Tod's Leather-Bound Book of Magic Usage

[Lord Dark]

*Tod flips open the book to the second page to write.*

[SIZE=10]Wedlar, Febra 4, 1452[/SIZE]

This is a book Miss Jaelle gave to record how I'm doing in using items holding magic such as scrolls. Hopefully Miss Jaelle can think of some puzzles or other practices she can put in here so I can do them while I'm out exploring. So far, I've only done what she's given me and I'll just continue on listing what I've successfully got to work:

Light
Darkness
Protection from Elements (formal name)
Ghostly Vision
Stoneskin
Shadow Summoning (with magic)
True Seeing

Miss Jaelle says I do fine, it's just my confidence of getting them to work causes me some trouble and also that I'm unfamiliar with how to read and understand some of the runes and symbols, so it sounds like I just need practice. I'm excited for the next meeting!

-Tod

[Carillon]

The writing here changes to a calligraphic script in shimmering blue ink[/size]

Tod,

I hope you enjoyed our first lesson. I'm looking forward to working with you as you progress in your explorations with magic. You already have quite a bit of talent but you have a few stumbling blocks that seem to often trip you up--one of which obviously being the pronunciation of the incantations for scrolls! Try these tongue twisters to loosen up your tongue and hone your articulation and enunciation. How many times can you say each correctly? How fast can you go without stumbling? When you've mastered this first dozen I'll give you some more difficult ones, and perhaps a puzzle or two to solve.

More to come!
-Jaelle

• A lump of red leather, a red leather lump
• No nose knows like a gnome's nose knows
• The crow flew over the river with a lump of raw liver
• Round and round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.
• Bake big batches of bitter brown bread.
• There those thousand tinkers were thinking where did those other three thieves go through
• He freely threw three fireballs; three fireballs threw he.
• Six slimy snails sailed silently south to the Silent Sea
• Excited executioner exercising his excising powers excessively
• Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gargling goblins
• The batter with the butter is the batter that is better!
• Four furious friends fought the five frenzied fiends

[/I][/color][/size][/font]

[Lord Dark]

*Tod opens to the new page with the tongue twisters and sits back with a sigh. He starts off slowly and tries to get at least a little faster with each one until he scowls and flips to the next page to write*

So much consonance, chiasmus, and anadiplosis... I'm very, very slowly getting each down. I'm stuttering and my head hurts. I think it was a bad idea to do this at the end of the day.

I tried to use two scrolls but messed up the first and got the seconds bull's strength to work. I think why I messed up the first was because I was in a hurry because I was excited to make new arrows, I just half-way mumbled. The second I stuttered once but not so bad else I might've blown up half the wood bench! Hopefully, I'm better at her puzzles than tongue twisters, they twist my tongue too much.

-Tod

*Flips back to the twisters and continues to study them for a little while longer.*

[Carillon]

A package arrives at Tod's house. Once the lid of the wooden box is pried off and the protective, cushioning straw moved aside, another object is revealed. This wooden object is completely unlike the rather plain crate the puzzle came in—it's of a wood so dark it's almost black, carved in many ornate designs. It appears to be a solid block of wood, but its light weight hints that it is hollow, and sure enough, when shaken, something rattles softly inside. The most thorough of searches reveals no hidden catch or panel though, and no other apparent mechanism to open it.

The scenes carved on the box are complicated and lovely—dragons breathing fire and various other things, stars in a night sky, scenes with people, noble and common alike, going through their daily motions, an enchantress holding a banquet hall in thrall, and many other scenes that blend into one another. Warriors battle on a field near a forest, half-hidden creatures peering out from the copse of trees, and nightmares skulk along the edges of the box. A temple is pictured on one side, with a priest and priestess bestowing healing and blessings upon the followers of their deity. Each panel of wood is carved with its own complex designs, but they do bear some similarity: cut into each panel, in many places, are small depressions that seem to hint that some object could be placed there.

Digging deeper into the straw, Tod would find a little velvet bag that jingles like a purse as he lifts it. Opening it and spilling it out, he would find dozens of tiny infused and enchanted gems—all mixed together, and all unlabeled, of different strengths and enchanted with different magics.

At the very bottom of the crate is a note in Jaelle's calligraphic handwriting. It bears but a single line:

Have fun!

