Omake: Calling Down, Part 1
- Location
- Norway
Omake: Calling Down, part 1
"...it's for a fic I'm writing." said Molly, suddenly having second thoughts about asking Gareth, the school's biggest D&D nerd, for advice about a thinly disguised version of her own situation.
"Sounds cool! First of all. Very important thing: the protagonist should summon angels. Or archons, or whatever they're called in your setting. Is it a setting where people can summon angels?"
"I never thought about that." said Molly honestly.
"Right, well, it varies even in D&D, but in the latest edition they standardized a lot of the weird edge cases and merged spells to have descriptors for the different uses, instead of being several different spells that are mostly copy-pastes of the same mechanics." said Gareth, reaching into his book bag and pulling out a stained Player's Handbook. He flipped through the well-worn pages until he got to the spell list and pointed a finger at one in particular. "There. Lesser Planar Ally. The basic Cleric spell for this sort of thing. It's an Evil spell when used to summon a demon, it's a Good spell when used to summon an angel, or it's a Fire spell when used to summon a fire elemental."
Molly nodded, staring at the wall of text like it was in another language. "What's H D?"
"Hit Dice. An estimate of how powerful a creature is. I can lend you the book if you want to read it? Or you could come to game night, I assure you it's newbie-friendly, we have pregens-"
"No, please, just explain why the summoning angels thing."
"Right. Because angels won't backstab you the moment the contract's finished. Or go on a rampage burning everything in sight if they break free from the binding, or whisper lies to your friends to set them against you, or that sort of thing. People are constantly quoting Lovecraft, 'do not call up what you cannot put back down', but calling up an angel means there's no reason to put it down. Or would it be calling down an angel and having to put it up? Anyway, angels are safer to summon and will negotiate in good faith. Unless your protagonist has a secret evil cultist spy in the party and then the angel might break loose to reveal and attack the spy, but that would be a good thing."
Molly had a sudden intuition that the secret evil cultist spy was probably something that had happened in one of Gareth's games. "I see. Thank you, that's a fascinating idea. I can't promise I'll use it, but you've given me something to think about." She excused herself politely from the conversation, leaving Gareth muttering to himself about whether angels were called up or called down. "Usum?"
"Your friend's grimoire" -Molly chuckled at that description- "touches a true point in saying it is theoretically possible to summon beings of any sphere by similar means. What it fails to note is that some are already linked more closely than others to another will, another design. I cannot see Heaven, but I conjecture that angels are very closely tied to the order of Heaven, and would be harder to summon."
"Harder or impossible? Because I kinda like Gareth's suggestion of summoning something friendly... Oh no!" Molly trailed off as she realized what she was suggesting. Angels were people, in a sense, and outside of D&D it was probably immoral to use magic to summon a friendly person for her own purposes. Maybe she should just politely ask one instead. Wait, wasn't that basically praying? Did it make a difference whether she prayed for God to send an angel, or prayed to an angel to personally help?
For a moment, Molly considered asking Michael for advice. Then she tried to imagine his reaction to "Dad, can I use magic to summon angels?" and decided that would be a bad idea. Asking Mom was right out. Asking Harry was probably a bad idea too. That left Usum, who had already reached the point of conjecture (why did people have to use such a fancy word for 'guess'), and maybe Father Forthill, if he knew anything.
This was confusing. Molly sat down, took a deep breath, and thought it over. Maybe she could ask Dresden if there was a wizard library, and then she might find a relevant book by herself. Maybe...
"Does my princess wish for me to continue?" asked Usum a few minutes later, when Molly's thoughts had started to wander. She nodded silently. "Most mortal summoning takes the form of a request, sweetened with pleasant terms. Sorcerors will commonly make offerings and promises to the object of their summoning, encouraging them to enter into a contract." She recalled Harry mentioning pizza for the fairies, and continued nodding along to Usum's lecture.
"I think that angels would answer 'no' to any such request of yours, fools that they are. More ambitious sorcerors summon by demand. To demand-summon a spirit of note and name is in a sense to contend with its superior. This is most effective for elementals, who have little in the way of internal hierarchy. If you attempted to demand-summon fey of the Winter Court, you would have to match the Winter Queen. To demand-summon an angel, you would have to match the King of Heaven." Molly flinched as she realized just what Usum meant by that, but the toady was undeterred in his overestimation of Molly's capabilities.
"While this is certainly something that would be within your power eventually, you would also need a ritual fit for purpose, and I cannot imagine that any mortal sorcerors know a ritual capable of channelling even a fraction of your awesome might. You would have to design it from scratch."
"Stick to the requests. Don't ever suggest doing that other thing again." Molly ordered.
"As you wish."
A week later...
Usum had explained a bit more about summoning to Molly. She'd also spoken to Gareth again and learned a lot of D&D trivia that she'd probably forget in a week, and then she'd asked Harry in general terms about summoning safe things that weren't demons. Harry had told her more about Toot-toot and wyldfae, and agreed that it was possible to summon other things from the Nevernever.
