LibriumArcana.Games

Arucun waved her dark, slender hand, languidly, the ring upon it briefly pulsing with magic as it exerted energy. She whispered softly to it, naming a book, and from far below, that book slid from the library shelves, taking to the air and levitating up through the dozen floors of the library, over the golden balcony in her quarters overlooking it, and landing neatly in her expectant hand. There were thousands of rings such as this, but hers was substantially more useful than others. Which merely summoned and registered books; hers allowed even the hidden and sealed books to be summoned, and allowed them and their cases to be locked and opened, furthermore, she was unconsciously aware of whoever removed or used any book in the library. This was only fitting, as she was the Mistress of the Librium Arcana.

Laying it down on the sloped table before her, she briefly glanced up through the mildly darkened wall of force that served as a window of her study, situated as it was, prestigiously, toward the currently leading edge of the city, looking out over the hot sands miles below the levitating city.

Laying her hand upon the book, darkness settling about it, she focussed for a moment, the ring probing its contents and finding what she sought. She lifted her hand, and it snapped open at the desired page, a listing of a recent expedition.

Eventually, the shade rose, closing the book and dismissing it with a wave of her hand, causing it to hover past her, weaving around her – occasionally they’d actually hit someone as they flew past at head level, usually those who folded the corners down – as it passed out of the balcony of her living quarters. She looked down briefly, nodding in satisfaction that everything on the twelve levels below was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

The Librium Arcana inhabited a vast cylindrical space with a dome over it, the center of that dome being a vast surface of glass. There were some fifteen floors, with everything above the thirteenth being part of the roof-spaces under the dome, and the first twelve being balconies of books. From the thirteenth level, reserved for office space and living quarters, she could see the central space that linked all of these, vast supports bracing the roof and carrying narrow staircases and levitating disks of gold. These were not unlike delicate flying chariots, linking to gates in the various railings, including the one before her, though no disk was docked at it presently.

Far off, she heard the hour bell toll, and turned toward the windows looking outward, “Darken,â€

Agrammand sauntered through the streets of the Shade Enclave, heading towards the Librium Arcana at a leisurely pace. He was punctual and disciplined, in his own way, but he knew when he was expected and how long it would take him to get where he was going at his current rate, and the two times aligned appropriately. So why hurry?

The other minds riding along certainly didn't care to hurry. While their wants no longer controlled him as they had years ago when he had first learned of them, he still felt their presence in his mind. Paimon liked to saunter, liked to grin at the passing ladies and smile smugly at the jealous looks other men gave him. The Shade Enclave wasn't exactly the best place to do such things, but Agrammand could saunter smugly. Tenebrous on the other hand just didn't care, the detached entity apathetic to everything. The sum effect was that Agrammand had a certain air of arrogant displacement from the world around him, the sense that he was just a touch better than everyone else but only the fact that he was just that much better kept him from actually saying it.

And while he would be the first to admit that there were those more powerful and "better" than him, Agrammand knew that he was superior to the majority of the teeming masses within the enclave. He had been given the appelation of arcanist simply because first his teachers and then his superiors had no idea what else to call him. He was shifting, mercurial, capable of changing his skills and abilities from day to day. If he was caught unprepared he still tended to have useful abilities, if not the right ones for the task at hand. If he was prepared then he could bring some rather interesting and specific powers to bear. If that wasn't being better than others, he didn't know what was.

Also, the fact that he preferred to show Tenebrous' sign and thus appeared permanently cloaked in shadow was a rather bit of a bonus in the Shade Enclave. Oh, much of the time he didn't look much different, but in bright light there were those who thought them a shade. He never claimed to be one and disabused people of the idea if they brought it up, but he never went out of his way to let others think otherwise until they opened their mouths, a practice that seemed to have so far kept the actual shades from taking issue with him.

Strolling into the great library, Agrammand slipped up to one of the guards before he presented his summons, an arrogant little half smile on his face.

The horizon to the east began to lighten, the stars began to fade, and wolves howled in the distance - all were things Morjin noticed as his eyes opened at his usual time, before sunrise, here in the near-wilds of the North.

Getting up, he began his stretching to get his viscera moving, all the better to channel the arcane and the physical into one-ness. Picking up his greatsword, he swung it in a rapid circle, the blade falling from one hand another as it did so.

And thus, his morning exercies - his "morning victory," as he called it - began as it had a thousand other mornings, as he rapidly began to move into different stances, sets of maneuvers and strikes, and other practices he had woven into the fabric of the tapestry that was now his practice set.

As the sun fully began to rise, Morjin was finishing, his final stance was holding his greatsword with the flats of both hands with arms almpst fully outstretched, the point hovering an inch above the ground, holding it without moving for ten minutes.

