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[Cellmonk]

Ooo, more conflict. What a surprise. Hmmm, what to do, what to do...

Alright, got it. Tell Omo we'll stay for the day, but that we're leaving at nightfall. Enough time to see a few sights, but not enough to significantly endanger ourselves. Also, hint to him that we want to tell him something, something extremely important, but that we can't take the risk of being overheard. Maybe that will make him more eager to leave.

+1

[Descan]

That town guard really wanted you to burn him.

[Felius]

Ooo, more conflict. What a surprise. Hmmm, what to do, what to do...

Alright, got it. Tell Omo we'll stay for the day, but that we're leaving at nightfall. Enough time to see a few sights, but not enough to significantly endanger ourselves. Also, hint to him that we want to tell him something, something extremely important, but that we can't take the risk of being overheard. Maybe that will make him more eager to leave.

+1

Indeed this sounds for the best. But ask him if he really believe we are not getting the rangers after us, cause if we are, we should hit the road now.

[LordBucket]

How should you handle this?

Staying in town for a few days has several benefits:

 * Sooner or later there will be a zombie attack, which will give Nym an excellent opportunity to test out some very important experiments on "somebody else's" zombies, all with the relative safety of a city wall and guards to hide behind.
 * It would give us a chance to learn a few more spells from the spellbook
 * Good opportunity to overhear rumors, and maybe get an idea whether the rangers are in pursuit
 * It will make Omo happy

However, I think the chance of being caught is not worth it. It seems unlikely that the rangers would forcefully apprehend us without explicit orders from home to do so, and it might take time for the report to get back and orders to be returned...but if we stay, they'll probably know exactly where we are within an hour of the ferry. If I were the ranger captain, I'd be on the first ferry in the morning with half a dozen others. The gate guard will definitely remember us and will tell the rangers exactly which Inn we're staying at. Once they find us it might be difficult to lose them again. Omo is a relatively young and inexperienced ranger. If a senior ranger with hundreds of years of tracking and stealth experience picks up our trail, we won't even necessarily know.


Therefore I propose the following:

Check out of the Inn, and make a point of "casually mentioning" in great detail that we're "headed east." Then head to the market and buy a set of clothes and hats to hide that we're elves. Change into them. Then go to a totally different clothes seller and buy yet a different set of hats and clothes. Throw away the first set. Then look for a secluded place to change back into our original elven clothes, and leave the town through a different gate than we originally came in. Chat with the guards and again "casually" mention that we're headed east. When the rangers show up to investigate, both sets of gate guards and the Innkeeper should all agree that two elves came into town, then left heading east.

Walk out of sight, then split up. Change into the second set of clothes, and walk back to town separately, at least half an hour apart so that the guards won't notice a "man and a woman leaving" followed by a "man and a woman arriving."

Plan to stay in Larathor for a couple days consolidating knowledge and power. We want be here for the next zombie attack.

In regards to Omo:

Simply tell him that we have something he needs to know. And that you promised yourself you would tell him once you were both safely away from home. But we're not safely away yet. You don't want to keep a secret from him, but you just don't feel safe talking about it yet. We will tell him. But not yet. Ask him to please not worry about it. He can go ahead and have fun. He wants to stay in town for a few days, we'll do that for him. What we have to say can wait. Just explain that "I need you to know that if some strange twist of fate reveals the secret before I get the chance to tell you...know that I was not going to keep it a secret. I will tell you. Just please be patient with me."

He'll probably assume we're going to admit that we're in love with him. Don't encourage it, neither confirm nor deny...but allow it. It's a safe thing for him to incorrectly assume until we have a suitable chance to tell him.


By the way, why did we never receive xp for learning Brew Mana Potion and Waterproof? Also, I'd think that having spent a couple hours a day focusing mana into crystals for potions for 5 days would have been worth some xp too.

