[X] Plan: Hit The Books
-[X] Search the Library
-[X] Enquire about a personal investigator
-[X] Have a letter sent
-[X] Bring Research supplies
-[X] Study Araby
-[X] Acquire Holy Books
-[X] Arcane Marks
We have a winner
"... Swear he didn't have a face" you say gesturing at yours "it wasn't just a deep hood but an empty one".
Your father looks very curious but your mother uncomfortable, not really surprising.
You had just finished explaining the last 48 hours to them, from the three man brawl, to the three adventures, to your current plan. Which is to travel half way across the known world to the land of the dead, as the three of you sit on the veranda of your parents townhouse your mother had unsurprisingly gazed furiously at your father. As if it were all his fault, she tended to do that whenever you did something she disapproved of.
Your mother was a very short women, your no amazon but your nearly a head taller than her. Right now she is wearing her veil, having just returned from the temple of Shallya to give offerings. She always insisted on doing so, it wasn't required but she said going to temple should be something special and the veil meant it wasn't just another day. It obscures what would otherwise be a kind heart shaped face, with eyes that rather reminded you of a jungle cat, that are currently glaring at your father.
He is quite the opposite to her, a granite like face and a head taller than you. He has an extremely powerful build that has nothing to do with his job and more to do with his time at the wrestling club. He used to be a town guard but after moving to Altdorf he got a job with Altdorf Pamphlet writing rude jokes about soldierly life. Hardly a lofty job but it paid the bills and he had managed to parley it in to something else entirely. Having written for them for 20 years his column had morphed into a cooking guide, a gossip space, a news outlet and really anything that caught his attention as the years went by. At this point the Pamphlet just let him do whatever he wanted. Eventually as time passed the Pamphlet sold him a share of itself to keep him on, as by that point his column was something their readers expected to see.
His interest had turned into amusement at your mothers anger, perhaps just to spite her he said "well I'm glad your not thinking small with your Journey, you should go out and see the world" his eyes turned serious "but did you have to take the journey part of it so seriously?"
You grimace and say "I know its far and dangerous but I'll literally have a small army around me and I'll be able to do some real good. I doubt we'll learn anything that'll banish necromancy from the world but we might get more efficient weapons to fight it. Plus a chance to work with the most open minded people in the colleges and the Church of Sigmar is a rare opportunity."
"About that" your mother says wandering over to you passing you some pressed fruit juice, "I know things have been better between the Colleges and Church in the last 20 years but I'm shocked that a Witch Hunter actually wants so many Wizards to come along."
You accept the drink with a shrug "He seems to have a good academic understanding of magic. That probably means he's worked with some before."
You father finishes his own drink and says "Well your a grown woman and you can make your own way in the world, we don't want to stifle you. I always thought it might be a few years before I saw you again once you started Journeying. But if you think I'm waiting 4 months to get a letter from you from the Land of the Dead your wrong." He turns to his wife and says "Dear I think its time for me to take a leave of absence from work and travel a bit, just you and me."
She brighten ups at that and says "Oh yes I've always wanted to visit the Grand Chapel of Mannan" in an overly innocent voice she continues "but for the life of me, I can't remember where it is."
Your father snaps his fingers and proclaims "you know I think its in Miragliano."
"Yes of course how could I forget."
As they continue with this ridiculous charade you think two things.
I'm so glad I'll be able to get letters from them a few times a year.
I really hope they stop there, I don't want to face a tomb king with my mother fussing over whether I've eaten enough.
Martial Results
-[X] Search the Library
Outside scholars may view the Jade College as somewhat backwards, a relic of druidic learning. Word of mouth from parent to child. But while that might be a component in it, what with Ghyran passing in the family, it is also a modern hall of learning.
To that end it is fully equipped with not only its own library but also a full staff and even printing press to circulate non corruptive tomes. As a Journeyman you no longer require a note of permission to enter this place and may take a written copy anywhere within the city of Altdorf.
Martial Roll - 6 + 14 = 20. Failed
This makes it extremely easy to find some relevant books to you. However there is no standardised unit of difficulty for learning spells. So it takes quite some time for you to eliminate those that are beyond your current abilities or niche value to you.
