Alright, now that my list is complete, more or less, let’s do this. Oh wait, there's a few more to add to that list, ugh. We’ll organize these spellbooks to try to find spells with runic commonalities, and try to get the common shared runes mastered first. Flip through this one, already saw this one, seen those, duplicate spells, oh that’s new. Argh, more nonsense to dig through. Some of these spellbooks, tomes, and scrolls, only open under certain conditions. I wonder if the arch-sorcery staff’s unlocking spell could do anything about that. Hm, apparently some of them, yes. Although using that spell might have been the condition on which the lock was set to release anyway. The runes dealing with things like special unlocking mechanisms are an encrypted cipher. Even though I understand the translation with my language comprehension enchantment, bestowed by the one tome that’s now powerless, it can’t decrypt senseless drivel into their secret phrases.
Okay, so, Teuila’s going to want me to at least figure out the elemental rune from these two spells, gusty wind and squall wall. Gusty wind is only six runes, I’ll work on that and finish it before I sleep most likely. Squall Wall is twenty four. Hm, a thought detection spell. I know four of the runes used in it already, it’s one of the thirty three rune spells where certain runes are basically address pointers that refer to the first rune as a lookup table to condense the number of runes needed.
It’s like someone who wrote these spells was used to playing with opcodes in machine-level assembly language. At least for some of them. Oh wow, Prescient Moment is a bit like the danger wraps, it gives a single brief flash of the future at an unknown point within the next four hours, guaranteeing a successful outcome of whatever event was displayed. Ugh, it’s three hundred thirty runes. Holy hell’s bells, hellspit and fel fires. Just, ugh. I know a grand total of one of those runes, it’s one of the operand runes.
Hm, the staff’s size-changing spell, I can tell that it’s encoded as a twenty four rune spell, I know a single one of those as well. The staff’s fireball, well, I already deeply know the rune for fire, so one out of thirty three there. Similarly with the lightning bolt spell, I know one out of thirty three there. The hailstorm spell from the staff I actually know two of the thirty three runes, the cold element, and an operand rune. Hm, the ghostly hand from the staff only takes five runes, but I know zero of them.
Oof, the Telekinesis enchantment from the staff takes ninety nine runes, none of which I’ve mastered. Though the staff thankfully doesn’t use up as many sorcery points worth of ambient mana to cast it, due to the way the runostructure is formed. For me it’d take all ninety nine points, and that’s if I crafted it slowly, taking ten to ninety minutes. The bypassed-wall spell is sixty six runes, another spell with its full myriad number of runes that I’ve yet to master.
The Spectral knocking and spectral unlocking spells in the staff use none of the staff’s sorcery limit to cast, because they essentially simply tell nearby mana to either do, or stop doing something. They share several runes, but each is still a thirty three rune spell. I’m not sure it’s worth my time to learn or master them, since the staff can do them for free at any time.
Hm, as I’m studying elements within the staff, there’s a firewall spell, of course I know the fire elemental rune by heart at this point, as if it were engraved into my chest. Still, only one out of thirty three runes mastered for that spell. The same as the fireball and lightning bolt spells. A neat, similar spell, that might be even more useful, is this incendiary web spell. Once again I have only mastered one of its thirty three runes so far, but it might not be worth putting effort into learning it, since it only takes about a twentieth or less of the staff’s maximum sorcery point capacity to cast it. It looks like the staff could cast it twenty four times safely if I used it for nothing else from a full charge.
Mother of hell, the planar shiftage spell is six hundred sixty runes long. I literally could not quicken cast it. I’d pass out before I finished crafting all the runes. That’s if I want to spend, what, a hundred ten days or so mastering all of the runes to be able to cast it in the first place? Friggin’ hell. Huff. I know that I can tweak spells once I’ve gained an in-depth familiarity with them, so it might be our one shot at getting home. Ugh, we’ve gotta stop three apocalypses, and prevent my demise before I can even begin contemplating spending a third of a year just learning the spell’s basics. Then I’d take months upon months of dissecting the magic piece by piece to maybe possibly find a way to have it send us home. Grr.
