Muir scratches his head with his trunk "It is possible that touching something has caused this....a curse of sorts....." Muir looks at everyone in the room "Did you happen to grab something from the dead and pass it to one of us? Maybe something we kept has caused this on you since you touched it first? The book is not cursed, Vincent assured us of that but possibly something else? You wife would not cause you to become undead. She is not trying to kill you, she is trying to help you...So I think we can rule that out."
"There never was knowing Molly's mind," Sam says with a bit of amusement in his voice, but also of warning. "And she could be fierce about getting her way... I can't say that this... whatever this is..."
"You say I'm undead?" Sam asks as an aside to Morris in the midst of his reply to Muir. "But... But I was never dead. And weren't we just saying undead can only be un-undeaded if they have a big enough soul and the possesser of the soul returns it or something?" There is perhaps some actual worry in Sam's voice with this. In his eyes.
"But whatever this is," Sam quickly returns to Muir, not wanting to hear Morris' answer just yet. "I can't say it's NOT a part of what Molly did... And if it is, I can't not accept it... you know? Can you understand that I can't deny what Molly wants to give me?" Sam's eyes move from Muir to the others, in essence asking them all the same question.
"The only thing I passed to anyone was the book... I think I touched it first. I think. But Vin said that wasn't cursed. Didn't you, Vin?"
Vin nods, "The magic picked up no curse that is certain".
He frowns, "And I have never heard of an undead that goes around healing other people. This truly is a mystery, because I trust both Morris and Neferox. There is something going on here that has caused you to become undead. But I have to admit, it hasn't changed you, you are still the obstinate person you always were. Certainly more like those last undead than zombies or the shadow creatures".
Neferox for her part either did not hear, understand or care about what Sam said related to her odour. She is still very much taking an interest in the half-orc though, although Vin does hold up a hand to try and persuade her to lie back down.
"Can't argue the undead bit, I guess. Morris would know, no? And the no body heat or heartbeat or breathing..." Sam admits uncomfortably. "But if it's not really changing me then maybe it's for the best?"
"No, no, no becoming an undead is not for the best.....I do not know your wife, but if she healed your wounds it would not be necromancy that did it. I assure you this, but as to what's causing it I do not know without you uhhh....well.....stripping down entirely so I could give you a proper checkup."
“Muir… not to insult your skills or anything… but you’re maybe a plant doctor at best,” Sam says. “If I’m stripping down for an examination it’ll be for a real doctor. With a degree from a respectable city.”
As the others ask about anything Sam could have picked up, Gewyn catches his eye for a moment and reaches up to his own collar. He mimes tugging at something around his neck as if he were wearing a necklace, while cocking his eyebrow questioningly.
Aloud, he says to Morris "I understand. Knowledge consists of three parts. The facts, the telling, and the story. Like the parts of a sword. The the fuller, the edge, and the handle. Without the fuller, it falls apart and is therefore useless. Without the edge, it is blunt. Useless. But without the handle... if you try to hold it, you will bleed. There are answers I seek, and I know you possess them... But I will search for them myself, and hear the stories in their proper way"
Sam picks up on the message. Kind of. The Half-Orc get's that Gewyn is trying to signal something and mimics his moves a bit, wiping his armor around his collar, adjusts his cloak... His mind never quite goes to the pendant, however, having already forgotten about the little souvenir he picked up seemingly ages ago. His finger does, however, snag upon the chain he has around his neck. What's this? he half thinks as he tugs on it a bit. And then a bit more. The chain seems to be stuck though, on his armor perhaps? He actually grips the chain and yanks and though the sound is muffled, the chain breaks and is pulled free... Not without a little pain. Sam winces as it apparently snagged on something and tugged or poked at his chest a bit as it came free. He looks at the chain a bit curiously and then shrugs.
"Oh, the souvenir," he states and gathers the chain in one hand. "Must have lost the pendant. Shame, it fit the theme well with the hag's head..."
Morris gives Gewyn a knowing nod at his explanation of knowledge as a concept.
