The golem crafter, p.19
The Golem Crafter, page 19
part #2 of Ethria Series
Knowledge Enchantment
1.0
1.0
Knowledge Spell School Enchantment: Enchantment comes in two kinds that you know of, Charged, and Passive. No Lore bonuses have been discovered.
Healing (Acts as Knowledge Spell School: Biomancy)
3.0
3.0
Healing: Counts as: Knowledge Spell School Biomancy. Lore Bonus: Sometimes called the healing magic, Biomancy is used to heal, cure, and remove all negative effects on living tissue. +1% to all healing done while using a Biomancy spell, per skill point. -1% to all cooldowns of biomancy spells per skill point to a maximum of 50%. (NOTE: as you do not have true Knowledge Spell School Biomancy, these bonuses only apply to spells that Heal in the biomancy school). Master Biomancy and the mysteries of all life will be laid before you.
Knowledge Spell School: Abjuration
2.0
2.0
Knowledge Spell School: Abjuration. Lore Bonus: Sometimes called Support or Shield magic. Knowledge of abjuration spells allows you to manipulate, alter, and enhance any known Shield, Support, or other Protective spells. -10% cool down to all Abjuration spells per 2 skill points, bonus starting at 1, max -50%. -10% cast time to all abjuration spells per 2 skill points starting at 1, to a max of 50%. +1% chance of successful casting for all abjuration spells per skill score to a maximum of 100%. Master Abjuration magic and not even the Gods can cause harm to those you love.”
They were interesting bonuses to those spell schools and as I thought about it, they were far more versatile than the skills bonuses that corresponded to Types of magic. Like the Fire, or Light Magic skills that gave off skill bonuses as you attained higher levels of competency. As I thought about this, small notes describing those bonuses appeared under those skills as well.
Force Magic
10.0
15.0
No skill bonuses have been discovered. No Mastery Bonuses are known. Speak to a Master to learn more about this rarified mastery.
Fire Magic
13.0
26.0
SKILL BONUS: Resistance to Counter Mana Manipulation, Magic Absorption, and general Magic Resistances of -5 per skill level. 50% failure rate of all counter mana manipulation or mana absorption attempts to Fire spells you cast at Novice rank, 80% at Journeyman, 100% at Master, and further bonuses to be discovered past the Master rank.
MASTERY BONUS: Fire Magic Damage Reduction Equal to Skill Score in Fire Magic. Current Fire Damage Reduction: 26. Damage Reduction is applied to every instance of damage.
Light Magic
8.0
8.0
SKILL BONUS: Light magic spells can cast the Biomancy spell school without penalty for lack of Lore at -50% to the penalty at Novice, -80% penalty at Journeyman, and -100% penalty at Master ranks. Above those ranks unknown bonuses are available.
MASTERY BONUS (Not Gained): Can automatically scan a living creature and know everything about their biology at no mana cost and with no cool down. Certain limits do apply.
The descriptions were as before, primarily updated with information I already knew. But a few tidbits were new, like the specific math involved and how the information was organized. I was eager to test the skill bonus for fire magic. I wasn’t sure if it would transfer completely to mixed spells like my Fireshield. So I made a mental note to experiment with that later on. A shield made of fire that could protect my friends that couldn’t be countered? Well, that could prove truly clutch.
I felt a flash of frustration after reading about Force magic. Just another reason that I needed to find someone who could teach me. I was right on the verge of earning my first Master ranking, and I still didn’t even know what the special “thing” about Force magic was. As Ailsa had explained to me long ago when I was first learning magic, every Type of magic had some way of circumventing or modifying the rules. Light magic could use biomancy without being penalized for lacking the Knowledge skill for that spell school. Fire magic couldn’t be countered by screwing with the caster’s spell, you would have to directly counter the spell head-on. Extinguishing fire with water, or creating a vacuum that kind of thing. Water magic was supposed to be more versatile and have some kind of other bonus but I didn’t know what that was yet.
I had previously asked Ailsa about Force magic, and she admitted that while she had mastered Air, Water, and Light magics she hadn’t mastered Force. More people supposedly didn’t, it was seen as the training magic. So easy to use, and yet so easy to counter as well. A blunt instrument or magic of utility, but not really something most other casters learned beyond the basics. Later on, I learned that most human mages actually let Force magic atrophied to the point where it no longer counted against their types of magic known and thereby doubling their mana pool. Most human magic users focused on a single type of magic primarily because it is so difficult to perform the mental and emotional gymnastics needed to easily switch between types of magic easily. And in a short hundred or so year life span that most humans had, it just wasn’t worth it to split your focus and your mana pool by only studying to the novice or journeyman level in all magic types. Speaking of which, I pulled up my mana pool and mana regeneration screen.
Minute
Second
Mana Regen / Minute / Second
253
4.2
Mana Pool: Max / Current
34881
N/A
I looked into the math of my mana pool and found the formula looked something like ((Mana regeneration per minute * Average Magic Skill) * Mana Pool Modifier) all divided by 2 now due to my class penalty from Wizard. What in the world is a Mana Pool Modifier? A sub-screen titled “Mana Pool Modifiers” opened.
