Fantasy Cursed Island

[Deadwood Deer]

"I think it might be broken," Adran muttered, examining the bow and drawing it like he was going to shoot. It formed an arrow and the sight just fine, and when he loosed it the bolt flew. He looked very confused. "What broke? I know something did, what was it?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle pointed in his general direction. “There was a crystal on it. I think the arrow was supposed to go through it.” She put her hand back down. “Is that supposed to make me tired?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran looked confused as he looked around and heard a crunch as he stepped on the shards. "That doesn't make sense, magic doesn't use a lens to focus... and items like this don't take energy from the user, you shouldn't be feeling mana-exhaustion right now." He squatted down next to Shuffle, "Describe what you're feeling."

 

[Fangs9090]

"I'm really dizzy. And I feel like I've been running constantly for hours. And...I feel something pulsing here." She put a hand on her chest. "But it's not my heart. It's different."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran's look of confusion only got even deeper. "That... that sounds like mana-exhaustion, but the pulsing in your chest isn't-"

"Hang on, I think I have an idea," Jerry said, pulling out the journal and opening it, which she could manage because she'd secured the latch in such a way it couldn't close again. "Shuffle's maker was looking for a source of life, and had a bag of soul stones." She pointed at a diagram of Shuffle's innards with a crystal next to the heart and connected to her nervous system, labeled "Soul-Containment".

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle leaned up to look at the diagram. "Yeah, that's where I feel the pulsing." She paused, shaking her head before retrieving her maker's satchel. She reached in and pulled out one of the soul stones, looking it over. The one that was mounted into the bow had been modified to fit, but they otherwise looked identical.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry put the book away and scratched her head. as Adran started pacing. "I don't think two soul crystals can create a conduit for the soul, but that's consistent with that one friendly lich that survived having part of his soul pulled out of his phylactery... but then again Emera sucks at doing that..."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Maybe that's what the bow part is for? I don't really understand any of this anyway." The dizziness was starting to fade, leaving Shuffle a bit more steady.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"That's not how magick bows work, though," Adran argued.

"Shuffle's maker was a necromancer, it's not a stretch her bow had some form of soul-eating ability," Jerry muttered, waving it off and helping Shuffle to her feet.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle stood up with Jerry's help. "Did the journal say anything about the bow?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Not really, just talks about how hard it was to find something that could be used for the arms, and then talking about runework being hard to do without a proper hammer and chisel to work with..." Jerry was flipping through the pages again.

 

[Fangs9090]

Most of the notes were on Shuffle's creation. However, after the notes ended, there was a little bit more on the backside of the very last pages in the book. Not really notes so much as scribblings and doodles. Sketches of bows and of figures in archery poses. There was some words, but most were heavily scratched out, except for the words "soul shot," which had a circle around it.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry had mostly glossed over the doodles before, they were so disorganized and scratched over that it was impossible to find anything useful. She'd figured "Soul-Shot" was the previous owner's attempt to create a suitably impressive and dark-sounding name for a bow made of dead things' spines and knuckles, but after what just happened she wasn't so sure. "Shuffle, was there a stone in your maker's body?"

 

[Fangs9090]

"In it...? No, the only stones were in the satchel."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Hmm..." Now Jerry was pacing. "I don't understand, she mentioned a 'Soul Shot', but it seems like it uses a part of the soul to work, but if your maker didn't have a soul gem to use it..." Jerry looked very confused.

"Maybe it just used any soul, not just the user's soul, and she had those soul crystals to power it?", Adran offered.

"No, those were empty, a full crystal glows a bit and feels heavier, like my necklace," Jerry replied, holding out the dragon shard on it's chain.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle tilted her head as she thought for a moment. "Mm... What if I have a soul gem? Is that what's in my chest?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I think that's what in you, but I'm not sure what's going on with the soul shot." Jerry shook her head. "I mean, by that logic I should be able to pull it off, I've got a soul dangling around my neck."

"Actually," Adran interrupted, "Back when you charmed the chimera and burned yourself with the water, we thought the crystal was shooting you full of corruption, so I checked it. The soul is gone, but it's still a conduit for power."

"What does that mean?", Jerry asked.

"It means the soul has either dissolved from a broken container, or found another."

 

[Fangs9090]

“Where else would the soul go?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Well, it was weak and broken, so it probably couldn't make the trip to one of the stones," Adran tapped his chin and thought about it. "Dragon souls are strong, though, so when fragmented it was probably stronger than the average soul. If I had to wager, I'd say it went back to the larger shards in your bag to rejoin with the rest of it, or it went into Jerry, but that's stupid, two souls can't live in the same body without some serious magic being involved." He laughed the idea off, "Besides, if that did happen, you'd develop a second personality as the dragon soul competed with your own and the two entered a sort of equilibrium and it would be a coin toss which one was in control. One soul in one body is natural, two isn't, and the mind doesn't like it."

 

[Fangs9090]

“If the soul controls the body, how is it that my maker’s soul is in my body, but I’m still me instead of her? Do I have my own soul?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Well, that's the trick, isn't it?", Adran asked, "Asmodei used to punish low-level succubi and incubi by putting their souls in mortal babies. It would kill the baby's soul in the process, leaving the 'cubus in question the sole soul in the body. They'd get flashes of what they really were, but without their real body and all of their memories, they'd develop entirely different personalities and lives while in that mortal body. There's some theories, but I think that experiences shape who you are. You don't have all of your maker's memories, so you don't have her personality, either. If you get your life force from a soul gem containing your maker's soul, then it's doing just that, keeping you alive, the few memories are a side-effect of an imperfect bond, I think."

"You're pretty confident about that," Jerry noted.

"I work with demons, souls are kinda their thing. Especially when lust is involved."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Hm... Maybe since the one soul I have is in a gem, I'm able to channel it? I always thought magic needed channeling of some kind, at least it looked like it did, so with the last shot I tried to force power into it. That's when it broke."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I don't know," Adran threw up his hands. "I've never heard of two gems making a conduit, or being used as a focusing lens, this is beyond my scope."

"Well, let's put a pin in that for now, and try not to do it again, since it throws you so hard," Jerry offered.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle nodded. "Alright. Does this mean I can't use the bow?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Ye-"

'It means try not to do that thing again," Adran handed Shuffle the bow. "There's no focusing lens, but it'll still shoot, I just tried."