Eternal
Year 65
“It…it was horrible, my Emperor! The place was so dead. Like I could feel it everywhere…my…my hands…my skin…wrinkled with age! How could I have aged so quickly? It’s an evil place! Don’t send me back! I beg of you!” the test subject pleads while groveling at your boots, but all you do smile.
“WE FOUND IT! WE’VE FINALLY FOUND IT!” you shout in glee.
After Elam’s tinkering with machinery to repair the portal, sacrificing several lesser mages to fuel the portal with magical energy again, you and Galen trying to channel the energy to get the right location and after sending in several “test subjects” with ropes tied around them, you’ve at last discovered the way to reach the Isle of Mortos.
The Island of Mortos seems to be so heavily disguised by magic that it’s impossible to actually find through normal means. Basically the necromancers only allow access if they want it to or in your case, meddling with a magic portal for so long that you eventually found it through trial and error.
Now that you’ve found it, the current problem is that it’s a one-way trip. Hence the ropes you tied to the test subjects so you could pull them back through. (Though that still didn’t always ensure their return)
There’s also the fact that “dialing” the way to get to Mortos in the first place has been fairly taxing on you and Galen who isn’t looking so great nowadays.
“A testament to your persistence, my Emperor…can I go lay down? I feel sort of weak.” Galen remarks.
“Galen you’re a wizard, you of all people besides myself should be happy to discover a new mystery of the arcane! I mean with magic apparently dying out, I’d think this would be fairly interesting to you.”
“Emperor, in all honesty I’d rather just be back home using charm spells on young girls.”
“That’s your problem Galen, you have no true ambition!” you say.
“Yes, you’re right my Emperor. I’m a lowly worm before your greatness.” Galen says.
“I’ll let that remark pass since I KNOW you’re intelligent enough to NOT use sarcasm on me. And I’m not going to let your whining and depression annoy me today as this is a great break through.”
At this point Galen says nothing and just shuffles off to find some place to lie down. You also ignore the test subject who has already been taken away by nearby Eyes to who knows where.
You continue to stare at the portal, which will now lead you to Mortos. You almost want to enter right now, but you know that it will still have to wait. You call Elam over who normally isn’t a nervous sort, but is when he gets near the portal.
“So…this is it then?” Elam asks.
“This is it Elam. Have you finished building that other smaller portal for me?” you say.
“It’s almost finished, though it took a lot of mithril to build it. Good thing Nyttrus had several deposits, because it’s not like we had much of it. Also it’s going to need magical energy of course for it to be fully powered. I imagine you’ve still got mages left?”
“Maybe a few still locked up, but I question if it’ll be enough…well there’s always Galen. Should work.”
“You’re going to sacrifice Galen?”
“He’s served his purpose and he’ll serve it one last time for the greater good of the Empire. He’s getting old and weak anyway, how many years does he really have left? Wasn’t aware that you held any fondness for him.”
“No, I don’t really. Still though…what about your Eternal Project?”
“What about it?”
“Well without any more mages you won’t be able to continue it correct?”
“If this plan goes the way I hope it does, it won’t matter, besides I thought you were coming up with an idea to take the Eternal Project in a new direction without the use of magic.” You say.
“I was, but then I had to focus my efforts on this project and as I know it was of great importance to you, I didn’t want to divert my attention.” Elam responds.
“Probably was wise of you. Well, after we get the second portal up and running, you’ll be able to pursue your desire for more biological experiments and find a new way of creating Eternals.”
Elam nods and excuses himself to go back to work on finishing the other portal. The smaller one is going to be the “return” portal back here after its power up, “calibrated” and dragged through the Mortos portal.
The test subject didn’t say anything about any ghoul creatures or other undead around, just a dead feeling everywhere so it looks like you go lucky as far as the location is concerned. Though you still have no idea where you’ll be located on Mortos. After all you only visited the place once and that was thirty years ago. You were so different back then. The trusting, loyal, good soldier that never questioned anything.
You’ve been thinking more about those last few days with Casimir recently, your trip to Mortos and the days immediately afterwards. The big lie that Casimir perpetrated just to secure his own immortality was still nothing compared to the one that nobody except Jacob and Semra knew about. It’s still odd to think about how you were never truly meant to be an Eternal.
Still, it’s often been said the bigger the lie; the more people are willing to believe it. Maybe its because your entire life is a “lie” that you managed to achieve so much within it. Maybe that’s why you managed to become a successful Emperor and maybe that’s why you intend to succeed where your “father” failed.
Nicodemus, the necromancer that you encountered during your last trip to Mortos, tried to convince you to not pursue the same path as Casimir. Semra has tried to do the same on several occasions. As far as you know, they’re still the only two that are going to be your major obstacles between you and your goals. You aren’t sure what Semra’s been up to as there has been no sign of her or any indication of an attack from Dokkrus, but rest assured when she does pop up again, you have no doubt its going to be at the most inopportune time.
