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Writing adventures: Help please


Svinik

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Are your adventures planed for year 1 or for year 2? If the first you only have 1 DLC left where BCS can put them in and so if you take long to write them there is the big chance they never will make it into the game.

 

 

I'm hoping to get at least one into DLC 17, but it depends on how long before it comes out. One problem is I wanted to do multi-phase adventures so they are taking a lot longer than single phase, or single stage adventures.

 

With Yr 2 clubs are apparently very different so the idea may not work at all.

 

Oh well, I'll do what I can, I've almost finished stage 4 of St Pai's. although I'm not sure what sort of adventure I'd do for Leith, Rupprecht, Briardi, or Orsi.

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I'm going to try doing just 4 stages for St Pai's, if we wind up with enough time I'll do another 3 or 4 after I've done some other clubs for a short set of stages.

 

I did stage 1 of Rimbal Supporters so I'll try to do 3 or 4 of that one too. Question - does anyone know some obvious students other than Zorzi to have in the club?

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First half of Stage 4 of St Pai's, this has turned out to be a long one, sorry.

 

 

 

All DC's 6 unless stated, the idea is DC=stage +2, a rare skill might drop to (DC=stage) while a booster skill like perception, observation, etc would be (DC=stage+3)

Stage 4. Professor Knoht's odd errand

It wasn't their fault, I mean, not really. It's just that things happen around Aaran Ledale and the worst person to try to help is probably Asmita Tidar. Aaron was trying a new spell, when his familiar Tempte, decided to chase Goodkin, Piccolet's Gleyre's rat. While Piccolet charged in to snatch Goodkin away from Tempte, Aaran tried to grab Tempte and pull him away - only for his spell to somehow go awry with flashes of glamour blinding people and abrupt loud crashing sounds driving the familiar's crazy.

 

Asmita tried desperately to negate the spell only to see her own spell go wrong with the glamour turning into a minor spell storm. Piccolet tried to Negate the spell-storm but the storm was still howling with light and noise when Professor Storey rounded the corner.

 

If not for Aaran and Piccolet explaining that they were on their way to St Pai's and Asmita's hasty claim of the same for the pair of you, the infamously punitive Professor would probably have given you all detention. All the same you are held up long enough to be running very late as you head for the club house.

The St Pai Club house is almost empty when you arrive and your heart sinks, you missed it, Professor Pachait's trek into the Imperial Reserve has clearly set off. Just as you are about to charge to the front gate in the hope of catching them up, Professor Knoht breezes into the club house.

 

"Oh good, some of you are still here, I was worried that you'd all be haring off on Regnault's trek into the back of beyond. I got a petition some weeks ago that I forgot to give to the club, and it needs to be completed today. It's a little odd I accept, but it needs to be answered" ...she drifts off for a moment "I forget why but it's terribly important."

 

Piccolet looks somewhat worriedly at you at the professors absent look - even for Professor Knoht this is unusually bad, but before the four of you can think up any excuses to leave Professor Knoht continues on. "The Petition is from..." she pauses for a while before continuing as though she'd never stopped "anyway, I need you to find some ingredients for a feast for them and help them at their feast, details are in the petition."

 

She frowns as if trying to catch a stray memory, "well, that's what I need help with, it should be easy enough for you, so good luck all. A good attempt is all I ask."

Asmita and Aaran exchange confused looks, "well", says Aaran, "it doesn't sound too hard, just help out at some party." Asmita looks a little dubious "I've helped out at a lot of feasts, but the petition asks for ingredients from the wandering bush, that's not something that's usually eaten - it's used for potions but not for cooking."

Piccolet shrugs, "I like to help people, and there's supposed to be some sort of spirit watching over the club to protect it against unworthy petitions. So what the heck, let's give it a go - I think we should be able to find a wandering bush down by lake Ardica."

 

Auto: Advance phase 2.

What the heck, you've got nothing else to do and the petitioner's could really be in need.

 

Auto: End adventure.

That's it, enough of this crazy club, Professor Knoht's the vaguest Professor in the entire Academagia, but now it's clearly time to call it quits.

 

Phase 2: Go search for the wandering bush

"The thing about Wandering Bushes", muses Piccolet as you walk towards the lake, "is, well, that they wander. Properly I mean - they un-root themselves and go looking for spots with nutrients that they need and then plant themselves again to harvest the nutrients. It's a bit early in the season for them, you might have a few that survived through the winter without rooting which could be nearly anywhere where they can get good access to light; some could still be roots buried in the mud waiting out for warmer weather; a few might have started to flower or even seeded but for those ones we should be careful of their thorns."

"Great, where do we look" said Asmita, "the bushes could be pretty much anywhere around the lake!"

 

2.1. Roots: Grub around the shore of the lake and see if you can dig up a wandering bush root.

Success: +1 relationship Piccolet, Gain location: Ardica Lake, advance to phase 3

The lake shore is quiet, the spirit of the lake is fortunately not paying attention to you. Asmita and Aaran carefully look around the shoreline looking for some saplings that have started to grow but not yet matured enough to start wandering, while Piccolet and you paddle out into the lake and dig around the lake bed for roots that haven't yet awoken after the winter and begun wandering.

 

There is a sudden boom from over where Aaran and Asmita are, and you and Piccolet start running towards the two, "we should never leave them alone if they are carrying their wands" mutters Piccolet; you are about to agree with him when you trip over something in the water, as you pick yourself up spluttering, something squirms under your feet. Grabbing the squirming thing under your feet you are surprised yourself holding a wandering bush barely out of root form. Walking over to the others, you find Asmita and Aaran looking sheepish and Piccolet looking confused at a small smoking crater with a glowing pink frog at its centre, ignoring the bizaare tableau as merely Asmita and Aaron being, well, themselves, you triumphantly say: "OK guys, leave that poor frog be, I've got what we're after!"

Failure: +1 stress, gain location: Ardica Lake, advance to phase 3

Lake Ardica is many things, ancient historical landmark, dumping ground for every potion flushed out of the labs, and every embarrassing item better carefully lost rather than found in your possession by a Professor, possessed by a capricious spirit, and extremely wet, the latter being what you find today. Lots and lots of wet. As you stand by the shoreline wringing out your soggy robe grumbling over how stupid the idea of digging up a root was when Piccolet triumphantly finds a root and wades out of the lake.

 

2.2. Flowers: Fight your way past the thorns of a youthful plant and harvest some buds and flowers from a wandering bush sapling.

Success: +1 relationship Asmita, Gain location: Ardica Lake, advance to phase 3

While Piccolet talks Aaron into wading into the lake, you settle for something less excessive macho and look for saplings with Asmita. It isn't long before you find a small sapling in a sheltered spot that has just begun to flower. Calling over Asmita the two of you carefully pick a number of flowers and buds until you have enough for a good sized meal.

Failure: +1 damage, gain location: Ardica Lake, advance to phase 3

Asmita calls you over "Hey look! I found a sapling, it's just beginning to flower". She looks at the sapling dubiously, "those thorns look pretty nasty though, any ideas on how to get to the flower without getting stabbed?" It's hard not to help Asmita when she's looking so woeful, but clearly it would have been better to leave the harvesting to her as you get some nasty scratches from the thorns before managing to gather enough flowers and buds for the feast.

 

2.3. Seeds: Dig around the shore for some seeds of the wandering bush plant.

Success: +1 relationship Aaran, Gain location: Ardica Lake, advance to phase 3

"That water looks pretty cold" says Asmita, "yeah Piccolet, you said the roots would be in the lake to last out the winter, where would the seeds be again?"

"The wandering bushes plant their seeds by the shore line, if you dig along the shore line we should find the seeds, you should keep an eye out for some crawl vine leaves - they always grow around wandering bushes for some reason, look for sets of four small dark green leaves."

 

Piccolet obviously paid plenty of attention in his botany class, but you still need to find the leaves. Fortunately his familiar Tempte has a keen sense of smell and the Doomhound quickly sniffs out the crawl vine. Asmita carefully picks some of the crawl vines leaves "these are good for some stews, can you get the seeds while I get some more leaves?" Piccolet quickly digs up the wandering bush seeds and Asmita adds them to her haul. Time to make the meal.

Failure: Gain location: Ardica Lake, advance to phase 3

Grubbing along the shoreline is drier than wading in the lake like Piccolet, but sadly it turns out to be more dangerous. While you are peaceably digging up various unsuspecting plants which turn out not to be wandering bushes (green leaves was, on reflection, not particularly specific as a decription you muse) a wild pig jogs out of the bushes and takes the sash of your gown for something juicy. The pig jumps up at the sash and knocks you over, even worse, firmly biting the sash the pig drags you along the shore line as it tries to pull the sash off your gown. Laughing at the pig's stupidity Aaran casts a glamour at the pig sending it fleeing (and fortunately doing nothing else) and by the time you've got up and straightened out your robe (and been dried off by a revision spell kindly cast by Asmita) Piccolet has recovered a wandering bush root from the lake bed.

 

2.4. Climb: Climb to the top of a tree and see if you can find a mature tree drinking in the sunlight.

Success: +1 Climb ss, Gain location: Ardica Lake, advance to phase 3

Grubbing around in the dirt - or the lake bed - sounds pretty unpleasant, and you don't like the idea of thorns, so the best option seems to be to look for a mature bush that decided not to bury itself as a root under the lake through the winter, but instead remain in bush form.

 

The third tree that you climb seems unpromising as it is quite leafy, however once you reach the higher branches the tree opens out and you see a small bush seemingly planted on a bough. "That's a wandering bush!" says Piccolet, "it's rooted itself, so it won't be able to get away if you move quickly"

 

As you climb over to the bough the wandering bush begins to unroot itself, clearly concerned at your approach, you are too quick however and are able to grab hold of the bush before it can flee. A few minutes later you are back on the ground with your prize and the respect of your peers.

Failure: -1 vitality, gain location: Ardica Lake, advance to phase 3.

Piccolet seems to want to go paddling, Aaran is looking for seeds and Asmita is looking at the flowers, so that leaves climbing trees to look for a bush to you. Great. It starts well, you climb the first two trees well enough but there are no wandering bushes hiding in the upper branches. The third tree is more rewarding, you see a wandering bush, its roots wrapped around an upper bough and its leaves turned towards the sun.

 

You climb over to the bough and creep out towards the bush. As you approach the bush however it rustles and unwinds its roots, edging away from you. As you stretch out along the bough trying to reach the bush it backs further along the bough away from you. Inching out along the bough you manage to snag a few of the bushes leaves, but as you reach further out to try to grab the bush itself there is a sickening cracking sounds, and the bough gives way underneath you.

You come to a few minutes later to see Asmita and Aaran looking worriedly at you while Piccolet carefully negates your injuries. "That was really brave, but really stupid" says Asmita half-sternly and half-sympathetically, "but also successful" says Aaran, "you landed on the bush and stunned it!"

 

2.5. Observation: Take a good look around, can you see anything that looks like the wandering bush that Piccolet describes? (Roll Observation v 7)

Success: temporary +15 chance of success, choose again

The lake is huge, and you don't have long to harvest the wandering bush. Piccolet explained where the bush would be found, time to open your eyes and see what you can find.

Failure: choose again.

"Stop gawping!" says Asmita mistaking your careful scrutiny for idleness, "come on and help us find the wandering bush!"

 

2.6. Awareness: It's Lake Ardica, mostly safe, but dangerous enough from time to time for you to keep a watchful eye out for trouble. (Roll v Awareness DC7)

Success: temporary +15 chance of success, choose again

Watching the lake for warning ripples of the spirit, the lakeside for signs of animals, the trees by the edge for other students who might play pranks, and all the other normal risks of student life. Once sure that the area is safe the four of you advance, this shouldn't be too hard.

Failure: choose again.

"Don't be a scaredy-cat" mutters Piccolet, "nothing normal's going to mess with four of us and the spirit's been quiet for days, come on and look for the bush."

 

Phase 3: Cook up a tasty meal with the wandering bush

Ok, you've got the ingredients you were looking for, and Asmita has her normal bag of regular ingredients to use in the dish. The petition mentioned several dishes that would be good to bring to the feast (it seems every group invited is expected to bring a dish), so you should probably prepare the dish now, so what should you do?

 

"I think we should make a salad" says Aaran, "salad is easy to make".

 

"Salad, how boring! Everyone will do that" says Piccolet, "how about we use some magic and brew up the fermented juice it talks about?"

 

"I think the Pie sounds better" says Asmita, "we'd need to make a fire and revise a simple oven, but that should be easy enough, and the pie will be far more nutritious - cooked food is far easier to digest than raw food."

 

3.1. Greengrocery: Follow Aaran's idea and make a fine salad for the feast.

Success: +1 relationship Aaran Ledale, advance to phase 4.

The lake has masses of new kava reeds, patches of water-cress and spring-berries are easily in view, and the Academagia vegetable gardens are just a few hundred feet away - gathering the rest of the ingredients takes no time at all and before long you have chopped, sliced and grated and prepared a fine salad for the feast. Time to go to the feast!

 

Failure: advance to phase 4.

Salad, ok, how hard could this be? You have all sorts of edible herbs and plants around - and the vegetable garden nearby. As it turns out it is harder than it looks to make a salad, at least one that doesn't lead Asmita to shriek "No!" and claim that some herb or another that you've added to the salad is poisonous or is too bitter to eat. Eventually you retreat to just gathering the herbs under Piccolet's guidance and leave the actual salad-making to Asmita, oh well, at least you tried to help.

 

3.2. Recipe: Brew up some fermented juice with the wandering bush and a little time dilation magic.

Success: +1 relationship Piccolet Gleyre, advance to phase 4.

Brewing some fermented juice sounds much more fun that simple cooking, even if it does need some revision magic - which is always worrying when Asmita and Aaran are around. Piccolet gathers the necessary additional herbs while Asmita revises some clay into a pot for the fermentation.

 

Accelerating the fermentation process is harder, but imbuing the time pheme and some revision spells into the pot gets the job done and by making sure the right mix of herbs is placed in the pot leads to the creation of a fine-tasting mildly fermented juice.

 

Failure: advance to phase 4.

Preparing the juice for fermentation is easy enough, the trouble comes with preparing the flask for fermentation. Between Asmita and Aaran, magic is always somewhat risky so you take the lead. Unfortunately either the spell is a little more complicated than you thought or Aaran's bad luck rubs off on you as the fermentation goes awry and the juice first bubbles and then explodes out of the pot.

 

Fortunately while you are drying yourself off and cleaning your robes, Asmita makes a new batch of juice and Piccolet enchants it, so you are able to head off to the feast - no thanks to you but your friends are too gracious to say so.

 

3.3. Baking: Follow Asmita's idea and bake a pie for the feast.

Success: +1 relationship Asmita Tidar, advance to phase 4.

Making the pies is fairly simple, and setting a fire and revising a small oven is easy enough, although you have to take care to maintain a constant temperature with negation and incantation as the pies bake. After half an hour or so you have a number of hot pies cooling and you pack them and set off to the feast.

Failure: advance to phase 4.

After the first three pies come out burnt black, Piccolet firmly but kindly suggests you leave the baking to Asmita; fortunately Asmita bakes the pies as perfectly as ever and before long the four of you head off to the feast, although you could have done without the constant jokes on the way from your colleagues about whether or not you should take the "burnt offerings" with you.

 

3.4. Social skills: Many hands make light work, but too many cooks spoil the broth, figure out how to work together first. (Roll Social skills v 7)

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again

Deciding on what needs to be done and dividing the chores between the four of you should make preparing the meal easier, so after an initial discussion on the task you set to work.

Failure: choose again

Or, you think, not, by the time you've all talked everything through it will be dark, better just to get on with things.

 

 

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Second half of stage 4. Bad feeling I've gone monty.

 

 

 

Phase 4: Entry to the Feast

Finding the feast site is reasonably easy as the petition has detailed instructions to a location in the woods. Decidedly odd instructions at times - but then "walk three times anti-clockwise about the lightning struck oak" is, you suppose, not as odd as some of the instructions your professors have given you.

 

When you get to the feast the oddities in the instructions is clear. A ring of oaks stands before you, the trunks packed so tightly with briar's that they seem like a towering wall, with only a single archway formed by two boughs to break the apparently impenetrable wall of oak and briar.

 

Approaching the arch you see tiny lights ringing it, approaching closer you see that the lights are tiny flying faerie knights. Piccolet pauses and says, "um, aren't we supposed to avoid large faerie gatherings?" Asmita looks dubiously at the arch, "I heard that Faeries steal children sometimes", Aaran shakes his head, "no, believe me, they don't, no matter how much you call them they never come" he pauses and shrugs, "anyway, the faeries must have sent the petition, and we are here as St Pai's servants, so I guess we should go in."

 

As you approach the arch the faerie knights wave you forward, "welcome to the hall of the fey young wizards, you are later than we expected, we had begin to wonder if the pact had been forgotten."

 

Pact? that's not a word that sounds encouraging.

 

As you pause wondering what the petition is about, Aaran and Asmita walk through the archway, you and Piccolet are left with the choice of abandoning your friends or following. Piccolet shrugs, "even Professor Knoht wouldn't send us somewhere dangerous, and I have a good feeling about this." With that the gentle giant walks through leaving you alone outside the ring of oaks.

 

Great. Now if you walk away and the others come back you will be known as the scaredy cat who wussed out at the sight of a few faeries.

 

With a sigh you walk through the archway. In for a penny, in for a pound.

 

Inside the archway, the oaken ring is full of faeries, tables of faeries dancing, a circle of faeries dancing, faerie fiddlers and faerie revellers everywhere. Asmita nudges you as you gawp around the brightly coloured scene. Smiling at the look on your face she looks meaningfully across the ring, where a single table sized for humans stands, above it floats a faerie who glows with a shimmering light of every colour. A small faun takes your donation to the feast over to the queen who accepts it with a laugh and waves you forward.

 

"Welcome to the Festival of Ilara's Comet young wizards, the covenant is kept by the Fey of the Oaken Grove these past years and here you are to pay the price and renew the vow! Come! Come and show us the spirit of the youth of the wizarding world! Come entertain the host!"

 

One by one your colleagues stand into the centre of the grove and take a turn to entertain the host. Aaran tells several surprisingly funny stories of ghosts and goblins; Asmita sings some children's rhymes (aided by a number of Satyr's who begin to play and dance as soon as her familiar Kefta starts dancing in the air before them), then Piccolet, the only one of the three generally considered to be safe with a wand, point his wand upwards and lets loose with firework incantations with such vigour he almost sets the oak trees alight (fortunately between the wines and the music no-one seems to mind). Your turn...

 

4.1. Wit: Entertain the Fey Host with jest and witty remarks.

Success: +1 Wit ss, advance to phase 5.

You crack jokes and mock the pompous and the proud for hours, food and fools are always good sources of merriment and before long you have even the dourest dwarf and most face-stuffing feasters laughing and your japes and tall tales.

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 5.

Public speaking is always nerve wracking, but at least the crowd is warmed up. The host isn't particularly enthused by your recycled tavern jokes but at least they don't throw anything at you - and your joke about Farmer Jon's three legged pig raises at least a few smiles. Well, not everyone can live the wandering life of the jongleur you guess, most people need day jobs, but you seem to have gotten by.

 

4.2. Playfulness: If they wanted skill, Knoht would have sent 5th years, 1st years may not have skill but they've got heart and it's time to let it sing!

Success: +1 Playfulness ss, advance to phase 5.

A little juggling, a little dancing, some jokes, some rhyme and song - you throw a little of everything into your performance changing your method every time the laughter fades or the host begins to get restless. The more you do the easier it gets and the sight of your laughing friends encourages you to greater efforts.

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 5.

You channel the spirit of every wandering bard and jongleur you can remember as best you can, but while the host is fortunately quite merry by now you doubt they'll remember much of your act. Still you get some smiles and they seem happy enough which is good enough you guess.

 

4.3. Creativity: Come up with something new, something silly and something serious, the fey love creativity!

Success: +1 Creativity ss, advance to phase 5.

You aren't quite sure your professors would approve of the mix of magic and fast-talking patter you come out with - Professor Ringraeyer would probably give you a month's detention for its carnival magician nature - but the Fey lap it up and soon the oaken grove is full of their own glamours and incantations in addition to your magic.

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 5.

Your songs get a few feet tapping, but not many so you try jokes, you get a few smiles but more yawns, you barely remember the end to the tale of Ramblin' Jack and the Old Woman's Cakes, but at least you manage a few spells to keep the mood going. Thankfully by this stage of the celebrations the fey are rather merry so you don't think you've made a mess of things.

 

4.4. Satyric Revelry: Dance and Sing like the Satyr's, let the joy of your heart shout out like a trumpet and your feet stamp the ground 'til the stones shake!

Success: +1 Satyric Revelry ss, advance to phase 5.

Jumping into the centre of the dancing circle you call to the musicians to play up and begin to dance, the fey love to dance, and their satyr and grig guests live for it. In moments the entire circle is heaving with dancers, Piccolet and Asmita spin round and round surrounded by a cloud of fey and you even see Aaran shuffling his feet!

