Stephen Player
Fantasy Illustration
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You may use this text as the basis of any type of illustration you like.
NIGHT OF THE NECROMANCER
by Jonathan Green
Illustration Brief
Overall tone
Night of the Necromancer is a gothic horror fantasy adventure, following in the footsteps of Fighting
Fantasy titles such as Howl of the Werewolf, Vault of the Vampire, Revenge of the Vampire and Dead
of Night. There are also elements of Hamlet and Macbeth in the book, and this is worth bearing in
mind when you consider the tone of the illustrations.
Winter is almost upon the land and everything takes place during the course of one night. A large
part of the adventure takes place within Valsinore Castle, which is really Elsinore from Mel Gibson’s
Hamlet. Basically, just do your thing and the illustrations will look great, I am sure!
One other thing – the hero of this book is a ghost, so more often than not people react with fear or
grim resolution when they meet you and this will obviously be reflected in their expressions.
4 Cover suggestions
The Death Acolyte
A close-up on the Death Acolyte’s head and shoulders. He is dressed from head to toe in long black
robes, his head hooded, his face hidden by a grotesque skull-mask, his sinister eyes visible through
the holes of the skull’s eye-sockets. In one hand he is holding up a glowing amethyst crystal ball that
seems to swirl with internal storm-clouds, the eerie light coming from the sphere reflecting in the
acolyte’s eyes.
Your Father’s Ghost
This is basically the ghost of Hamlet Senior from Hamlet. Again, focus on the head and shoulders. He
glows blue-white and is wearing ghostly armour. The way his helm is shaped reveals his bearded chin
and the glowing white orbs of his eyes.
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6 Filler illustrations
1) Life-timer and the Amethyst Blade
A large hourglass with black sand trickling from the top bulb into the bottom and a grim-looking
scythe, fashioned from the bony spine of some large creature fixed with a blade made from one
huge piece of amethyst.
2) Spirit Sphere
A shimmering sphere of light, three metres in diameter, formed from the indistinct bodies of
whirling ghosts the darting flight of which creates the ball of luminescence.
3) Valsinore Castle
A silhouette of the brooding castle of Valsinore, with the moon appearing through the clouds
gathered above it. The castle has a very specific layout. Valsinore Castle lies at the head of a windswept promontory that juts out into a bleak, northern sea. The walls of the cliffs it is built atop
(rather like Tintagel in Cornwall) blend into the battlemented walls of the castle. The outer ward is
largest with a tower at each corner as well as the main gatehouse, at the southern end. Between the
outer ward and inner ward there is another imposing gatehouse, three storeys tall. In the east wall
of the inner ward there is a blasted tower, its top destroyed by a lightning strike. Various buildings
stand within both wards but would not be visible above the high walls of the castle. In the northern
wall of the inner ward is yet another gatehouse beyond which a stone bridge spans the gulf between
the headland and a separate outcropping of rock on top of which is built the imposing Keep. The
crashing waves of the sea form a natural moat between the inner ward and the Keep. The Keep is
the largest structure in the castle, several storeys high and is basically a great cube of black stone
with gargoyle-encrusted, crenulated battlements.
4) The Look of Fear
A close-up on a human eye, open wide in terror (perhaps with a tear forming at the corner) with a
laughing skull seen reflected in the pupil.
5) Skeletal Rats
A pair of large skeletal rats is looking out at the reader. One of them is resting a claw on top of a
mouldering human skull.
25 Full-page illustrations
1) The Wild Hunt
2) The Sea Demon
3) The Grave Golem
4) The Phantasmagoria
5) The Ghost Hunter
6) Three Ghosts
7) The Old Knight’s Ghost
8) The Blacksmith and Clinker
10) The Dread Knights
11) Gargoyles
12) The Skeletal Serpent
13) The Necromancer Revealed
14) In the Chapel
15) The Watcher at the Gate
16) The Winter King
17) The Nosferatu
19) The Wraith Queen
20) The Zombie Executioner
21) The Hellfire Golem
22) The Bonebeast
23) Deathlings
24) The Necros
25) The Shadow King
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9) The Carrion Bird
18) The Bone-Fire
1) The Wild Hunt
You are within the bounds of a twisted wood. The trees grow thick and dark around you, although
you can still make out the glowing orb of the moon between the branches of the leafless trees
above, which look like the clawing talons of black skeletal fingers. Galloping towards you out of the
gathering storm-clouds in the sky is a host of spectral riders, their phantom steeds pounding the air
with their ethereal hooves, their ghostly hounds running before them. At the head of the wild hunt
is the ghost of a nobleman, a ghostly crossbow hanging from the saddle of his horse.
