In the morning, the newly formed party gathered at a table for a light breakfast. All three had succumbed to some effects from the previous night's celebration. While they talked over what to do next, the conversation revolved around the various contracts available on the Outpost’s Adventurer board.

Roden tried to sit back and let things play out as they had at his table. Hoping Errrkkkk and Riakon would choose the same missions. Fortunately they did just that. They selected the fungi retrieval mission that required them to gather a couple specific types of mushrooms and a mission asking for a group to investigate a cave where a few individuals had gone missing. Contracts in hand with bellies as full as they dared, the party set off. Roden couldn't help, but feel elated at the prospect of what was going to come. He couldn't wait for that first encounter.

As the three men walked down the well-worn path that was not quite a road, they shared stories. Roden found it interesting to hear stories from those two that he and his players had never put together. Errrkkkk shared stories of learning the basics of his martial arts over the course of a year. Roden almost forgot that Errrkkkk was only a few years old, his birdfolk physiology gave him rapid maturation making him an adult despite his juvenile age.

On the other hand there was Riakon who has detailed stories of growing up at the monastery, devoting himself to the goddess of the sun all the while wondering why he was left there and why he was the only platinum Dragonkin. Many assumed him to be silver due to the natural variation in color; it wasn't until he was asked to produce his Dragonkin breath that it became clear he was unusual. Rather than the usual stream of elemental magic in breath form, Riakon shot a gout of what seemed to be water, but to the trained eye it had the unmistakable glow of holy divine magic.

When the conversation turned and the two began to direct their questions toward Roden. He found that his backstory came to him as though it were memories. As if he had lived it, as if he was there as a young child learning the ropes of the congregation of the goddess of the sun.

He could remember practicing the various skills and hobbies, he could remember his mother, but not his real mother. Not the one who would take him to football practice as a kid, but the one from that world. The one who helped him practice his instrument and would sit there lovingly while he plucked away at the strings or would take him on walks down by the port so he could see the ships in the harbor. It was a confounding thing to remember a life that wasn't his own. Yet it all felt so familiar and real.

A few hours into their trip with the sun dipping below the trees, the three men decided it would be best to make camp for the evening. They stepped off the path a little ways and found a small clearing underneath a large tree with long branches that hung over the grassy patch at its base. Errrkkkk immediately began gathering sticks and fallen branches. While Riakon set out to scout the area.

It was then that Roden remembered. He hadn't actually prayed for his spells that morning. He figured it was as good a time as any. He sat down and crossed his legs.

He focused on his breathing. He listened to the breeze and closed his eyes. He assumed that was what he was supposed to do. Preparing to pray as he just did garnered a strange mix of sensations. He was met with nostalgia and deja vu, but also awkwardness and hesitancy. However, once he got situated, he felt a warmth wash over him. As if bathed in sunlight without the abrupt brightness that should accompany the rays.

He opened his eyes to find himself in that familiar dark room. He came to think of it as his room of character creation, except that time in the center of the room about ten feet up off the ground was a small sun, glowing brightly while casting a warm light. Roden approached the sun, raising a hand, and to his surprise, it wasn't hot or burning. It was merely warm and comforting. Before he could touch it, the sun rose higher, illuminating more of the dark space.

Roden saw different objects to his left and right, then in front of him and behind him as if marking the four cardinal directions with him at the center of the compass. Taking it all in, Roden couldn't quite make out what was going on. Confusion scrawled across his face as he whirled about.

To the North, he saw a small patch of grass with a great tree bearing fruit with flowers about its base. He closed the distance, stepping onto the grass. He could feel a connection with the soil and the tree. It was almost as if he could feel a slight breeze. As he walked to the East, the sun above moved opposite, casting the eastern object in shadow, leaving a faint glowing lantern that grew brighter as he approached. Moving into the light of the lantern gave him a sense of awareness and alertness. Moving to the West, he saw an altar before a large stained glass window, casting its colors of various shades of yellow, orange, and red onto the altar.

An image of Era's holy symbol glowing brightly. He felt immense appreciation of life and its preservation. Placing his hands on the altar, he was consumed by the feeling. Lastly, he turned his attention South. There he saw a suit of plate armor with shield and a double bladed battle ax, both embossed in gold and silver. Returning to the center, the sun above followed his path and perched above him once again in the center of the room.

The realization of what these objects represented struck him suddenly. He had not picked a domain. He took them all in once more, trying to parse out what each side could represent.

"Well, presumably the North here is nature or plants, and on the right has gotta be darkness or maybe dusk."

