It’s winter and I’m back to making board games. Snakes and ladders was such a terrible game that even Willow and Griffin noticed and demanded a better game.
“This game is boring,” Willow says, pouting.
“Well, I won!” Griffin says.
“You also cheated,” Juniper puts in.
“Did not!” Griffin protests.
“Doesn’t matter,” Willow says. “It’s all luck anyway.”
“Griffin, did you take Drake’s lucky necklace again?” Juniper says.
The unfortunate thing is that I only made the snakes and ladders board because I never had kids and couldn’t think of anything simple and appropriate for four-year-olds that wasn’t too complicated for my skills. Now they’re about to turn five and are clever and bored.
I’m just glad that Corwen is wealthy and always has plenty of Basic materials they don’t mind youngsters wasting on honing their skills. They consider the Basic-rank materials to be pretty much trash and just let me use them instead of recycling them in the core room.
I make a matching game by drawing pictures with words on thick paper. Good for teaching vocabulary and honing memory. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that in the first place.
That will keep them occupied while I make a nice wooden mahjong set. (I take some creative liberties in what the tiles depict as I think the kids will find goats more interesting than Chinese characters they can’t read and have no reason to learn.) Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to actually play the multiplayer version of mahjong as I only played the solitaire version. And I don’t remember how to set up the stacks of tiles for the solitaire version. But we’ll figure it out. It’s not like a trio of small children is going to notice I’m cribbing half-remembered games from Earth or criticize that I got them wrong.
The hardest part turns out to be getting all the tiles exactly even without precision tools. Fortunately, I have a skill to help with that. I don’t remember the dimensions of mahjong tiles so I picked 3 cm by 4 cm and 1 cm thick, which looks… more or less right, but they aren’t all perfect. The kids will eventually notice which ones are off, but I will make a better set once my skills are higher.
Congratulations! You have crafted a Poor quality toy. Your Search (Measurement) skill has increased to level 2.
All that work and it’s still Poor. The little painted livestock, fruits, and flowers aren’t all identical but should look close enough as I picked ones with distinct shapes and colors. And it’s a good thing I got the wooden set done as they’ve already ruined the flimsy cards I made. They’ve been folded, torn, and scuffed up.
“Griffin folded the corners when he thought we weren’t looking,” Juniper says.
“It was an accident,” Griffin protests.
“Try to be more careful, Griffin,” Aunt Hazel says. “Your cousin worked hard on these games he’s making for you.”
“It’s alright,” I say. “They were Poor quality and didn’t take long to make. I kind of expected that to happen. Here, look! I made something else.”
I put the box full of tiles on the floor and they all crowd over to peer in as I start pulling them out.
“What did you make this time, Drake?” Aunt Hazel asks. “It’s wonderful that you’re spending time making things for your family and not out playing with goblins.”
“There’s different games you can play with these but you can use them for the matching memory game too,” I say. “Why don’t we start off with that?”
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I’m trying to figure out how to set up the “turtle” formation for my wooden tiles (and realizing I didn’t make enough of them) when Anise charges into the play room.
“Drake! There’s a skyship coming in,” Anise says. “It’s big and fancy! Come see!”
I drop what I’m doing (accidentally scattering tiles on the floor) and rush out with her to greet our visitors, by which I mean gawk at their vessel.
A flying galleon slowly circles the village as it approaches the dock on the gate tower, silhouetted against the indigo sky. At least a dozen shimmering silken sails in different colors jut out from every side of the ship, but some of them are already furled and others are folding up as the ship comes in to dock. The struts beneath and beside the ship can move to get out of the way for docking and landing, it looks like.
The hull is made of some sort of reddish-black wood and covered from bow to stern with glowing sigils. An animated figurehead at the front looks around at the village with a curious and critical expression.
“Wow…” is all I can say, and try to see if I can identify the ship.
Category Artifact Type Vessel Quality Excellent Rank Legendary
I probably didn’t need a skill to figure out that much. I can’t glean any details about the materials or effects. Too many unfamiliar things packed together. Aether and vis wrap around the vessel in a flawless weave, little puffs of concepts flashing here and there as our visitors stop at the dock and begin to disembark.
Grandma Laurel and Aunt Heather are already up there to greet them, while most of the village has come out to stare, crowding the village square, walkways and balconies. We don’t have too long to wait before the two of them emerge from the tower along with a woman wearing a sigil-covered red robe and bearing a face I have seen every day in the hearth.
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“Apple! It’s Apple!” people around me mutter as their voices ripple through the crowd. “Apple is back! Our founder has returned to us!”
Far from basking in the attention, Apple looks a little overwhelmed. And her aura is as black as mine, moving through a sea of violet.
Category Reincarnator Race Human Gender Female Rank Legendary Class Mage Mood Mixed
[I wasn’t expecting the Hollywood star treatment,] Apple sends to me telepathically in English as she notices me. [I hope nobody expects me to sign autographs.]
[I didn’t realize you were a reincarnator too,] I reply.
“Hello to all my beautiful descendants,” Apple says. “I’ve had a long journey, though, and would like nothing better than to settle in next to the fire and drink a cup of warm Corwen apple cider.”
A few others get off the skyship and head for the guest house, but they receive much less attention. Apple makes for the Hearth, surrounded by babbling descendants asking her questions until Grandma Laurel holds up her hands.
“Please, everyone, give Apple some breathing room,” Grandma Laurel says. “I know she hasn’t been back here in a few hundred years and I’m sure there will be plenty of time for stories. Go on, get back to whatever you were doing.”
The crowd reluctantly breaks up and resumes their usual activities, but I follow Apple into the Hearth. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind talking with someone who knows what a Hollywood star is.
