Combatting Death as a Character

[Captain_Riposte]

Greetings,

I face an interesting challenge with my work in progress. I have a 17th century mercenary hero that encounters Death--the Grim Reaper--several times in his adventures. I'm thinking up ways for my character to struggle with him and survive in different ways. Death is trying to take my protagonist to prevent things he will do in the future, a violation of the rules, as the hero's time has not yet come.

In the first duel the hero crosses swords with Death but is delivered at sunrise. Later one of the hero's companions drives him away by singing a period hymn. I'm considering Death also inflicting the plague on the hero's adopted daughter as leverage, I'm still thinking of how to sort that one out with both the hero and the girl surviving.

Other ways I'm thinking of for encounters tend to involve Death influencing mortals to kill the hero for him (and therefore not be directly involved in his death), perhaps in things as obvious as assassination or as subtle as influencing events the hero is caught up in.

Does anyone have any ideas on ways the hero and Death can struggle? Does anyone have any suggestions about the ideas I already have? And just how can one keep winning against Death without making it feel too easy?

Thanks!

[rjj7]

First thing that popped into my head was death trying to convince the soldier of the futility of living. This would be more of a long term conflict than a one time struggle, and would also be more of a conversation than a round of combat; so perhaps its not what you were looking for (it might not even fit the mood of your story).

[Kessie]

The first thing that came to mind was the Discworld books, with Death tending his flowers or grooming his horse. A nice guy with a nasty job. What's your Death like?

As for Death encounters, one that comes to mind is one where the hero is falling to his apparent Death, and Death is waiting for him on the ground, scythe raised, and the hero manages to not fall. Or as, say, a band of ruffians closes in to kill the hero, and there's Death right in the middle of them, swinging his scythe, unseen to all but the hero. Defeating the ruffians defeats Death, too.

Death trying to arrange assassinations or things doesn't make sense, because if the guy dies, that's still Death taking his soul. I imagine Death could hang out with people who are trying to kill the hero, and maybe make suggestions in their ears.

Oooh, also! Google "plague doctor" and click on Images. Your mention of the Plague put me in mind of it. Somewhere, someone drew them as an actual humanoid raven with the goggles and hat. I don't know if your story goes in for humanoid animals, but it's a cool idea.

[Captain_Riposte]

Yes, that is what I meant about the assassins--that he influences events behind the scenes without the players' even knowing it.

I loved Death the Discworld version of Death, but mine here is more on the demonic side, trying to kill the protagonist before he liberates a people in another world that are fighting for their lives and waiting for the message of the Promised Seed in the Book of Genesis (the people in this Other World are from before Noah's lifetime and struggle against Nephilim pirates).

The plague doctor look is an idea I'll take into consideration. The images are actual eyewitness drawings of men wearing plague masks, believe it or not. The masks were thought to scare away evil spirits. Originally I was planning on discarding the traditional trappings of the cloak and hood based on period images as simply depicting him as a skeleton with or without an outfit. I decided that his costume varies according to his surroundings, such as armor on a battlefield or a doublet and hose in a city; in most cases only the protagonist perceives the grimacing skull. Here are two historical images that have influenced my approach:

warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com/2009/05/naval-officer-by-n-guerard.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkKcKaatfPU


Great ideas, so far!

[Captain_Riposte]

I like the subtle approach of Death appearing in times of peril to keep the persistent image of Deth shadowing the hero.

I might be able to incorporate Death trying to wear down the hero's will to live with my plot twist when an orphaned peasant girl unexpectedly comes under his care. She may be the means to thwart the hero's disillusionment and give him a reason to wake up in the morning.

[rjj7]

Nov 3, 2011 20:56:09 GMT -5 Captain_Riposte said:

The plague doctor look is an idea I'll take into consideration. The images are actual eyewitness drawings of men wearing plague masks, believe it or not. The masks were thought to scare away evil spirits.

I actually had a microbiology instructor at community college who studied the black death as a bit of a hobby, and he said that the 'beaks' of the masks were filled with perfumes and stuff to purify the air; the reason being that at that time they believed that disease was spread through bad smells and things like that.

