The choice of one’s Css has such a fual and enduring impact upon the individual’s future that it drastically affect the entire unity around them. Ahe so-called ‘Natural Path’ to css acquisition is heavily biased in favor of the most generion, and broadly applicable csses avaible. This effect has proved to be persistent across history, culture, and race among the se peoples of our realm. It is for this reason that basic csses such as warrior, borer, farmer, cook, uard predominate in poputions without access to a Css Shrihis expins why so many people are forced into ineffit or unwanted csses by the default sele of this Natural Path.

  The Css Shrine is an artifact that affords vastly more trol and choice over the process of css acquisition. Evidence shows that activities within the window of time between unlog css experiend earning the first css level have a disproportionate influence upon the css offered. By trolling the timing of this experienlock, the shrine allows for the practice of undergoing a formal Css Trial, wherein the applit may focus entirely on activities appropriate for the desired css, often overriding unfortunate experiences of youth or childhood.

  Upon earning suffit experiehe Natural Path css will be offered at level one. Accessing the Css Shrine a sed time before it affixes often provides one or more alternate css choices in addition to the Natural Path. Again, this access to a wider array of options and choices has the potential to substantially improve the quality of csses across a given unity.

  inally a product of high-level se dungeons, Css Shrines were incredibly rare, requiring a petent adventurer group to delve deep into the bowels of the dungeon just to gain access, pg them far out of reach of the vast majority of the popution. However, here at the Ciradyl Academy, in jun with the cil of Archmages, we have learo uhe secrets of the Css Shrine, allowing them to be crafted, thus removing dungeons from the equatioirely.

  While artificial Css Shrines have certainly had their impact, substantially raising the average quality of csses acquired, they introduce a host of other problems. Due to the difficulty in their stru, they are still rare. And giveure of their power, access to Css Shrines has bee fraught with restri schemes refleg political or financial ambition. Wars are fought over access to shrines, and due to their Soulbound nature, the most ethod of ownership transfer has beurder, assassination, or dynastic succession.

  - Nathaniel Sunstrider, Archmage, Schor, and Guildmaster of the Elven Pathfinder Guild. Discussion on the value and impact of css shrines.

  Aliandra

  Crack.

  The sudden sound shattered the blissful bess of her drifting awareness like a rock striking a pane of gss.

  What… where…

  Her mind recoiled at the sudden jagged sharpness stabbing into her.

  Pain…

  The word drifted across the haze of her mind. She grappled with it for a while, certain she should know it, but the distant, vague recolles that lurked in her awareness appeared and vanished like apparitions in the mist.

  She had not felt pain… anything… in such a long time.

  Aversion. She knew only that she did not like this sensation, this interruption breaking the long dream.

  She struggled fitfully against the pain, but nothing in her world ged. She remaihere, standing where she had always been, frozen in pce, encased by the glowing crystalline magic of her prison. The radiant golden light illumihe stoh before her, but everything beyond was gray, fading to imperable darkness. The se flickered in the grayness, but that too was unging, a cycle of a few dozen flickering pictures as fleeting as her own intangible memories.

  Her mind seemed sluggish. As it had always been. But somehow, this time, something was definitely wrong. She didn’t know what it should feel like, just that this wasn’t right. She struggled again, finding herself uo move, to escape the pain.

  Crack!

  Another bolt of jagged sharpness stabbed deeply into her mind. This time, a tiny, jagged line appeared, splitting the golden glow, and spilling a fracture of color out into the gray world beyond. A tiny mote of golden light separated, esg through the jagged crack, and slowly drifted upward. She watched it, uo look away, feeling an inexplicable and infinitely deep upwelling of sadness within her heart. Unbidden, a memory surfaced; a warm, kind hand toug her face, fort. Ainy golden mote escaped, drifting upward, and her memories came crashing back.

  Mom…?

