Ironworks Gaming Forum - View Single Post - Part 7>>>The Shadow of Love (an LoF adventure)

Cyril Darkcloud · 12-05-2005, 04:00 PM

Joseph

His is an art of the interplay between dreams and desires and between memories and expectations, of goals set off against disappointments and of perception’s subtle interplay with that brute facticity men too easily name reality. An illusionist he is named in the popular parlance of the early editions, but that is far too simple a name for a craft so complex as this art he practices. Few are so capable of awakening slumbering and forgotten ideals into vigorous life, or of crushing into unliving silence the most cherished dreams of the heart as that one whose art is the shaping of dreams and the molding of hopes and the meeting and the denying of desires.

Illusion is his tool, the brush he employs, but emotion and perception, interpretation and expectation, these are his medium. Men speak the word ‘illusion’ and by it they mean what is misleading and false, and in so doing they commit the irony of failing to see the reality of the matter. There is very little of falsehood about his art for mere deceivers are little more than charlatans, neither to be feared nor respected, lacking all true mastery of the Art. Say what one will about the facticity of what one experiences in his work, one cannot deny that through it certain aspects of reality, often those most deeply hidden within the heart, stand forth with a clarity and a truth they had not manifested prior to the working. The lycanthrope fell before no mere figment of his conjuring, but by the powerful truth of her own fears and this tower was not breeched by any mere trick of the eye but by the discerning use of the truth about its nature and the unmasking of its illusory strength. An illusionist he is, for he is that one whose work shows forth the truth that all avoid, mask and even deny the real in some way, however great or however small.

The supposed truth, taken by so many in this strange place with the curious name of IronWorks, that such a thing as “shadow magic” exists in its own right and involves a darkness that verges upon, if not actually is, evil – this idea is but a denying of a much more substantial reality, mistaking what is merely the part for the whole, a whole that is then concealed and forgotten. Shadow Magic, however has its origins in his own Art long before Ed Greenwood and his Forgotten Realms made the tern popular. Any illusionist of moderate accomplishment might know the casting of that form of spell called Shadow Magic in the ancient system. Shadow, afterall, is a word also employed to speak of those things which fall just short of full reality, but are not in themselves unreal. Indeed, one might speak of gradations in shadow as more and more substance is attained and one moves closer to the real.

Shadow Magic. He’s heard the expression used so often in this place he’s grown sick of it. He smiles. Of course, there is genuine art in the well-timed and well-placed use of irony. And so, what better a thing to do here in the face of so artless an assault than to greet this minion of shadow with Shadow Magic, shadow magic of a very different kind than that which those of this place profess to know........

...... And so he casts and his words and gestures, while distinctively his own, are not unlike those employed by mages. His pronunciation of arcane syllables is fluent and confident and not the awkward and poorly spoken snippets of Latin one hears from the spellcasters found in certain popular CRPGs. There is a familiar cadence to his speech as the spell he invokes is among the most common – a great bursting sphere of flame. This sphere will be no mere illusion, no mere fiction to be readily ignored even by those who might perceive readily the distinction between fact and seeming. There will be a real burning in its heat and a real charring of flesh produced by its flame – the shadow of a fireball, perhaps, and not completely real, but not completely false as well. He casts confidently, as a caster of great accomplishment should and the burst of flame produced in the place where the archer stands is great indeed, greater perhaps than many of this place called IronWorks have ever seen for in that place and system from which he comes, the burning intensity of such a spell is limited only by the accomplishment of the caster.

In the obscurity of the fog there is first a flare and heat, a flare and a heat the erupt outward in sudden expansion. There is the stink of sulfurous gases and crackling of flame and the burning away of much of the fog. Those alert to such things might also discern the smell of burning cloth, as of clothing, and of flesh that has been seared.

[ 12-05-2005, 04:00 PM: Message edited by: Cyril Darkcloud ]

12-05-2005, 04:00 PM	#53
Cyril Darkcloud Lord Soth Join Date: February 7, 2002 Location: New York Posts: 1,980	Joseph His is an art of the interplay between dreams and desires and between memories and expectations, of goals set off against disappointments and of perception’s subtle interplay with that brute facticity men too easily name reality. An illusionist he is named in the popular parlance of the early editions, but that is far too simple a name for a craft so complex as this art he practices. Few are so capable of awakening slumbering and forgotten ideals into vigorous life, or of crushing into unliving silence the most cherished dreams of the heart as that one whose art is the shaping of dreams and the molding of hopes and the meeting and the denying of desires. Illusion is his tool, the brush he employs, but emotion and perception, interpretation and expectation, these are his medium. Men speak the word ‘illusion’ and by it they mean what is misleading and false, and in so doing they commit the irony of failing to see the reality of the matter. There is very little of falsehood about his art for mere deceivers are little more than charlatans, neither to be feared nor respected, lacking all true mastery of the Art. Say what one will about the facticity of what one experiences in his work, one cannot deny that through it certain aspects of reality, often those most deeply hidden within the heart, stand forth with a clarity and a truth they had not manifested prior to the working. The lycanthrope fell before no mere figment of his conjuring, but by the powerful truth of her own fears and this tower was not breeched by any mere trick of the eye but by the discerning use of the truth about its nature and the unmasking of its illusory strength. An illusionist he is, for he is that one whose work shows forth the truth that all avoid, mask and even deny the real in some way, however great or however small. The supposed truth, taken by so many in this strange place with the curious name of IronWorks, that such a thing as “shadow magic” exists in its own right and involves a darkness that verges upon, if not actually is, evil – this idea is but a denying of a much more substantial reality, mistaking what is merely the part for the whole, a whole that is then concealed and forgotten. Shadow Magic, however has its origins in his own Art long before Ed Greenwood and his Forgotten Realms made the tern popular. Any illusionist of moderate accomplishment might know the casting of that form of spell called Shadow Magic in the ancient system. Shadow, afterall, is a word also employed to speak of those things which fall just short of full reality, but are not in themselves unreal. Indeed, one might speak of gradations in shadow as more and more substance is attained and one moves closer to the real. Shadow Magic. He’s heard the expression used so often in this place he’s grown sick of it. He smiles. Of course, there is genuine art in the well-timed and well-placed use of irony. And so, what better a thing to do here in the face of so artless an assault than to greet this minion of shadow with Shadow Magic, shadow magic of a very different kind than that which those of this place profess to know........ ...... And so he casts and his words and gestures, while distinctively his own, are not unlike those employed by mages. His pronunciation of arcane syllables is fluent and confident and not the awkward and poorly spoken snippets of Latin one hears from the spellcasters found in certain popular CRPGs. There is a familiar cadence to his speech as the spell he invokes is among the most common – a great bursting sphere of flame. This sphere will be no mere illusion, no mere fiction to be readily ignored even by those who might perceive readily the distinction between fact and seeming. There will be a real burning in its heat and a real charring of flesh produced by its flame – the shadow of a fireball, perhaps, and not completely real, but not completely false as well. He casts confidently, as a caster of great accomplishment should and the burst of flame produced in the place where the archer stands is great indeed, greater perhaps than many of this place called IronWorks have ever seen for in that place and system from which he comes, the burning intensity of such a spell is limited only by the accomplishment of the caster. In the obscurity of the fog there is first a flare and heat, a flare and a heat the erupt outward in sudden expansion. There is the stink of sulfurous gases and crackling of flame and the burning away of much of the fog. Those alert to such things might also discern the smell of burning cloth, as of clothing, and of flesh that has been seared. [ 12-05-2005, 04:00 PM: Message edited by: Cyril Darkcloud ]