Beist stopped for a moment and clutched a hand over his chest again as he made his way up the staircase to the front door of the house. A quiet grunt of pain escaped his grimace as he leaned his weight heavily on his walking stick, but the moment of pain passed after a few moments. They never lasted long, but they were getting worse every time. He let out a sigh of relief when it ended and finished walking up to the door.

He'd come here in quite a hurry once he realized just what was happening and the best person he could think of to help him with his problem. He hadn't even taken his wagon here, instead just drinking a potion to teleport him straight to Sky Peak Village. He felt terribly awkward coming to someone's home unannounced. It was incredibly rude in his opinion, but he had no time to waste on such formality. Hopefully she wouldn't mind. Wait, hopefully she was even home! What if she wasn't!?

With a deep breath to try and calm himself down, Beist reached a hand forward to knock on the door... And promptly broke it down by accident. With a loud crash, the door hit the ground after being broken right off of its hinges by Beist's fist. He stood frozen in front of the door, staring down at it with a horrified expression, his fist still held out in front of him.

Well, if asking Astrid to help save his life didn't work out, maybe he could ask her to kill him after doing something so embarrassing.

SPOILER: Click to show

-Creature Quest-
You must complete a topic with at least one other person (they can roleplay the creature if they want) where you must track down, calm, and capture the creature. You can fight it, or trap it, or trick it, you just have to weaken it enough to capture it. Each person in the thread must post at least 4 times with each post being at least 150 words long. Once the quest is over, the creature is yours.

Lucky for Beist, Astrid is home at the time of his arrival. She has a lot of things to focus on and even more things to not focus on. Being home helps with some of those things, and with how easy it is for her to get around Charon nowadays, she doesn’t have much of an excuse not to be home unless she’s spending a few days away from a town.

Down in her workshop, practicing her golemancy, which requires the utmost precision with some of the runes, a loud crash upstairs startles her, and she nearly breaks the tools in her hands. Pushing her goggles off of her eyes, Astrid jumps to her feet while her mind races. Is this a break in? Do they know who they’re messing with? What if it’s the assassins? Or worse, what if it’s Ceena again?

In a split second, Astrid’s armor is on her person,^[1] and her hammer is in her hand.^[2] Without hesitation, she charges upstairs, making it to the foyer at about the same time as Charles, who looks about as confused as an emotionless construct can staring at the door on the floor, and Astrid pauses and stares for a long moment at the recognizable expression of mister Beist in shock.

"How'd ya manage that?" she asks.

---

1. Armor Locket
2. Spellblade - Always There

Beist raised his gaze from the broken door on the ground up to Astrid with embarrassment and finally pulled his still outstretched fist back to his side. His second pair of hands in front of him touched the tips of their fingers together as he spoke.

"Ah, I'm terribly sorry about the door. I was only trying to knock. I'm a bit out of sorts lately. It's wonderful to see you again though! You have a lovely home. Just my walk up from the village gave me a nice look at it. Are those three poles all lightning rods? I've heard about Dragon's Cradle having quite the high amount of lightning storms. It's fascinating-"

Beist started to go into one of his usual rambles, but was cut off by a pang in his chest. He grunted and tensed up for a moment. He was rudely reminded that he didn't have the time for pleasantries and conversation. He was here for something urgent.

"My apologies. I'm glad you were home. I have a bit of a problem that I need some urgent help with and I thought you'd be the best person to turn to. Uh, may I come in?"

Beist glanced around at the doorframe in front of him. It looked large enough he'd be able to squeeze through. It was actually a very nice door, which just made him feel even more guilty for breaking it.

“It’s alright, Mister Beist. Ain't nothin' that can't be fixed,” Astrid says with her shoulders falling to finally relax. She sets her hammer aside and touches her wolf pendant to store her armor away then squats down and lifts the heavy wooden door with relative ease. When Beist suddenly stops in pain, Astrid nearly drops the door again to check on him but manages not to. “Are ya okay?? A’ course ya can come in! Go wherever ya like. We got drinks in the kitchen or plenty a’ space in the livin’ room. I’ll fix this, don’t worry about it, just go on.”

