Dark Business In The Hive

[*Selebius]

Tarvins enters the Mortuary, wearing a light armour of leather and chain- as usual when he travels the Hive and expects troubles but no serious combat.

The undead seem not to insettle him- he seems to be used to decay and things that move despite them being dead.

"Lady Emila... everything is proceeding well.", he approaches the Vampire, talking to her with lowered voice. " Several people are highly addicted aleady. I have set up small shops to... supply them with what they need. "

He sits down on a sacophagus nearby, showing a certan lack of respect for the ecently deceased. "I also taught some of the more reliable.... volunteers how to perform the ritual." Pausing a bit he gets nervous- obviously not all news are good.

"We also lost a shop to a raid by the Hardheads. Some meddling adventurer I fear. I also was told that one of the addicts had the ritual completed on him but it seemed to have failed at first. He was delivered to the mortuary... have you already seen him, Lady Emila?"

[*Midnight]

Emila looks up from the emaciated body she stands over. She walks past Tarvins to collect a small clay jar filled with myrrh she applies the pungent perfume to the corpse masking the smell of decay. She does not interrupt as he talks and does not pay him direct attention focussing on her work, the mortican's craft being one she persues with single minded dedication. Only when he has finished does she speak.

"The one lose is not such a problem. As for the adventurer find out the depth's of his knowledge, if he is just some plane walking fool or a nosey clueless then I will not risk being exposed by acting against him. Should he prove a persistant problem though and try to discover more invite him to join us."

There is no humor or irony in the vampire's tone but the malgin intent behind such an invitation is hard to miss.

"Alert the others as to his description. I will see if there is anything we can do to correct the failed experiment that arrived here."

[*Selebius]

He gives a slight bow- then leaves quickly, leaving the woman to her work. Of course he knows what to do and whom to talk to- and he must be careful so nothing is exposed too early- before it is too late for their adversaries to act.

After Emila finished her task she is approached by a Wight- one she knows well. a former plague victim, one she turned herself some time ago.

"Lady... there is something you shall see. We brought him.. it.. to the lower crypts."

If she did not know better she might think that something unsettled this undead.

[*Midnight]

After her conversation with Tarvins she already has a good idea what this is.

"Show me."

Her tone is a clipped short command, none of the pleasentries she reserves for the living. Just one dead thing speaking to another.

[*Selebius]

It does not answer but turns around- why wasting words when a simple action will do?

The creature leads the woman through a high door made of overlapppong bones, past some gient skeletal guards, down the slippery stairway. It is damp, it is dark- no light needed for those who left life behind.

They enter a small room, a human male's body bound to a stone slab in the middle of it.

Two Zombies wash it with clear water, only a whiff of embalming fluid on the air. The man is naked, pale, Emila smells his weakness, his sickness, the death that is already upon him- and there are glyphs on his skin, glowing in a bright blue, the only light in the room.

His eyes are closed, his breathing shallow and fast.

[*Midnight]

She follows and approaches the body. She looks shushes the man's cries with a soft maternal tone that she can never muster for the living. Her hands caress over the runes as she tries to discern what has gone wrong with the magic that was worked.

//She has a spell craft of 31 if you need to roll for her.

[*Selebius]

The ritual used is one quite simple- easy to understand for her and she also can find out quickly what went wrong.

It seems that the whole process has been hurried. The glyphs are botched in two places and the influx of necromantic energy has been handled in a crude, quick way.

Whoever did this is clearly a novice to this craft.

[*Midnight]

Emila sighs. She does not breathe so it is an act of pure exasperation.

"I am sorry, you deserve better than this."

Providing he is the correct side of life she channels positive energy into a regeneration spell and then she attempts to go about the business of repairing the damage and rewriting the runes.

[*Selebius]

Healing him is not easy but stabilizing him for some time goes quickly.

Of course she knows the ritual well, it was explained to her by its creator so fixing the mistakes and providing the correct incantations is easy.

The man's breathing became more relaxed when she healed him now it becomes more shallow the longer she continues with the ritual.
Then is stops. The runes fade away and he opens his eyes, a purple glow in his pupils.

[*Midnight]

She smiles down at the semi dead corpse, for someone whose moods range from icily cold to erratically insane she is shockingly maternal with her creations.

"That is better yes? Your pain has stopped?"

Her manner is a sickening parody of a mother comforting a sick child.