Author Archives: Rask

About Rask

Rask Fellmar of Thater that Was. Rask was born in the small village of Thater, not far from East Pass Fort in Aegir. He never knew his father, a Raidensblud or at least a solider in the Aegirian army. His mother made a household with another man, and Rask gained a half-brother and several Fellmar cousins. Rask ran away and joined the Aegrian army as soon as he could. After seeing far more brutality and evil than he ever imagined, his home is gone, he is a deserter twice over, and he is an exceptionally well-trained warrior.

In With The New

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A day or two down the road to the Greyfax estate, as the Crimson Calling has just finished setting up camp and is starting their evening chores, a lone man approaches leading a horse.

The man is wearing a heavy winter cloak, and a simple undyed tabard. Under the cloak and tabard, the observant make out dark-red, almost black chain mail and the hilt of odd shaped, dark-handled sword. It reminds those that remember of the blade Ethelred called “Bushwacker,” but longer.

The man raises his arms confidently in the universal gesture of peace,

“Hail, I am Rask Felmar, of Thater that Was. You must be the Crimson Calling.” He calls out confidently.

A Hard Change Going in to Fall

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It had taken over a month to reach Thater. Careful talk, careful movement. Rask wasn’t sure what to do after The Incident, and after a few days of aimless wandering, Thater seemed like the right place to go.

Thater was gone. Rask had barely been able to cobble together a lean to with his tarp and the poles he was able to salvage from the old stable. Practice kept him warm more than the fire. Rask tried to remember what had happened to Yon and Brude, Sten and Myrsky. There had been goblins and orcs with deep red scars on their faces. Three red stripes. Then so many goblins. Thater survived that onslaught, but not this one.

Two nights ago, or was it three? No, it had been a week or maybe fortnight since the road wardens had told Rask that Thater had been overrun, destroyed roughly a year ago, a full turn of the seasons and then some. Rask vaguely recalled the rumors, savage creatures from the Horde. According to the road wardens, there were some refugees from Thater at the Copper Hills Fort, others had been with the army closer to Middlebar, and some of the survivors had been taken by slavers, the Dark Hand.

Rask had wandered through the ruins of Thater, of his childhood home. Joining the Raidensblud, Aedelfrid’s Army, Aegir’s Army, Raiden’s Army, had seemed like the right thing to do after the goblin attack. The best way to protect Thater, his mother, Papa Fellmar, and the other from the savage beasts of the Horde. Myrsky had his… forest connections, and Rask had his connections in the army. It may have technically have been re-joining, but the commitment was more… real. More solid. It wasn’t about his father, it was about his family. His homeland. Thater had been attacked, and there would be payment in kind for the transgression.

Rask practiced his forms in the old militia gathering space. In the yard where he and Sten used to practice together. Ursill, the First Eye, had given Rask the Blade of the Betrayers, an honor and priceless gift from the Greatest Warrior of Aegir, and leader of Aedelfrid’s most powerful army. Rask had become one of Aegir’s finest weapons. One hundred enemies of Aegir had fallen to his blade. How many hundreds more had fallen since? Thousands?

When Ursill bestowed the ancient elven blade upon on Rask, the First Eye had Intoned that Rask, the soldier, the death commando, could wield the terrible relic against the enemies of humankind who had forged it. Enemies fell to the blade, that was certain, hundreds more, perhaps even thousands. But no elves.

The Fire set Rask free. It had been easy to take orders, easier than thinking about who’s brother, who’s son, who’s lover was on the other end of his sword, dying. It had been easy to to enjoy the challenge of the fight, the thrill of winning. Accepting the accolades was easier than thinking about the humanity of his victims.

Rask couldn’t really remember what happened. He didn’t want to. There had been flames, but nothing actually burned. There was fighting. He had taken a blow to the head, and some minor cuts. In the end, the officers, his handlers, in their small encampment were all dead and Rask was done fighting for Aedelfrid. Done killing because someone ordered him to. Everything had changed, it was not longer easy not to think about It.

