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Vincent's Laboratory Notes and Footnotes (Updated December 30, 2007)
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<blockquote data-quote="Altalazar" data-source="post: 3338399" data-attributes="member: 939"><p>Notes – Chapter Fifty-Four – Bodies piled high – how wondrous!</p><p></p><p> It took us a bit of time, but we each managed to hold aloft a body of some sort to prevent the summoning of more skeletal worgs. Balor managed to get the lock open for us to the door and we entered the main entry for the mausoleum. Inside, we found a large pile of very dead bodies. Apparently one only needs a body on the way in, or there is another way out, because otherwise, why would bodies stack up? They would have to be carried out as well. </p><p> We searched the room and found an altar to the west and rubbled rooms to the east. We also found a large black pudding, that threatened to melt us all away. Balor struck it with his magical morningstar, only to see it dissolve before his eyes. His scream of despair echoed throughout the cold, dead halls. I sent in Blackberry to face it. I knew she would not have any fears from acid. She pummeled it, along with the others, until it was reduced to a puddle of ooze. </p><p> The Mute Bard looked at a loss. He wanted to take a trophy, as he always does from his kills, but all there was left was runny ooze. He asked me if I had means of taking a sample. </p><p> “Wait, you can still talk?” I asked him. </p><p> “Yes, I can. I talked before. I was just mumbling, but you said you could not understand.” </p><p> “Oh, ok then,” I told him and I handed him one of my empty-skull potion bottles. He gathered some ooze in it and put in the stopper. I wonder where he keeps all the parts. Maybe he’ll let me try and combine them all together someday. </p><p> Most of the rooms we went through were empty, though we did find a pedestal with a black cloth filled with bells (to alert intruders?) and a longsword. </p><p> We also found a bedroll and supplies, as if someone very much alive were living here. We found markers indicating that it was someone from the funerary guild. Perhaps Harkin himself. This was later confirmed when we found his handwriting on a scroll that rambled on about how at least two heroes needed to die on the broken wards to allow the spirit to escape. It turned out dawn was not the deadline for us, but for the necromancer’s spirit. </p><p> </p><p> Notes – Chapter Fifty-Five – We have seconds of Pudding and meet Arathex</p><p></p><p> In the furthest chamber, save one, we found another large oozing black pudding. We again pummeled it, but this time, I also sent forth rays to weaken it, just in time to free Balor from its oozy embrace, and Willow called forth lightning from the roof, her fingers sizzling with electricity. It was quite a show. I wondered why she hadn’t shown it to me before. I showed her all of my experiments. </p><p> We were looking around the room for further clues when we noticed a spirit come right through the wall and attempt to touch Balor. It just barely missed him. I took a good long look and realized, it was Arathex! And he was no ghost, he was a wraith! What must have gone wrong for this to happen to him! </p><p> I held aloft my skull and attempted to reason with him, but he ignored me, and kept on trying to drain away the life from my lab assistants. Steeling my resolve, I channeled every last bit of strength through my bones and then out into the skull and held it aloft again, and this time, it burst forth with an energy stronger than I’ve ever felt before. Arathex was awed, and stood helpless against it. </p><p> It was then only a matter of time before he was slowly worn down by our onslaught. When at last he faded away to nothing, I ran to his side and reached out to him, his fingers passing through mine before he was gone forever. A tear rolled off of my cheek and bounced in the dust that once held his incorporeal form. </p><p> In the next and final room, we found his remains, still laid out with honor on an altar. I silently gave him a eulogy, and placed my hand on his, feeling it crumble to dust. As his hand dissolved away, I found myself grasping what he had been grasping all these decades since his death – a rod of meta-magic power, for extending lessor magics. Willow should find great use from it. </p><p> The longsword we identified as a weapon of bane to undead and rangers. No one would wield it, and so we sold it later, keeping the rest of our finds for ourselves. </p><p></p><p> Notes – Chapter Fifty-Six – We depart – something else departs first</p><p></p><p> The complex thus secure, we rested until dawn, restoring our energies and enjoying the good feelings this place of the dead, a place for a necromancer of honor, gave to me. I’m sure my friends and lab assistants felt it too. It was like home. The looks of disgust on their face hid their true feelings, I’m sure. </p><p> As we left in the morning, we saw a figure running ahead of us in the distance. We could not catch him, not even Willow after she turned into a great wolf (another thing she failed to mention to me she could do, but then Willow has always been more about showing than explaining), but Blackberry took to the skies and followed him, eventually returning to tell us he had run all the way to Harkin’s house. So we knew where