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[GlyphGryph]

Ask Eko to get ready to do a variety of divinations quickly just inside the ward. Ask if he knows any life magic - if not, tell him that what we noticed of the creatures last time might have been a side effect of the sense vitality spell we'd used to determine the health of the children, a spell that every elf learns - or it might be something else. You have some spells of your own that you'd like to try to detect and interact with the things you sensed before. You DID definitely sensed them, and you're going to see if entering the woods doesn't allow you to sense them again, but you're going to be close enough to the edge that you can call for everyone to retreat if they get too close and still have time to get out. When you do that, you want Eko to be ready to cast any detection of his own he can do, without putting himself into any undo danger, while providing him with the most details you can about the exact location of the things he's supposed to be sensing. Mention that at the very least, your pursuers seem to be making efforts to avoid physical obstacles, going around them - it would definitely be worth setting up a physical barricade to see if it's possible to capture or at least slow down one of these creatures, giving you more time to study it.

You outran them last time, and you won't be going nearly so deep this time.

If you have no luck with this, you'll start camping just inside the wards hoping to lure them out, until you're out of mana at least. But the key is that you're going to try to get their attention and draw them out.

Also, ask if all of this other guys spells were cast from inside the wards - maybe the wards were somehow interrupting the detection magic? Mention that you could no longer sense the vitality of your pursuers once you were outside the forest, indicating that the wards may be blocking your ability to detect them as well as their ability to detect you.

So, Goals:
We've got an improved version of detect vitality, which we might be able to use with our necromantic sight to really figure out more of what's going on with these creatures... IF we can get their attention. We should bring Omo with us, and talk about what's going on away from Eko's ears and talk about larger plans.

If we fail to draw any attention...
Search the woods for animals. Are there any? Bugs, even? Why does this force seem to target people - are the trees flatlined in the same way somehow? Without bugs to pollinate them, how do they spread and persist? If we can detect animals, do they differ from the kind of animals outside the ward - is it only smaller animals or something?

Gather information of this sort.

A reminder of our last encounter:

Suddenly, you whip your head around, searching behind you in the forest. Coming up behind you is a source of Necromantic Energy- three Vitality's worth, forty five feet away but moving fast, coming straight at you.

...it is definitely Necromantic...

..As you duck between the trees and jump over shadowy roots, you glance over your shoulder, trying to get a better idea of what exactly you're fleeing from. Unlike the zombies, your pursuer sheds no light on its surroundings- you catch glimpses of purple only because of your Necromantic Sight. It doesn't seem to be very large, whatever it is- about as big as a dog, rumbling easily along the forest floor...

...A long, rotted log suddenly looms in the darkness, but you easily climb over while Omo hurdles it without even breaking stride. As you rush through the trees, you see that your pursuer has a much more difficult time of it, taking the long way around the obstacle...

[Descan]

Just wondering: What is our goal?

I know we've been over it before, but I want to know what our goals are.

Long-term, short-term, mid-term. What do we want to do at the forest, with Eko, at the old elven homeland, with the Empire, with the Necromancers who decided to raise an army?

[Parisbre56]

@GlyphGryph: If you check Eko's spell list, you'll see his fairly useless when it comes to divinations. At least useless in the current situation. Might be very useful later on. Might even help convince him if we let him read our mind.

@Descan: Personally, I say we learn whatever we can from the forest and then make our way to the capital to gain more info in the libraries there. What we do after that depends on the info we get and whether or not the capital has come under attack. I have a few ideas, mainly visiting the dwarves and trying to gain more info and maybe kill the lead necromancer. Cut off the head and the body dies. Or we could try aiding in the war with sneak attacks. With enough mana potions we could turn a large number of zombies against their master. And we should experiment. We haven't done anything new since that see vitality spell.

[Angle]

Long term goals: I say we deal with this forest, then start working on recruiting allies. Eko is a good start, and can probably tell us where we can find more. Also, I really want to find an opportunity to experiment with golems. I think there's some potential there, but we haven't gotten an opportunity to work with them yet. After that, we can try and take on this local necromancer dude.

[RAM]

I think that restoring the elven homeland is a thing that we wanted to do.

I mostly want to waste a day in order to waste a day. Getting an early start would have its advantages, and giving Eko the impression that we intend to stay here a while would support our claims.

Eko probably isn't as adept at covering wooded terrain as we are, perhaps it would be wise not to expect them to run to a clearing and then spend half an hour casting a spell without having any protection...

[Parisbre56]

Actually, it IS early in the morning, midmorning in the author's words, although I understand what you mean. I just feel that with the threat of the necromancer looming we shouldn't waste any time.

Sanctuary- 9 MP - Casting time: 30 minutes. As Major Ward, but the field is strong enough to physically halt or oppose creatures and objects strongly imbued with the Magic in question. This field cannot be tied to a person or object, and the field is not physically tied to the area it is cast.

May I ask what this means exactly? The field is neither tied to objects nor areas? Does that mean that if it is cast while travelling on a boat for example, the field will travel with the boat? Or does that mean that it can be moved by using other spells?

[Harbingerjm]

Actually, it IS early in the morning, midmorning in the author's words, although I understand what you mean. I just feel that with the threat of the necromancer looming we shouldn't waste any time.

I concur. "Dicking around in a forest while our peers ravage nations" is not really the best way to prove our desire to reform our trade.

Sanctuary- 9 MP - Casting time: 30 minutes. As Major Ward, but the field is strong enough to physically halt or oppose creatures and objects strongly imbued with the Magic in question. This field cannot be tied to a person or object, and the field is not physically tied to the area it is cast.

