Session 11

Our projects continue with some degrees of success. Matthuas has started branching out with his elemental powers into the domain of air and lightning. Faran’s alchemical experimentation is coming closer to creating a healing lozenge: something that can slowly release a healing potion while held in one’s mouth. Meera has made a significant breakthrough in her studies of the Magaambya’s background magic, and deepened her own theoretical understanding of Primal magic. As for myself, I’ve discovered a new way to practice the Craft. Thus far, my studies in Arcane magic under our teachers here at the Magaambya have been going well—Arcana is…logical, predictable, and though it was one of the two favoured traditions of our founder, Old Mage Jatembe, I’m not sure that’s where my passion lies. Our library’s collection on the Occult might not be as expansive as its ones on the Arcane and Primal traditions, but I’ve been able to make serious progress in harnessing the powers of my dreams into something more tangible. There’s something about this magic that’s more instinctive, inspiring. Perhaps this is my mother’s gift?

As an aside, in an attempt to help the anadi students integrate, the school held an anadi cultural day. Turns out I underestimated how strong their silk can be, as I had great difficulty breaking out of restraints made of it. I guess this is all a small step in improving things here, though I noticed that most if not all of the students and faculty that I know are anadi chose to remain in human form.

Another faculty member has recently returned: Tahenkot, the Tempest Sun Mages’ strategist. Her face had a familiar look to it, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I asked Esi, as she’s been with the Mages longer than I have, and it turns out that Tahenkot is her mother. It looks like Esi and I both have high-flying mothers (one of Tahenkot’s interests is in the application of flight) and families that place high expectations on us. She and I are both driven to succeed, and I initially thought I’d hate working with her: another female warrior to boss me around—but she’s been a great sparring partner and I’ve learned much in our time together. After Tahenkot’s arrival, Mafika and Koride set out on an expedition to investigate rumours of a giant mantis possibly approaching the city from the northwest.

Takulu and Janatimo have set us a new assignment: a cattle farm on the south side of the city has had its herd decimated by giant insects and called on the Magaambya for aid. We reported to the beleaguered farm, and examined the corpse of one of the insects that the farmers had managed to kill. Meera was able to identify it easily—an ankhrav: burrowing creatures that form hives and can cause serious problems if left uncontested. A fully-developed hive is headed by a hive mother. Hopefully we’d caught this one in time. Matthuas could feel them moving under the ground thanks to the surrounding plants’ root network, and Meera suggested we go for a diplomatic approach. So we decided to try and bait some of the ankhravs up to the surface with a goat lent to us by the farmers. I wasn’t able to follow what she was saying to the one that surfaced to try and nibble on the animal, but it didn’t go well. Fortunately, we were able to unleash the goat and let it flee. Before long we were facing off against three of the creatures, which spat acid at us in addition to slashing at us with sharp claws and mandibles. Fortunately, these smaller ones could only spit acid at their opponents once every few hours, so the fight wasn’t too challenging. Investigating further, Matthuas was able to track the vibrations to a nearby orchard where we faced a horrific opponent: an immature ankhav queen. We had barely caught the infestation in time. This huge insect was a formidable opponent: it was able to spew acid at us at will, and had great reach and reflexes to match—it was almost impossible to get in close enough and land a hit on it. Though I’m not sure how much it helped, I was able to summon a memory from when I was a cub: mum holding me in her arms when I’d woken up after a nightmare. I was able to channel that feeling and extend it to Meera, helping heal some of her wounds. Though it wasn’t as powerful as her own healing, there was something very satisfying about being able to turn theory to practice like that. When I cast the spell, I could almost hear a faint voice saying ‘there, there. We can’t have Rib’s companions falling, can we?’ in an almost mocking tone. Given the situation, I couldn’t devote any more thought to that at the time. Our training in Halcyon magic also proved useful in stopping the acid from doing persistent damage to us. I’ll be offering thanks to Old Mage Jatembe for developing this unique form of the Craft.

We were barely able to hold our own; but at last the beast retreated, burrowing underground where we could not pursue it—though it wasn’t as if that would have been a sound idea: we were battered and severely wounded after that encounter and needed to recover. We reported back to Janatimo, who was happy that we were able to find out the source of the problem and would dispatch another team to deal with it, allowing us to recover. We had a tactical debrief with Tahenkot, who helped us come up with some ways to cope with situations like this: notably packing some scrolls of resist energy on future assignments, which all of us should be able to cast without issue by now. The bards love to spin rousing tales of glorious combat: crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentations of their males…their…significant others? It turns out real life isn’t some kind of game or fantasy: if you’re in this line of work, you’re going take a blow or two, and any one you can walk away from is a good one—you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, lick your wounds, and try to do better next time.

Afterwards, Janatimo had a lighter assignment for us: to meet him (dressed appropriately) at the Black Crowned Crane restaurant. This is the kind of place where the wine list extends into prices quoted in golden pieces, if you catch my drift. Upon meeting Janatimo, he informed us that we were there to take part in the “Tall Tails” storytelling competition. The rules were simple: each contestant had to tell a story about an unusual animal with a tail, no more than five minutes long. Meera’s rendition managed to win second place: a creative re-telling of our exploits at Oba’s Emporium of Magical Beasts. After that, we enjoyed a fine dinner as a treat from the academy.