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 Post subject: Missing data
PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 9:27 pm 

Joined: Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:37 pm
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Location: Michigan
I've been trying to work on some ideas about how magic works, and have come across one piece of information that should be very useful, but isn't because doesn't seem to be described as much as it should have been for something players could interact with. Specifically, I am speaking of the life energy players could get in the previous campaign module, "The Banished."

In it players can actually collect several vials of life energy in the module, the energy that has been shaved off of the Elorii souls as they've gone through the preternatural Orumar. Here is what the text says about it:

Quote:
Any priest, cleric, holy champion or undead PC will feel the
presence of raw life essences or soul fragments within the
small cylinders. There is no sentience in these cylinders,
merely raw and unformed life force. The PCs can easily
crack these open and return it back into the world or those
with less scruples can keep them. There are a total of
twenty of these


It seems that if this truly was soul energy, it should have been hugely potentially powerful. This is the stuff that powers Kurenthe curses. It might be the fundamental source of energy behind the gods and all divine casting. Is there any additional information that can be supplied about this energy? What happens if you drink it? Any way to tell what happens to the energy if release to return it back to the world? Without a specific soul/faith driving it, does this lead to a powerful wraith, or does this energy make its way back to the Cauldron or an Orumar? can it be used to boost any form of spell casting? Any of these still around for study?

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 Post subject: Re: Missing data
PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 10:47 pm 
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Location: Ontario, Canada
These all look like Henry questions to me, and historically he has been reluctant to shine a light on too many of the mysteries of Arcanis on the forum...better to reveal those details in a module.

Seeing as you are asking about a specific Arcanis module, this should probably be in the Spoilers section. There is a chance this module will be released down the road for the new rule set.

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 Post subject: Re: Missing data
PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 10:50 pm 
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Location: Ontario, Canada
toodeep wrote:
Is there any additional information that can be supplied about this energy? What happens if you drink it?

Note to self: Plot idea "NPC drinks soul juice, shenanigans ensue"

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Akira Currier
aka Raseri 'Crash' val'Emman - Master of the Incandescent Flame (Martial 3.7)
aka Leif - Skohir Warped One (Martial 2.6)
aka Rurik - Nol Dappan War Priest (Divine 2.3)
aka Karthik - Tultipetan Stonemason (Expert 1.4)


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 Post subject: Re: Missing data
PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 11:22 pm 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:08 am
Posts: 1473
Hello Ken,

toodeep wrote:
It seems that if this truly was soul energy, it should have been hugely potentially powerful. This is the stuff that powers Kurenthe curses. It might be the fundamental source of energy behind the gods and all divine casting. Is there any additional information that can be supplied about this energy? What happens if you drink it? Any way to tell what happens to the energy if release to return it back to the world? Without a specific soul/faith driving it, does this lead to a powerful wraith, or does this energy make its way back to the Cauldron or an Orumar? can it be used to boost any form of spell casting? Any of these still around for study?


As far as I know, all the players who intercated with these vials either left them alone or cracked them and let the energy dissipate.

According to canon at least (those tables that played this adventure when it premiered), none were collected - at least that's what I have written down in my records.

Now, was it really "soul-energy"? The deranged elorii there believed so. Of course, the "false Orumar" was created by the servants of the Silence, so who knows what was really in there and what they were using it for.

Fun times!

As an aside - how does one "drink" energy?

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 Post subject: Re: Missing data
PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 11:46 pm 
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"Who you going to call? GHOSTBUSTERS!!!!!"

Towards the end of the last Living Greyhawk campaign, encounters with "positive energy" sources increased and caused a lot of damage to mortal PCs... who couldn't cope with the amount of life energy being infused into them.
"Quick, crit me with your greataxe before I explode!"


If the vials were "life energy", then based on creation mythologies, they would also be vials of "god essence" (shards of Yig's own power; aka Belisarda; aka Anshar). Just the thing that the Sorcerer King would be looking for to make that last jump into divinity.

***
Advertisment in metaphysical journal:

"Wanted: Essence of Elorii. Intact vials of amorphous energy containing the souls of Elorii. Last seen under the Sea of Lanterns. Gold bars paid.
Please deliver to Retsev Rah, posthaste, c/ First City. "

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 Post subject: Re: Missing data
PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 11:56 pm 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:08 am
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Southernskies wrote:
"Advertisment in metaphysical journal:

"Wanted: Essence of Elorii. Intact vials of amorphous energy containing the souls of Elorii. Last seen under the Sea of Lanterns. Gold bars paid.
Please deliver to Retsev Rah, posthaste, c/ First City. "


LOL - that's quite funny!

