Remove ads

The College of Jewels (Magical Academy Quest)

Reader mode
[X] Yes, listen.
[X] Nope. Immediately open a portal to Somewhere and not deal with this.
-[X] Bring your bed with you. Might as well sleep in.
[X] Look for Ruby
[X] No, don't help.
 
Last edited:
LoreOfClarke said:
Then listen to the godess, and tell her that, rather then hanging up the phone the moment she calls. Doing that is really rude, and might completely distroy our current relationship.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
While I am a firm believer that Sammy Did Nothing Wrong, and wouldn't mind closer ties with the Goddess, given what's coming (whether the revolutionaries topple the goverment, or the government squashes the rebellion, there would be plenty of strife we can easily find ourselves on the wrong end of), I would have to disagree here. You can't turn down a request that was never made. It's not hanging up, it's not picking up the call while knowing whom it is from and having a good guess at their intentions - which would imply some measure of interest in what they have to say. It is harder to get out of that one without raising some heckles.

Simply put, I think that ignoring her would keep us where we are, while refusing her might have consequences if we aren't smart about it. Then again, I expect some sort of deal that would be too good to refuse. After all, we are at a point where we have little power to speak of, so even something trivial to the Goddess would be considered a great boon we'd be very grateful for.

I am somewhat worried about becoming overreliant on her, to the point where we build a reputation that we would not be able to back up without divine favors. But that bridge is too far ahead to worry about it.
 
Huh. Apparently I didn't even run a tally on the last vote.

Vote Tally : Original - The College of Jewels (Magical Academy Quest) | Page 53 | Sufficient Velocity
##### NetTally 1.7.5
[X] Open a portal under it and dump it Nowhere.
No. of Votes: 21
Deathbybunnies
BunnyLord
ChildishChimera
drake_azathoth
Malaquez
Maragas
NemoMarx
notthepenguins
Prent
reborn214
sidestory
Sinarblood
SpeckofStardust
Spectrum
SystemicHatter
TurtleDucks
UberJJK
Varano
veekie
zinay
zup
[X] Look for Ruby.
No. of Votes: 20
Deathbybunnies
BBBence1111
Broken25
ChildishChimera
drake_azathoth
Malaquez
Maragas
NemoMarx
notthepenguins
Prent
reborn214
sidestory
Sinarblood
SpeckofStardust
SystemicHatter
UberJJK
Unseelie
Varano
zinay
zup
[X] No, don't help.
No. of Votes: 13
Spectrum
BBBence1111
Broken25
BunnyLord
drake_azathoth
reborn214
Sinarblood
SpeckofStardust
SystemicHatter
UberJJK
Varano
veekie
zup
[X] Yes, listen.
No. of Votes: 11
TurtleDucks
BBBence1111
Broken25
drake_azathoth
Nevill
reborn214
Sinarblood
TotallyNotEvil
tricholysis
UberJJK
zinay
[X] Yes.
No. of Votes: 9
Deathbybunnies
Aoinfinity
ChildishChimera
Ct613hulu
Malaquez
Maragas
Prent
sidestory
Unseelie
[X] Nope. Immediately open a portal to Somewhere and not deal with this.
No. of Votes: 9
Unseelie
Aoinfinity
BBBence1111
Broken25
Ct613hulu
Dirk93
fictionfan
Nevill
TotallyNotEvil
-[X] Bring your bed with you. Might as well sleep in.
No. of Votes: 9
Unseelie
Aoinfinity
BBBence1111
Broken25
Ct613hulu
Dirk93
fictionfan
Nevill
TotallyNotEvil
[X] No, don't Listen.
No. of Votes: 7
Spectrum
BunnyLord
SpeckofStardust
SystemicHatter
Varano
veekie
zup
[X] No.
No. of Votes: 6
sidestory
Ct613hulu
Maragas
NemoMarx
PlatypusofFail
Prent
[X] Look for the TA.
No. of Votes: 3
Spectrum
BunnyLord
veekie
-[X] Leave a note in your room to the effect of where you're going.
No. of Votes: 3
Spectrum
BunnyLord
veekie
[X] Look for Henry.
No. of Votes: 2
TurtleDucks
Nevill
[X] Yes, help.
No. of Votes: 2
TurtleDucks
Nevill
[X] Hide Somewhere all day and get some studying done.
No. of Votes: 2
Dirk93
TotallyNotEvil
-[x]leave a note
No. of Votes: 1
fictionfan
[X]when you have gotten enough sleep to feel bored go find Ruby.
No. of Votes: 1
fictionfan
Total No. of Voters: 32

