Nice cinematic writing!
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Zeke rushes over to Ton’iel after he falls, checking the grizzled elf is physically all right. ”Only got the one, Mr. T..." he mumbles apologetically. He helps him get back on his feet with Wulf’s Help and the three of them rush out of the building before it collapses.
Zeke turns off the flashlight and rushes to Wulf's side. "Are you all right, Mr. Wulf? I thought that thing was going to disintegrate you!" He helps the big man stand and then grasps his gun to draw forth positive energy from his god's realm.
Zeke blesses his weapon with a strange and ghostly green glow, and casts his coin-shooting spell to fire at the monster through the doorway.
Zeke blinks, wide-eyed, and then giggles softly at his big friend. "You want to try to draw them off, Mr. Wulf?"
"Beware, friends, these scavenging creatures eat metal!" He considers. "I wonder if we could lure them away from the door with 'treats'? Do we have anything substantially metal that we can easily part with?"
Zeke pulls out his flashlight and turns it on, shining it into the dark room.
Zeke chips in and helps Garfaulk move junk and crates aside, then tries to help further by pushing the dirt he piles up out of the way. He watches Garfaulk with a bemused expression, but no judgment.
Zeke draws out scrolls of mage armor and heightened awareness and reads the words on them carefully, anxiously checking around him periodically to make sure the staked bodies aren't moving and the flaming skeleton is nowhere near him. He sticks near Wulf, ready to cast shield of faith on the big man if any other threats should appear.
No objections to you taking the EMP pistol, Ton. Zeke can always throw money at the problem. ;)
Peering over at the rifle they found earlier, Zeke wonders what it does.
Zeke floats down after the body lands, a little sickened by the sight. For a little extra insurance, he casts a healing spell on himself and another one on Charles.
He shakes his head to clear it, and casts a disparaging look at the flaming skeleton and the huge corpse. He frowns at Jolga and casts detect magic on the items the group recovered. Then he looks over them quickly to see if he knows what they are.
He glances at the pistol out of curiosity more than anything else.
When Garfaulk nudges Zeke, he just floats at the edge of the tower ledge. He looks startled but laughs. "I forgot, I'm still levitating. I'll wait here with you to make sure there is no further danger before I go down." He looks below him and makes a leery face, as if he is uncomfortable without any ground beneath his feet.
Zeke coughs and splutters, his white shirt bloody and torn by claw marks. He tries to sit up quickly, a little dizzy and embarrassed to be splayed out on the ground so close to the edge of the tower. He focuses on Wulf with some difficulty and nods in answer to the big man's question. "Thanks, M... Mister Wulf. I think... I think I'll be all right. Has... has the spell expired?" he asks cryptically. "The... feather... fall? If not, we need it to, to jump down..."
Arial battles always get so complicated, sorry! We are really lucky that Jolga prepared fly for Wulf. Or rather it speaks to Jolga's foresight. Really good planning, Jolga!
If it thought Zeke was that big a threat, wouldn't it still eat the AoOs to lunge at him?
Oh, I see. I had been thinking it just had damage resistance to the terrain so the hazards didn't hurt it, not that it didn't impede its movement. But didn't Charles hamper its movements with his Debilitating Injury, so it can't 5-foot step?
Pounce is super-powerful! I think we are outclassed. ETA: Wait, even with pounce, it would have to charge to make two attacks on Zeke, and then it couldn’t attack Charles, and Wulf would get another AoO!
Zeke is pulverized by the creature's attack, and falls unconscious in a bloody mess.
Well, though I'm reluctant to leave the forums, they do suck and are not notifying me right now. And I am on discord all the time for Prevail!. I'm willing to transfer if everyone else is.
Anxious about the others but reluctant to pass up a good shot now that the creature has returned to its nest, he quickly charges his arcane gun and draws out a scroll from his pack. He casts coin shot, firing a platinum coin at the creature.
Zeke chants fateful words of praise to Groetus and a cloud of darkness descends upon the manticore . Then he moves closer to where the manticore was sleeping, to see what is in its nest.
Ah, got it. Not sure what Zeke should have prepared instead, since bless doesn't stack. Maybe shield of faith?
Zeke listens as Wulf describes the creature, and casts bless when everyone is together. Then he activates his ring, levitating himself to the top.
Has Jolga stopped preparing bless? Zeke switched to magic weapon so as not to conflict, but if Jolga isn't casting it Zeke will gladly fill that void.
Zeke squints at Jolga, and looks at Wulf. "Perhaps Mr. Wulf and I should go up together, so if we are attacked I can tie the rope while he keeps it occupied," he says hesitantly to the group.
