Casting Rods
At least something good came from these... Fishcasters. While it is doubtless useful if I would like to fish, a Casting Rod will serve me as well as any Staff when swung gently.
Items
I devote this section to the magical and mysterious items I might encounter in my studies.
Focus Bobbers
A truly remarkable invention for such a trite sport. A Focus Bobber not only extends my ambit by about an arms length from its origin, it also casts any stored hex within once I pull on it with enough force. This added range does not come for free however, as casting via the Focus Bobber costs Amethyst Dust equal to the square of the length of the vector from myself to the bobber.
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Amethyst Focus Bobber
A construction similar to the Focus. Much like a focus, it can be written to when in my hand, or when on the ground, as well as when it has been cast by a rod.
Fishy Business
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item.tide.angling_table
Some useful recipes to be certain, should I ever come across a fool foolish enough to part with these without knowing their true value as sources of Media. If I wish to fish I will need an Angling Table to better accessorize my rod.
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Amethyst Shard
4
Charged Amethyst
These Crystal Shrimp do look quite delicious... Especially when they're grouped together...
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Crystal Shrimp Fried Rice
Fried to perfection, tender and crispy when eaten fresh.
This meal provides some clarity for a duration after consumption and is supposedly popular among merchants and fishers with enough wealth.
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Charged Amethyst
This imposing Crystalline Carp looks like it could channel media without any effort at all, if it had the brains to do so.
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Hookless Fishing Hook
These small things seem to have some almost negligible but noticeable effect on less intelligent life. While hardly useful in my research, the sound the line makes is pleasant on the ears. If only the bait were so kind on the nose...
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Odious Bait
Loud Fishing Line
Media-infused Paraphernalia
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Clingy Fishing Hook
Recommended by a passing fisher I reluctantly exchanged a few short words with, these oddities would surely come in handy. Should I wish to subject myself to the smell of raw fish on a cold, stony shore.
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Benign Bait
16
Tacklebox Chair
Fisher's Recommendation
The Great Work
I have seen... so much. I have... experienced... annihilation and deconstruction and reconstruction. I have seen the atoms of the world screaming as they were inverted and subverted and demoted to energy. I have seen I have seen I have s
Fanciful Fishing
Ha! That even that fisher should have gone to such lengths -- just in order to fish without pause... I shudder to imagine what over a week of non-stop fishing would do to my psyche. As different as this Casting Rod may look, it offers me no additional benefits in my work aside from its durability, should I wish to cast using a Focus Bobber.
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Budding Amethyst
10
2
For a brief few moments when under heightened stress and with their minds slipping, certain traders reach a state of mind ripe for plucking. In those instants, if I were to flay their mind, even an inexperienced wanderer would suffice for my work. For this to work, the subject must be fully submerged in the void. I may use a Focus Bobber to extend my ambit into the void.
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Annihilation
Whatever it is that came to inhabit these things, it has warped the body into something else in the process. In any case, with the sounds and writhing they do, I should consider it a good deed to set them free with a bolt of lightning. In the process, I may find an Allay suitable for my work.
Fishcasting
Further, some texts vaguely related to some sort of figure in the "Fishcasting" society have surfaced... Literally.
Break this bottle
'I am writing this to whomever it may concern.
I will not be returning from sea.
I like it out here.'
'If you're fishing around on the ocean, you'll come across bottles I've tossed with junk I wanted to get rid. Some of it I just wanted to get off my mind.
Break them if you're interested in finding out what's inside.
Have fun cleaning the ocean up.'
Newsletter #1
Newsletter
Day-three-way tie, usual champion still first
Opinions, Discussion 1.
Stay classy champ.
One person knocking three people out of the top six spots. Cheating by exploiting loopholes as usual.
Imagine thinking its the same person just because they are wearing the same robes.
It’s probably one fishcaste's meme doing it though, judging by the robes being worn all being the same one.Next year is going to be my year, just watch.
Opinions, Discussion 2.And that right there is why I while heartedly believe that the tournaments top three are either hexcasting, or rod sharing. Babs had a full three hundred point lead over second place in two days, and then the current second and third come out of nowhere to have over six hundred points each as well, matching Babs' score. Even my acquaintance who is spending between nine and twelve hours each day in there, fishing for nothing but crystalline carp, isn't anywhere near those points
If you've taken part in any other tournaments with similar rankings you'd know that twelve hours is not nearly enough for a top rank.
Yeah for stuff like this you pretty much have to out-no life the no-lifers. Or have a group that you share a rod with.
Babs is a known and notorious griefer, i wouldn’t put hexcasting past them.
