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Ancient Language
I’m doing this as a forum, so you can ask about things I’m forgetting:
Ami – means mother
Tatnai – means overseer of gifts and tributes
Hochma and Zachain – (The things Tatnai is not) mean Wise and Old (respectively)
Osnappar – has not meaning, it is a proper name (Or if you like: Ashurbanipal)
Natzael Mot – means Shadow of Death (respectively)
The 6 Books from the Prison are:
“Plants of Ha-Aretz (the land)”
“Prison Operations”
“Prison Management”
“Water Systems”
a cook book
“Crystals and Their Functions”
The Journal from the “Airship”
a short summary is, the indication is that the ship did fly, and seems to have been over this area when there was a volcanic eruption. The captain suggests the quake shattered the main power crystal, and the power released was vented to protect the city. The explosion, he notes, was tremendous. This was the last record.
Crystals and Their Functions
I stopped in at Pegasus, and was told, I should just write out this book… Well, how about if I summarize it, and you can ask more clarifying questions.
For starters, the crystals in the books are not given names in terms of colors, they are referred to in terms of function. So the crystal types are these:
Crystals of Speaking (Amar)
Crystals of Might (Geburah)
Crystals of Fire (Aysh)
Crystals of Water (Mayim)
Crystals of Heaven (Shamayim)
Crystals of Light (Aur)
Crystals of Eternity (Olam)
Crystals of Possession (Yaresh)
Crystals of Healing (Rapha)
Crystals of Speaking
There is a section dedicated to cutting these, the harmonics, and the need of a power source (a cyrstal of Geburah). Given this knowledge, you could take a feat in crystal cutting and be able to make communication crystals (and even cut proper crystals of any type given enough raw material).
Geburah
There is a section on powering crystals, which focuses on the need to power things. Crystals of Geburah can power what they text calls the Kole Yaman, the “common use,” of “memories,” but also that a person’s life can power magic. Also both can power other crystals. But power is always required.
The remaining sections on crystals discuss their uses. In general, they can be used for both their function and for their inverse, but to induce the inverse is more difficult.
Crystals of Fire can burn or prevent or heal burns.
Crystals of Water can control water, produce water, or destroy water.
Crystals of Heaven can move air, push things, or pull things.
Crystals of Light can allow better sight or take away sight.
Crystals of Eternity can control the flow of time or can destroy time.
Crystals of Possession can take from one and give to the holder or vice versa, usually in conjunction with another crystal
Crystals of Healing can heal wounds or, very rarely, can inflict wounds.
There is some allusion made to using Crystals of Water to create ice effects, but this is not entirely clear. It seems to have to do with Crystals of Heaven and “Memories”
A similar discussion is made of controlling earth with Crystals of Water and Crystals of Possession and “memories.”
I was also asked about the history of how they learned to use crystals.
There is a retelling of a myth of a poor young woman was given the gift of a Crystal of Water in a necklace, and in her sleep, she dreamed of a flood, and it did not stop raining until she took the necklace off. From then on, she learned to control the crystals with her “memories” and over powered the “memories” of the other sorcerers. She became the leader of her people and trained an army of Crystal based warriors, who helped her to take control of the world.
Other related questions?
RE: Prison Operations
In reviewing these book do we learn anything more about the mechanics of the prison that we didn’t know before or misunderstood? Is there information about the teleporter and how it works/locations it is connected to? Also, what is the nature of the prison? Were we teleported to it? Was it below the pyramid? What magic sealed it?
RE: Prison Management
Is there anything about the individual prisoners and why they were imprisoned?
RE: Plants of Ha-Aretz (the land)
What percentage of the plants listed here are unknown to Kel? Are any of them dangerous? What do they do? Where can they be found? Can these be kept on hand to provide bonus to nature checks?
RE: Crystals and Their Functions
Does the book list power thresholds? For Red/Might is was 1/2/3/5/10/?. What is it beyond 10? What is it for the other colors?
Prison Operations:
> Instructions for how to run a water system in the prison.
> Instructions for running the door mechanisms.
> Details about small capsules that are food pills, which supply one day’s sustenance.
> You were teleported inside the pyramid, which is mostly underground and magically sealed. The pyramid will also repair itself within certain limitations, particularly, sealing itself.
> Instructions for the transporter are there, but the locations are meaningless to you. Mostly it explains guard rotation procedures.
> No explanation of specific prisoners, only that the low level is for temporary prisoners who can be maintained, and the upper level is for prisoners who are permanent or cells that are never to be entered.
Prison Management:
> This text is mostly about procedures, and doesn’t have any particular details.
Plants of Ha-Aretz (the Land):
> About 10-20% of the plants are unknown to Kel.
> Some are dangerous.
> Functions vary, nothing exceptional.
> Locations vary all over the world.
> Essentially, if you have the book and Cullen to translate, you can get a +2 item bonus to nature checks.
Crystals and Their Functions
> No, there are no thresholds. The numbers I give you are more a matter of meta-gaming, to put into linguistics terms the brightness and intensity of the aura’s without getting bogged down in a bunch of terms. Likewise, magical +1, +2, etc. are metagame terms. Presumably, a Red 9 is better than a Red 8. In game mechanics, we don’t see that difference, but to them, they would see it as such.
Is there any indication in the “Crystals and their Functions” book that additional combinations beyond ice and earth are possible? For instance, fire and light for radiance, fire and heaven for lightning, fire and water for acid, heaven and eternity for thunder, light and possession for prophecy, healing and eternity for regeneration, heaven and possession for teleportation, etc…
Any three color combinations?
Not listed in the books, but I believe the Healing and Eternity combo for regeneration, while not guaranteed, has been a common result.
Some of those other combos might work, but any two color combo would still require a “memory.” If you have a particular object you want to make a case for, you can make the suggestion. Make sure the totals of each color in the combo are within 1, tell me the combo, and the “memory” that you feel applies.
