The Magus University Superdraft

[csyphrett]

I would like to option Steve Rogers as my basketball coach

CES

[DShomshak]

A query for the Commissioner:

 

As I mentioned when I picked Witchcraft, I'd like to give a description of a majpor Hermetic magical working as an example of what an Institute professor or grad student can do. With Hero game mechanics, to show what's possible with a 30-point VPP. Would you let me post this as supplemental to Witchcraft's entry, or would you prefer to treat it as an Option Pick of its own?

 

Dean Shomshak

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I don't think that needs to be a pick. That sounds like free flavor text that anyone can add at any time. 

[Hermit]

Walter and some other Magus University Freshmen were off campus when it happened. Sometimes folks take college rivalries too far, sometimes what should be kept on the field isn't. Sometimes, you're minding your own business wearing a "A Newt Bit My Sister once, she got better" shirt when you run into some yahoo who thinks that just because you're small and still low on spells, you're fair game.

 

So it was when Walter turned to tell someone who was pushing behind him in line, "Hey, mister just wait your turn, geez, we all gotta wait, and there's no line jumping ..." Only to look up, and up at the muscular behemoth before him, "Jeepers."

 

Wearing the black and steel colored wife beaters so popular at their own college, the Behemoth looked down and sneered, "What did you say to me, you Magus university plebe?"

 

"It's a Newt? I think he was trying to put a compulsion on you," Another member of the rival school smirked.

 

"Hey, that's right," The big behemoth said poking at Walter's shirt,  and made a nasally threat, "I feel threatened by this unnatural little creep's magic... and I will, ahem hem, defend myself"

 

Walter's senses warned him they were about to get wounded, and the wounded was going to be HIM!

 

Some of Walter's class mates and friends watched this nervously.

"Oh sweet Endora's broom stick," One whispered to the other "It's the Barbarians"

"From Crom University for...."

A nod "For Barbarians with majors in Raiding, Pillaging, Slaughter and Business management. A leading school in the poison ivy league and our most hated rivals. They hate all things magical ... they must be ticked about the game"

"They WON that game"

"Yeah, but I bet they know one of us turned their beer into seltzer afterward"

"Walter's in trouble"

"BIG trouble. Do we ..uhm, fight them with him?"

"Are you nuts? The power of friendship is is there, but it's not stupid, go get Aang! NOW."

"On it!"

 

Option Pick: Rival College- Crom University aka "The Barbarians" whose academic focus include raiding, pillaging, slaughter, and Business Management

 

 

 

[DShomshak]

FLAVOR TEXT: WITCHCRAFT PERFORMS A MAJOR HERMETIC WORKING

 

(Not meant to make light of the weather disaster going on in California, but this is the sort of thing one could wish there were real magicians to perform. An example of one of the classic purposes of magic: commanding the powers of nature.)

 

(Stay safe, Cali comrades!)

 

Weather forecasts tell Witchcraft that yet another atmospheric river is heading toward California — a big one — and the state just can’t take any more. As a special project, she travels to the state and performs a rite to change the weather.

 

Even for a grad student, simply dispersing a storm is too big a feat of magic. All that water still has to go somewhere. Moreover, disrupting the weather that drastically could have much worse consequences later on. Witchcraft decides she will only redirect the rain a few hundred miles north or south, to some place that isn’t already so waterlogged. Meteorologists will be puzzled, but nothing obviously magical has happened.

 

Of the planets, Jupiter governs wind and weather generally, but the Moon has the strongest connection to water in particular. Therefore, Witchcraft builds her spell around the power of Jupiter encompassing and controlling the power of the Moon.

 

Preparing a ritual chamber on the West Coast, she hangs the room with blue cloth (the color of Jupiter) bearing crescent moons, owls, crabs, rabbits, and the symbol of the zodiac sign Cancer — all Lunar symbols — in silver paint. Blue vases hold bouquets of willow twigs, lilies, moonwort and rosemary (Lunar) with twigs of oak, beech, poplar, olive or fig, with shamrocks and stalks of grain (Jupiter). A brazier burns saffron, lignum aloes, and ash seed (perfumes of Jupiter). For a magician’s rod she carries a javelin of oak; her blue and white robe is pinned with a brooch of tin, the metal of jupiter. Candles with blue glass shields light the scene.

