>>33926621
>A band of skeletons needs help preparing for an upcoming battle, shall I reinforce them?

ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL.

>>33926621
>>The Weeping Forest has been experiencing fires, they want someone to investigate.

The closest fishing hole here is still too far a walk for this evening, even if this evening extends until forever.
The skeletons aren't too far from The Weeping Forest, I'll do both jobs at once. With any luck, neither will take too long...

"You ever notice how something like three-fourths of undead are skeletons?" Bonesley says, "I don't know, you'd think more people would make zombies."

"Skeletons are just zombies with the skin rotted off, none-for-brains." Lilly's still in her too-short maid dress, I wonder she keeps her legs warm walking around in the undying night with that skirt.

"I'm just saying, put some meat on a skeleton and suddenly it's much scarier. Let's see, I wonder if we can find some choice cuts tonight."

"I could use some meat." Lilly sighs from her loneliness, I sigh, realizing that everyone around me is useless...

I'd expected an army of at least fifty formerly-men, but there're just barely three and a half skeletons here to meet. A half, because the head of one sits inside the molded rib-cage of another. They sit around on gravestones, disrespectfully tossing rocks between each other.

"I am Fianna, I am here about a band of skeletons needing help?" What do you call a trio and a half?

"Ah!" One of the skeleton's jaw drops when he sees me, he takes a moment to pick it back up and reattach it. "Faaaantaaaaaastic, you're the necromancer? Lot cuter than I expected, but I suppose that just makes it better." He's got a foppish sound to him and a look to match, a leather vest hangs heavily around his shoulders and bone-jewellery hangs off the sides of his head and the hole where his nose would've been.

"Are you the leader of the warband?"

"No, The Warband are those screaming orcs. We're Undread, the next big thing in music."

"Excuse me?" What?

"The Battle of the Bands is coming up, and we're short a member! Our drummer walked into a slime nest and never came out!" Again, what?

>CONT

"I'm Joints, I play the lute!" The foppish skeleton in the jacket introduces himself.

"Larynx, I siiiiiiiiiing!" The second skeleton, with a long body and missing half his head says.

"Ribs. I play the pipes." The heavy-set skeleton with the molded rib-cage speaks.

"Me too! I'm Cranium!" The skull inside of Ribs adds.

"Uuuh... Fianna." Not knowing what to say, I reintroduce myself.

"Bonesley, I play the duster mostly, and the broom on the side!" Bonesley waves his arms around, Lilly doesn't introduce herself, just shaking her head.

"So, tell me again what you need us to do?" I've half a mind to leave this job now but... I am a professional! Also, a little hungry.

"You're a necromancer right? We need a drummer tonight! I don't know, do your finger wavery stuff and conjure us up some talent." Joints wiggles his boney hands about, if I wasn't so capable of destroying him I might think he was mocking me.
At any rate, how should I go about this plan...

>Bonesley will have to learn the drums in some short hours.
>I'll go talk with that slime about coughing up their drummer.
>I suppose I can hold auditions, there're plenty of bodies to work with in this graveyard.
>[Write-In]

>>33927836
>I'll go talk with that slime about coughing up their drummer.

Blech, I'm awful with trips.

>>33927836
>>I'll go talk with that slime about coughing up their drummer.

"What's your drummer's name?" I ask.

"Arms." Of course it's Arms. I wonder if they picked the names out themselves or if they set up a little circle and took turns listing off random body parts.

"Maybe I'd be able to play the violin if I named myself Wrists." Bonesley clacks his fingers against his chin.

"Maybe you'd be able to form coherent thought if you named yourself Brains." Lilly jabs.

"Nah, I named myself Cranium but it don't help me be none smarter at all." Cranium says.

The less time I spend around the band of boneheads the better I figure, and Lilly seems to agree. Let's go have a talk with this slime, we'll see whether we can get him to spit out that drummer, or whatever remains of him...

It seems this slime lives inside a cave, and what a cave it is. The thing juts out from the wastelands in some unnatural formation, the stalactites hanging just off of the entrance give it a consuming look. It doesn't look too big from front to back, but the way down doesn't leave me feeling good about it.

"So why would a slime eat skeletons anyways? We're hardly tasty... I think, I've not much of a tongue, HAH HAH HAH!"

"Slimes eat everything Bonesley, they'll melt through your whites to get to your marrow and suckle down each dry bit of it for nutrients." I answer Bonesley as we descend inside, my lantern leading the way.

