Even though you're supposed to be a wizard in training, you spend as little time as possible in library if you can help it. Normally you just check out whatever you need to read for a class and leave.

You have little faith in finding anything substantial on Necromancy in there, but maybe you can find something that will at least quell this thirst for knowledge on it. You realize you're treading on dangerous ground, but you have to try to learn more.

The library is huge however, and you're unsure of where to look, it's not like there's a section on Necromancy or Outlawed Magic, but you figure you'll look in the History section first.

You glance and browse through the stacks until you pick up a few choice books that look like they might contain something, sit down in a quiet corner and begin to read. Naturally you don't learn too much. The history books mainly go on about how bad the Dead War was, important battles, the atrocities of the Lich Lord, the typical stuff you've read time and time again. Still, you're determined to find something new.

You spend hours reading until you realize you've spent the day in the library and that it's now night time. Oddly the library is mostly empty, and that's probably because finals are now over, one of which you've now undoubtedly failed. You think of how stupid you've been to obsess over an outlawed art that you probably wouldn't be any good at anyway! You've only been dwelling on the subject to ignore your own problems that you could've tried to solve yourself, instead of fantasizing about being some Necromancer. Raising the dead…what good would that do you? Delusions of grandeur. You wouldn't have enough motivation to try to take over the world anyway. There was only one person who truly motivated you, and she's gone.

You begin to think about Serena and begin to feel sorrow like when you first lost her. You've had enough of death. You leave the library in a daze and head back home to sleep off this miserable day.

You can't escape though; even your dreams bring death. You dream about Serena. At first she's alive and vibrant, and then suddenly she dies before your eyes. Then you see her grave with you sobbing over it and shouting how you demand that she not leave you.

Then she rises from her grave…and you wake up only to come face to face with her! She is a ghost floating near your bed.

"HOLY SHIT!" you shout and back up against your headboard.
"Shhhh! Hush my love, I'm risking a lot just by being here." She says looking around as if someone is going to bust down your door any minute.
"Serena, what's going on? This isn't a dream is it?"
"No, my dear I assure you that I am very real. And I have a message for you."
"A message?"
"Yes, embrace death and all the beauty it has to offer."
"You want me to kill myself, to join you?"
Serena laughs a bit. "No silly, you are to become a necromancer and bring the purity of death to the world."
"…yeah right. With my aptitude of magic, I doubt if I could raise a mouse skeleton."
"You always did lack confidence in yourself. I suppose that's why they sent me to motivate you one last time. Though I admit, I would've come to see you anyway."
"They?"

Serena side steps your question and continues.

"Look we haven't much time, but you HAVE the ability to become the greatest Necromancer since the Great Lich Lord who brought the world near the brink of extinction centuries ago, but you cannot do it alone…at least not yet. You must have allies. There are others like you on this campus who long to practice the dark arts. Seek them out and take over this college as your first step to your destiny."
"What? Hold on! What makes you think I want to do all this?"

Serena floats closer to you and touches your face with a ghostly hand. You feel completely calm.

"Because deep down it IS what you want. You know your thoughts are dominated by death. You even think of me rather than living girls and I've been dead for years. The very fact that your mind played a part in summoning me here is also proof of your desire."
"I miss you…"
"I know you do, but my point is, even before I died I remember you having an interest in the dark arts. Indeed it's part of what attracted me to you. But now I must return and you must fulfill your part in this world, whether you succeed or fail at this endeavor will ultimately be up to you, but I believe you will succeed."

Serena then floats a little closer to kiss you.

"Farewell, my love." She says and then disappears.

You're now wide awake and pacing the floor. You've been ambivalent about pursuing this path before, but the more you think about it and with this visit from Serena, this is the path you're going to choose. And why not? It's not like you have any better options in your life at this point.

You're going to do it, and though Serena mentioned others like you being on campus, you're damned if you have a clue to as of knowing who they are since you don't really socialize. Still, you can think of two people that could get you started. (Or at least not rat on you, when you start inquiring about Necromancy)

The next day you take your first steps towards darkness…

You go talk to the demon, Big Red

Chapter 2: Hellbound

Serena's advice might've pointed you in the right direction, but as far as you needing the help of others you're going to take a pass on that. You don't need anyone else except yourself. That's the way it's been for a long time and that's the way it's going to stay.

That leaves you to go where various other students have gone when they want to get something illegal and keep it to themselves. "Big Red".

Technically Big Red isn't actually all that big, in fact for a demon he's probably on the smaller size, but like most demons he likes to think he's very important. Big Red typically hangs around in the seedy parts of Nuro, but he also hangs around the park area on campus late at night. His presence in Nuro is barely tolerated, but he's been known to acquire things for high ranking officials and provide important information that is beneficial to Nuro security.

