The Cavalry Arrives

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

[I am changing the name of the informant Cani girl from "Azliet" to "Nalche". I don't want to have two Cani women with six-letter names beginning with A on the same skyboat. Also, Nalche fits the standard Srineian phonetics, and Azliet, while a common Cani name, does not. -bb]

Vae: [appearing in a cheery blossom of Locador claws] “Hiio, Sythyry, everyone!”

Some Wizard Or Other: “Aieee! A nendrai! A nendrai is come! And already am I weary!”

Me: “Hallo! What are you doing here? Is something terrible happening on Strayway?”

Zascalle called out to Vae, “Vae! Help us, save us!”. Vae was wearing her earmuffs, though, and could not hear Zascalle’s direct request. I paralyzed Zascalle for some minutes with a spell, which probably saved her life or at least her spiritual integrity or something. (Spiritual structural integrity, I mean. She didn’t have much of the other kind.)

Vae: “The terrible it is!”

Me: “Oh, heavens. What’s going on? Why aren’t you there?”

Vae: “The she-Cani has no Cani emotions! Not a speck of salaffan or deffa, no proper sense of hierarchy!”

Me: “What — Thiane doesn’t? “ (Thiane being the only she-Cani around.) “You can’t mean Phaniet or Arfaen, I hope!” (Phaniet, I am sure, suffers from no such defects. Arfaen seems to be normal in that regard as well.)

Vae: “Not that is her name, but Nalche is her name.”

Me: “Who?”

Vae: “The child-woman who told you about Zascalle’s decampment! The punishment they make for her, and all because of her lack of those emotions and for her consequent betrayal of them. The asylum she asks of us — of you!”

So, she’s wrongfolk, but not traff, or something. Most of my clients are traff, but we do have a variety of other sorts of problems as well.

Me: “Well, I’m none too impressed with Cani who have all the right emotions just now.” I glared at Thiane, who whined and tucked her tail between her legs. “Have Kantele talk to her, and Phaniet, and see how she’ll fit in.”

Vae: “Not a bit can they do so! The prison of torments and darkest captivity have they made for this Nalche, and it’s a rescuing she shall need.”

Me: “Oh, one of those. Well, check with Bwipin and Rehit to make sure it’s acceptable in Srineia to go rescue someone out of her parent’s prison and scoot them away off-branch. If it is, the wrongfolk can try to do it if they think they can manage, or I’ll be back, um, sometime, if they need heavier magic.”

Probably a bad idea. But I felt like doing something that helped someone today, to counteract all the punishments I’m inflicting.

Vae: “The yes!”

Me: “She can live with us for now. I’ll give final approval, or not, when I get back and recover and get to meet her for real. If I say no, tell her we’ll … oh … we’ll work out a good place to drop her off.”

Vae: “The good! The messages of yours I shall deliver to the eager tongues of Phaniet and Jyondre! And how are you, Sythyry? And did the money come back to you from Zascalle and Thiane? And are these wizards quarrelling with you? And do they need to be destroyed, or will a simple tormenting-up suffice for them?”

Me: “I have made peace with the wizards, or, rather, I have cleared up the few petty disagreements that arose since we last spoke, since we officially never were at anything but peace and never mind anything anyone said about hiring an assassin. I am dealing with Zascalle and Thiane myself.”

Vae: “The happiness is upon me! The worry was on me earlier, and on all who dwell in Strayway, that some doom had fallen upon you from a surprising quarter, and you were in some desperate battle.”

Me: “Oddly enough, not this time. I just had to capitulate on all my disputes. Expensive and embarrassing, but easy enough. Though, I greatly appreciate you showing up in what would have been the nick of time had I actually been in a battle!” It is good to have friends, sometimes, even if they are psychotic monsters and not actually necessary.

So I sent Vae back to Strayway, to give the wrongfolk the news. She popped off cheerfully … but left a gaggle of invisible elementals around to watch, and to zoom and get her if there was any trouble from the enemy wizards. Unnecessary. The enemy wizards had already won, as far as they were concerned.

Comments

That was probably the stupidest thing

[(Anonymous)]

Zascalle did in this whole doomage (mmh, can I be a doom-mage, too?). What did she expect Vae to do?

Re: That was probably the stupidest thing

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

...Yes.

