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Author Topic: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-36 Decisions, Decisions  (Read 656665 times)

kahn1234

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1575 on: April 16, 2013, 06:45:39 am »

is this ever going to be updated again?

Cellmonk

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1576 on: April 16, 2013, 01:48:22 pm »

is this ever going to be updated again?
Have hope, Kahn.
Some day monk shall return and finish his work; our children, grandchildren, or maybe even a few of us will open this page in glory.
I await that day, and if my life fades away before that day comes, so be it. Our descendents shall reap the persimmons of our patient persistence.
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lockman766

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1577 on: April 17, 2013, 03:50:25 am »

Have hope, Kahn.
Some day monk shall return and finish his work; our children, grandchildren, or maybe even a few of us will open this page in glory.
I await that day, and if my life fades away before that day comes, so be it. Our descendents shall reap the persimmons of our patient persistence.
Well said.
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Parisbre56

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1578 on: April 17, 2013, 06:07:48 am »

Seeing how this game's update schedule varies from a couple of days to a couple of months I think we have no reason to worry... yet.
after all, in this world, necromancy is a type of life magic.
Necromancy is actually a complement of life magic in my opinion.

Life magic focuses on the use of magic to create and enhance vitality in already living things and the creation of life through biological means.

Necromancy focuses on the manipulation of already existing vitality and necromantic energy and the creation or manipulation of life (or an imitation of life) with the infusion of vitality and necromantic energy in an object. There is also soul manipulation but we have yet to understand how that works.

So in theory a life mage and a necromancer working together would make a great combo to resurrect people. One provides vitality and heals the flesh and the other manipulates the vitality and infuses the body with it to recreate the original body's energy network (or an imitation of it). The necromancer also returns the soul to the body (or creates a new one, again, we don't know how souls work yet).

I really hope we get to do some experiments soon. Maybe try to feel the soul of Omo else or try to enter his mind or something like that.
Or search the priest's office. He's been working on this curse thing for a while, he's bound to have some literature on souls and what they are.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2013, 06:16:39 am by Parisbre56 »
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RAM

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1579 on: April 17, 2013, 07:43:58 am »

I am pretty certain that this world's magic operates on the theory of opposing forces. So you have order opposing chaos, earth opposing air, fire opposing water, and life opposing death. I very much doubt that death magic(necromancy) can cooperate directly with life magic. Although I suppose that it is not impossible that indirect cooperation might happen. For example, perhaps order magic could call a heroic soul to manifest, death magic could call a body back, and life magic might be able to combine them somehow... As far as pure life magic goes, I think that phoenixes use it to be able to restore their life when they are dead, although disturbing the remains is probably permanently fatal while life mages have all manner of healing magics, but nothing that really works on the dead... Life magic probably has lots of stuff to oppose necromancy too, so it can act on things that are animated by necromancy, but those would act directly on the necromantic magic rather than the necromantic creatures. Once something is properly dead it is probably beyond the reach of life magic. Although Order magic may have a spell to allow legendary order ghosts to manifest, and it may be able to call back legendary warriors. Order is basically based upon arthurian legend, so they get the whole "The king shall return in the time of greatest need" sort of thing, but only for heroic types...

This is all based upon only one of the sources though, and monk12 has no doubt made personal tweaks of their own...
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Parisbre56

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1580 on: April 18, 2013, 04:51:27 am »

I was rereading this from the start for info about what necromancy is and came upon this:
Quote from: monk12
You'd experience the oddest headaches, and sometimes it felt as though all the life around you burned with a cold inner fire.
Maybe that fire was the soul? We should try remembering that feeling (maybe meditate a bit) and try to sense the souls around us, maybe even focus on locating the children's souls, some form of scrying. Even if we cannot scry souls, we could still use the ability to sense souls to search for the children's souls in the forest and pull them out of whatever necromantic construct inhabits the forest.

I say we do this.

