I found myself creeping around the interior of the village of the girtablilu, having just reached the area where most of them lived. It was a surprisingly lively place with a population over three times that of the harpy village.

I stood invisibly and incorporeally in what likely served as the village square and took in my surroundings. All around me I could see girtablilus, the same sort of creatures as the monster that Camatxl, Niqi and I fought when I was in the process of making him into one of my worshippers and acquiring his soul. And incidentally, what Niqi eventually evolved into when it gained enough experience and power while we adventured in Namira.

I stood in a plaza of sorts. All around me I could see tents, not dissimilar to the ones used by Jackaloids, rather than houses. And though they were spread out unevenly across a distance of a few kilometers the number of them around me and the square was definitely higher than it was elsewhere in the encampment that made up their community.

Male, female, and other girtablilus walked around me in great numbers. I watched them, studying their forms, locomotion, and speaking habits.

Some of them were seated at tables made of the same material as their tents. Their tents were beige things made of what appeared to be leather. Out of curiosity I used Appraisal on a nearby tent and chuckled at what knowledge was sent into my brain.

[New Item Knowledge Alert: Skin-Tent

These are items made by girtablilus for their housing needs. These tents are made from the skins of dead girtablilus and skin left over by the enemies of the massive and ferocious hunters. Girtablilus who aren't feral rest and sleep in tents, typically in ones they themselves make.]

That's pretty hardcore. I thought, amusedly. And it fit with the sort of things that girtablilus talked about.

"And so, I found the last of their pesky archers... And I bashed his brains in!" A male girtablilu told his companions, finishing his recollection of a recent encounter he and some fellow guards had had with some desert giants.

This splendidly violent tale was met with applause and delighted laughter by the others who sat with him. He was violently pat on the back by some of his peers, and they all rose waterskins filled with some sort of local alcohol to their lips.

The small gaggle of girtablilus was seated at one of several tables that surrounded a thick bonfire. This bonfire was situated behind a strange effigy of a particularly imposing member of their species, a powerfully built male with two stingers instead of one that appeared to be made of dried fat. I looked at it and once again made use of Appraisal to examine it.

[New Item Knowledge Alert: Effigy of Twin-Tails

Twin-Tails was the nickname given to Ewain Wind-Walker, a druid and the last leader of the community of girtablilus that settled the area around a dungeon that went missing after Ewain's death, centuries ago, and reappeared a few months ago. In honor of him, and in celebration of the reappearance of the dungeon this effigy was constructed from the fat of things killed by his descendent Aoine Wind-Walker.]

So I'm looking for Aoine Wind-Walker... I thought, now having more to go off of than I did from Tristan's less than a considerable amount of time spent near the village, talking to Girtablilus. That knowledge brought a thin smile to my face.

And so the hunt begins. I thought, suddenly able to use my Tremor-Sense power to its maximum capability.

Finding my target once I had a name wasn't a challenge in the slightest. The village was a few kilometers wide, and its people were spread out unevenly, but my improved Tremor-Sense in the wake of me gaining the first tier of influence over the subdomain of earth was easily capable of alerting me to the locations and identities of every single girtablilu villager.

While I'm doing this I might as well do something else productive. I told myself, chuckling. I quickly snagged copies of the memories of the assorted girtablilus, men, women, and children alike who happened to be close by, while I mentally scanned my mini-map to find my quarry. There are a lot of girtablilus here... I noticed, as I quickly studied the mini-map in my HUD.

While doing this, I also recalled some of the species knowledge notifications I had read through while still with Hagitha and Raven in the central lair of the Order of Whispers.

[New Species Knowledge Gained: Vampires

Vampires are a potent form of undead that are unique among the intermediate undead in that they pass for the living. They are the least of the undead that is capable of living among the living without magical aid. They also possess their wits and are genuinely capable of walking among the living without drawing suspicion so long as they avoid the sun. The sun doesn't kill them outright but it weakens the spark of unlife that enables these corpses to avoid suspicion.

Vampires are walking corpses that never rot or decay. Instead, they thirst. Vampires thirst for blood and actually need to feed on the blood of the living or the very recently deceased at least once a month otherwise they will turn into feral monstrosities and assail the living.

