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Author Topic: (SG) Ascended  (Read 1891 times)

Trapezohedron

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(SG) Ascended
« on: December 31, 2015, 04:51:17 am »

"Some things are better left unknown. Unlearned."

Those were the last words you ever heard from the Archmage, who, upon discovery of you dabbling on the Blood Arts, struck you down with a bolt of searing hellfire. You never stood a chance, and cursed him to the hells as your flesh burnt away from your bones, leaving only a charred skeleton on the floor of the Mage's Guild.

Fortunately, you had enough foresight to form a contract with the Demon Lords, and furthermore avoid exacting the dealings of the contract itself, on you part. Exploiting a flaw from the contract made with the Archdevil of Time, Xiyagjez, you managed to steal the art of bifurcating probabilities and use it as your own to escape Xiyagjez's mournful Timeless Pits.

Gradually, your soul returns to reality, and into the pile of bones you once called your body, reforming it into a functional skeleton suit. The runic markings etched into your bones by way of Blood Magic preserved your skeletal frame well, having shed the thick layer of soot when your flesh incinerated into ash.

The guildhall looks decrepit. There's been signs of conflict, on top of being abandoned halfway. Some time indeed passed. You wonder if the Archmage is still alive. Those guys tend to get all of the power and act all high and mighty when people get to somewhere near their levels... you're still sure he's alive somewhere.

Before you proceed, you must give yourself a name. Who you once were matters no longer; if you were to strike fear now, there should be a name to attribute that terror to.

Were you a practitioner of Thaumaturgical Necromancy? Or were you a practitioner of Alchemical Necromancy? You spend some time trying to remember your history, including if you did even have followers from previous years that seem to have passed by.
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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2015, 04:55:16 am »

Name: Tathik. The last name matters no longer.

Thaumaturgical Necromancy.
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Cheesecake

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2015, 05:47:46 am »

Name: Tathik. The last name matters no longer.

Thaumaturgical Necromancy.

Tathik the Timeless, Master of Miracles, and Raiser of the Dead and the Damned.
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Gwolfski

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2015, 07:43:05 am »

Name: Tathik. The last name matters no longer.

Thaumaturgical Necromancy.

Tathik the Timeless, Master of Miracles, and Raiser of the Dead and the Damned.

+1 and get a skeleton cat or something.
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Trapezohedron

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2015, 09:10:00 am »

"Tathik. The Old King's name... known for his terror and hubris. It suits me fine."

You recall Tathik, murderous king of Orsenia. His reign was one of massive progress and terror, forcing his subjects to work menial tasks on fear of death. Many times they have tried to engage in petty squabbles against their king, but each one of them has been quelled by blade, and on rare cases, by the king himself.

Obsessed with immortality, he had commanded his loyal vassals to seek out the secret of the Tower in the Midst. In a rare act of trust, as he was also very paranoid, he gave them around 10,000 gold pieces each, where one full day's meal could be bought with a half-piece of gold or the equivalent of 50 silvers. One of such vassals created the Mages' Guild, the halls of which you are standing on.

The same particular vassal was vainglorious - the moment he had been graced with praise from those who marveled at his wondrous thaumaturgical skills and encyclopedic knowledge of the occult, people had begun praising him as a God. Then things had went down for the worse for King Tathik, as the subversive thoughts of saving the subjects from their pain had invaded the vassal's mind, and ultimately ended up with King Tathik hitting the floor with two blades conjured from concentrated alchemy into his chest, in a display of pragmatic efficiency, as Tathik was busy gloating over the seemingly-disadvantaged Vassal-Archmage.

This vassal was Eldrim, the Elder Archmage before your vanquisher, Hasrahm Searblaze took over. He was approximately 500 years old when he disappeared from the public, which prompted his apprentice Hasrahm to take over. Ever since then, he was hailed as a hero. You're now unsure if he still is.

