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It was fun for a long time but towards the end it just started to drag

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Total Members Voted: 28

[wierd]

The song had grown to a chorus. All the afflicted sang in their hearts to the unheard music. The spell was cast, and they would remain entranced until either healed, or released from their bodies.  The unliving phyrexis inside them cloyed at them, holding them in, but the music soothed all the pain, and erased the thoughts. It was the ultimate hypnogogic to the dead and dying. Balm for the afflicted. No matter how terrible the death, the passing would be painless and serene.

Weird released the music, and closed his mouth, but the chorus remained in the back of his mind. The vague realization that he would always hear it from now on stuck wit him but he didn't mind.

"What were you doing?" Demanded X. "The afflicted are just standing here, looking at you."

"They aren't looking at anything." Said weird, waving a hand in front of their faces, and illiciting no response. "But they hear the music."

He smiled. "The pied piper can't hold a candle to the tune death plays."

---

Udib wandered up the path, breathing hard, and coughing a pale crimson. He remembered the bursting fire in his side, and the changes tickling the back of his mind. His new friend weird had ripped his shirt off of him, then used some freakish magic on him. The elves from the tower had mentioned to him in passing that their former captor had used magic, and the appearance had matched the description, even the horrible, unbelievable pain.

His friend had told him was sorry before using it...

His last memory before fainting on the ground was his friend screaming in agony with his eyes rolled back, then laughing horrifically, and flying up into the sky.

Whatever weird had done to him though, it had killed the horror that had been gnawing at his side.

Rikod was gone.

He shuffled and staggered through the main gates, and stood incredulous at the sight he saw. Twisted, terrible mockeries of his friends and family were standing in a circle on the lawn. Weird was there... but he looked different. The terrible eyes he had earlier before flying away were gone, but the mysterious light he had used on him was blaring from his hands again.

He shuffled up into the throng....

[Gizogin]

"Well, if you're done being vague and mystical, could you give me a hand with this lump?" X said, gesturing to Gizogin.  "I'm running on empty right now, and I don't have the time for a recharge.  We just need to get him into the tank; I keep some emergency supplies in there, and he'll be safe."

[Yes, it turns out Gizo X can run out of power.  His reactor is pretty amazing, but throwing around that much energy in such a short time isn't easy.  On top of that, he hasn't done a full recharge in weeks, so he's at the limit of what he can do.  As soon as he knows everything's safe, he's going to go into standby for a day to get back to capacity.

I'm going to bed now, so anyone who needs Gizogin or Gizo X will have to write in their parts for them.]

[WillowLuman]

[Just before Wierd and I stopped playing the music.]
Through the layers of rock, the sound of the music was faint, dilute, and weak, but still detectable by superior electronic ears. They were after all not too far underground. "Unknown waveform detected, Leader." The cyborg seized up and began to claw at his rigid metal faceplate. "Illogical. Emotive reactions are growing. We will soon be compromised."

"There is only one solution. All 3 remaining units will deactivate, set timer for mechanical reactivation in 3 hours. Repeat if wavelength persists."

Sparks began to arc from the other cyborg's head and chest, and its electronic voice went from calm monotone to agonized wailing. "Error! Error! Critical failure of all functions imminent!"

"Commence deactivation immediately." With that, all 3 stood to attention and ceased moving.

[wierd]

[I want to avoid driving the plot further. Ball's in ZTG's and Eric's courts. I pretty much sproinged the mother of all deus ex machinas to teach ztg a lesson about it... and I'm pretty much done for the night too. I need more cloth to cut narrative from.]

[WillowLuman]

[There is always the tower... but we need to permanently deal with these guys first. Now would be a good time for Zanzetkuken to show up again. Bear in mind that the way back is now sealed, though. He will be stranded.

NVM, he's not on.]

[wierd]

[I need time to think about how I want wierd's new powers to manifest. Raising corpses seems incompatible with his view of death, excepting perhaps "proper" raisings of sentient, self-controlled ones. He would be unable to raise an unwilling zombie I think. His mainstay would probably be gassing things, then 'singing' them to 'sleep', but overtly killing people is against his principles except in serious binds. His character is going to change radically.]