Vampire spawn are feral, servile creatures who survived a vampire's attack and weren't or haven't been turned into vampires themselves. The process for you, a god, to create a vampire, out of a living being or recently deceased corpse is for you to infuse a bite or kiss with unlife energy and then either bite or kiss the person or corpse you intend to turn into a vampire. For a vampire, it involves sharing one's own blood with the person or recently deceased corpse they want to turn into a vampire.

Vampires are lawful evil. They tend to obey the commands of older vampires and both cannot and wouldn't want to disobey the vampire who created them. Vampires also possess potent mental powers that blossom as they grow older. These powers aid vampires in securing blood to continue to keep their wits about them. Not to mention that the spark of unlife within them enhances their strength and speed.

Vampires can be killed by decapitating them and then exposing their heads to the rays of the sun. This means that in some subterranean places these creatures are virtually unkillable. Though decapitating them does render them powerless so long as the head and body are separated so they aren't as unstoppable as they may seem at a glance underground.]

Hmmm... This might be a fun one to use. I thought, scheming about a clever way to draw Aoine to me. But first I need to do some research. I realize, as my scheming mind began to weave together a way to ensure Aoine gave me his soul without any resistance.

Now I just need to know who this Aoine's friends are... I schemed, smiling as I did so. I had no idea just how close I was to one, but that'd change very soon since the next thing I did was begin to scan the memories I had just made copies of.

The first victim of Althos' schemes to acquire another ambitious soul was blissfully unaware of the fate he'd soon suffer as he continued to regale his friends with colorful tales of violence. The same girtablilu who had told the stories of

"And so the ogre stepped to me and the thick-headed bastard had the nerve to tell me 'Me big, you small, you pay own damn fee.' And the brute lumbered close to try and intimidate me." Lugh told them, his eyes lit up with excitement. He was vividly remembering the day he and another group of wayward youths waylaid a single ogre with a huge iron bat.

He was the center of attention. And that was the way he liked it. The other girtablilus all crowded around him, eager to hear him tell of another way that he laid low his enemies.

"And this ogre was big. He was several meters tall, with hands the sizes of cactuses. He glowered at me, scowling and attempting to intimidate me. And so... I reacted. I calmly retracted my stinger... and drove it into the fellow's eye!" He told them, finishing his declaration by swinging his thick, bulbous stinger into the air.

Lugh had a flair for the dramatic and he had cleverly decided to whisper part of the story, to draw in the audience, and then he explosively finished it with a quiet shout. His audience ate it up, laughing in delight and giving him another round of applause and cheers.

Althos' experience with the skills he was using to assess memories had given him the ability to more quickly scan and experience memories. It was when Lugh was telling his friends of the size of the ogre that Althos learned the fact that sealed Lugh's fate: Lugh and Aoine were friends. And at various points throughout their lives, the two men had been more than friends. Which made Lugh a prime target for Althos' wicked plot.

Because of that the god quickly and quietly did what he did next: he approached the loud-mouthed girtablilu, while still invisible and incorporeal and stuck him with a ray of unlife energy. The deity's actions while he had done it were simple. He had raised a finger and aimed it at the back of the man-scorpion.

A thin ray of wicked energy, invisible to all but Althos, escaped his fingertip and flew through the air towards the man-scorpion until it struck him. The girtablilu himself was ignorant anything had happened because Althos was a schemer and made the ray sicken Lugh rather than kill or harm him outright. But Lugh very quickly felt the beginning of Althos' caress.

Seconds after the ray struck him, in the midst of the applause the crowd was giving him, Lugh began to feel his stomach twist into knots. How odd... He thought as he felt a sudden and almost undeniable urge to retch. He was barely able to suppress it, but the girtablilu wasn't dumb. He immediately excused himself, saying he needed to answer nature's call and began to leave the area.

Each step he took made him feel worse and drew him closer and closer to the scheming god who sought to use him as a pawn in a grander, fouler scheme.

Althos followed the man-scorpion for several minutes. The two of them walked through the village and reached an area not far from it in a matter of minutes. This place was outside of the village and out of the view of the village and therefore a perfect place for the two to meet face to face.

When the man-scorpion was sure he was far from the view of his companions, neighbors, and friends, he fell to his knees and waited to vomit. The sickness was a virulent, aggressive one and the girtablilu was in mind-rending pain and discomfort when Althos approached him.

