He says what's left of the multicolored staff is quality. He would pay a good price for this. But the leather belt is more valuable. So it's the price of the leather belt minus the lowered value of the staff.

Not very much. Price of what you would consider to be an expensive meal, maybe.

And he's very Orderly about it. Not upset, after his initial reaction. Not holding any grudges. It is what it is.



He appreciates that. "Never refuse a free meal maan!!!"



His jaw drops open as he listens to your warning. A few times he says "Seriously maan?" or "Wow"

But finally he decides to take it. He says it's probably nothing. It's just a "Baad dream maan!!" He doesn't really believe it's even real.

He does tell you though that he can reactivate your Chaos blade so it will work. The rest of them, not so much.

So you'd have an Order staff and the one Chaos woodcarving knife.

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:09, Sat 08 Apr 2017.

Two Posts

The Traveler sticks out his hand to shake and says "My name is Tommy Chong maan!!!"

He's about what you would understand to be 20ish. Looks like 20ish Tommy Chong.

(But we'll still call him The Traveler if you prefer.)

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 77):

"Tommy, call me Tadeusz." I shake his hand, and wish him well.  "Feel free to visit, man."

I get up, pay the bill, and get back to work.  Now that I don't have magic to add to my staffs, I'll just have to use skill.

I begin measuring people's hands, and their heights to try to make them their ideal staff.  I also try other artistic designs, using the multi-colored wood with various deeply and shallowly cut carvings to bring out various effects while being a bit careful to not cut away too much to make the staff weak.

Still, this multi-colored wood makes it easy to make a staff look good.

Didn't you see both posts? Tommy offered to reactivate your Chaos blade so it would make Order blackstaffs. If that's what you want, then that's what you've got.

As far as the sun is concerned, it appears to have been a fluke. The sun was still moving randomly, it just found a temporary pattern in its randomness. It is back to moving erratically with no discernible pattern.

Meanwhile, Tommy has set up a blacksmithing shoppe in the square where you are working. The first thing he tries to make are nails. Lots and lots of nails. Black iron nails.

(Doing Therapy)

Two Posts

Tommy Chong also tells you that the chess pieces in the dream he had told him that the Black iron and Black wood that you're making will only become magical for certain, select people. You're making normal wooden, albeit black colored staffs and normal iron tools unless the gods of Order and Chaos see fit to activate them. And most weapons won't. And even if they do, it won't do much. Basic healing, creating heat and light for Chaos, and creating darkness and cold for Order. Pretty harmless stuff. Mostly.

So go ahead and make blackstaffs. You're not going to seriously introduce magic to very many people. You should also consider yourself fortunate to be one who can do magic with them.

(Doing Therapy)

I just passed on Tommy's offer without replying.

I'm not going to make blackstaffs.  At least not here, not now.  Maybe in time.

I watch Tommy to see if his personality starts changing.

I see if the leatherworker wants some help too.  And it occurs to me that familiarity with simple weapons is good, so I get him to make me a slingshot.  Nice thing about staffwork and slingshotting is that it requires very little work to get basic weapons if you lose them.

Well, unless you object, your knife is reactivated. You have the option of making blackstaffs if you should choose to.



You don't see any changes in his personality, but after a time, he approaches you holding a six foot long black iron staff. The surface is rough, and twisted. It looks like a chain that's been welded into a staff. He leads you out into the woods and says "Maan, check this out."

He holds the black iron staff at arm's length and gives it a shake. The six foot staff falls apart into a chain about 16 feet long. He gives it another shake and it turns back into a metal staff.

"Pretty bony huh maan???"

He looks like he's seeking your approval of his creation.



Mr. Leather appreciates your help. He teaches you basic leatherworking. He also knows how to use a slingshot and teaches you.

I object.

Later...
"That is nice, Tommy.  Very nice indeed."

It may be unwise, but I ask Tommy if he can join me in staff and sling training.  I have the idea of learning how to hit someone (who is padded) with a slingstone, and learning how to block such a stone with a staff.  See if this works, or if its a bad idea...

OOC) Just wondering why you're objecting. All I'm doing is giving you the option of making them. Not saying you have to make them. You're just rejecting having the option of doing something. Having more options is (usually) a good thing.



He says "Yeah maan. I know it could do more than that. I just know it. Don't know what else it could do....."

OOC) Seriously. Any suggestions? A Chaos chain is easy to come up with things it could do. But this is an Order weapon.



GE 10

Tommy taught you how to use staffs before. He's willing to help you with that. Being on the road all the time like he was oftentimes means needing to hunt your own dinner so slings are something he's used. Not so sure about letting you throw them at him, but he's willing to throw them at you.

