In search of a powerful magical tome within Ustalav, Parah and Certea find themselves dealing with the dead and meeting a new ally who has skills not too far off from their own.

Commission for  ElectricGiga

---

Trees as ancient as the dead souls that haunted this land hung drearily over Parah as they walked along the old rubble path that led to Ustalav's capital city, Caliphas. The elaborate, yet concealing, white suit with its golden trim they wore was like a beacon in the surrounding darkness of what felt like an eternal night as the moon hung low over, silver light illuminating their white locks and dark-skinned freckled face. Despite the dreary nature of the forest path, Parah seemed confident, walking at a casual relaxed pace as they threw their dagger into the air over and over, watching it whirl then nabbing it by the handle in a way that showed practiced repetition. Behind them walked an unnaturally tall deer-like humanoid dressed in a simple pink dress, a piece of cloth that hung on her antlers that billowed behind her in the gentle wind. A courtly symbol of the seelie fey upon their hands tying them together.
Upon the deer's face, she seemed concerned, her light brown fur bristling as she slowly monitored the surrounding forest.
“Are you sure this is safe, Blossom? I know you wanted that rare text on polymorphic magic in the library here… though,” the deer turned her gaze to Parah.
Parah stopped throwing their dagger, sheathed in at their side and turned around. “You're worrying too much, Certea. We haven't encountered anything dangerous yet, and I doubt we will anytime soon,” they said with a reassuring though exhausted tone.
“Ustalav is well known to be home to all sorts of gothic beasts. Vampires, werewolves, and undead in all of their unseemly forms” Certea shuddered.
“Well, you're a fey and, if you look at all the formdancing you've shown me, I'm kind of a werewolf! So, I'd say we're on equal footing. We're almost at Caliphas anyway, so press on for a bit more, alright?”
Certea nodded and took a deep breath as she tried to enter a state of calm while it seemed every plant in her vicinity leered at her with their sinister gaze. As they continued to move through the shadows of night, over the horizon, Parah saw spires poking their heads out silently, yet beckoning them fourth.
Parah turned back to Certea and pointed over to the spire, “We're almost there, Certea! See? No issue at…” Parah suddenly stood there frozen. They stared directly behind the fey as if they wanted to say something, anything, but no words would come from their mouth.
“Is everything alright, Blossom?” Certea asked. Though she soon understood their fear as a stench of decay grasped her snout. She turned her gaze behind her back to see several figures in dark drab robes, piercing eyes as red as a blood moon, had surrounded them from the back.
“Parah…” Certea said as she took a step back. “The stench of life is disgusting,” one of the robed figures in the front said. “And you are full of it, fey.”
Parah jumped forward in front of their eidolon as glittering leaves that rapidly changed color flowed around them, their body growing a thick coat of fur, limbs morphing into animalistic features, and face extending into a long snout. As Parah landed, they were human no more, but rather a wolf barring their teeth before the robed figures.
“Impressive trick,” the central robed figure laughed. “But no living being can stand against the Whispering Way.”
Certea readied herself for combat besides her summoner. “I abhor your kind, ghoul,” she snarled. “Go back to the graveyard where you belong!”
“Ah, you understand what we are then. Perhaps I doubted your instincts. We won't be needing these then.”
The Whispering Way cultists ripped off their robes. Their flesh was sunken in, as if they'd been sucked off all vitality like a dried piece of fruit. Outlines of their veins visible beneath their grey flesh. They barred their teeth, sharpened to points. “I have never tasted the flesh of a fey, this will prove to be quite fun,” and the ghoul lunged forward as Parah jumped ahead in turn with a rallying howl.
Parah grabbed the wolf with their jaws and the two tumbled backwards as they hit the rough dirt. There they stood triumphantly over the ghoul, though the other monsters crowded around eager to strike. Before any could however, an illuminating light lit them aflame as they moaned in pain, parts of their flesh burned away and revealing cracked bones beneath.
“I have your back!” Certea said from behind.
