Old Town Of things both Good and Evil

[Jules Durand]

Jules flipped the pages of an old book, his eyes touching on words without ever really reading them. He'd read this book so many times. He knew it front to back even as he rejected everything written inside it. Even as he actively avoided reading the words in that moment while still turning the pages, his fingers ever so gingerly touching the thin paper. Verses, chapters, sentences... on occasion he would find a name and couldn't help but recognize it without meaning to. 

He closed the book, a simple cross on its old leather cover. The sight of it made him wince slightly but he picked it up all the same and took it back to his bookshelf. Once he placed it neatly between two thick volumes on magic and legal practices respectively and stepped away he felt instantly better.

He did not read the Christian Bible often. 

He didn't believe.

But he knew it. He had learned it. He had once held faith.

Was that why it bothered him so now in his state of Unlife? He was no philosopher and cared little for the practice.

Looking back to his dark wood desk a simple picture and file laid bare for his inspection. A woman who had hired him for some petty case he'd advised against, it was a waste of his time and talents... only it hadn't been exactly. The establishment that was the cause of the conflict had introduced him to an interesting business partner that the Lich had struck up a bargain with. A bargain he needed to see through.

Walking away from the desk, the old undead opened the door to his office, then to the hall, and finally the front door of his unassuming home. The inside was neat, so much so one couldn't be blamed for thinking no one actually lived their despite the spartan furnishings. 

An open door, an open invitation.

Walking back to his desk, Jules sat himself down and held out a hand as he focused. His skin became thin and sunken, traces of his more undead nature evident on his face once his power began to leave his body. An invisible thread of necromantic power pulled itself tight and then strummed playing a music silent to all but the ethereal and mortally challenged. It rang in the air, through the sea of what was and was no more. A call...

A summoning.

A promise.

Come to me... be calm... be pliant... be mine... come to me... Come spirits.

Jules Necromancy Roll: 6d6
6 passes = Exceptional success

Spell meant to lull ghosts to him, like a trance. Not the proper binding. Just the tether to start it.

[Pandora Valis]

attire

Pandora was just having a quiet evening herself, taking a walk, being unseen, and then literally stopping to smell the roses. She still loved flowers so much, wished that she wasn't dead so that she could really feel the soil running between her fingers again. The way it stained her skin and made her have to scrub and scrub it off to be free of it.

Tonight though was different and strange, she had no clue why but something was drawing her and she let her feet take her to it. Nothing seemed to stop her as she looked around, her bare feet not making a sound as she walked into an unknown home and up the steps.

Slowly, she materialized in a way, a shimmer to her body as she found herself in an office in front of an elderly man.

Why was she here? Confusion was on her face as her vibrant eyes looked around, “Did...you call me? ”

[Jules Durand]

Jules Necromancy Roll: 6d6
0 passes = Absolute Garbage!

Jules felt it when a spirit touched his spell. Like a fly against a spider's web. It began to near and Jules willed the call like a stream, bringing the spirit toward him as if following a current.

The more he changed the shape and nature of the call the more skeletal he seemed to look. He rolled his hand, an almost brittle sound echoing from his joints.

He felt it when the spirit was in the room. The cold in the air, the lack of vibrance the world normally held. Then in a few short seconds that lack of anything resolved itself into a slightly confused looking young woman.

Jules flexed his fingers to bind the spirit but the energy went taunt. As if he had been unfolding himself to work the magic he felt the end of the invisible black fabric that both empowered and animated him.

He... shouldn't have touched a Bible before working this spell... weakened himself... dostracted..distracted... frayed... the Necromantic energy quickly receded, like fog before the morning sun.

It withdrew from the world and filled the Lich once more. As it returned his skin flushed in an imitation of life as his flesh filled itself again. He still looked old, but no longer skeletal or decrepit.

Without the working in the air the dazed spirit had little reason to stay. He needed a bit of time to work a new spell. Standing slowly, he gave the spirit a small thin smile.

"I did. Can you tell me your name? Can you tell me your story, spirit?" he asked like a kind old man.

He wasn't disinterested in truth. Binding was always easier when you knew more about your victim.

