bastard's brains out with that last strike. They had a funny little birdie they could teach to fly.

Satisfied with his good work, Fezzerk returned to his previous spot to retrieve the now slightly dirty dwarf's haunch, propped himself on a rock, and began throwing pebbles at the screaming gnome, the cries of pain pleasing to the ear.

His peaceful musings were interrupted by shouting, he dropped the meat to the floor with a reluctant sigh, he'd really wanted to finish it. From around a bend, a panicked Grock appeared, tripping over his own feet as he crashed to the ground, before quickly scrambling to his feet. As he drew nearer he could make out the goblin's body was stained a dark red and the scent of copper filled the air. The idiot tried to run past him but he quickly grabbed the fool by the front of his blood-soaked armor.

"DA fucks wrong with ya? Where are the others? What'd you morons do" Fezzerk growled as he shook the idiot? With the amount of blood on him someone had to be dead, likely several someones and he'd have to answer for it if he lost too many of the bastards.

"There's a monster! I saw it in the trees, so one of the boys took a shot… It didn't go down! Next thing I knew three of our boys were torn open," Grok growled back shoving Fezzercks hands off him. He gasped for air, still out of breath.

"Well, what happened to the others? There were thirty of you!"

"We tried! We stabbed and shot, only time we seemed to hurt it was when one of the boys used fire! I told them to keep it busy while I ran to get help"

"...Fine! Go get Brek and Slice! Hopefully, the ogres got here…" Fezzerk stopped the sounds of shouting and bodies hitting the ground emerging from down the road, he shoved Grock to get him moving, pulling his blade from his back and offering a prayer to the absolute for strength he prepared himself to face the coming beast.

---

Momonga felt his annoyance growing as they wandered eastward from the druidic grove, on one hand, he was relieved things had not come to blows, but after a rather intense shouting match Laltors timely intervention led to another of their mind connections finally convinced the blade of the frontiers that Karlach was not the demon he'd been lead to believe.

The man had all but fallen silent since that realization lagging at the back of the group, the look in his eye was familiar to Momonga, the look of a man who knew he was soon to be punished for his mistake and had no path out. A sad if not uncommon sight during office work in his old world. What it was the man was so worried about was beyond Momongas knowledge sadly and he seemed less than inclined to share.

After the brief confrontation, Shadowheart explained they were planning to investigate the goblin camp to the east. Lae'zel had seemed annoyed but Astarion had stepped forward with a map he seemingly hadn't paid for if Gale's annoyed glare said anything and pointed out the goblin camp was seemingly on the way to where a Githyanki patrol had been spotted.

This was all well and fine, the idea of meeting goblins had brought to mind the two horns sitting in his inventory even. No, the issue was far more…Mundane, that was their speed. The sun was beginning to shift to evening and it felt like they'd barely made any progress.

Perhaps it was unfair of Momonga to be so irritated by the slow pace, as an undead he could not experience fatigue and was far more used to flying than walking but that logic did nothing to still the irritation brewing in his heart.

The party almost seemed to emphasize this point as they broke for lunch, despite the annoyance Lae'zel seemed to show for wasting more time. They found a small clearing not far off the trail they'd been following with some fallen logs and stumps. Strangely despite the seemingly fresh cuts, there was no sign of the land being worked and the logs were left where they'd fallen. The group was slightly on guard but figured it was safe enough after a brief investigation.

As they stopped they began passing around dried meats and food from their bags as they settled across the fallen logs, Momonga sighed. Not for the first time over the last hours he considered casting [mass fly] if only to end his torment but he wasn't quite comfortable enough to reveal such a spell to them.

The party had split into groups and began discussing among themselves about an elderly woman with a strange golem, how they would handle the goblins, even Wyll broke from his somber mood to boast of a story where he'd bested a werewolf that had been harassing a group of gnomes.

Pushing his questions about the werebeast to later Momonga pondered his predicament. It would be so easy if they knew his necromantic leanings, he could create soul eaters for them to ride, or headless undead horses. Alas, he suspected such creatures would raise questions he'd rather not deal with. His mind wandered to the Statue of Animal - War Horse in his inventory, the item would create a large golem horse with incredibly high strength and agility. Alas without a carriage of some form, they'd be unable to carry everyone even with its large size.

Momonga briefly pondered the idea of using [Create Magic Item] to create such a thing, he'd only tested it a bit but the spell's usage seemed greatly expanded from its uses in game.

His ponderings were interrupted by a red fist holding out a chunk of dried meat to his masked face.

"Aye, you hungry? I might not have much but I got a good bit of jerky out of that toll house and it doesn't taste like leather or dog so…" Karlach offered with a goofy grin, seeming to draw the eyes of their companions. For a moment Momonga almost let his irritation overcome his senses before the cool rationality wiped away the majority of his annoyance. Not for the first time his undead nature was truly a blessing as much as a curse.

"I must refuse, my religion does not allow me to eat in the presence of others within a fortnight of taking a life, I shall eat tonight in private" Momonga answered, praying the strange intricacies of this land's religions would offer him sanctuary.

"That's…an odd belief," Karlach said with a shrug as she began tearing into the jerky in her hand like a ravenous animal.

"Hardly the strangest, you know there is a group called the Kuo toa that make their own gods? They've got intrinsic magic and funnel through their beliefs, it's quite a fascinating process" Gale's words seemed to lead the curiosity of the others away from his made-up religion. Momonga thanked the man in his heart as his gaze shifted over the party, their packs were open and held close.

An idea struck him, while he couldn't accelerate their travel without revealing more of his magic he could give them items, he could use said items to hunt the group down should they attempt another vanishing act, and unless they intentionally destroyed them he could always take them back.

The only question was would it stand out too much in these lands? What would stand out less, flight magic or…

He could always take back the items, he could not so easily take back them learning more of his magic, from the perspective of information, the items were the smaller sacrifice and would save them several breaks in the future. They weren't particularly valuable either. Mind made up Momonga reached into his sleeve and retrieved it.

"Ahem, I noticed you seemed a bit exhausted and I understand we've not been on the best terms, so I figured I'd offer a peace offering" Momonga explained as he stepped toward the center of the group holding out a knapsack in his extended hand as he faced Gale.

He had chosen to offer it to the wizard for two reasons, one, the party's main reason they were leery of him was his interaction with Gale and the brain eater thus logically he was the one he should target to make peace. The second reason was if anyone here would recognize the gift for its equivalent in this land it would be him.

"Ah, a bag how…Wait is it? It is!" Gale seemed quite pleased as he took the bag into his hand and reached into it, the others seemed surprised as his entire arm vanished into the bag that was too small for it.

"A bag of holding? You should have mentioned it sooner, this will make our lives far easier" Astarion cheered without even waiting for Gale to remove his hand he yanked the open bag to his side and dropped his backpack in.

Laltor took the bag and rather unceremoniously upended the entirety of it into the magical rucksack.

"Why did you…Why did you have a dead squirrel in there?" Wyll blinked owlishly.

Instead of responding Laltor simply returned the bag to Gale wordlessly. Momonga himself was a bit interested, storing bodies in the bags wasn't something he'd ever tried to do in Yggdrasil. In general if one needed to harvest a creature's parts they'd do it where they killed it. Or in the rare cases where there was risk of someone else coming along to steal the loot they'd teleport the body elsewhere. Shoving the entire thing into an infinite backpack wasn't a feature of Yggdrasil as far as he was aware. Similarly, you couldn't store bodies in your inventory. It seemed that restriction might not hold true here.

"Yes, it should be able to negate five hundred pounds if I remember it correctly, more than enough for all our bags," Gale explained seemingly deciding it was best to ignore the lizardman's random squirrel.

With an excited grin, he examined the bag, though there was some confusion in his eyes as he lifted and dropped the magical item experimentally.

"Ah good, they're not too uncommon in these lands then, though…Hmmm unless my memory fails me the infinite backpack can hold five hundred kilograms, not pounds" Momonga noted, the similar number made him rather confident Gale had simply messed up the units of measurement.

"I've heard of these, always seemed a bit too expensive to me but the usefulness is hard to ignore..." Wyll explained as he emptied his pack more methodically into the bag.

"I've heard of such bags before as well, though I'd also heard five hundred pounds was their limit" Lae'zel confirmed, seemingly unwilling to place her own pack into the void.

"I had one in the hells, lost it when someone stabbed it with their dinky little saber, don't really remember the weight limit though, never seemed important" Karlach teased as she winked at Wyll, she hucked her entire bag into the void with a grin as it vanished.

"There are other varieties; they just tend to be much rarer and more expensive," Gale explained as he unpacked his backpack more carefully into the void.

"It might be better for you to empty your items individually into it, to retrieve your items you must simply think of the item while reaching into it, meaning if you want something from your pack you'll first have to take it out in its entirety" Gale noted as he handed the bag to Shadowheart, who simply shook her head refusing to place her items into it.

Momonga was reassured at Gales's explanation, in Yggdrasil the bags would essentially open a sub-menu where you could pull items from and assign items within to hotkeys. On testing it he'd found the bags seemed to function much as Gale described.

"I don't want any of you pawing through my things…Astarion" Shadowheart chastised the vampire as she went back to munching on her bread despite glaring in the Githyaki's direction.

"To be technical if you put in an object secretly or your entire bag it will be impossible for us to reach it without first pulling out your bag or essentially dumping the entire thing out" Gale assured, though Shadowheart still seemed uninterested, only placing a single parcel bulging with bread and cheese into the bag.

Momonga felt slightly awkward, he'd originally considered handing them each their own infinite backpack, he had several within his inventory and generally only bothered with them to sort his inventory more efficiently. Alas while the object was rather common in Yggdrasil it would seem to be a bit rarer in these lands and the group had immediately assumed he was only giving one. It would feel a bit awkward to start handing out more now that they'd all packed.

