One Year Prior To Departure

No story has a true beginning, only a point where you begin telling it. So we shall start here.

Within the illustrious nation of Aleteros Irene lives and practices her craft. Studying the nature of death in all its facets. From that moment when life first flees a body to the encroaching march of death upon the flesh. This has proven a fruitful endeavor. Irene has enjoyed success in her career. She's earned the respect and esteem of her colleagues and been given the opportunity to pursue projects at her leisure.

OOC: Your character is an experienced mage, successful and well established.

Writing Prompt: Describe a day in the life of Irene, where she lives, how she starts a typical date, the people she encounters and the projects she's working on. End your post with him learning that an extra-planar expedition is being planned.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:49, Thu 25 Jan.

Irene would wake up to her alarm. Getting up, she'd open her closet and 'awaken' one of the many human skeletons inside. "Morning Dylan, please prepare my cup of hot chocolate." she'd ask, then take her morning shower. Every morning, she'd do the same things, in the same order, almost at the exact same time. She did this not because she wanted control but simply because it was the most efficient way to go about them.

During breakfast she'd check her planner for anything important. While Irene was a prominent mage, she still marked auspicious dates and times to help her power during projects. While most might believe after one starts mastering there technique, they won't need stuff like that, but its always good to take whatever extra help you can get. Sadly though, the planner offered more dread than help. Earlier in the week a close colleague had talked Irene into going into a party, in spite of her strong distaste for them. With a sigh she'd hand the leftover dishes to Eden another one of her skeletons she'd awakened this morning.

Irene lived in a small manor with an upstairs and a basement, the basement was where the magic happened [insert rimshot]. The basement was a wide, empty space with thin cement walls. Cement so it was hard for anything gone arye to escape, thin so her magic could still feed off the fact it was underground... and right next to cemetery. At the moment she was working with ghosts, she liked to imagine the possibilities if Aleteros could contact their greatest, deceased, mages. True, it had been done before, but not consistently, anybody who'd done it had more stumbled into and it or not taken notes. Irene's goal was to discover the exact spell.

This also happened to be Irene's area of expertise, 'done, but no notes'. This was actually why Irene was held in such high regards in the mage community. For a significant period of time necromancer's were viewed in a... negative light. This, in turn, caused necromancers to often be power grabby revenge addicts. It wasn't hard to become scary powerful as a necromancer, all you had to do was figure out a re-animate spell, and get powerful enough to do it a hundred times over. Because if this, Necromancer's were kinda too busy trying to take over the world to make a proper book to pass on. It's actually believed that the re-animate spell wasn't even written down till decades, or even centuries after its discovery. So Irene aimed not just to create new spells [of which she had many] but to recover the ones the necromancy communities' predecessor's had failed to pass on.

Soon it was time to go to the party. She desperately wanted to continue but she had made a promise to her colleague.

She arrived in a hoop skirt with no bodice. Fancy, but nothing to make her look pretty. Irene was actually happy the way she looked, despite it's tendency to spark rumors about her herself being dead. She looked around and quickly located her colleague Emerellia. While Irene did her best to distance herself from people this luck mage was a special exception. Emerellia had saved Irene from a potentially horrid situation; as payment Irene decided Emerellia would be her one connection to the world so it didn't fly by while she was busy discovering Death's secrets.

Emerellia would squeal upon Irene's arrival "Oh. My. Blue four leaf clovers!! Your here! I didn't think you'd actually come! Come, sit! I'll have a waiter bring us drinks." She'd say scurrying off. "Ah hold up n-" "No alcohol for you, yes I know miss buzzkill."  She'd say briefly turning to say this, then scurrying off for real. The party went as the parties usually did. Emerellia would essentially drag Irene from person to person, the people varying from rich mage sponsors to just over prominent mages. Emerellia would excitedly get the conversation started and Irene would help carry it here and there as not to seem rude. Soon the party started thinning out, and only mages like Emerellia, who enjoyed these events, remained.

Emerellia would take a long swig of her wine. She'd hiccup and giggle clearly drunk by now. "S-sssoooo Iren have oooo eard about the secrect extra-planter thingy et?" she'd say giggling. Irene would sigh "Emerellia you know I can't really handle plants." "nonono! Extra um thing, on top of our thing uh universe?" Emerellia would say, clearly trying to break through her wine induced fog. Irene would try to decipher what the other mage was saying, when it hit her. "Wait, Extra-planar? What about extra planes Emerellia?" Irene said suddenly very intrigued. Emerellia would cross her eyes in concetration. "Um thing like founders and explor-ee people did?" after this Emerellia would begin giggling again, resting her head on the table. It would take Irene a minute or so, but she figured it out. "Are you saying there are people planning an extra planar expedition?" Irene would ask Emerellia, wide eyed. Emerellia would look up with a confused face. "Uuuuh yeah? I think those are the words I heard them say when I walked by. cus I uh lucky girl." Emerellia would burst out giggling agian but Irene was already gone. She had to get on this expedition.


