Invader Len

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@NatsuIn theory, yes. However they must be bonded with a familiar, and must be a Magister. The spell performing the sacramentum actually takes several years to master. You have to be training for 10 years on the sacramentum exclusively before you can be licensed to perform them. Most Magisters start their career much later in life than others.

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@duskshine749 That's fine, let us know when your CS has been edited and we'll happily review it again. :)

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@Natsu
Druids are the priests of the Church of the Holy Star, the big religion in Prydain. These Druids in particular are Magisters, who fill out many day-to-day duties, like performing the sacramentum, officiating marriages, presiding over funerals, that sort of stuff. The mythology, holidays, and religion is heavily inspired by Wicca. (Errorist, our resident Witch and the one who developed most of the religion for us, can answer more questions.)

@Raijinslayer
The laws for drinking are a little tricky. If you're 16, you're allowed to drink alcohol that isn't hard liquor with an adult's supervision. Said adult must be over 21, and must remain sober. Once you're 18, you can drink unsupervised, and can drink hard liquor as well. As long as Korrigan doesn't have a criminal record involving underage drinking, that's fine. Drinks with low alcohol content will be served at special occasions, though students are reminded to behave well and not tarnish the school's name.

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

Aaaaaand posted! The Druids are here and Felicity and Korrey are off the stage, so the podiums are open for the next two people who want to take the stand! Once the first group is done, the second group can begin to be bonded!

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

Felicity Goldberg

Felicity had many ideas about her partner. Her partner could be a cute boy with brown hair and freckles, maybe one who wore glasses and spoke with a stammer. Maybe her partner would be the girl in the pink T-shirt in the first row, with blue ribbons in her hair and a pair of dice block earrings? Korrigan, Korrigan, what a weird name! She couldn’t tell if it belonged to a boy or a girl, so she was left waiting in those last seconds for them to appear. She had many possible ideas for who her partner was and what they looked like.

However, neglected among them, was that her partner would be the tall, strange looking boy she’d met on the platform that morning.

”Well I’ll be, didn’t expect to meetin’ ya so soon… or, ya know, on this podium. Dang, talk about coincidences.” he said, rubbing the back of his head. Felicity was no less surprised, she’d had no idea this boy was in her year, let alone a familiar she might be paired with! He was so tall, she thought he was a senior! Before she could say anything in reply, he turned to the two druids, letting them know he was ready.
“O-Oh! Yes, I’m ready too!” she exclaimed, remembering where she was.

The female Druid beckoned her to hold out her hand, and she did so, before having it placed atop Korrey’s. The woman placed both of their hands in hers atop the pedestal, before chanting out her ancient rhyme. The man joined in, dripping water on their hands, and Felicity watching in awe as a the red, circular seal appeared on the back of her hand. There was a slight tingling sensation, like what one might feel when their foot was asleep, but as Felicity flexed her hand, the tingling went away. She didn’t feel very much different, being bonded like this. Maybe it was something she would get used to?

From the alcoves across from them, another pair of Druids hurried onto the stage, one obviously sweating. Had they been running? Two younger women, clad in the same robes and earning some rather disapproving looks their older counterparts. Headmaster Loyola turned to them and they exchanged what Felicity assumed were hushed apologies, before the two women set up a second pedestal on the other end of the stage. Headmaster Loyola cleared his throat, turning back to the audience.
“There’s been a slight change, no need to panic. As you may tell, this is a very large class this year, and so to get through these proceedings a little quicker, we requested two additional Magisters. Magisters Cruz and Celeste got a little lost on the way here, but they have arrived safely. A shame, we let loose a pack of bear-hounds in the halls just for this occasion. Keep on your toes.” He joked, before clearing his throat.
“Worry not, I’ll continue reading out names. Let’s see, who’s next….” he trailed off, looking to return to his place on the list.

As soon as the ritual was completed, two volunteers stood near the stage, beckoning them down as Headmaster Loyola prepared to call the next names.
“Come on, this way. We’ll help you with your luggage.” said the taller of the two, though not as tall as Korrey. Felicity quickly nodded, stepping down onto level ground and allowing the volunteer to show her the way. She couldn’t stop staring at the mark on her hand, a faded burgundy color, though it had been glowing scarlet a few moments before.
“Wow… So we’re bonded now, huh? How awesome! Monty’s gonna be jealous I got bonded first~” She gloated in a singsong voice, following the seniors out of the way.

