Combinatorial Explosion (Worm/Original)

[X][Research] Queen Administrator will continue to hold this Research in reserve.
[X][Interlude] Shadow Stalker

It'll be interesting to see Sophia's perspective on Taylor doing stuff.
 
Nice, there are some very useful looking things from the mana tests this round. I think we can spare the research to keep buffing Taylor and give her a permanent buff as well, but I don't see any reason to give research to the shards we've met so far. As for the interlude, looking into the PRT to see their reaction to us or SS to see how that situation has been handled both sound good. I think I will make my responses to the mana tests a separate post.

[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
[X][Interlude] Armsmaster
[X][Interlude] Shadow Stalker
 
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Send Research to [Broadcast] hopefully he can help you contact others?
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
[X][Interlude] Armsmaster
 
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.

[X][Interlude] Armsmaster


REALLY good findings this turn. Shadowstalker and Dad are the ones we are most likely to learn the actions and thoughts of IC right now. So lets see how bad the PRT and Protectorate are freaking out instead.
 
Am I wrong or would Snip-Ignis-Daka (or Snip-Daka-Ignis) make a quarter-decent projectile attack?

The permanent buffer sounds nice, a big boost in an emergency.
 
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)
-[X][Research] Research may be gifted to accessible shards. This Mana, while dangerous, is supremely versatile.
--[X][Research] Gift [Efficiency] Research Data for some reason. (Ask if they can help get more mana out of the conversion from buffer energy.)
[X][Interlude] Armsmaster
We gotta keep up our passive level up in addition to the burst strength. Plus, I like the idea of getting an Armsmaster interlude at the same time we make a deal with his shard.
@Shadestyle, is the [Efficiency] trade viable? Also, did we not earn any research this round?
 
@Rockeye
Looking at the sheet, it reads a bit like a warning shot, unless we just want to start a fire, or use a large mass of mana?
That being said, Repeating Snip multiple times might make a sort of shotgun attack. Which could be cool.

Personally, I want to find a phonem that makes a bell shape, and uses Ignis, Lux, and Pink to do....something?
Some kind of flaming flower bell made of magic. Maybe we could do something with the less direct healing and energizing mana types found this chapter?

Edit: Next turn, we could probbly do some serious research into Synthesis and Transmutation. Making things which think could be AWESOME.
 
Last edited:
Next turn, we could probbly do some serious research into Synthesis and Transmutation. Making things which think could be AWESOME.
Warning on two fronts:
Sentient creatures should be handled carefully.
Also that this sort of thing can get people worried (biotinker for example depending on the specifics).
 
Questions for Shadestyle:
How well can Taylor create aspected mana (e.g. gold or diamond) without a direct source, especially in combat or high stress situations?
What does the side effect of "distorting the metabolism of surrounding tissues" mean for coal>graphite?
How well are you handling the quantity of the testing portion of this quest? Is there any way that you would like us to make long, repeated test ideas easier on you? (Such as stating what we are hoping for as a result from variations of a long attunement chain, so that you could chose to only write the results of the version that succeeds.) I'm just slightly worried that as more people start following this quest, you might start getting bored or burned out from repeatedly creating results that we will likely never find any use for. :)

Useful things:
Crystal quartz- increases precision. Might help focus spells towards desired effects, particularly in combination with salt
Blood>Gold- magical caffeine? Perhaps a good first step to making a spell that removes the need for sleep.
Blood>Pt- wake-up zap, useful in niche situations
Vital Shock: Graphite>Pt- the second best result of these tests. Causes a paralysis effect to prevent injuries from worsening. With a bit of testing, this could easily become our best non-lethal attack as a taser ray.
Stone free- Golems based on living things!
Leadx3- gravity magic! This unlocks potential for antigravity spells (salt to isolate a body from outside gravity?), gravity shear spells, increased gravity fields, oh I have so many ideas!
Zincx3- curse magic! Just the result I was expecting! I think it might be worth reiterating zinc a few more times to see if higher forms cause even greater weakening. Regardless, this could enhance spells with some pretty nasty effects that won't be outright lethal
Graphitex2- Regeneration, with the side effect of increased aging and/or cancer. So close to a good healing spell but not quite there. Perhaps adding in an outside energy source from Energy Sphere (sweat>graphite) or using the higher tier Diamond energy will alleviate the side effects.
Nicklex2,x3- further increases the speed of (chemical?) reactions. Someone with more chemical knowledge should figure out how to abuse these.
Ripfield, Saltx3- If properly used, I think this can change a single target effect into an AOE effect.
Accelerated Growth (copper>graphite)- Well, I was hoping to revert injuries with this test, but it still might be useful with our plants. If we can figure out better control over the time aspect, we might be able to convert this to slowed or even reversed aging.
Rapid Healing- not sure what the side effect of distorting metabolism means, but it sounds bad. Perhaps cancer or even cell death later?
Osmose (liver>graphite)- I was hoping for something to remove poisons, which it sounds like this (kind of) does! Tentatively marking this down as a success in the healing magic development
Bread Orb spells- perhaps not useful on their own, but it is edible magic. Perhaps this could be repurposed into a healing potion later?
Even Split/Clone- hands down, the best spell we've made so far. Congratulations to the creator resusplus! I have ideas for this <insert mad scientist cackle>. If we use this a component in a chain or replace the egg (cell) focus with brain mana, could we create elemental clones? I think the end goal from here would be for Taylor to create a full simulacrum of herself or disposable Oni Lee style clones.
Phenom Hush/Z.Z.- a temporary lock on magic's reaction to vocal components! Very useful once we start integrating phenoms into attunement chains.


