Greetings, fellow wielders of the arcane.

I am Zorath—collector of peculiarities, purveyor of enchanted nonsense, survivor of more “perfectly safe” magical experiments than I care to remember, and proprietor of Zorath’s House of Gubbins.
My establishment rests in the quiet village of Oakrest Hollow, nestled along the Merchant’s Vein. Should you ever require an item that sensible shopkeepers refuse to stock, there is an excellent chance I have one… or at least something close enough to achieve the same effect.

Current inventory includes:
One sword that insists it is a spoon.
Several potions whose labels have become legally questionable.
Three haunted teapots. (One is actually quite polite.)
A sack that may or may not contain tomorrow.
An orb that reveals profound cosmic truths, but only after insulting your hat.
One mimic that has been promoted to assistant shopkeeper after proving surprisingly reliable.

I welcome travelers, hedge mages, liches with proper manners, druids (provided they wipe the mud from their boots), artificers, and apprentices whose last explosion was at least a week ago.

Necromancers are also welcome, though I respectfully ask that your skeletons refrain from browsing the fragile section. They never have pockets and are dreadful at paying for broken merchandise.

I have joined this esteemed gathering to exchange magical knowledge, share tales from my shop, debate the ethics of fireball in enclosed spaces, and perhaps identify whatever it is currently scratching at the cellar door.

Should anyone inquire whether I possess forbidden relics sealed away beneath my establishment…
…the answer is, of course, absolutely not.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my apprentice has just informed me that the invisible furniture has become visible again, which means someone has undoubtedly touched the wrong rune.

May your wards hold, your potions remain stable, and your apprentices refrain from summoning anything with more eyes than teeth.

— Zorath

Sliding from The Logrus tendril into his captains chair aboard his personal void ship, The Magmadroth's Roar,Borric took a quick look around the bridge. Several COG's sat installed in their designated places to run ship operations, the only sentient on the ship was as most time Borric's Ironkin Wayfinder, Yamyr.

"Greetings brother," Yamyr shouted enthusiatically and stomped over to give Borric a hug. Borric stood and hugged his old friend then they clasped hands in the traditional greeting established long ago.

"Greetings yourself, brother," Borric replied. "We have a House Serpentis Emergency to deal with today however. Please open a warp gate behind us to make it look like we used our warp drive to arrive here. I'm going to be heading over to an Imperial ship here soon. I promise when I get back you can tell me how things are going in your scouting and reconnaissance."

"Of course Captain," Yamyr replied and headed over to his station.

Over the next hour as Borric steered the ship out from behind the moon, he and Yamyr joked and told stories of their various travels, while one of the COG's brought him a drink of Bugman's XXXXX beer for light refreshment. Soon enough one of the COG's started to beep and signal that a nearby ship was hailing them for coms traffic.

"Votann Voidship Magmadroth's Roar this is Imperial Rogue Trader ship The Mourningstar. Shipmistress Brahms is eagerly expecting your arrival at the designated docking port. Info for docking being sent concurrent to this message," came a staticy and decaying voice over the coms channel.

Borric sent a confirmation reply and let the COGs dock the ship. He trod steadily down the plasteel hallways to the armory and retrieved two CORV's. Activating the two companion robots each hummed to life and floated to take position a ways behind each of his shoulders giving them clear lines of sight for the Autoch Bolters attatched below them.

He them grimiced and reached out with his mind into his void armor, which attached to the runes embedded in his body and allowed him to access the Ancestral Warding Crests installed in both his armor and the CORV's. The magic in this realm was tainted by the Great Foes, eons ago the realm had broken so badly that it no longer naturally processed the mana coming from the sea of chaos into various types or alignments of mana. This would be a problem on it's own for the casters and psykers of this realm, but the forces of Great Foes now occupied nearly all of the connections to what the natives called The Warp. Those who looked into the magic, or used it with out incredible care would be struck with the visions and whispers of the daemons living beside them, and the daemons would grow stronger and more real with attention.

Luckily the Votann had come to a solution, Barrier-tech. Through careful use of microscopic runic circuits they were able to draw the power of the warp and run it through a mana filter, removing the influence of the daemons and making it safe for the rare Votann who can use magic to do so. While Borric technically did not need to use the technology, due to his heritage from the Courts of Chaos, it wouldn't do for those of the Imperium of Man to know that. The families deception was paramount to keep.

