Much to your surprised the wound and pain is all gone. Like you where never shot in the first place.

Your Farseeing works well. Much easier than in the Wild West.
You are on a Black Sand Beach with your items near you. Out in the ocean it it blue-green as far as you can see. You see fairly decent sized fish in the water. As you turn left from viewing the ocean you view the black beach. in the distance you spot a small stream flowing into the ocean. Turning left again you look into the interior of the island. The trees look tropical and you see a single mountain top that is a few miles away. steam is coming out of it. Turning left again you look down the other way on the black beach. There is nothing of note that way.

You feel the pull towards someone inland.

I take a few deep, calming breaths as I notice the familiar tugging sensation, and stand up, gathering my items and packing them into my backpack, thinking about my course of action. Is this Bob? Will he be trying to kill me for abandoning him in Alera, or just because he's kinda crazy? Either way, I can't run for him, and I'd rather meet him on my terms.

I strap the saber from the Wild West to my side, put the gun away in the backpack, not wanting to have to use it, but situate my short bow and arrows to be easily withdrawn from the pack if need be.

Once situated I start moving in the direction of the tugging sensation, keeping an eye out for tripwires, glints of steel, prepared fall traps, wild animals, etc. I'm mentally preparing myself to call on a combination of metalcrafting, using the furies in my blade, and windcrafting in case I need to respond with a quick defense

As you walk you don't find any tripwires or wild animals.
You come to a clearing with several felled trees with a man standing in front of another tree on the opposite side of the clearing. Even from your vantace point behind him you can tell that he is not Bob. he is slightly taller and built like a tank. He has short brown hair. He is wearing a tattered shirt and shorts. He has a Zweihander in a sheath on his back and a dagger in a sheath on his belt. He shifts into a fighting stance facing the tree and then punches the tree accompanied with a loud Kiai. The part of the tree he punched simply ceases to exist in a hole wide enough to fell the tree. It falls to the side with no harm to him. He flinches from something you can't see and then turns around and faces you. He relaxes his stance and calls out to you

"You haven't seen much in the way of magic, Have you?"

He starts walking towards you to the center of the clearing and sits down on a log.

"Come and sit down. My name is Magnus. How have your worlds been treating you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:48, Mon 07 Sept 2015.

I sit down at his motion to and start explaining. "I've seen a fair amount of furycraft, I can fly, sense metal and reinforce it, and manipulate plants to a small degree. And I can summon Hermes, my air fury. Haven't managed to gain any others, though the last world was terrible for crafting. I do miss Alera, I worry I failed to get enough warning to Attis. He had me working to protect the realm, but I died to an explosive heat stone sadly. My name is Mike Washer. I take it by your behavior that you're not homicidal like Bob? He's the only other person I met with this pulling feeling. And I'm sorry I'm rambling, my worlds have been confusing, and the last world was run by firearms and I was confused with a gang leader in a Wild West situation. He even looked like me and had my name apparently. Before that, I was in Alera training in the academy for furycrafting and gathering information for one of the sons of the high lords, and a friend of mine, Attis. I fear I let him down but hopefully the events of my death will lead him to know what's going on. And before that I lead a band of missing links to form together before we got abducted by aliens with advanced technology that were harvesting the forest.  And that's my story so far,mostly I've been confused and just trying to get by and learn what I can. Flying is definitely my favorite so far."

And at the end of that I realize how long of a ramble that was without pause, and take a deep breath and relax my posture some, feeling more comfortable now that he doesn't appear insane.

"Homicidal? No, I only fight those that are trying to kill me or who want to spar with me.
I haven't heard of this Furycrafting before. Judging by the existence of Hermes, it probably involves manipulating elemental spirits. Interesting.

Anyway you are new to this whole versing business, Correct Mike?
Let's get you up to speed.
Our kind are called versers or worldwalkers. We do not age anymore and when we are killed we get forced into our next world. I'm not sure of the exact mechanics of how that works but I do know that it involves us being infected with something called scriff. Anyway Magic and Psionics exist and most versers can learn how to use them. As you have already figured out.

Any questions so far?

It sounds like you had a few interesting worlds. I wouldn't have minded exploring that Alera you mentioned."

"That's a relief. With Bob being my only point of reference I was afraid. It is truly a pleasure to meet you Magnus. Furycrafting is exactly that, it's taking the furies which naturally inhabit the world, earth fire water wind metal and air, and convincing them to do what you wish. The truly powerful furies have shapes of their own, and once bonded help in their area of crafting.

