Unnatural Forces; a Necromancy Quest

[X] Plan They Will Serve You
-[X] Lightning in a Bottle (8/8)
-[X] Hideous Strength (3/3)
-[X] Nigredo (1/15)
-[X] Victor: Tenure
-[X] Clerval: Assuage Fears.
--[X] Emphasize the usefulness uf the undead in the society and positive contributions that necromantic scence already made and will keep on making for the average person

8 Haeligmon 1453

I have acquired laboratory space in the town of Studeny, province of Transalpinia, with the intent to observe the local pestilent varieties. The town is old, of a small but consistent population, and in possession of a well-maintained cemetery, together providing an adequate supply of resources both living and deceased. Bottenhof would have been preferred, but it unfortunately lacks the discretion of a town like Studeny.

I have collected several specimens both prior-to and post-infection by usual methods. The acquired laboratory, a converted wine cellar, provides enough space to store a modest supply of living specimens in addition to the several score of as-of-yet unanimated corpses and naturally occuring examples of local pestilent strains. I have had little success as of yet in acquiring an incorporeal specimen, though I will endeavour to continue trying.

Pestilents of the local variety lack the thick abscesses typical of more familiar strains and are, for the most part, significantly more docile. Colleagues have suggested that this docility is a precursor to malleability, regarding the way they may be herded by the lanterns of local yeomen to be a sort of folk bastardisation of the craft. My own experiments will seek to provide elaboration on this phenomenon.

12 Blotmon 1453

Initial experiments regarding the use of light to influence the behaviour of the local pestilents have yielded mixed results. Individual results attached. Pestilents will seek out sources of light but cannot be further influenced by its presence. Pestilents show no preference to any particular behaviour while in contact with a source of illumination. Attaching a source of illumination to an uninfected vector held in place does not coax the pestilents to violence in order to retrieve it, they are content instead to crowd around the subject.

In addition, pestilents show a disappointing lack of ability to infect living tissue. Uninfected subjects remain uninfected, showing only symptoms of the usual ailments that can be expected from continuous exposure to partially decayed bodies and even these at a reduced rate.

I have prepared a number of the formerly living subjects in order to observe their resurrection, in the hope of gleaning some insight from how the process differs from its Malebolgian counterpart. Current storage remains adequate for now, but I can only contain so many specimens her. The point at which I will be forced to expand or else allow the quality of my experiments to suffer is fast approaching. My presence has not yet effected the routine of what living specimens are not yet directly involved in my experiments, so further capture within the limits of the town is still viable. Managing even rudimentary control over the pestilents here would be a monumental boon to my ability to capture and prepare new specimens.

22 Aeftyola 1453

My experiments in resurrection have once again met with difficulties. Uninfected carrion in an open space attracts lightning with uncanny precision, whereupon the scarification associated with lightning strikes in living subjects occurs rapidly, the corpse seizes, and animates. The capacity to act and respond develops almost instantly, with an incubation time measured in seconds, and each newly activated pestilent shows a remarkable awareness in comparison with more familiar strains.

Unfortunately, the subjects to these experiments universally prove violent upon resurrection. Each succesful subject for these experiments has immediately attempted a vicious assault on my person as its first waking action and had to be aggressively removed from the subject pool. I have not observed this sudden instinct for violence in any of the subjects who were made unliving outside of my intervention, nor directed at any of the still living subjects. I am still unsure as to the cause.

Further, was unable to test the effects of the infection vector on living tissue as the subjects' screaming threatened to attract attention on any attempt to move them from the cellar.

I must admit to some frustration at the slow-going of these experiments. Distant from the resources I had in Adulazi progress would be difficult in any case, but the local strain proves exceptionally elusive and even contrary to established wisdom. The pestilents are not aggressive unless they are. They are responsive to only whatever stimuli they wish to respond to. Their resurrection is not a matter of contagion, but of weather patterns. Living tissue may be entirely unaffected unless my experiments can prove otherwise.

It is unnatural, and I find myself raging against a force with no will of its own.

The cellar remains suitable accommodation and lab space. I will provide further insights when I have slept.


7 Rhedmon 1454

Salvation.

A cart arrived from Lijkenburg bearing a load of the menial pestilents the locals call cadavers. A number had been donated by one of the university's quack practitioners, apparently with the intent of providing easier access to undead labour outside of the great cities. I have been able to subtly monopolise one bound for Studeny.

