Awakening to commotion from outside the tavern, Volodar groggily stumbled over to look out of his window. Street urchins seemed to be playing with one another before being accosted by the city watch. The kids had tattered clothing as they were obviously from low income housing. Adelia witnessed the situation before commenting, "They shouldn't be so harsh on the kids."
Volodar responded, "I wonder why the guard even cares." Preparing himself for the day ahead, he sent a message to Hunter to cover his bases. "How are the jotuns?"
Hunter sheepishly replied, "It is going just fine, my lord. All obstacles are being taken care of when they arise."
"Obstacles?"
"Well, we had some problems. Merchants from down the road saw something strange and ended up finding one of the jotuns."
"I see, how did that end?"
"About that, sire, we captured the merchants and confiscated their items. We were going to wait for your orders."
We need a place to reside, Volodar thought, they'll just find my creations repeatedly until I stake my own claim upon the world. "Release them tomorrow at midnight with their gear. Relocate yourselves to a better location, even if that takes you further from Strosa."
"Yes, my lord."
Volodar sighed, "Alright, let's go Adelia. We'll see what that argument was about." Together, they made their way past the intersection leading towards the east side of Strosa. Damaged walls, ruined pathways and dirty streets were marks of a failed civilization. Chaos was common down these streets, but it organized compared to the marketplace. Most people within the marketplace wove in between each other with no care for oncoming carts. They would bump one another away from stalls as they rushed to their location.
Here, it was urchins and small groups of people talking to one another. Some of the men would dart eyes towards Adelia and Volodar. She asked, "Do you hear that?"
Volodar strained his hearing as glanced over towards a few of the alleyways. "I hear it. Perhaps, it's the guards intervening in the affairs of kids once again." Although, he hadn't seen any guards since walking into this area for a while now. Sounds of crying and laughter could be heard from a distance away as he walked in its direction. Adelia placed her hand upon the dagger that was sheathed as the noises grew louder.
There, a few kids could be seen laughing as they were hitting something with makeshift switches made of broken branches. Volodar walked behind the kids as he looked down, a child was the source of their entertainment at that moment. It was a girl who could've been no more than fourteen years of age.
Adelia instinctively went to the child's aid as she used life magic upon her. Busy in their act, the boys seemed surprised as that happened. Volodar flicked his wrist as dark magic floated to the nearby dead rats within the alleyway. Twitching, they rose and scurried over to the boys. Screams from the young lads were almost comical in nature as they fumbled over one another to run away.
This was no laughing matter though as Volodar was deadly serious in his ordering. The boys were to be scared and harassed until their animating energies ceased. He knew that the diseases from the rats would probably kill them without a cleric's treatment and forbade the rats from biting the children. Adelia spoke softly to the child to see if the girl could still speak, "What's your name? Where are your parents?"
The child didn't respond as it clutched onto Adelia. "Master Volodar," Adelia asked, "what should we do with her?"
"I'm not sure," he responded. "I can't imagine that the guards would be useful in this situation. Perhaps someone around her knows." With that, they talked to a few of the others who were nearby and learned of a orphanage. The orphanage was down the street, and it fit in with its surroundings perfectly. It was torn and the woodwork was damaged. Black and warped from its time being rained upon for generations. "It's better than nothing," Volodar stated.
Even the door seemed to have given up as it strayed from one of its hinges. Alvina really can't be bothered, Volodar thought as he walked into the orphanage. Inside, a familiar face was using magic to help the children. "Drake," Volodar asked, "what are you doing here?"
"I'm helping the children of Strosa. Some of them are dispossessed aquentis who are looking for a home. Others were just lost to the system." He paused as he looked over the kid that Adelia brought in. "Another one," Drake sighed as he performed miracles upon the child. He offered an old woman a sack of gold. She thanked him, with tears welling in corner of her tired eyes.
"Don't cry Mimi, you're a blessing for these kids. I thank you for looking over them." The two embraced for a while before Drake spoke once more, "I need to be going guys, but I'll be back in a month or two." He embraced the kids as he showed Volodar and Adelia the way out. They walked for a moment before Drake looked at the two of them, "What are you guys doing in the east side of Strosa? It gets dangerous out here."
"Guards were arguing with some of the poorer children, so I went to check it out." Volodar shrugged, "I also wanted to get to the adventurer's guild without dealing with the marketplace crowds."
"Well," Drake said, "I was just getting ready to meet back with the others as well. We'll need to plan out our next mission." Adelia agreed as they met up at the adventurer's guild. Several bounties were already picked out and waited on the table.
"How are the bounties," Volodar asked.
Gaulk frowned, "I don't know. I never learned how to read and Nokken isn't here yet." Drake laughed as he snatched the papers up. Sifting through them, he held onto one paper in particular. He glanced over to Volodar as he paraphrased the item, "Apparently, there is a dark arts coven west of Strosa. Their crimes are numerous: murder, theft, kidnapping, witchcraft, and so on."