Turning to the South he said, "This one's got to be strength or protection, maybe... Uuuugggghhh" He trailed off exasperated.

There was no question in his mind that the Western object was life and healing.

He pondered for what seemed like the better part of an hour, contemplating all the things he could possibly choose. If he was being honest with himself, he had to admit he didn't actually know how this would play out. The rules of this game were fluid, and he changed and added many things.

Nearly every campaign he ran had a player introduce something new to the world that hadn't been there before. He liked it that way. It added life to his world, and it made it feel like it wasn't just his world, but everyone's at the table.

Roden thought long and hard about the choice. He found himself staring up at the floating miniature sun, and then a thought crossed his mind.

These four couldn't be his only options. The goddess of the sun had many domains and subdomains. It was then he sat crossing his legs and said only one word. "Fire"

The Sun above him brightened and lowered. He felt a warmth in his face as the divine power of the fire domain coursed through him. He couldn't help but hop to his feet, the energy nearly too much. He could see a wispy flame-like glow coming off of his hands and the rest of his body. He immediately felt divine knowledge seeped into his mind.

He instinctively knew he could cast magic in the same way he knew he could play his instrument. He expected that would be the end, but to his surprise, the sun rose above him once again, and then a path emerged beneath his feet, heading off into the darkness. With nothing better to do, and really no other options. Roden set off down that path. As he walked, he felt the path beneath his feet, giving him strength and energy. He felt strong as he walked that path. He felt at home. It was an odd sensation as his home was nowhere near his current location. Once again, he felt divine knowledge seep into him. That time, from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Sudden realization crossed his mind. It was another domain, but he didn't pick it. Memories flooded past him from his backstory of the times while training he would walk the roads with the older priests, some of which belonged to the Adventure domain and how they would share in the lessons that came from being a pilgrim of the goddess of the sun. When Roden came up with this backstory, he did it as an easy way to explain why he wasn't at the monastery. He didn't really think it would become such an integral part of his abilities.

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'What the hell even was an adventure domain? Well, it's too late to complain now,' he thought.

He found himself nearing what appeared to be the end of the path before him. The path opened up into a clearing of grass surrounded by trees that had the familiar miniature sun.

Floating above the ground, at waist level, were small wisps. Roden approached the scene cautiously. Uncertain what exactly he was walking into, but knowing deep down that it was a place of his own, he had nothing to fear there. He reached a hand out to the closest wisp, and his mind was flooded with the knowledge of divine magic.

It was more faint this time. It was more of an echo of the true magic behind it. Instinctively, he knew this was a healing spell. He grasped it and pulled it into himself as the spell melded into him. He could feel the spell being pulled in two directions toward each of his domains. As if each made up half of his total magical aptitude. He felt the spell move toward his domain of Adventure. He felt the spell become a part of it. Adapting to the spirit of the domain. Whatever the spell was before was unclear to him. For Roden, the spell was now Triage. It healed less than the original, but granted a small temporary barrier as well, which acted as a slight damage buffer.

A base spell that allowed him to heal someone with a touch seemed pretty standard, but what came before was beyond strange.

'That was not what was supposed to happen. When a cleric picked their spells. they weren't supposed to get two domains either. The spells weren’t supposed to change when a player added them to their characters' spell list, but for some reason his were.'

'He had to admit it was pretty badass, and if he was being honest with himself, he didn't really care. He usually gave his players something cool that made them unique anyway, and if his players came to him with a cool idea to re-flavor a spell to better fit their theme for their character, why not? It looks like the GM was just doing it for him.'

"Okay, so what is next?" He said to himself.

He walked past a few floating wisps that contained utility spells for conjuring water and detecting "evil" entities. He knew he could only pick three more spells, and for what was to come, he didn't need either of those. He brushed against the next wisp and saw it contained a spell for seeing the aura of magic. Given the group he was with, he decided it was a solid choice. With his mind set, the spell seeped into him. He knew the spell. He knew it to the bottom of his toes. Unlike the one from before, it didn't change at all.

The spell he touched was the spell he knew. He shrugged, figuring it made enough sense to warrant dismissal. He continued down the path. In the end he had selected; Triage, the healing spell, Sight of the Magi, for detecting magical effects, Wounding Touch, a spell absorbed into his Adventure Domain that delivered a surge of necrotic energy at a touch, and last was Ignition Bolt. The spell was originally the quintessential cleric damage spell. The one they get that is just better than most to make up for the fact that the rest of their spells don't do a ton of damage.

