Careful as to not damage his left arm any further, Volodar went to the body of Cangvar and placed his right hand upon the back of the giant. Adelia followed as she continuously casted restoration magics onto his left arm. “My lord,” she said, “this one can wait as we have time before we leave this cave. You need to rest that arm for now.”
Fixated upon the corpse, he ran his hand along the black ice on his armor. Volodar spoke after a while, “It cannot wait. There will never be anything as fit for the position as the one I’m looking at right now.”
Confused, Adelia couldn’t help but to look at the frost giant. The giant’s helmet had been damaged in the conflict as one of the horns that adorned it was shattered into jagged bits. It was impossible to see all of his face, but he died with a grin of all things. His once lit, blue eyes were closed. Besides the giant was his bastard sword, which no longer showed a light blue radiance that it used to. She asked, “What do you mean?”
“I saw the way in which he carried himself through that conflict. He was unyielding even when surrounded and maimed Stokrar even disabled by Gaulk and Doppel.” He paused for a long time before resting his hand upon the head of Cangvar. “They say that every necromancer who had gone through the annals of history and was remembered all had one thing in common. Each of them had an enforcer to their ideas. A creature that their master’s name alone conjured their image to your mind. Someone who they raised that evoked fear from adventurers to law bringers alike.”
Dark energies swirled out of his right hand as he started to channel necromantic powers into the corpse. “Doing it sooner than later will allow more of his memories to be intact.” Although painful to do so, he placed his left arm on the frost giant. Ignoring the pleas from Adelia to not damage it further, he poured all of the might of his magic in that moment. Rays of black swirled around the room dimming all non magical sources of light as the bitter air picked up in that moment. Volodar raised his head backwards as he continued to talk, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. “He will choose his name and fight alongside us. If Hunter is my eyes and Doppel is my shield, he will be my blade.” The others watched on as Volodar continued to raise his voice. “Rise noble warrior and become my death knight as the one true commander of my forces.” Reaching the peak of his spell usage, he seemed light headed as blood started to trickle out of his nose and drip onto the icy floor. “Display your inner values and dominate your enemies by my side.” All of the dancing black magics consumed the body, blotting it out for a moment before it all subsided within him.
With a lack of strength, Volodar fell to his knees as the pain of his arm started to wrack through his body once more. Gritting his teeth, he could see the frost giant start to rise once more. His once light blue eyes were now deep, bright blue as he picked up his blade once more. The blade came back to life as the icy particles started to swirl around once more and illuminated his body with its soft light. Volodar could only look up at the sixteen foot frost giant as he smiled.
The frost giant knelt before Volodar, tilting its head downwards before staring him in the eyes. Even while kneeling, the frost giant was taller than most people and could have a face to face conversation with Doppel. A dual nature wrapped around within the vessel as the animating magics merged with Cangvar’s body. “My liege,” the frost giant said as it laid down its bastard sword between them.
With all the troubles that Volodar had at this moment, he couldn’t help but to feel a chill down his spine as he spoke to the frost giant. “Name yourself. As my lieutenant, this is my starting gift to you.”
Taking its time to respond, it seemed to be thinking about something else. “I am Cangvar, my liege.” Volodar couldn’t believe how taxing the creation of this death knight was. It was certainly a stronger undead than any other he had created before, however, this one was more physically demanding than all of the jotuns he had once raised at once. Adelia wiped sweat away from her face as she continued to focus on her magic, but it was obvious that she was getting tired at this point.
Volodar couldn’t even think about what to say towards Cangvar next as he laid back next to the ice wall of the cave and watched his allies. Everyone was attempting to recover in some ways as Cederic took care of Drake’s injury. Drake assisted with his one arm as they both healed his wounds. Adelia coughed as the green aura she put out kept dying and sparking back.
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“Stop healing me,” Volodar said weakly, “you're already out of magic.”
“It’s fine,” she stumbled over her words before Volodar interrupted her once more.
“Just sit down next to me, I’m not dying yet.” Adelia relented to his wishes as she sat beside him. They enjoyed each other’s company as everyone tried to get some rest on that night. Cangvar picked up his blade and looked towards Doppel without saying anything.
