the_taken
King of the Impossible
- Joined
- May 5, 2009
- Messages
- 1,591
- Reputation score
- 63
The words of Leon-Chad Anderson tell us his story,
I don't know how or why it happened. Magic is irrational like that. Maybe it was a good thing it did, though it wasn't apparent how it would be good for me until I took advantage of it. The fantasy worlds that you enter when you play Dungeons and Dragons are great for immersion into the game, but I would never want to live there for real. Except maybe as a Dragon (capital D and everything).
Maybe.
But what I did or didn't want then has nothing to do with what happened.
It was nearing dawn after the night of my 25th birthday party, held at a club with my brothers and their friends, and some of my business partners. I was stupid drunk and in a cab, and could barely see strait. I dozed off a couple of times, and my last memory before blacking out completely was the cab driver, whom I assumed was a Bolivian immigrant or something asked me if I wanted to be a wizard instead of paying my fare...
I said yes. Or puked. Or puked yes. I'm not sure, it gets fuzzy after that.
When I next woke up, I was in a vary magical land of fairies and unicorns. And dragons, zombies, brain eating squid faced aliens, floating eyeballs with eyestalks with laser eyebeams, and everything else in the Monster Manual. Well, not right where I woke up, but I quickly discovered that the world was inhabited.
Anyway, I woke up in a runoff ditch for a dirt farm outside a small city. Wheloon. The name didn't ring a bell at first, but after several days of wandering, begging, and trying to find a job in what I assumed was medieval Europe, I swallowed my pride and decided to go the city's local temple and hopefully get a in charity bed. (They hadn't invented cardboard boxes yet, and I didn't like the looks of the old tarp the other vagrant was offering to lend me, or the look he was giving me for that matter.)
I expected something like 'The Ignorant Church of Jesus Christ'. Instead, I walked into a Temple dedicated to Chauntea, right when this guy in earthy tones and green robes was placing his glowing fingers on this other guy's arm and healing a small cut right before my eyes.
Magic!
Actual Magic!
Oh. My. God! (Or their god, as it turns out.)
I stood there in the doorway while the priest and the plebe hat a short conversation about medieval construction safety. Then they turn to leave and spot me standing there with probably eyes the size of dinners plates. Naturally the priest asks me if he can help me, and I blurt out, "I want to do that."
I should have remembered then that Divine magic had a near monopoly on healing magic, but I was slightly stressed at the time. What I saw was magic, D&D style, and D&D magic can do anything you can convince your DM you're allowed to get away with using the rules (and there's a point where they break down and everything is possible.) I didn't know what campaign setting I was in, never being much of a fan of D&D so much as a talented player and Rule Lawyer. I hadn't played in years until that point, but it was then that I decided to become an adventurer, a player character.
I should have known what I was getting into, but I was too excited. There was real magic being done, and I wanted in on it. I vaguely recall thinking that I could somehow use it to get home then, but that would soon become a faraway though.
After some sweat talking and tear jerking begging, I managed to convince the then identified Druid priest to take me on as a new Acolyte of Chauntea.
That's not exactly how I spent the next four years, however. The good news it that Chauntea is pretty willing to grant the boons of her magic to anyone that pays lip service to her as long as they have strong feeling for ecology (Other gods are a lot more stringent.)s are a lot more stringent.) I love nature, I often went hiking and camping during college. My problem was that when I was learning how to channel Chauntea's magic, I started asking question on how what I was doing worked, which annoyed most of the other (younger) acolytes and some of the priests.
It wasn't long before they started asking me why I wasn't a wizard or training to be one, at which point I asked if I could be both. They didn't say anything at first, but asking around I discovered that most people that take on a character class, or what they were referring as careers, just don't want to put the time in to learn all those skills.
But I didn't have that problem. I've always loved studying, though not always the most academic subjects. I just found it really neat how I could absorb a whole book or magazine or website in one sitting and be able to understand almost everything from memory later on.
So I sought out instructions on the Arcane way of doing magic. There weren't many wizards in Wheloon, and none that were willing to take on a part time Prentice for no money that was already an acolyte of Chauntea. But luckily a passing band of adventures had a wizard in their party, and after getting him drunk enough, I convince him to lend me his old instruction book he used as an apprentice. He found me a few weeks later and took it back, but not before I was able to make my own copy littered with notes of my own. Not enough on it's own to get me to cast Magic Missile or anything, but it did get me started on figuring out how to do magic.
