[Channel Teaser]
How The Mighty Necromancer Flashed
His Shades Of Gray
Pathfinder definitely has its fair share of
odd stories, due to the diversity of the possible
character concepts that can come from its
pages, and this story of Astoshan is definitely
one of them.
This character began in a heavily modified
Pathfinder campaign, where it had bits from
3.5 and even other editions stuck here and
there, plus the GM was a bit of a large-scale
thinker, which meant we could pretty much
do anything within reason.
The party just wanted to make the world a
better place…
well…
most of them, at least.
There was a Human Paladin, Elven Ranger, Dwarven
Defender (basically a super tank fighter),
and Elven Druid… all Good people.
Then… there was Astoshan.
A Necromancer built from a special concoction
of Pale Master and Dread/True Necromancer,
it allowed the class to be a bit more viable
and useful since alone they had their issues.
We referred to it as a ‘The Gray Necromancer’.
Astoshan was definitely a bit unique when
it came to alignment, as he floated somewhere
in between Neutral Evil and True Neutral…
traveling alongside our troupe of do-gooders.
To be fair, he wasn’t malicious, he just
had honed his craft and he was very devoted.
He would say:
“All things die in time, there is a balance
to uphold and it is my duty to do so”.
Naturally, the party didn’t exactly like
him, but they also knew he was extremely trustworthy
because of how brutally and painfully honest
he was… that level of honesty that could
tell a child that they were going to die with
a straight face… yeah, that honest…
The entire party felt a bit uncomfortable
to be around him, and it definitely did not
help that he was Lich-Loved, had a grafted
arm, and was pretty much already dead.
Though he didn’t care to be flashy or full
of pride, wearing plain gray robes with armor,
and carrying no weapons; though by the gods
this man had no sense of self preservation,
to him death just being a part of life and
him being ready to come to terms with his
own death when deemed necessary… this ideal
also extended to how he viewed the rest of
the party…
He kept people alive with temporary health
and undead meat shields, but as soon as they
started to die, he no longer felt it was right
for him to intervene.
This caused the Paladin and Druid to hate
his guts… well, what still functioned as
guts at least.
The GM was exceptional and would play off
of this dynamic anytime he’d get the chance.
The story begins with a bit of dungeon clearing
as per usual, and Astoshan was quickly making
the party very uncomfortable with his skeletal
arm that could kill anything with a single
touch.
Stack on top of this unnerving power was his
unsavory practice of rending the flesh from
the undead minions he raises, only to shove
them into a bag of holding for storage instead
of wasting his spells to maintain control
over them.
He makes absolutely no effort to hide his
plan of creating an army of undead… creepy!
He even made it a habit of handing the bag
to a skeletal minion, making it run out into
the middle of the battlefield, and then dumping
the bag to flood the area with 8-10 more skeletons.
The party begins to make their way to a northern
city where they have heard rumors that there
is trouble afoot.
In his preparations Astoshan stores all of
his undead minions in a dungeon room and sets
up a portal, you know… for escape… or
reinforcements.
The party’s paranoia intensifies as he does
this, as they realize at a moment’s notice
he can rip open a portal to a room with a
few hundred undead… scratch that, paranoia
doesn’t come close to describing their feelings.
The party makes it to the city, and find that
it has recently been attacked by… guess
what?...
yeah, undead.
Districts of the city are still closed off
from the attack, and people are still terrified
and paranoid.
Everyone in the city was thrilled to see the
party… well, not exactly Astoshan.
The city’s leaders immediately sent the
party into one of the areas that had been
breached to look for survivors if there were
any.
They make their way over the makeshift barricade
and are greeted by undead shuffling all throughout
the streets and buildings, and it was clear
to see which ones were the armed skeletons
sent in for the attack, and which ones were
recently turned civilians.
The party began to cook up a plan, realizing
that while it would be easy to fight them,
if they got surrounded they would be done
for.
Half way through the planning it is realized
that Astoshan has slipped away, and is immediately
spotted politely walking through the crowds
of undead that don’t seem to care about
his presence at all.
The party simply grumbles and goes back to
planning.
Astoshan, however, has a different idea.
He begins to nudge the undead into a group
(much like helping an old person cross the
street).
Then casting Command Undead and getting them
under his control, he calls up to the rest
of the party to get off of the barrier because
he has dealt with the threat.
The Paladin and Dwarf grumble past without
a word, simply taking down zombies with their
hands as the Ranger and Druid simply rain
arrows.
