The old magus hobbles over to you, his creaking bones clearly in distress through this sudden movement.
"OI!" he shouts towards you, "Stop there, you little whipper-snapper! I got somethiní to show you."
Clearly amused by this weak figure telling you what to do, you decide to humor him, and walk over to see what he has to show you.
"Take a look at this, me young mage. See the beauty of it," the magus says, pulling out a beautifully crafted magestaff. Seeing that you are impressed by the magnificence of it, the old magus smirks towards you, and then quickly pulls it away before you can touch it.
"Now, me young mage, I shall tell you a tale, a tale of when I was a young mage, like yerself, thirsty for more knowledge." You decide to pull up two chairs as you realise this could take a while.
"Now, this all began in me days when I was not yet a magus, many moons ago now.
"I had heard rumours of a tribe of trolls who were led by the most powerful and wisest troll of all time, a magically gifted beast.
"Me being young and curious, I decided to try to find these beasties, but I had been searching for years with no luck. But, on this fateful day, my luck seemed to be with me, as I slowly crept towards a nearby campfire, with that unmistakable stench of trolls wafting from it. I uttered some words and made meself invisible, so I could sneak up on the horrid beasties.
"It was then that I noticed that one of them was walking around with a rather peculiar rune in his hands. This particular troll seemed to be saluted by all that passed him, if thatís what you can call what those horrid things did.
"I crept closer, so I could get a better look, when I trod on a twig, making a loud cracking noise. The important troll quickly rose itself to its full height, and began sniffing the air.
"It looked around, and slowly began to creep towards me, following that scent of freshly bathed mage. I quickly prepared a spell and shot it off at this oncoming troll. Valtera must have been smiling down on me that day, because as soon as it left my fingers, the spell came out with an enormous bang, knocking the troll back by at least twenty feet, killing it in one shot. The other trolls seeing their general, or whatever they classed him as, dead, quickly hotfooted it and ran for their pathetic lives.
"Feeling quite smug, I strutted into the now deserted area they had been previously occupying and looked down at the now dead troll, particularly the rune that was in his hand. As I bent down to pick it up, I could see that it was no ordinary rune and held great power. With my magestaff in one hand, and this rune in the other, my staff began to glow. Sensing a sudden brain wave, I had a little tinker with the rune, me being quite handy with magical equipment and all. As I waved my fingers over a few vital areas, I felt the powers of the rune suddenly release themselves. As I pondered on what to do next, I placed the rune in me pack to think for a few minutes.
"Then it struck me, an amazing idea! I removed the rune that was on my staff at that time, and swapped it for this new rune I had found. The magestaff began to shudder, until finally, the staff eased itself in my hands, pulsing with new energy I did not recognise.
"I waved my staff and tested the new spells. To my surprise, they were a lot more powerful than the ones that had previously been occupying me magestaff.
"Intrigued as to where I could find more of these runes, to provide other mages with this greater magestaff, I quickly began to follow the trail left behind by the departed trolls.
"For three days and three nights I kept in pursuit of these restless trolls, through forests and over mountains. It was on the third night that I was led to an entire village of trolls.
"Knowing that I must be extra careful after what happened last time, I cast my invisibility spell, and slowly stepped towards a hill overlooking the whole village. I lay down, watching as a ceremony seemed to be taking place. All the trolls were resting on their knees around a great idol that had been erected in the middle of the village, just staring towards it, not making a sound.
"Then, two large trolls appeared from a nearby shack type thing and began to walk to the idol. The first troll was similar to normal trolls, but he seemed to be held in very high esteem by the troll standing next to him. The other troll wasÖÖwell, to describe him would be difficult, but he seemed to have a strange aura around him, a type of magical aura, one not normally seen on trolls. He was also dressed in what can only be described as some type of ceremonial dress. Anyway, as these two trolls got the idol, all the trolls around it stared at the troll with the ceremonial dress on and began chanting wildly. It was then that the magical troll began to dance a wild, exotic dance around the idol. As he went around, the troll that was accompanying him went to fetch a nearby stone that was lying on the floor and tossed it towards the magical troll. With great ease, the magical troll caught the stone while still chanting and dancing around the idol. Then all of them just suddenly stopped.
"All eyes were focused on the magical troll as he raised the stone towards the sky, muttering under his breath. The stone began to glow a bright orange, until it started to pulse with what looked like pure energy, turning the ordinary rock into a rune that looked exactly like the one I had found on the troll general three days previously. The magical troll, who could only be described as some type of troll witch doctor, dropped to his knees. The other troll with him rushed to his side, and the troll witch doctor placed this new rune into his hands and slowly rose to his feet.
"The troll witch doctor looked around his tribe and let out the most horrifying noise I have ever heard, which was followed by the scream of an entire tribe of trolls.
"I quickly rose to my feet and began to run in the opposite direction, realising that I had seen all I need to see.
"About a week of running later, I made it back to Moorgate, totally exhausted. As an old mage came down the street, he saw me collapse in the middle of the road, All I saw was him rushing to my aid. When I awoke, I found it had been about three days since I had returned, and a few people were in the room, waiting to ask questions. Then it quickly dawned on me what I had seen. I quickly sat up and began to describe very excitedly to the listening mages what I had witnessed. At first they were very sceptical, but then I reached for my greater magestaff and showed it to them. They were astonished by this new finding and quickly arranged a team of mages to find this tribe of trolls led by some kind of troll witch doctor.
"After many weeks of resting, news filtered back that I had indeed been right, and the mages had managed to obtain a few of these runes I had mentioned from the tribe of trolls, but they were unable to fuse it with their magestaffs. I told them to bring me the runes; I would show them what to do. With at least twenty eager eyes watching me, I slowly began to run my fingers over the rune, like I had before, and it began to pulse with even more energy. I handed this to one of the mages nearby and he mixed it with his staff to make a greater magestaff. The other mages were clearly impressed and from that day forward, they entrusted me with the job of turning these troll runes into the runes that are the ones on all greater magestaff. This is the test to see if you are worthy to make it into later life in the Guild of Mages, and to proceed with your training to become a magus, like me."
With that, you look over at this old magus in a completely new light, and he can tell you are extremely impressed.
"Remember, young mage, when you get your greater magestaff, if it wasnít for me, Magus Scintilius, we would never have been able to possess a greater magestaff."
Alley back to the library foyer.
|
