>>5510116“You call to us with the blood of a child’s child,” the Mother of Dragons acknowledges, without umbrage. “A bloodline which now continues through you and your own children…”
“YES,” the Serpent Ascendant agrees, “THE SACRIFICE OF A DESTINY UNREALIZED, A CHAMPION FELLED BEFORE REALIZING HIS POTENTIAL… WILL YOU TAKE HIS PLACE?”
“You have uncovered many lost things,” says the Master of the Insightful Eye, his gaze as always particularly invasive and perceptive, “and you offer up one such secret in the hopes of learning still more. You seek to supplant another seeker.”
“HAPO OF BLOODRISE,” the God of Pride and Victory intones, with some small admiration. “HE HAS CLIMBED HIGH.”
“He has learned much, and put it into practice,” the Baleful Beholder agrees. “I can respect this Necromancer for his studious mind. Open to revelation… If also madness.”
You’re a little surprised to hear your patrons speak almost… Praisingly of your foe. It is immediately discouraging, though you find at least one ally among them:
“His brand of madness, his blighted undead creations…” The Lady of the Rookery’s tone is sneering. “It is a mockery of motherhood, to birth such things…”
While the Dark Goddess’ voice stirs an uneasy roiling in the pit of your stomach and loins, like the opposite of heady arousal, her words are some comfort. And she is, as it turns out, not alone in her opinion:
“It. Is. Abomination.”
All the other Dark Gods rankle as, from the deepest darkness, a grave-stench and the clattering of bones rushed forth.
“THE TRAITOR SPEAKS OF ABOMINATION,” the Serpent Ascendant mocks.
“The Glutton arrives right on cue, as ever,” the Mother of Dragon laughs with one voice and spits with another, while the third remains warily silent.
“You are here to enforce your stifling and hypocritical limitations upon the arts yet again, are you?” asks the God of Wisdom with some weariness.
“Do you all so readily forget the Divine War, and the way in which such ‘arts’ nearly upended everything that was, and is, and might yet be?” demands Death, his tone as neutral and level as ever, but his accusations scathing. “The Necromancer must be destroyed, and with him every tome, scroll, and forbidden syllable and sigil which has empowered him to risk the integrity of the Eternal Cycle!”
“ENOUGH.”
