The Ivory Tower [PM for Entry]

[Y]

An old Wizard's Tower, three stories in height stands about halfway between the Yukikage's castle and the Village wall. Once a grand establishment with stained-glass windows, fully functioning alchemical laboratories and libraries full of tomes scarcely seen since the second century, the structure has become bare over time. Where there once were gardens and decorations, there now is nothing but the snow of the Winter of Nix. The stonework itself has begun to crumble, before long there will be no tower standing at all. But for the moment, an oaken door still stands in the base level, a few windows remain which have not yet been boarded up, and, on a cold winter's night, smoke can be seen wafting out of the chimney of the place where Yaromir lives.

The interior is barren to match the exterior. The vast majority of furnishings have been sold off to pay debtors and to maintain what remains of Yaromir's lifestyle of studiousness and chakra lore. The main room is all but empty; bearing a hearth, two chairs and tattered carpet. It retains little heat, but one can almost make themself believe they are warm while they're in this room. There is no window in the bottom floor to speak of.

The staircase, of course, spirals up and down, but it leads almost exclusively to empty rooms. The sole exception is the room directly above the improvised seating area, which is used for the moment as the enchanter's bedroom. A small cot, put directly against the chimney to keep it warm, and a beaten old desk and wooden chair stand here. While the furnishings of the place may be barren, the desk's surface is far from that. Full of the beginnings of essays, or quotes copied from author's of fascination, the desk is by far the most interesting part of the building.

---

PM Y for entry.
2 Day IIC.

[Y]

Phantasmal Fog
Rank: "C"
Skill: GenJutsu
Effect: With this Jutsu, the user causes the target creature to instantly believe that a cloud of fog has suddenly enveloped them.
Special: "Handseals"
Drawback: ---
Description: A Mind-Affecting Technique. Affects 1 living creature. The user is able to perform this technique at a distance of 30 meters plus 15 meters per class level. The duration of this technique lasts for 5 minutes per class level. This technique may be disbelieved once interacted with. The effect obscures all sight, including dark-vision, beyond 2 meters. A creature within 2 meters has concealment. Creatures farther away have total concealment (and the target can’t use sight to locate the creature). The target does not make an initial disbelief save if it has ever encountered or has knowledge of the fog cloud.
Limit: Must know the Phantasm Perception.

0|10

Sitting at my desk, I slipped off once more into the endless dreams I'd been so accustomed to recently...

I was riding with a mail-carriage across the countryside of Yuki no Kuni in the spring time, not unlike the one in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. The snow was melting, and the air was full of the moisture of the warming months, that endless force of life and growth. While it might make my clothes chafe with my skin and feel unseasonably warm, I could hardly say that the feeling of the water in the air was entirely negative. For once my lips would not chap, and my skin wouldn't dry out in the same way. In that way, I began to feel the moisture of the wilds in my mind's eye for what it is - without the cloying connotations often attached to it in literary symbolism. 

But quickly, my dreamed turned sour. Of course, why else would a shinobi of merits mine be tasked with the care of courier, unless bandits lurked in the shadows. Suddenly, as night began to fall, the air thickened with the spirit of that same water which I'd seen as cleansing just a moment ago. In my head, I felt the dreaded fog of Nixian springtime. As the sun crept towards the mountains, already threatening my visibility, leaving the world in a shadow of things half real and half unreal. Fog is dread. Fog is that intensifying sensation of unknowing. Look at it- the way it writhes and billows. Any living thing could be hiding in any inch of the moist mess, and there wouldn't be the slightest indication. True, I could trust my ears, but dare I? Mankind is a creature of eyesight. Perhaps that is why the mist feels so constricting?

I began to take it all in, feel what was going on before me. How was fog different from darkness, though? Surely, man sees the night each evening and views it peacefully. Fog obscures too, but it scares me more? I heard a sound off in the distance, and began to think more carefully. Perhaps, fog is scary because it's more than an absence. The night can be cured- with bright light, darkness is driven out and rendered useless to those who wish to do me harm. But fog, fog blocks all sight. The brightest of lanterns might win me a foot or two of seeing. Bat away at the fog, and it will drift around my hand, seeming to eat it. Fog doesn't just provide the absence of the signal my eyes expect to see; it substitutes that signal with an overwhelming chaotic noise that leaves me even more useless. When my ears hear a sound as they just did, they not only lack a sight to match to it, but they also are granted a thousand shifting shadows to match to it instead, causing me to look everywhere...

