In a crystalline cave complex...
Tom continues down the cave, and there are indeed more crystals on the way. A lot more, actually. They form peculiar structures, vibrate, oddly glow - all sorts of things. And the caves themselves are fairly complex, with many side passages leading off to who knows where.
[Will roll: 3+1]
Tom uneasily passes these many crossroads, attempting to navigate the area.
[Navigation roll: 1]
Not paying any mind to all these crossroads takes its toll: Tom has successfully forgotten which way is out! And there are little to no landmarks around to help find his way. Dang.
Inside a bloody basement...
Mark, hearing the words "undoing your binding", immediately begins to nod enthusiastically! He motions for the man to follow him.
"Wonderful! Will be right with you. I see there's a bit of a warp here."
[Man magic roll: 4+1]
There is a faint shimmer, and the man steps forth, following Mark up the stairs and out of the building without any embarrassing falling down the stairs in the process. Together, they make their way through Emlocke, the man making some idle chit-chat on the way.
"Such a quaint town. I haven't seen one as large as it recently. I have seen several villages, though. All very fine and good, you understand. And this music in the air. Most outlandish."
Yes. Of course. Eventually they reach the house and head downstairs into the basement. The mages look... surprised at this development.
"Uh... who's that?"
"I do not know. But our minion can rest assured that it will be punished for this."
"Now, now, let's not be hasty."
The man takes the book from Mark's hands.
"You wanted this book, right? Well, you can have it."
He throws the book to the mages. The red-robed woman catches it, stumbling back from the throw.
"And I can help you in quite a great capacity."
The woman in the corner dressed in multicolored robes finally begins to pay attention to the surroundings. Her mouth is wide open, her eyes like dinner plates. She's gone awfully pale. The others just stare at the man in confusion.
"Why would you, uh, help us?"
"Yeah, what's going on?"
"Moreover, what do you gain from helping us?"
The man laughs.
"Oh, I didn't quite mean an altruistic form of help. And not really help at all, actually. More like help you help me, if you understand what I mean. And to achieve that, we're in for a bit of reorganization."
The man's eyes begin to glow with a pale red light, and as he throws his hands up they flash incredibly brightly! The people in the room twitch and fall over, with Mark being no exception.
"Alright then, you are all bound to me now with your souls. Simple, wasn't it? Well, except for the tree fellow - what is his name, by the way? It's been bothering me."
"Urgh... Treeface?"
"Oh. Right then. Treeface is bound to my body physically. I also took the liberty of eliminating any bindings that exist between you, so that we do not have any inter-minion exploitation happening. It is so inconvenient when that happens. To this end, my first directive to all five of you is that you are not allowed to harm me or each other in any way."
The people in the room feel the order lash across their minds. Somehow, Mark feels that this order is even stronger than the necromancer's. Wonder why.
"Now that that's taken care of, let's get to business."
Suddenly, the woman in the corner pipes up, shrilly yelling.
"No! I will not follow your directives!"
"Oh, if only you had a choice, dear. Sit down and be quiet. The other three of you remain here. I and Treeface will return shortly."
As the three other mages begin to whisper between one another, the man turns to Mark, still glowing faintly.
"Lead me to your other master, Treeface. I require-"
Suddenly, the voice of the black-robed woman interrupts him.
"Who are you?"
The man directs his attention to the asker, thinking for a second.
"Me? Well... let's just stick with the latest one, I guess. Call me the Artiste."
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 562831 times)