RAM

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1581 on: April 18, 2013, 05:52:37 am »

[The above] sounds reasonable.
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javierpwn

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1582 on: April 18, 2013, 06:57:33 am »

Yesh, the perfect plan.
WE MUST MEDITATE,FOR THE CHILDREN!
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Felius

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1583 on: April 18, 2013, 06:12:41 pm »

Yesh, the perfect plan.
WE MUST MEDITATE,FOR THE CHILDREN!
We are getting too distracted by the shiny (think of the children! :P). Maybe later, once we are more experienced and have some disposable bandits as guinea pigs we can try to explore the soul a bit more, but these particular kids? Good as dead. We'd need to start by dealing with forest monster, something we don't have the ability to do so yet.

A sidenote, we really should learn how to use an actual weapon eventually. Let's not be the glass cannon that always needs the meatshield to protect us.
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RAM

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1584 on: April 18, 2013, 07:36:21 pm »

In necromantic terms the forest creature is not very significant. There is every reason to believe that it can be slain with a single drain vitality. The question is whether or not the souls are still intact, and given the longevity of this creature, it stands to reason that it is burning souls for fuel and doesn't burn them all that quickly...
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Parisbre56

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1585 on: April 22, 2013, 07:37:00 am »

Sorry to raise this thread yet again (with a wall of text no less), but I found some interesting info while rereading the thread and thought I should share.



Remember this:
Quote
You'd awake in the night in a cold sweat, your Mana depleted. You'd experience the oddest headaches, and sometimes it felt as though all the life around you burned with a cold inner fire.
I thought the cold inner fire meant the soul, but it turns out I may have been wrong, because:
Quote
"I mean, really, it's been going on for months now- odd headaches, and waking up with no Mana, and... kinda being aware of Vitality around me."
So maybe it is some sort of necromantic Sense Vitality. However that doesn't mean we shouldn't experiment with it. If it allows us to see how vitality works inside living things we could use that knowledge to design advanced golems and zombies and maybe see if the children's lack of soul is somehow connected to lack of vitality. Or maybe Nym just misinterpreted her feelings and she was actually feeling the souls of others.
Either way, some testing would be nice. We know that the undead have a network of vitality within their bodies, so it is quite possible that the living have something similar and maybe part of that network that exists within living things is the soul.



This post gives some general info about what each magic type is capable of (although Nym said some of the details on Life and Death magic were wrong, so maybe details about other faiths were wrong too). This is especially interesting:
Quote
Fire magic deals with control of fire, obviously, but also volcanoes and lava, light, and matters of the soul.
First of all, the fact that Fire is responsible for soul magic and Nym felt a cold inner fire from living things gives some points to my soul theory.
Second, we know for a fact that many magical faiths have overlapping and similar abilities. For example Order, Life and Death magic all have spells that can be used for healing. Earth and Death magic have spells that can be used to create golems. So it is very reasonable that Fire and Death magic both have spells relating to souls. We also know that Balkoth, the necromancer who created or released this creature in the forest, was allied with the fire nations before he destroyed them, thus it is quite possible that he was able to gain a deeper understanding for matters of the soul from them.
We can't hope to gain such knowledge on our own without having an epiphany or studying a lot. However we could try to capture the creature in the woods alive/undead/animate/whatever-the-right-expression-is-for-still-functional (either by using Command Undead (which has the added benefit of telling us what the last order issued to the creature was) or by using Impair Undead to destroy the vitality network of its legs, thus immobilizing it) and use our Improved Necromantic Sight to analyze its construction and its function. Thus we could find a way to help the children or at least make sure that what happened to them doesn't happen to us or anyone else (except perhaps for our enemies).



Remember how Life magic had three schools, three areas where the mage could specialize? It would be interesting to ask Eko about wether or not Order also has three schools. If it does, it may help us understand more about what necromancy is all about. We know it probably has something to do with souls (Soul School) and we know it definitely has something to do with animating Non-Living objects (Animation School). Is there a third discipline we do not know about?



Necromancers are capable of dreamscaping. This implies that there is something more to our dreams in this universe then simple biological processes. Perhaps dreaming is somehow related to the soul. Some ancient cultures believed that dreaming was a form of near death experience, where the soul left the body and traveled to some other dimension. Perhaps dreamscaping works on a similar principle, allowing two people to contact each other by traveling to this dream realm.
It would be a nice idea to try to consciously will ourselves to perform a communication spell while sleeping, similar to how lucid dreaming works.



