Blood Circle

## Characters

* The Geomancer: Once a mage knight defending a kingdom, he was murdered by the circle, but later revived as a vampire. He now seeks vengeance for his death.
* The Oracle: A sorceress who helped the Geomancer
* Orithane: An Earth dragon captured by the Beast Tamer. He sports a thick grey hide, encrusted with crystals of different colors.
* The Dryad Queen: An enemy of the Litch King, who once taught him magic before his fall to darkness. She is a queen of fey, and steeped in the lore of nature magic.
* The Phoenix: A bound elemental of ancient fire, the Fire Lord uses the beast to power his forces.
* The Child: An entity of unknown origins who is in some manner of alliance with the oracle.
* The Blood Circle: A circle, a fellowship of wizards who plague the lands in a bid for conquest at the behest of their leader. The mages gathered together to share their secrets and increase their individual powers.
	+ The Fire Lord: Their leader and a pyromancer, who leads the circle plans on the basis of his messianic delusions, plagueing the lands with their terrors. He believes he is the chosen one of legend but the people call him the 'Nemesis'.
	+ The Ice Prince: The Fire Lord's greatest supporter, and sycophant. A sociopathic kiss up, and blatant coward. He makes his home on the back of an ice giant, a mobile fortress of ice.
	+ The Beast Tamer: A summoner and beast controller, he arms the Fire Lord's armies with lizard beasts and steeds. He is also secretly a skin walker. He hopes to one day control a dragon. He dwells in the swamp, staffed by his lizard men servants.
	+ The Litch King: A necromancer who has built the Fire Lord's aermies with his raised dead. Despite his name, he is mortal, and seeks a way to make himself immortal. He dwells in a necropolis.

## Foes

* Lizard Men: The human shaped lizard folk controlled directly by the Beast Tamer.
* Raptors: Lizard men steeds and doubling as hunting dogs.
* Morlocks: Hulking human, lizard hybrids, created by unknown means.
* Undead: Marked by the withering rose, the creations of the Litch King.
	+ Skeletons: Ancient corpses raised to fight for them
	+ Zombies: garbed in armor, including eyeless helmets. These soldiers are little better than automatons of flesh.
	+ Gestalts: Large hulking masses of mismatch and stitch together bodies. They sport turbines on their backs and armed with war axes. They are often used to collect the dead.
	+ The Angel: The creation of the Litch King, his enforcer and bodyguard who resembled a black winged angel with a sword, and wearing armor, including an eyeless helmet.
* Ice Elementals: Conjured ice beasts or corrupted animals found in the mountains
* The Ice Golem: An animated frozen giant, encased in ice armor.
* Salamanders: Small (relative to a proper dragon) elemental drakes, they breathe and radiate fire.
* The Forged: Animated suits of red demonic armor. They are the produce of Pyromancy and Necromancy
* Red Army: The forces of the Scarlet Court, enemies of the circle.
* Golems: Constructs of mystical engineering. The Geomancer was a master of making them.

## Part 1

"Forward...!" the commander shouted, as he pointed his blade, a sword, the edge surrounded by sharp jade. He wore, as his men wore, armor of red and white. It was a red under body with white armor, upon which was red paint. He was a young man, relatively speaking, in his late twenties, early thirties, with a swarthy complexion, topaz eyes and a full head of white hair.

They marched across the field towards the oncoming force, a mass of lizard men, armed with rusty old swords, and armor, flanked by animated skeletons. "For the Emerald City, for the Scarlet Court...!" The armies charged, and the armies clashed. In the thick of battle there he was, cutting down lizard man and skeleton alike as his men fought beside him. Among their number were the golems, man made stone giants that marched with the same green energy his sword glowed with. These giants marched and crushed the enemies of the Scarlet Court with as much mercy as the walking dead who gathered to face them, only to be crushed beneath their feet, or smashed by their blows.

The battle went as expected, the dark forces routed the Emerald city saved, and the Geomancer, the commander of it all knelt before the ruby throne and to be congratulated. He was happy, his golems had worked, his glyph defenses on the capital had held. So now, at present, as he laid in a pool of his own blood outside his home, he had to ponder 'why'. He pondered 'who'. He pondered 'what' he had done that his life ended like this. It didn't matter to his killer, a rogue, with a pudgy face, and long blonde hair, who skulked back into the shadows, leaving the geomancer to death's tender mercies.