I eventually did get some hints out of the other mages in town, but the break through on expanding my arcane knowledge was when I learned to channel Orisons from Chauntea and started casting Read Magic. From there I was able to look at actual spells on scrolls and suddenly understand them a lot better than before. I then acquired old spell books from the other mages, and comparing their notes between using Read Magic and my own understanding, I quickly built up an education in Magic. That's when I made the most interesting discovery. Druidic magic was very different from Divine magic.
Divine magic comes from gods; you pray for a small miracle, and they give you ability to make that miracle happen when you want it too, with the stipulation that you cause these miracles to happen in line with the beliefs that they promote.
Druidic magic, on the other hand, is the channelling and manipulation of the natural ambient magic emanating from leylines and diffusing into the environment. Accessing this energy requires communing with nature itself and understanding it on a spiritual level. Usually that means you end up respecting nature, though not always.
Now, what the Druidic priests where doing was praying to Chantea for the ability to commune with nature on a deep spiritual level to access the energy being emanated by leylines and diffusing into nature. Slightly convoluted, so I decided to cut out the middle man.
I ended my time learning to be a priest, much to the ire of some of them, though the eldest did understand and believed I didn't belong with them anyway. I then went out into the nearby woods, not far from the city or the patrols to keep the area clear of monsters and dangerous beasts, but far enough away from the farms and lodges, to camp for a few months to commune with nature and dedicate more time to figuring out the spell books I had a hold of.
Now returning to town after nearly a year in the woods, I can confidently say that I am both a Druid and a Wizard, though I'm fully aware of of my low level. I can only pull off a few Magic Missile spells in a day so far, but I consider it a good start. Good enough for most adventurers to join a party to cover their asses, anyway. I remember enough about the D&D game that I played so many years ago to understand the concept of CoDzilla, and combining that with the real versatile power of the wizard means that I could become a pretty awesome character in my own right someday down the road.
If I don't get eaten by an owlbear or something along the way.
I don't know how or why it happened. Magic is irrational like that. Maybe it was a good thing it did, though it wasn't apparent how it would be good for me until I took advantage of it. The fantasy worlds that you enter when you play Dungeons and Dragons are great for immersion into the game, but I would never want to live there for real. Except maybe as a Dragon (capital D and everything).
Maybe.
But what I did or didn't want then has nothing to do with what happened.
It was nearing dawn after the night of my 25th birthday party, held at a club with my brothers and their friends, and some of my business partners. I was stupid drunk and in a cab, and could barely see strait. I dozed off a couple of times, and my last memory before blacking out completely was the cab driver, whom I assumed was a Bolivian immigrant or something asked me if I wanted to be a wizard instead of paying my fare...
I said yes. Or puked. Or puked yes. I'm not sure, it gets fuzzy after that.
When I next woke up, I was in a vary magical land of fairies and unicorns. And dragons, zombies, brain eating squid faced aliens, floating eyeballs with eyestalks with laser eyebeams, and everything else in the Monster Manual. Well, not right where I woke up, but I quickly discovered that the world was inhabited.
Anyway, I woke up in a runoff ditch for a dirt farm outside a small city. Wheloon. The name didn't ring a bell at first, but after several days of wandering, begging, and trying to find a job in what I assumed was medieval Europe, I swallowed my pride and decided to go the city's local temple and hopefully get a in charity bed. (They hadn't invented cardboard boxes yet, and I didn't like the looks of the old tarp the other vagrant was offering to lend me, or the look he was giving me for that matter.)
I expected something like 'The Ignorant Church of Jesus Christ'. Instead, I walked into a Temple dedicated to Chauntea, right when this guy in earthy tones and green robes was placing his glowing fingers on this other guy's arm and healing a small cut right before my eyes.
Magic!
Actual Magic!
Oh. My. God! (Or their god, as it turns out.)
I stood there in the doorway while the priest and the plebe hat a short conversation about medieval construction safety. Then they turn to leave and spot me standing there with probably eyes the size of dinners plates. Naturally the priest asks me if he can help me, and I blurt out, "I want to do that."