Oddly for all his mercenary criminal behavior he's tight lipped for a demon and will only tell on someone if asked directly and only then for the right price. Given how low profile you are, it's unlikely anyone's going to ask about you, let alone what for. Chances are if anyone does see you with Big Red they'll just think you're another college student looking to get high.

You wait until night and then stalk the campus park area looking for Big Red, but instead he finds you, catching you off guard.

"Y'know you'd look less guilty if you weren't lurking around like a damn dark elf assassin. Haven't seen you around before, I guess that explains why you're coming to me AFTER finals are over. Most students come and get the answers before hand y'know."
"You sell those? Damn, I didn't have to fail my nature test final after all."
"I could probably fix that too, for a price of course."
"…maybe, but what I'm looking for is uh…a little different."
"Ah, so high exactly do you want to get?"
"No, not that…"
"Well, I'm not selling sex slaves if that's what you're looking for…well at least not here."
"No! I'm looking for something different!"

Big Red gives you a strange look.

"Okay, what kind of freak are you exactly then?"
"I'm looking for something on Necromancy."

Big Red throws you up against a tree when you make that remark and begins to whisper to you in a harsh tone. You can feel (And smell) the brimstone emanating from his breath.

"You fucking little mortal pissant, you trying to get me killed? I don't sell that shit! Get the fuck outta here!" he says before throwing you on the ground and walking away.

Now it may be that he's telling the truth, but he may be more worried that you're trying to set him up. You're determined to find out regardless of the consequences. You run back to him, but stay out of his immediate range.

"Look, I know you're a guy who can get a hold of lots of things and I also know you're available for a price. I'm not a spy, I'm not gonna rat you out, I'm not working for anyone, I just have a…need…"

Big Red turns back towards you and walks in your direction, you think he's going to attack and you nearly run, but chances are he'd catch you first anyway. He's looking around in all directions and speaking in a low tone.

"Alright. Look. Since you're obviously new and not hip to how this works, I'm inclined to believe you're not working for someone. Someone undercover wouldn't be so obviously clueless as you seem to be, at least not to catch the likes of me. Plus I can sense the darkness around you…it's a neat ability we have and again let's us tell who's a goody two shoes and who isn't. You don't seem to be either though just yet. You seem to be more confused and curious than anything which is almost as bad."
"So you can't you help me?"
"It's not that I can't, it's whether I should. This isn't selling you some Hobgoblin Hashish so you can go get high and wind up naked the next morning with a Dwarf in your ass."
"Um…what? Excuse me?" you stutter at Big Red's odd scenario outcome.
"This is serious shit, if word got around that I was selling information on the Dark Arts, let alone books on it, my ass would be strung up and killed. And to have some dumb ass college student fucking around with something as dangerous as that is asking for trouble since YOU'RE probably going to get yourself caught, which will then lead to possible questions before they kill you…which can then link to me. And that can't happen."
"I'm not going to get caught."
"Hah! Heard that one before from people getting busted for less. I dunno, I don't see you as a good risk and even if I did consider this request my price would be VERY high and I don't see you as having that kind of money to spend."

Big Red's denials of your request are actually making you want what he has even more. You KNOW he can help you. In fact you're beginning to get irritated. Why the hell is he denying you this? He's a fucking demon who sells illegal shit! He shouldn't care at all! You're desperate for his help though so you tell an outlandish lie.

"Look my parents are rich! I can get the money for you, just gimme your price and I can get it…it might take me awhile, but I can get it."
"Oh you can huh? Alright then I'll play your game. He's my price." Big Red pulls out a little pad of paper and pencil and writes something on it and then hands it to you. You read the astronomical price while Big Red's face turns into a smug demonic grin. He probably did that for dramatic effect.

There's no way you can pay this, even if you somehow managed to convince your parents to give you money to support your grossly illegal studies in necromancy. You're not going to let it stop you though.

"Wow…that is high…okay. I can get this, but it'll take me a few days." You say feigning a mixture of shock, but calmness too. Big Red himself looks surprised that you agreed. He begins to write down something on his pad again and gives it to you.

"Well alright money bags, we got a deal. You come meet me at this time and location in a week. If you ain't there, then you can forget about coming to see me for anything ever again. If you come and you don't have the money…well I don't think I need to stress how bad that would be. So my advice is if you don't have it, don't show. See ya."
"Hey wait, you said you can fix my grade too." You suddenly remember.
"Don't you think you've spent enough money tonight? Alright then maybe you ARE made of gold after all, so what's the class?"
"Nature magic."
"Oh yeah, you said that. Yeah, that's definitely doable, mainly because the professor is, I just need to slip the deviled ham into her and she'll be willing to pass anyone."
"I thought she was a lesbian."
"Feh, not when it comes to Big Red. It ain't just a name ya know. Alright, my price for this task is two hundred gold pieces. Normally I might charge less, but hey you got the money right?"

