# Magical Items and Arcana Skill \[No longer merged, hosted on Github\]

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288>\
**Category:** The Lab\
**Tags:** mod\
**Created:** [August 8, 2015, 11:31pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288 "2015-08-08T23:31:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 8

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**Author:** ![DG123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@DG123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/DG123)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/141 "2016-08-31T19:44:26Z")

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" Red potion. Heals various injuries and features a milder return of the painkiller effect, which milder side effects. Remove a few of the weird ingredients, add some pearl ash, and what would you get? Go on, guess."

What is the meaning of this? You can’t actually make the next step, right?

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**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/142 "2016-09-01T01:24:21Z")

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[quote=“DG123, post:141, topic:10288”]" Red potion. Heals various injuries and features a milder return of the painkiller effect, which milder side effects. Remove a few of the weird ingredients, add some pearl ash, and what would you get? Go on, guess."

What is the meaning of this? You can’t actually make the next step, right?[/quote]

One historical recipe for an attempt to make alkahest involves alcohol, caustic lime, and pearlash. Mostly it’s just a decent glass cleaner. :V

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DG123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@DG123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/DG123)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/143 "2016-09-03T18:35:24Z")

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On a related note what does it mean by “various injuries”. Specifics would be nice. I don’t have a clue whether this can cure broken limbs or just adds health to your whole body like having a nap.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/144 "2016-09-03T23:46:18Z")

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To quote the item description: “It can heal bleeding, cleanse wounds, stave off infection, and purge a handful of mundane diseases.”

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DG123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@DG123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/DG123)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/145 "2016-09-04T00:34:43Z")

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That’s the in game description? Weird, I don’t recall seeing all that… Hmm. So in that case the arcane item to actually heal wounds is the Aegis?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 3:00am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/146 "2016-09-04T03:00:35Z")

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Full description: “A strange reddish liquid that gives off a sweet smell. The elixir of life, or merely a mimicry? Drinking this will cure a number of things, but can’t mend existing damage. It can heal bleeding, cleanse wounds, stave off infection, and purge a handful of mundane diseases.”

The gilded aegis heals damage, yeah. As does the scroll of overgrowth.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![deoxy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@deoxy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/deoxy)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/147 "2016-09-04T18:38:50Z")

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Hey RD, comment on my mapping item? I’d like it to be balanced well enough to get it into the mod.

Also, can anybody think of a way to make a “rod of mending” or something that uses essence as its “ammo” to fix stuff? I suspect that would require code changes…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pisskop](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/pisskop/32/1327_2.png) [@pisskop](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/pisskop)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/148 "2016-09-04T18:41:32Z")

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Can you make an item that can be toggled or ‘turned on’ to change its use item?

i.e. a flashlight.

flashlight (off) --\> use it to repair clothing  
Toggle it to on  
flashlight (on) --\> use it to repair metal/plastics  
Toggle it to flashlight (3)  
Flashlight (3) --\> use it to repair wood  
toggle it to flashlight (off)

Youd need to use a menu to toggle it, but it would conserve all your charges. Each one uses a different use\_action, but you would still need the raw materials, I suspect.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/149 "2016-09-04T18:50:15Z")

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[quote=“deoxy, post:147, topic:10288”]Hey RD, comment on my mapping item? I’d like it to be balanced well enough to get it into the mod.

Also, can anybody think of a way to make a “rod of mending” or something that uses essence as its “ammo” to fix stuff? I suspect that would require code changes…[/quote]

Ah, do you have a chuck of code for it, or a PR? All I have on it so far is the general idea and the name orb of insight. Other than potential confusion with the mask of insight, I see nothing wrong with this. :V

And you could give it multiple use\_actions, but sewing and a lot of things like that really don’t play well with rare material like essence, because long actions eat massive amounts of charge for a repair attempt that might fail multiple times.

Meanwhile…you know what’s fucking depressing? There are multiple bugs with this mod that have their origins in PRs dating back at least 3 months ago, and one of them (see [http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=13209.0](http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=13209.0) ) was only reported back on august 31st.

I took one look at a game I’ve been away from for half a goddamn year, and had 90% of the bugs figured out and resolved within an hour.

So you wanna bet that even after I posted on github a solid explaination of all the bugs and exactly how to fix them, and have had at least 2 people say they’ll PR it for me, it’ll take ANOTHER 3 months to unfuck?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DG123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/54ee81/32.png) [@DG123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/DG123)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/150 "2016-09-05T21:29:25Z")

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Arguably more depressing is when someone updates the game and people start playing the new version before discovering it’s completely \*\*\*\*ed up with new bugs.

Like turrets not working properly all of a sudden and several types of engine not being possible to refuel.

