RP:Things Only Get Worse From Here

This is a Necromancer's Guild RP.

Summary: Khitt gives Joan her advancement test for Thanadule.

The Black Spire, Vailkrin

Khitt || Within the Umbracryaestor’s office sat a fairly tall redheaded man in a tight-fitting black suit with a red button-up shirt, black boots, and rose-tinted pince-nez glasses. He very much looked like he could be the Mistress of Shadows’ brother, with as similar as he looked to Khitti. He kept the majority of his hair pulled back in a braid, allowing for some to serve as very long bangs. While waiting for Joan to arrive, he went over her paperwork, re-familiarizing himself with the things she had learned, not only within this guild, but the Healer’s as well. When Khitt was finished, he thumbed through his copy of the beginner’s book given to all new students. Here and there, he crossed things out in the section about the black tides, or marked things to be kept, others with another mark meant to signify “maybe”. He eyed the literature disdainfully. It was clear that whomever wrote it originally knew very little about things when it came to shadow magic, which meant there was to be more work for him when he finally had his own research on the topic added into the books.

Joan || Since completing her last task the vampiric healer/necromancer had finally made her return to the guild’s headquarters in the Black Spire deep within Vailkrin’s dark forest, her travel there was one of ease as the giant spiders and lycans that roam it’s depths were kept under control by both the shield and spear of the area. Once entering into the dark spire Joan would make her way upwards to the private rooms, making her way to her own personal room to freshen up and change clothing. Unbeknownst to the vampire, her friend and fellow guild member Ernest had found out about her little prank on him to get him to finally test for rank, seems the cowboy mummy didn’t take to well to being made a fool of and had snuck into her room while she’d been away to place a small enchanted gold coin in there as a prank revenge. Having finally entered into her room the enchantment would be cast, as she changed into her planned outfit she’d hear a faint call of ‘Joan’ coming from outside her room, this gave her pause as the call was very faint and no knock on her closed door followed. To this Joan would give a shake of her head as she moved to finish dressing, sheer knee high stocking went on her feet and legs, followed by normal fresh clean new under clothing. Her normal sharp black two piece ladies vest and tailored pants with silver thread accents went on over a new crisp white woman’s short sleeved dress shirt. Joan would take a few moments to look over her massive shoe collection before she settled on a pair of short black leather ankle boots to wear, moving to sit on the end of her lounging couch to slip the boots on then clasp the leather and silver buckle close, standing up she’d move to her small dresser and pull open the first drawer to get of a pair of black leather fingerless gloves. Closing the drawer once she pulled the gloves out the vampire would make her way towards the full length mirror she had against one corner of her book cluttered room pulling on the fingerless gloves as she looks over her reflection cast in the mirror. Pale fingers would lightly comb at her amethyst colored hair before she seemed satisfied. Walking towards her chamber door she’d make sure she gather up her guild book and personal kraken fleshed bound spell/journal, pulling open the door and moving into the corridor she’d hear the faint call of ‘Joan’ once more, the vampire would frown as it had almost been close to an hour she heard the call for the first time, this time the faint call seemed to come from down near the staircase leading downwards. Dismissing this call a second time Joan would finally make her way up towards Khitti’s office a few floors above in the spire. Reaching the office door she’d politely rap her knuckles against the door calling out to the Umbracryaestor to announce her arrival and ask if she was in, “Hello Miss Khitti, it is me Joan are you in and if so can I enter to speak with you?”

Khitt || Booted feet made their way from the desk over to the door. “Khitt will do just fine, thank you,” came the masculine voice of the redhead from the other side as he opened the door to allow her in the room. He’d give no explanation of his current form, though he’d probably provide her with something if she asked. At the very least, he -smelled- like Khitti, and the dark and divine magicks that empowered Khitti were the very same that empowered Khitt as well, their auras the same. “Have you finished with your tasks already? Or have you come about something else?” He nodded towards the door, silently asking her to close the door behind her as Khitt headed over to his desk. He closed Joan’s file as he sat, his olive-green line of sight fixed on her as he awaited an answer.

