"Ahh, I see. It reminds me of this rune I have on my right arm, a 'Stoneskin' rune I received on one world."

I continue training, inquiring about changing shape and form of attack magic.

"Tornadoeth Attacketh creates a tornado of wind; when the spell is cast, is it modifiable? Could I make a massive tornado? Or maybe not a tornado at all, but a small slice of wind to attack? Would that be something like 'Gale Attacketh' or 'Galeth  Attacketh'?

Same thing with 'Atmosphereth Freezeth', shape and size is determined by me when I cast it? Could I make dry ice with it?"

---

Also, going through some of my old threads, it seems my character sheet is missing a few skills.  Would it be alright to submit a revised sheet after I go through all the worlds?  Example: Apparently in the world Avahur got his runes he received Resist Torture/Pain of 1@1. Might not show up again, but if it does, having the scattered stuff is probably relevant.

"Nice."

And shows you a tattoo she's got of an eight legged unicorn.



"You ask too many questions. What did I tell you last time? "Words mean whatever you want them to mean." I just add the eth on the end of everything so I don't accidentally say anything in normal speech."

And that's the only answer she will give you.



"Questions questions questions. Here's my answer. Experiment experiment experiment!!!!!"

You've almost pushed her to the point of calling in her favor and asking you to leave.



OOC) You are responsible for recording your skills and gear.

(Doing Therapy)

"Woah, hold up, wait, stop, hang on, wai- wait. What? Wai- what? What!? That's a thing!? How do you accidentally do it in normal speech? How do you generate your magic? To my knowledge, magic requires intent! Energy! You can't just accidentally cast a spell because you talk about it. That's my last question for the day. How do you actually cast magic - what's your source?"

After I get an answer, "I ask questions to understand. I'll be experimenting a bunch, but if I can ask someone more knowledgeable and experienced, I can save myself weeks of experiments."

---

Granted, I last played Avahur 10 years ago, but I don't think it was ever mentioned I was directly responsible for keeping track of all of it.

I'll do that now, obviously, and I'll send you an update with a master list just so we're on the same page.

"Ah ya know, waving my hands around talking. Maybe thinking a little bit how I'd like to tornado attack that jerk over there. Get caught in a rut and cast it accidentally. It happens to me sometimes."



"Okay then. That settles it. Here's what I want you do as payment. Mister Magehammer told me about you when you arrived. You versed into Slider's World. As far as I know, nobody lives there. Go and spend a year in there. Alone. From your point of view, Alice will drop in once a day to check on you. Practice your magic. Try different spells. It's preferred by most if you're going to practice new magic to go into one of those abandoned worlds and do it. So if you have a botch, you'll only kill yourself."



OOC) Well, you are now.



OOC) Looking forward to it.

(Doing Therapy)

"Sure, I'll set out first thing tomorrow, makes it easier to keep track of a year. Want to enjoy my last solid sleep until I can figure out how to magic up a bed.

Also, Slider's world still has animals in it. Or at least, there are currently animals in it. In case anyone is looking for pets to tame or experiment with.

Questions, comments, concerns."

I make sure to make that last point a statement, not a question, to not violate my earlier word of no more questions, but state it in such a manner that I'm amenable to discourse despite not asking.

If there is nothing else, I'll say goodbye for now and say temporary farewell to Magehammer on my way back to the tower, explaining I will no longer be showing up to his classes as I've got a year in Slider's world to practice and experiment with.

Once I return to my room, I undress myself, shower, settle in for the best rest I'll be getting in in the next year.

Next morning: Get up, stretch, exercise, shower, get dressed, grab all my gear and items and pack them up. Biometric device is kept on me (what's it look like, btw? Is it a smart watch?)

After everything is ready, I'll have the replicator make me some breakfast, nylon tasting waffles, hash browns, pancakes.  I'll drink plenty of water and then set off for Slider's world, where I entered this place.

---

Not really expecting all that to go smoothly, but if it does, huzzah.

"Can't bring anything back with you. Only scriff-infected can cross the border. Unless you put it in a bag."

And she shoos you out the door after that.



