“HAHAHA, FOOLISH HEROES, KNEEL BEFORE MY GRAND MAGIC!”Your skeletal body, adorned in robes that have lived longer than any human has breathed, lords over the fallen party of heroes. Your ultimate Origin Magic, though incomplete, has proven more than sufficient to take on the pathetic mortals sent to their knees before its might. Miasma-smoke fills the room, spewed by the necromantic fire left in the wake of your destructive magnum opus. However, to your incredible satisfaction, the Holy Sword itself, the only weapon capable of striking you down, lies corroded beneath the hero’s tattered frame, little more than a sparkly pile of smoldering slag.Yes, your ultimate victory has been achie–Pain unlike any you’d ever imagined stabs through your very being, a thin, needle-like blade jutting out from the cluster of mana animating your undead body, destabilizing it, causing your very being to quiver and weaken. Something is wrong— something is very, very wrong. . You collapse to the floor, your head snapping 180 degrees back to see just who had landed the killing blow. If your eyes could widen, they would: the Hero Michael, who you had thought collapsed in front of you, stands proudly behind you with an unknown blade in your back.“H-how?”“Lich King Atrebor,” the hero declares, his obnoxious condescension shamelessly leaking into his words as he drives the blade even further through your ribs, “you may have been wary of me, the possessor of the Holy Sword, but you paid far too little attention to my real strength: my friends.”You turn your eyes back to the party: an illusion, a paltry trick, dissolves from the worthless entourage of the chosen one, revealing a golem in place of his second in command and that same eternal loser, Reinlock, in his place.“Impossible!” you roar, “I was certain! He– he had the holy sword! He acted just as you would!”“I’ve been chasing that bastard’s back my whole life, you undead bastard.” Reinlock snickers, blood trickling from his broken lips, “I know him better than the back of my own hand.”This is infuriating but… it matters not. Your phylactery, the real vessel of your existence, is safe, in an unknown locale far from here. Or at least, that’s how it should be. Golden cracks start to form on you— first on your body’s mana core, then on your bones, then, horror of horrors, on your mana itself. “What trickery is this!” You scream, your rage powerful enough to shake the foundations of your castle.
>>6330104“All the victims you left behind,” the Hero declares, “all their grief, heartbreak, and righteous indignation. All their hopes of a better tomorrow, free from your tyranny, and their love of justice, to see you punished for your crimes: those wishes are imbued into this sword. One sincere, heartfelt wish, asked for and answered by the gods themselves.”“A second holy sword?!”“No. One single prayer. See, the blade already grows dim— its one and only purpose is to destroy you, once and for all.”“YOU INSOLENT WRETCHES!” you shriek from the depths of your being, the sound and pressure sending blood trickling from the orifices of the heroes, “I SHALL NOT DIE HERE! I AM THE IMMORTAL ATREBOR!”Despite your words, you feel your phylactery crack. Abandoning your body, you activate your last trick. It’s sloppy, half complete at best, but it’s the closest thing you have to an out. You focus on the laboratory hidden beneath your castle, abandoning your distant phylactery and resonating with your prepared vessel.<Origin Magic: Divine Rebirth>---The experiment was a failure.That’s your first thought as you ascend from the vat of slime your body was suspended in. Your True Core, still in your Phylactery, has completely shattered, leaving you only with the pitiful mana of your current vessel. Meanwhile, the divine powers of a Godborn that were supposed to inhabit this body are either entirely absent or undetectably dormant. Your mind is fuzzy, your current brain incapable of holding your centuries of knowledge and lived experience. You topple over, vomiting up a glob of incandescent goop.You shake your head— all of that is secondary. What matters is, you lived. You stop, considering your current state:>Immortal Atrebor-Species: Godborn-Mana Core: N/A-Divine Presence: Sealed-Recollection: 10%-Magic Capacity: First CircleYou frown— your current state is truly pathetic. In your current state, even casting a single Second Circle spell would be enough to practically kill you. Your mind is still in a haze, your greatest weapon, your knowledge, rusted and dull. Even so, you have an ageless Godborn body; if you bide your time and regain your skill, you can reach your goal. Goal, huh?You are no longer the Lich King. You are no longer even a lich. Your goal, attaining the ultimate magic, had already been achieved in your last life. What even is your purpose anymore?>Revenge against the insolent humans who had caused your collapse>Magic: nothing has changed. You will attain an even greater height than you did as the Lich King>Happiness: in your last life, you died never knowing love, friendship, or family. As a human, you lived like a rat, and as a lich, you lived like a monster. Now that you once again breathe, you feel a melancholy at having missed these things>Write-in
>>6330107>>Revenge against the insolent humans who had caused your collapseeveryone loves revenge
>>6330107>>Happiness: in your last life, you died never knowing love, friendship, or family. As a human, you lived like a rat, and as a lich, you lived like a monster. Now that you once again breathe, you feel a melancholy at having missed these things
>>6330107>Write-in>You don't know yet (Self Discovery). Your heart burns for revenge against the hero and his entourage, but it is no certainty that they'll still be alive by the time you regain your strength. You have attained the ultimate magic, and found it wanting. Happiness is tempting, but you do not even know if you are capable of what most humans consider as a 'happy' life.>Right now, you just want to get out of here. Maybe a pair of pants, too.Voting for a journey because I love that stuff.
>>6330122Seems like a reasonable compromise option for now, so I'll proceed with that unless somebody breaks the tie. I'll check back in on the vote in a couple of hours.
>>6330107>Write-in>Revenge>Magic>HappinessA mix of the three. It's only matter of time for him to recover his powers, but since friendship is stronger than ultimate magic, he will seek powerful friends to counter the hero's power of friendship. He might, or not, call it "dark friendship", it sounds cooler to him.He's incredibly autistic.He might have been reborn a cute girl, preferably a tomboy.
>>6330122+1
One for Revenge>>6330118One for Happiness>>6330120And 3 for deliberation and possibly some mix of the three>>6330122>>6330185>>6330205Vote is locked. Writing now
>>6330265Well, there’s no reason to force yourself into a rigid path now. The world is vast, and you have a set of brand new eyes— why not take some time to experience it a bit before determining your ultimate destiny? One thing you can be certain of, however, is your desire to vacate this dusty old laboratory. You look around the stone room, plucking from the available area a set of equipment suitable for your current level: loose traveling clothes, an unadorned cloak enchanted with a second circle protection spell, and a staff carved from the bones of a Gigant Rat. You also locate a bag, some travelling rations, a dagger for self defense and…Monster cores.When the gods taught to the races of man the gift of magic, they also blessed them with the knowledge needed to collect their own Mana Core.Unlike monsters and demons, which are naturally born with Mana Cores and by extension all of their benefits— enhanced physiques and growth potential, supernatural abilities, and sometimes even the ability to cast spells or produce aura, humans and ordinary animals are not blessed with any such capacity. Instead, they have to accumulate an artificial mana core, in either the chest (optimized for might) or the brain (optimized for spellcraft). Broadly, there are three ways to do this:One may meditate, accumulating the ambient mana around them into a core. The process is slow, but reliable, and can be done any time and any place with next to no risks.On the other hand, one may consume elixirs, potions, herbs, and sometimes even tinctures of ground mithril to artificially introduce mana into their bodies to use as a core. Of course, this method is usually done to supplement the first.Finally, and most taboo, there is heart eating, the process by which you absorb the cores of monsters, and sometimes other people into your own body. While this is far faster than most other methods, it is at once highly illegal, a capital sin in most churches, a serious felony in all the nations of man, and extremely dangerous. Mana is the power of the soul, and if you can’t contain the rampaging personality and will of the thing you devour, you will undergo a state of Heart Possession, warping into a gestalt horror of yourself and whatever it was you ate.You briefly consider the cores, deciding that there’s no reason not to take them. Even if you choose not to eat them, you can always sell them to an enchanter or a guild at a fair price. You shove the small pouch, as well as your spellbook and research notes, into your satchel before turning to leave. As you exit, you pass by the grand mirror posted next to the laboratory’s entrance. Though cracked, it still shows you a perfect reflection, its surface flawlessly smooth even after the earthshaking battle above. You pause to take one last look in that mirror, admiring your new appearance.
>>6330291>Optional write-in, what do you look like? You must be a human (seeming) adult in your physical prime.You open the vault door of your laboratory from the inside, happily finding that it still recognizes your mana signature even in your weakened state. This laboratory, project Divine Descent, was the only one in your castle, so its defenses are comparably weak when put up against your other hidden alcoves. Still, in exchange for lacking firepower, its illusions are almost imperceptible to any who might come across it. Indeed, even knowing exactly where it is, as you close the hatch behind you the entrance becomes entirely invisible.You wander through the wreckage of your mighty castle— it has been demolished, its riches picked to pieces, and its traps either disarmed and stolen or activated and surrounded by corpses. You scour it for anything useful, anything at all, but ultimately find yourself empty handed right up until you see the throne room.The throne, of course, is gone. The ornamentations of gold and silver, the paintings by great masters, even the mosaics on the floors and walls have all been pilfered by greedy tomb thieves. However, despite all that, there is one thing left untouched:Your skeleton.You feel a frightening necromantic energy emanating from that corpse— even if it was just a fragment, the shattered mana core buried within the cracked ribcage that used to house your consciousness was once powerful enough to be a conduit for your phylactery. Even in death it still maintains your properties, radiating mana imbued with death’s gift into all who may greed for its power. You step past the corpses, confidently plunging your gloved hand into what was once your chest and pulling the fragments out.You pause, holding the clusters of mana in your hands: you could reabsorb these now, and at next to no cost of madness, granting you a mana core instantly without the risk of going mad. Of course, you’d still lose most of the energy due to your lacking state, but it would be an exceptional boost in power. The only drawback, of course, being that it would lock you into Necromancy as your favored school of magic, leaving you once again unable to perform its inverse, Creation magic. The decision must be made now. The core has been deteriorating for some time; if you leave it here much longer, it will either crumble to dust or become weak enough for a grave robber to steal without dying. What do you do?>Reabsorb your core>Destroy your core so that none may take it>Use your laboratory to convert it into raw mana to be used later>Eat monster cores and make your own core, then reabsorb your core (will allow you to choose your own favored school, or avoid gaining a favored school at all)>Ponder the nature of the Forms of Magic before deciding>Write-in
>>6330294>>Eat monster cores and make your own core, then reabsorb your core (will allow you to choose your own favored school, or avoid gaining a favored school at all)
>>6330294>Optional write-in, what do you look like? You must be a human (seeming) adult in your physical prime.Slightly below average height and a little lanky (the cloak looks like it's half a size to big for him), raven coloured mop of hair with a slight tinge of blue, with dark blue eyes and perpetual eyebags. Somehow the bangs always manage to partially cover one of his eyes no matter what. It's magic, I ain't gotta explain shit.Basically giving him the emo necromancer look. At the end of the day I'm not overly attached to it and can just go with whatever.>Reabsorb your coreI'm a fan of necromancy. I am a fan of revenge. I will vote for Necromancy Revenge Story.
>>6330294Big burly blonde guy with a beard and kind eyes. Stands to reason that if we had planned this far, we’d try to pick a physical form that would serve as a disguise. >Eat monster cores and make your own core, then reabsorb your core (will allow you to choose your own favored school, or avoid gaining a favored school at all)>Ponder the nature of the Forms of Magic before decidingCan we do both? Need more information about the options
>>6330329By all means. The only mutually exclusive options are the ones pertaining to your old core.
>>6330332In fairness to the other players, perhaps a review of the options might be best. I’m not opposed to Necromancy Revenge Quest but I wonder what Creation Redemption Quest might be like?
>>6330336what about Creation Revenge, huh? Didn't think of that, did you?
>>6330338Erm, no.But there is a sociopathic logic to the idea, I have to say…
>>6330294>Eat monster cores and make your own core, then reabsorb your core (will allow you to choose your own favored school, or avoid gaining a favored school at all)Making Necromancy our favored school in the past surely did help us to rise to great heights quickly. But when one is faced with eternity, shortcuts that permanently limit one's self cannot be used. We shall eschew favored schools so that NO magic is ever barred from us.In doing so, we shall eclipse what we were before, becoming the true master of magic.
>>6330426or-or-or we could make the super duper Origin Magic our favored school once we remember how to do it
>>6330298>>6330329>>6330426Eat monster cores>>6330316Reabsorb your core>>6330329Ponder the nature of magicProceeding with eating the cores. I'll leave the appearance vote open until it resolves, but I'll be writing with a male impression in mind until or unless the female suggestions outweigh the male ones. Also, my updating schedule will drop to one or maybe sometimes two a day during weekdays. Anyway, writing now.
>>6330438Wouldn’t it be a waste not to be able to experience the full range of magic in your next life as well?Fundamentally, Origin Magic works by creating a universal magic language, a singular tongue which incorporates the aspects of all of the disparate schools of magic via a central Origin Thesis. Indeed, just as the gods were said to have spawned from the dying moments of the Primordial One, by tracing back their individual characteristics into a hypothesized original, one can commune directly with the world itself, allowing for unlimited possibilities at the cost of a lack of the gods’ guiding hands, no historical precedent to draw from, and an extraordinary consumption of mana. In this pursuit, you had also greatly studied the Sun goddess Paeora’s magic of Creation, despite never having been able to use it. Even if it leads to less immediate power, you may now put that desire to rest.You pluck three of the lowest level mana cores from your bag— a Plague Roach, with the characteristic of Necromancy, a Slime, with the characteristic of Transmutation, and a Stone Beetle, with the characteristic of Imbuement. None of these directly oppose nor amplify each other, as perfect a balance as you can manage without overdoing your capacity by adding a fourth stone. With trepidation, you open your jaws wide, swallowing all three cores in a single gulp.You stagger forward— mana rampages through your body, tearing your muscles apart as the characteristics of the monsters and your own divine body sews them back together. You try to concentrate, the image of skeletal hands in your mind’s eye grabbing onto that untempered power and crushing it beneath the weight of your will, collecting stray streams and returning them back to a single point. The contradictory nature of the beasts leaves them battling each other for eminence, giving yourself an opportunity to quash their individuality all at once.Still, it’s delicate work: one wrong move and you’ll upset the balance, shatter the fledgeling core forming in your head, or even cause the mana to go into overdrive and kill you where you stand.>The dice in this game will work on a number of successes system, where a narrow success/failure (by less than 25) is worth 1 point, while a grand success/failure (by more than 25) is worth 2, again one way or the other. The number of success points minus the number of fail points will determine the outcome of the roll.>Please give me 3 rolls of 1d100+10 (10 representing your current state of recollection)
Rolled 100 + 10 (1d100 + 10)>>6330443
>>6330447Oh, and criticals are worth three. Thank you kindly for reminding me.
Rolled 94 + 10 (1d100 + 10)>>6330443
Rolled 45 + 10 (1d100 + 10)>>6330443alright, off to a great start! here's the last roll i guess
You guys are absurd. That's one crit, one great success, and one narrow success, for a total score of 6.(For context, 1 is a mitigated success, 2 is a success, 3 is a great success, 4 and 5 are optimal outcomes, and anything 6 or higher is a miracle. Anyway, writing now.)
>>6330455cool, lets aim for nine next time.on the topic of appearances, we are a "Godborn" so it should be something mildly godlike, and Atrebor backwards is Roberta, female version of Robert which means Bright Fame or something, which i suppose fits a BBEG... Goddess looking then. I don't know many of those, I'll go with Marika from Elden Ring.
>>6330447First roll of the questauspicious indeed>>6330460I'm down for Marika, even though that'd make me want to bang the MC.
>>6330460You know what, I support our appearance looking like Marika. Fits the regal but evil vibe.
>>6330460>>6330463>>6330464This will probably win, but I'll let the vote hang until I get back tomorrow evening.>>6330455A thought crosses your mind as you crystalize the power into your blossoming mana core: the principle you’re using now, of fusing the disparate natures of three different monsters, is it not the same fundamental principle of Origin Magic? You start to remember the script you made, pieces of a language you can’t fully remember in your incomplete state weaving themselves around your fingertips as you speak the wish of this failed experiment, the Divine Rebirth, into the World. You feel reality’s fabric tremble around you as your mana takes on a new character, an unprecedented affinity for an unprecedented form of spellcraft.You open your eyes, effortlessly reincorporating your old core back into yourself. Even in its diminished state, the boost in might is considerable, doubling the frail, if monumentally impressive Mana Core now resting stably in your head. You can’t suppress a mad grin of satisfaction, a frantic chuckle leaking from your cracked lips as you assess yourself. >Immortal Atrebor-Species: Godborn-Mana Core: Rank E+ (Favored School: Origin Magic) [no restricted school]-Divine Presence: Partially Unsealed -Recollection: 20%-Magic Capacity: Third Circle-Physical Condition: WearyYou couldn’t have possibly imagined things would go this way— a third circle mage is mediocre at best, but even that paltry mana is enough to cast some respectable higher circle magic if you push yourself a bit and leverage your memories as the Lich King. Well, even then, it probably wouldn’t be wise.More prudently, though very faint, you can feel a trickle of something of the same kind, but fundamentally different in nature to the power of mana. Origin magic is a nice bonus, but you were more than able to wield it even disregarding this new favored school, and even as it stands you probably won’t be able to cast it at all until you can reliably cast at least sixth circle magic. No, in comparison to that, Divine Presence, the rare ability that priests and that hero borrowed in order to cast their holy powers now evidently belongs to you. Of course, what you have access to now is barely enough to match even a third rate cleric, and you have absolutely no idea how you can develop this power once you fully unseal it, but your past life’s foolish dream to become a god yourself seems… almost attainable.
>>6330468You pause for a moment, stopping to take in what used to be your lair one final time. After all, you’ve gotten everything you could from your old castle, and nothing of your undead armies or the greenery that used to inhabit the grounds before you built your desolate lair there remain. You are met with nothing but cracked stone and dry soil as you begin your journey, heading off into the light of a brand new dawn.Now then: where exactly are you going?>To the inhospitable north, the savage realm of monsters and demons>South, a beeline towards the closest kingdom, Gilead, from which the Hero hails>To the location of your Phylactery— though shattered, it may grant you a considerable boost in power if you can absorb it>Due east— though farther away than Gilead, you may reach the kingdom of Dakia, home of the greatest magic tower on the continent>Write-in (describe a place or motive and I’ll select whatever location fits best)
>>6330470>To the location of your Phylactery— though shattered, it may grant you a considerable boost in power if you can absorb itAny lingering remnants of our old magic and soul should be sought. It could hold remnants of memories too, potentially.
>>6330470>>To the location of your Phylactery— though shattered, it may grant you a considerable boost in power if you can absorb itawesome, i got what i wanted. i concur with anon, anything we used to have should be leveraged asap. if we had any trustworthy allies i'd suggest finding them first but it looks like we've been dead for a while, maybe even decades? and atrebor doesn't strike me as a social guy
>>6330470>>Due east— though farther away than Gilead, you may reach the kingdom of Dakia, home of the greatest magic tower on the continent
>>6330470>To the location of your Phylactery— though shattered, it may grant you a considerable boost in power if you can absorb it
>>6330447Goddamn, first roll of the quest. I hope the dice continue to be this crazy.>>6330470>To the inhospitable north, the savage realm of monsters and demonsWe will craft ourselves a kingdom from nothing, strengthen ourselves and stand proud above the hordes that inhabit the north.>>6330329Voting for the big burly guy for appearance.
>>6330470>To the location of your Phylactery— though shattered, it may grant you a considerable boost in power if you can absorb itWe gotta rank up quick.
>>6330460Supporting>>6330470>Due east— though farther away than Gilead, you may reach the kingdom of Dakia, home of the greatest magic tower on the continent
>>6330107>Magic: nothing has changed. You will attain an even greater height than you did as the Lich King>>6330464I'm cool with this>>6330470>To the location of your Phylactery— though shattered, it may grant you a considerable boost in power if you can absorb it
>>6330470>To the location of your Phylactery— though shattered, it may grant you a considerable boost in power if you can absorb it>>6330460Also, I vote for Marika as an appearance. The idea of us having just reversed our birth name for our Evil Lich Name is really, really funny to me.>>6330463But anon, that just means you're more likely to stick with the quest!
>>6330603Hornyposting has destroyed more quests than I can count, anon. Why some anons come here to beat off, I will never know
>>6330675It's a fucking plague. And the worst part is that you can't let them win, if you give an inch they take ever damn mile they can get.
