Let's Play Academagia! Dolan Durn

[Greywacke]

Generally speaking, calligraphy class is amongst the most boring; couple that with one overly judgmental Professor Sixt von Rupprecht and what you have is the academic equivalent to a nightmare.

Unbeknownst to anyone, including yourself, things are about to become far worse.

As the final bell rings to start class, in strolls the professor with a sizable stack of what you surmise to be work booklets. You also note the rather odd detail of a perpetual grin playing across that geezer’s face. He places the stack of booklets onto his desk before strolling back and closing the door to the classroom.

  “Everyone!” he begins in an oddly jovial tone, “Today is a special treat for all of you.” He walks back to the stack of booklets, places his right hand on top of them and says, “Pop quiz.”

First the copying and now this? He’s quickly becoming your least favorite teacher.  A deafening series of groans issues from the class.

  “What’s wrong? This is a fine opportunity to demonstrate that you’re more than a mere seat warmer, right, Mr. von Zoedorf?”

You turn to notice that Everwine looks up at the professor bashfully to reply.

  “Y-yessir.”

He’d been doodling again, and von Rupprecht’s made it his personal mission to make this awkward student even more so.

  “I know I’m looking forward to this quiz,” Basia Rydz states with irritating confidence, and earning her a reflexive series of groans from much of the class.

  “Silence, heathens,” von Rupprecht commands – while pointing his finger threateningly at the groaners. He turns to Basia with a smile and says, “Ah, my star pupil weighs in. For your sake, Miss Rydz, my sincere hope is that your confidence is well justified; certain aspects of your quiz, in particular, shall be less forgiving of sloppiness.”

He proceeds to hand each booklet out with the instruction of not to do anything beyond signing your name on the cover, on the designated line next to the word NAME.

  “Now, this is where things get fun. On each page shall consist of the name of a magical pheme, as well as its corresponding symbol at the top half. The bottom half is left blank; that’s where you come in. For each page you are to faithfully duplicate the calligraphic representation above. Now, I understand that all of this sounds basic so far, but in signing your names on the booklets, you’ve done more than merely claim ownership to today’s efforts; you’ve also activated the enchantment I’ve woven into your booklet. Every sloppy line or inappropriate mark shall result in something… unlpeasant occuring to you.”

He takes a moment to look back to von Zoedorf.

  “Go on, lad. Doodle on this one. I dare you.”

Everwine gulps nervously before the professor ads,

  “Of course, if you find all this to be too much pressure, you may place your booklet on my desk, and dismiss yourself from my class for the day, receiving a zero for a grade. However, the enchantment on that booklet is also connected to an invisible barrier at the doorway of this classroom. It shall only permit you to leave once you’ve left your booklet on my desk. There shall be no taking the booklet with you to have someone more skilled do this quiz for you. As for myself, I spent a goodly chunk of last night preparing this diabolical examination, and I’ve very much earned a nap.”

He proceeds to sit down, kick his feet up on the desk, and says, with a yawn and eyes already closed,

  “You maaay begin nowwww.”

You look around to see that you’re not the only one that’s apprehensive about this particular quiz. Even Basia seems reluctant to start. It’s not long before you hear “ZzzzpOW” from the other side of you. You turn to see Everwine nursing the fingers of his right hand, blowing on them gently.

  “I’m done,” Aymeri Couer mutters.

Every student watches him approach the desk. However, before he reaches the professor’s desk, he stops, as if considering something, then turns toward the door. As he approaches, he carefully extends the reach of his right arm to find that von Rupprecht wasn’t bluffing; an invisible, magic barrier prevented Aymeri from even reaching the doorknob. Accepting final defeat, he leaves his booklet on von Rupprecht’s desk and heads for the door again. Sure enough, the barrier no longer impedes his departure as he leaves.

That gives us a skill increase and doesn't even require a roll.  Now lets get to forgery.

Not that you’re a stranger to outright copying, but the idea of punishment for doing this poorly does cause you a level of inward amusement as you duplicate the symbols with painstaking attention to detail.

Sure, at the end of the class you end up being one of the last students to leave, but you’re satisfied in knowing that you leave this quiz with fingertips in working order.

 

This adventure has a really fun alternate path if you fail your attempt, but we didn’t. It was a little overt for Dolan’s head down personality anyway.  

