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Blueraven's Grimoire
ALF Commander Blueraven's Log, Day Zero: Have decided to save the world. Technically. Will be keeping a log for both posterity's sake and because it's the only thing keeping me from throwing several co-conspirators down the nearest well and bombing it.
I have, in effect, joined the remnants of Witherwind Enclave* in order to form the Anebrilith Liberation Force (ALF). I am the only human in the ALF's ranks. I am also, technically speaking, the ranking military officer within the force. Hilarity ensued when Ranger Hessran voiced objections and declared, "I will not profane myself by taking orders from a Man." Hilarity was trial-by-combat. Not so funny at the time. Won trial by tripping him up and cracking his jaw with uppercut-pillar. No teeth knocked out, regrettably. Authority was reconciled with the Enclave in short order: I am now Second-in-Command of the Enclave. Ranger Shaul was less than thrilled, but no further objections.
* Apparently, Enclaves disband and form completely anew after major losses on any mission. Witherwind is technically the reteam of Farstrike.
First act was to establish hierarchy within the Enclave. Is as follows:
Seer Vara Yenuial (Hates me)
Self (Truly awesome)
Ranger Shaul Karna (Still limping, less homicidal)
Ranger Nolara Nagat (Short-hair, fantastic rack)
Ranger Fiera Grethel (Long-hair, nice ass)
Ranger Hessran Ko'Vaun (Prick, no missing teeth)
Ranger Apprentice Jailbait (I am too old to be thinking like that about her. Actual name is Farana or something)
The Apprentices after Jailbait are equal in rank (if nothing else)
Work begins tomorrow.
Day One: Slow day.
Sent most of the Enclave out on what passes for their "usual business," which means most spent the day sniping on the wall and a few went scavenging for food with secondary instructions to scout potential Talents. (From a distance and without being detected, of course.) This left me sharing basement with Vara all day while I tried to divine the layout of Anebrilith's sewer system and whether or not I could tunnel through it without any gaps. We did not speak much. Vara has taken my advice to remain inside and out of sight for the duration: The longer we can keep her existence a secret, the better. And if I don't leave the theater, the enemy may believe me to be dead or in hiding or imprisoned by the Wanderers. We will see.
Once divination is complete, work can begin.
Day Two: Work begun on tunnel system for future apprentices. Wanderers have spotted four potential Talents thus far. One Apprentice is MIA, presumed harpied (his leg fell on Ranger Shaul's head during the search). Commented, "Hopefully he died fighting. Preferably with his head getting annihilated in the process." Was promptly slapped by Seer Vara on behalf of Apprentice's sibling. No hard feelings.
Tunneled through a large stretch of stone, passing through the sewers without outwardly damaging them. Somewhat disturbed though: Vara and I both sensed something through the walls. Rangers instructed to place runes where and as told during their rounds. We'll have a warning system up by tomorrow, with any luck.
No fresh Talent uncovered.
Day Three: Warning system did no good. One Apprentice killed, one Undead.
I had just finished shaping the first chamber beneath the sewers when something clawed in through the ceiling and took the head of Apprentice Riven. It was a ghoul, one of half-dozen. Lead ghoul pinned me while Vara fought two. Apprentice Durandelf was bitten deeply in the arm and went ghoul by fighting's end. Apprentices Deithor and Balakai put him down before he could cause any harm.
Current ALF personnel count: 6 Command, 1 Junior, 6 Apprentices.
Fatalities: 3 (Sojakai, Riven, Durandelf).
Talents spotted: 5 (4, +1 today)
Day Four: Warning system in place. Have found underground tunnels leading into the sewers. Rangers Shaul and Hessran dispatched to seal them up using Seerstones for urgency's sake. Stones conjured to my specifications caused the tunnels to literally seal. Magic bears my thumbprint to avoid tipping our hand. Not sure how Vara did that. Warning runes in place to make sure the tunnels remain closed. Rangers Nolara and Fiera spent the day cleaning out zombies. Apprentices allowed to take potshots at the harpies. No casualties today.
Training area is almost complete. Chamber 1 will be junction. Planned entrances in several places in both the sewers and aboveground (out of harpy sight). Chamber 2 will be largest, most reinforced. Planned instruction area.
Talents spotted: 7 (2 more found near the piers; Apprentice Haldreth basically kidnapped them for their own good).
Security: Somehow not compromised. Jailbait was pleased. Nolara's got a better rack.