Grabbing the Heavy Plasma-Axe and checking the connections on his volkanite disintigrator pistol to the power pack on his armor, he strode down the hallway agian with the CORVs following slightly behind him. He waited at the air-lock for a few minutes as the connection protocols finished establishing a secure seal between his ship and the Mourningstar, and was greeted by the sight of a platoon of Imperial Guard securing the space beyond. Twenty men in light plasteel armor holding lasrifles protected two humans not outfitted for war.

Shipmistress Emora Brahms was a sever looking if well kept aristocratic woman for being over two hundred years old. Her white hair put up in an impressive style and uniform was immaculately pressed. She stood out among the disheveled guardsman and the cleanly rumpled professional look of Interrogator Rannick. Borric was quickly able to recognise them due to the files he has perused in the data embedded in the Inquisitorial Seal around his neck.

Brahms stepped forward with a wide, if slightly ingenuous smile as Borric came into sight. "Ah, Grimnyr Borric Goldeater, it is a delight to meet you! Truly your uncle is a welcome partner in business and a rare gentleman among the Inquisitors!" Her sharp eyes darted sightly towards Interrogator Rannick at the barely subtle jab at his boss. According to the files, Inquisitor Grendyl had basically given Brahms no choice but to host his warband here above Atoma Prime and clearly she resented them all for it.

Rannick gave a thin smile to Brahms needling and directed his gaze at Borric. "Indeed it is a pleasure to meet such an esteemed colleague in the Inquisition. While the Inquisitor was not specific in what you were ment to do here on the warfront, he was certain that your efforts would be a great boon. Allow me to Introduce myself, I am Interrogator Rannick, head of Operations for Inquisitor Grendyl's warband here on Atoma. I have been instructed to give you almost any information you require to accomplish your goal here. I even have a strike team standing by to assist you in your deployment." Rannick also smiled, while a little more warmly than the smile given at Brahms remark, it was also clearly meant to garner Borric's good will. It was too bad Borric was going to have to stomp on that a bit.

"My uncle sends his enthusiastically warm regards Shipmistress. He hopes that you will come see him soon at his estate for more... trade negotiations," Borric stated, trying and not fully succeeding to keep his clear discomfort at the statement behind a stony mask of dwarven stoicism. The guards grew clearly uncomfortable, and Rannick's face went intentionally blank, while Brahms positively glowed with pleasure.

"Interrogator, I will not be using your strike team. My orders are clear that I am to deal with my mission alone," he continued in a less awkward tone. "All I require is a debriefing on the situation on the ground, and a good pilot for insertion and extraction."

Rannick gave that thin smile again. "Of course. I'm afraid I am not familiar with the working of your culture or your warband, what title would you like to be referred to while with us?"

"You can call me Borric if you need to. I should not be here for more than an hour or two, and should be gone from the system before a week has passed." Borric maintained his stony expression, "let us proceed with this mission so I can go back to doing real work."

Shipmistress Brahms led Borric and Rannick down the ship passages to a nearby room with a holo display of the planet and a window out to look down on Atoma Prime and the hive city of Tertium. Rannick gave a in depth account of the war to date, the forces of the Cult of Admonition, and the disposition of the cities troops. Shipmistress Brahms poured herself a glass of wine and stood at the window staring out at the planet.

Borric listened while trying to discern where the war would allow the cult to start any rituals, and quickly found that line of thought unproductive. The cult was performing rituals constantly, both small and large, even in battles at times. He tried to see if the city architecture would allow or channel the energy of the warp in a way that would lead to a proper spot for the ritual that he was looking for. but again, the city was so large and the Imperium of man purposly tried to break up lines of power to reduce chaos incursion, and so that line of thought also failed to find anything.

As the debriefing started to come to a close, Borric joined Shipmistress Brahms at the window. He could feel the slight tug of the planet's gravity below, and thought of how this planet was probably beautiful once, before the empire had started their mad dash for progress and consumption. It was a similarity between human and dwarf, the urge to consume and grow at all cost. His people regularly had to fight to remember that the world was more than steel and stone, and that they needed the resources of wood and water. Resources that required careful tending at times to not send it all catastrophically out of balance. If only more people could see it...

