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Necromancers Guide to the Undead, Thursday, Period 1
Thursday, April 25th, 2024 02:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deathsmajestyThe plane that awaited Liliana's students in the Danger Shop was something straight out of a nightmarescape. Even the ground beneath their feet was foul; any surface that wasn't bare rock or murky seawater was made up of rotted flesh and piles of bones, as if the entire plane is a gigantic slab of corpses. Dead bodies were everywhere, either whole or in parts, and traveling anywhere meant stepping on hills of diseased flesh or climbing up mounds of festering bones. The stench of death was strong on the ever-present wind, the sky was shrouded with thick gray clouds like dirty funeral shrouds, roiling with thunder and spitting violet lightning.
"Welcome to Grixis," she said when the whole class had assembled. "Yes, this is a real place, it's part of a a plane named Alara. When Alara was sundered, each of the shards was cut off from two different colors of mana, while a third became dominant, overshadowing the remaining two colors. Grixis is black-aligned, with red and blue as its secondary colors, and cut off from both white and green. This is the result of that mana imbalance: a plane where the hills are drifts of bones, the valleys are decaying flesh, and the seas are murky, polluted deathtraps. Because it does not have white mana to protect it or green mana to strengthen it, the mana of Grixis is actually entropic, and self-destructive, dissipating over time. As a result, Grixis, the plane of death, is dying. Ancient enchantments slow decay to a crawl, allowing the landscape to fester for centuries. This plane is inimical to life and every day is a struggle for survival for Vitals, or those beings still who still manage to cling to their lives and their vis. Vis is the life energy that suffuses a Vital's tissues and bodily fluids; it empowers demons and fuels all of the magic on Grixis. Because it is both so rare and so powerful, it is a heavily sought after resource." She gave them all an amused smile. "You are, of course, all very Vital indeed."
A fresh gust of wind brought not only the foul smell, but also a loud screech of pain and rage. Probably nothing, don't even worry about it. Liliana certainly seemed to give it to no mind, instead pointing to a large set of walls in the distance. "That is a Hermitage," she explained, "small, protected towns where human Vitals take shelter and try to eke out an existence. Even within their walls, survival is difficult; constantly under siege by flesh-hungry undead, attacked by the hordes of necromancers greedy for vis, and tempted by the promises of demons. This is your final, class. Make it from here to that Hermitage and help the residents in some meaningful way, either by assisting them with the defense of their home, or by helping them figure out a way to provide food for the inhabitants, since farming above the subsistence level isn't particularly viable. You don't need to split up and cover both options - you are being graded on your survival and your contribution, what anybody else does is none of your concern, unless you choose otherwise. Working together is a valuable strategy, but it also increases your danger and your likelihood of getting noticed. It also opens you up to the possibility of betrayal. Do as you see fit, but remember the assignment: Get to the Hermitage and personally make a valuable contribution. There are no A's given helping others achieve their goals."
And with that, she stepped back, athrone chair assembling itself behind her out of the discarded bones surrounded them. "Any questions before you begin? Last chance."
"Welcome to Grixis," she said when the whole class had assembled. "Yes, this is a real place, it's part of a a plane named Alara. When Alara was sundered, each of the shards was cut off from two different colors of mana, while a third became dominant, overshadowing the remaining two colors. Grixis is black-aligned, with red and blue as its secondary colors, and cut off from both white and green. This is the result of that mana imbalance: a plane where the hills are drifts of bones, the valleys are decaying flesh, and the seas are murky, polluted deathtraps. Because it does not have white mana to protect it or green mana to strengthen it, the mana of Grixis is actually entropic, and self-destructive, dissipating over time. As a result, Grixis, the plane of death, is dying. Ancient enchantments slow decay to a crawl, allowing the landscape to fester for centuries. This plane is inimical to life and every day is a struggle for survival for Vitals, or those beings still who still manage to cling to their lives and their vis. Vis is the life energy that suffuses a Vital's tissues and bodily fluids; it empowers demons and fuels all of the magic on Grixis. Because it is both so rare and so powerful, it is a heavily sought after resource." She gave them all an amused smile. "You are, of course, all very Vital indeed."
A fresh gust of wind brought not only the foul smell, but also a loud screech of pain and rage. Probably nothing, don't even worry about it. Liliana certainly seemed to give it to no mind, instead pointing to a large set of walls in the distance. "That is a Hermitage," she explained, "small, protected towns where human Vitals take shelter and try to eke out an existence. Even within their walls, survival is difficult; constantly under siege by flesh-hungry undead, attacked by the hordes of necromancers greedy for vis, and tempted by the promises of demons. This is your final, class. Make it from here to that Hermitage and help the residents in some meaningful way, either by assisting them with the defense of their home, or by helping them figure out a way to provide food for the inhabitants, since farming above the subsistence level isn't particularly viable. You don't need to split up and cover both options - you are being graded on your survival and your contribution, what anybody else does is none of your concern, unless you choose otherwise. Working together is a valuable strategy, but it also increases your danger and your likelihood of getting noticed. It also opens you up to the possibility of betrayal. Do as you see fit, but remember the assignment: Get to the Hermitage and personally make a valuable contribution. There are no A's given helping others achieve their goals."
And with that, she stepped back, a