Heather the Necromancer

“So this is a necromancer's tower,” Quinny said. “Just like Heather's.”

“How can we be sure this is a necromancer,” Heather said as she cleared her head. “The amulet proves nothing.”

“It fits the theme of a necromancer, and it explains the skeletons in the basement,” Frank said.

“I’m a necromancer,” Heather pointed out as she held her arms out to draw attention to her yellow dress and bonnet. “I don’t wear skulls.”

Frank looked at the amulet that dangled from his hand. “You’re not a normal necromancer. Most of the classes that deal with the undead dress like that death knight did. All bones and skulls over black.”

“No fashion sense,” Heather remarked.

“I think it looks cool, Quinny said.

“I think people like to be recognized for what they are,” Frank said. “Most necromancers want people to know they are necromancers.”

“All I have to do is be seen with you for that,” Heather said.

Frank handed the amulet to Heather and began to poke around the room. When he looked more closely at the furniture, he realized it was smashed. Somebody had gone to great lengths to break everything in the room. Even the bed had been battered and broken, a clear sign somebody was trying to remove a spawn point.

He found places where the smooth walls had been chipped away from an impact. In several other spots on the floor were gouges and cracks as if something heavy had been hurled across the room.

“I think there was a battle here,” Frank said. “And the winner looted the room.”

“Somebody attacked his tower?” Quinny asked.

“If he was a necromancer, he may have been hunted down and killed.”

“But he would have respawned and come back,” Heather said. “If he didn't, this would all have faded.”

“Why would the body still be here?” Quinny said. “It should have faded after he respawned.”

Frank looked a the body and remembered what Moon had said. “Maybe he didn’t respawn.”

Heather looked at him with a raised brow as he took a step closer and looked down at the bones.

“Remember what Moon said. The necromancers found a way to break the game. Not only were they changing players to undead, but they broke respawn.”

“We’re going to trust anything Moon said?” Heather asked.

Frank sighed and looked Heather in the eyes. “I think she told us the truth about that. It makes sense why people keep saying your class is banned, and why she wanted to turn you in so badly.”

“So this is a necromancer who didn’t respawn?” Heather asked as she looked down at the body.

“And now his body and his tower are stuck in limbo,” Frank said.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Quinny interrupted. “Everybody respawns or resets.”

Heather saw Frank glance at her, and she realized what he wanted. She turned to Quinny and explained what Moon said about the necromancers and what they did to the world. She explained King Kevin, the dragon, and the subsequent extermination of all the necromancer players.

“This might have been a necromancer king?” Quinny asked.

“It could be,” Frank said.

“Here, in a tiny tower?” Heather asked. “Shouldn't kings have castles and kingdoms?”

“I don’t know what they had,” Frank said.

Heather looked down at the body and shook her head. “I can’t imagine this was one of these kings. Maybe this was a necromancer who was building his tower and got caught up in the war.”

“None of this explains why all this looks like it’s a thousand years old,” Quinny said.

“Could this be part of how the world makes things fade away?” Heather asked.

Frank looked around the room and shook his head. “The tower would be crumbling, and the body would be long gone. Something else happened here that we can't explain. So much time has passed that everything is ruined.”

Heather looked at the amulet in her hand and then looked around the room. “So, there is nothing of value here at all?”

“Nothing we want,” Frank replied.

“Then I guess our adventure was a bust,” Heather sighed. “All we got was a skill in running.”

“At least that’s something,” Quinny said.

Frank went to one of the windows and looked out over the lower yard.

“I see a walled yard. There might be something down there we can level on.”

“Back down to the doors, then?” Quinny asked.

Frank nodded and led the way down the steps.

Heather walked in silence, holding the amulet in one hand with her scythe braced on her shoulder. She turned it over as they walked down the stairs and saw writing on the back. It glowed with the same blue light that was in the center of the room.

“Spectras Uli Nagatha El Vudast,” she read as she reached the floor.

The light floating above suddenly changed to bright red, and there a sudden rushing wind that caused Frank to shield his face. They watched as the light drifted down and hovered just a foot above the floor. There was a sound like a bedsheet was being torn in two, and the light suddenly faded. An object fell to the ground in a haze of dust kicked up by the wind.

“What did you do?” Frank asked, looking at Heather.

“Me? I was reading the inscription on the amulet.” She held it up so he could see the inscription on the back.

He scratched at his head and squinted at the amulet. “It’s written in the same magic to keep it hidden.”

Quinny leaned over to look at it and frowned. “Why, though? What was so important they needed to hide it so only the dead could see it?”

They all turned to look to the center of the room and book that now lay on the floor.

