Bay 12 Games Forum

Or me.

Make another drone eye thing, but with little spider legs and ingrained neural instructions to go out, see what's happening and check if the original's still alive. If it's still alive, return back to me. If not, go to a good viewpoint and continue recording.

What exactly is happening? How did the child obtain that strength?

Great, now I have the image of a cow in a wizard robe going around yelling 'I AM HEAVY WIZARD COW' and shooting rockets out of a wand.

Matthew noticed the effect when the birds vanished.
There'd always been a few birds hanging about the shed - robins, starlings, those little brown ones he called coffee birds - and though they generally didn't stay long, there'd been a large enough population around that there were always at least some birds around the shack. To find none was ... eerie. When he went to ask Merlin about the absence of any animals in the area, the only answer he'd recieved had been a wink, smile, and slyly uttered "Precautions, lad. Precautions." So nothing would come from that corner - and worse, he'd said it in that particular tone that indicated that he wanted Matthew to figure it out and then explain it to him and if he didn't there'd be that look of dissapointment on his face for months on end and it made him feel so guilty oh god he didn't even want to think of the Face. He'd scurried off to start experimenting.
His first trials yielded inconclusive results. Trying to Sight the anomaly only yielded empty air, though he thought he saw a faint shimmer at one point next to a rusted street sign. Further investigation had no results.
He experimented with various magical abilities - a gout of fire or two, streaming some water through the air and heating it to various temperatures, promoting the growth of various plants, stopping time for a second or two in baseball sized areas - that one really tired him out - and he even managed a lightning strike at one point throughout the week he spent on this when a storm rolled in. Admittedly it had helped, but in spite of his failure to find anything he was proud of his improvement. Just under a year ago he'd been barely able to move a teacup and look at him now: with a day of preperation, he could take a fairly mild rainstorm and rile the clouds up to such an extent and direct the electrical charges running through their bellies just so that he could cause an actual fricking lightning bolt to come down from the clouds! He'd like to see any average kid do that.
However, no matter how satisfying it was to do that, it didn't help him in the least. His breakthrough actually came as quite an accident. He had entranced a stray dog and was bringing it back to the shack to test the results of moving it around with magic. It was quite a surprise, then, when the dog disregarded his 'follow' command and skewed off to the side at a fair distance from the house. He didn't seem to notice that he'd done it, and looked at Matthew in confusion as if to say 'why are you over there?'. Matthew was naturally perplexed by this, and walked up to the dog and bade it come. And it did, but again at some predetermined point it just turned the other way without even noticing. Matthew, seeing a pattern, had the dog follow him to various points along the imaginary line he was drawing in his head, and quickly saw that the dog was avoiding the shack itself somehow, in a 500 meter circle surrounding it. If he walked within the perimeter of the circle and told it to follow, it followed along the outside of the circumference of the circle. But for all the odd patterns he made the dog walk, not once did it seem to notice that it was unconciously avoiding the edge of the circle. So this is Merlin's idea of precautions, he thought as he lead the dog around. Well, I might as well test its limits. In the following days, he lead a variety of animals to the circle and bade them to try and get past it, to no avail. Moles tunneling underground instinctively turned aside at the edge of the circle, no matter how deep he made them go. Birds went around even at distances of a kilometer up, like there was some sort of gigantic infinite cylindr surrounding the shack.
He had to admit, it seemed to have worked. He resolved to tell Merlin he'd learned his trick, but not today. Maybe tomorrow, or the day after. That was his birthday, after all.
He idly wondered if Merlin had remembered.

1 Merlin Act: Merlin casts a spell on the shack that leads to the mansion that causes anything apart from Merlin and Matthew that comes within 500 meters of the shack to subconsciously move away from it and head somewhere else. They generally won't even notice the fact that they went around in the first place thanks to the effect of the spell.

