After the unpleasant reminder that I’ve struggled with panic attacks all of both of my lives, I’m left quite weary. Still, the two wonderful people in the cab with me are supportive, comforting, consoling. Huff. Phew. Yeah Bud, I just meant physically present in bodies that have their own autonomy, I didn’t mean to discount you or Essie or Icey. I’m grateful you’re here with me.
Jarrah’s room and the weird fast-forwarding it did? Yeah it screwed with my panic attacks a bit. This one was weird, since I could have active thoughts during it, and could keep sensing some of what was happening around me. It’s alright Bud. One way or another I carry on, no reason not to. At least, no reason related to my panic attacks. I know they very well could get me killed with how dangerous my life is Bud, yes. Have you read about, ugh, I hate that the system named him after my first thoughts. Have you read about Vampguppy? Yeah, Can’Z’aas is definitely different than Rayileklia. Most creatures didn’t have names, so the first person who interacted with them that thought of something to call them by, the system of our world implemented that as their name.
Oof, that one’s hard to explain. I mean, the system of the world of Can’Z’aas was a lot like videogames from Fakeworld, Earth. I know it’s an unhelpful comparison Bud, sorry, I’m trying to go somewhere with this. So, in videogames, imagine a ledger, yeah, like the one Milbert kept. Exactly, one with incredibly detailed notes, dates, times, numbers, things like that. Now imagine that one of those existed picture-perfectly in everyone’s mind. Well, okay, not everyone, we’ll get to that later. So on this mental ledger, there would be your own name, if you’d been given one, and a lot of statistics about you. There were six attribute statistics that I never really figured out how they played with the other numbers, especially the duende score.
Annoyingly, my best stat was that particular one, a word whose definition I’m not even certain of. Brawn, agility, pluck, smarts, wisdom, all of those make sense to me. It’s slightly humorous to me that my wisdom and agility are my lowest stats, because I’m a klutz who makes poor choices. So, well, yeah Bud, exactly. It’s not like the system was getting anything wrong when it determined our statistics and displayed them. Yeah, my brawn is barely any higher than my agility. Like, sure, I can be fairly nimble when I really need to be, during extreme stress and high focus, like combat, but any random other moment of the day, I’ll probably trip over my own feet. Similarly as far as brawn, in combat, I can maybe go all out and physically hold off several creatures, sure. But ask me to move a crate full of material without my inventory magic? You’d be lucky if I could even budge the thing.
Pluck? Yeah, it was my second highest scoring stat. What is it? Well, it’s sort of like perseverance mixed with grit, and spunk. Ew Bud, not that kind of spunk you punk, gross. Obviously I meant the word that means a kind of rebellious attitude, defiance. Yeah, my pluck was pretty high, because apparently one of the things it lets you defy is basically death itself. Sorta, more or less. I think it has an influence on our health values. For digital beings like Teuila, and digital-adjacent beings like myself, we can take a lot more punishment than your random average human. I was struck by a meteor, and left still standing strongly enough to intercept another, even deadlier spell aimed at Teuila, who’d been rocked to within an inch of her life by the meteor. Yeah, that spell almost took me out, even though I’d faired the meteor itself better, so I’m certain it would have slain Teuila.
Ugh, that fight sucked, immediately after living through those two massive spells, the thing hit me with another spell. That spell basically enveloped me in some sort of anti sorcery field. Most of my magic items, probably all of them, stopped functioning, I couldn’t use any of my magics. I think psychic connections were still working, maybe, but it’s not like I had any psionic powers at the time. Ugh, bluh, let’s get off of this topic, please? Yeah. Sure, I can do that, examples of the other two, sure.
So, for smarts, well, mine was up there just behind my pluck. I think the system basically graded me on my mental creativity in applications of my talents. I don’t think I was honestly any smarter than anyone with a different score value, especially since we all had vaguely encyclopedic knowledge the instant we were spawned. A few of us were better at math or trigonometry or navigating or other things, but those were more skills rather than just knowledge. Yeah, kinda exactly like that, good example. Hm, no, I couldn’t tell you what yours would be Bud, sorry. Lil might be able to, Lil’s analysis skill was top notch. They could sense tons of things about people, and even follow their aura trails of their souls.
Yeah, yeah my Lil buddy was really impressive. Is. They are really impressive. I know, I know, I was getting to it. So that duende value, it’s weird. For a long time, it seemed like all values were capped at twenty for these main statistics, but at some point, mine was able to rise to twenty two. Somehow it grades things like, influence, leadership capability, communications skills, physical attractiveness, a bunch of weird factors, I don’t even know for sure. Hell, it could measure the size of your soul in centimeters for all I know, I’m just making guesses.
