Well, this ran longer than I thought it would. I should probably take another day to proofread the last bit and maybe make your situation clearer, but I've been working on this for long enough. If there's any confusion about your pending choice I'll clear it up tomorrow.
Since we still need to do the shopping I wanted to do earlier: Buying maps, seeing the price and availability of crystals, refilling used rations etc. and so on. Omo did the information seeking for us, at least, but it would be nice to ask a few more questions. We might want to consider a better weapon for ourselves, but those will probably be expensive right now, and our magic is a better weapon. So I argue for the following:
1 hour for breakfast, 2 hours for shopping, 2 hours for sightseeing, then we leave, head straight into the wilderness, and three hours or so out, we sit Omo down and tell him everything. 3 hours should be safe enough, I think. And the zombies may be about, but I doubt there going to be a likely encounter off the road and away from people, and if they are the irregular terrain of the wilderness (along with trees to climb) could only really work to our advantage.
In 8 hours - we'll be ready for our first night in the wilderness, and we tell Omo.
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?
-and you can get a great view of everything from the towers in the keep, and-Gah! Alright! How about a compromise; we spend a couple hours gathering supplies, we spend a couple hours sightseeing, and leave after lunch. Sound good?Are you sure we can't spare a single day?Quite sure.Alright, fine. C'mon, if we've only got 'till noon, let's get started!Hang on, I'm not going anywhere without breakfast.You can stuff your face any time, we've only got a few hours to spend here!Agh- tell you what, how about you go shopping while I eat. Then we can spend more time on the town.Sounds good- what all do we need?A better map, at least, and we could stand to top off our supplies. I'd like to find out just how easy it is to come by Crystal outside the Vale- I don't plan to do any buying, but it'd be nice to know what kind of availability we're talking about. Here, this should cover it.It's a plan! See you in a bit!Omo scoops up the handful of copper you give him, scoops up his belongings and jauntily steps out the door. You take the time to rinse your face and hands in the washbasin before gathering your own supplies and heading downstairs. The common room is empty of the revelers from the night before, deserted save for a pair of merchants doing business at a table near the stairs. One gives you a surprised look, and you remember you don't have your cloak on- you mentally remind yourself to buy a headband when Omo gets back, to cover your ears at least.
Waving the proprieter over, you hand over 5 copper in exchange for a hearty meal of hot porridge mixed with dried apples. As you eat, you open
Prestidigitation for the Beginning Practitioner to the chapter that discusses the other Magical Faiths. Although the dissertation on the theory of Magic is dense and uninteresting, you do manage to glean some useful tidbits of knowledge.
The Elemental Magics form the basis of, well, everything- some living things are more suited for one form of Magic than others (which is why Merfolk tend towards Water spells, and not Fire) but most creatures have equal affinity for each element- whatever that means.
Fire magic deals with control of fire, obviously, but also volcanoes and lava, light, and matters of the soul.
Water magic, besides control of the element, is also heavily involved with the fundamental processes of living things and their base instincts, with a wide variety of related applications ranging from healing to divination and illusion. Water Mystics are widely regarded as the best healing available short of an Elf (which, given the reclusiveness of the Elves, often translates to "the best healing available.")
Air magic is heavily tied to storms and the weather, as well as affairs of the mind- the Text is less clear on this Faith than the others.
Earth magic deals with the shaping of stones and dirt, as well as knowledge of what lies in the depths. Many subterranean creatures are strongly Earth aligned, as well.
The Derived Magics have quite a bit more detail, so for now you just skim the highlights.
Order draws on the innate propensity of things to self-organize- it doesn't explain it any better than that, since it is assumed that the reader already has a basic knowledge of Order Magic. You do have a pretty good idea of what Order is useful for, though- Order Wizards have access to the most potent divinations in the world, as well as defensive abilities strong enough to ward entire armies. They also have some small healing talent, though not nearly so much as practitioners of Water or Life.
Chaos is not well understood, which perhaps makes sense given the nature of the text's author. It does detail quite a few known abilities of Chaos Shaman gleaned from centuries of enmity, however. Chaos is used in a variety of ways, altering luck, sowing discord on the battlefield through illusions and mind-altering effects, and truly puissant Shaman have the power to transform their foes into harmless rabbits (or their friends into powerful monsters!)
