I don't understand why a DO death damages hands to the point where you can't pick up items. How do you heal yourself without a ritual knife? How do you legitimately get a knife if your hands are damaged? Why can you ACCEPT an item with damaged hands but not GET an item? (I suppose BUY might work also?)

Can you please turn down the hand damage on this slightly so I don't need to do borderline mech abuse when I die?

(If I am missing something obvious, please let me know. Edited log below.)

>You hold out your arms to either side as you prepare to focus mutation through your entire being.
Your cambrinth armband emits a loud snap as it discharges all its power to aid your spell.
You twist the mana streams of your Calcified Hide spell in a chaotic motion, inciting them into unpredictable patterns.
You shudder involuntarily as streams of black energy slide back up across your arms from your fingertips before arcing along your entire body.
A brief mixture of pain and euphoria surges through you as whitened ridges rise up from beneath your skin all across your limbs and torso, strengthening your body's ability to absorb damage.

The very air crashes down on you with sheer mass, swatting you to the ground and taking away every vestige of motion from your body! In that brief moment where you are being pressed facedown, like a caught beetle, you are somehow made to know that you have drawn the attention of Glythtide.

Then, in obeyance to divine contempt, your body implodes upon itself -- very exquisitely and very excruciatingly.

You manage to clutch onto an ebony quarterstaff as you gasp your last!
You feel the knowledge of the Drums of the Snake spell slip from your mind.
Your death cry echoes in your brain as it quickly dawns on you that you have just died! Already, you feel the tug of eternity upon your soul and you struggle to remain tied to this world.

A chill takes the seat of your soul as your remaining spiritual strength bleeds away. You feel the eyes of the gods upon you, eager to receive you in judgment.

Your body will decay beyond its ability to hold your soul in 260 minutes.

DEAD>depart death
Your body is wracked with holy malignance, shackling you with this decaying form.
DEAD>depart
You suddenly find yourself floating upward, the light dimming slowly around you. Eventually, everything vanishes as the distance increases and you are enveloped by a sparkling panorama of brilliantly lit stars.

[The Starry Road]
You find yourself walking along a road like one you have never seen before. Spread out before you is a stream of light, paved with stars and bounded by every constellation and planet you had ever seen while a mortal, only now more vibrant and somehow alive.
Also in the room: The Starry Host
Obvious exits: north
>
You walk forward, putting one foot in front of the other, wandering closer to something which never seems nearer. After what seems like an eternity, you reach a gate. Before you stands a stony-faced being who gives you a disdainful look as though you are a creature of the basest kind. When he finally speaks, the surrounding constellations brighten and darken alternately in accord with his unearthly voice. "Your place is the Void, decayed soul." He reaches over to you and grips your incorporeal form in a giant hand of silver and black. The gate beyond begins to open at his command, but suddenly a hundred hooked claws take hold in your spirit, snatching you away from the Starry Host!

You feel yourself dragged upwards, the constellations' light plunging into blackness around you. A wracking sensation fills your soul before everything you can see of the starry realm disappears around you. The blackness is pervasive and you feel malicious sensations of hunger and longing. Final oblivion seems imminent, as your spirit and self threaten to merge with the starving entity beyond.

A sensation of palpable relief fills you for the briefest moment as you feel yourself crushed back down into the realm of the mundane by some sudden protective force, your work on Elanthian soil not yet finished.

You feel a burst of pain as you gasp in a deep breath! All around you the world spins rapidly and you get the feeling you are falling from a great distance. After a moment, the spinning stops and you realize with joy that you are alive...

[Resurrection Creche, Li Stil rae Kwego ia Kweld]
Fragrant smoke drifts from censers to carry periodic ripples of sound from the rooms beyond, bringing the silvery chime of bells and rhythmic cadence of chant to rise and fall in the air like the heartbeat of the Temple itself. An ivory rug cloaks the floor, surrounding an altar of translucent obsidian swirled with fiery highlights. Stained-glass gaethzen orbs circle the altar with a misty nimbus of violet light shading to crimson and then to amber and gold -- the colors of dawn and of life renewed.
You also see an iron-bound oak door set in the far wall.
Obvious paths: clockwise, widdershins.
[Any coins you had on hand have been lost forever. Any other possessions have been left behind in your grave. To recover them you will need to return to your gravesite and DIG it up.]

