“The succubus makes things interesting,” Vito said after I relayed everything I had found in the city. “The fact she was able to affect you speaks to her power.”
“How did she even do that?” I asked. “None of those body parts work.”
Vito gave me a wry smile. “Trust me, they can do it. From your description, I’m guessing at least she is a demon. It is certainly something we should watch out for. Along with the high priest and the commander of the garrison, those are the four people we need to keep an eye on.”
“Who do you think is the strongest?” Maxwell asked, having listened in with Raven and Abimelech.
“The high priest for sure,” Vito said. “I noted him when I did my own recon. At the time, he was visiting with the mayor and his consort, so I had not been able to get a read on them. I will handle the priest.”
“And we get the rest,” Raven said happily.
“You need to be careful of the succubus.” Vito gave Raven a serious look. “You as well, Maxwell. Ezekiel and the Terhaim all have passive resistance to that, at least at their current progression, but you and Maxwell do not.”
“I don’t know, a succubus sounds kind of fun.” Maxwell had a shit-eating grin on his face.
“You’re disgusting,” Raven said.
“How are the seventeen of us going to take on the entire city?” Abimelech asked. “They likely have more powerful people than that, and even if we are stronger, they will still have many. The micilium here cannot come with us.”
“You are right, they cannot. They are far too young and too weak. But I have a solution.” Vito smiled. “Kellnock is not the only one who can make minions.”
Vito led us up a set of stairs onto a rampart. Looking over the edge, I saw it was a half-circle surrounding a vast tunnel leading into the cavern. “This was the only major access from this region deeper into Tehomal,” Vito explained. He nodded down at a micilium standing next to the gate who turned and disappeared inside. “We got lucky with having a chokepoint like this. I’ve thoroughly collapsed the other tunnels that would circumnavigate this point. If they had been bigger tunnels, then it would’ve been impossible to do.”
Movement and sound drew my attention to where the micilium had disappeared into. A column of undead marched out, their steps in sync. There were two types, ten of each.
“The first type at the front line with the shields and battleax are bone guards,” Vito said. “The second type holding the large black horn bow are obviously bone archers. They’re all at level 90, so they should be easily commanded by Kellnock’s lieutenants.”
“I worry about how I will increase their strength as we go,” I asked, more than stated. “Will they always be stuck at level 90?” I understood why the levels were where they are, to ensure the command would work.
“No,” Vito shook his head. “It will function similar to how the Terhaim work with you, except as a unit. When they are assigned to a commander, they will form a unit and that unit will collectively gain experience. When the lieutenant advances, then the unit will advance, assuming they have enough collective experience.”
“And I’m guessing the lieutenant’s experience will be based on either mine or the commanders they follow?” I guessed.
“Yes, in fact, I suggest you assign the Terhaim as colonels in your army,” Vito said. “That way the lieutenants can report to them, and it will eliminate some of the headache. Organizational structure is worth a lot, especially in an army.”
“Is there more than just these twenty?” I asked, trying not to sound ungrateful.
“Many more,” Vito assured me. “I didn’t want to crowd the space. In total, there are 1500 bone guards, and 500 of the bone archers. In addition,” Vito gestured at another group coming out. The other group hadn’t drawn my attention, and for good reason. They were shaped like skeletons made out of transparent black energy. “These are life thieves. There are 200 of them. Though I do wish Telkin was here.”
“Me too,” I muttered, he would have made this a lot easier.
“When I first came through this area, I noticed it was inhabited by a nest of large lizards that were covered in bony ridges and spikes,” Vito explained. “Living with them, in a parasitic relationship, was a kind of remnant that feeds off the life force of the lizards, the disgusting creatures.”
“Don’t you also do that?” Raven asked. “Zeke told me that vampires fed on life force and that you do it by drinking blood.”
Vito glared at Raven, but the innocence in her eyes and the question seemed to pause him. I was beginning to wonder just how aware Raven was of that ability of hers. “There is a big difference. Remnants can come about in all kinds of different ways, people killed by vampires through draining can become remnants if the vampire is sloppy. They are neither fully dead nor fully alive and can only take life force from things recently killed. That life force is tainted with death and corrupts them, driving them mad. It’s why vampires don’t drain from recently killed, and if they do, it is a terrible thing to behold.”
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“I’m guessing you made the bone guards and bone archers from the lizards, and these life thief things from the remnants?” I asked.
