Creation for New Death [profession/Adrastos]

Assignment Name: A Ring to Defy Death
Assignment Rank: B
Assignment Location: Balbadd
Assignment Rewards: 200 XP/Grim Reaper Magic Tool
Profession Prerequisites: Magic Tool Creator
Assignment Overview: Adrastos has approached Ariella in hopes of having a magic tool created. Meet with Adrastos to discuss what is needed and then make the tool for him.

---

Ari hummed a small tune to herself a song her mother used to sing to her, back in the ages before the young magician seemed to be nothing but a disappointment to her family. A more pleasant age. Ari briefly wondered how her mother would feel now, to know that her daughter had achieved the ultimate form of being a magician. Evelyn had always felt Ariella had fallen far behind the curve of the Negri family when it came to magical abilities. She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind, there was little use in thinking of her mother at this point.

She had an appointment with Adrastos soon and she wanted to finish scribbling out her current notes. She hurriedly scrawled across the parchment, gently blowing on it to dry it more quickly before resting it on the stack of papers she had already accumulated. She made sure to have a stack of blank parchment ready for when the pretty male magician came by, so they could finalize the plans for what, exactly, he was wanting for his magic tool. The market had not been the best place to discuss the plans in depth. They would have to hammer out the final details and Ari hoped the magician would bring a suitable vessel for holding the magic circle to save time.

[224/1500]

Ari heard the knock at her door and gave a smile when she opened it, welcoming Adrastos into the small living area of the inn she was staying in. Most of her bags were already packed, as she intended to leave soon after finishing her business with Adrastos. The only thing still scattered about were magical research books and parchments. Waving Adrastos into the room, she apologized for the disorganized clutter.

“Sorry about the mess. I will be heading out in not too much longer. I am assuming you found a suitable item for me to attach the spell to? If so, can you give me a more detailed idea of what, exactly it is that you would like this magic tool to do? I just want to make sure that what I am creating will not disappoint you.”

She waited for Adrastos to respond, her head cocked to the side. She had a parchment and writing tool ready to take notes, very serious about getting as much detail as she could from the other magician. She wanted to get this magic tool made correctly the first time.

[412/1500]

Adrastos nodded and handed her the ring he had chosen. He liked it, and hoped it would be fitting for creating a magic tool with. If not, it would be back to the drawing board, and the wait time for this new object of power would lengthen more than the magician preferred. “I imagine the magic tool reanimating the corpses of my fallen brethren so long as they are within thirty meters of my location and in a diameter of fifteen meters. The damage, in my mind, is able to break bones so that our enemies will feel our vengeance and know that even in death we will not give nor nor be weak.”

Ari listened intently, scribbling notes as Adrastos spoke, making sure that each of the dimensions he provided were included. His words rang in her mind and she could not help but think of how he might use the tool, though his intentions seems pretty straightforward and clear. It was a dangerous thought to her, the idea of reanimating dead bodies and she wanted to shiver at the idea of it. She suppressed her inner distaste for the idea and focused on the spell before taking the ring from Adrastos and examining it. The metal was strong and should not have a problem holding the magic circle and the skulls on it seemed appropriate, considering the purpose of the tool.

“This should work very well for creating a magic tool. Give me two days to work out the spell and make sure it functions properly before I make the tool. Once it is done, where would you like to meet? I can fully understand if you want to test the tool before paying me. If you wanted to test it, I believe we could probably find an abandoned animal graveyard not too far from here. That way, we are not desecrating a loved one’s grave, but you can still verify that the tool functions. Does that sound acceptable?”

She waited to see if he would agree to the terms, eager to begin work on the magic tool.

[648/1500]

The blue magician’s silver eyes watched as Ariella scribbled down her little notes about his specifications. There was no doubt in his mind that she most likely had concerns, but she didn’t voice them. The woman offered the chance to test it before being paid, but only on the condition that the remains of animals be used instead of people. Of course the same result would be accomplished, but Adrastos wasn’t looking for an army of animals. Still, he nodded, accepting her terms. “Sounds reasonable, Ms. Negri. We can meet a few blocks from here. I think there is an animal graveyard there.”

Ari nodded at Adrastos’ agreement of the terms before gently directing him from the room. She found it too difficult to create with an audience. With her teacher, it had been different, the woman nearly always silent unless specific direction was needed. One Neo had left, Ari made her way back to the desk, examining her notes for the magic tool. She still was not sure how she felt about creating such an item, but the other magician had seemed sincere in his explanation, no nefarious vibes coming from the man, despite the black rukh fluttering about. Being raised in Magnostadt, Ari had seen more than her fair share of black and white rukh, the teachers of the Academy simply seeing it as another means of accessing the rukh, though some hinted at less than desirable effects of regularly immersing oneself in the darkness.

