“Where am I?”
“Am I dead, is this the afterlife?”
Ray felt as if he was floating weightlessly through an endless sea of black. He thinks back on his last moments on Earth. Both the burning pain and Ice cold sensations are gone, replaced by an odd tingling sensation throughout his entire body. He is unsure how he knows but it seems as if he is moving towards something. At first he thinks it's his mind playing tricks on him, but eventually he realizes there is a small white blot in front of him. At first, it’s only about the size of a pinprick but it seems to be growing fast. The white quickly starts to overwhelm his eyesight, so he closes my eyes tight to counteract it.
Drip, Drip, Drip
The loud drips are followed by various animal sounds that are impossible to distinguish. His eyes slowly flutter open, the bright light white adjusts itself into a beautiful cloudless sky shrouded slightly by tall trees. He is on his back in what seems to be the middle of a forest grove.
He goes to sit up and the first thing he noticed is his hands. They were huge, but more importantly instead of the pasty white of his previously reclusive self, they are a shiny bronze, almost like a bodybuilder. He traced his hands up his arms and down his body, bodybuilder was right, he is covered in rippling muscles but that's not the weirdest part, there seems to be gems sticking out of his hands, throat, forehead, chest, back and feet. Not only that, but his clothes were very weird. He had a loosely tied purple shirt with a deep open front, a black cloak with a brooch, A belt with a small burlap looking bag hanging off of it, loose fitting white pants and pointed brown shoes. Lastly, to complete the strange garb, there was a large, straight, dark wooden staff topped with a spherical blue gemstone. The strangest phenomenon is that he seemed to be surrounded in a misty blue aura, for lack of a better word.
Ray immediately recognized these features but how could that be? It fits the description of the tabletop gaming character he used to play, down to every last detail. He needed to see one more thing to be absolutely sure, he stood up and moved around towards the sound of dripping he had heard earlier. A small pool of water had filled a basinlike rock, there just enough for Ray to catch his reflection. The dark hair and sharp, attractive features weren’t what he was looking for but they weren’t surprising. What he was immediately drawn to was the glowing blue eyes.That could mean only one thing….
Magic..
As this revelation hit him a strong pain in his skull assaulted his senses. His mind was suddenly flooded with memories. Akil Ealim, Ray’s tabletop gaming character and Ray Smith, a mild-mannered software engineer from Earth, had become one being. Akil’s memories became Ray's memories, and vice versa. For a moment it seemed like the 2000 year old Akil’s memories and experiences would completely overwhelm Ray’s insignificant 26 years but right when it seemed like Ray’s memories and personality would be overwhelmed, Akil’s memories and experiences went from the forefront of their mind to the background, with Ray’s life being at the forefront.
Akil is a Dhampir, that is a half vampire, but he's not just half of a normal vampire, but a special variant that feeds on people's psyche as opposed to their blood. Akil is a character Ray had played since he was 16 years old and the character had been through a lot. First, although most tabletop characters only go up to level 20, Akil was a level 55, with two different classes brought up to at least level 20. He is a mage first and foremost but as a player Ray found a super strong combination that would let him be a really strong martial character without sacrificing his magic whatsoever using a special class that scales off the same stat his casting does. He had long since graduated fighting normal enemies and has been put against all kinds of gods and terrifying monstrosities. Akil also has control over a different type of power called heroic power. It’s an optional ruleset in the tabletop game Ray and his friends played that turns even low level characters into super strong beings. It empowered his magic and gave him demigod-like powers.
With Ray’s newfound memories came a plethora of questions and theories to test. Most importantly he needed to figure out where he was and how he got there.
A series of magic circles appeared in the air around Akil/Ray, magical energy swirled in the air as he began to cast a spell.
[Greater Teleport]
….Nothing happened, the magic slowly died down. He did not get transferred to the place he was picturing in Gathilion, the world Akil had come from. This meant that even though this place looks like Akil’s home plane and has magic, it is definitely different. He tried greater teleport a few more times, trying places on different planes in both Akil’s and Ray’s memories, but none had any effect.
