Brokering a Deal: Part 1 - 21/06/2023 - Archie’s Extracts
Jun 24, 2023 15:36:42 GMT
Ruthenia Truelove and Zola Rhomdaen like this
Post by Andy D on Jun 24, 2023 15:36:42 GMT
On the Greatness of Wizard Club
At this point of my life I consider myself to be; 60% scholar, 25% wizard, and 15% adventurer.
At the beginning of my late-life adventuring career, I would have put myself down as 5% adventurer. However, as time has gone by I have found being out in the field, whilst dangerous, (certainly for one past his athletic prime!) is where I need to be to find new research paths for humanoid longevity.
Adventuring has become a necessity for my research, but also my funds! Being an arcane caster of the bookish persuasion not only requires study and practice - it requires gold, gems and other highly priced items. While one can draw a straight line between swotting and spell acquisition, and say that the line’s length is reduced with greater study, it is also true that the line is diminished further in length with greater accessibility to gold! ‘Wizarding’ is hard. For this reason, I enjoy the company of my fellow wizards.
Wizard Club has been wonderful. Such a fantastic resource for spells, learning and comradery. Together us wizards have been able to grow with each other’s support, and it’s a wonderful way to meet people outside of one's usual social standing - although given my living arrangements I doubt anyone could accuse me of being a social snob! To the point, my dear friend Kavel has said of Wizard Club, “I like it, Archie. It’s like the Iron Strong Company, but for book people like you. ‘Book Strong’ if you will.”
An additional benefit of Wizard Club is its direct association with the increased likelihood of adventuring. I was discussing the different ways of combining the material component of spells, such as feathers, with the somatic elements of touch based spells with my arcane comrades, when the spellbinding tunes of a musically gifted paladin drew our attention - and that of a part time bar staff/adventurer at the Three Headed Dragon. Kavel’s long time adventuring comrade Zola was in need of an adventuring party, and Lolli, Amble, I and Dwirhian signed up to help her.
On the Court of Sorcery and the Wellspring of Magic
If the Feywild in all its magical splendour drew upon an arcane source for its breathtaking essence, then that source would be the Court of Sorcery, and in particular the Wellspring of Magic. As it happens; this is very much a leading theory as to the origin of the Feywild's magic. If it is true, then the wellspring is likely the source of the Feywild’s unaligned chronology with the Prime Material - much could be learned with repeated visits to the Court of Sorcery.
The Court of Sorcery, otherwise known as Mystrium, is fascinating for many reasons, not least its primal importance to the other Courts, which grants it neutral standing amongst the Courts, Seelie and Unseelie. We even observed members of the Wild Hunt in pursuit of prey in Mystrium!
The abundance of magic here is phenomenal. The means of transportation available here are more splendorous than even the land ships of K’ul Goran. Many individuals had the ability to fly, winged or otherwise, but many organic and inorganic means of public aerial transportation existed too. The logistical management of aerial roads must be a tremendous challenge. But, the system appeared to work well. I do wonder about trade-offs though? Such reliance on readily available modes of transport might come at the expense of a reduced conditioning, negatively affecting health, and by extension longevity. I would be curious to see how health is balanced with improvements in transportation.
Given the public transportation, it was clear that not everyone’s magical means are equal in the Court of Sorcery. Our chaperone, Lepus who plane-shifted us to the Feywild must be quite adept at magic, but the delightful individual may be, one assumes, unique in their high level mastery of magic.
It is not clear to me whether my spell scroll service would find a better market in the Court of Sorcery, or not. The business isn’t flourishing back in Daring Heights. One assumes it's possible there would be a higher demand in this court. However, whether I could charge the same prices here seems unlikely. In addition, I do not have ready access to the market here.
The Feywild despite my many visits now, and my extensive reading, continues to surprise me. I did not anticipate the large tree by the magical wellspring to, in fact, be Sovereign Farleth, sovereign of Secrets and Sorcery.
On Magical Vaults for Magical Memories
The Memory Broker is who we were sent to aid. Also the individual with whom Zola wished to learn how to perform fey bargains. Given the trade in such an endeavour is magic for memories weighted to be of equal value, I do not feel comfortable with this form of magic. Zola, however, feels she is comfortable with the trade, and it is her decision to make. Good luck to her.
Inside the Memory Broker’s vault of memories, the reality (or possibly perceptual abstraction?) was at its core a hedge maze. At the centre a beautiful, gigantic rose with orbs of memories encircling it. I wondered if there were memories of individuals who had researched the mysteries of the Feywild’s unaligned chronology with the Material Plane? I would love to discover the answer, however, I am less keen to trade memories for said information, if required.
A mystery at the heart of our mission was why were these smoke elementals attacking the vault? Was it less well guarded than other areas of Mystrium? Were the smoke elementals acting secretively as a proxy to a court, understandably, not wishing to be discovered for trying to extract more than their share from Mystrium? We did not discover any answers at the time. We did discover, however, that the vault did have decent security. Some of my companions experienced traumatic illusions attacking their greatest fears for merely stepping into unseen triggers. I hope that the experience will not negatively affect them going forward.
At the centre of the maze, we dealt with several smoke elementals. My wizard friend Amble proved himself to be quite the scrivener in my eyes, as he transmuted the Fireball spell to produce thunder based damage. We all followed his lead and attacked similarly with thunder based spells. All except Zola, who as Kavel has often mentioned to me, is like a hurricane of slashing, radiant pain. The imagery was more deadly to see in person, but further enhanced by not being able to see it as she attacked! My companions, Dwirhian and Lolli had combined magical enhancements on Zola; invisibility and enlargement. The hurricane of death was now undetectable and twice as large.
In defeat, the smoke elementals combined, but were evicted from the vault by the vault’s own defensive means, which appeared to come back into play as the smoke elementals were no longer able to loot the vault for memories.
On Leaving the Memory Broker’s Vault
Job done. Rewards awaiting us. However, we found ourselves unexpectedly absent of Zola. Or perhaps it would be fair to say, Zola found herself to be alone without the rest of us?
…
To be continued in Part 2…