1.16 Bright Night

I was seventeen the last time I went hiking in the woods at night. Back then I had six other scouts, a well marked trail, a full moon and several powerful flashlights. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do as a kid, it was far worse that night trying to get back to the Glade and Altar. The tree cover was so dense that even if there was a moon or stars trying to provide light, none was penetrating.

That entire day I had been hiking for fifty minutes, resting for ten, and hiking for another fifty. Every sixth break I rested for an hour instead. Stats do not tell the whole story, by dusk I was truly tired. I still choose to press forward, not wanting my [Sanctuary] to expire before I reached my camp. The only thing keeping me standing was my +1 Staff of Support.

I’m not sure of my extract age, but back in my Cub Scout days I found a stick while cleaning the local park. It was spring and the Pack always did a Park cleaning service project after the snow had melted, leaving all sorts of trash. It was just a branch that had fallen during the winter, but it was exactly the same height as my then self. I took it home, stripped off the bark, oiled and polished it. I used it as a hiking staff until I outgrew it, and then found more.

Most of my staves were purchased, but a significant portion were just fallen tree limbs I cleaned up. Some looked professional, turned on a lathe into a straight pole. Some were carved, with faces of wzen old men being prominent. Some were topped with glass balls, some with minerals. One had a spike, for climbing steep hills. Some were purchased at RenFaires, some at Jamborees. There was even a replica of Gandalf the White’s staff. White pine, red oak, black walnut, mountain ash, yew, cherry, hickory were all represented.

Not all were staves. I had my grandfather’s old cane, my crutches from after the crash, even an 18 inch long flashlight that was heavy enough to use as a mace, all stored in a closet in my home.

Two staves stood out me above the others.

When I was 18 I became friends with a true Artisan at the Michigan RenFaire. He sold wood carvings, including many a staff. All were made from found wood, branches and trees that had fallen in the extensive forests of northern Michigan. He said that his job was to reveal the hidden personality each piece of wood contained. While most were long haired and bearded men, not unlike their Crafter, others were the heads of different animals. I bought several staves from him over the years, one of which was a short staff, maybe foot high, with the carved head of an eagle. Not a bald eagle, but a golden eagle. I had read Tolkien before, one of my favorite authors, so I recognized the name of the Great Eagle who rescued Gandalf from Wargs and the Tower, Gwaihir, when I read the name he had given it.

The other was gifted to me years later by the Troop I took over as Scoutmaster. Many of the boys already knew me as a Merit Badge Counselor and occasional assistant. The outgoing Scoutmaster was a skilled woodworker, and made a personal staff for me. He got a flag pole topper, an eagle with out stretched wings and the Scouter Fleur-de-Lis on its chest and screwed into the top. Then using a wood burning tool, each of the scouts took turns etching the designs of various merit badges into the length of the staff. Some were clear, some unidentifiable, but the intent was clear. That staff accompanied every hiking and camping trip I went on with the boys.

When I Summoned my Pack, I had accidentally merged three items into one. When I Summoned my Staff I tried to call every staff I owned and merge them into one. I spent a full day unconscious afterwards, but a +1 Staff of Support lay on the Altar when I woke.

The Staff had a simple appearance, what looked like a fallen branch six feet in length with a cloudy glass ball on one end and a steel cap on the other. Looking closer showed the grain of the wood changing along its length, each of the different components merging together seamlessly. [Examination] showed:

+1 Staff of Support

This Yggswood Staff provides Support and Stability to Attuned users, both when Travelling and Casting.

+1 ASI to Agility for all Movement Actions when used as Support.

+1 Skill Focus for all Movement Skills when used as Support.

+1 Stability Focus: Reduces Spell Backlash Chance and Damage.

That might not seem like much, but Agility affected both my chances of tripping and falling as well as my base Movement Rate. Leaning on the Staff basically doubled my speed when hiking, I was only turtle slow instead of snail. The Backlash reduction was the most useful Property on any of my Items. It was why my [Cleansing Light] experiment only knocked me out for an hour and not six.

I learned through experimentation that the Staff could extend and retract a nine inch Mithral Spike from the butt end on command. While I could attempt to wield the Staff as some sort of misbegotten spear, the Spike’s main purpose was to stabilize the Staff in rough Terrain. The other interesting peculiarity was that the crystal sphere changed its appearance at different times. When in bright daylight it was pitch black, at dusk it was gray, and in the dark of night it was a cloudy white. It required using [Examination] on the spherical crystal specifically:

+1 Starcystal Globe of Illumination

This globe is crafted of Cosmic Starcystal, born in the Void by the Fusion of Otherworldly minerals infused with raw Aethyr. This example of Cosmic Starcystal is attuned to the Radiance of Blue-White Stars. The Globe has following Natural Properties due to its Cosmic Starcystal material:

Bluestar: All Radiance emitted has the Blue-White Stellar Quality. This Radiance is highly Toxic to all Red Dwarf Type Cosmic Horrors.

Sunbrand: All Spells focused through this Item gains the Solar Quality, increasing Damage to Creatures with Allergy/Vulnerability to Sunlight, and reducing Damage for those with Resistance/Tolerance to Sunlight. Radiance from Sunbrand increases Difficulty of all Darkness/Shadow type Magic.

Voidbane: Starcystal is particularly Toxic to all Void type Creature/Horrors and Disruptive to Void type Magic.

The Globe possesses the following Embedded Illumination Spells:

[Glow]-AOE Radiant Illumination effect.

