Disclaimer: Rifts® and most of the terms used in this story are Registered Trademarks owned and licensed by Palladium Books, Inc. and Kevin Siembieda. I am not Kevin Siembieda, so I do not own Palladium. I merely play in their playground and enjoy doing so. What money I do make is from my job, and not from this story.
After his monologue, Nikolai places the gargoyle mask over his face. With a sickening sound, the bony material of the mask and his gauntlets twist and meld onto his flesh. As the melding concludes, he somehow appears larger and more menacing. He raises his bone staff, and the piles of bones directly in front of the group begin to assemble themselves into 3 humanoid shapes. The bones are mismatched from both human and animal, their eyes glowing red. The humanoid figure clad in full bone plate armor next to the column on the right also begins to move. You notice that it holds a vibro-sword in its hand.
“Attack, minions” shouts Nikolai, “Destroy them all!!!” Nikolai takes cover behind the bone altar in the middle of the chamber.
Fearlessly charging one of the risen skeletons, Anomen sweeps his scimitar in a downward slash at the abomination on his right. He is surprised when the slash meets resistance from the bones. The slash leaves a blackened gash along the breastbone of the skeleton. Cursing silently to himself, Anomen remembers one of his lessons. “When it comes to battling skeletons, remember to Smash and Bash, not Hack and Slash”
Eric crouches and leaps clear over the middle skeleton. Using a thruster boost from his power armor, he rockets towards the bone altar, while opening fire with both rifles. The 6 ion blasts strike the altar, sending chunks and shards of magically hardened bone throughout the chamber, leaving blackened scorch marks. His momentum carries him over the altar, pivoting in the air, and landing in a crouch on the opposite end of the chamber. Nikolai looks up at Eric, suddenly exposed and very much in Eric’s line of fire.
As Eric attacks the altar, the three skeletons attack together. One lunges towards Dessius with the razor sharp claws of his magically enhanced bony fingers. Dessius is unable to block the blow in time, and the skeleton leaves a scratch mark across the torso of Dessius’ heavy armor. With Eric out of reach, the middle skeleton turns its attention towards Anomen. Distracted by his attack on the skeleton to the right, the Atlantean warrior doesn’t notice the attack, and is hit by a raking set of bony claws damaging his protective magical shield. Reacting to the impact, Anomen is unable to get his scimitar up in time to block the strike of the damaged skeleton. The bony claws ring off of Anomen’s magical barrier, slightly weakening the field.
Maneuvering behind Dessius and Anomen, Carlie is able to gain a clear line of fire at the approaching armored figure as it nears the rock pile in front of Anomen. She drops to 1 knee and sights the creature’s armored head with her heavy Wilk’s laser pistol. Her shot is true, as the heavy laser blast silently streaks towards the lumbering figure, striking it square in the middle of it’s deer skull helmet leaving a blackened crater. Cracks in the bone clearly visible radiating from the point of impact.
Seeing his brother flanked by the skeletons, Dalryn rushes up in between Dessius and Anomen, mutters a prayer to Ratri and thrusts his holy symbol towards the ceiling of the chamber. The holy energy of his goddess radiates outwards in a powerful wave, hurling the three animated skeletons deeper into Nikolai’s chamber. The summoned spiritual energy is so powerful that the skeletons shatter against the far wall of the chamber. As the energy reaches the lumbering armored figure, is ceases its advance held at bay by Dalryn’s prayer.
Dessius aims both of his NE-4s at the crater mark in the creature’s armored head and simultaneously pulls the triggers. Dessius’ dual plasma bolts strike the armored creature in the exact same spot as Carlie’s. The helmet shatters, revealing the head of a rotting corpse wrapped in dirty white linen. The molten remains of it’s skull helmet begin to ignite the wrappings and decaying flesh. The creature, obviously a mummy construct, flails around wildly as the remainder of it’s flesh is consumed by the plasma flames, leaving the remains of the bony armor as they clang loudly on the floor of the chamber.
Still crouched behind the Altar, Nikolai extends his clawed hand towards Eric and mutters a spell. The area surrounding Eric becomes filled with a greenish mist. Despite the best efforts of his armor’s atmospheric filtration system, the mist seeps into Eric’s armored suit. The smell of rotting flesh overwhelms Eric’s senses. Tears fill his eyes, and he has the sudden urge to vomit. The urge is so great that Eric must flip open his helmet visor and he soon vomits on the floor of the chamber.
Anomen’s summoned Tri Fang quickly slithers around the bone altar and attempts to entangle Nikolai with it’s snake body. Gripping his bone staff with his clawed hands, Nikolai is able to deflect the Tri-Fang’s lunging attempt to entangle. It is small comfort to the party, but Nikolai’s action has partly exposed him from his concealed position.
