The Necromancers: A "Tragic" Tale

A few days ago, my friend Elizabeth GoldenThistle picked up a help request on Wizard101 Central. She was to be helping someone with a random Azteca boss, and one of the Mercs101, Crazy Daisy, would be coming.

Elizabeth showed up at the sigils about ten minutes before the scheduled time. Soon, a friendly wizard named Angus showed up. The two of them chatted for a while, until Elizabeth noticed that it was time for the run and Daisy had not yet appeared. As it was customary of the Mercs to show up early, she was worried and began to wonder if she was at the wrong boss.

She had since explained to Angus her reason for being there, and she turned to him and said, "I think it's weird that Daisy's not here yet."

Angus, somewhat surprised, said, "Oh - I'm Daisy. I'm just on my boy wizard." Embarrassment ensued.

Once I had two boy wizards on my account. One was Luke SkyWalker, a diviner, who I deleted because I decided his name wasn't funny any more. Then, I was reduced to one: Daniel DeathBlood, a necromancer and the star of his own movie. Now I have zero boy wizards on my account. I like it better this way. Less confusion, less awkwardness, and, well...my new girl necromancer was too awesome to refuse. I present to you my short story, a winner of Central's short story contest.

Article No. 39

Necromantic Archives

Wizard City Library

To Whom It May Concern –

My name is Victoria, but that’s Miss DeathStaff to you.

You may have heard of me. I have obtained the title of Legendary for good reason, being the one and only student of Ravenwood to have overthrown the corrupt Professor Malistaire.

Yes, I’m a necromancer. Only a wizard of the highest of schools could have faced such powerful magic as his on an equal level. If you have not plunged into the study of necromancy, close this letter and run back to your own petty archives. These pages are not meant for your eyes. Otherwise, read on, brave student of death – but be careful that this information does not bring your doom. Not every death wizard is as powerful as I am.

Most wizards believe that Malistaire was the greatest evil the spiral has and will ever face. Let them dream on! We necromancers know that there is far worse out there in the outer dark – much, much worse things only waiting to be brought to light.

This letter narrates the circumstances in which I encountered such an evil. It may haunt your nightmares for years to come. Be forewarned – if you are faint of heart, stop reading for your own good.

Still reading? I applaud your courage, yet if you find you are not of the material to learn more completely of the Mordromancers, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Everything began when Ambrose entrusted me with the crystal. I was his most logical choice, being the only student capable of protecting such a thing. This was no ordinary Flawless Crystal from Dragonspyre or Glacier Shard from Wintertusk; this was the Mortality Stone.

Never heard of the Mortality Stone? I see you have fallen behind on your school reading. If you are to understand my tale, you must be informed. What a tragic waste of parchment and ink.

The aforementioned stone appears to be a single, roughly hewn shard of silvery rock. It is cold to the touch, so cold you would not be able to feel anything for days. If you were to look straight into its heart, you would see the blackness of despair flash by in a disarming array of images: Ravenwood crumbling into ruin, everyone you know dying, spiral threads being ripped apart, and always death, death, death. All this would have come to pass had I not had the foresight to chase after Corwin DarkHammer.

Corwin DarkHammer. Where do I begin? Master necromancer, school enigma, manipulator of the black market trade, everything that defines a death wizard from animation to zombies. But his most defining features are his eyes – cold, steel gray shafts of piercing vision that seem to scan your heart one moment and seek to bring you down the next. They reinforce the popular belief that he can do everything yet masters nothing.

The common populace couldn’t be more wrong. His true talents are hidden in the depths of his scheming mind.

To return to my story, Master DarkHammer visited my mansion in the skies of Grizzleheim. He came under the pretense of confirming my sale of a hundred illegally-enchanted scarecrow treasure cards for the necromancer black market, which is completely none of your business, but I’m sure that he truly visited for another purpose.

I had done with the Mortality Stone what most people do to remnants of death – buried it. I had carefully dug a hole in my immaculate backyard and hidden it under several feet of earth, planting a bed of flowers – oh, how I despise them! – to cover up my hiding place.

Anyway, I welcomed Master DarkHammer into my home to discuss the trades involved with my sale over a pot of tea. We were just wrapping up the arrangements to deliver a box of poisoned biscuits to my doorstep, which is also none of your business, when he knocked over the teapot.

After apologizing profusely for his clumsiness, he bid me farewell and hurried from the building, leaving me to clean up his disgusting mess.

It took me several minutes to finish mopping up the spilled tea. I went into the backyard to cool my head and found that my flowers had been uprooted and roughly thrown to the ground. More disturbingly, a large, ugly pit where the plants once grew marred the property. A strange dizziness enveloped my head as I stared at the place where the Mortality Stone once lay – for the pit was empty, and a large, angular M was scratched into the ground.

A chill ran through my veins, as deathlike and hopeless as if I had touched the stone. The Mordromancers had been here.

You haven’t heard of the Mordromancers either? I never realized necromancers could be this ignorant. Never mind, I will generously share my knowledge.

Mordromancy is a special branch of magic, separate from death magic. It began when a rebellious young sorceress from Avalon read a book she was not allowed to read. Disastrous consequences ensued. Mordromantic spells are all centered on the basic premise of the necromantic spells – take from others for your own personal gain. Instead of only stealing simple vitality, mordromancers steal secrets. Sanity. The essence of life itself. They kill for their own devious goals. The school of mordromancy thrives on secrecy. Its members could be anyone: your best friend, your neighbor down the street, or your worst rival. They travel the spiral in their free time, wreaking havoc and always scratching their signature M after they do their dirty deeds.

