[Date: October 13, 2020. Time: 1015 GMT.] [Kahlya looked through the glass darkly, and then kicked her reflections butt. Does that mean she has seven years bad luck?] [The clerics, Saldin, and Mandy, have all been carted off for the moment. Mandy taking that dark scythe with her.] [Kahyla's weapon still has half a pole of grafted material which doesn't quite match the quality of the original.] [What's she going to do next?] [Oh, also, undead and a bit smelly though not too rotty.] [And continue to count as spent any energy she's spent on this day.] [Start] * Grysar sets mode: +v Kahlya * Kahlya watches the spot where Saldin was before he left then sighs and looks at her hand, turning it over and over. By herself, she looks unusually thoughtful. "It wasn't supposed to turn out like this at all... Stupid Death. Stupid stupid." * Kahlya pulls herself back together and looks about. "I wonder..." She starts to walk off down the alleyway. ~Master, can you hear me?~ [The Thames continues to flow off to the side. The ice that Saldin brought up slowly melts. Kahlya gets no response.] (Actually, should probably do a power usage roll there.) (sabooc [Kahlya feels with fairly grim certainty that the link has been severed.] * Kahlya chuckles ironically to herself. "Figures. Welp. Guess I'm walking." She picks her two halves of a scythe up and starts heading for Terrence's place as fast as she can get relatively unseen. (She kind of assumed that anyway, so it's not so grim) (mildly grim certainty it is) (Give me an urban navigation roll against mind. Stealth (hiding) against mind or body for a bonus) (You're evil, you know that? :P) (I'm a GM) [Time: 1242 GMT. London is actually a lot more complicated than Kahlya thought. She's able to stay out of sight, but has to work at it and sometimes hide for tens of minutes at a time. As she gets close to where she's now certain, well fairly certain, okay where she hopes, Terrence's place is she notices a crow trying to land on her shoulder.] * Kahlya watches the crow carefully. Does she sense anything from it, other than birdlike qualities? [There's a slight trace of magic. Sixth Sense roll.] * Arisa has joined #sab2020 * Kahlya has quit IRC (Read error: Connection reset by peer) * Arisa is now known as Kahlya [The crow is a natural crow, but someone is apparently overriding its will to a degree. The someone isn't anyone Kahlya is familar with.] * Kahlya waits and watches the crow for what it will do. At least she doesn't have to worry about it pecking out her eyeballs or something. She hopes. [The crow looks over at Kahlya and squaks. It then pointedly pokes its beak forward in a direction similar to the one Kahyla was already walking.] * Kahlya goes and follows that nose. Wherever it goes. (Sorry, couldn't resist. ^_^;) [The creature lingers on Kahyla's shoulder. It eventually directs her to a back entrance to Terrance's abode. When she reachs the door, the magic fades from the crow and it starts pecking at her ear. * Kahlya shoos the crow away and scowls at it. Peck at me, why don't you? [The crow flies off.] * Kahlya breathes in (well, not really but force of habit) and musters up her courage before knocking on the door. * Retrieving #sab2020 modes... [Terrence opens the door and blanches. He just stands there for a moment. There's a man standing in the room behind him wearing a black silk shirtt and bluejeans. He doesn't bear any family resemblence to Terrance. He however definately has aura of a magic user.] Well, let her in. * Terrence moves out of the way. [The man is in his fifties, fairly short and thin. His blond hair has multiple streaks of grey.] * Kahlya just steps in, watching Terrence and huffing a little as she goes past. "Geez, you act like you've never seen me before." She heads on in and eyes the new man. * Man chuckles. "I see you like them young. Well, she has a point Terrence. You've even seen her body before." * Terrence blushes and stammers as he closes the door behind Kahlya. * Kahlya looks at the man. "Forgive me if I'm not so jovial. I'm not much on entertainment value right now." No, I don't expect you would be. Well, talk to the girl Terrence, you got her in this state." (-") I.. I'm sorry. I'd free you or something, but that's a moot point now. * Kahlya smiles slightly to him. It has fangs in it. Well, it's always had fangs in it, but this one in particular. "Free me? Oh, you mean of the contract?" She reaches out, just to test something, to grab Terrence around the neck. [Terrence is grabbed. He struggles for a moment and then thinks better of it. The man simply folds his hands together. He seems content to watch for the moment, but Kahyla can sense he's tapped into his fairly considerable power source and is keeping it on standby.] * Kahlya growls slightly. "Don't