Archimage's Story

[Wizz]

"Oh good lets eat!"

 

 

 

"So what is this Ritual you speak of?"

 

 

 

"Oh good question. When I was camping out west with Hawks I made a shrine to recharge my Magicks. It was a fairly crude shrine but it still did the trick. Before I left I snatched up a sharp rock Hawks made and a insignia that I made that was in the Shrine. For the Ritual to work I need to give new life in front of this insignia while the sun is shining. I guess you could say I'm solar-ed powered."

 

I laughed at this.

 

"Well anyway the way I do it is I find a little bit of wood. Make some sort of Box with it, and center the insignia. Then I would take about three or four seeds, bury it in the ground and pour water on it while chanting. Luckily I still have about some Berries with me that I can use to bury, the water I have no idea."

[archimage_a]

It seems, at least, on this planet their technology is enough for running water. I will go and fetch you a pale or a bowl if you need less. Although it doesn't really make much difference as the tap is in the kitchen, which I'm sure you can find. Would you prefer to have a drink before we go up? I think I saw some tea or something tied back to their. In fact I should probably go though the stuff before I set off, the book should help me identify them.

 

 

 

OOC: I am trying out the speech recognition software on my new computer(9 years in the waiting) and it is winding me up with it's know it all attitude. Anyway I am gonna go off and look in the kitchen, just shout if you need anything.

[Wizz]

"Nah, I'll just go find a room and sleep. See you in the Morning."

[archimage_a]

*Thunk*

 

Ohhhhhhh, damn. *Rustling about*

 

Are you?.. Yeah, your fine. Good. Ummm well its morning. Sorry about turning it off last night, I needed some time to get my thoughts about this new person in order and didn't really *Bed springs creak* want to commit to anything I wasn't sure about. Though it means that I have missed a huge portion of biological data that I should have added, but O'ell.

 

 

 

By my reckoning, and it is only my reckoning, it is some point near to the third eigth...which would be nine Am by Earth time. The day is divided into twenty four hours, which then divides into eight threes, hence the third eigth is nine am. In any case it looks like mid morning. Wizz seems to have already left, so I am going to pack my bag and head south.

[archimage_a]

I can see the spires from here. Well, I think they are spires anyway. There are four definate spires, from what appears to be a castle, but there is also another, wider, spire to the...West, according to the maps. Judging from their relative positions I would say that they are over the 'Areas of Trade/Government', so they will make good landmarks.

 

 

 

I am closer now. I have been walking for maybe two hours since I last made a recording and I have come across five abandoned carts now, one can only assume that they were in-transit when the event took place, or they abandoned their carts when they discovered their impending doom...whatever...if ever it was that. One thing of interest is that the carts are missing their cargo...well one of them was carrying an anvil which was still there, and one was carrying sandbags, but neither carried any light cargo. Alsp

 

o the anvil looked as if someone had been trying to move it...Its hardly conclusive, but I would say that other people have been though here before me.

 

 

 

...

 

Just wow. The city of Silvero...Its like something out of a F'Calent settlement. There are just wave after wave of mish-mashed buildings, but all looking entirely identical. One wonders if there was something planned going on here, or whether there was just some horrible beaucratic mistake at some point in the past. There was no city wall, so I assume that this is an internally constructed city...by which I mean a city built by the state, not by the people. That said though, there is a castle, so perhaps it was built around that...I don't know. In any case there doesn't seem to be any doors...Which is unerving...but...I think that maybe the exterior design may be part of getting in...you see it is hexagonal, so the plates could, probably, stack upon on and other when an authorised person was near by...a cunning protection mechanism.

 

 

 

 

 

I have reached the clock tower, the other spire, it is perhaps the most bizzare thing I have seen...There is a giant floating fountain...Well, no...its a waterfall, technically, since I can't see any water going up anyway...though there is no water going down either...Ummm, how to describe it...There are two sets of seven bowls, which are floating between the celing and the...main body of the fountain. Both sets corkscrew down and have channels for the water to overflow from, entering the next and next, before decending a three metre drop into the main body...One of the sets starts at 12 O'clock, in terms of direction, while the other starts at 6 O'clock, both going clockwise. The main body has got to be at least three metres tall and consists of a huge metal, probably steel, sphere with jewels inset into the body. Below it is a dish, probably a five metre diameter. There is currently no water flow though, which only goes to support my idea that other people are around here...the magic should continue to work, as shown by that stone in the north.

 

The fountain also seems to be the commercial centre of the city...there is a forge, a carpenters and a dozen carts...Including Marlburg Transport... Interesting, the carts name this street...assuming they are supposed to be here... as Star Avernue, I am sure I saw something about Star Avernue back at the Inn...I wonder if I...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No. I didn't record it, however I have discovered, while waiting, three things to lend even more credit to my theory of people being around here. The first is that all the carts are empty. The second is a well stoked forge...not something that should regularly occur, not after four or five days...the length of time I think I have been here, and therefore the minium length since the event. The third though is perhaps the most damning...someone has blasted the glass cabinet...the magic seems to have entered the glass and caused some sort of oxdisation, shrinking the glass, without exploding it...though it is full of cracks now. Anyway I am prepared for an attack, though I doubt it will come now...

 

The final thing to note before I move on to the castle is that the carpentry place has a door! It is locked though, and I would rather not destroy it just yet.

 

 

 

I said it was just one more thing but this is incredible! The Blue Bottles have done something, I am not sure what, but they have reactived the fountain, they are now devouring the stocks of logs and steel, presumably, for the two shops...I never did find out the exact purpose but they seem to have an affinaty with me...either as a dog looking after its master...or as a master looking after its dog...somehow the latter seems more probable, considering. Since I am going to be weylaid for an indetermined period of time I am going to try using the forge. While I don't have any tools, but that should hardly be a problem given the amount of durable, useless, material I am wearing. Not to mention oxygen pills which should ensure a clean burn, and some ultra oxidants, which should make up for the coal....If I can work a bit of magic then...magic in the metaphorical sense... then, that is going to be difficult to adapt to... If I can work it properly I can make a few ingots of Valance Steel, probably enough for a chest plate and a hammer. Oh, and while I am waiting I can try to get some of my tech working again, the jewels from the fountain should....Of course this could mean...yes...that seems possible. I think that this city has been constructed to respond to those around it...It started as a silly unconnected thought, it can't be right otherwise how would the case have gotten smashed? But perhaps the rest of the city is designed like that...Who knows...If I can get a bit of technology working again then perhaps I can find out what is going on here.