Joan would only offer a raised amethyst colored brow as e door is opened and the male form of Khitti is exposed, her nostrils flare as she takes a quick inhale of the male Khitti’s scent to make sure it was the same person before she entered the Umbracryaestor’s office. As she stepped inside she’d feel the same magical energies that she had come to associate with the woman now man and that put her at ease completely, Joan now of a mind that something along the lines of what happened to dear departed Ayras had befallen Khitti and there was no need to ask any questions unless reasons arose. Moving further into the room the woman would turn to make sure she closed the door with a quiet click as she turned the knob then let it go, letting it click close . Shifting her book load the vampire would move to stand near Khitti’s desk as now Joan would answer him, “Yes, I completed my last task while I ran into Raevyn at the cathedral of the three in Cenril, she sorta oversaw my Arcane Sigils before I empowered them. They should be holding steady about certain roadways in the city so the citizens can move about normal life without fear of getting attacked by zombies.” To this Joan would flip open her own personal kraken flesh bound tome and would finger to the page where she had marked down her original symbols and signs, each arcane mark clearly made. The couple pages before where filled with her notes on what progress she made on the Black Tides while working with Ernest. Detailed sketching of the purple flames dancing about Joan’s drawn hand, fingers and nails where shown, lines drawn to certain points and small clear neat hand writing noting what she felt from each part of her hand, each finger, nail, palm, etc.

Khitt || “Raevyn? I’m honestly surprised she’s even still around in Lithrydel. And alive,” Khitt said with a smirk. “If she has any interest in returning to the guild, then do let her know to come find me and we can reinstate her at my own rank. No need to make her go through the hell that Bradyn put me through when I rejoined. And if you -do- happen to see her again, tell her that I still have that thing I was holding on for her. She’ll know what I’m referring to. I’m still mostly in Cenril, as usual, if she’d rather find me there.” He looked then to her tome and the places in it that she pointed out for him to look over. “It looks fine to me, Joan. Both Raevyn and Ernest are good people to work with for both of those topics. I’ll just need a small demonstration. It won’t be anything major since neither of those are your area of expertise, of course.” He tapped his chin a few times, then shrugged. “Well, the easiest way is for you to fight me. For the black tides side of things anyway. And not all out. I’m entirely intrigued by your shadowclaws and want to see them in action. As for the sigils though, recreate the ones you made in Cenril here. Either on the wall or the floor is fine,” he said, taking up a piece of chalk from within his desk and handing it over to Joan while motioning to both suggested areas. He didn’t care; chalk was easily washed off. “I just want to be able to compare it with the ones in Cenril when I head home. It’s less me trusting that you actually did the work yourself and more I’m just testing your memory on it. In situations worse than what Cenril is going through, you may have to draw out the same sigils over and over again like you have and having to look it up in a book every single time could cost you, in terms of time.” It would seem he’d want her to take care of the sigil first before they headed elsewhere to briefly spar.

Joan nodded her head in agreement as she took the offered chalk from Khitti, a small smile if given before the woman moved to the closest stone wall. Having drawn these sigils over and over again she drew them with ease and memory, crisp, clean, and neatly done as she lifts the chalk away from the wall she speaks the few words needed to empower the two sigils. Her magical energy lightly encircled the marks, lighting them up in a lilac color to show that they are powered up. Stepping away Joan makes a ‘go ahead and inspect’ gesture with one hand as the other placed the chalk on the nearest desktop, the vampire tilting her head abit as she looks over her own work while waiting for the Umbracryaestor’s critique. The first sigil was for ‘inflected dead/undead can not enter here/wander here’ the second sigil ‘safety against bodily harm and protection from the inflected dead/undead’.

