CC 11: Thunderplump ~ One!

A high-pitched whine filled the dimly lit chamber Joe was working in, signaling the beginning of a cascade of energies that would cause his ritual to detonate if left unchecked. The Ritualist’s Aspect Inscriber flew back over the area he’d just completed, quickly scratching out lines of mana and aspects and replacing them with corrected, stable versions that overlaid the original and substituted them perfectly. Sweat dripped freely down his brow as he raced the clock, hoping to outpace the imminent explosion.

With a final quick, efficient motion, he set a line between the second and third circles that drained the overflow and stabilized the entire diagram. When it didn’t blow him up, the Ritualist let out a long sigh of relief. The charge that had been building up in the room—a mix of the chaotic energies of Jotunheim, the odd, fiery semi-liquid that was aspects, and the catalyst of mana that bound them together—began to release a hum of harmony before quieting and fading into background noise.

“Did it work? Hmm… can’t tell yet.” With fluid and precise movements, he began to alter additional symbols in the ritual circles, each adjustment subtly changing the flow of energy. Joe's deep knowledge of rituals, at no less than the Master rank, combined with his high skill levels in Ritual Lore, began to shine through. Little by little, he shifted the ritual's purpose by removing the original creator's intent and substituting his own. “Come on, work. This is the last one I need for the quest.”

After rescuing Daniella and bringing her back to be integrated into Novusheim, things had settled into a fairly routine pace for Joe. First, he had delayed replacing the towers that kept the Town safe, forcing the large population of warriors to defend against the random Beast Waves on their own, without much magical support. Once he felt that his point had been thoroughly proven, the Ritualist had gone to the council and bargained for additional privileges; solidifying his rise into the upper echelons of the burgeoning Dwarven Oligarchy.

His casual lifestyle had only been interrupted when he went to spend time with his friends, or attend the events they were participating in. Joe had made a resolution to be there and cheer them on outside of combat and serious situations. For instance, Jaxon had taken an interest in local theater, and had successfully played his part as an ice sculpture in two plays back-to-back. The Chiropractor was so pleased with himself that Joe didn't have the heart to explain that he was part of the set—not the play—and even then only because the theater staff had been too terrified to deny him access.

The Town itself felt like it was in a holding pattern, slowly building up its strength and population as the residents gathered all the courage they needed to push through the bottleneck keeping their settlement from being a system-recognized City. On the plus side, morale was steadily increasing as the walls expanded and the quality and quantity of goods being produced began to increase.

After the bargaining had been completed, the next thing Joe had done was hole himself up in his workshop; working on creating better versions of Town defense rituals. Even though he could always use new ways to deal damage—just in case they came across a creature that was resistant to what his towers used—the Ritualist felt that his time would be far better used by creating enhanced magics instead of just more of the same.

The problem was, creating a new ritual from scratch required a deep knowledge of the spell model that he was going to base it off of. One of his current frustrations was the fact that he didn’t have a large foundation in standard spellcasting, and had already made multiple ritual variations of the spells he was capable of completing. That meant he could either create ever-more variants, learn and practice new spells until they’d reached an acceptable level, or retrofit his darker rituals to be more generally useful.

Seeing as how the last of those options also aligned with a quest he had gained, Joe had decided to pursue that option.

“Ritual of Dark Reach.” Joe toyed with the words as he pulled out sections of the original ritual and replaced them with his personal symbols. “I wonder what you’re going to end up being after I'm done with you.”

As he made the last stroke with his Aspect Inscriber, Joe carefully leaned back and looked at the liquid fire that was hanging in midair. His piercing gaze hovered over each swoop and swirl, finding no errors no matter how carefully he searched. Easing his hand forward, he tapped down, putting the pads of his fingers directly in the center of the ritual and channeling his mana into the hopefully-cleansed ritual.

Power drained out of him, and the oversized circles shrank down until the largest of them surrounded his hand. Finding himself flinching back, the Ritualist forcefully calmed himself and smiled as he realized that the circles had moved with his hand without needing to be forced to move by his Willpower. He waved his appendage around, and the ritual moved with it easily as though it was stuck to a glove. “Okay, that was unexpected, but it's nice… if it works.”

Selecting the far wall as his target, Joe pointed his hand toward it and immediately a bolt of pure darkness launched across the chamber, striking the far wall and expanding to fill its entire surface with a field of clinging, churning shadows. The fact that they moved on their own, and had rounded edges, brought a frown to Joe's face. “Odd. This was supposed to make a twenty foot section of spikes, not whatever that is. Did the ritual fail?”

