by Kyle Johnson
That took him several long minutes to accomplish. The movements of the strands of mana were complex and heavily intertwined; he had to reverse each flow in a very specific way to keep the new structure stable and counter the patterns of the necrotic mana. He persisted, though, until finally, he felt the entire creation seem to click in his mind and a notification began blinking in his vision.
Ignoring it for the moment, he imagined firing a blast of this new mana at one of the jangshie. The energy soaked into the creature’s undead flesh, barely damaging its body at all, drawn instead to the opposing structure of necrotic energy within. The two aspects crashed into one another with an almost audible crackle, and to Aranos’ delight, the weave of necrotic energy dissolved beneath the onslaught of his magic, and the undead creature collapsed lifelessly to the ground, bereft of the dark power animating it and binding its soul.
Aranos was tempted to try and turn that image into a Spell, but a moment’s thought convinced him that it was far too wasteful. He wanted to craft two Spells; one that would affect a single target, and one that would spread over a wide area. The single-target one was simple enough; he simply imagined a projectile similar to his Composite Bullet but crafted solely of this new mana type. He called up an image of a vangolor and gave the bullet a sharp twist before releasing it at his imaginary foe. The bullet sank into the undead’s flesh, and Aranos saw the bindings holding it in this world visibly weaken. He struck it with a second bullet, and its undead form collapsed, stripped of the dark power that animated it. He began adding SP to the Spell, stopping when he got to 50% of his max and allowing it to regenerate before continuing. He did that three times before the vision shimmered into reality in his mind.
The second Spell was harder to craft. At first, he wanted something like his Ravaging Blast, but that sort of Spell would require far too much SP. While he had thousands of points of mana in his pool, he could only cast a couple hundred SP of soul mana before it started draining his Wis Stat, which was something he wanted to do as a last resort.
Instead, he hit upon the idea of using his Illuminating Mists Spell as a base for his new construct. That Spell created thousands of tiny, barely visible spheres of light energy and floated them overhead in a sort of luminous fog. It was a Spell he hadn’t had to use, yet – all the elves had Night Vision that was superior to the illumination of his Mists – but as far as he could tell, there was no reason he couldn’t do the same thing with his new mana type rather than light.
Once he hit upon the idea, actually crafting the Spell wasn’t very hard. It still took more mana that he was happy with, but when he envisioned placing it over a horde of the jangshie, he saw them visibly weaken in the Spell’s dim radiance. Their skin grew translucent, their movements became awkward and jerky, and their blows were slower and struck with less force. The longer they stayed within the radius of the Spell, the more their bodies seemed to weaken, until eventually, they collapsed into piles of inert flesh and bone, their corpses undamaged but clearly lifeless.
He renewed his mental image and began pouring SP into it, replaying it in his mind. Again, he stopped when he got to 50% SP and allowed his mana to regenerate before continuing, repeating the process six times before the Spell shivered into reality.
Excitedly, he pulled up his notifications:
Evolved Aspect Discovered!
Aspect: Restorative
Restorative mana is an Evolved mana type comprised of soul and life mana. It is the bane of the undead and is rejuvenating to the living.
Requirements: Wis 75+, Lore (Divine), Soul and Life mana aspects unlocked, Mana Manipulation Expert+.
Redeemer: Although you do not possess the necessary qualifications to use restorative mana, your Title: Redeemer has high synergy with this aspect. This aspect is automatically available to you without needing to meet the qualifications.
Using Restorative Mana: Restorative mana is beneficial to living creatures but highly damaging to the undead. An undead caster using a Spell containing Restorative mana loses 1 point of Wis per 25 SP of restorative mana used. This damage is reduced to one point per 50 SP if the caster has Expert-ranked Mana Control and eliminated entirely if the caster’s Mana Control is Master-ranked or higher. This damage is cumulative: casting two Spells with 15 SP restorative mana each will cause damage the same as casting a single Spell of 30 SP. Meditation will heal Wisdom damage at a rate of 1 point per hour; a full day spent in Unhallowed ground will also restore lost Wisdom and clear any accumulated damage from Spells cast.