OOC:TL;DR She found out about it from her drunk luck mage Colleague who happened to over hear it.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:48, Sat 27 Jan.

Eight Months Till Departure

Four months had passed since Irene first heard of the Expedition. The Expedition. With a capital E. That's what it was being called. It was all the talk of Aleteros from the highest courts to the lowliest pubs. Now it had been long known that there were other worlds and places, but this was supposedly someplace new. Someplace untouched. A place ready to have a civilized hand imprint upon it. The New World, the Promised Land, Elsewhere. Everyone had a different name for the place, but all of it meant the same thing. Opportunity.

Since the word had gotten round about the project a massive construction effort had begun spellsmithss, runic cavers and arcano-engineers had poured into the capital from every corner of the empire to lend to the efforts. Now though, there was word that screenings had begun to recruit for the Expedition itself. This was confirmed days later when a letter written on fine vellum arrived at Irene's home.

"Salutations,

Greetings and well met esteemed arcanist. If you are receiving this letter than it has been determined that you are amongst those who most qualified and capable in the arcane arts. No doubt you have heard of the upcoming expedition to the Unformed Plane. We are currently gathering fifteen of the finest mages of Aleteros. If you have an interest in the undertaking, please respond and make a case for your appointment of one of the fifteen positions available.

May the Hidden Be Revealed to you,
Paramount of the Tower of Mages"

Despite the flowing script and fine paper, the letter had the smell of transmutation magic to it. One letter had been written, then duplicated likely a hundred times over. You are a highly capable mage, one of the most capable in fact, but that did not mean there weren't many others with such fine credentials within the mageocracy. While it chafed to receive an invitation simply to apply, it was likely unavoidable given the fervor surrounding the project.

Writing Prompt: Structure your post as though you're writing a formal letter back in response. In this letter make the case for why you would   be a valuable member of the expedition. Also describe the greatest practical application of magic you've undertaken in your career which earned you the esteem you now currently enjoy.

The letter is/was written in scrawling loopy cursive, so well done, it was a bit hard to read.

Greetings, honorable Tower of Mages Paramount,

I appreciate being considered for this expedition, and would love to join. I know that in/on other worlds there has always been the concept of death, I think that immediately requires a necromancer for this mission. True, other mages are perfectly capable of studying death and its facets in another world, but it would be best if you had a necromancer do it, somebody who has been studying death for a majority of their life. This way the expedition can even better understand death in this new world.

Furthermore, I believe a necromancer is vital to this expedition, again, because of death. While I'm sure great, near perfect choices will be made as to whos going on the expedition, what if one of our intrepid explorers were to pass away? The whole group would likely go into mourning and jobs would get neglected for who knows how long? With a necromancer this can be prevented, one can revive the fallen member as something else, and there would be significantly less mourning. Even if the necromancer isn't skilled enough to do that [they should be, I likely am], they'll know how to make great use of corpse so nothing goes to waste.

Now one might read this and be wondering what qualifies me to be that necromancer. Well seeing as I've received this letter, I'm sure you know about my work with some colleagues on both recreating and reverse engineering 'immortui' [or as its colloquially known the 'zombie spell']. So that we have a cure and no turned necromancer's can use it against us. While Zacharias is given the most credit for this project [since hes the one who still has a zombie bit on his arm], you can ask any source, even Zacharias who really led the charge on this project.

I consider this to be my best contribution to Aleteros [as of yet] but your likely wondering what advancements I've made on my own. Well, I invented quite the lovely little spell not too long ago, called 'Suprimot'. Should a user cast this, their body will experience slowed movements of their inwards, their heart only beating once per minute, their lungs needing significantly less air, etcetera, without any negative effects to one's health. It depends on your abilities but cast this spell enough times on yourself [only cast it on yourself once a day] eventually your body and magic will adjust and begin causing this phenomenon on its own. Now how is this useful? It significantly increases ones magical abilities. This was not only based on Ellion's theory, but proved it. Ellion's theory suggest's that not only is our body's engery being used to run our body but also a part of our soul. And so when one uses this spell they experience a suddenly larger resivoir, and even in some cases, more powerful magic.