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 Post subject: Re: Missing data
PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 12:33 am 
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Location: Portland OR
I remember playing that mod as Jaeger. Would love to hear what the upshot of Raven Tindal's collapse has been. Even as a human, that was so ::wrong:: that as a paladin there really was no recourse but to immediately smash and return the "energy" back to the world where it belongs. One of three fights where Jagger used his Gladius of Light (to great effect).

Tukufu has no gold bars but will gladly pay 5 gc for any such bottle of elorii life force with verifiable provenance. Retsev Rah likely pays more...but after seeing Tukufu, you are more likely to have free time to enjoy spending your money.

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 Post subject: Re: Missing data
PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 9:22 am 

Joined: Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:37 pm
Posts: 842
Location: Michigan
PCIHenry wrote:
As far as I know, all the players who intercated with these vials either left them alone or cracked them and let the energy dissipate.

According to canon at least (those tables that played this adventure when it premiered), none were collected - at least that's what I have written down in my records.


Makes sense, it was fairly strongly indicated that was the "good" thing to do. Which surprised me. It seemed odd that it was supposed to just be released to the cosmos - to me that seems a lot like letting it go to entropy. Unless it is going somewhere (Orumar/cauldron) it would seem like it is being lost from the system, which would seem bad. This is actually the biggest thing I don't understand out of the questions I asked, since it seems priests should want this to enter "their" system, whatever that might be. Seems oddly non-religious to just let soul fragments up and dissipate without sending them somewhere specific. It made me think of death without last rights, where some of a sentient's energy fails to go where it should.

PCIHenry wrote:
Now, was it really "soul-energy"? The deranged elorii there believed so. Of course, the "false Orumar" was created by the servants of the Silence, so who knows what was really in there and what they were using it for.


Except that it said that any, "Any priest, cleric, holy champion or undead PC will feel the presence of raw life essences or soul fragments within the small cylinders," so it wasn't just the crazy Elorii beliefs. I found it interesting that priests and paladins could were automatically aligned with it.

PCIHenry wrote:
As an aside - how does one "drink" energy?


Consume the entire bottle (without opening)? Do it inside a magic circle? open the lid while you have a vampiric touch spell active on your hands? Open and try really quickly (you have 20 to try with)? Put together a ritual magic based off of consuming someone else's soul or strength (a pretty standard idea)? Ritual sacrifice of a tiny jar? Wires, syringes, and dead chipmunks as you scream "It wants to LIVE!" Its the kind of thing I would think most casters could figure out some way to do, with varying degrees of efficiency.

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 Post subject: Re: Missing data
PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 10:24 am 
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Location: Central Alberta
PCIHenry wrote:
As an aside - how does one "drink" energy?

Like this?


Attachments:
ProdLeftTD_2013OrigBerryBottle.jpg
ProdLeftTD_2013OrigBerryBottle.jpg [ 23.82 KiB | Viewed 11571 times ]

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 Post subject: Re: Missing data
PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 10:33 am 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:08 am
Posts: 1473
Hello Ken,

toodeep wrote:
PCIHenry wrote:
Now, was it really "soul-energy"? The deranged elorii there believed so. Of course, the "false Orumar" was created by the servants of the Silence, so who knows what was really in there and what they were using it for.


Except that it said that any, "Any priest, cleric, holy champion or undead PC will feel the presence of raw life essences or soul fragments within the small cylinders," so it wasn't just the crazy Elorii beliefs. I found it interesting that priests and paladins could were automatically aligned with it.


When writing a for an adventure, I try to give information from the player's POV and how they would interpret this.

In this case, priests, holy champions and undead would feel "something". I postulated that they would interpret this as the "life force" or "soul energy" depending on their beliefs or experiences.

I rarely write things from a God's Eye view, especially when it comes to esotric things like "souls" or "life force", where what is written is meant to be taken as gospel truth.

Such is the case here...sort of.

What did these PCs feel? Was it a life force or a soul? How could they know for sure? They can only hazard a guess based on their POV, and that's what I meant to convey in that Note.

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