2) The Sea Demon
You are standing on a pebbly beach looking out to sea. Striding out of the breakers is an appalling
abomination. It walks on two legs like a man and has the muscular build of an ogre, but its skin is
covered with blue-grey scales. It has cruel gutting claws, its fingers are webbed and its bulbous eyes
are those of a fish. A crest of spines protrudes from its head and runs all the way down its back to a
long, lashing fish tail that protrudes from the base of its twisted spine. The creature opens its mouth,
revealing a maw full of shark’s teeth, while the slits of gills in its neck open and close uselessly in the
air. This is no mere creature of flesh and blood but a demon birthed by the storm-wracked sea.
3) The Grave Golem
You are in a neglected graveyard. The ground in which the dead have been buried is rising up before
you, a colossal mound of mouldering earth studded with the broken tombstones, splintered coffin
lids and the remains of those buried within them. Great lumpen limbs are taking shape as the
looming humanoid figure stalks towards you with arms outstretched.
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4) The Phantasmagoria
In the distance lies a sleeping village – a huddle of stone-built buildings and thatched cottages – as
scuds of black cloud whip across the face of the moon. A phosphorescent mist is rolling towards you
like a sentient cloud over the barren fields that lie between you and the village. Tormented faces are
forming within the mist. The troubled dreams of the villagers have manifested as a nightmarish
monster of the Spirit World. There is nothing you can do as the Phantasmagoria slithers towards
you. And every single one of the wailing faces has its eyes closed.
5) The Ghost Hunter
You are inside the crowded bar of the Cockcrow Inn. Terrified barmaids and customers are backing
away from you. Two men have pushed forward out of the crowd of terrified villagers to face you in
battle. The first is dressed completely in black, with a broad-brimmed hat on his head, and a velvet
cape around his shoulders. He is also festooned with all manner of charms and he already has his
finely-wrought basket-hilted silvered rapier blade held tight in one black-gloved hand. His
companion looks like nothing less than a thug. The rogue’s nose has obviously been broken on more
than one occasion, the tattoo of a spider’s-web covers one side of his shaven head, and he has a
bushy beard. He is swinging a contraption that looks like a silver bear-trap from the end of a chain
attached to the belt at his waist.
6) Three Ghosts
You are standing in the hallway of a grand house. The front door is in sight but three ghosts have just
manifested in front of you. The first is a woman dressed entirely in grey. The second is a nobleman
wearing clothes that are no longer in fashion and carrying his head in one hand, with the ghostly
impression of a finely-balanced rapier in the other. The third is nothing more than a bodiless,
floating, screaming skull.
7) The Old Knight’s Ghost
You are approaching a sturdy stone-built bridge spanning a river. In the distance stands Valsinore
Castle (see filler illustration 3). A spectre is materialising on the bridge in front of you. It is that of an
old knight from ages past mounted on his noble steed that is faithful even beyond death. The
ancient knight is unhelmeted and a long, flowing white beard hangs down over his torn tabard and
battered breastplate. He has a lance couched at his side. He is issuing a challenge to the hero.
8) The Blacksmith and Clinker
You are in a working blacksmith’s forge. The blacksmith is a tall, thick-set woman, with heavilymuscled arms and shoulders. She wears an eye-patch over her left eye and a heavy-duty leather
apron. She wears hard-wearing leather trousers and black leather boots, while her grey hair is tied
back behind her head in a long ponytail. In one thick-gloved hand she is holding a heavy-headed
hammer. She is looking on anxiously as a pair of strange creatures crawl out of the red-hot coals of
her forge. The two small humanoid figures are formed from the very stuff of the forge – the coals
and clinker – and stir the flames into crackling life as they drop onto the floor of the smithy and stalk
towards you spitting sparks.
9) The Carrion Bird
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You are in a filthy, draughty chamber and guano covers every perch, every alcove and every inch of
floor. You are in what used to be the castle’s falconry. All that is left of the falconer is a pile of
human bones half-buried by bird droppings. Sitting on a perch in the middle of the room is a
monstrous grotesque undead creature picking at the lamb’s carcass trapped in its talons. In life it
must have been something the size of a Roc or a Giant Vulture, and has characteristics of both but it
is hard to be certain now since the thing is so decomposed – its flesh hanging in tatters from its
visible bones, jaundice-yellow eyes rolling in the orbits of its fleshless skull. Giving a savage squawk
the undead bird stretches out featherless wings of torn dead skin and prepares to attack.
10) The Dread Knights
Standing guard before the portcullised gatehouse to the Inner Ward are two knights. They belong to
an order of undead warriors and wear archaic armour, including helmets that completely cover their
faces. They wear plain black cloaks and carry heavy two-handed swords, the blades of which are
black and smoulder with vile energies.
11) Gargoyles
You are flying towards the sinister dark shape of the Keep. The gargoyles set to guard the keep are
breaking free of the battlements and flying towards you beating the cold night air with their leathery
wings, fangs bared and cruel talons outstretched.
