>>3889846
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (Witches)

>>3889846
>> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
witch

>>3889846
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
The witches

>>3889870
>>3889882
>>3889916

You decide to propose an alliance to the human witches.

They are newcomers in the cemetery, having only arrived in the past decade.

Apparently they're fleeing a ban on dark magic issued by the human kingdom.

You've met them briefly on a few occasions while they were exploring the cemetery and even bartered with them - they wanted some of the plants you grow at the cemetery for sustenance, and gave you a handful of healing potions.

They now live in the outskirts of the cemetery, having planted a large subsistence garden and took over a building that you think might have been the administrative building of the cemetery.

The witches are called Styx, Melinda and Karla.

Styx is the oldest and the oldest and the leader of the coven. She was part of another coven which was destroyed by adventurers and she was the only survivor so she started a new one.

Melinda is the youngest, she's not even 30 yet, but shows promise and is a talented potion maker. She's the one who took initiative to barter with you and introduced you to the others.

Karla has burnt scars all over her body, she was burned at stake for witchcraft but ironically using her magic she survived. She's a competent illusionist and you can only see her burnt scars when she's not paying enough attention to cover them with illusions - she usually assumes the appearance of a teenager.

You head to the witches lair and find them around a large cauldron cooking something, probably just soup.

They gaze at you with suspicion; Melinda is the first to break the silence.

"What brings you here Maeva?"

"I've came to propose an alliance. I'm getting ready to take over this region and I seek allies."

The witches cackle.

"You and what army?", asks Styx.

"I've been perfecting the summoning of undead. I'll raise an army of skeletons out of the corpses in this cemetery. "

"The humans have priests and paladins who can easily dispose of undead. As soon as word gets out that a necromancer is attacking the villages all the holy men in the land will flock to your doorsteps.", says Karla.

"Will you all help me or not?"

"Well, you certainly don't expect us to help you for free.", says Styx.

"If we are to do this", she continues, "we'll need firepower. There's a tower some 300 miles to the north of here where lives a wizard called Oreus, he's a famous maker of magic wands, his place is full of them. Obtain for us a good amount of his wands and we shall help you."
What do you wanna do?
> Eliminate local competition, kill one of your neighbors (which one)
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
> Raise a whole bunch of skeletons (how many? You can control 40 at a time)
> Attack a settlement (which one, seeking what)
> Write in

>>3890057
>> Raise a whole bunch of skeletons (how many? You can control 40 at a time)
40
>> Attack a settlement (which one, seeking what)
Human. Plunder and get some fresh corpses

>>3890057
>tell them we (use the royal we for ourselves) will acquire their wands if they agree to a non aggression pact for the time being while we work on acquiring their demands. Just in case they would be approached by someone else in the meantime.
Once we have the wands, we can hold them back, kinda like supplying them with ammo and make them work for us.

how specialized can we make skeletons, or rather, how intelligent are they?
what undead could we hypothetically make with the wizards corpse?

>>3890065

> how specialized can we make skeletons, or rather, how intelligent are they?

The skeletons understand all simple orders like follow, guard, attack, etc. Skeletons under your direct control act as puppets and can be fully controlled while within 30 feet, farther than that they will follow verbal commands. You can give a command to a skeleton not under your direct control and it will sometimes obey you. Skeletons not under your direct control will follow the last order given until they "forget it" what can take from a couple hours up to a day or more, then they'll either lay down and wait for the living to wander near them or will begin to wander themselves.
Severed parts of a skeleton remain animated and can be magically reattached; you could use this magic to make creative skeleton designs.

> what undead could we hypothetically make with the wizards corpse?

A wizard spirit is special, an undead animated out of a wizard essence has a chance of retaining some spellcasting abilities, usually in the form of being able to cast the most commonly used combat spell the wizard knew. This spell like ability might be at will, if the spell is a cantrip or a similarly weak spell, or limited by the number of castings the wizard could perform per day when alive otherwise.

>>3890079
>Summon fourty skeletons, use ten to make a bone giant as a heavy shock trooper.

What are Orcs like in this world? Do they have a strong connection to humans? Are they enemies? Do they trade?

>>3890063
+1

>>3890084
>What are Orcs like in this world? Do they have a strong connection to humans? Are they enemies? Do they trade?

Orcs are humanoids that vary in color from black to grey, brown and green. They tend to be larger and more brutish than humans. They generally worship dark gods, their societies being organized by shamans who commune with their evil deities and wield magical powers to heal and harm. They frequently wage war against other races and their fast breeding rates mean they can be ready to wage war again in a few short years even after a devastating defeat. They domesticate wild beasts and monsters to do battle by their side. They're closely related to goblins, smaller weaker and faster breeding versions of themselves, who often live in their settlements and populate the frontlines of their armies.
Trade between orcs and humans is not frequent, as humans abhor the orcs and their religious practices, but might happen on occasion in regions where resources are scarce.
Half orcs are rare, human mothers usually die giving birth to the large child.

>>3890063
>>3890065
>>3890084
These

>>3890063
>>3890065
>>3890084
>>3890095

You dig up forty old corpses and raise them as skeletons, binding them to your will.

You then decide to raid the nearest human settlement for corpses and plunder. If you recall correctly, the place had a name that sounded something like Borsvil or Barsvile, you're not too certain, you haven't heard the name many times. It is ruled by a local lord who collect the taxes and sends the kings cut to the capital every year, he lives in the largest house in town and there should be the most stuff to plunder.

You pack some supplies and begin your journey. After traversing the wilderness for five days you finally find some signs of civilization, in the form of lumber camps, pastures and vast wheat fields. It is high noon when you first approach the village and there are cows and sheep out posturing, if you stay in the open you will be seen by someone for certain.

What do you wanna do?
> Rush into town murdering all in your wake
> Kill the herders, lumberjacks, hunters and any stray serfs you find in the fields away from town
> Hide in the nearby woods until the night then invade people's homes to murder them in their sleep and get their corpses
> Hide in the nearby woods until the night then invade the lord's manor to plunder his wealth
> Write in

>>3890175
>Wait till night and only attack a single household to later turn to zombies, we don't need too much yet. especially not attention

>>3890175
>> Rush into town murdering all in your wake

>>3890175
>> Rush into town murdering all in your wake

>>3890182
>>3890191
>>3890195

You rush into town and order your skeletons to begin murdering everyone. They begin clawing at people with their sharpened phalanges, punching, kicking
and biting them. However, they are wounding more often than killing, only when several skeletons gang upon one victim they do manage to outright kill it. You support your skeletons by blasting any fools that cross your path with bolts of necrotic energy.

Panic spreads around the village and then the local guard show up, carrying clubs, and start to beat up the skeletons. Someone ring a bell in the center of the village and many villagers run to a large building and come out of it with helmets, shields and spears. They are summoning their militia!

The peasant militia and guards are not very effective against the skeletons, but they are rather numerous and the militia numbers grow by the minute. When a militia man manages to yank out an arm from one of your skeletons with his spear and a guard crushes the femur of another with his club you realize that they do have a fighting chance.

What do you wanna do?
> Have your skeletons focus on the guards
> Have your skeletons focus on the militia
> Have your skeletons focus on the civilians
> Get the skeletons in formation around you and rush towards the lord's manor to go plunder some wealth
> Cut your losses, grab a few corpses and flee
> Write in

>>3890224
>> Get the skeletons in formation around you and rush towards the lord's manor to go plunder some wealth

>>3890224
>Get the skeletons in formation around you and rush towards the lord's manor to go plunder some wealth

>>3890230
>>3890237


You get all the skeletons closer to you in formation and rush towards the lord's manor, the largest house in town, to go plunder some wealth.

When you get there you find a couple guards at the entrance carrying swords. You blast at then with magic and have a dozen skeletons gang up on them. They fight bravely, one even lop off a skeleton head, but ultimately are defeated. You have a couple of your skeletons loot the swords. You tell your skeletons to guard the entrance and enter with the two armed with swords.

Then you enter the manor and go from room to room looking for the treasury until you find it in a large office, several sacks full of coins, this year's tribute.
You take it and head outside.

Once you get outside you see your skeletons absolutely swarmed by militia men, outnumbered more than five to one.
Ten skeletons were already taken out of combat through dismemberment and the fight is raging on. Seems like its time to retreat.

> Try to force your way with the skeletons through the angry mob then flee the town
> Run with half the remaining skeletons through the manor and exit through the kitchen door on the other side then flee the town
> Cast your emergency flight spell to flee the town and abandon all your skeletons
> Write in

>>3890257
>> Try to force your way with the skeletons through the angry mob then flee the town

If we're caught are they going to burn us too?

>>3890257
>> Try to force your way with the skeletons through the angry mob then flee the town

>>3890257
>use the flight spell

We can always get more skeletons

>>3890257
>Run with half the remaining skeletons through the manor and exit through the kitchen door on the other side then flee the town

>>3890265
>>3890282
>>3890287

You decide to try to force your way with the skeletons through the angry mob. You get them in formation and begin to push through.