All that was left for him, was whatever was meant for the dead. He expected darkness yes, and pondered and what he would see. What he saw was not what he expected, nor what he felt, a dark urge filled him, a burning thirst for life that was not his own, took root in him, in the dark. Images flashed in red, of his last battle, of his commendation before the queen, of his death, a knnife in the by and images of someone, of a woman? She was screaming.

"Where am I..." the geomancer asked, as he fell back into what turned out to be a coffin. It was dark, he knew it was dark, but things only seemed dim to his eyes. He was in a small stone room, with torches newly lit and wearing his old armor. That was not what he wore when he was stabbed. He was stabbed....he remembered that.

"I am told this may....take a while..." He turned to the woman in a purple hooded robe, markings were tattooed onto her face, her skin a slight tan, her eyes green. Around her neck was a necklace of bronze with an amethyst stone. While in her hand she held another necklace this one with a diamonoid shaped black stone, covered in spikes, the core of the ashy black gem glowed crimsons, a light that was dying down. "Before your memories returned." She turned and leaned over to pick up something, a sword. It was otherwise a normal short sword, but around the blade was a layer of jade, sharpened, and flattened to be an edge, turing it into a war sword. She handed it to him, and he examined it.

"I was...a geomancer...the mysteries of the earth were mine to task and tool..." he said, the memories returning "and I was mudered...!" he finished with a snarl, a beastly noise that surprised himself. He put his hand to his throat, but then he noticed his limbs, truly noticed them. He remembered his hands now, they were a rich light chocolate color, now they were pale. Meanwhile, his fingers were short black talons and his white armor had been turned black, much of it falling apart to ash and dust. He turned to the woman, who took a step back, correctly anticipating his next move as he jumped out of the coffin and pointed the blade at her. "What did you do to me...?!" He stopped and looked to his side, noticing the girl from his dream there on the floor beside his coffin, a servant girl, from the look of it, her neck ripped open.

"You died..." the woman said, putting away her dark gem. "Did you think I could just resurrect you? No power in this world exists to do that, and the gods give us only one live to use."

"What did you do to me...?!" he growled, turning back to her.

"I brought you back..."

"As this? Why...?"

"Firstly, because there was no other way, and secondly, for the same purpose, they had you killed..." His raged paused to make way for his curiosity. "You are a threat to them."

"And pray tell, who are this diabolical 'they' to whom you refer to...?"

"Hmmm....for now I'll leave that for you to find out." He growled "You can extract the knowledge from your killer..."

"My..." an image flashed before his eyes, of the smug face of his killer. "My killer..." he said with a growl, now bearing his teeth, showing his long sharp fangs.

"Come, we have much to do." She touched her necklace, revealing her bronze bracelet, and the amethyst stones produced a glow. Taking that purple light in her hand, she slammed it against the skin of the universe, right behind her, the light splintering into cracks of glass.

"A portal...?" he commented. He was surprised to see one without a stand. This temporary construct was new to him, magic he had never seen before. He put forward his hand, and the glass retracted, bending back to reveal glimpses into another location. "A crystal gate...summoned, just like that..?"

"No, 'accessed', now come..." She walked in pulling him along by the arm.

The woman in purple opened the door, alone, to the room, circular, with a pool of light and energy swirling in the middle. Encircled by runes, there was a platform for someone to stand over it and gaze down. On the other side, opposite to the doors was a stained glass window, upon the windowsil sat the 'child'. With long crimson hair, yellow eyes, and long lith limbs, the androgynous creature was garbed in long tattered white robes, and covered all over in golden jewelry that did not match the tattered cloth they wore. They seemed to be in a windowsil reading a random book.

"Where is he...?" the child ask, not bothering to turn. She scowled.

"You know where he is..." she said annoyed. "Why do you ask questions you know the answer to?"

"How else will I have conversation, 'Oracle'...?"

"Do not be coy..." she said walking around the pool. "You may not have to respect me, but there is no reason to be rude."

