The Desmodous guarded this section of the underdark fiercely. As Korel and his party neared their lair, arrows plunged into the flesh of the adventurers from hidden archers. The battle was chaotic, for the Desmodous could see in the pitch-black of the underdark, while Korel and his band were forced to create fire from magics. In the half-light of the cavern ceiling, Korel rained fire and lightning down from above on the creatures while Hasam and the others faced them head-on.
The battle raged for what seemed like hours, but in truth took only moments, until all the Desmodous had fallen; save one. One of the bat creatures was merely wounded. Korel looked upon the pitiful creature and found that one of its arms had been broken, and a stream of blood flowed from the corner of its mouth. Meticulously, Korel looked over the body for any sign of magical components that could be used to further his research, but found none. The adventurers found small adornments that looked like badges, each one different than the rest, but without any explanation as to their purpose. Slowly an idea formed in the wizard’s mind.
“Let me have him,” said Korel, “I will pry the information from him.”
The others looked to Hasam, their moral leader, who shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Alhonna, still polymorphed into her wolf form, held down the struggling bat creature while Korel incanted a powerful, yet untested, spell of mind manipulation. As soon as the spell had completed, there was a feeling of Euphoria, a joining of minds as had never been experienced even with telepathy spells. In a rush, Korel was given images and information about the creature’s life. Korel was shown every recorded image that this creature had ever seen, thought, smelt, or heard. The experience was pure exhilaration and power, and nothing like the wizard had ever experienced before.
A smile crept upon the wizard’s face.
More images were shown to Korel, this time of places far away, insights that this creature knew subconsciously, but still didn’t understand itself. Voices of the creature’s family, friends, enemies and lovers assailed the wizard who had dared to tap the flow of this mind. But there was something more. With each memory ripped from the creatures mind, the physical tissue of the brain melted with intense heat: the mind raid was killing the bat creature. With each collapsed section of the bat creature’s brain, more images, feelings and fears flooded the mind of the wizard who barely had control of the spell any longer. The spell continued viciously, burning sections of the bat creature’s brain, and sending whatever information contained within directly to the wizard who was quickly loosing control over the spell’s growing intensity.
Then it happened, the spell took control from the wizard completely and violently broke through the mental defensive walls created by Korel, thrusting sensations, knowledge and anything else that was left from the bat creature’s nearly incinerated mind directly into the wizard who cast this devious spell. Sanity was stripped from Korel, his sense of being, his sense of purpose, gone. All the mental safeguards put up to shield him from this spell and so many others collapsed brutally.
The wizard laughed uncontrollably, hysterically.
Tangled and heaving, the two consciousnesses fought over control inside the body of the wizard. “I am Korel, I am Korel,” repeated the wizard, but the spell was too powerful. Just as Korel’s being was about to be shattered, his image of himself lost, the spell stopped and the stream of knowledge ceased. The spell had run its course. There was nothing left of the bat creature’s mind to be transferred.
Korel stared down into the blank, terrified final stare of the Desmodous, listening to the churning sounds of brain matter as it cooled from a boiling temperature within the bat creature’s skull. Korel looked to see what had happened to Alhanna, who was last holding down the creature before he began the spell. She was there, standing aside with a look of horror, repulsion and accusation on her face. Korel stood up from the corpse and closed his eyes to reflect on what had just transpired. It was clear that there was damage done to the wizard from the spell, but how much was impossible to tell.
Hasam, apparently not phased by the violent death of the bat creature, asked Korel if he knew what the badges were that they had retrieved from the creatures. Korel didn’t even have to think about it, he spoke the answer as if it was something that he had known his whole life. Quickly Korel went through the other objects obtained from the dead creatures and identified each in turn. When finished with their belongings, Korel pointed to the ceiling and informed the rest of the party that there was a cave near the top that could be reached with a rope. Keith Longwalker, the party’s scout, quickly climbed the rope and they all reached the cave of the Desmodous.
Camp was made, and others in the party searched the cave for anything that might be useful to them on their travels in the underdark. Korel didn’t participate in the cooking or preparations that night, but instead laid down to rest early using the excuse that he was tired, for in truth, Korel’s mind was still buzzing from the attack earlier. Using this opportunity to close out the distractions of the others around him, Korel folded his legs into a meditative position and began searching out just what damage had been done. Not too long after closing his eyes, the wizard fell into a deep and troubled sleep.
Korel’s body twisted and squirmed in a restless sleep. The magical spell that he had cast upon the bat creature was working through him like a poison. He dreamed of events that had not happened to the wizard, but only could have come from the corpse that now lay on the cavern floor a hundred feet below. He dreamed of flying, but not by magical means, but by using wings attached to the arms and legs. Wings that Korel did not possess. He dreamed of eating things that Korel could not identify, and dreamed of talking to people in a language that Korel could not comprehend. Lastly, Korel dreamed of fighting a band of invaders who had come into his territory seeking his treasures. He remembered fighting against a man dressed in blue robes flinging fire and ice as others might throw mere stones. Korel dreamt of waking in the midst of these intruders and seeing all of his brothers-in-arms dead at the intruder’s feet. He could feel the pain in his right arm, and remembered the inability to move it. He tried to speak to these creatures, to beg for his life or to offer his treasure for freedom, but they didn’t speak to him. The thin one in the blue robes had put his hairless, oily fingers to each side of his temple while chanting in a nonsensical language. He remembered attempting to get up and away from the one in the robes, but was forced down by a wolf whose eyes shown more intelligence than any animal he had encountered before. He remembered looking into the thin robed man’s eyes as he reached a crescendo in his chanting. And then he remembered the darkness, and then the searing pain.
Korel awoke with a start; someone had nudged him awake for his watch. His mind remained clouded and fuzzy from the troubled sleep. He had relived the death of the creature seven times that he could remember, and probably many more that he couldn’t. The memories that he had gained from the bat creature were growing indistinct and Korel felt that he was probably recovering from the spell’s backlash slowly, but the pain was still there. It had grown all throughout the night, a sharp pain directly behind the wizard’s eyes that seemed continue to grow even now. He was angry with himself for losing control of the spell, but even more so with the knowledge that the spell used was one of his own designs. He had created a spell that failed.
Korel raised himself to a sitting position and began memorizing his spells that he might need for the day ahead. He memorized a spell that would cause his body to become lighter than the air surrounding him. He memorized a spell that could create an electrical discharge powerful enough to burn his enemies. As he turned the page in his most prized possession, his wizards’s spellbook, he came across the spell used on the bat creature the day before. The spell was something that he had worked on for days learning. A personal achievement, but it had failed. Korel had been unable to retain the information learned from the Desmodous, and still he had to deal with the aftereffects of the spell’s destructive power. But worse than all those things combined were the dreams that he would not soon forget: feeling the Desmodous’ mind, as if it were his own, being consumed by fire while watching, from behind the creature’s eyes, as the man in the blue robes laughed hysterically. “I lost control,” thought Korel, “this won’t happen again.”
With great care, as to not damage other spells in his book, Korel ripped the pages from his great tome and crumpled them into a ball. Incanting a simple incineration spell, Korel burst the paper into flames and let the ashes fall to the cavern floor. “Never again.” He promised himself, and finished his magical preparation for the upcoming day as if nothing were amiss.