 

Her friends in the Champions stand in the corners within small magic circles so they can watch the rite without disrupting it. Everyone bathed before the ceremony and wears simple white robes that were exorcised with smoke from a censer and salt water sprinkled using a bundle of dried herbs.

 

At an hour propitious to Jupiter, draws an elaborate magic circle and consecrates the enclosure with incense, sprinklings of water, and invocations to the angels of the cardinal directions. A lectern in the circle holds a disk of blue paper, a pen, silver ink, and other small tools. Each tool receives its own incantation. Witchcraft uses the silver ink to draw a 9 x 9 magic square on one side of the disk, and the Sixth Talisman of the Moon on the other. Her hands tremble slightly as she draws the talisman, moving more slowly. Her friends feel their skin prickle at the building power. The air smells of ozone. Though the room is sealed, small breezes ruffle the curtains.

 

At last the talisman is complete. Sweat beads Witchcraft's forehead but her voice is firm as she commands the winds to blow as she directs, invoking the names of angels, the ruling spirits of Jupiter and the Moon, and Almighty God. She lays the completed talisman over a map of the Pacific Ocean and blows. Even the other Champions can feel the tremendous power flow out of the room. Far out over the Pacific Ocean, air pressure will rise on one side of the atmospheric river, and drop on the other, bending the path of the fast-flowing current of moist air.

 

In game terms (Champions Complete), the base Power is Change Environment: generate 1 level of wind, in the direction Witchcraft chooses, to push the atmospheric river off course. Advantages are:

* Indirect (+1/4) so the magic can leave the ritual chamber. The magic originates at a point Witchcraft chose before she cast the spell (and allocated the points from her VPP);

* Area Of Effect (4m Radius; +1/4), so the wind fills an area;

* MegaScale (1m Area = 1,000 km; + 1 3/4), so the Change Environment has a big area;

* MegaScale (1m Range = 100 km; +1 1/2) to send the center of the magic up to 5000 km away, far out into the Pacific;

* Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1), so nobody knows any magic was even done;

* Costs Endurance Only to Activate (+1/4), so Witchcraft doesn’t have to keep pouring END into the spell; necessary since Witchcraft doesn’t have the points to make the base Power Long-Lasting. She must stay awake for hours, maybe days, while the conjured wind slowly moves the oncoming storm.

 

Total result; 30 Active Points. But the GM doesn’t allow characters to perform MegaScale effects at the drop of a hat, so the spell also takes these Limitations:

* Gestures (only to activate; -1/4) as Witchcraft manipulates her ritual paraphernalia;

* Incantations (only to activate; -1/4) for all the, well, incantations;

* Extra Time (20 minutes, only to activate; -1 1/4) for the ceremony;

* Focus (OAF, Arrangement; -1 1/4) for all the aforementioned paraphernalia;

* Increased Endurance Cost (x7 END, only to activate; -1 12), because casting magic like this takes a lot out of you;

* Side Effect (3d6 CON Drain if the ritual is disrupted in any way, or there’s any magical interference; -1/4), because magic like this is not entirely safe.

5 Real Points, 21 END.

 

Bonus! A story seed:

 

The paper talisman bursts into flame and blue light strobes around witchcraft. She cries out in pain and falls to the floor. Despite the earlier warning to stay in their circles, the other Champions rush to her side.

 

“Stars and stones,” Witchcraft gasps. (She picked up the expression when she took a class from Professor Dresden over in Modern Urban Magics.) “There’s other magic at work.” Defender helps her to her feet. Her expression hardens. “These aren’t natural storms. This is an attack. And whoever’s doing it is going to regret it.”

 

Dean Shomshak

[death tribble]

The Harry S Truman complex

Less of a building, more of a separate entity for the University as the explosions are contained here and blasts directed out where they cannot hurt people

The sports students give those studying rocketry and destruction a wide berth. Dr Destroyer would gladly sabotage the sports team in revenge for any attack on the students working in the Truman complex. And sometimes he will even admit it was an accident. Most of the time 'they got what was coming to them'

Bad luck also seems to pervade anyone messing with the rocket side of things. The rocket may fall on someone, people get turned into plants, people get burned by odd chemicals or even people suffer from a form of mass hysteria in which they see giant alien forms which are controlling them

[Cancer]

Option 4:  The university has social fraternities.  The Delta Tau Chi chapter is housed adjacent to campus in very appropriate building

... FWIW, that photo is the real house in Los Angeles that was used in the original Addams Family TV series in the 1960s.