"I would know undead Sam, you're right. I also highly suspect this has nothing to do with your wife's spirit's assistance. What souvenir did you pick up? If we cannot get this sorted out as I say then you cannot stay in this tavern." Morris reaches under the bar and takes out a pair of odd glasses, they have an arrangement of differently coloured optical lenses all primes ready to close over the eyes of the wearer, "Muir I'll loan you these, for a moment, please take Sam outside and report back, lumithor may be of help too, he is of course an expert on undead."
Muir takes the glasses from Morris and turns to Sam "Well my friend, looks like you are getting that exam after all. I will try not to mistake any part of you for the axillary bud" Muir laughs at his own joke snorting out of his trunk "Shall we then?"
Vin watches Morris hand Muir the glasses, and waits for Muir and Sam to leave, concerned by Sam's acceptance of his undead state. But he also has something else on his mind.
"Morris, whilst they are doing that, could I perhaps have a minute of your time in private?".
"Just a necklace," Sam says, holding up the chain he already has in his hand. "Just seem to have lost the pendant already..."
Sam shrugs and starts checking his pouches and clothes a bit, looking at the ground where he was sitting, to see if he can find the pendant. "Hmm? Oh sure, sure," Sam says absently when he is invited to leave. He takes no offense. He's been thrown out of worse places.
"I tucked it right under my armor," Sam mumbles to himself as he opens the door and steps outside.
Sam moves aside his cloak and is unstrapping the chest portion of his Earthencore Plate armor as he walks back towards Lumithor and the portal. "Hey, uh..." he says absently in greeting. "Morris says, um... He didn't like..." Sam never really bothers to figure out what to say though, not before his fingers fall on the cold, colder than himself, stone-like bump on his chest.
"What's this?" he asks in almost a whisper, his fingers playing over it as his chin drops to his chest and he tries to look down at it. What he sees is... disturbing. It's the pendant, of course, but... instead of being lost in his clothes and armor it is losing itself into his chest. His flesh. It is not a pretty thing to begin with, that is half of what Sam likes about it. It's a skull design, one half ashen and grey, a face not unlike those they fought that came out of the portal... The other is a skull, bone and yellowed and lifeless. It's really quite the horror show, it fit well with the hag's skull pauldron he wears upon his armor... But this is not on his armor. Or on a chain. It is sunken into his flesh, right above his heart or nearly so, as if it was pressing itself from inside of him and trying to get out... Try as he might, his thick half-orc fingers couldn't get a grip enough to pull it free and it hurt like a broken bone when he tried.
"Muir?" Sam calls, looking back over his shoulder. "You... You wanna take a look at this?"
Muir follows along and upon hearing Sam's plea, takes a look at the pendent melting into his skin "Oh this is not good....not good at all.....Sam why didn't you tell us about this!? I have no magical energies left....I may have to cut it out of you...Unless Lumithor has a suggestion, we have to move fast before it becomes one with your body....hand me a knife, this will hurt but what other choice do we have Sam?"
"Tell you about what?" Sam asks gruffly. "I just found the damned thing like this! How was I to know a damn necklace was going to bury itself into my chest??"
Sam's expression turns skeptical at the words "cut it out" and he tries hards and harder with his fingers to pull it free. With no success. After a bit Sam more or less resigns himself to the idea of cutting it out and grabs up one of his handaxes. "This is best I have on me but..." Sam takes a deep breath and then finishes between gritted teeth, "I'll do the cutting."
Stripped to the waist, Sam brings his axe up to his chest and slowly tries to slip the edge underneath the pendant. He grunts in pain and winces as the blade cuts flesh and is pressed further and further, or at least attempts to... Time and again Sam gives up and starts elsewhere, more or less carving into his flesh around the thing, but each time he thinks the blade is starting to do more than make him a bloody mess the progress he makes heals... After several minutes and a lot of swearing and cursing, Sam pauses and frowns. "It's not working," he reluctantly says to Muir even as he hands the bloody axe, handle first, over. "Your going to have to try..."
Muir sighs at Sam not thinking to tell them he had a pendent with a skull on it....He holds back any condescending words or scoldings and grabs the axe. "Oh! Silly me, one moment." He remembers the glasses Morris gave him and puts them on seeing what they are going to help with before cutting Sam up.
