#FreeCast

[danco110]

Once upon a time there lived a massive forest giant in the kingdom of Garenbrig. Wherever he walked, plant growth sprouted in his footsteps, quickly growing into full forests as soon as he moved on.

The smallfolk largely resented the giant for this. When he walked in open pastures and planted trees there, farmers would poke his ankles with pitchforks, angry that he had ruined their fields. When he struggled to fit inside walled cities, knights on horseback charged and attacked him with lances for destroying their roads. Becoming angry and bitter over time, he took to defending himself, often aggressively. Now he stomped on approaching smallfolk without hearing so much as a word from them.

Then one day, he spied a human princess trailing behind him. The human was surrounded by the trees and did not even notice the giant until she stood in his shadow. When the titan lifted his foot to attack, she cried out for him to stop. Briefly moved by her tone - panicked, not aggressive - he stomped down beside her instead. But he still spoke in an angry growl:

“I cannot stop my magic; trees sprout wherever I go. But you still order me to move!���

The princess’s eyes grew wide in confusion and concern. “I have not come to make a decree. I have come to enjoy the woodland. And you say you made this? Thank you, then! It is beautiful country, here.”

“You are welcome. You are the first to have no quarrel with me. It is a welcome change of pace.”

“The first!” exclaimed the princess. “We must change that, then. When I return to the castle, I shall proclaim that you are welcome with us anytime!”

“Even if my trees destroy your roads and fields?”

“We can use the trees for lumber, while also clearing the roads. As for the fields…” The princess tapped her chin. “Can you control what kind of trees you grow? Fruit trees, perhaps?”

“I have never tried. But for you, I will.”

“Then you may be able to help!”

At length, the giant smiled. “I think I would like that.”

[TECHnically, if you somehow freecasted Beanstalk Giant while you had two or fewer lands, it could block Beloved Princess. But, yeah, she’s pretty much just unblockable here!]

[jones-friend]

I think everyone should try building these commanders once (electronic, not in paper)

When I built each of these I learned a whole lot about deckbuilding and piloting these decks. I have notes below the cut, just in case you want to go into this unspoiled. I also would love if you do try building these show me the link!

Rashmi 1.0 is about understanding mana curve and cheating mana value for gains. You need a balanced curve with some scry and topdeck tech to keep freecasting the top card of your library. Cards like Elder Deep Fiend with high mana values you discount to UU while having flash are huge.

I have played aristocrat strategies before. None of them operate like Athreos. The pay 3 life or I get it back trigger makes your creature selection matter, because if you sacrifice a 6 mana sun titan for someone else to let it go to hand you now need 6 free mana to recast which is hard to come by. If built wrong you end up bouncing expensive creatures instead of sending them to the gy for easy reanimation.

I recommend a lot of low to the ground etb’s that are in the 2 drop range, 3 mana maximum, who give value after cast and etb not on death. Cards that exile from hand are clutch ways of keeping power out of the game until you can drill life totals. Then play smart with Ath triggers to deal bolt damage or recur creatures as you need them.

The Jori En Two-Step. You can argue better commanders exist from Thunder Junction but being 3 mana is hugely important for the strat. Ideally you are casting 2 spells on each player turn, letting turns go around as you cast smaller cantrips for value. Jori En flies under the radar with more pressing threats netting you tons of cards per game.

OTJ commander has some new tricks but I would look into mana efficient control spells like Memory Lapse, Izzet Charm, and Stifle. You don’t need to 100% solve the problem, a Suspend on an attacking creature will take them out of the game for exactly as long as you need. Play fast and smart and needle strats to keep them at bay as your cast triggers become overwhelming.

Kathril is a precon I fell in love with in 2020 and despite not getting new additions very often at all its still a fun as heck deck! The key is to mill some while building a boardstate, drop your commander, then swing with kitted up creatures. Bonus points if you don’t go voltron.

