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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Herremann the Wise" data-source="post: 1887155" data-attributes="member: 11300">The Power of the Alienist - Part OneAbout Two Months after Tunthi’s Dramatic Victory at the Henge…The creature looked at Lucifus before gazing at Ugari’s naked form reclining on a series of pillows brought into the tent for her convenience and comfort.  It’s head and eyes returned to Lucifus, yet one could believe that it was using senses of an unknown and most alien nature to gauge its surroundings. The conjurer’s features had relaxed somewhat in excitement, the exertions of this new feat baring surprising fruit. To all appearances, the creature’s tiny form was that of a raven not unlike Winter – who was now agitatedly sitting on the floating wizards shoulder, threatened on several levels by the new arrival.“Winter, settle yourself. We have a new guest, if only for a few moments.” Lucifus’s grin carried the extreme glee of success; his words utterly understating his achievement. He pushed a thought towards the creature unsuccessfully. It continued to examine him with unknown faculties. A quick adjustment in instruction from Lucifus resulted in the creature changing form into… something else… something very completely and entirely different. Ugari whispered, not wanting to tax or divert the tuk-tuk’s attention. “They prefer their natural form. It is more stable, more conducive to complex instruction.”Lucifus in fact was being awoken to the power he had coveted for so long. For six exhaustive years he had followed unfounded leads, studied tome after scroll, read and researched in the most dire of libraries, experimented, explored and probed all for nought until this moment. The power he had just untapped was immense. The power was inexhaustible. The power was his. A presence then smashed through his reverie. An alien presence piercing his senses and invading his mind to the point that he almost lost control and consciousness. By sheer force of will, Lucifus regained some level of composure as he answered the telepathic presence with his own. He forced his own sense of self to the telepathic bond and forced the creature completely out his mind. He still felt it though; it’s malevolence, it’s hatred. It was bound however to the summoning compact completely. It just sought a way to exploit the connection established between them. Next time Lucifus would be ready for it. The tentacled, tumescent and fleshy lump winked out of existence back to its planar surroundings on the other side of the cosmos in terms of dimension and time as well as several other variables that he had recently found and established. Lucifus had succeeded.“They have enormous presence when they telepathically conjoin. I sensed that you forced it back easily. That is good. They only understand such displays of power.” Ugari shifted her posture; pulling her knees underneath her nakedness. She continued looking at the floating wizard in appreciation, “You are already thinking of doing it again. You feel the need, the hunger to dominate once more. You want to summon a more powerful being.” Ugari glared at Lucifus, sensing his intentions.  “Be patient and be warned. You still have much to learn. There are intrinsic wards that you do not yet...”Lucifus blinded by such pure and complete power heedlessly radiated his most powerful summoning into being. He had prepared and allineated his summoning magick to a new and obviously successful modification of several layers. He had adapted the secret combination from the shamaness, her ways totally different. She knew not exactly how she achieved her link with the furthest reaches of the cosmos. She just could. And now so could Lucifus.Ugari instinctively moved back from the new presence before it instantly changed heedless of the wizard’s direction and advanced towards him with blinding quickness and accuracy - its tentacles trying to rend the wizard apart at the hip. Lucifus however responded with utter command. The massive creature shrunk back instantly cowed and completely intimidated. Ugari looked on in amazement, as the wizard continued to force his will upon the creature. Never had she seen such an overwhelming display of power. In one moment the creature was in control splitting through a lack of wards on the prime, the next the tuk-tuk had blown the creature’s resolve away in an instant. It was immobile, a complete servant to the wizard’s will.Lucifus’s expression was altered by passion and power as he moved towards the creature. He momentarily released his will from it, moving forward towards the tentacled mass as if daring it to respond. His eyes never left it; its own fickle senses mute. It was totally bound and in fear of him. He was almost touching it as he released a blast of energy into its fleshy substance, electricity washing across it, arcing sporadically before dissipating. Its natural resistance to magic had been completely circumvented yet only several burnt and blackened smoking patches existed upon it. Normally, such a blast of electricity would destroy something completely. It had survived but still cowed in agony as it was left bound by its contract. Lucifus impelled a single thought towards it and the creature was gone, dismissed from the prime.Lucifus quietly spoke, breathing heavily. “They have resistance and protections. I could feel it trying to resist the magick but it could not. Would not. The magick bound it to the compact completely.”Ugari just looked on, holding a necklaced charm against her breast as if protecting herself. “You had no wards but still survived. I could feel its power but it instantly retreated from you.” Ugari was still amazed by what she had witnessed, stunned into submission herself. She always knew that Lucifus had power. But never like that. Her own power came from the spirits of the land but Lucifus was very different. He had claimed over the past moons that he would observe and eventually imitate her innate abilities. Instead he had surpassed them. She moved towards him, a surge of passion upon her exotic features. Lucifus looked at her smiling, his response and ardour equal to the task once more.