[flashback]Laying the foundations

[Conrad]

56th day off summer 506 AV

Conrad waited on the small bench for his master to show up an eager expression on his face,today was the day he promised he would learn him the basics of magic. He wiped the sweat from his brow, sweating quite a lot thanks to the burning sun, cursing the fact that the shade was already occupied by others.
"I really hope he comes soon, Or I'll get a sunburn form sitting here." Conrad mumbled giving a jealous glance at the akalaks and other people sitting in the shade.
He yawned and laid down on the bench shielding his eyes form the harsh sun. Slowly closing his eyes and dozing off in the heat.

Conrad groaned as somebody was prodding his stomach and rolled over, forgetting that he was lying on a bench.
"Ack!" Conrad yelped, a bewildered look on his face before he hit the ground face first.A scowl on his face as he heard the offender laugh at his misfortune.
"Well boy, get up from your lazy ass, I don't have all day and I like to give you at least a little bit of knowledge before my time is up."
Conrad just groaned and pushed himself up, though his scowl vanished from his face as the mage lured him with knowlege. "I'm ready sir!" Conrad said a boyish grin on his face as he pushed himself back on his feet. "lets begin with it!" He looked up towards the man.
"Really?" The man chuckled roughly patting the boy on his head, tussling up his hair. "Lets put that to willingness to learn the test shall we?" He dropped the backpack on the ground and reached inside pulling out a box and a carvers pick.
"Well I learned you a bit of morphing already, So now Its time for you to learn something completely different." He opened the box showing the cleaned bones of a few rabbits lying inside. He picked up one of the skulls.

"What I am going to learn you is the legacy, though some other people call it malediction." The man scowled at the last name. "Its an ancient art that creates magical items from the bones and other body parts of dead creatures." He looked at conrad one of his eyebrows rising. "Pay attention boy, I am not going to tell you twice." Conrad groaned."Can't we go and practice morphing a bit more master? Its a lot more exiting then this thing."
Conrad's master just shook his head. "No you are going to learn what I say you are going to learn, besides this might save your ass one time so pay attention! Or you are not getting any magic lessons anymore!" He gave conrad a pointed stare.

"Ok, Shutting up." Conrad said in a subdued tone. Watching back to the rabbit skull held in the man's hand.
"Right," the man continued."Malediction creates magical items form the remains of creatures, following the principle of that a body is djed and thus holds power. We, practitioners of the legacy, can tap into that djed by the use of circles. But lets stop talking and go do it shall we? I'll guide you through the steps." He handed the pick and skull to conrad. "Now first things first, carve a circle on the skull." He lightly tapped the forehead of the rabbit's skull.
"There should be enough room right here for the circle if you are careful. So just be care full while you make a circle." Conrad just gripped the pick and began scratching bone away, at least he tried to, his master had gripped his hand making it impossible for him to move.
"Be careful! A circle must be very accurate or it won't work." he released Conrad's hand. "Now do it and be carefull!"Conrad just sighed and slowly began to remove small pieces of bone, the dust gently falling down on the grass and his clothes as he worked at the bone. His master looking at him while he was working, looking for mistakes he could have made. While working on the circle the sun continued burning in his neck, seeming to do its best to make it as uncomfortable as possible for Conrad.

[Conrad]

Conrad just continued to work at the circle, not daring to take a small break or otherwise lapse in attention, the treath of no more magic training at all if he whined about this settled firmly in his head. He let out a sigh of relief when the circle was done. Conrad's master leaned closer and took the skull out of Conrad's hands, examining his work.

"Not bad, for the work of a novice of course." He handed the skull back to conrad. "So what do you want the amulet to do?" He asked conrad, "Its very important that you know that. Because its the meaning you place within the circles that gives the item its power, though it has its limits, You can't make a rabbit give you intelligence nor could you let a human give you excellent sense of hearing." He looked towards conrad after finishing his explanation."Did you understood what I said." Conrad nodded." You can only get things out of it that the creature you are working on already had?" Conrad said in an unsure voice, a smile crossing his face as his master nodded.

"Yes that is right, well half right you could when you are more comfortable and able to draw upon more of the objects djed make a dagger form a man who's best friend betrayed him, killing him in the progress. Depending on how you made your circles it might have a lot of different effects." He just shrugged. "But that is a bit to advanced for us right now, what do you want this project to do?" he looked at Conrad patiently waiting for his answer.

"Well its a rabbit right? Those things have a good nose right? So why don't I try and make a necklace that enhances my sense of smell?" His master nodded.
"That would be possible,now put that into the circle in any form you like, written words a drawing it doesn't matter as long as you transfer the meaning well." He gave conrad the skull back. "Now go back to work it shouldn't take that long anymore and don't slack off, its getting way to hot here." Conrad nodded and looked at the skull in his hands, how should he imprint his meaning in the circle? with a picture? no he couldn't draw to save his life so that was out. Besides how would he draw sense of smell anyway? Conrad just shook his head as he tried to imagine how somebody would draw that. Well writing it down wouldn't hurt the magic anyway would it?

