THE WIZARDING SCHOOLS POTIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

IC INFORMATION

"Fairly hazardous, quite deadly, yes... Standards haven't slipped, I'm pleased to see. It's just as perilous a potioneering prize as ever."

- Zygmunt Budge

LORE

The Wizarding Schools Potions Championship is a competition that has taken place regularly since 1407. It started as a tribute to Quintia McQuoid (a notable portioneer that died brewing the cure for ague potion - her creation). The participants competed in several age groups, from all wizarding schools. It was a very dangerous event - knowledge, skill, and resourcefulness was required. They would have to brew several potions to face all the challenges. The prize was a Gold Cauldron and of course the prestige.

In 2024, the honour of hosting this prestigious competition had fallen to Hogwarts, with Méabh Regan and @Melisande Lennox being tasked with organising and hosting the event. Preparations had been underway for months - organising the tasks, the logistics, the judges, the flair.

It would take place in the week before this year's fall ball - with all the international schools already present, it seemed like the perfect time. Participants - and those who wanted to cheer for their friends - would be given the day off from school.

Note: As this is backdated, we are keeping the exact date vague to not create conflicts with threads that have already been created. It is in the week before the fall ball, after the international schools have arrived.

THE COMPETITION

The students were to compete in small teams of up to three. The championship itself was split into two separate parts:

First, in the morning, the competitors would brew two potions to test their knowledge and skill in potioneering. They would be provided with carefully selected and quality assured ingredients and brewing equipment, up to the highest standards of potioneering.

Second, in the afternoon, they would have to complete a set task within the time limit, with the help of the potions they brewed, testing their ingenuity, teamwork, and, of course, the effectiveness of their potions.

Before the students started brewing their potions, the task for each age group was announced, corresponding to their respective skill level:

1ST AND 2ND YEAR
Retrieve a basket of apples from a dense patch of forest - it is guarded by Red Caps.

3RD AND 4TH YEAR
Retrieve Ashwinder eggs from a wooden cabin. Be careful - the parents are still around.

5TH TO 7TH YEAR
Retrieve a specific item hidden in a patch of Swooping Evil cocoons. Attention - there might be additional complications.

They would be warned of the following: Completing their task was important, but not getting harmed, and not harming the creatures, should also be a priority. Finally, the groups would be judged and rated by a prestigious panel of international wizards, by the following criteria:

• Quality of the potions
• Successful completion of the task
• Speed
• Injuries and other harm to the competitors
• Injuries and other harm to the beasts

OOC INFORMATION

REQUIREMENTS AND NOTES

• Your character must be indexed to participate in any part of the championship.
• It is possible for iNPCs to participate, but please choose your iNPC or your PC to take part, not both.
• You can participate in either of the errands without participating in the final task. If you want to participate in the final task, you must complete both errands first.
• Groups stay the same from the errands to the final task - people can drop out, but new people cannot be added.
• If you want to participate in the final task, make sure that all your team members are in the same age group (1-2nd years, 3-4th years, 5-7th years).
• And finally, if you have any questions, reach out to Melisande Lennox or Méabh Regan, and we'll help you out!

If you are looking for a group to participate with, please check this thread!

PART I - BREWING

The first part will OOC make use of the Errand system. Please note that it has nothing to do with the usual errands IC, it is only a part of the Championship. There will be two errands, one for each potion:

• The Wizarding Schools Potions Championship Part I - Brewing: First Potion
  OOC Date: 24 Nov - 14 Dec
  Reward: 20 Sickles
• The Wizarding Schools Potions Championship Part II - Brewing: Second Potion
  OOC Date: 8 Dec - 28 Dec
  Reward: 2 House Points

Each errand will consist of selecting and brewing one potion as a team. The errand details and requirements will be announced via the errand system as usual.

Important Information

• The potion must be in the (PC's) trunk of at least one member of your group.
• Once the errand is completed, we will perform one moderation for each group to determine the success and effectiveness of the brew, based on the potion you chose, your RP, and your stats. Higher year potions are more difficult to brew!
• But be careful: You won't know the results until you try to use the potion in the final task.
• Don't worry - the errand reward does not depend on how well your character can brew potions, as long as they sincerely tried. (The championship result, however, does.)
• You can participate in either of the errands without participating in the final task, there will be a sort of "practice" section of the area.
• If you want to participate in the final task, make sure that all your team members are in the same age group (1-2nd years, 3-4th years, 5-7th years). If you do not want to participate in the final task, you can team up with anyone you want.