 

You’re walking alone past the stables when you feel a weird ripple of energy. You look around to see what could have caused suck an odd thing to happen.

Then you realize that you’ve triggered a trap when you see a decent-sized pile of mud – at least, you really, really hope it’s mud – lift up from the ground and come flying your way!

You juke to the side, but it merely corrects course and keeps coming.

Gritting your teeth, you need to think fast, what can you do?

This was probably intended to be an easy random encounter, the four main options are all classes, so any good student, who was paying attention to their magic studies, would take care of this no problem. Unfortunately, we’re Dolan Durne.

You look around and notice several other people splattered and looking grumpy, but beyond them, there’s people walking by freely without so much as a twitch from the mud spell.

Maybe there’s a limit on how far the spell can reach!

This added a running option, but that’s pretty far down. Let’s try revision, at least that’s a class we’re taking.

 

With a damp patch of sod heading straight towards you, the only thing you can think to do is change the direction it’s going.

You pull out your wand and try to remember, well, anything from your revision class. Fortunately, even though you didn’t pay much attention, Professor Aventyrare has never once had a forgettable class, and you mimic her motions from class last Thursday.

You cast the spell on the pile of mud, and it immediately travels straight up. It bounces up and down vigorously a few times before it loses power and eventually settles in a lump on the ground.

You’re not that sure how your spell worked, but you’re glad it did.

 

Wow! Now that’s what I call luck!

 

Gains for the day:
Alteration Pheme Learned
Structure Pheme Learned
Awareness increased by 1
Insight Pheme Learned
Forms increased by 1
Calligraphy Study Level increased by 1
Relationship with Rikildis von Kiep increased by 2
Revision spells skill step increased by 1 (1/2)

It's Porridge's fault you're here.  He's the reason you're in the Academagia at all, and why you're in Morvidus.  You had assumed that Zoology would be an easy class to pass.  Dogs bark, cats meow, and owl's hoot, 

Of course, it was only later that you discovered what the other students in College Morvidus were like, especially in Zoology. Not everyone is difficult, admittedly. If you don’t factor in Philippe and Joana, the rest of the students are just a little… different. It certainly makes for an interesting – if rowdy – classroom.

You’d normally expect the teacher to keep things in check, but Professor Pachait seems to relish any chaos that comes his way. After a frog dissection with Mairgrete trying to enchant her scalpel and Vettor trying to revise frog legs into fried chicken drumsticks while Girars sits it out under conscientious protest, while glaring at random targets in the class, the professor just applauds the class for their ingenuity and for braving through the grisly affair. He then announces in his booming voice,

  “Prepare yourselves for your next assignment! Over the next few weeks, we’ll be taking our class into the great outdoors for a special unit. Observe the kind of creatures living in different parts of the school, and capture one specimen and bring it back to class. You’ll talk about the specimen you caught and write a report about it.”

  “Of course, you’re only first year students, so I don’t expect you to face the fearsome wilderness by yourselves. You’ll work in teams of two, so find a partner!”

As soon as Professor Pachait says the word “partner,” people are already murmuring and looking around the classroom. You see Joana looking at Philippe, while Philippe eyes his dead frog on the counter. You need to find yourself a partner too, before all the sane people are already taken, assuming anyone here qualifies. Who should you work with? You search the class. You sit closest to Vettor, so he would be the most convenient choice… then again, Beatrix has the highest grade in the class right now, and you know she’s good with anything that involves catching animals.

You walk up to Beatrix and flash your most persuasive smile, like Isabeau might do.

  “Hey, Beatrix. Do you want to work together?”

  “Sure!”

She thinks for a moment, frowning.

  “But you better be ready to work hard. I want to bring back something impressive!”

The cost of working with the star student.

 

While on patrol, you notice someone searching around Icanicix Hall. You move closer. Hiding behind a bush, you pull down a branch and take a long hard look at the suspect. It’s Alan Driscoll.

After a few more moments of spying on him, you realize he’s trying to break into Icanix Hall.

You jog up to Alan and interrupt his amateurish break-in attempt. You know that he’s something of an amateur treasure hunter, but breaking into buildings isn’t his style.

He explains that he’s trying to get into Icanicix Hall to retrieve a homework assignment he needs to finish by tomorrow morning.

