Day 137: Starday the 2nd, Calistril, 4708
I woke up after the four hours of sleep feeling refreshed. I got up and got dressed, deciding to let Savah get some well-deserved sleep, especially since she was not needed at the sunrise ceremony. I got a mental notification from Veronica that Chelger's armor was done. I thanked her and asked her what was next on the list. She sent back that we needed to build up the power-plant for the school, and I gave her the leave to do so, saying that I would get there after the ritual.
I got up and headed to the workshop. Faunra was there, along with Jonathan and Shayliss. Jonathan had a spiffy new Scarlet and Blue Ioun Stone Circling around his head. I got my ceremonial mead for the task and blessed it again. Faunra indicated that I would mainly be needed for the focusing of binding his cesti to representations of Jonathan, and he would be doing the katas. I nodded and bided my time while the ritual was ongoing until my part came.
Jonathan anointed his new cesti with the mixture provided to him by Faunra and did his performance. It worked for each one. Faunra did her part, reciting the rituals, and I did mine, focusing on the spiritual representations of Jonathan that were ghosting around the cesti. I don't believe that it was my part that failed, but something happened because we all got hit with a wave of magical energy, which sapped a LOT out of us. Jonathan went through and healed us of the exhaustion and the damage, but by the end we could tell that he was the worst for the wear for this little ritual. I asked Faunra if it would be wise to attempt Dame Rebekah's tonight and she said no, that it would be best to give it a day at least.
We broke the news to her at breakfast, when everyone else was there and she seemed to take it well enough, noting that tomorrow would be Starday, but that Sunday would be best. Savah cleared her throat and I reminded everyone that I was taking a day off this weekend, and that we would need to plan around that. Faunra indicated that we could try her ritual tonight then, and Dame Rebekah's either Starday or Sunday. Savah said that she would prefer Sunday off, if possible.
Dame Rebekah said that she could do her ritual tomorrow night, and would prepare for such. She noted that she had gotten her hostel halfway finished, but would not be complete until after we were gone. I asked if her having the second widen and ectoplasmic rods would help, if Chelger was working on it as well. Dame Rebekah thought about it and said that it would. I told her that I could work on the school after we got back, and that I could take over working on the greenhouse. Dame Rebekah thanked me and said that this would help greatly.
Faunra cleared her throat and asked if I was available to work on the kids today. I told her that I was, and that I could devote all of my work time today. Faunra nodded and said that she could free up three of her assistants for two hours each. I thanked her and said that I would get working on it. Faunra nodded and I guess that she mentally sent thoughts to one of her Wax-Homs to deviate from their work to a new assignment.
Faunra then told me that the assistant would be in the Infirmary, waiting. I sent a thought to Igor to have him break off of his work and head to the Infirmary. I sent thoughts to all of the others that when he was done Gemini would be next, and then Tank. Assents were sent back from the kids and I headed that way. Virina and Fareine both followed me, to see what was going on.
When we got there, Igor was there and Faunra's Wax-Hom was there as well. The Wax-Hom was dressed in stylized scrubs when they when they showed up. I showed both of Fareine and Virina how this procedure worked and they watched as this first procedure occurred. I explained everything that was happening as it was happening. Fareine asked if she could try the next one, and Virina asked if she could try the third one.
After two hours, we were done with Igor. His first words were to introduce himself to everyone there. His voice was much closer to mine than Faunra's. Igor was much more of an attempted charismatic sort than Veronica. I sent him back and sent a thought to Gemini that she was next. The Wax-Hom left and went to go replace the one that would come next.
While we waited, Fareine asked why I used magic when I was focused on technology. Virina agreed with Fareine subconsciously nodding her head in agreement with the question. I asked them how long they thought it would take for someone else to create the armor exoskeletons that we had made without the help. They thought about it and I told them that it would likely have taken me almost a month of dedicated work. Fareine was a bit taken aback and Virina was a bit shocked as well.
Another of the Faunra Wax-Homs showed up and Gemini followed shortly after. This Wax-Hom was dressed similar to the first. Between the two of the observers, I picked Fareine, to have her attempt the surgery aspect, as learning through practice was very important. Gemini got up on the bed and the Wax-Hom nodded to us as Fareine got into place. I noted to Gemini mentally that she was safe and that I would be right here with her. When the procedure started, Fareine was dedicated and performed the surgery with little issue. As a whole, it still took two hours, but was successful none-the-less.
When it was done, oddly enough, Gemini's voice was an odd combination of Faunra's voice with a hint of Fareine's. She thanked all of us and Fareine told her that she was welcome. Gemini started singing a soft Irish song as she jumped off the bed and started walking back to the workshop. The Wax-Hom nodded and went back to her work. I thought I caught a wink there but wasn't certain.