May I ask what this means exactly? The field is neither tied to objects nor areas? Does that mean that if it is cast while travelling on a boat for example, the field will travel with the boat? Or does that mean that it can be moved by using other spells?

I would guess the latter, since "goes flying off into space the moment it is cast" seems unlikely. Also, moving with the boat would mean it was tied to an object, that being the boat.

[GlyphGryph]

Just wondering: What is our goal?

I know we've been over it before, but I want to know what our goals are.

Long-term, short-term, mid-term. What do we want to do at the forest, with Eko, at the old elven homeland, with the Empire, with the Necromancers who decided to raise an army?

My goals are:
To build a reputation as a force for good, so that Necromancers in general and us in particular are no longer persecuted. Or at least a limited version thereof so we don't have to live in fear and can have a place we can call home.
To recover the elven homelands and cleanse them of their curse
To stop the world from being destroyed

So - why the forest?
The forest helps the first directly, and provides practice for the second - in addition to being the right thing to do. It's a potentially very useful way to gain knowledge directly relevant to our goals.

So - why Eko?
I have a strong, growing suspicion that we aren't going to be able to cleanse our homeland alone - It took a collaboration between a mage of every type to remove this evil necromancer from the realm, and I strongly suspect there's a reason for that, some sort of synergy that's required to overcome this powerful necromantic magic. I'm already regretting our failure to figure out a way to bring our Life-mage associate along - I suspect at some point though, we might gain another chance, but that's not guaranteed - and didn't want to miss out on what is clearly another opportunity here. Eko may or may not come with us long-term... for now (I believe he'll likely get a strong incentive to do so soon, from the signs I've seen). But we can't let the opportunity slip past. We want him to feel like he's doing this with us, that he's important to our success, that we are doing the right thing, and we want his potential to increase.

At the very least, I want to see what effect his abjuration ability has on the creatures we'll be encountering.

At the very least, he has proven an incredibly source of valuable knowledge, since he's educated in many of the ways of the world we've spent our life cut off from.

Other things to do:
Find out if Eko knows anything about synergizing magic. I almost suspect that golems may be something we can't do alone.

Also, remember to specify we have an IMPROVED version of detect vitality that allows us to see things better than the regular version Eko knows. *durr, almost missed that*

[Harbingerjm]

Other things to do:
Find out if Eko knows anything about synergizing magic. I almost suspect that golems may be something we can't do alone.

Oooh, good point. We should definitely find out about that.

[monk12]

Actually, it IS early in the morning, midmorning in the author's words, although I understand what you mean. I just feel that with the threat of the necromancer looming we shouldn't waste any time.

Sanctuary- 9 MP - Casting time: 30 minutes. As Major Ward, but the field is strong enough to physically halt or oppose creatures and objects strongly imbued with the Magic in question. This field cannot be tied to a person or object, and the field is not physically tied to the area it is cast.

May I ask what this means exactly? The field is neither tied to objects nor areas? Does that mean that if it is cast while travelling on a boat for example, the field will travel with the boat? Or does that mean that it can be moved by using other spells?

It's a weird distinction and not likely to come up, but:

Minor/Major ward could be centered on a boat, and they'd move along with that boat.

Minor/Major ward could be cast on an area (say, an island,) and if crazy stupid magic made the island float away or sink or whatever, the ward would float/sink with it. Essentially, those spells treat the physical area the spell was cast like it was a discrete object, and move with it. If the hypothetical island were to break into pieces or otherwise be destroyed, then the ward would unravel prematurely.

If Sanctuary were cast in an area on that island, and the island floated away, the Sanctuary... wouldn't. It'd just hang out floating above the ocean until the duration ran out. It isn't anchored to anything physical, it's more of a metaphysical thing that Eko didn't go into much detail on in his summary. Incidentally, it would also be much harder to shift the Sanctuary through magical means (even more so if the Sanctuary is protecting against that kind of Magic, since it would basically unravel.)

It is worded poorly, and should probably say something like "and is not tied to the physical area it is cast" instead. Like I said, rather unlikely to come up ever at all, and I don't foresee it even being a thing that might happen for the next, like, two chapters.

Also, looks like the current consensus runs along the lines of "no mobile wards, hoof it to nearby clearing, put up a stationary ward, various recon/questions suggestions from there."

[Harbingerjm]

Eko probably isn't as adept at covering wooded terrain as we are, perhaps it would be wise not to expect them to run to a clearing and then spend half an hour casting a spell without having any protection...

This is worth taking into account. We should probably ask Eko how he is at that sort of activity.

[Parisbre56]

Damn. Well, there go my plans for a flying golem island with impregnable shields.

I change my vote to "cast a mobile ward". It's not like we don't have the mana to spare, it won't take long to cast and it will probably allow us to investigate on our way there. If not, we can always find an excuse to go to the border of the field.

[speedyth]

I disapprove of the idea of casting a mobile ward. since the wards prevent our necro-sight from seeing outside the ward. We also know the person who last attempted to locate and kill the entity were unable to find it because the prevented the entity from seeing the person. the Evidence we have suggests that the creature ONLY appears when it detects a being that can contain a soul.

[Grek]

I disapprove of the idea of casting a mobile ward. since the wards prevent our necro-sight from seeing outside the ward. We also know the person who last attempted to locate and kill the entity were unable to find it because the prevented the entity from seeing the person. the Evidence we have suggests that the creature ONLY appears when it detects a being that can contain a soul.

Agreed.

[Angle]

We have Eko cast a ward on himself and maybo on Eko too, but not on us. We make sure to stay outside the range of the ward.