Jules magic 1/3 -1
Jules Luck 6/6

[Pandora Valis]

Pandora watched in a mix of awe and horror as his form changed and shrunk and formed that of a skeleton that had the fabric of skin stretched over the bones. She could see so much and was mildly grossed out yet concerned all at once.

Then in a blink, he was filling back out, looking just elderly and gaunt but no longer like he popped out from the scyfy coffin. She watched as he stood and smiled some at her but she stepped back a little, uneasy as she felt her emotions trickling in. Caution. Weariness.

“Why do you want to know? Did you make me come here? I-I don't know you, I don't know this place so I don't understand why I would come here...I just wanted to go back to the garden, ” if he thought she'd stay in a strange mans house easily, the old man was mistaken as she had heard horror stories of young women being kidnapped.

Could she be kidnapped as a ghost? She didn't even have a phone and couldn't call anyone that might come to her either if that was the case. Or maybe, she was just rattled at walking into someones home and was just jumpy. She wasn't sure honestly.

[Jules Durand]

Jules Necromancy Roll: 6d6
4 passes= Complete success

As Jules stood the spirit seemed to be coming back to itself. She took a step back, hesitation quickly giving way to fear. She could fade but if she didn't flee he could bind her still. Yet the confusion, still waiting and speaking. Asking questions.

Jules didn't approach her, instead he held up his empty hands in a placating gesture. As he did though, his power began to unflod from him once more.

It was less than before, he didn't need to coat such a large area and could afford to be more... subtle. His skin lost its color quickly but he didn't desicate like before.

"It's okay. You can trust me." he said, his voice in harmony with the music of his necromancy. Once more he played it like strummed strings of an instrument. Weight to his words upon a dead soul. Calm. Trust. Everything is right.

Jules had bound many souls before, they all took to it differently and there was far from just one way to do it. He was working a more subtle method... he could try and just bind the thing with brute force but such a binding would leave the spirit as a husk. Useful but inefficient.

Jules had something else in mind.

"I am someone who works with spirits. Talk to me, it will be good." he said still seeping his necromancy into his words. Trying to slowly infect this ghost with his power, his will, his lies.

Trust. Speak. It will be good.... t..ru...st...

Jules Magic 0/3
Jules Luck 6/6

[Pandora Valis]

The way he held his hands up as he spoke showed that he was attempting to show that he was harmless but yet what drew her to a strangers house? She stared at him, delicate brows narrowing a little at him.

She noticed then, his skin greying as they stood here and she stepped back a little more from him. Even as she felt the tug to be calm; and she could be but trusting him felt unnatural since he’d done nothing to ear her trust.

“How can I trust someone I don’t know? ” she told him, “Are you magic? ” she asked him, not even caring if she used the right term for it because she had no idea what the right term for them even was.

The urging though, the tugging to talk, to tell him everything was pressing hard on her tongue, “Why me? I don’t want to move on, I’m fine like this I don’t care that I’m dead, ” she told him, thinking that was what he implied by working with spirits. Was he going to force her to move on? Right when she got back to working with Nari again?! She didn’t want to go!

[Jules Durand]

Necromancy Roll: 6d6
4 passes = Complete success

This spirit was... surprisingly resilient... that was excellent. Phantoms without a strong sense of self were easily swayed to be sure but they were never very imaginative, best used to simple tasks and- for lack of a better term- shock troops. But one with a clear sense of self? They could think on their own. They could imagine.

They were also more difficult to bind... Jules realized he'd have to sacrifice a bit if we was to bring in this wonderful little lost soul.

"I am Jules Durand." he said in his French accent. Now you know him... you can trust him... you can let down your guard...

When she said she didn't want to move on Jules just smiled as if he were looking at a child. It was... not unkind. He changed tactics, pushing his magic in a new way. No longer like a thrum of sound... he ran it like drops of ink.

This spirit was a glass of water and he sought to infect her, spill in inside until it became cloudy and dark with his power. Bound to his power. Part of his power.

"No one is going to make you move on. Please, just talk with me. Then you can leave." Jules said as perfectly reasonable as he could be.

