[Kurush]

Oh, now I'm back and I'm bad. Here's another part of Nodoka's adventures on Tu'narath.

Spoiler for Reboot:

“So, we're going to show you the basics of a few magic styles we've seen over the years, coupled with some martial arts training here in Boa, and within the week, you'd be dangerous to fight again. Does that sound good?” Ashracai asked Nodoka.

“Well...” The bookworm started off, but she was cut off.

“No.” Fashtar said right behind them, standing next to a pedestal with a veil above something round that wasn't there before. “That does not sound good at all.”

“Fash?” Efromm asked. “What are you saying?”

“I'm saying, Efromm, that while the foundation of the idea is good, there are key flaws to it right now as it is.” Fashtar told them. “And before you start yapping, I'll tell you the two biggest: Location and time. Location: We're still in sight of Mt. Ilsensine, and not far from where Nodoka's last battle was. If one were to do the simple geographics, we're the only place around that she could turn to for safety. Meaning, the Illithids could come back and enslave us all without us even noticing it. And Drinde is still out there. He could find this place in a jiffy. Time: It's too short. A week or so is not going to cut it. For all her powers yet, Nodoka was born without natural talent for magic, unlike our sorcerers, not to mention that it took her months of practice and study to be at her current level.”

“So what are you suggesting, we send Nodoka to school or something?” Ashracai mocked the military commander. Ergo, the Imperium's best commander, but still.

“That's exactly what I am suggesting, Lord Ashracai.” Fashtar replied, procuring a bunch of official papers and handing them over to Nodoka. “I've already filled in applications, all that's needed are her own name, date of birth, signature, etc. I've also intended to hold speech lessons with her one-on-one for learning Draconic.”

Nodoka looked through the papers, wearing those glasses that Ashracai had made to understand foreign writing. She didn't know fully what they were talking about. “And how long do you intend for her training to go on, if we follow this plan?”

“Fourteen-” Fashtar told him but was cut off himself.

“Fourteen days?” Ashracai asked. “That's just twice as long and-”

“Fourteen years.” The eye-patched Githyanki told them sternly, surprising everybody. “Seven years in school, seven years of field practice. I've taken precaution to this.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Rufus stopped the gith there for a moment. “Fashtar, we get your proposal to the concept, but just what in Baator are your reasons for going this far? You didn't think this up, did you?”

“First: The civil war with Ifrith.” Fashtar countered immediately. “Regardless of what is going on and what is about to happen, High King Ifrith is still the number one villain for Nodoka. He is a man with military experience who's been on the throne of Samasal for 500 years, giving him centuries of strategic thinking, not to mention a vast pool of soldiers to start with. Plus, he could very well get the aid of Samasal's own magocracy while he's at gaining support against Nodoka and her own small band of allies. Granted, you and Efromm are her allies, but it will still take weeks before you can muster a proper assault on Samasal. By then, Ifith will have mounted a powerful defense against two fronts.”

“Er... that's a good reasoning... wait, first?”

“Second: Fate Averruncus.” Fashtar continued. “From what I've been told second-hand, he is here, along with an X amount of followers. We have no idea where he is, but we do know why: he's working with that bitch Vlaakith CLVII, meaning he and Nodoka are going to clash again. Translated, Nodoka is up against a mage that her own master couldn't beat on his own, and she was, what, the weakest of his partners... in comparison to the others of the White Wing? Now here she is, alone without her more familiar party members, against a powerful construct mage that could easily kill her in just one shot. Don't know about you, but I sure am not taking that shot.”

“Ger... can't really argue with that...”

“Third: Drinde. As I said earlier, he is still out there and he's regenerating himself, or trying to find a healer to patch him up. We know that that thing is out for Nodoka as well, meaning the end of our race. You're the one who confronted him, Ashracai and you come up with a lame idea like this? A week simple practice out in the open? There is a chance of 64% that Drinde could very well ambush us in that time and since he's supposedly only harmable by the gods, what chance do you think we have against him?”

“Well, we could teleport him against his own will...”

“Yes and put him where?” Fashtar countered. “Wherever he'll pop in, there is bound to be catastrophe in his wake. As much as Nodoka is the main objective to protect, I'd rather not have that lich wander around freely on my world. We all know that teleporting into space doesn't work either, too.”