Sam chuckles a bit as Muir switches from axe to glasses. "Well hopefully you're picking the right tool," Sam says to himself as much as to Muir, then waves away the comment. "Nevermind, just something Molly says. Said. Used to say... Whatever. See anything helpful?"
Muir puts on the glasses and uses them quite effectively....well for Muir's purposes, they are helpful "Well Sam good news is, this can be removed with a remove curse spell. Unfortunately there's more bad news than good news. You see I don't know that spell. This is why we don't put random things found on undead bodies onto ourselves before checking with the group...." Muir rubs the bridge of his trunk "Nevermind that....the bad news is you are going to turn into an undead Sam and not an alive Sam....You will uhhh be yourself, mostly but be dead. So now there's really only one thing I can do in order to take this out....unless of course Lumithor has a better idea, But if I kill you the curse is also removed and the pendent theoretically should fall out of you with a little help from me...Once it is out, I have just enough magical energy left to bring you back from the dead. That is the only plan unless you wish to wait for a cleric of some sort to remove the curse, but you will remain cold, maybe a little drool...and very much undead...The choice is your Sam" Muir looks at Sam then to Lumithor and back to Sam "OH! the most important part is I am 80% sure that you are not turning into a spy for Nectyran and 80% that my plan will work 99% of the time in removing a curse......"
"You want to kill me," Sam says for clarification purposes. "So that MAYBE the thing will fall out. And MAYBE you can then make me alive again... OR I can just wait, with no further ill effects, until we can find a qualified person to cast a spell..."
Sam reaches out and snatches back his axe. "Yeah, I think waiting sounds like a good idea..."
"Are you sure? There is a chance that this could make you a complete mush brain. This is a curse remember not a blessing. That pendant is what healed you inside the tree not your wife Molly. This amulet keeps you alive by regenerating lost parts of you, much like an undead would. I will not be able to keep you alive with my magic nor will anyone else. It is also quite possible that if this pendent totally meshes with your body, you could stay undead...You are inflicted with a curse....Of course it is your choice to stay inflicted with a curse." Muir wanted to make sure everything is on the table so Sam can choose.
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Muir scratches his head with his trunk "It is possible that touching something has caused this....a curse of sorts....." Muir looks at everyone in the room "Did you happen to grab something from the dead and pass it to one of us? Maybe something we kept has caused this on you since you touched it first? The book is not cursed, Vincent assured us of that but possibly something else? You wife would not cause you to become undead. She is not trying to kill you, she is trying to help you...So I think we can rule that out."
"There never was knowing Molly's mind," Sam says with a bit of amusement in his voice, but also of warning. "And she could be fierce about getting her way... I can't say that this... whatever this is..."
"You say I'm undead?" Sam asks as an aside to Morris in the midst of his reply to Muir. "But... But I was never dead. And weren't we just saying undead can only be un-undeaded if they have a big enough soul and the possesser of the soul returns it or something?" There is perhaps some actual worry in Sam's voice with this. In his eyes.
"But whatever this is," Sam quickly returns to Muir, not wanting to hear Morris' answer just yet. "I can't say it's NOT a part of what Molly did... And if it is, I can't not accept it... you know? Can you understand that I can't deny what Molly wants to give me?" Sam's eyes move from Muir to the others, in essence asking them all the same question.
"The only thing I passed to anyone was the book... I think I touched it first. I think. But Vin said that wasn't cursed. Didn't you, Vin?"
Vin nods, "The magic picked up no curse that is certain".
He frowns, "And I have never heard of an undead that goes around healing other people. This truly is a mystery, because I trust both Morris and Neferox. There is something going on here that has caused you to become undead. But I have to admit, it hasn't changed you, you are still the obstinate person you always were. Certainly more like those last undead than zombies or the shadow creatures".
Neferox for her part either did not hear, understand or care about what Sam said related to her odour. She is still very much taking an interest in the half-orc though, although Vin does hold up a hand to try and persuade her to lie back down.
"Can't argue the undead bit, I guess. Morris would know, no? And the no body heat or heartbeat or breathing..." Sam admits uncomfortably. "But if it's not really changing me then maybe it's for the best?"
