Rock the Necropolis

Tio and his allied band of zuuda fight against Zavious.

33rd of Ymiden 719

The lands past the gates of Yaralon Proper. This vast area includes The Spines, The Cut, The Crags, Maiden's Refuge, Bastard's Grove, Heaven Fall and small villages.

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Tio Silver
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Rock the Necropolis

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Maiden's Refuge, Yaralon
33rd Ymiden, 719

Fear. Such an odd little emotion. People lived their entire lives trying to avoid fear, to feel safe behind the walls they constructed around them, despite the fact that from a logical standpoint fear did nothing but help them. Fear of being hunted gave prey that extra burst of speed to escape. It was fear that sharpened the senses, honed the mind, and allowed all creatures to tap into their natural instinct to survive. Or at least that was the case most of the time. There were some rare circumstances where a second kind of fear, one that conversely robbed people of their strength and paralysed their minds, emerged. This kind of hopeless fear did not reveal itself when one faced off against something dangerous, but rather when they confronted the unknown; when they stepped out into the darkness and felt the breath of something they didn’t understand, something unnatural, on the back of their neck.

It was this kind of fear that ruled the atmosphere as Tio, Tasha and the large gang of zuuda and mercenaries they’d allied themselves with crept through the dark tunnels of the necropolis. Most of them were familiar with the undead, and yet there was something else about the air in the ruins that set them on edge; an unspoken promise of something more, something different, than anything they’d felt before. Here the power of necromancy throbbed in the very walls with a strength beyond the shallow corpse puppetry most necromancers wielded.

“How much farther to the antechamber?” The zuuda captain growled, eyes darting to every shadow with practised caution to check for traps. Although his guarded expression gave nothing away, it was clear that he and the rest of the zuuda were all very uncomfortable. The presence of necromantic power all around them were like fumes, making it harder to breath. Even worse was the fact that they had encountered suspiciously few patrols on their way in, and those they did encounter had been almost pitifully easy to defeat. Something was wrong here, everyone felt it, and yet they had no choice but to continue onward anyway. The Coven’s secret project was taking place tonight, and if they didn’t put a stop to whatever it was now there was no guarantee they’d ever get a chance to do so again.

“Just up ahead.” Tio whispered back, leading the way with cautious steps. Up ahead the faint glow of candlelight began to flicker into view, and on an unspoken cue the party drew their weapons as quietly as possible. A few steps further and the first sounds of ritualistic chanting reached their ears.

Tio stopped and allowed the zuuda captain to take charge as the grizzled man began making gestures to his troops, directing half of them to take a corridor branching off to the left. The corridor would lead them right around the antechamber to the entrance on the other side, from which they would launch a surprise attack on the necromancers within after the first group attacked and drew away their thralls. Tasha had volunteered to go with the second group, leaving Tio with the first. As the second group departed the zuuda captain crept onward, and Tio joined the rear of the first group as they silently followed behind him.

Up ahead the figures of the coven mages could be seen standing in a circle, black hooded robes concealing their features. It was pretty much the stereotypical image of an evil magic ritual, and that alone set alarm bells off in Tio’s head. What did dark robes and chanting have to do with the alchemy formula? From his expression the captain seemed to feel the same way, but whatever his concerns held up a hand and silently gave the countdown to charge.

3… 2… 1…

The moment his finger dropped down the zuuda troops and mercenaries all let out a warcry and charged forwards, swinging their weapons into the robed figures without hesitation. Tio joined the back of the charge, his blade drawn and ready to lash out, but refrained from engaging in combat. Something wasn’t right here, he could feel it.

The first of the mages fell down to the ground like puppets with their strings cut, not even reacting to the weapons as they pierced their bodies or uttering so much as a whimper. The other mages didn’t even look at the disturbance, instead just continuing their chanting even as the zuuda mowed them down like blades of glass. No fear, no pain, it was like they weren’t even… alive...

Oh bugger.

Tio sprinted over to one of the downed mages and pulled the hood back from their face, revealing a pale, clammy corpse. This body had been dead for ages.