Finally, he finished, sheathing his greatsword, and fully putting on his armor and other items, getting ready to meet his day with eyes fully open. Today, he was to travel to the Librium Arcana, a floating city dedicated to the arcane, to possibly meet about a journey. His contact was a woman named Arucun, a name he'd heard spoken in terms of great respect amongst the more arcane-oriented people he'd met in his travels - he was curious to meet her, and hear her words.

Bowing reverently to the sunrise for his morning victory, Morjin then set out to the village nearby with the teleportation circle, ready to send him to this city. As he'd never been there before, this promised to be an adventure indeed.

Walking with the long strides of one used to traveling distances by foot, Morjin entered the village, and approached the Wayfarer's Guildhouse in this town. It was a small affair, but large enough for its purpose. The attendant today was just finishing his breakfast as Morjin entered, greeting the man by placing his clenched right fist into his relaxed left hand in front of him, and bowing. "Good morning, and blessings to you."

Looking at him a little oddly, the attendant stood, and bowed somewhat uncertainly in return. "Mornin'. What can Ah do for ye?"

"I would like to travel to the Librium Arcana," Morjin said calmly, as if discussing the next town. "I have an appointment there today."

Blinking once or twice, the attendant finally shrugged. "No offense there mister..."

"Morjin Defel," Morjin added helpfully.

"...Right, Morjin, no offense there, but you don't strike me as...the wizarding type, if'n ye know what Ah mean."

"Nonetheless," said Morjin with a smile, "I still wish to go."

Shrugging, the attendant studied Morjin, and redrew a circle next to the desk, going over it very carefully. Once he was done, he nodded to himself. "Right. That'll be 50 gold."

Counting out fifty gold coins from the small pouch on his belt, Morjin handed them to the attendant, who then bit them, nodded, and put them in a box. "Alright then. Let's step into the circle, right into the center if you please."

Doing so, Morjin was surprised at how fast it happened. One moment, and he was looking at the amused-looking attendant, and the next, he was standing on a street made of precisely-cut blocks of some sort of rock, surrounded by many, many towers. Looking around, he took in the sights, his senses missing nothing as he got his bearings. Finally, he withdrew a map, found his bearings on it, put the map away, and began walking with long strides toward the larger tower in the distance.

Though he drew a few odd looks as he passed (mostly because he looked...very much un-mage-like; and also because he carried himself as a monk might), he paid them no heed as he walked with long strides toward the tower. Greeting the guards of the tower with the same salute as before - clenched right fist covered with a relaxed left hand, and bowing somewhat before speaking, holding out the folded paper summons as he did. "My blessings to you. Here is my summons."

The guard leaning relaxedly on the ranseur, a polearm with a curving horn like cross-piece at the base of a solid spear-like head, looked up at the approach of Morjin, taking the paper from him, opening it and reading the fine Netherese text therein. The language was, ultimately, descended from that of dragons, and its text had the strange character of being carved into rock; the classical form of draconic script could be written on rock quite easily, while actually serving to make the creature’s claws sharper the more it wrote. Some dragon lairs had been seen where the inhabitant had taken to carving whatever passing fanciful, alien, poetry occurred to them upon any available surface, for this reason. There were in fact, two languages in the city, Netherese, dead in the rest of the world, but the common language here, and Loross, the tongue used in various courts of the nobility, which was barely preserved even in the city of Shade. After a brief moment of reading, he satisfied himself that the bearer was who the note was about, and passed it back to him, waving Morjin through with directions – in common, a tongue he knew just enough of to convey ‘down that corridor, second right.’

Arucun at least knew how to think of and deal with her first arrival, indulging in a brief spell-component exchange ritual of greeting. In actuality she had him mentally categorized as a sorcerer, (who tended not to use such things) but it didn’t trouble her much; if one could manifest the art without recourse to study, then one was merely talented, in her mind. There was quite the industry in packaging the strange materials consumed by some spells. In this case, she fished out of the bowl she kept on the desk for such things, a slim vial filled with a softly glowing phosphorescent moss, packed around a little soil, with the top of the vial a wire gauze. The moss didn’t need to be alive to be useful in the lesser light evocation it was intended for, but it couldn’t be too decayed, and so leaving it with a little soil to live off preserved it for longer. A formal few words of welcome, and she passed it to Agrammand, before smiling; it was impolite to wait for a response unless you expected one. And a moment later, Morjin was at the open door of her office, too.

