Legend of Lucrece

On the continent of Tier, in the High Elven kingdom of Nailo within the region of Valla lay a tower who's walls were made of magical force. In this unique fortress paced the tower's master: the abjurer wizard, Lucrece Silverfond. Long ago he had been a young curious elf like all his brethren, that is before he risked his soul against a creature of the night that threatened their precious tree-bound home. He remembered how his friends had described his change in appearance after that battle, his long blonde hair was now silver and his once blue eyes were now violet. Lucrece stopped pacing for a moment, slammed his palms down on his redwood desk pinning the sleeves of his black robes and let out a deep sigh. He had been careful not to use all his strength for the desk was his favorite, he had chosen the wood carefully. The redwood, almost as old as him seemed to be ever slightly stained in a blood red sheen-just as he.

The wizard continued his pacing, thinking on his grand scheme. Earlier in the tenday (week), he had sent letters to every city that bordered the wild claiming that he had found a magical cure for lycanthropy. Three days after the letters were send, all the vials of his 'wonder cure' were stolen by a swift beast. It was now the sixth day of the tenday and he expected a visitor. The cure was of course a fake, but the person who was desperate enough to steal it would return seeking the ingredient to activate the brew. It was all an elaborate maneuver to draw out the werewolves, so Lucrece could take some of their blood. Being a child of night afforded him little advantage against all the other wizards that knew of his nature and his weaknesses, however; with the blood of a werewolf in his system he would be nearly invincible during full moons.

Lucrece heard the creak of the front gate opening, which meant that his wolves had failed to stop something from entering his acres. His knew for certain that his special guest had arrived. The wizard stopped his pacing and turned to face the door of his study, waiting and taking in the beauty of his sanctuary. He leaned back and rested his elbows on the redwood desk, knowing that behind that was his fireplace of volcanic rock with two chairs in front of it. The soft red light reflected off the frames of the hanging paintings. And then there was his favorite piece of furniture, his bookcase which rested against the wall beside the door. With ample time to collect rare and intriguing books on every form of arcana, his love of those books transcended his professional goals. The ringing of one of his ward spells snapped the wizard from his nostalgia. The stranger had made it inside the tower itself, walking it's once safe halls.

The door to the study swiftly opened and through it stepped a man in a simple green tunic. The man's hair was long and shaggy, matching his beard and his muscles bulged under his clothes. Lucrece was sure he could see the heat radiating from the stranger. The odd man stared at Lucrece briefly and then spoke monotonously, "I was sent by my pack's leader. He wants to know how the cure works."

Lucrece grinned and responded sarcastically, "Hello, I am Lucrece. What's your name?"

The hairy figure stood erect, simply glaring at the wizard. Lucrece continued, "I see, no manners. Just like the rest of your kind. I suppose since you don't seem to have a name, I will call you 'dog'."

The stranger's chest began to visibly heave under his shirt, his muscles flexed and his eyes became bloodshot. The man struggled with each word as it passed through his gritted teeth, "If I wasn't one of the Eight Beowulf Knights...I would cleave your head, blood sucker and spit in your ashes." Lucrece's eyebrow raised as the knight continued, "Our lord, King Silverfang, wishes to see you. You will accompany me back to our home in the forest of Khatta."

The wizard couldn't help but laugh, "You expect me to go with you, without any information what so ever. I am a Wizard, you fool. I need knowledge before I accept any endeavor."

"I take it that is your way of saying that you decline. Luckily for me, I was ordered to use whatever force necessary to bring you back." The werewolf knight raised his head skyward and let out a ferocious howl that pierced the silent night. The werewolf's bones began to crack, his skin twisted, and hair slowly ripped from his inside out to cover his entire body. The knight's grunts and screams coupled with the hideous transformation unnerved even Lucrece. Before Lucrece had time to react, a massive muscular bipedal wolf loomed over the threshold to his study. So that's why my wolves didn't stop this intruder, the wizard smugly analyzed in his mind.

Even though Lucrece was a wizard he knew why they had only sent one creature to get him, as an abjurer his specialization provided him with an advantage over all other spell casters for he could negate magic, however; the amount of spells he possessed that could effect non-spell casters was quite limited. The wizard pushed himself up off his elbows to stand up straight, the situation nothing more than fuel for the fire or obtaining his goal.

Lucrece bared his fangs, hissed and lunged at the werewolf claws first. The werewolf knight quickly stretched his arm and back handed Lucerce out of the single study window to the knight's right. The wizard lost his concentration for a moment due to the awesome power of the blow, and with the concentration he lost the spell that he had been trying to recall from his mind. The next thing he knew he was standing in the tower's garden, looking up at the hole where the window once existed. He could see the werewolf moving towards the hole, possibly readying to jump. The wizard savagely smiled and spoke an incantation, "exploser!" And with the word, magical runes he had placed on the paintings in the room exploded into fire and shrapnel. From the menacing flames that illuminated the midnight burst the werewolf's body which was set a blaze. The body followed the trajectory that the wizard had calculated using geometry, his understanding of the Explosive Rune and his estimation of the werewolf's weight-landing the knight's head through the top of the bars in the tower's gate. Well, I was aiming for the neck but I guess that will do. As the beast regenerated his penetrated tissue, Lucrece gripped it tightly and sang his fangs into the creature's exposed neck. At first it was so bitter that the wizard almost pulled away, but he forced himself to keep draining the werewolf out of caution and his commitment paid off in a few seconds when the blood began to taste as sweet as fruit wine. The more he gulped the thick liquid, he came increasing dizzy until the blood overcame him and he lost conscience. The night closed in on him, his sense of feeling failed, and world swirled into a blackness that not even his supernatural eyes could pierce.