***Authors Sidenote:Summoning and the Alienist: Some Challenges.Paul the DM and I had a little trouble working out the precise nature of the psuedonatural template. Our thoughts were to make psuedonatural creatures as alien as possible. As such, communication was always going to be awkward: psuedonatural creatures would almost never have aural organs by which to communicate with. As such, we established that such creature’s preferred mode of communication would be via telepathy. These creatures used senses totally different from creatures of the prime so the telepathy path was critical. However, the only method by which one could speak to them was via a tongues spell – something Lucifus has since made permanent (1500xp – ouch!). The magic essentially forms a connection between them. Lucifus has to speak normally but the magic of the Tongues spell produces the desired result. Any response however from the creature would be telepathic.Perhaps one of the hardest things then to describe is why such creatures would appear, as they do – like normal summoned entities. I thought that the caster would envisage a particular creature and the conjurative magic present would hold this image to the being, which they could then dismiss when commanded. Once changed however, the latent magic was gone and thus they could not transfer back. They were the ugly, pustulant and tentacled mass that most people seemed to favour when describing the product of an alienist’s summoning.The whole act of summoning then becomes fascinating from a theoretical perspective. While normally represented as the instantaneous rabbit out of the hat, I think the relationship between the spell, caster and summonsed creature far more complex and involved than what would appear to others watching. The power of the spell to enforce some sort of contract between the caster and the creature, where that creature has no right of refusal or recourse is very empowering to the caster, almost to the point of intoxication. When done by a caster lacking any form of scruples – such as Lucifus at this point in his career – it becomes downright dangerous (to both the caster and others around them). I’d like to think that the spell has a variety of components that restrict the eventual contract. As Lucifus found, by not nailing these down adequately, the summoned creature is allowed a certain scope to react unfavourably, much like a called creature. However, being less powerful compared to the actual magic involved, the natural will and power of the spellcaster will usually be too strong for anything untoward to regularly happen. When learning new summonings however, the opportunity for danger should be expected.Mortepierre, you bring up an interesting point in Lucifus being a conjurer but not so obviously an alienist. This is of course by design. The difficulty of becoming an alienist is very real in terms of this world. Insanity normally bites before they are either killed or raced off by cosmic entities when their time has come – that is to say old age. However, these are the lucky ones in the fact that they have survived the powers of the alienist and have not fallen instant prisoner to them. It seems to me that most alienists would die early. Of those wizards who have some degree of wisdom, they would deny, hide or destroy such knowledge knowing that it would eventually lead them down a path they could never control. Those who lack the wisdom always believe they can master the dread powers at their command. Their ego always makes them believe that they will prevail. However, most important is that because alienists are spread so far apart and so few in number, apprentices in the art are few and far between.The two ways of becoming an alienist are either through another alienist or somehow having dealings with one of these strange psuedonatural entities. For Lucifus, it was obviously the former. He has had to strike a most unusual bargain with Ugari the Shamaness but that will become more obvious in the next instalment. I hope the barbaric culture of the Derman will become explicitly evident too. Unfortunately, most barbarians when played are either dumb. ferocious or both – Tunthi being a perfect example (note that this was by my design, not a reflection of Paul’s DMing which was excellent). As you will see though, while chaotic, they still abide by a certain sense of law or practice. The defining factor is their purely uncivilised nature. The niceties of society are vacant, never developed due to the strength of the base qualities of human and humanoid nature. Their lives become an erratic balance between lusts and fears. I’ll hopefully give you all some real insight into a truly barbaric culture next update.Mortepierre, thank you for your fine words and interest. Your extended response was and is most appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from you again.Best RegardsHerremann the Wise</blockquote>

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