Azu's Deviations

[RuneDragoon]

((About Azu: A hatchling who, through addiction to crystals, ends up having the ability to absorb knowledge of crystals. Subsequently, the blight reesidue present in crystals found on undead also proved she could eat the memories attached to blight and over time came to become an expert connoseur of consuming undead minds. Especially mages. In this fashion the hatchling who has limited capacity to learn anything outside these methods gains intelligence and expands her abilities and spellbook.

This unfortunately makes this character hard to play, as azu has gone the path of evil. Not just any evil, but the evil you could expect from a super villian from james bond or comic books, or even from D&D's chromatic dragons. This is not the bully and kill maim and burn everything you touch evil. This is the devious, scheming, plotting sort who would ponder for days how to start a war between two peaceful nations, try to make your mother believe she isnt your mother, and attack you at any weak points that may come to light.

Please keep in mind before posting that I am aware people may not enjoy taking part in the plots, and as always out of courtesy I always ask if they wish to participate beforehand, or go if they invite me, knowing well that they may have it in for them. If the other party is not in agreeance, I do not step forward.

This thread will document any evil plans that come to light for your reading pleasure. Thank you to all who have played with me, it was hard, but fun.

I present to you a prologue of why a previously decent hatchling has slowly fallen first, to be continued with the first plot.))

Deviations
"The insane, on occasion, are not without their charms"
-- Kurt Vonnet Jr.

Azu sat reclining at the shrine in new trismus. Looking around, she saw the sun was shining, the grass was green, the birds were singing and the insects buzzing about from plant to plant. Everything was so clean, pristine, and bright in contrast to where she had been for some time.. the blood red hatchling had either been camping in a deadland, turning the local residents into ashes and eating their mostly useless memoirs of life, or living inside her vault, perched upon her crystalline hoard (also now dust. The lack of crystals to consume made her go outside for a change).

Her mind had been previously harder to organize. Normally up till that point she could just forget the memories she no longer needed, attached to a sickening fog she would exhale. The voices of memories became more blurred, many talking at a time, many minds colliding and grinding together in one head. And at any given time, she could only listen to one.

For example, weeks ago, watching a cloud drift by, one voice noted "I hate clouds", while others chimed in simultaneousy "ooh, looks like rain!", "white, fluffy..", "block out the sun", "not bright enough outside", "too bright outside", "where's my sandwich...?"

She simply found herself only a few days ago with a foggy mind, everything suddenly silenced, everything imploded together, melded, became a new overmind, which now was Azu's own again.

Sadly, when you fill and create a mind with blighted memoirs and corrupted intentions, you simply cannot think straight.

(to be continued below)

[RuneDragoon]

((Before this: In the roleplay channel Azu met back up with selarth, and finding he was at odds with LungTien, she sat and observed. It appeared Lung had a new granddaughter... who then forgot who Azu was when she met again in new trismus.))


First Deviation - "Web of Lies"
"Lies are but a spider's web, made of threads so fragile and transparent, that insects cannot see it. However, if the spider is not careful and slips, it will soon become caught in its own web that it had spun." - An Elven Elder of Feladan

Watching the world go by at the shrine, Azu was interrupted by a little voice. A familiar little voice.

"Glit'sita! Want to go out hunting?" asked LungTien's granddaughter, Fierya.

The mental cogs began to spin. Yes... I will play with this one... She is far too precious to her grandfather.

""Hmm.. yes. We shall." Azu purred, stalking behind the hatchling out to the gruok field. Fierya proceeded to kill one of the grulets. Azu turned around and used her personally modified drain bolt (modified to suit her intentions often with draining power and mind from something else) upon a gruok. Fierya had never seen drain bolt before.

"Oh! Thats neat! What spell is that?" she asked.

Azu, tapping her chin, quickly concocted a plan to take advantage of this opportunity.

"Well... Its a secret." Azu noted.

"A secret?" Fierya questioned.

"Yes.. a secret. However, lets play a game and I might tell you the secret after." Azu purred.

