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[Yellow Pixel]

3

[Enemy post]

Either.

You like to keep an open mind. Maybe Tal and you will date someday. Maybe you'll date Mayor Cos instead—he's cute. Who knows?

Following the building on your right, you go farther down the green until you encounter a small door labeled "BIBLIOVALTUS CURATORES." Library staff.

"Library!" You try the door, but it's locked.

"Not a problem." Tal fires up her luxgladius and slices through the door hinges and lock. The heated metal, glowing orange, drips down and becomes unusable. Then Tal gives the door a good solid kick, and it falls down with a bang.

The staff room is dark but full of twinkling little eyes.

Descendants of the librarians' cats have apparently spent generations in this small office, living off some automation-powered water and food bowls in the corner. You think you see about twenty long-haired cats in the darkness—on the desk, on the bookshelves, tucked in drawers and boxes. The cats form a continuous shaggy carpet in the small office.

Getting to the other door, which presumably leads into the library proper, would require stepping on a lot of cats.

One cat hisses at you, and the rest join in.

"For the record, I am not killing cats," Tal says.

"I didn't suggest it," you say, but your eyes alight on a few mangled cat corpses near the food bowl, suggesting the cats themselves are quite feral.

1.I cast a glamor. Maybe it works on cats, too.
2.I cast a negation bolt above the cats' heads.
3.One of us can use the luxgladius's light to distract the cats.

Spoiler: Stats (click to show/hide)

As-Yet Nameless Protagonist

Appearance

A bookish, spectacled man wearing a shimmering cloak and a noble duelist's uniform.

Magic
  Negation:1
  Automation:0
  Glamor:0
  Divination:0
  Vivomancy:1

Skills
Ancient History: 2 (Decent)
Fighting: 1 (Bad)
Subtlety: 2 (Decent)
Charisma: 3 (Decent)

Personality
Optimism:50%/Caution:50%   
Humor:50%/Solemnity:50%   
Empathy:39%/Calculation:61%   

Relationships
Romances (Interested romantically, but not sexually, in men and women)
None

Tal: 50 (Fine)
Church: 40 (Bad)
Undiscovered relationships: 4

Tal: 50 (Fine)
Church: 40 (Bad)
Undiscovered relationships: 4

Kingdom
Adoration: 50%/Vilification: 50%

Inventory
Gold: 100 gold
Sword

Students
None

Pets
None

The Dead
The Academy Inquisitor

Plot Points

Chapter 1

You and Tal stumbled on an ancient magic academy.
You discovered a book of vivomancy, and an inquisitor chased you.
You found an ancient dueling ground.
You killed the inquisitor with negation magic.

[Rockeater]

3

[Glass]

3.
Why can’t we just try to pet them though

[BlackPaladin99]

3

[brewer bob]

3

[Enemy post]

Cats like lasers.

You borrow the luxgladius from Tal and fire it up so that it blazes with light.

The cats are all deeply entranced. You try moving it one way, then another, and all their heads follow attentively. (Increased Humor.)

You then try backing up and leading the cats out of the staff room. And they all follow you.

"The next door's unlocked," Tal says, trying the knob. "Let's go."

You make the luxgladius light disappear and run after Tal.

That was fun, you think. Maybe you should get a pet someday.

Your hometown of Akriton has no library; in fact, you don't think there is a public library in the whole Kingdom of Eirinia. When you were young, the word "library" had a similar feel to the words "hoard" or "utopia." A cache of books free for the taking was too good to be true.

Now you are in a library, and it is wonderful. The rows of books may well contain all the knowledge you have ever craved. The musty smell of the old books is intoxicating. And these are not just any books—browsing the titles, it is clear these are tomes of magic. Delicious, forbidden knowledge, ripe for the learning.

The books glow slightly purple. You suspect this is an enchantment of negation that zaps dust and fungus before it can accrue.

"Thanks, Mother," you whisper. Your mother insisted on teaching you the language of the ancients herself when you were young, as her mother taught her, even though the family had never been nobility. You're not sure your mother would approve of the subject matter here, but you're grateful nonetheless.

"Looks like it's your lucky day," Tal murmurs, admiring the rows upon rows of books.

"Yours too, if you want," you say.

"Not if you're suggesting learning magic," Tal says. "You're way braver than I am when it comes to messing with that stuff. Mind if I take some books that just look expensive and mostly not cursed?"

"Sure," you say, although you know whichever books she picks, it will pain you to find that she has sold them.

You hunt for primers in the schools of magic you don't have books for yet: negation, glamor, divination, and automation. The hemispherical magical lights above you are dimmed by dust and long-dead bugs, making it somewhat difficult to read the titles.

