M.J. Markgraf

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 120

Eugene walked into the testing room and paused. “Boss, what are you doing?”

Norman turned his skull toward the door and took in Eugene’s surprised face.

“I was curious to see what advantages this skeletal form brought.”

“…And?”

Norman shrugged, which felt weird, just like everything else in this form felt off. “I feel emotionally numb, as well as physically. It sort of feels like wearing the bone armor, but removing the tactile feedback the armor give...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 119

Commander Sanchez swiftly excised the traitor from his command. He kicked himself for being such a fool when he found out who it was. The man had been one of his lieutenants with the worst engagement ratio against the Council’s forces. To the point that he had been thinking of replacing him for some time. But it was never good to undermine troops in the field unless you absolutely had to.

He even found the correspondence between the traitor and the Council. Somehow the traitor had alr...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 118

Admiral Barnes reviewed this week's reports aboard the carrier he had claimed as his flagship. Not that a carrier made much of a difference since the San Francisco harbor had turned into a lake. But it was still a statement, and it allowed him to stay mobile. The harbor might be a lake now, but it was still an enormous lake.

He glanced up at the man who had delivered the report, Warrant Officer. The man stood rigidly at attention, waiting for orders. “So you’re telling me our analys...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 117

It was surprising to Norman just how much impact trade had on Ashvale. Over the next month, the trickle of merchants from the Alacala merchants had tripled. It had increased so much that Garta – the gron engineer that had been assigned to take over for Grobert – had asked to build a dedicated market area for them.

After discussing it with Grobert and Eugene, it was agreed to build a market street outside of the old wall.

It was weird calling a wall that had existed for less th...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 116

Norman rushed to get himself presentable. Jacob had just notified him that Grobert had returned an hour ago. But the man hadn’t left the teleporter building. And a gron delegation was now coming through the teleporter.

As he got dressed, he could hear the commotion downstairs as the main room was prepared.

It was going to be crowded. While the throne room was larger than most of the rooms in the castle, it was never designed to host more than a handful of people. And from the so...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 115

Grobert let out a satisfied grunt as he cut through a section of the thick jungle and finally spotted the tall towers of Grothlosburg in the distance.

A ragged-looking Anna was only a few steps behind him. He probably didn’t look much better. The last two weeks they had been forced to travel through a swampy jungle.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the creatures that inhabited those brackish waters were very aggressive and very territorial. And there were no longer any convenient ro...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 114

“It’s time.”

“You’re sure, Boss?” Eugene asked.

Norman nodded. “We’ve been the whipping boy for too long, it's time to hit back.”

“I can get behind that, who should we target?”

“I would like to target the Council, but we weren’t able to come up with any evidence that they were ultimately responsible for leaking this information. Even though I suspect they were. So I did some thinking over the last week. Since they want to make our lives a livi...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 113

It took another week but a new problem did eventually show up.

Eugene watched the unknown group approach the city wall under the cover of darkness. Not that it mattered. One of the patrols had spotted this group hours ago and had alerted him with a runner. The reason Eugene knew this group was up to no good was the fact that they were cloaked in invisibility as well as concealment from undead.

Not that it did them any good though. Norman had managed to convince Nolia to fund five ...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 112

It was another very productive day and Norman was in high spirits as he exited his workroom. Norman had gone back to trying to catalog more of the symbols after his success with creating those new test spells.

He could have simply spent time improving on those new spells. But what if one symbol he hadn’t experimented with could make the spell so much better? So instead of switching back and forth every time he discovered something new, he wanted to finish what he started.

That w...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 111.5 – A day in the life

Nolia did her best to fill the shoes left behind by Grobert’s departure. While she wouldn’t admit this to anyone else, she was a bit overwhelmed by just how much the gron had done to keep Ashvale and the Kingdom running. And that was before the addition of three new settlements and ten thousand more citizens.

She handed her assistant, Sydney a list. “Please see that this gets to the guild.” The woman nodded and left to deliver the letter. Nolia clenched her hands and resisted th...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 111

Grobert and Anna had been moving through the thick jungle for about a week, not making a whole lot of headway. The thick undergrowth wasn’t the only obstacle to travel in this jungle.