Regardless, she had already agreed to take the job and she settled in to begin working on the magic circle. Like with Noir’s magic tool, she started her work on parchment, scribbling out the most basic of magic circles before listing runes across the page that she would need for giving the rukh specific commands. This magic type was a bit more complex, twining both lightning and life into one magic type, intriguing her as to how to make the rukh perform the desired task. The lightning portion of the spell would essentially mobilize the previously living thing while the life portion would give it just enough consciousness to follow the basic command of ‘attack’ on whatever was being reanimated.

She juggled the runes in her head, scribbling some of the more common ones across the page before listing other possibilities below it. In her mind, she combined some runes and commands, mentally playing out how that specific combination would work and writing down the possible ones while brushing away the impractical or undesired ones. As she scribbled, she lost track of time, the sun setting and the moon rising high in the sky, stars scattered across a blanket of black. She was too engrossed in her task to enjoy the sight and, in fact, fell asleep while working on the basic magic circle.

She awoke the next morning with parchment stuck to her face, ink splotches staining her cheek. With a groan, she moved over to the small wash bucket she had been given and used a cloth to scrub away the ink and vestiges of sleep, stretching and yawning as she finished waking up. Her back ached from falling asleep at the desk, but it did not deter her and she found herself soon scribbling away again, the brief encounter with sleep refreshing her mind. Ideas flowed more freely and it was not long before she was finalizing the design of the magic circle on the parchment, fleshing it out across the paper. She made sure it was perfect before touching on the ring Adrastos had entrusted her with, the ring dark and beautiful, much like its owner.

Finally, Ari felt confident in the spell she had designed and picked up her short staff and the ring, clearing her mind before touching the wand to the ring. She honed her focus, murmuring out commands to the rukh which caused a small magic circle to begin etching on the black metal of the ring. Within moments, the task was complete and Ari gave a small smile. She did not know if she was proud of her work or not and she personally had no desire to test the effectiveness of the item, though she understood her client would expect a functioning magic tool. She shrugged and brushed the thought away, she would be meeting with the other magician the later in the day so he could personally test it, which would simply have to be enough.

She tucked the ring safely into a pouch to keep it from getting lost before making her way to the animal graveyard the other magician had mentioned, using her staff as a walking stick of sorts, though it was a bit short for that. She waited for the slender man with hair of moonbeams, simply enjoying the swirl and dance of rukh as it danced around her.

[1356/1500]

The two days spent waiting to meet Ariella with the finished magic tool was torment. The blue magician spent the time pacing back and forth, his feet practically burning a path within the wooden floorboards. How much longer? That was the question that constantly echoed in his thoughts. Adrastos couldn’t wait; he yearned for the power to reanimate corpses so that he could live up to his name. When the time finally came, Adrastos donned a light-weight black coat over his white and red-trimmed Balbadd-oriented clothes, placed his wand in his belt, then ventured toward the graveyard which both Ariella and he agreed upon.

He saw her there, among the tombstones of deceased animals which many considered family. Adrastos stepped forward, a small smile formed upon his lips as if he was pleased to see her. “I hope I didn’t trouble you too much with this, but I am deeply grateful for what you’ve done. I don’t want to take up anymore of your time; you must have other more important tasks to tend to, so let’s get this little test under way, shall we?”

Ari gave a tight smile in return to Adrastos’ greeting, digging into her cloak for the small pouch she had stored the ring in. There was only a miniscule moment of hesitation before she handed the pouch over to the other magician, part of her still hesitant about the power in the tool while another part of her was simply glad to be free of the ring. Something about the ability of the tool made her slightly squeamish, though she could not really judge too much.

“I believe this should meet all of your specifications. If not, I will, of course, either not charge you or reattempt your request, whichever you would prefer. The combination was interesting to work with, honestly. I haven’t done much in the way of combining magic types, so it was an interesting change of pace for me.”

Ari would stand back after Adrastos took the ring, allowing the other magician the room needed to test the magic tool. Theoretically, everything should go off without a hitch.


[1527/1500]

Adrastos took the pouch and opened it, letting the ring drop onto the palm of his left hand. Then, he slipped it onto the ring finger of his right hand. The obsidian metal made his skin look ghostly pale, as if it were affecting him in some way, yet wasn’t. The magician was proud that nothing had been altered to the ring, but the real object of his ring was not to be merely a fashion statement. It was time to test the magic Ariella combined with the ring to see whether or not she succeeded or failed.

He inhaled and exhaled slowly before pouring his magoi into the ring to unlock the power. The silver eyes gazed upon the corpses of animals that dug themselves from their graves within a 15m diameter and 20m away from where he stood. The corpses of animals were that of long decayed skeletons to the recently deceased. Once thought to be that of horror stories to Adrastos had now become a reality, one which he was in control of.

As soon as he deactivated the tool, he turned to Ariella and bowed in appreciation. Then, he gave her the money she deserved for completing the order. “Thank you very much. It looks like I was right to ask you. Maybe one day I can ask for your services if I ever think of something. But, it’s late, so I must bid you goodnight. Thank you once again.”

With that, Adrastos walked away, his thoughts filled with all the possibilities that were now open to him with just this single magic tool.