 

[Old Man]

The Greater Chickamauga College of Magical Healing

 

Option 2: Distinguishing Campus Landmark: The Dark Crystal

 

"Look into the reflector, Podling. Feel the power of the Dark Crystal!"

 

 

 

 

[Psybolt]

Distinguishing campus landmark:  The Black Barn (Gideon Falls)- a mysterious and (evil) building that appears unepxectedly on campus.

 

[Sociotard]

Option: Distinguished Alumni: Philip K. Dick.

 

Option: University Staff: Gladys Kravitz (Bewitched)

Role: Trustee

 

 

[Bazza]

Option: Sporting event: Blood Bowl. 

[DShomshak]

Another magic item from the arcane artisans of the Paolini Academy:

 

Magical wands, rods and staves are not unique to the Ars Hermetica. Mundane archeologists know that such tools go back at least as far as ancient Egypt. Hermetics, however, really like magical sticks. The best known emblem of Hermetic power is the Blasting Rod, of which the Grand Grimoire says that it “…collects the clouds, disperses tempest, averts the lightning, or precipitates each and all upon any portion of the earth at the pleasure of its director.” Don't tell Security Chief Ash, but some might say it's the original Boomstick...

 

But the professors of the Paolini Institute craft many personalized rods and staves as well. One of the most ambitious recent efforts was meant to channel the power of the Moon, using nothing less than a fragment of actual Moon rock brought back by the Apollo missions. (It was all Professor Bonestell’s idea. He stole the rock from a museum exhibit, replacing it with a chip of Earthly basalt. He feels no guilt at the theft, suggesting the museum merely wanted a rock for people to gawp at. Hey, in 20 years nobody’s noticed the substitution…)

 

This magnificent magical staff would use the subtle and delusive power of the Moon to influence the minds of mortals and spirits alike, bending them to the will of its wielder without their resenting their servitude. Early tests of the finished staff went well.

 

Then somebody stole it. Magister Paolini is pretty sure who did it, but says punishment will come in due time. The staff passed to other hands, though, always one step ahead of Institute attempts to recapture it. Students and alumni received these pictures of the staff and its last known possessor, a slippery character who should under no circumstances be trusted:

Option: Notable Achievement: The Staff of Loki

 

Professor Bonestell has a more ambitious plan, though: a scepter that incorporates bits of all seven astrological planets. A "Rod of Seven Parts," one might call it. He already knows where to get bits of the Moon; Martian meteorites are scarcer, but he knows where to get one of those, too. Other planets have regrettably not delivered parts of themselves to Earth (unless you count the solar wind, which Professor Bonestell has already determined will not work for his purpose.) Instead, probes from NASA and other space agencies are delivering sections of the Rod to the desired planet, with spirits pre-bound to carry the empowered section back to Earth. Cassini already delivered its section to Saturn (placed on board using some discreet time travel); Messenger delivered its section to Mercury; the Parker Solar Probe carries a section that's absorbing power from the Sun; Juno will eventually deliver its section into the storms of Jupiter. When the Rod is complete, Professor Bonestell believes it will not only channel the power of all seven planets, it will open Gates beyond the universe itself to the Primum Mobile.

 

Not everyone at the Institute is sure this is a good idea.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

PS: Logan, you haven't recorded the Archmaster's Hot on the roster yet.

PPS: Bob the Skull can be the head librarian for the entire university, if nobody objects.

[assault]

The interesting thing about these is that they always inspire me to create things that are entirely unrelated.

 

I'll try to catch up soon. I might have to make up to five picks at a time, just to catch up. Sorry.

[death tribble]

On 3/13/2023 at 8:10 PM, death tribble said:

Bernard Quatermass needs an assistant. Who better than the Rocketeer ?

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketeer

 

This was missed from my list.

I would like this as Univ character please.

 

Secondly. In mentioning Secret Societies, I had thought of ODESSA but I am thinking that this is not appropriate with the themes that everyone else is doing.

And for those who don't know what I am talking about, the film The Odessa File with Jon Voight and Maximilian Schell should clue you in.

[csyphrett]

I would like to pick George Taylor for the Editor of the Magus University newspaper The Daily Star

CES 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

8 hours ago, DShomshak said:

PS: Logan, you haven't recorded the Archmaster's Hot on the roster yet.