>>6330675A few ideas. Either the interactivity makes them more attached to the characters, or it's because /qst/ is an offshoot of /tg/, which is/was renowned for being the blue board that toed the NSFW content line the closest, and inherited some of that thirstiness.
hey op just wanna say I like ur writing :)
Wow, looks like a boatload of votes this time around. Thank you all very much for reading (and thank (you) >>6330738 for the compliment).It seems like >>6330460"s character appearance wins, but to respect the other write-ins I'll add in the kind eyes from >>6330329 and a slightly more unkempt look with darker clothes as suggested by >>6330316.To those concerned with the quest getting too sexual, I can say with confidence that I can run a quest with a fmc without letting it get weird. If you voted for the appearance option or joined this quest in general with that expectation, I'm sorry to disappoint, but this story will earn it's R rating though swearing and violence alone. Anyway, it looks like we have:>>6330505For the northern wastes(3, had to remove the links to avoid the spam filter)For Dakia(5, as above)For your PhylacteryProceeding with Phylactery. Will write and update after I eat some dinner.
>>6330766Will the violence at least be ultra?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr6BMiHMPtI
>>6330830We can certainly Create violence now, can't we? Come up with new, war-crime filled methods of using these traditionally good-hearted magic types.
>>6330766The natural next step in recovering your lost might is to reabsorb whatever remains of your Phylactery. Of course, it’s almost certainly in a state of extraordinary disrepair, both shattered by the heroes’ miracle and having spent the… what has it been, three? five? years since you’ve been indisposed. However, at the barest of minimums, you can be sure that its necromantic power should still be sufficient to keep any flies away, at the very least up until the level of a four star aura user or 6th circle mage. You shake your head, ridding your mind of unnecessary thoughts as you head towards the resting place of the former housing of your soul.Though it is no longer connected to you, there is, deep in the core of your essence, a tug towards the hidden location of your Phylactery. While the sensation might be faint, it’s almost like a phantom limb, a memory of a sensation so powerful that you can still feel it lingering, cloying, an unscratchable itch buried beneath your new skin compelling you to return to that place and resolve the matter for good. Your living legs and undead instinct take you northwest— if you were to proceed forever, you’d eventually meet the icy coast at the very outskirts of the Confederation of Free Cities, a state less like a nation and more like a trade union, a key mercantile center connecting the continent of Kiel to the western continents across the sea. Still, you aren’t going there to trade, not to confront the beasts and demons infesting the parts of the world so close to the Northern Wastes. You’re there for your Phylactery, nothing more and nothing less.You pause for a moment, an unfamiliar ache in your legs and a deep emptiness in your spirit. You check your mana, but it seems at full capacity. What could it..?You hear your stomach growl. You look blankly at the dead grass beneath your boots for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh: you have a living body now. You need food and rest. Rummaging through your satchel, you remove a folded construct of cloth and metal and an unassuming brown pouch. You throw the construct, a low level magic item that expands into a thermoregulated tent, onto the earth below. You watch with some satisfaction as your engineering springs to life, the solid aluminum rods telescoping outwards into long, curved arches, the cloth seeming to unfold beyond possibility as it wraps the entire structure, leaving you with a large, insulated tent. This is Creation Magic, specifically a Schematica spell (as opposed to a construct) that uses existing materials in the environment to make something according to the spell’s schematic. While you weren’t able to cast it yourself, it was still possible to use Imbuement to put the circles onto a magic item so long as your understanding was sufficient and the spell was weak enough. You place a magic lamp on the ground, lighting up the now darkened space with a soft blue luminance.
>>6330838You shrug, ending your musings and looking at the bare floor below. You would have liked to include a bed as well, but it would have taken too much space. Still, there’s a decent bit of grass here, so you might be able to do something decent with it. You smile, a childlike glee bubbling up in your body as you prepare to cast your first ever creation spell. You pull out your notes, reading and rereading one of the notes you left alongside your Instant Tent, committing it to memory before extending the tip of your staff towards the ground.<Third Circle Creation Spell: Grass Bed>If you had just been trying to make a pile of grass, or even weave it into a blanket, that sort of party trick could have been accomplished with a mere first level creation spell, or even just performed manually if you really felt like it. This, however, is something entirely different. Purple mana begins to accumulate at the gemstone core at the tip of your staff, filtering into a brilliant gold as it demonstrates a schematic of a cotton mattress and blanket. Fundamentally, you have found, plants are 90% composed of some ratio of the same two things: water, and some substance you’ve been referring to as ‘plant essence’. Indeed, in your experimentations, it seems to be the case that everything, from wood, to grass, to cotton, to the stems and leaves of bushes and flowers, is all almost entirely composed of the same substance arranged in different manners. You aren’t entirely sure how exactly it works, but you have theorized that, because of this fact, it’s possible to make the products of any one plant with the products of any other, give or take some ambient materials you might find in the environment already. Glee and pride burn in your chest as you finally get to prove your theory without question, effortlessly creating fine cotton products from mere grass. With satisfaction, you flop down onto the mattress, enjoying the comfort of your very first rest as you pull your freshly minted blankets up to your chin.Truly, the great Lich King Atrebor was an unparalleled genius.—
>>6330839The Lich King Atrebor was a fucking idiot.You open up your bag of rations, food pills optimized to help with everything from recovering injuries to recuperating mana to fully satisfying even an entire day of hunger with a single dose. As you made them, you thought to yourself, Truly, these are the pinnacle of nutrition. With this, I have made all other foods obsolete!How foolish you had been.As a lich, you lacked a nose, a tongue, and both of the senses that these things provided. As you open up your pouch of “food”, you’re met with a truly dreadful admixture of smells: one part bitter, processed alchemical tincture, one part sickly-sweet sugars, one part hard liquor, one part rancid grain, and one part pungent, near vomit-inducing animal fats. Your fingertips tremble as you pluck one of the rations from its container, resisting the urge to throw up the limited contents of your stomach as you cram the greasy, unspeakably awful “food” down your gullet.—You wake up in the middle of the night to the faraway sounds of clinking armor and muffled conversation, your enhanced Godborn senses allowing you to pick up sounds so distant even some beastkin might have missed them. Adventurers? Maybe, but regardless, they’re heading towards you, and based on how they’re talking about your tent their intentions don’t seem good. You grab your staff, prepare for an exit, and consider your options.>Launch a surprise attack >Scare them off with a spell>Pack your tent away and flee>Go out to negotiate>Write-in
>>6330837Also, it doesn't escape me that our lich form had its core in its chest (which is optimized for might, according to QM) and that we seemed to have been a mage. Was that a purposeful minmaxxing thing ('Aha, I will have my core in my chest to maximize durability!') or did we once have a more martial bent? Maybe we should've just thrown hands with the hero instead of showing off our fancy new Origin Magic.
>>6330843To clarify on this point, a lich actually still casts magic using its phylactery, with core proximity to the head no longer being necessary for its puppet body since it doesn't have a brain. Since the point of the conduit core is to move the bones in the way muscles would and transmit the magic and intent from the phylactery through the new body, it's optimal to put your skeletal body's core in your ribcage (though some liches with more pride in the notion of being mages will still put their conduit core into their skull anyway). Atrebor has no knowledge of martial arts and, indeed, a lich lacks the bodily function needed to perform them.
>>6330842>>Go out to negotiateI want our chronically out of touch with the youth (the living) MC to try and communicate before blasting them away, because it'll be funny.
>>6330846Thanks for the clarification! I presume you mean martial arts as in 'anime sword cut from 50 ft away' and not 'karate', though, unless we were simply very physically frail as a lich and compensated with magic. Hey, maybe that's something else we could work towards now that we're alive again. Try and figure out how martial arts work, see if we can't broaden our knowledge base even further.
>>6330849Yes, I am specifically referring to aura techniques and the swordsmanship of this world, which necessitate both a mana core (ideally in the chest) and musculature, nerves, etc. in order to be coherent. If you had wanted to, you could have learned the motions without actually being able to use the real techniques, but you considered that both a waste of time and an entirely undesirable experience
>>6330851The only uses I could think of for it while we were still a lich is either somehow creating a bone-based martial art or, more likely, using it to fuck with heroes by going through the motions and then cackling before we just cast a spell instead.
>>6330842>Launch a surprise attackThese guys are hosers, I say we kill them and eat their cores
>>6330842>>Launch a surprise attacki crave the discourse
>>6330842>Launch a surprise attackMurder
>>6330842>>Go out to negotiate
>>6330842>Go out to negotiate
>>6330842>Go out to negotiateI shall break the tie here and now.Any bandits worth their salt would be expecting a surprise attack when approaching a tent with unscrupulous intention, and even the most mildew-brained tactician would have a reserve force waiting to see if anything goes wrong with the forward party.
Alright, looks like we've got: 5 (deleted to avoid spam filter)For negotiate and>>6330858>>6330867>>6330868For surprise attackNegotiation wins. Writing now (most weekdays won't have morning updates, but today is a holiday here in the us so I have some time off)
>>6331034You step out of your tent into the misty dark, cloak billowing behind your staff glows with power, a radiant purple star in the moonlit night. You cast the first level Imbuement spell <Snake’s Eyes>, the warm bodies approaching in the distance now lit in reds and yellows. As anticipated, there are three in the ‘main’ force and two others hiding away amongst the rocks and dead foliage. You see their forms pause, seemingly having been put on high alert by your use of spellcraft. You frown as you consider the mana signatures— four of them have mana cores, with two mages of high first or low second circle, and two first star martial fighters. The last one has no mana core, so they’re probably either a thief or a priest. This is no ordinary gang of bandits— you’re confident that this is a rogue adventuring party.From what you know of human culture, Adventurers are strictly forbidden from using violence against members of the races of man, with the exceptions of either a guild mandated request, seeing an obvious crime by the standards of the country they inhabit, or a clear-cut case of self defense. However, some people who gain strength via these pursuits are less than satisfied with that strict regulation, desiring instead to lord that power over the weak. This makes one a ‘rogue adventurer’, a criminal in every guild affiliated country with a bounty and a kill-on-sight order for any adventurer who sees them.You mentally prepare attack magic as you step towards the group; this party is more than powerful enough to take down even a skilled third circle mage in a life or death brawl, but they couldn’t do so without serious casualties. If it’s you, with your centuries of combat experience and knowledge of all eight schools of magic, you’re confident that you can win, but you can’t deny that the risk of losing is high enough to at least be worth considering.“Hello, gentleman… and lady,” You call towards the group, a placid smile on your face, “I understand that you came here to kill me in my sleep and rob me of my valuables, no?”
>>6331041You see the mage, a scruffy, thin little thing no taller than five feet, ready his wand, “I’m not a girl, you bitch.”“I didn’t mean you,” you smile, pointing your staff at the mage hidden in the trees, “I mean her.”You see the man who seems to be the leader, a towering half-beastman by the looks of his teeth and lion-esque mane, widen his eyes in shock, seemingly flustered that his tactic had been seen through so easily. He points the tip of his spear at you, his voice a low, threatening growl, “I can’t tell if you’re cocky or just stupid, walking up to us knowing that we have such a high numerical advantage.”“Well, I came here to negotiate.” you declare, pointing your staff back at the beast and exerting your power, demonstrating both the quantity of mana you possess and the control you have over it, “A fight wouldn’t benefit either of us. Even if you lot somehow slay me, I can promise you that no more than two of your five will walk away with their lives.”You see the leader look to the mage, who replies with a grim nod, “...you, Georg, and Irene might survive if we fight perfectly, but she’s not bluffing. She’s a fully fledged third circle mage at least.”“Discerning!” you grin, your eyes curving up in glee as you give your first genuine expression of joy in centuries, “I like this one. If you want, I can teach you magic.”“You’re only one circle ahead of me!” he grimaces.“My knowledge is immense. I’m only really limited by my mana. Besides… you’re a gutter mage, aren’t you? Even if I were second circle, I’d have something to teach you.”Gutter mages— magic practitioners with no formal education, from the tower or even from a half-decent master. Instead, they learn from others in the slums, their spellcraft pieced together entirely from whatever tatters and scraps happen to land there, spread around through informal teaching or exchange of copies. While they can still cast spells to a decent extent, especially if they’re as talented as this kid seems to be, their <Grammar>, the construction of their spell phrases that allow one to cast, is almost always pretty poor, leading to costlier magic with weaker effects.“No dice.” the leader interrupts, “He stays with us.”
>>6331045You shrug, letting out a small sigh of disappointment before turning your attention back to the matter at hand. It seems like, despite the young mage’s words, the party of rogues is still fully considering launching a surprise attack. You get the impression that even if you leave them be now, you might have to deal with them later if you don’t placate them.“Well, that’s fine. You guys are bandits, no? In that case, you should let me pass in one piece if I pay your toll.”“We’re not— fuck, whatever, fine. What do you have?”“Ah, of course, once you accept, I’ll have you swear on your cores not to attack me for at least a week, unless it’s in self defense.”“...depends on what you have to offer.”>Offer to imbue some of their equipment with spells and buffs>Give them your book of low level spells, prepared in case your memory loss was worse than anticipated>Give them your remaining monster cores>Offer to make the young mage a better wand>Write-in
>>6331046>>Offer to make the young mage a better wandOur SECOND Creation spell! Woo-hoo! And I'd really like an apprentice, lets give him a boost just in case we find this group elsewhere...Also, nice art.
>>6331051This, but we obviously subtly curse the wand so that he has to come crawling back to us in a couple weeks for help
>>6331046>>Offer to imbue some of their equipment with spells and buffs
>>6331046>Blow the head off the leader to make a point then offer to make the young mage a better wand
>>6331046>>Offer to make the young mage a better wandSupport the idea of cursing the wand a little. Just a little, for funsies. Maybe make it a two-way communicator so when they inevitably get folded we can take the mage under our wing.
>>6331046>Offer to make the young mage a better wand
>>deleted to dodge spam filterFour (plus this guy who's got murder on his mind >>6331176) for building a wand, and >>6331083For an imbuement offerProceeding with the wand. Writing now.
>>6331342You tilt your head forward, keeping your staff clutched tightly in your hands as you turn your eyes across the landscape around you. “Your wand, young mage, is barely better than a stick. How about I grant you a proper one? That should increase his firepower, and thereby usefulness to you merry band of thieves, by a significant extent.”“...I’m not swearing on a benefit I won’t see,” the female mage reveals herself, a faint shimmer of scales beneath her eyes betraying a small fragment of Seafolk blood, “If you want my oath, I’ll need something too.”You look the woman up and down, casually discerning her. Her mana is solid, and it seems by her poise and her staff, a real implement of magic instead of the borderline forgery that the young mage has in his hands, that she has had at least some formal background in magic. “Your specialty is Divination, no?”“...kind of racist to assume.”“I didn’t guess that because you’re a… grandchild… of the sea,” you frown, “I can see the mana in your core. You have a <Favored School>.”“Just who are you?”“A wandering scholar.” you smile, “Regardless, you should know better than anyone— your talent as a mage is unexceptional at best. Honestly, it’s a feat that you’ve gotten this far.”She grits her teeth, her staff angling towards you as she trembles with silent fury.“You seem to have taken it the wrong way. Far from a condemnation, I genuinely find your efforts commendable. I have something to share with you, a master of working hard.”You use the butt of your staff to draw a circle in the dirt, precise, almost geometrical in its perfection despite the rough method of inscription. “This spell is called <Embody Ally>. It’s a modified version of <Embody Familiar> that lets you have a similar mental link with another person, and their thoughts, instead of a familiar.”“...what’s the purpose of such a spell?”“Your friend here, he may know little, but his talent is undeniable. If you spend some time in his head, it’ll rub off on you— that intuition, that natural understanding of how magic and the world and his own experiences intersect. It’s no replacement for talent, but it’s the best option you have for now.”Her face flushes with shame and indignation, but even in the dark of the night, you can see her desperately studying the circle. “...The spell, it’s incomplete,” her frown deepens, “what are you–”
>>6331353“Naturally, a little sincerity is expected. Oath first, please.”“You still haven’t made my wand,” the young mage grunts.“One at a time.” you shake your head with a sigh— since when did mortals get so whiny? Back in your day... well, so be it.You pick a sensible stick off the ground, examining it slightly before using a basic Schematica spell to pare it down into a more ergonomic shape, as well as carving in the runes and features of the inbuilt magic you wanted to add. “Did you know?” you lecture, “The plant life here isn’t just dead. In fact, you might not have noticed, but these dead trees, all of the ones close enough to the Lich King’s castle, still grow.”The leader grimaces, a deep discomfort evident in his bestial face, “You don’t mean-”“That’s right!” you flash an uncanny grin, your golden irises seeming to glow in the bright light of the harvest moon, “Every piece of flora in the Lich King’s territory is Undead! The necromantic energy is strong enough to make it a suitable substitute for a monster piece or magic plant in wandmaking. You tried to rob me, but this wood might be almost as valuable as everything on me, save my notes and my staff. Anyway…”You fish two monster cores out of your bag, one a Plague Roach core, the same as the one you ate to create your mana core, and the other a Trioptic Dugong, a monster with the character of divination. You liquify the mana, countless threads stringing into and through the wood, sometimes without affecting the physical aspect of it at all, other times piercing, filling, adorning it, the grayish wood taking on a sleek black finish alongside a subtle pattern of twisting vines and runes for spellcraft engraved in a spiral pattern along its slender body.“This wand, a proper wand, has two additional functions. The first, a method by which you may communicate with me.” you inform him, leaving out that the function works both ways (and that the little wooden coin carved of the same wood sequestered in your sleeve can also serve to track his location), “The second? I left some homework.”“Homework?”“Unfinished spell circles,” you clap your hands together, eyes curving upwards into a smile that, while perhaps seeming kind on the outside, is dripping with smug, overbearing superiority, “designed to help you grow as a mage. Of course, while solving them might help you, none of the spells as presented can be completed to a practical extent by anything short of a genius mage.”
>>6331354There are a thousand curses and spells that control minds, puppeteer bodies, inflame desires or deceive the mind with illusions crafted to manipulate the actions of the target. However, of all these spells, centuries of research into the art of subjugating minds, never has any manner of relic nor spellcraft come close to the compelling force of a mage’s curiosity. The only way you won’t see this kid before you again, BEGGING for the privilege to learn magic from you, is if he dies an untimely death before he finishes the tasks you left in his wand. The leader, seeming suspicious but obviously lacking the insight to see through your scheme, instead asks “...whatever. Kid, Kiara, how’s the wand?”“...it’s perfect,” he replies, his mouth slightly agape as he looks at the item in your hands, “The materials are mediocre, but strictly in terms of craftsmanship, I’ve never seen its equal— no, that’s not right, I’ve never seen its equal this close up.”You lightly shrug— it’s a little annoying to hear that someone is better than you, but wandmaking was a hobby of yours, but it was never really your specialty.“Mine is better, but that’s purely material,” the woman, Kiara, concurs, “It’s dozens of times better than what we were expecting to get out of this. Certainly beats being on the receiving end of third circle magic.”“Well? What do you say, adventurers? Do we have a deal?”“...fine. You’ve bought yourself your week.”You gladly accept their oaths from the party, apparently calling themselves the Razorfang Rocs, handing over your petty boons and returning leisurely to your tent.—Dawn breaks, and you once again find yourself alone. There are no trace of the bandit party’s presence, not even a bootprint or snapped twig, aside from the reminders of your own actions that night. It seems the Rocs are quite the meticulous sort, despite their gruff exterior. That does leave you somewhat concerned, however— will such a careful bunch really leave a witness alone? You look around, casting divination magic to scan the nearby area for human presences. Curiously, you find many, a surprising notion considering the remoteness of the region and the lack of resources outside of undead wood. What could these people possibly want?>Meet with one of the parties and inquire>There seems to be a large camp a couple miles off course. Why not check there?>It’s better to avoid people if you can. Try to stay out of their way>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be it>Write-in
>>6331355>>There seems to be a large camp a couple miles off course. Why not check there?
>>6331355>There seems to be a large camp a couple miles off course. Why not check there?
>>6331355>>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be itHungry for phylactery
>>6331355>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be it>sing to pass the time (roll?)>consider something to ride to speed up this journey in this mortal body
>>6331355>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be itLet’s not tarry with the roaches here
>>6331355>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be it
>>6331399what you think of crafting something to ride to speed up our journey and entertaining yourself to spend the time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAN5O-S3_6Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4nssuQUHAQ
>>6331355>>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be itthis little encounter goes to show the necessity of getting stronger fast
>>6331355>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be itPowah
>>6331355>>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be it>sing to pass the time>Forgo the roll and have it sound terrible, because we've barely ever sang in our very, very long life>>6331405Support this idea if we can manage it, though.
>>6331485>>6331355Also QM, have to say I really like the spin you put on the idea of cursing the mages. Really gives the vibe of the MC being super smart if they know they don't have to use magic for everything.
>>6331486Or maybe super experienced is more correct. Knowledgeable? Been around the block enough times to know that magic isn't EVERYTHING when it comes to achieving your aims.
>>6331355>>There seems to be a large camp a couple miles off course. Why not check there?Get better clothes
>>6331355>There seems to be a large camp a couple miles off course. Why not check there?Let us see what all the fuss is about. It wouldn't be wise to travel without information. Also, this is a fine quest QM, very nice.
>>6331355>>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be itWe neef our power core back.