I mean, seriously. Getting away from the scary nendrai was what triggered this entire escapade(at least the "run away fast" bit). And suddenly she's trying to ask Vae for help?

Face meet palm.

Re: That was probably the stupidest thing

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Zascalle is totally ruined, flustered beyond reason, and obviously not thinking clearly. Asking Vae for help is simply clear evidence of such.

Re: That was probably the stupidest thing

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

She might as well have shouted something like, "Please! Merge ME with a Locador demon! Merge ME!"

[rowyn]

The Doom!

It's nice of you to help Nalche, though. Especially since I suspect horrors to come of it. But that's what usually happens from you helping people, so I guess if you were going to stop on account of that, you would have by now.

... it occurs to me that this may be the reason the evil wizards decide to be evil. Too much doom from being good.

[arenhaus.livejournal.com]

“Aieee! A nendrai! A nendrai is come! And already am I weary!”

:D

Bard, aren't you afraid that if Sythyry ever learns how you translate zir diary, zie'll sic a pet nendrai on you too? ;)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[I mostly hope that Sythyry is fictional! But insofar as zie is real, zie enjoys bons mots and literary (and other) homages as much as I do, so I think I'm probaby OK. -bb]

[arenhaus.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, what is the source of magic in Worldtree? The gods grant the daily allotments, all right, but would their magic work in this universe? If Sythyry, with aid of Vae if necessary, could punch through to here, would zir magical weapons and grafted spells still work?

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Some Wizard Or Other: “Aieee! A nendrai! A nendrai is come! And already am I weary!”

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Okay, that made an otherwise blah morning quite tolerable. Thank you.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard beams! -bb]

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Zascalle...isn't quite all there, is she. I mean, asking for help from a Nendrai??? When it's OVERLY clear as to exactly what sorts of things happen to those who ask a Nendrai for help?

Y'know, I think Zascalle, as we say in my world, is both [CENSORED] in the head, and just plain [CENSORED] in general. Not only should her children be taken away from her, her ability to breed should likewise be removed, lest she continue to bring more doom upon the innocent.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Zascalle was desperate. Perhaps she thought her chances with Vae were better than with me. Perhaps she was right -- Vae is entirely helpful sometimes (perhaps one time in six), and more helpful than harmful usually (perhaps four times in six). The remaining one time in six, of course, is the one that makes it into my journal.

If she continues being monogamous with Thiane, she will have no more children.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Well, she is desperate and still has 11 of 16 or so accounts of Sythry's money still. If she can get away with Vae long enough, she would still have the moneys.... It's desperation and greed that is currently motivating her. She is one Cani that doesn't know when to let go of the stick.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Nalche might not be traff per se(at least not identified as such), but odds are good that she'll be more comfortable among other sorts of primes at least socially. She still has her loyalties to wrestle with, presumably(if she has none at all that would probably not make her a good candidate for Castle Wrong either), but most people have some sense of loyalty to balance.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

She did ask for help from a gaggle of known and flamboyant traff-folk. For what that's worth.

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

Being as I see it completely outcast from cani society, she likely at least fully qualifies as Wrongfolk, so should fit right in.

[mazlynn.livejournal.com]

For some reason this entry made me very happy. I can't quite pin down why. I think it's the image of Vae riding in to the rescue, and finding out that everything is perfectly fine. Thank goodness! :)

Oh, and of course the obvious doom that will occur by the time your instructions get mangled in translation from Vae to the folks at Strayway, and then bent in interpretation by the folks actually carrying out the appropriate actions....

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard beams. 'That's why I wanted it! Sometimes things go pretty much right, even for Sythyry... but zir friends do care about zir and want to help.']

[dracosphynx.livejournal.com]

Nalche could obviously benefit from the highly useful combination of Creoc Mutoc Mentador ("Cani Mind", complexity 15), to grant her the proper emotions. Unless she is not actually a Cani, but a Sleeth. Or a spy.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> The enemy wizards had already won, as far as they were concerned.<<

It doesn't hurt for them to be reminded that Sythyry has a nendrai friend and just saved them from same.

Also, Vae gets a perfect score on civility this time! *ponder* That may be the first time in the years I've known Vae. Progress!

Re: Well...

