Steve_Kow
14-01-2005, 12:46
*Authors note- This is a continuation of a series of stories entitled 'The Adventures of Bill the necromancer, and the rescue of Cain' that was floating around this forum about 1 1/2 years ago, I don't have any of the previous chapters so . . . just try and follow along all right?*
The Further Adventures of Bill the necromancer.
Chapter VII
Bill’s plan had been ruined.
If asked, he never would’ve admitted it, but he knew that Desurevo Ehcilc was a fine warrior and was vital to the success of the mission. Necromancy is extremely powerful; some say that it is the most powerful magical discipline known to mortal men (men can master fire and ice, but none have yet to overcome death. The necromancers have come close), yet it requires finesse. The confusion of a massive battle against hundreds or even thousands of demons is hardly ideal for his craft. He needed a man with a strong sword-arm for this fight, and he had it in Desurevo Ehcilc, but that was before the traveler came.
In the years to come Bill would speculate that the traveler was an agent of Andariel, the timing of his arrival (a mere week after Bill and Desurevo Ehcilc had destroyed an enclave of demons who were within striking distance of the Rogue’s encampment) was too convenient to be a coincidence. Nevertheless his tale of the fair maiden who had been kidnapped by a foul witch (who was also her evil stepmother) and was to be sacrificed to a powerful dragon fascinated Desurevo Ehcilc.
“I must save her! Don’t you understand Bill? This is my destiny, this is what I was made to do!” He said.
Bill could not retort, he knew that saving a maiden from a dragon and an evil witch was what a knight like Desurevo Ehcilc had to do. Desurevo Ehcilc mounted his noble white steed, and rode off into the sunset. He and Bill never crossed paths again, but legend has it that he defeated both the dragon and the witch (with the help of a powerful sword he pulled from a stone) and that he and the fair maiden lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, legend also says that they were both killed one dark and stormy night by vampires. Or perhaps werewolves.
A day after Desurevo Ehcilc left on his quest, Bill still didn’t know what to do. His mind was better suited to research and study than to war. Keeping his own counsel wasn’t getting the job done, he considered asking the Rogue’s general Kashya for advice, but then reconsidered when he remembered that she was an idiot. He hated to do it, but he finally gave in and sought Deckard Cain’s wisdom.
“You mustn’t give up! Every moment that passes sees the Rogues getting more desperate, more in need of the power of the Horadric Phallus.” Deckard said in a phony British accent.
“MAL-LUS” Bill said, emphasizing each syllable. “It’s a hammer, got it?”
“Oh is that what you kids call it nowadays? We used to call ‘em Dil-…”
The look on Bill’s face said “Shut up old man, we have work to do” clearer than words could.
“Very well” Deckard said “What do we know about the enemy? We know that Andariel’s army is large, but spread thinly over a wide area. We know that her army is comprised mostly of ‘The Fallen ones’, Imp men, yes? We know that the imp men are more suited for terrorizing unarmed villagers than actual battle, you needn’t worry yourself too much about them. The true fighters in her army, the one out of every hundred, are the undead and the goat-men.”
Bill tried unsuccessfully to hide his laughter at hearing Deckard mention goat-men. He hadn’t thought about the circumstances of Deckard Cain’s ‘rescue’ in quite some time, but like an old injury, once it comes back it comes back as strong as ever. Upon storming Tristram, he had expected to find Deckard starving to death in a cage suspended high off the ground, instead he had found him naked as the day he was born, surrounded by a herd of equally nude goat-men. One of the goat-men noticed the intrusion and he and Bill made eye contact, Bill shouted at the beast: “Hey! I don’t like your circle, jerk!” and then drove them off with a barrage of spells. Despite being attacked by powerful magic, the goat-men actually seemed to enjoy the pun.
Now it was Deckard’s turn to give Bill a look that said “Let’s get down to business”
“Like I was saying, the only real fighters in her army are the undead and goat-men” The last word coming out barely louder than a whisper. “In your case, you needn’t concern yourself with the undead, if Andariel knows she is facing a necromancer she will have withdrawn her undead, in any event if they are on the field of battle or off they are no threat to you. That leaves only the . . . ‘others’ and we know exactly where they are!”
