Lieze could never bring herself to love the sight of the open sea. No matter the stillness of the waves or the blueness of the cloudless sky, it always appeared to her as little more than a featureless tapestry. She was more concerned with the endless expanse below the surface, always just out of sight but surely hiding sights that instilled a kind of wondrous fear in the heart.
She realised on that day - hopefully the final one - that her seasickness had worn off. The brand-new clipper could have torn through the ocean like a razor if it so pleased, but the necessity of awaiting the army marching beneath its steady course meant that it could never quite reach its true potential. Every so often, a silhouette of the distant landscape could be seen through the fog - great, craggy cliffs and onyx beaches which reminded Lieze of the Deadlands. They were almost there, she could tell.
Two hours later, the continent underwent another change. Now there were islets spreading along the shelf of lethal boulders studding the coast, and verdant but depressing willows hanging over the long grasses and marshes. Lieze knew at once that they were well past the territory of Dwarves, and had emerged onto the inhospitable stretch of swampland separating the mountains from the black forests of Akzhem. They were still far out enough to be safe from a bad collision, but that wasn’t going to last for long.
Quest ‘Plan Z’ Complete! Reward - 5,500xp
She recoiled at the appearance of the notification. It had been well over a fortnight since she’d received any experience. The occurrence reminded her that the time for resting was over, and that she most likely wouldn’t be seeing another break in the action until the Dwarves had been wiped clean from the world.
New Quest Received! ‘Wizard’s Tower’ - Discover a Sage’s abode Reward - 5,000xp
There, in the Kanin Delta, she would find the answers she was looking for - the answers that would point her in the right direction. Drayya had said it best - she was holding herself back, eager to condemn the desire of her spirit in an attempt to regain some semblance of humanity. She was fooling herself. Fooling everybody. She wanted to know the extent of her own lust for the art of necromancy.
Once the anchor was down, Lüngen declared that the boat would be travelling no further. The thralls could disembark on their own initiative, but Lieze and the rest of the cultists would have to take the lifeboats out to the marshes. She and Drayya placed themselves into one of the rowboats, and the latter released a girlish yelp as it was released into the murky, lime-green waters.
“Marching an army through all this is going to be a slog…” Lifting an oar, Drayya tried her best to seem proficient as she rotated the tiny vessel and sent the two on their way towards the swamp, “But, the Dwarves haven’t noticed us, so I suppose there’s no better way of catching them off-guard.”
There was no easy way of disembarking. The mushy lumps of earth cropping up over the bog made it difficult to discern where the shore ended and the land began. Lieze’s shoes sank into the marsh as she hopped over the side of the rowboat when it became apparent that they were sailing no further. Drayya shoved the vessel back out to sea and returned to ferry the others.
Lieze felt unsteady on her feet. She’d spent well over a fortnight at sea. The lively croaking of the swamp reminded her that she was standing in unexplored territory. It was the first time the Order had ever pushed so far north. If she somehow clambered atop the willows, she was certain that the mighty great oaks of Akzhem would be visible towards the misty horizon.
When half of the cultists had been assembled on the shore, the first of the thralls emerged from the ocean to join them. Their foetid, salt-encrusted bodies were bloated beyond recognition, faces ballooning into comical but horrifying expressions of servility. Lieze was pleased to see that the majority of her army had survived the nearly month-long trip across the shoreline. With her Skeletal Necromancers accounting for the Order’s low membership, there had to have been more than 3,000 thralls in total.
Plentiful. But not nearly enough. Not for the Dwarves.
Lieze ascended a clustered formation of rocks splattered with seafoam, careful not to lose her footing on the smooth surface. Once Lüngen and the rest of the cultists were assembled, she wasted no time providing them with new orders.
“This humid swamp is no doubt a haven for monsters.” She began, “Our numbers are still lacking, but the life-choked reaches of this shore offer a plenitude of corpses to slake our thirst for power. I want each of you to take command of the Skeletal Necromancers and empty this region of life.”
New Quest Received! ‘Extinction Event’ - Kill at least 75% of all monsters in the Kanin Delta Reward - 7,800xp
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A flurry of affirmations precluded sudden movement in the marshes. While Lüngen examined his maps to determine where exactly the boat had ended up, cultists broke off in every direction with thralls in tow to slaughter and reanimate any monsters they came across. Lieze was confident that their numbers would overcome any adversary, no matter how ferocious.
She wandered over to Lüngen with one question on her mind, “Do you know where the Sage’s tower is?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” He smiled widely, parting both lips to reveal a crooked set of teeth, “Among the castle’s treasures was a map detailing the known abodes of the Sixteen Sages. The one we’re looking for was erected by the late Sigmund, who was known as the very first explorer to extensively plumb the depths of Akzhem.”
“Where is it?”