With only her elbows and head free, Astrid makes a motion for Beist to come inside before having Charles come prop the door up in the frame while she inspects the damage to the hinges. It’s evident this isn’t the first time this has happened, and considering her own strength and Blue’s, it’s not surprising. With a little glow of golden magic pulled from Cantio’s repertoire, the hinges are fixed in no time and the door is repaired.^[1] Astrid tests the swing a couple of times before closing it, deciding that the rest of the frame can be repaired later.

Then she turns to Beist with obvious concern on her face. “What’s goin’ on, Beist?? Do ya need a healer? Cantio ain’t here, but I got a couple a’ thin’s that’ll work!”

---

1. Cantio’s Eternity Ring - Mend Object

Beist awkwardly squeezed himself through the front door, crouching down and nearly crawling to duck his horns beneath the doorframe. He scooched away from the door to let Astrid pick it up and put it back without him being in the way and sat on the floor, being careful not to bump his head into the ceiling or stab it with his horns.

He shook his head slowly and waved a hand dismissively at Astrid's offer to try to heal him with something. He cleared his throat and started to speak with a serious tone.

"No, I'm afraid healing magic won't be any help to me. If it was, I'd have been able to handle this problem myself without having to bother you, but this problem requires a more complex solution that I thought you'd be the most suited to help me with. I've heard about your success in golemancy, and know you must be quite capable with alchemy to also be a member of the Golden Consortium. Cantio must be very proud." Beist explained, his tone changing from serious to cheerful as he went into Astrid's accomplishments. He couldn't help but be proud of her too, but he needed to keep on track instead of trailing off. He cleared his throat again and refocused.

"Will you help me create a new body?" Beist asked, clasping his hands together in front of him with a pleading look in his eyes. If Astrid refused to help him, he'd really be out of options.

Once things get settled, Astrid joins Beist in the living room since it’s the tallest room in the house. Astrid takes a seat on the couch and faces Beist to listen to his troubles. Spicy Pawsage, upon seeing the large and lumbering beastman sniffs at him then decides that he wants to be a warm lap dog to the only person who could actually treat the hellhound as such, so he crawls into Beist’s lap unless ushed off elsewhere. A pleased rumbling ruminates in the hound’s throat despite Astrid’s quiet shooing while she tries not to interrupt Beist.

“Oh, aye, yeah, I’ve done some a’ both. Workin’ on gettin’ better with golems, but I managed ta build one meself.” She smiles and nods in agreement when Beist mentions Cantio. “Aye, he is!”

Then Beist airs his true request, and Astrid’s smile shifts to an expression of disbelief. “Ya need me ta… What??” Her brow furrows and eyes dart around while she tries to piece together what the request actually is, but from the sound of it, he wants her to like… build a whole new body? With golemancy? “I– Do ya– What??”

"Build a new body." Beist replied simply, as if it was a perfectly normal request while he pet the hellhound in his lap.

Astrid doesn't look any more convinced of what Beist wants specifically. "Erm, like... a whole body fer... you?" As she speaks, her eyes trail from Beist's head to his feet and back up to meet his eyes. "Like... a golem fer yer soul??"

Beist looked at Astrid in surprise. Now he was the one who was confused for a moment as he processed what she just said.

"Oh! Oh, no no no, not for me! A new body for my snake." Beist explained, waving two hands in front of him and shaking his head. "Hm. Maybe I should explain things a bit more..." He mumbled to himself as he ran his fingers through his beard.

"Allow me to explain. You've met Pretzels, my familiar. The little winged snake? Truth be told, he's a bit more than meets the eye. The snake you've seen before was actually just a small manifestation of his spirit that he can speak and interact with the world through. His real body is, well, me. His spirit has been recovering while living inside me, but I'm afraid it's becoming too much for me to contain anymore." Beist explained, and then let out a sigh.

