Break 6 - Mortan Osserfid

...Of Good and Evil...

Mortan watched the confused half-orc leave his room and the fixed indifference on his face curled into a smile. A small trace of magic shot from the gnome's mind and indeed he could feel the existence of the modified cyst in Grath's healing arm. It had been easy to summon the magic while fixing the muscles in the arm. It was so small and so well placed in the scar tissue of the half-orc's healing arm that he didn't think his dim-witted chum would ever have found it.

Luckily, despite it's discovery, the half-orc seemed to differ to Mortan's words on the matter and leave it be. Mortan almost felt bad for lying to Grath, but his discoveries needed a test subject and all seemed to be going to plan. First off, the cyst was benign, yet still necrotic, in a manner of speaking. It's origins were still created from the magic of the Mother Cyst that beat in his own chest, but making reference to his countless diagrams of the Mother Cyst and Gharlamaal's divine grace showing him how it reacted to both positive and negative energies, Mortan had made...an "improvement". The cyst in Grath's arm was the first and only of it's kind. A necrotic cyst that pulled energy from both the negative and positive planes. He had tried a few small experiments with rats and had found that while the negative energies fed the affinity with undead and his own magics, the positive energy tied into the now harmless tumor negated many of the effects. And while it did not make Grath more susceptible to Mortan's own spells, it still allowed the magics of it's Mother to be cast through it.

There were a few drawbacks. One, it's link was now hindered by protection spells against both evil and good-aligned magics flowing through it and it could no longer, in it's benign state, be eradicated with positive energy. That meant that if the time ever came to remove it, it would be a long and painful procedure. For Grath, anyway. But the benefits were substantial. And the implications of such a change to the dark nature of the cysts was amazing. They could be used for good.

"...sssooooo mmmuuuuuuuchhhh paaaaiiinnnn..."

Mortan's focus shifted from his own thoughts to the blinking eye of his new acquisition, the scythe born of teeth and bone with the eye that continually looked but rarely saw. Seld-Olthasar was it's name, or had been the name of the priest of Geldenier before the dark magics turned him into the abomination Mortan now wielded into combat.

"...paaaaiiinnnn...sssooooo hhuuuuunnnggggrrryyy..."

The gnome reached into the black bag and pulled out the paralyzed snake he had purchased earlier. He sank the tip of the blade into the snake's throat and watched as the hungry scythe drained every last drop of blood from the reptile's body.

"Soon, my friend. Soon you will be avenged and the pain will end. ...Hopefully." The last part was whispered under his breath.

Just as good could be turned to evil, so could evil be used for good. Every little bit helped and Mortan was determined to fight the odds at every turn.