Okay, then I want to stick one through the finish line.
Where, relative to the course, are the boxes we're supposed to be standing in for the actual test?
Can I get some red paint from somewhere and make my own?
A microscopic crystal attached to the floor? Interesting.
I'd like to attempt to replicate the structure, just to see if I can. But the plan right now is rope, and a pulley or three to get the appropriate angle, and the crystal attached to a small conveyance that goes through the tube, parked at the finish line.
The microstructure will require a microscopy spell and some time, maybe a sketch. Not the best use of time. You position one of the "shortcuts" through the finish line, as well as intervening lanes, and set up a pulley and a (very) long rope. [d12:10] You make quite a length of cord, set up two wooden bars affixed to the far wall to act as points to wrap the rope around, and give them wheels made from marble to admit the rope smoothly.
The rope itself rests on the tops of the invisible tunnels created by the lane markers. Any more tension and it will end up pulling your car.
[d6: 6] You then manufacture a simplistic triangular vehicle (so that it doesn't get caught on corners) to convey the crystal. A couple of other students wish to join in. Do you let them?
Overall, the system seems to work fine on its own. You give it a pull for the first 'test' and it works to move the car a few feet across the finish line. The main difficulty is the sheer amount of rope you need to pull just to get it taught.
Double checking.. "Everything appears to be good to go.." Now to test and refine everything.
Take it and let it hover with the power of wind.
"Sagitta Magica...
Concentrate..
Una Lucis."
Charging. Hold.
Now, to examine the spellwork, anything I need to refine, Spirits of Mine?
After checking and refining everything, release the spell. Time to take this outside for testing. Time to fly. We're nearly done.
Notes on the final product. A single light, the Sagitta Magic. Light is the pure form of magical energy, and is suitably destructive to everything else. It's also pretty easy to work with, just plain energy.
More to the point, this spell is what I'll be using to send it to the finish, and once released, will only require me sending energy to the spirits of mine in the thing. And the Light will completely prevent tampering via other noise, sense it is in itself disruptive of other wavelengths. And the rest is safely contained within, that's what the ribbon is for.
Hua... Done, or just about.
(Er, electromagnetic radiation doesn't work that way
What you probably have is a broadband signal that interferes with other signals easily.)
The spirit inside your body, that which commands the wind, leaves it, relying on a steady stream of energy from yourself to keep itself localized.
Unlike normal tempestry, where one sends a spell and the spirit retransmits, this spirit contains your wind powers. So for the time being, you're not the one casting the spell.
Instead, you transmit the energy that's going to sustain the spirit and form the basis of the retransmitted signal. It won't matter if there is much noise in the room, the One Light does not discriminate between frequencies. However, distance will still make the beam weaker over time.
You head outside and practice. The spirit carries the crystal a hundred meters from you. [d12: 8] (pass by 3) You beam energy to the spirit, [d10: 4 vs 1] And the spirit raises the crystal, and guides it toward you. So long as your noise-restricting ribbon does its job, the spirit should have no problem lifting the crystal. The main issue is transmitting energy, more gain would be preferable at the current odds...
Octavia now had the bare minimum that she needed in order to enact her plan. She was pretty confident in her tempestry abilities, but she wasn't going to use that to power the wavegear as it would be more effective to use it directly on the vehicle itself.
Instead... She wanted to have an external source of mist available that could power the wavegear. She would consider the best way to go about that while she returned to the junk pile to see if she could find something she could use for a circuit.
She would also consider how much time she had left...
What you know is that the mist stores energy itself. It does not matter what mist, so long as you have a signal meeting mist, you have magic.
The wavegear itself needs power. Consuming the mist's power is one simple way to do things, and considering your wavegear depends on energy from the mist in the first place to function, using energy from the mist to power the antenna seems like a fair idea.
What you need is an ignition, something to push current along your antenna, powering it and all the circuitry connected.
You use the enchantment: Eddy Current [Provides power up to your degrees of success]
[d8: 4] The current starts to flow without problems. (It will be like rolling 4-1=3 constantly, for the wavecraft roll.)
In terms of time: You will want a working prototype soon. ((Ideally next turn is the last as far as the test goes.))
Myrtrice marks the measured locations of the crystal on the block, then she marks out lines to cut the block at. "Could you all help me cut this block, I'd be grateful."
Using different lengths of wire for each of the limbs will allow control of the limbs based on the resonant frequencies of the chosen differences. Myrtrice will use that principal to control the limbs of the doll with a single crystal.
Start programming and test progressively shorter lengths of wire to find good frequencies to use.
Using resonant lengths of wire rather than a proper filter will result in some interference, but you can surmount this if you make sure to use lengths of wire that are not only significantly different from each other, but also fail to resonate with the various harmonics of the signals you plan on using.
Now, to program the crystal... you could manually try and match the frequencies, but for the sake of accuracy you will want to figure out some method of verifying that you've got the correct frequency before programming the crystal.
After that you should be just about finished.
Well, scrap metal wouldn't be too hard to find. But where would I find an explosion spell? Perhaps the school curriculum includes a class on artillery or explosives. I mean, it seems applicable to many different professions, like mining. If not then I could look for a nearby military base or something. The entire city is open to us I assume, and every city needs a military close by.
Head back to the school grounds to get spare scrap metal for a sabot. While doing so ask around if there is a class on mining, demolitions, artillery (standard university classes) going on during the exam. If yes then head over to those classes to copy their spells. If not, try to find out where the nearest military or strip mining camp is.
You encounter Octavia (one of the fellow candidates) on a walk toward the campus, and see that she is carrying some scrap metal in her arms. You determine that she found a garbage pile somewhere, and investigate to find a scrap pile surrounded by neatly-arranged shelters for these metal birds that inhabit this sector of the gardens. They peck at the base of your staff while chirping puzzlingly, but otherwise leave you unaccosted.
Passing through campus on the way back to pick up a crystal identical to your current one, you encounter a group of young people dressed in uniform. You ask them questions, pertaining to whether or not they actually belong to the military. They say that they are soldiers, not quite residents of the city, coming here to learn about modern warfare.
Their destination? Returning to live-fire exercises after taking a break during a cease-fire. A perfect opportunity.
Off in a corner of the campus, surrounded by a glass barrier infiltrated by the glassy vines of a single millennium-old translucent silver tree the class is utilizing high-explosive magic to lob projectiles at targets outside of visual range. A mortars class, basically.
Everyone's wearing a uniform.
You don't quite feel welcome here, your corporate-styled uniform attracting many untoward glances and stares. You watch the students set up their instruments, what basically look like howitzers, except that a wavegear takes the place of the breech-block and requires an operator to manually trigger it. You place your staff next to it and depress the switch which connects the antenna channel to the engram itself, and then when the student ignites the artillery piece [5], your staff takes on the waveform. It's now an explosion-staff, much like your ears are now exploded by the blast wave. You can switch the crystals at any time, it even has a revolving wheel for fast switching between up to 5 crystals.
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Topic: Antinomy of the Five Spectra (IC) -- The Academy Exam (Read 17787 times)