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[Andres]

So I have no idea what to do here (I like to read only for the most part) but suggestions need to be made. Anyone got any?

[Baffler]

He said that the illusion is difficult to maintain when he was telling us about dreamscaping earlier. Finding some way to pick at the edges would be our best chance at escaping if that's actually what's going on. If it's not that'll probably cost us a decent amount of mana though, and that's not something we can afford to waste right now.

[TheBiggerFish]

He said that the illusion is difficult to maintain when he was telling us about dreamscaping earlier. Finding some way to pick at the edges would be our best chance at escaping if that's actually what's going on. If it's not that'll probably cost us a decent amount of mana though, and that's not something we can afford to waste right now.

Try to wave our arm through our other arm without looking at it.

[Parisbre56]

He said that the illusion is difficult to maintain when he was telling us about dreamscaping earlier. Finding some way to pick at the edges would be our best chance at escaping if that's actually what's going on. If it's not that'll probably cost us a decent amount of mana though, and that's not something we can afford to waste right now.

Try to wave our arm through our other arm without looking at it.

If you think this is a dream (I don't) then we could try the classic trope: ask someone to pinch us.

[TheBiggerFish]

I think a test of our own body is much more likely to succeed than a test in which Fale could tamper with the results much more overtly.

[RAM]

Ehh, it is a matter of illusion though, it may be easier to limit us to our expectations than it is to impersonate external stimuli. No reason not to try both though. On the other hand, for all their claims of longevity, Fale doesn't strike me as someone who deals well with mindless tedium, could be an act though...

[syvarris]

I feel like the continuing purple text might just be an accident--removing one {color=purple} from Monk's post fixes it.  The lack of an inventory spoiler could simply be a mistake.  Plus, the color fade was mostly correct, ending in black.

Can we get confirmation on whether the turn was supposed to be purple'd out?

If it was a mistake, +1 to RAM's suggestion of messing with insect souls.  Otherwise... uh, disbelieve?  Don't touch anybody, or anything even vaugely suspicious.

As to Buddy's message, I think we probably just rolled poorly this time.  Also, the second word is five letters, not six.
How about "I could see to it"? or "get to it"?  We probably aren't gonna get much from this, but it's worth some idle wondering.

[monk12]

Oh balls; I must have inadvertently hit undo twice when making my last moment revisions. Your mass of status spoilers is restored, and yes, you're awake (though I make no promises not to thrust you into a near-perfect virtual reality in the future.)

[Baffler]

+1 to RAM's suggestion of messing with insect souls.

+1. We can check the tree once the sun's actually come up, and Eko probably isn't paying us too much attention during his prayers.

[Parisbre56]

But what if we need our mana sometime in the future? To fix Omo or defend ourselves? I think we should commit to either searching for the tree or working it out on our own. Doing both might lead to being in a worse position to do either.

On the other hand, doing some experimentation now makes it more likely to level up and learn new things. And we know we need some levels and more knowledge, if we are about to face the Controller, one who appears to be a more powerful and more knowledgeable necromancer. And we do have that mana potion left. Plus, if we get working on a golem or something similar, we might end up with something useful for later. And in the best case scenario, we are able to solve this problem ourselves and get Omo back and give him a big hug and a big apology, assuming he has not been horribly damaged.

So my suggestion is:
First of all, check the construct and Omo to make sure he's fine. Just use necromantic sight. No need to waste mana on a see vitality, we can always ask Eko to do that later. As harsh as it sounds, it's more productive to worry about other things for now.

Get some distance (maybe go behind a bush to "freshen up"?) and try to directly create Arosh and use it to poke at something living like a bug, trying to remove its soul and then put it back. Maybe use See Vitality and then try to make a ball like in Steal Vitality and then carefully mold it into the shape of the Unolnimar, before yanking it out? The subject should probably be immobilized somehow (maybe a rock?) in order to make experimentation easier.

If that doesn't work, then try to find something to experiment with. A bug would do nicely, preferably a flying one because later we could use it as a scout. Kill it without damaging it (drown it in some of our water maybe?) and then raise it. And then try to alter it using a spell similar to Alter Golem to create a tendril of Arosh, similar to the one the construct used, and manipulate it to carefully remove another test subject's Unolnimar and then put it back in, making sure the connections we severed are repaired and in the right place.