Interesting things:
Pt>Graphite- bioelectric organs if we want to go the biotinker route... Otherwise, something that might interest Shaper if we run into Panacea
Ear bone- increases vibration transfer, might be nice if we create some sound based attacks
"Defined Ore has currently unknown properties."- might be worth sending these to Armsmaster or another tinker for materials testing at some point
Copperx2,x3- "Time??" I was hoping for accelerated or reverting time effects, but the question mark suggests there is more to discover. I propose testing double and triple Al in a few chains instead of Al to see if there is any difference in effect.
Sea Glass- might be worth making some to see what the long-term unknown effect is
Double Down- strengthening via cell growth that reverts after magic runs out. Limited duration buffs without a side-effect could be very useful. We should try to replicate the effect (i.e. not giving the target magical cancer) in other spells
QA's scanning breakdown- reiterating wave-type magics might make QA unhappy, good to know.
True Attunements- Something else to experiment with! Easy materials to test are the wood armor, our knife, our glasses, and magical creations like the bag of glowstone powder.


Personal Testing Results:
Transmutation tests were a failure in replicating metals. I don't have any other ideas for how to make it work at this point, so putting it aside for now.
Healing magic wasn't as successful as I hoped, though Regenerate provides a pretty solid chain to work from.
Triple repeated element chains gave some pretty useful results (and a few less useful ones) and bone was just as dangerous as I expected. Might be worthwhile reiterating the most useful ones a few more times to see what up to 5 or 6 iterations do.
Phenoms are confirmed to not be in Latin, though my subsequent German tests didn't make it in. For now, onomatopoeias seem to be the way to go.
 
Bioelectricty REALLY interests me. Being able to make electric plants has all sorts of uses, and if we want to use lots of electric power quickly, having equipment and or true attunement to handle the strain for us could be very useful.

Clone and Split are AMAZING.

I like the idea of using the power of salt to separate us from gravity, but what I also got from the recursive salt tests, was that we could rip apart non physical bonds. Would it be possible to cut off someone's bonds of loyalty to another person? Or temporarily cut the recognition that a specific person exists from someone's mind? That might be beyond our level of control but its worth considering.

One thing I notice, is we now have both magic that gets stronger under the moon, and magic that gets stronger under the sun. Both could work as power amplifiers for magic now.

The Golem types are amazing. Perhaps, if we want to conduct experiments on Sea Glassin secret, we could disguise a golem able to fly as a regular bird, tie some Sea Glass around its neck, and have it fly to the coast before every morning?
 
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
-[X][Research] Research may be gifted to accessible shards. This Mana, while dangerous, is supremely versatile.
--[X][Research] Gift [Efficiency] Research Data for some reason. (Ask if they can help get more mana out of the conversion from buffer energy.)

[X][Interlude] Armsmaster
 
Last edited:
Questions for Shadestyle:
How well can Taylor create aspected mana (e.g. gold or diamond) without a direct source, especially in combat or high stress situations?
What does the side effect of "distorting the metabolism of surrounding tissues" mean for coal>graphite?
How well are you handling the quantity of the testing portion of this quest? Is there any way that you would like us to make long, repeated test ideas easier on you? (Such as stating what we are hoping for as a result from variations of a long attunement chain, so that you could chose to only write the results of the version that succeeds.) I'm just slightly worried that as more people start following this quest, you might start getting bored or burned out from repeatedly creating results that we will likely never find any use for. :)

Taylor has done almost no work in using raw willpower to force Thaumic Mana to change effects. It is currently a parlor trick in terms of usefulness.

A distorted metabolism means the cells will have trouble self-regulating their energy intake. IRL, problems like this can lead to weight-gain and weight-loss problems.

I've been running games and roleplay set in this setting (The thing this quest crosses over with) for around 5-6 years, as far as I can remember.

My current method of dealing with mana testing is to cherry-pick the tests I actually want to do. IF there are too many mana tests, I truncate the list of ones done, and then further truncate the list of ones that appear in-story.

If you want to help speed this up, the things that help the most are:

1. Formatting. At present, most mana tests need to be typed in by hand. However, Google Docs allows me to copy-paste certain things. Having mana tests formatted like so:

Thaum > X
Thaum > Z > Y
Transmute > X > Y
True > X

Speeds up the process significantly.

2. Prioritizing. Unless I'm skipping over tests that I don't want to do, I typically cut off an individual poster's later tests instead of their earlier ones. If there's something you really want done, putting it near the start of your tests helps me know which ones are priority tests.