Regardless of what they're doing to get all their points, if someone appears on the leader boards out of nowhere it's because they didn't turn in the things they gathered until that day. Sounds to me like your friend isn't fishing optimally enough.
Opinions, Discussion 2. cont.
Six hundred ninety is nowhere even near the all-time top score, stop having such a kneejerk reaction. Most top fishers are pulling one hundred to two hundred a day. Take a look at the leaderboards.
This fisher was at nine hundred points that year, same time in the tournament. These are not terribly high scores for a good fisher.
Is the champion hexcasting? I dont know, I dont care. But as another high-scorer I'm really sick of being accused of hexcasting when there are other people with much higher scores. Most of us ultra high-scorers are spending fifteen to twenty one hours a day in .
certainly are pulling monstrous numbers.I know people who are aiming to reach one thousand points just to say they did it.I hope The School looks at the people who are way above others. The disparity is too much to ignore.Most people aren't giving a , there are only a handful of people seriously competing for a given tool. Think back to the great potato farming war if you need an example, which was essentially just between two people.
Opinions, Discussion 2.1.
I know the fishers, they've been spending every waking minute in the and worked out optimal fishing methods for this year's contest on day one. They did the same stuff with the contest, , etc. They grind themselves to the brink of exhaustion nonstop until it's done.Just because you know the fishers doesn't mean you know whether they are hexcasting or not. Do you expect people to tell you "yeah I'm hexcasting in "?
Well they've shared their fishing method with me, and I've put it to good effect and I would have similar results if I put in nine plus hours a day fishing myself instead of three. Not to mention that "hexcasting" can't magically change your luck on reels.what hexcasting or rod sharing can do, however, is allow you to essentially have a twenty-four hour uptime on fishing, not accounting for meal times, travel, and fish sensing something amiss. I know that those top three scores can be one hundred percent legit, especially since were at the halfway point in the ranking period, but for people like my buddy, and others in my fishcaste, and even myself to drop more time than we spend at work just fishing, and still not come close to that? Seems more than a little fishy.
Opinions, Discussion 2.1. cont.
If they are fishing nine hours a day since the start, that’s actually kinda low of a score. See scores on
. It’s obvious they didn’t turn in all of their fish as they caught them but all at once for the meme laughs. There’s lots of people farming potatoes too at over six hundred, jumping up three hundred or so points over a day.
six hundred points in one day dude, are you really trying to justify that? Luck doesn't matter when you can do it for an extended time longer than any regular fisher can without repetitiveness breaking them. Either you're willingly defending hexcasters or you're naive and eat what they tell you.It's seven hundred over three days. Which is totally normal pace.If you look at two of them, you can see their point gain in the last twenty four hours, which is indeed nearly seven hundred in one day. That said, as others mentioned they could be hold on to their catches over multiple days, in theory.Yeah, that isn't over one day, that's my point. My point is all fish handed in must be considered to be over the entire duration over the ranking period.
Opinions, Discussion 2.2.Fish may expire, but their point values do not expire. They've been fishing since the start, they just never turned in all the stuff until yesterday to get the triple tie. I have been sitting right next to them as they fished for the last few days chatting with them.I really don’t think people realize the amount people can no life stuff like this especially with a lot of people on holiday right now. Like no-lifing fishing for eighteen hours a day isn’t even unfeasible especially if you’re only doing it for about a week.Seriously. I was on vacation for the competition and the fishcaste I was competing with put in eighteen hour days for a week straight, easily.Don’t get me wrong I don’t think can commit to that a type of play anymore but I’ve seen way more ridiculous things than this from people who took part in the potato war.Oh for sure, there are definitely people who go way more hard in things.
The Ignorance is strong in this one.I've gotta say I agree, "Either you're willingly defending hexcasters or you're naive and eat what they tell you." You're either full of yourself or honestly don't realize that you may just be wrong. I don't know which would be worse.Nah I think most people just don't realize how widespread hexcasting tools are, when even things like can be automated.Hexcasting isn't hard, it's the fact hexcasting for things like competitions is just straight up asking to get banned and I'm sure they will if that is the case. But the fact of the matter. The numbers aren't that ridiculous given the circumstances. I feel like you really just underestimate some of the types of people who compete in sports like this.Would you like them to give you a copy of their True Name themselves so you can spy on them fishing all day, for your approval? I don't know why you can't comprehend the possibility that some people competing have nothing else to do, and they don't get bored of fishing for hours on end.
Opinions, Discussion 2.3.I would love to know what their optimal method for catching crystalline carp is. I've probably made ten trips to the lake and only caught one. Only gotten the indicatory bite like four times. Two I lost off the hook and one I dropped on land before it slipped back, and I was left furious.You'll need to be fishing way underground to catch any for this year's competition. I've typically found mine somewhere about half-way to bedrock.