>>6331355>Make a beeline for your Phylactery. If you bump into someone, so be itScavengers, or contrarian cultists of yours truly, after the realm has no one to blame for society's ills, perhaps. No matter, onwards. Discovery won't matter, as long as we make it to our Phylactery first.
Testing ip
>>6331561Thank you! I've been really surprised so far at how positive the feedback has been. Glad everyone's enjoying the quest. Now, onto the votes (not even bothering with linking this time), we have>4For heading to camp, and>10For heading straight to the phylacteryPhylactery wins! Writing now.
>>6331748You decide not to bother with the interlopers one way or another, proceeding into the dense forest of gray, eerie trees without regard for their presence. As you step through the former woodland, the undead brambles part before you, the trees seeming to almost bow in your wake, subservient before the master of the realm. While you are charmed at their obedience, you do worry somewhat what an outside might think if they were to see. Thinking up some convincing lie about plant repellant life magic, you merrily hum to yourself, both as a form of voice training and just for the fun of it, dreaming of music the world has likely forgotten, one heard faintly from the gutter outside the symphony hall as those who could afford to see the real show enjoyed that ethereal glory. You try to capture that melody, but you find yourself falling surprisingly short.Minutes crawl into hours as you trek alone through the grim realm you left in your wake, eventually leading you to plop down upon a tree to rest your legs. You hadn’t picked this spot arbitrarily— your path was about to intersect with one of the groups you saw, a smaller one, only four strong, so you decided that you may as well observe them to see if they give you any useful hints about the circumstances. Plopping a food pill into your mouth with a scowl, you ready your staff, enshrouding yourself in a first level camouflage spell as the group passes by below your feet.You see three mages, all with a favored school of necromancy, and what a less educated observer would interpret as an escort knight. Well, he does seem to be a knight, you can see the cluster of mana in his chest with the divination spell you have active, but you can tell immediately that, despite the heaving of his chest and the warmth radiating from his skin, that man isn’t alive.It’s a common misconception that life and death are opposites, or at least adversaries, but both those who pursue magic and those who study theology both know that such a notion couldn’t be further from the truth.As the Primordial One lay dying, it is said that, from his final heartbeat, the Goddess of Life Demia was born. Then, from the silence that proceeded, death’s lord, Katellor, emerged. Though they could never meet, those two divinities shared a destiny, a touchless embrace where each yearned for nothing more than to be allowed to hold the other in their arms. Indeed, Life and Death are paired magics, with knowledge and skill in one allowing for breakthrough in the other, for they are equal partners in the same concept.
>>6331764You, Atrebor, were fascinated by this interplay. In your quest for the benefits of a breathing body without the constraints of age or mortal injury (even the godborn body you now inhabit is a sort of compromise on that ideal), you had considered the creation of an undead body, will centered in the magic core and puppeteerable via phylactery, while maintaining the physical strength and the capacity to convert the energy in food into the energy of heat, movement, and calculation held as a privilege of the living. The idea was inspired by Cogwork Golems an incredible synthesis of artifact, machinery, and golemmancy (a subset of life magic), which burns coal, boils steam, and converts that steam into movement, manipulating the limbs without a single drop of mana. The mana core serves as the control nexus as well as an enhancer, allowing for increased agility and strength, as well as a nigh indefinite range of imbued spells, functions now freed thanks to the core no longer being primarily used to puppeteer the golem.You created a similar concept, taking a person (living or freshly deceased), and first extracting the mana core, converting it via golemmancy into a golem nexus, then reinserting it and resuscitating the body. In short, while the process is fundamentally similar to creating an ordinary Flesh Golem, the outcome is an autonomous golem that is, in all physical respects, a living being. Breathing Golems, as you called them, were ultimately deemed useless in your pursuit of immortality, but were indispensable as spies, soldiers, or even temporary puppets to infiltrate human society personally.What’s troublesome is, you never revealed the method for creating these golems. While it seems simple, the timing is strict, and you had created a number of unique spells which were instrumental in the process. There are only two conclusions: either the governments of the world were careless enough to let this magic become common knowledge, or, far more likely, these necromancers have stolen one of your spellbooks.While these people are mighty, two third and one second circle mage, the fact alone that they are necromancers, and that they didn’t notice the backdoor you put in your Breathing Golem Nexus schematics, gives you odds of crushing them even better than your ones against the Rocs. Then again, they haven’t noticed you at all. Is it worth wasting your time and mana on this riff raff?>Launch a surprise attack (will necessitate a roll)>Stay hidden and listen in on their conversations>Greet them and barter for intel>Leave them be and continue your journey to the Phylactery>Write-in
>>6331764The cute and wholesome out of tune singing was included!And I'm more convinced than before that these are pillagers of our legacy, whether they be cultists or thieves, either way, they look for our remnants.>>6331766>Launch a surprise attack (will necessitate a roll)We'll talk, from a position of strength. They can catch us up. Since they are clearly fans of ours, they should have no issue licking our boots, if for no other reason than because we'll be pressing them on their heads if they don't.
>>6331766>Stay hidden and listen in on their conversations
>>6331788Support, we should learn more about the group and determine how many people know about our cool tricks. It is completely untenable that regular morons are out there FUTZIN’ UP our legendary technique
>>6331766>>Greet them and barter for intel
>>6331766>Stay hidden and listen in on their conversationsMight as well collect some info. Besides, the more Breathing Golems there are around, the more possibility to sow chaos and operate puppets.
>>6331766promising quest so far. did you run one before QM? >Stay hidden and listen in on their conversations
>>6331766>Greet them and barter for intelWe have a lot to offer, like their lives and health.
>>6331766>>Greet them and barter for intelAtrebor seems to have the charisma expected from a true villain, i say we use it all we can
>>6331860Wonder if breathing puppets mating makes more breathing puppets or if the child needs to be processed.Oh yeah we are in the body of a woman we can use our own body as a incubator more so with life magics now unlocked to us
>>6331889Bad anon! No degeneracy!
>>6331889If I was QM I would simply filter your ID from this point on, Jesus Christ, anon
>>6331894>>6331900We are a lich who does human experimentation and harvests souls not sure we have moral limits it has some bloodborne vibes of Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen, mother of Margo type deal our flesh body is just a tool a instrument for our will we are a body hopping energy who stereotypically has tons of homunculus to remote control with a phylactery
>>6331894Like are we able to fully go "no, i am not human" just widely infiltrate and replace humanoid species until towns turn to a critical mass where you no longer even have to pretend and act normal around non puppets, where puppets make more puppets a plague on the world where people turns against eachother out of fear and paranoia, where every word is dissected out of fear, if you get the ball rolling enough people will slaughter eachother without a blade drawn by any of your hands, imagine what you could do if its widespread enough no hero can do anything no matter with how singular and unique they are heroes, punch problems singular villains but can they punch away burned fields in the entire country and the people starve and peasants turn to banditry, it's not some disease they can bless away no enemy they can really fell by blade without slaughter. We do have kind of all the time in the world
>>6331862I have, yes.>>6331889If two breathing golems were to have a child, it would be identical to if both parents had been alive. Furthermore, immediate conversion would be impossible— members of the races of man, humans included, are born without a mana core, making them ineligible for Breathing Golem conversion. As a rule of thumb, less than 10% of the population have one, as meditation techniques aren't common knowledge and heart eating is both difficult to accomplish (either killing a monster or gaining a core some other way) and strictly illegal.Also, you, the great Immortal Atrebor, may not have ethics, but you DO have dignity— such debasing experimentation on your person is strictly out of the question.
Hey there Im new to the thread and pretty caught by the storytelling. >>6330294On the note on the body the litch now inhabits. Although there is a possibility that this body was made from scratch, as a necromancer its more likely a living or freshly deceased person was used in the creation of "plan B".If it were a person it raises the question of the identity of the bodies former inhabitant. Did our villain go the pragmatic way of kidnapping some random-healthy-farmgirl that will not be missed, or did he do what any stylish maniac would do and do this magic on someone of meaning, prize or importance. Someones relative? Captured member of the party of heroes? lol why not.As for >>6331766>Launch a surprise attack (will necessitate a roll)Talk from position of strength
>>6331934its sort of funny we jumped to a female body when it seems we where a male but damn if its not perfect to get someone off our trail >>6331931i see it only as Ourself as the clothes one wear whats on the surface does not matter beyond its utility as our bodies will be transient fleeting until our ultimate endless reign upon reality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJdFHQK7NXQsong for grave digging i foundhmmmm could be fun making breathing golems to such a degree we got endless time sort of our own cult or workforce hmmm perhaps making breathing golems of other species imagine how many we could make out of rats our own little spies or a biting swarm.hmmm alas this talk about our theory around plants being made out of this unified plant matter is interesting makes me wonder how much we know about cells could be fun to consider what is the smallest creature of all what is the smallest necromancy can make?could you sort of make living sand tiny bone constructs that crawl and act upon eachother and unleashing something like that into a river or desert to rip apart travelers to grind there bones into more of them self
>>6331766>Stay hidden and listen in on their conversationsthen potentially >Greet them and barter for intelbut only in this order
>>6331766>Stay hidden and listen in on their conversations>>6331889
>>6331889Honestly, I did expect this kind of insanity from this quest.
>>6331971>see it only as Ourself as the clothes one wear whats on the surface does not matter beyond its utility as our bodies will be transient fleeting until our ultimate endless reign upon reality.Your current body, while it might have started as an experience with fusing mortal biology with divine essence, is now considered by you to be 'your body', more equivalent to your former Phylactery than the puppet you used to move around and do stuff as the Lich King. Also, to answer >>6331934's question (thank you for picking up the quest btw) you grew this body yourself. 'Godborn' is not an existing species among the Races of Man.Anyway, looks like we have >2For surprise attack,>6For staying hidden and listening in, and>3For greeting themProceeding with the stealth choice. Writing now
>>6332203*experiment, not experienceJesus, I'm actually illiterate. An unfortunate thing for a qm to be
>>6332203You stay concealed by magic, your perfect spell manipulation easily outperforming any of the shoddy perception spells of these necromancers. You know their type, their cultlike worship of death and the mastery of it, eschewing the rest of magic, divination included, in favor of endlessly pursuing their narrow-minded pursuit. Many of this sort had approached you, seeking to worship or learn, and there was once a time when you humored them, even providing some level of instruction hoping to gain interesting insights on magic from a fresh, living perspective. As you watch these fools chatter, all but the seeming leader reveling in the glory of their stolen, poorly executed replication of your Living Golem spell, you can’t help but relive the disappointment you felt when you realized that, despite their dark robes and declarations to the contrary, the devout necromancer is no different from any other clergy. After all, the Living Golem is fundamentally a fusion magic, an interplay between Life and Necromancy, so it’s only natural that these half-baked mages would fail.“Have you traced the energy?” that leading mage, somber (or perhaps performatively stoic, you always were bad at discerning that sort of thing) asks one of his colleagues, keeping his eyes wandering around, searching for threats.“..no. It seems to have leaked out into the Realm itself instead of just the part where it exists. Maybe if we had more time…”Your eyes widen: you hadn’t noticed anything different about this place, but in retrospect, that’s weird right? This realm used to be your home, colored in your mana, so why would it maintain that same presence after your diminishment? It must be the case that your Phylactery chamber is leaking, eroded by the intense mana emitted by the destabilized, cracked cluster of power that once housed your soul.“We don’t have time to wait,” the leader scowls, “Sophien’s dogs are already hunting down Lord Atrebor’s remnants. If we waste time, they’ll destroy everything.”You feel your knuckles clench unconsciously around your staff. Sophien Dakia, third (and illegitimate) princess of the kingdom of Dakia, was the hero party’s mage, the one who was responsible for the illusion that let that wretch Michael land his killing blow. From the moment you were christened the Immortal King, all the way up until your death, that princess was the only person to fool you using magic. In your current state, even if you were to reclaim what was left of your Phylactery, you would have a better chance at toppling a mountain than defeating her. “We have time,” the third necromancer, a short man with a wide figure, his extraordinary portliness visible even through his pitch-black robes, interjects, “Dakia hates necromancy. They won’t have the know-how to–”
>>6332208“Sophien has come personally,” the leader’s frown deepens in unconcealed annoyance, “We can’t afford any more delays.”You close your own eyes, seeing if you could identify the location of your Phylactery even though the seal on the chamber containing it had decayed. You shake your head— the failsafe left in place seems to have worked as intended, dispersing the excess into the Realm itself and allowing the mana to seep into the undead flora. Still, if Sophien is here, you can’t afford to tarry: you must secure the phylactery before they find it.Still, the existence of these necromancers is troubling: even if you got noticed by someone, you were confident that nobody would suddenly guess that you were the Lich King Atrebor. However, if there are others clambering after your remains to empower their necromancy or even attempt a revival of your consciousness, there is suddenly a significant risk involved in the pursuit. Particularly, even ignoring Sophien for a moment, her elite guard, or potentially even another member of the former heroes’ party, would spell death for you if a confrontation were to erupt. You clench your teeth, watching the necromancers pass by as you consider your options. What do you do?>Turn and leave— your phylactery is nice to have, but it isn’t worth risking a scuffle with Sophien>Head for the camp: you can gain intel on whatever forces are present and how you could talk your way out of it if you get caught>Try to manipulate the necromancers into creating a distraction>Kill the necromancers (will require a roll)>Head for the Phylactery anyways, avoiding people along the way (will require a roll)>Write-in
>Head for the Phylactery anyways, avoiding people along the way (will require a roll)
>>6332209>>Try to manipulate the necromancers into creating a distraction
>>6332218Could we not basically join up with them to cause this if we can figure out there goal to either consume our core or trying to revive "us" they seem like tools to use
>>6332223these guys are best used as cannon fodder, i don't really care to make rapport with them. i think Atrebor could use illusions to trick them without needing to reveal herself...
>>6332223I agree. They probably won't buy us being Atrebor ourself, but if we pretend we're a particularly dedicated servant that knows everything there is to know about ourselves we can probably recruit them.
>>6332209>Try to manipulate the necromancers into creating a distractionIf the distraction doesn't work, I think I'm okay with backing down and looking for an alternative method to regain our strength. An encounter with Sophien or her elite guard would spell disaster and I don't think we could do anything against them save bluff.
>>6332209>Try to manipulate the necromancers into creating a distraction
>>6332209>Try to manipulate the necromancers into creating a distractionSurely we can wrest control of their shoddy golem and then use it to bait Sophien’s forces? These guys will flee, leading her away from the chamber, giving us time to recover it
>>6332279They may need something more as assistance they alone are not a worthy foe that would serve as enough of a distraction we may need some sort of effigy or flare to draw the attention magically remotely perhaps a creature/construct with a greater concentration or a void of it of the passive energy of our domain to act as mobile beacon that screams "phylactery is here" some lich looking but decrepit thing or something mobile like a deer to run in the woods
>>6332209>>Head for the camp: you can gain intel on whatever forces are present and how you could talk your way out of it if you get caught
>>6332209>Head for the Phylactery anyways, avoiding people along the way (will require a roll)
>>6332209>Try to manipulate the necromancers into creating a distractionIf they can distract Sophien long enough we can do a quick grab and run.
>>6332209>> Try to manipulate the necromancers into creating a distractionAs >>6332227 said: Pretend we're a particularly dedicated servant.
>1For heading to camp, >2For heading to the phylactery, and>6For using the necromancers as a distraction. Writing now.
>>6332649“You seem troubled, gentlemen.”You emerge from the concealing embrace of your magic, the thin streams of sunlight streaming through the canopy darkening as a thick mist begins to leak from your staff, keeping the sounds trapped inside as it encompasses the four of you (not counting the golem, of course). The necromancers rouse in varying degrees of panic, the leader being the quickest on the uptake as he brandishes his own blood red staff at your head.“Who are you, and what do you want?” he asks, seemingly not underestimating you despite the seeming gap in fighting power between their party and you.“Your Breathing Golem is constructed poorly. The Nexus engravement was slipshod at best. If you leave it like this, the poor thing is going to explode before Sophien’s magic can even touch it.”“You–” his face warps, mana collecting at the crystal protruding from his staff, “how the hell did you know about the Living Golem?”“Master Atrebor was a lover of side projects,” you flash a warm smile, keeping your eyes fixed upon the magic of the party members as they brandish their spells like children playing with sticks, “I was one. Something halfway between a servant and an experiment.”“How… no, it makes sense.” he nods to himself, “Nobody else would be skilled enough in Necromancy to correct me on its application.”You can’t help but let your true emotions leak into your voice, a faint frown stretching across your mouth as you correct this wayward mage, “Your necromancy isn’t the problem. I shouldn’t have to explain this, but the absolute foundation of a Living Golem is Golemmancy. Life Magic. Necromancy, in this case, was merely a means to that end.”“This is the pinnacle of Necromancy!” the portly lackey interjects, “Calling it mere golemmancy is–”“Mere Golemmancy?” you feel a deep seated frustration boil in your gut, but ultimately decide to let it pass. After all, these fools are little more than sacrificial pawns anyway. You place your staff onto the armored chest of the puppeteered knight, adjusting the engraving and stabilizing the immediate damage, “...Anyway, the core is fixed. If you ever wish to attempt this again, please consider studying Life magic properly.”“What do you want from us, servant of the Lich King?” the leader of the group recenters, still evidently on edge, “What do you gain?”"The Lich King may have passed, but that is not where it ends." you reply, filling your voice with a conviction and remorse you do not possess, "If we gain his remains, maybe he can be revived! No, even if he can't, we owe it to Master Atrebor to recover his work and continue his research. It would be his greatest shame if his knowledge were to die with him.""...suppose we believe you." he sighs, seemingly falling for it hook, line, and sinker, "How exactly can you help us?"
>>6332656>”I’m here to guide you to the phylactery.” (use them to lure the pursuers to your decoy chamber>”I’m here to lend you his power.” (use 3 monster cores to create Berserk Tonics, increasing their mana and physical acumen at the cost of their sanity)>”I’m here to teach you a helpful spell.” (teach them magic that allows them to strengthen their spells, but at the cost of their life force)>”I’m here to give you a useful item.” (use one monster core to create a “tuning fork” that leads them directly into where Sophien’s troops are projected to be instead of the Phylactery)>Write-in
>>6332657>”I’m here to guide you to the phylactery.” (use them to lure the pursuers to your decoy chamberWe can potentially throw Sophien off our tracks. Ultimately, no matter how empowered, some poorly educated acolytes are not going to harm who truly matters. They could distract peons, giving a gap, but we have a chance to affect the heroes view of how their cleanup operation against us is going. Big picture versus culling some extra chaff.
>>6332657>”I’m here to guide you to the phylactery.” (use them to lure the pursuers to your decoy chamberBest choice of the bunch by a wide margin
>>6332657>”I’m here to lend you his power.” (use 3 monster cores to create Berserk Tonics, increasing their mana and physical acumen at the cost of their sanity)They might not be able to harm Sophien, but she’ll still have to divert to protect civilians. If we lead them to the decoy chamber and don’t kill them they’ll be loose ends.
>>6332657>>”I’m here to guide you to the phylactery.” (use them to lure the pursuers to your decoy chamber
>>6332657may i suggest another option to combo with the guiding to the false location is to make a golem/construct flare distraction.the more distraction we got going on the better.makes it seem like the construct is a distraction for the necromancers when the necromancers are actually a distraction for us
>>6332657>”I’m here to guide you to the phylactery.” (use them to lure the pursuers to your decoy chamber
>>6332657>”I’m here to give you a useful item.” (use one monster core to create a “tuning fork” that leads them directly into where Sophien’s troops are projected to be instead of the Phylactery)
>>6332907That one's like the worst of both worlds - Sophien doesn't have to divert at all to apprehend them, and they're still alive and in full possession of their wits. They'll quickly realize they were tricked and spill everything they know, putting Sophien on our trail.
>>6332657>WRITEIN: Por Que No Los Dos?>>”I’m here to guide you to the phylactery.” (use them to lure the pursuers to your decoy chamber>”I’m here to teach you a helpful spell.” (teach them magic that allows them to strengthen their spells, but at the cost of their life force)"It will not work against Sophien herself, but if her dogs arrive ahead of you, you may be able to... flush them out."The idea being that it'll make them a tougher nut to crack and draw her attention by seeming more powerful than they are.
Seems like >7For false phylactery,>1For Berserk Tonic>1For useful item, and>1For both the Phylactery and the spellProceeding with the decoy. Writing now.
