I now say:
Help the children in any non-necromantic way possible and talk to the priest, using our expert (read: dabbling) social relationship knowledge to attempt to get more out of the priest, then decide on whether or not to look at the necromantic source.
Before we can try and use magic that affects souls, we need to figure out if we can even see them. Reviewing the difference between the kids and other people is a good idea, and we should also investigate that thing in the basement. ask the priest questions, and also ask him about the basement if we find a good way to bring up the subject.
I suggest we wake up, get a bit more general information from the priest (without mentioning the basement item) then quietly investigate it ourself with Omo when we have an opportunity.
That have some potential to blow up on our faces. Speak with the priest about general information, ask if the wards also raise alarm if zombies pass through them (even if just silently to him), as that could be useful to know when to send help to someone in case of attack.
Assuming they don't and he doesn't mention he can detect nearby undead, just send a controlled small undead animal to the basement. Rats and Roaches can get there much more easily than we can, and a rat on a temple's basement is not suspicious, nor will cause any issues if caught.
If he can detect the undead, then we might need another plan.
On a sidenote, if we get some free time, study our magical book or ask the priest if he could lend you some.
Having said that, we should take this opportunity to learn what we can about souls, we want the ability to detect them and it would be very nice to learn how to manipulate them, even if only to find ways to prevent it... If we can develop this to a point at which we can cast a spell to locate the children's souls, extract them, and then restore them to the children, then so much the better...
You wake up early the next morning when Eko brightens the lanterns. You groan softly when you realize the hour, but although you give some serious thought to going back to bed you regretfully conclude that you are now awake, and you won't fall asleep again easily. You sit up and rub the sleep from your eyes. Seeing you stir, Eko smiles and beckons you to follow him further into the Temple, away from the other sleepers.
Stifling a yawn, you stretch as you stand up. The Necromantic Energy below you is in the exact same place it was when you went to bed. You pause for a moment- the children are also exactly as you last saw them, eyes open, staring at the ceiling. Omo has tangled his blankets rather thoroughly, and a snore intermittently escapes from the tangled sheets. You think of the ways your sight has changed, and how you can see things differently now. You try to detect a difference between the soulless children and the slumbering elf, but no matter how you squint you see nothing. If Necromancers can see souls, it must not be an ability you possess yet, unless there's some other trick you don't know yet...
You push it from your mind and follow Eko. The next room turns out to be a combination kitchen and living room. It is almost uncomfortably warm due to the large fireplace that no doubt heats most of the Temple, an iron pot bubbling over the flames. The wall to the left is lined with cupboards and cabinets, every surface covered with dirty dishes, loose papers, an old hammer, and other detritus of daily life. A small table with two chairs takes up the space to the right, along with a comfy-looking armchair positioned near the fire.
You regard the door to the left with some small interest, as the symbol Eko wears around his neck is engraved into it, but the priest shows you to the door on the right wall. It opens into a narrow, dark hallway. Although you can see another door further down, Eko directs your attention to the nearest door- a washroom complete with a large, steaming bowl of water. Thanking the priest profusely, you pause only to fetch a change of clothes from your pack before satisfying some basic needs.
When you emerge some minutes later, clean and refreshed, you find Eko spooning a porridge of oats and beans into a bowl for you. You eye the mixture somewhat doubtfully, especially when Eko pours a cup of milk into the bowl along with a couple slices of dried apple. Despite your trepidation, however, it turns out to be... entirely palatable. It certainly lacks in flavor and texture, but it isn't
repulsive and it is quite filling.
"So... this porridge is good." You say, breaking the silence.
"You are kind to say so." Eko replies, grinning slightly.
"It is easy to swallow and easy to digest, ideal for sick patients.""Ah. For the children, then. What are you going to do for them?""Well, I confirmed their condition while you were still asleep- peace and quiet really does help the spellcasting process, you know." Eko's grin fades, and he sighs.
"There isn't much I can do for them at this point. I will feed them, give them water, keep their bodies alive, and if their condition does not improve in a month's time... well, I will allow nature to take its course.""You'll let the children die?" You say incredulously.
"What else can I do? My magics have failed me again. The records say that in the past we've called on healers from all faiths, even the Elves, but the Mages could do nothing for us. These bodies could easily persist into old age if we cared for them, but for what purpose? They are already dead, and the living still need my care."An awkward silence descends on the room. Eko stares moodily into the crackling flames, absently patting at his robes. You cough discreetly into one hand, casting about for a change of subject.
"Um... your wards only block sight, right?""That's right." Eko nods.
"Can they do anything else? Can they actually block the zombies, or raise an alarm?""Sufficiently powerful wards could, yes. The strongest wards I can cast would not do much other than slow down the undead for a time, and would take me some time to cast in the first place. The only reason I haven't cast more powerful wards is because they are quite mana-intensive; before the zombies there was no need for stronger wards, and now I must reserve a portion of my mana in case it is needed to repel an attack."You blink in surprise.
"Your magic can repel zombies?""If it comes to that. I specialize in defensive wards, but no Wizard situated near the haunted forest can serve without knowing some specialty spells. Undead are an aberration from the natural order- it stand to reason a Wizard can restore it." Eko shrugs.
"I don't know how effective I can be- more likely I will need the mana for healing spells. Either way, I cannot overexert myself in good conscience."You blink in surprise.