May all be guided in making the best choices for Aleteros
Irene Fortuna [colloquially known as 'the living corpse']

Responding back, Irene wasn't sure what sort of response to expect back. Perhaps she thought there would be letters back and forth arguing the matter, or a response back outlining precisely why Irene was or was not an ideal candidate. What she did not expect was a letter back three weeks later that had only a few simple lines.

"Lady Fortuna,

We are pleased to welcome you to the expedition of the Spellspire Elucidate.

The Paramount of the Tower of Mages"

There were other details, logistics of where and when to arrive, people to speak to in regards to the journey. But there was time to reread that. For now the important thing that Irene was going. Now that left a thousand other things to prepare.

Three Months Prior to Departure

Your place was secure. The final list of the expedition members was still being finalized. One poor soul had had a magical mishap and until he had the proper number of fingers again there was no way he could join. Another had suffered nervous breakdown at the deadline loomed closer. Those were rumors at least, the Tower of Mages was keeping the list of those who would go hush-hush for now. Why that would be they did not elaborate, but those were all simply details. The important thing was that your position was secure, now it was only a matter of getting your affairs in order before the final departure. There was no telling how long you would be gone, but the safest estimates all stated it was likely years.

Writing Prompt: Describe your mage getting their affairs in order before setting out. What do they do their study and their home? Do they have any projects that they need to put on hiatus? How do they do so? Is everyone in their life on board with them undertaking such a great commitment?

Irene would be a tad startled at the 'lady' infront of her name. Those who respected her that much called her Mage Fortuna, and that was really one person. Most fancy people really did call her 'living corpse'. Her colleagues called her Fortuna or Irene depending on their familiarity with her. She was also rather disappointed why it was never mentioned why exactly she'd been picked.

The next two months were some of the most painstaking of her life. Of course she wanted her magic in peak condition for the expedition, but there were other more important matters at hand. Such as her life's work. She did not spend the last seventeen years mastering her craft and learning all she could about it only for the world never to receive or grow from it. She did all of this for future aspiring necromancers and if she didn't pass it on she'd be just as bad as those evil necromancer overlords! On the other hand, no matter how small the chance, there was still a chance she'd return. If she did return and had already let lose all her knowledge and unfinished projects, she'd have to amass her prestige all over again, from the ground up. Irene had no doubt she could do that, it would just be immensely bothersome. So, she devised a compromise, she put everything she amassed in two and a half books. [there wasn't enough to fill three] Thankfully, this was easy since she had already put the information that was already public in there as she learned, she just needed to add the secret stuff.

Next was the hard part. Turning her house into a death trap for any mage that wasn't a necromancer of extraordinary power. There was more than one necromancer that had done something like this with their graves. Of course, Irene had studied all of them for this exact situation. Irene had begun work on both as soon as she had gotten the letter. One month before the expedition Irene stopped her work, she couldn't risk having impaired magic for this journey. She wasn't happy with the end result. She would of liked to get some rune workers and such in on it too, but anyone worth their salt was kind of busy.

The next month was... painstaking. Irene didn't remember when she wasn't working on a project or something. All these years had been spent gaining knowledge and writing spells for future generations. Not... What did other people do? Party? Irene had already informed Emerellia she was leaving for The Expedition. Emerellia had thrown something akin to a six year old's temper tantrum about her not going and how Irene shouldn't do it because they were 'besties' [whatever that meant]. Now they, according to Emerellia, 'weren't on speaking terms' so asking her what to do was out of the question. That left only one person that wouldn't take forever to get to she was comfortable talking with.

Irene knocked on the door of the large mansion. A servant answered the door and jumped in horror upon seeing Irene. "Z-zombie! Master Chervil! Master chervil!" the servant would shout running back into the mansion. Irene would sigh, she didn't know why Zacharias didn't just use undead servants, they'd always recognize her. Soon enough Zacharias came running down the stairs with the servant. "Judy I haven't been working with anything that could have a mind of its own for awhile, I don't see how-" He'd stop upon seeing me. He seemed as equally startled as the servant, just no horror. "I-Irene?" He'd ask running down the stairs. "Yes, it's me. I was wondering if you had any projects I could help consult you on?" Irene would ask, her face as neutral as always. "I er-yeah. What- wait are trying to rack up more credit to get into The Expedition cause-" He'd try to ask but Irene would interrupt him. "No, though I do ask for a small mention if you publish anything, I'm recovering my magic for something important and have nothing to do in the meantime." Zacharias would split into a grin Irene didn't recognize. "y-yeah, I would love to have you consult on my projects please come-is that your nightgown?" He'd ask as soon as she'd step into the light.

