People at Uni - Marya

Maven Marya Marshmallow is sitting here, a marmalade cloud is floating in the air here and a proud black duck is standing here.

A shining lotus of ice is spinning atop a raised earthen dais.

Maven Marya Marshmallow's Master Splinter gets pounded by a gust but quickly recovers.

You think you noticed two small blue eyes inside the marmalade cloud, but you are not sure.

>

l marya

The proud black duck frolics all around proudly.

You see Maven Marya Marshmallow the Senior Wizard of the Sages of the Unknown Shadow.

She is moving aggressively towards you!

Pale of skin, covered in freckles and built like a (probably haunted) brickhouse. She has a heavy, muscular body, dark auburn hair and the look of someone who sprinkles nails to her morning porridge and probably enjoys it.

She is in good shape.

She is sitting.

She has a withered midnight rose, a withered dark rose and a withered yellow-orange daffodil neatly braided into her hair.

She is hovering in mid-air.

Her skin looks as hard as rock, although it seems weaker around the neck.

A Master Splinter floats around her head.

She is enveloped by sparkling black flames.

She has Ninja Turtle Squad floating around her.

Wearing : a pair of grey leather gloves, a shadowy grey raincoat, a dark lavender cravat, a grey leather hat, a gold earring and a mirrored earring.

Carrying: a thread spool, an open embroidery pattern book, a small piece of cigarette paper and a strip of white cloth.

Ralstorphine's Refreshing Draught

What's it called? Ralstorphine's Refreshing Draught (RRD for short)

What does it do? It brings into being a cup filled with ginger beer, which you can then proceed to consume. It tastes delicious! Besides, I imagine you could use the cup for when you are in need of any container (like if you want to try the herbal tea at the shed before the hedge maze).

Where is it? This is one of the new hedge wizard spells that lies lurking within the bark-encrusted covers of the Pracktical Hedgecrafte volume, in Skund.

What does it require? It is component-free!

What skills do I need? water, evoking, summoning

Has it worked? Well, if you find a cup with ginger beer in your hands, the answer is yes. The casting messages look like this:

cast Ralstorphine's Refreshing Draught

You prepare to cast Ralstorphine's Refreshing Draught.

> Reaching into the rivers that flow between the planes we know, you spin a tendril of water into a hovering orb.

Recalling adventures in summer meadows, you infuse the hovering orb of water with the essence of leaf and spice.

Remembering that you need something to put the drink in, you reach into the crockery dimension and grab the first thing you see, holding it out for the liquid to fall into.

Your driftwood grey cup of ginger beer quivers gently and falls still.

Notes: 

What does the cup and the drink look like:

l cup

This sturdy driftwood grey stoneware cup is gently rounded to fit in the hand, and large enough to quench almost anyone's thirst.  The glossy surface has been decorated with a stylized pattern of blossoms.

It is in excellent condition.

The driftwood grey cup of ginger beer is completely full with one cup of ginger beer.

It is completely full.

> 

l beer in cup

This is about one cup of sparkling golden ginger beer.  Despite the name, it contains no alcohol whatsoever, which has confused many a rural youth more used to ginger wine.

Each cup will have a different colour. I was misled by my first two cups, which produced different shades of grey (driftwood grey and raindrop grey). Third one was deep brown. I imagine you go through all available colors, like those for inks.

The help file also gives a interesting warning about what can happen if you don't have enough summoning skills for the spell. I haven't failed it, but I'd guess you might get the cup going away instantly, perhaps with the ginger beer falling on your clothes.

Help Information:

Ralstorphine's Refreshing Draught                                                              

Ralstorphine's Refreshing Draught is a first order miscellaneous spell which summons a cup of ginger beer for the wizard who wants a refreshing drink and doesn't have a fancy hall full of servants to get it for them.                                                      

Warning: entities from the Plane of Crockery may get bored if insufficiently strongly summoned, and return there.    

Talismans

The fecond type of magical itemes are talifmans, which be artefactes that have been imbued with a meafure of magical fentience. This falleth into the fielde of witch magick, yet wyzards may ftill tap into talifmanic puiffancie for fome minor and fpecialifed skilles, fuch as the charging of magical circles for the fumoning of Death, invoking magical fires from devilifh weapons, or the carefull lifting and management of fpelles within a magical fpell cafe, infuring that each fpell is accounted for and ready to be fumoned forth when needful.