Omo said that Fale's name sounded dwarven. So perhaps Fale, the apparent mastermind of this plot, is a dwarf or at least lives with the dwarves. He seemed to be fixating on the fact that our friends and family will abandon us when they learn about our gift, rather then the fact that they would send armies against us, so perhaps he revealed himself to his family or friends, they turned against him and he was forced to kill them and/or escape to abandoned caverns. We know that the dwarven engravings contain lost and ancient knowledge, perhaps knowledge about necromancy and its gods, since dwarves were allies of the Golgothans. Maybe the dwarves took some Golgothans as refugees after the war, not wanting to see their long time ally driven to extinction. Something to keep in mind, since our destination, the former Sacred Grove, is close to the dwarven lands.
Perhaps we should stop by the human capital Atkilpema to gain some more knowledge from its libraries. There could be info on the dwarves, necromancy, golgothans and the gods there. Although since this place is also the center of Order, it could be heavily warded against necromancy, meaning we wouldn't be able to use our powers while there.
EDIT: And, now that I think about it, the elves said they would send representatives there. I don't know if they would be something to watch out for (they could have orders to bring us home), an opportunity (we could pretend to be elven ambassadors to gain access to the libraries there) or a possible ally (we could tell them what we've learned about the necromancer and maybe ask some questions or use them as a means to communicate with home)



We know that the wards around the farmhouses failed probably because the zombies went through them rather then around them. It would be nice to test the wards to see if they are still active. If they aren't still active, like Eko said, then that means Eko is suspicious. If however the wards are fine, perhaps this implies that a necromancer either has found a way to bypass the wards (unlikely, since the zombie we commanded seemed affected from the forest wards), has managed to make zombies smarter (again, unlikely given the fact that they seem to be produced in bulk with very simple orders:"Find something living and kill it") or is actually close enough to command the zombies to raid those houses (again, unlikely since we know that command undead has about the same range as our necromantic sight and the Nightroar is too far north. Except if he has found a way to increase the power of his necromantic sight and/or command undead spell) Again, something to think about.



Here is the description of the place we found the children:
Quote
Finally, the trail leads into a small clearing. There is nothing to suggest why this particular bit of forest is free of the tall trees- the ground appears to be smooth and flat here, and clear enough for grass and weeds to push through the dead leaves. In the center of the clearing a pair of young trees rise out of the ground, vying with one another to reach the canopy and the life-giving light beyond. The open space in the canopy admits a wide swath of moonlight which clearly illuminates everything in the clearing.
It could be a mere coincidence, but we should check the clearing for any source of magic. We should also sense the vitality of the trees. Two young children in a clearing with two young trees. It's a bit far fetched, but maybe the necromantic construct in the forest somehow transferred or transformed the souls of the children into trees. It makes sense to imprison a soul that way, since if the soul was simply removed from the body and then left on its own, it could return as a ghost or spirit (we know this is possible since Eko said there are order spells that can give protection from ghosts and spirits. No reason to invent a spell if it has no use.). If this is true, then that also means that the souls of an army may be trapped in the forest. We could attack the necromancer with our ghost army (LOTR style), or at least gain some knowledge about the Golgothans, the necromancer Balkoth, his methods and how they fought him in ancient times.



Eko said that the curse of the forest was responsible for the annihilation of more then half of a human army. This seems like a very unlikely accomplishment for such a small 3 vitality creature. He also said that people entering the forest always had the same thing happen to them no matter where they entered from. Even with its speed the creature couldn't cover the entire forest at all times. Perhaps the creature we saw was merely a drone, a small part of a much larger construct, lurking deeper inside the forest. Perhaps it is within that larger creature that the souls are contained and the drone we saw was simply its way of acquiring souls (boss battle anyone?).



There is a spell called probe thoughts in Order magic. We should be careful when interacting with Order mages, since they could probe our thoughts if they wanted and maybe discover our secret.