You understand, and help him fetch his homework, managing not to look too good at sneaking into locked off areas. He doesn’t notice anything, and thanks you profusely before returning to his dorm room.

 

Gains for the day:
Relationship with Beatrix von Wetgen increased by 1
Relationship with Alan Driscoll increased by 1
Move Silently increased by 1

It’s been a while since you got some studying done, and revision helped you out recently, so you decide to spend a little time in the Venalicium Library. While you’re there, you see Malthezar Mhadi, and the two of you study for a while together.

 

Gains for the day:
Revision Study Level increased by 1
--Relationship with Malthezar Mhadi increased by 1
Library Knowledge increased by 1

 

Spoiler

 

[Greywacke]

Gains for the day:
Glamour Study Level increased by 1
--Relationship with Els Rottmundyn increased by 1
Cryptology increased by 1
--Sequential Pheme Learned
You have gained Quote History
--This increases History and Memorization by one point each.

 

After dinner, you’re heading back to your room, when you hear the familiar hoot of your familiar. You look in the direction it came from, and see Porridge sitting on a branch. His body is difficult to make out in the darkness, but his golden eyes are crystal clear. Silently, he takes to the wing, and you quickly follow him.

You don’t know where he’s taking you, but you slowly realize how far away it is. You glare at his tail, trying to communicate that this had better be important through your bond. It’s more than an hour later that Porridge comes to a stop on a new branch, and you know you’ve reached your destination. Even in the darkness, the tree is breathtaking, a single pine, with no other trees around, standing straight and tall against the backdrop of Chordia Peak.

The view itself is almost worth the trip on its own, but the starlight glints off of something in the roots of the tree. Crouching down, you find a stone tablet, wrapped by the growing roots of the pine. It’s too dark to read it, so you feel over the smooth surface for the chiseled letters, memorizing each one’s shape before moving on to the next letter. Finally, you stand up, and try to brush off the dirt that you know has stained your robes.

“Acceptance without questioning is not knowledge; only those who ponder may consider themselves sufficiently assured of understanding.”

It makes sense, you think, but you’re not sure why Porridge showed it to you. The path that led you here keeps going, but Porridge hoots, indicating that you can go farther another time, and begins to fly back to the college.

 

Gains for the day:
Inorganic Pheme learned
Strengthen Pheme Learned
Artificial Pheme Learned
--You can now cast Material Shaping
You have gained Inhibit Change
You have gained Question Surroundings
Increased Famous Dilemmas by 1
Increased Endurance by 1
Gained Chauranglaith Path: The Stone Bench

 

Deciding that the time is right, you send word to Oan that you’re ready to meet and discuss Professors. In her reply, Oan asks that you meet her at the Great hall. You make your way to the flos fragi at the appointed hour and wait somewhat patiently. As you’ve come to expect, Oan arrives cheerfully, though looking a bit frazzled.

“Sorry I’m late, Dolan,” she says. “I was up late last night doing...well, never mind. I hope you don’t mind if we walk so I can keep myself awake.” You shrug, and follow her as she sets off; it’s not like you have any great sentimental attachment to the Hall. “So, ready to talk about Professors and what they can do for you?

Of course, you reply, but what is there for her to tell you that you already haven’t figured out on your own? “Plenty,” she says, reading the look on your face. “Just because you’ve been to some classes doesn’t mean you know all there is to know. For example, did you know you can compete for Merit from a Professor?”

Oan smiles. “It’s pretty easy, actually. You simply Compete with one of your fellow students while in a class. Depending on the subject and your knowledge of it when compared to your fellow student’s, you might win a bit of Merit for your College from the Professor. You don’t lose anything if you lose the competition, but it can take a few hours to really make a case, and it can be frustrating if it doesn’t go your way.”

“Then there’s what we call Favor – it’s another little school in-joke. You help an instructor carry a load of books ten miles? You earn a point! Really, it’s just another way of talking about a Relationship. It’s just that friendship with teachers works a little differently. As nice as some of them are, they’re not going to hang out with you for fun, and you’re not going to be able to call upon their skills whenever you like. Instead, it’s more like...”

