Solo [Lab 13-J] Investigating Arcane Fish Traps

[Clyde Sullins]

50 Spring 514 Before he was interrupted suddenly Clyde had been minding his own business in the lab, spending a bit of time thoroughly cleaning the mage hammers. Considering all of the various things they interacted with: potent materials filled with djed, living things, once living things, and blood, they could use a good scrub once in awhile. At the moment Clyde had a small bowl half filled with water, and a rag in the other. Dipping the rag in to wet it, Clyde put in some strength and continued to scrub the end of a particularly difficult hammer. He was unsure what it had been used for, but it had involved blood, blood that had dried and turned a blackish color and did not want to come off. Just as the bit of dried blood began to give way, he heard a door opening and closing loudly behind him. With one final push the dried out piece of blood gave way, perhaps partially re-hydrated by the wet rag, and the piece fell off. Setting aside the hammer and rag, Clyde turned to see who was entering. He was not unsurprised to see his current master Thelma Jenkins. Lowering his sight line to look her in the eyes, Clyde began to greet her. “Hello Mast...” However he was interrupted by her barging over and dropping something onto the lab table he had been using as a cleaning bench. "Sullins, figure out how this works, and write me up a report on it." Clyde attempted to say something else to her, but with that she was gone, turning on the spot and no longer paying attention to the mass of living flesh and bones that was Clyde, apparently darting off on some other experiment she had planned. At times her hurried nature was a bit annoying, but it also meant she was not one to micromanage her underlings. This meant Clyde was more or less free to work as he saw fit, so long as he produced results and completed all the things she needed of him. Once more alone, Clyde let out a sigh and turned to the object she had dropped unceremoniously on the lab table. It took Clyde a moment to figure out what it was. At first glance he saw it was metallic, or had metal components. Beyond that it seemed a odd mix of flopping moving bits that shifted about if you touched it. After a few more moments of staring at it Clyde's perspective shifted, and he realized it was a net of sorts. Sort of... Instead of being made out of rope as most netting Clyde had seen was, it was made out of steel. Or more to the point, steel wires braided similar to how rope was braided. The series of braided steel wires made up the net, crossing and crisscrossing, till it was close enough to not allow fish or whatever it was meant to catch to swim through. Really though nets for fishing were the only net Clyde knew of, so it made sense his mind would go straight to a fishing net. However the oddity of a steel fishing net seemed odd. After a few moments of reasoning however, Clyde had a inkling of why. “Ah, your magic-ed, that's why I'm to inspect you... And your made of steel wire, instead of rope, since that will make you last longer... If your Magecrafted... Though why the petch for... But if you are... They'd want the most durable base item to begin with. But what are you?” Having finished talking to the inanimate object, Clyde delved into his internal djed, and began to build it up and thrust it into his eyes. He was unsure what had been done to the net, or what its purpose was, but perhaps a good auristical inspection would figure that out.

[Clyde Sullins]

Earlier in the season Jenkins had similarly tasked Clyde with a project. In that instance she had asked him to piece together how the item worked, and to replicate it. However this time she simply wanted him to figure out how it worked. This made Clyde think that the prior item had been more of a test, particularly since she never looked at his notes, instead just checking over the finished item. Clyde believed she likely knew how the other item worked, but wanted to see if Clyde could figure it out and copy it. This time though she was uncertain how the item worked, or so he believed, and she was legitimately asking him to figure out its enchantment. This meant there was more pressure to perform and to come to the correct conclusion, but it also meant success would mean more than the formula for a already well known Magecrafted item. As he waited for his Auristical vision to bloom, Clyde randomly generated a short series of rhyming verse. In part this was meant to work as a incantation to focus his Auristics. In part it was a bit of a mood setter, preparing Clyde for the magic and the process soon to come. “Oh bit of steel wire, what do you do? When I gaze at your form I don't know what or who... I know you are more than I see now mundanely. But then what do you do, where you made for a purpose sanely? Here I come to prize and pull. Until of your knowledge, I am gorged and full.” Finishing the last line he had composed on the spot, Clyde felt his Aura vision finally bloom. Directing his gaze at the steel netting, he felt for its surface. As he did its color and form bloomed into sight. He got the tang of steel, the smooth feeling of its individual surface, the rough feel of the braided wire as a whole... And could see the size of the nets Aura, far larger than a mundane item's should have been. Sign number one confirmed, was that it had a too big Aura. He knew this meant an enchantment of some sort laid upon it, but could not ascertain just yet that it was Magecrafting. However having examined so many Magecrafted items as he had, he was beginning to see the telltale signs of Magecrafting, the traces and signs left upon a object that differentiated it from other magics. He had inspected the Auras of Maledicted items, of Animated golems, and found each to have a different signature than that of Magecrafting. Along with that, the expansion upon the Aura was also larger in Magecrafting, at least in his own experience. Combining all these factors together, he could logically reason that this was a work of Magecrafting. “You'll try to hide your secrets, cover them up and hide them away. But I shall prize them open like a clam with a pearl inside, and steal the nugget of richness that is your secrets.” Focusing now on the enchantment laid upon it, instead of the item itself, Clyde saw the colors of its Aura bloom before him. Not unexpectedly the core of its Aura was the greyish color of steel. However he could see other colors mixed in. He saw some other shade, other colors, however they were covered well. Jabbing his fingers into the vision of the Aura floating before him, he pulled it apart, separating the main color into its disparate parts.