Conrad carefully began to carve the words Enhance sense of smell inside the circle making sure that he didn't go outside of the lines.
"That would do conrad." His master said when he finished the carving. "Now we only got one thing to do and that is to activate the circle." Conrad looked at him with a confused look on his face. "Oh right didn't tell you how to do that right?" Conrad shook his head. "Well its quite simple really you just activate the circle with a slight drop of blood." He frowned as he saw conrad blanch, "Now don't be a little wimp its doesn't hurt a lot, Besides you could stomach seeing your own flesh warp when I teached you morphing so don't be a chicken now." He pulled out his knife and handed it to conrad. Conrad just took the knife and slowly moved thumb towards it. Pricking slightly through the skin.

"See that wasn't that hard now was it? Just press your finger on the circle now and you have activated it." Conrad quickly pressed the finger on the circle letting the blood seep into the carvings before he pulled it back and pulled it back wrapping it in his shirt and applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
His master took the now maledicted skull and held it up for conrad to see.

"Right It should work now, though we should have thought about making a cord going through it. But that is something we should be able to do later he pointed to the small hole connecting the two eye sockets to each other. "Lets just pull a string through this. But if you have to break off or otherwise damage an item to make it usefull as a weapon or other trinket do that before you put in the circles otherwise it stops functioning." He fished out a small string and hung the rabbit skull on it. "Now we don't know what it would do until we test it and there is always a chance that it is harmful so if you can help it never test out a maledicted item on yourself." He pointed towards some of the people sitting in the shade. "Why won't we test it out on one of them?"

[Conrad]

Conrad looked at the akalak and other people sitting in the shade before looking back towards his master, furiously shaking his head.
"No I really don't think that is a good idea." Conrad said, "Most of them are women or akalak, I doubt that women would want to put a skull around their neck, besides if anything happens to a woman I am going to die quicker then a mouse in a kepit filled with hungry snakes, especially with all those akalak around here." Conrad just took the finished product out of his masters hands and held it up. "What harm could this thing bring anyway? I mean its just a rabbit skull?"

His master just shook his head as conrad said that.
"Its an item created with the legacy and that makes it dangerous and unpredictable." He glared at conrad. "That means you never take testing one lightly you should always be prepared when you are testing one." He grabbed conrad by his shoulder and made sure he had his attention.
"Now listen to what I am going to say, because this stuff will save your life if you test wathever you have made with the legacy. There are a few rules I always hold onto when I test my creations. First of all, something very easy don't test them yourself whenever possible. Secondly if that isn't possible, for example you can't find a willing test subject, always have somebody with you that is willing to pull off or if that isn't possible destroy the maledicted object if it turns out to be cursed. Lastly, Try and make it so that your items can be destroyed, otherwise you are fairly screwed when you create a cursed item that doesn't want to let go."
He pointed towards the necklace still in conrad's hands."Now since we got all those rules fulfilled we can try and test it if you want, though I am not going to be you testsubject and you refuse to use those people as subjects so you should test it yourself." he motioned to conrad to put on the necklace.

Conrad gulped and slowly hung the necklace around his neck, hoping nothing to bad happened to him.
"So what do you feel?" The master asked conrad. "You did something for his sense of smell. So maybe concentrate on that?" Conrad closed his eyes and took a deep breath hoping that he smelled something more then he used to.
"Well?" He asked, waiting on conrad to answer. Conrad just made a face.
"When was the last time you washed yourself?" Conrad gaged as he faced away from him."You smell!" The master went red in indignation as he was accused of not washing. I can't help it that I sweat a lot!" He yelled at conrad grumbling at the insult. "At least we know that it works." the master said with a huff as he stood up. "That was it for today, It won't hurt anybody to let you keep that little thing. It didn't do anything harmful." He gathered up his stuff and stuffed it into his backpack. "well see you next lesson." He hoisted the backpack up on his shoulders and walked away, leaving conrad behind.
"Well," Conrad looked at the skull hanging around his neck. "I guess this can come in handy." Conrad began to walk away from the park, hoping that his dad didn't have any more chores for him to do.

--------End----------

[Baku]

Thou has written, and thou has completed, so I award thee the following.... Conrad: +2 Observation, +2 Carving, +2 Malediction Lore: Waiting Excitedly for Lessons, Jealousy of Those With Shade, Malediction: The Basics of What it is, Knowing When to Shut Up and Listen, Malediction Circles: The Basics, The Lessons of Testing Items of Malediction, Master Smells Bad Additional Awards: Rabbit Cravings(or title which you want to give the item): A maledicted rabbit skull made into a necklace, with the very most basic attention given to the circle. The item itself allows the wearer to smell out carrots from close to a half mile away, and almost nothing else if the other smell isn’t within five yards of them. Additional Notes: An interesting read, but you’re confused on points of Malediction. More specifically the Malediction Circle itself. Remember that carving the circle into a bone would take a great deal of time. Sometimes days considering what you’re trying to convey through the Malediction Circle. Remember, you can tell a story that represents who the bone was a part of, and the accuracy of that story often determines the ability of the item, more than what‘s written inside of the circle sometimes. If the story isn’t there, there a chance the item will do nothing which is ultimately considered a failure in the Malediction World. If the story isn’t accurate, then the item could have adverse effects. This is what makes the Malediction Circle very important. It’s also why as much information as possible is gathered about the owner of the body part you’re working with. Ultimately, it’s all very unpredictable, as shown in the Additional Award I gave you above. All in all though, not to bad for a first attempt. Get into a little more detail next time and you’ll see better XP and more Lore.