"Rude, me...?" the child said in a coy tone "...perish the thought. Are you not she who gazes not only acros space, but time?"

"Oh how I loathe the day you crawled out of that pool, creature! Not a word that has escaped your lips has been useful...!"

"You exagerate..." the child said dryly

"The point is, will you be helpful for once, oh 'omniscient' one?" She said pulling the book out of their hand. The child looked at her and snapped their fingers. The book warped and contorted its way out of reality and back in, to fall into their hands, all the while shimmering with a prismatic light.

"You really don't want me to play around in your world..."

"So what then...? You're....just an observer...?"

"For now..." the child said, reclining back onto the wall. She glared at the child, wholly distrustful of their words. "Besides, did I not direct you in the crafting of that little trinket. You got your warrior, your reaver, just as I promised..."

"Which is also why you told me to bring that girl...you...you knew what would happen!"

"Are you mad that the girl you paid to follow you died, or that you were in possible danger. Only one of these reasons is enough for me to care about your reprimand...." All she could do was glare, before turning to leave.

The rogue stumbled out of the bar, one last bottle before he made his way down the road, down the city streets. He wore regular clothes, with a shirt of leather armor over his garments, but under his hooded cape. He made his way down the streets, past the flickering lamps and ladies of the night stationed near the working ones. In this section of the Emerald City, the green glyphs and power lines that gave the place that name, were not that well maintained. 'Why would they', he thought, this was the poorer district; those lords and ladies in their high towers had little reason to care about this place, that one from the other day probably didn't, he thought.

He noticed it. It was not literal but his instincts told him, and he had long learned the difference between his instincts and his paranoia. He was being followed, the only question was 'where were they'? He made his subtle peeks about and every which way, as he travelled, but no one seemed to be following, or even interested in him. Was he wrong, was he being paranoid? He ducked into an alleyway, and pulled out his knife, waiting for his shadower to come. Unfortunately, the shadow was already there, waiting for him.

The assailant grabbed him by the neck and threw him out the other side rolling onto the street. He got up, immediately ready with his dagger until he saw the glowing pair of staring back at him. All sense of bravery left him, as his survival instincts told him to run, and he obeyed. He took off, as fast as he could, dashing down the streets, until he came upon his house. Which was when something grabbed him from below. He disappeared beneath the earth, finding himself rolling and being thrown about underground, before suddenly finding himself spat up out of the ground. He hit the ground, hurting his shoulder and rolled, until he picked himself up.

He looked around, it was the city cemetary, looking as it always did at night, miserable, dreary, and for some unfathomable reason covered in a layer of mist. Truly he pondered why, this was not swamp land, nowhere else in the city was like this, and he did not believe in ghost, ghouls, or undead unless raised by some wizard. He looked around, realizing his kife was gone.

"Who are you?! If you're trying to get laugh try the circus!"

"Oh, this is no laughing matter..." a voice replied. "The geomancer, the Jade General, you killed him why?" The rogu chuckled.

"Me, how the hell would I be able to kill someone like that?!" he laughed. The mist part to reveal his dagger, rising up out of the ground hilt first. It was a curved blade, but etched into its blade were runes, visible only now in the moonlight.

"A very nice blade, for a common assassin, an enchanted blade, to slip past enchanted armor and wards."

"So I'm a lucky guy...what's it too you?"

"It means, I came here to rip your throat out, but now it's blatantly obvious to me, you were just the hand that held the blade. I want the head!"

"Pfft, you think your little tricks can scare me?! I've better hocus pocus! Let me guess, you were his apprentice, or maybe his squire, though knowing those 'knights', a bit more on the side?" He said with a mocking tone. "What cat got your tongue, or is your mouth still..." His silence came at the sound of footsteps, heavy steps. Out of the mist walked the geomancer, his skin now a greyish white, his eyes glowing red. In place of his original armor was a black shirt of armor layered black leather pieces and dark metal plates, with black leather trousers ending in armore boots. On his back was his sword sittig over the geomancer's hooded dark cape, the hood of which he pulled down. "And who are you supposed to be...?" the rogue said dismissively.

"Look closely..." the geomancer replied. The rogue expression slowly changed from smug mockery, to recognition, then revelation, disbelief, and then fear.