She felt this was still not an entirely solid foundation for summoning an angel, but after being attacked by vampires twice in one week, and hearing some of Harry's other war stories, Molly was a lot more willing to try and experiment. Gareth had made a very convincing argument that angels were safe to summon even if you messed up the ritual, unless you were secretly evil. Molly didn't think she was secretly evil, and she'd said the Lord's Prayer, the Confession, and the Ave Maria beforehand, just to be on the safe side.
Now she was sitting on an empty pier in an abandoned dock on the edge of Lake Michigan, drawing a summoning circle and preparing to summon an angel. Usum and Gareth's speculations had agreed that the most powerful angels were probably assigned to the oceans and big cities, there might be a medium-ranking one watching over the Great Lakes in general who probably lived in Lake Superior, and a low-ranking one at Lake Michigan. Probably.
Molly double-checked the summoning circle, and asked Usum to triple-check it. Then she channeled Essence and spoke: "I, Molly Carpenter, request that the Angel of Lake Michigan please appear before me in this circle." She felt the words of summoning should be more formal, but she hadn't found any wizard library, and Usum had assured her the formalities were for lesser, mortal sorcerors. Usum had also suggested she should use more of her titles like 'Most Dreadful Flower of the Endless Night', which she had refused to do.
Something like a merman appeared in the summoning circle, hovering in mid-air. He had a human head and torso, a flat chest, arms but no wings, the lower body of a fish, and iridescent scales on his fins and tail. Around his middle was a bright white cloth protecting his modesty. The creature dripped water. "Be not afraid." he said, then casually swept his tail out to the side, straight through the summoning circle, wiping away the chalk lines and flicking the hula hoop aside.
Molly felt afraid.
This is not a real vote.
{ } Run. Breaking a summoning circle is a really, really bad sign. At least the creature looks like it can't go far from the lake, nor move very fast.
{ } Attack. Breaking the circle must have cost it a lot of power. Banish it before it has a chance to recover.
{ } Disbelieve. This must be an illusion. The creature is pretending it's escaped to trick you into letting it actually escape.
{ } Talk. This is why you summoned an angel in the first place. Even if it's loose, it's safe to talk to. Hopefully.
{ } Write in.
(part 2)
"...it's for a fic I'm writing." said Molly, suddenly having second thoughts about asking Gareth, the school's biggest D&D nerd, for advice about a thinly disguised version of her own situation.
"Sounds cool! First of all. Very important thing: the protagonist should summon angels. Or archons, or whatever they're called in your setting. Is it a setting where people can summon angels?"
"I never thought about that." said Molly honestly.
"Right, well, it varies even in D&D, but in the latest edition they standardized a lot of the weird edge cases and merged spells to have descriptors for the different uses, instead of being several different spells that are mostly copy-pastes of the same mechanics." said Gareth, reaching into his book bag and pulling out a stained Player's Handbook. He flipped through the well-worn pages until he got to the spell list and pointed a finger at one in particular. "There. Lesser Planar Ally. The basic Cleric spell for this sort of thing. It's an Evil spell when used to summon a demon, it's a Good spell when used to summon an angel, or it's a Fire spell when used to summon a fire elemental."
Molly nodded, staring at the wall of text like it was in another language. "What's H D?"
"Hit Dice. An estimate of how powerful a creature is. I can lend you the book if you want to read it? Or you could come to game night, I assure you it's newbie-friendly, we have pregens-"
"No, please, just explain why the summoning angels thing."
"Right. Because angels won't backstab you the moment the contract's finished. Or go on a rampage burning everything in sight if they break free from the binding, or whisper lies to your friends to set them against you, or that sort of thing. People are constantly quoting Lovecraft, 'do not call up what you cannot put back down', but calling up an angel means there's no reason to put it down. Or would it be calling down an angel and having to put it up? Anyway, angels are safer to summon and will negotiate in good faith. Unless your protagonist has a secret evil cultist spy in the party and then the angel might break loose to reveal and attack the spy, but that would be a good thing."
Molly had a sudden intuition that the secret evil cultist spy was probably something that had happened in one of Gareth's games. "I see. Thank you, that's a fascinating idea. I can't promise I'll use it, but you've given me something to think about." She excused herself politely from the conversation, leaving Gareth muttering to himself about whether angels were called up or called down. "Usum?"
"Your friend's grimoire" -Molly chuckled at that description- "touches a true point in saying it is theoretically possible to summon beings of any sphere by similar means. What it fails to note is that some are already linked more closely than others to another will, another design. I cannot see Heaven, but I conjecture that angels are very closely tied to the order of Heaven, and would be harder to summon."
