Varia's lessons
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Varia and María are seen leaving Maria's tower, they clear the surroundings from Goblins to have clear area to practice.
Fiwrst lesson, is to have a list of spells that you would pwrepawre daily unless you wewre going somewhewre specific. What I mean is, a list of spells that wowrk as genewric spells, that will help you ovewrcome any potential dangewr that could happen just at any time.
She looks at Varia
So tell me, what is youwr list?
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That is a good question, Vawria. Eventhough that wasn't the puwrpose of the test, as all I wanted was to show how does countewrspelll wowrk.
Pauses thinking, then nods
But you bwring up a good question, and I shall answewr it anyways.
When you face someone that whose spellpowewr you don't know, you need to guess what they awre going to do, honestly.If you catch them off guawrd, you cast fiwrst, you may win.
If you notice them actively obsewrving you to countewrspell youwr spells, then you should indeed use the less powewrful ones fiwrst, so that he wruns out of countewrs.Howevewr, the "fist" spell is a good choice too in that case. While they awre twrying to figuwre out what spell will you cast in owrdewr to countewrspell it, you can get close to them and punch them in the face.
'tis not always guawranteed success… but.. shrugs may wowrk.In showrt, it's vital to know youwr opponents skills. If you don't, then play safe. Pwrotective spells owr heavy mass destwructive spells, no middle gwround. You eithewr defend youwrself, owr put him down befowre he can wreact.
Taps her chin, as if thinking on saying something else hmm…
and that's it. Yeah. That's it...she turns around to head back home I'll think ouwr next lesson's topic. You may suggest something too, now go get some wrest.
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Varia seem unsurprised that her effort was stopped so quickly as though it was her plan to simply test the waters. She looks back to Maria with a polite smile and lightly taps her bottom lip before finally speaking her mind.
Questions. I suppose the best thing to ask is was my opening spell the optimal choice? Is it better to use weak spells first to weaken your opponent's defenses rather than let loose with your best in the hopes it will be more than they can handle? And if all else fails is it wise to try and get close to your opponent in an attempt to cast the fighter spell of "fist"?
Varia asks this last question with a chuckle before turning to regard their surrounding with caution always seeming to be on edge lest an unseen foe try and catch them off guard.
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Soon as Varia starts pronouncing the wording for the spell, María starts moving her hands already while murmuring. Is nearly as if she had read Varia's mind on what spell would she cast, but the truth is just that she's very trained on the field.
Varia's and María's hand gestures look the same, exactly the same, and by the end of the spell casting, Varía's ray of frost disipates in her hands.Easy as that. You need to concentwrate on the tawrget, look to theiwr chest, but not too fixedly. That way, you'll notice theiwr hand movements as well as see theiwr mouth yapping. Of couwrse, being able to hear what they say is impowrtant too in owrdewr to indentify what spell they awre twrying to cast.
Some times you will see it just by the hand movements, othewrs by the wowrds, and of couwrse, the combination of both.
Pwracticing on this will incwrease youwr chances, like with evewrything wreally…twraining is the key to it.Questions?
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Still seeming half asleep as she normally spend most of her free time studying, tending to her ward, or otherwise not sleeping as of late she look at the intruder to her resting area with light malice in the way most people do when awoken What? Why are you bugging me so early? Lessons? Oh… right... Yawns stretching and slowly rising from amongst all the pillows she has swiped from empty beds for herself All right i suppose I'm ready. Let's be off then.
Varia slowly appraises the situation knowing that most of what she has likely won't amount to much for effectiveness unless she acts wisely. After a few moments she starts to draw on her arcane knowledge deciding that simple is best for both demonstration and dueling purposes and proceeds to cast ray of frost
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The next day María goes to fetch Varia from the inn, very early in the morning, namely as soon as the sun shows up. They have casual chitchat until they reach the tower's entrance
Well then, listen. Thewre's situations whewre instead of actively casting a spell, it's best fowr the gwroup to negate the enemies spells. This is the case when you face a potentialy powewrful spellcastewr.
In case you don't know alwready, thewre's thwree diffewrent ways to countewrspell a spell that's being cast.. but fiwrst, let's make suwre you know undewr which ciwrcumstances you will be able owr unable to countewrspell.
María tucks the cloak backwards and clears her throat.
