Revealing Revelations Of The Revealed

Bad necromancy is hard to mistake. Even shackled to a wall without my magical ability I could hear the tell tale scream and explosion of power that improperly practiced necromancy causes (properly practiced necromany is quiet and almost unmistakeable except for those who know what they are looking at). You see when you screw necromancy up you are basically ripping open a life force (one of the most powerful forces ever, its basically raw magical power) and freeing it. Outside this is dangerous, inside this is extremely dangerous (the resultant force can accumulate and detonate, I have used this myself before as a means of escape).

So I was chained to a wall while a bomb of magical energy exploded not to far from my position in an underground cave.  This is known as a worst case scenario (different from a Lorentino scenario because I didn't do it).  Needles to say I was more than a little worried as the power got closer and closer to irridicating me, and then it stopped, reversed itself and the cave got eerily quiet. I waited because it could have been the calm before a really large explosion, but thankfully that did not come (again I write these entries, so I'm clearly still alive long after these events have happened!) Aelanes came from the cave mouth, his sword back in its place on his back. He was still pulsing with the power he had taken. I could see the messed up runes flashing a bit on his skin, though I could tell they had been modified from their original intent (originally the runes read like a simple necromantic spell, what they were changed to was a lot more powerful and explosive as I saw). Which told me either my apprentice learned by simply being near me (I do tend to speak in my sleep, or so Nidget whines about me) or Aelanes had not entirely been honest with me.

"I haven't been honest with you." Ok he did tell me he wasn't being honest with me. I have to admit seeing my apprentice had already learned some necromancy, had just taken several peoples lives, and I was still chained to a wall, well I was more than a little worried.

"Really? I hadn't noticed, why don't you get me out of here and we can discuss the whole thing." Lying about someone elses ability to murder you to put them at ease so they don't murder you? Yeah it never really works, but I had to try!

"No I need to tell you something first." There are few times you feel comfortable remaining in a position of no power when someone direly wants to tell you something first, and I can not think of any of them right now.

"Ok well go ahead don't keep me waiting."

"When I went looking for you, I ran into another person first, his name was Morley..." My blood went cold, not only was my disciple not potentially my disciple but he was Morley's a potential sleeper agent for the worst person to have ever lived, and there I was shackled to a wall.  Well lets just say I listened intently to what had transpired between Aelanes and the WORST PERSON EVER! And I'll tell you all about it... next entry. So now I've chained you to a wall, because I'm nice like that.

Well Sure That Makes No Sense

"I have to kill you." We had come so far from drunkenly throwing up on my shoes and proclaiming he was my number one fan to murder (also known as the meeting Trezlan Lorentino arc of history). Sidir had collected himself feeling better a little bit after his drunken celebration, so now it was down to the real reason he captured us (sadly it wasn't like a really weird way of getting my autograph).

"You'll have to kill him over my dead body." Aelanes was at least being the best apprentice ever.

Sidir laughed, "That's part of the idea, I can't possibly take all over Lorentino's life force without an appetizer." Which at least told me why Sidir was my biggest fan (I had hoped it was my brilliant treatise on the southern trade barons, a volume I might add that is over a thousand pages long full of notes and annotations, my greatest work that I keep working on. Ok so "greatest" is an evolving term).

"You can't take any of my power Sidir, at best you'll just get a taste overload on it and die a pitiful shriveled drunk who flew too close to the sun that is my greatness." Have I mentioned I have a healthy ego? I have a healthy ego. On top of that what have I always told you kids about trying to use necromancy against me? IT NEVER WORKS BEECAUSE I KNOW MORE ABOUT NECROMANCY THAN ANYONE ELSE!!! Well except for Morley, and even then I might know more than he does (one day Morley you son of a bitch, I've got quite a few rituals I'd love to lash into your flesh, if you are reading this after killing me, you're already dead the journal is booby trapped). Sidir squinted at me, and then called a couple people into his torture area and they collected my apprentice. Aelanes went willingly (fighting would have been kind of useless unarmed against people were armed and we were both magishackled) and I had a bit of worry in me. I mean I can survive a lot of failed necromancy due to my guile and bullshit, Aelanes had not been trained with any of that (aside from the bullshit).

"Have anything to say to this young man before he dies?" Sidir suddenly confident for no reason.

"Yeah Aelanes your name has too many voweles in it." Aelanes smiled and they lead him out. I have to tell you the longer I sat hanging from that wall the more worried I got, and when something finally did happen well to say I was surprised was an understatement. And thats where I'll leave you wondering what will happen, like I've done for the last couple entries. Man I drag things out, THATS WHAT SHE SAID BOOOM!!!