Uh, yeah, I suppose I do have a way of getting my way with demands that I make, one way or another. It’s not a very convincing argument for my high duende score though, since the only people who didn’t acquiesce to my demands are dead. Yes, I know how grim and dark that sounds. Yes, I do think it’s awful that the tale of my life makes it seem like I kill to get my own way. The thing is? My way is generally just health, happiness, and safety for everyone around me, everyone. If someone endangers that safety and health in some way that isn’t an absolute necessity to prevent more harm? If someone has no remorse, and no willingness to change that action? Then yeah, I’m killing that person.
Huff, yes, I know how brutal that sounds. I come from a world of kill or be killed Bud. I often used, or use, threat of violence to coerce others into stopping actions that I believe are evil. I know, I know! I’ve fought with myself over that a million times already Bud! I don’t want to play judge, jury, and executioner! Look, if you knew that right now, some human was going to steal something from, I don’t know, a dragon, and that that object had a curse on it that would wipe out the entire Hidden Heart, how would you react to that person? Okay, sure, me too. Now, when they absolutely refuse to stop, because they either don’t care, or they’re -happy- to cause suffering to others, what would you do?
Bud? Huff. I’m sorry Bud. Yes. Yes I’ve had a lot of situations like that crop up in my life. Maybe slightly less extreme, but yes. I know. I’ve killed a lot of people, and let a lot more die. I don’t know how to be better Bud, but I’m trying. Every day I try to fight for a safer, happier tomorrow for everyone. I don’t know how else to be. I just want to help. Mostly I just want my loved ones safe, above everything else, and yes, sod everyone else if it comes down to it. Well, okay, maybe not. I’d always struggle to find a third option in such a horrific scenario. Well, the scenario is basically how I said it. If it came down to a choice between all my loved ones, and everyone else, one group or the other dying, I’d choose to keep my loved ones alive, despite there being a lot more people out there.
I’m sure too Bud. My point though was, despite how monstrous that makes me feel, I can rest assured that I -have- faced decisions like that, and found a third option sometimes. Generally at great personal cost, at least for a time. I recover a lot more easily from high personal costs than Rayileklians would. Yeah, injuries, mental stress, fatigue, stuff like that. Exactly. Yeah, that’s another thing too, my Fakeworld memories of Earth say that humans there are even squishier than the ones on Rayileklia. No magic, no enchanted clothing, no one used to standing in acid rain for hours, people burning alive just from being in the sun, lots and lots of squishiness. I know, I know, fantasy planet. Well, true, I guess there is no real point. I just can’t help the thoughts. They pop in, intrusively.
Anyway Bud, phew, it’s what, August fifth right now, going on sixth? Oh it’s already the sixth? How do you even tell time? Oh, nature and the natural world in the wilderness. Makes sense. A few more hours, and we’ll stop to make camp. Teuila will forage while I keep crafting runes. I feel bad that I leave it up to her, but thankfully you’re here, and your powers are potent while we’re still in a forest connected with your home. Not quite “I make this tree bleed pure sugar for you from a faucet that I create out of its wood,” but still powerful as heck. I admire you Bud, you definitely are a tremendously valuable ally.
Tiktik’s what? Oh, I should probably pay attention to the real world sometimes, huh? Hah. I cast my glance upwards towards Tiktik, and I’d swear her hair appears far less voluminous. My jaw hangs slightly slack as my face contorts. I’m sure that she had more hair than her entire body, enough to coat a giant ghostly hand like a chair.
As politely as I can, I ask, “Tiktik, I hope this isn’t rude, but am I mistaken, or didn’t you have more hair just a little while ago?”
A grin creeps across Tiktik’s face as she leans in conspiratorially, holding her hand to one side of her mouth as if revealing a big secret, “Remember how I said I was half gobbie, half hob gobbie, half something else? I get that from my half something else. Hair grows and shrinkydinks when I want it to. Mostly. It uh, because I’m not a full-blooded nightimpkorred, it sometimes, well, doesn’t like to listen, and gets a mind of its own.”
Tiktik then turns to her hair and babies it like a beloved pet, “But she’s a good girl isn’t she? Yes she is, yes she is. Who’s a good girl? You are, that’s right, you are. Mwah. Keep that luster buster, you’re great!”
I really can not tell when Tiktik is earnestly being goofy, or pranking me by being silly. Hah. I guess it doesn’t really matter, that’s just a large part of her personality. From the more benign side of the trickstery Fae courts. Goodness, I can see how that might end up getting awkward in non-Fae lands. Well, I’ll stick up for her if anyone decides to cause trouble, not like she couldn’t handle it herself, but it’s usually nice to know a friend has your back. Actually, speaking of handling it herself, I may as well ask.
