Magical Realm Cyoa/Diaspora/Secrets/Xanatos
Character Actions Log
Because the stuff Xanatos is going to do...it's gonna be some kind of crazy.
Day 1
'Xanatos' walks through the gate of his newly minted realm into what is probably the smallest realm in Diaspora. Total size is barely 2.5 thousand square kilometers, with a spherical radius of only 10 kilometers. There is a largeish lake, a single cottage on the seashore of that lake, a small dungeon entrance on the opposite side of the lake from the cottage, and some forest and grazing animals. The view from within the world is actually disconcerting, because it is possible to look into the sky and see the whole thing - to anyone used to the inverted geometry of living on the surface of a planet rather than inside a dyson sphere it is a very unnatural effect.
'Xanatos' takes a bit of time to meditate on this, and while he does so practices his ability to change his shape and features. First he focuses on his skin color. Simple enough. It requires a bit of thought and will, but not as much as he had feared. It goes from pale to tanned bronze with just a bit of effort. Then, with a quirk of his lips, it becomes a light chocolate brown.
Ding. A window appears before him. "Through special action, you have gained the skill Centering. By seeking peace of mind over action, your Wisdom has increased by 1."
'Xanatos' smiles and says, "Status". Before him, a blue window appears. It contains all of the information he would expect from his specifications:
| Name: Xanatos | |||
| Race: Realm lord | |||
| Class: Trickster | |||
| Level | 1 | 0% | |
| HP | 100/100 | ||
| MP | 37/37 | ||
| STR | 16 | +0 | =16 |
| VIT | 12 | +0 | =12 |
| AGI | 8 | +0 | =8 |
| INT | 28 | +0 | =28 |
| WIS | 9 | +0 | =9 |
| LUK | 15 | +0 | =15 |
| Points | 0 | ||
| Wealth' | 0 Xan | ||
"Well, not the best stat line I could have asked for, but that's what training is for." Frowning, 'Xanatos' used an effort of will to make his voice deeper. "Testing". No, not quite right, and your voice always sounds different to yourself...He pulls out a cellphone and flips it open before setting it to record & playback. "Testing." That sounded downright unnatural. Another effort of will to change shape. "Testing." Ah, there. That was the voice he recalled. It was important to get the character right.
Walking up to the cabin, 'Xanatos' tried something he thought should work. "Observe."
Ding. Another window. "Through special action, you have gained the skill Observe. By seeking knowledge of your surroundings, your Wisdom has increased by 1." Wow, if learning the Observe skill early was worth Wisdom, then that Wisdom of 9 (now 10?) was ridiculously low. Perhaps purposefully creating an enormous deathworld and playing this out in the persona of David freaking Xanatos was not the best of plans? Well, probably too late for that now.
"Observe." This time, the status window for the cottage appeared. The cottage was a level 1 building, whatever that meant, and it contained a large number of powerful magical items. Well, that was to be expected.
Walking into the cottage, Xanatos found that it contained a bed, a small kitchenette, a wardrobe with a few simple items of clothing and a mirror built into the door, a workbench in one corner, and a large stack of rune-covered stones. By his count, there were 150 of them - and at 6 stones per portal, that was just right.
"Observe. Observe. Observe." After looking at everything in the cottage and verifying it was what he wanted, 'Xanatos' approached the mirror. His face was wrong - too rounded, wrong hair color (with the skin tone, it looked dyed), eyes too close together. Nose was about right, but the ears stuck out too much. And body type was wrong as well. With more effort of will, 'Xanatos' changed.
Finally, Xanatos stood looking at himself in the mirror. He hadn't been able to change his clothes yet, but that would come in a little bit. He had more important preparations to make.
"Status. Inventory. Skills." The status screen comes back, unchanged except the additional point of wisdom. The inventory came up empty except the clothes that were listed as equipped. Xanatos pinched them from the 'equip' slot icon on the window, and placed them in the item area - and suddenly he was naked. That would take some getting used to. Then he moved to the wardrobe and equipped some of the local clothing there - picking up the shirt and poking it against the 'equip' area of the item window - and now he was clothed. That was convenient at least.
Next the skills area. It contained a number of icons consisting of a small pictogram, a name and some numbers and letters. In order, there was Deceive (1 C), Trickster's Luck (1 C), Centering (1), Observe (3), Shapeshift (3), Levitate (1), and Enchant (1). At the bottom there was also a 5/8 notation. He'd used Observe and Shapeshift, so those had apparently already leveled a few times. Deceive and Trickster's Luck were probably the class skills for the Trickster class, which explained the 'C's. And Levitate and Enchant were the magics picked up during realm creation.
Xanatos knew that there were a limited number of skills he could get under his own system, and he was already quite close to that limit. That would be a severe limiting factor in what he could accomplish...if he hadn't already planned for this.
"Ahem. I, now and forever to be known as David Xanatos, do formally declare my intent to become realm guardian to the realm of Diaspora. I freely take up this burden, and swear to protect the realm from those who would seek to change or destroy it. So mote it be."
Ding. A window appears. "Quest received: The Secret Oath, do you accept this quest? Yes / No" Yes is pressed and the window vanishes. Ding. A window appears. "Quest complete! David Xanatos has taken the Secret Oath! David Xanatos has gained 1000 Xan. David Xanatos has gained an item: Masterwork enchanters kit. David Xanatos has gained the class Realm Lord. David Xanatos has gained a new spell: Earth Clone. David Xanatos has gained 100000 XP. Gained a level. Gained a level. Gained a level. Gained a level. Gained a level."