The question is whether or not the souls are still intact, and given the longevity of this creature, it stands to reason that it is burning souls for fuel and doesn't burn them all that quickly...
That is actually a very valid question. We know that necromantic constructs roam the sacred grove. Perhaps they are draining its vitality to remain active, thus preventing anything from growing there.
This could be a similar case but with souls. This construct might be feeding of the souls of its victims. And if souls are made of vitality, then it wouldn't even have to convert the souls. It could consume them immediately.
Although the forest is a good source of vitality for the creature. Perhaps that clearing didn't have any trees in it because that is where this construct acquires vitality, much like how the vegetation gets eaten around the place you tie a grazer.



And to restate my suggestions for this turn, condensed into a single post:

1. Search the rest of the temple for info about souls and how they work, Death magic (it will probably concern defenses or detection methods, but those may give us clues on what abilities necromancers have or how to counteract those defense or detection methods), Order magic (specifically the wards and how they work, so that perhaps we may be able to combine it with our knowledge about necromancy to hopefully deduce how the zombies were able to bypass them) and clues about Eko's experimentation (maybe a diary or notebook, if he has one).

2. Try to remember that feeling we had of the cold inner flame all life had. Try to feel this in the people around us. If successful see how the children differ from everyone else. Else just try thinking about what the soul is. The thing that drives people, that gives them purpose. The center of reason and emotion. The thing that differentiates golems and zombies from living things. Try to imagine that and try to feel that thing in us or around us.

3. If all else fails, go to the forest and investigate the clearing we found the children in for vitality and magic. If we come upon the thing that attacked us last night, try to capture it with Command or Impair Undead on its legs instead of killing it with Drain Vitality if possible, so that we may analyze it with our necromantic sight.

If we weren't so pressed for time I would also be interested in learning more about The Plan order priests talk about. They said The Plan is furthered by magic users of any kind. Perhaps we could deduce how Death magic users are supposed to help further The Plan. We could use that knowledge to help convince humans we are good. However right now the children take priority.

Anyway, sorry for the long post.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2013, 07:46:34 am by Parisbre56 »
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RAM

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1586 on: April 22, 2013, 07:10:33 pm »

That all sounds good.
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RoaryStar

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-16
« Reply #1587 on: April 23, 2013, 03:59:44 pm »

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monk12

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-17
« Reply #1588 on: May 07, 2013, 09:39:15 pm »

Might be good to confront the priest later about the whole zombie thing, but yeah, he's nearly certain just experimenting on it to learn how to deal better with them.

For now, let's explore the rest of the house.
If he got the zombie down there without any incident... Maybe it wasn't a zombie when he tied it down...

Now that could just mean that someone got infected and volunteered, but that's not the ONLY thing that could have happened.

No, I think we should try and search it's thoughts, such as they are. Search for what Eko has been doing, who it was before Zombification, how it became a zombie.
1. Search the rest of the temple for info about souls and how they work, Death magic (it will probably concern defenses or detection methods, but those may give us clues on what abilities necromancers have or how to counteract those defense or detection methods), Order magic (specifically the wards and how they work, so that perhaps we may be able to combine it with our knowledge about necromancy to hopefully deduce how the zombies were able to bypass them) and clues about Eko's experimentation (maybe a diary or notebook, if he has one).

2. Try to remember that feeling we had of the cold inner flame all life had. Try to feel this in the people around us. If successful see how the children differ from everyone else. Else just try thinking about what the soul is. The thing that drives people, that gives them purpose. The center of reason and emotion. The thing that differentiates golems and zombies from living things. Try to imagine that and try to feel that thing in us or around us.


"Well, what do we do now?" Omo asks.
You purse your lips thoughtfully. "Let me take one more look at that zombie- I've just had a thought."

Omo gives you a wry look, but quickly sets to moving the heavy barrel over the zombie's prison out of the way once more. He steps back in distaste as you fold back the tarp and open the trapdoor, pinching your nose against the stench. A cursory glance shows no difference between the Necromantic Energy forming this zombie and the zombies you encountered outside the forest of Aloclesno. You still don't know whether you can distinguish the creator of individual zombies by sight, but considering the soldier's uniform and the similar stages of decay it seems quite likely that this zombie is of a kind with the others.