"By my calculations, things shouldn't have gotten to this point so soon. He should have recovered his strength far slower, but with all of the strange occurrences lately, that business with the sol stone and the dragon, he suddenly started regaining his strength much quicker. If I don't place his soul in a new body...." Beist trailed off, his ears and tail drooping sadly.

At the mention of not needing to make a whole golem body for Beist, Astrid relaxes instantly. She’d already started doing the calculations in her mind about how much darn material she would need for a project of that size. Buttfellow was no small undertaking, even using scrap parts for his current prototype, and Beist is even larger. No, the concept of making something for Pretzels sounds much more manageable. While Beist explains Pretzels’ existence, her brow furrows and she ponders. Wait, Beist is housing the little guy’s soul? Well, if he’s otherworldly, then it makes sense that he would be so heavily affected by all of the everything going on in Charon.

And then his tone and the way he trails off immediately catches Astrid’s full attention, and she looks at Beist with wide eyes but a serious expression. No way is she losing another grandfather figure to weird outside forces. “No need ta say anythin’ else,” she says. “We’ll figure this out. I dunno how ta bind souls or nothin’ but bein’ that ya have Pretzels bonded ta yerself, I guess ya probably have some idea how ta do that.”

In no time at all, she’s on her feet. “Go back out the front door an’ around the back a’ the house. Ya won’t fit in me workshop unless ya can be smaller, but there’s a door ta the back yard so we can still work together. Ya’ll even be able ta check out the new greenhouse an’ da’s garden! Charles’ll get the door fer ya so ya don’t break it down again. See ya in a jif!” Then she rushes downstairs to the workshop and digs out her special magical parchment^[1] to present to Beist when he arrives.

“If ya have any ideas fer what it should look like, think of ‘em, an’ it’ll appear here.”

---

1. Wanted Poster

Beist was teary-eyed as he crawled back out the front door. Astrid was going to help him! He was overcome with relief, and they hadn't even gotten started yet. Just knowing she was actually willing to lend her aid made him feel so much more hopeful that his problem would be solved and he wouldn't have to work out what would happen to all of his animal companions at home without him.

He made his way around the house, to the back door. No, he definitely wouldn't fit through there. He sat down in the grass close to the door and gingerly took the piece of parchment from Astrid.

He nodded in understanding and looked at the blank piece of parchment in his hand. Just thinking about a design for the new body, ink spread across the paper as if it was being drawn by invisible hands. How fascinating. What a handy tool! He should get one of these for himself some time. It would make writing down his notes and recipes easier. Was this permanent, or would he have to copy this onto a different paper afterwards? Either way, this would still be a great help.

Beist shook his head. No, focus, think of what Pretzels' new body should look like! Of course, it would still be a winged snake. That was a given. An image that looked just like Pretzels appeared on the paper.

"Bigger!" Beist heard a voice in his head and rolled his eyes.

"This isn't to scale. It's just a drawing." He said under his breath. "And, I'm not sure how large it can be. The larger it is, the more materials it will take, and I don't know how much Astrid even has or would want to use."

He looked at Astrid apologetically and pointed to his head. "Pretzels is asking for it to be as large as possible."

"Hmph. Well, make it as big as possible. And give it more wings! And my regal mane of feathers! And bigger fangs!"

Beist put a hand to his forehead as he was barraged with requests from the spirit in his head. He looked at the magical parchment and tried his best to add what was asked.

Soon, there was... certainly something drawn on the parchment. Beist looked at it dubiously and showed it to Astrid with a face that said "Can you believe this guy?" Too many wings, multiple tails each ending with some kind of weapon, fangs too large to be reasonable. It was like a child's idea of what would be the bestest most powerful killing machine ever. It barely looked like a snake anymore.

Beist shook his head and cleared the sheet of parchment. A new drawing spread across the surface that looked much more reasonable. A snake with two pairs of wings and a mane of feathers around the head along with a tuft of feathers on the tip of the tail.

