Description
This older man's height is only around five foot ten inches. His hair is
thinning and hangs down in loose gray strands past his shoulders. His
face is set in an almost permanent half-scowl. His features have hardened
with age and begun to take on a sunken appearance. A light gray stubble
coats his face. His dark eyes often narrowed with a malicious gleam. He
is slender to the point of malnourishment and his pale and unhealthy pallor
only adds to the sickly appearance. His fingernails are yellowed and
black under the tips from layer upon layer of dirt and grime and gods only
know what else. A necklace made from the bones of giant fingers which
have been sun bleached stand out starkly around his neck.
Role
First days in the guild
Added Fri Apr 6 18:11:35 2007 at level 47:
With the old man Vessitis shop staying abnormally closed, it did not take
long for some of the more nosey townsfolk who assumed the old man had passed
in his sleep to rationalize breaking into his home and shop to check up on
him.
Word travels fast with the most watered down of rumors.Once the old mans
secret was discovered the news spread through taverns and guild halls of
necromancers like wildfire. It did not take long for the wizened mage who
brought the child into the guild to put the pieces together. He had his own
plans for the child.
He spent his childhood near and in the guild hall of necromancers in Galadon.
He became the charge of the dark mage that captured him like a little prize
on his first day within the city. Other children spent their days playing,
doing chores, and their studies if they were lucky enough to be educated.
His days were spent following after Bristen, cleaning and doing his bidding.
Much to the dismay of Vessit, what Bristen had dubbed him, the mage would not
teach him anything. The child did not know it, but some part of Bristen
feared him. Vessit watched when he could and spent any time he could get
alone in the shadows of alleys luring stray cats and dogs to him. He was
very careful not to let Bristen discover his hobby.
Vessit managed to build what looked like the frame of a painting. Which he
became very adept at pinning the feet of the pets he found to so that he
could further examine them in greater detail. He was very clever at
disposing of the remaining materials from his meticulous studies.
The boy was very clever and adept at making intuitive leaps. The fact that
Bristen had kept him around was reason enough to fear whatever plans he had
for Vessit. He would have to free himself from this one as well.
On his own at last
Added Fri Apr 6 18:13:10 2007 at level 47:
In the ten years that Vessit had been a servant for Bristen, the boy never
needed to be shown more than once in any given task. Bristen was cautious
and was careful when he left the guild to protect himself with magical
devices before roaming around the city or even outside its walls. It had
saved him many times over, through this Vessit would escape yet again.
It was overly simple and took nothing more than replacing a potion of
protection with a concoction that would make even the strongest mind sleep
for hours. It was not as quick for Bristen as it was for old man Vessiti.
Bristen found himself on one of Vessits clever frame-like structures. His
tongue removed and his mouth crudely sewn shut.Vessit took a good long time
with this prize. He did not even notice when Bristen finally expired and
continued for hours after exploring the inner workings of a man before
donning the robes of his former master taking his place in the guild hall as
an initiate.
The perfect toy
Added Fri Feb 23 00:47:34 2007 at level 1:
Vessiti was a kindly old man. He had thin white hair, a crouched elderly
posture and matching old man shuffle. Always a warm smile on his face. He
had a small shop, he was a craftsman. A toy maker.
When the sun would begin to set, Vessiti would begin the process of closing
down his shop. Pushing a worn out broom around the shop, doing little than
moving a little bit of dirt around. Turning down the interior lamps.
Pulling the curtains across the little windows. If anyone had been peering
in a window through a gap in the curtains they would have seen elderly old
Vessiti shuffle over to the stairs that lead up to his small room, but
instead go into the cellar door that lead down to his workshop. However, no
one was peeking in and he knew it, you didn't last as long as Vessiti did if
you weren't cautious.
As he stepped through the slightly crooked door and turned on the landing at
the top of the stairs to close it, he stood a little straighter and his
stride lengthened noticeably as he descended the stairs. The warm smile
faded and left his face looking dour and tensed. He made the transition
without thinking about it. It was like taking off an overly itchy sweater
that he'd been forced to wear under the heat of the sun, but it was necessary
and it kept him safe. Much like the enchantment over the shop room that
negated the ability to detect evil. A spell of half subterfuge and half
cleansing, it made his skin crawl to stand in it, but a person could get used
to just about anything.