It had taken over a month to reach Thater. Careful talk, careful movement. Rask wasn’t sure what to do after The Incident, and after a few days of aimless wandering, Thater seemed like the right place to go. Thater was gone. Its people taken by the Dark Hand.

Collegia Arcana 101: Lecture 13 – A Material World

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Ezrin shifts, while still excercising caution and limiting his audience to Ethelred, at last, to material components.

“First, let us review a few definitions:

Magic is the art of changing consciousness according to Will.

Magic can be divided into thaumaturgy and theurgy, or as some say, arcane and divine respectively. 

A material component is one or more physical substances or objects that are annihilated by the spell energies in the casting process.

Artificery – imbuing magic into objects, including but not limited to weapons, armor, staves, wands, tools, and more. Generally the items must be of the most excellent quality, and often made of exotic materials, and various rituals and materials are needed to permanently infuse magic into the items.

Alchemy – imbuing magic into potions, draughts, oils, etc, often requires a variety of special base liquids and other materials in addition to any of the typical components of the original incantation.

Hidden sympathies between objects that allow one to influence the other. Theurgy and Thaumaturgy share the need for material engagement. Ceremonial or ritual thaumaturgy is more complex, involving lengthy and detailed rituals as well as sophisticated, sometimes expensive, paraphernalia.

Our topics today will be:

The Principle of Similarity 

Common/Powerful Components:

Silver, Linked to Ishar by some

Gold, Linked to Anashar by some

Copper, Linked to Avv by some.

Gems are used often. Linked to Traan-Vilu and Algin, and in some cases, more specific deities. 

The Principle of Similarity 

If we analyze the principles of thought on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed. The former principle may be called the The Principle of Similarity, the latter the Principle of Contact or Contagion. From the first of these laws, namely the Principle of Similarity, the magician infers that he can produce any effect he desires merely by imitating it: from the second he infers that whatever he does to a material object will affect equally the person with whom the object was once in contact, whether it formed part of his body or not.

Imitation involves using effigies, fetishes or poppets to affect the environment of people, or people themselves. Witches’ curse dolls are an example of fetishes used in this way: the practitioner uses a lock of hair or group of finger and toe nails, on the doll to create a link (also known as a “witchlock”) between the doll and the donor of this lock of hair. In this way, that which happens to the doll will also happen to the person.

Correspondence is based on the idea that one can influence something based on its relationship or resemblance to another thing. Many popular beliefs regarding properties of various plants, fruits and vegetables have evolved in the folk-medicine of the Westlands for example. 

Many traditional societies believed that an effect on one object can cause an analogous effect on another object, without an apparent causal link between the two objects. For instance, many folktales feature a villain whose “life” exists in another object, and who can only be killed if that other object is destroyed.

Some examples from my own grimoire:

Fireflies or Glow Moss and Luminofeal 

The brass key and Sesame-emases

The crystal used to read magical writing

The sample of metal consumed in detect metals

Silver powder used for the Circle of Protection, and to enchant weapons

Silver

Linked to Ishtar by some, silver has the highest arcane conductivity of any metal. 

Silver has long been considered a purifying element and has been used to treat any number of illnesses, particularly contagions and wounds.

Traditionally, water that had been stored in a silver container or into which silver coins had been placed would be given to a patient or used to wash his wounds.

Silver is a great conductor of energy, including magic. Any stone set in silver will be amplified and its energy more easily directed.

Holy water used for purification purposes is best stored in or distributed from a silver container. The silver will infuse the water with its purifying energy. It will also enhance moon water.

Silver objects, such as pendulums or scrying mirrors, aid in divination and receiving messages.

Some believe that Silver harnesses the energy of Ishtar and Her Moon for spells, rituals, and lunar-based magick

Silver is the favored metal of many polytheurgists, Anasharites and Ishtari for its associations with Ishtar, the Goddess and the moon, Magic, the female principle and Winter. 

Silver possesses protective powers against negative influences and evil spirits and has been used since ancient times for Amulets. The metal also is said to enhance psychic faculties. Some mages prefer to wear all silver jewelry; many who wear gold also wear at least one piece of silver at the same time.

