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You'd prefer to keep a low profile now that you're a magic user. Certainly, the best ways to stop the man that you can think of all involve magic. You watch as the thief disappears into a nearby alleyway with the stolen basket of apples. (Increased Caution.) (Increased Calculation.)

But the whole matter of the thief is quickly forgotten when a man down the street shouts: "Death cloud!"

Looking down Main Street to the east, you can see a dark purple-and-black cloud on the horizon. The cloud looks big, maybe as big as the town. Judging from the strong wind today, it may be here in less than an hour.

This is not Akriton's first brush with a cloud of negative energy. Immediately, the merchants break down their tents, and many market patrons hurry into their houses and basements. Shutters snap shut all down the street. The animal sellers hastily bargain with landowners, then push their sheep through storm doors into basements. A baby cries madly despite her mother's tense reassurances. Some people uproot flowers as they pass them; they'll be no good to anybody else soon enough.

Since everyone will be sheltering inside soon, you could help out the town with some magic. But you think it will take some very powerful magic indeed to stop this cloud.

1.Use automation to repair the town's ancient, rusty set of giant fans.
2.Part the cloud with negation magic.
3.Use divination to find stragglers whom this cloud might kill.
4.Take shelter myself and continue my magical studies.

Sell the flying serving tray for 600 gold.

You see a merchant with a fine carriage selling silver- and gold-plated tableware, and you demonstrate your flying serving tray to the man.

He is astounded by your demonstration and offers you an impressive sum. (Gained 600 Gold.)

Buy an all-black outfit suitable for sneaking around. (175 gold.)

You go to one of the vendors peddling shady semilegal goods, and purchase a black form-fitting wrap popular among thieves and assassins called a "gi." Enthusiastic about your new sleek appearance, you decide to continue wearing the black gi for the rest of the day. (Lost 175 Gold.) (Gained Subtlety.)

Buy a rare old history book called Via Verita Abraxas, or "True Life of Abraxas," for 300 gold.

(Lost 300 Gold.) You purchase an extremely old book that uses a very scholarly dialect of the ancient tongue, titled Via Verita Abraxas, or "True Life of Abraxas." You suspect that the trader thought it was merely another copy of the Book of Abraxas, but in an ancient tongue. Not so; the Book of Abraxas treats Abraxas as divine, but this book starts very differently.

Abraxas is the most powerful wizard who ever lived, and we would do well to understand his life. It starts, probably, with glamor magic. Philautia omnes, kleos venenum. Simple words, but Abraxas understood they could be used with different effect on different people. Those who are used to following orders will fall under the glamor's spell more readily. (Gained Glamor.)

Using your expansive knowledge of ancient history, you find you can decode the following additional passage from True Life of Abraxas: Abraxas traveled north by northeast from Akriton to the Magisterian capital of Phaedra. He came to speak with them of peace. But the Magisterians had a curious means of controlling the spread of magic: only the rich were allowed to use it. Their society had very little use for the truly poor.

It was then that Abraxas conceived of the idea of trying to convince the Magisterians there was a higher power who would judge them for their sins. This idea was a failure, but could be thought of as a success if we view it as a valuable test run. (Learned ancient Magisterian capital location.)

Unfortunately, that is the current limit of what you can translate. But as you learn more about the ancients and their tongue, you might be able to translate more.

Buy one of those big turkey legs I always see people around here eating. (5 gold.)

You see a fair number of people roaming the market with big old turkey legs and steins full of beer. You're not sure about drinking this early in the day, but those turkey legs look fun.

You purchase one. Why not? (Lost 5 Gold.) (Increased Humor.)

Browse some hats.

The hat seller gives you a suspicious look as you begin to examine her hats. "You mess them up, you bought them," she says with a wag of her pudgy finger. "These are custom-made hats as good as anything in the capital."

Purchase a jaunty feathered hat for 400 gold.
Purchase a big floppy black hat for 400 gold.
Buy a conical hat decorated with stars and moons for 400 gold.
The hat seller has correctly identified me as someone who won't buy anything. (We don't have any other option, since we don't have enough money for a hat. If we want, we can sell something and come back to buy one.)

"I knew it!" the milliner begins to rant, but you're out of earshot soon enough.

What else will you buy or sell at the market? (You have 220 gold.)

Selling options:
1.Sell all but one of the clutch of dragon eggs for 350 gold.
2.Sell the whole clutch of eggs for 500 gold.
3.Sell my alchemy set for 400 gold.

