PART III - ENCHANTING RELATIVES

Koda and Callie parted, Callie continuing on her way towards the forge and crafting area. Koda’s secret about his reasons for being here weighed on her mind though. As she thought about it, the incognito-as-a-recruit plan made a lot of sense. He’d learn from the camp, and get a Symbiote and skills, while reporting back vital observations to the Commandant and Legate. But his request to tell him information on the experiences of Pixyl, Tazrok and herself just felt … off. If it was truly a big deal that three of these ‘anomalies’ were present this term, it could be good information. At the same time, though, it felt like a violation of trust. Callie concluded she would need to give the matter more thought.

The camp at this point was bustling. A few recruits were in this area, walking around in small groups, but most of the activity was staff. Baskets of materials were being brought to the various class tents from a large building with a warehouse feel to it. If not destined for the tents, then they were hauled off towards the training grounds. Callie concluded that this was all setting up for the kick off of training the next day, and she had to admire the logistical organization it must take to keep it all functioning. The patterns in the chaos of transport were fascinating to watch.

Thankfully, Callie was next to a tree when the next reveal hit, and she was able to stabilize herself and quickly sit under it before the after-effects set upon her. The result was a surprising one that hadn’t occurred to her a Gnome might receive, and she quickly looked up the details to see what it was about.

RACIAL TRAIT: RESIST FEAR

MANA USAGE: SPECIAL

CASTING TIME: NONE

RECHARGE TIME: 10 MINUTES

DESCRIPTION: Gnomes possess a natural resistance towards situations and influences that evoke fear. If they happen to be affected by an active Fear effect, they may choose to spend mana in an attempt to fend it off. The amount of mana required for this depends on the intensity of the effect. This trait is ineffective against self-generated emotional fear-effects.

Callie remembered back to her first encounter with Koda the day before. How Thucax was terrified, Jesca was, at best, incredibly nervous, yet Callie herself was never really afraid. In fact, she had stood right up to ‘Bear Guy’ and called him on his shenanigans. In retrospect, given the secret about Koda she now knew, his brusqueness was all for show, but at the time it seemed very real. Still, she never actually felt truly afraid. Was it this Resist Fear trait?

A pair of Elf recruits checked in with Callie while she was recovering, making sure she wasn’t in trouble. Once she explained it was just a reveal, they nodded knowingly and moved on. Callie continued to rest in the shade, just watching the people. A few staff Sprites and Pixies were fluttering through the air, and Callie took the time to really watch their flight behavior in action. Knowing from Pixyl that the wings were only for control, and that lift was supplied by pushing against the ground telekinetically, Callie could start to see the mechanics in play as each flying Fae bobbed slightly as they flew. She could see the wings catching the air to turn their bodies and make subtle changes to direction, before a new invisible push would send them on again. It was all rather mesmerizing to watch, in fact. Callie reasoned that Fairies used the same flight mechanics, since they were essentially the same as Pixies, simply scaled up for size.

A large cloud finished passing overhead, exposing the sun, and Callie was glad she had remembered her hat. Just as yesterday, the sun was bright and bordering on painful. She’d give a lot for a pair of sunglasses to fall through a hole in the universe. That thought suddenly made her wonder if eyewear was even a thing here, and what someone with poor vision might do. She hadn’t seen anyone with eyeglasses. Maybe Healers can correct a person’s vision so there's no need for glasses?? Magic LASIK?

As Callie approached the forge area, she could see it was actually made up of several different sections. One section was the forge itself, belching heat and fire as several different people were making use of it. Callie found an out of the way spot and just watched for a few minutes, more curious than anything. People with huge muscles, mostly Dwarves, would pound on a glowing piece of metal vaguely in the shape of a sword or maybe a piece of armor, and then shove it in the fire to heat up again.

That’s when Callie saw her; the Lamia. A little taller than Lena and Vanis, she slithered through the forge with a determined grace. Just as Jesca had said, she had two arms. From the navel up she looked like a standard human female form, complete with non-pointed ears, wearing the common tunic, and a dark, heavy apron over that. This was in fact the first normalish human form Callie had seen since arriving. But, behind that human face was the hood of a snake, almost like that of a cobra. It began at the base of her neck and widened as it went up, melding in with her forehead. But from the navel down, it was a clothing-less thick body of a serpent, holding the rest upright. The Lamia’s scales along her back and sides were a dark red that flickered in the competing light of the sun and forge. On the underside, though, the color changed, and instead of overlapping scales, her body was a repeating series of horizontal pale-yellow patches, with visible muscles that rippled as she moved. It was obvious she was descended from snakes, but equally and terrifyingly obvious why it would be considered bad form to remind them of that. Of all the Beastkin she’d met, it was this one that seemed the most strange, even moreso than Shul’an.

Shaking her head to stop staring, Callie looked around. Another section of the area seemed more conducive to workbenches and fine craftsmanship. Most workbenches were empty, projects of various sorts left partially done on the tops of most. Maybe they were at lunch? But three or four people were still sitting, working intently on their projects.

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A flash of blue caught her attention. It wasn’t the same shade as Pixyl’s hair, maybe more of a blue-green than true blue, but it was bright. Callie craned her neck the best she could to see who it was, and finally he walked out from behind some shelves. It was a Gnome! Another Gnome. And a male Gnome at that. Except for the skin and hair color, the build was remarkably similar to the male Goblins that she’d seen, which was to be expected given the history. But to see another Gnome. Callie suddenly felt just a little bit less alone to know she wasn’t the only Gnome here.