Into the Depths: My First Journey Through the Dwarven Mines

 

I finally built up the skills to go down not a rabbit hole, but through the insides of a certain shaft that may be found in Copperhead. The experience was quite intense and adrenaline-packed, finding jewels and loot, solving puzzles and fighting creatures in the dark.

A couple of notes for future expeditions: I need to carry more hearts, candles and eyes. They get spent rather quickly under the mountain, and only the eyes are (partially) replaceable with what you find.

This is the top of a tall vertical shaft, dimly illuminated by light from some distance above.  A wide ladder is bolted onto the wall to allow miners to get up and down, and an opening leads to the southwest.  The shaft walls are striated with layers of rock, shading from light brown above to orange here and further down.  From somewhere above, a slow trickle of water winds across them.

There are three obvious exits: up, southwest and down.

A skeleton warrior arrives from above.

The skeleton warrior grabs onto the ladder and starts climbing.

Down we went, the skeleton and I, and among the first spaces we found where glinting walls, which got me to mining with pickaxe and claw hammer. My skills need honing, as more often than not, I got some trolls to wake up and come after me. Still, some patience resulted in my first gems and some better skills at finding them:

chip wall with hammer

You start carefully chipping at the wall with your claw hammer.

> Saving...

You feel better at excavating gems from underground mines.

Your claw hammer breaks through perfectly into a vein of ankhstones with a satisfying crunch.  You pry a white gem fragment and a white gem chip free from the rock.

Soon after I found some dwarven berserkers (quite tough to kill!), bats, more gems, giant cave spiders (which were a little bit less intimidating than I expected) and my first crates. I proved to be quite clumsy (and or unlucky) with most of them, though:

You pry open crate B2.  It's full of little baby giant spiders, about the size of tarantulas.  They rush out like a tide, gnawing on everything in sight in a desperate search for food.  All of the closed crates get gnawed open in seconds, with A2, A3 and C5 releasing their own deluges of spiders into the swarm.  B5 seems to have contained a number of copper bars, which are also borne away by the tide.  (Giant spiders love shiny things.)  Once it's clear there's nothing for them to eat, the swarm turns on itself, spider devouring spider, until only a few survive to scuttle away into the tunnels. 

As mentioned, I kept going until I couldn't go further down, exploring every nook and cranny. As I got to the bottom, though, I found myself running out of eyes and candles, meaning I was no longer very able to kill the critters that attacked me. I didn't explore in depth the lower levels, but did find an interesting pair of abandoned rooms, with quaint objects to be found therein:

These quarters look like their owners left in a hurry, or possibly died in a terrible accident of some sort.  The pleasant grain of the smoothed orange walls is interrupted by the occasional bloodstain.  Three beds stand against the north wall, each with a little side-table beside them; the fourth lies broken in pieces across the room.  A weapon rack stands empty against the north wall.  Next to it is an armour stand, its contents undisturbed.

There is one obvious exit: northwest.

Almost forgot to mention that some of the rooms I encountered were full with stinkbomb gas! Fortunately, I had come prepared with an elemental magical shield, which I also renewed once below the mountain, so the only effect was the occasional appearance of a frightful message:

> The yellow energy around you pulses briefly.

The air here is just as choking as before.

Overall, the loot was quite interesting: four small pewter bars, four white gem chips, three white gem fragments (these are all ankhstone, I think), a rusty music box, a secure sandstone lockbox, five very small tin bars, two yellow gem shards, three yellow gem chips, a yellow gem fragment (these are jasper), three pink gem chips and three pink gem fragments (these are rose beryl). I now have to find something to do with the bars and someone to open the music box and the lockbox...

Addendum: since the time of writing the previous post, I've had the change to visit the mines about 3 or 4 more times, and become moderately savvy at navigating them. The loot has been expanded with some rather quaint mineral jewellery (what the lockboxes contain), a greater variety of gems (tiger's eye, zircons, jade, topazes...). I've also sold off the lower quality ones and kept the good stuff for future gemsmithing) and some more bars in different sizes (pewter, copper and tin).