Fiwrst. You can only countewrspell a castewr whose casting speed isn't incwreased. This means , basicly, that you can't countewrspell a hasted mage, unless you awre hasted youwrself, of couwrse. Keep that in mind, fowr it's a vewry decisive thing.
Second. You -need- to know what spell is being cast. That's obvious, I know, but is wowrth mentioning. If you can't identify the spell being cast, then you can't use the pwropewr spell to countewr it.
So then… now that we've seen that, let's see, cast any spell you want on me, owr on youwrself, mattewrs not.
María focuses on Varia's hand's movement and the first two words she says..
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The next day María goes to fetch Varia from the inn, very early in the morning, namely as soon as the sun shows up. They have casual chitchat until they reach the tower's entrance
Well then, listen. Thewre's situations whewre instead of actively casting a spell, it's best fowr the gwroup to negate the enemies spells. This is the case when you face a potentialy powewrful spellcastewr.
In case you don't know alwready, thewre's thwree diffewrent ways to countewrspell a spell that's being cast.. but fiwrst, let's make suwre you know undewr which ciwrcumstances you will be able owr unable to countewrspell.
María tucks the cloak backwards and clears her throat.
Fiwrst. You can only countewrspell a castewr whose casting speed isn't incwreased. This means , basicly, that you can't countewrspell a hasted mage, unless you awre hasted youwrself, of couwrse. Keep that in mind, fowr it's a vewry decisive thing.
Second. You -need- to know what spell is being cast. That's obvious, I know, but is wowrth mentioning. If you can't identify the spell being cast, then you can't use the pwropewr spell to countewr it.
So then… now that we've seen that, let's see, cast any spell you want on me, owr on youwrself, mattewrs not.
María focuses on Varia's hand's movement and the first two words she says..
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The next day María goes to fetch Varia from the inn, very early in the morning, namely as soon as the sun shows up. They have casual chitchat until they reach the tower's entrance
Well then, listen. Thewre's situations whewre instead of actively casting a spell, it's best fowr the gwroup to negate the enemies spells. This is the case when you face a potentialy powewrful spellcastewr.
In case you don't know alwready, thewre's thwree diffewrent ways to countewrspell a spell that's being cast.. but fiwrst, let's make suwre you know undewr which ciwrcumstances you will be able owr unable to countewrspell.
María tucks the cloak backwards and clears her throat.
Fiwrst. You can only countewrspell a castewr whose casting speed isn't incwreased. This means , basicly, that you can't countewrspell a hasted mage, unless you awre hasted youwrself, of couwrse. Keep that in mind, fowr it's a vewry decisive thing.
Second. You -need- to know what spell is being cast. That's obvious, I know, but is wowrth mentioning. If you can't identify the spell being cast, then you can't use the pwropewr spell to countewr it.
So then… now that we've seen that, let's see, cast any spell you want on me, owr on youwrself, mattewrs not.
María focuses on Varia's hand's movement and the first two words she says..
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Yes, you undewrstand well what I wanted to teach you. She smiles to her cleawrly you have potential to be a good mage.
fowr now, we've done enough. Take youwr time to wrest and considewr what we've talked about today. Tomowrrow at the same time at the same place we'll continue the lessons. Countewrspelling will be the subject, in case you want to pwrepawre fowr it on youwr own
she smiles softly to her and turns around to head into her tower, with slow pace and leaning on her staff, briefly looking at the scorched goblins, murmuring then to herself "I didn't actualy fiwreball them to pwrove my point. Sheewr coincidence"
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Varia nods slowly and gives a slight chuckle at the exploding goblins.
I think I understand. The idea is to keep an extra deck up your sleeve.
Always try and hold off using your abilities until you have no other choice in the matter. In your case you used a swift method to erase the problem before it could grow. She points to the charred goblins But I bet there's hundreds of other ways they could have been dealt with such as scaring them off or perhaps setting traps, make a wall with a gate?I think the point is to try and look at the situation from an outsiders perspective. Admittedly I have been in the situations where I've had to run in a circle to get a moment to think or act. It isn't pleasant and one trip would mean lights out. It's one of the reasons I like having my ring. I save it for that critical moment where I need to escape. I understand there's strength in friendship. But I also know there's times when you best serve them by just running. Far better to get to town and let someone know things fell apart than to have others seeking you without a clue as to what occurred only to fall into the same trap.
