Passing the mirrors around, there’s a bit of marveling at the ability to clearly see what the other mirror is pointed at, by peering at where one would expect to see their own reflection. I try to stifle my own desire to giggle about the fact that I could probably blow the minds of everyone here away by showing them the recording and zooming feature on the phone’s camera. I didn’t add the auditory portion of the scrying sensor, as, Like I said, it would simply end up being far too much noise in one small location, with how many sensors we’re going to have in the security center. I might make *one* that has the auditory link, and that one I may put at the Mah’Ruke obelisk.
If I place one at the obelisk, it should be able to hear if someone like Shiz is engaged with hostiles in the valley around Mount Solace. It should also be able to hear if say, Shaylon, Revvy and Greggy are in retreat from some underground horde, or similar scenarios. Still, it would be annoyingly loud, constantly overhearing Rayileklia’s ever-thundering darkened skies. Oh, wait, go back a tick. The phones.
Pulling out the phones, I bring the conversation back around to my various projects in Mount Verdimenn. I’m tempted to have us adjourn there to—. I almost giggle as my party who’d been with me over the course of the morning groans mentally at hearing my train of thought. Still, I’m almost tempted to request that we all head to Mount Verdimenn so that I can provide visual aid. Eh, to hell with it, why not. Let’s start getting some major progress on all these projects before we start a new leg of our offensive.
Putting it out there, I state, “I’d like to request a recess for a few moments in which we reconvene at my Mount Verdimenn project location. During that recess, I’ll be attempting to pry Nala from the library. You don’t necessarily all *need* to reconvene, but I’d appreciate it if you would regardless, because what I’ll be covering, and the pace I’ll be covering it at will benefit everyone. Shiz, in advance of the others, can you head down to the odds ‘n’ ends warren, and break off some materials that look expensive to you? It doesn’t really matter what you pick, just harvest some things that you don’t mind seeing disappear, make sure to get multiples of things. I already harvested the hostiles, not that I think you couldn’t handle yourself, just letting you know there’s nothing to tussle with. I’ll be with you shortly.”
There’s a bit of grumbling from those that don’t view me favorably, or those that have already made the journey to Verdimenn and back several times already today, but for the most part, everyone heads off towards Mount Verdimenn while discussing security and strategy. Lady Kinzul awaits the leaving of the others to warmly embrace me, still emitting waves of relief across our emotional link. Lil awaits in the hallway, and playfully makes disgusted faces, but can’t hide the love he feels seeing his mother happy, and seeing me happy.
Kinzul whispers telepathically, privately, “This eve, we needs must take a moment to ourselves, away from Mount Solace. Please make time for this in your plans my love. No more than perhaps half an hour or so, but still. We’ve yet to have any private time to ourselves.”
I gulp, unsure if Kinzul is teasing me, or actually insinuating—. I mean, she likely just wants to inform me something about the operation of the Worldstorm. Still, I can’t help myself as my gaze drinks in her regal, perfect form. I gulp once more, and rattle my skull, blushing to high heavens, trying to not anticipate anything that Kinzul isn’t intentionally implying. Nodding to my wife, I simply acquiesce that I’ll make room for her in my plans of my usage of time. Since I’m combining some of the strategy session with some of the crafting and project work I wanted to do, I’ll have more of it available than I’d otherwise have had.
Gnawing on my bottom lip, I watch my wife as she glides away. She no longer hides how she dotes on Lil as they walk towards Mount Verdimenn together. To see my best buddy happy, to see him be loved by such an amazing, dynamic, wonderful, compassionate, intelligent woman, as if he truly, truly were her own son—. I draw a shuddered breath as my emotions catch in my throat. I’m so, so, so very happy for Lil. Trying to reorient on the tasks at hand, I TK surf away towards the library.
Oddly enough, as my mind is picked up by Nala’s telepathic wavelength, she announces, “Ah, good, friend Reggie, perfect. I’ve just sorted out some assistance from assistants, and was wondering if you’d be so kind as to escort me to your gadgetry and workshops.”
