Quest First Introductions[Templar]

[Saul Talith]

The stench of burning corpses was not really something one ever got used to. There was something unnatural about it, tainted that took a little bit of your humanity.


It was the only way to make sure though.

Templar for centuries had known that ghouls and Zombies could come back with only the smallest infusion of black magic. Didn't matter if one destroyed the head, body, or any other part. All that was needed was the tiniest bit of necromancy and the monster could be brought back. It was easier with a creature that had already been raised of course, requiring less energy than a fresh corpse.

Knowledge like this was why the Templar were so important. They had existed for two thousand years in one form or another, and for all of those years they had passed down their knowledge to the next generation. It was what set them apart from common mercenaries or the armies of cities.

They were soldiers against the dark. The only ones that kept a true record of what lay beyond the light, and how to kill it.

"I hadn't meant for this to become a direct demonstration." Saul said to himself quietly, not speaking to anyone in particular.

When he had taken charge of the Broken Sword In Alliria he'd begun a recruitment drive. Dozens of new Templar had joined and for the past six months been training within the compound. Last week he had returned from the new Templar fortress in the west, intending to bring the initiates back with him in order to expose them to more Templar teachings.

On the way however they had encountered a complication, one that he could not ignore.

A horde of Ghouls had been unleashed on a small town, raised from the local graveyard and sent into the village for the pure delight of slaughter. He and the others had taken care of the creatures in due course, but a mystery remained.

Who'd summoned the ghouls? Why?

He had to find out.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo Coppercrow crouched over the still-smoldering corpse of a particularly robust ghoul. He had slain it not fifteen minutes before, yet one part of its biology in particular had stood out to him. Despite the flame that had begun reducing the ghoul's flesh to cinders and its bones to ash, the patches of its skull which sat exposed beneath its tangled, thin hair were entirely unaffected by the blaze. Ivo pulled a small flask from his hip, uncorking its stopper and turning over the vial of holy oil to pour across the foul creature's scalp.

Sure enough, steady puffs and spirals of putrid smoke began to rise from the fluid's point of impact, and the recruit recoiled in honest shock. Ivo could not begin to fathom what this discovery meant, yet one thing was certain. The dark mark of whoever had raised the wights still lingered on like a signature, evidently strong enough in its anathema to boil off divinely imbued oils.

Pensive steps carried the recruit further from recently de-reanimated corpse before he finally turned on his heels, taking three quick strides up to Saul's side. One arm extended back towards the ghoul, where dark smoke still danced from a patch of bone exposed through its half-burned scalp. "Lord Captain," Ivo said, keeping his distinctly Anirian voice even and calm despite his budding unease. "I don't think these are the regular sort of shamblers."

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul glanced at the young man that was speaking to him, eyes closing behind his helmet as he tried desperately to remember his name.

He was struggling with that lately. The more the Alliance grew the more new faces presented themselves to him. He'd never been the best administrator, and keeping track of every name and file that floated towards him was becoming increasingly impossible. Still, he did his best to sort through everything in his head as he took a few steps closer towards the burning corpses.

"What makes you say that, Ivo?" He thought that was the right name.

Saul himself had never been much of a researcher. He'd tried his best, but his talent had always been more in fighting the undead and dark things than knowing more about them.

He was a leader and tactician, not much of a scientists. Still, he was a man smart enough to recognize the necessity of those more intelligent than he. The Broken Sword had always prided itself on its research, and when the Alliance had formed Saul had ensured to gobble up any other Orders who felt the same way.

Every new way discovered to turn the tide was helpful, and Saul wanted to know everything he could.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo blinked twice in stunned surprise that Saul had even remembered his name, sending him reeling enough to miss the noticeable seconds of silence that ticked by as the commanding Templar grasped for his memories. Reevaluating his assessment of Captain Talith, the recruit trailed along behind the much more imposing Templar and once more extended two digits towards the recently deceased ghoul's still simmering scalp.

"Fire is usually enough to burn away all the seals holding a necromancer's thrall together. Keeps the dead from being brought back again so easily, hence the customary pyres." Ivo explained his thoughts slowly and clearly before prodding his fingers at the plume of putrid smoke that rose from the half-burnt skull.

"That reaction means something's still holding onto the corpse, sir. Otherwise the holy oil wouldn't be, well... Burning," the recruit continued, stepping halfway between Saul and the body and casting the captain a wary look. "I know the ghoul isn't moving right now, sir, but I would suggest we pile up the remaining bones and do a second burn after the fires die down. I don't see why we can't reduce them to ashes with enough tinder, and that should be a certain way to make sure the dead stay dead this time."