"How about this?" Beist asked Astrid, handing her the parchment and ignoring the protests from the spirit in his head.

Even if Beist’s life wasn’t on the line for this project, Astrid wouldn’t think twice about try to help him with anything he asked. The friendly giant of a man has been nothing but kind to her and has helped her out of a bind or two that she had no hope of solving without his expertise. Regardless of any feeling of owing him a favor in return, she’s happy to help, and help she does.

As soon as Beist takes the parchment and starts puzzling out a rough design, Astrid immediately starts pulling notebooks and leather-bound tomes borrowed from the Mage’s Guild library out and setting them on her desk. Then she starts going through materials. It quickly becomes a decent undertaking, so she conjures up two duplicates, Bstrid and Cstrid, to assist her with prepping for a project. This will take all of their braincells and hands in order to get it done quickly.

One of the Astrids goes over to Beist and takes the parchment and looks over the design. “Aye, this looks like somethin’ we can make,” she says confidently with a nod. “It’s similar ta another golem we made outta books an’ parchment. What kinda materials do ya want? I dunno about makin’ anythin’ fleshy like somethin’ livin’ properly right now. That’d probably be more like uh… necromancy, but I got lots a’ metal an’ paper an’ some creature parts like scales an’ whatnot I can use.” She hands the paper off to another Astrid who immediately starts copying it into one of her many notebooks.

"Hm, perhaps metal as the main material? I believe that's the material you're most experienced with anyways. Please, make it out of whatever you'd like, I don't want to impose. I'll be sure to repay you for whatever materials you use. I'm sorry I ended up coming here in such a rush, I didn't think to bring materials myself. I've just got what was already in my bag here, let me see..."

Beist pulled a few odds and ends from his bag while he ignored Pretzel's demands to make the entire thing out of solid gold. Thankfully, the bag could hold a lot more than it looked like it should, and he had a bad habit of throwing things in there and then forgetting about them, so there was a fair few materials that might be of use in there. Some shed scales from Calzone, his obsidian wyrm. Discarded feathers from Dora, his griffon, and Tico, his songbird griffon. Some leftover yarn made of wool from his woolful, Leon. Oh, a bit of slime from Spooky, his skewt. Would this be helpful? Maybe as a lubricant to oil the metal parts and help them move better? Well, might as well take that out.

"I've heard of some fascinating innovations in golemancy recently. They've found ways to make golems out of just about anything nowadays. I myself have made a golem out of dirt, though that's fairly well known, making golems out of earthen materials like that. Rock, sand, etcetera. No, I heard some madman created a golem made of flesh! I wouldn't want to do that, but perhaps it would be interesting to hear about the process from them. I wonder if they did use some elements of necromancy to accomplish such a thing."

Beist went on and on as he looked around the back of the house at the garden and greenhouse around him. With the door to the workshop much too small for him to fit through, he felt like he had nothing to actually do. He felt useless. He was here asking for assistance, but now he couldn't even lend a hand. He thought about drinking some of his tonic to change into a smaller form, but with his current unstable condition, he didn't know what kind of effects it might have. He didn't need to end up becoming even larger and just making his current problem worse.

"Is there anything I can do to help out here?" Beist asked hopefully.

“Don’t worry about apologizin’, Mister Beist,” Astrid says, dismissively waving a hand. “I like workin’ on projects, an’ when ya got a lot on yer mind, it’s hard ta keep yer thoughts from gettin’ jumbled up.” Honestly, she can’t imagine what Beist might be going through. Sure the friendly beast man gets easily flustered, but having your life hanging by a thread is a perfectly good reason to be feeling that way.

While Beist pulls things out of his bag, Astrid starts to look them over, considering how they could make use of them. She recognizes some of it as materials from his pets and thinks that could be really nice to incorporate into this new body for Pretzels. It’d be like a little piece of their whole family with them always. Another Astrid comes over and the two girls seem to contemplate together before they collect some of the materials and one takes them to another bench. It’s hard to tell which Astrid is the real one at this point.

