August Game Announcements

[magicademymods]

August Game Announcements A Word From Your Mod Team Hi everyone! That's it. We don't have a lot more this time around. What? REGAINS ARE A THING TO STAY?! With last month's Research on the Sundered, we introduced regains to our Magicademy, and despite all known rules of narrative convenience, the researchers responsible have not inexplicably forgotten how to perform the spells that caused these faint connections to your home world. To that extent, each character may now earn one regain per month. To do so, you need simply comment on this post with what you would like to regain, and some associated concept of your home world or canon. You may also recommend a concept that works with that, a theme for us to build off of. Conflict, for example, is always valid! Once you've received your approval and prompt, go wild with what we've given you. And of course there will be absolutely no long-term repercussions or consequences of regains! (Please pardon us a moment while we massage our jaws back into place, as they were dislocated by not malicious laughter.) This Month In Diatu Hail becomes a concern around this time, thanks to some peculiarity of air currents and ocean evaporation. Luckily, hailstorms are brief when they appear, but inevitably sudden and fierce for their short lives. Woe be unto the student who fails to protect themselves with a suitable shield when they spend any time out of doors! A Visiting Professor offers special guest lectures during the evening. Professor Drom is a savvy thaumaturge, an expert on Glyphics, and a minotaur, all three of which he works quite hard at, with an aplomb that rivals Professor Trammel (and has apparently started rumors that they are or have been a couple). The Caverns Beneath The Academy are officially off-limits now, save solely for the magical labs and other necessary places for continuing education. The faculty doesn't understand why you all need to be told not to go try to poke a ghost dragon with a stick, but apparently you do. Balloons festoon the campus. No reason, they just do. This Month In Anastara A Traveling Festival has set up camp down by the docks (which is the only real space they can fit). Come see acrobatics, clowns and sideshow acts, tightrope walking, rare and exotic animals treated in ways not quite in line with modern ethics, and ending with the legendary Manticore of Munn! Adventures As detailed on our Adventures page, you may sign up for an adventure by responding to the appropriate comment on this post. We will respond with your adventure setups in a few days. You may undertake a new adventure this month even if you are still in an adventure from previous months. We also want to encourage everyone to involve others in your adventures! Though it is possible to do many adventures solo, we intend them as opportunities for characters to mix and mingle. Actions To represent characters working long-term towards a goal, you can submit up to two actions on the appropriate comment below that your character will be focusing their time towards (or one action twice). This can range from studying, to exploration, to trying to gain points for the Colormarch, to buttering up NPCs, to others. At the end of the month, once you submit AC, you will be given your results. No Second Event Activity outside the events in July was fairly low, so we're giving you August to get some of your own plans and plots going. Have fun! Don't do anything we would do! Monthly Mod Plans Update Locations to include all new discovered areas (monthly) Update Adventures with new options (monthly) Create a Religion page to explain the religion of the Tenscore Kingdoms (we swear we'll do this sometime)

Comments

Re: Regains

[gender_neutral]

Sho is going to go for the research, so guessing he'll get his regain there, and since we still need to figure out Noise, I was wondering if this time since he can now transform, and one of his transformations had decorative wings, could he gain flight?

Xion: Healing magic? Associated concept is friendship, since it is Lea/Axel and Roxas she most wants to be able to heal.

V: Higher level spells, out of order. Specifically combat spells. Associated concept: So... V saw the Dragon during the haunting illusions side effect of the research and might... maybe,... be having bad flashbacks when the elf tries to trance. So conflict, combat, fear, anger, shame.... dealer's choice, really.

[talkyourwayout]

I have some follow-up questions:

1. The recipient may also choose to give the khopesh to person (who may not be Louie). If they do so, they are subjected to the following curse...

Does the second they, the person getting cursed, refer to the next person to give the khopesh away after Louie, or the next person to receive the khopesh after Louie's recipient?

2. Or does the curse start as soon as Louie gives the khopesh away, making either Louie or the recipient cursed?

3. Does the magically-gained knowledge of what's going on include knowing about the curse? If so, will they know the non-harmful aspect? Also, does that knowledge cover the idea of four people passing the khopesh along before it can get back to Louie?

4. If the recipients of the khopesh are the ones who are cursed, would Louie be cursed when he finally gets it back, assuming that happens?

...Sorry, that's kind of a lot. Thanks in advance!

[burningbrighter]

Sunset would like her guitar, and the associated concept would be the confidence she gained upon being fully accepted into her friends' band.

Kaiba would like his three Blue Eyes White Dragon cards. The associated concept is the greed that drove him to obtain all three and rip up the fourth.