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 5.

Even a fool can dance in a fey circle goes the saying, well, you start dancing and you suspect that makes you a fool, as few mortals can hope to dance like a fey. Fortunately the watching fey must think your jerking-near-falling attempt to dance is a parody for they laugh along before bundling into the dancing circle and mercifully obscuring your attempts to dance from your student friends.

 

4.5. Character Study: What sort of entertainment do the Fey want? (roll Character study v DC = 7)

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again

Fey love anything artistic, musical, or funny. They love great skill (a pity Katja isn't here you think), but prize a lively spirit most of all. Whatever you do you should do it with vigour and without worrying about embarrassment.

Failure: choose again

You have no idea what would entertain the fey, but at this point there is no backing out, so try anything.

 

4.6. Perception: What sort of fey are present, are there any who might join in and help make some atmosphere? (roll Perception v DC = 7)

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again

Most of the fey present are Forest Faeries of the Oaken Host, but they have many guests, Satyr's, Grigs, Pixies, even a dryad or two. Anything artistic should get at least of them excited and by this stage of the celebrations you suspect most won't be too picky as long as you keep smiling.

Failure: choose again

You bet that Professor Parchait could identify two dozen types of fey in an instant, all you can see is a whirling tumult of glowing people too small to see, plates of food heaped so high you can't see the people behind, and the worried looks of your friends worried that you'll foul up the current good mood.

 

 

Phase 5: The Interloper at the Faerie Feast

Just as you finish your routine there is a bang and a crash from the archway. The fey guards must have been distracted as a huge satyr - so big it might be half ogre or worse - stands at the archway with blazing red eyes and a large club in one hand.

 

"Where is it?" Bellows the Satyr "The fools are here to pay the piper and dance the jig of the innocent, but we know the pact you made! We shall have our property fey wench!"

 

Brushing past the tiny faeries the huge Satyr stomps forward, smashing aside the magic's cast by the few fey sober enough to cast them.

"Stop him children! 'Tis the night of the Comet and our strength is at its weakest! In the name of the pact defend the hall!"

 

Piccolet picks up the biggest stick he can lift and charges at the Satyr, but before he can get more than three paces Asmita and Aaran unleash their spells. Those two. Why those two, of all the students of the Academagia at a time like this? A hollow boom almost lifts you from your feet, and when your eyes clear from the bright flash you see your three fellows lying stunned on the ground, faeries blasted back against the oaks, and the Satyr stagger back blackened and burnt by the explosion.

 

5.1. Glamour Spells: Take advantage of its dazed state and fill it with terror

Success: +1 Charm, +1 Glamour Spells SS, advance to phase 6.

Before the Satyr can recover you decide to cast March of Terror on it, your wand drawing out the phemes quickly despite your nervousness. The Satyr stands straight and shakes its head to clear the confusion caused by the blast, but it is a few moments too slow, for your spell is ready and you cast it at the Satyr.

 

At once the Satyr is overcome by terror, it lashes out wildly at phantasmal horrors and flinches at the lightest threat from the recovering Faerie Host. After a few moments struggling against its fear and the increasing barrage of spells from the host the Satyr turns and flees, victory!

Failure: +1 Charm, -2 vitality, advance to phase 6.

Before the Satyr can recover you decide to cast March of Terror on it. Your wand shakes as you hurriedly attempt to draw the phemes. The Satyr stands straight and shakes its head to clear the confusion caused by the blast and is desperation you scrawl the last part of the final pheme and cast the March of Terror spell.

 

At first the Satyr is barely affected, it shakes a little and flinches at shrieks and loud noises but charges at you, roaring in anger to fight back the fear caused by the spell. As the Satyr charges you see it becomes less steady in its stride, and its roar becomes more desperate.

 

A second spell overturns the last of the Satyr's courage but just a little too late for comfort as when the Satyr hurls aside its club and charges out of the grove it knocks you flying. Oh well, everyone else will have a few bruises from the feast as well, and at least you get to have the bragging rights of driving out the Satyr.

 

5.2. Incantation Spells: Why be subtle? Brutes were made for blasting and its already half-baked!

Success: +1 Finesse, +1 Incantation Spells ss, advance to phase 6.

The Satyr is big, but "magic doesn't fear mere muscle and bone", Professor Aventyrare said that, the phrase sounded much more convincing in the classroom than just now when you said it in your head but as you hastily draw phemes into your palette you hope that it is true.

 

The bolt of lightning wouldn't win you any merit points from the professor, it's deeply crooked, somewhat excessively loud and wreathed in fizzles rather than focused like a proper battle spell. But it's enough, as the lightning strikes the Satyr's chest, wreathing its skin in tiny sparks and knocking the Satyr from its feet.

 

Staggering to its feet the Satyr looks at you in fear, and then across to Piccolet who is rising to his feet with a determined frown and his wand firmly pointed at the Satyr. The Satyr doesn't wait for the pair of you to blast it again, it turns and runs from the oak grove leaving the faeries cheering your success.

Failure: +1 Finesse, -1 vitality, +2 stress, advance to phase 6

The Satyr is big, but "magic doesn't fear mere muscle and bone", Professor Aventyrare said that, the phrase sounded much more convincing in the classroom than just now when you said it in your head but as you hastily draw phemes into your palette you hope that it is true.

 

The bolt of lightning wouldn't win you any merit points from the professor, it's deeply crooked, somewhat excessively loud and wreathed in fizzles rather than focused like a proper battle spell. And frankly you aren't surprised when the Satyr stays standing - well, standing until it turns and charges at you anyway.

 

Barely dodging the Satyr's club, you frantically scribe phemes again, rolling out of the way of a second swipe you cast a second bolt at it, just as Piccolet casts another spell at it as well. The Satyr reels from the blasts and then flees, leaving you bruised but proud at your victory.

 

 

5.3. Negation Spells: Negate the Satyr - its strength, its anger, its everything, leave it weak and helpless against the Host.

Success: +1 Fitness, +1 Negation Spells ss, advance to phase 6.

The Satyr doesn't appear to notice the effects of the first spell, at least for a few moments, but by the time the second spell hits it the Satyr is struggling to stand and as you cast more spells at it, the Satyr staggers and realising it is too weak to fight on it turns and flees. Triumphantly you accept the plaudits of the Faerie Host and your fellow students.

Failure: +1 Fitness, -2 vitality, advance to phase 6.

The Satyr doesn't appear to notice the effects of the first spell, at least for a few moments, but unfortunately it does notice that you are trying to en-spell it. The Satyr picks up a stick from the ground and hurls it at you hitting you quite painfully in the shoulder.

 

Fighting back the pain you cast a second spell, and this one is more effective, the Satyr staggers and realising it is too weak to fight on against you and the rapidly organising Faerie Host it turns and flees. Smiling through your aches you accept the plaudits of the Faerie Host and your fellow students.

 

5.4. [Only if Mastery Spells >0] Mastery Spells: Dominate the mind of the Satyr and drive it away from the Grove in a maddened panic. (Roll Master Spells v DC = 4)

Success: +1 Insight, +1 Mastery Spells, advance to phase 6.

Mastery is illegal, but as far as you know the Fey don't care about such things, and since the mis-fired spell appears to have stunned your friends there is no reason not to take the metaphorical gloves off and use mastery.

 

The brute's mind turns out to be relatively simple, but better yet it is clear that it is driven here by Mastery magic - and with the caster clearly distant, their magic is no match for yours. You send streaks of madness into the Satyr's mind and drive it to charge from the Grove terrified of even the thought of a Faerie.

Failure: +5 stress, +1 Insight, advance to phase 6.

Mastery is illegal, but as far as you know the Fey don't care about such things, and since the mis-fired spell appears to have stunned your friends there is no reason not to take the metaphorical gloves off and use mastery.

 

The brute's mind turns out to be relatively simple, but better yet it is clear that it is driven here by Mastery magic - and even with the caster clearly distant their magic is nearly a match for yours. For a moment you touch something far away, something ancient and alien, then with a snap you are back in your own mind, the satyr looks about it, it seems smaller, confused, and a moment later in great pain as Piccolet fires a lightning bolt at it. The satyr turns and flees leaving you with a pounding head and many questions about what just happened. Still, a victory of sorts.

 

5.5. Revision Spells: Turn the ground beneath it to mud, then turn the acorns of the oak above into stone and bombard it!

Success: +1 Intelligence, +1 revision spells ss, advance to phase 6.

Hrud's Boots of Mud is one of those spells that just keeps coming in handy you think as the Satyr slips in the mud and churns it deeper with every failed step; your second spell turns the acorns of the oaks to stone and too heavy to stay on the branches they fall bombard the Satyr stunning it in moments. When the Faeries see the Satyr collapse under the barrage, the Faeries cheer and hurl their own missiles, after a few moments trying to regain its courage the Satyr turns and flees through the arch, victory!

Failure: -1 Vitality, +2 stress, +1 Intelligence, advance to phase 6.

Hrud's Boots of Mud is one of those spells that just keeps coming in handy you think as the Satyr slips in the mud and churns it deeper with every failed step; your second spell turns the acorns of the oaks to stone and too heavy to stay on the branches they fall bombard the Satyr stunning it in moments, unfortunately they also fall on you with similar effect. Well, at least the when the Faeries see the Satyr collapse under the barrage the Faeries cheer and hurl their own missiles (with significantly more accuracy than your acorns), after a few moments trying to regain its courage the Satyr turns and flees through the arch, victory!

 

5.6. Comets: Call upon the power of the Comet of Ilara and turn fate against the Satyr.

Success: +1 Luck, advance to phase 6.

The light of the comet seems to make you wand glow as you call upon it, and with a quick flick of your wrist you send the power of the comet at the Satyr. The Satyr reels back, then, not realising the magic around it, ties to charge at you. At once the ill-luck you cast on it becomes apparent as it trips as soon as it has built up a good head of speed, breaking off a horn as it falls and smashes headlong into a log. Unleashing a volley of spells at the stunned brute you drive it from the grove to the cheers of the Faerie Host.

 

Failure: -2 Vitality, +1 Luck, advance to phase 6.

The satyr advances towards the faerie queen shouting something that gets lost in the cries of the fey and general chaos. Thinking quickly you draw phemes to call on the power of the comet above, casting the spell you turn the fates against the Satyr. The next step it takes sends it crashing down to the ground. Shaking its head the Satyr stands and, with a roar, charges at you. The ill-luck is still on it and the Satyr trips, smashing its head against a stone as it falls.

 

As the Satyr staggers to its feet against and stumbles forward sending you flying with a blow from its fist, but even then the ill-luck continues of your spell and much of the Satyr's blow is blocked by a low branch that snags its arm, and then snags its arm. The delay while it frees itself gives the host time to gather itself, and Piccolet to regain his wand. Between you all the Satyr is battered by spells and missiles so intensely that it is forced to flee. Victory!

 

5.7. Brute Strength: Grab the biggest club you can and charge at the Satyr!

Success: +1 Strength, advance to phase 6.

Piccolet had the right idea, and without your friends to blast you with a fireball you have much more success than he did. Smacking the Satyr over the head with your club knocks it to the ground and the Faerie Host quickly joins in the battle against the reeling Satyr. Finally it flees from the punishment leaving you surrounded by cheering Faeries, and your somewhat befuddled friends.

Failure: -2 Vitality, +1 Strength, advance to phase 6.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and it is indeed very difficult to knock the Satyr down, and when it lands on you it lands very hard. Fortunately you get to your feet first, and club in hand manage to beat the Satyr out of the Grove once Piccolet and the others recover from the blast and arrive to help you.

 

5.8. [Only if Gates Spells > 0] Gates Spells: Your friends are stunned and unable to help or notice what you do, the Faeries don't care about human laws, the Satyr is clearly unearthly and it's time it was gone. (Roll Gates Spells v DC 4)

Success: +1 Fitness, +1 Gates Spells ss, advance to phase 6.

You are always a little nervous of Gates, even those in favour of it write warily of it and of course everything you are supposed to be reading warns of horrors and madness coming to all casters of gates spells. But the old legends are clear, to banish monsters (well, and summon them), the masters of old used Gates. Hoping the familiars are too fuzzy to tell their stunned wizards what you are casting you carefully draw the forbidden phemes and release the spell when the charging Satyr is just a few paces away - and it's gone, not even dust in the air, an odd "thwumping sound" and gust of wind towards where it was and that's it, no more Satyr. Wow. You have to try more of these spells. And think up a good story for your colleagues when they recover. But that shouldn't be hard with the Faeries celebrating your victory and their dazed condition.

Failure: -2 Vitality, +1 Fitness, advance to phase 6.

It's a huge possibly demonic satyr, it might be slightly stunned by the blast but it is still far too dangerous to play around with, you need it gone and gone now.

 

You know all the warnings about Gates, but then there are so many things you are warned about. And let's face it, a giant satyr charging at you screaming waving a big axe is dangerous too. So you scribe the phemes, the ones you aren't supposed to know, the ones that you must never let anyone know that you know. The ones that you just formed into a spell and unleashed at the Satyr.

 

The spell burns as you cast it, you haven't felt anything like it - not a small moment of tiredness as occurs with some magic, but a burning as though the spell sucks the very life from you. But it works.

 

A small blue ball shoots from the tip of your wand and strikes the Satyr when it is just a few feet away. The Satyr fades to twinkling motes of dust and vanishes, which is good as you are barely able to stand you feel so drained. Well, at least you survived, and better yet in the chaos and confusion it seems that nobody was paying much attention to how you did it.

 

5.9. Character Study: What sort of being is this Satyr? What weaknesses does it look like it has? (Roll Character study v 5)

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again

The Satyr is temporarily reeling, so more subtle spells might have a good chance of affecting it now, although it took quite a beating from the explosion so a lot could be said for just blasting it again. Waiting for it to regain its wits is probably not a good idea however.

Failure: choose again

It's a great big horned monster, yup, that's about all you can tell at the moment, the flames and soot-black complexion are probably Asmita's fault - or Aaran's, the explosion could have been the fault of either of them, either way you don't have time to gawp, you need to pick a strategy and fast!

 

5.10. Observation: Look around for anything that could be of use. (Roll Observation v DC 7)

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again

A brief moment to gather your wits is all you need, you are in a fairy grove, under the light of a comet, surrounded by any number of drifting magical globes to draw power from and boughs you could use as a club, whatever you want to do it there should be plenty to work with.

Failure: choose again

Er, right, big Satyr, circle of oaks and brambles, stunned friends, lots of dazed faeries, cake. Not much of military value. Time to stop gawping and do something stupid before the Satyr recovers and does something clever....

 

 

Stage 6: Back in glory!

Well, you aren't sure whether you carry your friends more than they carry you, but somehow the four of you make it home from the faerie feast. Piccolet manages to heal the worst of everyone's wounds (although Aaran will need to re-grow his eyebrows, hopefully no-one will notice), Asmita even manages to control her spell-casting long enough to make you all vaguely presentable.

 

Professor Knoht isn't at the club house when you get back so you leave the token the Faeries gave you for her on her desk and settle for a cookie-raid on the kitchens as reward for completing the petition.

Auto: +1 relationship each of: Aaran, Asmita, Piccolet. Access stage 5.

 

 

 

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Magalda Quaranta have the clique ability Rimbal-a-holic so she would be a sure member of a rimbal club.

 

 

Thanks. I'm thinking of having Philippe in it, so that presumably pulls in Joanna too, so that's 4 students I can mention. Can you remember Philippe's brother's name(s)? He got at least one at the Academagia and I'm thinking of some trouble-makers getting the Marchant encouragement.

 

Edit: Luti Jaconelli also has Rimbal in their description, so that should be plenty of names.

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OK, I've written stage 2 of the rimbal supporters club, and adjusted stage 1 to focus it more on first years as a result.


Academagia
Rimbal supporters club
For all stages of Rimbal, the roll difficulties are: Normal skill: Stage+2, Rare skill: Stage +0, Perception/Observation/Character Study when used to give temporary bonuses or reveal easter egg options: Stage+3


Stage 1: Rimbal club: Zorzi's note
"Did you see? I mean did you see it?" Zorzi practically knocks you over he is bouncing so much. "It's been fixed! Everything is going to be awesome! Here, I made a bunch of copies for everyone, take one!”

1.1. Character Study: What is Zorzi so excited about?

Success: Of course... Zorzi... right, he's the first year who managed to fall off the stadium's upper tier while trying to get a better view of the players; the one who spilled hot chocolate all over Professor Rupprecht when the Vernin Owls scored against the Godina Ravens; the incredibly-crazy-about-rimbal-Zorzi. Ok, so whatever has him excited now must also be about rimbal, you might as well read the note and get it over with.
+1 Character Study, advance phase 2.
Failure: When you fail to respond quickly enough, Zorzi gets so frantic he grabs you. "Look!" He jabs at the note in his hand so fast he almost tears it and says "read the note!"
-1 Character Study, advance phase 2

1.2. Awareness: Are other people excited? Is anyone even reading the Godina notice-board on the other side of the hall?

Success: Nobody seems as excited as Zorzi, but the notice-board certainly has plenty of people gathered around it - mainly 1st years but a few second years, this could be good! You grab the note off Zorzi and read it
+1 Awareness ss, advance phase 2.
Failure: With Zorzi bouncing in front of you there could be a brass band marching down the corridor and it would be hard to tell, it's probably nothing interesting but resigned to reading the notice you grab it off Zorzi.
advance phase 2.

1.3. Perception. If you squint you might just be able to read the notice in the brief moments when Zorzi isn't waving it around.
Success: You have to grab his hand to stop him waving the note around, but the writing is fairly large so it isn’t too hard to read the note.
+1 Perception SS, advance phase 2

Failure: After a few failed attempts at grabbing his hand to stop him waving the note Zorzi twigs that you can’t read it while he waves it around and gives you the note, ok, now to read it…
advance stage 2

Phase 2: The note at last
The note reads: Calling all rimbal supporters, a supporters club is being set up for those who love the beautiful game and want some rimbal-fun but aren't ready for full Minetan-rules rimbal. Meet at the athletics grounds after 7th session tomorrow

2.1. Patience: It's just a club, what's Zorzi blathering on about being fixed anyway? Fortunately Zorzi never met a silence he didn't need to fill so if you give him a few moments he's sure to explain what's got him so worked up.
Success: Silence is a virtue you are told, in Zorzi’s case it is an invitation to talk about rimbal that he can’t refuse, and sure enough after a few moments he tells you what he’s so excited about?
+1 Patience ss, advance phase 3.
Failure: You try to play it cool, but when Zorzi doesn’t leap in with an explanation you snap and ask him what he’s so excited about.
+1 stress, advance phase 3.

2.2. Curiosity: Uh, ok, Zorzi, so how does this fix anything?
Success: Confused at what’s changed, and somewhat confused as you didn’t realise that there was a ban on playing rimbal anyway, you ask Zorzi to explain himself.
+1 Curiosity ss, advance phase 3.
Failure: “Zorzi, what the heck are you going on about?” The combination of Zorzi’s bouncing enthusiasm and lack of a coherent explanation leaves you too stressed to be polite, fortunately Zorzi looks to excited to be offended.
+1 stress, advance phase 3.

2.3. Schoolyard education: Ok Zorzi, what does this fix? It's just a supporters club!
Success: OK, you’d heard vaguely that there was some rule against playing Rimbal on the fields for younger students, and playing it around the classrooms is asking for a professor to “find something constructive” for you to do, but you hadn’t heard that there was a ban, fortunately it shouldn’t be hard to get Zorzi to explain himself.
+1 Schoolyard education ss, advance phase 3.
Failure: OK, you’d heard vaguely that there was some rule against playing Rimbal on the fields for younger students, and playing it around the classrooms is asking for a professor to “find something constructive” for you to do, but you hadn’t heard that there was a ban, fortunately it shouldn’t be hard to get Zorzi to explain himself.
+1 stress, advance phase 3.

2.4. Conversation: Talk to Zorzi and get him to slow down and explain what's so special about a supporter's club.
Success: Getting Zorzi to talk about rimbal is rarely a problem, so as long as you can slow him down enough to be intelligible it should be easy enough to get some sense out of him.
+1 Conversation ss, advance to phase 3.
Failure: Talking to Zorzi is sometimes an exhausting process, he just keeps going on making it hard to get a word in edge-wise, and he’s so wrapped up in his thoughts that he assumes everyone knows what he does and without an explanations it can be hard to understand what he’s talking about.
+1 stress, advance to phase 3.

2.5. Social skills: Smile along with Zorzi until he starts making sense about the supporter's club.
Success: A few nods and smiles as he speaks are all it takes to keep Zorzi talking, and it doesn’t take long for him to get to the point.
+ Social skills ss, advance to phase 3.
Failure: A few nods and smiles as he speaks are all it takes to keep Zorzi talking, but it seems to take an age before Zorzi finally gets to the point.
+1 stress, advance to phase 3.