[Wizz]

My god the ritual took long. Finding support for the insignia was horrible, the nearest supportable tree was roughly a fifteen minuet walk. As soon as I finished the ritual I went back to the Inn to look for Xoex. He wasn't there. I'm guessing he went ahead, after all I did have to wait for sun and on top of that I had to walk back for the water I stupidly forgot. I grab my empty satchel and place the sharp rock in there and started running towards the fort.

 

 

 

The fort was amazing, there was no trees just cement and roads. But it look like a palace, roads leading towards Spiral towers and a big one to what seemed the center and ultimately the Castle. Only creepy part was, no one was here. It looked like i t was a thriving metropolis, carts everywhere. I could hear the chatter in my ear and the music of the bards as I imagine the area full of people. But that slowly went away as I started running forward.

 

 

 

"HAWKS!! XEOX!!! Anyone here!?" Oh well just and echo. Just then I felt a tingling sensation on my back. The butterfly symbol on my back turned blue and flew out. I decided to follow it hoping it may lead me to somebody. It followed the big road towards the center of town, where I guess would be a fountain of water or a market.

[Wizz]

I knew it. The butterfly seemed to lead me to a fountain, I was really hoping to see Xeox, or Hawks....

The fountain was dry and cracked it was surrounded by walls and stalls. I sat down on the fountain to see where I am at, by the looks of it, it seems I am near the east wall of the town. As I sat down the Butterfly merely went back into my back and merged with the symbol once more.

 

There was a cart nearby, on it was strange figures that vaguely looked like letters. I tried to read them.

"Jeorg Mthlquin" just gibberish I though.

 

I went back to sit down on the fountain , the statue looking thing in the middle of the fountain caught my attention. Near the center there was a hole as if a Gem or a Stone used to be there.

 

OOC: The characters here are used differently than that of my world. There are still almost basically the same characters though.

[archimage_a]

Oh where to begin? My new armour is cooling now, there were some problems and I think that only the bottom layer is properely Valenced but still, that should be more than enough to protect me from any weapon I am likely to encounter here, though magic is another matter, but that is another area of interest yet again! I think I might have cracked the system, well, sort of. It seems that a large part of it is dependant on certain symbols, a kind of language if you will, and so it seems as simple as writing symbols in the form of a word! I have only read the one book on it-I found it under one of the carts nearby-but I think that the translator should be able...or should I say would have been able, yes, it is bad news on the technological front. The crystals are too impure, which I should have realised, they had to be natural, since there is not a space link on this planet, so making a zero-gee crystal would have been impossible, and so impurites will have seaped in...Thus the systems I have brought back online are limited by the fact that the memory is dead. I have started the reboot and repair protocols but they must be running on the Valence Circuits, usually only a couple of hundred Megabytes of working memory, with only a single gigabyte of static memory, so I can't imagine anything usable within the next few weeks.

But I have had a chance to manually scan my surroundings, it seems that the buildings are largely hologramatic, designed to fit with what I expect. The reasoning behind it escapes me for the time being but I expect it has something to do with the massive fountain thing in front of me...Why? Well because of the crystals and the construction method it is like a centerpeice, designed to work with light, refracting and collecting it...This seems too complicated for a society of this level of advancement, and yet... Well in any case there are conflicting readings as to life signs, there is movement, on par with human movement patterns, and sudden heat growths in objects, as though someone is resting against them, but nothing substantive...I am guessing it has something to do with the fountain, but I might just be blaming everything on it because I don't understand it *Laughter* Dear me, well thats most everything...Oh, The Blue Bottles have made quiet amazing progress, I do have a feeling they are sentient because they appear to be building a minature city out of the resources that they have been gathering, but I have scanned them and the results have been completely inconclusive...there may be a group intelligence, or they may be extremely dense brained, the scans don't tell me anything...which is strange but somehow it doesn't seem too serouis.

My plan for the next few hours is to get a bit of sleep, now that my scanner is kind of working I have set it to alarm me if there are any changes in the surroundings. When I get up I am going to finish reading the book on magic, see if I can use these symbols and then attempt to shut down the holographic system...if it is a holographic system...if not then I might try to get the door open and see if I can find any additional infomation.

[Wizz]

It was getting dark. I decided to head over to the castle probably Xeox or Hawks is there. The castle seemed to be to the west of where I am at, near the center of the city. I walked slowly up a hill, another fountain was. What's with this place and fountains? There was somebody in front of the fountain. It seemed to be preoccupied looking at the castle, I couldn't tell who it is for it was dark outside. I decided to confront this figure but as soon as I got near the fountain there was a loud ringing.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

 

 

OOC: I think I set off you alarm Archi

[Wizz]

*Zaap*

Ow that hurt!

"What the Hell!" I yelled. Luckily for me I'm really used to lightning and shock, to a normal person that would knock someone out. I felt queasy so I knelled over and took a big breath.

[archimage_a]

For a primative language it seems remarkably complex, I think my imager is working so I shall scan some pictures in, though you will need to decode them yourself...since they will be saved as a sound file, but the format is picture...

 

 

This one apparently is one of the simplist as such it gives a resistance against confusion and other Psionic attacks...apparently.

 

 

This one is one of the moderately complex, while it does seem too complex to be done at any speed I have little doubt that give time I could do it. In any case it is the Glpyh of the Undying Element, which strengthens water flow, fire strength, hastens growth and deepens ice...depending on what other glyphs it appears with.

