THE NECROMANCER

"Hey Thomas", Darek calls out to his friend.Thomas is a tall man with a muscular build and brown hair with green eyes. He had been training since he was young to be a swordsman. Darek is shorter but just as muscular and he had a scar on his cheek from a fight with a boar when he was young. He had black hair and brown eyes.Thomas turned around, "hey man are you going to the temple for the magic trails today as well ?" Darek put his hands behind his head. Yes, I was supposed to go two months ago but i did not want to go alone,"he said as he looked down. Thomas laughs "I hear Ellen and Zack already went and get this. Ellen is a fire user. Zack wound up not having an affinity. He was pretty upset. He was set on being a water caster." Darek looked up at Thomas, "no way, well, Ellen being a fire mage. I am not surprised. With her temper she was bound to be one.." Thomas replied. " You make a good point there. I feel back for Zack. He did not do any training, he was so set on being a mage. All he did was study old spell books and mage theory." "I am sure it will be fine once we get our party together. He will have plenty of time to get his training up. Besides, we have you and you are so good with the sword, even the knights would brawl and train with you . It must be nice being so good at it in such a short time," Zack said as he caught up with Thomas to walk beside him. "Please, I have been working with a sword since I was able to walk. I want to be a champion of the sword, regardless of what is chosen for me," Thomas says as they reach the temple's door. The temple is made out of stone. The rest of the buildings in town are made from wood and rocks gathered from the nearby forest. The temple sits just off the town square where trading stalls and town meetings occur, as well as the stocks for the not so lawful. Thomas and Darek make their way into the temple to find the head priest bent down at the front of the alter to the god of the chosen. He resides over all men, and all things, his counterpart is the god of the dungeon. The god of the chosen followers believes he grants them magic. Those not granted magic are second-class citizens. The only ones below them are the rare and almost never get this type of magic, which is dark magic. The priest was dressed in white garb from head to toe. The only thing that is visible of him is his eyes and some of his forehead and the top of his nose. His clothes are lined with golden stitching and two red stripes that run down each arm to represent the god reaching down from the heavens to bless his chosen. The priest stands up and turns to Darek and Thomas " please come and give thanks to the god of the chosen and may he deem you worthy of his many gifts." both men walk over and kneel to the alter . "god of the chosen please reach out to us and grant us your gift. so we may traverse the dungeon and banish its many horros from that place." both Darek and Thomas say in unisen. then priest walks back over with a silver goblet with red wine in it. "now drink his blessing and stand to recivew your rewaards. both men drink passing the goblet from on to another handing it back to the priest. They stand there unsure of what is going to happen. The priest then brings over a scepter that looks like it is made of pure glass. He first hands it to Darek as he grasps the scepter. A brilliant white light fills it, Then spills out into the room almost blinding in its magnitude and shocking in its pure radiance." My god has given you a great blessing. You have the power of light blessings and skill enhancements will be your tools to help defeat the evils in the dungeon." the priest says as he smiles and takes the scepter away from Darek. He cleans it with a piece of linen before handing it off to Thomas. Thomas reaches his hands out to hold the scepter. He feels uneasy as if something bad is about to happen. As the scepter enters his hands, it turns a deep black, the darkest black you have ever seen. It seemed to suck the light from the room. The light from the torches on the wall was being sucked into its depths, never to be seen again. The priest gasped and grabbed the specter from Thomas. "This is unexpected be gone, hanis sinner, you are never allowed back into this temple." the priest says as he pulls a linen to clean the secpeter only to throw the cloth into a fire close by in a brazier. Thomas and Darek, shocked, stood up to retreat from the temple . The priest calls out to Darek, "Be wise, my child, and stay away from that filth." as the two make their way back outside, they look at one another puzzled. "um Thomas, what was that i have never heard of a black magic like that before?" Darek says as he looks over at Thomas "I have no idea i have never heard of anything like that befor. what is wrong with it why did the priest act like that ?" the two men sit there for a moment with silence between them Darek begins to walk to the local tome shope. "ah f**k that guy, he has no idea who you are calling you a sinner that is absurd." Darek looked back at Thomas smiling. Thomas, for a moment, is shocked to hear Darek speak in such a way about a priest. "You shouldn't speak like that of him. He was harsh, but there must be a reason the church has been good to us since we were kids. I know we are orphans and raised in the same place, but the church was the ones paying for that place." Thomas catches up with Darek. "Who cars its up to us now to make our way in this world and we cant let one priest bring you down besides who knows maybe black magic is super strong, so he was just jealous?"Darek says as he pats Thomas on the back. the two make their way through the town to the tome shop. "hey old lady" Darek says as he enters the store. the old women sitting behind the shop counter looks up from her tome. "well if it isn't