Solo Shopping and Summoning

[Clyde Sullins]

2 Summer 513 Today would be a busy day for Clyde, as he was doing something he did not do to often. Shop. He usually went and did it all at once, got everything out of the way. Which meant his needs often built up to quite a degree, making him do a lot when he did go. Today was to be one of those days. He headed over to rent a Ravasola, and was happily greeted by one of the Ravasolamen. "Yes, I would like a ride over to the Merchents Ring, and once I am done, a ride back. How much would that be?" The man was sitting in his Ravasola, and happily told Clyde it would be 8 gm for there and back. Clyde nodded, looking down at the interesting carving in the wood work, the soft cushions for the seats of passengers, and nodded, paying the man in advance the 8 gm as he got in. As they traveled the man talked, telling of recent passengers he had, an incident he had with an escaped kelvic, and a man who had attempted to dive into a canal, and had landed head first in a Ravasola. Clyde listened, nodding occasionally, enjoying the pleasant ride as the man pushed them along with his pole off the sides of the canal. "Do you know of a good place to get a chest? I need one for something, and only the best will suit my purposes." The Ravasolaman nodded, and responded that he knew just such a place, and came to a stop in front of a shop, owned by a woman named Gemmei. He headed inside to see that the shop sold engravings and carved objects. Which meant the woman might not make the chest herself, instead simply selling it as a finished product once she had engraved the outside. "Yes, hello, I need a chest. A good one, hardy, about... So wide, and so long. And so deep. And the inside must be plain solid wood." It took a few chimes of discussing what exactly he needed, but after awhile she came out with a chest that looked... Perfect. It was of a high quality, of the right dimensions to hold what he needed, a single scroll, while still giving it a bit of extra room. He could always stuff some cloth in later for when it traveled. He opened and closed it a few times, to test the hinges, which were well made and well oiled. Yes, it would do just fine. He noticed it had a stylized engraving of a flower on the front, just under the crack of the lid on the front. Clyde nodded, and said he would take it, and another simpler small chest. For the two chests, it would cost a total of 2 gm, and 5 sm. Clyde paid her a even 3 gm, giving her a half a gm tip for being so helpful, and headed out.

[Clyde Sullins]

Next up, was The Defiled Blade, were Clyde directed the Ravasolaman. It was just a short hop down to it. It only took a short time to get there, and Clyde hurried in once the man stopped, thanking him. This time though, he was in a much worse mood upon entering, carrying two big branches of Vian Wood. As a young apprentice raced over to speak to him, he shooed him away. "Thank you, but I will speak to one of the owners." He said it quite clearly, and loudly, with a clear tone of displeasure in his voice. Soon enough one of said owners came out, to speak to him. "Hello, Clyde Sullins. Perhaps you remember me? You supposedly sold me a Isurian Steel Dagger awhile back? Except it WAS NOT! Yes, it was special, I will give you that, and it was more than a ordinary blade, but it was not Isurian Steel as you sold me." Clyde did not give the man time to finish defending himself, as he was sure the man was equally puzzled as to how his ruse had been figured out, as he was trying to explain away the situation. He said something about it being an Izentored item, and that there had been a miscommunication about it being Isurian... "It is not important how I figured it out, as I am sure you are wondering, all that is important, is that I did, and I am none to happy. But, I have a way for you to make it up for me. I need these branches made into staffs, for something I am working on. And I want them imbued with whatever you did to that dagger, in place of actually making the dagger of Isurian Steel. Izentored as you called it." Clyde handed over the two branches, and began to go over specifics. Length, dimensions, and such. The first one he said he could make out to about 4'1" long. Clyde nodded, as that would do for the one he planned to sell. The second one for himself, he said he could make at right around 5 foot even. Clyde also agreed to that. Then it was time to debate over the price. "After what you did last time, I would expect a decent discount, to make up for it." The man said the process was not easy, to Izentor craft an item, and it would cost at least 80 gm to make each staff as such. Clyde shook his head, and said 30gm. Once more he said that it would be cutting the margins, but they could possibly make it at 60 gm, with no profit. Clyde eyed him, judged him, felt he was still holding back. And the entire thing of "at cost"? He highly doubted that. He would still be making a decent profit he would wager, at that cost. His final offer, was 50 gm per staff. Finally, the smith accepted, and took the two branches of wood, telling him when they would be ready for pickup. He nodded, and headed back out to the waiting Ravasola.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde headed back out to the Ravasolaman, and said he wanted to go back to the docks. He asked if he could drop him off at Black Tar's, and said that would be good enough. The smiling Ravasolaman smiled and nodded, and pushed off, heading back to were they started. "You must see some interesting things out here in the canals, things, people, I am sure it is an interesting life. It is Ravok after all. And it appears you enjoy your job. Do you have a family that lives here?" Smiling, the man said he did enjoy his job, and he did have a family. A wife, and a beautiful 4 year old son, who by the grace of Rhysol would grow to be strong and healthy. "I am sure he will. After all, what better place could he grow up? I have been to many a other place, Syliras, Zeltiva, Nyka, none compare to Ravok. None are as clean, or as beautiful, or as temperate. It is certainly a haven from the harshness of the world. I wish your boy good health." Once they were in front of Black Tar's, Clyde got out, giving the man a extra 2 gm tip for all his trouble. The man smiled, and happily pushed off, heading back to his port, singing a prayer song to Rhysol. Clyde grinned, and headed inside for his last stop, now carrying the two chests he had bought earlier.