Had Irene known it would be so miserable, she wouldn't have come. Zacharias made her wear real clothes instead of the nightgown she usually wore, and made her eat multiple meals, not just breakfast. He explained that the level of self-care she’d been giving herself was only acceptable at university when there were deadlines to meet. Irene happily pointed out that life was really just one big university for every one. Your goals were your homework and death was the deadline. It was such a good point, Zacharias couldn’t find a better argument [at least that's what she thought, he’d really just been shocked/petrified into silence and concern]. And that was how she spent her days before ‘launch’.

Three Days Prior to Departure

The time was upon you. A year had passed in a blur. Arrangements had been made, goodbyes made. Now it was the time for looking forward. It was also the first chance to visit the Elucidate. You had seen it for months from the outside. The Spellspire stood prominently in the capital plaza, a tower a dozen stories tall with slate gray walls punctuated by a number of evenly spaced windows. It was not a pretty structure like many of the other soaring towers that made up the capital, but this building had been built for function over form.

Two great double doors made up the entrance and they stood open now. Striding through, you enter a great reception hall whose vaulted ceiling is suspended by a dozen stone pillars. There are alcoves set along the walls, each neatly labeled and judging by the shimmer inside, they're some sort of transportation apparatus. This hunch is proven correct as your guide, one of the arcano-engineers, takes you over to an alcove. "Each mage shares a floor with one other, this will be yours," she said proudly and ushered you through the transport.

In a shimmer of gold, you step out onto a receiving chamber on another floor. This room has one of the towers windows opposite the transport. There are also only two doors. The engineer takes you over to one and, procuring a great brass key, turns it in the lock and throws it open. It reveals a perfunctory room whose walls and floor are made up of flat gray stone. It seemed to be a single chamber. If there are only two doors here, where is the rest of the floor hiding? As if sensing your thoughts, the engineer speaks up. "We've folded space here. The room can be customized to meet your needs," she explains proudly. Motioning to a panel of gemstones on the walls, she manipulates one and a door appears on the far side of the room. Another and a window appears. Pressing a diamond and furniture starts to materialize. "We have a setting for every need. Now this conjured furniture will dematerialize if it leaves the tower, but within the Elucidate you'll have every comfort and tool you could require. Your personal quarters can have as many rooms as you need for personal space and study. Please, take some time to make yourself comfortable."

Writing Prompt: Take time to personalize your room within the Elucidate. Describe anything you bring.

OOC: Note, any functional items you bring, extra enchantments, materials, basically anything that might be useful, will be rendered inert by the trip, so this is all flavor.

The Surviving Spell

While the maiden voyage of the Elucidate will not go according to plan. One of your spells has survived the journey. Choose one of the spells below and add it to your spellbook. Indicate in your post which you've chosen.

Decay: You pick one subject and impose the entropic forces of necromancy upon it. Entropy comes to all things in time, you just help it get there faster.
Ability: Offensive spell, you choose one target and apply entropic effects to them.

Praematurus Rigor Mortis: When death arrives before cells begin to break down and flesh rots, there is first a tightness of the muscles and tendons. This can be used to synthesize strength for one who knows how.
Ability: You give a subject a surge of strength as you emulate rigor mortis. (Note: This adds a roleplay element to the affected target, it makes them feel chilled for the duration of the spell)

Draw the Veil: Necromancy is not just the manipulation of the dead, but toying with the boundary that separates life and death. With your magics, you can obscure that line. Perhaps not flashy, but often important for a necromancer as there are forces that exist out there which are drawn to that glow of life.
Ability: Once per adventure you can obscure the life signs of an individual. They can still be seen and heard, but are invisible to entities who detect others through things like heat, heart beat or other life signs.

"Thank you" Irene would say blankly. She would drop her large backpack on the ground. The singular pro to Zacharias three week 'self-care' course was that she could carry this without looking like a flipped helpless turtle. Then again, she would of just had Terrence carry it in if Zacharias hadn't convinced her that a skeleton would scare the crowds and that would upset the Mages tower. Much as Irene loathed to only bring one of her closet companions, she didn't want to seem boastful. True, efficiency should trump social matters any day, but she was going to be stuck with these people for many years to come, sacrifices were going to have to be made.