“Okay, say a teacher likes you – you’ve got some Favor, what do you do with it?” Oan continues. “Like most everything, the more you have of something, the more you can do with it once you decide what to do.” Realizing how strange her words sounded, she says, “Sorry, I’m in Professor Sido’s Advanced Dialectic course this year, and some of the things he makes us think about are...well...if you ever get into his Advanced Dialectic course, you’ll understand.”

“Anyway, the short version is like this: the more Favor you have with a Professor, the greater your reward will be when you cash in that Favor. If you have hardly any Favor with a Professor, you won’t really get much for what you have, but if you have a lot of Favor, you can learn a ton of stuff that isn’t in any books, lemme tell ya!”

Wait...Professors teach things that aren’t in class? “Oh yeah,” Oan replies enthusiastically. “Phemes, Spells, Locations, really intensive Skill Training… Professors might not know everything there is to know, but what they know is a whole lot more than we do! But, and here’s the only sad part, once you call in your Favor with a Professor, that’s it, it’s all gone. You can get more, of course, but you have to start from scratch. Make sense?”

Nodding your head, you catch sight of Professor Pachait. Oan follows your line of sight and sees you looking at your instructor. “Okay then, now that you know what you’re doing, feel like trying for some Favor?”

After all that, of course, it would be rude to say no.

“Since you’re interested, then I’ll let you in on a little secret. I just happen to know that he’s going to be ‘attacked’ by a swarm of Laughing Bees any second now. I’m sure that you’ll earn some favor if you manage to chase the bees off before he gets embarrassed. Look, here come the bees...don’t just stand there, go earn some favor!

Whipping out your wand, you dash toward your instructor. You’re so busy shuffling through all the Phemes in your head you can barely pay any attention to where you’re running, but you still manage to shout a warning. 

  “Look out, Professor Pachait!”

The Professor takes one look at the direction your wand is pointing and, recognizing the danger, pulls out his own wand. Before the Professor can do anything more, however, you’ve managed to piece together the necessary Phemes for your spell and let it fly. Your spell hits the Durand Flos Fragi, causing it to ‘grow’ into a large sunflower plant; seeing this, the Laughing Bees veer off and head to the new (and obviously more tempting) target, leaving the Professor safe and sound; he turns to you and smiles.

  “Thanks to your warning, I would have had them in another second; still, it was nice to see such quick thinking and action. That was a wonderful spell you cast; you managed to stop them without burning them to a crisp like some of your classmates would, and it was quite remarkable you were able to form it up so quickly. You’re such a quiet student, it’s nice to see that you have the Mordivus passion for the subject.”

Waiting a few moments for the Professor to walk away, you turn back to where Oan was sitting only to discover that she’s gone. In her place is a small piece of parchment held down by a few pebbles. Picking up the parchment, you read: “Sorry I can’t stick around to see how things turned out; if someone started asking how you knew the Laughing Bees were on their way, I wouldn’t want either of us to have to answer any awkward questions. For our next meeting, we’ll head down to the Admiratio and pick up a few things for a little project I’m working on. Before we go, though, you’ll need to make sure you have enough Pims to make the trip worthwhile, so be sure to wait until you have at least 20 Pims before contacting me. Until then...keep studying!”

 

So, weird thing about this adventure. It constantly refers to the Professor it pulls as your instructor and says that they’ll remember this next time you’re in class, but the first time I did it, I got a Professor from a class I wasn’t taking. Curious, I did it again, to the same result. After about six or seven times, I was pretty sure it was impossible. Then, after at least a dozen times, and getting the Athletics instructor something like four times, I got one of my actual teachers. Also wow, that’s a lot of semicolons; you could probably look for things like that to see which parts of the game were written by the same person.

Gains for the day:
Curiosity increased by 1
Glamour Study level increased by 1
--Relationship with Contzel Ringraeyer increased by 1
Decipher Handwriting increased by 1
--Learned about the Venalicium Library: Help Desk
Relationship with Regnaut Pachait increased by 1

[Greywacke]

I normally don't do these two days in a row, but this is an important one.  Stay tuned for some important and tragic news that may impact the future or lack thereof that this lets play has.  

After dinner, you head off to the Venalicium Library to study dialectic. It’s there that you meet Milena di Montors.

  “Oh, hello, I haven’t seen you around much, but you’re in my dialectic class, aren’t you, and history?”

  “You forgot glamour. I’m Dolan, and you are?”