Virina said that she thought that she could handle the next one, and said that she'd get ready. Fareine quietly asked if I knew that this would happen. I told her that I knew so little about most of the science of magic that I didn't know what to expect most of the time. I added that part of the purpose behind the school was to apply the methods of science to magic as a whole. Fareine nodded and said that she could still be a part of the school.
The next Wax-Hom came in dressed in the same scrubs. Tank showed up at the same time from where they were working. Virina started the procedure but panicked and said that she couldn't do it. I jumped in to save the procedure without yelling or complaining. After the two hours were done, Tank got up. His voice was a bit more of mine than even Igor's was. He thanked all of us and headed back to get to work immediately.
Virina was very upset after the apparent failure, but I told her that it was fine, that failure was just a step to the ultimate success. I told her that I'd tell her the story of an inventor back where I was from, when I got back. Virina nodded and Fareine said that she'd like to hear it as well. I told them both that it would be one of the first lessons that I gave, and let them know that they could both go back with the kids to see what they were working on. Savah came into the room and asked if I was available. I bade Virina and Fareine that I had to go deal with something and they went off to find the workshop.
Savah came in and told me that there were a pair of people who had come into the store at different times and asked to see me directly. She had put them in different rooms, with one being "entertained" by Erica and the other browsing our firearm selection. I raised an eyebrow at that, and she shrugged saying that there were a few of what the kids called, "pneumatic rifles" in her more exclusive weapons area. I shrugged and followed her over to her shop.
Savah led me to the one who was being entertained by Erica, where she was asking him all kinds of questions about different areas where he has been. Savah cleared her throat and the man turned to face us. He asked me if my name was David Drake, and I told him that he was. He made some hand signals that I quickly recognized as pathfinder society covert communication. I didn't know enough to respond correctly in the hand gestures, but he recognized that I did in fact recognize the gestures. He seemed to get a lot of understanding from that and asked to speak privately.
We went upstairs into the library and sat down. The man looked to Savah and asked if we could speak in private, as this was a Pathfinder Society Matter. I started to say something but Savah smiled, patted my arm and said that she would go deal with the man downstairs. The man introduced himself as Olandil, and that he was here on assignment from the Pathfinder Society. He continued by saying that he'd be evaluating and learning to see if there was anything useful to be gained here.
I looked at him for a minute and asked what he thought would be a useful thing to learn here. Olandil shrugged and said that it was the Grand Council that had sent him here. He added that he was a bit confused because all he had ever heard of field commissions was that they might have found a decent relic or two, maybe a location. I asked him how many relics or sites he thought that we might have found to get the kind of response that we did. He shrugged and said that it was likely that we found a small set of ruins.
I started to list off the Thassilonian ruins that we had uncovered. In order. The Catacombs of Wrath, Thistletop, the subterranean ghoul complex, the complex for Storval Deep, the Jorgenfist Library, and the Runeforge. His eyes widened with the growing list of different Thassilonian ruins that we had found. I told him that the Jorgenfist Library alone accounted for over twenty-seven thousand books, pamphlets, and the like. I smiled and said that it was a bit more than a few relics. I added that the Runeforge itself was a relic of ancient Thassilon where there had been an unbroken series of Thassilonian spellcasters.
Olandil caught the turn of the phrase, and asked about there having been an unbroken line. I smiled and noted that I was getting well known for being a person who was skilled at taking out spellcasters that had been trying to kill me or my friends. Olandil nodded and said that I could probably have long conversations with the Keeper of Spells about that. I told him that I wasn't looking for confirmation or challenge, just stating. I asked him if the Grand Council had given him any briefing at all on this school.
He was quiet for a minute but admitted that they had not, that they were just satisfying a request from a member. I told him that I had requested Pathfinders be sent who were willing to learn about the sciences, and that they should be willing to help teach others thereafter, such that they can train replacements for themselves and other Pathfinders, as well as those who would just seek to learn. Olandil asked if there would be leave to go about his own tasks and goals. I told him that he'd get paid for teaching, should he pursue it, and that the schedule that I would set up would be allow for two separate two week periods off during the winter and spring, and a two-month period off in the summer.
Olandil at least seemed to be considering it. I told him to meet up with the other Pathfinders and students that were shaping up for the first class. I added that I'd even be considering a danger room to allow for more martial training and experience. Olandil raised an eyebrow, and said that he'd like to hear more about that. I told him that it wasn't one hundred present designed yet, but that it would be set up below the range.