Phase 3: The meaning of the message
"What's fixed? That stupid rule banning first years from playing in the rimbal teams of course! Look, the professor's don't mind a little knock-about game, well, except when they do, but they won't let first year students play proper rimbal either, even second years aren't allowed unless they pass the test".

Zorzi pauses for a moment mulling over some thoughts "Philippe said the test is an obstacle course, with real curses and everything, if you can't get through they won't let you play, but Rui said you have to win a duel against a player, and, and, everyone else says something else! But - this is another way to play! I checked and the ban on first years playing only applies to Minetan-rules rimbal and other contact versions, we can play touch-rimbal as long as we keep the spells indirect rather than targeting each other directly.

"So, are you in?"

Auto: Why not, if it's rubbish you don't have to go a second time
+1 relationship Zorzi Galea, +1 social skills, access stage 2.

Auto: No thanks Zorzi, you have better things to do, like, the battle-mace tournament, messing about on the lake, heck, even studying.
+1 Dispassion SS, halt adventure.



And stage 2.



Stage 2. Rimbal club: Cleaning the grounds

Phase 1: Cleaning the grounds
While mulling over whether or not you are actually going to the new Rimbal Supporters club you make the mistake of being spotted by Zorzi. "There you are! I'm rounding people up." Zorzi's so excited and positive that it is hard to say no, well, how bad can it be?

“We’re allowed in the main grounds, we just had to agree to fix them up a bit” says Zorzi. By the time you reach the grounds you see almost a dozen other students already working around the grounds. Hey “[PC name”] says Magsa Nembo, great to see you, there’s enough of us here for a game later, I’ve talked Magalda into being with Zorzi, Vincent and me on the same team – want to join?

“The grounds have quite a bit of wear and tear” says Zorzi, “I’ve no idea how so much damage was caused by just a few games! It all looks fairly straight forward to fix though.”

Where should you pitch in and help your friends?

1.1: Knots. Help Magalda to re-tie the goal-nets and fix the holes in the nets.
Success: The nets are a little fiddly, but with a few minutes to practice you see the pattern and you are off, with Mahalda's help you fix up the nets in no time.
+1 Knots ss, +1 relationship Magalda, advance to phase 2.
Failure: The knots for the nets turn out to be pretty fiddly, and you suspect that Magalda winds up doing more than her fair share of the work but eventuall the two of you are done.
advance to phase 2.

1.2: Carpentry. Fix the stand seating with Zorzi, plane off the splinters, trim off the larger spikes, and replace the rotten boards.
Success: "The most important part of the match" you joke, "is a comfortable seat!" Zorzi chuckles and passes you a plane, "I don't know, avoiding spilled drinks always seems a good idea to me" he jokes back and the two of you banter back and forth as you work on the woodwork until the seating is all fixed.
+1 Carpentry ss, +1 relationship Zorzi Galea, advance to phase 2.
Failure: Smooting off a few splinters sounded easy, but the carpentry Zorzi had in mind turns out to be a bit more involved and he soon has you pulling up rotten boards and hammering down new ones, eventually with your arms aching enough to nearly fall off he declares that you have done the last one that needs fixing.
advance to phase 2.

1.3: Metallurgy. Help Magsa to bend the damaged bars back into place and weld the stand railing back together.
Success: When Magsa started talking about metalwork you thought he was being a tad keen, but he turns out to be more than capable of bending the bars back in place, leaving you to weld the rails back together with some simple revision spells.
+1 Metallurgy ss, +1 relationship Magsa Nembo, advance to phase 2.
Failure: advance to phase 2.

1.4: Brute Strength. Follow Vincent’s example a leave the skilled work to others, someone has to heave parts and gear around so that the work can get done!
Success: It is hard work lugging all the gear around for everyone, but it leaves them free to concentrate on fixing stuff so between you the work gets done pretty quickly, not the most glamorous role to play you guess, but teamwork is the important thing right?
+1 Brute Strength ss, +1 relationship Vincent, advance to phase 2.
Failure: advance to phase 2.

1.5: Awareness. What is going to bother people the most? What work are the others going to do?
Success: Looking around you figure that having to lug tools and supplies around or dump rubbish is going to distract them from their work the most, but all your fellows would probably welcome a helping hand.
temporary +25 chance of success, hide option, choose again
Failure: The court is a shambles, and you haven't a clue where to begin to help, maybe one of the others has an idea?
hide option, choose again


Phase 2: A quick zap about
After an hour or so’s work the grounds sparkle and the club members look around them with pride. "Someday I'm going to play here" murmurs Zorzi looking around the grounds misty-eyed. "Why not now?" Says Magalda Quaranta, "Nobody else is around, we could have a friendly game between ourselves."

"You know, we've done such a good job of cleaning up the place I'm sure no-one would mind even if they found out." says Magsa Nembo.

What the heck. We’ll be unicorn’s says Magalda handing out sashes to Zorzi, Vincent, you and Magsa, Philippe takes a Griffin sash, “5-a-side it is, who’s with me?” The other students quickly take griffin sashes and you run out onto the field. Game on!

2.1: Rimbal plays. Wait for a moment and then make a move with Magalda.
Success: You pick your time guaging the opposition and when you see Magalda get a chance to make a play you support her, running interference when Philippe moves in to tackle and distracting him until she can get past him to score. Result!

+1 Relationship Magalda, advance to phase 3.
Failure: You figure that the key to a rimbal game is teamwork, so when you see Magalda get the ball and make a move for the goal you support her. Unfortunately blocking a tackle from Philippe Marchant is easier said than done, and though you manage to intercept his tackle you find yourself watching Magalda score from a prone position, stunned as much by Philippe's amazing ability to send you flying in a so-called no-contact 'friendly' game as whatever spell he used to floor you.

advance to phase 3.

2.2: Rimbal positions. Take an outfield position and watch for a good opportunity to help Zorzi.
Success: You know that Zorzi is sure to go for goal as soon as he gets the ball, and sure enough when a quick tackle gets if off Philippe Zorzi heads off down the field at top speed. Following in his wake you negate the opposition spells heading his way and throw minor glamours and incantations to distract anyone from tackling him, a few minutes of frantic spellcasting and you clear the way long enough for him to take a shot at the goal and score an early goal, great start to the game!

+1 Relationship Zorzi, advance to phase 3.
Failure: You hear Philippe shout as Zorzi uses some trick to tackle the ball away and see Zorzi running towards the goal ball caught in a incantation windcharm ahead of him, figuring that Zorzi can't keep the incantation going and concentrate on opposing players you run after him figuring to block any tackles and negate charms. Zorzi turns out to be too quick to keep up with though and half way down the field you give up and stop gasping for breath, Zorzi keeps going and you find yourself feeling a little redundant as he scores a perfect goal a few moments later. Well, you tried.

advance to phase 3.

2.3: Rimbal tactics. See how the other team is playing and then double-team with Magsa to get past them.
Success: +1 Relationship Magsa, advance to phase 3.
Failure: advance to phase 3.

2.4: Leadership. A team needs a leader, even in a friendly game, and it's your time to shine!
Success: +1 Leadership ss, advance to phase 3.
Failure: advance to phase 3.

2.5: Perception. What sort of game should you play if you want to win?
Success: temporary +25 chance of success, choose again.
Failure: choose again


Phase 3: The Missing Mascot
Piling back to the Griffin changing rooms after the game full of banter and japes you are aghast to find that Spiky the stuffed-griffin mascot has been stolen, someone’s idea of a prank obviously, but given that it happened while you were here it’s obvious who will get the blame – and have every Griffin supporter in the Academagia after them!

Worse the pranksters have also cast glamours of Griffin’s denuded of feathers on one wall and let off stink bombs.

“What a stink” says Magalda, “this was fine a few hours ago we’re bound to get the blame!”
“The Griffin’s will kill us, we’ve got to sort this place out and get Spiky back before anyone comes in!” wails Zorzi.

 

Magsa purses his lips, intent in thought, “we need two teams. One team to clean up – and another to come with me and find out who’s responsible”. He calls his familiar Igenga and the Elkhound starts sniffing around trying to find a scent.

 

Philippe smacks his hands together, and says with a grim voice "I’m in the hunting party, who else is with us?"

 

Cleaning up or Hunting, if not for the smell it might be a difficult choice but you are only too happy to leave the mess, and the smell, to others! Now on to hunting…

3.1: Scouting. They can't have gone far, check the likely places.
Success: You figure that the pranksters won’t try smuggling Spiky through a well-travelled route, that doesn’t leave many directions they could have gone. Keeping your eyes open for signs of recent passage you race down some of the lesser-used paths until you see some coloured feathers down one path, Spiky! Now you know you are on the right route and sending a message to the others to follow you quickly run after the pranksters.
+1 Scouting ss, advance to phase 4.

Failure: You figure that the pranksters won’t try smuggling Spiky through a well-travelled route, that doesn’t leave many directions they could have gone. Keeping your eyes open for signs of recent passage you race down some of the lesser-used paths looking for signs but with little success. Fortunately the others have more luck, and a Whispering Wind from Philippe calls you – he’s found some coloured feathers down one path – they must be from Spiky! Running towards Philippe you know it won’t be long before you have the pranksters.
advance to phase 4.

3.2: Scent detection. Some of that stink-bomb smell will have gone over them too - see if your familiars can sniff them out.
Success: Between the 5 of you there are several familiar’s with keen senses of smell, and while the pranksters probably thought it terribly clever to stink-out the changing rooms, it was very foolish of them, as the traces of stink that attach to their robes are soon picked up by the familiars who race off down a little-used path, “we’ve got them” you say, triumphantly racing after the familiars, ”come on!”
+1 Scent Detection ss, advance to phase 4.
Failure: Between the 5 of you there are several familiar’s with keen senses of smell, and while the pranksters probably thought it terribly clever to stink-out the changing rooms, it was very foolish of them, as the traces of stink that attach to their robes are soon picked up by the Philippe's familiar who races off down a little-used path, “we’ve got them” Philippe’s says, triumphantly racing after his familiar, ”come on!”
advance to phase 4.

3.3: Pure Luck. Pick a direction and see if you get lucky.
Success: You’ve often been lucky, you suspect that the spirits of the Academagia like you. Today is no exception, on a whim you decide to lead the troops down a little-used path and after a few minutes you see a brightly coloured feather snagged on a bush “it’s Spiky’s” you say, brandishing the bright plume, “come on, they can’t be too far ahead of us!”.
+1 Pure Luck ss, advance to phase 4.
Failure: You’ve often been lucky, you suspect that the spirits of the Academagia like you. Today is however clearly the exception, on a whim you decide to lead the troops down a little-used path only to arrive back at the Griffin changing rooms after a few minutes. “Oh good grief” says Zorzi, I can’t believe we followed you! Let’s try that path, it looks like it leads away from the main buildings.” After a few minutes following Zorzi’s path you see a brightly coloured feather snagged on a bush “it’s Spiky’s” Philippe says, brandishing the bright plume, “come on, they can’t be too far ahead of us!”
advance to phase 4.

 

3.4: Hunting. They probably left in a hurry, see if you can track down signs of their passage.
Success: The first sign is the slight scuffmarks of their shoes leading away from the changing rooms, the second is a thread from a robe snagged on a thorn – too lightly to have been there long, the third is a feather from Spikey, obvious by the glamours enhancing the colours. “There’s only one place this path goes to, the duelling grounds! We’ve got them!”
1 Hunting ss, advance to phase 4.
Failure: You miss the first sign, the slight scuffmarks of their shoes leading away from the changing rooms, fortunately Zorzi catches it. You also manage to miss the second clue - a thread from a robe snagged on a thorn – too lightly to have been there long, fortunately Magsa spots it. You also miss the third clue, a feather from Spikey, obvious by the glamours enhancing the colours, fortunately Philippe catches it, smiling broadly Philippe says “there’s only one place this path goes to, the duelling grounds, we’ve got them!” Frowning at your lack of use so far you promise yourself that you will do better when you catch the mascot-thieves!
advance to phase 4.

3.4: Observation. Look around for clues.
Success: The best way to find the pranksters is to keep your eyes open for clues, although a healthy dose of luck couldn’t hurt. In desperation you figure teamwork may help, this shouldn’t be difficult though, there aren't many directions the mascot-thieves can have gone in.
temporary +25 chance of success, choose again.
Failure: There are many ways you could try to find the pranksters, so many it’s hard to decide which is best. You’ll only have one attempt to find the pranksters before they are too far away to find, so you had better choose quickly.
choose again.

Phase 4: Vengeance
The trail leads to a nook behind the duelling grounds where you see a small gang of students roasting chestnuts over a fire celebrating – a crest of feathers sticks out of one suspiciously bulging bag, you’ve found the pranksters – now to recover Spiky – and claim some vengeance.

4.1: Wrestling. The professors never seem bored with punishing random acts of childhood, drag the pranksters to a Professor!
Success: The pranksters are fortunately only a year or two older than you – and with Magsa and Philippe around they aren’t all even bigger than you. “Let me cast a spell on us.” growls Philippe, it will give us an edge…. Philippe mutters the spell so you can’t hear it and shields his palette from your sight so you don’t see the phemes, but the effect is clear, a faint red mist seems to cloud your vision and you feel much stronger, even invincible, a warmth fills you and you can’t wait for the action to start.

The pranksters barely know what hits them, you’d feel sorry for the one hurled across the small camp by Philippe, but somehow you don’t seem able to feel pity, the prankster you pounce on tries to throw you off but you have too good a hold, later you feel guilty about how painfully you hold them, and about how you dragged them to Professor Storey rather than a less harsh professor, but by the time the red mist faded you were already outside the Professor’s door. Somehow you don’t feel like asking Philippe about the spell, but you think you’ll be more careful about letting him cast spells on you in future.
+1 Wrestling ss, access to stage 3.
Failure: The pranksters look to be second years but with Magsa and Philippe around they aren’t much bigger than you. “Let me cast a spell on us.” growls Philippe, “it will give us an edge….” vPhilippe mutters the spell so you can’t hear it and shields his palette from your sight so you don’t see the phemes, but the effect is clear, a faint red mist seems to cloud your vision and you feel much stronger, even invincible, a warmth fills you and you can’t wait for the action to start, with a yell you charge at the pranksters.

Somehow you don’t seem able to feel pity, the prankster you pounce on tries to throw you off but you throw them to the ground hard, then jump on them twisting their arm behind them to pin them – more than you should, later you feel guilty about how painfully you hold them, the many bumps and scrapes you give them on the way, about how you dragged them to Professor Storey rather than someone less harsh it just felt so right. The red mist fades once you are outside the Professor’s door, you think Philippe negated his spell but your mind is foggy and you can’t be sure. Somehow you don’t feel like asking Philippe about the spell, but you think you’ll be more careful about letting him cast spells on you in future.
+1 stress, access to stage 3.

4.2: Schoolyard Education. Why be subtle? Let your fists to the talking and teach them a lesson.
Success: Taking the pranksters to a professor would just be cruel, the prank was on you (well, not intentionally but in outcome), so it should be settled by you, there’s no need to get an adult involved.

Zorzi and Luti cast spells, Magsa and Philippe plough in with fists, and with your help it isn’t long before the pranksters are well and truly sorry for their prank, and Spiky is back in your possession, they’ll know better than to mess with you again.
+1 Schoolyard Education ss, access to stage 3.
Failure: Taking the pranksters to a professor would just be cruel, the prank was on you (well, not intentionally but in outcome), so it should be settled by you, there’s no need to get an adult involved.

Zorzi and Luti cast spells, Magsa and Philippe plough in with fists, but sadly you aren’t as effective and if Magsa hadn’t pulled the prankster off you you’d probably have got quite a beating. Fortunately the others were more lucky and it isn’t long before the pranksters are well and truly sorry for their prank, and Spiky is back in your possession, they’ll know better than to mess with you again.
+1 stress, access to stage 3.

4.3: Practical jokes. Vandalism lacks style, a proper prank does no harm to anything other than the ego of the target. Show them some style.
Success: OK, camp fire, lots of trees laden with acorns and berries, various flowers, it shouldn’t be too hard to find something to use against the pranksters... and then is the perfect tool, a small hive of sighing bees, the bees which forsake painful stings in favour of tiny fear-glamours.

Pointing the hive to you friends they immediately understand the plan, each muttering protective spells to keep away from you while you carefully target the hive. A simply incantation and the hive is pushed off the tree branch, falling into the camp with a loud splat. After a moments delay the furious bees swarm out and all over the pranksters.

 

In moments the bees start attacking the pranksters with their glamours, in moments the pranksters are bedevilled by terrors and flee crashing through the trees. Luti uses a clever spell to bring Spiky over to you and you run away from the swarming campsite laughing at how terrified the pranksters looked.
+1 Practical Jokes ss, access to stage 3.

Failure: OK, camp fire, lots of trees laden with acorns and berries, various flowers, it shouldn’t be too hard to find something to use against the pranksters... and then is the perfect tool, a small hive of sighing bees, the bees which forsake painful stings in favour of tiny fear-glamours.

 

Pointing the hive to you friends they immediately understand the plan, each muttering protective spells to keep away from you while you carefully target the hive. A simply incantation and the hive is pushed off the tree branch, falling into the camp with a splat. After a moments delay the furious bees swarm out and all over the pranksters.

In moments to bees start attacking the pranksters with their glamours, in moments the pranksters are bedevilled by terrors and flee crashing through the trees. Unfortunately even with the protective charms you get zapped a few times and find yourself quivering and paralysed with fear, but Luti uses a clever spell to bring Spiky out of the swarm and your friends drag you away from the swarming campsite laughing at how terrified the pranksters looked.
+1 stress, access to stage 3.

4.4: Perception. Take a look at the pranksters and see if there are vulnerabilities to exploit.
Success: The pranksters are quite distracted by their camp fire and jokes, the bag holding spiky is off to a side and being ignored – hardly surprising as he’s a stuffed griffon with little to contribute to a conversation. Whispering suggestions you agree that you will sneak around and steal-back spiky you say “look, they are second years, maybe even third years – we don’t want to get into a fight if we can help it – Philippe and Magsa are as big as them, but what about the rest of us? If they notice me I’ll run, you lot run interference, I doubt they’ll follow us far.”

The plan works well, the woods provide plenty of concealment and you are able to get close to Spikey. Seeing that you need a distraction Magsa casts a spell on the fire making it flare up brightly, seizing the chance you grab the bag holding Spiky and run. As you hear shouts behind you Zorzi incants a dust devil sending the fire spitting around and throwing up dust and leaves, while Philippe revises the ground into a quagmire of mud, by the time the pranksters get free you are all well on your way back to the changing rooms.
+1 Perception ss, access to stage 3.
Failure:
The pranksters are quite distracted by their camp fire and jokes, the bag holding spiky is off to a side and being ignored – hardly surprising as he’s a stuff griffon with little to contribute to a conversation. Whispering suggestions you agree that you will sneak around and steal-back spiky you say “look, they are second years, maybe even third years – we don’t want to get into a fight if we can help it – Philippe and Magsa are as big as them, but what about the rest of us? If they notice me I’ll run, you lot run interference, I doubt they’ll follow us far.”

The plan works reasonably well, the woods provide plenty of concealment and you are able to get close to Spikey. Which is where your luck turns somewhat, as the mascot-thieves spot you and start to give chase. Seeing that you need a distraction Magsa casts a spell on the fire making it flare up brightly, seizing the chance you grab the bag holding Spiky and run. As you hear shouts behind you Zorzi incants a dust devil sending the fire spitting around and throwing up dust and leaves, while Philippe revises the ground into a quagmire of mud, by the time the pranksters get free you are all well on your way back to the changing rooms.
+1 stress, access to stage 3.

 

4.5. Character Study. What skills do your friends have that could help?
Success: Philippe is a tank, not just big but mean, even Piccolet is wary of fighting him, he’s also good at negation and the nastier aspects of revision. Magsa is intense, tough, and simply not someone to casually mess with. Zorzi is scrawny but good with incantations, while Luti is both big and good at magic. These pranksters have messed with the wrong team!
temporary +25 chance of success, choose again.
Failure: Your first years, these pranksters are probably second years, the odds are against you, even if it’s five against four. You guess you’d better be lucky – and pick quickly before the pranksters spot you.

choose again

 

 

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Stage 3.

 

 

 

Stage 3: The friendly match

Today Zorzi somehow – you don’t really want to know – talked the Behemoth team into letting the Rimbal Supporter’s Club use their grounds for a game. An hour or so tidying the ground is cheap payment for the ability to use the grounds for a game afterwards.

 

Phase 1. Clean the grounds

 

1.1. Endurance – there are times when what you need is just good old fashioned elbow grease, clean up through brute effort.

Success: +1 Endurance, advance phase 2.

Sweeping takes care of the bulk debris, but to get the metal railings gleaming takes polishing and plenty of effort. Fortunately you aren’t afraid of a little hard work and with a few minor spells to speed the work along it doesn’t take too long to get your bit of the stadium shining.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance phase 2.