She didn't push many buttons, all she needed were two extra rooms, three total. One was what she fondly referred to as a casting closet. It was a room just big enough to hold a large casting circle in the middle with many shelves. Irene had learned early on that when you needed to cast something with a large circle and components she could fudge it and put the components on the shelves instead of being crowed by them in the circle.

In the casting closet she put her black candles and some basic herbs for necromancy. She hadn't known these amenities would be provided so she'd brought the candles in case she didn't like the lighting in her room or it was too warm.

The other room was, of course, a bathroom, it had everything most bathrooms did. Plus something extra, it had a large basin that seemed to be part of the floor its self. Irene filled it with what had been taking up most of the room in her bag, dirt from a grave. She often found it relaxing it just sit in the dirt when she was waiting for her magic to re-charge. Plus it was also frequently used in larger spells.

With the adjunct rooms finished, she began work on the main one. She added a curtain to her one window, and created a lovely black armchair with white lace, putting it in the corner. She'd take out a dark blue blanket and place it in the center of the stone floor. She then pressed some more buttons and grinned when she got the wanted result, the floor was now an even chillier black obsidian. Last but not least, she'd begin to scatter Terrence's bones around the room. This was the first room people would see, and she had to keep up the idea that she was some horrifying necromancer or they'd all start to get chummy with her. A shudder would wrack through Irene at that thought and not the pleasant kind. with Terrence's bones scattered [but safely away from the door so nobody would step on them. Irene would pull out his skull and her casting skull, placing them on either side of her blanket.

The last of her bag contained all the ingredients needed to make ample amounts of hot chocolate, a back crystal wrapped in a silver cord [a parting gift from Zacharias], change of clothes, a handful of notebooks, couple of peacock quills, some jars of ink, and a necklace with a rabbit's foot on it.

OOC:Decay has been the subject of Irene's favorite and most secretive research. And so it shall be the thing that remains
This message was last edited by the player at 21:12, Wed 31 Jan.

"Dimensional translocation in ten, nine, eight," the pleasant androgenous voice chimed melodically throughout the corridors of the tower. The smell of atmosphere grew sharper as the arcane energies gathered. The gray slate stones of the tower Elucidate seemed to thrum with the growing power. Outside a sea of onlookers stood gathered, held only at a safe distance from the barriers set up around the plaza. Their cheers filled the air like the dull roar of some gargantuan beast, but inside the Spellspire there was only that soft voice and its steady count down. "Six, five four."

Inside his study Almanic sat rigidly in his armchair in front of the fire. "Silly old man, teleportation doesn't jostle," he said to himself, even as his hands gripped the arms of the chair tighter. The polished wood pipe clenched between his teeth was in danger of cracking. Staring doggedly into the dancing flames in the hearth, he tried to ignore the numbers steadily ticking down.

Two floors up Taebor had the windows of his room thrown open and was almost hanging out as he waved both arms excitedly at the crowd. Their surge of cheers at his antics only encouraging more enthusiastic waving of his arms. Dressed in glimmering white cloth that sparkled and shone, the man was impossible to miss against the gray slate walls. It was why he'd chosen it after all.

At the top of the tower the three mages ringed around the whirling glass control sphere of the tower made waves of their hands and twists of their fingers which corresponded to dozens of tiny incremental adjustments. Even in the final seconds before translocation adjustments must be made. "Nether weave stabilized," said Lyshen. "There are ripples in the arcano-sphere... but they're within acceptable parameters," advised Anders. The last member of the trio ran a hand through her silver hair, her pupil-less eyes matching the color. Her inner eye was tracing the arcane threads that ran off that orb to every corner of the Spellspire. Elucidate was a miracle of arcano-engineering. The best forged by diviners, spellsmiths, runecarvers and a dozen other fields of mysticism. All those arcane threads hummed, drawing taut with anticipation as the arcane forces gathered. She held their destination in her mind as she plucked those chords. "Sen tailen est," she murmured softly for good luck. "Our location is locked. So we step beyond the boundaries of gods and men."

"Three, two, one."

A beam of searing yellow light shot up from the Spellspire and expanded to engulf the structure. The cheering throng fell into awed silence as the radiance grew until they were forced to avert their eyes. Then as suddenly it was gone. The plaza where the two dozen story structure once stood was now empty. The twenty six souls who inhabited the tower gone along with it. Twenty six intrepid explorers who had set forth to blaze the trail so that others might follow after.

This was the expedition of the Spellspire Elucidate.

OOC: And this concludes getting to know the character. Let the proper adventure begin shortly!