The name Tathik will recall all the terrors his subjects once faced when he was in power. You were never one for relationships for plebeians and fools; you will not miss those who will fall into your snares, as part of your insidious plans. More importantly, the name of the Old King will serve to you as a reminder not to fall into the hubris of petty gloating, as that may ultimately spell your doom.



Looking around, you find a few skeletons lying on the floor in a plaintive gesture. They seem to have been felled in a manner rather undignified of their class. Perhaps the discovery of Blood Magic Arts having been used by the guild has caused the Anti-Magic Templars of Azariel to take action?

Regardless, you draw a small summoning circle on the dust, forming key points of the circle with the various femurs within the guildhall. Then you place a skull in the middle, and recite an ages-old curse you've learned from the Timeless Pits to summon a demon's soul into the empty skull. Summons are very easy for an esteemed Thaumaturgical Necromancer such as yourself, so long as they align to the dark arts of reanimation and demon-summoning.

The ends of the femurs burn a bright blue and unholy flame, and the skull is internally lit with the same, as it flies upwards. The demon - a mere imp, is incapable of speech, but it will prove to be a mild amusement to you as you flex your magical abilities in the world.

There are no dignified cloaks in the guildhall - all of which having been burnt or perhaps taken or stolen by the templars and prospective thieves raiding an empty hall - now a tomb for your lessers whom you do not really care about. You steal a webbed and torn mantle from the table, and drape it around your skeletal frame.
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Cheesecake

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2015, 09:23:52 am »

We need to look the part. Ground some bone of these inferiors and have a cloud-cloak of death.

Now to get out of here. Send the imp out to scout for us. Summon more if needed and if we are easily able to. Follow the safest route out of here.
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I wish I could unwatch a thread because every time I look at this I can feel myself dying faster
Dying of laughter?
Dying of pure unbridled hatred, actually.

Trapezohedron

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2015, 11:28:16 pm »

Your cloak, while giving you some cover, is by no means regal, and this disturbs your pride very greatly. "What kind of necromancer am I to simply settle for non-lavish things?"

You decide transmuting your cloak into a curse-cloak would be better in general. The small skull imp in the room floats aimlessly, and you realize that you might need to map the area around. Given that summoning another demon would attract unnecessary attention to yourself, and that Xiyagjez is miles more powerful than you and it was only advanced forethought that got you this far unscathed, you decide to test out your powers of temporal bifurcation.

You stand in the middle of the hall. Your skull imp flies around, but you beckon it to come closer to you. As it does, you recite a magical phrase and it falls down to the ground, motionless. You pick up the skull, grab a few bones from the inferior dead, and approach an intact mortar and pestle. You then proceed to spend your time crushing the bones into dust.

You stand in the middle of the hall. Your skull imp flies around, but you beckon it to come closer to you. As it does, you recite a magical phrase, giving it directives to scour the area, and implanting some portion of your soulstuff to allow yourself to see the world outside the guildhall. You then approach the crude summoning circle you fashioned on the floor, and summon 4 other skull imps using the same process as you did before. Then you command them all to scout.

You finish grinding up the bones, which you then apply to your cloak. You then curse it to burn a black shadowy flame as you wear the cloak around yourself, which provides you with an intimidating appearance. The cloak will burn all life, and soothe the dead as it tries to maintain the magical energies of the user. You may be able to weaponize this.

Your counterpart, having already finished their task, you then send into non-existence as you merge their reality into yours. The world vibrates and stretches on all sides as the monumental task of temporal bifurcation is undone, but you successfully manage to perform the spell, and the world normalizes.

You now have five floating skull-eyes, all of which having a portion of your soulstuff, allowing you to directly command them from afar. The world outside... looks far more desolate than you remember. The Mages Guild stands aloft in the middle of the city, but the city itself is desolate, with wide cracks in the earth and overgrown vegetation. It is sunset outside.

Since there is no one in the guildhall but yourself, the safest way to get out is through... the main door. From the entrance to the east, you can see the once-mighty ruins of Alkehastre, the market street in town for various odds and ends, mostly concerning with magic.

