To Twist Both Metal And Flesh...

[*Selebius]

In the aftermath of some incident in which constructs from outside Sigil attacked several citizen several heavily warded boxes have been delivered to the Armoury.

There are rumours about strange alloys, of ways to combine living and undead flesh into something greater, something with the strenght of both but none of its weaknesses. A leg is examined in one of the vaults, and some say it is reeking of Demons and Angels, of life and undeath and despite having be cut from the supporting body it is still alive. Or undead.

But there is more- a namer has been led to one of the Citadels 'for security reasons' on the order of some Doomlord Xar'x- a Cambion who just recently arrived in Sigil, called by the Factol herself.

There is a call of volunteers to raid the lower and the upper planes for metals, flesh and blood- as well as for people who know how to solve the riddles of flesh and steel, of people who know the planes.

[*Krayt]

Of course it did not take long for these rumours to reach another Doomlord. He had plans for similar researches especially that of undead and living flesh for the outer hull of the Ship of Chaos. Abeit he had experianced this transformation and unity first hand he had not unraveled the mysteries of how it came to be. He ran a finger along the lower part of his prothese as a reminder. Limbs of demons are sometimes left behind but the choaitc nature of such occurances whas hard to find any structure in. But as in any alloy a perfect match and mixture were Paramount. Could this be the result of perfect balance? Or was the soul animating these objects unique and able to extend it's will to anything? And how could the weakness suddenly disappear? It was as mixing water and fire.

He would stress the imporatance of these raids at the armoury. There was reasons Pentar had chosen to not involve him directly. Finding this namer would be a challange if Pentar wanted him or her sealed away. expecting it to be ignored or spurned he wrote the following letter.

Doomlord Xar'x

The runious fortune that arrived with you caught my interest to say the least. I would like to offer my assistance. Would you find the time seek me out I am certain it will be rewarding to the project as a whole.

Doomlord Ashtoret.

He would then go to the vaults to see these himself wondering if he would be allowed in or not. ((If the location was known ))He approached the guards of the vault and request join the research.

[*Mander]

Azor would accompany him on the visit, watchful as always. He didn't know why their Factol would exclude Mauric from whatever was being undertaken, but he knew the warlock could put any discovery to better use than the other Greater Doomlords.

[*Selebius]

Two men in heavy armour guard those vaults and Mauric smells the Abyss' taint on them, Azor sees their armour is grafted to their flesh, their bodies reinforced in painful yet terribly effective ways.

Glowing eyes behind slittet visors watch the two men as they enter but noone steps forward to challenge them- indeed it seems they are expected.

The air is stifling, the sharp smell of acid and burnt iron and stone mixing with the coppery smell of
blood and the sweet sickness of decay.
Several cages line the far wall, most empty but a few occupied by specimen gathered at that raids, a lone Eladrin, an Alu-Fiend, a Bar-Lgura already heavily mutilated.

On the slab in the middle is the dissected form of something that once was a winged humanoid- its left leg has been replaced by the artificial limb the Doomguards heard about.

It is the only thing still alive (or undead) living and undead flesh kept together by this odd golden-red alloy- the wires and rods and plates part of the whole. A Lilitu turns away from the slab, visibly annoyed, her many tails swishing nervously, her burnt wings held close to her body.

She is clad in leather and iron chains, tools of a physician (or torturer) worn on her belt, clotted with blood and pieces of skin and other tissues.

Perhaps she wanted to say something but she is silenced by the Cambion lifting his clawed left hand, his grotesque, ugly face forming something like a smile as he sees Mauric and Azor approaching.

"How good you two found time to join us. There is a lot to do."

[*Krayt]

He whispered to the Athesian dervish on their way towards the vault. "Our Tanar'ri friends again. If we're lucky we'll receive just as warm a welcome as in Twelvetrees."

Inhaling deeply behind his mask seemingly envigorated by the sight and smells. Azor knew that his spirit was like a flame that grew colder the more time possed between gorging those sources of nutrition.

He stepped closer to the slab but minded not to step to far from Azor at any given time. Trying to get a chance to give the Lilitu's tail a inviting carass with his hand placed at his back while leaning over the creature strapped to the slab to inspect the piece of metal.

"Yes we thought so. Apologies for the late arrival. Champion Azor and myself have many tasks at our hands. Not neglecting the potential of this one however." Reaching to the metal to test the effect on himself and the companion within his prothese. but would withdraw it before seeming sucpicious.

"What has been tested so far and what are the theories of the results reached until now?"

[*Selebius]

The Lilitu flashes her teeth at Mauric- part smile part snarl the tail corling around his hand for a moment before it withdraws again and it is this demon and not the Cambion who answers the question.