[Clyde Sullins]

Black Tar's was as usual, dark, devoid of much light but some odd glow, and filled with odds and ends of a magical or mystical nature. He was mainly here to stock up on supplies for Glyphing. Parchment, ink, quills. But he might also browse a bit. He had a small supply of all of those things, but he wanted fresh parchment to use in his planned project, he did not want to risk complications by using sub par or old ingredients. He quickly did some math, running the numbers through his head. He planned to do it over 8 days... And he hoped to do at least one spell every day, perhaps 2 spells every other day. Which made... 8 days with 1, and possibly 4 days with another one... 12 total... Plus the main one for the middle were it would all be stored. So 13 total. But he wanted a reasonable margin, with some extra, in case of mess ups or errors. Or simply some paper getting ruined. So... He would get a total of 20 sheets of parchment, to use on the project. What else did he need? He pondered to himself for a moment... Ink. With all the Glyphing he would be doing, he would need at least 2 containers of it. Plus another one in color to use on the switches... And to finish off, half a dozen new quills. He put down all the money for the various items, and was about to head out, when a section of books caught his eye. He leafed through a few, one on Glyphing, one on poison... One on... Summoning? He picked it up, wondering for a moment. He opened up to see a few pages, and found a large depiction of a circle taking up a full page. Another was full of long numbers. Perhaps he should try his hand at summoning? Who knew, he might be good at it. And it would never hurt to have a new skill, one he could possibly use to summon aid as he had heard summoners could do. Aid at any time, any place, without needing to directly cause said aid such as with Reimancy, and other personal magic he did. It seemed like an interesting idea. Deciding to purchase it, after all who could pass up a tome on magic, he paid for all his items, and headed out the door to head home, with most of his things inside of the two chests. Purchases : -Elegant Ravasola ride(Round trip)- 10gm(2gm tip) -Chests(1X Av, 1X High Qual)- 3gm(5 sm tip) -Iz crafted Vian Wood Staffs X2- 100gm(50 gm/staff) -Parchment X20- 4gm -Ink(Black) X2- 4gm -Ink(Red/Colored) X1- 4gm -Quills X6- 3sm -Book, Average(Summoning)- 50 gm total- 175 gm, 3 sm

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde headed inside to his lab to unpack his new purchases, locking the door behind him. He would send I'tram or somebody to go pick up the staffs once they were ready. In the meantime, he sorted out the things that would stay in his lab. The parchment, ink, quills, and the nicer chest, would all stay in here and off to the side for when he finally made his upcoming Glyphing Project. The other chest he was unsure what he would use for, but he did not doubt he would find some usage for it. Only time would tell. The staffs of course would be used in Magecrafting, to make magic staffs. He planned to make and sell one later this same season, as soon as the staffs were ready. That just left the book. He looked at the cover, to see written across it was its name, "Summoners Standard" in bold text. He would likely spend the next few bells going through it, trying to gain the basics of the info stored inside. He doubted though he would get it all figured out in one sitting. He opened up to the front, to see a table of contents. It had no page numbers, but it listed the topics discussed in each section of the book. -Basics of Summoning -Constraints and Leashes -Circles and their importance -Astral coordinates -Worlds described -The process of activating a summoning Clyde thumbed to the first sections, which had a bold title at the top of the page, which said basics of summoning. "Welcome reader to the world of summoning. I, Horton, will be your guide, as much as my abilities in summoning will allow. Some of this was gained via direct experience, other bits from talking to colleagues. But I hope you will find this fascinating, and assist you in your burgeoning dreams to be a Summoner." Clyde frowned down at the book, which was off to a rocky start... Clearly the book was of value, or the shop would not have been selling it. But... Its conversational tone was off putting, and made Clyde wonder how experienced this Horton actually was. But then, he reasoned, you did get what you paid for, and this was a book on magic. He shrugged, and read on. "Now, the basics of summoning are this, you open a portal to another world, from which you can allow passage for different creatures, beings, materials, what have you. The first time you open one, you will likely be filled with wonder and awe, as you see into another world like looking down into a window. Only this window does not lead outside, but to another place entirely. These portals to other worlds are called 'Gateways', and you would do well to remember the term."

