When he's in a clearly defined location again it's on a carpet in a suburban sort of house. He's in the living room, but he can hear voices in the kitchen around the corner.

Fuck. He tries to Dimdoor back to the mansion, but the spell fizzles as if out of range.

Well. That's bad.

He looks around. It seems to be the house of some very rich person, judging by the carpet, the fact that the walls are colored and the general size of the room he's in.

"È permesso? (May I come in?)"

Well, technically he's already in, but proper form and everything.

...a face pokes out around the corner and yelps and says something in surprise!

He keeps is hands apart and far from his pouch in the universal "I'm not about to cast a spell" gesture (not that he needs the pouch but they probably have no way of telling him apart from a wizard).

That wasn't a language he recognized. The Mists must have brought him quite far.

"Do you speak Mordentish? Darkonese? 𝕯𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖈?"

The face says something! It's not in any of those.

He makes a gesture, stretching out his hand and miming touching: "May I cast Share Language on you?"

These people are rich, they're probably familiar with the spell name - it's standardized even across the Mists for this exact reason.

From the look of blank incomprehension, this guy might not be that rich, or that well-informed, or that within the Mists service area.

Another guy steps into view of the empty doorway between dining nook and living room. He says something quizzical.

So, on the one hand it's incredibly rude to cast a spell on someone who doesn't explicitly accept it.

On the other hand, Share Language is harmless and will make everything else that much easier.

On the mage hand, he has no clue where he is, and he has never seen their style of clothing and in general he feels quite lost.

Well, there is a thing he can do to get more information without needing to touch them. Hopeful they don't get startled, but they're most definitely not mages, and they're not armed, so it's probably fine.

Detect magic. Is there anything magical in the room? He'll look at... that huge black rectangle of vaguely reflective glass first.

There is no magic here, including in particular the big black rectangle.

Well, in that case.

He casts Share Language and then slowly walks towards... the first one who appeared, making it clear that he's going to touch him with a finger if they're not stopping him.

That one looks anxiously toward the other one for direction, but the other one doesn't know what's going on either!

Then he will get poked. As soon as the spell lands Reed takes a couple steps back and bows slightly.

"I am de Book, Reed de Book. I am incredibly sorry to have intruded into your home. I did not intend to, I was carried here by the Mists and well, we all know how they are."

"No we don't?" says This One incredulously.

No magic items, didn't recognize Share Language, weird clothes, not familiar with how the Mists work... where is he?

"I regret assuming more shared knowledge than we do have. May I know... where are we at the moment?"

"...you're in our house!" And then he breaks off from attending to Reed to answer a question from the other one in his own language.

"And I'm sorry for that. Would it help if we had this conversation outside instead?"

"How did you even get in here? We have an alarm system!"

"I was talking a walk to calm my mind when I inadvertently stepped into the Mists. When I got out of them, I found myself into your house. So I didn't technically get in here, which is why I suspect your Alarm didn't trigger."

"I don't know what the Mists are!"

"They are a mostly-impassable layer of fog around countries. If you step into them there is a good chance you'll wander aimlessly until you find yourself miles away. Occasionally, you'll find yourself on the other side of it, in the next country over. And sometimes... they'll just take you Somewhere Else. Someone speculates they have a mind of their own, but it's hard to learn much, especially when people who try investigate them tend to disappear for the obvious reason."

"That isn't a thing!!"

Slow blink.

"You seem to be distressed. Can I do something to make the conversation better for you? Would you rather not have it at all? I have some* more casts of Share Language - the spell I tagged you with that allows you to speak my language - and I could have this conversation with your associate if you'd prefer that."

* technically another 30ish but only if he did nothing else with his magic for the day.

"Brian is not excited about you having teleported into our house either! And - how can it have been an accident if you can also cast spells on purpose -"

"Well, I am sorcerer, but... I got distracted, and got transported here against my will. Would you like me to just... leave?

"What's a -"

There is a ringing noise from Jackson's pocket.

"Uh. Do you mind if I take this."

"I'm already imposing too much, I obviously don't mind."

Detect Magic on the source of the sound?

Not magic!

He pulls a rectangle - like a smaller version of the one Reed was looking at - from his pocket, and it lights up, and he pokes it and holds it to his ear and has a conversation in the local language.