Well—, that was a lot easier than expected. I wonder if she anticipated me, or if it was coincidental. I glance around, waiting for another shoe to drop, but none seems to be on the way. Since we’re at the library anyway, I’m intent on asking, “I’d be delighted to take you over to Mount Verdimenn. I was actually on the way to request exactly that, as I think your expertise might be one of the only ones I could rely on to design and or craft certain aspects of my projects. Before going, Nala, do you have any tomes on the creation of magical items? The process that a novice enchanter would use to do something such as placing a durability enhancement enchantment on a structure, or anything like that. That, and the—.”
Nala grins slyly as she offers me a small stack of literature, already set aside for me. She states, “I’ve curated a selection of works based on needs I’ve picked up from your wandering thoughts over the course of the last week or so. Their relevancy scores are dramatically high for what might otherwise be either too esoteric, too complex, too simple, or nearly-useless material to anyone else. Especially this unreadable, near-untranslatable jumble of script. Anyway, yes yes, let us away, I’ll be happy for a reprieve from the multitude of customers, clients, whatever you’d call the patrons partaking of the library. It will be so nice to not be surrounded by so many people.”
Annnd there’s the other shoe I was anticipating. Gulping, I blush and facepalm privately to myself. I’m dragging Nala down to an assembly of nearly the entire Order of the Onyx Dawn. I have a telepathic chuckle at my own lack of luck, for submitting Nala to this lack of reprieve from gathered people. Poor Nala. Right, anyway, we, oh. Nala loops an arm through mine, and apparently expects to be locomoted with me. Should I even tell her that physical contact isn’t necessary for me to utilize telekinesis on both of us? I don’t want to spoil her good mood, or make light of her efforts, or even draw attention to it if it isn’t registering for her. I feel like it’s more akin to Zayzi’s lack of concern at dragging me around by the hand. Plus, there’s no actual contact between Nala and me. Her robes and armor, and my own clothing, prevent any physical contact.
Anyway, let’s see what’s in these tomes. Hm, yes. That makes sense. Wait, basic-enchanting is—. It takes permanentifying each individual rune on a microscopic level? Empowering them and emplacing and empowering the whole series of enchantment runes again after each ru—. What? Argh. No wonder people say it takes a lifetime to craft magic items. It would take me months of using my S P doing nothing but working on miniaturizing and microscopically repeating and empowering the same runes, over and over, applying permanency to a single rune of the full enchantment, between each empowerment, in order to make a single item. And *I* am actually far more adept than most enchanters at it, with a higher S P pool, and the ability to apply the permanency enhancement enchantment for free. That’s insane.
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Though, there is the slight possibility of finding people with untapped S P pools in the populace of Mount Solace. If I do, I can finagle a sort of ritual casting to drain and utilize their S P on a given day, for doing something as simple as repeating the same empowerment over and over. I vaguely remember conjecturing something like this a long time ago too. I remember coming to a similar conclusion, that large scale enchantments would take rituals of multiple casters, either going round-robin, empowering the next rune in sequence, or each doing the full sequence simultaneously, over and over.
Wait, wait. I recently learned how to make some runes solely be empowered by ambient mana. Plus, one of the runostructures on a lot of enchanted items is the ability to drink ambient mana to recharge its functions. Hm, that might limit the number of uses of the ability in a given day though. Or rather, placing the restriction of having a limited number of uses must in some way make the enchanting of the item itself easier, and tacking on the ability to recharge itself with ambient mana must be a relatively simple, short process compared to the rest of the enchantment.
Flip, flip flip flip flip. Hm, hm, hm. Okay, okay, yes, I see. Hm, that workaround is a bust, but what about—. Oh, here’s an interesting one, for spells with durations longer than eight hours, like the twenty four hour brainblast aegis spell, I could do this, eh? Hm. That would be better than casting it on myself, because it annoyingly blocks telepathy on top of blocking psychic damage. Can I spare about an hour to do this tonight? I guess the more important question is, can I spare *not* finding a way to get that spell up tonight? If the Vorzog’s Keep Draconiacs have archmages and the like, I *need* to shore up that weakness of mine. A single mid-level spell can take me out of the fight otherwise.
I’m still not immune to necrotic aura magic either. I’ve got the necrometal chestplate that has its once per day aura of up to ten minutes of semi-immunity to necrotic aura magic. That particular ability can thankfully be doled out in one minute increments, so it does go a good long way over the course of a battle, if I’m prioritizing the necromancers.
