The Therian Academy

The party noticed that their wounds were healing very quicly once they left the cave. After some discussion, they determined that it must have been because of the rings they were wearing, which they had taken from a supply room back at the Academy. After they were all in decent shape, the party took their rings off and placed them on four of the students they had rescued; but not before their reset their bones and whatever other normal medical treatment they could give them.

The party then set up a watch and rest rotation to get them through the night. During Shanris’ watch, he saw some flickering lights off in the distance. He carefully snuck towards them, trying to discern what they were without giving away his position. He was eventually able to get close enough to determine that this was a party of Orcs and Goblins, along with a single troll. They all walked and spoke together as if they were friends, which Shanris thought was highly unusual based off of his knowledge of Orc society. They were talking about slave trade, and how they needed to find more slaves before going back. Shanris was appauled at this, but obviously in no condition to act. Also, this group did not seem to pose a threat as they were now headed away from where the party was camped. He returned to camp and resumed his watch.

Shortly after he returned, he noticed that several of the students they had rescued were starting to stir; specifically, the ones who had rings on. Shanris went to talk to one, who he would soon learn was named Torvald Kerrigan. Torvald’s first reaction was to reach for a weapon on his back, which he quickly realized wasn’t there. Realizing that, he continued to lay there as Shanris approached. Shanris introduced himself, and Torvald gave him his name as well. Shanris explained the situation and asked him what he learned while he was captured. Torvald didn’t seem like he entirely trusted Shanris, but due to a lack of better options, explained what little he knew. He said he was able to gather that it was two female witches that were holding them hostage, members of some Coven of the Black Rose. He also recalled that one of their names was Lorelei.

How they got captured was an interesting tale as well. They had been attempting to reach the school for several weeks. They said it seemed as if they were never getting closer to it. The whole story reminded the party of the dreams they all had during one night they spent at the school. The party concluded that there must be some sort of magical effect preventing people from reaching the school, not unlike the effect that was on the house of Triana.

Shortly after this, Tybald awoke. At this, Shanris went and woke up Percival because he was certain that he would want to know. Percival was thrilled and rushed over to his older brother. The two of them hugged and began discussing what had happened. He told a tale similar to that of Torvald’s, only with much less detail. He still seemed to be in a bit of a mental fog.

Leaning over and seeing that Allana was next to him and badly injurded, Tybald focused for a moment, touched her, and she was instantly healed and awakened. He quickly regretted that decision though. While everyone was glad to have Allana awake, Tybald said he should have healed Isobel first, as she was apparently a healer as well, but not limited to one healing per day as Tybald was.

Eventually all of the rescuees were awaked by putting the healing rings on them. The notable exception to this was Dastyll, whose wounds seem to heal themselves with no external assistance. Not all of them were fine though. Ellon seemed to not be all there mentally, and Allana was unable to walk (though she looked ok medically).

After everyone was up, there was a discussion about what to do next. Torvald wanted to head straight to Astrakhan to get some military assistance from the capitol and then head back to the school in force. He yielded to Tybalt though, who wanted to go straight back to the school and get Denise out (as well as procure some equipment). At one point during this discussion, Torvald cocked his head to the side and ordered everyone to be quiet. He seemed to hear something off in the distance. The party quickly gathered their weapons, and gave the extras they carried to the other students. Torvald, Shanris, and Clarence snuck off in the direction Torvald heard the noise.

It did not take long for the party to realize that Orcs were sneaking up on them in preparation to attack. However, the party’s scouting group got the jump on them and, along with the rest of the group, made short work of them. After taking some time to gather up what useable equipment the Orcs carried, the party decided that it was no longer safe there and that they should head to the school immediately.

After they started off, they realized that they would most likely not be able to find the school because of the presumed spell in place on it or the area. As such they decided to head back into the woods they came from and seek out Triana.

The party set out at dawn next morning, on the way to a clearing where Triana was to meet with the bear she had spoken of the previous night. One of the party members asked if they could all simply teleport there. Triana said that was not an option, since she was not able to travel through the type of gateway she made the previous day. She also said that something has been wrong with certain types of magic lately, which is why the portal the party took the previous day was so far off the mark. The party arrived with Triana to the grove where she was to meet the bear to find that the bear was already there.