He was still bent over when Althos removed the sickness that had sent Lugh here, using a simple healing spell. The magic was easy to use and perfect for things like this, but still noticeable. This alerted Lugh to the nearby presence of something odd and off which put him on guard.

The deity, in his devilish form, towered over the cowed girtablilu and studied him for a few moments.

In terms of height, Lugh was an average member of his species. He stood a few meters tall, had a humanoid upper-body resembling that of a bronzed and fit human, and had the lower body, tail and all, of a significantly powerful, bright green dire-scorpion. Lugh himself was classless, as were nearly all of the girtablilus in the village.

The girtablilu stayed low, and close to the ground. That was odd... I felt magic just now. He thought, his keen senses causing the hairs on his arms to stand up in caution. He was now on edge and careful.

I watched the girtablilu with curiosity. How odd... I thought, wondering why he stayed low to the ground and in a defensive position. He seemed cautious, scared even. He's smart. He could be more useful than I originally anticipated. I realized, chuckling. And now to begin to reveal myself. I told myself, as I shifted into a more elemental form than I often used when approaching mortals.

I ceased to control a physical body and stripped myself to a completely immaterial form. The "me" that was now close to Lugh was a being composed completely of darkness, but I wasn't done crafting a handy new form just yet.

This is my first attempt to take control of a place since I gained influence over necromancy and undeath. I'm gonna have fun and be dramatic. Plus there are undead in ruins so it makes sense for me to take on a necromantic form for this. I said to myself, providing a flimsy rationale when in actuality I just wanted to experiment with my undead powers.

What would be a dramatic way to begin experimenting with my new abilities? What form would be appropriate for me to begin in? I wondered. I wanted to have fun as I began to create my own undead beings, and I liked the idea of doing so in a form that made it feel thematic.

The form I was in right now was that of a mannequin made of darkness. I resembled a featureless humanoid frame made entirely of inky darkness and with limbs made of tendrils of unlife energy. It felt close to what I wanted, but not quite there yet. I need something more than this... This is too darkness-centric. I thought. What if I give myself some skeletal limbs? Like hands and arms that just look like bones? I wondered, before experimenting with it.

In an instant, my hands and arms changed. They went from being made of unlife energy to being skeletal, bony things like someone ripped the flesh off of a human and exposed the bones underneath. Oh? I like the look of that. I realized as I looked at the contrast between my new, opal white bony arms, and the rest of my featureless, jet-black body.

I smiled as I revealed myself to the man-scorpion currently keeping his head down. I regained my corporeality with a sudden and soft popping sound as the air around me was pushed outward by my sudden physicality, and the girtablilu looked up to investigate that noise. He saw my terrifying form standing just above him and gasped, before trying to scurry backward and away from me.

"Nope!" I said softly, as I reached down and grabbed his head in my bony, clawed hands. My voice was raspy, eerie, and seemed to emanate from somewhere else, not from my terrifying form. The sound of it frightened him more, causing his heart to begin to pound violently in his chest.

"Your heart is beating so fast..." I told him, happiness and hunger audible in my voice because I was working hard to make myself sound that way, sound predatory and carnivorous. His eyes widened in fear at me, and I began to laugh.

"Are you afraid?" I asked, after having gone to all that trouble to look the part of someone who ought to induce fear. I felt a bit proud of my handiwork, especially since Lugh was a truly skilled warrior and not someone who scared easily. The girtablilu looked me in the face, studying the strange void that was my head, with a look of both determination and fear etched onto his face.

"It's okay. You won't feel fear for much longer." I told him cryptically. I began to pull him closer to me, doing it slowly for fun and for dramatic effect.

If he had been in my shoes he absolutely would have done it the way I was doing it. It'd make for a better story that way.

I watched him struggle and try to root his feet in the sand beneath us, so he wouldn't be dragged closer and closer to me, and to his fate, but it was fruitless. Not only was the sand not supportive of his endeavors, it wasn't solid enough for him to be able to use it against the strength I had in my bony arms.

"Come Lugh. You will help me conquer this village." I told him, revealing my purpose but not my method. His eyes went wide with alarm once I told him that, and he redoubled his efforts to escape my grip but it was a battle he was losing.

It didn't take long for him to run out of energy, even with the help of an adrenaline rush spurred on by fear and by his hammering heart.