Openings

by Thomas Davidsmeier

  Jeremy was smirking at the skull. It was strange to be talking to someone with no facial expressions or much tone of voice, and yet be so certain they were scared.

  Yorick could not explain to Jeremy what was at stake. The Prince of Darkness had made it excruciatingly clear that no spirit from Hell was to talk to the players about Hell itself. If Yorick had to guess, he would think that the Devil did not what to be reminding the players what their eternal fate really was. So many people on Earth had fooled themselves right up to the very end of their lives like Yorick had. No reason to remind these living fools what was in store for them. Yorick had tasted Hellfire. The longer he was away from it, the better.

  Jeremy reassured him, “Don’t worry, York. I’ve got this. You’ll swing through, drop the coin, and Rigor Mortis Chris. Then, when you swing back, I’ll catch you. No problem.”

  “Very well. As you say, let’s get this party started.”

  When Yorick came back through the vortex, he had a black scorch mark running along the left side of him from above his eye socket all the way back.

  “There was a Mage of the Light! There was a Mage of the Light! Heal me, HEAL ME!”

  “Calm down, York. How much health do you have left?”

  “FIVE! Now HEAL MEEEEE!”

  “Fine, if you’re going to be a baby about it.”

  “I’m not going back though there again. If you want him paralyzed, wait until you can make ghouls and send them.” Yorick’s teeth were chattering together as he dangled on the end of the rope.

  “How was the fight going? Did you freeze McKnight?” Jeremy pulled Yorick into his party through the menu. He noticed that he had been getting his tutor’s name wrong the whole time. He tried to place where he knew the name Yorick from...

  “I don’t know, I was too busy almost being killed!”

  “Man, what’s wrong with you. You’re not even real, and you’re acting like you’re going to die. Get a grip, Yorick.” Jeremy began casting Evil Energy Bolts into the undead to heal him.

  “Did you actually call me Yorick instead of York?”

  “Yeah, sorry about that. I just thought you’d said York the first time. I know I’ve heard that name before, just can’t place it.”

  “Hamlet. It’s the name of the skull in Hamlet.”

  “Oooh, the guy that Hamlet played with as a little kid but he sees dead later? That’s pretty deep for an RPG isn’t it?”

  “I liked Shakespeare a lot. So sue me. You had better be getting notifications about dead paladins about now.”

  “Nope, nothing. Maybe he’s too good for this now.”

  “No, I just think his tutor was there to help him. Next time we’ve got to overwhelm him. Maybe some warriors mixed in with strongs. You’ll probably have to make them yourself. I don’t know if there’s anything more than regular skeletons in the city. It is just a starting location for you really.”

  “If I’m making undead myself, I’m going to need some fresh meat, and I don’t mean pork.” Jeremy actually shivered at the thought of an undead pig. He was not sure why, but something about it seemed particularly disgusting. “Where am I going to get that?”

  “Same place we got you your sausages. The villages.”

  ***

  Jeremy watched from the grove of trees by the stream. Two of his dominated skeletons from the city were menacing some farmers. The farmers were from the smallest of the three villages around the outskirts of his ruined home. Unfortunately for Jeremy’s original plan, the farmers were abandoning their fields quickly and running for their village.

  Grimacing in disgust, the Level 3 Necromancer asked his Warlock’s Skull tutor, “Could we take out those flimsy wooden walls around that village? I’m not trying to do it for the experience, I just want to give them no place to...”

  Jeremy stopped short. He had spotted two guards coming out of village gate as the farmers had run in. Jingling the chain on the magic glove that he had found his first day, he whispered, “Stop.” The skeletons held their positions about a hundred yards away.

  The glove increased the range of his Control Undead skill by two levels. Since he had the skill increased to Apprentice Level, his range with the glove was like an Expert. He could control undead a hundred and fifty yards away. It ate some of his Mana recharge, but he was pumping Wisdom with his stat points along with Intelligence and a little Charisma.