By the end of the three months you have, you have read a great deal but have been unable to convince the library to let you take the books with you. As someone who was not especially famous within the college for her fighting ability they see little value in risking these books being taken to the other side of the world when you have yet to provide anything in turn. Magisters are free to take nearly anything they like but that is because they have added to the Colleges collective lore.
Still all those books did give you some ideas. Several of the newer texts mention names you saw on Heinrich's list, perhaps they can teach you on the way.
Result - Failed acquire specific spells to learn but unlocked new actions to investigate potential teachers in the group.
[ ] Ask someone on the list to teach you how to fight
[ ] Elizabeth Strauss - Famous in the Jade College for pioneering long range combat techniques, extending ones perception through the soil and remaining hidden while fighting. She is rumoured to have also been involved in the poisoning of some malcontent nobles, but that's just a rumour. Right? DC- 65/90, she is not particularly eager to take a student so the main difficulty is in convincing her.
[ ] Andreas Von Hammerfell - A true giant of a man, destined for a life in a Knightly order before his talent was discovered, he has bent the jade Wind and his combat skills to work together. He cannot wear armour but he shrugs off and heals blows so well he doesn't really need it. DC 55/100, he would be happy to teach you but what he has to teach is incorporating melee combat, which you know little about.
[ ] Tyr Ulricson - A small reedy man from Middenheim, called a coward by many until they feel his protective spells. The Jade Wind gives itself to healing, but he has mastered the art of extending that healing to entire units. Those who march under him will not die unless killed immediately. DC - 75/100, he is apprehensive to teach given how little experience you have with mass healing but if convinced this power would help not just you but the entire army.
Cost for all - you'll owe your teacher a favour if you succeed which will take up an action. Reward - Increase to martial score,
additional instruction actions unlocked.
[ ] Don't ask for help, practice what you know - Stick to what is familiar to you and make what spells you have not just something you can do on demand but reflexively accomplish. DC - 35/55/75/100. Reward - Small Marital increase and ideas for magic research at higher success.
Intrigue Results
-[X] Enquire about a personal investigator
You never really imagined yourself having an assistant but frankly you need one.
You are not stupid and one of the things anyone of reasonable intelligence should know is what they don't know.
To that end it seems wise to find someone who can help you out with those areas you feel least able to deal with. You have combat training and you know your books and your magic. But there is always the nitty gritty in between the things one wants to achieve.
Finding the truth of a situation and manipulating it to your advantage, your teacher had that gift but you lack it.
Time to find someone who doesn't.
Intrigue Rolls - 66 plus 7 = 73. Good Success.
After all that build up it proves surprisingly easy.
There is a board in the centre of the college where those who have business with the college may post information. You simply write up a rather basic piece of advertising and leave it on the board for a while and soon a few individuals who can read between the lines begin to show up.
You eliminate one man who thought the thing to read between the lines was to be your beaux.
You eliminate another because he seems to have decided that the Jade Wind is in fact a god and you one of his priests. You have to almost bodily throw him out as he explains how the Light and Jade Winds are Sigmar and Shallya's children and the other six are daemons spawned by the Ruinous Powers.
The last two are suitable but sadly you can only pick one.
(They can in future be set to help you with any action so don't just look at the Intrigue score)
[ ] Adem Ibn Sahar - The child of two traders from Araby who settled in Marienburg. He sees this job as a perfect opportunity to travel back to Araby. He doesn't plan to leave you there, in his words "any many who goes to the land of the unquiet dead and comes back, will never have an empty bed for the rest of his life". Well if you wanted nobility you wouldn't have been looking for someone to help you with unsavoury jobs.
Martial - 18
Intrigue - 14
Diplomacy - 10
Stewardship - 7
Learning - 13
Piety - 14
Magic - 0
[ ] Johann Gorniak - A man with a classically imperial name and presumably Kislevite surname. He hails from Ostland and was brought to the college just last year after displaying the power to turn wine into fortified wine while drunk. Unfortunately for him he has just enough magical power to be forced to join the college but not enough to get anywhere within it. Being a pragmatic sort with experience as a doer of odd jobs on a dozen different ships, he feels that your journey south will be a much desired form of freedom.
Martial - 12
Intrigue - 19
Diplomacy - 10
Stewardship - 10
Learning - 16
Piety - 17
Magic - 5
Diplomacy Result
-[X] Have a letter sent
Evangeline proves most happy to share the details with you.
