While the Freemasons had no monopoly on the making of magic items or the foundation items, they set the standard for all crafters and Crafters. Anyone seeking to buck the system by undercutting pricing or doing false QL would co under trendous, possibly lethal, pressure.
Of course, many crafters complained about monopoly, restricted training, and so forth... but the fact was, with Akasic training via Karma available, there was no way to limit the acquisition of skills. There was Karma, ti, talent, and training. BUT... the Freemasons knew how to direct their skills to create synergies, what Feats and Masteries to take, how to take them, what to focus on, and what to let slide and have others handle.
Just that knowledge on what to do was invaluable. Add on the greater lifespan of the demi-humans, even before the Powered Level bonuses, and the master Crafters of the elves, dwarves, and gnos profited the most. There was no way to stop it if you were a Human, except to Level more and try to equal them.
Elves could easily hit Eight in Wizardry, and with it another Class, giving them a one Rank bonus in pure skill. Dwarves could hit Seven in Expert lee, and had a racial bonus when working with stone and tal of base 2, ending up at 4 at Seven with Dwarf/3, which a Human could not equal. Gnos had a 2 edge in Alchemy and Gemcutting that also increased to 4.
Thus, the highest end of certain professions was held by Gnos and Dwarves, while the Elves had a one Skill Rank advantage in ANY skill they wanted to pursue.
All three Races also had full Racial Classes, which had no ability prereqs to take, although they had the sa problems breaking Six. That ant that thoroughly average mbers of all their Races could eventually reach Six with ti, simply slogging away and putting in their ti, sothing basically impossible for humans to emulate. Granted, humans vastly outnumbered them, and so there were more exceptional humans than there were of any of those races... but when an average dwarf, gno, or elf hit Four without a problem, the equivalent of a skilled Master or elite human, there was definitely a shift in power.
It ant humans ended up making lower QL stuff, because the other races were better at making high QL. Dwarves sat atop the smithing world, Gnos led the alchemical and jewelry worlds, and the Elves couldnt be rivaled in anything, especially making magical items, at the top end.
Except, of course, for the halvyr who had managed to hit Nine, of whom Morningfla had been the first. But their numbers were small, and certainly didnt skew anything globally.
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I put the book on recent European history down with the others, as it was getting close to closing ti. The librarians were looking at with faces of great respect, disbelief, and so resignation, as I had a crapload of stuff stacked up around .
With great Concentration coth great speed reading. My Visual File was chock full of stuff now, and I had more questions I needed to research... which was par for the course.
One of the librarians ca up to , looking at the stacks with so defeat in her eyes. Are you all done, Miss Traveler? she asked politely... in Human. Shed seen my video.
For today. Dewey Decimal System, right? I asked kindly.
Why, yes... Her voice drifted off as I waved my hand and a book lifted off, and headed off towards its proper place in the stacks. A little wide-eyed, she watched as I played maestro, and books, magazines, and newspapers were soon flying through the air, drawing the attention of everyone in delight as they headed back to their proper places.
Oh, I think I would kill to be able to do that, she breathed out, eyes shining as a half-hour of traipsing around was accomplished in a couple minutes.
Cantrip, Prestidigitation. Its just a slight tweaking to the clean up everything and put it back in its place effect, using the Decimal notations as a guideline, I explained calmly. You could get it in an Amulet, but it would probably cost half a goldweight... if you could find soone to spend the ti to make it.
And soone would just want to steal it, she sighed knowingly, but smiling at the fact that she didnt have to clean up and file all those books herself.
I have a question for you. She straightened up alertly. Due to being Shroudborn, I cant manipulate electronic technology without things going very wrong. So, no computers. However, I can certainly read what is on a computer screen, if soone else brings up the information.
Do you know soone who might be willing to make ten dollars an hour handling the browsing tasks for while I catch up on things?
The librarian, a slender bibliophile nad Cindy by her tag, lifted her finger. Let ask around, and I will be right back with you!
Saving people work generates goodwill. She bustled off energetically, and was back with a positive reply in minutes. One of the other librarians had a daughter in college who had a day off and could certainly use the money... and would be discreet about it. They would be happy to reserve one of the rooms in the back for my use, too...
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Master Fred pulled up outside right on ti at 8 PM. Dusk was an hour away, giving us plenty of ti to get where we were going. We stopped in at the Aruan temple down the road, where I donated five vials of holy water I had made before going to the library, earning a beaming smile from the Adept on duty, and I just spent half an hour in Waking ditation to get the Valences back.
I was good to go, tracing my lived-line as we pulled out on the highway leading from Baltimore to Washington DC.
Unsurprisingly, the road was not all that modernized, because there was precious little traffic along it. For so reason, heavy traffic back and forth from the ghost town that used to be the capitol of the United States of Arica wasnt a thing, aning the infamous Beltway traffic jams I could vaguely recall had never happened, and those roads had never actually been built.
The DC Shroudzone was actually centered on Arlington National Cetery, not the Capitol, but when the spectral dead had risen up, they had basically wraith-bombed both DC and Alexandria hard, slaughtering basically the entire central governnt of the country in one fell swoop, including the upper echelons of the military, and pretty much the whole heart of the bureaucracy.
Notably, almost every single person delineated in the Constitutional Presidential Succession had died, with the single exception of Harold Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior, who had been on a trip ho to Chicago at the ti. He ended up becoming the acting and later elected President of the United States in what was arguably the most stressful period in history.
By what Id read, hed done a decent job, despite not being Powered. He moved the Capitol to Kansas, set up the plans for the Walls around the Shroudzones, acknowledged the existence of the new gods, the coming of magic, and did a shitload of reorganizing, diplomatic work, and recognition of the new races, ramming hard into racism and fear and finger-pointing with his Neighbors policy.