There are some others I would like to get copies of but given the memory avalibility it would be a safer bet to just keep the book until a later time.

 

Well...my first experiment with the glyphs was, how shall we say...overpowered? It took me about half an hour to trace out the glyphs that I wanted, the Glpyh of Might, the Glpyh of Undying Element and the Glyph of the Rock. Instead of breaking the door apart the rock made a hole in the door, and then blasted a wall apart on the other side of the building, like some kind of capital torpedo impacting on a scout ship! Inside there is a stair case to a cellar of some kind, I have been down there but there are no lights so I am going to take one of the Blue Bottle 'torches' with me. Their development seems to have stopped temporarily, while they had been slowly merging to become more complex creatures they seem to have stopped in a form of double sized shield beatles, from Earth...so roughly a centimetre round. But they can still fly and carry things, their development of an infrastructure has not ceased, they seem to have organised into a number of towns, spread across the surface of the fountain, usually near a crystal, which they seem to treat like gold. But anyway, they seem happy to abandon their project to come with me for a short while so...

 

I am in the cellar...there is not much here. There are a couple of barrels, two of ale and one of wine as well as three of vinager. There is a table in the middle and a set of cards, there are fourteen decks with seven cards in each deck, though one half of the decks seems to be of a different design to the other, so the game is probably usually only played with seven decks with seven cards in each deck, so they are probably playing Somnium, or some name varriant. There is also a weapons stash, five swords, varried length as well as two tower shields and a cross bow. Apart from that there is nothing much around here so I am returning to the surface.

 

Sigh, well my final objective, shutting down the holographic matrix seems impossible now that the blue bottles have settled there...although in a few days they should have removed enough crystal to render the matrix inoperable. I am going to head to the other yellow area, presumably the Castle, to see if I can find out anything from their records.

[archimage_a]

I am strangely blinded. Though it is not the usual type of blindness, but a temporary type caused by a optical filter, thus everything has become a myriad of reds, greens and oranges, swirling haphazardly around in front of me as my mind tries to make sense of the inexplicable semi-darkness...sort of like closing your eyelids. In any case I have sat down exactly where I am, but I can hear the bable all around me and occationally feel the cloak or hand which prods, but I remain still, aware that any move on my part will likely turn them against, and without my eyesight I would be vunerable to their attacks...even given my superiour sense of spacial dynamics and hearing capabilities...in short there seems to be no reason thus far...They talk in a foreign tounge, but seem to treat me as a curiosity rather than as a threat, their tone sounds humourous as those they view me as some kind of drunkard, or perhaps a religious feverant...I don't know, but to down play that I have switched to an internal monologue.

Once my eyesight returns I will be a better position to judge, at the moment I only have my other four sense to rely on, but I am reasonably sure I am dealing with a village of some type...From smell I can sense manure, smoke and cooking, from taste I notice that the air is dirtier than before, but not by so much as to indicate industry, from touch I feel the worn cobblestone paving beneath me, and a high quality of woolen or cotton or some similiar goods, something that would only be found in a village...the low quality material being treated in such a high quality way. Then finally sound.

I hear the bustle of a town but one that does not move with speed, one which stops every few minutes to converse with a neighbour, one of haggling, but also that of directness occationally, of corporations...or what do they call them? Guildmasters? Rushing from place to place. There is the hammer of iron on anvil in the distance, and the sound of wood being sawn closer, mingled with the sound of chickens squarking and butchers chopping with heavy blades.

But now someone has been called, I can feel their presence as they stand in front of me, their breath billowing down upon me...In my mind I build a picture of an overweight tax collector, one which wears purple velvet with a Cavalier's hat, the plume of feathers extravagant and pointless. He will have a thick black belt with a thick ring, attached to which is a coin purse, fastened with only a thin strip of leather and hardly ever used because it is so bulgingly full. There will probably be some type of short skirt or trunk hose trousers, with thick white or gray stockings, at the end of which soft leather shoes, more akin to leather socks than shoes I would imagine...All of this to distract me from the fact that he has now come very close, though not before kicking me with his foot, now he shouts into my ear as though this will rouse me. I have only a minute or so before his impatience is such to call the guards to escort me to the...dungeons? Is that right? In any case there is little I can do, I can't understand their language and I can't see them to gesture.

Ah, there it is-the sigh which says he has given up, the heavy, metal, footfalls of the guards as they approach. They thrust their arms though mine and lift me to stand, then the tax man returns. He rifles to find my pockets and I understand...He doesn't recognise my face so I must be taxed. The book on glyphs is the first thing he finds and it seems to satisfy his curiosity, or rather he draws a deep breath, perhaps he thinks I am more than what I appear...He waits a moment, as though expecting me to do something, but when I do not he opens the book, his view that I am a powerful magi ebbing. He reads a few lines and then breaths a sigh of relief, for some unknown reason... There are a few seconds where he searches for something upon his person and then there is the sound of scratching, followed by some springbound lock opening, then he puts something on my chest, then presses something else against it...Given the circumstances I assume that he has written a reciept for the tax he has collected. Then the guards release my arms and I am left standing....quite unsure of what to do next, but sure that I cannot remain standing here. I feel my outer irises open slightly and the world burns in upon my eyes, as the pain floods my system the tears obscure the light and clears my vision somewhat. So now I can see a blur rather than nothing.

 

Its a few minutes later, my eyesight, though not fully recovered, is better than it was. I have left the spot to which I was rooted for half an hour and confirmed that this is a village-town, I have also confirmed that it is where I was, the castle and clock tower still feature on the skyline, though at this very second neither appeal to me, instead I go to knock on one of the doors and am answered by a woman and it is the first time I really notice that these people are not humans. Their skin is blue, their hair is extremely red and they seem to blush in purple hues. Trying not to be intrusive I survey the woman quickly, I notice that she has bare feet and her clothing is modest, potentially, I think, a house wife, but the hair does give away the fact that she is middle class and perhaps entertaining at this moment since it is extravagantly displayed. Within the same space she has probably surveyed me, my skin is the wrong colour, I am wearing thin, strong cloth, cast over a metal breast plate and am wearing a pair of long trousers...undeniably I look like a mis-matched adventurer trying to pass themselves off as a citizen...and doing a very poor job. Then her eyes center on my chest and I get uncomfortable, it just isn't done to stare at someone's chest, until of course I realise that my tax reciept is still there and it probably tells her a great deal about me...most of it false but still. Then her eyes rise and she looks at my face.

