o4 . february catchall

[necrolord]

Who: necrolord and you!
What: Local necromancer is networking. Archives research, healing for lockjoint and self-mutilation, and more.
When: February.
Where: Archives, Lumenwood, streets of Trench.

Content Warnings: Skeletons and mentions of the self-mutilation curse. Note all the usual warnings of this character.

(1) research.

You've probably seen him around, by now. The man is something of a fixture in the Archives: he settles at an unremarkable table and proceeds to drown it in open books, scattered pages, notes, journals. He seems intent on skimming his way through half the library. Sometimes there's a girl, scrawny and dour with her face painted up like a skull, hovering at his elbow. Today, he's on his own.

He doesn't look like much. Simple clothes; bare hands, which suggests he's either confident or reckless, in a town that will titter at anyone who doesn't wear gloves; he looks fortyish and plain. Only one thing about him is remarkable: his eyes, black as oil from edge to unpleasant edge.

Today, he's amassed an odd collection of vials, bloodstones, and shards of bone. You might catch the sudden reek of Beast blood, which is alarmingly toxic to handle even with gloves; you might catch him weighing a huge, inhuman bone in the palm of his hand, looking thoughtful. If he notices your attention, he'll speak without looking up.

"Six months, and I'm still trying to puzzle out the basics."

(2) the skeleton plow.

[ On the 9th, a blizzard blows in. It leaves the town blanketed in a heavy weight of snow, and Trenchies come out with shovels and resigned expressions to scrape the streets clear.

God, who has places to be, finds this a touch inconvenient. He's meant to be in Lumenwood just now, playing Jesus on everyone's frostbite and having a generally pleasant morning. So he claps his hands, watches a dozen skeletons claw their way free of the frozen earth and pop out of the snow ("like daisies," he says to whoever is nearest) and then sets off across town with his helpful new posse.

Each skeleton moves as smoothly and politely as a human servant, with a speck of red light in each empty eye. God makes a little gesture, like a conductor with an orchestra; his servants' fingerbones fuse and spread. Their arms distort and lengthen. They each now wield a broad bone scoop, which looks somewhere between silly and horrifying.

The skeleton army sets to work shoveling snow, heedless of appalled bystanders. ]

(3) healing.

[ Maybe you're still suffering from Lockjoint, Sleeper. Maybe you've begun scraping your own skin away under this month's curse, trying to resist temptation, trying to resist the urge to confess.

It doesn't matter whether all the damage is hidden by your clothing, or whether you think you're doing a good job of masking your pain. Today you're near the gates of Lumenwood - maybe to get help for your own issues, maybe not - and there is a man here, who has just waved away a grateful Trenchie making conversation. He turns, tips his head in hello, and considers you. ]

Want a hand with that?

(4) wildcard.

[ Happy to match formatting! ]

Comments

[necrolord]

[ He flips the sheet, skims it, snaps his fingers when he hits upon something suitably stylish. ]

Sacred Flame, then. On that fellow there.

[ He leans in to tap his forefinger on the glittering gem of bloodstone they're using to represent the bandit. This is normal. ]

I'll leave the other one in capable hands.

[cryptograms]

[ At Willow's question Ford checks the map, and then: ]

That's right. There's nothing in your way and you're more than close enough. Just be careful to not get too close.

[ And once he's walked her through the process of attacking and rolling damage and what AC even is, he turns his attention back to John and goes through the process of explaining saving throws and damage types, since that's relevant here, though it doesn't take him long to end up on a tangent. ]

Anyway, radiant damage doesn't do anything extra against undead creatures, even though most forms of it should given the way the world and mechanics of both are written. Apparently since 'radiant' is closer to 'radioactive' in a handful of spells they decided it was easiest to omit it entirely.

[ An action he finds especially annoying, given his tone and expression.

... Though he does remember something else relevant to Willow, and glances back to her. ]

You won't have to worry too often about piercing damage, at least. It's not a common resistance.

[frogfear]

[Willow would feel bad for Ford, trying to walk two novices through what feels like a particularly complicated game, but he genuinely seems to be enjoying himself. She can't help grinning as he goes on a bit of a rant about radiant damage, which absolutely sounds like it should do extra damage against undead.]

Okay, I've never played this before and even I know by definition radiant and radioactive are two really different things.

[She will absolutely back Ford on this. Radiant should have a bonus against the undead!]

[necrolord]

[ God simply nods, quite patiently, in the way of a guy who respects a man with a niche tirade but who does not personally care. ]

I'd argue skeletons and holy fire go hand in hand, where I'm from, so the ruling works for me.

[ Because Ford seems delighted about it every time, he does not reach for the little dice set that has been provided and still sits untouched. Instead, he makes Ford's own bloodstone die lift from the table and flick itself back down.

This is an important use of divine necromancy. ]

[cryptograms]

I'm not saying it never makes sense. It's just sloppy to allow such an obvious incongruity between the lore and the gameplay.

[ At least Willow has his back - and at least John is showing off some more of his necromancy-based tricks. Though that does remind him... ]

Willow and I both come from dimensions where necromantic practices and holy practices tend to be diametrically opposed - at least in regards to things like vampires. I take it it's different in yours?