[LordBucket]

we'll stay for the day, but that we're leaving at nightfall. Enough time to see
a few sights, but not enough to significantly endanger ourselves

Problem with overtly staying is that the rangers will find us. And once they do we'll have no way of knowing if they're still with us. Even weeks from now they might still be stealthily on our trail. We don't want to have a 500 year old ranger hiding in the bushes when we tell Omo we're a necromancer we can make golems.

[Descan]

[everything]

Yes.

[Deep Waters]

Hmmm... I'd honestly prefer to leave as quickly as possible. There's nothing we can learn here that we can't learn elsewhere, and Nightroar isn't going anywhere. We can experience a zombie attack first-hand anytime we want. However, I also don't feel that your idea will most likely kill us all, so I wouldn't vote against it, if it came to that.

We never earned any xp for those spells because we only earn experience from doing necromancer things, as stated in the author's note in Chap 1, Part 1.

You level up by gaining XP- you gain XP by casting Necromancy spells.

I believe Monk did say there were other ways, but I can't quite remember- I think it was combat or something. I could probably dig it up, but not right now.

EDIT: Wait a minute. You said that it would be a benefit to experiment with necromancy within the "relative safety of a city wall and guards to hide behind"? Yeah, until the guards turn around and hack us to death! You might say that it's possible we could do it stealthily, without them realizing it was us- but that's putting limitations on what experiments we could conduct without them noticing, and is far too risky for something we could always do later, when we have more power and are able to protect ourselves from the few measly zombies we'd need for our experiments.

[LordBucket]

I'd honestly prefer to leave as quickly as possible.

However, I also don't feel that your idea will most likely kill us all, so I wouldn't vote against it, if it came to that.

Well, I'd rather leave immediately than stay in plain sight like the first few people suggested. Having rangers on our tail is bad. But I think if we're careful we can arrange to stay, benefit from staying and make Omo happy in the process.

We can also benefit from deliberately create a false trail in case the rangers do attempt to pursue us. They saw us going to great effort to sneak past and escape from them. It would be counterintuitive for them to expect us to try so hard to escape then immediately stop here. Whereas if we simply head off into the woods we create a trail for them to track, and any animal that sees us will be able to tell them where we've been.

Wait a minute. You said that it would be a benefit to experiment with necromancy
within the "relative safety of a city wall and guards to hide behind"?

In the event of a random zombie attack on the city, yes. Imagine a dozen zombies attack, and the town is called to arms. So we head to the city wall, tell the guards we're a mage and start casting. We can do command zombie, we can try to "heal" zombies by moving vitality from one to another, we can experiment with vitality siphoning and vitailty <--> mana conversion, we can try direct damage spells...there are a lot of things we can experiment with that don't involve animating anything. Remember, we suspect there's an entire third school of necromancy that we're still only speculating on. Personally I think it will turn out to be a "siphon" school. And if we succesfully use drain-type attack spells on zombies...people are just going to see that we cast spells and zombies died. Nobody is going to see that and conclude we're doing anything bad.

Now compare that to heading out alone to where the zombies are. How are we going to sleep? Omo is a ranger, but Nym isn't. Shall we take turns on watch every night? Shall we set up perimeter traps around our camp and hope zombies trip them? Consider what Omo said:

"I won't feel safe after we leave. The guard wasn't exaggerating about the undead attacks, if the common room is to be believed. The road south is choked with refugees. The Imperial Chargers are swamped, between trying to maintain order on the road while also responding to each zombie attack.

Which proposition is safer?