"Harder or impossible? Because I kinda like Gareth's suggestion of summoning something friendly... Oh no!" Molly trailed off as she realized what she was suggesting. Angels were people, in a sense, and outside of D&D it was probably immoral to use magic to summon a friendly person for her own purposes. Maybe she should just politely ask one instead. Wait, wasn't that basically praying? Did it make a difference whether she prayed for God to send an angel, or prayed to an angel to personally help?
For a moment, Molly considered asking Michael for advice. Then she tried to imagine his reaction to "Dad, can I use magic to summon angels?" and decided that would be a bad idea. Asking Mom was right out. Asking Harry was probably a bad idea too. That left Usum, who had already reached the point of conjecture (why did people have to use such a fancy word for 'guess'), and maybe Father Forthill, if he knew anything.
This was confusing. Molly sat down, took a deep breath, and thought it over. Maybe she could ask Dresden if there was a wizard library, and then she might find a relevant book by herself. Maybe...
"Does my princess wish for me to continue?" asked Usum a few minutes later, when Molly's thoughts had started to wander. She nodded silently. "Most mortal summoning takes the form of a request, sweetened with pleasant terms. Sorcerors will commonly make offerings and promises to the object of their summoning, encouraging them to enter into a contract." She recalled Harry mentioning pizza for the fairies, and continued nodding along to Usum's lecture.
"I think that angels would answer 'no' to any such request of yours, fools that they are. More ambitious sorcerors summon by demand. To demand-summon a spirit of note and name is in a sense to contend with its superior. This is most effective for elementals, who have little in the way of internal hierarchy. If you attempted to demand-summon fey of the Winter Court, you would have to match the Winter Queen. To demand-summon an angel, you would have to match the King of Heaven." Molly flinched as she realized just what Usum meant by that, but the toady was undeterred in his overestimation of Molly's capabilities.
"While this is certainly something that would be within your power eventually, you would also need a ritual fit for purpose, and I cannot imagine that any mortal sorcerors know a ritual capable of channelling even a fraction of your awesome might. You would have to design it from scratch."
"Stick to the requests. Don't ever suggest doing that other thing again." Molly ordered.
"As you wish."
A week later...
Usum had explained a bit more about summoning to Molly. She'd also spoken to Gareth again and learned a lot of D&D trivia that she'd probably forget in a week, and then she'd asked Harry in general terms about summoning safe things that weren't demons. Harry had told her more about Toot-toot and wyldfae, and agreed that it was possible to summon other things from the Nevernever.
She felt this was still not an entirely solid foundation for summoning an angel, but after being attacked by vampires twice in one week, and hearing some of Harry's other war stories, Molly was a lot more willing to try and experiment. Gareth had made a very convincing argument that angels were safe to summon even if you messed up the ritual, unless you were secretly evil. Molly didn't think she was secretly evil, and she'd said the Lord's Prayer, the Confession, and the Ave Maria beforehand, just to be on the safe side.
Now she was sitting on an empty pier in an abandoned dock on the edge of Lake Michigan, drawing a summoning circle and preparing to summon an angel. Usum and Gareth's speculations had agreed that the most powerful angels were probably assigned to the oceans and big cities, there might be a medium-ranking one watching over the Great Lakes in general who probably lived in Lake Superior, and a low-ranking one at Lake Michigan. Probably.
Molly double-checked the summoning circle, and asked Usum to triple-check it. Then she channeled Essence and spoke: "I, Molly Carpenter, request that the Angel of Lake Michigan please appear before me in this circle." She felt the words of summoning should be more formal, but she hadn't found any wizard library, and Usum had assured her the formalities were for lesser, mortal sorcerors. Usum had also suggested she should use more of her titles like 'Most Dreadful Flower of the Endless Night', which she had refused to do.
Something like a merman appeared in the summoning circle, hovering in mid-air. He had a human head and torso, a flat chest, arms but no wings, the lower body of a fish, and iridescent scales on his fins and tail. Around his middle was a bright white cloth protecting his modesty. The creature dripped water. "Be not afraid." he said, then casually swept his tail out to the side, straight through the summoning circle, wiping away the chalk lines and flicking the hula hoop aside.
Molly felt afraid.
This is not a real vote.
{ } Run. Breaking a summoning circle is a really, really bad sign. At least the creature looks like it can't go far from the lake, nor move very fast.
{ } Attack. Breaking the circle must have cost it a lot of power. Banish it before it has a chance to recover.
{ } Disbelieve. This must be an illusion. The creature is pretending it's escaped to trick you into letting it actually escape.
{ } Talk. This is why you summoned an angel in the first place. Even if it's loose, it's safe to talk to. Hopefully.
{ } Write in.
One small note only you could totally command the presence of a Winter Fey if you had their name and the right spell because while Mab could contest it she does not have unlimited multi-tasking to pull back on every pixie someone is dragging along. Whether that would be true of the White God Usum is not sure, though he is quite sure an angel is stronger than a pixie
(part 2)
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