"No, that's impossible...I killed you...!"

"Yes, and someone was not in agreement with that outcome. So here I am..."

"Is this supposed to be some sort of joke...?"

"Who hired you...?!" the geomancer growled.

"Now why would I just tell you that..."

"Your life..."

"I see...and what security on that transaction can you provide me...?" He moved quickly, grabbing the rogue by the throat and hoisting him up into the air.

"Do not test me...!"

"Oh I'll test you alright. See...I've got two options and neither seems good for me, so how about I get a third...?"

"And what is this 'third' option...?"

"Your word 'geomancer', your word that you will not harm me, if-"

"The circle..." The two turned to see the child betwixt two head stones resting, back on one, legs on the other, and still reading a book.

"Who, are you...?"

"A 'friend' for you at least." the child replied "But if you wish to know who had you killed, that would be Circle, the 'Blood Circle', an alliance of sorcerers who have aimed to conquer the land in the name of their leader. I believe you fought their forces the day before you were murdred..." They turned a page. The rogue and the vampire turned back to each other.

"Yes, well, I can lead you to them..." the rogue went.

"As can the woman who revived him. She just sent him here so he could get some catharsis. Also you need to feed..."

"Wait, no I-"

"Also, if you let him go, he's just going to contact his bosses and let them know you're.... 'still alive' for lack of a better term, along with the rest of the city, forever destroying your reputation and honor. as you are hunted by those who once called you comrades."

"Wait, no I-" The child turned the page to the sound of growling, a man's screaming, and then death gargles, followed by the thud of a body hitting the ground. The geomancer walked towards him, his mouth red with blood, and his eyes now as they were when he was human.

"What are you...?" The child looked up at him, and then returned to their book.

"Your first target the Beast Tamer, you will find him in the Dragon's Swamp..."

"Wonderful to know...but you have not answered my question..."

"Oh, your question is highly irrelevant. A metaphysical entreaty, that has no immediate baring on your relativistic world...now in the future, maybe, but for now, I think you should worry about yourself..."

"Oh, why is that...?"

"Your soul has been called back from the netherworld, sealed into your body and your body cealed into a state of artificial homeostasis. Blood is the fuel to maintain this, warm blood, warmed not by fire, but by a living body."

"And if I don't drink blood...?"

"It..." the child paused, looking up "It will not be pretty; neither what you will do in your blood lust, nor what you will look like." The geomancer clenched his fist as he glared at the youth.

"Why, was my death not enough, why condemn my soul to this apostate existence?!"

"Oh, quit your whining. You can go die when you're done with your revenge...you are going to get revenge on them, are you not...?"

"I don't like the idea of being your assassin..."

"You think the men who had you killed did so because they held noble intentions. Go, go to the Dragon's Swamp, go find out what sort of people ordered that blade through your ribs, and come tell me your vengeance isn't just..."

"And what do you get out of this...?"

"That will be fairly obvious, if you go forward..." The geomancer glared at him.

## Part 2 - The Beast Tamer

The Dragon's Swamp was as all swamps were, perpetually flooded, filled with all manner of slimy crawling things, humid and hot, and if you were unlucky perchance a burst of nauseous gas would erupt on you. It was a place wholly unpleasant to all but the lizard folk who dwelled here. The cracks appeared on the root of one of the great treets, massive things they were, with roots big enough for horses to stand on. This crack emerged from an amethyst light, bleeding forth more as it spread upward on thin air, the shards of reality retracting back to allow the geomancer to walk through.

In this hot place, in the light of day, his entire body was covered, with a black cloak wrapped around his head, and a mask hiding his face. Around his neck was a necklace with a silver beast's face holding a clear crytal.

"Ugh...now I remember why no one comes here..." he mused aloud.

"And yet that is he came here..." said the child's voice. The geomancer looked back, but the portal had already closed. "That necklace was not for show? Or did you think she was courting you...?"

"What do you want...?"

"Just to tell you to be careful...your kind and water, does not mix..."

"Then why send me to a swamp?!"

"Who else are you going to start your vengeance on? The Ice Prince, is beyond you at the moment, the Litch King would bend you over which way, and the Fire Lord...water is like acid to you, but fire....you will need much more strength before you can stab your blade in his heart."

