/\/ecronis stepped out of Chesire Castle and into the night. It was twilight and all the creatures of the night were out. /\/ecronis grinned. It was time to visit some of the places from his past and gather new minions. His forces on the Western Continent were decimated, and there were few cemetaries left for him to plunder without getting some unwanted attention from the Dantimosian (spelling?) garrisons. He had lost most of his artifacts and some of his magic power when he had died and arisen as a liche. He would have to gather some new artifacts and learn some new magic. As he walked away from the Castle, it began to shimmer and fade, disappearing again.

He walked through the forest until he came upon the half-eaten corpse of a panther. He smiled and cast a spell upon the corpse, and it arose as his new undead minion. He climbed upon its back and directed it to move. It carried him through the forest much quicker, and soon he was out on the open plains again, the moonlight shining upon him. His jet-black gemstone eye glittered in the moon's glow. /\/ecronis looked about and got his bearings. The first site he must visit was to the west a little further. He told the undead panther to move, and it carried him to the site.

It was a small, ruined stone temple, built in a small clearing. The symbol of some dark god was upon each of its double doors, one broken off and lying on the ground in front of the small stairway. A few fallen pillars lie about the temple, and the left side of the roof had collapsed. It was just as he had remembered it. /\/ecronis dismounted the undead panther and walked up to the temple, entering through the space where the right-side door had fallen off. His gemstone eye gleamed with a greyish light, and /\/ecronis could see fine in the darkness of the temple. He entered the small main hall, looked about, and entered the room to the left.

There was a stone desk with intricate carvings on the front, and the same symbol as was on the doors. Behind the desk was a stone chair, and upon that chair was a few decaying bones. The whole room was filled with cobwebs, and /\/ecronis could see the large spiders crawling around on the webs near the ceiling. The decomposing remains of books, papers, and other scholarly materials were scattered upon the desk. /\/ecronis went around behind the desk and pulled out one of the two drawers, rummaging through the decomposing materials there. He picked up a small bronze amulet with a tiny iron chain looped through the top of it. It had a skull etched into the front of it, surrounded by a ring of bones. On the back was the same symbol from the desk and doors, the emblem of some dark god. /\/ecronis put the amulet into a pocket and left the room.

/\/ecronis crossed the hall and entered the room on the opposite side. It was also full of cobwebs and many small spiders. The walls were covered in stone shelves and bookcases. Many of the tomes were nothing but rotting covers with the pages long-ago turned to dust. A few books were still partially intact, but upon inspection, /\/ecronis found the ink on the pages to be faded, smudged, and illegible. He rummaged through the rotting books until he found the one he wanted. Its cover was bound of the scales of a baby black dragon, and the pages were of human flesh, protected by black magic from decay. There were two hundred pages filled with arcane runes and markings. Upon the front cover small runes carved of a dragon's bones were magically-attached, and they read "The Tome of Galentril" in some language similar to elvish. /\/ecronis grinned and slipped the tome into a pouch at his belt, then exited the room.

There was another room to the left, one more to the right, and one in the back of the small temple. However, the caved-in left-side of the roof blocked entrance to the other left-side room. /\/ecronis went into the other right-side room and looked around. It was a gathering place, with stone benches in a circle around a man-sized statue in the center of the room. The statue had partially fallen apart, with some of its limbs lying on the ground around it. It was of some strange, horrific beast, and carved of obsidian. There were the remains of a few more priests upon some of the benches, nothing more than a few decaying bones and pieces of clothing and jewelry. /\/ecronis walked up to the statue and examined it. He then proceeded to kick it with all his strength. The thing toppled, not being attached to the ground and just sitting atop a small pedastal. It cracked and broke into pieces upon striking the ground. A large, blood-red gem glimmered within a cavity of the shattered statue. /\/ecronis picked up the gem and held it up to examine it. It glowed with an unholy red light. He was pleased. He pocketed it and left the room.

As /\/ecronis stepped out of the room, the eyes of the shattered statue began to glow with a red light. The thing was animated by some ancient magic and the broken pieces of it began to roll, crawl, and hop toward the still-intact torso. They merged together, magic binding the broken pieces like glue. The bestial golem-like creature arose and snarled at /\/ecronis. The necromancer spun around just as the thing pounced on him. He fell hard and realized that the creature must be a guardian beast of some sort. He snarled back at the beast and recited an incantation. A black bolt of force shot forth from his gemstone eye and knocked the creature off of him. /\/ecronis got up and watched the creature leap back to its feet and give out a bestial roar. It opened its toothy maw and a gout of black flames burst forth. /\/ecronis leaped aside and then rushed out of the temple. The creature roared again and began to lope after him. Luckily it wasn't very fast or agile.

He summoned up some black mana and began a low, guttoral chant. Just as the guardian beast exited the temple and roared at the necromancer again, a hellish flame burst forth from the ground to the left of /\/ecronis. The flames took on a vaguely-humanoid shape and solidified. The minor demon turned its gaze towards the necromancer, and /\/ecronis sent a mental command to it. It growled at him and then faced the guardian beast. The beast charged /\/ecronis then, and the minor demon leapt in its way, the two toppling over. They grappled on the ground until the demon tossed the stone beast off to the side. Both got up and snarled. The stone beast breathed a gout of black flame at the demon, and it retaliated with a hellish fireball. The stone beast's obsidian body melted slightly, and it grew angry. It charged the demon and battered it with its many fists. The demon grabbed two of the beasts arms and pulled hard, ripping the limbs off. The beast snarled, and glared at the demon. Twin beams of ruby light shot forth from the creature's eyes, scathing the demon. It proceeded to club the guardian beast with the arms it had torn off. /\/ecronis grinned, and began a series of arcane gestures, followed by a short incantation. The guardian beast glowed yellow momentarily, then began to slowly crumble. It fought on with the demon, until it had crumbled to dust. The detached limbs also proceeded to crumble and the demon turned to face the necromancer again. /\/ecronis then unleashed a greyish ray of energy upon the demon, and it struggled to resist the power of the ray, but ultimately failed. It burst into flames again, and returned to its hellish domain.

/\/ecronis then returned to the temple to examine the last two rooms. He called the undead panther to him, and together the moved some of the rubble of the collapsed roof off to the side. /\/ecronis entered the room, and found more rubble covering it. He found a yellow-white stick amid the rubble. Just what he was looking for. He pulled it out and a skeletal hand came up with it, still grasping it. The necromancer pulled the hand off and tossed it to the side. The stick was a large staff, about six feet tall and carved of bone. Upon one end was a milky-black, quartz-like crystal orb. The other end was carved into a sharp piercing point, with many small spines about half a foot from the tip. /\/ecronis strapped the staff to his back with a special addition he had made to the back of his vest. He then left the room to check out the main room in the back of the temple.

This room was about three times the size of the others, and was where the priests had prayed and made their sacrifices. Near the middle of the back wall was an obsidian altar, with many runes and scenes etched upon it. Many benches filled the rest of the room. There were decaying corpses lying about in here, also. /\/ecronis walked up to the altar and slapped a spot on the side of the altar. The hidden button caused part of the front end of the altar to open up, revealing a bundle of scrolls within. /\/ecronis took these and put them in a scroll case he had attached to his belt. Then he left the temple and hopped upon the back of the undead panther, setting off to visit the other sites he needed to.

(OOC: I don't have time right now to finish this, so I'll respond to it tommorow or something with a continuation. End OOC.)

~ /\/\ist Phantom ~
/\/ecronis, Lord of Undead
Traug, Troll Mage
§hard, Sword Mage