by Marty Myers
He decided teleporting such massive animals into the kitchen before attempting to death bolt them would be very unwise. Instead, he went looking for the captain. If he could straighten things out with the guards before long then things should go much smoother he figured. Hank found him occupying the first bedroom in the hall. He thought he should be getting doors onto these rooms soon. That too would help everyone’s mood he thought.
Hank purposely appeared out in the hall and cleared his throat. How odd he thought as he did it. It wasn’t even really possible for him to do that. Oh well, just another contradiction to his strange new existence. When he saw that he had his attention. Hank said, “ if you have some time I would like to see about building the training hall you need and discussing some other things.” Kravous stood up and walked out into the hall. “ Where my men and my duty comes in I always have the time,” he said.
Hank led him down the hall and said, “ how about here, there is solid stone beyond this wall that should be room enough for a training hall I should think. I wanted to find out just how big this training hall should be and what it should look like before I carved it out.” When Kravous nodded at its placement Hank carved out a doorway and tunneled into the mountain. He decided the ceiling had better be higher than in the other chambers so he took it up to 30 feet. He carved pillars out to support the ceiling and spread the walls out some 60 feet while looking over for Kravous opinion.
“ So if this is wide enough, how long would it need to be?” Kravous looked around before saying, “about four or five times longer than it is wide would offer quite a space for practicing drills and moving about.” Hank focused on his work and carved out the hall until it was three hundred feet to the furthest wall. Now the only rooms in the dungeon bigger than this one were the Great Hall and the dining hall. Hank took more time to teleport out more of the excess stone blocks as he worked.
So far the room was plain. Hank focused his will upon the stone ceiling and made it light up. He said. “ Kravous do you want benches added in the walls or anything else. Now is the time for it. Kravous walked around for a bit before pointing out where he wanted seating. Hank carved out a half wall and stair-step bleacher type seating with five tiers on either side of the long hall. The place now looked more like a gymnasium. At Kravous suggestion he also made a couple short stairs leading down on either side of the back of the hall into what Hank thought of as locker rooms beneath the seating. He also crumbled a large amount of the stone up into sand for the main floor as it would be much softer to be thrown down upon than the stone floor would have been.
Kravous said, “ that is enough for now Hank. Once we have had a chance to try it out we may ask for other changes but this is good. I would like some material for targets to be brought in though, I have a guard who is good at fashioning practice dummies out of wood and straw for instance.” Hank nodded as the captain’s attitude towards him seemed to be thawing a bit.
“ Okay Captain,” he said, “ how do you think your first meal went?” “ Decently well,” Kravous replied. “ I had some grumbling from the men when we were served rabbits instead of people, but none dared object too much as the Dark’s lesson was still fresh in their minds.” “ Well yes, that’s not going to change anytime soon,” Hank said. “ But I am getting ready to bring in the game for the next meal. I have spotted some nice Aurochs I thought you and some of your men could help out with if I brought them here. They are really too big for the kitchen space to handle killing them in there would be asking for trouble.” Kravous looked happily as he agreed, “yes that would be nice. I will round up some men.” Hank cautioned him, “ don’t mess them up too awful bad as it will be easier to cook them if they’re not chopped all to pieces.” The Guard made a face and agreed. “ Indeed not all my men are crude killers. Some of them actually have butchers skills, they just normally disdain such work.”
Hank dismissed him to go get his men while he once again cast his scrying and searched the plains for their quarry. It wasn’t long before he found them. He was focused upon his task so much he did not notice the dark hulking figure of Khourick creep into the training hall and get into position to launch himself at his floating figure. It wasn’t until the solid brute sailed through his form that he realized how oblivious he had become. The ex-captain whipped back around and Hank saw only an animal intelligence flickering in his eyes. He growled and showed his fangs like a beast before springing back towards him.
This time though before he leaped Hank saw the ex-captain’s aura flare as true Darkness poured out of him and shaped itself around his face into a long exaggerated black gaping maw filled with razor sharp teeth. Hank gestured and set the wards he had prepared earlier snapped in place just in time to halt the beasts charge. Khouricks Dark enhanced fangs actually left rents in his shielding. Hank thought they would have done a lot more than just pass harmlessly through him this time as he felt the drain they placed upon his defenses when he bit in.
He quickly cast a curse he had been practicing on the chests earlier which paralyzed Khourick. Kravous and some guardsmen filed in just as this played out. They watched as their previous leader fell down and lay unnaturally still. Hank gestured to Khourick and said. “ I believe he needs some more bed rest Captain.” Kravous motioned two guards to come carry the paralyzed orc off.
“ Okay,” Hank said, “ here is your new training hall. I am about to transport your next dinner entrees in here which is going to be these. Hank spoke another chant and caused the image of his scrying to appear upon one of the walls. Big wild aurochs were suddenly displayed for the guards to see. Hank waved towards the wild cattle. “ They need to be intact enough to roast over the fireplaces for your dinner.” Having said this Hank singled out an especially large bull and teleported him into the middle of the hall. “ You will need to clean up the mess yourselves afterward.” Hank picked out three more cows from the heard and brought them to the sandy floor to stand with the bull. With that, Hank nodded to the captain and left the training hall for the kitchen.