I sat up, and traced the nascent illusion my dream had begun to place upon itself. I felt all the feelings of the fog, how they stimulated my emotional status, shifted my sensory inputs, and changed my perceptions of reality. I took a second to memorize the pattern of chakra within my brain, and commit it to memory. I then let it fade away, focusing only on reality. Once my room was back in view, I stood and moved to the center. Forming a rudimentary handseal or two, just to channel my chakra into a valid form, I sent a surge of energy to my brain, and recreated the raw feelings of the fog I'd imagined. And sure enough, the room around me disappeared, and all that was left was the thick fog of phantasm.

[Deleted]

Learned.

Training requirements have changed. It's now only 3 paragraphs of 5-6 lines to get you 10tp.

[Y]

Watching as the fog faded away, I would smile to myself. Enough training, I thought. I had sufficiently worked on my illusions. Years of training had only done so much. Perhaps I could go down to the Yukikage Keep, and try my hand at some practical practice? Maybe, just maybe, I could do a service to the village in the process.

[Exit] [This plot arc is now my interaction thread, not my training]

[Y]

Feign to Pieces
Rank: "B"
Skill: GenJutsu
Effect: Portions of the subject’s flesh seem to crumble apart and fall to the ground.
Special: "Handseals"
Drawback: ---
Description: A Mind-Affecting Technique. Affects any 1 creature within the range of the technique. The user is able to perform this technique at a distance of 7 meters plus 6 meters per class level. The duration of this technique lasts for 5 rounds per class level. This technique may be disbelieved once interacted with. The subject must attempt a Save to disbelieve the Jutsu at the start of their turn every round. A subject that succeeds becomes shaken for the remainder of the Jutsu’s duration (and makes no further Saves). A subject that fails suffers 12 Armour Points of nonlethal damage and must attempt a second Save or become panicked for the remainder of the Jutsu’s duration. Panicked subjects may not attempt further saves and continue to suffer 12 Armour Points of nonlethal damage every round.
Limit: Must know Phantasm Perception.

---

I returned home after a long journey through the cold.

Some ninja cast spells which make the opponent experience the likeness of death, hoping that they will ultimately cause their brain to suffer the symptoms of it, and harm the body, weakening the person. Certainly,  mind over matter is a strength of my techniques, but that very thing, making your opponent experience the sensation of dying was not something I'd tried. Certainly, I believed that I had a grasp on the basic theory of the matter, and such a theory was as good a starting point as any for a technique.

I began to wander how exactly to suggest dying to the body. Certainly, there were many ways. Concussion, heart failure, shut-in symptoms, loss of sensation, a feeling of suffocation - these things would all tell the brain the end is near. Yet, I couldn't help but wonder if I could do better. Maybe - maybe I would just make the body itself feel as if it is falling away, removing all the vital pieces. Imagine; every part of the body, bit by bit, breaking off and becoming nothing mroe than trash lying on the ground. A horrifying prospect, the stuff of nightmares.This would certainly tell the brain to call it quits.

I made a catalogue of the emotions which would be needed. Pain, of course was a vital aspect, but so were fear and shock. One could not feel their body disappear without such things. Yet, too much fear or shock would ruin it. The brain had to accept. I would need to launch a big old dose of acceptance into the whole mix, so that the brain would see and perceive and realise that there is nothing to do but scream as the lights go out forever. Acceptance was that vital drug to make somebody give up hope. Disbelief needed to be more than suspended, it needed to be drugged and left in a back room somewhere, or sent away to a prison camp in the cold...

[Y]

Continued
0|40

---

The problem with my basic theory was my lack of emotional context for it all. Sure, I could talk about the body falling apart all I wanted, but I had never felt the experience of death, let alone death by bodily collapse, so I would need to think of some related feelings if I wanted to have a sufficient understanding of it to project it upon another human being. That being said, I lied down in my bed, and began to meditate on my experiences, and think about similar feelings. Of course, this is also a benefit. It makes it that much harder for my target to say 'wait a minute, this isn't what having my body fall apart felt like last time it happened.' Novel things like this left room for a little creativity, artistry, really, in the realm of illusory jutsu.

If there is one feeling I have felt like the one I was searching for it, I felt in on the coldest day of last winter, which of course, was one of the coldest winters on record here in Yuki no Kuni. I remember, my cloak had been torn, so it kept the cold out almost not-at-all, and I trudged through the snow to purchase some food for myself, as I'd been all-but-starving through the blizzard. I felt my gut growl and my fingers began to numb, and I wondered what came next. Certainly, it could not be good. Cold was the great killer of kings and men, or so they said in this part of the world. I let the force of that great killer inspire my concept for a new illusion.

