It seems different.  Before you push on, you talk to him, and he rubs his face.

"Even for you, I'd be inclined to say no, but you've been very generous with the knowledge, so yes."

You contact his mind, and indeed, there is a level of inhuman stubborness involved.  It would be very difficult you think to contact his mind without his approval, and to bend his mind, well, it'd be easier to divert a river.

To your surprise, its different. Their seems to be small glands in their hands, which when information flows through the hand's nerves of heat, it passes directly through those glands, and they activate within microseconds---psionically.

"Do yeh think you should try to seal this new power of yours as well?"

Is the glands in his hand producing the psionic effect that is protecting his hand?

I comment on the glans.
"Huh? There seems to be glans that are activating psionically in your hands. I guess that they are all throughout your skin since dwarfs can bath in molten iron. May I focus on them and see how they work?"


I respond to his question about sealing this power.
"I required a training partner to get as far as I did. Sealing it would have involved getting him to not teach or use this power. This... seemed wrong to me to surpress knowledge. Keeping it to myself would be the same as me lording this power over others.
If I teach it to a few they will lord it over others. Therefore I have to teach it to everyone. I can't predict what kind of changes this will cause. It will probably be pretty dangerous."

In reply to Magnus (msg # 483):

Blowing out a breath, he agrees calmly enough while he considers your response.

"Aye, I see your points.  I just wish there were a better way to do it."

You finish the scan, and indeed his skin layer is peppered with hundreds of microglands. You see a few that seem damaged, and others are growing very near them.

I break off the medical scan and the mind reading.

"I wish there was a better way to do it too. But that would require someone wiser than I to manage waking everyone up psionically. And I want to try to give absolutely everyone psionics.

For that I think I will need your help.
Would you like to learn Psionics?"

In reply to Magnus (msg # 485):

"Aye, I guess I have too.  After I learn what I can from you, I'm going to head back to the other Dwarves and teach them as well."

He begins to learn, and you see that much of the psi energy he generates goes to reinforce his microglands, but after those are powered, there is enough left over for him to do various things.  However, he is weaker at the other things than a comparable human.  On the plus side, the calm focus that is part of the Dwarven nature is well suited to directing psi power.

"Thank you Tol, that will help me out considerably with my plans."

With that I teach him.

Once I am done I will heat up a piece of scrap metal in the forge until it is red hot.

"Well, Those glands use psionic power to protect your skin. So in theory I could emulate the feat with psionic power and running the whole thing with my mind.
This is going to hurt if I mess up. But I wouldn't be much of a researcher if I didn't at least try. Besides, I can heal myself if I mess Up."

I focus my will into my hands to reinforce them against heat. An Iron like self image that wont allow my hand to burn. My Will is the master of my body and I will not allow it to burn

I'll use some tongs to pick the scrap iron from the forge and the grasp the red hot iron with my bare left hand

In reply to Magnus (msg # 487):

You grab it and there is an instant of shock, of mind-blasting pain, and then its gone. Your hand feels cool.  Tol is yelling at you, patting your burned hand, and you wonder why it doesn't hurt.  Then you look at the severe burns and realize why.  You can't feel the pain because the nerves have been burnt down to the muscle.

You start trying to heal, to send nutrients down to the mangled hand, and blood begins to spurt out of your hand in arterial spurts.

Tol is trying to stop the blood flow, but he's not doing that much good yet.

OOC: Fail on Survive Heat and Botch on heal.

"Well. That is not good.
Need to stop the arterial blood from coming out.

Tol, please grab another hot iron and then cauterized where the blood is coming out.
If that doesn't work we will need to grab a rod and some rope to tourniquet the arm to slow the bleeding down enough for me to not die."

Assuming he listens that should stop the blood flow long enough for me to calm down and try again with the healing.

If he doesn't listen, then I can use my wand to produce a low flame to cauterized the wound

In reply to Magnus (msg # 489):

Tol stares blankly at you for a second, but then slowly nods. Moving slower than he ought, he gets the hot rod, and carefully cauterizes the wound.  You begin uncontrollably jerking, but his Dwarven strength comes to fore as he locks on to your forearm, and holds it still.

That done, he lets you go and you collapse to the ground.  Your breath shudders in your lungs, and you seem to hear strange sounds, and its hard to concentrate.  However, knowing you need to you try to heal.

You heal, and this is bad as it means the pain comes back even as your mind clears. You're only partially healed.  You do it again as tears stain your cheeks, and finally find the pain goes away.  Shaking like a leaf in high winds, you drop back to the dust, and rest.

Tol sits down next to you, and pats you on the shoulder.

"I thought we lost you, lad."

Focus through the Pain: 1@2 Psi skill. By sheer grit, you can push past the pain to get the emergency fixed. RS/10 for five seconds each. Does not completely alleviate negative effects of pain on concentration, but makes it more possible.  1/2 effect of negatives removed.

"Thank you Tol. I probably would have died if you where not here."

I look at my healed hand. Is there scarring or did I manage to fix it like new?

"I was too overconfident And nearly killed myself."

In reply to Magnus (msg # 491):

There is some minor scarring.  A small wavery line at the edge, but is not immediately noticeable.

"An old saying, if you're going to slay a dragon, expect to get hurt." He smiles. "Perhaps that was possible back in teh day, but if so its been a long time.  We're trying to remake the world my friend." He claps you on the shoulder, and you sway like a leaf in a heavy breeze. He catches you. "Sorry. Perhaps we need to head back and get some food and rest for you."