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde read ever onward, doing his best to remember as much as he could about the various things the book told. It was clearly written for an expected reader who knew nothing about summoning... Or perhaps it was simply from the viewpoint of a writer who knew next to nothing of it. Clyde was hard pressed to decide which he believed was right. He turned the page to come to the next section, that of constraints and leashes. "Now, if you are new to summoning, you have likely heard tales of pulling out amazing creatures to do your bidding, to act as your servants on bended knee, monsters and creatures coming to your aid and defending you. This could almost not be further from the truth." "In reality, the Gateway is much more akin to a door. Things can choose to walk through it if they want to, and you can perhaps even make the door "look nicer" to make them more likely to go through, but you cannot force things to pass through the gateway. It also will not necessarily put you in control of the thing that passes through. No more than if a random person walked in the front door of your home, would it give you control over them." Clyde nodded. It seemed if nothing else, the writer was a bit candid, and was showing him the common misconceptions about Summoning. It would certainly save him from learning them through trial and error, and the risk that would entail, but he had so far not really learned much of the actual process. "However, you are not completely defenseless, or unable to affect the summoned being. The actual summoning process itself, which will be entailed later, connects you specifically to the Gateway and to whatever passes through it. Which gives you a measure of control over things leaving said Gateway circle. For those auristics users, you will be able to visibly see the djed of the open gateway ensconcing the being that has crossed through. When a creature first passes through, this djed will limit the creature, and leash in its powers and abilities until you unleash them, or allow it to leave the circle." "This leash will directly link the creature to the Gateway through which it has passed, so long as it is still open. A summoner can control this leash of a portal he has opened, purely by willpower and direct mental attention. So if the thing that passes through attempts to escape, you can still likely drag it back into the circle and back to its home world back inside of the Gateway." "Bear in mind, my teacher has told me it is possible for a creature to break this leash if you are not careful. If the circle is to weak, or you try to summon something to strong, it could snap the leash like a dry twig. And from my own experience I know that loosening this leash is a one way trip. You can loosen it to empower and strengthen the beast, in order to give it full use of its abilities and so it can better serve you...But in doing so you weaken the leash and its hold on it. Perhaps it will choose to not listen and break its word once you weaken the leash. Perhaps even to the point of it being able to break it. Also, pulling to hard on a leash can make it break under the strain. So perhaps in that regard, it is more akin to a collar or a muzzle."

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde passed on to the next section, that on circles. The information in the previous section was a bit disconcerting... It seemed it was totally up to you to convince the being to listen and obey you, just as if you were negotiating with another human or some mercenary with limited if questionable loyalty. The leash bit was especially disconcerting. It meant that if he wanted a useful servant, he would need to let it loose... But if he did that, he risked losing the servant, and it getting free. Oddly enough, this entire thing of summoning, was reminding him of voiding. Which was odd, as it was a personal magic... But its ways, opening portals to other places, looking into it... It just oddly reminded him of voiding. Next though, he was on to the section labeled circles and their importance. "Now, we have spoken of Gateways, and leashes, and the basics of how they work. But in reality, the main focus of work on Summoning, is that of crafting Summoning circles. A summoner must carefully craft a circle, in order to then later turn it into a functioning Gateway. This is something you want to have as stable, and which you want to be very careful with. However, said summoning circles come in more varieties than their are colors in the world we live in." "Circles can be big, small, complex, or simple. They can be combined with other magics, or done by themselves. Bear in mind though, that the bigger and more intricately done circles are, the better they are. Also, different circles will be better at different things... Or so my master told me." Clyde paused at that word... Master... What the petch? It sounded as if he was saying he did not actually know of any of these circles, any more than as a thing he had been told by his mentor. And he still had a master? Just how progressed in his training was this person? "Some common qualities that are desirable in specific circles, and that can be enhanced by making a circle designed specifically with it in mind are: Being able to allow through more creatures, The Gateway staying open longer, Better Control over a summoned creature, making circles more likely to be crossed by bringing them closer to possible creatures, being more attractive to creatures and looking more appealing to them, limiting the creatures that can or cannot pass through." Clyde looked at the list, and shook his head. It did indeed appear that there were many types of circles... And if one could make a specific circle for each of these desired effects, who knew what might come about. Multitudes of possible outcomes. "Now, it is possible for a summoner to create different circles, and to invent new ones, but this is both a difficult task, and a dangerous one. Faulty circles might not function right, allow creatures to pass through unhindered and without a leash, or many other undesirable outcomes. However, here is one such circle that I know by heart, and which is the one I currently use the most." Clyde turned the page, to find the picture of a drawn out circle, which was what he had chanced upon earlier when flipping through the book.

[Clyde Sullins]

At the top of the diagram, the circle was labeled as a "Minimal Circle." When he looked at it, it did seem pretty basic, just a few circles, a few lines, and a few tiny circles. He was not quite sure what it all meant, but he guessed he would learn it later. He took out a piece of his old parchment, and began to draw a copy of the "Minimal Circle" to be used in summoning. First, was a circle. Easy enough, he made it take up a good bit of the piece of parchment. He looked at the diagram, back to his parchment, back and force a few times, making sure to get the dimensions right, to get the second inner line the right distance from the outer line. He took his time with ink and quill, carefully drawing out the second line. Next, was a cross, or a big X, depending upon how you looked at it. He noticed it went from one side of the circle, to the other, in a similar fashion coming again from the opposite end. Very neat, symmetrical, orderly. He also noted that the cross or X did not come all the way to the outer circle, instead stopping when it hit the inner circle. He carefully drew the two simple lines, careful not to go over. Next was the circles, which he counted over... 1, 2, 3, 4... All the way up to 16 circles. That was how many. He thought about how to best do it. The inner circle cut through the 16 circles... He found the easiest way to draw it was to make a circle first at each of the places were the 4 ends of the lines met, and then draw 3 more circles in between each of these four. Which amounted to a total of 16. It seemed the simplest and most logical way to go about it. One final note, was the small circle in the middle, were the four lines intersected in order to form an X. He drew this in, and labeled the diagram he had drawn and copied as a "Minimal Circle" just like the book said. Clyde turned the page, to see what was said next. It appeared now, he explained what all of the parts of the circle did. "As I understand it, each of the elements of this circle serve a particular purpose. You of course could add more lines, more things, and make a better one, for someone new to Summoning, this circle is ideal. It is both simple to craft, and to use. Now, the outermost circle defines the outside boundary of the Gateway. The crossing opens inside of this. So make sure the circle here is large enough for whatever you want to pass through, to do so. Think of the outer circle as the edge of the window, through which you will see through. Or a door, since I suppose things are more likely to walk through that...." "The inner circles purpose is in connecting the 16 spaces, or circles, which hang all around this inner circle like a string of pearls. Inside of these circles are the numbers for the astral coordinates, which will be explained later. These are added in counter-clockwise, and without them the Gateway would not function at all. There is also a small circle at the very core of the Gateway circle, along with lines that connect the coordinates, the ones that loop all the way around, to said circle in the middle. The main focus on this circle, is this single small circle in the middle of the Gateway." Clyde thought this over. If as he said, these were the base attributes needed for a summoning, then surely there were many more. Or at the least, these base attributes could be altered or enhanced, to do those specialist tasks that he had earlier mentioned. Though he also recalled that he had said the more complex the circle, the more powerful it was... Clyde turned to the next page, and saw the next section. There were no more examples, no more further input on more types. While he had his suspicions so far, this especially brought it home that the writer was not that skilled, especially if he only knew the one circle...

[Clyde Sullins]

The next section was the shortest so far, the one on astral coordinates. He was uncertain why it was even its own section, might as well combine it with another... "One of the most important things for a Summoner, is Astral Coordinates. They are exactly what they sound like, the coordinates in space of a world, which can be reached via summoning. When you put in the coordinates for a certain world, it allows the Gateway to then open at that place. Think of Astral coordinates like directions on how to get to a place. If you follow the directions, you will end up at the right place. But if you don't follow them exactly, or mess up in doing so, you will either end up no were, or at the wrong place. This is why you must be careful when entering them into the Gateway, to get them right." Clyde turned the page, and was now onto the next bit. A description of various worlds. As he glanced at the first one, he saw that right under its name, was a string of numbers, marked as its Astral Coordinate. He kept turning, to see how many worlds were given. Five. And for some reason, they all had den at the end of there name. he was not sure what that was about, but surely there was some deeper meaning in the naming, which he was not aware of. Or else, why would so many worlds have such similar names? He went back to the first one, and began examining its info. It was called Fryden, and its coordinates were 6701984710485453. Clyde repeated this over in his head several times, but did not doubt he would need to look back at the book again to remember it. That was a lot of numbers... "Fryden is not a very pleasant place, and the inhabitants would like nothing better than to escape. But my teacher says something about them, or what they eat, means they would die quickly in our world. So they are easy to deal with in the fact you don't have to worry about them escaping. He also said it was the world from which practitioners of another magic took upon partners of a sort, and bonded to this places beings... But I am not really sure how that works. Half of the planet it blazing hot, and the other side is cold as ice. Maybe a bit colder." It went on to list some of its common inhabitants, but... Clyde would examine that more in depth later. For now, he had other things to worry about. He was also considering which world to try his first summoning from. Fryden did not sound like it. Next up was Kseyden, with the coordinates 3893849280160001. "Unlike Freyden, Kseyden is actually somewhat habitable, and has life in terms that we would understand. My teacher once said that if I did not do better, (I assure you this was awhile back) that he would toss me through a portal here. From the way he had said it, I immediately realized this world would be fatal, even if it has air and stuff. When I did look through a Gateway at it, I found out the entire place is covered in some weird moss stuff. I later found out this covers more or less the entire place. He also told me to never touch the stuff, or even breath near it, or I would be poisoned... But he did not mention what this poison would do exactly. Apparently it is called Vilemoss." Clyde shook his head, wondering who exactly was this guy trying to fool... Saying he assured him it had been a long time ago when he had last messed up... Petch, it was probably a season ago, if that long. His logic also seemed pretty basic. In Clyde's mind, it was blatantly obvious that this place was lethal, even from his book writers teachers meager words. Another world off the list, he was not summoning from here. Not if he could not breath or touch anything.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde was quickly going from one world to another, looking through the details. He was already on the third one. This one was called Shoyden, and was at 0012926672185630. "Shoyden is another livable world, you might even be able to survive on it for a decent bit of time... Or at least more than 5 chimes. But I would not recommend it. This place used to be settled at least to a point by humans, but not for a long time. Now mainly glassbeaks live there. Apparently they are a very vicious and dangerous creature, that can rend a person nearly in half. Not something I plan to summon anytime soon. Apparently it is also to be noted that in their native land, they are only found in groups. Apparently that is how they like to hunt." Clyde was beginning to wonder if he would find anything he could actually summon. Most of these worlds appeared either to dangerous, or useless to him. For now, he was just hoping something better was to come... The next page was that for Swalden, at 8492841047291777. "Swalden is one of my favorite worlds, and a bit odd. Unlike the others, you don't actually open a Gateway on the land, as it has none. Instead, you open it far above the land, inside of a giant ring of gemstones. But don't be fooled, they are not just ordinary mundane gemstones. These "memosites" hold memories, and can communicate with a summoner in their mind. They also will give a specific memory to a summoner, in exchange for the summoner gifting one in return. What wonders must be stored inside of them! Just make sure to send it back when you are done, my teacher says they will get mad if you don't, and not give you any more memories." This seemed more up Clyde's alley, and if the last world was not any better, it would be the one he went for. He excitedly turned to the last page, expecting the author to have saved the best for last. And after how interesting Swalden sounded, the last one must be pretty great! It was called Zaiden, and had the coordinates 1069002583582104. Clyde quickly read on. "Zaiden is another very dangerous world. While it is more or less another livable planet, the inhabitants are none to friendly. They are barbaric, and warlike, called the "Diverse" They are more or less human like, but don't let that fool you. You don't want to hang around them, and you certainly don't want to summon one, since they are arguably sentient." Clyde was a bit off put, expecting something great for the last one, yet instead finding something... Unpleasant. He certainly would not be calling upon those coordinates anytime soon. Which meant it would be Swalden he would use for his first summon.