Only two and a half seconds after the shadows began moving, they faded away and left the wall as blank as it’d been originally. He made a mental note to put up some kind of art like Daniella had suggested, then sent a flash of intent back into the ritual. Once more, the far wall was transformed, and this time he threw himself forward to test it, trusting his Exquisite Shell to keep him safe.

You have been rooted! Strength check failed. Resistance check failed. You are unable to move from this spot for 1 more second.

The darkness faded away, and Joe dropped a couple of inches to the ground, a pleased, if somewhat surprised, expression on his face. He turned to his notes and carefully detailed his experience, adding his thoughts on how to improve it further in the future. “I can see where it went wrong. I’d intended for this to turn into a field of something like caltrops, but my mind had been on holding or slowing creatures moving through the area, not slashing them up like spikes would’ve done. Maybe I should see if Grandmaster Snow would offer some insight on how to be specific while still being ambiguous enough to allow the ritual to grow in unique ways.”

Once he was satisfied with how everything had turned out, he shifted his attention to the notifications that were waiting for him.

Quest complete: Redeeming Rituals. You have cleansed your fifth ritual of at least Journeyman rank! Reward: Ritual of Cleansing (Expert).

The Ritual of Cleansing can be set in any area to remove aspects of intent from ambient mana. There are many benefits to this process, including but not limited to a calmer, less chaotic atmosphere in the area.

Eyes glittering with excitement, Joe swept all of his notes, ritual tiles, and other various knickknacks off of his desk, prepared to let them clatter to the floor, but instead scooping them into his spatial storage codpiece at the last minute. While he enjoyed being dramatic, the Ritualist still knew better than to make a mess or damage his research. Without taking another moment to relax, he began etching the Expert-ranked ritual onto a tile, quickly building it up over the next fifteen minutes, then half hour, hour… time flew as his intense focus and excitement enticed him along.

Before he knew it, he was putting the final touches on the ritual. As the last circle was completed and he pulled his Aspect Inscriber back to admire his work, the stone tile shattered; filling his workshop with a blaze of fire and a detonation of mana.

The Ritualist was hucked across the room, slamming into the wall and being held there as the explosion rebounded, having nowhere to escape thanks to being confined inside the vault. Joe’s Exquisite Shell was blasted with power and aspects, a quarter of the potential damage going directly through his magical protections and scoring deep lines into his flesh, thanks to the odd true damage that the flames inflicted.

Exquisite Shell: 4,845/12,479

Health: 691/2,599

When the energies finally expanded themselves, a wheezing Joe collapsed to the ground, raising his charred, shaking hands to pump himself full of healing magic. He could only thank his lucky stars that his shell held up, forcing his blood and inner organs to remain mostly in position.

“What… the abyss… just happened?”

Caution! Rank of materials too low to contain magic! Attempting to force… failed! Secondary attempt due to Master rank… failed! Third attempt due to Lore skills interacting with Occultist Profession… failed!

Caution! This is the first time all three attempts have failed. No additional attempts can be made until all three limiters have come off of cooldown.

“Okay, I don't like that.” Joe looked at the stone tile that he used for almost all of his rituals: rather, he looked at the square-shaped pile of dust that it’d been converted into. “It's not like I'm using any random rock. I've been making sure to use compressed stone, perfectly shaped and glossy. It has to count as at least Rare in that case, right?”

Thinking about the words he’d just muttered, the Ritualist had to hold himself back from facepalming as he groaned. “Rare rank? How many times do I need to remember the well-established fact that material can only consistently hold magic up to one rank higher than it? I've seen that with enchantments, alchemy, and now, I guess, rituals. Feces. Havoc can never find out about this.”

*Burble?*

“Don’t worry, Mate, I know exactly what to do to fix this issue.” Joe consoled his coffee elemental as he threw open the door to his workshop, stepping out into a town that had been transformed over the last few days. Everyone was wearing a smile; or in the case of the Dwarves, wasn’t actively scowling. “Time to upgrade my tiles from stone to metal. Let's go boost my Ritualistic Forging skill until I'm an Expert.”

Novusheim was thriving, rapidly becoming a center of innovation for the residents, and a beacon of hope for the humans still under the thumb of the Elven Theocracy. As Joe went from one fun, interesting crafting project to another, he joined the rest of the Town in wearing a brilliant smile.

“Jotunheim is awesome.”