BBeast

Sanctuary

Zachary had lost track of time in the darkness of the underground car park. And left in the darkness with nothing but his mind and Kaa'is to interact with he felt he might lose track of his sanity if he waited much longer. Normally, if he wanted to pass the time, he would find some engineering problem to mentally fixate on, but this time that was not working. He was fidgety, his fingers unable to keep still and his eyes and face twitching. He tried sleeping, but he was not particularly tired, and as he tried to relax his mind instead went back to the murder of last night. Worse still, it wandered onwards, contemplating what may happen if he clashed with the military and how he might attack and ultimately kill. He tried mentally speaking with Kaa'is, but he seemed quite interested in the topic of battle strategies, especially brutal and lethal ones, and that only made Zachary more fitful.

Unable to take it any more, Zachary got off the carriage and stormed out of the car park. The sunlight, albeit obscured by the Wall, caused him the throw up his hands to protect his eyes. Once his eyes had adjusted sufficiently to the brightness, he was able to take a look around and found that the area was clear. He let out a deep breath and he stepped back in to the ramp so he could stop and plan where he was partially sheltered from view. From his backpack he removed his map and studied it. Looking out and around a few times he was eventually able to identify his location on the map and found that he could walk from where he was to the office building he wanted.

Before he left he went back in to the car park. He shoes were already soaked from when he had left so he didn't mind wading through again. Using his torch for light to aid navigation, he went up to the small carriages which had been pushed up against the walls and laid a hand on them. In each of them, he was surprised to discovered that the kinetic cores of their engines had not been looted. The carriages were too damaged to be functional without repair, but the damage was outstandingly little when all things were considered. He was about to use his powers to remove the cores when he realised that they would be a lot more useful with the whole engine attached. So he removed the engines as a whole, a task made easy with the telekinetic removal of bolts and the added strength when carrying metal, and placed them in the back of his carriage. He also removed the lights, because they would undoubtedly be useful. He left one carriage that was in particularly good condition as it was, just in case he wanted to repair a second carriage any time soon.

With that done he set out on foot in the streets towards the office tower. On his walk he spotted one military patrol, but since he was on foot he was much better positioned to take cover and hide until they were gone. After some time, he reached the building he wanted, and his shoes had gone from dripping went to just somewhat damp, which was still uncomfortable but a much better alternative to how he had been sitting around in the darkness. He looked at the building, which looked quite derelict but, compared to all the other buildings, seemed structurally sound. He walked inside and began the ascent hoping not to come across anyone, although he considered that unlikely. A building intact enough to have flights of stairs which were unbroken between most floors would be a likely place of shelter, in which case what Zachary hoped for more realistically was that if he came across anyone they would not be aggressive.

Sanctuary

Alright, I'll be sure to remember that.

Dungeon Keepers

Calvartem patiently waited for the Death Spire to be complete. While his undead self was ever patient, easily capable of long periods of inactivity, he was unsure about the patience of his new Rogue Being. He had not had the living within his ranks before, so he was uncertain as to how to deal with them. To complicate matters, this was no ordinary living being, for it was formed of obsidian and fire rather than flesh and blood, so he was uncertain of his nature. He waited the next couple of hours it took for the imps to put the last stones in place. Once the tower was complete he approached the side of it and began climbing up the stone rungs embedded into the wall. His movements were less than graceful, but to him that did not matter. Once on top of the tower, he laid his hands on the quartz rock and in a pulse of darkness it glowed blackly, indicating that it had been activated.

That task complete, Calvartem descended in much the same manner as he had climbed. In a wave of his staff his imps all faded from existence. He mounted on to Shadowmane and finally turned to address Conquest. "We return to my Dungeon now. There is much to be done, much to be conquered." With that Calvartem galloped south-bound, in the direction of his Dungeon. He doubted that Conquest would keep up if he went at full speed, unless he flew, but even then he was unsure whether that living being's endurance would be enough to match the incredible speed and endurance of the resurrected horse. He was sure not to let Conquest fall too far behind, at whatever pace he made.

Eventually they arrived at the Dungeon, although it hardly looked that part save for the Death Spire. There was no other modification to the infrastructure save for that tower. When Conquest had caught up, Calvartem said "My Dungeon Heart is situated within this town. Be sure to defend it from any invasion." Calvartem's speech was slightly hesitant, for he had not found it necessary to ever voice intentions to his subordinates before. He pointed his staff at the ground and 15 imps materialised. "These imps shall work on defences," he continued, "Now, I intend to conquer a port town to the east. That is, if you do not require rest."

Dungeon Keepers

Zadok winced at the mental reprimand. The Carver was right, perhaps he had grown a little presumptuous. Or perhaps he was defensive because he was no longer in command. He tried to put it behind him as he flew on.

