NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Part of this RP, sign-up before posting. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=569186) This thread limited to myself and Angermanland until further notice.

“Welcome, welcome to Naranja, home of Naranja University, the premier university of all Incognitia, and, we like to think, the world.
As well as the oldest university in Incognitia, Naranja is one of the most varied cities in the known world, with many academicians and others drawn here by the freedom the Republic permits them to publish what they please.
On your right you will see the famous tower of Lady College, tallest structure north of Nescia, except for the Lady's temples in Dunkennen and Menzerte. Arrayed below it, we see the quad of Lady College through the gate there.
On the left, facing Lady College, we have Admiral College, named for the Admiral before last. They're still building, and claim that they'll be bigger than Lady some day; though whether they'll have the temerity to try to beat the Lady's Tower is yet to be seen.
You'll be working initially with Professor Gurran at Admiral College; as the name suggests, Admiral College has close ties with the government, and the Master of the college was a respected Assemblyman before taking up this post.
You'll no doubt meet the Master in due course, but now if you're amenable I'll take you to meet the Professor.”

Their guide was a young functionary from the Foreign Ministry; he had been deputed to take them to Naranja from Nescia, up the Naran river, and to handle all details on the two day journey. After all, his ultimate boss, the Foreign Minister himself, Mr Jackson, was involved on this one, it wouldn't do to have the new arrivals getting fleeced on the way up.

Having negotiated the gruff porter at the gate – a breezy “They're all like that, almost out of a mould” from the guide before passing on, they found themselves in an off-square, almost cloister-like space, with an area of grass at it's heart.
“This is the main quad; the back quad is out that way” gesturing right “and Professor Gurran's rooms are this way” moving left. “I've no idea where you'll be staying, though there'll doubtless be space in the College.”
The various buildings around the quad had a series of staircases exiting onto the quad itself, each presumably accessing various rooms higher up. The building they came to was an older one, made of local limestone in a solid, somewhat blocky style. It only had one entrance, with the standard staircase entryway. They passed two floors of clearly mixed use, some accommodation and others seemingly for instruction – one particularly bored set of students were apparently being instructed in some magical theory.

“This is the Professor's room.”
Knocking on the door elicited an almost instant response of “Come!”
“Uh, Professor, I am William Barton of the Foreign Office, and I have Professor Chion and his companions from Alpini University.”
“Ah yes.”
Professor Gurran was not a young man; well into his fifties, though he looked well on it. He had risen through the intense academic politics with aplomb, backed by an undoubted expertise in magical theory, and had even managed to negotiate the wilds of the Foreign Office to get this project approved.
“Welcome, welcome. I'll be working with you a lot myself, of course; also my assistant Lee Bowkett will be around a lot – he's quite brilliant you know, I have to keep him here or he'd have my job” said with a wink and a smile “and I don't doubt that we'll be seeing other members of the faculty in due course. For all that he's a rival of mine, Jacobson will probably have a lot to say, and Stewart's around as well of course...Magnusson may have something to offer from the dwarf perspective...and various students will be around as required for volunteers, either to assist with big tests or to be tested upon of course.”

“Anyway, I am quite forgetting my manners. I'll have a couple of the porters take your belongings to your rooms; they're just down the hall here. Anything particularly arcane can be kept here, but I understand you don't use much of that sort...in any case, come in; I'll just call Bowkett, we can take some refreshments and discuss how we can best start with this project.
Summon Messenger! Args Find Entity: Bowkett. Message: Lead Here. Execute!”
A small white bird appeared as Gurran spoke; as he finished speaking, it flew away through the wall.
“One of my personal favourites, that” the Professor said, as he led them to a ring of leather armchairs amidst the clutter of books, papers and various objects, some mundane and some arcane.
“Once the target has been defined, such as 'Bowkett', it will go straight to them led by their magical signature, then give a message, either by projecting the letters in the air, or in the case of 'Lead' by flying in front of them to the defined location.”
Sitting, he summoned another bird, red this time, which was sent to the kitchens with a request for refreshments.
“Do you have any particular requests? We do have some Angerman academics here, so there should be food you recognise anyway.”

