Day 68A: Apprentice

[Corwin]

[19:51] <~Kotono> OOC: When you look for an apprentice, what are you looking for?
[19:54] <Lucy> OOC: Intelligent, possessing of a moderate amount of common sense, hard-working, not terribly ambitious unless in the pursuit of knowledge, someone who's willing to do a lot of boring tasks in the process of learning exciting knowledge.
[19:54] <Lucy> OOC: Cooperative Spell, if possible
[19:55] <~Kotono> OOC: Make a gather info check...which is diplo now, I think?
[19:56] <Lucy> roll 1d20+21
[19:56] <Rei-chan> Lucy rolled : 1d20+21 --> [ 1d20=3 ]{24}
[20:00] <~Kotono> A day or two of searching isn't remarkable. But finally you narrow down a potential: His name is Ulant, a wizard/sorcerer of a scholarly bend. He's been looking for a master. He's noted as hardworking, knowledge hungry and patient. You could move on with this one and see if he's it, or invest more time to find another instead.
[20:02] <Lucy> A candidate should get an audience, and so Lucy makes her way over to see for herself!
[20:07] <~Kotono> Ulant is met in the library. He has a bookb efore him -  a glance shows it is titled, Transmutative Elements. Ulant himself is wiry and slender, almost bony. His skin is a white akin to polished ivory and his eyes are jet black. His hands have seven fingers each, with an additional middle finger and a second, smaller thumb. "Ma'am." He stands and closes the book, making a short bow to
[20:07] <~Kotono> Lucy.
[20:09] <Lucy> "Hello," Lucy greets him pleasantly, mindful of their location. She takes a seat at his table, gesturing at the one Ulant had just vacated. "Please, do sit down. I was hoping to have a few moments of your time."
[20:11] <~Kotono> "My time's always available," he does what Lucy asks.
[20:14] <Lucy> "I heard around town that you are looking for a mentor to take your studies of the arcane to the next level," Lucy says, getting straight to the point, "while I find myself interested in someone who could pursue various avenues of research to advance my own knowledge. From all the time that will be saved for me, there will be an easy matter to find enough to share many of those very secrets with a studious mage."
[20:15] <~Kotono> "I'm interested," Ulant replies, folding his hands in front of him. "I presume from your capture of the Cerulean Gem that you have much to teach?"
[20:18] <Lucy> "Oh, quite so! I'm nominally a generalist, so no field of study is barred from me. At the same time, my focus goes into the adjustment of spells at the time of preparation or casting through various means and, more recently, into the Light itself. I've pulled the veil back a bit, and the force behind the Light did not like that very much. While I myself am immortal and have yet to meet a true threat to myself regardless, it is true enough that mere assosiation with me may be hazardous for a mortal. One that does, however, will either become amongst the most versatile mages in the realm or even manage to take a trip outside it altogether."
[20:20] <~Kotono> "Fascinating. I'm completely interested now," Ulant smiles gently, his teeth glimpsed. Black as his eyes, like little chips of obsidian. "I have all the time in the world, just as you do."
[20:22] <Lucy> "Excellent. Can you share, in brief, your pertinent skills so I know what you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses?"
[20:30] <~Kotono> "Let's see. I'm an accomplished researcher and have published papers on various subjects," he begins, "I've spend several years learning various arcane traditions and studying more obscure ones. I'm an accredited transmuter as well and have experience in divination and evocation, as well as enchantment. I'm part of the cautious metamagic society, which emphasizes learning new spells over
[20:30] <~Kotono> modifying old ones with metamagic, and encourages members to focus on one or perhaps two such talents rather than overburden themselves with too many."
[20:39] <Lucy> "I can see that," Lucy muses. "Unless you're immortal, it's best to focus on the strongest points first. In any case, shall we give this a try? Some of the things I've learned point to the Light being an elaborate deception. It might be best to think of it as an illusion that, even aware of, you are incapable of dispelling. And it, or the force guiding it, is sentient and seeks to eliminate those that learn its secrets. Some of those that do, such as the Light Mages, it abducts and murders before replacing them with identical clones made of the Light. I'm working on a spell to distinguish such people from the rest at present; you, Ulant, I would ask to comb through the records to locate similar stories of abductions and replacements or, perhaps, of such suspected Light changelings. Beyond that, we shall be looking into places that appear abandoned by people, or where the rules of nature and magic cease to apply. Perhaps Amambo? If people can be taken by the Light, perhaps a sufficiently advanced magecracy would also be considered a suitable target."
[20:42] <~Kotono> "Fascinating..." This is murmured again in reply to Lucy's story. "Yes, you have my interest once more. I would have no objection to this research."
[20:44] * Lucy nods. "There are many other points of relevance, but only need might come up in this research. The creatures in the Light use chains, and one touch of such a chain numbs you entirely as you become insensate. Still. There must be others before me who managed to prevail over this, and if so, there would be records of such."
[20:48] <~Kotono> "I'll be researching this," Ulant says, tapping his fingers together, "The subject is a new one and worth study."