It was a massive black bound tome with a silver trim fashioned to look like bones. It was easily three inches thick and had a metal band four inches wide that ran around the entire book. There were hinges at every corner of the metal band. The front had a round depression with a notch on the top. Where it wrapped over the pages, the band came together and overlapped.

“It’s a book,” Heather stated nervously.

“A book of what?” Quinny asked.

“It must be a spellbook,” Frank said. “Something with hidden lore in it.”

“What hidden lore?” Heather asked. “I get all my spells just by leveling.”

Frank looked at her and shook his head. “What you’re getting are powers. That’s why they require so little to cast, but every class has true spells and rituals. These you have to learn or find or discover. Sometimes they require special ingredients or special conditions to cast.”

“So you’re saying I get powers and spells?”

He sighed. “They are both spells, but players call the ones you get for free powers. These are cheap, easy spells that usually only require command words to cast.”

Heather looked at the book with curiosity. “So, this is probably a book of...”

“Necromancer spells!” Quinny said excitedly.

“Let's leave it here,” Heather said, taking a step back.

“What?” Frank sputtered. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”

“Nothing about this feels lucky,” Heather said. “What the necromancer kings did could be in that book.”

“Then, you have to read it!” Quinny said. “Think about what you could learn!”

“Think about what horrible things they might have done,” Heather argued. “They forced players to become undead, and then when they died, they didn't respawn. If that knowledge is in there, maybe it should stay there.”

“But some of the most powerful spells can only be learned by lore books like this,” Frank said. “A wizard would die ten times over to find a book with his spells in it.”

“Not to mention you don’t have to do anything horrible,” Quinny said. “You don’t have to be like them.”

Heather sighed and leaned over the book. “It looks heavy.”

“It's probably designed to be hard to destroy,” Frank said.

“It’s big enough to be a shield,” Quinny added.

Heather knelt and ran a finger over the metal. As she looked, she could see more writing in blue letters on the metal band.

“Only a master of the dead can open this book,” she read.

“It has to be necromancer spells!” Quinny said excitedly.

Heather looked up at her nervously and reached for the cover of the book. She pulled at it, but it refused to open. She struggled to turn it on its side and realized the metal band sealed book, preventing it from being opened.

“It’s locked,” she said.

“Oh, pooh!” Quinny said, annoyed.

“There must be a catch or release,” Frank said as he studied the edge.

“There’s no lock or keyhole on it,” Heather said as she turned the book around.

“There has to be some way to open it,” Frank insisted.

Heather turned it over in her arms and shook her head. “I have no idea how. Maybe there’s a trick to it like a puzzle.”

“Let me carry it then, and let's go downstairs,” Frank suggested.

Heather agreed and handed him the awkward book. He wrapped his long arms around it and headed for the stairs.

“What do you think will be in the yard?” Quinny asked as they reached the ground floor.

“We're going to find out,” Frank said as he set the book aside and opened the doors.

The yard was a walled-in compound with a small stone house in one corner. The stones of the yard were overgrown with moss and ferns. A few trees managed to take root and now stood tall, filling the yard with shade. There was an outer gate that was blasted from its mounting. The wood was burned and shattered like an explosion had hit it. Scattered around the yard in dozens of places were green mounds of moss and ferns.

“Those trees had to take years to grow,” Heather said. “This tower must have been like this for over a hundred years.”

“It couldn't have been, though,” Frank said.

Heather didn’t understand it either as she walked into the yard and examined one of the mounds.

“There's a shield in this,” she said as she knelt beside it. She carefully pulled a large shield that tapered to a point at the bottom from the mound. The surface was rusted, but enough of it remained to show an image of a blue field with a white dragon's head. As she looked down to where she pulled the shield, she could see the bones underneath.

Frank looked over her examining the mound and then looked across it to the others.

“These are probably all bodies then,” he said.

“But how?” Heather pleaded. “You said the bodies poof after awhile.”

Frank shook his head. “Unless something is done to preserve them, they do. Like if I put them in my graveyard, they rot and add to my points, but even then, they fade a day after I bury them.”

“This place is starting to make even me feel uncomfortable,” Quinny admitted.

Heather tossed the shield aside and stood to look around the yard. It was then they heard a shifting of rocks and looked to the right. The plants along the right wall began to shift, and vines suddenly swarmed together, twinning around one another until a vaguely female human form appeared. Two golden eyes opened, and a mouth formed as it screamed.

“There is no mercy for the dead!”

“A green warden!” Frank cried as he threw his hands wide to flare out his claws.

“What’s a green warden?” Heather asked as she firmly gripped her scythe.

“A nature spirit that is bound to a place to protect it,” Frank said. “Powerful druids can summon them and anchor them to a location to ward it against anything unnatural.”