Hidden by the tree cover were numerous crags and juts of rock that needed to be bypassed as it would have been too time-consuming to tunnel through them all. At least the rock formations made good shelters and places to construct his teleportation network. He had placed another one of his teleporters dow...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 110

It was a very exciting day for Norman. Why you might ask? He was going to create his very first spell. Now you might be thinking, ‘Wait, doesn’t Norman have a bunch of spells?’ And you would be right. Except, none of those were created from scratch. All of them were put together or modified from existing spells he had come across before.

But now that Norman had significantly more knowledge of what the symbols did, at least a small selection of them, he decided he wanted to try mak...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 109

Eugene slowly walked between the rows of training soldiers. After the influx of new citizens, he had recruited a fresh crop, effectively doubling the guard count. A few of Eugene’s lieutenants were monitoring the fresh recruits but Eugene liked to have a hands-on approach to training. When time permitted.

Speaking of being hands-on, he stopped near a pair that was sparing and stepped inside their training circle, forcing them to halt. Eugene used his foot to adjust their stances. “S...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 108

While he knew the wraiths were a necessity, researching the spell wasn’t what Norman wanted to spend time on. But it was done now. This would allow him to focus his efforts elsewhere.

There were many things he wanted to accomplish with his magic, but the most pressing was figuring out the issue with using undead blood. It was an issue that had plagued him for far too long and he wanted an answer.

While it didn’t stop him from using his magic to its full potential, it necessita...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 107

“Lord Norman, Commander Eugene is here to see you.”

Norman nodded. “Thank you, Stewart. Please show him in and give us the room.”

With a nod, his assistant left and went to fetch Eugene. It only took a minute for Eugene to appear inside the room. Norman held his hand up to forestall his friend's question until Stewart had left the adjoining hallway.

“So you don’t trust them either?” Eugene asked.

“It’s not that I don’t trust them, I just don’t kno...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 106

After two days of travel, Grobert stepped out of the fog lands. He looked behind him to see the tired and slightly struggling Anna behind him. Grobert didn’t bother to hide his smile. “Well, ya actually made it. Color me surprised.”

The woman had her hands on her knees and was taking a break to catch her breath. “Screw you, old man. You think that would stop me?”

Grobert didn’t answer her, turning back around to scan the thick jungle in front of him.

Anna approac...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 105

Donovan was working in his office when Ixitil landed on the nearby window ledge and pecked at it to alert him of his presence.

He gave the morphling a slight nod before the creature flew away again. Not wanting to delay, he set down the report he had been going over and stood, adjusting his suit. “I have some business to attend to,” he stated to his assistant as he left the building.

The trip over to his son’s house took only a few minutes, Ixitil greeted him on the front st...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 104

When Norman returned to the throne room, he paused in surprise. It had been transformed from the stark room it usually was into one that spoke of wealth and power. At least it looked that way to Norman.

New paintings lined the walls to replace what had existed before the Brotherhood attack. One depicted a scenic view of rolling hills with Ashvale and the castle in the background. The other massive painting depicted an army of black-suited knights storming a city while under siege while ...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 103

It had been a few days since Grobert’s visit. Norman spent most of that time working with Grobert’s replacements. While he knew it was necessary, it really annoyed him. These new people while competent, didn’t have the same understanding that Grobert had. They also didn’t realize Norman had made a deal with Grobert upon accepting this position.  One that allowed him time to work on his magic.

Norman could have just told them but he didn’t want to discourage their efforts....

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 102

Donovan strode into the boardroom, ready to meet with his peers. As he glanced over the assembled attendees, he noticed his son was absent yet again. While he wasn’t required to attend every meeting, this was the third one his son had missed in a row. That was unacceptable and made Donovan look bad in front of the other wizards. Anything that made him look bad undermined his tentative authority over these other wizards. He would need to have a word with Vincent in person after the meeting.<...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 101

“You want to do what?” Norman asked in surprise.