>>6333240The leader’s eyes widen at your offer, briefly leaking a childlike excitement before narrowing back into suspicion. “Why would you tell us this? Wouldn’t you want to guide us there and claim your share of the Lich King’s inheritance?”“Sophien is here.” you placidly reply, an almost saintly serenity on your face as you sign their death warrants, “My master gave me a firm directive to prioritize my own life. While I’d like to help recover his legacy, I cannot defy that final wish.”“..suppose we believe you. How can we find it?”You smile, fishing an ivory compass from your bag. “This will lead you to the source of the necromantic energy.” you half-honestly reply, “If you wish, you can confirm as much through your own divination.” Of course, such dilettante necromancers will undoubtedly fall prey to the deception you’d woven into the bedrock of these lands, the overflow seeping the mana into the world, but most directly and potently into the false Phylactery chamber, a giant, elaborate trap designed to kill anyone who wished to harm you. If you could use these bastards to lead Sophien there, in the best case scenario, you might even kill her in the process.“If we meet again, we will repay this favor,” the mage bows, his subordinates clumsily following suit before the three of them turn to leave.“Just one more thing, gentlemen.” you smile, sinister mana leaking out from your body as countless threadlike strands of mana, invisible to the naked eye and even the untrained Divination mage, erupt from your staff and bury themselves in their heads. You press your fingertip into your lips, briefly taken with the odd sensation of finding plush flesh there before refocusing on the matter at hand, “You do not remember anything about me, aside from the fact that I gave you that compass and am a remnant of Atrebor’s work. Beyond that, forget it all, ok?”A third circle spell based on higher level words and principles, a degraded version of <Mind Erasure> you’ve been calling <Web of Unknowing>, a precision spell capable of erasing minor details not central to a person’s core development or personality and in a manner that doesn’t break their reality. Its applications are limited, but it’s perfect for cleaning up your tracks.You pop your hood over your golden hair and vanish back into the mist. After all, you have better things to do than watch over the travels of four walking corpses.—
>>6333241You made it here first.You slip into a pile of black sludge, a tainted marsh at first glance, that serves as the secret entrance to your tomb given the correct series of glyphs drawn across its mucky surface. You emerge in the pitch-black catacombs completely clean, your staff your only source of light as you proceed deeper into the winding halls.The chamber is surprisingly small in terms of places that matter, the rest being mere defenses, traps, or seals, most of which have been degraded in the presumed explosion brought by the cracking of your Phylactery. Since you know the correct route, you quickly and easily make your way to the Atrium, the resting place of the former house of your soul, alongside your most dangerous research.The room is surprisingly austere, a cracked gemstone across a gilded marble podium the only visage of luxury, the rest being a spartan assortment of chests and bookcases containing failed or sealed experiments, theories, and knowledge. Left is the Phylactery, a massive chunk of mana even after its degradation. Powerful enough to leave you prone for an unpredictable amount of time, or possibly even cause your body to fall apart in the worst case scenario. What is there to be done?>Consume the entire phylactery (requires a roll, will take time)>Consume a safe percentage of the phylactery>Use the phylactery as an ingredient for a new staff (will take time)>Use the phylactery as fodder for a ritual against Sophien (will take time)>Take the phylactery with you>Destroy the phylactery>Write-in
hmmm can it be stabilized holes patched to stop further degradation in the form of leakage
>>6333243>>Consume the entire phylactery (requires a roll, will take time)just wing it
>>6333243Given that it is leaking, we shouldn't take it with us. We'll have to hope the distraction throws Sophien off our tracks permanently, but that isn't likely given that the land will still remain tainted, giving up the game ultimately.>Consume a safe percentage of the phylactery>Use the phylactery as an ingredient for a new staff (will take time)Sorry if multiple choices isn't allowed or is awkward.However, I feel like this is best. Absorb some power so we recuperate some of our original strength, while turning the rest into a staff. This negates the danger of the toll it could take on our body, and while it could still take time, we have the option of aborting without being incapacitated, which may not be possible should we attempt to absorb all of the phylactery and do not roll well. Another consideration that pushes me towards this is the assumption that our staff wouldn't leak, whereas just leaving the phylactery here to absorb later, would. This could create a negative scenario where we are forever tempted to come back here for the easy power up, but by then Sophien could have discovered the phylactery and easily set up a trap of her own. Which is why I think we should use all of the mana and then never return.I'm tempted to even split it three ways between consuming safe portion, making a new staff, and going for a ritual to be used against Sophien. If we time the ritual well, we could potentially have it go off just as she discovers our fake phylactery, combined together, they could seriously injure or kill her, or a good chunk of her elite forces.Fretting over putting our power into an item external to us and it not being 'attached' or 'permanent' is fruitless, we should have our staff in most scenarios. It's our best chance to safely preserve most of our power.
>>6333243>Consume a safe percentage of the phylactery>>Use the phylactery as an ingredient for a new staff (will take time)
>>6333243>Consume a safe percentage of the phylacteryI would support taking a sip of its power immediately and then trying to patch it up for transport for full digestion later
>>6333243>Consume the entire phylactery (requires a roll, will take time)go big or go home
>>6333267Support the double idea. Although with the addendum that we miiiiiight try sneaking an extra nibble here and there as is possible and push the limit of 'safe'.>>6333241Also, nice art QM! At first I thought you might've just snagged some surprisingly-fitting art and made the description of our stuff and outfit after, but I have to compliment your artistry.
>>6333241Yeah, this >>6333409 I'm surprised you managed to capture the kind eyes bit. Even the second pic sorta has the kind eyes and a kind of innocent look, while still maintaining the underlying evil genius and smugness. The smile in particular, with the 'shh' finger really works, as does the blush and the eyes that look like they have flames in them.
>>6333243>Use the phylactery as fodder for a ritual against Sophien (will take time)Die bitch
>>6333267I agree with this double action. +1
>>6333243>Consume the entire phylactery (requires a roll, will take time)>>6333267Put our hard earned power and soul into some stick? I think not.
>>6333243>>Consume the entire phylactery (requires a roll, will take time)yummy
>>6333547It would hardly be just a stick if it has our power and soul in it, now would it? But anyways, much of our power has already leaked out, the point is to avoid being incapacitated while our enemy is hunting us. For all we know, the process of absorption could alert people to our presence, or at least failure might. And we had the option of heading east, to the where 'the greatest magic tower on the continent' is located, we could always absorb magic there. We're immortal, we have all the time in the world to regain power.
>>6333243>Consume the entire phylactery (requires a roll, will take time)Its just what a power hungry lich would do
>Consume a safe percentage of the phylactery
>>6333409>>6333422Thank you! I'm flattered that you thought the illustrations were good enough to have been taken from somewhere online. Shattered Phylactery will never be a true drawquest, but I will chuck in an illustration or two whenever I feel so inclined.Anyway, regarding the votes, I'm actually at a bit of an impasse. To start, this >>6333267 is a feasible write-in (though multiple actions will obviously take more time. Now, looking at the votes, we have:>5For the entire phylactery>2For eating the safe percentage without the write-in>4For eating a safe percentage with the write-in, and, finally>1Glorious vengeful soul, voting to burn the phylactery to attack SophienNow, taken collectively, the Safe Percentage votes have it. Taken separately, it goes to the whole thing. I'm going to leave the vote open for a little while longer, and, if nothing changes, I'll proceed with safe percentage and do a revote on whether to turn the rest into a staff or use it for something else.
Id like to put one more consideration out there that could argue for consuming as much of the phylactery as possible.There is a chance that, besides raw power, the object also contains some of our lost memory of our old body. There are other sources of power, but limited sources that help us regain our lost knowledge.Although raw spellpower is great, to me it sounds like a part of the effective power of Atrebor was due to understanding and control. Seeing how Atrebor had phylacteries and this backup body as failsafes, he is the kind of person taking risk/safety into account. So in that sense eating the enitre phylactery with disregard of risk would not not fit. Also: maybe he learnt a valuable lesson about how arrogance/disregard turned out in his previous encounter with dangerous opponents. Id be ok with changing my vote full on phylactery to a substantial but safe amount. Remain able to fight/run.
>>6333800That's true, there is the aspect of our recollection stat. Though you can argue that if our motive ever settled on happiness, we'd have a reason for not pursuing recollection as hard. The mechanical benefits for gaining more of our lost memories are tempting, I admit.I will argue that it might be possible to unravel our staff later, and get the memories and power within anyways. We'd be keeping the power mobile at least, whereas if we just leave it here leaking, Sophien and her minions are gonna keep lurking in the area until they find it. Even if they assume the fake phylactery was the real deal, once they notice there is still leakage and the land is still corrupted, they may stay to hunting down servants of ours or remaining 'secondary' phylacteries.
>>6333800>>6333802I would just generally point out that imbuing some object with a huge chunk of our power while we’re sort of mid to low tier seems like a bad long term play.Much better to directly invest in ourselves and then we’ll be able to create some legitimate epic loot once we’re back to “full” strength
>>6333812I understand that, but there's a certain point where you have to hedge your bets; Sure, it's worse long-term to imbue the power into a new staff (or something else for that matter if QM allows, I'd LOVE to have a ring instead for the LOTR reference)... but it's even worse long-term to eat the phylactery, and then (worst case) "cause your body to fall apart" which sounds very unpleasant at best. Only slightly better is eating the phylactery, then passing out and waking up in a dungeon because Sophien's lads managed to find us (or simply not waking up because they kill us while asleep).If we had the time I'd totally vote for eating the whole thing, but right now we're on a TIGHT schedule with active hostiles in the area including someone who we "would have a better chance at toppling a mountain than defeating" even if we got our phylactery back. Right now our most valuable resource is time, and consuming the phylactery in whole might spend too much.
>>6333909yeah idk, why did we go through the trouble of making a distraction and settle for less? trying to eat the phylactery safely and making it into a staff is also risking sophien finding us because that's doing two different things with almost no overlap, except without the added benefits of accessing higher tier spells. look at what atrebor can pull off with just a fifth of her arsenal, even if we can't beat the lady with the phylactery we should very well be able to give her the slipand if you are scared we are gonna roll badly then get over it? it's a bit early to get paranoid
>>6333802>> I will argue that it might be possible to unravel our staff later, and get the memories and power within anywaysYou make fair points. Power we cannot safely absorb without getting incapacitated for significant times we might as well put into an object. Leaving it will likely get it stolen or destroyed. >>6333909 A ring would also be nice
>>6333789I'm in favor of QM rolling 1d2 for a tie breaker so we can keep a consistent update schedule In this case I say there's more votes for>Consume the entire phylactery (requires a roll, will take time)
>>6333915With the two options combined, yes the time spent is more or less the same, but without the risk of being incapacitated. If we sense intruders after having safely absorbed as portion of power but before the staff is complete, then we can abort the process, to fight or flee rather than ending up in at best a more powerful but physically weary state (like last time, when we rolled exceptionally well).The distraction allowed us to reach our phylactery without a roll, otherwise we'd have to roll to dodge patrols, see >>6332209Again to reiterate, making the staff is as much to put the phylactery's power into a mobile item that doesn't leak as it is to make use of the power. The alternative if one wants to play it safe like I and seemingly several other players want to, is to absorb a safe amount and then either leave the phylactery here leaking, or destroy it. Destroying it is a waste, but leaving it is likely the same as handing it over to Sophien to be trapped for when we return, or have her use it to track us somehow, or use it for herself.Also, staff or not, it's the same amount of mana regardless. I'm sure we can put that mana to very good use in a staff, even if we don't get the benefits of recollection, etc.>>6333918I do wish QM just made a decision or rolled, yeah. To keep a consistent pace. Disagree on the votes though, I don't think that players voting for the safe percentage + staff have their support contingent on including the staff. It seems pretty clear cut to me, 6 people want a safe percentage, unless they indicate otherwise, with QM's idea for a follow up vote solving the issue of if we want to risk going all the way, or going for a staff or whatever.
>>6333909Staves, wands, etc are considered Casting Focuses, through which a mage can concentrate and amplify their magic. The shape is actually a part of this process, kinda acting like a pen in the case of a Wand or the barrel of a rifle in the case of a Staff, the former being ideal for aiding in precision and the latter being better at packing more mana into their spellcraft. Atrebor prefers a staff, since her incredible knowledge and meticulous precision make the benefits of a wand redundant.Of course, it is very possible to imbue that power into a ring, but it would be as an imbued artifact rather than a casting focus. Imbuement is incredibly diverse, so if that's the preference I'll append a functionality vote as well.>>6333918>>6333935I'd have rolled for it last night if it truly were even but, as both of you seem to have now learned, which option should win was actually kind of a dilemma. I understand wanting to keep the schedule at a nice clip, but I decided it would be better to leave such an important vote hanging for a while longer instead of just unilaterally deciding it then and there.
>>6333915What the other anon said; if we think it's getting hairy out there while making the staff (or other item! Nice to know that's an option, QM!), then we can just smash what's left of the phylactery and dip or fight our way free instead of being unconscious, aka, a gift-wrapped package to get nabbed.
>>6333977i would think falling unconscious requires us to roll terriblyand we still have a good distraction going for this reason
>>6333243>Consume the entire phylactery (requires a roll, will take time)
>>6334149>>6334156tch tch, be a good sport anoni'll just swap out >>6333266>Consume a safe percentage of the phylactery>Use the phylactery as an ingredient for a new staff (will take time)just to get things moving. there are benefits to remaining simply average and not attracting attention...
Alright, proceeding with:>Consume a safe percentage of the phylacteryand>Use the phylactery as an ingredient for [something]Writing now. Thank you for the discussion and patience
You sit down, crossing your legs beneath your cloak and gently shutting your eyes. As if alive, the shattered fragments of the phylactery begin to levitate, fixing themselves into a ring around your body before slowly orbiting you, sinister purple mana seeping off of their shimmering surfaces like dust, flittering naturally into your lungs.The smaller shards dissolve almost instantly, larger chunks losing sheen and size slowly as you masterfully weave the mana into your being. Your mind strains at the complexity of it— even this controlled, limited intake is a considerable mental exertion— a thrumming headache blooming in your skull while you focus on purifying the miasma-like energy and ensuring it doesn’t excessively color your new mana core and override its special constitution.It’s odd; the power settles back into you well enough, but it seems… empty, almost. The intake helps to clear your head somewhat, resolidifying your foggy mental state to an extent, but even that effect is far less dramatic than you were expecting. Ultimately, you suppose that your soul really did enter this new vessel. Perhaps the only thing left in this phylactery was power. Then again, power is exactly what you needed, wasn’t it? You take a moment to assess yourself:>Immortal Atrebor-Species: Godborn-Mana Core: Rank C- (Favored School: Origin Magic) [no restricted school]-Divine Presence: Partially Unsealed-Recollection: 30%-Magic Capacity: Fourth Circle+ -Physical Condition: Slight FatigueYou smile, holding about half of the previous phylactery shards in your hand: the reabsorption efficiency was piss-poor, and you only reabsorbed half of a shadow of your former self, but even that was an impressive gain considering your previous state. You feel capable of comfortably casting fourth circle magic, maybe even fifth circle spells without harming yourself or overexerting your mana. While you consider your option, you hear a dull boom, muffled and deepened by the earth encasing your tomb. Next comes the shaking, the entire earth seeming to quiver beneath the weight of a terrible detonation far in the distance. You grin ear to ear, an almost innocent face of joy tainted with the deep sadistic joy of a habitual killer— Sophien, or at least some of her dogs, found the little present you left in the decoy room.You fix your gaze on the phylactery shards and the items left in the room: you have the resources to make a great artifact, but you have to act quickly. Your plan was to have Sophien and her men trigger the trap, then make the energy seem to ‘disperse’ by ridding the world of your phylactery as quickly as possible, giving the false impression that the fragments had been lost in the detonation of (seemingly natural) mana buildup. You move with celerity, rounding up the materials you need and setting yourself to work.
>>6334302INTRODUCING NEW MECHANIC: PRESS YOUR LUCKWhen selecting any option that does not require a roll, you may choose to press your luck, adding a roll to that option where one would normally not have existed. The expected outcome will serve as the 0, with higher numbers bringing bonuses and lower ones adding drawbacks, failures, or complications. There are no limits to pressing your luck, though it should be noted that most options that don’t require rolls would have turned out relatively well without pressing your luck.I will never ask you if you want to press your luck. If you wish to do so, simply append it to your vote and, if a majority consent, a roll will be added.—You stand at a flat stone worktop, surrounded by metals, monster parts, cores, and gemstones (alongside your phylactery shards). What will you make? >Casting focus (staff)>Accessory (specify)>Cloak>Consumable>Write-inSpecifications (ignore in case of focus)>Offensive >Defensive >Mobility >Divination >Multiple (dilutes overall effect)>Write-inBonus imbuements (ignore for consumable. select one for a staff, two for an accessory, and three for a cloak). You may select the same option multiple times to stack the effect.>Mana storage>Fatigue restoration>Physical enhancement>Compressability (for larger objects)>Self-cleaning >School enhancement (specify)>Prepared spell (specify effect)>Write-in
>>6334305Interesting mechanic.I wasn't here for the beginning of the quest, so maybe I missed it, but is there a standard DC to pass or fail 25 by, etc? Or do we just have to roll above 25 to get successes?Anyways, I did vote for the standard thing, a staff, initially, but we already have one, even if it isn't anything impressive. In this situation we might want something that will help us with either stealth, mobility, or in a fight, since we may be in one soon, or fleeing one.>Ring>Mobility>Physical enhancement>Prepared spell (Camouflage/Invisibility) If it is possible and we think we have the mana/circle access to do it, maybe make it so we are invisible to any sort of magic sight, or detection of mana fluctuations, as well as thermal/low light vision.I would choose a school enhancement instead of a prepared spell, except I don't know what they even are. Anons never chose to ponder the forms of magic when that prompt was offered. I assume they are mostly standard DnD schools, but clearly there are some nuances, like how Creation and Necromancy aren't opposed opposites.Anyways, my choice of a ring accessory is because we already have a staff and a cloak with a second circle defensive protection. That may not be much, but I don't want redundancies at the moment. Obviously eventually we should replace the cloak with a better one, especially since they have the most bonus imbuement slots. Originally I had chosen a cloak with mobility/defensive specs and self cleaning, in addition to what I put now.Physical enhancement, as a last resort for when something gets close, or we need better reaction speeds or to run. The one handed neck lift is also a classic for villains everywhere, and we should be capable of it, we have a reputation to uphold after all. Invis/camo to aid in escaping Sophien as she tightens the noose around this area. It is also just generally useful for pulling a Batman or appearing dramatically.Mobility for the specs, to assist with escaping the present situation. But also useful to get around terrain impediments, swamps, being dumped in a river and having to fight the current or undertow, magical bindings, jumping across barriers or rooftops, etc.
>>6334305>Ring>Offensive>Physical Enhancement>InvisibilityCome on we have to
>>6334309Before there was sunlight, before there was darkness, before there was sea or earth or sky, there was the Primordial One.The Primordial One could not create. Indeed, he was all there was, and nothing more could be. This isolation, this misery, was a poison so caustic that it began to eat away at his body and soul, his being dissolving, filling his body with unimaginable pain. Even as he lay dying, wracked with more agony than could ever exist in his aftermath, the Primordial One laughed. For, indeed, he would not be alone.Tears, of laughter and of suffering, poured down his cheeks, their fading light wicking into the sun and moon. From his lungs came the first winds that formed the sky, and from his spittle, the ever shifting sea. From the final beat of his heart came life, the last thump, and death, the endless silence left behind.Finally, the heat of his body dissipated into the budding world, forming the crucible at its core, and the dust of his bones enclosed around it, keeping that heat contained beneath the newborn Earth.Thus, the eight gods were born.After the gods created their mortals, pitying their helplessness against the world, they taught them Magic, the secret to tapping into the very essence which they embody, not of elements, but of schoolsFrom Death came Necromancy, the control of what is dead and the spread of what brings death.From Life came Life Magic, the ability to heal wounds, beat back disease, commune with flora and fauna, and breathe life into that which does not possess itFrom the Sun, Creation Magic, to build things from mana or construct physical, permanent items using permanent, physical thingsFrom the Moon, Dream Magic, illusions, desires, hypnosis, sleep, and mysteryFrom the Crucible, Imbuement, to strengthen the living and, more importantly, forge mana into the lifeless, allowing for all manner of magical equipment From the Earth, Manipulation, the ability to move inanimate objects to your will through space, or, indeed, to manipulate the space itselfFrom the Sky, Phenomena, the crackle of lightning, the glow of a lamp, the heat of a fire, or the sharp pierce of a shriekFinally, from the enigmatic sea, Divination: to see, feel, and know what is, was, and will be.Please feel free to ask any more technical, less mythological questions, though some of the finer details (overlap between Phenomena, Manipulation, and Creation, why certain things fall under certain categories, why certain gods are associated with certain schools, etc) do have answers but are not currently known to Atrebor or the magical community at large
>>6334305Let's Press Our Luck>Ring>Multiple: Offensive and Defensive>Physical enhancement>Prepared spell (Camouflage/Invisibility)
>>6334305>Consumable>OffensiveGotta be ready if Sophien rolls up on us
>>6334317Then would a spell that hides us from various forms of sight, or even hides the fact that we have a mana core, is that that Dream Magic? Anti-Divination (if there is such a thing) is just illusions, it isn't part of Divination?
