Your briefly feel the urge to faint, but you press on anyways, not wanting to undermine your apparent heroism in front of the crew. Instead, you inform them that you'll be going up into the crows nest to have a look around. They agree that this is a good idea, since none of them know much about sailing. You refrain from mentioning that you don't either.
After a long and painful trip up the rigging, you finally make it to the crows nest. There are no ravens to be found, nor any birds at all. Not even a seagull. Instead, there is an elderly man with a bushy white beard dressed in a long blue robe and a bizzare cloak made out of a mix of leather, furs, dangling feathers and what appears to be scales of some sort. He speaks with the same voice as that of the raven from before:
"Hello, Kabul. Yes, I know your name. Wizards know many things and the dead know still more. I am both: the ghost of the Blue Wizard Randoff, dead for three days and returned to the realm of the living to instruct you in becoming my apprentice."
For the next few hours, you are instructed in the very basics of magic:
There are about a hundred "orders" of wizardry left in the world, passed on from master to apprentice just as Randoff is passing his magic on to you now. As Randoff's apprentice, you are to become the next blue wizard and take up his duties as the wizard of of Wizard's Rock a few miles south of here, where a previous blue wizard set up house in an ancient lighthouse offshore.
Each wizard, including you now, gets to cast 42 spells during their life. Nobody can get more spells, nor can they lose spells without casting them. Casting a spell is as simple as thinking what you want and saying the magic word. The spells are as follows:
Thirteen curses. You get to bring thirteen bits of semi-sentient malevolent magic into the world. A curse is fueled by human malice and will continously exert its power to harm whatever it is you are thinking of when you cast the spell in the way you were thinking of harming them. Curse spells can also be used to counter other curses by cursing the original curse to fail.
Eleven transformations. By making a cloak out of the hair or skin of an animal and focusing on that animal as you cast your spell, you can enchant a cloak to allow you to transform you into the animal whenever you draw it around you and pull up the hood. This allows you to pick eleven animals total (as many times per animal as you want) and probably explains Randoff's weird fur-feather-scale cloak.
Seven Illusions. You can make or break seven illusions, be they magical or mundane. Each illusion near-perfectly disguises one thing as another. To create an illusion, you must imagine the illusion you wish to create, then cast your spell, while to break an illusion you must focus on revealing the truth. Each illusion you make costs you the ability to produce one of the seven basic musical notes and each illusion you break blinds you to a single colour of the rainbow.
Five Divinations. You can cast five divinations, revealing a clairvoyant "vision" of that which you seek involving a single sense, be it sight, sound, scent, touch or taste. Each divination permanently costs you the use of the sense used.
Three Prophecies. You can beseech the Fates to give you up to three prophecies, one of a birth, one of a life and one of a death. Each prophecy is absolute and will come true, but you have no control over what will be prophesized.
Two Healings. By placing your hand on someone and saying the magic word, you can completely heal them of all injuries, poisons, diseases, etc. once at the cost of rendering that hand incapable of grasping any object which has drawn blood.
One Apprentice Spell. You know what this one does, I just explained it.
Finally, after a long and rambling disseration about how magic works, the elderly wizard gives you a silver ring, saying that you'll need it to get into the tower, and instructions as to where to find the tower and where to find the graveyard to bury him once you get there.
Now would be a good time to ask any questions you might have. The sun will be up in an hour, so you have time for about three.
Items:
-A dirk. Used to kill a pirate captain.
-Horrible slave rags.
-A silver ring bearing the mark of the blue wizard.
Spells Left:
[1/1] Apprentice Spell.
[2/2] Healings.
[3/3] Prophecies.
[5/5] Divinations.
[7/7] Illusions.
[11/11] Transformations.
[13/13] Curses.
Spells Cast:
None!
Author
Topic: You Are an Blue Wizard! (Read 4405 times)