“Well, if teleportation doesn't work, we'll move on to planar travel.”
As long as they were currently in the infinite planes of Akil’s multiverse then planar travel should get them to somewhere they were familiar with.
Akil thought it over for a bit and decided he would try the elemental plane of earth first. Akil had the good aligned gods of the Elemental planes seal away the evil gods and they had granted him many powers and boons as thanks. Still to this day he was treated as a savior by most of the denizens of the elemental planes. He gathered the magical energies once more and began casting.
[Planar Transport]
The magic died down slowly with no effect, just like before. That’s weird, he became worried that the powers he received from the elemental planes also wouldn’t work?
First he tried commanding the elements to his will, he moved the earth, manifested flame, controlled the air and shaped the water no problem, the most basic parts of the powers that were granted to him by the gods of the elemental planes. If he wasn’t able to transfer to the plane he felt this next ability shouldn't work. A small rift in space appeared near his hand, he reached through and physically “pulled” elements directly from their respective planes, flame from the deeper part of the plane of fire, pure water from the infinite oceans of the plane of water, the winds from the plane of air and finally, precious minerals from the plane of earth. But how could this power work? These powers relied directly on a connection with the elemental planes to work. This means that although he is still connected to the planes, that he was being blocked from them somehow. The last thing he wanted to test with his powers was summoning a denizen of the elemental planes, both to test if he could and to question the elemental after it was summoned. He called magical energies around him to cast another spell.
[Summon Elder Elemental]
The wind in the area started whipping like mad and what looked like a sentient tornado with arms and legs of air appeared in front of him. Akil began speaking a language that sounded like different sounds of the wind.
“Can you tell me the situation in your home?”(Akil)
Although it was hard to tell, the Elemental seemed to stop for a moment and ponder.
“Sorry savior, I remember nothing from before you summoned me”(Elemental)
Seeing that it would be of no help to him, Akil dismissed the spell. He tried the same thing with summoning a few other types of creatures, each from different planes but their memories seem to begin right when they are summoned. He even tried summoning the same creature multiple times, and while it did retain its memories from previous summonings, there was nothing from before or inbetween.
He had one more thing to try before exploring this world he was seemingly trapped in. Akil had created many demiplanes of his own, one in particular would hopefully have people who could help
“One more time.”
[Planar Transport]
This time instead of slowly dissipating the magic swirled into a vortex and he could feel himself being transferred away from this world, the feeling was very reminiscent of the sea of blackness from earlier.
Finally, something went right. Akil was immediately greeted with the new plane. Half of the sky was filled with stars while the other half was filled with a blazing sun and clouds. The main feature of the plane was an enormous academy, which was massive even from the small amount that Akil could see from where he was but he knew that what he saw was only the tip of the iceberg.
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Jamiea, the Oasis of knowledge. Akil felt slightly intimidated looking at this illustrious building due to his newfound fusion with Ray. Akil himself had been here countless times, it was him and his party's base of operations for almost 8 years of their 10 traveling together. Akil breezed past the grand entrance into the academy proper. As he stepped through the gates his senses were assailed by a strong magical aura, a monotone voice seemed to come from all around and inside his head all at the same time. The voice was the academy's magical caretaker Sid, in Ray’s earth terms, he was basically an Artificial Intelligence that controlled the day to day maintenance of the academy.
“Welcome back Headmaster. Is there anything I can do to assist you today.” (Sid)
“Yes Sid, please gather the Grand Council in the greater meeting room.” (Akil)
“As you wish. Headmaster.” (Sid)
With Akil’s knowledge of the Grand Council he knew he would have a bit of time before they actually convened. He decided to go to the vault, a decision partially influenced by a newfound desire to see it in person as Ray had never seen that much wealth before and for even though he shared Akil’s memories, it was completely different from the real deal. He started walking through the elegant hallways, towards a cylindrical room with buttons on the wall. After clicking the button the cylinder started moving at insane speeds downwards. During the trip Akil thought about how this marvelous invention was really just based on Ray’s earth knowledge of an elevator. In fact, a lot of the magitech inventions throughout the academy had a corresponding earth version. This caused him some discomfort, as the whole world he knew could just be some fantasy world that Ray and his friends created. Akil was considered a genius inventor and magical craftsman in his old world. Even for his world this academy was basically at the pinnacle of magitech. While he pondered this, the elevator kept going for what seemed like miles before finally coming to a stop, deep underneath the academy.
