The Dreamer looked slowly to Wilder again. Her question seemed to give him pause, and he lifted his great hands, studying the shackles.

"I wonder..." he said softly, "if they can even come away. They are... uncomfortable... at times." This musing ended with his fists gently resting back on the arm-slabs of the chair.

"I dream of wherever... he shows me... Hag-rheto, in his travels." A slow, rasping inhale. He sounded almost... fond. "And I pass this to my... Shapers... and they make it a... reality."

He paused, and looked upward. "Yes... I would like to have... my chains removed. I would like... to see the sky... in more than Dreams."

Above, through the grate overhead, he could catch only the barest glimpse of that sky projection on the cave ceiling: overcast clouds drifting lazily, dull gray and yet--to him--a world away.

Tema would find a second plant: this one a very dark, dull navy blue-green. It was a vine with alternating leaves, relatively large and glossy. The larger leaves had asymmetrical holes dotted about them, as if to prevent them being torn apart by wind, perhaps, or to let light in to the lower leaves from above. Its effects if ingested were mild: throat irritation, gastrointestinal distress. But as an ornamental plant, it was beautiful.

The Masked Merchant took the stones, and turned to study Fleas, for a moment. "You must give them your life... but I will ensure... that they take. I will... add this." He paused. "And they will grow... among the Shapers. They are... caretakers..."

_________

Fleas may cast Give Life on all three stones, but does not necessarily need to roll; all casts will be considered a guaranteed success. The resulting children will, upon request, be partially randomized or have features added to any existing designs that are oddly eldritch in nature, from the Merchant's involvement.

The costs of all three Give Life spells will be refunded in Magicka Market upon request, if they were not granted as rewards.

The Merchant held the stones, and each flicker of magic from Fleas was met--and strengthened--with ones of his own. Black, wispy curls of energy that threaded into each.

What effect would they have...?

When Fleas had finished, he curled fingers around them, and slid the largest into his robes, turning back toward the Barracks without a word.

There he would plant them, there they would grow, and there--with or without Fleas' guidance--they would hatch and begin their lives.

The Merchant did not speak further.

The following three children will be born from this magic. However, Fleas' player is permitted to redesign them as desired, so long as some effect of the Merchant's being is present. All three children will, throughout their lives, give the impression to those who meet them that they're somehow touched by something alien or other: eerie, feral, or unsettling, though their personalities may be otherwise reassuring. Click images for full-sized.




Cerussite

This creature, in life, was a Javan Ferret-Badger: an Earth animal not so long dead. Revived, it stands about a foot and a half at the shoulder, with hints of Fleas' color, leg length, ear and snout shape, and eye color. It retains the facial markings, including pale blaze, of the Ferret-Badger. However, it is born with a small, open, collapsed section of its hip: a pale yellow Cerrusite geode. Both this and the main gemestone, making up its exterior nose, sparkle with brilliant diamond-like color whenever the light hits it. Like its stonegiver, this creature is widely omnivorous: it can eat just about anything organic, from eggs to fruits to insects to fish and meat. It is resilient, energetic and tough, with loose skin, as its mustelid parent; it will have a natural instinct to find burrows, hollow logs, or other 'buried' spaces to rest.



Adamite

This creature is a strange, cephalopod-like creature: a ruined amalgam of parts. Built for land, not water, it breathes air and its skin is rough and pebbled, very thick and hard to pierce. Suckers along the undersides are more moist, able to cling to surfaces; this creature is more comfortable on walls and ceilings than on the floor. Its mantle--holding one of many dispersed brains--is bulbous and heavy, and though it forms one 'head,' two withered coyote-like legs, attached to coyote hindquarters, dangle from it. These are nearly useless for ambulation. The maw at its center holds a second head, coyote-like, with the main, thinking brain housed within its skull. Five green eyes with horizontal, slitted pupils adorn its head. Its maw is long, extending back far along the jawline; the jaw itself can open to one-hundred-sixty degrees and is lined with many sharp teeth. This creature is generally sluggish but can move with startling speed when needed, its eight tentacles swinging it rapidly along walls and roof; a ninth tentacle doubles as a weapon, its Adamite stone forming a jagged, toothed geode as a 'hand' at the underside of its tip. Though difficult to measure, if this creature were dangled limp, from mantle to the tip of its longest tentacle it would be seven feet long. Carnivorous, this creature can fit through any space that its skull can fit through, and tends toward ambush predation.



Jacinth

This creature stands eight feet tall at the shoulder, or ten at the head. Dark brown-grey, striped and tipped with ragged black hair, it resembles some sort of towering antelope. A set of what might have been Whitetail Deer-like antlers atop its head eventually grow rows of thin, jagged spines; these can snap off and regrow if thrust into an enemy. This creature has four reddish-orange eyes with glowing pale pupils; four ears; four legs; and two tails. The hooves are cloven, giraffe-like; the tails end in tufts of stringy black fur. A spike of Jacinth protrudes back from its skull. This creature shows little of its lifegiver's essence, except in diet and dentition: it is omnivorous, with a jackal's jaw and tooth structure. Its nose is somewhere between an antelope's soft skin and a jackal's nose-leather. Whatever color it had has been faded out by the Merchant's influence, turning dark and dull.