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Author Topic: Mana Shaper  (Read 2090 times)

Lillipad

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Mana Shaper
« on: August 01, 2014, 06:28:39 pm »

The world of Herunal, where various layers of reality overlap and intertwine, a fantastic place where magic is a common sight, even among the lowest born. In the far past, when magic first began developing, the royalty was worried by the growth of weak, tainted, and uncivilized magic, and thus created the Magus Academy, bringing various organized classes of magic with it. Necromancy, transmutation, elemental control, hundreds of powerful curriculums were available, and the world went through a revolution in which magic has developed into a form incomparable to anything ever before it.

Fast forward to the present, and we come to you. A fresh student in the academy. On the day of the test, you caught a cold, walked under a ladder, walked by what had to be half the black cats in the world, and somehow broke every mirror on the way. Needless to say, you were late, and your performance was at its lowest due to the fatigue. Your hopes of entering the necromancy class so you could one day become a hard working public servant were smashed to pieces. Though your performance was low, you were thankfully not horrible enough to throw out.

Instead, you were shuffled into the least populated, most unstudied, and overall worst of the curriculums: Mana Shaping. Hated for the absurdly high internal reserves it requires to be used effectively, Mana Shaping is an unwieldy form of magic that utilizes mana in its raw form. Not only that, but it has little use to society as a whole. Thus, the only other students to be joining you are an actual statue, and a woman around your age who seems to be using magic from other curriculums. Not only that, in the week since you've arrived, you have not seen any trace of your teacher actually existing.

Though the situation is grim, and you're doubting that the school actually accepted you at this point, perseverance and hard work trump all. You'll find a way to turn this bad situation into a golden opportunity, or probably end up dying in poverty trying. You miraculously found the one textbook in the school on the subject, and have spent your week vigorously studying it and hammering the basics into your head.

You decide to check out your ID to get a feel for your current standing. To make measuring growth easier, the creators of the school attached "stats" "skills" and "levels" to student IDs that can be checked at any time. Obviously, as a scrub, your everything is low. A few things stick out. Some blessing you never knew you had. Your stats which seem to have some mysterious buff. And your weirdly high mana. For most students, it's 300, so you're nearly double the average. You won't be complaining about any of this though, this just fuels your ambition to not be cursed into poverty.

The Academy is split into seven different sections. The library, the lecture halls, the classes proper, the exercise halls, the dueling halls, the student shops, and the dorms. Each section is more of a city, really, especially the dorms, so you doubt there will ever be an end to the things you can do here. Off campus, you have the Great Forest, and the three Prime Dungeons designed as testing grounds for students of the combat divisions.
School goes every day of the week, but you have the freedom to do whatever you want since your teacher seems to be some sort of non-existent embezzling scam. It's currently Monday morning. What do you feel like doing? Actually, before that, who in the world are you?

[Acquired; Student ID, The Basics of Mana Shaping(book), Academy Uniform, Shaper's Gloves, Dorm Key, Ion Stone, Class: Mana Shaper]

{Morning}{Block 1/4}

Spoiler: Student ID (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Inventory (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: BaerTaffy
If Adele covered Aerosmith, that would be my life right now.

Nirur Torir

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2014, 07:10:00 pm »

We only have one teacher? Or not even that. This school's lame  :P

How does mana increase? If it's through use, we should be depleting it every hour.

We are Leon Evard.
We should look for more advanced mana shaping students, and see if our lack of a teacher is normal. Also, we should probably empty our mana reserves. Dump everything into making a giant sword.
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Lillipad

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2014, 07:36:05 pm »

The main way of increasing mana is intelligence and willpower. Health and stamina go up through endurance. You can increase any stat(including the 3 bars) or skill through high stress usage though, yes.

You are Leon Evard, the ambiguously gendered Shaper? [y/n]

You know for a fact that your teacher being nonexistent isn't usual. Most classes require each room to have 3 teachers and 6 aids minimum to handle the volume of students. You check the class registry, but there don't appear to be any students in the upperclass of the Shaper curriculum. In fact, the only students listed for it at all are you, the statue, and the one person who's practicing other classes.