Slowly, surely, Ivo's gaze fell to the pile of ghouls once more. His stomach threatened to empty across the ground as a sickening cocktail of burning flesh and hair assaulted his nose, but the recruit somehow managed to hold his lunch in. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to join the team headed for the graveyard. Hopefully I could be of some assistance, Lord Captain." His words held the distinctive air of determination, conjured only by the threat an undead incursion would pose to the nearby town. Well, that and the fact that he didn't need to look Saul in the face when he posed his request.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul considered the words in silence for a few moments.


There had already been an intention to search for whomever had raised these Ghouls, but this was…concerning. Necromancy at the best of time was a difficult magic to fight against, but this? This was something more powerful.

Like most mages Necromancer experimented all they could. Their craft was dangerous, but that didn't stop them from tinkering. If someone died...well,that was not always outside of the intent. Saul knew about the arms race, just as every other Templar knew about it. They killed the undead, necromancer made them better. It was the way of things.

Now it seemed someone had made them considerably better. "Burn it again."

He gave the command to one of the other senior Templar standing nearby. The man simply nodded in response, though his eyes darkened a little bit as he glanced at the pile of corpses.

"I will join as well." Saul said in affirmation of the request. "Something is happening here."

He frowned. "This has the air of an experiment. Not a true attack."

Saul's stomach churned slightly. Had some dark mage raised this town simply to see how his new ghouls would perform? He supposed they would find out, though he feared he already knew the answer.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo gulped faintly, hearing the concern riding on Saul's words. The recruit had done a fair bit of experimentation in his free time, and he knew exactly what sort of revolutions such activities might bring about. It wouldn't be all that great if the baddies started tinkering with stronger arcana this late into the millennia-long fight against darkness.

"Well, sir, I'll make sure my tools are together," Ivo said, giving his heavy coat a quick pat. Past his chestpiece of leather and the jacket of similar material underneath, a faint clanking of metal on metal issued forth. "Might be able to decipher just what this dead-raiser's goal is. In any case, I don't like it."

The recruit dragged a heavy, gloved finger under his nose, sniffling slightly. The recent downturn in the weather had not treated Ivo well, but the cold had never stopped him in the past. Doubly true when lives were on the line. "Just give me the word when we're hoping to move out, Captain."

 

[Kalianna Romane]

Kalianna let out a deep sigh as her eyes gazed over the corpses of the dead, each sickly figures, with sunken eyes and charred skin. She eyed them with a slight suspicion, as if they were going to rise once more at any moment to exact vengeance for being killed a second time. Listening in to another recruit, Ivo, speak with the Lord Captain, it didn't seem too out of the realm of possibility either, as it appeared that even the scorched corpses still carried some traces of their necromancer's influence.

"I'd like to come as well, Captain Talith, if that's alright," she added suddenly. She had joined the Templars for a reason: The world was getting darker, and not everyone was prepared for it. Her mind flashed back to the red mists of Pandemonium, and the disease and famine they left in their wake as well as the demons that ran rampant within them. Now, necromancers seemed to be getting more ambitious with their experiments, regardless of the chaos their failures - or success - caused. If she could do anything to help, she was going to do it.

Looking between Ivo and the Captain, Kalianna asked, "Have there been any recent attacks by undead nearby? If so, and any of the corpses still remain, either buried or burned, it might be useful to make sure they don't possess the same traits as these. The last thing anyone wants is whoever raised them to be coming back for a second round."

 

[Saul Talith]

"I'll send out scouts." Saul agreed, though he doubted there would be other areas of attack they hadn't already heard of.

If this was an experiment then it wouldn't make any sense for the person responsible to create too wide a field, and if it wasn't...well he'd thought they would have heard news of multiple towns under siege from the undead.

Still, checking wasn't a bad idea by any means.

"They will meet us at the graveyard once we're finished there." He told the assembled Templar as he motioned to a sergeant. "If they find anything like this..."

The Lord Captain trailed off.

"Well lets hope they don't." Saul commented as he whispered to one of the other Templar before motioning to the rest. A few moments later, Saul, Ivo Coppercrow, Kalliana Romane, and half a dozen other Templar began to head east towards the graveyard.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo had been surprised by his fellow recruit's interjection, but their situation was all the better for it. She had a point, after all. Similar ghouls may still lay at rest, regaining their strength elsewhere; It would be an awful shame to be flanked by a foe thought dead. It wasn't long before the nine Templar went off towards the unknown peril of the graveyard. Luckily, Ivo had found time to wash his armor of the viscera and general grossness inherent to fighting undead. His sword was back safely in its sheath, wiped clean and ready to be drawn at a moment's notice.

