Here are this week’s research system rolls.

Balance of Power modifiers:

• Piltover: 0
• Bandle City: +1
• Zaun: +3
• Demacia: +4

Piltover

No luck this week — but at least they didn’t open a rift to the Void!

The Velocitronic Rail (Alpha Phase) — High-speed hextech levitating train system
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: 0
Roll: 3
Total: 3

People of Tomorrow (Gamma Phase) — Bio-augmentation project
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: 0
Roll: 4
Total: 4

Airship Armada (Alpha Phase) — Build a fleet of hextech airships
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: 0
Roll: 1
Total: 1

Danger Level: 1
Roll: 13 (success)

Bandle City

It is the declared intent of the Mothership Elders to, before this dispute is over, land a yordle on the moon and return them safely to Bandle City!

Refuel the Mothership (Beta Phase) — Attempt to refuel the Yordle Mothership with pyrikhos-based fuel
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +3
Roll: 10
Total: 13
BREAKTHROUGH! Project advances to Gamma Phase!

Cosmic Balance (Gamma Phase) — Balance Order and Chaos and find a way to use pyrikhos safely.
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +3
Roll: 1
Total: 4

Danger Level: 2
Roll: 16 (success)

Zaun

HexKorps — A mechanized hextech army of battletanks, mutants, death rays, and other fiendish innovations

Zaun has created a hextech army the likes of which Runeterra has never seen: cyborg soldiers, techmaturgic biodisruptor beams, walking humanoid robots the size of buildings, and hextech tanks rigged with death rays. As Noxus has fallen into disarray, Zaun has ascended to a level of military power to rival even Demacia. The HexKorps is operational and ready for deployment by land, sea, or air.

Impact: Zaun now has a powerful military. The HexKorps will open up new options in interactive lore events that involve military conflict, and give it a much better chance of success in those events.

Pharmakon II — An arcano-elixir that could produce a new breed of Void-touched mages

“Pharmakon” is a consumer product, an arcano-elixir made with Void ooze collected from contaminated Noxian land which when imbibed gives a potent high and temporary psionic powers. It is only one of several such “NoxiToxis” that have proliferated in Zaun ever since its megacorporations began their “research” on Void-tainted Noxian land. Attempts to strengthen Pharmakon had always failed: concentrating it above a certain level simply made it lethal. Singed has discovered the secret: infusing hyper-concentrated Pharmakon with pyrikhos, then charging the mixture through a latticework of hextech energy beams wrapped in tubes circulating a steady stream of pyrikhos as mages chant the half-remembered scraps of Shuriman spells. The result is Pharmakon II, which if administered to certain “gifted” individuals can create Void-touched psi-mages with the power to warp reality itself to their will. For the first time in history, Zaun has its own school of magic.

Impact: Zaun’s psi-mages can use their powers to curse an enemy Champion with a hex that closely resembles the sort of “summoning sickness” that Champions sometimes experience due to over-exposure to the magics of the Fields of Justice. Zaun may roll a d6 prior to Featured Matches and Tournament Matches; on a roll of 6, Zaun gains one “real” ban against the enemy faction.

Even before the discovery of the pyrikhos, Zaun had been secretly studying Void energy under a pretense of working to clean up contaminated Noxian land and treating Void-touched Noxian soldiers and civilians. Urged on by its Summoners, the Council of Zaun authorized a re-opening of these secret research files. Pyrikhos, which represents a collision of Void energy with more “conventional” magic, served as a gateway to direct control of the Void’s power.

Impact: Zaun has a grasp, however rudimentary, upon the dynamics of the Void. Zaunite mages can open and close Void rifts, tap into the Void to intensify their spells, and defend against extradimensional attacks which effortlessly penetrate conventional Runeterran spell-walls. The completion of this project unlocks additional lore event options, such as decontaminating Void-tainted territory, and gives Zaun a significant bonus in events such as Void invasions. Finally, Vel’koz is now a potential Champion pickup.

Mutants are hated and feared in Zaun. When the pyrikhos conflict arose, Zac came to the Council of Zaun with an offer: he would fight for them, in exchange for the authority and resources necessary to create a Mutant Academy, a safe haven for Zaun’s mutants and misfits where they could develop their powers and learn to use them for good, and a research center through which treatments for the dangerous side-effects of mutations could be developed. Zaun agreed. Now

Impact: The Mutant Academy provides a potential bridge between Zaun and Piltover. Specifically, Janna is now a potential secondary Champion pickup, although she would doubtless demand certain concessions and some policy changes from the increasingly warlike city-state.

Warpgate (Gamma Phase) — Twisted Fate is assisting Zaun in creating a point-to-point teleportation system.
Target: 7 or higher (Aggressive Research bonus)
Balance of Power Bonus: +3
Roll: 5
Total: 8
Breakthrough! Project complete!
So basically …

Danger Level: 6
Roll: 6 (FAILURE)

It seems that it pleases Mundo to be elsewhere for this weekend’s Featured Matches.

Demacia

Cosmic Purity (Gamma Phase) — Holy magic to repel the Void and cure those it has afflicted
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +4
Roll: 3
Total: 7

Secrets of Shurima (Gamma Phase) — An attempt to unravel the secrets of ancient Shuriman magic to better understand pyrikhos
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +4
Roll: 6
Total: 10
BREAKTHROUGH! Project complete!

Danger Level: 1
Roll: 8 (success)

Stay tuned for more!

—CupcakeTrap

About CupcakeTrap

Caitlyn, you monster.