I should have remembered then that Divine magic had a near monopoly on healing magic, but I was slightly stressed at the time. What I saw was magic, D&D style, and D&D magic can do anything you can convince your DM you're allowed to get away with using the rules (and there's a point where they break down and everything is possible.) I didn't know what campaign setting I was in, never being much of a fan of D&D so much as a talented player and Rule Lawyer. I hadn't played in years until that point, but it was then that I decided to become an adventurer, a player character.
I should have known what I was getting into, but I was too excited. There was real magic being done, and I wanted in on it. I vaguely recall thinking that I could somehow use it to get home then, but that would soon become a faraway though.
After some sweat talking and tear jerking begging, I managed to convince the then identified Druid priest to take me on as a new Acolyte of Chauntea.
That's not exactly how I spent the next four years, however. The good news it that Chauntea is pretty willing to grant the boons of her magic to anyone that pays lip service to her as long as they have strong feeling for ecology (Other gods are a lot more stringent.)s are a lot more stringent.) I love nature, I often went hiking and camping during college. My problem was that when I was learning how to channel Chauntea's magic, I started asking question on how what I was doing worked, which annoyed most of the other (younger) acolytes and some of the priests.
It wasn't long before they started asking me why I wasn't a wizard or training to be one, at which point I asked if I could be both. They didn't say anything at first, but asking around I discovered that most people that take on a character class, or what they were referring as careers, just don't want to put the time in to learn all those skills.
But I didn't have that problem. I've always loved studying, though not always the most academic subjects. I just found it really neat how I could absorb a whole book or magazine or website in one sitting and be able to understand almost everything from memory later on.
So I sought out instructions on the Arcane way of doing magic. There weren't many wizards in Wheloon, and none that were willing to take on a part time Prentice for no money that was already an acolyte of Chauntea. But luckily a passing band of adventures had a wizard in their party, and after getting him drunk enough, I convince him to lend me his old instruction book he used as an apprentice. He found me a few weeks later and took it back, but not before I was able to make my own copy littered with notes of my own. Not enough on it's own to get me to cast Magic Missile or anything, but it did get me started on figuring out how to do magic.
I eventually did get some hints out of the other mages in town, but the break through on expanding my arcane knowledge was when I learned to channel Orisons from Chauntea and started casting Read Magic. From there I was able to look at actual spells on scrolls and suddenly understand them a lot better than before. I then acquired old spell books from the other mages, and comparing their notes between using Read Magic and my own understanding, I quickly built up an education in Magic. That's when I made the most interesting discovery. Druidic magic was very different from Divine magic.
Divine magic comes from gods; you pray for a small miracle, and they give you ability to make that miracle happen when you want it too, with the stipulation that you cause these miracles to happen in line with the beliefs that they promote.
Druidic magic, on the other hand, is the channelling and manipulation of the natural ambient magic emanating from leylines and diffusing into the environment. Accessing this energy requires communing with nature itself and understanding it on a spiritual level. Usually that means you end up respecting nature, though not always.
Now, what the Druidic priests where doing was praying to Chantea for the ability to commune with nature on a deep spiritual level to access the energy being emanated by leylines and diffusing into nature. Slightly convoluted, so I decided to cut out the middle man.
I ended my time learning to be a priest, much to the ire of some of them, though the eldest did understand and believed I didn't belong with them anyway. I then went out into the nearby woods, not far from the city or the patrols to keep the area clear of monsters and dangerous beasts, but far enough away from the farms and lodges, to camp for a few months to commune with nature and dedicate more time to figuring out the spell books I had a hold of.
Now returning to town after nearly a year in the woods, I can confidently say that I am both a Druid and a Wizard, though I'm fully aware of of my low level. I can only pull off a few Magic Missile spells in a day so far, but I consider it a good start. Good enough for most adventurers to join a party to cover their asses, anyway. I remember enough about the D&D game that I played so many years ago to understand the concept of CoDzilla, and combining that with the real versatile power of the wizard means that I could become a pretty awesome character in my own right someday down the road.
If I don't get eaten by an owlbear or something along the way.