coughingpuppy (12:08:08 AM): Alex...I'm considering a prestige class, but I kind of have a feat problem...

SirAlexTheFirst (12:08:30 AM): Have you tried Dr. Scholl's?

coughingpuppy (12:08:49 AM): :-P No, I decided to try Dr. DM instead.

SirAlexTheFirst (12:09:00 AM): Ask away, ask away

coughingpuppy (12:10:03 AM): Okay. So, class Celestial Mystic in the Book of Exalted Deeds. I'd need to be Lawful Good, which I can perhaps pull off with some good RPing and help from you. :-D The three feats I'd need are the problem...it requires Servant of the Heavens, Sacred Vow, and Vow of Abstinence. I have none of these.

coughingpuppy (12:10:28 AM): But I meet all the other prereqs with the exception of alignment. I also have two useless evil feats.

SirAlexTheFirst (12:13:21 AM): I don't really care about the prereqs as long as you can RP into it.

coughingpuppy (12:13:28 AM): Seriously?

SirAlexTheFirst (12:13:31 AM): Useless evil feats.... what's this now?

coughingpuppy (12:14:03 AM): I have Malign Spell Focus and Dark Speech. Malign Spell Focus I COULD still use, technically...but it only applies to evil spells. Dark Speech I can't even use if I'm not evil.

SirAlexTheFirst (12:15:49 AM): Ooh. Yeah, the spell focus one is pretty much useless now.

SirAlexTheFirst (12:16:17 AM): Dark Speech... you know a bit of the Dark Speech. It could come in useful. I still think that shouldn't even be a feat, but whatever.

coughingpuppy (12:17:08 AM): But what I used the Dark Speech for no longer has uses now. Dark Speech is used for diplomacy with evil creatures or to make good creatures piss themselves and run away.

SirAlexTheFirst (12:17:27 AM): Yup

SirAlexTheFirst (12:18:03 AM): You could still do diplomacy. And if someone else starts Dark Speeching you (and you live through it) you can be all "Hey, that's Dark Speech!"

coughingpuppy (12:18:39 AM): She'd live through it. It only requires a Will Save to not run or not attack immediately.

coughingpuppy (12:19:23 AM): I can't do diplomacy, actually. Characters not of evil alignment who use Dark Speech are more or less ripped apart because it's evil.

SirAlexTheFirst (12:19:59 AM): Oh. That's true.

coughingpuppy (2:44:31 AM): I'm heading out into the woods, Alex. If on the offchance anything happens, just tell me.

SirAlexTheFirst (2:44:59 AM): Sure.

coughingpuppy (2:52:28 AM): While she's walking Aurelia's going to try to see if she can make any sort of contact with Nellix.

SirAlexTheFirst (2:53:16 AM): Heh. She gets an immediate response as he appears and walks alongside her. "Yes?"

coughingpuppy (2:54:59 AM): She looks startled at how immediately he appears. She hadn't really been expecting to really speak with him, actually. "I thought I should talk to you."

SirAlexTheFirst (2:55:27 AM): He nods. "About anything in particular?"

coughingpuppy (2:58:18 AM): Aurelia is quiet for a long few moments. "I still don't know what I'm doing here. I still don't know if I even want to be here." There's another pause before she sighs and looks over at him. "Why did you bother taking a hand in this? And were you the person who restored Verity to life in the first place? He didn't know who it was, but..."

SirAlexTheFirst (3:00:55 AM): Nellix shrugs. "I had no hand in bringing Verity back. I intervened because you were stealing my power, assaulting my friends, invading the church I built, and you were not irredeemable."

coughingpuppy (3:04:45 AM): "What makes you so sure of that? I can't become what I was again." She shakes her head. "If I thought I could safely have anything to do with gods from now on, I would follow you. No other that I know of protects their followers to such an extent. But I don't know."

SirAlexTheFirst (3:05:48 AM): "What don't you know?"

coughingpuppy (3:06:01 AM): "I don't know what I want to do."

coughingpuppy (3:07:23 AM): "I told Verity I would stay with him, but beyond that..."

SirAlexTheFirst (3:10:30 AM): "You'll soon be a mother."

coughingpuppy (3:13:45 AM): "I know." The smile she gives him at that point is brief and almost bitter. "But at the moment I'm not in any state to be a mother, I'm afraid. I can hardly manage my own life right now." Her eyes search him as they continue to walk. "You said that you were mortal once. I've heard of mortals becoming gods before, but I never understood why they would ascend to it."

SirAlexTheFirst (3:16:30 AM): Nellix stops at that, and looks up at the sky. "Excellent question. First, to protect the people of Amaryllis. It was not always as idyllic and orderly as you see it now. Secondly, my mother asked me to."

coughingpuppy (3:16:54 AM): Aurelia stops and turns to face him, raising an eyebrow.

SirAlexTheFirst (3:18:16 AM): "You find this hard to believe?" He smiles wryly.

coughingpuppy (3:19:19 AM): "No. I just...am surprised that your attempts to protect people have turned out as well as they have. Or they seem to have come out well. And I don't understand what motivation your mother would provide you. She asked you to become a god?"

SirAlexTheFirst (3:22:08 AM): "'God' is not quite the proper term, though some of my fellows disagree. My power is limited.... but I make use of it where it is right to do so. And, yes. My mother asked me to become as I am, to relieve her from eternity."

coughingpuppy (3:24:26 AM): "She asked for oblivion?" Aurelia's eyes flick away for a second before she looks at him again. "How do you determine where it is right to use it? What gives you that authority, and do you have a right to it simply because you have the ability to affect the world?"

