The Chained Watcher

Backstory: Privacy (pt2)

~~~

It's been a couple of days now, and he's starting to build up a pile of random magic items.

He's managed to discover that quantity does in fact matter, when he managed to make both a bottomless tankard filled with middling quality alcohol and a tankard with a simple self-repairing ability. Both tankards were previously identical, but the bottomless one was imbued with a frankly obscene quantity of magic, and the self-repairing one was only given a little.

A pitcher given the same treatment as the bottomless tankard now functions as an endlessly refilling supply of pure water, and since this might actually have a use, he decides to leave it in the kitchen area of the retreat.

Leaving his experiment room, he makes his way to the kitchen and chooses a spot to put the pitcher. He'd not left his room while experimenting, so he was pleased to see that the mortal had kept things clean while he was busy. He was aware that he had a... tendency to get a little distracted when experimenting, and sometimes he lost track of time.

Making his way back to his room, which he'll probably be spending more time in than is strictly necessary, he noticed the mortal approaching him with no small amount of hesitation. To do so must be a matter of some import, so he waited for the mortal to arrive.

Once again, it bowed deeply before speaking softly. "O' honorable one, this one has noticed that the honorable one does not seem interested in the old experiments left behind. This one wishes to know if it would be acceptable for the old experiments to be taught how to maintain the grounds alongside this one."

Considering the size of the area covered by the retreat, that was not an unreasonable request to make. He spoke, letting a sense of casual dismissal cling to the words.

"That would be acceptable. They are not to break anything."

"Of course, o' honorable one."

The mortal then backed away, still bowing, until it was around the corner. Then it dashed off, presumably to go speak with the experiments.

That was actually pretty convenient, now that he thinks about it. He'd not really known what to do with the experiments left behind by the previous Watcher, so having the mortal manage them was no loss to him.

After snagging a couple random items left over from the previous owner, he returned to experimenting in his room.

~~~

With much experimentation, he'd come up with several factors he knew influenced the result when imbuing items.

First, you have the emotions of the imbuer. A calm mind produces the most stable results, but positive emotions tend to give more useful outcomes with less chance of negative drawbacks. Things like annoyance and anger often create something like the broom, though none of them show quite as much vehement dislike for his face as it does.

Second, you have the intent of the imbuer. While trying to get something specific is difficult at best, the process of imbuing reacts very favorably to strong yet vague intent. He cannot get a gauntlet that summons a flaming arrow, but he can indeed get a gauntlet that summons flames. If he wants a weapon to do more damage, he doesn't tell the imbuement how to do that. Instead, he lets it decide for itself what methods to use, and just provides it with the magic it needs to do that.

The most consistently correct formula he's found for this is 'If action, then effect, with goal of blank'. Like with a flaming sword. If swung, release fire, with the goal of immolating the enemy.

Third, you have the quantity of magic imbued. More magic makes for more and/or stronger effects, as he found out with the tankards. He still wasn't sure what was up with that one rock, but surely its abilities will become clear with time, right?