My stomach began to tense up; feeling empty of food and full of bile, causing me an immense discomfort. The wind whipped and I could hardly see a foot in front of me, meaning I could not see my appendages. I went to wiggle my fingers but could barely feel them as my body cut them out of the circulatory system for the sake of more vital organs. And like that, the horizon of my body began to shrink and I began to wonder if I would lose a limb or something more severe. The fear was there, but not yet the acceptance. Surely though, I felt like I was falling apart, and like death may be near. So it was a start.

[Y]

0|40

---

In my frozen memory, I felt the cold begin to flow up my arms, but it did not flow smoothly, no, it flowed in chucks of blood and artery and muscle, as each part of me began to yield, becoming not one with me, but one with the cold world around me. I felt as my body betrayed me, and the last bastions of my being, the central and vital organs of my torso and my head, hoarded all the warmth and energy that was left in my body for the sake of overall survival. It was almost heart-wrenching, the sacrifice of my extremities, but it was necessary sacrifice so I did not fight it. I almost welcomed it.

Oh, and that feeling of not fighting. That was good. Well, not good. It was far from a self-preservation instinct. But I found a place in my mind where I could borrow the feelings of acceptance. A man suffering of severe hypothermia is known to go slightly mad, and not even feel the cold, just totally embrace the feelings and accept it. Some even strip naked when the time comes. It was a potent failure of the mind, and I one I would love to sap for the sake of fighting my opponents better. I channeled that little bit of lack of resistance into my illusion, and knew I was making progress.

I returned to my vision, and watched as I lost all felling. My mind began to flail slightly. It sent all these pulses to my limbs. They were all check-ins. Hey my mind probed. Could you wiggle a little, just to be sure? Of course, thanks to the absolute feeling of disappearance, they were met with little more than radio silence, and my brain began to give up on the extremities, and move inwards, preparing for death as it felt for the failing line of defense my body put up against the cold. I felt panic, and that panic began to damage my mind itself. A truly dangerous thing.

[Y]

0|40 Contunued

---

The sensations seemed real enough, now it was mostly rolling them all up into some sort of cohesive illusion and smoothing that illusion further into a finished product. I needed to remove some of the connotation from my feelings. Cold wouldn't do - I needed the pure unadulterated sensation of watching one's body fall to pieces. I needed fear and acceptance to be the strong emotions of the illusion, with discomfort and pain and other things acting as subtle undercurrents to lend reality to it, more to fight disbelief than to actually cause any effects of the illusion which I wished to cast.

I removed cold from the feelings, that intitial half-numbness made no sense. I changed the rate at which the sensation would fade in. I needed that sudden -snap- my arm is gone feeling. I added a generally feeling of malaise and pain to counteract the lack of apparent cause, to keep some realism going. I needed that general rotting feeling to shoot through the body - I didn't need a rational cause for what was happening, but the emotions needed to line up with the general going of things. Euphoria and destruction can be combined to devastating effect, but that requires a little more nuance than I wanted to include in this particular phantasm. 

Now of course, was time to do some work on the visuals. I looked down at my arm, and imagined what it would look like. I could imagine it flowing away, like sand in the wind, make it behave as a true fluid. That would be scary, but I don't think it would have the mind-reaving potential that I was going for. Instead, I imagined all my fingers from the knuckle onwards turning soft and globbing off, melting, flowing slightly but remaining generally like flesh in their behavior. Then my hand, then my fore-arm, and on and on.... Yes. That would do it.

I gathered all the thoughts and feelings and visuals into one pocket of my mind, and memorized them carefully. The illusion should be ready to cast...

[Deleted]

learned

[Y]

Poison Sense
Rank: "C"
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: User gains an uncanny instinct for detecting substances.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: User can instantly sense the presence of any Poison within a 2-meter radius. User can determine the source but not the type of Poison.
Limit: Must be an Alchemist.

0|10

---

I always had a strange relationship with posion.

You see, poison is not like other things. It is applied with subtle mal intent. A sword is brandished, a dagger is held at the ready, but posion is left to it's will. Poison is like an arrow, but it is not shot through space, it is shot through time, by one adversary in the past towards their foe in the future. And, it can be tricky to catch venomous substances trickling through inescapable time. Yet, you can also feel posion, its an odd thing.

A poison sitting on a cake does not sit like a caramel drizzle. A chef who adds the more delectable garnishes adds them with joy; careful to ensure that the additive enhances the cake and makes the thing more enjoyable to all. It is an art of pleasure. While the application of dangerous garnish is similar in being a careful art, its intention could not be more different. When a chef adds a special ingredient to a dish, it is brought out and makes the the thing flourish. When a poisioner adds such a thing, it causes the dish to diminish, and hides behind the other ingredients.