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

And Sythyry gets some free points to boost zir Evil Wizard reputation! Should zie splurge for a yo-yo, or save up thousands for a terrifying spiky hat?

Re: Well...

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

This is true! Well, Vae is normally very civil, the problem is that her civility is more dangerous than most folks can stand. What Vae should get this time is a perfect score on being harmless!

[zeeth_kyrah]

I have a few ideas about spell crystallization. They sort of... crystallized while I was out walking the dog this evening.

If you treat it as a fractal expansion, then you have three variables: dimensionality, order, and iterations. You start with a seed, the base-dimensional zero-order zeroth-iteration spell, and then add or remove dimensions (+1 spell level per dimension), increase the order (how many times it replicates per iteration at +1 level each), or iterations (how many times it expands at +1 per iteration). If you have, say, a Creoc Durodar spell which makes a simple amber ring, you could leave dimensionality alone, keep it at order one (to make one series of rings), and iterate seven times; the spell would crystallize into seven rings of the same kind, but progressively lesser in nature (as the power of the spell decreases at least one level per iteration regardless). If you used order seven and iterated once, you would get seven rings of equal quality or power (the initial level divided seven times, rather than each one a level less).

Dimensionality would be how many dimensions you expand into or remove from the spell; thus a spell which targets a subject would be zero-dimensional (a point), but could be expanded to target a (flexible) line of sight (+1 dimension), an area (+2 dimension) or a volume (+3 dimension). You could also expand into superposition or extra-universal spaces (via Locador), expand across time or multiple periods of time (via Tempador), or "add variety" (producing variations on a theme). The amount of variety would be the hardest to work with; I'd probably go with godly fiat as to what gets produced, so long as the variance fits with the theme of the root spell/item. Each iteration would proceed further along the path of the theme.

Order determines how many times the spell splits; that is, how many duplicates per previous duplicate are generated in each iteration. If you crystallize a spell at order zero, you could potentially create a "seed" which is like a bound spell, except it crystallizes when triggered instead of being cast like normal. The user would have to add cley to increase the order of the casting, however; otherwise they would receive an order-one crystallization (and thus a single series of iterations instead of a full lattice).

Iterations are what they say they are: repeated castings based on the previous level of casting. So a single casting of order three, iterated three times, would generate a series of items. Each iteration would be one-third as powerful, so that on the third iteration you have one ninth the power or complexity, but also a more developed variety and structural complexity. If you intend for initial iterations to not be present, you could add Destroc to the verbs, and thus not have more basic kinds of variety present (also reducing the number of effect).

You could potentially turn a single grape into several glasses of different wines with a crystallized spell. Let's say you go with dimensionality plus one (use variety), order three, one iteration: Creoc Mutoc Herbador Liquidor, Grapes to Wine. Produce three glasses, hold the grape between them, then crystallize. From iteration zero to one: the intended single glassful of wine fills all three glasses, each with a different wine made from the original grape. Add an iteration, and boost with a cley: same-quality wine, greater variety, nine more glassfuls (three per previous glassful).

If you wish to change number of targets for a targeted spell, you could do that with order (same-power per iteration) or iterations (reducing strength per iteration).

[zeeth_kyrah]

Now to simplify:

Dimensionality? Treat it as for previous rules on adding or removing dimensionality, if extant. Presume that spell crystallization already adds variety (but not an automatically increasing variety), such that each piece of the lattice will be slightly different from the others.

Order would be about the same: how many castings per previous casting per iteration.

Iteration would be about the same, but instead of lots of math, just multiply order by iterations times five, then add the original complexity of the root spell to answer "what if all iterations were full-strength". Then add the egregious math if iterations will be weakened or strengthened in some way (more/less variety, more/less capability, more/less power, and so on). Ritual and/or enchantment methods could easily be utilized to reduce the single-casting complexity and/or cley requirements.

I wouldn't feathercast a crystallized spell, but I imagine it could be done. You'd probably end up with problems as some fraction of the order fails to happen in each iteration, scrambling or fragmenting the lattice -- this would be bad if you were, let's say, creating a large skyboat interior. You could, however, hammercast a crystallized spell to receive various benefits, but who has the cley for that?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Thank you! I will muse upon this if I ever try to formalize the crystallization concept! -bb]