Diomaites and the Tale of the

Necromancer's Daughter

by Xaneros Wyarth

The scene opens on our hero alone at his usualy bar in Forge. The room is fairly dark in the evening, a few candles lighting up some tables. Diomaites sits as usual at his table in the back, watching the room for any signs of Adventure, when suddenly the door busts open.

As the door swings open, a cold waif of air sweeps in. Quickly Diomaites looks to the door, a small figure in a dark hooded cloak woobling in. She takes a few steps before collapsing on the ground.

In his dashing manner Diomaites sweeps out of his seat and to the side of the figure. Lowering the hood, tendrils of curly read hair spill out over her limp shoulders. Her face pale and cold, seemingly lifeless.

With a gasp, "Bartender! Get a bed ready in the back!"

The bartender nods, dropping a glass as he rushes into the back room. Diomaites hefts the girl up carefully onto his shoulder, proceeding into the back room. The cold wind blows through the now empty tavern.

The quaint back room of the tavern holds a few beds, and modest furnishings. Our hero sits near a bad in the corner, the bartender looking on from afar. It had been nearly 3 hours since the girls arrival, and she was finally beginning to stir. Her eyes flutter open with a gasp.

Looking around the room hastily she asks, "Where am I!? Who are you people?"

With a smirk Diomaites responds, "You are in the back room of the Forgian Tavern, you stumbled in here a few hours ago. We should be asking you that."

The girl closes her eyes, shaking her head, "I dont know... I dont remember... anything!" She closes her eyes as a tear rolls down her cheek.

"Now now," Diomaites reassures, "Just stay calm, Im sure you will remember something, just try and think of where you were last. Take your time."

The girl nods, wiping her cheeks, "Let me see... I think I remember something, I was... at a tower... Then there was..." She closes her eyes and cries again.

"It was a cold night... and I had just left my home in New Stonegate with my mother to go into the desert to see father. She had said that he had gone there on a mission for the Pauper's Graveyard Society... I dont really know what that means... but anyways, we had just arrived."

Diomaites nods, motioning for the bartender to bring something to drink.

"Then I saw father... he was all pale and sick looking, he hissed at me and mother and took off running. Mother and I followed, eventually arriving at a tower on the farside of the desert. And there was Father, all dressed in robes and looking all scary." She pauses, looking down sadly, "Then he waved his arms... and out of nowhere darts flung at me and mother! She was hit in the leg and that pushed her off the path and off the cliff!" The girl begins to cry, looking up at Diomaites. "Then I ran... Father was not himself, it was not his fault, you must believe me!"

Diomaites nods descisively and stands, "Wait here, I will see to this." He moves to the door, a look of anger in his eyes.

The scene opens on our hero, standing before a large tower in the dark. The cold winds blowing the sands of the nearby shifting sands around him.

Diomaites thinks aloud, "Could her father be Makai? The Necromancer?" He shakes his head, "Only one way to find out." He proceeds on towards the tower, looking off a cliff to the west with a sad sigh.

He arrives at a main room, looking around he notices a few worn tapestries, then near the stairs a clanking heap of bones.

Diomaites furrows his brow, readying his axe. The bones spring towards him, the visage of a human face on the skull. With a grunt our champion brings his axe down upon the skeleton, shattering him to a million bits. With a nod be moves to the stairs, looking up into the darkness.

At the top of the stairs he arrives at a locked door, the sound of weeping drawing his attention to the east, where a ghostly woman sits by a coffin.

Our hero arrives in a dark room in the east wing of the tower. Windows along the walls look out on the desert, and far in the distance the southern steppes of New-Stonegate. Against the east wall, an open coffin bears the corpse of a middle-aged woman, her legs broke. Kneeling nearby, a ghostly image of the same woman. Diomaites sighs, readying his axe.

The woman looks up with sad, pleading eyes, "You must stop Makai... he was not himself... his powers have killed me and my daughter." She opens her arms to show a small crumpled girl, her red locks tumbling out over her forearms.

Diomaites opened his mouth with a faint gasp, "She was... dead...?" He looks back out at the hall. "That is Makai's room?" The woman nods, looking down sadly to the body of her daughter.

"I do not know what has come over him... please, you must stop him. I do not want others to suffer our fate." With that she looks away, her weeping filling the noises of the room. Diomaites nods, moving back to the west. Our story resumes with Diomaites at the door of Makai's study. He jiggles the bronze handle, but to no avail. Locked. He chuckles and shakes his head.

"Keeping the door crafters in business everyday." With lightning quick speed he brings his axe down on the door, sending splinters flying. The room revealed is small and dark, books sitting all around on shelves and tables, a large glass window sits on the north wall, standing near it... Makai.

Hefting his axe in front of him Diomaites regards, "You will pay for what you did to your family Makai... your poor daughter..." He shakes his head lunging.

Quickly Makai turns around, raising a hand, "You know nothing! I have saved them! They will be the first of my new land of the undead! You know nothing!" He brings his hands up, uttering a few words as air around him writhes.

Diomaites ducks under the plagued air, swiping his axe at Makai's leg and driving him to the ground. "The undead will not rule this world, not on my watch." Diomaites swings his axe at Makai's neck, beheading him.

The scene opens on Diomaites pushing through a door into the back room of the bar. The bartender stands by a bed, a look of exasperation on his face.

He looks to Diomaites, "She Vanished! There was a loud crash, screams and then she just vanished! what is going on Diomaites?"

Diomaites nods gravely, "She was the ghost of a Necramancer's Daughter, come to warn someone before it was too late. Her father sought to destroy the world.. starting with his own family." He shakes his head. "The Tower collapsed around him... letting them all rest in peace. I trust the girl's spirit left at that same time." He looks over to the bartender who sits wide-eyed.

He mutters something, standing and moving to leave, "This calls for a drink" He leaves, his voice echoing from the main tavern, "To no more ghosts!"

Diomaites chuckles sadly, looking to the bed, where only a lock of red hair remains, he smiles, moving to the door to leave.