As night passed, Adelia was awoken by Blackjack with hushed whispers. “Didn’t want to wake you up as the two of you were so comfy, but that frost giant went outside and I could hear fighting. It seems that more of them found our location.”
She gently got off of Volodar as she looked towards the other members of the party. Almost half of the party was out of commission when it came to conflict and forcing them to do so would cause serious permanent injury. Looking over, she could see Doppel already making his way to the entrance as Gaulk followed suit. “Okay,” she said, “we have to stop them before they get to the injured.”
Everyone prepared their weapons as light could be seen past the light snowfall that was occurring outside. Gaulk pulled his flail back as he spoke aloud, “Looks like our new ally is killing off some other giants.” Dwarves had an innate ability to see grayscale in the darkness as their tunnels were unlit in many cases. Blackjack pulled out a magical torch and threw it towards the conflict so they could see what happened. Cangvar was surrounded by three frost giants as he was in the thick of combat. Two of the frost giants were already deceased and laid on the ground, slumped over unceremoniously.
Adelia looked at Cangvar as he smiled with each slash he inflicted towards the other giants. His deep voice would speak in his dialect as he ran through his enemies. Gaulk and Blackjack wasted no time in assisting their new member as they both flanked one of the frost giants. Gaulk’s swing of his flail allowed for a loud crunch to be heard as the ankle of the giant fractured. In a panic, the frost giant roared as it swept its sword across the ground wildly. However, Gaulk had seen the way that his family used to slay giants in the past. Using his smaller size to his advantage, he stepped onto the blade and slammed onto the hand of the giant. With two limbs debilitated, Blackjack planted arrows into the neck of the creature.
These creatures were tough, but this one lost too much blood as Gaulk wound the flail back and slammed it into the temple of the giant. This blow was too much to handle as the giant breathed erratically and fell to the ground. The lights were on, but no one was home to defend the helpless giant as Blackjack finished the job. Adelia refrained from casting spells as she learned the value of her healing during this time. Waiting for the perfect moment, she couldn’t help but to admire the ferocity that Cangvar displayed.
Each strike that Cangvar made, must be blocked or dodged unless the giant wished to sustain irrecoverable damage to itself. The frost giants who boasted an agreeable affinity to ice seemed to be slowed by the black ice that Cangvar deployed from his blade. He used ice magic in defensive ways to maximize his opportunity of winning. With a swipe of his blade, he knocked away the weapon of this particular frost giant. A strange horned flask was on the giant’s belt as Cangvar ripped it off and slammed it into the giant’s face.
He seemed almost sadistic as he looked down and said something in his native tongue. Before raising his blade one last time and slamming it into the chest of the giant. Twisting and turning before taking it back out with a roar that shook snow off the evergreen trees nearby. After all of the frost giants were slain, Cangvar slowly walked back to the cave entrance. The frost giants who died by the hands of Cangvar slowly started to rise back up as they moved in sluggish fashion. Any slain creature that is weaker than the death knight would return as undead varlets under his control. Varlets were weak animated undead that had troubles due to their animating stability.
Stopping to look at Adelia, he glanced at his blade before sheathing it once more. Adelia spoke candidly to what she witnessed, “You were amazing, Sir Cangvar.”
He gave a nod to acknowledge her, “They were weak.” Looking back to the frost giant that he killed with the horn just moments prior, he scoffed. “Let’s go back to his lordship.” The next few days were peaceful as everyone rested in this cave. Their sleeping bags did the work of a hundred men so far as it provided warmth and comfort away from home.
Cangvar revealed that he knew where the camp was of the frost giants and that he had memories of the jarl. He never went into detail about it when Adelia asked. With the help of the clerics of the group, everyone was set to tackle the camp of the frost giants. Rations weren’t going to last much longer, especially with Gaulk and Stokrar around. So they prepared to set out for this frost giant camp and finally secure the bounty. Looking towards Cangvar, Volodar couldn’t help but to analyze his animating structure. A devilish grin came across his face as Adelia questioned, “What’s that look for, my lord?”
“Without a doubt in my mind, he is my finest creation yet.”