May Event and Intro Log

[magicademymods]

May Event and Intro Log DAWN OF THE FIRST DAY May I Have This Dance? Though Diatu Magicademy has its share of social events, few capture the attention of the student body quite like the Twilight Ball -- that magical once-a-year dance that crosses the change of day into night and is given over entirely to the dance itself. The focus is not on political visitors, rival schools, local government, or hitting up alumni for money; it is entirely about the pleasure that comes from accompanying a charming and attractive person onto the dance floor and cutting the proverbial rug. It is entirely possible the Twilight Ball is beloved because the general student body is aggressively amorous, but no one admits that out loud. With the dance on the horizon, the mission of the day becomes finding a partner -- or asking the prettiest or nicest or most tsundere to the ball before anyone else does. The Sundered are particularly popular by virtue of being new, so students may find themselves fending off invitations or even crowds of people interested in being seen on their arms. Even the younger Sundered have a few people in their age group who'd like to pretend they're just as adult as the older students. To avoid the mob, one strategy is to find someone else in dire straits and agree to be their date, thus giving both of you protection now and then. Another, stranger, vastly more unorthodox strategy is to actually ask someone out legitimately... if you've got the guts. (The third strategy is to go with Headmaster Birony, who has been occasionally heard to bemoan loudly and publicly that she has nobody, HINT HINT. But who could possibly be THAT desperate?) Love Is In The Water Love potions are absolutely, positively, one hundred percent forbidden, on the grounds they tread far too close to the supremely black Curriculum of Dictation. This ultimate and unforgiving ban is every bit as effective as Anastara's rules limiting the speed of carts in the street to a horse's walk. So, yes, there's love potion in the water. Someone spilled an entire bucket in the river. These things happen. Luckily, as diluted as it is, the potion doesn't reach the levels of obsessive compulsion that the worst of them can; a person drinking a unfortunate draught instead simply finds themselves attracted in a weird and sharp sort of way to the first person they lay their eyes on, for a period of about thirty minutes. Diatu Magicademy is an inclusive and progressive institution, and consequently these potions affect and can target all manner of beings, from ducks and wolf-shifters to robots and dragons. They are pretty convenient about failing to bring about really skeevy pairings, though, so don't worry about being Hot For Professor. Special Delivery (aka the Least Embarrassing Prompt, which is a sad state of affairs) A quick, easy, profitable way to make some money this time of year is by delivering messages, packages, parcels, and treats to students who've caught the eye of another. Whether anonymous or gloriously identified, small token of esteem or bristling bundles of roses and chocolates, the population of the Magicademy takes particular delight in letting others know their feelings. Not always positive feelings, either -- glitter-bomb rejections have only recently begun to diminish in popularity, being replaced by Pie-To-The-Face spells. An enterprising student who adds their own spin to this hallowed ceremony of delivery can make bank; singing and performance are popular ways to enhance a message among Valhudor students, and a recent trend finds quartets delivering acapella harmonies to the recipients of love notes. But simple note hauling can still be worth your while... so long as you don't find yourself delivering a creepy confession from a weirdo to one of your dear friends. What are the odds of that happening, though? Research On the Sundered With the arrival of the Sundered come those wizards engaged in research on their presence here, now set to investigate what brought them here and how to get them home. All newly-arrived Sundered students are asked to meet with representatives of the research team, to introduce themselves and relate what they will of their homes. In addition, the team requests samples of blood, hair, and skin -- carefully magically collected, and the researchers will sign in the presence of the Sundered a Glyphed contract that forbids them from using the samples for a purpose they know will be harmful. (They quite understand your reasons to be suspicious of this collection! And they will not compel anyone who refuses even given these conditions.) This month, however, the research team informs its applicants that there is no magic being performed. Instead, they ask you to participate in partnered interviews, in which two Sundered compare their worlds and ask each other questions while the researchers take notes. They explain that they wish to find commonalities and differences between worlds, in the hopes that this will help them identify a larger pattern in how the Sundered were brought here. How is this bad enough to merit earning a reward this month? As it happens, the researchers who sit with the pair have an Intimation Crystal, which shines red every time someone speaks to deceive in its presence. Lie or omit information or cover with half-truths and the interviewer will ask you to go back and try again -- and they encourage you to speak on everything you can. You might end up venturing into dark or unpleasant territory in these interviews... DAWN OF THE SECOND DAY Welp, This Happened A quiet weekend morning is abruptly quiet no longer. With a tumultuous shuddering and an eerie, whistling roar, the first tendril of a far mightier being surges out of a wall on campus, venturing into the cloud-shadowed outdoors for the first time in its existence in this plane. Then, like a cloak shrugged off, the outbuilding it emerged from rises up only to crash to the ground as the Sundered creature rises up to claim it glory. It is a nightmare, a horror. A terrible, indescribable thing as large as a small building —a shapeless agglutination of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of light. For some inexplicable reason, it is colored in bands of purple, black, and gold, and several parts of it sprout white feathers. That's the bad news. The bad news is that this existential threat to reality does not go unnoticed, nor unchallenged. Mere moment after the Sundered creature makes it presence known, a cold wind begins to blow. The temperature abruptly drops thirty degrees, leaving those around in a clammy and miserable chill that feels like they've passed their whole body through one of the ghosts of Makerion Keep. This estimation is not too far wrong, for the pale off-white dragon that emerges from the clouds above is translucent and ethereal, save for the shining eyes of coldest blue that fix on the beast like pinpoints of fire. What a ghost dragon is doing here is anyone's guess, but when it opens its jaw to unleash a withering cone of necrotic energy at the Sundered creature, it demonstrates plainly that it will not brook this interloper on its domain. In other words, Diatu Magicademy is now home to a kaiju fight. That's the bad news. The BAD news is that both these creatures are, by their very nature, incredibly resistant to magic. So even as the professors spill out and split duties of getting students to safety and fending them off, the two beasts barely notice the arcane energy flashing through the air as they begin vigorously brawling. Thank goodness this is a weekend, or else you'd all have some serious trouble getting to class on time. Wonders Await? Diatu Magicademy is open to you in all its glory. But maybe you should deal with that mess first? We're just saying.