Since my mind wandered over to powers and ability to handle problems, I query, “Tiktik, could you tell me about Rayileklian magic? Yours specifically, but more in general too. Jarrah Bettergrove, my mentor, a member of, or maybe founder of the Enochian Enclave was, well, he tried to be helpful, but he was also enigmatic. We generally only ever talked along thought trains that he had, and he’d rarely answer my questions.”
Tiktik snickers delightedly as she pokes fun at me and my mentor, “Sounds like old Jarhead alright, from what I’ve heard tell anyway. Finds some random star pupil, leaves them more confused than when they arrived, like that lech Flint Darklace. Eugh, resting creepy face is not helped by eyes that are obviously undressing everyone around you Flint.”
I have to chuckle, because I had the exact same thought when I met Flint. Before I can press for more relevant information, Tiktik continues on her tangent, “So, yeah, Flint is kind of like me, he came from the wrong side of the tracks in a manner of speaking. An uptown boy or whatever you want to call being born into a family that’s part of the courts. He’s all shmooze and flattery and whatever at the social events, very proper and all that, or at least he was. He got mixed up with the Eenookie Buddies pretty recently, I think Alanea convinced him or something. They were friends or something for a really long time. Maybe on and off again something elses, dunno, didn’t really talk to him about his personal life.”
There’s the shortest possible pause for breath before Tiktik concludes, “All that is to say, he’s not looked upon well by the more traditional members of the courts any longer. Most common folk outside the influences of the court aren’t, but especially not the Eenookie Buddies. They’ve got some notion in their head of a secret conspiracy or something, some bad influence that’s already in the heart, and maybe working its way up the courts. Now I’m not one to call someone crazy, but, eh, who knows for sure. They’ve been around a lot longer than me, but had been low key up until really recently.”
I blink at Tiktik several times as I try to catch up and mentally digest what my auditory processing caught from her. I rattle my head to try to reset my train of thought so that I can thank Tiktik, “Ah, uh, thanks Tiktik, but, err, about magic? Is it impolite to ask others about theirs or anything?”
Tiktik slaps her forehead, facepalming when she realizes she’d just done what I told her Jarrah did, evading answering my questions. She responds, “Oh, no, no you’re good. Oof, sorry about that, right, magic. Well, I’m a sorceress, and you are too, or sorcerer, whichever if you feel like there’s gendered connotations, I dunno.”
Tiktik chuckles, and smiles widely, her adorable pointy ears perk as she speaks, “Anyway, so, sorcer-whatsits are people whose magical talents come from a source, or -the- source, the will of magic itself. I’ve just started reaching the eighth rung of magics, or circle like, within the last adventure that I had in the ‘Twixt. I don’t know if I’ll ever reach the ninth, I haven’t met anyone else who has gone past the fifth in, well, ever.”
A light sparkles in Tiktik’s eyes as they change colors. Glee remains evident on her face while she continues to explain, “With my style of magic, my S P as Teuila was telling me to call them for you, my S P are basically bundled off into segments. Through no will of my own, it’s just how it is. I can sort of borrow from one pool to do stuff in others, from different rungs, but those S P have to come from somewhere, and trying to cast something from a further rung of magic, if I don’t have anything left in that pool, well, it eats up a disproportionate amount of whatever magic I had left in other pools. Like, ridiculously so.”
Tiktik’s tongue finds its way out of her mouth and simply sits there along the left corner of her mouth as she appears lost in thought. I’m about to ask about it, but Tiktik returns to our current topic, “So, yeah, I mean, yours might be the same, I don’t know, but I didn’t smell a source on you. Mine? Mine is weird. It’s kind of mechanical, but also kind of natural. It’s like, the law and order of the universe says time is a thing, and that that thing, when represented mechanically, can do, I dunno, stuff.”
A grimace finds its way across Tiktik’s face as she recalls, “Ugh, my family is clockmakers and tinkers, and there’s me with magical powers that go blasting off when mechanical sounds happen. I mean, early on, when they’d first awoken. Needless to say, spooked the hell out of my family when that first firebolt just zoomed out of my nose after dad fixed a dusty clock. Out pops the birdy, cookoo, cookoo, all working nice and proper, and flinging dust up my nose. P-cheeew, fwoosh, no more clock.”
I struggle not to laugh either at Tiktik’s misfortune, or her use of onomatopoeia. She’s a truly amusing individual. Teuila got bored of either reading her enchanting tomes, or listening to us talk about magic, and is currently curled up dozing on my lap while she waits for me to decide we’ve traveled enough for the day. Or something along those lines. Tiktik gazes at me expectantly for some reason, and I’m left staring back into her remarkably unique eyes, unsure what she’s waiting on.
