Find insect. Kill insect. Raise insect. Probably an ant or fly.
With little effort, you find a butterfly. Displaying the cunning of your elvish ancestors you stalk the magnificent creature. As it alights on a flower, you sneak up and... SPLAT! Belatedly, you realize you probably need a more intact corpse than the smear of butterfly goo you've produced.
Some further searching yields an anthill, and you settle down to experiment. What you rapidly discover is that it is hard to kill an insect without squashing it. Ripping off their legs doesn't seem to be killing them very fast. You behead one and wait for it to stop squirming, then bring your will to bear.
Raise Dead.An icy shock runs through your body as you feel energy rush through you and into the ant. The ant rises to its feet, a cold purple flame where its head once was. It begins to shamble aimlessly.
You are surprised at how much Mana that consumed- 2 units! Surely it should take less energy to raise a mere ant than a great big fish! There is so much you do not know...
We need to gather information-and we need help.
We need to resist using any magic until we have control. Lets carefully ply the elders with questions...
Also, is there anyone we could possibly trust with this secret? Friends? Family? A lover? It's terribly dangerous, but if just one person can understand...
As you eat your lunch, you ponder who it may be safe to share your secret with. There will be precious little sympathy for your situation- when Balkoth brought the Golgothan War to the Sacred Groves, he butchered every elf he caught and put the woods to the torch. You know the Elves were nearly driven to extinction in that clash- you'll have to ask Pevo Zephyrtempest, the village Sage, for more information there.
You've drifted apart from your friends in recent years, but you still speak with your best friend, Omo Thunderjaw, whenever you see him. That hasn't been often of late, as he is training with the Rangers, though he is home now. You think he'd take risks on your behalf, provided he wasn't aware of the specifics. Your mother is a successful Mage and spends her time in the tree-city of Yicelafo proper, and your father is a lieutenant of the Rangers himself, often patrolling the edges of the Vale. You'd like to think you could tell them anything. You've never taken a serious lover, apart from that fling with Elana Foundwasps- in fact, the end of that relationship is when you began withdrawing from society... and when the onset of your powers began, you realize. She's training to be a Mage now, manipulating the magics of Life.
The very first order of business, of course, is to capture or, failing that, rekill the fish that you just revived. We cannot afford for it to escape into the Great River and wash downstream for someone to find. That would be an utter disaster.
Once you've got the fish, take it somewhere isolated (where it can't escape into a major river; perhaps in a bucket?) and study it. See if it moves like a normal fish, if it breathes water, what (if anything) it eats, whether we can command it, if it is still rotting, if it is any more agressive than a natural trout and so on and so forth. Use each cantrip on the undead fish and compare to what you know of natural fish.
Once you've figured out how the fish works, take Mullet's suggestion of trying out different sorts of fish and work with those. There's no need to make any rash decisions about what to do and where to go immediately. See if you can't work out how to reliably revive fish when you want and how to keep yourself from using necromancy by accident. Let's puzzle out what we can for now and decide the rest later, with better information.
This. And after, if we're still hungry, eat the zombie trout.
You notice that the zombie trout is very easy to spot, what with the glowing purple eyes and all. Panicking, you splash into the pond to recapture it! You notice it does not flee you the way the other fish do, and soon you have it back on dry land. Setting it down, it flops about like any other fish would, albeit less enthusiastically. Nudging it away with your foot you wait a minute, two minutes, five... it appears the fish no longer needs water to survive. You attempt to discern whether it is still decomposing, but in vain- it has been dead only a few hours, after all.
Carefully, you walk back into the water with it, observing it as it swims. It certainly doesn't appear interested in you, nor does it appear to be interested in any other of the pond's inhabitants. The other fish do seem to avoid your zombie, however. As it lazily swims to the other side of the pond, you attempt to recall it mentally, to no avail. "Here, zombie zombie zombie..." doesn't do you much good either.
Retrieving the fish manually, you set down on the shore and begin to test it with your cantrips.
Detect Magic indicates that this is indeed a magical fish- further, you can feel the ant a bit further off. Remembering the ant, you leap to your feet and set off to crush it before it gets away from you! You find it beset by the other ants- it vivisects another as you watch, and judging by the bodies it has singlehandedly destroyed half a dozen others. As you watch it is swarmed under by the other ants; the purple fire goes out as it is cut in two, and the body is carried back to the anthill.
Returning to your inspection of the fish, you feel your
Calm Animal spell rebound, as if you had cast it on a tree or another elf. You then cast
Sense Vitality- the fish registers, but strangely. It feels rather as if the fish's vitality is not its own. Focusing on a trout on the far side of the pond, you cast the spell again- by your reckoning, your zombie has almost half the vitality of the living trout.
You decide you've learned what you can from this trout for now- after all, if necessary you can always catch another fish. You fancifully entertain the notion of
eating the fish- after a moment, the fancy turns into curiosity. You set to butchering the fish, a task made much more difficult what with it flopping around everywhere. Once you have extracted the fish's guts, the purple phosphorescence fades from its eyes. You pause for a moment, then conclude your cleaning of the fish.
You have had success with fish, but it is draining. Perhaps something smaller is afoot. Using your fishing ability, it would be best to catch many small creatures of the pond, such as crawfish, minnows, and other small fish. They can be easily transported... DEAD, back to a private place.
You realize that your pond is by no means a private place- everyone who knows you knows to find you here. You resolve to catch as many small creatures as you can to experiment on later, in some more private place. An hour or so later you've managed to catch a dozen of the crayfish that abound in the pond- easy enough to pass them off as fishbait should anyone wonder what you're doing with a pouch full of the critters.
You'll have to search for a new place to practice tomorrow, however. You return home at sunset, nodding to the other villagers as you make your way to your parents home. You have the place to yourself now since both of them are gone. For dinner, you decide to cook up your formerly zombified fish- to your tongue, it tastes no different than a normal fish. You sleep peacefully through the night, and awaken fresh in the morning.
You plan to find a new, private place to practice your arts. You could travel North, further into the woods and try to find a secluded glen. Traveling East would bring you upriver- there may be a more private little branch or creek there. Traveling South would bring you to the cliffs that contain the Vale- perhaps there is a cave there. Or should you question the elders before you leave today?
Vitality- 10/10
Mana- 10/10
XP= 2/10
Inventory-
Elven Tunic, Belt Knife, Pouch(6 dead crayfish)
Status- Content
General
Detect Magic- 1 MP - detects spells and magical items near you
Calm Animal- 1 MP - causes wild animals to become peaceful
Sense Vitality- 1 MP - you can detect the Vitality of living things, with a bit of effort
Necromancy
You don't have much control of your powers, but you lost 2 mana bringing that fish back AND raising the ant. Most peculiar.
Your Parents- Your mother is a prominent Sage serving in Yicelafo itself, and your father is a Ranger Lieutenant, currently patrolling the borders.
Omo Thunderjaw- Your best friend, brave and true. He is currently an aspiring Ranger, and is currently home on leave.
Elana Foundwasps- An old flame of yours, she is currently studying with the Mage the next town over.
Pevo Zephyrtempest- The village Sage- you can ask him for knowledge of what history the elves possess. He is somewhat absent minded and easily distracted.
Ari Wetdawn- The village Mage, here to cure ills and bless crops. He knows much of Life magic as well as magic in general, but is also most likely to discern your true nature.
Author
Topic: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-36 Decisions, Decisions (Read 685787 times)