Asherons Call: April Rollout Article is Up!

ROLLOUT ARTICLE

Count Dardante sat cross-legged in a dark chamber, waiting. Nodes of magical energy glimmered on the walls high over his head, casting a faint purple glow through the room. The air was heavy with a fetid, swampy odor. The room was not notably cold, but goose prickles arose on his flesh, he who had summoned and bound a thousand spirits before.

The latest summoned spirit, bound into a body of animated flesh in this chamber halfway between worlds, shuffled forward from its shadowed den. It didn't come fully into Dardante's vision, but remained a slowly swaying silhouette. The thing's eyes were bound and covered, but Dardante could feel the ancient malevolence in its gaze. The mage and the spirit regarded each other for long, breathless moments. The waiting turned into a contest of wills. Finally, patience exhausted, Dardante spoke first, and he could sense the spirit's self-satisfaction even in this minor victory.

"Let us speak again of the Black Spear of the Kemeroi," he said, knowing that the very word "Kemeroi" would anger the bound spirit.

The words of an ancient language echoed in Dardante's mind in response: "We have spoken of this more times than I care to remember, wizardling. If you want to know more of those profane leeches on the body of Creation, summon one of them, if you dare."

Dardante smiled. "I dare more than you know, but I am not as foolish as that, meat puppet."

"No, your foolishness takes other forms," the spirit agreed, almost amiably. "But that is an interesting choice of insult. You have treated with the Cloaked Wind... more foul parasites who nibble away at the life essence of others. Truly, like seeks like."

"Believe it or not, I did not bind you here just to exchange insults."

"You bound me here for a futile purpose. I cannot tell you all that you wish to know about the source of the Black Spear's power. To learn more than what I have told you, you must treat with the Shadow, and not with my kind."

"Your kind fought endless wars against the Living Shadow. How better to learn of them than to interrogate their ancient enemies?"

"There are other mortals in your realm who know much of Grael. They openly seek to bring him back, but they are mistaken in many of their beliefs. They believe him imprisoned, when he is merely... asleep."

"They believe him imprisoned because of an elaborate ruse, meant to misdirect their efforts."

"I know of the ruse. It amused me, to see the blind poking their fingers in the eyes of the blind."

"I want information, not mockery, spirit. Or do I have to subject your corpse-prison to further indignities?" Dardante knew that being forced to inhabit a shell of dead flesh was a hideous torment to these spirits, and even worse to be tortured in that shell and subjected to long-forgotten sensations of physical pain.

"I mean that your clever wizardling servants may have distracted the cult, but you are still no closer to the truth than they, and there are things they know that you do not."

"How could that be so? They are a band of overreaching sellswords and hedge wizards, loathed and hunted by their own kind, while my explorations have been backed by the strength of a kingdom. Do not lie to me again," Dardante cautioned. He had caught the spirit in a lie once before, and he had tortured it for three days in retribution. Not for the first time, he ground his teeth together in frustration that his binding magic was not strong enough to use the voice of command on a spirit this powerful.

"They know what you do not because they have given much of themselves to their quest. They have plunged into the water to find that which they seek, while you and your King would stand on the shore and peer through the waves, hoping to catch a glimpse of it."

"Are all of your kind given to such tiresome metaphors?"

The bound spirit's dry husk of a body shook with mocking laughter. "I find it amusing that you and your King have immersed yourselves so thoroughly in the teachings of my people and the trappings of our power, but you failed to absorb any of our knowledge."

"Explain what you mean, spirit," Dardante said, through clenched teeth.

"You are a fool. You seek great power but you will not take what risks are necessary to grasp such power. You must... sacrifice. My people knew this. We knew it in our bones, and we gave the sweetest portions of our bounty to those who gave us power. You seek only to steal. To take without giving, to make a dishonest bargain. You may treat with other mortals in this way, but the Wheel of All Things does not haggle." The spirit paused for dramatic effect. "Nor do the Kemeroi. The Black Spear found this out, to his own everlasting regret."

Dardante snorted in contempt. "Spare me the moralizing, spirit. Your kind died out when the Kemeroi overpowered your tentacled gods. I need no lessons in the taking of power from a race of failed swamp wizards. I have summoned you, bound you, and extracted knowledge from you, without sacrificing anything to you."

"My kind are not as dead as you would like to think. And your sacrifice has yet to come, meat puppet," the spirit said, as the animated corpse rattled with laughter once more.