“Ambush!”

The call came out too late. There was a loud thump as something heavy fell from the room above the entrance they’d come in from, and as if on cue the remaining disguised thralls dropped to the ground as the power animating them was cut off. All eyes looked over to the thing that’d dropped over the entrance.

It was a stitchborn thrall, no doubt about it, but one that seemed to have been built entirely for war. It stood roughly ten feet tall, and judging by its physique every organ unnecessary for combat had been carved out and replaced with solid muscle. The fingers had been sharpened into claws, its teeth into fangs, and spears of condensed bones jutted out around the joints to ward off attacks against its weak spots. Yet there was something more to it that, a deep red hue that almost seemed to glow slightly in the darkness and cackled with the promise of power.

“Do you like it?”

A voice came down from the ceiling, and Tio looked up to see a crow perched on a planform carved high up on the wall. The bird started to shift and grow, becoming a rising blur of black feathers that molded itself into a humanoid form before solidifying into a hunched old man in a tattered grey robe. Zavious.

“If you’re looking for the coven I’m afraid they’re gone.” He rasped out, face hidden by the darkness beneath his hood. “We learnt you were coming and my associates decided to take the unfinished prototypes and leave. Didn’t fancy taking their chances against a bunch of fanatics.” He chuckled. “Such little faith. The thralls I’ve been able to create with their aid are like armies unto themselves. Did you know that since they aren’t alive thralls can hold alchemic enhancements permanently? Just one of them, like this one here, has the strength to tear a mountain in half! Bruxa I call them. The Coven took the rest before they could be perfected, but this one here will be enough to get rid of all of you. Watch”

He raised a bony hand and clicked his fingers, and the brief crack on stone shattering beneath the Bruxa’s foot was the only warning they had before the enormous thrall burst forward with absurd speed. In a flash its claws had torn straight through two of the mercenaries before they could even react fast enough to defend themselves. A blink later and the Bruxa raised its leg and kicked out at a nearby zuuda with the force of a ballista, killing them on impact and sending them flying into a wall. Zavious hadn’t been lying; this things physical strength was unreal!

The rest of the zuuda and mercenaries charged at it with weapons raised, but each strike they delivered seemed to just bounce off the Bruxa’s skin. One of the zuuda tried to touch it, probably to use some kind of mark ability, but the Bruxa dodged out of the way with its insane speed and skewered them on a spike jutting out of its elbow. It was massacring them!

Tio’s mind kicked into gear, quickly running through a list of plans to defeat it. Physically overpowering it seemed to be completely impossible, and it was fast enough to intercept any projectiles they tried to launch at Zavious. There wasn’t enough space to set a trap, nor enough time to escape, and there weren’t any resources around to make use of besides the decoy corpses on the floor.

The vague outline of a plan sprouted in his mind, and while all eyes were focused on the Bruxa Tio darted over to one of the decoy corpses and reached within, calling upon his necromancy spark and feeding his ether into it. The spark replied with a rush of its dark power, and Tio brought the power into his hands and touched the shoulder of the corpse. The dead flesh parted like water against his touch, surrendering with ease to his Corpse Molding spell, and in a mere few trills the arm of the corpse was separated from the rest of the body.

Tio slipped his own arm out of his shirt sleeve, hiding it behind his back while he put the dead one in its place. A close examination would make it obvious that it wasn’t his real arm, but the deception would pass at a first glance and that was all that he needed. Harnessing his necromancy spark again Tio took control of the arm and bade it to reach into his domain bag and take an item out of it, which it wrapped up in its fist to keep hidden.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” He muttered to himself, and then with a cry that sounded more fearful than brave charged straight towards the Bruxa.

His cry caught the Bruxa’s attention, and it looked towards him as he jumped up off the back of a kneeling mercenary and let his ability to float do the rest, bringing him up to the height of its face. With his false arm he punched towards it, seeming to be intending to hit it on the nose, and the Bruxa instinctively opened its mouth and caught his punch between its teeth, biting it clean off without effort. But within its mouth the undead hand under Tio control opened, allowing what it held within, a snowcrystal, to be released.

