The OP Lich is a Returnee, Book 13 Prologue (Patreon)

Prologue – Trade Chat

(Magical World Disharmony Server, General Chat)

UsualSuspect, manoutoftime, muon, MewTwo, Avariel, Chummer, Golddigger, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, MacD, Inquisitor, OrangeQueen, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, BabyShark, Lichwatcher, Not_the_Face!, Scholar, Salty, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, DigDug, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, BackDat@55Up and DarkAngel are in the chat.

Salty: Final casualty reports just came out from the Azores. Of the 250,000 people living there, there have been 24,893 people airlifted to hospitals in mainland Portugal. Rescuers have recovered another three thousand people who are either uninjured or ‘walking wounded’.

MacD: And the rest?

Salty: Missing, presumed dead. Most of them from the central islands.

RedFox: Any hope of them being found?

Salty: At this point, it has been two weeks. Unless they are trapped somewhere with food and water, they’re dead by now. Stranger things have happened, but they’re officially calling it a recovery operation now, instead of rescue.

Inquisitor: A grim reminder that there are still forces in this world that are beyond mortal comprehension. Even with magic.

DarkAngel: So, any word on LQ? She was headed to some islands in the southern hemisphere, right? Like, near Antarctica?

Scholar: Not quite into the Antarctic Circle, but close. They’re technically in the southern Indian Ocean, a few thousand miles from anywhere that could be considered mainland. Only ways to get there are by boat, or seaplane.

Golddigger: Well, if the ritual had failed, then we’d probably be picking up reports from the seismometers, right? Because of earthquakes?

Scholar: Along with tsunami warnings, yes. That we haven’t had any warnings is a sign that either nothing has happened yet, or that the ritual was a success.

LichWatcher: I can say that the plane LQ has been using was tracked by its transponder to the Kerguelens, but has not left yet. Satellite images show that the islands were still there, as of an hour ago.

SemiSolidSnake: You have access to current satellite pics?

muon: Tracking her plane? What are you, the CIA?

LichWatcher: Nothing military, but there are plenty of commercial satellites that have cameras, that let people access their images. Not real-time, of course, but still good enough. And tracking the plane is easy if they have their transponders on.

MewTwo: So, any word on her, then?

Not_the_Face!: No, not yet. Probably turned things off so she wouldn’t get disturbed while sitting on top of a literal magic bomb.

MacD: Well, when you put it that way, I guess we should be patient. I hate being patient.

Backlog: Well, in related news, the Egyptian government has closed off all access to the Pyramids.

BabyShark: That’s where the Seal of Death is, right? Fitting that the tombs of kings are over it.

Scholar: Actually, it is causing some major questions I the academic community.

Backlog: Why?

Scholar: Well, the Terracotta Army was made to guard the Seal of Shadow in China, right? But that is 248 BCE. The Great Pyramid was over two thousand years earlier.

MewTwo: Ah, so the question is how did they build the seal under the tomb, or was the seal there all along?

Scholar: Information from the other seals suggest that they were all made at about the same time as the Shadow seal, so they would have had to dig under the tomb, either going under it, and risking a collapse, or opening the tomb to then make a new passage down.

UsualSuspect: You know, with Death being sealed there, it could explain how rumors of mummies and curses and the like came to be.

TheLichQueen has entered the chat.

Scholar: LQ! Does this mean that the seal has been released successfully?

TheLichQueen: Yes. Though there were some problems.

Salty: Not the explosive kind, right?

TheLichQueen: No, not like that. The ritual went off fine. However, everyone that conducts the ritual is changed by it. In this case, the two volunteers were… merged.

Knocker: Are we talking about Siamese Twins? Human Centipede? Voltron?

TheLichQueen: Their minds and souls were still separate, but their bodies had merged into a single, more powerful, form.

UsualSuspect: Oof. That had to be weird. Did you get it sorted out?

TheLichQueen: Such spellwork is complicated. I could have done something, but there would be a good chance that one or both of them would have died, or become undead, and their souls might have been damaged in the process.

Salty: Ouch. So, they’re stuck like that?

TheLichQueen: No. I called for help, and they were able to fix things.

LichWatcher: You. Called for help? From whom?

TheLichQueen: Murena, Goddess of Death and the Hunt on Onerth.

DarkAvariel: You called a goddess from another world to help you out? How?

TheLichQueen: I am a Warlock, amongst other things. Any Warlock can call upon their Patron for power, or guidance. It is not wise to call upon them frivolously, or for matters outside their interests, naturally, and many patrons are callous, at best, towards their warlocks, while many are actively malicious.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: So, you could wind up with a Monkey’s Paw kind of situation?

TheLichQueen: Typically, yes.

Avariel: Monkey’s Paw?

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: Refers to a short story, in, like, 1900? Sometime around then. Anyways, it revolves around a mummified monkey’s paw that a British soldier brought back from India. Supposedly, it was enchanted to grant the wielder three wishes, but each came at a terrible cost for interfering with fate.

Avariel: What kind of cost?

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: The father wished for 200 pounds to pay off his mortgage. His adult son died at work the next day, and the company gave him a check for 200 pounds.

Avariel: Ah. Nasty.

TheLichQueen: And that is on the milder end of things that could happen, if a warlock’s patron decides they don’t like what you’ve called them to deal with.

Scholar: But Murena isn’t like that?

TheLichQueen: Yes, and no. If I called upon her for stupid things, then she would find some way to make me pay, no doubt. But for this? She fixed the situation, and gave me the knowledge to keep it from happening again.

DarkAngel: How did she fix it? And what did it cost?

TheLichQueen: The two volunteers now have the ability to merge and separate, so long as both are willing.

TheLichQueen: As for the cost? Aside from blacking out for a bit after having a Goddess possess me, I need to build a temple for her, to cement her presence in this world.

MewTwo: Oh, yeah, I can totally see the religious groups liking this.

TheLichQueen: That sounds like a ‘them’ problem to me.