The World of Layonara
The Layonara Community => Ask A Gamemaster => Topic started by: gilshem ironstone on May 18, 2010, 09:26:31 AM
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On the page for [lore]Soulstones[/lore] it reads:
If given to a cleric, they can use a soul stone to pull your soul back from the Plane of the Lost. A cleric can not read the person’s True Name, but does know whose gem it is by a resonating warmth when near its owner.
Is this represented by some ingame mechanic, or is this an RP device only?
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You buy a soul stone at one of the temples and then "use" it. it becomes imprinted and then when you are raised it goes away
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I'm not entirely sure what you're asking is being represented, but yes, Soulstones exist IG as a usable item. They are consumed if and when you are brought back from the dead by a Raise Dead or Resurrection spell/prayer. If you're asking about the cleric taking the stone, it's assumed the cleric takes the stone from the dead body and uses it as part of the spell/prayer.
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I think he is asking if you can use a soulstone to identify its owner?
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Sorry I should clarify. I understand the use of possessing a soulstone. Is there any additional effect of giving a soulstone to a cleric? (i.e. Being summoned from your bindpoint to your gravestone by the cleric who has your stone.)
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No, the cleric cannot do anything like that. The Soulstone really just puts less of a strain on a cleric when raising/resurrecting a person, but they don't give the cleric the ability to "summon" or teleport the person in any way.
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I reworded the statement slightly to avoid further confusion.
[LORE]Soulstones[/LORE]
If given to a cleric, he/she can use a soul stone to aid in the prayer to pull your soul back from the Plane of the Lost. A cleric can not read the person's True Name, but does know whose gem it is by a resonating warmth when near its owner.
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Soulstones aren't actually given to the cleric mechanically. A device called the eye of the soul is used to see if a character has one activated in their inventory. In fact I don't think the gem once imprinted(used) can be taken out of inventory.
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yes cbnicholson has it right there.
Sometimes clerics hand them out to the people they travel with... depending on the cleric and all I suppose. :)
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What has been said before is Right. I just want to bring in maybe a bit of rp view point.
It's quite possible, and could be RPed by pc clerics, that the cleric would go through the things of the dead, take the soul stone to pray on it and do a ritual* in the attempt of bringing the life back in the body. In which, the soul stone would then shatter. Which would account for the reason why, the soul stone is no longer in the inventory, and that there is no shards of gem left behind. Because it would not have shattered in the packs of the dead pc.
*ie the visual casting but since it's not a casting but more of a prayer ritual
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Uhmm... Just a question from me then.. Why would a cleric have to know if a soul stone belongs to someone special. Why can't it be that the cleric is given some small token/a cantrip which can detect if a person is carrying their soul stone?
Because it seems rather strange to me that the cleric can determine if a stone belongs to someone special. In theory this could be abused for the purpose of identifying people(Although it is rather hard and only works for one special person)
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There is, its called the eye of the soul (kinda looks like an eyeball too!). You can buy it at a temple, or the vendor in the crimson memorial of Hempstead.
By using the item and then clicking on the dead body, it will whisper back to you if the person has a soul stone. Kinda like what I was writing about the cleric going through the person things to take the soul stone. But since pickpocketing is not enable on the server, it would be impossible to do so. This tool can help the rp about what I just wrote about earlier.
The only thing that item says, is if the dead person is carrying any imprinted soul stone.
Remember also that an imprinted soul stone can not be transfered to someone else, or placed in bags. So the person can only carry his own imprinted soul stone.
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Ahh I knew about the eye, but not that you could buy it. I am just wondering why it is important that you can tell that a soul stone actually belongs to the person you are trying to raise. Versus telling that the person has one of his/her soulstones with her.
Really it is all just a game mechanics which I am not sure I understand entirely
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I think milt said that the cleric doesn't know the true name of the person. Just that the cleric in rp knows it belongs to that person because the soul stone resonates when it is close to the body it belongs to.
The eye also doesn't tell you the name of that person.. or if it does (which I don't remember) that's a slip up I guess.
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Each person can get soul stones.
You can impress a part of your soul onto 1 (i forget the exact wording).
Should you die a cleric can use the eye of the soul That is the eyeball thingy clerics can go buy... (well anyone can buy one but why?) It whispers to them if you (the dead person) have imprinted your soul onto a soulstone or not.
If you havnt the cleric WILL take an XP loss for raising you... which some wont do if you dont have an activated soul stone.
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they can buy it, but only clerics can use it.
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A cleric can not read the person's True Name, but does know whose gem it is by a resonating warmth when near its owner.
It is the bold text I am wondering about... I know how the soulstone system works, with 200+ deaths I know trust me. What I am wondering is what this one part of the sentence is there for?
The eye of the soul pretty much renders this useless, as well as the fact that you probably don't leave your soulstone somewhere random, so it will always be on your person for destruction when it is needed.
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Each person can get soul stones.
You can impress a part of your soul onto 1 (i forget the exact wording).
Should you die a cleric can use the eye of the soul That is the eyeball thingy clerics can go buy... (well anyone can buy one but why?) It whispers to them if you (the dead person) have imprinted your soul onto a soulstone or not.
If you havnt the cleric WILL take an XP loss for raising you... which some wont do if you dont have an activated soul stone.
I think the wording is
"The gem has been encoded with XX true name." XX is the name of the pc
Ahh I knew about the eye, but not that you could buy it.
