9

“You damn stoner, you nearly ate all out stew.” Waverly admonishes. “Whatever is left will barely feed one person, let alone satisfy two.”

“Listen babe, I got the munchies, and everyone knows you can’t just ignore the munchies.” Sullivan says in a calm whimsical voice. “This is medicinal alright it gets me back in touch with the land.”

“Don't give me that bullshit and stop playing with your sac.” Waverly says scornfully. “I am a lady and I shouldn’t have to see you flapping that hardware all over the place. You had plenty of time to do that before we came back.”

Sullivan eyes heavy with his newly intoxicating dose of “medicine” says, “If you had a sac that was so magical and amazing you’d be playing with it too. But really man this stuff here.” he points at his pipe and a few vials laying around “it is what gives me my druidic powers. I originally came here and was fated to be a mage, but it did not suit me. I worked endless hours babe and finally I found what I needed. I found nature in all its splendor, and in that I needed a way to become closer to my desire. I created this medicine to help me be nature's advocate man so stop trying to kill my buzz. Give me a few minutes and I will come down for my nirvana. This part of the process usually doesn’t last long.”

Disgusted Waverly waves her hands in the air and points at Sullivan as if saying you believe this guy. I only smile and shrug, who am I to judge. “If this is what he says makes him happy and helps him do what he loves to do, then by all means, toke it up. Now if it effects our travels or puts us in undue danger then we will have to address that in the future.” I say as far as meals go I tell Waverly to eat the stew and just let me know how it was. I take out a ration from my back and begin to nibble on some cheese and dried berries.

I recant the finding of the unfortunate soul in the forest, and how I found several items of note. I show Waverly and Sullivan the items and they both stare at them in shocked awe. Waverly was the first to speak identifying the tantos. “Those blades are pretty bad ass Sal. They are both magical and charge holding an amount of mana in each. They siphon off the mana from the user to fill their charge and can also be used as a focus allowing you to channel your mana through them creating a greater effect. It looks like the one with the ruby is a fire based magic and the blue a water. Elemental weapons are strong in what they do but it takes a while to master all their powers. I think you will find these to be very difficult to replace in the worlds. You can attune them to your tattoos, but I'd try charging them a little first to let them get a good feel for your mana. They have been empty and hungry for a long time, so you don't want to get a massive drain all at once attuning to them.”

While Waverly identifies and explains what the knives to I see a notification pop up. I open it and find that through Waverly’s explanation the items have been named and the stats become clear.

~Congratulations you have found a set pair of tantos. They are so named The Divergent Blades for they are as different as they are deadly.

“Awesome” I say clapping my hands together. This was a fortuitous find. I wonder what the other items are. I look over to see Sullivan poking at the rings with a stick while he gives his pipe a quizzical puff. His intoxicated gaze gone momentarily due to his curiosity and bringing all his will to bear on focusing.

“These rings here,” He points at them with the half-smoked pipe, “I think you will find them very useful, especially since you haven’t really found a fighting style to call your own.

“The Black ring is what some would call a shadow walker band it allows the wearer to use shadows within a certain space as doorways between each other. You will become invisible in darkness with this ring on your finger and if I am not mistaken this can also cast darkness a number of times a day. This will probably be linked to how much mana you have and how well the ring balances with you through attunement.

“Most magical items will allow anyone to use them, but to use them effectively and use all their abilities one must attune to them. In attuning you will know if the items have a liking for you. I can see you are puzzled by the thought, but all magical items hold some part of a soul. It might not be a lot but the item itself has a sort of personality; although, it has no will of its own. The item will grant those they attune with at a higher rate, more abilities, extended use of them and possibly lower the cost in utilizing them.

“Now one doesn’t get something for nothing so attuning allows the item to draw from your power to function, each ability an item has will cost a different amount. Some items will use mana, while others use stamina or Hit points. The effect the item has will usually determine where the power will draw from. Keep this in mind as it may have various negative effects during use. I would suggest practicing with these items before you find yourself in a precarious situation. This ring has plenty of utility and will be very useful.

“This other ring is very rare indeed. It is a ring of blinking. It allows you to jump into another plain of existence. you will still be here but slightly not, it is hard to explain, but you will be able to see and move in that other space. You will not be able to take any other actions while utilizing this aspect of the rings powers.

“The best thing about this ring will be that you will seem to have vanished without a trace. The feel I get from my identification of this ring is that the space you enter moves at a speed that is exponentially faster than our own. Once you leave with the ring it will seem as if not even a second has passed when you return. As with the shadow step ring this ring’s powers will become more apparent as you attune to it.”

“These seem like pretty amazing rings” I say to Sullivan, but it seems he’d fallen asleep where he sat. “These will be useful in any number of ways.”

I look to Waverly and she has gone a pale shade of her former self, her mouth hangs open, and she seems visibly shaken. I ask her what's wrong, but she can't speak.

She looks up at me asks me if I really found this on a corpse. I nod, and she begins to tell me all about the necklace I found. “This is easily one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in the worlds. It holds a vast amount of power, but I don't think you will be able to fully realize its true potential until you are much stronger then you are now.” she says dryly “This necklace holds gems from multiple magic classes. It will allow you to store power in each one. It will give your magical abilities an incredible increase. However, it will take a lot of power of from all 3 types of energy to see this item in its glory. When you have fully mastered the gems, the locket will be empowered. Even I cannot tell you what will come from that. The gem inside the locket is perfect in every sense of the word. I suspect that this will give you a base protection from all the classes and can siphon some of the energy of those attacks so you're not the one that's going to fully power this. You will find that as we adventure our travels will not go as smoothly as they have been and this item itself will save you when all others expect you to perish.

“Just as Sullivan has suggested you should get to know your items. Feed each item a bit of your mana stamina and Hit points and see which likes what the best. You can do this by meditating with the item of your choice. Once you have giving some of your power to the item simply equip it and you will become aware of what abilities will be granted and if there are any that will become available to you at a later time. I must warn you, when you meditate with an item, the soul of the item comes to life and will meet you in that immaterial place. The soul might ask you questions or simply sit there in silence weighing you. What I recommend is to be yourself and as honest as you can be. You could almost consider them to be genies of a sort, a being bound to an item. If they find you acceptable you will be granted use of the item and further directions may be given.”