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[IronyOwl]

"Very well, I'll leave it to you two for now."

Alaric will leave governance to Darius Telvin and Darius Telvin for now, and focus on reckless magical experimentation.

[flazeo25]

I know that both elder Da...Dari Ayala bit on her tongue indicating about Darius Telvin (no relations) and eh, Darius then glancing at Darius Telvin both were better at keeping the tower organized when mentor was still here, but are you's sure! You's are able to oversee a entire land considering even mentor barely paid attention to it. she then rubs her hands over her eyes scratching a itch building up there. But... if you's want to run then I don't see any need to get too involved all I want is focus on uncovering mentor death and helping others but first I should probally take on others to assist me in it. Ayala finally went silent.

Ayala will leave governance for now to others, while spending time looking for apprentice, then spend time on building a new spell if she has any time left.

[micelus]

Darius Telvin does the following.

1. Look into what sources of income *we* have.
2. Begin hiring scribes and couriers.
3. Go out and meet with the various village elders and headsmen/headswomen throughout the country, talking about implementing a more formalised relationship as mentioned previously:

"But I believe most of us actually want this land. In which case, we have work to do. As I previously mentioned, I don't like the idea of divvying up this land. Turning one big shit-stain into five smaller shit-stains doesn't help us much. Instead, we ought formalise our relationship with the village elders and headsmen of the various hamlets and villages and the town below. Give them fancy titles with rights and responsibilities. Namely, we promise to consult them on relevant plans and policies that impact their local areas, protect them from outside threats, grant title holders the right to court mediation and mediate between issues between titleholders within the Magelands.  In return, they will offer a customary 35% of all gross production of their local areas, house/feed central government officials assigned to their local areas, and supply levies in times of war."

"Furthemore, the plan Telvin and I have written stipulates the creation of a parle deu merits, as more refined folks call it. It would be a 50-person body of appointed officials taken from throughout the country. Each member would represent their local area and be appointed by however each area wishes to select their representative. These persons will be brought to the capital, housed as central government officials and given a fancy title. Their duty will be to advise us on issues that come up and suggest courses of action."

[Supernerd]

Suspicious of every single one of the other disciples, William would focus his efforts on studying, and unravelling the remaining secrets of the Archmage's tower. William was certain that there were still many things that his master had never taught his students.

[IronyOwl]

Alaric will begin experimenting with plant-flesh hybrids, both for its own sake and to produce frost-resistant crops.

[Glass]

Darius Telvin will spend his time scrying for people of particular note within the Magelands that are not his colleagues: some particularly accomplished citizens, some particularly successful headsmen, and, most importantly, people with the potential to do well at learning magic.

[Ghazkull]

The Little Black Book

As the small conclave is breaking up it becomes clear that no one is intent on figuring out the Archmages death for now.

It is a commonly accepted fact that mages are loners and it is no different in the Magelands, all five former apprentices wander off to their own devices...one of the Telvins (the one that has no relation to the other), decides to look into how the little Magocracy was ruled...after all without money, no resources, tools, helpers and subjects for magical experimentation!

The discovery of the income flows is actually not that complicated as the old Archmage already had a scribe in his employ who would take care of matters of the treasury...to a degree. A single ledger is handed to Darius, something that rings every single alarm in his head...you cannot run an entire kingdoms economy with just one ledger after all...

(to be continued in All the Kings Men and all the Kings Horses...)

Darius Telvin gained the Ledger with the Magocracies treasury details...

___________________________

The Hunt for Everything

While some concentrated on the workings of the State, others turned back to their studies. Ayala, not one to let grief get in the way of Magical Science, begins approaching the local blacksmiths for various items. It quickly turns out that the Old Man in his years had hired several people for the little town and so it had a suprisingly large pool of specialists for such a small town.

The Master Blacksmith, Herold, is a man who has created a number of things for the Old Archmage. He is however a normal smith and being the best smith in the Magelands doesn't exactly mean much in the grander view of the world. His work is solid though and he can provide Ayala with the requested rabbit cages and some basic tools. Surgical equipment is simply beyond him, considering the strict requirements of such, he can make some butchers and hunters knifes which serve the purpose of butchering a caracass just well, but won't exactly be useful for methodical and finnicky finework. He is aware of the surgical instrument issue and points Ayala to Cold Harbor, where apparently some rich merchant had been the main supplier of the Archmage.

as the matter turns towards payment, Herold simply waves her off, and says "I know where to send the receipts don't worry."
Leaving Ayala with the sizeable sum she had made off the local butchers and hunters for the variety of animals she had caught earlier in the day.