As for Nicodemus, you imagine you’ll have quite a fight on your hands with him and that’s not even counting other necromancers that must live on the island and their undead. You haven’t been idle though. You’ve been practicing and strengthening your own magic abilities.
Eventually you stop your reminiscing and decide you need to get on with your plans, you aren’t getting any younger.
In another few weeks, Elam tells you that the second portal is ready, so you gather up Galen and the remaining mages to go about its activation. Galen repeatedly tells you that he doesn’t think there’s going to be enough energy within the captive mages power up the second portal, but you assure him that there will be. The fool doesn’t even consider the possibility that HE is going to be joining them. Well not until the last moment when he’s grabbed by Eyes and strapped down to the draining chair hooked up to the portal.
“Emperor?! What is this?! No! I was loyal! You can’t! You…” Galen shouts before you punch him in the face and have him gagged.
“Stop whining Galen.” You say motioning Elam to hit the switch and watch the last of your mages being drained of their energy and life.
When the portal is powered and you finish your calibrations, you have the smaller portal ready to be dragged through the larger one. Several Eyes, several third gen Eternals and some very nervous engineers all prepare to enter, plus one.
“Emperor, you’re going with them?” Elam asks.
“I’m confident that this is going to work and if not, well then I don’t deserve to be Emperor any longer. Let’s get going.” You say.
You enter the portal and you have that old familiar feeling…
A deadness all around you. The land is still dead, everything is still drab and gray. Same way it was when you last were here. The others with you all begin to complain about not feelings quite right.
“It’ll pass if you keep your mind focused, the key is to not let this place cause you to spiral into a depression. Come on we need to get this portal into a good place…that large rock structure in the ground over there looks as good as any. I want the engineers to embed this portal in it, don’t want it just standing out here in the open wasteland. Follow me and DON’T stray too far. There are magic areas or what are called negative zones. You step into one and you could be an old man or even a corpse before you knew what was going on. I’ll be able to detect them, just follow me.”
Your small march to the rock destination is uneventful other than some of your people still saying how this all feels so hopeless. Unfortunately most of it is from the engineers who are less accustomed to this sort of thing.
As you wait for the portal to be embedded in the rock, you begin to ponder if you still shouldn’t wait awhile before marching an army into Mortos. It might be this place sapping your “enthusiasm” but the grim reality of how difficult this is really going to be is starting to set in the closer you get to your goals. It does occur to you that Nicodemus was powerful enough to destroy Casimir with barely any effort.
“It…it was horrible, my Emperor! The place was so dead. Like I could feel it everywhere…my…my hands…my skin…wrinkled with age! How could I have aged so quickly? It’s an evil place! Don’t send me back! I beg of you!” the test subject pleads while groveling at your boots, but all you do smile.
“WE FOUND IT! WE’VE FINALLY FOUND IT!” you shout in glee.
After Elam’s tinkering with machinery to repair the portal, sacrificing several lesser mages to fuel the portal with magical energy again, you and Galen trying to channel the energy to get the right location and after sending in several “test subjects” with ropes tied around them, you’ve at last discovered the way to reach the Isle of Mortos.
The Island of Mortos seems to be so heavily disguised by magic that it’s impossible to actually find through normal means. Basically the necromancers only allow access if they want it to or in your case, meddling with a magic portal for so long that you eventually found it through trial and error.
Now that you’ve found it, the current problem is that it’s a one-way trip. Hence the ropes you tied to the test subjects so you could pull them back through. (Though that still didn’t always ensure their return)
There’s also the fact that “dialing” the way to get to Mortos in the first place has been fairly taxing on you and Galen who isn’t looking so great nowadays.
“A testament to your persistence, my Emperor…can I go lay down? I feel sort of weak.” Galen remarks.
“Galen you’re a wizard, you of all people besides myself should be happy to discover a new mystery of the arcane! I mean with magic apparently dying out, I’d think this would be fairly interesting to you.”
“Emperor, in all honesty I’d rather just be back home using charm spells on young girls.”
“That’s your problem Galen, you have no true ambition!” you say.
“Yes, you’re right my Emperor. I’m a lowly worm before your greatness.” Galen says.
“I’ll let that remark pass since I KNOW you’re intelligent enough to NOT use sarcasm on me. And I’m not going to let your whining and depression annoy me today as this is a great break through.”
At this point Galen says nothing and just shuffles off to find some place to lie down. You also ignore the test subject who has already been taken away by nearby Eyes to who knows where.
You continue to stare at the portal, which will now lead you to Mortos. You almost want to enter right now, but you know that it will still have to wait. You call Elam over who normally isn’t a nervous sort, but is when he gets near the portal.
“So…this is it then?” Elam asks.
“This is it Elam. Have you finished building that other smaller portal for me?” you say.
“It’s almost finished, though it took a lot of mithril to build it. Good thing Nyttrus had several deposits, because it’s not like we had much of it. Also it’s going to need magical energy of course for it to be fully powered. I imagine you’ve still got mages left?”