Taking a deep breath, you Command Undead, merging your consciousness with the restrained undead soldier. You gain intimate knowledge of the zombie's physical state, but it's nothing you were unaware of just from looking at it. The zombie's last (indeed, current) orders are an imperative along the lines of "Move toward this star, kill the living, return with the corpses." It's certainly a more complex order than you've attempted to give before, and is in fact more complex than the orders you found in the mind of the zombie outside Aloclesno- that zombie only had an order to kill, not to move or gather bodies afterward. In particular, the movement order is fairly intricate- instead of a series of directions on how to find the target star, you find a mental picture.

To the right, empty plains seem to glow beneath a bright moon high in the sky, running up to a dark, shadowed forest on the left, one bright star low on the distant horizon clearly associated with the order to walk. Two more zombies can be seen standing to the right of your field of view, though in truth the edges of the image are fuzzy and indistinct- only the area around the star is truly focused and clear. One of the other zombies you can see wields a long spear, and from the corner of your eye you can see a spear that must be held by the viewer himself- or rather, itself, as you get the distinct impression that the picture is something seen by the zombie in the past.

You frown pensively. You can't tell when exactly this order was given, but you can make a guess based on the mental image held by the zombie. Based on maps you've seen, the only forest for miles around is Aloclesno, unless this zombie has been walking west for a great deal longer than you think it has. That possibility is exceptionally unlikely, considering the moon the zombie remembers is not quite full- the moon was last night was close enough to full as to make no difference. Living beneath the branches of Yicelafo your entire life has kept you from being intimate with the phases of the moon, but you more than suspect this zombie was given its orders before the most recent attack- perhaps a few days before.

You keep digging- the ability to remember an image of such detail certainly suggests that the undead are capable of some degree of memory, more than you had expected. Unfortunately, no matter how you fumble around in the zombie's mind, you cannot seem to find anything else. No thoughts other than its last order, no memories of anything since that order, or any memories of life before zombification. You briefly entertain the idea of Commanding the zombie to remember, or just clearing it's memory to see if anything else turns up, but decide against it. It doesn't seem likely to work, and it may betray your meddling.

"What are you doing, anyway?" Omo asks, not quite looking at the zombie.
You sigh, closing the trapdoor. "I was trying to search its thoughts."
"Zombies have thoughts?"
"Not really, no. However, it seems they do remember orders. This one remembers more detail than I thought any zombie could. Omo, I'm pretty sure this zombie was sent this way before the last attack. That's when it got its last orders, anyway."
Omo scowls, pacing back and forth in the narrow confines of the basement. "Blood and... that would mean Eko knew the zombies were coming before the attack, wouldn't it?"
You run a hand through your hair thoughtfully. "I suppose so. Something doesn't add up, though. It's not like the villagers don't know about Curo Nightroar- his army has already depopulated most of the villages north of here. He must have had some reason to keep a captive zombie secret."
"It had better be a good reason- if the villagers had known that zombies were nearby, they might have fared better in the attack. The soldiers we spoke to didn't seem to think there were many undead this far south of the highway."
You shrug. "I think we've explored everything we can down here. Let's head upstairs."

Once more straightening out the basement, you return to the main floor of the temple. You've already seen what there is to see in the washroom and kitchen, so you decide to check out Eko's office for yourself. The room is small, cramped with a desk and chair against the far wall and a cabinet and chest by the door. Wooden shutters hang open on a narrow window, letting the midday sunlight inside.

The desk is cluttered with papers. You shuffle through them, glancing over reports of the village's food supplies, a list of farms requesting a ward against necromancy, early plans for some upcoming festival, a note to check the health of some elderly villager... nothing you wouldn't expect from a village priest. The chest is held shut by a stout lock- Omo offers to try and smash it open, but that would hardly be a noble way to repay Eko's hospitality, even if you could manage it without rousing Ado and half the village with him. Instead, you open the cabinet- hanging inside are a set of clearly ceremonial robes and a short, ornately carved wooden staff. A brightly polished disk of metal serves as a mirror, casting your curious reflection back at you.

Though you search everything twice, you fail to find any sort of secret compartment or hidden nook that might hold a diary, or journal, or any similarly incriminating evidence. Of course, it could very well be in the locked chest, but that's a problem for another time- right now, you're remembering that Omo mentioned a shelf of books in Eko's bedroom.