I also found this quaint little mug, carved from dolomite, which I feel is a rather nice souvenir and memento of the caves, which I probably won't visit as much in the following weeks:

This is a large mug, of the sort used by dwarfs for quaffing beer.  It's carved out of solid dolomite, but isn't as heavy as it looks.

It is in excellent condition.

Hedging your bets (2)

 

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, branching off in six directions towards wildflower-strewn pathways, and a green door leads into the modest hut to the south.

It is a very cold autumn prime's afternoon with a gentle breeze and some puffy clouds.

There are seven obvious exits: corncockle path, daisy path, dandelion path, larkspur path, lily path, poppy path and south.

Once you are beyond the northern exit of the aforementioned shed/hut, you will find yourself face-to-face with a hedge maze, with different meandering paths and glades. Each path contains one main type of flower, and you will need some basic foraging skills not to get sidetracked.

If properly followed, the larkspur path will bring you back to the start of the maze, from which you can go back south into the shed. As for the other ones, this is where they'll take you:

Corncockle

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, leading up to an open glade.  A carved wooden statue of a stag grazes peacefully in the centre, proud head lowered to crop the grass.

Not much to be seen in this clearing, beyond a nice stag statue. I have found no secret passages or ways of doing anything to the stag. Its antlers are pretty sharp!

Dandelion

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, encircling a flourishing vegetable garden.  A tall apple tree grows from the centre of the circular garden, boughs spreading across the plants.  A selection of garden tools hang from nails driven into the trunk, and a water butt sits at one side of the glade.

There's a little garden here with some vegetables and herbs, which some tending to the space (by watering or by weeding) may allow you to gather. 

Lily

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, leading up to a broad pond surrounded by rushes.  A carved wooden bench sits by the pool, beneath a willow tree whose branches brush the surface.

This is a lovely, meditative spot! Also, explore it carefully to find a two-way ticket way of travelling to the Bes Pelargic L-Space bubble.

Poppy

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, leading up to an open glade.  A carved wooden statue of an elderly wizard stands here, looking over the glade with a beneficient air, and a tall-backed bench stands by the eastern hedge.

Another lovely spot with some statuary, but unlike the in the stag glade, careful looking around here with grant you a (one-way, I think) passage to the Artificer's Guild, in Sto Lat.

Daisy

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, leading up to the trunk of a gigantic tree.  Set into the trunk is an arched doorway, within which a beautiful stained glass door offers entrance to what looks otherwise like a perfectly normal - if extremely large - tree.

There is the residual taste of magic in this place.

It is a very cold autumn prime's afternoon with a steady breeze and some puffy clouds.

There are seven obvious exits: corncockle path, daisy path, dandelion path, larkspur path, lily path, poppy path and enter trunk.

Arguably the most interesting space you can go to, in this glade you will find a gigantic tree which you can enter, and where the secrets of hedge wizardry will be exposed to your sight. But those inner recesses we will explore in our next and last entry on this topic. We may conclude today with a little glance at a colour-changing feline you will encounter in these walks around the forest:

l tubbstable

Mr Tubbstable Puddlesworth IV is a large and fluffy orange tabby cat, with bright green eyes and inquisitive whiskers.  He has white front paws and a white tail-tip, and he usually has mud in his fur somewhere.  Rescued from the rooms of the Dimity Professor of Counterintuitive Zoology at Unseen University, where he had been living on a diet of fish paste sandwiches, milky tea with too many sugars, and escaped lab experiments, he now lives his best and happiest life with the hedge wizards in the forest of Skund.  Despite the many examples of creatures exposed to ambient magic developing human-level intelligence, all Tubbstable has acquired from his experiences is the ability to walk through closed doors and manifest the occasional basic spell.

He is in good shape.

He is stretched out lengthwise.

He looks very magical in his little pointy wizard's hat.

Wearing : a tiny wizard's hat.

> Tubbstable the Formerly Violet returns to his natural colour.

People at Uni - Rienne

You see Mme Rienne Marshmallow of Mrs. Widgery's Lodgers, the Fifth Level Wizard.

 
She is an elf, fey and terrible.
 