"Shouldn't be long," the recruit said, placing a hand along his brow before looking up to where the sun hung in the sky. "If we're lucky, this outing shouldn't task us past nightfall. Might be a touch superstitious, but I'd hate to see what a necromancer could do with the moons overhead-- Especially with a few vessels of energy still shambling around."

Ivo placed a hand carefully into one of his belt pouches, withdrawing a pendant depicting the holy symbol of Metisa. Again, a rather superstitious safeguard if ever there was one, though he knew faith had a strength all its own. The recruit wrapped his necklace carefully over the back of his hand, clenching tightly until his knuckles whitened and he could feel the chain pressing tightly into his palm.

 

[Kalianna Romane]

Kalianna nodded, pleased that her notion was taken into a count by the captain, as she followed along as they walked closer towards the graveyard. She pulled out her rapier, an ornately designed weapon bloodied with red ichor. Taking out a small piece of cloth, she wiped it clean so that it could be used again the need arose.

Listening in to Ivo's comment, she nodded, adding, "The night brings out its own troubles even without the worry of undead coming in. With this place as bloodied up as it is, I wouldn't be surprised if it attracted some other critters and predators too" She gestured to the gore-filled scene around them, sheathing her rapier as she finished cleaning the blade after.

"Lord Captain, how long have you been a part of the Templar?" Kalianna asked, hoping to fill some of the silence as they walked towards the graveyard, and learn some more about the captain as well. She kept an eye around them as she asked the question, her gaze focused on both the corpses of the undead nearby and the neighboring woods, in case any animals decide to follow the scent of the blood.

 

[Saul Talith]

He thought for a second. "Since I was a child."

The answer was not really a direct one, but off the top of his head Saul couldn't actually place the amount of years. This was mainly because he had no idea how old he actually was or at what age he'd been taken by the man who'd brought him into the Order.

"I would guess two decades, perhaps a little longer." He glanced around as they wandered through the forest, watching carefully.

There were footprints here in the mud, dragging steps that marked out where the undead had come from. "I was an orphan."

Saul explained.

"The Order took me in an raised me." Doing such things was a tradition in the Broken Sword. It was not the way for other Templar Chapters, but his own had done so since the Templar Wars. "Along with some o-"

The Lord Captain's words died on his lips as they crested a small hill and came upon the sight of a completely dug out graveyards.

Dozens upon dozens of graves had been dug out and ripped apart, enough to create a small army of ghouls. Many more than had been at the village. The graveyard must have served as a place of rest for several villages in the area. "Shit."

Saul swore.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo listened intently to the Lord Captain's answer, humming in thoughtful consideration as he did the arithmetic to deduce Saul's age. Behind the helm, he didn't sound all that old, though to ascend so high into the Templar's ranks by one's twenties was entirely impressive. Before the commander could finish spinning his tale, however, the nonet of weapon-bristling Templar came across a sight that chilled Ivo to his bones.

Empty graves, likely numbering well into the triple-digits, and not a single shambler in sight. If the detachment they'd faced before was just a small fragment of a much larger force, where had the other ghouls been led off to?

"Shit," Ivo said finally, shock making its presence apparent in his voice as he agreed to Saul's curse. The recruit reached to his hip, carefully drawing his sword with only the faintest of sounds. If there was going to be another fight, he'd much prefer to be prepared.

 

[Kalianna Romane]

Following in silence, Kalianna listened closely to the answer, nodding along. His age surprised her, considering the rank he held within the Templars. If anything, it proved his skill and talent. Kalianna continued to walk as he continued his explanation, but after a few moments, the Lord Captain interrupted his story with a sudden curse echoed by Ivo, a grave tone shared by both.

"What is it?" She asked, cresting the hill herself a second after. Her breath was caught as her eyes found the dozens of graves littering the landscape, each one dug out and empty. She tried to count them, losing count as the realization came upon her that this was far more than they had faced. "Shit indeed."

Her hand drifted down to her belt, unsheathing the rapier as she glanced around. As her eyes scanned the graveyard she found no undead, only the graves they laid in, far more numerous than the ghouls they fought prior. That worried her.

 

[Saul Talith]

"This is bad."​

The words came from one of the other Templar that had tagged along with their group. Saul glanced at him, and then slowly nodded. Wordlessly he began to count the graves, not an exact match, but at least putting together the rows and columns.

His own estimation was the same as Ivo's. If he'd been pressed he would have said two to three hundred graves, all of them emptied out.

"Let's head down there." He told the others. "Keep your swords at the ready."

