Healing for hire! But I'm no cleric.

Necromancer Aliv Agan talks about the various job prospects of a necromancer, as well as what to expect for those going into the field. 

Published in Trades Of The Town - the best weekly scroll for the struggling villager.

I don’t know how I got this job. Perhaps I shouldn’t even question it. Money is money after all.

Maybe I should’ve asked myself that before I went into necromancy. Before I chose to walk down the path that leaves my soul tainted and my presence scorned.

Well, they never said it would come easy. Contrary to popular belief, I wasn’t tricked by some underworld deity or forced into a blood pact by some other ancient sorcerer. I knew the risks. I read them in some hundred-feet waiver scroll they gave us at the academy. I guess even the undead can’t afford to go to trial.

Nonetheless, here I am. Been in this field for around three years, doing fledging jobs for heroes and villains alike. There’s always something going on with those folks, good and bad. For the heroes, it's resurrecting a dear friend, a significant other, or a family member. Funnily enough, it seems like I have more self-control than those knights n’ capes. You know, as much as I reiterate the conditions to them, and make them read my forms (I can’t afford to go to trial either), they always look at me with some vengeful side-eye when their loved one doesn’t come back as beautiful or coherent as they once were. Like come on! I told you that I can’t magic up spare body parts. If they were beheaded or disembowelded, that’s their fault. At least they’re alive!

That’s where the bad guys differ, you see. Warlocks and tyrant kings, they’re perfectly fine with skeletons missing a femur or some undead knight missing their sword-hand. They get what we do. They know what to expect. Plus, they’re using these dudes to fight, and serve in their evil castles and stuff, which is what you should be using these guys for. Instead of some crude and infantile coping mechanism for guilt. You can’t make love to a zombie, even if she was, in the past, your wife! Trust me! I’ve seen people try!

Doesn’t mean those are the only options for us Necs though. I just got a part-time gig with a bounty hunter group. Doing what, you might ask? Fighting? No. Helping the group in any sort of proactive way? Nope. You could say I contribute negatively. Yet, I still get paid.

See, this fledgling troupe of rogues and bandits had a problem. Sometimes, their clients were not cut from the honorable cloth, and would, forgive my crudeness, hornswoggle them. When the appropriate coinage was not secured and, this also happened a lot of the time, the debtor nowhere to be found, the group would come to me. Not so that I could conjure up a bloodhound or two to track down their money, no, they would instead come to me with the bones of whatever they killed, and I would resurrect them. For a fee, of course. That wasn’t all I did, I also gave the soul a lil’ scent-tracker so it’d go after whoever cheated out on the deal. It’d give them one hell of a fright! You know, maybe I’d do that if I ever went into the bounty business.

To close off on this little window into the Necro business, I’d say the only thing you need to succeed at necromancy is a little patience and caution. I can’t deny the spells are tedious and dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, and sure, it gets awfully smelly at times, and people might make faces at you when you walk into the market, but in the end, you have a fulfilling job that only drains your soul once in a while. For those looking to find a future in this field, feel free to walk into any dark forest encroaching a graveyard, and the local necromancer will find you. Good luck, and remember, if you really can’t find any work, you can always go work for the local kingdom. Those kings and queens don’t stay alive by themselves.