Bhaal Chronicles: Summoning Spirits Part 3 Heartless King of the Damned

1-Shot for Ghosts of the Past writing task

IC: Bhaal the Necromancer

// 156 ABY \_ Korriban //

Part 3- Heartless King of the Damned

Bhaal could tell as he led the seven worshipers into the gigantic open doorway that they had entered what was most likely a tomb, but he couldn’t be entirely certain it was the one he was after. He could still see just a few meters in front of him using his lightsaber as his only source of light but the floor beneath his feet had changed from the bare reddish rock of the canyon floor to a grey square paved type of surface.

A quick search of the immediate entryway revealed a small carved out trench in the floor starting to the right of the entrance, ran along the outskirts near to the wall and off into the distance, it was filled with some kind of foul smelling amber oil and the necromancer assumed this was once used to light the room.

Tilting the end of his ignited lightsaber to touch the orange liquid set it alight instantly, a trail of flame quickly running the edges of the room in its entirety and finishing just the other side of the open door directly behind them. The flames were relatively low inside the trench but enough to cast a low light across the vast space, Bhaal was now finally able to deactivate his lightsaber and return it to his belt.

Something growled in the distance behind the door they had just entered and Bhaal pressed out with the power of the force, to his shock he sensed an immense dark presence closing in, and its desire to destroy any who would dare step foot in this place. Some kind of guardian or sentry had felt or heard their presence. “Move away from the door now!” He called out to the followers who immediately rushed further into the large open room. The Necromancer lifted both hands, palms facing forwards, he then attempted to use the power of the force to pull closed the massive solid stone doors of the entrance.

(Force sense 3) , (Telekinesis 3 push/pull)

The two gigantic ancient stone doors struggled under their own immense weight and scraped along the floor below them. Beads of sweat appeared on the necromancer's brow as he focused all his energies, utilising all his hate and fear into closing the massive doors in time. All the while the heavy thumping steps of whatever it was quickly approaching grew louder and louder. It wasn't until the doors were just several inches from being fully closed that he finally saw what hunted them. It was a huge, hulking and ravenous crimson red creature. The beast was at least 3 and half meters tall and solid as a boulder although it ran on its hind legs as would any regular humanoid species, it’s two large muscled arms stretched out expectantly in front of it. Other than the long barbed horns that sprouted out from various places on its body, Bhaal couldn’t help but think that it closely resembled a rancore of sorts. It’s razor sharp claws and teeth like large daggers told him this beast was certainly not one he wished to tangle with.

And as the two doors finally closed the monster instantly crashed into them with its full force, causing a deep powerful boom that made even the enormous doors shift. A thick layer of dust dislodged from both the doors and the ceiling covering everything in a fine blanket of powdered earth. For a moment it was silent, Bhaal unknowingly held his breath, his hands hovering over his twin Kronos sabers although visibility in the room had been reduced to almost zero. Again there was another bang onto the doors but this time not as intense, causing more dust to dislodge from the roof and the doors to shift again just slightly.. Bhaal braced himself.. but then there was silence.

After what seemed like a full planetary rotation Bhaal finally exhaled, the dust had now mostly settled and he could once more almost see clearly again. He pressed outwards with his emotions trying again to sense the creature through the force, but whatever it was, it was gone. Bhaal turned his head to check on his followers only to see them huddled together, cowering on the paved floor next to a fallen piece of rock that looked to have been at one time a section of the ceiling.

(Force sense 3)