Yeah, I'm new to this,... Versing... Business.  This scriff, is that why I can sense your presence and where my stuff is?

What's the difference between psionics and magic? And why were you clearing these trees? And was that magic?

If you do end up in Alera, do me a favor and look up Attis of Aquitaine. He's the prince of the high lord there. Just let him know that the man he had me look into killed me, before I could get the message back to him. He's up to some really bad stuff,plotting an assassination I believe. "

"Interesting. I would like to see furycrafting in action.

Yes, That is what more experienced versers have told me before. something about it being attracted to itself.

It was magic. But it's rather advanced. I was clearing the trees because I'm planning on building a raft.

As for the differences between Magic and psionics... I could be here for an hour explaining the metaphysical differences. But in general Magic taps into an external power source and Psionics tap into the power of your soul or mind. But I've seen Magic that taps into your lifeforce and Psionics that draw on the power of billions of souls.
In general, Magic tells the laws of physics to sitdown and shutup and Psionics works with the laws of physics

There is no guarantee that I'll show up in the right time period. But I'll keep it in mind."

"Let me demonstrate for you then"  and with that I call Hermes to help me with flying up to the top of the tree line, doing a small pause to look about and then settling back to the ground.
I'll also demonstrate woodcrafting by touching one of the felled trees and encouraging the log to grow outwards, becoming a little wider with a flatter top.

"Sounds like my furycrafting is psionic.

Why the raft? What's going on in this world?

It's appreciated all the same. I wouldn't feel right if i had the chance to get the message passed along and I didn't at least try."

The mountain blocks the view from that direction but you get a gorgeous panoramic view of the ocean.

Magnus's eyes widen a bit when you call Hermes and fly and he grins when you alter the shape of the wood.

He replies
"Indeed. You are using psionics to control the multitudes of minor elemental spirits. Cleaver. Very cleaver indeed.

Honestly this is my third time in a tropical island world. The first time I got killed by an Adamantortose helping a divergent of one of my old friends from my homeworld. The second time I talked to another new verser and relaxed on the island for a few days. Then It Exploded. That wasn't a fun way to die. Anyway You see that steam coming from the top of that mountain? That combined with the fact that the sand on the beach is black means this is probably an active volcano. I'm no geology expert, so I can't tell when it will erupt. But I'd rather not repeat the experience of burning to death from lava. So I'm going to build a raft and see if I can get somewhere interesting. Or at least die trying to punch out a shark or kraken or something.

It's ok, I'd don't mind passing a message. Assuming I remember it by the time I get there."

"I can assist in a few ways with the raft building, as burning to death in lava is an experience I would be willing to skip. I can think of a number of ways to help, but I'm limited in the shear quantity I can do before I get a crafting induced headache which can prevent me from doing more reliably. It seems to be different from world to world. But what I'm thinking is I can talk to the fire furies in the volcano and convince them to stay dormant longer or at least get a sense of how riled they are. I think it's best not to do that one though as if I mess up it could bring about the primary fire fury there, who may be annoyed...would be annoyed. I can shape the logs and probably even get them to grow into on another so we don't have to lash them and have a solid platform. I can also use earthcraft to be able to help lift the entire thing and bring it to the water. And if I can manage waterccrafting... Water furies don't always respond to me... I can get the currents to carry us and possibly see about sensing where the nearest land is.but we should start with crafting the actual raft unless you have any objections. And do you think we need a sail?"

And unless Magnus objects I'll get to work getting the wood furies in the individual logs to grow together jnto one raft and then work on flattening the middle and ridging the outside.

"Keep working on it. eventually your soul will get stronger from the workout. Mind, Don't overdo it. Because Magic and psionics can explode in your face if you mess up and send you into your next world... I've lost count how many times I've done that to myself.

Anyway, Both of my magic styles are out of commission at the moment. So I'll have to use my comparatively weaker psionics to work on it.
Your Woodcrafting and Earthcrafting will be extremely useful for this. The first thing we need to do is move the logs closer to the sea so don't strain ourselves to much when we lift it later... Unless you think it would be easier to break them into easier to carry chunks?"

He concentrates and one log starts to float three feet off the ground and then he pushes it in the direction he intends to go.