SirAlexTheFirst (3:30:50 AM): Nellix looks at her quite blankly. "She had reached oblivion, and been pulled forth from it by evil, and wished to return. The authority... you could claim any number of reasons for it. Conquest, power, morality, duty. I have taken up the mantle of shepherd because all the others have abandoned it - if I did not, there would be none left. I probably do not have a right to it - but the consequences of my so doing seem better than if I did not."

coughingpuppy (3:36:52 AM): "Why did she...nevermind." This is a god and she doesn't want to let it become any more personal than it already is. "I don't understand why you can claim that it seemed better. You have almost infinite power over us - the power to ruin lives if you chose. But all the same, that power isn't infinite, and you aren't omnipotent. A god sometimes doesn't seem anything more than a leader of men. They're just as fallible, but most are worshipped as though they aren't. Most let themselves continue to be worshipped as though they aren't."

coughingpuppy (3:39:26 AM): "I just don't understand why you have the right to assume that responsibility, and that power over others. What makes your decisions for us any more valid than the ones we could make for ourselves, without a god to have a hand in it?"

SirAlexTheFirst (3:40:45 AM): He extends a hand towards you.

coughingpuppy (3:41:10 AM): Aurelia hesitates for a moment, and then takes it.

SirAlexTheFirst (3:47:32 AM): Your vision fades out, and is replaced by an endless sea of orange-red sand. Bones litter it here and there, and as you watch, flashes of fire rain down from the dim sky. The view pans around to reveal the blasted, burnt remains of a large city. One giant tower with a broken stained glass window is the centerpiece, and scattered around its base are corpses in various states of manglement and gore. Nothing moves, except for the flames. Your 'eyes' then turn around again and speed forward, stopping at an enormous crater in the sand. The only thing marking its interior is a broken rapier in the center.

SirAlexTheFirst (3:48:10 AM): Then the world comes back around you, and Nellix lets you go. "

SirAlexTheFirst (3:49:09 AM): "I have been to that place. It is the ultimate fruit of what happens when evil is allowed to flourish. I will do everything in my power to prevent the world from becoming as that hell is."

coughingpuppy (3:49:54 AM): Aurelia's avoiding his eyes. "What was it?"

SirAlexTheFirst (3:51:51 AM): "Hell. The price of failure, and the repository of hatred."

coughingpuppy (3:52:55 AM): "But you don't think that people themselves could prevent it from happening, without your help? That they could manage without gods to decide what's best for them?"

SirAlexTheFirst (3:53:40 AM): "I have no doubt that they could."

coughingpuppy (3:55:17 AM): "Then why do you take a hand? I can only speak for myself and from what I know of Verity, but I would have been better off if my god had left me as I was, and he would have been better off with the help of a god...your failure to act, or your failures when you act, could create that hell."

SirAlexTheFirst (3:57:01 AM): "I take a hand because I, too, inhabit the world. Are my own decisions less valid than a normal man's, then, that I should not do all that is within my power to avert that horror and make life light?"

coughingpuppy (4:00:08 AM): "They aren't less valid, but they are no more valid. And that's dangerous, considering the amount of power you have." She becomes quiet for a moment and then finally looks at him; she hadn't since the vision. "The time I had the power to do something, and to influence the lives of others in a way that I thought was better, I think I was quite wrong...or that's what they told me later. It was bad enough with fifty people. You have power over thousands. When is it ever within one person's right to decide what is best for another?"

SirAlexTheFirst (4:01:20 AM): "When they are asked to do so by that person."

coughingpuppy (4:02:15 AM): "You only do what you are asked to do?"

coughingpuppy (4:02:38 AM): "Did someone ask you to intervene in the church?"

SirAlexTheFirst (4:03:53 AM): "Yes, indeed. Bandon did, actually."

coughingpuppy (4:07:35 AM): "Then perhaps you're an exception. Or perhaps there are things beyond my comprehension. Maybe both." Aurelia just frowns, not waiting for an answer to that, and continues, "As exceptional a god as you might be, I don't want to devote myself to one again. But I've no idea where else to begin finding purpose for myself. I don't know if I want to be here."

SirAlexTheFirst (4:10:09 AM): "Alas, whether you want to be here or not is... immaterial. You cannot leave, short of oblivion or opening the door to many evils to come in."

coughingpuppy (4:12:35 AM): "I don't want to go home. I'm far better off here, even as complicated as it seems at the moment." Her eyes are still on him, and she hesitates before asking, "Forgive me if this is too personal, but why did your mother ask to be granted oblivion? You seemed surprised when I asked for it."

SirAlexTheFirst (4:17:58 AM): He stares right back atcha, but hesitates and replies slowly. "My mother was.... dead. She lived her life, and met her end, and entered oblivion. A madman who fancied himself a god pulled her back into existence, out of... a sort of twisted love.... and refused to let her die. The only thing she ever asked of me was that I allow her to return to rest. I could not refuse her, and in so doing, I became as I am."

coughingpuppy (4:23:36 AM): She watches him for a few moments more in silence before saying, "Of all the reasons one could ascend to godhood, I think that's one of the few I could respect." She sighs. "I still don't believe that most have any right to their power, but I think it was the right decision to abandon my quest to kill them. I'll start looking for other ways to occupy myself, as you suggested."

SirAlexTheFirst (4:25:30 AM): Nellix nods. "Peace be with you, then."

coughingpuppy (4:25:38 AM): "And with you."

SirAlexTheFirst (4:25:57 AM): He turns and walks into the woods, vanishing after a few feet.

coughingpuppy (4:26:29 AM): Yeah. So eventually she'll head back to camp, but for now I'm going to call it a night.

SirAlexTheFirst (4:26:38 AM): Yep.