"It is fragile but also touch, has not much resistance to blades or cinjuration spells but it is healed and fixed easily again. Somehow it seems to be cnnected to an everlasting source of lifepower... undead flesh and living tissue not truly dying even if cut to smallest pieces.

So far it resisted our attempts to be grafted to a host.... the limb swiftly corrupting the recipients form while at the same time devouring the soul.

The whole design should not work at all- this mix of opposites should not even exist. I cannot imagine what kind of soul might be needed to fill this device."

The organs inside the body on the slab are all wrong and twisted- cancerous growths eating through them, bloated with pus.

"We know the metal is an alloy of Morguth Iron and Aurorum..", the Cambion says now "... but we have not yet suceeded in our tries to create it. The components never really mix."

[*Krayt]

"Interesting. If it is indeed a soul that animates it. Or a imperfect merge of a multitude of souls happen to have chanced upon the exact balance to not tip in any direction making it all feasible. Think of the possibilites. Perhaps someone has succeeded in creating a syntetic soul would hold a personal grudge against that person however after all my failing attempts." He looked to the metal still So this both harms and heals?

He first now took his eyes from the limb and gazed at the Cambion. "Merge a soul of a water elemental and fire elemental and you can expect the same result. Only that metals are quite.. souless. The force behind this make it possible in all likelyhood."

"My first suggestion would be to put a soul link on it. If we can see what it see we will better understand it."

[*Mander]

"What would happen if one tried to Raise the undead portions of this being?" Azor knew little of magic, but enough to know such spells usually destroyed undead at the very least, if not bringing back the person they were before. If that didn't work, it would mark a vast improvement in the potential of these creatures in combat.

[*Selebius]

"It both harms and heals, there is even no switching between those properties necessary it just does both at the same time.", the Lilitu says, her scorched wings fluttering in sudden annoyance.
"A composite or synthetic soul might work but we cannot extract any from those scraps we got for our research- so we can only speculate. Nevertheless a soul link is an interesting suggestion- I like it even if I am bot sure it can succeed"


Xar'x adresses the dervish while the Lilitu talks to the warlock, the Cambion's voice just a whisper.

"Raise Dead and Ressurection do not work on undead flesh but Revive Undead has been known to return a destroyed Undead to Undeath again. However so far Raising nor reviving did not work."

He gestures at the limb.

"Those spells fail simple because what is alive is not dead and what is undead is not yet destroyed- a Miracle or Wish might be able to turn the undead into something living however.

There mght be other complications too as the donors of this flesh might still be alive somewhere- according to the reports forwarded by the Fraternity those pieces are harvested from donors who are then healed and regenerated to be harvestet again.. and again."

This last part makes the lilitu turn and smile at the other demon, some sick, twisted excitement gleaming in her eyes at this thought.

[*Krayt]

He drew nearer and nearer the Lilitu as the spoke. He spoke seductivly and playfully flirtatious only breaking down with a utterly serious tone momentarily. Playing on her nature to get on her good side to let her Think she had him around her finger to play with so that he could learn about the rumoured namer.

"We'll just have to find a intact subject for you to have your fun with then. But until we do I think we should at least test what a soul link can provide. I just as you suspect all we will see is either a facet of a multitude of sight as I do suspect the soul is a imperfect.. and thus perfect for this purpose merge of many soul or the even more likely black vision of a too powerful being blocking the spell. Have you toyed with blasting every energy type at it at the exact same time? Would be a shame if it was destroyed completly by it though. " He yolted back raising his hand in a apologetic gesture. "I did not say just that. Entropy take it all. Before we had the chances to study it I meant." A insinuation perhaps that he thought there was better uses for it and was open for suggestions.

"Assume a simple regrowth spell has no effect either? He open his satchel and took a scrollcase from it handing it to the Lilitu making sure to make skin Contact as he did. "Give me a hand with this as I am lacking one. Should be a scroll in in there with that"

Whipping his head to at Xar'x as he spoke the line harvested again and again. "That would be even a greater use. You could grow golem after golem from the same set of hosts. But if the donors are alive it means their soul is not part of these limbs. And what would happen if those donors souls became.. lost to this existance and gained by the next. Would the pieces harvested from them still linger or would they die without the soul to animate them I wonder. Still there is potence in this you could store such hosts at a secure facility such as our beloved Armoury and send these indestructibles to fight your wars. Quite handy don't you think Azor?"

It would strike Azor as very odd that he spoke that openly. He would usualy not give any suggestions away like that. And he would certainly not call anything indestructible and mean it. He was playing some kind of game for sure.