“You heard me, boy,” Grobert replied as he sat at the table.

Norman shook his head. It had been so sudden. Here he was sitting down for breakfast a few days after the malarky involving the necromancer and Grobert just sprung this news on him.

“Obviously, I heard you. What I don’t understand is why? Why do you want to go into the jungle?”

“For a couple of reasons. I want to reestablish our teleportation ne...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 100

It took over an hour for the massive group to split into smaller groups. Once this was done, Norman waited to hear what each group decided to do.

The first group to step up was a small group of mixed species. The smallest group Norman noticed. “We wish to return to our homes.”

Norman just shook his head and waved for them to move off to the side where a corridor of his Death Knights waited. He said he wouldn’t stop them from doing what they wanted, but he thought this group ...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 99

Norman stepped out of the castle where he found Nolix and Lohr picking themselves up off the ground.

Lohr groaned. “What happened? Feels like I’ve been on a week-long bender.”

“You had your souls forcefully removed and then replaced again.”

“Ugh… that feels about right. Sorry, we couldn’t stop him, Sir.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I should have done a better job anticipating his plan. But we can discuss my shortcoming later. For now, I have a whole bu...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 98

Norman knew it wouldn’t be long before this new unknown enemy showed up after the fourth death knight died. And he had been correct. It was only a few months after that date that his new security measures pinged him.

Having a decent idea of who he might face, Norman worked with other crafters within the city to build the undead detector. It was simply designed to detect any undead not linked through Norman’s blood.

Since all of the citizens of Ashvale had been revived using hi...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 97

Vincent’s mind returned to his body in a rush, making him sigh. It was always so exhilarating to employ magic. Even if the spell he was using wasn’t one he created. The spell was just so simple and useful not to use it. There was a note from the necromancer that had developed the spell. Something about soul damage to the target.

Vincent couldn’t concern himself with some random undead’s soul.

No, it was more important that he learned all he could about this strange necroma...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 96

The atmosphere in Ashvale was electric. There were colored streamers – Norman had no clue where anyone found the time to make those – small stalls with food and beverages, and even a few with games people could play to win prizes. It was a celebration in full swing and Norman was glad to see the shift from survival to living life. Or in this case, unlife.

People were laughing and dancing and taking full advantage of the festivities. Even the more stoic gron were fully getting in on ...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 95

After the discussion with Grobert and Eugene, Norman threw himself back into his work. Was he being a bit selfish? Yeah, probably. But Norman was picturing the worst-case scenario on the horizon. What he pictured wasn’t an immediate threat, even if it was a threat. But if it turned out to be a threat, he wanted to be ready.

A week went by with Norman making essentially zero progress on decoding the symbols for his phylactery. Broken clay balls littered the testing chamber as a monumen...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 94

As soon as Norman returned to the castle he heard a racket coming from the kitchen of all places. Curious, he went to go see what was going on. When he pushed the door open he saw two gron women and a human woman cooking.

The human greykin woman must have spotted the door opening as she immediately looked over.

She gave a slight bow. “Hello, Sir. Sorry about the noise and the mess. Grobert asked us if we could help prepare a meal.”

“Oh… well, thank you. All of you, y...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 93

Norman walked up to Anna. The woman didn't notice his arrival. He waited until she was finished with the work she was doing before he cleared his throat to get her attention.

Anna turned toward him, looking exhausted, but she still smiled when she spotted him.

“If you are free tonight, I would like to invite you to the castle for supper.” He hoped she didn’t get the wrong idea, this wasn’t going to be some romantic setting. He was essentially going to grill her for informa...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 92

A bead of sweat dripped off Norman’s forehead as he worked. It had been raining for the last few days and with the hotter-than-normal temperatures the humidity had become an oppressive blanket of moisture that he couldn’t escape. It didn’t help that Norman had sequestered in his workshop. The room was never designed with proper airflow in mind and had turned into a sauna from the hot and rainy weather. He would need to speak to Grobert about fixing that at some point but he didn’t let...