Lae'zel, seemingly mollified by Gale's explanation, tossed her own bag into the sack before throwing it over her shoulder, deciding she would be the one to carry it without giving the others a chance to comment.

Seemingly concluding their preparations were done the entire group rose in unison, the movement almost perfectly in sync despite the lack of verbal command. Momonga yet again pondered how much effect the maturing nematodes within their brains had. Silently he pulled out his black journal.

---

As they wandered eastward Wyll felt his spirits rising, he knew the night would likely hold his doom but the bag of holding and his companions' good spirits were pulling him from his despair. He was the blade of frontiers and whatever was to come… He could at least be sure he'd done the right thing, Karlach wasn't the demon he'd been told she was.

As they ascended a small hill he was surprised to find two figures standing over a fallen dwarf, a woman and man. The woman spun around as they drew closer, alerted by the sound of their footfalls.

"Stay back!" the young woman shouted, pulling a rather ordinary-looking mace from her back, a strange glowing symbol formed over her eye, that stirred something in Wyll's mind. The tadpole seemed to recognize the mark.

"We don't want to fight, we might be able to help if you let us take a look at your friend" Wyll bargained with his most placating grin. He'd rather not incite violence with a group clearly in need of their aid.

"Wait, they could have healers among them, Brynna!" the older man insisted as he held the wounds closed to the best of his ability.

"We can't trust them, Andrick? What if they…" Whatever Bryanna was about to say was interrupted by the dwarf on the ground.

"Wait, you, you're a True Soul, please…" The man seemed to cut off, Wyll gripped his head as a flood of information entered his mind, True Soul, find the survivors, guide the flock. Terms and ideas flowed into his mind like water.

Suddenly they stopped as the dwarf seemed to draw his last breath.

"True Soul, we're so sorry, I didn't realize" Bryanna began apologizing as she took a knee, Andrick quickly following suit. Wyll felt a bit thrown by the motion still recovering from the swirl of ideas that had been forced into his head.

"Yes, True Souls, exactly what we are right? What happened to him anyway?" Astarion interjected as he examined the large claw marks across the man's chest.

"You're…your all True Souls!? I mean…We were following the road when an owlbear attacked, we managed to scare it off but…Edowin…" Bryanna explained a tear running from her eye for her fallen comrade.

"Owlbear? It's little wonder any of you survived the encounter, they're fierce creatures at the best of times" Wyll pointed out, while he usually hunted friends and devils he'd gotten close to a few owlbears in his time, and in his experience, they were best avoided. While not inherently evil they were ferocious predators.

"An owlbear?" Momonga's voice rang out, curiosity clear in his tone.

"Aye, it was massive, we barely escaped!" Andrick answered, seemingly misunderstanding what exactly Momonga's question was.

"Where did it come from?" Wyll prodded as he pulled out the map, wanting to note the location so they could avoid it, Andrick quickly circled an area near a bridge not too far from their current position.

"Well…What do we do now, True Souls?" Bryanna questioned while Andrick was preoccupied.

"Hmmm…Well, why were you out here in the first place?" Gale questioned studiously.

"We were searching for survivors from the crashed ship, we were ordered to bring them before the True Souls in the goblin camp."

"I think it best you return to the goblin camp, report the loss of the True Soul" Wyll ordered, he wasn't sure how long his merry band could keep up the ruse of knowing what this True Soul business was and didn't want to take the risk.

"Ah…If you're sure, we'll get right on it True Soul!" Bryanna despite her nerves seemed to take his order in stride. For a moment he was tempted to call them back and travel with them. They seemed truly desperate after the loss of their leader.

"Wait, it wouldn't do you any good if you died on the way, take this, it'll hide your presence from most beasts" Momonga suddenly stepped forward holding out a simple silver ring.

"Thank you! We won't let you down, True Souls! FOR THE ABSOLUTE!" Bryanna shouted as she took the ring reverently and slipped it onto her finger, the two figures quickly vanished into the tree line seemingly taking a shortcut they knew of.

"I didn't expect such kindness from you," Gale pointed out before Wyll could voice his own surprise.

"I already gifted you all an infin…Bag of holding, is it so hard to believe I would want to help people that are clearly struggling?" Momonga challenged with a note of condescension in his voice. Wyll couldn't help but feel a bit bad about his own surprise, Momonga wasn't the kindest but he had helped and if not for him he might not have had the chance to meet Karlach and learn of the deception.

"Fair point, apologies, it's just you're rather mysterious, shall we move on?" Wyll prodded as he stowed the map in his back pocket. Resolute he'd be less judgmental of the mysterious magic caster in the future.

"Wait, there's something…wrong with the body," Lalators voice rang with intensity, he was crouched near the body and seemed stuck in deep concentration.

The body's head quickly jerked back and forth with force, lifting from the ground as something wriggled its way out from the eye socket.

The worm ascended into the air seeming to beckon the dragonborn to take it, for a moment the air seemed to still as a pale hand ripped the worm from the air.

"What are you doing?!" Lae'zel growled, pulling her blade from her back.

"Let's calm ourselves I'm sure there's a perfectly rational explanation for this," Wyll counseled peace as he pulled his saber from his side.

"It was calling out to me, to the tadpole, there's…power here, even If I can't reach it…" Lalator trailed off seemingly confused by his inability to explain what he meant.

"Hmm, I think we should calm ourselves, Laltor may I take a look at the tadpole? Perhaps I can learn why that potion failed to purify you." Momonga stepped forward, seemingly unafraid of their companions' odd behavior, his hand outstretched for the tadpole.

Laltor seemed to struggle with himself for a moment before gently placing it in the large man's gauntleted palm.

Momonga lifted it to his eye, and a mysterious blue glow flowed over the creature, whatever Momonga hoped to learn seemed to be beyond him as he sighed.

"Figures as much… I'll be keeping this," Momonga noted as he closed his fist over the offending parasite.

"What?" Laltor and Lae'zels voices rang out. Despite having different reasoning it seemed neither wished the parasite to remain where it was.

"You should destroy it, the ghaik spawn will offer us no aid, we must reach a creche and be purified!" Lae'zel practically hissed.

"No! We…We need it!" Laltor's desperation was tinged by confusion as if he wasn't sure why he wanted it.

"It seems clear to me the parasite is affecting you, whose to say it won't affect the others in our group given time? I'm the only one untouched by this affliction thus it is safest for me to carry this burden, or do you believe that you are too strong to fall to brain eater...Mindflayer influence? Are you so sure that when it reaches your hand your own nematode won't possess you to hold onto it like Laltor?" Momonga justified as he held the worm out to the other members of the party.

Wyll couldn't deny there was some logic to his words, even sitting within his palm it seemed to thrum with a quiet power, one that called to him.

"Hmm It probably is the safest, it will be out of our reach and it won't be destroyed, everyone should be happy right?" Gale prodded, with a sigh Lae'zel lowered her blade and Laltor shook off the strange compulsion as Momongas hand and parasite vanished into his sleeve.

Despite the tension, they resumed their journey even as Lae'zels eyes seemed focused on tracking Laltors movements.

---

They continued to journey eastward toward a town marked as Moon Haven on their map, though it was a little close to the area Andrick had circled as the owlbear nest.

They crossed a stone bridge littered with corpses, at first, Gale had assumed they'd fallen victim to the owlbear but the crude arrows suggested a different fate, a ransacked carriage lay on its side, and scattered among the tiefling and human corpses were a few goblins.

"Goblins? I suppose we're getting closer to that fortress we were told about," Laltor noted as he began examining the corpses with medical precision.

"And the rosemary monastery road isn't too far to the north either!" Wyll added as he noted the glare of Lae'zel and Astarion. Both of them seemed uninterested in investigating the goblin fortress.

As they progressed further along the road the bodies became exclusively goblins, and they seemed to have more grievous wounds. Gale couldn't help but take a slight step back when his foot nudged a body and caused the goblin's head to roll from the body.

"Throat was torn open, and…There's no blood left in the body" Laltor observed as he turned over another corpse.

"Well I think a great deal of it has wound up on the wall" Astarion joked though he seemed a bit perturbed as he kicked over a different corpse to reveal the head had been sliced cleanly off.

"Impressive, no normal animal has claws this sharp" Lae'zel noted as she examined a deep slash in the stone wall.

"Seems likely it was the owlbear no?" Gale offered as he glanced over the massacre. He wasn't familiar with owlbear attacks in detail but he knew they could be rather brutal from what stories he'd read.

"hmmm…Possibly" Laltor stated seemingly unsure what to make of the brutal display before them.

"Perhaps it had a cub? Mother bears were known to become rather viscous when they felt their cubs were threatened…At least that's what Blue Planet used to say" Momonga offered, Gale was pretty sure the last part wasn't meant to be heard by him but he was luckily close enough to hear the mumbled ending.

Adding yet more mystery to their mysterious friend, was Blue Planet a name? A title? A person or perhaps something else entirely. Gale shook the question from his mind for the moment, the bodies seemed to follow the path towards moonhaven, giving him little hope they'd find the peaceful village they'd hoped to find.

---

"It's a massacre," Gale noted as they passed through the gates, the walls were stained in blood, and claw marks littered wood and stone alike.

"Truly a dazzling, if concerning display of brutality," Lae'zel noted as they neared the center of town.

"I was hoping we could stay here, it's getting rather late, but I'm not sure it'd be safe…We might be better off moving through the night" Wyll expressed as he examined another headless body.

"I suspect running through the night would risk us attracting the owlbear," Shadowheart countered.