“Maybe a few still locked up, but I question if it’ll be enough…well there’s always Galen. Should work.”
“You’re going to sacrifice Galen?”
“He’s served his purpose and he’ll serve it one last time for the greater good of the Empire. He’s getting old and weak anyway, how many years does he really have left? Wasn’t aware that you held any fondness for him.”
“No, I don’t really. Still though…what about your Eternal Project?”
“What about it?”
“Well without any more mages you won’t be able to continue it correct?”
“If this plan goes the way I hope it does, it won’t matter, besides I thought you were coming up with an idea to take the Eternal Project in a new direction without the use of magic.” You say.
“I was, but then I had to focus my efforts on this project and as I know it was of great importance to you, I didn’t want to divert my attention.” Elam responds.
“Probably was wise of you. Well, after we get the second portal up and running, you’ll be able to pursue your desire for more biological experiments and find a new way of creating Eternals.”
Elam nods and excuses himself to go back to work on finishing the other portal. The smaller one is going to be the “return” portal back here after its power up, “calibrated” and dragged through the Mortos portal.
The test subject didn’t say anything about any ghoul creatures or other undead around, just a dead feeling everywhere so it looks like you go lucky as far as the location is concerned. Though you still have no idea where you’ll be located on Mortos. After all you only visited the place once and that was thirty years ago. You were so different back then. The trusting, loyal, good soldier that never questioned anything.
You’ve been thinking more about those last few days with Casimir recently, your trip to Mortos and the days immediately afterwards. The big lie that Casimir perpetrated just to secure his own immortality was still nothing compared to the one that nobody except Jacob and Semra knew about. It’s still odd to think about how you were never truly meant to be an Eternal.
Still, it’s often been said the bigger the lie; the more people are willing to believe it. Maybe its because your entire life is a “lie” that you managed to achieve so much within it. Maybe that’s why you managed to become a successful Emperor and maybe that’s why you intend to succeed where your “father” failed.
Nicodemus, the necromancer that you encountered during your last trip to Mortos, tried to convince you to not pursue the same path as Casimir. Semra has tried to do the same on several occasions. As far as you know, they’re still the only two that are going to be your major obstacles between you and your goals. You aren’t sure what Semra’s been up to as there has been no sign of her or any indication of an attack from Dokkrus, but rest assured when she does pop up again, you have no doubt its going to be at the most inopportune time.
As for Nicodemus, you imagine you’ll have quite a fight on your hands with him and that’s not even counting other necromancers that must live on the island and their undead. You haven’t been idle though. You’ve been practicing and strengthening your own magic abilities.
Eventually you stop your reminiscing and decide you need to get on with your plans, you aren’t getting any younger.
In another few weeks, Elam tells you that the second portal is ready, so you gather up Galen and the remaining mages to go about its activation. Galen repeatedly tells you that he doesn’t think there’s going to be enough energy within the captive mages power up the second portal, but you assure him that there will be. The fool doesn’t even consider the possibility that HE is going to be joining them. Well not until the last moment when he’s grabbed by Eyes and strapped down to the draining chair hooked up to the portal.
“Emperor?! What is this?! No! I was loyal! You can’t! You…” Galen shouts before you punch him in the face and have him gagged.
“Stop whining Galen.” You say motioning Elam to hit the switch and watch the last of your mages being drained of their energy and life.
When the portal is powered and you finish your calibrations, you have the smaller portal ready to be dragged through the larger one. Several Eyes, several third gen Eternals and some very nervous engineers all prepare to enter, plus one.
“Emperor, you’re going with them?” Elam asks.
“I’m confident that this is going to work and if not, well then I don’t deserve to be Emperor any longer. Let’s get going.” You say.
You enter the portal and you have that old familiar feeling…
A deadness all around you. The land is still dead, everything is still drab and gray. Same way it was when you last were here. The others with you all begin to complain about not feelings quite right.
“It’ll pass if you keep your mind focused, the key is to not let this place cause you to spiral into a depression. Come on we need to get this portal into a good place…that large rock structure in the ground over there looks as good as any. I want the engineers to embed this portal in it, don’t want it just standing out here in the open wasteland. Follow me and DON’T stray too far. There are magic areas or what are called negative zones. You step into one and you could be an old man or even a corpse before you knew what was going on. I’ll be able to detect them, just follow me.”
Your small march to the rock destination is uneventful other than some of your people still saying how this all feels so hopeless. Unfortunately most of it is from the engineers who are less accustomed to this sort of thing.
As you wait for the portal to be embedded in the rock, you begin to ponder if you still shouldn’t wait awhile before marching an army into Mortos. It might be this place sapping your “enthusiasm” but the grim reality of how difficult this is really going to be is starting to set in the closer you get to your goals. It does occur to you that Nicodemus was powerful enough to destroy Casimir with barely any effort.