Part 14: Call of the Necromancer
Chapter 12 - Call of the Necromancer
Music: "Dark Wizard"
(Click here to download) (thanks to Grawl)
Previously on Beyond Divinity
The reforging of my destiny started with a divine paladin chasing a necromancer. This Paladin and his companions recently had some successes in their battle against the Black Ring, and the pompous fools didn't expect much trouble. … They were wrong.
Their smiles were soon wiped off their smug faces when the necromancer summoned the demon overlord Samuel to his aid.@@@
Suddenly, the air shimmered around Samuel, and a blue-white seal appeared beneath his feet and began to glow.
BUT WAIT… WHAT IS…? NO, NOOOOOOO, NOT NOW… THIS CAN'T BE… I AM CALLED… NOOOOO! … GUARDS! TAKE CARE OF THE PRISONERS… DON'T LET THEM ESCAPE!
As ordered, your excellency… they will await your return… from inside a cell!Then the seal reached a blinding level of light, and Samuel vanished, the seal fading into nothingness.
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That was too close for comfort, human! We were lucky Samuel was summoned away, before he could imprison us again.
How come he was summoned? It's something that happens in this dimension from time to time. Necromaners in Rivellon can summon creatures from this world, temporarily. Demons, imps, even humans… So summoning doesn't last long? Summoning is not forever. The necromancer can ask the summoned creature to answer questions, or perform certain tasks. The creature is bound by the spell to obey, but afterwards they will return to this dimension. So even Samuel can be summoned as well? Samuel is a tremendously powerful Arch-Demon, but if he is summoned, then like any other creature, he must follow the call. Eventually, he will return here, but it will take a while… What about humans? Humans can also be summoned, but this is very rare.Chapter 12 - Call of the Necromancer
VIDEO: Call of the Necromancer
Before they could go anywhere, though, a blue-white seal appeared beneath both of their feet.
What the -Then suddenly, with a swirl of magic that dazzled their senses and dizzied their brains, they were somewhere else entirely.
Well, well, well, so this is the infamous human and his dark Death-Knight shadow… Curious… you look somewhat familiar to me… have we met before? It's the necromancer! Ah, yes I remember… you were with the soldiers that attacked me when I tried to summon the artifact…
This is quite an unexpected development… and possibly a dangerous one… Why has he brought us here? And how? How? Well, I summoned you… Either I've started speaking out loud… or this guy is inside my head! Of course I can hear you, Death Knight… it's easy for someonw with my powers to sense your thoughts… Does this mean… we've finally escaped from Nemesis? No, Death Knight… summoning is always temporary… when the summoning is over, you'll be drawn back to your former world. I *might* be willing to bring you back to Rivellon permanently, but first I need you to perform a few tasks… What kind of tasks? Do you really expect us to help you? Why not? You've already done things for much weirder creatures than me… Not that you really have a choice, you have been summoned… and until this summoning is over, you are under my command… resistance is futile… Yes, definitely not good… Let's get this over with… what do you want? Patience, Death Knight, patience! I need you to look for some crystal fragments… These crystal fragments are having some… *disruptive* effects on their surroundings… You see, you'll even be doing a god deed by bringing them to me… won't that be *nice*? What kind of effects, exactly? Hard to tell… chaos magic, general havoc… you'll know them when you see them. I will teleport you near to where I've located each fragment… How near, exactly? Not too near… the energy of the crystal interferes with teleporting and summoning creatures… The Necromancer moved his arms and muttered some words, and D.K. and Mort were enveloped by a spell which seemed to do nothing.
I've put a spell on you, so that when you come into contact with the crystal fragment it will automatically disappear into my realm… shortly afterwards, I will bring you back here… How shortly afterwards? Hard to say. It would depend on what I'm doing at the time, or how long it takes me to notice you've found a fragment. It could be seconds… it could be hours… But enough questions.
I've already located one of the fragments inside an abbey… I'll send you there, but be warned… nobody knows what kind of effects the crystal fragments cause… When do we go? Immediately, of course! No more time-wasting… remember: just touch the crystal when you find it, and I'll bring you back a few minutes later… I'm ready to go…"About the Game" posted:
The first time you leave the imp village, no matter where you're going, the Necromancer intercepts you, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do this first, because it interrupts you if you were starting on another quest.
You can trade with the Necromancer - good if you're loaded down with vendor trash, and he can teach you Summoning Doll skills (these are worthless.)
There was another dizzying swirl of light, and then they were elsewhere once more.
Music: "Whispers from a Council Past"
(Click here to download) (thanks to Grawl)
Where have you come from? You aren't prisoners, but you don't look like these madmen… What madmen is she talking about? Why are you being held prisoner here? The paladins came to my village and took me… they said, I'm a witch…Mort paused to consider this carefully.