"Okay.. what game are we going to play?" Fierya said enthusiastically.

"Its called... hide and seek. Your friend hides while you cover your eyes. Then.. you go find them. I will hide first... And no peeking." Azu grinned.

""Ok!" Fiera agreed, covering her eyes. Azu made no effort to hide, simply running over the nearest hilltop. She was shortly discovered.

"Good.. now it is your time. Go hide somewhere better than I've hidden." Azu spoke calmly, covering her eyes and waiting. A short time later, it was time. If Fierya was not in a prime hiding spot, Azu took refuge in how she could go another round until Fierya had found one that would for for Azu's intentions.

Thankfully, this round would work.

Fierya had decided a suitable hiding place, when found, was a large cave. The roof had stalagmites (or is it stalactites?) hanging, undisturbed for eons and hanging precariously above. A sloping entryway to the cavern had a large boulder, fallen from the wall or the roof some time ago sitting precariously on an edge above the pocket fierya occupied.

Hmm... Location, Location, Location... this requires a prime location and well... This is excellent as a choice upon her part... har har har... azu thought to herself. Looking around, a plan formed based on what she saw. Rock.. unstable. Accidental nudge will cause fall. Fall will block escape route. Fall may render cave roof structures to collapse to ground and seal exit... she concluded, setting it in motion as she padded down the ramp, lightly nudging the collossal, teetering rock.

"Oh! There you are, I found you." Azu smiled to Fierya. The rock swayed on the edge more violently with every rock back and forth. Fierya chirped back "Oh! yes, this is my quiet spot when I need to think, its nice isnt it?"

Crash. The rock toppled, blocking most of the exit from the pocket under the ramp. With a loud rumble to follow, the ceiling structures fell too, blocking the niche that would have allowed fierya to escape.

"Ah! Help! I have to dig out of here..." Fierya shouted.

Azu, thinking at the time of just leaving the hatchling, slyly spoke back: "One must learn to never trust the earth as it may hold harsh lessons for you."

Fierya piped up from behind the wall, digging at the boulder with futility. "Well.. I guess thats true. By coming here I risked a cave in and now it has happened."

Pause. Opportunity is knocking. You have some blight in your system, it may please Selarth and certainly annoy LungTien to convert this hatchling to one of the blight... Hrm. Azu thought, poking her nose into a tiny crack. "Well, are you okay in ther..." -- COUGH COUGH HACK -- Azu coughed up a corrosive blight fog, filling the pocket. Fierya's scales began to dull as it ate away it them, and breathing it in did no good, but digging, she took no notice to the toll on herself being done.

"What is this fog?" She questioned.

"Oh sorry.. I havent been well for some time. I cough it up a lot. Its nothing I think." Azu replied, starting to scratch and dig with no effort to the rock. She must delay releasing her from the initial fog infusing Fierya's body, preparing her for a larger infusion in the future.

Minutes pass, both hatchlings digging at an immovable force between each other. Azu thought by now it might be time to release her.

"This rock is too big... We can't dig through it... Just a second, I have..." Azu spoke. She finished the sentence in a manner like a mind lasher speaks when trying to access stolen memories, looking for a "Soften" spell as bipeds would use. "... an... idea... "

Finally getting a hold of the spell, she cast it upon the boulder, which turned to sand, releasing the trapped hatchling.

"Wow, thats a powerful spell!" Fierya piped up, examing the sand. "Lets get out of here... In case it caves in again." Azu noted, leaving the cave. Fierya couldn't help but agree.

Outside the cavern, fierya winced as everything was bright outside. Her scales were coroded and worn, her insides felt like they were outside, and dizzy she took a rest.

Azu looked to the hatchling again, coughing and hacking and sending a thicker, noxious fog her way. "Sorry again. I do wish I will be well in the future. Oh right, I owe you a secret." Azu noted with an almost poisonous smile.

"A'na! What is the secret?" Fierya weakly inquired, feeling more ill by the second.

