Sergius

Grey Mummy Sorcerer

By Moe Lane

Corporeal Forces: 2	Strength: 5	Agility: 3
Ethereal Forces: 2	Intelligence: 5	Precision: 3
Celestial Forces: 3	Will: 7	Perception: 5
Word-Forces: N/A

Skills: Alchemy/6, Artistry/2 (writing), Emote/5, Enchantment/6, Fighting/2, Knowledge (History/3, Research/4, Sorcery/6), Languages (English/3, Greek/3, Latin/3), Large Weapon/2 (sword), Lying/4

Songs: Healing (Corporeal/3), Entropy (Ethereal/3), Light (Celestial/5), Motion (Ethereal/2, Celestial/1), Shields (Corporeal/3), Unlife/3

Attunements: Sorcery

Extra Rites: None

Vessels: Standard human (Toughness/1)

Roles: N/A

Dissonance: N/A

Discord: None

Artifacts: None


Sorcerous Rituals: Banish/5, Command/2 (Suggest, Command Minor Ethereal Spirit), Exorcism/4 (all), Focus/3 (Protective Ward, Sacrifice for Essence, Store Essence), Summoning/1 (Summon Random Ethereal Spirit)

Sergius may be the oldest mummy in existence. If true, this fact does not please him: he's enough of a target as it is. Sergius would be extremely happy to be completely forgotten. Well, he wouldn't be 'really' happy, but his mental outlook would improve, so it's close enough.

Once upon a time, Sergius was human - and, by his own later analysis, a total and complete idiot. Only an idiot, after all, would actually host a party on a holiday celebrating the old Roman Republic in Emperor Caligula's Rome. Only a complete idiot would actually intimate that the date was chosen deliberately. And only a total and complete idiot would get drunk and howl bad satirical poetry at said Emperor's expense. Of course he ended up on a cross - and him of the patrician class, no less. But then, Caligula wasn't exactly tolerant of old rights and customs.

Anyway, Sergius was near death when an enigmatic figure came up to him, casually rendered his 'guard' unconscious with a wave of the hand, and politely asked the delirious patrician precisely how badly he wanted to live. Would existence be worth a certain distance and detachment? Would it be worth the cessation of pleasure, as well as pain? The figure had no doubt continued his pitch after that, but it was wasted: Sergius was too busy croaking out his acceptance the second he heard 'the cessation of pain' bit.

Getting him off the cross was tricky: the figure did some sort of odd ritual around the crucified man. The patrician could feel everything go - not gray, colors were still there - 'dull' may be the best adjective. The sorcerer then somehow froze him with a look, tucked something into his mouth and walked off.

Sergius got to watch, apparently dead, as the guards woke up, determined that he was glassy eyed and had no pulse, idly stabbed him a couple times to check for a reaction and finally decided that they had a corpse on their hands. They threw him into a ditch and dumped some dirt on him (no cremation, by order of the Emperor). Then they no doubt went off to enjoy the rest of their lives.

Eventually, the paralysis wore off. Sergius scrabbled up out of the muddy ditch. In the process, he swallowed the thing tucked into his mouth and soon discovered that he didn t have two broken legs or any cuts anymore. That was the last thing that his 'benefactor' did for him - the mummy certainly hasn't seen him since. This would infuriate Sergius, except that he has difficulty feeling things anymore.

Being a mummy who doesn't know his limitations, doesn't know about the War, has no supernatural abilities (except for an apparent talent for Sorcery) and damn few natural ones isn't fun. Sergius pretty much had to wait out the next ten years in a cave, bored out his mind (Undead have no problems with feeling that emotion). From there, it took half a century before he could find someone with the right kind of esoteric knowledge. It took several centuries of patient effort to acquire sufficient abilities to make him feel relatively safe about being out in public, and about half a millennium more before he had his routine down pat. Sergius is a firm believer in the 'slow but steady' method of personal development. He's got plenty of free time, after all.

Sergius has never chosen a side in the War. From his point of view, the entire concept of monotheism is a bad joke, and he's never quite figured out just what the attraction of it is for some people. As for Heaven and Hell, well, demons are bloodthirsty swine ready to enslave anyone they come into contact with and angels are bloodthirsty swine who seem to enjoy killing for its own sake. And, of course, neither side likes the idea of unaligned sorcerers. The prudent man - well, mummy - would be well advised to avoid both sides.

Personally, Sergius isn't very interesting. Unlike many mummies, he doesn't despise the humans that he's using for cover: he has difficulty mustering up the emotional energy necessary for hatred. By now, he's a fairly powerful sorcerer and better alchemist, but whatever interests that he might have is bound up with seeing if there's a cure for this condition he's got. Everyone he's met who was in the know says that there isn't, but, really, what else does he have to do with his time?

Encountering him would be a little difficult: getting him to do anything for someone, once found, would be a little trickier. Bribery (in the form of Undead lore) would work: so would threats, but it'd only work once (Sergius is very good at dropping everything and running away when he has to). Careful cultivation, however, might result in a reliable source of alchemical potions, specialized information and low-grade artifacts, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Sergius, incidentally, does have one other interest: he'd like to find out who, or what, turned him into a mummy all those years ago. Frankly, he could never figure out why the sorcerer bothered, and it nags him.

Well, as much as anything can.

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