Posted by Moore on November 24, 2003 at 07:43:53:
"What will our names be in Newsporth, Master?" the tall, fat woman with closely cropped brown hair asked.
"Sandra for you, and Max for me," the male of the pair responded. His hair was changing from a shoulder length blonde color to a shorter length shade of gray, in response to the magic he had summoned. "We will be father and daughter; a pair of traveling wizards, and I will use my lesser magic to mend, clean, or sharpen items for a few coins. Don't forget your role! We want to make it difficult for the Knights of the Sacred Rose to find us. I will need to find some more targets to Harvest." Max finished changing his robes from a pale blue to a bright red.
He walked over to Sandra. He changed her robe a dull, earthen brown. Continuing the alteration magic, he lengthened her hair to her shoulders, and changed its color to black.
"It tickles," she laughed, but then grew more serious. "I know we need to have sex with our targets to Harvest them properly, but why?"
Max resumed his pace toward the town. "Sex energizes the fields? Intimacy makes your zombie easier to control, or it could be a whim of the God of Death, take your pick. An undead that is properly Harvested has the skills it had in life, and some of the personality and intelligence. And we need zombies with skills. If you just animate any corpse you find, all you will get is a mindless zombie chanting 'brains', or else the zombie knows it is an undead and attacks all living things, including you, out of hate. Otherwise you can only control one undead at a time by forcing your will on it, and when you put your awareness into the undead host, it leaves you very vulnerable. You don't want to be unable to see out of your own eyes, especially in the caverns of the Splilt-tooth Ogre of High-water Gorge. And to fight the Splilt-tooth Ogre of High-water Gorge and to get all the gold that it has, we need more then one zombie each. Probably a team of skilled zombies that have been properly Harvested. The Ogre has killed Captain McWain and his men, and it has a reputation for strength, even among Ogre-kind."
Max paused for emphasis. "And this time you are going to Harvest your own zombie."
He resumed walking. "After our disastrous encounter with the Knights of the Sacred Rose, we need to rebuild our strength. The town of Newsporth will be a good hunting ground for us to find targets to Harvest. There is no wall around the town, so we can come and go as we please. Newsporth is close enough to the wilds that there are warriors. And young warriors often go missing on foolish quests, so we can Harvest a few without anyone becoming too suspicious. There are also no holy men in Newsporth to force our undeads' spirits from their remains."
"Why can't we just go to the local brothel, pay the girls, have sex with them, and then Harvest them?" Sandra asked breathlessly, sweating from the walk.
"Because then we would have a bunch of zombies that knew how to whore, but not fight. They wouldn't last that long against the Ogre. Who knows if it would want to mate with the girls or eat them. Although it is dangerous to Harvest warriors, we need them to fight the Ogre. You need to plan your Harvest carefully."
Max looked at his apprentice. She was sweating a lot, and her bulk was making it hard for her to keep up. If he had picked a beautiful apprentice, her first Harvest would have been easy. But Sandra possessed an intelligence matched only by her hatred. Max did not know her background well; he didn't care too. He knew she had been hurt badly in early childhood. He suspected the extra weight Sandra waddled around in was her armor, designed to protect her from being attractive, which could lead to further harm. She was going to have to work to find a skilled warrior that would have sex with her, and leave himself vulnerable enough afterward that she could Harvest him.
"We will take plenty of time to choose our targets carefully. Discuss your plan for your first Harvest with me, and I will give you advice. You will do fine," he reassured her.