The College of Jewels (Magical Academy Quest)
- Thread starter Lexica
- Start date
- Original
Ice Water
Lexica
Persevere
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X][OPPONENT] Some blonde girl with a stupid expression on her face. You think she's from a year or two above you.
[X][FIGHT] Fight her to inflict utter, but relatively painless, humiliation. Portal water on top of her, then buffet her with freezing winds from another portal.
[X][FIAT] Purity of intent: A true warrior needs no gestures or mumbled words to work her will. Let the world be changed in fierce moments. (Ignore the casting time on one spell and cast instantaneously.)
[X][MAGIC] Generic Enchanting
-[X] Rechargeable Enchantments (5)
-[X] Persistent Enchantment (10)
-[X] Minor Disruption (1)
-[X] Disruption (5)
-[X] Planar Creation 2 (3)
-[X] Planar Teleport 2 (15)
-[X] Planar Control 2 (15)
-[X] Maximization 1 (10 from Spiritual, 5 from Enchanting)
-[X] Superior Speed Casting (20 from Countermagic)
The idiot doesn't even pay attention to you as you stop in the middle of the hall way and begin casting. Honestly, she deserves it if she's going to wander through the halls day dreaming like that. Your focus turns inward to your personal pocket dimension, bringing the temperature inside it plummeting. You let loose your normally tight control of your magic power and instead overflow the spell with as much as you can muster without destroying it entirely. In instants, all the surfaces in your pocket dimension are covered in frost and your pools of water become something closer to pools of slush. You grin. Normally a cold spell would need to be far more potent than you could muster to affect such large bodies of water, but within the boundary of your planar control you changed the temperature of everything inside all at once, not needing to spread it from any particular point.
Portals open in front of and behind the girl trapping her between them and the solid stone of the corridor as the icy cold slush pours out. You calmly step back as some of it seeps around the edges of the imperfect walls and begin to admire your handiwork. Before you have much of a chance however, you hear a muffled and high pitched voice shriek.
"Syl!"
You pause, eyes darting about, looking for some kind of retaliation. Instead, a moment later you hear the girl call out to you, slightly less muffled.
"You bitch! What the fuck was that for?! Did Victoria put you up to this? I just fucking bet she did!"
You consider your response for a moment, but before even a second has passed she starts shouting again.
"Motherfucker! You ruined my essay you bitch! I swear to all the gods I am going to- to- do something about this!"
Somehow, the string of curse words and complaints that follow manage to pour figurative ice water on your emotions as surely as you had poured actual ice water on the girl on the other side of your portals. You frown. Why on earth had you been so angry just then? It seemed totally unlike you. Sure, you hadn't been sleeping very well lately, but that was no excuse for shouting at Lusca and Ruby over some stupid tiny part of your project, and just randomly attacking someone like this was totally disproportionate.
Regardless of any self reflection you had to do however, you did have a situation to deal with right now.
You...(Regardless of choice Saphira will return to the library to apologize to Lusca and Ruby after this scene is done unless you specify something else.)
[] Let her out immediately and apologize. If that doesn't go well you can just drop yourself into your pocket dimension immediately and avoid retaliation.
[] Just... Walk away back to the library before letting her go. She wasn't really paying attention before you cast the spells, so you think you have decent odds of her not recognizing you.
[] You don't leave things half finished. Prove your dominance. (An actual fight will ensue. Write-in tactics.)
[] Write-in.
Unhappy though I am with how short the update is, I am glad to finally have an update at all. The next one should come quickly as well, so no worries on that count.
[X][FIGHT] Fight her to inflict utter, but relatively painless, humiliation. Portal water on top of her, then buffet her with freezing winds from another portal.
[X][FIAT] Purity of intent: A true warrior needs no gestures or mumbled words to work her will. Let the world be changed in fierce moments. (Ignore the casting time on one spell and cast instantaneously.)
[X][MAGIC] Generic Enchanting
-[X] Rechargeable Enchantments (5)
-[X] Persistent Enchantment (10)
-[X] Minor Disruption (1)
-[X] Disruption (5)
-[X] Planar Creation 2 (3)
-[X] Planar Teleport 2 (15)
-[X] Planar Control 2 (15)
-[X] Maximization 1 (10 from Spiritual, 5 from Enchanting)
-[X] Superior Speed Casting (20 from Countermagic)
The idiot doesn't even pay attention to you as you stop in the middle of the hall way and begin casting. Honestly, she deserves it if she's going to wander through the halls day dreaming like that. Your focus turns inward to your personal pocket dimension, bringing the temperature inside it plummeting. You let loose your normally tight control of your magic power and instead overflow the spell with as much as you can muster without destroying it entirely. In instants, all the surfaces in your pocket dimension are covered in frost and your pools of water become something closer to pools of slush. You grin. Normally a cold spell would need to be far more potent than you could muster to affect such large bodies of water, but within the boundary of your planar control you changed the temperature of everything inside all at once, not needing to spread it from any particular point.
