"I honestly can't remember."

Do NOT mention the spear.

well do you? i bet you used to own a bunch of kickass magic swords.
don't tell her that, it's none of her business. i bet they were awesome though.

After being sealed away for who knows how long not sure if you would know of any swords like that. Then again their might have been legends of powerful swords back in your day that may have been forgotten. Maybe ask if she's heard about any of those old legends and tell her about any she might not have heard about. Though I have no clue where you'd find any of them.

And she asked for swords so leave the spear out of this conversation.

The spear is either entirely mundane or has a powerful anti-scrying enchantment on it. So basically we don't know if it's legendary at all. It's also not a sword.

Tell her of weapons that would fit her description, but make it sound like you're retelling ancient folklore.

Do you know of any magic you could use to look back into the past or recover lost memories? Whatever made you angry was clearly significant to you, and the fact you can't remember what it was is rather strange.

Sorry, none spring to mind right now.

While we’re on the topic of legends have you ever heard of something called jaggniqoth? I met some guy a while back mumbling to himself about it but he left before I could ask and now I’m curious.

"Was always more of a fisticuffs woman myself."

>Fjlyndrsvtch or Baruldobane
Have you actually heard of either of these? Epic blades of heroes sound like something that might actually survive the ages.

The names might've changed, mind. You could ask of their attributes, other than the cleaving of mountains or piercing of skies, and see if they match up to your ken.

>continent now an island
Maybe the whole thing about swords cleaving mountains ain't just for show and something messed up the world but good in your absence. Something must've caused the decline of the Empire, certainly - and apparently it wasn't you. At least not directly.

>"know about any of those, would'ja?"
You can share a tidbit or two - ancient legend (i.e. history, to you), myth or supposition - but say anything else she'll have to barter out of you... although you'll have to have a think of aught you know is actually of any worth to her. You've read a fair few tomes in the past, but that was prior to your sentence, and now the ol' noggin isn't quite what it was.

Pry a bit in return. Ask her why she is keen on the research. You've a notion that anyone wanting to analyze the power to split mountains usually has some idea on how such potent might could - or should - be used.

>Yaba, city of witches
Witches b good or bad? Were they around in your time? If being around spellcasters is of no great risk to reveal your nature and past, Yaba might sound like a suitable new base camp. The library would certainly be a good place to visit (or possibly dangerous, if you stumble over some zealous historian who might recognize you). Assuming you can learn the writings of these lands without too much trouble, anyway.

Ask where lies Yaba from here - and is it really that keen on visitors from afar?

Apollo 2019/06/12(Wed)00:23 No. 935520 ID: 70065f
File 156032420876.png - (129.29KB , 547x502 , idk30.png )

>well do you? i bet you used to own a bunch of kickass magic swords.
I handled many blades, but none so great as to carry a name through the ages. Most ended up sundered in my hands.

>Have you actually heard of either of these?
Fjlyndrsvtch is the name of the blade my mentor carried. I wouldn't know where to find it now. The other is completely new to me.

>Do you know of any magic you could use to look back into the past or recover lost memories?
I could certainly try, but such an act would require a more involved ritual. We would need space and resources I don't have right now, as well as time in absolute solitude for such scrying. Maybe if we find a wizard's tower we can borrow it and lock up for a while.

>"I honestly can't remember."
"I honestly can't remember." I give a shrug. "But I'm new to this place, so I don't think any of my knowledge would be very helpful to you to begin with."

She sighed. "Ah figured as much."

>While we’re on the topic of legends have you ever heard of something called jaggniqoth? I met some guy a while back mumbling to himself about it but he left before I could ask and now I’m curious.
I ask her that.

"Jaggniqoth? Ah think that was some lich that got struck down a long time ago." She paused. "Or married recently. Probably the former though!"

Apollo 2019/06/12(Wed)00:48 No. 935522 ID: 70065f
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>Ask her why she is keen on the research. You've a notion that anyone wanting to analyze the power to split mountains usually has some idea on how such potent might could - or should - be used.

"Well!" She stands up and stretches out her arms. "Ah have this theory ah've been studying. Ya see, arcane energy permeates the body via the blood and rises up through the skin when we channel it into our spells. But!" She flexes the fingers on her right hand in sequence then holds them out. "A more than fair amount of power is lost in the transfer. Ah learned ah could bypass this by giving my blood a more direct contact to the surface." She focuses for just a moment and flowers begin to burst forth from her arm. They tear through the skin with vicious thorns and sharpened leaves, sending drops of her blood scattering around her. Bright crimson flowers now adorn her forearm. She's beaming with pride, but also wincing from the pain of bringing them out. "Ah planted seeds inside of myself that pull my blood up inside of them."