However, the militia forms a shield wall and blocks you advance, you can only move forward slowly and before you realize it you're completely swarmed. Your skeletons begin to fall real quick, you're overwhelmed by hundreds of attackers.

Then you get hit on the back of your head by a guard and black out.

When you wake up you are tied to a stake and there's a bunch of lumber around you. You see the people piled up the corpses of their dead nearby in a funerary
pyre, about thirty of them. A middle aged man is examining your staff and the contents of your travel pack - just some graveyard food and healing potions.

"Ah! So you woke up witch! I'm Lord Kevin, of the village of Boarville. In our kingdom the dark arts have been banned and the punishment is being burned at the stake! Now since you were after our money not our bodies I assume you were hired by someone. Who sent you?"
> Blame the elvish nation
> Blame the orcs
> Blame the dwarves
> Assume entire responsibility
> Write in

And how are you getting out of being burned alive?
> Raise all the corpses as zombies to cause panic
> Summon a bunch of invisible shadows, their cold attacks should stop the fire and wreak some havoc
> Just fly away, stake and all
> Write in

>>3890387
>Blame the orcs

The tensions should already be the highest there.

>Just fly away

>>3890387
>Assume entire responsibility
>Do nothing. Beg for mercy. Cry, scream and struggle as you would if you're being burned. Let them think that you're dead. The truth is every necromancer has a few spare bodies, once this one is destroyed your spirit will simply inhabit a new one.

>>3890387
> Blame the elvish nation
> Just fly away, stake and all

>>3890387
> Blame the orcs
>Do nothing. Beg etc.

>>3890387
>> Blame the elvish nation
>Do nothing. Beg for mercy. Cry, scream and struggle as you would if you're being burned. Let them think that you're dead. The truth is every necromancer has a few spare bodies, once this one is destroyed your spirit will simply inhabit a new one.

This one will be fun ho ho. Everyone thinks we're dead! No one will come to our necropolis to burn us. We'll be free to plot our revenge and enjoy the looks on their face as someone who should be dead destroy them.

>>3890432
support, we'll return even stronger
"oh no sir please don't burn me please no I'm begging you noo"
I assume that the spare bodies are copies of our own right?

>>3890408
>>3890432
Clone is an eighth level spell though. I don't think we're that powerful.

I'll have to veto the spare body thing, although powerful you're still a mortal necromancer, not some sort of lich.

>>3890455
Hmm alright. My vote still goes try begging for mercy first until we have no other choice but to fight. I think they've prepared for the possibility of witches flying off with the stake and it would be useless anyways. Are we still clothed btw?

>>3890455
Are you op? Your id changed again. Let's try the diplo route first then. At least until the fire reaches us.

>>3890466
Why would they be prepared for that? From their point of view, if we could fly away we would have instead of being captured.

If anything they'd have countermeasures for the spare bodies, if every necromancer had them it would be common knowledge.

>>3890387
>Blame the Orcs

>>3890492
It's likely not their first time doing this and they would have placed appropriate countermeasures to prevent their victims just flying or running off without a fight.

>>3890501
Yea I'm sure their town getting ransacked by an undead army is a pretty regular occurrence.

>>3890501
>likely
See that's the thing we don't know. It might work it might not. Any option is good here

>>3890387
> Blame the elvish nation
>Plead, cry, beg.
>Try to break free from the restraints. Are they metal chains or ropes?

>>3890466
>Are we still clothed btw?
Yes.
> Are you op? Your id changed again.
Yeah, my id will likely change a lot.
> Try to break free from the restraints. Are they metal chains or ropes?
Ropes, lots of them, you're tied tightly from the neck down.

>>3890551
Are you writing yet?

>>3890572
>Are you writing yet?
No.

>>3890508
+1
My worry is that the stake is enchanted or something. We should break free from it before flying off. Also I don't think we're just going to let them keep our staff like that.

>>3890397
>>3890408
>>3890413
>>3890421
>>3890432
>>3890466
>>3890487
>>3890495
>>3890508
Blame the orcs 3
Assume entire responsibility 1
Blame the elvish nation 3

Just fly away 2
Beg for mercy 3

Alright so there's a tie on who to blame, the orcs or the elvish nation, I'll wait for a tie breaker if we don't get one then I'll roll.

We'll also beg and plead for mercy, is that it?

>>3890629
>>3890636

Well, looks like we got the tie breaker. Blaming the elves it is.

>>3890629
You worry that the stake is enchanted. ...

So your alternative is to try to break free of ropes as a caster....

I don't think you thought this course of action through very.much. ...

>>3890656

"It was the elvish nation who sent me! Lady Nyele herself ordered the attack!", you lie, blaming the ruler of your home city.

"You dirty knife ears, I knew we couldn't trust you when you didn't join Abraskas in banning the dark arts! "Medicinal applications" my ass, you're outright necromancers! The king will hear about this! Now you're going to burn witch!", says lord Kevin.

"No, please, don't burn me at the stake sir, have mercy I beg you!", you plead while you try to get free from the ropes, managing to free your hands a little. Maybe you could use your hands to cast now?

"Have you had any mercy of our people that your monsters slaughtered like animals? Nay, you shall burn this day witch!"

The peasants ready their torches and begin to throw them at the large bonfire around you.

The flames will soon be licking you, what will you do?
> Summon some zombies
> Summon some shadows
> Cast a necrotic blast on the ropes to cut them
> Fly away, stake and all
> Write in

>>3890713
> Summon some shadows

>>3890713
>> Fly away, stake and all

>>3890713
>Summon some zombies

>>3890713
>> Summon some zombies

>>3890713
>Fly away

>>3890713
>> Summon some zombies

>>3890726
>>3890757
>>3890764
>>3890775
>>3890782
>>3890801

Your long training in the dark arts allows you to summon undead even while being restrained, a threat these puny humans weren't aware of. You make the pile of corpses awaiting for funerary rites into zombies, who promptly get up and start biting people.

Zombies are significantly more resistant to damage than skeletons in the sense that they for the most part ignore damage dealt to them which only serves to slow them down, the dark magic that animates them will make them raise back up again and again until their brains are destroyed. Creatures bitten by a zombie contract an infection and will die and become another zombie within a few hours up to a couple days, or almost immediately if the die violently and their brain is at least partially intact. Care must be taken to not get infected by them though, as their numbers can quickly get out of control.

The zombies cause massive panic amongst the population, who flee from them in all directions. Some zombies kill a few people, making even more zombies.

You're still burning at the stake though, the fire is beginning to burn your legs really bad!

> Have some zombies knock the bonfire wood away to put off the flames
> Have some zombies bring down the stake so you can run around
> Cast some necrotic blasts at the ropes to try to get free
> Fly away, stake and all
> Write in

>>3890983
>Blast the ropes

Since people don't want to fly on the chance the stake is enchanted. Perhaps this will get shot down because people think the ropes are enchanted too? Lol

>>3890983
>Have some zombies retrieve your staff before they can get away with it

>>3890983
>Have some zombies retrieve your staff before they can get away with it

>>3890998
>>3891307
>>3891330

Through the searing pain of being burned alive what you can think about is retrieving your staff.

Made from willow with a core of phoenix eggshells, this preciosity doubles the amount of undead you can control at the same time from 20 to 40.

So when a coupl zombies grabs it you feel much better.

Except that you're BURNING ALIVE! The flames are licking your body leaving nasty marks and cooking your flesh! Oh by all gods, you're gonna die!

What do you do?
> Have some zombies knock the bonfire wood away to put off the flames
> Have some zombies bring down the stake so you can run around
> Cast some necrotic blasts at the ropes to try to get free
> Fly away, stake and all
> Write in

>>3891474
>Just fly away, stake and all

So excited to burn to death because anons can't prioritize.

>>3891474
>You scream and you do not stop. The pain and the heat has taken all reason from you.

>>3891474
>>You scream and you do not stop. The pain and the heat has taken all reason from you.

Oh fuck it. We've gone way beyond the point of recovery that death and maybe being revived is a better option than living in pain and ugly forever.

>>3891474
>> Cast some necrotic blasts at the ropes to try to get free

>>3891537
>maybe being revived
Who would revive you though? It's not like you have a lot of allies right now...

>>3891564
The Witches? One of them was nearly burnt to death too, maybe they'll have pity on our fate in return for some service.
Or you could introduce a new character, maybe an evil dark lord who wants a necromancer by his side to serve him or a novice wizard who accidentally resurrected us. It's up to you qm.

>>3891512
>>3891537
For some reason a samefag wants to kill this quest?

>>3891505
>>3891512
>>3891537
>>3891538
>>3891673


I'm gonna disconsider the votes for just do nothing and die, as since you don't have any means of being revived that would just end the quest.

