A plan and a necromancer

It's late at night when you finally return to your lair, and only your bookish erinyes is still in your throne room. She looks up from her dusty tome with a cheery smile when you enter.

"Ooh, welcome back! Where are Lucy and them?" Mariel sets down her book them hops up and runs over. You nearly fall backwards as she jumps up, looping her arms around you and wrapping her legs around your waist so that she hangs off your torso.

"I see someone was bored." You ruffle Mariel's long black hair, and the fallen angel nuzzles happily into the crook of your neck. "Lucia, Sandra, and Becca are infiltrating one of the other contenders: a hag coven. The dashing young rogue that the hags recruited is quite convinced that he's seduced them away from us, and they didn't feel the need to contradict him."

"I guess that means you get to go with us for now, eh Selena? I look forward to seeing what you can do!" Mariel gives her a cheerful grin, and the stormsoul shrugs and looks back.

"So do I. I haven't really had the chance to take my new class for a spin yet." She conjures a bit of lightning, which crackles between her fingers. "Guess that'll be changing pretty soon, though."

"Oh, do we finally get to kill someone?" Sera walks down the steps and gives you a nod. "'Bout time you all got back. So, who's our unlucky victim?"

"It's probably easiest to fill everyone in at once. Sera, have you seen Rea? She's normally right here."

"The princess has been borrowing her a lot these past few days. Can't say I blame her, we've done good with that one." Sera smirks. "I'll go fetch them and get her to round up the rest. See you in a bit!"

You stride over to your throne while you wait, and sit down with Mariel still hanging off of you. The moment you're seated she spins around and snuggles in your lap, then closes her eyes and hums contentedly. Selena takes one of the other seats in the room, idly letting sparks flit between her hands as she waits, and the two maids step through the portal to help Sera track down the others.

"Say, Athy, you look different." Mariel lazily looks over at your newest champion from her perch.

"Good different?" The wolfish priestess smiles as she leans idly against the wall near where you came in.

"Good different." The angel agrees, seeing no need to comment further, and Aethane laughs in response.

Tlax speeds down the stairs a minute later and rushes towards you, then hisses when she sees the angel already perched on your lap. Mariel simply sticks out her tongue in responses, then pets the green hair of the marilith, earning a satisfied hiss as the snake daemon coils up at the base of your seat. Sera comes back shortly thereafter and hops on the couch next the Selena without a word.

"We were beginning to wonder if you had run off to another dungeon!" Ari and Tina step down the stairs next, the two daemonic elves piling in an armchair together and eagerly awaiting news of the journey. "Annie and Cindy are off to check on the rest of the dungeon, so no need to wait for them."

"This isn't going to be boring, is it?" Ikaria and Zalreanne are the last two to arrive, the regal dragoness casually walking down the stairs with the maid in her arm. "Being summoned to these discussions only to hear about all of the exciting things I don't get to do is torturous." She tosses herself in another armchair, pulling the maid along with her. Kay idly toys with her new pet as she awaits the start of the meeting.

"Well, as I told Mary here a second ago," you stroke the angel's hair as you speak, and she smiles in response, "you've probably noticed Lucia and her friends aren't here. They've successfully attached themselves to Darran, a rogue who's working with one of the other contenders, and they'll be helping him out for now—at least until he accomplishes anything important. We've also made some new allies and gathered a lot of intelligence." You fill them in on the other contenders and your new vassals. "Selena, would you mind telling us about Sahr'rhazad's dungeon?"

"Right." The stormsoul stands and starts pacing as she speaks, her hands clasped behind her back. "Alastra says that the dungeon is roughly a day's walk south of here. It's hidden in a small cave in the forest, but once you get underground it's full of magma. Apparently the djinni's specialty is fire. We'll have to deal with lots of fire elementals, salamanders, probably a few daemons, djinni, the works. Alastra and her party have all made deals with Azazel here, so when we reach them they'll be 'caught off guard' and killed easily. From there we just need to take down the boss herself."

Kay groans from her chair. "I'm glad to hear that I was right on the money," she sulks a bit at the prospect of missing out on the raid. "What's the point of all this, though? She respawns just the same as the rest of us."

"Well, I'm still hoping to acquire that mana crystal that Alastra nabbed back in Fairweather Bay." You frown at the thought. "That being said, once we've shown her that we beat her, we'll try to convince her and her adventurers to come visit: it shouldn't be too hard once she realizes that they've already betrayed her." You switch to massaging the cuddly angel's bare shoulders, happy little purrs coming from your lap. "At that point I'm hoping that she'll agree to work with us. Worst case, she should at least realize that she's out of the running, which gives us one less boss to worry about."

"So who's going on the raid, anyways?" Ari pipes up with a curious look.

"Everyone here except Rea and Kay." The dragon groans when her name is mentioned, although there's no surprise to it. "Don't worry, I actually have jobs for both of you."

"Oh? Are you sure this is mom-approved? Like, doesn't she have a strict ban on fun?" Ikaria shows a bit of curiosity, although her expression remains skeptical.

"Well, I doubt she'd approve, so I chose not to ask." The dragoness perks up further now, Rea nearly falling out of her lap at the sudden moment with a yelp. "Remember how you said you wanted your own pet?"

"What, am I recruiting now? Not what I had in mind."