Indeed, but you don't have much now after forking it over to Big Red. You were hoping the gold you brought was going to go towards a necromantic tome, but instead it's just going to cheating.

"Thanks, and as appreciation for your generous business tonight, I think I'll go take care of that grade situation of yours right now, if I'm lucky maybe she'll have one of those little elven bitches with her. Ha ha!"

As Big Red leaves you, you head back to your apartment to scheme for the rest of the week. You go through a wide variety of emotions: fear, anger, desire, anxiety, obsession, etc. None of it really means anything though since you don't really have too much in the way of choices now. You're either going to have to kill Big Red when you go to meet him, or just forget about this necromancy stuff and go home for vacation.

You kill Big Red

While all the other students are on their way home for vacation, you're planning a murder…

You're in this all the way now. You've decided that you can't live life as you have been. You have to take this chance, regardless of the consequences. You're just wondering how the hell you're going to go about killing Big Red. He's not going to be a push over and is probably more than a match for most college students, let alone one who can barely cast spells competently in first place.

Still, you must try. You get one of your oversized back packs and begin stuffing it with rocks. The only plan you have is when he asks to see the money, you'll tell him you got it in gemstones, throw it at him to catch it and then unleash a blast of lightning in his face.

After that you're going to hope for the best.

You head down to the location given to you by Big Red. Even though Nuro is a prosperous city, it still has its "bad parts" and right now you're walking in one of them. You half expect to get mugged by orcs at any moment; you almost wish your sister was with you.

Eventually you get to the location, you're already nervous about all this and walking through this neighborhood just made you more so. However, this dilapidated house that you're currently standing in front of looks like its shown signs of battle recently. The door is smashed open and there's a whiff of charred flesh coming from the broken windows.

"Heeeeeey….(hic!) youz ain't goin' in dere is ya?" some drunken goblin lying by some trash cans nearby utters.
"This is Big Red's house isn't it?"
"(hic!) Nope, his girlfriend lives here, well one of 'em anyway."
"What happened here?"
"Shit. (hic!) Fuck if I know. I was passed out for most of it, but I heard some screams a couple of magic blasts and well…(hic!) a whole buncha shit really."
"Is Big Red in there?"
"Dunno, I think I heard his voice…didn't sound good either. (hic!) Guess it all caught up to him. Here's to Red! Demon Bastard! (hic!) Hope dey didn't kill his pretty little girlfrien' doh. She was swee-eet!" the goblin says and takes another drink out of his pocket.
"Nobody's come out here, to investigate?"
"Har har! Datsh a good one boy! Come out here? Man those mage guards like us poor folks killing each other. Ain't nobody gonna show up here probably for like a few days. (hic!) fuckin…no good (mumble mumble)"

As the goblin wino lapses back into an alcoholic coma, you cautiously enter the house.

The house is a wreck. Though you get the impression it wasn't a palace to begin with. You look on the floor and see Big Red. You also see him on the walls and even the ceiling. Whoever wanted him dead, made sure of it.

Of course this doesn't exactly help you get what you wanted to get from him. Not knowing what else to do, you begin to search the house, but you're not finding too much, but for some reason you sense you aren't completely alone in this house. Someone is still here.

You stand completely silent and listen carefully, then you see a blood trail leading to the bedroom closet…

"Alright, I know someone is in the closet, I can hear the stifled cries. Just come out, and I won't hurt you. I just want to know what happened to Big Red and some information." You shout.

The closet slowly opens and you see a young human woman crawl out, she's hurt badly and you don't think you can help her in time. She looks up at you with tears in her eyes.

"I've nothing more to give…they've taken everything…I am dead…I have nothing else…" she sobs.
"Who came? What's going on?"
"That damn college professor and his Dark Order that's who! Mr. Demar! He and Big Red have had dealings for years in forbidden tomes and the dark arts. Well Mr. Demar said since their business was nearly at an end he demanded that Big Red just hand over all the rest of his collection. Violence soon followed. It was horrible what they did… I only lived this long by playing dead (sob)…but then I just wanted to crawl into a dark place and die."

This bit of information is very interesting, but you still have to figure out how it can serve you.

"What does Mr. Demar have planned?"
"I don't know! Something about restoring the rightful place of those who practice the dark arts. I don't care! They took my whole life away! Maybe it wasn't much, and maybe Big Red was a demon asshole…but I loved him and in his way, he loved me! I'll never know!" the girl cries.