It was the maximum reward loadout a single quest could have under the world's system - and the Wizard who had granted Xanatos his realm had limited the number of example quests he could specify. The nameless wizard had been amused for most of my very long and very detailed descriptions of what Diaspora would be like. Few others had gone into such details on the operation of the physical laws of their world, and none had changed them so drastically.
Looking back at his status screen, Xanatos noted that the 'class' label could now be selected, that there were little 'up' arrows above his attributes, his level was now 6/36%, HP and MP greatly increased and he had 25 points. Not bad for two minutes work. His skills had also updated, adding Earth Clone (1) and the notation at the bottom was now 6/8.
Xanatos poked the name of his class on the status screen, and selected the second class from the virtual drop-down. Ding. "Do you wish to change your class to: Realm Guardian? Yes / No" Poke the yes.
The Skill notation now read 6/-, and the active skills of Perfected Observe and Blue Mage replaced Deceive and Trickster's luck as the first two. Xanatos poked the Perfect Observe icon on the skill menu to the right. Ding. "Do you wish to learn a class skill permanently: Perfect Observe? Yes / No" The formatting was ugly, but he hadn't really been given a chance to debug the UI on this project. Poke yes, then do the same for the Blue Mage spell - not that he had enough mana to keep it up for more than a couple minutes even after his level boost. Observe (3) was replaced by Perfect Observe (1), and Blue Mage was added to his skills, so now he had 7/- skills.
Xanatos changed his class back to Trickster. The abilities from Realm Guardian now worked even when it wasn't his main class, but the Trickster class was just a normal class, available to anyone who had the right temperament and mindset, and went on the right quest. Xanatos had specified it as his starting class entirely because it had one skill he really needed as a class skill, and its other skill was quite useful in general.
"Earth Clone." Pointing out the window, Xanatos created a clone of himself. It was naked. Earth clones were both the simplest and cheapest kinds of clone, as well as being the most durable. Their cheapness and durability were their only advantage over the other kinds of clones, since they started out naked. Usually, they would pick up a rock to use as a weapon, since they also could not use spells, having no mana. Fortunately for Xanatos, he had at least one spell that did not require mana, and one skill which normally did require mana, but in his case did not.
Naked Clone Xanatos entered the cottage through the door, grabbed some clothes from the wardrobe and got dressed - the hard way, since it didn't actually have an inventory, either. Then it joined Original Xanatos where he sat at the workbench, with his Masterwork Enchanter's kit, one of the stones from the pile of unbuilt portals, and a rock.
Original Xanatos was looking over the portal stone, tracing out the runes. He was looking for one particular set of runes so he could copy them - it was annoying not to have one of those libraries of ancient magical wisdom on hand, but he had specified that his portable portals have their entire magical capability described on their surface in enchanting runes for a reason. And his natural aptitude for enchanting, plus the divine spark...
"Observe." "Deceive." "Your name is David Xanatos." "Damn." "Observe." "Deceive." ...
The five minutes of the clones lifespan is spent thus, with the clone observing and reporting results and Xanatos attempting to deflect the skill. Near the end, he was winning - his decieve skill was now 4, and the clone wasn't able to raise his own observe skill. Xanatos spent an hour observing each rune on the stone indivudally to finally find the grouping of runes he wanted.
He copied the runes onto the rock using fine chisels and scrapers, a tedious process. Both his intelligence and wisdom went up from the activities - and he hadn't yet spent any of the points gained from leveling. Finally, hours later, he had a rune-covered rock as well as a much higher Observe and Enchanting skill.
"Earth Clone." Outside, two naked Xanatos clones appeared. The entered, got dressed, and one started moving the pile of dirt from the original clone out of the room while the other took Xanatos' enchanted rock. It glowed. The clone took a knife from the enchanter's kit and went outside to get some reeds from near the lake - it would need to make the thing into something it could wear.
Meanwhile, the cleaning clone came back. "Observe." "Deceive. Observe." "Deceive. Observe." Xanatos knew that grinding would be tedious, but he would persevere. And now he could train both skills off his clone.
With another rock, he started making another enchanted stone.
Notes: Earth Clone - This spell allows the creation of one or more sentient automatons in the shape of the caster. These automatons have the knowledge and skills of the original, but no mana, and so they cannot normally cast spells. They must also be maintained by the mana of the caster, and each clone will drain 50 mana from the caster per minute. Higher levels in the clone spell allow the creation of more clones and reduces the mana drain. Earth clones have 100 HP, but ignore the first 100 damage from any attack. They cannot heal. They also cannot gain experience, increase skills, or learn - though they can recall what they have seen and report this information.
Enchanted Rock - This is a very, very basic mana generator. It is effectively a copy of the runes on the portal stones that recharge the stone's portal generating ability between uses. The Enchanted Rock merely absorbs energy from the environment around it, and feeds that energy to whatever it is touching in the form of mana. If nothing is touching it that can absorb mana, it turns off.
Masterwork Enchanter's Kit - A mundane item used for aiding an enchanter in their work. Contains every mundane tool an enchanter might need to perform their craft. Masterwork Enchanter's Kits are extremely rare - not because they are difficult to produce, but because once an enchanter gets their hands on one they do not generally remain mundane for very long.