Contact from my recruiting mage is that it has a necromancer that is willing to join my service, she is comparable to my younger skeletal mages but still strong enough. She will be bringing some minions of her own along with two acolytes, mostly peons and worker strength forces but she has a skeletal knight of her own. This one appears to be an actual knight who was turned, while not strong enough compared to my own it is stronger than my veterans. I welcome her to the fold through and ask why she is willing to join my banner, her reply is that she wishes to become stronger and explore more of what the necromantic arts can do.

She feels what my skeletal mage and it’s guards are like and wishes to join the one capable of such acts of power. Her forces are already underway and I can expect her to arrive a about a week ahead of the impending attack. I inform her of the conditions and the potential dangers and that I will be sending an escort to meet her halfway to ensure her safety. She appears to be hiding a few things in terms of power, I sense the presence of spirits on her. It is faint so it appears she has it contained in some talisman, I wonder what sort of spirit it is. A banshee or revenant perhaps with her strength, certainly good to see someone working on a less walked path of necromancy.

Sending an escort will also be needed to display to her my power so that she truly is not conceited, her forces are typical of a traveling necromancer being skeletal troops for speed and concealment along with spirits to aid them. A few of my newly created cavaliers should be enough as a show of power to cement her position. Mounted troops have always been a position of power in armies and nations, such an act is common across the world. The presence of mounted troops should show that I am a powerful necromancer with an established force, of course the cavaliers are part of my usual modified troop. The rider itself is an improved veteran with the capabilities of an experienced horseman and the horse has undergone extensive reinforcement and training akin to a true war horse of the knights.

This will be a good learning experience for my newest member in the dynamics of power. Speaking of horses my own original horse is still around, I was not so crass as to turn it into an undead so quickly. This was a high quality courser fit for a knight and I did not want to dull it so quickly by conversion to undead. I instead slowly shifted it and now it is enhanced with unmatched speed, maneuverability, endurance, and power. It can survive the harsh environment of the Agros de Mortis and I consider it a qualified mount for me.

The preparations for the incursion go well, besides the force composition which is sufficient for anything they could have Cor’lothen has buried boneclaws across the paths of possible retreat and arranged proper lines of fire and advance for our troops in case of open battle and siege. This is of course not mentioning the ambush but with all the construction work thankfully kept to the inner court and lower levels we might be good. Obviously making sure that the upper levels did not collapse was needed but there should not be too much outward appearance changes, I would have liked the open rampart positions for ranged troops but stealth for now. We have archers with armor piercing arrows in hidden posts on the walls and troops ready to burst out to block any invaders.

Barricades are ready to seal the entry and exit points, this castle is fortified as it can be without further restoration work. This meant we had to stop the restoration work on the walls but only enough to still give that ruined look, piles of rubble still can block and narrow the breaches. My industrial capacity is still improving, some of the nearby ruined villages were restored with peons to man them, we will have enough supplies to last anyone that actually needs to eat. My labs are busy cloning more bones that we need and our minion numbers grow slowly. My acolytes have grown some more but still are covering the basics. Aside from overseeing the defenses Cor’lothen has started basic swordsmen training for them as well, I hear the occasional screams from the training grounds but they will survive. This is a high quality regime meant to forge true soldiers for the frontlines, and there is no option for drop outs of course. We moderate things so that they will definitely survive so I do not worry about this, if something does occur I can fix things pretty easily.

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The new necromancer Zanna and her acolytes have joined the party now, she has given a pledge of service for her and her acolytes. While a pledge of service is not as stringent as a soul link contract it gives me some peace of mind that she will not take what she can learn and run. As the name shows she has pledged to the banner and so will be required to serve for a period of several decades. In exchange she will receive the protection and some teachings of the cabal, having given her a basic tour of the facilities I believe she will be staying on. I can see that she genuinely wants to know more about necromancy and study it’s depths. Her acolytes are bound to her so as long as I continue providing what Zanna wishes for I will have her loyalty.

My scouts show that the expedition is on the move and the numbers are as found before, the only discrepancy is the presence of slaves. Most of the baggage train is made up of slaves, most likely since regular workers would refuse to join this kind of ill-fated expedition. These ones are not under magic compulsion but still have to obey their overseers. While most slaves are treated relatively well due to cost and better reliability than new workers these ones appear to be slum residents. Probably the adventurers or whoever is paying for them grabbed some in a random raid and forced them to join, with not much other options when it comes to surviving they are here now.

This means that I do not need to commit as much to ensuring that they are subjugated and that I can grow my ranks some more after liberating them. Hmm on a side note if they had to raid the slums then that means there may be some more bodies and unrest at the town, an opportunity if I feel like it though that could be too high profile unless I handle it correctly. I need to dedicate some scouts to the town but I had most watching my new domain for intruders. I can feel what is mine in the domain but other things are a bit harder to find.

I suppose I need a more physical presence in order to find out if anything comes, I should make more wards then. Most of my ward are concentrated either at the old lair or around my caches of supplies. These should be enough for me to sustain an extended combat outside of my castle against any large groups of invaders. Most of the cache is made of direct combat supplies since all of the troops are undead and do not need the normal living supplies.

Just to make sure things are not too easy on those adventurers still here scouting I sent a few peons and assorted scrap reanimated animals at them, I still have my better dire wolves ready but this is the chaff of other assorted things. Most of the animals are monsters, deer, boars, moose etc that I sent off. The larger canine and felines I kept for myself to use to deal with stragglers in the future. As it is the proud undead Shock companies will still not be returning until later. After they dealt with my assorted cannon fodder I found out some information about them from it.

The adventurers appear to be relatively equipped to deal with undead, some silvered swords and bludgeoning weapons. A number of hedge maji are here along with some priests of I assume light from their garb. I do not know which church they are a part of but I can assume they are here to help with cleansing. Well I know my priority targets both to kill and take their bodies, getting some undead priests will certainly be helpful for my forces since that will take some of the slack off the mages. The leader appears to be a steel rank magic swordsmen and he has managed to keep the expedition in relative order, I expected him to be part of a party but it appears not. A solo adventurer of that strength is an annoying enemy to deal with, the rest are your standard pack of adventurers so no particular threat there.

My forces are in position and ready to deal with this mess, I would prefer the rest of the cabal to stay hidden as if someone survives or turns out to have a communication device I want this to be seen as the work of a pack of undead possibly with a lich not a cabal of necromancers. Having the element of surprise is always a handy thing, now all I have to do is just watch the show and let Or’tharn take all the blame. Is it cruel, not really since he has no true ego to get upset at this.