Bill didn’t have any idea where the goat-men were, but he wasn’t about to just come out and admit it either.
“Kashya’s scouts have reported that a force of goat-men and imps have gripped the encampment loosely. That is, they have established a siege but are keeping a good distance off. Their perimeter is three leagues from us”. Deckard swirled his index finger in a wide circle in front of his face as he said the last sentence, indicating that they were surrounded.
Bill stood quietly for a moment and then said “Have the Rogues bring the bodies of two Gargantuan beasts, I expect them by morning.” Without waiting for a reply from Cain he walked off.
Magic-users are rarer than diamonds. One out of a hundred births might yield a child with the potential to use magic, and very few of those are ever properly trained. A large city could count itself lucky (or perhaps unlucky as circumstances warrant) if a single mage lived within its walls, but that doesn’t mean that there was any shortage of charlatans. There were plenty of fools more than willing to dress up in funny gowns and cover themselves in mysterious looking tattoos if it could profit them. Wherever there was a couple that couldn’t conceive, or a man dying of an illness there was a shyster there ready to dance around like an idiot and babble nonsense and tell you it was magic. By the time you realized you were conned he (and you gold) were long-gone. The average person had no idea what the true application of magic looked like. You therefore can not blame the Rogues for not understanding that Bill was working powerful magic on the two corpses their hunters had retrieved that morning, to them it appeared that he just stood and stared at the beasts for over an hour, as if he was trying to count their fleas.
“Go get Cain, I’ve finished the spell” Bill said, surprising the Rogues both by the suddenness of his speech, and because every Rogue present would have agreed that he had yet to begin.
When Deckard Cain arrived Bill explained his plan. “Stealth!” He said pointing at the bodies. “This is how we’re going to slip past the siege, we’re going incognito baby! We’re riding inside the bodies.”
“This reminds me of an ancient Horadric initiation rite, although we used lived Gargantuan beasts of course. If memory serves correctly we’re going to need lots of pig-lard . . . turn them onto their stomachs while I have the cook fetch some.” Deckard replied after some consideration.
Bill, who had been raised listening to tales of the glorious Horadrim, was still having a hard time wrapping his mind around the notion that they were all a bunch of fruit-cakes. It was going to take some getting-used-to.
“Hold on, that won’t be necessary Deckard.” The two beasts stood up and their chest opened up like a set of double-doors. Inside was an area large enough for a man to sit in, it didn’t look that comfortable but it was dry and there was an opening in the throat that they could breath out of. It wasn’t a first-class horse and buggy ride, but it would do.
Bill’s necromancy was powerful and his control so fine that from a distance the beasts appeared perfectly normal, their movement was fairly natural and none of Bill’s internal rearranging had altered the corpse’s shape significantly. It was still a gamble though, a close inspection would’ve revealed the tell-tale signs of death (the corpse was already several hours dead before he was able to start his work, causing some irreversible defects in the finished result) the eyes had the glassy stare of death to them, and there was a slight freezing of the limbs (what our science would call Rigor Mortis) in Cain’s beast. None of that mattered though, the goat-men had no reason to challenge the Gargantuan beasts, they weren’t under the direct command of Andariel, but they were allies nonetheless. Besides their orders were to stop humans, not short tempered-quick-to-violence giants.
The Monastery was only lightly defended. All the sentries that Bill saw were imps, Andariel had apparently gambled heavily on her army keeping any threats away from her center of power. Only once did a guard approach them, timidly demanding their authorization rune to enter the castle, Bill’s Gargantuan beast picked up the screaming imp and bit off its head. Blood poured down the throat of the beast and all over him, it was mildly acidic and quite unpleasant. He would’ve preferred to soak Deckard with the nasty ichor, but he couldn’t trust the old man not to shout out in horror and give them away.
