While Fenn and Grak continued magic item testing, I stared at my character sheet and tried to determine how I was going to spend my points. What do you want to be when you grow up? Well, no, that was the wrong question. The real question was the proper way to minmax, given the information […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 35: Friendship is Magic
We had to wake Amaryllis back up for a look at the loot, because the heirlooms were keyed to her, which meant that she was the one that could activate them or, alternately, use investiture to give them over to us. “Rope first,” I said. “I want to see whether that’s Ropey.” Fenn picked up […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 34: Weik Handum
PHY 7 6 POW 18 Unarmed Combat 18 One-handed Weapons 15 Two-handed Weapons 15 Improvised Weapons 6 SPD 15 Thrown Weapons 15 Dual Wield 12 Pistols 12 Bows 6 END 12 Rifles 0 Shotguns 18 Parry 18 Athletics MEN 5 4 CUN 18 Dodge 12 Engineering 0 Alchemy 0 Smithing 4 KNO 0 Woodworking 0 […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 33: Tenth
“Nice to see you too,” said Fenn. “You’re welcome.” Grak dropped to one knee. “Princess Amaryllis, I am honored to make your acquaintance.” “We need to go,” I said. “No telling how long until he gets back.” I turned to Fenn. “I’m a fan of glove-out-the-window.” “My things are in his vault,” said Amaryllis. “It’s […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 32: Be Still My Heart
We went into Trifles Tower through the service entrance two days later, with only minor deterioration to my condition, after Grak spent ten tense minutes with his wand against the wards, subverting or changing them somehow. We’d watched the outside for long enough to get a sense of what people wore; the bottom two thirds […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 31: The Loyal Elf
Grakhuil Leadbraids was at the Impish Inn before us, and when we arrived he led us into a back room with a nod to the barkeep and a grimace at the caged imp that served as the tavern mascot. “I sold my profession for this room,” said Grak with a sniff as he sat down […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 30: Plot Relevant
Skill Unlocked: Art! Skill Increased: Art lvl 6! (Skill capped at triple the value of primary stat CHA.) Skill Increased: Skin Magic lvl 10! New Virtue: Shifting Skin! Skill Increased: Skin Magic lvl 12! (Skill capped at triple the value of primary stat KNO.) Icy Devil: Wreaths your hand in ice, imbuing it with the […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 29: Greychapel
There are many places that one might start the story of Uther Penndraig, but to understand the man he became, it is best to go through his life as he did, one year at a time. He was born Isiah of Colm, in a farming village so small that last names were not yet in […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 28: The Impish Inn
We sat at a small table in the back of the Impish Inn, each with our own glass of something called kefir, a thin, alcoholic yogurt that I occasionally took sips of to try acquiring the taste, a process that wasn’t moving along terribly well. That was okay though, because the Impish Inn was my […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 27: Fears
My left hand felt slightly numb, but otherwise no worse the wear for having its bones sucked dry of their latent magic. I flexed it every now and then, still suspecting that I was waiting for the other shoe to drop on that score. Bormann would probably know, but I didn’t quite know how to […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 26: Superman
I ate from the fairy jar, squeezing their tiny bodies to crush their marzipan internal organs, until I was fully healed, back at 36/36 hit points. My health meter had increased in size when I’d put points into PHY, but I didn’t fully understand the pattern I was seeing, nor did I fully grasp what […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 25: Rocket Man
It would be another three days before we were ready to go, which meant that Plan Glove-Rocket didn’t actually save us any time as compared to walking through the desert, but at least part of the delay was from all the time that Fenn wanted me to spend training. I didn’t like it one bit; […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 24: Like a Glove
It was the first time I really felt like Aerb had failed me. It hadn’t exactly been fun before, though parts of it certainly were, and it hadn’t been easy. And for all that, I wouldn’t even say that it was particularly gamelike, just maybe able to be mapped onto a game. This garbage? This […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 23: Siege
Warding magic was, apparently, a really complex thing, at least to hear Amaryllis tell it. I didn’t care so much about the low level aspects of warding, like how shapes were defined, just the high level stuff, like (hypothetically) how a fortress would be warded against intrusion and how intruders would get around those protections. […]
Worth the Candle, Ch 22: Rolling Need
She led us down several hallways as we slowly regained our breath, moving with purpose. I caught glimpses of other rooms, mostly bare but some with covered furniture in them. These were ideal conditions for keeping things in stasis, since there was rarely weather in the Datura and it was almost constantly warm and dry. […]