  The increases above Expert were not that useful on their own. A necromancer really needed to level his Gifts of the Grave skill up to at least Journeyman. At that level, he could spend mana to see whatever one of his controlled undead could see. Then, the infinite range of a Legendary Control Undead skill would actually make sense.

  “What are you doing?” whispered Yorick from the end of Jeremy’s staff.

  “Shhh, you’ll scare the fish away.”

  If Yorick could have glared, he would have.

  Jeremy hissed another command, “Return.”

  Turning, the skeletons began to walk back toward Jeremy. The guards stopped after a moment. They looked at each other as if to say, “Good enough.”

  Growling, Jeremy whispered, “Stop. Turn. Attack.”

  The skeletons followed the commands to the letter, though more slowly than they had been given. The guards had not turned back to their village yet, so they were ready for the attack.

  One skeleton missed; one hit.

  Injured, one guard took a step back. The other moved in front of his compatriot.

  “Return. Run.” Jeremy waited a few beats. “Stop. Turn.”

  Both guards looked confused at the behavior of the undead. The skeletons were now standing about ten yards away from them at the edge of a wheat field, facing the guards.

  “I am almost tempted to go out there and fight them myself. But, they’re almost there...”

  The guards came forward and the skeletons repeated their attack and retreat action. The guards seemed somewhat perturbed now.

  They charged at the skeletons.

  The skeletons turned and ran another twenty yards through the waist high wheat in the field.

  The guards followed along until they inexplicably tripped at almost the same moment. They did not get back up.

  Jeremy did a fist pump. “That a way, bone bros. That a way.”

  ***

  He repeated this ambush technique at the next village with equal effectiveness. He planned to just snatch one more body at the third and final village. This village was more prosperous and formidable. It had the pig farm Jeremy had raided and taller stone walls than the first two. Wooden hoardings on top of those walls made it look prepared for a siege.

  Trepidation slipping into his voice, Jeremey asked, “Uh... Are those wood things on top the walls new? I don’t remember them being there when we got the pig the other night.”

  Grimly, Yorick affirmed Jeremy’s suspicions. “Yes. They’re new. Probably some sort of upgrade to the walls. This place is going to be difficult. Let’s see how they handle our little raid.”

  Guards responded in force when Jeremy’s skeletons surprised a farmer in the most distant field from the walls. The poor farmer did not put up much of a fight, yet the guards immediately sprang into action. One on the wall shouted an alarm. Jeremy could hear all kinds of commotion inside the village, even from his distant position hiding beside a road.

  The necromancer’s skeleton crew slew the farmer as fast as they could and scooped up the body. Because Yorick had buffed their Strength and Dexterity before the attack, it only took four of the six skeletons to heft the body and get it moving.

  A formation of ten guards double timed out the gate.

  Jeremy jingled the chain on his glove and commanded, “Return! Fast!”

  The skeletons were almost two hundred yards from the village. The land use here was much more extensive than at the other two villages. His skeletons headed back to Jeremy as quickly as they could manage with the farmer’s body between them.

  “Got anything
for a group that size?” Jeremy asked Yorick.

  “Only my buffs and debuffs gain area of effect with level, and I haven’t even gotten those there yet. I can’t even use the Witch’s dagger skill tree because I’ve got no hands. If I had a host to dominate...”

  “Never gonna happen, bro. At least, not with me. Maybe later if we catch some poor sap.”

  Disappointed, the skull made a weird, hollow sound that Jeremy recognized for Yorick’s sigh.

  The skeletons approached Jeremy’s position.

  He jumped out of hiding.

  “Follow!” The necromancer took off at a quick jog along the ill-kept road heading for the city

  As the undead crossed the bridge that was the edge of the village lands, Jeremy looked over his shoulder and got worried. The guards had closed the gap from two hundred to a scant fifty yards.

  “I hope they stop at the bridge. The ruined city walls are still a couple hundred yards away.”

