“Okay,” I said. “You’re dead.”
“Damn!” said Mike. “I really liked that character.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it.” said Carl. “We’re adventurers. Death is only temporary for us.”
“Yeah,” said Melissa. “All we need to do is drag your rotting corpse back to the village of adventurers and you’ll be fine.”
“Actually I’m pretty sure that the cleric there is high enough level to cast true resurrection, which means that we don’t even need your whole body,” said Carl. “I assume I’d know that.”
“Yeah, you’d know that,” I said. “True resurrection can recreate a whole body if the body no longer exists, but you’d have to dissolve him in acid or something to achieve that. And if the body still exists, any part of it will do. You could take a tooth.”
“I’m pretty sure I’d just lose a tooth,” said Carl. “I’m going to take a hand.”
“Hey!” said Mike.
“I cut off one of his hands, wrap it carefully in black cloth, of which of course I have an abundance,” said Carl, “and I put it in my backpack.”
“Are you carefully packing it,” I asked, “or just throwing it in there?”
Carl thought for a moment. “No,” he said, “I’m packing it.”
“Mike, you see him do this,” I said.
“What?”
“You’re looking down on him, probably from a height of about ten feet. You see him cut off your corpse’s hand, wrap it, and stow it. Can you roll a Wisdom check, and a Charisma saving throw please?”
“Oh no, I hate Charisma saving throws. At least my Wisdom’s good. Twenty one on the Wisdom check, and fifteen on the Charisma saving throw.”
“Okay, so you understand that you’re dead.”
“Okay,”
“And you’ve even assimilated it into this dissociative thing that you’ve got going on. Both of you understand that you’re dead.”
“How does the other guy feel about this situation?”
“Being dead?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, he’s angry. He’d really like to lash out right now, but he’s got no body to do it with.”
“Ah, so he’s pretty much powerless in this state,” said Mike.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll let you know when his anger gets strong enough to affect you mentally.”
“When?” he asked.
“It’s coming,” I said. “I’ll let you know when.”
“Okay.”
“So, what?” asked Melissa. “He’s a ghost now?”
“There’s no evidence of that,” said Carl.
“Mike, you know that you’re not a monster manual ghost. You don’t have those specific characteristics,” I said.
“Okay,” said Mike.
“In fact your awareness comes from a single point within fifteen feet from your severed hand. From that point you can both see and hear clearly out to your normal range. You can move this point to any location inside a sphere centred on your hand.”
“Okay, but I can’t actually affect anything,” he said.
“Physically, no. Or rather, you haven’t worked out how to yet. There might be a way, you don’t know.”
“And in the meantime I’m centred on Carl’s backpack.”
“Right,”
“Do I know any of this is going on?” asked Carl.
“No,” I said. “The orcs, by the way, once they had killed Mike, ran off.”
“Oh, I’d forgotten about them.”
“Mike, from your raised vantage point, you see that one of them has taken cover and is still watching,” I say. “You can’t see any of the others.”
“But it’s a safe bet that they’ll be around somewhere,” said Mike.
“But we don’t see this guy, right?” asked Melissa.
“No, you have no reason to think he’s there. The orcs all ran off.”
“Can I tell them somehow?” asked Mike.
“Tell who?”
“Who’s closest to the orc?”
“Melissa,”
“I tell Melissa,” he said. “I try and shout at her that there’s an orc around that corner in particular. Go check there.”
“Okay, roll Wisdom,” I said.
“Eighteen,” he said.
“Okay, Melissa, you’re watching Carl carefully wrap and stow the hand. You glance over your shoulder and just see the tip of an orc boot as it moves out of your line of sight around a corner.”
“Can I stealth up to it?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said.
“Fourteen,” she said.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Killing him. Can I cast hunter’s mark and attack with advantage?”
“No, casting the spell would reveal your position.”
“Okay, so I’ll just attack with advantage. Twelve and nineteen.”
“That’s a good hit. Damage?”
“Three,” she said.
“Okay, that doesn’t kill him. Everyone roll Initiative.”
“Twenty,” said Melissa.
“Eight,” said Carl.
“Mike?” I said.
“Oh, me too? Okay, thirteen. Wait, it is normal initiative?”
“Yes, normal initiative.” I said.
“Thirteen,” he said.
“Okay. Melissa, you go first.”
“I cast hunter’s mark and I shoot him. Sixteen.”
“That hits,”
“Sixteen damage,” she said.
“Yeah, he’s dead. You shot him twice before he got a sound off. The other orcs, if they’re in the area, don’t know he’s dead yet.”
“Can I see any more of them?” asked Melissa.
“No,” I said.
“Can I see any more of them?” asked Mike.
“No,” I said.
“Can we go in the other direction?” asked Carl.
“Sure,” I said. “The tunnels continue on the way you were going.”
“I continue trying to communicate with Melissa,” said Mike.
“Okay, as you’re going along, you’re trying a bunch of the things and you realise that mild statements and gentle thoughts aren’t going to do it. You’ll need to use a strong emotion in order to get through.”
“What, like fear?”
“That might do it.”
“Okay, how about this? Something’s coming! Danger!”
“Okay, you’re trying to jump-scare her?” I asked.
“Maybe I’ll save it for when something really is coming.”
“Okay, not a problem. Roll a Wisdom check.”
“Fifteen,” he said.
“Melissa, you’re cautiously making your way through this mysterious maze of tunnels, and suddenly something’s coming! Danger!”
“Can I shoot it?” she asked.
“Roll to hit!” I said.
“Sixteen!”
“Damage?”
“Eleven,” she said.
“Okay,” I said. “It was a giant rat, and you killed it. But you had no reason to think it was there before.”
“I just got this weird premonition,” she said.
“Exactly,” I said. “Mike, record one ghost point,”
“Okay, what do these do?” he asked.
“You’ll have to work that out.” I said.
“Okay,” he said. “But now I know I can give them warning of danger.”
“Yes, you can do that any time,” I said.
“Cool.”
“Okay, I say,” said Melissa. “That was weird.”
“What was? I ask,” said Carl.
“I just shot that rat before I knew it was there,” she said.
“What, you think Mike’s ghost is watching over us now?” said Carl.
“No! That was just weird, that’s all.”
“Mike,” I said. “The other guy screams in frustration.”