think me stupid, Terrence. I felt the link sever. You abandoned me. I want out. Now." * Terrence gurgles slightly at the hold. "You are out. You have been since you've had the new body." * Kahlya sighs and sets him down, deflating. "That's not what I meant. I'm tired of this, Terrence. I want out of this body. I can't go around as an undead monster. Not when there's so many questions..." Look, I know you just summoned me as a demon but just a bit of it... I thought you liked me too. Well, I know you did. Servant shares the master's feelings, right? * Man nods. "Sadly, any sort of fixes now would require magic of a fowl, dark, and necromatic nature." And that's a problem? * Terrence nods. "I did, I mean I do. I didn't think anything like this would happen." No. I just want to be sure you're properly appreciative. * Kahlya eyes the man. "How appreciative do I need to be?" From you, respect will suffice. The debt incurred by any transformation will be paid by Terrence." Terrence nods. "Assuming he lives long enough to become competent enough to repay a favor to his teacher. * Kahlya looks between Terrence and the man carefully. "You're going on about something talking around my head. What do you need to do?" * Man releases his hands. "That is really up to you. First, I'd advise you accept the fact of your death. There is a cost to that, and you can not return to what you once were." So... what will happen then? Then you decide how you wish to change. Different forms of undeath have different advantages. And the farther you vary from the form you defeated death in the more power you will lose. Although... Although? Another choice would be to return to your surrogate dimension. You wouldn't be able to return here, but more importantly it would cost you what remains of your original humanity. * Man shrugs. "Tradeoffs." * Kahlya watches him carefully. "Wait a minute. "Surrogate dimension"? "Original humanity"? Just what are you going on about, old man?" * Man frowns. "Address me as Mr. Hurst. The respect is not optional." He then takes an even tone again. "I took the time to do some research on your summoning and death once Terrence called me in. It is obvious that you have ties to this world. You apparently were even born here. I do not know, nor do I particularly care, what happened subsequent to that to make you a demon." You do look mostly human. Aside from the fangs and eyes of course. Wait, what? That can't... Wait, is that why they called me human? That doesn't make any sense... * Kahlya , even as she says that, looks like she's started to think about it. * Hurst waits. * Terrence looks sympathetic and like he wants to help. But he doesn't seem to have any ideas and doesn't want to get strangled again. Look, how do you know this then? Uh... Mister Hurst. * Kahlya would blush at adding the title, but lacking blood vessels in her cheeks, that's probably sort of hard. (double checks something in Kahyla's backstory) * Hurst smiles. "That's more like it. It actually isn't that hard. Were Terrence a more advanced summoner he would have realized it instantly. The most obvious clue being that those from your surrogate dimension don't tend to look human. You bear no traces of having cost magic to give you a facade. There's other traces of course, but they all verify the original point." I never really thought about it. Human looking seemed normal. * Kahlya shakes her head. "Well, that explains why I could never change form but..." She looks up at him. "I... is there a limit to what types of forms there are?" How do you mean? Because... * Kahlya looks like she's really contemplating things now, but she's stammering a bit. * Hurst waits. He also waves his hand which causes the a light breeze that temporarily removes the smell surrounding Kahyla. I was wondering... what would happen if you could return me to my original appearance... No fangs and normal eyes? Could be done. At a deeper level I could strip away your demonic nature and requisite powers. That would free some power towards other uses. But you'd still be dead. What exactly do you mean by that? From what Terrence has told me, you do have a range of demonic abilities. You would lose those, keeping only what your original form held. However, that power could be put to making you a more impressive undead human. The transfer isn't perfect though, and some of the power would be lost in the transition. * Kahlya ponders. "So many questions.." * Hurst nods. "But time is fleeting. The longer you stay as you are, the harder it will be to shift your form." If the like I could leave you alone to decide. Terrence could stay, or not, as you choose. I want... I think I want to go back to my original form. It'd be easier to find out what part of my human half still exists. But you said I'd