-1/3 Jules Magic
5/6 Jules Luck

[Pandora Valis]

The name swirled in her mind, an unknown person that she had never met. Never seen. Never even heard of so why should she trust him? He did give her his name and if he did, that had to mean he wasn’t terrible? Who gives their name to someone they’d want to harm anyways?

“Pandora, ” she told him, knowing just enough to not give her full name to him. It was a small safety precaution because he could be a trickster!

The words did soothe her more, knowing that he wasn’t going to try and make her move on. That scared her, she didn’t want to leave when she wanted to do so much still but yet was kept from being able to since she lacked her body.

“What do you want to talk about Mr. Durand? ” Pandora asked him, her tone softening into politeness as she did. She may be confused and unsure about him but respecting your elders went a long way with her.

Sadly to her, she didn’t feel the seeping starting, the only evidence to him that anything was taking root was her bark brown hair had a strand of black starting to show. It was as if someone dipped the strand into an ink vat with how it stood out with the rest of her hair.

[Jules Durand]

Jules Necromancy roll: 6d6
1 pass = Failure

Jules gave her a smile, twitching the muscles in his face to give the kindest smile he could. "Hello Pandora." he said to her. Now he had a name, not her full name but enough to start of he needed her specifically again.

Pandira wasn't the most common name and he was confident with her face and first name he could likely find her.

A trail of black began to seep into her hair but at the same moment Jules' felt a twisting in his guts. His intestines were withering away. Unpleasant but not detrimental.

He pulled back his power to slow the decay of his physical form for the moment. If he became fully skeletal in front of this girl before she was bound it would be... tedious.

"Tell me about your life. Your happiest memories." Jules said.

This was, he had to admit, a cruel part of such a binding. Cruel but wonderful... his magic up until now was to calm her, instill trust, ready her.

His skin flushed again as his magic returned to him, save what was left behind previously in the Spirit Pandora.

The next spell he wove would be what bound her.

Jules Magic -2/3
Jules Luck 4/6

[Pandora Valis]

“Hello, ” she said softly, her eyes leaving him then to look around this space that she’d wondered into. What was this place anyways? A study maybe, like what her father has? She wondered if he was like Nari, Nari was different. She knew that in the way her eyes changed and how she knew of magic creatures like herself.

Walking around a little, her hands behind her back as she looked at what he had on the walls before his question stopped her.

“My life wasn’t anything special…I went to college, was the pride of my parents whom I love dearly- I wish I could see them but it would only hurt them, ” she said softly. She was slowly starting to open up, the book opening a little for him.

“ My happiest memory…I don’t know. It’s been a while since I’ve really been happy. I’m happy when I’m taking care of plants or when I help my friends. I remember being really happy at getting to go scuba diving with sharks; they’re magnificent and the way they swim. They’re smart but deadly. Beautiful creatures that I wish I could swim with again and just be in their space.”

[Jules Durand]

Necromancy Roll: 6d6
0 passes = like why even bother -_-'

Jules twisted his magic but felt himself unraveling. While his face didn't change, he controlled his muscles, he could also feel the loss. The loosening of ligaments, thinning of muscle and skin, every nerve as it struggled and started to die.

Jules was the master of his body and knew it in ways no meat sack ever could.

As Pandora spoke he gave her a small nod and walked over to his desk. With one hand he leaned against it to steady his form in case the degradation further advanced. While with the other he retrieved a pencil and notepad. He started making notes of what she aaid- in Middle French.

He mentally cursed at himself and his sentiment at reading a religious text before a working. Rookie mistake. Amateurish. Two hundred years ago he would have ritually purified himself before any serious magic... now look at him.

He glanced back at the spirit and gave her a fatherly smile.

"Les requins... I have never actually seen one but I'm sure they must have been majestic." he said.

Sharks were one of the oldest predators on the planet... he respected that.

"How much do you remember of your parents? Your childhood?" he asked.

Magic -3/3
Luck 3/6

[Pandora Valis]

Pandora's eyes went to him as he leaned against his desk, he looked so tired. Was it past his bedtime perhaps? She remembered when her grandparents stayed up late they got woozy and tired very easily. How old was he anyways? But he was asking questions and then she actually smiled.