It was no accident that Vessiti's shop was so close to a graveyard. He
walked directly for the back wall with one quick scanning glance over his
shoulder, even though he knew no one was there. He hated that he did those
things, he hated even more how much his survival was dependent upon it. That
would all be over soon, he had been working for decades on a way to impress
that crazy priest in order to get his hands on The Elixir and he thought he
had finally found a way. Grumbling to himself, he casually waved his hand
over seemingly nothing. As he did so, the plain stone wall collapsed in on
itself allowing him passage. Once he was over the threshold the section of
wall reformed, the bones set in mortar on the other side of the stones
reassembling like a puzzle.
Over the years he had concocted a great many clever ways to make use energies
from the prime negative plane. His latest work was certainly his greatest
creation. Everyday he spent smiling and nodding, pretending to barely hear
or see the children coming into his shop to see his ingenious and clever
toys. He almost did not have time to despise them for their youth as much as
he longed to get back down to his real workshop and continue his efforts. He
rarely slept, spending the entirety of his nights down here in the earth.
The work space, as it was, was as large the main room upstairs. Bare earth
with a long work bench along one wall and an assortment of tools lining the
shelves underneath. There was a tunnel hole about six feet high on the side
closest to the cemetery. The two zombies he had set at the task of tunneling
under the cemetery plots had just re-entered the hole in search of more
graves to steal "materials" from. They had to work almost constantly, making
the tunnel, finding
Captive again
Added Sat Mar 10 08:46:53 2007 at level 27:
The boy traveled through the wilds for two days with no destination in mind,
only to keep moving away from the old man. He dozed in and out of sleep as
the lumbering giants strides rocked him from within. When he was awake he
ate what he could find, mostly the insect larvae that infested the zombie.
He had passed near some outlying farms and small cottages. He was too young
and too inexperienced to understand he was drawing near civilization, or that
he was being tracked. The only thing that saved him and his carrier from a
hail of arrows was the confusion by the woodsman of a zombie seeming to
travel of its own accord. It seemed to have no intention of harming anyone
or anything and the oddity of it made the man uneasy, so he left off his
chase as it neared the city of Galadon under the night sky. All he could do
was try to push the wonderment of it from his mind and go back to things that
made sense to him.
The boy was scared of the city, but it was dark and the gate did not seem to
be under any kind of high alert by the guards. He pulled the rib cage
shutters closed and peered between the cracks as he rode into town.
He was in town for all of ten minutes eyeing the delicious looking delights
in the various shop windows and almost missed the small group that were
arguing and gesturing towards him. They had to be talking about him and he
froze in terror. There were four of them, only two were actually speaking.
The other two were just staring at each other with obvious aggression in
their eyes. A great stout man, clad in shiny armor and another man of almost
equal height, but much more slender in black robes, each with a younger
person behind them. After another moment, the larger shinier man made one
last loud remark and a threatening gesture towards the boy before walking off
in a huff. The black robed man barked a quick order to his younger
counterpart and gestured also towards the boy before losing himself in his
thoughts.
The young man walked over towards the zombie and began to utter unsteady
arcane commands at the undead construct. The boy inside could feel control
being wrested from him and panicked. He closed his eyes tight and
concentrated on maintaining control. The apprentice could feel the zombie
fighting him for control, confused he stopped and peered at the still not
moving zombie. The boy inside felt the battle for control cease and opened
his eyes, he saw the young man approaching him even closer, cautiously and
studying the zombie from head to foot as he did so. He saw the young man
notice the "shutters". The boys body would not respond, the fear had
knocked the wind from him. When the young man opened the little doors the
boys instincts took over. The giants hands slammed together on each side
of the young apprentices head, as that happened the boy launched himself
repeatedly biting the face that was intruding into his home. There was a
loud grating pop like a chicken leg being bitten through and a squelching
sound as his head collapsed. The hands released and the body fell, the young
boy saw the man in black robes curse and utter an unfamiliar arcane word.
The next moment would create a memory that would never leave his mind despite
his young age. The sensation of everything around him being ripped apar