Some muttered curses and fifteen minutes later, Vlantian had the center of his new protective rune tablet complete. At its heart was a Nef rune, one that he had to dedicate considerable thought to twisting into the right direction of powering the tablet as a whole, surrounded by four Zets, three for the room and one for the door, two of the room ones dedicated to anti-psychic capabilities. He wasn't sure how effective it would be on the tower at large; he would usually have no problem with it and trust the runes, but with the creator of the tower being the Primus, even the durability of runic magic could be questioned.

He wondered if anyone else had even met a Runic mage, or indeed knew what a runic mage was. He saw some other interesting folks enter before he did, so he wondered, if only for a minute, what they would be like. Then he remembered his half-finished tablet.

He considered activating the runes right there. It would save him an easy twenty minutes and get the job done... but no, he had to add six El's, otherwise he would lose all concentration. He hoped that his years of experience and skipping sleep would make sure his runeword didn't come out with side effects. He had chosen low end, easily drawn runes for that reason.

[i]At least they are easy enough to make[/i]...

With that in mind, he began the task, switching to his third ink bottle.