The Adventures of Void Disciple Voidoth of the Mist

Scritch scritch, sounded the pen as Voidoth wrote down the ingredients for his latest failed attempt.

"We almost got it that time, eh, Alkahest?", Voidoth murmured idly to the fox who stood perched on the side table near the workbench. His familiar made a soft disgusted noise as he sniffed at the vapors coming out of the alembic.

"Don't give me that look" said Voidoth. "If only the bezoar we bought from that damn merchant was actually from a proper white dragon, instead of what was obviously just an overgrown frost wyvern" he added sadly, then frowned. "Actually the wyvern probably could have allowed us to get the right result that time, if we had calcified the dream ether to the right consistency, but you probably already know that."

Alkahest gave a bored huff, then turned away from his master to groom himself.

"And you" continued his master, "don't think you aren't also to blame. This is, what, the one hundred and fifty-seventh time we've tried to make a greater Mandrake potion? You know, when the results are always the same, I'm not sure how much longer we can keep making excuses."

"Practice makes perfect, I suppose" said the voice of the fox dryly in Voidoth's mind, before the familiar resumed licking himself.

Suddenly, the deafening boom of a door exploding off its hinges filled the small chamber, and Voidoth and Alkahest turned towards the noise in surprise.

Through the door came a hand made of a dark fire, which grabbed Voidoth by the head and lifted him into the air.

"Ahh, you are betrayed, Voidoth" said the voice of the being who held him in place, "Betrayed by your own greed. The Lich Lord of the Nightmare Dominion is not so easily taken in by the foolish promises of the damned."

Voidoth's head ached painfully, and he could feel the blood flowing down his face. The being who held him was dressed in a hooded black robe, and the flames flickering in the depths of his hood seemed to have no source, but the flames did illuminate the skull of a man.

Voidoth licked his bloody lips, and tried to think quickly. "Flamos, how nice to see you too. Can I offer you some ale?"

Flamos sneered. "Don't play games with me, Voidoth. You failed to deliver the potion you promised the Lich Lord, and you know well that his sponsorship of your experiments requires prompt payment, which is now payable in blood".

Voidoth reached through his mind link to Alkahest, and invoked his ancestral powers. A sudden darkening overtook the room, as though heavy tapestries were covering the windows of the tower, blocking the noonday sun outside. Voidoth could no longer see Alkahest a few feet away, but he could feel his focus channeling mana into their shared connection.

"Come the void" intoned Voidoth, "Come the mist that rises in the morning, the shadow in the light, the shadow from the dark. Come the quiet of an evening shade, the silence of the stars, and the emptiness of the forgotten nothing. Come the void."

There was a great echo, and the pressure of a howling wind, and then the flaming skull was gone. In the silence that followed, as the air rushed back to fill the empty space, and light returned, Voidoth could hear Alkahest sigh.

"I guess we're running again?" said the fox. "Yes, my old friend" said Voidoth. "It's time to pack up and look for a new sponsor." But slowly, a smile crept over the rogue arcanist's face. "I hear Dream Master Lake is quite nice this time of year..."

Entered by: 0xed4a…D182 and preserved on chain (see transaction)