Akil’s magically enchanted eyes had seen a strong magical aura throughout the entire academy. Even with that the enormous vault door surprised him by how strong the aura was, enough to hurt his eyes slightly. The ornate door was made from one of the hardest metals on Gathilion, Adamantium and it was covered in strong magical runes in multitudes of different magical languages. After spending a few minutes removing all of the magical and mundane locks on the vault, the heavy door slowly started to swing open. Akil could feel a slight bit of anticipation rising, back when he was Ray, he had lived a simple lifestyle, never seeing any real amount of wealth.
The fully open door revealed a magical aura that absolutely dwarfed anything Akil had seen up until now. A vast sea of coins, gems, and magic items stood before him, stretching farther than the eye could see. There was enough treasure to make even the most prosperous dragon blush with jealousy. The excitement Akil had been feeling died out rather quickly. Akil created most of the magic items in this vault and it could easily be recreated many times over by combining his crafting skills with his elemental powers. He conjured a hunk of raw gold ore, then refined it into a gold statue of the likeness of Ray from earth using an ability he had dubbed elemental forging, using the powers to summon elements directly from their source plane as a substitute of a full forge worth of equipment.
He tossed the gold statue into the vault and closed it back up. With a slight melancholy feeling he took the elevator back up towards the greater meeting room. On my way up he mused on how empty this giant academy was. Looking back into Akils memories, he saw a time when this academy was sprawling with students. A far cry from now, only the grand council and the head teachers remained, no more students grace these halls of learning. He walked up to the doors of the greater meeting room, which were rather plain for the grandiose building. He pushed the doors open, and was immediately greeted with the gaze of the 16 members of the grand council.
There was a large variety of races and almost an even split between men and women. Most were normal humanoid races with only slight differences but there was one that stood out. Akil glanced at a large skeleton man out of the corner of his eyes. Darkskull was the head dean of the necromancy school and a lich. He stood there with a bone staff and an ornate green and black robe, his eye sockets completely empty, but Akil felt that he was staring intently at him. Even with Akil’s memories, Ray had never seen such a terrifying creature in his entire life, sending a strong chill up his spine.
Sitting next to him was Elvara who didn’t lose to Darkskull when it came to drawing attention. This was not because of her race which was hard to tell at a glance but more because of her overwhelming beauty. Even among the council which had many members who could have been considered supermodels on earth she stood out. Her luscious raven hair, striking purple eyes and her alluring clothes that showed just enough skin all came together to make what was the most gorgeous creature either Akil or Ray had ever seen.
Due to Akil’s strong intuition, he felt a strong feeling from her that told him to stay away, a feeling like you were nothing but a weak little lamb in front of the ultimate predator. It didn’t help that she was the head dean of enchantment school. With her powerful enchantment magic she could easily have you dancing to her tune and you would be none the wiser.
Elvara’s ruby red lips parted, revealing dangerously sharp incisors, the only hint towards her being a vampire. A voice softer than velvet filled the room.
“Why have you summoned us, O great headmaster” (Elvara)
“Yes, it is very rare of you to call on us so suddenly, I know I can speak for most of us when I say this is interrupting important research.” (Darkskull)
It was completely impossible to read Darkskull’s expressionless face but Akil could tell he was annoyed, he was very well known for his macabre experimentations.
“I have summoned you here today for something very important… It seems we have been transported to either a different multiverse, or we have somehow been cut off from most of our multiverse.” (Akil)
The room was filled with murmurs and questions.
