Improvements Arcane
Twenty First Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
Designing an item for the purpose of energetic arcane detonation is far simpler than the triggering of a recording device, at least without the use of a thinking mind or brain that would add undo cost to the project either in the form of necromancy or flesh-craft. Nonetheless, efforts continue making use of simplified runic script to create a trigger that is both resilient enough to stand up to the wear of the deep jungle and the blood-chilling winds of the north.
-Wisdom Riz'Neth of 'Snake Port'
Proximity Alarms: Progress 17/25
***
The scope of the project's ambition often leaves me breathless. Alas that it also leaves me without time in the day to explore the full scope of potential changes. The noble art of alchemy as we understand it today is a wondrous chimera off uncounted traditions, each rooted in a different understanding of the world, or worlds as the case may be, from the ancient serpentfolk to the First Men, from the pyromancers of the Red Faith to the wisdom seekers of Volantis. Even as alchemy distills matter so too do we distill knowledge at a rate that seems dizzying and heady as the finest wine.
-Wisdom Denys Trainer, Head Alchemical Researcher
Thankfully he is not head poet.
-Wisdom Ceria Storm (scribbled in the margins of the report)
Improved Alchemy: Progress 43/50
***
Well,
this would have come in handy this month against the fey and the aboleth and... too many to count really. If only I had finished it earlier. Poor work ethic, me.
-Lya
[Spell-Crafting: Research a Greater version of Baleful Teleport [no distance limit, 8th level]: Complete 21/16
***
Being the full and unabridged account of all the new protections at the Flesh Forge of Gogossos, including but not limited to; thought-stopping mechanisms, runic verification arrays, divine blessings and the regimen of automated mind probes necessary to prevent servitors and staff from falling to Far Realm influence such as has occurred in the previous incursion, the document itself is deemed a potential security threat and should be destroyed upon reading.
- Lady Saenena Caleris
Secure the Flesh Forge, and fleshsmiths, against memetic attacks (Heavy): Complete 62/45
***
While working with dead flesh lacks a certain charm that only the constant permutations of life can bring there is something to be said for the ease of application and the elegance of a minimalist aesthetic. Reforged bone is thus melded to arcane metal, the carefully sculpted echo of life melded with the precious notes of the Deep Earth. Still, I wonder if any of the living might be inclined to make use of this art, not you of course, Your Grace, your marvelous cloak already guards you better than adamantine ever could, but perhaps Wisdom Lya. She is rather lacking in protection. Redundancy is all well and good, but discorporation can be quite inconvenient.
-Wisdom Elaheh Marita, Apostle of Flesh
Undead Template Research:
Metal-Clad Template (Mithral and Adamantine):
Complete 32/20
***
A second Forge has been erected near Mantarys with the aid of the Scholarum mages in the city. The region's slight but detectable association with the magics of fire opens up a bevy of fascinating possibilities for the future, perhaps the creation of elementally enhanced warforged or even empowering the furnaces further for speed and effectiveness.
Several of the sorcerers who worked on the project also brought up the possibility of spinning the fading light of the Upper Planes into Warforged bodies, allowing those celestials for whom the weight of the world has grown too heavy to take on bodies of the material world rather than fade into memory and reverie. Proposals included with the present report.
Last though certainly not least the folk Sarnor are beginning to seek out the forges, only the most adventurous for now or those who find their present existence most loathsome, but I have no doubt the rate of transmutation will only grow with time.
-Wisdom Anu, the Brass-Smith
Forge of Creation -- 2.0: Complete 28/15
Sarnori rebirth has begun
***
The first step to creating more delicate workings that interact with the Ethereal Plane has been attained. The first simple, contiguous objects to pass through force effects, have been a spheres of various metals and small animals, moving up to sentient. At this level of progress, mass and complexity is limited and certain arcane materials like adamantine, Valyrian and Imperial Steel cannot pass through at all. Materialized creatures and objects with strong auras of enchantment are unable to move outside of the effect.
Divinations have shown that beings that depend on magic to survive like fey, dragons and certain far-born mutates would suffer unfortunate health effects from passing through the barriers. More study is needed.
-Incarnate Beryl the Strategist
Selectively Permeable Force Effects - Tier 1: Gateway Research: Complete 32/25
***
Though the Azure Court has been nothing but helpful in our exchange, the process of making sense of their lore is complex and filled with false starts and frustrating dead ends. By the very nature of the fey's susceptibility to Far Realm influence the secrets held herein are hidden behind allegory and code that flow into one another, behind spell that enchants one's own mind even as it twists the world. Perhaps I should say 'fey such as I', yet it still feels strange upon the lips and stranger upon the quill no matter that every frozen mirror, every pond's surface, reminds me of it.
I do not know if it is the fault of my lingering attachment to mortality as the envoys say or simply my lack of affinity to what the Azure Court is, but it will be months yet before we may can add this lore to the libraries and vaults of the Scholarum. I pray my tardiness does not harm those whom might otherwise have been protected by a deeper understanding of what lies beyond the Farthest Sphere.
-Rina Cox
The Key to Madness:
Progress: 11/40
***
With the present report I can finally claim to have attained some deeper understanding of how and why the arc of the mind bends to the whim of the enchanter and how those processes can be ameliorated and reversed. This is not a task for wizards, nor even for those who heal by the light of sorcery alone, but for those patient souls who take up a mind healer's arts in full. Treatment plans would of course have to adapt to each patient's circumstances, but I am confident that with care and understanding even the most ensnared of minds can be freed of the lingering tangles of enchantment.
There are certain indications that this study could be expanded to deal with memetic dangers such as the touch of the Far Realm or the corrupting will of the Abyss, though such lie beyond the remit of this study. Suggestions for further study included with the present report.
-Incarnate Mercy of the Soul
The Mind's Games:
Complete 46/32
***
We have had three near poisonings, one instance of a researcher falling prey to paranoid delusions and several sample containers corrode at unforeseen speed. One might almost be lead to suspect that this noxious miasma from the borderlands of Hell does not wish to be studied, much less made use of in a controlled fashion. Still, we should be able to offer an answer about the potential utility or countermeasures by next month at the latest. After the troubles of this month I do not hold out much hope of an unmitigated success, but I will be damned if it isn't comprehensive as I can make it.
-Valeria the Wondersmith
A Baleful Mirage: Progress 45/60
***
We have found out a lot of what we shouldn't do at least, compression by will and by inert dream construct, magnification in the manner of light and last but certainly not least creating a 'vortex of faith'. The latter
did attempt to kill us, but it was much too weak to pose a serious threat. Surprised Aenie though, she's pretty jumpy about the Dream.
-Dany
Project Distilling Dreams: Progress 25/60
***
Attempts to create razor wire, as a cheap and effective way to prevent trespass, have all but stalled thanks to the attempts of an ambitious scholar to improve upon the project for their own prestige and aggrandizement. The notion of running arcane lightning through the wire likely has value, but the means by which it was attempted do not as witnessed by the fire that raged throughout half the wing of the university. Thankfully there was no loss of life, though the disruption of courses was significant. A suggestion for flesh-forged firefighters is included in the report.
-Slagor of the Deep, Dean of the University
Razor Wire: Progress 3/18
Lost 8.000 IM
OOC: How do you guys like these snippets for research? I will still be doing proper interludes for particularly momentous ones as well as crit fails and successes, but this will let us move at a faster clip through normal progress reports. 
