"The dead sure are lively today." Liselotte mused as she sent another arrow hurtling through a ghoul's skull. With the new alchemical reagents that were all the rage, it was far cheaper and more efficient to gather them herself. Thankfully she had the fortune of living near several locations where they were common. The Perditi Cemetery was a bit of a ways from Adeluna, but it was the closest and most easily accessible location aside from Egjora. Still it had its dangers, thus she kept to the outskirts where the dead were less concentrated. Marcasite was accompanying her today, as Basilius was taking his daily lounge in the sun. He was better suited to the arid and dry Harena Desert, but she always made sure he was kept warm. 

From her readings of the alchemist's gazette, ectoplasm and shrunken heads were the items of interest here. And no wonder, the dead were in plentiful supply. Just a few more and she would be ready to return home. She'd have to keep them out of sight from her mother, lest she be given a scolding. Her mother felt her work as an alchemist wasn't very becoming for a young lady like herself. She would rather her daughter become an herbalist or local apothecary selling natural remedies and floral incense than deal with boiling vials and unstable concoctions. Admittedly the distillation of hartshorn had been rather malodorous, but they were an essential source for making smelling salts. And since everything was more expensive if you bought them from a retailer, why not make it yourself?

The key was to keep quiet when you were in Perditi. Thus her enchanted bow made keeping the dead at a distance a simple task. Her little wyvern would then retrieve the shrunken heads or any items of interest and return to her like her brother Galvin's falcons. Pulling the bowstring taut, she let another notched arrow fly. A whizzing sound followed by the fall of the head of a walking corpse was heard in the eerie silence.

"Cursed gauntlet! How is a man supposed to relax in an area full of dead people when those very dead people are up and shambling about, moaning and groaning and being…. rather admittedly amusing…. in a general matter?"

Signus palmed his face in frustration with his non-gauntleted hand - mostly because he has never, in a single instance, put his gauntleted hand on his face once since he put on the gauntlet, and he was honestly uncertain of what may or may not happen were he to do so. Ever since he had put on the damnable (quite literally) thing, the dark energies of death and shadow have been following him around. Of course, those same energies are what gave him his rather impressive abilities, but at the same time, he was not one hundred percent in control of those abilities due to the nature of the gauntlet and the source of its power, so instances like this particular night were not uncommon for him.

"Ever since I was trapped in that bandit camp and found you, it's as though the undead have taken a rather unsettling liking to me, as well. I am not interested in dating a 400 year old human woman. Her bosoms are rotted away, and her smile is ghastly - though she had a quite nice personality, come to think of it. Were I born several centuries ago, I'm sure she would have made a lovely woman. But in any case, this is rather irritating. Hey!"

Signus turned and addressed a particularly ugly zombie that had started ripping up the flowers some poor soul had place for a loved one recently.

"Those are NOT toys!"

Signus couldn't really tell for certain, but it seemed as though the zombie slumped its rotten head in sadness, but it ceased all flower ripping and instead began to bang rocks against its head as if that were some new fad.

"I always wanted a dedicated following, but this…. this is a completely different matter entirely. I admit, these creatures are rather entertaining at times, but they make it nearly impossible to meet anyone with a proper pulse! Sure, no one harms anyone I try to make friends with because they listen to me, but… just their very presence - their stench and ghastly appearances - throw anyone off.

Signus grabbed his gauntleted arm and shook it rather stupidly.

"Bad hand! Baaad hand!"

Signus' demeanor picked up a little bit when he heard a commotion nearby. As curiosity set in, Signus decided to check it out. He could hear some angry moaning coming from some nearby zombies, and upon arriving on the scene, he caught sight of a woman - quite beautiful was she - relieving several of his accidentally summoned minions of their heads with a bow.

"Whoa. She's pretty. Wouldn't you agree?" Signus turned to a nearby zombie who had followed him for no particular reason.

The zombie looked at him for a moment and then shrugged as if to say "meh".