After entering the interior of the monastery, Bill concentrated for a moment and the chests of both beasts opened (he hadn’t told Cain that if he died before releasing him, he’d have been trapped inside the rotting corpse) and the two men crawled out, leaving behind the beasts like two massive discarded coats.
The Further Adventures of Bill the necromancer.
Chapter VII
Bill’s plan had been ruined.
If asked, he never would’ve admitted it, but he knew that Desurevo Ehcilc was a fine warrior and was vital to the success of the mission. Necromancy is extremely powerful; some say that it is the most powerful magical discipline known to mortal men (men can master fire and ice, but none have yet to overcome death. The necromancers have come close), yet it requires finesse. The confusion of a massive battle against hundreds or even thousands of demons is hardly ideal for his craft. He needed a man with a strong sword-arm for this fight, and he had it in Desurevo Ehcilc, but that was before the traveler came.
In the years to come Bill would speculate that the traveler was an agent of Andariel, the timing of his arrival (a mere week after Bill and Desurevo Ehcilc had destroyed an enclave of demons who were within striking distance of the Rogue’s encampment) was too convenient to be a coincidence. Nevertheless his tale of the fair maiden who had been kidnapped by a foul witch (who was also her evil stepmother) and was to be sacrificed to a powerful dragon fascinated Desurevo Ehcilc.
“I must save her! Don’t you understand Bill? This is my destiny, this is what I was made to do!” He said.
Bill could not retort, he knew that saving a maiden from a dragon and an evil witch was what a knight like Desurevo Ehcilc had to do. Desurevo Ehcilc mounted his noble white steed, and rode off into the sunset. He and Bill never crossed paths again, but legend has it that he defeated both the dragon and the witch (with the help of a powerful sword he pulled from a stone) and that he and the fair maiden lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, legend also says that they were both killed one dark and stormy night by vampires. Or perhaps werewolves.
A day after Desurevo Ehcilc left on his quest, Bill still didn’t know what to do. His mind was better suited to research and study than to war. Keeping his own counsel wasn’t getting the job done, he considered asking the Rogue’s general Kashya for advice, but then reconsidered when he remembered that she was an idiot. He hated to do it, but he finally gave in and sought Deckard Cain’s wisdom.
“You mustn’t give up! Every moment that passes sees the Rogues getting more desperate, more in need of the power of the Horadric Phallus.” Deckard said in a phony British accent.
“MAL-LUS” Bill said, emphasizing each syllable. “It’s a hammer, got it?”
“Oh is that what you kids call it nowadays? We used to call ‘em Dil-…”
The look on Bill’s face said “Shut up old man, we have work to do” clearer than words could.
“Very well” Deckard said “What do we know about the enemy? We know that Andariel’s army is large, but spread thinly over a wide area. We know that her army is comprised mostly of ‘The Fallen ones’, Imp men, yes? We know that the imp men are more suited for terrorizing unarmed villagers than actual battle, you needn’t worry yourself too much about them. The true fighters in her army, the one out of every hundred, are the undead and the goat-men.”
Bill tried unsuccessfully to hide his laughter at hearing Deckard mention goat-men. He hadn’t thought about the circumstances of Deckard Cain’s ‘rescue’ in quite some time, but like an old injury, once it comes back it comes back as strong as ever. Upon storming Tristram, he had expected to find Deckard starving to death in a cage suspended high off the ground, instead he had found him naked as the day he was born, surrounded by a herd of equally nude goat-men. One of the goat-men noticed the intrusion and he and Bill made eye contact, Bill shouted at the beast: “Hey! I don’t like your circle, jerk!” and then drove them off with a barrage of spells. Despite being attacked by powerful magic, the goat-men actually seemed to enjoy the pun.
Now it was Deckard’s turn to give Bill a look that said “Let’s get down to business”
“Like I was saying, the only real fighters in her army are the undead and goat-men” The last word coming out barely louder than a whisper. “In your case, you needn’t concern yourself with the undead, if Andariel knows she is facing a necromancer she will have withdrawn her undead, in any event if they are on the field of battle or off they are no threat to you. That leaves only the . . . ‘others’ and we know exactly where they are!”