"Moving them first then it is, no sense breaking them down, would just add to the number of edges I have to craft together. and I do work my crafting regularly, I'm determined to become capable even with the ones that don't come as swiftly to me. But for now, let's move." And with that I pull deep from the earth furies of the island to increase my strength, and using my furyborn strength toss a log over my shoulder and start jogging towards the beach, repeating the trip until our materials are all there.

Once there I'll start shaping them into the previously mentioned form.

OOC: Sorry it took so long. Sometimes it takes a few days for me to come up with something.

These are fairly big logs(Magnus was intending to break them into more manageable pieces later), but you increase your strength enough to drag one to the beach. you manage to get five downed trees to the beach before your headache forces you to stop.

Magnus is keeping up with you using his psionic. But strange and unnerving things happen more and more frequently as he strains his psionics. After his fifth log he says to you.

"We better rest for a bit before we mess up big time with psionics. It looks like this is going to be a bit of a long term project."

OOC) I completely understand, thanks for running the game :) If it would help, any time your at a road block I'm happy to talk out what directions I could see it going, if that would help.

So just to clarify, we both brought 5 downed trees to the clearing, for a total of 10? Roughly how many trees total had Magnus cut down?

"Yeah, I know better than to push my furycrafting too hard. The headaches become nearly debilitating if I keep up too long, but they fade quickly enough as long as I leave off the crafting for a while. While we rest we can draft up a conceptual design for the raft, and try and anticipate what we'll need." At which point I'll rummage through my pack and pull out my gridded engineering paper and a pair of pencils, taking a seat on one of the logs. "I'm thinking we'll want to make sure to have a decent lip around the edges from the beginning, to keep from water flooding in too easily, one of the nice things about crafting the raft is I can continue to change it after we're adrift. If we gather up some soil and fruit plants we could have a source of food as well, as woodcrafting can accelerate plant growth. I can't promise the fruit will be the tastiest, but I'd rather not go hungry." And as I'm talking I'm sketching the concept I have in my head, defining outline, dimensions in terms of number of logs, and where furycrafted seams between the logs will be, and where the mini garden should be (I'm thinking only a couple plants, just enough to have something to be able to augment with woodcrafting) "Once I'm ready to craft again I should probably keep my efforts on the woodcrafting, starting to get the raft ready while you bring more logs. That way if the volcano blows early we at least have something to set off in"

OOC: Thank you. I'll keep your offer in mind.

That is correct. There are ten total at the beach now. He just started, so he got twenty down before you got there. Although he wasn't planning on bringing more down until he needed them.

Have you done drafting before? or designed boats? Ether way you succeed easily.

He listens to your explanation and watches you draw out plans for a bit.

"The reason I was making a raft before was because I don't have the skills or tools to make something more complex. Mind I could probably force it with my magic but I would explode from the backlash. But you and your woodcrafting are different. You could make an actual boat that would survive better on the open sea. You're right though, It would be a good idea to have something we can set off in quick in case the volcano goes off. there are plenty of trees on the island. so we can work on a better boat once we get that one done. What do you think?"

I work as a structural engineer, and have experience both drafting and guiding those under me in drafting as well as structural design understandings. The boat aspect is going to be new, but learning is always fun.

"Staying un-exploded sounds like a good first step in any survival handbook" I say smiling warmly,  I'm feeling much better to have met someone in a similar situation to mine who has shown no signs of homicidal tendencies or lunacy. As well as I actually have things to contribute, which is always a good feeling. I felt so lost in that last world at times, not knowing what everyone thought I was.
"My current thoughts on order are to construct a floatable raft, of large enough dimensions that it could be used as the deck of a boat. This way we have the smallest downtime before we have a means off this island when we need to. Once that's done, I'll begin working to establish a set of cabins under the deck and a storage room that is sheltered from the sea spray for our belongings and food. In this process I'll start with the deck and use woodcrafting to actually grow and expand the wood lower, which will reduce the manpower of needing to construct the hull seperately and then lift the deck on,as well as making a seamless exterior. It's faster to use wood that exists than to convince it to grow, so if you can keep me stocked with logs it'll make that part go much faster, as it's just getting the furies to move from one place to another at that point. At that point we'll have a ship, with a head to cut through water better, as that'll be in my initial raft design, and cabins. At that point I think we should get the boat into the water fully and tie it off with rope, making the rope if we need to. The small garden will be next, along side with loading food into the storage as well as seeds and our gear. The garden will be in the back of the boat, and have access to sunlight. I then want to make a covered shack on the deck, with openings to see in all four directions and a roof.  The last thing I have in mind is a rudder system and sails, although I don't have any idea where we would get an adequate amount of canvas. Worst case scenario is I can try moving us using watercrafting while we're adrift, but I'd be more comfortable managing it with windcrafting and woodcrafting. But that's far enough down the road we should probably focus on the first parts, and getting a floatable, and hopefully comfortable boat."

