Rajit: Level 16-18: Something from Nothing

(For those following the character, a lot has happened. Rajit has moved to a different DnD community with different rules, having joined Driftriver. Rajit no longer has any levels in Artificer Wizard. Rajit is now 13 Revised Ranger Beast Conclave + 5 Mutant Blood Hunter. She will end her build as 15/5. In the shuffle Rajit has gained the Healer feat, practicing what she learned from working in Hyssop Home’s pharmacy.)
 
The past few months had gotten out of hand. The war in New Nivix had been grueling to a point beyond any level of exhaustion she had ever previously known. It took everything out of her to make it out of the situation alive, and even then she had felt powerless in the great airship battles that took place. Airships! What a fascinating use of technology those had proven to be! The culmination of thousands of precise and willful applications of skill and manufactory. The influence the airships had exerted in the war was inestimable; it wouldn’t be false to say they had been the most influential part of the war. What greater freedom and power could there be than to go where you wished and hold all of that influence?
 
After returning to Lerwick Rajit began to try to gather information on airships, but there was little knowledge in the Savage Frontier. Her frustrations grew and grew, but her infatuation grew alongside it. Her studies of wizardry and transmutation began to fall behind as she studied the concepts of engineering and the mechanics of flight. An airship was a complicated thing; even worse it was a complicated thing that required a crew. While she knew that Gilbert would do as much as he could as her first mate she would also need to recruit, train and build rapport with a whole crew. The people part would surely be harder than the engineering… She’d need to sleep on it.
 
The sound of crashing waves overwhelmed Rajit in her dreams. The biting cold of a wintry river soon stung her limbs, and she was shocked awake by something far too real to be a dream. She sputtered as she broke the surface, sputtering as she spit out a mouthful of water.
 
“Fresh water? A river, or maybe a lake?” Her mind raced as she tried to recall how she’d gotten here.
 
Somehow she had been transported into the scene of a shipwreck at night, a heavy mist rolling over choppy dark waters. A deep red light pulsed through the mist at regular intervals, giving her visions of shadows in the surroundings, but not enough information to determine where she was or how she had gotten here. The canvas sail of a ship was a few meters away, flat along the surface of the water, but quickly being soaked through and crested over by the chaotic waves.
 
“Where there’s a sail there’s a boat, I’ve got to grab onto something before I freeze to death in this.” Rajit grit her chattering teeth and remembering her last time tossed overboard she patted at her coat, relieved to find that she seemingly had most of her equipment with her. She pulled a syringe from a coat pocket and jabbed it into her thigh. Instantly she felt a warmth spreading up and through her as the stimulant kicked in. She clumsily paddled her way to the sail, and pulled herself along it until she found the toppled and splintered mast of the ship; hopefully the rest of the ship was still afloat. Rajit crawled along the mast and soon pulled herself out of the water, pulling a small vial from her bandolier she shook her head and blinked a few times as her potion took effect. The darkness began to slip away as her darkvision kicked in. The ship carried a number of humanoid crew seemingly under assault by odd sea creatures.
 
Rajit did the math quickly; she didn’t know this crew but she did know that this boat was her life raft in this situation. Identifying these slimy sea creatures were would have to wait for a post-mortem. She reached to her hip, relieved to find her crossbow. She shook any lingering wetness from it and tightened the canister, activating the cell. She could feel the responsive hum as the components gained a charge. Grabbing the ratchet she cranked back the string and listened as it clicked into firing position; she kept turning, overdrawing her crossbow until it reached the second click. Pulling a bolt from her quiver she dropped it into the groove; the copper bolt sparking as the crossbow began to dump charge into it. With a single hand she aimed at the nearest slime-coated assailant and fired. The shot slid off the groove of the crossbow, shedding sparks in a neon-blue arc as it flew into the target’s torso, a brilliant flash bursting as the bolt discharged into the target.
 
Climbing up the side of the boat on the other side Gilbert leaped onto the deck of the ship. Grabbing a fish-faced creature he flung it overboard, preventing it from finishing off a wounded crewman. Rajit felt instant relief as she saw her companion; but it soon became apparent that the two of them weren’t the only ones fighting to protect this shipwreck-in-progress. There were some familiar faces; and some not so familiar ones. People wearing styles of clothes or speaking with accents she’d never encountered.
 
As the battle raged another ship soon approached, offering an escape for many. One of the other unknown fighters had also conjured a number of giant sea horses to offer egress from the sinking vessel. All that stood between them and dry land was a massive multi-headed Hydra…
 
... Rajit cursed her luck as the Hydra began to sank beneath the choppy water. There was little chance of getting a sample given the circumstances. “Yeah, to hell with that thing! I’m with you lil’ missy!” One of the sailors nodded to Rajit, a look of relief and joy on his face. “And I mean that. Really. I’m with you, got it? They’re going to ask when we get to the docks.” The sailor patted Rajit on the shoulder giving her the distinct impression of possessiveness. “Uhm, is the gorilla with you too? I wonder if I’ll get paid for two…”
 
“Gilbert is with me. What are you even talking about? Did you bring me here?” Rajit turned her blue eyes towards the sailor seriously for the first time, trying to determine if the man was a spellcaster of some great power. “Oh goodness gracious darling, I could never. I’m just a riverhound, we pick up folks like you who get pulled in through the Mistrises. This is Driftriver. The welcome wagon will explain everything.” Rajit stared at the man blankly, whatever answers she wanted she guessed he wouldn’t have. Besides, the stimulants were wearing off and she could feel the adrenaline flushing out of her body. The cold began to sink into her bones, and she felt her teeth began to chatter. She’d never heard of Driftriver.
 