The King's Palace has seen better days, just on the opposite side of Alkehastre. Straight north are the city gates. They are predictably unmanned as you can sense no manner of life guarding it.

The city itself is eerily quiet, with no particular presence of life down below.


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Cheesecake

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #7 on: January 01, 2016, 01:40:57 am »

Ah, so the red text is our counterpart? That opens up a lot of possibilities. Let's test our limits.

How far away can our counterparts be? The main us will leave and explore the city with the scout-skulls. The other will make the guildhall more suitable to our needs.

So, I'm hoping our bifurcation powers is basically allowing us to have a clone of ourselves, with the added bonus of choosing which outcome is best.
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Dying of laughter?
Dying of pure unbridled hatred, actually.

Prophet

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #8 on: January 01, 2016, 01:45:44 am »

Ah, so the red text is our counterpart? That opens up a lot of possibilities. Let's test our limits.

How far away can our counterparts be? The main us will leave and explore the city with the scout-skulls. The other will make the guildhall more suitable to our needs.

So, I'm hoping our bifurcation powers is basically allowing us to have a clone of ourselves, with the added bonus of choosing which outcome is best.
+1

((You always have cool looking avatars Cheesecake.))
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.... You've doomed us all. Granted. Everyone except for traps are executed. Random sci-fi nonsense is required to be taught in schools.
A cute intersex harem with everyone in love with the androgynous king and smart and useful enough into pushing the kingdom forward.

TheBiggerFish

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #9 on: January 01, 2016, 01:48:52 am »

Actually, that should go the other way around.

+1 to Us staying and dispatching a bifurcation to explore.

Don't risk first!us unless we need to...
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Cheesecake

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #10 on: January 01, 2016, 01:49:56 am »

Actually, that should go the other way around.

You want to do menial cleanup while our doppelganger gets to go on an adventure?

And thanks, Prophet ;)
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I wish I could unwatch a thread because every time I look at this I can feel myself dying faster
Dying of laughter?
Dying of pure unbridled hatred, actually.

TheBiggerFish

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #11 on: January 01, 2016, 01:50:35 am »

We can control our doppelganger, right, GM?

I'd rather not...

Wait.

Do we remember what happens if an us dies in a bifurcated timeline?
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It has been determined that Trump is an average unladen swallow travelling northbound at his maximum sustainable speed of -3 Obama-cubits per second in the middle of a class 3 hurricane.

Trapezohedron

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2016, 03:36:55 pm »

(Didn't see any updates from this thread... until I backtraced it. My bad.)

Bifurcation of timelines is a weird concept, if you consider all of the effects it would have on reality. But basically, you gain double the awareness, having knowledge of both instances at the same time, and each moves in their own individual timeline. So long as you bifurcated time, you can escape death... and also your foes, because you can simply snip away the horrible timeline in which you 'failed' to do something you sought to accomplish.

Only when timelines merge do their effects reflect into their source timeline. Also, whichever version of yourself goes to travel doesn't matter that much. You can simply switch over to a particular instance of yourself, and render the primary timeline null and void. Finally, a particular bifurcated instance can also bifurcate time...


That much you learned from your experimentation in the Timeless Pits. But now, it would be the best time to utilize this power to its fullest, for you are now free from the shackles of contract-slavery.

You descend the damaged cobblestone pathway down to the town. This pathway is wide, capable of fitting two wagons holding elephants going side by side. But now, even that is very risky, because large portions of the cobblestone pathway are missing, leaving ugly potholes in their wake.

To think the city full of highly-skilled magi would suddenly disappear... Your mind gravitates on exploring on the possible causes of this disaster.

While you descend, you send the Scout-Skulls - the imps from Below, around the city, surveying the town for a situational report on the state of the world below. As expected, there's nothing down there but old bones. Old... wait. What happened here? This puzzling situation calls for an investigation, because, while you never particularly cared for the townsfolk, a conflict of this degree reflects that a very threatening and dangerous event happened here. And while you are able to ensure victory at every mark, it is better to be vigilant and aware of the possible threat it might pose to your recently-inhabited skeletal frame.

