Paladin “Allies”: 6*
Undead Servants: 5
Maplebrook’s Population: ???
*Atan included.
===
Inventory:
- Gold: 0
- Items: Robe, Flint and Tinder, Vials, Glass Mirror, Sack of Diamond Fragments.
- Magic Items: Scythe, Soul Gem, Protection Charm, Spellbook, Gold Triangle Binding Cap
- Base materials: Vials of Blood, Pouches of Bonemeal, *Various Aether-Infused Plants, Sack of Soil.
- Special Items: Vial of green dust and blood
- Main Components:
- Assorted Kobold Components
- Cat Eyes
- Large Diamond (1)
- Moonlit Chains (1)
- Polished Iron Ingot (2)
- Spider Silk
- Sprite Dust
- Various Slivers of Metal
- *King’s Blood
- *Morning Glories
- *Toadstool
===
Spells:
Cantrips:
- Create Fire (Arcane)
- Decaying Tendrils (Blood)
- Siphon Soul (Blood)
- Spectral Hand (Blood + Arcane)
- True Sight (Blood + Arcane)
Prepared:
- Aether Harvest (Arcane) (Multiple uses)
- Anima Vifica (Blood) (1 use)
- Chains of Erabos (Arcane + Blood) (1 use)
- Dark Flame (Arcane + Blood)
- Force Darts (Arcane)
- Levitate Object (Arcane)
- Mirror Image (Arcane)
- Portal (Arcane) (2 uses)
- Raise Thrall (Blood)
- Sleep (Blood) (1 use)
===
My precious thralls charged into the backline, digging their teeth into the necks of their once allies and ripping apart their flesh.
Bandits spun around and shuddered as they saw their fellows being devoured by their same friends.
I used the moment of confusion to kill a path of bandits and break through to the townsfolk who had held out valiantly. My chest tightened as I saw a wall of dead men and women piled up against the barricade line. The audacity of the bandits to kill my new people.
“You!” the old guard, Ronald, shouted—his spear trained in my direction.
Before I could respond, a roar of bandits heralded another push.
Ronald’s eyes widened. “Help me with the wheelbarrows!” He pointed to a row of wheelbarrows with leaking black ichor. Dead bodies laid around its wheels.
I looked to the piles of dead and began shifting through them for components.
“What in the afterlives are you doing?” Ronald yelled.
“One moment!” I dug through the bodies and found what I was looking for: several tin tools. Knives, tin cups, and even some coins—I piled them in the dirt and cupped them as best I could. With the utterance of some words in the old language, slivers of tiny metal floated out of my satchel and turned into green energy that wrapped around the pile and turned the metal molten. Aether Harvest—a spell that allowed me to convert some items into their raw components for spell casting. In a matter of moments, the pile melted into three flattened plates, about the size of my two hands pressed together.
I then ran over to the wheelbarrows and cast Levitate Object on them; the fresh tin in my satchel used up in the casting. The wheelbarrows lifted into the air and crashed upon the wave of bandits, drenching them in thick black tar.
The bandits reeled in disgust, their final moment before I ignited the black ichor in flame. They squealed as the fire consumed their bodies, dark smoke spraying from them.
The smell of charring flesh brought me back to my young days as a necromancer. I took in a deep breath.
The defending townsfolk stumbled back from the wall of flame, and my thralls made short work of the remaining bandits who’d escaped the barrage.
Ronald looked at me, his jaw slack. Soon, the rest of the militia followed suit.
I had to admit, their expression of awe really boosted my ego. I’d never had people look at me in this manner. Not out of fear, or hate, but pure bewilderment. I tried to play it off humbly, and simply removed my hat and bowed. “Mayor-elect, Jevrick La Kel, at your service.”
A ruckus on the other side of the town snapped me back to attention. I could make out the glint of paladin armor as they defeated the final bandits there. The battle was nearly won.
“The houses,” Ronald cried.
It was then that I realized several of the buildings around the town were catching flame as well. It wasn’t all my fault though—many of the bandits had seemed to fling torches over the walls.
“Guardsman,” I said.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Ronald looked at me as if I’d insulted him.
“Please, see to the town. I will go and make sure that this fight is finished.”
He squinted at me, but nodded all the same.
I nodded back. “Before you do, I need glass. Anything, jar, or window pane. Please.”
A random woman waved her hands. “Yes, master Jevrick. I have some mason jars at my house!”
I nodded my thanks to this lady who I had never met and awaited her return. She ran to a small home down the road, and then back with a cluster of pickle and jam jars. I smiled and took the glass, using Aether Harvest to convert the jars into glass bulbs to be used for Force Darts. The pickles and jams splattered across the road, staining the woman’s dress.
“My deepest apologies—”
She shook her head. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, Master Jevrick.”
A very sweet lady. I tilted my head and said, “may you die of non-painful means.”
With that, I beckoned my thralls to me and summoned a portal. It was time to kill Green Thumb.
***
The dark druid laughed, still on his bulking knees. His voice warbled like a tree bent by a gust of wind. “Why did I ever fear you knights? We could have taken Maplebrook ages ago.”
Atan grit his teeth. He could feel his energy waning. He’d held the cage in place, and dispatched several waves of Greenfolk who had attempted to rescue their leader. Now, Atan felt spent. His arms could barely raise his hammer, and his breaths were labored. He could have dealt more damage to the villain, if only he hadn’t had to use his energy to dispatch his lackeys. Now, there were only a few things Atan could use to harm the beast, but he feared that it might not be enough; the druid was evidently stronger.
Forgive me, Lord. I may not be strong enough. I must lean on the Old One.
Atan sat on his knees and laid his hammer down. He thought to say the forsaken prayer, but a voice nagged at the back of his mind.