Isabeau mentioned that if you’re not going to talk much with your classmates, you should pretend not to know too much about them.

  “Milena. If you’re having trouble, I can help. Even if it’s not one of my classes, I run a tutoring service, so I can help you find someone to give you a hand.”

  “I can think of a couple classes where that could be useful,” you admit, “but I’m going to try going it on my own a little longer.”

She nods.

  “I can understand that, and if you get good enough at it, maybe you can tutor someone else.”

You study there for an hour before she speaks again.

  “Dolan, do you know what a First Principle is?”

  “It’s the first claim you make, and you use it to prove your greater points.”

You look up and narrow your eyes at Milena.

  “But something tells me you already knew that, right?”

  “Sorry, I was just curious how your studying was doing.”

You close the book you’re reading, and set it down.

  “Give me a hard one.”

  “What did Pethus say you should do after giving your first principle?”

  “Lay out the existing and contrary opinions on it. My turn. What did Estheria the Liar say one should always have as their first principle?”

She thought, but only for a few seconds.

  “A demonstrable fact, so that anyone who demanded evidence or tried to argue with it because they disagreed with her conclusion would look foolish. Who wrote that debate, at its core, has always been about the preservation of morality and ethics.”

  “Easy, Professor Sido talked about it just last week, it was...”

You can’t remember. You close your eyes and concentrate, and it slowly comes back to you. You open your eyes and glare accusingly at her.

  “He never said who wrote it.”

  “Noland. I looked it up after class.”

She looked it up? Why? It was just something he had said in passing, most students probably wouldn’t have even remembered it. You remember your trip to the pine tree, and what was written under it.

  “Acceptance without Questioning is not knowledge; only those who ponder may consider themselves sufficiently assured of understanding.”

She looks at you, surprised.

  “That’s good, who wrote that?”

  “I don’t actually know, I found it carved into a rock.”

  “Really? Well, I’ve got to go, I promised to help someone with history. It was nice meeting you, Dolan.”

 

Gains for the day:
Porridge’s Bond of Stars increased by 1
Curiosity increased by 1
Dialectic study level increased by 1
--Relationship with Milena di Montors increased by 2
Cryptology increased by 1
--Learned about Professor Storey’s Office: Professor’s desk

This is where IT started to happen.

You’re inside the Academagia Menagerie, feeding a greywing griffin, when suddenly your belt comes undone!

The buckle end flies loose and hits the griffin in the eye. The great creature is startled. He grabs your belt with his beak and begins tugging and pulling you upward.

He’s about to take flight and perhaps take you with him.

What do you do now?

You inspect the belt while you hold onto it and the griffin, but notice nothing different, except that the leather belt clasp appears smaller than you remembered it to be. Time is a-ticking and you don’t have forever to figure this out.

 

You cast Wizard’s Tailor on your robe. Your belt loops disappear, and the griffin is holding your belt, looking confused now that you’re no longer attached to it. You grab the belt from the griffin and restore your loops. That was some great quick thinking! You fluff up a little, proud of what you accomplished. It feels good to be quick and inventive, doesn’t it?

 

Wait, we actually succeeded? I can’t believe Dolan only has 2 luck.  

Gains for the day:
Merilien increased by 1
Bassan increased by 1
--Sight pheme learned
--Learned about the Venalicium Library:  Linguistics Section
Gained Visitation rights to Professor Sido's Office
Relationship with Tarvixio Sido increased by 1

But our improbably luck only got us so far, and IT continued.

Now, what is IT you ask?  Something which, the first time it happened, seemed delightful.

Looking into it further, apparently it's a save corruption thing that likely happened because I clicked on both of the DLCs when creating Dolan.

And once it appears, it happens every time you try to go on an adventure.

  

[Rhialto]

@Greywacke: Does this mean that you will have to abandon this LP?

[Greywacke]

I'm not sure. It's hit every single Dolan save I have, so I can't just go back to an old one, but there could be another solution.  If not, I could either continue, without the ability to go on adventures, remake Dolan and do a hard reboot, or do a completely new character.

[Metis]

I vaguely recall there being some weird and obscure way to fix this issue (I think you had to clear the cache, partially make a new character and things would magically work again...or something?), but even if so I would suggest doing remaking the character. The game is not intended to run with multiple DLCs loaded, so even if this issue gets fixed there might be more waiting down the line.

