The Lighthouses and the Pit (Fantasy Mage Quest)

Training is a good idea, but something about the city... itches at you. When you walk through the Trade Ring, nothing seems to jump out. It just seems subtly wrong, like someone has replaced the place you knew with something else entirely, like walking back to your dilapidated old house and overnight finding someone had built a mansion there.

It always feels a little off.

Among the few memories you have, Father Matthias seems to feature frequently. You think he was a teacher, maybe. A travelling priest? You find that only wisps remain, and trying to form a coherent picture in your memories is virtually impossible. Rather, you think, it is better to return to the Shield Ring, and find what is there. Where you lived. You remember pieces of the grinding poverty, the scant meals and the rubble sitting outside, but not enough to truly give you a sense of identity.

You tell Dagger you're going. She nods, and hands you an armband. It'll mark you as a servant of the Guild, she informs you with some amusement. Apparently that is your actual rank at present, not being an actual member.

You walk through the Trade Ring, and into the Shield Ring proper.

To your shock, you notice a pile of corpses lazily stacked near the walls, men hauling more onto the pile in the dusk. Twenty or thirty of them, perhaps. Had the city suffered an attack? Had you not even noticed? Another man gatherers pieces of wood, and a stern-looking woman besides him tries to light a small pile of wood shavings. It makes sense - they're hardly going to send people outside the walls to bury the bodies, and the city has tight limits on space.

So it comes a little further. You explore around, looking for the orphanage. There are no signs, though, no easy ways to see where to go in the fading sun. You thought you knew! You lived there! You were taken from there, and then... You can't quite remember. Still, you walk around the streets for a few hours, seeing nothing but damaged houses, far more than are usual, apparently. There are few Tremorfeet to raise new structures at the moment, and so the orphanage should be even more visible. But the city is a big place, and there's every chance you're simply heading in the wrong direction. You circle around, when suddenly you hear a noise, stone clattering and falling.

You look around, peering to see if anyone is nearby. You see a small child over near a collapsed house, but as you turn to him, he runs away, fear in his eyes. You remember a little of that fear yourself, and you wince.

Surely there's something you can do to help him.

You look around helplessly for a moment, and stride back to the gate guards.

"Guardsmen."

You try to look regal and intimidating, but they regard you with only a little respect.

"Yes?"

"Where would I buy a loaf of bread at this hour in the Shield Ring?"

One of them gestures down the road, showing a darkened stall with a wizened old woman tending to it. It's uncommon, seeing the elderly in the Shield Ring, but it does happen.

You walk over, and pull out one of the few coins Dagger had left you for petty purchases. It's silver - the smallest she had. You give it to the old woman, and her eyes brighten.

"That could buy my entire stall, m'lady!"

You look at her, for the first team realising what you must look like. To yourself, you are still striving at the very basics, barely able to shift yourself half a metre with surety. To the old woman, you represent danger - opportunity as well, but you are suddenly aware that if you chose to cut her down here in the street, there would be no repercussions for you.

"That's wrong...", you mumble.

"Pardon, m'lady?"

You squeeze your eyes shut for a second.

"No, nothing. A single loaf, please. Keep the remainder."

You take the loaf of bread, and return to where you saw the little boy.

Nothing. Of course he's hiding. You start stalking around, looking for him, peering in buildings and under rocks. You're there for nearly a full hour, and you see no-one. Nothing.

You understand why, of course. A loaf of bread isn't worth your life. You know that much, though you felt like you'd gain more from coming out here. But maybe it's as Dagger says - the memories are gone from the world, and though you might be able to rebuild pieces of your past life, you can't simply reclaim it.

You carefully put the bread down on a nearby rock, and head back into the city proper. You're late to bed as it is, and the next day will be hell. You're not looking forward to it, no.

---

I actually meant to put this up for vote earlier, but here it is now. What do we look like?

[ ] Default - short, black-haired, dark-skinned, and brown-eyed. Your hair is curly and wiry, though you are certainly underfed, ribs still visible and very little muscle or fat on your frame. Your eyes are small and a little beady, your nose is large, crooked and dominates your entire face. You have chubby cheeks, long eyelashes, and large hands and feet.