  Gentle eyes gazing upon her. Golden motes of mana spilling from the hand that reached out to fort her. And then she faded away, leaving only…

  Suddenly, the specter of death loomed rge in her mind. A dark, withered figure wearing spelled robes and a crimson blindfold, wieldih from gaunt, skeletal fingers as his mog ughter sent shivers running through her soul.

  Nevyn Eld.

  Her mother had given her life to save her from him. And now she was gone.

  Uo wince or cry out, she endured another jolt of pain. Another fractured line of jagged color spilled out into the world – a cra the impervious magic that held her fast.

  Her memories came faster now, crashing through her, a rapid cascade of painful images. The frantic flight from the library. Maeria Runeweaver sliding off a sword. Armand. Her father askio be brave. The Death Knight at the gates to Dal’mohra.

  The motes of mana drifted upwards, more and more of them joining to create a pilr of floating lights as the magical shell around her slowly cracked and splintered, pieces dissolving into the air. But Ali’s heart ached, left with only the profou of loneliness, and the powerful need for her mother’s touch, and the kle of a smile in her father’s eyes.

  She cried out in pain as the crystalline magic – the legendary spell, bought by her mother’s sacrifice – suddenly exploded in an enormous burst of golden energy and shattered shards. She fell, hitting the stoh below with a bruising crash. The gray world flickered rapidly as color and vibrance flooded outward.

  Helpless, she y on her back amid the still-glowing shards of her mother’s magic, staring upward as the pilr of golden motes slowly drifted away, fading into the darkness beyond. Her body did not move, could not move. She y there fes, her heart frozen with grief and sadness, her body limp and unresponsive.

  Slowly her mind cleared. There were no stars in the darkness overhead, and she suddenly remembered the vision of an exploding mountain and the ndslide that had buried her.

  A cavern? She shuddered, struggling with a sudden bout of custrophobia at the memory of untable tons of rock bearing down upon her. What if she had awakeombed in stone?

  Where is the Blind Lich?

  What about the Death Knights?

  Where are the skeletons?

  She struggled, fear c through her in waves as she y helpless on the cold, ung stone, uo even turn her head to look for danger.

  She willed her hand to move. Nothing happeoo mubsp;she thought as a wave of exhaustion washed over her.

  Am I alive?

  She breathed.

  After a time, she decided she must be and she resumed her efforts, bending will into moving just her finger, and after a few minutes, she felt a twitch. Exhaustion surged through her body and for a moment she just y prone.

  Droplets of golden liquid mana pooled on her skin and trickled down like glowing sweat as her body slowly expelled the remnants of her mother’s potent spell, staining the ground around her with a sparkling light that soaked into the earth.

  What I even do? She was obviously in mortal danger, exposed to any mohat still lurked nearby. She was weak, and far too exhausted to even move. She did not have Armand’s strength or scales, or her father’s summoned monsters.

  Her mom had always told her that any problem could be solved with applied reason, but the little voi the back of her mind reminded her that her mother had probably never woken up helpless in the dark, fearing that, at any moment, an undead monster would ruhrough with a rusty bde and raise her corpse as one of the walking dead. Just like poor Armand. But she g to the remembered wisdom for dear life. There was no other choice.

  She still wore her white cotton t-shirt and shorts, and her arms and legs were already tingling with goosebumps in the chill dank air. Her library card and Maeria Runeweaver’s book should be somewhere nearby.

  Perhaps when I move.

  With a thought, she opened her status – a task that thankfully did not require her body to move.

  The image of the intangible book appeared in her mind; vibrant green leaves etched into the cover like living pnts. It hovered there, clearly visible, a had never interfered with her vision.

  But something was different this time. The leaves seemed denser as if the pnts depicted on the cover had somehow grown. When it snapped open to her status, the part seemed darker, aged somehow, and she caught the faint musty st of books that had nguished in some fotten ste for far too long.

  Still, the glowing golden script was as clear as ever.

