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[Felius]

Well, it seems likely that the two known necromancers are human male, and our host commenced as human female, and now they are elven male,

We are an elven girl. And yes, it does create some interesting implications about our ex, and the gender roles in elven society...

[Deep Waters]

As far as suggestions for our current situation are concerned... The only instruction I am inclined to furnish is... PANIC!!!

:|

Well, it seems likely that the two known necromancers are human male, and our host commenced as human female, and now they are elven male,

We are an elven girl. And yes, it does create some interesting implications about our ex, and the gender roles in elven society...

You do not know how happy I was when that came about. :3

[Angle]

Oh shit! shitshitshti!

Stall. Stall until you can't stall anymore. Try to sound him about his objectives and philosophy. Discreetly try to discover if he is evil. And stall. If he shows any signs of liking to rant about technical issues, try to get him to rant about the technical aspects of the dreamscape, so you can work on defending yourself. And stall.

Also remember, there are three things to worry here: What he seems to be saying, what he is actually saying, and what he actually wants. Do not assume those are the same. Be careful and wary of him for now. And stall.

First thing, try to play cool and start simply showing curiosity about him contacting you on the dreamscape, how he did it, why now, etc. Afterwards, stall some more.

Do not commit to anything for now. If he starts pushing you, ask for some time to think, everything is too new for you, and quite shocking. If he gives you the opportunity, do be relatively open to him start teaching you some basics and everything, or at least for him to tell you about necromancy as he knows it.

P.S. Did our mana did not grow at all this level, or is that a typo?

Ask ALL the questions. And stall, yes, stall. Avoid commitment. Try and test our host's temperament - ask a question that's just a very little bit rude or thoughtless, and see how they react. Do they get annoyed with us? Do they not notice? Do they turn the other cheek? etc.

[killerhellhound]

I think we should be a respectful this could be a god and there is no doubt that she is a lot more powerful than us (someone that nearly died raising a tree) and a bored god that can’t do anything at the moment will better to learn from a bunch of dusty books or experiments that can kill us.

[Nicholas1024]

As far as suggestions for our current situation are concerned... The only instruction I am inclined to furnish is... PANIC!!!

:|

Well, it seems likely that the two known necromancers are human male, and our host commenced as human female, and now they are elven male,

We are an elven girl. And yes, it does create some interesting implications about our ex, and the gender roles in elven society...

You do not know how happy I was when that came about. :3

Personally, if I were the mod I'd retcon that to just being your (other) best friend, but whatever.

Anyway, I think reply with first name only (giving ourselves a title at this point is just being egotistical), and just discreetly ask questions to see where they stand.

[V-Norrec]

I think we should be a respectful this could be a god and there is no doubt that she is a lot more powerful than us (someone that nearly died raising a tree) and a bored god that can’t do anything at the moment will better to learn from a bunch of dusty books or experiments that can kill us.

[RAM]

I am not convinced that it is certain that they are more powerful than us. They could quite easily be some sort of formerly skilled, though not necessarily powerful, necromancer who transferred their spirit to this place and is no longer capable of much at all. Alternatively they could be a figment of our imaginary imagination. Or they could be a chaos shaman using some form of confusion magic on us. Or maybe someone dosed our food with a hallucinogenic compound... And there are too many variations on it being in some way ourself to bother listing them all.

P.S.
Nuclear ferrets.

P.P.S.
 Aaaaaargh, it is coming for us!!!

[monk12]

Ask further questions.

Who is she?
What are her motives?
Who does she consider friend and enemy?

Interesting. I'm in the "assume nothing, and ask questions" camp. Be guarded, though. Since we don't know if she's nice or evil, let's not take any chances.

(Also, who's Mokra? )

Initial impression: This is the ghost of some necromancer from Golgotha. Morka is probably another ghost. Their plan appears to involve giving a couple of people necromantic powers and then waiting for them to do necromancy in front of someone before contacting them via magical dream ghost vision things. Their ultimate goal may be to bring back Golgotha.

That is alot of "probably" and "maybe" though.