P>stand
Your wounds are making standing more difficult.
>heal
Your body feels in extremely bad shape!
Your spirit feels empty.
You are on the verge of complete exhaustion.
You have a confused look with sporadic twitching of the forehead, a partially paralyzed neck, minor swelling and bruising around the right arm, a partially paralyzed right arm, minor swelling and bruising around the left arm, a partially paralyzed left arm, minor swelling and bruising around the right leg, a partially paralyzed right leg, minor swelling and bruising around the left leg, a partially paralyzed left leg, minor swelling and bruising around the right hand, a partially paralyzed right hand, minor swelling and bruising around the left hand, a partially paralyzed left hand, a painful chest area and difficulty getting a breath without pain, a definite greenish pallor and emaciated look, minor swelling and bruising in the back, a painful back and difficulty moving without pain, some minor swelling and bruising around the right eye, a clouded right eye, some minor swelling and bruising around the left eye, a clouded left eye.

...travel stuff removed...

R>gou

< Driving in with exacting precision, you gouge your fingers at a ship's rat. A ship's rat fails to dodge, mis-stepping and blundering into the blow.
The fingers lands an apocalyptic strike (So that's what it felt like when Grazhir shattered!) that splatters away the right eye and most of the nose.
The ship's rat falls to the ground and lies still.
[You're adeptly balanced]
[Roundtime 1 sec.]

R>
>perform preserve on rat
Lacking your knife, you cannot perform any rituals.

...travel stuff removed...

[Aberro Valley, Ravine]
The banks of the stream continue to grow steeper and rockier. Though the flow of water is still a mere trickle, over time this stream has made an impressive mark on the landscape.
You also see Rellie's grave and a double-bladed broadsword with a tattered cloth-wrapped hilt.
Obvious paths: north, east, southeast.

>dig grave
Just as you begin to dig out your grave with your bare hands, it opens up as if it was expecting you.

>get knife from grave
You can't pick that up with your hands that damaged.

That reminds me as I plan to reactivate my necro soon - based on this post I assume if I blew my arms off (sorcery or otherwise) I still can't use my belt-worn ritual knife to heal myself and am forced to wait for death? (no longer eligible for empath healing)

I really hope there's a better solution than to die to random chance with no recourse (even SRE) other than a full depart and still become unplayable due to death scars.

Seems like a perfect candidate for a risen ability that cooperates on its own to offer its flesh or perform the rituals for you, no?

>>That reminds me as I plan to reactivate my necro soon - based on this post I assume if I blew my arms off (sorcery or otherwise) I still can't use my belt-worn ritual knife to heal myself and am forced to wait for death? (no longer eligible for empath healing)

IIRC, I've never been unable to heal exploded limbs as long as I was already wearing my knife. The issue is that if you die with severe limb/hand wounds and depart, you're unable to get things from your grave, including your knife.

>>Seems like a perfect candidate for a risen ability that cooperates on its own to offer its flesh or perform the rituals for you, no?

Honestly the most clear solution is to allow people to pick up items when their arms/hands are severely injured. Make it so severely injured hands keeps you from using held weapons or something, instead, so the spirit of what the injury was meant to accomplish can be maintained while allowing people to just get their stuff back.

---

Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.

How about some sort of update to Chiurgia that interacts with BUE or maybe even another metamagic spell that allows for the use of knife-based rituals without actually wearing the all-telling knife? Something that creates a sharp nail or spike from one hand with maybe a brawling buff and knife-less rituals. Can prevent use of the off-hand or something for balance. Nice to have, not 100% necessary, but could fill a nice gap if people deemed it necessary?

Just get in there with your face animal-style. No dignity for Necromancers.


- Navesi

>Absent that, would a bonding potion work? Honestly asking.

Possibly, not sure. Fair point I suppose.

The easiest 'fix' for now might just be to give RT when you attempt to pick up an item with two very damaged hands. It's not a great solution, but the status quo requires a second account.

Or change the max damage your hands can have when you depart.

>>On one hand, I think this is a good solution. On the other hand, I could see it just being a headache that makes something drag on longer than it has to for the sake of a penalty.

I see what you did there... well played (just not on any sort of instrument, because hand damage.)

Rasn