the mistchife brothers." Thomas closes the door behind him. " your the only one in the whole town who calls us that." the old lady lets out a laugh "well that because i am the only one here old enough to remember what you two did to farmer Joes cattle," Thomas and Darek look at one another with a slight grin. "That was a long time ago. you got to let us off the hook grandma" Darek says as he sties in a stoll across from he shop keeper."keep up with that old lady and grandma business I am going to smack you to the bottom of the dungeon where all the bad kids go." the shop keep says as she hits Darek on the shoulders with her hands. Darek pulls out a coin pouch. "This is my life savings. I need a tome on light magic and Thomas needs one on dark magic." the shopkeeper glares at Darek. "stop making jokes there are no tomes of dark magic and there hasn't been a dark magic user that I can recall."Darek looks at the shopkeeper as she moves to one of the many book shelves behind the counter looking for a tome." Well, your not going to believe this when Thomas held the scepter, the whole room turned black as night. It sure put a chill in the priest. He kicked straight laced Thomas out of the temple." the shopkeeper dropped the books she was holding in one arm as she was looking for a white tome. The men could hear the ruckus as she moved through the shop with haste. "your telling me you are the light magic user Darek? and you, Thomas. What is he going on about this black magic that came from the scepter? Thomas clears his throat and moves closer to the counter. "Well, ma'am, what Darek says is true. I am not really sure what that black magic was. the priest started to curse me and call me a sinner and banned me from the temple."the shopkeeper straightens out her clothes and heads back to the shelf for the tome. "Here Darek takes it is on the house. As for you, Thomas, don't speak of this magic any more. People get nervous about the unknown and can get riled up when things like this happen. Just pretend nothing happened, you will be treated as lesser since you have no magic, but your skill at fighting will get you far. Thomas replies. " Thank you for your advice now, I hope Darek can just keep his mouth shut." the shopkeeper and Thomas both glare at Darek. "Yeah, yeah I hear you guys, I won't say anything to any one." Darek picks up the pouch of coins and gives half to Thomas "here is your half go buy some gear for yourself i will buy some food and drink for the party. Ellan and Zack wanted to go to the dungeon today since we were getting our magic evaluated."Thomas reaches out and takes the coin from Dareks' hand. "Thank you. I will get what I need." the two men both thanked the old shopkeeper as they left. (Later that afternoon) Darek and Thomas meet at the door leading to the dungeon. It is circled by a fence and has two armed guards." Hey Thomas, nice got some leather armor and a short sword. It looks like good quality stuff." Thomas smiles. "Yeah, the local guild helped me out. I picked up a quest there as well. we need to hunt goblins on the first floor. It's one copper per ear we bring back." goblin ears are used in minor healing potions. The world outside of the dungeon has very limited resources. you can only find ore for weapons and gold for coins and other jewels inside the dungeon. many of its inhabitants are used for other things like potions and there are even monsters' bones and fangs used to craft some of the most sturdy and strong wepons. you can use magic stones from monsters to enchant your gear with helpful abalitys like ever popular ever light enchainment witch makes one item glow brightly for the dark areas in the dungeon so you don't need to use torches. "Darek what did you for the party ?" Darek opens up the sack he is caring "i got a few minor healing potions some dyed beef and mana water for ellen. we need to hunt a bunch of goblins to pay for all this. i hope we run across a chest or a goblin wearing armor." Many of the inhabitants in the dungeon will take gear and items from fallen adventures and stash them away or use them. but that dosent happen on the lower floors as you progress in the dungeon the deeper you go the more intengant the monster get and the variety of monsters change and increase in power. As Darek and Thomas wait, they continue their chat and get their packs ready for the adventure ahead. Ellen and Zack show up. "Zack, is that new shield I see? And Ellen, you even got a firemage staff."Darek says as he hands a pack to Zack. "Yeah, the knights training I am going through suggested I carry one, since I am no good at parrying." Zack says as he hangs his head. Ellen laughs "It's okay Zack, you will be a great front line fighter and, I was very lucky, one of the mages from the guild thought I showed real promise and they gave me their old staff. I was super lucky. They even showed me a few basic spells." Ellen says as she thumps her chest.Thomas puts his pack on, "Do you guys think we should be heading into the dungeon so soon, we still have to go through a few more training courses, at least me and Darek." "Ah stop worrying about it all they teach you is some basic fighting and you wind up going into the dungeon for the rest of it any way. Every one here has been in the dungeon before we should be fine." Darek says as he throws his arm around Thomas, shoulder. The four of them make their way through the dungeon door. The first floor is a huge labyrinth with stone passages and it is dimly lighted in there by glowing mushrooms and torches other adventures put in to help the new ones out. The four make their way around the labyrinth fighting the goblins. They are small and green with long noses and ears. Many have warts on them and their skin is slimy and they smell of musk and dirt. The four easily kill many of the goblins, only