One: Too little, too late for this idea, but I'm wondering why no one thought to buy a sling instead of a bow and arrows. It's very cheap, very light (it's pretty much just a leather thong, and that's if I'm being generous), has a long range (compared to the shortbow, at least), and uses things you can just pick up off the ground as ammunition (saving on arrows). The only drawback is whether our elf, or indeed elves in general, know how to use slings- I can't imagine slings being very easy to learn. Oh, sure, it can't be hard to fling a rock out of a pouch or whatever that thing is called, but can you aim it? But alas. The point is moot.
Two: Do we actually know if Rangers can use magic, at least well enough to communicate with animals? If I remember correctly, Elana didn't know the spell herself, and she's a dedicated Life Mage. (Assuming that it's a spell. Elana said that "it isn't hard to communicate with [animals] using Life Magic, after a fashion." Whatever "after a fashion" means, it doesn't sound like she's talking about a spell, exactly. Perhaps it's more like our Necromantic Sight, except more verbally-oriented?) Admittedly, there's probably a big difference between a fully-realized Ranger and and a Mage just out of her novitiate, but there's nothing in Omo's profile that suggests he knows any magic at all, either, and he's a (former) member of one of the Ranger bands that are being a problem to us right now. He also can't create mana potions, which appears to be a common, if not ubiquitous ability amongst mages. I don't recall any explicit mention of Rangers knowing magic, at least beyond the general spells that probably every elf knows being the fluffy magical sparkle creatures of rainbows and unicorns they are. (Actually, unicorns were pretty beast. Vicious, feral creatures with three foot long horns that are apparently so strong that, according to one "account", unicorns leap off cliffs in order to escape pursuers, then take the entire shock of the fall on their horns. But I digress.) Monk's comments lead me to suspect that Rangers do have magic, but he hasn't exactly confirmed it for sure.
On my third and related point. If Rangers can't use magic well enough to communicate with animals, then we have no way of communicating with the animal ourselves. Even if we assume that communication with animals is a universal spell and not a Life Magic spell or ability (and therefore out of our purview as a Necromancer), we obviously don't know it, and I doubt a book on the basics of magic would teach us how to cast such a spell, since, as I mentioned before, Elana is already beyond the basics and still doesn't know the spell. Even if Rangers can use magic, that's not a guarantee that Omo himself can.
Assuming that Rangers can communicate with animals, communication with animals doesn't mean command of animals, as Elana herself mentioned. We could just
tell the bear to wander through their area, digging through the supplies and nosing through the encampments and generally making a nuisance of itself without attacking or hurting anyone. The Rangers won't attack it since the bear isn't really doing anything harmful, just destructive, but they can't simply ignore it, and if we bribe it well enough it'd be difficult for the Rangers to deter it by simply talking to it. At worst, they'd let lose a few arrows at it in an attempt to scare it off and accidentally hit it. Our best bet would be to
send the bear out to catch the Rangers in the morning, when they're just waking up. (While we're at it,
ask Omos what the Ranger's schedule is- when they go to sleep, when they wake up, when the most amount of Rangers are likely to be away from the encampment, etc.) At night, the Rangers might get paranoid and mistake the bear's rustling about as a zombie army and attack it without realizing what's actually going on, in the middle of the day the Rangers would be prepared enough that they'd probably scare the bear away as soon as it started looking like it was heading in their direction and render the distraction obsolete, but in the morning it's simultaneously harder to see us than in the daytime, they're less likely to immediately think "OMFGZOMBEEATAKS", and are less likely to be prepared, buying us a few more minutes at the very least.
This isn't related to the whole Ranger thing at all, just a bit of thinking on my part. The actual discussion was a little while ago, but I notice that many people assume that corpses animated by necromancy still end up decaying. Did I miss a post by Monk somewhere that stated that explicitly? Because if I haven't, that means we're assuming that based on our prior knowledge of the undead. Seeing as Necromancy appears consist of infusing things with Mana in such a way as it becomes Vitality and also manipulating Vitality itself, I don't see why that should be. In fact, I'm not entirely certain what the difference is between Necromancy and Life Magic, when put in those terms, but that's not my point. My point is: why should something that has been forcibly infused with Vitality, which apparently is the force that keeps us all alive in this universe, continue to decay? If it does, that means that
everything made using necromancy as we know it will eventually become useless. Bones decay too, you know. So does wood and other plant fibers. Clay dries up and crumbles. Iron and steel rust. Even silver and copper tarnishes. The only thing that doesn't eventually decay is stone (if we disregard erosion) and gold. Gold is useless as a building block for golems, as it's too soft to serve as bones and too rare and expensive to serve as muscles. That means that while the undead would decay faster, golems would still require maintenance in order to remain useful, and in some cases will still be rendered useless eventually regardless of how well we take care of them. Admittedly this is an extremely long view of things, but it's something to think about, especially in regards to that skeletal monstrosity Pevo was talking about. Speaking of which: who says it was made of bones? Pevo doesn't seem to know anything about Necromancers making golems. Maybe the skeleton was merely a golem made in the shape of a skeleton, or perhaps the decayed framework of a neglected golem, depending on the specifics of how to make a moving golem.
