In the Red Tower of Power...Niklas, his needs satisfied for the moment, sits down to read "Chanting: The New Method". It looks like a reasonably old book, at least thirty years old from the looks of it, so Niklas suspects the method described may not be all that new. Regardless, he digs in.
The book explains that the 'new method' it deals with is chanting itself, which seems to have been taking the magical world by the storm at the time of the book's writing. Chanting, compared to the then-standard, less effective method of using copious amounts of drugs to get oneself into the proper state of mind for reality alteration, has many virtues. For one, it is rather inexpensive. It is also easy to do (although there is a need for some background knowledge and reasonably good diction), and only in cases of improper use does it have notable side effects!
Chants, it explains, are tools used to attune the mind to a specific task, to concentrate it and remove distractions until only a singular purpose is left. The linguistic construction of chants was found and tested empirically at first, but now the principles are becoming clearer and clearer, though they are a bit too complicated to fully explain here. Due to their great utility and ease of use, chants are rapidly becoming the tool of choice for obtaining magic, the book says. It opens up with what it describes as
the basic chant - the Single Thought Chant. While it was not the first discovered chant (that honor goes to the Empty Mind Chant), it is definitely the most crucial to any who hope to begin to wield magic without engaging in very difficult meditation techniques or extremely dangerous focus creation attempts.
There are several things to remember about chants - firstly, there are several kinds, and these correspond to different modes of thought. The most conventional ones are linear ones, and these include examples like the Single Thought Chant, the Empty Mind Chant, the Listening Chant, the Speaking Chant, the Cold Chant and others. While they are highly useful, they are somewhat limited in the power over the universe they grant - fortunately, there are others as well, for different thinking models. They are fewer in number, but their usage and research has been expanding at the time of writing, and it grants greater versatility, quickness and efficiency of reality alteration. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional thought patterns open up a whole lot of fascinating avenues for chanting and magic, and it is expected that future research will bear quite a lot of fruit.
Secondly, chants are frequently used in conjunction with one another. The most typical patterns are the Single Thought Chant followed by the Empty Mind Chant, and the Cold Chant followed by the Speaking Chant, though the latter serves no purpose in learning magic.
Thirdly, it is highly important to pronounce the chant as precisely, quickly and rhythmically as possible - that way they are most effective, though they may occasionally be too effective in some cases. Usually, when you're trying to chant, you should set aside about five hours of your day to deal with both the chanting itself and the mental aftermath.
In one of Mothdale's alleyways...Scott decides to inform his friend in the other dimension that the portal is perfectly safe - he seems rather pleased!
"It worked! I knew it, Jeremy! I knew it!" it says, then Scott feels a prominent shifting in the area as something brushes past him, moving out of the portal, it seems - as it leaves, the whole place, previously so flooded with light that one could hardly see a thing, becomes immensely, infinitely dark instead, which is a bit of sensory shock for Scott. He looks around a moment, and notices blinding light coming from the portal now.
At the engineers' graveyard of the City of the Dead...After watching the insects scurry for a moment,
Darren decides to check if anything is amiss in the general area. However, the only things he can see are similar to what you'd see anywhere else in this part of town - ancient, still buildings made of steel, no apparent signs of life anywhere in the immediate vicinity. And the only sound, aside from a very distant dripping, seems to be the sound of the insects moving around the graveyard.
In fact, he can't even hear any other constructs in the vicinity. They must not be working very actively in this section of town.
At the harbor of Shriekpot...Within one of the nearby houses,
Sigmund attempts to loot the sword! Sucking it into his mouth, he is rather surprised when it pierces through his mouth, the blade poking out of his body. Nevertheless, he tries to get back to the others before it's too late.
[Sigmund's movement roll: 4-1]
This proves to be... a difficult task, to say the least.
Morton, meanwhile, tries to reach his compatriots as well.
[Morton's movement roll: 1-1]
However, since his movement rate averages out at .5 meters per second, he quickly reconsiders this strategy and tries to lob a flask in
Mark's direction instead.
[Morton's throwing roll: 3]
The flask falls a little short, landing about three meters from Mark's prone form - the glass probably won't be enough to cause serious damage to anybody, but at least it's something!
Mark, who is currently prone and lying next to a canal, tries to get up.
[Mark's balance roll: 6]
Naturally, it's hardly difficult for him to do this at all - with a stylish twirl and an upward leap from a prone position, he manages to regain his standing position without any trouble at all, and tries to finish the grandiose maneuver with a timely prayer, bending his knee and trying to reach the goddess of war herself!
[Screechy vs. Mark: 5+2 vs. 4+3-
1]
His attempts at divine address, though, are disrupted by one of the dolphins whacking him across the tree with his own leg. It's quite unpleasant.
[Punt: McStrange vs. Mark: 4+1 vs. 2+3]
[Punt: Beakley vs. Mark: 1+1 vs. 4+3]
[Counterattack: Mark vs. Beakley: 6+2 vs. 2+1]
After dodging another dolphin, Mark notices the strong-tailed one making a rather dire error - thinking that leap thing it does can surprise anybody more than once or twice. As the creature launches itself at Mark, the skeleton swings his halberd in a diagonal fashion, separating the dolphin messily in half - as the two halves land in the water, Mark suspects it'll stay down. The sight of their comrade perishing, strangely enough, seems to cheer the other dolphins, whose bloodlust only seems to become much more pronounced as a result.
Kevin, meanwhile, looks around for a weapon - it takes him quite a bit of time to notice the worm in the distance - it seems to have somehow stabbed itself with a nice-looking sword! Kevin jogs over to it in a leisurely pace, and takes a moment to remove the weapon.
[Kevin's delicate removal roll: 5]
He even manages to cause very little damage to the worm's mouth in the process! He wonders if the worm is now in his debt, to be honest.
Outside a ruined tavinn in Blynn...Timothy is quite excited about the way the guy seems to be standing up for him!
"Yes! I's gonn' be real helpful! I brings you all da food youse can eat, keeps you all hideaway'd from dem weird peoples in da middle-town, we can goes on adventures together, sees lotsa places, all sortsa fun stuff!" he says, smiling manically before the entire business with how he smashed this guy's legs and livelihood pops back into his memory.
"Er, well, once youse legs is fixed, anyways. Maybe I's not helps so much wif dat, is not uh, a real-goods idea...""Is you knowing abouts fixin' legs an' stuff?" he asks the lady after a short pause.
"What did you do to him, you bastard?" the lady spits out at him instead.
"It was an accident, dear! Don't blame the poor guy!""You messed with his head, didn't you? Didn't you?" she asks furiously of the air, having no notion of where Timothy might be.
"Why? Why would you do that?"
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 564706 times)