Silver, which appears in nature in a pure state and is an excellent conductor of arcane energies, has always been valued in various societies and has long been used for magical and sacred purposes. 

The ancient Sutheroni are said to have revered silver more than gold, and some claim that gold is not found in Mount Sutheron. Some say the god Anshar has bones of silver. Ancient Sutheroni used the metal to make scarabs, rings and other objects used in magical spells.

Silver has a long association with the moon. The old tribes of Suthe considered silver to be a divine quality rather than a metal substance. They associated silver with the luster of moonlight and called it the tears of the moon. In alchemy, the symbol of silver is a crescent moon; alchemists called the metal Luna or Ishtar, after the goddess of the moon. In some pre-Second Age scrolls, the moon is of written of as ‘the silver candle’ and the Great Road is called the Silver River.

Amulets made of silver can be enchanted to repel evil spirits from persons, houses and buildings. Some have written that in the folklore of parts of Aegir, couples who are going to be married encircle themselves in a silver chain in order to avoid being bewitched en route to the church.

Gold

Gold can adopt many different meanings. In economic contexts it can acquire material value, in social contexts it can gain significance for status and position within a hierarchical structure, in religious contexts it can be used to express veneration of the divine or a divinity, in magical contexts it can be perceived as a material with inherent powerful qualities. We can define the symbolic nature of gold as a means of communication. That implies, firstly, communication among humans in different situations for different purposes but also, secondly, between humans and the Warrens.

Special qualities of gold and golden objects, and their links to a numinous sphere, are quite diverse and sometimes indirect. Golden objects tend to be interpreted in arcano-archaeological research as having theurgic and thaumaturgic properties when they appear in particular find circumstances that suggest some form of ritual performances or ritual deposition. These rituals may include making the object unusable or destroying it deliberately, depositing it in inaccessible places like lakes or wetlands, or burying it in hoards that were composed of selected items in a pattern that is repeated in other hoards. 

Gems

In some old writings many gems—whether precious, semi-precious, or otherwise— are described as to having potent magical abilities, either on their own or when used properly in the casting of spells or creation of magic items, potions, etc.The innate magical properties of gemstones are precise and carefully guarded, and with only a few exceptions, it is not possible to access a gem’s natural magic without the proper knowledge. Other writings discuss how gems could be worn by an individual to gain certain magical benefits, although this often seemed to require the gem to maintain contact with the wearer’s skin. Furthermore, harnessing natural gem magic was known to be imprecise, and would often yield “flawed” results—in much the same ways that gemstones themselves could be flawed.

Gem Attunement: This form of gem magic seems to have been meant to use a gemstone to affix a spell to for later use. The gem could only be activated—and the spell released—based on some trigger specified by the creator at the time of the gem’s attunement. The trigger could be that the gem was touched, that a certain amount of time had passed since its attunement, or that a certain manner of creature was present or came near the gem. An attuned gem could detect and trigger based on a creature’s type, alignment, race, or appearance, but generally could not detect the relative skillsets or strength of a creature. Regardless of the prespecified trigger, the crafter of the attuned gem could freely handle the stone or even cause the spell to release prematurely if so desired.

In theory, these gems could also be attached to other items, in which case their triggering could cause the stored spell to affect or empower that item. When affixed to doors or other large objects, the gems could serve as traps. When affixed to weapons or other pieces of equipment, the gems could provide instant enhancements to the item or protections to its wielder. A common application was to create a gem ward which provided emergency protective spells in response to a nearby enemy. Common wards were empowered with protection workings.

A practitioner of this kind of gem magic would certainly need to be well trained trained in both gemcutting and arcane spellcasting. More powerful magics would require bigger and more valuable gems, with the weakest spells needing more common gems.”