"Why would you tell me that boss-lady, why wouldn't you lie to me? Why do you hurt poor Bonesley so?"

"What a nice life, the only things I can suckle do-"

"Shut up Lilly." I don't know, I don't want to know, I will never want to know.
It doesn't take long before we see the slime, not anywhere near the end of the cavern it just idly hangs around some dead end. I can see more than one dead floating around inside of it, with any luck one of those is still Arms. I will...

>Lure it outside, I don't want to deal with it in here.
>Attempt to negociate with it, it's basically undead.
>Write-In

>>33928442
>>Lure it outside, I don't want to deal with it in here.

>>33928442
>Lure it outside, I don't want to deal with it in here.

The putrid slime glows a faint green, it sits in one place but it's body bubbles, stretching out and squeezing back in various different directions.

"Bonesley. Go lure that thing outside."

"What'd you say boss-lady? I don't think I heard you right."

"Lure the slime outside, we will deal with it there."

"Sorry, think I dropped my ears somewhere. I just can't seem to understand what you're telling me to do." Useless Bonesley, if you're half-eaten I can just rebuild you. Well, no matter. I loose a breath on Bonesley's spine, the glitter of magic tracing a route up to his neck, at once he stands up straight, his body giving salute involuntary to him, on my unspoken commands.

"There, now Bonesley. Go lure that thing outside."

"Doing so begrudgingly boss-lady. If I had eyes, I would cry. HAH HAH HAH! I RHYMED!" His outburst echoes through the caverns, and the slime's starts to slurp in our direction. I point left and back, and Bonesley bounces out from the corner in where we hide, sticking his rear at the ooze before bolting, sending the blob into a chase.

"I'm sure you'll be a real hit with the guys someday kid." Lilly giggles. I'm sure she'll be really hit someday... wait, let me try that again...

As it's been since before I was born, the sky outside sits under the eternal moon, but brighter than the caverns; it has me glad to return to. Less glad is that Bonesley has ended up inside the slime, I suppose it's my fault for not giving him orders after luring it out. Bumping around dark grassy fields, the thing gurgles and burps.

"Hey boss-lady, everything is green in here! Pretty comfy actually... I think, I'm pretty insensitive. HAH HAH HAH!" It seems gradual melting has done none to hurt Bonesley's spirit. But this will hurt the slime's...

>I'll revive the skeletons inside the slime, and have them tear their way out.
>I don't need to kill the thing, I'll wring it out with my magic.
>Write-In

>>33928944
>>I'll revive the skeletons inside the slime, and have them tear their way out.

>>33928944
>>I don't need to kill the thing, I'll wring it out with my magic.

>>33928944
>I don't need to kill the thing, I'll wring it out with my magic.
We've never killed a thing if we didn't need to.

The image of half a dozen skeletons pawing their way out of the slime is a fun one, but more gruesome than I'd like, and I really don't want to ruin any clothes if it splatters on me. It's hard finding a tailor in the middle of Nowhere, most things around here don't really wear clothes.

Hands out, deep breaths, and focus Fianna. It's an easy job... you don't even have to touch it. Deep breaths, deep breaths...

"What're you doing kid?" Lilly raises a brow at me. My hands grasp at air, and my magic grabs the night, from the ground I pull large boney hands, what remains of titans long dead. They lurch out on each side of me, swinging about at the joints before clamping in on each side of the slime. First pinching, then squeezing down on the shape. Like a piece of fruit, the fiend's juices run loose between the giant bone fingers, melting slight at the ground with their drip...

At the spell's end, the slime's been squished into a flattened shape, and it'll be some time before it hopes to reclaim itself. More importantly, I've freed the skeletons inside of it More importantly than that...

"GROSS! GROSS! GROSS!" I keep swinging my hands around but they don't feel any less dirty!

"You didn't even touch them! What're you complaining about?" Lilly is not impressed.

"YEAH! BUT MY HANDS DID!"

"Your skeleton hands!"

"I didn't think it so bad." There're still bits of jelly sticking to Bonesley's body, he ignores them save for a few idle shakes.

Okay, calm. Good. You're fine Fianna, that's over now. Let's deal with them bones. There sure are a lot of them laying about, not all quite matching and probably coming from more skeletons than there are skulls. I need to revive Arms, but I wouldn't know where to begin. I can have Bonesley and Lilly cobble them into shape before I revive it, but...

