Sekiri suddenly peers at you as he says "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts. There they are all standing in a row. Can you see them?" For a moment you are confused at this before you remember his introduction, and you quickly grab the bottle of pills and pour a generous measure of them down his throat. His eyes seem more focused now. "Oh, I didn't see you come in, have more questions?" While you have been there for a while already, you decide not to mention this to him.
"Now we're on to the proper stuff of Wizardry, casting spells. First, in order to cast a spell, one needs to have the spell lodged in your memory, or alternatively on a magical scroll, but we'll cover those later."
"To get a spell into your memory, you need to 'remember' it from a source. Spell memory is finite, but you shouldn't have any problems with that at the moment. The easiest way to do this to start with is to pop downstairs to our Gymnasium and use our Gym Tome. This has a number of our easier spells into it, so it is perfect for you to start out with. Simply turn the pages to the spell you want, and remember it from the tome, simple. If you no longer want to remember that spell, simply 'forget' it" Sekiri smiles at you and says "So many things in Wizardry aren't simple, so enjoy it while it lasts. Now, there are other sources of spells such as the various libraries, or magical scrolls, but we'll get to those later on."
"Once it is in your memory, you can, hopefully, 'cast' the spell. To do so, you will need enough guild points, any physical components it requires, and possibly a target for the spell. To cast the spell, you will need to refer to it in your mind exactly, as these spells can be picky about that. Here is where those nicknames and aliases I suggested you look up earlier come very much in handy."
Sekiri ushers you towards the door and says "Run downstairs and grab
Eringyas' Surprising Bouquet from the Gym. I'll be here when you return." After you do so, he continues "You should have enough skills for this spell from the basic advancement you have already completed. Now, this spell requires neither components nor a target, so why don't you give it a try." Sekiri smiles at you as you do so, and to your great surprise you drag a bunch of flowers screaming into this dimension. "Well done, you've cast your very first spell, quite an achievement. I see that the result was something of a surprise for you, though possibly the name should have given you an idea. However, later on we'll go through some of the spell reference books you can use to give you an idea of what a spell does, and you can always get 'help' on any spell in your memory."
Somewhat excited at having cast a spell, you settle back down as Sekiri continues. "Now that particular spell had no such requirement, but most spells other than the most basic ones, require a physical component or components to either act on or with to cast the spell. These components are often, though not always, consumed in the course of the spell. You can check what components will or won't be consumed by interrogating the spell about its 'components'."
"Obviously, this component requirement means that you'll need to carry around a fair stock of certain items if you intend to cast spells at all regularly. If however, you 'identify' the container you are carrying them in as a 'component pouch', the spell will automatically know where to look for the required component when you cast it, which can save you time and effort."
"Now that you have cast your first spell, I will explain briefly how they work. You will be studying the
magic system in much more detail during the course of your graduate studies.
"We will use the spell you just cast as an example. Every spell that you cast has one or more different stages in the spell, which usually use a different method skill each. Most spells require multiple skills and stages, with the number generally increasing the more powerful or difficult a spell is. We will discuss how to determine what skills each spell uses when we discuss
spellcheck."
"The spell you just cast, Eringyas'
, has three different stages, using channeling, evoking and charming, in that order. As you cast the spell, your skill in those methods is checked against the requirements for that spell, to determine whether you succeeded at that stage of the spell. If you manage to succeed at all stages, then you will successfully cast the spell. In addition to whether or not a spell succeeds, many of them will also have different strength results, depending both on those method checks you passed, but also, usually more importantly, the relevant magic.spells subskill. In this case that would be miscellaneous, but this spell does not have variable results, i.e. it either works or does not."
"As I said, you will learn more about that later, but for now, think of most of the power of a spell being driven by the magic.spells subskill, and the success or failure of the spell by the methods it uses. This is somewhat oversimplified, but will suffice for now."
Sekiri sniffs and seems to become more alert. "Well, they're on the way with my lunch from the kitchens now, so you will have to run along shortly. Never get between a Wizard and his lunch. But happily, we're just about to a natural stopping point."
