I was a studious young man of the Elevated Nations. Having spent much of my life studying- and, at the insistence of the town militia, practicing marksmanship- I had little physical strength instead devoting my time to reading.
One day I discovered that a distant library held in it a secret knowledge that could prove very useful. The fortress Groovepattern was home to our Lawbringer and he had collected a number of books. Most where merely histories, poems, and other such nonsense. But one book- Bereavement Ever After- was said to contain powerful secrets.
I took up my crossbow and started venturing west. To avoid bandits, I kept close to towns... but I shortly ran out of food. I saw a flock of ravens and managed to shoot one down; but the poor beast was too scrawny to be really edible.
I eventually made it to the distant fortress of Groovepattern and perused the library there. After searching throughout the fortress, I discovered... the book.
I studied Bereavement Ever After for some time. At first it seemed merely a treatises on funeral behaviors with some odd digressions. However, on a deeper examination I noticed some things that the book specifically suggested never be done- certain rituals that are banned in far southern nations, phrases and gestures that are not to be done at funerals lest they bring bad luck.
Reflecting on these, the secrets became obvious. And with that, I took the book and left. I attempted one of the many very precisely banned practices in the book so as to ensure I had the powers it details. My hunger faded away. Sleep and dreams departed.
And I knew the simplicity of bringing animation to that which had it once before.
I took the dead raven from the old cloth I had wrapped it in and placed it on a stone. It was quite dead; the head and skull smashed by a crossbow bolt. However, by merely reinvisioning this as the right and proper form for a raven to take, and moving my hands in the forbidden ritual gestures of the book, death fled from the bird and new animation came to be within it.
The flat-headed blackbird stirred and shortly afterwards, fluttered away.
The first man I murdered was a clothier in some random shop in a nearby town. I simply stabbed him with a dagger and shot him with a crossbow when he still resisted. When he died, I invited him to join me. Soon this corpse helped me kill another. And those two, a third.
Night was falling, but we marched tirelessly through the village outskirts. we encountered some turkeys which were not very threatening but I think were worthwhile acquisitions.
Soon it was deep night. This was when we stumbled across a group of water buffalo- some witless peasant had set them loose and wandering the streets. They were panicked by the small gang of undead men and animals, and attacked. One bulled through my defenders and very nearly gored me! As it was, I learned then that though powerful, the secrets of necromancy do not bring immunity to physical harm. The beast had ripped off my left hand above the wrist. I immediately animated it- no sense in wasting a perfectly useful unit of flesh- but I had lost my one pretense at martial arts.
The water buffalo made powerful additions to my group. Now we stormed homes, turning entire families and clans to my rapidly growing horde.
By morning, I was master of well over a hundred undead servants. When I attacked a city market with this group, I soon had three hundred.
Leaving some of them to pester that city, I returned to the wilds between the towns to prepare an even greater horde. Soon the entire nation would be crushed beneath my boot.
[PS does anyone know how to filter combat responses? I only want to see combat details for fights that happen within one or two squares of me. Every time I move in most cities, I get five pages of zombie ducks latching on firmly to merchants...]
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Topic: A Student of "Berevement Every After" (Read 1892 times)