Turn 3: In which Oak and Dalia talk to fairiesTeaching in OckellNon-magic action: Teach Class B about Arts, Affinities, and any similarly fundamental magical concepts.
You explain the fundamentals of magical theory to Class B.
[2]
Sadly, they don't seem that interested in magical theory - abstraction isn't their thing. You manage to get across the absolute basics.
Magical action: Start building upon the anatomical knowledge of Class A to teach them healing charms. Or even golem-based techniques for healing flesh, if those can safely be performed on a living human. Start with numbing charms that have a limited time span, and move onto closing small cuts and similar minor wounds. They're allowed to practice on Vids himself, though only one student at a time, and he will cause the wounds and direct them carefully.
Class B will be taught the basics of anatomy and life magic, as Class A was last month. Again, pay attention and look for students who show special aptitude for the material; Vids wants apprentices!
Your attempts to teach Class A healing charms are cut short, first because they refuse to believe that they are capable of performing magic, and then because Dalia and Oak take them away to the Mosswoods, either to make wine, pick herbs, enhance their magic, or perform horrifying experiments, depending who you ask. So you focus your attention on Class B instead, starting with anatomy and life magic.
[6]
They take to this almost too well, as Class B is prone to do. They seem especially curious when it comes to the way force is distributed through the human frame, and the magical forces involved in both golems and animals, one child taking copious notes in a slow but careful hand. Rachel seems especially interested, asking questions after class.
Healing charms are an extremely safe and well known form of flesh magic, and shouldn't be too hard to teach. Golem-based techniques on living flesh... well, that can get messy. You stick to charms.
[4]
The students of Class B are soon capable of applying local anaesthetic charms, healing small cuts, and making bruises fade away. This is a pretty good result, and will hopefully spare you the sight of the horribly scabby knees youngsters of that age tend to have.
"Bah, this is ridiculous. Why so obsessed about having magic, anyway? Having magic is unnecessary. If you're educated enough to know about how magic works and smart enough to use it to your advantage, finding magic is just a small inconvenience. Now, I'm not saying that you don't have magical abilities. I'm saying that even if you don't, you'd be idiots to waste this chance to learn about the thing that will soon turn this entire world upside down. Wizards will change everything. Having someone that knows how they work and how to handle them will be invaluable. Did you see all those grown ups the other day, shaking in their boots, from the mayor to the lowest commoner? That is the fear and inability to act borne out of ignorance. Imagine how much better you could be in their place, even with the little knowledge your have now. Imagine yourselves as a Mayor that can guide his or her people and make the right decisions in this changing world. Imagine yourself as an advisor to an entrepreneur, guiding their investments, protecting them from quacks claiming to be wizards. Imagine being someone who could use and maintain magical devices, who could use them to heal people, to catch criminals, to fly through the skies with magical ships, to be heroes!"
Try to convince the children that having magic is unnecessary to use magic and that even if they don't have magic knowing about magic is still useful. Continue teaching them if successful, hopefully I can get them to build some working magical device this time around.
Class A are somewhat convinced by your arguments, and resignedly return to studying for a week, before the plant mages load them onto several carts filled with grapes and take them off to the Mosswoods.
[3]
They improve a little in mathematics and scientific literacy, but don't manage any magic.
Class A being away, you turn your attention to Class B, attempting to teach them some of the basic theory behind magic and tinkering.
[5]
The students take to it quite well, and nothing untoward happens. They learn the foundational concepts behind magic, the system of Arts and Affinities, and the basics of tinkering too. There isn't time in their already packed schedule to start building actual magical devices, but that shouldn't be too far beyond their capabilities.
Non Magic Action: Lead Class B around town, performing ritual acts of apology and requiring them to make amends for their accidental misdeeds.
Magic Action: Describe, demonstrate, and perform a magical affinity ritual (or series of rituals) with Class A (and if there is time, Class B as well). I can think of a few examples of said rituals, but there are probably too many to catalogue. Hopefully the other teachers will assist with the rituals for their specialities.
As class A refuses to even attempt magic at the start of the month, and is subsequently whisked away to the Mosswoods by Oak and Dalia, you again focus your attention on the talented students of class B.
You start by teaching the students the ritual act of apology, visiting each of the townsfolk affected by their experiments in wild magic and asking the students specifically at fault to admit their wrongdoing.
[2]
It doesn't help much. The people of Ockell have their own rituals for dealing with those that have wronged them, the most common being that ancient and venerable custom known as "holding a grudge". The children on the other hand, while willing to apologise, are more interested in what their spells accomplished than the effect this might have had on someone else's day. This attitude is generally pretty clear to the townsfolk.
You move on to demonstrations of affinity-based ritual magic, sticking to fairly simple ones: making an offering to a hearth for constant warmth and light, throwing gold into the Gef for favourable fishing, praying to tree spirits to protect an orchard. All very basic stuff from your point of view.