Zeke, at the back of the party and as far from the undead creature as he can be, looks up at the tower. "If you intend for us to go up there, Mr. Wex-- uh, Mr. W-- I can levitate one of us to the top."
Zeke listens to Wulf and shakes his head, troubled. "I don't know, Mr. Wulf. I know quite a bit about those creatures, and I've never seen myself as someone who could use one of them as a... a tool, a servant or the like. They are dark, twisted things that hate life, even if they are well-yoked and beaten into submission. They are the opposite of us. I-- I don't like them, Mr. Wulf! But I must pray on it, th--think about it, search myself for what is true. "I don't know much about what Lord Groetus commands, I guess. I heard someone say once that the Lady of Graves opposes the undead because each one damages a soul. Surely our Lord Groetus doesn't want damaged souls polluting the world when He inherits it? Won't He destroy them like He destroys everything? Won't He remake them better, as He will remake all of us better?" Zeke stops, embarrassed. "Sorry, Mr. Wulf. I don't mean to... to preach. I see us as family now, all of us traveling together. We are the heroes of Torch! And, I don't like the... the thought that our family could be tainted with evil. Did you see the way that Redtooth looked at me when I came back in? Or at you? I want to believe we're better than that. That we don't need to use those kind of tools." He sighs. "I just need some time. Time to think about it. Oh, I'm so tired, Mr. Wulf, ever since we left Torch it's been so hard! But I find staying up late and working with my arts very calming. I've been tinkering with an idea for a magic headband, something that might make it easier for you to control your, your metal skin?" His eyes become slightly more focused, hopeful. "Let me show you tonight?"
Zeke looks troubled and haunted by Jolga's response, and closes his mouth fearfully. An expression of doubt crosses his features, and he stammers "I-- I don't think... I must-- I have to..." as he stares at the flaming undead creature. Then with a look to the others, he hunches his shoulders and retreats back into the warrens by himself.
I certainly concede the point that Zeke is probably the furthest on the good spectrum for the whole group. But I can't get over the fact that the god you worship is crazy, and this has never made sense. Like any religious follower, Zeke picks and chooses parts of his theology that resonate with him. Essentially, Groetus is an apocalyptic god. He will destroy the world (Very Soon Now) and make it into something better. All the souls associated with other faiths will go away, leaving Groetus's faithful to inherit the earth. Zeke accepts that as the central message of his faith. Pharasma keeps Groetus at bay by feeding Him atheists, so Zeke reasons that the atheists will be in the afterlife too. So since others who don't worship Groetus can be there, he hopes that means his friends and family can be there too. And since a crazy god is driven by whims and whimsy, so Zeke believes that if he is a faithful servant, his god will grant him boons in the afterlife just as he does in this life. Protecting his friends and family, for example, or at least letting him do so without punishing him for it. That's basically it.
Sorry, Zeke. I didn't think it would be that big of a problem. Thanks, Jolga. I appreciate that.
Joe, I'm not saying the players have to run all their character decisions by everyone, come on. I'm saying that if I made a necromancer character to join a game, it might be nice to mention that before it came up in game. Because springing it on people in game can cause big conflicts, where players have to question if it's worth digging in their heels to say no! We all have to play characters that can be okay with necromancy to have necromancy in the game. If we'd talked about it before it was already decided, I'm sure we could have all figured it out. Yes, I will figure out how to make Zeke okay with it. Yes, it could be a fun character arc. I am disappointed I didn't get to make that decision myself, though.
Huh? I feel like I've consistently played Zeke Chaotic Good with emphasis on the Good. He wants to set such a good example that his insane god is moved to reward him by including his family in the deranged afterlife that Zeke believes will come to pass. He argues with his god on their behalf. He uses his crazy magic primarily to heal his family, he crafts stuff for them selflessly, and he tries to help underdogs. He doesn't preach at his friends, because he can see it makes them uncomfortable, but he always advocates for their inclusion in "heaven" so to speak. I'm surprised this hasn't come across.
