The Lighthouses and the Pit (Fantasy Mage Quest)

[X] Swallow
Devours distance; birds are swift and darting; always returns home.

"Swallow, huh?"

She looks at you, eyes roving up and down for a moment.

"Yeah, I can see it. Good choice. Simple, punchy. Well, Swallow. Time to learn how to use magic."

She gestures at you to come with her. Inside the hall, at the end, there are a few pillows. Dagger sits on one, and leaves the other to you.

"This is simple. Easy. Close your eyes, and breathe. Normally, you can feel the air around you, the sensations on your skin. The sounds, even the quietest ones. And once your mind stills..."

You do as she says, and when you reach a moment of quiet calm, you feel yourself looking at something. A pool of orange light, the occasional ray of light striking it and disappearing, growing the whole.

You feel a hand on your shoulder.

"Easy, right? Once you have magic, it's the simplest thing in the world to use. Now, watch me."

Dagger draws a dagger, and slices. She steps forward, and is five metres ahead of where she once was. It's hard to describe from behind. You see her take the step, and it is only one step. You see no real discontinuity, merely a strangeness, a sense of wrongness, and then she is further ahead than she was. A step, and she is there. She slashes and stabs, moving about the stone hall with rapidity you have trouble following, dancing from space to space with ease. One more slash, and you see it.

You're not quite sure what it is. But you see the blade cut something, something that wasn't there before, something you can't properly see or understand, but you can see nonetheless. She turns around.

"You see it?"

You nod dumbly.

"Good. Look for it, and cut it. Grab one of your swords. Cut the same place, the same way, until you see it."

You stand there, and start cutting. A minute passes. Ten minutes. Your arms tire, and Dagger stops you.

"Five minutes, then we start again."

It is two hours later, two exhausting hours of sword-swinging and hopelessness that you see it again. You swing at it, step forward, and stumble. What you step onto isn't quite what you expected, and you almost lose your footing. As you do, you feel the pool of orange light rush out of you, swelling through you, from your head to your toes, rushing out of your fingertips, and into the sword, and from there into the air itself, emptying itself into the air. You can't feel it anymore, but when you swing again, the distance parts before your blade with ease.

"Anyway, I think you've had a bit of time to come to terms with this. Let me tell you about what's happening."

Dagger gestures again at the cushions, and you sit down, glad you mastered the trick, but exhausted nonetheless.

"You know about the Pit?"

You nod. You remember being taught about it. The infinitely deep chasm that dominated the centre of the continent, filled to the brim with Darklings and Artifacts.

'Well... eight months ago, the various guildmasters found something. Not sure what it was, and they're not telling, but apparently it's important. Or maybe it was just the location of something, I'm not really sure. They raised an expedition of fifty or so mages, and sent them down into the Pit. Big expedition, biggest in years. Something went wrong, though. So they called for a rescue expedition. Raised three, four hundred mages. Some of the city's best, finest mages. Sent them down into the Pit."

Dagger sighed.

"I'm not sure what happened after that. They're still alive, apparently. Some of them, anyway. The more powerful Shaderunners can come back and forth, but everyone is really secretive about what's happening down there. They're stuck, though, and Thousand Shards - that's the old Guildmaster - got stuck down there too. Sent back a letter advising he was abdicating, and Biting Blade got elected from those of us who were left. That was two months ago. Most of our best are down in the Pit, but she wants to try and send another expedition. Half the city's Tremorfeet are down there, and they've built some sort of fortification, but they can't seem to get out, or maybe they don't want to. Not sure."

She shakes her head.

"I voted for her, but... well. We barely have enough mages to cover our defense as is, and sending another expedition could very well doom the entire city. As it stands, we'll be set back by fifty, sixty years worth of mages, but at least we'll survive. Probably."

You nod.

"No, I understand. You want to train me so you can send me into the Pit?"

Dagger bursts out laughing.

"No, no, no. You'd die in the Pit, mageling. Like that."

She snaps her fingers.

"We don't send yearlings into the Pit, Tremorfeet notwithstanding.

She smiles at you, though.

