• Solo • What's Yours is Mine (Pt.1)

[Cad Revel]

Timestamp: 2nd of Saun, Arc 721
Location: Doom Manor, Almund

"Mwahahahahahaha!"

Once again the sound of raucous, maniacal laugher rang through the halls of the house of Professor Cad Revel: criminal mastermind extraordinaire. It was Cad's habit to burst into such laughter after hatching his latest scheme in his quest for world domination, even if most of his plans ended in failure. Yet this time his laughter was even louder than usual, for the plan he had hatched was truly was one of his greatest yet.

"It's so simple, yet so brilliant! How did I not think of this before!" Cad declared to himself, pacing back and forth across the floor of his sanctum. "Not only will I require finance for my savvy schemes, but a way to gather wells and alchemical reagents with which to create powerful thralls and weapons. Yet many would grow suspicious if a reclusive yet handsome billionaire genius such as myself were to routinely purchase such things. A cover operation is required. Henceforth, my latest scheme!" With a dramatic flourish he pointed over to a nearby blackboards, where a few sentences had been hastily scribbled in chalk next to a cartoonish drawing of Cad swimming in piles of coins.

1. Start wellcrafting company.
2. Make money.
3. Use company resources to launch more EVIL SCHEMES!

"So few people possess the skill, the natural talent, to master the subtle art of ensorcelling, and due to the danger involved in the process no company specialised in wellcrafting has survived for very long." Cad continued, tilting his head up in self-satisfaction. "Yet I am one such genius who has mastered the ensorcelling arts, and with my incredible intellect and charm I shall surely be able to forge the greatest magecraft workshop in Scalvoris! I alone shall profit from the lucrative market for magical items, all the while saving the strongest wells for myself! First I shall dominate the business world, then the literal world! Mwahahahahaha! What do you say my loyal minions?"

With a dramatic twirl he turned to face a row of empty seats. Okay, so he didn't actually have any minions yet, but it was important that he practice explaining his genius schemes in a way that even his simple minded soon-to-be minions would be able to understand.

"As for starting the wellcrafting company itself, such will be a trifling matter." Cad continued explaining to the vacant room. First I shall use my astonishing alchemical skills to construct a device capable of locating fractures that open across Scalvoris. Then I shall hire a small team of measly peons to accompany me into one such fracture, and have them harvest wells under my supervision. Once we return successful I shall forge the wells into the finest trinkets possible and sell them to the Scalvoris elite, establishing a reputation for flawless craftsmanship. From there I need only repeat the process, and soon the Revel Magecraft Workshop shall be the most powerful enterprise on this island!" He raised a hand dramatically, and gestured for his imaginary minions to rise. "Go now my minions. Prepare yourselves for an expedition into the fractures of reality itself! And worry not, for under my leadership even fractures shall yield their bounty as readily as a new-born babe. They are no match for the genius of Professor Cad Revel!"

With a dramatic flip of his cape Cad strode out of the sanctum in the direction of his workshop. Yes, his latest scheme truly was his greatest one yet! Now in order to actually make it a reality all he had to do was create a device capable of detecting fractures.

Such would surely be easy for one such as him, right?

Magic/Abilities/Items Used

None.

[Cad Revel]

Timestamp: 22nd of Saun, Arc 721
Location: Doom Manor, Almund

Now beginning experiment 52. Cad scribbled in his research journal, a tired sigh escaping his lips.

Make a device capable of detecting when fractures open. Easy, right? Ha! Wrong! While Calypso had told him about some types of mages who had abilities allowing them to detect fractures, those rare few people didn’t exactly hang around at markets handing out free samples of their blood. No, procuring an item capable of bestowing a fracture tracking effect was turning out to be surprisingly tricky.

During his initial dozen or so experiments Cad had messed around with a few different reagents that appeared to possess some form of sensitivity to ether, but none had quite worked as intended. After widening his search net a little more, Cad had discovered a rare species of primate unique to Scalvoris known as Temple Monkeys. These creatures possessed some form of sixth sense that aided them in avoiding danger, and although Cad was not quite sure how this sense worked there was no denying that it was certainly effective. He had purchased on of the rare few captured specimens for an exorbitantly high price from the market, and now the mischievous beast chirped away angrily at him from its cage in his workshop as he used small samples of its blood for his experiments.