 

 

"Fass?"

I, errr, Magic? Where?

"Can so blind fet met carron..."

I am sorry but my language...

"Imm mackopeid, errr, sic candri kan picto kan picto gree candri kandi star avenue"

"Thank you, I think."

 

I understood none of that, but Star Avernue was where I had just come from, I remember seeing it on the carts, so that seems the most reasonable place to head. As I leave the house I see that the blue skinned inhabitants are staring at me, but I also notice some dark skins and pink skins, like myself...there are not many and they seem to look at me with the same sense of fear curiosity. One of the blue skins is approaching.

 

Perhaps you speak English...

"Mackopeid, I was in Lacksworth few times afore."

Lacksworth?

"Yes, my sister's brother, err, wife?"

Husband?

"Yes, her husband came from there. Do you come? From there?"

Yes and no, from a corner of their country

"Country? We are the same country, or is it county? Please me, I am, err, not in good practice."

Ah, county is what I meant, yes, from a small village in the east.

"You have travelled far then, where is your arrival?"

I was to travel to Marlburg, but I have bussiness to attend to here, please, is there perhaps a place that I could stay for the night?

"Hmmm, tricky, best that you travel to Star Avernue, there is a cart transport to the Marlburg Inn, and you perhaps too will meet a better speaker."

You have been a great help and I must aid you for your kindness, please, accept this token

"Oh but I couldn't"

Please, I must insist.

"I think you."

You are most welcome.

 

Well at least English is not entirely absent from this land, but I shall need to travel to Star Avernue to find out exactly what I am dealing with before I try to head there, or indeed to the castle...somehow I imagine that no one will be greatly pleased by my snooping now. Also I suspect the Blue Bottles had something to do with the great flash, not to mention with everything suddenly coming back into existance...I have many questions but few answers, and I suspect that my quest has become more complicated..

[Wizz]

What the? A flash appeared out of nowhere south. Blinding.

That looked.. Like a Flash Cannon! Another Magician! Maybe he can help me out.

I ran towards the source of the flash.

*one hour later*

*pant* A *wheeze* city?

I decided to catch my breath and head over to the city. Amazingly enough it was full of people! But I felt strange around them mostly, because they were speaking nonsense! Some ignored some stared and some tried to talk to me, or at least I think they were.

*sigh* " I give up."

"Oh so you speak Englisssh?"

"Ummm, yes"

"Oh Ie took lessons, small but lessons"

The old man had a very curious appearance, or I wasn't accustomed to it. His hair was white but the tips were blue, and he used a walking stick. He was tall as me, and looked like a he doesn't need the stick, his choice of clothing looked to be a Winter look, either that or a uniform. He seems like a guy that knows a city.

"Umm, do you know where a hotel is, I seemed to be lost"

"Lost? You come with mei and wife, son speak English Ie kniw he does."

"Oh I don't want to be a nu-"

He smacked me on the head with his pole.

"You come, we have empty rooms yes."

I decided to go with him, that pole hurts.

[Wizz]

We reached a house on the west side of town. The house from the outside looked small but tall, and shared it's walls with other buildings. We went in.

The old man was amiable.

"Please, go comfortable. I go get my son"

 

"Wait I did not catch your name!"

He left to through a metal door, which did not make a hard slam.

As I stood there alone in the little dusky room, I wondered why a man would do this to a stranger. For all he knows I could be a coldblooded killer. I tried looking for a light switch of some sort, on the wall was a button. I pressed it, the button underneath it popped out and the lights flickered on.

 

The little rooms was nice, on the wall was a portrait of a waterfall in a forest, reminded me of the river where me and Hawks cached fish. I sat down on a wooden homemade chair and waited for the old man. The room was filled with little trinkets and things that spark my curiosity. Seemed the Old man like collecting things, either that or he was a pack rat.

 

As I was looking at some sort of clock the old man entered with a young robust boy, he looked like he was in his teens.

"Umm hello, do you speak English?"

 

"Ja, I studied it, it's a requirement for school. But my accent is what you called awful"

He did have a weird accent, especially when it came to e's, i's, and a's.

"Grandad has told me you are lost no? He says you are an explorer , he told me that you can stay here until you get, umm whats it called? On your feet?"

 

"Oh tell him I'm only spending then night here, I just need to find the a Hotel or Inn and I will be alright."

 

"Ah, alright then I will tell him. But right now the food is ready."

 

"Oh please I don't wish to be a burden"

 

"No he says it's alright, you are our guest in our tradition Guest are treated like Kings. Please join us."

 

"Ok then."

 

We went beyond the metal door, inside was a spiraling staircase leading up and two doors. Upstairs was the Kitchen. As it turned out the Old man used to be an explorer when he was young. He went to and fro trading along the way. He gave me a Political map of this land, important trade routes where highlighted. The boy was in school but for now it's vacation. The old mans named was Sachiel and the boy was Tabris.

 

During dinner I asked if there was a place where I can go for information or a job. They offered me money but I refused and Sachiel said that there was a bar just south of his house, I was bound to find residents there that must have information. I asked about the flash, but they said they saw nothing.

 

It was getting dark. They offered me a room just across from Tabris, they said they haven't gotten a visitor in the longest time. They also gave me some undergarments since they noticed I was shirtless underneath the robe. I peered out the window, just east was the market, I could have sworned I saw Xeox but I quickly dismissed it, although he did say he was heading here. I felt tired, tomorrow I would go to the Bar and figure out some information about this town, but for now some sleep.