The man currently running the dock is called Siegfried Von Musel. A priest of Sigmar who had always had more of a head for numbers than scripture. His faith was true but reciting verses had never been his strong suit and while any man of the empire should be able to fight he was merely average.
To that end he had turned his talents where they were best suited. Managing the temporal assets of the church, exposing corruption in the book keeping and a thousand other inglorious but necessary tasks.
You send him the letter, hoping to get the man's measure and perhaps a rundown of how things might be shipped from the mainland across the sea to your forward base.
Diplomacy Roll - 89 +11 = 100. Great Success.
What you get back is an extremely (perhaps over so) enthusiastic letter in response. It seems no one had bothered to send him a letter since informing him to prepare a ship for the expedition use in the coming year. He is actually quite enthusiastic to hear back from you about what you plan to do when you reach the Land of the Dead.
Attached is an explanation of the things he is confident he will be able to get his hands one, along with a request to clarify what precisely you are hoping to take.
Result - Made a positive first impression on an important member of the expedition and can instruct him what to prioritise looking for before you arrive.
Select 2
[ ] Books on Tilean Magic
[ ] Books on surviving Nehekaran traditions
[ ] Up to date information on Sultan Baibars
[ ] Public information from the Cult of Morr on the Undead
[ ] Samples of Magical artefacts
[ ] Books on previous Expeditions to the Land of the Dead
[ ] Books on Elementalist magic
[ ] Books on Spirit Binding
[ ] Information about the political relations between Tilean princes
[ ] The names of anyone in the city used to making equipment for wizards
Stewardship Result
-[X] Bring Research supplies
To be a wizard is be both warrior and scholar, the colleges were founded in war time but once they absorbed all that Teclis would offer they pursued their own research.
It seems wise to acquire your own set of materials to bring with you for the journey.
Magic can work in almost any environment and with any tools but near a century of refinement and work has taught your college what works best. Further your own training so far has revealed what works best for you.
Stewardship Roll - 33 plus 16 = 49. Moderate Success.
Given that this is an expedition sanctioned by the highest authorities of the colleges it is not hard to get a basic set up.
A cauldron, beakers, vials, flasks, pestle and mortar, measuring equipement and most importantly of all. A set of soft linen blankets. These may seem unimportant but they make a simple but perfect way to transport your glass items without damaging them.
Stewardship Result - Tools that will provide a bonus to your personal experiments where relevant.
Learning
-[X] Study Araby
Heinrich has stated that you will have co-operation from local lords and magic users in your quest into the desert. This is certainly reassuring. The crusades were a long time ago and yet they represent the most involved that the Empire of Man and Araby have been in each others affairs. It did not engender much friendship to say the least.
Since then the distance between the two of you has made it almost irrelevant what is happening in each others sphere of influence. Yet for both of you the undead remain a constant problem. You have Sylvania and they have Nehekara itself.
Therefore it would be wise for you to add to you current understanding of what is happening in Araby in the here and now.
Learning Roll - 61 +21 = 82. Great Success.
When it becomes known that you wish to study Araby in general you receive help from a surprising source. Heinrich himself is planning to give a seminar on this exact topic to anyone interested in learning.
So that is how you end up clustered in with 16 other people in a small converted room in his office building. Your fellow listeners include a few other wizards, priests and soldiers. Heinrich is hardly the most gifted speaker, but you've stayed awake through worse.
He begins his explanation by saying "Araby has always been a land of wilful people, who stand on their own and dislike being told what they must do by outsiders. Given its geography, vast empty deserts with densely populated oases of civilisation, this makes it very hard to centrally govern. How much authority a Padishah from Al-Haikk has can vary massively, from totally powerless to iron fisted like Sultan Jafar."
He points to a map of Araby on his the wall behind him "Today, Al-Haikk is ruled by the Sultan Baibars, most of what we know of him personally is the usual rubbish nobles like to talk about" the people in this room have come from all walks of life, but all are of the common born or gentry, and all share conspiratorial side eyes at that. Your lecturer continues "But he does live up to at least some of what they like to go on about. A priest of Sigmar making his way through the area reported to us 10 years ago that he had defeated an army of Daemons that emerge from the Blood River. That he had brought many sorcerers, Djinn binders and even Wizards from our colleges to his court. He's not commanding any of the other great cities private armies, but they do send him many great "gifts" in honour of his victory and majesty."
