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[Thugren]

Dekkalon breaks into a run as he is guided by solomon , and noctis looks down as he soaks in the news.

 

He had fought for days, killing many of the higher breed ghouls himself to keep the humans safe, and it was only after a concentrated effort that he was forced out of the city. The thought that he had done some good in those last days when the rest of his breed had to be killed off was something that brough him peace.

 

"Nocti is calm now....Look at him!"

 

Scylla chuckled as she poked him, making noctis grunt as solomon watched the group.

 

"YOu chose the wrong time to come back old one."

 

He says with a sad smile

[Armoured Priest]

"Friend, this reminds me more of the beginning more than you think." He mused to Solomon as Dekalon went forward, briefly wondering if what had happened while he was away was all destined to pass wither or not he was awake and around. But he was glad to be back, if at least to help his friends here and humans and ghouls again. Though he was sure he would be facing a whole new set of problems than he had before, along with many timeless ones as well.

[Thugren]

the necromancer looks at you carefully.

 

"Was it this bad...BAck when it started?"

 

he asks quietly, looking at the desolate wastes.

 

"I mean...This land is bad enough as it is...Ancient beings roaming these deserts like angered gods.... I can only imagine back then."

[Armoured Priest]

"It wasn't so much about powerful things roaming freely back then. It was the confusion, the chaos, the madness as humanity realized it was facing a very real extinction at the hands of things that shouldn't be. As much as a feral ghoul can be savage, I've seen humans reduce themselves to do the same, or worse after the days of Inception." Varkanis explained what he meant before looking down at his staff, mainly the deep red orb siting on the top held in place of four curved claw like bits of metal. "....I lost a family because of it. Just because of what I was to other people." he sighed running an index finger over the surface of the orb. "....After help from Augustus and Nocturne, I wanted to help living and undead alike. The sentient undead have lives too, and families. If I could help it, No one should lose their family because of what they are."

[Thugren]

the young necromancer says nothing for a long time, watching the desert for a while before he speaks.

 

"THings have evened out a bit here.... But things sometimes get bad. That name you used noctourne...That is the name of the queen of ghouls correct/"

[Armoured Priest]

"Yes indeed. Though when I first wake we seemed to have some form of disagreement, considering she had a host of grave guard with her, and Noctis here has told me some troubling things she has done while I was dormant.' He admitted, sighing mostly to himself while he wonder just how much of a bad reputation she must have by now. "She shouldn't be doing things like this, I do not know what has changed over the centuries but I will find the answers, one way or another I hope."

[Thugren]

The necromancer looks like he falls into thought and he finally speaks.

 

"That ghoul..The wolf there."

he points at the sleeping noctis.

 

'you understand...What happened with his kind correct? and if he is what i think he is..What was done?"

[Armoured Priest]

"If you mean what had happen in my absence, only what he was able to tell me. All of them falling in their duty. Why?" He asked the other necromancer, becoming uneasy at what might be implied by the wording of his question. After Nocturne coming to him and trying to turn him to her cause, what he had heard Augustus has been doing, or lack therefore of from what both Nocturne and Noctis have said, he didn't want to think that the last person he could turn to was also possibly unreliable too.

[Thugren]

The necrmancer chooses his words carefully.

 

"His kind... Unianimously turned and swore allegiance to nightmare... From therre i can only hazard a guess... But his entire species was whiped out by a frothing beast... its possible noctis whiped his kind out while you slept to deny nightmare crucial pawns.... But if that is the case... How did he resist the great fiends control?"

[Armoured Priest]

Varkanis was silent in turn, thinking on Solomon's words while now feeling pangs of guilt for what Noctis was possibly forced to do and seeing it as a likely possibility. "....There some things that could have happened, some form of intervention, Nightmare doing that on puporse to make the patriarch of the species suffer for defecting him, or maybe, what I hope, is sheer willpower on Noctis' end. I would have to have been there to have a better idea, but I wasn't, yet another thing I will have to wander if I could have prevented if I had remained awake."