"You see... the secret is that I use this modified spell to steal the life and memories of blighted things." Azu smiled evilly, casting the spell on Fierya.

"Wha---?!"

Fierya took a direct hit and passed out. Sitting quietly, Azu analyzed the block of stolen memories she took. And, she was pleased. She had stolen all memories of Fierya's family. She wouldn't remember her parents, grandparents and any siblings or cousins in her family tree. Now to try to arrange this to go almost unnoticed, Azu thought to herself, grabbing the now throughly blight poisoned hatchling by the tail and dragging her a distance to the new trismus blightland and leaving her a short distance away on a ledge. Azu then ran back to town looking for an adult dragon.

Spotting Tarkaras, she ran up and pleaded with him for help. "Help! I found a hatchie and... and.. they're hurt! I don't know how to heal... They need to get back to town for a healer.. fast."

Tarkaras at first was dismissive but being pestered for help he eventually agreed. Azu charged away, leading him behind her back to fierya, who by now had rotting scales. Looking around, he asked how Azu had come across this hatchling.

"I came to kill ghosts.. and it was here... it looks hurt and sick..." Azu lied. Tarkaras nodded and slung her over his shoulder. Shortly, she found herself at the feet of the cleric trainer of new trismus. Azu couldn't help but ask many seemingly convincing banter ranging from "will it be okay" to "I found it at ghosts... it was hurt badly".

It took several minutes to revive her and heal the wounds. When Fierya awoke, he eyes glowed green, she was foul tempered, didn't remember anything about her family, and felt a strong urge to hunt and kill. A friend of hers who had checked in to see her, upon hearing she had been at the healer was concerned and began pressin to see what happened, only to be met with the young hatchling's newfound temper.

Azu walked up to Fierya, in view of many more adult dragons who had arrived to perch on the town rooftops.

"I'm glad you are okay! You were beat up bad." Azu said with a smile reaching out to fierya to pat her on the head, but pulled her hand back seeing fierya might bite her instead. "NO BITEY!" Azu screamed, running backwards to the shrine.

Well, might as well watch. she thought, no longer actively participating in the unfolding events.

Tarkaras smelled a rat, observing Azu. She found herself quickly with her head behing held by him in the town square, being questioned.

Azu began to tell a fake story after much coercing. Tarkaras, however, time and time again proved himself a formidable wit and defeated her time and time again.

((Sorry, I don't remember the stories specifically so I've shortened it D: But thank you tark for that epic battle of wits, it was awesome!))

When at last Tarkaras cornered Azu, she decided she would have the last say, speaking like a mindlasher while trying to access her spellbook.

"I... Have.. Placesss.... To... Be... " She said, disappearing by means of a mage's teleport with a puff of smoke.

[RuneDragoon]

((Azu concocted another plan to test LungTien's intelligence, but couldn't pass up causing some damage. Fierya had been cleansed and returned to normal by this time as well.

The trap she built is a crafted fortress of boulders, placed precariously and methodically so that if the structure is tapped, moved, or modified in any way, it collapses. It also has a magical component lightly cementing it as well. If the magic is dispelled, the boulders would lurch and collapse. A last component of the trap involves bait. Fierya served as the bait, magically chained to a rock at the back of the structure. Azu however, being the devious one she is, has engineered it all to try to trick someone into dispelling or breaking the chain, which then would cause a reaction and dispel the structure and cause the much desired cave in.

Just noting again, I do ask before I do these things and communicate occly frequently.))

Deviation 2 - "Watch for falling rocks."
"Its always a trap..." - Common Sense

Lately, Azu had become fond of a mage's cantrip. The ability to be invisible for long periods of time allowed for intelligence gathering and observations. Best yet, is that most dragons do not have a way to see invisible entities. Biedal mages might see through it as they had the training, but there were never many of them.

She had planned hard an elaborate trap... now to set the bait. It wouldn't take much. Waiting some time, LungTien and Fierya arrived again in New Trismus. Azu created a little magic butterfly illusion, and began controlling it. The illusionary butterfly came to rest of fierya's nose before flitting around her.

