Chuq and Serithaz
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On the evening of the 26th, Chuq finds a quiet spot on the Jolly Gorgon and lays down to sleep. Serithaz asks Chuq to relax and not resist any sensations of being pulled – that will just be him moving Chuq’s consciousness into the cap. Once he’s there, Serithaz will find him and he will try to teach Chuq how to manipulate the ‘realities’ inside the artifact. Everything goes according to plan, with Chuq coming to his senses in a featureless void; shortly thereafter Serithaz appears and begins working with Chuq on creating something out of nothing. It does not go very well, though, and soon the hours pass and it’s time for Chuq to return to his body …
Except that’s not really what happens at all. Here’s what really happens:
- Serithaz has been plotting to grab Chuq’s consciousness for a while now – in fact, he was running out of time to do so (see the bit about madness below) and planned on making a risky attempt within the next few days. Chuq volunteering to surrender himself into Serithaz’s power is obviously a gift from Lysander.
- As soon as Chuq relaxes and succumbs to Serithaz’s transfer attempt, the devil fish drops him into an alternate reality running at a fraction of real-time speed (i.e., each second is days of time). Like all of his kind, Serithaz is quite serious about his promises and he promised not to hurt Chuq and so he won’t; that doesn’t mean he won’t imprison Chuq’s consciousness, though.
- Meanwhile, Serithaz spins up another realities with an alternate versions of Chuq running at many times the speed of regular time (days per second); in these realities he uses the memories he has just lifted from Chuq to recreate his life with constructed consciousnesses – alt-Chuqs.
- Most everything in these Chuqs’ memories is left as is, excepting a few key changes. Serithaz invents a secret Cult of Lysander with the Order of the Celestial Dragon and revises all of Chuq’s most-beloved and trusted teachers into acolytes of this order; there’s a bit of trial-and-error (and some discarded alt-Chuqs), but eventually Serithaz raises a version of Chuq who is a devote disciple of Lysander as well as a monk of the celestial order.
- Serithaz also adds a prophecy among these monk-acolytes about an avatar of Lysander who will liberate that deity’s most precious artifacts from Merendur and merge with one of the dead god’s most gifted children, becoming a great champion in the war against the surface dwellers.
- Of course, the cloak and net are those artifacts and Serithaz is that gifted child of Lysander. Alt-Chuq is convinced he is this prophesied avatar and is now working with Serithaz to further Lysander’s goals and possible raise Lysander (i.e., he’s very interested in what Parnel Folet just told the party about Dragon blood).
Some quick notes:
- This is obviously a big change for Chuq in terms of role-playing, although his outward behavior might not change too much; let me know if you have any questions about the implications.
- Chuq can still care about freeing slaves and avoiding the end of the world (Serithaz doesn’t want that to happen either), but his goals also include the furthering of Lysander/Devil Fish plans now.
- To that end, Chuq will begin touching the minds of everyone he comes into contact with so that Serithaz can continue implanting the seeds of madness that will blossom at the next double full-moon (which coincides with the holiday week after the 30th of Tanrilden). He will also be interested in getting the party away from Vargen and Midmark before that so they don’t interfere with the chaos about to be unleashed when all the infected lose their minds.
- Chuq will also want to get samples of blood from three dragons with the thought that it may be possible to bring Lysander back (i.e., fulfill his destiny as the Avatar of Lysander)
- Chuq and Serithaz have also worked out that Drayz and Gronsk are manipulating the mermen to get the sonic device to a particular location at a particular time. They are not sure of why this is important, but believe it will further of Lysander’s goals. Chuq will therefore do what he can to help their plot and throw off any suspicions.