Rienne is from Fairyland, a topsy-turvy world where cute little bunnies saw through flesh with razor sharp teeth, shrubberies are used as currency, and the only things holy are the hand grenades. Once a baby sold at a goblin market, she is now the most adorable agent of the fairy queen, from a land where adorable things are invariably fatally dangerous. So paint your roses red, grab that bird by the legs and swing for the hedgehogs, and make sure you keep your head in its fully upright and locked position, because this elf is several cards short of a croquet game. 

She is in good shape.

 
She is standing.
 
Her skin looks as hard as rock, although it seems weaker around the stomach. 
She has a three star shield floating around her.
 
An elven aura seems to cling to her.
 
She has an elegant hourglass figure.
 
Wearing : a pair of mirrored sunglasses, a pair of glass slippers, a milk white spider silk cape, a milk white spider silk cloak and a pair of crystal acorn earrings. 
Carrying: a fantastical toymaker's cloak, a wizard's pointy hat, a rubber knife, a black top hat, a practicing rope, a bright red yo-yo, a filigreed rowan case and two toy growlers.

Feyfirkin's Errant Trainee Collection Herbage

What's it called?  Feyfirkin's Errant Trainee Collection Herbage (FETCH for short. Also, pun intended, I expect).

What does it do? In a way, it is an inverse portal. It send an 'arcane bloom' to someone, who then has the option of grasping it (and being taken to the caster's place) grasping and uprooting it (same, but stops any nasty meaning who might be at your previous location from following you) o uproot or ignore it (nothing happens).

Where is it? It is one of the recently discover hedge wizardry spells contained in the Pracktical Hedgecrafte volume in the upper reaches of a certain magical tree. 

What does it require? A wooden staff, which is not consumed in the process.

What skills do I need? divining, staff, convoking, channeling, evoking

Has it worked? This is the output from my first casting, spell Creator's intervention in the chat included!

You prepare to cast Feyfirkin's Errant Trainee Collection Herbage on Flatulent Thalic.

> > You close your eyes and send out mental feelers, trying to pinpoint Flatulent Thalic.

You plant your staff firmly on the ground and instruct it to act as a focal point for distant arcane energies.

(Wizards) Kadath's wispy voice comes from the Sung family crest, saying: FETCH shouldn't allow anyone to leave an area that doesn't allow portalling out or enter an area that doesn't allow portalling in ^_^.  If you somehow manage to circumvent this, please report it as a bug :)

You trace a route through sub-dimensional space that links your location with that of Flatulent Thalic.

With a connection in place, you prime the area around Flatulent Thalic, charging it with magical potential.

With a grunt of effort, you start to manifest a physical totem at Flatulent Thalic's location.

You feel the connection between your location and Flatulent Thalic's solidify.

Notes:

The spell will fail if either the caster and/or the receiver is in a no-portalling location. In the first case, you get the following message:

Your current location seems to resist being linked via magical means.

In the second, you get the following message:

Some kind of thaumic inteference prevents you from reaching that location.

The bloom will look like the staining present in the caster's staff. From the receiver's side, the apparition looks like this:

An Institute turquoise arcane bloom sprouts from the ground here, growing rapidly to about knee height.

l bloom

This otherworldly piece of flora consists of thousands of long, Institute turquoise stems protruding from a single point and spreading out to create a roughly elliptical shape.  At the tip of each stem is a tiny, delicate flower that tessellates almost perfectly with its neighbour.  When viewed all together, the various shades of the tiny flowers seem to form an image of some sort.

You could try inspecting it more closely to make sense of the displayed image.

> 

inspect bloom more closely

The pattern in the flowers shows a simple depiction of an arid plain.  The glimmer of sentience within the Institute turquoise arcane bloom tells you that it was created by Octograver Ochrion for your benefit.  You feel that you could grasp the bloom if you were so inclined, in order to visit the place it portrays.  Alternatively, you could uproot the bloom if you don't wish to be bothered by it.

You inspect the Institute turquoise arcane bloom.

> 

grasp bloom

You roughly grasp the Institute turquoise arcane bloom and immediately feel yourself being pulled through interdimensional space.

(...)

Feeling dizzy and a little drained from the trip, you stagger forwards to find yourself in a new location.

You see a cloud of flower blossoms forming here, materialising into the shape of Grimoire the alligator.