Astoshan and his skeletons retrieve the bodies
very respectfully and lay them down beside
the buildings.
The party commences on a sweep of the streets,
and the Ranger hears soft crying coming from
one of the buildings.
The building is packed with zombies that had
heard the crying too and began to swarm, but
Astoshan simply walked through them again
without trouble, allowing him to reach a door
that he easily slipped through and locked
behind him.
The party waited outside and the crying stopped,
though once a few minutes had passed with
no sign of the Gray Necromancer they decided
that he had done something awful.
That was the last straw.
It was time for him to die.
The zombies were no threat to such a high
level party, but due to their seemingly endless
numbers it took them a long time to get through.
They finally get to the door and the Paladin
promptly kicks it down, ready to cleave Astoshan
in two, believing he was performing some awful
ritual on this poor survivor.
To their surprise they find him sitting on
the floor with a small injured girl in his
arms, quietly whispering lullabies to her.
The Paladin could clearly see there was no
way she was making it out alive, and Astoshan
ignored all questions presented to him.
He stayed with her, he kept singing, until
eventually her eyes closed and did not open
again.
Druid demanded to know what had happened,
and the Necromancer explained that she had
been bitten by a zombie and he had told her
she wasn’t going to make it.
He explained that he asked her if she wanted
it to be over quickly, and she said no, that
she was too scared.
Astoshan promised to stay with her until it
was over… the silence in the room was deafening
as he picked up her body and walked away from
the party.
Astoshan simply laid her body on the bed and
covered her in her sheets, as if it were a
shroud.
The GM passes a note that says to change his
alignment to Neutral, and the Ranger weeps.
He then proceeded to snap her neck to make
sure she wouldn’t rise again… in front
of the entire party… including the weeping
Ranger saying how beautiful it was.
The GM took the note back, and the Ranger
doesn’t like him anymore.
The party clears the district, and finds that
the only survivor was the little girl.
Civilians remain terrified that there is a
Necromancer within the city filled with armored
skeletons, too terrified to do anything about
it though; PTSD is heavy with these guards.
The city puts Astoshan in charge of clearing
out all infested areas since the undead don’t
bother him… and the party is put in charge
of watching Astoshan as the city does not
trust him.
The Paladin continues to look for any reason
to smite the Gray Necromancer, though Astoshan
seems oblivious as he does his work.
Very slowly the two of them clear out the
city while the rest of the party search for
the source of the undead.
The civilians of the city feel little comfort
as skeletons bring out bodies from the lost
districts and bury them all day every day.
The Paladin grows angrier and angrier that
Astoshan isn’t killing the skeletons, just
bagging or portal'ing them…
though it seems to go over his head that he
re-kills and buries each and every zombie
they come across.
The rest of the party returns as the last
district is cleared, and reports that there
is apparently a massive death-cult disguised
as adventurers clearing out bandit groups
and dungeons.
Apparently this cult has been gathering bodies
up and resurrecting them, and they unleashed
the hordes upon the city.
Party immediately begins to discuss whether
or not Astoshan is part of this cult, the
Paladin pointing out that he is an evil Necromancer
with hordes of undead on hand, and that he
wants him dead.
The Ranger brings up the little girl (she
has calmed down now – extremely less salty)
and thinks Astoshan is okay.
The Druid wants him dead as she thinks he
is an abomination that goes against everything
she stands for.
Dwarf points out that something has gone over
everyone’s head the entire time, the fact
that Astoshan has never raised something that
has not attempted to kill innocent people,
and only keeps the bodies of those who have
killed or tried to kill.
All the bodies within Astoshan’s death dungeon
are of monsters and murderers, and any decent
person he has given proper burial… he’s
not out to destroy or conquer, he’s just
keeping the balance and has to dabble in evil
magic to do so.
The Dwarf votes in favor of the Necromancer,
leaving a party tie as Astoshan refuses to
vote for or against himself.
The GM passes another note: “change to True
Neutral”.
Weeks passed as the party helps the city recover.
The civilians are now okay with the skeletons
that patrol their city, and Astoshan makes
them custom armor with white handprints so
they can tell his skeletons apart from any
other.
He has been using the skeletons to clean up
graves and give the dead a proper burial.
They also take care of any crime too… and
no one asks where the bandits disappear to.
For once the locals don’t want to kill Astoshan,
and the party gets ready to leave the city
as things are now under control… but of
course that can’t happen.
