Trail 49: Summons and Confidants

--- Jon ---

“Alright, if we keep things up at this pace we should have everything wrapped up in the next couple of days.” His Ma noted looking over the maze they’d set up and the various props they had laying around.

“We’ve got everything placed but we’ve still got to hook everything up properly.” He frowned. “You think we’ll be able to give things a trial run before Halloween?”

“Eh, we’ve got this.” His Ma dismissed the concern with a wave of her hand.

“Uh, I’m going to be honest, if you aren’t just moving things I’m probably not going to be much more use. I mean I can do some basic tinkering if I have to, but the stuff you guys have here… it’s a little beyond me.” Rodriguez admitted as she gestured at the wall of monitors they were -or rather would be- using to control the maze.

“Well like Jon was saying we still need a guinea pig for once we’ve finished setting everything up.” His Ma pointed out.

“And I already said I’m not going to walk through whatever hell house you two are setting up.” Rodriguez reminded her partner.

“We’re not setting up a hell house.” His ma scoffed.

“Yeah, those are best for one group at a time. If we want to make sure everyone gets a turn at the maze we’re going to need more people in it than that.” He nodded before considering something. “Actually, are we going to get more people than we would’ve out in the country? I mean I get that we’re in the city, but since this is the first time we’ve run a haunted house out here they’re probably going to want to go through one of the professional houses that’ve been here a while.”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ve had Steele sending out flyers and junk advertising this thing as a charity event. Whatsmore since the station has been doing the whole halloween party thing for a while we should have a few takers from that as well.” His Ma assured him. “And even if no civis want to run the maze, I can always blackmail the other officers into running it, and we can post their videos online to raise some charity money too.”

“Uh, now that I think about it, why aren’t you already doing that?” Rodriguez asked, looking a little confused.

“I have to balance how much psychological torture I put everyone through or else someone might snap and have a mental breakdown, and rather not deal with that again.” His Ma shrugged.

“Poor Manfried and Johnson.” He sighed with a shake of his head. “They were never the same after meeting the easter bunny.”

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Psych Warfare and Trap Making.

--Currently: Psych Warfare Lv. 4 (8/10) and Trap Making Lv 9 (10/20)

---

With it getting so close to Halloween, he decided that it would probably be a good idea to try and find another Creep nest before the peak of the Halloween Haunt. And given the circumstance he also decided that it would be best to wait for nightfall before going out in search of the Creeps, since in all likelihood he’d only find the nest if he saw Creeps coming and going from it.

So with that in mind, he did what he tried to do whenever he knew he was going to have a long night back in Blackwell. Namely that since all of his equipment was already set, he should probably try to take a nap before spending the entire night awake hunting monsters.

Unfortunately, when he moved for his bed he found a curious sight in Pix sleeping atop an equally sleeping Melon.

Now normally this wouldn’t actually be all that curious of a sight, (if not for the fact that I haven’t summoned Melon since that meeting with the cooking club.)

With a thoughtful frown he found himself remembering how whenever he fed magic into Melon she somehow seemed to summon an entire swarm of Flufflepuffs from seemingly nowhere. (Which I’m guessing isn’t actually a one-way streak like I thought…)

Having found his curiosity peaked he went through his things and pulled out his Contracting Creature Compendium, because while he didn’t actually remember the book saying anything about this odd ability to appear wherever they pleased, that didn’t mean he hadn’t missed something explaining just that phenomenon.

Once more going over the entry in question, he found nothing referring to any sort of spatial magic of any kind. Though now that he read it again, he did realize that he probably should’ve taken the line ‘no matter the odds Flufflepuffs will find their way to anywhere there is a high concentration of magic’ a little more seriously, even without the reference to how they do that.

With his book turning out to be a bit of a bust on this matter, he instead tried his hand at seeing what the internet had to say about Flufflepuffs. (And the internet apparently loves them.)

Despite rarely actually popping up in the non-Deviant media of the masses, anywhere that had anything to do with magic in the more mundane settings tended to have a Flufflepuff somewhere near it. With numerous pictures of the little creatures in various activities and dressed with a number of little hats, he found the internet’s treatment of Flufflepuffs to be pretty similar to everyone else's treatment of cute animals if a little less mainstream.

Scouring through this trove of cute pictures and videos he tried to find anything about the magical creatures that didn’t revolve around how cute they were or the fact that they were the mascots of the Arcane association.

The closest he managed were a few curious questions about where the Flufflepuffs found their hats, because they apparently weren’t being given to them by their contractors. (Though the little fuzzballs would still accept hats and clothing from their contractors.)

In the end there was surprisingly little practical information about Flufflepuffs, something that he would’ve written off as being because only the Arcane and Practitioners would be actively aware of them, if not for the fact that he found ten times as much information on the few other magical creatures he searched. (Which is especially odd when you consider the fact that they’re the mascot of the Arcane Association, a group specifically designed to research and study magic and magical creatures in a meritocratic format.)

He couldn’t help but frown at that thought. (Someone is covering something up when it comes to Flufflepuffs…)

It might’ve been a paranoid revelation on his part, but it was one that fit with what information he had. (Meaning the question is now whether or not this is worth digging into. After all, if the Arcane Association, who actively spreads information about magic to the masses, wants this classified then they must have a reason… Maybe I should ask Miss Edna what she thinks? She was a teacher for the Association back in the day.)

With that matter settled for the time being, he moved to place his book back where it belonged before accidentally jostling a decorative skull covered in markings.

“Huh, almost forgot I had this thing.” He admitted as he picked up the Confidant Contracting Catalyst he’d gotten a few weeks prior.

Scene Consequences

-For further studying Flufflepuffs gained 1XP to Contracting: Summons

--Currently: Lv. 6 (2/14)

-Melon no longer takes a summoning slot as long as Jon is at home.

---

Figuring that if he was going to go searching for another Creep nest it would be in his best interest to have a little more assistance should things go wrong. And while Audrey had given him a standing offer to go hunting with her and the girls, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to slip an extra ace up his sleeve.

Which is how he found himself sitting in a forest clearing while waiting for the Confidant Catalyst to finish its various adjustments to the Spell Circuit he’d drawn. A process that he found was just outside of his understanding, given how quickly the markings were shifting into symbols he couldn’t quite recognize in the few seconds it took them to change into something else.

After a few moments of watching sparks dance along the circuit's edge, their light twice as bright in the dark of the night, he eventually felt a pull on the magic in his amulet as the catalyst triggered the second half of its programming and activated the circuit’s actual summoning effect.

The dancing sparks dove into the circle, causing it to steadily glow brighter and brighter until he could see around the clearing as easily as if it were day.

He felt something in the spell snap, as the light burst sending forth a wave of magic as he felt a vision ripple through his mind as