First, an update on Interactive Lore Event IV:

• Ziggs has joined Bandle City as a secondary Champion, initiating the Strategic Hexplosives project there.
• Fizz has joined Bandle City, initiating the Yordle Submarines project.
• Zaun has begun the Extradimensional Theory project.

Next, here are this week’s research system rolls.

Balance of Power modifiers:

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

Piltover

The Velocitronic Rail (Alpha Phase) — High-speed hextech levitating train system
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +1
Roll: 8
Total: 9

Breakthrough! Project advances to Beta Phase!

People of Tomorrow (Gamma Phase) — Bio-augmentation project
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +1
Roll: 8
Total: 9

Breakthrough! Project complete! Piltover has mutants now, too! Steampunk Bioshock mutants!

Airship Armada (Alpha Phase) — Build a fleet of hextech airships
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +1
Roll: 8
Total: 9

Breakthrough! Project advances to Beta Phase!

Strategic Hexplosives (Alpha Phase) — Use pyrikhos to mass-produce high-yield explosives
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +1
Roll: 8
Total: 9

Breakthrough! Project advances to Beta Phase!

The Lost Legion (Alpha Phase) — Cure and re-equip Void-sickened Noxian refugees led by Riven
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +1
Roll: 8
Total: 9

Breakthrough! Project advances to Beta Phase!

Danger Level: 2
Roll: 1 (FAILURE)

Rolled 2d4 + 1. Got 6. Rolled d6. Got 2. Result: Sanctions I. (See: Research System)

• Sanctions I — For their next set of Featured Matches, the sanctioned faction’s opponents can select any Champion not on the sanctioned faction’s roster. In other words, they face a “normal” team. The sanctioned faction does not get bans. FotM beatdown inc?

 

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 (Gamma Phase) — Attempt to refuel the Yordle Mothership with pyrikhos-based fuel
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +0
Roll: 1
Total: 1

Cosmic Balance (Gamma Phase) — Balance Order and Chaos and find a way to use pyrikhos safely
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +0
Roll: 10
Total: 10

Breakthrough! Project complete! Good job, Kennen.

Yordle Submarines (Alpha Phase) — Explore the sea searching for Fizz’s lost civilization
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +0
Roll: 7
Total: 7

Strategic Hexplosives (Alpha Phase) — Use pyrikhos to mass-produce high-yield explosives
Target: 8 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +0
Roll: 6
Total: 6

Danger Level: 3
Roll: 19 (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.

Twisted Fate has discovered a strange interaction between his powers and the pyrikhos: while normally he can only teleport himself, with concentration he can reach through a charged pyrikhos field and use it to teleport another object instead. With his help, Zaunite researchers have developed a hextech portal-to-portal instantaneous teleportation system.

Impact: This technology allows Zaun to project its military power across Valoran by building a secret network of warpgates, and to react quickly to multiple threats.

Extradimensional Theory (Alpha Phase) — Investigate the nature of celestial and extradimensional beings
Target: 7 or higher
Balance of Power Modifier: +4
Roll: 4
Total: 8

Breakthrough! Project advances to Beta Phase.

Danger Level: 8
Roll: 9 (success)

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: +1
Roll: 7
Total: 8

Breakthrough! PROJECT COMPLETE!

Research into ancient Shuriman magic could provide clues as to the fundamental origins of the pyrikhos. After much debate, Demacia brought ancient Shuriman codices and artifacts to Demacia’s magical academies and temples for examination and study. Their mages have carefully reconstructed the essential elements of Shuriman magic.

Impact: The other three factions began the arc with a Shuriman Champion. Demacia has fought its way from last place to the top of the rankings, and completed the Secrets of Shurima project, thereby at last winning the support of Nasus. Some say that Renekton’s presence on Zaun’s roster was what finally persuaded him to join the fray: he made his oath the morning before an important set of matches against Zaun.

Danger Level: 1
Roll: 13 (success)

Stay tuned for more!

—CupcakeTrap