Proposed experiments
 * Attempt to "heal" a zombie by moving vitality around
 * Attempt to "heal" self and others by moving vitality around between self/others/zombies/etc
 * Attempt to directly convert vitality to mana and mana to vitality. Make the attempt both while the vitality/mana is "inside" a body, as well as "in between." See if vitality and mana can be stored in a pool.
 * Experiment with how long vitality/mana can be kept "stored." Can we siphon mana from ourselves, hold it in a pool, then go to sleep and have it still available in the morning?
 * Attempt a direct damage spell
 * Attempy to "mana steal" from someone
 * Experiment with storing mana in objects besides potions. Can we make a crystal amulet that we store mana in, to siphon to/from as needed? Can we increase the storage capacity of an object via enchanting, rather than simply adding bigger and more crystals?
 * Can we store mana in metal? Can we store mana in zombies and golems?
 * Experiement with the creation of magic items. We know that magic items exist. Can we imbue an object with magic besides simply storing points of vitality/mana?
 * Attempt to modify living un-zombified tissue in a manner similar to alter golem. Can we regenerate limbs? Can we disable an opponent by merging all their fingers into one single blob? Can we add an extra set of functional eyes or wings to a living, unzombified creature?
 * Experiment with light-less vision. NOTE that we were able to see through the eyes of a fish even when it was inside our stomach. It appears that zombies can see in the dark. We should be able to make use of that for ourselves. It should be fairly trivial to create a "dark vision" spell for ourselves that uses no zombies at all.
 * EDIT (added from below to consolidate): "Ward undead" spell. Create an area where undead not under our control will avoid.

[racnor]

I agree with deep waters, we can't take the risk of revealing our self to the guards with unexpected purple pyrotechnics from a messed up experiment, and the undead are attacking isolated farms, not huge towns with a wave of angry elves on the other side of the river. If anything big does come after us, we can hide fairly easily, as these undead are very stupid right now. Besides, any zombies we can't instakill with drain vitality would have over 6 vitality, making it detectable by sense necromancy at over 180(5*6*6) feet in any lighting conditions, making us a better night lookout than Omo. Indulge Omo a bit, but leave as soon as he's up for it, and tell him about our powers so we can actually be useful again.


On a different subject, when we do get free rein to use our magic on undead, try shoving or crushing vitality instead of pulling it.

[Grek]

I agree with what LordBucket said, with three exceptions:

1. We promised ourselves that we would tell Omo our secret after breakfast today. We're not going back on that promise to ourselves, so tell Omo that we're having breakfast and that you need to tell him something important up in the room after breakfast and THEN, once that's out of the way, we can go see the sights. I know, it's a risk that we'll be overheard, but it's important that we know that Omo trusts us and we can trust him before anything else happens.

2. Many of the specific experiments LordBucket proposed are either useless or bad ideas:
-Trying to transfer vitality from a zombie to a person, or from zombie to zombie for the first time mid-battle, while being watched is just asking for something unexpected to happen and screw us over.
-The same applies to the "store mana in a zombie", "try to alter a zombie" and "try to grant them night-vision" ideas.
-We've already attempted to cast Steal Mana; it didn't work, but we got the feeling that it was possible, just not with the same method as Steal Vitality uses.
-Trying to fuse flesh together or extra sprout eyeballs is A] disgusting and B] horrifyingly reckless. Let's not do that unless we find a much better reason.
-In general, we shouldn't be making zombies in town until we've come out openly as a necromancer. I personally suggest sticking to enchanting objects and working out the kinks of golem-crafting for now, experiment-wise, with a focus on getting golems to actually move about.

3. We don't have the money for two new sets of clothing, especially just to throw one pair away. I like the idea of setting a false trail for the rangers to follow in principle, but that specific method of doing so is non-viable. My plan is as follows:

Inform the inkeeper of the Jolly Badger that you'll be departing for the east after lunch and thank him for his hospitality. Then go sightseeing for a while. Once you've seen everything, (let's check out the Keep first, supposedly we can see everything up there?) go to the market and see if you can trade your spare elven clothes for some concealing human clothes. Mention to the merchant that you don't want to attract attention while you're travelling east, lest Nightroar know we're coming. Head back to the Inn for lunch and pack up all your stuff. Leave through the east gate, change into your human-looking clothes and come back through some other gate, preferably the north or south if there is one. Finally, go check in at some other Inn, preferably one on the other end of town, and rent a room there for the rest of your stay.