Portals open in front of and behind the girl trapping her between them and the solid stone of the corridor as the icy cold slush pours out. You calmly step back as some of it seeps around the edges of the imperfect walls and begin to admire your handiwork. Before you have much of a chance however, you hear a muffled and high pitched voice shriek.
"Syl!"
You pause, eyes darting about, looking for some kind of retaliation. Instead, a moment later you hear the girl call out to you, slightly less muffled.
"You bitch! What the fuck was that for?! Did Victoria put you up to this? I just fucking bet she did!"
You consider your response for a moment, but before even a second has passed she starts shouting again.
"Motherfucker! You ruined my essay you bitch! I swear to all the gods I am going to- to- do something about this!"
Somehow, the string of curse words and complaints that follow manage to pour figurative ice water on your emotions as surely as you had poured actual ice water on the girl on the other side of your portals. You frown. Why on earth had you been so angry just then? It seemed totally unlike you. Sure, you hadn't been sleeping very well lately, but that was no excuse for shouting at Lusca and Ruby over some stupid tiny part of your project, and just randomly attacking someone like this was totally disproportionate.
Regardless of any self reflection you had to do however, you did have a situation to deal with right now.
You...(Regardless of choice Saphira will return to the library to apologize to Lusca and Ruby after this scene is done unless you specify something else.)
[] Let her out immediately and apologize. If that doesn't go well you can just drop yourself into your pocket dimension immediately and avoid retaliation.
[] Just... Walk away back to the library before letting her go. She wasn't really paying attention before you cast the spells, so you think you have decent odds of her not recognizing you.
[] You don't leave things half finished. Prove your dominance. (An actual fight will ensue. Write-in tactics.)
[] Write-in.
Unhappy though I am with how short the update is, I am glad to finally have an update at all. The next one should come quickly as well, so no worries on that count.
- Location
- scrabbling
[] You don't leave things half finished. Prove your dominance. (An actual fight will ensue. Write-in tactics.)
I wanna vote this but don't really know what to write-in...
I wanna vote this but don't really know what to write-in...
PhDEevee
Mathematician and Questgiver
- Location
- Sydney
Good to see that this is back, @Wander. 
I really think that the in-character thing to do here is to quietly walk away and avoid trouble. That said, Saphira's already commented on her uncharacteristic behaviour here caused by Conquest, so there's room to do something different. And wouldn't you feel bad for ruining someone's essay for no reason, particularly if you were the studious type?
[X] Let her out immediately and apologize. If that doesn't go well you can just drop yourself into your pocket dimension immediately and avoid retaliation.
I really think that the in-character thing to do here is to quietly walk away and avoid trouble. That said, Saphira's already commented on her uncharacteristic behaviour here caused by Conquest, so there's room to do something different. And wouldn't you feel bad for ruining someone's essay for no reason, particularly if you were the studious type?
[X] Let her out immediately and apologize. If that doesn't go well you can just drop yourself into your pocket dimension immediately and avoid retaliation.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
[x] You don't leave things half finished. Prove your dominance. (An actual fight will ensue. Write-in tactics.)
-[x] Drop her to an ice-water-filled Somewhere entirely via another portal.
-[x] Try to drown her, except stop when she yields and admits defeat. You fight for dominance, not to the death.
-[x] Counterspell and disrupt any attempts at resistance, use your Warrior's Eye fiat if you need to know what she is up to.
Don't know how to plan a fight when I know nothing of the opponent, but that's a start.
Of course, there is a chance that now that we've seen what it actually involves, people would opt out of it. Still, it's what we made our action for the week. If we back down, it's as well as wasted.
-[x] Drop her to an ice-water-filled Somewhere entirely via another portal.
-[x] Try to drown her, except stop when she yields and admits defeat. You fight for dominance, not to the death.
-[x] Counterspell and disrupt any attempts at resistance, use your Warrior's Eye fiat if you need to know what she is up to.
Don't know how to plan a fight when I know nothing of the opponent, but that's a start.
We knew all that when we voted this fight in. Perhaps it's an attempt to make adjustments to Saphira's character. Some people commented on liking her aloof outlook.
Of course, there is a chance that now that we've seen what it actually involves, people would opt out of it. Still, it's what we made our action for the week. If we back down, it's as well as wasted.
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Lexica
Persevere
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, the thread was generally not on board with Conquest so I offered the chance to back down.
No plan? No problem! Conquest has got your back.
Official QM approved Write-in:
[] Listen.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Well, we have a fiat that is supposed to help us, Warrior's Eye, but I'll be damned if I know how it works. First we have to vote it in (and that's a tough battle when you don't know whether you need it or not), and then we have to plan with the information in mind? Sounds a bit bothersome.
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Lexica
Persevere
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Bothersome maybe, but it's very powerful. For example, you have no idea what your opponent's magic is beyond the fact that she wasn't entirely overwhelmed by being essentially surrounded by freezing cold water. If the thread voted to use warrior's eye, I would tell you how her magic worked and it would become much easier to defeat her.