>>6334305>Casting focus (staff)>Mana storageor>School enhancement (creation magic)a great staff is always usefulcant go wrong with that
>>6334305>Ring>Physical enhancement>School enhancement (Life)>>6334309 Anon has a big point. We cant go about without one hand neck lift capabilities. We can already do simple invisibility spells to trick plebsWe are decently adept at offensive magicGo for life magic out of curiousity. Once we are out of here the booned affinity to life magic will help conceal our identity. Atrebor might know that Life and Death arent opposites, but likely not everyone does. Oh that and life magic gives new opportunities for war crimes.
>>6334386There are fundamentally two ways to counter a spell. The first is to simply use a spell with a counteracting effect (in this case, using Dream Magic to obscure yourself from Divination). This can be done passively or actively.The second is to hijack a spell— through superior understanding, control, and mana (or just one of those three at a great enough extreme). This can only be done while the casting/effect are active. Also, to answer your question about DCs, they are NOT FIXED. The DC is determined based on the relative likelihood for you to succeed based on your current capacity and the difficulty of the task. This is why Comprehension is applied as a bonus but mana level and circle are not, since those things are instead considered in the DC
>>6334305>Cloak>Defensive>School enhancement (Imbuement) x3okay, think about this guys. we may not be getting materials this good for a while so we need to make sure that we'll be getting the most out of the artifact, not just something that'll work in a pinch. for that, i'm going all in on imbuement to make even more top tier equipment in the future. yeah, this is kinda like skyrim strats...
>>6334483also, lets Press our Luck
While part of the point of playing it safe was to avoid being incapacitated or killed, I highly doubt that pressing our luck while making something will have similar risks to absorbing a massive chunk of mana. The most likely risk is likely simply taking too long, thereby destroying the illusion that our real phylactery has been destroyed, because we didn't disperse or do something with the energy fast enough.>>6334305I'll vote to press our luck, regardless of which item wins.Will also clarify that I'd like to emphasize the invisibility to various forms of magical sight/mana detection as aspects of my vote, especially since pressing our luck seems likely to win. Camoflage is a first circle spell and I'm sure invisibility isn't too hard for us, so I'd like to push for something more special if we're going to use an imbuement slot on this one spell instead of something with broader use like a school/physical enhancement.>>6334317Which school does soul manipulation fall under? Presumably not Creation magic, as we aren't capable of it without workarounds. Or is it multiple/all schools, since 'mana is the power of the soul'? Like, necromancy can control souls of those that are dead, but only when they are dead, life can put souls into inanimate objects (or does breathing life into something not necessarily give it a soul?). I assume we know, given that our Godborn experiment was a partial success.Can we form a second mana core in our chest? Could we learn aura techniques now that we have a living body, even with a chest mana core?What schools/aspects of aura is associated with each god, if there is such a similar association as with spell schools?Which schools are the inverse of each other, besides Creation and Necromancy, assuming that each school always has one inverse school?
>>6334497*even without a chest mana core
>>6334305>>6334421+1, specifying Mobility. Let Atrebor use her phylactery as both a utility, an aid to her research interest (progressing towards true immortality hopefully), and a helpful red herring against those who might suspect her nature.+1 to Press Luck because my risk appetite knows no bounds
>>6334497>I'll vote to press our luck, regardless of which item wins.me toolets make it a rule to not have to vote again for pressing luck, if a majority of anons wants to do it anyway regardless of what choice wins
>>6334520Sure, agreed. I can foresee situations where that might not be optimal, but I prefer the speed. Nothing's perfect.
>>6334421I like this idea. I like the physical enhancement and also the idea of the life magic enhancement to cover our tracks. But you forgot the Specification.>>6334305>Accessory (Ring). Unadorned if possible, if not possible then with a small amethyst.>Multiple (dilutes overall effect, Offensive/Defensive/Mobility). I like a general-purpose benefit.>Physical enhancement. For the throat-lifting, of course.>School enhancement (Life Magic). For stealth.>PRESS. OUR. LUCK.If we get caught then I think we should claim, if at all possible for us to do so, to be here studying the weird undead flora and fauna. If we get questioned on our obviously evil mode of dress and gear? Well, you have to blend in if the area's full of cultists of the Lich King!>>6334497QM said that having a chest mana core is optimal but not that it locks you in to it or out of it. It's just the most practical for martial arts use to be in your chest and for spells to be in your head.Wonder if there's anywhere else you could put it? The only other place that makes sense to me is to put in the throat, which, if a mana core is a physical thing like it seems to be... might not work.
>>6334544>>6334421I feel like a school enhancement for Creation would be better for your plan, since Sophien and formally educated peeps likely know our favoured school - and that of our servants - is necromancy, and creation should be blocked from us. It would be pretty inconceivable to most people that we be capable of creation magic and have an item that enhances it, if we were Atrebor or a servant is his service.
>>6334548Sheeeeeit, you right. Forgot that Creation was an actually inaccessible magic instead of just stereotypically opposed like life. Had a long day.>>6334544Make that CREATION magic, please.
>>6334305I am supporting>>6334544with the fix of>>6334549I trust the plan, also should definitely get a one ring type thing going. LOTR is peak
>>6334317Sure, I'll switch from >>6334505 to >>6334544 with the Creation School Enhancement.
>>6334544ok i switch my vote to this one toowhy not
Ok, so, neglecting pulling up the entire spread sheet, it seems like:>Ring>Multi-Purpose>Physical Enhancement, School Enhancement (Creation)With the option to>Push your luckWriting now
>>6334795A small lump of mithril, the blood and cores of monsters beyond your current capacity, and, of course, the Phylactery itself, rest on the surface before you as you begin to mold them into your ideal shape.Magic sparks at the tip of your staff, the metal flowing from solid lump to something almost like water as it fills an invisible cast in the air before you. The blood follows next, invisibly etching itself onto the surface, weaving intricate patterns, a delicate, fine process crucial to the success of the imbuement.Sweat pours down your brow— you have to work fast, of course, but you won’t get another chance like this any time soon. Driven by your ambition, alongside your life (and post-life) compulsion never to waste good material, you pour your heart and soul into the perfect accessory:An unassuming exterior, unassuming silver tinged somewhat in the purple ichor of a Black Dragon, an almost invisible finish only seen as a faint iridescence in just the right lighting. You consider a number of purposes— mobility, offense, defense, stealth— eventually becoming inspired by one of the heroes you battled in the past when deciding its functionality: the Ghost of the Battlefield, and the closest anyone had come to slaying you before Michael, the Shunned Hero Yuriel. Essentially, the ring is to condense the excess energy you admit (thus masking your magical ability), repurposing it to allow you to become invisible, phase through attacks, or levitate. You throw in a physical enhancement to make up for your untrained body and an enhancement to Creation Magic, both to help hide your identity and to indulge in your childish desire to play with your new toy.You breathe in and out, cores and Phylactery shards burning into a conflagration of colors, raw, powerful mana surging and struggling against your attempts to mold it as you desire.>PRESS YOUR LUCK: Please give me 3 rolls of 1d100+30
Rolled 71 + 30 (1d100 + 30)>>6334801Lets hope the roll works
Rolled 91 + 30 (1d100 + 30)>>6334801
Rolled 23 + 30 (1d100 + 30)>>6334801Epic loot this early? Amazing
>>6334807>>6334857>>6334889The high roller streak continues: two great successes and one normal failure make 3 positive points towards success. Not as crazy as last time, but still an exceptional roll. Writing now.
>>6335238You feel the mana flowing through your living flesh, each breath of the hot radiance burning off of the sources filling your lungs, then through them your blood vessels, then through them every fiber of muscle and thousandfold woven sinew. It’s been so long since you’ve felt this, the memories of your living time mostly lost to dust and magic even in your days as the Immortal King, the truly exhilarating song of body casting mana. You won’t be able to enjoy feeling so powerful for a long time, now, that former glory of your shattered phylactery only temporarily at your fingertips again, so you put everything you have into making the most of that brief grandeur.You feel the bones beneath your flesh, consciously restraining your mana to prevent yourself from puppeteering them as you did in death as you delicately adjust your staff, carefully expressing your intent, your ambitions for this relic, in a subtle, almost imperceptible set of movements as you carve smaller and smaller symbols into the metal surface of the ring. All at once it’s magic, language, manufacturing, and art, circles and glyphs blooming like roses and twisting like vines, a brilliant adornment in purple shimmering in mana before dulling back to fit the clean finish of the ring.Finally, you embed the last piece, a small amethyst, bearing the color and last gasps of mana from the only remaining shard of your soul’s former shell.It’s done. Your masterwork.As you hold the little, unassuming craft in your palm, you feel a certain resonance with it, almost as if it’s a part of your body. This… shouldn’t be possible— imbuing your mana, perhaps your soul, into an external object is basically only possible for Grandmasters, the highest echelon of martial artists (indeed, a lich’s phylactery is their ‘body’. not their skeletal puppet). Even in your pursuit of ultimate magic, you’ve never found a way to resonate with, essentially, two bodies at the same time.>Unnamed Ring -Effective power, 6th circle (capable of growing as you get stronger)-Active Function: Specter of BattleConsuming mana, you may temporarily enter a Phantom State, granting you flight, invisibility, and the ability to phase through objects. In order to cast spells or touch physical objects, you must resubstantialize-Passive Function: Shroud of SecrecyWhile wearing this ring, any mage weaker than 7th circle will perceive your mana however you wish, though you may not use this function to appear stronger than you actually are.-Option: Physical Enhancement (proportional to mana invested)-Option: Creation Magic Amplification>Optional write-in, name the ring?Quite satisfied with the new creation you’ve made, you turn to leave, the tomb crumbling behind you as its heart has finally, once and forevermore, been silenced.—
>>6335245You emerge spotlessly through the black muck of the swamp, phasing through the tar-like mud as if you were a ghost, only reappearing after finding fully solid ground beneath your boots. You breathe in the dry air of the wasteland, stretching your legs a bit before starting to distance yourself from your own resting place.In the distance, you spot a lone figure, her white dress seeming impractical for long travel to the naked eye but, before your discernment, reveals itself to be a magic item of considerable quality. Your eyes trail up to meet hers, and, for the first time in your new life, a sense of terror bursts in your chest, your heart beating hard enough for you to feel it in your throat as you see her face.It’s Sophien.You panic at first, instantly entering your Specter state and reeling back as fast as you can. However, as your body reels, your logical mind begins to put the pieces together: even for the slow-aging descendants of the People of the Sea, this girl is too young to be Sophien. Her hair is the wrong color, far more blue than silver, and her eyes are filled with a sense of passion and suppressed rage that the cold, almost inhuman-seeming Sophien could never possess. That, and her mana seems substantially weaker (though still stronger, if only slightly, than your own). It must be someone else, but you can’t deny the resemblance is uncanny.As you inspect her power more closely, you see something even more shocking than that, if indeed this girl is related to Sophien— though a powerful layer of illusion magic coats her Mana Core, making it seem as though her Favored School were Dream Magic, such trickery is still a bit too simplistic to escape your perception. This girl is a necromancer.>Approach the mage>Go the opposite direction>Hang around her and observe>Launch a surprise attack (requires a roll)>Write-in
>>6335246>>Approach the magewell, well, well. a fellow practicer of the dark arts! Dakia doesn't like necromancy so she shouldn't be with them at least.
>>6335246>Go the opposite directionSayonara bitch
>>6335246>Approach the mageMuahaha
>>6335246>Optional write-in, name the ring?maybe something like"Soul Ring (of Atrebor)"not very creative perhaps, but accurate>Hang around her and observei would want to approach her later when we know more
>>6335245>>6335265>NAMEThe Shroud of the (Lich) King? I see the cultivation influences QM. Very interesting. Also, Roberta really ought to be thankful to those plucky heroes. Defeat has only revealed the path to ever-greater heights...
>>6335246>>Hang around her and observeShe may be one of Sophien's dogs, after all. Best ere on the side of caution. We can use the ring to lower our effective appearance of mana to be below hers so that she does not consider us a threat.>Name: The Ring of FadingWith it ends fades the old Atrebor, and with rises the new and greater Roberta
>>6335246>Approach the mage
>>6335245>>6335270+1 to Ring of Fading
>>6335245>Shroud of the Lich King>Approach the mageI wonder if she is the Sophien the other mooks told us about...
>Name: Wraithveil or Wraithveil band>Hang around her and observe we can always approach her if it seems safe
>>6335266What about the “Shroud of Atrebor”? >Hang around her and observeWho are we dealing with here? A niece? A betrayer from within Sophien’s family? Even if we assume that this person is “evil”, we shouldn’t assume that she is aligned with us, since she clearly came here to steal our phylactery.QM, can mages flat out steal each other’s magical power while living or do you have to kill them and eat their core for this to happen?
>>6335246>Go the opposite directionWe have little obvious to gain besides feeding our curiousity high risk. Place , timing, looks are all indicating trouble. The only thing is the necromancy , but why care. Dissapear and focus on our next goals, (more power from the tower, knowledge, memories, revenge...)
>>6335270+1 ring of fading
>>6335246Backing both name proposal and action in >>6335333
>>6335270Agree for both the name and action. With the addition that when we leave, we go 'Ohoho? A necromancer? No need to be ashamed of it!' to fuck with her before we get out of dodge.>>6335246Also QM, man Sophien must be an absolute unit if we panic at the sight of her (niece/daughter/whatever).
Also, did some thinking... were you the QM who runs (or ran, I don't know if it ended) that Olympian quest? With the evilmaxxing MC and the madness powers? Not! Sophien's eyes look similar enough to the MC of that quest that it's making me think things.
>>6335245Hmm, so regarding the 'touch physical objects' thing, we still take our staff and stuff we are wearing when we enter this state, yes? Or are we essentially stripping each time we use Specter of Battle?>+1 to Ring of FadingCalling it a shroud would work better if it were a cloak.>>6335246Interesting. Her daughter perhaps? With an illusion to make it seem like she follows in her mother's (?) footsteps, assuming Sophien's favoured school was Dream Magic. Being related to an illegitimate princess, or perhaps having a bad relationship with Sophien could lead to a wayward stance towards magic.>Approach the mage>>6335383I thought so too. Pretty sure that one ended recently. So it'd make sense for this one to be QM's new quest.
>>6335383The art-style and gamified magic system evoke the other quest for sure. I would like to play Roberta differently than Atë...
>>6335404Bilbo didn’t have to strip naked to use his Ring so I doubt we’d have to, lol
>>6335383No comment.>>6335333You can only steal a mage's mana by eating their core. Heart Eating only steals mana: a Mage's true power, their knowledge and spellcraft, may only be stolen by the normal means of stealing information from other people. Also, to answer another question I forgot to, it is impossible to have multiple mana cores, for not only humans, but all living things including monsters and demons. >>6335404>>6335423Indeed, any non-living object that you make physical contact with only applies to multicellular organisms, but Atrebor doesn't know cell theory will disappear with you. However, the amount of mana expended is proportional to the total weight the imbuement effects.Also, for the name, I'll have there be two: the Ring of Fading being its public or official name and the Lich King's Shroud being its true name known only to you.Now, for the main vote, we have>5For approach,>6For observation, and>2For retreatProceeding with observation. Writing now
>>6335755You keep yourself at a distance, taking full advantage of your new artifact to mask your presence, wrapping your body in Dream magic for good measure as you stalk her from far away, using Divination to see her more clearly as you crouch through the undead foliage. The girl scowls, some presumed divination spell flickering into nothing at the tip of her wand. She frowns, lifting it into the air and, rather than crafting a meticulous magic circle, paints with mana.You, Sophien, and the vast majority of other mages are scholars of what you call the Orthodox Magic, though the names vary slightly between countries and eras. In essence, this is communication with the gods in their own languages gifted to mankind, an academic pursuit born on the backs of divine revelation and thousands of years of study. Some, however, find themselves drawn elsewhere. There are, after all, methods of communication other than writing. In this, there are Unorthodox Magicians, in one era, a prophet, another, an artisan, and another still, a heretic.The Unorthodox Magic, while still bound loosely by school and circle, is capable of manifesting magic inconceivable to the glyphs and rings, expressing wishes for which no collection of words exists. It, at first, sounds like a perfect concept. Magic, untethered by limitations and unburdened of the weight of studying needed for proper magic? Why does anyone bother with the orthodox?To sum, every spell must be art.In order to cast something, you need to, at least once, TRULY want it. You must then follow through, creating through your means a piece capable of expressing that wish to a degree capable of reaching even the gods in place of their words. Next to nobody, not even you, has either the talent nor the patience to pursue such a path. Besides, you’ve always been bad at expressing yourself. Of course, once you create a work, you can ‘call back’ to it, a sort of self-reference allowing for less sincere, slightly abridged recasts. Even then, however, the standards are steep.
>>6335758As the woman stands in the clearing alone, you see what seems like a battlefield messenger kneel before her and present her with a note. She truly was of high status after all, probably royalty at least. You listen in, careful not to leave a trace of your presence as you eavesdrop.“...so Elder Sister found and destroyed it, huh?” she bitterly laughs, “Did she change her route at the last moment? She must be nearby, so I should give her a visit.”“Pardon me, your highness, but she is quite far from here. On the other side of the forest, in fact.”Her eyes widen in shock, her fingers trembling slightly as she takes a tighter hold of her wand. “But that can’t be… I was certain-” she cuts herself off, placing her gloved hand over her mouth for a moment before quickly regaining her composure. “My apologies, dear sir,” she smiles politely, “Please give elder sister Sophien my regards.”Elder sister, eh? You suppose that makes sense— Sophien would have been about her age when she attacked you, and more than enough time has passed to enable a plausible gap.The scout leaves, and you see the necromancer— a princess, apparently— slowly pace back and forth, silently muttering to herself in deep contemplation. Resolving herself, she proceeds forwards, passing closer by you than you would have liked and eventually coming to stand over the inky black pit that used to serve as the entrance to your phylactery chamber.“...it must have been here,” she whispers, “I’m certain.”Well, that cannot be good.>Reveal yourself>Launch a surprise attack>Create some illusion [specify]>Leave her to her failure>Write-in
>>6335759Initial thought was nopenope run but curiousity and potential got the better of me (and Roberta)>Reveal yourselfWin her trust, infiltrate, hide the most unexpected of places. Attempt to gain whaterver knowledge she and her family has. Prepare for revenge.In the meantime tag along this little one to figure out whats up with her magic.We'd need a good excuse to be here, and to stick around though. If we want talk openly about us knowing that shes necromancing then we probably need an even better one, although we can pretend not to know for now. Pretending to be a researcher also lead to this location perhaps. Any ideas?
Also now tha roberta achieved the goal of restoring whatever power she could from the old us, it might be a good time to consider our goals again. As said in my previous post, there is opportunity for revenge here. Attempt to restore our lost memories. Remaster origin magic?My suggestion, inviting others on theirs: Id like roberta to believe that heroes do what heroes do, and not resent them. There will be some slight shame and resent in defeat, cocky as we are, albeit managable. We are however chaotic villains, with an urge to fuck about stylishly, so lets investigate if they got sloppy with the protection of that little holy sword of theirs and see if theres a window to steal it. If options for power come on our way we investigate, as rhat is good for most purposes.
>>6335759>>Launch a surprise attack
>>6335759>Leave her to her failureGuys, we should just bounce. We got our ring, we got our phylactery, our stealth mission was a total success, no one even knows that we were here. We’re not prepared to reveal ourselves at this point in time, we don’t even have a home base yet!
>>6335759>>Reveal yourselfOh, I thought she'd seen us. Alright, this could be the perfect opportunity for something I wanted to do- ingrain ourselves with the mortals in preparation for our revenge! And if she turns out to be a liability I guess we could at least spite Sophien first and murk her sis... Also, I'm pleasantly surprised the name Roberta is catching up, even though we haven't had the chance to use it in-universe.
>>6335759>>Reveal yourselfWin her trust as other anon said, will Sophien expect Atrebor in the royal tea room discussing the merits of art? I think not
>>6335796this anon's right, why would we reveal ourself when we just spent all the effort to stay concealed?>Leave her to her failure We can always come back and consume her mana later. let's go build ourself up first
>>6335815Sadly, I think a lot of anons play quests “ for the drama” rather than strategically or consistently, which leads to pretty strange decision-making from the MCs. Why would Atrebor, immortal Lich King reborn, pursue an urgent stealth mission to recover his old phylactery, even going so far as to develop an artifact-level invisibility ring, only to reveal himself to the sister of the one mage that he actually fears? He just wouldn’t, obviously
>>6335822we didn't make the ring for this specifically (i actually wanted something else...) and does it pain you to think other anons have different ideas of what our character is like? what's the fun in just playing safe instead of actually interacting with the world (which we still know little about)
>>6335759>Leave her to her failureThere are better ways to interact with the world than hanging around one of the few with both means and motive to kill us.
>>6335759>Leave her to her failureI'm all for reintroducing ourselves to the world of mortals... just not THESE mortals that are busy searching for the remnants of our phylactery.