Rajit soon learned why she’d been ‘claimed’ by the sailor. It seems the fellow was paid for dredging people like her out of the water. She grit her teeth as she considered the fact that she’d just been commoditized by this group that called themselves “base.” And base they certainly were if they thought they were going to get away with selling folks… They didn’t seem directly hostile, instead focusing on process and paperwork. They were very similar looking, as a number of young women with identical charcoal uniforms with blue trim bustled about without speaking a single word to each other… A telepathic bond perhaps?
 
One of the women, with green eyes and plaited blonde hair approached with two mugs of hot tea. She offered one to Rajit, and then the other to Gilbert, a surprising act of hospitality. “Hello! You’re Rajit, right? And this is Gilbert?” Rajit took the mug and tried to get a read on the woman, but her look was inscrutable. Rajit began to hope this wasn’t going to be anything like her last run-in with the law. “Yeah, that would be us.”
 
“Lovely. Well first things first, this is 1493 DR.” The woman watched Rajit with an expectant look, waiting to see if there was any response. “Uhh, yeah?” Rajit looked quizzically back at the woman, unsure of why she felt the need to state the date. “Wonderful, no travel through time or from another sphere.” The woman efficiently checked a few boxes on the paperwork and drew a line through multiple pages, seemingly made unnecessary by this convenient fact. Rajit sipped the tea as she watched the pages fly by. “Well if you didn’t know that, then you didn’t summon me here on purpose did you?”
 
The woman didn’t stop moving her hands as she lifted her eyes towards Rajit. “Oh goodness, no. The river calls whoever it wants. We just try to make sure folks are recorded and try to make sense of it and find any patterns.” The woman flipped to the next page. “Cotemporal and coplanar then.” Two checks were scratched into the form. “What was your last place of residence?” Her green eyes watched Rajit placidly again. “You mean current place of residence? Hyssop Home, city of Lerwick, on the Savage Frontier.” A few quick scratches on paper. “Lerwick again, how unusual. We’ve had others from there arriving recently. Please hold this for a moment. It is a divining chit.” The blonde woman offered a small rectangular bit of metal, polished to a nearly mirror finish. It was difficult to tell what it was made of.
 
“Uh, sure.” Rajit took the metal chit between thumb and forefinger, and tried to move it in the light to see through the finish. “It’s like a thermometer, it will just take a minute. I have a few more questions, though.” The remaining questions were fairly basic questions, any spellcasting ability, any unusual skills or knowledge, special training and the like. As she answered the chit in her hand began to change like a mood ring, finally settling on a silvery-white with hints of green shining through. The blonde woman looked at the chit and wrote a few more things onto her form. “Mithral rank, nearly adamantine. Impressive. The higher-ups will want to speak with you. Please, take a look at these pamphlets.” The woman exchanged a pamphlet titled ‘Living in Driftriver’ and ‘Working with B.A.S.E.’ to Rajit, and retrieved the chit which instantly returned to its nondescript sheen. She paused, holding the chit then turned to Gilbert and offered him the strip of metal. “If you would, sir?” Gilbert hooted in agreement to the polite lady and took the chit and held onto it as well.
 
The pamphlets detailed the history of the city, explained the power of the magic in the river, and touted the many benefits of living in the city of Driftriver. The other pamphlet detailed lucrative employment opportunities working with B.A.S.E. as well as explaining the access to their unusual enchantment technology built on a magical substance called Drops. The pamphlets made for easy reading as Rajit sipped her tea.
 
“Ah, the same as her then. Truly incredible.” Rajit looked up to find the chit had settled on the same shade for Gilbert and had been handed over. “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions as well?” Gilbert hooted in agreement, and the woman called over a spellcaster to weave a telepathic bond over the two of them, conducting Gilbert’s interview telepathically.
 
Eventually the paperwork came to an end and the two were ushered by a pair of young men in the charcoal uniforms to a fairly luxurious hotel in a nearby district that the signage labeled ‘Octavia Walk.’ “We’ll ask you to stay with us tonight if you would oblige us. We understand you may wish to return home, and if that is the case we will help arrange transport tomorrow morning. A member of the bureau will be by around 10 AM. We hope you find the arrangements comfortable.” The two men gave a short bow and then turned back into the evening gloom of the misty night.
 