And *are* you a witch? Honestly, yes I am… Oh, I have been a selfish and cruel woman in my past, some of my former deeds were unspeakable, the paladins were right to come after me… Why does she think the paladins are mad? In order to get to me, the paladins slaughtered the whole village! Men, women and children were all crushed… it was horrific… they did nothing wrong and did not deserve such a cruel fate. Do you want me to free you? No, the key to this door is held by the paladin commander. I doubt it can be unlocked any other way. Besides… I deserved to be locked in here… I must contemplate my former misdeeds and seek some salvation within myself. It sounds like this witch regrets her past crimes, but what she says about the paladins doesn't sound like the normal behaviour of those goodie-goodie knights! This sounds like the work of the crystal. I think you're right. Crystal? One night there was this strange night near the Abbey… I heard the paladins talking about a crystal, they thought it was a gift from the gods… Ever since then the paladins have begun to act strangely. You need to find this crystal and destroy it. Avoid harming them if you can help it, I'm sure they are not responsible for their behaviour… No promises."About the Game" posted:
If Shaman magic is your thing, you can learn the first 5 levels of Lightning Storm (water magic) from the witch… but only if you talk to her right now. Normally, you would need to wait until Act 3 to learn Lightning Storm up to that level.
Also, this abbey was formerly known as the Cursed Abbey from Divine Divinity. (Click the link to see what the place looked like in that game.)
I don't want you to kill any of the Paladins. Why, do you know them? No, no… I… I was stationed in the Orobas Fjords. No abbey near there. Then why not kill these Paladins? As the witch said, they're under the influence of that crystal. And also, as Paladins, they have a duty to atone for their actions. One cannot atone when he is dead.
A Death Knight… here? I must wipe your vile presence from this place at once! Like he wiped out the villagers? But you are responsible for wiping out an entire village! The people of Aleroth deserved to die… they did not walk the path of the gods… their souls were damned, I was doing the world a favour by obliterating them. What about the innocent children you killed? Especially the children… little demons waiting to flourish! Look at his eyes… he's clearly insane. Under different circumstances… we might actually get on!Mort drew his bow and shot a Paladin in the leg, dropping him to the ground to scream in pain.
Hey! You told me you didn't want to kill any of them! He'll live."About the Game" posted:
If you look around this area, you can get some arrows, find keys to unlock chests, and a lever to open a room with a little bit of treasure. Nothing I found was really exciting.
Mort and D.K. snuck through the halls of the abbey.
We protect the holy crystal… your evil hands shall not be allowed to desecrate its sanctity…Mort hit him in the foot with another arrow and DK broke an arm with his hammer.
Mort and D.K. slipped outside before the Paladin's groans attracted more attention.
This would go a lot faster if you let me kill them, human. You say that about everyone we meet. That's because it's usually true. Where do you think that the Paladins would hide that crystal? Probably through there, that looks like the main door.
It's locked. I bet we can take the key from one of their corpses. If it comes to that, yes."About the game" posted:
The area around the abbey is surrounded by impassible trees, but there are a bunch of skeletons outside for some reason. I decided those were OK to kill, so I wiped them out, which was annoyingly hard to do with all the Paladins among them. There's a really hidden book with the message "Bronthion is here." That refers to the elf council member from Divine Divinity. There's nothing much worth screenshotting.
There were more Paladins in that part of the Abbey that Mort and D.K. took down non-fatally.
Maybe this key will help.
The key did open the door to the chapel. Thankfully, it was empty of paladins at the moment.
Hmmm... Holy Water. Don't drink that stuff, it'll probably set you on fire or something. Very funny, human."About the Game" posted:
The Holy Grail, like the Holy healing book adds 60 points to one character's mana. I gave this to D.K. because he'll need it for healing more than Mort will (the trap skills don't require mana).
This must be it. Hmmm… I see… I might be able to turn this situation to my advantage…Mort touched the crystal fragment. There was a swirl of energy and the crystal vanished, back to the Necromancer.
Suddenly the main door burst open and in strode another paladin.
What are you doing here? Have you come to destroy us? Tell this lunatic, we've come to save him by removing the crystal fragment. We've come to save you. But… you attacked my men… What about *him*? He captured a harmless female and wiped out a whole village… You captured a harmless woman and slaughtered an entire village! Harmless woman? I think not… that witch tortured the villagers and killed many children… that was the reason we went to that village in the first place, but… There is some truth in your words, human… I don't understand how we could have killed all those villagers… it was as if a dark cloud of evil had settled upon is… It was caused by the crystal fragment. The crystal? We thought it was a gift from the gods… but…"About the Game" posted:
Chaos magic is unpredictable. Each time we encounter a crystal, there are different effects it can cause. In this case, it swapped the good/evil alignments of those in the area, or possibly just the abbey.