"If we find the beast and kill it we'll have nothing to fear" Lae'zel suggested as she glared at their surroundings.

"HELP ME…SOMEBODY? ANYBODY! PLEASE I'M GOING TO BE…Blugh" A voice echoed over to them, along with the sound of something hitting the neighboring roofs. Deciding to investigate they came upon a strange sight.

A deep gnome was attached to the windmill blade by rope and judging by the vomit staining the ground he'd been there for quite some time.

"Oh thank the deep brother, you're not goblins! Get me off this thing!" The gnome cried out, staying with the rest of the party to untie the poor bastard Gale watched Shadowheart and Laltor disappear behind the windmill to find some means to disable it.

The windmill quickly slowed to a halt and before Gale could begin untying the ropes Lae'zel sliced through them in a single movement. The gnome fell unceremoniously to the ground and simply lay there like a dead fish, seemingly needing a moment to gather himself after his ordeal.

"Fuuuuck, I've been up there for hours. Petulant goblin bastards, well…Get on with it." The gnome finally rose to his feet with a glare

"Get on with it?" Gale couldn't help but question the strange hostility the gnome was giving them.

"You save me then extort me, isn't that how this always works?"

"Extortion isn't the word I'd use…" Astarion began

"Ahem, what he means to say is you owe us nothing. I'm more curious how you got up there." Gale interrupted before Astarion could extort the traumatized gnome

"My fault really, my bag was so heavy it slowed me down and I couldn't outrun the bastard."

"Do you know what happened to the goblins here?" Wyll interjected With a glance towards a blood stain not far from the windmill.

"Wish I knew, hard to keep track with all the spinning, saw something pale? It was bloody fast and tore through the goblins like butter. Honestly, it's kinda a mess of blood and spinning in my head. Whatever it was ignored me at least, must have thought I'd be too hard to get." The gnome explained with a sigh.

"Listen, names Barcus, I really have to get a move on, see if you can find my pack, I'm traveling light from now on. If you're ever in Baldurs Gate look me up you seem like an allright sort, I need to get going." Barcus offered with a tired smile, quickly scrambling through a hole in the neighboring wall before Gale had a chance to question him further.

"So do we make camp here or flee into the night?" Gale questioned, if they wanted to make camp here they would probably need to clean and move some of the bodies. But the houses likely had some nicer bedding than they were used to.

"I say we split into groups, explore the town, after we're sure it's clear of threats we can decide our next move. Don't go too far, we can't hear each other scream." Wyll suggested as he glanced around.

The party seemed to naturally form into three groups, Gale joined, Shadowheart, Wyll, and Laltor to investigate the eastern side of the village. Astarion, Lae'zel, and Karlach joined up to investigate the north.

"Hmm while you search there I'll investigate the buildings we already passed, I suspect there might be valuable information we missed in our first passing." Momonga offered his masked face turning to gaze along the trail they'd already followed.

"Er, you sure that's wise? I could come with you, doubt these knuckleheads need my help" Karlach offered with a warm smile. In a surprising move, Momongas hand landed on her head causing her to blink owlishly. Clearly not used to someone being tall enough to pull such a move.

"I'll be fine, I have a magic item that can amplify my voice and I'll be between both groups, I'll call out if theirs a problem, thank you though" With those words, Momonga entered a building that looked like an apothecary vanishing from sight.

Kalache seemed frozen in place, clearly baffled at the random gesture of affection.

"You alright there? Don't want that brain to melt would we?" Astarion teased, seemingly breaking her from her stupor.

"Shut it, let's get a move on" Karlach finished turning to march north with Lae'zel and Astarion trailing behind.

Feeling mildly bemused by his companions, Gale rushed to catch up with Laltor and Shadowhearts departing forms.

---

"Rock, paper, scissors!" Karlach and Astarion shouted as they brought their fist down to their open palms for the fifth time. The two had begun engaging in this bizarre game when they couldn't agree who would open the barn before them.

The loud grunting suggested whatever lay beyond might be best ignored but Lae'zel saw no reason to stop the fools from doing something entertaining.

Astarion grinned victoriously as he held up his hand in a flat plane, Karlach stared sadly down at her curled fist.

"Fine, go for it." Karlach grinned as Astarion threw the doors open, revealing a strange sight, a bugbear, and an ogre. Seemingly in the process of creating a hideous crossbreed.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" The bugbear shouted baffled at the interruption.

"You are aware all your mates out there are dead, right? How long have you been at it?" Karlach couldn't help but question the pair's stamina if they'd been at it long enough for their entire group to die without them noticing.

"YOU RUINED IT! THE MOOD" The ogre shouted enraged as she pulled her club from the ground.

"Wait what do you mean they're dead?!" The bugbear voiced his confusion despite his mate seemingly being more upset at the interruption to their fun.

"Looks like a right slaughter there, we were surprised to find any survivors," Lae'zel pointed out as she drew her own blade in preparation to put the ogre down.

"All right tell us what…" Whatever the bugbear was going to say was interrupted as the ogre took a swing, Lae'zel dodged nimbly out of the way and the bugbear rushed to defend his mate. Whatever conversation they'd hoped to have was seemingly at an end.

---

Shadowheart felt rather relieved as the ogre handed Laltor a horn.

"Remember, only call when there is bloodshed to be had, child of slaughter" With those words the three ogres ran out the gate, likely seeking another client or fight to satiate their hunger. The trolls had said they'd arrived to find the slaughter already over and were miffed by their employer sending them to an area already picked clean by death.

"Well that was the most pleasant conversation I've ever had with an ogre, he was quite…smart," Gale noted as they investigated the area. They'd not come across any threats, there was a forge with notes about the creation of a masterwork weapon that seemed rather curious but they lacked the material the forge required to complete its work. There was a suspicious amount of webbing in the area as well but no monsters had greeted them beyond the ogres.

Returning to the well near the center of town they were greeted by the others seemingly already done with their investigations.

"We found a group of ogres thankfully they were open to a new employer" Laltor explained as they approached.

"OH, we found an ogre as well! Sadly they weren't as interested in talking as their other activities" Astarion laughed mirthfully, Karlach rubbed the back of her neck seemingly a bit embarrassed by how things had wound up while Lae'zel rolled her eyes.

"We took care of it, we couldn't find any signs of the owlbear or any other creatures, unless you or Momonga found something. I suspect this town will serve as a decent camp as long as we set some traps." Lae'zel explained as she took a knee and pulled her pack from the bag of holding.

"The buildings seemed clear, if there are any enemies remaining they have potent stealth capabilities," Momonga reported his tone implying he doubted that to be the case.

"Well we'd better start cleaning up and laying some traps, I'd rather we not get taken by surprise if the owlbear returns." Shadowheart pointed out as she pulled some rope from her bag, she planned to use scrap from the goblin's weapons and tools to create noise traps.

Lae'zel went east to set traps of her own, Wyll and Karlach were dragging the bodies off to the barn to keep them out of the way, Astarion had seemingly vanished, whether that was due to his reluctance to engage in physical labor or to search for loot was anyone's guess. Gale had entered one of the homes to scout out the bedding situation.

Momonga wandered to a space between two buildings, likely deciding where to place his magical house. Laltor was gathering scrap wood for a fire so they could cook a proper meal.

As she finished her noise trap she noticed Gale and Wyll having a hushed conversation outside the forge.

"It's just…odd to say the least" Shadowheart caught the tail end of Gales's statement as she approached.

"What are you talking about?" Shadowheart interjected

"It's nothing bad really just…Another mystery about our erstwhile companion, the bag of holding did you notice anything odd about it, beyond the weight limit?" Gale prodded, alas Shadowheart hadn't held the bag for particularly long before it'd been handed to Lae'zel so she shook her head.

"Bags of holding aren't particularly rare but they're not common, and a bag of holding that can hold more than five hundred pounds…That's old magic, I've not seen one outside of books and one particularly ludicrous auction in sorcerous sundries."

"Not the first time he's pulled out a bit of strange or old magic, is it really such a surprise."

"Well…"

"I'm sure he's just jealous he's useless" Astarion's mocking voice rang out causing Gale to nearly jump out of his skin. Glancing up, Shadowheart wasn't particularly surprised to see him lazing across the roof when he'd gotten there was the real mystery.

"It's not about that! The bag isn't normal, bags of holding have an innate weight, for a regular bag it's fifteen pounds, from what little I could find on the more spacious variants the weight increases, for a bag of that size it should be nearly sixty pounds."

"That bag didn't feel any heavier than a normal empty sack…" Wyll rubbed his chin in thought

"Exactly! It's not just an old and rare relic but it's wrong. The interior functions normally but it should weigh far more than it does."

"So…what does that mean for us? Man has a weird bag, I've known more than a few men with a similar issue in my time" Astarion grinned as Gale gripped the bridge of his nose.

"For now nothing, just another mystery to add to the pile, I just wanted to know if anyone else had noticed the oddity and share it in case it becomes important later." Shaking his head Gale seemed ready to move the conversation along.

"The forge doesn't seem safe to bed down in, unless you're not particularly afraid of spiders, saying that we could probably move the bed into a safer spot."

"I'll help you move it, Astarion why don't you…" Shadowheart cut off already knowing that when she glanced back towards the roof she'd find the rouge missing. Lazy bastard.

---

Momonga felt a great sense of relief as everyone began settling around the campfire, and felt grateful to the owlbear that had so cleanly hidden his mistake. On arrival to the village, several undead presences had popped up on his radar. While many were still a mystery he fully intended to investigate, one was incredibly familiar.

