The Butcher of Gadobhra

"So, I died - very painfully, and it took me by surprise. I didn't expect my little cantrip to piss off the Daemon so much. I didn't know about the whole light vs dark war that goes on from time to time and made a target of myself. Wait, I haven't told you about the whole light/dark thing yet, have I?"

Ozzy laughed, "Nope, but trust me, I got filled in when it was my turn to die."

"Oh crap, did they try to recruit you too? The light was spamming me with messages, but eventually, it stopped and I got a nice apology from them. The new offer was more open-ended and didn't have all the weasel wording that the first contract had. I got a free point of radiance out of it and an invitation to take quests when I could find the time. That's why my Solar Arrow cantrip was doing more damage when I got back." Suzette raised her hand and little needles of light formed on her fingertips.

"Very pretty, so back to your story? Just hit the high points, and don't tell me secrets."

"Hard to do. You pick up too many little clues and figure things out. I'm never playing Jeopardy with you again," Suzette glared at Ozzy.

"I'll take 'Suzette's Secrets for 400 Alex'."

"Don't you dare. Ok, basic story: I got whacked by a daemon, showed up in the room we were in, got an option to go learn some stuff about magic, studied up, changed clothes, and came back. Good enough?"

Ozzy was curious about the rest but wasn't about to push her. Hints about how magic worked in the game were his main interest. He knew players got magic, but only a couple of the workers had any spells. Derek's ice magic could keep food cold but came with no attack skills. Lyle the lazy druid could sort of charm animals, made fields of crops grow faster, and had a few herbal remedies - nothing at all like the fireballs, holy smites, and lightning bolts that players got.

"Good enough. Now tell me what you learned about the magic system. You're obviously better at casting spells now."

The bits of light swirled around her hand, then circled the top of her head like a crown.

"Oh, you wouldn't believe how much better. Before, I just had a few stolen cantrips from the Hedge Wizard ability. To be a real mage you need to have an affinity for that type of magic and some formal training. Without going to one of the magic colleges, or having a mentor, you just sort of fumble around and figure out magic by trial and error, and gain a lot of bad habits." Suzette didn't seem too unhappy as she said this.

"How it normally works for a player is they can choose a class with magic, like Druid or Paladin, and gain some cantrips and minor spells to cast. If they take an official Mage class, like Frost Mage or Fire Mage, they get better spells and an affinity for their element. Fire affinity helps with casting fire-based spells, etc. Then they do a few intro quests to get into the local academy and learn their more advanced spells. The Mage classes are more powerful but very fragile. Their base health is only 50 points per level."

Ben had told them about beating up the Fire Mage in Timmy's group who'd been a jerk. He folded fast. "Typical glass cannon then."

"Yes, but emphasis on the cannon part. There's a ton of magical knowledge that they can either learn immediately or skip until later. Tier 1 spells are sort of point and yell something. But starting at Tier 2 they'll have to study up on theory. Ritual magic, enchanting, tons of stuff to specialize in when you hit Tier 2."

Ozzy scowled, "So magic revolves around your class, your affinity, and schooling - three things that are hard as hell for us to get. What are you using as a workaround and what can the rest of us do?"

"Mostly not do magic, is my guess." Suzette didn't like that answer, but it was accurate. "We can learn cantrips for our occupations, stumble onto hidden things, and spend Enhancement Points, which means killing bosses. No easy road. I'm going to do what I can with my one little spell. But there may be ways to get better."

"My...uh...mentor... confirmed things. He's frustratingly vague about it. Said I'd learn better figuring it out myself. But think about it - the skills we have work. You can butcher. I can dodge drunks. So, any skill that we gain works, but if we try to do something we don't have listed, suddenly we suck hard. I can throw a dart, but not a dagger. You chop into undead, but not a rat. Spells are going to be the same. We have to find ways to learn them, then expand on that."

Ozzy nodded, he'd suspected as much. He'd watched some videos and read on the forums during the time he was dead. You could see that the Contract Worker system for skills was a lot different from what players could do. He also suspected some things might be better. He hadn't had time to look deeply into it, but it looked like Contract Workers had suspicious amounts of health and mana - and a boatload of stamina. That made sense though if you wanted your workers on the job for one hundred hours a week. Nothing he did made him tired.

"Wait, you have a mentor? That's not fair. Here I am, fumbling around in the dark trying to figure things out and you're going on vacation for a week taking magic classes. Maybe I should join the secret club." Ozzy had zero intentions of joining any club, group, or secret cult. He preferred to adhere to the wisdom of Groucho Marks: 'I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.'

"Oh, don't fret, poor little Ozzy. Wise Sorceress Suzette will be your mentor! I'll pass on any of the stuff I learn to you. Deal?"

"Ok, deal." There were so many deals with Suzette that Ozzy regretted later. But it seemed to be a habit at this point in their friendship.

"Excellent, then your lessons can get started." Suzette continued. "Let’s talk about cantrips first."