Again looks to Maria for her opinion on her words though occasionally glancing at the fallen goblins and shaking her head at their folly for trying to best an obviously superior foe.
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María smiles brightly and shakes her head
Is not about leaving youwr fwriends behind, Vawria. It's about being able to move awround the battlefield in owrdewr to get a tactical advantage ovewr the enemy to cast spells. Think of it… if you awre adventuwring with two fwriends, and suddenly you awre attacked by.. uhm.. lets say, bugbeawrs, and one of them wruns fowr you, what can you do? Eithewr wrun in ciwrcles and be useless, owr use a spell that gwrants you the ability to easily outwrun the bugbeawr, giving you the chance to take youwr distance and cast spells?
She smiles, and pats her shoulder But I like the way you think about fwriends, that vewry impowrtant, and opositio to what people think, that doesn't make you weakewr, but stwrongewr.
Waves her hands muttering some words, and a fireball launches towards a bunch of "brave" goblins that were trying to ocupy the lake's area again Anyhow, thewre's anothewr thing to keep in mind when in an adventuwre, and that's the unnecessary use of spells.
Many people cast theiwr spells without thinking, and by the end of the twrip they find out they've used all of them in non-wrisk situations, and now all they can do is launch bolts that nevewr land on the tawrget.
If you awre going to cast a spell, think twice about it. Is it wreally needed? Will youwr companions not be able to handle the situation if you keep that spell fowr latewr?
It's bettewr to end an adventuwre with un-used spells than being mid-aventuwre with none to cast.
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Again listening to Maria's words. Varia seems to consider them.
I can understand your point. The difficulty for some of those is in the lack of actually having those spells. I do have invisibility but I lack the see invisibility and unfortunately the retreat spells. But that simply means I need to hunt those down. I believe the point of the lesson is to do your best to prepare for the surprise of the unexpected. While it's easy to prepare for standard situations it's best to have a few fail safes. Though it's mean sounding though I do understand the idea of being the faster runner. I just don't like leaving my friends behind.
Varia again stops to think on Maria's words and on her own words give Maria time to continue her lesson and gazing around some more as if expecting more goblins to suddenly jump out at them.
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María listens quietly at Varia and nods quietly along as she recites the list of spells, by the end of it, she smiles a bit and shakes her head
That is a decent selection of spells. BUT, I notice something lacking in that list. What if you need to get away fwrom a situation you can't handle? an ambush, an ovewrpowewring cwreatuwre, and so on…
An invisibility spell is always a must to have pwrepawred. I know you have the wring taps her own finger but that's not always enough, it lasts too few. And pewrhaps you'll need to use it on youwr fwriend.
Anothewr point. What would you do if you owr youwr gwroup was attacked by an invisible cwreatuwre? A see invisibility spell is nevewr to be undewrstimated.
How about a spell that allows you to flee fwrom battle? sometimes invisibility can be seen thwrough by cerwrtain cwreatuwres owr castewrs. A haste spell, owr an expeditious wretwreat one is a must.
Do you undewrstand what I mean? one has to pwrepawre spells that covewr most situations. To give you an example, thewre's 3 spells I pwrepawre daily which most of the times end up un-used.
Gwreatewr bwreach, spellmantle and see invisibility. This is because you nevewr know when you'll need them… but the day you need them, if you don't have them, you awre dead.She speaks calmly and by no means lecturing, just trying to make Varia see what she's talking about It's pwrefewrably that thewre's a couple spells you end up not using in youwr nowrmal adventuwring, if one day those two un-used spells can save the day.
Of couwrse smiles at her this is only how -I- do things, and you may do as you please, is just advice
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Varia follows behind maria using her crossbow to assist in the clearing efforts. Seen most goblins slain or otherwise chased off she turn to maria with a smile and listens to her lecture
Unless preparing for something different from normal I usually prepare a pair of each of the following extended for long as possible. Bull's strength and Mage Armour, I commonly have a pair of regular endure elements, an extended shield, an extended circle of protection, and my polymorph spell. After than I usually distribute the rest to offensive magic like magic missile or ray of frost.
Varia's eyes then scan over the area and watching for any further goblins that may have grown brave again or any other "pests" from the north or west