PART II - THE TASKS

The tasks will be performed in the same small groups (up to 3) that brewed the potions in the first part. Each member of the group will have one dose of each of the two potions they brewed to use - but be careful, their effect will depend on the success of the brewing stage, and a bad brew might harm more than help. (This potion is IC only and only usable for this thread - there is no potion item associated with this.)

There will be a separate moderated thread for each group, in which they face their task. The event has a total of three moderated rounds, after which the time is up! Your characters can perform one moderated action per round (incl. casting spells - think adventure threads, balls, sports etc.). Using a potion is a free action (can be performed additionally to the moderated action). Will your strategy lead to victory?

Winner and Rewards

In the final moderation, there will be a rating depending on the factors that were announced IC. The top team of each age group is crowned victor and earns eternal glory for their schools.

OOC Date: 29 Dec - 19 Jan
Reward: IC prestige, fame, and a Golden Cauldron for the winners, as well as OOC one dose of a potion depending on your age group for every participant who has posted in every moderation round:

• 1-2nd Year: Fire Breathing Potion
• 3-4th Year: Invisibility Potion
• 5-7th Year: Strengthening Solution

Important Information

• If you want to participate in the final task, you must complete both errands first.
• Make sure that all your team members are in the same age group (1-2nd years, 3-4th years, 5-7th years).
• Groups stay the same from the errands to the final task - people can drop out, but new people cannot be added.
• If you participate with fewer than three people in your team, we will try to take this into account for the task and rating.

𝙷𝚊𝚕𝚏-𝙲𝚛𝚞𝚙, 𝙼𝚊𝚗'𝚜 𝙽𝚎𝚠 𝙱𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝙵𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍!

--

In a recent and exciting announcement, Clementine Wexford, a British Magizoologist, has announced her success in creating a Half-Crup. Ms. Wexford has dedicated two decades of her life perfecting the hybridization of Crups and muggle canines. As a muggleborn, Ms. Wexford was saddened to learn that her beloved Crup, Pippin, could not visit her parents due to Crups aggressive nature towards muggles. Ms. Wexford has also been outspoken against the removal of Crups' secondary tails, calling the practice 'barbaric'. She began to dream of a solution that would allow magical and non-magical worlds to coexist in loving furry companions.

"My goal was simple, really," Ms. Wexford explained, "I wanted to create a magical companion that retained the loyalty and intelligence of a Crup without its aggressive tendencies towards muggles."

The lengthy period between the start of her research and success was in part to keep her breeding practices ethical. To achieve the peaceful half-breed Ms. Wexford turned to dog breeds she found particularly friendly, such as the Golden Retriever. "I'd like to reassure the public that every one of my furry helpers have a loving home, with some of them remaining by my side. Each generation became less aggressive towards muggles. The friendliest were bred together until I found a combination that is nothing but friendly towards muggles."

Half-Crups have a slightly less pronounced fork, making it easier to conceal when traveling through muggle communities. Half-Crups also have a nose for uncovering magical items and tend to form stronger bonds with magical people, but also are easily trainable, much like their dog ancestors.

Wanting the breed to be available for all loving wizarding homes, the first litter of half-Crups will soon be available for wizards to purchase at Diagon Alley's Magical Menagerie before the end of November.

THE WIZARDING SCHOOLS POTIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

The first part of the Wizarding Schools Potions Championship has begun. You can find all the relevant information here!

The staff assisting roles that were recently developed, known as the iNPC-Validations subteam, has evolved into a permanent staff team now known as the iNPC Staff. OOC this staff team is a team of 8 users who are designed to process iNPC applications and join one other staff subteam. This role is equal to Professors, Prefects and Assistants in rank, answering to the site admin team (Hogwarts Head of Houses, Hogwarts Deputy and Hogwarts Headmaster).

IC, following the events of Pyre, these 8 staff members have now taken on the lead roles (headmasters, directors, etc) of the iNPC schools:

• Fabian Fleischer of Ilvermorny (played by Astra Norrick)
• Yegor Korotkin of Koldovstoretz (played by Avery Leveret)
• Esmeralda Fernandez of Castelobruxo (played by Logan Baird)
• Emery Albrecht of Durmstrang (played by Tristan Theramin)
• Évodie Ndoto Masudi of Uagadou (played by Rebecca Lark)
• Aiko Mori of Mahoutokoro (played by Emma Wynn)
• Célestine de la Croix-Valmer of Beauxbatons (played by Linda Ramirez)
• Arturo Reyes of Tenūsa (played by Ulysses Drake)

Going forward, any openings on this team would be advertised as an iNPC Staff opening, and the role would involve creating an adult account who takes over that school's lead position.