Tiktik literally pokes me, then waves her hand in a ‘please continue’ manner, as if to say it’s my turn. Ah, I start out with, “Well, Jarrah couldn’t figure out the source for my magic, and your guess with the kids’ name for the absensorcerer is as close as I’ve gotten to an answer about how and why I’m able to perform runocrafting. Mine is a bit different than you, my S P are just one massive pool, but I have to craft all the runes brute-force by hand, since I have no affinity for, or any ability to use any Mnemonic that Jarrah knew about. So I have to master all of a spell’s runes down to muscle memory rote perfection before I can cast that spell.”
I huff as I exhale a breath through puffed cheeks. Taking this momentary pause for a brief breather, I cock my head to one side as I realize Tiktik and I have been staring into each other’s eyes this whole time. Tiktik copies the angle of my head’s movement, mirroring me. I raise an eyebrow, and she does the same, but she makes no effort to speak or explain why she’s mimicking me.
Shrugging, I continue, “I recently gained an ability that quickens the crafting of my runes to be as fast as, or faster than a Mnemonic, or incantation, but it costs me twice as much S P, bare minimum, to do so. I, uh, think I’m not limited by circles or rungs or tiers of magic, I just need to see a spell’s runostructure written out somewhere. It doesn’t even have to be the whole runostructure, it can be words that the runes represent, and as long as I know those runes from having seen them in other spells, I should be able to do it.”
Tiktik’s jaw hangs slack as she exclaims, “Not limited by circle!? Then you’re an archmage, an archsorcerer! I’ve gotta be the luckiest bounty hunter in the world to snag you. I mean, not that there’s a price on your head, or anything like that. Maybe I should have said luckiest sorceress. Really, truly, you can just cast whatever you want?”
I grimace as I admit, “Well, I will be able to, I’ve only learned a very few runes that apply to very few spells. Perhaps we could compare notes? You seemed to be missing your star chart map paper thing, if you need paper, I’d be happy to—“
Tiktik reaches into thin air, a ticking sound fills the cabin of our carriage, and she has suddenly conjured several sheets of vellum, and a quill that floats on its own. She brags, “I’m warning ya, this one might be a bit long. What’s yours like? Oo, thanks! I’ll just copy this format. Oh hey, magical trinkets and stuff. One of the great things about the ‘Twixt. Actually, like, maybe all artifacts ever are from places like the ‘Twixt. People go on fanciful journeys, and come back with magical tomes or neat suits of armor or whatever. Stuff just sorta springs into existence, like an old crypt filled with creepy ghouls and zombies and ghasts and wights and hoggleshades, and at the end of it is a necromancer wielding an awesome staff, like this one. Well, specifically this one. I feel so powerful wielding it. It also has a few S P of its own, though not many, like, maybe two hundred’ish, one eighty’ish. Anyway, hold up a sec, I’ll get this all down.”
As Tiktik writes out her own asset list, I continue to work on my runes until I’ve mastered the six I intended to complete during today’s travels. Phew, I’m so exhausted. Tiktik appears rather beat too. She appears to have passed out sitting up. Her head is tilted towards her left shoulder, and she’s drooling ever so slightly. Tiktik snorts once and rattles her head, but appears to remain sleeping. The floating quill, and floating parchment, apparently finishes their task, or run out of power with Tiktik being asleep. Since the vellum and quill fall to the floor, I pick them up to take a gander at Tiktik’s list.
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I’ll update mine as well. Oh this is truly pleasant, several of the runes I’ve learned today apply to a bunch of the spells available in the books. I’ll have to update my list as well.
Tiktik’s Circles and S P Pools
* Infinite parlor-tricks or ambient mana cantrips
* Four of the first rung, and a freebie that Bizzen will cast to honor our pact, brr.
* Three of the second rung
* Three of the third rung
* Three of the fourth rung
* Two of the fifth rung
* One of the sixth rung
* One of the seventh rung
* Kinda zero’ish of the 8th rung, kinda sorta. I can dip my toes in the eighth circle’s pool, but don’t have a full mastery yet.
Tiktik’s Spells by rung:
* Ambient-mana Cantrip: Thunder Bonk. Sets up vibrations in my whacky stick and rumbles my enemy with thunder if I manage to hit ‘em with it
* Ambient-mana Cantrip: Resistant Nature: Metal! (For serious! Makes my skin harder to cut, slash, crush, all of that! But only for like, a split second. Hard to make use of it.)