Okay, what about these scarier books? Hm, “Minor History” a spell that does a flash of identification of an object, and glances at random, usually pertinent or noteworthy, points along the object’s lifetime. It displays the information about those events or short periods of time in the caster’s mind’s eye. That one’s something I’d dearly like to master. I know a single operand rune out of its thirty three runed runostructure.
This spell looks interesting. Minor to major dispellation. It’s a hundred twenty eight runes, none of which I know, oof. Hell it has a lot of restrictions. Okay, this runostructure means something like temporary mana emplacements only, while this one means permanent enchantments only. What the hell? How does that even—? Oh, okay, thus the minor to major. It’s in essence, two spells in one, but there’s a kind of xor or maybe simple if-then operand with a simple flag determining which side of the spell to use. Ugh, too bad it takes the whole runostructure to cast the thing. I can see why though, both sides of the spell basically use most of the hundred twenty eight runes, other than the lead rune, and that operator switch, and these encoding runes that dictate its minor or major side.
Gosh, it would be really handy to have that spell, if we ever start facing foes who have mastered Rayileklian magic. Huff, twenty days of study though, or so. That’s if I go all out doing nothing but trying to master each of those runes and basically absolutely no other activity during those days, save sleeping and eating. I wonder if it could be used to dispel a foe’s runes as they’re crafting them. Well, I’d have to somehow be faster on the draw in crafting a hundred twenty eight runes than whatever someone else was crafting to be able to even test the theory. Or perhaps I could miniaturize the spell into a counter-sorcery. Counterspell is a fairly pop-culture widely known magic on Fakeworld, Earth. Despite magic not existing there. Hm. It is a noteworthy idea though. Huff, once again though, time is not on my side.
We’ve got six days of travel until we reach Noirdivinhoz. I hope we can somehow convince the temple’s keeper, Daffodil Tarquin, to come with us as we evacuate Aasimovia. I can basically master one normal length spell in that time, or a few of the smaller ones. Teuila wanted me to work on the wind-related stuff if I found it, so I’ll do that. Well, I'll ask her first if she'd prefer I learn one of these other spells on the list.
Let’s make sure I’ve set my aura-sight enchantment with permanency, so that I don’t need to keep recasting it from the staff. It allows me to focus on other spells while the staff is out, instead of draining both me and the staff trying to keep two spells active, or casting while an active spell was being held in place. I messed up badly by trying to do that at the Bright Lord’s cult compound near the Cathedral of Blood.
I cough for Teuila’s attention. She’s been snuggling me this entire time, and probably riding around in my head, listening to me ramble about Rayileklian magic.
Teuila’s telepathic avatar pops into my head calling out, “Yup! Air, I’m so, so proud of you. Somehow, somehow I’m sure we’ll get through this, all of it. We have to. We’ll find your cure, and your big new theory about how to get us home, maybe it’ll work. Then we’ll make it back in time to make sure the Shield of Lacrimosa Trifecta is fully activated before the convergence wipes our world bare.”
My telepathic avatar flashes Teuila’s avatar a quick half-smile. I’m far less confident in any of those matters. Still, I may as well talk out my plan with Teuila. I spell it out, “So, Te, I was thinking, I’ve got these spells that summon mana constructs in the shape of monsters and beasts and stuff, apparently there’s a host of differently powerful versions of that same spell. These books have the third through eighth tier. I don’t know if there are any beyond eight, but a ninth tier seems likely. Something about rings of sorcerous locations being counted in nines. I don’t know if there is a tenth tier, one that somehow exists beyond those rings. If it exists, it would probably be a massive undertaking to learn it. Probably about as hard as that planar shiftage spell.”
