Nornan's Necromancy Adventure

“I can’t believe you didn’t read all of the mission documents. This is stupid! I told you I only wanted to do the easy ones,” Corborin complained. The small elf had found it to be rather easy to get Nornan to find the easiest bronze and iron type jobs at the market.

“I’m sorry,” Nornan said. “It said it wasn’t even supposed to be bronze. But apparently that meant it was supposed to be silver, not iron. The small town doesn’t have a lot of money to be able to give away so they couldn’t get the rank higher...”

“Money!? We still have to make it out alive! We’re taking on a necromancer and you’re thinking about the money?!” Corborin shouted. “We’re not just killing rats in the sewers or blowing up a weak goblin colony, we’re actually fighting a freaking necromancer.”

Nornan felt his body freeze up at the yelling. “It’ll be… It’ll be fine,” he uttered. “Dorothia will be able to help us.”

“Hmph,” a heavy amount of air blew out of Corborin’s nose. “She better. You really trust this alchemist? I hear she’s a gnome.”

“So?” Nornan defended. “She knows what she’s doing!”

“Oh I’m sure,” Corborin rolled his eyes. “Just like how you knew how to pick out an easy job. Right?”

Nornan went quiet as they walked the rest of the way to Dorothia’s cottage. Even though Nornan was a human he wasn’t all that much bigger than Corobin. He only stood 5’5” and could never make it as a warrior. If anything he was more of a worrier. His shorter frame couldn’t pack on any muscle or even weight nor could he properly hold a sword. He stuck to magic. It was easier for him to understand and he was able to actually help other people out. 

But he also needed someone like Corborin. The five foot elf was also an excellent rogue. Good at the close combat stuff and knew how to strike a good deal outside of battle. Even if in neither instance it was always the most moral way to do it. However without that, Nornan knew he would have been cheated numerous times as well. Despite his arrogance and anger, Corborin still tried to look out for him.

Dorothia’s cottage was built out inside a large oak tree. It took about a half a day to walk to and Corborin was getting tired. “She better have something…”

“She will,” Nornan said. “I sent a message ahead of us to make sure.” He knocked on the door.

“She better,” Corborin said.

“Come in,” Dorothia sang. 

Nornan opened the door. “Hey!” he waved uncomfortably as he stood in the doorway. “Sorry about it being such short notice… But the mission is under a bit of a time constraint and I couldn’t message you sooner.”

“Oh pish posh,” Dorothia waved her hand, dismissing the thought. “As long as you brought the elderberries, I don’t mind at all. And then you have to promise to come and tell me all about it once you’re finished.”

“Oh! Of course!” Nornan blushed. “But I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

“Intrude? Please, it’s always a pleasure to have your company,” Dorothia smiled. “And this is?”

“Corborin,” Corborin stated. He leaned up against one of her wooden dressers and was picking at his nails with a knife. “I’m here cause the moron didn’t think to look over all the paperwork.”

Dorothia smile became far less genuine. The edges of her mouth curled while her brow furrowed. “Well, I didn’t realize he was the only one who was expected to do work.”

“He’s not. I do the hard stuff he does the paperwork,” Corborin said. His small knife whipped around as he spoke. The blade bumped up against some of the wood paneling of her house.

The small gnome’s face only grew darker as the false kindness grew more forced. Nornan could see the situation growing. “He really does do a lot of work,” the human defended his elf companion. “I know I couldn’t take on a lot of our missions without him. He’s really resourceful too.”

“Yeah, if I wasn’t around Nornan he’d probably be stuck in the salt mines or six feet under by now,” Corborin smirked. He pulled Nornan in for a hug and squeezed. “Honestly, you should probably be thankin me for getting you those elderberries. Nornan was about to waste a ton of money on them and I got him a discount.”

“What kind of discount?” Dorothia asked.

“The five finger kind,” Corborin bragged.

“You stole it? You didn’t tell me that!” Nornan felt his throat start to close up. “But Pavel needed some of that money to buy a goat and bread for his family. What are they going to do…”

“Don’t think that’s our problem,” Corborin shrugged his shoulders while Nornan paced the small house. There wasn’t much space in there for Nornan to move but he was so distracted that it didn’t matter. 

Dorothia’s false pleasant expression only deepened into a more overt angry one. Her face scrunched up and eyes narrowed. Deeper and deeper anger flowed through her. Then something snapped. She went back to the pleasant motherly tone she had when Nornan entered her home. “Is it now. Well I suppose we have quite the clever elf then.”

“I guess that’s a compliment, coming from a gnome,” Corborin dismissed.

“I suppose it is,” her words were jagged and uneven. Her tone, pleasant, but the cadence gave it a more sinister nature. “Well the strength potion is almost complete, however I didn’t have all the ingredients to make one for Nornan.” She went back to her black cauldron and pushed in a few new ingredients. The purple potion turned a bright green color.

“You didn’t?” Nornan was snapped out of his trance. “Why didn’t you say something. I could have brought them.”

“Oh pish posh,” Dorothia dismissed. “I’m sure even if I had a human strength potion it wouldn’t matter all that much as Corborin is the one who does all the work. Isn’t that right sweetie?”

“Yep,” Corborin said.