"No, no, no becoming an undead is not for the best.....I do not know your wife, but if she healed your wounds it would not be necromancy that did it. I assure you this, but as to what's causing it I do not know without you uhhh....well.....stripping down entirely so I could give you a proper checkup."
“Muir… not to insult your skills or anything… but you’re maybe a plant doctor at best,” Sam says. “If I’m stripping down for an examination it’ll be for a real doctor. With a degree from a respectable city.”
As the others ask about anything Sam could have picked up, Gewyn catches his eye for a moment and reaches up to his own collar. He mimes tugging at something around his neck as if he were wearing a necklace, while cocking his eyebrow questioningly.
Aloud, he says to Morris "I understand. Knowledge consists of three parts. The facts, the telling, and the story. Like the parts of a sword. The the fuller, the edge, and the handle. Without the fuller, it falls apart and is therefore useless. Without the edge, it is blunt. Useless. But without the handle... if you try to hold it, you will bleed. There are answers I seek, and I know you possess them... But I will search for them myself, and hear the stories in their proper way"
Sam picks up on the message. Kind of. The Half-Orc get's that Gewyn is trying to signal something and mimics his moves a bit, wiping his armor around his collar, adjusts his cloak... His mind never quite goes to the pendant, however, having already forgotten about the little souvenir he picked up seemingly ages ago. His finger does, however, snag upon the chain he has around his neck. What's this? he half thinks as he tugs on it a bit. And then a bit more. The chain seems to be stuck though, on his armor perhaps? He actually grips the chain and yanks and though the sound is muffled, the chain breaks and is pulled free... Not without a little pain. Sam winces as it apparently snagged on something and tugged or poked at his chest a bit as it came free. He looks at the chain a bit curiously and then shrugs.
"Oh, the souvenir," he states and gathers the chain in one hand. "Must have lost the pendant. Shame, it fit the theme well with the hag's head..."
Gewyn buries his face in his hand in exasperation.
Morris gives Gewyn a knowing nod at his explanation of knowledge as a concept.
"I would know undead Sam, you're right. I also highly suspect this has nothing to do with your wife's spirit's assistance. What souvenir did you pick up? If we cannot get this sorted out as I say then you cannot stay in this tavern." Morris reaches under the bar and takes out a pair of odd glasses, they have an arrangement of differently coloured optical lenses all primes ready to close over the eyes of the wearer, "Muir I'll loan you these, for a moment, please take Sam outside and report back, lumithor may be of help too, he is of course an expert on undead."
Muir takes the glasses from Morris and turns to Sam "Well my friend, looks like you are getting that exam after all. I will try not to mistake any part of you for the axillary bud" Muir laughs at his own joke snorting out of his trunk "Shall we then?"
Vin watches Morris hand Muir the glasses, and waits for Muir and Sam to leave, concerned by Sam's acceptance of his undead state. But he also has something else on his mind.
"Morris, whilst they are doing that, could I perhaps have a minute of your time in private?".
"Just a necklace," Sam says, holding up the chain he already has in his hand. "Just seem to have lost the pendant already..."
Sam shrugs and starts checking his pouches and clothes a bit, looking at the ground where he was sitting, to see if he can find the pendant. "Hmm? Oh sure, sure," Sam says absently when he is invited to leave. He takes no offense. He's been thrown out of worse places.
"I tucked it right under my armor," Sam mumbles to himself as he opens the door and steps outside.
Sam moves aside his cloak and is unstrapping the chest portion of his Earthencore Plate armor as he walks back towards Lumithor and the portal. "Hey, uh..." he says absently in greeting. "Morris says, um... He didn't like..." Sam never really bothers to figure out what to say though, not before his fingers fall on the cold, colder than himself, stone-like bump on his chest.
"What's this?" he asks in almost a whisper, his fingers playing over it as his chin drops to his chest and he tries to look down at it. What he sees is... disturbing. It's the pendant, of course, but... instead of being lost in his clothes and armor it is losing itself into his chest. His flesh. It is not a pretty thing to begin with, that is half of what Sam likes about it. It's a skull design, one half ashen and grey, a face not unlike those they fought that came out of the portal... The other is a skull, bone and yellowed and lifeless. It's really quite the horror show, it fit well with the hag's skull pauldron he wears upon his armor... But this is not on his armor. Or on a chain. It is sunken into his flesh, right above his heart or nearly so, as if it was pressing itself from inside of him and trying to get out... Try as he might, his thick half-orc fingers couldn't get a grip enough to pull it free and it hurt like a broken bone when he tried.