Tallybot was less confusing than I feared. It looks like the winning vote is:

[X] Yes, listen.
[X] Open a portal under it and dump it Nowhere.
[X] Look for Ruby.
[X] No, don't help.

I'll hold off on writing for a half hour to give time for people to correct me in case I'm crazy and reading that horribly wrong, but votes are closed officially now.

Hmhm. Saphira is definitely going interesting places. Yes, I do think barring drastic changes I know where the pieces on the board should be approximately standing come the climax.
 
Wander said:
[X] Yes, listen.
[X] Open a portal under it and dump it Nowhere.
[X] Look for Ruby.
[X] No, don't help.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

you sure about that, cause I know my 'No' vote was meant as a 'No, don't listen'
And if you take the other votes as the same then it would be part of the winning vote

Wander said:
[X] No, don't Listen.
No. of Votes: 7
Spectrum
BunnyLord
SpeckofStardust
SystemicHatter
Varano
veekie
zup
[X] No.
No. of Votes: 6
sidestory
Ct613hulu
Maragas
NemoMarx
PlatypusofFail
Prent
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
sidestory said:
you sure about that, cause I know my 'No' vote was meant as a 'No, don't listen'
And if you take the other votes as the same then it would be part of the winning vote
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
But if you assume all the 'No' votes were for 'No, don't listen' you have to assume all the 'Yes' votes were for 'Yes, listen' as well if you want to be fair. In which case 'Yes, listen' still wins:
Wander said:
[X] Yes, listen.
No. of Votes: 11
TurtleDucks
BBBence1111
Broken25
drake_azathoth
Nevill
reborn214
Sinarblood
TotallyNotEvil
tricholysis
UberJJK
zinay
[X] Yes.
No. of Votes: 9
Deathbybunnies
Aoinfinity
ChildishChimera
Ct613hulu
Malaquez
Maragas
Prent
sidestory
Unseelie
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
with 20 votes.
 
UberJJK said:
with 20 votes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

No It doesn't, I know at least some of these 'Yes' votes refer towards helping the other students,

How do I know this, cause I'm part of them and I'm hardly the guy to give out contradicting votes

I think the only thing made clear from this however is that the tally doesn't work with such an confusing vote as it only count's the individuell words and does not consider their position as a whole, which matters here as it defines to which vote it refers

Therefore unless there is another tally programm that does this, I think we may have a rather big problem at the hand
 
sidestory said:
No It doesn't, I know at least some of these 'Yes' votes refer towards helping the other students,
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That was kinda my point. You can't count all the 'Yes' or all the 'No' votes for one of the two yes/no choices since they are pretty much guaranteed to be split between the two.

sidestory said:
Therefore unless there is another tally programm that does this, I think we may have a rather big problem at the hand
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There is actually a very easy solution to the problem, one built into hte net tally in fact, it's called Tasks.

Instead of offering:

Article:
Listen.
[] Yes.
[] No.

How will you deal with the hostile earth elemental that is about to try and splatter Saphira's brains all over her room?
[] Nope. Immediately open a portal to Somewhere and not deal with this.
-[] Bring your bed with you. Might as well sleep in.
[] Open a portal under it and dump it Nowhere.
[] Run away out of your room.

After your immediate response what do you do?
[] Hide Somewhere all day and get some studying done.
[] Look for Ruby.
[] Look for Henry.
[] Look for the TA.
[] Go to the library.