12) The Skeletal Serpent
You are in the Cave of Bones which lies at the bottom of the castle well. Much of the cave is filled by
the pool that feeds the well. The northern edge is littered with thousands upon thousands of
bleached white bones, piled in great mounds, one on top on another. Some have tumbled into the
pool itself, creating calcified islands formed from the skeletons of everything from humans to dogs
to cattle and even horses. Beyond this bone-yard a circular tunnel disappears into darkness. A
monstrous skeletal form is rising up from out of the piles of broken skeletons in front of you. It looks
like a monstrous serpent, twenty metres long, formed from the strange conglomeration of bones
that litter the cave. Its head is the skull of some huge snake, or possibly even a basilisk, with huge
fangs bared, green witch-fires blazing in its eye-sockets.
13) The Necromancer Revealed
In a stone-walled secret chamber the Death Acolyte is meeting with the Necromancer. The acolyte
looks like the figure described in cover suggestion 1. He is dressed from head to toe in long black
robes, his head hooded, his face hidden by a grotesque skull-mask; his sinister eyes visible through
the holes of the skull’s eye-sockets. However, on this occasion he is holding a black metal dagger
rather than a glowing crystal ball. Beside him is the necromancer, in reality the chamberlain you left
in charge of Valsinore Castle. He wears all black and has a neatly-trimmed black beard, but there is
an evil glint in his eye and a sinister sneer twists his mouth. You have interrupted the Necromancer
and Death Acolyte whilst the two of them were discussing their nefarious schemes and they are not
at all happy about it.
14) In the Chapel
You are inside the castle chapel. Directly in front of you are the legs and booted feet of your own
dead body, over which your ghostly form is hovering. At the foot of the slab on which your body has
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been laid are your sister, the Lady Oriana (who looks like a medieval noblewoman), and a priest,
Father Umberto (who was once a warrior of Telak and is shaven-headed). Both look horrified to see
you, but the priest is preparing to banish you while your sister cowers in fear.
15) The Watcher at the Gate
In this picture, the hero has passed over to the Other Side, and is in a purgatory-like realm at the
edge of the Lands of the Dead. It is a bleak and rugged place and you are not far from the edge of a
mighty rift in the scarred landscape. In the distance, in the shadow of the rumbling storm-clouds,
you can see an arched gate, made from monolithic blocks of black stone. Within the grim gateway
there is nothing but soul-leeching darkness. The shadows surrounding the black stones have
slithered together to form a black-shrouded figure, floating in the air in front of you. Beneath its
hood you can see nothing but a fleshless skull and in its skeletal claws it grips a great black-bladed
scythe. Basically, it’s the grim reaper!
16) The Winter King
You are standing within a vast throne room. At the end of the chamber stands a large throne carved
from a single massive block of black ice. Standing in front of it is a colossal armoured warrior, his
plate armour gleaming with blue metal sheen beneath the layers of ice that cover his body. He is
beginning to move and so the ice is cracking and pieces are falling from his body, as he hefts an icebladed battle-axe in his armoured hands. What little flesh you can see beneath his helm is frozen.
17) The Nosferatu
You are standing before a stone tomb in the middle of another weed-choked graveyard. A thick mist
covers the ground. Bursting out of the crypt, pulling itself through the tomb’s broken stone doors, is
a creature resembling a gigantic bat but at a second glance you can see that there is something
unsettlingly humanoid about its make-up. The creature turns its wolf-like head towards you and
opens its jaws wide to reveal hugely elongated incisors. The monster is a degenerated feral vampire,
more like its bat-kin than a human being. And yet despite its bestial state it is still an awesome
opponent, eight feet tall and with a wingspan twice that.
18) The Bone-Fire
You are in the Court of the Wraith Queen that lies at the heart of the catacombs beneath Valsinore
Castle. There is a summoning circle on the floor of the tomb in front of you. With a fiery roar and in a
sudden burst of blazing light, an ethereal figure appears in the air in front of you. It has the
appearance of a burning human skeleton, its blackened bones clothed in a body of scintillating
flame. Giving voice to a wild howl of pain, the Bone-Fire flies towards you, bony hands outstretched
intent on making its fate your own.
19) The Wraith Queen
As the Wraith Queen attacks she is exposed as the undead horror she really is. She is no flesh and
blood beauty but a hellish apparition. A few grey threads of hair cling to a fleshless head in the
advanced stages of decomposition. Her once fine robes are rotting grave-clothes, the crown on her
head a crown of finger-bones, her own slender fingers cruel talons, while her eyes are nothing but
pits of darkness. With a banshee scream, the Wraith Queen flies at you.