"Fascinating." I lean forward to look closer. This was completely new to me. "But where does the sword come in?"

"Well ya see, metals like iron don't let the energy flow through them at all. Wizards'll channel their power through staves of wood, but even that causes more loss. Ah believe that these ancient blades of legend are made of a material that can channel such energy with ease, thus enabling them to carry the grand powers they become known for." She closes her hand around a mock handle that the plants grow in her grip. "Just imagine! If ah found such a blade and wove these plants into the handle, ah'd have a wholly connected conduit from mah heart to the tip of the blade!"

"And then what?"

She seems confused by my question. "What do ya mean?"

"You'll have created a conduit for weaving your magic greater than any before, but then what do you do with it?"

She shrugged. "Ah don't know! But ah'm not in this for the power, ah'm here to prove it's possible! Maybe ah'll write some papers on it and take a well deserved vacation when it's over."

>Witches b good or bad? Were they around in your time?
Could be anything in that regard. The witches in my time were a result of mixing druidic traditions with arcane pursuits. They tended to be wiser than the wizards, and mingled closely with nature spirits, but at their core they still bent the world to their will via arcane power. It seems not much has changed in that regard.

>If being around spellcasters is of no great risk to reveal your nature and past, Yaba might sound like a suitable new base camp. The library would certainly be a good place to visit (or possibly dangerous, if you stumble over some zealous historian who might recognize you). Assuming you can learn the writings of these lands without too much trouble, anyway.
I like this plan. If nothing else I'd be able to pore through their library and catch up on everything I missed.

>Ask where lies Yaba from here - and is it really that keen on visitors from afar?
"A few days by boat east and then a week north. Visitors are common too! Many come hoping to learn our ways. But uh... be careful to respect our traditions as well. Ya could get hexed good if you're caught messing with a wisp ya shouldn't, ya know?" She pauses for a moment to look me over. "But ya seem plenty capable. There's a boat heading east tomorrow at noon. If'n you make it ah can take ya with me the rest of the way to Yaba from there."

Sure, what a great chance to see how magical studies have progressed (or backslid) in your absence!

Ask her if that flower thing hurts when she has them bloom ask if it would be possible for her to try and grow a plant along with them that could numb the pain or if that would be an impractical waste of mana?

Her theory must be wrong or incomplete since you were able to use magic without having any blood.
Didn't you say your spirit were moving at a certain distance from your body? Maybe your method of casting spells comes direct from your free moving spirit while her soul is permanently in her core so every magical feat require material channeling. If those process aren1t exclusive to each of you this could be an indication of a change in methodology over time from astral projection to blood magic.

Thanks her for the information and offer to heal her hand.

Seems almost too good to be true, go for it. Any little tricks you can show her back?

>>935520
>"Jaggniqoth? Ah think that was some lich that got struck down a long time ago." She paused. "Or married recently. Probably the former though!"
Sounds like that’s supposed to be you. Are you a lich? Or have the people forgotten about you to the point that they got their facts wrong?

>>935522
>plants coming out of her
Ask her if this means that she doesn’t need to eat and only needs to drink water and get plenty of sunshine? Because if she’s drinking the water now, apologize for giving the water a weird taste by being in it.

>>935531
Lets offer to join her on her research quest! We may even get a guide for Yaba out of it. Offer your spirit ideas and offer to heal her arm.

>>935522
Do you need the seeds? Why not just make a focusing implement that pierces the hand and makes direct contact with your blood that way?
If the material is what counts, I wonder if that spear would work after all? It is very old. Ask her to come check it out with you after the bathing's done.

>>935556
Only if we're sure we can trust her. The fact that there's a freshly killed dead guy next to a recently broken locked cell, in the middle of no where where she just happened to find us, a person saying they had recently been imprisoned will make it fairly obvious that something's up

>Stick materials into your blood vessels so they conduct mana directly from the blood
"Okay... genius but outright dangerous. You do realize metal poisoning is one of the lead causes of insanity, right?"

>Where to
"Can we hit a few dungeons first? I'm short on cash but I practiced my spellcasting in prison."
>How could you practice in prison? Don't prisons have wards?
"I MADE the prison wards. *feh* Warden was a corrupt cheap-ass who got away with budget cuts and incompetence because there were guards from like four different cities coming in every day to check on 'The Kingslayer', and they did most of the enforcing while the local guards slacked off or forced us to do their work. I got parole when the gov found out, same as anyone who wasn't the KS."