So I guess we have a tie between flying away and casting necrotic blasts at the ropes to try to get free, I'll wait a bit for a tie breaker and if there's none then I'll roll.

>>3891673
You're wrong on both counts anon. I don't think we can ever heal our burns, wounds and scars since we're a necromancer not a healer so I figured that we should take our chances of being resurrected.

>>3891684
But since op says no I vote to blast the ropes

>>3891684
Side note, how are we still able to think clearly and not scream when you're literary burning alive

>>3891695
We'll probably come out of this looking like anakin after a lava bath

>>3891474
>Cast some necrotic blasts at the ropes to try to get free

>>3891684
>>3891695
>>3891759


As you're being burned alive in a last effort to get free you blast the ropes with your necrotic spells; after a few blasts enough of it crumbles for you to get free and you jump out of the flames.

You already got horribly burned though, the pain is almost unbearable. You stumble towards where the local lord left your belongings and grab a healing potion and greedily drink it, then another, then a third one - you ran out of potions, but you can still feel a bit of the burning sensation. The worst of the burn wounds healed for the most part, but unfortunately left a bunch of scars, an uneven pattern of newly grown skin all over your body tainting the pristine beauty of your pale flesh; you'd need a high level healing spell such as regeneration to return your skin to its former state. Maybe you can find someone to cast such a spell on you, or a regeneration potion somewhere, but for now you're stuck with a deformed appearance.

You grab your staff and look at the chaos around you. The humans are summoning their militia again, to fight against the zombies. You wonder how long they'll take to realize they must pierce the brain to kill them.

There are already more zombies than you can control so you must be careful not to be bitten. You can place a ward upon yourself to become invisible to undead, but if you do that you cannot command your minions.

What do you want to do?
> Go around murdering people
> You've spent too long in this damned town it is time to leave, walk away with as many of your new minions as you can control
> Cast an invisibility to undead ward on yourself and take advantage of the chaos to walk away from this place, leaving the zombies wreaking havoc
> Fly away from this accursed place, leaving the zombies behind wreaking havoc
> Write in

>>3891781
> You've spent too long in this damned town it is time to leave, walk away with as many of your new minions as you can control

We should be prepared though. They will know where we fled to and they will send people who knows how to make us really burn.

>>3891781
>> Cast an invisibility to undead ward on yourself and take advantage of the chaos to walk away from this place, leaving the zombies wreaking havoc

Now every paladin and priest in this land will be on to us

>>3891781
>You've spent too long in this damned town it is time to leave, walk away with as many of your new minions as you can control

>>3891781
>Leave with as many minioms as you can control

Also OP I recommend you ignore posts by
>>3891812
Pretty obvious troll

>>3891803
>>3891812
>>3891858
>>3891878


You've spent long enough in this damned town.

You walk away with as many of your new minions as you can control, leaving the rest behind wreaking havoc upon the human population - even a few zombies can be quite deadly until the humans figure out how to deal with them.

After a few days walk with your new army of shambling corpses you arrive at the necropolis.

You can store your zombies safely if you draw a large protection circle against undead with the sigils inverted so the zombies can't get out of the circle. Alternatively, you could let them wander through the cemetery and make a normal protection circle around your living area. You could use a more mundane containment method, locking them in mausoleums. Or, if you don't plan on raising more undead, you can keep them all under control.

> Stash the zombies inside a protection circle with inverted sigils
> Let the zombies wander and protect your living area with a protection circle
> Lock the zombies in mausoleums
> Keep them all under control
> Write in

What do you wanna do?
> Eliminate local competition, kill one of your neighbors (which one)
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
> Raise a whole bunch of skeletons (how many? You can control 40 at a time)
> Attack a settlement (which one, seeking what)
> Write in

>>3891948
> Stash the zombies inside a protection circle with inverted sigils

>Steal the wizard's wands for the witches

>>3891948
>Let them wander and protect your living area

>Scope out the wizards tower, see how easy it would be to nab wands.

>>3891972
+1

>>3891972
>>3891987
>>3892002


You decide to stash the zombies inside a protection circle with inverted sigils. You draw the circle, leave the zombies inside it then relinquish control.

You decide to steal some wands from the wizard Oreus for the witches. You prepare for the 300 miles journey to his tower in the north.

You search through your old grimoires for any spells which would help you with robbing a place. You do find some ancient stuff from even before you specialized into the dark arts, and settle for the following spells:

> Shatter
> Knock
> Invisibility
> Spider Climb

You hope these little tricks will be enough, you can really only cast each once, they're a bit outside your field of expertise.

Your trip to the north is rather uneventful, you travel through the wilderness and scarcely find even wildlife. You climb the mountains to reach his place.

Then you find Oreus tower, an imponent ten stories place with scant few barred windows - you can see only four windows, one on the third floor, one on the fifth floor, one on the seventh floor and one on the ninth floor.

How are you going to try to enter Oreus tower?
> Knock on the door, murder whoever answers and barge in
> Cast Knock on the door to unlock it, cast invisibility on yourself and enter the tower
> Cast Spider Climb on yourself then climb to one of the windows and cast Shatter on the bars and enter through it (which floor? third, fifth, seventh or ninth?)
> Write in

>>3892062
>> Cast Knock on the door to unlock it, cast invisibility on yourself and enter the tower

>>3892062
>Spider climb up to the 7th floor

>>3892062
> Cast Knock on the door to unlock it, cast invisibility on yourself and enter the tower

>>3892075
+1

>>3892068
>>3892070
>>3892075
>>3892096

You cast Knock on the door, unlocking it, then you cast invisibility on yourself and enter the tower.

Inside the tower you see that the room has the ceiling raised all the way to the second floor, a spiral staircase in the opposite side of the entrance, a large trapdoor in the middle of the room, and four large metal cylindrical containers
dominate the room. The containers do have some taps on them, and there are a few buckets around near the stairs.

What do you wanna do?
> Open one of the taps and fill a bucket
> Go up the spiral staircase to the third floor
> Descend the trapdoor into the basement
> Write in

>>3892525
>> Descend the trapdoor into the basement

>>3892525
>> Descend the trapdoor into the basement

>>3892531
>>3892540


You open the trapdoor and go down a ladder into the basement.

You see a lever with a small sign saying "In case of emergency pull this lever". There's also a potion near the lever.

The place is illuminated by the light of three fire elementals, held in place by protection circles. There's also a large cage with an adult troll, and a highly elaborate summoning circle carved in the rock floor filled with a faintly glowing silvery powder inside of which there's a female demon with six arms and a snake tail inside of it.
She says "Hey you! Elf! Free me! Are you a thief? Just mess up this circle here and I'll help you rob the wizard!"

What will you do?
> Drink the potion (this ends your invisibility)
> Pull the lever
> Mess the summoning circle of the demon
> Leave the basement and go to the third floor
> Write in

>>3892545
Make the demon keep her word with a blood contract or something then release her.

>>3892546

You're not a demonologist, you don't know how to make a blood contract.

>>3892550
>> Mess the summoning circle of the demon
And hope for the best

>>3892545
>Take the potion and pocket it. We should save it for an emergency
>Interrogate the demon but don’t let her out. Get as much information as possible and then leave

>>3892553

You tell the demon "I'll free you, but you better help me!"

You then mess up the summoning circle, kicking a bunch of the glowing silvery stuff out of place.

"Yes! YES! I'm finally free!", says the demon, teleporting out of the circle and behind you.

"I'll keep my side of the bargain, I won't stay inside this tower much longer but I'll tell you what I can see and I'll teleport you once to a place of your choosing. "

"The third floor has a bunch of armors in it.
The fourth floor has the apprentices lab, there are six people there.
The fifth floor has a bunch of beds and a kitchen, there are two people there.
The sixth floor has a lot of potions in it.
The seventh floor is a library, there are two people here.
The eight floor is the master's lab.
The ninth floor is the master's bedroom, the wizard is there.
The tenth floor has about twenty wands into pedestals. "

Where do you want the demon to teleport you?
> Third floor
> Fourth floor
> Fifth floor
> Sixth floor
> Seventh floor
> Eight floor
> Ninth floor
> Tenth floor
> Write in

>>3892587
>> Tenth floor
Don't forget to thank the demon and ask for its name

>>3892587
Tenth

And yea get her name

>>3892594
>>3892601


"Take me to the tenth floor, thank you. Oh, and what is your name by the way?", you say.

"Me? I'm Kazilith. To the tenth floor you go!"

You feel a strong smell of sulfur and then you find yourself into a dimly lit room by the light of a few stones that glow in the walls with a large door and twenty pedestals, each with one wand on top of it. There's a sign at the entrance of the room that reads "DO NOT TOUCH THE WANDS THEY ARE CURSED"

You then read the sign by each pedestal to see what wands are there.