>>6335768I think we destroyed the Holy Sword in the first post anon. Otherwise, I've come around to the idea that revenge is passé. Roberta is obviously interested in developing the new opportunities she has for magic and by extension immortality, so that should come first and foremost. If this mortal life surpasses her previous one in happiness along the way, so much the better.
>>6335759>Leave her to her failureToo much is at risk, but this is valuable information. A perfect pawn to use when she's at her most desperate.
>>6335759>>Create some illusion [specify]>>Leave her to her failureFaint, mocking laughter, from some direction other than the one she's facing. Make it quiet enough that she could mistake it for the wind, petty revenge here.I also want to make fun of her for hiding her necromancy, but that'd be too revealing, so we'll do that later when we can send magic messages at her from a safe distance.
>>6335759>reveal yourself
>>6335759>Leave her to her failureI wavered last vote, in part because of how interesting she is, and partly because I thought we'd already been seen given that our eyes met. No more though.I'm extremely tempted to talk to her. She can command respect from the messenger, whether that be because she is legitimate royalty while Sophien is not, or because of her own strength, or relation to Sophien. She's an unorthodox mage of modestly high strength, which is odd given the nature of unorthodox magic. She's a necromancer despite Dakia disliking them.My problem is the lack of a concrete plan for what we'd do with her. This merits way more discussion before jumping to talk with her. It is tempting to think we could sway her, gradually seducing her with our knowledge of necromancy, perhaps even revealing our true identity in the end. However, we have no real reason beyond speculation to suspect that she was looking for our phylactery to steal for herself, rather than looking for it to destroy for clout or as a regular part of this clean up operation. One may point towards her hidden favoured school, but ask yourself, would Sophien (our former near-peer and current superior) be fooled in what may be her own favoured school by her less powerful non-specialist sister? No, she wouldn't.In other words while perhaps there are some feelings of inadequacy or jealousy we could exploit, I imagine the sisters have an understanding or are on okay terms. I don't know how this girl thinks she would hide her sudden increase in strength through heart eating otherwise. Unless I've misunderstood and heart eating is only bad upon initially forming a mana core, but okay afterwards?Also, what would our story even be? We have a problem of being at the site of the true phylactery, at the time when the fake blew up. Revealing any knowledge that she was right, or that we have special knowledge of necromancy incriminates us. From there it is a short jump from her to Sophien, then to the idea that we are a servant/cultist of Atrebor, or even the lich king reborn himself. At best we can pass ourselves off as an opportunist scavenger, maybe?Say that we say we are some random adventurer, or wandering scholar who just by chance is in the area with nothing to do with the hunt, there are wandering rogue adventurers here after all. Okay, then what's the point of talking to her then? We have no jumping off point or excuse to get close with her and then to Sophien without tempting this girl in some way, or revealing special knowledge/our identity. As they are on official business, they could reasonably detain us for a time. Probably won't be the end of us, but an inconvenience that gets us nowhere. We can't fake being a low profile member of her retainers, they'd have an accounting of all of them.So, while it is perhaps a bit lame to adopt the default pragmatic qst play attitude, I think we should flee and revisit the idea of talking with her later.
>>6335926i mostly agree with youthough i find it very probable she was here to consume our phylactery instead of destroying itfor what reason we cant determine with enough certaintywhile we obviously cant trust her i see a way we could manipulate her and get a foot in the door, so to speakand use her to take Sophien down>>6335759while i am still torn on what to vote, i decided to>Reveal yourselfwhich i see only working if we also>press your luckwith itpotential risk, high reward i would say
>>6335759>Reveal yourselfI smell a potential apprentice. Given that she's a necromancer she's probably hiding it from big sis. If we can school her we can get an in and take our revenge on Sophien! Or even blackmail her, she doesn't know that we're the Lich King and would be in even more trouble if we told Sophien.
So guys, what's the plan if this lady figures out the illusion of the tar and finds the debris of the old tomb, putting together the trick of the decoy and leaving her with the possibility of someone having the phylactery and reviving atrebor, what then?
>>6336103Not our problem. We'll be long gone. Besides, we absorbed the phylactery, and what we didn't absorb, we turned into the ring of fading. With nothing to point towards us specifically, it doesn't really matter if the ladies are put on alert. Revealing ourselves certainly wouldn't help ease suspicions.The sad thing is leaving behind the knowledge we had locked away in the bookshelves and chests of the chamber. Maybe there is some stuff there that would've helped with our recollection. At the very least, whoever claims such a treasure trove will likely be like those necromancer mooks we duped times a thousand in terms of what a boon they stumbled upon. But its awkward to carry all that stuff with us, and dangerous to stay.
>>6336107yeah, unless they start investigating with like divination magic. we still don't know what's possible in this world but pressumably this girl can make any spell she wants if she draws pretty enough, you think we are out of the woods but i know my tropes, atrebor could very well be prophesized to return. if we just assuage the princess' worries, prove to her we took care of the issue and ask her "pretty please don't tell anyone you know how dakia gets about necromancy" we'd be swell
>>6336119>She can draw whatever she wantsNot my reading of that, that's for sure. She's still bound by her circle, which is probably fifth circle, given that we are at fourth circle+ capacity and she's slightly stronger. Then to express something unique, outside of what orthodox magic is capable of, she has to actually come up with the idea. Then it sounds like she has to create a *unique* art piece, a true magnum opus for every new spell she wants to create, a great outpouring of blood, sweat, and tears worth of effort. This allows her unique spells, but should also limit the amount of spells she actually knows and can cast quickly.>Talking to herAlso, your way of going about things is even more suspicious. It sounds like you want to admit to being a necromancer.Why reveal ourselves at the site of the phylactery? She was sure it was here, but has decided to see her sister. She may come back, but there's no need to confirm her suspicions before she does. Or she may discover it and enter now, but that still leaves the rather hard sell of us just happening to be here as the fake phylactery blew up. Confirming that the true phylactery was in there, that we were just in there, but that we totally had good intentions isn't likely to be easy. It is worth remembering that while we're a great villain, ultimately Atrebor assesses herself to not be good at expressing herself, I don't think it's hard to take away the idea that we're actually not that charismatic outside villain monologuing. Again, putting us at the site of the phylactery and stupidly revealing that there was a true one in addition to the fake one just incriminates us, especially with all the other cultists running about.As another anon said, we successfully pulled this whole thing off super stealthily, and now you want to reveal ourselves pointlessly.You mention divination magic and that we don't know what is possible in this world, but then consider...hey...these are people on official adventurer's guild/kingdom business, she can just detain us and scan us with divination magic, question us and then use some truth-identifying magic or something to reveal our nature or if we are lying. Or once we reveal that she was right, they can scan our phylactery chamber and get results anyways, us talking to her doesn't prevent them following through on due diligence. If divination magic, or her unorthodox magic is capable of what you are implying, then revealing ourselves and opening us up to being actively targeted in person by her magical investigations is even worse than letting her investigate the chamber. Physical access is total access, to borrow a computer forensics saying. And if you weren't implying they could identify we were Atrebor or track us from the chamber's contents, then what the heck is even your point?
Not to say talking to her is the end of the world. In the best case scenario she really is a power hungry necromancer here to consume our phylactery, with a jealous relationship with her sister. Ripe for conversion into a capable student/poisonous kin to her sister.It's not even that unlikely, just going off storytelling convention, she probably is as she's been presented to be. Despite my points against this being the case, she probably at least wanted to consume our phylactery, even if the rest of the best case scenario is too early to tell.I just think it's too risky and pointless. If we're even slightly wrong, we open ourselves up to further scrutiny than if we just fucked off. We could have a fight on our hands. Why talk to her now? We've identified her potential personal weak spots, why not come talk to her some other time, in some other context? Rather than now, when it is suspicious? Just to prevent her from maybe discovering our phylactery chamber?
>>6336135I completely agree. We HAVE to bank on her being a fan of, or at least imprudently curious about, Atrebor to get a favorable encounter out of this. She strongly suspects this to be the true location of the phylactery's remnants. Thus, she should be suspicious of any mage who "happens" to be here. I deeply doubt our ability to sell Roberta as being "good'-aligned to any mage worth their salt. Thus, everything relies on her being corruptible in the face of our evil magical genius.
>>6336134She's fifth circle for now but that's something that might change in the future, we may have all the time in the world but everyone else will also work towards something in the meantime, plenty of time to figure out this mystery. And again, we have very little frame of reference for what circles allow for or not. I'm not saying there's no risks involved but getting her on our side leaves almost no loose ends. Yes, Roberta says she can't read people well and when it comes to art she may not know how to put her feelings out sincerely but lying through her teeth? She's definitely proven plenty adept at that, with the information she has convincing the princess is pretty doable.>She was sure it was here, but has decided to see her sister. She may come back, but there's no need to confirm her suspicions before she does. What are you talking about, she's looking at the fake tar pit right now, with us looking at her with concern. The scene hasn't moved from there at all.
if we reveal ourselves we gotta make it a roll(to make her believe we were also JUST on our way to the phylactery or something)
>>6336141Right? I'm glad someone is capable of brevity. You say what I mean to, much more elegantly than I ever could.>>6336150>Fifth circle only for nowSure, I was just pushing back on the idea that she can do whatever she wants because she has freeform magic. She still has power limitations. I personally highly doubt that she TRULY wants, in the way that her type of magic requires, to specifically track us down or know whether Atrebor has been revived, she probably just wanted to consume our phylactery for power.Also, I totally don't mind being tracked down and meeting her in the future. You were the one advocating for interacting with the world earlier. I totally want to do that too. Just...not in a situation with a horrible power imbalance. I get QM probably wanted to elegantly introduce Sophien as a feared antagonist and namedrop one of the heroes companions, and give some level of threat/stakes to the scenario, but it kinda automatically makes any truly high risk, go-wild with villain monologuing crazy just-for-fun character expression shit or even moderately risky plays, untenable. It's a coughing baby versus nuclear bomb scenario almost, we can still risk revealing ourselves or even fighting, but any extended clamour or escapee that communicates successfully, such that Sophien is alerted, dooms us. If Sophien had been replaced with just some other relatively high level mage and the army that already exists, I wouldn't be nearly as worried, even if they are stronger than us.But yeah, anyways, I don't mind be tracked down once we've regained most of our former glory, or even enough to just not instantly die upon being in the presence of some of the big names of the setting. Tying up loose ends and making our identity watertight doesn't appeal to me. I don't mind making mistakes or being flawed or having some drama just for the sake of amusing ourselves, we are a villain after all. It just seems pointless here.>Loose endsAlso, also, if that's what we're worried about, why not just kill this girl? We have the element of surprise.>LyingWhen you come up with a good lie, I'm sure some people will change their minds. The very first response to the story post was a call for ideas on a lie/excuse. Until then, I think we have every reason to suspect that the DC would be pretty high, at the very least.>tar pitI mean she told the messenger she'd go see her sister now. I'm saying why not wait a few seconds longer to confirm if she actually makes the discovery or not? Whether that discovery be right now, or hours later after she leaves, sees her sister, then comes back and later discovers it. Why reveal ourselves over the concern over the phylactery chamber, before confirming she actually for 100% sure finds it?
>>6336160oh yeah and our story would be believable because there's no black goop on pur clothes (how would one get in or out without getting dirty)now that i think about it we might not even need a roll
Has anyone considered that she's actually not hiding her necromancy and came here to help her sister by using it to gain greater insight into our own necromantic wards and defenses? If that's the case and we reveal ourselves we better hope we can kill her before Sophien arrives.
>>6336161>I mean she told the messenger she'd go see her sister nownot to be that guy to correct people, but she only wanted to see her sister because she thought she was nearbythen saying “Please give elder sister Sophien my regards.” to the messenger, implying she wont seek her out after all(and in fact is now thinking about a way on how to get into the phylactery chamber)which we could distract her fromgaslight her into believing her magic led her to the wrong place (decoy chamber)she is young still and we have experience in manipulation
>>6336161>Also, also, if that's what we're worried about, why not just kill this girl? We have the element of surprise.then Sophien goes from just being somewhat wary of our revival to driven to find her sister's killer? i have zero idea what she's like but hero types don't like it when you shank their family, and it tends to go badly for the villain. worst case scenario we could just as well knock her out (which reminder, sophien is on the other side of the forest) and erase her memory, not ideal but manageable>When you come up with a good lie, I'm sure some people will change their minds.oh, i'm totally banking on berta's charm and the common ground of necromancy to make them fast friends because again, i have very little frame of reference and i can't make an alibi out of that.>Why reveal ourselves over the concern over the phylactery chamber, before confirming she actually for 100% sure finds it?well, the winning vote says we leave just like that and it's not likely to get amended at this rate, will it? whereas if i get one of you to switch your vote we win, or get a lurker to tie the vote and stall>>6336172oh, sophien definitely knows but how close they are is really up in the air. the princess could very well become a pariah if her preference in magic gets out and that could cause resentment and loneliness
>>6336172Is this a rhetorical question, or are you actually asking? But yes, I did, if not for that exact reason.>>6336178My bad. Doesn't really change the argument though. While I do think your gaslighting idea has some potential, it still comes down to this >>6336141 essentially. That, and why wouldn't she just do her due diligence, whether now or after the fact and look inside the chamber, or detain us for inspection via divination/questioning. The D4GQ anon began the "but what if they use divination magic/she can make any spell" discourse, I've yet to hear a compelling answer to how we'd convince her to not check out the phylactery chamber regardless of what lie we tell, or why she wouldn't be suspicious of us.I don't think it's impossible at all, mind you. It'd probably end up be a roll after our next choice. It'll be QM's job to actually come up with the lie/excuse/whatever, I doubt they'll make us write-in the lie. But it being possible doesn't make it a good idea, we have every reason to believe the DC would be quite high.
>>6336189QM didnt specify revealing ourselves is a roll, like consuming the phylactery would have beenso i am inclined to believe we wont just get taken into custody by her (or something similar drastic)however i wanted to make it a roll to get a very favorable outcome
>>6336191I know. I'm speculating there would be a conversation, with some of the prompts for the next choice being being rolls.
>>6336192thats a bit too much speculatingi would argue only risky options (consuming phylactery or in this case maybe trying to blackmail her)would need a roll but we could get out of this without one
>>6336198Maybe we could 'get out of this' e.g leave, without a roll. I don't agree that we could convince her to leave the phylactery chamber alone, let alone permanently without one. Which is the point. Or without using divination on us, which is even worse than her using it on the chamber, if you take the other anon's worries about her freeform magic seriously. With the rogue adventurers and the cultists, we offered something in return for being left alone and were stronger than them for the former, and had a convincing story for the latter. Here we'd be pretty suspicious, and she's stronger than us.I won't drag this out any longer though, since it seems like none of us have anything more worthwhile to say.
>>6335759>Reveal yourselfI was unsure at first and then decided on the most interesting option
>>6335759>Leave her to her failure
Since discussion is still fired up, I'll answer a few questions and come back in an hour to get a final tally.First and foremost, as >>6336178 mentions, I didn't imply that Sophien and the necromancer would be meeting up in the immediate future (though, they are sisters, so they probably will meet eventually.)Secondly, I absolutely detest "trap options." Of course, some choices are better and some choices are worse, but unless you write something monumentally stupid in, roll really badly, or something to that effect, I will basically never unilaterally punish you. Different options have different risks, costs, benefits, etc., but if I give you an option, especially an option without dice, it's not gonna ruin you or anything.Regarding Unorthodox magic, it IS capable of feats significantly exceeding the strength of the mage's circle, but all of those spells are highly conditional and specific to that person's spell, art, and personal worldview. For example, long before even you were born, it was said that one great Artisan, a painter not unlike this mage, once created the entire Peleon mountain range simply by painting it onto the landscape he saw, erecting a bulwark to keep the demon armies at bay. However, this came at the cost of not only his own life, but all record of his existence aside from that single solitary act.However, >>6336134 is also correct: an Unorthodox mage rarely has many spells at all, and while those spells might be unique, and sometimes even powerful beyond their station, they are few in number, limited in scope, and often can only be drawn upon if the user has the heart to 'perform' the piece they've created. This is also why the few truly great Unorthodox mages have almost unilaterally been members of one of the Long Lived Races: the Elves, the Seafolk, the Bilurians (Crystalborn). Humans, though twice-blessed, lack the time to become truly versatile in their artistry even deep into their Moonborne Years.
>>6335759Well, I'm not changing my vote, and I've said all I wanted to say, but if it is okay, I'd like to Press our Luck should revealing ourselves win.
Well, suppose not. Time to tally the votes, then.>>6335776One glorious voice for violence>7For revealing yourself, and>8For leavingProceeding with exit. Writing now
>>6336244You turn to leave— nothing good can be gained from meddling with Sophien’s family. Well, knowing her, the cold-blooded archmage, it’s not entirely impossible that her connection to her family is as weak as her connection to the rest of the world but, knowing heroes, you decide it imprudent to take such an unnecessary risk.All of your research will have been destroyed by the building’s collapse. As for most of those texts, you wouldn’t have been interested in keeping it anyway— the materials in your Phylactery’s chambers are either important enough to be committed to memory or are so dangerous that even you decided not to continue pursuing them. Indeed, it’s quite the stroke of luck for not only yourself, but the entire world. that it was you who made it to your phylactery first. You skulk through the undead woods, strategically using your ring and your spells to evade any passing interlopers as you attempt to escape the gray forest, hopping through the trees with a body as light as cotton, the branches seeming to cushion your step in deference even after your phylactery has been absorbed. You can tell, now that the overwhelming presence of it has been erased, that so much mana has leaked into those trees that they’ve crystalized their own mana core, the flora of the entire realm now being something halfway between a monster and a familiar.
>>6336252Familiars, rather than being a type of magic, are more like a category of creature. An intelligent, mana-wielding entity like a Demon, Dragon, or (most commonly) member of the races of Man, may slowly circulate their own mana through the body of another living thing without a Core, slowly but surely building one within their body. This creature born anew, the Familiar, now possesses something of the intelligence and character of their master in addition to their original personality. Familiars are soulbound to their masters, able to see through their eyes and vice versa, capable of telepathic (or empathic) communication with their partner, and compelled to follow their commands. While a person may theoretically make an indefinite amount, are both incredibly costly to make and are painful to the point of occasional fatality upon being slain(they cannot die by natural causes as long as their master lives). As you reach the edge of the woods, you are presented with a couple of decisions:Do you finalize the integration process and make a familiar of the Lich King’s Forest?>Yes (grants passive mana over time and the ability to see within and control the forest. However, you will experience significant repercussions if the forest is ever destroyed and, if its mana core is ever uncovered, it may be used to track you)>NoWhere do you go now?>To the inhospitable north, the savage realm of monsters and demons>South, a beeline towards the closest kingdom, Gilead, from which the Hero hails>West, to the Confederation of Free Cities in search of rare materials>Due east— though farther away than Gilead, you may reach the kingdom of Dakia, home of the greatest magic tower on the continent>Write-in (describe a place or motive and I’ll select whatever location fits best)
>>6336253>no Some idiot can burn down the forest and hurt us? Seems like a huge vulnerability.>To the inhospitable north, the savage realm of monsters and demonsWe need a home base, preferably somewhere isolated so that we can build our strength quietly, and maybe eat a couple of demon cores along the way.
Do you finalize the integration process and make a familiar of the Lich King’s Forest? >No. Maybe if we end up back here later. Put a pin in it.Where do you go now?>West, to the Confederation of Free Cities in search of rare materialsQM basically told us we won't be tricked, this option should yield at least another useful item. this is my choice unless this write-in is possible:>Write-in (describe a place or motive and I’ll select whatever location fits best)We have other "hidden alcoves". Would it worth it to try to reach one? If that's an option, I would vote for that. We could have powerful items just sitting around, we were The Lich King afetr all!"This laboratory, project Divine Descent, was the only one in your castle, so its defenses are comparably weak when put up against your other hidden alcoves."
>>6336253>No>Due east- though further away than Gilead, you may reach the kingdom of Dakia, home of the greatest magic tower on the continent
>>6336253>>No>Maybe later once we've re-established ourselves and want to flex, or if we have a better idea of the benefit and it is significant; will it turn us into an absolute magical unit by having an ENTIRE FOREST fueling our mana? Will the forest throw hands on our behalf if people enter? We can control it to do so, of course, but is it autonomous? How effective would it be at self-defense?Actually... Could we turn it the rest of the way into a monster instead of a familiar? Make the whole area a pain for anyone not us to travel through without revealing ourselves or giving us a weakspot, at the cost of direct control/power gain?It's a fun idea especially if we end up on a redemption arc down the line and the forest gets all nice and flowery and whatnot and everyone starts scratching their heads. Doubly so if we don't want to ADMIT we've been on a redemption arc and the forest proves that we have been.>>6336280Support this, good on you for remembering anon.