Just in case. "That many bodies leave a trail, whether they're walking or not."

There was no way they could leave this. Nearly three hundred graves entirely emptied? He couldn't walk away, even if he did only have a handful of Templar and a few recruits.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo blew a short breath out of his nose; At least everyone was in agreement as to how bad their situation was. Granted, that proved no great comfort in the face of such odds. The recruit tested his grip on his sword, fingers drumming a padded beat. The point of his weapon was kept towards the ground, and his breathing grew quiet and trained as the nine Templar continued down the hill towards the emptied graveyard.

The ground squished uneasily underfoot, though Ivo couldn't remember the last time it had rained. "I'm seeing the trail of the ones we ran into," he said, pointing a finger down into the mud. Sure enough, there were the telltale marks of a ghoul's uneven, stumbling gait. "Doesn't look like the others came this way, though."

That revelation worried the recruit deeply. Their investigation had just begun, of course, but the undefined variable of where these corpses went off to wore on his nerves in the least comforting way.

 

[Kalianna Romane]

As the Templar came closer towards the unearthed graveyard, Kalianna found herself with a tight grip around her rapier, her eyes roaming the scene before them. Not a single body was within the graves, each one occupied only by air. As they got closer, she could see marks beside the graves, areas where the raised ghouls dragged themselves out of their resting place.

She looked over to where Ivo was pointing as he spoke, nodding as she saw the trail made by the undead they had come across prior. His comment after concerned her, noticing the same thing. It was too small to have been left behind by such a large horde, and the group they saw was much smaller. It begged the question: Where did they go?

Kali tried to make sense of it in her mind, in the hopes of gleaning some sort if understanding about where the others went. "Maybe they went off towards any other villages near the graveyard? When we fought the group of ghouls, it seemed like they attacked the village recently. Assuming they were all raised at the same time, that might mean the others might be currently doing the same." A pause came as another question arose. "That still leaves the question of where the necromancer is."

 

[Saul Talith]

"If they headed that way we'll find out soon enough." Saul had sent to scouts out after all, and they were on horseback.

They were all well trained, and there was no doubt in his mind they wouldn't do anything foolish if they encountered a small horde of ghouls. They would return immediately and give the best report they possibly could.

He frowned.

"We need a map." Saul said as he crouched by one of the larger graves. His eyes scoured over the dirt. "Preferably one with all the local villages."

The Lord Captain glanced at the two recruits. "Either of you see a library back in town?"

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Kalliana hypothesized that the rest of the horde may have gone off toward other villages, and the thought sent a chill up Ivo's spine. While they had luckily intercepted the first detachment, there was almost no way a pastoral hamlet could round up enough weapons to defend themselves from even a handful of ghouls, let alone an army.

When the Lord Captain asked about a library, the recruit cleared his throat. He'd been asking around for a bookstore in the last town they had passed through, and the locals had told him about an old arcanist who lent out tomes of all sorts. "I believe there's an older gentlemen we could inquire with, Captain Talith. He should have the map you seek." Ivo's eyes raked over the graveyard, lingering occasionally on the odd headstone or marker left upturned in the shambling hoard's wake. "Do you suppose we should investigate this area before heading back? If these bodies were raised right from their resting place, there may be remnants of the ritual or spell that did it. The necromancer responsible might even be lingering just out of sight," he said pointedly, turning his gaze to the treeline at the graveyard's edge.

 

[Kalianna Romane]

She shook her head. She had been far too focused on the undead attacking to make note of a library, and she wasn't exactly the library-going type to begin with. Luckily, Ivo chimed in with his knowledge of someone who might possess a map in town.

Nodding in agreement to his latter point, Kali added, "We might also be able to find the tracks left behind by the other undead," gesturing to the already identified tracks they were near to. "Maybe some Templars should remain here to investigate while the others go to aquire the map?" She suggested, leaving the final call to the more experienced Lord Captain Talith.

 

[Saul Talith]

He nodded to Kallina. "Some will remain, I'll head back."

Saul hated to split their numbers, but both of the recruits made good points. There was still much to investigate here, yet they couldn't waste any time regarding where the undead had actually been sent.

Or worse, where they were being...stored.

"My first concern is the surrounding villages." He told those gathered around him. "If the ghouls were sent to nearby towns, we have to stop them before they slaughter their way through the local population."

Saving lives was the most important thing. "The scouts will return soon, that along with the map should tell us something."