The Price of Popularity

Sidir arrived stumbling into his little dungeon. He stank of being drunk and had all the motor functions the same. His hair was equally unkempt and he looked like his bender had been going on for several days. Aelanes turned his head in disgust, but I was insulted, I mean I've been imprisoned by all sorts of people, but never someone who was way drunk like this. I mean I've had drunk people trap me in hallways outside of taverns even bang on my store doors well past closing time, but I've never had drunk people show up to torture me.  It was just unseemingly! I mean I'm the great Trezlan gods damned Lorentino, the least he could do was show up on time, with proper torture implements AND NOT FREAKING DRUNK! He didn't even talk for a bit, just stumbled around the room looked at us and giggled. HE GIGGLED! Every minute this farce went on I was more and more enraged. I racked Scar's memory and there wasn't any kind of indication of drunkeness with his interactions with Sidir. But here the asshole was drunk out of his mind stumbling around LIKE AN ASSHOLE!

"OH COME ON!" I finally broke the silence after he collapsed near my feet and start giggling again. He threw up on my shoes and I felt that this was the most interesting torture I'd ever experienced, if by torture I mean complete stupidity.

"I am your biggest fan." He finally said something and then threw up again, I heard Aelanes laugh I was not laughing. I mean come on! This guy? THIS GUY? IS MY BIGGEST FAN? I tell you I've been physically tortured more than I ever want to remember, but this mental torture? It was the worst, because they finally hit me where it hurt, my ego.

A True Lorentino Plan

"Well this isn't optimal mind you it does play into my strengths." We'd been chained to a wall in an underground cave, I allowed them to take us because in true Lorentino fashion this worked out to our benefit, well other than the magical shackling that part always sucks.

"You have a plan for being captured?" Aelanes was new at adventuring you must forgive him.

"Always Aelanes you see when an enemy captures you they assume they have the upper hand instead of the correct belief they just put themselves deeper into your stated goal, that being capturing/killing them (yes I vocalized slash because I'm awesome)." I may be lying a bit about the whole being captured thing as part of a plan, maybe.

"This does not seem like an intelligent set up Trezlan." Sidir's men had stripped us of our weaponry and told us the master would be to us shortly, this was several hours ago, I guess in henchman talk shortly means more than several hours, because assholes tell their own special version of time, asshole time.

"You have much to learn Aelanes, first off no villain who knows who you are will kill you outright, its against the basic rules of villainy, secondly they probably want something from us another point against our outright murder, and third anyone who lives in a cave with a torture room probably has at the very least hours of horrific torture ahead of us." I thought I made my case quite well.

"None of that sounds good at all Trezlan." I sighed and waited, because thats what I do, get dissapointed in humanity and await the person who intended on doing horrible things to us, just so I could flip the tables on him and kill him in some improbable way hopefully sparing Aelanes from being killed in the process (because seriously how many followers can be as combat competent as him? Not very many I guessed!). Sidir for his part kept us waiting several more hours and when he arrived well things took a turn for the weird? Awkward? Inappropriate? I dunno you'll have to read the next entry because of course you will.

What Do You Really See?

"It looks like a ramshackle shack on an unkempt plot of land." We were staring at Sidir's shack, and Aelanes was giving me his assessment of the situation.

"I see, any other things you notice about the shack?" This was a test, sadly Aelanes was failing.

"It looks badly built?" I sighed and Aelanes could see I was upset (I'm an open book of emotion).

"It appears that way because he wants it to look that way, you are seeing what Sidir wants you to see, you are looking at the cover and missing the entire volume." It wasn't entirely fair because I myself had seen behind the curtain because of Scars memories, but my apprentice needed to be more observant (please ignore that I am terribly unobservant for this little lesson).

"Is it illusion magic?"

"No, this is old fashioned shoddy construction and poor grounds maintenance."

"Underground, he has an entire complex underground."

"You are correct, but why are you correct?" Yes I asked him to show his work.

"House is built on a bit of hill, the unkempt land seems to spread around it in a way with difficult to traverse land areas or occupy them, allowing extra hidden entrances and preventing them from being easily discovered. Also there are no obvious bodies of water or creek nearby which makes it more likely to be able to build underground."

"Well done well done." At that point I heard a click of a rifle and noticed we had been surrounded.

"Apparently we missed all these people who had surrounded us Master."

"I believe the phrase is missing the assholes through the trees Aelanes." Not really, but in this case it really appeared to be the case. I guess this was my fault since I knew of the hidden entrance these guys had emerged from, but completely didn't think that someone would actually use it to over take us. Such is hubris my dear readers, a Lorentino curse.

Obvious Questions For the Obvious

"That was Necromancy." We were riding out of Bandit Town to a crowd of stunned people (something I imagine is difficult in bandit town, also before you ask "How did you get an infection after stealing life directly following drinking the bad beer" well first off somethings might not need an explanation ok? secondly as if to directly negate that infections don't happen overnight and while I healed all my current hurts at the time the infection was waiting int he wings like an annoying child you thought you put to sleep but wakes you just before you get to sleep, so there necromancy is not prophetic welcome to suck town it also can't cure wounds you get inflicted on you after you have necromanced, and now I've created a sub heading longer than the entire entry I'll probably finish here) Aelanes (remember the first start of this sentence yeah he was talking) had waited mercifully until we'd been out of ear shot of idiots to talk about things that can get you killed even in crap towns like bandit.