"Cantrips are the easiest spells. I think anyone can learn them if they can get access to them. The crafting system has a ton of them. I know cantrips to make grain sprout, beer ferment, and make bread rise. There are a lot more. We get them when we learn the appropriate sub-class as a contract worker. I'm hoping that there might be other ways to get crafting cantrips."

"After we killed the wolf and spent those points, I got three cantrips from the Hedge Wizard ability. They cost one skill point each, but are random. You could blow a lot of points and get crap. One of mine, Bugs, just gets me random insects that I can barely control. Yuck."

"My best one is the Solar Arrow spell. It only does 20 points of damage to start. For each point of RAD you have it increases both the damage and the casting cost. I can do 40 points with it now, which isn't bad, but still lower than what most archers will do with an arrow."

"My last cantrip, Runic Burst, is odd. It puts a ring of runes around me. I put mana into casting the cantrip, and then the mana drains into my next spell. So far, it's not even as good as casting Solar Arrow twice. But I think it can do a lot more once I know the right runes. I'm trying to learn the basics, especially the runes for enhancing Solar Arrow. The problem is Rune lore and Sigil Crafting are another whole subject to study, but I'm barely up to basic spell casting. I had a whole week to study but it feels like I could spend years."

Ozzy leaned forward and his eyes narrowed. "A week? You were gone a few minutes."

Suzette smirked. "Yeah, cool, isn't it? I got a free week's vacation. Turns out that the temporal vectors don't have to be parallel to avoid paradox. Which is a paradox in and of itself."

Ozzy groaned, he hated time travel shit in the science fiction stories he'd acted in. They made his brain hurt. The writers always came up with something that just didn't make sense to him.

Suzette patted his head. "Don't think about it too hard. Let's get back to cheating the system with magic."

Ozzy liked cheating the system. "Hmm, ok, how are we doing that? Show me your wisdom, oh great Sorceress." Ozzy went to get another beer from the keg he had carried upstairs. It was half empty already. This was a downside to poison resistance and a high CON. It took a lot to get him drunk.

"Well, it's not much of a plan, but I think it can work. A person needs a spell associated with an affinity. Then they need to use Enhancement Points to buy the affinity that goes with that spell. That should open up raising the affinity using the spell they know in combat. After that, it's just a matter of us stealing or buying a book of spells. Since we don't have a magic-based class, we can't run off to a university like the players do." She leaned back and yawned; it was going on two a.m. She needed to be up early and brewing a dozen barrels tomorrow.

Ozzy remembered something from yesterday. "Didn't Jorges get some little fire ability from some gem he got off an elemental? Would that be enough to count as a spell?"

Suzette shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe. Convince him to spend 5 points on getting fire affinity. Just think! Blacksmith with a blazing hammer of fire - how cool would that be?"

"Right. I'll talk to him about it. Or send him to the Wise Sorceress of Sedgewick." Ozzy would have to remember to tell Rolly and Ben to call her that, just to annoy her. "Which brings us to the subject of how you are spending your 18 new points. Going for an affinity with Radiant magics?" Ozzy had had enough of the light and dark for now, but he could see Suzette flinging around magic, and she was off to a good start.

"Yes, going for that right now, it wasn't in the original list of aspects we could buy. I think you have to have a point in RAD first. So, I'm going with buying the Light affinity and see where that takes me."

Light of the World Cost: 5 points. You are highly aspected towards the Light. You may train at the College of Light Magics. You may learn other spells gifted to you by quests or those you can learn from ancient tomes.

"The experience is all going into raising my RAD stat. It was about all I did in that battle, and it will help with my spell damage. I'm going to gamble with more cantrips and put five points into Hedge Wizard. I'm hoping with five more cantrips I'll get something good. Three points into raising the cap on my INT for more mana. Three points are going towards Trust Me! Ben and I were talking about this ability and think it will come in handy. We're both testing it out. I think I'll have fun using that in the tavern. I have to stay ahead of the Timmys in the world. I don't like it that Famco has people in the game."

"Yeah, I don't like it either. That's a good choice. You keep them guessing and I'll punch them."

"My hero. Hit them hard, please. I've got three points left, counting the one I saved last time. I think I'm going to use the Prodigy skill to buy Teaching as a Tertiary skill. I need a skill to raise my INT and with what I'm learning about magic, maybe I can hold classes on casting spells."

Ozzy laughed. "Or how to brew beer. Always popular with players. But I think you made some good choices. We don't know what we are doing. You experimenting with magic could be huge for us." He could tell she was tiring. He stood up and helped her to her feet, then bowed low. "I bow to your wisdom, my mentor and priestess of teaching." He was happy she was able to joke about things again. This world was good for her, even with all the crazy stuff.

Suzette acknowledged him with a hand placed on his head. "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." A message flashed across her eyes.

[Congratulations!

You have taken on the role of mentor to a student even though neither of you knows what is going on. You have learned the Teaching skill. You have the favor of Hermes, thrice blessed god of everything cool.

You are rewarded with the title "Priestess of the Golden Dawn."

You have gained 100 experience in Hermetics and 100 experience in INT.]