[Thugren]

solomon reaches into his back and pulls out an onyx crystal, looking at it for a moment before it glows.

 

'THis is the memory of the last of his kind....If you want to see how it ends.... YOu can."

[Armoured Priest]

While the opportunity to see what had happen to his friend during his long years of dormancy, he almost felt like taking the crystal gave the idea he did not trust Noctis anymore. That and he wasn't sure if this was simply a memory shard or something more....nefarious. Something like that wasn't out of the question, he's seen horrific things happen from even the most innocuous looking items or people. But this Solomon has been helpful since the moment they met, and seems to understand where Varkanis was coming from. He reached over and held his hand open for the dark crystal. "I suppose I should know, perhaps it can help me help him." He said with a modicum of hope in his voice.

[Thugren]

The gem sucks you into the mind of a slavering beast. 

 

It is driven forward by a mad conciousness that chokes all rationality from its mind like an iron grip, it looks up at a long spiraling staircase with hundreds of its king to see noctis who is standing alone, hunched over a being the conciousness calls a "king". he eats and looks up, bearing his blades in challenge at the encroaching horde, launching himself at them with a savage fury .

 

One after another the attackers are thinned out, confined in the tight hallway to die one after another until the watcher is struck down, a long length of bone peicing its brain and ending the memory.

 

 

You are hurled back into your body and solomon is watching you carefully.

 

"All done?"

[Armoured Priest]

Varkanis cleared his throat before he gave an answer, giving him a moment to gather his thoughts on what he just had witnessed. "If what I watch was correct, Noctis seemed to have killed and eaten a Ghoul king for his resistance organ, probably trying his best to stave off the mad influence that took over his kin." The old Necromancer said, understanding what he had seen in the memory. "Something had control over all of them something that didn't feel familiar, so I'm not even sure if it was nightmare or not. Either way, it looked like Noctis had to put them all down. Some sort of hallway, didn't look familiar either." He added before sighing. "I see the years haven't been kind to him at all, more so than I had thought."

[Thugren]

He.. Killed a king?"
 

solomon asks, looking at the weakened balang patriarch.

 

"That is... Insane...but its that other presence you speak of.. ive been noticing another ..... Aura in the blackness of our magics lately."

[Armoured Priest]

"I have not notice that, yet, then again I haven't been actively using spells since I woke. Seems like a sign if anything." Varkanis commented as he thought of possible reasons for a change in a necromaner's power. "I do not suppose anyone has checked on the splinter of Rot recently?" he asked Solomon. If the source itself has been tampered with, that could be a much greater problem than anything else he has seen so far. But, that wouldn't explain the....influence on Noctis' kin. That felt as if a seperate entity was at play, like another necromancer or ghoul creature, but what? 

[Thugren]

the splinter?"

 

solomon asks cautiously as he thinks.

 

"The splinter was interred a long time agho. But if needed i can take you there..... It wont be asy though and we would have to go with only ghouls."

[Armoured Priest]

"Hm, that would mean Dekalon would have to wait somewhere away while we go inspect it. But....the idea of it either going bad, or someone tampering with it makes me thing waiting any longer to check on it is an inadvisable action." Varkanis reasoned as he petted the scorpion Patriarch. He just 'found' him, more like realized who he was as if he was an alzhiemers patient. "Let us go where it has been interred then. And see if we can find out just what's going on on that front. Otherwise much will be mute if we suddenly don't have our abilities anymore."

[Thugren]

Int the distance you can see a small town, protected by a thick herd of undead tending to fields and chasing off the feral. They look up as solomon enters and in the cventer of the town, Dekalon stops.

 

"DO you want to go now?"

 

he asks calmly as he dismounts, jarring noctis, scylla and the queen awake.

 

"Or would you like to rest elder one."

[Armoured Priest]

"I'm very sure I've rested enough." he said in a terse tone that reflected his thoughts on anymore sleeping currently, dismounted from Dekalon with aid from his staff. His old bones weren't what they used to be. Readjusting himself after the jarring landing, the old necromancer nodded and gestured him to lead. "If you would please."