"Oh this is all wonderfully choreographed..." he said sarcastically.

"If it ends with your vengeance and the salvation of the land, do you really care, that I have planned things for your success..."

"Success..." he said looked down at the swamp "Is that what this is...?"

"All trials are hard before they are easy, and believe it or not, the Beast Tamer is the weakest of his circle."

"How do you know all of this..."

"There is little a lot he knows..." said the oracle "and a lot he chooses not to share. Be thankful he's being any help..."

"And does he know where I should go from here...?" said the geomancer.

"Ugh..." went the child's voice "So the super predator with enhanced senses need help...fine..." The jewel around his neck glowed, the light focusing into a beam, towards the distance. "Now, skedaddle."

"Skedaddle...?"

"Move! Unless you like cooking yourself alive..." The vampire jumped climbing up the tree and jumping towards another tree.

The fortress of the lizard folk was a series of walls of timber and stone build around several gargantuan trees, and the village size collection of tree houses within the branches and around the trunks. All around them however were towers, towers composed of timber and vines, and crowned crystals of prismatic clarity and transparency, but which glowed from within, even as the sun began to dim.

"What....are those...?" the geomancer asked as he hid in the trees.

"Have your memories yet to fully return, or has death knocked them loose. You're a geomancer, you of the link, between souls and magic, but forged by gem stones."

"I know gem magic, they were the base thesis for my glyphs, making spells stay..."

"I see...yeah this is nothing like that...So let me remind you. Certain gems can...convert raw magic. Rubies will birth fire magic, sapphire will produce ice and control waters, jade and emeralds control the earth and and the plants, etcetera, etcetra..."

"And these diamonds....?"

"Those are not diamonds, they are just plain, clear quartz, and are attuned to magic of the mind..."

"What do mean, the 'mind'?"

"Did you think they just decided to work for this fool? What you're seeing is part of a magical mechanism, that grants him control over these beasts."

"How do you know all of this...seriously..." went the Oracle.

"Child if you had any idea of what I am, you would ponder 'how could I not'...

"That is not helpful..."

"Neither is this bickering over the crystal..." went the geomancer.

"Fine, fine..." said the Child "I'll just go play out in traffic or something...call me when you find the 'surprise'..."

"The what...?" said the oracle, The Child was gone.

The lizard man rpwoeld up and down the platform on the side of the wall. In the dark of the night,the various crystals around them kept things lit up, but not over the edge of the wall. The guard patrolled wearing old, rusty armor, likely pilfered from a dead adventurer or a tomb, most of them wore equipment like that, or wore shoddy made equivalents. A few wore leather, and/or bone armor, and were armed with stone swords, flattened, sharpened chiseled rocks tied around tree branches.

The guard's patrol was hardly interesting, until he heard a continuous noise from over the edge. Curious the lizard man looked out, which was when a sword rose up from the dark, stabbing it in the throat. There was no chance to call out, or cry out, only the free flow of its blood down the blade. The vampire angled his blade letting the liquid red flow into his mouth before retracting his sword leaving the lizard man on the side of the wall before crawling up. He crouched and looked around here in the inner circle of the fortress.

"This is odd..." he said, touching the amethyst around his neck. "Where are all the guards...?"

"Likely out, as marauding war bands..." the oracle replied. The geomancer looked back at his kill, the lizard was pale, a stark contrast to the commonly vibrantly colored lizard folk. There was no bright red, orange,the common rich green, or brown, even black. No this thing was a pinkish white as where many guards he encountered.

"Come..." said a voice, an old voice, booming, deep, but wounded.

"What was that...?" he asked.

"It wasn't me, and it wasn't the child..." He continued forward, toward the central palace, clearly a wizard's tower, built and rebuilt around a central great tree. It almost seemed like it was trying to snuff out the tree, overpower and absorb it. He scaled it, his new claws making that a simpler task than before, until he reached a window by which to crawl in.