stopping to slice the ears off each as they make their way. They come across a small pack of goblins, about five of them.Thomas,Zack and Darek charge the pack as the front fighters while Ellen sends a fire flair over her head to help light up the area. Zack, still new to close range combat, is knocked down by a goblin with a club that strikes his shield. Darek is quick to help and dispatches the goblin with a small dagger as Thomas holds the other four at bay with his short sword. He shows his skill as he strikes two goblins in one swing and parries the third. The fourth goblin standing a little further back surprised them all when he began to chant a spell. "Ellen, Kill that little bastard before he cast!" Darek yells out as he pulls his dagger from the neck of the goblin he slayed. Ellen raises her staff and begins to chant her spell. A bright fiery light jets from the tip of her staff, moving at great speed toward the goblin still chanting his spell. As it lands on the goblin, it explodes, sending a wave of heat and pressure back to the group. Zack, still on his backside, raises his shield to block the blow as Darke and Thomis run toward Ellen. The blast is so effective it not only kills the chanting goblin but the one left by Thomas at the front lines. "For the love of the chosen could you please tell us when you use a spell like that" Darek says as he makes his way to Ellen, "Ah, I knew you guys would be fine. Besides, it's my new special spell. I can only use it three times a day. I think instead of complaining you should be thanking me for my awesome power." Ellen says as she brings her hand up to cover her mouth while she laughs at the men., as the party regroups and begins to slice the goblins' ears off Ellen approaches the ord of light above her head reveals one of the stones from the wall had been knocked loose.She looks closer and can see another hallway behind it."Hey guys i think we found a hidden area look at this!" the other members of the party run over and begin to try and remove more stones as they do the passage is revealed. "Ah, what is that smell ?"Darek says abas he pinches his nose."smells like death and rot to me" Thomas says as he pulls a torch from his pack to light it using Ellens over head fire ball. The four collect their loot and make their way down this new pathway. There were no mushrooms or torches to light their way, just darkness. as they make their way down the hall they notice scraps of paper on the wall with writing on them to faded to be made out, but they look familiar." Are these sealing enchantments ?" Ellen says as she tries to inspect them."who would use sealing enchaments on the first floor of the dungeon don't be rediculus." Darek says as he ready his dagger they come to a wooden door with a old lock the door is withered and old the lock rusted and weak. Darek grabs Zack's shield and uses its edge to bash the lock free from the door. "You could have just asked me to do it." Zack says, as Deraak hands him his shield back.", sorry, I just always wanted to do that" Darek says, as he smiles at Zack. the four make their way into the room. it is fairly small but it looks like some one was living there it had a worn and broken bed in one corner and a chest on the other side as well as a spot circled with stone for a fire. as they looked they can see a skeleton sitting in a chair with full plate armor on whats left of its white dead hair coming out from the under the helmet on its sides."what is all this ?" Thomas says as he walks over to the chest to open it Darek turns to say something but is stopped by a sudden commotion from where the skeleton was sitting. He looks over to see the skeleton is no longer there but standing right in front of Zack. Zack, frozen with fear, raised his shield as the skeleton swung his axe with a long spear-like tip on its end. With a swift motion, the skeleton splits Zack's shield, severing Zack's forearm from his body. "For the love of the chosen what is this!" Zack yells as he grabs his served forearm trying to stop the gushing of blood. "Zack!" Darek yells out as he races over to stab the Skeleton. "No don't!" Thomas screams out as he drops the lid of the chest closing it and moving toward Darek. The skeleton, moving too fast for Darek to react, slaps him in his face, sending him off to his side where the skeleton then pulls his other arm up wielding the axe down, striking Darek in his side, "Help me!" Darek says as he falls to the ground with his wound instantly starting to bleed prefusly. Ellen, stunned at what was happening, feels a sharp pain in her belly when she looks down. The skeleton had thrown his axe at her, sticking the spear into her gut. Thomas, in a fit of rage, charges the skeleton, knocking it to the ground. He reaches both hands up, grabbing his sword to plunge it into the skeleton. The skeleton raises one arm, grabbing him by the neck and begins to squeeze with such force that Thomas can feel this is no ordinary undead. As he stabs down, he severs the skeleton's arm that is holding his throat and plunges his sword through the gaps of the plate armor, striking its body. To no avail, the skeleton's hand is still squeezing his neck and its body is undamaged by the sword. Thomas begins to faint from being choked. The skeleton pushes him off and stands up. As Thomas begins to fade more and more, inching closer to death, a word of power appears in his mind. He reaches one arm out and is barely able to mutter the words. "black hole!" a large void opens behind the skeleton and begins to suck him in. The skeleton falls to the ground using one arm. He grabs ahold of Thomas and sinks his teeth into his arm. The images of what is going on cut in and out of Thomas' view as he slowly fades away. "save your friends!",,,,,,,"Hurry wake up and save them!",,,,,,,, Thomas