"Oh. Well, your wards- can they repel loose souls?""Your concern for the children is touching, but no, their souls are not trapped in the forest by my wards, if that's what you are getting at. I do know wards for protection against spirits and ghosts, but none of those are in place around the forest. And remember, there were many victims before it was thought needful to ward the forest- they lay comatose for years, but never recovered."You are about to ask another question, but at that moment Omo enters the room, drawn by the smell of breakfast. You make small talk while Eko goes to feed the children and his other patient. Afterward, he disappears through the door to the right, reemerging a few moments later with a walking stick. He slips his flask into his robes and tightens the laces on his boots.
"I'm afraid I must leave for a time- I need to check the wards on the outlying farms, and I plan to set some new wards to give the village warning of another attack. The Temple is open to you- what food isn't in here is in the storeroom down the hall, and I have some books in my room if you wish to read, though you may find the subject matter dry. I should only be gone a few hours." You make your farewells, trying in vain to come up with a way to casually mention the basement. Eko Cleanvise steps onto the road East, purposefully making his way out of town and ignoring one villager's hail. You return to the kitchen, where Omo is finishing up his breakfast.
"I hope they don't all eat like this in Thrimesdur. So, are we moving on today?""I don't want to go yet, maybe not for a while. At the least, I'd like to find out what's going on in the basement. Maybe if I experiment enough, I can find a way to help the children."Omo scrapes the last soggy bean out of his bowl before pushing it away.
"Well, what should we do first?"Vitality- 10/11
Mana- 12/12
XP- 24/35
Inventory- Belt Pouch (
80 Silver Pieces),
Elven Traveler Garb,
Elven Cloak, Headband, Belt Knife,
Hatchet, 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),
Improved Necromantic Sight(Passive)Skills-
Competent Fisher,
Dabbling SwimmerStatus- Sitting in the Temple
Twenty one 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- X MP - Range: Line of Sight. You can suck the Vitality out of living things. This spell removes up to 2X 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.
Impair Undead- 2MP- Range: 30ft (close enough to see in detail.) You blinded a zombie with this spell.
Vitality- 12/13
Mana- 1/3
XP- 29/35
Inventory-
Elven Tunic,
Elven Cloak, Headband, Belt Knife, Torch(lit), Leather Backpack(50' Rope,
Camping Supplies, Waterskin(mostly full), Torch),
Masterwork Elven StaffAbilities-
Track,
SurvivalistSkills-
Novice Observer,
Competent Ambusher,
Competent Staff User,
Poor Liar,
Dabbling SwimmerStatus- Bandage, left arm
Omo Thunderjaw- Your best friend, brave and true. He is currently an aspiring Ranger, and is eager to leave the Vale.
Eko Cleanvise- The priest of the village of Bedscaled, his wards against the undead have failed him
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.
Fale Packunion- A mysterious figure who appeared to you in a dream, attempting to recruit you to the cause of his Death God. May or may not be the Pirate King or some other known figure.
Morka- The aforementioned Death God. You know basically nothing about him/her/it, except his link to the other Necromancers.
-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?
- 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.
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.
- Trying to develop a destroy vitality spell, using the same principles of the steal vitality, except without keeping it usable. It might be possible to do it for cheaper or causing more damage for the same mana.
- Trying to use the principles of the destroy vitality or the steal vitality spell for a disinfectant spell. It will require a lot of fine control, but it should theoretically be possible.
- We could also try to overbuff a zombie. Is there a max to the amount of vitality a zombie can have? And what happens if a zombie gets a lot of vitality?
* Remove someone's soul. Try to store it for a time in a living thing like a tree, or confine it in a mana crystal, then put it back later. See if they're functional.
* Attempt to swap souls between two different bodies.
* Carefully attempt to displace our own soul from our own body. See if we can move around apart from our bodies, like astral projection. See if we can cast while in this state, enter other occupied bodies like a possession, then return to our body later.
World Map
Northwest Thrimesdur
Mooooonk?
Are you still aliiiiive?
Or failing that, undead?
Cast Raise Thread.
This year for Christmas I got the Indiana Jones Trilogy on DVD, Adventure Time Season 1, and a super annoying cold. Apologies for the delay, such is life.
FAKEEDIT: And then this update languished half-done for a couple weeks while I dated pigeons. I should feel worse about that, but they were such engaging pigeons...
The villagers would be wise to stop Nym if she got discovered, otherwise her undead horde could wipe out entire ponds!
No, I mean protagonists, they may have their own journeys to undertake. In a narrative-based temporal mechanic, time only happens if the protagonist is involved, so there is a decent chance that we could get away with goofing-off for a few months provided that we didn't comment on how peaceful things were or how happy we were in our quaint little village... But for all we know there could be a strict time-line that is already plotted out that could do bad things to us...
For the record, I do have a timeline I work off of, which is why I keep track of what day it is. Not that it's terribly important at the moment.
On a sidenote, if we get some free time, study our magical book or ask the priest if he could lend you some.
I'm pretty sure that's the point of the book - to allow Monk to introduce small cantrips that he hadn't thought of beforehand into our repertoire as the plot demands it. Listing what's actually in there would defeat the purpose.
Basically, yes. Assume it has a range of situationally useful minor spells, like Waterproofing. If the spell you are looking for is more powerful or versatile than that, but is nevertheless a reasonable thing for a Wizarding Primer to contain, I'm rolling a d12 for it- that's where Permanency came from.
The contents of the book are pretty vague, beyond "situationally useful minor spells." If there's something specific you're looking for, let me know, but I don't have a list of the myriad ways you can blow your nose with magic to refer to.
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Topic: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-36 Decisions, Decisions (Read 685743 times)