Apollo 2019/06/12(Wed)20:34 No. 935589 ID: 70065f
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>Ask her if this means that she doesn’t need to eat and only needs to drink water and get plenty of sunshine? Because if she’s drinking the water now, apologize for giving the water a weird taste by being in it.
"So do you feed of sunlight like a plant?"

She laughs. "No! If ah did ah'd sure save money on food though."

>Didn't you say your spirit were moving at a certain distance from your body? Maybe your method of casting spells comes direct from your free moving spirit while her soul is permanently in her core so every magical feat require material channeling. If those process aren1t exclusive to each of you this could be an indication of a change in methodology over time from astral projection to blood magic.
When I was taught magic I was taught to draw energy up from beneath the earth and into my spirit. The process was very dangerous, and I saw more than my fair share of students go up in flames from trying to draw too much into themselves. Later my mentor taught me to draw energy from the aether between planes, and in so doing changed the very nature of my magic with such a raw chaotic force.

But we didn't carry arcane power in our blood back then, so the practice of blood magic didn't exist. Am I capable of it now that I've stolen that man's blood? I *need* to know more about this.

>offer to heal her hand.
>Ask her if that flower thing hurts when she has them bloom ask if it would be possible for her to try and grow a plant along with them that could numb the pain or if that would be an impractical waste of mana?
"That's impressive, but it looks rather painful. Have you tried adding numbing herbs to yourself for that."

"Ah have, but the plants exist constantly within me. Ah was numb all the time, bloomin' or not. Besides," She flexes her hand and then focuses again. The bramble on her arm folds back into itself and fades back into her arm. The leaves bend into the shape of her flesh, then merge back into her and leave only red marks where they had burs through her skin. "They do a fine enough job healing me when I'm done."

>Why not just make a focusing implement that pierces the hand and makes direct contact with your blood that way?
"Why not make an implement to pierce your hand and make direct contact with your blood that way?"

"The plants draw my blood up and distribute them through the leaves and petals of the flowers. If ya design an implement that gives as much surface area as these plants, can channel the energy out as effectively as the thin layers of the flowers, and won't bleed me to death ah'd love to see it."

>Any little tricks you can show her back?
Given the base difference between our techniques I'm not sure I'd have much meaningful advice to give yet, honestly.

She looks down at her shoulder as the last bit of ghostly steam trails off of her. "Looks like ah'm all clean first." She clambers out of the water and pulls a ring out of her bag. "So, Yaba, thinkin' you'll go?"

"Have a lady like you take a stranger like me to her home city? Seems too good an offer to be true."

"Don't go thinkin' ya special, ah already set to go home." She spins the ring onto her finger, and a gust of wind spirals out of it and over her, drying her off in short order. She dresses just as quickly as she had stripped earlier. "Don't be late for the boat or ah'll be makin' the trip all by my lonesome."

>mention the spear
>don't mention the spear
She hops onto her... goat? I'm not familiar with that animal. This is my last chance to decide if I'm going to tell her about the ruins I came out of and the spear inside of it or not.

1) Tell her
2) Don't tell her
3) _______

>>935589
...probably shouldn't. Best to delay any knowledge of the breakout until later. You want to at least get your first relic without anyone knowing what's up. Also, once you've been escorted to town you'll have a way to contact her again in the future, which means you can just go retrieve the spear and deliver it to her for analysis. I'm not sure just yet what explanation you could give as to its origin without also letting the cat out of the bag.

>>935589
You did say that you’ve been with that spear long enough and didn’t want to be around it anymore. It might be best to not tell her and hope that she doesn’t find it.

How much longer do you plan on soaking in the water? Are you clean yet?

And where’s Jagni? Is it still trying to to doggy paddle? Hopefully it didn’t drown while you were busy talking to.....wait, did she ever tell us her name? You told her your name, but I don’t think she ever gave you her name!

Don't tell her just yet. The less people know about your identity, the longer you have before the church sends hit squads after you. You need to learn if she chatters after drinking.

Don't tell her. This is a new beginning.

I dont see a reason to.

>2) Don't tell her

>>935589
Don't tell her. This is a new beginning.
we should possibly go back sometime and make something to guard the one weapon that can defeat us that somehow this guy that tried to free us did know where it was

Apollo 2019/06/15(Sat)00:26 No. 935837 ID: 70065f
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>Don't

I keep quiet about the spear. She gives her goat a tap to start walking. "Don't forget, tomorrow at noon! If'n you need me before then ah'll be staying at the Skylark near the docks tonight." With that she gives a loud 'iah!' and her goat kicks off to ride back into the forest.