still be dead, right? * Hurst nods. What does that mean? * Terrence awkwardly puts a hand on Kahlya's shoulder. "I'm sorry." Well... One. The undead do not generate their own life force. They feed off of that of the living in one form or another... ::He glances to Terrence to see if he remembers his lessons:: * Disconnected * Attempting to rejoin channel #sab2020 * Rejoined channel #sab2020 * Topic is 'sab.zort.net' * Set by Grysar on Mon Aug 08 09:38:27 (Last I saw) ( One. The undead do not generate their own life force. They feed off of that of the living in one form or another... ::He glances to Terrence to see if he remembers his lessons::) * Theodore is now known as Grysar2 (I got that. Two. The undead are unnatural. Powers that work against demons work against them. Albiet to a lesser degree because... * Hurst frowns and waits. Because coporeal undead use bodies that are of this dimension. * Hurst nods. Well... I'm used to the second. But the first... Eww. And three.... * Hurst rolls his eyes in impatience. "Undead are not more powerful than the living. Those undead that exhibit greater power gain it from age and experience, ritual or power granted by the one that spawns them. The main perk is longevity but it is bought with innumerable smaller costs." * Terrencee weakly nods. "Right. Those are the big three." Okay... but there's no way around that, right? Well, you will gain some power by the ritual of stripping you of your demonic abilities. And particularly powerful undead can cheat on some of these rules, but only with considerable effort. You will not be powerful enough for some time. Alright... So determine what form you wish. I haven't got all day. Can you fix Tear? * Hurst looks over the scythe. "Not really my thing. I can make arrangements to find someone that could, but arranging payment is your problem." Alright... I have four conditions on my new form. First of all, if I'm going to go through with this... I-I don't really want that much trace of anything demonic. Back to how I was when I first entered that realm... I barely even remember it... Second of all, I'm going to need to fix Tear. It's important to me. It was... was a gift. And I'm not going to part with it... * Hurst nods. "Consider the first done. As for tear, if you like I can use some of the power I strip from you in payment to get it fixed. Otherwise, it's out of my hands." * Terrence sighs. "I'm out of favors to call in." * Kahlya sighs. "I want to find a way..." A way? Just any way... If I could just recreate the handle... If it's so important to you I'll make sure that it's finished before your tranformation is. What are the other two conditions? * Hurst's tone is clearly impatient. The third is that whatever the way of absorbing life is, that it's not unpleasant. I don't know what forms exactly there are, but there has to be some that are less... brutal and disgusting than others. Blood, brains, and flesh are out then? Even in synthetic form? * Kahlya wriggles her nose. "Blood may work. But still..." * Hurst nods. "If you can take blood, you may wish to. The alternative methods involve emotional draining which tend to be used only by incoporeal undead. It can be mixed with a coporeal form, but at the cost of power." How often? It depends on how active you are. If you are not calling on your life force, a litre every third day should do. But it would be like living on a subsistance diet. And how do you get synthetics? I can make arrangements for that. Not that hard in the developing world. You have to drink a bit more though. * Kahlya nods. She still doesn't seem like she's too pleased with the idea, but... Also, you'd probably want to keep the fangs. Condition four? I don't want any traces demonic if I can... and...condition four... * Hurst nods. "Alright. It will just be messier if you need non-synthetic. * Kahlya stops for a moment, then continues. "I want to continue the spirit link. But not with Terrence. Someone else." * Hurst quirks an eyebrow. "Doable. Why? No, that's none of my concern. Who?" * Terrence removes his hand and looks puzzled. A girl named Mandy. I'm not sure if I recall her last name. * Hurst nods. "Ah, yes. This can be arranged. So, you'll have to be unconscious for the procedure. Unless of course mind shattering pain doesn't bother you. Sounds like we'll be going with a modified vampiric form. You'll awaken within a day or two, scythe intact." Alright... * Hurst doesn't wait to see if Kahlya has more to add he mutters something in latin and waves his hand and a dark circle of binding appears around Kahyla. Does she resist? * Kahlya doesn't try to resist, but she doesn't look too pleased for it. [The circle rises into a cylinder of darkness and quickly but gently enfolds Kahlya. Her consciousness fades away...] [Break]