Being undead certainly had some advantages for traveling. Aedifex no longer had any muscles to tire, his feet didn’t get sore, and while he could feel hot or cold, his mind just registered it as information without any attached discomfort. Also, he was pleased to discover his sight did revert to normal come sunrise. He still traveled mainly at night though, as travelers would likely wonder about the man cloaked head to toe on a warm summer day.
However, all that didn’t stop him from becoming mentally exhausted. The problem was his flesh. His hearing was muffled like he was underwater. Parts of flesh wobbled with every step. A layer of fluid had formed between his bones and flesh, and the flesh kept pulling away and snapping back creating, this infuriating rhythm of suction-pressure-suction-pressure. Also... wait, were those flies buzzing around him?! Alright, that does it!
An hour later, a bare skeleton was squatting dejectedly by a stream, watching the last chunks of what had been his flesh float downstream. Guess he’d really gone to pieces there. Gradually he realized it was more than just depression, there was no pain but something was clouding his thoughts and sapping his strength. On a hunch, he put his cloak back on and immediately felt better. So, it seems direct sunlight is a problem now that his bones were exposed.
Retreating to the shade of a nearby tree, Aedifex put on the second set of travelers clothes, the first being beyond saving. Though he had placed a self cleaning enchantment on them, even magic had its limits, and over the past 3 days those poor clothes been soaked with fluids the inventor of that enchantment had never imagined, even in his worst nightmares.
Examining his reflection in the stream, he found the way the clothes hung on him completely unnatural, even without the grinning skull face on top. He tried on various pieces of armor but they didn’t help much. The steel cuirass made his chest look fairly normal, but it made his stick-like arms look even more unnatural. He didn’t have a full suit of platemail, only knights wore those, and knights had gone largely extinct since the Hero-King began his reign 10 years ago.
He looked around for anything he could use to bulk himself up. Grass or leaves would be too soft and would bunch together over time. Sticks would be awkward and lumpy. Rocks would be even more awkward, and too heavy. He toyed with the idea of carving a mannequin like body, but now that he was finally rid of that rotting flesh prison he was in no rush to encase himself in lifeless material again. It would also cut off his newly rediscovered sense of touch.
As he was gazing at an outcrop of limestone nearby, a very odd idea came to him. With his Sense he had noticed that the material of limestone was oddly similar to bone. Perhaps it was similar enough too... Rushing over to the outcrop he cast a quick Shatter spell, and picked up one of the resulting shards. Taking a metaphorical breathe to calm himself, he pressed the shard of stone against his arm bone and began using Mend Enchantment.
When an enchanted item was broken, the smaller piece would lose its enchantment and reattaching it (or attaching a new piece) wouldn’t restore it. That was where Mend Enchantment came in. Aedifex placed a finger on the stone chip and several threads glowing with mana extended through the stone to his bone. Latching onto the enchantment, these threads gradually pulled it into the chip while Aedifex poured mana into the enchantment’s structure to replace what was being extracted. A few minutes later, the enchantment solidified again, as if it had always included that chip of stone. Tickling the chip with a blade of grass proved it was just as sensitive as his bones.
Now, the only problem was the stone’s weight. After more thought, he had his second very odd idea today. This one would take more effort. Taking a crucible and heating stone out of his storage box, he filled the crucible with water and then set it too boil. Meanwhile, he gathered more limestone and, casting Flow Stone, molded it over the crucible as a crude stone lid. He carefully monitored the building steam pressure through his Sense. This was going to be either the cleverest or stupidest thing he’d ever done. When the pressure climbed as high as he was willing to risk, he cast Flow Stone again, temporarily weakening the structure of the stone until it behaved like hot tar. The lid immediately mounded up and burst open in the center with a *PA-Ffffwweeeeeeeee!* sound. Ok... currently leaning towards stupidest. After a hasty reset he tried again, this time with a net of wires over the lid. This time the limestone puffed up like rising bread as steam bubbled through the gaps between wires. After everything had cooled, Aedifex discovered he had made something like limestone pumice.
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Eagerly, he began producing more pumice and molding it onto his arm bones. He avoided his joints for now as, obviously, stone doesn’t bend. When he was forced to stop to recover his mana, he worked at carving a mask and making a wicker frame to fill out his lower torso. Filling in his torso would add too much weight, so he would stick to his arms and legs for now. In a moment of inspiration, he realized he could paint the mask to look like a human face. With a hood up, and the mask in shade, it ought to fool anyone who didn’t get too close. It wouldn’t fool anyone he had to talk with, but it should at least keep him from getting interrogated by every passing guardsman.
Finally finishing with his legs, he decided to just encase his feet, as it shouldn’t matter weather or not his toes could bend. He soon learned better, as he was left clumping around like a soldier in heavy armor, a jolt going up his spine with every step. Seems feet are more complicated than he thought. Sighing, Aedifex took out a small harmer and chisel.
Ok... that HURT!!! Note to self: stop binding stuff to your soul unless you're sure you want to keep it. At least, thanks to his screaming, he had discovered his voice was back now that his throat wasn’t in the way. He decided to avoid thinking about where the sound was coming from too much. A magician’s perception of things had a way of influencing their magic, and if they kept telling themselves something shouldn’t work, it might just stop working.
Getting back to his joints, in the end the best he could think of was tying rags around them to add bulk. In just clothes you could still notice the lack of elbows and kneecaps, but under a full suit of leather armor (including gloves of course) he looked... fairly human. Human shaped anyway. As for the metal cuirass, he decided it would look too out of place on a spellcaster. Mages on Klishay wore cloth for the simple reason that if all members of a party wore armor, the mages could never keep up with the more physically fit warriors.
Sighing (out loud now, he was pleased to note), he decided he would have to pose as a spellsword. As you might guess from the name (so close to sellsword) spellswords were not well regarded by society. Regarded as vagabonds who had failed to master either sword or magic, they fought by combining a few tricks from both. Generally unwelcome in parties, spellswords survived by taking jobs not worth hiring a group for. As such, they usually wore leather armor (the ones who could afford armor at all) and it wasn’t rare for one to hide his face either, as it was a rare spellsword who hadn’t had to do something illegal just to eat at some point.
So, with this disguise no one should suspect Aedifex was a Lich. Only one problem, who would actually hire such an obviously disreputable person? Well, that one was actually quite easy. You see, there actually was a nation spanning organization that existed for the very purpose of hiring such shady not-quite-bandits, created by the Hero-King as one of his very first acts.
Resuming his journey, Aedifex set off to join the Adventurers Guild.