Collegia Arcana 101: Lecture 12 – The Weave of Warrens

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Ezrin is careful about when he delivers his lectures to Ethelred, he checks around the tent, and does not lecture when traveling alongside any others. Nevertheless, After several lectures on each individual Collegia Arcana, Ezrin moves on to an overview of the Weave of Warrens

Magic everywhere and in everything exists in a semi-formalized state, some call this The Weave.. The power is refined, aspected, organized into something like themes, and these themes are what we refer to as Warrens. Some think of Warrens and magical tunnels in reality, others as strands of power that make up reality, some as other dimensions of existence outside of what most humans are normally capable of experiencing, and some old writing refer to them as Planes of Existence.

Many Warrens are accessible to mortals and gods alike; others are – Alien.  Some are virtually extinct, or inaccessible due to ignorance or deliberate rituals of sealing.  Some, in addition, are claimed and ruled over by elements either native to those warrens, or so fundamentally related to them as to make the distinction meaningless.

There is some disagreement as to whether certain Warrens are shared by various Powers, or if those Powers have their own, individual Warrens. For example, most believe the Pont-loi, Pannoi, and Poloi all share the same Warren. Many believe that that Traan-Vilu and Elgin share the same Warren. Most who espouse these types of beliefs hedge their propositions by including the caveat that the Powers occupy different parts of aspects of the Warren. This is most evident in the theories of The Omni-Warren, and Warren-Weave Duology.

I am about to list some Warrens. It is important to take care in speaking, writing or gesturing the names of Warrens. Especially with writing them and gestures. With writing about them, use plain letters, and simple abbreviations, lest you accidentally invoke the power of a Warren. Do not practice the gestures outside of practicing specific incantations that already include the gestures.

Some the Warrens Named by the Sages include:

Warrens particular to each God, or at least each Major God

Elemental Warrens, Air, Fire, Earth, Water. 

And more, such as:

Infernal, Abyssal, Cthonic, Oceanic, Swamp, Elements, Celestial, Astral, Etheric, Elven, Dwarven, Demonic, Gnomish, Cold, Lighting, Stone, Wood/Trees, Light, Darkness, Healing, Shadow, Death, Undeath/Hunger, Draconic, Order, Chaos.

Here are some proposed groupings or Meta-Warrens:

[Here Ezrin draws various web-like relationships between different groups of Warrens in the sand, using simple non-arcane one to three letter abbreviations for the various Warrens as he lists them]

Death – Undeath/Hunger – Chaos – Abyssal – Cthonic

Water – Cthonic – Oceanic – Swamp

Healing – Light – Dian-Cecht -Celestial – Sun

Wood – Plants – Oo-Rin – TyLin

Demonic – Infernal – Abyssal – Chaos

Dwarven – Gnomish – Goblin – Orc

Celestial – Anahsar – Ishtar – Raiden – Torr-Van -Oo-Rin – Ponnoi/Poloi

Earth – Stone – Traan’Vilu – Algin

Fire-Water-Earth-Air

Fire-Steam-Water-Mud-Earth-Lightning-Air

There are more, some get lost in proposing all the possible relationships. Literally lost according to some stories, pulled into a maze of Warrens and lost…

You can see why it is important to use tried and tested materials, sigils, gestures and vocalizations when calling upon magical energies. The potential to connect with unintended energies is very high, and the consequences of doing so can be truly catastrophic.

Each One Teach One

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Ezrin approaches Alexis one morning g after breaking the fast.

“Alexis Laelius, I believe learning the Recollection Perfextion incantations from you would help me teach Ethelred. I would better be able remember the lectures and be able share them more accurately. Would you be willing to teach me?”

Collegia Arcana 101: Lecture 3

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The Collegium teaches that almost every spell belongs to one of eight Collegia Arcana:  Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation.

A Collegia Arcana is a group of related rituals, incantations or workings that work in similar ways, they share some of the same… vocabulary and materials so to speak. Workings, incantations and rituals of the same Collegia share similar runes, gestures, materials, steps, and so on, some more than others  

Abjurations create physical or magical barriers, negate magical or physical abilities, harm trespassers, or even banish the subject of the spell to back it’s warren or other magical place. They are most often used as protective spells.

It is said that abjurative magical fields interfere with each other and create barely visible energy fluctuations. 