Endarrin takes cover behind a rock pile and fires his enchanted rifle towards Nikolai. A bolt of magic fire streaks towards the Necromancer, striking him square in his flank. Distracted by the Tri-Fang’s attack, Nikolai is not able to defend. The magic fire bolt disintegrates his heavy magic robe. The blast appears to severely damage his bone chest plate armor, as it seems to be falling apart.
Anomen’s scimitar slowly dissipates as he releases his grip on the hilt, He draws his magically enhanced Ion Rifle and fires a burst of 3 lightning-like bolts towards Nikolai. In his haste, Anomen is unable to properly aim, and as a result, the triple blast hits the bone altar in front of Nikolai.
Still under the effects of Nikolai’s spell, Eric retches one more time, and is only able to manage a feeble crawl towards safety. In the dim light of the cavern, Dessius’ cyborg enhanced eyes can see that Eric does not look well.
Taking up a cover position next to Endarrin, Carlie draws her heavy laser pistol and fires at Nikolai. The blast shatters the remainder of his tattered bone breastplate. To the party’s surprise, the blast does not cut through his flesh as expected. Instead, the laser blast appears to deflect off of some protective barrier.
Seeing his team-mate in trouble, Dalryn hurdles the rock pile and heads towards Eric’s location. Along the way, he grasps his left wrist to activate his power tattoos. When he releases his grip, a flaming shield appears in his left hand, and a flaming scimitar, identical to Anomen’s, appears in his right hand.
Dessius hurdles the rock pile after Dalryn, and with his enhanced cyborg speed, he quickly makes his way to Eric’s position. Along the way, Dessius fires off shots from each of his plasma pistols. Unfortunately, he is not able to aim properly at the Necromancer, and misses his intended target. Not all is lost, however, as the dual plasma bolts completely obliterate the bone altar, causing Nikolai to become exposed to gunfire.
With his chest plate armor destroyed, Nikolai strips the remainder of his tattered upper body clothing off and tosses them to the floor. He extends his muscular, clawed hands down towards the floor of the chamber, mutters an incantation and suddenly crosses his arms in front of his chest in an “X”. With the motion, the bones and rotting flesh of his sacrificial victims fly towards his body and adhere to his skin, like iron filings attracted to a magnet. The stench of rotting flesh fills the chamber. Anomen, being the only member of the group not in environmental body armor, suddenly feels a wave of nausea overcome him. The sudden appearance of the disgusting display also shocks Dalryn, causing him to withdraw in revulsion.
Unaffected by the grisly display, the Tri-Fang strikes out with all three heads, latching onto Nikolai’s protective covering of dead flesh despite his attempt to block the attack with his bone staff. The Tri-fang’s 3 heads tear off sizable chunks of bone and decaying tissue.
Seeing that Nikolai is completely exposed, Endarrin slings his rifle across his back, and call forth another magical Orb of Cold. He tosses it towards Nikolai, striking a glancing blow to his flesh-covered flank. The orb explodes upon impact, the sound of shattering ice echoing throughout the chamber. The fleshy armor appears to be sloughing off of Nikolai’s body now, but some sections still cling stubbornly to him. His face appears to snarl in rage and frustration behind his bestial mask as the combat continues.
In a desperate attempt to get out of the sickening fog, Eric has enough strength left to rocket towards Nikolai using a thruster boost from his SAMAS. He flies straight towards Nikolai in an attempt to grapple the mage. Nikolai, seeing the advancing suit of power armor, is able to tumble out of the way. Eric lands within melee striking distance of Nikolai. Out of the affected area of Nikolai’s initial spell, Eric calmly flips down the visor of his SAMAS, grinning at Nikolai as he does. Eric chuckles to himself as the SAMAS’ targeting systems come back to life.
As Nikolai comes out of his roll, Anomen catches him with a single blast from his Enchanted Ion rifle. The lightning blast hits Nikolai on the shoulder. Despite the damage to his fleshy armor, it continues to protect his body.
Carlie’s aimed shot with her pistol finishes off the remainder of Nikolai’s magical flesh armor, however, his underlying protective barrier absorbs the remainder of the damage.
Dalryn begins to regain his composure after his initial revulsion of Nikolai’s macabre spellcasting, as Dessius holsters his pistols and draws his crystalline long sword. With a feral battle howl, the Wolfen Quatoria charges Nikolai leading point first in an attempt to skewer the evil mage. Nikolai partially deflects the blow with his bone staff, but the added force of Dessius’ bionic strength pushes past the parry attempt and cuts across the Necromancer’s stomach. Nikolai’s magical shielding absorbs the blow, but Dessius can feel the barrier weaken beneath his strike. Nikolai grimaces in pain, as the strike immediately causes a severe purple bruise on his abdominal muscles.
