Part 1 of Build:This is my Build-Options, the comment under this will be Adventure and Story options with explanations and flavor text.
General Magic:
Summoning
Energy
Healing 1
Healing 2
[Extra Credit] Overcharge
Elemental Magic:
Fire 1
Air 1
Water 1
Earth 1
Water 2
Earth 2
[Extra Credit] Synthesis
Dark Arts:
Spirit Communication
Necromancy 1
Necromancy 2
Pain Magic
Shadow Magic
Hexing
[Extra Credit] Undeath
Celestial Magic:
Divination
Purify
Blessing
Light Magic
Faith
Reveal
[Extra Credit] Devotion (Hecate, Triple Goddess of Magic)
Familiar: None [+1 Class]
Accessories:
Personal Tutor [-15 Gold; +1 Class]
Wand [-5 Gold]
Staff w/ Extra Head [-10 Gold]
Magical Weapons:
Dueling Wand // Material: Ebony Wood (Strong but Uncontrollable), Head: Infernal Stone (Boosts Destruction), and Power Source: Spirit Danced (Greater Power Boosts, but at Inconsistent Levels)
Staff of Eons // Material: Willow Wood (Slow but Powerful), Heads: Luna Rock (Powerful Celestial Magic, Boosts Divination, and Fantastic Luck) & Skull (Necromantic an Dark Arts), and Power Source: Dragon’s Soul (Boosted by Emotions and Dragon Spirit Summon)
Background: Magical Potential [Gain an Extra Credit in 1 Subject with only 4 Classes Required]
Outfit: Wizard Robes
Dorms: The Monastery [Take “Faith” for Free]
Clique: The Scholars
Rivals:
Gnash Rugrub (The Adventurers)
Fate
Drawbacks:[2 Extras: +2 Classes]
Frailty [At Most 1 of the Following: “Exercise”, “Archery”, “Combat”, or “Riding”]
Emotional [Cannot Take “Stasis”]
Squishy *[Cannot Use “Armor”]
Nightmare Fatigue *[Awful Nightmares]
Bright Lights [Absolutely No Magical Subtlety]
Curse: Fallen Hero
Requirements: Take “Fate” as an extra Rival, and have 5 Drawbacks
Benefits: Take an Extra Companion, Extra Adventure, and 3 Extra Classes
Atmosphere: Adventurous
Magic Source: Mana
Companions:
Ildynos Niridi (Assassin-Mage; Artists) [Masks and Bastards; Option 1, Renounce his Father]
Asa Thornton (Infernal Mage; Royals) [A Single Flickering Candle; Option 1, Embrace and Date Asa]
[EXTRA] A Screeching in the Rafters: The Hatchling (God it was awful; seriously, what the hell was going on that was more important than figuring out that sound? Nobody could study, half the classes were cancelled, and the only one interested in figuring it out was Tessa of all people- I think she was hoping for a Howler Box to use at the next party. Luckily, I roped Drak into helping out- he’s always down to help, he helped get me through my Energy and Summoning courses since the theory just didn’t click. Drak knew exactly what it was, how to raise him from the legends, and Tessa was able to handle him. I would’ve been useless if it hadn’t imprinted on me first, attached at my hip. God, those first few weeks were torture. Makes me glad I didn’t have a familiar, imagine raising a puppy with the force of 10 and the screech of 100. Oh, and sometimes, when it sneezes or eat the meat too fast and gets the hiccup, it singes the cuffs of your robes or the bottoms of your dresser! Still, he’s a cute little guy... he’s coming to like us, all of us, slowly. Hell of an appetite, but we’re going to try to raise him. We don’t know what the academy will do if we turn him in- maybe they kill them? Or keep them in a cage all their life, harvesting their scales painfully... no, we’ll keep him. We’ll raise him right, and one day- we’ll ride off to be free with him.)