“Welcome,â€

Taking the offered component, Agrammand reached into his own component pouch and offered up a small phial of sulphur he had 'acquired' from a rather distracted merchant who had it laying out in the open. Agrammand didn't particularly need the sulphur in particular, he just needed to have stolen something and never apologized or given it back to get Savnok to show up. While not exactly his favorite vestige, the armour when combined with Eurynome's maul occasionally came in handy on the occasions when he needed the capacity to soak up lots of damage while dealing out more.

Finding a seat, Agrammand lounged and said, "No problem, no hurry here good lady."

As luck would have it Xander had been within the city when he recieved the summons. An invite to the Librum Arcana! How could he pass that up--never mind the potential job attached?

Adjusting his traveler's clothing to reveal his fine armor he enters the majestic building and presents his summons to the guard. No weapons are apparent, as he has them stored within his backpack the way he normally does. It is clear from his walk he finds a polite walking speed somewhat...slow.

"I am sorry to trouble you but perhaps you can help me out with this? I am a little awestruck, I feel like saying, this place is very impressive!" He speaks in Netherese, a language he has learned only recently but has grasped all the same. He is shifting his weight from foot to foot without thinking. Even if his voice is well controlled his body betrays a desire to be moving.

Thaelim Khadrujh stepped inside the Librium Arcana. He had left the academy of alchemy as soon as the summons had arrived - taking just the time to put on a set of elegant blue-black arcanist robes instead of his lab coat.

The black-haired young man, his grey-green eyes scanning the room and its other occupants as he bowed to Arucun as soon as he reached her quarters, his fingers already plucking a miniature cloak from his spell component pouch for the ritual greeting. "Lady, how may I serve you?"

Arucun nodded, exchanging briefly with the newcomer, with whom she was most comfortable, and repeating her invitation to be seated, brushing a little dust, there were plenty of enchantments to keep books from picking up dust, unfortunately, that simply meant it ended up on everything else if you left it out for more than a few weeks, from the map of the continent of Faerûn. It was pinned to the desk, as well as held by paperweights One such needle speared their current location, in the huge desert of Anauroch, which had of old been the heart of the Netherese empire. The others highlighted recent expeditions around the desert, to locations where ground based settlements and posts had stood, and the crash sites of some of the larger and more prosperous flying cities. They were mostly little more than rubble, now. It had been quite some time, and what was salvageable had often been taken by generations shortly after the destruction of Netheril.

“Please, be seated,â€

Bowing gracefully, Morjin removed the greatsword from its place on his back, still within its sheath, and set it with reverence next to his seat before sitting himself, appearing comfortable and relaxed in this setting, which was perhaps a bit unusual for one carrying a greatsword and no spellbook. As he sat, he addressed his host once again, sounding somewhat formal. "My thanks for your gracious hospitality, good lady."

His eyes took in the sights to this room, allowing himself to be fascinated by his surroundings without concentrating too long on any one detail.

EDIT: clarified.

Xander returned the bow somewhat awkwardly. It was technically correct, or nearly so, but he struggled unconsciously with deliberately removing his gaze from the other person--an idea which runs quite counter to his experiences and training.

He found a seat and waited for the next exciting news. He had slung his backpack off one shoulder and around so that it rested along and somewhat atop his side, allowing him to sit more at ease.

Thaelim sat down. He doubted Arucun would be interested in idle chitchat or socialization, so he kept his opinion to himself until asked for it. He tried to gather some clues from his environment, especially the maps he could see from his vantage point.

So, she's interested in recent archaeological expeditions to ancient outposts...

He tried to remember if anything had been mentionned recently in Prince Brennus' entourage about a new expedition.

Thaelim could remember something relevant, in that there had recently been a substantial expedition to one of the locations highlighted, the ruins of the fallen city of Aquessir, its location in a desolate river valley. Aquessir was one of the few cities to have fallen before the city of Shade had transferred to the Shadow Plane. The story of Aquessir’s fall was well known; while one arcanist in the city experimented with an improved, and more potent mythallar, another was working on defensive magic of great power. Activated at the same time, they had drained the magic from the entire city, causing it to fall from the air, its older residents crumbling to ashes even as it did so. It was a well-known fable, about the importance of letting others know what magical experimentation one was pursuing. There had been talk about the expedition there. Prince Brennus, known for his scholarship, had asked his marginally older brother, Clariburnus, to lead a military expedition there.

Arucun sat down, “Time’s a-wasting; I may as well begin, and you can tell the latter of your group what he misses, when he arrives,â€

Agrammand nodded and asked, "As dignitaries, how are we to behave if confronted by hostility? Because as satisfying as running some fool who tries to mug me might be, I would prefer not to get yelled at later for making the Shadovar look like thugs to the outside world. And while if our simple purchase mission goes sour, are we to confront the witch or just back off for another team to deal with her later? Finally, who is the nominal team leader, or at least the person we are to present to the outsiders as the lead dignitary? Or do you want us to just sort that out on our own?"