---

The city buzzed with the bleak energy of millions of people. They walked quickly through streets between highrises, ducked into and out of alleyways, lived the nightlife, died in droves, were birthed in more. The city, despite its problems, pulsed with life.
Such an extent of life that it was hardly a surprise that a little bit more went unnoticed.
It was actually quite a nice system, thought Merlin as he sat back in a chair with a plotting expression. He was looking at a screen of marble, about 10 feet wide and 5 feet in width, that currently had what seemed to be a camera feed of some sort on it. It was in color, showing the proceedings of people in and out of a building from what seemed to be an awning above the entrance. Merlin flicked his hand and the view shifted to above and behind the stream of people, then to from the side, then to below the legs of them. Not wanting to infringe on the privacy of the townsfolk too much, he switched to another view and sat back.
It was ingenious really. No one ever noticed bugs, especially very small ones, unless they actively bit the individual, and he needed a surveillance system. It was advantageous in both regards. He'd taken a few bugs in from the surrounding area in his shop; not a hard thing to find anywhere really, and enhanced them, giving them human levels of sight to augment their compound eyes and acute hearing. After hooking them up to this screen by tying what passed for souls in them to it, he sent them out into the city to spread out, breed, and observe, all the while sending back the information they recorded to the viewing screen for him to observe at his lesiure.
Sound.
At his utterance, sound began to transmit through the screen by some arcane mechanism. It sounded very slightly tinny, as though viewed through two sets of ears somehow. A constant stream of muttering and talking came through.
Meh, nothing to see here, Merlin grumbled. He raised his voice slightly as he spoke to the screen.
The shack.
This pronouncement yielded a view of the shabby house that comprised the foundation of his abode from half a kilometer away. Nothing was near it.
The shop.
Looking down from a roof across the street at the shop. No one there, and the security system seemed quiet.
Merlin continued to look through the eyes of the insects, peering at the city from all angles. At last, however, he turned his attention away from the screen and padded away to another corner of the house where Matthew was currntly reading out of a grimoire.
He was satisfied.
1 Act (gained from crystals): Merlin creates a spy system of tiny insects such as noseeums that go out into the city and spy on it. They will breed as necessary to keep the necessary numbers up, and relay their vision and hearing (both of which are human quality) back to a viewscreen wall in the mansion for Merlin to observe. This wall is responsive to voice commands from Merlin and Matthew, and can be directed to observe a particular location or person by speaking the name of that person/place, which will be placed under observation of some bugs if they weren't already. The view can be switched at any point to any particular bug through precise thought.