Average Magic Skill Rank
Modifier
Proficient (0)
10
Novice (1-5)
20
Journeyman (6-10)
40
Master (11-25)
80
Grand Master (26+)
100
Realization dawned on me as to the importance of my Average Magic Skill. Up until this point, I thought it was just a way to measure how far I had come, but now I knew that the score was used in the equation that made up my Mana Pool Size! Yeesh, no wonder people like to only know one or two types of magic. Not only would it mean a strong correlation with skill growth of a single skill to mana pool growth, but it also means the multiplier that was the Modifier was larger too! Every time the average went up a skill level from Novice to Journeyman for instance, it would mean that every skill point was adding even more mana to the pool!
My plan was to originally learn every type of magic I could. I was going to use the Magic Books that Lisander gave me to push me along in that goal when I reached Sowers Vale and we had a safe place to use them. But now I hesitated. I didn’t want my average skill level of Journeyman to lower down to the Novice level. That would more than cut my mana pool in half again, by dropping that multiplier from Journeyman of 40, to the average Novice multiplier of 20.
As I see it, there are two options. Either drill down and keep focusing on the magics I know, spread out, and level up another magic as quickly as possible. Every magic I know up to and past the Journeyman rank will allow me to learn more Types of magic without adversely affecting my mana pool too much. The real pain will come early on like this, but as I go things will only get easier. Hmmm…
Footsteps came from the walkway I had my back towards as I watched the water and contemplated what to do. A heavy and calloused hand, stronger than most I’d felt yet surprisingly gentle for all its strength gripped my shoulder a second later. “Can’t slee…”
“Wow!” I startled, every muscle in my body going rigid for a moment as I was brought out of the world in my head and crashing back to reality. My heartbeat a mile a minute, as adrenaline coursed through my veins and in my blood like hot acid. I managed not to shout too loudly and kept from waking the other sleeping people on the deck as I turned towards the well-meaning captain.
“Are you alright master mage?” He asked, his whispered voice filled with concern even as his face settled back to normal realizing nothing was wrong. I was just jumpy. I pounded my chest along with my heart's rhythm trying to keep from coughing.
“Just fine, you, you startled me is all.”
“The moon maiden is having you for company yeah?” He asked as he sat on the small step he had just come down. I gave him a queer look, and he laughed. “It means you’re thinkin deep thoughts me’ lord. Nothing tawdry.” When his quiet rumble of laughter finished he continued. “Aye, it's a common enough thing when people start seein the silver and blue mixin in the river's water. Add a touch of the white from the snow and it's almost hypnotic aye?” I nodded slightly, weary yet wanting to learn more from this common man about the world I was in. I had learned much about the elves and even some of the dwarves.
I had learned about those humans who lived on the frontier like Trasers home, and even some of the noble class here in Tor. But I had learned practically nothing about the commoners, and what the society was like of the normal everyday people. The society that most of those who I was sworn to protect and guide was coming from. “It's true,” I said. “I can’t sleep. And yes, I'm thinking important thoughts about the future. My plans, and my obligations. But in all honesty, none of that really matters compared to what I'm most concerned about.” I let the thought die there in the silence between us for a moment.
“What be your greatest concern mage lord?” He asked obligingly, a smile touching his face visible even in the moonlight.
“Tor. The people. I don’t know what they’re like. What, you are like so to speak. I’m obligated to help those who’ve been forced out by the … uh, I think it was called the Cardinalic Council?” The words didn’t feel quite right in my mouth, but the man nodded his understanding. “I’m tasked with helping them get safety north, and away from the lands, they have called home for their entire lives. And yet, I know nothing about them.” The captain's eyes went wide at the mention of the exodus and the trouble I seemed to be embroiled in, but soon relaxed as time and silence pressed on.
“I, I don’t know much about all that stuff. Great lords, and cardinals of the church and all that. That’s not for a simple bargeman like myself. But, if it be common stories and knowledge about the people of this here northern barony, that I can help with. I’ve been ta every port along the river, up every tributary to every small hovel in the whole northern barony. Sold fish and lumber, grain and oil at every one of them too. The name is Harsker, I’m known here and there along the river. So, if it be questions about me home you have,” he motioned to the river. “Feel free ta ask.”
And so I did. We spoke for some time just sitting there and speaking about how the river flowed, how it grew in the spring and how it shrank in the fall only to begin rising again as the snowstorms began in the north. I learned that apparently the city of Sowers Vale where we were headed had two entire sections outside their walls that were called the mud pits, as they flooded every spring.
I asked about where Harsker came from and found out he was actually from Fishmongers Hollow itself. The town was old, if not very large or successful, and had had numerous generations of people pass in its old muddy streets along the river. His father, grandfather, and great grandfather had all earned a living working as a bargemen on other men’s boats. But it had always been their dream to one day own their own. So, they had all scrimped and saved, passing on that savings and the dream to the next generation. Until shortly after the captain’s father passed away five years before when their family was finally able to buy a barge and a license to travel the river. Trading goods and taking on passengers.