A scout would be useful if we go searching in the forest, since it would allow us to cover more ground, even if it is with the senses of an insect. I'd prefer a golem scout for something long-term, but this is cheaper and accomplishes the same thing, assuming golems and zombies work with the same principles. In the long term, we could also work on replicating those sensory organs the construct had to make a long-range scout or messenger. By the time we're done here, the Sanctuary should probably have expired so we'll be able to get it with us without problems.

Oh, which reminds me, when we're done here, we should also ask how long Eko thinks the sanctuary will be active and if he can break it in case we have to move the construct.


There's still questions about the gods and dreams we could ask Eko, although not many we could ask directly. We were able to pass through a sanctuary before. Could some powerful entity (like M or the other) had messed with order magic to protect us? Could this same entity be responsible for the wards failing? Could we be related to the wards failing? Could we have something special inside us in some way?

Fale said M worked through him, like he is his conduit. Does it mean gods are powerless unless they have followers to allow them to act through them? Or is that more like possession, where the victim thinks he is using the god but it is really the other way around? That could be useful to know for later. Maybe it could even help us get closer to the other, if the other really is a god.

And what's up with dreams? Where do people go when they dream? Could someone visit someone else's dream? Does order have any answers about that? We could ask about that, maybe tie it in with some prophetic dream we had about exploring the forest? Or some dream where we saw Omo and it felt like it was really him, like it was not just a dream?  (probably only use that if he doesn't believe the first one, because it sounds wrong to take advantage of a hurt friend like that)

What kind of magic would dream magic be? Could it be affected by the order magic of the sanctuary? I mean, the way I understood it, Eko said that the sanctuary is basically supercharged with Life energy. Could the other voice be related to the fact that we had a dream inside an anti-necromantic sanctuary? Meaning that the voice is related to life magic? It did call us life-bringer... Could it be that because we are elves we have closer ties to something related to life magic? Maybe because we are an elf we have a balance of Death and Life magic in us? Maybe that would allow us to pass through the wards unharmed?

So many questions!... I need to read back to our conversations with Eko again, I feel like I'm missing something.


Now that I think about it, if Eko ever suspects we are a necromancer, we have a way to stall him: "How can we be a necromancer if we passed through your Sanctuary?" Of course, that could horribly backfire with a "You are the one responsible for the ward failures and the attacks! You are a necromancer spy! The inquisitors will get the truth our of you about what vile magic you used to bypass our wards, witch!"

[LordPorkins]

Well, when you think about it, Necromancy is the art of manipulating Death. In that same way, you must be able to manipulate life, as the two exist in a one-or-the-other type relationship. That being said, its evident that most of our abilities involve transferring lifeforce. In this way, we really are dealing with life magic. The only unorthodox thing we are doing is putting the magic in corpses (Which, as i said, we probably should avoid doing) Otherwise, we are just shuffling around lifeforce.

[Descan]

That sounds like just the kind of flimsy self-justification that would convince absolutely no-one that we're not going to resurrect their loved ones and invade their homes.

Very unconvincing argument.

[LordPorkins]

Well fine. We manipulate death and bestow ungodly life in to the flesh of the deceased and decayed.  We also can extract peoples souls and we shove them into inanimate objects.

...


Happy?

[Descan]

Extremely.

Hiding what we are behind semantics and bent words, at least after we stop hiding literally what we are, will only lead to bad places. Embrace what we are when we decide to tell others what we are at all, but prove we're not going to turn against them or their kin by our actions and by our history.

[Parisbre56]

It's just the stigma of old necromancers going on (probably M-fueled) rampages. Life mages just manipulate vitality in a more direct way. They are also perfectly capable of manipulating vitality to do horrible things to people, like giving them super-viruses or super-cancer. And I bet Order magic can be used in horrible ways as well, like using sanctuary-like magic to torture people by filling them with their opposing element. It's not the magic, it's how you use it.

Unfortunately, it will take some effort to convince people of that. (And by "that" I mean that "Necromancers are not dangerous/can be nice" not that "all mages are dangerous") And that means we have to be extra careful around people.