The Bruxa reared back as the snowcrystal, firmly lodged in its throat, worked its magic and began to freeze the thrall from the inside! Tendrils of stiff, icy flesh began to spread out across its body, robbing it of the strength and speed that made it so tough. Zavious saw what was happening and scowled, his body melting back into the fluid, feathery mush as he retook the form of a crow again. The zuuda and mercenaries saw their opportunity and rallied again to attack the Bruxa, targeteing the now brittle and vulnerable veins of frozen flesh.

They could handle it from here. Tio discarded his false arm and focused on Zavious, calling now upon his attunement spark to lock onto his master’s frequency. It only took a moment for Zavious fully adopt his crow form, and whilst the warriors were distracted by the vulnerable Bruxa he silently flew out of the antechamber to make his escape. But there had been time enough for Tio to catch his frequency, and now there was nowhere in the world that Zavious could hide from him. Before anyone else could notice he slipped out of the room as well and chased after Zavious.
word count: 1935
Fast Facts
Noticeable quirks your character can see when threading with Tio.

Floats

Tio floats in the air, usually just a foot off the ground.

Explodeibur

Tio wears a scary looking gauntlet on his right hand that is clearly magical. It creates explosions.

Mercury

Tio has a masked alter ego who leads The Court of Miracles.

Enchanting Voice

Tio's voice has hypnotic properties.
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Tio Silver
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Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2017 3:04 pm
Race: Immortal
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Renown: 665
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Re: Rock the Necropolis

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“Zavious!”

Tio charged through the halls of the necropolis, following the frequency of his old master. Despite the form Zavious had taken Tio was confident he would catch up: the labyrinthian structure of the necropolis would prevent him from escaping, and he could feel weariness in Zavious’ frequency. He was tiring quickly.

Too quickly really. The wary part of his mind supplied, but Tio shook such thoughts off. Now was not the time to get distracted. If he escaped Zavious would surely try to create those super-enhanced thralls all over again, and next time the zuuda might not be around to stop them. Besides their reunion was long overdue; he was owed an explanation as to why he’d been abandoned after initiation all those years ago.

Zavious frequency stopped running up ahead, and Tio rounded a corner to find himself at the foot of a dimly lit staircase. Halfway up it Zavious lay on the stairs, rasping heavily as his body slowly shifted back from bird form to human one. He’d given up running already? That was… very unexpected really. Come to think of it Zavious looked far too out of breath for someone who’d sprinted such a short distance, even for an old man.

Slowly Tio climbed the staircase, paying particular attention to Zavious’ frequency in case it was a trap. But there were no traces of resistance in his notes, just exhaustion and… pain?

“You’re dying?”

The words slipped out of his mouth before he’d even thought about saying them, coming out as more of a statement of fact than a question. He came to a stop three steps down from where Zavious lay, and for the first time in years Tio caught a glimpse of Zavious’ hand. It was even more pale and wrinkled than he remembered and covered in liver spots that hadn’t been there before. For the first time it dawned on Tio just how old his first master really was. He’d always seemed so powerful before, immune to the effects of old age through sheer force of his magical powers, but it finally clicked that Zavious had already lived far longer than a regular human had any right to. He’d been living on borrowed time for a while now, and by the looks of it that time was nearly up.

Zavious chuckled between his rasps, his once deep voice now husky and weak. “Alas, it seems not even I could escape the grasp of age in the end. I was so close too; just a few breaks more and I would have transformed myself into a Stoneheart and assumed control of the Bruxa's body. But it seems fate had other plans… or should I say you had other plans.”

He raised his head to look at Tio, a single grey eye peering out from beneath his tattered black hood. “It’s you isn’t it? Tio. I thought I must have been mistaken when I saw you back there and my spark recognised its child. Just look at you: that mask, that body, it’s like you’re a different person. The arcs have not been kind to you have they?”