"Now that you have a basic knowledge of how spells work, how to remember and cast them, I suggest that you should grab a few more spells and start practicing them. Not only will this give you valuable experience, as we'll discuss after lunch, but it is also a great way to get those taskmasters I mentioned earlier. Try and practice a few different spells, and see if you can succeed. You are more likely to get a tm at the point at which you both fail and succeed fairly regularly, it is much easier to compare what you've done and the outcomes at that point. You can't get a tm at a skillcheck that you either never fail, or never succeed at, so make sure you grab appropriate spells.
"In addition to the spell you already have, I suggest that you also grab both your very first defensive spell,
Sorklin's Field of Protection, and your very first offensive spell,
Malich's Penetrating Ocular Lance. Practicing these will give you the opportunity to both improve and learn a little about how both those magic types work. Don't worry, you can practice the offensive spell down in the gym on our captive demon, Dwmmigh. He won't be too offended." Sekiri shoos you out of the room as the door opens and an extremely large trolley is wheeled in.
As you enter back into Sekiri's study, you find the Wizard slumbering in front of the fireplace, and judging from the remnants on the table, having clearly finished a substantial lunch. The sound as the study door closes behind you wakes Sekiri, and he seems almost confused as to who and where he is for a time, before partially focusing his attention on you. "Ah, excellent, the final course is here!" He exclaims, before shaking his head, lucidity returning as he says "Sorry about that, take a seat" he waves a hand at one of the chairs, before putting the pickled hand back down on a messy table full of spell components.
"I trust you've been practicing some spells?" You nod. "Right, well now its probably worth discussing in more detail what the focus of your immediate student studies should be."
"By now you should have gained some valuable experience from both utilising your skills, and from some of your first forays into offensive and defensive magic. The question before you is what courses to utilise those experiences on in within the guild. By now I assume you have gained the base level 5 levels of magic skill?" As you nod, he continues "Well lets talk about some of your options."
"One option, now that you have that basic training, is to continue your lessons in magic. You are now able to advance ma.spells, magic.methods, magic.items and magic.points directly. And once you get more lessons in those, for example 5 levels of methods, you can start advancing its subskills, elemental, mental, physical and spiritual, and so on until you can see all the base level skills directly. The benefit of this path is those improving skills will give you the ability to practice some additional spells, which can give you more variety in your spell casting, increasing not only your experience and tm chances, but also expand your range of abilities.
"Alternatively, you might like to use that experience to get a bit of basic training in self defence, or 'fighting' from the guild. Once you have that basic training, you might be able to head and out and bash, squish or otherwise kill a few of the nuisances around this otherwise fine city, such as rats, cockroaches or dwarves." Sekiri points at an old staff by the door "Feel free to take that on your way out. Do be careful if you want to clean up the last of those pests however, as they might put up slightly more of a fight, and the city hasn't actually gotten around to officially classifying them as pests just yet. Doing so may allow you to amass further experience to continue your studies, especially if you practice your spells like Malich's and Sorklin's while doing so. Oh, and if you break that staff, you can get another one just across from the University at Hobliet the Unnecessary's Linear Tools shop in the Magic Emporium."
"Once you graduate, we'll talk a little more about what skills will be the most beneficial for you to work on, but in the meantime, no lessons you take in the guild will be truly wasted. In particular, in addition to the above, you probably should consider the training the guild offers in other.health as soon as you can. The 25 levels the guild can teach will measurably improve your fitness and ability to survive being attacked, or to survive failing some of our nastier spells."
"I suppose by now you are wondering exactly what the experience you need to advance is, and how to maximise any that you get?" You nod and Sekiri continues.
"Well, at the basic level, experience is simply knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what you have observed, encountered, or undergone. Sometimes also known as 'Xp' or 'exps' or similar, Wizards being wizards after all, the guild has also developed a method to quantify and compare experience amounts in a numerical form, and quote how much you get from different actions."
"The baseline for these is the amount of experience you get from simply observing the world around you, and most of the time, this will be 3 experience for every one of your heartbeats. If you gain a lot of experience from other actions in a short amount of time however, your attention will obviously be distracted and this observation experience will eventually suffer."
"Another form of experience that you will get is from encountering or exploring new places, particularly places that are out of the way and few have visited. However, by far the most experience comes from things you actively do, some of which you have already done."
