Dreadlords How Many Dead Men

[Duncan]

"Ha! Nothing so macabre." Duncan said with a shake of his head as he began to place the candles around the room. Positioning each one as an intricate part of an unseen pattern.

"Don't get me wrong, I read a book on necromancy once." Meaning he remembered every page and spell within, just as Adra would have. A gift that the two of them shared, though utilized in vastly different means. "But working with bodies?"

Duncan made a face. He'd always been somewhat sensitive to smells.

"This is something else." He told her. "Time, as we know, is an irreproachable danger to those who can touch the strings of magic."

The Dreadlord said as he placed the final candle. "Those who attempt to stop, reverse, or quicken it's tethers are met with the unenviable fate of being wiped utterly from existence."

This was something nearly every sorcerer, wizard, mage, or otherwise knew. Those who had any semblance of self preservation stayed well away from such machinations lest the laws of nature itself come crashing down with force.

"However, a year ago, I read a paper from a Professor at Elbion. It was long, and very dry, but the gist of it was simple; we cannot touch time, but we can look through it." Duncan said with a grin, completely unaware of the others closing in on them. "He claims through the use of this spell, one is able to create a window to the past. Mind you, in very narrow circumstances, with some very careful tuning."

Which was why they had searched the city, and why they needed to find exactly the right spot. "If he is correct, then we will be able to see what happened here in Vel Orath for ourselves."

 

[Adra Eden]

Time.

Something not even the Dreadlords of Vel Anir dared to mess with. While they pushed the limits of the many facets of magic, Adra had not known a single Dreadlord, or any other mage beyond Vel Anir, to test that which was linked with the forbidden thread.

In that vein, she found herself frowning while Duncan explained himself.

"Duncan..." Adra paused with three candles still in her grasp, having also missed the sounds of those others on approach for her sudden wariness of the situation, "are you certain this is a good idea? It was just a paper. A theory, right?"

She would have almost preferred it was necromancy.

 

[Henk]

A University...? Anirian territories were so closely associated with the Academy that one could easily forget it was far from the only institution out there. Henk hadn't known Orath to have one, but then he hadn't known much about Orath in general, not until he'd begun looking into the more recent discrepancies here.

"A coincidence, I'm sure." Henk offered sarcastically at the fact it still stood. No, it had been affected. That much was clear as they entered the massive building, much of the inside every bit as coated with glass as the ruined city surrounding it. Whatever had razed Orath had indeed hit this University, but something had safeguarded it from the same level of annihilation that the rest of the city faced, and he sincerely doubted it was merely the craftsmanship.

"If there is something left to salvage from this city..." Henk muttered as he attempted to pull open the drawer on a desk, only for it to shatter under the slightest bit of tension. "It would be in here. We should hope to find it first, lest we learn what 'it' is before we're prepared." The dread in his voice was a gift from a rather prominent string of bad luck on recent missions. Lords above, he wished he had one mission where something didn't want his head.

Henk deferred to Perrine, who seemed to know much more about this place than he did. It wasn't long before they found the staircase leading to the second level of the University. Henk shared in Fain's unease, however. He too felt something amiss, a strange feeling that they weren't alone in this behemoth relic.

"Do you feel that?" He muttered ahead of him, turning his head to look back at Fain. "Something still lurks here..."

 

[Perrine Urahil]

She was not too sure what she would have found out here, but something that persisted, that survived all of this... it would be a start to her investigations. Even a glimmer would be enough to work with, to heal the magic and test her theories.

Perrine furrowed her brows, frowning at Henk's question and the alertness it demanded from it. "Tread carefully." She did not forget that Henk's magic was greater than her own, but it would be a last resort for her to use the harmful side of her own magicks. Let them believe she was just a Healer for now. "If the anomalies were similar to your reading on my tests, then perhaps we could theorise we are most definitely not alone here."

The Healer made to palm her knives, a choice of weapon that made many scoff at her in the past, but they had not seen a Healer trained with something sharp before.

"After you." She shrugged at Henk, as if to say 'You are the one with the better magic, after all.'

 

[Duncan]

"Well, a proven theory!" According to the paper anyway.

There was always a chance that the good Professor had been lying, but Duncan did not think it likely. The research had nearly seen him fired from his position, and from what he understood the academic community still thought him either a fool, a danger, or an all around kook.

Duncan thought otherwise though, and here they had a unique opportunity to do something that they as Dreadlord's did not often have the chance to do; break open a piece of Arcanic Science. "Trust me Adra."

He said as he opened his hands for the remaining candles.