The creature is of good stock, being composed of several good specimens of infected tissue crudely stitched around machinery in a form that, at least, shows some willingness to do away with the conventions of anatomical correctness. Somehow, it is susceptible to verbal commands and, according to the novice overseeing their transport, capable of being trained to understand a modest list of simple commands. The young red-headed gentleman was very excitable regarding that latter point and was able to be plied with the promise of wine into a discussion of the finer points of local superstitions regarding the craft, whereupon I learned that one of Van Kerkhof's innumerable apprentices has happened upon a process to capture, store, and direct the substance that makes up the incorporeal pestilents of this area.

I had, at this point, some hope that the young gentleman would be amenable to being taught a deeper understanding of the craft, beyond Ossuarian witchdoctory. Unfortunately, he proved unable to understand certain details of proper practice of the craft and was repurposed for materials. I recovered what I found of interest from his cart and abandoned it in the river during the night.

The recovered device is a sort of glass alundel with multiple small, round chambers reinforced in leather and run through with a series of small iron rods. It is a flimsy thing, and difficult to handle. It is possible this particular iteration of the device is not intended for personal use, but to be mounted in a frame for more general access. It does not currently contain any form of phantom, but I am intrigued by the possibilities this presents


3 Aerleith 1454

In my haste to further my research, I have been neglectful in certain aspects of laboratory safety. Principle among these, the device was not sufficiently tested prior to my attempts to use it to improve control over the environmental conditions at play during my experiments. While initially the device seemed perfectly functional in its capacity to guide the pestilents - the projected essence of phantoms being evidently capable of leaving corporeal pestilents in a highly suggestible state for a time, in addition to calming the enthusiastic rages of the more aggressive sort - these tests were performed within the lab itself, and proved to not account for the less predictable environment of field work.

With extended use, the trapped phantom begins to recorporate. As it recorporates, it becomes capable of directing its primitive psychological abilities to its own purposes. This limits both the effective range and level of control that can be exerted with the device.

In addition, the effects of the phantom's aura proved disorienting to this experimenter. A number of buildings seemed displaced to the wrong location, or invented wholecloth from the phantom's memory, with similar issues being faced in regards to living specimens. With the ability to direct pestilents at appropriate targets thus diminished, the area was able to effectively generate an immune response.

Several of the assembled pestilents - the cadavers - proved to have an unforeseen affinity for certain areas of Studeny, immediately breaking ranks to return to such places whenever the device's influence waned. Here they immediately began to organise with the town's living specimens in multiple scattered neoplasms. Each of these sufficiently aggressive that a targeted removal of offending tissue left other regions to fester, and the cadavers so outmatched the lesser pestilents in terms of all relevant physical traits save number that to send them against each other could not produce acceptable results.

As a result of these unforeseen inadequacies, the assembled living and dead pockets of resistance metastasized, coalescing into one another and overwhelming the controlled pestilents in a mass of lit torches and farming equipment. For some time I have aspired to be the summoner of such a tide and I must confess no small embarrassment to having now suffered the indignity of seeing the underside of it.

In any case, I was able to position a majority of the remaining resurrected test subjects to be interposed between myself and the crowd and in so doing make space for myself to acquire a cart and leave the testing area.

I have made a note to tender apologies to a number of colleagues whom I have previously made light of for similar circumstances unaware of how minor an inconvenience can spread into something catastrophic. I remain in possession of my notes, some small pieces of knowledge acquired from the young red-headed gentleman, and the undamaged device. Several nearby townships would make acceptable alternative sites for further testing, though I suspect I shall have to find myself a laboratory further abroad. I will resume my experiments in this new form of the craft when I feel I am satisfied with the security of my new location.

Rogue Necromancer Veronica Da Marini has appeared! Each turn she will steal 2 points of Magnitude for her own purposes until dealt with!

