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[monk12]

Thanks for the compliment, although I suspect you overestimate my abilities. I really like writing settings and systems, but its only in the last year or so I've been able to write things that I didn't hate after a few months worth of objectivity set in, and I'm still not terribly satisfied with my characterization abilities. One of the reasons I'm running this game is to practice my writing skills, and I'm quite pleased that it is going so well. Hopefully it will remain interesting/believable as the plot progresses.

[bombzero]

well, you are your own worst critic, its easy to pick out whats wrong but hard to decide whats right.

just sayin, some of the people who write the forum games on here put professional writers to shame entertainment wise.

[Angle]

We should wait until in human lands to tell omo. For now, we should keep traveling, and make that golem.

When we do tell him, here's how I think we should go about it. First, we should tell him we have a big secret to disclose, in order to get his attention. Then we should assure him that we are still the friend he's always known, and that we are still a good person, and that we intend to stay that way. Then we tell him we're a necromancer. Once he's had some time to process this, and asks for proof, we show him the golem.

In fact, now that I think about it, maybe we should try and talk with him about necromancy a bit before we tell him. See how he feels about it, maybe present to him the idea of using necromancy for good. What with these other necromancer running about, we have the perfect excuse. Engage him in conversation about them and shift to the topics I just presented.

@monk12:I think you're quite talented.

[bombzero]

nice ideas angle, ease him into it, then drop the biggest shock of his life... wonderful...

[Angle]

Not necessarily immediately before. I was thinking we do the first talking while still traveling in elven lands, and give him some time to think about it.

And yeah, it's not ideal, but it's better than just randomly telling him.

[bombzero]

hmm, if we could really slowly worm the idea of necromancy being used to fight necromancy into his head as subtly as possible. its quite likely he may make the connection with our intentions once we do tell him.

[Angle]

Yeah...

We shouldn't try and be manipulative, though. That's likely to backfire, and just a little too dark for me.

[EveryZig]

I think we would be better off not bringing up necromancy beforehand, and instead when we show him the golem we should say we think that the golem magic is the same type of magic that necromancers use.

[GlyphGryph]

I think our telling him strategy was pretty much decided on pages and pages back.

And we should wait until we are into human lands, away from people. Our first day in the wilderness - may it come quickly.

[Grek]

At no point should we outright state "I'm a Necromancer, Omo." Doing so will only scare him.

Instead, we should tell him our story. How one day we went fishing and the fish came back to life. How we went to sleep one night and woke up from a nightmare to find that our bait had risen from the dead. How we discovered that the only way to keep from accidentally making undead was to exhaust our mana every day. Tell him that we're scared and we don't want to become a monster like the necromancers are, but we're also scared of telling anyone because they'd want to kill us. Explain that we've managed to learn enough to keep any accidents under control until we could destroy them, and that we hope that we can do something good with the power, something that will convince the world that we're not evil, not dangerous, and that, until then, we plan to hide our powers and keep out of trouble. If he hasn't attacked us yet, answer his questions as honestly as possible without incriminating ourselves. We've not done anything really wrong, so that should be easy.

Further, the golem thing probably isn't the best idea. Omo is sure to be weirded out by the idea that we've been using necromancy behind his back the whole trip. If he wants proof, and only if he wants proof, offer to raise a dead bug or something small like that. The golem can come later, when we're telling him about our plans to use necromancy to fight necromancy and defeat the evil necromancers by undoing their magic.

[Felius]

Further, the golem thing probably isn't the best idea. Omo is sure to be weirded out by the idea that we've been using necromancy behind his back the whole trip. If he wants proof, and only if he wants proof, offer to raise a dead bug or something small like that. The golem can come later, when we're telling him about our plans to use necromancy to fight necromancy and defeat the evil necromancers by undoing their magic.

That sounds for the better. We should practice with general spells a bit on the way, which will also prevent us from going to sleep with too much mana.

[joemoben]

I also suggest a backup plan in case Omo feels that Necromancer = Bad and decides that our death will need to happen. I have no idea what our back up plan would be but its probably for the best if we have one.

[GlyphGryph]

We let him go his own way. I don't think he'll try to kill us. If he does, there is... well, there's not a lot we can do. Let's be honest. If we kill him, we're basically going to go off the deep end, we need to avoid it at all costs.

We might be able to use steal vitality to just knock him out/wound him/slow him down though. So that's an option.

But as long as we don't threaten him or come off as overtly dangerous immediately, or try to force his hand, I can't see him doing that to us.


Also, to repost my earlier post:

But yes, once we are beyond the edge of the forests, we will truly resume our experiments in earnest. There will be one last thing that needs to be done, though, first. Perhaps a days travel past the boundaries, we will tell Omo there is something we need to show and explain to him. Remind him that he knows us fairly well, and we wouldn't have kept something secret from him this long unless it was important - and to hear us out, in full, before making any decisions. But we hope he decides to stay with us - we need him, not just for his abilities to fight and survive off the land, but to be our ethical compass and a reminder of what we have to lose should we err. Tell him you will explain the rest once camp is set.

Once we've set up camp in a well secluded area, ask him to hunt us up something for dinner while you prepare your story. Once he returns, start at the beginning. Explain how your powers revealed themselves - and how if you didn't use them, they manifested themselves on their own. Ignoring them wasn't an option, so you attempted to learn about them. You don't need to go into details about the specific experiments, simply tell him of the things you learned, and of coming to terms with this. Of your internal conflict, and renewed determination to do something good with what you have realized is a gift. Pevo has told us that not all Necromancers are evil - merely, humans expressing the magic on their own without guidance corrupts an already dangerous discipline even further. Our nature, our life experience, allows us a different path - though we are wary of the dangers, and we wish to rely on Omo to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Then explain how, with these powers, we believe we have a chance to do what the Life Mages could not - remove the taint from our elven homeland. Perhaps it will be beyond our abilities, but if nothing else there is surely something valuable to be learned. If we can learn how to turn our powers in such a way so as to counter the undead, even better - we can use those powers defending out people, should it come to that.

[Cellmonk]

Grek and Glyph... I think your strategy is the best we can do. I think an emphasis on making it a narrative is important. If its a story, it keeps us a person in his eyes. Also, I think that we should at no point label ourselves a necromancer. Merely as someone who can move vitality around, create new magical creatures, and sense undead things. If he wants to make that final step in naming it, so be it. If he asks if we are a necromancer, do not deny it.

The name necromancer seems to imply evil intentions. We should instead call ourselves something along the lines of a life-smith.

I also think that showing the power to him is a bad idea, unless he asks and seems interested. If he truly hates necromancers, and would kill us if we were one, he wouldn't kill us if there was the possibility that we simply had gone insane, and weren't actually a necromancer at all.

[RAM]

I like the narrative idea, and proof is not something that needs to be rushed. I think that it is important to be honest about this, but we are relying on Omo to get us through the patrols, so don't tell them until after we are past them, as the information is likely to be distracting. In the spirit of honesty, we should tell Omo as soon as is practical after getting past the patrols...