Metis

And since it's done (albeit in a separate post, because editing these can feel dicey when there's too many stages in one post) Heart Matters, stage 10: The usual suite of "which attribute (or some other nebulous benefit) would you like?" options with some scattered background information spread among some or all of them, standard fare for my Y2 adventure (even at least some of my Y1 ones I think).

Heart Matters, stage 9: Could not even imagine how a "proper" failure would play out, so just went with the PC injuring themselves as a penalty instead. Should work just fine, especially because - as you might be able to tell - someone was having a bit too much fun with the options again .

Heart Matters, stage 8: Bit of a full stage, but the Gossip option felt out of place last stage, and you can see there's a surprising amount of background (well, former background) stuff that went into this adventure. Also, yes, I did have some fun in the Character Study option. After how long it took to make that option work (I hope...), I'll call that a deserved reward.

Heart Matters, stage 7: Some of the details here might end up needing to be edited later (frankly that goes for a few parts of this adventure TBH), but that's just the nature of posting it perhaps a wee bit early. Better early than later, though .

Heart Matters, stage 6: This stage actually is the start of a bit of a left turn. In the middle of typing this I felt that Miss Caretaker Award had to properly step up to the plate a bit, and things just kept rolling from that. That idea came back more than once outlining this adventure's possible future continuations, BTW.

Heart Matters, stage 5: I actually don't remember if this was one of those "come up with a mystery, pray it has some kind of solution to it later" types of adventures. At least some of it was definitely like that, I don't remember if this stage in particular was.

Heart Matters, stage 4: Slight filler stage, but you guys know how the old trick of shoving the common success text in with the next stage's main text goes by now.

Heart Matters, stage 3: Might have had a touch too much fun with the failure text there, but hey, better too much than none at all .

Heart Matters, stage 2: This stage had to get details/descriptions adjusted multiple times, so if something looks off, that's probably why.

And here we go again, new adventure! Heart Matters, stage 0: Both this stage and the next one required some last minute adjustments, so if something seems off, that might be why. Speaking of, Heart Matters, stage 1: What you're actually seeing here is the (mostly) unchanged versions of the initial idea of this adventure, which didn't get further than stage 3 before it got completely revamped ages later starting around stage 2. By now I trust you guys have a vague idea of my Modus Operandi for these kinds of things, and in turn what you're in for, though .

Can't (easily) confirm if it's been fixed since or not, but checking the DLC 15 Mod Base I happened to notice that despite the descriptions claiming that Rhetoric and Zoology are graded on a Curve and Hybrid Curve respectively they're both actually set to be graded on a Distribution.

Is the Forum of Naxum ever restricted to a certain audience - say, adults only - when a subject not deemed suitable for everyone is being debated, or can it be safely assumed that anything being publicly debated is palatable (if, for some, terminally boring) for said public?

I'unno, if you've got high enough Encumbrance and Concealment ratings you can get away with some truly ridiculous getups ingame.

How long does it take for traces of having cast spells of a specific school to fade away from someone, assuming they stop casting spells from that school?

Modern stethoscopes, no, but the earliest incarnation thereof (namely a hollow tube of either paper or imported bamboo) does exist. It's discovery is credited to a Merillian doctor named Courvaise, and as a medical tool it has spread within specialist circles. Second question no clue, but the first one I remember asking about before .

As far as I know that's correct, but it does beg the question why Flore didn't start attending the Academagia a year earlier, and why Kurt couldn't wait to start attending a year later.

If it's the map I've saved a local copy of for reference, it cuts off Auncesay/Oncestria and Staade to the north(?) and Strozza to the south(?). I'm actually not sure how to orient the map since it shows the river in Mineta going left to right, but Mineta's map itself has the river going top to bottom . Broadly: Staade is NE of Meril; Auncesay/Oncestria is NW or Meril; Meril is N of Mineta; Pievre is a mid-south section of Meril's island; Mineta is roughly centred; the Wall is shown E of Mineta; S-SE of Mineta is the Renaglian chain of Strozza; Strozza proper is S of Mineta and S-SW of the Renaglian chain; Monteon (or at least what's left of it) is W of Strozza's northen mainland, SW of Mineta. Thei I actually can't find on the map, at least at a glance, but there is a place called Theil in NW Meril. Not sure if that's related. I'm guessing the wiki is outdated there. Work Until you Drop has that effect at least since DLC 15, though it had a different effect in the initial 1.0.0 release.

The Explore action, to my knowledge, is unlocked by getting the Explore parent skill up to 1. You don't start off with that (bar something like background choices), but if you choose to read Gera's hint letters you'll get +1 Curiosity, which will Inform you of three Explore subskills. You can add a Stress Bonus to your Befriend action to get a bonus on your roll equal to the stress bonus specified, but as you'd expect it'll also increase your stress by that much after the day's other actions/events/etc. have been calculated.

If you had the skill on day one it's more than likely from a background choice that expanded a random skill, and said random skill rolled Gates magic. If you got the skill informed on day one unexpectedly I have to assume some kind of random event, unless you used something that, again, expanded a random skill. For the record it could be sillier. One of the random skill expansion activities is attending a trial, so you could, if you're (un?)lucky/dedicated enough, max out your Mastery/Gates magic from visiting court .

The short version is that "mid" terms happen earlier than the exact middle of the academic year, and the 1.0.0 version of the game is significantly harder/less forgiving in terms of how difficult adventures are, how many opportunities you have to train up your skills/study levels, etc. Obviously experience helps, but even that only help so much when most adventures require parent skill rolls against 20+ thresholds by the end.

That certainly sounds correct, yes. It's been a hot minute since I checked.

Looks like in 1.0.0 working at the bookstore does exist, but the ability is simply called "Four Phases Bookstore" there. Study at the Venalicium Library likewise exists, and under the same name this time, but it's a skill training ability rather than a study level training ability. That said, as Schwarzbart mentioned, the included DLC is both 17 content updates and bug fixes rolled into one, so I would highly recommend playing with the latest one, The First Touch of Summer, enabled.

Study at the Venalicium you should indeed start the game with, but note that there is a chance you lose the ability for a day when you use it. If you do lose it it's only gone for one day, you should get it back at the end of the break day. Work at the Four Phases Bookstore I can only assume is the same story, since it doesn't seem to have a prerequisite as far as I can see.

3. Exactly what does "magical adoption" entail? The legal angle I can imagine well enough, but...

So I'm fully aware this is a complete left field question, but here we are: Following up on the "human child ending up raised by fey communities" line, do said Fey communities have any special attitude towards LGBT(?) individuals, at least insofar as their attitude towards their human adopted(??) citizens(???)?