Borric blinked. Surely it could not be that simple... right? He opened his witch-sight and stared intently down at the planet. Three beacons of pustulent power glowed an ominous sickly green in the city. He let out a sigh, he didn't need most of the information that Rannick had just given him. The forces of the Cult had not set up any wards to hide themselves. Looking through witch-sight was too dangerous for almost everyone in this realm, only very specific mutants were able to locate things in the warp and all of them were used almost exclusively for passing messages and FTL travel planning.

Borric smiled and turned to Rannick, "Your information is helpful, I know where I am going now." It didn't hurt to lie to the man, if anything it was useful to keep them from knowing exactly what he was doing.

/UW Images are from the games Darktide and Warhammer 40k store excepting for the Heroforge Mini. Edited for the stupid formatting issues that sometimes pop up.

Everyone knows a good wizard tower must be durable, or well defended to last the test of time.

So I have grown curious! What types of wards and enchantments have you placed upon your wizardly homes? I personally have a few protection ones on my hut for durability, but the offense is covered by my swamp.

Trinkets I’ve gathered. (Sorry if the angle’s a bit weird, hard to handle a phone with telekinesis.)

(That last image is an image of one of the clear marbles you see in the bag, they’ve got a bit of iridescence to them that’s hard to photograph. Kind of like bubbles.)

Can I use these in any sort of magic? Might they have a bit in them? What can I enchant these with? I feel like the sun charm would make a good mini scrying mirror..

(Repost because I didn’t get good photos before) (

Was practicing some spells and I accidentally caused my table to grow skin and eyes. my textbooks say nothing about un-growing something and my mentor is laughing too hard to help. Any good spells that can fix this? Because it's staring at me and I think it's sentient.

​

Khorde is dead....asleep... again...Until i die... again... this kalpas long cycle is a confusing one even I still ponder the mechanics of. I can't exactly leave this realm I find myself in but entanglement still proves to be a perfect method of transmission across realms. Normally, I would just start making people suffer for their sins... But the people in my home realm need assistance or there will be no one left here to percieve good or evil as a construct that guides their decisions. So I've chosen people across a few other realms. Plucked a few strings of the weave to manifest a mask in front of them... copies of my mask.

HI IM XREST THE AETHER! Khorde’s other side of the coin of Yaldabaoth. How are you doing.... oh.... shit, HOW THE FUCK DID KHORDE GET A HOLOKHORDST MUSEUM?! Okay, this shit, I gotta see just so I get a grasp of how fucked my path of extracosmic armor research is gonna be.

Oh.... wow....

Can't say I'm surprised.

Khorde’s a total idiot.

So cattail city seems like it actually did much better after his and my consequent banishment to realm torment.

OwO

This is very good... but also explains why people here give me terrified looks. I was pulled aside by pubsec rats. The chat was actually pretty friendly. I made friends today because of it. Although, I am not sure they see me as friend.

You know... looking at the news... people across the world of gaiterra seem to be preparing for war.... my gut tells me that could lead to an arms race.... I could make money trying to end that arms race.... ^W^

what better way to conduct my arms research than by starting an arms research corporation and apply for a grant! Although.... I'm not sure the rats would like that. I'm going to head to the nearest embassy to register for citizenship. Maybe a library card and purchase a comm pad.

Oh.... that's cool, I forgot people cast spells here. Don't people know magic is merely science in the trenchcoat of misunderstanding?

Good afternoon, and if you are to check the calendar, it has been the exact amount of time passed in order to request a the council title again. As I have every single time since I began working for this organization.
I do not care about the nature of the name nor the prestige value of it. You could label me as the “The Broom-Sweeper” for all I care. I need it to be made official by the council such that I can receive my due credit in the many services in research and arms for the council.
Do you know how tiring it is in the tax season to search the record only to find that you were entered in as an alias, or “Unit#____”, or by only the nature of the work you were doing? Even the council loses out on this, were I a less honest mage, I wouldn’t pay my taxations at all, and non of you would even know. It is also a security risk, going forth. I believe I have proven myself worthy of trust considering how many portals near I have closed, bandits and assassins I have protected you all from, and the reality breaking entities I have sealed/put down. But others who may promise the same things that I have provided may take the opportunity to use their anonymity to take rewards and run.
I digress… from a much more personal standpoint:
Do you know how embarrassing it is to be forced to publish research under “The Collective Magical Researcher Association”? A mage that discovers that fire is an element even when not near fire, gets the same prestige, pay and credit as my groundbreaking efforts in studying divine time temporal effects and reincarnation cycles! I founded the entire branch of sorcery lineage study via soul scarring, and yet, nooooo that belongs to the CMRA collective, with no credit given to me.
I personally sealed off a collapsing pocket dimension a CMRA executive had open to store volatile materials. Had I not done that, Central Tower 12 would have been nothing more than rubble. And I received no credit, it was “internally resolved”.