Chion, no young man himself, took a seat. "fair enough. Barley cakes and ginger beer, if we're having snacks, i think. ahh, i should introduce my party here, i suppose. the young man is Phijem, one of my more promising students in the practical arts of magic. the Dwarf is actually a native of your own lands, one Ing Isleforge. i understand the name was changed when a group of his family moved to Angermanland. and and finally, Yavia the elf. come from lands north many years ago. very good at report writing, record keeping, and plain on common sense. Gods only know how often the students would have blown something up without him around."

as he named them, each member of his party had first bowed slightly, then taken a seat as well. the introductions were a somewhat unusual concept to them, especially Phijem, who had not previously left the principality. a side effect of living in a society where everyone wore their allegiance and history displayed on their clothing for the world to see.

actually... i wouldn't be surprised if more than a few things hadn't already exploded since we left..."

the professor trailed off and looked worried for a moment before shaking his head slightly "nothing to be done about that. anyway. " he shifted track "an interesting spell you used there, sir" here he used the Angerman term for a respected equal, "if my understanding of what i have read is correct, that was an assembly of predefined key words, yes? to achieve a similar result, our own mages would do something a little different.

Phijem, show the professor, please. use the script focus so that we can see what you're doing."

"very well, sir" a different form of the word, here. taking a short length of wood from a pocket, barely more than a toothpick, he began describing characters in the air. they glowed slightly and hovered there once writen.

"Normally," Chion spoke "there's no need to have them display visibly like that once one has achieved Phijem's level of ability, or even to make the movements. but it helps when others need to see what you're doing."

five characters quickly took shape , one each for the Lighthouse, Parrot, Servant, Hawk and Compass. once completed, they merged together, glowed brighter, and resolved into a small... creature, for want of a better word, made up entirely of small arcs of energy moving around one another.

"as we don't actually know where the person or place this is being sent to is, the spell is constructed to find it. shall we send the order to the kitchens by both methods, just for comparison's sake?"

"An excellent idea indeed. Though in that case I should perhaps use a different spell, also constructed to seek rather than make it's way directly."
"End Messenger."
"Summon Seeker. Target: Kitchen, nearest. Task: Message: "Ginger beer, barley cakes and mead for six, Professor Gurran's quarters."
"Execute."
The bird disappeared on 'end', and a new one appeared in it's place, still red.
On the word execute, it flew away; as it left the room it could already be seen splitting in two, so it could fly both ways down the corridor. Each 'reflection' was paler and more transparent; by the time it found the kitchen it would have to recall its other instances to be solid enough to pass on the message. The multiplication did ensure, however, that it would find the kitchen swiftly.