[frogfear]

[Willow glances over as as their companion shows off his necromantic abilities and suppresses a sigh. Why is he like this. She glances between him and Ford for a moment and nods.]

Yeah, the most common threat for us at home is vampires, and they're pretty solidly in the evil undead category. Holy water and crosses will repel them, though.

[necrolord]

Evil undead is a very judgmental pairing of words.

[ Truly the statement of a normal guy you can trust. ]

Sounds like we missed out on vampires. We only go in for ghosts and a few good skeletons.

Trying to banish the skeletons with a holy symbol would not be advised.

[ It's truly a Herculean effort, saying this with a straight face. ]

[cryptograms]

[ Ford doesn't actually start trying to take notes, seeing as his journal is currently being used as a DM screen. But his expression and the way he nods along with John's explanation, however, both suggest that he would be were it not. ]

Zombies are more mindless than evil in my dimension, though ghosts tend to be more vicious. Vampires...

[ His tilts his hand in a non-committal wobble. ]

... they don't tend to cause problems. Whenever they came through Gravity Falls Stanley would sell them old TVs and Walkmans as miraculous technological advancements.

[ They were really more a risk to themselves, in a lot of way. To John, he asks: ]

Any holy symbol? Or just the most common of them?

[frogfear]

[Willow glances between the pair and nods.]

Yeah - the zombies I've seen in my world are the same. I mean, a lot of the time, they're all about the violence and people eating, but mostly they're just controlled by whoever's pulling the strings. But it can get really bad really fast if someone say... raises a zombie, and doesn't know what they're doing?

Vampires are different. Vampires where I'm from are totally evil. They're demons, basically. Some of them have even tried to end the world. There's, like, two that are okay. One has a soul, and the other...

[God, how to even explain Spike without getting into a long story.]

He's... he's a little weird.

[necrolord]

Any holy symbol. Necromancy is— and I do say this with some confidence— a gift from God.

[ This pronouncement made, he returns to fidgeting cheerfully with whatever isn't part of their active game board. Ford's spare dice, the ones not made of bloodstone, are next in line. God starts building a precarious little tower. ]

Though if you want to throw a cross at a skeleton and see what happens, I'll bring the skeleton.

[ To Willow, he adds: ]

Our zombies only eat people if the puppeteer says so, and I generally can't fathom why someone would. Seems a bit messy. Sounds like we lucked out on the absence of world-ending vampires, though; ours only exist in the form of a few really dedicated folks in capes.

[ Is that what the Third is up to these days? He thinks of Ianthe and settles on probably. ]

[cryptograms]

[ The dice tower is such a time-honored tradition that Ford doesn't so much as blink when John swipes one of his sets for the sake of constructing one.

What does make him blink is when John specifically mentions a cross, since in his experience that's typically and specifically Christian iconography. It's something that strikes him as interesting and worth filing away for later.

For now, zombies are the more interesting subject. He's not surprised they have those in Willow's dimension, given some of the other things he's heard about Sunnydale. ]

Zombies aren't typically directed in our dimension. The spell I know just summons a whole horde of them that then do whatever they want - which is trying to eat people, usually. Losing control of them tends to be the default.

[frogfear]

Yeah, there's nothing holy about necromancy in my world. It's actually considered a really dangerous branch of magic there, because of the risk of things going really badly.

[She glances to their cleric almost apologetically.]

You already know that, though.

The only zombies I've seen at home were raised by a mask my friend's mom bought. It wasn't even set off by anything. It just kind of happened, and no one was in control, so they got really big into the violence and property destruction and stuff.

[necrolord]

[ He tips his head in appreciation to her apologetic look. Quite seriously, he says: ]

I'll count myself lucky that divine necromancy works as it does. I've never once seen a rampant zombie plague. In fact, there's something downright pleasant about seeing a mass of skeletons all moving in sync, like flocking birds.

[ He makes a whimsical hand gesture. ]

We'll see if I can get to that bit in the game.

[cryptograms]

[ Zombification mask, huh? ]

I'd like a chance to study something like that... Willow, could you let me know if you ever find it washed up on the beach?

[ That sort of thing happens sometimes, and if it does he wants first dibs. And hey, since they're on the subject anyway. ]

Are large groups like that something where each construct needs to be controlled individually? Or do they operate more like a hivemind?

[frogfear]

[...Ford, no.

Willow raises her eyebrows as he asks about studying the mask should it ever wash up on the beach.]

Kinda hoping that never happens. Buffy destroyed it anyway. So hopefully if it ever does wash up here, we won't have a bunch of violent zombies trying to get a hold of it.

[She glances over to their cleric at the comparison to birds. This conversation sure has gone places she didn't expect it to, but she'll at least try to be polite in spite of the comparison between flocking birds and skeletons not really landing.]

Huh. I, uh, guess I don't really have much experience with flocking skeletons.

[necrolord]

Depends on the caster. There are ways to reduce the individual thanergy demands...

[ He looks to Ford with amusement and what might be appreciation, and flicks Willow a smile for indulging him. ]

We'll talk necromantic theorem mathematics some other time. Where were we? I think it was back around to us— I'll stick with my magic holy fire.