Milo Greyson

We came to an uneasy truce with the currently escaped prisoner, a hulking man who went by Crusher. I wasn't sure if I could take him, and though Thana had managed to make the injuries over her body evaporate like it was nothing, I knew she had limited magic. We'd need all the help we could get if we were to make it out alive. My turning on the staff put me quite firmly in the side of those who'd be killed without mercy now.

Crusher's first act was to free the man in the cell beside him. Opcan strode out with a bright smile and a high class accent. His manacles announced loudly his profession.

“Why thank you Crusher,” he said as soon as he was free, giving the larger man a bright smile. “I do so appreciate you dealing with those men, I'd rather not have died horribly today.”

“Mmm,” the brute nodded.

“Now Mr. Greyson, since I suppose calling you 'guard' would be rather impolite now. I don't suppose you know where I might find the keys to these?” He held up his hands. “Or perhaps the young lady might inform me how she got her own manacles off?”

“Lots of pulling and a bit of grease. Ripped the top couple of layers of skin off I hate to inform you,” Thana answered.

“I believe Flint had a key, being that he was in charge of this level and all,” I said.

While he was rummaging the larger man spoke low, looking at Thana. “Been awhile since I had a woman...”

“It does not do to eat unripe fruit my friend,” the mage responded as he tried several keys.

“Huh?”

With a sigh Opcan took a different approach. “I'd rather you leave her alone. Don't worry, when we get out I'll take you by the red light district and see you have a good time.”

“Okay,” the brute easily agreed.

“Hey, mind letting the rest of us join the freedom party? I'd rather not die here either,” one of the other prisoners, Grimtooth, said.

“No worries friend, I'll be letting the rest of you out; just as soon as I have a bit of insurance.” He smiled again, a political, conniving thing. “Ah, I do need spell components, and the bodies as well. Mr. Greyson, if you don't mind taking the young miss to find those while I do a bit of setup?”

Thana Mourningjay

Milo, because I was absolutely not calling him by anything other than his first name now, had managed to turn a losing situation into a complete win for me. For him... not so much, but maybe we could make this work out in the end? I didn't know, but I'd worry about tomorrow after I survived today.

We went into the guard's storeroom together and while there he gave me a hard look. “Look kid, those guys are bad news. If we're making it out of here we need to play nice, but don't trust them. Opcan particularly, he's a manipulator if ever I've seen one.”

“No worries there, the guy gives me a bad feeling, and his buddy is worse, the way he looked at me, like I was just meat...” I shook a bit involuntarily. “But far as I can see we want the same thing right now, to get out of here. Assuming that's what you want.”

“It is. Maybe we can slip away in the chaos after the battle. For now, take a sword, might need it. Components are over here, not sure if any of it is stuff you'll need though.” He passed me a weapon and I grabbed one of the smaller chainmail shirts, tossing it over the simple dress they gave me to wear in here.

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Milo'd brought the manacles in, and I couldn't fault him for that, being that an antimagic field could be useful in all kinds of ways. I was staying well away from them though. Since I'd gotten them off it felt like I could breathe. I had to stand a bit away from them for the full effect, but it was like someone had buried me in the dirt and now I was finally coming up to fresh air.

The spell components were in boxes, one for each of the priests and a couple spare. It was all very organized and regular, so I grabbed one for myself, along with one of the priest's reference books, and another for Opcan. My acquisitions, along with a bit of the rations in here went into a makeshift bag.

He'd been well down the line of cells from me, so I couldn't say I properly knew the man, having only spoken to him once or twice over the distance. He kept mostly to speaking to those nearest from what I heard, and was rather a fancy boy.

When I returned he was smiling again, organizing several of the bodies into shapes.

“Ah there you are my dear, and with spell components. I daresay I only hope they have what I need, though I have doubts. Come, come, I've something to show you.” He motioned me over and when I hesitated continued. “You wound me sweetling, if I wanted to harm you, I would have done it already.”

Slowly Milo and I went over to where he was working. The former guard was on edge, and I could feel it too. Crusher had armed himself from some of the dead paladins, and was now smiling as he swung a sword a bit.

“Not sure what I'm looking at here,” I said as I passed over the box of bits and bobs, the weird things people needed to make magic work.