Triana told the rest of the party to stay back while she went and spoke with the bear. As she approached, she was very respectful towards the bear. She bowed and kept her head lowered throughout most of the of the conversation, clearly being submissive to the bear. This was impressive to the party, because after the brief displays of power Triana had given them, they were confident she would have no trouble dealing with a bear if it came to blows.

It did not come to blows though, and after several minutes of talking the bear wandered off to where he came from and Triana returned to the party. She told the party that the bear had noticed and increase in Orcish activity in the region and that his cousin had been killed in the next woods over. He suspected that there was a cave in that forest that was now inhabited by Orcs and Trolls, not too far from where his cousin had been killed. The party set out there immediately, following the vague directions Triana was able to obtain from the bear while Triana herself returned to her home to investigate this possible witch coven further.

The party traveled west through the woods until they emerged on the other side. Once out of the woods, they discussed what to do with the stones that Clarence had removed from the eye sockets of the zombies. Shanris suggested that they simply dig a hole and bury them, but the rest of the party wanted to attempt to destroy them. At first they tried having Shanris bash them with his sword, but that seemed ineffective. Next, Clarence shot a bolt of electricity at one of them. This made it glow white, but it was still intact. Thinking it was weakened, the Shanris struck it once more with his longsword, which sent a jolt of electricity up his sword and into him. Shanris let out a yell and jumped back, clearly in pain. Shanris was very angry at this, and said that he was going after the other school members and if the rest of them wanted to play with stones all day then that was their choice. Clarence picked up the stones and placed them back into his pack, and the he and the rest of the party followed Shanris across the King’s Road and into the forest on the opposite side.

This forest was downright eerie. Once again, there was no noise whatsoever and the air was very still. The party followed the vague directions they had, proceding very cautiously with their weapons drawn. After some exploring, they came to a tree that looked like the white guardian tree they had come across in the previous forest; only this one was dead. The ground around it was covered with rocks and salt. This tree had very obviously been killed, and the party suspected that it was by the orcs the bear had talked about.

After some more searching, the party discovered the massive body of a dead bear. It had obviously died in a fight, for it had many sword or spear wounds and numerous arrows sticking out of it. Shanris inspected the tracks and other features in the area and determined that a party of at least 8 humanoids was involved in this fight, and that several of them had died – though there were no signs of their bodies. The party searched around further and discovered the same strange plant they had seen before at the underground exit of the school [an event that took place in the one log I’m missing].

As he had done previously, the dragon became very excited by this and ran towards the plant, breathing fire on it before jumping in and feasting on the howling remains of the plant. This revealed a small opening in the ground, apparently a hidden entrance to some sort of cave or tunnel. Once the dragon had cleared out enough of the plant, the party lit their torches and jumped in.

They found themselves in a hallway. It was wide enough for two of them to walk side-by-side comfortably, and perhaps 10 feet high. The party decided to head east inside the tunnel. They went for perhaps 200 feet before coming to a dead end. There was a very large boulder blocking the way. It appeared to lead either outside or to another very large cave, but it was impossible for the party to move the boulder so they headed back the other way. After having gone about 100 feet from where they came in at in the opposite direction, the hall turned to the left. At that turn there was a door. Deciding to investigate the door before seeing where the hallway went, they opened it. It lead to another small hallway, which the party went down. After 30 feet or so, they came to another door.

Upon opening this door, they found themselves face-to-eyeballs with a very strange creature. It was roughly the size and shape of a basketball and completely covered with eyes. This startled the party quite a bit. There was no conversation about what to do; they all assumed this creature was hostile and acted accordingly. Clarence and Shanris both fired arrows at it. The creature was able to dodge the arrow of Clarence, but in doing so had moved right into the arrow of Shanris. It let out a high pitched howling noise as it deflated in agony on the ground. This apparently got the attention of some other beasts in the cave, as the party saw lights and heard commotion coming at them from various hallways that were attached to this main room.

