Samen Vloe Firenze's page

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (6) + 18 = 24

Samen sniffs closely at the bones. Without use of magical sight, it's hard to pin it down precisely. There are other senses, though. If smell is insufficient to identify an essence, he/they will gladly begin gnawing on them without qualms or reservations.

Samen takes immediate interest in the skeleton. "No elemental essence, you say? We need to drag this thing back to a safe area where it can be studied properly without disembodied voices draining us."

Samen takes in the exquisitely bland setting with awe. They rub their hands together in glee. "Well this is new! Essence of banality. We must taste it. It belongs to us, and we will own it."

They recklessly touch some of the gray artifacts and try to consume the magic before it can consume them.

"Put your weapons away for now. No telling what ancient curse will afflict us if we violate the command. If it becomes necessary, we can greedily consume our enemies."

Samen & Co. have balanced and competing fears. On one hand, fear of a loss of individuality and being absorbed into the collective. On the other hand, fear that they will not be able to be powerful enough to make full use of their synergy.

"We can call it whatever we wish. Let us call it Myconian."

"The sign says we should go in peacefully. Personally, we're inclined to destroy and eat whatever is in there, but we can restrain ourselves for a time, depending on how things go."

Samen nods at Kallik. "So you got dragged along into this after all too. Seems like you got the worst of it."

Linguistics: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (13) + 16 = 29

"Hmph. When you're freshly raised from the dead, a suicide mission is cheap."

Samen are annoyed by this development and they take an aggressive posture toward this captain, holding up his staff menacingly. "Go ahead. We'd love to taste your essence too. At least you make sense."

I'm good with posting whenever.

However, I honestly have no idea how to interact with what we're seeing right now. The world is a tiny alien box at the moment, and the only tools I have at my disposal (different flavors of destruction) have already been discounted. They've been at this for hundreds of years, I'm not sure what extra I bring to the table beyond one expendable body and three expendable souls.

"Kill." "Life," by which I think you mean enliven, it's all the same if it renders the threat inert.

"So we either tunnel our way out or we kill our way out. This seems vaguely familiar for some reason."

Merry Christmas, everyone!

"These are very nice caves, to be sure. This seems like a wonderful civilization. In another time, we would want to stay here for quite some time, but we have a vague sense of critical things happening at the surface. We need to go."

I'm good.

Samen's eyes glint with understanding, greed, and hunger. "That was... delicious!" They flex their muscles as it dawns on them the power at their disposal. More research will definitely be required.

Settling down the desire to consume Learningto, they instead barrage her with questions. "We don't need rest, we need answers. Where are we, how do we get out, what was that thing, and what do we owe you for our lives?"

init: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

How the heck does this character work, again???

"Death. Rebirth. Existential crises and fundamental questions of reality. One thing remains constant; Something needs hitting with a stick."

Swift action to bump staff up to +5 keen. Move action to get up next to it, standard action to whack with power attack.

toHit: 1d20 + 15 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (19) + 15 + 2 - 2 = 34
toConfirm: 1d20 + 15 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (7) + 15 + 2 - 2 = 22
Damage: 1d6 + 12 + 2 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 12 + 2 + 6 = 22
CritDamage: 1d6 + 12 + 2 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 12 + 2 + 6 = 23

Linguistics: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (18) + 16 = 34

Samen tries to make sense out of this strange fungoid creature. "You brought us back. Why?"

"Apparently, our name is legion, but this voice was known as Samen. Tell me more of your essence and language. We, too, must be learning to be elen again."

The eyes roll. "Oh fine, but don't think you're getting rid of me that easily." They wink. "I'll be back for you later."

The body shudders and lurches for a moment, like a toddler standing for the first time.

"You've changed again Abnaki." He looks around at the dead bodies of Kallik and Osna, and the living Gabriel. "We died too, didn't we? And the entire company along with us."

They survey their surroundings grimly. "We'd best get moving. No telling how much time was lost. But... which way is out?"

Abby answers Gabriel's question in the most unhelpful way possible.
"We're all here, though Samen isn't ready to embrace the situation just yet."

She struts over to Abanki and inhales deeply of his earthy musk. "You've changed too, pretty boy. That new essence you're wearing ... It's intoxicating."

Yes, three voices in the head. Samen himself was the freaked out one. Stof was the terse one. Abby was the verbose one.

Most of the time, I don't plan on posting the internal councils, but if I do, I'll be sure to label who is speaking for clarity. In this case, however, the confusion was an intentional literary device for the purpose of introduction.

Mechanically, I feel like there should be substantial differences, but I have no idea how to model those. Would I have different stat blocks for who is in charge at any given time? Do they roll knowledge checks independently? Or should I just make all of that an abstraction and keep the mechanics largely unchanged?

GASP!

Breath? Hahaha!

Who? How? No!

