Rosha smiles at the oil’s description. “That is handy! I bet we could sprinkle some around our campsite at night and it would keep the undead away. I don’t know about the rest of you but early morning has had a stray zombie wander in a time or two.”
Courtney is happy about the oil, but Rosha’s words cause her head to snap up. “Wait a second. You’ve been fighting undead while on watch? I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them. You better have an excellent reason for not telling us about it.”
Rosha shrugs, “meh, it was just some zombies off in the distance. Just a couple rocks thrown and they fall over dead so it isn’t a problem.”
Courtney grabs Rosha by her ear, “That is very much not a meh situation! How long has this been going on?”
Rosha holds Courtney’s hand so she can’t pull on her ear anymore. “It was just a few weak undead!”
Courtney glares at her and in a flat voice asks once more, “how many days?”
Rosha blinks a couple times and then stammers, “uh, about a week ish?”
Courtney tilts her head to the side, releases Rosha, and crosses her arms. “Well, that is a bit of important information. Jason, I assume you didn’t know about this?” He nods but keeps his distance.
Courtney gives him a quick glare to check if he is lying. “Good, now Rachel, if I haven’t seen them and Jason hasn’t seen them that means they are keeping their distance. You’ve noticed them because of either a skill or your ranger training in general. Can you guess why undead that for all our knowledge of them should just charge at us have taken to standing just far enough away that most of us can’t see them? Especially now that we are in an area that is so deadly for them?”
Rosha looks away and rubs the back of her head, “Well I haven’t seen them since we got close to the roses.”
Courtney raises an eyebrow, “that is good information to know, but would you kindly answer the question?”
Rosha keeps turned away, “I guess, well, yeah they are non-sapient? So not attacking right away probably means being under orders from something that can think?”
Courtney sighs, “yeah, just maybe. So please, from now on report any sightings at night that aren’t just normal animals. Though of course report if the same animal shows up multiple nights in a row. Really, I would like to say use your common sense, but here we are.”
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At this point Jason steps forward, “Well lessons have been learned here. Though Courtney, I think you used Rosha’s irl name. Just a heads up on that. Besides that, I feel the undead watchers aren’t there for us. This area is filled with predators that eat the undead. Just like towns will keep watch on nearby monster infested zones, the smart undead likely are doing just that as well. If anything, they need to keep track of if it has spread.”
Courtney grimaces, “oh, I didn’t mean to that.”
Rosha smiles, “I guess we’re both in the doghouse then!”
Courtney glances back over at her which is enough to make Rosha deflate again. “At least I didn’t go for the full name. Anyway, I feel that is a good summation of the situation. Also, if the undead were on the lookout for us, we would have likely been attacked by them after Rosha pinged them the first time. No use hiding if we already know they are there.”
Then she looks at the oil’s description again, “Though I don’t think this, by itself, would keep the undead away. The description doesn’t say anything about normal contact being a problem for the undead. While it has the gentle repose effect, I think that comes more from it absorbing the undead energies before it can enter the body. Not drawing the energies out. Still, if we have to fight any more serious undead threats, it will be helpful. The jar should have about ten doses, right?”
Jason nods, “give or take a use and what we use it on. Having made it, I get some sense of it beyond the description. The gentle repose effect will take more for a bigger body and coating a weapon would be the closest to a standard dose. The protection is actually just dabbing some on your temples so unless we use it often, that doesn’t even really take up all that much.”
Courtney nods, “This feels like something we should keep for later. Will it go bad? While that damage boost is decent the two situational uses are the strongest. We have had no necromancers to fight, nor anyway incorporeal undead, but both are the much greater threat. Regular undead we can just bash away at.”
Jason takes a moment to stare at the jar, “The oil itself will last about two years. Though the magical part looks like, it will only last half that. However it seems that if we can get someone to channel nature attuned mana or undead attuned mana into the magic will last as long as the oil does.”
“Hmm”, Courtney raises both her eyebrows, “that is impressive. Most magic oils only last a few months from what I understand. Do you have a skill for it somehow?”
Jason shrugs, “sort of? At some point I got a ping about my farming skill so I assume it used that. Though I can tell you why my oil lasts so long compared to other magical oils you might be familiar with. Simply put, this isn’t a magic oil. This is oil that is magical. While I haven’t looked too much into alchemy. Things like an oil of barkskin are not pure oils. Rather, the oil is used to suspend magical components. I can tell that just from the fact that most of the oils I saw when shopping cautioned to shake well before you plan to use them.”
“It isn’t the oil itself going bad but rather the additives to it either losing their effects or no longer being suspended. This redeath rose oil is purely that, oil of a rose. It just happens that the roses used had magical properties. There isn’t any magical reaction going on to wear out or components to settle. The oil will last as long as normal rose oil would and the magic only goes away faster because I don’t have a proper container. If I had something that could seal magic in as well, the oil would stay effective until it goes rancid.”