Day Five: Chamber 2 complete (structure). Securities in progress.
Day Six: Chambers completed. Work on auxilliary tunnels begins. Instructions begun with my very first true apprentices, Dylver and Kienelas. Dylver shows promise for Thermals but not much else, Kienelas has little talent but strong grasp of the basics. Thirdcomer, Bolabas, joined us late in the day. Have already introduced them to Concept Bypass and Runic Spellwork as a means of increasing productivity. May attempt to instruct them in basic alchemy for supply's sake.
Day Seven: Going too fast. Dylver almost got us all killed. Nothing else to report.
Day Eight: I saw the face of the enemy for the first time: Baron Kaverre himself, making a front-line inspection accompanied by what looked like a handful of necromancer auxilliaries and a bodyguard of ancient dead. Very well preserved. I spotted several signs of high status and advanced defenses throughout: He rode a demonic horse, wore Nobles' clothing over armor similar to what I saw on Ghez Hokan, was flanked by Blackstaves bearing the Necromancer's Eye and Standards, and wore several bits of jewelry that disquieted me to look at them. I instructed Ranger Cessae, TRAFKAJB* to take a shot at him from the battlements. The spell was disrupted by magicks similar to Blightcrow's Scattershot Barrier, but much more powerful and better controlled: Damage was so spread out among the ancient dead and the surrounding terrain that none of the individual spell fragments caused more than pits in dirt and rotten, leathery flesh. Nothing got through to him or his auxilliaries. I could hear his laughter more than 200 feet away.
Foppish bastard.
* The Ranger Apprentice Formerly Known As Jailbait
Addendum: Harpies attacked at the eastern tower. Some injuries, no dead on our side. One of the harpy corpses had a letter and Haldreth had common sense. He left the letter unopened and handed it to me with great care after disposing of the bodies. In short: "Welcome, Wizard Blueraven, to the end of your ragged flight from Death. May His tender mercies never leave you, as you shall never leave this place intact." It was signed with the Baron's Mark. No traps built in, but we burned the thing anyway.
Day Nine: New apprentice. I am not satisfied? happy? comfortable? with this one.
Her name is Neesal Danfras. She was doing it for her daughter, Iera.
I don't think I'll ever make that joke again.
Addendum: Iera's a half-elf. I have had to exercise authority and pull against Vara to ensure Iera's acceptance into our shelters. Father unknown. Perhaps best that way. Need to watch for Hessran; he's showing an attitude again.
Day Ten: Full class of 7; would be 8 but one of the prospective Talents is missing. Have crashcoursed the newcomers to semi-even footing with Dylver and Kienelas. Roster/specialties are as follows:
Dylver Tracen (Thermal; has already worked out the theory for a tornado of ice and fire. I must steal this)
Kienelas Tracen (Basics; still weak, but his magic is durable)
Warram Cael (Noncombatant; good grasp of runes, useful for group spellcasting, useless in a combat situation on her own)
Quel'thas Mjoln (Arcane; weak, flimsy, but spellwork quick and nimble)
Neesal Danfras (Pyromancer; natural but very low control. Indirect combatant)
Nethenor Eralas (Thermal, best with energy drain/ice; may pair him with Neesal or Kienalas)
Sigel Ventre (?????; talents are very, very hard to pin down. See below)
Acting in my capacity as both a Wizard and military commander, and in keeping with my authority as a Sorcerer*, I have assigned all seven of my students with the rank of Apprentice and the title of Mage. None of them have Hats, Staves or anything like that. Several of the Wanderers have helped us all in constructing wands and rods for them, among other things. Some of the Magi (and a few of the Apprentice Rangers) show talent for alchemy as well, though I'm not adept enough to teach them the finer points of it.
Insofar as trying to make them useful, results are mixed. Dylver and Neesal are by far the strongest of the lot, but also the hardest to predict and control. Dylver's magic is powerful, but he has little control, poor range and is rebellious by nature. Neesal has been through Hell. I don't fault her for it, but it's made a visible mark on her spellwork: The woman's a natural Pyromancer on a level that may well surpass me in terms of talent, power and control. But she's angry and nervous and loses focus easily. On top of that, she panics. I've decided to remove her from direct combat and teach her to cast fire at range**. Hopefully we can get her emotions under control.