"I like your enthusiasm - I mean, it's in fellowship we find salvation and all, so good to see you're on our side. But no, new Bladebound we usually send out on one of three missions. Helping guard the southern caravans, which are pretty safe to begin with, is usually what we offer. Sometimes we send you out with a Shaderunner to a village - fortified villages are tremendously valuable in keeping the Darklings off us for a little longer, so we like to assist them from time to time. Lastly, you can be sent hunting Darklings near the Lighthouses - they're weak there, and it's a good opportunity for you to train."

"No need to decide any of that just yet, though. Now... how are we going to train you? No offense, but you're rubbish at fighting, even for a newbie. Instincts are terrible."

You glare at her.

"I can swing a sword just fine."

You swiftly draw one of your swords, and flourish it about, weaving in the air with ease.

Dagger sighs.

"Yes, you can swing a sword just fine. Any Bladebound can swing a sword just fine. It's in our name. Your footwork is garbage, your instincts are terrible, and being good at handling a sword with your hands means absolutely nothing for the rest of your skills. Anyway, here are some things I think might suit..."

---

[ ] Defensive Style - Locked by trait Compassionate. Different style unlocked below.

[ ] Interception Style

Gains bonus from Stubborn. You learn to fight defensively, though in the space of a month Dagger can only do so much. Your natural compassion and concern for others mean training to solely defend yourself is not sufficient - Dagger recognizes this would only cause you to throw yourself into danger you had not trained to face. Instead, the Interception Style is a mainly defensive style in that it focuses on being able to prevent being hit, and also intercepting enemies headed for others and distracting them and defending against them.

You will train primarily to survive, and assist others in doing so. Your shortswords are ill-suited to pure attack, and so you train merely to survive for now. You are less likely to kill or wound enemies in combat, but are also less likely to take wounds. You are also able to lower the risk of wounding or death for others as well.

[ ] Offensive Style

Defense is good, offense is better. You can get in and out fast, so use that to be aggressive. Strike your enemies down as quickly as you can. You'll be more vulnerable to attacks, though. You are more likely to kill or wound enemies in combat, but are also more likely to take wounds.

[ ] Ambush Style

You're weak, and you know it. But with your extra mobility and low reach, maybe your focus needs to be elsewhere. Bladebound can fight, but you know you're not killing anything with ease right now. The better option is to use your mobility to your advantage, slinking around the battlefield and striking at the unaware. You can deal tremendous damage when catching enemies unaware, however your general combat prowess (both offensive and defensive) will suffer.

This thread will involve very little dicerolling.

There are primarily two major ways the thread can effect the outcome of a choice.

Firstly, Analysis & Strategy.

Essentially, if an option is taken, you (as to some degree the thought process of Swallow) will be able to improve options by writing in strategies (if I offer the option 'attack'), you can write about how you might do it, what might work, things to consider, you can improve the odds.

Options will generally be marked with their chances of success (and likely consequences of failure), so it's important to do what you can to improve the odds if you take a failure-prone option.

Secondly, as you represent Swallow's thoughts to some degree, its not important that you all agree on a particular strategy. If someone writes an excellent analysis of how to go through with an option, she can use that to succeed.

For instance, if we see a Darkling, and one thread member advises to go for the lower legs, because it looks very top-heavy (say the vote is for fighting or running away), Swallow might attempt that.

As such, your regular posts are to some degree write-ins (in combat, or in conversation, or when deciding where to go), and most posts won't have a write-in option, the regular options will generally be fairly broad and the ultimate result will incorporate the discussion the thread took to get to that point.


Secondly, Fate. The thread gains Fate Points occasionally (and as is standard, more for omake, long analyses, artworks, etc). Fate Points will be accrued, and kept in a pool for use. The main use of Fate Points is to succeed at otherwise impossible or unlikely things. Generally speaking, an option which has a default as failure will have an option to spend a Fate Point (or more than one, if it's especially ridiculous) to succeed at such a thing.

Dice rolls will come out at moments where Swallow's life is generally at risk, she has made bad choices, and has no more Fate Points. Seeing one means you've put her life genuinely at risk, and if she fails one, she may die or be maimed.