Devil's Deal, IC

[Eurus]

After weeks of work, the tower -- or part of it, anyway -- is finally getting back to a somewhat-livable state. Several of the villagers have been offering as much assistance as they can, although with winter ending and the planting season starting to begin, time is extremely limited.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, there had been an almost palpable sense of terror in the little town. The monolithic tower, a powerful symbol of safety that the entire town had been built around years ago, was literally shattered, and its master slain. Rumors of demonic attacks spread quickly, and at first nobody would even dare approach the tower for fear of a curse. It was only after seeing Jessica painstakingly working on repairs by herself for several days that a few of the younger men finally offered their aid.

One of them, a youth named Randal, is here now, nodding at the tower with satisfaction. "Not bad, eh? Still pretty rough, but it's looking better than it was!"

The protections on the village aren't what they used to be, still. And the top half of the tower still lays shattered on the ground. But the necessities are running again, and the wards are good enough to keep the weather out and the heat in.

The only other person nearby at the moment is Nell. As the oldest woman in the village, supposedly one of the small group that first settled the area shortly after Asher did, she's a sort of unofficial "elder" around here. She's brought a bit of bread and beer for the two of you, as she's been doing on most days, possibly as an excuse to keep an eye on you.

"Thank goodness for that. I didn't like our chances of making it through the year, with the tower broken. Either burned to the ground by brigands, swallowed up by the forest, or taxed by the Lord's men, and I'm not sure which is worse."

"Oh, uh... speaking of that. I think I saw a man from the city poking around here, earlier."

"Eh? I never heard about it, when did that happen?"

"About a week ago, I guess?"

"And you just figured you'd keep it to yourself, you daft brat?! Ugh, heavens have mercy on us... word's probably spread by now about Asher, and we're only slightly better off than sitting ducks. If we don't have an active mage, we'll be under the Lord's tender governance by summer..."

Nell's got Randal by the ear now, shaking her head bitterly as she mutters. She seems to have practically forgotten about Jessica, for the moment.

[EdroGrimshell]

Jessica laughs lightly at the two, "you make it sound like I can't help," she says, knowing she was only a novice and couldn't really do everything Asher could, she could still help, "I know I'm not the best option, but I'm better than nothing at least," she pulls out her pistol, which she'd barely used since arriving and no one had seen it in the village, same with her bike, which still had some gas at this point in time, "I'll see if I can't set something up to keep us all out of the Lord's hands," she'd never actually met the Lord, but had heard enough about him to at least be on guard, "I'll need to find the old man's notes, though, see if I can't set up some of his original defenses..." she trails off, making calculations in her head already, a pareidolia illusion, make the forest seem much scarier for those with ill intent, this would at least deter most raiders.

[Eurus]

Randal glances back up at Jessica, and nods thoughtfully. "Sure. He was teaching you magic, right? If you can put on a good enough show when the soldiers show up, they might accept you as the new mage."

Nell chuckles, shaking her head. "Easier said than done. The Lord respects the independence of mages and their freeholds, but only grudgingly. If he thinks he can take you out before you get too strong, he'll certainly try."

[EdroGrimshell]

Jess grins, "Well, I'll just have to make the point that I'm not to be messed with," she says, indicating the sigil on her shoulder, "I've got a few tricks I could try out, given time to prepare."

[Eurus]

"Turn them into frogs," Nell cackles. "That one's always a classic."

"I wasn't around back then, but I hear Asher didn't have much patience for that kind of flashy stuff. When the soldiers came up, he just put some kind of charm on them to make 'em turn around and walk right back home. They came back a few days later, and he did the same thing. Took weeks before they finally gave up."

Nell shrugs. "Well, if you need help with anything, you can ask us. We're all in this together, anyway."

