It starts raining shortly after breakfast, and comes down hard as you are walking. It's difficult to figure out what exactly would be a good spot to build a cabin.
I should ask what exactly you are hoping to find in connection with this search--what needs to be there for it to be a good spot. You won't find it today, but at least we need to know what you are seeking.
When you step into Merlin's grove, you realize that it is not raining within--or more specifically, it is raining on the trees and plants, but not in the open spaces between them. He has a bonfire going in the center of the area.
"Ah, good, you've arrived. Come over here and get warmed and dried, and we'll talk about how we are going to proceed today."
--M. J. Young
For the cabin, close to the grove, but also close enough to the road to fine. That's pretty much it, trees to use for building would work.
*we'll talk with Merlin with what he wants us to do today*
Adam
"Well, let's see. I think the best place to start is for us to bring Jade up to speed. The way for us to do that--you know quite a few powers already. What do you think would be the easiest one for her to learn, that is, for you to teach her? What after that? Let's get a list of what you want to teach Jade, and then start on it, and I'll oversee the process, helping you figure out what it is you are doing and how to get her to do the same thing. That way you'll have a better grasp of the magic you already know, and she will know what you know, and I will be able to see exactly what you are doing and how you are doing it--your preferred techniques, as it were.
"So, Jade is your pupil; where do you begin?"
--M. J. Young
I know you want me to spell it out, but I don't have the patience to do so in game. I will start teaching her my easiest Psionic Skills, starting with Read Minds, and working my way up, making sure she isn't making giant steps. I think my highest Psi skill she doesn't have is one way force field. Once she knows the basics of Psi, we will do the same with Magic skills, starting with receive assurance to jump. I understand his teaching style, I am interested in learning what he knows when we are up to speed.
Adam
You teach her to read surface thoughts fairly easily; she's a quick student, generally, and you've got experience teaching her particularly.
She picks up the invisibility even easier, although it took quite a long day to teach her both skills.
You show her how to do the Jedi Mind Trick the next day, although she only really has you and Merlin on whom to try it, and neither of you are particularly good subjects for it.
The next skill on the list is possession; how will you teach her this?
--M. J. Young
Well I will tell her that when I do a possession, I think of my Body and Soul as two different aspects of myself, and I'm leaping out of my body with my Soul and leaping into some else's and taking control. I will volunteer myself for this, and tell her not to do anything I wouldn't do with my body. :P
Adam
Geneice seems to do it right, but when she attempts to seize control of you, your will fights back and keeps her from doing so.
Still, she learned the skill; she just didn't succeed in grabbing control of you.
When you indicate that you are moving to the clairsentient skills, Merlin questions why you are going to those next instead of to defenses. "It is evident that you know how to possess, and that you have a powerful will to fight against possession; but have you not learned any skills for blocking the efforts of others to possess you--or for that matter, to read your mind or make a suggestion to you? Or were you saving those for later?"
--M. J. Young
"Well I made skills on an as needed basis. I didn't come across anyone with the same abilities, so I didn't focus my attentions to learn them. If I had the need for such skills, I would gladly teach Jade what I know, which right now is nothing. But I figure that's why your asking to figure out what I know and what I don't so I know what I can be taught in when the time comes."
*will wait for him to interject, before going to the next skills, since I don't know if he is offering to teach them now, or wait till later*
Adam
He nods at your response, and says that there are other wizards against whom you will want to have such defenses, but that you will get to them in due time.
You note that as you explain these skills to Geneice, you are getting good at them.
Over the next few days you work your way carefully through the detect and clairsentient skills, teaching her to detect life, hear and see remotely, and in what is the most difficult for her, extend all her senses into a remote sensory presence.
She asks why, if you could do all these things, you used the spy gear when you worked for British Intelligence. Merlin asks what the spy gear is, and all about how it works and what it does.
Merlin also keeps you at a pace, so that you don't overdo the teaching on any one day.