"Nope. So I've made an agreement with Alastra, hence the whole 'betraying her ally' thing. Seems they had a spat over when she gets summoned to Arkus and she figured it'd be easier to ask me to do it rather than work out her differences with Sahr. I pushed back, not really standing to gain from this. Eventually, we ended up settling on a contract where after being summoned she has to defeat each of my champions, one at a time, with breaks in between to recover. If she wins, she heads out and does her thing. If she loses, she joins the flock. Naturally, she agreed, given she knows she's far stronger than all of my champions."

"All but one." Kay cackles and rubs her hands together. "Ooh, you're right, this will be fun. Mom can't even complain, given nothing will leave the dungeon."

"That's the idea. And you can do what you want with her." Zalreanne squeals a bit as her mistress absentmindedly squeezes her as she daydreams. "Anyways, that's pretty much it."

"So when do we head out?" Sera looks like she'd jump off the couch right now, sword in hand, if you so much as said "go."

"I want to spend the rest of today and tomorrow relaxing a bit, updating the dungeon, receiving any allies who the maids convinced, and scouting out the new vassals. We'll head out in two days. Speaking of which, I'm going to go set up the portals now. Feel free to tag along if you want to." You tilt the chin of the angel in your lap up to you. "Coming with?" She nods and hums in response, so you pick her up: Tlax and Ari rise to follow you. A few steps later you're in the portal nexus, a room dominated by a large purple crystal which you rarely feel the need to visit. A few menus later, you figure out how to place the portals which link to your new vassals, and a few abishai silently march in to construct their frames.

"Let's check out the necromancer first. Just to warn you, I chose him for his location and not much else. Don't expect to find any redeeming qualities and you won't be disappointed." With that out of the way, you step through the portal and immediately gag at the smell.

The room you've entered is, well, green. There's a decaying corpse on the floor in front of you, an assorted array of dismembered body parts scattered on tables, a pair of skeletons hanging from hooks on the ceiling, and far more clutter in every new place you look. Everything is suffused with a neon green mist which lazily drifts out of a bubbling cauldron in the middle of the room. A hunched-over figure, a hairless humanoid with grey skin and sharp fangs, looks up at you and hisses. You give him a glare, and he scurries through a rotten wooden door, slamming it to the wall to a shower of splinters. A moment later, you hear a familiar wheezing approach, then Henreid the necromancer hobbles into the room.

"Ah, exalted one, welcome, welcome to my workshop! It's nice, yes? Ah, my ladies, greetings to you as well. My master has most excellent taste, yes. Shall I show you around the dungeon?" The greyish humanoid from before peeks around the doorframe. "Come, Carl, come. They won't bite. They are friends, yes? We are their servants! Carl is my first creation, a ghoul. Fine work, yes?"

'Carl' sidles into the room, sitting at the necromancer's feet like a dog. He stares at Tlax for a moment, then cautiously patters up to her. The snake-woman freezes in place, swaying slightly back and forth, then suddenly lunges forward, hissing, her green hair twisting into a mane of snakes. The ghoul yelps in response then leaps back out of the room, causing a wheezing, hacking laugh from his creator. "I see I have much to learn to create pets like yours, yes!"

"I am no one'sss pet!" Tlax hisses at the necromancer in turn, the snakes joining in to make a deafening chorus, but Henreid simply wheezes and laughs in response. You scratch her scalp beneath the writhing mass, and after a moment she calms and the snakes fade back into her green hair. "I don't like thisss one." You simply shrug in response.

"So, would you like to show me the rest of the dungeon?" You do your best to feign interest—Tlax dismembering the necromancer might not be a great start for your vassal relationship.

"Yes, of course, your excellency, of course!" If you would follow me," he turns and hobbles through the door, stepping over a severed arm as he does. Tlax winds a careful path across the room, avoiding what she can, while Mariel gingerly steps over the body parts with an apathetic expression. Ari has turned a shade of green that matches the decor, so you wrap your arm around her shoulder and guide her out of the workshop. A short cobblestone hallway connects the room to a slightly larger one. A mouldy couch under a window dominates one wall while the others are lined with crumbling shelves. "This is the study, and also the entrance to my dungeon. Put that down, Xax!" A small imp cackles and drops a dusty tome before landing on the necromancer's shoulder. "This is Xax, my new imp familiar. Thanks to you for allowing me to summon him, your greatness!"

"Of course, it was my pleasure." You tip your head slightly.

"Well, now you have seen the dungeon! It will grow, of course, grow much with your aid, my lord! But we all must start small, yes?" He pauses to hack and cough for a moment. "Now, is there anything else you require?"

You simply shake your head. "Thank you for showing me around. I look forward to seeing your progress." With that, you make your way back to the portal as quickly as you think is polite, then take a deep breath as soon as you return to your dungeon.

"So, when can we get rid of him?" Ari coughs a bit as she tries to purge the foul air from her lungs. "Low expectations, I know, but... yeah."

"I don't really know how this vassal system works, but maybe when this business with the Soul is over. I suppose we could also just do our best to not visit: I'm not sure betraying my very first vassal would look good. But yeah, I don't expect we'll make regular social calls." You can't help but shudder a bit as you recall the filthy room you just left.

"Let's go see the fae!" Mariel cheerily tugs on your arm and you stumble a bit towards the other portal, then right yourself and let yourself be led to your more promising vassal.