Grimoire the alligator stares at Octograver Ochrion.

In case the receiver chooses to ignore the boom, it will go away after some time with this message:

The butterscotch yellow arcane bloom shrinks rapidly until there is no longer any sign of it ever having been here.

Help Information:

Feyfirkin's Errant Trainee Collection Herbage                                                  

A zeroth-order miscellaneous spell that aids the caster in retrieving their lost apprentice.  The spell sends a clump of herbage (namely an arcane bloom) to the location  of the inept lost soul that they can use to quickly travel back to their mentor's side.   

The apprentice need only grasp the arcane bloom to be transported.  Should the apprentice not wish to be followed by any pesky bandits, yetis or particularly dexterous wolves, they may uproot the bloom as they grasp it, to prevent unwanted stowaways.                     

Finally, should the apprentice be feeling particularly wilful, or indeed disagree as to whether they are in fact in need of rescue, they may simply uproot the bloom without travelling at all.                                                                        

This spell requires the caster to have a wooden staff on hand to be cast successfully.  

Scrolls

The firft type of magical itemes are fcrolles, which be fpelled infcribed upon parchment, binding potent magicks within the confines of fimple paper. A fcrolle, though it may appeare unassuming, is a veffel for great power, conteyning a fpell that may either be caft directly or preferved as a memory ayde for the wyzard. When a fpell is fcribed unto a fcrolle, it lyeth dormant until such tyme as it be needful, whereupon its power may be invoked, thus releafing the fpell and removing it from the parchment. Howe'er, the handling of fcrolles is not without perill, for fpelles are capriciouf entities, prone to mifchief should they not be properly governed. Mafterie in this arte infureth that the fpelles remayne bound untill the moment of use, and that the wyzard may fafelie extract or activate the fpell without rifk.

Art of the Octangle (9)

After one has completed a whole round around the octangle and gotten back to the starting place, outside the doors of the Great Hall, one can instead take a cobble path inwards in the direction to the Clock Tower, which sits proudly in the center of the octangle. The tower is girded by a walking with interesting sights in each of the four corners. This is the northwestern one:

Here, at the northwest corner of the University's ancient clock tower, the Octangle stretches all around.  A clear cobbled area surrounds the tower, echoing the shape of the courtyard itself, and ancient chestnut trees stand tall near the corners, shading the lawns and the cobbled paths.  Mounted on the tower itself is a life-size statue of a previous Archchancellor caught in the middle of a truly heroic sneeze.  A rose bush grows up around him, shrouding his robed legs in dense foliage.  To the north, a cobbled path leads to the Library building, and another leads west to the Great Hall and points beyond.

The statue of Archchancellor Trimbleworthy can indeed be found inside an alcove of the Tower's wall, and looks like this:

Skurm 'the Gardener' Trimbleworthy was famous for two things - his award-winning rose bushes, and his incredibly mighty allergy to roses.

l roses

The Beauty of Brass Neck rose, named for Archchancellor Trimbleworthy's home village in the Ramtops, grows naturally to approximately the size of an adult dwarf and requires very little pruning.  It has very firm opinions on when it should flower and when it absolutely will not.  At the moment, the stems are covered with a mass of small brass-coloured blooms.

Hedging your bets

So, the Hedge wizard's main place in Skund Forest has been made accessible! In a series of posts, we will be taking a look at it, and giving some snapshots of what you can expect to encounter on your way there. You've already seen the topmost platform of a certain magical tree, but let's start from scratch.

You should first head your steps towards the village of Pekan Ford. From there, you should travel in a general northeast direction, past the wolf trail, until you get to a crossroads from which a small building can be discerned:

Here, the deep rutted, well used road continues off into the distance.  The odd spring flower lines the side of the road, a welcome change from the churned up muddy trackway and dense coverage of fallen leaves.  Skund Forest spreads out to the east, southwest and southeast, a small building lies to the west and some plains lie to the north and northwest.  Ten miles to the northwest are the Carrack Mountains.

It is a very chilly autumn prime's afternoon with almost no wind and scattered puffy clouds.

There are three obvious exits: west, journey south and journey northeast.

>

l building

The building looks well-constructed, albeit rather more elaborate than one might expect to find in the middle of a forest.