I tend to push myself hard, but not to dangerous limits. Uncomfortable periods of headaches after crafting are acceptable to me right now, doing heavy crafting while already crafting fatigued is not. I'll keep working at that pace for as long as we have or until circumstances change.

He leaves the drafting and boat design to you since you are obviously much better at them.

"Yes. I wasn't planning on using that unless it was absolutely needed. One of my magic styles is strained at the moment. And I would rather not use the other one so my aura can heal. So I'm rather limited in the help I can do.  But it sounds like you have a good plan. Let's get these logs arranged for you to work then I'll work on getting the other logs down here."

He helps by using that psionic power he was using before to cause the log to float a few feet off the ground. You still have to push it around and deal with its inertia. But That's relatively easy with both of you working on it.

Once they are arranged how you want them, he goes to get more log as you work on fusing the logs together with woodcrafting. by nightfall you have a seamless deck that is 40 feet long by 15 feet wide and 4 inchs thick and you have the other 10 logs on the beach.

"I guess we should get our stuff and put it on the deck. Want to build a fire? The night sould be relatively warm."
At this point his stomach growls.
"Eh. We should look for food too..."
You getting very hungry yourself.

+@2 wood crafting: Fusing wood, Shaping Wood

"I've got some rations from Alera still, we can each have one of those tonight, it's been a long day and I'd rather not go off hunting just now."

I'll get some rocks, small branches and tinder, and a few larger pieces and get started making a fire, with a fire circle for safety. (Eagle Scout here, some habits are hard to break, even if it is on a beach surrounded by volcanic sand) I'll planning to build one that'll last at a low burn for the night. Once I have it all arranged, I'll use a tiny bit of firecrafting to start the fire. It's an easy application with a properly built fire, since it's so ready to light anyway. If the crafting doesn't work, use some of the matches I have. I'm trying to avoid using too many consumables though. They'll help in cases where crafting would be difficult.

"Progress is coming along well, tomorrow would you be willing to gather some fruits and seeds from nearby while I try and get the cabins and storage room done?" I'm saying this as I'm loading my stuff, and helping with carrying his stuff onto the deck (I'm assuming he has more possessions than I do. "And we'll need some dirt too, that's one thing i don't think I'd be able to craft up, and there will be a severe lack of it when it comes to the ocean."

I use some of my bundled clothes as a pillow, and use my aleran water resistant cloak as a light blanket for the night. Hopefully by tomorrow night I have enough done that we can sleep in cabins.

"My goal for tomorrow is to have the boats cabins and storage room done, make the ropes required to tie the boat to shore, along with some heavy rocks for anchors, and then move the boat into the water, not far enough out to free float but enough to reduce the work we'll have if we need to push off in a hurry. We should do that at high tide, to make sure we don't set it's distance too far out and end up adrift early. That and to have seeds, dirt and fruit,as well as our belongings safely in the storage room. I doubt I'll have time to craft up the furniture in the cabins, but I do intend to make a desk and bed in each. That may be after we're adrift though, as I get more and more used to the furies in the boat things will get easier with finery like that."

He helps you build the fire circle. And you start the fire with some difficulty.
Surprisingly Magnus travels very light, All he has is what he is wearing and a pack.

"Thank you for the food. I don't mind searching for fruit and seeds tomorrow. Do you think you'll have enough material to finish it? As for rope and sail I don't have anything we could use on me but I do remember that certain plants in the tropic produce long fibers that we could try to use to make them."

He pulls out his own brown cloak and uses his pack as a pillow.

"Sounds like a plan."

You don't hear anything more out of him.
You fall asleep and wake up soon after dawn with the sun in your eyes. Magnus is up and is doing some stretches.

"ah. Your up Mike. Did you get a good rest? I had an idea last night. You might consider making wide flat dishes to scoop up some seawater in and let it evaporate. So we could get salt out of it. That would be useful to preserve meat with. what do you think?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:24, Sun 20 Sept 2015.