The shop in the crimson memorial, is where you can by the eye of the soul is called Ghaston Ne'dar's herbs and healing
(well anyone can buy one but why?)
And to be precise yes you can buy it, yes you can activate it, no you won't get any message stating if the person has a imprinted soul stone or not, if you're not a cleric.
It is the bold text I am wondering about... I know how the soulstone system works, with 200+ deaths I know trust me. What I am wondering is what this one part of the sentence is there for?
The eye of the soul pretty much renders this useless, as well as the fact that you probably don't leave your soulstone somewhere random, so it will always be on your person for destruction when it is needed.
RP flavor. This way you can use the eye of the soul to know if the person carries one (ooc info) and rp taking the soul stone in your hands and feel it resonating when it is close to the body and stops resonating when it is further away.
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I'm pretty sure it's just RP fluff, which is good stuff to have sometimes. Relax. Be mellow. Worry not about the fluff.
It won't ever matter in the game, but, realistically speaking, bits and trinkets could easily go flying during combat. Not everyone is careful with his stuff, even his soul. If a giant picks a guy up and swings him around before hurling him into a tree, he's probably going to lose some things. Pockets could get cut. Whatever. Lots of ways to lose things. After the battle is won and the clerics are picking up the pieces, bringing a stone that flew from someone's pocket near bodies would help determine whose it was because of the resonating warmth, right? But, as I said, it'll never happen like that in-game. It's fluff. And reasonably nice fluff, even.
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I just wanted to exploit whatever chink in the armor might exist ;)
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*points at what Gulnyr said*
Mechanically speaking, a soul stone is consumed on raise/resurrection automatically, and by doing so, it either eliminates or reduces the XP hit that the cleric takes, which is primarily dependent on deity relation between the caster and the deceased (and please...do not branch into a discussion of Divine Relation in this thread). Mechanically speaking, a soul stone cannot be given away, except though a raise/resurrection spell or GM intervention.
From an in-character perspective, the soul stone is an aid to the cleric when calling one's soul back to one's body due to the very specific "pattern" imprinted upon it by the person, something that is unique to that individual. I have seen some clerics RP taking them from a person before casting, I have seen some Good-aligned clerics say, "Bah, no soul stone. Anyone have a scroll?" (yes...really), I have seen clerics pay it absolutely no attention and I have seen clerics cast raise/resurrect without RPing beforehand but then RPing the after-effects of XP loss as a temporary weakening and an admonition to the raised to start carrying soul stones.
The "warmth" comment is just some IC flavor to the whole thing, suggesting a harmonious and/or resonant relationship between a person and any soul stones imprinted by him/her. There's really very little else that can be read into them with any relevance at all. The description is, as described, "fluff" to give a mechanical system a bit of IC significance.
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I have seen some Good-aligned clerics say, "Bah, no soul stone. Anyone have a scroll?" (yes...really)
Does this means that clerics that uses a scroll, no matter what is the deity alignment receives no xp penalty? I was wondering cause yesterday Tyillaan used a scroll to raise zig on a quest and she lost xp.
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I have seen some Good-aligned clerics say, "Bah, no soul stone. Anyone have a scroll?" (yes...really), I have seen clerics pay it absolutely no attention and I have seen clerics cast raise/resurrect without RPing beforehand but then RPing the after-effects of XP loss as a temporary weakening and an admonition to the raised to start carrying soul stones.
Why should a good aligned cleric take a hit to cover what is in 9 out of 10 cases is someone else not caring? Just because you are good doesn't mean you have to be a sucker.
I have raised lots of players of quests and outside when they didn't carry soulstones. Sometimes I have lectured them afterwards, sometimes not.
If it is a new player I dont - much - mind, but when its experienced players and it evolves into a pattern of not carrying or paying attention to soulstones, then it is quite frankly nothing but disrespect towards your fellow players.
On the point of roleplaying. I have quite often experienced - both on and of quests - that when I kneel down to pray before raising then someones gets impatient and pulls a scroll out, instead of waiting a moment.
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Does this means that clerics that uses a scroll, no matter what is the deity alignment receives no xp penalty? I was wondering cause yesterday Tyillaan used a scroll to raise zig on a quest and she lost xp.
No, I'm not saying that.
Why should a good aligned cleric take a hit to cover what is in 9 out of 10 cases is someone else not caring? Just because you are good doesn't mean you have to be a sucker.
Wasn't saying that either. I was only relaying an observation, not suggesting that Good-aligned clerics had to always raise someone, stone or not. Some Good-aligned clerics always will, some will lecture the raised after, some won't. That specification was added for flavor to the person reading, not telling people how to RP.
I'm not playing RP Police here. :)
I have raised lots of players of quests and outside when they didn't carry soulstones. Sometimes I have lectured them afterwards, sometimes not.
If it is a new player I dont - much - mind, but when its experienced players and it evolves into a pattern of not carrying or paying attention to soulstones, then it is quite frankly nothing but disrespect towards your fellow players.
Well, there may be IC reasons for doing so, but that's why we give the tools to the cleric we do (Divine Relation and Eye of the Soul), so the cleric can make an informed choice.
On the point of roleplaying. I have quite often experienced - both on and of quests - that when I kneel down to pray before raising then someones gets impatient and pulls a scroll out, instead of waiting a moment.
Heh...yeah, I've seen that too. Makes me groan every time.