Granted this is largely due to them being part of mods, but it’s frustrating and keeps putting me off updating my game.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/151 "2016-09-05T21:33:09Z")

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Now imagine if that bug goes for several updates. I recall one time early on when the Windows versions were basically fucked.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![deoxy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@deoxy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/deoxy)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 3:02am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/152 "2016-09-07T03:02:17Z")

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> [@pisskop](#):
>
> you would still need the raw materials, I suspect.

> [@Random\_dragon](#):
>
> And you could give it multiple use\_actions, but sewing and a lot of things like that really don’t play well with rare material like essence, because long actions eat massive amounts of charge for a repair attempt that might fail multiple times.

Good points, of course, and probably accurate on both counts, but I was hoping for something more like the toolbox that uses its ammo as both the ammo and the material and always succeeds. I suspect that wouldn’t be possible without coding, though.

> [@Random\_dragon](#):
>
> Meanwhile…you know what’s fucking depressing? There are multiple bugs with this mod that have their origins in PRs dating back at least 3 months ago, and one of them (see [http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=13209.0](http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=13209.0) ) was only reported back on august 31st.

I think a good many people aren’t updating regularly right now due to some of the recent developments - I know I haven’t been. The dirty clothes thing and the vitamin thing are both really annoying at the moment, and the problems that have been hitting Blazemod are also kind of a big deal for those who like that one.

Also, something that used dull essence and could replace all the other repair tools (even with the multiple uses, needing extra materials, etc) could be pretty nice.

> [@Random\_dragon](#):
>
> [quote=“deoxy, post:147, topic:10288”]Hey RD, comment on my mapping item? I’d like it to be balanced well enough to get it into the mod.

Ah, do you have a chuck of code for it, or a PR? All I have on it so far is the general idea and the name orb of insight. Other than potential confusion with the mask of insight, I see nothing wrong with this. :V[/quote]

Yeah, I wasn’t thinking about the mask when I named it, heh - the Orb of Seeing, perhaps? Anyway, here’s some code.

The item itself:

`{
        "type":"TOOL",
        "id" : "orb_of_insight",
        "name" : "orb of insight",
        "name_plural": "orbs of insight",
        "description" : "A mysterious orb of dark glass or possibly crystal. With enough power, it might impart a great deal of knowledge... at a price.",
        "weight" : 2000,
        "bashing": 6,
        "to_hit": -2,
        "color" : "light_gray",
        "symbol" : "o",
        "material" : ["glass"],
        "volume" : 4,
        "price" : 10000,
        "max_charges": 13,
        "initial_charges": 0,
        "charges_per_use": 13,
        "turns_per_charge": 0,
        "ammo": "essence_type",
        "revert_to": "null",
        "use_action" : "ARTIFACT",
        "artifact_data" : {
          "effects_wielded": ["AEP_INT_UP", "AEP_PER_UP", "AEP_ATTENTION", "AEP_PSYSHIELD", "AEP_SCHIZO"],
          "effects_carried": ["AEP_SICK"],
          "effects_activated": ["AEA_PAIN", "AEA_MAP", "AEA_PAIN", "AEA_PARALYZE", "AEA_PAIN", "AEA_ATTENTION", "AEA_PAIN"]
}`

The recipe:

`{
  "type" : "recipe",
  "result": "orb_of_insight",
  "category": "CC_OTHER",
  "subcategory": "CSC_OTHER_TOOLS",
  "skill_used": "magic",
  "skills_required": ["fabrication", 5],
  "difficulty": 7,
  "time": 80000,
  "reversible": false,
  "autolearn": false,
  "book_learn": [["book_sacrifice", 7]],
  "tools": [
    [[ "book_sacrifice", -1] ],
    [[ "tongs", -1] ],
    [[ "chisel", -1] ],
    [[ "anvil", -1] ],
    [
      ["crucible", -1],
      ["crucible_clay", -1]
    ],
    [
      ["forge", 150]
    ]
  ],
  "components": [
    [
      ["glass_shard", 48],
      ["flask_glass", 12],
      ["jar_glass", 6],
      ["jar_3l_glass", 1]
    ],
    [[ "gold_small", 50] ],
    [[ "silver_small", 50] ],
    [[ "diamond", 1] ],
    [[ "essence", 100] ]
  ]
}
`

I didn’t create a disassembly recipe for it, but it should probably disassemble into just dull essence, like the other stuff in the mod.

Also, I added it to several groups, whatever already included the rare stuff.

I’m thinking I should add the evil disease to the wielding effects, and adding attention to just carrying it along with sick.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/153 "2016-09-07T03:54:02Z")

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Hmm. It seems like an awful lot of effects on activation. Plus attention seems kinda redundant on both wield and activate. Maybe drop psyshield and passive attention, and shift sickness to on-wield?

Theme-wise, it does seem like a great idea to have it be in Oaths to the Chalice, given their lore. Does mitigate the confusion with mask of insight, for one. Could also call it the Orb of the Veil maybe, given the chalice cult’s references to He From Beyond the Veil.

