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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3375555" data-attributes="member: 143">I am heading off to a conference in another city for a few days, so here is the Friday cliffhanger, a bit early. * * * * * Chapter 115RECRUITMENTA figure, draped in shadow, stared up into the night sky.  The storm that had covered Camar in wet hadn’t reached this far south, and the skies above here were placid.  Long streaks of white cloud hung high above like wisps of gauze, muting the light from the waxing moon.  For a long time, the lonely form stood there, staring in silence up at that bright spot in the sky.  As the moon crept slowly out from behind its cloud, its light shone upon the dead flesh of Zafir Navev, and was reflected in eyes that were flat, dull, lifeless.  He still wore a ruined chain shirt and the rotted remains of the clothes he’d had on at death, but over them now rested a cape of black gossamer, a fine weave that seemed to sink into the flesh of his neck and arms, riding up to cling tightly to his scalp.  Dangling in one hand, almost forgotten, was the bone wand, tipped with the ebon skull that seemed to only darken as the light struck its lusterless surface. A shuffling noise finally drew Navev’s attention around.  The hulking form that rose up out of the night shadows loomed there, expectant.  Zafir Navev did not betray any reaction to the interruption; that would have been human, and there was nothing human left in the creature that stood here on the edge of Rappan Athuk.  But there was something of regret in the way he turned and walked along the edge of the valley. There were bones everywhere.  In addition to the generations of corpses that had laid in the graves of the valley for centuries, a fresh garrison of bodies had been left by the soldiers of Camar who had fallen here, betrayed to their deaths by their corrupt leaders.  But not all of the bones had belonged to humans; the Duke’s men had accounted well for themselves, and the remains of bugbears, hobgoblins, ogres, and worse were scattered about the field, some scattered, others half-buried in the loam.  It didn’t take very long to find the first intact set of remains. It had been a man, once.  A faded tunic, now shredded and torn, covered a chain shirt and bones covered in dirt.  There was not enough light to make out the colors of the tunic, but Navev knew them, the orange and gold of the Duke of Camar.  A cause that was dead, at least for this man. Navev stood there, looking down at the body, his shadow hovering behind him.  He didn’t seem to do anything, but those sensitive to such things might have felt a cold stirring along the back of their neck, or sensed a sudden spike of power that radiated from the cold black skull held by the once-human warlock. The body stirred.  There was a faint clatter as the bones came back together in the way that they had in life, then the fallen soldier rose.The skeleton stood there, its stance a mockery of the position of attention that the soldier had most likely taken in life.  Its skull was covered in mold and dirt, and the dark hollows of its eye sockets were empty.  Navev watched it for a few moments.  “Pick up your sword,” he finally said. The skeleton obeyed, drawing the weapon out from where it had laid half-buried in the dirt.  Navev moved deeper into the battlefield.  The skeleton followed, along with the warlock’s unholy guardian, once the man that had killed him. Slowly, the warlock continued his work, building the army that his new master required.</blockquote>

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