My telepathic avatar pauses a beat before continuing, “Well, most of the versions of the spell seem built on the same runes, although there’s a jump after a certain tier, where it requires a different complexity of runostructure. I actually know more of those more complex runes due to the gifts from the four books. The ones that I nearly burned my personality away to learn. Sorry again about that. Thank you again Bud for stopping me.”
My physical and telepathic selves both draw a deep breath to exhale it through puffed cheeks as I recall the carriage ride from the Hidden Heart to the Sister’s of the Mist hidden compound. I rattle my skull to get back on topic, “So, anyway, I could finish off learning one of the better tiers of those, or I could start on the dispellation thing. Or, well, and this is probably the one you’re going to want me to do. I can snag these two windy spells, and have another day or so left over to look into a part of another spell. I figure the one that you’d probably want me to pick is in that book. This one in this book, right here? You see the golem-like figure? That’s a person temporarily turned into animate iron. I’m pretty sure that I can tweak it to be any unenchanted metal in our possession, and I know for a fact we have a bunch of mythical metals in our Can’Z’aasian invento—“
Teuila virtually shouts both in thinkspace and meatspace, “That one, do it! I’ll summon the metals right away! Can you make it permanent? How long does it last? It’ll keep you safe, right? If you make it permanent, can you change back and forth? Air, oh my Airhead, you need that so badly, you’re so squishy. Put everything else on hold, don’t bother with the wind stuff until you have that one like, super duper mastered. Do that one right away, please.”
Teuila’s tone softens as she gazes tearfully into my eyes in and out of thinkspace, “Please, I’m begging you. I hate seeing you get hurt. I, I. We’re in here, in our heads, in our hearts, I can say it in here, can’t I? It’s just us. Okay, just us and you two too Essie and Icey. Okay, and you too Bud. Yeesh. I. Still. I love you so much, my Air, the very Air that I breathe. Please learn that spell, just, yes. Yes.”
I nod, my heart catching in my throat as I gaze into those emerald portals upon her face. Since we’re on Rayileklia, there has been no sun, so all of her slight freckling has completely disappeared. Whether freckled, or simply an uninterrupted swath of that deep natural creamy chocolatey mocha color, Teuila’s face is pure bliss to gaze upon when I’ve time to admire its beauty. Teuila’s mental avatar slugs mine playfully as she rides my thought waves.
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I’m able to answer some of Teuila’s questions though, “I’m pretty sure it’s really short duration of actual change via transmutation, and the permanency enhancing enchantment doesn’t seem to cover transmutative effects. So if there was like, an enemy-to-frog spell or something, I couldn’t turn them into a frog, and then permanentify it. Sadly, eh? Heh. But yeah, there’s some encoding in the spell that seems to indicate like, absorption limit of the metallic body, an overall sort of timer that reduces more quickly the more damaged the metallic body becomes.”
Teuila nods along with me and gives me the thumbs up. We can do this. We will do this. I’ll get to work learning this metallic body spell, Teuila’s summoning sheets of metal from her inventory as I think of this course we’ve plotted. We’ll find the right gems to layer up our telepathic enchantment, maybe either gaining a greater distance and clarity, or gaining an accelerated thinkspace like we’d had on Can’Z’aas. Six’ish days, and thirty three runes to go.
I've got to amend my list quickly, then get right on to practicing the runostructure for this spell, and its individual runes. Teuila's asset list won't change nearly as often as mine, though she will be studying several tomes that enchant her to enhance base abilities further.
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,
* 02/05 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
* 00/24 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.
* 29/33 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct V can construct Celestial Griffons, Hounds of Shadow, Dire Wolverines, medium Elementals
* 00/33 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.
* 29/64 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VI large Elementals
* 29/99 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
* 29/180 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.
* 01/24 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.
* 01/33 runes mastered: Minor History, a sort of identification spell that also glances at random points along an object's lifetime, displaying semi-pertinent information
* 00/05 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.
* 00/66 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.
* 01/99 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.
* 000/660 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.
* 00/33 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)