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

Regains

[magicademymods]

[talkyourwayout]

Louie has no powers to regain, but should item regains still be an option, let's get the duck his khopesh back. This will also serve as a test to see if I'm understanding how this works...

The associated concept, put in simplest terms, would be greed - the episode where Louie first gained the khopesh centered around how his greed blinds him from thinking things through, resulting in impulsive and dangerous actions.

[magicademymods]

Louie awakes one morning with the khopesh, and a driving mental compulsion: he must hand the weapon to the very next person he sees, no matter what. Struggle or fight against this urge as he may, it doubles and redoubles each moment, until at last he must succumb.

As soon as the khopesh is passed on, Louie and the recipient both magically understand the following:

The recipient may keep the khopesh, and nothing more will come of this.

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:

Curse: The Cut of a Blade

This curse triggers at the exact moment it would be a disaster for the victim to start bleeding all over, and causes exactly that to happen. The victim will lose a dramatic but not harmful amount of blood (or other vital fluid or equivalent) in the most spectacular way possible. Sudden wounds, nosebleeds, eye socket bleeds, arterial sprays from the wrist -- it's disgusting, terrifying, and gross.

The next person in line learns all this and has the same choice, and so on, and so on. If four people in total pass the khopesh on, the last one may give it back to Louie, allowing him to keep it for good.

[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!

[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.

[shiningkindness]

Requesting to regain Fluttershy's Pony Up ability, allowing her to temporarily gain pony ears, a tail, and Pegasus wings. An associated concept is Kindness - the Pony Ups occur when the girls show the truest part of themselves, and for Fluttershy, that is her compassion and kindness to others.

If item regains are possible, I'd like Lena to regain her amulet, which itself does have magical powers. The amulet allows Lena to do things such as telekinesis, though it's unknown exactly to what extent Lena is able to harness its abilities. A possible associated concept is Imprisonment - the amulet was actually Magica's staff, which allowed Magica to create Lena from her shadow. The amulet and Magica's powers bound Lena to her, and Lena did her bidding in order to someday be free from her.

[magicademymods]

Fluttershy wakes one morning with the sudden knowledge of a Sundering spell in her head -- a spell that, when cast, will restore enough of a connection to her world that her ability to Pony Up will come back to her. But this is a complicated and finicky spell, requiring time and effort and precision and also assistance from others.

The true challenge of this spell, however, is not in all that: it is that the spell is, in fact, both incorrect and cursed. The slightest step towards accomplishing it makes it sink deeper into her head, so that it takes on an urgent fervor, then a downright obsessive one as she progress towards performing it. The true regain comes not when she casts the spell, but when, in the process of trying to cast it, some catalyst occurs which does indeed bring out her kindness.

[magicademymods]

At a terrible time, Lena finds herself holding the amulet just as she has a strong inner thought or desire -- something she wishes someone else would do, such as shut up or go away or anything both negative and unlikely. The person she is thinking of then feels a horrible mental pressure to do just that very thing. They don't have to succumb (what with godmoding being bad, and all), but the mental impulse is undeniably there. Of course, using the amulet like this can prove terribly corrupting, can't it? Especially if she needs to wish people would stop investigating this very powerful artifact of forbidden Dictation she possesses...

The trick to truly regaining the amulet is to use it on herself, by forbidding herself from using it like that any more or something similar. Once she does that, all these effects vanish, and everything is back to normal.

[treno_nobleman]

Kuja has sorely missed his ability to glide. Having to walk everywhere is such a pain, and it's not like he doesn't know how to walk, but sometimes it's nice just to levitate and not walk. This was a near constant for him in the worlds before, especially in battle situations, though it does have its uses outside of fighting.

[magicademymods]

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

[treno_nobleman]

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

[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.

[bearshermark]

I feel like it would be a good time for Eleven to regain Holy Protection- an ability that temporarily wards off enemies- ie. random battles in game. I imagine it's like a more temporary version of the game's blessed goddess statues that protect campsites from monsters.

Buuut I wonder, how would that translate to rpland? There aren't really many monsters around? Revised definition of enemies to anyone/thing that bears ill will? Within a certain radius? For how long? Or maybe it wards off negativity/ill will or something. Turns aggro'd people to neutral sorts within a certain radius temporarily?? What do you guys think? I'd just like it to grant some sort of peace and protection to those within a certain range, really.

For an associated concept, it'd be pretty easy to go with faith/trust in higher powers.

[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.

Re: Regains

[puzzlers]

Lady would like to (re)learn her Dusil spell. It's as follows: Corrupts the ground and deals ongoing necrotic damage to any targets in a specific area. Damage continues for a short while even after the target has escaped the infected area. And the associated concept would be fear.

Yugi is capable of something special called Dimension Summoning back home. To summarize it's powering up a monster using your own spiritual energy, and it's not something everybody in the YGO-verse is capable of doing. I was wondering if he'd be able to gain access to his personal ace monster, Gandora, via Dimension Summoning. Like, he could occasionally summon it at the cost of his own spirit and if it takes damage he takes damage, since they're technically tethered together. If so, then the associated concept would be bravery.

[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.

[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?

[magicademymods]

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

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.

[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.

[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?

[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]

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.

[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]

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.