Nethenor and Kienelas are a natural team. Nethenor's abilities to drain energy (and time, patience, sanity, will to live...) are incredible, enough to resemble elemental ice magic (which he may also be useful at, if he could find a good teacher). Kienelas has very low power, but his magicks are sturdy and he can make use of background energy very easily. Together, Nethenor drains power from a target and Kienelas uses the stored energy to work his magic at a higher level.
Warram and Quel'thas are not especially noteworthy. Warram is decidedly noncombatant. With a better teacher, she would probably grow into an excellent healer or spy, but I'm limited to teaching her runes and alchemy. She absorbs both well enough and has no problems serving as an auxilliary to other Mages. Quel'thas is very good at improvised spellcasting and thinking on his feet. He's weaker than any of them, but he's probably the best suited for fighting. I've got him running drills with a few of the junior Rangers. He and Cessae have hit it off quite nicely.***
Sigel is impossible to pin down. He handles the basics well enough, but whatever his affinities are, I'm missing them. The closest I've come to pinning them down is Ectomancy, which straddles dangerously close to at least half a dozen forms of dark (re: Black, Aberrant, Vile, Evil, Horrible, etc) magic. His actual talents are small, but it's probably good we got him first. I've tried to get him started on basic Conjuration with Ectomancy as a base, but it's not easy going and the Rangers are weary of him.
All Magi are crosstraining and learning to cast in groups. They seem to be establishing a good dynamic overall, but I still worry. It bears mention that, when we found them, their talents were all very low. I mentioned this to Vara and she explained to me that, "They are all tonedeaf. Elven magic, even my own, is based on song and rhythm. None of your Magi have that. That is why they were never trained and were able to slip under the enemies' watch like they have."
This actually answers a few questions I've had. Like why in the nine Hells Raiaera didn't have any schools of magic explicitly based on something other than Bardic tradition. As it turns out, they're just music-biased to the point of stupidity.
* Sorcery means direct connection to the Tap, the source of all magic. If that isn't entitlement to authority in magical affairs, nothing is.
** Need to expand and/or add another chamber.
*** And by 'hit it off' I mean 'while half-naked.' Vara was most displeased. I gave Quel high-five afterwards. Nice to see the young people still have hope enough to do what young people do.*****
**** Which is screw like rabbits.
Wait.
I'm not that old!
Addendum: Saw Gannai today. He has a new arm, much browner than the rest of him. I have spoken to the Wanderers and we've agreed to try and get some kind of information from the Pirates and their ilk. Wanderers pushing for Neesal to go under cover. Have put foot down. Not happening.
Day Eleven: Sigel scares me. He's managed to use Ectomancy as a basis for Geomancy. Something about it feels wrong to me and I'm not sure what. We constructed a new chamber with the help of my class and Vara (which is going increasingly stir-crazy in her confinement). Neesal got the honors of First Spell and charred a wall until it looked like black glass. Warram made herself useful by transmuting black glass to target signs. Rangers and Magi have made use of it as a joint firing range. Morale has increased.
I'll be holding my first combat exercise tomorrow. Will try to keep from maiming or killing anyone, but restraint is difficult for mages at any level. Wizardry just means subtlety, education and skill. Not necessarily lowered lethality. Vara has agreed to step in and keep things under control if necessary.
Day Twelve: Ow.
No casualties.
Except maybe my spleen.
Day Thirteen: Second round of combat training. I was ready for them this time. They mostly performed to expectations. Dylver almost killed me. Quel'thas is surprisingly good with the sword that I did not give him. Neesal still needs to learn some restraint*.
* Human men are on her barbecue-with-hatred list: "I hope you all die! You godsforsaken apes!"
She apologized later. I forgave her. First time an Elf has hugged me without clawing at their flesh and mumbling, "Unclean! Unclean!"
...and Iera is adorable. She took her first steps today. I think I need to go kick a puppy or two, but it looks like the citizens ate them all.
Addendum: A dead ent came stomping through the docks today. It killed ten people before the Rangers and I were able to destroy it. There were a few ravagers* hiding inside. The Rangers are currently mopping up, but Hessran was severely injured by a pirate in the fighting. One building destroyed. Not a good day.
* Ravagers are a somewhat new form of zombie: Fast, mindless, criminally insane and just intelligent enough to be a longterm pain in the ass if not dealt with early on. Not quite as strong or tough as ghouls, but their speed and ability to hide better make them more dangerous.
Addendum: Magi have all opted for a day of rest. Rangers all out. Time to take a break.
Addendum: Have been asked to handle a very important matter. Wll do so with somber dedication and professional detachment.