[5]
The demonstrations go excellently. The children learn more about ritual magic, and are probably capable of performing small rituals on their own once you complete the final demonstration, blessing the bedrooms of an inn to safeguard against nightmares. Not only do the students learn well, but a series of small but helpful rituals performed around Ockell endear you to the townsfolk.
The Mosswoods"Well, Mister Hori, I plan on venturing into the Mosswoods this month, so you can tag along if you'd like to."
Non-Magical Action: Announce to Class A and B that I plan on going to the Mosswoods, and anybody that picks a basket of grapes can tag along. Sell the trip to them, talking of opportunities to meet kind fay spirits and find valuable magical herbs and plants which they can sell for a fortune. Add that anything they find or pick is theirs!
Magical Action: Once I (and any children and the grapes) reach the Mosswoods, transform myself into a wise, respectful-looking treant and try to find some faeries (or other creatures) to brew my grapes into wine. If anything asks why I have a flock of human children following me around, say solemnly with my tree sap leaking that they are orphans I took pity on and took in out of kindness.
Try convincing members of Class A to come with me to the Mosswoods, so that the fey can assist with unlocking the students’ magic
A week or so into the month, Oak and Dalia hire several carts and oxen, pack some essentials, and tell Class A that they're going to the Mosswoods. The students hastily harvest Oak's vineyard, Dalia's plant magic helping speed up the process the tiniest bit, and load the grapes up. The road north to the Mosswoods mostly follows the coast, so sea breezes blow in the your hair as a series of heavily laden carts wind their way through wilder and wilder countryside, the land becoming less inhabited and more overgrown as you progress. After several days of travelling, the twelve arrive at the Mosswoods.
The sombre trunks of the huge pine trees on the fringes of the woods block any view of the interior, and the path in is barely wide enough for the carts. Oak leads the way, striding along in the form of an eight-foot, venerable treant, knees creaking and leaves rustling. Dalia brings up the rear, calm but watchful, as one should be when entering a fairy wood. The pines soon give way to older, stranger trees, the black bark of their trunks often hidden by the lush moss that gives these woods their name. The interior is quiet, and almost dim, the canopy so thick as to give a sense of perpetual twilight.
It's hard to say how long you've been walking in woods like these, but after more than a minute, and less than a day, a deer crosses your path. Not just any deer, but a stag, wearing a red bow tie and a straw boater. Fairy woods are strange places. The animal stops and looks at you.
"What luck! Welcome to the Mosswoods, friends. I'm afraid I can't stay long, as I'm in a spot of bother at the moment, being hunted and all that. It's nothing personal, it's just that I'd rather not die just yet. You couldn't keep the hunters talking for a minute, could you? It certain wouldn't hurt my chances."
With that, the deer bolts. Sure enough, after a few minutes, the hunters arrive.
Their leader is unmistakeably fay. The lines of her face sharp as holly, and her skin as pale as a lichen, the tips of her pointed ears are as high as Oak's canopy, even in the hulking tree-person form he's chosen. A silver circlet rests on her brow, and she holds an ornate bow in one hand, and a long, slender arrow in the other. The rest of the hunters are of various sizes, all apparently the same species of fairy. Some run, the smallest ride large rodents and birds, and some sit astride huge, green mosswolves, dark sides heaving and white gums dripping with saliva.
Oak steps forward, and introduces himself and his charges as a humble treant and a group of orphans. As he spins out his sob story involving an exploded orphanage, the need to support himself and ten children, and discriminatory West Isle employment laws that force ents into working in the wine industry, the Fairy Queen's features twist into an amused smile. She greets the party by name, bowing slightly to Dalia and rather archly commiserating with the children about the loss of their orphanage. She then invites the mages and their students to stay for the remainder of the month, enjoying fairy hospitality. It is not an offer to be turned down lightly, coming from a fay monarch.
The twelve humans spend the next few weeks in the Mosswoods, talking to the strange and wonderful animals and fairies that inhabit it, wandering the woods and studying the herbs and flowers peculiar to the forest. The fay largely ignore the humans, going about their strange business in front of them, apart from the occasional practical joke. They're even lucky enough to witness the workings of the fairy court.
Oak's request is met with the approval of the Fairy Queen, as she agrees to brew his magically-grown grapes into fairy wine. The resulting drink is not like the black wines of the Mosswoods, made from grapes borne by thousand year old trees. Instead, it is a deep crimson, tiny motes of swirling magic just visible through the side of a glass. The Fairy Queen gives Oak two barrels at the end of the month.
"The grapes you grew were full and ripe, shapeshifter, but were grown in winter, at an unnatural pace. Wine made from such grapes could never give the gift of prophecy. Nonetheless, my servants did imbue the mixture with a little of the magic of the Mosswoods. One who drinks this wine, if well versed in the Arts, might look deep into this Isle's past."Dalia also approaches the monarch, asking her to help draw out the children's magical potential.