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20) The Zombie Executioner
A scaffold has been erected in the middle of the cobbled Inner Ward. Standing atop it, next to a
blood-stained headsman’s block, is a hulking undead monster. It is the size of an ogre but its flesh is
grey and rotting. In its hands is a huge axe. It wears the rough garb of an executioner. There can be
no mistaking what is about to take place here.
21) The Hellfire Golem
You are before the arched gateway that leads to the sea-moat bridge and the Keep beyond. Roaring
like a furnace, with a great clanking of metal, something truly monstrous and rises to its full height
before you, blocking your way to the bridge. Made of interlocking plates of iron, like some goliath
living suit of armour, at the joints in its armour you can see the intensity of the inferno raging within
that gives it its unnatural life. It is as broad as it is tall. The face of this engine of destruction has been
fashioned to look like that of some hellish horned skull. Its huge jaw drops open and a searing blast
of flame pours forth, the cobbles of the courtyard glowing red under this intense heat-blast.
22) The Bonebeast
You are at the edge of a vast chamber which is all that is left of the inside of the Keep. The upper
floors and internal walls of the huge building have been pulled down, the rubble from this mass
destruction now piled in great drifts of brick and stone at the sides of the vast chamber so created.
Where once the skeletons of those monsters slain by the lords of Valsinore Castle were displayed in
all their ossic glory, now there is only a pile of shattered skeletons and broken bones. On the other
side of the chamber, at the north-west and north-east corners of the Keep, you can see the remains
of two still intact spiral staircases, leading up towards the battlements and down to the dungeons
respectively. But there is life in these old bones yet. As you enter the chamber, some of the bones
start to move, rattling across the stone floor towards each other, joining together like some
animated 3D jigsaw puzzle. Bones from all manner of skeletons are joining together in this way to
create something monstrous. The bones are mid-joining and could be about to become something
like a dragon, or a Manticore or a living fossil T-Rex.
23) Deathlings
The room you are in is like some macabre art gallery, containing all sorts of statues depicting
monstrous creatures, hellish demons and grim memento moris of skulls and human skeletons. But by
far the largest and most impressive is the looming statue of a Grim Reaper figure, a cloaked and
hooded skeleton with a pair of ragged, crow-like wings stretching out from its shoulder blades.
Gripped in the statue’s claw-like hands is an even more grim-looking scythe (the Amethyst Blade
from filler illustration 1). It looks like it has been fashioned from the bony spine of some great beast
while its blade glints darkly in the dim torchlight cast by the flickering rushes in the passageway
behind you. But popping up from behind the statue are six tiny imp-like creatures, wearing their own
tiny black reaper robes (that hide their faces), each one wielding a tiny scythe in its sharp-clawed
hands.
24) The Necros
You are in a huge subterranean dungeon chamber. It is at least thirty metres long, its high ceiling
supported by crumbling pillars ten metres tall. Torches in iron baskets on the walls illuminate the
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vast vaulted space. In the middle of the chamber lies a fetid pool of putrescence. The pit that
contains it is rectangular and crosses the chamber from one side to the other without leaving so
much as a ledge for you to skirt round it. The pit is filled to the brim with a stomach-turning soup of
putrefying flesh and stinking bodily fluids. Amidst the foaming yellow bile and half-congealed blood
the bony remains of human beings and other animals poke from the surface; you can see leg bones,
skulls, ribcages and bony hands. There is one way across it. One of the pillars that once helped
support the roof now lies in pieces having fallen across its width, forming huge stepping stones
across it. On the other side of the vile pool an archway leads to another tunnel, but this exit is
blocked by a spiked iron gate, with a leering demon’s face cast into it. Something truly grotesque is
rising from the filth of the pool. It is like a gigantic, bloated worm but formed entirely from a
gelatinous necrotic jelly, which you soon realise is the rendered remains of the corpses that have
been festering in the pit. Suspended inside the rippling, jelly-like body are the bones of the creatures
that ended up here, giving it a vague internal skeletal structure, and suspended within, where you
imagine its head is supposed to be, is a jawless human skull. Its body rippling like some gigantic slug,
the ten-metre long Necros oozes towards you, leaving a trail of acidic slime in its wake.
25) The Shadow King
You are standing at the centre of a stone circle beneath a moonless sky (it’s an eclipse). Manifesting
in the air above the central altar stone on which has been bound the Lady Oriana (from full page
illustration 14) is one of the Great Undead – the Shadow King! He is a looming figure, twice as tall as
a man, clothed in the very fabric of the night. He looks like a giant wearing ancient armour forged
from the metal of the night, beneath a shroud of darkness, and wearing an ornate crowned helm on
its head, signifying his kingship. But it is his face that is most horrifying of all, for he doesn’t have
one. All that lies beneath the armoured helm are two malevolently glowing coals like two red dying
stars. He is armed with a huge black sword that is also forged from midnight metal.
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