[archimage_a]

OOC: Yay for notepad, I need to get up in 6/7 hours and I need to shower before then, and my internet winked out and failed to send all my words to Tip It...fortunately I had copied it to note pad, smilely smiley.

 

 

(Indiscernable background noises additional to the running of water and the clack of wheels on cobblestones)

It might just be my paranoia...or the fact I have not been around people for a few day and now I am around blue skins...I really shouldn't say that, if not for the racial reasons but for the fact that I am one...Eighteenth, I think, Astare...But most of the traits seem to have been diluted, plus a certain amount of geneing too, but it is beside the point...What was I saying? Paranoid...Oh yes, I keep getting the feeling people are watching me. Anyway, just wanted to get that off my chest. The fountain seems entirely intact and the blue bottles are no where to be seen. Wait a minute...I don't seem to be...Thats interesting, I wonder if...No...Hmmm. Ok, then...Maybe my feeling that people are watching me comes from taking to myself *Gentle laugh* Ah well, might as well carry on- I had a random thought that maybe the water was some kind planar field, since I didn't cast a reflection in it...I am still not sure why I don't cast a reflection, or where the blue bottles have gone, I just know that it wasn't some planar field...Anyway. I am going to get transport back up to the inn, though first I am going to sell some oxy lumps to the blacksmith, so that I have some form of currancy. I...nah, I will talk about it on the cart.

 

 

It seems they use gold, silver and copper peices here, the oxy lumps sold for 31 2 8...31 Gold 2 silver and 8 copper. Which for four cubes must average at 7 8 2 ...I might just use copper equivalents...So 3,128 or maybe Shillings for the ease of it... 31 pounds, 2 Shillings and 8 pence, or drop the coppers, just 31 Shillings and tuppence. Not quite sure yet...I might just use the abbreviations, 31d2...which isn't technically accurate but is easier to say than 31 and 2, though two is a hard number to say in anycase, probably why they say tuppence, though that sort of ruins what I was going for...Suffice to say that cart transport is not something that makes me terribly comfortable. I shall try to slow down. Ummm, well after I left the fountain I sold my cubes, bar one which I am keeping, and then traded a clean burn-ultra oxidants- bar for a recast of my armour...Which took an hour and a crowd gathered to watch as he used one and then the other cubes to the accompanying Ooos and Ahhs as it roared with intensity. Since I was only reshaping it I used the extra burn time to get a few runes etched into it, for a small price...or I assume small, or 1 Gold Peice per rune. I ended up getting five, to ward against the five elements, Air, Fire, Earth, Water and the Mind, to which I added the Undying Element Rune, which sufficently impressed everyone.

Once we had finished I slid the armour on for the final glyph to be imprinted, for invisibility, which cost me all of twenty Gold! But was worth it because this armour is not, of the same technology level as the people around here, if they saw it take an eletric bolt and do nothing but suck the swords out of people's hands...better that they just think it is magic invisible armour. My leggins were easier to do, just simple soft cloth, which cost five silver peices. Then finally repairing my robe whichw as only six coppers. My final transaction was a belt, at the price of 2 coppers, to which I have hung my spider silk pouch, which someone offered to buy for fifty Gold peices! Though I couldn't part with it. Oh, that last thing wasn't my final transaction because I did get a sewing kit and a lump of cheese, at a silver coin for both. Leaving me with a grand total of 560 Copper peices. Or 5d6. The remaining five gold coins went on the jounery and board...its an all inclusive package...It seems that there are two Inns, one to the North, Marlbug and one to the south, Carlsburg, with a transport service from Silvero to each of them, run under the inventive name 'Marlbug Transport'. But anyway, it seems that no one was going either way and there was not going to be another schedualed passanger service until the day after next...So I ended up getting a ride on a cargo transport, and a hiked rate...of course, and naturally it was going to Carlsburg, rather than Marlburg, so it seems I am going to be getting further and further away from Fort Locksmeed and the other offworlders...good or bad, haven't decided, but the fact remains. In any case we will be riding though to the late hours and there are supposedly barbarians only a few miles to the south, so attacks, though rare, are not uncommon...hence why they don't send passanger transports that way to often. Why they don't send any the other way is a mystery but going south has a defined reason. On the plus side there are English speaking areas further south still, though the cart driver doesn't recommend travelling there alone- there is a only a narrow path though the mountains and it is well known to have both 'Brogant' and 'Parmya', I think, raiding parties as well as 'Banatana' patrol parties, though I don't think this it was Banantana...But anyway, I don't think they would cause me too much harm, but all the same I would like to travel via convoy, the trade relations between the Brogant and Lunadarn, the one name I do remember from some literature, from back in Marlburg, are apparently very good-Brogant is small and land and lake locked, so requires much food import, at the same time the lakes yeild a number of poison fish, and ediable fish, as well as water herbs which cannot be found anywhere else...well except in Banantana and Parmya, but both of them don't have terribly good relations with Lunadarn...their loss I suppose...but why a nation that catches its own fish needs to sell them to buy food is beyond me...but then I suppose I come from a time when trade isn't so much the issue.

But anyway, with dusk fast approaching it seems only sensible that I study the elemental glyphs, optical filters are so useful for seeing the invisible, to see if I can copy them, perhaps then I can use them...for what I don't know yet, but something.

[archimage_a]

"This is your stop Zo-Zeks"

Thank you my good man

.....

Well that was rude, just looked at me with the look of annoyance... kind of like when a fly lands on your arm and you are just about to destroy it when you hear that little voice inside your head... He looked at me like I was that little voice which was cut off as he swatted the fly, the kind of 'I did it because I could' look. To which I can only assume he purposefully mispronounced my name and it was not a failing of my translator program, which has been repaired enough to translate two dialects of German into five regions of Dyglish, of which three make sense, though translating back is a bit more tricky, since Dyglish has 20,000 letters and I never received any extensive training. In truth my ability to understand what the translator spits out is somewhat limited because I only know the core ninety letters and the twenty eight core composites, as long as the Syntax Theory, which is like saying you used Calculus using binary numbers and only the plus or minus function.. Suffice to say it was long winded trying to talk to him... probably would have been better if I mangled the German language naturally rather than getting the translator to help me. In any case I am back-lating all the recordings I make now that I have checked in and been able to build an English extension by using the comparative German-Dyglish database... Which is akin to building a railway out of Iron Ore and Pine Trees, without a Pick or Hatchet. In the meanwhile I am going to explore the room, so check back in five.