1 - Lighting
2 - Fireball
3 - Stone Shape
4 - Enlarge Person
5 - Burning Hands
6 - Firebolt
7 - Wall of Fire
8 - Fireball (rechargeable)
9 - Stone Skin
10 - Magic Missile
11 - Web
12 - Silence
13 - Slow
14 - Bestow Curse
15 - Summon Fire Elemental
16 - Summon Salamander
17 - Slow
18 - Charm Monster
19 - Summon Water Elemental
20 - Dimensional Anchor

Which wands will you grab if any?

>>3892629
>Grab all of them!

Pretty sure that cursed warning is a bluff, but just in case it isn't don't touch them directly, use folds of clothing to shove them in your bag.

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>3892638
>Grab all of them!

Alright, let me roll for which one you grab first then

>>3892629
Take em all. We could sell those we can't use.

>>3892629
Take them all, but let the witches try to use them first

>>3892648

Skeptical about the warning about the curses you decide to grab them all. You head to the one whose pedestal reads Summon Fire Elemental and grab it with a fold of cloth and shove it inside your bag just to be sure.

However you immediately notice three things.

First, a loud alarm that begins ringing.

Second, that your invisibility breaks. Just grabbing stuff should not be enough to do that. The wizard must have prepared an anti invisibility ward.


Third, that your feet turns into tree roots, your skin gains a bark like quality and your hair turns into leaves! You became a human-treant hybrid, and although you don't feel any particular benefits, you move much slower and are probably vulnerable to fire now.

What do you wanna do?
> Continue grabbing wands at random
> Grab some specific wands (which ones)
> Write in

Or elf-treant hybrid rather.

>>3892662
>Continue grabbing wands at random

>>3892662
Grab 16

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>3892665
>>3892667

1-random wand
2- wand 16

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3892674

>>3892677

You grab the Dimensional Anchor wand!

Parts of your skin become a silvery powder and begin to fall off exposing the bloody flesh underneath, the silvery patches are spreading slowly!

You hear someone fumbling with a key on the door! What do you do?

> Continue grabbing wands at random
> Grab some specific wands (which ones)
> Write in

>>3892683
>> Grab some specific wands (which ones)
2

>>3892683
>2
well at least we're unrecognizable now from that qt3.14 elf slag

>>3892687
>>3892715


You grab the wand of Fireball!

A black fog obscures your eyes and you lose your vision!

You hear the door creaking open! A voice says "Dirty thief, prepare to meet your doom! "

What do you do?
> Summon a fire elemental
> Try to throw a Fireball in the general direction of the voice
> Write in

>>3892724
>Summon a fire elemental

>>3892724
>> Try to throw a Fireball in the general direction of the voice
Escaped a burning only to die in a wizard tower. Ironic

>>3892724
shout that your name is kazilith and the thief has escaped

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>3892726
>>3892727

1- fire elemental
2- Fireball

>>3892751

You grab the wand and toss a fireball in the direction of the voice! You hear an explosion and a scream. Seems like you hit the wizard!

But then comes the counter attack. He throws a paralyzing spell on you and you fall to the ground motionless.

You hear his footsteps approaching you and feel as he takes the Fireball wand from your paralyzed hand.

"I'm going to sacrifice you to summon a demon, hehehe!"

A bunch of people carry you downstairs and put you in a metal cage. You can hear the troll growling nearby.

"You set my demon free? Damn you, I needed its blood to make wands! Never mind, I'll just use you to summon another, a more useful type this time."

After awhile the paralyzing spell wears off.

What do you wanna do?

> Cast Shatter on the cage lock to free yourself and flee the wizard tower
> Write in

>>3892779
>> Call out to the troll, break free together
Are the curses still on effect?

>>3892796
>Are the curses still on effect?
Yes.

>>3892779
>Did he not take the other wands we stole? Cast shatter and flee, and free the troll too on your way out

>>3892850
>Did he not take the other wands we stole?
Yes, he took them, maybe I should've expressly said so but it was implied anyway that he would not let you keep them in the cage. He took your travel pack too.

>>3892796
>>3892850

You call out the troll, brushing out what little Giant you can speak.

"Can you break free?", you ask.

"No, cage too strong, tree person. Only wizard has key. He paralyzes me and takes me blood now and then.", says the troll.

You consider freeing the troll, but you only have one use of the Shatter spell. Your cage is however significantly smaller than the troll's, what gives you an idea.

"Could you break my cage?"

"Me thinks yes tree person, bars are thin.", says the troll.

> Cast Shatter on your cage lock and flee
> Cast Shatter on the troll's cage lock and hope he frees you
> Write in

>>3892923
>> Cast Shatter on the troll's cage lock and hope he frees you

>>3892936

"I can break lock with magic but only once, but I can't see. You will be my eyes to break your cage, then you'll break mine. Deal?", you say.

"Tree person is wizard too? Me no like wizards. But me wants freedom so me helps!"

The troll keeps telling you directions until you aim towards the lock on his cage, and you cast Shatter. With a loud noise, the lock is destroyed!

"Haha, me is free! Don't worry tree person, I'll free you too."

The troll bends the bars in your cage and you manage to squeeze yourself out of it.

The two of you then leave the basement, the troll kicks the front door open and you two run away into freedom.

Once you're far from the tower the troll says.

"Wizard made you blind no? Maybe shaman can cure tree person. Me going back to tribe in the north. You coming?"

> Go with the troll to his tribe north
> Part ways and head back home south
> Write in

>>3892974
>> Go with the troll to his tribe north
Oh and I'm not actually a tree person. It's a curse too.

>>3892974
>go with the troll

>>3892974

> Go with the troll to his tribe north

>>3892974
> Part ways and head back home south

>>3892985
>>3893017
>>3893128
>>3893247
You decide to go with the troll to his tribe in the north.

He carries you most of the way there as he's much faster and stronger than you.

After nearly a week of trekking through the mountains, during which time most of your skin fall off, you arrive at the troll village, where he's greeted by the other trolls.

"Long time no see Grok! Where have you been?"

"A wizard captured me! But my little friend tree person here helped me escape! He has been blinded by the wizard so I brought him here to see the shaman."

After awhile you're brought to the presence of the shaman.

"Powerful curses you have upon you, the Fogvision, the Silverrot, the Slowbark. I can take curses from you, yes! You'll be good as new in no time. Just need to make strong potion for you first, so your body can survive me shooing out the evil spirits!"

You stay in the troll village as a guest for a few days while the shaman prepares the "strong potion", they give you what you think is mammoth meat to eat. You feel sick all of the time and flies keep getting into your exposed flesh.

The shaman finally finishes his potion and gives it to you. It tastes like mud mixed with rotten vegetables.

"This will make you strong enough to resist the exorcism!", says the shaman. "Now I'll drive the evil spirits out of you!"

The troll shaman begins to beat you up with his staff while he chants something unintelligible. The beating keeps going for a good fifteen minutes until your vision begins to clear.

"The first evil spirit is gone! Now to the next ones!"

He continues beating you up with his staff relentlessly for another half an hour until the curses are gone from your body! The bark appendages receded and you look like an elf again.

However, the skin that fell off haven't healed; and you're pretty sure you got a whole bunch of broken bones for how much it hurts to move.

"The evil spirits are out of you!", says the shaman triumphantly.

"Oh! The tree person was an elf!", say the trolls mesmerized.

What are you going to do?
> Ask the shaman to heal your broken bones
> Thank the troll shaman and begin the trip back home
> Write in

>>3893251
> Ask the shaman to heal your broken bones
Can't imagine moving in this condition and we need to find a healer anyway

>>3893266

"I think I got a lot of broken bones, can you heal me?", you ask the shaman.

"Healing? Oh, such a shame! Trolls regenerate, I never bothered learning healing magic. I can make you some splints.", says the shaman.

What are you going to do?
> Stay in the troll village until your bones mend
> Begin the trip back home
> Write in

>>3893275
> Write in
Fly home?

>>3893286
>Fly home?
You can only fly for about 10 minutes.

>>3893251
>Stay with trolls for a while

Perhaps we can access some sympathetic magic and piggyback off troll regeneration? Borrow theirs for a bit? Use necro magic to siphon their vitality?

>>3893275
>> Stay in the troll village until your bones mend

>>3893251
> Stay in the troll village until your bones mend
Just wait until you naturally recover. In the meantime we may be able to convince the trolls to help us in storming the wizard’s tower

>>3893286
>>3893319
>>3893604
>>3893958

You decide to stay in the troll village until your bones mend.
The shaman makes you some splints and make you drink his horrible tasting concoctions from time to time that you're not even certain do anything. The trolls give you mammoth meat.
The mammoths you learn are partially domesticated, roaming close to the troll village and considered sacred, one slaughtered ritually every few months to provide for the tribe.
In your time with the trolls you see them being attacked by poisonous wyverns, gryphons, harpies, electric flying lizards and giant eagles. The trolls fended off these flying attackers by hurling big stones that they leave scattered throughout their settlement. These attacks seem to be a common occurrence.
But not only foes have the trolls. A couple friends also showed up. Some hill giants came to trade some cows for the durable mammoth fur; and a cyclop came to trade some metal tools for large amounts of meat.