* Ambient-mana Cantrip: Necroblast. Eugh, it uh, it necrotizes wounds so they won’t heal up for a while. Comes in handy fighting trolls and hydras and some other things.
* Ambient-mana Cantrip: Bizzenblast, I kinda shoot a shadowy copy of Bizzenblade from like, a portal that looks like it might be from the ‘Twixt, but, well, there’s no way that’s what’s really happening. Not sure, my pact grants me the spell.
* Ambient-mana Cantrip: Firebolt, like how I said when I sneezed and torched that old cookoo clock
* Ambient-mana Cantrip: Ghostly-hand, you’re right, it’s great! Especially if you dump a bigger pool into it, so you can make it big enough to do more stuff.
* Ambient-mana Cantrip: Prestidigitativeness! You sneak! Casting yours faster than mine.
* Ambient-mana Cantrip: Electro-grip. It’s like a joybuzzer, but I can crank it up to eleven if I want to make it hurt.
* First Rung: Minor Forcefield. A skin of forceful mana hovers around me, and if I’m quick enough when empowering it, attacks can be stopped by it, or glance off of it. It’s pretty good at stopping mana attacks too. Not most spells, just the one or two that are specifically mana attacks.
* First Rung: Brainbad Whispering. I say a secret, or a lie, and it only gets heard by one person, but they usually want to scratch it out of their brain, so they’ll run away for a bit to try to stop hearing it.
* First Rung: Reactive Icefrost Coating. I can make my mana-film take on an elemental ice property, so if something does manage to skirt by my minor forcefield, and my armor, whoever tried to hit me is going to feel it before it can get to me. It might not even get through my mana-film at that point.
* Second Rung: Embolsterment. It, um, bolsters and emboldens me and two other peeps. Huh, we have a trio. What a coinkydink!
* Second Rung: Lesser cureall. It gets rid of some poisons, helps reduce swelling that causes temporary blindness, just lots of minor fixes. It’s not healing or regeneration, but it’s like having the right medicine on hand for most occasions.
* Second Rung: Icebind cone. Just like the name says, a cone of ice binds enemies in place. Well, allies too if they’re in the area.
* Second Rung: Hidden-sight. Invisible things can’t hide from me!
* Second Rung: Psychic brainlash. Kinda like the illusion of a whip hitting someone so hard that their brain convinces them they feel it.
* Third Rung: Minor/Major Dispellation! You want to learn this one, and you’re absolutely right! If you can catch someone else casting, and you’re quick enough, you can nuke their runes away, blowing all of the S P they had been trying to use.
* Third Rung: ‘Splodey-glyph. It’s a glyph, it explodes. It makes for fun, if horrifying pranks, depending on who or what steps on it. Eugh.
* Third Rung: Anti-brainlash. Just because I can dish it out, doesn’t mean I want to take it.
* Fourth Rung: Reactive Fireblast Coating. Like my icefrost one, but packs a bit more kick, a little less defensive, but between the two, hot and cold don’t bother me much. I wouldn’t stand in a dragon’s flame, but I might survive a quick blast if I get away quick enough.
* Fourth Rung: Moderate Shapechange. I can make me or a friend into a big helpful animal, or I can try to turn an enemy into a weak helpless one, and either run away, or get it away from the battlefield. The form is temporary, and attacking that form won’t do anything unless the attack is pressed so hard that it carries through when the person reverts.
* Fourth Rung: Slipperiness. Makes it so that you can’t really be pinned down, as if you’re all slick and oily, without having to be actually covered and icky.
* Fourth Rung: Moderate Brainblast. A bit more powerful than just headache inducing, but not quite enough to make heads explode, thank Fae.
* Fifth Rung: Moderate Cureall. Like the lesser one, but works on more things, even a few magical ailments, like negative transmutations. Being turned to stone, etcetera.
* Fifth Rung: Bypassed-Wall! Good taste Reggie!
* Fifth Rung: Conjure Major Mana Construct: Draconic Spirit. Sadly I can’t cast it yet unless I get a statue of a dragon from a dragon’s hoard, and keep it on me, so it’d have to be a small one. I doubt I’ll ever be able to use it. Where would we get one of those?
* Sixth Rung: Bahativimut’s Platinum Scales: It gives you the protection of the big guy himself! Sorta! Like, one of his scales is magically conjured as a mana construct, and it does its best to defend you. I can only keep it up on two people at once sadly.
* Sixth Rung: Battle-form! Oooo I can’t wait to show you guys this one.
* Seventh Rung: Starshots! Conjures throwing stars that have the power of miniature suns! Just, gotta not miss.