Magehammer asks "Do you want me to come and visit you sometimes?"



Smart watch. Sure.



So you step through into the abandoned world. You're in the downtown area where you versed in initially.

And excluding an occasional visit, you've now got the whole world to yourself.

WhaChaGonDo?

(Doing Therapy)

In response to Magehammer: "Karin says I have to spend it alone. I appreciate it, but I'll be fine. Feel free to stop by when the year is up to see if I'm still around though, or to see what my base looks like. Probably not wilderness survival level, but I'm playing with magic.  Assuming I don't botch and kill all the animals on the planet, it should be an interesting setup."

Once I'm back in Slider's world, I leave the city.

I head far enough away that, while I am still geographically close (and can see the city), I'm away from city proper and out into the surrounding areas.

What's the non-downtown / surroundings look like? I'm trying to find a large open space. If none exist, I'll be making one.

At this he ponders and says "Do me a favor. Pay attention to how many times Alice visits. How often she visits."

And that's all he will say on the matter.



So you head out on foot. It's a good two day hike to get out of the city. You find canned food to eat. It's all perfectly preserved and edible, but the labels are peeled off. So you're eating a lot of mystery meals.

Are you grabbing any other items to use here?

But you find an area that's a few square acres on the edge of the city right before it turns into woods proper. It's a huge overgrown meadow.

(Doing Therapy)

Once I get to the clearing, I start experimenting with magic.

Words don't matter? Eh... let's just speak what I want, apply magic. I know what I want, trust that magic can do it.  I have the aptitude, now to put it to practice.

I extend my arms and point at a somewhat distant point 20 feet from me and cast earth magic, "Create Trench", with the goal of creating a trench in a large 40x40 area.

If it doesn't work the first time, I keep trying. I have a goal, affix what I want to happen in my mind, and keep trying to cast it.

---

I was actually planning on using the soup jar thing I got from Magehammer that makes soup when water is added, to solve my food problems.  I can create water with magic.

You still didn't follow Karin's instructions. You're saying it once. Karin chanted the spells over and over for several seconds. Try again!!!!!!



But what are you going to do when you try again?



Actually you add water and put it on a fire. Water is Order, fire is Chaos.

OOC) Now, about that. Since you are putting that magic into practice mode, the kettle will produce one quart of soup per day. It will always be exactly the same. About once a week to ten days, it will botch and produce something different. It can produce more soup than that of course, but then I'd have to roll. So your botches can get a lot worse.

So, that's one meal a day handled. Where are the other two meals coming from?

Please note, I often use this unpopulated world as a training world. Teach yourself more than magic.

Also, Alice will show up about every 9-11 days at exactly 12 noon like clockwork. A grand total of 40 times in the year.

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 06:49, Wed 15 Nov 2017.

Ugh. This isn't working. I recognize Karin's method works, and if I didn't have my personality or history with worlds, I fully concede that it is an excellent method by which magic can be cast.

However, I have seen other systems, and can, in fact, cast magic with one word, one invocation, to create an effect. I know this to be true, so I know it is possible.  Maybe by chanting, Karin is brute forcing magic to achieve the effect. There is no reason to repeat it that many times. Several seconds? Asking to be cut down on the battlefield.

My basic water spell, to create water, is simply 'Water' in Latin. It works with that, so it should work with all magic. Flamma is just... flame, or fire. Single word magic works, and though I don't know know Latin, I know English, and I know Greek. The words probably don't matter, but meaning and intent do. Water, Aqua, is the word associated with water, thus water is created. Flame, flamma, there's a word, it is associated with fire, and thus fire is born.

If I speak the words associated with the effect I want to achieve, magic should work to achieve that effect.  It might not work the first hundred times, but a thousand? Ten thousand? I've got a year, plenty of time.  I should also improve my control and connection to the elements.  Once, long ago, I learned to sense magic, if I combine that with putting words, thoughts, to action... even if magic doesn't exist in that form, I will create it, bend it to my will to achieve that which I desire.

"Create Trench."