"Hey, why is there a 'humor' section in the middle of the other magic?" Tal calls out from a different aisle. "Is that a joke?"

"I remember hearing somewhere that the ancients considered it a kind of magic," you call back. "Don't remember why."

Aspirationally, you also pick up a book called Megali Mageia, "Great Magic." The contents are unintelligible besides the introduction, which promises a cutting-edge look at how to perform incredibly powerful magic. The rest of the book may be too esoteric for you now, but you hope to unlock its secrets with time.

You could spend hours in this library, you think. And why not? For all you know, there was only one inquisitor pursuing you. But then again, for all you know, more inquisitors are even now dousing the academy's wooden buildings with oil and striking a spark. There's no reason the hierophant could not have sent another inquisitor—or two, or three. You'd best not linger overmuch.

As you peruse the books, you notice that an author's name is often more prominent than the bland title of whatever they wrote. You wonder whether your name will survive two thousand years, and what you would be known for if it did.

What is your first name? Names that are longer than three letters are seen as a little pretentious in your hometown of Akriton, though the urban elites of Edra don't see it that way.

1.Bar.
2.Bax.
3.Cor.
4.Del.
5.Eli.
6.Foo.
7.Lar.
8.Ori.
9.Qux.
10.Sal.
11.Tam.
12.Vey.
13.Vix.
14.Zig.
15.Something else.

If you vote "Something else", please include the name you'd prefer.

Spoiler: Stats (click to show/hide)

As-Yet Nameless Protagonist

Appearance

A bookish, spectacled man wearing a shimmering cloak and a noble duelist's uniform.

Magic
  Negation:1
  Automation:0
  Glamor:0
  Divination:0
  Vivomancy:1

Skills
Ancient History: 2 (Decent)
Fighting: 1 (Bad)
Subtlety: 2 (Decent)
Charisma: 3 (Decent)

Personality
Optimism:50%/Caution:50%   
Humor:52%/Solemnity:48%   
Empathy:39%/Calculation:61%   

Relationships
Romances (Interested romantically, but not sexually, in men and women)
None

Tal: 50 (Fine)
Church: 40 (Bad)
Undiscovered relationships: 4

Tal: 50 (Fine)
Church: 40 (Bad)
Undiscovered relationships: 4

Kingdom
Adoration: 50%/Vilification: 50%

Inventory
Gold: 100 gold
Sword

Students
None

Pets
None

The Dead
The Academy Inquisitor

Plot Points

Chapter 1

You and Tal stumbled on an ancient magic academy.
You discovered a book of vivomancy, and an inquisitor chased you.
You found an ancient dueling ground.
You killed the inquisitor with negation magic.
You explored the academy library.

[King Zultan]

15: Bubba

[Rockeater]

1

[brewer bob]

6

[Glass]

13, Vix

[Knightwing64]

6

[Enemy post]

Foo.

And what is your father's name? In your society, before you register for a profession, if you are the son of Lon, you are called Lonson.


1.Bar.
2.Bax.
3.Cor.
4.Del.
5.Eli.
6.Foo.
7.Lar.
8.Ori.
9.Qux.
10.Sal.
11.Tam.
12.Vey.
13.Vix.
14.Zig.
15.Something else.

Spoiler: Stats (click to show/hide)

As-Yet Nameless Protagonist

Appearance

A bookish, spectacled man wearing a shimmering cloak and a noble duelist's uniform.

Magic
  Negation:1
  Automation:0
  Glamor:0
  Divination:0
  Vivomancy:1

Skills
Ancient History: 2 (Decent)
Fighting: 1 (Bad)
Subtlety: 2 (Decent)
Charisma: 3 (Decent)

Personality
Optimism:50%/Caution:50%   
Humor:52%/Solemnity:48%   
Empathy:39%/Calculation:61%   

Relationships
Romances (Interested romantically, but not sexually, in men and women)
None

Tal: 50 (Fine)
Church: 40 (Bad)
Undiscovered relationships: 4

Tal: 50 (Fine)
Church: 40 (Bad)
Undiscovered relationships: 4

Kingdom
Adoration: 50%/Vilification: 50%

Inventory
Gold: 100 gold
Sword

Students
None

Pets
None

The Dead
The Academy Inquisitor

Plot Points

Chapter 1

You and Tal stumbled on an ancient magic academy.
You discovered a book of vivomancy, and an inquisitor chased you.
You found an ancient dueling ground.
You killed the inquisitor with negation magic.
You explored the academy library.

[Glass]

8, Ori.

[brewer bob]

6

Foo again.