"You have clearly done your reading, indeed. Every wizard has a series of basic spells, which are defined from scratch; more complex spells then call upon the defined forms of the simple spells, for ease of use.
All spells start with a key phrase such as "Summon Messenger." Fortunately, it requires a certain level of concentration for the keyphrase to operate, otherwise I would never be able to talk about magic without doing it.
The example of Summon Messenger is a good one. It shows the operation of a routine, or program, as some of the students are calling them nowadays.
Calling it with Summon Messenger merely creates an instance of the messenger bird. It then waits for it's arguments, to tell it what to do. The list of available arguments is nigh-endless, but the main ones are who the message is for, and what the message is. These are given to it by means of saying 'Args', followed by which argument is concerned, such as "Recipient" or "Destination", and the 'value' of that argument, such as "Kitchen". Normally I use the defined value of Kitchen to send a message, but this time I told it 'Kitchen, nearest' to make it search.
Finally, every spell requires the word "Execute" to run it. It is actually possible to set up several spells, then give 'Execute' for all of them simultaneously, but a prudent wizard does this rarely, so as to measure carefully the drain on his resources each spell represents."
"Now, since messengers and searchers are resource-light, we've plenty to spare for watching it's progress."
"Project Map: College. Show: Messenger, Seeker Spells, Mine. Execute."
A map appeared on the wall of the room, a plan of the college buildings, with little red dots on it, spreading outwards from the Professor's room. One white dot was visible, heading inwards, and as they watched one of the red dots reached an intersection and split in two.
"Now I'm afraid watching your spell's progress here would be much more difficult...I'd have to tell it to show all magic in the area, and that would make things somewhat confused, this being a college with much magical study going on at all times."
Spotting the white dot, he exclaimed "Ah, Bowkett's nearly here."
As he said it, a man in his lower twenties appeared in the doorway.
"Professor. You called?"
A tall young man, with a mess of curly black hair, and a studious face, Lee Bowkett was a fairly typical scholar in his attire and demeanour. All that was missing were ink stains on his hands...but then this young man was an accomplished magician, and his writing was accomplished without his having to touch quill to paper himself.
"Yes Bowkett, our guests have arrived. We're just tracking a search spell I've sent to the kitchens, and I was just explaining why it would be much harder to show their equivalent, which is going out for purposes of comparison."
He introduced the Angerman party, then waited for Bowkett to clear some papers from the remaining chair so he could sit down.
"Well Professor, I think I might be able to do something about that. Who made the spell?"
"Phijem there."
"Well, if we could piggy-back our magic on his, we could attach a routine to his seeker, and tell it to send back data about it's location, just as you have for your messengers. Then all we'd need would be a map overlay to show us on your map where Phijem's spell is."
"A little resource-intensive now his spell is out in the College, of course Bowkett. You'd need a seeker function, some form of attachment or lock, a data-return, and possibly a locater as well."
"Ah, yes, I suppose so sir."
"Bowkett has something of a tendency to ignore the resource requirements of his spells; it's three times now that he's been found unconscious in his rooms because he tried doing too much at once."

"It was really useful in the end though sir; what I found out about the finer operations of-"
He got only thus far before the professor cut him off.
"You were convalescing for a month that time, Bowkett. We still don't know how close you came to killing yourself."

"In any case, returning to your magic Chion, it seems that it could be difficult to be specific. With a limited array of symbols, recombined, I assume it is only by the concentration of the magic-wielder in question that a specific outcome is achieved?"

"Bowkett, you're a lucky man. using our magic, if you'd not been careful of the set up, even passing out wouldn't put an end to the spell, and you'd wind up dead. a warning worth heading if you're going to try it, lad.

as for the spell, it is necessary for it to draw energy from the caster, unless it is designed to allow it to draw from specific elements or artifacts, and it will continue to do so until dismissed, either manually or because it has fulfilled it's purpose. but once it has been shaped, the caster need not concentrate on it much, no. the symbols used are not exactly part of the spell, so much as a useful tool for focusing. there are a collection of spell components, grouped together for convenience of reference and by commonality of function, which define the gross nature of the spell, and the limitations of it's applications, as well as how much power is needed, where it is drawn from, and the like. so, when shaping the spell, Phijem used the Lighthouse, Parrot, Servant, Hawk and Compass components. the lighthouse represents guidance, the parrot represents repetition, the hawk searching, and the compass direction. the servant means that the spell acts for it's creator, rather than being simply a process. actually, Phijem can track that spell, change the message or change it's destination even while it's en rout. however, by it's nature, this particular one will continue to draw energy from him until he dismisses it. it's fairly low drain. most mages could keep something similar up for days on end, though we'd probably eat and sleep more than usual after a couple of days. it could have been made more precise, but every additional component used adds more limitations, as well as more functions. "

he stopped for a moment

"ah, i got off topic there. but anyway. the caster's will shapes the specifics of the spell within the limits of the componants, and their energy sustains it's function. "

"We are not working so differently, in that regard then. It strikes me that your spells are perhaps easier to nuance, where ours are easier to use for mechanistic, clearly specified ends.

In any case, while we can I am sure learn a lot from one another by discussing our different forms of magic endlessly, I would suggest that the main thrust of this project is discovering whether we can work each others' magic in practice.