“Like us,” Quinny said nervously.

The vine creature's legs and arms finished forming, and it dropped to the ground. It had leaves for hair, and flowers dotted it's body as it ran forward wailing.

Frank ran in to meet it with Quinny close behind. The warden waved a hand at Quinny, and vines rose up, entangling her feet. She tripped and fell to the ground with a cry of frustration. Heather watched as the plant woman lashed out an arm that stretched impossibly long and slammed into Frank before he could reach her. He was thrown back a dozen feet to tumble to a halt at the base of a tree.

Quinny tore at the vines on her feet and got up as the warden turned on her. It lashed out with arms that turned into spirals of vines wrapping around her and forcing her to her knees as they began to constrict her.

“Your kind is cursed,” the warden said. “You will rest eternally here.”

“Get your tentacles off of her!” Heather yelled as she swung her scythe and severed the warden's arm.

The warden yelled in alarm and turned to face Heather. It glared at her in outrage a moment before speaking again.

“The living should not walk among the dead.”

Heather stood ready, holding her scythe at the ready.

“I have mowed more grass than you with this thing. Leave my friends alone!”

The warden laughed a sweet musical laugh. “What human calls themselves a friend of the dead?”

Heather smiled and reached a free hand into her pocket and pulled out the amulet.

“A human who would wear this!”

The warden's mouth curled into a wicked scowl as it glared at the amulet.

“Necromancer!” it howled and lashed out with both its arms but was immediately tackled by Frank.

The two tumbled into the yard as Frank tore away at the monster. Quinny piled on battering it with fists as the creature growled in outrage.

Heather watched as the warden caused vines and plants to grow all around her that reached out and grabbed the two hurling Quinny off and dragging Frank away.

It stood tall and glared at Heather with menacing eyes, but Heather was already moving.

“Return and serve!” Heather yelled to the yard as she threw out her hands with a green light forming over them. All around the yard, the green mounds began to shift, and a clattering noise filled the air as skeletons started to reform and stand back up.

A dozen skeletons with rusty weapons and shield turned to glare at the warden and cackled with dark laughter as they ran in.

The warden flailed about smashing them with fists of vines as they swarmed around her.

“Your pets won't save you!” it roared as rusty weapons began to cut and stab.

Heather ran to Quinny, who was struggling to get back up. She put a hand on her and called on her healing spell, sending a necrotic light through Quinny's body.

“Thanks,” Quinny said as she got back up. “That thing is really strong.”

Heather looked up as the warden shattered another skeleton, causing a hail of bones and the creature's sword to fall at their feet.

“Well, at least I have a sword,” Quinny said as she picked up the rusty weapon. She ran with the sword in hand, diving back into the fray.

Heather ran to Frank, who was already back on his feet and getting ready to charge.

“How do we beat that thing?” Heather asked.

“We keep wounding it until it falls,” Frank said. “We have to all stay on it and keep it busy.”

Heather nodded, and together they ran in.

The warden flailed about as it was swarmed on all sides. Frank lashed at it as Heather hacked, causing vines and foliage to fall away.

“You insects cannot defeat the power of growth!” it yelled and suddenly filled the air with a green light. Everything around it was hurled back, and the warden reached to the ground causing new vines to grow upward and into its body healing itself.

“Don’t let it heal!” Frank yelled as he ran to stop it.

The warden looked up at him and hissed again as vines wrapped around his legs, pulling him down and stopping him short of reaching her. Similar vines grabbed at Quinny and Heather's few remaining skeletons, leaving her free to keep healing.

Heather stood up and threw her scythe to the side so she could use both her arms for her spell.

“By the lords of the dark, and queen of pox, may all that lives now decay and rot!”

A sicky yellow mist formed in a circle around the warden as Heather’s spell took hold.

The warden wailed in pain as her body began to blister and bleed.

“What was that?” Quinny yelled as the vines holding her suddenly fell away.

“Grave blight!” Heather yelled back.

“Tackle her now!” Frank cried. “It shouldn’t affect the undead.”

The two ran in again and entered the ring of mist unharmed. They lashed out at the warden as the thing twisted in pain. Frank tore chunks of it away as Quinny hacked with her sword. The warden fell to one knee and produced a sharp wailing sound. All around the yard, Heather saw vines begin to grow wrapping and twining around themselves. She watched in shock as they took vaguely humanoid form and ran in to help their master.

“She can summon pets too!” Heather yelled as she picked up her scythe. She sliced one running for her in half and impaled another, but a dozen more were headed for Frank and Quinny.

She watched as vines in their hands stretched and became straight shafts of spears as they bore down on her friends.

In a panic, she pulled open her panel.

“I have no choice,” she whispered and pressed a button.