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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 238737" data-attributes="member: 5435">AO in the Ether?Waterdeep Post, Magical Innovation SectionExperimental Wizards from the Center for Astral Research announced today that the ether may be filling up with an invisible substance called the AO particle."We've seen an enormous reduction in the speed of combat recently," explains Dubius Thray, the archmage in charge of this project. "Three years ago, everyone just ran up to their opponents and hacked away merrily, moving across the battlefield as quickly as they could. Now fighters are complaining that they can only move five feet at a time, and we've seen a dramatic change from linear trajectories to zigzags or even curving motion."The only way combatants could be slowed down so much, according to Thray, is if the ether has become substantially more viscous.  The CfA has attributed this increased resistance to a mysterious new particle dubbed "AO"."We named it as a joke, because the fighters whotried to move in straight lines shouted this alot.", explains Graad Stuud, a dwarven apprentice assisting in the research. "They seem to get hit more often, but I guess that's OK since the fighters have more staying power these days anyway."Magicians at the Thayan Institute of Thaumaturgy disagree."If Thray's theory were true," rebuts Ten-yoo Trak, a researcher and lecturer at TIT, "then we should see a dramatic decrease in spellcasting speed as well.  Instead, the opposite is true! Why, the Wizards of Thay routinely cast spells twice as fast as before through a new process called 'quickening'."Thray has dismissed Trak's claim, saying that the properties of the AO particle are still not fully understood.  Thray notes that AOs may be responsible for a sudden increase in the failure rate of fighter/spellcasters as well, which would support his theory."Overall, movement in combat has become much more difficult--no one can dispute that.  Whether it is impeding fighters from reaching their opponents, or causing spellcasters to fumble their spells, the effect of the AO is irrefutable!"Thray concluded the interview by complaining that priests seem to be completely unaffected."I'm sick of the gods playing favorites!" he cried. "If they're going to change reality, change it for everyone, I say."</blockquote>

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