“I see your point.”

“I'm not done yet. Fourth: Nodoka's arm. She lost her right arm in a direct confrontation with Drinde, and she got lucky in that the old priest destroyed Drinde's body, albeit temporarily. Even so, she lost her arm in the process. The psychological trauma to that could still remain and when she meets him again, what do you think would happen? I for one want her to be fully prepared next time they meet, not freezing up in front of him, making it an easy win for Drinde. And finally fifth: The Illithids. Those A-holes are still out there, too, with Kas-Far, using her old sword, which was indestructible if I recall things correctly, as the foundation for his body. Not to mention that he was connected to the Elder Brain, meaning he's got near god-like psionic powers. We're talking level 10 here, maybe even higher. None of us here, save Rad'na, is level 10, meaning we can say bye-bye to our Will saves and then we're Illithid snacks for weeks. Need I continue my reasoning?”

“That's not needed.” Nodoka spoke up, catching their attention. “This matter is about me, no one else. It's for me to decide in the end. Fashtar-san makes a valuable fundamental answer, which is very thought through, with the reasons in full understanding.” She said, rubbing her newly regained right arm. “I'll do it. I'll take the school course.”

“Good.” Fashtar let out a deep breath. “Any questions before we start?”

“A few. You have taken precaution to the fourteen years of training I'm gonna be put through?” Nodoka asked first.

“Of course.” He told her and revealed underneath the veil a large resort. “You're familiar with this kind of dimension magic, Nodoka. You'll be spending fourteen years in there, whilst the rest of us, I hope, will be out here for a week.”

“Given this amount of reasoning, you would be a mage, yourself, Fashtar-san?” Nodoka inquired nex.

“...Yes. I was not born a Sorcerer like your dad, but I have taken lessons in magic, effectively making me a Wizard, instead.” Fashtar told her, revealing that bit of knowledge about himself. “Anything else?”

“...You do have something to counter the aging effects while I'm in there, right?” She asked nervously.

“Would I have said 'fourteen years' right off the bat if we didn't?” Fashtar countered with his own question and smirk.

“Oh. Well, that makes thing easier, then.” Nodoka said. “Let me just tell Symon-san and Jashol-san where I'll be, and then we can get underway, okay?”

“Sure.”

Spoiler for Notes:

- For those of you who remember, I posted this scene earlier in this thread, say: The first page. After weeks of writing and finally reaching this part, I thought: It needs to be redone.

- What Fashtar is suggesting is that they take Nodoka to learn the good old D&D magic, which comes in eight schools.

Spoiler for Magic of D&D:

PREPARING WIZARD SPELLS
A wizard’s level limits the number of spells she can prepare and cast. Her high Intelligence score might allow her to prepare a few extra spells. She can prepare the same spell more than once, but each preparation counts as one spell toward her daily limit. To prepare a spell the wizard must have an Intelligence score of at least 10 + the spell’s level.

Rest: To prepare her daily spells, a wizard must first sleep for 8 hours. The wizard does not have to slumber for every minute of the time, but she must refrain from movement, combat, spellcasting, skill use, conversation, or any other fairly demanding physical or mental task during the rest period. If her rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time she has to rest in order to clear her mind, and she must have at least 1 hour of uninterrupted rest immediately prior to preparing her spells. If the character does not need to sleep for some reason, she still must have 8 hours of restful calm before preparing any spells.

Recent Casting Limit/Rest Interruptions: If a wizard has cast spells recently, the drain on her resources reduces her capacity to prepare new spells. When she prepares spells for the coming day, all the spells she has cast within the last 8 hours count against her daily limit.

Preparation Environment: To prepare any spell, a wizard must have enough peace, quiet, and comfort to allow for proper concentration. The wizard’s surroundings need not be luxurious, but they must be free from overt distractions. Exposure to inclement weather prevents the necessary concentration, as does any injury or failed saving throw the character might experience while studying. Wizards also must have access to their spellbooks to study from and sufficient light to read them by. There is one major exception: A wizard can prepare a read magic spell even without a spellbook.