“You can get up now. It’s gone.” Said Bhaal in a calm, collected manner before turning around to finally face the room they were in. It was massive, with dozens of floor to ceiling round stone pillars running through the center and the edges of the room. On each side of the room were large intricately carved and evenly spaced statues, seven on each side Bhaal counted and it did not take long for him to realise they had entered a large and elaborate tomb like the one he had been searching for. Even though the statues were severely aged, on closer inspection they seemed to all be of Sith Sorcerers, each one had some kind of shrine or sacrificial altar placed beneath it, the brown dark residue that covered them all indicating these were not merely for aesthetics. In fact, the more he looked around the more he found evidence of past bloodshed. Large areas of deep brown stains dotted the grey flooring like islands at sea and randomly placed sections of old torn fabrics and various primitive weapons littered the tomb. Although the Necromancer could also not help but to notice, other than that there was nothing that remained of the victims that were here. No bones.. no corpses or mummified skin.. for a brief moment he considered perhaps the Shyracks had been here feasting on the remains, but then there was also no evidence of that either. No shed leathery skin, no fecal matter.. The dead couldn’t have just got up and walked out of here?.. or could they? Was it possible that this was indeed the heartless king of the Sith’s final resting place? And that even in death he had preformed the dark art of Necromancy to awaken the dead to serve him?

A cold chill ran down his spine which pulled him unwillingly from his investigations. The power of the darkside inside this place was so strong he could now feel himself suddenly wanting to give into a surprising and unexpected desire for raw, violent brutality. The Necromancer had anticipated a surge of dark energy but nothing like this, it was all he could do to keep at bay the thirst for blood that pressed heavily against his subconscious. A bloodlust that eagerly and desperately wanted to be made manifest through his physical actions. Behind him the remaining seven worshipers had begun to argue, their voices getting louder and more fueled with anger by the second. Their hate filled threats echoing through the tomb as the shadows of the fire trench danced on the tombs walls, statues and pillars that stood all around them.

Bhaal pressed on quickly, walking forwards through the tomb ignoring the quarreling Demirians behind him and doing his best to ignore the constant commands of his own mind to slaughter them in cold blood. At the end of the room, central and below a massive raised stone carving of the a watchful crumbling stone bust atop a rune covered pillar lay the sarcophagus of the heartless ruler of the Sith. The sarcophagus of King Dathka Graush. Attached to the pillar, three meters up and directly above the sarcophagus itself was what looked like a sacrificial bowl with a single small hole the size of a shirt button drilled into the middle of its base.

Bhaal approached the sarcophagus and instantly felt the power of the darkside emanating from the stone structure. As he closed in he found the heavy stone lid had already been opened, cracked and lying in two halves on the floor next to the solid stone casket. The Necromancer peered inside and saw there was nothing but the dusty bones and the several Millennia old armour of the Sith King. His chest plate had been hinged open revealing a gaping hollowed out hole in his chest where his crystalline heart would have once been, the one he used to replace his own black organic one.

Behind him the sorcerer could hear the worshipers yell and then start to fight each other. The Echani focuses hard… this is why he was here… sinking to his knees before the sarcophagus he draws on the immense power of the force surrounding him.. trying to summon the spirit of the heartless king Dathka to this very spot.. Bhaal closes his eyes and begins to murmur the ancient Sith words of the Invoke Spirits incantation... minutes pass that feel more like hours but inside his mind something already didn’t feel right.. he could tell there would be no response, not like this. The spirit wanted something… NEEDED something more to show itself. And then, like a flash flood of wisdom entering his mind came the words of the Force Echo..

“I must find you, Dathka, my friend. We will be strong again. We will feast on their hearts, and the blood of the weak shall wash pure the dead stone. They destroyed virtue, and the lost ones are scattered. But you are out there, Dathka. Dathka, my friend. Dathka, our master...."

Bhaal opens his black eyes, it was clear to him now… what was wrong.. what was missing. Reaching down he removes his sith dagger from its leg holster and raised it to his eye level. The purple runes were glowing hot, as though the blade itself was begging him for blood needed to sleek its thirst. What was missing was a sacrifice.. and the answer lay in those who were fighting behind him.

~\*~

The gargled bloody breaths of the woman was the last thing that was heard as the sacrificial sith blade slit her pale throat from ear to ear. Dragging her convulsing body that was still drowning in its own blood over to King Drahkas sarcophagus by her long curly brunette hair, Bhaal then dumped the dying worshiper carelessly to the ground in front of it.