slowly began to regain consciousness. He can hear a clash of metal on metal and people yelling commands to other party members. The whole scene is a blur and Thomas is dizzy with sharp pains in his head. "Hurry before they kill your friends", Thomas raises his hand. "Bone shards!" he says as hundreds of small bones manifested from his palm and shot out. Wait what was that spell, Thomas thought to himself as he slowly began to regain his vision. We were just fighting an undead? Thomas tried to stand up. The sounds of fighting had all but vanished since he cast his spell. He could see a torch light lying on the ground. "Zack,Darek,Ellen!" Thomas calls out as he regains his composer, remembering the ghastly scan before he passed out. " Sorry about that but all your friends are long dead" Thomas regains his sight and can see six corpses laying in the entrance of the room all had holes in them from the bone splinters. Thomas runs over to inspect them. "Ah what a magnificent sight." Thomas was unnerved by hearing this. He swung around to see who was talking to him. There is nothing there no person or undead standing in the room . all he can see is what was left of the skeleton, its head and arm as well as a rib cage lying on the floor where he was once at. He noticed the skeleton's helmet and armor were missing. he raised his hand to feel the spots of sharp pain on the back of his hand only to find it was covered with a metal helmet. He tried to pull it off but it wouldn't budge and it only caused more pain in his head. "Now,now don't be so hasty my friend, you can't get rid of me that easily." the helmet says as it begins to laugh. What in the all of the chosen is going on here? "The chosen has nothing to do with this" the helmet replies. "what are you ?" Thomas says as he scrabbles back from the bodies on floor noticing his party members among them but they were difrent they were a pale green and had white eyes that were still wide open."what a fun question. one could say i am just a helmet but that is not quite right. I am the necromancer known as the reaper. I used my arts to bind my soul to this helmet.It is a tricky spell to pull off. Thank the dungeon for providing me with this magnificent helmet. Eboney is such a useful metal"Thomas sitting on the ground staring at the bodies, puts his hands over his eyes. "What happened to my party?" "well with my previous owners body well what was left of it i slayed them. i was going to do the same to you but seeing that fantastic spell from the dark arts i could not help myself you had taken most of what was left of my servernt and cast it into the void so i figured i would take your bodies instead of killing you." Thomas stand up and beings to pull the helmet once again trying to free it from his head the pain grows and he can feel blood start to run down his neck "now child stop this nonesens you cant simply pull me off i have punctured you skull with my spikes in order to free me from your head you would need to remove your own head." Thomas stops pulling and sees a faint glint from a blade laying on the ground he stands up to retrieve the sword. "stop being dramatic you cant sever your own head from your body and if you die i will simply use your corpse to do as i please." Thomas stops "ah shot i should not have said that. its been so long since i got to speak to some one i let that information slip."Thomas walks over to the body and starts to remove the guild badges that hung around the necks and looks through the equipment. he finds a guild request to search for a missing party and recover their tags. He rummages through the remaking items and picks up the sacks of goblin ears and other items from the other party that made their way there stuffing them into his pack he notices the sacks of ears from his group smell even more horrid than they did before. "how long have i been down here ?" Thomas ask the Reaper. "how should i know there is no sun or moon to keep take of time if i had to guess it would be around three days." Thomas pulls a water pouch out from one of the packs and drinks. he can feel rage and despare in his heart as he drinks the water he try to calm his mind and regain his composer." you know you cant just leave these bodies like this. if some one comes they will see the marks and know some one escaped. That will tie this whole thing to you." "it It doesn't matter. I am already tied to this and desecrating their corpses serves no purpose", Thomas says as he chokes back tears as he looks at his life-long friends lying on the floor. "I guess that priest was right. I am a sinner." Thomas says as he wipes the tears from his eyes and begins to walk back to the entrance of the dungeon, as he makes his way.,,, He can tell. He has become much stronger and his body feels much lighter and more agile. "What exactly did you do to me?" "Well, the helmet offers many benefits to its holder. It was a real pain in the ass getting it on you with only one arm. You could say i gave you some of my power. That spell you used before was not yours but one of mine. I am shocked you could use it and stand. After all, you only have a measly amount of mana."Thomas remains silent as he contemplates his future with the cursed helmet. He notices the goblins are no longer attacking him but running from him instead. Thomas is using the wall to keep him upright as he walks slowly back to the entrance. "Why do they run from me now?" Thomas stops while leaning against the wall." Please, do I need to explain everything to you? Is it not obvious to you yet? Goblins may not be smart creatures, but they are not fools. They run because you possess me and they will not stand a chance against my power." Thomas resumes walking to the dungeon door. Once he makes it through and sees the two guards, he collapses from exhaustion to his knees.