[/I][/color][/size][/font]

[Lord Dark]

*Tod sits in the middle of his living room floor with the box and gems in between his legs, curiously shaking the black box next to his ear. Tod laughs at seeing her note and sets it to the side. He raises his eyebrows at the carvings on the box, running his fingers over them, hoping to find obvious or hidden patterns to press. He finally opens the velvet bag and lays the gems out next to him to see the colors, shapes and sizes, comparing them to the scenes. At first, he starts to fit the gems randomly into the sides of the box to see if any are the key. Then he studies the scenes to see if any of them would require a certain magic to participate in, and starts to try to activate a little bit of the magic in the gems by rubbing them in between his fingers, and taking several minutes trying other ways when simply rubbing doesn't work. He doesn't sit for too long since he lead busy days, but before he goes to bed, he spends a couple of hours messing with the gems and that black box.*

Miss Jaelle sent me this weird box, it's pretty neat. There must be something in it since it rattles when I shake it, but she didn't give me any tools to open it with, like locks picks, just gems! It's frustrating sometimes, but she to have fun. *pauses to shake the box again, trying to determine what is inside it* I tried finding a lock, I don't even know which side is up. I tried twisting, turning and pushing on the corners to hopefully open it like that, but I think it has something to do with the gems. I think I've activated a couple but not sure how that helps me, there's no spots to push the gems into to act as keys really, that would take me forever with all these gems! Maybe if I find an "open lock" spell in one of the gems? You know what's good for one of these locks? A big hammer... but I don't want to break the box!

I'm still taking me time reading the scrolls like Miss Jaelle said, I try to use them when I'm not so rushed or when crafting, but I still get a good amounts of poofs instead of magic. My favorite scroll so far is the one that makes me look like a ghost, I think I'll buy a big stack to use. I believe I'm getting a least a little bit better at reading them, the tongue twisters are still tricky though and I'm on the last couple of them. Now what's inside this box?

-Tod

*He picks the box up agian and continues to play with it.

[Carillon]

The first few gems that Tod tries to jam into one of the small depressions don't fit, but eventually he stumbles on one that is the right size for a hole and pushes it in. The box seems to protest, though, judging from the little zap of electricity that comes arcing out at him! Luckily, Tod the rogue should have little problems dodging. The gem immediately falls out of the hole again.

By pure luck, Tod does eventually find one match that first time he plays with it--a small amethyst infused with a light spell fits perfectly into a depression that indicates the position of a star.

[Lord Dark]

*Tod lets out a little "whoop" as the amethyst fits into the star. He rubs his fingers trying to forget the little electricity he saw and begins to try to fit more gems into the patterns. He goes by color for a little while, red gems for the dragon fire, purple and blues for the scenes with people, common and nobility alike. Maybe purple and pinks gems for the enchantress scene in the banquet hall, black or dark colored gems for the warrior, half-hidden creatures and the nightmares that skulk, and finally light colored gems for the priest and priestess bestowing healing and blessings upon the followers of their deity.*

[Carillon]

*Some gems seem to fit the colors, but others do not, and such haphazard guessing frequently elicits a grumpy little zap from the puzzle box. It seems that there is something more to it all than colour.

A purplish feldspar enchanted with a charm spell seems to fit into the scene where Tod tries purples and pinks. No amount of pushing seems to be able to get a fire agate into the space where flames come out of the dragon's mouth, however. A pale colored gem--a topaz--does indeed fit into one of the priest or priestess scenes, where they seem to be calling down some great magic from the Heavens.

Perhaps the pattern to it all may yet be determined.*

[Carillon]

A note comes in the mail for Tod Fellow, to his residence in Fort Wayfare.

Dear Tod,

My apologies for the hiatus in our lessons. I'm sure like everyone else, you must have heard the rumors. Let me assure you, I am quite alive, though it is true that I was gone for over a year. I wish I could explain more regarding the circumstances of my untimely disappearance, but I regret I cannot. Suffice it to say, I did not willingly abandon our studies without word and you have my apologies for both halting your education temporarily and frightening you, if my absence did so.

How goes the practicing? How goes the puzzle box? Have you yet unlocked its secrets? Remember, perhaps, if you have not yet solved it, that there is more to magic than meets the eye. Sometimes you must look beyond the superficial to what lies deeper in the weave.