Everyone besides Adelia looked towards Volodar as he responded, "It wasn't me. I don't dabble in witchcraft anyhow." He caught himself from saying anything more as he was in a public space, "We'll talk about this later."
Drake added, "It's an entire coven. Any single adventurer group would be widely known should it be accepted and completed. Is that even what we want?"
Gaulk nodded his head, "Enough reputation like that over time and even the high king, Lodar, wouldn't be able to deny our entry into the dwarven holds. It gets me a step closer to home." Silence fell over the group as they contemplated the issue.
Drake whispered to Volodar, "Your undead would be good for this as they won't be affected by the witches' illusions and mind games."
He nodded in response, "Lucas told me that evil practitioners of those arts were my quarry should I choose. Part of his 'emotional training' on how to be a good person." Adelia frowned as she thought about Lucas' teachings. She couldn't stand to think about how warped his logic was at this point. Lucas never contacted them since he left the tower.
They wrapped up their meeting with new purpose. Volodar thought about the coven and how dangerous it would be to assault them head on. Strength of the coven depended on what arcane or divine secrets they gathered in their lifetime.
That was the single biggest similarity between necromancers and witches as only the wise or strong survived. Special qualities were required to preserve their own lives. Pursuit of that knowledge was no easy task when you were murdered in the fledgling years of your career.
Volodar's special qualities came from his overuse and practice of crafting the dead. Creating sentient undead and bolstering those forces with number and skill were the qualities that made him powerful. What would a group like that have up their sleeves, he thought. Sending messages to Hunter, he prepared for his troops to meet up with him.
Their supplies were in order so they headed out that night. This should help to make progress towards some of the western hamlets. Nokken mentioned that they should talk to the other hamlets along the way and make sure that the coven hadn't done anything to them yet.
No locations for the coven were listed with the bounty besides the name of the settlement that issued the reward. A village west of Strosa by the name of Millstone held an elder with more information. With the help of Nokken and his pets, the path was easy to traverse. It didn't take long before Hunter and Doppel met up with them.
Volodar had given up on hiding his jotuns as he simply wanted a place to call his own now. He was tired of running from those who wished to hunt him down. If they attack me, so be it, he thought as he ordered his minions to follow.
Villagers of the hamlets were terrified at first, but Adelia and Drake were able to disarm their wariness and work with the locals. Drake would reveal his divine focus and help the town folks with injuries as he passed through. Whether it was curing blindness or restoring broken limbs, he would take no payment for his actions.
Only asking that they kept Volodar's undead a secret should anyone ask about them in the future. Sadly, most of the villages only heard of rumors in passing and the fact that no one from Millstone had talked to them in the past week. Drake relayed the information back to his companions during their journey.
"Your help has been noted, Drake." Volodar added, "You've done a lot for us these past few days."
He didn't seem bothered, "It's simply what my god would've wanted."
Volodar was intrigued, "Who do you pray to as an aquentis? One of the human gods or another?"
"The true name is unnecessary as it would be too difficult to say in your native tongue. Call him Foden if you wish. That would be fine. His domain is that of lightning and he is the defender of Nerinoch, my home."
Adelia chimed in, "That's a beautiful name for your home." Drake gave a slight smile as they peacefully continued their path. All of that serenity would stop as they marched towards Millstone. There were no smokestacks coming from the village in question as they made their way closer. Green vines wrapped around the sides of the houses as overgrowth tried to reclaim the roads as well.
Nokken halted the group, "This is the work of a druid or one with ties to a nature spirit." His dire wolf smelled the ground as they traced different smells within the settlement. Dead bodies were strewn across the ground as Volodar, and Drake could see the hastened decay.
"I have my suspicions," Volodar mentioned. "These magics are ongoing and have not dissipated yet. This could be using the town as an energy source." Thinking about how he used the leader of the jotuns as a catalyst for Doppel's growth not too long ago, himself.
Someday, Volodar thought, I'll master necromancy with respects to using the spirit of those who passed. He sighed as he requested Nokken to clear the vines from one of the corpses.
Waving his hand, dark energies were absorbed into the body on the floor. The corpse twitched as the mouth opened and looked towards him. What three questions do I need answered, he thought.
"Where are the ones who assaulted you."
"The lord's manor."
"Why did they assault you?"
"I don't know."
"How did you die?"
"Suffocation." Upon the last words leaving its mouth, the body went limp and slacked once more. Volodar thought about the information that was given from a sorcerer's perspective.
Drake interrupted his line of thought, "The lord's manor is a stone keep atop of a motte and bailey just north of here. That's what the other elders have said so far."
"How did he know that they would still be there though," Adelia asked.
"Well," Volodar said, "it seems my assumptions about using the bodies as a conduit were correct. That spell only tells information that the body knows when the soul departs. It leaves fragments behind that the body remembers. Mana flowing from it even now is past the soul's departure, allowing it to retain that information."
They looked at him as if he was crazy for a second before looking off into the distance. Atop the hill, the wooden wall from the motte and bailey could be seen past the forest.
"We'll simply have to pay them a visit," Volodar said as he moved towards the fortification.