Not-Brian is clearly having a conversation with the rectangle he grabbed from his pocket, it's probably some kind of intelligent object? But the light was not magical, so... some kind of bioluminescence maybe?

Let's hope the object is smarter than Not-Brian, he seemed a bit slow on the uptake.

"Uh, my old classmate wants me to take a picture of you for her?"

"I'm not familiar with what that entails but if it's not harmful you can go ahead, I always love trying new things!"

"...it's not gonna hurt you." He holds up the rectangle. It flashes a bit of light at Reed.

"Yupp, didn't hurt a bit. Which reminds me: I have some quirky healing and haven't used it yet today, so if you need any I would love to make your day a little better. It also covers exhaustion, blindness, deafness and diseases."

"We're... fine..." says Jackson dubiously, poking his phone. "Okay, uh, she's gonna talk to you in a moment."

"Lovely, looking forward to it!" it's kinda weird that not-Brian had an intelligent object as classmate and is now carrying it her in his pocket, but the world is vast and there's always more to experience.

Object goes back in pocket, actually.

[Hi, mysterious guy.]

[Hello, voice in my head which I'm definitely not hallucinating.]

He didn't even feel the Telepathic Bond take, which means that the caster probably overclasses him by circles. No use in worrying about a possible fight you have no chance of winning anyway.

[I could also commandeer Jackson's phone for a voice call, if that's a concern you have, but then I'd have to make him translate and my telepathy doesn't require it.]

[Well, built in translation sounds convenient. Also I have no clue what a phone or a voice call are, so telepathy seems like a good choice.]

[Jackson would have used his phone to take the picture of you, so that I could target the telepathy; they can also do other things than that, like transmit voices.]

[I'm confused. The object he used to do that] who is not his ex-classmate, apparently [is not magic, so how does it transmit voices?]

[...I'm not sure what kind of explanation you're imagining there might be or if you are explicitly considering the possibility that it would be a time-consuming one.]

[Explanation is not time sensitive. Not bothering your ex-classmate kinda is, he and his associate Brian seemed pretty bothered by my presence. I could just Dimdoor out of the window, but I don't want to spook them further.]

[I'm talking to Jackson too. They were pretty concerned about the possibility that you were a hostile intruder but they are not unwilling to help you out if you are a magical accident.]

[I mean, I guess the Mists do count as magic? It was definitely an accident, for sure,  I don't usually enter people's houses without permission. Well, there was that one time but it was for a good cause, he had been murdered and we didn't want the assassin to notice he got better.]

[...I guess that sounds like it might be a good reason. I don't know what the Mists are.]

Ok, this is now outright bizarre. A mage not knowing about the Mists is... how?

[They look like fog, and if you wander into them you can find yourself elsewhere. Usually just a couple miles off, occasionally the next country over, and apparently sometimes you just end up in someone's house.]

[I didn't notice you creating the Telepathic Bond, and you said you used a picture of me to target it? You must be quite powerful, I'd love to learn more] about you [from you.]

[The Mists are not a phenomenon known to this planet. It is very cool that you have your own magic but ours is not particularly teachable.]

[This... planet? I was in Souragne before being transported here, and my party and I are originally from Richemulot, do you know where either is in relation to where I am now?]

[Oh, you don't have wizards? That seems such a pity! Don't get me wrong, being a sorcerer is the best, and our cleric is alright, but after years of traveling together I think I understand how the flexibility our wizard has is valuable, he got us out of pretty sticky situations.]

[Don't tell him I said that though. I have a reputation to keep.]

[Do you not know what a planet is, or are you merely surprised to discover that you're on a new one? What we've got here is mages and psions.]

[I... don't know what a planet is, no. Psions... I had heard stories, never met one. What kind of mages do you have? You said your magic can't be taught, so not wizards, I'm guessing sorcerers and clerics?]

[You are reading too much into your preconceptions about what kinds of magic exists. We have exactly two kinds of magic. All psions can learn the same set of possible powers, and all mages can learn the same set of possible powers; there are kinds to the extent there are specialists. Which is a considerable extent - Jackson is also a psion, he just picked up completely different powers from me.]

[Uh. I am a sorcerer. I means that I don't get magic by learning but by] being awesome [being born with it. It usually runs in bloodlines. I don't get to pick which spells I have access to, but in exchange I get more tactical flexibility and some unique powers. Mine seem to be centered about fire but I also get some quite varied healing - diseases, blindness and deafness included.]