>I suppose I should check over the bones to do the job right.
>I'll let Bonesley and Lilly handle it, because this can't possibly go wrong.
>Write-In

>>33929430
>I'll let Bonesley and Lilly handle it, because this can't possibly go wrong.
We need to have faith in our assistants.

>>33929430
>I suppose I should check over the bones to do the job right.

>>33929491
We really don't.

>>33929430
>>I'll let Bonesley and Lilly handle it, because this can't possibly go wrong.

>>33926621
Still catching up in the archives but just want to say that I love the writing style.

>>33929430
I'm going to bed OP, thanks for the thread. Just saying now cause I won't have a chance to later.

"I'm going to go get this gross off of me. You two assemble the skeletons." I might catch a sicky if I leave this alone, those two can handle this can't they. Let's see, water flask is here and my handkerchief is there.

"This goes here right?"

"No, skull for brains. That hole is for legs... I think?"

"If we chisel it a bit we can probably fit two legs in, we've got too many of them any ways."

"Two to a hole eh, I'm starting to like the way you think." What're they talking about? Ah well, Bonesley is a skeleton and Lilly is a self-proclaimed master of anatomy, so they definitely know what they're doing. Definitely. There is no reason for me to check up on them at all...

I really should have known where this was going long before it began. But I guess I'll just have to pay the price for cleanliness, which appears to be...

"Presenting, Arms-Master!" Bonesley does his crooked imitation of a gentlemanly bow, gesturing over to that... construct that they've made.
Stuck together with remains of gloop, they've managed to weld several torsos and several hips together in a somehow staple shape. It has two arms jutting out each shoulder, and one of the arms has another arm replacing the hand. The eight legs on it stretch out behind it, giving the thing a centipede shape. Three heads on top, and several others placed wherever they could fit.
Lilly sits on the shoulder with her legs crossed, flaunting herself like some bar dancer. What survived of the slime jiggles around the very extended rib-cage of the thing, exploring it's new home.

"Well boss-lady? Are you in awe or is it so fearsome that your mouth is stuck agape?" Somehow, he looks so smug even without any facial expression. I ought to dismantle him, but I'm afraid of him joining into the monstrosity that he and Lilly made.

Well no matter, I guess I'll take Arms-Master back to his band. They can deal with it.

>CONT

"And so long-story short, take it or leave it." That's all I say to the band of skeletons, I'm really not interested in touching on this longer than I have to.

"Arms, is that really you?" Joints looks shocked, I think. No face, again.

"AAAAAARMS!" Arms-Master yells, batting his fists against his chest.

"My apologies, I haven't quite sorted out the souls within yet."

"Nah, that's definitely Arms. He's always like this." Ribs nods to himself, I guess that's a job well done?

"Woooooonderful! With all those arms, he could probably be a one man band." Larynx claps his hands together almost girlishly.

"Wait... this gives me an idea. What if we ALL joined together!?" Cranium puts his head to work. He fails. It looks like this is my cue to leave.

"Pay it forward to the taskmaster, and he'll pay it forward to me." I'm going to get out of here as soon as possible, I can find out later how this turns out. Turning around and moving on rushed steps, I lead the way to my second job...

The Weeping Forest is aptly named, I can hear it cry before I get there. The trees are long dead, and risen again in the macabre mixture between the necromantic arts and the ancient magics of druids. Master Gwydion had a friend here didn't he? Perhaps I ought pay him a visit and find the details on the fires that plague the woods.

"Ugh, The Weeping Forest, I hate this place." Lilly clutches her arms like she'll die of cold, which I'm surprised she already hasn't with her shoulders bare like that. "The hanged men spend their days whining, and the treefolk spend their days whining about the hanged men whining."

"Well, we're here to see what they're whining about and stop that." Let's see where we should start...

>Find Master Gwydion's old friend, he should be living around here
>The hanged men spend as much time listening as they do sounding, I'll talk to them first
>The treefolk are old and stubborn, but that should come to my advantage
>Write-In

>>33930159
>>The treefolk are old and stubborn, but that should come to my advantage

>>33930159
>Find Master Gwydion's old friend, he should be living around here

Yes, Master Gwydion's friend was living among the treefolk wasn't he? I'll hope he's still alive.

"This forest is so freeeeeaky." Bonesley rattles with each step we take. I admit that the leafless canopies do leave some eerie thin shadows below them, like grasping hands... and that the occasionally wails of horror are a bit unsettling, and of course the sharp yellow glows that keep watching my steps could stand to dim down a bit... but it's not scary at all!