When the wizard awoke he was meet instantly by a stabbing pain in his chest. A burning filled his heart that he had not felt for so long, something he had not longed for until he had it once again. With the thumping in his chest weighting him down, he brought his hands up to caress his now vital chest when he realized that his hands were shackled. Without hesitation he pushed off of the ground to stand, anger rising in him and the thumping like a lead weight in his heart. Sitting on a throne made of skulls before him was an elder man who's beard and hair was grey almost to the point of silver. The old man's large arms reached up and he stroked his beard as he examined Lucrece. The wizard delicately touch his breast, "There was nothing there...now it exists. It worked, I am more alive now."

The man's cold eyes never left Lucrece as his indifferent voice bellowed loud, " My knight brought you here, elf. I am King Silverfang Reindulf Strahlkralle, son of Sutr Goldjackal. If what you boast is accurate, bow your head before me like all my kin for we are brethren." Silverfang buffed his chest out and looked down at the seemingly helpless wizard, awaiting his response. Lucrece raised his throbbing chest and raised his voice, "As you wish, my kin-". The wizard clutched his bosom and sat down abruptly, "It's too much!" The wizard bent over and blood spewed from his mouth. With his head bowed low in pain, Lucrece raised his eyes to Silverfang. "The cure, bring me the cure-my king...I can't survive like this." Silverfang's brow furrowed and he simply sat there contemplating the consequences. Lucrece added, "Please...I will show you how it works."

King Silverfang waved his hand, and from the surrounding shadows appeared a servant with a tray and on that tray was the vial of the wizard's wonder cure. The black liquid within reflected the moonlight that trickled in from the glass ceiling, the same light that illuminate the radius around the king and his prisoner. The servant with his dirty blond hair and dull brown eyes sat the tray down outside of Lucrece's reach, took the vial in hand after which he approached the wizard. The servant raised the vial to pour the cure into Lucrece's mouth.The wizard gladly opened his mouth to drink it. I've got you now, Silverfang. At the last moment, before even a drop could reach his lips Lucrece extended his arms to grab the servant's carefully pouring arms. Lucrece snapped the arms down leaving them bend like two broken trees and yanked the vial from the lesser werewolf.

The wizard stood, an eerie grin across his face which exposed the spot on his lip he had bitten to produce the blood, and walked toward the werewolf king. Lucrece yanked at the chains with all his might as he came upon the extent of their reach. The chains groaned then snapped under the force. Silverfang stood, readying his claws as the wizard spoke magical words, "Peau pierre!" The incantation produced a magical barrier of stone that covered Lucrece's body like armor. As the wizard closed in on the werewolf king, he noticed that the king towered over him by almost two feet yet he did not waver. "I will end you, cur!" Silverfang gnarled. A flurry of fur, fangs, and paws slashed at the wizard furiously and forcibly however the wizard did not faultier; furthermore, he flexed his arm forth and forced the formula through the front of his foe. Silverfang had managed to strip most of the magical armor from Lucrece but it was too late to capitalize on that advantage for Lucrece's talons and the vial had smashed his heart from his chest. King Silverfang's eye slowly closed as he whispered, "I can see Maru, he is coming to take me to the eternal hunt..."

As the king's body slumped over, Lucrece carefully lowered it to the ground. As Lucrece stood over the body he admitted, "This is not the journey I wanted to go on. It should have been you that came to my abode...maybe then you still could have lived. You know what makes that liquid reflect light so?" There was no response from the King. "There are flakes of silver in it. You will not be regenerating from this injury, Silverfang Reindulf Strahlkralle, King of muts."

The wizard did not hear any footsteps approach and surmised that only the one attendant had been there, the same servant that lay shocked on the floor at the demise of his king. Lucrece gave him a stern look, and the servant sat there in pain and fear, unable to move. This gave the wizard time to create a circle of teleportation; however, he knew that it would not take long for the Eight Beowulf Knights to sense their master's destruction so he worked quickly. For an arcane component he used the magical blood of the King to make the circle and the symbols on the floor around the body of Silverfang. He planned to take his cure back home with him, Silverfang's blood overtime would make Lucrece the strongest wizard in the continent-it would be his antidote to weakness. Lucrece finished the circle stepped into the circle with the King and being the initiator that he was began to plan his next play of power. I've heard the Dragonborn in the floating city of Atlantis have a ritual to bestow their gift on those who are willing...and I am absolutely willing. He spoke the magical word for the circle, "disparu!" and literally vanished into the dead of night.