Are we due for another lesson yet? Let me know. Mail to the house in Leringard or the Tower will reach me fine, and in equal haste I reckon. I am in Arnax temporarily to look into a small matter but I will have my post brought forward in the meantime and should be home shortly if you wish to meet. In the meantime, please accept another batch of tongue twisters, though tormenting you seems poor payment for my absence! However, it seems a few friends of mine in the Ineffable Chord caught wind that I was looking for tongue twisters and have dredged up a few favourites, in poem form. None are mine, though I thought a couple quite devilish! Which is your favourite? I like the one about the toads, though the one about twisting is particularly fiendish, I think, and also reminds me of tongue twisters as a whole! Are they limbering you up for proper pronunciation for scrolls as we'd hoped?

Fondly,
Jaelle

Another page follows, with carefully copied out tongue twisters upon it.

If you stick a stock of liquor in your locker,
It's slick to stick a lock upon your stock,
Or some stickler who is slicker
Will stick you of your liquor
If you fail to lock your liquor
With a lock!


Amidst the mists and coldest frosts,
with stoutest wrists and loudest boasts,
he thrusts his fist against the posts
and still insists he sees the ghosts.


I cannot bear to see a bear
Bear down upon a hare.
When bare of hair he strips the hare,
Right there I cry, "Forbear!"


A tree toad loved a she-toad
Who lived up in a tree.
He was a two-toed tree toad
But a three-toed toad was she.
The two-toed tree toad tried to win
The three-toed she-toad's heart,
For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground
That the three-toed tree toad trod.
But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain.
He couldn't please her whim.
From her tree toad bower
With her three-toed power
The she-toad vetoed him.


When a twister a-twisting will twist him a twist,
For the twisting of his twist, he three twines doth intwist;
But if one of the twines of the twist do untwist,
The twine that untwisteth untwisteth the twist.
Untwirling the twine that untwisteth between,
He twirls, with his twister, the two in a twine;
Then twice having twisted the twines of the twine,
He twitcheth the twice he had twined in twain.
The twain that in twining before in the twine,
As twines were intwisted he now doth untwine;
Twist the twain inter-twisting a twine more between,
He, twirling his twister, makes a twist of the twine.

[Lord Dark]

*Tod leaves the black box alone for periods of time since the unsuccessful tries, but sometimes on lazy nights or when he gets home early, he whips the box back out to try again. He counts how many gems he has left and decides to ask a guild mate what type of magic that each gem can be infused or enchanted with. For answers such as firebrand and fire ball, he presses that certain gem into the dragon fire. For bull's strength and constitution he attempts the warrior. Invisibilities, ghostly visages and camouflage, he tries to push those gems into the half-hidden creatures and nightmares that skulk. And he guesses that any light spells could be the night sky, representing the stars.

Once he receives the note, he reads it and grins, maybe of relief. But he raises his brows at the tongue twisters and poems. Tod squints while trying to read through them the first time silently and sets them aside, not trying to say them out loud yet. He writes a letter back to leave at the school.*

Hi Miss Jaelle!

I'm glad your back! Figured you were out walking and something came up and got ya!

I haven't finished the box yet, but it's a work in progress. I'm trying different things right now, but I think I'm getting a little closer to understanding the puzzle.

About the poems and tongue twisters, I almost have the last set finished, it's just these new ones that kick my tush. My favorite one would have to be the toad too, and I like the bear one a little. The twisty one would have to be the most difficult, but I'll still try. I've been taking my time on trying the tongue twisters and scrolls right now, and I think that when I take my time, it helps with the pronunciation. I haven't messed up so much on the scrolls now so that's good. I'm looking forward to my next lesson! But it's a toss up on when I would have time. See you whenever!

-Tod

[Carillon]

*Success! When Tod figures out which gems do what and starts to link them by the magic they contain to theme, he gets success after success. Firebrand fits neatly into the dragon's mouth, and magic weapon on a warrior's weapons. If he continues on this path, soon all the gems will be fit into place.*

Dear Tod,

I am glad to be back as well. I missed my students while I was away. I'm glad you are making progress on the box and the tongue twisters. Shall we schedule another lesson soon, to see how you are doing and find some other things to keep you busy? Perhaps you would like to try some simple enchanting, if you are not tired of magic gems.

Let me know. We can meet in my office and you can see how I've redecorated. I thought my return merited a slight change.

See you soon,
~Jaelle

[Lord Dark]

HURRAY!

*Tod grins and tosses the box into the air a couple times and catches it. He continues to push gems into other catches that their spells might associate too. He replys to the letter after a couple of minutes*

Hiya Miss Jaelle!

I wouldn't mind seeing your new office! Only problem is that I don't know when I'll get time, but I'll do my best to get a time open. Looking forward to the next lesson!

-Tod