"His own spies informed him of what we were planning and rather than rail against us for planning to march a small army through his lands. He offered us his support, using said priest of Sigmar as an intermediary. In exchange for what we learn being made available to him, he will supply us with food, water, the transportation of information and access to his court of Learned Men." He looks surprisingly grumpy about that, it all sounded good to you but then again an investigator probably didn't appreciate being spied upon.
Result - Knowledge about Araby (relatively unified with a growing magical institute) and knowledge that there is a priest of Sigmar there with some access to the Sultan and his court. Unlocks additional actions.
Piety Results
-[X] Acquire Holy Books
You would define yourself as a Gnostic or possibly a Deist. The Gods exist, that much is obvious, people with no magical education have summoned light, healed the sick, thrown lightning and countless other things. All of which seem to cross the lines between the Winds of Magic without forming Qhaysh or Dhar.
This is a trait you share with your father, the gods exist, there's no point in offending them but everything good in your life come from Family, hard work and a little magic.
Your mother is by far the most religious member of the household. He devotion to Shallya is near total. She practices a form of Monolatry, she know that other gods exist she just refuses to praise them everyday.
As she put it, "Why praise gods that bring violence and death, men do that fine on their own. Why praise fire and destruction, you can do that with a torch and an axe. But Shallya brings healing and when her presences shines true, all the suffering of the world may be aleivatiated."
Noble, but you never quite felt that same call and yet the gods have been a strong part of your life. The thought of leaving the lands They watch over for a foreign one that knows nothing of Them, without even bringing something of Them with you seems wrong.
Piety Roll - 71 plus 12 = 83. Great Success.
Books might be relatively expensive in the Empire, but there are a few factors to aid you.
First you are traveling with a band of Warrior Priests, emphasis on the priests in this case.
So getting your hands on the Deus Sigmar, Der Liber Heldenhammer and a written copy of The Legend of Sigmar, is actually quite easy. The priests are a little too happy to give you the books and expound on the virtues within and the importance of cultivating inner strength and faith. It reminds you that while these are the most openminded of the Church of Sigmar, they still have a view that magic is a last resort and that faith in their god is much superior.
Apparently not to be outdone when they see you hauling these books around, Evangeline and your mother give you their own books on Mannan and Shallya.
Finally there is an old weather beaten copy of theories on the Earth Mother in the Jade college.
Reading through all these familiar texts and ideas brings you a sense of comfort. Though you go far beyond their site you trust the gods of the empire to continue to watch over while you are gone and maybe to watch over you as you go.
Result - Fine collection of Imperial Holy books, opens new actions to increase piety.
Magic Results
-[X] Arcane Marks
Magic touches all things and so in turn has a nearly infinite number of things to study. So in theory it should be easy to pick something to research, however nothing is so simple.
Show an artist nothing but a blank canvas and he can paint anything but more likely he will paint nothing. He will be overwhelmed by all the options he could take and never get started.
That is certainly how you feel now and it makes you empathise with every artist and writer trying to get started.
This is not simply another side project your master has decided you should help him with. This is to be your masterpiece.
A masterpiece is more than just a project, it is proof. That a wizard is now not merely a wielder of the Winds but a master of one of them. Not beyond flaw or reproach but at least beyond the need for instruction. After a masterpiece has been accepted a wizard is their own master and teacher. From now on any new knowledge will be learned on their own, others may help and assist but from then on it will be their own journey into magic.
For a masterpiece is a wizard's first personal contribution to humanities ever growing knowledge of the arcane arts. It is proof that they do not endlessly repeat what has been given but give back as well.
Those who have been deemed worthy to be a journeyman may use their magic outside of the college in whatever way they see fit. But they are just receptacles of the teachings of the college. They will take no students and without a masterpiece they pass on no new knowledge.
Like every journeyman before you, you have every intention of completing a masterpiece but you cannot help but wonder if the reason why some never do is because they don't know where to start.
Your trip into the library of your college has shown you the dizzying amount of knowledge that your college can call upon. To add to it is great honour and a heavy burden.
Spells and formulae, potions and models all race through your mind and you spend hours getting no where. As you are doing so you fall back onto a habit of long years, people watching.