We should probably go ahead and say that our name is Nym, but hold off on telling this mysterious person where we are until we find out a few things:
"Who are you and who is Morka?"
"Are you also teaching the other two necromancers?"
"What are you two planning to do with the necromancers?"

The first one should give us some idea of what's going on if they answer it. The second one should give some idea of whether they're evil - whoever is behind Curo Nightroar is probably a bad guy unless we're seriously misinformed about what's going on. And asking what their plan is before agreeing to learn from this mysterious person is just good sense.

Taking a discreet half-step away from the stranger, you respond.

"My name is Nym. Who are you, and who is Morka?"
He smiles. "You've answered one half of one of my questions, and want two of your own? Ha! Your suspicion does you credit, considering the world we live in. My name is Fale Packunion, and Morka is my god. Your god too, if you know what's good for you- Morka is the most powerful god of Death in Urak. The only one now, really."
"Yeah, well, forgive me if I'm not up to date on the pantheon of a dead race. So, what do you want with me? Have you approached the other necromancers?"
Fale claps happily. "Perceptive! I like that- I practically had to rub Nightroar's face in it before he saw the big picture. Yes, Morka and I have been working to create a world safe for Necromancers. You should know better than anyone that the other denizens of Urak hate and fear us- admit you're a Necromancer, and bam, you've got an army on your doorstep! They're jealous of our power- one of us is worth a multitude of them! But this time, there isn't just one of us. Working together, we can ascend to our rightful place as masters of Urak!"
"So your eventual goal is world domination, then?"
"It's all or nothing for us, Nym- no quarter asked, and none given. That's been the way of the world ever since the Golgothan War, us against them. So! I've answered your questions in good faith- will you answer mine? Will you work with us, and share our knowledge? Where are you?"

Spoiler: You (click to show/hide)

Vitality- 11/11
Mana- 10/12
XP- 20/35
Inventory- Silk Nightgown
Abilities- Sense Necromancy(Passive), Improved Necromantic Sight(Passive)
Skills- Competent Fisher, Dabbling Swimmer
Status- Cagey
Nineteen and a half days since Manifestation

Spoiler: Spells (click to show/hide)

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.

Spoiler: Planned Experiments (click to show/hide)

-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.

Spoiler: Maps (click to show/hide)

World Map


Northwest Thrimesdur

[Grek]

We can't help her if she's supporting people like Curo. Even if we do agree with her goals kinda sorta (at least the "people should not randomly murder necromancers" part) Curo is exactly the root of the problem and not part of the solution.

[Ancre]

Yeah, bummer. We can't really help her if we want to prove the world that we're nice, so we have to find a way out. And obviously, she's more powerful than us and everything. I don't know what we're going to do to be safe really.

So we can't say yes, and we can't say no either, it looks dangerous. We should find a way to at least remain neutral, I guess ? A "we have the same goals but different methods" kind of deal ? Any association is going to be bad for us in the long run, and while we're going to clash eventually, the later the better. We could try to "join them" only to back-stab them later, but we're supposed to be nice, I don't like that option. So ...

... Yeah, I don't really know what to do ...

[Felius]

There's a god involved then. Fuckitfuck.

Anyway, probe her more. And STALL!

Let's go with something of the such:

"You ask as if you can't simply rip it out of my head.", "You ask as if you needed me to tell you that.", "You entered my head, can't you simply see it?" or something of the like. Overestimating their capabilities is nice and their reaction to implying that they could know it without us telling him might tell quite a bit about what is the actual limit to their powers.

Probe her on the "the only one now, really." part as well. The only one, now? Were there more?

We also have no evidence but her word that she really there on behalf of Morka, which we also only have her word as evidence that he is indeed a death god. She isn't outright hostile to our paranoia, so this probably won't really cause offense.