Buying options:
1.Buy some fine clothing suitable for a noble. (150 gold.)
2.Buy a good set of chain armor. (350 gold.)
3.Buy an old tonic that the seller claims helps with a variety of maladies. (300 gold.)
4.Buy ingredients for a potion to improve my negation magic for 350 gold. (Requires alchemy set.)
5.Buy ingredients for a potion to improve my glamor for 300 gold. (Requires alchemy set.)
6.Buy a set of fine tools and spare parts for automation. (400 gold.)
7.Donate 1 to 500 gold to restore the copper tree sculpture at the center of the marketplace.
8.Visit Seer Marie, the fortune-teller, for 25 gold.
9.Browse some hats.

Alternatively:
I think my business at the market is done.

"I'm still looking for real magic, though," you say, your voice quivering slightly since you're unused to lying to your parents. "I found a lot of interesting things in this last expedition, but I'll never be a wizard at this rate."

"Well, perhaps that's for the best," your mother says, patting you on the shoulder. "The Church inquisitors do sometimes come around, even here."

"Maybe you could just become an auctioneer," your father suggests. "You have enough cr—enough items," he corrects himself. "Auction items—whatever the fancy word for them is."

"'Lots,' dear," your mother says, ever attempting to expand your father's vocabulary.

"Yeah, lots," your father agrees. "Lots and lots."

"Of lots," your mother says, unsure whether her lesson stuck.

"Lots of lots," your father says, now clearly lost but trying to meet your mother's standards.

"I'll think about it," you say, to get the conversation back on the trail. "As a first step, I am going to sell a few things at market tomorrow."

"Oh, could you pick up some eggs for me?" your mother asks.

"Yeah, and I broke my measuring stick yesterday, can't pick one up myself 'cause I work all day," your father says.

And so it goes. Honestly, your parents can't really imagine you as a powerful wizard, regardless of how proud of you they are, so they're all too willing to believe your fib. You tell yourself this is for the best, even though perhaps you would have found it a relief to be able to share your secret with them. (Increased Caution.) (Increased Calculation.)

After your parents leave, you decide it's high time you visited the market to sell the random artifacts you don't intend to keep.

Colorful flags of different trading companies flutter in a strong wind above the market square, which is bustling with activity this morning. Though Akriton is fundamentally a small town, it happens to be the only town for many miles on the north–south road that is closest to the Negative Sea on the eastern border. A fair number of traders bearing mundane goods such as grains, dyes, and cloth therefore stop in Akriton, as do monster hunters and treasure hunters offering hard-to-appraise finds from nearby ruins. The merchants mostly trade from impermanent tents open at one side, but some wander through the crowd and act as their own auctioneers: "Who will give me fifty, fifty for a silver ring from the time of the ancients? Fiftyfiftyfifty thank you fifty-five-fifty-five-fifty-five I have fifty-five…" The air is sweet with the smells of cinnamon and curry spices from the south, and stinky cheese from the north.

A copper, haystack-like lump in the center of the market was once a tree sculpture in ancient times, but it was melted centuries ago by a roaming dragon's breath. It was always said to be good luck, and one of Mayor Cos's projects is to fundraise to restore the tree.

You think selling magical items won't cause trouble for you this far from the capital; many traders out here near the Negative Sea don't ask too many questions. At any rate, possessing magical artifacts is considered a far lesser sin than the casting of spells.

What will you buy or sell at the market? (You have 100 gold.)

(I've reorganized this a bit in the interest of time.)

Selling options:
1.Sell all but one of the clutch of dragon eggs for 350 gold.
2.Sell the whole clutch of eggs for 500 gold.
3.Sell the flying serving tray for 600 gold.
4.Sell my alchemy set for 400 gold.

Buying options:
1.Buy some fine clothing suitable for a noble. (150 gold.)
2.Buy an all-black outfit suitable for sneaking around. (175 gold.)
3.Buy a good set of chain armor. (350 gold.)
4.Buy a rare old history book called Via Verita Abraxas, or "True Life of Abraxas," for 300 gold.
5.Buy an old tonic that the seller claims helps with a variety of maladies. (300 gold.)
6.Buy ingredients for a potion to improve my negation magic for 350 gold. (Requires alchemy set.)
7.Buy ingredients for a potion to improve my glamor for 300 gold. (Requires alchemy set.)
8.Buy a set of fine tools and spare parts for automation. (400 gold.)
9.Donate 1 to 500 gold to restore the copper tree sculpture at the center of the marketplace.
10.Buy one of those big turkey legs I always see people around here eating. (5 gold.)
11.Visit Seer Marie, the fortune-teller, for 25 gold.
12.Browse some hats.

Alternatively:
I think my business at the market is done.

A horse? Plural "horses"? Is that right?

Yes, that's what I want to call this creature.

"Horse" it is.

You go into the Mild Woods to collect the living specimens you'll need for the spell: a blue jay for the wings, head, and feathers, and some additional blue and black flower petals for coloration.