[EdroGrimshell]

"Was thinking an illusion that would make it seem like the forest was overrun with hostile demons after a summoning went wrong," Jess says, "and a pareidolia effect that'd make the forest itself seem possessed. Rather simple illusion that distorts perception and induces fear. Pretty sure I could have a very strong one designed and prepared in a weak or so."

[Eurus]

"I understood maybe half of that. But be careful around the woods... Even the soldiers never go that way, and there's a reason for that!"

OOC Info:
The woods near town have no name, and a complicated reputation. They're a vital component of the town's life, since they're a necessary source of forage during the months. But they're also feared, and have dozens of superstitions and "rules" associated with them. For example...

Do not go into the woods alone -- at least three people is ideal, so that if one is enchanted the other two can hold them back.
Do not stay past sunset.
Do not eat anything you find there, until you've brought it back home.
Do not bring fire.
Do not touch anything that seems out-of-place or man-made, especially if it's valuable.
Do not sing or tell stories. It attracts attention.

...Yet despite this, nobody actually has any stories about things happening in the woods, except for that one traveler who everyone says came out of the woods a few years back, knocked up one of the young girls, and left. Other than that, nothing; no disappearances, no monsters. The townsfolk would say "well duh, that's because we're so careful!" Even the Lord's men avoid the forest, choosing to take the road around it, although they'd never admit to being afraid of it. Asher himself never said much about the woods, only that it had nothing worth involvement.

[EdroGrimshell]

"Oh don't worry, I'm just going to make it scarier, now, I've got to see if I can't scavenge some artifacts from the other half of the tower."

[Eurus]

"Well, alright... just let me know if you need anything."

Randal trots off to catch up with Nell, as they both head off to rejoin the other villagers in their chores, leaving Jessica alone by the tower.

OOC Info:
The village around Asher's tower is mostly nameless. The residents just refer to it as "town", while the Lord's men would call it "Mage Black's Domain". Regardless, it has a population of perhaps forty people, most of them at least vaguely related to each other.

About twenty-two years ago, a group of settlers left the city of Temperance. The group consisted of three families, about two dozen people total, all of them disillusioned with the Lord's gentle governance for various reasons. Since Asher didn't care enough to kick them out, they built a settlement around the tower, sustaining themselves with farming and seasonal forage.

Nowadays, there's been so much inter-marrying between the three families that few people know where one ends and the next begins. More settlers occasionally arrive from elsewhere, but the domain is remote enough that it stays small.

Town Notables:
Nell: As mentioned, Nell is the oldest of the original settlers who's still alive. Most people call her Grandma Nell, because she is grandmother to a decent portion of them. Knows a fair bit of herbalism, medicine, and midwifing, although it's interwoven with a fair bit of useless superstition.

Johnathan: The closest thing this town has to a priest. Venerates the elemental spirits, and offers spiritual guidance to the villagers. More tolerant of angels/demons/magic than most religious folk, for obvious reasons. Probably capable of Contracting, but doesn't practice it much.

Valence: A traveler who came to the village about six years ago. Quiet, but relatively friendly and helpful. Owns a sword, and supposedly knows how to use it. It's a poorly-kept secret among the villagers that he was actually a deserter from the Lord's soldiers once upon a time. He's managed to turn over a new leaf here as a farmer.

Rose: When the town's previous smith died, his widow took over the job. Physically strong, and one of a very few townspeople who knows how to read and write.

Kestrel: The town's best hunter and forager, and one of the only people who's spent any significant amount of time in the woods. Very superstitious, excellent archer.

Edgar: The town's brewer. Knows nearly every story, myth, and folk song around, making him a sort of unofficial bard/historian.

[EdroGrimshell]

Jessica waves before heading to the remains of the top half of the tower, sighing, and going for a search.

Going to take 10 for a total of 12.

Take 10 on Craft Checks for any Salvaging I can do. All of them are at least +5 so I can get the 15 DC easy.