* Seventh Rung: Rain of Fiery Chaos. It’s actually way more orderly than it sounds. I can sculpt the area that the fire hits by visualizing where I want it to be, and it won’t spread to anything else unless I want it to.
* Eighth Rung: Can’t really totally use it yet, I’m close though. Not sure what spells I’ll be able to find when I reach deep into my source after unlocking its mastery.
* Ninth Rung: Not gonna lie, I’m not even close. I’ve never brushed anything past the eighth rung, because, well, ya gotta get to one before you can get to the one beyond it, doy.
Tiktik’s Permanent Buffs:
* Friends!
* Also, maybe being able to go into the ‘Twixt.
* I can double up some of my S P stuff to hit two targets instead of one, or quicken them, sorta like you.
Tiktik’s Current Equipment:
* 1x My Power Staff, from the Spooky Sepulchurium at the Spirushian Sanctum
* 1x My not-today Poison! Amulet
* 1x My invisible hyperdimensional handysack
* 1x Pair of invisible sticky-fingers gloves
* 1x Minor History Mirror
* 1x Lightweight Magicky Plate, my armor that rearranges where it’s needed, and looks fancy when it’s not
* 1x My no-dying-on-me amulet. Gives me a few extra seconds to try to get to safety to bleed out somewhere else.
* 1x A whole buncha wands! Smilyspell Wand, Frownyspell Wand, No-hiding-from-me Wand, Breezy Wand, Shooty Wand, Musical Wand, Fireworks Wand, Wand of Smokey-lusions, Wand of Gonging(A fav for pranking, ka-gong!), Lightning Wand(Dangerous, point away from own face!)
* 1x My ring of what your minor potions do! Water walking! Never thought to use it to save me from a fall though.
* 1x My bottle of everpure. It can endlessly pour pure water, but only at like, drinking speed. I couldn’t make a river.
* 1x One of the ones on your Teuila’s list, Potion of Resistant Nature: All
* 4x Featherfall tokens,(Well, two) one is in each of your pockets already! That’s what my sneaky invisible stickyfingers gloves help me do. I can plant gifts on my friends, or play pranks on them, or both!
* 1x My bag of fuzzybuddies, can make geese, weasels, a few other things, but those are the ones that mostly come out. Can only do a few per day.
* 1x Enchanted warmth-breath-swimwear cloak. Specially made by someone that doesn’t exist! I wanted to show off my markings, but also stay warm and safe, so I had it tailored just for me. Keeps me warm, even if I were to dive in the ocean, keeps me breathing in water, but not as fancy as your amulet of ever breathing, it only works for water.
* 1x My hood of ratty buddies. Temporary rat familiars show up, sometimes up to a hoard of them, they don’t really listen to me all that well, except
* 1x Pied Pipes, like yours! Rats kinda go where the music goes.
* 1x Mug that takes the alcohol out of alcohol, super fun to prank your drunkard buddy with, leaving them sober.
* 1x inversible reversable transversable belt-cloak. If you try to put it on, suddenly you’re gone! And then like, a few feet away, maybe a couple hundred feet if you’re good. Only seems to work once a day though. If you can manage to get both arms around someone really tight, and most of the cape around them too, they’ll go with you. Kinda like going invisible and walking, or jumping over things to get somewhere. Won’t go through walls or places you couldn’t fit through yourself.
* 1x My boots leave whatever kind of footprints I want. Sometimes I change the footprint every other step, so it’ll look like a chicken walked in front of a dragon or something silly.
* 1x The spirit of my first pet bullfrog in a little wooden carved statue of him. Bugs won’t bother us with him around.
* 1x Half-completed leather bracers of faster casting. I’ll beat you next time Reggie!
Tiktik’s Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:
* None, though, uh, Bizzenblade is kind of a sentient artifact. Bizzy doesn’t really exist out here, but somehow the power of his pact still does, and so he’s kind of in my head.