[Beam]-LOS Radiant Illumination effect.

[Glare]-Individual Casual Radiant Vision Impairment Attack.

[Strobe]-AOE Casual Radiant Vision Impairment Attack.

[Sunbeam]-LOS Traumatic Solar Attack.

[Sunblaze]-AOE Traumatic Solar Attack.

[Glow] and [Beam] were the only two Embedded Spells I had sufficient Mana to use for more than a few seconds. I had used both, mostly [Beam] occasionally in my earlier explorations. It basically turned my Staff into the strongest intense Flashlight I had ever owned. I used [Glow] frequently in the evening updating my Map, as it only Cost 3 Mana an hour at its most basic setting.

I did wonder why the powers of the Globe were not revealed when I used [Examination] on the Staff. Were there other hidden features I was yet to discover? It was certainly a Legendary Item, Sunbrand and Voidbane were Legendary Properties, but not really all that useful. I could ward off certain Undead, which would have been of great help had I been stranded in the Grimmwood. Overpowered and yet under Useful. I was beginning to think Janus was playing some kind of practical joke. Or maybe it was me? There was no way I could be responsible, right?

With night falling, I spent the Mana to give me some light. If I was going to be stumbling around an unfamiliar section of the Briarwood at night, at least I would not be completely blind. The illumination would serve a second purpose, keeping me awake and focused while trying to find my way back.

I was tired, bone weary. Two months of regular exercise in the mornings and a mostly vegetarian diet, some rabbit, squirrel, and even grubs when I could find them, and I was in the best physical condition of my life. The System had even recognised it with that extra point of Con.

Still, I had been hiking, confronting giant bears, and Backlashing myself into unconsciousness since ten in the morning. Even with the help of my Staff, things look different at night. Even with [Glow], the blue tinted staff light threw strange shadows. Twigs and loose rocks littered the wooded floor. I tripped and barely caught my balance, a dozen times. My Compass was leading me back to the Glade. All that time I didn’t see a single creature, not even a fly or mosquito.

Around midnight the System felt I had enough:

Caution! Extended Physical Activity has Exceeded Fatigue Threshold!

You have been Afflicted with |Fatigue| Rank 1.

Each additional hour of Activity without a Long Rest will result in additional Fatigue Rank.

I had at least ten hours, maybe twelve until the [Sanctuary] expired. Maybe just taking a short nap, sitting with my back against a tree would be a good idea. Just to be sure I fed the Staff enough Mana to keep it alight for eight more hours, extended the Spike and drove it into the ground. It stood ramrod straight. I knew the light would attract attention, and it was only detrimental to a limited group of Creatures, but they were the exact kind of Creatures that could ignore [Sanctuary]’s protection.

I did not get the six hours of sleep I needed. After around three hours a new Notification woke me.

Caution!

Bluestar Radiance Toxicity has Exceeded Danger Threshold!

Environmental Hostility has Exceeded [Sanctuary] Threshold...Protections Dismissed!

-1 Reputation with Briarwood

Accumulated Negative Alignment Experience:-2

Injury: Sunburn Rank 1

Affliction: Sunsickness Rank 1

Toxic Affliction: Bluestar Poisoning Rank 1

Toxic Radiant Taint Accumulation Rank 1

Continual Exposure Will Result in Additional Ranks!

Synergistic Epiphany: [Assimilation]+{Environmental Conservation}+[Devour]+[Irongut]

[Tolerance:Toxic Radiance] Level 1 Acquired...implementing Otherworlder bonus…

Error...Cognitive Adaptation of Transliteral Equivalency Required…

Attention! New Damage Type Registered!

Toxic Radiant Taint recognised as Gamma Damage Type!

+ 1 Scholar Level

Registration Bonus: [Resilence:Gamma] Level 3

[Tolerance:Toxic Radiance] Level 1 has Evolved to [Tolerance:Gamma] Level 3

Attention! Racial Evolutionary Qualifications Acquired...Searching Otherworld Database…

Racial Evolutionary Paths Detected...Metahuman:Gamma, Shifter:Gamma

Racial Mutationary Paths Detected...Humanoid:Gamma, Monstrosity:Gamma

Evolutionary Protocol Restructure Required...Implementation Delayed...

Gamma Accumulation Dispersal...Absorbed by +1 Globe of Illumination

Estimated Evolutionary Restructure Completion in 21 days.

That was when I learned that the System did not understand the concept of Fiction. It understood that dishonesty, lies, illusions, trickery and other forms of intentional deception could be used to gain advantage. It understood personal prejudice, exaggeration, imperfect memory, and perceptual obscurement could introduce unintentional inaccuracies. It even had a limited understanding of allegory, parable, and symbolism, but only as an imagination of something that could happen.

All those comic books, graphic novels, films, and videos...the System thought they were representations of something to be understood as Real, as History. Maybe not perfectly preserved. Maybe not exactly true, but some sort of estimate of truth. Something the Audience could choose to believe as true.

It was conflating my high school AP Physics understanding of Gamma Radiation, with my Nerdist understanding of the Pop Culture version of Gamma Radiation. It equated my stint as a Comic Book Store manager as a kind of librarian.

It took me several moments to begin to process the intimations of the Notification. I had not even finished reading before I extinguish the light. No sooner had pitch darkness filled my vision then I heard a grumbling growl speak:

-”So mancub, how wilt thou fix this?”