>>6336253>Noi would do it, but this is way riskier than last votes "reveal" option (they will figure out Atrebor is still around before we're ready)>To the inhospitable north, the savage realm of monsters and demonseat their cores, grow stronger
>>6336253>>Yes (grants passive mana over time and the ability to see within and control the forest. However, you will experience significant repercussions if the forest is ever destroyed and, if its mana core is ever uncovered, it may be used to track you)we could REALLY use that mana to grow back to full power. if someone wants to destroy it well, we'll have to put some defenses>Due east— though farther away than Gilead, you may reach the kingdom of Dakia, home of the greatest magic tower on the continentdo not take us to the north please, i want actual civilization. i'd rather go to gilead and join a coven to develop the divine presence but i don't expect anyone else to want that
>>6336253>NoLarge familiar probably grants a lot of mana, but forests are meant to be chopped down. As a immortal, this can only be a negative for us, now or in the future. Unless we make our laboratory here again, the sight within the forest isn't much use to us either. We don't want to be tracked, we just got a fresh lease on life.>South, a beeline towards the closest kingdom, Gilead, from which the Hero hailsWe'll see the princesses in Dakia again, some time in the future, I'm sure. But not now. Lets find our bearings again, live a little.
>>6336253>No>To the inhospitable NorthI just like the vibes of the far north. It would be good to try and find another hidden alcove that atrebor had.Also QM Po, a question. What exactly is a God born? You said that it does not exist naturally in the world, so how exactly did it come to be, such that Glorious Roberta was created?
>>6336253>>6336340swapping to>South, a beeline towards the closest kingdom, Gilead, from which the Hero hails
>>6336253>No>To the inhospitable North
>>6336253>No>South, a beeline towards the closest kingdom, Gilead, from which the Hero hails
>>6336253>No>Due east— though farther away than Gilead, you may reach the kingdom of Dakia, home of the greatest magic tower on the continent
>>6336253>> no>> write in: To any place that primarily can help us recollect our lost knowledge. If we have personal alcoves ( >>6336280 ) that can be the easiest way. Our enemies probably have studies on our former selves, although im not sure to what extent they are public. Options to study magic schools that Atrebor was less good at (and perhaps resulted in his demise) is a bonus.
Sorry for being tardy, I fell asleep earlier than I thought I would.>>6336464This will be explained later Seems like the familiar vote is pretty handily>NoSo I won't bother with an exact count. As for where to go:>11111For the North,>111For Gilead,>For the Confederation, and>111For Dakia, and>111For other alcovesNorthern wastes take it. Writing now.
>>6336960There is a limit to the power that can be gained in the civilized world.The monsters are quelled, weak, as any creature of true might is quickly tracked down and executed by the various powers that be: armies, adventurers, mage towers, and knight orders, piles and piles of people with a vested interest in keeping the realm safe. Furthermore, more people means more eyes, and a greater chance of being discovered. While there are many tempting things in the nations of man, including, presumably, food that doesn’t make you wish you were dead again, pragmatism ultimately wins out. Silently, solitary, you march northward.Dead yellow and gray gives way to greenery, hardy winter grass poking through the frozen soil, lively evergreen trees standing stalwart, mighty, lacking the sickly deference or uncanny sentience of the forests of your domain. The air is crisp and clean, but with every breath you take in, a sharp burning stings at the soft tissues of your nose and lungs. It’s an unfamiliar sensation— in your life, you had lived in a kingdom where warm-tempered Dakia sits now, its grand saltwater lakes and bustling rivers and harbors never freezing over even in the dead of winter. You have been to the Wastes, yes, but only ever as a lich. You extend your staff ahead of you, a warm purple glow radiating from its crystalline tip, warmth radiating into the frigid wind, softening its sharp edge and allowing you to breathe comfortably.Having a human body really is a hassle.Snow begins to fall down on you, melting into something like mist as it reaches your Phenomenon, a faint moisture coating your body as a cloudy night dawns on you. You stop, ready your tent, and retreat into its warm comfort.—
>>6336969Days have passed. You have been taking the trip comfortably, sometimes floating instead of walking, sometimes pausing to admire the scenery or brush up on your magic— the higher the circles get, the less instinctive it is in the absence of the totality of your memory. It’s been surprisingly uneventful. You imagine that some part in it might be your ring’s influence, masking your presence from the mana senses of the northern beasts. Some, of course, still operate on their material senses, particularly sound and smell, but the air conditioning Phenomenon surrounding you seems to have masked that much as well.You step weightlessly across the deep snow of the tundra, no imprints left behind, until you come across the signs of someone who had been a lot less discerning. There are tracks in the snow, seems like five sets of humanoid footprints, overlapping with the fainter, weathered steps of something far larger. A hunting party, you wager. A brief divination spell reveals their location— it seems like they haven’t caught up to that monster yet, or, rather, that they monster hasn’t made its appearance.Many people (human or otherwise) raised in the soft, temperate realms of man, are often under the impression that masking their physical traces— their scent, their images, their sounds— will allow them to avoid the eyes of the monsters. In other places, that may be true, but in the Wastes, mana is king. The fact that you were able to scry their location without interference is evidence enough that this party is woefully undefended. This, despite seeming so foolish, is actually a very common mistake: people who are desperate or stupid enough to come to the Wastes in any capacity other than a full subjugation force are almost invariably uneducated about its true peril. They think that, because they are strong, and could beat monsters of similar power in a vacuum, they can repeat these feats in the North.Of course, such arrogance leads, with very little exception, to a frigid, bloody death.That said, this may be a boon in disguise; monsters are often most vulnerable on the hunt, or while eating fresh kills. They tend to focus their attention on their prey, their hunger and ferocity overwhelming their instinctive caution and leading them open to the attack. Then again, the monster itself is obscuring its own mana. You can still feel its presence, of course, thanks to the difference in skill and finesse between proper magic and a monster’s crude approximation, but it’s difficult to gauge its power or characteristics from a distance this great.You linger there, gently sinking into the snow as you lose yourself in contemplation.>Meet up with the party— you may as well leverage the strength in numbers>Launch an ambush on the monster now>Wait for the monster to ambush the party and kill it if it prevails>Look for your own quarry— their fate is not your concern>Write-in
>>6336971>>Meet up with the party— you may as well leverage the strength in numbersshow the mortals how it's done
>>6336971>Wait for the monster to ambush the party and kill it if it prevailsif the party slays it we may attack them instead
>>6336971>Wait for the monster to ambush the party and kill it if it prevailsSeems logical
>>6336971>Meet up with the party— you may as well leverage the strength in numbersNot that we'll find it with these fools, but worthy human relationships would be nice
>>6336971>>Meet up with the party— you may as well leverage the strength in numbersA future god needs peons after all
>>6336971>Meet up with the party— you may as well leverage the strength in numbersTry to barter to get the monsters mana core for your help. They may have useful information about the surrounding lands.
>>6336971>Wait for the monster to ambush the party and kill it if it prevails
>>6336971>Meet up with the party— you may as well leverage the strength in numbers
>>6336984I agree. We should be doing very bad things.>>6336971>Wait for the monster to ambush the party and kill it if it prevailsif the party slays it we may attack them insteadi see that meeting up with them is going to win, i just want to be on the side of the most evil option. in any case, use them to get the mana core. if they prove themselves here, adopt them as our personal team of monster hunters. they probably have no idea of how valuable the core is, CONCEAL that information from them.
>>6337436at least someone remembers we are supposed to be evil
>>6337450such a dull notion. what's the point of having amazing power and unparalleled knowledge if there's no one to flaunt it to?
>>6337466thats the thing: we dont have a whole lot of power to flaunt yetso we should get to eating some cores firstthis is the perfect opportunity to do just that
>>6337450Are we supposed to be? We're evil now, but it's not as if that's a strict imperative. More of a millenia-old habit
>>6337553I mean there is some potentially interesting character development/narrative value in having an ancient BBEG unexpectedly thrust into a living body with only fragments of our old power after thousands of years of sociopathic conduct but any “moral awakening” would have to be pretty limited and VERY SLOW to develop.Much more likely that our sociopathy adapts to some degree but we remain fundamentally amoral, imho
>>6337574I'm fairly certain our evilness is a result of our Tragic Backstory (tm) where we were a gutter rat with absolutely no friends whatsoever who decided that they wanted to become the greatest magician in the world, and presumably delved straight into core-eating and became a fugitive, continuously escalating until eventually culminate in being THE big bad of the setting. If we stay a villain, I want to be petty as shit against the hero and his party and not much else.
>>6337574>would have to be pretty limited and VERY SLOW to developI agree. Personally, I just want Roberta to appreciate the power of friendship
we can speculate Atrebor was just hanging out in his lair most of the time until some pesky heroes finally managed to kill him (and he wasnt even going out of his way to cause the mortals any problems)what Atrebor does want however, is figuring out true immortality and knowing all there is to know about magic (developing morals or something would make that pretty much impossible)when Atrebor has achieved these goals then he can always decide to be a merciful god
>>6337707Also possible that he would instead become mega-depressed and retreat from world affairs entirely. What do you do when you achieve super-perfect 100% completion, and there is nothing else? Crushing ennui is sure to follow, Type A maniacs usually spiral into depression from there…
>6For meeting the party>7For seeing the aftermathWaiting and watching wins. Writing now
>>6337907Five seem to sit around a campfire, laughing and eating together as something sinister lurks in the mist. Their noises muffle against set magecraft, a cheap blanket masking the sense-marks of their presence, showing the image of a totally empty clearing. However, clever though they think they may be, the predator is cleverer. A towering wolf wrought from frost and cold steel, methodically, delicately steps through the snow, silent as an owl’s wingbeat, betraying the intentionality of its tracks as not even a clawmark is indented into the fresh powder snow beneath its gait. However, something more interesting catches your eye: one of the party members, a mage by the looks of his staff and cloak, a true Dream specialist, is removed from his group. He sits alone in an old growth pine, a complex expression peeking out from beneath his hood as he watches his illusory self mingle with the corpses around that fire.As a necromancer— as a practitioner of magic at all, really— you’re always so fascinated by how quickly people can die. Humans are creatures of such potential, capable of reshaping the earth with a single swing of a blade, bending reality with a thought, and communing with the gods themselves through spells and liturgies. And yet, all it takes to quash that boundless fate is a single flash of claws, one frigid breath of countless icy needles, one bite, devouring everything from the belly up. Indeed, it is exceptionally fragile. The party puts up the best fight they can, blades dyed in mana chipping, one even piercing, the tough shell of metal and ice, drawing cold, cupric blood, thick and dark in its near black shades of blue, yet even that is next to nothing in the face of the monster’s eager jaws. In the end, the humans’ red blood greatly outshines the ultramarine dripping from the prickly fur of the canid beast, a crimson abstraction painted against the pure white canvas of the clearing.The Winter Wolf doesn’t even seem to acknowledge the illusion, likely not even being able to perceive it, instead passively letting it fade away as it relishes in the spoils of its ambush. The party was, by the standards of the Wastes, prime meat, raised big, comfortable, with nice, hefty mana cores. Briefly, you wonder what compelled the mage to betray his party, watching him look furtively around before slowly backing away into the ice and fog.
>>6337916You look at the retreating mage, then back at the wolf, spearhead still lodged in its body from the last man’s last stand. Though its strength is likely more equivalent to five of you than one, you are confident that, given preparation and the element of surprise, you can certainly vanquish the wolf, maybe even fishing the cores of the dead warriors from its stomach. That said, your curiosity is almost sickening: as a human, as a lich, and as a body molded from the image and pilfered fragments of the Emissary’s eternal corpse, you have always been cursed with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, from grand magical truth to the inconsequential solutions to random passing mysteries. Besides, perhaps something interesting, maybe even useful, lies down the road to satiating that urge.>Bring the hammer down on the wolf: pragmatism comes first>Leave the kill and follow the mage. You simply MUST know>Have your cake and eat it too— send a puppet to chase the mage while vanquishing the Winter Wolf (requires a roll)>Write-in
>Have your cake and eat it too— send a puppet to chase the mage while vanquishing the Winter Wolf (requires a roll)Press Your LuckWe can pull this off! Gather these cores, consume what we can, and track that mage for later.
>>6337947Supporting, why not both?
>>6337917>Leave the kill and follow the mage. You simply MUST knowNo faith in the dice
>>6337917>Leave the kill and follow the mage. You simply MUST knowguys, you only press your luck if your option doesn't require a roll already. so...>Press Your Luck
>>6337917>Have your cake and eat it too— send a puppet to chase the mage while vanquishing the Winter Wolf (requires a roll)easy decisionmy guess is the mage just isnt a very social person
>>6337917>Have your cake and eat it too— send a puppet to chase the mage while vanquishing the Winter Wolf (requires a roll)
>>6337917>Have your cake and eat it too— send a puppet to chase the mage while vanquishing the Winter Wolf (requires a roll)We went for power now lets get some.
>>6337917>Leave the kill and follow the mage. You simply MUST know>Press our luckThere'll be other monsters.
Votes are in, seems like:>7For multitasking and>3For just pursuing the mage. Multitasking wins, writing now
>>6338405You close your eyes, taking in deep breaths from the frosty air, the pins and edges of the frosty atmosphere seeming to invigorate you even as they sting the delicate flesh of your lungs. Multitasking is famously a high skill floor task among mages— you had actually been quite adept at simultaneously casting, but you mainly used your talent in that area for Compound Spells, a sort of conceptual precursor to Origin magic that worked by weaving together spellcraft harkening from different schools of magic, allowing you to create effects that normal mages could never hope to. This, while fundamentally based on the same principle, is an entirely different set of circumstances, requiring you to fully split your concentration between two unrelated tasks.Of course, while difficult, it's nothing you haven't done before already.In one hand you hold your staff, a faint glow in its tip as you slowly stalk the area around the distracted Winter Wolf, gently carving the area into its own magic circle. Even leveraging the thick ambient mana of the Wastes, the process is exceptionally taxing, both on your power reserves and your mental fortitude, combining envisioning the entire circle without seeing most of it with the complex calculus and fine magical control needed to imbue each part with the appropriate mana and glyph.Meanwhile, part of your mind is elsewhere, disembodied vision flying through the trees like a hawk, watching the mage jump from branch to branch, gusts of air powering his leaps and slowing his descents as he rapidly rushes towards some specific destination based on his demeanor and single-minded hurriedness. Perhaps he’s looking for something he’s worried may be stolen away if he gets there too late. Perhaps, he’s looking to meet some[/i]one.You grit your teeth, perspiration dewing on your forehead, threatening to freeze over and stiffen if you stay unprotected out in the frigid wind for too much longer. Your head feels hot. Your skin feels cold. Just as you feel a contradiction in temperature inside and out, so too is your mind somewhat straining against the nature of the multicast. You refocus on your breathing, tapping your staff against the laid out circle and preparing for the worst despite expecting a favorable outcome.>Please give me 3 rolls of 1d100+30
Rolled 21 + 30 (1d100 + 30)>>6338407i stayed up longer so i would have a chance to roll
Rolled 18 + 30 (1d100 + 30)>>6338407
Rolled 87 + 30 (1d100 + 30)>>6338407I guess it is up to me to save the day...
Well that is certainly better but far from as lucky as we started. I'd not be surprised if one of the casts fail. Off course idk what check our writer god had in mind. If one fails, I suppose Roberta would prioritze her attention over the big bad wolf (not dying) rather than some runaway mage
It would be cool if QM could tell us the dc before a roll
>>6338956Not sure how every other quest operates, but most of the ones I've read (and ttrpgs upon which this quest is heavily based) tend to leave DCs hidden behind the DM/QM screen.>>6338411>>6338412>>63384191 great success, 1 failure, 1 great failure— -1, Mitigated FailureYour spell springs to life, the earth beneath the wolf bubbling with heat pulled from deep beneath its frozen crust, a plume of liquid rock and slag erupting in a burst of garnet light. The scalding wind rushes against your face, reddening your skin as you bend the magic to your will. An overlay of Manipulation in addition to the magmatic Phenomenon you just displayed unfolds beneath your boots, molten plume sharpening into tendrils as you attempt to pierce and bind the creature. The wolf scrambles, lava solidifying into stone and glass beneath its paws, solid enough to leap away but more than hot enough to leave serious burns on its body, its proud armor having melted in the heat as it races towards you.You click your tongue, your reborn mind unaccustomed to dividing your attention as you have. You attempt to hold on, but you realize too late that it was arrogant to do so. The wolf's razor sharp claws, wrought of steel and mana-reinforced ice, descend upon your fragile body, drawing an arc of sinister blue mana in their wake. The defensive barrier around the cloak blocks the brunt of the impact, giving you precious time to refocus your energy on your ring, but, for the briefest moment, your brain slows, allowing the tips of those natural-born daggers to rip into your delicate skin, three crimson gashes painted across the skin and cloth of your chest.For the first time in centuries, you feel real pain.Like smoldering coals raked across your skin, like frozen steel stinging with a pointed ache that feels like burning, the sensation of your skin being split like parchment rings though your nervous system. Your body moves almost on instinct, completing the spell and sending a dozen thin tendrils of magmatic death directly through the vital organs of the Winter Wolf. Still, even as it bleeds azure onto the snow, you can't even begin to enjoy it, your mind wracked with agony. Your breaths shallow, your mind in a haze as crimson adorned with flecks of golden ichor seep into your clothes, you press your staff against your shredded flesh, sucking in air through your teeth as the uncanny shimmer of your body knitting itself back together finally heals the damage, leaving your body unwounded but utterly depleted of mana. Exhausted, you collapse onto the snow, the remnants of your magic keeping you warm enough, and threatening enough, to sleep.—
>>6339038You awake in the morning, rested but still bitter about suffering humiliation at the hands of a mere mutt. The creature is dead, and mostly in good condition thanks to the winter's stilling influence, but the hearts eaten by the Wolf are now fully lost to the powerful acids roiling in its guts. Two of the corpses lay undevoured, but you still lost half of the human cores. Naturally, the fifth man is gone too, yet you still persist.You lift your staff, mending and cleaning your torn cloak before casting a sphere of warm air around your person. You need to plan your next move.>Take the most expensive materials, and the cores, and leave>Eat the cores now, then pilfer whatever materials are worth taking >You can't possibly hope to take all of this. Why not use the cores to make something?>Take the cores and leave the rest behind. The wolf’s corpse leaves a bad taste in your mouth>Write-in
>>6339040>>Eat the cores now, then pilfer whatever materials are worth takingEat ze cores
>>6339040>Eat the wolf core, make a pair of Breathing Golems from the human cores, take whatever materials worth taking.>Press our luckToo much gear to take and remain mobile, ey? Perhaps it would be worth making breathing golem from the humans (if they are still fresh enough)? We can consume the wolf core, to gain some power too.
>>6339040>Eat the cores now, then pilfer whatever materials are worth takingIts what we came for. I like the threat of consequences for the bad rolls here. Even though one interesting plothook ran away and we lost some of our shinies, we should be still lucky to be in one piece. Could have ended real nasty if it wasnt for that last roll. Makes one respect the story and not rely on plot armor too much.Maybe it was a stupid fight to take such risks for.
>>6339045Support
>>6339040 #>Eat the cores now, then pilfer whatever materials are worth taking
>>6339040>You can't possibly hope to take all of this. Why not use the cores to make something?Another ring we can use to cast enervating ray.
>>6339040>Eat the cores now, then pilfer whatever materials are worth taking>Press our lucki feel like we have to balance out that failure with a success (and i just like rolling)
>>6339040>Eat the cores now, then pilfer whatever materials are worth taking
Sorry for the lack of update, the thanksgiving food coma hit me like a truck. I'm out doing some early Black Friday shopping, but I'll try to do a double update today when I get back (if the votes allow)
>>6339553>Eat the cores now, then pilfer whatever materials are worth takingDespite being such a fresh kill, the insides of the Winter Wolf are tepid. Its blood is thick, almost syrupy, surely as a method of preventing the very vessels that transport it from freezing in the cold. The sharp scent of copper hits your nose, royal blue coating your hands, sticking to them in long strands as you pull the pearlescent core from the wolf’s body. You bottle a sample of its blood before cleaning your hands— the crystalized mana— with a spell. Your attention turns to the corpses in the snow. Now frozen over in the cold of the night, you bash the tattered flesh of the first victim with your staff, solid blood and viscera shattering like glass, revealing the blood-red heart of his aura. You repeat the process with the other corpse, holding the three prizes, glimmering like cut jewels beneath the stark winter sun, in the palms of your hands.Without hesitation, you open your jaws.—You remember the time you ate your first Heart.You were a gutter rat, less than a pest, beaten and scorned and starved worse than even the nastiest rodent or street dog. Your brown hair, matted in blood, dirt, and detritus, seemed black even in direct light, and your frame was so withered and deprived that, if you were still enough, some would mistake you for a corpse. The old empire of Pagalith was a land of magic and mystery, to an even greater extent than Dakia is today, where anyone, peasant or noble, foreign or native, man or woman, could become its king and master if only their spellcraft were great enough to earn that right. Of course, there were laws forbidding certain unethical practices— heart eating, human experimentation, colluding with demons— but these were mostly in place as formalities, and as a basis to nip competition in the bud. In truth, all of these and more were performed with gusto underneath the surface. Like the blackened, filthy back allies sequestered beneath the glow and grandeur of the magically engineered capital city, like the muffled screams masked by the enchanting songs of the Seafolk, dark, forbidden magic had rooted into the core of Pagalith’s heart.You, and a dozen other children— some lured by the promises of food and shelter as you were, others the pawned spawn of debt-slaves, others still paying for the crimes of their fathers with indenture— became subjects of experimentation. Of course, you weren’t surprised. If anything, life as a lab rat was better than life in the gutter.
