Elzabeth hesitated before the door to the lich’s chambers until it was silent, knowing better than to interrupt his ‘entertainment’… or she might become part of it. When she did enter, she found him seated on his throne, as expected, his most recent source of amusement, the young warrioress, standing by his side, obviously in a great deal of distress, but she didn’t want to even think about what form of depraved humiliation he’d inflicted on the poor woman this time. She’d been the one to relieve his boredom before and was thankful he had someone else to do so now. “What too you so long?” A’mon Sol sneered at his thrall’s entrance, the irritation clear in his voice as he turned his attention away from his human puppet after mentally commanding her to stand quietly beside him until he finished with the witch, who’d been gone longer than he expected. “They were formidable. Likely the strongest so far,” Elzabeth responded with feigned meekness as she approached and knelt at the foot of the dais, hoping that he couldn’t sense her growing anticipation. “Why didn’t you bring their remains before me to reanimate as replacements for the undead they cost me?” he demanded coldly. She knew he’d want to raised them to serve as defenders against future intruders. “I’m afraid there isn’t enough left, master. I had to employ my most devastating spells, leaving them as nothing more than cinders and ash,” she lied in a falsely submissive tone, knowing full well that the adventurers were gathering just outside the door, ready to attack… or so she hoped. “A shame,” the lich grumbled in frustration. These would-be heroes had delved deeper into his lichdom than any before them, except the group she’d come with, whom he’d been forced to deal with himself. The golem they’d destroyed could be replaced in time, the gobliniods would breed their own replacements quickly enough and he could always raise their fallen as zombies to restore the ranks of those they’d cost him, so the defenses would remain as strong as ever, but he enjoyed cursing anyone who dared to intrude into his domain to suffer as undead in his service. “There must’ve been at least one spellcaster amongst them… where are their spellbooks,” he probed in a harsh growl. It wasn’t likely that they’d possess any spells he didn’t already have recorded in his own collection of arcane tomes, but he still greedily coveted any small morsal of mystical knowledge… and he wanted to carefully control her access to new spells. She was already becoming too impertinent, assuming an air of authority over his other minions. Although he held her under a geas that prevented her form acting against him, he knew she was clever and ambitious, so she’d eventually try to free herself from him. “Their only arcanist appeared to be a sorcerer,” she retorted honestly, knowing that Galen was indeed. While wizards, like herself and the netherese lich, rely on written volumes to restore their allotment of spells daily, sorcerers possess an innate understanding of those complex arcane formulas, so they seldom burden themselves with cumbersome books, but are limited in the number of incantations they can memorize. Then she stated deceitfully; “The only items of worth that survived their immolation were a few varied weapons which the hobgoblins were fighting over when I left them to deal with the mess. If the sorcerer had anything of value it must’ve been destroyed with him.” “Very well,” the lich muttered in a mildly annoyed tone. He’d collected quite an assemblage of magic items over the centuries, which he doled out cautiously to bolster his minions ability to defend his dominion. ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Disclaimer: Some of the material presented here may be the property of Wizards of the Coast, LLC© taken from the Dungeons & Dragons® Forgotten Realms® Campaign Setting authored by Ed Greenwood & Sean Renyolds, the Dungeons & Dragons® Forgotten Realms® Campaign Accessory Silver Marches® authored by Ed Greenwood and Jason Carl and/or other sourcebooks registered to Wizards of the Coast, LLC©. This is unofficial “Fan Content” permitted under Wizards of the Coast, LLC© Fan Content Policy, it is not approved or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, LLC©.