Taking the route to the west, you go through a  deeply shaded holloway, a leafy tunnel of sorts with high earthen banks that takes you towards the mysterious construction.

The path ends on a shaded dell outside an unassuming building that looks like little more than a garden shed, with a bench, lamp and book scraper outside. The look of the last one should starting ringing your alarm bells, though:

Some hedge wizard with quite the sense of humour has forged this boot scraper in the shape of a pointy hat, complete with the Unseen University crest on it.

Entering into is the cosy wooden hut - almost a shed, really - you find yourself in a comfy country kitchen.  The walls are hung with colourful paintings of various herbs and vegetables, and a sideboard bears a vase of dried flowers flanked by a steaming teapot and a plate of scones.  A window looks out into the Forest of Skund by the south door, and another provides a preview of the gardens to the north. Trying to eat some of the scones (delicious, by the way!) gives you more clues about the magical unnaturalness of the place:

You take a tasty-looking scone from the plate.  A drawer of the sideboard slides out with a pointed creak, and you drop 10p into it.  The drawer closes again with a satisfied sort of noise.

> 

l drawer

The drawer is made from the same Skund pine as the rest of the sideboard.  It absolutely definitely does not have teeth, or any arboreal equivalent of them.

The hut also includes in another room The Multicoloured Swap Shop, tended to by Madrigal the Red, who is also rather talkative and willing to give you a few tips about wizardry and the place you've arrived to:

The overwhelming theme of this shop is colour.  Well, and shelves, but mostly colour.  The north wall has been painted in swirling patterns of red and brown, splashed with occasional touches of gold, while the west wall is green and blue.  A square purple counter sits in the southwest corner, completely failing to unify the blue and green with the yellow and white flowers that cover the south wall, whilst the east wall is painted in jagged stripes of light and dark grey.  Overall, the general effect is like being entirely surrounded by a herd of zebras on strong acid.

There is one obvious exit: east.

Madrigal the Red is lounging beside the counter.

A cluster of glimmering stars is swirling overhead and a polygonal crate is sitting in a corner.

> 

l madrigal

Relatively short and slender, with a waxed and curled moustache and a perfectly groomed beard, Madrigal Ogg has come a long way from Lancre Town.  Since even the most tomboyish of young girls' best chance of escaping wifedom and motherhood was to become a witch, and a keen analytical mind could only be an asset, that seemed like an obvious choice... until Granny Weatherwax laid eyes on him.  "Entirely the wrong mindset for witching," she said.  "Go and be a wizard instead.  Heaven knows they need some good Lancre oak around the place.  And another thing.  You're not a girl.  Stop listening to everyone's expectations and go be who you really are."

He is in good shape.

He is lounging beside the counter.

Holding : an oak walking staff (left hand).

Wearing : a pair of poppy-field boots, a pair of black jeans and a moorland Ohulan tweed jacket.

Leaving the hut through a different door from that which you entered it leads just just opposite a magical hedge maze, but what lies inside and beyond will the topic of another entry...

People of the Disc - Kalu

You see Kalu the Disreputable Mistress Pickpocket.

She is a strapping young human lass.

Kalu would give you her very last frustum-shaped, caramel filled chocolate. Apart from the fact that if you don't eat it quickly, she'll filch it back from you. She is too nice to be a thief really. Apart from filling her quota for the Ankh-Morpork Guild of Thieves, Kalu can be found plying her skills for the Fang family - Very distant cousins - who, in return, kindly allow her use of their special "printing" facilities. In short, if you need an Agatean birth certificate, or a weapons permit at a price you can easily afford, she's ready to help. Please note though that these are fallible and that some Imperial Guards are more perceptive than others - so carry a spare or two. Kalu's fingers are long, graceful and appear to be slightly stained through regular use of printing ink.

She is in good shape.

She is standing.

Her skin looks as hard as rock, although it seems weaker around the neck.

She looks rather warm.

Wearing : a pair of mirrored sunglasses, a pair of black soft-soled boots, a grey travelling cloak, six rose rhodonite rings and a blue crystal ring.

