Time Passes> Haste
> MaintainThese actions are carried out with little fuss or bother.
[-1 Mana]> Improve mana trapYou eventually finish a fragile, carefully curled pipe. Purposefully narrow, when a strong stream of mana rushes into it through a funnel, the whole thing vibrates on a metaphysical level, causing some of the mana stream to be scattered into the structure of the pipe itself. The pipe itself then becomes expanded with hollow globules slowly filling up with scattered mana, which you can absorb at leisure.
However, you almost immediately realize the construction is too fragile, not being able to handle the pressure of the unified stream flowing out of the vortex, and spent a large amount of mana to strengthen it. In retrospect, you may have spent more than was needed, but at least your mana trap is pretty sturdy now.
Due to the nature of the Mana Trap, an Impeder would interfere with its workings, so you let the impeder dissolve once the trap is completed. While the mana trap does increase your mana absorption somewhat, its chief advantage over the Impeder is that it doesn't need constant maintenance, freeing your attention for other pursuits.
[Improved Mana Theory. Mana Trap Created. -3 Mana]
> Steal life force of animalInterested in the animating energies of animals, you patiently wait for one to touch your surface. Finally a small beetle crawls across the rocky contours of your form. Slowly, you extrude a tendril of magical power, lightly touching the beetle. Before you can try sucking out its own energy however, the beetle explodes, it's tiny body apparently being overloaded with more energy than it could handle from the mere touch of a small tendril.
It would seem animals cannot handle the same amounts of mana as rocks. This invalidates another idea you had of using your current form of telekinesis to move some animals closer to you, as it would likely just cause them to explode.
So you wait some more, this time some ants scurry about, foraging for pieces of exploded beetle. You strain, the tiniest thread of power you are capable of forming emerging, and slowly entering a ant. It promptly explodes. As the ants rush about looking for their attacker, you ponder this dilemma.
How were you able to use
Sense Link if the smallest touch causes creatures to explode? It seems self-evident that the size of the animal might be related, as it becomes harder to effect things the larger they are, but is that all?
You experiment with
Sense Link for a while, sharing the awareness of nearby sedentary, web-spinning spider. You pay close attention to what you do while forming the link that you had done instinctively the first time. The spider does indeed not explode, you notice the mana moves in a specific organized fashion, interfacing delicately with the spider, rather than the crude probing you had attempted earlier. However, how this specific order relates to the lack of explosion, and how such could be adapted to sucking the life from creatures still eludes you at the moment.
It might help if you had access to larger creatures though?
[Learned Explosion Spell. Slightly increased mana finesse. -2 Mana]
What do you do over the next decade? (Pick Two)(Haste can be cast for an extra action, costing 1 mana)
> Experimenting (what? include mana used)
> The Sense Link bridges the gap between your mind and that of the target animal, sending its sensory input to you. What if you reversed the flow and send something to it instead? Some false memory or sensation? Maybe you could induce artificial terror? This holds potential... (Costs 1 Mana)
> Going upstream. If you spent mana to counteract the flow you might be able to travel up your leyline, possible even discovering its source! (specify how much mana to spend)
> You could try to explore down the leyline again, hopefully with better results this time. Perhaps you could spend some mana, both to shield you from the buffeting and mitigate the attenuation, so you have a better view of the world beyond the leyline as you travel along it? (If you spend mana, specify how much)
> Why have the leylines taken the particular fixed paths they have through the landscape? You cannot sense any underlying pattern or reason behind this. If you could understand this, it should be easier to prevent leylines from jumping back to the old groove once you move them. You believe you'd get some insight into this mystery if you infuse mana into the area around leyline, saturating it with raw power until the secret is revealed to you. (Specify amount of mana to spend)
> While the Mana Impeder and Mana Trap has improved your mana income, it is still ultimately passive absorption. If you could somehow "invert" the mana inside you for a lack of a better term, you might be able to form a sort of suction source, pulling in surrounding mana into your being. (Requires stored mana to invert)
> If it is possible for lightning to become mana, might the opposite perhaps be true? You would like to try forming mana into lightning. (Requires mana, specify how much)
> Rather than forming the substance itself, you would like to see what happens when mana mimics lightning's movements, striking a object with blinding speed. (Requires mana, specify how much)
> Something Else?
*New*> You believe you could possible further expand the mana trap, but it would be a tricky, time consuming process, with a large amount of mana needed. (Requires two actions, Needs an investiture of at least 4 mana)
> While building the mana trap, you noticed a odd quirk about the vortex. More mana seems to flow out if than does into it. In addition, the outflow has a slightly different tinge to its essence. You believe interesting things could come from investigating this further. (Mana can be invested but does not need to be.)
> If it is not possible to interact directly with animals outside the bound of Sense Link without causing them to explode, what of interacting with the very air around them? This indirect telekinesis might prove an elegant solution to bringing live animals to you without reducing them to useless chunks of flesh. (Requires mana)
Mana Pool: 6/?? Mana
Mana Income: (3(Base)+1(Mana Trap))*2(Mana Trap)= 8 Mana/decade
Your weight: 10 metric tonnes
Sensory Range: 100 metres
Closest Non-"Owned" Leyline: 37 Metres
Rudimentary Leyline Manipulation : You can spend mana to interact with the leylines, twisting, pushing, pulling, stretching and holding them.
- Leyline Divination : You can send your awareness out along the leylines. You believe you can get better results if you commit mana to doing this.
Mana Trap : By twisting mana into a intricately curling and twisting tube, lined with globules on the outside, you can force a strong stream of mana through it, causing the mana to vibrate, with some of it scattering into the pipe, strengthening it and excess flowing into the globules. Cannot be used with an impeder.
Basic Telekinesis: The crude moving of objects through brute force
Explosion : By forcing an amount of raw unformed mana into an animal you can make it explode, apparently.
Mana Impeder : You solidify your mental will to hinder the flow of mana through a leyline.
Sense Link : You connect your mind with that of a animal, sharing in the input from its senses. You believe spending more than the minimum of 1 mana would potentially give better results.
Haste : Speeds up your personal timeframe. You feel it might be slightly risky to power this spell with more than 2 mana.