Holiday Delays

As we're coming off Thanksgiving, we wanted to do this public service announcement to remind everyone that these months - and December, in particular, come with a number of holidays that people celebrate in real life. It can also be a hard time for people, especially with everything going on, so this is our annual reminder to be mindful of expectations on staff or other players during this month. This applies to players, such as roleplay post speed (please don't keep asking people to post). However, it also affects staff work, such as index registration, inpc updates, homework grading, pet threads, and other staff requests.

In particular - our professors try their best to grade all homework before the end of the month each month, which is an unfair expectation to have at this time. The end of the month is also a holiday (New Year's Eve) that many of our staff may be celebrating. As such, last-minute submissions will not be graded. Please do not submit any last-minute homework in an attempt to race to a victory. Whilst you might be okay with them not getting graded until the new year, they do place unnecessary expectations on the professors, which isn't fair. So please be mindful of that when submitting homework.

Everyone has different availability during this month, depending on the individual's culture, region, traditions and beliefs. Whilst we do try to do all of the staff work in a timely manner, please note that due to the concentration of holidays, any homework submitted in the last two weeks of December may not be graded in time.

In addition, all staff requests (such as registrations, updates, owls, any other moderation tasks) may take longer than the usual two weeks maximum. Normally, we do manage to do it in less than the two weeks. However, right now, it can easily take the full two weeks. If you have waited over two weeks or notice that you've been skipped over by accident then please reach out to the appropriate staff. If you do not know who to contact or need to escalate this, you can contact the admin team (HOH, Headmaster & myself).

Please make sure that you are doing your part to make this process as smooth as possible. This means:
- If you want your homework graded this month, please submit it before Dec 15 (or as early as possible) for the best chance of it being done this month.
- If you're doing an index/inpc registration or update, make any requested edits as soon as possible and then owl the person back to let them know you've edited.
- If you put a pet thread then you follow the instructions & owl your HOH as soon as possible. We do not check the board for threads unless we have been owled.
- If you're owled by staff regarding any moderation request to ask for clarity or edits, please respond as soon as you can. Our 'within two weeks' policy applies from when you reply or owl us.

TL;DR: Our staff are volunteers dedicating their spare time to this site and may need two weeks or more to process your requests during this busy holiday season. Please be mindful of people and do your part to ensure that you're following the correct procedure in a timely manner.

Secret Passageways!

That's right everyone! New lore on the various secret passages, pernicious stairways, and undiscovered little hide-aways has just been published!

Check out the lore here!

THE WIZARDING SCHOOLS POTIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

Start brewing your second potion for the first part of the Wizarding Schools Potions Championship now! You can find all the relevant information here.

At the same time a reminder that there is one week left for brewing the first potion! All information for that one is here, and in case you missed it, general information on the Wizarding Schools Potions Championship can be found here.

We are changing our policy around forward dating threads. From now onward, we will allow forward dating up to 3 calendar months, which is a change from the previous 1 month. This affects RPG rule #14 which now reads as:

14.) Backdating and Forward Dating Players can backdate their threads as far back as they would like. Players can only forward date threads up to 1 month three months. The exception to this is in the summer months were we expand forward dating up to three months (June to August), always ending on September 1st to accommodate new users that joined the site during the summer and have chosen to start their wizarding journey in September.

Backdating is the declaration that the thread is taking place at a time before the date of the first post.
Forward dating is the declaration that a thread is taking place in the future, at a time after the date that the first post of a thread was.

** All threads are considered to have taken place on or within a few days of the date of the first post.
** The maker of the thread (whoever made the first post) declares in their post what date the thread is taking place.

Why? It was confusing to change this rule only for the summer months, when we wanted new users to be able to participate in Hogwarts threads if they didn't want to attend summer camp. Making the three months rule as year round allows new users a simpler integration into the site and avoids conflicting rule sets for different times of the year. This also allows for more freedom in terms of future plot planning - users may want to forward date and use that extra three months to complete their thread by the time the IRL date comes around. Overall, this just gives players a lot more freedom and helps everyone be on the same page.

What does this mean for me? This means that (as an example) on January 5, you can start a thread that is set on April 5. You still need to make it very clear in your first post of the thread what the date is. However, this also means that you need to pay attention to site events. We have created a calendar thread here that estimates when site events take place, but it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to make sure your threads don't conflict. We will not be announcing exact dates for iNPC visits or ball dates or sport dates earlier than they normally are - as per usual, they will be announced as soon as we can, which is usually about a month in advance. However, this calendar thread gives you a rough idea of these dates so you can plot around them.