Two Posts

The chain links are made from black iron nails, bent into chain links. Although they do have a larger head and sharper points, the nails are perfectly round and bent into smooth ovals.

He offers to make you one.

OOC) If a Chaos blade can make an Order weapon by removing Chaos, could an Order mage make Chaos weapons by removing Order? I always kinda figured it was one or the other. Until I let a player make an Order weapon with a Chaos blade.

OOC) Order creates darkness, can remove darkness, and manipulate light.

Chaos creates light, can remove darkness (just by a different means) and can also manipulate light. You could use both Order and Chaos to make a laser beam.

The difference is, though, that you would be removing Chaos from the light; or adding Order to it. So a Chaos laser is more of a pointer that you tease your cat with; and the Order laser is the one which will cut through 3 feet of steel.

Something like that?

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 05:36, Thu 13 Apr 2017.

Three Posts

Sorry man, my Facebook isn't working. BTW, check yours. I sent you something and I don't think you checked it.

I'm trying to define my classes of Order/Chaos magic users. There's three main categories:

Tool users (What you are.) Cannot make black iron. Can make weapons out of wood, crystal, other Orderly materials. Can do magic.

Mages, Magehammer is a mage. Must have or be given blacksmithing at 2@1. Can make black iron tools/weapons, and also from a great many other materials. Can do magic.

Priests, cannot make weapons. Can do magic. Can commune directly with the gods of Order and Chaos. That means at a time of his choosing, not theirs. Anyone can commune with them at a time of their choosing.

That's the basics, anyway. Tool users could be able to make Order or Chaos weapons with Chaos tools. Mages might not be able too. What else could priests do?

Thoughts?

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 05:21, Thu 13 Apr 2017.

Multiple Posts. Sorry maan, you know what (Doing Therapy) means. Please, in your reply, tell me how many posts you read.

I was really hoping you would keep making weapons with the Chaos blade. I wanted to show you the Chaos bow. I think you'd really like it.

Maybe it removes one kind of Chaos and adds a different kind? Like say, removes brittleness Chaos and adds flexibility Chaos? So that brittle stick can be made into something with the strength and flexibility of a steel cable?

Thoughts?

(Doing Therapy)

Multiple Posts. Sorry maan, you know what (Doing Therapy) means. Please, in your reply, tell me how many posts you read. I think it's five as of this writing.

The best part about this world though is that, unless you are actively trying to track how many sleep cycles it's been, or how long they are, you could have any amount of practice at any point in the game. You could have 1@3 or 3@10 and you'd never know it.

If you do want to know though, you hit 2@1 when you made your first blackstaff. A minimum of 2@1 skill working the material is required to make magic weapons.

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 06:06, Thu 13 Apr 2017.

I read all your posts.

I object because I'm cautious about Beings I don't understand or trust.  Also, on a meta level, I'm not deeply interested in being an Order Mage.  I want to go in the direction I want to go, even if its not as cool as other directions.

"Tommy, the more Order you put into something, the stronger, and more durable it will be.  Also, its liable to burn those who are strongly Chaotic if they touch it.  I would not be surprised if you could learn to use this chain to flick a fly out of the air with as accuracy would be part of Order."

He's going this way, and I might as well help him.  He does seem like a nice guy.

===========

I laugh at him when he's skeptical of me throwing things at him, but I can see his point.  I agree, and we work on things.

===========

A laser beam would be Order controlling Chaos.  And it could be that cutting thru 3 feet of steel thing if the mage is strong enough.

I think an Order Mage could make a Chaos weapon, but it likely would be physically weaker.  It might be a touch corrupts weapon rather than a sword meant for battle.

Priests? Don't know.  Greater ability to curse or bless.  "You will, in the future, traitor, never betray anyone again, in any way!!"  If the person this curse is cast on is too fundamentally a traitor, he either casts it off if strong enough, or dies.  If not, he has a geas on him limiting his actions.

Str and flex of a steel cable would be Order.  Links of order throughout the whole substance hooked together.

OOC) What direction do you want to go? Am I hindering you from going that direction? And don't tell me I'm doing fine if I'm really not. Tell me the truth. It's just, with most of my other players, when they were given a magical blacksmithing hammer, they generally did more magic than blacksmithing.

What kind of magic, if any, would you want to learn?



"Maan, that's bony!! Hunh, wonder if it'll throw the wall of wind like that staff you gave me did."

And, as a staff, he spins around and makes the throwing gesture. Indeed, it throws a wall of wind. You've got a blackstaff. If you don't want it, Tommy will of course trade you for it or purchase it from you.