The entry on
Life magic doesn't tell you anything you didn't know (and in fact, some of the details you know to be wrong,) but the entry on
Necromancy has its own little chapter. Unfortunately, it has very little information on the practical abilities of Necromancers- instead it focuses on the detection and removal of Necromancer threats. Quite frankly, even that information seems of limited use- you know from personal experience that Necromancers do
not blight plants wherever they walk, nor do they lose all their hair when they manifest their powers! Most of this chapter seems to boil down to "if weird stuff is going on, keep the suspected Necromancer sedated and wait for more powerful Wizards to divine the truth."
Hey bookworm, done yet?You jump in surprise as Omo plops down next to you.
Bloody... yeah, I'm ready to go. Did you have trouble buying supplies?Nope- well, I haven't heard a price on your Crystal yet. Apparently only the biggest cities support enough magic users to warrant a shop for the selling of it- mostly towns order a supply from the Caravans and wait for it to be delivered. I did hear that the temples keep a ready supply of Crystal, however, and will probably sell at cost.You heard this? From who?A priest at a bar. He said if we wanted to know more, we could swing by the Temple and talk with one of the priests who are in charge of such things. And since I wanted to go there anyway...Alright, alright, let me stow my things. Also, we need headbands to hide our ears.Right, so instead of being beautiful, graceful strangers with pointy ears we'll just be beautiful, graceful strangers with odd fashion sense.I choose to ignore your tone. Let's go!As it turns out, the Jolly Badger is situated quite near the merchant district, and you find a cloth merchant with little trouble. For a few copper, you buy a short length of rough, plain white wool cloth, and cut it into wide strips for use as headbands. Moving through the crowds, you can tell it isn't doing much to distract attention from yourselves, but at least you aren't obviously Elves now.
Omo leads you North along the main road, to a wide plaza where it meets the East/West trade route. You take a few minutes to admire the statue at the center of the plaza. It's a very old statue, perhaps as old as the Golgothan War, and depicts a human pikeman shielding a young Elven woman with a child on her back. A weathered bronze plaque at its base somberly informs you that the statue represents the role the humans of Thrimesdur played in protecting the Elven Refugees from agents of the Necromancer. Not only is it quite the feel-good story, but the settling of Yicelafo led directly to increased land trade between Thrimesdur and points West, which ultimately resulted in the current prosperity of Larathor.
You wonder if this is how all the humans in Thrimesdur view themselves- defenders of the weak and helpless. It certainly seems like they are a more noble people than the Elders were giving them credit for when you were at their Council. Then again, the men and women who defended the Refugees are long dead, while many of the very same Elves who were defended are still alive- perhaps the Elders are familiar with their descendents, and find the current generation of humans lacking.
Omo (quite literally) pulls you from your reflection and across the plaza to the Temple. The structure is enormous- while the Temples of the Elves are commonly constructed around trees or places of natural beauty, the Temple of Order is a tall, stone building in the shape of a cross. The center of the cross is a belltower rising high above the cityscape. The cross is circumscribed by a low stone wall- the empty quadrants bound by the building and the wall both have a single gazebo in their center, surrounded be neatly arranged flowerbeds cut by straight cobblestone paths.
Coming closer, you can see that the stonework of the building is decorated with simple patterns and mazes. The front gates are flanked by tall, ornately decorated columns. Pushing the massive iron-bound doors open, you slip inside and stop in wonder. The antechamber has a high, vaulted ceiling, with colored glass windows allowing rays of sunlight to slant inside. The walls are covered in engravings of all kinds, and while you don't know their significance you can't deny their beauty.
A passing priest in flowing cream robes smiles as he approaches you.