Sweeping takes care of the bulk debris, but to get the metal railings gleaming takes polishing and plenty of effort. Fortunately some of the others finish ahead of you and come to help or you’d probably have been there all day, well, doing the job properly takes time and what’s the point of being superficial?

 

1.2. Piety – clean the gunge from the statue with proper reverence for the statue’s holy nature

Success: +20 pims, +1 piety ss, advance phase 2.

While the others quickly move to clean up the stands and fields, you look around and see the statue of St. Withan, his foot resting on the sacred ball of freedom with the whistle of mercy in his lips – and the signs of generations of pigeons all over his slave-halter and chains.

 

Time to rescue the patron who won freedom for champions who amused their dragon overlords from modern aerial mischief. Taking care to be properly reverential and avoid disrupting the spells lain into the statue you clean away the grime and splatter and leave the bronze of the statue shining for the first time in years.

As you wash yourself clean at the grounds-keeper’s station the be-whiskered old grounds-keeper presses a few coins into your hands, “your friends did the obvious and the easy youngster, but only you took the time to remember what rimbal is really all about, a blessing on you child.”

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 2.

While the others quickly move to clean up the stands and fields, you look around and see the statue of St. Withan, his foot resting on the sacred ball of freedom and the whistle of mercy in his lips – and the signs of generations of pigeons all over his slave-halter and chains.

 

Time to rescue the patron who won freedom for champions who amused their dragon overlords from modern aerial mischief. It’s hard to be reverential with the statue, given the need for firm handholds on protrubances to keep your grip, but when you climb down quite pleased at your efforts you find that you’ve managed to get fixed in your friend’s minds as “the boy who gropes saints”, right, like what were you supposed to do? Risk falling? Really, the kids at Academagia are so puerile sometimes…

 

1.3. Revision spells – some messes are better not touched, turn the ick into water before going near it.

Success: +1 Revision Spells ss, advance phase 2.

OK, you don’t know what some of those stains are, you don’t want to know what they are, and you certainly don’t want to get to close to them. Standing at a safe distance you revise the gloopy stains into nice clean water, before getting a broom and brushing it up against the wall and then out of the stadium, it will turn back to gloop in a while but at least it’s out from the stadium.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance phase 2.

OK, you don’t know what some of those stains are, you don’t want to know what they are, and you certainly don’t want to get to close to them. Standing at a safe distance you revise the gloopy stains into nice clean water, before getting a broom and brushing it up against the wall. Unfortunately revision spells don’t last forever, and 1st year’s spells last less time than most, you are still brushing the water out of the stadium when it turns back into the gloopy gunge it used to be. Well, at least the mess is now mostly out of the way.

 

1.4. Incantation spells – summon a breeze and blow the wrappers together!

Success: +1 Incantation spells, advance phase 2.

The stands are littered with, well, litter. Also leaves, dirt tracked in on hundreds of shoes and no small amount of generic debris. Time for a few focused tornados, well, maybe minor dust devil’s to sweep out the stands in double-quick time.

 

The dust devils form quickly and blast along the stands picking up the debris and hurling it out of the stadium. That’s how a magician cleans up – with a wand, some magic, and style!

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance phase 2.

The stands are littered with, well, litter. Also leaves, dirt tracked in on hundreds of shoes and no small amount of generic debris. Time for a few focused tornados, well, dust devil’s to sweep out the stands in double-quick time.

 

The dust devils form quickly and blast along the stands picking up the debris, which is where the slight miscalculation in your plan comes apparent. What comes up must, it appears, come down again. After a few blast-the-walls-with-junk mishaps you manage to get the dust devils to dump the mess in a few small piles at the foot of the stands. Well, at least it is easier to clean up a few piles than sweep all those stands!

 

1.5. Observation: take a look around for where all the twigs and grasses are coming from.

Success: Unlock option 1.5.2, choose again

The scattering of twigs and grasses along the lower levels makes no sense, how is that junk getting onto the floor of the lower tier when it isn’t on the upper tier or anywhere else? There isn’t much point sweeping it up now if it just turns up again in a few days. After a few minutes searching the source of the mess becomes clear, some very dim birds have begun to nest underneath the upper tier in the stands. That’s a safe enough place for the birds to nest at the moment, but when the season gets properly underway there will be hundreds of screaming rimbal fans here every week with magic going off left right and centre, you need to get the birds out of here before they start to lay square eggs or get hit by celebratory incantations.

 

Failure: choose again

The scattering of twigs and grasses along the lower levels makes no sense, how is that junk getting onto the floor of the lower tier when it isn’t on the upper tier or anywhere else? After a few of fruitless searching you pack the search in before your friends start to complain that you are loafing, and you get stuck in sweeping and picking up where the cleaning is obvious.

 

1.5.2. Voice. Sing the birds out of the eaves so you can clean the nests out.

Success: Gain ring of keen eyes (+1 Perception, +1 Observation), advance phase 2.

As you add a little glamour to your voice the birds start to stir, after a few moments the birds rise in a flock and fly out of the rimbal grounds, you make a note to tell the groundskeepers so they can lay a charm around the stadium to stop them coming back.

 

As you clear out the half-built nests you find a minor treasure, a silver ring set with a pair of small cats-eye gems, how about that for luck? Fortunately when you check later the ring was reported lost decades ago and the owner writes back to the lost property office saying “Since the youngster has such keen eyes, it should serve them well, it showed me all sorts of wonder, let them keep it with my blessing.”

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance phase 2.

As you add a little glamour to your voice the birds start to stir, after a few moments the birds rise in a flock and fly out of the rimbal grounds, you make a note to tell the groundskeepers so they can lay a charm around the stadium to stop them coming back.

 

Your colleagues are less impressed by the shower of mess the birds leave as they go and in particular by your singing, Magalda mimics your song in an exaggerated falsetto while Philippe jokingly mimes a dying opera singer. Oh well, Professor Chastellain always tells practicing students that no artist was ever celebrated after their very first performance, at least the birds are gone and you can clean the nests out now.

 

Phase 2. Warm up before the match

 

2.1. Practice with Zorzi

Auto: +1 relationship Zorzi Galea, advance phase 3.

You decide to focus your practice with Zorzi and see if his skill matches his enthusiasm. After a few minutes the two of you are well into the swing of things and trying out all sorts of wild plays and crazy ideas, it’s probably not the way to learn anything useful but it’s sure plenty of fun!

 

2.2. Practice with Magalda

Auto: +1 relationship Magalda, advance phase 3.

You decide to focus your practice with Magalda and see if her skill matches her enthusiasm with the game, or at least watching the game – she never seems to miss a match. Fortunately despite her obsessive watching of the sport she’s not a tactic-manual like Zorzi or Magsa and you get plenty of good shots in against her defence and stop quite a few of hers.

 

2.3. Practice with Magsa

Auto: +1 relationship Magsa Nembo, advance phase 3.

You decide to focus your practice with Magsa, he’s got a reputation for being very focused and you figure you can try to learn something from it. As it is you spend most of the practice session desperately fending off his shots and barely get a spell on the ball otherwise. Embarrassed at how he hogged the ball Magsa apologises but you laugh off his guilt, at least you got plenty of defence practice!

 

2.4. Practice with Vincent Eins

Auto: +1 relationship Vincent Eins, advance phase 3.

You decide to focus your practice with Vincent, he’s got a reputation for being lucky, but you heard Professor Massioti say that the good rimball players make their own luck. Well, Vincent certainly manages to do plenty of that, but for the life of you the secret of how to do it yourself escapes you, at least you managed to give Vincent a good practice!

 

Phase 3. The game begins.

 

3.1. Rimbal plays. Practice your teamwork and combined casting

Success: +1 Rimbal Plays, advance phase 4.

The key to good rimbal is to work with your team-mates so that one of you counter’s the other team while another team-member enspells the rimbal. Another key is to keep your play fluid so that the other side can’t anticipate who will strike and who will parry, actually, thinking about it there are lots of keys to playing rimbal well,

probably the most important in a game like this is to go with the flow and not get too tied up with thinking.

The first half goes well, with plenty of passing play, even if Magsa and Luti have to remind Philippe to go easy and that it’s just touch-rimbal, a few times. Sometimes you think Philippe deliberately pushes things just so no-one forgets that he’s a Marchant and that Marchant’s are tougher than everyone else.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance phase 4.

The key to good rimbal is to work with your team-mates so that one of you counter’s the other team and one enspells the rimbal. Another key is to keep your play fluid so that the other side can’t anticipate who will strike and who will parry, actually, thinking about it there are lots of keys to playing rimbal well, probably the most important in a game like this is to go with the flow and not get too tied up with thinking.

 

The first half goes well, with plenty of passing play, but Magsa and Luti have to remind Philippe to go easy, it’s just touch-rimbal, more than a few times – and you have the bruises and general nervousness that comes from repeated blast-dodging to prove his aggressive play. Sometimes you think Philippe deliberately pushes things just so no-one forgets that he’s a Marchant and that Marchant’s are tougher than everyone else.

 

3.2. Rimbal tactics. Practice common responses and identification of opponent’s tactics

Success: +1 Rimbal Tactics, advance phase 4.

Practice makes perfect, well, not really perfect you suspect, although hopefully it does make better – and if you practice with your fellows then hopefully you can work together during the game rather than undermine each other’s actions.

The first half of the match goes well, you accidentally foul a few of each other’s spells but mostly you work reasonably well together, which is more than can be said for the other team where Luti and Philippe almost come to blows after Philippe’s negation spell prevents Luti’s incantation from scoring a goal.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance phase 4.

Practice makes perfect, well, not really perfect you suspect, although hopefully it does make better – and if you practice with your fellows then hopefully you can work together rather than undermine each other’s actions.

The first half of the match goes well although you manage to foul a few of each other’s spells a few times, the other team is however remarkably cohesive and although you rally towards the end of the half Luti and Philippe pound several goals past you – and in Philippe’s case very nearly through you.

 

3.3. Endurance. Pace yourself as the play goes on making sure you have reserve energy for when it’s needed.

Success: +1 Endurance, advance phase 4.

All too often in casual games people cast their best spells in the opening parts of the game and are then too drained to keep up the pace. Talking to the team you agree to try to soak up the initial attack without getting too caught up in blocking every blow, letting your opponents tire themselves out before counter-attacking when they run out of steam.

 

The plan works to perfection, the first few minutes are brutal, Luti’s team compete between themselves to power the rimbal at you and your moderate deflections only spur them to hammer the rimbal harder. After the initial few minutes however fatigue begins to set in and you immediately start your counter-attack, you even the score swiftly and then some – when you break for the second half you see Luti’s team panting and downing pick-me-up tonics and potions, success!

 

Failure: -1 vitality, advance phase 4.

All too often in casual games people cast their best spells in the opening parts of the game and are then too drained to keep up the pace. Talking to the team you agree to try to soak up the initial attack without getting too caught up in blocking every blow, letting your opponents tire themselves out before counter-attacking when they run out of steam.

 

The plan works to perfection at first, I mean, you planned to have them pound the rimbal past you in the opening minutes, right? Unfortunately they don’t slow down for quite some time, and by the time you start fighting back in earnest you are too far behind to catch-up. As Luti, Philippe, Joanna, Kurt and Carmine jog off the field cheering, your team make clear that next half they are following a different plan – preferably someone else’s.

 

3.4. Running. Do some runs to limber up and make sure you can keep up with the action.

Success: +1 Running, advance phase 4.

While Rimbal is often described as all about the magic, in practice it’s also about being in the right place at the right time – it takes a very good spell to do any good when the ball is at the other end of the field, and often the nearest caster’s spell is the one which affects the ball, simply because the spell cast from nearby moves the ball out of the way of the spell cast from further away.

 

So quickly agreeing tactics, you play a running game, keeping close to the ball to ensure you have a good line of sight at all times and are close enough to make your spells count. By the end of the second half you are well ahead and even if your opponents are far fresher you have the half-time break to recover.

 

Failure: -1 vitality, advance phase 4.

While Rimbal is often described as all about the magic, in practice it’s also about being in the right place at the right time – it takes a very good spell to do any good when the ball is at the other end of the field, and often the nearest caster’s spell is the one which affects the ball, simply because the spell cast from nearby moves the ball out of the way of the spell cast from further away.

 

You quickly agree tactics and try to play a running game, keeping close to the ball to ensure you have a good line of sight at all times and are close enough to make your spells count. Unfortunately what you hadn’t figured with was how tiring trying to keep up with the ball would be – particularly when Philippe figures out your game and, with a wide grin, starts sending the ball all over the field.

 

3.5. Awareness. How is Luti’s team going to play against you?

Success: +33 chance of success, choose again.

Luti’s team is fairly well known. Luti is a great player – and knows all the ploys used in Rimbal. Philippe and Joanna are brutes, fortunately there isn’t much use for physicality in touch-rimbal and Joanna’s not too good at magic, Carmine’s a pretty-boy who will probably spend more time show-boating to the students who’ve come along to watch, Kurt’s a reasonable all-rounder but can get a bit vengeful and ignore what’s going on around him focussing on old slights. You would probably do best leaving Luti to Zorzi or Magsa and match against one of the others, but overall you figure you have the stronger team.

 

Failure: choose again

Luti’s team is fairly well known. Luti is a great player – and knows all the ploys used in Rimbal. Philippe and Joanna are brutes, fortunately there isn’t much use for physicality in touch-rimbal and Joanna’s not too good at magic, Carmine’s a pretty-boy who will probably spend more time show-boating to the students who’ve come along to watch, Kurt’s a reasonable all-rounder but can get a bit vengeful and ignore what’s going on around him focussing on old slights. You think about how knowing this helps you but can’t think of anything.

 

Phase 4. The game is won. +1 to a rimbal skill or +1 to a relationship (sacrifice play)

 

4.1. Run interference for Zorzi so he gets to score the final goal

Auto: +1 relationship Zorzi Galea, access stage 4

OK, the second half is more even between you, but you can see that Zorzi is getting jumpy, you realise that though he’s played a good game supporting the rest of you, he hasn’t really had a chance to strut his stuff and shine.

Well, he’s your friend, your somewhat obsessed, frequently over-eager friend, but your friend even so. When you get a good chance you make sure to pass the rimbal to Zorzi and then run interference for him, Zorzi makes the most of his chance and scores a truly awesome goal. As Zorzi celebrates with the others he gives you a grateful look and you know he knows your help gave him the chance.

 

4.2. Give Luti a chance at trying out the cool move he was practicing before.

Auto: +1 relationship Luti Jaconelli, access stage 4.

Luti’s captaining the other team, but he’s still a friend – it’s just a friendly game after-all. Seeing you are well ahead and Luti is desperately trying to win back some self-esteem (and avoid being mocked mercilessly by Zorzi until the next game) you decide to give him a chance against Zorzi by letting Zorzi’s enthusiasm get away from him and leaving Zorzi to do a fairly wild spell tackle unsupported.

Luti doesn’t need more than that given the wildness of Zorzi’s spell and with a perfect flick of his wand he parries Zorzi spell and from barely over the half-way line he shoots an awesome goal. Luti whoops and celebrates with his team, but you know he saw you give him the chance as he shoots you a quick smile, you make sure that they only get the one free goal, but at least Zorzi won’t get too cocky this week!

 

4.3. Support Magalda against Joanna

Auto: +1 relationship Magalda, access stage 4.

Joanna is a brute, but fortunately this is no-contact Rimbal so Magalda has a fair chance again Joanna – except where Joanna and Philippe “forget” that it’s supposed to be no-contact.

Which is where you come in. When you see Joanna start making a beeline for Magalda you carefully deflect the rimbal towards the thundering brute, as Joanna tries to stop her headlong charge Magalda sees your plan and reposts the rimbal back in its tracks. Joanna tries to turn so quickly she slips over allowing Magalda to dodge past and streak down the field to score. Oddly Magalda seems more interested in the faint cheers from some of the watchers in the stands than the congratulations of her team-mates, but you figure she probably has a friend up there or something.

 

4.4. Give Joanna a chance to shine in front of Philippe.

Auto: +1 relationship Joanna, access stage 4.

OK, Joanna’s a brute, this is clear to everyone. But you’ve noticed that she only really bullies people when Philippe is around – and for that matter since she only normally seems interested in Rimbal when she’s watching Philippe you figure she’s put all the effort into the club simply to get a chance to play with Philippe.

So why not be nice, it’s not so hard – you just have to take a few bruises for a friend. Seeing Joanna bear down on Magalda in one of her “forgetful moments” where Joanna forgets that you are playing no-contact rimbal you take the fall for Magalda, making sure that Philippe gets to see you take the fall. Joanne doesn’t show anything but as you roll to your feet rubbing your shin theatrically, Joanna shoots you a quizzical look that you smile at with a knowing look at Philippe, her half smile doesn’t last but you know she realises you helped her out.

 

4.5. Double team with Magsa

Auto: +1 relationship Magsa, access stage 4.

Magsa is one of the better players, if a little intense, but even the best players can use a little help, and since he appears to have just decided to go straight at Philippe and Luti both now would be a good time for you to pitch in.

As Philippe launches his spell at the Rimbal you set the ball spinning so Philippe’s blast sends the ball at Luti rather than through Magsa (you hope the excessive amount of force in Philippe’s spell was accidental but suspect not) and then manage a quick negation as Luti tries to parry Magsa’s spell, your quick spell doesn’t cancel Luti’s, but does weaken Luti’s magic enough for Magsa to get control of the ball and blast his way through to the goal, mission accomplished!

 

4.6. Take on Philippe yourself

Auto: +1 relationship Philippe, access stage 4.

Ok, most people carefully avoid Philippe – with good reason. But what you’ve noticed is that Philippe generally bullies people who don’t stand up to him, but he doesn’t seem to mind taking a few knocks himself – indeed you suspect he encourages people to take a shot at him to show his resilience, and he seems to respect strength. Which is somewhat unfortunate for poor Vincent Eins who has taken more than his fair share of Marchant tackles this game.

So… your turn. As Philippe sledges the Rimbal past Vincent sending Vincent flying you make your move. You parry the rimbal, catch the falling Vincent and shoulder-barge past Philippe in one smooth bout of awesomeness; as you pass the ball to Zorzi you notice Philippe grunt “at least one person’s ready to play real Rimbal here” under his breath, grudging praise, but praise nonetheless!

 

4.7. Help Vincent Eins make his move

Auto: +1 relationship Vincent Eins, access stage 4.

Vincent isn’t a big guy, but he’s keen, and he’s lucky – and not bad with magic which is key in Rimbal. But, as they say, sometimes you need to make your own luck. And frankly, you feel like giving Vincent a chance to shine, he’s a good kid and you think one of the girls watching the match has an eye for him, so you make sure to pass him the rimbal when he’s in a good position and then run interference all the way to the opposing goal.

 

4.8. Try some plays against Kurt Henning

Auto: +1 relationship Kurt Henning, access stage 4.

The club’s still quite small, but Kurt’s so keen on incantations that he makes enough noise for half a dozen of you. Still, his incantations aren’t bad and marking him for the second half gives you plenty of practice as negations and dodging. Seeing him look quite bored at how Philippe and Luti hog the rimbal for a while you decide to give him a chance to do some blasting – after all it’s just a friendly game, and frankly the thought of him accidentally blasting Philippe is quite fun, so when next tackling Philippe’s ball you send it flying towards Kurt – who comes uncomfortably close to scoring a goal but clearly enjoys his moment of glory.

 

 

 

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Stage 4.

 

 

 

Stage 4. The match with second years

The canteen outdid itself today, fortunately you saw the warnings signs and decided to subsist on crackers and what you could harvest from the vegetable garden. Not all the clubbers were so lucky, Professor Briardi managed to negate Joanna’s uncontrollable retching, but Zorzi was carried out glowing an unhealthy shade of green, and Carmine and Magalda staggered out clutching their stomachs in a desperate flight to the bathrooms. Kurt meanwhile appears to have snuck out to Mineta in search of something edible and hasn’t been seen since.

 

But there are enough of you healthy to make up a Rimbal team, and since the club started playing games in the stands, word has got around the Academagia sufficiently for some other groups to offer to play you. Time, you figure, to take one of these groups up on their offer.

 

A clique calling themselves “Cara’s Crowd” (a name chosen despite not having anyone called Cara in, it’s something about a restaurant they frequent) seem friendly enough, and though they are second years they don’t seem too good at rimbal from what you’ve seen – friendly knock-about types rather than hard-core rimbal fanatics, which should mean you have a chance against them.

 

A quick chat after lunch with Elli, one of Cara’s crowd, and the game is set-up. They even turn up beforehand in the Unicorn practice grounds and help you clean up to “pay” for the use of the grounds. After an hour or so of effort it’s time for Rimbal!

 

Phase 1 – playing against strangers

You knew it would be tough playing against second years, after-all, they are bigger and have a year’s more experience with spells, but wow these guys are good. Elli has a truly awesome skill at incantations and her friend Dara has a nasty glamour of shrieks and flashes that makes it hard for you to call to each other but doesn’t seem to do the same for her team. Fortunately Borril, Elli’s brother would be generously be described as big-but-dim and Nervi, a mousy boy who hasn’t said a word that you’ve heard seems to be terrified of Philippe as soon as he sees him. The last player on their team, Padraec, looks fairly solid, and his warm-up shows he’s good at spells, but Luti chuckles every time the boy talks about Rimbal saying “he’s clueless, make some fast plays around him and he’ll flounder”, Luti sounds confident but then, Luti always does, you can only hope he’s right.