[Eurus]

The top half of the tower is... "damaged" would be putting it lightly, but it's perhaps in better condition than one would expect for a building that was literally snapped in half. Some of its contents are still intact, but they're mostly mundane things. There's plenty of scrap metal, a thankfully well-padded apothecary chest, and some reasonably intact books. There's also some more financial treasures; a jade statuette, a handful of some kind of tiny gems, and a small pouch of exotic coins. Not that there's much to actually spend that kind of thing on around here...

The books, interestingly, cover a broad range of subjects. Many of them don't have anything to do with magic, instead covering history, astronomy, science, or even math and philosophy. There are books of scripture from dozens of old and obscure faiths, with certain passages circled or highlighted. And there are, of course, a few volumes on various Outsiders; the different classifications of elemental spirits, illustrations and descriptions of demons, etcetera. No truenames, though. Anything that valuable would have been kept in Asher's private lab, which was thoroughly raided. But enough to help summon something, if you were brave enough.

You obtain a medical kit, slightly too damaged to count as masterwork anymore. Also a lot of books and scrap, which don't have a mechanical effect but could certainly be useful, and some nonmagical valuables.

[EdroGrimshell]

Jessica hauls the items into the intact part of the tower and separates the gems, she could use those in some of her artificing later, esspecially when making her bullets. She also takes out any gold coins, gold was a magically receptive metal and would be very good to mix into her bullets with the gems for soem interesting effects. She'd need to sort the gems for their magical properties later.

She immediately sets to studying the books on outsiders after that, she'd start with something small, like a pixie. Natural healers and fast little fey, plus the fey weren't nearly as scary as the other breeds of demon, and they were friendly too, if a little mischievous if angered. She'd need to be careful how she worded the deal when she went to do it

Note, my image for a pixie is the Shin Megami Tensei version.

[Eurus]

Interestingly, pixie-like figures can be found in the books on demonology, the books on elementals, and the one lonely book about True Fae. It seems that, while the common folk might assume a tiny winged humanoid shape to be a Fae creature, it's more likely to be a nature spirit of some kind. There are elemental Sprites of water, wind, even fire, representing the capricious and random movements of nature. Water sprites in particular are often associated with healing magic.

Less commonly, there are certain demonic entities called Pixies as well. While they tend to be just as flighty and capricious as their natural counterparts, they lack elemental affinities but are more clever and devious. They're associated with healing, illusion, and trickery, and tend to demand treasure in exchange for their services. A summoning ritual is described, and seems to be relatively straightforward.

[EdroGrimshell]

"I can work with this..." Jessica whispers before getting to work on making the Ritual to summon the pixie, deciding to go with a water spirit for this binding since she didn't have much to offer a true demon pixie. She keeps a few of the gems and coins in case it would like to make a trade.

Summon 5: Heroic Extra, Attitude Flaw, Uncontrolled Flaw. Uncontrolled Flaw lets you control what exactly the Pixie gets and can offer as part of a deal.

5pp x 4 hours / 10 / 2 = 1 Hour to Design
5pp x 10 Minutes = 50 Minutes to Perform

Take 10 on Knowledge (Arcane Lore) for result of 22 vs DC 15. Take the -5 Penalty to halve the Design Time (Result of 17 vs DC 15) so it's just under 2 hours to summon the Pixie in total.

Additionally, will copy the ritual into the spellbook so I do not need to design it again later.

[Eurus]

As an elemental spirit, the Sprite is easy to summon. It merely requires a supply of clear water -- fortunately, there's a stone basin in the summoning chamber -- a simple circle of runes, and an incantation, commanding the nearest Water Sprite to appear before the summoner.

The water begins to ripple and shift as if blown about by wind, despite the calm air inside the tower. After a moment, a tiny figure rises up from the pool. No more than three or four inches tall, its body is made of twisting water and foam, and it spreads wings like dewdrops before fluttering around the confines of the summoning circle. After testing the bonds and finding them secure, it perches back on the edge of the basin, giving Jessica a rather sulky look.