OOC) Is helping him something that you would want to be doing? What do you want to be doing? I'm supposed to be making sure you have a good time playing.



He's really good with the sling. Able to hit a moving target. Then he skins and cooks the rabbit over a campfire.

"Gotta learn how to do that on The Road maan."

He staff fights you with his chain staff vs your blackstaff. He's really good, but he seems like he's holding back. He says he's afraid he might accidentally "Magic you out of existence maan."



Or Chaos controlling Chaos. Removing the Chaos from the flashlight and focusing it. I don't imagine it would be nearly as powerful, but a flashlight into a cat-teasing laser sounds reasonable.



OOC) Fixable.

Next time Tommy shows you his Order hammer, it's physically changed. You can tell it's the same hammer because of a little nick in the handle. But it's changed. One side of the hammer is perfectly round, the way you got it. The other side is a 23 sided polygon. Still more or less round, but it's got 23 flat, smooth sides. 23 is a Prime number.

"Had another trippy-dippy dream about the chess pieces maan. They told me I'm gonna be a Gray Mage. But I'm pretty sure it's just a shroom flashback maan."

So it's transmuting into an Order/Chaos hammer. But for the moment, he's still waaaaay more Orderly than Chaos.

So yes, he can make both.

He also knows a lot about edible plants. Shrooms are something you can find "Like every hundred or so sleeps, maan."

"Gotta know that on The Road maan."

He pronounces the capital letters.



Good ideas!!



Or removing Chaos. Or changing the Chaos. I think there's a lot of similar things they could do. Maybe one would do the thing much better than the other, but both similar.

Like the aforementioned Chaos laser. Removing Chaos producing a weaker laser. In this case, removing the brittleness Chaos for strength. But not a steel cable out of a brittle twig. Maybe like a piece of thread or something. The flexibility comes from Chaos. Order is things not moving. So you'd get more strength and rigidness from Order. But you could add strength Order and remove rigidness Order to make something flexible. But it would be more like a bow (and arrows) than a rope.

They could both turn loose sand into a solid wall. Removing Chaos produces sandstone, adding Order produces glass. See what I mean?

(Doing Therapy)

I'm happy with what I'm doing now, just bumbling along.  I might like to learn miracles and some DNDish magic eventually.

In healing someone there are two ways.  One is Order where you make them better.  The other is using Chaos like an antiseptic or like radiation.  Now I suppose you could use Chaos as a stimulant like the ambrosia in Percy Jackson.

Ambrosia will heal a demigod, but take too much and it can burn you up.

Now, I'm just telling you from the books, but the books were always coming up with different twists so there's that, and its your magic system in your game.  So tranforming one type of Chaos into another is something that happens in physics all the time....we take nuclear radiation to heat water to turn it into steam to turn a turbine to turn that into electricity.

More tommorrow.

I simplified this. I recall you in game once made reference to "Sickness Chaos." So, it made sense to me that if you removed the Sickness Chaos you would make the person better. So, Order healing is adding Order, Chaos healing is removing Chaos. Simple see?

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 92):

I'll trade the staff, and try to learn how to cook rabbit.  Later, I'll ask if I can come on a rabbit hunt with my sling.

When you ask Tommy about him teaching you to hunt and cook rabbit, he says "Maan, I gotta hit The Road. Sick a staying in one place."

OOC) It took me a while to determine how the hotel would decide when to evict someone. I figured it out last night.

The hotel room policy is that when you leave, you have to check in at the main office and turn in your key. When you return to the room, again, you check in to the office, and they give you your key back. If your room is still available, that is.

This time, returning to your room, the hotel manager tells you that you've had more than a thousand In and Outs. The hotel is booked. Your room has been rented to someone else. All of your belongings are currently in a storage locker. The room is occupied by someone else. You are expected to leave the hotel. That's all the warning you get about it.

So, time to hit The Road with Tommy?

Two Posts

In exchange for your staff, Tommy offers you a hand-crafted pocket knife. Made from black iron. There's no energy aura from it. It's apparently non magical. It's a Swiss army type knife. Six blades. Two knife blades, a two sided file, a wood saw, can/bottle opener and a spoon. So a mini woodworking kit.

(Doing Therapy)

I take my leave of my employers saying good-bye to them, and then set out on the Road with Tommy.  This should be interesting, I tell myself.

Enjoying the walking, I keep an eye out for a likely rabbit.

Unless you ate lobster and steak every meal at the finest French bistro, you've got plenty of money to last for a while.

You and Tommy go out into the woods to get dinner. You do spot a rabbit standing still and tag it with your sling. Tommy chides you for it.