There had been a lot of lingering separatist sentint in the South that had wildly thought this was their ti, claiming the Apocalypse and Judgent Day and whatnot. The ergence of Clerics and Sorcerers in equal numbers and more among the black, Hispanic, and poor population, and the establishnt of the Churches, had crushed much of that movent, although Imprus and Huul got a lot of attention down there.
Perhaps tellingly, the Confederate Flag had been officially condemned by the Good Churches as a symbol of slavers and slavery decades ago. The only people who waved it were Imprusar and Huulites in pointy white hats, and it had been known to cost them their lives to do so... or their careers and livelihoods, when interested Tiirithi tracked them down, outed them, and basically ruined them. Having the God of Justice, the King of Heaven, Mother rcy, the Celestial Paladin, the Goddess of Silver Magic, The Harvest Queen, Lady Love, the Thunder Knight, and the God of Bards basically tell you to fuck off tended to have a crushing effect on anyone and anything with even a semblance of a good heart.
Too, skin color problems beca pretty much a moot issue with all the actual new races and creatures running around, especially vampires and werewolves. Humanocentric movents did arise, and were definitely still around... but so many families now had non-human siblings, parents, children, and other relatives that on a nationwide basis it hadnt stuck... unless it was Yuan-ti. The serpentine just tended to get dead, and there was just no stopping it. The revulsion for them ca right from the bones, it seed...
The Wall around DC wasnt as big as the one around New York, mainly because of lower population, and also because the core undead tended to keep to their cetery. The slain, however, were happy to co to the walls and raise a ruckus, still clad in old style suits and ties and dresses, screaming about how they had done nothing wrong and were condemned to this existence... alongside others looking less and less human who had definitely done sothing wrong, and undeath was more than just tornt to them.
Like New York, this Wall still got incidental shooters, and the military still watched over it and maintained the Protection from Evil effect that effectively kept them inside the Shroudzone. Because it was so much smaller than New York, the corpses of the dead had assembled themselves before the Wall within an hour, lining up in military file as old soldiers cursed and swore at them, and spirits flitted all around the field, enslaved, but trying to flee and pass on their doom to others, never too far from their own animated corpses left behind.
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Briggs was waiting for us in the main parking area, about a quarter-mile from the Wall. Like New York, the lot was basically an extension of the road, just so people could evacuate quickly if needed. Unlike the island, there werent as many buses shuttling people back and forth here, and it actually seed less busy than Long Island had, for so reason.
Ho, the new Citybound is already making waves, Briggs said in amusent, earning a glance from . I looked curiously at Master Fred, who just shrugged. He walked into a governnt office, offed two people in the na of Baltimore, and theyre already doing an investigation into overpaynts and kickbacks of city contracts. The news is having a heyday, and really pissed they dont have a picture of him.
Thats a Citybound for you, I agreed, following Master Fred in dismounting. What did you do for the rest of the day? Clean up vacant lots? Fill in potholes?
Master Fred gave a knowing glance. FIXED STREET SIGNS, WARNED THE KIDS WHO PAINTED ON THEM, SENT THEM OFF TO CLEAN UP A VACANT LOT, BURNED DOWN TWO ABANDONED HOUSES, AND DEMOLISHED A CRUMBLING STONE GARAGE ON AN OPEN LOT. AND YES, FIFTEEN POTHOLES AND ABOUT SIX HUNDRED SQUARE TERS OF CRACKED ROADS.
Yep, that sounded like Citybound busywork...
Gentlen, I greeted the other mbers of Briggs shooting team, and they all nodded back at , making quick introductions that pointedly matched the natags painted very clearly on their breastplates. See, observant, I is. Briggs, have you explained how this is going to work?
Of course not. They wanted to hear it from you, especially after I made them all watch your video. He grinned shalessly, and his team smiled despite themselves.
Alright. This trip is not about gaining Karma and Leveling, so you might think its a waste of ti... except for the fact that this trip is going to save you a goldweight in money a day, just for driving out here, shooting for a few minutes, and going back ho with an attaboy. In short, this is the fastest money youre going to make in your life.
That definitely had their attention.
Requirent number one... a high QL Weapon with a Na. Has everyone here Nad the Weapon theyll be using? If you havent, and dont, go ho. This trip is a waste of ti.
There was emphatic assurance from all the shooters that their guns had been Nad properly, and I demanded an introduction from each of them... and got them.
Briggs Hamr was still Nad Endure, and that portable cannon he called a Shotgun was called Boor.
Fantastic, youre all prepared. What were doing today is sothing simple called Naming Karma. In short, by using your Weapons to kill magical beings, you can apply Karma directly to their Na, and grow their power, exactly as if you were burning gold and power comps to improve them. Doing so requires you to kill sowhere between five and ten undead spirits in the proper manner, or a hundred or so in the improper manner.
I am here, so we will be using the proper manner, and making a short night of things. I flicked up my Darts, let them see the tricolor flas around them. There is an absolute limit on Naming Karma, and while excess Karma will help you Level, for now we are going to keep the Leveling calm, as we dont want to alarm the undead here, the people around, or forces who just might not want this thod to propagate.
In other words, shoot things, collect your one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of Karma, and consider yourselves lucky for a short work day... telling nobody of what you are actually accomplishing here.
In six days, we should be able to take those Einz Slot Weapons you have to Zvei. What you choose to fill that Slot with you will talk over with Commander Briggs. There are so very interesting options available to you. Everyone ready to make so invisible money and help your Weapons grow?
Yes, maam! they all called out without hesitation, and I bowed for Briggs to lead the way.
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