His mind was already back to thinking about setting up his mindscape’s scrying pool so he could finally contact Llywelyn. As he entered the kitchen Melody flew over to him and curtsied. “ Hank if I could speak to you please.” Hank reined in his impatience and said, “ of course Melody, what is it you need.” “ First I want to thank you again, Hank. I am ever so grateful for you reuniting me with my husband after all these years. He has much to keep him occupied now and a kitchen is definitely where he is happiest.”
“ I was wondering though if I myself could be of service to you between the times when he is cooking. I was, err am a talented illusionist and even though my specialty lies in disguising blemishes and projecting loveliness. I thought I could maybe help set up some illusions in your dungeon. To disguise or hide traps or even create some traps entirely out of illusions for you?” Melody looked uncertain as she said this. “ That sounds good to me melody, I had forgot to ask you earlier about the illusion we had found obscuring the door into Alastasia’s boudoir.” Yes, that was mine,” the ghost said. “ Alastasia often had me obfuscate the door to her personal chambers as well as play mirror for her when she was at home. Alastasia kept feeding me power over the years so my illusions would remain strong to make her appear as she once did, so long ago.”
“ It was only once she was destroyed that the energies dried up and I was forced to keep powering the illusion on the doorway with my own essence. If you had not come along I don’t know how much longer it would have been before I was spent.” Hank took a look just to be sure his earlier efforts to recharge her spirit had succeeded. He was reassured by what he saw as her ghostly aura looked strong and her core was again fairly full of spectral energies. He could see too that much of her illusions were powered by the dark essences. The grimoire had some spells using the second and third path that fooled the mind and the eye as well. They ran through his mind as he listened to Melody talk. “ I would definitely like that Melody. Perhap
s we can work on that here soon. You see I want to be with you when you set them so I know where they are and get an idea how you set them. Right now I have another project I need to focus on some scrying.”
“ In the meantime will you let your husband know that I have brought in four good sized wild cattle that the guards are busy dispatching, They should bring them to the kitchen soon to be prepared. I told them they needed to be fairly intact to spit and cook. Let me know if there is any problems please.” She nodded and went over to her husband’s side passing through a skeleton as she did so.
Chapter 22
Hank went over to the pantry where it was quieter and focused inward. He had already placed Llywelyn’s stone inside one of the walls nearby and so he sank into the wall until he was touching the stone and focused inwards on making another copy of himself standing in a stone chamber much like the scrying pool Provoas had set up. He gathered himself mentally and reconstructed the pool in his mind as accurately as he could before casting the permanent scrying enchantment upon the new pool. The whole room wavered momentarily as if he was looking into still water a stone had been dropped into before the room steadied and he felt the enchantment take hold.
He then carefully scryed a few locations he had already looked upon in previous sessions. He gathered more wild greens and vegetables and teleported them over to the sink area and checked over the overburdened stone block pile stacked up over on the other wall of the pass before scrying further. He tested the internal pool out for a few minutes before clearing it of images and once more casting a scrying as Llywelyn had shown him.
With a longer chant and more effort, he was eventually able to see the blasted icy northern plains and the dark imposing mountain under which she resided. Hank chanted the incantation again and added her name as he touched the stone. He could feel vast wards and other magical defenses laid upon her as he slid past them, reaching out to make contact with the Dark Citadel.
Within the pool, Llywelyn’s chambers swam into view. She appeared to be reclining in her favorite chamber reading a book. As he beheld her she looked up at him and set up. His view was drawn closer so it was as if he sat across from her as they had when he had originally visited her in her chambers. He felt a much lighter hesitant touch as they connected tenuously through their long-distance connection. Llywelyn reached over with her other hand and set the book down. Then she laid her hand upon his stone which had been sitting nearby upon a pillow. The connection between them became firmer, but was still much less intense than it had been in their first encounter. Hank thought of it as akin to video chatting.
“ Hello Llywelyn,” he said, “ sorry it took a bit to get everything settled down here and get this up and running.” She said, “ Hank its good to see you again, I had begun to wonder if you had had second thoughts about contacting me.” Hank shook his head. “ No, I just have had too many details to work out keeping the guards stationed here. Truly I wish I had just gotten double the elite skeleton guards the Dark sent instead of these Black Guards. Feeding and seeing to all their living needs is a hassle.” Llywelyn laughed, and said, “ well you are likely going to have to get used to it. If the Dark’s plans come to fruition than he will probably be wanting to breed and assemble a mighty host within your dungeon before marching them out into the world to conquer the realm with his darling Dark Prince leading them. So you had better be prepared.”
“ I think I need to further educate you on the many paths a dungeon may take to do that before you get in over your head. You see, some dungeons breed armies of just one species of minion while others have many varied creatures living and multiplying within their walls. If the Darkness decides to go that route you will need to develop a whole ecosystem of sorts to feed and take care of and even train and equip an ever-growing number of them.”