"Just don't look at any of the hanging men and you'll be fine." Lilly says.

"I don't have eyes, so I should be safe right?"

"We'll see." Lilly smirks. "They say that even before Annihilation came, the people of the city that was once near here used to come here to vanish among the tall trees. Noose 'round their neck, real crazy like. Eventually they all came back to life at once when the world ended, and since then they've just cried over their pains, lost to death and lost to life."

I know that already, so you don't have to tell me Lilly, ugh...

The treefolk aren't much better. More tree than folk, they're nearly indistinguishable from the woods around them. Just as dead and nearly as still, the only thing that tells you they're them is the worn face of old men coming off of their bark.

"Hey kid! You're cute, let me pinch your cheeks!" As well as their bark. It seems we've come into their little circle, because I can hear the sounds of a hundred grandparents gossiping as I come into centre of a dark grassy clearing. Branches are reaching at me, but it just takes a light slap to send them away.

"My name is Fianna, apprentice necromancer of the late Gwydion the Grey! I am here to see solve your fire problem, let me seek council with the mage that my master deemed his equal!"

"Aww, she's precious. Widdle girl want some fruit... aww, goddamnit, I don't have any left." Maybe I'll turn around and leave, maybe I'll burn the whole forest down.

>CONT

"Of course you're out of fruit Elmer, it's been more than a couple decades since the last harvest Spring." The voice that calls does not come beside the crunching noise of wood. Instead it comes from a much more slender form, from the mouthless face of a female-bodied being made of wrapping vines.

"Are you Master's friend?" I ask.

"Are you a wood-skeleton?" Bonesley asks.

"Yes, and no. I was once a friend of Gwydion's, but you tell me he is gone? A shame, let me introduce myself. Selia, I am the Vine's Mistress." She carries herself with a grace, but from her head down and away her body is all of dead nature's. She does not even have legs of her own, she slides about, her roots digging up the earth behind her wake.

"How did you know Master Gwydion?"

"When times were better, we'd often match my nature spirits against his deadly ghasts... I'd thought the times have proven death is stronger than life, but it appears my magic saved me where his did not." Selia lets out a giggle, I'm not sure if that's morbid or reminiscent.

"Well, anyways. There's talks of sudden fires? Tell me about that."

"Mmh... yes, there's a burning man who's been running about the wilds the last some days. I know not his story, but both the trees and the hanging men have lost some to him."

"Pyromancer? Ember spirit?"

"No, burning man. He just seems to be a fellow on fire... all the time. He's been hugging everything that talks to him, and the results are not appreciated."

"I swear, you have the tiniest of conversations with this guy and he sets your arms on fire. Kids these days!" One of the wrinkled trees adds.

That's... better? Well, let's hatch up a plan. As with everywhere, there're corpses to use among the hanged men and the treefolk, I don't know if the Burning Man is some fiery dead or some flaming fellow, so I'll need to be careful.

>Ask Selia about [Write-In]

>I'll find the Burning Man, I can make up the rest of the plan as I go along.
>Write-In

>>33930791
>I'll find the Burning Man, I can make up the rest of the plan as I go along.

"I'll find the Burning Man then, you can leave this to me." I call for my companions to follow, before leaving Selia and the treefolk to return to the wailing forest proper...

I have no hints to follow, but Lilly luckily has quite a nose about her. She says it helps her track down men, but I'd say it's not doing it's job... not out loud, of course.

"It smells like burning, this way."

Following Lilly's lead, we spot the Burning Man. His description was well and accurate, he's a man on fire, flesh burning and bubbling over. When we find him, he's mid-hug with some poor hanging man.

"FINALLY! DEATH'S EMBRAAAACE!" The hanging man screams as the flames wrap over his body, a corpse stuck on a noose. If he's so eager, I wonder what's kept him here so long.

"Don't die! I need this!" Is the Burning Man sobbing? Yikes, rather play with fire than deal with tears. Well, business is business.

"Stop right there!" I reveal myself, he looks hot-headed but I'm sure he's more open to reason than some mindless slime in a hole. "Unhand that abomination!"

"NO! KILL ME!" The hanging man screeches.

"O-okay..." The Burning Man thankfully, looks to be the more reasonable of the two. He lets go of the now blackened body, turning to face me. His body quivers as he stands.

"Why're you setting things on fire?"