"The first of these is simply using guild and other commands. The amount of experience you gain from using a command is based on the command itself, how many guild points it used, and how recently you have used that command previously compared to completing different tasks. The more often you use a command, the less experience you will receive for doing it again, as anything you learnt last time probably hadn't sunk in yet. For instance, in casting a spell, you should receive 15 times the guild point cost of that spell in experience points. If you were to cast the same spell immediately after, that would drop markedly to around 5x the cost, and drop further still on the next. If you were to cast a different spell however, the experience received would be 15 times its cost again. The same applies to different commands, though the multiple will vary. For instance, you only get 10 times the cost for a simple spellcheck, 15 times the cost for non-guild commands, and up to 30 times the experience for commands like scribe or octograve. To maximise your command experience, you will therefore be best off if you vary the spells and commands that you use."
"Secondly, and while for legal reasons I do not condone it in any way, except in self-defence, you can receive experience and accelerated learning while in the heat of battle. Once you have killed an opponent, and appropriately hidden the evidence by burying the corpse, you will gain what can be quite a significant amount of experience. The amount that you will get will be based on various factors, including how skilled your opponent was, your own level, and if you took part in the combat as part of a group, how much you contributed. If you do wish to travel down this path, such groups can be very beneficial for you to be a part of, especially when you are young and need a helping hand."
"Finally, you can also gain experience by completing various 'quests' and 'achievements'. We will discuss those after a quick coffee break."
Sekiri puts down his oversized mug and exclaims "Ah, that hit the spot!"
"Quests are basically puzzles that you may run across in your travels around this fine city or other places on the Disc. Often you will notice little details that may prompt you to commence one, or certain citizens may ask you for help. However you gain one, you will undoubtedly learn a few things along the way, and receive experience or even other rewards for completing them, so keep your eyes open!"
"Achievements are those little, or not so little, things that you achieve along your journey through this life. Some of them you have already completed, such as the first spell you remembered, the first offensive and defensive spells you cast, while still others you have yet to achieve, such as the first time you bring the dead back from a shallow grave to do your bidding. Whichever of these milestones you complete, you will learn a little something about yourself and gain experience on achieving them."
"Both of these are excellent ways for a youngster such as yourself to get started on the road to Wizardry. Don't neglect them!"
"By now, you have had a few lessons in the guild, and undoubtedly have noticed that the study materials can cost you a significant amount of money!" Sekiri peers at you intently. "Unless of course you happen to have a rich trust account at Bing's Bank you wouldn't mind sharing?" As you shake your head, he continues.
"Well then, perhaps I can give you some guidance on how to support yourself while you study, and maybe even get a little help."
"The most basic method is for you to wander the streets of the city, while you 'search' them for any valuables. You will probably turn up a few things that you can sell to general stores, and who knows, you may even get lucky enough to find a royal that someone has misplaced. Obviously, you're not going to become rich overnight, but it is a method that requires very little other than time."
"A related method relies on the fact that whatever you or I officially think about killing other citizens of the city and environs, the reality is that others are certainly engaged in it as we speak. You may be able to then wander behind those persons, or even just along high traffic areas, and 'recover' the bodies they have buried. They have probably taken the choice cuts of the loot, such as coins, valuable jewellery and high end weapons, but it is not uncommon for them to leave heavier, low cost items behind. If you're willing to cart it around, you can still often get quite a bit of cash from items such as weapons, armour and clothing left on them. I wouldn't mess with the corpses until those other persons have finished with them, however.
"I can see that as a fledgling wizard, you're not entirely enamoured of those ideas. Another possibility is more wizardly, though it will require some skills on your part. The short of it is that there are people out there that want the services of our guild, and are willing to pay for them. In particular, if you can scribe spells such as
Jogloran's Portal of Cheaper Travel , your services will be in demand at various Wizard and other guild shops around the Disc. In addition, if you can cast the spell itself, there are some organisations that specialise in offering travel services.
"Those skills however take some time, and funds, to achieve. So in the meantime, you may be able to apply for a scholarship from the Wibble Fund. Please ask a member of the
'Faculty'."
"Right, if you come back in an hour or two, I will have some time to go into a bit more detail on some of the commands I have mentioned."