(continued in the "Science of Cutting Things Open"
Ayala has aquired a number of Cages for her laboratory
Ayala has aquired about 50 hacksilver from selling off captured animals
Ayala has aquired blood samples from deers, foxes and rabbits.
Ayala has aquired one live rabbit

___________________________

The Lay of the Tower

It turns out that the tower of the archmage is larger on the inside than on the outside. Most of the apprentices had been aware of this and had explored the tower to some degree at various points in their life but none had ever seriously tried to plumb its secrets. Especially since the Old Man didn't like hapless apprentices snooping around. Witht he Old Man gone, however William was not bound by the commandements of the old man anymore.

The initial tower exploration is mundane and disappointing. the ground floor is straight forward, guard rooms, barracks and the outlying kitchens, stables and servants quarters. the first basement seems to lead to the storage areas for food and drinks, while the first floor is taken up by the Audience Hall, which is at the same time comfy and commanding of respect. A strange mixture of rustic and elegant. Large enough to host over a hundred guests, it seems strangely large for the confines in which it is situated. The floors above that contain your various quarters, chambers and laboratories, as well as rooms the Archmage used to teach you in and the small library all of you had free access to. Higher still lies the Council Rooms and the access to the upper floors...

(continued in Lay of the Tower Part II)

[Ghazkull]

All the Kings Men and all the Kings Horses...

The Telvins (no relation) despite their similiar names, are fundamentally different people, nonetheless the two have often worked together even during their early days as apprentices. What formed that attraction was not quite clear as both seemed so wholly different as to be nearly opposites.

Whatever the reason may be, they worked together well and While Darius took care of the mundane things mostly, it was Darius who used his chosen field of magic to achieve the mundane with the supernatural.

Both were looking for the intelligentsia of the Magelands, scribes, headsmen and village elders, accomplished people to fill the ranks of government the two had envisioned. While Darius kept it to the functions of goverment, Darius decided to go further than that and look into anyone of note in the country, more specifically also people with magical abilities.

They looked, they found, they weighed and measured...and found them wanting.

Lacking any formal education system, or any religious faith who might take up something like it, the country was even more denuded of people who could read and write than was usually common for medieval countries.

The entirety of the Magelands possessed the Old Mans private scribe, two in the employ of the Mayor of North Road, one in the south working for the Baron of Wrath, aswell as roughly two dozen working in the employ of a merchant in Cold Harbor...all of them well paid and more than happy to stay where they were.

Worse, it seemed that Despite Darius best attempts scrying for anyone of magical talent was pointless. His abilities were not as grand as he sometimes liked to make them out...and the other half of scrying was equipment which he mostly lacked.

Nonetheless both working together managed to draw up the people of note in the country: The Mayor of North Road, the Baron of Wrath and Hyburn the Merchant of Cold Harbor. While Cold Harbor also had two more merchants and a mayor, all three were irrelevant compared to Hyburn. beyond that, there were the heads of about two dozen villages and the mayor of Archmages Tower, who curiously also was a Smith and had worked with the Archmage before. Theoretically one could start inviting the heads of the various small farming communities but those were so many and of such lack of importance that one might as well not bother when it came to the functions of government.

Even thinner on the ground were couriers. The entirety of the Magelands had one...in the employ of the Old Man. One Quicktap, who was more of a free agent than a permanent hire. At least he had recieved a number of magical artifacts helping him in his chosen vocation and allowing him to travel inordinately fast for a mortal human.

(to be continued in A lack of Government)

[Ghazkull]

A Lack of Government

While Darius (no relation) began looking now for people of magical capabilities, the other turned towards actually establishing a government. It took some weeks but eventually the important people of the State were coming together, Hyburn the Merchant, the Baron of Wrath and The Mayors of North Road and Archmages Tower.