I try to create a trench. Not large, just a small 5 foot by 5 foot pit. I will also try to sense magic, feel it around me, feel as I concentrate. Create Trench should be earth magic, so I try to sense earth magic, grab hold, and channel it, to create a trench, while shaping in my mind a picture of what effect the magic will produce.

---

May be relevant, but I'm hoping these three assist with this, in addition to my existing 2@3 skill with earth magic.

Sense Magic: 1@8
Theory of Magic: 1@2
Principles of Power Words and Incantations: 1@3

Avahur can create both water and fire to accommodate the soup, so he does so when necessary. I'll settle food later - I've got some time, but I'm most likely going to hunt some animals.

OOC) I hate to rain on your parade here, but you did ask Karin to teach you Her Version of magic. In Her Version of magic, you chant the words for several seconds. Sometimes longer. If that's what you want to do here then that's what you have to do here. You're not going to learn anything new doing it any other way. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is.

(Doing Therapy)

After a few hours of trying and failing, Avahur will do it Karin's way, slowly and with meaning as well as, as fast as he can speak the words, to see if there's a difference in result.

The goal: 5 ft deep, 10 ft wide trench.

---

Avahur the player recognizes that. That's fine. Avahur the character will have to learn that the hard way. Though we will come back to doing magic like this in the future as we believe magic is not that limited.

Edit: Also, I'm going through Avahur's threads checking for skill increases and new skills and such.   I am pleasantly surprised at everything I missed and didn't have recorded.  You'll get a pm later tonight, but Avahur's 2 weapon fighting is up to 4@0, and Endure pain is 3@0.
 I wasn't expecting that.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:32, Wed 15 Nov 2017.

You wave your hand and you chant. And you chant. And the ground slowly opens up. Five inches deep, ten inches wide. Then it widens. The longer you chant, the wider and deeper it gets.

After a minute or two, or are you keeping track? You've got the trench you want.

You also feel like maybe, just maybe, you should say something else to calm it down. It couldn't hurt.



OOC) That's good. We're clear now. Thanks. I was getting kinda worried. I wasn't sure if you understood exactly what she was doing.




OOC) That's impossible. There is no 4@0 rating for skills. The highest is 3@10. And @0 is a concept. Nothing that exists.

It's okay. I'm not really a stickler for the rules. (Are you?) My thinking is "Are you enjoying playing? Then we're doing it right."

(Doing Therapy)

"Ok, that's good. Stop there." If it keeps going despite no longer waving my hands or chanting, I'll start waving my hands and chanting 'Ok, that's good, stop there' over and over again.

This is going to take far longer than I expected, but PROGRESS! Karin's method seems to work well, though I'll never use it in the middle of combat at this rate. Sneak attacks though? Heck yea.

I should settle food. I wonder if 'Nuke em' would make it to destroyed to eat. Too messy? Or perhaps it all stays inside, like a magic steamer? So I get charred, but cooked meat on the inside, and I just need to open it up? Uhh.... we'll see, I guess.

I look at the trench.

"Yea, maybe I'm trying too much at once. Let's go for an outline first, get lunch settled, then deepen it."

I look at my smart watch ((I'm going to refer to the biometric device as a smart watch from now on, since it wasn't specified, and it's the closest modern technology equivalent.))

I'm checking my vitals and statistics after performing that magic. Based on how I feel, based on what it says, am I more tired now, akin to doing magic the other way I do magic? Am I not as tired as I would be if I channeled magic the other way?  Is the tiredness purely how I feel, but vitals are still strong as if it's not a thing? I'm trying to understand how Karin's method of magic affects me overall.


Once I understand my current status, I go back to chanting 'Create trench' again, but the new goal is 3 inches deep, and I will walk in a straight path sideways while I create it, stop, turn, check my vitals and stats, start up again, then keep walking 80 side steps and stop again. (Assuming here that 1 side step is 1/2 foot). Once I stop, I check my vitals and statistics again.

---

Honestly, I've never seen the rulebook for this game. I largely don't know what the rules even are. But the highest is 3@10? Uhh.. Ok.

I, like Avahur, am sometimes of the more Chaos inclined.  Rules schmools, but since I have to keep track of everything, I'm merely listing them as the various game referees have stated them.