[I keep coming back to the idea that he never really got released as the avatar of death. He changed death from the inside. He's essentially the high priest of a new diety that he created to restore order. He might still be immortal as a consequence, but driven by radically different motivations; filled with compassion and love for the injured and dying. A veritable angel of death, but not a scary one. I think he should keep the silver hair.]

[I am open to suggestions though.]

[WillowLuman]

[An idea: Perhaps those raised would be more powerful than normal zombies, but he could raise fewer at once. They would also appear as if they were alive, no matter what state the corpse was in, and the corpse would return to it's current state once de-animated. They would seem as if they were half-awake, coming out of a pleasant dream. Kind of like the spirits of dead friends and relatives that Harry summoned to guide him in the Deathly Hallows.

Perhaps his greatest strength would not be minions, though, but the ability to disable other Necromancers. They really have got nothing on him.

Wierd is no longer a pawn of Nir; he has achieved a sort of enlightenment about Death. With his understanding, he could raise the most powerful Necromantic army the world ever saw, but he understands too why it would be better not to. He instead chooses to smooth the bumpy road of the natural process of death, maintaining the natural order but making it more pleasant. I dunno.]

[wierd]

[Maybe... that would be more in line. An "anti-necromancer"... but I could see him raising corpses of those killed traumatically to soothe the regrets of the dead. A chance to say goodbye, hug a child, whatever... but it wouldn't be a nasty zombie. It would be more a "tangible ghost", and it would depart after... there might be exceptions: the dead coming back to fight for a still living lover or child, etc. He might amass a small army of dead people who deeply love him.]

[WillowLuman]

[And in line with it being a truer, purer form of the art, while reanimated they would assume their living appearance, and not look decayed or broken.]

[wierd]

[No, not broken or bloody or gross. The ghosts would appear the way people remembered them. They would be semi-corporeal; spirit bodies. Able to touch and be touched, smelt, etc. Unkillable; they are allready dead, but not really bound. They are themselves, and act of their own accord, but I don't think they would stick around, except perhaps out of duty or obligation, which I don't think weird could relieve. They would have to fullfill those themselves.]

[Eric Blank]

[Well, now this is getting interesting. Another brand-new form of magic? Cuddly like a kitten! That murders necromancers indiscriminantly!]

[WillowLuman]

[Exactly my point, Wierd. They would appear wholesome, perhaps even banishing fear from any nearby living comrades of theirs. Another idea; perhaps you are able to de-power other Necromancers? Maybe permanently, maybe not. Or give them a chance to receive their souls back? An interesting possibility.]

ninja'd

[Not brand new, just a fully realized version of an existing form. Compassion, forgiveness, and relief, as opposed to power, dominance, and control.]

[Eric Blank]

Or give them a chance to receive their souls back? An interesting possibility.

[and a useful one! Not that he wouldn't revoke my powers just for the sake of doing so...

Now if only I could bring this form into my copy of DF. I've got this one poor bastard, "Scrappy," that will never get his peace and rest because nobody will bury him. His skeleton is lying in the middle of the hallway out of the crypt, forbidden so that the dwarves won't continually haul it back and forth between the corpse pile and his coffin. "Nurse Joykill," the commander of the old militia, is nowhere near as lovable as the new Wierd; her intentions are to perform surgery on goblins, making their passing as horrendous as possible, rather than help poor Scrappy.]

[wierd]

[Nope... weird would be drawn to poor scrappy. Probably hear the laments of the dead and be haunted by it. Sort of the emotional version of 'I see dead people' cliche. He hears death. Cnstantly. Your char might really hate mine now... if eric is controlling a zombie, and weird belts out his siren call, you would hear it through the zombie. It wouldn't kill you, but keeping the zombie together would be really hard.]

[Corai]

-I love how this went from us waking up in DF one day to THIS clusterfuck. I love it!-