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business of running his fledgling country to his generals and advisors. In fact, Arman Sul, the ruler of Old Nashia across the sea, had sent one of his administrators to help the Prophet-General with the cumbersome issues of running a country. But, the wizard thought irritably, the man had only just arrived in New Nashia. He was setting up his affairs in the new capital city back east, near Vaardlund, and was of no use to the wizard here.
    Nonetheless, he resolved not to concern himself with matters of property rights, homes and land damaged by his troops, or crops lost to his soldiers and the harsh winter. Those were matters for his underlings, for he had far more important concerns.
    Shalthazar stood beside the large table in the middle of the room which displayed his papers, scrolls, and books in neat stacks. Beakers and jars with bizarre contents lined the shelves and tables in the vast laboratory. The wall along the right side of the rectangular laboratory was lined with shelves bearing jars of items necessary for the weaker form of arcane magic used by witches and warlocks on Llars. This was the form of magic that Shalthazar was used to practicing, one that required special components to trigger or activate the desired spells. Yet here on Llars arcane magic was weaker, muted, in comparison to the world which the wizard came from. Shalthazar felt that his powerful intellect could decipher the mystery that made arcane magic inferior to that of the Sigils and had been collecting everything he could that might help him unlock its power. Very recently the wizard had conducted several successful experiments with his apprentices that helped him isolate the problem to the dialect of magical language in use on Llars, something he had long suspected was a factor. But he had to put those experiments on hold for something of greater importance.
    On the left side of the chamber was a row of high backed wooden chairs, each bearing an inert humanoid form. These were his latest creations using the Shadow Sigil. Shalthazar was proud of the work that he and his new apprentices had conducted in secret and considered each macabre form a masterpiece, an instrument of death to be used in the coming campaign. The dark magic that he was involved in had to be kept secret from his Nashian underlings who believed that their god, Ilian Nah, was truly the Lord of Justice. In fact, the Nashian people, who hailed from another part of the world, have unknowingly worshipped Umber for thousands of years believing him to be Ilian Nah.
    The time was not right for the foreigners to learn the true nature of their god.
    Though the wizard was proud of his creations, and confident in their ability, they were as yet untested. He could not allow the Nashians to learn of his new weapons, nor could he simply take them into battle in their untested state. There was too much at stake. That was the main reason why he had ordered the creation of this underground laboratory. The presence of this great laboratory was indeed known to the Nashians, but its exact location and its contents were known only to Shalthazar and his apprentices.
    Shalthazar gazed at his creations, wondering what he would call them, when a knock on the door indicated that another of his apprentices had come. With the slightest push of his powerful mind, the laboratory door opened. Urelis and Zerelis entered the chamber and waited for their master to acknowledge them.
    These two promising apprentices were twins, and had been dabblers in magic before the coming of Shalthazar and his army. Shalthazar’s minions were always on the lookout for magic-wielders among the enemy. The wizard knew that use of magic in nearly any form was a tie that could bring magic-wielders of warring factions together. Even those who practiced different forms of magic found a commonality with each other in a world that was rife with anti-magic bigotry. Shalthazar himself would determine what path his new wizards would take.