Lifeforms · Intelligent Species · Other
Heart of the Black Worm
For a creation of the Black Tide of Acqua,death never truly befalls it. As long as the most vital part of it survives,the foul thing will continue to exist. In a certain sense..
An elongated,wriggling leech like thing,it is approximately a foot or so in length. A most ugly thing to behold,it is a sickly mottled pink in hue and bulges at the end where one would assume its head to be,while the other end tapers to a narrow point. Thrashing wildy when exposed to the open,it will only cease it's wild movements when it once again finds itself sheltered within the warm,moist confines of a creature's body..
Such is the nauseating appearance of the sentient heart that drives the actions and the devious schemes of the vile monstrosity that develops when a human of considerable intelligence is infested by a worm of the Black Tide. This squirming peice of meat is,in the truest sense of the word,the 'core' of the hedious beast. The seat of its powers and avaricious cravings. And as impossible as it sounds,it is also the thing that some men would brave the impossible in order to attain.
Most wise lore masters of the Golden Isles say that no man of flesh and blood can slay or lure to its doom,a creature capable of divining his very intentions,but the uncanny one that does achieve the goal of this foolhardy enterprise will become a bane to the human race to be reckoned with indeed.
Magical Properties:
When the monster is slain,this wormlike heart that it posseses must be ripped out of the still beating chest and then subsequently be ingested. Slowly,so as not to choke on it,the user must grab hold of the slimy thing and ease it gently down his throat. Fortunately,once the thing makes contact with his insides,it will cease its wild struggles to escape the grasp of its captor and will immediately hasten to the comfort of either his stomach or the surface of his own heart with great relief and alacrity. There,over the period of the next month or so,it will gradually begin to merge with the organ that plays host to it,genuinely becoming an integral part of the user's body in the process,as opposed to merely remaining as an invasive parasite.
When that finally comes to be,the user slowly begins to discover that he now has the ability to delve deep into the minds of others. At first,only surface thoughts can be picked up by him from the people around him,but with time,he begins to master the art of probing every dark depth and cranny of their minds. There will be no thought or motive that escape his keen senses of the mind.
But with the sinister abilities brought about by the ingestion of the heart of the fiend,so too comes the compulsive greed that urges the one who uses the heart to bully and intimidate others into handing over possesions of value to him.
As the power of percieving the thoughts of others swells,so too does the powerful greed that intrudes along with it,until there is no one left whom the afflicted will not squeeze for riches.. Including those dangerous individuals whom it dosen't pay to blackmail and the ones previously dear to the person's heart..
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I would imagine that one or more of the Godfathers of Acquan organized crime has swallowed one of these in the past.
I like the story, it's REALLY cool, but why would anyone who wasn't already super-greedy, etc, want to consume one of these things? I know the whole 'everything has it's price' thing, but sometimes the price is just too high to make an item useful. But, it does explain certain greedy evil NPCs. You might want to make up an NPC who already has one of these in his heart.
That was the general idea,yeah. I just wanted to toy with the idea of greed that not even the worst human beings are capable of,at least not the sane ones. For example,would you attempt to extort money from a brutal noble known for having his enemies eviscerated? People who previously thought they were fine with greed,might find themselves doing things they never would have dared to in the past.
EEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwww! 4/5
I agree with Shadoweagle on this point. The first time I read through this spawned the worst bout of convulsive shuddering I've had in a long time. Bonus points for that. ;)
I can just see the expressions on the players' faces if they get hired by some greedy tycoon to fetch him one of these, and then see him force it down his throat before their eyes... ew.
I'm so using this. A good explanation as to why one of my villains is doing the wierd, megalomaniacal things that all villains love to do.
Why is it that som many items on this site are almost perfectly tailored for my campaign and players?
Here's the link to the Black Tide of Acqua,if you guys are interested:http://www.strolen.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2549
It's under the 'Sea Monsters'thread in the setting of Acqua.
Now that is truly gross - great backstory though and nicely explains some of the more insanely greedy super-villains - 4/5
Bleh! Good stuff though.