And hmm, unsure what effect would work best for an equivalent Cleansing Flame tool, but repair seems about right. I just realized that it seems the soldering iron now uses a refactored modular use\_action. Weirdly, even though now you could define a sewing item that can repair non-fabric, or a soldering iron that can use other skills and take far less time, misc\_repair remains its own action. Still, you could do something like:

```auto
    "use_action": {
            "type": "repair_item",
            "item_action_type" : "repair_metal",
            "materials": [
                "kevlar", "plastic", "iron", "steel", "hardsteel", "aluminum", "copper", "cotton", "leather", "wool", "fur", "nomex", "wood", "bone", "chitin", "stone", "gold", "silver" 
            ],
            "skill": "magic",
            "tool_quality": 5,
            "cost_scaling": 0,
            "move_cost": 100
        }
```

Not 100% sure if that will work as intended.

In any case, I wish someone would PR the bloody fixes. Again, others have offered to quite some time ago. -\_-

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![deoxy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@deoxy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/deoxy)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:26am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/154 "2016-09-08T03:26:48Z")

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[quote=“Random\_dragon, post:153, topic:10288”]Hmm. It seems like an awful lot of effects on activation. Plus attention seems kinda redundant on both wield and activate. Maybe drop psyshield and passive attention, and shift sickness to on-wield?

Theme-wise, it does seem like a great idea to have it be in Oaths to the Chalice, given their lore. Does mitigate the confusion with mask of insight, for one. Could also call it the Orb of the Veil maybe, given the chalice cult’s references to He From Beyond the Veil.[/quote]

Yeah, lots of effects on activation, but all of them are bad except the mapping - mapping is so useful, I wanted it to be expensive. If active attention can multi-fire on the same activation like pain, I might replace the paralysis with another attention, instead.

Attention stacks up - passive attention just gives you a little every turn, active attention gives you a big pile of it when you use it. I think I might add attention to carry as well, along with sick, and add the evil disease to wield, actually - it’s a powerful thing, it should have powerful consequences.

Orb of Forbidden Knowledge, perhaps? Orb of Madness?

And if that tool will repair anything with no materials and always succeeds, essence would be a reasonable cost (maybe even two essence each time). If it just replaces the different tools and their “ammo”, but still goes through the regular process (multiple tries, needs materials), then dull essences is probably better. Still more convenient to only carry one tool, and the “ammo” would be easier to get (disassemble blood essence) and weightless/volumeless.

You know, I was thinking about other useful things that essence/arcana could be used for, and some kind of high-level “bag of holding” type thing would be REALLY nice - like a personal version of the stabilized portal. Weight would still be a factor (unfortunately), but otherwise… Also, a magical way to make a stabilized portal (since portal generators are so crazy rare) wouldn’t hurt. Both of those would probably need to be painfully expensive, though.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/155 "2016-09-08T03:35:36Z")

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Hmm. Not sure how to implement a stable portal item. Passive arcane items are rather rare. As for the repair items…yeah, I was going with that as an example. Still might be good to have it be more efficient than mundane ways though. For all intents and purposes, a “stack” of dull essence would be 15, while batteries are 100.

And it seems someone finally PR’d the fix.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![deoxy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@deoxy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/deoxy)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/156 "2016-09-08T03:41:54Z")

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Perhaps some kind of summoning ritual of your own that summons something nasty, and if you manage to kill it, it drops something you need to make such things?

That, or just make them expensive. The Orb currently takes several rare things (including a diamond) and 100 essence to make, for instance.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:52am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/157 "2016-09-08T03:52:37Z")

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Well, we DO need a themed item for the Sanguine Order. Orb of the Veil (I still like that name) you assigned to the Keepers of the Oath, and Something of Mending might be a good fit for the Cleansing Flame.

Meanwhile, the island temple’s dracolich was a summoning ritual gone awry, so that idea fits if the crafting recipe becomes linked to Sanguine Codex.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/158 "2016-11-03T21:03:17Z")

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Welp. Fuck it. Due to discussion of pushing this mod out of the core game, I now have a repo for it.

[https://github.com/chaosvolt/cdda-arcana-mod](https://github.com/chaosvolt/cdda-arcana-mod)

Pester me on there if you need shit done.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pisskop](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/pisskop/32/1327_2.png) [@pisskop](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/pisskop)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/159 "2016-11-03T21:18:18Z")

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YoY

I knew you liked us too much to leave foreva

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Random\_dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4da419/32.png) [@Random\_dragon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Random_dragon)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/magical-items-and-arcana-skill-no-longer-merged-hosted-on-github/10288/160 "2016-11-03T22:09:45Z")

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If by that you mean, every time I want to quit Github and this forum, I find out somebody fucked my old stuff up again?

I blame the fact I still care about my old content, even after being barred from the project.

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