Another Chosen of the Aboleth

After the fight, Jeremiah saw Ash more clearly. Not all of Ash. One part in particular. The void tentacle had become familiar to the party through use, injury, and trauma, but Jeremiah recognized it differently. He called himself another Chosen of the Aboleth, turning Ash's strange limb from personal mutation into possible participation in a larger contest. Herman gave the structure a name. The Aboleth was one of the Power Nine, and it did not choose simply. It selected two contenders while seeking a single Paragon. That made Jeremiah's presence in the hidden path immediately heavier. He was not only another adventurer on the paid tour. He might be a parallel bearer of the same deep influence Ash had brushed against. Or Ash might not be what he thought. The post-session clarification matters: Ash was fooled. The figure that offered him the choice was not actually the Aboleth, though likely someone comparably powerful. That does not make Ash's tentacle meaningless. It makes the origin more dangerous, because deception at that level suggests another power wanted Ash to believe he had entered the Aboleth's pattern. Jeremiah may be a true contender. Ash may be an imitation, target, fraud, rival, or something worse. The hidden path had found a way to make the dungeon personal before the next stair even turned.