“No, but I survived.. No thanks to you of course.” Tio replied dispassionately. “You abandoned me right when I was taking the first step into the world of magic, the time when I needed guidance the most. Why?”

Zavious said nothing for a while, staring at him curiously from beneath his hood. Then came a hollow sigh. “You still haven’t figured it out? Despite everything you’ve become, despite how much you’ve changed, you still haven’t realised?”

“Realised what?”

“That you,” Zavious chuckled, “are unworthy.”

What?

Tio froze, his heartbeat becoming uncomfortably loud in his ears as his mind processed those words. Unworthy? He was unworthy?

“Unworthy of your sparks. Unworthy of immortality.” Zavious continued, oblivious to Tio’s inner thoughts. “I passed my spark on to you because I thought you had what it took to become a great necromancer, because I thought you had the desire, the hunger, to reach the pinnacle of unity with the spark-...”

“I AM WORTHY!”

In an instant the air around them whipped into a storm, blasting the raggedy hood off Zavious’ decrepit face as Tio rose into the air. Unworthy! He was unworthy! The rage deep within Tio’s soul burst forth to the surface, and his sparks howled with delight as his wrath-filled mind instinctively fed ether into them. How dare he imply that Tio was unworthy of immortality after everything he’d given to obtain it! That the years of exile in Emea, the guilt of killing Cassion’s avatar, had all been spent on a prize he was not worthy of obtaining!

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I HAD TO SACRIFICE TO MAKE IT THIS FAR! HOW MANY PEOPLE I’VE BETRAYED!”

“Sacrificed?” Despite the display of power before him Zavious seemed completely unconcerned, perhaps even a little bit amused. “You don’t know the meaning of the word. Perhaps you think you do, perhaps you think that the transformations you have undergone are enough, but you’re wrong!” He forced his shaking legs to carry his weight once more as he climbed slowly to his feet. “Tell me Tio, what sacrifices do you think you’ve made?”

“I GAVE UP HALF OF MY LIFE!”

“A life you have always fully intended to extend to immortality anyway?” Zavious spat. “Where’s the commitment in that? You think giving something you intend to take back later is a sacrifice? Pathetic! Try again!”

Pathetic?! The years he’d traded away to Avacer in the Sepulcher of Sacrifice had been pathetic?! Indignant fury resurged in Tio once again, urging him to strike the old fool before him down once and for all. And yet, the small voice of doubt whispered in the back of his mind, he’s right. You accepted that offer never intending to pay the consequences of it.

“I- I betrayed Cassion, murdered his avatar in cold blood!”

Zavious sneered sarcastically. “So what? You think feeling guilty and because you killed someone is worth anything? Grow up! Their life wasn’t yours to give, so killing them is no sacrifice either.”

“I renounced the Immortals, traded in the powers they gave me for curses!”

“And did you know they would curse you for it? Or did you, in typical Tio fashion, think that the consequences of your actions would not apply to you because you are somehow above them? The powers of the Immortals did not belong to you in the first place, you were only borrowing them, and whatever curses you received were not ones you had intended to take, were they?” A scowl darker than the abyss crossed Zavious face, and he defiantly stepped forwards into the whirling winds surrounding Tio to glare straight into his eyes. “Do you want to know what makes you unworthy? What it is that condemns you to that mediocre lie of a life you’ve always been trying so hard to run away from? It is your greed!”

“THAT GREED IS WHAT GOT ME THIS FAR!” Tio shouted back, his rage returning in full once more. “YOU LEFT ME ALONE, WITH NO IDEA HOW TO CONTROL THE SPARK YOU’D PUT WITHIN ME. WITHOUT THAT HUNGER I NEVER WOULD HAVE FOUND OUT-...”

“GREED IS NOT HUNGER!” Zavious screamed back, his words cutting thought Tio’s with a strange sense of conviction. Yet as quickly as it came it was gone, and the look on Zavious’ face morphed into one of… sadness? “That’s the heart of the issue Tio. That’s what you never understood. Greed is not hunger.”

