September Event Log

[magicademymods]

September Event Log The Magicademy has a special treat for students this week: Combined Classes. The Curriculum-by-Curriculum education of the Magicademy lends itself to viewing each Curriculum on its own, not part of the greater whole that is magic. So in lieu of normal lessons this week, Professors are joint-teaching classes to show you what you can do by merging magic together. Profs. Porfsin & Kith: Making Modification Fantastic If Diatu students love anything, it's expressing their individuality by wearing unique clothing, particular ones similar to home in the case of the Sundered. Working together, the good Professors will teach you a basic and beloved trick of wizards everywhere: combining Modification and Fantastics to make a spell that provides you with clothes that are outstandingly fashionable and flamboyant on the outside, but fit perfectly and comfortably despite their flair. At last, the secret of how wizards can swoop around in dramatic capes and flowing robes without constantly tripping! Of course, the potential for mayhem is pretty high in practice. Shrinking clothes, accidentally creating a scarf 250 feet long... Professor Trammel has loaned them his familiar, a top hat named Decorum, so it is on hand to quickly deploy wide black censor bars in the event a mishap leaves you perhaps offering more in the way of an Anatomy of the Sundered class than you might expect. But if you work hard and give it your all, you might come out of this looking good indeed! Profs. Loshakle & Mala: Advanced Warding A lesson Professor Loshakle hammers home in his classes: the more broad the spell, the weaker its effect. A ward against fire specifically will repel so much more fire than a general ward, but of course the fire ward is entirely worthless against lightning. Today, these two Professors show one way to get the best of both world: a Predictive Ward. The theory is simple: Suspend an Intimation effect within the ward's construction, then make the ward manifold-responsive -- or in other terms, capable of shifting its focus from one danger to another. The Intimation spell predicts the damage and preemptively shifts the ward to full effect. Simple! Enjoy testing them. Since it involves hurling some things at each other. What better way to test a ward than practically? Profs. Trammel & King: Pocket Summoning One of the problems inherent to Discovery is the danger involved in creation. For example, if you desire a large quantity of water for whatever reason, you need to create it all at once -- you can't create it ahead of time without a way to transport it, for example. Sundering offers an intriguing possibility that actually is much safer than most of its uses: opening a portal into a small pocket dimension, where you can Discover and store whatever you might need, and release it later in small doses or full-tilt. Now, mess up the Sundering spell and you could end up discharging a large volume of water or stone or pudding out of midair at a terribly inopportune time. But don't worry! Several groundskeeping golems are on-hand to help with the inevitable messes. Also Professor Trammel knows how to clean clothing. You might need that help. Headmaster Camillah Birony: ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO ATTEND THIS CLASS This opportunity is unique. For all her flaws, Headmaster Birony is unquestionably a master wizard, who has developed an entire branch of magic hereto undiscovered by wizardkind. The art of working magic on magic, or as she calls it, "Metamagic". "And it will be the third Metacurriculum! Wizardkind everywhere will develop and master these powers that I have paved the way for! AND THEY CALLED ME MAD!" she yells to the sky, before flinging her hands wide and laughing maniacally. So! You get to start very basic: Modifying a spell to last longer. Pick your favorite spell, any spell, and cast it. While its magical energies still exist in the pattern your will has imposed on them, Modify them. A simple equation. Add 1 to them. Multiply them by 2. Whatever works for you. You don't get much more instruction than that, says the Headmaster, because you have to figure out how to make it work for yourself. More than most magic, this depends entirely on your will and your determination. Everything else is just trappings -- take what you want from the foci of Modification, that will help, but find your own path forward. And unlike every other lesson, this one is utterly safe. At the first sign of a spell getting out of control or going haywire, Headmaster Birony squelches it like a bug beneath her heel. Not even literally, for a pleasant change!

Comments

[magicademynpcs]

"Oh, it's one of those bend-the-Curricula things you guys are doing." Headmaster Birony nods sagely. "Okay, that DEFINITELY shouldn't be a spell you're practicing this on."

[shiningkindness]

She seemed surprised by that. "Why not?"

[magicademynpcs]

"Mmmmm, how do I put it." Headmaster Birony puts a finger to her lips, scrunching up her nose as she thought. In the air above her, the word HEADMASTER appears, with an arrow pointing down at her. (She'd programmed that particular spell to remind people whenever she makes the sort of expression that so fails to comport with the implied dignity and gravity of the office that people forget she holds the position.)

"Okay, to start with, you -- you don't have an understanding of what the Curricula actually have to do with magic, that's way more advanced. So I have to start there. Okay! To start with, here's the world!"

Scrtchpoof. Next to the pair of them sits a gelatin some six feet in diameter.

"You with me so far?"

[shiningkindness]

She jumps a bit when the gelatin suddenly appears, looking from it to the headmaster.

"U-Um...I think so?"

[magicademynpcs]

"It's a big thing. You can't eat it all at once, right? So we came up with the Curricula."

Pulling an ice-cream scoop labeled "MODIFICATION" out of nowhere, Headmaster Birony scoops out a chunk of gelatin.

"See? You could eat this. That's how the Curricula make magic possible."

[shiningkindness]

Looking between the large gelatin and the bit that Headmaster Birony scooped out, Fluttershy nodded.

"Okay...yes, I get it. The magic has to be taken a little bit at a time."

She understood...but she didn't want to give up on the spell just yet.

[magicademynpcs]

"Not just that, but shaped! If you tried to take a little magic in the wrong way..." She flicks a finger and in response a long narrow snake of gelatin comes out. But when she grasps one end of it, the rest of it drops down to the ground with a splat.

[shiningkindness]

She jumps a bit when the gelatin splattered on the ground, then glances at the headmaster.

"Right...but then, what should I do with this spell in the meantime? Do I just...leave it?"

[magicademynpcs]

"See, that spell you're trying? It's in here." She slaps the large gelatin with her hand, setting it wobbling violently. "What you're trying to do by casting it is scooping out something you don't know where it is or what shape it is or how to get to it. I'm not saying you can't do it! But I am saying if you want your gelatin to have a neat new shape, you want to start with a manageable chunk.

[shiningkindness]

That made a lot of sense, in an admittedly strange way. "But how will I know when I'll be able to get to it?"

[magicademynpcs]

"When you succeed. Point is, working metamagic on it before you succeed is a bad idea, because you're trying to shape something you don't quite have into a shape you don't quite know, you get it?"

[shiningkindness]

With a soft sigh, she nodded. "Yes, I get it."

[magicademynpcs]

"Hey, don't look so sad!" Heedless of personal space and propriety, the Headmaster gives Fluttershy a reassuring slap on the back. "Having a goal is good! But it's like building a castle! Sometimes you work on the central keep, sometimes you build the curtain walls, and you gotta know when the time is right for each!"

[shiningkindness]

Jumping a bit at that, she glanced up at the headmaster. Then she managed a small smile and nodded.

"Right...thank you."

[magicademynpcs]

"That's what I'm here for!"

She turns abruptly and shakes a fist in what is probably the direction of the Great Hall.

"You hear that?! THAT'S what I'm here for! The paperwork can go bite itself! In fact, it can burn! Quick, throw a fire spell where I'm pointing," she said over her shoulder to Fluttershy.