Few hatchlings can resist a flitting bug to chase, and Fierya took the bait.. easily. Before LungTien had a chance to notice the butterfly and scream "WAIT!", his granddaughter was rushing out of town. The butterfly weaved and flitted until it had led her to the rocky trap set for her, LungTien trying to chase her down all the way. It came to rest on the ground in the back. Content she finally would catch it, she pounced... and activated the magic that would have her now chained to the largest boulder in the back.

Azu, still under her cloak, set herself upon a hill nearby to watch the chaos, and observe the ancient black's knowledge and ability to solve problems. This sort of intelligence is always useful when you make elaborate schemes.

It didn't take long for Lung to figure out a way around the problem Azu had not anticipated. He simply cast a spell to hold most of the structure up before dispelling the chain to try to free his granddaughter.

Azu was not pleased. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, she gestured with her left hand in an attempt to negate his spell. He took notice to the outside force and simply funneled more into himself, to which azu in turn also did so. A deadlock of mageries had been reached.

Trying to distract him, Azu unleashed a patch of bramble, not once, but twice over time to try to distract him as painful thorns climbed up his legs and pierced skin. His attention did not waver, keeping the structure upright. Fierya was too nervous to walk into the brambles as they were indeed sharp and blocking the exit.

Azu noticed then, that there was a flaw in the spell and ceased her attempts to dispel. LungTien thought that the other force has given up and ceased his channeling in order to painfully pull thorns from himself.

She struck then. Gesturing powerfully, a mighty gale hit the structure and shoved the boulders toward Lung. Azu had noticed his spell had been holding it up, but it hadn't been holding it in place. Effectively, it was like pushing books off a bookshelf, it should topple over if you pushed the blocks off the magic shelves.

LungTien had still been plucking thorns and loudly inquiring about what the thorns were that had sprouted to attack his legs. He was met alarmingly with the pile of rocks moving in his direction and ceased picking thorns to try to hold it up.

"Fierya, get out of here!" He yelled at his granddaughter, who in alarm darted into the brambles under LungTien. "No! Get OUT! You are a fool to stand under me!" he shouted at her, holding the rocks up.

Azu waved her hand again. Another gale struck the rocks.

Lung's strength was failing under the increasing weight of rocks set to topple.

"But..." Fierya begged.

"No! Get away!" Lung urged. Fierya finally took heed and ran a distance away.

With a sigh of relief to his granddaughter being okay, the rocks fell in on him. Both slided quickly into the deep sea.

Azu was pleased with the results and left the area.

[RuneDragoon]

((By now, LungTien started actively looking for the hatchling. He had sensed her perched before heading into the sea and questioned around. Word tends to spread when you ask everyone.))

Deviation 3 - "Ghosts are not toys"
"Don't call us. We'll call you." - Common saying among businessmen

Azu sat patiently on a tree she had climbed. Opportunity struck at last, and she took a ghost's mind hostage, turning it into a puppet. Word had it LungTien was looking for her. He was at least a little angry. Time to make him angrier by providing him insult by not speaking to him directly. Rage tends to make people stupid... and stupid provides useful errors to take advantage of.

It took some time, but the ghost managed to shuffle to the clearing most dragons gather to converse in, its mind kicking and screaming against the puppetmaster all the way.

"Word.. Has.. it... you seek... hatchling.." the ghost moaned, shuffling slowly to LungTien.

Lung growled. "What is this?"

"You ask... around... word.. spreads..." the ghost stuttered.

Lung peered at the apparition. "Azu?"

"One... has brain... you... speak.. indirect... to Azu..." the ghost moaned.

Lung was clearly upset at such an insult. "I WILL FIND YOU!" he roared taking off.

"Yesyes... ou try to find... you ... will fail." the ghost jeered. Azu decided to leave her control there, allowing it to roam free. What became if that ghost is unknown, likely killed by another dragon. Lung didn't succeed in finding Azu.