“Uh hello?” Callie called out, waving her free hand in the air.

She had to do it a second time, but finally the Gnome turned and saw her. His face lit into a smile and he held his finger up, asking her to wait a moment. He finished chatting with his co-worker and then removed a lightweight apron he was wearing. Motioning towards a workstation away from the rest of the activity, he started walking. Callie ran to meet him.

“Hi!” she said.

“Hello!” the Gnome said with a bright smile. He reached out and gave Callie a surprise hug, before sitting in a Gnome-sized chair and motioning for Callie to sit in another as well. Now that she was close, she could see he was quite a bit older. Perhaps what one would call ‘middle-aged’? Maybe fifty or sixty in human terms? A few lines of life lay on his face, but his eyes seemed to say he was young at heart.

”Good to see you,” he continued. “Master Trainer Thorn told me you would be coming by. How did your bonding go?”

“Not bad,” Callie said, taking the offered seat. “The reveals are awful, but it seems everything is working like it should. At least my Symbiote didn’t reject me. I’m Callie, by the way.”

“Fizzlebek,” the Gnome said, extending his slightly greasy hand. “How is your memory loss coming?”

“Thorn told you about that, too, did he?”

“He did. I couldn’t imagine what that was like.”

“Scary when I first woke up, but I found some good people and they helped a lot. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of holes and missing chunks in my memory,” Callie lied.

“Hopefully it will come back to you soon,” Fizzlebek said. “I wanted to introduce myself yesterday, since you’re the only Gnome recruit, but I know the first day is just too chaotic.”

“Are you the only other Gnome here?” Callie asked.

“No. My wife is also on staff. She’s the head Culinar. But we are the only two.”

“She is! Make sure to tell her that everything I’ve eaten so far has been great! And the soup last night was really amazing!”

Fizzlebek chuckled. “I’ll be sure to let her know. If you see her though, do introduce yourself. Her name is Pama, and you’ll recognize her bright yellow hair.”

Callie suddenly made the connection with the story Vanis had told the night before about a Gnome Culinar with bright yellow hair. He had the name wrong, but it was close, so it had to be this person. She would definitely need to seek her out. “What do you do here?” Callie finally asked.

“I am in charge of the workshop,” Fizzlebek said, gesturing around himself, “as well as the head Artificer and Enchanter. That blue stone on your bow for Endless Arrows? That’s my work.” Fizzlebek beamed with pride.

“It works really well. I had to shoot over one-hundred twenty times in a row just to show my Trainer I knew how to do Archery. It didn’t falter once.”

“I still can’t believe we have a Gnome Ranger here,” shaking his head in amazement. “The Goblin last term shocked me, but now we have you! I’m really glad your joining worked. There’s a lot the Gnomes and Goblins have riding on you doing well. It’s hard for us to be appreciated outside of being Scholars, Wizards and Healers.”

“Wow. No pressure or anything,” Callie said, suddenly unsure of herself.

“You’ll do great. We’re all rooting for you. Now, tell me, what brings you here? Thorn said something about needing a new bow?”

“Before I get to that, can you tell me what an Artificer is? I’ve never heard that term.”

“Ahh! I’d be happy to. We make gadgets and devices, often magical ones. The best Gnome engineering, but we sometimes infuse it with magic, too. Here, come see.” Fizzlebek hopped off the chair and walked excitedly over to another Gnome-height workbench. Callie quickly followed.

On the bench was a small, egg-shaped metal object.

“What is it?”

“This is a really simple one I’ve been playing with. I call it an Egg-sploding Screamer.” Fizzlebek grinned, proud of the pun name. “You use a key to wind it up which starts a timer, and then throw the egg at the enemy. In a few seconds, it will emit a loud, piercing scream that will deafen and stun everything around it. If someone touches it while it’s screaming, it shoots out a small, stunning explosive, hopefully adding to the carnage.”

Fizzlebek twisted the egg open to show Callie the inside mess of gears and sprockets and a small glowing green crystal in one half, and a similar yellow crystal in the other. Callie squinted and was able to see the mechanics.

“When you wind it, the yellow one will start moving towards the green one, right?” Callie asked, pointing at the mechanism. “Then I assume when they touch, that’s when the scream goes off?”

“That’s right,” Fizzlebek said.

“And this spring over here,” Callie pointed, “will trigger the ejection thing if it’s disturbed, by pulling that hook out of the way.”

“Yes! Exactly!”

Now wait a minute, how did she see that? She didn’t know anything about clockwork mechanisms and the like! But looking into the opened device, all the parts just … made sense. She could see how every little gear and spring would tighten and loosen when activated and when disturbed. The Egg-sploder wasn’t a complex device by any means … or … it wasn’t complex for Callie the Gnome. Callie the Human would have looked at the puzzle and tossed it aside in frustration.”

“Huh, I don’t know how I was able to figure that out,” Callie said. “Is that Tinker?”

Fizzlebek nodded with a huge grin on his face. “Fun, isn’t it?”

“I guess. It’s all new to me with the holes in my brain.”

“You’ll get used to it. Back to your visit, though. Thorn said something about needing a bow?”

“Oh yeah.” Callie held up the bow she’d been carrying around. “This is Thorn’s, for his son in a couple weeks. But he’s loaning it to me because all the longbows for the Rangers are too big for me. He told me to ask for a replacement.”

“We certainly can make a new one, but it will take a while. It also depends what enchantment you want on it, if any.”

“Wait, you’re saying I can get another magic bow?”