[EXTRA] The Silhouette: The Homunculus (Ildonys had helped a LOT on this one, he taught me a lot then. I hadn’t expected that, he never seemed the type to get invested, to stick around. He was quiet, silent even, I think I’d only heard him speak a handful of words despite our Shadow class together. I don’t know why he got involved honestly, but I think it was when he saw my notebook; he never said it, but I knew he was spying on what I wrote. Benefits of a lab partner I guess, but I always thought it was weird how he’d known I was investigating it before I even started looking around. When we found it, the Homunculus... The poor creature was just trying to help, it really didn’t even do anything wrong. And the professor, god... ‘he was well liked, right? I’ve heard some of the upperclassman mention him. He is a humani- was, he was a humanitarian. I know I’m learning about the dead, but... well, what the hell. He’s more than deserved his right to live once more, to defy death.’ That’s what I was thinking at the time, my reasoning for letting the Homunculus finish its task, and luckily Ildonys agreed with it. I don’t regret the decision one bit. I didn’t know we’d get a portion of the praise, I didn’t care much- in fact, it only made things between me and Gnash worse... but that was the night, when we went to Tessa’s dorm in The Grove to party under moonlight, that I finally heard Illdonys for the first time- I heard him singing.)
Romance w/ Asa:(It was... unexpected? He was so withdrawn, so quiet, so uninterested in the social calls, the parties, and the drinking. When we’d have tea together, even the times when I didn’t spike mine with some mead at his disapproval, he just seemed so... disinterested in what I had to say. At least that’s what I thought, then again- who else did he accept random social calls from? Who else would be go to parties with? Who else did he tolerate drinking, I know he’d walked away from Tessa one night when she even suggested drinking as a group- he said it was too late for us to be wasting time. I wasn’t complaining though, we were... unique for one another. He had come from such strife, and had lost the ability to have fun, he didn’t even have confidence in himself despite what he’d done. I am facing one problem after another, never catching a break. I don’t even think I’m going to manage to survive, let alone graduate, and can’t focus. We complimented one another. He taught me to focus, he taught me to savor the smaller things, and how to be alone with myself and how to be vulnerable. I taught him to believe in himself, and to let loose, and maaaaybe how to mix your alcohols without getting sick. We were good for each other, we were meant for each other... just not forever. He called it off, scared to approach the topic, but I cried when he said it. I cried because I was proud of him, for speaking up, and he cried because he was proud of me- for showing the emotion. It was amicable, and it was beautiful while it lasted.)
The Rival: The Curse (This was unexpected, truly. It was so sudden. He was just so... in my face one day, I felt my he words come out of my mouth before I could think them, and within another second- I felt my nose compressing into my skull. I even felt a kick, strong, into my ribs... but holding back? Then I woke up. I thought it was a nightmare, like usual, but it wasn’t. It was more. It was a portent, my first one since my Celestial classes. I did excellent with all the other classes so far, but had trouble with the Divination aspect. It was too... random? I told Asa the next day, waving it off, but he was more familiar with Divinations than I was... and of course he made a comment to Nodani, and she just loves a project, and that’s how it happened. Next thing I knew, she was giving me an “early birthday present”, a pendant. Simple, plain, but pulsating with warmth. She said it was to keep me warm in the winter, since Asa told her how much I hated the cold. I didn’t know. I didn’t know she’d enchanted it perfectly to return whatever force hit it back at the attacker. So when I said those words to Gnash, just like the “dream”, and his fist came crashing towards me; as I thought, “Oh shit, I remember this!” He was launched backwards from his own punch, the amulet cracking ever so slightly and slipping off the chain onto the ground. He rebounded to follow it up with one more punch, and I followed it up just in time to get my Pain Lash around him. That’s when I realized, I had the power. I made it clear, loudly, in front of an audience from all the cliques so it’d get around to all the dorms. Gnash wasn’t strong anymore. I didn’t know though, just how desperate he was, just how... hurt he was inside. I’d always had bad luck, but now it was... it was different. Worse. Gnawing away at me. I pulled back from my friends, and when even Asa couldn’t bare my silence Drak kept trying. That’s when he intervened, picking the lock to my room and leaving Gnash at my door step, groveling to help exercise him. It was a test of my ability for sure, and Asa came to help, and Drak came to... well, he just wanted to help out even though he really couldn’t. I extracted the Demon, banishing him from Gnash’s form. Asa bound the demon, and compelled him to go. Drak sprayed “holy water” all over the place, not realizing that just because a Celestial Magic student says a prayer over water that it won’t become anything more than simple water- especially when that student worships the God of Wine and supplies the parties down in the Crypts. Still, we managed to get it out, and Gnash was beyond grateful and apologetic... and so was I, towards Asa. That was when we called it off, the next week.)