To that end, if you could come up with a spell which is simple, and safe; the sort which you would normally start trying to teach to trainee wizards. We, in turn, will attempt to teach you the first and crudest of the spells to dispel illusions, which is the very first spell trainee wizards try. It is quite safe, as it only affects the magical, and the only possible risk is failing to end it and thus permitting it to expand too far and drain too much energy.

Both myself and Bowkett here have some quite capable routines for ending the spells of others, so even that risk is removed in this case."

A ring came from just beyond the doorway. It turned out to come from a man in college livery, with a large tray.
"Food as requested sir. Where would you like it?"
"Ah, on that table there" with a vague wave of his hand.
As the servant placed the tray roughly where indicated, the Professor asked him the burning question.
"And how did you receive that request down in the kitchens?"
"One of your birds, sir, just as usual; though some strange magical beasty turned up just after it with a similar message."
"How long is 'just after'?"
"Moments only, sir."
"Hmmm, within margin of error. Right, thank you."
Thus dismissed, the servant left. They swiftly became used to the somewhat odd, from the normal academics as well as the magicians.
"Well gentlefolk, I believe that shows, in at least one respect, our two magicks being on a par. Without timing them precisely, it seems the two search spells work with near-equal efficiency. Yours, after all, left here moments after mine, and the message was recieved moments later also."

"indeed. i agree with your assessment and comparison of the two types of magic, at least as a starting point and generalization, also. "

* * *

"Master Chion, it would seem to me that, for this first simple spell, it would be best to use something non destructive and non self perpetuating." Yavia sat at the large table in their rooms, drawing paper stretched out before him and writing brush in hand. Chion and the others were also present.

"well, i doubt you'll have need of any artifacts initially, save perhaps as an emergency supply if one of them panics" Ing was checking over the inventory list in front of him "i can knock one of those up fairly quickly from what we have here. it's just a case of applying a couple more channels and a target spell piece. though one of you'll have to arrange for the spell. "

"naturally, I'll arrange for that myself" the professor responded. "Phijem, what spell, do you think, given that this is highly experimental and they lack the usual long term training? Yavia's concerns are quite valid, here."

"a five component 'report' spell would probably work quite nicely. only way the spell it's self can go wrong is if they screw up and it keeps scanning a bigger and bigger area. eventually the drain will cause them to pass out, or maybe just fall asleep, and the spell will fizzle. no harm done. the potential for data overload is problematic, but the usual human response to that is simply to pass out anyway, long before any damage is done. though there is the chance of then dreaming about the stuff seen for a while afterward."

"that would be..." Yavia marked five components on the paper "these. Light, Dolphin, Fish, Adviser, and Hunter. there are other ways of constructing it of course, but all of them result in less... ideal... results for our purposes, i believe."

"they should be able to do that, if they can grasp it at all." Phijem nodded "though without the long term training..."

"we shall see what we shall see when we see it. such is the way of the world. it is the Schollar's way to make sure that what is seen is both true and recorded, and that any lessons to be learned, are.
Yavia, please write up the proposal for this and have it submitted to Gurran as soon as you're done."

"as you wish."

They re-assembled in a room set aside for the purpose, a magical practice chamber.
It had solid walls; a flimsy roof, which seemed newer than the rest of the building; a tiled floor; and two hefty tables, one of which was laden with papers and artifacts placed there by Bowkett, the other left empty for Chion and his assistants' use.
Gurran was standing in the middle of the room, muttering something. He finished with the typical word "Execute!", and a soft white glow suffused the walls.
"There. That should contain any magical effects to this room...at least from our magic."
Bowkett, meanwhile, was bent over some of the papers, mouthing words which appeared on the paper as he spoke.
"Now" the Professor continued "it isn't entirely necessary, but it does make it much easier to use a spell successfully if you've written, or 'compiled' a routine for it yourself. It would be possible for me to call a spell of Bowkett's, for example, but harder and more risky than if I have written it myself."
"Therefore, our suggestion is that we show you how this first spell to dispel illusions is written, you write it out yourselves, with some care, and then attempt to execute it."