[Rhialto]

@Greywacke: The only DLC that you should need is Summer's Blush.

[Greywacke]

Thanks.  One of the reasons I did it is that I can never remember which one I'm supposed to use.  I get the feeling that it'd be better to redo the first few weeks than to try and keep going without half of the game available, so that's probably what I'll do.  If you disagree with this plan, or have a recommendation you'd like to make for Dolan Durne II, let me know.

[Metis]

If you're still concerned about a lack of fitting adventures (not that you got a real chance to test the waters with that) you could try to write in something extra to make a grab at more stuff, some personal hobby or some such. Probably something related to Dolan joining College Morvidus. Beyond "seemed like an easy subject to pass", which while entirely believable doesn't really do much in terms of making adventures seem particularly appealing.

Alternatively stick with what you've got and let the chips fall where they may, but now that you've got the opportunity anyway it's an option you could consider.

[Greywacke]

Seemed like an easy pass is actually text from that adventure, as is talking about how everyone in Morvidus is crazy, funnily enough.  That's a good idea though, any ideas?  I'm not totally sure how the colleges work, I usually pick classes first, and then choose a college based on those.

[Metis]

Hmm...in terms of colleges for a spy Aranaz or Hedi are certainly more fitting, and especially in Aranaz' case the adventures mostly reflect that. But in a way that's the exact opposite of what a spy would want. To be where people would look for or, Gods forbid, expect to find spies. BT's LP also went through Aranaz, so although I don't expect Dolan to be as...high profile about things as Iliana was you'd still have some repeat adventures. Hedi's adventures aren't really spy material either. Neither are Morvidus', of course, but I think you can get some good stuff out of "why am I in this college full of crazy people". Especially if Dolan is in Morvidus for reasons like "seemed like an easy class to pass" and "I'm supposed to be a spy, of course I'm not going to join a college who's reputation can be summed up as all future spies and assorted sneaky backstabbers gather here please".

One thing you could do is replace one of your Talent attributes with a +attribute background, adding something with minimal fuss. I'm thinking Family: Graverobbers? Someone with a background in Anatomy and Biology could make the mistake of thinking that Zoology is a shoe-in class for them, and there could be a line there connecting Dolan to Morvidus/other adventures. If not that maybe replace Three Suns with Family: Artisans of Skill and join Vernin instead? Not sure if Vernin has much spy material, but it would certainly be a fitting choice, which is what a spy would care about.

[Greywacke]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I hate to do this, but I don't think I'm going to change any of that.  Having his family be graverobbers or artisans would be just such a huge change (and I'm not a fan of Enchant).  You totally nailed why I didn't want to be Aranaz by the way, on both accounts.  I'll try to explain the Morvidus thing a little better though.  One of the reasons I liked it is that part of my idea for Dolan is that he isn't very interested in magic, but Porridge wants him to learn magic.  Looking back though, outside of a few things (The Lone Pine) I failed to make Porridge, and also Isabeau, a strong enough feature during actions that didn't directly concern them, and I'm going to try to fix that for Dolan the Second.

EDIT:  I've begun working on Dolan II and I've done a little save scumming on character creation.  The first time I did it I got Isabeau as one of the people who didn't like us because of the traitor thing and that made me sad.

[Greywacke]

So, bit of advice, the student I'm informed about this time is Cosetta Re (and she's also one of the people who hates me for being a traitor) but I don't know much about her.  Do you guys have any advice for how to introduce her?

 

Also, if you happen to know which of these you're not supposed to start out with, that'd be great, none of them are really jumping out at me as unusual.

[Metis]

Cosetta Re shouldn't be difficult or complicated, especially when she's hit by Traitors. Just have her find Dolan in the wrong location. If you're looking for something more specific, her shtick is that she doesn't give two hoots about rules one way or another, she's just looking for an(y) excuse to "stick it to the smug", as her personality goals calls it. To the point where her adventure has you helping her infiltrate a prank society for the stated purpose of bringing them down from within, but IIRC she doesn't actually act on the position you help arrange for her in Y1.

As for Locations...literally all of those are locations you're Informed of by default. I think you've managed to roll one of those as your randomly Informed location, unless save/load reveals something new.