She was the very last of the seven that had survived the journey from the dropship to the tomb. Three of them had already killed each other already by the time Bhaal had realised he needed them to offer to the spirit of the King. One strangled to death, another had been thrown into the fire that burned around the edges of the room, its stink of charred flesh and material still thick in the air. The last that had died during the fight had its head smashed into one of the round stone pillars repeatedly until its skull had caved in right as Bhaal had attacked the remaining Demierian servants of death.

The dark incantation Bhaal had utilised was known as Odojinya, a spell his Mistress had taught him that caught the brawling worshipers in an agonising darkside web of force energy. This served to both brutally hold them in place, torturing them both in mind and body but without killing them. It drained completely them of their will and strength, amd so the dark knight took his time to flay them, slowly removing flesh and limbs as they squealed and begged him for their deaths. Bhaal enjoyed every moment of their suffering as he gave into the foul desires of his mind and soul. His cruelty held no bounds here, they were locked… trapped in the underground tomb of the ancient Sith Lords and it was here that the Necromancer utterly gorged himself on the euphoric fear and agony of his victims.

(Sith Magic 4 Odojinya )

The three before the dark haired woman Bhaal had murdered brutally with the sith blade only after brutally and sadistically torturing them first. Afterwards, levitating them high into the air and draining their blood into the dark sacrificial altar above the open sarcophagus before finally dropping them carelessly on the grey stone pavers of the tombs floor. The steady repetitive drips of the blood falling from the basin had been almost soothing to him over the last hour as it slowly painted the remains of the heartless king's remains.

(Telekinesis 3 levitation)

With the sacrifice of blood now made and seven dead bodies laid at his feet, Bhaal was ready to try to summon the ancient Sith sorcerer again.

His face and clothes totally covered with the blood of the weak, his sith dagger held dripping liquid crimson and its purple runes glowing hot, Bhaal the gatekeeper of the underworld once again drops to his knees at the foot of the sarcophagus.

In front of him lay the body of the now dead woman he had just killed, her dead eyes looking up, unblinking to the ceiling above, her robes had been opened and her shirt torn at the front. Her still warm blood flowed freely from her open neck and the crimson blood slowly pooled around the Necromancers knees and lower legs.

Bhaal eyes turned a bright blinding white as he called on the power of the force once more to try and draw the spirit of Dathka Graush to his bloody remains.

The air temperature dropped a dozen degrees in a moment as Bhaal chanted the ancient ritual of Invoke Spirits, the fires surrounding the large room seemingly suppressed down to nothing more than a barely visible flicker. He could feel the raw power of the darkside swirl around him now.. there was something he felt closing in.. would the white haired Sith sorcerer finally be able to learn the secrets from unfinished lessons long ago? Was the power of the Necromancer even strong enough to bind the spirit of such a powerful being long enough to converse with it? Would the offering of blood and seven fresh souls for his crystal be enough to lure Dathka Graush’s spirit to this place to start with?

Bhaal didn’t know the answers to any of these questions, all he knew was the force echo had appeared to him for a reason, and he was going to play his hand in its entirety, leaving absolutely nothing to chance. If he had to, he would sacrifice the entire order of death worshipers without hesitation to achieve the knowledge of the aincents and do so without the slightest bit of remorse. Then, with that in mind, as well as the immense all powerful surge of Darkside energy flooding his very fibres, Bhaal without hesitation buries the Sith dagger into the dead woman’s chest, and then begins to cut out her heart.

Moments later, still chanting the words of the invoking spell, Bhaal raises the freshly cut and still warm heart of the dead woman to his mouth.

“Dathka Graush! Hear me!” He shouts into the cold darkness of the tomb. “I command you to show yourself! I INVOKE YOU!! DATHKA GRAUSH, NECROMANCER AND UNDYING GOD KING OF THE SITH I INVOKE YOU!! I HAVE COME WITH NEW SPIRITS READY FOR YOUR CRYSTAL HEART! SHOW YOURSELF SPIRIT, I BHAAL THE GATEKEEPER OF THE UNDERWORLD COMMANDS IT!!” Bhaal yelled into the blackness, then amd as if he hadn’t eaten for a thousand years, Bhaal opened his mouth and began to devour the heart of the sacrificed woman.

(Sith Magic 4 Invoke Spirits)