But anyway, their goals are pretty clearly evil. They want to conquer the world, kill all those who oppose and possibly some more (necromancers... They just need a viable breeding population to keep them supplied with raw materials). They try to dress their stated goal as creating a safe world, but the real stated objective is to conquer the world, and put the necromancers in power, period. We also don't know if she will actually share power or just use us as dragon and/or cross us the moment we are not useful to her anymore. Outright refusing and being hostile is probably unhealthy. Stall. STALL! Stall until you grow old and gray (yes, you are an elf, that will take a long time, so? ). Show reluctance. Don't be outright hostile, do not do the whole swearing you will never join then, etc. Basically do not burn any bridges. While, yes, we do not intend to ever cross them the time they expend courting and trying to convert us is time they don't spend trying to hunt and kill us. And that is something to worry about.

There are very few necromancers, and each apparently is a incredibly useful and grand resource. They are unlikely to give up on recruiting us even if we don't join up immediately, but that changes if we are apparently directing opposing them and do not show signs of changing our mind. So, STALL! Ask for time. Show reluctance. Ask to be given the opportunity to see more of the world with your own eyes first and confirm there's no chance of peaceful existence (framing it something like: "Let me see by myself that my "foolish naive dreams" are indeed foolish naive dreams."). Stall, stall, stall. Stall until strange aeons come and death itself dies. STALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

If they absolutely corner us and force a decision now, without any possibility to avoid it, we can see what possibilities we have in hand, but I'd say put a price for our help: Namely, leaving the elven lands alone. Not even if the elf attack the necromancers they should be attacked on their lands. Elves outside them might either be fair game or protected unless they attack first, but either way, the elven lands should be safe. Still, don't make the decision unless we absolutely have no other option. Instead, stall, stall, stall!

Anyway, on the morning inform Omo of the situation, and tell him you need to start working on becoming able to oppose them, which including training, researching and building a power base. Work on doing so. We need to work on overtime to be able to be in a position where we can actually declare opposition to the other necromancers. If the necromancers can somehow scry us and see that we tell them that we are doing so so can keep him as our asset for now and that we are working on creating a power base so we are safe from those who would hunt us. Stall some more. Also, research old tomes and etc. to discover if there is any "good" death god, or at least a neutral one. We might need a god to handle another.

If the necromancers start to actively hunt us and seems to manage to know where we are, run back to the elven lands. The council can probably use this information. And yes, reveal ourselves to them. Put ourselves as a possible weapon against the others and pray that they don't decide to kill us them. Try to get our mother, father, mentor and ex-girlfriend in our side before actually revealing everything of course.

Oh, and have I mentioned that we should stall? At the very least put it to the shock and ask for time.

[Grek]

I would advise against stalling. We're in a dream, so it may not even work, and even if it did it would be needlessly antagonizing a powerful opponent, which is #7 on the Big List of Things Not To Do When Becoming a Powerful Wizard, right alongside "don't brag" and "don't cast spells that you don't know what they do".

We should say that A] We agree with their goal of making the world safe for necromancers, but B] we can't agree to be on the same side as someone like Curo Nightroar since his sort of necromancy is the sort that gives all necromancers their bad name, and C] because of that we're not saying where we are until something changes and we are willing to join.

[killerhellhound]

"don't cast spells that you don't know what they do".

I do that all the time I generally get not bad results like a cloud of butterfly’s
anyway I think we are talking to the pirite king so go ahead and grill him for info as well as get some info on the god he/she carn't have much power because he/she would have done something.

[Deep Waters]

Act suspicious. Act suspicious as all hell. Extract as much information out of her- er, him- her- dammit, IT as you can, and then say that it's still not enough, that you know what people do to necromancers- after all, you're part of the race that has the most reason to hate them; you know how much they fantasize about what they'd do if they got their hands on an amateur necromancer, etc. etc. etc., and you can't trust anything she/he/it says solely on their word. Act like you're a paranoid schizophrenic if you have to- convince her/him/it that you've got no reason to believe that she/he/it is what she/he/it is, and maybe you'll be able to get out of this without making either an (involuntary) ally or an enemy out of her/him/it.

[Grek]

Act like you're a paranoid schizophrenic if you have to- convince

Why would you ever want to do that?

maybe you'll be able to get out of this without making either an (involuntary) ally or an enemy out of her/him/it.

Making the other necromancers think we're crazy and irrational will make them want to kill us because we're a threat to their plans. Don't do that.