I’ll set the poor thing free once this is all over. Not out of pity mind you, but because of how distractingly loud it is. Those big, round, pleading eyes have nothing to do with it!

The problem was getting this sensory effect to track fractures of all things. It his first experiments Cad ad tried pouring samples of his own ether into into the mix to try and make it detect ether, but all that had done was cause it to react to the natural ether in the air. Getting it to register the specific signature of wells would have been easy if he’d had a well to use, but the whole problem was that he couldn’t find any wells to use without the aid of a fracture detector. It was a thoroughly irritating catch twenty-two, and one he’d spent pretty much the entirety of the last two weeks trying to solve.

Cad began to carefully tilt a vial of fizzing green liquid into a breaker, hoping with the exasperated desperation of someone well and truly fed up with their job that this time he’d receive the success he craved, when something small, warm and stinky slapped into the back of his head. From the way the captive temple monkey behind him was tittering he had a horrible idea what it was that’d hit him, but if he didn’t acknowledge it then he could pretend it didn’t bother him. Nevertheless it served to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, and with a reluctant hiss Cad placed the vial back on the table and stormed off towards the bathroom.

Perhaps a shower and a good stroll will make the solution clearer.



An hour later found Cad striding through the afternoon streets of the Almund Bazaar, ignoring the calls of the merchants and the bustle of pedestrians around him in favour of the company of his own thoughts. Though the fresh air eased the frustration gnawing at his chest, the answer to his dilemma continued to elude him. How did you track where a fracture had opened without the ability to actually sense a fracture?

“Spices! Get your spices here!”

“Fresh caught fish! Straight from the ocean to your plate!”

“Come friends, come, see the oddities of foreign lands!”

Cad’s attention was caught by a small, colourful stand tucked away neatly between two food stalls. A broad-shouldered Qi’ora man with a ragged scar running across his bald head that gave him an adventurous vibe beckoned him over, and without any good reason not to Cad allowed his feet to carry him over to it. The stall was filled with a range of strange little knick knacks from across the globe: some he’d seen before, most he hadn’t, but nothing that seemed to be native to Scalvoris.

“Welcome valued customer.” The Qi’ora began, adopting the easy, charismatic smile of a born salesman. He lifted up a quilt of folded bright red cloth next to him. “Here, see what I have in store. Perhaps these luxury silks from Nashaki? You wont see finer quality anywhere else in the world, I promise you that."

Cad had no interest in silk, but as his eyes roamed the tent something else caught his eye. “What are those?” He asked, pointing over to a small shelf with an array of jars of brightly coloured liquids; some red, some orange, and some light purple. The Qi’ora’s eyes lit up.

“Ah, a rarity from the dangerous shores of Yaralon.” He picked one jar up and popped the lid open, scooping up a small sample of the substance within with a teaspoon and popping it into his mouth with a look of bliss. “Jelly harvested from the Jelly Plants indigenous to the region. A delicious treat. Care for a sample?”

Cad shook his head, as his wooden body did not allow him to eat food, but something was niggling away in his head that said he was missing something here. “Yaralon… I’ve read about that place a few times. That’s the place where they say the land and sea are corrupted by strange magic right?”

“Ha! Corrupted indeed.” The Qi’ora replied dismissively. He rolled up his sleeve to reveal a silver circle tattoo on his forearm. “It is a strange and dangerous land yes, but not a corrupted one. Many doorways to the realm of magic open in this place, staining the land with their power. Some may see it as a curse, but those who live there understand that it is a gift in disguise. Some may die, but those who survive grow to be stronger and wiser than anything else. That’s why the people of Yaralon are such renown mercenaries. Even their plant and beasts are the most formidable in the land.”

Cad raised an eyebrow. “Their plants are formidable? How does that work?”

The Qi’ora grinned. “They are called tempered; those that feed on and grow powerful in the power of the doorways, the fractures. There is grass that feed upon sound, roots that move like snakes, and animals that consume shadows. Dangerous, yes, but wondrous in their own right. They are truly magical beings.”

Suddenly, like a curtain across his mind being pulled back, a revelation dawned upon Cad. He may not be able to sense a fracture itself, but what if he could track the appearance of the effect the fracture had on the world? The local plant life being tempered by a fracture? That would pretty much lead him to the actual fracture itself wouldn’t it?

