When the dead rise

[Leanne Martin]

With Mischief gone, there was not much sense in fighting the church by herself. She knew that Leanne and Pickles were related to it in some way, but she didn't know how deep, nor did she intend to bring them into trouble.

Beside, there were other things that concerned her more. First of all, the Vesperians attacking Covian land and soldier, and even more threatening for her were the constant attacks of the undead.
Ilyana had her fair share of experience with undead. In her home shard, the earth rejected the dead. The plague was too far spread out to fight it. Ilyana fought them until the bitter end - many of the undead were people she once called friends. She wafted the thought away. Besides, no one expect the arcanists and Leanne knew of her origin. And of course, she herself.

The undead here seemed to be of a different origin anyway. It was not the plague that brought them back to life, but instead something else. She expected to be a necromancer of something like that, but was yet unsure.



Of course Ilyana had studied a bit of necromancy here and there in her time in Terort Skitas. She hated the thought of manipulating death and found it as a perversion of all she believed in. But it was never a bad idea to gain knowledge, even if it meant to be of something so gruesome.

Ilyana continued her search, but Britain Library was surely not the place she found answers. She thought about Danaeyl. She heard of the attack on one of the squires, and even if she disliked them, she could not help but feel compassion towards them.

"Perhaps, it is time to bury the hatchet...", she muttered to herself, receiving only an aggressive Sssh! from the librarian. Ilyana and Danaeyl wanted the very same thing, it seemed anyway...

[Leanne Martin]

Ilyana took all her courage to meet with Danayl in the late hours, in a place that she still disliked.

It was not the time to fight though, instead Ilyana spoke out her compassion to the situation with the squire - and to offer her help against the undead menace. For her it was obvious that the undead were the biggest threat Cove, no, all of Sosaria, would face if their powers and strength would go unchecked and untreated.

And Ilyana was glad to hear that she and Danaeyl had something to agree on.

*a letter sent to the church for the eyes of Danaeyl*

Initiate,

As we spoke, I went to the Lycaeum in Moonglow to find out more about the magic use of the Arisen.
For further knowledge, I'd need a more practical investigation on them, but I am able to share with you what I already was able to gather...

As we spoke, the Arisen have an unnatural ability to recover. And as I already told you, this seems to be the case because they suck out the life of their surroundings. Fighting them many years back, I had noticed that grass, flowers and small animals die near their presence. The case for this seems to be on a dark magic we call Spirit Speak. Those that use this foul magic suck the life force of something else to channel it and heal their own wounds.
While it is no threat to people like us, it certainly does not help our cause, as then, no matter how often we "kill" the Arisen, they just come back to life.

Furthermore, the Arisen use common arcane magic as I use it. Perhaps some of them were once magicians? What troubles me more though is, that there are some among them who use spells of the dark art known as Necromancy. Our troops have only little experience fighting this kind of magic, which seems to be the reason why especially our younger soldiers seem to have so much trouble fighting them.

There are many dark spells classified under that kind of magic, of which most are used to weaken the opponent. Whenever one is hit with such a spell, it is best to stay defensive and not charge into an attack, as the dark powers will get them injured or killed.

But as I wrote you before, I'd need to see their magic myself to get a deeper knowledge.



I am awaiting your response whenever you are ready and advice you to be careful.

Kind regards,

Ilyana Drachen, Senior Arcanist

[Danaeyl]

Arcanist Drachen,

With the end of thy Church servitude, thou art of course under no obligation to continue thy work in this area, nor to do so under our oversight. I do however hope that thou doth, as I expect, consider the situation grave enough that it merits thy independent continued attention.

I hath reflected on thy report. It is disturbing, yet unsurprising, that in order to sustain undeath, the price they pay is life from another source. Yet it is a relief that their foulness is unable to leech from more sophisticated life, at least. It is also of interest that some of their horde use 'ordinary' magiks, as well as necromancy. The former, while potent, can be defended against, yet as thou doth remark, the latter is far more unpredictable.

I leave thy next steps in thy hands, yet should the opportunity arise I hath no doubt that detail on the undead spellcasters, their specific rituals, and ways in which that thee may combat their magics, would be valuable indeed.