You feel slightly bad about coming here to try to kill Big Red now. This girl's feelings while most likely misguided seem to be genuine. Just proving that even the lowliest of scoundrels can be loved. Your mind briefly thinks about Serena before addressing this situation again.

"Okay, look shhhh. I'm sure Big Red probably did love you. He was a demon though, you know he had to put on a show and act tough." You say.
"…(sniff) yeah…You're absolutely right. You are right….mmm I'm sleepy…" She says as her eyes begin to start closing.
"Hold on, before you go to sleep, I need to know something. Big Red was holding a book for me too, a book on necromancy. I was coming to pay him and pick it up here. It sounds like Mr. Demar was trying to rip the both of us off and that ain't no way of doing business. I mean to get revenge on the lot of them that killed Big Red, but I'll need the help of that book, you don't happen to know where it is, do you?"
"…oh…yeah, you must be the one that Big Red briefly mentioned before they came…I dunno, they searched the house, maybe they got it, but it would be in a small hidden floor safe behind the toilet. Ha ha…nobody searches behind a toilet Red used to say…I love you Big Red…" The girl says and then closes her eyes and stops breathing.

Poor girl, you think as you leave her to search the bathroom. You curse as soon as you look behind the toilet and see a small panel open. You're so frustrated you nearly miss the false bottom of the safe…



Jackpot. You pry up the false bottom and greedily grab the tome you were looking for, in fact there are a few other books there too, but you only keep the necromantic ones, and destroy the rest as you have no interest in demon summoning. (And not going to let anyone else use them either!)

You pour out the rocks in your backpack and place the books inside; you're now ready to go back home. Or are you?

In your last minute peruse you search the remains of Big Red, and as luck would have it, you find his infamous pad and paper still somewhat intact. You briefly glance through it and make out one other address, not too far from here. It could be his real home or maybe just another place where he stashed stuff. Either way it could be lucrative.

You go back home

You head to your apartment where you study your acquired books until morning and then sleep for the entire day.

When you wake up you write a letter to your family saying that you're going to be staying at Nuro for vacation since you have some extra curricular studying to do and a big opportunity could be opening up. You mostly study your necromantic books and absorbing the knowledge within.

You keep up with local news and the deaths of Big Red and his girlfriend are barely mentioned. You gather that you're in the clear.

Next week you get a letter in return from your Mom who says she's disappointed you won't be coming to visit, but pleased that you're doing well and your grades are back up. (At least Big Red came through for you on the nature magic thing before he died) She also mentions how proud she is of you.

If she only knew…

A month passes and you've almost finished the books you acquired, but you haven't been able to do any practicing which is something you desperately want to do. You feel like you got all this power within you and you're being forced not to use it.

You're so hot on raising some corpses you're on the verge of doing something rash. You ponder going to the local graveyard which is really risky given that there are always guards on duty and magical monitors in place to prevent such things from easily occurring.

Your other alternative is to kill someone and then raise them.

You go to the graveyard

The city isn't as busy now since most of the students have left, so maybe you won't have too many problems.

Initially all goes well. You sneak into the graveyard at night, managing to avoid the guards. You then break into one of the mausoleums where you hope you can find some easily accessible coffins.

You shut the door and pry open one of them trying to be as quiet as possible. The skeletal remains inside are calling to you.

You take out your book and begin to cast your spell and within no time at all the skeleton inside begins to rise. Success! And it barely took any effort at all. You were born for this!

You open up another nearby coffin and raise another one. Two skeletons! You're controlling two at a time with no problems! You're positively euphoric.



Of course you've been making a lot of noise. Noise that one of the guards hears and comes to investigate, when he sees the door lock broken and opens it, he sees you.

"NECROMANCER!" he screams and runs away!

You don't care that you've been caught though. You're ready to show the world what you're really made of! You begin the chant and cast, and all that other stuff you've been reading about. You're going to raise an army to swarm this city and take it over! None shall oppose you! And if Mr. Demar gets in your way, you'll crush him too!

Soon you're raising the dead from their graves, and even though you're a "natural" at this, you're still shy of practice so you have a bit of a hard time controlling so many. By the time you reach the hundreds, you're losing control over most of them and you have to leave the graveyard to save your own life.

You march down the street with the dead horde you do have control over causing havoc on a small scale. You have some fun reveling in the terror you're bringing, but it is short sighted and not to last.

The Nuro mage guards soon arrive on the scene and they don't fuck around. They use every spell against you, destroying entire blocks in an effort to bring you down. It is at this point you realize that you've handled this poorly.

When you've lost your last corpse, you attempt to run away only to bump into a few of the dead that had wandered away from your control. In a kind of ironic justice, you are killed before you can reestablish your dominance over them.