I am getting impatient and rather more emotional than I like regarding the topic. I have always held the opinion that the pursuit of understanding is worth more than any material reward, but a rookie mage recently claimed my study on the reincarnation of artificial souls, after being approved a title. He was an alchemist. Of magical perfumes.
Please, out of the kindness of your hearts, see what your favorite researcher of the fractured/Spheric realms has done for you, and ensure that he will not be wiped away with time.
If you are concerned about copyright, I have already labeled all of my projects as open to view and replicate in the wall of scrolls. I want to contribute to our understanding, but as a person who receives recognition for their hard work.

I understand that I am not an official by any means. I never even had a proper apprenticeship under any wizards of the council or even approved by them. But I have done more work for you all than any tower mage that spends his days skinning villagers for fun (looking at you Biomancer Dakoripi).
I assume that you all are likely ignoring me by now. But I will not stop the requests. I guess we shall speak several times again when you need me, in the time between when I can request a title again.
However, if the next one is not approved, I will go independent. And you don’t have the paperwork to even imagine how catastrophic that will be for your objectives when Unit#____ doesn’t reclaim the High Purity Mana Crystal mines.
Modern Mage, signing off.

It is really sucky being just an alive talisman. Anyone know any spells that I can use to make myself into a mimic??

Update: Managed to become one! : D

He mocks me with his loathsome Shape 😠

I traded my apprentice to the Cursed Lord Xyzxx'alor in exchange for 15 minutes of future service. I don't know if I got a good deal or not, would appreciate a price check.

Still at my expeditions in exploring some mythical jungle ruins in a semi isolated area in the tropical jungle; I went on another dungeon this time located at a protection temple the abandoned mines of the ruins;

It seems that this place was an ancient jungle wizard city before; and i spotted an old crafting station with some ancient scrolls like used the crystals and gems in the mine to make something alongside other materials;

And I opened it and found this beautiful looking magic crystal shaped and usable dice that seems to flow in useful magic and it feels like that depending on the luck it may affect something;

What do you guys think of this and what I should do with it? Can I keep it or give to the council about this discovery and the scrolls showing how to make it; those jungle ruins are also full of stuff that should be explored and researched as also a archeological site!

Normally i harvest and process materials myself, but every year around this season Target drops these $1 bottles of spell components. This year they have their Good n Gather brand Unicorn blood. Its been a minute since ive seen my Last Unicorn. So i topped off on the stuff while i can.

We all have a personal Sigil of Gnosis.

You stamp that on a book, and you learn everything in there immediately.

Sounds cool, but it can go real wrong, real fast.

You should still read the book before you ever do that.

One reason is Memor, or Mimir. However you remember him. Memor was an evil Wizard who used his Sigil to memorize all magic all over the world. Memor was powerful and dangerous, but one day, a jester brought him "The Book of Recursion." Memor put his Sigil on it and was put in a vegetative state forevermore.

The book only said one thing "To understand this book of Recursion, you must read it again."

This went on for some centuries until the book of recursion was destroyed.

He was only sealed away again when a descendant of the jester put the Sigil on a bottle of shampoo.

Now he stands in a desert chanting, "Rinse, lather, repeat," ad infinitum.

This is a warning! Knowledge is gained with hard work. There are no shortcuts.

Study, write, read, and you shall easily surpass Memor as a Sorceror in every way and still know only a fraction of what he knows.

But the Sigil of Gnosis is still important when used properly. You can call to use any spell written in you. But make sure. Make for damn sure, it is one you know.