Journal of Chaos

by the hand of Geryon Swayvill


This entry begins and ends with that young man I mentioned some time back. Tristan is his name. When we last left him, he was involved with some eel-like creatures (which we now know are called "Chwong"). This is where we pick up with him again, as he lives with the Chwong and slowly learns their simple but beautiful language of tonal sounds and hand gestures.

Before long, they confided in him that he was much better at defeating the larger, blind eel-like creatures than they. He agreed to go on patrol with some of them. While out there, he managed to get into a fight. Before he knew it, his opponents were dead and his friends were looking at him with no small amount of fear. You see, he had discovered his Chaos Form and slipped into it during the fight. With some effort, he managed to restore his former appearance, although the experience left him a bit winded.

In fact, since the poor boy did not know how to assume animal shapes, he was relying on Automatic Shapeshifting to allow him to exist in this water-filled Shadow. It didn't take too much longer for him to sollapse, semi-comatose, as his body could no longer sustain normal activity and retain the life-giving gills. There has been no small amount of medical literature written on this very same subject. Rest assured that any lesser man would have either died or gone into Primal Form (likely to the detriment of the peaceful Chwong).


Saklas, too, had certain martial adventures, at least so the rumors go. Apparently there was an assassination attempt, possibly involving the current object of my affection, Cwell Vissult, after which Saklas left the public eye, and began the long Shadowwalk to Amber.

At one point during this walk, Saklas was resting in a stream, when he awoke to find two people being chased by three zombie-like creatures. One of the people was slain, and shortly thereafter the zombies were strewn about a significantly larger area than they were accustomed to occupying (Hendrakes are naught but Hendrakes, but they're so good at it!). He traced the source of the zombies to a patch of ground which eminated a strangely tainted logrus energy.

An experimentalist after my own heart, Saklas bled over this tainted area to see what would happen. Imagine his surprise when his blood, instead of burning, turned a sickly dark red color and coagulated as it sank into the ground. Who's to say what happened to it?


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, The Dude and I were chatting about the Black Roads leading into my Snake Pits. I recieved a missive from Her Grace, Bishop Tern, informing me that the church, although concerned, was significantly less fast-acting than, say, two fellows and a few demons at investigation.

Taking the hint, The Dude and I followed the taint towards its source. We eventually required some means of waterborne transportation, so I grabbed a self-propelled boat from nearby. The "self-propelled" part turned out to be a rather odd-looking creature, but such are the wonders of infinite Shadow.

We journeyed onward, slowly approaching the taint's source. Finally, we came to a vast, landless Shadow, at the center of which was a large slick over the water. The covered water was heavily charged with the tainted logrus energy. Since travelling further would have involved underwater travel, we paused there.

Always the experimentalist, I attempted to summon a demon with the intention of sending it into the tainted area, to observe the resulting effects. I intended to summon something akin to a dog fish, hoping to exploit its canine bravery and loyalty. However, apparently due to the proximity of such massive amounts of tainted energy, the summoning went somewhat awry. The demon which arrived was tainted. Instead of eyes, it had a mass of sensory tendrils across its face. It also took a distinct dislike to me.

After some chaos, my demons restrained the beast, and The Dude proceeded to attempt to control it with some sorcerial magic, while I gathered my wits. Little gathering happened, though, as the propulsion-beast sprang to attack us. It, too, had been affected by the taint, and I managed to distract it long enough for my demon Zhisst to lop its little head off.

The propulsion-beast dead, and the tainted demon subdued, we headed out, in the now demon-powered boat, towards any land. We ended up somewhere hospitable, and The Dude and I retired to examine the tainted demon. I attempted, in my inimitable experimental style, to gain control of the demon. This, like many of my experiments in recent memory, turned out to be somewhat hazardous to my health, as my logrus construct became subject to the taint. Luckily, The Dude thought quickly, and channelled a good large amount of Pattern energy into my logrus construct, shattering it and knocking us both into the better parts of unconsciousness. I made vague gestures for my demons to kill the tainted thing, then collapsed for a bit.