 

1.1. Schoolyard education: Get ready to rumble, Cara’s Crowd will open hard hoping to shock you into submission, be ready for them.

 

Success: +1 Schoolyard education ss, advance to phase 2

Elle wins the toss and chooses to start in possession of the Rimbal, even though you ready your best negation spell her first incantation blasts the rimbal deeply into your side of the pitch and Borril charges after it like a bullock after a cow.

 

The clique-mates you are playing against are quite familiar with each other’s capabilities but they are a little nervous about using their full force against 1st years, it would be a little sweet if it wasn’t so patronising. Borril makes the mistake of throwing only a light wind-charm at you to blow you back and you run through it with ease and tackle the rimbal from him with a quick incantation.

By the time he responds you pass to Luti, who dodges around Nervi and then passes to Philippe who powers past Elle and shoots - first goal of the match, and a lesson to Cara’s Crowd to take you seriously!

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 2.

Elle wins the toss and chooses to start in possession of the Rimbal, even though you ready your best negation spell, her first incantation blasts the rimbal deeply into your side of the pitch and Borril charges after it like a bullock after a cow.

 

The clique-mates are quite familiar with each other’s capabilities but they are a little nervous about using their full force against 1st years, it would be a little sweet if it wasn’t so patronising. Unfortunately even when he’s pulling his punches (in magical terms) Borril’s wind-charm sends you flying, while Vincent hastily makes a wind-charm of his own to catch you from falling Borril charges past him and scores before you’ve even got back on your feet. You sigh ruefully wondering if playing second years had been a mistake, this will be a long game if you don’t get your act together.

 

1.2. Rimbal tactics: Ok, individually Cara’s Crowd have the advantage, but you’ve played with each other in proper practice grounds for weeks – make that experience count.

 

Success: +1 Rimbal tactics ss, advance to phase 2

Although you’ve generally played as two teams, Zorzi’s and Luti’s, you are all familiar with how you all play. You know Luti can make the most of any opportunity given, that Philippe is a tank, and how Vincent and Magsa play best, time to make that knowledge count.

 

You try a feint against Borril and when he is fooled and throws a negation spell at you Luti seizes his chance and takes the ball from him. Working with your team-mates and relying on moves you’ve practiced with, and against, each other you win past Cara’s Crowd and with a whoop of joy score the first goal of the game.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 2.

Although you’ve generally played as two teams, Zorzi’s and Luti’s, you are all familiar with how you all play. You know Luti can make the most of any opportunity given, that Philippe is a tank, and your own team mates well, time to make that knowledge count.

 

You try a feint against Borril and when he is fooled and throws a negation spell at you Luti seizes his chance and takes the ball from him. Working with your team-mates and relying on moves you’ve practiced with, turns out to be a mistake however as Elle, with a laugh that “you tried that play last week loser” tackles Philippe with a nifty glamour and while Philippe’s befuddled Dara easily takes the rimbal off him and in moments Dara passes the ball to Padraec who shows an impressive turn of speed as he zips down the field, moments later, to your despair, Padraec blasts the ball past Vincent and scores – not, you think, the way you wanted this game to start.

 

1.3. Rimbal plays: Double team with Luti to try to open an early lead.

 

Success: +1 relationship Luti Jaconelli, advance to phase 2

Cara’s crowd are a year older than you, but you don’t know how much rimbal they’ve played in a proper stadium with the metamagic zones and inter-active field elements – and those make all the difference between real rimbal (even a touch version) and a childish knock-about.

 

You see a chance to take advantage of the field elements when Luti tackles the ball away from Borril and heads down the field. As Dara draws the phemes to cast a negation spell you cast a quick incantation wind charm, not enough to disrupt his palette, but enough to knock him back into a null zone, Dara laughs at your “failed attempt” and finishes his phemes casting his spell with a flourish at Luti “bye kid!” cries Dara – only for a faint wisp of a spell to splutter out of his wand instead of his planned spell, the wisp doesn’t even reach Luti falling to the ground and fizzling out with a faint whine, Luti laughs in return and finishes his own spell knocking the rimbal well down the field. This game might be easier then you feared!

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 2.

Cara’s crowd are a year older than you, but you don’t know how much rimbal they’ve played in a proper stadium with the metamagic zones and inter-active field elements – and those make all the difference between real rimbal (even a touch version) and a childish knock-about.

 

You see a chance to take advantage of the field elements when Luti tackles the ball away from Borril and heads down the field. As Dara draws the phemes to cast a negation spell you cast a quick incantation wind charm, not enough to disrupt his palette, but enough to knock him back into a null zone, well, what you thought was a null zone, too late you realise your error as the tell-tale sparkles around Dara’s wand indicate that the zone was set up as an enhancement zone this game.

 

Dara finishes his phemes casting his spell with a flourish at Luti “bye kid!” cries Dara – fortunately while his spell is far more potent than usual due to the enhancement zone, it is so potent that his team-mates aren’t in the right position to take advantage, for the rimball stops dead on the ground when hit by the negation. Luti recovers well, a simple revision makes his left hand huge and he scoops up the rimbal and throws it to Vincent quickly enough to avoid a touch-penalty, Vincent manages to get the ball some way down the field but you know you will have to be more careful in picking your plays to avoid costing your team the match.

 

1.4. Rimbal positions: Judge your opponents and pick your position to boost your chances.

 

Success: +1 relationship Vincent Eins, advance to phase 2

You figure that Luti is bound to take one striker position, and Philippe will take the other, looking at your opponents you figure that you have a fair chance against any of them with one tactic or another, so you go midfield to support whoever needs you most.

 

Unfortunately Elle and Dara get the ball off Philippe quickly and makes an early run down the field, Vincent is ready in defence so rather than take them both on alone you drop back and double-team with Vincent. As you negate Elle’s control over the ball you manage to call directions to Vincent to help him focus through Dara’s glamours. Vincent incants the rimbal and with the ball caught in his spell he quickly passes it down the field to Luti who passes it on to Philippe before Cara’s crowd can get into position, Philippe runs around Borril with contemptuous ease and scores from 10 yards out. Vincent cheers, “awesome! We’ve got the advantage now, great start – and thanks!”

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 2.

You figure that Luti is bound to take one striker position, and Philippe will take the other, looking at your opponents you figure that you have a fair chance against any of them with one tactic or another, so you go midfield to support whoever needs you most.

 

Unfortunately Elle and Dara get the ball of Philippe quickly and make an early run down the field, although you try to stop the charging second years and ready a spell to intercept Elle, but Dara casts a glamour on you which leaves you enveloped in darkness. Casting your spell blindly a shriek suggests that you managed to have some effect on Elle, but by the time you shake off the darkness and look around Elle and Dara have knocked poor Vincent flying and Magsa barely manages to block them from scoring a goal. It seems that Cara’s Crowd play better together than you thought, this is going to be a tough game!

 

1.5. Awareness: Keep an eye out for what the other team are doing.

 

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again.

You know better than to assume what position someone will play just by looking at them, and as Cara’s Crowd disperse into position across the Rimbal field you watch to see which of them takes each role, the knowledge should make deciding your tactics much easier.

 

Failure: choose again.

You know better than to assume what position someone will play just by looking at them, and as Cara’s Crowd disperse into position across the Rimbal field you see which of them take each role, it should make deciding your tactics much easier, at least that was the theory, but unfortunately they all go pretty much where you’d expected from your first impressions, oh well, you should probably pick what position is best for you any way.

 

Phase 2 – playing to win

The first half is tough but you manage to get a small advantage – and a deep appreciation of how much you have to learn about magic in your second year.

 

“We’re doing well” says Luti, “but we need to keep up the pressure to stop them recovering, we’ll swap the triangle formation for diamond formation - I’ll drop back to midfield, that way we can react more easily to what they try this half, if they get defensive I’ll go back forward, if they go aggressive we’ll stay defensive.

 

He and Philippe chat tactics some more – you know Philippe always prefers to try to lead the play style rather than react to the other team’s play style, but Luti is firm. The starting rocket is fired and Cara’s Crowd start back onto the field, “ok guys, let’s beat a team of second years and win some glory! Rimball ho!” With that you all charge onto the field, time for some fun!

 

2.1. Rimbal plays: Help Philippe tackle one of Cara’s crowd and get the ball off them

 

Success: +1 relationship Philippe, advance to phase 2

The second half goes reasonably evenly, but as it comes to a close you can see it’s all going to come down to who wins the next major play – and then the big play comes. Padraec and Borril have the ball balanced on incantations and Nervi comes out of goal to help them get it forward, it’s the perfect opportunity and you see that Luti is already moving forward to support Philippe in his tackle.

 

As Philippe charges against the second year boys, Luti hits them with a glamour and you negate their own incantations, with a growl Philippe “accidentally bumps” into Padraec sending him reeling before revising the ground into mud beneath Borril, Nervi positively leaps out of Philippe’s way as Philippe charges him and with a victorious whoop Philippe reaches the goal and scores. Moments later the final rocket signals the end of the game, you’ve won!

 

Failure: -1 relationship Philippe Marchant, advance to phase 3.

The second half goes reasonably evenly, but as it comes to a close you can see it’s all going to come down to who wins the next major play – and then it comes. Padraec and Borril have the ball balanced on incantations and Nervi comes out of goal to help them get it forward, it’s the perfect opportunity and you see that Luti is already moving forward to support Philippe in his tackle.

As Philippe charges against the second year boys Luti hits them with a glamour and you negate try to their own glamours, but the glamour was just too complex and Philippe dodges “Padraec” only to find that he’s dodged an illusion and left himself wide open to the real player’s tackle.

 

Padraec tackles the rimbal and leaves Philippe sprawling in conjured mud. Nervi manages to negate Luti’s next spell and Borril blocks you with a wall of wind. By the time the three of you get out of the spell effect the three boys are well down the field and have teamed up with the girls. Vincent and Magsa try to stop the, from scoring but 5 against 2 is a foregone conclusion and Elle scores the winning goal just before the final rocket blows.

 

Philippe glares at you as you troop of the field, “it was your job to negate that glamour, we’d have had them if you’d done your bit. Magsa and Vincent console you but you know that Philippe won’t forget losing today, sometimes you think that he lives for the chance to bear grudges.

 

2.2. Negation Methods: Figure out how they are negating Luti’s incantations and help him get his spells to work

 

Success: +1 Negation Methods ss, advance to phase 3

The first half was fairly even, but one of the problems you had was them negating Luti’s best incantations – he’s one of your best players and if you can help him avoid getting his spells negated you should dominate the second half easily.

 

After some thought you realise that Vincent’s wind charms were much more effective against their negations, which is odd as you all learned the same spells and phemes in class. It must be something about the way the phemes are formed you think, their negations must be targeting some weakness in the way the palette is drawn rather than the actual phemes. You mention this to Luti as you run on to the field and he frowns, then suddenly grins, I know, Vincent uses an old-fashioned orthography technique to scribe his phemes, it why he’s so good at controlling wind charms – I normally just scribble them out as it’s quicker, but Rimbal’s more about accuracy than speed anyway, I’ll try it Vincent’s way this half.

 

You advice proved just what Luti needed and his spells are much more effective in the second half, since you were pretty evenly matched in the first half that means you romp over Cara’s Crowd in the second, sometimes a little learning is all you need!

 

Failure: -1 Negation Methods, advance to phase 3.

The first half was fairly even, but one of the problems you had was them negating Luti’s best incantations – he’s one of your best players and if you can help him avoid getting his spells negated you should dominate the second half easily.

 

After some thought you realise that Vincent’s wind charms were much more effective against their negations, which is odd as you all learned the same spells and phemes in class. It must be something about the way the phemes are formed you think, their negations must be targeting some weakness in the way the palette is drawn rather than the actual phemes. You mention this to Luti as you run on to the field and he frowns, then suddenly grins, I know, Vincent uses an old-fashioned orthography technique to scribe his phemes, it why he’s so good at controlling wind charms – I normally just scribble them out as its quicker, but Rimbal’s more about accuracy than speed anyway, I’ll try it Vincent’s way this half.

 

You advice turns out to be terribly wrong however as Elle’s negations are even more effective when Luti tries to use Vincent’s technique than before, by the time he realises just how bad your advice was Cara’s crowd have a two goal lead and despite your best efforts you aren’t able to claw them back. “We did ok, I mean they are second years and it wasn’t a crushing defeat, somebody has to lose the game” mutters Vincent trying to cheer you up as you troop off the field “yeah, and if you figure out how negations work you might even give good advice next time” grumbles Philippe as he stomps past you on his way to the showers.

 

2.3. Voice: Focus your voice over the noise spells

 

Success: +1 Voice ss, advance to phase 3.

One of the problems in the first half was in talking to each other, Dara cast several glamours which made it hard to hear each other, which left you unable to tell each other when you needed help or had an opportunity.

Having had a chance to think about it during the break you try a fairly high pitched musical tone when making your next move, to your relief it works, the tone cuts through the jumble of glamoured noises and Philippe hears your warning and sees Borril bearing down on him with plenty of time to ready himself – you almost feel sorry for Borril when Philippe’s spell hit him.

 

Taking the hint from your success Luti and Magsa mimic your tone allowing the mid-field to work well, Philippe doesn’t bother, but then he’s so loud and so direct it wasn’t much of a problem to figure out what he needed anyway. Once you are able to communicate with each other over the glamours you get quite an edge against Cara’s crowd and by the time the final rocket blows you are well ahead.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 3.

One of the problems in the first half was in talking to each other, Dara cast several glamours which made it hard to hear each other, which left you unable to tell each other when you needed help or had an opportunity.

 

Having had a chance to think about it during the break you try a fairly high pitched musical tone when making your next move, to your relief it works, the tone cuts through the jumble of glamoured noises and Philippe hears your warning and sees Borril bearing down on him with plenty of time to ready himself – you almost feel sorry for Borril when Philippe’s spell hit him.

 

Unfortunately your team-mates seem to find your falsetto more funny than useful and don’t try it themselves, instead they complain that you should stop fooling around shrieking and play seriously. The distraction gives Padraec the chance to tackle Luti and with only you knowing how to speak over the glamour spell noise you aren’t able to co-ordinate a proper defence.

 

2.4. Endurance: Pace yourself and control your breathing to make sure you have enough energy to keep playing until the final rocket.

 

Success: +1 Endurance ss, advance to phase 2

You keep an eye on the clock as the second half progresses and pace yourself. Cara’s Crowd start out well playing very well, but as the half progresses they start flagging and you’re able to keep going.

By mid-point in the second half you have a good lead, and as the players in Cara’s Crowd tire more and more, your team pulls further and further ahead. Cara’s Crowd barely get to touch the rimbal in the last 10 minutes and you win the game with a 5 goal lead to cheers from the stands.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 2.

You keep an eye on the clock as the second half progresses and pace yourself. Unfortunately Cara’s Crowd seem to be quite healthy and they manage to keep up their energy – while your lack of effort lets them win a number of plays and score several goals. You end the game fairly fresh – but a goal down. Next time you’ll play less cautiously, you tell yourself, as you feign exhaustion in front of your friends.

 

2.5. Character study: Are any of them flagging? See if you can see any weak spots opening up in their teamwork.

 

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again.

As Cara’s crowd jog out on to the field you watch them carefully, to your surprise you see that Dara is starting to flag – she clearly doesn’t do enough exercise! Borril is also slowing down a bit as well, you pass this information to your team-mates and by the time the second half starts you are confident that your insight has given you an edge.

 

Failure: choose again.

As Cara’s crowd jog out on to the field you watch them carefully, but sadly they all seem fairly fresh, the rumours about second years spending all their time in the library clearly aren’t correct. Oh well, you are sure you’ll think of something.

 

Phase 3 – the ambush

As you all walk back into the changing rooms joking over various plays in the game you hear a sudden laugh from someone else and are drenched in cold water. No, not water, you realise as familiarity with Vettor’s preferred greeting tells you this isn’t water, you notice the odd smell and sticky texture of the gloopy fluid a moment later and you realise that this is probably going to be a lot harder to clean off than mere water.

 

As you hear curses from the rest of the drenched players you see a barrage of missiles and slop heading your way, oh joy, someone’s pilfered the kitchen dump, you see food too rotten for the kitchens to touch, peelings, and things you’d rather not try to identify in the barrage.

 

You’d better act quickly or everyone is going to be cold, stinking, sticky, and covered in yech.

 

3.1. Negation Spells: Negate! Shield everyone from the barrage!

 

Success: +1 relationship Magsa, advance to phase 4.

Scribing the phemes as quickly as you can, you negate the momentum of the barrage and it splatters to the floor, the mess is still gross and disgusting but at least it’s not on any of you.

 

Philippe snarls and glamours a light into the dark corners of the room, you just have time to see a gang of second or third years before they cast their next series of spells and you are all hurled up into the air and bounced painfully off the ceiling and walls.

 

“Hah! Got you Elle! Who’s the stinker now?” Cries one of the boys triumphantly.

 

Failure: Gain stenchtastic condition, advance to phase 4

Scribing the phemes as quickly as you can, you try to negate the momentum of the barrage but your palette is drawn to sloppily and the spell fails. Moments later the stuff hits you and the smell becomes truly indescribable.

 

Philippe snarls and glamours a light into the dark corners of the room, you just have time to see a gang of second or third years in the corner before they cast their next series of spells and you are all hurled up into the air and bounced painfully off the ceiling and walls.

 

“Hah! Got you Elle! Who’s the stinker now?” Cries one of the boys triumphantly.

 

3.2. Revision spells: Revise the air into a stone shield to block the barrage.

 

Success: +1 Revision Spells ss, advance to phase 4.

You only have a minute to act, and there’s nowhere to duck, so you cast your revision spell as quickly as you can. In the nick of time the air in front of you thickens enough to stop the slop, the spell doesn’t last more than a few moments but it’s enough and when it’s gone the slop falls to the floor.

 

One of Cara’s Crowd creates a bright light and throws it across the room, you just have time to see some boys, second or third years from the size of them, before their next spells hit you and you are hurled into the air, bouncing painfully of the ceiling and walls as gravity reverses and switches around repeatedly.

 

“Hah! Got you Elle! Who’s the stinker now?” Cries one of the boys triumphantly.

 

Failure: Gain stenchtastic condition, advance to phase 4

You only have a minute to act, and there’s nowhere to duck, so you cast your revision spell as quickly as you can. The air in front of you thickens slightly, but not enough. Some of the slop is stopped but enough gets through to cover all of you in foul smelling slop.

 

One of Cara’s Crowd creates a bright light and throws it across the room, you just have time to see some boys, second or third years from the size of them, before their next spells hit you and you are hurled into the air, bouncing painfully of the ceiling and walls as gravity reverses and switches around repeatedly.

 

“Hah! Got you Elle! Who’s the stinker now?” Cries one of the boys triumphantly.

 

3.3. Endurance: Step forward and soak up the barrage for your friends.

 

Auto: +1 Endurance SS, +1 relationship Vincent Eins, +1 relationship Luti Jaconelli, +1 relationship Philippe Marchant, +1 relationship Magsa Nembo, -1 Vitality, Gain stenchtastic condition, advance to phase 4.

 

Sometimes, a hero’s got to do what a hero’s just got to do. A few quick steps takes you in front of your friends and spreading your robes wide you manage to block most of the slop from hitting them – at the cost of being practically drowned in it.

 

As you collapse retching to your knees somebody casts a light spell and from the corner of your mouth you see some boys, second or third years from the size of them, before their next spells hit you and you are all hurled into the air, bouncing painfully of the ceiling and walls as gravity reverses and switches around repeatedly.

 

“Hah! Got you Elle! Who’s the stinker now?” Cries one of the boys triumphantly.

 

3.4. Acrobatics. Dodge out of the way of the barrage with a series of quick leaps and rolls.

 

Success: +1 relationship Vincent Eins, advance to phase 4.

Incoming slop! Without even thinking you start moving, jump, bounce, tuck-and-roll, swing around the cloakstand, duck under the cross-beam and roll across the bench, turn and spring backwards grabbing the door handle – and safe! You hear the others yell as the slop hits them, but you are safe behind the door into a closet.

You should probably feel guilty about not trying a spell to shield your friends, you think, but right now, with the stench of the slop creeping around the edge of the door, you are just grateful to still be mostly clean.

One of Cara’s Crowd creates a bright light and throws it across the room, you just have time to see some boys, second or third years from the size of them, before their next spells hit your friends and they are hurled into the air, bouncing of the ceiling and walls as gravity reverses and switches around repeatedly.

“Hah! Got you Elle! Who’s the stinker now?” Cries one of the boys triumphantly.