Khitt || The redhead stepped forward when Joan was finished, eyeing her work carefully, even taking a finger to trace in the air just above the chalk. “Yes, this is sufficient. Remember, you can even use sigils on your body or someone else’s too. It’s not something you’d be able to do in the moment, I suppose, in an altercation, but you could even get them etched onto weapons or clothes or something of the sort. A bow of Khitti’s--and I suppose mine too--had sigils etched into it years ago, when she was still a vampire, to allow certain non-vampires she’s close to to be able to use it as well, as it was strung with a vampire-grade string.” Khitt gave the purple-haired vampire a nod, “Alright. We can check sigils, incantations, and curses off the list. Let’s go somewhere where me and Khitti’s office might not get too destroyed.” He said that last bit with a smirk, knowing full well that there wasn’t going to be anything too crazy. Khitt eventually led her into the same room she’d been in before, where she initially showed Khitti her shadow claws.

Khitt took a long look at Joan and let out a ‘hm’. “Actually, you’re not really the fighting type, are you?” You’d think with as often as he participated in his bare-knuckle boxing matches that he’d have the fightiness mostly out of his system and would have actually realized this sooner. “I have a better idea.” With a wave of his hand, several humanoid-like shadow-ice sculptures were summoned up. Once they were fully formed, they hunched over a bit with their arms out in front of them, looking very zombie-like. “You have an affinity for creating zombies. Try weaponizing them with your shadow claws and see how long you can hold the magic there for between all of them.” When and if Joan was able to give each of them their own claws, Khitt would wave his hand again and the ice zombies would start attacking each other. They’d eventually stop and melt away, whether if it was when Joan could no longer keep her magic going or if Khitt was satisfied and ended the test himself.

Joan would tug at the glove hem of her fingerless gloves each to make sure the dark color leather creaked down over each knuckle of her hands as she followed along to the warded practice room, as the leather creaked each finger curled and flexed, her pale fingers splay apart slightly to give them full movement to stretch. “Okay, sure I can practice etching sigils into clothing, tools, weapons, etc. I did try to etch a sigil into a wagon not to long ago. I was trying to etch a warning on the wagon as the peddler it belonged to seemed shady. I don’t know if my sigil got canceled out or what as I didn’t stick around afterwards. And I have not run into that funky arse chick ever since.” The vampiric healer offers a rolling shrug as she watched the male Khitt work his magic, “Yeah, if I run into Raevyn again I will be sure to let her know she can join back up and to reach out towards you.” The amethyst haired woman said as her lilac orbs narrowed and focus on the moving shadow-ice shambling zombies, taking a deep inhale of breath she would hold out both hands palms facing outwards at the shambling shadow-ice zombies as she began to summon up the dark shadow magic that she had limited access to, that tell tale aura glow began engulfing her hands, channeling down her fingers and work out through her clear gloss fingernails, giving them an eerie glow as shadows elongated from them, growing icy cold and deadly edged, each shadow waving in and out of normal sight. A shudder runs through the older woman as she now moves her focus to the nearest shambling ice-shadow zombie, her upper body bows as she seemly connects with it, a pink-tinted bead of sweat appears on her forehead with the effort. “Shadow, icy flame claws, take hold, weaponize by my will.” She chants aloud as her shadow magic flows into the shadow zombie, doing as she ordered. Twice more she does this while more pink tinted beads of sweat pepper her forehead, her breathing now slightly labored as the three icy-shadow zombies have a full set of icy shadow claws extending from there nails. Exhaling in a loud nosy manner Joan nods now as she focus on keeping the icy shadow claws tangible. Those three icy shadow zombies rip, tear and spread each other to pieces and Joan fights to focus and keep her shadow magic flowing till almost the last blow, the vampiric healer drooping to her knees as the shadow magic she had been channeling finally burns out through her leaving her feeling fatigued and exhausted. Panting slightly Joan would lift her head to glance up at Khitt and before giving a smile. “Best I can do for now.” The back of her hair seemed pasted to her skull through the sweat, followed by the back and front of her fancy shirt damp with the pink tinted sweat that rolled out of those normally fine and closed pores. Yup, Joan channeled as much shadow magic she could possibly handle for this one final request from Khitt.

