Smooth Jazz peered into the darkness. His draconian body tensed, ready to defend himself against the horrors of the dungeon.





Silence.





His surroundings slowly became clearer as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Pillars surrounded him as though welcoming him into this deathtrap of a labyrinth.

A voice boomed in his mind: "Carry the black torch! Rouse the idle dead!". Smooth Jazz stepped into the dungeon smiling to himself.

"Gladly."





Smooth Jazz never realised what was missing from his life until he discovered Yredelemnul, the god of death, a few months ago. The concept of amassing undead armies made Smooth Jazz feel giddy. Why put yourself in danger when you can command the dead to sacrifice themselves for you? He had been practicing his reanimation rituals as much as possible over the last few weeks. That was until the townsfolk discovered who had been excavating graves in the small hours of the morning.





Smooth Jazz took a few steps into the thick darkness. He rounded a pillar near the entrance of the dungeon just as a giant segmented leg slashed towards him. He jumped aside, narrowly avoiding the sudden attack.

Ahh my first foe. He thought to himself as he regained his footing. Is that a cockroach?!

He pushed his astonishment away as he swung his honed falchion down towards it. He'd have plenty of time to analyse the beast after it dies.

The curved blade bounced off the tough exoskeleton as the insect lunged towards Smooth Jazz again. He ducked as the cockroach loudly chomped the air above him.

Shiny limbs continued to flail towards Smooth Jazz in a flurry of attacks. Ducking and weaving, he repeatedly swung his blade at the creature, occasionally pivoting on the spot to sweep the insect off its legs with his thick tail.

A large segmented leg plopped heavily to the floor as the falchion cleaved through the air. The massive insect screeched in agony, rearing up on its hind limbs. Smooth Jazz seized the opportunity and slashed his blade across the underside of the creature. Green goo spilled forth as the cockroach crashed to the dungeon floor. Releasing a deep breath, he wiped the sticky goo off his sword before sheathing it.



I should have known that such grotesque creatures may live in the darkness here. If only I had more warning from those blasted villagers, then I could have practiced my sword fighting beforehand.

He bent down to examine the giant cockroach corpse. Well I guess now is a good time to try reanimating my first non-humanoid creature. He slowed his breathing as he went through the motions of rebinding soul to body.





Nothing happened.





Feeling slightly anxious, Smooth Jazz tried again. As his hands moved in the practiced motions the severed leg slid towards where it had been hacked off, then reattached itself to the wound. All of the legs began to move, lifting the body of the cockroach off the dungeon floor. The undead cockroach turned to face Smooth Jazz, calmly awaiting his command.

That's better! He thought to himself, smiling at the first recruit of his unstoppable undead army. Taking a few steps, Smooth Jazz looked over his shoulder to see the lumbering corpse following a few steps behind him, legs skittering evenly across the floor.





DCSS Version 0.14 trunk. Smooth Jazz began as a Draconian Death Knight.