Books - Pracktical Hedgecrafte

A new wizard guild has been discovered, hiding in a magical tree close to Pekan Ford! It is the glory of hedge wizardry, and in the following days, I will be describing it in detail. For today, just take a look at the topmost platform I've been able to climb, which holds a new grimoire for wizardry, and 4 new spells!!

This wooden platform is most certainly not a library.  It has no rows of shelves, no desks, no chairs, no densely-packed volumes or tomes and certainly no reason for the already mind-bending physics of this giant tree to be stretched even further with the introduction of any of that L-Space nonsense.  There does appear to be one single, solitary book though.  It sits on a wooden lectern in the centre of the platform.

There are no obvious exits.

A closed bark-bound book is on the lectern.

> You hear a faint scratching sound, although it's impossible to pinpoint which direction it's coming from.

l book

This book looks more grown than manufactured.  A thick layer of bark serves as a front and back cover, and the pages seem less like paper and more like impossibly-thin layers of wood, as if cut directly from a thick tree trunk.

Motes of octarine light dance around the book.

It appears to have something written on it.

It is closed.

> 

read book

You read the cover of the closed bark-bound book:

Written in dark lettering:

Pracktical Hedgecrafte.

open book

You open the bark-bound book to page 1.

> 

read book

You read page one of the open bark-bound book:

 Table of Contents 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  2 ... Luquayle's Longevity-Enhancing Ballast

  3 ... Ridcully's Travelling Furniture Manufactory

  4 ... Feyfirkin's Errant Trainee Collection Herbage

  5 ... Ralstorphine's Refreshing Draught

Magic Items - Introduction

Magickal items be most puissant tools, by which a wizzard maye heighten his craft, grant himself warding, or gain access to mighty spelles. These artefacts doth fall into four principal kinds: those which maye be worne, such as enchanted rings, or amuletts; those which maye be held, like wands, staves, or rods imbued with arcane force; scrolls, wherein spells are writ, to be cast directly from the parchment without thee need of preparation; and talismans, small trinkets that have acquired a degree of sentience and can be attached to theyr owners for eksclussive use. To master the use of such artefacts is to ascend to greater heights in the mystical artes.

Art of the Octangle (8)

Moving from our last stop to just outside the Library, and very close to our starting position next to the doors of the Great Hall, we arrive at the place that is favored by White Wizards / Sages of the Unbroken Circle:

The land is lit up by the eerie light of the last quarter moon.

Here at the northern edge of Unseen University's main octangle, the sweep of magnificent flower beds that girds the base of the ancient buildings is interrupted by the doors to the Library, flanked by statues and hung with thaumic wards.  To either side, a cobbled path leads off around the Octangle, another path heads northwest into the cloisters and yet another passes between a pair of ancient chestnut trees on its way south to the clock tower.

There is also the expected bench, eggshell white,  and this time I *can* sit on it at will:

You sit on an eggshell white oak bench.

> The chatter of student wizards fills the air.

The Borogravian rock garden is here, along with a couple of wizardly statues. One depicts the stereotypical elementalist:

A tall, magnificently bearded wizard stands proud, clad in the robes of a member of the Ancient and Truly Original Sages of the Unbroken Circle.  Flickers of illusory lightning dance around the knob of his upthrust staff.

The other is related to the Library, representing one of its most assiduous users:

Librarian-Magus Roderick Hapweather was an expert on sigilomorphic lichen realignment in microthaumic fields, although nobody found this out until after his death, given that he was also chronically shy and would go years at a time without speaking to anyone.

Even more wearables

Wizards are like magpies. I keep accumulating stuff, even though from a burden-wise point of view, I have to be more selecting about carrying it on me than I would like. Here are a few additions since last we spoke on this matter:

get morgana from every blorples

You get Fata Morgana from a pocket in Blorples.

> 

look morgana

This is a magnificent bronze ring.  Set with a central huge multi-faceted diamond that is surrounded by twelve huge star-shaped sapphires, the ring is a masterpiece that must have taken much skill and patience to craft.  The surrounding sapphires glitter gently in the brilliant light that the diamond gives off, causing the ring to look even more spectacular in its bronze setting.

Fata Morgana is a diamond ring.

It has the hazy octarine sparkle of a magical talisman.