[Draigh]

First thing I noticed:

First things first- you pull out Prestidigitation for the Beginning Practitioner and start flipping through it on the search for Illusion spells. While you find a couple minor auditory illusions, you are unable to find any optical illusions. Skimming the section on other Magics shows that Illusions of various kinds are widely used by Chaos Shaman, as well as Water Mystics and Air Seers. Stymied, you stow away your book and then beat Omo with your pillow.

Different types of mages are able to do the same kind of magic. Illusions can be done by Chaos, Water AND Air mages. That means that golems also might be possible with different kinds of magic (Chaos and Earth comes to mind). At least something we might want to research: What are the types of effects that are possible with each type of magic?
Also, there was a mention about the minor auditory illusions. It might not be as useful as the optical illusions for hiding our identity. But I still want Nym to learn it. It might be handy in another situation and we need all the tricks up our sleeves we can get. Some minor telekinetic spells and/or light spells would also be nice. Cantrips at best, but useful nonetheless.

1. We promised ourselves that we would tell Omo our secret after breakfast today. We're not going back on that promise to ourselves, so tell Omo that we're having breakfast and that you need to tell him something important up in the room after breakfast and THEN, once that's out of the way, we can go see the sights. I know, it's a risk that we'll be overheard, but it's important that we know that Omo trusts us and we can trust him before anything else happens.

Our initial promise to ourselves was to tell him when we were alone outside of the city. No specific clause of time was added to this promise. Only later that people started pushing to hasten it more and more. It will already be a difficult and dangerous telling, especially if he asks for some form of proof. Do we really want to do that in the middle of a city??
Keep it in, a few more days will not kill us nor him. A few more days is barely anything in the life of an elf. We have a bond of trust with him anyway, we are childhood friends. He might be angry for not telling sooner, but he will understand our fears and hesitations when we tell him that we did not want to tell him this during the elf festival or in a busy foreign city out of fear someone overhears us. After all, he has been consistently shown as a friendly and caring guy.
And I agree with telling Omo there is something we really want to tell him, but we would prefer doing that outside of the city. He does not need to worry, but we just find it fair for him to know it. As I said, it can wait a couple days until we do leave the city. We are on a mission here, he is our friend, guardian and wilderness guide. We will manage just fine.

As for our short term plans, I agree with LordBucket. Although just getting some different concealing clothes, leaving the city as elves and returning as humans would probably already be enough, without the whole disguising inbetween for the second set of clothing. We also need to conserve our money, we are not that wealthy, needing the money to buy expensive new crystals. We might want to use something of a headband we can wear. Hats should be removed when indoors out of politeness, thus defeating the purpose of hiding our ears.

I would also suggest not telling people we are (full) mages. We could just say that we are elves, with some minor talent in magic. At least for now while we are still learning our powers. I would still propose to profile ourselves as being a scholar with his guard/guide/friend. Our main skill is knowledge, not power. Otherwise people might expect us to smite those undead with our epic elven Light magics or something (common folk of course do not know what is or is not possible, and pretty much unaware of what elves precisely can do with their magic; is my guess). We do not want to disappoint a fearful mob of humans that will grasp every last straw of hope they can find. Better to make sure they do not get the idea that we are a valid option of salvation.

Also: no obvious necromantic experiments within the city. Darkvision is an option, anything obviously related to dead things is not. And anything that might hurt living things is not an option either. But we do need to discharge some of our magic before we re-animate the dead cow that is supposed to be on the evening menu of the inn.We do not want to draw too much attention to ourselves.

My suggestions for experimentation in the city:
- Experiment with light-less vision
- For Animate Object, see if you can make an object levitate, or move to your will.  Maybe this could develop into telekinesis
- Astral Projection, temporarily leaving your body and then get back in. Later experiment might involve exploring a bit around you and checking how long you are away, if you can influence things around you while being incorporeal and stuff like that.

Experiments for a later time:
- Cause Fear
- Blindness / Deafness (let one of the senses die, we are most likely not able to heal this though...)
- See how someone or something died
- Speak with the dead (spirits)
- Shadow shaping (might get haywire, not to be tried in populated areas)
-- Animate Shadows

[MikaTheCrazy]

An idea for an experiment could be 'vitality overload'. We should see what happens as we add more and more vitality to a target.

