History:
Copper crystals were the first type of artificially created crystals made by the
Royal Order Of Archivists. Initially considered a success, their ability to retain information turned out too limited to be useful. In an attempt to push this ability further, the crystal was implanted in a living creature and not the usual golems that they had used until then. This turned out to be a mistake as although the crystal connected to the host's nervous system and displayed much larger retention capabilities, its intelligence advanced rapidly. In days the crystal had killed the host, reanimated its body, and gained full sapience. After which it breached containment, escaped into the greater
Underdark and has since spread far and wide. Though efforts to contain the spread have mostly been effective, copper crystals can be found all across the underdark.
Infection:
Infection is particularily feared, as it is believed that the crystal will not only kill its host but consume its soul as well. This fact has strangely put it at odds with
The Dark Ones, who ruthlessly destroy every last bit of the crystal whenever they find it.
Inert stage/crystal tree stage:
During this initial stage the crystal has taken root on an inanimate object, and its growth as well as its intelegence is vastly diminished. All energy goes into growing as many limbs and appendages as possible. Resembling a crystaline bush with long brittle feelers, the crystal is easily shattered, though its minute peices are not easily cleaned. Turning into tiny slivers that easily wedge themselves into cloth, or flesh, the crystal seeks to infect whatever creature has been unlucky enough to to touch it. Simply removing any splinters, or taking a fairly acidic bath is enough to ensure that infection does not continue to the next stage.
Travel Stage/First Infection:
After infection, the crystal will burrow beneath the flesh, and begin to slowly extend tendrils towards the spine or brain, whatever is closer. Stiffness in the affected limb is normal, and may also be acompanied by tingling as well as the sensation of pins and needles. This process takes several weeks, as the crystal does what it can to now elicit the suspicion of its host. This may still happen if the crystal has a significant distance to travel, as the subdermal mass will become fairly long, and noticible even through the skin after enough distance. When this growth reaches the spine or brain the growth triples and in a day reaches full maturity. Amputation or removal of the mass is enough to stop infection in its tracks, though this process is immensely painful for the host, especially if the crystal has attatched itself to their spine, though it is the last chance the host has at escaping death.
Sleeper Stage/Host Death:
At this point the crystal strikes at night, killing the target, absorbing the host's memories, and reanimating their corpse. With their full knowledge, the host will rather clumsily attempt to infect their fellows, though their mimicry is poor at first, but swiftly becomes better as time passes. This stage usually lasts a one to three months, during which the crystal can fairly successfully pretend to be a normal creature. That is until the next stage takes place.
Burst Stage/Crystal Emergence:
The crystal, unable to stop itself from growing will eventually erupt from the host's flesh, and continue to lengthen. At this point its presence cannot be hidden at least not without considerable effort on the part of the crystal. It will usually attempt to hide itself as best as possible, but when this becomes impossible the crystal will depart, isolating itself amongst its kin underground or in hidden communities.
Immobile Stage/Crystal Zenith:
Evevntually, over the course of decades the crystal will grow to the point that its host is no longer mobile at which point it will be moved by its kin to a high travel location and after a time, will revert to its initial stage, having consumed its host entirely.
Sapience:
The true depth of the crystal's intelegence is not known, though they do seem to function as a sort of limited hive mind, with the number of mature crystals present in an area contributing to the crystal's overal thinking ability. Though capable of mimcry it usually doesnt do a great job at it, the crystal unable to understand the meaning of complex words or phrases, resulting in the overreliance on simple terms. Though larger copper crystal colonies have shown something akin to true intelligence, some dwarven scholors have claimed that this is merely a more advanced form of mimicry, citing their origin as prototype keeper crystals.
Comments