Bowkett had now finished, and presented each of the Angermanni mages with two sheets of paper. One was blank, and the other read thus:
Call Dispel(n)

Ref SpellElements;

For DistanceYards = 1:n;
If AppearanceMagic = Yes;
Set AppearanceMagic = No;
Refresh Display;
Else NoChange;
End If;
Next n;

End Module


"To call it, for this room, for instance, being approximately ten yards from one end to the other, you'd stand in the middle and say 'Dispel 7, Execute'."

"The various elements are; first the module name...what you say to call the spell. 'n' is a variable, which can be any value.
Ref SpellElements is a standard...it means we don't have to define things like numbers, distances, what magic is, the If statements...all those things are in here" Bowkett tapped one of several copies of a large tome which lay on the table.
"Essentially all you need to be able to use these sub-elements is to own a copy of the book, whereas for the full spell you need to have personally written it. It's a strange effect that no-one can entirely explain, but in any case we have one volume for each of you, so that you can attempt this without having to define all the syntax."
"Then we introduce two very useful statements. The first is 'for'. It essentially tells the spell to loop; to do certain things - what is contained within the for loop - until a condition is met, and then to stop. Infinite for loops are one of the major errors in spell compilation, but the one we've written will be quite safe, as long as you call Dispel correctly."
"The second statement is the If block. If essentially asks a question - is this condition met. If it is, it does one thing; if not, it does something completely different, or in this case, nothing at all."
"It is becoming more common to build an If-test for reaching the limits of one's resources into particularly dangerous spells. It knocks a little off their performance, but significantly reduces the risk of death."

"an odd arrangement, but logical enough if I'm understanding you." Chion took the items and promptly put pen to paper "though I'm curious as to how ownership of a book is defined"

his subordinates did like wise, and one at a time called the spells. Ing, however, as well as writing his spell, had sketched out something on the back of the original. "i thought as much. look, artificiers use a similar system when designing particularly large, complex, or dangerous spells. and for enchantment on artifacts that are to be used by people less or untrained in the magical arts."

Phijem was the last to cast. the others had managed well enough, all things considered, and he expected to do at least as well.

"Ownership of the book? We're not entirely sure, it seems to be a combination of the name written inside it, verbal statements, and whose possession it is in at any given time. We made sure all our bases were covered by writing in each of them who it was being presented to, telling you they were yours, and passing them to you physically."

Each of them tried casting the spell in turn, and it went well, all things considered. Okay, the spells weren't as effective as they might have been, but they mostly had the intended result. Professor Gurran had had a cat brought in and placed in the middle of the floor, and each time he made it appear to be a small dragon. With a little flickering, each time it eventually went back to being a cat.

Then Phijem said "Execute."
First of all nothing happened. Then, the dragon/cat changed colour...went from being scarlet back to being tabby. Still dragon shaped though.
Then, again, nothing happened.
Bowkett called a spell to search for active magicks, and it found nothing. Cast a more capable, more complex 'dispel' of his own; nothing.
"Disenchant"...nothing.
They seemed to have a real, small, furry, tabby coloured dragon, where before they had had a cat.
"Okay...it shouldn't have done that."
Bowkett then pulled on a large pair of gloves, and tried picking up the dragon. Quite tame, it permitted him to handle it and stroke it...and when you would have expected a cat to purr, it rumbled gently.
"Right gentlemen, I suggest we cease all use of each others' magic until we understand what just happened and how to stop it happening again. This time seems to have been harmless enough; it still creeps the hell out of me. We had a cat, all we applied was an illusion spell, and now we have a dragon."

it didn't take long to find the cause of the problem. Phijem's strength lay in an intuitive grasp of Angerman magic. thus, when casting the Incognitian spell, he had automatically, and subconsciously, aligned the relevant Angerman spell elements in his mind. as he concentrated on the words to the Incognitian spell, rather than on willing the resulting Angerman spell to do what he desired, it took the Incognitian spell as it's instructions. of course, due to the syntax of the Incognitian spells, and the fact that Phijem's will at the time was focused on 'carry out these instructions' rather than the task the spell was to accomplish, when the Angerman spell activated it was with garbled and nonsensical instructions and form. the only line of the instructions which the spell had picked up on was apparently 'call dispel', which in practice, for reasons unknown, had become 'prevent calling'. the result of this was that it had interrupted Phijem's actual 'dispel' spell.