If an abjuration creates a barrier that keeps certain types of creatures at bay, that barrier cannot be used to push away those creatures. If you force the barrier against such a creature, you feel a discernible pressure against the barrier. If you continue to apply pressure, the spell will end. 

Conjuration can be separated into four sub-Collegia: Summoning, Calling, Teleportation, and Creation.

Summoning Conjurations bring objects, creatures, or some form of energy to you. 

Teleportation Conjurations transport creatures or objects over great distances.

Creation Conjurations create objects or effects on the spot. 

Creatures or creations you conjure usually, but not always, obey your commands.

A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a Conjuration cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it.

Divinations enable you to learn secrets long forgotten, to predict the future, to find hidden things, and to foil deceptive spells. Locating objects, detecting magic, detecting undead, clairaudience, clairvoyance, scrying, prophecy, dowsing, are all Divination. Divination can also be used to read thoughts and even communicate without speaking.

Enchantments affect the minds of others, influencing or controlling their behavior. All Enchantments are mind-affecting. Two major types of enchantments grant you influence over a subject creature: Charms and Compulsions.

Charms change how the subject views you, typically making it see you as a good friend.

Compulsions forces the subject to act in some manner or changes the way her mind works. Some compulsions determine the subject’s actions or the effects on the subject, some compulsion spells allow you to determine the subject’s actions when you create the enchantment, and others give you ongoing control over the subject.

Evocation manipulates energy or tap an unseen source of power to produce a desired end. In effect, they create something out of nothing. Many of these spells produce spectacular effects, and evocation spells can deal large amounts of damage. The energy manipulated in Evocations has been described as coming from various sources, Good, Evil, Force, Fire, Light, Water, Darkness, Shadow, Sound, Lightning, Law, Chaos and more. 

Illusion spells deceive the senses or minds of others. They cause people to see things that are not there, not see things that are there, hear phantom noises, or remember things that never happened. Illusions can be divided into Figments, Glammerie, Patterns and Phantasms. Some place Shadow-magic in the Illusion category.

A Figment Illusion creates a false sensation. Those who perceive the Figment perceive the same thing, not their own slightly different versions of the figment. (It is not a personalized mental impression.) Figments cannot make something seem to be something else. A Figment that includes audible effects generally struggle to duplicate intelligible speech. In some cases, intelligible speech may be possible, but it must be in a language you can speak. If you try to duplicate a language you cannot speak, the image will produce gibberish. Likewise, you cannot make a visual copy of something unless you know what it looks like.

A Glammerie changes a subject’s sensory qualities, making it look, feel, taste, smell, or sound like something else, or even seem to disappear. 

Because Figments and Glammerie are unreal, they cannot produce real effects the way that other types of illusions can. They cannot cause damage to objects or creatures, support weight, provide nutrition, or provide protection from the elements. Consequently, these Illusions are useful for confounding or delaying foes, but useless for attacking them directly.

Like a Figment, an Illusory Pattern creates an image that others can see, but a Pattern also affects the minds of those who see it or are caught in it.

A Phantasm creates a mental image, that usually only the caster and the subject (or subjects) of the spell can perceive. This impression is totally in the minds of the subjects. It is a personalized mental impression. (It’s all in their heads and not a fake picture or something that they actually see.) Third parties viewing or studying the scene don’t notice the phantasm. All phantasmagoria are mind-affecting Illusions.

Creatures encountering an illusion usually do not recognize it as illusory until they study it carefully or interact with it in some fashion. A figment or phantasm remains as a translucent outline when it is known to be an Illusion.

Necromancy manipulates the power of death, unlife, and the life force. Spells involving undead creatures make up a large part of this Collegia. Some place Fear-inducing magic in the Collegia Necromantic. Some place shadow magic in the Necromancy category, or at least some shadow magic seems to be Necromancy. 

Transmutation spells change the properties of some creature, thing, or condition. Polymorphic transformations, levitation, flight, temperature shifts, lead becoming gold, reshaping wood or stone, these are all transmutations. 