 

 

It is significantly later than five minutes... About a minute after I finished I heard a ruckus coming from downstairs and left to investigate... I suspended the translator function to use the optic filters which prepared me for the fire ball which swelled up out of the staircase beneath me as I tried to climb down them. As I dived to recover myself the filters warned me of yet another fireball welling out of the stairs, but this one, instead of just... well how would I describe it... sort of like a fountain which was suddenly turned off, or a like a firework which, once it reaches it's peak just collapses downwards like a wall of water. Anyway the second fireball exploded the staircase, throwing timber across half the room. The filters crashed at that point, trying to keep track of all the splinters no doubt, usually an easy task but... well. Looking with my own eyes I saw a man wearing a heavy robe coming out of the whole which has been created, after a few seconds I recognized him as one of the men from the bar. Instinctively I motioned to him, and he motioned back 'Stay down'. By this point the explosive cloud had expended itself and I was able to see the rest of the room and begin to reboot my lens. I saw at least nine men and women, clad in nothing but garters, both genders, from which hung a variety of blades... though some didn't look so much like blades as bits of off-cut metal, sharpened to make a weapon... ingenious and gruesome. I surveyed the room again and saw two other figures, both Swordsmen and both clad in heavy wrought iron armour, with numerous long spiral curves. One got the impression that the armour, although functional, was designed to be as open as possible. They both wore the same kind of wrought iron leggings leaving very little to the imagination. I had the impression that it was me and the robed man against eleven of them, but the two swordsmen turned on the fully naked swordsmen... yes it sounds strange even as I think about it now, and I was there! But this minor shock was nothing compared to the fighting that took place, it was masterful and graceful, so much so that one got the impression and armour... or clothing of any kind, would have been a disadvantage, as to the peril of one of the Swordsmen.

Within another few seconds the other swordsman was slain and I noticed the other bodies lying on the floor, mainly those who had been in the Bar when I had arrived, but also five more of the armoured swordsmen and one non-armoured swordsman. In an instant I realized that I was going to die if I didn't do something immediately, then I felt a hand on my shoulder, it was the robed figure. *Xoex in accent(inverted commas)* 'I need your help' He said Immediately I replied. Seeing a design on the floor I quickly recognized that he was in the middle of preparing a glyph, far more complicated than I had seen... by the appearance it had taken hours, but at the speed he moved I would have guessed less than a minute, then I realized that in the time it had taken to fight the two swordsmen he had done all of this! He tried to place a sword in my hand but I decided that that was futile, the only way I was going to survive was by matching their abilities. It was around a second after I had let the sword drop, noisily, to the floor that my right eye filter came back online and began to analyze the movement patterns of the naked mob. They had already begun to attack and I was limited to only a number of seconds, the man in the robe had abandoned his Glyph with one look of desperation at me and then began to draw out a simpler one, probably another fire attack. The attackers seemed completely unfazed by this, knowing, as well as I did, that the time it took to draw it would be longer than he had. They targeted him first, seeking to destroy the main threat. As they closed to the final second I began to move, striking out with my left hand to pierce the jugular of the attacker. As my hand and his body collided I felt the warm sticky blood swell up over my hand. The next move was also mine, lowering my other hand to grab at the garter of the next attacker, before savagely pulling, slicing though skin as the thick metal off-cuts dug into the flesh. This was my near fatal mistake... I assumed that such injury would stop them, instead it only provoked her, she swung her other hand up, fainting both left and right twice before choosing to attack on the left, something which my filters could not deal with and so her attack collided with my armour, screeching off of it. With the knowledge that these were not going to give up I swung my lowered hand up, driving the garter though her jaw.

By this point though the others had begun to surround me, not in fear but in strategy. It was now that they pounced, only four seconds since the fight had started. I flung the man into his comrades and the woman fell backwards, the garter still in my hand, and when I looked down I realized that I too was bleeding from the garter. The band sidestepped the man, preparing to land a volley of blows. I raked the garter across those on my left, not stopping or even slowing them, but injuring them none the less. With my other hand I landed a chest blow, sending the woman backwards as the muscular tension was released. Then I felt the stabbing pain though my arm, another three screeches as their weapons collided with my armour, and finally the blade in my arm being torn downwards, slicing it. It was at this point my optic filters were de-prioritized in favour of the enzymes required to heal the damage, though they were not going to be ready for another twenty or thirty seconds, far too long to have any notable influence on this fight. I raked the garter again, this time colliding my fist with the heads of one of the attackers, my co-ordination had diminished incredibly. My other arm was unable to react and so I used my legs, striking out at one of their knees and snapping it in half, though the eyes were filled with rage and could not feel the pain the swordsman realized his support was gone and he was going down. Now, nine seconds after the beginning of the fight the robed figure finished his Glyph, in the middle of his aim was me and so the fire exploded around me, repulsed above the knees by my ward glyphs, but below the knee the pain opened up unimaginably. Standing, with my eyes less than an inch from fire was a fascinating experience, but I didn't notice at the time. Then I blacked out.

It was some hours later that I regained consciousness. The enzymes had been diverted from the arm wound to the burn damage, which had greatly aided the healing process, or so I am told. It seems that a number of glyphs are now holding my arm together and will do for some days to come, but my legs were healed on the spot with only one or two glyphs actually used. Gregory, the robed figure, drew them after finishing the sleeping glyph, which incapacitated the whole building, minus him of course. It seems that a Banata hunting party had slipped into Lacksworth on a mission to destroy a Lunadarn convoy, and make it look like a Parmya attack, while preparing for the attack the Banata attracted the attention of the Parmya, who thought another tribe was on their land, before realising that in fact they were not Parmyan at all, at which point the Banata ran for it and the Parmya gave chase. The Banata escaped from Lacksworth some weeks ago, though were captured by Brogant in the passes there hence how we know all this. The Parmyan tribe, now thoughrouly inside Lacksworth began a campaign of ransacking, destroying forests, roads and eventually attempting to destroy the Carlsburg.