Parah looked back with the best smile they could muster in their animal form, just what the ghoul was looking for. Opening its mouth wide, it took a bite out of one of Parah's legs, a mix of saliva and blood dripping down from its lips as it ripped out a piece of flesh. Parah yelped in pain and stumbled backwards to a prone position. Then it hit.
“Why do I feel so tense?” they wondered. Parah tried to get up, but their muscles failed to respond
“Did you enjoy that? I certainly enjoyed you. You have soft flesh, but I could without the fur. Gets stuck in the teeth!” the ghoul cackled.
“What did you do to them?” Certea lashes out as she launched an icicle spear through the chest of another ghoul, sending them flying.
“The mangy thing is paralyzed, and you will be next if you do not tell us where it is.”
“Where what is?”
“You are obviously the summoner our scouts reported who has the book we are looking for,” the ghoul replied snidely.
“We were coming here for a book, but we certainly don’t have what you seek, blightspawn.”
“Ah well, you will make for a fine dinner too even if that is the truth.”
The ghoul began speaking in a tongue that seemed to rot the very words that left their mouth while their claw-like hands glowed a sickening purple light. “Die, in our Tyrant's name, fey.”
Yet, before the ghoul could finish the incantation, it was tackled down by a massive black dog with a glimmering symbol upon its forehead, big enough to perhaps pass for a wolf if it weren't for the body shape. The other ghouls turned to either wrestle the beast off of their leader or devour Certea next, but before they could accomplish either, a blazing flame that radiated not heat to the body, but to the soul, came down from the sky and sundered the darkness of midnight, engulfing all those who belonged to the world of unlife and conscripting them to oblivion. When the ghostfire disappeared, the ghouls were nothing but ashes. Among them stood that strange dog and a young fellow with tidy hair brown like graveyard dirt wearing a vest as blue as a midnight sea.
“W-Who are you?” Certea stammered. The young fellow seemed to barely even notice there was someone else there until Certea spoke up, then looked over with shock.
“Oh, you're not… what are you?” they asked.
“I'm Certea of the Seelie,” she replied. “And that's Parah,” she said pointing down to the still paralyzed wolf.
“I'm Cornell and that's Anwynn,” they said pointing to the ominous black dog with eyes like the ghoul's. “But no time for that, your friend appears to be on its deathbed.”
Cornell ran over and brushed their hand over where Parah was bit by the ghoul and the flesh knotted itself back together. Then, taking a birch wand out from a belt containing a variety of the magical items, they tapped it upon Parah and suddenly they began to move once again, stretching out, then shifting back to their normal form. It was at this time that Certea noticed the same symbol upon the dog's head on Cornell's hand.
“Ye gads, didn't see that coming,” Cornell commented as they fell back in surprise. “If your friend is humanoid, we need to bring them back to my sanctum immediately. They could have been inflicted with ghoul fever. I have an antidote there.”
“But what are you two even doing out here?” Certea said as she picked up Parah and slung them across her back.
“Isn't it enough I saved your life? Now let's get moving! If you tire, Anwynn can carry your friend along. Okay?”
Certea wasn't exactly sure what to expect from this pair, but if they could save Parah? That's all that mattered currently.
Out of the woods and into the grim silence of the city, very few people populated its streets in the shroud of darkness that covered the buildings that loomed around them.
“I'd suspect at least a few people out,” Certea commented.
“In Ustalav? You've obviously never been here before. Even behind the walls of a city, monsters can lurk anywhere. Ghosts haunt the sites of murders, vampires lurk among us, and werewolves could be anyone. It's a grim place, so I try to do the work needed,” Cornell commented. “Never mind that though, here we are.”
Cornell stopped before a door at the side of run down house, the wooden infrastructure rotting slightly and the stones cracking. A tinge of sadness filled the fey as she looked upon the decay of the natural. She brushed the wood with her hand, purifying the rot from it and restoring some vigor to it. Cornell looked over while fiddling with a key ring to open the door and Anwynn turned their head sideways in a look of confusion.
