Summoner Spoiler?

[Jaxon5]

So, my GM is looking at 4 different possible APs for our group to play next. Strange Aeons is one of the choices. The character I'd like to play for the next game is a summoner. I'm reading the player guide for this AP and thinking about the fugue state, and it's worrying me. It seems to me that the moment I remember my eidolon and summon him, he's going to tell me everything I can't remember, thereby spoiling all the stuff that the fugue state is meant to hide.

I'm willing to put off remembering him for a bit, relying on monster summoning, but not for too long. Can anyone give me an idea of how far in we'd have to get for me to reasonably contact him again? Also, though it's likely at least a minor spoiler, can anyone give me an idea of how much time has passed between our last memories and waking in the asylum?

[YogoZuno]

Timewise, I believe you have been without your memories for at least several weeks, IIRC.

Plotwise, you don't get your memories back until the end of the 3rd book. Without spoiling any specifics...it's entirely possible that your Eidolon is ALSO suffering from the fugue state. That would certainly be how I would handle it, knowing about the reasons and circumstances of it happening.

[Reverse]

The Eidolon suffering from the same amnesia is the quickest, easiest, and most logical way. Ask your GM if that suits.

[Tasfarel]

Send your gm to the forums. I instantly got some really nice ideas how the Eidolon might be affected.

Else i agree with "Reverse"

Just roll with it, i guess your gm will find a way to keep the mysterie alive :-)

[Jaxon5]

Once a summoner loses consciousness, or sleeps, his eidolon returns to its home plane. My concern has been that whatever caused the fugue state happened at a time when that would come into play. I suppose it could be played so that it was also affected by whatever, but then you have the same issue, to my mind. It's on it's home plane, amongst others of its kind who presumably know it and can fill it in on certain things. Or not. I suppose we don't know what happens there and can play it however we like. I suppose I do like the idea of the eidolon being summoned and summoner and eidolon basically looking at each other asking, 'who are you?' However, that begs the question, how does the summoner know there's an eidolon out there to summon in the first place? Guess I'll have to think about this. Thanks for the responses.

[Green Eyed Liar]

In my game, I play a Relic Channeler Medium, so I just play it that my Spirits refuse to tell me what happened for reasons of their own. Maybe they feel sorry for me. Maybe they do not remember. I am leaving that to the GM.

I know it is a different class, but I believe it is the same basic issue.

[xrayregime]

It's called out in the first book that all animal companions, familiars and similar allies are going through the same fugue state as the PC's. Without going into spoiler territory it makes sense that your eidolon would have the same amnesia your PC has.

As for calling your eidolon, maybe work with your GM, or ask him if he's come up with the solution for how you would call it upon waking. He may have already come up with something.

[The NPC]

Maybe you didn't cal your eidolon during the time you were under and so they weren't around to know what was going on.

[Jaxon5]

The NPC wrote:

Maybe you didn't cal your eidolon during the time you were under and so they weren't around to know what was going on.

Right, but then you run into the same problem of your eidolon showing up and saying, 'Oh, you don't remember anything. Well, I'm Bob, you're Fred, these 'strangers' around you are Larry, Moe, and Curly, and the last I was with you, you were going off to investigate this asylum for xyz reasons.'

[Leedwashere]

It specifically calls out in In Search of Sanity that any animal companions, familiars, phantoms, eidolons, or whatevers also suffer the same fugue state as the character they serve. So there's no problem to be had. I have a spiritualist in my game. Her phantom is extremely dedicated to her (zeal) but remembers nothing specific.

[Midnight Anarch]

Leedwashere wrote:

It specifically calls out in In Search of Sanity that any animal companions, familiars, phantoms, eidolons, or whatevers also suffer the same fugue state as the character they serve. So there's no problem to be had. I have a spiritualist in my game. Her phantom is extremely dedicated to her (zeal) but remembers nothing specific.

While that's absolutely true, in my view it strains the story's verisimilitude considering the ultimate how and why of the fugue state. (Not that players or the PCs will encounter this verisimilitude breaking angle until later, but that doesn't make it any better.)

I handled things by taking the fugue state a step further, in that the PCs were different classes before the events that led to the fugue state. That is, the "wipe out" wasn't just of their memories but actually "clean slated" them to an even greater degree. This allows for things like having a pre-fugue antipaladin who "wakes" as a paladin instead.

This also means that characters can attract an animal companion or phantom or whatever after the campaign begins without treading on plausibility or ever evoking the question of what those companions know.

(NOTE: My players trusted me to develop their backstory absent their knowledge before the game began. They didn't even know their names at the start, and were only familiar with the core parts of the starting characters they'd created. They've had a lot of exciting revelations as they learn about what horrible people they were before the fugue state! It's been amazing so far.)