[Clyde Sullins]

Mentally gripping the aura of the net, and miming said pulling with his own hand gestures, Clyde pulled apart the color into its base segments. With that his hand gestures slightly changed, going from a pulling motion to a mix between a pushing and thrumming motion. Almost as if their were invisible wires hanging before Clyde, and he was playing them like the strings of an instrument. The one thick greyish strand let off a metallic hum. Strumming it once more, Clyde could hear its nature, its stiff and strong steel nature. He could feel its smooth yet solid surface, felt the steel vibrate through his bones each time he thrummed or plucked away at its string. Pushing it aside, Clyde turned to the other remnants of the braid that was the net, finding a thick yellow cord, and a smaller reddish cord. Concentrating first on the reddish cord, Clyde could see that it was insubstantial. It was a thin wisp of red in the shape of a cord. This puzzled Clyde greatly. In some ways it seemed oddly familiar, but in others it was new. As Clyde glared more deeply upon the cord, and listened to the false thrumming sound as Clyde plucked at it, he began to believe it was not actually a part of the rest at all, at least not in such a solid nature as the others. Pushing the cords back into one braid, Clyde tried to pick out the red false cord, tried to see what it did or how it interacted. After gazing at it and making several more thrums, he finally noticed a vague pink haze at the edge of the sound. It was interwoven into the steel, interwoven into the object, but was not physically a part of it. It was almost as if the essence of the red cord was spread throughout the essence of the steel cord, but only the steel cord was a physical object. Pulling them back apart, Clyde pushed back towards the red wisp cord, tasting and hearing it. It had a odd flavor, a tang of blood and fishiness, of something else. It felt soft, liquid almost, or somewhere in between a gas and a liquid. Putting this into the framework of Magecrafting, which is what this item likely was, Clyde tried to ponder what this could be, what it could represent. The essence of this red object had been infused into the greater object... A reagent perhaps? Clyde flashed through his earlier works. A dagger that shot flame, a sword that swung to fast and was strong... A dagger that was Ant--yukmen. That was it, Clyde realized, the familiar tang and scent and wafting of the aura. Clyde had seen something similar before, back when he had crafted his Anti-Yumen dagger in Ravok. It was a optional reagent, blood or something, imbued into the object to make it a property of the object... Either making the net strong or deadly to the owner of the blood, or taking on some property of the blood or material of the red cord. He had not quite figured it out, but perhaps understanding the yellow cord would assist.

[Clyde Sullins]