Hank grimaced. “ I am a dungeon of the dead as my master has said before. Isn’t there a way for me to stick with that?” “ Well, there have been purely undead dungeons before,” she said. “ But they are either set up in or nearby large sources of the dead like under huge cemeteries or unhallowed battlefields to be able to call upon the numbers they need to furnish their hordes. Otherwise, they tend to be smaller less powerful dungeons that serve other purposes besides forming a horde.”
“ Many dungeons do develop some necromancy to control of the dead since they tend to collect dead bodies here and there from failed adventurers and hero’s parties attacking them. They just don’t rely on them exclusively. Because its getting harder to find one who hasn’t had too many blessings of the Light cast on them or the favor of a house of a Lord of Light to be raised.” Hank grimaced as he thought about the cleric whom they had not been able to raise. “ So your saying there are a lot of people here in this world who can’t be raised as the undead because the church has cast too many protections on them.” He asked, “ Isn’t there a way to desecrate their bones enough to make them useful again?” “ Yes Llywelyn said, “ but the amount of dark and necromantic energy you have to expend to expel the light from their bodies makes it very hard to use that technique to build up a sizable horde or host of the undead. It is three to four times more mana intensive to do so and the skeletons or zombies raised in such a manner are still more prone to be dispelled or repelled by the Light than ones which weren’t initially blessed to begin with.”
“ It’s much better to start off which the bodies of less devout people and work from there. Many necromancers also look for bodies that have already been exposed to Dark energies for extended periods of time before they are raised as this makes it even easier to call them up and gives them a natural boost in the potency of the undead they become. They can either be attuned to the darkness in life or their bodies can be saturated with dark essence where they lay in death.”
“ This is also why the forces of light try to cleanse battlefields and other Dark places where negative essence gathers. If its concentrated enough, such places will even spawn it’s own self rising undead. Uncontrolled zombies and skeletons, even wights or vampires occasionally will be created in such a way. There are also certain higher level curses which can eventually cause the dead to be raised if certain conditions are met. However, I don’t see how much of that is going to help you get enough minions to fill out a horde Hank, especially as it seems like the Dark is in quite a hurry with this latest scheme.”
Hank thought about it for bit and then said, “ well are there many places left where these wild uncontrolled undead still spawn? Couldn’t I set out to collect them and place them under my control? What’s the downside of that?” Llywelyn replied many young necromancers have this same ambition, to shortcut getting a stronger undead than what they can raise under their control by claiming one already risen. Usually they either can’t find one or they overestimate their power and fail to gain control of them.”
“ As to if there are many of them. They are hunted by the forces of Light just as all the Darks creations are, so there tend to be very few in or near inhabited areas. There are a few cursed places which still spawn them over a few kingdoms from you, but those tend to be small isolated places that produce very few creatures overall.”
“ There are a couple huge unhallowed battlefields from back before the bans which still have wild undead risen upon them. But they are very far from you on another continent and the dead there tend to be very old and very powerful as the Dark’s essence has stained the land there for thousands of years. The Light has so far failed to cleanse the lands there in the old countries. It is one of the last areas where the Darks foothold in this world is mostly unchallenged.”
Hank interrupted for a minute, “ so do you mean to tell me that the older the dead is the more powerful they become?” “ Yes,” she said, “ in general the older a body is, the more potential it has to absorb the dark essence around it. This is multiplied once the body has actually risen but even beforehand the older the remains the more powerful it could potentially be.” “ Okay and also do I understand you
correctly in that in these areas of high concentrations of dark and necromantic energies that the risen dead become stronger faster by absorbing more of the ambient essence there even one there up and about?” “ Yes, she said, that is also correct.”
“ However it is not always good news for a necromancer. At various times ambitious necromancers have marched their armies out into these cursed places to have them gain in power in mass, but usually this leads to disaster as they either take too many there and then lose control of them as the surging power can allow the controlled undead to struggle and gain independence or the Forces of Light realize what is going on and send a correspondingly powerful army in to battle the undead host.”
“ Okay, but what If I sent my wight Birch out to wrangle some of the uncontrolled undead off of those big battlefields you mentioned.” “ It could be done,” Llywelyn said, “but it would likely take him a long time to travel so far and then return with them and he would likely only be able to control one or two at a time.” Hank said, “ I and Alastor have been getting very proficient with our teleporting. If we have the range to reach these fields I bet we could have Birch there and back before you know it.”
“ I have another question about that though, what if I just reach out and take control of them myself?” Llywelyn laughed, “ Oh Hank you make me feel young again sometimes.” “ No I am serious Llywelyn,” he said, “ I have already done this before.” Hank tried to share the memory of him raising and controlling the skeletons at Alastasia’s crypt but found that their connection wasn’t strong enough to truly share memories as they had before. Llywelyn could feel his intent though and said, “ you and I may be able to do that someday as you keep progressively improving your talents for scrying and telepathy. Also if our relationship continues you and I will naturally draw closer to each other spiritually and that will help us bridge the gap too. But for now that is out of reach unless another portal is established between us. I am actually quite impressed that our first attempt is going so well. You are naturally gifted at this Hank.”