Comments

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"It's not a bragging thing, it's a you-asked-about-my-life thing. It isn't like being a hero is fun. It's mostly terrifying with the weight of the world on your shoulders."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"I did not say that it was bragging, I was simply pointing out that it is a title that offers no aid information or insight. It is like saying that you have a positive constitution modifier. Or class levels. Walk into any tavern with a plot hook and you'll find at least a half dozen people who were heroes or are about to be heroes. Adventurer is a more useful title, of only by a marginal amount because it differentiates you from NPC heroes at least."

V frowned.

"And I assure you, nothing of my time spent with the Halfling or during the brief but annoying interlude with that Paladin could have ever been construed in any way shape or form as fun. Neither was the trial that went on for countless strips that turned out to be a farce in the end. Or the months upon months of searching for our lost companions, unaware that they were under the effects of an epic level cloister spell and thus unscryable by anything short of divine magic of a level too high for our Cleric. Not that he even bothered to help in the first place!"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link was starting to think that Sho had some serious competition for the title of "that insane professor". If he had been aware that V had made an explosive paper, Link would have given it to them hands-down.

Along with a fist to the face, but, that was moot at the moment.

Then again, maybe V was like the fellow who bought bugs off of people in Castle Town, and just needed taken care of.

"Did you eat some bad mushrooms or fermented berries or something? Do you need any kind of medical attention?"

Link looked at the researchers. "It's not just me, right? What they're saying makes zero sense?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"I am not delusional! And unless you are including my familiar there is only one of me!!"

"Actually," Willard interrupted, "That might be a polite way to keep from misgendering you, since like most people he does not know which you are. He might actually be trying to be polite." Willard, currently looking like a robin that had bathed in tar and rolled in black feathers landed on V's shoulder.

"Polite...." V repeated, gaping a bit.

