Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[auris2]

So I brought 13 meat shields in my assault on the tower and managed to decapitate every zombie, one hit each. My meat shields are all dead now, but so is the single necromancer who lived in the tower. After searching I found two books, one called 'The History of Death' and the other called 'The Ringleader when it Counts'. I read both through the interaction menu but i am still a normal human (checked by going to x and then p, no raise undead or whatever it is called). I searched every room in the tower and could not find a slab to read, only a bunch of tables with nothing on them. What am i missing?

Also another question, will my stats freeze when i become a necromancer?

[BlackFlyme]

If I remember right, yes, your stats freeze upon becoming a necromancer. Though the wiki page doesn't mention whether or not this is true.

When you read the books, what were they about? 'The History of Death' sounds like it should have been the right one. Also, did you check the necromancer's inventory? sometimes they carry their books around with them.

Edit: may as well add the usual checklist of errors for anyone with a similar problem who looks at this thread. Though I can't see that you did anything wrong.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. You must be a race that is mortal. So no elves or goblins.

2. You may not have actually read the book. Some people only examine it in their (i)nventory, as opposed to (I)nteracting with it.

3. You need to be at least a novice reader to read books or slabs. In a pinch, you can go into your save's raw files and change your rock knapping reaction to use the reader skill instead of the knapping skill, then just bang rocks together for a while.

4. The book didn't actually have the secret. I can probably guarantee that The Ringleader When it Counts doesn't have the secret, but The History of Death should, unless it's about another book that has the word Death in it's title.

5. In the abilities menu (x), it's under acquired (p)owers. The ability is called animate dead.

[Garath]

It can also be a slab placed somewhere in the tower, right?

[Crinkles]

It can also be a slab placed somewhere in the tower, right?

Someone is given a slab in the worldgen and he becomes a necromancer by reading it. When he has enough zombies, he can start a tower and his own entity. The secret can be taught to apprentice necromancers, or written down in books--you can't become an apprentice but either reading the books or the slab should be fine, and both ought to be in the tower.

[Blue_Dwarf]

Isn't the right book supposed to be called "Secrets of Life and Death"?

[Garath]

It doesn't have to be, though that is usually in the subject description iirc

[Tirion]

Did you put a point in the Reader skill?

[auris2]

If I remember right, yes, your stats freeze upon becoming a necromancer. Though the wiki page doesn't mention whether or not this is true.

When you read the books, what were they about? 'The History of Death' sounds like it should have been the right one. Also, did you check the necromancer's inventory? sometimes they carry their books around with them.

Edit: may as well add the usual checklist of errors for anyone with a similar problem who looks at this thread. Though I can't see that you did anything wrong.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. You must be a race that is mortal. So no elves or goblins.

2. You may not have actually read the book. Some people only examine it in their (i)nventory, as opposed to (I)nteracting with it.

3. You need to be at least a novice reader to read books or slabs. In a pinch, you can go into your save's raw files and change your rock knapping reaction to use the reader skill instead of the knapping skill, then just bang rocks together for a while.

4. The book didn't actually have the secret. I can probably guarantee that The Ringleader When it Counts doesn't have the secret, but The History of Death should, unless it's about another book that has the word Death in it's title.

5. In the abilities menu (x), it's under acquired (p)owers. The ability is called animate dead.

Thank you for the helpful answer, ill paste the text that is shown after reading 'The History of Death'

"You read the history of death. The written portion consists of  a 21 page essay entitled the history of death authored by Lor Clenchsilver. It concerns death, the writing is reasonably serious."

I have read a few times and no luck. Also checked the necro's corpse and he had nothing useful on him. I am also fairly certain that i am not already a vamp or werebeast as i still need to eat normal food.

Also i have modestmod 2.1 installed and part the grim grimoire mod installed.

[BlackFlyme]

Thank you for the helpful answer, ill paste the text that is shown after reading 'The History of Death'

"You read the history of death. The written portion consists of  a 21 page essay entitled the history of death authored by Lor Clenchsilver. It concerns death, the writing is reasonably serious."

I have read a few times and no luck. Also checked the necro's corpse and he had nothing useful on him. I am also fairly certain that i am not already a vamp or werebeast as i still need to eat normal food.

Also i have modestmod 2.1 installed and part the grim grimoire mod installed.