Olandil asked if he'd be allowed to stay at the school until classes started. I told him that he could do so, but that he had to respect the other occupants. He agreed and he said that he'd take the time to teach me the proper hand motions for the code when there was time. I told him that I had yet another quest to go on, once we figured out the location, but that when I got back, I would begin teaching in earnest, maybe after a brief vacation, someplace sunny maybe. Olandil nodded and said that he would head over to the school and stake out his lodgings.
As I made my way down to the "special weapons" section, I found Savah there talking to a more middle aged man who was very interested in the rifles. I waited for a lull in the discussion before I asked him if he had much experience with the weapons. He admitted that he had not, but that he was very keen on learning, saying that he intended on being able to provide a good defense for his town when he headed back to it. I asked him where he was from, and he told me that it was a place called Roderick's Cove, a place here in Varisia, but not as far north as Riddleport. I asked him how he might intend on taking care of such a weapon if he took it back.
The man introduced himself as Halder Makrosh, and that he was actually interested in learning more about these weapons. I told him that he was in luck, that we would be starting a school up for this kind of thing, and that he could certainly be gotten in for the first class. I asked that if he would be so kind as to be willing to maybe train some further students what he learns the following semester. Halder asked if he'd be forced to do this, and I told him that I would not force him to do so, but that I really only had time to teach the classes and not other individual people in addition. I added that he would not be forced to do the training, but I found that some people learn best when they are teaching others, so that was part of my class design, and that if he did decide to stay, he'd be provided room and board, as well as a stipend.
Halder said that he'd think it over and headed out of the store. He told Savah that he'd also be back to look more into the firearms. Savah looked at me and slightly pouted, saying that I just lost her a sale. I told her that she'd still get that sale, just that it'd have to wait until after the guy learned to use it better. Then he'd also go for other options that would be added to the shop later.
She smiled in response to that and asked what our dinner was going to be. I asked her what she felt like, and she offered up that she'd just prefer a quiet meal at home. I told her that I could get "the servants" to craft us a fine meal. She smiled and laughed a little. I went upstairs and realized that it would be a terrible waste of effort to just get one meal made for the effect that I would be generating, so I decided to summon them up to help out with making more paper outside, and have one crew make the meal.
I left the crafter to work while I went to go get the ritual done with Faunra. When I got there, Shalelu and Faunra were there, waiting with her weapons already set up and ready to be anointed. Apparently, she had made the call to Shalelu almost immediately after the ritual for Jonathan had the result that it did and we put her ritual forward. She ended up teleporting to Shalelu and teleporting back after the procedures were done. I asked her about that, that I knew that one of the Wax-Homs was actually her, and she just smiled and said that we had to get started.
It was then that I noticed that she was not getting weapons added to her armor. I watched as she hefted a large sword that looked to be composed of coppery metal. She anointed it in the diamond and blood combination and started going through weapon forms the likes of which I had never seen her do. I could swear that I could see time distortion waves coming off of it. When she was done, she let go of the blade and it hovered in front of her.
She picked up the next weapon, a massive hammer made of the same metal, and anointed it all the same. I watched her change up the kata patterns and go through the motions like Rock from Soul Edge. When she was done, the massive hammer floated up and took up its position alongside the great sword. The time dilation effects were the same as for the first weapon. I didn't think that it was a result of the ritual, as I didn't notice it happening when either my ritual or Jonathan's ritual occurred.
Faunra picked up a third weapon, another which I had never seen her use. A darkwood scythe with the blade being of the same metal as the first two weapons. Again, she picked it up and showed great ability with it, ability that I had never seen her utilize. She looked like she was completely at home using this war scythe to reap those who might attack her. At the end of her performance, she let the scythe go and it floated into the line in front of her. The time distortions seemed to be even more pronounced, like the weapon's fields were feeding off of each other. Then she picked up her last weapon.
Faunra drew the gladius that she had been carrying since the first day I met her. She anointed it like the others and whispered something that I could not hear to it. She went through her normal fighting stance and showed great aptitude with the sword. After her kata was finished, her gladius floated into the line alongside the others. With her four weapons done, she started chanting.
Her chant was fairly similar to the one the she had done before, but I think I recognized where the different parts of the ritual changed to identify the different weapons and the different people that were being focused on in the ritual. Her chanting went on for twenty minutes before it was my turn. I took up the ritual chanting at the end of her chants to invoke the ancient ancestors and Faunra's own essence to bring forth the weapons to be wielded by her and the other ritualists. My chants were different from the ones that I had done for Jonathan, but only slightly.