  Having just finished recasting his Strength and Dexterity buffs for the skeletons carrying the body, Yorick reasoned sagely, “You could slow them down with the two skeletons that aren’t carrying our new volunteer. They could get in the way at the bridge.”

  “True. I’m not even going to be able to keep them under control in a little bit with all the new guys I’m making.”

  Yorick added, “Let me give them some damage resistance as well. Welcome to my Dark Embrace!” A purple mist blew out of Yorick’s gaping mouth and enshrouded the two trailing skeletons.

  Jeremy paused and gave orders to the two skeletons who were now glittering as if they were made of granite. The skeletons turned around and marched back to their dooms, two bony Spartans headed to their own little Thermopylae. Of course, the skeletons’ version of Leonidas was hightailing it out of there instead of helping them.

  They served their king admirably as the guards came to a stop, got out slings, slowly pulverized them to redeath with hunks of lead, and then stowed their slings. The minutes of delay were sufficient for Jeremy and the rest of his minions to make a clean getaway.

  As they passed the giant stones of the collapsed city walls, Yorick noted, “That village may be a little tougher to deal with than the others.”

  “Yeah, they’ll be fun. Let’s get my strongs and warriors made and sent off.”

  ***

  It was the middle of the afternoon when the trade vortex closed behind Jeremy’s two logs of skeletons. “That ought to do him in again. You sure you don’t want to swing through again?”

  The skull’s teeth actually chattered for a moment. “No. I don’t know if his tutor will be there. If he’d rolled two higher on his damage, I’d be dead... again.”

  “Fine. I’ve got two extra skeleton warriors here, two villages that look like they might be pushovers, and a couple hours of daylight left. Can’t my skeletons see in the dark just fine?”

  “Yes, and you can too with your Gifts of the Grave skill. It will cost you one mana per ten minutes because it is an ability on the Novice list.”

  “I can afford that. My recharge is seven per ten minutes and the gauntlet only costs one per ten. I can still have five challenge levels of undead under my control. Hmmm, how many guards do you think one of those villages has?”

  “Impossible to say unless you have a spy inside or you draw them outside.”

  “Well then... Let’s go figure that out.”

  ***

  It was a much harder question to answer than either Jeremy or Yorick expected. Jeremy took a Skeleton Warrior he had made from a slain guard and a pair of Strong Skeletons out to what had seemed like the weakest village. He arrived with the sun low in the western sky and no farmers to be seen in the fields.

  Astonished, Jeremy exclaimed, “Come on? Turned in for the night already?”

  Yorick defended the work ethic on display. “It’s not like it matters how hard they work; they always get the same yields the way I understand it. They’ve just got to put in eight hours a day to get the fields to move to the next stage on the cycle.”

  “Still, it’s putting a crimp in our plans here.”

  “Why don’t I load one of the regulars with all my buffs and we try a frontal assault with him. See if we can get the guards out that way?”

  “Might as well. No mana out of my pool.” The last was said to the rhythm of ‘No skin off my nose.’

  Soon, the Light, Physical resistant, upped Strength and Dexterity, upped Attack and Damage, and otherwise temporarily stupendous skeleton headed for the gate in the wooden palisade of the village.

  An alarm was sounded and the gate was closed by the time the skeleton was three quarters of the way there, but Jeremy let it walk on. He rattled his gauntlet and whispered, “Attack!” And, the skeleton did just that.

  Shouts of surprise answered the scrapes of the skeletons claws on the gate. Bright ribbons of blonde wood peeled away under the onslaught of the magically improved claws.

  Pleasantly surprised, Jeremy turned to the skull on the end of his staff. “That’s pretty effective actually. Why have you been holding out on me?”

  “Because it takes over half my mana and a good chunk of my health to do that. If I advance a couple of levels, I’ll get area of effect buffs and curses. Then, I’ll be a real ball of fire.”

  ***

  The buffed skeleton managed to take the gate down right before it finally succumbed to the pelting of large stones it received from three guards that were on the wall. There was now a gaping hole in the village’s defenses. Jeremy stepped out his hiding place in a wheat field and called out to whoever could hear.

