Palathadric

"Both sides need to be dealt with. I am not willing to trust this upstarts word. He looks like a fellow who would readily go back on it," I mutter so only the party can hear. "Let's say this, we defeat the green necromancer and put this behind us and then we take care of the undead army, giving them a funeral. Retak goes his way if he wants to, if he prefers to fight, we defeat him. I would not have him leave this place with an army of undead like this in tow. ...on second thought, do we know how to get out of this plain without the necromancer's help?"

"Damn it! Then let's bury the undead again and once we're through with that we can take care of this business. No matter who takes control of them, both of these fellows are necromancers and are clearly quite used to pulling the dead up from their graves. Sure, your friend there may say that he's against that sort of thing, but obviously he has quite a lot of experience in seizing control of the dead. He's a necromancer and not to be trusted. Better the devil that you know to the one you don't." Hope this isn't getting too long for you guys. I would like to hear back from Thalion. I don't care much which way this goes, but poor Pretzel is rather torn right now.

I finally need to get myself some Bonaparte rep.

"Wait a moment. Why are you so trusting of someone who you don't know who is leading a huge army? What's in it for you anyway?" Still haven't failed a quest for Heroica to date. Will I allow this to be my first. I whisper to Thalion, "Why don't we first remove these walking corpses and send them back to their graves. I would personally not desire to be caught in a battle between two necromancers with a team of undead who could flip flop between the sides as easily as Heckz would if he were offered a larger reward."

I ponder Heckz'(s?) words and let out a growl. "Heckz speaks well. You are not a hero, perhaps you were once, although if so, you have turned your back on heroing it seems. If you really were a hero, why did you quit?" I then speak diplomatically, "Also, I'm assuming you entered this place without an undead army at your heels. Therefore, if you really wanted to free these poor souls, why don't you do so immediately? You can always gather another army at the next place of holding and would cut out any risk of your not keeping control of these. Furthermore, I don't like the idea of someone like you traipsing around town with an army like this. There is just too much at risk. I say we free these undead now. Then we will determine what course of action to take in regards to these holding places and the necromancers running them."

Usually italicized sentences without quotation marks are thoughts.

"I don't think it would be quite as easy as that," I say in a hushed tone. "By the time Heroica finds out he could have a huge army considering the way he could just be picking up a massive number of corpses as at all of these holding pockets. Even if Heroica can best him, it may take time and he may cause a great deal of destruction before then. Lives could be lost..." I shake my head in disagreement. "Perhaps they do a few good things to hide the evil, but overall I wouldn't trust those automatons within a ten foot radius. They are just being manipulated by their creators...well, I suppose it's not unlike undead...and at least automatons aren't alive beings. I suppose it would be better to use them than undead, wouldn't it? I still don't trust this Retak fellow though and how do you know the Ji Pei would even be willing to send their automatons? What if they require a charge? Who would pay? ...I suppose whoever is currently paying for the necromancer's consumable budget." I roll my eyes. "I still don't like it, but it may be better overall, I guess...Retak does look like a pocket full of trouble though." I quiet down, somewhat confused. The mission had seemed so straightforward before, but now everything had been thrown up in the air. I'm too used to good, honest people requesting the help of heroes. Have I learned nothing from those blasted Crimson Crown and the quest they lured my on? I growl under my breath.

"Let me get this straight. You want to go on a crusade to free the undead by using the undead? Perhaps I didn't understand well, but aren't you a necromancer yourself? Also, apparently you say that you are not an undead? If not, then how did you get down here or even find out about this place? I like what you're saying, somewhat, but many an enemy has spoke smooth words to hide malicious intent. If I am to trust one of two necromancers I would more likely throw my trust (not that I would ever do that) at the one who is putting his undead to good use than to one who seems intent on raising up an army, and to what purpose only God knows. How can we be sure that you're on a crusade to end these pocket realms...or whatever. How can we not know that you may just take this army behind you and start wreaking havoc across Eubric. I shall certainly have to know a bit more about your background and your history of 'heroing' if you even have one of those." "You cannot just trust someone who speaks flowery words. What if he has a hidden agenda and we are letting loose a beast of destruction on Eubric by letting him walk away?" "Automations? Do you know how dangerous those things can be? All those new fangled machines. Heck, I just came from a quest where such a machine, one built by the Ji Pei no doubt, was actually spawning demons in the caverns of Eubric. We cannot put our faith in such machines. Anyone can enter and wreck those. Heck, sometimes they even appear to have a mind of their own."

Really hating the team from 107 right now.

"I don't take too kindly to those who try to blaspheme the name of our founding fathers...and mothers."

Hoy, if we're back by then, which it seems likely enough that we will be, I'll jump along, although I can't promise I'll be a tank by then. Unless WBD doesn't grant my my final battle's worth of XP.

"Appearance often displays what is hidden inside. And you speak poorly to compare yourself to the Walking Mountain. The Walking Mountain was a legendary hero, who the hel has ever heard of you?" "On the contrary, I would suggest that we help him lay all your undead to rest. Once that is accomplished, we can discuss together whether it is for the best of humanity or not that we allow them to raise the ilk again to continue their work."

Yeah, but who ever really believed that Thormanil was a half-giant?

Shucks! If Posco dies I'm killing Hybros!

But seriously, Balotelli is more likely to take Suarez for a ride with his mafiosi friends...or shoot fireworks into his house. There is time when even I stop revelling in their demise and start going Gomez would be a good fit for Arsenal. His injury-record matches Arsenal's and I would imagine they could get him fairly cheap too. Seriously, though, I wouldn't mind seeing him go to North London.

I can simply gaze in shocked surprise as the uncouth weapon's dealer-turned knight in shining armour rapidly shoots out words that I could have used myself. I check to make sure that the Soul-Linking Chain is not connected in anyway. I am then greatly distressed as our hirer advocates the use of the undead. I turn to the necromancer. "There are many people who could be hired for a pittance to do this kind of work. You needn't call out of rest the spirits of the dead. Let them rest. Replenishing ether used to empower the dead is far more expensive than providing food for workers, or at least close to the same price. It's too dangerous to keep so many undead around. As you've plainly seen, one group of paladins is, unfortunately, not enough to keep them all at bay. Anyway, for now we have a battle to fight. We can discuss the matter in greater detail later." I turn to the other heroes and gesture towards Retak Ysp. "This fellon is trying to make us believe he once served Heroica. Ha! Back in the old days Heroica was a worthy place, we didn't let the likes of these roam our halls then. It's a shame things have changed."

I miss PsyKater! and HerrJJ too.

5'4" does sound very small for an average height, maybe that includes babies.

Speaking of the Muckraker, I haven't seen Vash around for a while.

Well Pretzel didn't make it onto Endgame's grand finale, but hopefully Muckraker will do him honour.

Hope you had a great time, WBD!

Too bad! Somebody's going to have to replace that hard drive. 110 already looks like it's going to be a blast.

Bah, need to go on #107 quick so I can kill Hybros and Daneeka and make Zylstra a better place. What luck! Dice change, Kintober? Despite not doing much in the way of role-playing, Brickdoctor's character has got to be the must hilarious ever.

Apparently Bricksafe is more reliable, but I have never been able to signup for it. It just doesn't do anything. Others don't have this problem though. I think it just doesn't like me.

Very much agree. It just seems to bring the world so much closer together. In other news, I've started building simpler sets for my quest, so it's going much faster. I still am lazy, but at least I'm making progress now. Although, now I've started working on a prequel quest...so...