--M. J. Young
"Jade, in that world, magic and psionics were hard to do, and I've blown myself out of two worlds by using magic or psionics before. I used it only a handful of times, since I wanted to receive training in martial arts, and technology. I show Merlin some of the things we have, that how the world will eventually favor technology and forget about magic and psionics"
*continuing with the training and whatever pace*
Adam
Merlin asks some very insightful questions concerning how everything works, what provides the energy, what controls it. You and Geneice of course have a fairly solid background in electricity and electronics because of your computer and security skills, and his ability to absorb and understand answers based on a technology centuries in the future is impressive.
You begin the telekinetics. She picks up the TK pulse remarkably quickly, having skill nearly equal to yours by mid morning. By lunchtime she is doing the out-of-sight telekinesis also impressively well for a beginner, and by mid-afternoon she is working with moving flexible objects and controling multiple points independently.
Your next listed skills include resisting injury from burns and from blows, plus your microscopic vision. The first two suggest the possibility of injury in the teaching process. How do you propose to proceed with these?
--M. J. Young
Well for the burns, I'll light a torch and try to burn her arm, as for the blows, I will throw punches, no style, no special punch, and have her try to absorb them, I am assuming she is ok with this, she's not a wimp, but I wouldn't think to do that without asking. The microscopic vision is easy, she's used a microscope, I will liken that skill by turning your eyes into one.
Adam
She impresses herself with blocking the burn from the torch.
Your punch, even unmodified, is damaging (thanks to your second level martial strike value), and although she psionically reduces the injury, it's still injurious.
She masters the microscopic vision.
You take advantage of her injury to show her how to diagnose medical problems, and then how to heal her own damage.
It is late in the day by this time, and Merlin suggests that your energy control skills wait for daybreak.
Also, you've been putting so much time into this, you haven't built your log cabin, but are camping in the woods at the present. You've got the gear for it, so that's not a problem.
--M. J. Young
Well I figure if we can camp while learning, no big deal, I have a feeling Merlin's grove is temperate and protected so if he has no problem with us camping, I have no problem camping. Onto the next day's training.
Adam
You are correct about the weather in Merlin's grove. Even though it sometimes rains outside, the water seems to be diverted down the tree trunks and into the ground.
You spend the morning with Geneice learning how to start a fire entirely by thought; it requires very fine dry tinder to do it as a beginner, but she gets the sense of it and is able to get fires going reasonably well under good conditions. You also find this getting easier.
Then you use the fire as the source of energy to show her how to redirect this, and with some difficulty she masters that by the end of the day.
The next day you prepare to teach her your molecular manipulation skills, and Merlin again interrupts. This time he observes that you've not taught her any skills in direct mind-to-mind attacks.
--M. J. Young
*I smile*
"I don't know any, I haven't come across the need for it, since I never met anyone with my skills. With that said, I would like to learn some when the time comes."
*I will assume he lets me try to teach her molecular manipulation skills?*
Adam
Yes, although you have the impression that he is standing ready to intervene if anything goes wrong--moreso than before.
You demonstrate the Weaken Molecular Structure skill, and she picks it up reasonably quickly. She comments that a skill like that would be really useful against handcuffs, and then has to explain handcuffs to Merlin, who compares them to manacles with locks instead of bolts.
You try several times unsuccessfully to demonstrate the strengthen molecular structure skill before, sometime in mid afternoon, managing to do it. She picks up this skill also.
The next morning, you show her how you create a force shield, and she gets this very quickly and very solidly, building a stronger force wall than you expect.
This, you tell Merlin, concludes your psionic skills--what he calls your "inner powers".
"How," he asks, "would you begin to teach your outer powers? What do you think Jade needs to understand before she can begin to tap the resources of the supernatural world as you have done?"
--M. J. Young
"Well I always considered my outer powers from other beings of great power, or from the environment around myself. If I call upon Odin, who is the head of the Norse Gods, I specially cite him, I use him in specific prayers, I usually don't ask help of him unless it is needed, as you don't want to anger beings of power. For the others, I think of myself drawing power from the earth, air, life, and follow the motions and use the components, and say words appropiate. I don't think the components and words are needed, they just make it easier for me to cast the spell, so I'd rather have the spell be more reliable, since accidents can be deadly, from personal experience."