Khitt tilted his head, watching as Joan went about her work with ice zombies. After a bit had passed and he was able to gauge how much she was able to do, Khitt nodded, gave a wave of his hand to dismiss the shadowy ice into nothingness once more, and said, “Enough.” He quieted himself for a moment, a hand raising to his chin as he thought things over. “The others would typically like to see more effort during their tests for a Sceleratus to move up to Thanadule. I’ll allow you to move up in rank, because you did as I asked. However, in order for you to not only move up to Provectus Malus -and- attain this coveted teaching position you want, there is a lot of work you need to do. It is one thing to know what you're doing when it comes to summoning and resurrection, but it is entirely another to not only be able to resurrect many at a time, but also arm your creatures in the event of an attack or whatever else you might use them for. On top of this, you need to be able to explain these processes clearly to your possible future students.” He turned and headed back to his office, aiming for her to follow along behind him. “On top of -that-, you must also submit a tome--your own work--to the Black Library’s collection. Khitti has already submitted one and the two of us are working on another. Tessa has submitted two. Everyone in the guild that has not been a Magister Letum or Thanatos Dominus is required to do so.” So, of course that meant he (and Khitti) weren’t required to, but they were too crazy about research not to. “I will not be the one to give you your next test. Either Bradyn or Quintessa will, when they deem you appropriately ready for it,” he said, as he entered his office and eventually sank back down into his chair. “And I assure you, the test that one of them will give you will likely be more difficult than anything you’ve done before.” He went quiet again and eyed Joan, waiting for any questions she might have before she was dismissed.

Joan had the few moments to collect herself once Khitt called the final test to a halt, the vampiric healer spent those moments drawing on her dark well of inner strength and will to get up, her shirt and vest plastered to her body with the amount of pink tinted sweat that had poured out from her pores as she had given almost all she had to encase those three icy shadow beings with her own shadow claws then force them to attack and defend against each other, feeling winded in the first time in her unlife the vampire was grateful when Khitt turned and lead the way back to his shared office. Joan weakly nodded her head as she filed in after him and stood at attention before his covered desk. “I’m working on a tome of my own, about the use of the gel I created. I’ve seen some promising results with it on dead tissue, and you got a look at the use when I used the gel on the stitched horror you had me put together for my last test.” Joan would then dig into her right front pants pocket and pull out a small clear vial that held a minor amount of the gooey gel concoction, which she presents to the Umbracryaestor by placing it in the nearest pile of notes and whatnot. “I’m working with Thamalys to expand on it’s use and potency. I should have the tome hopefully ready by the time I’m deemed worthy enough to test for Provectus Malus. I also understand what you are saying about knowing what to do and how to arm my undead once raised, and by then being able to explain it to others.” The haze smoke that drifted out of the corner or her eyes spark slightly to show a glint of humor. “I suppose the only questions I have now is do I now have access to the more advanced books and tomes in necromancy available at the Black Library and here in the spire? And do I need to show any proof to the libraries? Also, I read something about gaining access to a permanent skeleton familiar once I obtain Thanadule level. Is that still an available option? Or do I need to summon one up before one of you higher ups and then you make it permanent? Sorry, I’m tired, but excited if you can’t tell!” Joan would be bouncing with excitement would she be able to gather the energy but she’d need a long drink from a pint or two of fresh blood first to gain back that lost mana.

Khitt nodded at what Joan had said, though he was unsure of how serious she thought he was. Bradyn had not gone easy on Khitti, when he’d given her the test to make sure that she had, in fact, regained her dark magic. Khitt knew full well that Quintessa would make things difficult as well, to truly test Joan. He inwardly shrugged at the matter and returned his attention to the new Thanadule. “Right, yes,” he said, giving a wave of his hand. A closet near the door opened with the help of some coalesced shadows, revealing a stash of properly categorized skeletons in boxes, each one with a label indicating its former race. “Human or elf, take your pick. Those are the ones we have the most of. You are the one that is supposed to reanimate it. You can use that as practice for your reanimation and summoning, so that you -can- make it permanent. And as for the library, you do indeed have more access and no, you do not need to show proof. The appropriate people will be informed. Now, please,” he said, closing the closet once she’d finished. “Make sure you close the door on your way out. I need to see to the paperwork regarding your advancement.”