“Yes,” Vito said. “As for how I did it so quickly was simple; I knew the troops that would be most useful to you and so while we were waiting for news, I built three large rituals, one for each type I had in mind. I also made certain to build up large mana reserves. When I got back from creating the Terhaim, I slaughtered the lizards and remnants and brought them to the rituals and that was there was to it.”
“What happened to the commanders you were working on?” Maxwell asked. “I remember you had said something about that.”
“That was another thing I worked on upon my return. When I saw how superb Kellnock’s were, I decided I was better off supplying a different role. In some ways, it is more complicated because I need something that can lead groups without you around so we can send reinforcements, but I also need them to be loyal.”
“You should talk to some of the players in that city,” Raven suggested. “Zeke has turned several into living dead and there is more and more interest in it. You might be able to get them to help.”
“That is a good idea,” Vito agreed. “Bound souls can do remarkable things despite their limited knowledge of what they are actually doing.”
“That’s only true if they didn’t do the transition,” Maxwell protested. “Once you do that, everything you have beyond that comes from your own hard work.”
“Of course.” Vito bowed his head slightly. “I apologize.”
I pulled up descriptions of the undead below me as they walked. Raven’s idea was good. If Vito could somehow give a quest out that helped accomplish that, then the game system would even help him help me.
Bone Guard
Level: 90
Bone guards are an evolution of skeleton undead and are the backbone of any undead army. Their bodies are stronger, tougher, and more resistant to bludgeoning damage than they were as mere skeletons.
There was a little indicator at the bottom of the description that I mentally selected to see what evolution paths I knew could go beyond the bone guard.
You know of two evolution paths for the bone guard. Evolving is not always necessary, as on their own, bone guards can grow to massive strength. Also, there are other less intuitive evolutions as well or they can evolve on their own in the right circumstances.
Bone Knight: The bone knight doubles down on the strength and durability of the bone guard.
Death Knight: The death knight increases in strength slightly but also gains death based magical abilities.
I examined the bone archers.
Bone Archer
Level: 90
Bone archers are an evolution of skeleton undead. While only slightly tougher than a skeleton, they make up for it with a powerful upper body and excellent vision, which allows them to use ranged weapons with deadly precision.
You know of two evolution paths for the bone archer. Evolving is not always necessary, as on their own, bone archers can grow to massive strength. Also, there are other less intuitive evolutions as well or they can evolve on their own in the right circumstances.
Bone Assassin: This evolution further enhances the physical power of the bone archer, letting them draw back even more powerful bows.
Death Shot: This evolution does not increase the power of the bow that the archer can draw back, but gives them the ability to imbue every shot with deadly magic.
Finally, I pulled up the description of the life thieves.
Life Thief
Level: 90
Life thieves are an evolution of a shade. This is not a common evolution since it requires the creature the shade was born from to have had some kind of life draining ability. The attacks of these creatures are not physical and bypass all non-magical defenses. Anything living touched by their claws has it’s vitality ripped out of it.
You know no evolution paths for the life thief. Evolving is not always necessary, as on their own, life thieves can grow to massive strength. Also, there are other less intuitive evolutions as well or they can evolve on their own in the right circumstances.
The evolutions of both the bone archers and bone guards were both what I expected and not quite what I expected. Normally I ignored the evolution options because up to that point, none of my personally created creatures had been strong enough to bother with or they had been self evolving. However, I suspected I would have these ones working for me much longer.
“I’ll check if I can start a quest for you when I return,” I said. “If I can, I will send you a message. I also don’t know how I would evolve one of these? It’s not really something I’ve done before and I’m certain that the bone guard can also advance to eldritch bone guard.”
“You mean like Kellnock’s creations?” Vito asked, nodding in acknowledgment of my offer for the quest.
“Yes.” I quickly explained the information from the evolution options. “Also, what are the advancements for life thieves?”
“To create what Kellnock did you would probably ,” Vito shook his head. “I doubt an evolution exists that takes a bone guard into something with both eldritch and death magic, it is probably one or the other. Even then, I’m uncertain what would even be required to create an eldritch knight. Same goes for the bone archers. As far as the life thieves go, I don’t know. I honestly will have to do some looking into that. Damien probably knows if you want to ask him.”
“Next time I’m there I will,” I agreed. “The plan is for you to continue to send troops to me. Any chance you could create the mobile turrets that I designed? Of course, you probably cann’t do the eldritch version.”
“I don’t see why not,” Vito shrugged. “Since I’m planning on sending some kind of more advanced control undead anyway, there should be no problem. I need your help with something though, and you may not be entirely correct about me not being able to use eldritch power.”