It was the vampire bride, hiding in the apothecary they'd passed on the way into town, after realizing she was there he'd reached out with his senses only to find the connection to both it and his death knight fully intact. Well beyond their normal timers, this raised many questions he'd have to investigate, were all his summons automatically permanent in this land or was it the use of a body that'd done it?

He'd not noticed any difference while in the accursed plain due to his undead instantly dying to the ticking holy damage, and his other summons he'd generally abandoned to fight off the encroaching angelic hordes. If his summons could be made permanent… There were many possibilities and avenues he hadn't considered. More it meant he likely hadn't burned the bridge with Ethel as he originally thought.

After separating from the party he'd gone to interrogate the vampire bride which confirmed his suspicions, the goblin horde had attacked her and she'd aggroed, much like she would have in the game.

At first, he'd been surprised by the sheer scale of the slaughter she'd wrought, he'd not kept exact count but there were at least fifty goblins she'd murdered, even if they were only dealing chip damage he'd expect her to be overwhelmed or at the very least severely injured, as he hadn't used any of his special abilities in her creation thus her stats were not overly high.

After contemplating the nature of the goblin's equipment it made sense, the vampire bride might not have been the strongest or most powerful summon but it had a feature that in game would rarely have any worth but in this realm held more value.

She was borderline immune to physical attacks not made with silver or magic. The goblins seemed to use crude weapons made of steel, most of the goblins simply wouldn't have the ability to damage her. Only the goblins with magic would have been able to hurt her.

This did leave him feeling a tad awkward as the part spread out setting up traps for a beast that wouldn't attack unless they sought it out, and even then he could simply order it to stop. In fact, he'd already ordered it to remain hidden and not attack the party making all the caution feel rather…unnecessary.

Shaking the thought from his head he watched as the party prepared their dinner, the scent reaching him was rather divine, they'd apparently found a bunch of preserved meat in one of the houses and prepared it with herbs they'd pulled from the apothecary.

As they all began to eat he sensed something he'd not expected, he'd been keeping a delay teleportation spell going around him for some time now. It wasn't the most useful spell as it could only buy precious seconds but it had the bonus effect of informing him of exactly where someone would appear and how many would.

Something was trying to teleport to a spot quite close to Wyll.

"Everyone prepare yourselves, something is coming," Momonga called out, causing the party to rush to their feet, pulling their weapons from their sides. All except Wyll who faced the spot where the teleportation had tried to activate with the same dread he'd shown throughout the day.

"Hell's fire. She's coming" Wyll exclaimed seemingly able to detect the encroaching presence.

After a few seconds, the air itself seemed to ignite as a black surface surrounded by hellish flame formed on the ground. The surface reminded Momonga a bit of the gate spell, a demonic entity rose from the black void, blue-skinned and adorned in jewelry and a fine dress, two large wings stretched from her back.

"Wyll darling, you're making some interesting friends, that was harder than it should have been" The demonic woman began without introduction, her eyes flickering over the gathered group, stopping to rest on Momonga for a moment seemingly recognizing the source of her troubles.

"Mizora," Wyll's voice held a quiet resignation as he stared at the demonic woman before him.

"Wyll you've been a naughty boy, and you know what happens when you're naughty don't you? Tell your friends to lower their weapons, wouldn't want them to make your situation any worse."

"By the gods anyone but her!" Karlach spat as she glared at the demonic woman.

"And who exactly are you?" Laltor stepped forward to interrogate the woman.

"Did my pet not reveal it already, you may call me mizora, Wylls patron, fount of his power. And my pet's been rather unruly" Mizora explained with a sadistic grin as she raised her hand.

"And his leash needs a yank!" With a pull, Wyll stumbled towards her, as if bound by invisible strings that had yet to be cut.

"We had a deal Wyll, but Karlach still breathes."

"I've taken more pleasant shits than you Mizora, and those can be buried after" Karlach mocked with a glare.

"That's no kind of talk for a lady… By the way, Zariel sends his regards"

"You told me, devils only! She's a tiefling, not a monster!" Wyll shouted as he gripped the invisible collar holding his neck.

"Ahh how cute, have your new friends finally taught you to bark?"

"Ahem, article nine subsection G, targets will be limited to the infernal, the demonic, the heartless, and the soulless. Karlach meets the criteria, pet trust me."

"And what exactly is your point in all this? Why are you here?" Lalator pushed with a glare.

"Ah, yes why I'm here, quite simple really" With a devilish grin she snapped her fingers, causing a black fiery pool to form below Wyll, the flames encroached, burning but not consuming his flesh.

Bones cracked, electricity surged all coming to a crescendo that seemed like it'd purge the man from his mortal coil. Only for it to suddenly stop, the char that consumed his flesh vanished as if a mere illusion, revealing a changed man underneath.

Red skin and devilish horns now adorned the man. Momonga couldn't help but be overwhelmed with curiosity, race changing, without an item? What sort of deal did Wyll have with this devil?

"What the hells have you done?!" Wyll cried out voice full of anguish and hate.

"A promise broken, a price paid, best get used to it pet, there's some magic even I can't undo. Now let's see how the frontiers fare without their precious blade. Karlach keep an eye on him for me wont you? I'll be keeping mine on all of you…. Oh and Wyll, our pact still stands ta-ta." With those mocking words, the demon vanished as quickly as she appeared.

Wyll stared at his hands for a moment, before fleeing from sight as he ran up the path. Karlach moved to follow him.

"Don't, he needs time I doubt he'll go far" Momonga interjected, while he didn't know Wyll particularly well he'd heard that pain before, in the voice of Ulbert when he was at the end of his rope. If Wyll was anything like his old friend he'd need time to gather himself before he was ready to face the others.

"I…your right soldier, I'm just…He barely knows me, hunted me across the hells and…He chose my life over his."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate your gratitude later, why don't we finish setting camp and preparing dinner?" Shadowheart offered gently, with a sigh Karlach accepted the offer.

Watching them resume their activities with a new somber mood Momonga returned to a gap between two houses where a fallen building had previously sat and threw out the Green Secret House.

"Woah, heya friend got room in there for one more?! I'll give you some of my extra jerkies?" Karlach bribe rang out behind him.

"Perhaps another time…Actually, you know what, I could use some company, why don't you bring your dinner in." Momonga offered as his mind shifted back to Wyll, and the questions he had about exactly what had happened. Karlach was very familiar with devils after all.

---

Wyll stared into a small creak by the side of the road, he'd only gone a bit beyond the town to get some space, the face staring back at him was a twisted evil thing. Scorched by the fires of avernus, twisted into a demon. The great blade of the frontiers had finally reached its end.

His roiling thoughts were halted by the sound of footsteps, spinning around to face the threat he was confronted by the looming figure of Momonga who raised his hands placatingly.

"What do you want" Wyll spat, not particularly in the mood to deal with the mysterious figure.

"I wanted to talk, you've had more than enough time to sulk in peace"

"SULK? I'VE TURNED INTO A MONSTER!"

"You're form has changed but that hardly makes you a monster."

"I'm a devil, a demon, you don't understand what I've lost…"

"...I understand more than you could possibly know."

"How?!" Wyll shouted as he glared at the mysterious figure

"Do you believe I wear this mask and cover my hands with gauntlets because I enjoy it?" Momongas words cut through his fury like a dagger. For the first time, Wyll closely examined the wizard before him, covered in such finery he'd not seen even among the highest nobles, but completely so, hands in metallic gauntlets and a mask and hood that obscured everything.

He had assumed it was a choice made to remain mysterious, to conceal his identity. He'd never considered their strange companion hid for reasons beyond anonymity.

"... I'm sorry…But I can't wear a mask to hide this"

"You would look rather silly in a robe, but I don't see why you'd need to hide"

"Look at me, I'm a devil, a fiend,"

"You look a bit more demonic but you're hardly the only one,"

"It's not the same! I was cursed, the blade of the frontiers, reduced to a mere fiend…"

"You're letting her win then?"

"What?"

"Mizora says the blade of the frontiers is no more and that's it? A simple change of looks is enough to end your legend right there?"

"I…"

"Wyll you sacrificed yourself to protect an innocent woman pursued by the hells themselves, taking on a vile curse to protect her...To me that doesn't sound like the end of the hero's journey, rather to me it sounds like one more epic saga in the story" Momonga pressed with a gravitas that sang to something deep within Wyll.

"I…people wouldn't know, wouldn't understand" Wyll countered despite the rising feeling in his heart.

"So make them, show the world your curse has only made the legend grander. The only thing stopping them from knowing the tale is yourself… You know an old friend once told me 'There is no greater burden than a tale untold'"

"...your friend sounds very wise,"

"He certainly liked to think so," Momonga chuckled mirthfully.

"I…Thank you, I'll return to camp soon enough…You're not the monster they fear, you're a good man."

"I appreciate the sentiment but I don't consider myself particularly good. You just reminded me…Of someone, I knew that could get stuck in their own head if someone didn't knock some sense into them."

"Ha! So tell me, I'm in no position to judge so, what hides behind that mask?" Wyll pressed curiosity, getting the best of him. The implication Momonga gave was there was something truly frightful behind it, and after everything, he felt obligated to show he wouldn't judge the strange wizard.

"...goodnight Wyll," With those words Momonga seemingly vanished into the darkness of the encroaching night, leaving the question hanging in the cold night air.

---

It was sudden as they all settled down for the night, Shadowheart suddenly felt a fire in her stomach, independent of the constant burning in her chest. It wasn't just her stomach though, her very skin felt like it was squirming against her.

Shaking herself as sweat drenched her brow and pain flared through her body she noticed her skin had grayed. With shuddering steps, she emerged from the ramshackle home she'd taken shelter in to find several of her party in similar manners of pain and delirium. Lae'zel stood blade grasped in her hand, seemingly ready to behead Gale, who had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

Among the gathered group she could only spot Laltor, Wyll, Gale, and herself, Astarion and Karlach were either still asleep or too weak to emerge from their resting places.