Some time ago I used to have a fancy bronze ring for the casting of illusions, but I seem to have lost it somewhere, so I ordered a new one. Of course, being a wizard, it had to be the fanciest, gaudiest bronze ring I could order, something to put to shame normal finger bands of base gold. I cannot remember how much it cost, but you could probably buy a small country with that amount. No expense was spared.

look mistress

> This is a band of platinum with what looks like a stylised fish design on it.  A moderately-sized sapphire is set as the visible eye.

Koi Mistress is a fish ring.

It has the hazy octarine sparkle of a magical talisman.

I always take pride in showing off my belonging to House Sung, and a ring such as this is worn by the Lord, the Lady and the Young Lady, so I had to get one for myself.

get Sapphire Summoner from pack

You get a sapphire hilted knife from a pocket in an ornate bone backpack.

> 

look Sapphire Summoner

With a long, one sharp sided blade this knife is pretty much like any other knife, except it is quite a bit heavier.  The cause of this is the large sapphire which resides at the base of the handle, as well as the sapphires which have been crafted into the handle in circles all the way up and down its length.  While the handle looks pretty and quite intricate and delicate, the blade is a different affair, a dark and evil affair.

Sapphire Summoner is a sapphire hilted knife.

It has the hazy octarine sparkle of a magical talisman.

I recently rediscovered Kelleflump's Irritating Demon as a useful spell for finishing off badly damaged trolls (when they are strong, my sword is generally unable to get a dent on them). For some casts I was using a bone knife, but I made a search for the fanciest looking one I might employ, and this one turned up as an implement of a servant of house Fang, which I promptly and terminally persuaded its owner to part from. Had it deluded, too...

This pretty white gold pendant forms an elegant setting for a large trillion cut moonstone, highlighting its inherent beauty.

The moonstone pendant was a present from Urwan,  a Silver Star wizard. I have to try my own hand at gemsmithing as soon as I've been able to turn out good pots and nice rings.

I thanked Urwan with one of my fancy flutes, but was also able to use some nice calligraphy to express my gratitude. It is an art I never get enough chances to make use of, even though I have some very lovely tools with  which to do it:

get case from wardrobe

You get a red lacquer brush case from a large wardrobe.

> 

look case

This narrow cylinder, made from smooth dark red lacquer, is perfectly sized to hold a calligraphy brush safely and securely.  A smaller version of the shigeo cord found on a katana saya wraps around the case near its throat, and can be used to secure it at the waist.

It could sheathe a brush, pencil or pen.

The red lacquer brush case contains: an expensive ebony calligraphy brush.

It is in excellent condition.

> 

draw brush from case

You put down a wooden harp from your left hand and right hand.

You draw an expensive ebony calligraphy brush from a red lacquer brush case into your left hand.

> 

look brush

The handle of this paintbrush is made of dark ebony wood of exceptional quality, featuring a gleaming silver collar to ensure that the deep black bristles stay in place.  The bristles themselves don't seem to belong to any recognisable animal and are incredibly fine in texture.  They are held in place by a shining silver collar that complements the darkness of the wood perfectly.  This brush looks like it would be excellent when performing intricate, detailed work.

It is in excellent condition.

I also decided to change boots, as the previous ones were a tad heavy, even if they were very fancy and could sheathe a dagger. I've gone for standard, Artificer boots, which can also sheathe wands in case I find it necessary in the future:

These knee-high brown leather boots lace up the front with sturdy cord, and both the toe-caps and the low heels have been plated with steel for protection. The workmanship is solid without being too heavy, and there's enough room inside each to hold a wand conveniently to hand. 

It could sheathe a wand.

Finally, as I've started bringing down the Heavenly Storm Dragon, I find myself in need of a staff as a component. I already carry one stowed away into the pocket dimension of a sapphire ring, but as casting this spell takes like forever, using that one would only lengthen the process. And there's a very useful piece of confectionary that one can use for this process:

l staff in pack

This is, without a doubt, one of the fabled knobbed staves of wizardly lore.  The fine-grained shaft is inlaid with sigils and runes, and the glistening knob draws all eyes with its eldritch air of barely contained arcane might.  The air around the staff feels slightly greasy, and seems to shimmer and hum with potentiality.  It's also about six inches long and made of toffee.

The knob glimmers in octarine.