Assuming you don't just hide in a pocket dimension all day, will you help out your fellow students if they seem to be needing it?
[] Yes
[] No.


You instead offer:
Article:
Listen.
[][LISTEN] Yes.
[][LISTEN] No.

How will you deal with the hostile earth elemental that is about to try and splatter Saphira's brains all over her room?
[][ELEMENTAL] Nope. Immediately open a portal to Somewhere and not deal with this.
-[] Bring your bed with you. Might as well sleep in.
[][ELEMENTAL] Open a portal under it and dump it Nowhere.
[][ELEMENTAL] Run away out of your room.

After your immediate response what do you do?
[][RESPONSE] Hide Somewhere all day and get some studying done.
[][RESPONSE] Look for Ruby.
[][RESPONSE] Look for Henry.
[][RESPONSE] Look for the TA.
[][RESPONSE] Go to the library.

Assuming you don't just hide in a pocket dimension all day, will you help out your fellow students if they seem to be needing it?
[][HELP] Yes
[][HELP] No.


Net Tally will then sort all the votes into the listed tasks of [LISTEN]. [ELEMENTAL], [RESPONSE], and [HELP] for easy tallying.

Here is an example from To Boldly Go:
Vote Tally : Sci-Fi - To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) | Page 1238 | Sufficient Velocity
##### NetTally 1.7.4

Task: AMARKIA

[X][AMARKIA] Green Light
No. of Votes: 20
Briefvoice
aeqnai
AlphaDelta
DarknessSmiles
Derek58
Finagle007
Iron Wolf
JesseJ
Jrin
KnightDisciple
kyuden
Leila Hann
Muramasa
Nervos Belli
pheonix89
Simon_Jester
tryrar
UbeOne
UberJJK
Void Stalker

[x][AMARKIA] Yellow Light (Only allowed if integrated directly into RAdm Ainsworth's fleet)
No. of Votes: 2
random_npc
nocarename

——————————————————————————————————————————————
Task: APIATA

[X][APIATA] USS Enterprise
No. of Votes: 21
Briefvoice
aeqnai
AlphaDelta
DarknessSmiles
Derek58
Finagle007
Iron Wolf
JesseJ
Jrin
KnightDisciple
kyuden
Leila Hann
Muramasa
Nervos Belli
nocarename
pheonix89
Simon_Jester
tryrar
UbeOne
UberJJK
Void Stalker

——————————————————————————————————————————————
Task: INDOR

[X][INDOR] USS Sarek
No. of Votes: 21
Briefvoice
aeqnai
AlphaDelta
DarknessSmiles
Derek58
Finagle007
Iron Wolf
JesseJ
Jrin
KnightDisciple
kyuden
Leila Hann
Muramasa
Nervos Belli
nocarename
pheonix89
Simon_Jester
tryrar
UbeOne
UberJJK
Void Stalker

——————————————————————————————————————————————
Task: STAFF

[X][STAFF] Keep Staff
No. of Votes: 21
Briefvoice
aeqnai
AlphaDelta
DarknessSmiles
Derek58
Finagle007
Iron Wolf
JesseJ
Jrin
KnightDisciple
kyuden
Leila Hann
Muramasa
Nervos Belli
nocarename
pheonix89
Simon_Jester
tryrar
UbeOne
UberJJK
Void Stalker

Total No. of Voters: 22
The [APIATA] and [INDOR] votes both require a starship be listed and both the USS Sarek and USS Enterprise are valid choices for either vote. The use of tasks makes it clear which ship is being selected for which task.

Of course this would probably be more clear with a less uniform vote but not many quests use Tasks so it was the best example I have.
 
At this point, it's a lost cause—everyone who's cast an improper vote would need to recast and that's a right proper pain to get done. May as well forge ahead with what we have.
 
...all the 'No's combined for both specified and unspecified reasons reach no more than 13 votes.