Hail, pilgrims! Mid-morning services will begin shortly, if you'd like to grab a seat.Actually, we're just passing through before we have to leave town- we'd heard that this was a beautiful Temple.Well! I hope it did not disappoint!No, not at all. We don't have any stonework like this at home.Oh? Where do you hail from? I can tell you aren't local.Er, we come from the West. Actually, I had heard you also sell Crystal- is that right?Indeed it is- the Temples of Order will sell to any friend of Thrimesdur at no profit to themselves. Magic users frequently further The Plan regardless of their specific orientation, even more so than common men.The Plan?We believe that there is a higher power acting through all of us, from the lowliest serf to the highest king, even the Gods. We hold that this purpose is the betterment of all creation, for creation itself could not exist without its orderly influence- all things, good or ill, have a reason for occurring.Is that what these engravings represent? Steps in the Plan?A good guess, but no. The engravings in this chamber depict our history, and what came before- even though the future seems uncertain and indeterminate, it is merely a matter of perspective, for one day the flow of events will seem as inevitable and planned as our own history. Ah, but I've babbled enough- if you're looking for a theological discussion, feel free to find me after services.No thank you, we're just here to appreciate your surroundings.That's wonderful- feel free to wander and admire at your will, restricted areas are clearly marked. I'd give you a guided tour, but I have services to conduct. Enjoy your visit!With that, he moves deeper into the building. Although you feel time pressing on you, you do in fact enjoy this visit- the Temple has a serene, secure quality at odds with the bustling town outside, and while the meaning of the many artworks is lost on you it is easy to appreciate the craftsmanship of their making. You and Omo spend more than an hour wandering the Temple, examining statuary and engravings, paintings and tapestries.
Afterwards, you elect to simply wander the city, experiencing the bustling atmosphere of a prosperous human town and taking in the architecture, so unlike that of home. It seems that every plaza has a statue, some of inscriptions detailing a tidbit of the history of Larathor and the river trade, many with nothing to explain their presence. You rather suspect that there is a reason for each artwork- from your conversation with the priest, you'd wager everything in this town is planned and plotted by somebody. There is little spontaneity among the humans of Thrimesdur, quite unlike the impulsive Elves.
Eventually your sightseeing leads you to the keep- the doors are open to the public, although there are many guardsmen about keeping a watchful eye on strangers. You find yourself atop one of the walls, looking out over the sloped rooftops and the outer wall to the fields of grass and the farmland beyond. As the Temple Bell sounds the noon hour, you turn to Omo.
Alright, I think we've had enough fun for one day. We need to get ready for the next leg of our journey.Yeah, yeah... I suppose you're right. OK. I got this map while I was out this morning.
Omo, I certainly hope you didn't pay money for this! It looks like it was scribbled on the back of a napkin!Yeah, it might not have been so much "me buying a map" as "me asking for directions and sketching them" at the bar.Oh, Omo.Hey, it's perfectly serviceable! The red dots are the larger farming villages along the road, and the green bits are farmland. Water gets harder to come by further inland, so farms get few and far between once you're past the villages. Figure a good day's travel East will get us that far- after that, it's the wilderness.Nuts, I thought the wilderness was closer than that.Eh?Nothing. So, if I'm reading this right, it's 100 miles to... Axle penne?Er, no, I smudged that big. It's supposed to say Atkilpeme- it's the Captial of Thrimesdur. When we get there, we'll be almost halfway to the Sacred Grove. It's the getting there that'll be tricky, though.How tricky is tricky?It depends how you want to tackle this, I suppose. If we follow the road, we'll almost certainly run into the forces of the Necromancer along the way. If we wanted to avoid him, we could detour North into Bothoninen, The Murky Hills. The problem with that is that we'd run the risk of running into goblins or other monsters raiding from the mountains. If we detoured South around the Necromancer, we'd come to Aloclesno, The Shaken Forest.That doesn't sound so bad. We can handle forest.Well, supposedly, Aloclesno is haunted. Like, really haunted. In the "none who enter" leave sense of the word. That might just be superstition, but the guy I was talking to laughed pretty hard when I suggested that route.Hm. What do you think?If we leave now, we can probably make that second village before nightfall. After that, we'll be leaving civilization and need to pick our direction. Going straight along the road should take us two/three days, while detouring could take as long as five. The thing is, we don't know exactly where the Necromancer is- he could be well north or south of the main road and easy to avoid, or he could be squatting on the whole thing with a massive army stretched out to either side.Hm...It's a tricky situation- going North could result in an encounter with bloodthirsty goblinoid savages, while going South means entering a mysterious, supposedly cursed forest. And somewhere straight ahead is the Necromancer Curo Nightroar himself, and the bulk of his undead forces...