A change of tactics is indeed required to overcome the stalemate. However, the question is who will change tactics first, Zadok replied, I am afraid that I myself have no suggestions, and I fear the Ripper may have the cunning to develop a scheme of some kind. Then again, that fragmented mind may hinder the development of any coherent plan. I can only guess.

He flew on, and the world- he had picked up the name Elysium for it from Carver's memories- loomed ever bigger. If you can develop a plan, do let me know. But for now, I will do what I can, and that is scout out Elysium.

Finally Zadok once more descended into the atmosphere of Elysium, and he levelled out his flight at a high altitude above the clouds from which he could see the surface clearly with his enhanced vision but was no more than an inconspicuous speck in the sky. He wished to obtain a mental map of the continent and what was on it.

Dungeon Keepers

Yes, I think it is time we kicked things in to action. Among other reasons, without that I'm not entirely sure what to do with Zadok, as I don't think most people would appreciate him dropping down and ruining their Dungeon.

Dungeon Keepers

I'm back. Cav, when you get around to posting next, Calvartem had assigned a small, simple task for Conquest to complete.

Sanctuary

Zachary's first stop was the old mechanic's. He had chosen the location to visit first partly because it would make a convenient route but also because it wasn't a multi-storeyed which would take time to climb and search. He managed to get there without any encounters, and he looked upon the dilapidated front of the mechanic's. The paint had peeled off, windows broken in to and doors forced open. He drove up to the garage door, which was still closed, so he got out to inspect it. Laying his hand on it, the door's workings assembled within his mind, showing him that it was locked by padlock. All it took to open it was moving the tumblers aside and pushing open the lock using his magnetic abilities, a skill he had used numerous times before while scavenging in the ruined city. He manually lifted the door up, drove his carriage through the opening, parked it inside and then closed the door behind him. The place was engulfed in darkness, which was soon broken when Zachary retrieved and turned on his torch. If he had been given the time to fully repair his carriage he would have been able to install headlights, but that had not been necessary to get it on the road.

It was not long before Zachary found a light switch and, mercifully, it still worked. Able to look around the garage, Zachary discovered that it was a mess, with tables overturned, drawers pulled onto the floor and tools and scrap all over the place. This was a clear sign of looting, but typically looters only took food, easy-to-use cores, functional (or near-functional) tools and weapons and sometimes clothes so Zachary felt confident that he would be able to find what he was looking for. It did not take much rummaging around to find a whole cache of heavy-duty metal springs. He picked a few which seemed to be the right size and placed them in his carriage. Before leaving he took another look over the place just in case he found anything else of use, and to his luck he discovered a radio which must have been used by the mechanic to listen to while working. With no means to transmit communications, and the absence of any radio stations which it could listen in on, the radio had gone untouched. Checking over it with his machine reading confirmed that it still had what he needed, although the battery had been taken. He placed the radio in his carriage as well.

Zachary departed from the mechanic's and headed towards the office building, checking the map for his route. However, as he headed down a road, a military squadron entered the road ahead of him. Immediately Zachary stopped and began to reverse to a street he could turn off on, but already he had been spotted and the military were shouting orders. "That's not one of ours." "Contact left!" "They've got carriages?" "Squadron Hotel to base, we've spotted a live non-military carriage on Whitely Road. It's attempting a retreat down Oak Street." Plasma bolts zipped past Zachary, and several tore through the thin metal walls of the carriage with little resistance. Zachary managed to get away before the bolts hit anything important, but he was still suitably panicked. He had heard and seen them speaking into their two-way radios, so more soldiers would be on their way soon. There is no way the military, with their iron rule over Sovereign, would tolerate someone getting their hands on a working carriage.

Zachary's mind was racing trying to find a solution while his carriage was racing to get him away. He realised that he would have to hide until the search waned, but the trouble would be finding a place he could hide a carriage. And he didn't have long. Zachary was searching frantically when Kaa'is spotted a place. Over there! It was the entrance to an underground carpark for an apartment building. A slice off the top had crumbled down to the street but it looked as if the carpark was intact, but most importantly it was dark. Checking around for any watching military, and spotting none, he drove down through the entrance and in to the shadows. He stopped to pull out a torch, and then kept going. Through the small circle of vision which the torch provided he could see that it was not a very big carpark. There were still some carriages remaining, although they had been thrown against the walls by the flood during the cataclysm. A layer of water remained on the ground, which was of no hindrance to the levitating carriage, and the rest of the water must have drained away to somewhere. There was an elevator and concrete wall present as well, which provided Zachary a place to hide behind, hidden from view from any who peaked in from outside. He wasted no time in crawling over there in his carriage, checking that the water-covered ground was clear and stopped the engines. He then turned off the torch, engulfing him in darkness and leaving him to sit alone for however long he felt it would take for the military to deprioritise the search. It was going to be a long wait.

Sanctuary

Goodbye. You'll be missed.

