The Young Mage

Nicholai at the Farm

After his parents died, Nicholai farmed his father’s allotment at the young age of 13. He hated the landowner, a local Baron who squeezed all the tenants and expected the same tithes from Nicholai as the other tenants. He tilled and planted until his hands were swollen. Nicholai had thought of running away but town near him had no apprentice opportunities. He felt trapped and distrustful.

One day he was so hungry he took his bow into the woods to poach game. Nicholai was good with the bow and snuck there often. He saw a partridge and let loose his bow. The arrow flew true and he snaked through the grass to retrieve it. When he found the bird he also noticed a crevice in the rock. Nicholai saw that it was large enough to enter. Cool air came from the hole so he peered into the space. He was startled to see a hewn corridor. He was curious. He left a subtle marker for himself and came back at dusk armed with his bow and a candle.

Nicholai Finds the Book in the Cave

He squeezed into the hole and walked through the corridor. There were strange carvings in the walls of the corridor. Nicholai’s parents had sent him to an old tutor in the town when he was younger, so he could read a little. But these markings he had never seen before. He went on and came to a wide cavern. Suddenly the torchlight illuminated a high table with unlit black candles and a book. He looked at the book and realized it was a mage's book of magic. Nicholai took the book home with him and started on his fate.

Nicholai studied the book at night wasting candle after candle. He learned some spells and was experimenting on local animals. He could bind them with a word and then he would kill them. He could also cause pain on someone from afar. Nicholai was planning on using this spell on the landowner and was gathering the materials needed when the plague hit his area. 

Nicholai Sick

Nicholai became very sick and had a pustules on his face and body that kept getting bigger. Nicholai drug out his book and learned that he could become well by taking the life from another and doing a spell that would suck their life power. So Nicholai tried it on one of his chickens. The life power of the bird was very small but brought down his fever. Nicholai then went to his neighbor’s house and strangled a girl who was in the barn. He became much better and continued in this way in secret. But the ravages of his plague and the resultant warping of his features made him very ugly.

Nicholai Strangles a Young Girl

Nicholai could no longer go to town. People shunned him and derided him. The landowner banished him but, of course the landowner was found dead by unknown circumstances a little later.

Nicholai Shunned

And then Nicholai went out into the world looking for a master Mage to teach him more.