further and more detailed investigation was required to find why no subsequent spells had failed to affect the now-tabby-dragon, especially as Phijem himself was no longer supplying energy or instructions to either spell he had cast. long habit at least had lead to the inclusion of enough elements to give sufficient control for him to shut the Angerman spell down.

* * *

"well, gentlemen, hopefully between the last couple of weeks of studying and training, and the nature of the magics involved, today's experiment won't produce any more tabby-dragons. " Chion smiled slightly as he spoke.

"as you've probably discovered, Angerman magic is driven a lot more by the will and instinct of the user than Incognitian magic is. physical endurance is important, but more so is an awareness of the flow of energies and forces int he environment one is operating in.

to that end, each of my assistants, and one of your own mages, have stationed themselves in pairs in various places around the campus. each will be casting a nicely obvious 'flare' type spell periodically to make life slightly easier for you."

he handed each of the assembled Incognitians a sheet of paper, marked with the runes of the spell components they would need.

"what you will be doing, or at least trying to do, is cast a scouting spell. the paper i gave you has the runes you need for the simplest and safest form marked on it, but your own will and awareness will control quite how it manifests and how effective it is. the goal is to locate my assistants. "

Bowkett had been selected to go first. Well, what that meant was that Gurran had asked him nicely, and when your professor asks nicely...well, and there wasn't really any danger, just risk of embarrassment...so.
He concieved of the symbols for this spell.

Light, Dolphin, Fish, Adviser, and Hunter

Apparently there were several ways to do this part, all related to the user, and mostly acquired over long practice and years of training.
He had felt an intuitive preference for one of them...so he visualised.
Visualising a lamp, lit, he then removed the lamp itself from his mind, leaving just the Light.
Next he visualised a dolphin. That one was ok, it was ready.
Then a fish. Presumably one dolphins found inedible.
Then an adviser. He visualised an intelligent-seeming man, well-dressed, and a thoughtful expression.
Finally...and this was getting hard, to hold all these visualisations in his mind...the Hunter. A man in dull, practical clothing, with a long bow, and a predatory grin.
Then finally to give the spell focus; imagining pairs of mages and asking them...asking the Light, the Dolphin, the Fish, the Adviser, the Hunter, all in turn and then each together..."Where - are - they?"
They fused in his mind. He couldn't describe how, but they did; then they vanished from his mind's eye.

the nature of Angerman magic was such that the spells customized themselves to their user to a very large extent. Bowkett's focus on his question as worded had been quite intense, but for the spell to work, it had to know who 'they' were. as Bowkett knew, at least in as much as he had been told, what he was looking for, that information was transferred to the spell.

for many Angerman mages, used to working with the flow of energies and with the world they could see and hear directly, the result of the spell would probably have been a flood of data, showing all the paths and patterns and connections between where the caster and the target were.

Bowkett, however, was an Incognitian mage, used to dealing in definable values, straight line distances, coordinates. as such, this was how the spell returned the data to him. as he was well aware of the layout of the area, the information displayed it's self, in his mind, overlaid on his field of vision, a map. marked on it were those participating in the exercise, as well as the distance to where they were from his current location, and the many routs from his current position to their locations, based on his memories and what the spell it's self had found. the fastest, the shortest, the longest, the slowest, the most hidden, the most obvious, and so on.

each spell component was doing it's job nicely.

thanks to the light, the spell was drawing less of it's energy from Bowkett, and was taking some of what it needed from any available source of light as it worked.

the dolphin allowed it to gather far more data, anything that seemed it might be relevant, and, more importantly, to filter it so as not to overload the caster with obvious irrelevancies. even so, there was a lot of data. less and more organized due to the different mental disciplines employed by the caster, but still a lot.