“You do home renovation too?” Cornell joked as they inserted the key into the lock and opened the door.
“I just can't bear to see so much death here, even in something as simple as block of wood,” Certea lamented.
“Then let’s get your friend downstairs.”
The stairs creaked as the group traversed downwards. Torches that gleamed with a brilliant blue light at the side of the stairs, yet they emitted no heat. The torches illuminated a simple sanctum beneath the decrepit house, a shelf with a variety of books on undead and psychopomps lining the wall while a variety of what seemed to be ghost hunting supplies sat haphazardly next to it.
“Put them right over there,” Cornell said as they pointed to a well-used sleeping bag with a blanket throw to the side over it. Certea carried the dreary Parah and placed them down while Cornell walked over to a cabinet filled with medicinal herbs and began rooting through it.
“You'll be well soon, Blossom,” Certea said as she brushed Parah's hair. “Have you been able to find anything just yet?”
“Not really, I may have misplaced it. Anwynn, check the supplies by the bookcase.”
“Very well,” Anwynn spoke in a whispered voice.
Certea's eyes grew wide as she heard the black dog speak. “You can speak?” she asked.
Anywnn turned their head over to Certea as they walked over to and began searching through the supplies. “I am a psychopomp. We are not a talkative people, but we speak when needed.”
“Are you then a summoner like Parah?” Certea asked Cornell.
“I guess that is what you could call me, isn't it? I tend to prefer the title of mortal usher as it customary for those of us blessed to be bound with psychopomps, but that works too.”
“It explains the matching symbols on your persons. Parah and I have a similar bond.”
“Then you're at just as much danger as your friend. Anwynn, did you find it?”
“Yes, sir,” Anwynn said, then grabbed some herbs with their mouth and carried them over to Cornell.
“It'll take me a day to make the remedy, for now, just hang in tight. Okay?”
Certea nodded and cuddled close to Parah. “Sleep well, Blossom. You'll be well soon.”
Soon, Certea let sleep take her away until morning's light cast the darkness and all its terrors away.

Parah felt themselves awoken by a huff of warm air upon their face. As they groggily blinked open their eyes, they found themselves in an unfamiliar place with at least one familiar face, and a massive black dog staring over them. “Uh, Certea, what happened?” they asked.
Certea, sitting at a table in the middle of the room with Cornell having breakfast shot Parah a smile. “This young one helped you survive the altercation with the ghouls. They're Cornell and the dog is Anwynn, an eidolon like I.”
“Well thank you,” Parah said. They stretched out and got up and joined the two at the table.
“So, here's the plan…” Cornell began.
“The plan? Are we going to take those things out?” Parah asked.
“Err, yes, they won't stop harrying people until they get what they want. This.”
Cornell pulled a book out from the bag hanging on their side and pushed it towards the center of table. Its title read Advanced Transmorphic Techniques for Altering Flesh Alive and Dead.
Parah's eyes went wide with disbelief. “This is the book we've been looking for! It has information on some advanced forms I was interested in trying!” Parah exclaimed.
“Unfortunately, it also details how to alter the shapes of undead to let them slip into society much easier, similar to how vampires manage it. Based on my research, The Whispering Way has been looking for it at the command of Acolyte Grimgrub, a particularly nasty ghoul utterly devoted to climbing the ranks to one day join the Whispering Tyrant's side,” Cornell began.
“What exactly is the Whispering Way?” Parah asked.
“A group of cultists devoted utterly to undeath. They seek to cleanse the world of life so that the dead may reign. Many follow the lich lord known as the Whispering Tyrant who I'm sure you’re familiar with after his recent escape from Gallowspire half a decade ago.”
“So… pretty bad if they succeed?”
“To put it lightly, yes. I've been investigating them for a few months now. I stole the book from the library to keep them away from it, but due to your heightened use of polymorphic magic, it's quite likely they figured you possessed the book due to having a similar magical signature to it. I'm no student of the arcane, however, so I can't quite say. Either way if you're up to it, I'd like you and Certea to join me in dealing with Grimgrub once and for all. An all-out strike if you will.”