Opinions, Discussion 3.funny as , but still all reasonable scores.I cannot help but respect this. That is diligence.I have Babs right across the cave from me right this moment so this made me chuckle.Make sure champs' doing alright, yeah? I worry for the little twerp.
Newsletter #2
Opinions, Discussion 1.
I finally did it! I beat Babs!Babs didn't take part in this year's competitions.What?
Opinions, Discussion 2.
Thank god that hexcaster didn't cheat this year too. I saw they had embezzled over a billion emeralds from somebody using a hex just a few months ago, terrible person.If you mean the transaction mentioned in last month's newsletter, that article was satire.
Notes #1
Year , Day 1.
I'm going to be entering the competition again this year. It'll start tomorrow. As usual I will be using my trusty wooden fishing rod. The people telling me to upgrade my rod are out of their minds, my rod works perfectly fine. At least only total idiots would accuse somebody without a casting rod of hexcasting.
Year , Day 2.
Year , Day 3.
Year , Day 4.
Year , Day 5.
Year , Day 6.
Year , Day 7.
Year , Day 8.
Year , Day 9.
Year , Day 10.
Year , Day 11.
I neglected to step away from fishing to write in my diary again this year. I won, again. I passed out as soon as I handed in my last batch of fish, raising my final score to well over two thousand points, putting me at number 1 world-wide, again. My friends put in a modest effort, reaching over a thousand points each, getting them a shared sixty-ninth place. I don't think I'll be fishing next year.
I'm going to go for a walk.
Notes #2
Year , Day 90.
I've moved, I no longer have a partner and I've decided to stop standing around while fishing for once. I think I'll pick up sailing. Maybe I'll even get that casting rod people had been nagging me about.
If I'm going to be touching any of that stuff, I may as well do so wasted. I've got enough bottles to last me a lifetime, anyway. I'll just chuck the bottles out along with anything else I want to get rid of when I'm done.
Notes #3
Year , Day 33.
I found a small island and got bored. I'm sitting next to a hole, staring into a dark abyss after a Chasm Eel ate through the bedrock. Maybe I've spent too long fishing alone out at sea.
I'm going to try casting my tackle in and see what happens.
Year , Day 34.
It almost feels as if something is trying to seep into me, warded off by my present enough mind. The other life around here seems unbothered, is it because I'm not as simple or is it because of something else?
Year , Day 38.
One of those wandering bums showed up to pester me again. How they even found me down here is beyond me. Figured I'd show the trader what's what and scare them off for good using my Focus Bobber. For some reason, I lost sight of the trader after reeling in.
Year , Day 39.
The fish I've found here are strange. One of the stranger fish had no fins and no gills. It's making a lot of noise, almost like a ticking clock, but I think I'll keep it as a pet. Doesn't seem to need much maintenance, and I could use the company down here.
Notes #4
Year , Day 102.
I've had enough of spending all my time hiding away from the sun. There aren't any more fish to be caught here. I spent the better part of the last week trying to take apart this look-alike I fished up. It is an unremarkable blob of flesh Cursed to live, intelligent much like an Allay, yet undying.
I've tried nearly everything I could to carefully desynthesize it with no luck. I returned the thing to the void, expecting it to be able to swim there, since that's where I found it. It did not. At least I still have my trusty pet, still alive even after I silenced it using a spell. Should I try evaporating it with a bolt of Media next? No, I must keep it for my big fish collection.
Patterns
A list of all the patterns I've discovered, as well as what they do.
Bobber Patterns
I came across a soggy book in my travels written by a sage fisher who went by the name 'Babs'. While most of the text consists of the ramblings of a sailor, found within the pages were some mundane patterns for fishing. Marine life may not be my focus, but for the sake of my work I must note these down. These would come in handy I ever decide to use a Casting Rod.
Bobbert's Purification (player → entity or null)
Transforms a player on the stack into the bobber attached to their fishing pole (or Null if there isn't one). Costs a negligible amount of media.
Trebbob's Purification (entity → player)
Transforms a bobber on the stack into the player which cast it. Costs about one Amethyst Dust.
Bob's Purification (entity → entity or null)
Transforms an entity on the stack into the bobber it is caught on (or Null if there isn't one). Costs about one Amethyst Shard.
Babs' Purification (entity → entity or null)
Transforms a bobber on the stack into the entity caught on its hook (or Null if there isn't one). Costs a negligible amount of media.
Biting Purification (entity → boolean)
Transforms a bobber on the stack into a boolean which is true if there is an unreeled catch or false otherwise.