Eventually your bones do mend and you're ready to hit the road!

> Try to convince the trolls to storm the wizard's tower with you
> Return to your necropolis
> Write in

>>3894263
>> Try to convince the trolls to storm the wizard's tower with you

>>3894263
> Write in
Ask for some of their kills before we leave to get some harpies and other fliers.

>>3894263
> Return to your necropolis

>>3894263
> Try to convince the trolls to storm the wizard's tower with you

>>3894263
> Try to convince the trolls to storm the wizard's tower with you

>>3894266
>>3894280
>>3894287
>>3894404
>>3894419


You try to convince the trolls to storm the wizard's tower with you. The troll shaman tells you:

"South wizard who kidnapped Grok too powerful, knows fire magic. Many trolls would die, and for what? Wizard has no meat in tower, no tools, nothing trolls can use. Nay elf, trolls will not attack wizard."

You look through the recent kills of the trolls and find the corpse of a giant eagle. You think you could animate it and it would probably still fly. Maybe you could fly on it back home.

> Animate the giant eagle and fly home
> Return to your necropolis on foot
> Write in

>>3894507

> Animate the giant eagle and fly home

A few more fliers before we go.

>>3894507
>> Return to your necropolis on foot

>>3894520
aren't our feet all fucked up?

>>3894263
> Write in

Raise their mammoth bones. Large skeletal mount wahey!

>>3894526
Aren't they just horribly burnt and scarred? I mean we made it back after escaping the village on foot

>>3894507
>Animate giant eagle and yeet

>>3894507
> Animate the giant eagle and fly home

>>3894512
>>3894520
>>3894529
>>3894549
>>3894631

You tell the trolls you're leaving back to your home. They give you some meat for the travel. On the day to go you head to their stores and animate the giant eagle corpse, mounting it and flying away.

You fly over some human villages you did not know about on your way back - mining villages on the mountains.

Then you arrive at your home the cemetery. You wonder if a protection circle with inverted sigils will be enough to bind a flying creature - you know the barrier it creates is cylindrical but you're not sure if the beast could somehow fly over it.

Long ago you researched some spells to keep undead in an induced stasis for if you had to keep feral, powerful or smart undead under control. Maybe you should keep the undead eagle in stasis when you're not using it. The stasis spell uses some rare components that you only have a limited supply of though.

Or you could tie the bird with some ropes you have laying around.

> Stash the bird with inverted sigils it probably won't flee
> Keep the bird in stasis to be extra safe
> Just ties the bird with some ropes
> Just keep the bird under control
> Write in


What do you wanna do?
> Eliminate local competition, kill one of your neighbors (which one)
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
> Raise a whole bunch of skeletons (how many? You can control 40 at a time)
> Attack a settlement (which one, seeking what)
> Write in

>>3894709
> Just keep the bird under control
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
Vampire

>>3894709
How big is it? Just lock it if we can
>have undead cut down some trees to make spears with and arm themselves
>make slings and collect small rocks as ammunition

>>3894709
> Just keep the bird under control
>Ask the witches if they can perform a regeneration spell for your ruined body

>>3894728
Actually changing to this

>>3894709
>stash bird
>Ask witches for help with regen

>>3894718
>>3894723
>>3894728
>>3894731
>>3894746

You decide to just keep the bird under control.

You head to the witches home to ask for their aid.

You find only Melinda at home, tending to the garden.

"Where are your sisters?", you ask.

"They're out collecting herbs. Have you acquired the wands from the wizard Oreus? Your skin looks awful. Nice bird you have there.", says Melinda.

"I tried and failed. I came here to ask if you could help me fix my skin with a regeneration spell.", you say.

"Unfortunately we are not powerful enough to cast a regeneration spell, if we were we would have healed Karla already. But I could brew a regeneration potion with the right ingredients."

"What would be these ingredients?"

"That's a rather versatile potion, it can be brew with a variety of things. Unfortunately, they're all rare and hard to acquire."

"Bring me two items from the following list and I'll brew a batch of regeneration potions. I'll keep one for my sister Karla and give you the rest."

"Here's the list:
1 - Dragon Blood
2 - Greater Demon Horn
3 - Unicorn Horn
4 - Celestial Ichor
5 - Phoenix Blood
6 - Beholder Eye Fluid
7 - Kraken Blood"

"Now that's a lot of really difficult stuff to acquire.", you say.

"Yes, that's why regeneration potions are fairly rare.", says Melinda.

What do you wanna do?
> Eliminate local competition, kill one of your neighbors (which one)
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
> Raise a whole bunch of skeletons (how many? You can control 40 at a time)
> Attack a settlement (which one, seeking what)
> Write in

>>3894839
>> Eliminate local competition, kill one of your neighbors (Mummy)
It's undead, bring him to heel.

>>3894839
>We need to take some time and either learn new spells or improve on the ones we already have. Due to our fairly limited capabilities and poor decisions made by other anons, we’ve been met with failure at literally every turn. At this point plot armor is the only thing that’s keeping us intact so I suggest we find a way to make our first operations more efficient on our end

>>3894960
this

>>3894947
>>3894960
>>3895104

Realizing that although you are mainly a necromancer you cannot rely on your minions all of the time you decide to take some time to either learn new spells or improve the ones you already have.

You're a highly specialized necromantic summoner so your other magical abilities suffer in consequence of that.

Your offensive cantrip of choice is the Death Bolt, a mildly powerful necrotic blast. It's not powerful enough to kill someone in one hit consistently, but you can cast it all day.

Researching new spells is a fairly time consuming endeavor. Any of these spells you research can only be used a few times a day at most, except cantrips that are at will. What kind of spell do you have in mind?
> Research a cantrip that does cold damage instead of necrotic damage (3-6 months)
> Research a cantrip that drains a little bit of the life of the enemy when you touch it healing you (3-6 months)
> Research a spell to curse water and make it unholy, unholy water damages celestials the same way holy water damages fiends and undead (6-12 months)
> Research a spell that summons an spiritual hand that grapples an enemy for up to one minute, the hand can only be destroyed by magic (6-12 months)
> Research a spell that makes a corpse explode, and creatures that die in the explosion also explode (1-2 years)
> Research a spell that boils the blood of one enemy, causing damage and temporarily paralyzing it for up to one minute (1-2 years)
> Research a spell that turns you into a dark mist for a few seconds and lets you fly very fast, creatures in the path of the mist take necrotic damage (2-4 years)
> Research a spell that lets you drain a large amount of enemy lifeforce with a touch healing you (2-4 years)
> Research a spell that makes it rain magical blood around you, dealing necrotic damage to living things and healing undead (4-8 years)
> Write in

>>3895145
> Research a cantrip that does cold damage instead of necrotic damage (3-6 months)

> Research a spell that turns you into a dark mist for a few seconds and lets you fly very fast, creatures in the path of the mist take necrotic damage (2-4 years)

> Research a spell that makes it rain magical blood around you, dealing necrotic damage to living things and healing undead (4-8 years)

I’m torn between these three as each either solves a problem with the logistics and longevity of our “army” or they would have been useful in helping us escape our past predicaments. I’ll think it over but no matter what we decide we shouldn’t spend the next few months or years learning a single spell we should make some small gains as well in regards to both manpower and since we’re a necromancer, corpsepower. We won’t be training 24/7 so it would be a good use of our time to acquire resources. I suggest we use shadows to preform some low level robberies in order to build some wealth. With it, we’ll be able to make up for lost time and our past failures. We can hire some thieves or mercenaries to rob manor from the town where we failed our first raid. If that arrangement works out we could possibly hire some adventurers to raid the wizard tower while we operate in the shadows to steal the wands, with the proper precautions this time around

>>3895145
>> Research a spell to curse water and make it unholy, unholy water damages celestials the same way holy water damages fiends and undead (6-12 months)

>>3895145
>> Research a cantrip that drains a little bit of the life of the enemy when you touch it healing you (3-6 months)

>>3895145
>>3895227
> Research a cantrip that does cold damage instead of necrotic damage (3-6 months)

For the sake of time I’ll go with this. A few of the other spells can be rendered moot with some proper planning

Rolled 3 (1d3)

>>3895275
>>3895449
>>3895460

1- unholy water
2- life drain
3- cold bolt

>>3895489
Voting for life drain

>>3895495
If it's not too late that is

>>3895489
>>3895495 fine

You begin to research the Life Drain cantrip.

You take 6 months to perfect it. You can now touch people and drain their life force at will.