Tidus would like the ability to remain underwater for absurd amounts of time. His concept is stubborn determination to prove something...prove his father wrong, for example.

[magicademymods]

The big clock on the face of City Hall isn't working. No one knows why -- but if someone could figure it out, there will surely be some reward in it for them? Perhaps you can convince them to let you take a look... or sneak past the guards and clerks. Or just get there some other way. How will you venture up to investigate?

[magicademymods]

Please pick an element: fire, water, wind, or earth!

[magicademymods]

Eagulls are a fact of life in Anastara, if not a welcome one -- these pesky birds are noisy, aggressive thieves, and only barely put a dent in the rodent population. Interestingly, nests and eagull chicks seem to be vanishingly rare, so finding a brooding pair squarely on the roof of the Silver Fork Inn is all the stranger. The reward for simply making these annoying birds vanish is nothing to scoff at; the reward for gently relocating them is notably less, but may come with the gratitude of the more soft-hearted staff who don't expect anyone to show a birdy family sympathy. What route with Marisol and Friends take?

[magicademymods]

Strangeness abounds! Of course, considering the circumstances under which Atem acquired the Millennium Falcon, that isn't terribly surprising, but this is even stranger: when manipulating the puzzle that is the Millennium Idol to transform it into the Falcon, Atem discovers a second configuration for the puzzle -- this one rather overtly missing a piece. Without any clues to proceed on, how can he possibly proceed? (Maybe with a little help from his friends?)

[magicademymods]

We would suggest that within a close radius (five feet or so), anyone near Eleven and Eleven himself are protected from the sort of bizarre chaos that plagues the Magicademy on a daily basis. Not affected by love potions in the water or ghost dragon attacks or the usual nonsense. A zone of normalcy in a chaotic environment.

Eleven will begin feeling, deep in his bones, instructions to enact various deeds. At first they start simple -- confuse another person harmlessly, for example. On enacting them, Eleven feels a sense of peace and harmony, as if he has done a good thing according to the will of the gods. But the more he enacts, the darker these commands become. Cause another person pain. Ruin someone's magical labwork. Forge an item with a horrible effect. Eleven is being coaxed down a dark path by these seeming commands from higher powers.

Eleven will break free of this effect when he fulfills three dark commands to the letter without truly causing harm or despair to others. 'Cause others pain', for example, might be resolved by telling a real groaner of a joke. Or ruining someone's labwork is a good idea if that labwork is done wrong and will result in some sort of magical disaster.

[magicademymods]

Lady will find, one day, that her fingers are painful and slowly turning black -- a corruption that slowly spreads upwards, running black streaks along her arm as if infection crawls through her veins, with the promise that her body is slowly succumbing to the necrotic energy she wishes to wield. She can discharge it into the ground as per her spell, which slows the spread of it for a while, but this only buys her time rather than solves the problem. To truly shake free of it, she must pass it on to others directly.

Lady will pass this test when four people voluntarily take on the corruption to help her. If she can overcome her fear of what the necrotic energy will do, and trust others enough to accept their help, she will break the curse.

Yugi will find himself able to tap on his own energy, but every time he attempts it, he and whoever is near him will be drawn into a dark maze, a twisting confusion of passages with constant hints of danger in the shadows and the threat of environmental hazards like spikes, pits, etc. Yugi will never enter this maze alone -- he always has to drag someone in with him, whoever is closest or whoever he talked to last or something similar that forges a connection between him and them. Once they reach the center of the maze, they return to where they came from as if no time had passed. The only wounds that remain are the emotional ones!

Yugi and companion(s) will need to traverse this maze four times before it stops appearing every time he tries to Dimension Summon.

[magicademymods]

Whoever gives away the khopesh gets the curse (except for Louie, the first time). If they keep it, nothing will happen. This gives them something of an incentive not to give it away.

They do know they will not suffer serious harm from the curse, though they will legitimately lose blood. It will be the equivalent of a rather nasty cut, that bleeds a lot but not so much as to cause any danger from exsanguination.

Louie will never be cursed.

[puzzlers]

Just want to clarify! Does this mean he can successfully Dimension Summon? And just ends up in the maze with a friend or acquaintance the first four times? Presumably alongside Gandora too?

[treno_nobleman]

His main magic bounce back and forth between Holy and Flare, so fire it is!

[couldabeenturbo]

Are there midway games at the festival?

[darkenedmoon]

I would like Yotsuyu to regain the Kojin mirror. The associated concept is despair--when she felt she had nowhere left to turn to, she chose to throw her lot in with Asahi and whatever unfolded due to his machinations, and in doing so gave up her freedom.

It's also what enabled her to become Tsukuyomi in the first place, but surely that has no meaning here, right?

[magicademymods]

Sho would not be able to fly -- such a power does not function in the RG, after all. Possessing wings would, however, make flight magic much easier to accomplish, since it has that advantage to work with.

Xion will find she possesses the ability to heal someone by touch -- with the unfortunate caveat that whatever wounds she heals them of appear on her own body, doubled. This effect will not fade until she stops healing people and accepts that maybe she has some value herself and her friends don't want her suffering for their sake; once that happens, her healing magic will be restored to its canon form.

V recovers the ability to cast three area-of-effect spells of your choice, with the unfortunate caveat that he cannot cast one unless the spell would also endanger an ally, friend, or innocent. The lesson he must learn may sound familiar: sometimes overwhelming force is not the answer. V will only regain these spells properly once he comes to understand that fact.

[magicademymods]

Good news, Sunset: you have your guitar back. For whatever reason, though, it's working slightly but noticeably poorer than you'd like. Maybe no one else will notice, but Sunset is distinctly aware that the notes are just a tiny bit off. If she can stand in front of a crowd and play despite this deficiency, confident from beginning to end in her skill and reception, this flaw will fade. That won't be too difficult, right? Why would being completely unable to ignore the fact that her playing is objectively inferior to what she wants it to be cause her any lack of confidence?

Kaiba wakes up to the three Blue-Eyes cards in his hand. He has exactly 26 seconds to appreciate them before their ATT and DEF scores tick down by one each -- as they will continue to do every 26 seconds they're in his possession. Clearly, his instincts will tell him, the cards no longer find him worthy. The only way to regain their power? CRUSH SOMEONE ELSE IN A GAME. Any game, so long as the opponent realizes they are absolutely unable to compete against Kaiba. If they cry, more's the better!

Of course, if Kaiba can let the cards tick down to 0 without crushing someone in a game... they're still not fine. Kaiba has to come to accept that they're worth having because of what they are, not what they can do.

Tidus discovers, inopportunely, that he can breathe underwater -- by virtue of suddenly being able to breathe nowhere but. Once he gets his head submerged, though, he can remove it at any time and return to a normal life... at the cost of losing this gift forever. Only if he can tough out an entire week with his head underwater will this blessing be his to keep.

[magicademymods]

Excellent. Kuja finds himself able to not just glide, but fly! Swooping through the air is effortless to him, and far more pleasant than walking. However, the more Kuja flies, the more he begins to change. Slowly but surely, his hair and tail(s) change towards red-orange, then become long tongues of flame. From there, physical transformations begin to sweep all over him -- he is slowly turning into a phoenix!

To shed this curse, he must avoid flying for exactly as long as he flew, after which the changes will vanish and his gliding will be restored properly.

[magicademymods]

Correct! That may actually not be an advantage if the maze is small...

[magicademymods]

Sure!

[magicademymods]

Good news! The mirror returns to Yotsuyu, and with it a series of visions -- those people she cares about suffering horrible deaths. Those will pop up every so often at highly unhelpful times, offering strong implications that she could have prevented this if only she gave in to her power.

Instead, she has to help those she cares about WITHOUT that power, relying instead on local magic, wits, or just sheer determination. The visions can be influenced through these... and if she does so four times, freedom is hers once more.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

This kind of slipped my mind for entirely too long, but once upon a time, Cliff and Orisa and Hendrik went on a little adventure called Geese!, and we *did* get somewhere with it...

[gender_neutral]

Sho:
Hmmm... with all this RG vs UG, what about abn ability to vibrate things so that he can merge RG and UG rules, since we see so little of how things work in the RG in game, anyhow?

Xion:
OMG, well that is going to take a while. TY. I love it. A good chance for the lesson to sink and stick once it hits.

V:
::ebil laughs:: I love it. Can Willard see the pattern and point it out to V?

[king_of_egypt]

Alright, this adventure is in progress over here!! Even though Yugi informed him that the tower he found the Millennium Idol was in is gone he would have gone there to see for himself too!

Re: Adventures

[bearshermark]

Signing El up for his Special Adventure, A Question of Faith

[magicademymods]

With this many people helping out, success (by some measures) is only a matter of time.

Word gets back to Atem that the shape of the puzzle piece has been spotted amidst the strange series of runes and sigils covering the large obelisk officially identified in the Magicademy records as "Strange-Rune and -Sigil Covered Obelisk #29". Perhaps a group of people should investigate it.

Also, yes: the tower is gone. Vanished as if it never was!