His fat finger came to rest upon the water-stained map of the continent, pressing against a golden dab of ink nestled within the clutches of the Kanin Delta, “If we’ve disembarked somewhere around here, then the tower can’t be any further than 10 kilometres. It was constructed along the south end of the Kanin River, so all we need to do is discover the mouth upstream and follow it inland to our destination.”
“It’ll take too long to walk there. We’ll risk getting separated from the cultists in this swamp.” Lieze turned her gaze skyward, where a gargantuan silhouette was hovering through the air, “Drayya and I will take the Manticore and the Void Beast. We’ll reach it in under an hour.”
Lüngen’s expression grew concerned. It was a tiresome habit of his that warned Lieze she was about to be on the receiving end of a worried lecture, “With only two thralls to protect you?”
“Two very powerful thralls.” She corrected, “There’s nothing in this region that could match up to either of them.”
“Have you heard the tales of the soldiers who were tasked with pilfering the Sages’ towers following their disappearance?” He asked, “Most of them were torn apart by all sorts of magical traps and trickery. I can’t imagine Sigmund was any less prudent about booby-trapping his own home.”
“I don’t have any patience for evading the death traps of a sorcerer.” Lieze replied, “If push comes to shove, we’ll use the Manticore to punch a hole into the tower’s walls and enter that way. I’ve come too far to let some mere traps be the end of me.”
Lüngen sighed, “I can tell you’re set on this, so I won’t waste time trying to convince you otherwise. Only promise me that the two of you will be careful.”
“Careful? I doubt it.” She shook her head, “But successful? Absolutely. And in the meantime, I’d like for you to make sure none of the other cultists get lost on their expeditions.”
“I’ll scout for somewhere nearby we could use as a campsite.” Lüngen rolled the map up and stuffed it into his pocket, “I hope you find what you’re looking for, Lieze.”
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The landscape below conjoined into a puzzle of emerald foliage. Lieze had learned that it was best to keep her head down when she was riding the Manticore. Breathing was almost impossible when the wind was buffeting her face like a hurricane. Her fingers slid beneath the creature’s rotting flesh with a sound that would have been unbearably disgusting if she could have heard it.
“Aren’t you ever worried about one of these trips ending in your gruesome demise?” Drayya’s voice was only just audible. She, too, was placing her head against the Manticore’s back to avoid being burned and choked by the wind.
“The benefit outweighs the risk.” Lieze replied.
They were cruising along at goodness knows what velocity - fast enough that the world seemed to be moving at twice the speed. From that height, Lieze could spot the branching delta carving a pattern into the landscape. Further upstream, the streams conjoined into a magnificent river and ran right up to the hills further inland, where the swamps would break away to reveal pleasant meadows and forests of pine.
“It’s not a bad view, at least.” Drayya crawled over to the Manticore’s side and peered over the side of its body, “I can’t imagine the cultists are having an easy time traipsing through the marshes.”
“The Rot Behemoths will topple every willow in the region if that’s what it takes.” She replied, “Every beast who calls this swamp their home will serve us.”
With the Skeletal Necromancers in play, there was no limit to the size of Lieze’s army. Any and all walks of life, no matter how mundane or weak, could be assimilated into her fold. This was her way - the way all necromancers should be. For too long, she had been clinging to the Order’s dogma like a child reluctant to part from their mother’s skirt. If the spirit was as imperfect as she had been led to believe, then there would be another method. There was always another method.
Spotting the Sage’s tower was a trifle once the Manticore began its flight over the Kanin River. The swamp was a featureless collision of identical colours, illuminating the stone spire like a beacon. Lieze found herself a tad disappointed by how mundane and small the structure was - at least from that height. She had expected the home of a powerful sorcerer to look like something out of a fairytale.
The Manticore brought them down easily, landing its paws into the mud-soaked clearing with all the grace of a sparrow. Lieze shimmied her way down from its back and extended a hand to support Drayya as she hopped down. A shadow slinked across the beast’s shaven forelimb, transferring from flesh to soil and morphing into a feline shape.
“What a lonely place.” Drayya peered up to the tower’s pointed roof. A balcony riddled with ivy rounded the perimeter of the highest floor, “You would love to live somewhere like this, wouldn’t you?”
“I’m not fussed about where I sleep.” Lieze replied, “Keep your guard up. There’s no telling what kind of measures this Sigmund took to keep intruders out.”
With tentative steps, she approached the short stairwell leading up to the tower’s wooden door. The cut stones used for its construction were old enough to be weathered at the edges, implying that Sigmund wasn’t the first to use it as a base of operations.
Lieze thought to knock, then dispelled the thought immediately. She pressed her hand against the door and applied a bit of pressure to sense if there was anything awaiting her on the other side. Surprisingly, it was unlocked, and creaked open to reveal what looked to be an enthusiast’s alchemy laboratory.