---

Magnitude: 10/12

2 stolen by a Rogue Necromancer

Nigredo: The first part of growth is destruction. The old must be dismantled and broken down to free its constituent parts of impurities. This is necessary for ascension. The power of necromancy is too dependent on the form its targets once took. Let them putrify so that they may later be cleansed of the worldly, and so truer forms may be revealed. 1/15, Grants [Ancient Knowledge] to all Manifestations (if multiple Manifestations have 1 level of Ancient Knowledge, the player still only has 1 level total), unlocks a broader variety of Manifestations

Damnable Weather: There is little of this world about the weather that carries you, so why be limited to mundane meteorology? Lightning storms appear out of nowhere, setting fire to dry ground, move against the wind, and vanish as quickly as they appear. Lightning glows odd colours and sears the eye more than it should. Perhaps, if the conditions are right, you might be summoned without a cloud in the sky. 1/5, Increases Magnitude, causes Unnatural Weather

Unerring Hunters: Revenants, as they are, are largely passive creatures. They wander aimlessly, largely heedless of their surroundings. Their terrible and vicious rage might never manifest if they never cross paths with the target of their ire. This changes that. Revenants now know at all times the location of their target and will hunt them until their bodies give out. 0/3, Gain 1 Fear, Revenants gain [Ominous]

Electric Lights: They are already beings of lightning, of couse, but they lack the power of the original form of the phenomenon. Now, that power returns to them in a manner very dangerous to anything flammable near them. Electricity arcs from their ethereal forms, leaving scars and animating whatever dead things they pass too close to. 0/5 Phantoms gain [Fulminous], Increases Magnitude

Deeper Mysteries: Modern science suggests that thoughts are electric. Little buzzes and zaps of lightning within the thick grey cloud inside our heads. Phantoms can now inhabit this lightning too. Perceptions change, rather than simply lights. The living feel the agony and fear of the spirits as if it were their own, as well as their awe, their curiosity, and their drive to be whole. 0/8 Phantoms gain [Perfidious 2], reduce Fear by 1

Into the Light: The beauty of the light calls to them. The terrible majesty stirs something within their withered corpus and draws them in. They must touch it, they must enter it even as it destroys them. It is a force as inexorable as gravity, glorious and uncaring and impossibly beyond their ken or control. It inspires them. Perhaps it could teach them to make something with even a fraction of its brilliance. 0/8, Cadavers gain [Inspired 2]

Storm Cauldron: This phenomenon is almost natural. Tall mountains struggle against the clouds to a stalemate, trapping them in the air on one side and preventing their passage. Somehow, the clouds on the northern side of the border with the Malebolge and Tartaro seem to have called for reinforcements, choking this side of the mountains with impossibly thick and dark clouds, charging the air and leaving the foothills suffocated in the smell of ozone. Still, the mountains stand firm as they always do, and the countryside braces for ever more lightning storms. 0/7 Increases Magnitude, more undead rise or find their way to the southern mountains

Sparks of Life: Not enough lightning strikes in a storm to raise a proper horde. It pays dividends to learn exactly how much lightning is required to animate a body. As it started, a single strike of lightning in the right place could raise a handful of surrounding corpses. Now, as death suffuses the country, it can take so little to bring the dead to life. Just a spark, a tiny shock, is enough now for the animation of a Zombie. 0/5, Zombies gain [Horde 2]

Mr. and Mrs. Doe: The lightning gets lucky, sometimes. Not all the dead are buried in clearly marked graves, sometimes they are lost in bogs or deep in the wilderness. Sometimes they are disposed of quietly in rivers and garden plots. Sometimes the lightning finds just the right spot to strike that they can find their way back, climbing their way back to the surface so desperately alone. 0/5, Gain a new Manifestation: Ghouls [Mysterious] [Vicious]

Thunderous Command: As necromancers experiment with their newfound command of the living dead, new innovations come seemingly every day. Researchers push the edges on how far the influence of a phantom can spread, on how much can be accomplished with essence spread that thin. A few simple modifications to phantom catching devices can allow them to transmit simple commands to swathes of uncoordinated dead, parting them like the tide or herding them together with a word. 0/5, Necromancers have increased control over the Undead, Zombies and Revenants gain [Scheming] when under the command of a Necromancer

Electric Minds: As of now, the undead are capable of receiving simple commands. Cadavers are more intelligent, but zombies and revenants operate only on the most basic instincts and have trouble recognising a great variety of stimuli. The mind-bending powers of captured phantoms can be used to rectify this, to an extent, imprinting more complex commands directly into the mind of the dead like programming a loom. 0/5 Necromancers have increased control over the Undead, Zombies and Revenants gain [Inspired] when under the command of a Necromancer