to go next. </p><p> Harkin at first feigned surprise. The Marshall feigned believing him, and then told him the truth. We knew what he did. And even if he didn’t do it, we have evidence he did it. </p><p> “Either you pay us to keep quiet, or we will tell the whole town and let them deal with you,” The Marshall told him. </p><p> “Ok, you win. I will go get my money from my back shed.” </p><p> So of course, we followed him back there, where he then let loose a golem of flesh (flesh sewed together – alive yet not, this bears further research! Could I make such a beast?) </p><p> We surrounded and pounded it into the ground. We also rendered Harkin unconscious. It turned out he had little money to offer us anyway. It was thus time to see what coin we could wrest from the town for his head. </p><p></p><p> Notes – Chapter Fifty-Seven – We gain property, but no coin for the mystery solved</p><p></p><p> The town elders were suitably impressed with our tale of defeating the necromancer’s spirit. They offered us the deed to the mausoleum and free funerary services for life. Talk about a wonderful reward. </p><p> The Marshall asked the elder, “so what do you offer us if we can tell you the solution to the mystery of who smashed the wards and freed the spirit in the first place?” </p><p> The elder replied, “Oh, we have nothing more we can offer you, but of course we would love to know!”</p><p> “Ok then, as soon as we figure it out, we will tell you.”</p><p> We then returned to Harkin, where my friends had him held. The Mute Bard saw no point to turning him over to the authorities. “We can just kill him now,” he said. The Marshall had other ideas. </p><p> “You work for us now,” he told him. “You can learn far more from our own necromancer than that old, dead one,” he said. “And you will not learn anything at all if you are dead, killed either by us or the good townsfolk.” </p><p> “I’m a better necromancer than he was,” I assured him, referring to the vanquished hero Arathex. </p><p> With such a wonderful offer – being able to work necromancy with me! – he could not refuse, and so we set him the task of cleaning up the mausoleum for our use. </p><p> While he began his work, I took up three of the bodies from the entrance and put them in Arathex’s chambers. I put an onyx gem in each mouth and then began the dark rituals I learned from reading the remains of Arathex’s works. Rituals I found wrapped around the rod. Rituals I had told no one I had found. Won’t they be surprised! </p><p> At sunset, I finished the ritual, which took me three days, one hour each night per corpse. One after the other, then, they rose back to life. At first each tried to strike me, but I held aloft my skull, and they each took their proper place at my side. </p><p> When the last one was risen, I then asked them to help me with my first important task for them. “Ok my friends, what are some good names for ghouls?”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Altalazar, post: 3338399, member: 939"] Notes – Chapter Fifty-Four – Bodies piled high – how wondrous! It took us a bit of time, but we each managed to hold aloft a body of some sort to prevent the summoning of more skeletal worgs. Balor managed to get the lock open for us to the door and we entered the main entry for the mausoleum. Inside, we found a large pile of very dead bodies. Apparently one only needs a body on the way in, or there is another way out, because otherwise, why would bodies stack up? They would have to be carried out as well. We searched the room and found an altar to the west and rubbled rooms to the east. We also found a large black pudding, that threatened to melt us all away. Balor struck it with his magical morningstar, only to see it dissolve before his eyes. His scream of despair echoed throughout the cold, dead halls. I sent in Blackberry to face it. I knew she would not have any fears from acid. She pummeled it, along with the others, until it was reduced to a puddle of ooze. The Mute Bard looked at a loss. He wanted to take a trophy, as he always does from his kills, but all there was left was runny ooze. He asked me if I had means of taking a sample. “Wait, you can still talk?” I asked him. “Yes, I can. I talked before. I was just mumbling, but you said you could not understand.” “Oh, ok then,” I told him and I handed him one of my empty-skull potion bottles. He gathered some ooze in it and put in the stopper. I wonder where he keeps all the parts. Maybe he’ll let me try and combine them all together someday. Most of the rooms we went through were empty, though we did find a pedestal with a black cloth filled with bells (to alert intruders?) and a longsword. We also found a bedroll and supplies, as if someone very much alive were living here. We found markers indicating that it was someone from the funerary guild. Perhaps Harkin himself. This was later confirmed when we found his handwriting on a scroll that rambled on about how at least two heroes needed to die on the broken wards to allow the spirit to escape. It turned out dawn was not the deadline for us, but for the necromancer’s spirit. Notes – Chapter Fifty-Five – We have seconds of Pudding and meet Arathex In the furthest chamber, save one, we found another large oozing black pudding. We again pummeled it, but this time, I also sent forth rays to weaken it, just in time to free Balor from its oozy