"Well, you wouldn't know anything about proper taste in women anyway. You're dead."

The zombie nodded in concession with his statement as it moaned in agreement.

Signus was certainly quite enthralled with this woman. It wouldn't be love at first sight, of course - Signus preferred to develop such things over time - but he instantly wanted to know more about this woman. Who was she? Why was she in a place like this?

Without thinking much, Signus jumped out of his hiding spot with a smile.

"Hello!" he exclaimed happily.

"Stand down, my unfortunate minions! I ask you to desist in attacking this fine young woman!"

In compliance, the zombies obeyed their rather unwilling master and stood around stupidly. Some scratched their heads - effectively peeling off what rotten flesh remained attached to their skulls - while others wandered off and fought one another instead.

Signus, with a big smile on his face, bowed quite extravagantly and with unnecessarily exaggerated gusto, and addressed the woman with a deep, friendly voice.

"Good evening, my lady. I am Signus Vittori - once nobleman's heir - now nobleman's betrayed son who happens to more or less command a modest horde of some rather silly ghouls and ghosts. Might I have the pleasure of knowing your name?"

Eyeing the woman's bow, Signus cleared his throat.

"I… should mention that this is NOT what it looks like, exactly. I know it might be hard to believe someone you just met who happens to be in the middle of the graveyard and able to walk amongst the dead as though he were best friends with them, but…… I had nothing to do with this."

He gestured at the gauntlet of his hand as he took hold of it and shook it vigorously to try and emphasize his point.

"It's my hand. Sometimes it doesn't listen to me and summons hordes of the undead when I don't want it. It really puts me off and ruins most attempts at a decent conversation."

He laughed a little reassuringly. Surely this woman would be level-headed enough to at least try and believe him? He wasn't an evil person…. even if his abilities were more or less so.

When Marcasite brought her the last head shrunken head she had found, the wyvern dropped it into a sack where the rest of the reagents she had been collecting were kept. The olive green draconid perched herself on her owner's shoulder, but started hissing when she caught the scent of a figure approaching. "Good work, now what's the matter?" As soon as the question left her lips, a man in dark garb leaped out from behind a bush. Liselotte's instinctual reaction was to notch another elemental arrow to her bow in a blink of an eye aiming the arrow's point at his forehead, dead center. Vines crept out from the ground and snagged some of the zombies still shambling closer to her, and they constricted the walking corpses until there was a sickening crunch of their spines being crushed.

It took a moment for her to realize what this strange man was rambling about, and she relaxed her pull on her bowstring. Her initial concern gave way to a chuckle, curling her lips into a small smile. He was a funny one, for a necromancer. Lowering her bow, she put a hand on her hip. "It's alright Marcasite." Stroking the little green wyvern it quieted down. "So Sir Vittori, am I to believe that these hordes of the walking dead are not your doing? I had been wondering why the numbers of the risen dead were higher than usual." Then again, Perditi had been known to be steeped in necromantic energies to the point that the dead would rise even if no sorcerers were present, so perhaps he was telling the truth. She chose to give him the benefit of the doubt, as his personality from what she could gather did not match the typical corpse-raiser. "

From what you have told me, it appears you've had the misfortune of coming in contact with a cursed object. The curse of binding is a common enchantment used on valuable items to prevent theft or its usage by anyone other than the original owner." It appeared that there was more to the gauntlet than a simple thief-prevention fail-safe. Either it was channeling and amplifying any latent power he had, or the item was possessed itself. Unfortunately dispelling curses and nullifying the more intricate inner workings of magical enchantment were beyond her, and she only had the most basic knowledge on how to infuse magic into a mundane item. "Have you seen a cleric, or a specialist to have it removed? Keeping such items on oneself might pose more serious effects to your health and mind in the long-term." She advised. 

"Well…. technically, these zombies do come from me, but like I said, I don't purposely summon them. At the very least, they will listen to me…. more or less…. watch."

