The "Best" RPG Ever-119

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"I'm baaack!" Aria finished her work not long before lunchtime, and made her way back to the house.

"Hey, come in here," Mira called from the library, so she headed in. There were a number of stacks of handwritten paper spread out all over the table the witch was leaning over, one hand loosely holding one of the papers at a slight upward angle.
"Wow, uh...where'd all this come from?"

"Mail. The Captain of the guard agreed to have a selection of the town library's 'restricted section' transcribed for me so I could research curses a little better," Mira said, dropping the paper and standing upright. "I think I've had a small breakthrough, and I really need to talk through it with someone to be sure it makes sense."

"'Kay." Aria went over to a chair. "To be clear, this is pure rubber-duck, right? I don't have any 'education' in this world's magic.

"Yeah, no problem. But I'll explain this so you should understand anyway. I was trying to make sense of something that I didn't understand about curses before." She started pacing slowly. "You're familiar with your basic physics, right? Conservation of energy, basically says you can't get anything for free?"
"Sure..? But I assume all bets are off with magic."
"You'd think so, but not exactly. From what I can tell, magic is sort of like another form of that 'energy', with particularly complex interactions with ordinary matter and energy. I don't think it's as straightforward as normal physics are—which, yes, is already not easy—to describe the conversion between magic and 'normal physics stuff', and I guess there may be some cheating involved if you really do your math, but it's still generally true that you can't get something for nothing. All magic has a cost, and perpetual magic needs upkeep."

"That doesn't really surprise me," Aria said, crossing her arms. "I mean—any magic system that's not totally exploitable has some kinda mana cost or at least cooldowns or something, right?"
"Yes, but—curses!" Mira spread out her arms over the table. "How do they work? By which I mean, literally how? Like—what's the basic description of a curse?"
"Uh, you cast it on someone and they're stuck with it? Like Zack?"
"Like Zack!" she pointed. "Curses do a presumably bad thing to the target, and hang around forever unless something is actively done to dispel them. How? I mean, the person who cast that curse has been dead for a while now, to put it bluntly, so it's not like she could be maintaining it from beyond the grave. Even if the curse's effect is passive most of the time, how does it undermine a person's natural resistance to unwanted magic instead of just constantly burning itself against it?"

"Well uh...I guess if you put a lot of magic into a curse, then the bulk of it could be stored to maintain things?"
"That was what I thought, at first," Mira said, nodding. "In general, curses basically always require more effort to cast than other spells with similar-ish effects. There's no way to make a direct comparison since they also tend to do things that other spells can't in the first place, but from casting a few experimental low-level curses on myself, they definitely feel way more costly than I think they 'should be' from my experience using demonic magic more directly."

"But you said 'at first', so that's not it?"
"I don't think so," the witch said, shaking her head. "Think about this: Has anyone, ever, in the whole history of this world, had a curse weaken with time, or suddenly vanish after they lived with it for a long time?"
"I've never heard of anything like that," she shook her head. "I mean—I haven't exactly heard much about curses to begin with, but my basic understanding from my relatively few recovered memories of this world is that curses are forever unless dispelled."

"Yeah, and in all of the literature I've gotten about curses here, or anything I can remember being taught about them by Griselda—there's no implication or suggestion that they can ever just 'wear off'. I—I'm pretty sure I remember her cautioning me not to curse people lightly, because if I can't take it back then it won't go away."

"Okaay, so one of your other assumptions must be wrong, then? Maybe demonic magic can passively draw power from somewhere else, like the demon world or something, and the curses are costly because they need to 'set up' that link?"

"Close, but no," Mira said. "It costs a lot to make any link to the demon world, and they're always very temporary. I'm pretty sure the gods are constantly maintaining and repairing the 'barrier' to keep demons from overrunning the world, or something like that. Besides, if a link like that exists you'd think someone would've found it, since if you could break that link it would be an instant cure-all for every curse ever, and we'd know if something that simple existed.

"So, no—if curses do perpetually draw power from something, then for them to work the way they do, it has to be both close at hand, and effectively inexhaustible. And at this point I thought about Vae's potion. Its peculiar effects, and the way it relies on demonic magic..."
Aria nodded slowly, thinking about that. "You said something about how the demonic magic was acting as a 'power source' or something?"

"Weren't you in the other room?"
Aria narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly, giving herself big, bright white fox-ears for a second and pointing at one emphatically.