"It's enough material, as part of woodcrafting is being able to make even dead wood grow, it's all about convincing the furies that they want to go in the direction you want, in this case that direction is growth and in the areas I want. It does take considerably more effort than just telling them to move here, and join with others, but it's at least a good starting point. I'm going to see how far I can get with the materials without doing that and then start that method. If we end up with enough time for you to knock down a few more trees it would definitely speed it along and help out a great deal, but it's all a matter of priorities currently."

"I wouldn't be able to identify those plants or know about how to extrude or weave them together, if we have time we can tackle that issue though, perhaps gather some if you come across it in your fruit and seed gathering?

In the morning I wake up and stretch my arms wide, getting the kinks from sleeping on a beach without adequate padding out of my muscles. "Morning Magnus, I slept as well as can be expected, I can sleep most anywhere as long as I pay attention to my muscles in the morning it doesn't get too bad. I see you're familiar with that mentality though" gesturing to his own stretching  "and that sounds like a good idea, I'll make 2 during my work today, probably when I need a slight break as it should be a fairly simple job due to the smaller scale. Once I'm fully awake I want to get some of my crafting in before eating, and then I'll use meals as a natural break in the process." Smiling I go through a small series of stretches just to loosen up my arms, back and legs and then jog on over to the boat and set to work

"Eh... I could knock a few more trees down for you if you need them...But my magic might have some nasty side effects.

As for the plants with long fibers... I don't have a clue what they would look like ether. But I'll guess and try out some of the plants I come across."

========================================

He continues to stretch as you talk with him.

"Yeah. I guess so. I just find that it helps when you suddenly need to move your body for Martial arts."

========================================

After you finish with breakfast and talking, Magnus goes into the jungle to look for the things you'll need for the boat. returning every once in a while to unload the things he has gathered.

You manage to build the hull, cabins and storage areas with the material you have. You also finished two wooden plates during your breaks. One or two more trees would be enough to finish every thing you though of. It's about an hour after noon now.

"Better to avoid that then, we can fell more without magic, even if it takes longer. If I finish what I need early and need more I plan to go see about getting the extra work started"

----------------

"I don't really know any martial arts really, just some wrestling skills some missing links taught me. But I can see that."

---------------

I'll take a 5 minute break, and then unpack my saber and concentrate on its metal furies to see how strong it is and just familiarize myself. I plan to use metal crafting to sharpen its edge and maintain is and use it to hack down some smaller trees from back where Magnus started clearing. Not tried this before  but the principle is sound, much like when sparring with another metalcrafter I had to strengthen the steel to stop it from breaking, and sharpen it to be more effective, the same should allow me to apply it here.

"Ok"

===================

"They're Useful skills to have. Technically Wrestling is an Martial art too. I wouldn't recommend it if you are outnumbered though. It's too easy for the others to kick you when your down on the ground wresting one guy. I would recommend picking up a style based on striking to help round out your offensive skills. I was a bit lucky. I had some skill in martial arts when I first versed out and the multiverse has let me hone that skill. It doesn't matter too much though. Versers are a resourceful lot. If you want to learn your will pick it up from somewhere eventually. Or make it yourself. Actually that could be said of all skills."

====================

You move to the clearing that Magnus made.
You focus on the furies in your sword. You feel like it is a descent weapon that is made of good metal. It's not spectacular but it will serve well for now. You give it a razor edge and start trying to hack the trees down. You can cut the ones that two or three inches wide with a few hits. But the ones that are 6 inches or more would take a lot longer. You realize that your saber just doesn't have the heft needed to go through more than a few inches of wood at a time.


OOC:Sorry for the wait. Sometime I get exhausted by work and don't feel like creating anything for a few days.

"Good point on the wrestling, I'll keep that in mind for the future and keep an eye out for a good place to pick up some martial arts in the worlds I'll visit." And I make a mental note on experimenting with my own style at some point, one that can work independently of furycraft but could benefit from it.

----------

I work on the small trees then, cutting down extra instead of trying for the larger ones. Once I have 3 or 4 of the smaller ones I'll bring them back to the ship and continue about my work, after taking a short break at the edge of the water, resting from the hard work and enjoying the view. I find my mind wondering how long we have, and what seeing a volcano erupt will look like.

Ooc)No problem, I appreciate any rate that your comfortable with and have the time for. :). Thanks again for running the game.

"If we have the time I would like to see this caveman wrestling, I'll show you the basics of my style in exchange."

=======================

You cut down 4 small trees and continue to work on the boat. On your break as you are enjoying the view, Magnus comes out of the jungle with a pile of food.