Role

Chapter 17

Making a second attempt to obtain a satisfactory corpse of a draconic
nature has proved difficult. I worry that my warder has become somewhat
fatigued after a rather unfortunate episode that lost them some of their
valuables - clearly they've never spent a night in the Grig'Agali's scene,
or they'd be used to waking up with emptier pockets: but I digress.

Refining the process and my understanding of the explosive capacity of a
corpse given sufficient mana is important. It is something I do need to
determine, and I'm sure I will get the opportunity, even if I have to work
on finding a new Warder. In the meantime though, there are other aspects of
my craft that I can refine.

So I got to thinking. Necromancy is a lot about preparation. Its fairly
ingrained in how we do things - priming a legion for detonation takes time
and attention. Its one of those things we squarely isolate to the pre
engagement phase.

But does it need to be? That's a question that I started mulling over
recently. The Drillmaster tends to chew through my detonations pretty quick
and they do what they're supposed to, but there is a predictability there.
He knows they're coming. So what's the alternative? I've tried preparing
them with a spot of Davarrah's special brew before hand too, but the
detonations just go off too quickly, then I'm down a legion and the dear
Drillmaster gives me that "what now, huh?" look, one enhanced somewhat by
the fact he's now covered in blood and swinging a hammer towards my beak.

As with most of my amazing ideas, the revelation came to me in a moment
alongside ones of a somewhat divergent nature. In this case, it was
alongside the realisation that "we're all going to die and this legion is
terrible, why did I not prime a better one" while said Drillmaster was in
the process of tearing through my second bravely flailing dwarven
reanimation after beheading the first one with his flaming sword. It
occurred to me that what I really needed was a degree of unpredictability.

Diving into that melee to stick some of Davarrah's elixir into a zombie mid
being butchered was perhaps not one of my more pragmatic ideas, but you
can't argue with results. The Drillmaster never saw it coming, and when the
viscera mist cleared he was less covered in blood and more blood everywhere
as he spasmed around on the floor.

It was quite possibly the greatest moment of my career.

Then as I stared in wonder at my success he stood up and hit me in the face
with his hammer and I woke up in the temple in a distinctly translucent
state. That didn't much matter though. I was disappointed the explosion
hadn't been a tiny bit larger, of course. Dispatching my nemesis would have
been fantastic. Yet the possibilities this creates are much more important,
at least in the longterm. Taking away the certainty about when one of the
legion might explode might just change everything, and has given me a few