Burning bones....

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 5397

Zerm had thought he had all the bases covered. Through his friends, he had been sure that he had it covered. When it became apparent that a force was out there who could make his life.....interesting....that by pooling his powers with theirs, all would be well.

He had the spirit/undead corner covered by his good friend, the dreaded Turoc-Kith. While alive, the necromancer had been at the forefront of his profession. Even dead, his enemies were not safe! Before, he'd (Zerm) need his wards and other arcane tools to keep unwanted (and undead) city dwellers from invading his dwelling. Now, with the current events with the inexplicable alliance between a few dragons (and a strange one at that), mages, beastmen, and the Golems....Zerm wouldn't have been surprised that one of those spell hacks had some friends who'd been transformed into ghosts at the onset of the Phage! As a necromancer, Kith had been able to bolster Zerm's already impressive array of wards and shields against spiritual/undead intrusion.

Dr. Vincent had been extremely helpful in countering the threat imposed by the Golem's science. While not able to, at such short notice, create similar magical /mechanical devices to counter Alliance science, Vincent had been able to "retrofit" some of Zerm's wards to make the automations building the new city dome not see anything amiss in the building that was Zerm's (thermographic imaging alone would have reveal too much). Zerm hadn't followed everything that Vincent had done, but he saw the results and was happy.

He himself was a sorcerer of over 10,000 years (12,103 years, but who's counting?). He had learned much, and had been formidable before that fateful night when the island sank. Now....it was a good thing that those "heroes" had their Crystallics! He'd love to show them a few of his nastier spells!

Hmmm. Actually, he's going to get his chance! However, the situation he'll be challenged with will not be to his liking!

Zerm hadn't known it, nor would have believed it. However, he'd been spied upon despite the diverse array of wards and magical devices set up to counter just such a thing. Ajax had heard his discussion about the time line for the imminent collapse of the slipgates (and why shouldn't Zerm had known....he's helped his Uncle construct it in the first place!). Ajax had listened in, and silently boiled in rage, as Zerm had outlined his plans for the heroes....once they were helpless before him. Ajax had heard and seen EVERYTHING.


Wards against spirits are a good thing, especially if you are trying to protect your own body from intrusion and or destruction.

Turoc-Kith had made many enemies over his years of life, and had continued to do so well into his un-life. The black hearted necromancer's enemies sometimes had been lucky (or unlucky) enough to come back as haunting spirits, out for his destruction.

Turoc-Kith's corpse had been known only to himself, and if he was to continue his ghostly existence he had better be careful.

Kith had been careful. He had wards and glyphs that averted ordinary scrying and seeking. He had wards that unconsciously caused even the densest warrior to wander on past in the dungeon Turoc-Kith's bones were interred. The wards had covered every type of intelligent creature currently living and a few that haven't been seen for hundreds of years. Then came Ajax.

The necromancer's wards did not stop a somewhat unbalanced ghostly AI. He had noticed the oddity of a certain dungeon in the land of Malbocton, and had been curious. Ajax's job, original function, had been to collect and collate data. Thus Ajax had told Sir Tisbitt of what he had found in passing, and Tisbitt had passed the information to a certain Belboz.

Ajax had also come across the strange dwelling of Zerm the Unspeakable within Atlantis BEFORE the coming of the first analogs, and had watched from the shadows-covert operations were the lifeblood of Inuit units-and he saw the path to his redemption! Finally able to give the one thing that would release him from his undead existence, the one thing that would redeem himself to those who his mistake had cost so much, Ajax told everything that Probe needed to knows about those opponents arrayed against him and his allies.

As for the paranoid Dr. Vincent's corpse, he had only been able to teleport his body to the safety of his family's mausoleum while suffering his binary blight. He had thought that hiding in "plain sight" was the best policy. He could have asked for his friends to transport his corpse to a more secure location, but that would have been against the ghostly doctor's nature. The paranoid ghost trusts Zerm and Turoc-Kith above all others, BUT he still did NOT trust them enough to reveal where his body is. Zerm and Kith had grown to accept this in their strange friend, but it boiled down to that Vincent's paranoia had finally betrayed him. Vincent's strategy would have worked on any other kind of tracker, but NOT on the undead mage known as Belboz!

  1. Belboz and a few of his compatriots smile as they watch the mortal remains of to dark mages go up in smoke. Two dark souls scream as they are not dragged up into the Light, but sink into the Darkness.....

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11/4/1999 1:35:20 PM

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