He sat down on the staircase, once again looking so drained of energy he could almost have passed for a corpse. “When I first met you I thought you had the hunger in you to do whatever it took to unite with your spark; to reach the immortality you wished for. But over time I started to realise that I was wrong. You Tio are greedy by nature, and as such you are willing to take whatever you must to fulfil your ambitions. But look back on the so-called sacrificed you claimed you made, see the common theme in them. Never once did you ever intend to pay the price of your actions, to give up what you had. That unwillingness to let go of everything else you have for the sake of power is the line that separates you from the true hunger you need to master the spark. You have this image in your head that when you surpass the bounds of humanity you can still be Tio at the end of it. But you are wrong.” He glared up at Tio with disdain. “You will never become something akin to a god because no mortal ever can be. In order to reach that goal you have to sacrifice everything; your life, your soul, your identity, and become something more.”

The winds around Tio started to fade as his anger slipped away, replaced by a crushing despair. He was right. As loathe as Tio was to admit it, Zavious had hit the nail on the head. He always tried to cheat his way out of sacrifices, only gave things away he intended to regain later and tried to escape from the punishments he was due. He was neither a yludih nor a human anymore, yet still he acted like he was out of some desperate desire to retain his humanity.

He really was unworthy.

Zavious seemed to read the realisation from Tio’s body language and sighed. “Your apprentice, Tasha, she understood this. She realised your failing, and decided that the same fate would not befall her.”

Tio’s head shot up sharply. “What! What did you do!”

“I did nothing. Nothing at all.” Zavious continued wearily. “She did it all by herself. She came to the conclusion that she had learnt all she could from you, and that if she remained under your tuition any longer she would end up like you; unable to reach the pinnacle of necromancy because she was afraid to make the sacrifices necessary to reach it. And so she came to us not a few hours ago and warned us of your attack-...”

“No! No you’re lying!” Tio roared, the anger and spiralling winds returning once again as a sensation he’d never felt before burned in his chest. Betrayal. “She wouldn’t do that-... she…”

“She is hungry, and ruthless, and possesses the potential to reach lichdom without you to hold her back.” Zavious interrupted. “And she knows it. How do you think we knew to set up that ambush? Did you see your apprentice anywhere during the fighting? No, while we were all distracted she went to steal the relics and tomes on ancient necromancy within this necropolis, and is no doubt far, far away by now. She understands true sacrifice, and has chosen to sacrifice her bond with you to her hunger within.” A smirk crossed his wrinkled lips. “I must say you really did make a splendid decision initiating her. I can only imagine the heights she is capable of reaching.”

There was not a hint of deception in Zavious’s frequency; every word he spoke was the truth. Tasha was gone. She had sent him into a deathtrap as a mere decoy while she went to steal everything she needed to learn necromancy without him. It felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest and replaced by an empty void. Was this what heartbreak was? Had all the time he’d spent teaching her, all the pride he felt for her achievements, meant nothing to her?

Was this the difference between those who were worthy and those who were not?

Something stirred within Tio’s chest; something that’d been there for a long time now, but with a sharp new edge to it. All who accepted the spark felt within them a hunger, an instinctive desire to feed upon the souls of others, but this hunger was easily ignored if one was careful about it. And yet for the first time Tio considered that perhaps he shouldn’t ignore it anymore. What was he so afraid to lose by doing so? His humanity? Zavious had been right, the only way to reach the peak of magic was to discard such sentiments. Tasha had figured it out. Now so had he!

“Thank you master. You had one lesson left to teach me after all.” Tio’s voice was strangely calm as he spoke, completely lacking in all emotions. With a single step forward he stood over the form of his dying mentor.

A glint of mad glee flickered on in Zavious’ eyes as he realised what Tio was going to do. “Are you ready to step across the line Tio?” He asked, the hope in his voice contrasting against his raspy tone. “Are you finally ready to be all that you can be?”

“I am.”

A look of serenity washed across Zavious’ expression. “Then I die knowing that my legacy will live on forever. Do it Tio. Do what you must.”