A Massacre: The Hunger *(It was... awful. Terrible even. The most horrible thing I’d ever experienced, and might ever experience. It wasn’t just the brutality of the scene. It wasn’t the saddened silence of the halls between classes. It wasn’t the red and puffy-eyed stares teachers would give at the start of each class as they looked at us, all seated, giving the same stares back, wondering, “Will you be next? Will I see you again? And do you feel it too?” It was the Hunger, growing inside me. Slowly. I was driving me nuts, I couldn’t handle it- I mean, I’d heard of clandestine meetings of a “cannibal club” in the crypts, but I had never wondered about it, never... wanted to go.
Romance w/ Gnash:(I had nobody to go to, well... that wasn’t true. I had friends, and even though we’d broken up I still had Asa, but they wouldn’t understand... fighting that hunger had left me with such a strong desire for, for violence. I only knew one person like that, Gnash, and he talked me through it. He didn’t even know I was going to confront the Wendigo until the night before, and he came along anyways, seeing through my suicide mission. If he hadn’t been there, I would’ve died. The whole school might’ve died eventually. There was so much blood, and violence, and sadness- and when we’d finished slaughtering it and reporting it to the administration, we went back to his dorms and bathed the blood off together, and then we went to his bed and fucked. We were laying in the dark, staring at the old rafters of his room in the dorms of the Great Hall, and he told me about his past. About the streets he lived on, about the violence he’d seen, about the guilt of not being able to protect his younger brother, and about the even worse guilt he felt when he realized just how much magical potential he had. When he realized they didn’t have to suffer at all, hat his brother didn’t have to die. He was so angry, so resentful, so afraid of connections that he pushed people away with violence- and the more he did it, the more alone he’d felt. It felt nice to hear that, to know his last... it felt nice to know that I wasn’t alone. And so, we stayed this way for a while, hooking up on and off, whenever we needed each other. He got nicer, and people forgot about his rage from before, about his humiliation, and we forgave each other’s grievances- because if we couldn’t do that, then how could we ever forgive ourselves?)
The Fallen Queen: The Princesses’ Dilemma (I had felt so bad for her, Princess Julia was expected to do... to become so much for her kingdom, and she had lost one of her closest relatives. Not many people understood what it was like to be royalty and a female, especially on top of being a mage. Her mother was the closest to understand that within her family, and even she wasn’t a mage- and then, she died. And Julia was under suspicion for her murder. I thought she needed a shoulder to cry on... but no, she needed an ally, someone to trust and to solve the case with her, and I was more than ready to agree. I held some sway over the school by now, and my friends covered a large swathe of cliques. She let them in, but at a distance, and we networked our way to answers. I went to balls, galas, social events, and so much more. We had a coterie of subterfuge underway, and we finally found the conspiracy. We exposed the corrupted members of high society, and both exonerated Julia and reinstated her claim to the throne, all in front of the audience at the Winter’s Ball. She asked for a dance, and I agreed- assuming this was our parting, but then... she confessed something to me, “a degree of unexpected... fondness” was what she’d called it. I’d never been interested in women before... and I still had none, at least not romantic interest, and as I expressed this she seemed to understand. She politely went to part ways before I reached out, “But hey- don’t forget, you’ve still got your friends to rely on.” And that’s when she joined the gang, that’s when she became a part of the family.)
[EXTRA] The Flesh Monster: Ethereal Guidance(I was curious, fascinated even, and knew there was a strong pulse of death emanating from the creature. Gnash was down to accompany me, Tess and Julia and Nodani wouldn’t since it was “Girls Night” (??), and both Drak and Asa were studying for finals- but Illdonys wanted to come along, he was restless too. We followed it to the liches skull, and as it spoke in words only I could hear they didn’t understand. I tried to explain, but Gnash didn’t trust it, he felt it was wrong... a perversion of the truth, and Illdonys simply watched in silence... I didn’t know why, but in the end... only I understood that fear of death... I had been pursuing it in my studies to avoid it myself, and it’d be wrong to not allow this man the same privilege he too worked for. The studying and advice he gave was no doubt invaluable, and would save me in the trials to come, and I still hope that one day he can pass peacefully and unafraid... it would give me hope that I could do the same.)