Seeing some weird mud thing wandering about you go out investigate and discover a new neighbor just moved in, a troll voodoo priest. He took over a mausoleum, drew a bunch of wards and is digging up and raising a bunch of skeletons, but he's stuffing his skeletons with hard packed dirt so they look more like mud monsters. Seems like he's not bothering to control all the skeletons he raises, just having warded his living area.


What do you wanna do?
> Eliminate local competition, kill one of your neighbors (which one)
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
> Raise a whole bunch of skeletons (how many? You can control 40 at a time)
> Attack a settlement (which one, seeking what)
> Research new spell (which one)
> Write in

>>3895527
>Write in
Scout the human kingdom and see what they're up to. Are they going to send priests and paladin to burn us?

>>3895550
>Scout the human kingdom
How do you intend to do this?

>>3895558
Fly there, kidnap random civilians and peasants on the road and interrogate them.

>>3895550
+1

>>3895561
Here we go again. If we absolutely had to scout the kingdom I’d suggest several options before resorting to this. Since I’m clearly outnumbered I’ll just sit back and watch this upcoming train wreck

>>3895832
You could put in some suggestions.

>>3895558
I'd say use rats or bats to scout the enemy kingdom after using zombie owls to ferry them closer and then bring em back.

>>3895527
I'd rather we build up a ready reserve of undead, and even if we can't use them all at once, we can have them ready to go by having the wander a mausoleum in a sealed door waiting for us to open and spill out.

>>3895837
Before I can make any we need to frame this situation. What’s the purpose of this scouting mission. So far we’ve failed to rob a town and a tower and now the anons seem to have their eyes set on a very high profile target. If they plan on doing what I think they’re doing we now have both an unreachable goal and a poor method of achieving it.

I suggest we looking into the matter of our new neighbor to see where he stands and what he is capable of. If he won’t directly help us he could have some useful information or a rate item which we can make use of. If we’re dead set on the kingdom however I suggest we hire a single individual to do some scouting for us. One normal human walking around will be much less suspicious than a string of disappearances. That is if we can even pull this feat off

>>3895892
LOL, you putting way to much effort into this, and having alot of faith in the anons.

We stood in a fire being burned doing magic shit instead of escaping. That's literally "fire bad, fire hot" moment but we stayed in it until after our legs were cooked to well done.

>>3895897
I like to think things through, though I usually don’t protest this much unless some absolute boneheaded decisions were made. That burning a the stake fiasco was one of many. Tbh I have little to no faith in the decision making skills of a few of these anons. This isn’t a quest we can just brute force through since the QM has (rightfully so) given us a limited yet versitile set of abilities. It’s going to take creative thinking to get anything done

>>3895900
Well anyways, aside from my owls and bats ,or rats idea for scouts, I suppose the goal of the scouting job should be to look for weak and strong points or well defended and weakly defended locations. Places of paladins and other smitey forces and the distances us or the places we may raid or attack. Examine resources in people and materials for magic or spellcrafting, then look at best places to infiltrate and gather information from them on their awareness of us.

>>3895905
Personally I’d avoid the kingdom entirely for the time being. Your idea is sound but this isn’t a job for a lone low level necromancer. Well see how the QM wants to take this and if we’re gunning for the kingdom I’ll support this plan of action

>>3895550
>>3895561
>>3895763
You consider scouting the human kingdom to see what they're up to.

You could get your eagle and fly to one of their roads and kidnap a traveling merchant for interrogation.

You could raise a small undead critter and send it to the human town. Normally you can only control minions that are near you, but you know a ritual that lets you perceive through the senses of one of your minions and control it even at a great distance, it takes full concentration though.

You could try to find disreputable humans like brigands or highwaymen and try to press them into your service as informants, but dealing with such criminal types has its own dangers.

What do you wanna do?
> Kidnap merchant with eagle for interrogation
> Spy with a critter (what kind, owl, rat, rabbit, lizard, frog, crow)
> Find criminals and convince them to help you
> Write in

>>3895920
>> Kidnap merchant with eagle for interrogation

>>3895920
>> Kidnap merchant with eagle for interrogation

>>3895921
>>3895923

You fly in your eagle towards the human kingdom and stalk their roads for awhile until you find a lone merchant in a wagon full of grain. You kidnap the merchant and fly back to your necropolis.

"Oh God, please don't kill me, I have wife and children!", begs the merchant.

"Tell me whether the paladins are c
comingto cleanse Boarville!", you say.

"Boarville? The village that was ravaged by zombies? Yes, the king sent Paladino's there. The zombies spreaded all over the region, it took months to get them all, there are still stories about zombies in the deeper parts of the woods. They say it was the elves who sent the zombie plague but the elvish kingdom denies it. The paladins are still investigating the matter."

Do you want to ask anything else?

>>3895925
Have you heard anything about an elf witch who escaped being burned?
Do you know where to buy a regeneration spell or its ingredients?
Which human village are weakly defended?

>>3895926
>Have you heard anything about an elf witch who escaped being burned?
"Now that you mention it, I think I heard the people in Boarville captured the elf witch at first and interrogated her then were burning her at the stake but somehow she fled. Wait a minute... these burn scars... you're the elf witch! Oh God, I'm gonna die and be turned into a zombie!"

>Do you know where to buy a regeneration spell or its ingredients?
"Maybe at the capital, there's a wizard school there. "


>Which human village are weakly defended?
"I wouldn't know, I'm no military strategist. Most villages have guards and a militia, so they would only be particularly weaker if anything weakened them recently. "

>>3895930
Okay we're done here. Let him go.

>>3895933
Actually ask him one more thing before letting him go. "Tell me how I look?"

>>3895930
Maybe not let him go because he figured out who we are?

Or we bluff, and state we are a witch not a necromancer.....

>>3895936
>"Tell me how I look?"
"How you look? I didn't knew witches cared for such things. I can tell you're very pretty lady witch, but I can't help but notice that all these burn marks taint your otherwise outstanding natural beauty."

What do you want to do next?

>>3895943
Return to the necropolis and meet the newest resident

>>3895946

You kidnapped the human, you're already at the necropolis. What do you want to do with him?

>>3895951
Wait. I said let the human go.

>>3895925
>You kidnap the merchant and fly back to your necropolis.
>>3895953

>>3895954
Okay drop him outside and let him leave safely

>>3895957
Now he knows where our base is and a way back to the place.

Turn him into a reaverant or something.

>>3895954
Turn the merchant into our puppet or spy

>>3895946
>>3895957

You drop the merchant outside of the necropolis and let him leave safely.

You then go meet your new neighbor.

You find him brewing some potions inside the mausoleum and you hail him.

"Greetings newcomer, I'm Maeva Slydark the necromancer, and this cemetery is my home.", you say in giant.

The troll seems startled for hearing him native language. He answers

"I'm Thoz the voodoo priest. I came to make big army of mud zombies to defeat my enemy the naga lord Xandor, I won't stay long. "

"How are these dirt packed skeletons any different from a normal skeleton?", you ask.

"Mud zombies better than regular skeletons and regular zombies, the mud be infected with zombies plague so any scratches from mud zombies will infect enemies, and they have no brains to be destroyed, must be dismembered and burned. But smoke also infected with zombie disease hehehe!", says Thoz.

"What are you brewing?"

"Antidote for zombie plague if I get infected by accident."

"Who is this Xandor?"

"He massacred my village in the south, now I'll destroy him and his people. He has a village 300 miles away from here south."

"How do you plan to take all your skeletons there?"

"I'll control a few and for the rest I'll be bait and have the horde follow me."

What do you want to do next?

>>3895973
what sort of loot are you expecting to get

>>3895957
We need to kill him. He knows who we are and where we live and the last thing we need is a mob knocking at our door

>>3895973
This >>3895976 and Ask if he wants our help

>>3895976
"What sort of loot are you expecting to get?"
"The nagas are raiders and have destroyed many villages before, their settlements is in a swamp which works as an aquatic fortress against other races. They fight mostly with brutish melee warriors, but also some archers and they have two powerful sorcerers who were the downfall of my tribe because they can cast fireballs and firebolts. They certainly have stashed many riches from all the plundering they have done over the years, maybe even some magic trinkets."
"Do you want my help?"
"Would you help this old troll get his revenge? I would be very grateful if you could help me end Xandor's life and eradicate his tribe like he eradicated mine. I still need a few months of preparation to raise a large enough army of undead."

What do you want to do next?

>>3895995
Tell him we'll consider it. Be sure to warn us before he attacks.

>>3895999

"We'll consider helping you. Be sure to warn us before the attack.", you tell Thoz.

What do you wanna do?
> Eliminate local competition, kill one of your neighbors (which one)
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
> Raise a whole bunch of skeletons (how many? You can control 40 at a time)
> Attack a settlement (which one, seeking what)
> Research new spell (which one)
> Write in

>>3896007
Talk to the vampire

>>3896015

In a hundred years you have never actually seen your vampire neighbor, who lives deeply in underground catacombs, only his thralls. That's about to change.