4 men of importance, and 20 more village elders who were as varied as they were confused as to their reason for being at the Archmages tower...

Back with Darius (the other one), it turned out that scrying for such specific details as untapped magical potential was far more complex than first anticipated, this was a ritual of a complexity beyond him...for now, it would take time, effort, creativity and potentially some resources to craft a device for searching something as specific as a magically adept person, much less master its use.

The Heads of the Magelands have assembled as requested at the Archmages Tower
Darius is unsuccesful in his attempts to find apprentices by means of scrying

The Science of Cutting things open...

Ayala had decided upon more mundane means of finding apprentices. Cold Harbor possessed the singular Orphanage in the Magelands, a place she had known well and in which she hoped to find children with potential. For now it meant attempting to recognize Magical Resonance within the children. A very ineffective way but the only one she knew she could use and reliably find someone.

Back in the day the Orphanage had been small, but these days it seemed to have massively grown. More than a hundred children lived here...but in the end she could only find 5 worthy of being apprentices...at least with Ayalas flawed technique. Out of these three were average, one showed barely enough potential to be even considered and 1 showed to be quite the prodigy, a little girl of eight.
Time would tell what could be teased forth from these children.

Paying the Orphanage Caretaker a considerable sum and then putting in further orders at the carpenters, for bunk beds and chests, Ayala returned to the tower settling the children, before going back to her studies.

_____________

In her lab, far away from the noisy crowd of wide-eyed orphans she began early experimentation and it was promising, the clotting of blood as well as its multiplication on the blood samples and the rabbit both proved quite easy and uncomplicated.

With this simple expansion of her previous spell range she was now able to produce small quantities of blood via cell multiplication (although she would feel woozy beyond a litre) as well as ensure that cut wounds could be clotted over.

Ayala buys 5 apprentices for 500 hacksilver as well as 4 bunkbeds and eight chests, which are all delivered to the Archmages tower.
The Archmages tower now conains one small apprentice quarter.
Ayala learns how to close cutting wounds and produce blood with her own bodily energy. (aka the mass and energy for the blood multiplication is taken from your body).

____________________

The Bottom Line

A day before the arrival of the heads of the Magelands, Darius was sitting poring over the little black book, when the tired looking butcher of the tower came in. "i have a bunch of letters for you!"

unceremoniously he drops them in front of Darius who to his horror finds a series of bills contained within them.

Cages, Iron 50 Hacksilver
Orphans, 5 500 Hacksilver
4 Bunkbeds, two person 100 Hacksilver
8 chests, wooden 100 Hacksilver

More than 750 Hacksilver in total, from a treasury which was as of now non-existent...


The Lay of the Tower II

William is well aware of the Councilchambers which are some of the most secure rooms in the realm, preventing access to anyone but the five apprentices and the Old Man. At the end of the room lies the door with the stairs to the Archmages rooms. You climb them cautiously afraid of any traps, but find the room easy to access

His study and sleeping chambers are both mundane, if lavish, you notice however that all of it is heavily enchanted with magics beyond you. within his study you find a large bound codex, which after some time leafing through it turns out to be his diary. You find another room leading further up the tower but magical fields beyond you prevent you from entering them. Finally there is a small library, within which books on magical field theory, runic enchantments and various books on legends and mythologies are contained. It seems the true treasure trove of the tower is locked away...for now.

Lichen

Your theory is thus: lichen and moss grow on almost any surface, therefore it should be the easiest plant to attach to a living creature, i.e. a rat. And so you get to work...the result is disappointing, without any clear plan in mind, you fail to find a meaningful way to alter either the lichen or the rat. Blake is more than happy to eat the lichen, though...


End of Turn 1

(that took way longer than it should have...for that, my apologies)

[micelus]

Talking to himself, the tower, a few rats he knew were scurrying around and perhaps (if he was lucky) the ghost of a fool, Darius whispered (in a screaming sense)

"My master was an idiot."

[micelus]

Darius alerts whatever magisters he can find to a most interesting development.

"The good news: The Most Revered Master invested a lot into this tower."

"The bad news: We're broke."

"The sombre news: do ANY of you have any ideas so that we can stop being broke, before I exercise the bureaucratic manner of revenue collection? Ones that won't result in our heads getting chopped?"