She looked up at Korrey, (gosh he was tall, she couldn’t get over that) and gave him a smile.
“I didn’t know you were a familiar! Wow, and we met on the station too! I wonder if it was fate or something? It’s Korrigan, right? I’ve never heard that name before. You’re a very unusual person!” she noted, picking up her suitcase and letting it roll beside her.
“But unusual isn’t bad! Where are you from? You have a strange way of talking!” It rather reminded her of an old-time gangster movie she watched with Monty once. Or rather, she tried to watch while Monty ranted about all the illegal things the gangsters were doing and how all the characters should go to prison. She didn’t watch crime movies with him anymore for that reason.

@Raijinslayer
@The Errorist

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@Raijinslayer Ah, now I get it. Thanks, I thought it was literal. I thought it might be a metaphor for something, but I wasn't sure what.

Uh, as a request, please don't put metaphors or idioms in your likes or dislikes, unless you specifically dislike metaphors or idioms. I'm but a poor, haggard university student, my poor brain can't handle this level of complexity at the end of the day. Have mercy on yer GMs, please!

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@Raijinslayer Nah man, that’s good! I’ll get a reply once the current situation with the priests is resolved.

@duskshine749

Samuel Deniel Review

Okay, a couple of things.

First issue is with his personality. Why is he humble and dislike money? This is never explained or elaborated on, and is contradictory, given how much he spends it (see your answer to questions 4 and 5). There’s also no point in his story that would give him this dislike, no epiphany about class consciousness, no seeing the suffering of the poor, no sudden realization that money is the root of all evil. He just hates it, which is weird, considering he has a lot of it and benefits from it. It also doesn’t add or take anything away from his personality. It doesn’t make him withdrawn, cynical or bitter about capitalism, it doesn’t make him more charitable or inspire him to actively improve the lives of others. It’s just… there. I think this could be turned into a very strong character trait, if explained and utilized properly. But at this point, it’s an appendix to his personality. Practically useless, takes up space, and has a strong possibility of needing surgical removal.

Next up, also with his personality, is there is one flaw. Impulsivity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good flaw, but by itself? Nah, not digging it. Give him 2-3 more flaws, help give his personality more shape. Chill, laid back, “go-with-the-flow” dudes are tempting to create, but like barbie dolls, they’re unrealistic. No one is ever always chill. Unless he’s got painkillers and prozac for blood, give him more flaws.

Next up, a little clarification on the parents. How did they end up co-running the company? Was the mother in the same company of the father? Spouses co-managing a company they didn’t create together is extremely rare, both due to them usually having different professions or specializations, and, unfortunately, the glass ceiling. It’s much harder for women to be promoted than men, especially if said woman is married, pregnant, or already has kids. Not to mention, CEO status doesn’t transfer to your spouse when you marry, it’s not like a throne. That would be silly, impractical, and nepotistic. If I were to marry the CEO of a tech company, but my profession was in a history of viral pathogens, it would be impractical to involve me in the company in any way, much less make me a managing partner. This needs more clarification for how they both managed to gain equal status at the same company.

Also, this was a problem we had in other CS’s, but we’ve noticed a trend of what we’re jokingly dubbing Rich Rugrats. Unsupervised wealthy toddlers with loving yet neglectful parents that have no control over their work schedule, despite being wealthy and powerful. While this is definitely a thing that happens in real life, it usually doesn’t happen to the wealthy. If this were a poorer family that absolutely needed two breadwinners working most of the time, this would be a different scenario and would be acceptable. But this is a very different economic case, and so we’re eyeing this case of “left to his own devices” with healthy skepticism. Especially since it’s phrased as if his mom just popped him out and went straight to work, leaving him all alone in their mansion. Give the kid a nanny at least, or have one of his parents stay home with him and work from home until he’s 6, if they’re really workaholics.