[Neat! The language thing you did would for us be a psion sort of thing but healing and fire are both mage things. Mages affect physical things and psions interact with nonphysical things - information, illusion, intellect.]

[Those have completely different distinctions from the ones I'm used to! In general our clerics are very good at healing, good at support magic and not particularly strong at damaging foes, whereas arcane casters - I am one - are pretty good at elemental energy but usually don't have any healing - mine is an exception, and a limited one at that.]

[I'm very good with fire though. I can survive taking a particularly strong fireball to the face. Or a couple average ones.]

[Well, I have little idea what the average strength fireball might be on whatever nonplanet you come from. A planet is a ball of rock thousands of miles across, the surface of which is the land and ocean on which most business is conducted, and planets form under a paradigm according to which any sufficiently large item pulls things toward itself in the manner you appear to expect by way of knowing how to stand up and so on, such that the air and so on all stay nearby.]

[If it's a ball, which direction would be down? I guess towards the center would work but then gravity's direction would be different depending on where you are. Weeeeeird.]

[What makes someone a psion or a mage?] 

[The direction of gravity does not observably to people change with any normal transit method or a well-designed teleport because the sphere is very, very big. Psions and mages activate by what appears to be complete random chance on the lunar eclipse closest to our twelfth birthdays.]

[I see.] He's feeling uncomfortable staying in a place where he's not invited. [So it can't be taught, and it doesn't] Dimdoor [seem to come with the blood?] He's just outside the window. He looks inside and waves at Jackson and Brian.

[Right.]

Jackson jumps in startlement and clings to Brian's shirt!

[No clerics either? Actually, what's your religious situation? Which gods do you worship?]

[That question is complicated! I am willing to do my best to answer it for you but you should know that it's mostly not a topic of polite conversation.]

[I hate to be impolite, but I wouldn't have expected it to be back home, so it does seem relevant. Have you ever heard of Ezra? Qhor, my friend, is a cleric of Hers]

[Ezra is sometimes used as a male given name in the language most spoken around here but in the context you just used it it's not familiar. The state of affairs here is that there are multiple popular world religions each with multiple competing sects and many more unpopular ones besides, they are almost all mutually exclusive, in this part of the world the common ones are monotheistic or profess to be monotheistic while applying complex theology to their complicated multiple-divinity situation which remains mutually exclusive with most other religions, and many people, including me, do not believe that any of these religions describe the state of reality and instead think that the world is best understood as having zero gods in it of any kind. It's impolite to bring it up so that we can come to secular cultural compromises instead of having partisan fights about it all the time.]

[... has no one checked? You said psions can interact with information, do you have spells for seeing across planes?]

[Psions have not observed conclusive information any which way, which might be because everyone trying has done it incorrectly, because psions can't do that as a fundamental magical limit, because some effect is interfering with the attempts...]

[That seems... inconvenient. And if you don't get clerics and can't check I can see how the confusion persists... Good news though! Ezra definitely exists! She has even sent a dream to my friend once.]

[You should not go around telling people that because it's rude, and if you do decide to do it anyway, they will find it laughably unconvincing because people manage to have religious experiences about Earthly religions.]

Ok but if they don't have clerics they also don't have divine magic, while he knows Ezra is real because of Qhor.

Who is not here with you right now, so you should listen to the local when she explains how people would react.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he knows.

[I will trust you on this. Would your magic have a way to send me back? We were kinda in the middle of something when the Mists brought me here and I'd like to return as soon as I can. I can pay of course! I only have some gold on me.] Because most of it is in the party's Bag of Holding [But if you can bring me back there I'm sure the others would be happy to compensate you too.]

[No one presently has this power. It doesn't seem necessarily out of the question for a mage to pick it up but it may take years. Eclipsed tend to be pretty rich if we want to be, and a multi-year bespoke ability pickup would be more about the possibility of controlling a bottleneck for ongoing interdimensional trade more than a one time pile of gold.]

[Multi-year? That seems... suboptimal.]

[It's what we've got. Some small abilities can be finagled in months but even normal teleportation takes years.]

[Well. That definitely changes my priorities. I should get in touch with my friends and let them know that... I won't be home for a while. It's going to take me about a candlemark and I'll need - oh crud.]

[Mm?]

[My Scrying mirror is in the Bag of Holding, so I'll need a new one. About a palm wide and two high, silver.]