the hunter increased the ability of the spell to find a specific target, or group of targets. to find the path they took, to find traps and places to set traps.

the fish allowed the sensing of patterns, energies. for this spell, given the nature of the target, the caster, the information to be obtained, it was doing little beyond adding the crucial fifth component required to give true control over the spell as a whole.

and finally the adviser. it's part in this spell was primarily to provide a filter. to take the information the spell gave, separate it out, and present those parts needed to answer the caster's needs in a way intelligible to him. this was where problems could occur with the spell, even if it was done right. depending on the nature of the spell components and the caster and the desired information, if the adviser didn't sufficiently filter the data, it could lead to an overload of information. massive headaches and/or fainting would useually follow. there had yet to be, ever, a recorded case of actually damage caused by a scouting spell, which was why this one was chosen, but an information overload was still painful and embarrassing.

fortunatly, Bowkett's spell worked perfectly. the location of the assistants was found, and marked down [without showing the others so as not to bias their own attempts].

Gurran went next, followed by Jacobson. Both were successful in executing the spell as instructed.
Finally Magnusson came forward.
He was the most senior dwarf professor in Incognitia, and a respected figure as a result. Dwarves didn't often involve themselves overmuch in academic pursuits; normally the closest they came was instructing in their own technical colleges, often now attended by human students.
Magic was the exception - there were many dwarvish students of the magical arts...but again, very few dwarves continued studying and teaching theoretical magic in the university rather than going to use their skills outside the ivory towers.
Tobias Magnusson was the exception that proved the rule - in the old sense of prove that dwarves still insisted on, of 'test'. Nonetheless, while few were better at using magic in practice, it was accepted that he was not so good with the high-level theory. However, as he'd always said...you treated a spell as a machine; you put together the right parts in the right manner and it would do what you expected.
This led to problems when you asked him to imagine, to visualise. Perhaps due to their mining heritage, dwarves were a very literal-minded race. Rocks were hard, darkness was dark, tools were sharp. Start messing with ideas like that underground, and you wouldn't last all that long.*
And that heritage, and those problems, affected his attempt at Angerman magic. *Something* happened, but it would take mages experienced in these matters to tell them what.

*Debt to Terry Pratchett's definition of dwarves acknowledged.

for all that it was initially subtle, the effect of the failure of the dwarf's spell was shortly to prove truly spectacular.

Magnusson's problems began with visualization. for a dwarf, so used to the concrete world of mining, or the hard, logical code of Incognitian magic, this aspect was inevitably going to give problems. Angermanland had a significant dwarven population as well, these days, so the prospect had been allowed for. it had been recommended that he use the runes, and write them out as a focus, in a process similar to that used by the dwarves and other craftsmen of Angermanland in the art of enchanting. for reasons of his own, however, he had rejected this advice.

inevitably, lacking the years of training and simple cultural inclination towards the appropriate patterns of thought, me made a mistake. actually, several. each compounding the last. the fish component was correct, but from there problems developed. the element light became the colour white, the helpful adviser replaced with the more obstructionist, rules and records minded bureaucrat. the constellation of the hunter, wise in lore, distorted to produce the lion, he who rules. the dolphin, gentle creature, simply would not come into focus, and instead a deep frustration was unlocked.

the goal 'find the assistants', was lost, replaced simply with 'do what you are supposed to. work!'

the magic took a moment to organize it's self. to develop the spell from the instructions. the component combination was unusual, to say the least. white, Frustration, bureaucrat, lion, fish... a spell made for causing chaos. bureaucratic frustration meant lost records, miss filings, chaotic systems. the fish simply allowed the spell to find every path the information traveled. the lion, combined with it's caster, gave it authority. white, in Angerman lore, represented purity and good, but also chaos and an ability to mask truth. combined with the rest of the elements...