A scout barrels into the city, warning that
a neighboring lord has decided to use this
recent undead issue as a good advantage to
spread his borders, and the next morning an
army is camped outside.
The city begins to panic, as they realize
they are heavily outnumbered with nowhere
to run.
The Paladin and Dwarf decide to start fortifying
the walls, the Ranger and Druid summons trees
and animals from the woods, and Astoshan meets
with the town guard and army to discuss some
things.
Morning breaks, and everyone is on the walls
of the city.
Ranger and Dwarf make some LoTR jokes while
Astoshan and his company of skeletons wait
at the gates.
Ladders slam into the walls and a ram makes
the attack’s presence known, and the walls
are thrown into complete chaos as the party
attempts to hold the line.
The gates eventually blow open from the ram,
and the army charges in.
The skeletal forces get slowly pushed back,
and they act as a rear guard to allow the
party and army to retreat to the gatehouse
and up the streets.
All roads have been blocked off, leaving only
one route that leads straight to the keep.
The entire army pours into the city, charging
in as they cut down the last of the skeletons.
The city’s forces have nowhere left to run,
and they form one big shield wall and prepare
to die protecting their keep.
Astoshan is nowhere to be found.
The encroaching army mimics the shield wall,
ready for one final push.
A loud BANG echoes through the city.
The gates have slammed shut.
The invaders turn in time to see the bodies
of various fallen soldiers beginning to shake.
Their bodies begin to rise, white handprints
adorn their armor.
All the risen soldiers stand between the invaders
and the gates, as they had not fallen back
with the others.
Astoshan takes his place on top of the gatehouse,
immediately surrounded by the risen bodies
of hundreds of guards upon the walls; all
the white handprints glow as they let out
a horrid cry.
A fallen captain stumbles forth, his banner
bloodied and emblazoned with a white handprint
and a single line of text…
EVEN IN DEATH, I SHALL PROTECT.
The risen army shambles behind the enemy,
forming a small infantry block that the invading
forces laugh at, calling it pathetic… then
the portal opens… hundreds of zombies and
skeletons pour from the rift, roaring their
battle cry alongside the fallen guards.
They slam into the enemy flank, the living
charge and hit the opposite side head on.
The invading army is quickly stuck between
living and undead, and they start to surrender,
running towards the living as the undead behind
them do not care.
The undead form another shield wall behind
the invaders, facing the skeletal horde.
The living guards run over to aid them, and
they begin to push back the swarm of skeletons
and zombies.
The invaders join in and push, and they stuff
the horde back into the portal, followed by
the undead guards to hold them in.
The living back away, and the undead turn
to face them, spreading their arms as eagles
to keep the horde back… and as the portal
closes, they smile.
Two weeks passed and the invading army is
sent home, allowed to transport their dead
back with them.
The Dwarf figures out what had happened.
Astoshan had discussed with the guards to
ask if any would be willing to be brought
back after death.
Only one company said yes, and since they
were brought back willingly their souls stayed
behind… sacrificing their slumber in the
afterlife to protect their loved ones.
The group gets ready to leave, and they get
a parade and feast in their honor…
Astoshan does not attend however, as he does
not eat and is not a fan of parties.
He chooses to stay at the crypts.
Once he is sure he is the only one there,
he opens up a portal.
Stepping through, he sees the corpses of the
undead guards working, building a barracks
in the mining areas within his dungeon.
The mindless horde were corralled into a separate
section that could be opened or closed when
necessary.
The Fallen Captain notices Astoshan and roars,
causing the rest of the guards to drop all
of their work and run over.
The guards swarm together, gathering their
gear and organizing into parade lines, standing
at attention behind the Captain.
He points to the platform that will become
the permanent portal back to the city’s
crypt… there’s a statue…
It's a statue of Astoshan, 144 small shields
decorating the sand around him, one shield
for each of the company’s volunteers.
Astoshan smiles softly as he steps through
the portal, the newly named “Sleepless Watch
Company” at his back, following him back
home.
As he passes by the statue, he reads the carving
at its base…
“Our Service, Eternal.
Our Sacrifice, Infinite.
Our Regrets, Absent”
So what did you think of the Gray Necromancer
whose personality is neither black nor white,
but a shade of gray just like his nickname?
Would you be like the Paladin in your party
if you had Astoshan as a teammate?
Or would you be like the Ranger and remain
optimistic for a compromise?
Sound off your answers in the comments below!
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