Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

27th of Zi’da 720

Rakvald was minding his shop, which was empty as usual of patients. He wondered often how well his business could survive with only an occasional customer. He really did need to get out into the public more and do more demonstrations or advertising. Really raise the profile of the benefits of Graft magic. While he had no desire to clash with the authorities, there were some around still who had a suspicious outlook toward mages, especially those who dabbled in profane experiments upon natural flesh.

Rakvald was considering this, when he heard the door chime as someone entered his reception. Rakvald spoke before he looked up, ”Welcome! Welcome to Master-At-Arms! Can I interest you in a enhancement, or an extra limb or…?” Then he did look up, and what he beheld struck him as the most beautiful creature he’d ever laid eyes upon.

A thickly muscled Boar-like creature, complete with pale brown fur, and perfectly formed tusks, snout, and beady little eyes like jewels looked at him. He wore hides and leathers, and many other hunting trophies on his outfit. In his hand was a large walking stick. Rakvald gasped, and then inhaled sharply. He thought he’d just died and gone to heaven. What was this beautiful specimen, and could he become it?!

Was it a becomer itself? Some gestalt of boar and man, or… he had to know. So he got up from his seat, and walked right up to the cadouri. He asked, breathlessly, ”What are you? You are the most beautiful creature I've ever seen!”

The boarman seemed taken aback by the sudden intrusion into his space, and backstepped a bit. Yet it answered all the same, in a deep, booming, and congenial voice. ”I am a cadouri! We have just arrived from Saoire’s dream, be you a man?”

Obviously the thing was not used to dealing with mortals, as many seemed to be taken aback by Rakvald’s appearance at first glance, at least until he wins them over with his trademark charm and animal magnetism. Rakvald’s eyes bulged out of his head a few more moments, before managing a stammered response, ”Yes, I am a man. And you are a cadouri… Do you like truffles? I have so many questions about your kind, I… I simply must know more about you.”

The Boarman seemed to smile at this, his tusks lifting fractionally on his lips. ”I would like to share what I can! And truffles? Surely you jest, of course I love truffles!”

Rakvald’s gears were turning in his head, as he considered the possibilities. He wanted a totem from this creature, but it likely wouldn’t understand if he tried to suddenly start kneading its flesh into a marble, energizing and growing a ossified ball of sovereign substances. He needed it asleep first, he…

”Say, I saw the cuts of meat and organs outside, I was wondering if you were a butcher shop… but it doesn’t look like it.”

Rakvald’s eyes went wide, as he began harvesting what crust he could from the corners of his eyes. The sleeping dust that Unity granted him would be useful in detaining the creature. When the query suddenly registered, Rakvald straightened his back, and turned around, the dust firmly in his grip.

”Of course! Only the finest meats here! Shall I show you our best kidney and livers? Or… perhaps you’d like to smell the special spices I like to use on, er… for our very favorite customers?”

So saying, he held out the dust for the boar cadouri to sniff, and asked, ”Does this smell like truffles? My nose isn’t so good…”

The Cadouri hesitated a moment, and then shrugged, and went forward to sniff up the sleeping dust, which went straight up his nostrils and into his lungs. Then, he was as good as Rakvald’s! Rakvald caught him before he hurt himself on the fall to the floor. Slowly, Rakvald guided him over toward a lounging chair.

Just then, Ildred happened by in the adjoining hallway, arriving just in time to see what was going on. She opened her mouth several times, shut it, and then shrugged and walked back the way she came. Rakvald waggled his eyebrows at her retreating from the scene, and then turned his attention back toward the Cadouri under his power.

He wouldn’t hurt it, only needed a bit of bone, blood, and flesh. So, he began growing all three of the substances, letting them pool into a ball of ossified flesh. There, it formed a bulbous wart at first, the size of a small marble. Then, it began to fill with blood and ichor and fats from the boar’s body. Finally, sweat formed on Rakvald’s brow as he hardened the flesh, turning it into mostly bone-like structure. Thus completed, the sculpted bit of flesh was finished, and Rakvald willed it to separate from the Cadouri’s skin surface like any other bit of foreign material. His body excreted the marble, and dropped it right into Rakvald’s waiting hand.

Pleased with himself, Rakvald tossed the marble into his small leather pouch, for it to settle for a moment, tasking some ether to it for later formation into a totem. But for now, he had his guest to attend to.

”ILDRED! Come back here and fetch some refreshments for my guest!”

Ildred’s footsteps could be heard beyond the hallway, as she turned on her heel and began making for the reception. Rakvald’s smiled, his woman was rarely so obedient to his requests. She made it all the way to the reception, only to tell him, ”Get it yourself!” And slammed the hallway door, going back to her own business in the Pig Sty out back.

Rakvald grumbled, but nevertheless fetched some liquor from a cabinet. He also grabbed a pair of glasses. Into these, which were set upon the table, he poured a small measure of fluid. And thus, as he waited for the Cadouri to awaken, he took out his marble, and began tasking it with the ether necessary to form a totem.



Rakvald meditated on the totem’s formation, and the form it was assuming, one of the brilliant creature known as a Cadouri, was foremost in his mind as he channeled the ether into the waiting totem.

It took many hours, and long concentration, during which Rakvald had to take several breaks. He’d since left he company of the Cadouri, with the drinks waiting on the table for him to enjoy, as he regained consciousness. Meanwhile, Rakvald conducted all of this in his basement laboratory, so he wouldn’t be disturbed.

The totem began to shine, and take shape, firming up to the point where it would not be disrupted. Finally, as the sun came up the next morning, he’d finally acquired the totem he’d so craved, without knowing it all these years. To be a pig-like creature.



The next noon, after the Cadouri had left in a half-asleep stupor, Rakvald took the totem in hand, and assimilated it into his flesh. There to remain. Then, he began to enact the transformation, to see what his new form would look like, and how it’d differ from the source.

His bones crackled, popped, and flesh sloughed on and off reforming to adjust to the different structure. He felt formless for just a moment, in that space between one form and another. Then, he began taking the shape he’d tasked to that totem. Large tusks formed on the top and bottom of his mouth, his snout lengthened into a pig-like nose, bristly hair formed all around his body, a wiry and thick coat.

With one final primal growl, he emerged from the metamorphosis, changed into the form he’d so craved upon seeing the Cadouri.

He stood at six feet tall and half again as wide, with thickly muscled arms and a barrel abdomen. His eyes were beady, brown and red. His snout was slightly deformed, but not too much so, due to his bat-like mutation. His pointed ears were also curved backward, with fin-like protrusions. His left arm was a mass of blackened tentacles, with no fur to it, but only a rubbery, tar-like dermis. His fur was cool, light brown. And his legs were that of an ungulate, bent backward slightly at the knees, but fully capable of supporting bipedal walking.

It took Rakvald some time to get used to the form’s unique way of walking around, but in short order, after a bit of stumbling, he managed to make his way well enough. The creature didn’t seem to have any particular attributes other than the fur and good musculature, and of course a healthy appetite. It didn’t seem to have a heightened sense of smell, nor different vision than Rakvald was used to.

Slightly underwhelmed by this, he shrugged and decided it was well enough. He could always echo other creatures if he wanted to make improvements upon this new form. For now, he was content to remain a Cadouri.