"Stop! What… what are you doing?" Shadowheart cried out, pulling her mace from her back despite the bone weariness making it feel like a herculean task.

"Look around you, we're changing, becoming Gaith, I wanted to make this quick but…we were too scattered. Do not fight, I will not become a monster, and you shouldn't wish to either. I will end us quickly before the blasted tadpole can claim us." Lae'zel spoke with passion and drive despite her bedraggled state.

"It's just a fever, please think! You're delusional, give us to morning to see if it breaks!" Lalators voice rang out with confidence that seemed to surprise even him.

"...Blast I can't even trust myself, so I'll have to trust you. If by mornging we are not well I will free us." Lae'zel answered as she slowly put her blade back to her side. Slowly and awkwardly they returned to their makeshift bedding, Wyll accepting the burden of carrying Gale with him.

As Shadowheart stumbled back to the bed she had to give the dragonborn credit for his fast thinking, but as the pain in her body grew worse and exhaustion finally claimed her… She couldn't help but wonder if the githyaki was right.

---

Momonga sighed as he floated listlessly through the air above the makeshift camp below. Karlach had squealed excitedly upon finding the inside of the cabin larger than the outside and had claimed a room, seemingly pleased by the silky smooth sheets.

After she'd calmed down she'd been a great help in expanding his knowledge of Wyll and 'warlocks' in general. Such a class didn't exist in Yggdrasil, or perhaps it was more accurate to say if such existed he simply didn't know of it. Yggdrasil had thousands of classes and he'd hardly known all of them.

From the explanation he'd be given, it seemed a warlock would make a deal with a demon, or any "higher" entity, and in exchange for power, they'd perform tasks and serve their patron. He was still quite curious about the specifics of Wylls contract, what little Mizora stated suggested Wyll had taken on the task of hunting demons. With the understanding, he'd be targeting solely those deserving of his blade.

Honestly, Momonga was a bit baffled, demons in these lands seemed to hold a similar reputation to demons in Yggdrasil, mostly tricksters, liars, and deceivers with negative karma. While there were exceptions they were hardly the norm. So why had Wyll assumed the deal would only serve his ends?

Perhaps it was pointless to ponder, what made Momonga curious was if he could possibly attain such a contract, or perhaps make one himself. The exact rules seemed…Arbitrary and unclear, something to investigate later. While he didn't favor the idea of serving someone else it could be worth it in the long run.

Still, with the information he had, warlock seemed like a more strict and direct version of a cleric or paladin. Where instead of offering prayers to a god one gave direct service to a patron through a contract.

He'd already noted as much down in his journal, even adding a note to Wylls page about demon hunting to be further investigated. He was somewhat worried about Mizora, she seemingly recognized his magic was what blocked her presence, and she could become a problem for him if he wasn't careful. Especially if the information about devils only dying when killed in hell held true.

He needed more information desperately, and perhaps more importantly time. He'd found a few books scattered around the buildings in the blighted village but he needed time to read them…He felt a bit exhausted at how much work stood before him, but there was also the excitement, there was so much he didn't know, so much to gather and collect.

Shaking his head for a moment he cast [Greater Teleportation] appearing within the apothecary where he'd left the vampire bride. The rest of the party was likely already asleep or close to it so it was time to begin his investigations.

"Follow me, I have use for your abilities. Hmmm to begin, the other undead presence is below us, I can sense it. [Create Mid-Tier Undead – Death Assassin]" Momonga intoned, he was sure there were no corpses within the apothecary, and the black energy that emerged from his hand formed into the undead as expected.

This was step one, his undead were seemingly permanent but was that due to the bodies or a native feature of this world? There was only one way to find out.

"Go, investigating whatever tunnels lie beneath that hatch, avoid detection by whatever undead lies beneath, and don't alert the people outside this building to your presence," Momonga ordered, the death assassin gave a bow and quickly vanished into the hatch.

Death assassins weren't great at stealth, specializing in critical hits, but it would be a good litmus test, whatever undead were below his feet didn't react to the presence of the vampire bride, which suggested they either lacked the ability to sense other undead or perhaps were not sentient at all ala zombies or basic skeletons. Either way, he wanted answers.

"Now then, [locate object]. Good they haven't gotten too far, [Greater Teleportation]"

---

"-anti-life cocoon, [anti-information magic wall, [silence]" Bryanna woke to a familiar voice speaking with a mystical quality. She quickly shook sleep from her body, they had decided to take shelter under a large tree and finish the journey to the goblin camp in the morning. She still wasn't sure what the ring she'd been given did but it had served as a comforting weight. A sign the absolute stood with them.

She quickly shook Andrick from his rest and they both rose, and as expected standing before them was the familiar mysterious magic caster, the one that had gifted her the ring. Around them there seemed to be some form of arcane field stretching out for several meters in every direction, likely summoned forth by the strange series of words he'd said before.

"Ah, True Soul, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Bryanna greeted nervously, something about this felt wrong and she twisted the ring on her finger nervously.

"I have quite a few questions you're going to answer, and you'll help me test a few…curiosities I have." The figure explained, despite the plaineness of his voice Bryanna could swear she felt a sinister edge from him.

"Well…We'd be happy to answer any questions you have True Soul." Andrick offered with a placating grin, hands held up in a gesture of peace.

"Yes, of course, to start, what is a True Soul?" The figure intoned darkly. Andrick quickly pulled his weapon from his back, and Byranna followed suit.

"Well, no matter. [Hold species]" The figure's words rang out and Bryanna felt her body stiffen, unable to move, she couldn't even close her eyes, Andrick charged intent on freeing her.

Suddenly faster than her eyes could track Andrick was tackled to the ground by a pale figure. A woman garbed in white, she had incredibly pale skin and glowing red eyes.

"VAMPIRE!" Andrick cried out in terror as the vampire lifted him from the ground, throwing his weapon aside like trash.

"Yes she is, now I'm curious, my summons seem to be permanent, can they create their own summons? If the lore about lesser vampires holds up you should be quite talkative when she's done. Bride, drain him of blood, and convert him into a lesser vampire." The magic caster ordered,

"Wait! Why are you doing this?! I'LL TELL YOU ANYTHING! PLEASE!?"

"...If it makes you feel any better you were simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the information I happened to want" With that cold detached explanation the vampire ripped into Andricks throat.

Bryanna wanted to cry, to scream, to beg, but all she could do was watch, even her tear ducts were seemingly frozen by the spell holding her in place. Forced to watch as the blood was drained from Andrick's body.

It was a horrifying process, his body dried, his eyes and face becoming sunken as his skin paled. His fingers extended into sharp bony claws. And when it seemed all the liquid had left his body the pale woman threw the lifeless withered dry corpse to the ground. And she could only watch in terror as his sunken eyes opened to reveal pits of glowing red.

"Stand up" The mysterious figure commanded, the newly born vampire rose to its feet, the magic caster circled what was once Andrick with a critical eye.

"Hmm beyond bearing more resemblance to the original creature than there would be in the game it seems about the same. In lore lesser vampires lost most of their intellect but retained knowledge. Let's see if that holds true, tell me everything you know about True Souls and this Absolute."

---

Momonga was overcome with satisfaction, while the lesser vampire didn't have the most knowledge it had shared quite a bit, this absolute figure was essentially a god to its worshippers. The True Souls from what he could ascertain were likely people infected with the parasite.

Which suggested that the supposed "god" Was nothing more than a powerful brain eater of some description. Possibly a boss variant of the creature considering its large well of power and influence. Still, it was comforting to realize he was not on the path to meeting another petulant god.

Beyond that the man's knowledge wasn't that useful, he'd given some information on landmarks, where the goblin fortress was and some of its layout, and his previous aspirations of becoming a druid and worshiping a god named Silvanus. Sadly beyond that, he seemed rather low on the totem pole when it came to his rank amongst the absolutist cult and his life prior represented a trove of information for an outsider such as Momonga he still amounted to little more than a farmer with greater aspirations.

Turning to the woman she had collapsed on the ground, despite the effects of hold species having worn off some time ago it seemed she lacked the will to try and escape.

"Well then on to you" Momonga noted as he approached her, she seemed to wake from her stupor scrambling back with a cry.

"Please…I…I don't know anything more than him...Just let me go," She begged tears streaming down her face.

"...Really making me feel like the villain here, still you're saying you don't know anything else?" Momonga pressed, she shook her head violently.

"Hmmm I believe you, he was older, it's why I chose to question him as a lesser vampire, I figured his seniority would make him a better target" Momonga nodded to himself feeling confident he'd made the right call.

"So you'll let me go?!" Hope seemed to overcome her despair for a moment at the promise of freedom from her torment.

"In a sense, you could call it freedom. [Death]" With those words the woman dropped dead, with a silent order the vampire bride retrieved the ring of lesser dexterity from her finger dropping it into his palm.

"As I said, I'm not a good man. [Create Mid-Tier Undead – Death Assassin]" The black mist emerged from Momongas palm, consuming the freshly made corpse as the undead took form.

Observing the undead he couldn't detect anything different from the one he summoned without a corpse, now only time would tell if his theory about the corpse binding his undead was correct.

"[message] What have you discovered?" Momonga questioned his undead servant.

"Five skeletons in coffins, another undead presence hidden behind a magic mirror. I could not get past without revealing myself. I did avoid the traps though." The scratchy voice of the death assassin filled his mind.