 

Failure: Gain stenchtastic condition, advance to phase 4

Incoming slop! Without even thinking you start moving, jump, bounce, tuck-and-roll, swing around the cloakstand, duck under the cross-beam and roll across the bench, turn and spring backwards grabbing the door handle – and thud! Your attempt to pull the door open enough for you to get through and then shut it behind you fails as you mistime the movements and instead slam straight into it. A moment later the barrage hits, covering you all in foul smelling slop.

One of Cara’s Crowd creates a bright light and throws it across the room, you just have time to see some boys, second or third years from the size of them, before their next spells hit you and you are hurled into the air, bouncing painfully of the ceiling and walls as gravity reverses and switches around repeatedly.

“Hah! Got you Elle! Who’s the stinker now?” Cries one of the boys triumphantly.

 

3.5. Perception. Look to see where the attacks are coming from.

 

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again

You don’t have long, but you have time for a quick look around to see what’s going on, ok, a barrage of slop coming towards you, not much in the way beyond Vincent, Elle and Dara and you don’t think they’ll stop much of it, some shadowy figures behind the slop waving wands, not that you thought slop would attack all on its own outside of the canteen, ok, there, the faint traces of phemes from the cast spell – it’s just a basic “chuckit” charm, it should be fairly easy to stop it with your own magic – you should have just enough time if you stop gawping.

 

Failure: choose again

You starts to look around but – flying slop – coming right at you – there’s no time, you’ve got to act now and hope whatever you do works because that slop looks nasty.

 

Phase 4 – The aftermath

Philippe didn't so much as hesitate squaring off against the older boys, "ok, good ambush, I'll grant you the gutless cheap-shot went well, but do you have the balls to try it again when we’re ready for you? Well? Face me and a team of the other first years in a game next week - or would you rather I get Dexter to play your own game on you?"

 

The bully sneers but one of his friends blanches and pulls him back frantically whispering, you catch the names Dexter and Storey and the bully scowls. Walking back he says "ok squirts, next week, bring bandages".

“So,” says Philippe, turning to the rest of you, “which of you have the stones to play them next week?”

 

4.1. Auto: He can count you in, revenge it is!

Access stage 5.

 

4.2. Auto: Nope, you want no part in a Marchant grudge match, he can count you out.

End adventure.

 

 

 

 

Does anyone know the name of the older Marchants? I need it for Philippe's response to the older students trying to bully him and the team.

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Now from the Rui vs Philippe adventure I would say that Philippe would join his brother in nearly any evil doing before joining a club or helping members in one. Unless its about Joana. But I can't see her in a Rimbal club unless she can easy bully all the members in it or Philippe joined first.

 

Edit: The adventure is named Dexter versus Rui in the mod tools so I think one of the elder brother of Philippe is called Dexter. But over all I wouldn't use Philippe in jet a other adventure because he already have to most adventures and events to my knowledge.

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Philippe is in it, I think, for a chance to show off - perhaps to boost his chances of getting in a team later (I can see his brother being a feared opponent in the game - perhaps a team captain).

 

I put him in, from recollection, as it should give the player some chance to gain relationship with him (which is fairly rare) and I needed someone to trigger the grudge match at the end.

 

He is the "typical bully" in adventures though, so I may be being lazy. If I ever finish the dratted thing I'll look at swapping him - but I'd need 2 replacements as I have Joanne tagging along for a chance to be around him.

 

Thanks for the name of Dexter.

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OK, stage 5 of Rimbal, last one. Since I don't know how Rimbal is played it's been a bit tough doing this one, so any comments are welcome.

 

 

 

Stage 5 – The grudge match

Since the prank attack against you – well against Cara’s Crowd by the other clique of second-years – but it hit you too, you’ve wondered if getting dragged into a revenge match was, well, sensible. But pulling out would mean telling Philippe Marchant that you were chickening out, which might be even more dangerous than going through with the grudge match.

 

The other clique consists of Leon and Noel, a pair of hulking brutes, Enrico, a small boy but one with a fearsome reputation for violence that would do a Marchant proud, and finally Devonte and Miguel two boys you haven’t heard much about but who seem to be fairly dim follower-types.

 

And now it’s time to play them. This week Zorzi and Luti talked the Griffin’s into letting you use their grounds, the clubbers who aren’t playing in the grudge match said they’d take care of the fixing-up of the stadium requested by the Griffins. Vincent didn’t want to play against the bullies, but Philippe wouldn’t be deterred, and Luti and Magsa were keen on revenge, and Zorzi never turned down a game, so the five of you are ready to go.

 

You just hope that the presence of Dexter Marchant as referee will stop things getting to far out of hand – he’s Philippe’s brother, which should mean you’ll be ok, but he’s a Marchant – and you figure that his tolerance for rough-and-tumble will be far higher than any normal referee and he’ll be as keen on “toughening-up” Philippe as he will be in preventing the bullies brutalising the rest of you.

 

Phase 1 – squaring off

Of course, before you actually get on to the field, there is always the pre-game ritual of bigging yourselves up and undermining your opponent’s self-confidence. The other team is fairly obvious about trying to intimidate you – not a surprise given that they think throwing kitchen slop is funny.

 

Leon and Noel strut about flexing their muscles and trying to loom over you, Enrico practices some nasty-looking incantations and negations, while Devonte and Miguel – you are having trouble remembering which of the two is which – just puff their chests out and swagger a little. Frankly you aren’t impressed, Philippe manages all three techniques before breakfast most mornings.

 

1.1. Intimidation: Show them that they might a year older than you, but you are just as good at magic.

Success: +1 Intimidation ss, +1 relationship Philippe Marchant, advance to phase 2

These idiots think they can intimidate you? Really? You’ve been in class with Philippe Marchant for weeks – and frankly the fact they’re trying to intimidate him makes the bullies laughable, I mean, they must know about his brothers.

 

On the other hand, if they are trying to be intimidating, they must feel pretty insecure – which is an open invitation for you to try to intimidate them. A few words around your team about your idea and you all begin to flex your own magical (and physical) muscles, it doesn’t take long before you see them looking at you with more respect.

 

Failure: -1 Intimidation ss, advance to phase 2

These idiots think they can intimidate you? Really? You’ve been in class with Philippe Marchant for weeks – and frankly the fact they’re trying to intimidate him makes them laughable, I mean, they must know about his brothers.

 

On the other hand, if they are trying to be intimidating, they must feel pretty insecure – which is an open invitation for you to intimidate them. A few words around the team and you all begin to flex your own magical (and physical) muscles, and… you see them smirking at your efforts and talking about “kids”, looks like you weren’t that intimidating after all.

 

1.2. Minetan Swagger: They think they can strut? Around you? You own the field!

Success: +1 Minetan Swagger, +1 relationship Luti Jaconelli, advance to phase 2

They probably expect you to be intimidated, they’re second years, they pulled a pretty mean prank on you, and they expect to crush you in the game. Time to start the learning process, you’ve walked the mean streets of Mineta, tackled pirates and goblins, and frankly a bunch of bullying second years don’t measure up against the opponents you’ve faced.

A flick of your head, slight jut to your jaw, and the second years back off slightly, recognising your lack of fear for them and general confidence. A few jokes with your team-mates to push home how contemptuous you are of your opponents and you jog out eager for the game – time for some revenge!

 

Failure: -1 Minetan Swagger, advance to phase 2

They probably expect you to be intimidated, they’re second years, they pulled a pretty mean prank on you, and they expect to crush you in the game. Time to start the learning, you’ve walked the mean streets of Mineta, tackled pirates and goblins, and frankly a bunch of bullying second years don’t measure up against the opponents you’ve faced.

A flick of your head, slight jut to your jaw, and the second years back off slightly, but then your façade wavers slightly and the bullies clearly see through it, with smug grins Leon and Noel start joking about “pipsqueaks on parade” and you jog out on to the field with their jeers echoing in your ears.

 

1.3. Manner of Champions: Stand up straight and show your confidence in your posture.

Success: +1 Manner of Champions, +1 relationship Magsa Nembo, advance to phase 2

Leon and Noel look pretty smug, clearly sure they can crush mere first years. The more that they swagger and show off however the more you exude disdain for their petty displays – the true champion stands defiant in the storm and shows their mastery over their surroundings.

 

After a few minutes trying to make you flinch at their displays Leon and Noel start to get more than a little unnerved at your calm demeanour and slink away, their friends follow them onto the field giving you cautious looks. “Awesome, you didn’t even say anything and you scared them!” Says Magsa, “round one to us – let’s get some goals while they’re rattled.”

 

Failure: -1 Manner of Champions, advance to phase 2

Leon and Noel look pretty smug, clearly sure they can crush mere first years. The more that they swagger and show off however the more you exude disdain for their petty displays – the true champion stands defiant in the storm and shows their mastery over their surroundings.

 

After a few minutes trying to make you flinch at their displays Leon and Noel start to get through your calm and to your annoyance you snap at them. Laughing at your lack of control Leon and Noel leads their team out onto the field, it looks like this could be a long game…

 

1.4. Perception: Take good stock of your opponents and plan your plays.

Success: +1 Perception ss, +1 relationship Zorzi Galea, advance to phase 2

Leon, Noel, Enrico, Devonte and Miguel – 5 people you have about 3 minutes to figure out before the game if you want to be able to beat them. “In Rimbal, you play the other team, not the field” is an old saying, but it’s a good one – if you know who people are and how they think you can anticipate how they will play.

 

So as the bullies strut, mock, and practice spells you watch them like a hawk, sharing your perceptions with your colleagues and provoking the bullies into revealing more about themselves than they realise. By the time the bullies run out onto the field you have a fairly good idea of what sort of plays you can expect in the game.

 

Failure: -1 Perception ss, advance to phase 2

Leon, Noel, Enrico, Devonte and Miguel – 5 people you have about 3 minutes to figure out before the game if you want to be able to beat them. “In Rimbal, you play the other team, not the field” is an old saying, but it’s a good one – if you know who people are and how they think you can anticipate how they will play.

 

So as the bullies strut, mock, and practice spells you watch them like a hawk, sharing your perceptions with your team-mates, unfortunately your team-mates disagree with every suggestions, seeing different behaviour, skills, and possible plays. Clearly, either you or your team-mates don’t have a clue and you suspect that it might be you.

 

1.5. Character Study: Consider your opponents and how best to deal with them

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again

After surreptitiously edging behind the others you take stock of your opponents. Fortunately while the bullies are big, they don’t look particularly bright – and given their clear mean streak the bullies should be fairly easy to manipulate, it’s like playing 5 Philippe’s you think briefly. The bullies are clearly trying to intimidate you before the game, it may be a good idea to beat them at their own game.

 

Failure: choose again

After surreptitiously edging behind the others you take stock of your opponents. Unfortunately beyond “older” and “bigger” than you nothing really comes to mind, as you watch the bullies warming up you see they are trying to intimidate your team, as the bullies notice you studying them they start focusing on you, better do something quick!

 

Phase 2 – Rimbal in play

The opening game is fairly tough, you knew that the bullies would push the restraint spells in the field to their limits and try to overbear you – and given how free players are to challenge each other in a normal game you figured they would be pretty nasty.

 

Of course, your team is similarly unconstrained, and while you like to think that you are better people, you can be pretty mean too when you want to be. Well, frankly, Philippe is all-out vicious at the best of times but you don’t expect Magsa and Luti to pull many punches either.

 

But… Dexter is at least nominally refereeing to prevent excessive foul-play. Just as importantly there are quite a few people watching in the stands, it’s an unofficial game, nobody knows about the match, so of course everybody knows (unofficially) and you think you’d get a better response from the crowd if you show them some style. Also, since some of the watchers will be friends of the players (your team and the bullies) you figure that if things get too far out of hand with fouls then the watchers will join in and you’ll have a small riot, and the professors won’t ignore that.

 

2.1. Rimbal positions. Set aside your pride and take the position that suits the team best.

Success: +1 Rimbal positions ss, advance to phase 3

The best player isn’t necessarily the striker, although that’s the position that most players want to play, nor the goal-keeper who gets to save the day, or even the mid-fielder who drives the play – it’s the player who knows their place in the team and plays for the good of the team not for their own glory.

 

So, knowing this game will be tough, and not unaware of the watching spectators, you carefully consider who is in your team, the positions they do well in, and which position you will do best in for the team and fit in where you are needed most.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 3

The best player isn’t necessarily the striker, although that’s the position that most players want to play, nor the goal-keeper who gets to save the day, or even the mid-fielder who drives the play – it’s the player who knows their place in the team and plays for the good of the team not for their own glory.

 

You carefully consider who is in your team, the positions they do well in, and which position you will do best in for the team. Unfortunately they all seem to want to play in roles other than those you think they’d do best in, and you wind up playing in the position left over after they’ve picked, despite being deeply unsure about whether it’s the right one. Oh well, you’ll just have to do your best.

 

2.2. Rimbal plays. Make some leading plays to draw out the other team, then go for an early lead.

Success: +1 Rimbal plays, advance to phase 3

You have watching spectators to impress, and an opposing team to put off balance. The key thing is to go for a real stunner of an opening, shock the bullies out of their arrogance and leave them off balance and open to error for the rest of the game.

 

Magsa’s tackle against Noel leaves the rimbal spinning toward you and you act almost without thinking. A swift pass and double-pass with Luti gets you past Leon, pure speed gets you past Enrico and a swift back-pass to Magsa leaves you to block Devonte and Miguel while Magsa sprints to an early goal – the bruises you get from the play are a cheap price to pay compared to the joy you get from seeing the bullies crest-fallen faces.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 3

You have watching spectators to impress, and an opposing team to put off balance. The key thing is to go for a real stunner of an opening, shock the bullies out of their arrogance and leave them off balance and open to error for the rest of the game.

 

Magsa’s tackle against Noel leaves the rimbal spinning toward you and you act almost without thinking. A swift pass and double-pass with Luti gets you past Leon, but unfortunately Enrico intercepts your pass as you try to get past him. Devonte and Miguel thunder past you as they follow him in his play leaving you desperately flailing in their wake – Zorzi manages to save their attempt at the goal but your hopes of undermining their self-confidence with a great opening clearly failed.

 

2.3. Theory of Incantation. Plan your incantations ahead to make sure that you keep your palette clean of pheme interference.

Success: +1 relationship Magsa Nembo, advance to phase 3

You’ve been around the Academagia long enough to know that your palette “remembers” phemes if you don’t clear it properly, and casting spells too quickly can send them awry if you don’t focus your phemes tightly. Since you figure you’ll be doing a lot of wind-incantations you’ll be doing a lot of similar phemes, so you carefully practice them while you are waiting for the game to head your way to make sure that you can do them quickly without blurring the phemes.

 

It isn’t long before Magsa gets a chance to make a move. Tackling the rimbal off Noel, Magsa heads down the field, you use a wind charm to push Noel back, and head down the field after Magsa. When Enrico tries to knock the ball away from Magsa with a negation your incantation wind charm sends it right back to Magsa, with you protecting him from tackles by the bullies Magsa storms down the field and hammers home a goal – it seems the bullies aren’t so good playing against teamwork.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 3

You’ve been around the Academagia long enough to know that your palette “remembers” phemes if you don’t clear it properly, and casting spells too quickly can send them awry if you don’t focus your phemes tightly. Since you figure you’ll be doing a lot of wind-incantations you’ll be doing a lot of similar phemes, so you carefully practice them while you are waiting for the game to head your way to make sure that you can do them quickly without blurring the phemes.

 

It isn’t long before Magsa gets a chance to make a move, tackling the rimbal off Noel, Magsa heads down the field, you use a wind charm to push Noel back, and head down the field after Magsa. When Enrico tries to knock the ball away from Magsa with a negation your incantation wind charm sends it right back to Magsa. Unfortunately after that it starts to go wrong, the bullies play so hard that despite your efforts your palette starts to get blocked by remnants of old phemes, as Magsa tries to get past Devonte you try to negate Devonte’s spell but the negation goes awry and Devonte knocks the rimbal away from Magsa and within minutes the ball is well down the field leaving you desperately running back to keep up.

 

2.4. Composure: Keep your cool during the early game and support your colleagues.

Success: +1 relationship Luti Jaconelli, advance to phase 3

The bullies clearly want to put you off your game, but you don’t think they are good at teamwork – in the first few plays the bullies spend as much time grandstanding and trying to out-do each other as they do supporting each other. If you keep your cool and support your team-mates, you should be able to give your fellows an edge.

Breathing slowly to help you ignore the jibes, you focus on the play and when you get your chance you tackle the rimbal away from Leon as he charges down the field, and then block Noel from reclaiming it from Luti. Seeing you are blocking the bullies from tackling him Luti heads down the field at full tilt and the two of you double-team past the defence and score – beating the bullies with teamwork – that’s how to impress the crowds!

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 3

The bullies clearly want to put you off your game, but you don’t think they are good at teamwork – in the first few plays the bullies spend as much time grandstanding and trying to out-do each other as they do supporting each other. If you keep your cool and support your team-mates you should be able to give your fellows an edge.

Breathing slowly to help you ignore the jibes, you focus on the play and when you get your chance you tackle the rimbal away from Leon as he charges down the field, and then block Noel from reclaiming it from Luti. Seeing you are blocking the bullies from tackling him Luti heads down the field at full tilt but the bullies quickly realises that they can’t beat you playing alone, so after a few good plays go your way they start playing properly, well, you figured it wouldn’t be that easy…

 

2.5. Concentration. Focus yourself, no amount of sledging puts a real player off their game.

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again

The bullies spend almost as much time casting jeers and insults as spells – which is possibly their plan as they don’t seem to be much better at magic than you are.

You can’t let the bullies put you off your game though, breathing deeply you clear your head and focus on the strategies you discussed with your team-mates before the game, the way the bullies are playing they don’t seem to have done much preparation, if you stick to your plans you should have an advantage against them.

 

Failure: choose again

The bullies spend almost as much time casting jeers and insults as spells – which is possibly their plan as they don’t seem to be much better at magic than you are.

You can’t let the bullies put you off your game though, breathing deeply you try to clear your head and focus on the strategies you discussed with your team-mates before the game, unfortunately the bullies jibes make it hard to remember the plans, and after you miss a tackle you realise you have to stop thinking about what you should be doing and start just doing what seems right.

 

Phase 3 – pressing the play.

The bullies start arguing with each other as your team pulls ahead – when they aren’t plotting to get back at Philippe for his tackles without risking tripping the referee spells. It’s time to put the pressure on and pull out a commanding lead over the bullies. “Come on guys” says Luti “let’s not just hold it and scrape a victory, let’s pound these guys.” “Yeah! And let’s do it with style – I want to show them that skill beats brute force” calls Zorzi, “I don’t know, brute force has been fairly effective against them” said Magsa grinning, Philippe’s laugh echoes Magsa’s view.

 

The second half rocket goes, it’s time to play – what will you do?

 

3.1. Endurance: Push the bullies hard and hammer home some goals.

Success: +1 Endurance ss, advance to phase 4

You’ve got the advantage, and you press it. The better you do, the more desperately the bullies play and the more they try to foul you – which means of course the more that the referee spells hinder them. Without a proper referee the bullies get away with some fouls, but then, so does Philippe – and Magsa and Luti make some tackles that you think would have got them into trouble more than once.

 

Gritting your teeth against the bruises you are getting from tackles you focus on the play and keep the pace up. As the second half progresses your team pulls further ahead and the bullies get increasingly desperate. You don’t care, by now you’re in the zone, the spectators are cheering and your spells are slamming the Rimbal where you want it every time.

 

Failure: -1 vitality, advance to phase 4

You’ve got the advantage, and you press it. The better you do the more desperate the bullies play and the more they try to foul you – which means of course the more that the referee spells hinder them. Without a proper referee they get away with some fouls, but then, so does Philippe – and Magsa and Luti make some tackles that you think would have got them into trouble more than once.

 

Gritting your teeth against the bruises you are getting from the bullies you try to focus on the play and keep the pace up, but the tackles are getting harder and you start having to hold back to avoid a real beating, you are still ahead but you’ll have to hope that the bullies tire themselves out before their tackles do serious damage.

 

3.2. Strategy: Use what you’ve seen of the play so far to come up with tactics.

Success: +1 Strategy ss, advance to phase 4

OK, you’ve played enough during the game so far to form some ideas on how the bullies think, well, frankly you had some idea the moment they blasted you after the last club game, but having played half a game against the bullies you have a fair idea on exactly how they think.

 

Putting together a proper strategy to play against them isn’t too difficult, and after your first few suggested plays go well Luti and Zorzi see the way you are thinking and work with you to come up with more ways of taking advantage of the bullies’ weaknesses.

 

As the second half goes by you pull further and further ahead, the more you pull ahead the more desperately and erratically the bullies play and the more effective your strategies become, awesome.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 4

OK, you’ve played enough during the game so far to form some ideas on how the bullies think, well, frankly you had some idea the moment they blasted you after the last club game, but having played half a game against the bullies you have a fair idea on exactly how they think.

