Raven started with the young elf male. He had discovered that the elfs name was Avarice, an elven merchant here in Elmshade. There had been reports of locals disapearing, and reapearing later only to die horrible deaths. The white wizard suspected foul play, and was now ready to proove it.

The elven male was levetated out of the alcove, and hovered over a large metalic table, etched in runes of power. They glowed with an inner light, previously activated by the mage. Once lowered onto the table, the mage removed his own field of stasis, letting the tables own field take over and keep the body in stasis. The tables powers however allowed the wizard to manipulate the objects or being held in the tables field. Raven stepped up next to the elf, and pulled up a table with rows of small delicate tools laying out on it. Some were glowing, with sections of glass filled with glowing liquids in them. Others were strange looking, and seemed to phase in and out of existance. Whatever their origins, the white wizard knew how to use everyone of them, and went to work on the elfs body.

After several hours of surgery on the elf, Raven emerged from the vault with splatters of blood, and glowing liquids staining his surgical apron. He removed the mask he wore over his nose and mouth, and held up a clear jar to the nearby window for the light to shine on. Inside he gazed apon four small black spheres, each one dripping with a thin coat of blood. As he examined them... they moved. Slowly, and fluidly moving around the bottom of the jar. Raven rubbed his chin, and proceeded upstairs tward his alchemic lab.

 

Raven leaned over the beaker, holding the dropper steady as he went. He let several drops of blood drop down into the beaker, and onto one of the black spheres. The blood seemed to seep into the top of it, and pool back out in the bottom of the beaker. He was sure this time that the blood was indeed ingested by the strange sphere... but immediatly expelled it back out. This puzzled him greatly....

Carefully he tipped the beaker to its side, and used the long dropper to collect some of the blood again. After doing so he steps over to another lab table behind him, and empties the dropper into a silvery bowl which seemes to be lined internally by a thin crystal. The blood pools at the bottom quickly, and Raven lifts the bowl up into his hands... chanting ancient words of magic. "Ferrummn Verici Alumnachit Slahgic!!"

The bowl turns transparent in his hands, and the blood can be seen inside as he holds it up over his head. Raven concentrates, and the bowls surface magnifies the blood 10000 times, bringing into view the very cells inside. He studies them carefully, adjusting the image as he does and going as far as to view inside some of the cells. He moves the image around through the blood similar to a scry device. Still nothing... it looks like a normal sample of his blood.

Raven sets the bowl down, and removes the gloves and mask. He walked through the several rows of lab tables covered with glowing tubes, beakers, and bubbling viles. Near the enterance of his lab was a desk and high back leather chair. On the desk was an open book, with fresh inscriptions and diagrams decorating the pages. He sits down in the chair with a sigh, and picks up a quill... writing down his latest results.

 

The next day Raven was back over the beaker again studying the black sphere. He had discovered the thing was alive, some kind of symbiote. The life detection spell was flawless, and identified it as giving off life of its own. Raven set the beaker back down, and inadvertantly tipped the crystal lined bowl. The blood inside was preserved by the bowls enchantments, so it was as fresh as it was yesterday. The bowl slides into a burner, and tips it as well. The blood splashes into the flames, and explodes. Raven goes flying tward a wall as lab tables, and beakers break and crash in a cloud of flames. Then the protective runes kick in, and and momentumn is stolen from everything in the room... cancelling the blast effect and reconstructing any damaged tables, and equiptment inside. Raven was unharmed in the blast, his robes protected him well. He only loses a few beakers, and a little of his nerve.

Ravens eyes go wide at the newest revelation on this odd creature, as he holds up the beaker to gaze at the moving black sphere. It must have changed the blood on an atomic level, changing its chemical makeup into a volitile substance outside the body. Perhaps with certain adjustments, the entire body could.... "Oh my GOD!!" Ravens faced flushed white as he realized the prospects of this creature. Who ever created it, could make any body with blood in it... into a walking weapon.

 

After finishing his cataloging of the black spheres, and placing them in a safe container enchanted to hold small living creatures, Raven returns to vault lab. He places the clear jar holding the black spheres on a shelf there, he would have to tell the others about these soon.