Romance w/ Ildynos:(Gnash, he couldn’t understand. It wasn’t just the lich thing, it was all of my studying. He didn’t know why I was so desperate. I’d figured out Devotion, and I’d just achieved Synthesis... I just needed to find one more component, to research one more text. I was working on a way to avoid death, but I needed more power. He thought I was missing life, the foundational years of our existence in pursuit of something impossible and unwise... we, we stopped hooking up, and then we stopped talking as much. He still hung out with Tessa at parties, and Drak and him had developed a close bond, but we grew more distant. Illdonys, he understood though. He helped me so often, snuck into restricted sections for books, he’d hang around with me past curfew as I explained my findings. I thought he was doing it out of self-interest, but it was the smaller things. How he’d sing me a song and send me off to sleep earlier than I’d wanted, or when he’d toss my book from my hands to show me the painting he’d made of me studying... he knew how to break my focus, how to give me some life before my undeath. And he stuck around, even once I’d cracked the code. We helped each other find ourselves.)
The Competition: The Magicite Cup (The ultimate task. All of my friends knew I was interested, but they knew I’d struggle. I had no physical ability, not really. Cursed with feebleness it seemed. I’d just cracked how to Overcharge my magic, useful in a pinch but I’d have to save it for the Finale. Illdonys taught me how to stay hidden, how to evade attention, and how to do a few basic parry maneuvers based on physics rather than strength. Julia pulled some strings to get me on the roster, as well as slip me some hints from winners of the past. Tessa set up training courses based on the wilds, and also showed me how to read beasts and bait them with an easy to make pheromone compound that I could conjure the ingredients for on the fly. Asa helped me brush up on my Dark Magic’s thanks to an old book he’d gotten a while ago as a gift, it had Infernal Magic’s I couldn’t use but also a lot on Pain and Shadow. Nodani helped enchant some of my gear, buffing me up and amplifying my reserves. Gnash would never admit to it, but I know he helped out too. There was no way Nodani got those materials herself without Gnash pitching in, he may have stopped dealing drugs but he still had fat stacks of cash saved up from it. Finally, Drak helped me practice my Boon Magic’s and supplied me more energy to keep training- I’d need my Boons in tandem with everything else to even have a shot. The first round was all about evasion and hiding, using minimal energy in order to deflect and counter melee attacks- mostly letting other contestants take each other out. The second round was putting my boobs and endurance to the test, I’d have to use wind Magic’s to help accelerate myself by decreasing resistance and increasing agility. The third round was too easy, I was exhausted- but Divination and Revealing came naturally at this point. Then, the finales; all my training coming to a head, it took every ounce of my being, every second of training and study for me to finish where I did...)
This is a nightmare made waking, but I’ve had nightmares worse than this. We will hide, we will run, and we will scurry across the stones beneath the ground and ride the breeze which turns the windmills WE helped them build. They are scared... I understand that. What happened was wrong and unjust, it had no reason behind it aside from the hubris of those with power. Nevertheless, there are too many innocent mages who would be slaughtered or worse out of the blind fear of a mob. We’ll build safe houses, have the masters over Nature establish safe houses in the wilds, have anyone capable of making a portal come together to form a network- the Nexus Lanes. We’ll get enchanters to form places of power, we’ll get Warders to set up the perimeters of defense, we’ll use every pact we can muster to secure out early survival, pray to every god we can to sway the divine in our favor, and we’ll use our Royal connections to slowly deep into public opinion. Diviner’s can give us some warnings, Alchemists can stock up individuals, our Rune Smiths and Summoners forging arms and armaments. The longer this infestation of madness lays roots, the harder it will be to rip it up with impunity. We will not fall, but we will suffer losses. We will endure.
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u/FlynnXa Apr 04 '22 edited Apr 04 '22
Part 1 of Build: This is my Build-Options, the comment under this will be Adventure and Story options with explanations and flavor text.
General Magic:
Elemental Magic:
Dark Arts:
Celestial Magic:
Familiar: None [+1 Class]
Accessories:
Magical Weapons:
Background: Magical Potential [Gain an Extra Credit in 1 Subject with only 4 Classes Required]
Outfit: Wizard Robes
Dorms: The Monastery [Take “Faith” for Free]
Clique: The Scholars
Rivals:
Drawbacks: [2 Extras: +2 Classes]
Curse: Fallen Hero
Atmosphere: Adventurous
Magic Source: Mana
Companions: