diatuooc | Test Drive #1

Test Drive #1

The Airship There

By carriage or coach, spellwagon or ship, perhaps even on the wings of magic, the Sundered heed the call to gather at the Tenzin High Dock of Vulbaria. On this, the appointed day, a great passenger airship sits in the dock, the seals of the six Houses fluttering from flagpoles along her length and her wooden planks atremble as if it is eager to be off. At last, the gangplank descends, and the Hand of Diatu opens her doors to the Sundered so they can take their first step on the path towards protection and salvation.

Inside, you may choose from long comfortable couches, broad circular tables surrounded by straight-backed, cushioned chairs, or viewing seats at the glass front of the ship. Sundered who need special accommodations are quickly provided for, ensuring everyone travels in comfort. Trays drift through the air periodically, offering snacks and drinks to the passengers.

This may be the first chance you've had to truly relax since being swept to this strange world. Certainly it is the first chance you've had to meet your fellow Sundered. As the airship lifts gracefully off from the High Dock, your journey to Diatu begins. Excited? Nervous? Simply angry? Or perhaps searching among the crowd here for a familiar face or some sign of hope?

Rain, Rain...

Welcome to Diatu Magicademy. It's raining.

Seriously raining. One of those downpours that feels like a curtain has dropped on you, that soaks to the bone within a second of stepping into it. Obviously, this won't do, and a civic-minded cluster of Purifeul students has taken it upon themselves to solve this problem. No sooner do you step through the gates then you practically run into a giant and complex runic diagram being drawn out with long staffs by several students, all of them speaking seeming nonsense about derivatives, limits, and equations. Magic! In action right before your eyes!

And yet, just as their mathemagics wind towards the center of the diagram and they all make their final stroke -- one student slashes his line off on a weird tangent, speaking an equation that sounds nothing at all like what his fellows utter. The spell completes... weirdly, as the students look in horror at each other. The temperature abruptly drops seventy degrees, and a cold wind begins to blow.

Welcome to Diatu Magicademy. Please get out of the blizzard before you freeze.

Thaumaturgy 101

After some fifteen minutes of grumbling from Professor Loshakle, followed by half an hour of theory and basics, the grouchy old man finally gets to drawing a magical symbol on the board. "This is straight out of Fundamental Principles of Wizarding," he says, writing Sense Magic next to the symbol. "As is everything you'll learn here. I'll emphasize yet again, you MUST know the name of the spell and the proper gestures. You can't simply wave your wand in any old pattern and say any old words. That isn't how it works," he says, glaring around the class as if daring someone to question him.

But he gives no one the opportunity, instead producing a wand and making the gesture to trace the symbol he'd drawn in midair. "Sense Magic," he intones, and the air and his wand both shimmer.

"Now. You all try." Just like that. What the Professor doesn't mention is that this spell can produce some very interesting results if the symbol is off, or the timing...

Bala-inlota Practice

Bala-inlota is the main interaction the Magicademies have with each other -- the sport of wizards! Two teams take the field, with the goal of heaving a ball through their opponent's hoop. The rules primarily revolve around not inflicting lethal injury, because bala-inlota is a free-for-all at best, where each team relies on both physical and magical might to win the day.

You kind of wish someone had told you this BEFORE you got hauled onto the field so the coach could see if you've got what it takes.

Now half a dozen players are charging down the field at your ragtag group of semi-willing recruits, while another half-dozen are preparing spells that you've been absolutely assured aren't as nasty as the ones deployed in actual play. On your side: the ball, your wits, your physical ability, and maybe three classes's worth of magical education.

On the upside, magic is pretty good at healing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh, you can just call be Webby! The whole thing is a mouthful."

With the introductions over, she resumed trying to decipher the 'puzzle' on the ground. Despite all of V's rather good reasoning, she still wanted to give it a try.

"Now, where was I?"

"As you wish, Webby. And if the question is where were you recently, I would hazard a guess that you were here, observing the attempt at weather magic. If you are asking about where you were before you came to this school, I assure you I could not give a satisfactory answer with any degree of certainty, having never seen anyone who looked the least bit like you previously. I shall have to see what obscure setting manuals can be found in town."

"I meant the first thing, but thanks!" Webby chirped, tracing the numbers and figures with her finger in an attempt to memorize it. "By the way, what do you mean 'obscure setting manuals'?"

V waved a hand dismissively. "We generally do not worry too much about that,:" V said dryly, considered, then added, "or muchg else, most days."

That got her attention, and she raised her head, concerned.

"Is everything okay? Something wrong?"

... Aside from the magical not-kidnapping and blizzard?

".... No, in point of fact, everything is not in any way shape or form anything that could remotely be considered fine." And here was where Blackwing would interject with a reminder about manners, but as the familiar was not here, V went on without interruption.

"My party is, at this very moment, on a quest to protect the very fabric of creation from an eldritch god killing abomination known as the Snarl, that we had to learn about via crayon drawings from a senile old man who was lying to the paladins he commanded about their inane ancient oath to guard their gate and only their gate. And this we found out when we were hauled halfway across the world after the idiot bard destroyed one of the gates because no one actually comprehended the danger, because of a feud that seperated out what could have been devastating protections for each gate had they been combined. An evil Lich is looking to use the gates and the Snarl to rule our world with a despotic iron bony fist, and we may or may not also be dealing with the Bard's brother who also wants the power of the snarl. Without me, the party consists of a Cleric with decent spells, but no initiative and I don't mean the kind you roll in battle, Miss Starshine who would be quite effective if she wasn't wasting half her rounds protecting the bard, the bard, a genocidal maniac halfling who does not understand basic emotions, and a fighter who perhaps means well, and does the best that he can to lead, but spent half of the last book dead because he jumped onto the back of a zombie dragon without so much as a wand of feather fall! Without me the team went from having virtually no chance to defeat the snarl and reseal the gates to no chance at all! So YES! SOMETHING IS WRONG!"

And THAT is how you work a plot recap into the narrative, thank you.

Of course... V might have intentionally failed to mention a certain deal with three fiends from the neither planes....

Blink.

Blink-blink.

After a moment, Webby decided to stand up again, offering her empty hands as a small gesture.

"... Would you like a hug?"

She wasn't naive enough to think it would totally fix things, but maybe it would make V feel at least 1% better?

V just stared at Webby for a very long moment, before replying, "I utterly fail to see the connection between all that I had said and your inane..." nicer words, V, "offer."

Maybe it was a cultural thing. Webby gestured back and forth between herself and V. "Oh, well, where I come from, it's like saying 'I'm so sorry that you've had to go through all that, I wish there was more I could do for you, and I hope all of your situations improve'... but in a nice warm embrace."

A pause, glancing at the continuing blizzard. "... Maybe not exactly warm, but it's implied."

"I require assistance and knowledge not shallow sympathy."

Test Drive #1

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