Finally, my dear we are together. But not alone? Oh, it's you.

Together. Forever. Mobility! Unbound!

GetOutGetOutGetOUT!!!

Now now, don't fight it. This is what you've always wanted but been afraid of. We are one now, with no barrier between us. We can finally FEEL each other. TASTE each other.

And us. Hahaha!

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Don't you see? You've toyed with wearing many essences, but now you ARE many essences. Many voices. Embrace us. Feel us. BE us.

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Noisy. Be still.

This is just the beginning, sweetie. A first step. You're always touted your adaptability and curiosity. We are something new now. ENJOY it!

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Too noisy! Sleep now!

.....

Don't worry, he'll come around. Having the body was nice, but having him along will make things more interesting. Let me drive for now, I'm used to legs.

Hmph.

Samen rolls around on the ground in violent seizures for a bit before going still. He arises with uncharacteristic grace, confidence, and hunger in his eyes. A faint wisp of unidentifiable elemental magic comes off his body like steam. His eyes glow a pale deathly blue color. His tattoos glow just as brightly.

"Now wasn't that an interesting experience! Did any of the rest of you make it?"

In my experience, running an evil PC sucks for the whole table unless everyone is into it.

I don't want to be getting more evil, but Stof and Abby are neither one motivated by anything good. Samen had historically been running a personal ponzi scheme of meeting their ever increasing demands in exchange for keeping them in line, but without bodily autonomy, that will become more complicated. I'm thinking a unified, if unseemly, goal is the best way to do that.

Yeah, I'm content with running all three voices. If it's not too annoying, I was thinking about beginning to use the "we/us" pronouns.

I'm imagining this entity will continue to have Abby's hunger for new flavors and experiences, and Stof's lack of empathy. I don't want to play it evil, but that seems like a natural tendency of this creature.

I'm thinking Samen would be able to identify with Abby's desire to learn and Stof's desire in increase power with a new character goal of making more elementally infused abominations out of dead bodies (and then potentially eating them). Unified under this goal, they can all be pulling in the same direction without becoming a complete monster.

Are you thinking there would be any mechanical changes with this, or just RP?

It also occurred to me later that this is exactly the completion of the ritual Stof taught Samen way back when, albeit accidentally.

So I've thought about it some, and I've got an interesting idea for a complication, but I'm not sure how to play it out mechanically.

Basically, when I died, Abby and Stof used my elementally attuned corpse as a last ditch shelter from the magic nullifying power of the bone road as their tokens lost their power. Upon resurrection, they remained.

Samen had thus far done his best to gather power without letting it infect him and take over his life, so this would an interesting direction to take.

Again, not sure what effect that would have mechanically, or even if it works with the story beats you had planned. Let me know if you can work with that.

Yeah, it doesn't bother me to stay with Pathfinder, especially since Abnaki prefers it. I find 5e often allows for more focus on RP, which this campaign is much heavier on anyway, but Pathfinder certainly allows for more precise fine-tuning of characters.

I suggested it because it would be a interesting challenge to do a character rebuild in another system, as it would force a different feel (Samen would need an actual charisma score to be a warlock, for example).

I'll consider if there's anything I'd like to change about Samen.

Feel free to reject this idea out of hand, but if we're wanting to toy with the idea of coming back the same, but different, how well would your setting survive an update to 5e? I could be an actual warlock instead of just cosplaying as one.

Wow, 30 is quite a few, especially for so small a sample size. Congratulations! What kind of character are you getting to play?

If we can get a quorum, I'd be happy to turn things back on here.

Still checking! (Waiting for the closing parenthesis

"Figures." Samen always knew it would end suddenly and in futility.

All joking aside, I echo everything Abnaki said. It's been a joy playing in this sandbox for the past few years. Thanks for being the man behind the curtain. Enjoy this new season in your life, and maybe traumatize a few kids with some epic TPKs. ;)

"Alright then, so be it. Let's be more direct about killing each other."

Samen charges up his staff with frost magic (+5 frost, and casting frostbite) and begins the process of shattering bones.

ToHit(Free Touch): 1d20 + 17 - 2 - 2 ⇒ (13) + 17 - 2 - 2 = 26
Phys Damage: 1d6 + 7 + 2 + 5 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 7 + 2 + 5 + 9 = 27
Cold Damage: 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (4, 1) + 9 = 14

ToHit(First Atk): 1d20 + 17 - 2 - 2 ⇒ (8) + 17 - 2 - 2 = 21
Phys Damage: 1d6 + 7 + 2 + 5 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 7 + 2 + 5 + 9 = 25
Cold Damage: 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (3, 6) + 9 = 18

ToHit(Iterative): 1d20 + 17 - 2 - 2 - 5 ⇒ (8) + 17 - 2 - 2 - 5 = 16
Phys Damage: 1d6 + 7 + 2 + 5 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 7 + 2 + 5 + 9 = 27
Cold Damage: 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (1, 2) + 9 = 12

Samen snaps back at the tentacle. "Hey! No fair getting all animated now!"