"That whadn't fair maan. You don't hit the rabbits when they're standing still. Ya gotta spook em first and make em run. Hit em when they're running away. Makes it more fair maan. If an animal gave me a fair chance, I wouldn't be upset if it beat me and ate me up."

So that's how he got so good at hitting them running.

He can also hit birds in flight. He tries to teach you that too. But most meals you're eating ones he hit.

There are little mom and pop stores and restaurants here and there where you can buy food. You're not gonna starve to death. But Tommy says it's 100 miles to the next major town.

The Road is mostly pedestrians. Occasionally a car or bus drives by. Tommy says he hitchhikes sometimes, and a lot of drivers actually do stop. He doesn't want to though.

Along with the mom and pop stores, there are also occasional hotels and camping sites. Pay to pitch a tent. But at least it's safe and guarded. Tommy prefers to just hang a hammock between two trees. It never rains or snows here. Temperate climate all the time. That's all over the world.

Tommy shows you a backpack. He's got a propane torch and a lot of simple tools. Multitools mostly.

"Ya gotta be ready for anything out here maan. I got me a mobile blacksmithing shoppe."

He asks you to teach him woodworking. Basically how to whittle sticks into staffs out on The Road. He'll teach you blacksmithing when you get somewhere where you can stay in one spot for more than one or two sleeps.

What are you doing?

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 97):

I nod, and follow Tommy's hunting rules.  It makes it a lot harder, but I can feel the effort required as my brain tries to analyze everything, and control my emotions, and body, and let fly...

I show him how to do so, and smile to myself as I leave behind the one I made each night for some lucky traveller.

"When we get to town, maybe you can show me how to smith."

And the joy and sadness when you hit one. Which you do several times. Maybe 1 out of 7. Tommy only misses about 1 out of 2. You kind of get the feeling he might be missing on purpose.

But there's lots of rabbits. Lots and lots of them. Your belly stays full. Tommy says he wants to learn to preserve leather. He doesn't know how to preserve the pelts and whatnot. So you leave them in the woods. Something will eat them.

OOC) To me that kind of behavior just seems really Orderly. What do you think?



You mean every sleep? How many hours are you doing this? How many hours are yo doing that? Are you even trying to keep track anymore? You have no idea how long you're awake, asleep, how long you spend hunting. It turns out that when Tommy said "You find those about every hundred or so sleeps." That's actually an expression. Nobody really keeps track of how many sleeps anything's been. They might say "Two or three sleeps ago." But any more than that and it's "A hundred sleeps ago." or "Every hundred sleeps." You know you're getting close to town when you start hearing people say "Town is two or three sleeps away." But that could really be any distance. Maps are rare. Carrying one is rare. There's no such thing as "Lost". Are you happy where you are? Then you're where you need to be.

OOC) This is interesting trying to get into. I thought you of all people might appreciate it.

As far as the ones you leave behind, Tommy says "That's bony maan. Leaving behind your work to help someone in need."

Do you use the black iron knife he gave you? The staffs are multicolored wood. Tommy starts making them using his own black iron knife. He leaves behind blackstaffs.

One time when you're just standing around talking, Tommy zones out of a few seconds.

"The chess pieces told me those staffs might become magical. That's bony maan."

He says the chess pieces want him to continue. Good idea you had.



"That's the plan maan. About a hundred sleeps or so."

That's how long it's gonna be. But he is in no way keeping track.

Along The Road, there are also places where you can take showers. Pay for so many gallons of water and enjoy yourself. Tommy takes a shower when he feels dirty. Not too bad. If he hears more than one person or a cute girl complaining about it, he'll take a shower.

Are you spending money? Are you trying to make money? How much fast food are you buying? Showers? How draining are your costs?

Tommy makes money blacksmithing. Fixing things for people. Broken wheels and whatnot. If he can get it done in one wake cycle that is. Or if he's tired, he'll tell them "I'll get to it my next wake cycle maan." And if you don't see them again, the work never gets done, custom dictates that you must have at least three wake cycles of your own before you start any legal proceedings. But usually all that's needed is a friendly reminder and the person will drop everything and get to work on it. If you can find them, that is.

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 17:07, Wed 19 Apr 2017.

Two Posts

You and Tommy sync sleep patterns. You both get tired at the same time. You both wake up at the same time. He says that's a good omen in a road partner.

Custom dictates that you do not leave your sleeping road partner behind. That is, depending on how committed to it you are. Nothing wrong with it. They're the only one you'd have to answer to. Them and yourself, that is. To have a road partner who won't sync sleep patterns with you sucks.

(Doing Therapy)