Comfortable was an understatement for the hotel room. Sumptuous food and drink had been laid out, a steaming bath was drawn and comfortable cloth robes were laid out in their sizes. “Well, commoditizing people or not you can’t knock their hospitality… Let’s take it easy tonight and see about getting home tomorrow, big guy.” Gilbert grunted in acknowledgement as he picked up a bottle of wine. He pulled the cork out with his teeth and then sniffed it appreciatively. The two were soon asleep, this time not slipping into a far flung freezing river.
 
The next few days had proven fairly interesting. A number of recruiters began an intense effort to convince Rajit to stay within the city, offering her incredibly awards for potential service. The negotiations were very much at a standstill until the recruiters happened onto an unlikely avenue of plying the halfling. “Of course potions brewed with Drops are capable of reconstituting after use. We weave the magic into the bottle itself and it is capable of regenerating on return to the city and proximity to the river.” Rajit slapped her small hand onto the table at hearing this. “That’s impossible, you’re saying you’ve managed to produce something from nothing? That’s even more outlandish than a philosopher’s stone!”
 
“No madame, no. Not something from nothing, but from the magic that concentrates in the river itself. If I may arrange a demonstration?” The recruiters were quick to send a courier to headquarters, and soon another uniformed individual arrived with a wooden case. With the finesse of a salesman the recruiters made a show of opening the case, revealing a pair of potion bottles. Rajit adjusted her glasses as she instantly recognized the formulae. “Flight and Vitality potions. Nothing special here.”
 
The recruiter raised a finger and then gently plucked a bottle from the case, the potion of flight. He uncorked it and tilted the bottle until the potion began to pour out on the cobblestone streets. Rajit felt herself reflexively jerk forward to stop him; what a waste this was! She caught herself and watched, her eyebrows askew in confusion. The last few drops of the potion splashed onto the cobblestones. The recruiter gently corked the bottle and offered it to Rajit, sidestepping a centipede as it began to float before their eyes. “Ah, I didn’t see you down there.” The recruiter grinned as the potency of the potion was made obvious.
Rajit accepted bottle and looked at it. Empty. The glass was blown with some skill, but the color was a bit unusual. Some type of additive had colored it with a bit of a blue sheen. Perhaps a dye? “What do you want me to do with this? It’s empty now.” The recruiter gently blew on the flying centipede, as it began to float away on the winds. “Please hold onto it. If it is in your hands and we are unable to tamper with it you’re more likely to believe what comes after. Now then, I do believe I owe you a tour of the city.” Rajit rolled her eyes and put the bottle into a coat pocket.
 
The city tour went quickly and easily; the recruiter being clearly well practiced as a tour guide. Rajit found much of the city boring, but did get rather excited as she passed through Tinkerton. The Sky Piers were a glorious accomplishment; with beautiful airships passing through once every few hours. She was fortunate enough to find one in dock and lay her eyes on a vessel far different than the warships she had seen in New Nivix. This one was a comfortable vessel for passenger transport, designed to make the journey one of intense comfort rather than expediency.
 
As they moved on into the nearby district of Eweford though Rajit began to hear an unexpected sloshing from her coat pocket as the bottle she walked. Pulling the potion from her pocket she found it replenished. Not quite full, but as she watched the bottle bubbled and burbled as if fed from an internal spring or reservoir. “Impressive, isn’t it?” The recruiter couldn’t help but smile slyly. “More like impossible. You have a wizard nearby teleporting in the refill?”
 
“I promise you that is not the case. We’ll allow you to keep that; in fact you can have this one for now as well.” The recruiter offered her the case containing the other potion. “I believe the tour is complete though, I will guide you back to Octavia Walk and you can spend the evening however you wish.” Rajit didn’t remember much of the walk back, as she tried to find the trick to the bottle she held in her hands.
 
Rajit would spend the evening exactly how she wanted indeed. Trying to determine the trick of these potions, an answer that was not forthcoming. She soon determined the source of the refill to be an almost imperceptible and unusual magic that seemingly suffused the area. She turned to Gilbert, frustrated at her lack of progress. “Big guy, if I figure out how this works I may not have to find a cure for you. Rather than fix it forever I could make a treatment that just replenishes itself. Almost as good!” Gilbert looked at her with his dark eyes, and gave her a single nod.
 
The lessons of alchemy had been simple but universal. The concept of transformation, that even a halfling born of dirt could transform into a perfectly formed bar of the purest gold, had proven true. Nothing is without cost, though. Rajit had learned that it wasn’t truly transformation, it had been combination all along. The things she had acquired, the knowledge she had gained, the companionship of Gilbert, Fhahana and her family. Each one had combined with her, a small reaction in a great chain that had brought her to where she was now. There was a certain foolishness to the idea of gaining something from nothing, but here it was in front of her.
 
This river, there was definitely something off with it. These Drops, whatever they actually were, were also something that deserved study. She sent a message off back home via a sending scribe; the recruiter had gotten what he wanted. Rajit would stay in Driftriver, and she would work. The promise of receiving these Drops and the potential they had in enhancing her research were irresistible. She accepted her badge from the bureau. The jobs came quickly after.