They all pulled back into to the hallway, just in time to see 3 huge trolls appear from various hallways, all carrying torches (and thankfully nothing else). The party had yet to be noticed by the trolls, and took advantage of that by letting a volley of arrows fly into one of the trolls. Several of the arrows hit it in the neck, causing it to stumble back and fall to one knee. This grabbed the attention of the other two, however, and they charged the party.

Had the party not been wise enough to pull back into the hallway before this fight, they would have easily been killed by the trolls. However, since they were in the hallway, only one troll could face them at a time and they were dispatched one by one. This was still a very difficult task though. The party soon learned that the only way to deal with their regeneration was by applying liberal amounts of Clarence’s lightning to them. Badly injured, the party emerged victorious and prayed that this would be the last of the resistance they would encounter in this cave.

The party entered the room and took a look around. It was circular, and spread evenly around it were 7 doors, including the one they came in from. The party went clockwise and started to explore all the doors. What they saw inside each of them was truely horrific. Each of the first 3 rooms contained 7 sets of shackles, each of which held a badly abused dead body. At the base of each body, the party could see traces of various pieces of school clothing mixed in with pools of bodily fluid and, in some cases, limbs. Several party members threw up as they went through the rooms, finding more of the same.

In the 4th room, however, they found something quite different. Chained to a post in the middle was a large dog-like creature of some sort. It appeared to be much larger and more muscular than a normal dog though. It also had an unusually large mouth and 6 legs. It growled furiously at them, but was unable to attack because of its chain. Not wanting to risk it breaking free, the party shot it with arrows until they were certain it was dead. Inside that room they found a human-sized desk that had apparently been cleaned out. There was nothing else of interest in the room and so the party moved on.

The party immediately recognized the next room from the scrying Triana head done from them. Percival rushed to one of the bodies, which the rest of the party gathered was his brother Tybalt. Much to the surprise of the party, Tybalt did not appear to be dead. He was obviously very badly injured, but he was still breathing. The party checked the rest of the people hanging from the shackles in the room and discovered that all 6 of them were still alive too (though some appeared to be more alive than others). Clarence and Shanris immediately began to pick the locks on the manacles and gently lower the bodies, while Hayate ran into the next (and final) room to see if there were any more survivors. Percival stayed by his brother and obviously refused to leave, though none of the other party members even thought about asking him to.

In the next room, Hayate found much more of what they had seen in the previous rooms, with the notable exception that one of the people still appeared to be alive. He informed the party and they got her down too once they had finished in the other room. The party gently carried the bodies into the main room and discussed a plan of action.

They obviously had to get these fellow students out of here as soon as possible, but that would be no easy task. The only exit they were aware of was some 12 feet off the ground and Percival’s brother was a very large man. They could not risk exploring the caves for another exit though, as none of them were in a condition to fight.

Eventually they came up with a plan that involved using the table they found as a makeshift stretcher (along with the liberal amounts of rope they had brought) to lift the victims out. It took a decent amount of time, but they were finally able to get it working. Shanris climbed out and helped Clarence up, and the two of them were able to lift everyone else out; though this took some time as they had to take numerous breaks. They were eventually able to pull everyone out though, and decided to make camp up there. It was late at night by now and they were all exhausted, not to mention the fact that they had no way to carry all these people to a place where they could receive proper medical attention.

The party covered their rescuees as best they could with what spare cloths and blankets they had, and applied a healing balm which Triana had given them to their most obvious injuries. They set up a watch rotation and settled in for the night, hoping that it would pass uneventfully. However, “uneventful” had never been a word that would typically be used to describe anything associated with this party and this night would prove to be no exception.

As the party approached the clearing from the south, they noticed the remnants of some sort of ritual involving a fire. It was very clearly the same spot they had seen in the scrying. While the hooded figures were gone, the party noticed three other man-sized creatures approaching the site from the east. They moved very slowly and delibirately towards the remains of the ritual in the middle of the clearing. The party edged closer, wanting to figure out who or what these creatures were before deciding on a course of action. Shanris, Percival, and Clarence all turned to Hayate to warn him not to do or say anything until they had made a decision. It was at that point that they all realized that Hayate wasn’t there. Clueless as to where he could have gone, they decided to stay and observe these newcomers.