"Oh, yeah, point taken. Anyway, I don't think she was exactly right about how the demonic magic was functioning. I mean—yes, the effect is, overall, imitating the behavior of elvish and I guess shifter magic that keeps them young, but in a very different way. I think the demonic magic is doing something that maybe only demonic magic can do, and siphoning magic right out of her soul."
The shifter raised an eyebrow. "That...sounds bad."
"No no no," she waved her hands quickly, "that sounds way worse than it really is. See, the soul is—in the first place—the thing that a person's magic comes from. It's, kinda hard to describe, but the soul is essentially a magic generator that you can pull magic out of. Like—when a mage suffers burnout, it's the 'connection' that you pull magic through that's damaged and needs time and rest to recover."

"..So you think curses 'siphon' their power from the soul, too?"
"Right! I mean—I think what a curse does, is either intercept or somehow conterfeit that 'connection' using demonic magic for its own means. So if you apply the same method, but outside the context of an actual curse, you get a power source that can be used to perpetuate any effect, even a purely un-curse-like, beneficial one like what's going on with Vae. It's just that linking that up to anything is so horrendously complex that I don't think I'd ever be able to do it without a lot of help from something else."
"Like the complicated magic involved in Vae's potion, presumably."
"Yeah! So—circling back, the reason curses stick around forever is because they're 'stealing' a tiny fraction of the afflicted person's magic output, and presumably that also sneaks their effects in underneath normal magic resistance. And casting a curse is costly because you need to not only pierce that natural resistance, but then establish the link and 'bury' it where it can't be resisted. Which I think means that you could get a cure-all for curses if you could find a way to sever the soul's magic output long enough for the curse to run out of stored-up energy and fizzle out, connection and all. But uh.."
"Why hasn't anyone done that before?" Aria suggested the obvious question. "Even just by accident, while desperately trying to be rid of a curse?"

"Well, I think know the answer to that," Mira said. "It'd kill you. Burnout normally happens way before any risk to a mage's life develops, but there are records of people willfully pushing their magic so hard, so far past what would normally be the point of burnout, that they just die afterward with no apparent physical cause."
"...Ah. Well, that's a dead end on the curse-breaking front, then."

"Yeah, but—if I'm right, this information on curses and demonic magic in general could be super useful for all kinds of applications in the future. That 'eternal youth potion' could basically be just the beginning of an entirely new field of study. With uh, the only problem being that you'd need more than just me handling the demonic magic, and I'm not sure too many people will happily sign up to be witches and warlocks just to experiment with this stuff...at least, not people I'd trust with demonic power."
"Well, no need to rush things," Aria said. "Like my 'computer project', just take the steps you can for now, and don't do anything stupid and risky to advance things too fast. Besides, if I ever get to the point of 'fully merging', I guess I'll technically be part demon too, so I could prolly get in on that—assuming there's a way for me to use the magic to do something other than give myself berserker strength after it's become fully 'mine'."

---

Since the ogres hadn't noticed them yet and weren't approaching, the group dispatched to get rid of them walked at a brisk pace rather than running. Katherine asked: So, Zack—if we get you close enough, think you can just hot-knife-through-butter their heads off?

I don't know—maybe that only works on 'small enough' monsters? It's not like this sword came with instructions.

That's a big 'if' anyway, Lynn pointed out, recalling her own first encounter with an ogre. Frankly, I'd rather nobody get up close and personal with them. Three out of the four of us have good ranged attacks anyway.

Then I'll be better off with my shield, Zack thought, switching to dark form. But you can bet I'll at least try to cut one of them if I get an opportunity.

The knight took a few extra steps forward, carefully moving to a ready stance, while the other three fanned out—Lynn notching an arrow, Katherine getting a few knives out and floating around her, and Clera placing a hand across her necklace, preparing for an explosion big enough to hurt, but not so large as to likely set the grass on fire. Some wordless mental communcation coordinated them, ending with the psion giving the winged girl a mental nod, and she let loose, drawing her hand back and throwing it forward to send a basketball-sized comet of fire streaking out at the center of the nearer monster.

It connected and spread into a massive, bright, hot explosion—all of the adventurers closing their eyes just in time to not be blinded by the resulting brilliant flash—and at the same time an electrified arrow shot between the eyes of the other one, making it jerk and spasm briefly before swinging its club wildly around. The one the explosion had hit was only briefly stunned, and recovered to start running at Clera; by now she had turned around and gotten a running start to take off into flight. Zack ran after her pursuer as he tried to swat her out of air with his own giant axe but proved to still be out of range, and he struck at its leg with his sword, making a wide gash through an ankle and causing the monster to roar in pain.