 

Putting together a proper strategy to play against them isn’t too difficult, and after your first few suggested plays go well Luti and Zorzi see the way you are thinking and work with you to come up with more ways of taking advantage of the bullies’ weaknesses.

 

The trouble is that although your strategies mean that your team plays better, the bullies are a year older than you. They are bigger, stronger, and just plain better at magic. Your plans just about manage to keep your team ahead in the game but you’re going to need a good rest after this game is over!

 

3.3. Vilocian: See if you can interpret the commands Enrico is giving his team-mates to gain an advantage.

Success: +1 Vilocian ss, advance to phase 4

It takes a little getting used to, particularly due to his accent, but after a while you figure out some of the calls Enrico is making to his team-mates. Once you know what they plan to do you are able to inform your team-mates and work plays against him. After a while Enrico realises that you can make out some of what he’s saying and they focus on simple plays that require little planning – removing one of the advantages that they’d had in the earlier game.

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 4

You try to figure out what Enrico is saying as he excitedly calls to his friends, but particularly due to his accent, you find it is almost impossible. You think you’ve got a few phrases and start to base your tactics on what Enrico calls to his friends, but find yourself completely outmanoeuvred – seeing Enrico’s smug grin you realise that he figured out you were listening in on him and deliberately misled you, rats!

 

3.4. Observation: Look for opportunities to press the advantage.

Success: +25 chance of success, choose again.

The bullies must be getting desperate after losing the first half and desperate bullies make mistakes. You keep your eyes open for opportunities, even if you aren’t in position to take advantage of them your team-mates might be.

 

Failure: choose again.

The bullies must be getting desperate after losing the first half and desperate bullies make mistakes. You keep your eyes open for opportunities, but you are so busy playing that it’s hard to stand back and keep the whole field in mind. The more you try to ignore the specifics and keep everything in mind the more that you struggle to keep up your part in the team. It isn’t long before Philippe shouts at you to stop day-dreaming and start playing.

 

Phase 4 – owning the field

The warning whistle for the last few minutes of the game blows and you know that the game is in the bag – there’s simply no way that the bullies can score enough goals in the last few minutes to catch your score. Well, you’ve won, embarrassing the bullies in front of their peers, now to twist the knife a little with some awesome closing plays and show how much better you really are, I mean, they have it coming.

You just have to figure out how to do it.

 

4.1. Minetan Swagger: Victory is sweet, romp the last few plays home with style.

 

Success: +1 Minetan Swagger ss, +1 luck, -1 vitality, advance phase 5.

There’s walking tall, and there’s the Minetan swagger. It’s hard to describe, but if you’ve got it, you know it. A mixture of effortless arrogance, a rhythmic not-quite-dancing sort of bounce to your step as you just know that you’ve won whatever it is that you’re doing.

 

On the field that translates as putting that sort of effortless style into your play, which of course takes a lot of effort, you just don’t let it show. So when you cast your spells you make them that little bit flashier, when you do a tackle you make it look like you won without even trying and no matter how hard the bully tackles you, you don’t let it show – in fact you don’t even try to dodge their tackles, instead you play through them accepting the bruises in exchange for pulling off your play. The crowd’s reaction to your courage and daring is all the reward that you need, when you win the game you run off the field to your team-mate’s cheers and an ovation from the stands.

 

Failure: -1 vitality, +1 Fitness, advance phase 5.

There’s walking tall, and there’s the Minetan swagger. It’s hard to describe, but if you’ve got it, you know it. A mixture of effortless arrogance, rhythmic not-quite-dancing sort of bounce to your step as you just know that you’ve won whatever it is that you’re doing.

 

On the field that translates as putting that sort of effortless style into your play, which of course takes a lot of effort, you just don’t let it show. So when you cast your spells you try to make them that little bit flashier, when you do a tackle you try make it look like you won without even trying and no matter how hard the bully tackles you, you don’t let it show.

Your plan was to accept their tackles in exchange for pulling off your plays. You pull off your plays all right – the bullies were expected you to flinch and dodge, so embracing the tackles is successful – if painful, but the crowd doesn’t seem too impressed. Oh well, at least you win the game.

 

4.2. Brute Strength: It’s been a long game, and you’re tired, brute force and ignorance will have to get you the last few plays.

Success: +1 Brute Strength ss, +1 Strength, -1 vitality, advance phase 5.

It’s been a long game, and it’s been a tough game – you don’t think you’ve ever been fouled so many times or so badly. But you’re still standing, in fact still running, because you’re winning and frankly the desperation on the bullies’ faces is all the encouragement you need to keep going.

 

So you keep plugging away, drawing your phemes and casting your spells, running up and down the field to keep up with the play, and soaking up the tackles that come your way and tackling back when you can. It’s the last few minutes of the game so you throw yourself into the last few tackles, Enrico goes flying when you disrupt one of his spells and Noel staggers when you blast the rimbal out of his hands, by the stunned looks on their faces you figure they won’t be bullying you again.

 

Failure: -1 vitality, +1 Fitness, advance phase 5.

It’s been a long game, and it’s been a tough game – you don’t think you’ve ever been fouled so many times or so badly. But you’re still standing, in fact still running, because you’re winning and frankly the desperation on the bullies’ faces is all the encouragement you need to keep going.

 

So you keep plugging away, drawing your phemes and casting your spells, running up and down the field to keep up with the play, and soaking up the tackles that come your way and tackling back when you can. It’s the last few minutes of the game so you throw yourself into the last few tackles, you take quite a few knocks but you hold your own and figure that after seeing how tough you are the bullies will pick on someone else in future.

 

4.3. Incantation spells: There’s no need to husband your strength now the game is almost won, cut loose with your best spells and give the spectators something to cheer about!

Success: +1 Incantation Spells ss, +1 Fitness, -1 vitality, advance phase 5.

When you want to showboat, there’s really only one way – Incantation, glamour can be just as showy but with incantation you get the “oomph effect” of the blast as well. You know the game is almost over so there’s no reason to hold back, ignoring several hard tackles from the bullies you cast your best wind-charms and blasts at the rimbal sending it flying out of the control of the bullies.

 

You score the last goal of the game by creating a small dust devil to grab the ball, carry it across the field and send one of the bullies flying at the same time – the cheers from the crowd echo in your ears as you run off the field with your team-mates elated at your victory – not just winning, but winning with style!

 

Failure: -1 vitality, +1 Luck, advance phase 5.

When you want to showboat, there’s really only one way – Incantation, glamour can be just as showy but with incantation you get the “oomph effect” of the blast as well. You know the game is almost over so there’s no reason to hold back, ignoring several hard tackles from the bullies you cast your best wind-charms and blasts at the rimbal sending it flying out of the control of the bullies.

 

As the last play unfolds you create a small dust devil to grab the ball and carry it across the field, figuring that the wind spell will be a cool way to finish the game – and maybe even score the last goal. Unfortunately the defense is too strong but seeing that the end rocket spell is being cast you use the dust devil to blast the rimbal into the air so you at least get the last play on the ball, to your surprise Magsa is waiting with his own spell and as the rimbal soars up he twists its flight and sends it flying through the goal just as the final rocket explodes, the crowd erupts thinking that you’d deliberately set up his play and you run off the field laughing at how well it turned out, who needs skill when you have luck!

 

Phase 5. Well played

As you troop into the changing rooms you see Professor Matiossi waiting for you, oops. For a moment he looks like he’s going to give you all detentions, but the Professor can’t keep the serious look on his face.

 

Professor Massioti laughs and gives you a conspiratorial wink, “well, fortunately no adults were around earlier” he says “from the spell trails it looks like someone played full contact Rimbal without proper supervision, completely banned of course, I mean, youngsters could get hurt – but” – he grins – “the only way for real players to play of course, what’s life without a little fun?”

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hmm, apologies for being out of synch, but because 4 was a short chain, another phase for St Pai's that should probably slot in before the one I described as phase 4 as that one gave an ability point ;-)

 

 

 

Stage ?: Professor Piaxenza's Petititon for the Lost

Phase 1: Zoe wants help with bringing a petition to Professor Piaxenza

The cafeteria is quiet, which makes it a real surprise when Zoe Melis comes and sits next to you. You didn't think Zoe sat with anyone, she's so shy you barely see her in the cafeteria at all - much less coming over and sitting with someone on purpose. "Umm", says Zoe "hello, would you mind if I sat with you?" After a few minutes of small talk she smiles hesitantly and says "would you mind helping me out? I need a favour, I'd be really grateful."

 

You think it over for a second, but it's Zoe - the girl everyone one wants to borrow homework from... "So how I can I help?" Zoe smiles "Thank you so much, I need you to talk to Professor Piaxenza with me, you've been volunteering with St Pai's right? I've heard lots of people talk about you, well, I need you to help me persuade the Professor to answer a petition."

 

Now she's talking Zoe is fairly chatty so you ask her about the petition she wants answered. "It's from Dia, a scholar I met in the city. She has this idea, she runs a hospital for mages who..um...got a little..err...lost in magic, and she wants to make a scrying mirror to help with their treatment, but she needs help and..um..money to buy some of the components she needs for the mirror."

OK, well, a hospital, that sounds like a worthy cause, and Zoe would owe you a favour, so...why not?

 

1.1. Character: Argue the petitioner's good character to the Professor

Success: +1 Character ss, advance to phase 2.

You know that Professor Piaxenza will challenge anything you say - he challenges any statement to make sure that you have actually think about them, so you need to have thought this through. Fortunately Zoe seems to know quite a lot about Dia and her work so you stock up on arguments you can put to the Professor to make the case that Dia's Petition is a worthy cause.

 

You pick your time and approach the professor after he's finished one of his favourite pastimes - watching discussions between arguing students before dropping in a few phrases that leaves both students thinking thoughts they hadn't had before. The professor is still smiling when you set-out the petition and after parrying his challenges he smiles and reads the detail, and says "well argued, I'll grant the petition, but she's asked for quite a substantial sum - you'll need to bargain down the merchants in Mineta or harvest some of the materials that she needs, you'll need to find some new volunteers though - Professor von Rupprecht had an urgent petition to answer and everyone else will be there - I'll let him know you won't be there and give you a pass for the gate guards."

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance to phase 2.

You know that Professor Piaxenza will challenge anything you say - he challenges any statement to make sure that you have actually think about them, so you need to have thought this through. Fortunately Zoe seems to know quite a lot about Dia and her work so you stock up on arguments you can put to the Professor to make the case that Dia's Petition is a worthy cause.

 

You pick your time and approach the professor after he's finished one of his favourite pastimes - watching discussions between arguing students before dropping in a few phrases that leaves both students thinking thoughts they hadn't had before. The professor is still smiling when you set-out the petition but his good humour doesn't stop him challenging your statements rigorously and it isn't long before you are sweating your way through your argument. Finally the professor says "well argued, I'll grant the petition, but she's asked for quite a substantial sum - you'll need to bargain down the merchants in Mineta or harvest some of the materials that she needs, you'll need to find some new volunteers though - Professor von Rupprecht had an urgent petition to answer and everyone else will be there - I'll let him know you won't be there and give you a pass for the gate guards."

 

1.2. Persuasion: Persuade the Professor to answer the petition

Success: +1 Persuasion ss, advance phase 2.

You know Professor Piaxenza fairly well - he's one of the more outgoing professors and is always talking to students. Persuading the Professor to support the petition should be possible, it's a good cause, and you hear that Professor Von Rupprecht just agreed a big project so the other Regents are bound to want to show their generosity as well.

 

So, you know that the cost of the petition probably isn't going to be the issue, well, not really, you just need to explain why this is a good cause - and why it's a good cause for Hedi college to support. The Hospital is for mages who struggle tell dreams from reality, and Professor Piaxenza is one of the most gifted practitioners of dream magic ever known in the Academagia, once you've thought your approach through you find the conversation goes easily.

 

The professor says "I'll grant the petition, but she's asked for quite a substantial sum - you'll need to bargain down the merchants in Mineta or harvest some of the materials that she needs, you'll need to find some new volunteers though - Professor von Rupprecht had an urgent petition to answer and everyone else will be there - I'll let him know you won't be there and give you a pass for the gate guards."

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance phase 2

You know Professor Piaxenza fairly well - he's one of the more outgoing professors and is always talking to students. Persuading the Professor to support the petition should be possible, it's a good cause, and you hear that Professor Von Rupprecht just agreed a big project so the other Regents are bound to want to show their generosity as well.

 

So, you know that the cost of the petition probably isn't going to be the issue, well, not really, you just need to explain why this is a good cause - and why it's a good cause for Hedi college to support, which is possibly going to be more difficult. The Hospital is for mages who struggle tell dreams from reality, and Professor Piaxenza is one of the most gifted practitioners of dream magic ever known in the Academagia, if you'd thought about mentioning that angle at the outset you'd probably have an easier time of it, as it is by the time you've managed to win your argument you are quite stressed.

 

Finally the professor says "I'll grant the petition, but she's asked for quite a substantial sum - you'll need to bargain down the merchants in Mineta or harvest some of the materials that she needs, you'll need to find some new volunteers though - Professor von Rupprecht had an urgent petition to answer and everyone else will be there - I'll let him know you won't be there and give you a pass for the gate guards."

 

1.3. Social skills: Discuss the social impact of the petition with the professor

Success: +1 Social skills, advance phase 2.

Magic can be dangerous, the professors hammered that home in the first week to try to discourage excessive use of magic outside the classroom. Professor Piaxenza is one of the professors who kept up the message afterwards, and he often gives examples of mages who came to a bad end through lack of rigour in the spell-casting. Which means that Dia's hospital should be just the sort of thing he will be willing to support.

 

Dia's hospital looks after mages who have been disabled through magic, or been sent to her "to rest their minds" after mis-use of magic. Dia tries to heal her patients, or at least ease their suffering, and to make sure that they don't harm those outside the hospital. You spend some time thinking through what Dia does, and how her patients came to her and come up with a good argument for the professor.

 

Having put the arguments together in your mind the discussion goes incredibly easily and is isn't long before the professor says "I'll grant the petition, but she's asked for quite a substantial sum - you'll need to bargain down the merchants in Mineta or harvest some of the materials that she needs, you'll need to find some new volunteers though - Professor von Rupprecht had an urgent petition to answer and everyone else will be there - I'll let him know you won't be there and give you a pass for the gate guards."

 

Failure: +1 stress, advance phase 2.

Magic can be dangerous, the professors hammered that home in the first week to try to discourage excessive use of magic outside the classroom. Professor Piaxenza is one of the professors who kept up the message afterwards, and he often gives examples of mages who came to a bad end through lack of rigour in the spell-casting. Which means that Dia's hospital should be just the sort of thing he will be willing to support.

 

Dia's hospital looks after mages who have been disabled through magic, or been sent to her "to rest their minds" after mis-use of magic. Dia tries to heal her patients, or at least ease their suffering, and to make sure that they don't harm those outside the hospital. You spend some time thinking through what Dia does, and how her patients came to her but find that you get terribly upset reading about how mage after mage came to descend into madness or shattered their bodies through use of magic.

Fortunately Professor Piaxenza manages to calm you down as you speak to him by explaining how the mages should have avoided their fates through acceptance of fate, rejection of excessive pride, or simply asking their fellows for help. After your discussion the professor says "I'll grant the petition, but she's asked for quite a substantial sum - you'll need to bargain down the merchants in Mineta or harvest some of the materials that she needs, you'll need to find some new volunteers though - Professor von Rupprecht had an urgent petition to answer and everyone else will be there - I'll let him know you won't be there and give you a pass for the gate guards."

 

 

1.4. Character Study: Why is this petition important to Zoe?

Success: +33 chance of success, choose again

Zoe's very quiet so it's hard to get to know her well. But, you know that she's very smart and very keen on her studies, and, now you think about it, she often volunteers for minor jobs here and there that pay small amounts - you know she's not from a rich background and you realise that she probably identifies with Dia. That's not going to help you argue with the professor, but knowing why it's important to Zoe helps motivate you for the task ahead.

 

Failure: choose again

Zoe's very quiet so it's hard to get to know her well. But, you know that she's very smart and very keen on her studies. That doesn't give you much clue why she's keen though, after a while you decide it doesn't matter, it's a good cause and that's what St. Pai's is all about.

 

Phase 2: Buying parts in the market / gathering them

Ok, you have quite a long list of things that Dia needs, and only a limited amount of cash from Professor Piaxenza to get them with. Zoe has managed to convince Tabin Furenzti to help and the three of you discuss how best to proceed.

"I think we should go to the Admiratio" said Zoe, "It's got everything", "I don't think so Zoe, I agree that its got everything, but it can be pretty expensive - we might be better of in the Farmer's market for some of this stuff, it's cheaper, but we'd have to find a way to haul the stuff to Dia's as they won't deliver for our sort of quantities."

 

Tabin frowns "my worry is that we don't have enough money, some of the stuff that Dia needs is quite expensive - but I think that we might be able to find some those things for her. Buying Yngwis root would be really expensive - but we should be able to harvest some in the Academagia gardens if we dodge the gardeners, or we could sneak out to the Imperial Reserve and try to find a floater to harvest some of their float-beads." Zoe thinks for a moment, "It depends what we want on the list, I think we should split up and each try a different place for different items."

 

Tabin ponders briefly, "Zoe, you know some of the merchants in the market, so you should do the shopping there, I'll handle the bulk goods from the farmer's market and the rare plants should be possible to find in the Imperial Reserve or the Academagia gardens."

 

Zoe responds "I'm not sure, I mean I help some of them with their books, but I'm never good at haggling with them, what if I get it wrong and pay too much for the wrong things? I can talk to the gardeners, I've done some research for a few of them and they will give me some of the stuff, you can find anything - you found that weird root Professor Leith wanted - so you should go to the Reserve and get the rare plants, and that just leaves the shopping 2 turning to you she says "you can handle the Admiratio can't you?"

What do you think?

 

2.1. Negotiate: Follow Zoe's suggestion and stretch the professor's grant as far as it will go at the market.

Success: +1 relationship Zoe Melis, advance phase 3.

Wow, the Admiratio is huge, full of people and full of stalls, Mineta might not be the centre of the empire any more, but it's still the centre of human civilisation - at least in the opinion of the natives. Goods from far and wide are traded through Mineta and all of them seem to end up at the Admiratio.

 

Fortunately the upside of being a child is that you are small enough to avoid getting bumped around by the throng and you slip through the crowds with ease picking up this ingredient and that without getting held up by the throng. It isn't long before you have everything you agreed was a "must have" and a lot of the things that were merely "if you can get it, these would be nice to have" from the market and you head back to meet up with the others proud with your success.

 

Failure: -1 vitality, advance phase 3.

Wow, the Admiratio is huge, full of people and full of stalls, Mineta might not be the centre of the empire any more, but it's still the centre of human civilisation - at least in the opinion of the natives. Goods from far and wide are traded through Mineta and all of them seem to end up at the Admiratio.

 

Unfortunately the downside of being a child is that you're small, so going to and fro around the market getting this ingredient and that means you get bumped around a lot. So even though you manage to get all of the key items on Dia's list that you agreed with Zoe and Tabin to get, you also get a fair number of bruises. Hopefully putting it all together will be easier.

 

2.2. Transport: Zoe and Tabin are wrong, you should arrange for the delivery of goods from the farmer's market.

Success: +1 Transport ss, advance phase 3.

There's more to buying goods than simply walking up to a merchant and passing over cash, you also have to get their goods to where you want them, Dia's hospital in this case. The farmer's market is cheaper than the Admiratio but the farmer's don't deliver. No problem. Arranging for some carts to be hired to handle shifting the goods cheaply and quickly is no more difficult than looking around for a farmer who's sold most of their goods and offering them a few coins. Job done.

 

Failure: -1 vitality, advance phase 3.

There's more to buying goods than simply walking up to a merchant and passing over cash, you also have to get their goods to where you want them, Dia's hospital in this case. The farmer's market is cheaper than the Admiratio but the farmer's don't deliver.

It should have been no problem. Arranging for some carts to be hired to handle shifting the goods cheaply and quickly is no more difficult than looking around for a farmer who's sold most of their goods and offering them a few coins. Unfortunately that means going into bars around the market looking for a farmer looking bored and careful with their money, finding such a person is easy enough, but unfortunately you also find bar brawls between drunken farmers and get fairly badly bruised, but at least you organise the carts.

 

2.3. Scouting: Follow Tabin's suggestion and search for some of the rare botanicals in the Imperial Reserve.

Success: +1 relationship Tabin Furenzti, advance phase 3.

Yngwis root is fairly hard to find as the Yngwis is a fairly unassuming plant, but it's mainly a matter of looking in the right places and spending the time. Float beads are tougher, because floatweed can be found almost anywhere - more commonly near water perhaps so it can soak up water, but floatweed drifts wherever it needs to find resources. Fortunately you get lucky, and not long after you've harvested the Yngwis root you see a Floatweed trying to free itself from a tree it drifted into.

Climbing the tree isn't too difficult and it doesn't take you long to get to the floatweed. You carefully harvest a number of floatbeads from the floatweed before releasing the floatweed to drift away, aside from getting somewhat soggy when the floatweed releases its stored water to recover its buoyancy you get down unscathed.