Aunt Magnolia promptly provides booze when prompted, and an impromptu party starts up in the hearth. Apple politely pretends to be cheerful at the prospect, but my Clairvoyance (Empathy) can clearly detect that she’s less than pleased and is likely using some sort of skill with a name that probably isn’t Discipline (Tune Out All of this Nonsense).
Your Clairvoyance (Empathy) skill has increased to level 3.
[Hello, little reincarnator,] Apple sends. [At least you’re not over-awed. Tell me about yourself. What sort of person has Corwen incarnated this time?]
I also quickly realize that Corwen’s big book of skills only includes members who have died. Apple is still alive so her skills have never been added. And she clearly didn’t disregard our psychic powers as much as the other reincarnators.
[My name is Drake this time around,] I tell her. [A name which I’m perfectly happy with. I was born in California in the 1990s. I was an engineer. I mostly designed electronics and high-tech equipment. I want to build a skyship that’s even more awesome than yours someday.]
Apple gives a mental chuckle. [Well, you’re better at summarizing your life story than I am. Of course, our last reincarnator was another young Japanese man who got hit by a truck, and he was pretty clueless otherwise.]
[Are there a lot of young Japanese men who got hit with trucks being reincarnated?] I wonder.
[Pretty sure it’s just the same ones showing up over and over. Most of them don’t even make it to 21. Sato’s Soul attribute was in the billions. You prefer using your latest name?]
[My name was Alexander Fizzlesnipe.]
[Fizzlesnipe? As in, Fizzlesnipe Industries?]
[I started my own company? Huh.]
[You don’t remember?] Apple asks.
[Parts of my memory are fuzzy,] I answer. [My younger years are pretty clear, but I don’t remember much of my later life.]
[You should be able to clear that up with Recollection.]
[I know,] I think. [I haven’t really pushed it.]
[Well, that’s your prerogative.] Apple sends a mental shrug. [I was born in the 1950s, and I couldn’t really keep up with some of the tech that showed up late in my life. I look forward to seeing what you can design with magitech. Have you made anything interesting so far?]
[I made a mahjong set for my sister and cousins. And I helped some goblins build a bridge.]
[Really? I’m surprised you didn’t get a quest to kill the goblins.]
[I don’t get quests,] I tell her. [Apparently Corwen wanted to see what I would do if I didn’t get any.]
[Corwen must have a lot of confidence in you,] Apple comments.
[What have your quests been like?]
[They were probably the only reason Ash and I survived the early days at all,] Apple explains. [We didn’t even have a Hearth yet and neither of us knew anything about surviving in the wilderness. Corwen guided us to where we could gather resources and the system helped us build and craft the things we needed.]
Meanwhile, Apple has been smoothly having a conversation aloud, actually more than one. I’m guessing she probably has some sort of mind-multitasking skill that I will eventually pick up myself.
[Was Ash a reincarnator too?] I wonder.
[Yeah, we all were. Every last one of them was from Earth. Each had its progenitors, though they didn’t all make it. The place that’s now the Spooky Forest was one that didn’t. The woman died and the man came to live near Corwen after that. He was probably one of your ancestors.]
[Did every core summon a man and a woman?] I ask.
[Nah. One core summoned a pair of the machoest macho men you’d have ever seen, perhaps testing if the world could be conquered by sheer force of testosterone. They killed each other. Another Hearth started with three women. They were ancients, so more knowledgeable about low-tech, and fantastic at magic. All three of them made Legendary. I’m going to need to talk to them while I’m back in Tempest.]
[So you and the others are responsible for the local culture being what it is?]
Apple seems amused. [I had the opportunity to build a society without the expectations and restrictions of women that I was born into, and so I took it. And Ash was a gay man born in Wales in the 2010s, and was fully supportive. I was married for fifty years and only felt like I was really free when I became a widow. I didn’t want any daughters of mine to feel trapped in a loveless marriage.]
[I can’t say I can truly understand what it feels like to be a little girl in the 1950s,] I admit. [And I couldn’t tell you what I would have expected of being reborn into this weird sci-fantasy setting. Where in the world did Common come from, though?]
[Not everyone spoke English as a first language. One of the others was a huge linguistics nerd. She got a quest to construct a common language for the descendants of people from different countries and time periods. Once it got into the system, it took very little effort to teach enough to unlock the auto-translator.]
“Why are you really back at the Hearth, Apple?” Aunt Heather asks.
“I’m recruiting for a Legendary quest,” Apple says. “And I do hope you and Laurel come along. The boss we’re after is very annoying but needs to be dealt with.”
[And no, you are not coming on my quest,] Apple firmly tells me. [Only if you make Legendary before he’s dealt with, and I certainly hope this won’t take that long. Although I can’t guarantee you won’t have to deal with another of this guy’s reincarnations.]
[Who?] I ask.
Apple gives a very heavy mental sigh. [Hitler. At least once a century, some edgy dungeon thinks it’s a brilliant idea to summon him as a boss. They probably have a waiting list. In any case, I’m part of a group of reincarnators who patrol the Crystalline Heavens. Whenever someone starts going around trying to conquer things, one of us goes to investigate.]
[You have an entire organization dedicated to killing Hitler’s reincarnations? Seriously?]
[Not exactly,] Apple thinks. [Convincing him to take up painting for a lifetime is generally preferable since that keeps him out of trouble for longer. Hopefully he will eventually become a Legendary Artist and we can have some centuries of respite from this nonsense. Anyway, there’s also some discount villains we keep an eye on too.]
“When are we leaving?” Laurel asks.
“Soon,” Apple says. “Prepare for a long trip. Even in the Prydwen, it will take us over a year just to get there. And I don’t know how long it might take. If the situation were as simple as sending a lightning bolt at one person, I would have done it already.”