The one Lynn had hit came after her, practically ignoring a volley of five more zapping arrows that mostly landed in his belly. Katherine tossed a dagger up toward his head and directed its motion just slightly to have it catch him in the eye, activating it to cause a bright flash of light and blind him so the archer could move around and out of his sight. A second dagger sliced at his throat, but found the skin there too tough to fully cut through, winding up with its blade buried about a third of the way across.

Zack's ogre whirled and swung the blade of its massive axe down at its most recent source of pain; the knight easily dodged aside of the chop rather than trying to block that much force, and moved around to strike through more of the injured ankle with his blade. Clera took advantage of its attention being downward to curve her flight back around and spew a wave of fire from her hands into its head, burning it and making it roar and swat at her again. She flew past it too quickly to be hit and gave the other monster the same treatment on her way past.

This distraction was more than enough for Zack to finish more or less cutting the thing's foot off. It roared again, and he ran out in front of it to goad it into trying to chase him. Despite the pain it undoubtedly was feeling, it seemed to expect its injured leg to work as it always had, which resulted in it more or less stumbling over its own severed foot and collapsing forward toward the ground, roaring out in rage and flailing its arms violently enough to throw its weapon a long distance off in the process. The knight turned aside and stopped as soon as he was clear of his opponent's falling body, readying Enceladus as it fell toward him. Once its head was in range, he chopped the weapon down through the monster's throat with both hands, cutting off its cries and making it go limp immediately.

No longer under pursuit, Lynn was able to turn and draw another arrow, firing it into the ogre's uninjured eye with another jolt of electricity. It convulsed violently from this shock directly toward its brain, dropping its weapon and falling over to one side. Katherine moved well away from its flailing body to avoid being struck by a stray swing, and concentrated her energy on the dagger buried partway into its throat, driving it deeper and making it keep cutting until it hit something vital. Its voice gurgled briefly before it, too, went still.

Clera pulled back around to land next to Lynn, watching the two fallen monsters carefully. "At least these appear to have the same vital areas as a human," she commented.
"More or less. A lot bigger, though—little more armored too," the catgirl said, carefully yanking her weapons back out of the thing without coming any closer herself—in case it still had some death throes left in it.

"And a lot of blood." Zack carefully wiped his weapon on the grass before sheathing it, then brought a hand across a part of his face that felt wet and warm, examining the red liquid that came off onto his fingers. "Gods, I need a shower..." He looked down. "Maybe an armor washing, too."

"Hey, if we come across a convenient lake or stream," Lynn half-suggested, stopping when she saw the wolf-girl fold her ears down at the mere suggestion. "Okay, okay—sooner we get back to town the better, then?"
"Yeah."

The four of them made their way back to the caravan, and Katherine reached out as soon as she could feel Rayna coming into easy telepathic range. We got the ogres. Any trouble on your end?

A few goblins showed up, but we took care of them. I buffed the prince and a couple of soldiers, kept us invisible, and they were gone in a single stroke each.

I imagine that made them feel better, after the last time they fought goblins, Lynn said.

Yeah, even the ones I didn't buff are in really high spirits now. Hey, did you find out this time?
...Find out what? the archer asked back.

Whether or not ogres have layers?

Lynn communicated a deadpan, annoyed glare as best she could through mental communication ...Don't even start.

---

"Soo—" Aria sat up in her chair. "What're you planning to do right now?"
"I'm...gonna take a break. I've been concentrating on texts and thinking hard for long enough. Maybe make some lunch for everyone. You wanna help?"

"'Want to' and 'willing to' are two different things," the shifter said, hopping up onto her feet. "But I am at least willing. Not necessarily competent, of course."
"It's okay, I'll make it easy for you."

They were passing through the living room when someone knocked on the door to town, and Mira went over to get it. "Oh—hi Vae."
"Good morning," the short Vulpin girl nodded. "Do you...know whether or not Rose is in? Or accepting visitors at the moment?"
"Well—she's in her forest right now, sure. Annd, I'm quite sure she'd be happy to see you again."

Vae's left ear twitched a couple of times. "I don't ordinarily go to visit someone without announcing myself in advance, but..my eagerness got the better of me. I have a spare hour or so, and wished to see whether she would allow me to harvest a few materials for the experimental potion today."