"How rude, dragging me out like this. You could have just visited me at the river, but noooo, you mages are too impatient for that. And this place is so dreary... you can't even see the sky from here! A little fresh air would do you good, you know."

She chatters like a bubbling stream, of course, brushing her fingertips through the water as she talks. Her wings flutter every now and then, spraying a bit of cool mist around the room.

[EdroGrimshell]

"I am relatively new to the area, unfortunately, the previous mage of this tower summoned me from... elsewhere. Unlike yourself, I do not have the option to return where I came from. If I knew where the river was I would gladly have visited rather than gone through with this method. I will try to be quick so you may return to your home," Jessica replies, "recently, the mage of this tower passed, and bandits managed to not only raid it, but knock the top half of the tower off. I'm the only mage that can protect the town at this time, and I never completed my apprenticeship, so I need to build up the defenses around the town to the best of my ability. I ask for your aid on the matter, which is the reason for my summons. If you are willing, I would like to hear what you yourself would offer me, and the price you put on your services. I would also like the chance to meet you at the river next time I am in need of your aid," Jess really hated talking like this, but it was, according to Asher, one of the best ways to speak to a summoned demon or spirit.

[Eurus]

The sprite sighs, rolling her tiny glowing eyes. "Mages..."

"Alright, hmm. You're trying to protect a town? I mostly do water stuff, y'know. I can let you summon water, or swim really good, or even turn into water... I could guard you from fire... I could make you a little tougher or quicker or prettier! Oh, or I can help you with healing. I could make it so you heal quicker, or let you patch up other people."

[EdroGrimshell]

Jessica laughs, "I take it you're not the kind to deal with traditional magespeak," she asks, "me neither, but better safe than sorry until you know for sure, right?"

"I think the last one would be most useful given what's going on, and the fact we don't really have a healer in town. Besides, the tower heals me up fairly quickly since I'm tied to it," Jessica asks, then decides to make some small talk, "My name's Jessica, by the way."

[Eurus]

"Nice to meet you, Jessica. I haven't had a name in a while, but you can call me Fonta."

She seems a little cheered up by the friendlier exchange.

"So, you want the power to heal people. Any idea how long you'll need it for? Or how long you can afford, anyway."

Fonta giggles at that, hopping back up onto her feet and skating idly across the water.

[EdroGrimshell]

"It depends mainly on what you're asking for, Fonta," Jessica says with a light smile, "I only have so much I can offer with the tower in its current state. In all likelyhood though, I'll be keeping this particular contract in reserve for when an emergency comes up, so there would be no definite time, maybe a finite amount of healing I could use instead? That way it's a one time cost for yourself and I'll have it if something comes up," she sweeps an arm behind her to show the items she had brought down, mainly anything of monetary value as well as alchemical ingredients, herbs, and spices that had been left over, not that there was much, "this is what I have that's of any meaningful value in the tower, the rest is mainly just creature comforts for humans. Though if you'd like to look around later for anything you're interested in I'd be happy to take you on a tour. Same with the town if you'd like to meet the people here, they're a little superstitious but nice enough."

[Eurus]

She hums thoughtfully, scooping up a bit of water in her hand and letting it run through her fingers.

"My stream isn't too far from here. If you head northwest-ish, you'll find where it comes out of the forest. Plant sage and valerian around its bank for me, the others and I will tend them ourselves. I'll give you your contract, but it'll only work seven times."

[EdroGrimshell]

Jessica stands, "sounds good, I'll see you there, then," she says with a smile, "I'll release the summoning then," she places her left foot on a small circle within her part of the circle and presses down, releasing the summon "I'll be there by noon."

[Eurus]

The sprite dissolves into a spray of mist, only her giggling voice lingering until it too slowly fades away. The room is empty, now, except for Jessica herself and the now-calm basin of water.