Nov 3, 2011 20:56:09 GMT -5 Captain_Riposte said:

Originally I was planning on discarding the traditional trappings of the cloak and hood based on period images as simply depicting him as a skeleton with or without an outfit. I decided that his costume varies according to his surroundings, such as armor on a battlefield or a doublet and hose in a city; in most cases only the protagonist perceives the grimacing skull.

I like this idea a lot. It's weird, but despite being such a little thing, it makes me much more interested. I think little touches like this are awesome.

[Kessie]

One thing I noticed about the whole Grim Reaper design is that it seems to come from that angel in Revelation, who carries the scythe to reap souls with.So, the Grim Reaper used to just be an angel? So I imagine he could look like anything.

Heck, in modern-day, he might use a combine harvester instead of an old-fashioned scythe. :-)

[rjj7]

Nov 3, 2011 22:49:16 GMT -5 Kessie said:

Heck, in modern-day, he might use a combine harvester instead of an old-fashioned scythe. :-)

Golden parody material there. ;D

[metalikhan]

Maybe, but in Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man, DEATH was outraged by the whole idea of the combination harvester.

BTW, DEATH is a character who shows up in a number of Pratchett's books. In Hogfather, he does the job of the missing equivalent to Santa Claus; and DEATH's grand-daughter, Susan, has to figure out what's happened to the Hogfather. Chilling, poignant, and hysterically funny! ;D

[fluke]

I started reading DW because of Death, but now I'm a Sammie. Death has at least a cameo in every DW novel except Wee Free Men, I think. And according to the rules, if one person, say Sam Vimes, is having a near-death experience, then Death has a near-Vimes experience.

There's the classic playing a game against Death. The movie The Seventh Seal has this with chess. Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey has a series of these. You could make one of those games the dramatic piece at the end (Having a bunch of little gaming contests would detract from the mood you're making, I think).

Constantly winning against Death without becoming Deus ex Machina is something you will have to work on. One get away could look like a fortuitous accident. The hero falls off a building and lands in a tank of water. That allows him time to get away. If Death can move really fast or dematerialize and rematerialze, this won't work well.

What are the limits you have on Death? If he can rematerialize, that's going to limit your options. If he has to personally escort certain souls to the other side, a death could call him away from the hero. If he's near omniscient, the hero's ideas will be known to him. Some friends of mine who game have said, "think of the limitations and complications of your PC as invitations for the GM to use against you." Do the same thing for your Death. Figure out his limitations and you know what the hero has to do to get away.

Frank

[Captain_Riposte]

metalikhan--I Love the film version of Hogfather! It is a must-see for my family every Christmas.

fluke--You raise interesting points. I haven't thought too deeply about Death, I think of him as I would think of a demon: he is not the character's friend, he knows what the protagonist will accomplish should he fail to kill him (something Death wishes to prevent) so he has at least a limited knowledge of future events, and thus he will at least be able to anticipate. To complicate matters, however, the protagonist is a Christian (this is a historical setting, 1630s campaigns of the Thirty Years' War play a prominent role early on and the final years of the English Civil War are planned for the end).

[Captain_Riposte]

I guess the real trick is figuring out how to keep suspense going even if the character has Divine protection.

[Kessie]

Job had Divine protection, too, and he still had his family die, lost all his possessions, and got terrible boils, all permitted by God. Just because somebody is a Christian doesn't mean they can't flirt with Death. After all, the man has no idea when his time will come, only that he wants it to not be now. :-)

[birdnerd]

Does the character _know_ he has divine protection?

[Captain_Riposte]

That's something I haven't entirely established yet. The protagonist does pray, and he's the son of an Anglican clergyman, but he starts out in the stories as a bit roguish; his whole adventure begins in a tavern where he throws a wager to disprove a friend's story about werewolves in the moor. He has a maturing journey, but ultimately I think he would understand that he is alive so long as God allows. I may be able to keep up suspense with him not really knowing if he will fall in each encounter. And *spoiler warning* in his last battle he *does* recognize that it is his time before his death.



Also, a well-read friend advised me not to call him Death. So I did some searches on Death as a character in history, and so far have settled on the Celtic name of Ankou. And interestingly, one of the old legends of Ankou has similarities to one of the fantasy elements in the stories...