You're not sure if it was necessary, or if it did anything at all. But it does help your peace of mind.



Looking at the watch, your vitals were all over the place. Within acceptable tolerances, but still all over the place. You felt like you were being drained during. Afterwards though, you came back to full health and your vitals stabilized.



So you're pushing it ahead of you as you walk?

It works. +1 Create Trench.

Again, vitals all over the place. Drained during, though not as much. And less recovery time.

(Doing Therapy)

I continue making my 40x40 ft outline, judged purely by sidesteps.

Eh, if I'm off by a bit, I'm off by a bit, I don't really care. I don't have specific needs on living arrangements, and I've never built a house or fort before.

Once my 40 by 40 ish area is mapped out, 3 inches deep, except for that one area where it's really deep, I practice my attack magic.

Ok, animals exist here. How do I want to go about getting food? Create trench obviously works, so pretty much anything should work if I chant enough. I'm most proficient with fire magic, should I go with nuke em? Nuke it? Maybe wind bullet? Would that make a sound from air resistance? Does magic even cause air resistance? Would there be a sonic  boom if my magic traveled fast enough? Huh.

I take my bag of gear and put it in my deep trench.

That should keep it safe from animals, or at least, safe enough. I doubt the trench is shallow or wide enough to allow for an animal to get in then get out with it.

Uhh, I whatever words I choose should be easy to chant. I wonder if I create a water bubble,
 would that drown whatever is caught  within? Would the bubble be able to stand up to being attacked? Not sure I want to find out without sufficient preparation.

I look around, "Forest is that way, so I'm going to need some high walls, and also avoid casting fire magic over there.  I like nature just enough to not want to burn it down. I don't need the bad karma I'd get from doing something like that.

Now, let's  head towards the city.  I wonder what's edible... should I try creating food with magic?  If I chant 'create edible, healthy, ceasar salad' over and over again, would it be created? Probably taste like garbage, but if it works... let's start simple. Create bread. Create edible bread. Create edible italian bread. Yea, let's do it."

I take my cape off and lay it on ground, using my small bag (the one normally on my back with the disassembled sniper rifle and ammo in it) to keep it held down, while I sit on the other end.

I extend my hand in front of me, hovering above the middle of the cloak, and start chanting over and over again, "Create edible italian bread." I do this while imagining a foot long portion of Italian bread as I might order from a sandwich place back on my starting home planet.

I have no idea if this is going to work. If it does, awesome. If it doesn't.. well, I'll have to go look for animals, but experimenting with magic is my goal for the next year.

OOC) It looks to me like this is the only part I really need to reply to. If you were hoping for something different, just say so. Don't be afraid to voice your opinions to me. I'm here to learn.

Your vitals go haywire. You feel a system-wide overload.

You pass out.

Whilst you are passed out, you see a vision. A brick, a lit match, a puddle of water and a ceiling fan. "We are the gods of the elements."

Then you wake up as a gentle rain falls on your face.

(Doing Therapy)

((Not clear - is the vision ongoing? Or just a brief flash - gods of the elements are paying attention, then I wake up?))

I look around curiously.

>> If I'm still mid vision and I see the various gods...

   I hurriedly bow, "It is an honor to meet you all."
   I will glance quickly at each acknowledging the forms they have taken, and wait to see if they say anything else.


>> If I'm not mid vision, I look around after I wake up and see if I created bread. If so, I eat while getting up and putting my cloak back on.  While holding  bread in one hand I eat it and consider my options.

> If I didn't create bread and I'm not in a vision, then I head towards the forest for shelter and possibly game.

---

Yea, not afraid to voice opinions, but I'm also sort of trying to create a story, so some superfluous actions and so one may occur to not only explain why I'm doing what I'm doing but also to serve as a reminder for myself.  That, and, should others be reading this, either now as we post in it, or later, having everything out in the open is far more interesting.

So sometimes there's a wall of text to support one line of action.

The vision is over before it begins. Did it last hours or only seconds? Who can say? It's like a barely remembered dream at this point.

But there's no bread.