*with that I will start with my religion, and receive assurance and limited damage cure and go from there*
Adam
As you begin to teach your religion to Geneice, you are bombarded with all sorts of questions. She was, of course, raised Catholic (after all, she's Italian and her father was a Don in the Mafia), and is very confused at the idea that there might be a god named Odin, and that there might be other gods as well. Merlin mediates some of this, drawing out your thinking with many questions about the relationships between the gods, the notion that gods have spheres of influence and limits to their powers. Why, though, Geneice asks, is it better to believe in many weak gods than one all-powerful God? Or is it that there is not one all-powerful God, but only many weak ones, and the Church has always been wrong? How can you know that Odin is real but God is not?
Merlin raises his eyebrows several times in this, as if he finds the debate fascinating.
What are your answers?
--M. J. Young
"Wait, I'm Irish and was raised Roman Catholic, do I believe in a one God, yes, do I believe in the church, no, they have had over 1500 years of corruption, so no I don't believe in the church. Do I believe God granted powers to others, sure, why not, he granted us the powers to live after we die, be immortal till we die. I'm saying an open mind is needed to verse, and is needed to grasp the concepts of some magics"
Adam
"Assuming Odin exists--and it makes sense that there must be such a being, since you've obviously spoken to him and gotten an answer--why should we pray to Odin, instead of to God? I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm trying to understand. Isn't there something in the commandments about praying to other gods? How does Odin relate to God? Are there really many gods, and God is only one of them--maybe the biggest, but not really different from the others? Or is it maybe that God created Odin? If God created Odin, why? Are we supposed to pray to Odin, or are we supposed to have some other relationship with Odin, or is Odin really an enemy? This is so confusing. Why would God create enemies? Yet He did create the devil, right? So maybe He created more than one devil? Or maybe Odin is an angel, or a saint, or something like that? But I don't know whether Odin is a saint. Should I pray to Mary, or Peter, or Paul, or one of the saints I know are saints?
"I'm sorry to be so difficult; it just seems so--so pagan or something. It's one thing to discover that there's more than one universe. It's quite another to be faced with the possibility of more than one god."
--M. J. Young
"God didn't create the Devil, he created angels that had free will to fall from grace. So did God create beings that became Devils, yes, but didn't specifically make them evil or enemies, they chose it for themselves. Did God create Odin, or is Odin just an aspect of God, that I can't claim to know? I am just saying that the ten commandments were brought down by Moses, and then made to be the word of God. If you take a look at the ten commandments, and the time period, you will see that they are more likely just good advice on how to keep people alive and together in tough times. No killing, no stealing, no coveting your neighbors possessions, or his wife, or other man's wives. They are to prevent people from turning on each other. I also bring up a point, on our Earth, God is the only God, in the universe, do I think there are godlike beings that grant their powers like Odin, yes. There is no need to be confused, just accept that you believe in God, and that there are others out there than can do his Gods will."
Adam
"So Odin is like an angel, or maybe a saint from another universe? And instead of asking God to send someone to help us, or asking Mary to ask Jesus to ask God to send someone, we just talk to Odin, and he gets the O.K. from God to help us?"
She thinks about this.
"Would it be all right with you if I prayed to Paul? He's my patron saint, after all. I feel like I know him already. I mean, would it make any difference?"
--M. J. Young
*nods*
"You can prey to whomever you want, I just needed you to understand how preying can be directly answered, since that's one of the first steps at least for me to build up to higher magics"
Adam
"Well, I should hope so. What would be the point of praying, if prayers were never answered? I mean, I can't say I can point to prayers that were actually answered, but I'm not a saint, either. I'm sure that the saints answer prayers, as they see fit."
"Indeed," Merlin says, "you must pray to whom you believe will answer. If his name is Odin, then pray to Odin; if his name is Paul, pray to Paul. The gods do answer, if we keep our part of the bargains we make."