“Your wounds have mostly healed, Blossom, but you may still need more rest,” Certea commented.
“I'm fine, don't worry! I think I can take them on, especially with the backup.”
Certea nodded and they both turned over to Cornell.
“So, as I was saying. Here's the plan...”

The party arrived at the entrance to a cave a few miles outside the city. Vines crept around the entrance and then further inside, wilted and black, ooze leaked out from it and dripped down to a puddle upon the ground that looked scorched in the surrounding area.
“Well, that doesn't look safe,” Parah commented as they looked at the vines.
“The undead’s influence blights all around them,” Certea frowned.
“Correct, so please be cautious. I'd like to maintain this relationship after we're done here.”
They ventured within, immediately met with a miasma in the air lingering with the foul smell of decaying flesh.
“Take these,” Cornell said as they handed Certea and Parah bandannas. “Wrap it around your face like this to help keep the foul air out,” they demonstrated. Mouths covered now, they ventured further into the eerie silence.
“I never said thanks you know,” Parah said.
“Worry not, your fey friend gave me thanks enough. Now stop right where you are,” Cornell said as they put a hand up. The other three halted.
“What's wrong?” Parah asked.
“Anwynn senses residual spiritual energies. Let me offer a prayer to Pharasma to take the lingering spirit to the Boneyard.”
Cornell began a prayer in a language neither Certea or Parah understood, but waited patiently nevertheless. Yet, as they stood there, Parah spied a skeleton not too far away, oozing with the same substance the vines were producing. As Cornell continued their prayers, the ooze seemed to seep out more and more from the plants and bones until it began coalescing into a puddle right in front of them.
“Uh, Cornell?”
“Not now,” they whispered.
“Cornell…”
“I said not no—”
A phantasm of black goop in the shape of bones arose from the puddle and pointed accusingly at Cornell. “So… hungry…” it whispered.
“By Pharasma's folly, not what I wanted, be on guard!”
The spirit hovered over and launched a splash of ooze over at the party, sizzling the ground as it landed.
“Certea, let's take this thing out!” Parah said. Raising their hand up it swirled with winter winds as ice began coalescing, Certea raised her own, flames brimming fourth. Together, they launched elemental blasts towards the spirit, sending fire and ice through its body and putting holes in its oozing form, which quickly filled in with more of the muck.
“That usually works better,” Parah pouted.
“No time for worrying! Anwynn, strike the spirit. As for myself, be purified by the light of Creation's Forge!” Cornell announced. Anywnn clawed through the spirit, the damage not recovering after its attack. Following it up, Cornell brought forth a brilliant pure yellow light which Parah recognized as vital energy typically used for healing, and sent a belt of it through the spirit. As the bolt flew through its chest, the ooze sputtered, then blew away as it splattered around the cave walls. A few drops landed on Parah, sizzling as it melted away flesh.
“Ow, ow, ow!” Parah said as the ooze dissolved.
“Apologies, that was the best way to deal with it. Healing magic can be used to harm the undead in a pinch, while Anwynn's body treats the spiritual as physical,” Cornell explained.
“Don't worry, it just stings a little. You okay, Certea?”
“Only as hurt as you, Blossom. Though I was hoping our team attack would be more effective.”
“Spirits resist the physicality of our world. It's why runesmiths developed the ghost touch rune to turn physical attacks into spiritual ones as well. Unfortunately, it can't help magic, so you'll have to do without. Even then, the ghouls should be of little issue. Now let us continue,” Cornell finished.
Certea's ears twitched. “Do you hear that, Blossom?” she asked.
“What is it?”
“It sounds like chattering in a wretched tongue.”
“Likely Necril, language of the dead. The ghouls are nearby. Do you remember the plan?”
“We do. I'll walk there with Certea and you stay back, okay?”