I remember, on my foreign tour to the warm lands of Fire, I sat at a table with a kindly lord, who, drawn in my his hedonist ways, had offended his vassals. While I knew he was a pig and less than a man (my Xenophobia had already begun) I still thought those who schemed against him were no better, and harming him would cause no good in the world. So, when I noticed his tankard of spiced cider was odd, I looked closely. While all the cloves and warm spices that the chef had added were still present, I noted that the luster was not quite right. While cloves enhanced the color, giving it a warm hue, a strange froth was on top of the drink, with a smell that did not match. I spoke quickly. "My lord, I would not drink that cider. Something about it smells wrong." I reached two fingers into the cup and extracted the foam.

The juxtaposition was shocking. While the poisoner had obviously intended to make his substance look like a bit of froth from the pouring of the drink, it was quite clearly a foreign substance. And so I learned that posions aren't quite as subtle as one would like them to be. When an ingredient disagrees with the other components, and something seems to exist despite one of its parts, not because of their perfect combination, a careful check will often reveal that component to be some sort of posionous additive.

[Deleted]

learned

[Y]

Lore, Monster (Special)
Rank: "E"
Skill: Skill
Effect: Players with this skill have accumulated a great deal of knowledge regarding the myriad of foul creatures that prowl the world.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Whether acquired from the "fairy tales" of youth, "tall tales" related in various ale houses, weird stories told by travelers or knowledge gained from books, the character has devoured any information he could regarding monsters and their habitats strengths, and weaknesses. If a character makes their skill check, the user will know all information pertaining to that creature. This roll should be made secretly for if the character fails by less than 20, a Game Master should relate false (and preferably dangerously misleading) information. If the Character fails by 20 or more, they cannot recall anything about the subject. Identifying a Creature is dependent on the Difficulty check found in each creature. Each time learned user gets 5 die roll to increase the skill.
Limit: ---
0\5 TP
0\125 SP

---

To be quite frank, I used to doubt the existence of extraplanar entities. But my understanding of chakra has altered that considerably.

The most commonly cited things from beyond our Prime Material Plane are of course, the elementals. I once doubted that something of non-biological tissue could live and move and behave animately without the will of an intelligent creator, but my own arts have taught me otherwise. Just as a chakra effect from this plane can make lasting clones and illusions which operate for hours, autonomous and independent, so, I reasoned, could some extraplanar effect cause the animation of some otherwise inanimate material.

However, the tales of elementals that were passed down to me were different from that of merely animate elements. I'd heard stories of powerful vortexes and firey attacks. Certainly, the material elements from these other planes was a special material. An elemental creature, to behave as they do, must be made out of especial versions of their component elementals, containing particularly powerful effects. Were an air elemental merely animate air, it would not have such a powerful command over air itself, not have so many powers. Certainly, elementals contained in them something especially powerful...

[Y]

Bargain
Rank: "C"
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: User is a skilled negotiator, renowned amongst other merchants, and will always strive for the very best deal in any transaction.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Valued by a captain, a user is able to keep a ship full with valuable cargo for long merchant voyages. User gains a +20 competence bonus to all Haggling checks when buying or selling goods.
Limit: Must learn from Universal Miscellaneous.

[0|10] Voiding Above training.

---

There is an art to striking a bargain. Really, bargaining is the most concrete of all debates. The sides are clearly marked - he who wishes to acquire a thing for the least amount of resources, and he who wishes to gain the most resources for a thing. Both seek to obtain subtle advantages over the other, but only through the good graces of fair opposition can the argument be settled one way or another. It is not like some scholarly debates, where a brilliant young mind may outwit the grizzled old veteran, and be proclaimed right upon the changing of the guard. No, consensus is paramount.

Bargaining is a valuable part of life here in Yuki no Kuni. It can be the difference between life or death. When one haggles with their food supplies, they may very well be haggling with all they require to survive the winter. The furs that are traded as a surrogate currency in parts of this frozen land often make the difference between hypothermic death and another winter of survival. There is no room to skirt the bottom line in the Land of Snow. That is a part of my heritage, and I will carry it with me into every bargain I am forced to drive.

Further, the primary resource exchanged in the bartering process - that is to say, the negotiation, not the actual transaction - has to be information. When one knows more about an item than another does, they can twist their perception of it, make it seem better or worth. It is the role of the salesmen to make the positive qualities known and mask the detracting qualities. It is the role of the buyer to mark the flaws well and leave the assets as secret bonuses, for them to reap later along. Therefore, regulation of observations provided is the cornerstone of good haggling.