Next up, this is the biggest plausibility error in the CS. Your character, god knows how old he is, reads about St. Fortuna’s and just decides he has to go there. … Why??? There’s no ambition here. No planning, no reasoning. It’s like he’s just read about Disneyland and decides to go. St. Fortuna’s is not Disneyland. It’s a very exclusive, very expensive boarding school that specializes in the study of magic and is very intense. If you don’t want to learn about magic or have the prestige that the name attaches, why decide to go? What makes a laid-back guy decide to go to an academically intense, expensive boarding school where he wouldn’t see his family for a long time? Give him a reason here, or have his parents send him. Speaking of parents, elaborate more on their reactions. Why is the mom against it? Why is the dad for it? Give us insight, I don’t know their reasoning, you do.

And then the dad dies. … While I’m not gonna say he can’t do that, I would like a little more on this. A major death like this is a huge part of a character’s backstory, don’t skimp on it. What did he die of? Do a google search on what kills middle aged men and pick your favorite, it makes a lot more sense than him just dropping dead. Why didn’t Sam want to go to St. Fortuna’s after that? How did he react specifically? Did his personality change? How long ago was this before the school year started? A year? A month? An hour? Give us more of a time table, how long has your character been struggling with this loss? How have they coped? How have they not coped? Does it hurt them to say their father is dead? More is more when it comes to backstory, always.

And then there’s this.

Dislikes: Very hot weather, Waking up early, People who think their shit doesn't stink, Running

@duskshine749

????? What? I-is this literal? Is your character regularly around people who smell like crap? What does this mean? I mean, if your goal was to amuse, the three of us definitely were in confused giggles for 10 seconds. But really, what? I don’t know what this is, but uh… Change it?

And the last thing is the first quiz question, which ties in back to his total lack of ambition. You don’t go to St. Fortuna’s without even some idea of what you want to do. At least, not if you wanted to go there in the first place. If your character was made to go here by his parents, this would be acceptable, but since he decided to go here, it just solidifies my point that he needs ambition to want to attend.

TLDR: go back and read it all. Your character needs more flaws and needs an explanation for their dislike of money. Make the workaholic parents more plausible, and give him ambition. Choose the bullet that kills the dad and give us a timeframe for when this death happened, and tell us more about it impacted the character. And fix whatever that is in the dislikes. Please, for the love of god, it’s confusing the hell out of me. What does it mean???
With that, this review is over. Fix the errors and we’ll review your CS again. Len out.

@TheHangedMan Mentioning you so we can give you some credit for this.

We’ve decided that we’ll increase the number of priests by 2. One mage and one familiar. This way, there can be two pairs being partnered at once. I’m going to slyly and inconspicuously introduce them in my next post, so don’t worry on that!

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

Okay, everyone, we've done a lot of talking, and we got something to ask y'all.

So I, the infallible GM, made an oversight. In my post, I only wrote one pair of priests, meaning that people can only come up one at a time and get bonded thus. Errors and onenote pointed this out to me this morning, and we've spent the day tossing ideas back and forth on a solution. And we've decided to ask you guys, the players, how you'd like to proceed.

We've come up with two options. Either the post remains the same and everyone is okay getting the Sacramentum done one pair at a time, OR I go back in, edit my post, and quadruple the number of priests, giving everyone in the first group a chance to knock it all out at once.

I am fine doing either, though the second option make take me an hour or so to do as I go in, edit my post, and work things out so the continuity stays the same. It's up to you guys to decide, however. Should we stay at a slow pace with one pair of priests, or speed things up and bring in more priests?

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@duskshine749
Yes, we do have ample room! We’re very early on in our story right now, and actually we’re short a mage, if you wouldn’t mind making one. I f you submit a CS, my co-GMs and I will review it, and if all is in order, we’ll happily accept you and you can jump right in!

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

The podium has stairs? Welp, RIP Vyvyan 2002-2017. Any ramps and the like, or are we going to see some bridal carrying (with telekinetic aid)?

@Republic

There is a small ramp that has bees prepared for Vyvyan. Because the Sun Room is incredibly old, they can't install permanent ramps in it. However, there is a portable ramp that a staff member will lay out for your character, looking something like this.

In addition, there are elevators installed around the school for staff use, which your character will have a pass to use. So don't worry about winding staircases or the like. Aside from that, there is of course various slopes and ramps throughout the property your character can traverse safely.