"A strange request. There are four in Ockell capable of starting the children upon the path of the wizard, and two more right before my eyes. The children can scarcely think that they lack these powers, when one has already cast a spell. Nonetheless, I will ask my enchanters to do what they can."[1]
The lessons in fairy magic do not go well. The enchanters of the fairy queen are beings of strange and terrible aspect, great horns and fangs and teeth gleaming in the rays of sunlight that penetrate the canopy, their shaggy or moss-covered bulk mostly hidden in the shadows of huge trees. The children can barely bring themselves to sit down in front of the horrendous forms of their teachers, and seldom profit when they do. The arts practiced by the fay enchanters are deep and twisted, hardly meant for the eyes of humans, and often seem to the children like cruel pranks. The students attempt to practice simple spells or visit Mosswood shrines to perform the smallest of rituals, only to find themselves transformed into woodland animals or lost for days in the depths of the forest. None are seriously hurt, but many wake up cold and covered in dew after a night of wandering through enchanted woods, or find themselves pursued by wild creatures mentioned only in fairy tales. Only Irene, a girl from a village in the mountains, shows any affinity for the magic of fairies, sucessfully learning the arts of transformation and illusion the fairies practice, and walking unharmed through the shadowy gullies and over the treacherous rivers of the woods.
The children no longer believe that they cannot perform magic, some having drawn upon natural reserves of arcane potential to escape the vicious beasts and strange denizens of the Mosswoods, the occult power of their surroundings and the desperation of their circumstances drawing out their magical ability. For the most part, they now have a deep-seated distrust of fay, a distaste for trees and nature, and a horror of transformations. They're certainly keen to get back to Ockell as soon as possible, and spend most of their time outside of lessons huddled together in a glade, peering nervously into the shadows.
Dalia and Oak on the other hand fare well, as their magical specialisms equip them well for life in an enchanted forest. The fairy court shows marvellous hospitality, inviting the guests to feasts and revels, even putting on dances. The two teachers reach the end of the month healthy and brimming with magical energy.
Magim's TinkeringMagic action: Build several Dream grenades. If all goes well, upon detonation they cause all events within a few meters to be as consequenceless as a dream for a dozen seconds or so; at the end of the effect, the events undo themselves, leaving only memories. Magim honestly doesn't even know what he would use these for. But, well, sometimes you just get an idea. Even in a best-case scenario, the precise range, duration, and meaning of the word "consequenceless" are likely to vary. Sadly, seeing as how Magim suspects this project is out of his league, a best-case scenario is unlikely; hopefully at the very least he doesn't set one off by accident.
The dream grenades are not easy to make, as they involve some quite complex reality manipulation techniques and a bit more tinkering than you're really comfortable with.
[6]You end up creating half a dozen mechanical artifacts packed with tremendous quantities of dream energy. Upon detonation, they don't so much make nearby events consequenceless as change whatever nearby events are occurring to an explosion, leaving a small and rapidly fading area of disrupted causality in their wake. So rather than undoing events, they blow stuff up.
They're grenades. You made grenades.
Is it possible for teachers to study Arts and/or Affinities?
It is possible, although it won't be easy to become adept in a second Art or Affinity, seeing as you've spent a great deal of your adult life learning your own specialism. Children tend to learn faster, for a variety of reasons.
Teachers
All - A little gold of their own, the necessaries for praciticing their magical specialism to a reasonable degree, and draws a teacher's salary in monthly offworld gold payments.
Magim Somar'ahneiro - Dream-based water purifier, Dream grenades (6)
Oak Greensleeves - Two barrels of Fay wine (affords visions of the past)
Dr. Kansei Ifto - Nothing yet
Dalia Hemsworth - Nothing yet
Vids Iretineulqkin - Nothing yet
Hori Heera - Nothing yet
Students
Class A - Strong understanding of fundamentals of magical theory. Rudimentary understanding of human body, decent knowledge of mechnical principles. Strong dislike of nature, transformation, and especially Fay.
Class B - Used to casting spells, strong understanding of basic magical theory. Worrying confidence with golem magic. Strong understanding of contractual magic, especially its dangers - capable of performing small rituals. Understanding of basics of life magic and tinkering, can perform some healing charms.
School building
Living wood and plant bedrooms and dormitories.
Floating teaching rooms and studies, held up by a Kinetic Negator made by Dr. Kansei Ifto.
Room of Dreams, accidentally created by Magim Somar'ahneiro.
Reputation
The wizards are well thought of in Ockell, thanks to the impressive construction methods used. Vids is particularly liked, after helping in the local hospital. Hori Heera is also liked.
The students are less liked, due to a series of accidents involving wild magic.
Author
Topic: Re: Wizard School RTD: Turn 4 (Read 12359 times)