Stoneshard: Dagger and Embers Guide

I greet you, fellow traveller.

As our lands are now ravaged by war and face a decline of a power struggle, I can’t help but find sharing knowledge crucial. The known world will have to be rebuilt, and while the Lords and Ladies may see it as their domain, if they were to rebuilt, it would be the same world, and the same strife, all over. So, it is the commonfolk who have to survive, and learn, and train.

Despite what the Academy or the superstitious would have you believe, magic is much a craft as any other – with dedication and practice, comes mastery. Keep your eyes keen, focus on your Perception, and over time, see more than the animals or the bandits of the road. Remember to avoid unnecessary danger, and train with flames to dispatch enemies before they may even lay a hand on you. Keep an open mind, and rest when needed.

Reflect, percieve and focus. Travelling can be an illuminating expirience as long as you analyze what you see and beyond.

As I write this, I find myself wondering, is it the ego that prevents Lords and the Academy from seeing the use of simple craft, or is it the distance of their castles and lack of perspective? Here, I shall write on daggers and their use with arcane crafts.

Daggers are simple, but with skill and practice, they can pierce any armor an axe cannot. Striking deep between plates or cutting bones that bind skeleton’s key points, either way, they are a gift for an aspiring mage. While flame and embers are your primary reliance, it is the dagger that deals the final blow to a worn-out opponent.

Wielding two daggers is important. As one may be easier to use initially, two give you the ability to overwhelm an already tired opponent. Double-Lunge is your companion. In most cases, launching on a half-burnt opponent with swift strikes ends them.

As you face tougher enemies, however, you will have to apply more skill and pressure for this. Start a fight by Seizing the initiative, supported by Dual Wielding training. You can follow it with Lunges, and, if the fight prolongs, attack making a Gaping wound, forcing them to lose even more initiative through the fight. Remember, that daggers are friends of the fire, and as such, are first preceded by flame.

Pyromancy.

A seemingly dangerous craft, in reality, it is but a tool of knowledge converted into power with practice. Fire barrages are an essenial skill before any other – it is your tool to wear down opponents and your tool to strike them if they flee. While daggers are your close-quater weapons, fire is both distant and melee. It can be channeled in any manner, such as making a Ring of Fire as an opponent is closing in, giving them pain and disorienting, while boosting your abilities with both fire and blade.

Initially, however, you want to Feed the flames. By prolonging the opponent’s burning you find yourself at a high point, with them being unable to both flee or properly fight. Then, after your picked initial dagger skills, you can begin to learn the Ring of Fire, amplifying their effectiveness and allowing you to fight several men at once. After you found your ground in melee combat, you can open baptism by fire, both allowing higher mobility and a path to Magma Rain, utilizing sweeps of damage.

Do not worry about retreating – the core of your strategy is maneuvour, barrages of bolts and strikes on an opponent already dead. Calculating your movement is the point of travel, in a sense. After all, what’s the use of bleeding out if they can just be burned before stiking at you?

As you grow over time, you fill find yourself in at least some close-quater fights, which makes choosing armor important. Robes are not fit for travel, and neither they are for daggers, while heavy armor stumbles your movement and impedes magic. Therefore, your best choice would be leather and padding – mobile and versatile, but defensive. Padded doublets, vests, leather gloves and gambeson coif. They are quite comfortable, let you feed the flames while giving enough defence for a fight when needed.

They’re also warm and pleasant. Stylish, too.

For what’s this worth, I would like to give a summary to your possible training.

You should start by learning to summon Fire Barrages, as they are core to your perception.

Then, you can pick up your initial melee skills – Double Lunge. Feed the Flames comes next. After, the ring of fire supplements it.

As you get used to the paced dance between trees and strikes, you have to learn Seizing the Initiative. Dual wielding Training let’s you utilize all melee abilities to their best extent, and Gaping Wound makes prolonged fights a lot easier.

After this training in dagger and flame mastery, you may begin to practice more advanced pyromancy. Picking Baptism by Fire you start to understand Magma Rain, which’s wide area of effect allows you to manage the flow of your opponts, funneling them to 1 on 1 fights where they’re at a tragic disadvantage. Flurry of Stikes, if you choose to learn it, then lets you take advantage of your now high perception to deliver a series of blows to decimate an opponent.

Safe travels, calm thoughts and keen sight to you, man of the road.