The Citadel of Chaos: The Magic of Dirk Hope

     She stands in radiant glory. Her hands reach out and pluck the strings of light shimmering before her. There is a sound like thunder in a womb, an echo of the universe breaking to her will. Her brilliant aura grows brighter. The diaphanous forms of angels appear before her, singing her praises. On her flying carpet she rises higher into the air, focused on the army she is pulling from the eternities beyond the death of all things.

     I throw my rock. It strikes Deloris in the temple. She falls back onto the carpet, which collapses to the ground around her. The magic pops and sizzles. The angels sing a discordant note, like a lute string torn apart by shadows, and vanish into nothingness. The strings of light fall in a useless heap upon her.

     Deloris tries to sit up, but I have already leapt across the intervening ground, and placed my blade under her chin. "Yield," I say mildly.

     She glowers at me, and I see the sparks of power there, the shifting of colored power, but a gentle prod with the sword and she thinks better of it. "I yield," she says, then repeats it louder, so the old prof can hear it.

     The Grand Wizard of Yore, garbed in his robes of sky, nods his ancient head and dismisses Deloris. Beneath the cloud of hair and beard his face has drawn in with consternated anger.

     "That's everyone," I say calmly. "No one left to challenge."

     The highest authority on magic in the known world nods slowly, and gestures vaguely. A raven flies out of the sky of his robe and alights on his hand. The bird speaks to him, and he nods back to it.

     "Very well," the prof declares, "I acknowledge Dirk Hope my star pupil," the words cost him as he says them, but I just smile calmly, "And select you my champion to face Balthus Dire in the Citadel of Chaos!" He makes his voice boom louder than it should, but even so he falls to coughing  afterwards.

     I sheathe my sword and brush motes of Deloris's magic from my cloak. "Good," I say, "I would like to declare this adventure my Doctoral Thesis."

     The Grand Wizard of Yore grumbles and nods, and with that I am on my way to finally get out of this tedious graduate program.

     Meet Dirk Hope. He's by no means a terrible sorcerer, or even terribly unlucky or sickly. He is, for an adventuring specimen, ungifted in these things, however. A burly blacksmith could tire him out in a run. A gifted milkmaid would find a lost wedding ring before he did. And basically every other graduate of the College of Yore knows more spells than him.

     Nevertheless, this small, unspectacular man, has proven himself an unmatched combatant. He hasn't lost a fight since he was 15, and decided to Test his Luck with a trio of young men who sought to treat him as a lady. It was a genuine mistake, but Dirk is touchy about his feminine body. His original decision to become a Magician was to try and fix that particular problem, but so far he hasn't managed that level of polymorphation. At least not for any length of time.

     Speaking of spells, however. It's time to talk about Magic!

     I'm going to sum up how this works rather than go through each paragraph. For those curious, here's the text.

     It's a neat idea, and the writing is clear enough. I get an inventory of spells equal to my Magic, and each time I cast one I lose it. I can take multiples of the same spell. Some spells will probably be more useful than others, but there's no way to know that other than educated guessing. Game even says you're screwed the first time picking.

     Well, that's all well and good, but what are the spells?

     Yeah, this is the point I was saving my energy for.

Summon a good Ash!

     Can Dirk copy himself? Seems like that would be useful, with his Skill. This seems pretty powerful, as a match between two creatures fighting each other is a coin flip, and likely even if the enemy wins it'll take some hits. On the other hand...

"Perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything."

     I'm a bit confused to the rules of this power. Can I cast it in any combat, or do I have to wait for text that says I can cast it? It does say "of any creature you are fighting" so I guess whenever is fair game. Not that Steve Jackson (still not that one) provides rules for how two monsters fight each other, but I can work that out.

Extra Sauce, Please

     That seems super useful. Reading minds is always a fun trick, and information gathering is ludicrously important in an adventure game like this. Also sounds like the kind of handy trick Dirk, who is quite contented with his physical prowess, would really dig.

Why even are there other spells?

     Ah, everybody's favorite combat monstrosity. Nothing quite says, "mystical power" like mastery over humankind's greatest tool and best slave. Explosions and walls of flame seem a pretty limited range of what conjuring fire can do, honestly. My first thought is just burning down the Citadel itself.

     ... okay, second thought.

BOOM!

     Fire's probably not high on Dirk's desires, but it's good crowd control.

Or, as we call it today, a pay-day loan.

     Won't they notice how light the gold is? Rocks are way lighter than gold.

     This is such a specific spell that I'm sure it's useful somewhere in the book. But it's also just not that fun or appealing.

Mostly monsters just stare at it while saying "Whoah".

     Okay, need to worry about unreliability, but illusion is always a fun thing, and helps fill in gaps in Dirk's abilities. It's flexible as a boneless snake, so it's guaranteed to be useful.

You do have to think happy thoughts the whole time, so make sure you're on your meds.

     my immediate desire is to just fly about, but somehow I suspect the jedi grabbing trick is going to be the thing the text makes actually useful. Or levitating an opponent up into ceiling spikes.

     This time through I do not start with a potion to swig down, nor Provisions to eat. I'm entirely reliant on the spells I pick to restore those things. They do restore half of initial value up front, which is a nice trick.

Ah, the fabled everything proof shield.

     Honestly, since this doesn't effect magic I'm not that bothered. Defending usually falls to Skill, so I should be okay.

     With no Provisions, I obviously have to take Stamina a few times. The real question is whether or not to take Skill. Dirk is going to be relying an awful lot on Skill, and will suffer if it goes down... but in Henrietta's entire run she never lost Skill, so it's a rare event.

     Tough choice.

I cast Punch!

     Nothing quite like a magically buff wizard. Honestly, Strength appeals to Dirk enough I may take it, but it's probably not the most tactically sound for the character who is already sitting at 12 Skill.

     Ah, a delightful classic I think we can all get behind.

     Okay, that's 12 spells. I get 9. And I really should take a some multiple times.

     Okay... going to say 3 Stamina, most important to get out of the way. My Initial Luck is so bad I'm not even going to bother, but I will take 1 Skill just in case. That's 4. Leaves me with 5. Dirk is going to grab 2 ESPs, 1 Levitation, 1 Flame and an Illusion. 

A rubber band and a broken slinky. Good luck.

     Why?

     Seriously, I'm not just some schmuck trying to mug a Warlock this time. I'm a selected assassin on a vital mission, backed by the Grand Wizard of Yore and King Salamon (more on that later), and no one could hand me a decent suit of armor, a few magic potions, basic climbing gear, money, and maybe a maic wand or two? It's like they don't want the Vale to be saved.

     I don't think the prof is on the level. I've always suspected he doesn't like me. Maybe it's because I struggle to et any magic done, but still win all the duels. Maybe it's just because he won't see me as a man. Whatever the case, I feel unprepared and under-equipped for this Thesis. Maybe he's planning on sending the other students in after I die, armed to the teeth with his enchantments and mystic paraphernalia.

     Well, that won't matter if I succeed.

Oooh, a backpack. I really am a student.

     I see the Haversack's been upgraded to a backpack. No one even gave me a packed lunch, though.

     Surprise Adventure sheet:

The right half is, of course, extremely vital.

     Next comes History, and after that the adventure itself begins!