“But… But…” Nornan watched as she mixed the formula even more.

“Do not worry your sweet little head. This will make Corborin more than strong enough to fight off whatever comes your way,” Dorothia poured the liquid into a vial and handed it to Corborin. “Now, you just have to make sure you tell me all about your adventure when you get finished!” she said as waved them off.

Nornan and Corborin headed down the road. “At least it wasn’t that much of a detour,” Corborin nagged. “How much strength do you think this’ll give me?”

“I don’t know… But you probably shouldn’t drink it yet. Just wait until we get to the cemetery,” Nornan said.

“Fine… Whatever,” Corborin said. It still took the two several hours of walking to be able to reach the cemetery. Daylight was starting to fade, but it only gave them less time to wait for the necromancer. He’d been coming out at night to raise the dead to fill his army. Many of the townspeople were starting to get afraid yet none of the larger adventurers wanted to do anything about it. 

The moon started to rise over the trees surrounding the cemetery. Someone in a long robe came out of the tree line. He carried a large staff in one hand and a book in the other. The man stood atop one of the grave stones and rifled through the pages. Strange unholy words started to come out of his mouth as he chanted the spell. His head tilted backwards as dark magic erupted from his mouth.

“Guess it’s time to get out there…” Corborin said. He tried sneaking around the cemetery to get closer. His small body could easily weave between the gravestones. However, the necromancer didn’t seem to notice him at all. The dark magic was flowing out of his mouth and sinking into the ground. 

Corborin pulled out his knife and tried to stab it into the necromancer. The dark magic swirled around the spot he was trying to stab, making it impossible for him to penetrate. It then reversed the motion and pushed Corborin back. The small elf flew a good ten feet away from his original position, his descent slowed by Nornan’s magic.

“Not that easy…” Nornan complained.

“Never is,” Corborin agreed. He pulled out the glowing green vial and popped the cap off. He quickly downed the strength potion. “Woah…” his body was suddenly filled with energy. It didn’t matter that they had been walking all day, he felt good as new. “Fuck. This is good,” Corborin flexed his arm feeling the power start growing in it.

The strength seemed to start showing outwardly. Even though most potions would only up the density of the muscle, this one seemed to be growing it as well. Corborin’s shirt and pants started to pull tighter against his body. His gloves tightened against each one of his fingers. He could feel the pressure only growing. 

“Wow. I’ve never felt this good. You need to remind me to thank that gnome when we’re done,” Corborin said. 

“Of course,” Nornan looked at his compatriot strangely. “Are you feeling okay, Corborin?” They were nearly the same height now. And Corborin was still growing. The shirt had separated from his pants, showing off his midriff. Solid blocks of abs lined against his stomach.

“Okay? Corborin feels great!” He flexed his arm. The sleeves of his shirt ripped. He let out a guttural laugh shaking his body. “Oops. Corborin getting really big!” He flexed again watching the shirt he was wearing tear to shreds. “Really big!”

Nornan took a step back. Corborin just kept growing. He was getting to be taller and larger than any of the strongest warriors that Nornan had known. Corborin’s skull changed to match the warrior’s more broad brows and strong jaw, but his jaw extended out in front of him. Two large tusks started to grow up out of his mouth and against his face. His nose flared. His peachy colored skin started to change to a green tint. Even in the moonlight, Nornan could clearly see the color change. 

“Corborin?” Nornan asked again. He barely came up to the brute’s shoulders. Corborin must have grown past 7 feet and still looked like he was still growing. His arms were packed with solid muscle and chest pushed far out in front of him. A deep divot sat between his two pecs. All around him was the tattered remains of his clothes. Even his feet had grown out of his shoes leaving the leather just sitting there.

But he didn’t look upset at all. If anything he looked happy. Elves always had their long hair tied behind their head but now the long strands were going every which way. Completely untamed and in his face. “Yep,” he threw up his arm for a flex. “Corborin strong now! Nornan relax. Corborin take care of hard part!”

His hulking body rushed into the dead bodies that were starting to come up from the ground. During the transformation they had already pushed out of the dirt. But even the strongest looking ones were no match for Corborin’s new body. The undead started to swarm him, but it was still nothing as he uprooted a tree. It didn’t matter that the tree would have weighed more than a hundred pounds as he swung it around as though it were a normal club. 

Nornan was completely distracted by the impressive nature of the giant orc tearing through the waves of the undead. He wasn’t even paying attention as one of them seemed to have broken away to target him instead. “Nornan!” Corborin’s deep voice brought him back down to earth.

‘I’m in a fight!’ he suddenly remembered and barely dodged the grabbing attack by a skeleton. He jumped back to orientate himself and cast a small fireball. The skeleton dropped back to his dead set of bones then disappeared. 

“Wow! Nornan is awesome!” Corborin exclaimed as he dropped the necromancer at his feet. “Corobin was worried but Nornan can take care of Nornan! You made fire!” 

“I did…” Nornan smiled at the compliments. Corborin had never said such nice things about him before. And it was all so honest too. Seeing the big dopey grin on his face made Nornan’s face go red. “I did...”

“Job done?” Corborin asked.

“Yeah. Job’s done. Let’s take him back to town and then we’ll have to go talk to Dorothia again,” Nornan smiled.