"On a related note, I must wonder what sort of resistance we should expect? We are all of us powerful individuals I assume, should I expect this to be a dangerous undertaking?"

Smiling, Morjin spoke up. "I would imagine there's the possibility," he said, turning to look at the hostess, smiling. "But I do agree, I would enjoy knowing particulars."

Arucun put the scroll case on the table, “I’ll deal with the last question first, beyond having to deal with ‘Red Wizard’ capture teams, and possibly a few assassins, should your identity be disclosed, the area which you are going to be traversing is home to various types of rogues. Though many of them are being put down now. Among them, have been numbered, beyond petty criminals and outlaws, drow, occasional demons, and similar aggressors. Hence, the magical weapons trade is a reliable earner in the area.

“I would suggest backing off, should any problems arise with the lady herself; we would rather have her cooperation than her head. Other than that, you may defend yourselves as you see fit, within reason. Try not to kill any pickpockets.

“I’d suggest that you get one of our friends here,â€

[quote="The Necrontyr Messenger"]Arucun put the scroll case on the table, “I’ll deal with the last question first, beyond having to deal with ‘Red Wizard’ capture teams, and possibly a few assassins, should your identity be disclosed, the area which you are going to be traversing is home to various types of rogues. Though many of them are being put down now. Among them, have been numbered, beyond petty criminals and outlaws, drow, occasional demons, and similar aggressors. Hence, the magical weapons trade is a reliable earner in the area.

“I would suggest backing off, should any problems arise with the lady herself; we would rather have her cooperation than her head. Other than that, you may defend yourselves as you see fit, within reason. Try not to kill any pickpockets.

“I’d suggest that you get one of our friends here,â€

"Well, your true identity is messengers. But until you're there, it would be wise not to let that be known, and not to let it be known to the Exiled Witch, unless you want to attract the wrong kind of attention," she said.

The Necrontyr Messenger wrote:"Well, your true identity is messengers. But until you're there, it would be wise not to let that be known, and not to let it be known to the Exiled Witch, unless you want to attract the wrong kind of attention," she said.

"Ah, I understand better now. My thanks to you for that."

Appearing satisfied, Xander leans forward, resting on his pack which is now wedged betwixt his thigh and torso for that purpose.

"Leadership is an issue that we can settle on later," Thaelim said, knowing that in such an undertaking the leader would also be the one to bear the blame for failure... But in a group made up of so much outsiders, it would still be fit for a Shadovar to lead...

"Now, regarding the issue of transportation..." he said. Although he had mastered a spell that enabled to cross great distances, he doubted he had ever seen a place sufficiently close to make a difference.

“We can provide transport to the right kind of area, though it’s hardly wise to teleport too close to a mage’s abode. There’s one thing you’re forgetting, though,â€

"As you wish, Lady Arucun," Thaelim replied with a smile. Custody of the mission's funds was another subject they would have to deal with later.

Agrammand lightly tossed his bar back into the bag, letting it make only a slight thump and clink noise upon impact. Shrugging, he said, "Perhaps a fraction of whatever we can argue under for the wand would be suitable reward for the less disciplined members of the group."

His statement was subtle, the sort of thing that might indicate a touch of greed on his part while also ambiguously implying that the mercenaries from outside the city were the ones he was talking about.

Still lounging, he asked, "Incidentally, what sort of recognition will we recieve once the mission is accomplished?"

Arucun frowned for a moment; she didn’t usually deal with money very much; she was a tenured arcanist. If she wanted money, she made something useful and sold it. Otherwise she gave it very little heed to such things, as most were provided for her. Agrammand’s little ruse worked perfectly, though, and she thought to herself for a moment, “I believe the monetary payment offered is, barring initial payments, calculated on the danger and active duty experienced, above a base minimum per tenday, with some proportionate bonus for subtlety involved. I’m not entirely sure of the details…¹ Non monetary incentives are likely to depend very much on how things go…

“To return to the question about transport, we’ve a system of a temporary teleportation magics, as you know, to take agents to the right location. I believe they’ve set one for here,â€

Agrammand nodded slightly before he said, "So seek out the paymaster if we want to know more about the money? As for non-monetary compensation, well, what else could an arcanist desire but to banish ignorance with knowledge to further their Art?"

Agrammand grinned. He'd been stymied of late due to a lack of access to certain forms of information, his knowledge base being broad if shallow. While making the employer look like an idiot wasn't a good idea, subtly pointing out their own ignorances while asking them for information was a way to goad their pride in certain ways.