1.03 When you get what you wish for.

I don’t recommend overstraining your Soul by using advanced abilities at low levels, it hurts. Really hurts. In fact the first thing I saw when awakening was a red box. Up until this point all my System Notifications were in different shades of Blue.

Caution! 

You are currently suffering from the Affliction (Negative Status Condition) of Severe Dehydration. 

All Recovery Rates reduced by 50%.

You will suffer from one additional level of Exhaustion every 12 hours.

You are currently suffering from 1 level of Exhaustion.

Caution! 

You have overspent your Mana Pool. 

Mana Recovery reduced by 50% for 24 hours.

You have taken 5 points of Health Damage and 5 points of Sanity Damage.

Achievement: Reckless Ritualist

You have survived Recklessly casting a Ritual Spell whose Difficulty Rank exceeded your Proficiency Rank by more than  ten levels. 

You have earned 75% of the Qualifications for Title:Reckless Ritualist.

Special Skill Experience Awarded! Spellcraft +4 levels.

New Skill Awarded! Spellcraft(Ritecraft) +3 levels.

Calculating potential Alignment violation…

Alignment violation contained by Altar of Ascension. 

Alignment Crisis averted. 

Negative Alignment Experience Award:-1 Alignment.

While the Skill Levels were nice, the rest not so much. My Vow of Neutrality specifically stated that I believed in deliberation. I had hoped that being a Boon, using the [Summon Gear] spell would fine. I was ignoring that as an effective Level 1 spellcaster, I was in no way close in being able to cast a Fifth Circle spell, ritual or not. Heck, as a general rule of thumb, mages only cast spells of Circles less than or equal to half their Caster Level.

I suppose I should take a break and explain Class bonuses. All System Classes are defined by three things. First, the list of Class Abilities. These are the Skills, Talents ,Spells,Feats, etc that members of the Class have an easier time learning and progressing. Skill points can only be spent on Skills in the Class Ability List. Second, Class Features. These are basic Perks associated with specific Class Level. Finally third, Class Bonuses. Every Classes is rated on its affinity for a variety of activities, and grants special bonuses.

The standard classification steps are :Full Class Bonus, Half Class Bonus, Partial Class Bonus, Latent Class Bonus, and Non Bonus. While Full, Half, and Non are self explanatory, Partial bonus is equal to one third of the Class level, Latent is one fifth.

The categories of bonuses are: Combatant, Crafter, Explorer, Speaker, Spellcaster, Thinker, Trickster. Combatant applies to all combat and weapon abilities. Crafter bonuses apply to all Gathering, Processing, Manufacturing, Repairing and Subverting (Lockpicking) of equipment, along with all non weapon tool use. Explorer bonuses affect Perception, Wilderness, and Movement Abilities. Speaker bonuses affect Social Skills and interactions, Spellcaster is Spellcasting. Thinker deals with all the academic Skills. Trickster is funny, in that it overlaps with Explorer, Crafter, and Speaker in certain cases; Deception, Stealth, Sabotage, Locksmith, Legerdemain, etc. Only the highest bonus actually applies.

For example, Fighters are full Combatants, but Non Spellcasters. All Combat Abilities, whether or not they are on the Fighter Ability List, get a bonus based on the full Fighter Level. Even if the fighter were to learn a spell, they would get no Class bonus when casting. Features and subclasses can modify this slightly. The Fighter subclass, Arcane Warrior, is co nsidered a Partial Spellcaster. The Ranger feature, Favored Weapon allows all Rangers to choose a single weapon with which they get a Full Combatant Bonus,even though they are normally only Half Combatants.

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High Scholars are Non-Combatants, Half-Crafters, Partial Explorers, Partial Speakers, Partial Spellcasters, Full Thinkers and Latent Tricksters. Scholars, are only Latent Spellcasters, so my upgrade means I become a Second Level Caster when I gain one more Level, not five. Fifth Circle Spells are still the provenance of Tenth Level Casters, which explains why I earned an additional four Levels to Spellcraft.

Again, rule of thumb, to advance a Skill Level, without spending Skill Points, takes 100-150 hours of normal practice per new Level gained. If that sounds high, then you have never learned to play the piano. There is a reason it takes most Black Belts 4-5 years to earn those ratings. Critical successes and spectacular achievements, can speed that along, but Leveling takes time and effort.

Back to my ruby red migraine.

This time I had been unconscious for less than a day, or over a full 24, from the setting of the sun. I was tired, thirsty, hungry, and mad at myself for not thinking things through. On the plus side, there was an olive drab canvas knapsack sitting on the Altar, surrounded by the detritus of my quasi successful Ritual; multicolored polyhedral dice and chalk Runic Circle.