You can quickly check 9 unspecified 'Yes' votes to see that only 1 vote - sidestory's - is for helping, the others are all for listening, bringing the total count to 21. That's how we know what won.

But yes, perhaps in the future we should avoid similarly sounding options to prevent confusion.
 
Last edited:
Invalid votes don't count. End of story.

Next time, maybe vote properly, instead of trying to change the results after.
 
Remove ads
Unease
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Yes, listen.
    [X] Open a portal under it and dump it Nowhere.
    [X] Look for Ruby.
    [X] No, don't help.

    With an admittedly very embarrassing shriek you practicably tumble out of your bed as you begin casting. Luckily the golem didn't seem to be very fast so either the Archmage had decided to go easy on the students who unlike you weren't used to waking up at the crack of dawn (unlikely), or he had decided to make his 'lesson' not very hard (also unlikely). As the back of your mind works through the Archmage's apparent stunning and out of character mercy, the forefront is occupied with casting the spell to send this elemental as far away from you as possible. It was a wonder what a world of difference the TA's methodology made. Just running through a basic spell like this made it impossible not to notice the difference. Even thinking about casting dimensional science spells the way you had before brings to mind a painful clunking noise.

    You take measured steps back from the elemental as you cast, carefully keeping in awareness of any more that might be sneaking up on you, and with an admittedly somewhat over dramatic flourish and turn on your heel step out of your room as the creature of earth and stone is dropped away into nothingness.

    Now... Tempting as it is to hide Somewhere with your bed and get some sleep, you're pretty sure Ruby would be unhappy with you if you did that without finding her first after what happened yesterday. So the first order of business is to find her. And of course you don't want to risk going to her room only to find out that she's already left to meet up with you and the two of you missed each other along the way.

    So, you resolve to wait it out and let her find you. With her physical enhancements you have little doubt that she's the faster of the two of you and are confident that she'll reach your room soon.

    ---​
    It's been ten minutes already and your confidence is ever so slightly shaken. The elementals the Archmage is creating still aren't terribly threatening and after a few series of loud noises other students began emerging from their own rooms around you. You try to avoid noticing the one room on your hall that still has its door closed and hope they've just decided to stay in there. You remember the occupant vaguely as a red haired girl who had seemed not intolerable.

    So what has your confidence shaken isn't the elementals or even the fact that one of your fellow students who you recognize might be dead. It's twofold. The first part is that... this is easy. And not just for you either. The other girls on your hall and you have gotten into a small competition to see who can dispatch the new elementals the fastest (You currently possess the lead but are keeping on eye on a water elementalist with an interesting blue shade of hair that you suspect is not at all dyed given the efficacy of her spells). Everyone but you and her seem a bit slow this morning, the other girls are so slow you want to snap at them. They can't be this tired, can they? Regardless, even as the competition between you and blue-hair gets more heated, your current ease makes you worried. You can't say that you 'know' the Archmage or anything, but you have seen him in action, and you've heard both the TA and Sammy tell stories. Everything you know about him says that this shouldn't be this easy.

    And the second thing you're worried about is that Ruby hasn't shown up yet. Perhaps it's arrogant to think that she would come running straight to you first thing, but you thought it was incredibly likely that she would do just that. Maybe she's waiting for you like you're waiting for her? That could be it, but you doubt it. Ruby always seemed more like a woman of action rather than someone inclined to wait for things to happen. And there was no way these elementals would be slowing her down that much either. They weren't nearly that strong and she was nowhere near that weak. Maybe the Archmage had singled her out again... But that still didn't explain why the rest of this was so easy.

    The whole thing unnerved you.

    [] Don't let your unease get to you. If you dash off looking for Ruby now, you might never find each other.
    -[] If you're going to stick around, you might as well get it over with and see if that red-haired girl (what was her name again?) is okay.
    [] Something isn't right. Go look for Ruby yourself.
    -[] See if Blue-hair wants to come along. She seems useful, and besides, you've got a competition to win.
    [] Fuck it. You're not dealing with this. Wait it out Somewhere until this is all over.