“Oh, flesh golems? Aye, I’ve seen ‘em meself,” Astrid says. “Some crazy guy was hidin’ out in the swamp usin’ dead folks ta make golems, but they weren’t quite like undead zombies or nothin’. More like…. Well, golems made outta people parts, fer… lack of a better term, I s’pose. The Mage’s Guild had us investigatin' that stuff. We dealt with the guy we found, but I think there’s other folks doin’ the same. It was pretty gruesome, but honestly, I think I took it all better than Da.” Despite the gross experience, Astrid shrugs it off nonchalantly. It’s just another part of adventuring.

His offer to help piques her interest, and Astrid lights up with a devious smile. “Oh, actually, Da an’ I just built the greenhouse in the back yard. I know yer good with plants an’ whatnot. Maybe ya could take a look at it an’ tell us if there’s anythin’ we can do ta make it better? Also, I’m workin’ on a potion a’ me own makin’, which I think could be a funny little diddy if you wanna check that out. I'm callin' it... Space Jam!”

"Yes, a lot on my mind. That is a rather accurate way to put it." Beist sighed, glancing to the side to avoid eye contact. Being so worried and flustered wouldn't help matters right now, but he was, emotionally speaking, a small push from falling apart. Astrid's agreement to help and her kind and gentle attitude so far was the only thing helping him keep a calm face right now.

"Oh, you've actually seen the flesh golems? I wish I could have been there to see them myself. They sound quite ghastly, but I can't help being a bit curious about them." Beist replied with excitement and curiosity. Maybe once this whole situation was done with, she could tell him more about them. Golemancy wasn't his expertise, but he had a growing interest in it and had even made his own golem. But what did she mean she "dealt with" the guy and that it was pretty gruesome and that she took it better than her dad? He probably would rather not know.

Beist's ears perked up as Astrid said "oh, actually", believeing there was a way he could help, but they drooped again with a bit of disappointment when she mentioned the greenhouse. He'd meant he wanted to help with building the new body for Pretzels, but he supposed this was fine too. Helping with forging metal from out here was probably impossible anyways. Probably more of a hinderance than anything. His interest was also piqued with the mention of a new potion.

"Oh... Yes, I'd be happy to help wherever I can. I'll take a look at your greenhouse first. This space jam sounds interesting as well, I'd be happy to take a look and offer any advice I can give." He responded, hiding his disappointment in his voice, though he couldn't hide the slight droop of his ears or tail lying limp on the ground.

Beist made his way into the greenhouse and looked around. He easily recognized the plants growing here, identifying several plants used as potion ingredients that he also grew in his own greenhouse at home. Of course, it was to be expected, knowing Astrid was a practitioner of alchemy like him. He started to go about noting small, but impactful changes that could be made.

"These two plants should be grown in the same plot, or at least next to each other. They use different nutrients, so they don't interfere with the other's growth, and their smells each deter pests that would be attracted to the scent of the other." He indicated two plants to the Astrid duplicant that was with him. "This plant here grows better in more shade. You can hang some netting or a light cloth that sunlight can still shine through above it. Oh, this plant here shouldn't be grown inside a greenhouse at all. It has very specific light requirements in order to bloom that can only be met in direct light, outside. Oh, marigolds. You shouldn't give these their own plot. They should just be scattered throughout the other plots. Their roots deter hornworms. Oh, melons, you can save a lot of space if you train it to climb up a trellis instead of letting it sprawl across the ground. Just support the melons with a little hammock to keep it from falling. Then plant something else in front of them that likes a bit of shade. Lettuce would be a good choice."

Beist's disappointed mood improved as he walked through the large greenhouse, only having to duck slightly. He was much more in his element here, speaking of plants and giving gardening tips. Just as he was about to point out another change that could be made, he suddenly dropped to his hands and knees, groaning in pain.