"Come down...!" the voice went again as soon as he got in. He looked around, this was clearly a wizard's room, likely a shamanistic school of magic, with the numerous animals bones, ceremonial masks etch with runes, bone charms, and the workshop, tools and workstation, where topaz and clear quartz gems were being embedded into the bone talismans. There were a few grimmoires, scrolls, rolls of wood bars within which were etched ancient musings in a mostly dead language. None of these explain the voice he just heard. He went to the door, creaking it open. which was when the two lizardmen guards pushed open and entered. One, and the two. He slashed open their long necks, killing them near instantly. He looked outside, no one was on this floor. He pulled the bodies inside, moving their tales and continuing on his way.

The voice said down, so that was where he went, passing other lizard folk, sneaking past them, past the guards in the hallway, or the servants. However he noticed something, something about these creatures. They seemed robotic, curling up in balls when not doing anything, unless guards. They didn't talk, they didn't seem to pay much attention to their surroundings, they seem to be operating on 'auto-pilot.'

"Why have you called me drake" said a voice, the only voice in the castle. "Have you finally decided to share your secrets...?" The geomancer resolved to find the origin of this voice.

"Aye..." said another, the same voice he had been hearing, but now it wasn't an echo in his head. "I have a secret to share. I have had a vision, a vision of your death. It comes for you tonight..." That voice screamed.

"Do not be coy with me wyrm, I have all the cards! I will pry the secrets from your head, or you can starve to death, either you are not escaping here!"

"Neither you, nor I, can escape our fates, sorcerer, it is simply a question of how we choose to meet it."

"I will not die! None of us will, with our combined lore, we ascend, once we have your lore, dragon!" The geomancer heard a thick, thunderous snort. By now he was clearly in the dungeons, when he came upon an opening, a window, a larger room beneath the very roots. There was clearly a drake, a wingless dragon, an earth dragon, with a hide of rich green scales, and a yellowish brown under belly. It was tied down by shackles in a circular room, with the sound of someone's footsteps as they walked away, echoing in the room.

The geomancer, looked for these front doors, but it took, a few minutes and by that time, the sorcerer was gone. He was before a pair of large doors, etched in black and red wood, with an eldritch design upon them. He drew his blade and entered. Before him was a short flight of stairs, the lowered ground, where the dragon was held, was encircled by a raised layer.

"There four inside." The dragon went. Perhaps, he was luck, perhaps it was instinct, the geomancer raised his sword, blocking the downward strike of one of the lizard folk. This was one was a green lizard, with a red line down his head, back and tail. With that blow deflected, his sworld was thrown back into the blade of another. He moved, swinging the sword around, as he spun and stepped down. Two multicolored lizards followed him, armed with modern, well kept blades. On his periphary he could see the other two jump down, and come after him. Which followed was a clash of blades as he swiped to counter their attacks, until the first one saw an opening and kicked him in the chest knocking him onto the dragon's head.

Another came down, leaping at him. The geomancer thrust his much longer sword, and this, combined with gravity and momentum, buried it into the lizard man's heart. He pushed it of to the side, drawing out his blade to block the first guard's swing. It blocked his attack his attack, but not his kick which floored him. He swung his sword about, less as an actual attack and more of visual communication to the other two, to 'back off'.

"Don't you have any magic...?" the dragon asked, not sounding very impressed.

"Oh right..." the geomancer went suddenly remembering his title. He pointed his blade and the jade glowed, before diring chevron shaped bolt of energy into one of the lizard's chests. It hit the ground convulsing with green voltage, esoteric energies that conjured poison in its veins. He turned to the others, but the first guard tossed his companion forward onto the blade, the edge of which was now like acid to its flesh, while it ran of.

The geomancer pulled his sword upward, slicing its upper body in two, less for cruelty's sake, and more to end the screaming. With that down the glow of the blade died down, as he put it away on his back.

"Hmmm, that blade doesn't much like you..." said the dragon.

"I'm sorry..." said the geomancer turning around. "And what did you say about my sword...?"

"It doesn't much like you, not when you use magic upon it, I can hear the 'strain' of it..."

"I made this sword..." the geomancer went, clearly annoyed and the perceived criticism of his work.

"Yes, when you were alive. It was made for the magic of a living man. Is that you now..." The geomancer was silent "I thought not..."

"Who are you...?"