Restorative Mana Damage: Restorative mana will not damage living creatures. It is deadly to the undead, though, as it damages their necrotic cores directly. This means that, rather than LP damage, restorative mana damages an undead’s Str or Cha Stat, depending on their type: corporeal targets suffer Str damage, while incorporeal ones take Cha damage. A creature reduced to 0 in either of these Stats is permanently dead and cannot be raised again as undead. This damage can only be healed by necrotic mana and will not regenerate naturally. Restorative mana will heal any Stat damage done to living creatures and can boost these Stats above their normal maximum.
Restorative Mana and Redemption: Using restorative mana to destroy undead is an inherent act of Redemption. Destroying an undead creature with restorative mana grants 2 Redemption Points per Class level of the creature destroyed.
+500 XP
Spell Created: Restorative Bolt
Rank: Novice 1
Damage the necrotic core of a single undead creature.
Effect: You target a single creature within sight range. If this creature is not undead, this Spell has no effect. If the creature is undead, you do 2 points of Str damage (to corporeal undead) or Cha damage (to non-corporeal undead) (16 points damage). This damage is increased 10% per Spell level above Novice 1. An undead brought to 0 in either Stat is permanently slain and cannot be reanimated.
Cost: 45 SP
+150 XP
You can’t kill what’s already dead! Well, I can, but you can’t…
Sorcerer Ascendant Ability Successful! Your Spell has Spontaneously Evolved!
Spell Created: Radiance of Life^
Rank: Novice 1
Empower living creatures and weaken undead in a large area.
Effect: You fill an area 100’ in radius with restorative mana. Any living creature entering this area immediately gains 1 point to their highest Stat and an additional point every 30 seconds (4 points, 1 point per 10 seconds) until they have reached 150% of their normal max or leave the area of the Spell. Any undead creature loses 1 point to each Physical Stat (for corporeal undead) or Mental Stat (for incorporeal undead) and an additional point per 30 seconds (4 points, 1 point every 10 seconds). An undead brought to 0 in any Stat is permanently slain and cannot be reanimated. Stat damage can only be healed magically. Stat boosts and damage increase +5% per level past Novice 1.
Duration: 5 minutes
Cost: 225 SP
+300 XP
This big old light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…
Aranos read the Spell descriptions with satisfaction. The Restorative Bolt was a decent weapon against even powerful undead, although he could only fire about ten of them before he reached his SP limit for soul mana. Still, that was 160 points of Stat damage; even if it didn’t kill an undead, it would weaken it significantly. Radiance of Light, though, was amazing: in the 5 minutes it lasted, it would boost each party member’s highest Stat by up to 31 points or 50% of their max, whichever happened first. Even better, it would weaken undead by the same amount, meaning even strong undead would be significantly weakened, while low-level ones would probably be destroyed by the Spell. The downside was, even with his current 60% reduction to spellcasting costs he could only cast it twice per hour before he hit his soul mana limit, which meant he’d have to use it carefully.
He rose from his mindscape and looked around, rising to peer back out the window. While he’d been working, darkness had started to fall, and although
there was still some light out, it looked like most of the party had taken shelter in the tower. A glow from one of the lower windows showed that someone had lit a fire, and while Aranos wanted to join them, he had one more thing he needed to do before he did.
He withdrew a pile of random jewelry and gems, sorting through them and considering what he thought would be useful for his new party members, and what would be solid upgrades for his old ones. He set some of the more damaged or low-quality items aside before picking out a simple, silver ring. He examined it with his metal mana, shifting and altering the pattern of the metal until he held a band of pure arcane silver. He then turned his thoughts to what he wanted to do with it.