When I built Kathril I had to establish some rules to make it work:

Creatures must have two keywords minimum. If they don’t there needs to be a very good reason to include them (like Odric 2.0)

Creatures I intend to swing with need minimum power 3+. A doublestrike 2/2 or 1/1 isnt pressing enough of a threat

Creatures should have a mana value smaller than Kathril. Some adds like Carnage Tyrant are too juicy not to, but if your whole curve is above Kathril you’re in for a slow game.

There must be a good distribution of keywords. Flying and trample are easy to come by, dig deeper for good reach and menace options.

Early game, mana efficient mill sets up the gy for Kathril to exploit. Be sure to run some mill. Carrion Grub makes for an amazing early game play, it mills, will have decent P/T, and curves into Kathril.

[blackjackkent]

Further conversation with Yannis leads to another lead that I don't think I had Hector follow up on - Brilgor himself is buried in the temple's cemetary, which means Rakha can flex her fancy Speak With Dead powers some more.

(Headcanonically I decided a while back that she learned this spell not from the Necromancy of Thay - the in-game mechanical reason she ahs it - but from watching He Who Was do it in the shadowlands, and she's still thoroughly fascinated by its power and the way it works within the Weave.)

Time for some clerically-approved graverobbing! \o/

Interestingly, the doppelganger who was impersonating Dribbles appears to have been tossed into an open grave back here as well:

A few other fun notes on the gravestones:

This is sweet and heartbreaking.

We love a good subtle and normalized non-binary reference. :)

OK, where tf is our boy Brilgor.

Lies and slander! Let's dig him up.

There is no dignity left in Faerun.

Speak with Dead requires a long rest before Rakha can use it again. I'm annoyed because I thought we were about to get my first payoff for Rakha letting worms make Swiss cheese out of her brain, but apparently Freecast doesn't apply to once-per-long-rest cooldowns.

Sadge. So off we go to camp, leaving Brilgor lying out with his tail in the air overnight.

(And, during this long rest, the whole camp gets jump-scared by a fifteen-foot-tall Vlaakith hologram, AND Karlach's engine starts chugging, AND the Emperor makes a guest appearance in Rakha's nightly blood visions. It's a pretty hectic night. But all of that gets its own posts. XD )

Returning the next morning, rested and ready, we find that someone charitably turned Brilgor over onto his back for ease of access:

Fire up the ectoplasm eyes:

"Who killed you?"

"Dwarf... red clothes... stranger..."

"Are you Brilgor?"

"Yes."

"Did you kill Father Lorgan?"

"Never... He was... kinder than most..."

"Then who killed Lorgan?"

"Same... as killed... me..."

"Where did you die?"

"Tunnels... beneath temple... hidden from sight..."

Well, that doesn't really clarify anything, but at least all the corpses are corroborating each other.

[fallcloaked]

𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 // What is your muses daily routine? If they don't have one, what do they usually do in a day? Does it change?

So this is very dependent on the world he's currently in, but we can go specifically with the general actions he takes each day regardless of the world he's in.

So Sid's day is normally, or hopefully spread into 4 portions. 4 cycles of 3 hours awake 3 hours asleep. During each cycle he'll check the area, his arcana cards, his artefacts to make sure each are in place and none have been stolen or swapped. Next would be to check on the insignia and the freecast he put up to charge it to make sure it is charging properly and to check when it will be done. the next 2 and 1/2 hours are generally spent exploring the area for food, new magic to study or practicing. This cycle is done each 4 cycles.

When he's in worlds with friends he's not normally trying to escape as fast as possible so he's a lot more lax on things. But the checking to make sure nothing has been lost/taken/replaced, and the practicing his magic are something he never stops doing.

