>>5526763When the meeting is concluded, you are left with another, more private decision. Having decided not to trade away your rare artefacts and tomes—nor anything else—you still have them in your possession. This includes those taken from Hapo the Necromancer. Among them are books of ancient magical lore—bound in steel and skin, some twisting in their bindings with unholy unlife and with powers beyond the pale. Normally, even these greatest and most terrible archives would be well within your race’s auspices…
But you owe a debt to Death Himself, the Emperor of Entropy.
You have not mediated on the matter, nor communed with the Dark Gods, since your ascension and your subsequent victory. Part of it is out of concern of what grudge Death may bear for your use of necromancy—you took the Red Dragon King from his embrace, from a thousand-year slumber beyond that veil which the lord of Endings considers most sacred, and even now clutch that soul close. The Novice Fleshweaver’s analysis confirmed as much—she is no expert in matters spiritual, but she was required to recalibrate your Amulet of the Dragon so as to hold the increased power in check, for times when your mana might ebb and that ancient and powerful spirit might wake to wrest control. You don’t just carry your ancestor’s legacy, but his spirit… A spirit Death will surely covet as well.
Maybe, if Death is already mad at you, and has not yet taken action against you… A little more ‘forbidden knowledge’ wouldn’t hurt? Some of these books could allow you to extend your life, preserve your troops, animate fallen adversaries, bring woe to your foes… Maybe even strengthen the shoggoth-sword further?
“The Occultist you recruited says that roughly half the books and scrolls thus uncovered are directly related to matters of necromancy and diabolism—including the most valuable, ancient, and powerful one, of course,” the Novice notes. “We could keep the rest, and burn just those.”