[Deleted]

Graded. Learned

I'm back~

[Y]

Skill Focus [Haggle]
Rank: "C"
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: Choose a skill. User is particularly adept at that skill.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: User gets a +15 bonus on all checks involving the chosen skill. If the user has 50 or more ranks in that skill, this bonus increases to +30. User can learn this technique multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time the user learns this technique, it applies to a new skill.
Limit: Must learn from Universal Miscellaneous.
0|10

---

I remember some of my earliest adventures haggling - oh the things I have learned since then. There are many types of sales folk in this world. I have always been used to those who valued the base utility of haggling first and foremost, seeking it as a way to ensure fairness and promote business. I remember as a youth, desperately in need of a certain book, a tome on compulsions, I didn't have available the money to pay for it full price. I had tried emotional appeals to the person selling it to me, but it was of a little avail.

That book shop owner had needed the money, I realized now. To take that book for what I was trying to would be serious damage to their bottom line. As a result, the emotion weight of what could happen to them if they did not earn enough money to survive the coming harsh winter far outweighed my pitiful pleas about the necessity of my study, and my desire to pursue the great path of human knowledge. I was a foolish child, but I have since learned to leave emotions out of bartering when dealing with businessmen who operate from a place of profit alone.

However, there is another sort of bartering, the almost cultural bartering of warmer climes. For some - especially my despised Fierian adversaries - there is a social aspect to bartering. It is about making friends, it is about drawing interest. When one is bartering, it is polite to make conversation, feign interest in things one is not interested in, and pretend that you are cutting someone a deal because you like them so much. The whole custom is somewhat sickening, but it can be particularly effective. By making one believe that they are not bartering with you, you can often force them to leave their hard-and-fast tactics behind, and make decisions that they otherwise would not.

[Deleted]

Learned

[Y]

Chemist
Rank: "D"
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: User is skilled at working with Chemicals.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: User gains a +20 to the crafting time of Alchemy.
Limit: Must be an Alchemist.

[0|10]

Chemistry is a grand art, I'd spent a lot of time pondering it. There was an ancient wisdom, held by scholars from the Land of Tea, dictating that all matter was made of component parts. They stipulated that there were these tiny particles called atoms that could not be subdivided, or if they could, they would maintain the same properties beyond that subdivision. They believed that everything - water, wood, fire, air, metals, man himself, was made up of these atoms.

Further, they believed that the behavior of this particles dictated the ways in which they would combine. Certain elements would combine more easily with others, whereas others couldn't combine easily at all. The art of making unique concoctions was to mix things under just the right conditions - adding heat, or light, or components that could catalyze the reaction - so that you could get a highly specific result that rarely occurs naturally. That art, chemistry as they called it, was the forefather of alchemy.

Now of course, we can do new things. I'd been practicing feeling elements with my chakra. With tiny amounts of chakra, I can manipulate the very structures of things. It is frustrating to do complex things like this, but pouring energy into things allows bonds to be broken. I've heard that ninjutsu students of fire do something similar. And with the right components, I can obtain some sort of grand union with the very components of the universe.

[Spectre of the Falls(Kuroki)]

+10 TP Learned

[Y]

Improved Alchemy
Rank: "C"
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: User's ability to craft with Alchemy increases even more.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: User gains a bonus to Alchemy in crafting equal to +10 per Class Level.
Limit: Must be an Alchemist. Must know Chemist
[o|10]

---

My understanding of theoretical Alchemy was rather outstanding, by general standards. I had devised a three part plan to understanding Alchemy that helped me greatly in moving quickly, efficiently, and without error through my studies. It wasn’t particularly complex, but creating a framework for such learning is always a useful option, and always worth one’s time.

The first aspect of this three part plan was to understand mechanisms powering Alchemy. These were chakra, chemistry, occasionally ritualistic and divine things, in rare circumstances. Chemistry functions in an orderly way based upon the behavior of chemical and atoms. Charka works based upon the mind of its molder, so it can be orderly or chaotic based upon who is dealing with the situation. Rituals are extremely orderly in their nature, and usually follow a cause -> effect based situation.

The divine are harder to understand, but that leads me to my next step. Interactions. One must study the way things interact. If an effect tries to shrink you down, and another tries to grow you, will they cancel out? Will your limbs be ripped off? By carefully examining the power and effects, one can know with certainty. The final stage is experimentation. By simply observing the actual behaviors of things, one can solidify the predictions they made based upon their model, and finally understand what is going on.

[Spectre of the Falls(Kuroki)]

+10 TP Learned