A Spellbook, Pursued (Glåugust '26)

The famous necromancer, Avrendus, put together his magnum opus, the dark tome called the Codex Corporeal, hundreds of years ago. Since then, it has gained a great reputation across the world for both enlightenment and moral decay.In the haunted port of Cilano, the first run of the book came off the Frightful Presses (operated by skeletal hands). Every would-be necromancer and dark wizard likes to claim to own a piece or typeset from them. 

The Codex is a necromancers’ catechism, of sorts, containing both the basics of “biomancy”, as it calls it, pages of carefully written theory, and esoteric advanced techniques ciphered throughout. There’s an amusing mirror of the trade in fake relics that orbits the Church - a trade in fake printing-press components, manuscript pages, and notebooks.

In that trade, of course, sometimes, a genuine piece comes onto the market from a private collection, a looted church warehouse, an appraised estate or excavated wizard-tower. Then shady figures with wealth engage in a war, hidden from public view, to bid on this quill or that scrap of paper. After all, hidden among these trinkets and trivia could be the secret of Avrendus’ infamous immortality

However, it is a once-in-a-lifetime event for an actual copy of the Codex Corporeal (even ones in varying states of intactness or interpolation) to become available in the moonlit markets. Most of the intact books of the first edition are in the possession of the Church, the split-up treasure hordes of toppled liches, or - most terrifyingly - in the current possession and daily use of active liches.

You, my friend, are a wealthy Iskan, and you are also a necromancer. Your secret contacts have told you that the semi-reputable auction-house Alveig and Vindar has come into possession… they’re holding a black auction, and your agents have secured you an invite. Unfortunately, according to the diligent reporting of your secretary, there are three other people who have both the means and the competence to compete with you. They will attempt to foil you first at the auction, then, if you win, afterwards, with less formal methods.

 

The First Pursuer: Millefoile Metadana Victorié de Vanil

A noblewoman, from an ancient house of the Verdaran peerage. She is absurdly rich, from her family’s ancient war loot, and personal friends with Mr. Lowas Alveig, one of the proprietors of the auction house. The House of Vanil were rather famously allies of Avrendus, considering their lands in northern Verdara were very close to his home in Cilano. They managed to repent of this publicly enough to keep their lands (after all, it’s troublesome to dislodge peers in the wooded hills), but never truly abandoned the secrets he taught them. Millefoile is the latest in a long line of necromancer-countesses.

Lady de Vanil is a calculating schemer and a reckless duellist. She arrived in Iskadar via her very distinctive personal yacht, which is secretly armed with a light cannon. She is excellently trained in the Celadon style of swordwork, light on her feet, and an athletic acrobat. She is accompanied by ten of her household guards, three of whom are secretly analgesic undead, and a fourth is a very skilled sharpshooter with a long-barreled rifle.



The Second Pursuer: Dovmek Torowa Oskoni

Of course, in the new Ozann Union, the old families, merchant consortiums and banks are kings, just as they were when Ozann was a collection of troubled city-states no more than a decade ago. The Oskoni Bank is one such institution - family-owned, and happy to involve itself in all the grim business it needs to to make money. International organised crime has an old friend in the Oskoni Family. He has no interest in necromancy as an art, and isn’t one himself, but his family precisely aware of the value of this book, and seek to possess it to resell to the rest of you at a higher price.

Mr. Oskoni is cool under pressure and a remarkably quick draw with his double-barrelled pistol. He arrived in Iskadar on a small airship owned by the bank, accompanied by four crew and six extremely well-trained mercenaries, all veterans of the War of the Ruins.



The Third Pursuer: Lindē Dolcator

An official of the Cantosian government. Specifically, a member of their secret service, the Office for State Survival, or Ofstatsur, to use the usual Common abbreviation. The Cantosian regime’s mixture of utopian, elutherian (free-sorcery) and syndicalist positions has resulted in them becoming the foremost necromancer-state on Aclas, and thus an international pariah for most of the last two centuries. Isolated in their mountains, an uncomfortable detente has been reached between them and the rest of the world - but Ofstatsur know it will not last, and the perfidious social-complex will return to destroy their way of life. Thus, they seek out any information that will empower their position.

Mrs. Dolcator is a fiery ideologue and an icy professional. She arrived in Iskadar via a deniably chartered yacht, bringing with her a group of eight Ofstatsur wetwork specialists, two analysts, and a state necromancer. She herself is a necromancer, armed with a loyal military ghost that will rip and tear at the soul of those she directs it to.