Once he selected it, he felt it get consumed by his Fire domain. The result was Ignition Bolt, a spell of compressed fire magic held in a stasis of pre-combustion that is fired by the caster. Upon impact, it exploded, damaging the target and showering them in cinders.

Once his fourth spell was prepared, two more spells immediately worked their way into his mind. One, a warding spell of preparation useful for staying safe on the road. The other was a mesmerizing display of pyromancy. A stable fire spell re-flavored ever so slightly to better fit his style. The spell was now Burning Finger, a slight change in the somatic component was all that one needed in order to be infinitely more fun.

'Who doesn't dream of shooting fire from their fingertips?'

Roden opened his eyes and saw that nothing had changed. He could still see the silhouette of Riakon in the trees, him having just left. Everything was as it was when Roden sat down.

'Well that went quicker than expected.' He thought to himself.

He pondered for a moment before setting out to try that new spell of his. He measured out thirty feet from the edge of camp and set to his work. The spell work wasn't hard, just time consuming. He was laying down the spell's ward at a rate of two cubic feet per minute. After completing the first twenty feet of the spell's casting, Roden realized making a contiguous wall around their camp was going to take, in his estimation, way too fucking long. He imagined he had to be thirty yards from where the opposite end of his wall would be so he set to a different approach. He went back to camp and began drawing in the dirt using one of Errrkkkk's cast off sticks. He drew in the circle of the camp and then drew a square denoting where the ward he just constructed was located.

He scratched different squares into the dirt to represent the area warded by the spell each time he cast it. He tried dozens of different arrangements before realizing he could turn the cube at an angle and utilize the full length of the cube making an array of nearly interlocking wards around their camp; the casting alone took over an hour. When Roden finally walked back into camp, his task completed, he saw Errrkkkk had built a man-sized nest of branches, leaves, and whatever else he could find.

"Well I'll be damned. Errrkkkk I must say that is the largest nest I have ever seen."

"It's alright...cacaw." the Birdfolk said with a twinge of frustration.

"Everything alright there?"

"It's fine, cacaw... there isn't any cordage, cacaw. No vines, cacaw." The feathered man ranted as he jammed and squished his nest. After twenty minutes of fastidious pruning, Errrkkkk declared the nest as good as it was going to be. When Riakon returned, he held up the limp furry body of a good-sized raccoon.

"Looks like we eat good tonight!" The joy dripped from his resonant voice.

Seeing another opportunity to use his new spells, Roden built up a teepee of thick sticks. He wasn't being picky. In fact, calling what he made a teepee would be quite generous. What he had was mostly just a pile of wood by the time he pulled out his flint and steel.

Grabbing a handful of leaves, he crushed them until he had a small bundle ready to take a spark. Roden struck his flint a few times until a hot ember caught amongst his tinder. Roden blew on his little spark and drew the magic from within himself, putting his intent into his casting of the simple Common spell granted him by his fire domain.

As he willed it, his spark quickly grew into a flame. Waving his hand, he guided the flame over to his pile of sticks, which popped and cracked at the sudden heat. For such a simple spell, it truly was an awesome feeling to control the flames. While out setting his wards, Roden had discovered he had a few simple spells of this nature.

He had one that he could use to give someone a moment of focus, which felt a bit like a very brief dose of Adderall. He had one Common spell he could use to stabilize a person on the verge of death. Then there was the one for controlling fire he had just used and another one that seemed like a bit of a catch-all basic magic spell that could do a lot of mostly useless things like raise his voice or create a tiny puff of smoke.

They almost didn't even feel like spells to him. It was more like they were just part of his nature. From his fictional memories, he knew they were called Common spells as they were the lowest tier. In Adventures and Antics, spells were labeled Common, Trainee, Initiate, Apprentice, Journeyman, Mage, Master, Grandmaster, and Archmage. The classifications didn’t necessarily translate to power or damage, but were more of a description of their complexity in their casting. For now all he could cast were Common and Trainee.

With the fire started, it wasn't long before the racoon was cooked, eaten, and the men were hashing out watch detail when Roden's voice cut through.

"We can have a watch if yall want, but I took the liberty of setting up a nearly interlocking array of wards that cover us out to about fourth feet at the shortest sections and fifty five feet at the furthest. We are also covered ten feet on either side from the center of camp." He felt pretty good about himself. It was nice to be useful in a world that made him feel so lost.

The two non-humans looked at each other and shrugged. It wasn't long before all three men had their bedrolls out and were tucked in the nest. Roden slept that night with his eyes full of stars and thoughts of home tickling at the back of his mind.