"Excellent, I'll be arriving shortly [Undead Slave Sight]" The death assassin's vision overlayed his own, after ensuring he had a reasonable read on the rather large cave beneath the shack he cast [Greater Teleportation].

Momonga took a glance around the cave with his own eyes, it was surprisingly green and well-lit despite being beneath the earth. He was standing on a wooden platform, and a mirror likely the one mentioned by his undead was behind him.

[Life essence] Casting the spell he scanned the coffins that were randomly dotted around the room and seemingly held the undead presence. None of them seemed particularly large, and while it could be a trick he felt somewhat confident in testing another of his abilities.

[Undead domination] With the skill activated Momonga felt a connection similar to his own creations, the undead within the coffin kicked off the lid with a simple mental command, rising to face him.

Examining the creature it didn't seem unusual from the normal skeletons of Yggdrasil, it held a simple bow and seemed to lack any special abilities. Still, there was one more test he wanted to try, activating undead domination again he pulled another skeleton from its slumber. It lurched over to Momonga and seemed similar to the other, outside a slightly larger health pool and a steel sword in place of a bow.

"Shoot your friend" Momonga ordered, the skeleton obeyed, launching an arrow into its friend. Watching Momonga couldn't help but be surprised as the skeleton's health dropped despite his suspicions.

[Create low-tier undead- skeleton warrior] Momonga called forth one of the weakest undead. The skeletal warrior held a rusted shield and blade. Checking its health and finding it as he expected he gave the mental order for the skeletal archer to take a shot at the newly created skeleton.

The arrow struck true but as he expected its health did not drop, rather the arrow fell uselessly to the ground. This was more in line with Momongas expectations, skeletons according to the laws of Yggdrasil were immune to piercing, slashing, and cold. Yet the skeletons in these lands were bound by different rules.

Experimentation with the skeletons done he raised his hand "[Iceball]", the sphere of concentrated cold launched forward. The ensuing blast of freezing air washed over Momonga, and as the ice crystals settled it revealed all the coffins splayed open, with broken and frozen bones. Only his own skeletal undead remained unharmed by the frosty blas.

Momonga pulled his journal from his inventory and quickly jotted down his findings. Much like vampires, it seemed skeletons functioned differently in these lands.

Satisfied for the moment he turned to face the black mirror, it quickly formed a face as he approached.

"Speak your name" A voice echoed and powerfully emanated from the mirror.

"Fascinating, [all appraisal magic item]"

"I do not know this name, are you an ally? Only a true ally of Ilyn toth may pass" The mirror continued seemingly taking his lack of answer as permission to press him.

"A sapient magic item, such a thing didn't exist in Yggdrasil…Still seems rather pointless to use such a thing for a glorified password lock and fireball trap…Hmm death assassins, search the building for any books or information that might pertain to this Ilyn Toth," Momonga ordered, the two death servitors quickly vanishing from sight.

"Hmmm, It would be a shame to destroy something so unique…Perhaps…In the game this wouldn't work but here…"

"What are you doing? Declare yourself an ally or face my wrath!"

"I'll be simple you seem rather unique, your options are to either allow me to remove you from this wall and take you with me, or I use my magic to destroy you and force you to fail your purpose anyway." Momonga offered as he examined the crumbling wall around the mirror.

"...I can not easily be removed, intruder nor am I defenseless." The mirror threatened

"Your skeletons are already dead and the cave is frozen…It's spring by the way, are you sure you'd like to risk yourself? I assure you, your fireball device will not save you"

"You may pass, but I am bound to this wall." The mirror insisted.

"We'll see, [Greater Break Item]" With that incantation the wall surrounding the mirror glowed a brilliant blue before vanishing into the aether, the mirror nearly fell to the ground if not for the quick intervention of the vampire bride.

"Hmm, horribly mana inefficient, right tool for the right job I suppose. Now then mirror any more complaints about joining me? I believe you'd fit inside a cabin I have." Momonga offered the mirror which seemed rather baffled at its current predicament.

"...I don't have much choice in the matter…"

"Excellent, I'll be putting you in my inventory for the moment" Momonga lifted the large mirror pushing it into the black void of his inventory. He was a bit relieved, as he was unsure if the magic item would count as a player or NPC since it was sapient and thus under the laws of Yggdrasil would be rejected but that didn't seem to be the case. Much like with the squirrel earlier it seemed the rules might have loosened.

"Hmm, the undead presence still hasn't moved, I figured it wouldn't be too strong considering the skeletons but I'd hoped it'd be intelligent, perhaps an elder lich, or at least a skeletal mage… Still, the fact it's not responded to the death of its subordinates doesn't bode well." Momonga's speech was more for himself than the accompanying vampire bride.

The room behind the mirror was rather large, a laboratory of some description, with bones and alchemical ingredients littering the shop. From the ceiling a large ribcage hung over a wooden table, its head vaguely reminded Momonga of some water-based monsters in Yggdrasil. According to Blue Planet, their design was inspired by ancient aquatic life that once inhabited the earth's oceans.

In one corner a miniature study area seemed to have been constructed, a stuffed bear and solid wooden desk surrounded by bookcases, and some tantalizing-looking chests. Proceeding carefully into the laboratory he was quite shocked to find not an undead creature hidden down some steps. But a book, guarded by metal bars and stone gargoyles. Approaching the great he noticed a small keyhole.

The book was most definitely the source of the undead presence he'd felt, was it a living artifact like the mirror? Or rather an undead artifact? Ilyn Toth must have been rather cautious of it to seal it away.

"[Greater Teleportation]" With that incantation Momonga appeared behind the alter, examining the gargoyles he felt rather confident this was some sort of trap. So rather than grab the book he instead focused on examining it for the moment.

The book was bound in leather, human based on the stretched face with gaping jaw, and seemed to give off an aura of dark energy.

"[All appraisal magic item]" With the intonation information flooding Momongas mind, the book was indeed bound in human leather, bones made up its spine and the teeth in its front were entirely real. The twisted book contained magical knowledge focused on necromancy, though the exact nature of it felt…obscured. It wasn't truly sapient, rather it held a great deal of negative energy and bound some undead creatures within its pages. The tome had a name as well, the Necromancy of Thay.

Most curiously he learned that to unlock it would require a special stone. A dark amethyst, Momonga had many stones of varying qualities within his inventory but none seemed like they'd be a suitable replacement. Perhaps he could use Epigoni to unlock the book but it seemed a waste, especially as he suspected he knew where the amethyst was. He could still sense one more undead presence within the town that wasn't connected to him.

Grasping the book he quickly teleported out of the cage, the twin gargoyles spewing fire onto the pedestal where the book once sat. A trap to destroy the book rather than the intruder. An interesting design, Illyn had apparently rather nobody have it than see it stolen.

His musings came to an end as the death assassins returned, carrying large stacks of books of varying sizes. Atop the stack sat a small leather-bound journal. With a quick movement, he deposited all the books into his inventory except the journal and the necromancy of thay. Reaching into his inventory he removed an ornate box. Whispering the passphrase it clicked open and he deposited the Necromancy of Thay within.

The box was a powerful magic item, much like an infinite backpack its insides were larger than its outside, allowing for larger items to be stored than one expected. More importantly, it was enchanted with a series of attack spells that would target the item within and destroy it if someone tried to forcefully open it. It was also nearly impossible to open for anything less than a level 90 rogue.

Satisfied, he opened the journal and began to flip through it as his undead scoured the laboratory for anything else worth his time.

---

Momonga was rather pleased, the journal had given him the confirmation he needed that the amethyst was indeed the undead presence he was sensing. As expected one of his death assassins had vanished, now it was just a matter of if the other would vanish when its time was up.

A quick [Greater Teleportation] had left them standing before the well, Momonga reached into his inventory and pulled out a goblin dagger he'd picked up from one of the corpses. Dropping it down the well revealed what he expected, it fell far longer than it should have, and rather than the expected splash of water, what echoed instead was the sound of metal on stone.

With a silent gesture the death assassin vanished into the darkness, daggers digging into the wall to slow its descent in a matter that was rather flashy…but also rather unnecessary considering the rope that still hung from the top of the well.

His summons seemed to hold intrinsic parts of his knowledge, was it possible his personality and occasional flair for the dramatic was influencing them as well?

An image flashed through his mind, an incredibly cool yellow officer uniform, face bereft of features, and far too much German written into a character sheet.

"[Undead Slave Sight]" Momonga cast as he peered through the eyes of his undead servant, he was shocked to see an entire cave system. For a moment he had to ponder how the town was even still standing with this many hollow areas beneath it.

Still, more interestingly there were several spiders, and creatures with spider-like heads wandering the web-covered cave. The death assassin had to maneuver carefully, crawling along the walls and leaping over webbing not to disturb the creatures. The spiders were large glowing an ethereal blue. They also seemed to have the ability to teleport.

They heavily reminded Momonga of storm spiders, lightning-infused monsters that could teleport and launch devastating electrical attacks by running lightning through their webbing, often paralyzing the ill-prepared, worse they had a thunderous roar that dealt decent bludgoning damage.

They weren't a particularly dangerous foe to Momonga himself due to his resistance to lightning damage but he remembered more than a few complaints back in the early days of Yggdrasil about someone disturbing a horde of spiders and being stunlocked to death.

Pushing the thought from his mind for the moment he wasn't convinced these were thunder spiders. Their webbing lacked the telltale electric glow, the spiders while glowing didn't emit any lightning bolts and the spiders didn't resemble black widows, unlike the thunder spiders. Still, the similarity was fascinating.

The spider-headed monsters were familiar to him, in particular, a certain entomancing maid came to mind, though her body was far slimmer she had a similar spider-like head hidden beneath her mask. But the maid's true form was far more insectoid than the creatures before him. Perhaps they were a similar species though, or perhaps a subspecies of arachnoid?