>>6339676Even so, you’ll never forget the pain and fear that came with the first Heart you ate: every single inch of your body shattering and stitching itself back together, the identity of the monster threatening, maybe even partially succeeding, in eating away at your own being and replacing it with its own. The darkening of your sight, and the twisted satisfaction welling inside as that foreign might became yours, even if it may have been at the cost of your soul.Even though your flesh persisted for years after that agonizing event, you will always consider that to be the day you died.—>Immortal Atrebor-Species: Godborn-Mana Core: Rank C (Favored School: Origin Magic) [no restricted school]-Divine Presence: Partially Unsealed-Recollection: 35%-Magic Capacity: Fifth Circle--Physical Condition: Slight FatigueAs expected, the closer you get to the peak, the slower the rate of progression, even when eating the hearts of those as strong, if not stronger, than you are. You sigh to yourself, spitting out a black sludge, the impurities lying within the cores of the dead humans. Something sickly savory, like salted pork lard, lingers on your tongue even after you wash your mouth out with water purified from the snow. To Demons, this taste is something they’d devote their entire lives to, but in your opinion it’s nothing but unpleasant. Still, what has to be done has to be done. You came to the North with a purpose, to regain your former might, and you intend to see it through. You begin to process the Wolf's corpse, a thin, rotating saw made to cut through its diamond-hard exterior forming at the tip of your south. Your hands move deftly, almost on instinct, your past lives' centuries of experience helping guide your movements, leaving your mind free to think about your next steps. How should you proceed?>Head to Gladisgard, mankind’s the one and only outpost in the North and the first line of defense against the horrors of the Wastes>Focus on hunting monsters and taking their cores. After you have at least the bare minimum strength to survive an encounter with a hero’s party member, you plan to leave>Set up a temporary base of operations: if you’re going to be here for a while, it will help if you have somewhere to conduct research, produce items, and rest>Begin to set up a permanent outpost in the North. With the Demons on the backfoot and the humans content after your destruction, this is the perfect place to resume your operations>Head even farther north into the Demon territories. The quality of their cores are far greater than Monsters, and if you get lucky you may be able to pilfer some of their equipment [Demons are not to be bargained or allied with.]>Write-in
>>6339678>Set up a temporary base of operations: if you’re going to be here for a while, it will help if you have somewhere to conduct research, produce items, and rest
>>6339678>Focus on hunting monsters and taking their cores. After you have at least the bare minimum strength to survive an encounter with a hero’s party member, you plan to leaveThanks to the generous donations of those travellers we might even have some tasty supplies to last a while comfortably. Scavenge anything useful. lay low. Try to cover up what we have done, and be aware of that fellow that got away.
>>6339678>>Head even farther north into the Demon territories. The quality of their cores are far greater than Monsters, and if you get lucky you may be able to pilfer some of their equipment [Demons are not to be bargained or allied with.]I imagine that they're a bunch of backstabbing rats if even we don't want to hang with them. Probably POWERFUL backstabbing rats, given the implication that they eat cores not for power, but for the love of it, but still.I want to start off our new life with a bang and cripple the Demons. Both to regain our own power, and also just to flex. "Oh, sure you can kill me hero, but could you do THIS?" (destroys one of the biggest threats to the civilized peoples of the world singlehandedly).
>>6339678>Head to Gladisgard, mankind’s the one and only outpost in the North and the first line of defense against the horrors of the Wastesi don't wanna fucking farm
>>6339678>Head to Gladisgard, mankind’s the one and only outpost in the North and the first line of defense against the horrors of the WastesI also don't want to farm. There must be opportunities at this most distant outpost of civilization.
>>6339678theres maybe 3 things i would be ok with. difficult to decide...>Head even farther north into the Demon territories. The quality of their cores are far greater than Monsters, and if you get lucky you may be able to pilfer some of their equipment humans present a greater danger to us right now than demons howeverthis could also give us a plausible disguise as demon hunter (we are a good person dont ask any questions please)
>>6339678>>Head to Gladisgard, mankind’s the one and only outpost in the North and the first line of defense against the horrors of the WastesI'd like to explore this a bit
>>6339702>>6339678I change my vote immediately to this:>Head even farther north into the Demon territories. The quality of their cores are far greater than Monsters, and if you get lucky you may be able to pilfer some of their equipmentI really like >>6339698 's idea of posing as a demon hunter.
>>6339703thanks anon!
>>6339678>Head even farther north into the Demon territories. The quality of their cores are far greater than Monsters, and if you get lucky you may be able to pilfer some of their equipmentDemons? Demons.
>>6339698Oooh, that's a good idea. They probably get all sorts of strange people up here to hunt demons and sell their cores.
>>6339678Sure, I'll switch to support >>6339698The idea of pretending to be a demon hunter sounds fun.
>>6339771>>6339703>>6339698Y'know, are we really 'disguised as a demon hunter' if we're actually up there to hunt demons?
>>6339782I think so. We're not registered with the adventurer's guild, and we're here to eat hearts, which is illegal. So I guess we are a real demon hunter, but not in any official sense.
>>6339788>Implying we don't have a 500 year old registration card from the last time we were human that we just need to dust off
>>6339797I think it is rotting alongside our villainous lair, unfortunately.
>>6339782i was thinking we use being a demon hunter as an alibiour story could be that some demons killed our family and now we swore to kill as many as we can (typical anime protag shit)so if there are official demon hunters (like a guild) we should say we aspire to become one, while pretending to be a righteous herosurely this plan is fool proofi didnt expect so many of you to like my little idea lol
>>6339678>Head SouthI wanna go somewhere warm!I wanna laze around in the tropics!
>Head even farther north into the Demon territories. The quality of their cores are far greater than Monsters, and if you get lucky you may be able to pilfer some of their equipment
>1Each for retreating further south, and hunting for cores,>2For heading to Gladisgard, and>9For trekking further northDemon territory wins. Writing now.
>>6339961It is an error all too common to presume Demons to be akin to the members of the Races of Man. This misstep is, of course, not entirely unfounded— it is true that, like the Races, Demons were created by one of the gods, Katellor of the Death-Rattle. However, unlike those molded and blessed to inhabit the earth and bring it life, Katellor’s creations were creatures born of spite, a blight upon Humankind, molded by the sun and twice-blessed at the pitious generosity of pale Luwen, the moon and dream. To Katellor, such blatant favoritism granted to his hated adversary was unacceptable, compelling him to leave his mark on the world in the form of the Demons instead.Born with Cores, the demons are monsters. Intelligent though they may be, it is more apropos to compare them to a Dragon or Sphinx than it would be to compare them to mankind. Demons are cunning, bound only against slaughtering themselves by divine commandment, begrudgingly accepting their fellows in something resembling society purely out of convenience and practicality, after having been thoroughly routed by the organized forces of the Humans eons ago. The demons are heartless, cunning, cruel. Born in equal measure beautiful and dangerous, any outside their own clade can never trust a word they say. They bear no honor, no ethics, no pride beyond arrogance or service beyond self. It is said that demons never deal in goods, but rather in leverage, and that to pay a demon before you receive their end of the deal is tantamount to throwing your money into the sea.You reach the crumbled ruins of what was once one of their towns, ravaged by a battle of extermination. White marble and gray concrete jut from the ground in shards, walls once sturdy and pristine now little more than scattered shards marred in black soot, contrasting strikingly against the endless blanket of opalite snow. Of course, nobody has lived here for years, this settlement having likely been razed, its inhabitants exterminated without mercy or exception, shortly after your own death. You nod in approval as you step through the town-turned-cemetary: it’s quite common for humans, when seeing the appearances of demons so very much like them, to waver and spare the children, the elderly, or even any others who seem harmless to their own sensibilities. Of course, that’s suicide, and the people here knew it. Piles of bones, withered and eroded by time, still show remnants beneath the snow and soil. Evidence of gigantic pyres made to dispose of the corpses, by your estimation. Among the wreckage, you see a skull small enough to be a child’s.You look away with a shrug— the cores are, of course, long gone.
>>6339963You tread over the decrepit roads silently, feet cushioned by an invisible layer of air to nullify any sound your shoes might make against the concrete and cobble. You close your eyes, imbuing mana into your ears and listening into the cold winter wind. Footsteps. You don’t detect any mana, at least not rudimentarily, but a more powerful Divination spell reveals the nature of the interference: this is proper Dream magic, molded to deceive those who were expecting to encounter beasts of a far lower caliber. Of course, your ring is a step above the magic at play, and as such you doubt they’ve even noticed your presence. It’s likely that they’re either hunting monsters for cores, tracking down humans, or heading off to some other agenda. Thanks to priests of most gods being able to detect the presence of Demons, it’s rare for them to head towards human territories. Of course, they do have methods of disguising themselves, but most of them involve complex setups and usually necessitate human collaborators. What could they possibly be doing?>Leave the demons to their business. You prefer quarry less alert than they are>Investigate the troupe— tail them from a safe distance and observe their movement>Watch them closely— get in near enough to pierce their illusions with your own divination and eyesight. (will require a roll)>Launch an ambush— you can get the information you need from one of their corpses (will require a roll)>Write-in
>>6339965>Investigate the troupe— tail them from a safe distance and observe their movement
>>6339965>Launch an ambush— you can get the information you need from one of their corpses (will require a roll)
>>6339965>>Investigate the troupe— tail them from a safe distance and observe their movement
>>6339965>Watch them closely— get in near enough to pierce their illusions with your own divination and eyesight. (will require a roll)
>>6339965>Leave the demons to their business. You prefer quarry less alert than they arei thought about it and i think we should ambush demons that dont try to prevent being ambushed
Came down with a cold. No update tonight. May post if I feel better in the morning.
>>6340390Get well soon Po!
>>6339965>Leave the demons to their business. You prefer quarry less alert than they are
>Leave the demons to their business. You prefer quarry less alert than they are
Still sick, but recovered enough to update again. Investigation from a distance wins.
>>6341412Hedge leaves and dry powder-snow hug your hooded form as you hide yourself within the (relatively) arboreal tundras at the outskirts of what one might call the Demon Territory. After the wars of extermination, it's rare to see demons this far out from their boundaries— the knights of Gladisgard, even in their relative laxness in the face of years of peace, are still frightening warriors with a fierce, almost cultish hatred for demonkind and anything associated with it. You see the demons trudge through the white wastes from your high vantage, knee deep in the accumulated snowfall as they head towards… something. You see the snow level out behind the demons’ troupe, a common sort of Manipulation magic used to cover one’s tracks (your weightlessness takes a degree of control that most mages struggle to perform casually). Concerningly, they look entirely human. Demons, born with protrusions of bone to signify their ties to Death’s Lord— often horns, but sometimes spines, hooves, claws, or tusks— are easily distinguished from other members of the Races at a glance even without those bones: sclera black as ink, pupils running a range of unnatural hues, and an almost unsettling beauty that makes even the children of the forests seem mundane. The only way they can truly assume a human appearance (besides illusions or extensive body modification) is the ancient demon ritual of Skinwalking.A human body, prepared in advance with a special ritual wine, may be used as a sort of… mask for a demon. The skin, despite the name of the ritual, is actually white unimportant. Really, any part of the body will do. The demon consumes the flesh of the sacrifice, taking on their appearance and mannerisms in exchange for their magic being dulled somewhat. The primary use case for this has always been infiltration, avoiding the instant discernment from the divine, but the drawback is that the wine must knowingly be fed to the sacrifice by another human. Among those knowledgeable in demonology this ‘Demon’s Dressing’ is the only deal one can make with their kind with any expectation of reciprocity (though demons are often selfish and perfidious enough to betray even after this) since it is paramount that the ritual’s participants not be scared off by a grim reputation.
>>6341414While the fact that these demons, and who knows how many more, have begun Skinwalking is disconcerting but ultimately none of your business. If anything, it’s a boon, since weaker magic means they’ll be easier to observe without getting caught.The demons seem southward bound, likely headed towards the civilized world. For the life of you, you can't imagine for what end. The demons speak pragmatically, only communicating amongst themselves to coordinate their travel or get their stories straight. What should you do?>Follow the troupe to wherever they’re going>Go back north— this isn’t worth your time>Rob them as they sleep (requires a roll)>Launch an ambush (requires a roll)>Write-in
Good to hear you are a bit recovering. Take care.>Launch an ambush (requires a roll)We came to hunt demons. They are demons. Subdue one or two for questioning if possible.
>>6341415>>Launch an ambush (requires a roll)
>>6341415>Rob them as they sleep (requires a roll)Welcome to human society bitches
>>6341415>Launch an ambush (requires a roll)fuck it
>>6341415>>Follow the troupe to wherever they’re going
>>6341415>Launch an ambush (requires a roll)I need to kill
>>6331354Btw we still have the little wooden coin to track the mage from the rogue adventurers, if we ever want something from him. Might be good to check up on his whereabouts.
>>6341415>Launch an ambush (requires a roll)
>>6341415A natural adaption in the face of extermination. No more, no less.>Launch an ambush (requires a roll)
hey QM can you maybe close the vote 1-2 hours before you start to write the update in the future?that way anons can already roll and we dont have to "waste" an update
>>6341791What do you mean? All the updates with prompts to roll are in of themselves story posts with a decent amount of text.
>>6341794sure. QM could implement the rolled dice immediately however.if he wants to of course. thats why i am asking.
>>6341798Sure, if people would prefer it run this way I'd be happy to adjust going forward.Onto the vote, it seems like>6For ambush,>1For robbery, and>1For continuing with the pursuit. Ambush wins. Writing now.
>>6341834In the dead of night, even the demons sleep.You alight down in the center of their encampment, ethereal butterfly wings shimmering like silver moonlight glowing behind your billowing robe. However, these wings are not for flight; instead, they beat after you touch the ground, a fine mist of wing-scales, each one wrought from Dream magic, rushing through the troupe’s tents. The lone watchman sees nothing, the spell’s illusion of nothing being wrong having set in his mind, dulling his perception of anything being amiss. You move to his campfire, smothered by the gust of your spell, reigniting it yourself to make sure the illusion remains unshattered. This spell, in exchange for its subtlety and self-concealment, is a remarkably fragile thing. It’s all too easy for something amiss to shatter its delicate world of illusion.You loom behind the demon, taking the time you need to set up a proper spell. You’d have liked to use necromancy, but demons tend to be naturally resistant to it (though not immune) thanks to the combination of their monstrous constitution and the blessings of Death’s lord. Instead, you opt for Manipulation, ambient snow levitating off of the ground and compacting into ice, the forming slab carving itself down into a thin, razor-sharp blade. You leave it there suspended, its cold air hidden by the harsh winter night as it hovers just beside the demon’s unsuspecting throat.Finally, you add your coup de grace— even incomplete, your divine presence, the entire purpose for the experiment you now inhabit, weaves itself into the edge of the lethal instrument. A golden glow burns in your eyes, crackling sparks of a power beyond mana weaving its way into the dull purple luminance of your spellcraft. You take a deep breath, satisfied with its lethality before tilting your staff forward, prompting the Frost Guillotine to sever the demon’s head.You cleave through his neck as smoothly as a knife through prime beef.Hot red blood spurts from the stumps, but you catch it in a spell, freezing over the corpse and the exsanguination leaking from its artificial orifices to keep the smell from leaking out. You breathe a sigh of relief as your spells remain undisturbed, the slumbering demons seemingly noticing nothing. Now, it’s merely a matter of rinse and repeat.Or at least, that’s what you thought.Out of the blue, despite no longer even having the anatomy to do it, the severed head begins to scream.
>>6341842Your eyes widen in panic as the shrill, almost operatic sound begins to pour out— you’ve seen this before, the “Deadman’s Dirge,” a necromancy spell cast upon oneself up to a day in advance that temporarily puppets the body of the caster after they die, warning their comrades of any potential dangers. Of course, you are familiar with this (and indeed, most spellcraft conjured by the races of man), but not once in your centuries of life have you ever considered the possibility of a demon using it. The idea of something that can only benefit others, AFTER you no longer have the ability to benefit it, is a sort of altruistic thinking that is anathema to demons. No, not altruistic— this is all pragmatism: “I may not benefit if I die, but it would benefit me greatly if you happen to die, and we are close enough consistently enough to know that this is being maintained properly.” To humans, this sort of higher order thinking is common sense, but Demons, prideful and deceitful, are used to both being unable to entertain any implication that they may be slain and being too untrusting to offer any sort of long term bargain in this manner. In other words, the demons are evolving. All of this races through the back of your mind over the course of a fraction of a fraction of a second. The moment the dead demon began to sing, you had already begun casting a spell to suppress the noise. However, even the slightest miscalculation in nullifying the frequency could lead to no masking at all, or, even worse, an amplification creating a much louder noise.>Please give me 3 rolls of 1d100+35
Rolled 6 + 35 (1d100 + 35)>>6341844
Rolled 92 + 35 (1d100 + 35)>>6341844
Rolled 64 + 35 (1d100 + 35)>>6341844Uh oh
1 normal failure, 1 normal success, 1 great success: +2, Success.Your magic springs to life almost instantly, the post mortem cry of the severed head being muffled then thrown, an act of supernatural ventriloquism crafted to help that initial leakage of sound melt undetected into the distant, though fabricated, cry of a territorial Peaktalon. You breathe a quiet sigh of relief as the demons remain sleeping in their tents, reminding yourself to check for any traps left woven into their bodies in the case of their deaths.Anti-Mankind protocol. On demons! How utterly absurd.Still, you lack the leeway to spend long lamenting the state the world has gotten to. After all, even with your flawless execution, you only have so long until the next watchman rouses for their shifts. You tracklessly step towards the first of the new victims, brandishing your staff like the scythe of a harvestman, a ruthless professional separating the wheat from the chaff. A crackling golden incandescence wicks around you. This night, divine judgment falls upon these foolish demons.—To the last survivor, it must have seemed surreal.The camp was peaceful, pristine, exactly as they had left it the night before, with the sole exception being that its inhabitants had been replaced with corpses. Bodies wreathed in red, buried haphazardly beneath snow and ice just deep enough to keep the tinge of iron out of the air, litter the campgrounds like dandelions across a grassy field. He looks around in panic, presumably checking for magic rather than something his eyes might see, only to have his gaze fix upon you, the only other living thing present.With cold composure, you raise your staff, precise spellcraft obscured beneath your wide-scale illusion. The demon draws a dagger, a sidearm it seems, from his hip. Mana flickers around it blood-red, his proficiency with longer blades becoming obvious as it flashes farther than the short length of the dagger can support.You have been considering asking for information. Of course, your original plan had been to take it off of his corpse, but perhaps a more… standard conversation would prove more useful here. What should you do?>Bargain for information at the price of his life (specify whether you intend to honor this deal)>Interrogate him without making any offer at all>Strike him down where he stands. You find better parlance with the dead>Write-in
>>6342318>Bargain for information at the price of his life (We shall not spare him, for he would not do such in our position, nor would any of his kind.)
>>6342318>>Bargain for information at the price of his life (specify whether you intend to honor this deal)>Do not honor the dealWhy would one trust the word of a demon? What a laughable concept.
>>6342318>Bargain for information at the price of his life (kill him)We're a human, we're so much more honourable than demons!
>>6342318>Remark on the oddity of demons having Deadman’s Dirge prepared
>>6342318>Bargain for information at the price of his life (kill him no matter what)
>>6342318>>Strike him down where he stands. You find better parlance with the dead
>>6342318>Strike him down where he stands. You find better parlance with the dead
>>6342318i suggest we should consider torturing him. otherwise he can just lie. we need a way to verify hes honest.in case hes not as selfish as demons usually are (this group seems to be different) he may be willing to die if it means keeping this valuable knowledge from us (they could easily be part of a larger scheme)>Bargain for information at the price of his life (no mercy)offer to spare him but if we dont like his answers or attitude "motivate" him kindly
>>6342318>Bargain for information at the price of his life (specify whether you intend to honor this deal)>Do not honor the deal
>>6342318>Bargain for information at the price of his life (quick mana-efficient kill with a single motion either way)
>>6342448+1 on motivation
>>6342318+1 >>6342448Don't trust his word