"It is a CURSE! I am CURSED and WRETCHED!" Everybody yells here, everybody. "My body burns eternal, and the pain will not leave less I hold another! COME HERE, AND LET ME HUG YOU!" Whoa, slow down there buddy. I think we need to give this a second thought.
He's running right at me now, his trails leaving flaming steps. Lilly and Bonesley are on each side, this shouldn't be difficult to deal with, but...

>I'll throw Bonesley at The Burning Man, he deserves it, I'll talk to him after I catch him.
>My cloak should protect me if this fire is magic, I'll let him come, and negotiate when he's calmed.
>Write-In

>>33931257
>I'll throw Bonesley at The Burning Man, he deserves it, I'll talk to him after I catch him.

"Bonesley."

"Yeah boss-lady?"

"Go." I slap my skeleton on the back, sending him tumbling forward in line with The Burning Man. With a thud, he pulls our fiery foe into the dirt. Don't need magic for everything, right?

"Boss-lady, some days I think that I'm just a tool for you."

"I had thought we made that clear from our first meeting Bonesley."

"You're working me down to the bone boss-lady, HAH HAH HAH!" Well, good to know he's not holding grudges.

Thankfully this thing has molten flesh under that burning aura, because otherwise I wouldn't know what to do about bringing him in. "Grab a hold of him tight Bonesley, we're bringing him in." With that, the job is just about done...

"So this is the Burning Man?" Selia eyes over the criminal, standing in front of him vindictively when we return to the trees. The trees stay a bit further away, though I suppose they've don't much room to move, with their roots dug so deep in the ground.

"Vile magics leave me BURNT, and vile magics have me CHAINED!" His hammed up lines might be threatening, if I didn't have him shackled in deathly chains.

"Well, job's done. You do what you'll do with him." I call for Bonesley and Lilly, it's about time we return. This place is creepy enough without me losing my time in here.

"Oh, I've just a small favour to ask you, Fianna was it? If this poor man is some wretched and cursed, would you be kind to remove his pains?" Selia blinks bright yellow eyes at me.

"I'm not a witch." I hate those. "I'm a necromancer, I don't deal with hexes and curses."

"You need not take away his curse, but remove his hurt and do right by wrong."

"It'd be nice if you sounded less flowery." Druids, always talking pink and fluffy.

"Gwydion thought sound that all things ought be aided where aid can be done. Your magic may not restore, but it does change. Treat his curse not of eternal fire, but his curse of eternal pains." Selia bows her head to me, I guess I can't say no...

>CONT

"I feel ALIVE! It doesn't HURT!" The Burning Man flexes his arms, sprung with a vigour in his heart to match the heat of his body. I tore away a little of what humanity remained in him, that his nerves went dead, but it seems he took to it well.

"I thought you druid sorts were opposed to the whole, violation of nature business." I chat with Selia, while Bonesley holds The Burning Man back from hugging the trees in cheer.

"When you've lived so long as I, you learn not all is green grasses and red blood. The world is long dead, leaving crimson fields and green bile where nature never intended... but there is good to be found, Fianna, and on that your master and I agreed."

Lilly tugs on my cloak. "Can we go yet? One of the trees just touched my rear, and I don't think he's got the equipment to follow up on it."

"We can talk more another day, should The Moon ever meet The Sun again, then I will show you nature's beauty in daylight. Until then..." Selia takes another bow, before her body shrinks away into the ground...

We part with The Burning Man at The Weeping Forest's edge, sending him away to where his unlife takes him, and at another time's closing at The End of the World, I make my way home. I've never seen the daybreak, and I don't know when it'll ever come, but I can just barely picture it now... bright light, and painted skies.

"Hear that?" Lilly says, turning her head left and right.

"Nope, no ears. HAH HAH HAH!"

"Quiet Bonesley, listen!" Lilly slaps the skeleton over the back of the head, before pulling me in beside her on my cloak. She gestures her hand over east and north.

Listening closely, I can hear the sounds of music humming over the horizon, perhaps I'll not retire for some hours yet, I might as well see sooner rather than later what happened to that skeleton band, I have the time. After-all...

The world is dead, but I am not.

>END

>>33931909
Thanks for running.

>>33931909
Know when the next thread will be?

>>33931976
Thanks for playing.

>>33932071
Unfortunately I don't have any remote schedule on this. It's a little side thing I have to experiment with quest format, so I always end up running at obscene off-hours irregularly. My apologies anon.