Despite the witch asking us not to hurt them, the game expects us to have killed all the soldiers. Sir Achim's line is actually: "But… you killed my men…" The game also didn't bother changing the alignment of the surviving paladins from hostile to friendly, so they STILL want to kill us even though the crystal is gone.
You can learn 2-handed fighting skills (including Shadow and Bone) from Sir Achim.
A second Paladin ran in, seeming agitated.
Sir Achim, the witch has broken free… she's summoning creatures… it's turning into utter chaos! We have to stop her… she will kill us all… Do you need help? We can use all the help we can get! Well, we're stuck here until the Necromancer summons us back, we may as well.
Mort and D.K. headed back to the abbey cellars, and sure enough, there were monsters being summoned.
When they finally met the witch, she was much less reasonable than she had been under the influence of the crystal.
All must die! Soon your souls will be free.Mort and D.K. backed up, to only engage one of the gargoyles at a time.
"About the Game" posted:
Note the glowing dots at the bottom of the screen. That's a Paralyzing Trap the witch placed. Witches are actually one of the main battlefield enemies in one or more of the Act 2, 3 or 4 Battlefields, and they plant traps and more importantly, they drop trap components for us to snatch up for ourselves!
With the witch dead, Mort and D.K. returned to the Paladin leader.
VIDEO: The Necromancer's Task
Thank you for helping… if you hadn't come and removed the crystal, we would still be under the influence of… what? What's happening…The blue-white seal has appeared under Mort and D.K. again.
The necromancer is teleporting us away… Goodbye.
You were successful… I see, you were the right choice… One thing before I'll unsummon you… Yes? I have reason to believe there are also crystal fragments on the world you come from… So *that's* why he chose us! They have the same disruptive effects as here on Rivellon… We just saw the effects… The spell I put on you should also work there… just touch the crystal fragments… I'll summon you again when I've found the location of the other crystal fragments on Rivellon… I have the feeling we'll meet again soon… Bah, go to hell! Well, I was there, little Death Knight, it's not worth the trip! I'm ready to go…
Mort and D.K. materialized in what was recognizable a different part of the imp village.
Do you hate the idea of working for that necromancer as much as I do? Probably more-so, human. If some of those crystal fragments really are here, perhaps it's the reason for some of the imps' troubles. I don't care about solving their troubles. Maybe not, but they might know a way off this world. The real question is, why would the crystal fragments be scattered on both Nemesis and Rivellon. Yes… interesting. The answer is obvious. But of course, I recognize that crystal. The necromancer said that if we gather all the fragments, he might let us go free on Rivellon. Do you really trust him to keep his word? No. But for now, I don't see that we have much choice…
Fun fact: The game expects you to kill the Paladins, so much so that even of you carefully avoid harming them, the leader still thinks you killed them, and once the crystal is gone, the ones you left alive still are hostile. Yeah, THAT was fun to deal with.
The second reason for doing this first is to learn that there are crystal fragments which have "disruptive effects" on this world. That will let Mort ask some questions. Well, actually, you could ask the questions before learning of the crystals, but doing it in this order makes more story sense.
The next update I'll pick up some quest hooks and talk to a few people the Chief's Son pointed us to.
Before traveling, I talked to an imp merchant and picked up the Spikes, Elemental Trap, Paralyzing Trap, and Trap Disarming skills. The Spikes one I'll invest in, but not the Elemental traps, because I don't have the points for 4 different kinds of traps.
READER PARTICIPATION REQUESTED:
Many of these questions will be open over multiple updates.
1) The imps dispose of their garbage in a relatively eco-friendly way. They dump it into a pit with a monster that eats it. As a side effect, there is a bunch of treasure down there for the taking. I will take the treasure, certainly. However, they live next to rivers of molten lava, which would be at least as good at getting rid of garbage. Should I Kill the monster, or be environmentally conscious and leave the monster alive?
CURRENT VOTING:
Kill = 3
Leave it alive = 6
Given where we start the next chapter, this is the first thing we encounter, so a consensus one way or the other would be good. Voting will close about Noon EST. If it's tied then I'll flip a coin.
2) This one can wait a bit longer. In the course of a quest it is possible to turn D.K.'s armor pink, forever. And by forever, I mean forever, so if you come back in 10 updates and say "ok, I'm sick of the pink now, please get rid of it," I'll say "Tough shit." Pink armor or Black armor for D.K.?
CURRENT VOTING:
Pink = 4
Black = 5
3) Should I put together a Behind the Scenes update on the various traps?
Yes = 4
4) Videos of specific scenes can be made available if at least 3 people request them.