What do I do now?

[Olaf the Stout]

Olaf, I don't have any great ideas for Cornelius discovering he's not real. I do however have an idea (I'll leave it to you to decide whether it's good or not ) for what to do when that happens. What about some kind of modified version of the Simulacrum spell that would hold Cornelius' personality? It could activate right away since it is not technically the same person as Vargus. Might not even have to be lower powered since we are not going RAW here. I would love to see the interaction between the 'twins' Vargus and Cornelius once they are not inhabiting the same body.
Another idea is that perhaps the remove curse and/or break enchantment simply supress Cornelius personality for a time? This could lead to some interesting (and humorous) happenings as Vargus has to overcome his hatred of magic and magic items if he wants to remain dominant.

Keep us posted. I look forward to hearing more about this character's development.

Thanks for that Fat Daddy, that sounds interesting. It would be kind of funny to hear the player having a conversation with himself too. Normally I'm the one looking stupid doing that.

I had already thought of the fun to be had as Vargus has to decide what he hates more, arcane magic or someone sharing his body with him. It will be interesting to watch it play out.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Gilladian]

My ruling would be that the wizard must have used Wish to create the artificial personality of Cornelius. That makes Miracle probably the best countering agent.

As to how Cornelius figures out that he's the artificial personality - how good is his memory of his personal past? Does he remember a childhood? In what detail? Is his memory even close to "true"? In other words, if he remembers an idyllic childhood in a war-torn land, that could be a tip-off to his falseness. He may think for a while that he simply has had false memories implanted, but suppose he goes back to his childhood home, and learns that nobody knows him, or that everyone remembers Vargus but has never heard of Cornelius.


I suspect that once he knows he's "artificial" Cornelius will struggle to prove that he deserves to exist and his goal will be to "move out" into his own body - a golem or other animated object might be interesting.

 

[werk]

I only read the OP and none of the replies so as not to taint my response.

If the character is like the incredible hulk, I say go the route of the incredible hulk. Have the people helping him perform and experiment to remove Vargas, and in the process, they become a merged conciousness (Mr. Fixit). Now neither personality exists, but rather the worst of both. Then later there should be another crazy experiment done on him to try to make him 'better' and that one works, best of both personalities.

This reminds me a little of a creature from the old dragonlance monsterous compendium, I think it was tay-ling(?). Basically a creature that was two creatures in one, but they had to take turns. One was big and brutish, the other smart and delicate.

 

[GeorgeFields]

This will contradict the original backstory, but I had a thought. What if Cornelius and Vargus were both real people growing up and lived in two separate villages and not knowing each other. The curse was an experiment by the wizard merging the two with Vargus being suppressed until Cornelius was stessed or angered.

Just a thought.

I love the concept! Kudos to your player.

 

[wedgeski]

Sounds awesome. What I'm getting is a Total Recall vibe... who, for example, is to say that Cornelius won't believe HE has the right to live in Vargus' body, and that it isn't Vargus that should be exorcised?

In any case, if someone walked into a church asking to be freed from a demon, and no demon was found, I think the members of that church would want to investigate further. That's about all I've got.

 

[Technomancer]

I understand why Cornealius doesn't know what's going on and can't tell anyone else, but what about Vargus? You said that he is aware of everything that happens while Cornealius is in control. Why doesn't he tell the other party members the truth when he takes over? I assume the other PCs have been around both Vargus and Cornealius?

 

[diaglo]

Eventually we (the PC’s player and I) plan for the real truth to be discovered by the group and either Cornealius (since he doesn’t “really” exist) be removed or they somehow come to an arrangement with the two minds living together in the one body. I’m just not sure where I go from here. What ideas do people have? Let me know if you would like any more details.

Thanks in advance for your help and apologies for the extremely long post.

Olaf the Stout

possible solutions: 1) the taint mechanic from several books most recently Heroes of Horror.
2) one of the personalities is shunted into a weapon of legacy or extracted and added to a magic item with a creation feat 3) take the leadership feat. and the weaker guy becomes a cohort. 4) a magic item quest to find a mirror that shows your true self. the false self is trapped in the mirror. 5) the PC dies and is brought back. the stronger spirit returns and the weaker goes on to its "heaven"

 

[diaglo]

Sounds awesome. What I'm getting is a Total Recall vibe... who, for example, is to say that Cornelius won't believe HE has the right to live in Vargus' body, and that it isn't Vargus that should be exorcised?

i get a Fight Club vibe from this character description.

 

[Umbran]

Since Vargus isn't evil (he's Chaotic Neutral) the protection from evil spell or detect evil spell wouldn't work.

Read the spell carefully. Proction from Evil doesn't prevent control by evil. It prevents attempts at control, period.

"Second, the barrier blocks any attempt to possess the warded creature (by a magic jar attack, for example) or to exercise mental control over the creature (including enchantment (charm) effects and enchantment (compulsion) effects that grant the caster ongoing control over the subject, such as dominate person). The protection does not prevent such effects from targeting the protected creature, but it suppresses the effect for the duration of the protection from evil effect. If the protection from evil effect ends before the effect granting mental control does, the would-be controller would then be able to mentally command the controlled creature. Likewise, the barrier keeps out a possessing life force but does not expel one if it is in place before the spell is cast. This second effect works regardless of alignment."

But, this prevents control from outside a 1' radius of the target. Cornelius is already within that 1'. So, you have your choice - Protection from Evil could, if you so decide, suppress Cornelius's control, making it clear who's real and who isn't.

I think you'll have to define what Cornelius is, in a technical sense (is he an actual soul trapped in Vargus' body, an elemental spirit, a demon, a mental construct that has no spiritual essence, per se?) - then we can tell you how he'd be dealt with.

 

[Kheti sa-Menik]

This sounds interesting.

You could go the Superman III route. Eventually, the personalities will fracture the original magic used to keep the personalities separate. Then one personality will create a pseudo real body (magic, incarnum, ectoplasm, psychic energy) for itself and "step" out of the original body. Then they fight. The personality that wins gets the real body and the loser personality fades away along with the pseudo real body.

Or you could have a high level psionicist put the PC into a dream-like state where the personalities can confront one another.

An interesting thing I thought of was maybe Cornelius isn't a fake person. Maybe he is someone that this high level mage trapped in a soulgem or some such mcguffin. Maybe he represented a threat to the high level mage's plans or knew a devastating secret. The mage couldn't destroy Cornelius (for whatever reason) so trapped him. But time is running out, he cannot contain Cornelius forever. After some arcane research, the mage discovers a receipe that uses some spells and the gem Cornelius is trapped in to force the trapped individual into another living being. This process swiss cheeses Cornelius' memories and buries him deep within the host. Now, he needs the right candidate....enter Vargus.
Mage kills two birds with one stone: punish the insolent fool with angered him and imprison his enemy within a cell of flesh and bone.
The fact that both personalities are manifesting themselves is an unforseen consequence.


This strikes me as a very Ben/Glory situation from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's fifth season.
Glory was a hellgod imprisoned within a human host to contain her evil nature and power.
She was able to manifest herself over time.