Edit: And since Saphira is a pretty smart person, a use of Warrior's eye means that I personally will have her do intelligent things based on the information even if the thread doesn't necessarily vote for them.
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Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
Yeah, I am not on board with Conquest and this sort of arbitrary dickery.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
She already was a dick to Adam and to her classmates that she left to their deaths. Compared to the last one, a humiliation inflicted in a moment of anger is peanuts.
Though that would be easier to argue if she didn't come to her senses in the middle of a fight.
Though that would be easier to argue if she didn't come to her senses in the middle of a fight.
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PhDEevee
Mathematician and Questgiver
- Location
- Sydney
Wasted? Not really. Perhaps from the point of view of getting good stuff from Conquest, yes, but Saphira has met someone new (if unconventionally), and also gotten a general idea of what her tactics would do to an unprepared but reasonably experienced mage (i.e., it works, but there's an opportunity for a counter-attack). We'll also get a sense later of how Ruby and Lusca interact when Saphira isn't around - did they call the session off, or keep working?
I also really, really don't want to feed too much into Saphira's power tripping. The situation with Adam can be justified, but arbitrarily attacking people? Not so much.
I mean, I'm not a fan of Conquest and the arbitrary dickery that resulted, but I'd still be pretty happy to explore an apology and what results from it. (And yes, I know I wrote that vote with Adam, but I wanted Saphira to go talk and apologise later and it was helping out Henry and Adam together, damn it).
- Location
- AB, Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Just... Walk away back to the library before letting her go. She wasn't really paying attention before you cast the spells, so you think you have decent odds of her not recognizing you.
I, for one, am completely fine with pretending this never happened!
I, for one, am completely fine with pretending this never happened!
- Location
- Voidbetweenstars
[X] Just... Walk away back to the library before letting her go. She wasn't really paying attention before you cast the spells, so you think you have decent odds of her not recognizing you.
Lexica
Persevere
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well it has been months so that's maybe no surprise.
Anything I can help out with in particular?
- Location
- scrabbling
[X] You don't leave things half finished. Prove your dominance. (An actual fight will ensue. Write-in tactics.)
-[X] Drop her to an ice-water-filled Somewhere entirely via another portal.
-[X] Try to drown her, except stop when she yields and admits defeat. You fight for dominance, not to the death.
-[X] Counterspell and disrupt any attempts at resistance, use your Warrior's Eye fiat if you need to know what she is up to.
My vote is clearly the beginning of a turning tide...! ...right?
-[X] Drop her to an ice-water-filled Somewhere entirely via another portal.
-[X] Try to drown her, except stop when she yields and admits defeat. You fight for dominance, not to the death.
-[X] Counterspell and disrupt any attempts at resistance, use your Warrior's Eye fiat if you need to know what she is up to.
My vote is clearly the beginning of a turning tide...! ...right?
- Location
- Lasha Tumbai
[X] You don't leave things half finished. Prove your dominance. (An actual fight will ensue. Write-in tactics.)
-[X] Drop her to an ice-water-filled Somewhere entirely via another portal.
-[X] Try to drown her, except stop when she yields and admits defeat. You fight for dominance, not to the death.
-[X] Counterspell and disrupt any attempts at resistance, use your Warrior's Eye fiat if you need to know what she is up to.
I mean in the long run I'd rather throw our lot in with a different god but Conquest seems like an upstanding individual.
-[X] Drop her to an ice-water-filled Somewhere entirely via another portal.
-[X] Try to drown her, except stop when she yields and admits defeat. You fight for dominance, not to the death.
-[X] Counterspell and disrupt any attempts at resistance, use your Warrior's Eye fiat if you need to know what she is up to.
I mean in the long run I'd rather throw our lot in with a different god but Conquest seems like an upstanding individual.
Unseelie
(Verified True Fae)
- Location
- Tír fo Thuinn
Well, that's most of the reason.Well it has been months so that's maybe no surprise.
Anything I can help out with in particular?
Could you give me a short primer of what happened lately, besides the Archmage "test", the "rebellion" and us hearing voices (that apparently make us violent?)?
Lexica
Persevere
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So, you've basically got the gist of it. What led to this happening specifically is the vote that happened for the timeskip update before this one which had Saphira getting into and dedicating a fight to Conquest. That exacerbated what has been going on since the Archmage's test where Conquest has been throwing goodies at Saphira is exchange for Saphira acting more in line with Conquest's themes. Given that the player base expressed discontent after the previous update, I decided to use this one to let the players potentially choose to back off if they wanted to, because what Conquest is doing isn't mind control, but more of a quid pro quo kind of deal.
Also, Saphira has been working on a mid semester enchanting project with Ruby and Lusca.
Beyond Saphira, there were also a couple of updates showing what The World Anew has been up to, culminating in her killing Astrea (one of the members of the city council) and Wrath's estate being destroyed.
Any questions about anything in particular?
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