  Name: Aliandra AmarielRace: FaeTitles: A

  Css: [Locked]

  General Skills- Reading – level 7- Linguist – level 4- Identify – level 5- Are trip – level 4- Pnt Growth – level 4- Memorize – level 4- Schor – level 6- Sculpting – level 2

  Aptitudes- Languages: A Dal’mohran, Elvish, Dwarven- Mana (Affinities): Are, Nature- Tiny (Racial): The effects of Strength and Vitality are reduced by 50%- Magical (Racial): The effects of Wisdom and Intelligence are increased by 50%- Mana Sense (Racial): You are sensitive to nearby mana

  Attributes- Vitality: 5- Strength: 4- Endurance: 5- Dexterity: 10- Perception: 11- Intelligence: 21- Wisdom: 14

  Health: 25/25Stamina: 2/50Mana: 210/210

  For the first time in her life, she found no joy or pride in her Schor, Reading, or Linguist skills as she scoured her abilities for something, anything, that might be of use against a skeleton like the ohat had killed Armand. If one of the Death Knights, or worse, the Blind Lich was still around, she khat, on her own, she would be blown to bits, vaporized before she even had the ce to blink.

  But her skills were all suited to her dream of magical research, and everything she had learned would be of far more use in the library than out here in the dark. Her passion had always been for books and learning. Fighting, she had always said, was something for the bigger races.

  Until some skeleton tries to take your head off.

  She focused on her Are trip skill, still hunting for inspiration, and the book still h in her mind obliged by turning the page, revealing the details of her general skill.

  Are trip – level 4Mana: Create a small solid magical struct out of Are mana.Are, Intelligence

  She eled a small amount of mana into the skill, a little surprised to find that it flowed fortably and easily sideriate. Her mana coalesced into a small golden blob h above her face. She shaped it, applying her will, and the profiany long hours of study and practice, clutg at the ohing she could actually do. The blob morphed into a tiny golden butterfly h in the air, slowly fpping its wings before she tired and released the mana sculpture to flitter away into the darkness.

  But while her skill allowed her to act, the Are trip was a simple spell taught to Fae children gifted with early affio help them learn to trol their mana. And, as she had discovered, it was woefully iive against a Lich.

  I’ll sy it with a golden mana butterfly – yay! Go Aliandra! At least her sarcasm still worked.

  She turo the description of her skill.

  Identify – level 5Mana: Dis information about a creature or item up to level 5 [css + skill]. Synergizes with any relevant Perception, Knowledge, or Information skills. Knowledge, Perception

  For all its vaunted worth, Identify would simply tell how badly she was going to die before it happened. She moved on quickly, finding nothing suitable for her predit.

  Pnt Growth – level 4Mana: Sense and influehe growth of nearby pnts.Nature, Wisdom

  Aunt Lira had taught her Pnt Growth in her first melding with her dryadic tree. The skill had been a stant source of joy, and Ali had spent many happy hours with her father growing pnts in the Grove. The sensation of pnts responding to her mana, the experience of growing with them was so soothing, she had always like to meditation. Or the quiet repose of listening to beautiful music.

  sidering how she might twist her magic to violence made her suddenly shudder in disgust, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth.

  She tried to move her finger again. This time, it responded almost immediately. Enced by the ck of instant exhaustion, she set her mind to moving the others.

  It would be so much better if I had a Css, she thought, her miurning to her skills. Or ck thereof. She had been so close to unlog her css before everything had exploded in her face.

  Who am I kidding? She had bee on earning a schorly- or research-oriented css. There was no way her dream css would have had an ao the undead skeletons.

  She slowly closed and opened her hand and began to work on her left.

  Her eyes were curiously drawn to her Aptitudes, notig that the se seemed different than she remembered. They ged so rarely that she seldom looked anymore. on nguage ged to A Dal’mohran? And there was a itle called ‘A’ which seemed vague and ominous.

  Just how long was I ihat barrier?

  Her memories of her time frozen in the spell felt vague and elusive – it might just as easily have beeuries or just a day. The unging golden glow and the strangely flickering gray cast to the world had fallen away, leaving her … here.