Raven turned and walked to the other alcove that held the dark woman. He looked inside, and his eyes grew wide in shock. The woman was now almost completely consumed by the crystaline substance. Apparently the Stasis he placed over her, did not stop the progression of the crystal substance. Summoning all his skills Raven worked quickly to extract the woman from the alcove, and get her on the enchanted lab table. He worked ferveshly for the next several hours, casting powerful Dispell Magics, and Molecular Manipulation spells over the growing crystal. To his dismay, Raven had discovered the crystal had grown even faster on the inside of her body, having already consumed her heart and other vital organs. He could only amputate what little remained of her, for later burial. Raven always felt depressed when he lost a life in his care. After encasing the crystaline substance in a cube of force and setting it aside on the Stasis table, Raven prepared the womans remains for burial. He had one of his Guardian Alabaster Golems enter and carry the remains for him outside the tower, where he and the golem then walked to the local graveyard. The golems huge hands quickly dug a deep grave, and they placed the womans remains inside the hole. Before covering her, Raven took out her magical talking sword, still wrapped in a warded cloth. He placed the sword down on the body, and then gave the word for the Golem to cover the grave. With a simple StoneShape spell, Raven created a makeshift headstone for the womans grave. After saying a few words of rememberance, he turned and walked back to the Ivory tower, the golem following. He went to his library inside to read, that always helped him when he was depressed.

 

Raven entered his vault lab the next morning, dressed in his grey lab robes and still carrying his mornings cup of imported coffee. Slung under the other arm is a stack of papers, and his leather notebook. The large vault door slides silently shut behind him as he steps over to the desk nearby. Setting down the book and papers, and taking a sip of the hot coffee... he first hears it. A small clicking sound, followed by a scrape. Raven slowly brings his lips up from the rim of the cup, as his eyes roll tward the stasis table in the center of the room. The large chunks of crystal he surgicaly removed from the dark woman.... were gone. The force cube was still intact, and the wards in the room would have alerted him to any disturbances. Then he sees a slight movement in the lower right corner of the cube, and he slowly walks up to the table. As he steps up closer to the table to look inside the cube, the movement stops. Raven leans down to look closer in the corner.... and laying there at the bottom of the cube.... was a small... key. Only about two inches in length, and apparently made of the same crystaline substance. It was generally key shaped, with multiple strange delicate teeth at the end and running along the bottom.... and tiny legs out the side... and little bulbouse eyes on the end of needle like stalks... what? Raven blinked, and rubbed his eyes... not believing what he just saw. Then the scraping sound scared him out of his self denial, and he looked back to the force cube startled. There it was... running around the bottom of the force cube like a traped insect. Its tiny legs scraping across the sides as it moved. Raven put his hand over his mouth and shook his head as he watched the key creature run around the base of the force cube. "Oh my...... .... .. . "

Raven then turned around after a few moments, and went to his desk. Sitting down in the highback white leather chair, and setting down his coffee... Raven reaches over and picks up a quill. After opening his leather notebook, Raven writes in it for the next few hours.

 

 

Raven spent the next three dyas examining the small creature by means of medicine, alchemy, and magic. He found out that the creature was harmless once it had passed from its crystaline larva state to this final form. Its larval state had to feed on organics in order to transform, hence the dark womans demise. Once in its final state, it seemed to prefer to eat normal vegetation like molds, and fungus. During the last day of the examination, he let the tiny creature roam the lab. He would often look up to see it sitting on his shoulder as he wrote in his ledger, curiouse about anything the wizard was doing. The creature seemed to be attached to the white wizard, and would shriek something terrible when he would try to leave it alone. Raven ended up carrying it around in his robes pockets where it seemed to be comfortable.

Once he was finished writing the details down in his ledger, Raven closed the book and gathered his notes. It was time. Time to inform the other Trinity members of his research. He reached inside his pocket, and then raised his hand up before his face. Riding his finger was the tiny key creature... "Lets go have some breakfast, then I'll introduce you to some friends of mine. Sound good?" Raven smiled as the tiny creature chirped its excitement. He was sure the creature didnt understand his words, but moreless understood his empathic feelings. It was the thought of food that got its attention. Within the hour Raven an his new friend were sitting out on a balcony enjoying breakfast, and then ready to head to the Trinity Dias.