---

He had to hand it to Merlin, he knew how to throw a party, Matthew reflected as he leaned on the balcony and watched as the mass of people below flowed through each other like bubbles broiling on the surface of a pot. For once the great hall they lived in wasn't empty, echoing with every footstep. It was instead alive with talk, with laughter, with light and sound and movement and he loved it.
The guests told him as he danced among them that Merlin had been planning this for quite some time, that his thirteenth birthday was apparently some sort of very big deal for the old feller. He ate the finest foods and drank the best root beer he'd ever tasted. As the night went on, he conversed with friends he never quite bothered to ask the names of, played video games on gaming rigs that weren't there the night before and eventually he found he couldn't remember when the night began, and nor did he care. He was having fun! The most fun of his life. He talked to a great many people who were there to wish him a happy birthday, and though he didn't know any of them, he had a strange sense of familiarity with them, as though they were family that he hadn't met but still knew.
That night lasted eternity, but eventually the celebrations wound down and he found himself on a grassy knoll some distance away from the mansion, talking to a beautiful older lady who had dark red hair. She was talking, Matthew realized as he faded back to the present...
"...and what happened to going out and having friends, anyway, hmm?" She looked down at him curiously from where she was sitting on a nearby tree branch.
What d'ya mean?
She shrugged. "Well, not only you but most kids your age don't ever seem to have many friends due to many things. Studies. Isolation. Restrictive parents. Don't you wish you could have something different?"
Matthew shrugged. Dunno. Never really had that sort of experience, and didn't really see the need for it. I do enough interesting things on my own.
"Well, what about tonight?"
Huh?
"I saw you having fun tonight. Think about it. Wouldn't you like to have fun like that every week? It's not too late to turn back. Merlin would give you up if you really wanted to."
Wait wait wait. How do you know about Merlin?
"Who do you think invited us here? You're 13 now, Matthew - a big year by any terms. If we lived just a few centuries ago you'd be considered a man now. It's your choice, Matt. If you want to give up your training in magic, become normal, you can do it. You wouldn't be in danger from other practicioners. You'd have friends. Don't you want that?"
Matthew thought. This was obviously a big decision that the woman was asking him to make, and even if he'd been inclined to treat it as a joke the tone with which she'd spoken forbade it.
In the orphanage, he'd been treated alright by the other kids. He hadn't really had any friends, but everyone had been amicable with him.
Being with Merlin was ... a big difference. He'd never met quite anyone like him, so eccentric and yet he had an answer to any question posed of him. And unlike the teachers he was used to , who only tolerated a certain amount of questioning, Merlin never got tired of talking with him. They'd spent whole days just discussing the finer points of some of the things he was interested in. Plus, of course, the extradimensional mansion was very nice.
Then there was the party tonight. His first taste of normality, of having friends and maybe even a family.
Hmm.
It really wasn't that hard of a choice, if he was honest to himself. Sure, friends were nice, but he could work on that and still have magic. Giving up magic for friends, though? Not a chance. He turned back to the woman.
Sorry if I disappoint you with this, but I'll stay with him. Magic isn't something I'd give up for anything.
The woman seemed pleased by this before she reigned in her expression. "Oh! Well, at least you made a choice then. Although I'm not sure Merlin would appreciate you discussing your studies with total strangers."
You know I can see through that glamor, right, Mer?
The lady shrugged, and her skin seemed to split open and fall apart, revealing the wizard leaning against the tree, grinning. Nice work there, lad.
No other words needed to be said then, and they sat on the knoll, overlooking the city, bustling and pulsing with light. Eventually Merlin heaved himself to his feet. Well, I suppose now that the party is over, I should give you your present, he said as he tapped the floot with his staff, splitting the far bigger glamor open and revealing them to be indoors. Blinking in surprise, Matthew followed him up a secretive set of stairs, eventually coming to a door that Merlin pulled a key out for. Before he put the key in the lock, he turned back to Matthew. Remember, if you accept this there's no turning back. You will be committed to the path of the arcane for life. Matthew nodded, and Merlin unlocked the door. Proceeding into a stone chamber, Matthew glimpsed - what was that? Was it - yes it was -  a staff on a stone plinth.
For me?
Merlin nodded, and Matthew advanced, disbelieving.
As he drew close to the staff, he idly noted that it was made of ashwood, and marked with carvings similar to that on Merlin's staff, but different somehow. Almost ... empty. He looked back to Merlin, who nodded approvingly. He reached out and hesitantly picked the staff up. It was a bit heavy, like all staffs were to him, but he didn't feel any obvious magical energies coming from it. Just as he was wondering if Merlin wanted him to do something with it, his voice came from behind, amused:
"Reach into it, Matthew. You'll find what's missing."
Matthew, knowing not to question such advice, and figuring he meant to extrude his aethric sense into it, did so. ...Hmm. The carvings on it weren't anything spectacular on thier own. Mainly spells of empowerement and channeling, which meant that though they weren't much on their own, together they could form something worthy of being called a wizard's staff.
But something was missing, some sort of entrance, an activation switch, a- oh, there it was. Channeling a small amount of magic into it, Matthew felt resistance. Spurred onward by this, he poured it on, pushing his power into the tiny breach in the staff until it broke.
When it did, the thing seemed to come alive in his hand, as the runes were overtaken by a spreading glow of deep red, and he felt a momentary sensation of all the power he'd put into that coming back, double - no, triple - no, it was everything, all the power in the world, the power of the stars, of the gods themselves!
He moved to laugh triumphantly, and the moment was gone. The sense of euphoria faded back into the staff, leaving it glowing faintly red, just as he now noted Merlin's glowed faintly blue, and leaving him with a pleasant humming sensation. He pushed it into the background of his conciousness as Merlin strode up to him.
Well done, Matthew! Well done indeed, he cried, his voice seeming to sprinkle flakes of power from each word to his ears.
Now you know why you cannot turn back. The staff is bonded to you now; it will assist you in your already remarkably intuitive grasp of magic, and more importantly, let you control it far more effectively. It is a focus, a symbol of your power and a sign that you are my apprentice, from this moment until the moment that you become a full wizard.
You've mastered the basics. Are you ready to begin your real training?
Hell yeah, he responded without hesitation, his own voice seeming to pulsate with light.
Flavor Act: Merlin carves the staff with appropriate runes as described above.
Matthew Act: Matthew bonds with his staff and becomes an official apprentice of Merlin (no real effect on gameplay apart from an increase in fine control and a better magic sense).
Null Act: The magical supplies are kept in storage and observed for anything unusual for now.

Yeah, see ya.

Go confront paperwad thrower. Politely ask him to stop.

Indeed. May you have good fortune in your travels.

Quote from: Empiricist on December 13, 2013, 03:07:52 am

((That could work, how many stats will characters have to distribute?))

(However many they want. Characters in Everything: Gaiden aren't of equal power, so why should they be in the arena version? I'll just organize things so people mainly fight those who are at the same power level. In later matches, I may have to impose disadvantages on stronger characters, such as granting weaker fighters Balance Points that they can use for bonuses to rolls.)

Quote from: Xantalos on December 13, 2013, 03:11:10 am

((Trickster won't be fighting for reasons of being essentially an Overgod from Pantheon.))

(Meh. He could limit his power, or you could use a different character, or whatever. But you don't have to participate.)

((True, but busy and lazy.))

((Also yeah sure Elf. Keep Az-Sho around though; I vanished him because I had nothing to do with him; I might later.))