The Mage's Opening Moves

-The Bramble Wood, very near to Jocelynn's Inn, early morning, 1 DSTR-

Ceriden was pulling the hapless pig away from the Inn with the rope that had been used to tie the poor animal to the tree when Gareth's hunger drove him to attack the pig. Needless to say, the pig didn't hold out for very long. As Gareth guzzled the creature's blood, Ceriden dropped the rope and hastily retreated a safe distance away. Not that he didn't trust Gareth, but... Ceriden had been around vampires before. Being close to a vampire in a blood frenzy was universally considered to be a bad idea.

While waiting for Gareth to finish his business, he decided to talk to his wraith and see if the thing had managed to understand enough of his request to look into where the giant had gotten the pig from. "Wraith?"

"I have a name, boss."

That was certainly not the response Ceriden had been expecting. "...What?"

"It's Erik. My name is Erik. Please stop calling me 'Wraith'."

Ceriden paused. He hadn't thought his wraith would have any kind of a personality, but as he thought back on his various conversations with his wraith... er, Erik, he realized that his creation had been displaying some semblance of a personality. As Ceriden considered the ramifications of this, a shiver went down his spine, for many of his plans for the future had been built with the premise that his undead servants would be unwaveringly loyal. But if his subjects had personalities... then they would have to be managed. This would be tricky because Ceriden didn't really have much of anything to offer his subjects. Could he do anything to guarantee the loyalty of his creations?

He took a breath. Surely Galathus' book had something in it about this subject. He would just have to look at it once he got the chance.

"Boss? Everything alright?"

"Yes, Erik, thank you." Ceriden paused for another moment as he tried to recall what it was he was originally going to ask his wraith, who apparently called itself Erik, about. "Oh, um, did you happen to see where that big guy got that pig from?"

"You mean the golem?"

Ceriden furrowed his brow in confusion. "Golem? What golem?"

"That thing that came out of the establishment you and your vampire friend were in was a golem. I didn't register any signals of actual life coming from it."

Ceriden thought on the unusual, gigantic and silent man. It actually wasn't too much of a stretch for him to actually be a golem. "Okay, the golem, what did it do?"

"It went to some barn that was hidden inside a hill, and..."

"NO, WAIT KEL!"

Suddenly alerted to the presence of strangers in his midst, he looked around until he saw four new figures that had emerged from the gloom. One of them was charging Gareth with a sword raised. Ceriden instinctively began incanting an electricity spell that would cause the attacker's charge to falter, but before he could finish casting it, the vampire was on top of the person, having covered a distance of about a meter, grabbed the attacker's weapon arm, and plunged his fangs into the person's neck in the time it would take someone to say "One Bramble Wood." For at least the third time since Ceriden had met the vampire, he appreciated the fact that Gareth was on his side.

Unfortunately, by this time, Ceriden had incanted enough of his spell that he couldn't call it off, so he launched it off between the remaining figures and Gareth (and his new victim), causing a bolt of lighting to flash between the two parties. Hopefully this would cause the remaining figures to reconsider a charge for at least a moment, buying Ceriden time to cast another spell.

After hastily thinking of a battle plan, Ceriden began to incant another spell as he walked closer to the fight (but not too close, for if Gareth confused Ceriden for an enemy in his blood frenzy, Ceriden would probably not live to see tomorrow). This spell, once cast, would create a decently large barrier-wall in front of the attackers, a barrier that would be a thick, cloudy-grey color that would be very difficult to see through and would easily shatter under assault. If they made aggressive moves, however, Ceriden would be ready...

"Erik, get over here. We are being attacked."

"On my way, boss."

(OOC - DaMasterT, I wanted to give you a chance to describe the rest of the Verden soldier's reactions the this turn of events before continuing. If they begin to advance on Gareth, Ceriden will cast the barrier described above.)