embrace, and Willow called forth lightning from the roof, her fingers sizzling with electricity. It was quite a show. I wondered why she hadn’t shown it to me before. I showed her all of my experiments. We were looking around the room for further clues when we noticed a spirit come right through the wall and attempt to touch Balor. It just barely missed him. I took a good long look and realized, it was Arathex! And he was no ghost, he was a wraith! What must have gone wrong for this to happen to him! I held aloft my skull and attempted to reason with him, but he ignored me, and kept on trying to drain away the life from my lab assistants. Steeling my resolve, I channeled every last bit of strength through my bones and then out into the skull and held it aloft again, and this time, it burst forth with an energy stronger than I’ve ever felt before. Arathex was awed, and stood helpless against it. It was then only a matter of time before he was slowly worn down by our onslaught. When at last he faded away to nothing, I ran to his side and reached out to him, his fingers passing through mine before he was gone forever. A tear rolled off of my cheek and bounced in the dust that once held his incorporeal form. In the next and final room, we found his remains, still laid out with honor on an altar. I silently gave him a eulogy, and placed my hand on his, feeling it crumble to dust. As his hand dissolved away, I found myself grasping what he had been grasping all these decades since his death – a rod of meta-magic power, for extending lessor magics. Willow should find great use from it. The longsword we identified as a weapon of bane to undead and rangers. No one would wield it, and so we sold it later, keeping the rest of our finds for ourselves. Notes – Chapter Fifty-Six – We depart – something else departs first The complex thus secure, we rested until dawn, restoring our energies and enjoying the good feelings this place of the dead, a place for a necromancer of honor, gave to me. I’m sure my friends and lab assistants felt it too. It was like home. The looks of disgust on their face hid their true feelings, I’m sure. As we left in the morning, we saw a figure running ahead of us in the distance. We could not catch him, not even Willow after she turned into a great wolf (another thing she failed to mention to me she could do, but then Willow has always been more about showing than explaining), but Blackberry took to the skies and followed him, eventually returning to tell us he had run all the way to Harkin’s house. So we knew where to go next. Harkin at first feigned surprise. The Marshall feigned believing him, and then told him the truth. We knew what he did. And even if he didn’t do it, we have evidence he did it. “Either you pay us to keep quiet, or we will tell the whole town and let them deal with you,” The Marshall told him. “Ok, you win. I will go get my money from my back shed.” So of course, we followed him back there, where he then let loose a golem of flesh (flesh sewed together – alive yet not, this bears further research! Could I make such a beast?) We surrounded and pounded it into the ground. We also rendered Harkin unconscious. It turned out he had little money to offer us anyway. It was thus time to see what coin we could wrest from the town for his head. Notes – Chapter Fifty-Seven – We gain property, but no coin for the mystery solved The town elders were suitably impressed with our tale of defeating the necromancer’s spirit. They offered us the deed to the mausoleum and free funerary services for life. Talk about a wonderful reward. The Marshall asked the elder, “so what do you offer us if we can tell you the solution to the mystery of who smashed the wards and freed the spirit in the first place?” The elder replied, “Oh, we have nothing more we can offer you, but of course we would love to know!” “Ok then, as soon as we figure it out, we will tell you.” We then returned to Harkin, where my friends had him held. The Mute Bard saw no point to turning him over to the authorities. “We can just kill him now,” he said. The Marshall had other ideas. “You work for us now,” he told him. “You can learn far more from our own necromancer than that old, dead one,” he said. “And you will not learn anything at all if you are dead, killed either by us or the good townsfolk.” “I’m a better necromancer than he was,” I assured him, referring to the vanquished hero Arathex. With such a wonderful offer – being able to work necromancy with me! – he could not refuse, and so we set him the task of cleaning up the mausoleum for our use. While he began his work, I took up three of the bodies from the entrance and put them in Arathex’s chambers. I put an onyx gem in each mouth and then began the dark rituals I learned from reading the remains of Arathex’s works. Rituals I found wrapped around the rod. Rituals I had told no one I had found. Won’t they be surprised! At sunset, I finished the ritual, which took me three days, one hour each night per corpse. One after the other, then, they rose back to life. At first each tried to strike me, but I held aloft my skull, and they each took their proper place at my side. When the last one was risen, I then asked them to help me with my first important task for them. “Ok my friends, what are some good names for ghouls?” [/QUOTE]
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