“No need to take my word for it, go ahead and try to shift to any other plane.” (Akil)
Everyone looked towards the dean of the Conjuration, Zhera. She was a demonkin with deep red skin, fiery hair and sulfur colored eyes. Seeing everyone looking at her so expectantly she rolled her eyes.
“Fine, have it your way.” (Zhera)
She began muttering an incantation and forming complex hand motions, gathering magical energies. This was Akil’s first time seeing someone cast normally since he had been fused with Ray. Akil had a heroic ability that allowed him to cast wordlessly and ignore hand motions as well as the material cost of most spells up to a certain value.
[Planar Transport]
The spell fizzled exactly as it had before, a shocked expression covered the faces of most of the people in the room as realization set in.
“As you can see, we are stuck here somehow, the only place we can shift to is a new world I have that is similar to Gathilion. I came to ask for your help in surveying this world but most importantly we need to find out why we were sent here and if there is any danger to us.” (Akil)
Akil decided not to mention his fusion with Ray from Earth nor how himself and everyone here were seemingly made from the imaginations of Ray and his friends. That would be too much all at once. Looking over all of the Grand Council, Akil felt a nostalgic feeling, these were all living breathing NPCs that Ray and his friends had lovingly crafted over 10 years. A strong desire to protect each of these NPCs turned flesh filled him. This was probably unnecessary as each of the 16 members of the Grand Council were level 20 which puts them at the top of the standard tabletop food chain. Akil still was cautious though, he had no idea what the average level of the people of this world was. As low of a chance as it was, it was possible that the average level of this world could be really high and level 20 could be a weakling in this world.
“What would you have us do?” (Moonfist)
One of the deans of the Martial disciplines, Moonfist, spoke up. The martial school was different from the magical, the magical had a dean for each school of magic, in the martial school each dean is the head of three martial disciplines. Moonfist is the dean of the Empty Hand, Mirror Breaker and Iron Viper disciplines.
“I will do some initial scouting of the world myself, I will send back information about the world and I want you all to do some research in the library to see if you can find any references to what is happening. Soothseer, I want you to do some divinations into the world with the information I give you.” (Akil)
Akil looked towards an old wizened ratkin with a crooked wooden staff that was bigger than himself. Soothseer was the dean of Divination and a master at scrying and remote viewing. The ratkin slowly nodded his head and in a low, raspy voice he replied.
“Just get me some names and locations then you can consider it done, great prophet.” (Soothseer)
Akil nods his head and finishes his commands.
“I want you to let the head teachers within your divisions know of what's going on and keep them in the loop, together we will unravel this mystery, dismissed.”(Akil)
As everyone got up to leave Akil walked over to a woman whose light green skin was covered in tiny scales and dark hair was done up in an ornate style with many weaves and braids. She looked up at him with milky white eyes that lacked any pupils. She was the snakefolk Syvala, and she radiated an alien beauty. She was the dean of Illusion and master of glamours.
“How may I be of assistance, headmaster? (Syvala)
“I want you to follow me from a safe distance in the new plane, take note of the surroundings and to report back if something happens to me.” (Akil)
“But sir… if something is able to take you down how would I possibly be able to escape?”(Syvala)
Akil took out an intricate sapphire necklace that radiated magical energy and handed it to her.
“Take this artifact, it is linked to my office here in Jamiea, it will activate automatically should your life be in any danger. You can also activate it manually if need be by using the command word. It should be able to ignore most effects that stop regular teleportation.” (Akil)
It was subtle but with Akil’s strong intuition he could see the deep gratitude she had written on her face. He also thought he saw a slight copper color fill her cheeks, a sign of her race that she was blushing.
“I am eternally grateful for this lifesaving treasure, your benevolence knows no limits.” (Syvala)
She lowered herself into a deep bow, causing Akil to feel a slight sense of embarrassment.
Akil put out his hand for Syvala to take, to which she gracefully obliged. He began casting.
[Planar Transport]