Aranos figured that, as a tank, Phil probably had decent armor – although at some point, he’d want to have a look at that, too, and maybe see if he could turn it into truesilver or arcane silver – but that as a Spellsword, he also needed Int and Spell power boosts. He plotted out what he wanted to do and placed a single topaz, as flawless as his High Mastery could make it, in a bevel setting to protect the stone in combat. He etched his runes into the ring and filled them with metal from one of the flawed pieces, shifting it into auril as he did. His runes were designed to boost Spell Power at the expense of SP cost. Starting with the simple activation rune, the place where power would enter the system, he carefully etched a rune that would capture magical energy and added a direction modifier so that only affected outgoing Spells. That rune connected to an empowering one, one that would boost the energy significantly but would draw more power from the caster in the process, which then linked to a concentrator rune. This would cause the energy to stay focused within the caster’s spell-form rather than simply washing out as a wave of power.
Once his runeforms were laid out, he laid an Enchantment, connecting it to the terminal rune and using his Greater Empowerment and new restorative mana to target the wearer’s Int with a boost. That Enchantment then wrapped back around and re-connected with the initiation point of the runeform, so that mana would cycle endlessly through it. It was a simple piece, but it did what he wanted; he would lay more complex Enchantments on the players’ armor and weapons.
He repeated the process with a second ring, intended for the Meridian, and an armband he thought Longfellow might like. He added a necklace for McBane, a simple pin for Saphielle, and a silver band that would wrap around the wearer’s forehead for Rhys.
For Geltheriel, though, he wanted to try something different. He took out some paper and began sketching the runes he wanted, starting simply. He began with an initiation point, added a rune for the body, the empowering rune, and a terminating one. He then took each individual line of the body and empowering ones and replaced them with even smaller runeforms, his first attempt at trying what the ancients had done to craft the arcane doors.
He broke down the body rune into twelve separate segments. In each of them he used a runeform to describe a different system of the body, then etched a second runescript parallel to it that gave slightly more specific instructions how that system would be empowered. One runeform described the muscles in the legs, while the parallel one consisted of the rune for life and how that energy would slowly fill the legs. He repeated the process with the arms, hands, skin, bones, and torso, describing how they’d each get stronger, tougher, or more dexterous.
The empowering rune broke down into only nine segments, and these described what type of mana would be used, how it would be distributed, and which systems and specific areas would get the most energy. When it was done, he examined the runes closely, searching for flaws, and corrected several tiny errors that would likely have led to a bad ending for his Enchantment.
Satisfied, he took a deep breath and selected an armband similar to the one he’d made for Longfellow. It was wide and flat, which would make the painstaking work Aranos was about to do a lot simpler. After transforming the band into purified arcane silver, he slowly and carefully began etching the runes he’d need, moving as cautiously as he could. It took him nearly 30 minutes to finish, but he was reasonably certain that he’d gotten the runes correct.
He attached an onyx gem and laid an Enchantment that would allow Geltheriel to do light damage with her weapon upon command and another that would allow her to surround the blade with radiant mana. Finally, he sealed the runes and trickled a small amount of SP into the onyx gem, just enough that he hoped the runes would activate.
Aranos hissed and dropped the armband as heat flashed through it, burning his skin and dropping his LP very slightly. The armband grew red, then orange, and finally white-hot before it softened and melted into a puddle of silvery-blue metal on the floor. Aranos stared at the irregular splotch of metal for a moment, stunned; he’d obviously failed, but he’d also failed catastrophically somehow. Sighing, he went back to his paper and looked over the runes, uncertain what had gone wrong.
After carefully parsing the runes several times, he found three more errors that needed fixing. In addition, he realized that he’d made the sub-runes too large; the larger they were, the more mana radiated out from them, spilling into the nearby channels and essentially shorting out the entire construct. He nodded and picked up a smaller ring, transforming it into arcane silver and beginning the much more laborious process of etching it.