--M. J. Young
*I think it's time to teach her magic, starting from the lowest, and going to the highest*
Adam
These are the first skills on your list:
- 1@1 Receive Assurance M1@1 One minute of prayer asking confirmation that Odin is listening, eyes closed, grants inner assurance
- 1@3 Bonus Nature-based Magical Attacks M+1@4 raise holy symbol with either hand while saying "We have tried to make peace with brothers, they refuse and want bloodshed, grant me the power to call apon your subjects Ullr and Frey to grant me powers of nature strike down with the force of your anger. Odin, grant my prayer, and let Frey and Ullr grant me the power over nature itself, and strike apon our enemies, with the power of primal fury", will only work if an effort at settlement has been attempted, SM=RS/5 for all magical attacks which rely on natural elements, RS minutes effect. +5SM
- 1@3 Limited Damage Cure M2@1 1:00 prayer to Odin while holding holy symbol
- 1@1 Cure Any Disease M+2@4 2:30 prayer to Odin for healing
- 1@2 Dig M3@6 20:50:75:100:+1/1 yards provided that the initial starting point of the dig is in sight, Casting Time: 1 Minute, upon completion of ritual caster may move up to 4000 cubic feet of ordinary mixed dirt in ten parts over the course of 1 minute, volume equivalent to approximately ten metric tons; denser or less dense earth may be moved in quantities adjusted according to estimated equivalent weight, can be attempted not more than once in six hours, hold shovel in both hands, say "Move this earth with the power of the arcane" in Latin, "Permoveo is terra per vox of ianus", permits movement of dirt from one place to another within range. User has control of the shape of the excavation and the point of deposit of the dirt. It cannot penetrate artificial rock such as asphalt or concrete. It can be used to compress the targeted material rather than shifting it, compressing dirt into soft stone, mud into a adobe-like brick, and soft stone to harder stone. Hard stone cannot be compacted +93
- 1@2 Silence 15 radius M4@3 RF 1/360, Duration: 30 minutes, the person or object touched is the center of the silence radius, say Planto haud sanus, latin for make no sound, waving both arms, holding a Bell wrapped with twine makes noise inaudiable within the radius and prevents any noise generated within to be heard beyond it. The twine is destroyed in the casting. Especially loud noises such as gunshots will be heard as muffled sounds, and weapons doing sonic damage will take -DC, +1SM
--M. J. Young
The first two Geneice needs to figure out who she is preying two and what words to use, the cure damage, we'll cut her and have her heal it. For disease, find some poison ivy or other skin causing problem, and have her try to cure it, dig and silence, I will instruct her on what words I say, Merlin will be there in case things go wrong.
Adam
I try not to correct spelling errors, but this one is particularly irksome to me (I am, after all, a theologian), so forgive my mentioning it: preying is what predators do to prey, stalking, catching, and eating them; praying is what supplicants do to benefactors, petitioning them for assistance.
Thanks.
The first is simple: she will pray to Paul, and otherwise do as you do.
You spend several hours working through the details of the next skill, though. First, she didn't bring a crucifix or rosary beads, and there's nothing like that in the jewelry you gave her. That's a problem you'll have to address.
She likes the idea of calling on subjects, but she decides to reword it "grant me God's power to call upon His subjects the Sun and the Sky to grant me powers of nature to strike down with the force of your anger. Paul, grant my prayer, and let the Sun and Sky grant me the power over nature itself, and strike apon our enemies, with the power of primal fury".
That seems to capture the essence of what you prayed, but she still needs to solve the holy symbol problem.
--M. J. Young
I usually don't bring things like this up. I find it hard to believe a Roman Catholic Italian woman is not wearing a cross. Even if she got out of the habit during our spy missions, I would say that she probably had a gold cross and chain (I would say silver, but her father would have spared no expense), so it should be in her personal possessions, in her backpack in a jewelry box, if I had to make a guess. The GE roll was for if it was in the jewel and precious metals that I bought, not if she would have had a cross. If not, I will goto town and see what can be found. I would say make it, but I have neither the tools nor the expertise to work in fine metals.
