Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"You mean the gravelords? Yeah, we have lots of archives on these guys, we have a monopoly on them in fact, what do you want to know?" an old man with a most exquisite moustache, a well-rested face and a charming smile spoke up, his voice echoing inside of the grand throne room.

To his side, a young man was simply standing there.

"Everything, but first, who am I addressing exactly?" the king and his little troop were standing in front of the projected bodies of the two men, their forms blinking in between transparency and opaqueness, the brightness shifting from time to time.

'Unbelievable…' Bethome Meleme covered her face with one hand, it was only logical however.

"Ah, my apologies, Ohith, of the underground tower, next to me is my disciple, Tholth, of the underground tower"

"I am sorry, but our current leader is a little busy at the moment, but it is for the best, no one understands his mumbling and slurred speech" he chucked, turning to his disciple, whose projected image disappeared for a few moments as he walked away, coming back with a neatly organised stack of paper.

The old mage cleared his throat, licking his finger to flip through a few pages.

"Alright then, as far as we are aware, there were, or are, eight gravelords in total, we have really searched everywhere we could to find a trace of them, and there is only one that was ever sighted, and not even by us…"

The undead researcher purposefully made them wait before he started speaking.

'Get on with it, the faster you are done here, the faster you can go back to philandering in the tomb!' the historian was seething in the background, if only she could grab them by their twig-wide necks and just start shaking them.

"Vwoldtnir!

The Grand Ghoul, Sun Hater, or The Deep Crawler, we have reports concerning his rather unconventional bodily shape and choice of limbs, though, they are not very precise as to what that could mean, we have theorised that it was because he was part of the 'Ghoul Fodiens' meaning that he would have arms in place of legs" he twirled his moustache, passionately relating the discoveries of the underground tower, for once someone was curious about them, in a way that did not entail lighting a fire.

"Although he is one of the more curious gravelords, his exploits were rather flashy, collapsing the very earth, many ravines and underground systems are attributed to his exploits, such as the famed Elephant Cave System, he still exists for certain, a death hunter spotted him not so long ago, a few years back"

The king coughed.

"There is one of those gravelords alive- I mean, still around, and no one thought a good idea to mention it?"

The mages of the underground tower were one thing, they kept themselves secluded most of the time and were largely despised, but he had just said that it was a death hunter, the king had a good relationship with them.

"They defenders of life after all, they deemed that no one should even consider trying to do anything about it for it would too dangerous, our informants did not manage to make anyone cough up the location either, and then they found that he was from the underground tower and kicked his ass, but anyways, we barely started"

He left the spotlight to his disciple for the next one, the two of them really treating this important meeting like a one in a life opportunity to show off.

"Körpersucher is only known to us as a name, we don't even have a particular title attributed to them, their mention are few and far between, all only talking of them as a great menace without even knowing the power of this gravelord"

"Multaemanus is in the exact same spot, only noted for particularly cruel acts of barbarism, did you feel it by the way? That feeling like someone just brushed their freezing fingers across your nape? That's what happens when you mention this gravelord"

Tholth quickly went over the two lords they had the least information about, basically, they were nothing more than names, in fact, there was very little to be known about any of the gravelords, anything that came close to being actual intel was nothing more than padding added by the two researchers and mere speculations.

The many vampire lords only had more information in the way of their special powers being named, and being known to have participated in battles no one knew anything about, how were they supposed to know how impressive it was that Dracula wiped out an entire coalition, when the coalition's size was unknown, the details of the battle were blurry at best, and when each member of said coalition were groups and nations that had been thrown to the oblivion of history?

It was best to say that they knew nothing about the forces of the undead, they knew with near certainty where their king was at least, but Starkefolten was not to be convinced easily, and they were already keeping a close eye on that crypt anyways, they would be offended that their might could be questioned by Agilulf Wanneck of all people, they did not have the strongest under their banner, but they had the strongest army.

"Well, that was a big waste of time" Meleme shook her head, not even mad anymore, just disappointed.

Even the corpse touchers knew nothing of the ancient undeads.

"Calm now, perhaps these gentlemen know something about others…" the king leaned forward, the old man and his disciple still all smiles, to them, what they had just shared was tremendous.

"What about the heroes of the past? Thanatok Ynigós and Maiele Liameilos? Miss Meleme was able to find many things on them and their deeds, so perhaps, your own archives would have some more?

Such as, their whereabouts?" it was wishful thinking, but at least The Elven Light could still be around, part of an illustrious species of elf said to be even above the high elves, combined with the mythical power she was said to wield, it wouldn't be a stretch to think that her longevity could have taken her all the way to the present.

The master student pair looked at one another, then back at the king, raising their shoulders.

"Our apologies, we have indeed thought to try and find her, you know, to get her first hand account, but not only are all records of her stop after the sealing of the undead king, she seems to be immune to divinations" they extended their excuses for not being able to help on this matter, flickering out of sight.

"Well, this was useless"

"Let's take care of your citizenship and titles Miss Syklon, sorry for the wait"

"I don't mind, it was interesting considering that I ran into an undead myself not so long ago"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Excuse me?"