3. Types. Right now, the most likely mana tests to be skipped are the write-ins. This isn't because I don't want to do them, it's simply because they require in-story attention in order to resolve. I can't, for instance, slide in a test to see what reciting a Poem does to Arcane Mana into the end-of-chapter spoiler of off-screen tests.

If you want a Write-in Mana Test to be concluded, it is best to have fewer mana tests total in that post, have it near the start of your post, and, this is optional, tie it to other actions in your post or the posts of others. It is easier to tack on "See what happens if you transmute a substance over and over" if it's tacked on to a turn in which you already have a Transmutation Project.

At the end of the day, my biggest concern isn't for the volume of tests from players causing me trouble, but rather, the volume of testing in-story from me causing the players trouble. The largest part of this quest right now is "Taylor does !SCIENCE!" with little slices of plot nestled between them.

Lastly, one thing that might be frustrating, but I feel is worth pointing out, when it comes to Pure Mana Healing, there's no such thing as a free meal. If your goal is truly side-effect-free healing, you may wish to explore options other than raw blobs of mana alone.



I mean, the cape action confirmed awakening methods, figured out true attunement and may have added a new avenue for training our magic power.

Fair enough. I'll tack some extra research onto a future turn.
 
So tack on added components?

There are a variety of possible ways to negate the side effects of some of these forms of healing, assuming you are unable to settle for one of the more benign side effects.

The most obvious one would be post-healing surgery to remove cosmetic changes, but there may be ways using magic alone as well.
 
Oh, also. The Zap phonem sounds really good.

Being able to make mana flow like electricty gives us REALLY good control if you think about it.
It could allow us to localize effects very well, since it would flow somewhat predictably thought materials with little resistance.

We could isolate effects to the most conductive parts of a subject, which could mean a LOT. What happens if the Bioelectricty mana flows through a target, but only attempts to alter the parts already most suited to letting electricty flow? Would you get less storage capacity, but a stronger stream of energy?

Could you use it to isolate healing magic to nerves? To minimize side effects while restoring critical functions?

Wires that transmit mana could be useful. Could we make wires for mana faster then the vines we are using for our cameras?
 
Lastly, one thing that might be frustrating, but I feel is worth pointing out, when it comes to Pure Mana Healing, there's no such thing as a free meal. If your goal is truly side-effect-free healing, you may wish to explore options other than raw blobs of mana alone.
Good to know! Rather than frustrating, I find it exciting. If perfect healing is impossible, then I just need to shift my testing towards mitigating/removing side-effects. Or maybe figure out a spell that removes effects of mana on an object? Hrmm, back to the drawing board...
 
Good to know! Rather than frustrating, I find it exciting. If perfect healing is impossible, then I just need to shift my testing towards mitigating/removing side-effects. Or maybe figure out a spell that removes effects of mana on an object? Hrmm, back to the drawing board...
A somewhat obvious one is that carbon based manas seem to induce elasticity while calcium induces stiffness. Calcium is also death but maybe we could study it and isolate the stiffening properties.
 
A somewhat obvious one is that carbon based manas seem to induce elasticity while calcium induces stiffness. Calcium is also death but maybe we could study it and isolate the stiffening properties.
That is one possible method. I tried the simplest version already, bone>graphite, which got the lovely Parasite spell. But perhaps mixing in salt to separate out the stiffness aspect and maybe quartz to improve precision would work?
The other possibilities for healing magic I've been thinking about are: time manipulation on the wound (pretty difficult with how unreliable making a reverse time effect has been though using Undo has potential), pushing the side effects to be superficial (and maybe figuring out a dispel effect to remove magic without reopening the wound) and getting the body to heal itself (the most likely to work). I found Regenerate (double graphite), but it can cause cell overgrowth. My idea for the next testing session is to include Energy Sphere (sweat>graphite) to provide energy for the growth, salt and quartz to separate and focus the effects to focus only on healing, tungsten to keep the energy in the wound, and egg to promote cell growth.
I'm going to copy the design of the Clone spell since that seems to be a successful pattern, so my full idea is: (Thaum > Diamond > Salt > Egg) + (Thaum > Sweat > Graphite) > Tungsten > Crystal Quartz > Graphite > Graphite. Ideally, (promotes local cell replication) + (energy source for cells) > recycle waste energy back to cells > focus on wound > regenerate. Now, I think I will test several variations, perhaps adding copper to speed up the effect, and try to remove the diamond so that Taylor can cast it without carrying one around.
 
That is one possible method. I tried the simplest version already, bone>graphite, which got the lovely Parasite spell. But perhaps mixing in salt to separate out the stiffness aspect and maybe quartz to improve precision would work?
What I meant was that maybe we're trying to cram too much into one mana type when we could just apply more than one sequentially. I do like the idea of using Quartz and salt for precision separation though. Maybe get attunements for more of the periodic table by breaking up molecules.
 
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)

[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.

[X][Interlude] Armsmaster
[X][Interlude] Shadow Stalker
 
Back
Top