Shadow magic is somewhat… controversial, some place it in its own category, others in Illusion and many in Necromancy. Perhaps  by all accounts, creates something that is partially real. Damage dealt by a shadow illusion is certainly real, and sometimes seem similar to that caused by certain undead, other times seems caused by whatever the shadow is a shadow of. A shadow of fire for example, may harm your very life force, or it may burn you. Many speculate about why this might be, if it is even true or simply part of the Intrinsic Nature of the Illusion of Shadow.

Collegia Arcana 101: Lecture 2

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After working through a couple individual spells, Ezrin begins to lecture Ethelred daily on magic.

“We should start from the beginning, I have been trying to reconstruct the initial teachings I was given. Some of it will be tedious or maybe even repetitive, I’m sorry, but I believe it will give you the necessary foundations required by the Collegium and for your own, and all our safety.

Let us begin with the Basics of Invocations, Rituals and Workings.

All magical rituals, invocations, workings or spells, are epiphemomena emergent from the alignment of phenomena and noumena. Thought made real. The precise replication in reality and in the mind of the correct gestures, sounds, and materials, when combined into the applicable weave-matrix patterns, are charged with energy from the relevant Warren, Warrens and or Weave-elements.

This pattern-matching of gestures, intonations, and visualization of the sigaldric formalae is what we study when we memorize a spell, in addition to the local adaptations required to take into account astrological alignments and influences, and any other locally variable pheonomena.

When properly and precisely uttered or gestured, while mentally recalled, the correct arcane invocations combined with the correct material foci, create an arcane entanglement and then a release of this energy from the weave matrix, which in turn triggers a set reaction. The release of the energy contained in these words, and gestures is what causes the spell to be forgotten or the inscribed sigils disappear from the surface upon which they are written.

The triggering action draws power from one or more Warrens. Whether the spell is an abjuration, conjuration, alteration, enchantment, or whatever, there is a flow of energy — first from the spell caster, then from some warren to the area magicked or enspelled by the caster. The energy flow is not from the caster per se, but in the cases of vocal intonations, it is from the utterance of the sounds themselves, each of which is charged with entangled audiosymbolic energy which is loosed when the proper formula and ritual is completed with their utterance and demonstration. This power then taps the referenced warren or warrens (in some cases whether or not the spell user has any idea of what it is) to cause the arcane entanglement to function.

Many spells also require somatic motions in conjunction with words. The spoken words trigger the release of the magical energy, and the hand movements are usually required in order to control and specify the direction, target, area, etc. of the spell effects.

Materials are often but not always required. In general, the material requirements are shaped by the Principle of Similaritiy. Fireflies and Light for example. In the case of more powerful spells, certain common components become necessary. Gems, crystals, silver, gold, pearls, and so on. Some say these items are necessary to properly channel the energies, some say they a required sacrifice, and others maintain that they contain power that is amplified and consumed. Either way, in the common vocabulary suggest ‘materials’ are consumed, and some items are used as a focus.

When spell energy Is released, it usually flows to a given warren to reality. To replace It, something must flow back in reverse. The dissolution and destruction of material components provides the energy that balances out this flow, through the Principle of Similarity. Sometimes this destruction is very slow. Some say that those spells without apparent material components are actually utilizing the air exhaled by the magic-user in the utterance of the spell.

When performed properly, with the correct sigils, gestures and materials, the release of stored Warren energy is not usually particularly debilitating to the spell caster, as he or she has ensured the correct conduits and protections are in place through the proper use of the correct sigils, gestures and materials. As long as the incantations and rituals are done correctly and accurately, the power comes from outside the spell caster, not from his or her own vital essence. The power to activate even a simple and relatively weak spell would leave a spell caster weak and shaking if it were drawn from his or her personal energy, and a powerful spell would most certainly totally drain the caster’s body of life!

It cannot be emphasized enough that because spells utilize arcane energies from Warrens of Power tested methods always be used. Any improper casting is likely to cause the arcane entanglement to malfunction dangerously, create intransitive oscillations of the Weave, and unleash eldritch abominations. The Principal of Similarity is called the First Principle of Corruption by some. Careful attention must be applied to using the correct sigils, symbols, gestures, and materials, lest the caster be harmed, or worse yet, the caster may unleash unknown horrors upon the world.