On your return, you place the caged blue jay in the middle of your desk and strew the flower petals around it in an intricate pattern dictated by your tome of vivomancy. You feed the creature some special ground meal recommended by the tome for making it docile; surprisingly, it gobbles the stuff right up. You place a hand on its neck.

"Craetura prothea, metamorpha a pedibus usque ad crania!" you say, willing the creature to transform into your desired shape. The flower petals glow blue and black, and their sweet smell fills the air as glowing particles rise from them. Meanwhile, your captive writhes and shudders as similar particles are pulled from it, mingling with the flower particles at the center of the table as its old shell collapses dead.

Finally, there is a flash, and—

Your new horse remains at the center of the workshop table, standing amid the blackened petals. (Gained Vivomancy.) It cozies up to you, and you pet its avian head.

What will you do with this new creature, now that you've created it?

1.I can't part with it. Name it and keep it as a pet.
2.It could fetch a fair price at market.
3.Introduce it into the wild with a partner and see what happens.

Over years of exploring ruins, you have greedily hoarded anything you could come across that was built by the ancients, whether magical or not. The big stuff became your furniture.

The main places to sit in your living room are all wooden facsimiles of food, which you think the ancients used as advertisements. Your favorite to sit on is a large wooden facsimile of a rounded meat sandwich, but you also have a long sausage in a bun, a low-to-the-ground shredded-meat wrap, and for your bed, an open baked potato. All of these are actually fairly comfortable with a liberal application of pillows.

For end tables, you have various geared axles from larger defunct automated artifacts, and some compelling-looking sleek metal cylinders etched with symbols that look very powerful if only their secrets could be unlocked. They may well be the most powerful end tables ever. (Increased Humor.)

One desk in the corner, made out of the middle finger of a giant golem, is reserved for your "laboratory," humble as it is—or was before your expedition to the sunken academy. The random assortment of automatic trinkets whose power you were trying to unlock now seems like nothing compared to the haul you dump onto the desk: a whole alchemy set, composed of vials, beakers, and burners that you lay out across the desk; the flying serving tray, which lands on the corner of the desk of its own accord; the dragon eggs, still sitting on the serving tray; the torc of life and death from the old laboratory; a few accessories from the dormitories that complement the already dashing look of your duelist's uniform; an assortment of spare automation parts you picked up while exploring the academy; and, of course, the hefty tomes of magic you found, which will form the basis of your further magical study.

You had quite a haul this time around.

Happier than you have been in a long time, you go to your bedroom, a tiny room just big enough for your baked-potato-shaped bed, and drift off to sleep.

When you wake up the next day, you're most eager to continue studying the books of magic you retrieved from the academy.

Which kind of magic will you study the most? Recall that negation is useful for fights but leaves behind deadly clouds; divination reveals information to you but may also reveal information about yourself to someone else in the process; automation creates magical objects but worsens the ever-present storms; glamor makes you persuasive in the short term but wears away at your health; and vivomancy is the magic of life and often has unexpected long-term consequences.

1.Negation.
2.Divination.
3.Automation.
4.Glamor.
5.Vivomancy.

You try sneaking past the dragon. Footfall by footfall, you try to stealthily make your way past it.

You make it past the dragon without incident, but find nothing of interest behind it. Puzzled, because you had the distinct impression the dragon was guarding something, you think for a moment—and your attention is drawn to the crow's nest atop the mast the dragon is curled around.

You consider for a moment whether you're stealthy enough to walk up the dragon's back without being noticed, but then you have a less crazy plan.

You draw power from within yourself and murmur the ancient words: "Aviana, aeroba, volanta, pluma."

You feel giant wings sprout from your back, drawing mass from all the rest of your bones. (Gained Vivomancy.)

You feel your mass overall get lighter in a way that may not reverse itself. (Gained Subtlety.) (Lost Fighting.)

You leap into the air and flap with all your might to get to the crow's nest, where you find a nest containing a clutch of mottled dragon eggs.

You load several of the foot-long eggs onto the flying silver serving tray you animated in the dining area, which has followed you this far.

Laden with as much treasure as you can carry out of the sunken academy, you decide it's time to leave this place.

The whole tower lists precariously, the chemicals having presumably eaten away most of its foundation on one side. As you tilt toward the courtyard, you can see the green and purple chemicals have begun to destroy the other buildings as well.

"I can't believe they had that stuff in their kitchen," Tal says.

"You're one to talk," you say. "I've seen your pantry."

Tal thwacks your arm.

How will you get through the rock ceiling of the cavern above you?

1.Blast the rock ceiling with negation magic.
2.Use automation magic to turn the central airship's mast into a drill.
3.Use vivomancy to grow the wooden tower until it bursts through the ceiling.