>>5448852“I assume you want me to examine THAT?” she abruptly changes the topic, nodding towards the lolling tongue and empty eyes of the Ghoul Supreme’s decapitated head. “You said it was psionic? And… That our experiment, ‘Junior’, is of the same breed?”
She refers, of course, to the being which you mockingly named after your childhood bully and rival, ‘The Junior Novice’. This kobold-like, dogfaced, rat-tailed mammalian entity was purchased as a slave from a Silkscale merchant back home, and later used as grist for the Novice’s experiments with long-dead dragonblood. It made of him a mighty—if rather anxious—winged war-beast, and these early trials were instrumental in enabling your ever-mightier <Dragonshape> spell. Only recently did you encounter similar dogheaded entities among the ghouls of the Drow-realm, commanding smaller and lesser creatures.
“They’re at least related,” you confirm. “It would be good to know more of these dog-faced ghouls.”
“I have been preoccupied with the studies you ALREADY assigned me,” the Novice huffs. “Do you think I have no need for torpor? How many hands and heads do I have, when you look at me… Or is that a bad question to ask an alcohol-addled mammal-thing such as yourself?”
“I suppose I simply place great faith in you,” you say dryly. “Maybe I am accepting your OWN egotistical self-assessment too readily, NOVICE Fleshweaver?”
The Novice glares at you for a time. You meet her gaze, enervated in spite of your headache and churning guts. You must admit, if only to yourself, that you have missed this banter which has become ritual between you and the young Priestess.
“I will attend to your little projects, Oh Glorious Dragon King,” she sighs eventually. “Pick a primary focus, though. Even I cannot do everything at once.”
>Request her full attentions for yourself—to cure your hangover, speed your recovery, and ensure you are at full fighting force>Have the Novice focus upon the Ghoul Supreme and Junior Novice; perhaps she can unlock further utility in that twisted chimera, and better understand the nature of the psychic dogman’s surprising might>Check in on her study of the shoggoth-samples which survived your battle with the ancient horror; has she made any progress at understanding how to command and manipulate it>Get a status report on the Drow children who were configured by divine magic before you left; have they changed further, reverted back? What is the full scope of their transfiguration?>Write-in 