From the Diary of Blake Bowen, Lord of Bowen Village:
Autumn, in my 35th year and the 19th of my rule:
It is Mickelmas Day here in the village. I have presented my staff with various gifts from my last trip to the capital to pay the final installment on the Sentinal, which still hasn’t arrived. I am becoming worried about it, and also about Mike Evans. Although I believe I made the right decision to fire him from his job, I fear he may be trying to destroy himself. He has been spending a great many of his days in the tavern, sometimes accompanied by Cynthia, and usually to extremely late hours.
Sister Teresa is starting to complain about feeling sick in the mornings.
I hope it’s just hangovers.
Another ranger had to be carried home by stretchers for healing. It’s the second time this week. At first they said they were tricked by some kind of new monster, but after I questioned them further, they both finally admitted that they stepped into their own traps after they got distracted watching some ghostly pale girl of surpassing elegance in a white dress dancing near the forest. If it’s the elf boy, then there is still hope of enticing him back here.
If not, then I’ll have to gather funds for an extermination, and I can’t make funds appear from nowhere like he apparently could.
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+1 Stamina
Alchemy. The quasi-science of creation, combination, and transformation.
“JUST STOP IT!”
In Legendary Tales Online, Alchemy the class had two forms:
Medicine: The creation of potions for personal benefit. These can be for internal use, such as healing potions, or external use, such as poison.
Chemistry: Turning one thing into another. For example, converting a wooden plank into a shield, transforming steel ingots into mithril ingots, or combining similar magic items together such as two magic rings of +5 to Strength into a new ring of +10 to Strength.
“GO AWAY!”
Unfortunately, the class of Alchemist in Legendary Tales Online had some rather glaring problems:
1. It required materials, turning even the smallest quest (say, to collect and deliver bear rumps) into a scavenger hunt for reagents. This did not endear the alchemist player to the rest of his party.
2. Alchemist recipes were not just given out. Players had to find recipes by completing a quest or looking it up elsewhere online. This did not endear the class to older players.
3. LTO was a grindfest that espoused the concept of “learn by doing”. Leveling up an alchemist meant making potions and converting stuff, using whatever could be found (using up valuable time that could be spent killing monsters) or bought (using up valuable money that could be used to improve equipment). All of which meant that a player with the Alchemist class leveled up slower and had worse equipment as well when compared to anyone else spending the same amount of time. This did not endear the class to the younger players.
4. Naturally, all of the preceding problems could be solved by Spending Real Money. This, however, led to the perception that anybody with a high level in Alchemy was “obviously” a rich bastard paying his/her way up. This did not endear the class to anybody.
“STOP CHASING ME!”
In the two weeks since he escaped from Bowen Village via catapult (thankfully he could heal), Healz Pleaze the Medic (Cleric / Alchemist) had learned a grand total of TWO recipes through tedious trial and error, and had gained a whole 12 experience points in Alchemy.
“DON’T YOU HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO???”
One of those recipes was Alchemical Grenade.
“OH COME ON!!!”
Fun Fact #1: Alchemical Grenades are a useful weapon in Legendary Tales Online, doing a flat 10 points of damage with a 1’ radius at level 1.
“ARGH! YOU BASTARDS!”
Fun Fact #2: Alchemical Grenades are not NEARLY as useful in actual fantasy worlds. Never, EVER throw a loud noise-maker in a forest filled with monsters.
THEY REALLY DON’T LIKE IT.
“GAH! I HATE YOU SO MUCH!”
Fun Fact #3: Screaming at the top of your lungs is NOT a viable way to deter pursuit, nor is it recommended to anybody who does not want to attract MORE pursuers.
+1 Stamina
Fun Fact #4: Dire Boars are fast, mean, and determined creatures who typically have more than 10 hit points of life.
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Mickelmas night, and death was coming for them. The moon was just a sliver this night, adding almost no illumination to the scenery at all.
Shiela Ellis moved her hands as if conducting an invisible orchestra. She could feel the rough bark of the tree as she pressed her back against it. She could almost see the nearby trees. She could somewhat see Heinrick standing protectively in front of her. She could see the blood dripping from his side.
She couldn’t see the goblins at all.
But she could see her Symbols.
Magic is naturally chaotic. To cast a spell one must direct the energy to where you want it to go, and make sure that it has no choice but to go in that direction. You impose RULES on chaos.
Magnuson “Beloved of the Phoenix” Deckard, a famous mage, once (and only once) explained how magic works like this:
“Casting magic is the act of telling the world what you want and MAKING the world say, ‘Sure’. Let’s say for whatever reason you want a duck. Let’s also say that somehow you have a spell called Duck Summoning I right in front of you.