You head to the entrance of the vampire's catacombs and find a dwarf thrall with a crossbow in there.

You say "I've came in peace! I'm Maeva Slydark the necromancer who lives in this cemetery, I'd like to meet your master. "

The dwarf thrall eyes you suspiciously then say "Wait here, I'll go ask the master if he wants to meet you."

After about two hours four dwarves and one elf woman in a frilly dress come back with a litter with curtains. The elf says to you in elvish "The master will receive you. He told us to blindfold you and carry you through the tunnels so you don't learn the passages and don't fall in the traps, I'll be watching to make sure you don't peek."

You and the elf thrall enter the litter and the elf thrall delicately places a blindfold on you. The four dwarves then carry the litter into the catacombs.

"We've greatly expanded the tunnels these past few decades so it will take awhile to reach the outer sanctum. Would you mind telling me a bit about yourself to pass the time?"

> Tell the thrall about your childhood in the elvish kingdom
> Tell the thrall about your teenage years learning magic under various disreputable masters
> Tell the thrall about your century long research into the dark arts
> Ask about the thrall life instead
> Stay silent
> Write in

>>3896048
>> Tell the thrall about your teenage years learning magic under various disreputable masters

>>3896048
>> Tell the thrall about your teenage years learning magic under various disreputable masters

How old are we anyways, in years and by elf standards?

>>3896055
>>3896063 you're 237 elves reach adulthood at 100 stay adults until 400ish then live until around 600 years

"I went through the vocational exam of the elvish wizard order but they told me all I could become was a lowly healer and wanted me to go through shaman training. I didn't want to be a shaman so I began looking for private magic tutors and unsanctioned arcane scrolls. My first magic teacher was an old elf called Xerzia, she taught me the basics of arcane theory and my first few spells.
Then I learned with an old elf called Hipastus who lived alone in the woods, he taught me the offensive cantrip I still use to this day and sparked my interest in the dark arts.
But it wasn't until I met Sekron, a human necromancer in his own right, who taught me how to raise the dead, that I really got into the dark arts. He must be long dead by now."

After a few hours being carried through the tunnels the dwarves stop.

The elf says "We arrived. Let me take this blindfold off."

You step out of the litter and find yourself into a large room lit by four large braziers burning coal. The walls of the room are richly engraved, depicting scenes like dwarves mining, dwarves kneeling to a tall man in black, dwarves drinking a red liquid, and so on.

There are eight tunnels leaving this room in different directions.

Near the wall of the room there's a large silver throne with a pale human exquisitely dressed sitting in it. He's holding a glass with a red liquid. By his side there are three human women in frilly dresses. The elf who was with you runs to him and whispers something in his ear.

"Maeva Slydark, is that it? I'm Khalmyr Abuzov, lord of the catacombs, immortal nightwalker, enthraller of dwarves elves and men. I've had the lights lit for you, normally I keep this place in complete darkness. The dwarves don't mind, I don't mind, my babes don't mind, so it's alright. I only get a light on sometimes to read, I love classical human literature specially the old plays and I have a weak spot for elvish poetry. Sometimes I have my people enact the plays for me, it is a lot of fun. But oh, where are my manners? You must have came here with a purpose. We've been neighbors for decades and it is the first time you pay me a visit. So tell me Maeva, what do you want?"

What do you want to do?

>>3896121
prostrate yourself and explain your century of research has culminated into abject failure at every turn wherever you apply it and you come seeking advice

>>3896121
>Ask if he has goals aside from living in luxury

>>3896175
Vetoing this

>>3896191
I agree. We don’t need to debase ourselves to get something from this guy. All we need is some light probing and a golden opportunity

>>3896175

You prostrate yourself and say "I've researched the dark arts for a century and have attained a great degree of mastery into summoning undead, but whenever I try to apply my research it culminates in abject failure! I come humbly seeking your advice. "

He gets up from his throne and walks to you, lifting your chin. "A hundred years you say? That's a long time, you must be a really good summoner. I would bet you're failing because you're not playing your strengths. If I were to go around exposing myself during the day I would've get burned a long time ago. Maybe all you need to do is focus more on what you're really good at.", says Khalmyr.

"That's actually pretty good advice. ", you say.

"I know right? One doesn't get to live centuries and not acquire at least a smidge of wisdom. But in any case, maybe I could help you further, and you in turn would help me."

"There is a village some 300 miles away to the east called Springsville. It is ruled by a noble house, the Oakhearts, I don't know the name of the current lord. What I do know is that they are famous all over the kingdom for the beauty of their daughters who over the centuries have frequently married into royalty. I have had my eyes upon an Oaksheart thrall for a long time now, so if you can get me one of their girls alive and unharmed I'll reward you with something of value... let's see... what do you want?"

"Maybe a regeneration potion for my burnt skin?"

"Well, that's easy enough, I can just send my thralls to go buy one at the human capital. They are expensive but not beyond my means."

"Do we have a deal?"

> Agree with the conditions
> Ask for more stuff (what)
> Write in

>>3896191
>>3896194
I was already writing, didn't see these.
Guess we just roll with it now.

>>3896242
My post came in like one minute after his but ok

>Agree

>>3896348 I think they were like 20 minutes apart


"I agree, I'll get the girl for you.", you say.
"Great, I'll send some thralls to go fetch the potion soon then, bring me the girl and we'll do this fair trade. I'm sure we can figure out other profitable deals in the future too.", says Khalmyr.

You then prepare to leave the way you came, you get back in the litter, the elf puts the blindfold back on you and the dwarves carry you out of the catacombs.

"You know, master Khalmyr used to leave the catacombs alot in the past, but in the past few decades he became increasingly recluse. He's been having the dwarves dig deeper and deeper not just for ore but making some sort of vault under the inner sanctum. I'm not sure what he wants to stash down there but there's certainly space for thousands of tons of stuff in the lowest level already.", says the elf, apparently just trying to make conversation.

The dwarves leave you outside of the catacomb and your eagle was out there where you left it, still waiting for you, so you resume control over it.

What do you wanna do?
> Eliminate local competition, kill one of your neighbors (which one)
> Propose an alliance to one of your neighbors (which one)
> Raise a whole bunch of skeletons (how many? You can control 40 at a time)
> Attack a settlement (which one, seeking what)
> Research new spell (which one)
> Write in

>>3896372
>Find that merchant we let go. >Find out where the Oakshearts are so you can kidnap one. Also the resources at their disposal.

>>3896383

Changing your mind about letting the merchant go you mount on your eagle and fly around the wilderness near the cemetery looking for him. After awhile you find his trail and follow it and in a few hours you find him walking through the woods.

What do you want to do?

>>3896400
>Grab him and interrogate him about the Oakshearts, anything he knows about them
>Then use new life drain cantrip to leech all his vitality and heal our dreadful scars

>>3896422

You grab the merchant and interrogate him about the Oaksheart.

"Oh no, you again! Leave me alone witch!"

"Answer my question or I'll kill you!"

"Fine! The Oaksheart is the family of the dead grandmother of the king, they're a minor noble family who rule a prosperous farming village called Springsville, I've bought grain from them a few times. Their women are fabled to have the most outstanding beauty of all women in the kingdom. Their current patriarch, lord Lukas Oaksheart has six daughters, three of them are married and live in other town. His three younger daughters live with him in his manor."

"What resources do they have at their disposal?"

"Well, he's a noble, he has guards, collect taxes, has a lot of personal wealth. His manor is a large stone building three stories tall with an inner garden."

Having finished interrogating the merchant you begin to use your new life drain cantrip to leech his vitality.

However it only drain a little vitality at a time, a single use is not enough to kill him; he begins to run away. You go after him and knock him down and keep using the life drain cantrip, killing him slowly. He hits you in the head with a stone. You slowly heal this wound by draining his life, engaged in a grapple with him. After about a minute he is dead.

You hoped the life drain would heal your dreadful scars, but apparently scar tissue counts as already healed so the spell doesn't heal it - only more powerful spells like regeneration seem to treat scar tissue as still wounded and actually heal it.

What do you want to do now?

>>3896466
Go to where the Oakhearts live and observe the Manor.

>>3896466
Backing
>>3896475

But also look into the married ones. It's unlikely but possible that they're not as well defended

>>3896475
>>3896479

You take your eagle and fly east towards Springsville. After a day of fast flight you arrive there.

Seeing the village in the horizon, you begin to weigh your options on how to observe the Manor more closely. You see the village has walls, but the gates are currently open.

> Just fly near the manor with the eagle and watch it closely
> Tell your eagle to wait in the woods, cast Invisibility on yourself and walk into the village towards the Manor
> Catch a critter in the woods, turn it into undead and send it to spy on the Manor (which critter, squirrel, mole, woodpecker, rat)
> Write in

>>3896540
>> Tell your eagle to wait in the woods, cast Invisibility on yourself and walk into the village towards the Manor

>>3896540
>the one with invisibility

>>3896549
>>3896556


You tell your eagle to wait in the woods, cast Invisibility on yourself and walk into the village towards the Manor.

