Better Cities:Thetric, II

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ID	xx166B06
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Found in the following locations: Does not appear in game

Thetric, II

by Maniel Frenne

A story of King Thetric

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t had been an obvious choice for Thetric, Hulfgar, Edmund and Lognaar to simply leave the castle. Thetric's fame, fortune, and people had all been destroyed, yet he had not identified the villain. The party gathered what little they had left, and decided to head far to the west, toward the High Rock seas, and perhaps pay a visit to the King of Daggerfall.

They hadn't gone far, though, when they sighted a short, hooded figure. The figure could barely move before the group was upon it with weapons at its throat.

Thetric himself yelled, "So it was you then, who destroyed my lands and kingdom?"

Upon further inspection, the figure did not appear human, and actually had two small horns jutting out of its forehead. The figure simply laughed yet-

"Answer me!" Thetric shouted.

The figure stopped laughing, and instead muttered: "I was not the one who destroyed your kingdom, but should you do me a favor, I will tell you a location much like your home, where you shall be revered as you were before."

"And, what might this favor be?" asked Edmund, perhaps the most intelligent of the group.

"It is simple," replied the hooded figure. "Far to the west lies Cloud Spring, beyond the borders of your kingdom. There, you will find a summoner of the undead, those that have no soul. His name is Jociel; you must take his soul for me."

Perhaps in desperation or madness, Thetric agreed to the offer placed by the figure. After the figure reassured Thetric of his reward, it vanished. The party knew where Cloud Spring was, and immediately began on a march to the west. However, the more they thought about it, the less sanguine they were about killing a complete stranger. And what had led them to trust this entity in the first place was odd in itself.

Edmund provided a bit of comfort though: "If this Jociel really is a necromancer, then he is worth killing. Bringing back the undead is hardly an honorable magic."

The group rode for some time, eventually finding a copse of trees to spend the night. It had been seven long hours since their encounter with the strange figure, and many more since the kingdom's destruction. The exhausted party had not gotten any sleep for over a day, and at the sight of the copse, they collapsed to the ground.