The way she smiled, it brought out the dimples in her cheeks and the slight lively sparkle in her eyes, “They were incredible. Majestic isn't even enough for them, the way they swim and how they command the space around them- they fear nothing. They're timeless. Swimming, searching, and of course having babies, ” she said with a smile.

Ghosts couldn't have babies though. She'd never be a mother like she'd dreamt of.

“A lot...I don't remember much leading up to when or how I died...I remember my home and playing in the garden and thinking weeds were magnificent plants, ” she said with a small laugh and smile, her head shaking a little at that. She missed the real feel of soil and digging the bits out from under her nails when she forgot to wear gloves. “My parents don't have any other kids though...just me. I wish I could go home but it would only hurt them if they saw me like this, ” she found herself telling him as she looked at her hands. She saw through them, they were opaque and shimmering; like a fine glitter spread over water.

[Jules Durand]

Jules Necromancy: 6d6
0 passes = I call hax

Jules felt it the next time he tried to move his magic, the muscles of his legs atrophying and turning black, pressing tight against his bones. Unfortunate...

He was having to use more magic supporting himself than he expected. He glanced back at Pandora as she spoke of sharks with a surprising whimsy.

Jules moved his chair back and then sat himself down, looking surprisingly frail and thin. He continued to scribble notes before glancing up at the ghost once more.

"Thank you for talking with me. It may not seem like much but this has been helpful." he said. Apart from his chest, head, and right arm he'd gone fairly still.

"Would you be willing to come back and speak with me again?" he said, sounding tired.

He wasn't tired. Just disappointed in this frail form. He needed to ground himself and while it was a mostly immaterial act for the lich he was very vulnerable during it.

He couldn't risk having a spirit around as he did so.

Magic -4/3
Luck 2/3

[Pandora Valis]

Pandora could not stop the caring she felt towards people, the kindness that seeped through her veins easily. Even now as a ghost and she saw how he suddenly looked so frail and tired. Worn like he was a hundred years old.

Slowly, she walked over to him, confused as to how what she said helped in the slightest but if it offered some comfort to a lonely old man, she could bear it.

The question had her thinking for a moment and something smoothed over normal apprehension, “I can come back...or you can come find me at the gardens. It's where I stay normally. ” she told him softly as she approached and dared to rest a hand over his. He could probably feel a coolness from her hovering touch, see the longing for touch that crossed her face as she stood there for a moment before retrieving her hand.

[Jules Durand]

Necromancy Roll: 6d6
2 passes = Partial Failure

Jules looked at the girl with a soft thin smile on his lips as she agreed to come back, or meet him at the gardens where she normally haunted. He had a location and her first name. The odds of not being able to discover her true name if needed were practically zero.

She stepped over and geny laid her hand across his own, his natural sense for the dearly departed flaring like pins and needles against his flesh.

"Then I will find you tomorrow night in your... garden. As for tonight, I think I should rest." he said, looking more frail by the second.

He gave her a nod and waited until he could no longer feeling her spirit or the black traces of his Necromancy he had stained in her. Once he felt certain. She was gone he went very still.

As of holding a too tight string he let go and his flesh sunk deep into him, almost being absorbed by the black skeleton within. His eyes turned fully white then withered until they were just hallow dark pits in his head.

He stood slowly, wrapping g his power deep around himself to move his ever more visible ebony bones and walked to his bookshelf.

With one vicious swipe of his arms he scattered the tomes and revealed a hidden wall safe. The lock was an intricate pattern of arcane symbols, but when he tried to open them magically they froze up and he felt his left arm go dead, pardon the pun, at his side.

He reached his other hand out, now just bone and grey ligament, and finished opening the lock to reveal a gold and red container... thrumming with malicious power.

Magic -5/3
Luck 1/6

[Pandora Valis]

Pandora offered a small nod, retreating away from him. She didn't know how many dark streaks coated her hair now but they were there. The stains of his magic seeped into her making her susceptible to him without her knowledge.

With that, she retreated and left the same way she entered and went straight to the safety of the gardens once more.

Here she felt safe, like nothing could harm her as she melded back into the shadows of safety. She was fine, nothing was strange tonight and she'd wake like nothing happened.