The book concerns "death", not "the secrets of life and death"? I'd call it odd for a necromancer to write a book about death that doesn't include necromancy, but then again I've once come across an untitled poem that was actually about nothing. The writing was superfluous.

Are there any other necromancer towers in the world? There is a chance that the one you killed was only an apprentice of another necromancer somewhere in the world, and that the one that you killed never managed to write a book about necromancy.

Also, it is possible to be a werebeast or a vampire necromancer, and I believe I have heard of a husk necromancer once. But you cannot be a vampire and a werebeast at the same time.

[auris2]

Thank you for the helpful answer, ill paste the text that is shown after reading 'The History of Death'

"You read the history of death. The written portion consists of  a 21 page essay entitled the history of death authored by Lor Clenchsilver. It concerns death, the writing is reasonably serious."

I have read a few times and no luck. Also checked the necro's corpse and he had nothing useful on him. I am also fairly certain that i am not already a vamp or werebeast as i still need to eat normal food.

Also i have modestmod 2.1 installed and part the grim grimoire mod installed.

The book concerns "death", not "the secrets of life and death"? I'd call it odd for a necromancer to write a book about death that doesn't include necromancy, but then again I've once come across an untitled poem that was actually about nothing. The writing was superfluous.

Are there any other necromancer towers in the world? There is a chance that the one you killed was only an apprentice of another necromancer somewhere in the world, and that the one that you killed never managed to write a book about necromancy.

Also, it is possible to be a werebeast or a vampire necromancer, and I believe I have heard of a husk necromancer once. But you cannot be a vampire and a werebeast at the same time.

There aren't any other towers in my world that i am aware of

[Garath]

have you looked around if maybe there is a slab with some writing somewhere in the tower?

[BlackFlyme]

He's already mentioned checking every room, table, and dead necromancer for books/slabs.

The only thing I can think of would be to retire, then go into legends mode and see if you can find any books or slabs there. They will be listed under the artifacts page.

[auris2]

He's already mentioned checking every room, table, and dead necromancer for books/slabs.

The only thing I can think of would be to retire, then go into legends mode and see if you can find any books or slabs there. They will be listed under the artifacts page.

I went into legends mode and found two books with death in their title, one seemed to be about a devil assuming leader position in a civ and the other 'concerned death', but neither were located in the necro tower i was at. it seems i have found all the books in the tower already too.

*edit* *again*: Looking at the historical maps in legends mode i can see only a single necro tower.

The book 'concerning death' was written by a tortoise devil.

[BlackFlyme]

Just went to check out the wiki page for necromancers.

Death isn't the only word that can appear in the title of a book containing the secrets of necromancy, and thankfully the wiki page has a list of possible words. Actually, the list looks the same as the one in the /Dwarf_Fortress/raw/objects/text/ directory, within the secret_death.txt file. I haven't made secret powers before, but I'm sure this isn't coincidence. Anyways, other possible words include:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Annihilation
Bereavement
Death
Demise
Departure
Doom
Dying
Eternal Rest
Expiration
Extinction
Mortality
Immortality
Loss
Oblivion
Parting
Ruin
Ruination
Sleep
the Afterlife
the End
the Grave

Though if there aren't too many books you could probably skim them all. Keep an eye out for any slabs in the legends mode list; they will definitely have the secret.

[auris2]

Just went to check out the wiki page for necromancers.

Death isn't the only word that can appear in the title of a book containing the secrets of necromancy, and thankfully the wiki page has a list of possible words. Actually, the list looks the same as the one in the /Dwarf_Fortress/raw/objects/text/ directory, within the secret_death.txt file. I haven't made secret powers before, but I'm sure this isn't coincidence. Anyways, other possible words include:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Annihilation
Bereavement
Death
Demise
Departure
Doom
Dying
Eternal Rest
Expiration
Extinction
Mortality
Immortality
Loss
Oblivion
Parting
Ruin
Ruination
Sleep
the Afterlife
the End
the Grave

Though if there aren't too many books you could probably skim them all. Keep an eye out for any slabs in the legends mode list; they will definitely have the secret.

Thanks for the help!! Unfortunately the corpse of my adventurer rests in the stomach of a dozen alligators, in an insanely massive river. I tried to swim across a waterfall and got sucked into a massive alligator party. Time to try again lol