Look, I get it, necromancy is cool from a system perspective. It's powerful. I love playing necromancers. But I feel like you have to get buy-in from the rest of the players to do it. If this were an evil game like Way of the Wicked, no question! But this is an established game with characters that have been around for a long time, and I feel like this is a pretty big thing to just spring on us without asking. It feels like I have to have a meta-argument with the group both in character and out of character about whether or not this is evil and something that Chaotic Good Zeke is even allowed to be uncomfortable with. Yes, we all are kinda gray characters, but none of us are actually evil and it seems like we've shied away from downright evil acts in the past. I get wanting to massage the game so that we can get away with both being paladins and scoundrels at the same time. But animate dead, like summon monster, is contentious. It's a lot harder to make it work in a mixed party. And unlike summon monster, animate dead lasts for a really, really long time. I've seen games break up because of this. You try to compromise between the two factions, keeping the undead outside or burying them, casting disguise spells to make them look human, managing all of your minions so that your control cycles and you can quickly kill the ones that overflow the bucket. You start splitting the party a lot. But it's clear that something is wrong, and that it has become two games, one with undead and one without them. And the second group starts losing interest, you know? It's hard to see yourself as Big Damn Heroes when one of you is a Reaver.
I feel like no one asked me if it was okay with me, and that sucks. But it sounds like the will of the group is that it's fine, so I guess I've got to figure out how to go along with it.
Whether or not it was foreshadowed, I think we have to talk out of character about this, because it's a choice that affects all of us. If Jolga is a necromancer, we are all necromancers by association. To keep playing this game, I have to find a way to make Zeke "okay" with fighting and traveling beside undead servants. It means I have to change my conception of my character to cooperate with the group. That's a major change to the "feel" of the party and the adventure path, so I feel like we should talk about it. And if it's just a fait accompli, well, I think that kind of sucks.
I didn't realize Jolga was going to be a necromancer. Does he have to be? That's a pretty contentious choice to just drop into the game, my friends. It's all very well to say "Let's play this out in RP," but if it's already a done deal I really don't want to have to have an argument in character that I'm going to lose no matter what. :/
Zeke looks shocked. "That spell is evil," he breathes with disbelief. He looks around at the others. "Casting it brings more evil into the world. That thing is worse than a Smiler, because it is not human and cannot do good without being forced." He stares Jolga in the eyes. "I'm surprised at you, Mr. Jolga. You should have talked to us about this before you did it, tradition of your people or not. You certainly know better."
Zeke will cast cure spells on everyone to make sure we are all at full strength the next day.
Awesome, thanks Paul!
Late that night, after putting the finishing touches on his pistol, he dedicates it to his god in an impromptu ceremony, whispering to it while gazing into the skull-faced moon symbol shining on its side. "O Lord Groetus, may this weapon do Your will in this place. Through this weapon, I pray You give me the strength to end those who oppose You, and to defend and protect those who serve You-- even indirectly. May this broken world cease and become Yours for all time. So be it." He gets ready to go to sleep, and prepares his spells. He steels himself for a night of terrible visions by imagining that there are deep insights to be gained by yielding to them.
Pretty easy, Wulf! It will cost 2,000 gp and take four adventuring days to craft. If we are staying put for 24 hours, I might be able to craft it for you in one day though. Correct me if I'm wrong Paul, but I think in this game (different from the rules for Prevail) I can increase the DC by 5 to skip having to cast the rage spell, so the crafting DC would be 15. Zeke can't fail at that roll, but it's up to the dice whether or not he has a chance to get a master-crafted magic item. Do you want him to make this for you? Jolga: Oh right. I was thinking that because it took two days, it was 2,000 gp-- but the crafting time is based on the base price, not the crafting price. Heh, I was wondering how I had gotten the extra 1,000 gp!
While everyone is sitting and relaxing, Zeke brings out his pistol and continues the arcane work he's been doing on it, muttering quiet rituals over the barrel and scratching strange runes into the metal and handle.
The reason I suggest it is because we are running out of charges for our wands, and so it's better to use our spells and rest up to full strength rather than use up any more of our limited healing resources. But if we can bring us all up to maximum with one night of rest, I'm fine with pressing on.
Ah well, in that case Zeke should keep it for an emergency. Yeah, I was thinking Charles must have taken ranks in Diplomacy last level! ;)
Zeke seems happy to be back in the company of the ratfolk, and especially to be underground. He relaxes a bit, and perks up at the suggestion of another mission. "That sounds like a great thing for us to do," he says hesitantly, "But might we rest here a few days while we recover from the raid and see if we can find out more about this flying creature? I would be happy to see to your injuries in the meantime, especially your brother's. The Smilers were keeping him in some sort of water tank, and I want to make sure there weren't any long-term effects." Unspoken but likely visible on his face is his worry that the whole party is a bit overextended and could use a decent rest.
Does anyone else have the Heal skill? The higher the better when using that trauma pack plus, so I'd suggest Zeke hold on to it for now, but if I'm reading it right we can charge it with batteries for up to five uses, which is pretty awesome with good Heal rolls.
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