This time Clyde went directly for seeing how the yellow cord interacted with the overall braid. Gazing at it, Clyde could not see the yellow cord. However as he thrummed the cord, he could see pulses of the yellow coming out intertwined with the silvery grey. After a few more thrums Clyde realized the yellow layer of the cord was inside of the silvery grey cord of steel. While the red cord had been infused throughout the braid, throughout the steel as an essence, the yellow cord was a sublayer, a layer deeper within and hidden in the greyish silver. And yet it was a part of it, even if hidden. Going back to the individual cords, Clyde focused on the yellow. Resting his fingers upon it, Clyde thrummed it once, and felt it echo down his spine with a tingle. The tingle of magic and djeds latent upon the air. This yellow cord was clearly the enchantment that had been laid upon the net, the effects that had been engendered. Focusing even more on this yellow cord, Clyde tried to prize into its inner layers, tried to pull it apart and see what it was. As he clutched at it Clyde continued to feel the echo of djed down his spine. The vibrations of the clashing djed's as his own aura pressed against that of the expanded aura of the net. With one mighty yank Clyde pulled, and he heard the sound of breaking, of a tinkling of glass but magnified as the yellow cord split into two smaller cords of identical color. Both of the yellow cords ran into the silvery grey that was the object, that was the steel. However one of them also interacted with and clung to the red haze of a cord. Or more to the point it was infused and sufficed with it, used it as a source and fed into it at the same time. The only thing Clyde could make sense of this odd recursive loop of feeding and taking was that the layer of the enchantment that was this second yellow cord enhanced or altered the red cord, which was the essence of something. Clyde pondered this for moment. He supposed it was possible for something to enhance a optional reagent. What was the blood or substance but a new substance, a new behavior. If someone were to enhance that behavior then it would be possible to make that behavior put into the item all the more potent. Clyde recalled back to his recent work with Anna, of making the mage light with the opalgloam. There they had enhanced the glowing behavior of the opalgloam infused into the stone as a optional reagent, and made it stronger. Was this what had been done here? Or was this a blood tie that made the net deadly to the owner of the blood, or more deadly, and whose deadliness had been enhanced by this behavioral step? Suddenly Clyde found his knowledge of Magecrafting oddly lacking... At the same time he considered several possible ideas for new avenues of research, which he might one day test.

[Clyde Sullins]

Looking at the two threads of yellow, Clyde concentrated on the one not attached to the red strand. This one was only attached to the steel of the netting. Thrumming the strand, Clyde got a vague sense of stiffness, of resilience, of a web of the former woven throughout the steel. Though the streams of djed within the artifact had cooled, there was still a sense of intent laid upon it. Of course this was more from the Magecrafter, not from the process itself, or so Clyde believed. Not that Clyde was ever truly sure of much of anything when it came to reading the Aura of a artifact. He could get vague ideas, sometimes details, and piece them together into a whole. But in the end much of what he learned was a educated guess. Falling back to logic, Clyde decided to try and think of what a net would be used for, and what someone would do to a net to make it better. “First, what does a net do? It caught things... Assuming this was a fishing net, or even if it wasn't... Then the enhancement would... Make it catch things better? What catches fish? You lure it in... Chum, worms, whatever...” Suddenly his own words struck a note within his mind, and he went back to it. “Chum! Fish bits and blood, mixed and mashed and made into a red puree... They pour it into water, and it pulls in and attracts fish... If the essence of some good chum was instilled into the net... And then that ability to attract fish was enhanced by a step of behavioral enhancement... It would pull in fish like crazy! So that's why it's wired together, the strand of yellow and the reddish essence... Becuase it's enhancing the behavior given by the instilled essence of whatever that chum or whatever is...” A small smile came over his face, for having figured out what the item might do. But then there was still the other step, the other strand of yellow tied to the net itself... “What else would you do to enhance the net... Its made of braided steel instead of rope, because they want it to last... I got a vague sense of sturdiness and firmness... Perhaps they added a structural step, to make the netting stronger and more durable... That's almost always a step used in Magecrafting... ” Running over things in his mind, Clyde felt confident he had figured out what the enchantment was that was laid upon the artifact. Now that he knew this, it colored his earlier ideas and information he had pulled from the aura with a new light. Taking out quill and ink and a piece of parchment, Clyde began to write down the information he had gathered through his Aura reading. “Right, so... Optional reagent of chum or something to attract fish... Step in behavioral enhancement to improve the behavior of attracting fish inherent in the optional reagent as the source of behavior. And a step of structural enhancement to make the netting more durable...” Nodding to himself, Clyde let out a sigh, and set down the quill. Looking about the room, he noticed the guttered candle that had been providing light, and the rumble of hunger in his belly, paired with the dryness of his throat. He was unsure how long he had been examining this netting, but it had surely been bells upon bells. It was time for a break, a drink, and something in his belly, and perhaps a nap, before he continued with anything. Still, Clyde was satisfied with his work, and set aside the piece of parchment were he knew Master Jenkins would see it. For now, his work was done.

[Ink]

Let me see what you have done with your ink. Clyde Skills Auristics 4 Composition 1 Writing 1 Lores Plucking At the Aura of a Magic Item Auristics: Deducing the Components of A Magecrafted Object Magecrafting: A Net Infused with Bait If there are any concerns or problems with my grading please feel free to toss me a PM. I am more than happy to explain my reasons or reevaluate them if you feel I've been unfair. Also please remember to edit your grade request as graded or delete it if possible. Thank you, Ink