The next day a different ghost appeared, the puppetmaster silently stalking in and hiding upon a ledge above the group to observe.

"... You.. no.. find... Master. Failed... hunt." the ghost spoke slowly.

Lung was annoyed by the returning ghost. He did notice though that it was controlled again and cast a spell to slowly remove Azu's control.

"Why do you need a puppet? Show yourself." Lung demanded.

The ghost began to explain a difference between intelligence and cowardice. Azu wasn't afraid of the ancient several times larger than her. She simply thought the annoying toy was fun to play with.

His finely tuned magical senses caught wind of her, and looking around as her ghostly control faded, he turned around to find her hidden in a dark spot on the ledge. "Azu, come out, I know you are there."

"Oh, you found me. Excellent. By the way, your spell is breaking my control in three... two... one..." Azu spoke calmly.

On que, the ghost reverted to your average spiritual terror, at first wandering aimlessly, but turning to attack LungTien's backside as he was closest. It was no match for him though, being cut down easily.

Stepping into the light and pacing up and down the length of the ledge, Azu spoke again. "A shame you broke my toy... Now, you wished to speak?"

Lung cleared his throat and made his request. "What shall it take for you to never come near my family again?"

Hmm... I like this opportunity. she thought to herself coming to rest on the ledge in front of him, folding her claws up like a trader doing business would when discussing prices.

"What's in it for me?" She asked.

Lung tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if you go find me something.. valuable... for example, a large sum of money, a great deal of hoard, or some valuable magic bauble or trinket and give it to me... I may decide to leave them alone. This is my business proposition to you." Azu spoke. "In a sense, you can pay me to go away."

Lung thought carefully. He concluded that someone like this couldn't be trusted. "Lets not do business. How about you just stay away from them?" he asked threateningly.

"Tsk tsk, you wanted to speak and now here you are bearing threats." Azu said, waving a claw at him. "I am afraid I prefer my.."

Lung couldn't contain himself any longer. He snatched the hatchling up by her neck before she could finish.

"Well then, how about I teach you a lesson because I feel you have no plan to leave my family alone. Feel the pain you have inflicted..." he said, gesturing with his free hand. Pointing at her stomach, the spell began to inflict severe ethereal pain without causing damage.

It was agonizing. Azu looked at lung and noticed in his eyes and his expression he expected her to show him how much pain she was in. Using her concentration, she attempted to deny him this pleasure.

"Pain..? Let me share the love." She hissed, quietly recalling cloak of thorns. In shock at his his claw holding the hatchling tight suddenly feeling the same amount of pain he had cast, he opened his hand painfully. "What is this?!"

Azu would not be free to get away though as some new magic force thrust her into, and pinned her to a tree. By now her concentration was running thin, the spell was powerful and her gut was wrenching.

There is always one part of a plan Azu makes: an escape route. And it was now that this was important, for teleports would be too much focus. Recall would have to do for now. She would use the other half of her concentration to strike a blow to LungTien.

Looking up to him, and yet still denying him most signs of the agony she faced, Azu began to speak. "You cause me pain... it does hurt much. I will not show you it hurts, you would like it too much. However... I take pride in one thing. I've turned you into me. At this time you delight in invoking pain to another. And this.. I take pride and delight in." she finished by not being able to hold her stomach, finally vomiting up a puddle of acid and using the last strand of focus to recall somewhere safe.

Lung, watching her recall shouted "And there's more where that came from!".

After she had gone though, he may have had some things to think about. Those words held some serious weight.

((Please correct me if I'm wrong, you did deflate yourself after saying you would need to think of how best now to rethink family protection stuff so going on what you have said lung, I have written the last bit.))

[LungTien Temeraire]

Nicely written, Runos
About the last part...well, I though to make my character troubled by what had just happened, and by Azu's words, as he had never gone so far. He is now ready to start again if someone attempts to threaten his family, though.
Besides that moment, I hope to have played well enough...

[Kaerisk]

(Oh oh, what's this? Could Maurger have found a queen? ;p)