As the undead moved deeper it discovered a journal stained in blood. Momonga sent a quick message and told the undead to collect it and any other books it came across. Before long it had located no less than four. Satisfied with its collection the undead servant carefully explored eastward.

It quickly came upon a central chamber, a large glowing green hole in the center, and large webs connected by three platforms of stone. White web-covered eggs littered the area, glowing with the same ominous blue glow, and standing atop the web between the two platforms was a massive spider.

Glowing the same blue as its brood with darker blue and red markings. At Least ten feet tall when stood at its full height, its fangs seemed to constantly drip venom.

It would seem this spider was the boss of the area, Momonga gave a silent order for the undead to return with its pilfered journals. The undead did not take long to return to his side, offering a stack of four journals, Momonga took the top journal carefully, it was coated in a thick layer of webbing, and inscribed across the cover was a spider.

Momonga attempted to pry the journal open but the webbing seemed to bleach the ink from the pages. Eyeing it carefully he pondered if there was a way to extricate the journal from the webbing.

He had destroyed that wall earlier, and he seemed to have far finer control of the spell than he did in Yggdrasil. The real risk would be if the webbing and book were considered the same item.

Deciding to hold off on his experimentation for the moment he noticed the last page and cover seemed to be unadhered by web, flipping it open he found a single paragraph unmarred by web or time. Reaching into his inventory he retrieved his translation glasses and began to quickly read.

The book revealed quite a bit of information even with only a single passage, the spider matriarch below had once been a humanoid, who managed to transform into a spider. Karlach had explained that Wyll wasn't technically a demon, but rather cursed with their appearance, and spells that would detect demonic entities would now ping him but he lacked any of the racial traits of true demons. He was more cursed than race changed, but this woman had managed to become a creature known as a phase spider.

Race changing in Yggdrasil usually required a long quest line and specific items, it looked like there might have been a lab connected to the central chamber but the number of webs and spiders had made him hold off on investigating, could the transformation be recreated?

Pushing the thought for later Momonga considered his best course of action, the woman in the journal hadn't sounded the most stable but the fact she'd race-changed into the giant spider below implied it might hold some intellect. Moreover, the spiders seemed to lack detection abilities if the death assassin could so easily move amongst them.

Placing the webbed journal and three others into a magical box he moved them to his inventory. He'd need to personally investigate to see how strong the spider was and determine his best course of action.

With a silent cast of [fly] and [invisiblity] Momonga personally descended into the cavern, activating [Life essence] and [mana essence] as he went. He swiftly found the phase spiders seemed to have health he'd expect from a level fifteen or twenty.

His exploration was interrupted by a sudden screech, somehow one of the spiders had detected him and was quickly calling to its brethren. Silently casting [Greater Teleportation] Momonga appeared far above the well. The spiders didn't seem able or willing to follow him after several moments.

This was interesting, the spiders lacked advanced detection abilities but had some means to passively see through low-level invisibility…

It was rather strange to consider, in Yggdrasil if one had the ability to see through invisibility they generally had very high detection abilities in regards to stealth of all kinds. Not only did his arcane vision allow him to see through illusions and invisibility but it also negated most low-level stealth skills and abilities.

In a game, it seemed like a terrible oversight, but in this real world, it was likely simply a byproduct of the spider's magical biology. Momonga quickly retrieved his black journal, he really needed to work on his ability to sketch as the incredibly cartoonish spider looking back at him seemed…Demeaning to his efforts to catalog all this information.

Accepting his lack of talent he noted down the phase spiders' name natural abilities and general level.

This left him in a bit of an odd situation coming in and killing all the spiders would probably incite the matriarch to battle, but he'd rather attempt conversation. If she was once human she should be able to communicate. Though the mandibles and strangely shaped mouth might make that difficult… Momonga felt a mirthful chuckle escape his own lipless mouth at the thought.

"Perhaps…Hmm, [Message," Momonga reached out to contact the large spider below,

"Hungry, prey, children, LOLTH! INTRUDER?!" The voice that entered his mind was a hissing mess of broken whispers.

"Ah yes, I am Momonga, I thought we might be able…"

"INTRUDER, NEST LOLTH! DIE!" The message suddenly cut off, as the spider matriarch seemed to enter some form of frenzy.

Momonga felt rather baffled, why had the woman race changed if it was going to reduce her mental faculties to such a point? Or was this perhaps her state before the transformation, the last entry hadn't seemed very stable. Still, it left him with an important question on how to handle this.

The undead presence, likely the amethyst was still below and seemed to be coming from the matriarch's room. If he had entomancer skills or beast-tamer skills he might have been able to subjugate the spider peacefully but as it was he had no means to do so. Pondering for a moment he came to a decision. With another [Greater Teleportation] he appeared in front of the barn where all the goblin's corpses had been laid.

The death assisin was still around which meant his hypothesis about the use of corpses with undead creation was correct, and he suddenly had a large cave to store his excess undead, after it was…cleaned up.

[Create mid-tier undead- soul eater]

[Create mid-tier undead- death knight]

[Create mid-tier undead- death warrior]

"Death knight you'll serve as the vanguard, considering the strength of the spiders in general I don't expect the matriarch to be too large a threat but just in case your job will be to tank any hits and draw aggro away from me." The death knight nodded silently.

"Excellent, [Triplicate Greater Teleportation]" With those words the three undead vanished, and after a quick glane with [Undead Slave Sight] confirmed his suspicions he went to join them.

---

Shadowheart felt a cool energy washing over her soothing the burning pain aching through her body.

"I got here just in time, your transforming" A voice that was all too familiar echoed as she finally pried her eyes open.

She was faced with a strange figure, she appeared to be human, with dark hair just beginning to go gray, in fine clothes and light armor plating. The light greenish blue eyes in a slightly jaunt face stirred another memory in her, on board the nautiloid, someone gazing at her pod. And something deeper lost to the inky darkness of her memories.

"Your voice…I know it, when we crashed. I heard it. Who… Who are you?" She questioned as her pain continued to fade.

"Your salvation and not for the first time" The mysterious figure offered, while the voice itself was charming it didn't quite fit. The voice and face weren't correct, though she couldn't tell why she knew that.

Examining the figure closer she couldn't help but note some differences from her memory on the nautiloid, one of her hands hung limply by her side, a burned scorched thing, with bone peeking through the angry red flesh.

"You won't become a mindflayer, none of you will, not while I'm around" Despite her injury the voice carried a gravitas, an assurance that she would be safe as it held out a hand for her to take.

Hesitating for a moment she propped herself up, she was grateful but needed to know more before she took a stranger's outstretched hand.

"Stubborn, that's good a useful trait" The voice despite not changing much carried a note of laughter.

"You have great potential, from that parasite within you. You must nurture it, and let it grow so you can wield it. You need it for the days to come. I will protect you, stop it from consuming you whole but you must master it if we're to whether coming storm" The figure gestured and several floating rocks moved before Shadowheart could even fully register what was said.

A massive skull was revealed, some relic of a fallen god. It was scorched black, and the left side of its face seemed to have been melted by extreme heat, the surface of the skull was still burning in some places, teeth floated around where they'd been knocked loose by the fiery blast, and it was shrouded in mystical energy, under constant assault by beings of light, mana, and psionic power.

"This is a fight for the fate of Faerûn itself, a fight we are losing. For now, you can help us change that, but only if you embrace your potential."

Suddenly one of the beings of light was crushed by another and they seemed to swarm towards them.

"We're running out of time, I will fight them off. Listen carefully don't trust Momonga, I don't know the game he plays but it's too dangerous to trust him"

"Wait…What…What happened to your arm?" Shadowheart wasn't sure why she asked, something about the injury upon the strangely familiar woman pounded on the inside of her skull, the burning on the partially melted skull also gave her an inkling but she needed to confirm it.

She already didn't trust the strange magic caster much so the warning felt a little superfluous anyway.

"...Your friend is paranoid, and doesn't like to be peered upon, this…This…Well, I've not tried to look in his direction since, I was lucky it was only my arm considering what it did." The guardian's eyes glanced back towards the skull, confirming her suspicions and making her feel far more wary of the magic caster than she already was.

"Do not confront him! In the battle to come power is something we'll need, just don't trust him!"

"Wake, you and your companions will be better I promise, we'll speak again soon enough!" With that parting shout, the dream visitor pushed her through glowing light as she faced off against two strange blue energetic forms.

---

Momonga felt a bit disappointed as he gazed at the carcass of the large spider, while he expected it to be rather weak considering the strength of its children he'd expected a bit more.

Perhaps that was unfair, it seemed very reliant on its venomous spit, which held no power over the undead. Its webbing could have proved more of a challenge but the strength of the death warrior and death knight allowed them to simply rip through the webbing/rip up the stone where they were stuck.

He hadn't even needed to offer any support as the creature fell to the numerous blades with little fanfare. Eying the corpse for a moment he stepped closer, the phase spiders while having surface similarities to a species in Yggdrasil were an entirely unique creature. One he'd not encountered before.

"Hmm I wonder if their teleportation is an intrinsic or learned ability… [create low-tier undead- zombie]" Momonga mumbled to himself examining the beast, black mist escaping his hand. The spider quickly jerked as if some invisible force yanked upon it. Its skin paled further, the markings on its exoskeleton losing their luster. After a moment the creature opened its eyes revealing gray lifeless pits.

The zombified spider had lost the blue glowing hue that had defined it in life as well. Which didn't give Momonga much hope for what was to come.