[Okay, that shouldn't be all that hard to come by if it doesn't have to be specially prepared in any way and just has to be a silvered mirror yea big. Or d'you mean all silver no glass?]

[It needs to be of very good quality, but I'm not sure how that translates to your standards. The main issue is that... I'm not sure I can afford it with the coins I have at hand. At home I'd go to the mage guild and just sell my spells for a couple days, do you have anything similar here?]

[No mage guild as such but I know people, if you want to tell me what your spells can do. But I could also just front you the money for the mirror, unless your quality standards are actually really hard to meet.]

[Hopefully not? My spells are mostly offensive, but I do have a couple utility ones. The main ones are Hold Monster - does what it says on the tin, Invisibility - same, Dimension Door - the short range teleport I used earlier, Scrying - the one I'd need the mirror for - looking at distant things or people, Fly - mine lasts about ten minutes, Fireball and Lightning Bolt - fire damage in a sphere and electric damage in a line, Detect Thoughts - can read surface ones, and Silent Image - a minor illusion]

[We don't have any monsters. Remote viewing is a relatively normal psion power, teleportation is pretty hard for mages but it exists and flying is easier, I'm not sure what we'd want fireballs or lightning bolts for in the civilian market, Detect Thoughts is not unheard of among psions and relatedly the etiquette is don't do that, illusions might mostly be useful to let people see images of your world if you don't have pictures on you.]

[No, I don't have any drawings of my world, but I can definitely make illusions of beasts we have fought, or use them to illustrate the stories of our travels. Sadly I never quite got the hang of producing sounds too. Oh, and Share Language of course. It seems like your powers are a strict superset of mine which is... suboptimal for my ability to earn a living. I guess I have the advantage of being from far away so maybe some bard would be interested in my tales.]

[Don't get me wrong, eclipsed make good money using magic, but the specific powers you listed are not the big moneymakers - teleporting can be but not at short range, it's only really competitive on the unfiltered market with conventional transit if it's more than a hundred miles, there are teleporters making hops shorter than that but they're going to have, like, military clearance or training in handling donor organs or something specific like that. The good news is that mass entertainment is huge, if you and some people in the industry put together a nice piece about how you're from another universe with different magic in it you could make a really sweet cut off that.]

[My range is a bit more than 800 feet, long range for a generic spell but short range in the grand scheme of teleports. I might get the good one when I get more circles, but with sorcery it's never a sure thing - although it does tend to correlate with the challenges you are facing to get those circles. I'd love to tell stories and... actually, there is another power that may be valuable - as you don't have clerics - I can cure blindness, deafness or poisoning twice per day.]

[Okay yeah that's your career there. The blindness or deafness probably more than the poisoning, we're decent at poisoning but demand outstrips supply for mages who can cure blindness or deafness, especially since most of them can't do it for all possible causes - or, uh, can you, like does it matter if they're born deaf or if they're blinded by a vitamin deficiency as opposed to just being old or listening to loud music or having an eye injury -]

[It can fix damage but only if like, the components are there? So blindness from looking at the sun I can fix, myopia too, but missing eyes I cannot. So if someone was born deaf it may or may not work, an eye injury probably will, I don't know what vitamins are but if it's an illness I can probably fix that.]

[Vitamins are a thing in food, different foods have different ones and each is important for different biological functions. You could imagine it as tiny subcomponents of the eye starving to death. Would you be able to guess in advance based on a description of how a given case of deafness works whether your spell would work? Is your use for the day gone if you try and it doesn't?]

[I... think the vitamin thing I should be able to fix, because it's parts of the eyes ceasing to work but they're still there to fix. I can try guessing at the other cases, yes. Unfortunately if it doesn't work I've still used it. It will heal them at least, so there's that.]

[It'll heal them separately from restoring their vision?]

[Yupp, it's a package deal. And if it doesn't work on the blindness or deafness - it can only do one at a time - it will default to making them not exhausted. Or cure them of a disease, even if it's not showing yet.]

[Huh. I guess that's better than nothing. I happen to be in the hospital right now, I can see if I can talk to anyone who'll know how to get this on the market.]

[Nice! How far are you from here? I should be able to make a couple miles on a single Fly and I should have... eight. So if you're farther than that I'll need to sort out a ride there.]

[I am several hundred miles from Jackson's house, you'll need to get on an airplane.]