Cavensburg put pressure on Brogant to release the Banata prisoners to Lacksworth so to fight the Parmyan invaders, the Banata objected but the Brogant ignored them, marching them into the hands of the Lacksworth constabulary, which placed them in the Carlsburg, rather than trying to guard them as they roamed around the county. The Banata, who were still in their Parmya dress had been paraded numerous times for the entertainment of the guests, but had finally turned on their masters. The Parmyans, who one assumes were hiding nearby, waiting for such an event, chose that moment to attack. With the two sides in complete disarray they were butchered, as were a number of guests. Gregory had taken shelter under the stairs with the Barkeep and some of the guests, when the Barkeeper told him there were other guests in the building, upstairs. Gregory, initially reluctant to just attack without real chance of success took a doubly sure chance... destroy the stairs would prevent any Parmya using them, meaning that the guests upstairs were mostly safe. If he survived he would repair the stairs, if he didn't then he wouldn't.

The death toll for the guests was high, first from the Banata and then from the Parmya, around twenty guests died, along with eighteen guards, thirteen Banata and fourteen Parmya, two guards survived their injuries and one Banata had taken refuge from the revolt in the cupboard before it had started, hoping for leniency.

In any case I am going to be laid up for a day or so, though Gregory has promised to teach me a small amount about glyphs, enough to give me 'qualitivacation' whatever they are... Though that might not be the right word... In any case he has recommended that I join up with the Constabulary, he is a Lacksworth boy himself, out of Old Rusco Town, so I suppose it is in his interest. Apparently he used to be a teacher in Gardarn, the Lunadarn city this side of the Rusco-The river-but was forced out because of a conflict with a 'Solarian?', some one from Solaris anyway, which is another continent apparently. He didn't tell me a huge amount, mainly because I didn't ask a huge amount, I am still not sure what his views on outsiders are... though I think the fact that I am an English speaker without blue skin might complicate matters. At the moment I was born in Silvero before my father moved the family to Brogant to live with his Sister-in-Law's Brother-in-law, so my mother's sister's partner's brother, after his wife, my mother, died, in a tragic carting accident. The reason for this was financial, but I didn't understand it at the time because I was only five years old.

In any event I am looking forward to perfecting the translation matrix, then at least after I leave here I won't stick out. Outside of that...I plan to study the glyphs on my leg, as well as talk to Gregory, obviously.

[archimage_a]

Gregory has been most helpful, though I suspect that I might have been more help to him, what with my wealth of genetic knowledge which has apparently speeded my healing process considerably... The ability to do magic seems to have removed the incentive to refine the skill, for instance the glyph 'sentence' Gregory used to heal my leg contained a massive amount of highly redundant information, kind of like the old Gene Packs on Earth... Rather than rebuilding a single part of the body they rebuilt the whole body in a different way. While this got over the stumbling block of rejection it greatly increased the time taken for geneing to take effect, in this case the healing just takes much longer. While we solved this problem with Gene-Tanks, huge vats of biologically compatible material which the body could then build from using the redundant DNA, since the majority of adaptions was already present there, thus retaining a stable Genome... Where was I? Oh yes, while we solved it that way I suggested that instead of a general healing glyph sentence, simple but long winded, if instead a specific set of glyphs were used, in conjunction with the translated DNA sequences for the leg. But that consumed most of the yesterday, so much so that he only finished re-crafting the glyph a few minutes to mid night.

 

Today he is going to focus on teaching me about defensive magic... though he claims it is the weakest form of magic and only by attack is the best defense achieved.

[archimage_a]

Well it seems that I am pretty inept with magic, as a skill. I can draw the glyphs perfectly, I can memorize them to a tee, but my magical ability my 'Mana' is not strong. Seemingly the more mana you possess the stronger your spells are and the more spells you can cast without being afflicted by 'Magic Fatigue'... Simply put a magician/wizard/whatever has a limit to how much they can actually do, even though the physical action might only be pressing a glyph on to a piece of paper. The limit is something to do with planetary cycles, approximately every five days the mana is replenished by a little bit, equivalent to two or three spells for a first rate wizard but for someone like me only one or two glyphs. After three of these cycles, which is different from fifteen days, but I will come on to that in a minute, after three cycles the mana of a person is completely refilled. But for me that is only a dozen or so spells of the first order, two or three of the second order and one of the third order....I better explain that:

There are no order spells, like the basic elemental spells, which have near limitless casting before magical fatigue sets in. So creating a spark or a flame or even a gust of wind would be possible in most any circumstance.

Then there are first order spells, which are usually focused elementary spells. The spark becomes a bolt, the flame becomes a fireball and the gust becomes blast.

The second order of spells are more practical. They usually consist of creating something out of something else, cooking, freezing and alchemy, in terms of changing colour mainly, they haven't seem to have cracked nuclear physics yet so changing the nature of the material has yet to become possible. I guess that I could invent it...I would just need to work out the glyphs for extreme density... but anyway the second order also includes warding and engraving- Something which is engraved will always draw Mana from the engraver, not the user... Because of this many engravers chose to work with molten metal, since they only 'engrave' a small amount, most of it is 'natural flow'... But that aside, the second order are more specialized.

The third order comes from binding energy into someone... sort of like engraving but much more proactive. Healing is third order, though the mana consumption is shared between healer and patient, which can sometimes kill the patient if they don't have enough mana to sustain them. Generally though the third order is used in making weapons and such, things that have such a large amount of power in them that second order spells would kill the caster when they were actually used. It does however give them a limited lifetime, but this is usually a few years and renewing the spell can be done by most anyone, they just need to focus their mana.