When the ritual was completed, the weapons glowed slightly and seemed to find new sheathes and holsters into her armor. Faunra practiced for a little while, quickly drawing and sending them to go attack a dummy. She then invited Shalelu to practice while she came over to me to talk. Faunra told me that yes, it had indeed been her who had been one of the three assistants in the procedures. I laughed and told her that she was the middle one, and that the wink gave her away.
Faunra reached into a pouch and pulled out a veritable bevy of different coin sized gems. She indicated that these were "loans" from the Elves of Crying Leaf, to help us on our quest, in partial payment for the armor that we were providing. I looked at them and asked Faunra how these were loans. She smiled, grabbed one of what were several coin sized clear quartzes with rune engraved on it and attached it to her gladius. The crystals glowed with bright light, and the gladius emitted a burning aura. Faunra noted that some of these were permanent, while others needed to be "refilled" with essence after it burns through it, but their effect is stronger.
She handed me several, including three of the ones that were the same as the one that she had attached to her gladius, and three other ones, one of which was blue, one was green, and one was white. She indicated that the coin ones were probably only going to attach to weapons that were extremely high quality or very enchanted, while the others would attach to any finely crafted weapon. I nodded and went off to go check to see which crystal would work with which weapon.
The grenade launcher got the green one, if only because green is the color I think of when I think of grenades. The Rifle managed to attach one of the three coin sized clear crystals. Oddly enough, the bolter did as well. The chainsword wouldn't take the last of the clear crystals, but it did take the blue gem. When I started it up, the teeth arced with energy. I tried the clear crystal on the bolter and it attached. This left only the LMG, which got the white crystal. The Barrel got really cold from that one. With this decided, I went back to check on Faunra, but she and Shalelu were both gone.
I headed back to the house to find that the crafters had finished up the meal and dissipated, their stated task done. I'm kind of glad that I used open ended orders for the others so that are still working. I got the food set up in the common room and I went down to invite Savah to dinner. She gladly accepted and we had a nice meal together where we had some light conversation.
We talked about our future and what we were looking forward to. I told her that for all of my bluster, I really wasn't looking forward to the hectic nature of the school in the future. Savah asked me why I was focusing so much on it. I told her that I felt that I didn't know how long I would be able to try to help this town and country out, and if I could, I'd try to make sure that my knowledge continued to be spread. Savah told me that she was certain that I'd pass along my knowledge for a good long time. I smiled and thanked her.
Since I had not had the chance to really do so, I finished up the day with going and expanding on greenhouse. It was amusing to have a greenhouse that would be proof against ghosts, and you know, small arms fire, but at least if the kids threw rocks at it, they wouldn't break. Take that Keynes. But seriously, we are going to be having a greenhouse that would count as a minor fortification. A see thru fortification, but a fortification none-the-less.
If all goes well in a year, we will have done this on more of the town and ensured that it is fully defended against ghosts and the like, or at the very least, made the roads smooth and strong. I went back up to the house after my wall creation and pondering and Savah was getting ready for a nice quiet night. I told her that I wanted to show her how to operate my phone and my tablet, because I was going to leave one of them with her when we went to this last mission, so that we could patch them together through the radios. Savah paid attention as I showed her how to unlock them and how to do simple things with them.
By the time that we were both tired and ready to go bed, Savah could operate the tablet with a decent enough capability. I downloaded what I needed from the tablet to the phone while Savah got a good soak in the hot tub. If there is only one thing that I ended up bringing with me goes widespread throughout this world, it will probably be the on demand hot tub. I loaded up all of the documents that I frequently referenced from my tablet, and found that all of the spellbooks were partitioned into their own file of the memory space on the tablet. This interested me because I didn't remember doing that at all. I focused my eyes on the tablet and it had an aura of magic.
The Aura was something that I normally associate with Transmutation. That worried me because it made me think that Special K had already gotten ahold of it somehow. After I inspected it further, it didn't seem to have changed at all, except for the designated file folder for the spellbooks. Maybe taking hi-resolution pictures of all of the spellbooks passed along some kind of magical effect? I'll look into that with Faunra when I get a chance. I tried to copy a few of the files from that folder to the phone, but they were copy protected somehow. I could move the whole folder, but I could not copy it. I transferred everything to the phone, because that was what I was planning on taking with me and left Savah with more of the information that I had from Terra. At least that information copied over easily enough.
After I set that all up, I went to join Savah in the hot tub. She was glad that I joined her and we relaxed while reminiscing on our first few days together. Savah told me that she had been interested in me from the moment that she saw me, and that she wasn't about to let me get away. I started to apologize, but she stopped me, saying that she understood the reasons I had, but that I certainly did give her a little bit of a challenge. I smiled and we soaked together for a good, long time.