Location: Unknown Underground Hideout
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Two navy blue cloaked figures stand in a dark, dank, stone floored room. An overhead light was illuminating them alone. On the very edge of the darkness was the silhouette of a man sitting on a throne infront of them.
"#1, where is #3?" The silhouette spoke and a gruff, masculine, authoritative tone.
The smaller of the two removed their hood to reveal the head of a dog. Her cute Border Collie face shuttered with hesitation. "Um... Kaz --"
"#3!" The silhouette interrupted slamming their fist against the stone armrest.
"Right, #3. The mission with the General was a success, but... Xena Wolfbane is still alive. #3 has gone into hiding waiting for another chance to strike."
Her words did not please the silhouette as she could hear the cracking of the stone armrest underneath his grip. "And where were you two while he was doing this."
"We were at the lighthou -- AHHH!" The dog girl screamed in pain as a ghostly green hand gripped onto her chest. She fell to her knees trying to pull the hand away but to no avail.
"Shtop! Shtop, dammit!" The larger figure shouted stepping forward. His hood fell off to reveal orcish green skin and black cornrows. His oversized tusks getting in the way of proper speech.
"You were supposed to work as a team, why were you separated? Care to explain #2!?"
"Hit weren't her fauhlt! The boat shipmhent got moved up a fhew days! We had to splhit up to mahke sure we dhidn't mish hit!" The orc watched as the ghostly hand disappeared. He bent down to pick of the female wolffolk. Allowing her to explain as she was much more eloquent than him.
"Some people came to investigate the old keeper and our operative got skittish. It caused a whole mess and we had to steal the beacon gem and leave. The operative was lost, but we took all evidence of our involvement with us." In that moment the wolffolk girl remembered the dagger she handed to the old blind halfling, but she refrained from admitting another failure.
The silhouette sighed as he propped up his head with his hand resting the elbow on the armrest. "I guess this is what you get when you enlist local help... Fine. Retrieve #3 and await further orders. We'll get another opportunity to get rid of the Wolfbane later. You two are dismissed."
The orc helped his companion out the door as she was still clutching her chest. "Ahre you okahy Io?"
"Yeah. I'll be fine Hos. Thanks for the back-up."
"Anhytime." The orc smiled.
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Location: Zackaria's Magic Tower in the Platinum Palace
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Prince Garam knelt down to press his fingers in the green grass underneath him. "This feels so real!"
"It might as well be boy!" Zackaria said excited as he looked at the expansive forest around them. "To think we fashioned our very own pocket dimension..."
The prince turned his head up to look at his teacher who stood there with a massive smile on his face. The face then turned neutral as Zackaria about faced and stepped out the door way of the pocket dimension. "Alright tear it down and make it again."
"What!?" Prince Garam queried chasing after his teacher through the doorway. "We've spent so much time and resources on this! Both of us were put on the brink of mana drain just for this one, and you want to make a whole new one?"
The two stood looking at each other in a momentary silence. In the center of the magic circle stood an oaken doorframe with a flat oak door with a brass doorknob. Through it was a lush green forest but behind it was just the rest of the tower.
Zackaria sighed. "It's imperfect, boy. We didn't even implement a dynamic weather system. The size is just a mile wide forest, and I've yet to experiment enough with it to figure out a way to manipulate dimensional time dilation. This was nothing more than a test to see if we could actually make one." Zackaria then motioned to the door on the circle. "To try to fix the sigil work on it now would be a fool's errand."
"Then you can call me a fool, sir. I've been practicing my sigilcraft and I think I can pull it off. No, I know I can pull it off." The prince looked at his teacher with a stubborn, determined look.
"Fine. We will make it a competition then. I'm not sure what we can set as the stakes, but we'll set the deadline for a week. Whoever makes the better pocket dimension that can easily be replicated is the winner. What do you think?" Zackaria leaned against a table already thinking he's won.
"I think if I win... you teach me some necromancy."
Zackaria almost fell off the table as he was taken aback. "No! Absolutely not!"
"But as long as I'm not creating undead it's still legal in Arkheim!" Garam begged.
"Legality or not, it's a grim business to get into necromancy --"
"I'll get you a date with my Aunt!" The prince bargained.
"What?" Zackaria asked deadpan.
"You know my Aunt Julia adores me, and will do anything for me. So if you win the bet, I'll arrange a date for you and her." The prince was lying through his teeth, but Zackaria wasn't thinking with his head at the moment.
"Deal!" He said shaking his apprentice's hand, like a lamb welcoming the slaughter.