“Not bad… Not bad at
all…”
Oddleigh gawped –
firstly at the thing squatting in the rough chalk circle and then at his
tingling hands, hardly believing that he had managed to summon, let alone bind,
such a creature with the flimsy pentagram he had scrawled onto the flagstones
in the back yard of the inn.
“Thank-you master,” he
muttered, grinning with embarrassment as some of warband, idly watching nearby, applauded
half-heartedly.
The creature, dense,
flabby and pale, moved it’s head slightly as the tentacles that comprised what was presumably it’s
face gently probed the air around it.
“Back in my day we
called them Moonbeasts,” said Thaddeus conversationally. “We could only get
them to manifest during a full moon. That you can summon one in daylight is
quite an achievement, though I daresay the strong magical field around here had
something to do with it.”
“Is it dangerous?”
Oddleigh asked, noting the muscles tensing under the creature’s rubbery skin.
“All extra-planar entities are dangerous in one way or another,” his master replied. “But Moonbeasts
are docile enough – absolute buggers if roused though.” He chuckled to himself,
remembering some old incident or other from his own apprenticeship. “I think I’ll
sit and watch this one for a while – see if the sunlight causes it any discomfort
– my notepad and a sandwich if you please.”
Oddleigh sighed
inwardly – performing a rare feat of summoning obviously didn’t exempt one from
the usual round of fetching and carrying…
He sloped off into the
inn’s kitchen, lost in thought, and reached for the bread.
“BOY!”
Oddleigh paused halfway
through hacking his way through the loaf as his master yelled – the noise
mingling with shouts of alarm from the rest of the warband. He rushed back into
the yard, where the men were circling a huge worm-like creature that reared
above them.
Thaddeus sat comfortably
to one side with a look of amused detachment.
“Oh good summoning
master!” Oddleigh cried, agog.
“Oh this is not my
work boy; it sort of… erupted from underneath the midden…”
“Oh…”
One of the men yelled
and sprang swiftly to one side as the worm darted at him, it's circular toothy maw stained with dried blood.
Thaddeus snorted,
before pointing a bony finger at the Moonbeast still pawing at the invisible
wall around the summoning circle.
“You bound it boy, so you can let
it out – be interesting to see which one wins… Now, where's that sandwich?”
Two nice monsters to reduce the creatures to-do pile – plastic pre-painted Pathfinder figures
that I’ve ‘prettied’ up a bit and re-based. The Moonbeast will do as a minor or
major demon (and at a push a mutated frost ape or bear), whilst the Grimslake
will double up as a worm or demon.