Reggie’s Runic Costs/SP Costs when quickening casts:
* Double the rune/point or "sorc point" as Bud calls them cost of spells up to 33 runes in length / 33 SP to cast them in 1-10 seconds time. Triple the cost of spells up to 66, quadruple the cost of spells up to 99
* Casting in 10-30 seconds, double up to 66 SP, triple up to 132, quadruple up to 198
* Casting in 30-50 seconds, double up to 99 SP, triple up to 198, quadruple up to 297
* Casting in 50-70 seconds, double up to 132 SP, triple up to 264, quadruple up to 396
* Cast in 70-90 seconds, double up to 165 SP, triple up to 330, quadruple up to 495
* Cast in 90-110 seconds, double up to 198 SP, triple up to 396
* Cast in 110-130 seconds, double up to 231 SP, triple up to 462
* Cast in 130-150 seconds, double up to 264, triple up to 528
* Cast in 150-170 seconds, double up to 297, triple up to 594
* Cast in 170-190 seconds, double up to 330, triple up to 660
* Cast in 190-210 seconds, double up to 363, triple up to 726
Examples: in just over three minutes(190 seconds), Reggie could cast a 360 Rune/SP spell for 720 SP/runic cost. Closer to 3.5 minutes (210 seconds) Reggie could, err, I could, if I had the SP available, cast a 720 Rune/SP spell for 2160 SP/runic cost. Reggie won’t be able to, err, I won’t be able to safely do either for a very long time, if ever. Why am I talking about myself in the third person while I scribble these assets down?
Reggie’s Spells mastered/currently studying:
* 05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,
* 05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain,
* 02/05 runes mastered: Light,
* 04/05 runes mastered: Mending,
* 00/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid
* 12/12 runes mastered: (Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/12) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct (I surmise small animals, odd creatures)
* 12/18 runes mastered: Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/18) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct 2 (I surmise small small animals, odd creatures)
* 18/18 runes mastered: Scrying, Seemingly able to do this with physical runecrafting on a surface, not costing my own SP
* 18/18 runes mastered: Ghostly Steeds, Seemingly they do not require my own Sorc Points when these runes are crafted.
* 12/24 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct III can conjure Celestial Dire Badgers, Celestial Fel Hounds, small Elemenals
* 03/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm. Can conjure a swarm of bats
* 24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond,
* 08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost, a Dragon’s Breath cone-shaped cold blast
* 00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given physical form.
* 32/33 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct V can construct Celestial Griffons, Hounds of Shadow, Dire Wolverines, medium Elementals
* 12/33 runes: Steely Body, hardens my body for a short period to the point that I should be able to weather otherwise deadly blows.
* 00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given elemental or energy form.
* 48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement, has a weird mix of not costing my own Sorc Points to craft the runes themselves, but costs some of my vital essence in another way to finalize their empowerment, like giving up a little bit of myself permanently.
* 32/64 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VI large Elementals
* 32/99 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VII Angels known as Altivivorals, huge Elementals, whales, elephants, gargantuan or monstrously huge birds, pests, and other small animals
* 32/180 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VIII can conjure Naga Angels known as Liltivilends, greater Elementals, bigger whales, plesiosaurs, tyrannosaurus, monstrously gargantuan insects, birds, pests, and other animals
* 00/360: Theoretically a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct IX should exist I’ve no idea if it would use any of the runes I’ve learned so far. 0/360 due to its theoretical nature, I hypothesize it could conjure constructs of elder Elementals, celestial Rocs, monstrously colossal insects, birds, pests, and other small animals, and perhaps other angelic creatures.
* Could a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct X exist? How long would its runostructure be? What sort of conjurations could it muster up?
* 00/06 runes mastered: Gusty Wind, about what it sounds like, a strong, localized galeforce breeze
* 00/24 runes mastered: Squall Wall, similarly, a localized area of wind-pressure so heavy that it’s nearly solid.
* 04/33 runes mastered: Detect Thoughts, basically what it says on the tin.
* 001/330 runes mastered: Prescient Moment, this one is crazy by the description built into the runostructure. It seems to grant a single random moment of foresight at some point within four hours of having been cast. Whatever foresight is given, is the exact correct way to succeed at whatever brief event is being shown.
* 03/24 runes mastered: Growth/Reduction, basically what it says on the tin.
* 01/33 runes mastered: Fireball, everyone’s favorite deadly toy.
* 01/33 runes mastered: Lightning Bolt, everyone’s second favorite deadly toy.
* 02/33 runes mastered: Hailstorm, crowd control, and possibly the ability to ground flying creatures makes this a spell I should use more. I used it against Milbert of Navica outside Victo at the top of his tower, while mostly trapped by the soul-stealinglight.
* 000/128 runes mastered: Dispellation, I badly want to learn this one in case more magic users begin to crop up. I’ve a feeling that, just like Can’Z’aas, stuff that seemed impossible, or at the very least, rare, will start becoming commonplace. I want to be prepared.
* 02/33 runes mastered: Minor History, a sort of identification spell that also glances at random points along an object's lifetime, displaying semi-pertinent information
* 01/05 runes mastered: Ghostly Hand, I kind of really like this spell. It’s free from the staff, so I don’t need to learn it, but it’s handy, and it kept Jarrah from taking my head off, and saved one of the Enochian Enclave kids.