“How many jars of this Jelly Plant do you have for sale?” Cad asked.

The Qi’ora grinned with the look of a merchant who knew they had a customer hook, line and sinker.

Magic/Abilities/Items Used

None.

[Cad Revel]

Timestamp: 24th of Saun, Arc 721
Location: Doom Manor, Almund

Between the purchasing of the Jelly Friut jars, the Temple Monkey and all the other reagents he’d wasted in his experiments thus far, Cad was starting to feel the pinch on his finances. He’d better be able to flog the wellcrafted items that resulted from this for a lot of money, or else he’d have wasted a whole lot of money.

Yet as he scooped globs of Jelly Plant jelly into the mixture brewing in his miniature cauldron and watched the light purple tint of the jelly spread across the mix, something instinctively told him that this, his fifty-fifth experiment, would finally be the successful one. A dash of herbs to stabilise the volatility of etherial power contained within the fruit saw the worrying bubbling cease. Next went in a few drops of blood taken from the Temple Monkey, and the mixture darkened to a darker shade.

Cad increased the fuel on the open fire beneath the cauldron, and kept a careful eye on the mixture as noxious looking grey steam fizzled off of it. Slowly the mixture turned from a runny liquid to a gooey blob, then a pasty clay, and finally as the last of the moisture fizzled away a brittle, salt-like powder. Cad extinguished the fire and used a set of tongs to tip the substance into a pestle and mortar, and ground the powder down into a fine dust.

Next he took the dust over to a miniature furnace, where a crucible of molten iron was churning away. Cad pulled the crucible halfway out with another set of tongs and poured the dust into the molten metal, watching with fascination as it took on a dark purple tinge. Then he lifted the crucible out completely, and poured the molten iron into a stone-cast template. The metal glowed with fierce heat, but as it slowly cooled and the heat faded to adopt a new form.

It was a bell, roughly the size of an adult’s hand, simple and unassuming save for the unusual purplish tinge to its colour. Using a set of engraving tools Cad carved wavy lines across its surface, purely for decoration than any other purpose. With a thin string of rope he attached the ringer, also formed from the alchemical metal he’d created, inside, and another length of rope to the top to dangle it from, stepped back to admire his handiwork.

His decorations were not the mark of a professional, but Cad had to admit he was pretty proud of his creation. The purple tint to the metal gave it a dark, mysterious look befitting of a magical item. Whether or not it actually worked remained to be seen, but Cad had to admit he had a pretty good feeling about it.

Now then, where to find some expendable minions?

Magic/Abilities/Items Used

None.

[Pig Boy]

Player Name: The Dastardly Cad Revel

Points awarded: 10 xp
Magic xp: none

Knowledge:

Alchemy: Creating a tracking effect.
Alchemy: The reagent properties of tempered flora.
Alchemy: The reagent properties of temple monkeys.
Smithing: Forging a bell.
Smithing: Adding alchemical substances to liquid metal.

Renown: 0
Loot: The Rev-Bell: A magic, hand-sized iron bell. This item detects when a minor fracture opens within the same region it is present in by sensing the corrupting influence of the fractures ether on the surrounding flora. When it detects a minor fracture open it begins to ring, and will steadily grow louder the closer it gets to the fracture. If there are multiple minor fractures nearby it will lock onto the nearest one.
Injuries/Overstepping:
Wealth Points: n/a

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriately to PC's level

Notes: First thing I should note, if you're going to acquire materials from another locale, especially one that's shut down for development, please in the future ask your local mod about acquiring said material. That said, everything you bought seems to be within Cad's wealth tier.

And anyway, this was a fantastic start to Cad's evil career. I thought the idea of a Rev-bell was a marvelous invention, and one that I'm intensely jealous for not having thought of myself. The hilarious moment when the Temple monkey threw a mysterious lump of something at the back of Cad's head was funny, and Cad's unwillingness to kill the monkey was also adorable.

I really enjoyed the Bazaar scene, however if you're going to make a moderately skilled merchant npc for the bazaar, I'd advise you to go to the Antagonist thread and dev a quick NPC for that purpose.

Otherwise, great job! Enjoy the rewards.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this review, feel free to PM. Enjoy your rewards!