Try cutting the rope doll into pieces with your belt knife. See if it destroys it. cut off a limb, and see if the life stays in the body or the limb. Then cut off the head, and see if the head remains alive. Find the smallest bit that can remain undead.
Although tired, you've never been one to pass up an opportunity for experimentation, and this shouldn't take long.
You fumble at your belt for a moment before drawing your knife, then lay the Rope Doll on the rock, face up. Lifting one of the "arms" you saw at the rope until it falls off. For a moment it maintains its faint purple cast before it fades back to a regular piece of rope. Your Necromantic Sight reveals a negligible dip in the Doll's Vitality. Hacking off the other arm yields a similar result.
Starting just below the head knot, you saw at the rope, severing the body from the head. The body "dies" much like the arms did- the Head remains animate. However, you note that the head (at this point a glorified noose) now only contains One Vitality, instead of the Two the whole Doll had. You slice through the top of the head loop, and the rope falls apart, the eyes winking out and the phosphorescent fire fading. The Rope Doll is destroyed.
Something about this strikes you as very sad, and fighting back tears you pile up the pieces of rope on the remains of Rocky. After a moment's consideration, you arrange the rope in a semblance of it's brief unlife- er, undeath? Animatedness. You are abruptly aware of how silly this is, internally debating semantics over the current nonliving status of a rock and piece of rope that were never properly alive to begin with, and certainly never had anything resembling a thought pass through them! You start giggling to yourself- Here lies Ropey the Rope Doll, may she rest in Pieces! Ha, see, it's funny because Ropey is in little chunks now.
You realize that you've been giggling to yourself in the dark for a while now- you aren't precisely sure how long, but it has certainly been longer than anyone should giggle while alone. The part of you that is rather concerned with things being precisely right suggests that this may be cause for worry, but you counter by suggesting nothing has been precisely right for a solid week now, so kindly shove off.
Oh right, shove off- you were going home now. Yes, that is a good plan. You jump to your feet to act on that plan and promptly fall on your bottom. You realize that might have gone better if you were sitting in the first place, but now you can do this properly. Jumping to your feet- well, to your knees, then you need a hand on Rocky to get the rest of the way- you exit the Grove. It is well and truly dark now, and though the sky was tinged with red in the Grove, here beneath the canopy it may as well be midnight.
It should only be about an hour back to your home, but it feels like it takes twice that, stumbling through the woods, tripping on roots and walking into branches. Then again, it almost feels like no time at all, so that averages out, right? You very very carefully climb the steps, but have trouble with the door, as you aren't quite sure where the latch is. Come to think of it, you aren't quite sure where your fingers are. Hang on a second.
*
bleeearrgh*
There, much better. After a few moments, you manage to get the door open. With a great laugh at the puny door and its failed attempts to stop you, you shamble inside, collapse on the bed and instantly fall asleep.
...
You awaken the next morning dead. No, scratch that, you just wish you were dead. Your mouth tastes like socks, your clothes are rumpled and sweaty, and you have a
pounding headache. Fuck this day.
Vitality- 9/10
Mana- 12/12
XP- 15/20
Inventory-
6.6 Silver Pieces,
Rumpled Elven Tunic,
Elven Cloak, Belt Knife, Small Empty Potion Bottle
Abilities-
Sense Necromancy(Passive)Skills-
Competent FisherStatus-
HeadacheSeven days since Manifestation
General
Detect Magic- 1 MP - detects spells and magical items near you
Calm Animal- 1 MP - causes wild animals to become peaceful
Sense Vitality- 1 MP - you can detect the Vitality of living things, with a bit of effort
Necromancy
Raise Zombie- ? MP - You can take the formerly living body and turn it into a zombie, but you lack understanding or even much knowledge of the particulars. You need practice.
Command Undead- 2 MP - You can merge your awareness with an undead creature, gauging its general condition and issuing explicit orders it will obey to the best of its ability. You can also give orders that will persist beyond the end of the spell.
Steal Vitality- 3 MP - You can suck the Vitality out of living things. This spell removes up to 6 Vitality from the target and gives 1/3 of it to you.
Animate Object- 4 MP - You can force Vitality into inanimate objects, things that were never alive to begin with. It seems to be more complicated than Zombification though- your Rock doesn't do anything, which is hardly useful. you'll need to experiment with this more.
Alter Golem- 2 MP- You can make basic alterations to an existing construct or animated object.
Vitality- 13/13
Mana- 3/3
XP- 20/30
Inventory-
Elven Tunic,
Elven Cloak, Belt Knife
Abilities-
Track,
SurvivalistSkills-
Novice Observer,
Competent Ambusher,
Competent Staff User,
Poor LiarStatus- Eager to leave
Your Parents- Your mother is a prominent Mage serving in Yicelafo itself, and your father is a Ranger Lieutenant, currently patrolling the borders.
Omo Thunderjaw- Your best friend, brave and true. He is currently an aspiring Ranger, and is currently home on leave.
Elana Foundwasps- An old flame of yours, she is currently studying with the Mage the next town over.
Pevo Zephyrtempest- The village Sage- you can ask him for knowledge of what history the elves possess. He is somewhat absent minded and easily distracted.
Ari Wetdawn- The village Mage, here to cure ills and bless crops. He knows much of Life magic as well as magic in general, but is also most likely to discern your true nature.
-This one's a bit morbid, but bear with me. Take two crayfish. Shell one, leaving the meat inside as intact as possible. Remove the flesh from the second while leaving the shell as intact as possible. Attempt to revive both and compare the results. Is vitality in flesh or in bone? In both? Neither? Regardless of what we find, it should prove instructive.
-If you ever have enough spare mana, see if you can control multiple dead crayfish at once, and if there's an upper limit on how many perspectives you can hold at once. Stop if you get a headache, feel dizzy or anything else seems strange.
-See what the maximum range is for controling one of your zombies, and if it expands with practice. May take more than a day of effort, but it'll be good exercise.
-Try to find out if zombies have a memory, if they can be made to recognize specific objects. I recomend starting with a ball or something, and instructing a zombie to follow that specific ball wherever it goes. After testing it to make sure it works how we expect, substitute in another ball that has a different colour or a different size, and see if the zombie knows it isn't the right ball to follow. We can move to more abstract things from there, like having if understand things like "any ball" "any non-red ball" "the biggest ball" and stuff like that, or even to sort a pile of pebbles into stacks by colour.
-Attempt to raise a pile of ashes from a cremated corpse.
-Raise an earthworm and then, once it is raised, cut it in half at the border between two segments. Which ends, if any, are still animate? Continue cutting into halves at segment lines until all parts are dead or it has been divided into a prostomium, peristomium, pygidium and a pile of ordinary segments.
-Make a zombie insect that will stand still, then see if we can take its vitality when it is behind a rock (out of our line of sight).
-See how much damage a dead body can sustain before it is unraisable
World Map
Yicelafo
Author
Topic: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-36 Decisions, Decisions (Read 685373 times)