Dumbarton Oaks’ Magic Tome
Well, this is a first. I have never written an entry during combat.
It’s not precisely during combat, mind you. We are in a lull. We have recently dispatched a unit of kobold warriors and our next enemy is approaching, down the road. In minutes, combat will resume.
That is my problem and the spur to this entry.
Our first round of combat was highly satisfactory. The kobolds were laying in wait for us, having set an ambush. They clearly did not expect to be confronted by the wonders of a pixie fairy — the eldritch tatto emblazoned on my skin functions as a spell to detect living creatures. I cannot be taken by surprise. So we found ourselves in an odd marching order, with the pixie fairy magic-user taking point. I am not thrilled by this development but, as always, I adapt.
The kobolds had rigged a complex trap by hoisting a log into the treetops, to drop upon the unwary. A good enough plan, unless you turn out to be the unwary. My cousins and I slit enough of the lines to drop the log on the kobold entrusted with triggering the traps, instead of my party.
The cousins proved themselve a useful distraction today. They sowed enough confusion that the kobold officer could not effectively rally his troops. My team handily defeated them in combat. Rollie, protected by my armor spell, wielded his axes fearsomely. Which was handy, as Sondra’s plan seemed to be to distract them by talking big. It was funny, though.
However, just as we finished off the kobolds, Liam spied an orc coming down the road. The orc plunged into the bushes but Liam impressed me by hitting the orc with an arrow nonetheless. I flew after the orc, into the brush, in the hopes of stopping him before he could alert any compatriots. Building off of Liam’s masterful shot, I created an illusory rain of arrows to strike the orc down. But too late. The orc sounded a horn and, in the distance, I saw the dust stirred up upon the road by some new foes, advancing to meet us.
Under normal circumstances, I would not be concerned. But we have sustained some wounds. And I am out of magic. I used all the spells I memorized last night. That is an inauspicious fact.
Once, in a training session under Master Tam, the old magician taught me a valuable lesson. I had confused and disoriented the old man with a dazzling array of illusions and thought that I had our duel won. Until Master Tam took a simpler approach — he simply swung his staff, knocking me oput of the air, defeating me.
“Oaks,” he told me, “Magic is not simply the weaving of eldritch energies. Magic is making what you want into reality, no matter how you do it.”
I am still invisible. I can still fly. And I am limited only by my imagination..
Think, Dumbarton! Think!
[nice!]