"Yes that is sadly my real claim to fame, I'm a necromancer Aelanes." He didn't seem phased by it, not much of a surprise I'm sure in my cult its not a huge secret that I'm a Necromancer (its not, hilariously though still unheard of in the lands of the Guard, such simple creatures these ones) as a god of giver and taker of life there's only really one way a man could do it outside of I dunno taking over the duties of some giver and taker of life god (of which I really hope there isn't one because man alive I've been doing his job for years).

"What's it like?" The other obvious question of necromancy, first people ask if thats what they just saw, next they wonder what its like.

"You take everything they are, and were, the life force is a rush, the memories not so much. For a man like Scars back there it was a life of misery either inflicting it or having it inflicted on him, what I can hope when I take such an ugly soul at the best is one perfect day. Something that the bully clings to, to try and say he's not a bad person, in the case of scars? His perfect day involved the gang assault of a young girl, his entire life was ugly and whatever punishment awaits bad people like him will be waiting for him with open arms." I could have taken the life force without the memories such is my skill at the art of taking a man (or woman I'm equal opportunity in life theft) but we needed his masters location and so I got the whole garbage tale.

"Truly a burden to take on all of that." This is the nice thing about having a disciple they are all understanding about your completely awful things.

"I make do, it'll hit me in a couple days you never walk away from taking a soul, the best you can do is mitigate it. Live your life better than the one you took and take solace in the fact you removed someone awful." In the case of stealing someone's life who was a nice person? Well don't do that you jerk! We rode on in silence, we didn't have a long way to travel to reach the masters lair, but we made camp outside of town to bed down for the evening. If there was one overriding rule when taking on crazy people, its never do it at night if you can avoid it (unless they are sleeping, than go ahead take them on at night, see still completely awful at times!)

Scurry Away Lesser Forms of Filth

"Aelanes, I don't recall ordering a side of assholes with my beer." There were four of them, scars, and three cronies. The cronies looked like the fleeing type, scars looked like the type of person to be working for someone else.

"Perhaps we should ask the bartender who ordered them?"

"I do believe he fled my friend." He had, service employees always do, they are the first ones out the door, which is a sad statement on the help!

"Are you two finished?" Scars despite all the scars had a fairly normal way of talking, which is weird for a hulking man child like himself, they usually talk all gravely to be scary.

"Nah we're just getting started." We really were just getting started I mean I can go hours of being a wise ass and I have done so several times (usually while incarcerated). Unfortunately Scars like all low level muscle decided to rush us for the insolence of talking. His rush attack like every mark on his body previous was ill advised, Aelanes tripped him slamming his head into the bar (thus destroying the bar with ease it was apparently built entirely of the weakest wood ever). His three friends as I guessed ran away. Aelanes put his blade to his neck and I crouched down to have a conversation.

"And now is when you tell us who sent you and why they sent you."

"Screw you both." Aelanes wanted to inflict a superficial cut but I shook my head.

"You see Aelanes this is when the low level muscle acts tough to us to reestablish himself as a still dominant force to be reckoned with, its partly to save face among the filth he travels in, and partly because he views us as less of a threat than what we are."

"How then do we impress upon this fellow that we are more dangerous to him than we appear?"

"Ordinarily I'd kill one of his henchman probably with fire to show him I'm not messing around, sadly his friends ran off and I can't really just grab an asshole off the street to kill him, just rude." Scars smiled seemingly pleased we would not break him.

"We could always cut off his penis, I'm sure that would get his attention." Again I felt at times Aelanes was more than well trained enough to take on my duties should something horrible happen to me. Scars did not like the solution being offered.

"Cut a bit too quick, I was thinking along the lines of burn." I made my hand of flame and suddenly Scars felt very very talkitive.

"Sidir sent me!"

"Ahh feeling more talkative now?" I extingued my hand flame (because it does hurt a little bit, like a mild sting).

"He wanted me to kill the young one and bring you to him, he knows who you are Lorentino."

"My reputation preceeds me I'm touched."

"You'll be dead Sidir will kill..." Aelanes cut his throat, a bit of an early reaction.

"Aelanes you need to learn to not jump the gun now he can't tell us where Sidir lives." I knelt closer and started to gather my power.

"I'm sorry Trezlan I'm sure someone else might know."

"Oh not to worry he can't tell us, but he'll definately give us the information." Scars blood leaking out of throat eyes went wide as I placed a hand on his chest and sucked the life right out of him.  Necromancy as always is a solution to all of lifes ills. Aelanes looked away, even not knowing what I was doing I think he could see it was not a nice thing. Sidir as it turned out shockingly also wasn't a very nice person, we finally had our evil, it just took a little bit to find it (as is the case with any good case of evil).