LongestRoad Ellowyn: Corrolith

Most of the time I spent in Corrolith was hard at work learning about the Spell Siphon's ways and abilities. As interesting as that information itself is, study is almost always dull. You don't want to hear stories of me being lectured or read to from books. I'm sure there are a few stories from Corrolith you'd like to hear though. I'll bet you can already guess that many would involve Klynne. You can tell I even say her name a little differently from everyone else's, don't I? The stories might help, but I don't think you could quite understand that until you meet her yourself.

Krikkle

I may already have mentioned Krikkle. He was an old, blind gnome who spent much of his time in the town square at Corrolith. Raine had spoiled me through my adolescence in terms of developing my ear for music. Most street musicians make me wince, but Krikkle had that lilt to his music that swirled around you and wrapped you up in the melody. He obviously had some talent, great love for his instrument, and years of practice. I always stopped by to say hello.

One morning, I came through the square on my way to buy a few cooking supplies from the general store. As I grew near his usual place, I noticed everyone was walking swiftly by. Usually, some people lingered to throw him a few coins. A few steps closer, I could hear a young man's taunting voice.

"What's the matter, old man? Ya missing something?" Not very funny, but two other people laughed. Someone walking by paused a moment, and started to speak.

"Hey, what -- " He was interrupted by a stout cudgel. Nothing else makes that sound. It was a little sickening, hearing him crumple to the ground.

That was about when I decided today was a good day to have a little fun.

First, I put Krikkle in a Message with me, so I could let him know things were about to get weird. Then I started on these guys with a few little Ghost Sounds. Murmurs in their ears that they couldn't quite hear, an arrow twanging off a bow string, a sword being drawn. After a minute they started getting jumpy, and arguing with each other. As they got angrier, they started beating up on Krikkle more.

At this point, Krikkle yelped, mostly acting, and I stumbled over to pretend to help him. Picture it, the blind guy helping the blind guy. So of course, they immediately started picking on me as well. One of them had dropped a bag when he started roughing up Krikkle, so with some fancy pyrotechnics, I set it on fire. There's always something extra special about fire in a town square, no matter how small the fire is, when it's unexpected. Now I really had their attention -- but I'd done it all silently, and they hadn't noticed it was me yet. It's quite easy to mask your movement when you are flailing about blindly with a staff. I stepped in front of Krikkle and cast a cantrip to put a big, glowing, flashing orange arrow up in the sky, pointing down at us. I don't think they even noticed that one.

By now, they were getting pretty mean. One of them was a little younger, but the two older boys were showing some skill with their clubs. When they chose to press the attack against us, I created them each their own, personalized Flare effect. While they were busy clawing at their eyes, I sent some Magic Missiles their way. I was nice enough to split them up, two each for the older boys and one for the kid. At this point, they were freaking out, swinging wildly and shouting at us.

I just couldn't keep a straight face any more. It's very hard to cast when you're laughing. It's also very hard to sound imposing when you threaten someone while you're laughing. They blinked, their eyes finally clearing, and came back swinging. So, I Held them. First, I went through the ringleader's bag and found Krikkle's flute, unharmed by the small fire, and returned it to him. Then I sat for a few moments.

"You alright, Krikkle? I hope they didn't really hurt you." He chuckled.

"I've had worse, friend. A few bumps, a bruise here and there. Did they go away?"

I took a few minutes to explain how the Hold Person spell works, carefully monitoring our assailants for any sign of movement. By now, the crowd was re-forming, gawking. Someone threw a rock -- I jumped up and turned that way.

"What was that for?" I asked the crowd. People were quiet for a moment, but I waited. I'm told I have a very accusing stare, in spite of the blindfold. After a moment people started speaking up. This one had been beaten by these boys, this other had food stolen from his house, another was robbed on the road into town.

I turned back to the three stationary boys. "You certainly have been busy, haven't you?" I thought for a moment, then sat down at their feet. The wonderful thing about cobblestone roads is that they're stone. I began casting another spell, not silently this time, but quite openly, and fitted my hands around one of the oldest boy's feet. Slowly, it sank into the stone. There were a few shouts from the crowd as they started to get the idea. One foot at a time, I sank each of them up to his knees in the cobblestone square.

Humming a little tune to myself, I retrieved my staff and began making my way through the crowd, headed in the direction of the general store. I recalled that the town guard's barracks were up the same street, and left a trail of glowing arrows on the road behind me, everywhere I tapped my staff, all the way back to the barracks.

When I had finished my shopping at the general store, and was heading back through the square and out of town to my camp, I could hear quite a lot of arguing still going on. There was plenty of shouting about an unfair fight, lots of muffled laughter, angry crowd noise, and a few guards discussing how to get these boys out of the stone and up to the jail. I stepped up next to Krikkle, listening to them whine for a few minutes. The oldest was doing a lot of yelping about who was supposed to be watching whose back, and even reached out to smack one of the other boys, almost toppling over onto his butt.

I just put my hand on Krikkle's shoulder and said, "Two blind men against three strong young lads does seem like an unfair fight, doesn't it?" At that point, the guards looked at me and Krikkle and just punched the three guys senseless. One of them stepped up next to me.

"You're the caster?" I nodded. "Uh...if you wouldn't mind...we'd like to take them up to a cell behind the barracks. Could you let them out?"

I must have had an absolutely priceless smile on my face as I pulled them back out of the cobblestones. Some days, all the hard work really pays off. As I was leaving, one of the guards caught up to me again. "Sir? Sir, there is a reward out for the ringleader. He's apparently quite a thief." I turned partly around.