Medium Purification (entity → environment)
Transforms a bobber on the stack into the medium it is in, or Null if it is not in one. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Environments
Some aspects of this world are difficult or impossible to discern without Nature's help. Some patterns which aid in classifying parts of the world are detailed in this section.
Biome Purification (vec → biome)
Transforms a vector on the stack into the biome at that position. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Climate Purification (vec → num)
Transforms a vector on the stack into the water climate at that position. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Daytime Reflection (→ num)
Pushes the time of day onto the stack. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Dimension Reflection (→ dimension)
Pushes the dimension of the caster to the stack. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Medium Purification (entity → medium)
Transforms a bobber on the stack into the medium it is in, or Null if it is not in one. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Moon Phase Reflection (→ num)
Pushes the phase of the moon to the stack in radians. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Structure Purification (vec → structure)
Transforms a vector on the stack into a list of structures at that position. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Precipitation Purification (vec → boolean)
Transforms a vector on the stack into true if there is precipitation at that position and false otherwise. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Storm Purification (→ boolean)
Pushes true if it is stormy and false otherwise. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Fish Patterns
Fish. They take many shapes and sizes but some things do not change. They are either moving around, or if they've been caught, they typically remain motionless or stay still in a bucket.
Length Purification (entity → number)
Transforms a fish on the stack into its length as measured by a fisher, or 0 if it was not alive.
In order to determine if a fish can survive in a habitat, I may query Nature. Curiously, Nature won't mind answering even if the entity I provide is just an impression of a fish.
Fishy Minimum Purif. (entity → number | null)
Transforms a fish on the stack into the smallest specimen caught by the caster as a number, or Null if none have been caught. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Fishy Maximum Purif. (entity → number | null)
Transforms a fish on the stack into the largest specimen caught by the caster as a number, or Null if none have been caught. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Biome Fishtillation (entity, biome → boolean | null)
Transforms a fish and a biome on the stack into a boolean if the fish can or can not be found in that biome, or Null if the fish lives in all biomes. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Climate Fishtillation (entity, num → boolean | null)
Transforms a fish and a climate on the stack into a boolean if the fish can or can not be found in that climate, or Null if the fish lives in all climates. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Daytime Fishtillation (entity, num → boolean | null)
Transforms a fish and a time of day on the stack into a boolean if the fish can or can not be found at that time of day, or Null if the fish is found at all times of day. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Elevation Fishtillation (entity, num → boolean | null)
Transforms a fish and an elevation on the stack into a boolean if the fish can or can not be found at that elevation, or Null if the fish is found at all elevations. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Dimension Fishtillation (entity, dimension → boolean | null)
Transforms a fish and a dimension on the stack into a boolean if the fish can or can not be found in that dimension, or Null if the fish is found in all dimensions. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Moon Phase Fishtillation (entity, num → boolean | null)
Transforms a fish and an moon phase in radians on the stack into a boolean if the fish can or can not be found during that phase of the moon, or Null if the fish is found during any moon phase. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Structure Fishtillation (entity, structure → boolean | null)
Transforms a fish and a structure on the stack into a boolean if the fish can or can not be found in that structure, or Null if the fish is found in any or no structure. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Rain Fishtillation (entity, boolean → boolean | null)
Transforms a fish and a boolean on the stack into True if the fish can be found during rain, False if it can be found during clear skies, or Null if the fish is found in any weather. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Storm Fishtillation (entity, boolean → boolean | null)
Transforms a fish and a boolean on the stack into True if the fish can be found during a storm, False if it can be found during clear skies, or Null if the fish is found in any weather. Costs a negligible amount of media.
Spells
Patterns and actions that perform a magical effect on the world.
Bobber Spells
A small collection of spells pertaining to the hook and bobber of the fishing rod itself.
Attach Bobber (bobber, entity →)
Removes two entities from the top of the stack, then attaches the entity on the top of the stack to the bobber first on the stack. Costs about one Amethyst Shard.
Detach Bobber (bobber →)
Removes one entity from the top of the stack. Detaches the bobber from any entity or catch hooked to it. Costs about one Amethyst Shard.
Fish Spells
On the rare occasion that I have come face to face with a finned foe, a simple spell to disable its movements is all I ever needed to deal with the issue.
These spells are useless on most other more advanced beings, but for the simple creatures that fish are, they will suffice.
Fish Motion (entity →)
Removes an entity from the stack and if it was a fish, enlivens it to move once more. Costs about one Amethyst Shard.
Fish Stillness (entity →)
Removes an entity from the stack and if it was a fish, coerces it to remain still. Costs about one Amethyst Shard.
Pith Fish (entity →)
Removes an entity from the stack and if it was a fish, humanely excises whatever life it may have had left. Costs a negligible amount of media.