You go past the guards in the gates raising no suspicion and walk into the inner village stone paved roads until you find the Oaksheart Manor, a three stories tall square stone building taking over a whole city block.

There are a couple guards at the entrance of the Manor, imposing double doors, wearing chainmail and carrying swords. The place has large wooden windows with glass panels; the ones in the street level and the first floor are all closed, but there are several open on the second and third pavements. On the second pavement you can see a lot of shelves with books, you think most of the floor is a large library. You saw a man, a guard you think for he was wearing chainmail, looking out the window in the third pavement briefly. On top of the building you can see four more guards carrying crossbows. Going around the block you see another entrance, also double doors but smaller, there are also two guards in there wearing chainmail and carrying swords.

What do you wanna do now?
> You've seen enough, head back into the woods
> Attempt to climb into the second floor and enter through a window into the library
> Attempt to climb into the third floor and enter through one of the open windows
> Attempt to climb to the roof
> Write in

>>3896601
>Attempt to climb into the second floor and enter through a window into the library

>>3896601
>attempt to fly through an open window

>>3896610

if you cast a spell you break invisibility

>>3896601
>> Attempt to climb into the second floor and enter through a window into the library

>>3896613
Ah dang, I thought we cast spider climb with it for the wizard tower before.

>>3896604
>>3896610
>>3896615

You attempt to climb into the second floor supporting yourself by grabbing and stepping into small wall grooves; with some effort you manage to prop yourself up and through a window into the library.

There are thousands of books into the many bookshelves that line this place, on the most varied topics - law, theology, philosophy, architecture, history, heraldry, medicine, mathematics and many, many more. You walk around the library a little, astonished seeing so many books in one place, when you notice a section of the library with mostly scrolls and some thick looking books in one corner of the building behind a counter, a sign hanging from the ceiling says "restricted collection"; there's an elderly woman sitting in a chair behind the counter reading a thick romance novel.

On the opposite corner of the library there are the stairs, going up and down. Sitting in a chair near the stairs there's a soldier, his crossbow between his crossed feet, reading an adventure novel.

You can see the inner garden on the windows on the opposite side. You see a couple young girls running around in the garden playing, they must be about nine or ten years old. Their astonishing beauty leaves no doubt about them being the Oaksheart children.

You can also see an older girl, a teenager who looks to be about fourteen, sitting in a cushioned metal chair under an umbrella reading a book. She's no doubt also an Oaksheart. There are two guards carrying crossbows in the garden near them.

What do you wanna do?
> Climb down the window into the inner garden
> Go down to the first floor
> Go up to the third floor
> Go check the restricted collection
> Write in

>>3896669
>Climb down the window into the inner garden

>>3896669
>> Climb down the window into the inner garden

>>3896674
>>3896678


You begin to climb down the window into the inner garden.

When you are about halfway through you hear a woman's voice coming from inside the Manor yelling.

"Lunch is served!"

The girls start running inside the Manor, the teenager puts down her book and begins to walk inside.

Seems like you only have a small window of opportunity if you want to risk it all to catch one of them right now.

> Cast Flight, grab one of the girls and fly away (which one, teenager, younger kid, older kid)
> Resume climbing down into the inner garden
> Climb back up into the library
> Write in

>>3896715
>Cast flight and grab the oldest

Hope that vampire is a semi pedo

I guess he can always wait for her to get older

>>3896777
+1

>>3896777
>>3897142

You cast Flight on yourself, becoming suddenly visible, and fly towards the teenage girl, grabbing her and lifting off.
The girl immediately begins to scream for help, the little girls scream in terror and shock.
One of the guards scream "A witch took lady Samantha!"

The guards at the ceiling shoot at you with their crossbows; and two shots connected! You're hit in the left flank and in the right buttock.

Lady Samantha keeps flailing about and screaming making it mightily difficult to carry her but you manage.

As you fly over the village gates more crossbow bolts come your way but by now you already gained some altitude and they don't quite reach you.

When you get to the woods you yank out the crossbow bolts and prepare to take your prisoner with you to the necropolis on your eagle.

You fly back to the necropolis with the eagle holding the girl.

What do you want to do?

>>3897338
Throw together a dinner for our guest and glean whatever information we can from the conversation.

She must be hungry after such a long journey, and after all we just rescued her from a secret political betrothal to an old senile noble in another kingdom.

Perhaps she'd be willing to consider another long-term commitment with an older, but more lively fellow.

>>3897338
Just bring her to the vampire

>>3897338
Question her a bit before bringing her before the Vampire

>>3897338
>Throw together a dinner for our guest and glean whatever information we can from the conversation

After that bring her to the vampire and ask for knowledge/magic power from him instead of stupid regen potion. Scars don't hinder us in any way and we gain nothing by being beautiful in the first place.

>>3897425
>>3897447
>>3897564
>>3897671


You decide to throw together a dinner for your guest. You don't receive guests often - or rather at all - so you don't have the proper furniture for this, you must improvise. Cleaning up the desk from your study, getting the plates set, some candles lit and some steamed vegetables from your garden served you go get your pris... I mean, your guest.

You make her sit at one chair and then you sit at the other facing her. She's still sobbing and with a longface, but at least she's not screaming and flailing anymore. Maybe she got tired?

"You haven't touched your vegetables! Eat, you must be hungry after such a long trip. I grew these myself. "

"Who are you? Where am I? Why have you kidnapped me?", she says. By the gods, even her voice is beautiful!

"I'm Maeva Slydark the necromancer, you're in my home a cemetery and I got you because I intend to trade you with one of my acquaintances who desires you for your beauty. ", you say.

"Oh, woe is me! Imprisoned by an evil witch to be traded away like a slave! I'm promised in marriage to the lord of Castletown, one of the largest cities in the kingdom, once he hears of my fate he'll spare no efforts to rescue me!", she says.

"I doubt they'll be able to save you, we're many miles away from your village and the place you are going to is very well defended. Reconcile yourself with your fate, your new master is a gentleman. ", you say.

She begins to cry again.

What do you want to do?

>>3897778
We can do nothing more. Call the vampire's minions to help us bring her to him.

>>3897780

You call the vampire's minions and take the girl down the catacombs, following the same procedure - you leave your eagle outside, get into the litter with the girl blindfolded, and the dwarves carry you all into the outer sanctum.

"Oh, she's so beautiful! Ah and so young!", says the elf.

You all arrive at the vampire's outer sanctum where he's waiting.

"Yes, yes! I've waited for so long!", he says when he sees the girl.

"You've been very effective Maeva. Perhaps too effective. I've sent my thralls to acquire your potion but they will only be back in a couple months.", says Khalmyr.

"For how fast you did the task I'll throw in a little something from my collection. Choose one item!", he says, as his thrills bring a bunch of stuff into view.

1 - an old wand of Fireball, only has 12 charges
2 - a scroll of Teleport, single use
3 - a potion of Transformation in Black Dragon, lasts one hour
4 - a half burnt ancient scroll titled "Advanced methods of shadow summoning - Liber II, on the magnification of the shadows"
5 - a half burnt ancient scroll titled "Advanced methods of shadow summoning - Liber IV on the specialization of the shadows "
6 - a flask of pixie dust, good for 10 applications. Each application lets you fly for 10 minutes. It may be useful in magical recipes too.
7 - an old wand of lesser demon summoning, only has 6 charges
8 - an old grimoire titled "Demonology" heavily annotated by guy called Anunorak, seems to detail the basics of summoning demons, it is missing a lot of pages though
9 - a scroll with a summon angel spell, single use
10 - a crown of telepathy, let's you read people's minds and communicate without speaking up to 60 feet away


"If you don't want the regeneration potion anymore I can call off my thrills and give you three of these items instead and consider the deal done and finished. What will it be?"

>>3897819
>7 - an old wand of greater demon summoning, only has 6 charges


Sorry, my bad it was supposed to be greater demon there

>>3897819
>1 - an old wand of Fireball, only has 12 charges
You mean thralls, not thrills

>>3897836
>You mean thralls, not thrills
Yeah, that too.

>>3897819
>10 - a crown of telepathy, let's you read people's minds and communicate without speaking up to 60 feet away

>>3897819

Call off the regeneration potion since beauty is useless for a necromancer

> 4 - a half burnt ancient scroll titled "Advanced methods of shadow summoning - Liber II, on the magnification of the shadows"
> 7 - an old wand of greater demon summoning, only has 6 charges
> 8 - an old grimoire titled "Demonology" heavily annotated by guy called Anunorak, seems to detail the basics of summoning demons, it is missing a lot of pages though

>>3897836
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