Signus pointed at a nearby zombie that had somehow shambled its way next to him.

"You there!"

The zombie let out a drawn out "Huuuuuh?" in answer.

"Dance for me and the lady here."

The zombie groaned in response and began dancing by raising its arms and moving left and right while turning its body rather stiffly back and forth.

"If they're going to keep popping up out of nowhere," Signus explained," I might as well try to get some entertainment out of them, no? While they are ugly and do have a hunger for living flesh, they're pretty much harmless as long as I ask them to be such…."

Signus sighed as he waved off the group of zombies that had come to him out of curiosity of what was going on. He sat on a nearby stump and placed his elbow on his propped up knee and chin on his hand.

"As to your question as to whether I'd been able to see a priest - I have… however, they refuse to help. Some of them have gone so far as to try and have me arrested. I always got away - without hurting them, mind you…. I'm not one for hurting people who don't deserve some sort of punishment for their crimes - but it is frustrating. It's not like I wanted this. It just sort of happened. I could tell you all about it, but I feel like it'd be best to not bore a beautiful woman such as yourself with a story of my past on a first meeting. Hey! Stop that!"

Signus gestured towards a zombie who had been gnawing on the arm of another zombie out of boredom.

"You don't know where he's been."

"Hnnnnnngh…."

"Don't you talk back to me! You're only up and about doing anything because of me! Well…. because of this cursed thing on my arm, anyway."

"Guuhawwwfnnnnawww?"

"Yes, yes. Be a good dead shambly thing and maybe I'll let you chew on the leftovers of my dinner later."

"Hoooawugh!"

The zombie shambled off happily.

"So, then… Miss….. whatever your name is…. tell me… What is a woman such as yourself doing in a dreadful sort of place like this? Surely the pale grays and blacks are a downer for any good mood?"

Signus smiled a little whimsically after his question.

"Ah I see. Well perhaps my earlier suggestion was incorrect. Rather than a priest, perhaps a powerful sorcerer–" Her voice trailed off as she stopped herself before she continued what she was about to say. No, she probably shouldn't recommend him to her. As much as the arcanist would be delighted to test a few methods, she didn't want to impose on her former professor. She had done enough for her already, and she still had yet to repay the debt. Smiling again, she continued where she had left off. "What I had meant to say was… Perhaps asking a favor from the deities would work?" He was quite humorous, though the flattery was being laid on a bit thick. She still wanted to know the particulars of how he had gotten that cursed gauntlet but that would be for another time.

Again he asked for her name and why she was here. "Ah pardon my lack of courtesy. I am Liselotte Ellebore. My family lives a little ways on the outskirts of Adeluna City. As for why I am here, the appropriate answer would be 'what' I am here for." She held up a bag that contained ectoplasm and shrunken heads brought over thanks to Marcasite. "Alchemy reagents cost quite a bit of coin, so I thought I'd save myself the trouble and find them myself. The Moritius Swamp isn't as dreary as it appears. The fog does obscure the area often, however. I've always been curious of the soil composition of the area. Not much appears to grow here, aside from hanging moss. Perhaps the soil is too acidic or too alkaline." She was going off into technical terms again. A bad habit of hers, forgetting she wasn't in her laboratory.

"I do hope I'm not putting you to sleep already. Not everyone shares the same interests and hobbies." Returning her arrow back to its quiver she lowered her bow. The little wyvern on her shoulder still eyed Signus suspiciously, resting her head atop her owner's. 

"I wonder if any of the Gods would even pay attention to one such as I…"

Signus mused on this idea for a moment; a couple zombies mimicked his chin-in-palm gesture as he did so. Certainly, it didn't seem as though this terribly powerful gauntlet was going to go anywhere via conventional means, and he would therefore have to figure out some other way of removing it. While he did rather like some of the abilities the gauntlet provided, Signus was concerned that those powers would corrupt who he was as a person, and he rather enjoyed being a respectable, dashing, and endlessly handsome sort. On the bright side, the gauntlet didn't give him any violent tendencies or habits. He only ever really used his combat skills in actual combat with actual bad guys.