[rontra]

I have a question about CTDE zatanna's backstory. How do you interpret the medulla jewel? I mean both the impact it has on her story and powers. Also does the hidden city play a big role or not really?

zatanna nation alive and well in my inbox today... welcome... and you're activating my CTDE Ramble Mode 😭 here we go again (puts in a readmore) but thank you for asking!

god the fucking medulla jewel. i mean the thing is.

i MEAN. the THING is.

even DC didn't really seem to know how to interpret that thing. it's shown up like twice or whatever Back In The Day and it was all quite vague and then they stopped talking about it forever. so it never really crossed my mind as something i should factor in to be honest 😭 but now that it's been brought up i'm considering if it might be useful in some way...

well, CTDE Zee's power level has always been primarily a result of her immense experience (never ask a magician her age), which is plenty sufficient for my general purposes. her long training, lived experience, and intricate know-how are the main vehicle, wrapped around an engine of her raw magical power. taking the medulla jewel as a type of magical power source (as presented), it might serve as a means to support the immense pool of resources at her disposal...

primarily i would hate for it to be the Sole Culprit behind her strength since there are Other Reasons she's like this (lol) but i think it could definitely be a Factor (and help explain the truly Zany stunts Arc 3 demands of her, which are so immense they almost kill her lmao)

...i suppose there's a few ways to conceptualize it for my purposes without sundering the 'verse like for example

the jewel is an "innate source of magic" that actively supplies her with a constant flow of power

the jewel is a "battery" that passively stores excess power to be used whenever needed

the jewel is a "philosopher's stone" that transmutes base magic into effective spells directly, circumventing traditional casting methods/costs (essentially, casting for free)

the jewel is a "lens" that focuses magic and gives spells a buff to concentrated power, like a magnifying glass under the sun

something else or a combination

for my purposes and the role she plays in the AU, a combination of #2 and #3 feels more compelling to me than something like #1. Since the CTDE is running "magic always has a cost" rules, a big thing about zee's bad vibe is her non-committal relationship with actually paying—if the medulla jewel provides an innate "bank" of some magical resource, which she can choose to "trade" with the universe in order to immediately cast For Free, that suits her type just fine. her coin on a string for the vending machine of magic, if you will

but it should have a theoretical limit, so making it a "battery pool" that runs low Eventually and needs to recharge (by skimming magic off the world around her) is OK. how to manage her bank of resources—whether to do regular safe invocation or cosmic trickery or just cast from her cheater freebie pool—should be (at least in theory) a choice she makes when bending the universe around her

(her level is so immense that in like 99% of cases she could just freecast without thinking about it) (but the 1% of spells that she needs to Actually Think About is what we're concerned with preserving, so that's still okay)

if she has that funny thing built-in, she probably spent a lot of her training time refining and practicing how to use it and how magic interacts with it. which means she would probably have to Know About All Of That beforehand. which brings us back to the Hidden City Sindella Lore huh.

well when it comes to her parents and stuff, CTDE Zee does play the same general tune--so it's possible some variation of Sindella's Fun Battery Pack plot did happen. this part of the CTDE backstory i havent really delved into bc it hasn't been relevant/important to the main plot of the AU but honestly.... maybe it would be fun to tinker with those components and assemble something

if a variant version of that did happen and sindella was being used to power the hidden city's hidden city-ing, zee would know enough to refine her own Working Relationship with the Magic Brainstone. but also i did Simply Assume and mark sindella as "dead" in my chart earlier, so it probably didn't end much better for herBHJDJMKS

ahhh... we hardly knew ye...

if a version of that stuff happened its probably backstory/not SUPER foreground to her present-time CTDE storyline . since she has some other major shit going on nowadays . but it mightve still been a pretty important part of the backstory...hmm....

it might even prove useful for me down the road, in plotting some of the foggy areas, maybe? i could probably use a hidden city or two, they're convenient to have aroundHDHJBFD

(imagining fondly) the peak Evil Motherhood Theme moment of the CTDE will be when zee takes everyone back to the hidden city and is like Yeah so they sucked my mom DRY here and NOT in a good way. she Died! & theyre all like "ohhh. this is why youre like this"

haha no idk..hm... it's compelling. i'll have to think of a way to use it. if nothing else youve given me something to think about.... in my zee cave...