in fairly short order the surrounding area's communications spells shut down. hard copy data spontaneously relocated baffling and confusing orders, counter orders, and requests started appearing in all departments. each real request made to an actual person was given a proper answer, proper instructions were given as to who to take it to. but somehow, that too, lead to more confusion as the relevant records were sent to the wrong place, responsibilities resigned on authority not possessed by those issuing the instructions, save by way of similar occurrences.

of course, as was the nature of such things, the first inclination anyone involved in the experiment had was when Ing felt the slight tug of awareness that was his spell in the energy storage artifact activating. no big deal, he'd just go back and ...

then he noticed how fast the energy was draining.

he rapidly cast a spell of his own. a complex, draining, eight component spell that amounted to a highly protected communications spell. "Chion! sir, whoever's casting, stop them, Now! it's the wrong spell! the supply artifact's draining rapidly!"

OOC: I think I know what you're doing here, but that paragraph from "in fairly short order" to "similar occurrences" is not exactly clear. The grammar's a little confused, and the punctuation doesn't help.

Also, how does someone in your magical system *stop* casting a spell?

IC: Having had his own turn, Bowkett had brought up a spell to show himself the locations of the assistants with his own, more familiar, methods, and see when their flare spells were going off.
Equally he was trying to jury a routine to follow the magic each of his colleagues used to see exactly how they performed.
He wasn't getting very far with that, however; then the map went all screwy.
As was standard procedure, he froze it in place, then applied a diagnostic.
The search spell was functioning; all the data was coming in; then it was displaying completely scrambled.

He knew his function was operating correctly (of course, he often knew this, then ended up having to retract that statement.) So, that meant some other influence was messing with his data.
Returning his attention to the outside world, that 'something' was clearly Magnusson. His spell had just begun as Bowkett's 'screen' stopped working.

"Professor Gurran, I'm not sure it's the right spell! It's messed with my display screen!"

It was at about that time that Chion, on the other side of the room, started and looked suddenly alarmed.

"shut it down, shut it down! stop casting!" Chion called out.

as he spoke, he was extending his own awareness, tracking the magic. that wasn't really a spell, as such. more accurately, it was a sense and skill developed over years of training and refined through further years of practical experience. to a graduate of Angermanland's magic schools, it's use at a low level was second nature. the use of magic subtly distorted normal reality, after all. he did have to cast a spell, however, to see what was happening outside, beyond the range of his purely human physical senses.

"Death's mercy, Magnusson, what did you do? oooh, this is going to take forever to straighten out. "

it was about that moment that the artifact's energy finally drained. Magnusson still hadn't actually stopped his spell, so when the artifact drained and it's redirecting magic shut down as a result, it went right back to drawing from the dwarf.

his own reserves running low already, that being why the artifact activated in the first place, it didn't take long for such a draining spell to knock him out. fortunatly, with five elements in use and the spell it's self being non autonomous, this shut the spell down as effectively as if he'd stopped it on purpose.

that put an end to new problems of a magical nature, but it didn't exactly fix those that had already been created. in fact, even as they were set right, over the coming weeks, the shear number of errors and problems would lead to them perpetuating for a while as they combined with each other and any attempts to fix one problem that didn't take into account a specific other one.

ooc: and i know that ending doesn't give Much to work with, but... it's what i got.

"Right. That, good sirs, is the second time something has gone quite seriously wrong, in two practical attempts at working one anothers' magic...well, eight I suppose, if we count everyone individually."
"Each time, it has only been our precautions beforehand which have saved us from a rather worse outcome."
"This time, though a full assessment of the damage will take a while, we have caused chaos which will take weeks to sort out."
Professor Gurran paused for a moment before continuing.
"However, I think the initial aim of this project, to discover whether we could use each others' magic, was a - qualified - success. We have also seen that the training in each is sufficiently different that jumping in to attempt a spell in the other tradition is potentially imprudent, to say the least."

"Therefore, I think perhaps we should shift our focus, to see whether we can make a spell of yours and a spell of ours interact to achieve a combined result when cast by two different people.
This would be likely to have many more practical applications, using a specialist in each to achieve what their magic is best suited to. It is my hope that this will allow us to attain some wonders of the magical arts otherwise beyond our reach."