Vitality- 10/10
Mana- 12/12
XP- 19/20
Inventory- Belt Pouch (
82 Silver Pieces),
Elven Traveler Garb,
Elven Cloak, Headband, Belt Knife, Leather Backpack(Bedroll, Flint&Steel,
Weak Mana Potion, Scroll Case(4 blank Parchment,
Charcoal),
Trail Rations Fishing Equipment,
Spare Traveling Clothes x2,
Prestidigitation for the Beginning Practitioner by Joddo Meadtrust, Crystal(5oz))
Abilities-
Sense Necromancy(Passive)Skills-
Competent Fisher,
Dabbling SwimmerStatus- Pondering
Nineteen 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
Brew Mana Potion- A Mana Potion takes twice the potions potency in Mana cost, and requires 1/2 hour per point in brewing time
Waterproof- 1MP/Hour duration - Makes an object non-absorbent. Does not prevent corrosion (such as from acid or rusting) or magical effects related to water/liquid
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. It seems the mana cost is related to the overall quality of the corpse, and maybe the size?
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 - Range: Line of Effect. 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, Leather Backpack(50' Rope, Hatchet,
Camping Supplies),
Masterwork Elven StaffAbilities-
Track,
SurvivalistSkills-
Novice Observer,
Competent Ambusher,
Competent Staff User,
Poor Liar,
Dabbling SwimmerStatus- Cogitating
Omo Thunderjaw- Your best friend, brave and true. He is currently an aspiring Ranger, and is eager to leave the Vale.
Curo Nightroar- The Necromancer of Thrimesdur, said to be insane, he controls a massive army of the Undead and threatens the Cremated Empire.
Pirate King- The Necromancer operating along the Jeweled Coast, he commands a mixed force of human and lizardfolk pirates along with his undead minions.
-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.
-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.
-See how much damage a dead body can sustain before it is unraisable
-Also, it seemed interesting that the loop was recognized as the center of life. We should test raising different rope Golems, some who are linear, some who are looped or knotted in different ways. How does the golem react to music, and what if we made one out of clay, with more distinguished features?
- Test Command Undead by commanding something you've raised to self-terminate. A further test of this would be if it could work on the undead that other necromancers have summoned.
- Test Command Undead, and see if can you over-ride commands given to a zombie summoned by another necromancer. Does the zombie respond to the most recent order given, or does it have loyalty to whomever summoned it? Or maybe it is under the control of the more powerful of the two necromancers.
- For Animate Object, see if you can make an object levitate, or move to your will. Maybe this could develop into telekinesis..
- we should try pricking our finger, and stealing the vitality of an insect or something, and see if it will heal the cut.
- Another thing we need to play with is fire. Fire golem? HELL YES.
-Play with blood. Maybe that's what the golem needs. Blood. Mix some of your own blood into the clay.
-Like we tried to be the ropeman when we raised our first golem, we can try to be the earth when we make a clay or earthen golem, etc.
- Try to infuse vitality into the crystal to see what it does.
- See what happens if you infuse Mana and Vitality into the same crystal.
- Steal Vitality on self
1. Imbue a small, uncrushed mana crystal with mana. Cast Detect Magic on it, comparing it to a mana potion.
2. If successful, turn the imbued mana crystal into a golem using 2 vitality. It is important to later experiments that we use exactly 2 vitality. Continue observing with Detect Magic.
3. If successful, attempt to Alter Golem in order to imbue the mana cystal with the ability to cast a cheap spell using the mana stored within it when commanded to. I recommend Detect Magic, since that should be easy to test.
4. If successful, continue to have the crystal cast Detect Magic even after it has run out of mana, in order to see if it can cast the spell using vitality like a mage can. Assuming this works, we will be able to discern the conversion ratio between vitality and mana.
5. If successful and the conversion ratio is > 3 mana per 2 vitality, have a mana crystal that is able to hold at least 3 mana wrapped in thick leather with a single small hole. Firmly attach this leather-covered crystal to a stick that is suitable as a handle
6. Imbue 3 mana into the crystal before turning it into a 1 vitality golem that will cast Steal Vitality as quickly and often as it can on anything that comes within 4 feet of it, draining the vitality into itself.
7. Note to ourselves that, because Steal Vitality works on line of sight, only things that come within line of sight of the single hole in the leather will be drained of vitality.
8. Enjoy our new lightsaber.
World Map
North Thrimesdur
Author
Topic: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-36 Decisions, Decisions (Read 685209 times)