  She was certain she hadn’t moved an inch, however long it might have been. She could evehe shrine from where she y. But everything else was gohe beautiful Grove her father tended with its giant oaks and pretty wildflowers had vanished, leaving only looming dark shadows and what felt like damp moss carpeting the ground. The air smelled musty and dank, an a decay instead of the vibrant sense of growth and nature she loved so much. Evears were gone, blotted out by the mountain that had crashed down upon her somehow f a cavern. She was just grateful for whatever force was keeping the stone and rock up there, and that her mother’s magic hadn’t released her into the crushing embrace of a rocky prison.

  She tinued w on her body, and slowly her feeling and trol returned. She sat up slowly in the dark cavern. There was some faint, dim illumination in some dires, but the only sources of light she could actually make out were the glowing ruched into the stone obelisk of the shrine and the still-glowing remnants of the explosive destru of the barrier that had protected her body.

  Carefully she summoned a small disk of golden light – light that matched the shards of magic embedded into the stone beside her. She had been so proud the first time she had cast this spell – realizing that her magic matched her mother’s distinctive golden mana. But the light showed little of anything – the cavern had to be rge, she couldn’t find any sign of a roof or even walls from the dim jured illumination.

  But beside her, lying on the pristine circle of sto by the evaporated magic of her mother’s spell was her library book, dropped ierrifying altercation with the Lich. Her library card was still inside. She reached out to grab it, but to her horror, it crumbled to dust at her touch.

  Ali slowly struggled to her feet and shuffled towards the only other thing she could see – the shrihe glow of her golden disk illuminated a, bed stumps and trunks of lorees. Tiny mushrooms, some of which glowed faintly, pushed up their caps amid the damp moss growing upon the dead wood.

  Pg her hand against the shrine, mostly to steady herself, she used her Identify skill on it.

  Shrine of the A GroveAn a mystical shrine of unknown in. Offers advanced css features and attu of tent mana affinity.Owner: Aliandra AmarielMana Siphon (Active)Mana: Unlock css experiena: Unlock or enhaent magical affinitiesMana: Unlock alternate csses [Locked: Requirements not met.]Owner’s Mana: Recharge the shrine’s mana reserve. 358,045/1,250,000Quality: UniqueShrine – Artifact

  Owner! The word struck like a dagger to her heart. With an agonized groan, she slumped against the obelisk, her weakened body struggling to hold her up. This had been the ter of her father’s domain, and the shrine was his to the ey of Dal’mohra. She remembered his pride and sense of duty towards the youth of the city, dug the Css ceremohat were effectively their final indu into adulthood. She had been looking forward to her father perf her ceremony ever since she had been old enough to uand, and now the little detail of her name instead of his told her that her dream had been ripped away, just as surely as his life. Her forehead pressed against the cold stone, deriving some small fort from the e.

  While her grief remained, her sense of shod helplessness eventually ebbed enough for her to examihe shrine once more. The st line caught her attention – it had never been visible to her before – and likely meant it was only avaible to her as the soulbound owner.

  One and a quarter … million… Ali’s mind simply couldn’t prehend the sheer enormity of the mana ste the shrine possessed. Even at less than a third of its capacity, it still held more than three hundred and fifty thousand mana.

  Ali looked at her status sheet again. She had two hundred and ten mana, and she had been called gifted by everyone who knew. She was blessed with an unusually high wisdom attribute, and her racial aptitude enhanced her mana by fifty pert. She did a few quick calcutions in her mind. If she did nothing else, it would take her more than a year to refill the shrine.

  Carefully she eled her mana into the shrig the ter increase quickly. Half her mana brought the total up to 358,150. She stopped.

  Filling this isn’t going to help me right now. Yet, it felt s to leave it so empty like this.