Still reeling and on the defensive, Nikolai is unable to strike back as the Tri-Fang rears to attack. The Tri-Fang rears up so that its central head is eye level with Nikolai, and unleashes a stream of steaming, green acid from its mouth. The acid splashes on Nikolai’s gargoyle skull mask. While it doesn’t seem to damage the bone, the acid seeps into the eye sockets of the mask, and those within melee distance can hear the distinct sound of acid sizzle. Suddenly, Nikolai drops his bone staff, screaming. He reaches up and wrenches the mask from his face with a disgusting “squelching” sound, the bony claw gauntlets also fall from his hands. Nikolai’s muscle mass appears to decrease, as whatever enchantment he activated dissipates. Nikolai falls to his knees, clutching at his burning eye sockets. He begins hurling curses in a language none of you understand.
Marda suddenly appears out of the shadows. “GAG AND BIND THE FILTHY SON OF A BITCH, BEFORE HE CAN GET ANOTHER SPELL OFF!!!!” the young Draykh shouts. The party slowly surrounds the kneeling mage, weapons still drawn. With a toothy grin, Dessius looks over at Eric. “Now that we’re warmed up, perhaps you’ll join us?” Dessius deadpans. “Unless you’re still too hungover, that is.”
Eric looks over at the Wolfen, secretly smiling behind his helmet visor. “That’s it, laugh it up, fuzzball.” He says. “Next time, I’m electing you to stick that sensitive sniffer of yours into the devils unwashed crotch-stank.” He points one of his rifles towards Nikolai. “Will somebody tie that fool up” he says. “I need to go flush my atmosphere scrubber.”
After Dessius and Eric’s banter, the Wolfen calmly reaches down and handcuffs Nikolai behind his back. He then rips a piece of Nikolai’s tattered robes and gags him. Marda runs over to the 3 children still chained to the far wall of the chamber. With the party’s help, they are freed, and graciously thank the party for their timely rescue.
Searching the room, Carlie examines the remains of the mummy’s skeletal plate armor. It is heavy and bulky, yet the bone material seems strong enough to provide suitable protection from mega-damage weapons. Surly, someone in Kingsdale would take interest in buying the suit from the group.
Another item of interest is Nikolai’s bone staff. Dalryn and Endarrin can feel the magic radiating from the staff, yet the apparent nature of the spells that were used in its creation feel unnatural and vile. Like the armor, someone within Kingsdale’s magic guild may show interest in the staff.
In the far left corner of the chamber, there appears to be some sort of vanity, constructed out of bone. In the center of the vanity is a portrait of an older man, bearing a striking resemblance to Nikolai. Under the portrait, hangs a silver chain, with a large red gem attached. However, upon further examination, the gem turns out to be a cybernetic eye. What a mage needs with such an item is unknown, but it seems important enough for Carlie to pocket.
On the desk section of the vanity are two large books, both bound in leathery material and decorated with bones. Upon opening the first book, Endarrin recognizes that it is a wizard’s spell book. Inside are descriptions of various magic rituals, indicating that Nikolai practices the rare art of Necromancy. This school of magic considered barbaric and is virtually unknown in North America. He also recognizes several common incantations, which he could learn with enough time through independent study.
The other book appears to be some form of journal, however the language is unfamiliar. Despite the language barrier, Endarrin chooses to keep the journal in an attempt to decipher its meaning.
Underneath the vanity is a locked chest. Carlie is able to deftly pick the lock, revealing what’s inside. The party finds an intact suit of Urban Warrior armor, with the insignia of The Kingsdale Forest Rangers. Underneath the armor, she finds a dogtag and a locket containing the picture of a brown haired elven woman. The dogtag reads “Varren Latyren”. Whoever he was, he obviously ran into Nikolai and did not survive. “Whoever this gal is, I’m sure that she’d want to know about this.” says Carlie.
With all of the interesting items in tow, the party leads Nikolai and the children back towards the entrance to the cavern. Upon exiting the cave, they are approached by members of the Forest Rangers. The cemetery caretaker and his robots are not far behind the Ranger patrol. They happily turn the necromancer over to the authorities, and proceed back to the cemetery.
Along the way, Marda and the other children inform the group about how Nikolai captured them while they were playing in the cemetery. Marda also explains why the Draykh people find her so important. Her species rifted to Earth over 20 years ago, and would eventually settle in the Dregtown section of Kingsdale. The Draykh are nomadic people, who are led by “shamans”. One in 100 Draykh males are born with “the gift”. Marda explains that they possess the ability to figure out simple spells, similar to Earth Mystics. Females with the gift are extremely rare. When one is born, they are sheltered and protected. Female shamans eventually assume command of several tribes. Marda appears to resent the attention that her people shower her with. “On Earth, I could go anywhere, and do anything” she laments. “I’m twice the mystic that any recruit in the Kingsdale Magic Guild.” She spits on the ground at the mention of the Guild. “They think they’re so high and mighty” she continues. “You have to pay just to join. And as you can see, the Draykh aren’t the most wealthy lizards. All I want is a chance, and I know I won’t get it here. If only I could get to Lazlo, or Tolkeen. Then I could get some real training. I might be able to get the Draykh out of that shithole that they’re stuck in. Say, if you guys ever make it to Lazlo or Tolkeen, remember to put in a good word for me, OK?”