Seance Tubes: The phantoms are not random bolts of cursed lightning, they were once people. Their thoughts, such as they are, are scattered and incoherent. Memories and dreams are projected against the world without rhyme or reason, but they are true memories and dreams all the same. Perhaps, with the latest developments in the field, a skilled necromancer might be able to order these thoughts and bring some inkling of reason back to these unthinking echoes of human souls. 0/8 Seance Tubes are invented, some small communication is possible with Phantoms, Phantoms gain [Inspired], Finer control is possible over the dead

New Necromancer - Madeleine Grafdelver, the Resurrectionist: Even before the dead could rise, there was always call for fresh corpses. Surgeons needed to train on bodies, and few were freely given. Now, with the advent of Cadavers, demand has skyrocketed as supply has plumetted. For Madeleine Grafdelver, the improved financial situation has even allowed her to afford a brief period at university. Already steeped in death, she has quickly found a course where she has the potential to excel. 0/8, Permanently lose 2 Magnitude, Gain a new Necromancer and associated Whispers actions

New Necromancer - Eschke De Groot, the Doctor: The art of necromancy is new and exciting, with academics of all stripes racing to discover what implications it may have for their fields. Within medicine in particular a great many are fascinated by the potential held by control over death in healing the sick. Eschke De Groot, as always, is at the forefront of her profession, charging in to these knew unknowns with the enthusiasm of a hurricane, brushing aside any concerns with theatrical flair and confidence well past the line where it transmutes into arrogance. 0/8, Permanently lose 2 Magnitude, Gain a new Necromancer and associated Whispers actions

Whispers:

Victor Van Kerkhof:

[ ] A Meeting of the Minds: The necromancy of the Black Death does not operate on the same rules that Ossuarian necromancy does. Nevertheless, there are similarities, and as the Black Death shrivels and fades practitioners of its art are eager to begin their experiments anew. Having a Necromancer go to meet with these foreign scholars might yield useful insights, as well as prevent an amount of collateral damage from the less-than-safe methods of the Necrobiologists.

[ ] It Can Think: Well, to some extent, anyway. Subject One has, through the course of observation, shown traits more animal than automaton. It mimics its rearers, makes novel use of tools, and has its own desires. It learns. If it learns, it can be trained. This will require a novel approach - it does not eat and thus cannot be trained with offerings of food and its capacity to escape rules out negative reinforcement. Perhaps it can be rewarded with tea candles.

[ ] The Da Marini Problem: Veronica Da Marini is the most wanted woman in Ossuaria. Her years of experience tormenting the people of the Malebolge has made her slippery and dangerous. Her knowledge of the Black Death is second to none, but her knowledge of Ossuarian necromancy remains incomplete. A representative of the Chief of Footmen would like the help of a bona-fide necromancy expert in capturing her, before she can make another attempt like Studeny

[ ] More: Cadavers are popular. Every craftsman from Lijkenburg to Luguburg wants one at work in their own shops. Every novice necromancer wants one as an assistant. Noble houses want them as exotic pets. There are simply not enough to go around, but more importantly there is so much more that can be done with them! Victor will spend his time teaching novices the art of cadaver construction. Cadavers will gain [Horde], other effects will occur


Clerval Igorovitch:

[ ] A Meeting of the Minds: The necromancy of the Black Death does not operate on the same rules that Ossuarian necromancy does. Nevertheless, there are similarities, and as the Black Death shrivels and fades practitioners of its art are eager to begin their experiments anew. Having a Necromancer go to meet with these foreign scholars might yield useful insights, as well as prevent an amount of collateral damage from the less-than-safe methods of the Necrobiologists.

[ ] It Can Think: Well, to some extent, anyway. Subject One has, through the course of observation, shown traits more animal than automaton. It mimics its rearers, makes novel use of tools, and has its own desires. It learns. If it learns, it can be trained. This will require a novel approach - it does not eat and thus cannot be trained with offerings of food and its capacity to escape rules out negative reinforcement. Perhaps it can be rewarded with tea candles.

[ ] The Da Marini Problem: Veronica Da Marini is the most wanted woman in Ossuaria. Her years of experience tormenting the people of the Malebolge has made her slippery and dangerous. Her knowledge of the Black Death is second to none, but her knowledge of Ossuarian necromancy remains incomplete. A representative of the Chief of Footmen would like the help of a bona-fide necromancy expert in capturing her, before she can make another attempt like Studeny