“Well, I was quite excited when I saw you using the Art. I had no idea you knew necromancy my dear, such an interesting branch, though I'll admit I've only ever dabbled. Ah, but I digress, this is the beginnings of a variant on the staple of any necromancer, the spell Animate Dead.” He really liked the sound of his own voice, and to call me pet names, creepy, but if it got him working with us...

“Um... forgive me, I can't cast that one, but doesn't that require black onyx? They're not likely to keep that in a prison run by priests to the goddess of life, are they?”

“Quite right on both accounts! Ah, but you've missed an important fact. You see, many necromantic spell components can be substituted with... here it is!” He pulled out a small bag, dumping the shiny stones into his hand. “Smoky Quartz! Little known, but very useful for the practitioner who might want to hide their spells, eh little Thana? Normally used in inks and the like, so it's not even suspicious.” He was all smiles again and wiggling eyebrows. “Mind helping me? Just put this one in the mouth of that one over there while I take care of these.”

There were two main piles here, each with four bodies. I noticed that the wounds were all arranged to point to the central figure, the one who's mouth I was shoving a shiny rock into.

“The wounds are important?” I asked.

“Wonderful question! Yes indeed, this variant needs lots of blood. By focusing on having it flow into the central body we can use a standard spell to make something much better. Though they are a bit costly, so I'm not sure I'd recommend them for day-to-day usage. Normally you can only make zombies and skeletons, you see, but for a bit of blood one might make a very tough undead.” This time he even patted my back. It took all I had not to shove magic in his direction to make him hurt.

He cast the same spell several times. The first two he rose up the main two creatures, the blood visibly flowing into them like some kind of revolting river, making the bodies swell while leaving the donors little more than husks. He then recast the spell to make a couple of the donor bodies into skeletons.

“That's pretty impressive magic,” Milo said from my side. He'd kept close though the whole interaction.

“Why thank you. Out of curiosity, are you able to take one of those skeletons? Just as a trial?” Opcan smiled as he presented his challenge.

I leaned towards one of them, a weaker one if I were any judge, and looked into its hollow eyes. I could feel the animating force as I reached out with my mind, and instinctively I pushed. “Obey,” I said.

There was a flit of resistance that left instantly, my suspicion being that it was the other necromancer's will, hidden deep. Once it was gone though there was little here.

“Obey,” I repeated, and felt the resonance. The undead who'd been beginning to move now froze, and I could feel the connection to myself form, a way to control it.

There was a brief stint of clapping. “Magnificent! Ah, you're learning so fast. Is that your first minion? How lovely!” After heaping praise he went back to smiling. “My dear, I know your friend there is a bit hesitant about joining with Crusher and myself, but I'd like to extend a personal offer. Come with us, with your talent we'll be able to control even more minions, and everyone's chance will be better. Mr. Greyson is welcome to come along too of course, but I rather think you'd do well to become my apprentice. What do you say?”

I took a few moments to parse out my thoughts. “My apologies sir, but I don't really know you, becoming your apprentice right now seems a bit of a leap. I'd also like to get out of here on our own if that's okay? Though I do thank you for the quick lessons... er, how do I return this skeleton to you by the way?” I tried to be as polite as possible, but my education on that was really lacking.

“Oh, I'm sad to hear that, but I quite understand. Should we meet again on our exit, or afterwards do know my offer for tutelage stands. As for the skeleton, keep it, a gift if you will.” He turned to his companion. “Crusher my dear man, mind helping me release the rest of these fellows? I think it's about time for us to leave.”

I backed off as they started to go to the cells and Milo leaned over to whisper in my ear. “You're sure you control that thing?”

“Yeah?” I said.

“Good, come on. We need to make tracks quick, some of those men he's letting out might not be so gracious as he's been.”

We hurried to the supply room to quickly arm our boney new companion before heading to the far end of the hall, where the Room of Judgment was located.

“Um...” I nervously said, nearly stopping.

“Relax, we'll avoid the center where the spell is. Just need the secondary staircase. It also locks from inside, fallback in case of riot.” I was glad he was willing to explain.

“Like the one we may have just started?” I asked.

Behind us I could hear the mage raising his voice. “Alright lads, who wants to go kill some paladins!?”

They all let out a cheer right as we passed through the door into the Room of Judgment