Good job… I guess…
First you must memorize the spell.
This is like learning how to draw a duck with the world’s largest quill, only the ink is your magic power and the paper is in your mind. The stronger your mind, the larger the sheet of paper you can work with. You have to correctly draw the feathers, the bill, and the webbed feet, or it won’t work.
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Let’s say you managed to do it right the first time. Now it’s time to cast it.
What makes a spell?
A spell is a combination of the Power, the Words (stating what you want to happen), the Material Component (meaning something that symbolizes what you want), and the Somatic Component (aka the famous hand waving).
Now, what makes a duck?
The Power is that picture you drew, the Words are you going ‘quack quack’, The Material Component is a duck feather or three, and the Somatic Component is you connecting the Symbols for ‘Creature’, ‘Water’, and ‘Swim’. If you do it all correctly, the universe should look at your drawing, hear you quacking, see the feathers and think, ‘If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck!’ and then *BAMF!*
Congratulations, you now have a duck.”
Her hands connected the Symbols for ‘Light’, ‘Fire’, and ‘Place’.
She held out a dead firefly.
“As you once lit up the night, I ask that you glow once more with LIGHT!”
The firefly disappeared in a puff of green flame, and the small ball of fire lifted off of her hand. As it reached a point three feet above their heads it flared to greater life, becoming as bright as a torch.
Several goblins suddenly discovered they were entirely too visible.
Heinrick moved, his longsword impaling one in the gut and his dagger breaking off in the neck of another.
He swore, and dropped the dagger’s hilt. Things just got harder.
But with light came options.
Shiela’s hands danced in the eerie light, connecting the Symbols for ‘Air’, ‘Magic’, and ‘Flight’.
“Those that I despise, my magic spits at you! Magic Missile!”
Four slingshot rounds that were in her hand disappeared into light, which then launched themselves against three of the goblins she could see: the one staggering away from Heinrick holding its stomach, one that was holding a spear, and two for the burly-looking one in the back.
Only the sword-stabbed one went down.
Damn.
And that was her last spell.
Grimly, she gripped her staff.
Tonight, they die.
Merry Mickelmas, Heinrick. You were a good friend and a good brother.
I’m sorry I couldn’t give you your present in time.
*BOOM!*
There was an enraged squeal.
Something small, light, and clad in white ran past the goblins, its figure somehow elegant, its movements, like dancing.
And several ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS Dire Boars found around a dozen smelly goblins just standing there, waiting for them. They weren’t even looking their way.
Heinrick backed away from the carnage and grabbed Shiela’s hand. One does not pick a fight with multiple Dire Boars with just a longsword.
Slowly, quietly, they retreated.
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Heinrick suddenly collapsed.
“HEINRICK!”
She turned him over, noticing his ashen face. The wounds and the blood loss were finally catching up to him.
“You must… finish the job.”
“Don’t talk like that! I’m not leaving you!”
“They can… smell the blood… come afterwards. Go.”
“Heinrick…”
“[Excuse me, I can heal him.]”
Strange words. Unknown language.
“What?”
“Who… are you?”
Coming towards them came a small figure, dressed in white.
“[Inventory.]”
From somewhere it pulled out a lamp.
Bright light suddenly filled the area, and they could see quite clearly again.
It wasn’t a ghost, it was… an elf? A girl of ethereal beauty, and soft-looking, silvery-blue hair.
Okay, stop staring at her. Heinrick! Heinrick is DYING!
She leaned over Heinrick once more, only to be gently pulled back.
The elf pointed at the bleeding man.
“[Select. Holy Light.]”
Heinrick gasped.
His wounds… healed.
No. That’s not right.
They disappeared.
His wounds… never were.
Even the blood that had soaked his clothes was gone.
The elf looked at them with an altogether lovely smile that made both of them forget to breathe for a moment.
“[We’re safe here for now. No monsters nearby.]”
That voice… like singing…
“[Say, would you like to form a party?]”
Healz Pleaze has invited you into his party!
Accept / Decline
“...What the hell?”
I finally worked out (you budding writers out there take note) that when I use a bracket
[when talking in a different language] I had BETTER not start the sentence with the letter "I". For whatever reason the software REALLY wants it to mean Italics, even if the closing bracket is a full paragraph away... or on another page... or never existed in the first place...
So what does Duck Summoning II do? Well, as the great Magnuson Deckard once famously said (before decking the guy for being the hundredth person to ask that), "I don't give a duck!"