Aegeirian Hospitality

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While Gus and Ethelred are out gathering materials, Ezrin takes a break from his studies and waits for Alexis to pause his own work.

“I say Alexis Laelius, what do you make the fine Aegierian hospitality we’ve seen of late? The King Adelfried’s Army set’s a fine example, don’t you think? The guests we met the other night, do you think they were guests of the Green Shirts, or just friends of a soldier?”

Ezrin winks very obviously at Alexis.

Collegiate Topiary Methodoly

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While Gustav and Ethelred are out collecting “materials,” Ezrin approaches Alexis.

“Alexis Laelius, I seek your counsel and advice as a fellow member of the Collegiate of the Esteemed, an initiate of the Third Circle, and as a part of your team.”

Ezrin pauses to guage Alexis’ acceptance of these terms.

“I am concerned about Ethelred’s… unique and intuitive approach to magic. You have discussed a former colleague that brought much chaos and danger to you and the rest of the group through even more chaotic attempts at magic, so I know you are aware of the immediate dangers, but given your unique entry in the the Collegium, perhaps you are not fully aware of the strict prohibitions on teaching magic to the uninitiated? The sanctions and penalties for which tend to start with expulsion from the Collegium at the least severe.”

Ezrin pauses for a moment and looks meaningfully at his hands and waggles his tongue just enough to make his meaning clear.

“Of course, transgressions can sometimes be forgiven, if the results are… productive for the Collegium, and the infractions themselves are not too… well-known, publicly or within the Collegium…”

“So, to the counsel and advice I asked for. How do I move Ethelred’s education forward and best pave the way for us to return to the Collegium? Do you have any insights from your own admissions experience?”

Abra, Abracadabra! I Wanna Reach Out and Grab Ya!!

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Over the course of two weeks, Ezrin rarely leaves his cot. He is engrossed in two books and several scrolls. He occasionally finds a moment to speak with Alexis and to a lesser degree Ethelred about arcane weaves, auras, runes, gestures and invocations.

At some point, Ezrin retrieves an empty vial from his haversack, and removes a thin pair of gloves no one had noticed before, makes the gestures and invocations related to auguration of magical auras, and focuses on these items at length. When he is done he puts the gloves back on, they are barely noticeable, and he writes for a bit in one of his notebooks.

On another day, he raises the topic somnabulatory effects of certain enchantments, incantations and gestures, the impact of sand, crickets, and rose petals upon such.

A conversation regarding the use of transmutative and arcane imbuatative properties powdered silver, or “argentum,” as well as select transmutive incantations and gestures, with Ethelred continues off and on throughout the fortnight.

Ezrin makes frequent use of his crystals, several scrolls, incantations and gestures related to divination, aurgury and literacy of the arcane, and an adjustment of some sort to arcano-aura-auguracity incantations and gestures that seem to make it last longer then usual.

He is heard to mutter about atmospheric transmutations at length and practice several gestures and incantations that seem to related.

He makes frequent notes in one book, and regularly references another. Often mumbling about enchantments, mentalism, and somnabulation, or transmutation, aerotonomy, atmospherics, teleoration and anemonologistics. After ten days or so, he carefully writes three new pages into his “reference” book.

An hour or so after breakfast, a day or two after writing the new pages into the “Reference Book,” he performs incantations that seem to be related to teleoratory atmospheric transmutations, and then speaks “The stargazer climbed to the highest peak of the mountain, eager to gaze upon the night sky. She dreamed of one day traveling to the stars, of exploring new worlds and meeting strange and wonderful creatures.”

About two hours later, right on schedule, squire Perez enters the tent with lunch, looking even more confused than usual, and asks, “Did one of you say something about a stargazer who want to travel to the stars? It sounded like you were right next to me.” Perez looks over his shoulder to just outside the tent.

Ezrin smiles.