 

PPS: Bob the Skull can be the head librarian for the entire university, if nobody objects.

 

The first one, I'm not sure what you mean. The Archmaster's hot? Can you link me the post? 

 

As to the second, consider it done. 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Catching up. 

 

Professor Ron Swanson, area: Meat, Butchery, and Breakfast Foods

 

Perhaps the hardest faculty of the Puck Institue for the students to get close to is Professor Swanson. And he prefers it that way. Working closely with Geralt, Doctor Swanson knows more about processing exotic beasts than any man alive. He has a begrudging respect for Dean Sparkle and refuses to believe that she is in fact a unicorn. “They’re treacherous beasts, and the dean is not. I don’t know why she insists on this charade. She may be crazy.” His appetite is legendary, and he can out eat most of the beasts in the zoo. “When I eat, it is the food that is scared.”

 

He also has immense knowledge of breakfast foods, which he often insists should be called just ‘foods.’ “There has never been a sadness that can’t be cured by breakfast food. Why would anybody ever eat anything besides breakfast food?” When a student does get close, they’ll find him a wise, if reluctant, mentor. “If any of you need anything at all, too bad. Deal with your problems yourselves, like adults.” He considers Dr. Wonka a worthy comrade because neither one sees the need for rules. Dean Brown, on the other hand, is an authority figure and inherently untrustworthy. 

 

[Cancer]

 

??

[Cancer]

The Department of Modern Urban Magic drafts its Star Pupil:

 

Cheech.

 

Not Cheech Marin, Cheech Wizard.

 

[DShomshak]

2 hours ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

 

The first one, I'm not sure what you mean. The Archmaster's hot? Can you link me the post? 

 

As to the second, consider it done. 

Sorry, typo. The Archmaster's hat. See page 12.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

2 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

Sorry, typo. The Archmaster's hat. See page 12.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

Ah! Got it. 

[Enforcer84]

Option: Incoming Freshman #2

Françoise "Edward" Appledelhi

 

A promising computer science magician. She does not have to wear socks.

[Hermit]

On 2/14/2023 at 10:37 AM, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

 

It's magic, so absolutely! They could be ghosts, time travelers, simulacrums, there are a host of possibilities. 

The dog raced through the campus grounds wagging her adorable tail. Sometimes she went around barriers, but being a terrier as well as a ghost, she was just as likely to go through them. There were a lot of theories about  why the ghost dog had decided to stick around campus past her death. Some suggested she just wasn't ready for the rainbow bridge when there were people to help. Others joked she was just finally collecting on her army scholarship! She did often attend classes, slipping in and heeding lessons of this or that professor intently; often better behaved than some human students. Yet she was the life of any party showing off the many tricks she learned in life.

 

Many who didn't understand who she had been shrugged her off as just an ectoplasmic oddity in canine form, but those who bothered to research who Smoky was, and more importantly, who she had saved, gave her a lot more respect. Beyond just scritches and gentle strokes (Those times she turned solid enough to do so), others gave the dog salutes or even a "Thank you for your service." and they meant it.

 

After all, it wasn't every school that had a genuine WW2 hero (And TV actress)  as a campus pet.

 

Option Pick: Campus Pet- Smoky

 

 

(I was tempted to go with Sgt. Stubby, but turns out Stubby was a Georgetown attendee)

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Student, Basket Case, Jane “Eleven” Hopper (Stranger Things)

 

Eleven, or El, is a weird one, even by Magus University standards. She doesn’t speak much, and what she says is often baffling. “Time Is Funny Like That. Emotions Can Make It Speed Up Or Slow Down. We Are All Time Travelers If You Think About It." She doesn’t make many friends, but she is fiercely loyal to the ones she has. 

 

Nobody is sure exactly where she came from and she’s not talking. She likes it at Magus U. but she hasn’t decided on a definite student path yet. "I Do Not Belong. Anywhere." Recognizing her potential, Dean Brown drew her to the Puck Institute through a shared love of waffles. She is still plagued with doubts. "What If I'm not Good?” But she seems to be making progress. 

 

[Old Man]

The Greater Chickamauga College of Magical Healing

 

Option 3: Campus Registrar: Flash Slothmore

 

“What...can I...do...for you...today?”