We had been on our way to Brit after trying unsuccessfully to reclaim another Yew tree that had been ravaged by the wasting disease that now gripped the entire province surrounding the village of Yew. The lich had attacked swiftly and without warning from the side of the road, draining the energy from my being with a foul curse. Majalkita had reacted swiftly and paralyzed it. We then turned on the foul creature, wracking its decaying flesh with bolt after bolt of magical energy. It had fought hard and without fear as only the undead can, but it had died nonetheless. The tortured soul freed from its half-life, to continue its journey to whatever destination it’s deeds in life had earned it.

Majal had just finished binding my wounds and chanting the words to the spell that would restore my health and vigor, when the crickets stopped their chirping and the nightingales ceased singing. The silence was almost deafening. Only an Elf could appreciate a silent forest. To hear the world around you suddenly stop is a very eerie thing indeed. The woods around us became as quiet as a tomb, and there was a foul smell on the air. Majal had noticed it too, for her nose was wrinkled in disgust, and her delicate elven ears perked slightly as she turned to face me at the exact same moment. Her eyes were wide with question as if asking me, “Do you feel that?” In that same moment, a shadow passed on the road. Of course nature knows death, and to elves, death is as natural as new life, and though the lich had stunk… this… this was something entirely different. The smell of spell reagents and dried blood mingled with the cloying scent of rotting flesh. And not just the smell of a ripe body, but the stench of the inside of a ripe and decaying body, all combined to create a sickly sweet miasma that was overwhelming. It took all of our willpower to keep from retching and alerting the foul thing to our presence. The shadowy being radiated malice as it paused by the side of the road to examine the corpse of the lich Majal and myself had just killed. Thinking it meant to loot it, I was about to whisper a derogatory comment about how only a human would search a rotting corpse at the side of a road… when the foul creature began chanting… chanting and calling the liches spirit back from whatever beyond it had traveled to!

“Sylvanus…!” Majal had whispered my name fiercely and stared at me, horrified. Almost accusingly as if I would know why someone would do such an evil thing. Much to our dismay, the lich twitched and stirred! Finally, it stood up, and did obeisance to the shadow! The shadow laughed wickedly and blasted the lich to pieces. When the laugh came, I knew immediately that it was male, and that this… this abomination was human. In that instant, my opinion of humans dropped even lower than it already was. I had seen humans slay innocents, and laugh as they looted their corpses. I had seen humans kill forest creatures and not skin or eat them. I had seen them make sick the forested village of Yew, but this… this made Lord Blackthorn’s mechanical abominations and mutated plague carrying beasts look like child’s play. This… person, this wretch, for I would hesitate to blame even humans for this accursed being, this person was an affront to all that is natural!

“We must inform the Council!” Majalkita’s words were true and I nodded and made the gesture that indicated retreat. As always, Majal murmured Kal Ort Por first, just as the magical energy that would carry her to our home began to manifest, the human turned and stared at me with eyes of fire. By the woods of my youth I swear that the evil human became a lich. Horrified, I summoned the magic that would carry me to our home, and had just finished my recall spell when a blast of ice cold air hit me, toppling me from my vantage point in the tree. I stared in amazement as the tree I had just been in, instantly began to die of frost! The vision faded amidst the golden red lights of my spell and I was on my steps… cold pain wracking my body with its icy bite.

After being tended by my Lifemate, I sat and warmed my cold limbs by VIRTUE’s forge and began to prepare my report to the Council. All the while thoughts of the Necromancer, for what else could such a vile magician be called, warmed my blood as rage boiled in my veins. “Majal!” I yelled, for she was in the next room… “Love, please summon the elders! The Elven Council of Order must be informed of this, immediately!” Majal gave me a withering look, as if to chastise me for thinking she had needed my prompting to call the Council together. Now we wait… the Council has been summoned and we will present our findings to them, I pray that our Paladins are up to the challenge. I pray that the either the Sage’s or the Paladin’s Council will have the answers we need to fight this new evil that has come to Brittania.

 

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