[That's quite some distance! I'm not familiar with airplanes, is it easy to find one where I am right now?]

[What I'm probably going to do is get you a ticket, ask Jackson or his dom to give you a ride to the airport, and leave you with instructions for how to navigate there till you're on a plane, and then I'll meet you at the airport nearest me.]

[Oh, is Brian Jackson's master? I hadn't caught on that.]

[Air ports, fascinating... I guess it makes sense if you have enough air traffic that logistics work better by concentrating it in a single place.]

[I'm not sure what signals you'd be expecting but yeah, Jackson's an old classmate of mine and he lives with his dom Brian these days. We have a fair amount of air traffic.]

[He seemed a very kind master. That is... not always the case where I come from. I would say it's actually kinda rare.]

[I'm sorry to hear that, our world's got lots of history of things being bad for subs too.]

[I'll need a map to reach the airport, do you know whether Brian has one? I don't have a quick way to copy it, but I should be able to memorize enough to get there if it's close.]

[Brian or Jackson, whichever one drives and has time, will learn the way to the airport as part of the task of giving you a ride, we have ubiquitous transmissible maps.]

[Neat! Your commerce must look very different from what I'm used to!]

[I bet it does but I'm not sure what you're anticipating in response to that specifically!]

[Mostly musing that I'm used to different realms, but I should now expect way more differences than what I've seen in the past. Do I go and ask Brian to give me a ride or are you going to do that?]

[I'm on it, I'm the one who's looking at what times there are flights available.]

[Thank you. You are being incredibly generous with your time and connections and I hope I'll find a good way to repay you with my own abilities.]

Probably won't involve his other abilities, sadly.

[Don't worry about it, you're interesting!]

The high circle mage finds him interesting. Generally speaking that's Bad News.

But! She sounds Good, so maybe it's fine? He has never met any powerful Good people. Misroi was... probably not Neutral. Definitely not Good.

Wait, is she flirting? No, most definitely not. They haven't even met yet. Is she hot?

[I'm always glad to provide entertainment.]

There. Plausibly deniable. True both literally and figuratively. Soooo smooth.

[Anyway, I've got you a flight for this evening, Brian'll drive you. Some people get queasy in cars and also in airplanes but this is not dangerous apart from the risk that you'll throw up.]

[I've used Fly a lot. I won't be at risk of throwing up.]

And well, Prestidigitation exists, so if he's wrong it's not a big deal.

[How will I find you at the destination? Do you live near the airport such that I can just walk to the meeting place?]

[I live near the airport and will meet you there. Does your translation spell let you read and if so how is it at symbolic iconography?]

[It does reading, but the spell only allows me to give someone else languages I know, it wouldn't help with yours. This telepathic link is also doing some translation but...]

He looks around for words written around him.

[... yeah, no, I'm not getting the ability to read your language, unfortunately.]

[Okay. I'm gonna ask Jackson to write you some notes to show people, then, in case you get lost.]

[That's very thoughtful of you, thank you! I guess I can... wait outside their door for the driving? Brian really didn't seem keen on having me inside.]

[I mean, anyone would be alarmed by someone teleporting into their house, I'm not sure he's averse to having you around from a calmer frame of mind, but I can ask.]

[I wouldn't want to impose further. Waiting is perfectly acceptable.]

He will... sit on the floor and wait. He'll be forever grateful to his magic for giving him Prestidigitation, the option of sitting anywhere while being able to clean and dry himself later is the best.

[If you say so? They've been telling me you can have dinner before you go if you want.]

[I'm not particularly hungry, but I do find myself curious about your food customs. But I also don't want to impose, and I don't have any gift to bring, which feels wrong to my sensibilities.]

[Okay, in that case I guess there's nothing wrong with you just chilling outside till it's time to leave. What kinds of food customs? Are you allergic to anything?]

[Well, stuff like what wine goes with which food, or that cheese never ever goes on fish. Every culture has its quirks, I've found. Some hereticals even insist on having a sweet topping on focaccia. I haven't found a food that disagrees with me so far, although I do dislike some textures.]

[I personally don't drink alcohol so I'm the wrong person to ask about wine pairings at least if you want a nuanced opinion and not just things I remember hearing somewhere because I have an eidetic memory. Cheese is not a very common combination with fish but I've seen it done. I have not seen sweet focaccia done but there's a live debate about pineapple on pizza.]