[LordBucket]

1. We promised ourselves that we would tell Omo our secret after breakfast today.

Chapter I, Part 26:
"You are about to agree as you shrug your tunic back on, but then you remember your promise to yourself. "First night in the wilderness, away from settlement and elves- that's when I'll tell Omo I'm a Necromancer."

2. Many of the specific experiments LordBucket proposed are either useless or bad ideas:

That was a proposed experiments list. Not a "things to do while we're being watched" list.
Even so, half the experiments on that list would be safe to do while being watched. Storing mana in metal rather than crystal, vitality <--> mana conversion, the dark vision spell, enchanting, etc. None of these involve zombies or golems at all, and we could safely do them in our room at the Inn if we wanted.

As to safety, I understand that being caught performing necromancy poses a certain risk. But getting killed poses risk too. There are so many undead roaming the countryside, that the local military is having difficulty:

From Chapter II, part 1:
"The road south is choked with refugees. The Imperial Chargers are swamped, between trying to maintain order on the road while also responding to each zombie attack."

"...the undead are pretty stupid and uncoordinated. Nobody knows where Nightroar himself is, since none of the scouts sent to investigate have returned. We do know there is a hell of a lot of zombies a few days march east."

So, uncoordinated attacks...random zombies...they're not destroying towns, but nevetheless there are a lot of zombies running around. So I simply ask: do we really want to wade out into the middle of that? How eager are we to rush out into the forest and go to sleep just the two of us knowing full well that we might wake up to half a dozen zombies in our camp?

I would rather we take time to build up our strength before we charge headfirst into that.

3. We don't have the money for two new sets of clothing

I think we do.

Chapter II, part 1:

"Inventory- Belt Pouch (84.2 Silver Pieces),"

Monk, can we get a price quote on human commoner clothes?

Related, Inn stay for 2 was only 2 silver, and trail food for a day was half a silver. We can lay low here for a few days without putting any strain on out finances.

Then go sightseeing for a while. Once you've seen everything, (let's check out the Keep first, supposedly we can see everything up there?

That would pretty much guarantee that we'll be caught. Two elves walking around in plain sight will stand out very obviously.

Ask Omo: even if we leave immediately, if the rangers decide to try to catch us, how easy will it be for them to pick up our trail, ask animals if they've seen us, etc?

Ask Omo: if they do find us, how easy will it be for an experienced senior ranger to follow us without us realizing we're being followed?

New proposed experiment
 * "Ward undead" spell. Create an area where undead not under our control will avoid.

[Draigh]

Ward Undead...
That would be a nice one! Except that it would be hard to test... Careful with that one... But I like the idea!!

1. We promised ourselves that we would tell Omo our secret after breakfast today.

Chapter I, Part 26:
"You are about to agree as you shrug your tunic back on, but then you remember your promise to yourself. "First night in the wilderness, away from settlement and elves- that's when I'll tell Omo I'm a Necromancer."

I agree, first night in the wilderness, away from settlement and elves does not equal right after breakfast in the inn.
It also does not, in any way, indicate that we are in a hurry to tell him. So if we are going to stay here for a couple of days preparing before travelling in hostile and dangerous lands... telling Omo has to wait just that bit longer.

PS. It might be a good idea to tell Omo that due to the fact that Nym knows about Death Magic, he would most likely be MORE safe with Nym and not less safe. After all, Nym has a stronger understanding of necromancy than most others, simply for being able to do so herself.

[RAM]

Ooo, more conflict. What a surprise. Hmmm, what to do, what to do...

Alright, got it. Tell Omo we'll stay for the day, but that we're leaving at nightfall. Enough time to see a few sights, but not enough to significantly endanger ourselves. Also, hint to him that we want to tell him something, something extremely important, but that we can't take the risk of being overheard. Maybe that will make him more eager to leave.

+1