Wander

[Roger Smith]

"I hope you don't mind if I ask," the newcomer went on after a moment of silence, his fog-shrouded face making his expression difficult to make out. "...what you happen to be doing in this place? It hardly strikes me as a place for visiting."

There was a chance, now, for Mumm-Ra to gather information. Play dumb, the simple fool; a broken old man, newly arrived to this world, weak and confused, wandering aimlessly and without direction. See what this fool could offer to point him toward where his greatest use could be found. "I...I am still newly arrived to this place," he rasped, pulling his cloak closer about him as if to ward off the chill of the environs. "I happened upon the portal to this accursed land of mists, and lost myself among the cold."

"Ah...a shame, to make no mistake," the other man said, sounding less than sincere. "You picked a poor place to get lost, friend. The Pale Moors are inhospitable even to the people who know the dangers here. A new arrival would be lucky to last a single night among all the chaos and death that roams." He shrugged, listlessly. "I suppose it's better I found you than some roving undead or monster. They wouldn't have bothered to talk or announce themselves, at least."

The ancient mummy stared with glittering eyes at the man as he spoke, studying his mannerisms intently. Arms were folded loosely behind his back, and his face was shrouded and hidden by a deep hooded cloak as much as by the fog. His posture was easy, relaxed, with a slight slouch, as if he were completely at ease despite the apparent dangers he had just mentioned. It was something of a contradiction. One that would be carefully filed away for future thought. "It is fortunate, indeed, that I was found by such a...generous soul," he hissed, his head jerking up in a vague approximation of a nod.

"Generous? Hardly. Just a bit of sense. Hardly seems right to go around attacking anything and everything that moves." The increasingly odd man just shrugged. "Every chance I might wind up biting off more than I can chew, that way." It was a statement clearly intended to dismiss that line of thought altogether, having a faint inflection of actual emotion behind it; a sense of finality. "I'm on a bit of more important business at the moment, anyway."

"On more important business, and yet you take the time to stop and speak with a simple traveler..." Mumm-Ra noted, his eyes narrowing slightly as he peered all the more intently. "What business could you have that is so lax you are free enough to waste time on such a frivolity?"

"Well, bit of a...scouting task, really. Finding parties that might be interested in assisting with something." Another vague, dismissive shrug. "Not every day you find someone in your condition just wandering about the Pale Moors, alone. Thought you might have been just another random zombie, for a while there."

That drew an ugly grimace to the sorcerer's gnarled face. Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living, a mere zombie?! The audacity in even assuming such a thing... He mastered his temper, for the moment, forcing down the urge to lash out and show just how much more than a simple mindless undead he truly was. Instead, he focused on the first part of what had been revealed. "And what is this 'something' you spoke of...that you seek those interested to assist with?"

"A little bit of vengeance, really," the man said, his tone so casual it almost sounded like a joke. "Marching on the last bastion of real life and hope in this place to destroy it. You know. The usual business a nefarious-looking sort like myself gets embroiled in." He waved a hand lazily in the air, gesturing at himself for emphasis. "My lord wanted to find allies that could assist him directly. He has an army, but needs a bit more, you understand."

Mumm-Ra nodded slowly, the gears turning in his head rapidly. It was as if fate had spat out this obtuse, lackluster fool to answer his need for direction. The quest he was on had been exactly the sort of thing the ancient sorcerer needed. "And if you happened to find someone..." he spoke up, his voice pitched low as he pondered his words carefully. "...willing to assist in such an endeavor." A wicked gleam flashed through his eyes, a grin crawling onto his features, thankfully shrouded by the sleeves of his ragged cloak pulled close about him. "Where would they be directed to go to lend such...assistance?"

"....spooky," the man said, offhandedly. "But, I'd tell them to head to Poenari Castle. Lord Illidan is waiting there while the final preparations are made." He turned and gestured off in a direction off to one side of the path the scarlet-robed mummy had been plodding along. "Way off that way. Bit of a travel, but should get there eventually if you hold steady."

Turning his crimson gaze that way, the ever-living just slowly started off, pacing and striding slowly away. "Your master will have at least one to aid him," he called back as he faded, slowly, into the fog. "Where there is evil to be done...Mumm-Ra will find his way."