"I...am Orinthane, once Orithane the brilliant..." He said shaking body. In the dimness of the room, the geomancer finally noted the clusters of crystals on the dragon's body, clear quartz.

"You, you're the..."

"The source of his blasphemy against these people..."

"People...?" he asked confused "These things...?"

"These 'things', can talk, they have stories, they have dreams, or at least they did. The wretch, the 'Beast Tamer', thought like you did, he came and used the power of the crystals to corrupt their minds, hollow them out and fill them with his control. Did you think they attack your people, so far from the swamp they adore, for what? Because your people are humans?" He was silent. "You should see what he did to the females..." the dragon said with a tone of disgust.

"Females...?"

"Breeding pools..." He looked back, out the door, but really he was thinking back to the others, the first lizard men he slew when he entered here. "This villlage...is doomed. The females have been....forced to produce more young than their bodies were ever meant for, and even now those that hatch, are weak, sickly things...inbred, and then forced to grow up with the monster's blood magic."

"Why...?" the geomancer asked, clearly unhappy with this information.

"For an army, for power..."

"And you...?"

"I was their guardian, but he used them to bound me..."

"You could have-"

"What, slay those I loved and adored? Have you already forgotten what it is to see the world without bloodlust...?" The geomancer scowled. That was when he heard, they heard it, a horn being, blowing an alarm. He raised his hand at the doors, but nothing. Then he grabbed his sword, which glowed, and the same light appeared in his hand. A magic circle of green light appeared, causing the doors to close, and it held them closed.

"You are not a living thing anymore, vampire. The old lore of your magic, will not come to you the same way before." He turned around and walked around the dragon, slapping each of the chains with his glowing hand, and planting a glyph, a smaller version of the magic circle, onto them. "I do not need freedom, I need an end. My people have no future now, and I do not wish to see it..."

"I don't need your death, dragon..." there was banging on the door. "I need a diversion...We can talk about your life after, I drain that bastard sorcerer of his blood..."

"Fang or blade...?"

"Does it matter...?"

"I suppose not." the dragon gruffed. By now the banging on the door was worse, much, much worse...Something big was clearly behind them.

"He wasn't just forcing your people to make soldiers, was he...?"

"No, he wishes to ascend to 'dragonhood'..." the geomancer raised an eyebrow "He believes my kind are the closest to literal gods in this world."

"The more I learn about them....the more I don't like them..." He drew his blade, resting it against the dragon's snout. The blade's edge glowed, as the dragon's crystals shifted in color to mimic the mystic light of the jade. The geomancer raised his hand, the spell on the door coming undone. Immediately the doors were thrown open by a beast. It sported the body type of a gorilla, being the size of a bear. Despite the lizardman like appearance, it clearly had mammalian feature, human features. There were patches of hair, its face was simian but morphing into draconian features, and its teeth were a conflicting kerfuffle of both sides dentistry.

The dragon's chest expanded as it inhaled, its eyes glowing jade green for just a moment, before it exhaled a deluge of green mist onto the attackers. The mist was as acid, their skin their flesh, all of it evaporating within the influences of the mist. Their flesh had so little impunity, the sound of their scream and scattering could be heard from outside and around the walls of the room, as the mist clearly spread through the makeshift dungeons.

The geomancer put away his sword, and proceeded towards the stairs, the last remnants of the attack squad melting away to just bone.

"What of our promise...?!" went the dragon.

"Give those shackles some time. If I fail, you can have your shot at vengeance."

"No, no, no!" The wizard went. His pale complexion had a hint of color to it, he was the complexion of people who tanned very easily but were out of the sun for too long. he wore simple blue trousers, with a black shirt, a leather vest over it, but over that was a long sleeveless jacket, composed of the pelts of different animals, grey, orange, brown, in scaled green, knitted together. Around his arms were leather wrapped within which were placed bone charms, like the numerous necklaces that hang around his neck. The ones on his neck sported topaz and clear quartz, much like his belt which also had many bone charms. He sported spikey straight short brown hair, and brown eyes, while white face pain covered much of his countenance. "How could this have happened...?!"