Hm. That gives me an idea: we should
try to experiment on making golems made of different substances and/or elements other than earth, as mentioned before, but on a different level. Animated water. Animated fire. Hell, try animated air- that would probably be the most deadly of them all, if the most anticlimactic. We could command animated air to simply leave the lungs of every creature within radius. Insta-Corpse. It's probably not feasible, though. How would the spell know where to end? Gasp! We could end up attempting to animate the entire atmosphere! D8 We could trying animating a small vial of air, though, which could be just as deadly. If we can make golems out of elements other than earth, we should
see what happens when we melt/freeze/boil the golem. Do you know how useful that could be? Ice golems that can turn into water could go just about anywhere that isn't the desert, and take up far less space than ice does. Rock golems that can become magma would be even better, if less subtle. (And possibly self-harming. <<; ) Or, if it's impossible to cause a golem to change states without destroying it, maybe, if we can make golems out of different substances (I don't see why not, honestly- living beings (or formerly living beings, if we're being accurate) are made of hundreds, if not thousands of different kinds of substances, and we can animate them just fine), we should create a rock golem with an internal reservoir of animated fire that allows the golem to "eat" rock and spew it out as magma. If that doesn't make our elf the spiritual successor of Cacame in the eyes of the dwarves I don't know what will.
I second/third/whatever the suggestion regarding the reanimation of crayfish shells or whatever equivalent happens to be lying around. Actually, crayfish shells are exoskeletons, so wouldn't that be the same as raising the skeleton of a vertebrate? So, better idea-
try to raise different parts of a creature's body separate from a creature (for example, raising the head of that ant we beheaded in the beginning of this whole thing rather than the body), and specifically
try to raise the hide of an animal that was recently skinned. If that works and the resulting creature can move to any degree, we should also
try to raise a tanned leather hide, just to see how much something organic can be altered before it can no longer be raised as a zombie. (Though I assume you can still animate it like an object.) That would make the creation of a cyborg-zombie-golem much easier.
Also, four things that have little to no bearing on the plot, but that I was curious about/wanted to comment on/thought was funny:
What did Gorgothans look like?
What! What could possibly be possessing you to hare off into a warzone!?!
...oh, be careful, you stubborn fool. Just be careful.
[*snip*]impulsively give Elana a big bear hug. She stiffens in surprise for a moment before hugging you back fiercely. After a long moment, you separate, and exit the apartment.
Hm. Elana's showing an inordinate amount of concern for someone I have a feeling we haven't seen in a long time (how long does it take for an elf to finish their novitiate? It was about that long, right? For that matter, how old are we, exactly? I don't recall any mention of our age), even if we recently got back in touch. She may be a friend and former lover, but it seemed as if the break-up was... not pleasant. Especially if it precipitated such a long period of no-contact. In other words, Elana may still have feelings for our lovely necro-elf, which makes the romantic in me swoon with delight. :3 If so, it's unlikely that anything will come of it for various reasons, though I hope we'll at least see her again someday. I doubt romance of any kind, at any time, and with Elana or anyone else will enter this thread, but more exploration into our past, no matter how boring compared to our probable future, would be interesting, I think.
Dwarves of the Earth Kingdom were solid allies of the Golgothans prior to the war, as well as the Fire Nation.
I didn't realize this was an
Avatar: The Last Airbender AU.
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.
While your writing skills aren't polished, I'd rate them at an overall of Adept. (I'd give you a categorical assessment, but this is running on way, way too long and you probably don't want my criticism anyway.
) My complaints number only two. One: the dialogue seems a bit awkward. It's like watching a movie that has an extremely original and wonderfully engaging plot, but has characters that are being played by inexperienced (not bad, merely inexperienced) actors. Nothing that significantly detracts from the story, so to speak, but it's noticeable. That kind of thing only comes with practice, though, which is what this is all about, right?
In any case, the plot twists that come along as a result of your unique take on Necromancy, as well as the setting development in general, more than makes up for it. I especially like the way the exposition is more or less coming out naturally- even our necro-elf's whole lack of prior knowledge about everything we're being told can easily be attributed not only to a general cultural/racial insularity but also our character's own insularity, and what she does know is explained quickly, in a cut and dry style that, while not my usual fare, is rather refreshing, and fitting for something like this. My other complaint is more personal in nature: I simply can't seem to get a handle on Nym's personality. Seeing as her thoughts and decisions are pretty much based on the ruminations of an entire community, it's not surprising that she doesn't have a very clear or established personality, but it just bothers me. I'll have to see if I can at least drudge up a basic profile, if only to satisfy myself. (Based on the DF personality traits, of course.
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Topic: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-36 Decisions, Decisions (Read 685487 times)