You were going to the city to get food. Did you change your mind? Because right across the street is a large chain grocery store. The front windows are broken out, but there is a sign in the what's left of the window that says "Sale on canned food."



That's perfect for me. I like lots of description.

(Doing Therapy)

Halfway to the woods I stop, then head towards the trench where my bag is. I point at it and chant, "Air lift," over and over again to raise the bag up and out of the trench that (I assume) is filling with water.

"Yea, rain ruins that plan.  I know I'm making the outline to be a moat, but I was hoping for rain in a few days, not right now. Whatever, rain will soften the ground and hopefully make it easier to dig out."

Once the bag is out of the trench, I take it with me and head towards the forest.

I was going to go hunt in the city, but fire magic and rain create steam, or fog, and I know from experience that's a pain in the ass to deal with, unless it is your intent to create it. I need food, so wind magic in the forest, and if I knock down a few trees from wayward spells, well, I need wood for my base anyway...

Once I reach the forest, I'll set the bag down and observe my surroundings. As I observe my surroundings, I briefly reflect on my brief vision, and then make an open declaration to the world, and whomever may be listening.

"Gods of the elements, or at least Earth, Fire, Water, Wind; I've already had a visit from the gods of Order and Chaos, they offered me Chaos magic, but I find it too restricting. Elemental magic is my preference. If you are listening, know that I am much more interested in entering into a working relationship with you, than I am with them. My apologies to the gods of Chaos and Order, if you are listening.

I like elemental magic's versatility, and the scope! So much can be done, with proper knowledge and experimentation! Possibilities are endless, and it greatly suits my style, and skill set. So long as I don't have to give up my swordsmanship, I greatly look forward to working closer with you all.  That and I want to create elemental swords and imbue swords with magic, and that comes later. Just letting you know I am open and available."

It's not raining anymore. It was just a gentle misting. Or maybe it was water running off of a roof. Who can say?

Are you still doing the air lift?



Not really. Let's see what you got.



Still?



GE 10

You hear a voice. Or you have a feeling. "You tried to use four at once."

Then you are having another vision. A mound of dirt, a Zippo lighter, an ice cube and a rocket engine.

And then they ask you:

Blacksmithing?
Woodworking?
Stone Working?
Leather Working?

After you answer, the vision ends.

And you get the feeling that this is definitely NOT the time to ask any questions.

(Doing Therapy)

Yes, I still do the air lift. Need to practice this chanting style of magic.

I also still head to the woods.

"Blacksmithing." I reply, after the the choices are presented.

I want to make magic swords, or imbue swords with magic, or create swords out of magic. Blacksmithing is  the only choice.

I wonder if I'll pass out or have a vision again if I try to use different aspects of the same element?  Definitely need to try 4 at once again, just not so soon.

I picture an axe, wooden shaft, iron head, sharp; I try to create it.

Ok, wood should be earth magic, iron is metal, which should be a subdomain of earth. Connecticng it just requires proper form. Picture both sides, form a 3 dimensional image in my mind...

"Create axe."

---

Something like this: https://staticdelivery.nexusmo...271-1-1325932041.jpg (from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim)

So you do. It takes a few tries, but you get the backpack off the ground.



Right before the vision ends, you "Hear" the Zippo lighter "say" FIREMAGE!!!!

Then it's over.



You close your eyes and you chant. And you chant. And you chant. When you finally give up and open your eyes, you are in a steel mill. There's all kinds of hand tools and equipment for blacksmithing. There's books on it and instructional videos, as well as a generator with a full tank of fuel.



Cool!!!!

Fire Mage, eh? Brings me back to my World of Warcraft days.

I look around.

Huh.

Welp, let's get learning.

I go through the books and start with the beginning. If it isn't clearly labeled, I'll read through the first couple of pages to see what seems like the 'blacksmithing for noobs' book. I'll also acquaint myself with the tools.  If the book describes the process for how to create something, I'll see if there is an instructional video that goes through it as well, and after reviewing it twice, I'll try to actually do it.  Rinse and repeat. Read all the books, watch all the videos, make all the items.

If given a choice, I focus on swords, long swords, great swords, daggers, all the swords.