I had been focused on three things while casting. The first was a sturdy aluminum framed nylon backpack with a bedroll tied underneath. A strange blend of woodland camouflage and neon orange, it contained my personal tent and camping supplies. In theory it had everything I might need to hike in to a camp site not accessible by vehicle. The rest of my less portable wants were stuffed into an old army green canvas duffle bag that my grandfather had taken to Korea. The third important bag was the bright red school backpack that I had converted into a First Aid kit. One of my fellow Scout Leaders was an EMT, and one of the boys mother was a physician. We once had a whole night of putting First Aid kits together for the families at our church, each in its own backpack.

The thing sitting on the Altar certainly looked to draw it inspiration from those three bags, design from the first aid kit, materials from the army bag, size and bed roll from my hiker’s pack. If I had not already burned through my Mana, I would have been tempted to [Examine] it. As it was, I had no desire to add to my migraine. However, even without the use of magic, I did notice strapped to its side was an old canteen of mine. A container for water I desperately needed and as yet had not gone looking for.

Touching it of coarse triggered a flood of notifications.

Gabriel’s Wayfarer’s Pack of Neutrality +5 Legendary

A fusion of three separate incompletely Summoned Otherworld items, united by the Boon of Janus. Infusion of raw Aethyr and Astral energies have transmuted certain material properties, creating a new +5 Legendary item, the Boon of Neutrality that permeates this Pack enhances its Durability, Armour, and Defence by 150%, while reducing its Noticeability by 75%.

The Wayfarer’s Pack has the following Enhancements:

Deeppocket/Timeless-All outer pockets have an internal volume 50% greater than external dimensions. All temporal processes are reduced by 50%. The central pocket has a volume increase and temporal decrease of 400%.

Weather Proof-All natural weather/hostile environmental effects are reduced by 90%.

Truefit-All Encumbrance Penalties reduced by 50%.

Inventory-Attuned Users may access full content inventory through Introspection, which benefits from the +5 Special Focus modifier.

Astral Camouflage- All stored items with an Astral Noticeability of 20 or less, has it reduced by 50%. All stored items with an Discernment Defence of 20 or less, has it increased by 50%.

Medic’s Kit +5...

Camper’s Kit +5...

Cusiner’s Kit +5...

Canteen of Sweetwater +5

This apparently 1.5 liter Canteen can hold up 7.5 liters of refreshing water.

Everyday at dawn it automatically casts [Sweetwater] increasing the flavor, nutrition, and hydration of the water contained for 12 hours.

The Canteen can replenish itself, for the cost of one Mana per liter, at the rate of one liter per Long Rest. Speed is faster in more humid environments, slower in arid.

I tried skipping as fast to the Canteen details. Picking it up, I felt water sloshing around. I quickly undid the cap, and swallowed the few mouthfuls within. As long as I reserved one Mana at the end of everyday, I would always have at least a liter of water in the morning.

Not everything I had tried to bring, survived the summoning.

No tent, only half my spare clothes, no electronics, and the list goes on.

What I did get was my full First Aid supplies, mess kit, cast iron camp oven (basically a dutch oven on legs), ground cloth, bed roll, and tarp. There were a few pleasant surprises, a camp spade for digging out fire pits and lanterns, and my portable camp stool, rated for 500 lbs. The spade was nice, since my drink of water awakened my bladder and I didn’t want to defile the Altar’s Hill.

For the rest of that night I just rested, drank a swallow of water and an Extra-Strength Migraine over the counter medicine from the Medic Kit. Along with the Arcanist’s Kit I was originally summoned with, I now had all the tools I could get for the next week. There were some more items I wanted to summon, but I figured once a week was the most I could do. That meant a week without my insulin.

I had noticed that my hands and forearms were firmer, less swollen than I was used to. Checking my [Introspection] Skill, I found out I had lost between 60-70 lbs by being summoned. Sometimes diabetes will go into remission after a significant weight loss, and I was hoping that more than 60 lbs would be enough, at least for a week. I had been healed of the physical damage caused by my illnesses, but as Afflictions, the diseases themselves remained. Although I had not eaten in more than 24 hours, the [Sweetwater] spell enhanced water could be used as an effective meal replacement, for a number of meals equal to the subject’s Con Score, before negative side effects. In my case I could last 2-3 days before needing an alternate food source. That meant I needed to explore the surrounding woods soon.

I had not seen any Beasts or Monsters since my arrival, likely something to do with the Stone Circle protecting the Altar. This gave me a place to recover in safety, but without food I couldn’t stay there indefinitely.

I needed Skills and Levels to boost my ability to survive. The next morning I planned on unlocking as many new Skills as possible.