"Show me your abilities" Momonga ordered and the spider quickly shot a ball of webbing that covered a nearby wall. Before spitting venom onto the floor and ceasing to move. It would seem its ability to teleport had been lost in the undeadification process.

It was disappointing but hardly shocking most zombified creatures lost anything beyond their abilities outside their base stats after the process. Though some creatures such as dragons would gain abilities reminiscent of those held in life. Zombie dragons could no longer breathe whatever element they had in life but often maintained the ability to spew forth negative energy.

It would seem phase spiders were not among those select few.

Though glancing at the web-covered wall he noticed something odd, the web was different than it had been in life having a black sheen to it. Approaching and pulling a bit from the wall he confirmed his suspicions. The webbing was infused with negative energy, whether that was a magical ability granted by the process or simply a side effect of the webbing within its body being infused with the negative energy was a question all its own.

For a moment Momonga considered banishing the undead, it wasn't particularly strong, and while its webbing seemed interesting it didn't hold much interest to him. A thought occurred though as he gazed at its gray dead eyes.

He reached into his inventory retrieving another item box, with a whispered word it popped open to reveal a small tadpole-like organism seemingly lying dormant. Carefully gripping its tail the creature struggled to escape his grasp.

Astarion was a vampire, according to all the knowledge he had undead could not be infested with brain-eater parasites. So was that a result of Astarion being a different form of undead or something special about these parasites beyond the strange connection they created between the wayward party?

The spider was currently the weakest undead he had, and the lowest value, making it rather suited to testing.

With a mental command, the spider approached, lowering its head and offering its wide-open eye. Momonga pushed the parasite into the edge of the eye. The creature seemed to squirm, trying to escape before realizing its situation and burrowing around the creature's eye.

The spider jerked back, spasming and jerking, nearly smashing its head into the ground, letting out a strange screech before finally hacking a lump onto the ground. A quick scan of the spider's health revealed it'd taken minor damage, and as his death warrior picked through the mess the spider hacked up it revealed exactly what he'd thought.

The brain eater parasite, rendered dead by the negative energy environment within the spider's zombified corpse. Much like Yggdrasil it seemed when a living parasite entered an undead body the undead body would infuse the living organism with negative energy killing it quickly.

It would seem the difference was down to the nature of undeath and vampires in these lands rather than the tadpoles themselves being particularly resistant to necrotic energies.

He was about to have the undead discard the corpse when he considered it more closely. Brain-eater tadpoles shouldn't be able to create psionic links, nor create the coordination the party had. The spider had gained necrotic webbing, perhaps the tadpole could also gain some special abilities?

At worst, it might give him insight into what made these tadpoles so strange to begin with.

[Create low-tier undead- zombie] With those words the parasite in his undead's hands jerked to life, interestingly it seemed to glow red for a brief moment after its transformation.

It felt incredibly odd, the spider was almost entirely mindless only responding to his will and orders, no greater presence to it through their connection. The death knights, death warriors, and vampire bride were more substantial. Genuine intellect and foreign thoughts would brush his mind as he reached out to them.

The tadpole before him was neither, rather it gave off vague feelings, almost half-formed thoughts. Somewhere between the two extremes.

Taking the creature he gave it a silent command as he placed it back near the spider's eye, and it eagerly burrowed down.

For a moment it seemed like nothing happened and Momonga felt a bit foolish. The zombie spider had a zombie parasite, why would anything happen, when suddenly the spider jerked.

Its carapace glowed a fiery red as strange runic symbols burned into its exoskeleton, its gray dead eye exploded into fiery green pits of light. And most interestingly its body began to glow, not the cold blue ethereal color it once held but a necrotic green, tinged with the faintest hints of red at the edges.

The connection between the spider and tadpole had all but vanished subsumed by a more substantive symbiotic link. It still wasn't as fully formed as the vampire brides or death servitors, but it had far more will and awareness than the spider or tadpole on their own.

Without a word, the spider teleported around the room in flashes of green, and Momonga felt his excitement build. Could undead tadpoles be used to restore magical abilities of any nature, or simply those natural to a creature? Could it strengthen his more substantive undead? Where could he find more of them? What other monsters in this land could he test?

Pushing down his interest for the moment he considered his situation. He gazed around the cavern thoughtfully.

"Spider, fill in this central hole with webbing. The rest of you gather up the bodies you've created and leave them on the web. If I remember Gengiro right spiders would often wrap their prey to preserve them, so hopefully that works with larger corpses." Momonga commanded his small undead horde. As he rushed to complete his orders he couldn't help but gaze longingly at the massive pit that was slowly being covered by blackened webbing.

Fighting a boss and its minions only to discover a deeper level of the dungeon, it sang to his adventurous spirit. Back in Yggdrasil, this would be the start of another grand expedition to find what secrets lay beneath.

Ignoring his nostalgia for a moment Momonga approached the undead presence he'd been seeking, within some webbing sat a knapsack and after prying it free and spilling its contents he found the blackened amethyst exuding an undead presence. Reaching within his inventory he quickly retrieved the flesh-bound tome, the gem practically leaping from his hand to enter the book's mouth.

With a bit of trepidation, Momonga opened the book to its first page.

So note the vampire bride isn't that strong overall, its decently powerful physically and stat wise, but even with it's infinite stamina a large enough horde of goblins would be able to take it out…if not for one critical feature of vampires in 3.5 and subsequently overlord. They're straight up immune to non silvered/non magical weapons (well low tier vampires actually have a severe damage reduction but its powerful enough bear traps literally can't harm them if they step in them, and they can easily snap the jaws of it open)

Most of the goblins in the blighted village/goblins in general are running around with blades that look to be made from scrap steel/iron bent and forged into blades/pikes etc.

This means 99% of the goblins quite simply couldn't damage the vampire bride in any meaningful way, those with access to casting could deal some damage but the rest of the goblins were essentially useless. And the goblins didn't know this because this immunity/resistance to all non silver weapons hasn't been a thing since 3.5e.

If you're wondering about Karlachs reaction it is one part that she's not used to anyone being tall enough to do that without it being awkward but far more importantly…Her infernal engine hasn't been upgraded, it's running full bore, touching her should burn Momonga but it doesn't. This is actually a bit of a reference to the fiery auras many demonic entities have in yggdrassil, many powerful demons have auras so hot they cause human bodies to instantly explode like balloons from just being near (With near being upwards of fifty meters) them.

Momonga is unaffected by these auras overall, unless they're enhanced with special abilities, even while wearing relatively weak equipment. Seemingly at his level passive auras are near entirely ineffective without abilities or equipment boosting them. Karlach runs hot but she can't instantly turn blood to steam at fifty meters like high level demons in overlord can.

Momonga was actually told a bit about the infernal engine/heat production but he's not really registered it as an issue yet, to him its just a semi potent flame aura with rather limited range she can't toggle off. He's not really grasped the magnitude of the issue/is more curious about the process of having an infernal engine installed in place of a heart.

If your curious about the quote it's a miss quote. If you're familiar with Overlord it's a common thing with Momonga, he generally remembers the meaning/ideas behind a quote but not who said them/the exact wording. In this case the original was "There is no greater agony than carrying the burden of an untold story"

Skeleton testing felt a bit forced/played out, probably won't focus on Momonga testing creatures again unless it's something truly baffling to him.

Warlocks, I could find mention of the class on the wiki but was unable to find it in the novels/side material itself. I originally considered having warlocks exist in yggdrasil as I don't see how they'd be much different to how yggdrasil did clerics/gods. IE while you worship a god for holy power you could also hunt that god down and kill them for resources for no ill effects. I couldn't really think of a reason a similar system couldn't exist for demons and warlocks

But after consideration I decided to make it a class that didn't exist in yggdrassil since I couldn't find any mention and its something else for Momonga to be curious about.

Wasn't sure if the mirror counted as a sentient magic item but considering you can persuade and intimidate it, it has some level of self awareness/preservation.

The magic box is a real item in overlord Momonga uses it to store his personal journal to ensure it can't be stolen/read.

Thunder spiders are my own creation, there were giant spiders in yggdrasil and many spider type monsters so I just made up one that seemed reasonable based on cocytus' whole frost based abilities.

Shadowhearts guardian is meant to evoke the image of her mother, Shadowheart might not remember but some part of her does and the guardian is pulling on that, the burn to its hand/arm is real but mostly healed in his true form, the guardian is using it to impress the danger and power of their companion.

The see invisibility thing is actually a reference to honor mode where the spiders gain the ability to see invisibility. Figured itd be an interesting moment for Momonga, a creature able to see through invisibility with poor detection abilities seems rather worthless to momonga.

The emperor was trying to use scrying magic on Momonga, unfortunately for him Momonga was recently stuck in a heaven esq realm for extended periods of time, so instead of a weak eighth tier spell he hooked a certain ninth tier spell that would alert him if the people scrying him were anywhere close, one that was a bit more … Nuclear

The emperor thinks he might be a useful tool/ally in the battles to come but he trusts Momonga about as far as he can throw him…And his strength score aint much.

The tadpole thing, its basically an idea I came up with a bit ago. Essentially the tadpoles are all infused with netherese magic, this magic is what makes them such a pain to remove/gives them the ability to imbue non illithids with psionic powers. Thing is this magic isn't really native to them, it's something imbued into them by the nether brain as they're created.

By zombifying the tadpole that netherese magic essentially hooks into the undead network and tries to treat it like the psonic network, but the tadpole lacks the faculties/abilities it had in life making it a rather…Haphazard connection. The netherese magic in the tadpole is able to reopen dormant magic within zombified creatures by essentially brute forcing and strengthening the connection to the undead network momonga creates.

This took a bit longer then planned, and it feels a bit disjointed at part but its also larger then planned, please enjoy.