>How much longer do you plan on soaking in the water? Are you clean yet?
I need a bit more time before I'm all done.

>And where’s Jagni? Is it still trying to to doggy paddle?
Jagni seems to have figured out how to drift along the surface like some sort of fuzzy gator.

"How are you doing, Jagni?" I ask more for my own amusement than expecting any response. Jagni stretches out it's jaw into a wide yawn and barks out a garbled "Waghi!"

Huh, I guess it can talk already. That was quick. I pet it's head and tell it good job, and that seems to amuse it greatly.

>wait, did she ever tell us her name?
She said her name is Callogh. Or Muldoon. I'm not actually sure which is her or her family's name.

It takes a while but eventually the steam coming off of me stops twisting into wretched shapes, then thins out entirely. I'm all clean now, and I haven't felt this nice in quite some time. Where should I head to next?

Firstly, wherever you left your clothes.
Then, to the town.

You could take a look on the third magical thing before visiting the town.

well you got a day to kill so if you want you could check out that last magic sight you saw just to see what it is and then head towards town. Hopefully once we get their we can get a basic history lesson on what happen since you took your nap.

Check out the other magical place you saw.

Magic thingies would be a good thingy to look at. Especially since the style of magic in common use seems to have shifted, it would pay to get more familiar with it so you can blend in.

Apollo 2019/06/22(Sat)22:10 No. 936886 ID: 70065f
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>Head to the third magic thingy
I dry myself off and reclothe myself before heading off to the third point with Jagni. It doesn't take long before I find myself in a small clearing in the woods. Jagni happily runs off to sniff at flowers scattered around the area.

I was sure I saw magic here from a distance, but now that I'm here I don't see what would give off such a signal. Something must be hidden.

Check under every tree.

>>936886
>I don't see what would give off such a signal.
Don’t look for it, feel for it. You can still sense it, right?

Try under that big rock you’re floating over.

is it in that rock you're floating over?

There's a bridge. That's the only real landmark here, check under it. Well, that or the rock, there's an interesting split in it.
If you can't find it from a cursory inspection you could recast the scrying spell.

Make sure there aren't any snakes or other dangerous fauna around that'd make short work of Jagni while you search

and as far as where to search... Well, the rock we're above, the bridge over what seems to be a very small creek and the tree adjacent to that are the only visible landmarks so let's start there.

Almost looks like a path and stairs leading up between two trees on your left. Could that be an entrance?

If you wanted to conceal something powerful in this clearing, how would you go about doing so?

Apollo 2019/06/27(Thu)11:04 No. 937413 ID: 70065f
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>Check under every tree.
Nothing but roots

>There's a bridge. That's the only real landmark here, check under it.
Perfect place for a troll to take a nap, I suppose. But nothing magical is hidden under here.

>Make sure there aren't any snakes or other dangerous fauna around that'd make short work of Jagni while you search
If there was any here before, they've since fled with my arrival. Animals seem to be afraid to approach me.

>If you wanted to conceal something powerful in this clearing, how would you go about doing so?
There's a Shadow Plane very near to our own, if I wanted to keep something safe and hidden I'd fold it into that plane. Finding something hidden there can be impossible without the knowledge of where and how it was hidden. But doing so would also make it impossible to find by magical scrying.

Apollo 2019/06/27(Thu)11:06 No. 937414 ID: 70065f
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>is it in that rock you're floating over?

It seems the rock is actually the peak of an old pillar. It's been worn down and buried by the ages so whatever features it may have once had are now lost to me. But I can feel that it's been soaked in a great amount of blood. It's a rancid sort of stench that clings to it.

The thing I saw is buried near the base of this pillar. Something about it almost feels familiar to me though.

>>937414
A sacrificial altar? I bet there's a knife buried under there. May as well excavate the entire area too to see if you can find any other archaeological shit.

Jagni, dig!

Well, check it out!

Be careful not to touch it until you know what it iiiis~! You never know with these lost artifacts of ancient-probably-your-civilization!

And if it's some sort of sacrificial blade, well, you can analyze and then gift-wrap it to your new acquaintance.

..Hm. Current evidence suggests the pillar is some kind of sacrificial altar or some such, but I'd like to suggest an alternate theory.

When you were struck down, how far did your enemies move your body before it was entombed, warded and forgotten about? We may have just found an important load-bearing pillar from the city you conquered with your armies.

what is it that makes it so familiar?

>>937414
Welp, lets excavate the area then! If you can, just lift up all of the dirt around whatever this place is.