Sanctuary

Zachary was working away with the parts he had. He had the metal to work with and was heating, bending and welding sheet metal to form the body of the device when his hand accidentally touched the hot metal. It pulled back reflexively and Zachary immediately went to find a water source to treat the burn. He entered into the mansion through the side entrance and found a sink in the kitchen, where he ran water over where he had touched the hot metal. As he did this, however, he became conscious of the state of his injuries from last night. His hands were already red and skin peeling from the fire he had been attacked with and it stung lightly. He looked at himself in the small circular mirror placed over the sink and almost reeled back in surprise at his face. Like his hands, it was lightly burnt and the skin was red and peeling. However, the most damage had been done to his hair, and he realised that he should have expected this as hair has a tendency to burn easily. His eyebrows were almost non-existent, his fringe had been pushed back by a large margin and the beard he had grown over the past year had been reduced to a few tufts of singed hair. Mr Winters must have dealt with all-sorts to overlook this.

Zachary was surprised somewhat that it didn't hurt as much as he thought it should. That's because we have plenty of spirit, Kaa'is chimed in. Zachary sighed, anticipating how he would lead to needing more spirit. Spirit aids in healing, strength and endurance. The more spirit we harvest, the faster we recover and the harder we are to take down. It also helps that I've figured out a nice concoction of pain-reducing hormones.

Zachary groaned. He knew Kaa'is was intentionally provoking his memory, and the vague memories of the sensations he felt last night returned to him. He turned off the tap and returned to work, hoping to redirect his mind. But even as he worked, he felt uneasy and fidgety, and no matter how often he tried to push it away he kept thinking about the sensation, disturbingly pleasurable, he had felt while killing that man last night. He worked through it regardless, and soon he needed to find parts. He went over to the documents and took out the one detailing potential component locations. While he had changed a lot of the components in the design, he could still use the map as a detailed depiction of buildings in the vicinity. He eventually determined that there was a block of apartments which was still intact in which he might find a radio, an office tower which might have a wind core powered ventilation system and, marked on the map as a potential component location, an old mechanic's, although heavily looted it should still contain the scrap he needed, some suspension specifically. Everything else, from the lightning core battery to the wiring to the Sparker to the fastening, he already had available from either his own stash or that which came with the workshop. With his route planned, Zachary went outside, hopped into his carriage, started it up and drove off.

Dungeon Keepers

"You seem to have survived" were the Carver's words to Zadok, affirming the mental link but not affirming any confidence in the Anti-Keeper.

Some of my key physical attributes are speed and resistance, even in extreme environments, Zadok replied, although he realised that the Carver would be about as apathetic to his well-being as the Weaver had been, perhaps more so. After a pause, Zadok added, Your battle with the Ripper seems to be at a stalemate.

Zadok looked over to Elysium. His position had since shifted from where the planet was in its orbit, so he began to head over there. He figured that up here in space there was not much that could be done. While on Elysium he would not be able to directly aide the Carver against the Ripper, he would at least be able to keep the threat of Keepers in check and ensure that humanity would not crumble while the Ripper was being dealt with.

---

The Death Spire was about half way done when Calvartem spotted something approaching along the road from the south. He shifted position to get a better view, and he recognised it as the cart he had seen on the way here. They must have spotted his Dungeon, with the ominous tower, dead vegetation and the roaming walkers which would have appeared in response to their presence, and turned around to flee.

"Man of fire," Calvartem addressed Conquest, "There is a carriage approaching from the south. There is no doubt that they are fleeing my dungeon, and will try to go around these ruins and alert the nearest major city of my presence. I want you to destroy them."

---

If the Necromancer thought to protect his secrecy, then he had failed already, for a few people successfully fled the village before it was overrun and had made the journey north to Paterdomus. When the city guards saw the refugees arrive and recognised that they came from one of their towns to the south, they ushered them into the city and they were granted audience with the military leaders of Paterdomus. This consisted mainly of high-ranking fire priests.

"What ill news is it you bear?" a fire priest asked.

A man slowly and nervously stepped forwards. "Our little village of Garmsby has been attacked by a sorcerer with the power to raise the dead."

The priests of Caldor turned to each other and spoke in hushed tones. This news clearly worried them, and resonated with the recent rumours of similar events. One of the fire priests spoke up. "Do you have any information about this... sorcerer?"

The man trembled as he recounted events. "He rode on a horse as black as night, and he was a skeleton. He used a sort of black fire to make our dead cattle move again, which then killed more of our cattle. We fled the village to keep these women and children safe, but when we were some way away we saw that the village was on fire." At this point the man broke down, and stepped back to be supported by his fellow refugees.

The fire priests nodded solemnly, trying to contain the worry from their faces. "Go and rest. The guards will find shelter for you. May Caldor look favourably on the souls of those you have lost. And by Caldor's name we shall not let such an abomination go unpunished."