Slowly the Lord Captain stood from the edge of the grave and motioned towards one of the Templar sergeants. The man quickly rushed over, and Saul shared a quick few words with him. Half a second passed and the man nodded, quickly turning and heading back towards the village at a run.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo nodded slowly. Saul's plan made sense, after all. An army of ghouls ransacking the countryside was bad news, and the small detachment of Templar might just be the highest concentration of weapons in tens of miles. "Well, if the scouts are meeting us here, I suppose we'd best get to searching. I trust the more keen-eyed can seek out tracks," he said, casting Kalianna a brief, worried smile. For all the time they'd spent training and traveling towards the western fortress, he hadn't found the time to interact with most of his fellow recruits beyond the most basic of introductions.

"In the meantime, I'll get to searching for anything arcane." Ivo patted himself on the hip, verifying the placement of his tool pouches. He slipped a deft hand under his heavy coat, withdrawing a reddish lens mounted onto a wooden and bronze stick. The contraption looked like little more than a pair of opera spectacles broken in half, but he went around peering into the empty graves nonetheless.

Through the crimson lens, the bottom of many graves swam with the faintest trace of some rather potent ritual or another. Strangely enough, some other graves weren't registering with the lens at all, implying the bodies within had simply been carried off rather than raised. That was served as some small comfort. Even if hundreds of corpses had been taken, perhaps not all of them would have been raised just yet.

 

[Kalianna Romane]

Kalianna gave a nod of understanding at the explanation from Talith. Looking over to the fellow recruit, she gave a similarly concerned smile. "That I can do. Let me know if you find something particularly interesting," she told him as he set off inspecting the area for any arcane remnants that might help piece together what happened here. Hopefully when things were less high stakes and calm, they could interact in ways ranging beyond investigating undead.

Dusting her hands, Kali walked further into the graveyard, her pace halting every few steps to inspect the tracks. Kneeling down, she noticed that some graves possessed hand marks on the sides, while others showed more faint marks akin to being dragged. It seemed like a portion of the undead were raised in the graves while the others were either carried out to perform the ritual or have yet to be raised by the necromancer.

She tried to make out a distinctive set of tracks that didn't possess the characteristic dragging of feet that the undead have in an attempt to locate the one responsible, but wherever it was, it seemed to have been disturbed and erased by the ghouls' march. On purpose or not by the necromancer, it proved unfortunate for them.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul watched the two trainees carefully, keeping an eye on them silently while allowing the other Templar to quickly move and assess the Graves.

He remembered doing similar work when he was a trainee, albeit under less dire circumstances. There had been a time when this sort of thing was conducted in laboratories in the Templar compounds, a thing of learning. Saul wondered if it was a practice that he should reinstate.

It seemed odd to consider now given what was happening, but lately he often found his thoughts wandering.

Absent of mind the Lord Captain reached up and undid his helmet, removing the metal and carrying it on his hip to get a closer look at the Graves himself. As he reached closer his skin pickled, the effect anti-magic coursing through his body. Fingers tightened for a moment and then he opened his palm.

Evil magics always made his stomach churn, perhaps his own reaction or that of the magics. He'd never asked the others how it felt to them.

After a moment he let out a breath, then stood. At an almost impeccable timing a rider dressed in Templar armor broke through the tree-line, blood spotting his robes and sword already grasped in his hand.

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Just as Ivo prepared to report his findings, a rider broke the treeline. His armor was stained with the dark, ichorous blood of the long-since dead, yet his robes dripped with something far more crimson. The recruit slipped his lens away, grabbing his sword from where he had set it aside moments before and bringing it to bear.

His free hand swept backwards, pushing his heavy coat open just far enough to grab a small throwing hammer that hung at his hip. Ivo only felt vaguely safer for the pair of weapons he now held, but the holy pendant wrapped around his knuckles still thrummed with a quiet, calming divinity. "Seems we're to have company," he said through worry-gritted teeth, testing his grip on his sword and preparing for the worst.

 

[Kalianna Romane]

Kalianna sat crouched down by a grave, peering closer at a set of tracks. Piercing the silence that permeated through the graveyard, however, was the sound of hooves breaking through the forested border and into the clearing. She shot upward, quickly turning to face the noise as she readied her rapier. Her eyes fell upon the bloodied rider, his armor painted in splotches of crimson and his sword drawn, as he galloped away from the tree-line.

She held her blade still, the point focused on the wall of trees ahead. The foliage shrouded whatever had chased off the Templar, deceptively void of movement. There was something within it, and if she were to hazard a guess, it was the undead. Her eyes flitted towards Ivo, nodding as her gaze returned to the tree-line. "How delightful," she remarked, a clear cloak of sarcasm masking her worried words. Shifting her feet in the dirt, she kept her blade ready as she awaited what would come.