"I don't need any reward for helping a friend..." The guard just pressed a small pouch into my hand and ran off. It was the first time anyone had given me more money than throwing me a few copper or a silver for telling a story. I thought for a moment, and then headed back to the square one more time, to sneak half of it into Krikkle's hat.

Individual Stories

• LongestRoad Ellowyn: Corrolith - Krikkle
• LongestRoad Ellowyn: Corrolith - Ksathus
• LongestRoad Ellowyn: Corrolith - Aftermath

Aftermath

I did say it was another story, so I suppose it's only fair to tell it. You heard about Ksa, and what a pain he was. You also heard about how thoroughly he toasted me. Don't make me describe it again. I looked like melted wax, and was still more or less dressed in tatters. My hawks were still quite upset -- they had only been with me for a matter of weeks, and had almost seen me lose me life. They were huddled together on one shoulder, comforting each other, when Klynne opened the door. I can only guess that her face expressed some emotion of disdain or disappointment, because both of them became quite angry at her immediately. Before they could make any move, I held up my hand and spoke to them, to calm them down.

Klynne just waited while I did so. I don't really know what her face looks like, but I have a vague image of her silhouette. I can picture the quiet, patient irritation, now that she was over the shock of my injury. But she waited. After a moment, my hawks agreed to go and wait in the large maple tree that stood behind Klynne's house.

"My apologies. They can be somewhat overprotective at times," I said. She drew in a breath as though she were about to speak, but then said nothing. She just turned abruptly and strode past me and out into the field where we practiced. I followed.

Now, I'm not sure how much you know of magic, but there is a way to counter a spell. It's often something wizards will do, and usually requires identifying what spell an opponent is casting at you, and casting it back at them -- only, backwards. That's really the best way I can describe it. Then, somehow, the real spell and the backwards spell cancel out, and nothing happens. It does take quite a bit of energy though, meaning that both casters in this sense have use the magical energy required to cast the spell in question.

The spell siphon, however, has a better way. The final achievement of this work, the end goal, is to soak up the spell cast by your opponent and gain the energies they have used. So instead of costing me the price of a spell, it feeds me. But before I could learn to do this, she wanted me to fully understand counterspelling. Tandrien had discussed it, and had me try it once, but he hadn't made an extensive drill of it.

"Stuffy old wizards like me use this, when we have time to make stuffy old plans for our stuffy old adventures," he said to me. "For you, magic is a free-flowing power, a stream that will never be confined, and you may not change its course with stuffy old plans. You should understand this, and know how to do it, but I think you will find it rare, that you have a use for it."

And of course, he was right. A sorcerer cannot cast a wide variety of spells. But now I was asked to practice this.

So Klynne began, by casting a Ray of Frost. Not that she warned me, mind you, that this was today's lesson. And being a little worse for wear, it took me a few seconds to catch on. So the first one hit me square in the shoulder.

"Are you going to try?" she asked me. "Or should I just send you home?"

The second time I was ready, and the third. The fourth time I made a mistake, and she just laughed at me and continued. That woman worked wonders for my face of calm during times of strain or adversity. I countered all but those two of her rays, and could cast no more of that spell. She knew that. But she was still casting. Halfway through her spell, I caught on to the switch. Quickly, and I'll admit with some clumsiness, I cast a spell of Burning Hands, and her casting fizzled.

No words, no pause, just the next spell. I would like you to know, in case you were unaware, that fire hurts. But, this was more or less the kind of training I was used to.

When I caught her moving on to a Lightning Bolt, that's when I panicked a little. I managed to counter her, just barely, and she went for a second. Again, only just barely. She paused for a moment, then walked a few paces away. My hawks swooped down from the sky and onto my shoulder. I stroked the girl's feathers.

"Either of those spells would have killed you," Klynne said quietly.

"Bold," I replied.

"Foolish!" Suddenly, she was standing right in front of me. She had grabbed my arm and was shaking me. "You are more than half dead as it is. What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into? I cannot teach you like this." She dropped my arm. "We're done for the day. I have no idea what you've been fighting, but whatever it is, you need to get some help and get rid of it."

"Oh, he's gone," I said. I couldn't help chuckling as I said it. I heard no movement. After a few seconds, I was unable to contain my laughter. Even my hawks were laughing, in their own way. Klynne seemed not to know what to say. I turned to go. After a few steps, I paused. I knew I was facing away from her, but I spoke anyway.

"By the way...if you ever meet a seriously overstuffed dragon named Ksathus...tell him a little green man asked after his health."

I continued slowly making my way across the field and over to the path. Klynne caught up. "Wait, was this the big green one I saw flying over the forest outside town?"

I was still chuckling. "Yep, he did say he was green. Sure does have bad breath too." She must've stopped, because I heard her catch up again.

"I can't tell if you are more foolish or crazy."

I stopped, turned, and draped my hand on her shoulder. "I'm clever, Klynne. Every once in a while, I am actually clever. Not as clever as you are, so I have to enjoy it when it happens. Mister Ego is probably alive and well, for the moment, but won't be showing his face around here again. He'll get a fine spanking where I sent him."

I turned to go again, and she pressed a vial into my hand. I turned back.

"Take this."

"What is it?"

"Just go home and drink it, idiot."

Lady sure has a way with words, doesn't she? I found out later, when I drank it, that it was a healing potion -- something I obviously couldn't have afforded. She gave me another, the next day, after she nailed me with a lightning bolt. At least she cleans up, when she makes a mess of her student.