* 05/66 runes mastered: Bypassed-Wall, at least this is in the staff, but I’d really, really love to have it personally mastered, so that I could cast it if, oh, say, a fuggin’ earth elemental rips my staff from my hand while shattering my hand.
* 03/99 runes mastered: Telekinesis, I’ve dreamt of having this ability since early on in Can’Z’aas, and it’s an incredibly potent non-lethal way of subduing people. Something I’m sorely lacking.
* 01/33 runes mastered: Incendiary Web, a way to ensnare things in possibly fatal flames without exploding a massive area seems like a decent spell to know. It’s cheap to cast from the staff though, so I should probably use it through that rather than spending time trying to learn its runes to the point of mastery.
* 01/33 runes mastered: Firewall, Similar to the Squall Wall, an area of intense heat and pressure is walled off.
* 001/660 runes mastered: Planar Traversal, Ugh, I truly, truly hope that we get enough peaceful time for me to study, master, and take apart this spell. It’s our first solid lead on returning to Can’Z’aas, sort of. We still don’t know if we’re on different planes of a reality, or in different realities entirely, or what.
* 01/33 runes mastered: Spectral Lock, it magically locks things, making them resistant to opening by any means other than the next spell.
* 00/33 runes mastered: Spectral Knock, the unlocking spell.
Reggie’s Permanent Buffs:
* Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)
* Telepathic Bond (Currently with Teuila only, bound sentient artifacts can come along for the ride, will try to add Luni, Lil, and maybe even Lucky if we ever catch up with the triple L squad.)
* Comprehension of all written Languages
* Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available
Reggie’s Current Equipment:
* 1x Danger Wraps: Wristwraps that warn me and provide silent sonar
* 1x Billowy Cloak: Can’t be much more descriptive. It’s a cloak, it billows on command
* 1x Hyperdimensional Haversack: Sack that’s bigger on the inside
* 1x Enchanted scrollcase: As durable as me to survive a close-range explosion
* 1x Archsorc Staff after having used it on Rayileklia enough, I’m getting a feeling for how to interpret its limitations. It is similar to me in that it can purify and store enough mana to perform 500 runic uses or sorc points or charges, it recharges up to approximately 250 per day, most spells take about 70’ish charges due to the staff’s quick casting nature. It resides in my secreted enchanted double-ended “drop-sheath”. It can be dropped into hand with the flick of a bottom-lid.
* 1x Griffon Figurine: expands into an animated statue similar to a mana construct. Goes by the name Apheliotes Zephyrus
* 1x Cap of Disguising Illusions: Pretty much what it says on the tin. Can project fairly strong illusions over the wearer in order to appear a number of ways.
* 1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)
* 2x Scrolls of Protection from Elementals (in my Scrollcase)
* 2x Earth Elemental summoning stones (in my Scrollcase)
* 1x Air Elemental Summoning stone (in my Scrollcase)
* 1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)
* 1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow
* 1x Full Valkyrie armor set + dagger and buckler
* 1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning
* 1x Neckchain of the Ever-Breathing. No matter the atmosphere, or lack thereof, as long as this is about my neck, or anyone’s, that individual can breathe without damaging their insides at all. It projects basically a magical self contained breathing apparatus that either filters, or straight up conjures and creates air for breathing.
* 1x Starmetal Luckrock. I’m going to give this to Lil some day, if we ever reunite. I want it to be a gift that hopefully lets them think of their scalemate tongue-tie-er Dehlia fondly.
* 1x healing potion
* 6x Minor Water Walking Potions. Single Step salvation in a bottle. Literal lifesavers when falling a tremendous distance if over water. Full kinetic dispersal.
* undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert, as well as several unidentified potions from Can’Z’aas that Reggie, uh, I withdrew upon arriving on Rayileklia.
* 2x mysterious energy cells Eventually I’ll figure out what these are so that they’re understood, I swear.
* 1x Always-smoking bottle
* 1x Partially broken thunderstick of elemental lightning
* 1x Box-like book left by the Sisters of the Mist within our Carriage. In haversack. Do not open until having collected 16 evil elder dragon hearts to consume their dragonforce. If I even live that long.
Reggie’s Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:
* Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds. Powers include almost anything that can conceivably make travel at least slightly easier for his wielder, and their companions. Mostly involves vibrating stray stones off the path, burying roots to present a flattened footpath, loosing apples from nearby trees to roll towards the party, hidden berry bushes extending a branch towards the path, and so on. Most powerful in a Fae forest, specifically the Hidden Heart.
* Requiem, the Silent Song (Shared with Teuila)
* Shellcracker’s Iceflame Spark (Shared with Teuila)