The conflict, if anything, seemed to have occurred a long time ago. Perhaps, a decade or two.

With no particular goal aside from investigating this peculiar disaster, you head straight for the King's Palace, sending three of your scouts to Alkehastre and the remaining two to follow you and act as your eyes from afar.



Bifurcation of timelines is a weird concept, if you consider all of the effects it would have on reality. But basically, you gain double the awareness, having knowledge of both instances at the same time, and each moves in their own individual timeline. So long as you bifurcated time, you can escape death... and also your foes, because you can simply snip away the horrible timeline in which you 'failed' to do something you sought to accomplish.

Only when timelines merge do their effects reflect into their source timeline. Also, whichever version of yourself goes to travel doesn't matter that much. You can simply switch over to a particular instance of yourself, and render the primary timeline null and void. Finally, a particular bifurcated instance can also bifurcate time...


You feel a compelling urge not to descend down the town, as your thoughts are seemingly enlightened by your other counterpart, and it would be pointless to have two powerful liches roaming around the streets, when you have your five skull-imps at your employ to do the searching for you.

Instead, you retreat back into the confines of your home - the Mages' Guild. A lich planning to amass an army (eventually) must have a suitable home to call and send their thralls into war, you sternly believe. And so, you bifurcate time further to help aid you utilize Human Transmutation in order to summon items to "decorate" your home.


You draw a transmutation circle in the dust, intending to sacrifice 3/4s of your ebbing life in order to create Auric Gold - a type of gold that glows in the dark, due to certain magics imbued into its surface.

A quick chant and a few ritualistic gestures, you feel immense pain as your soul turns to gold and spills into the circle on the floor. As your life ebbs away,
You merge the bifurcated time's Auric Gold into your timeline, and cull the pathetic You's timeline from existence. Let no one ever see the horrible pained look on your (his?) face. It does not look good on you.

With that, you transmute it into a broom, and begin sweeping the fortress. You dislike this menial job, but you've gotten somewhat used to it during your time in the Timeless Pits...

It brings you back to your memories of genuine fear, as Xiyagjez intended to hound on you for eternity, only managing to figure out the secret yourself from alternate versions of yourself who have spent 'time', if you can even call it that, deciphering the secret to Xiyagjez's hidden power from the various instances of yourself that never actually existed. Thankfully, you had just enough foresight to prevent yourself from falling totally into his whims due to a contract hole... which you can't seemingly remember anymore, except that it was old. It feels like a thousand years old, in fact.




You arrive at the garish gate of the King's Palace. Surprisingly, the pools to the left and the right seem to function still. A closer look at the area indicates the palace still is active, but there are no flames where they would be burning in their braziers. The vegetation mysteriously stopped growing over the marble steeps of the Palace, but the floors and walls everywhere look like they've been struck by a brazen whirlwind of dust and black soot, as they are no longer giving out the luster that you remember.

The Gate is closed, but it can be opened easily with your magics, especially with Alchemy and the power to transmute. There are also archways leading into the inside of the Palace, if you wish to take a less audacious way of entering a mysteriously active palace.

Whichever method you take doesn't seem like it's going to matter much.

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VoidSlayer

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2016, 07:20:14 pm »

Let's see what defenses lurk inside the palace, create a second timeline where we cut down the doors by transforming it into some sort of blood bound iron and wood golem.  If that has a reasonable result we can just merge the timelines.

The biggest fear is whatever destroyed the town might still be here, but if they are just bandits, scavengers or whatnot we can just overwhelm them.

TheBiggerFish

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Re: (SG) Ascended
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2016, 07:22:50 pm »

Take both doors, just to be safe.
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It has been determined that Trump is an average unladen swallow travelling northbound at his maximum sustainable speed of -3 Obama-cubits per second in the middle of a class 3 hurricane.
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