[EdroGrimshell]

Jessica sighs and goes to her supplies, she knew she had sage seeds, as well as whole sage, she'd need to speak with Nell about the valerian, she'd probably be able to study any magical properties it had, but she wasn't much of a botanist beyond the bits of alchemy that Asher taught her, speaking of which, she had a few designs to work on for potions soon as well as arcane grenades to keep the lord's men away. She'd be working on these ones for a while...

Jess gathers some sage seed and some still living sage, then heads down to the town in search of Nell again. She'd also need to meet up with Johnathan and Valence at some point, she'd be busy for a few more weeks given what she had to do in such a short time. She wanted as much done as she possibly could in the next two weeks so she could ply her craft in less pressing, but far more fruitful, matters.

"Nell-san," she calls out on arriving where the woman usually was at this time of day, "do you know what valerian is? I need it to complete a project of mine that will benefit the town should an accident occur."

[Eurus]

It's easy enough to find Nell, bringing food to the men as they work on the crops. She nods a greeting to Jessica, and considers the question.

"Valerian? A useful plant, for medicine and magic alike. I don't have any in my garden, I'm afraid. I think there's some in the forest, though. There's all sorts of herbs there if you know where to look. Not that I'd recommend poking around out there this time of year."

[EdroGrimshell]

"I'll need to know what it looks like, I need it for an emergency healing spell, it's a bit of a 'just in case' kind of spell," She didn't mention she summoned a water pixie to get said spell, "and do you know the general area I could find some?"

[Eurus]

str"Well, it's sort of a... you know what, wait a moment and I'll get you a picture."

Nell wanders off to a house only a few yards away, her own. She disappears inside for a moment, and returns with a piece of paper, a surprisingly well-done charcoal sketch of a valerian plant on it.

"Here, that should do you. As for where... If you go straight east from town, over the river, you should find a clearing. There's all manner of herbs that grow there, even ones that shouldn't grow anywhere near here. You'll probably find what you need there. But be careful not to take much. It's customary to bury a coin after you visit that place, too."

[EdroGrimshell]

"Thanks, I'll be back soon to let you know how it goes," Jess says, heading off. She only had a few bullets for defense, and she wasn't very good with her machete, so she'd have to rely on what little magic she could muster to increase her potency for now.

[Eurus]

Nothing else comes up on the way out of the village. The forest isn't far, you can actually see it from the town's edge. At first glance it doesn't seem unusual at all, even as Jess starts making her way through it. There's certainly no sign of fae.

The weather is pleasant as you progress, sun and wind both broken up by foliage. The sounds of birds can be heard, although any animals around must be doing a good job of staying away from you, probably wary of hunters. There's no sign of any spirits, either.

A metallic glint catches the eye, half-buried in the earth. Drawing any closer reveals it to be a small silver locket, heavily tarnished and forgotten. It's molded in patterns of vines and flowers, and there's no sign of where it might have come from or who the owner was.

[EdroGrimshell]

Jess blinks, she hadn't been expecting this, running into an enspelled item while on her way to the river. She goes over and gently picks up the worn pendant, she'd have to examine it later to determine its enchantments, for now, she slips it into a belt pouch and continues on.

[Eurus]

More indistinguishable trees pass by. A few minutes later, Jess finds herself entering a wide clearing, warm with direct sunlight from above.

The clearing is full of beautiful plant life, all manner of flowers and herbs growing side-by-side. The sheer variety is almost... unnatural, like a tended garden. Some of the plants are totally unfamiliar.

Kneeling by a patch of white flowers is a humanoid figure, a woman with long black hair and a pale yellow dress. She slowly turns to look up at you, revealing brilliant pale-blue eyes. There's no trace of magic on her, but her movements are eerily graceful as she slowly rises.

"Well hello there. We don't often see visitors, this time of year."

[EdroGrimshell]

"I wasn't expecting to meet anyone out here," Jess says, "...are you human?" she asks curiously?