Too many in your college are content to feel the flow of the world around them in its totality without considering each individual aspect of what you are looking at. You can't help but examine the magisters, journeymen and apprentices that make their way about.
As you do so you see countless people with vines growing from their hair, barking for skin and little flowers growing at their feet. All these are arcane marks, things that inextricably tie them to sorcery. Your third eye reveals the way Ghyran flows through them but even someone without one would know at a glance that these were magical being.
That is where the spark of the idea comes into being. Perhaps what you should be studying is not the bending of the winds into spells. Or even the way nature breaths in Ghyran but rather the effect that it has on you and your peers.
Magic roll DC 35/60/70. Result 1 and 80 + 24 = 104. Massive Success
You focus your third eye on these who pass you by and look deeper at their arcane marks. It is hard to see clearly through the constantly flowing power that suffuses the Jade College. While it may look like a pristine and scenic little set houses built across bumpy little hills, it is far more than that. The Winds here might not be a raging inferno or a tempest but they are no less powerful or distracting for it. Further each wizards has their unique connection to the Jade Wind.
This is not really a problem you have ever had before, conventional logic would be that more of your wind would be a good thing. But in this case it distracts and muddles your attempts to examine things in detail. What you really need is for the winds around you to … not calm so much as disperse a little. To not be so overbearing that you can't take note of things in detail. So you redouble your efforts with your Witchsight.
As you do so you remember the canticles in Eltharin taught to you to control the way you Channel your wind into the world. Usually a Channeler would have to master these particular ones as an intermediate step on their path. First they would learn the songs that turned them into a direct Channel for Ghyran and the intermediate ones that determined its precise nature and the final ones that would determine how it would be sent forth into the world.
The first ones were always unnecessary for you as the Jade Wind always thrummed through you. But the latter two were still useful, in this case you are changing the rhythm of your thoughts through the canticles and through that altering the way Ghyran moves through you. In the past you were taught to use it as a means both to power your spells with only your own Ghyran and to strengthen Ghyran's grip on the world to empower yourself further. But what if you did the opposite.
So you use the winds constantly flowing through you spread out across the hill and disperse the Ghyran there. It does not still the wind but rather loosens its grip on the area. What you are doing is not a spell but instead an act of will. It has few practical benefits other than to prevent the rushing of arcane energy from interfering with your Sight. If a mage truly wanted to they would still be able to cast spells in this space.
With this small pocket created you can see much more clearly into the nature of each individual arcane mark.
You have never really considered what an arcane mark truly was before now. In truth you had only ever really seen your master's, his wooden claws and his beard that grew longer across the length of a conversation.
However now you have hundreds of examples walk in front of you.
It is not something you notice in a single day but as you return to your habit of people watching for the next three months, a pattern of two distinct things begins to form. With your new trick you can see the Marks with clarity you never had before.
Firstly, all arcane marks are most definitely the product of mistakes. A fellow apprentice had once speculated that enough immersion in a particular wind, even without a mistake, would create an arcane mark. But between your 10 years of practice and lack of mark, along with what you see here, you can definitively say they were wrong. For here, each Mark is not malignant as the mutations of those you have seen burnt at the stake are. But they are none the less gnarled. They are wounds that have healed, physical signs of where magic ran amuck the body and soul both had to recover from the fact. There is a twisted beauty to them, each is a ruination but also physical proof that one has endured their mistakes and now are better for it.
Secondly, there is an almost imperceptible difference between the way Ghyran flows through the rest of the body and the Arcane marks. The wind of life moves through all living things but it collects in the areas most vital to a person, the heart, lungs, brain and spine. But the Jade glow in the Marks outshines any of these places. while a proper study was needed you are fairly certain that Wizards power would increase with each mark acquired. Not immediately but over time as the wound healed and Mark set itself and gained pools of magic to call upon and a way to attune themselves to their wind.
You can't help muse on whether such pools could be artificially, intentionally, created.
While the three months you spend watching yield no earthshattering revelations they may have just put you on the path you need to walk for your masterpiece.
Results - Learned to use Channelling to disperse winds, new options unlocked and observed that arcane marks are the result of mistakes alone but do have benefits, new options unlock.
A/N
I am so glad Channelling was chosen, this would have been a disastrous start to this quest without it. Sorry this took a little longer.