With grim focus Tio reached out and grabbed Zavious around his withered old neck, feeling his master’s weakened pulse against his fingers. Yet now that allowed himself to feel it Tio could sense the pulsing of a greater force within his master’s dying body, the raw ether of a powerful magician. His sparks clamoured hungrily, whispering without words in his mind how that power could all be his if he would only reach out and take it.

If he did this Tio would forever lose a part of his humanity.

But if he didn’t he would never be anything more than a human.

That was unacceptable.

Tio bit down on the ether within Zavious, his hands tightening around the old man’s throat as he began to rip the soul out of his body. Zavious did not even try to resist, no doubt realising that his body was on the verge of death anyway and his soul was surely not bound for a happy afterlife. Tio could almost taste the stolen ether on his lips; sweeter than honey after a lifetime of salt. It was impossible to stop, impossible to think of anything but the addictive sensation as he tore the very soul, sparks and all, from Zavious’ body and devoured it.

How long it took he did not know, for he lost all track of time amidst the ecstasy, but eventually there was nothing left. The last drops of life faded out of Zavious, and as Tio let go of his throat the now lifeless body fell to the ground. Tio himself sunk to his knees as they gave way beneath him, and held his shaking hands up before his face.

He’d done it. He’d crossed the line.

He’d abandoned his humanity.

The stolen power within himself was intoxicating, too much so, and his instincts warned him that he was going to be sick. He hunched over and clutched his stomach, yet nothing came out. Was this a different kind of sickness, something caused by the flaying? Trusting his instincts and the crazed whispering of his spark he reached out to Zavious’ body and savagely tore a finger from his hand, then brought the severed digit up to his masked mouth and retched. Yet what came out was not vomit, but tendrils of the stolen ether he’d absorbed from Zavious. Before his eyes the finger crystalised into a deep black colour with blood red veins, becoming a thirst diamond. His attunement spark, heightened with power from the feast, helpfully supplied that within in lay the regurgitated graft spark Zavious had possessed, now weakened and dormant.

Trembling from exertion, Tio picked himself up off the ground and dropped the aberryte into his pocket, then began to stagger up the stairs. The zuuda would be coming this way soon, and they would no doubt recognise what had happened to Zavious and figure out what Tio was, what he had done. He needed to get away: needed to leave Yaralon before they could hunt him down! There was nothing left for him here anyway, not with Tasha gone. What he needed was somewhere quiet; somewhere where he could come to grips with what he had turned himself into.

A monster.
word count: 2773
Fast Facts
Noticeable quirks your character can see when threading with Tio.

Floats

Tio floats in the air, usually just a foot off the ground.

Explodeibur

Tio wears a scary looking gauntlet on his right hand that is clearly magical. It creates explosions.

Mercury

Tio has a masked alter ego who leads The Court of Miracles.

Enchanting Voice

Tio's voice has hypnotic properties.
Abra
Posts: 469
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2019 1:29 am
Race: Human
Renown: 270
Character Sheet
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Wealth Tier: Tier 6

Contribution

Re: Rock the Necropolis



Tio

Rewards


Knowledges:

Skill:

Deception: Betrayed by an apprentice.
Necromancy: The thrall-arm trick.
Necromancy: Thralls can be upgraded via alchemy.
Necromancy: Super strong stitchborn.
Necromancy: Super fast stitchborn.
Necromancy: Freezing a thrall.

Loot: – 1 snowcrystal, +1 abberyte well (with graft spark)
Injuries:
Wealth:
Renown: 5 aided zuuda

EXP: 10 for necromancy

Feedback



Tio got exactly what he wanted it looks like. A trip right into the heart of all the danger, risking it all. This was quite the emotional rollercoaster which I think climaxed shortly after Tio was told he’s unworthy. Just the way he reacted told me that there was a lot of backstory here and some major character development was happening before my eyes. I hope Tio doesn’t stay shook from the experience for long! Enjoy your rewards.

word count: 133
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