[ ] Write-In - Write in a description. If it's a human characteristic found on Earth, you can have it here. Within reason, of course. No people with brown hair on the right and blonde hair on the left. If you write in an option, format it like this has been so others can vote for it.

---

The final weeks of training are not especially brutal, but they are intense. Dagger teaches you a technique to cut away space near an opponent, allowing you to force them to stumble, fall, or even lunge too far with their sword. It's not effective compared to simply killing them, she warns, though it's sometimes useful against foes you can't kill.

Two more weeks go by, and at the end, Dagger parries aside a sword-blow with ease, throws the butt of her sword into your face, and while you're down, speaks.

"Acceptable, Swallow. Not as good as the training usually is, I'm afraid, but without more trainers and more rivals it's hard to motivate you properly. Still, you very well might live if you face off against a peasant who can't distinguish between his nose and his spear."

You cough.

"Thank you. So kind."

She inclines her head.

"So. Have you given any more thought to the Guild's offer? Eleven months more training, with a month of service in return? Once you complete both, you'll be a full member of the Guild in good standing, as well. Or you can strike out on your own, if you want.

---

Due to the thread reaching the first major decision to be made by Swallow, you are hereby awarded 1 Fate Point. Use it wisely.

[ ] Additional Training

Sure, you're ok. Literally nothing more, though. Dagger uses a dagger when she fights you, parrying two swords at once and it doesn't even seem to phase her. You're ok, but you really need more. The obvious pro is that you'll go from barely competent to moderately competent, maybe even enough to survive. The con, of course, is the month of service. Who wants to owe something?

Sub-Options (Please vote for one of these as well if you voted for Additional Training)

[ ] Caravan Guard

A simple task. Guard caravans as they travel to the south. An easy route, though there are few other mages to protect you, given the situation in the Pit. You'll travel south to Everett, bringing wagonloads of fine pottery and spices to exchange for the alchemy and grown plants of the Everett mages. The guards are more sparse than usual, though, and the Darklings more bold...

[ ] Darkling Hunter (Paired)

With the fate of the expedition to the Pit still unknown, the usual patrols to thin out Darkling numbers have declined drastically, as more mages are sent on caravans and brought back to guard the walls of Madalgia. Near the Lighthouses Darklings are weaker, however, so unexperienced mages are often paired with a moderately experienced mage to slay those they find - usually only a few Spinewolves in normal times, but things have gotten worse and worse...


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[ ] Strike Out On Your Own

So, sure. Eleven more months of training is ok, but you need to do more. Not in a few months, or a year, but now. Whether that be helping people, guarding caravans, whatever, you know that you can't simply sit by much longer. The city is in danger, the people from where you grew up are teetering on a knife's edge, and a single strong Darkling attack would leave them dead, more piles of corpses to be lit on fire.

(Sub-Options. Please vote for one of these if you voted for Strike Out On Your Own)

[ ] The Village Blade Wizard

You know that you don't know how to help Madalgia. You can't fathom the problems of the Shield Ring right now. Though you want to fix them, you don't know how. Maybe the model for helping a larger town lies in helping a smaller one, though. If you could aid a village, you could see the problems at a smaller scale, and use that to help more people. Stay with one village for awhile and help with their problems.

[ ] The Vagabond

Wandering around, solving issues, killing Darklings. Go help people, but don't stay in one place. Spend time in villages, helping people, and move from place to place. Safe, as you can leave any danger if it arises, but perhaps less satisfying.

[ ] The Hunter

Dangerous. Utterly dangerous. Go hunt Darklings on your own, far from the Lighthouses. Kill them, and use their power to empower yourself. The quickest path to aiding the villagers, the caravans, and such, is to kill the beasts that plague them. Does more good, and empowers you faster, but the risk? The risk is tremendous. Many mages have died doing such things, and you are only a mageling yet. Costs 1 Fate Point, unless an excellent plan is put forward as to how this might be done safely. This Fate Point will allow Swallow to survive this choice this turn, not necessarily choices afterwards.