Broken out of his reverie by the woman's self-introduction - Lisellotte seemed to be her name - Signus smiled again.

"Ah, Adeluna. I traveled there a few times in my younger days. That was before my father turned out to be someone other than the man I always thought he was, but that is a tale for another time, perhaps."

Taking a gander at the bag that Liselotte held up in explanation as to the reason for why she was there, Signus nodded while making "mhm mhm" sounds.

"Yes, I see. Certainly, I could see how these macabre ingredients might be useful for some sort of alchemical purpose, though…" he smiled grimly, "…. I take it that these particular ingredients are not for purposes related to restoring or supporting the body. Somehow, I doubt an oddly preserved head or the leftover gunky residue of spirits are particularly helpful in healing processes. As to your concern for whether or not your talk of alchemy may or may not be a bore to me, I am, quite honestly, fairly interested in the practice, though, I admit, I am not as of yet a practitioner of such an art… although I suppose I may want to consider it seriously since I am technically a necromancer - however unwilling I may be - and apparently, such individuals are usually quite learned in the ways of poisons and illness…"

Signus coughed nervously.

"….Not that I'd ever use such concoctions to spread unnecessary death or disease amongst innocent people, of course. I am not that kind of Necromancer, I assure you. I don't even understand why people with that sort of power would want such a thing. It's gross, putrid, sickening, and just awful - um… no offense -"

Signus stated this last bit to the zombies close to him. They shrugged and nodded their heads and gestured with their arms as if to say "you have a point".

"You're quite accommodating for presumably single-minded, dumb as a doornail walking corpses."

Several zombies' thumbs rose up in approval.

"In any case," Signus returned his focus to Liselotte,"I would offer my assistance in your current task of collecting such peculiar objects, Miss Ellebore, if you are not already with enough for your purposes - whatever they may be."

"Well it never hurt to ask. You won't know if you don't try." Not that she had ever visited the temples of the deities, but there was at least a higher possibility of them saying 'yes' if you came to them first. The zombies indeed seemed to be under Signus' thrall, almost as if his power over them made them less like…corpses. Likely a side-effect of unrestrained necromantic energies. Most necromancers were only interested in unthinking, undying servants. A full reanimation of the soul into its former body was a complete resurrection when necromancy was concerned. 

When he questioned her purposes for collecting the macabre reagents, she proceeded to clarify. "Unfortunately not. They don't hold such properties. However, they have been used in imbuing whatever power they hold into mundane objects, which happens to be what I intend to experiment with. Anything in excess can be a poison, even nontoxic things. That commonly is known as overdosing. You can die from simply drinking too much water in a short period of time, you know? And I don't mean as in drowning."

It was a little bit of black humor, but he didn't seem to mind. Or rather, he was quite good at hiding it. "Well I wouldn't say every necromancer has experience with poison and illness. However those are common subjects in the curriculum. Mostly regarding how not to end up dead yourself, than spreading the plague. What good is necromancy if you end up croaking before your time? Dealing with corpses and carrion puts those who work with them in close contact with pathogens, both blood-borne and otherwise. To be a successful necromancer you have to possess the basic knowledge of disease prevention and medical procedures first. It's not a popular course but it is taught in the Mage's College. By a responsible lecturer, no less."

Giving a pause she observed the undead ghouls under Signus' command. They were quite curious examples of their ilk, however if he didn't have much control over what he could do there was no telling if their current temperament would be stable. Best to keep a wide berth to prevent catching anything they had. "I appreciate your offered assistance, however I believe I should call it a day lest I bring more than I can use. It'll be easier to dispose of such things when they are in small quantities, wouldn't you agree?" Liselotte gave him a coy smile while she scratched her wyvern's neck. Marcasite purred, relaxing her wings and tail.