"Please excuse my Wizard," Willards said dryly. "Apparently in V's world there has been a lot of issue made over what gender my wizard might or might be, but none of it was polite or respectful."

"Well, Miss Starshine mostly just ignores the issue," V said, feeling the need to defend one of the few friends that could be claimed.

"From what you told me, most of the party does."

V considered, then nodded. "I suppose the Halfling is just annoying enough to seem like many people, but you are correct, most of the issues I have come from outside the party, not within."

"And on appreciating other people...?" Willard prompted.

"Don't push it, this is character development enough for one page of comic."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link eyed the familiar for a moment. "Oh. Actually, that's like the least of my thoughts. I'm just wondering what the heck stats and comics are."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Stats are the base building blocks of our characters," V explained, hoping this helped the research at least. "Think of a tomato. The first stat, Str, strength, is how easily you can squish a tomato. Dex, Dexterity is how well you can dodge if a tomato is thrown at you. Con, or Constitution is how well you are able to survive eating a rotten tomato. Intelligence, Int, is how much you know about the tomato, like that it is a fruit and that it is part of the Nightshade family. Wisdom, Wis, then is knowing better than to put it into a fruit salad, despite it being a fruit. And of course Charisma is being able to sell people on the idea of a tomato based fruit salad, perhaps by marketing it as salsa. Charisma is mostly related to appearance and personality, high Charisma makes it easier to get people to like you in theory. I, myself, am not that shallow, thankfully. Meat shields generally focus on Strength and Constitution. Bards in Charisma. In theory Wisdom, but our Bard spits in the face of conventional wisdom on a regular basis. Wisdom and Intelligence are generally needed for the arcane members of the party, such as myself. No one person is going to be able to have good stats in all categories. This is why parties work well. Well, that and each class has weaknesses, and so a party raises the odds that at least one person is able to solve any challenge or puzzle in our path. Of course, that is that many more people to split the treasure and that many more people to keep safe and transport."

V paused only to signify a shift in topic. "Comics are a crude form of art utilized to tell stories with a focus on jokes rather than actual plot. Sadly."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"What about Power and Courage?"

Good grief, your world glosses right over two thirds of the Triforce, V.

Link frowned slightly. "Like graffiti?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Power is likened to Strength if you meant it physically. If you mean magically, that goes with Int and Wis, generally, though for some classes, Charisma handles some of that weight. Courage isn't a stat. You have it or you don't, you can gain it or lose it. It's a part of who you are or a phase, but stats are closer to set in stone than things like courage or power which are variable."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Apparently, it's more of a set thing back home...."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Must be different corebooks, I suppose." V shrugged. Did it really matter?

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"You're making no sense again...."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"I am making perfect sense. Your low Wis score is not a failing of mine."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Corebooks don't exist in Hyrule."

Although, Your face is a low Wis score was what he really wanted to say.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Just because you've never bothered to read them does not mean they don't exist."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Dear Nayru give me patience..." he muttered.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Oh great," V knew what that sounded like. "Another Cleric."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"No, just a regular guy, praying to the goddess of Wisdom, so I don't do something stupid as a result of you being a jerk."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Ah."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"So far, She's being pretty generous."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

V's eyes rolled dramatically. "The problem I find with people who rely upon gods is that it then removes from them any semblance of feeling that they have to be responsible for your own actions. Yes, I admit that there are gods and that they are active forces, however I think if you do or do not retaliate against me that is far more attributed to your own self control than to any deific intervention."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Asking a goddess for help isn't taking away responsibility. I'd be the one punching you, not Her."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Then feel free and punch the helpless wizard with low hit points if that is the urge you have, but accept that it has nothing to do with your deities. that is your morality, not theirs."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"I hardly believe you're helpless. You're a professor."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"I am a wizard as well. So no, I am not helpless, however my armor class is too low to reduce the damage. And I have very few hit points. So the question is how high is your strength, if you did hit me, to see if I need a healing potion or simply a long rest."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"I don't actually want to hit you, I want you to stop being insulting."