  “I, Sir Jeremy the Necromancer, will give you one chance to surrender to me before I come in there with my three other skeletons...” He whispered to his warriors and the other regular to come out of hiding, and they marched up behind him neatly. “... and wipe the place out. What do you say? Surrender or certain death?”

  Yorick hissed, “I can’t buff like that again so soon, and I can only do one at a time.”

  Without taking his eyes off the village guards, Jeremy whispered back, “Hush Granny. I’ve got this. What we’re doing now is one letter better than buffing.”

  One of the guards disappeared behind the wall.

  Jeremy shouted, “I’m not going to wait much longer...”

  “We’ve got to check with the Mayor,” came a whimpering response. “We can’t surrender the village on our own, we’re just guards!”

  Jeremy thought about blasting the guard with an Evil Energy Bolt, but he decided that might kill him, and he was already almost a minion. Gotta be wise about how you use your minions. No wasting resources if you want to win.

  Frustrared, Yorick could not puzzle it out. “What do you mean one letter... Oh, you’re bluffing them!”

  “Quiet down, Bone-for-brains. If you say it loud enough for them to hear, it won’t work.”

  Finally, the other guard returned to the middle of the destroyed gate. He knelt down and said loudly, “You may enter your new village, Lord Mayor!”

  Jeremy was pretty sure he saw that guard smile as he said it. The necromancer made a mental note that the guard might be a better than average recruit. As he stalked into his new village, Jeremy asked, “What’s your name, guard?”

  “Samwell at your service, my new Lord Mayor.” The guard had narrow grey eyes that seemed eager to please.

  “What’s this village’s na... Never mind. It’s gonna be called Jeremyville from now on!”

  ***

  As Yorick had promised, Jeremy acquired an interesting new ability when he became a ruler of a side. He now could form up skeletons into what were called troops. These troops made up the military of each side or faction in the Game. This was how battles between sides were fought and how villages and towns were typically conquered. Other sides would have to build barracks and recruit military units to produce troops, and those troops would require food each day as well.

  Instead of that normal method, Jeremy could
just scavenge some of his military from the ruins of the city. The skeletons there were no longer very useful to level on, but now they could become his personal army. The only limit was his Charisma. He could control as many undead troops as his Charisma score. Three free troops at this level with no upkeep seemed great to Jeremy.

  He took the guard, Samwell, and made him a member of his strongest troop. He called him a captain. That allowed Jeremy to actually communicate with his troops when they were out of sight. One of the downsides to undead military units was that Jeremy could not ask them questions or get information from them. All he could see was their stats.

  While Samuel could talk to Jeremy through a communication menu, the newly commissioned captain could not give any orders. He did not yet have the Leadership skill. Though it would be available to him the next time he leveled. This cost Jeremy while he was steamrolling the next village.

  He conquered it easily, but he lost one of his skeleton troops in the process. Samwell and his troop had gotten separated from the doomed group. Apparently, the town guards had focused on the one troop and used large stones as “siege weapons.” At least Jeremy’s side had learned a new technology called Improvised Weapons.

  Jeremy renamed his new village Jollyberg after his old nickname. The third village with its stone walls and alert guards was probably going to be difficult. Jeremy decided to take the time and look it up in his diplomatic menu. It was called the Village of Pius.

  “Weird name. Let’s find out what kind of ruler calls their village that...”

  ***

  Swinging slowly, the gates to the Village of Pius opened. It looked like a flower blossoming to Jeremy as he held his breath. He had only seen the portrait of Theodora that appeared in the diplomatic chat menu when he had first contacted her, but that had been enough. If she was anything like that oil painting, she was going to be dazzling. Impatiently, he kicked at the dirt.

  “When is she...”

  A bright light emerged from the gate, like the sun breaking through a stormy sky.

  Jeremy shielded his eyes. “What in the...”