"Go on through, then," the witch said, moving aside and waving her at the other linked door. "I'm pretty sure she can sense anyone in her 'domain' or whatever, so you probably don't need to worry about startling her."
Her right ear twitched once. "That is..certainly preferable."

After that, they continued on to the kitchen to start lunch. Everything was nearly ready by the time Nora and Lupa came through the front door, the wolf-girl following the scent of food and Nora following her. "We're baaack~!" the former announced on their way into the kitchen.

"Welcome. How'd things go?"
"Tall fox was really nice, and pet this one!" Lupa said.

The weaver cleared her throat softly. "Fazren seemed to think your idea held some weight. He said he would send for any reference that might be helpful, and make an attempt at it for himself as well. And...he is at least tentatively willing to try Vaedin's potion, so long as the gods don't tell him not to."
"How likely do you think that is?" Aria asked, sitting up in her chair. The food preparation was past the point where she'd be any real help, which maybe gave the unfortunate impression she'd been just sitting there waiting to be fed the whole time.

"I don't know..I feel he is rather attuned to them. Certainly more than I am," Nora said. "But the primary if not only concern he expressed was that it may alter the nature of his abilities as a Weaver—due to the interaction with one's natural magic."
"Oh, hmmn. I suppose I hadn't thought of that," the witch said. "Then again, curses don't usually have a noticeable effect on one's magic unless they're specifically targetted at it. I think the risk is pretty low, but—I guess you never know with sufficiently complicated magic."

"Right...hence his asking 'permission'. If they don't tell him no, then either they believe his power won't be affected negatively, or it isn't important enough to bother answering him regardless."

"I guess it's better than asking forgiveness," Aria said.

Lupa spent most of this conversation slowly sneaking closer to where Mira was finishing up the food preparation. The witch turned her head one way to find the short wolf-girl looking up at her with a cute grin, wagging her tail. She ruffled Lupa's hair, but said, "Hey, ease back a little bit, hmn? Don't want you to get burned."
"Ah! Sorry." Lupa took some steps back. "An old habit, this one thinks...but, can't remember from when? It felt like this one wouldn't get any of what was cooking otherwise."
"That's...hmn." Mira thought for a moment. "You were acting a lot like a dog begging for human food, you know. Maybe...were you a domesticated dog before turning into a dire wolf?"
She seemed to need a moment to think about it before answering. "...This one doesn't know. And, what's 'dome-es-stick-ated'?"
"It means an animal that's used to living with humans..more or less," Aria said. "Or, I guess, 'people' rather than just humans."

"Wait.." Nora thought. "When you first changed, you mentioned something about how happy you'd been with your 'first pack'. Was that before you became a dire wolf?"
"Uhhhm...this one thinks so? Sort of remembers, being smaller. And a place like this, with uh..floors, and walls, and doors and windows. And, there was a first alpha there, before this one became alpha."

"Was that first alpha a human?"
Lupa thought about it some more, then nodded slowly. "This one...thinks so. It's uhm..hazy? Hard to remember clearly, like it was a very long time ago. And, this one remembers being very sad..and then a lot of hurting, and then being big and angry. That was when this one started the new pack."

"I think it's reasonable to conclude that you probably were someone's pet dog originally," Nora said. "In a way, I feel it explains how you've behaved since being personified a little better..that is, how friendly you seem to be most of the time? I wouldn't expect that from someone who was only ever a wild wolf or a monster before."

The four of them had lunch together, and then Mira took two more plates with her to the door to Rose's forest, using one of her shadow-tentacles to turn the knob and pull the door open. "Helloo~!" she called on her way in (or maybe 'out' was more accurate). Soon enough the dragon-girl skittered up in front of her on all fours, bringing herself upright only after she came to a halt.

"Heyy! Oh wow that smells good!"
"Heheh, thanks. You have anywhere for me to put these?" Rose nodded, raising a hand and causing some plants to twist and grow up into a sort of makeshift table, so she set them down there. "How're things going, huh?"
"Great! Uhmm, Vae's picking a bunch of different kinds of flowers, herbs, leaves and stuff. She keeps saying she's really done this time, then staring at one more thing on our way out, and I have to insist that she takes a little if it's useful. I'll go make her take a break to eat though, 'cause I don't think she will otherwise."
"Yes, she does seem like the sort to habitually work through lunch. Anyway, enjoy~!"
"Yeah! Thank you!"