Rolled 18, 10, 5, 13 = 46 (4d20)
>>5837711The more that you studied the program, the more one single avenue of research seemed insufficient to resolve the problem. However, in CREATING these pox-carrier creatures, the lizardmen had done a great deal of the work for you. While the Archmage’s applications of weaponized and utility-based animal chimeras were undeniably advanced, the elegance and complexity of THIS bioweapon was simply BEYOND your master. You could see that, even if she couldn’t… But realistically, you suspected she must. Why else had she not yet ended the plague, no doubt securing herself a place of permanent honour in Hawksong and beyond? No, the difference was that unlike Theresa Henzler, YOU could admit it… And learn from it.
You reasoned that if these slug-like things could create complex chimeras be transforming individual structures, down to those basic cellular units only even observable with magically augmented lenses, then they could do more than be a vector for a disease. These horrid things could be a TOOL, a medical implement, useful completely rewriting the fundamental structure of an organism to ERASE a disease! While rather dramatic and long-lasting effort would be required before they could be used to cure a cancer or blood infection, it would be a relatively simple thing to slightly alter their function so that the transformation was no into a half-formed and degenerate mixture, but into something healthy and vital…
Though ‘relatively’ did a lot of heavy lifting here. it still wasn’t exact easy.
It would be one thing if you could use a <Clone> of yourself or, better yet, of Izzy… But the thought still gave you pause. The beings which that spell created were ‘soulless’, but you still weren’t entirely sure of what that meant for consciousness. A GOBLIN was ‘soulless’, after all, but the thought of treating Zith-Zi like disposable experimental materiel was abhorrent. Your <Clone> self would lack volition, maybe even eventually cease to feed and care for itself and willingly starve… But the lizards had still shown all the physiological signs of displeasure. They had twitched, and writhed, and responded to pain and pleasure in basic ways that made your stomach churn and your soft elven heart ache for them.
To imagine that same reaction while gazing into your own emulated eyes… Or upon the face of the girl you… Had feelings for…
“No,” you murmured. “Not… Not like that.”
Not if you didn’t have to.