The rest of the trip back to Kingsdale is uneventful. At the West Gate, Marda’s human friend informs the group that he can find his way home from here. He hugs the other children, gives his thanks to the party, and rushes to join a Magic Militia guard nearby. True to her word, Tearn waits for the party in the alleyway beside Four Fingered Billy’s Tavern. Upon seeing her daughter safe, Tearn rushes to Marda and smothers the child in an embrace. “Thanks be to you, strangers” she says “You have earned gratitude of Draykh people. Come Marda. We go to home.” Marda waves to the party as she departs towards Dregtown. “You’ll be seeing me soon!” she shouts back at the group.
The group heads back towards the apartments to rest after the morning’s action. Later that day, Eric’s uncle Darren stops by with a guest. Marda enters the apartment behind him. “Hey guys” she says in a playful tone. “Check out the vid footage”. She turns on the apartment’s video monitor and turns on the live feed from Kingsdale’s network. The video shows a shot of the forest ranger patrol turning the handcuffed figure of Nikolai over to a group of mages from the Guild. They lead him into the large cubed building, known as The Monolith. “That’s the Guild’s HQ” says Marda “They’ll probably interrogate him. It won’t be long until he’s executed, I bet.”
Eric’s uncle Darren approaches the group. He informs you that the locket and dogtag that you found belongs to a ranger who was lost about 3 weeks ago while on patrol. The woman in the locket is his wife. She lives in an apartment near the market square. He suggests that it would be kind to return his possessions to her.
Marda, calls Anomen and Dalryn over to speak in private for a moment. “Hey Guys” she says “I thought of something that you might find interesting. I first thought that your tats were just for show, then I saw them in action. Pretty cool. I’ve never seen magic tats before. But it wasn’t the magic that got me thinking.” She pulls out a datapad from her satchel. “Check this out” she says. “Look at the mage in this picture. His name is Menelaus Clotho. He’s one of the founders of the Guild in Kingsdale. He looks like any other human mage to me, but after I got home, I saw something that I had to show you.”
She hands you the datapad. It shows a picture of a human mage waving with both hands to the crowd gathered before him. Marda instructs you to zoom in closer, and that’s when they both see it. Tattooed on his left wrist is a flaming rapier, and tattooed on his right wrist is a heart impaled by a wooden stake. They each look at each other, the proof is undeniable: Menelaus is an Atlantean, the first of their kind that they’ve seen since coming to Rifts Earth.
“Now I’m not one to believe in coincidence.” she says. “At first I thought that you matching tats were some kind of brother thing, but after seeing this…..just thought you’d like to know. He’ll be in town tomorrow for a book signing in the market square. He’s pretty famous in Kingsdale. He claims to be some kind of dimensional traveler. The vids always make him out to be a great guy. I haven’t heard anything to contradict that. Oh well, just thought it might help.” After her conversation with the twins, Marda and Darren take their leave.
Contemplating what this revelation means to them, the twins decide to investigate in the morning. Meanwhile, Anomen approaches the elf, Endarrin, who has been trying to decipher Nikolai’s journal. “Endarrin, can I help decipher the bonehead’s journal? I am pretty good with languages.” He says. Apparently frustrated, the elf hands Anomen the book. “I haven’t been around humans too long.” He says. “I can’t get over how many languages you have. It’s so much easier just having one language for each race.”
Despite Anomen’s training in multiple languages, Nikolai’s writing is unfamiliar. Undeterred, Anomen closes his eyes and touches the tattoo on his right palm: an eye with three lines protruding from it. The tattoo glows with a soft blue light. When Anomen opens his eyes, they appear to glow with the same shine. Endarrin hands over the journal to Anomen. The words begin to flow, as their meaning becomes clear. Most of the journal is nonsense, the ramblings of a madman. There are several passages of note however, and Anomen quickly writes them down to share with the party. Nikolai apparently was a fugitive from his native country of Ukraine. He managed to sneak into the New German Republic, and stow away on a Triax transport to North America. Arriving in Kingsdale, he began hunting local game, and building his cave lair. Anomen quickly becomes impatient, with the thought of more Atlanteans nearby. He closes the book and looks at the party. “Let’s go into town. I’m sure there’s better stuff to do than sit around and read Bonehead’s journal” he says.
Dessius agrees. “We owe it to that ranger’s wife to let her know what happened” the Wolfen says. “Let’s get this over with so we can move on to business.”
With the group in agreement, they set out into the city………