 

Failure: -1 vitality, advance phase 3.

Yngwis root is fairly hard to find as the Yngwis is a fairly unassuming plant, but it's mainly a matter of looking in the right places and spending the time. Float beads are tougher, because floatweed can be found almost anywhere - more commonly near water perhaps so it can soak up water, but floatweed drifts wherever it needs to find resources. Fortunately you get lucky, and not long after you've harvested the Yngwis root you see a Floatweed trying to free itself from a tree it drifted into.

Climbing the tree isn't too difficult and it doesn't take you long to get to the floatweed. You carefully harvest a number of floatbeads from the floatweed before releasing the floatweed to drift away, but unfortunately you forgot that floatweed soaks up water to balance out buoyancy provided by its floatbeads, harvesting the beads means that the float weed releases its store of water to regain buoyancy - all over you. As you recoil from the water the floatweed you slip and fall and if you'd been higher up you suspect you'd have been badly hurt. As it is you limp back to meet Zoe and Tabin hoping that the aches are merely bruises and not something broken.

 

2.4. Agriculture: Follow Tabin's suggestion and forage in the Academagia gardens for the ingredients.

Success: +1 relationship Tabin Furenzti, advance phase 3.

The Academagia gardens are vast, home to a wide array of plants and quasi-plants for use in potions and craftings as well as the more mundane herbs and crops to support the kitchens so you know that they will have what you need. Unfortunately they also hold the gardeners, a robust, often strange and frequently hostile tribe who seem to at best tolerate the student body.

Finding the plants you are looking for isn't too hard, harvesting the parts without injuring the plant is a little harder and making it look like you haven't been there and escaping before the gardeners notice your presence and try to stop you is quite difficult but you manage it. On your way back to meet Zoe and Tabin you practically skip you are so happy at your success.

 

Failure: -1 vitality, advance phase 3.

The Academagia gardens are vast, home to a wide array of plants and quasi-plants for use in potions and craftings as well as the more mundane herbs and crops to support the kitchens so you know that they will have what you need. Unfortunately they also hold the gardeners, a robust, often strange and frequently hostile tribe who seem to at best tolerate the student body.

 

Finding the plants you are looking for isn't too hard, harvesting the parts without injuring the plant is a little harder and making it look like you haven't been there proves beyond you. A petty glamour manages to fog your appearance so the gardener who discovers you won't be able to identify you, but the gardener gets several whomps in with their rake before you escape them and you know you'll be feeling the bruises for days to come - at least you got the herbs you needed though.

 

Phase 3: Working on the artefact

OK, between the three of you it looks like you got everything Dia wanted - certainly she seems happy as she looks over the table sorting through the goods. After a few minutes sorting and a series of profuse thanks from Dia for answering her petition she, somewhat hesitantly says, "I can't thank you enough, I would have taken a year or more to save up enough for the mirror, but, if you don't mind, could you help me with some of the basic preparations? It would be really helpful if you could do some of the basic works as the mirror really needs to be dedicated at the rising of the sign of [astrological sign name] and there isn't much time.

 

Dia quickly explains what you could do to help, Zoe says "I could use some help with polishing the mirror to make sure that it holds the glamours properly" "Tabin nods, sounds good, I can scribe the lesser control runs on the inserts for the mirror." Dia smiles widely "that sounds great - although both of those will be more than you can do alone" turning to you she asks "would you like to help them or help me with one of the other preparations?"

 

3.1. Assist Tabin inscribe runes on inserts for the mirror.

Auto: +1 relationship Tabin Furentzi, advance phase 4.

Inscribing the runes is very difficult - you are glad both that Tabin can show you how to do some of the harder bits and some tricks to help you keep your runes neat, and also that Dia is going to do the master runes for the mirror. Tabin clearly knows what he's doing so you follow his lead and he grins appreciatively as you help him "Nice to find someone who is happy to just help, rather than try to argue or do it their way for once, I must remember to ask you next time I need a hand."

The two of you spend hours working on the runes but when Zoe finishes polishing the main mirror Dia calls a halt to your efforts, insisting that she can't keep you from the Academagia any longer or she'll find a professor at her door looking for you. So with a cookie for the road she shoos you out thanking you for your help.

 

3.2. Assist Zoe polish the mirror.

Auto: +1 relationship Tabin Furentzi, advance phase 4.

You knew that Zoe was a study-bunny, but you'd never heard of using a polishing process to encourage an artefact to accept a spell. As Zoe shows you how to lay glamours in the polish, the polishing pads, and even the cleaning cloth you start to understand the process, when she shows you the careful almost scribing way to polish the mirror you see how the result is, with many repetitions, to ready the mirror for the spells that Dia will lay on it over the coming week - it's almost like the reverse of cleaning a wand you realise, instead of carefully removing every faint trace of enchantment or physical blemish about the wand that might be caught in the making and then ever after blur a palette scribed with the wand you are making sure that the inherent magic and physicality of the mirror is the right "shape" to accept the spells to be laid on it, like using lodestones to slowly make a true magnet from forged cold iron.

 

Sadly that takes a lot of polishing and Zoe seems intent on making sure that every stroke is absolutely perfect so you can't rush at all. Still Zoe seems very happy with the help and the care you are taking, and the fact you are helping someone eases the grouching of your muscles at the repetitive movements. After a few hours you have finished the main mirror and one of the side panel mirrors and Dia tells you not to start the last side panel mirror one, claiming that she can't keep you from the Academagia any longer or she'll find a professor at her door looking for you. So with a cookie for the road she shoos you out thanking you for your help.

 

3.3. Measure out the metals to alloy with the silver for the mirror backing.

Auto: +1 Metallurgy ss, advance phase 4.

Making the mirror isn't just about the main reflecting panels, the fine inlays in the frame are all needed to bind the enchantments and all have their specific alloy requirements, the backing silver must be absolutely purified and you leave that to Dia as it is so crucial to the making of the mirror, but the backing frame that will support the mirror is a fairly standard alloy so you'll be able to measure out the metals ready for melting and mixing.

 

The panels of mirror have to be carefully weighted so the alloys required are required to make sure not just that they accept the magic properly, but also so that the mirror will have the right mixture of strength and weight in each component. You carefully pour and weight the powdered metals into the waiting phials and jars for hours until Dia places her hand on your shoulder and with an amusing grin says that she can't keep you from the Academagia any longer or she'll find a professor at her door looking for you. So with a cookie for the road she shoos you out thanking you for your help.

 

3.4. Mix the cleansing reagents, oils and inks that Dia will need for crafting the mirror

Auto: +1 Alchemical Tools ss, advance phase 4.

Mixing up the various acids, oils and inks isn't glamorous, but then every task has its drudgery. It's detailed work, as the various mixtures have to be just so and slightly different for each part of the job, meaning that a fair amount of your job involves carefully labelling various jars before pouring in the mixtures - not forgetting of course to ensure that the stopper sealant is correct for each brew - it would be a terrible shame for the sealant to dissolve in the mixture and taint an element of the work.

 

You spend the next few hours mixing and bottling, and aside from one eyebrow-scorching minor explosion it all goes very smoothly leaving you quite proud with your work. You get quite engrossed in your work and are quite surprised when Dia interrupts you when you've finished a batch and stops you heading to the main table to get more ingredients explaining that she's very grateful but if you don't go back to the Academagia right now the professors will send out a search party.

 

Phase 4: Back to the Academagia

Zoe has a discussion of Dia before you go and you wonder a little what they are discussing, but the kind hug Dia gives Zoe tells you it must be personal so you don't ask Zoe why she was so keen to help Dia as you had planned.

 

Zoe is very grateful for your help, saying she owes you and Tabin a favour and you must let her know if you need any help some time. Tabin smiles a faint smile at that and you wonder what favour he has planned, well, it doesn't matter, trying to figure out Tabin's plan would be an exercise in futility if past experience is any clue, well, you got to do a good deed anyway, and Zoe is a good person to owe you a favour - she aces every class.

Auto: Access to next stage

 

 

 

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It would be really helpful if you could do some of the basic works as the mirror really needs to be dedicated at the rising of the sign of [astrological sign name] and there isn't much time.

*Rolls 1d36*

 

...Puculum. I rolled Puculum. Now that's what I call fate.

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Better than having trouble with the specifics of Y2 mechanics :rolleyes:. Oh, or the exact workings behind advanced Gates spells/methods, that's also a fun one. As for Astrology, well, the Mantle of Stars is significantly less horrible when you mod it to hand out +1 SS to two skills rather than +2 SS to one. So many wasted steps otherwise...

 

I actually read the description of every constellation, major and minor, but none of them really sounded like a perfect fit (including Ara Pacis), so I just rolled a dice instead.

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Longshade doesn't make you roll for the +1 Concentration SS or +1 random SS, the Manetele doesn't make you roll for the +1 random Revision SS or the +1 random Forge SS, I don't see why the Mantle of Stars should make you roll for a theoretical second +1 random Astrology SS.

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  • 1 year later...

ok, next one. Please review in particular for lore errors, better lore options, and dialogue, I am terrible at dialogue and am not very familiar with some of these students, Zoe and Milena were easy and fun, the others... I coudn't remember a word Ausdaur, Courtenay or Basia had spoken...

 

Like my other 'club' adventures the idea is a early low-level adventure that also adds a social dimension to dorm life, what big school didn't have clubs for students to pursue particular interests in?

 

The Bookworms

The Bookworms are volunteers who assist with the library (under the watchful gaze of the librarians). The club is seen by some as merely an excuse for the bookish to avoid the outdoors and visit the library out of hours. The librarians meanwhile see the club as handy fodder and, in the case of the more merciful librarians, a way of getting one group of students to sort out trouble caused by another group without the librarians officially having to notice it.

 

1st year Club members

Aaran Ledale. Quick summary: Freakishly unlucky, avoids other students

Ausdaur Mollers. Quick summary: Very quiet, watches other students

Basia Rydz. Quick summary: Exam fiend, good with books

Courtenay de Surval Quick summary: Always buried in a book, makes Astrology predictions

Milena di Montors runs tutor scheme, dislikes Zoe for being a pleb and competition

Zoe Melis super genius tutor, poor, dislikes Milena for being snobbish(?)

 

Stage/Phase. As with the stuff I put on the Academagia wiki, I use 'Stage' for each adventure action, and 'Phase' for each section within a 'stage'. So 'A Dance with Fools' for example is a single-stage adventure with many phases.

 

Stage 1: The Bookworms 1: Welcome to the Club

 

 

So what to do in the evening after homework, a long standing problem known to all students of the Academagia, and one that many had solved by forming clubs of varying official recognition. The noticeboard when you arrived had been covered in adverts from various clubs. The one for the book-worms had sounded particularly interesting. The other side of studying, the book-worms are the library volunteers, lots of work for not many pims, but also plenty of fun for the studious students who know how the wrangle a text. Sign up if interested and we will let you know when the first evening is”. Why not, you could do with some quiet evenings to balance out the work, and who knows when you could do with some favours from the librarians?

 

 

“Hello new bookworms!” At first it is hard to recognise where the voice came from, and then you notice the few hairs peeping over the pile of books on the desk in front of you. “Hold on a moment please, I am running a little behind”

 

A short while later the shortest student you have ever seen yet walks out from behind the desk, the hairs peeking over the desk led you astray you realise as without the beehive hairdo you are sure the speaker must be under 3 feet tall, but from her demeanour she is clearly an older student. “I am Neera, and I will help you find your feet in the club. The bookworms are one of the voluntary clubs, and you can leave at any time, but I think you will find helping out at the library to be both fun and informative.”

 

“The bookworms doesn’t have a specific professor responsible for it, at least as far as first years are concerned, so let me explain the club to you. Some students like the fields, some like the laboratories or the forges, us bookworms, we like the libraries. You will already have had the professor’s introduction telling you about which libraries you are allowed to be in, and what times you are allowed there, as the club isn’t official none of that changes, but we do have the book pile and you are always going to be welcome there! As a bookworm you will help out in retrieving requested books, filing borrowed books back in the library, tending to damaged books, and generally helping out, I should warn you that some of the requests can be quite exciting! We do however expect you to learn and follow the librarian’s code, and to help out with integrity and enthusiasm. Now who is still interested?””

 

Option 1. Quit: Meh, filing and running errands for the librarians, you have better things to do with your time than that: -1 stress, end adventure.

 

Option 2. Say yes: Advance to phase 2.

 

 

Phase 2. In the club!

Neera waits for a moment while some students who obviously hadn’t read the notice and thought this was a club for goofing around in, to leave. “Good! Then let me show you to the bottomless book-pile!”

 

Marching you all to the library Neera takes you do a side door you hadn’t known before. “This is the ‘main’ library as you know, not the biggest library at the Academagia actually, but the one open to all students and even some outsiders, the other libraries generally need special permissions to visit or are for specialist subjects. Every library has a main entrance, but there are other ways in, and the book-pile is one of them. This book-pile is where books for most of the libraries are returned to be checked for damage, sorted and put back on the shelves. We work here to collect and package books requested by borrowers outside the Academagia, deal with the securities and fees, and return borrowed books to the right library – be very careful with that! Books from some of the other libraries can be dangerous so make sure you check the inside cover before doing anything with the book, and make sure you don’t put a dangerous book back in the main library, the older students do it all the time and it drives the librarians crazy!”

 

The rest of the evening is spent learning the basics of how the library works, how to tell which library a book is from and sorting some books from the seemingly bottomless book pile of returns.

 

Automatic: Gain +1 library knowledge, +1 filing, inform: The bottomless book-pile, access stage 2. (Grants ability: Sorting the bottomless book-pile)]

New ability: Sorting the bottomless book-pile. +1 ss random research skill, +5 pims.

 

 

 

And as stage 1 is short and really just an intro, stage 2:

 

Stage 2 is a trial, instead of several phases, the PC can try as many options from stage 1 as they like before choosing the option to end the adventure, that makes it a lot shorter than the other stages, but varies things a little and tbh my PC got peeved that they couldn't, for example, do all 3 fixes to the broken statue in one of the college adventure and really impress everyone ;-)

 

 

 

Stage 2: Book-worms: A fascinating read

Neera is looking mournfully at a book when you arrive at the bookpile. “Just look at the condition of this book! And to think they’ll only get a few de-merits for what they’ve done to it!” You look at the book Neera is holding and see that it has been badly battered, the binding is frayed and several pages are rumpled. Neera continues “I know that it is ‘just a beginner’s book, but that’s no excuse for treating the poor thing like this.” She shrugs, “well, I guess it is a good time to teach you some basic book-care in any event.”

 

Option 1: Work on the book-binding. [book-binding v 3]

Success: You practice as Neera watches, and when she is happy that you have mastered the basics you re-bind the book for her, it turns out to be quite a professional job if you say so yourself! Neera gives you an approving nod before saying “would you like to try some more repairs or call it a night? [+1 Bookbinding ss, +5 pims, hide option 1, choose again]

Failure: You practice as Neera shows you but shake your head at the results. Neera smiles, “don’t worry, you will figure it out, at least you realised you weren’t ready to try doing a real book yet.” As you watch she quickly and expertly fixes the bindings before saying “would you like to try some more repairs or call it a night?” [hide option 1, choose again]

 

Option 2: Help to fix the rumpled pages. [study habits v 3]

Success: Neera take up a book, “so sad how some people treat the books” she says, “look at this page, the corner is folded over – think how badly dog-eared the books would get if everyone did this and nobody fixed it?”

 

Neera carefully smooths the pages flat, and shows you a simple spell to repair minor tears and remove creases. After you have practiced a few times she nods in approval, “you will find you do much better in class if your work is neat and tidy, and get much less trouble from the librarians if you return books in good condition, would you like to try some more repairs or call it a night?”

+1 study habits ss, hide option 2, choose again.

Failure: Neera take up a book, “so sad how some people treat the books” she says, “look at this page, the corner is folded over – think how badly dog-eared the books would get if everyone did this and nobody fixed it?”

 

Neera carefully smooths the pages flat, and shows you a simple spell to repair minor tears and remove creases. You try it, but after several attempts the spell still isn’t doing anything, and when you get frustrated and draw the phemes to quickly the page folds up so many times it almost tears itself out of the book! Neera negates your spell just in time, “careful!” She says “it’s all about being gentle in drawing the phemes, and you need to smooth the page out first or you can iron-in the crease! She smiles “practice in your dormitory on scrap parchment until you get it right, you’ll find it a very handy spell. You feel bad about not being of more help, but at least you aren’t in trouble.

-1 study habits ss, hide option 2, choose again.

 

Option 3: Re-write the instructions with Neera. [Forgery v 3]

Success: The book has a series of papers at the front explaining how a student should use the book when researching a topic, annoyingly some of the instructions have been covered in stains, and others smudged where the pages have got wet. “There’s no point re-writing it all” says Neera, “It’s fairly standard text for basic encyclopaedia’s like this, so you can borrow the guidance over there if you want to just re-do the damaged bits – try to copy the writing style of the rest of it though so it doesn’t look odd.

 

It takes you a little while to re-write the instructions after Neera casts a spell to remove the damaged text, but it goes pretty well and before long Neera is happy with your work, she smiles approvingly and says “would you like to try some more repairs or call it a night?”

[+1 forgery ss, hide option 3, choose again]

Failure: The book has a series of papers at the front explaining how a student should use the book when researching a topic, annoyingly some of the instructions have been covered in stains, and others smudged where the pages have got wet. “There’s no point re-writing it all” says Neera, “It’s fairly standard text for basic encyclopaedia’s like this, so you can borrow the guidance over there if you want to just re-do the damaged bits – try to copy the writing style of the rest of it though so it doesn’t look odd.

 

Neera casts a spell to remove the damaged text and you try to re-write it clearly from the instructions, but matching the style of the old text is very hard, and it takes you several attempts. Neera is sympathetic and never complains when you meekly ask her to remove your mistakes, and when you are finally happy with your work it is a relief that she agrees that it is good enough. Neera smiles approvingly and says “would you like to try some more repairs or call it a night?”

[+1 stress, hide option 3, choose again]

 

Option 4. Help sorting the book-pile while Neera deals with the damaged books [Filing v 3]

Success: Neera is clucking over the damaged books, assessing the damage and working out who can be trusted to work on repairing them, and, somewhat to your surprise, recommending in some cases the amount of demerits that should be requested by the librarians to be imposed on the malefactors.

 

So to put her in a better mood, and avoid her while her mood is bad, you work on the tried and trusted method of cheering her up of sorting the bottomless bookpile. Fortunately there aren’t many other damaged books and so you are able to amass a fair number of stacks to be transported back to their shelves without much effort.

+1 Filing ss, hide option 4, choose again.

Failure: Neera is clucking over the damaged books, assessing the damage and working out who can be trusted to work on repairing them, and, somewhat to your shock, recommending in some cases the amount of demerits that should be requested by the librarians to be imposed on the malefactors. You had picked up by now that Neera was one of the students most trusted by the librarians, but you hadn’t realised that she was trusted so much by the professors.

 

Knowing that Neera could potentially levy demerits on you leaves you quite unnerved, you’d thought that with the librarians barely around you were safe. As a result you keep finding yourself double and triple checking your work to avoid mistakes and don’t get much done. Fortunately Neera doesn’t seem to notice but you feel bad all the same.

+1 stress, hide option 4, choose again.

 

Option 5. Talk to Neera about the process of dealing with damaged books [Conversation v 3]

Success: Although the book-worms are usually a quiet bunch, you aren’t in the library, so you don’t actually have to be quiet. So while you help Neera with petty errands you chat about how the libraries in the Academagia work, learning about the book-pile was something of a revalation, but in retrospect you should have known that the books didn’t just find their way back to the shelves on their own, and some sort of system for filing them makes sense given the volume of books that must be borrowed every day.

 

Neera seems happy to talk while she works and her enthusiasm for the library shines through as she discusses how the librarians make much of their own inks, the professors often write books and articles, and senior students sometimes get to write papers that are worthy of inclusion in the library.

+1 Library knowledge, hide option 5, choose again.

Failure: Although the book-worms are usually a quiet bunch, you aren’t in the library, so you don’t actually have to be quiet. So while you help Neera with petty errands you figure that you can chat about the library and learn something about it.

 

Neera however is in no mood to talk as she fusses over the damaged books, “if you can’t do something useful just go!” She grumbles when you try to keep the conversation going. Taking the hint you decide to do something on your own, quietly.

-1 conversation ss, hide option 5, choose again.

 

Option 6: Finish off simple bits and bobs and call it a night

Automatic: “Careful!” Neera says, realising that you have absently started to read the book you are holding. “That’s an encyclopaedia for struggling students – the professor will have put spells on it to ‘help’ their student read it instead of slacking, you could find yourself reading until midnight if you aren’t careful!” Those books are for older students anyway, first years are expected to get a broader education rather than going too deeply into anything, that sort of reading comes later.

End adventure, access stage 3.

 

 

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