[Gug Andjak]A True Staff part I: Preperations

by **Clyde Sullins** on February 21st, 2014, 4:57 pm

52 Winter 513

It had been a long wait to begin his work, at least from Clyde's perspective. It had been a short amount of time since he had gotten the needed Magecrafting materials, only a few days. But then before that was the years spent gathering items, fighting monsters, and making his way in his Magics that culminated in this event.

With that Clyde set out in his mind what he had obtained, and what would go into this creation.

A Vian Wood staff from Mura, wood imbued with properties that made it ideal for such a usage.

He had it carved and Izentor crafted in Ravok, by a half blooded isur.

He had fought off a mouth-less monster with a terrifying aura, in single combat, and won, taking as his prize strands of its odd little string sized tentacles that where razor sharp.

He had talked a ghost more recently into giving him a piece of its soulmist, which he planned to add to his creation...

And he had convinced a wizard of Sahova, Annalisa Marin, to put in the order for the low level reagents needed en masse for this project...

With all that done he had gone about the labs, looking for the right one. He found the needed tools for Magecrafting, a pedestal, the hammers and other instruments, even a few he had no plans of using since he was already a Glypher and a Aurist.

Along with the Magecrafting ingredients had come 2 pots of inscribing paint. Clyde planned to use that first, to stabilize and balance the area with his Glyphs, and to keep out any possible stray djed that might affect his work.

He already had a basic setup in mind, a outer ring of a barrier, inside of that a ring which had a swirling barrier type effect, combined with a series of focus, which would act as a winding passage to obstruct and delay djed while it was slowly absorbed. Inside of that a second barrier ring, to cap off the swirling Glyphs.

Inside of that would be another swirling type of barrier/focus mix ring, however with the difference being that this one was meant to let djed move outward from the pedestal, and be absorbed here, so that any excess djed from his actual reactions could be pulled outward and into the focus in the second inner focus/barrier ring.

It was quite a complex setup, and would take some time, even with his speed as a master Glyhper.

by **Clyde Sullins** on February 21st, 2014, 5:42 pm

Done planning out his work in his head, Clyde picked up the pot of inscribing paint and its brush, and headed over to his chosen pedestal.

He would work his way outward, forming it layer by layer, starting with the winding ring of Glyphs that would lay closest to the pedestal, to act as outward filter.

First he needed the focus as the base of it, and he drew out with his mind several hand spans away from the base of the pedestal, to a area away from the raised stone. Here he drew his first physical focus. It was a circle with a waving line dancing around its edge, and occasionally grazing it as it dived closer only to curved back up and away.

He added to it with four quick motions a series of lines poking out of it, so that if they where to continue onward they would form a x over the focus. He eyeballed the spacing, and then went to the opposite side of the pedestal and added a second identical focus the same distance away from the raised edge of the pedestal but on the other side. Then curving around the edge of the pedestal he painted on two more focus, each equally spaced between the other two. Clyde pictured the four focus as the points of a compass, each one equally far away from the pedestal. If he were to draw a curving line that bisected them all, he would have more or less drawn a circle.

But he was not done, he needed more focus, and so he added four more, as the in between points of the compass, so the focus totaled eight identical depictions.

Moving a half hand outward from the south point of the compass, he drew a smaller version of the focus. He then headed up to the upper left and upper right corners of the Glyphs, and drew two more. If one connected all three of these focus, one would have a triangle. He added in three more focus like this, but mirroring the first set by starting below the north point of the compass, so that the two triangles if drawn would overlay each other.

Of course at the moment there was no lines, no connections, only 14 oddly placed focus. Or at least they seemed as such. Seemed random. But in Clyde's mind he could see the symmetries.

With that he finally began to paint on the swirling barrier Glyphs, which would snake all throughout the focus. It would mean any djed going through it would have a long circuitous route to take, and would pass by at least one or two of the focus during its journey.

The inner side was open and inviting to djed, pulling it to it, with a calming slow curve. But as the lines moved outward towards the smaller focus they began to curve more radically, to curve in upon themselves and split off only to have one die off and one flee elsewhere.

The outer set of this was rejecting of djed, pushing it, willing it to move further outward from the Glyphs.

With that done, Clyde had more or less dealt with any issues to be caused from outward leeking djed. Now to deal with inward leaking djed.

by **Clyde Sullins** on February 21st, 2014, 5:56 pm

Outside of the first ring of barrier/pathways/focus, Clyde began his first actual solid barrier. It would keep any djed from crossing it, rebounding any radiant djed back into the inner focus, or keeping any external djed from coming in to overburden said inner focus.

This one he made out of words, triple layered, turned on their side so that if someone standing in the focus where to look outward and spin they would always be able to read the words, would always have them facing with their bottoms towards the pedestal.

The tricky part here was to not repeat, he did not want any like words touching either next to each other, or with a similar word above or below.

Most of the words where common, ones like "limit, block, bind", but a few words of the ancient tongue could be seen interspersed in it, such as Randjaq or Roza, or even Daeq. The last one was less about the Glyphing itself, and more about what was being done inside, the Magecrafting, the redefining of an object at its innate level, at its very soul, that was truly what Magecrafting was.

Going outward from that, Clyde added another layer of swirling focus/pathways, not as complex as the first one, but bigger by being more spread out. Unlike the first one that had 14 focus, this one had only 8, spaced similarly to the first 8 on the initial pattern.

But the swirling nature of the pathways was once more unique and random, curving in upon itself, dying out as pathways split, or splitting on its own.

Finally he added the capstone layer of Glyphing, another solid barrier, this one double layered and strong, the first line of defense against any djed coming from the outside. He made the inside a curving line going all the way around the other Glyphs. Then he added a second line overlaying this, however mirroring the first so that they met at the middle point, but also had a gap where one was furthest away by going high when the other went low, and vice versa.

It was a odd little Glyph style he liked, but had not used in quite some time. Its doubled nature tended to add to its strength, and its circular waving nature tended to add to its resistance and ability to let djed flow around it. He finished this off by adding a dot in the center of each of these eye shaped openings where the two lines where furthest away.

And with that, his preparatory Glyph work was done.

by **Clyde Sullins** on February 21st, 2014, 7:30 pm

Going into his things, Clyde took out the item for Magecrafting, the Izentor crafted vian wood staff. Done with the prep work, Clyde could begin the actual work, and so placed the staff on the pedestal where it would remain till the process was over with, after waiting a few chimes for the paint to dry.

That of course was one of the rules of Magecrafting, you did not remove the item until all of the work was done. If you did it might cause instabilities or other issues in the item.

Grabbing up one of the charged hammers in each hand, Clyde paced about the Glyphing and the pedestal, before crossing over the outer threshold of runes. Coming right up to the edge of the pedestal within reach of the staff, Clyde looked it over.

It was a 5 foot long length of wood, blue due to being of Vian Wood, and well carved so as to be smooth to the touch. All of these things Clyde could see with his mundane eyes. For now the process was simple enough, but later on he would need to constantly keep the aura of the staff under observation as he did his work.

Holding the hammer in his right hand above his head, Clyde gauged the length of the staff, its main points, and chose the spot to insert the djed. As if he was going to slam the hammer down on the staff with all his strength, Clyde brought the hammer downward heavily, only to pull back and end up merely tapping the surface of the wood with the hammer.

After all the strength of the blow was not important, more so was the importance of the conviction behind the blow, the concentration on the hardy nature Clyde wanted imbued into the staff. His first step after all was a structural enhancement, one to increase its durability.

After the light blow, Clyde paused for a moment, and then tapped two more times on the staff, one near the head of the staff, one just off the center of its length.

He paused for a moment to listen to the peal of sound that came off the staff each time he struck. Not a mundane sound, the sound was only in his head. It was the sound of djed being forced into the staff, and the reverberation of said insertion bouncing against his aura's surface, grazing against his "skin".

Or at least, that was what he assumed it was. He did not know of any other Magecrafters that could hear this, not that he knew many. But then he also did not know of any other Magecrafters who also had skills as a aurist, so perhaps it was due to this other skill of his. Or perhaps it was simply a oddity of Clyde, of how he interpreted auras and the process of Magecrafting.

He waited a chime for the sounds to fade, listening to their notes meld into a single sound, not quite in concord, but weaving together.

Before the notes could fade, he made two strikes with his left hammer, inserting more djed at an angle to the prior strikes, hitting the point where he "felt" the sound was missing strength and not melding correctly.

New notes echoed forth into his mind, and as the earlier strikes sounds faded he could see how they would settle into a pleasant harmony.

by **Clyde Sullins** on February 21st, 2014, 7:53 pm

Done with that pair of hammers, Clyde headed back to a table which he was using to hold the hammers, and set the two he had just used aside. He picked up a new one, one that was a bit bigger than the others and still charged, and then went back to his things.

Reaching into his pack, Clyde pulled out a vial, a vial full of a glowy off white substance. Soulmist, harvested only a few days ago. Holding the hammer under the crook of his arm, he pulled off the stopper and set it aside. Taking back the hammer he headed back to the pedestal over the Glyphs with hammer and vial in hand.

Slowly he tilted the vial, letting it collect near the rim. With a slight tilting of his hand he broke the plane, and a small globule of soulmist began to teeter on the edge. After a moment it teetered and fell out, landing on the staff with a imagine "plop" sound.

Using his fingers he kneaded the soulmist, spreading it out and letting it soak somewhat into the staff. It left the blue wood with a odd sheen, as the substance did not totally absorb into it.

Added a few more dollops of soulmist here and there, Clyde repeated the process of kneading it into the wood. Taking out one more dollop Clyde smeared it across the front of the hammer, and then struck the staff in the spots where the soulmist was smeared, three quick strikes along the length of the wood, and then a tilting of the hand and a fourth strike to finish it.

This time the sound brushing across his skin was similar, but not quite the same. It seemed somewhat deeper, as if it was dulled or heavier. It was a odd experience, since Clyde had never before noticed any deviation in the sounds created by Magecrafting.

But then he had never listened when adding a optional extra reagent for a added effect...