The bedroom turns out to be a rather spartan affair. A chest of clothing stands open at the foot of a rumpled narrow bed tucked against one wall. A small table beside the bed holds an unlit candle, and what appears to be a flask similar to the one you saw Eko take with him when he left this morning. Your eyes are quickly drawn to a bookshelf on the wall near the door, half a dozen tomes of varying sizes filling the space.

Moving closer, you inspect the titles of the books. Three fat books proclaim themselves to be different volumes of the Chronicle of Thrimesdur: The Cremated Empire, and a fourth book is titled simply The Golgothan War. One battered book is a copy of Joddo Meadtrust's Prestidigitation for the Beginning Practitioner, a book you yourself possess. You are surprised to see Meadtrust's name grace another, thinner book, titled Line in the Sand: Discrete Forces and Interactions. A Study of Aloclesno rests beside a thick, leather-bound book whose spine is worked with that square symbol Eko wears on a pendant- the cover of that book bears the same image, as well as the title Atal: Shield of Atkilpeme.

Omo groans as your hand hovers over the books. "What, again with the reading?"
You arch an eyebrow at him. "And what's wrong with reading?"
Omo waves at the shelf dismissively. "If I wanted to spend all my time reading, I'd have stayed in Yicelafo and become a Sage."
"I'm not asking you to read these books." Reaching out, you snatch Joddo Meadtrust's second book as a likely starting point. "If you don't want to hang around inside, then why don't you take a stroll around town? I'm sure you can find something fun to do."
"Yeah, fun." Omo snorts. "I don't think this town even has a tavern. Well, I suppose I've never walked around a human village before. I'll go stretch my legs."

As Omo sets off in search of more interesting sights, you settle into the fireside armchair in the kitchen, opening Line in the Sand: Discrete Forces and Interactions. Reading through the introduction and table of contents reveals that this is a book about Order Wards. Apparently, a Ward is any sort of "bounded transitional interference field," which apparently means a protective barrier once you cut through the jargon describing what exactly they can do. There are wards that block sight and sound, wards that block movement, wards that can be used as traps... you make mental note of a ward that is supposed to shield your dreams, but ignore it for now in favor of the long list of wards against specific forms of Magic.

As it turns out, a narrow ribbon already serves to bookmark the chapter about Necromancy wards. You flip past wards that raise an alarm when triggered by Necromancy (which apparently are not very Mana-intensive,) wards that can physically block the passage of the undead (which are much more costly,) and wards that can be used to destroy any undead that passes (which are extremely expensive, and complicated to cast judging by the walls of text and arcane diagrams accompanying them.) You find a description of a ward that sounds similar to what Eko said he used- it seems that it shields the presence of the living from undead by blocking Necromancy-based senses, and replacing them with a sense that the area is filled with inanimate objects, such that the undead creature in question would be unable to pass through.

Unfortunately, you don't have a clue how it does all this- the technical explanation bears no relation to anything you are familiar with, and you can only assume that it makes sense to a practitioner of Order. It does seem to confirm what Eko said earlier, however- an unthinking creature would slightly alter their path to avoid an area protected by the ward in much the same way they would to avoid a particularly large boulder. It wouldn't work over too large an area, if a zombie was determined to move in a specific direction, but certainly it would be enough to prevent a zombie from trying to break in a window. A farmhouse would be just another large obstacle to go around, not a likely hiding place for victims. You don't even know if zombies can remember orders as complicated as recognizing a house to break and enter, though after your recent discovery you're not as sure.

You snap the book shut when the dense text threatens to give you a headache. Between what you've gleaned from this book, and the orders you found in the zombie's mind, it seems Eko is right- they shouldn't have crossed the ward on their own. Clearly they did just that, but you can't figure out how.

You stretch, sinking back into the chair. That inquisition may have been fruitless, but you've got plenty of daylight yet- maybe it's time for an experiment. The more you think about it, the more it seems that Necromancy must have some interaction with souls- otherwise, Balkoth would not have been able to make his soul-stealing forest monster. And it hardly seems possible to manipulate a soul if you can't sense it.