  I could unlock my own css, she realized. Indeed, as the owner of the shrine, she could activate each of the abilities, and then simply use them on herself. She caught herself looking around as if she expected someone was going to catch her i.

  There’s nobody left to pin that you’re not qualified.

  The only problem was, there was nobody around to help her with her trial. While not strictly necessary, the purpose of the trial was to guide experience gain toward the traits o unlock a preferred css. Oher hand, her choice might very well be between dying uncssed versus surviving with some css, regardless of what she unlocked. And if that was the case, the sooner she unlocked the ability to earn experiehe sooner she could earn a useful css.

  She agonized over it for a while but, in the end, there was not much of a decision to make. Any css was better than no css if she came face-to-face with a skeleton in the darkness.

  Carefully she eled a little of her mana into the shrine, choosing the feature that would unlock her own css experiehe stoifact hummed softly, and the runes on its surface briefly brightened. Runes she suddenly noticed were now gold and green, matg her affinities.

  Css experienlocked.

  [Shrine of the A Grove] Once you have earned enough experience, a css will be offered based on your choices, abilities, and as. You unlock additional css choices at the shrine.

  Ali lingered over the surprising messages. She reized the initial message as a normal one, but the seessage had e directly from the shriself. She checked the shrine again, finding that the mana total had decreased by one hundred.

  That seems like a reasonable cost, she thought, looking curiously again at the enormous total. No answer seemed forthing, so instead, she checked her status, finding that the css line had updated to reflect the ge.

  Css: [Unlocked]

  There is another option I use, she thought, studying the shrine and the entig option that offered to enhance or unlock mana affinities. It sounds useful. Ali already had two mana affinities: Nature and Are. Enhang them seemed like something she might need. She eled mana to activate the shrient affinity fun.

  The shrine began to glow and hum as she gave it her mana, but it rapidly grew brighter and more powerful, sending a thrum of power deep through the ground under her feet. Her skin began to prickle as if an unseen energy were flowing through her body, and all around her, an intense green aura began to shine, bsting back the darkness. Shot through the green light, she could see streamers and symbols of intense golden energy slowly drifting around, looking very much like the runes inscribed on the shriself. Ali held back a scream as the rush of power tore through her body and mind until it suddenly ceased, droppio the ground for the sed time today, leaving the startling echo of several chimes in her mind.

  [Shrine of the A Grove] Reserved mana reduced by 50,000.Your affinity with Nature mana has been enhanced.Your affinity with Are mana has been enhanced.

  Slowly she got back to her feet, stu the ued dispy of power. But, to her surprise, she actually felt a little more alert and energized than before. Ali pced her hand on the shrine once more.

  Owner’s Mana: Recharge the shrine’s mana reserve. 308,050/1,250,000

  Ali gulped. She had decided to use the shrine on a whim, and it had burned fifty thousand mana in an instant. No wo was so powerful, she thought, feeling somewhat guilty at having used so much of the shrine’s preana reserve. But the guilt faded quickly; it wasn’t much, but it seemed to be a useful step forward, even if she didn’t know what she had aplished. Far better than helplessly c in fear from the Lich or fleeing from the skeletons.

  As the auras of the lingering magic faded, darkness returo the Grove and the shrihin it. Loath to linger alone in the darkness, Ali summoned her are magic light once more. This time, however, the magiifested with a snap and shone brightly in the darkness – signifitly brighter than she had ever seen it.

  Did it get stronger because of the shrine? It seemed logical, but Ali had not expected such a dramatic ge.

  Her siderations of her magic were suddenly interrupted by a shuffling and scratg in the darkness beyond the circle of light cast by her spell. Something moved; something rge and ominous, hiding in the shadows. Ali’s overworked fear returned in a rush, and, with a trembling hand, she raised her small glowing spell to shine more light around her.

  Reflected back at her from the darkness she saw two shining bck beady eyes staring at her, full of hunger and malevolence.

  Scarcely breathing, she cast Identify at the shape lurking in the darkness.

  Sewer Rat – level 3