Doctor Ronald Sutherland's Story

This...this was the place. The old crone back at Gambit's bar had instructed him to come here, and after carefully looking over maps and plotting his route out meticulously on his palm pilot, he felt secure enough in his undertaking to finally make his way to what contemporaries had called 'Saranna's Cave'.

Truthfully, it was a rather nondescript title. He'd expected something a bit more foreboding. But as he stood before the massive cave entrance, clad in water-proof hiking gear with his belt synched just beneath his rib cage, he couldn't help but wonder if he might have underestimated the formidability of his soon-to-be business partner.

He used his index finger to push his thick-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose, thinning brown hair sticking out in all directions beneath the brim of his wide-rimmed sunhat. He'd had a run in with skin cancer some ten years previously, and hadn't wanted to take a chance with it ever again.

Shuffling forward, the man removed his pocket planner from one of his many zipped-in compartments, noting his location with a frown of slight disappointment.

"Think I'm here. Do I just go in?" His voice was soft...sweet...almost feminine. He lifted his beady dark eyes towards the cave entrance.

"Hello?"

He made sure to plug his nose as he slipped his way down. Upon entering the pool, however, the man happened to lose his hat, revealing a bald spot precariously placed on the top of his head. He came up spluttering, floundering for purchase against the slimy stones, before he finally managed to clamber his way onto dry land.

When he found himself staring at overlarge frog feet, his eyes widened, and he looked up the length of the figure, finally taking in his froggy face.

"Fascinating." he breathed, almost tempted to reach out and touch it. Remembering himself, however, he got to his feet, dripping wet, and cleared his throat.

"I'm here to see Saranna." he said.

His long, spindly fingers twitched together as he appraised the collection, mouth agape with obvious wonder as air audibly entered and exited his lungs. At the appearance of the witch, his mouth slammed shut with a 'click', and he straightened to his gangly height of six feet, all a hundred and forty pounds of him looking about as sopped as a drowned rat.

His black eyes found Saranna, and he tried for a smile, crooked teeth unusually white and sharp.

"I seek a spell." he said. "Quite plainly, I wish to remove organs from my victims bodies without having to open them up."

He spread his hands out in a supplicating gesture. "You see, I'm a transplant surgeon, and right now there are many, good people who need organs, and many other undeserving people who can supply them. So I wish to restore that balance and make sure that the right people are the ones who survive. Perhaps the world could be better off!"

He ended with his arms in the air, face to the ceiling, with his mousy, feminine voice echoing around the cavern. Slowly, he lowered his arms back to his side.

"I'll give you my soul, in exchange."

"I wouldn't be here if I hadn't thought everything out to the very last detail!" he cried, his voice pitching high in his emotional state. He wasn't angry, no, but passionate. Passionate and out of his mind.

"Don't try to educate me on cause and effect. It is all that my life's work has been focussed on. Rather than being based in magic and the supernatural, as you are, my focus has been in the real, the material and the explainable. I digress..." He looked to the side, after the toad.

"Sometimes even a realist such as myself could use a little extra help."

When Ron saw the ethereal form rise from the box to fill the inner chamber with its noxious presence, his eyes widened, the faintest flickering of fear visible behind his dark eyes. Steeling himself, the man opened his arms up, fingertips shaking delicately as he lifted his voice to the entity.

"Come and abide!"

His voice cracked, but he was smiling, his eyelid twitching as a horrible laugh poured out of his mouth. Congeria, who obviously had no intention to waste time, funnelled into the doctor's mouth like a tornado of darkness.

Doctor Ronald Sutherland fell to his knees, chin against his chest as he stilled. A moment passed, and still another.

Then, a deep, resonant chuckle rippled through his chest. He lifted his eyes, just as black as before, and smiled.

"You have my thanks."

Ron was walking, but not because Ron wanted to walk. Ron walked because the thing inside him bade them to walk. At first, the action was disconcerting, even a bit nauseating. He tentatively reached out to the spirit inside of him, touching it's surface.

"Let me control this and I'll give you the power you want."

He didn't ask until they were well out of the cave.

"We have havoc to wreak, together. My new friend."

"I appreciate you taking the time to come and talk to me." the man said, hunching his shoulders slightly as he peered down at the girl. "What you're going through must be very stressful. I can't imagine the kind of pain you might have been experiencing." He continued walking down the street, a red head girl at his side. Tentatively, the man reached a cool, damp hand and gently touched Midge on the shoulder.

"Would you like me to show you where I get the donor's organs?"

"I think you should see what it costs to get what is most precious to you, don't you think?" he replied with a thin, robotic smile. "I think everyone should, Miss Collins."

She clenched her jaw, her hands balling up into tight knots as she warily watched him and his gun. When he moved to put his arm around her shoulder, she nearly shied away again, but she saw the weapon, relented, and allowed him to corralle her into his side.

"Watch carefully while I hunt." he said with a distinct smirk.

Intergalactic News Network

Your Source for Intergalactic News

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This is Lorbloo Nuurk, reporting LIVE from just outside Gambit's Bar. Nobody can tell how it happened, and nobody knows where anyone went, that fateful day every single person within Gambit's Bar disappeared into what seemed like thin air. Yes, even the staff! Magical beings, robo-types, and humanoids alike just gone. But, to where? Are they still alive?

Gambit's Bar

Originally a run-down shack of a dive, Gambit's Bar has grown over the years into one of Wing City's most popular attractions.

More questions than answers have arisen from the scene, whether or not a crime has been performed has yet to be determined. The WCPD suspects foul play but have seemingly nobody to blame. Many have speculated that this disappearance will be tacked onto the charges accrued by Zosimos of the Vankoryth Detente, however they haven't been officially named or associated with the incident to any official degree. Others are pointing fingers at the Aschen, but that theory is easily debunked with the remembrance of the treaties. We've reached out to Detente and Aschen officials, neither of which have offered comment on the circumstance other than to claim dissociation.

Inside Gambit's Bar, the discovery of a strange black sparkly void dust has officials concerned. All persons permit access to Gambit's Bar have been advised to not touch the void dust. I repeat, do not touch the void dust. Eyewitness reports claim that prior to the disappearance, a strange red glow had occupied the windows of Gambit's Bar - others claim it was just a local brown out, and that the light was playing tricks on their eyes.

While investigations continue, the Intergalactic News Network will be stationed here to report on whatever- and whoever -is found to be complicit in this mass disappearance. Stay tuned!