Cautiously, you stick your head into the main room of the Temple. The children lie in exactly the position you saw them last- Ado Drunkenstumbles appears to be napping fitfully. Gliding over to your cot, you quietly sit on it, crossing your legs and leaning slightly toward where the children rest. Closing your eyes, you regulate your breathing, trying to center your thoughts. You try thinking about what the soul might be, the Spirit you vaguely remember the Sages mentioning as a child. You think about what it was like in the beginning, feeling that odd awareness of Vitality, feelings you now recognize to be early signs of your Necromancy manifesting itself. You bring your will to bear, trying to force those feelings to-

See Vitality

Your eyes open wide as you feel the spell resolve. To your eyes, Ado and the children suddenly resemble pulsing mounds of Vitality. You can see it flowing through them in rivers, branching streams spreading throughout their flesh, infusing every inch of them. In many ways, it looks like a zombie you're observing with your improved Necromantic Sight, except that the flow and interplay of Vitality is vastly more complicated. Squinting, you try to focus on the confusing jumble before you- you almost feel like you can detect internal organs, a powerful swirl that must be the heart, a rippling pulse...

You frown. There is definitely a difference between Ado and the children- more than one. A frenzied, seething mass of Vitality around Ado's wound must be his body healing itself, possibly spurred on by whatever spell Eko cast. With this new, incredibly detailed spell, you can actually feel his Vitality growing in infinitesimal increments as he heals, increased by each pulse of his inner Vitality. The children, however, are definitely not healing. Oh, their Vitality pulses as well, but it seems more akin to water washing around a tub, while Ado feels like the ripples of water being poured into the tub.

You silently rise to your feet, walking closer to Ado, fascinated by the pulsing of his Vitality. To your view, each surge seems to originate in the brain, flowing down toward the heart before surging to the rest of the body, swirling and lapping about. The brain itself seems to be a roiling mass of concentrated Vitality, expanding and contracting in time with the pulses. That mass of Vitality is convoluted beyond belief- only a subconscious suspicion makes you think it is organized and stable, rather than just a chaotic maelstrom.

By comparison, the children's brains are much less interesting. There is no real concentration of Vitality, although the head does hold proportionally more than the rest of the body, much as it seems to in Ado. Further, the pulses of Vitality leaving the brain are weak, and seem to die out before reaching the body's extremities. A splash and a ripple compared to Ado's surging waves. You could almost call their Vitality sluggish, compared to Ado, though it still moves in patterns more intricate than any zombie you've seen.

Could that concentration of Vitality be the soul? It does seem to be the only major difference between Ado and the children, the only one you can't attribute to differences in age or general health, but...

Abruptly, you come to a startling realization about what you are seeing. In your youth, back when your remarkable potential seemed sure to lead to a prestigious career as a Mage in Yicelafo, you were given lessons in rudimentary Life magic. Lessons you failed miserably, as you never displayed any aptitude for the art, only mastering the general spells available to all living creatures. One of the most basic spells you tried to learn, one of the first spells you failed to learn, was a more advanced version of Sense Vitality. The effects of that spell were supposed to be very like what you are seeing right now.


The afternoon is wearing on, and you're a little surprised that Eko hasn't returned yet. You're much less surprised that Omo hasn't either. What now?

Spoiler: You (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Spells (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Omo Thunderjaw (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Notable Figures (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Planned Experiments (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Maps (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Author's Note (click to show/hide)

Felius

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Re: You are a Necromancer! Chapter 2-17
« Reply #1589 on: May 07, 2013, 10:04:54 pm »

ALIVE! It's alive! The wards are certainly interesting and we should probably experiment later with them to see if they can be made more efficient with necromancy mixed in it.

Also, we are getting more and more evidence that necromancy and life magic are in fact quite closely related, which might make for a nice publication far in the future once we either come out in public and/or die. :P

For now other than new planned experiments for the future with the wards, I guess we could see if we can start learning some spells. What spells do we have access to try to learn with the books we have now, other than the wards?
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"Why? We're the Good Guys, aren't we?"
"Yes, but that rather hinges on doing certain things and not doing others." - Paraphrased from Discworld.
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