Behind him, Cstrid could see as he tensed with pain, the greenish-blue scales of his tail began to turn white and the tuft of grey fur at the tip of his tail transformed into a tuft of golden feathers as the tail grew longer. When Beist let out a sigh of relief and stood up, the event apparently over, over half of the scales of his tail had become white, leaving a pattern of white and blue-green similar to a koi fish.

Beist brushed his pants off and turned to her with an apologetic smile. "My apologies, I'm alright now. Let's continue." He said, unaware of any changes to the tail behind him.

The group of Astrids look happy enough that Beist can offer some help with the greenhouse and the potion, and one of them follows Beist out to see what information he has to give while the others keep plinking away at building a new body for Pretzels. As she and Beist walk away, the workshop is abuzz with lightning and tinkering.

Luckily, whichever Astrid this is, probably Cstrid, brought a notepad and scribbles down information as Beist points out the best techniques and which plants to keep planted together. She knew he’d be the right person to ask, and he sure does offer up a lot of specific knowledge. Sure, all of this can be found in books, but that can take a lot of time to identify and read up on when someone with all the knowledge can be equally as helpful but significantly faster.

“That’s all real good information, Mister Beist,” she says gratefully, flipping through her notes to make sure she didn’t miss anything. “Thanks a lot!” Her balance shifts when Beist suddenly falls to the floor, seemingly in intense pain. “Beist?? Are ya alright??” she asks, resting a hand on his back and concern plastered across her face. She looks him over and notices the feathers and new pattern of scales, and with a confused head tilt, she takes a step back as he stands up.

“Erm… Yer tail is different,” she says, pointing at it.

"My tail?" Beist repeated in confusion, looking over his shoulder. Now that she mentioned it, he noticed something felt a bit different about his tail. He moved it and realized it was heavier than usual. It slid around to his front, moving like a snake coiling itself, and he saw that it had grown much longer and many of the scales on it had changed color. He wiggled the tip of his tail, the new plume of feathers there swishing back and forth like a feather duster.

"Oh... Oh dear..." He mumbled to himself, placing a hand over his mouth and looking pensive. These changes could only mean one thing. The time before he was overwhelmed by the Quetzalcoatl was approaching rapidly. His body was becoming more like that of the winged, feathered serpent even as he was working to remove its spirit. He was afraid to think what other changes might be brought on by this. He really hoped he wouldn't grow a pair of wings. He had enough extra limbs already. Wait, if he was becoming more snakelike, would he lose his arms and legs?

"I don't mean to rush her, but could you please tell the, uh, the main Astrid to please hurry?" Beist asked the duplistrid, politely but with clear urgency and more than a hint of worry in his voice.

Beist walked out of the greenhouse, back toward the backdoor leading down into the workshop, and waited outside.

"Isn't there anything you can do to slow your growth down?" He asked quietly as he walked along.

"I'm already slowing myself down for you as much as I can. You're the one that'll have to do something if you want to slow this down even further. You're the one that told me not to just move my spirit into one of your little pets. That would have been much easier than all this nonsense." Pretzels scoffed in Beist's mind.

"No. None of them could have contained you either." He responded, furrowing his brow, a rare hint of anger on the normally clam and gentle beast man's face. Sacrificing one of his companions to Pretzels was never an option to him.

"Neither can you."

"Yes I can." Beist almost growled with a look of grim determination. He gripped his lower left arm at the shoulder. "I just need to keep expending some of your power."

Beist grit his teeth as a wet crunch echoed out across the backyard. Bone breaking and flesh tearing. Grass was coated in red as Beist tore off his own arm. Before the loud thud of the gigantic arm hitting the grass could be heard, Beist was already holding his hand on the remains of his shoulder, a white glow on his palm.

Bones and muscle began to regrow, drawing from the energy of the celestial spirit inside him to heal himself. Slowly, a whole new arm regrew while Beist sank to his knees and bared the pain.

---

Holy Gifts- Massive Healing