As I stared at that morbid M, I knew that with the Mortality Stone in Master DarkHammer the mordromancer’s hands, the spiral would be disintegrated, and all its inhabitants would be doomed to float in the outer dark forever.

I strode around my mansion and stepped through the spiral door. It was time to call on the White Legion.

I suppose you need to know what the White Legion is as well. I have better things to do with my time than lecture ignorant inferiors, but I will anyway. Be thankful for my generosity.

The White Legion is a team of warriors formed to hunt down and destroy the Mordromancers. The organization consists of highly qualified wizards who follow clues brought to them by outside sources. They are based in Grizzleheim, often found in the halls of King Valgard GoldenBlade. I assume you know who he is, correct? Excellent.

Soon, I shoved open the door to his main fortress, ignoring the startled cries of his weaker guards, and marched straight to his throne.

I didn’t waste time on pleasantries. I told him to summon the White Legion immediately.

The king wisely chose to listen to my counsel, and he did as he was told. Soon, the five members stood before me, side by side. I recognized them all.

Ronan LightSong, the peacemaker, supposedly the best healer in the spiral. Tristan BattleSpear, the fearsome warrior, the only known sorcerer to wield a lightning bolt. Emmaline FairySlinger, the softhearted, who once battled through legions of skeletons to rescue a classmate.
Amy and Alia ThunderBrand, the notorious twin diviners, a very dangerous combination. I estimated that altogether, the five of them added up to about my level of power.

I told them the story of Master DarkHammer. They seemed understandably shocked, but they agreed to help chase him.

Miss FairySlinger informed me that the White Legion, surprisingly enough, had not been idle despite the lack of news of the Mordromancers’ whereabouts. She led us all, besides King GoldenBlade, outside, where we hid under the merchant docks for several minutes. I had begun to think this was a pointless escapade and perhaps I was wrong to trust the White Legion when I heard a strange whistle. It sounded like the mutated call of an owl.

Miss FairySlinger continued in saying that this was the Mordromancers’ way of signaling between each other, and that meant there were a few in the area.

Master BattleSpear immediately leaped to his feet, rather recklessly, in my opinion, to chase after the Mordromancers. Master LightSong, apparently the leader within the group, gave his permission, and the five of them jumped up and started running after the whistle, leaving me trailing behind. How inconsiderate of them.

When I finally caught up, they had ran down a hill, across a narrow ledge, and now stood by an enormous carved gateway into the heart of the mountains. The two Miss ThunderBrands had backed Master DarkHammer against a wall, crossing their staffs across his chest to prevent escape.

I walked up to them and began to pace angrily, shouting at Master DarkHammer. I’m afraid a few rather nasty terms slipped out of my mouth in the process and I acted considerably unladylike, but I don’t regret it in the least.

Master DarkHammer told us the usual rubbish. He didn’t want the Mortality Stone for himself, the Mordromancers made him do it, he was just an innocent black market dealer. I didn’t believe a word of it, although ever the soft one, Miss FairySlinger was leaning toward letting him go.

The others wouldn’t hear of it. The two Miss ThunderBrands kept him pinned with their staffs.

Eventually, Master DarkHammer stopped fighting, and his captors began to relax. With a sudden spin, the devious Mordromancer kicked one Miss ThunderBrand and made her stumble to the ground. He leaped over her fallen body and ran through the door into the mountain. We followed.

Master DarkHammer ran down a ramp until he stood at the brink of a chasm.

A chill draft of freezing air drifted up out of it. I cautiously stepped to the edge and looked down. A slow-moving river studded with ice chunks flowed hundreds of feet below us.

Master LightSong pointed his staff at Master DarkHammer and told him to give us the Mortality Stone. The Mordromancer seemed somewhat reluctant to hand it over, so Master BattleSpear approached him with his crackling thunderbolt.

When he saw the bolt up close, I could almost hear him gulp. Giving me a hate-filled glare, he pulled a gray shard of rock from his pocket and tossed it to me, then leaped off the brink. As he fell, I could see his white sparks flash. He’d teleported away before we could capture him.

As a completely unrelated side note, I wonder if I’ll still receive my order of poisoned biscuits.

Anyway, I then returned home and buried the Mortality Stone in the same place. Hopefully the Mordromancers will assume that being the “smart” protector I am, I won’t try the same trick twice. We’ll see about that.

Now I come to the point of writing this miserable, tedious letter. A nasty Mordromancer named Corwin DarkHammer is still at large, probably still trying for revenge and definitely very angry at me. Be on your guard, and if you see anyone that fits my description of Master DarkHammer, please report him to the headmaster.

I do hope he will at least hold to his black market trade.

Cordially,

Victoria DeathStaff

Legendary Necromancer

Savior of the Spiral

P.S. Argleston – if this letter becomes misfiled, misread, or misplaced like my last one, my skeletal dragons will pursue you to the ends of the spiral.

I present to you...the necromancer unveiled...Victoria DeathStaff.

So, am I sad to see Master DeathBlood gone? Maybe a little, but no sadder than when I plowed up a Tiger Lily from my in-game garden because it had too many needs. I've quested a little on Miss DeathStaff and she has the makings of an AWESOME necromancer. She'll see you in the Spiral. 

(By the way, she doesn't friend random people. If you try, she'll find a way to make you regret it, even though the most powerful attack she's trained is Ghoul. I'm serious.)

- Sophia E