Bill didn’t have any idea where the goat-men were, but he wasn’t about to just come out and admit it either.
“Kashya’s scouts have reported that a force of goat-men and imps have gripped the encampment loosely. That is, they have established a siege but are keeping a good distance off. Their perimeter is three leagues from us”. Deckard swirled his index finger in a wide circle in front of his face as he said the last sentence, indicating that they were surrounded.
Bill stood quietly for a moment and then said “Have the Rogues bring the bodies of two Gargantuan beasts, I expect them by morning.” Without waiting for a reply from Cain he walked off.
Magic-users are rarer than diamonds. One out of a hundred births might yield a child with the potential to use magic, and very few of those are ever properly trained. A large city could count itself lucky (or perhaps unlucky as circumstances warrant) if a single mage lived within its walls, but that doesn’t mean that there was any shortage of charlatans. There were plenty of fools more than willing to dress up in funny gowns and cover themselves in mysterious looking tattoos if it could profit them. Wherever there was a couple that couldn’t conceive, or a man dying of an illness there was a shyster there ready to dance around like an idiot and babble nonsense and tell you it was magic. By the time you realized you were conned he (and you gold) were long-gone. The average person had no idea what the true application of magic looked like. You therefore can not blame the Rogues for not understanding that Bill was working powerful magic on the two corpses their hunters had retrieved that morning, to them it appeared that he just stood and stared at the beasts for over an hour, as if he was trying to count their fleas.
“Go get Cain, I’ve finished the spell” Bill said, surprising the Rogues both by the suddenness of his speech, and because every Rogue present would have agreed that he had yet to begin.
When Deckard Cain arrived Bill explained his plan. “Stealth!” He said pointing at the bodies. “This is how we’re going to slip past the siege, we’re going incognito baby! We’re riding inside the bodies.”
“This reminds me of an ancient Horadric initiation rite, although we used lived Gargantuan beasts of course. If memory serves correctly we’re going to need lots of pig-lard . . . turn them onto their stomachs while I have the cook fetch some.” Deckard replied after some consideration.
Bill, who had been raised listening to tales of the glorious Horadrim, was still having a hard time wrapping his mind around the notion that they were all a bunch of fruit-cakes. It was going to take some getting-used-to.
“Hold on, that won’t be necessary Deckard.” The two beasts stood up and their chest opened up like a set of double-doors. Inside was an area large enough for a man to sit in, it didn’t look that comfortable but it was dry and there was an opening in the throat that they could breath out of. It wasn’t a first-class horse and buggy ride, but it would do.
Bill’s necromancy was powerful and his control so fine that from a distance the beasts appeared perfectly normal, their movement was fairly natural and none of Bill’s internal rearranging had altered the corpse’s shape significantly. It was still a gamble though, a close inspection would’ve revealed the tell-tale signs of death (the corpse was already several hours dead before he was able to start his work, causing some irreversible defects in the finished result) the eyes had the glassy stare of death to them, and there was a slight freezing of the limbs (what our science would call Rigor Mortis) in Cain’s beast. None of that mattered though, the goat-men had no reason to challenge the Gargantuan beasts, they weren’t under the direct command of Andariel, but they were allies nonetheless. Besides their orders were to stop humans, not short tempered-quick-to-violence giants.
The Monastery was only lightly defended. All the sentries that Bill saw were imps, Andariel had apparently gambled heavily on her army keeping any threats away from her center of power. Only once did a guard approach them, timidly demanding their authorization rune to enter the castle, Bill’s Gargantuan beast picked up the screaming imp and bit off its head. Blood poured down the throat of the beast and all over him, it was mildly acidic and quite unpleasant. He would’ve preferred to soak Deckard with the nasty ichor, but he couldn’t trust the old man not to shout out in horror and give them away.
After entering the interior of the monastery, Bill concentrated for a moment and the chests of both beasts opened (he hadn’t told Cain that if he died before releasing him, he’d have been trapped inside the rotting corpse) and the two men crawled out, leaving behind the beasts like two massive discarded coats.