"Indeed. My healing takes a lot out of the subject. Since it simply forces the body to heal unnaturally using the body's resources. So I need to rest and eat."

I'll head bach to get food. Eat my fill and then sleep off the fatigue.

In reply to Magnus (msg # 493):

You go to sleep and almost sleep around the clock.  Getting up, you get your second meal, and you can tell your body craves this food.

Your Dwarf friend has left to go tell his Dwarven clansmen under the stone of the new things.

As you finish eating, you occasionally see a professor pop in, mess about the eating hall, and leave.  So you're not totally surprised when as you leave you get ambushed by eight professors, asst deans, and such with eager questions.

You're still psionically mentally weary from the psi work.

What kind of questions are they asking?
I assume they are asking what I have been doing. But it is possible that they are asking about how to continue with their psionic research.

It is probably very obvious that I am incredibly tired. But I will listen to their questions and consider my answer.

In reply to Magnus (msg # 495):

They are asking about both.  You answer as best as you can, and more start coming in,  and you see how impatient some are, so eager to learn that it gives you energy, at least temporary.  So it takes you a full second to realize that one of your students is doing something wrong, not only wrong, but massively wrong.  You have a second to consider how the idiot could have come up with 'do things the exact opposite of how I said do it', but then you can see the boiling energy spinning between his hands, and his panicked face looking toward you--

As soon as I realize how the student is massively messing Up, I pour all of my being into psionic grounding. In an desperate attempt to to prevent the loss of life from psionics gone wrong.

I shout ordering the others.
"PSIONIC GROUNDING NOW!!!"

In reply to Magnus (msg # 497):

You try to stop it but your power is brushed aside and distorted. Others as well, and some are just moving too slow, and then you see two of them work, and the grounding drains off the power from the now screaming man who is having bolts of light come out of his mouth and eyes.

The air is still and quiet, and your grounding kicks in as do others. Now, there is a sense of deadness in the air.

The professor who messed up hits the ground like a puppet with his strings cut.

I go think through what I can do to save him. But I grounded out psionics centered on me. So even moving from the others wouldn't allow me to use psionics at full power. I could try to force his soul back into his body. That seems difficult at best. And it would probably be best to do it immediately.
And tyying new Magic is out of the question.
I still have to try.

"...And this is why we walk with death. Every time we use psionics, We risk killing ourselves and others. Unfortunately, we have grounded out psionics near us. So we can't immediately try something. I will take his body outside the city far enough away to reduce the danger to the civilians. And then attemp to rejoin his soul to his body. I'm pretty tired from my ordeal so I am not sure if I will succeed. I do have an idea on how to work together on a psionic power. Come along if you want to help."

I will pick up the dead professor and carry him with a fireman carry. Since that would be the best way to carry dead weight.

I will carry him out of town a ways away from the city. When I feel that I am far enough away, I will attemt to view psionics to see if all the psionic grounding has worn off. Then I will look at the professor's corpse to see if there is a lingering presence like a ghost.

How many came with me? How am I feeling with psionics?

In reply to Magnus (msg # 499):

You push yourself, staggering several times, but make it outside. Half of the professors that were nearby, which is seven come with you. The others were scared.

You do not see the professor, but you do see a continously fading silvery cord that rises toward the sky from his body.

"I see, he has a silver cord still connecting his consciousness to his body. There is still a chance. Let's see if I can pull him back."

I'll try feeding psionic power into the silver cord to strengthen the connection between his body and his consciousness.

I will sit down in a mediative posture and then move my consciousness outside my body.
Then I will follow the silver cord to the professor's consciousness.

In reply to Magnus (msg # 501):

It is a long slog as you shift your mind and then follow the cord even as it fades, and then pump power, and more power into it, and --- you see the cord begin to reject your energy as foreign energy--you're far from your body now, miles distant, if miles count in this strange eerie realm you're in which is half glowing fog and half physical world.

Looks like I don't have much time left. I'll start rushing while following the silver cord. Hopefully I will find him before it snaps.

In reply to Magnus (msg # 503):

You chase him as the cord fades, and as tiredness sets in, you keep on until you find him looking confused.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

You can see the cord fraying even more rapidly and you can see he looks like he is in shock.

"I am Magnus and we are... Probably in the astral. You removed yourself from your body and you are fading fast. You NEED to think about your family and remember
your connections to your home. Imagine how sad those you nlknow would be if you disappeared. Please come back with me. Please accept my help."

I reach my hand out to him. If he accepts my help and grabs on, I will gently try to strengthen him and strengthen his connection to his body. Then start pulling him back to his body. Reminding him of his friends and family as we go.

You pump energy into him, and as you do, you feel yourself weakening, but then something happens.  You feel new depths opening in your soul, and greater strength rush up to meet the challenge, and then even better, he starts circulating energy between the two of you so that both of you grow stronger together. Awareness floods back into his dim gaze, and he and you fling yourself back down into your bodies.

Gain +@1 Willpower and +@1 Intuition as you feel yourself both stronger in spirit and more understanding of yourself and thus the rest of the world.

You've popped back into the normal world, and you and he find yourself laughing with relief which the others join in as well.  As G. Washington said 'nothing is so charming as the sound of a bullet missing you'.