Sojourn in Bakshaan

After quite a gruelling series of trials and tribulations, the group arrives in Bakshaan. As the Consortium is in the process of slowly being reconstituted, Jorthan has agreed to become the representative in Bakshaan for the usual six month period. This will enable him to gain some useful experience as an Ilmar councillor, and it will also give him time sort out some of his own business interests there. This period sees a round of diplomatic and trade negotiations, and the other characters are mostly left to their own devices. Among other things, it will give Destiny some time to catch up on her research. Many of the items the group has recently acquired need investigation.

Destiny's narrative

So far the research has been going as well as I could have expected. Jorthan's period as representative will give the others time to recover from injuries, as well as improve their desired skills. I, however, wish to use this time in a way that will benefit us all. I have been translating & reading the various manuscripts gathered along our journey (I have not told the rest of our 'group' that I can summon & bind a protection demon, they will find out in time). They would not understand anyway, humans are all idiots.

It appears I have enough skill now to summon water and fire elementals, as well as bend them to my will, with around 50% chance of success. This will hopefully become useful in the near future. The runes marked on the parchment we found seem to be two single-use levitation spells.

To create a rune you must be extremely precise. If, for example, you were trying to craft a healing rune, & you make a mistake, you could end up simply murdering the person, or perhaps making the affected area vanish entirely. The rune for levitation is a combination of several words in High Melnibonian. To craft levitation you must use:

↑(up) 〾(fly) ় (air) । (one use)

From my experimentation with rune magic, I have concluded it is not a good idea to attempt crafting any runes until becoming familiar with their layouts. Performing them wrong usually includes panic, swearing, & lots of broken objects. Despite this setback, I will continue study on runes next time I have an opportunity.

I have also spent some time on Auquhol's research notes into long life. It turns out that the two bottles we found contain longevity potions. One potion alone stops any signs of ageing for ten years. However, each time a potion is drunk, there is a chance it will backfire & cause all the prevented ageing to come back in a split-second. For humans, this usually causes immediate death.

After spending many months inside a house alone, I am (though I would never tell the humans) looking forward to the company of another.