[I'm not familiar with either pineapple or pizza, but the tones I'm getting from the translation makes me think I should get the wood and torches out.] [To be clear, that was a joke, I'd never burn someone at the stake just for being Wrong about food.]

[Good, that's definitely a cultural no-no. You actually aren't supposed to burn literally anyone at the stake on any occasion at all.]

[I guess if you don't have witches it would come up less often...]

[Executions by non-burning means are not unheard of - though they are very, very rare and require years of trial appeals first - but I do not immediately know what the influence of witches existing would be on this system.]

[You know, I had never asked myself why inquisitors favor stakes for witches. A decapitation would work as effectively, and some people - like me - are not particularly inconvenienced by fire.]

[Couldn't tell you! What's the matter with witches, anyway?]

[They're Evil? They kidnap babies to use in their wicked rituals, curse people, bring misfortune, consort with the dark powers and so on...]

[Wow. Well, we haven't got those, just mages and psions and you.]

[I am glad to be me! At first I was kinda mad at my magic for giving me healing, our party's cleric is much better at it today than I will probably ever be in my life, but if it means I can be of help to the people here then maybe it was my destiny all along to travel far, and my magic knew that.]

[...well, that would fly in the face of how we understand precognition to work but like, interestingly.]

[Human magic only sees so far, and doesn't usually work across the Mists, but they say that divine magic can predict the future, and Ezra is well known across the lands...]

[But I guess my magic is not divine, so I don't think it matters actually. Sorcery is not that well studied, because as every sorcerer is different it's hard to predict how someone's magic will evolve. I don't actually think that it can see the future, or that it's even something that makes decisions to be honest...]

[Psionic precognition interferes with itself, we can only get glimpses of a future that doesn't contain anything downstream of other precognition use that occurs after the time at which the precog is looking from.]

[If I ever got magic for divining the future I think it would answer me based on what would have happened if I hadn't used it, which sounds similar to what you describe. Our divination magic is not super reliable at the best of times, it mostly gives suggestions about what to pay attention to, rather than providing answers. Unless you're a Vistani I guess, they're said to have the ability to actually see the future instead of just getting hunches about it.]

[I literally see the future, but if I try to nest it with my own or someone else's precognition it just stops working.]

[I see. Well, if I ever get divination magic it would be interesting to see how it interacts, although I doubt I will while staying here.]

[While staying here? Why?]

[Because I think it would be unwise of me to get into fights. I'm quite far from home in general and my party's cleric in particular, and so I prefer not risking anything serious, which has the obvious unfortunate consequences.]

[...Not particularly obvious, no.]

[Your magic doesn't require people to fight to get stronger???]

[No! Just - attention over extended periods of time to pick up new powers.]

[Drat, must be nice. My magic can get stronger over time, but only if I keep adventuring. This is true of everyone in my world, but most people live as farmers or city dwellers so they don't get particularly strong over their lifetime. Anyway, this is why I don't expect to get different magic powers unless I get into fights, but getting into the kind of fights I'd need to circle up without someone ready to hit me with a lot of healing is bound to get me killed very quickly. And I'm getting the feeling that your realm sees a lot less fighting and monsters than mine?]

[I mean, there are... wars... but you probably don't have the context to make an informed decision on which side to take in any of them even if you were really interested in joining one. We have animals of various sizes and aggression levels, but they're mostly not a big deal most places people live.]

[Well, in that case I'll need to make the best of what I have. Seems like a fun challenge!]

[I guess you could go hunt invasive wild boar? Lionfish? I don't have a good sense of what counts as a fight.]

[Eeeeh, I think by now I should be able to oneshot a dire boar more often than not. And I can always follow up with a second Fireball if needed. A normal boar could theoretically survive the first Fireball. Theoretically. I'm not familiar with lionfish, are they what they sound like? About as big as a person and with a vicious bite? I'd be at a disadvantage because of the water, I'd probably need to hit it with lightning from outside it.]

[They're pretty small but they've got poison spines. The reason to kill them is significantly to protect adjacent wildlife so you'd need to be conservative with the lightning and fire, though.]

[Oh, poison is fine, I can heal it. It does trade off against the blindness and deafness though. And if collateral damage is a problem that sharply limits my options. Holding it would probably work...]

[This is probably not a particularly fruitful tangent though.]