While you wander around aimlessly, you work on making a basic sword shape. It takes a while to grasp, Shaping requires a clear mental image of the object you want, and then the concentration to put it into your mana. Once you've learned the shape, though, forming it again becomes almost trivial. Through repeated practice you can now call forth an unwieldy glowing blue sword the size of a teenager, your Valiantium Blade will cut through any GEATHJE-I mean, your mana sword will cut through all your foes. Maybe. It's kind of dull right now, almost like a spoon. You may need to learn more about swords...
After you meditate back to peak condition, you realize that much of the morning has gone by, but there should still be plenty of time to do something before noon.

[Acquired Shape; Sword]

{Morning}{Block 1.6/4}

Spoiler: Student ID (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Known Shapes (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: BaerTaffy
If Adele covered Aerosmith, that would be my life right now.

Nirur Torir

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2014, 07:47:02 pm »

((Right now, our mana seems to be 30xINT+20xWIL, then. If a normal academy student has 300, and 10s are average for new student stats, I'd guess mana to be 20xINT+10xWIL without the blessing.))

No, we are clearly male.

Go find someone who can tell us about this blessing. It's probably a plot hook.
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Lillipad

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2014, 08:11:22 pm »

Alright then, Leo. You're destined to never get an Oscar, even when you really deserve it, but you press on anyway. You have no idea what a "plot hook" is supposed to mean, but you decide to track down a teacher in the Holy curriculum to identify this blessing. It's not that difficult a task. Being a priest or cleric is somewhat of a status symbol amongst students, as the two are popular professions outside the Academy. They're the jocks, if you would. Within five minutes of wandering around the classrooms, you discover a fairly low ranking teacher. He's able to identify the blessing on you right away, without even being asked, as a Blessing of Mana, a fairly rare blessing you have to receive at birth. He takes some time to explain the effects, and it seems to be perfect for a Mana Shaper.
The megalomaniac in you starts jumping for glee, and you wander off in the middle of his explanation, trying not to let your mouth foam. In an effort to calm down, you frantically practice your sword shape, eventually coming to when the noon bells toll. You check your ID to ogle your blessing, when you notice the experience of your sword shape shot way up in your absentminded practice, and now seems to hold an edge.

[Acquired: Blessing of Mana]

{Noon}{Block 2/4}

Spoiler: Student ID (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Known Shapes (click to show/hide)
Logged
Quote from: BaerTaffy
If Adele covered Aerosmith, that would be my life right now.

Evergod41

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2014, 08:47:43 pm »

Forget the sward. Shape a fist, fists are more powerful than swards, and also an object we should be fairly acquainted with.

Nirur Torir

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2014, 09:27:43 pm »

Library time! We must learn about the Mana Affinity skill. We should also look up the most effective ways to train our endurance with 1-2 hours a day, as well as how to improve our willpower. While we're there, we may as well look for any stories of past mana shapers who have used their skills to good effect, to try to get some ideas.

We should probably also speak with the other student at some point, to see why she's learning mana shaping. I don't know what to do about the statue .. Is it a golem, or just some classroom feature that's somehow listed as taking the class?

Forget the sward. Shape a fist, fists are more powerful than swards, and also an object we should be fairly acquainted with.
-1.
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Lillipad

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #7 on: August 01, 2014, 10:19:18 pm »

You head to the library and pick up a book on affinities. You aren't sure why. It's really quite basic. Each element, and certain non-elementals have affinities that bolster your power and ability to work the subject, mana being an important one to aim for from all spells using it. Usually difficult to acquire, the book says your blessing gives you basically a free pass. Once you've grown a certain amount, it should unlock on its own.
You search a short while for other books on Mana Shapers, but nothing important or revealing comes up.

Done with that, you attempt to forget the ability to use the sword shape, but sadly your imagination is not that colorful yet. On a scale of one to moist towelette, your imagination is a beige dish rag right now, you should work on that. Moving past the silly attempts to weaken yourself, you decide to Unite Han-shape a fist, which ends up the size of a medium dog. It's surprisingly durable, though you'd hope your ability to shape your own hand would be top notch. The utility of this shape is pretty endless, but needs a lot of moderation. At least it's cheap and... Handy.
Cringing in the wake of my pun, you pour the remaining mana into making something you're familiar with, and end up making a rather large sphere. It's close in size to a person. When you lose focus and it touches the ground, a small crater is formed. You decide to book it before any witnesses spot you, and end up in a corner of the exercise halls training your shapes. The difference between knowing you have a blessing to milk and not knowing truly shines.
Through continued and concentrated practice, your sword, fist shapes achieve level 6. Endless shaping has raised your Basic Shaping skill up to level 3. Frequently bringing yourself to the brink of exhaustion has increased your willpower and endurance by 3 and 2 respectively.

