The Necrotic Tablet
A pronounced figure emerged from the darkness of the Ascalonian catacombs. The figure, with
protruding bones, ghostly-white hair, and a huge gash down his left cheek, proceeded across
the Ashford Abby shooting sarcastic glances at the chattering monks. He had just finished
training to be in the Ascalon Vanguard as a Necromancer. The master of blood and bones, in
training a death-magician is forced to become bonded to his minions: blood and bones. To
fully control another's blood and the corpse of the dead, the trainees become less
human and more—dead.
Called simply HDK, for to be named humanly would be quite odd of a being such as this, the
figure walked bristly to Ascalon City accompanied by a bone horror, a creature summoned
from a slain living being, and guarded by a swarm of misshapen dead insects. Approaching
the city gates he found a little girl.
"Hey! Mister! I lost my flute. Can you help me find it?" the little girl pleaded
in a depressed voice.
"I'll find it in a split second! Now why don't you wait right here,"
cooed HDK, who then walked over and across a stream and found the flute—which was snapped
in half—by a bog scale that was quickly dispatched by the summoned minions.
Returning to the sad girl with the broken toy, HDK asked who the little girl was. "My
name is Gwen. I want to be a hero like my daddy."
HDK climbed the palace steps and saluted briskly. Gwen, by his side, stared wide-eyed at a
tall figure. Announced HDK, "Prince Rurik, Sir! I am—"
"I know who you are. I have been following your marks very closely. Congratulations on
completing your training."
"Thank y—"
"Are you ready to join the Vanguard?"
"Sir, I would like to consid—"
"Great! Report to Tydus at the gates of the Great Wall."
"Yes, Sir," stammered the bewildered necromancer as he saluted the prince, again,
and headed north to the Great Wall which defended Ascalon, Gwen scurrying after him.
The fire came from Hell. Ascalon was destroyed by the Charr, a beastly species invading from the north. The green, luscious fields were battered into orange mud puddles, marked by huge crystals, formed by the immense heat, scattered among the rubble of wrecked households.
HDK bent over two bodies, obviously the two were a couple. The floor of the ruined hut was seared, and diamond-sized glass crystals littered the area. A guard told him that the bodies belonged to James and Sara. "There daughter has not been found, dead or alive. She was named… what was it…Gwin or something." HDK refused to cast the ritual to turn the corpses into bone horrors, as he had been doing to many of the dead bodies. "They are too burnt to be a good, healthy minion," was his pathetic excuse.
The Charr could not be pushed back. Cities were recaptured and Academies recovered, but the prince defied his father's decision and made a party of Ascalonians to cross the Shiverpeak mountains to the west, in order to find a place to settle. The battles were fought, and more enemies were found in the lands of the world Tyria then HDK could have ever imagined. Tyria was saved from evil many times, so predicted the Flameseeker Prophecies.
HDK stood before a bony figure which lacked flesh. The fire glowed around him and bursts of
steam erupted, sizzling, along the coastline of the Fire Islands chain. The figure bore a
resemblance to the deceased Prince Rurik. HDK heard the Lich Lord cackle in the distance as
the creature before him spoke. "It is not my will to fight you, but it is not my
choice." The Lich Lord, in the distance, erupted with laugher.
The full moon shone eerily on the Islands as the chilling clash of blade against shield
echoed. Not only did the Fire Islands glow with conflagration and fog, but also the hollow
glare of rage and sorrow. So was the final battle in Tyria fought, with grief the equal of
fury.
HDK knelt before the statue of Grenth, the god of death and the necromancer's patron,
in the most holy place in all of Tyria: the Temple of Ages. Holy light pored off the statue
and rolled onto the ground, as the Favor of the Gods was focused upon the necromancer. A
messenger appeared. HDK threw a bag of gold onto the statue's base, as an offering to
the god. "I request passage to the underworld."
HDK found himself in a dark chamber. Two human ghosts approached him. "Welcome to the
Underworld. I am Sara and this is my husband, James. Can you help us find our daughter?"