[cee-grice]

it is once again blorbo thursday and now I have a bunch more new blorbos so we're gonna talk about them >:))

Some relevant info:

All the following characters are gonna be essentially Quil's co-workers. They're all part of the same project team which the A plot is about

They've (mostly) all been handpicked by Mistress Silvoir (the Academy's current Headmistress) for being outstanding in their respective field

The Cielle Academy has two major study programmes: magic and medicine

The Research Team (part 1)

Celeste Ekelie

the project's resident pathologist!! she's not a mage herself and is instead a graduate of the Academy's medical course

practically the only non-mage on the team lmao

probably the most Normal™ out of everyone, but that's not saying much, I'll be honest

very sweet and conflict-avoidant, will try to cool things down (but Will stay out of it if the conflict's between higher ranking people than her lol she's sensitive ok :()

a bit of a people pleaser tbh.... also kinda neurotic lol aee

LOVES to gossip and sometimes forgets that maybe she shouldn't around some people uhhh

very passionate about what she does and will talk your ear off if you let her :))

she and Quil may have the most well-adjusted relationship out of everyone LOL

also may or may not have a crush on another member of the team....

36ish, short, has glasses, dark-haired, pretty disheveled because she just. doesn't notice lol, pretty much always has her doctor's coat on, trans gal

quote:

“But they are a bit frightening,” she said, dropping her voice conspiratorially. “Especially Mistress Aukateshka. Oh, the way she can just look at you… Ah, but I shouldn't gossip!” she all but squeaked, her voice once more taking on a nervous tone. “They're all very capable professionals. Yes, very respectable.”

Akhel Yachek

a transfer student from an isolated northern country, currently in his third year

Mistress Silvoir's new mentee ✨✨✨ (Quil's replacement question mark ?..)

MAJOR imposter syndrome vibes lmao, he's been put on this project by the Headmistress as part of his specialized curriculum but he's just a student...and all these people are PROFESSIONALS....yeah idk how he's managing it

an aspiring conjuration mage!! (which is basically portal magic)

is actually very intelligent but is scared to say anything because what if he's wrong and everyone will think he's stupid and then he'll get kicked out and

a walking anxiety disorder basically

is intimidated by everyone and everything

both reveres and is frightened by Mistress Silvoir, qualities that Quil absolutely does not possess, so their convos get a little. interesting

19, tall boy, long, near-white blond hair, perpetually pale, wears mostly Academy-issues clothing, so baby blue robes

quote:

“I'm sure you would, but seriously, don't hesitate to put Akhel to work,” Celeste said, flashing him a grin. “He's like our… communal… personal… assistant. Headmistress's orders. I make use of him the most, though, because the others scare him.” “They do not,” he hissed in protest, and immediately flushed in embarrassment. He mumbled something under his breath, glancing away with a wince.

Avriele Kaelion

an abjuration mage that has a scientific specialization in freecasting (the ability to use magia intuitively without a magia conduit; unique to specific venemagiks)

a venemagik herself 👀 and a bit more on the eerie side appearance-wise...maybe a bit personality-wise, too...

extremely blunt. will not sugarcoat her words. she just says how it is and you can't really be mad even

absolutely unreadable tone. good luck figuring out if she's complimenting or criticizing you

is the most cynical about this whole project and its success. thinks they're trying to play with something they don't and can't understand. still does her job, though

is impossible to intimidate. you'll probably get intimidated yourself if you try

a master at catching you off-guard and making you say what you didn't want to. yeah she knows what she's doing

Quil is both on edge around her and can't seem to stay away, she's just Such an interesting conversationalist to him

43ish, very sharp and bone-y stature (you see bones where you probably shouldn't), jet-black hair cut to her chin, paper-white skin, entirely black eyes and lips, likes to wear pastel colors, though

quote:

“The Headmistress has spoken,” Mistress Kaelion cut him off, her voice fit for a music box with how soft and melodic it was. The marbles between her long fingers started to clink again. “The only appropriate response you may have is amen.”

taglist (lmk if you wanna be +/-): @writerfae, @tate-lin, @iriswords, @sternenmeerkind, @thecrookedwriterspath, @pure-solomon, @moonshinemagpie, @arowanaprincess, @scribe-of-stories, @thesorcerersapprentice, @stuffaboutwriting, @doriians, @sam-glade

[trinitydigest]

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[danco110]

The Eternal’s hands glowed an ethereal blue, in stark contrast to the flames swirling around it. The light intensified, fully engulfing the human survivor it had been fighting.

“Please-” was all the woman managed to mutter before the light dissolved her body. The last thing she heard was the undead jackal’s jaw rattling.

Her senses stopped altogether…and returned an instant later, as she suddenly found herself falling through open air. Thankfully the distance was small, and she survived the landing. She was surprised and rattled, but none the worse for wear.

But then there came the rattling from before. Behind her, and behind the nearby wall of debris, she heard the Eternal who had sent her this apparently short distance. She searched around for a weapon but could find none before the zombie loomed into view.

It turned immediately to stare at her, but did not attack. Instead it gestured for her to stay put, as the sound of more Eternals clattered behind it. She took the cue, making herself as small as possible and clamping a hand over her mouth, just before the other undead sprinted past. The jackal mimicked following the group but quickly stopped once it fell behind, then returned to the survivor’s side.

“Th…thank you…”

The Eternal nodded.

Just then, the sound of fighting broke out, in the direction of the other undead. Both the Eternal and survivor tensed as the clamor died down.

“I’ll…hide again-”

“Any friendlies over here?”

In a surprising twist, the Eternal startled at the call. The human quickly shoved it behind a fallen pillar, narrowly hiding it from the survivors stepping into view, weapons raised.

“Over here!” called the living warriors. “We’re getting out of here!”

“What, into the desert?”

The lone survivor rose and took a step forward. She had to stop herself from looking in the Eternal’s direction. In her peripheral she could see it nodding to her.

“All…all right. Let’s go.” The survivor nodded and fell in line, leaving behind her mysterious savior.

[Scene: someone swings with Wildfire Eternal and gets the freecast, but by this time in the game, all they have is an Unsummon. Hey, it’s still a 1-drop for free, right?]

[thealphareporter]

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[fallcloaked]

@adeptvsastartes

There were very few times in Sidereal's life that he was captured that it actually stuck. This time however the world he'd ended up in was.... a bit further along the technological and in some ways magical ladder. Which meant that they were ready for teleporting... and fireballs... and healing... and every other trick sid sent out. And while he managed to get a good fifteen of the little guys down, the giant guy in armour had been much harder. His normal arcana barely scratched them, and while in a way of attrition he was pretty sure he could win, that only mattered when dealing with one of them at once. There had been four. And while Didn't go down without a fight, he did go down. His only spiteful enjoyment that he gave them a new fear of Chaos Arcana.

Which is why he now sat in a cell. They'd taken his cloak and cards and artefacts, talking about study or destruction. A vicious spiteful part of him couldn't wait to see how they'd react when they tried to destroy one of those things and ended up with a city sized hole in their ship. Another part realized he might actually not be making it out of this. While the first part got him through the few interrogations they'd tried, the second took over the second they locked him back in the cell, staring out into the world with faded blue eyes wondering if he'd ever see his friends again.

The cell was interesting to look at at least. Gothic in style, but technological in form. The cuffs they had him hanging from were glowing with something, he wasn't sure what, but the device outside the cell had the same glow and they made his eyes burn. They were meant to stave off... something. Maybe their form of magic he wasn't sure. All he knew was that trying to freecast had been painfully slow. He was pretty sure given a few days he might be able to get the cuffs off and get moving. But he didn't like his chances of being a person in a few days.

[conversationpoint]

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[hopetribune]

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