"Muir?" Sam calls, looking back over his shoulder. "You... You wanna take a look at this?"
Muir follows along and upon hearing Sam's plea, takes a look at the pendent melting into his skin "Oh this is not good....not good at all.....Sam why didn't you tell us about this!? I have no magical energies left....I may have to cut it out of you...Unless Lumithor has a suggestion, we have to move fast before it becomes one with your body....hand me a knife, this will hurt but what other choice do we have Sam?"
"Tell you about what?" Sam asks gruffly. "I just found the damned thing like this! How was I to know a damn necklace was going to bury itself into my chest??"
Sam's expression turns skeptical at the words "cut it out" and he tries hards and harder with his fingers to pull it free. With no success. After a bit Sam more or less resigns himself to the idea of cutting it out and grabs up one of his handaxes. "This is best I have on me but..." Sam takes a deep breath and then finishes between gritted teeth, "I'll do the cutting."
Stripped to the waist, Sam brings his axe up to his chest and slowly tries to slip the edge underneath the pendant. He grunts in pain and winces as the blade cuts flesh and is pressed further and further, or at least attempts to... Time and again Sam gives up and starts elsewhere, more or less carving into his flesh around the thing, but each time he thinks the blade is starting to do more than make him a bloody mess the progress he makes heals... After several minutes and a lot of swearing and cursing, Sam pauses and frowns. "It's not working," he reluctantly says to Muir even as he hands the bloody axe, handle first, over. "Your going to have to try..."
Muir sighs at Sam not thinking to tell them he had a pendent with a skull on it....He holds back any condescending words or scoldings and grabs the axe. "Oh! Silly me, one moment." He remembers the glasses Morris gave him and puts them on seeing what they are going to help with before cutting Sam up.
Sam chuckles a bit as Muir switches from axe to glasses. "Well hopefully you're picking the right tool," Sam says to himself as much as to Muir, then waves away the comment. "Nevermind, just something Molly says. Said. Used to say... Whatever. See anything helpful?"
Muir puts on the glasses and uses them quite effectively....well for Muir's purposes, they are helpful "Well Sam good news is, this can be removed with a remove curse spell. Unfortunately there's more bad news than good news. You see I don't know that spell. This is why we don't put random things found on undead bodies onto ourselves before checking with the group...." Muir rubs the bridge of his trunk "Nevermind that....the bad news is you are going to turn into an undead Sam and not an alive Sam....You will uhhh be yourself, mostly but be dead. So now there's really only one thing I can do in order to take this out....unless of course Lumithor has a better idea, But if I kill you the curse is also removed and the pendent theoretically should fall out of you with a little help from me...Once it is out, I have just enough magical energy left to bring you back from the dead. That is the only plan unless you wish to wait for a cleric of some sort to remove the curse, but you will remain cold, maybe a little drool...and very much undead...The choice is your Sam" Muir looks at Sam then to Lumithor and back to Sam "OH! the most important part is I am 80% sure that you are not turning into a spy for Nectyran and 80% that my plan will work 99% of the time in removing a curse......"
"You want to kill me," Sam says for clarification purposes. "So that MAYBE the thing will fall out. And MAYBE you can then make me alive again... OR I can just wait, with no further ill effects, until we can find a qualified person to cast a spell..."
Sam reaches out and snatches back his axe. "Yeah, I think waiting sounds like a good idea..."
"Are you sure? There is a chance that this could make you a complete mush brain. This is a curse remember not a blessing. That pendant is what healed you inside the tree not your wife Molly. This amulet keeps you alive by regenerating lost parts of you, much like an undead would. I will not be able to keep you alive with my magic nor will anyone else. It is also quite possible that if this pendent totally meshes with your body, you could stay undead...You are inflicted with a curse....Of course it is your choice to stay inflicted with a curse." Muir wanted to make sure everything is on the table so Sam can choose.