    [] Write in
    ​
    So let's have a small discussion of the quest (And before anyone panics, this isn't a doom and gloom notice or anything).

    This is the first real quest and the longest piece of writing I've ever done. Because of that, there has been some stumbling and mistakes along the way, and when I eventually start my next serious quest, it will certainly be made better by the experience. That said, I don't intend to start that 'next serious quest' until after this one is complete. Right now, I would estimate that we're about a third of the way through the story I have planned- maybe more, maybe less.

    So first and foremost I want to assure all of you that I'm not going to abandon this quest. I enjoy Diadem, I enjoy the cast of characters I've developed (And actually I would be amused if you could guess which ones I made up on the spot and which ones I had planned from the start- I suspect you would be surprised on both ends of that). It's funny really, I didn't originally intend the college of jewels to be a huge part of Diadem's setting, but I knew SV's predilections in terms of plot and characters they like to make, so it became what it is. And because of that, I actually haven't had a chance to focus on aspects of Diadem that I originally did plan out in some detail, but I'm not much bothered by it. I like where things have gone, and I think you all have made some very interesting choices.

    Well, I'm rambling a bit, so I suppose the main take away here is that I appreciate all of you who read what I've written and especially those of you who take the time to come up with votes and discuss things or ask questions. So just know that I don't intend on ever really giving up on this quest, even if sometimes there may be large breaks between updates.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Don't let your unease get to you. If you dash off looking for Ruby now, you might never find each other.
    -[X] If you're going to stick around, you might as well get it over with and see if that red-haired girl (what was her name again?) is okay.
     
    [X] Don't let your unease get to you. If you dash off looking for Ruby now, you might never find each other.
    -[X] If you're going to stick around, you might as well get it over with and see if that red-haired girl (what was her name again?) is okay.
    --[X] Just open a viewing portal and see if someone else here will get themselves disqualified.
     
    Blue Hair sounds interesting, and I'm really worried about the other shoe here.

    [X] Something isn't right. Go look for Ruby yourself.
    -[X] See if Blue-hair wants to come along. She seems useful, and besides, you've got a competition to win.
     
    [X] Something isn't right. Go look for Ruby yourself.
    -[X] See if Blue-hair wants to come along. She seems useful, and besides, you've got a competition to win.

    If your instincts are telling you something is wrong there is generally a reason, especially in a magic heavy setting.
     
    [X] Something isn't right. Go look for Ruby yourself.
    -[X] See if Blue-hair wants to come along. She seems useful, and besides, you've got a competition to win.
     
    [X] Something isn't right. Go look for Ruby yourself.
    -[X] See if Blue-hair wants to come along. She seems useful, and besides, you've got a competition to win.

    Seconding listening to our instincts. It's likely linked to this:
    Wander said:
    Everyone but you and her seem a bit slow this morning, the other girls are so slow you want to snap at them. They can't be this tired, can they?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    In which case, we appear to have dodged the effect somehow (I wonder if it's related to Methodology-Ver1.7?) but Ruby might not have.

    At the same time, this is a little alarming:
    Wander said:
    "Attention all students. Given that the faculty is currently too busy to engage in traditional methods of teaching, I have decided that today you will be taught by the best teacher of all. Experience. Not dying is a passing grade. And as an aside to certain students, doing another student's course work for them is of course cheating. As is standard policy, cheating will result in a failing grade for all involved. Standard group work rules apply."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Working together is alright, but apparently carrying other people through the test is a Bad Idea, so we'd best avoid that.
     
    [X] Something isn't right. Go look for Ruby yourself.
    -[X] See if Blue-hair wants to come along. She seems useful, and besides, you've got a competition to win.
     
    For those interested, I finally got around to gathering up my city council and god/goddess write ups. They are now gathered on the first page under 'Dossiers' in the threadmarks.
     
    Last edited:
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top