He was in a private room, a large circular one, up further in his tower, the middle of the room marked with an etched out circle with various runes and symbols etched into the brick floor. The walls, meanwhile were filled with bookshelves, with tomes, scrolls, but also jars containing malformed fetuses showing traits and human and lizard man. Beside him was the last of the guards he had posted to guard the dragon. "If the rest of the circle hears about this, I'll be the laughing stock! It's bad enough they were keeping lore from me...! Now this...this....?!"

The noise from outside was obvious, they could hear the clashing of swords, and the death cries of lizardmen, and predatory roar of some thing not human. It was all getting closer, and closer and the wizard reached for his staff, an old carved tree branch, the head a mangle nest of curved wood, peppered with more gems and tied together by his bone charms. His bodyguard drew his blade and took a stance.

The door shattered, a lizardman's body thrown through it, and behind it a quick shadow, which swiped. The bodyguard dodged the body, and then blocked the attack but the shadow was behind him, and before he could react a blade went through his back and out his guts. The geomancer pulled out his blade and face the Beast Tamer.

"Who are you?!" the wizard shouted.

"Don't you recognize me, the man you had killed?!"

"What, do you under how...wait...that blade..."

"Yes, Beast Tamer, this sword that has driven your forces back, time and time again..."

"The Geomancer, the wretch who felt he was too good for us. Oh, how the mighty have fallen..."

"Remember those words in a moment..."

"Indeed...!" The Beast Tamer slammed the end of his staff onto the floot, and the gems all light up. Under their light the geomancer fell to his knees, his mind wracked with pain. "They all laughed at me, you laugh at me, because my powers do not work on fellow humans... The lore of crystal and topaz, mind and beast, no one ever thought to merge the two, but I am the inspiration for the circle, the mixing and merging of our lores to create a greater magic than what the scarlet court would dare imagine!" The geomancer stabbed his sword into the ground, the jade of it glowing. "Don't bother. The lore of crystal, is related to the mind. The lore of Topaz is related to beasts, that which is not human. You are no longer human, no longer safe from my power, but now that you are here, I shall drain the lore of jade from you geomancer. Your glyph and golem making secrets will be ours, nay...mine....!" The geomancer chuckled. "What's so damn funny..."?!

"I didn't think you would give me so much time talking..." The tower shock, it rocked to and fro knocking the Beast Tamer of balance and freeing the geomancer from his spell. The vampire moved, rushing forward and thrusting his sword into the beast tamer's chest as they tumbled through the window, the tower crumbling behind the. Orithane rose up from the underground, roaring in rage, erupting the castle's foundations.

Beside him rose a column of solidified dirt, as the Geomancer and Beast Tamer landed on it, the jade blade sinking deeper into the Beast Tamer's chest as it continued to glow. The wizard coughing up blood as the dragon raised its head to see the scene of bloody murder.

"You...you think this is over..." went the Beast Tamer "The others will....hear...of this...they...will...come."

"They will stay where they are 'I' am coming for them...!" The vampire opened his mouth and called on the blood magic innate to his current form. The blood draining from the wizard's form flowed into his mouth, like a geyser, draining the mage dry, till he was but a husk.

"Now...end me..."

"Dragon..." the geomancer said standing up "Between you and another who has had their life unjustly taken from them...go and live yours. Salvage of it what you can, what you can from here? Go find a new home, do something with it, but I'm in no mood for seeing another life ended because of them..."

"You did not hold such reservations when cutting through my people..."

"Yes, well, my bloodlust is for the moment sated. Want to help me get the others...?"

"No..."

"Oh..." he said, sounding a bit disappointed.

"I shall take heed of your advice, it would shame me to see my dragon ancestors and to let them know a mortal's soul was made of sturdier stuff than this dragons..."

"And your....people..." He looked down to see them all on their stomachs or back, unconscious...?"

"They were born under the wretch's spell, they never developed minds, wills of their own, they do not even know how to breathe. Those who still have their souls, their mothers, in the breeding pit, I will go and help them..."

"Their fathers...?"

"You slayed them, in life or unlife...."

"I have to ponder if I've done more damage than him..."

"What damage you caused was because of his actions. You made your choice, but he and his fellows forced this situation. All you have done is unravel the net of lies he had cast over them..."