When I regained my composure, and had the chance to blow off some steam, I examined myself, checking to see if there was any residual taint. Thankfully, I was pure (unsullied?). The Dude, other than a headache, was unharmed. We felt that we had contributed enough to the chaos of the multiverse for that day, and retired after a report to Bishop Tern.

Since the Bishop had kindly asked us to investigate further, The Dude and I made another sortie into the tainted waters, this time delving to the source Shadow itself, with the aid of some gills for me and a self-contained breathing device for The Dude (to this day, I feel I haven't fully grasped how difficult life would be without some level of shapeshifting skill. Perhaps the Chaosian potential for rapid healing is part of the underlying reason for our predisposition towards hurting eachother. A philosophical note at best.). Zhisst accompanied us (being the only one of my demons capable of swimming more competently than with a doggie paddle), as did a powerful (and unfortunately laconic) demon of Bishop Tern's, known only as "Grey". We noted that the source of the taint appeared to come from the depths of an underwater trench, and headed towards a lit area on the sea floor.

En route to the glowing area, we encountered a battle. Several extremely large eel-like creatures (ranging from 3 to 4 metres in length, and very closely resembling the creatures that had developed in my snake pits, four sonar-using ones, and one larger white one) were engaging a greater number of the smaller Chwong, and winning. Noting that they were highly charged with tainted logrus energy, I ordered Grey to kill the large white one, which he did. Examining him and noting that he had not acquired any taint in the battle, I ordered him to kill another one, and Zhisst to help out. Shortly, the battle was over, with much more palatable results than were at first feared.

The Chwong seemed to indicate that we should follow them, and led us to their city, where they revealed young Tristan, rendered nigh comatose by shapeshifting exhaustion. I acted quickly, stealing The Dude's breathing device and allowing Tristan to partake. Zhisst shuttled the device back and forth between the two while The Dude cast a spell creating a bubble of breathable air in the room, and I attempted to find out a bit more about this Shadow.

The spell completed, we managed to rouse Tristan from his catatonia. He introduced himself, and in the ensuing conversation, it became obvious that he was a Shadow child, and had very little concept of Shadow, shapeshifting, the Courts, or even how he managed to arrive in this water-filled place. He was, clearly to me, of Noble blood, and, considering his condition, The Dude attempted to get him back to the care of the Church, while I remained in the Shadow, trying to reduce the flow of time in order to minimize the changes that might take place between our departure and our next visit.

Some time later, I was summoned back into the presence of Bishop Tern, who was the bearer of some startling news. Tristan, you see, in a manner somewhat similar to Saklas Hendrake, was a long-lost-just-walked-in-from-the-Shadow-and-is-now-very-high-in-line-for-succession type. This was somewhat unfortunate news, as it turned out that the newly named Tristan Marné was, in fact, ninth (NINTH!) in line for the Imperial throne. Clearly, especially considering his general naïveté, the poor boy didn't seem long for this life. My heart went out to him. Then Bishop Tern mentioned that, due to some archaic laws, The Dude and I, since we discovered him, were considered his guardians to a certain extent, and she was bound to acquire our permission before announcing his existence to the Courts.



What else could I do?

I mean, I wasn't going to just let him die...

So, The Dude and I now have a son, of sorts. At least until he is somewhat more capable of caring for himself, Tristan Marné will be hiding out as a commoner neophyte priest in our charge, hanging out in my private Shadow whenever possible.

Before I close this Log entry, I will state that The Dude, Tristan, and I, due to the influence of the Bishop, were allowed some access to the libraries of House Randall, in order to research possible leads concerning the tainted logrus energy. These researches turned up little, although The Dude confided that Robelone Jezby had talked about a "Sword of Sorrows", aka "the Summoner of Storms", which has been long lost, is probably connected with the Jezby madness, and could potentially be the taint source.

That said, I think I am quite deserving of a nap at the moment.

Geryon Swayvill


Hydran Difficulties || Montagues and Capulets