It took him more than an hour to finish the runes. This time, he filled the tiny engravings with auril, which he hoped would carry the mana more effectively and keep it from spilling out. He once again laid the Enchantments that would empower her weapon and placed a new gem, this one a clear citrine, into the ring. He carefully set the ring on the floor and trickled SP into it, again only adding what he thought would activate the runes and nothing more.
The auril runes on the ring glowed briefly, a flash of gold in the darkening room, but a moment later, they settled, and the ring seemed to be functioning. He carefully added more SP to the gem until it began to resist the flow, then stopped and pulled up his notifications with a grin:
High Enchanting Success!
You have successfully Enchanted:
Spellsword’s Band
Type: Ring
Rarity: Rare
Quality: Fine
Effects: Str, Int +15; Spell Power +87%; SP Cost +43%
Charged Item: This item uses 1 charge every time it boosts a Spell’s power.
Current Charges: 413
Healer’s Ring
Type: Ring
Rarity: Rare
Quality: Fine
Effects: Wis, Int +15; Healing Spells +87%
Activated Effect: Shield of Force (6’ diameter, reduces ranged damage by 87%, moves with wielder, duration 5 min)
Charged Item: Uses one charge for its activated effect.
Current Charges: 310
Archer’s Bracelet
Type: Bracelet
Rarity: Rare
Quality: Fine
Effects: Dex, Per +15; Attack +15
Activated Effect: Mana Arrow (14-20 LP Damage)
Charged Item: This item uses one charge for its activated effect
Current Charges: 414
Rogue’s Pendant
Type: Necklace
Rarity: Rare
Quality: Fine
Effects: Agil +15, Stealth +87%, Attack +15
Activated Effect: Burst of Speed (Movement +43% for 5 seconds)
Charged Item: This item uses 1 charge to use its activated effect.
Current Charges: 318
Greater Creation Success!
Badge of the Avenger
Type: Brooch
Rarity: Exotic
Quality: Exceptional
Effects: End +25, Str +25, SP Regen +64%
Activated Effect: Shield Slam – Shield Bash affects all creatures within a 30’ cone in front of the wearer.
Charged Item: This item uses 1 charge for the activated effect.
Current Charges: 521
Druid’s Talisman
Type: Helmet
Rarit
y: Rare
Quality: Fine
Effects: Int +15, Wis +15, SP Regen +43%
Activated Effect: Battering Ram – Project a ball of mana that does 12 – 18 LP damage to one creature and knocks it backward.
Charged Item: This item uses 1 charge for the activated effect.
Current Charges: 309
Greater Ring of the Avowed
Type: Ring
Rarity: Exceptional
Quality: Masterwork
Effects: All Physical Stats +30, Stealth +124%
Activated Effect: Energy Weapon – wearer can choose to do 24 – 32 LP light, fire, air, or radiant damage with a held weapon for 30 s
Charged Item: This item uses 1 charge for the activated effect.
Current Charges: 674
Aranos picked up the final ring and stared at it for several long moments, his fingers trembling. He’d actually done it; he’d managed to create an advanced Runecrafting. It wasn’t anything near the complexity of the arcane doors, but it was an amazing first step along that path. It had even boosted his High Enchantment Skill up to Adept 10; he figured that he’d need to replicate the feat to break into the Expert ranks, now.
Smiling, he collected his items and headed downstairs, finding the others two floors down, all present except Silma and McBane. “Welcome back to the land of the living and awake, fearless leader!” Phil said grandly as the Sorcerer entered. “Have a nice nap?”
“Well, the nap wasn’t that big of a deal,” Aranos shrugged. “What’s more interesting is that I developed some anti-undead Spells and Enchanted some items for everyone.” He handed out the various pieces of jewelry he’d created, grinning at the expressions on the players’ faces as they examined their new items.
“Normally, I don’t accept jewelry from strange men,” Meridian grinned, slipping the ring onto her hand. “In this case, though, I’ll make an exception. In fact, with boosts like this, I’m tempted to kiss you if that blue-haired lady over there wouldn’t stab me for it.”