{Afternoon}{Block 3/4}

Spoiler: Student ID (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Known Shapes (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Inventory (click to show/hide)
Logged
Quote from: BaerTaffy
If Adele covered Aerosmith, that would be my life right now.

Harbingerjm

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2014, 10:49:41 pm »

Pour the rest of our mana into a floppy hat. Spend the evening meditating and having dinner.
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15:35   HugoLuman reads Harb his secret spaghetti recipe

Evergod41

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #9 on: August 01, 2014, 10:52:54 pm »

Obviously it's harder to master more complex/abstract shapes, so in order to easily master every simple/useful shape, we first must master the most complex/useless ones.

Spend rest of day attempting to shape the most complex shape in the universe... A cursive letter Q.

Lillipad

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2014, 12:16:24 am »

You spend quite a bit of time practicing your shaping even longer. Some sort of "cursive" you have no clue about, and a silly, oversize hat. The difficulty of both is surprisingly high, and you end up combining the two shapes on accident. Somehow. You get neither of the original, but instead gain a new one. A glowing blue top hat with some strange object coming out of the top. You check your ID, and discover this to be a unique shape! You have discovered the Quiz Master's Secret Hat! Through the discovery of a unique shape, your Basic Mana Shaping ascends three levels for some reason! Your blessing has become stronger! All stats increase by three, you lucky dog! This stupid looking hat has made you stronger by an absurd amount!
You knew your growth would be quickened but this seems a bit much. Not that you're complaining. It's night now, so the exercise and dueling halls have been closed off. What to do with this idiotic hat that would probably hurt to wear...

[Acquired Shape; Quiz Master's Secret Hat]

{Night}{Block 4/4}

Spoiler: Student ID (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Known Shapes (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Inventory (click to show/hide)
Logged
Quote from: BaerTaffy
If Adele covered Aerosmith, that would be my life right now.

Harbingerjm

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2014, 12:38:18 am »

Identify Hat.
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15:35   HugoLuman reads Harb his secret spaghetti recipe

Evergod41

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #12 on: August 02, 2014, 07:57:24 am »

The night is young. Shape a bood and bood in it.

The Froggy Ninja

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #13 on: August 02, 2014, 09:31:21 am »

Too bad! You're a nerd and nerds have to do stupid and sometimes painful things in the name of science magic! Wear the hat!

Lillipad

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Re: Mana Shaper
« Reply #14 on: August 02, 2014, 02:18:31 pm »

Using your head, you attempt to identify your ugly new hat, not entirely sure if it will work seeing as it's non-permanent and originates from a spell. Against all odds, however, you succeed at unlocking the mysteries of the Quiz Master's Secret Hat. For successfully identifying a magic effect without the Analyze Spell skill, your Identify skill now carries those abilities, and has gone up 4 levels.
The Quiz Master's Secret Ensemble, an illusive set of strange looking garments that bestow the power of the Quiz Master upon the wearer. There are 6 pieces in total. You currently have the hat. When worn, you can access your own small pocket dimension for storage and fast travel. This dimension can be grown up to the size of a medium sized house. Upon completion of the Ensemble, you will no longer need mana to summon any piece of the set, and can grow your pocket dimension out to the size of a mansion.
Well, that's actually more useful than its appearance would suggest.

You try to shape a bood, but have no idea what that means, and end up whiffing the shaping, losing a bit of mana, and at one point creating something truly horrifying you never wish to see again. Instead of that, you decide to use your head in a more literal fashion, and place your new hat on your head like a naive moron. To your surprise, it doesn't burn. Or at least, it burns, but not enough to singe your head, or cause any real pain. You might even be able to build a tolerance over time.


{Night}{Block 4.4/4}

Spoiler: Student ID (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Known Shapes (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Inventory (click to show/hide)
Logged
Quote from: BaerTaffy
If Adele covered Aerosmith, that would be my life right now.
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