Soul Bound

1        Soul Bound

1.1      Finding her Feet

1.1.2    An Immersive Experience

1.1.2.9  Quick, change artists

As promised, the storeroom courtyard was indeed a sight. One player on stilts was juggling fire torches back and forth with a fat clown. A tall clown was having knives thrown at him by Alderney as he pretended to be mortally afraid of her, pressing a squeaky horn every time he jumped to dodge them. Two acrobats, possibly a brother and sister, in bright blue leotards were doing backflips and tossing each other into the air. Five musicians with improvised drums were sitting in a circle beating out complicated Djembe rhythms. A fit looking man, with streaming ribbons tied to his wrists, elbows and knees was doing a vigorous dance that seemed to involve a lot of jumping and shaking his body. She intercepted the homicidal Alderney, giving her target a breather, to ask:

“No strings or wind? I get the impression that the Landis have a lot of money, and want to be seen as up-scale. Think high art, rather than lowbrow. Do you think those two acrobats could do something interpretative to go along with the drums? Make it narrative driven, perhaps a re-telling of the conflict between Cov and Bel, in allegorical terms? Get Wellington to check with Fra Mattheus, for ideas, precedents and to make sure we don’t step on any toes.”

Alderney was already nodding vigorously. “Oh, yes, I can do costumes for that, and maybe masks.” and then to the group in the courtyard “Take 5, people. Then gather round. Change of plans!”

The runner from Tomsk turned up, and Kafana passed him the sandwiches. “You may be able to get an effect just by eating part of it. They’re quite big. Tell Tomsk to experiment around and let me know when he figures out their exact effects.”

To Alderney she said: “If Dante manages to get the violin, I’ll do some quiet Vivaldi while they eat, then a big song at the end of the meal. If he can’t, we’ll need something soft and not too distracting for the meal itself. Can I leave that with you and Tomsk? Maybe ask Wellington for dancers and actors, rather than any more musicians or circus performers? Or mages. I get the impression that they’ve not seen much magic out here. Even a basic light spell might be useful for special effects.”

Alderney giggled. “Sure. And don’t tell Wellington, but I’ve already put my stat points into dexterity. He’s a fussbudget. I think, if I practice enough with these knives, I’m going to be able to make them fly around corners. You might want to put your points into the magic stat before tonight’s performance, to ensure you have enough mana.”

“Good idea, it takes ages to regen. I gotta go cook stuff. Keep me informed!”

[Document ‘TODO’ updated.]

[Level 3 acquired. You have 3 unspent stat points. You have 2 unspent skill points.]

[Title “Cook” acquired.]

[Skill “Create healing meals” acquired.]

[Skill “Create healing meals” has reached level 3. You create original recipes.]

A moment later, Tomsk reported: {Thanks Kafana, those sandwiches work a treat. ¼ of a sandwich seems to heal about 50 hp and 50 mp. Now we’re rocking. Expect more levels soon.}

She brought up her character screen, the one that had given her severe information overload the first time she’d looked through it. Now she took her time to examine the different parts, and click through to the stats and skills.

Stats:

Base  Mod  Total  Stat

0   0   0     CHA (Charisma)

1   0   1     INT (Intelligence)

1   0   1     MAG (Magic)

1   0   1     STR (Strength)

1   0   1     DEX (Dexterity)

1   0   1     CON (Constitution)

You have 3 unspent stat points available.

Skills:

3 Create healing meals

2 Singer

1 Speed Buff

1 Sorrow Debuff

1 Fascination Debuff

1 Working Buff

After brief consideration, she spent 2 points on MAG, and saved up her remaining unspent point. On checking the time, she realised she only had 30 minutes left before she had to go get fitted for the gown, and she still had to prepare the baklava. She was tempted to run, and thought wistfully of the air of contagiously calm professionalism she’d admired from Lelia. In fact, maybe she could buff herself? The chorus from "I Am Invincible" popped into mind and fitted so well that she didn't need to think further before starting to cast.

Oh yeah, now there was an attitude to give one confidence. She looked at the details of the resulting effect. Hmm, +100 fear resistance, 3 meter radius. Duration: 5 minutes. Not precisely what she had in mind, but she hadn’t really been concentrating, and hadn’t sung the full song.

[Skill “Protection against fear” acquired.]

She entered the kitchen with a calm certainty born of utter confidence.