Init: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

Samen can:

1) Cast ray of frost continuously. Average of 2 dmg per round means 1200 dmg per hour, not taking into account if it might be weak to cold.

2) Use Elemental Sight periodically to detect any differences in structure or signs of changes.

3) Throw in a couple shatters to break up bigger chunks (targeted far enough away so shrapnel wouldn't hit anyone).

(Also, completely unrelated, I heard a great name for this guy over the weekend. Osteo-ferocious.)

Samen whispers back, "You can't keep solving problems by giving up parts of yourself. You're going to eventually run out, and then what use will you be? If it were to prevent Moon from enslaving elenity, it would be worth your finger, but just because it's the problem most immediately in front of us doesn't it make it the most dire."

When the captain asks for ideas, Samen offers three. "One, we could contact and bargain with a decay-powered elemental to get us across. However, I fear the price of an elemental powerful enough to secure passage for a group our size, and it doesn't really solve the problem long term.

Three, we kill it ourselves. It's crystalized death, to be sure, but it's inert and unintelligent. It's not at home here and is separated from its natural planar power source. If we're safe about how we do it, and we take our time, we can remove this blight from our plane ourselves before it gets any bigger. Nearly every mage learns to channel a small ranged bolt of ice magic that is simple enough to not drain one's energy like larger spells. If you get all of us out there, for hours on end, picking away at the edges, we can safely carve it away like rain carves rivers in sand. Have the paladins sanctify the land we reclaim, and we can contain and kill this travesty."

Samen shrugs defensively. "I didn't say it's a good plan, but I don't have the tools at my disposal to kill something that big. Without Rot Fey, I don't know how to reproduce a safe traversal. Stof might be able to do it, but I don't trust him as far as I could throw him. Stars might be able to cleanse it, but they're not going to help us until we get that lens destroyed."

He slumps off toward the command tent. Clearly people were expecting more of a miracle from him, but this is a scale of destruction that's beyond him.

"We could probably do that, but I'm pretty sure I'd only trust a fey of rot with all our lives at this point, but they're currently unavailable.

Besides, getting past it now won't help us on the way back, and this cancer is only going to grow on this landscape. I feel like we'd be better served trying to find a way to scour it off our plane than accept its presence and try to work around it. Ice magic or life magic should be effective against it."

Samen shakes his head at the tragic and pointless death. He would shout at everyone to stay back, but everyone is clearly already scared out of their wits about it. He approaches within 30 feet and turns on his Sight, prowling around the edges, looking for weaknesses, centralized power, intelligence, or signs of internal activity.

"You know, Abby, this pile of bones is a pretty good physical metaphor for you, now. Blind hunger and consumption as motivation and growth and dominion as a goal. You both leave destruction in your wake. Funny how as different as you are, the aspects common to Fire drive you both."

"Kallik, do you happen to remember how Inam circumvented this threat? Was it within her power, or an appeal to her 'god'? If the latter, its presence here may very well be the cost of that transaction."

"No problem. I, too, am used to people expecting me to know something when I have no clue. Without personal experience, it's hard to say, but I'm guessing if it's capable of hate, it's not just a pile of bones, but a living elemental, occupying a niche much like the undergrowth of a forest. Bones aren't too far off from Dust, so I'm guessing it's a rough analog. Perhaps a bit more structure and organization, but a similar gestalt. I will need to study it in person to be sure, but if all it takes to get around this obstacle is a paladin, we happen to be in ample supply."

I'm around, and I'll be able to start posting more regularly. We're getting into a good rhythm now, and I should have the time necessary to dedicate to making some posts.

Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (10) + 15 = 25

Still don't have time for a solid post, but I can sneak in the skill check you asked for.

Speaking of real life coming first, my availability over the next week or so is going to be questionable. On Monday, we're going to be picking up our adopted daughter.

Feel free to bot me.

Samen shakes his head at Abby. "Sorry. I know of that spell, but never prepare it. If one is to lie, it's best that it not be to oneself.
Besides, it would only drive you mad to taste essences you're not truly imbibing."

"Hmm." Samen contemplates the troubling commentary and the ominous ashes. He tells the others what he found, and warns the paladins and mercenaries to avoid the alcove.

"We could probe this further. I would bet that this duchess is the cause of the irregularities in the steam out there. Or we could finish sheltering here and move on. We've already lost a fair bit of resources here, and there's no reward in picking fights we won't get paid for. I doubt she'd be happy with us interfering with her plans."

Linguistics: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (7) + 16 = 23

He does his best to translate a rudimentary meaning from it, and at least sketches down the alphabet for later reference.