We haven’t tested if I’m immune to thunder damage when I’m almost weightless. It might not shatter my bones, but it could still blow open my eardrums, or rupture other things. Let’s see, cold, heat, poison, lightning, acid when in adamantite body, almost necrotic and almost radiation for brief periods, and psychic for up to twenty four hours at a time, possibly some of thunder’s devastating effects—. Are there other weaknesses I can shore up before tomorrow?
How is it going to play out with Lil, Lu, and Lucky there? We haven’t really ever fought together as a team, the four of us. I’m so used to basically assuming that I am, or will be soloing everything if Teuila isn’t around, and only thinking tangentially of any party members around me, if any are available. One weakness that I should shore up, is my lack of synergy with the rest of my assigned party.
I’m used to tossing out area of effects like crazy, and literally standing in the fire. Lil’s able to deal with that by letting me take the lead, and setting things ablaze around me, up to and including me. But where would Lucky and Lu be in that scenario? Hanging out at the back, where everything’s already dead? Lucky’s a scrapper. I think he’s got a breath weapon, but I’ve never seen him use it. Maybe he does hang back, and waits for an opportunity to take down a target that’s too tough to go down to area effect abilities? I can’t in good conscience use the majority of my powers if he barrels on ahead. I’d hurt, or kill, him or Lu. I’m going to need to ask the Triple L Squad how they fight, before the end of the night.
Trying to once again reorient my brain towards the present, I ask of Nala, “So, I’ve come up with a plan to outfit the majority of our Order members with goggles that have an external scrying sensor. That sensor would link to a mirror that will be in a security center here in Solace. Further, there’d be an internal translucent scry that lets the individual see that same security center from a separate mirror, and therefore everyone else’s outgoing images as well. Well, the zoom might be kind of poor, depending on how the enchantment works on that end, but it should at least reassure any of us that the others are still moving. However, because most of us are combatants, anything less than an unbreakable metal would be a waste of an enchantment, as it’s likely to get damaged or destroyed on our first combat outing.”
With Nala’s attention, anticipating her query, I explain what I’d like of her, “To that end, I was hoping you could iterate on some goggle-frames, if needbe, starting with weaker metals, and working your way up towards adamantite. Based on what I was seeing as we left Mount Verdimenn earlier, we now have even some adamantite crafting tools to work with, including things like a foot-pedal rotary tool.”
Pausing a moment, I consider aloud, “I could possibly simply have the enchantment be on a mirror that clips on to say a circlet or vest pocket, or something. So your designing my request is not specifically entirely necessary, but it will give us the closest view to what’s actually being perceived by our agents. If you think it’s too challenging, or not doable, or not worth your time, I’d entirely understand.”
Chuckling, Nala chides, “Is that some sort of attempt to play on my pride to bait me into carrying out your whim, friend Reggie? No, no, I jest. I know you’re not at all like that. I’ll see what I can do, and I may have an answer to your other dilemma, if my surmising is correct. Simple, repetitive use enchantments of lower tier magics may be able to be inlaid through gems, carvings, gears, and the like, rather than needing to have some sort of empowerment process, at least partially. I may need some sample equip—, yes, thank you, exactly.”
Excitedly digging through my belongings for various magic items that have low tier enchantments, and the ability to recharge from ambient mana, I offer them up to Nala. I forgot that I’m simply brute-forcing things at a basic level, and not taking into account things like gems, reagents, and other powers and shortcuts people might use. My heart and mind both race in anticipation, fully believing that Nala will find a way to circumvent the incredibly lengthy procedure for the size-changing enchantment. That, and durability enhancement enchantments are so common, that there must be ways of doing them relatively quickly.
Another almost-common enchantment is that of the transdimensional, hyperdimensional, pandimensional, or otherwise extra-dimensional space, generally within a bag. If *anyone* could possibly figure out how to make that enchantment, it would be Nala. Not just because of her keen mind, and aptitude towards artificery, but also because she’s keenly aware of pandimensional spaces existing. I half expect the process to require some sort of incredibly rare reagent for something like that though.
Actually, that reminds me, there was a book that held a transdimensional enchantment. It was bound in dragon-wing dactyl-leather, or something of the like. I gaze at my hyperdimensional haversack in my mindscape, and the transdimensional traveler’s pouch. Are the leathers that make up these containers also from a dragon’s wings? If anyone, anywhere, could stock up on enchanted items that require dragon parts to create, it’d be us, during this war.