When I asked about Harsker’s wife he explained that the sturdy woman had come from the regional capital further south even then Sowers Vale. She came north with her father and mother when they had been able to finally pay off their families’ peasantry debts. Her father became a rather successful farm steader some ways west at the base of the Griffon Mountains. There, he had been able to buy her brother's apprenticeships at various trades, and give her a rather fair freeholders dowry of three silver coins. Their fathers had met and arranged their marriages when Mr. Harsker, Captain Harsker’s father, had been assigned by the ship's captain to find a team of powerful draft horses. The horses were needed to pull their barge out of a mudbank it had gotten stuck on.
Mr. Murdock, Harsker’s now father in law, had the only such team in the entire county at the time. The two men met, Mr. Murdock liked Harsker’s father’s ambition and how he, Harsker had kept to the same dream. Harsker’s father had liked that Mr. Murdock had through hard work gone from being a “southern peasant” to a “proper northern farmer” all through his own hard work and dedication. Long story short, the two men had hit it off, found out that the other had an unmarried child of the opposite sex, and well… as the Captian put it “even a southern slave knows a griffon feather when he sees it.”
Despite the idiom not translating very well, I figured out its meaning well enough. There was far more to the story, and we went long into the night talking. All in all, the endeavor was well worth it. I learned how the peasantry viewed things. How life worked here in the northern dutchy, and how it was considered one of the most backwater but also the freest of the dutchies. How commoners feared “peasantry” and slavery in the south even more. I learned exactly what peasantry was, essentially indentured servitude with various levels with peasant drudges being little better than slaves, and peasant craftsmen being next to free men only owing service to their given Lord every so often.
I learned that commoners without lords to pay fealty too were known as “Free Men” or “Free folk” and owned no one any debts. But neither could they call on the duty of nobility to protect them in times of crisis. The life of the Freefolk was often seen as dangerous by peasants. While the life of peasants was often seen as little better than slavery by the Free folk.
“The folk of Fishermans Hollow often think of themselves as free folk. And they are in all but name really,” the captain explained. “Lords and ladies don’t like to visit their petty holdings this far out from proper civilized cities. It's dangerous and they might be asked to work.” That earned a laugh from both of us. “It's why the people of the hollow hated the Heartfield’s when they first showed up. No Heartfield had so much as sent a letter asking for taxes in two generations. And here the hair of empty manor that everyone pretended didn’t exist just showed up outa nowhere.”
“They could do whatever they wanted for so long, then this random guy shows up and starts bossing them around? I can understand not liking that.” I said sympathetically. The captain laughed low and lightly again.
“Except that’s not how it happened lad. See, they didn’t like them for all of about three days. Until they realized that the Heartfield’s actually worked, and they could and would spend the town's Hearthstone mana on what it was meant for. Keeping them safe an’warm. Then they loved it!” The man laughed again, loud at first before catching himself and finishing with a low rumble of amusement.
“There is nothing better than a good king, and nothing worse than an evil one,” i quoted.
“Too true, too true. And the principle applies all the way down to tiny towns like Fisherman's Hollow. Well, I reckon I better get some sleep and wake my wife up so she can steer the boat while my son gets things ready for morning.” He looked at me than before he rose to his feet, square in the eyes. “You best get some sleep too. Don’t let the moon maiden take all your night from you.” He left me alone then with my thoughts.
My eyes grew heavy after a few more minutes of staring at the passing river water. I don’t know who this moon maiden is, but I think I’ll take that advice.
---
Chapter 11: Golems and Water Dogs
“Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.” - Kinky Friedman
Aboard the Barge “Father's Legacy”, Heading South, Frega 53rd, 2988 AoR
A tiny hand gently pushed on my right cheek several times. I attempted to bat whatever it was away in my half-sleep. A few seconds later what felt like a bee sting forced me to bolt upright. “Waaah! What’s wrong?! Ouch that hurt,” I rubbed the spot instinctively.
“Time to wake up meathead. It's almost noon and we have some work to do.” Ailsa’s voice was not unkind, but neither was it obsequious. I blinked and my vision cleared. Ailsa was flying in front of my face. I found Tol’geth sitting on the side of the barge, his large legs bare and dangling in the cool water, his face toward the sun.
“You need to learn to finish tying off an enneagram. Or as the humans here say ‘make it self sustaining.’ But that honestly makes no sense, it still needs your mana pool so it's not totally self-sustaining. It's not like a tied off enneagram infused mana construct is a golem or anything.” She snorted, giggled at herself, and then darted off as I rubbed my face to finish waking up.
A few minutes later I found myself in a quiet spot far to the back of the barge, with just Ailsa for company. She hovered in front of me behind the barge and over the water as I sat facing the boat's wake. The wood under me and my back was warm. It was kept that way by the rock ringed coal basins that seemed a unique invention to Ethria’s barge community. At least I had never seen or heard of anything like them back home on Earth.
“Alright meathead, do like you did before. Create the mana construct,” I did, it was the same dragon as before. “Okay, now imbue it with your intent for it. With your understanding of what it is supposed to be…” This took me longer as I sat in meditation. After a few moments, I was able to force my mind into that same shape. Savage, hungry, intelligent, and prideful on the verge of being tyrannical of everything it surveyed. The mana construct seemed to eagerly accept the imprint.