"If I didn't feel confident in this, I would not have brought you." The Rogue Dreadlord assured her. "He was said to be the most powerful mage of his era in an age where even our Archons would have struggled to stand tall."

Duncan said, not able to hide the enthusiasm and excitement in his voice. Always having had a fascination with the old histories and so caught up within them now that he still did not hear their approaching guests. "Aren't you curious about seeing just what he did?"

 

[Adra Eden]

Adra watched her old comrade with concern evident in her gaze. Concern for him. For herself. For the structure within which they stood. For the gumption he held at tempting such fate.

"I did not earn a 4th Level title for being curious," her answer arrived over a small, wilted smirk, "but your curiosity is infectious, apparently." She was, admittedly, now curious about whether or not he - or rather, they - would be breaking any magical laws today.

She handed over the candles, "Just... be careful."

Adra stood back, closed her eyes over a silent prayer and apology to her husband, Jodeth Eden, should things go awry.

"What do you need me to do?"

 

[Henk]

Interestingly, the second level of the old University had fared better than the first, perhaps owing to it's elevation. Whereas the ground floor was nearly entirely encased in coats of thick glass, only traces of the clear, hardened material littered the walls and floors above.

Indeed, this level of the building felt frozen in time, everything was left as it had been the day that Orath met its untimely fate. Papers still lay strewn about the halls, doors hung ajar, and within those rooms, desks sat with drawers half opened as their owners had scrambled to collect their belongings and flee.

Likely a fruitless effort.

What was most curious, however, was the scent that hit his nose. This entire city had smelled of nothing, no scent escaped the glass tomb encompassing the wreckage left behind of Orath. Now, however, the smoky tones of burning candles found his nostrils. Holding up a hand as he realized what the smell was, Henk turned to lead Perrine down a hall to the left, pressing his body to hug the wall as he stepped lighter, slinking towards the smell.

There, at the end of the hall, he heard voices through an open room, the sounds of footsteps moving about. A man and woman... maybe two? He couldn't tell from here.

Turning his head to Perrine, he muttered.

"Let's get closer... don't make a move unless they see us."

Perrine Urahil Adra Eden

 

[Perrine Urahil]

She was glad for Henk being there to take lead, directing her on where to step as they crept and advanced towards the source of voices. Perrine was quiet, deathly quiet, as her own senses picked up on the smell of candle wax. She knew it well, having spent many hours painting in candlelight when her muse was too strong to put down.

"...the most powerful mage of his era in an age where even our Archons would have struggled to stand tall." A male voice stopped the two Dreadlords just shy of the doorway.

Her pale eyes stared at the back of Henk's head, ready to do as he instructed. To run or to confront?

 

[Duncan]

A wide grin spread across Duncan's lips as he grabbed the last of the candles from Adra. A giddiness carrying through them as he quickly began to place them, forming the odd ritual circle on the ground. ”Careful is my middle name, Adra, you know that.”

The Rogue told her with a grin.

He certainly hadn't made it through the Academy by being daring and dangerous. His magic had been all but ‘useless’ until Gilram had begun to show him it's proper use. Back then he'd managed to survive both Proctor's and peers mostly through…well, avoiding any sort of danger he could.

”All you have to do is watch.” He told her as he picked out a piece of chalk and began to quickly scrawl some runes. ”I wanted both of use here so we could catch every detail.”

He explained as he drew the final line. The magic almost instantly sparking. Candles catching flame, runes beginning to glow, and the air growing thick with a sense of power. The ritual sparking as Duncan stood and slowly began to back up, the air slowly beginning to spin and twirl, drawing In upon itself as lines of arcana drew upon themselves in an ever increasing ball of light.

The strength of the magic growing and growing at an almost impossible pace, becoming almost oppressive until suddenly it exploded outward in a great burst. Casting wide and far and bursting through the walls, dreadlords, and anything else near. The very air shifting and changing as suddenly the whole world around them was suddenly transformed. Creating not a window in time, but casting a veil of it over their every surrounding.

Duncan's eyes growing wide as suddenly the study they found themselves standing in was no longer ancient and covered in dust, but bright, sunny, and new. Where there had been no door there now was one, and where the desk had once been empty, now there sat a man. His fingers scribbling away carefully at a piece of paper.

An echo, nothing more, but the man they had come to see. ”This…”

Duncan said swallowing as the door was suddenly thrown open, a man storming inside clutching a strange black square. His steps leading him directly to-and then through as he charged the Archon.

“ARE YOU MADE WUDRICK?!” The man demanded in his booming voice. “How…how could you make this damned thing?”

He questioned in his rage. Duncan staring at the scene utterly enraptured.