Clyde waited a chime, controlling his breathing and examining the staff, noticing that all of the soulmist and the sheen to the staff had disappeared, vanishing into the inner workings of it..

After that he began to repeat his process of adding the soulmist and kneading it in, this time turning over the staff and adding it to the side previously touching the pedestal and unable to be reached.

After a few chimes of the same thing he prepared the hammer, and quickly made a series of light blows centered on the major areas where he had smeared the soulmist.

Looking back at the vial, Clyde saw that it was empty. Hopefully that would be enough to add the effect he wanted... But then, he was unsure if the quantity of the thing mattered. When he had made the Anti-Yukman daggers seasons ago he had used much less blood than he had just used soulmist. But then he supposed it was better safe than sorry.

by **Clyde Sullins** on February 21st, 2014, 8:07 pm

Heading back to the table and his things, Clyde re stoppered the vial and put it away, and set down the used hammer.

Picking up a fourth new hammer, Clyde headed back to the staff, pausing a moment before doing anything. Now that he had done a few things, it was probably a good idea to examine the items aura.

Pausing for a moment Clyde went within himself, reaching for his djed and shaping it, till he had a good grip. Then with a mental push, he thrust the djed into his eyes, opening his aura vision.

He of course was standing well within the outer rings of Glyphing, standing on the one closest to the pedestal. With his well crafted barriers, he doubted he would be able to sense the aura of the staff with them blocking him. As it was Clyde's aura vision was rather limited, only being able to stretch to the things inside of the barriers, such as the pedestal and the staff on it.

This did however make it easier to concentrate, by giving Clyde less distractions and less auras to weed out and ignore. The only decent aura to inspect was the one he wanted, the staff's.

Focusing on it, he saw a stream of djed, a river flowing. It was a shallow river with blue waters, the same color as the carved staff. But deep within it Clyde could see a few other smaller streams of color. One was a off whitish color, the other was a bright silver color that shone vibrantly. From his own experience with Magecrafting, Clyde knew that this was his unique "touch" on a aura that he left when he enchanted a item.

The bright silver stream of djed was not stable, it was hot and spilling over its banks, bits of its colors splishing and splashing into the greater blue stream. This showed the effects of his work slowly seeping into the staff. Of course, the stream of blue was no where near saturated, and could still hold quite a bit more silver before it was an issue.

The blue stream however was cold, set in its ways, and stable. He would need to expand that stream if he wanted the others to be able to fit inside of it.

Taking up his hammer, Clyde make three quick strikes, aiming deep into the blue stream as he saw it within the staff. This resulted in three varying blows approaching the staff from different sides and angles.

For a moment the blue stream quivered as a ripple of sound rippled through it, and then it settled down once more.

"Not nearly there, not nearly there... But eventually..."

by **Clyde Sullins** on February 21st, 2014, 8:33 pm

Letting out a sigh, Clyde continued to gaze at the staff. Its light "shone" in his minds eye, and he watched the dance of the streams of colors. As he continued to work the banks of the "blue stream" would slowly expand, at least till he saturated the waters with his "silver stream." Then... Then he was unsure... He supposed at that time he would need to add the catalyst, to keep the reaction stable. He was unsure exactly how that would appear.

Heading back to the table, Clyde put away his fourth hammer, and picked up his fifth and final one for today. He had been at his work for bells upon bells, and he needed to rest before continuing onward.

Taking in a deep breath, Clyde paused with the hammer over the staff, inhaling its fumes, its effervescence, examining its being... He could hear a light sound in the background, a small tinkling which he could not place. It seemed at odd with the background hum of the Magecrafting and the quiet note of the staff itself.

At odd with, but not in discord with. Whatever the sound was, not that it was a real sound, but whatever it was it was not in direct conflict with the rest of the process and its sounds.

With a sudden energy Clyde struck the staff four times with blows equally spaced apart, staggering backward from the staff as the wave of sounds struck him. The sudden onslaught of the notes coalescing and melding slowly cooled into a symphony, a sound which he could feel vibrating against his skin.

As he gazed back at the rivers of color he saw that even more of the silver waters had spilled into the blue, and a small streak of silver was slowly being watered down and spread throughout the blue waters. He could also see the path of the off whitish river, and saw that its banks were nearing a fork, a fork where it would meet with the larger blue river.

As the two colors met they continued to move side by side, until Clyde began to notice a slow combination of the two, as their waters and colors melded into one. As he pulled back from his aura vision there was still several smaller spurts of the white waters not integrated with the greater flow of blue, but most of it had melded.

Looking at his work, Clyde rubbed his eyes, and watched as the glowing colors slowly faded from his sight, as his observation of the staff's aura cut off.

It had certainly been an interesting first day of Magecrafting. And he had another 14 before him.

by **Thomas Cosa** on March 30th, 2014, 1:50 am

Clyde Sullins

Organization	+1
Auristics	+2
Glyphing	+2
Magecrafting	+3

Soulmist: Optional Regeant
Hearing the Magecrafting Process
Auristics: Monitoring the Djed Stream

Grade Notes :

Inquiries can be directed to one Thomas Cosa via PM and will be sorted out in short order.

Solo [Gug Andjak]A True Staff part I: Preperations