Spell Preparation Time: After resting, a wizard must study her spellbook to prepare any spells that day. If she wants to prepare all her spells, the process takes 1 hour. Preparing some smaller portion of her daily capacity takes a proportionally smaller amount of time, but always at least 15 minutes, the minimum time required to achieve the proper mental state.

Spell Selection and Preparation: Until she prepares spells from her spellbook, the only spells a wizard has available to cast are the ones that she already had prepared from the previous day and has not yet used. During the study period, she chooses which spells to prepare. If a wizard already has spells prepared (from the previous day) that she has not cast, she can abandon some or all of them to make room for new spells.

When preparing spells for the day, a wizard can leave some of these spell slots open. Later during that day, she can repeat the preparation process as often as she likes, time and circumstances permitting. During these extra sessions of preparation, the wizard can fill these unused spell slots. She cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because she has cast a spell in the meantime. That sort of preparation requires a mind fresh from rest. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if the wizard prepares more than one-quarter of her spells.

Spell Slots: The various character class tables show how many spells of each level a character can cast per day. These openings for daily spells are called spell slots. A spellcaster always has the option to fill a higher-level spell slot with a lower-level spell. A spellcaster who lacks a high enough ability score to cast spells that would otherwise be his or her due still gets the slots but must fill them with spells of lower level.

Prepared Spell Retention: Once a wizard prepares a spell, it remains in her mind as a nearly cast spell until she uses the prescribed components to complete and trigger it or until she abandons it. Certain other events, such as the effects of magic items or special attacks from monsters, can wipe a prepared spell from a character’s mind.

Death and Prepared Spell Retention: If a spellcaster dies, all prepared spells stored in his or her mind are wiped away. Potent magic (such as raise dead, resurrection, or true resurrection) can recover the lost energy when it recovers the character.

This was drawn from an SRD site with focus on how to create a tabletop character, rather than on the universe itself.

Spoiler for School Specialization:

A school is one of eight groupings of spells, each defined by a common theme. If desired, a wizard may specialize in one school of magic (see below). Specialization allows a wizard to cast extra spells from her chosen school, but she then never learns to cast spells from some other schools.

A specialist wizard can prepare one additional spell of her specialty school per spell level each day. She also gains a +2 bonus on Spellcraft checks to learn the spells of her chosen school.

The wizard must choose whether to specialize and, if she does so, choose her specialty at 1st level. At this time, she must also give up two other schools of magic (unless she chooses to specialize in divination; see below), which become her prohibited schools. A wizard can never give up divination to fulfill this requirement. Spells of the prohibited school or schools are not available to the wizard, and she can’t even cast such spells from scrolls or fire them from wands. She may not change either her specialization or her prohibited schools later.

The eight schools of arcane magic are abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, and transmutation. Spells that do not fall into any of these schools are called universal spells.

Abjuration: Spells that protect, block, or banish. An abjuration specialist is called an abjurer.

Conjuration: Spells that bring creatures or materials to the caster. A conjuration specialist is called a conjurer.

Divination: Spells that reveal information. A divination specialist is called a diviner. Unlike the other specialists, a diviner must give up only one other school.

Enchantment: Spells that imbue the recipient with some property or grant the caster power over another being. An enchantment specialist is called an enchanter.

Evocation: Spells that manipulate energy or create something from nothing. An evocation specialist is called an evoker.

Illusion: Spells that alter perception or create false images. An illusion specialist is called an illusionist.

Necromancy: Spells that manipulate, create, or destroy life or life force. A necromancy specialist is called a necromancer.

Transmutation: Spells that transform the recipient physically or change its properties in a more subtle way. A transmutation specialist is called a transmuter.

Universal: Not a school, but a category for spells that all wizards can learn. A wizard cannot select universal as a specialty school or as a prohibited school. Only a limited number of spells fall into this category.

- He also suggested in that she takes lessons in speaking Draconic, the language of the ancient dragons. By this, I'm playing two cards here. The first one is basically that a spell can be said in any language, as long as you know what effect you want. The second card comes from the Disney series Gargoyles: The older a language is, the more venerable it is. The more venerable a language is, the bigger effect it'll have. Rethorical question: How old do you think Draconic is?

With that in mind, what school do you propose that Nodoka should specialize in?

As well as your thoughts?