Atop a tree in the treacherous wilderness...Progress is almost within
Sigmund's grasp! All he needs to do is climb down and-
[Climbing roll: 1-1]
-immediately fumble a step and fall about ten meters through an area oddly clear of branches, though he does impact the side of the tree, knocking his insides about a little and scratching his underbelly on the bark before getting a faceful of topsoil and cruel gravity.
[Endurance roll: 6-1]
The topsoil, fortunately, is willing to not break his poor badger neck, though he feels very sore all of a sudden. Levitating down the phylactery in due time, Sigmund then proceeds to his destination, leaving this whole business as far behind him as his conscience will allow. Now is the time for the rebound, not dwelling on past mistakes!
He reaches the source of the smoke in due time, and realizes that it appears to be Eckledun! This is fantastic news, though Sigmund can't help but feel the town looks a little different now. For one, there's pink spires all over the place, he doesn't remember those. And he can't quite hear too many people, either. Aside from a couple falling down from the sky, of course, burning up as they exceed terminal velocity against all kind attempts of deceleration by the air around them.
At the deadest of ends...Mark brilliantly suggests that the group probably shouldn't stand there and gawk.
"Well, good news is that now we know where the route isn't, which leaves only where the route is, yes?" Morton starts to agree in longer form than Mark would approve of.
"Yes, I do agree. It is time we bid haste, now properly refreshed and welcoming of adventure!""Let's get out of the way while we're at it, too," says Wilma, and the four of them, Mr. T included, move out of the dead end and inspect their surroundings. There's the cobbled street, quiet buildings, dark alleyways... the latter seems preferable at the moment for a good mix of mobility options and obfuscation, so the group moves in there, and immediately notices something amiss in there.
First off, the alleyway appears to lead into a yard of some kind, probably a shared backyard of the six or so houses in this block. This is not unusual in itself, but the backyard seems to be particularly noteworthy in that it looks unusually pink. A tree is sinking into the pink ground deeper in there, and things that remind Mark of wooden lily pads (and nobody else, since a wooden lily pad is frankly absurd) in shape, color and texture cover its surface in places. Tiny whirlpools of blood and ice cubes can be seen here and there on the strange terrain formation.
Mr. T, for his part, seems to approve of this newest discovery, as he ceases his consistent hovering over the party and just moves toward the pink plaza, maintaining a constant altitude of three meters, though he seems to blink back a meter or so every few moments.
"We're not getting out of here, are we?" Wilma remarks hopelessly.
Deep beneath Eckledun...Scott shrugs, and the earth shrugs and groans with him. He ascends, and he ascends alone. It feels like this is taking a while. A real damn while.
And what's worse, he seems to have come out somewhere entirely unexpected! There's trees, and holes in the ground, and a really shady-looking tree. Hostile country, no doubt. Is Scott prepared for the dangers that await him here?
At a possibly dangerous river crossing...Kevin throws caution to the wind and, despite probably being able to reach the bottom of the river the whole way through the crossing, swims for it anyway just to be sure. The swim is blissfully uneventful, and while the water is colder than expected, and the wind on the other side terribly inhospitable now that there's liquid to evaporate off Kevin, on the bright side he is clear of the village!
Possibly less fortunately, he notices that someone appears to be looking at him from one of the farmhouses. It's a young man with a bushy beard and well-combed hair, holding an axe in both of his hands, ready to chop a bit of firewood in half this fine afternoon. His mouth is slightly open as he observes Kevin, and then he quickly looks away as the ex-jester returns the gaze and resumes work on the firewood. He seems to have closed his eyes and blushed a bit.
In the chambers of King Fintel...Niklas, spirited as always, bites down on the haze, his face sinking into its green fractalicious form. He inhales and swallows the power at the same time, and yet does not choke. He is keenly aware that he knows more. Not the full picture, but a sizable chunk of it. His glow intensifies, and the king, for the first time that Niklas notices, casts a deep black shadow on the wall behind him. There are a lot of thoughts to be thought right now, and a lot of things to be done. He has an inkling of what exactly they are - he needs to eat more of this thing. He takes another bite, and another. Somewhere along the way he shoves the cooking thing into his throat, swallowing greedily. There is much to be eaten here, and Niklas digs into it with little restraint.
In less time than he thought it would take, the secrets have been all gobbled up, and as he digests them, Niklas burns bright as a star, and the lines of metaphor and reality begin to blur. All magic is opening up to him. The unseen realms of human experience lay bare before him, and reveal the even more obscure realms beyond them. Places far and unknown, places that he could go if he wished. And he sees things that are further still. Oh, the things he could create now. The possibilities, the inevitabilities.
"I suppose this is happening, then," the king remarks nonchalantly, looking away from Niklas' painful radiance.
"Ascension. Or is that descent? Any insights, maybe? Thoughts? Acknowledgements? A speech, if I'm lucky enough?"Idea!
How to Obtain a Large Amount of Power In Five Easy Steps:
Step 1: Be a ghost that was a knight when he/she/it was alive.
Step 2: Steal Acquire a suit of armor and possibly a sword.
Step 3: Float into the armor.
Step 4: Get the armor and possible sword enchanted while you are within the armor.
Step 5: Proceed to laugh because you are now a effectively a jedi/sith (minus non-telekinetic powers) that is nigh-invulnerable (ghosts are unaffected by normal weapons, and even enchanted weapons and magic have to get through the enchanted (possibly with unbreakability) armor) and bypasses the ghost's main weakness (by interacting with stuff with the armor). You also still have the manipulation/distraction potential that is Ghost Sound and an escape plan in Specter Teleportation if you are desperate enough to leave your armor behind to get away.
A fine plan, if a little too dependent on the idea of plans ever working around these parts.
Ah. Nigh-invulnerability. That reminds me of Chapter 3, in a way. A more innocent time, where I had much less concern for loss of PC life.
It isn't foolproof of course, but if you try to stay away from mages and priests, you should be (mostly) fine. Is it possible to get armor enchanted to be anti-magic? If so, can it be one-way so you would be able to use your ghostly powers (and not be dispelled because you yourself are magic)? Also, do priests have the ability to turn/rebuke undead in this setting?
Technically, anything's possible. And priests (except wizard-priests) don't have magical powers mostly.
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 564293 times)