There is also forth and fifth order spells. Fourth order tend to be area effect spells, like the spell Gregory used. Between the fourth and fifth order there is a massive difference. The fifth order tends to only be on sacrificial alters in Solaris. The fifth order are always extremely over powered and used for creating heroic items...Or for world effect spells, or sometimes for execution because anyone casting them will invariably die and it will be painful because their life force will be drained after their Mana has been exhausted.

Gregory, who himself is a second rate wizard, can cast five or so fourth order spells before getting magical fatigue and over a hundred second order. A first rate wizard, though they still can't get away with fifth order, can cast roughly double the amount as a second rate wizard....if you are going down then each rate wizard is half that of the one above... so I am a seventh rate wizard or something... which is good to know.

Though you will be happy to know that life force and mana are always found to equal two hundred second order spells...so even though my mana is very low my life force is very high, meaning my resistance to spells is much higher. The average person gets the worst of both worlds, at about third rate, about forty five second order spells and only a thirty percent chance of resisting a first order spell. I on the other hand have almost total immunity from first and second order spells, though I am just as suseptible to a sword engraved by a third order users... or a second order user for that matter.

 

... In Banata there are spells used as traps, designed specifically to weaken, traditionally third order but sometimes forth order... Fifth order tend to be too large to hide. In combat though mana draining is common place, usually by flesh engraving of the third order...A second order, or a set of second order spells is used to burn a new spell into the skin which counts as being cast by the victim, thus weakening them. As such many magicians use wards and weightless armour to make sure that that can't happen. Gregory was there for a while as a trade escort, where he learned to speak English.... He thinks I will be able to make a move tomorrow morning, which will be fine by me.

[archimage_a]

I haven't really paid any attention to my electronic systems for a while, too engrossed in magic I guess *Laughs gently* I have been working on perhaps combining the two and think I have found a way...If I can set the energy currents to flow though me in the pattern. I have experimented with doing this with the Undying Element Glyph...I had some problem in getting the 'colour' right:

Colour is not really colour, but the order in which the lines must be drawn, drawing them in the wrong order can be devastating since the order is right off... Think of it like adding ingredients for a cake in the wrong order, putting the Icing in the base and so on and so forth.

Anyway, suffice to say that I have got it working now, which gave Gregory a mighty surprise when he came to see me, he detected the strong aura immediately but could not identify the source... so he assumed that a first order wizard was invisible in the room. I quickly explained to him that I had discovered a way of casting and recasting the Undying Glyph hundreds of times a second, which he was fairly shocked at, so he helped me out of the bed and took me to the window and asked me to show him. I cast a simple water spell and a mini storm blew up outside, the water currents seeming to explode at random from the sky. What neither of us expected was the lightning storm that went with it, massive bolts of the stuff rolling out of the sky and striking the forest which, had it not been raining, would have surely erupted into a blaze of fire. Over the maelstrom we heard the frightened screams of people in the next rooms and downstairs, but there was nothing we could really do, the energy, which I cast, had already been expended into the 'spell pool' which is the amount of energy a spell has, and so would continue to run until the pool expended itself too. As it happened this was about twenty seconds later.

Gregory had watched the whole thing with a look of awe on his face, then he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me towards the door. I tried to stop him for three main reasons, the first was that my legs were still stiff, they could barely move as it was, the second was that I didn't have my coins so I couldn't pay for my room and the third was the fact I hadn't dressed by that point... Since he had worked on me for some hours, while I was nude, it didn't seem amazingly important to dress simply to cast a spell which I expected to simply be a wave of water, more powerful than normal but nothing like what happened.

The first reason won out though as my legs locked up and I became a dead weight which he probably could have dragged but I think he noticed that he was going much slower, so he stopped and let me stand up. I asked for five minutes to get ready and to settle my bill downstairs and he obliged, saying that he would meet me outside.

I won't bore you with the details of me getting dressed and paying up, though I will say that it sounded like a hospital, with people....I should probably explain that, when I was ruler hospitals were not there to make you better, they were there to make the state better. You went in because you dissented, you came out with a robotic arm and a deadened heart. I only visited one once and that was to award something....Let me think... Yes, that was it, I went there to give a medal to the matron. She had been a mother of four children, a loving wife and attentive nurse, but she had also been a pacifist so she had to be processed. When she came out the other-side she renounced everything but her job and became matron in two years, but not before informing on her family, her neighbour and three of the other nurses... oh and the matron who she replaced. That was what happened when you trusted people back then, they might be fine until they were processed and then all the secrets would come out. But anyway, the inn was full of the crying and hysterical reaction to the storm outside, they are probably still recovering from the attack so the over-reaction is perhaps not so severe...

Sigh, give me a minute to collect myself.

 

Once I got outside he came over to me and told me that he had been saving this for an emergency but thought that this warranted it, though he asked me to stop casting the Undying Glyph, just in case it interfered. With what I didn't know but I obliged, and told him as much. Then he took out a small crystal and threw it to the floor. I had a very strange feeling, similar to when one travels faster than light... I once had it explained to me *Assumes a different accent* 'When the body doesn't know how to interpret something it just throws up a pathetic sort of tingling incase the other senses don't know.' *Resumes normal accent* This experience was quite simple though, there was the Carlsburg Inn, then black, then a new area. He turned to me and said 'This in Rusco, my hometown. It might not look like much...' as he spoke there was a flash of purple horizontal lightning, which expanded into a bird which flapped a few times before becoming a shower of purple sparks. '... but this is the home of magic, and over there is Archarnis' House, the founder of Glpyh magic.'

Suffice to say I was overwhelmed... we had appeared facing away from the village so all I saw was a clearing, with a waist high wall extending all around. When I turned round I saw maybe five hundred houses, but the thing that dominated the skyline was the four silver bulbs which extended into the sky for about twenty five meters. Immediately I knew that this was Archarnis' home.

 

OCC: Yay, back where it all started. Just a note to people I will update the GPS some point in the next 8 hours, but will be out for the next three so...