“Am I so weak?”
Atan barred his teeth. He could not move. He could not decide. He could not defeat this enemy alone.
“Little knight,” Green Thumb taunted. “Your gods are nothing to the force of nature.”
Fire filled Atan’s chest, and he rebuked the dark druid. “You know nothing about the Celestials. You abandoned your kind for your own selfish desires. You will die to those selfish desires.”
Green Thumb’s lips parted, Atan thought it was to rebuttal, but instead the druid as he stared at something behind Atan.
The paladin gripped his hammer and swiveled back.
A large rift had torn behind him, and out stepped the necromancer with a contingent of Greenfolk-thralls.
“Apologies for the delay,” Jevrick said, placing his tophat on his chest. “I had to put out some rowdy guests.”
Atan’s heart welled with hope. Together, they could bring down this druid.
Jevrick placed the hat back on his head and sauntered forward, his hands in his satchel—gripped around the scythe’s shaft, which stuck out. “Tell me, Giacomo, what will you do now that your legion is dead?”
Giacomo? The wizard knows the druid by name?
Green Thumb scowled. “Who are you? How did you learn that name?”
Jevrick slid the scythe out and spun it between his hands, as if he’d used such an implement before.
His thralls surrounded the cage.
“I know many things about you, Borris. I know that you are fifty.” Jevrick pivoted and swiped the grass like wheat for the harvest. “I know that you are a Druid of the Branch, and that you and your friends love to drink Nightfire potion.”
The druid growled. “Are you trying to impress me? Stall for time? Your paladin is almost out of strength. This prison will falter, and I will kill you both.”
Jevrick staked his long weapon into the ground and straightened nearly to its height. “I’m telling you this, because I know that your might is stronger than my friend’s here, as is your wit. However, your agility and intellect are somewhat lacking for the level of your anima. Sure, you may have a mental fortitude beyond that of the common man—but it is quite negligible in the grand scheme of things.”
Where was Jevrick going with this? What was he talking about? Atan thought. He did not speak, for fear of sabotaging whatever plan the necromancer had.
Green Thumb lashed out with his vines, sparking the cage as they bashed into it. He stumbled back and moaned. However, the bars of the cage had flickered.
Atan focused on the spell. He had to keep it intact until the wizard’s plan became clear.
“Tsk, tsk,” Jevrick chirped. “You shouldn’t be so rude when speaking to your elders.”
The druid scoffed. “Remove that disguise, let us see what you truly are.”
Jevrick’s skeletal teeth chattered. “Disguise? Dear druid, this is the real me.”
The druid roared—throwing himself against the cage. It sparked violently. Green Thumb reared back and charged again. The whole cage flickered with the force.
“It is going to break!” Atan shouted.
Jevrick bowed to the paladin. “Well done, ser knight. Let us draw this conversation to a close.”
***
I, Jevrick La Kel, was having quite a bit of fun with this whole show. I imagined that the noble Clyde had felt this way as he was about to face down Commander Dread, with power and pride in his chest. Though this druid was nothing compared to my old master, I still couldn’t help but bask in the prospect of a good fight between evil and less evil!
Green Thumb bashed against the cage one final time. The radiant bars evaporated spectacularly.
My thralls leapt on to his arms and legs and back, gnashing their teeth fruitlessly against the tough barkhide.
Atan charged forth, hammer glowing, armor smoking.
Green Thumb roared, raising his arms.
I summoned my last cast of Hands of Erabos. The spectral chains burst through the earth and whipped around his fists, pulling them back down.
Vines exploded from his hands into the earth.
Atan swung his hammer high and down upon Green Thumb’s treetop head—smashing twigs and leaves into the air. An eruption of bright light cascaded upon the surface, exploding a portion of the armor in a spray of splinters.
The druid roared again, and vines shot forth from his chest at me.
I spun my scythe in a circle, slicing the tendrils to shreds.
More vines broke up from the earth and wrapped around my legs.
Green Thumb’s mouth curled into a wicked smile.
I smiled as well—thrusting out my palm with a volley of aether darts. Fwoop! Fwoop! Fwoop! A barrage of magic pelted against the bark, blasting holes in it as large as pinecones.
The druid’s status dropped to ‘injured’. My zombies dug their hands into the new gaps in his armor and ripped his exposed flesh. His status plummeted to ‘bloodied’.
Atan bashed Green Thumb’s head again with a burst of divine light—splitting his trunk-shifted head, exposing matted hair.
Blood trickled down the druid’s head, and his status had now fallen to ‘critical’. He was nearly dead.
The druid dropped to his knees once again, head swooning. “P-please. . .” he sputtered.
The vines around my legs collapsed in a heap. I stepped over them, gave a bow, and then took up my scythe in both hands. “Unfortunately for you, good sir, you are a terrible problem for my town.” I swiped the scythe through the druid’s thick neck—lopping off the entire head. The bark armor crumbled, and the brute of a man collapsed as a headless corpse. I watched with my True Sight as his anima wisped out of his body. However, his soul did not disperse into the air as I’d expected once his anima was severed. Instead, his spirit was absorbed into the head of the scythe. The blade glowed for a brief interval before settling back to its normal self. I watched in wonder. What a curious item.
“Well,” I finally said to my winded paladin companion. “Shall we head into town to assess the damage?”
He exhaled, eyes half open. “Are you sure? My brothers and sisters will not forget their duty.”
I twirled the scythe one final time and sheathed it back into my satchel. “Neither will I. I have an election to win, after all!”
A vote for the necromancer is a vote for the future!
Follow, favorite, or subscribe to Patreon to make sure our Necromancer becomes the next Necro-Mayor!
- Jonco
P.S. Patreon will have twice the words on day one, and stay at least 5 chapters ahead of RR!