Cornell nodded and the duo walked further within the cave as mortal usher and their hound stood back. The cave grew darker the further they ventured within, light seemingly extinguished here as well, but as they approached the voices, a small campfire illuminated a cavern chamber that smelled as foul as a trash heap. Ghouls hunched over rotting bodies glutted themselves on decaying flesh. At the head of the ghouls, a bloated corpse of one wearing a mockery of a cleric's robe watched as his subjects indulged. A nearby lake that glimmered in the light seemed blood red, as corpses were piled in it as they were nearly picked clean down to the bone.
“Feast my flock upon the lambs of slaughter! Let your bellies grow full on their flesh and your teeth dyed red on their blood!” the ghoul laughed.
“That must be Grimgrub,” Certea whispered.
“Do you see Cornell and Anwynn on the edge yet?” Parah asked. Certea looked up to an overlook that was above the camp but didn't see anyone yet.
“Not quite, we need to wait a few moments more.”
“Ay, you smell that, boys? I smell our next snack,” Grimgrub laughed.
“Darn it, he can smell us? I guess those other ghouls could before. Well, no time like the present, I hope Cornell gets here soon.”
Parah ran out of hiding before Certea could stop them and quickly followed by their side when she realized they'd be ripped to shreds alone.
“Hello there!” Parah said as they revealed themselves to the camp.
“Well, well, well, if it is not the stink of the one who slaughtered my flock with that shadow dog. Tell me why I shouldn't just kill you here and now?” Grimgrub smiled. Pointed teeth barred at Parah.
“Because I have this!” Parah said as they waved the book in front of the ghouls.
Certea finally made it down the stone path to Parah's side and gasped as they took it out. She looked to the overlook again with no sigh of Cornell.
“This just gives me more reason to kill you, does it not?”
“I want to propose a trade actually,” Parah said.
“A trade? What for?”
“I give you the book, you get lost. Easy as that.”
“And why should I not just kill you instead?” Grimgrub sneered as he leaned forward seemingly ready to strike.
“Because I have this!” Parah pulled out a vial of water glowing a brilliant light. Holy water. Grimgrub reeled back as the light emanating from tinged his flesh.
“You think I care about that!” he yowled.
“You don't seem fond of it.”
Grimgrub grunted. “Fine, I will take your offer, just put that thing away.”
“You leave first.”
“Deal.”
Grimgrub got up from his seat, and walked over as his bloated body swayed with the flesh of the fallen. He walked over the corpses, bones crunching beneath his weight then stood hunched over Parah, smelling like the same corpses he devoured. “Hand it over.”
Parah looked over to Certea to see if Cornell was there, she shook her head. “Actually, I'm not sure if I want to—”
“I SAID HAND IT OVER!” Grimgrub yelled as he went down to bite. Parah put the holy water in the way and he bit straight through the glass and into the liquid. It sizzled as it melted away his jaw, the rotting flesh falling off the ground with a thump. Grimgrub growled and went to attack with a claw as he tried to hold his face together with the other, but before he could manage, Cornell appeared right behind him, dismissing the invisibility concealing them, and lit the room with a holy flame while Anwynn ripped through the ghouls in the rear. When all was done, the ashes of death littered the ground and dispersed into the air with their victorious steps.
“You didn't tell me you were going to be invisible!” Parah said. They brushed off the melted flesh of Grimgrub jaw off their clothes in disgust.
“An extra precaution, I apologize. You did well, however. Your overbearing scent let us sneak as close as we did to send them all back to the grave.”
“No problem, just, got scared for a moment there.”
“You nearly gave me a heart attack with that!” Certea chided Parah.
“I know, I know, but I didn't know what else to do.”
“Well, worry not, we succeeded in our mission. You may keep the book if you wish, friend.”
“Really?” Parah said in surprise.
“Yes, I believe you're more than capable of protecting it.”
“And I hope further away from the cult than us,” Anwynn added in.
“For now, however, may I invite you home for tea… and new clothes?”
“Wouldn't want it any other way!” Parah said with a smile.
The party departed the cave, leaving the dead to rest again. At least for now.