Adam
Yes, you are correct, she has a small diamond-studded gold crucifix, very delicate filigree background, that she wears around her neck. She hadn't realized it, because it's such a part of herself that she never thinks about it. She'll use that.
She learns the skill, and performs it; however, she doesn't know any nature-based magical attacks, so she cah't really test whether it works.
The next day you turn your attention to the healing skill. Again she rewrites your prayers, addressing them to Paul rather than Odin, and mentions that Jesus healed many who asked. You then cut her, and she prays for the healing, restoring the flesh instantly.
How familiar are you with poison ivy and similar plants? There are a lot of things that look like these but aren't (I've often been asked whether wild raspberry plants are poison ivy, or mountain laurel). Knowing the description and being able to spot the plants are two different things.
--M. J. Young
I would have no clue what Poison Oak is, but I grew up in a yard full of Poison Ivy, so I would know if it, if I saw it. If it's not in his grove, I will do a nearby search of the area.
Adam
It takes you about an hour of searching the woods to find a batch of poison ivy.
How are you handling the stuff?
--M. J. Young
With my protected hand :)
Adam
O.K., I smile, good joke.
Thing is, I don't see gloves on your equipment list, unless they're part of something else that I'm overlooking; so I'm not certain how you are protecting your hand. I do see a washcloth, and I can envision someone trying to pluck poison ivy with a washcloth, but that's not so easy to keep it off your skin that way. There's also the possibility of using the gloves and then contacting the gloves to your skin when you remove the gloves--transfer of the irritating oils from clothing to skin is quite common, actually.
So I ask again how you are handling the poison ivy, just so I know whether there is a significant risk of you contracting it also.
--M. J. Young
Well my armor, which we have established I don't take off often, is made of the rubber undersuit, and Spectra armor on top protecting the main areas. My hands are included in the protection, the outside with the spectra, inside the rubber, like a glove. They would be gloves/gauntlets incase I needed to do fine work.
Adam
You work with the rubber gloves from your spectra armor (which you do, I believe, remove when you sleep), plucking the poison ivy you've located and infecting Geneice with it.
You wash your gloves in running water with soap before removing them, to prevent contact yourself.
It will take at least several hours for the rash to appear, so it is the next day when you show her how to pray for the healing of the disease. The cure works adequately, the reaction subsiding.
Aside: poison oak looks almost the same as poison ivy, but the leaves have rounded almost lobe-like protrusions along the edges, particularly one edge.
The next day she digs a hole. She and Merlin both note that this is not a prayer.
Her interest is whether this is some sort of evil magic spell you learned somewhere, and whether it might be dangerous to be dabbling in dark arts.
His interest is where you learned this, given that it is different in kind from the other spells you've done.
--M. J. Young
Well I learned it from a fictional game, and translated it to something I could do. I did it in the Orc world, and I believe I was helping to build a sewer system with it, and I will explain the concept to Merlin, since I know he will ask. I will address Geneice, I learned it from a Role Playing Game, (she should be young enough to understand the concept, if not I will explain it to her, that no it is not evil, nor did it come from evil origins). I tell her I know nothing of dark arts. I assume my answers will allow us to continue learning.
Adam
There are several hours of discussion about the use of magic that is not based on prayer. Geneice is particularly curious about the entire question, because she has an aunt who told fortunes and an uncle who said that all of that was evil, because God didn't want good Christians playing with magic.
Merlin approaches the matter from a different end, asking whether God allows her to change things by what she does, and then whether He allows her to change things by prayer. Given that God allows her to change things, by actions, by thought, and by prayer, there is no particular reason why He would not allow her to change things by supernatural power, if she knew how.
In the end she seems to accept the idea, although she's not entirely comfortable with it.
As you explain to her the silence spell, she asks what use it has.
--M. J. Young
*smiles*
"Silence has many uses, it helps with stealth, but it's main use is to prevent enemy spellcasters to speak, which foils many of their spells. Every spell has a use, you just have to think outside the box to find uses for them.
Adam