Though the period of thy oversight is rendered complete, thou art welcome to communicate thy findings with me in this matter generally if it should be of aid. Though the Arisen are less active at the moment, I fear that this is less a cause for joy and more for worry - who knows what foul plans they concoct in their lair?

Initiate Danaeyl

[Leanne Martin]

*Ilyana wrapped the bandages around her stab wounds from the battle, sighing deeply, before she dipped her quill in the ink*

Dear Danaeyl,

I will be honest with thee. I am not a follower of the church, but I am also not going to fight it anymore.

I fear to be a "servant" once more and will thus do my all, to stay as far away as possible from the church. The marks of physical and the fear of psychological pain still linger deep in me.

However...

I see still the urge for the greater good and thus will, if you wish, continue my work with you against the undead menace.

Even tho Vesper is more of a threat to our liberty, it is the Arisen that are threats to our lifes.

If you need assistance to investigate them further, I will be to thy aid.

Sincerely,
Ilyana Drachen

[Danaeyl]

Arcanist Drachen,

Thy position is clear in word and deed, and sufficient to end thy direct institutional penance. Though I hope that thou mayst find true redemption within thy own heart, this is a matter between thee and Avatar now. Though these words will no doubt ring empty at this moment, thou art always welcome to discuss matters of the faith with me, in time, should thee wish.

Though the Arisen lay dormant for now, and much of all our time is taken up by the immediate threat of the Vesperian menace, this will no doubt not always be so. Let us keep our eyes and ears peeled for their foul machinations.

Initiate

[Leanne Martin]

Even though free of the church, Ilyana felt still the urge to find out more information on the whole situation with the undead. It seemed that during the war with Vesper, the Arisen had gathered new strength again to attack not only Covians, but also parts of Yew and Vesper. Some of the latest victims of the attacks were her boss, Pickles, and a scout by the name of Vaughn Goodwill. Lucky, both got out with only a few scratches thanks to the help of some guardsmen that were near when the attacks happened.

Ilyana studied the past reports about the attacks, and it seemed, that they were most active around the Kings road in Altmere. Clearly, there was some connection to the place as if the place of their power was hidden there. A handful of people even reported that they saw old crypts around the northern woods, but they were unable to tell if dark magic was present there.



Ilyana set off to take a look at it herself, to find any more clues or knowledge about this. As she walked around the woods, a stench of rotten flesh caught her attention. She took a closer look, as the odor made her throw up. Several bodies, ripped apart, bones laying around, even animal corpses. She counted at least three humans, but it was hard to tell with all the scattered body parts.



No animal dared to feast on the flesh, as if they knew that it was cursed. As she gathered from the wounds and the structure, it was not the work of a wild animal, no, clearly it was something far more blood thirsty behind this. Ilyana burned the corpses, just to be sure they won't ever rise.



If the church still wanted her support, she'd offer it. For now though, it seemed the best way to get a closer look was to join Sergeant Sandersons sentry in Altmere. Clearly she must have read the patterns of the undead attacks as Ilyana did.

[Leanne Martin]

Ilyana set off with some guardsmen to the lands of Ilshenar into the place called The Ancient Citadel. How it got that name, she did now know. But she knew that there had been strange experiments in the past and its surrounding areas was infested with undead. Perhaps, so she hoped, she would be able to find some, any, information on the Arisen.



Eventually, she found many books, some in old tongues, some in Drow, Gargoyle, even Orc! One tattered diary caught her attention especially. By the looks of it, it belonged to some sort of mad wizard that suffered from dementia. However... The more Ilyana read, the more she paled and was reminded that she could be here because of similar magic. To this day, only the Arcanists and her cousin knew of her origins, while Kobra and Jarrett knew there was something odd about her return.









Was she an undead herself? She realized once more, that she, or more precise, the Ilyana from this shard, died six years ago to blackrock infection. She took basically a dead woman's place. Rising up from a grave... She shook her head rapidly, wafting these thoughts away. She was nothing like the Arisen.
As she was eager to find out more about this madmans experiment, she knew that this wasn't going to bring her further to her goal to find out more, and eventually destroying the Arisen.

She stood at a crossroad: Either she spoke with the other Arcanists about her research, leaving her with a much wider knowledge and curiosity, while rising suspicions the squad could dabble in necromancy; or she could contact Danaeyl once more...