The party approached with care, making sure to stay hidden as best they could behind trees, rocks, and whatever else happened to be in the way. The creatures were definitely humans, two male and one female. One male was substantially larger than the others, and all were carrying a longsword. It was hard to tell from that distance, but it appeared that they were also wearing cloaks and armor that bore the school insignia on it. While that should have been a relief to the party, something just didn’t feel right. They weren’t moving or behaving like normal people do. After they had reached the center of the clearing, they stood there and looked around for several minutes while the party observed. The party decided to spread out, so that if they were hostile they would have them surrounded. Shanris went to the east while Clarence headed west. Percival stayed in the middle of them to the south. Shanris and Clarence reached their locations, seemingly still unnoticed. At this point Percival called out to the strange visitors, asking if they were from the school and declaring that the party meant them no harm.

They apparently did not feel the same way, as they all drew weapons and began to charge Percival’s position. Shanris and Clarence both let an arrow fly at them, and each of them landed their arrow deep into the head of their target. Much to their surprise and horror, this did not stop them; but it most certainly drew their attention. The smaller male charged after Clarence, while the female charged towards Shanris. The large male continued to charge Percival, who fired an arrow at it. Percival’s shot landed, but with little effect. The brute was quickly upon Percival and knocked him down, jumping on top of him to keep him there.

While this was going on, Clarence had dropped his bow and began to charge himself with electrical energy. Shanris fired another shot at his target, hitting it directly but doing seemingly no damage to it. Noticing that Percival was in trouble, Shanris knew he had to help. He dropped his bow to pull out his daggers and charged over towards Percival, muttering something about weak mages to himself as he ran. The female he had been shooting attempted to cut him off, but Shanris was able to very gracefully roll out of the way and continue running. Upon reaching Percival and his newfound friend, Shanris threw himself feet-first into whoever was on top of Percival. This sent the man flying several feet over the top of a very small hill, down which he rolled further. Shanris stood up immediately and charged him once again. Shanris jumped at the prone man, attempting to land on top of him and decapitate him by ripping both of his daggers through opposite sides of his neck. It wasn’t quite as smooth as he had hoped it would be, but after a few hacks and chops Shanris was able to decapitate the man. That, thankfully, put an end to him.

As soon as Shanris finished off the large male, there was an explosion off in the direction of Clarence. The male that had charged him had also attempted a grapple, and was the first of several to learn that using such a strategy against Clarence is an exceedingly bad idea. Clarence was able to shoot a bolt off at him before he reached him to some effect, and fully discharged on him once the thing had a hold of him. This resulted in the charred remains of what the party would later determine to be a zombie flying a good 10 feet back, where it landed in a twisted and smoldering heap.

Today was just a generally bad day for Percival. After he had just stood up, the zombie chasing after Shanris plowed into him and he was again pinned. He attempted to get into the thing’s mind and make it stop, only to discover that as far as his power is concerned, it had no mind. Thankfully Shanris had just finished off Percival’s first assailant and made short work of his second in much the same fashion.

“I’ve discovered their weakness,” Shanris began. “Without their heads, they’re powerless” he finished dryly, severing the last bit of muscle connecting the zombie’s head to its body.

The party gathered themselves together, making sure they were all ok. Percival and Clarence had both taken a shot or two, but their injuries were considered minor at worst. At this point the party inspected their attackers. They were definitely dressed in school garb, but their clothes were ripped and worn, as if they had been traveling in rough conditions for quite some time. The most curious feature about them, however, was their eyes. Their natural eyes had been seemingly removed and replaced with stones. These stones were smooth and reflective, and dark as obsidian. Much to the disgust of the other party members, Clarence removed the stones from all of their eye sockets and placed them into one of his containers, not even bothering to wipe them off first.

Further examination of the corpses revealed that they all showed signs of having been “dead” for quite some time. This lead the party to believe that they were zombies. None of the party members fully understood what that meant though, as they had only heard myths and legends about such beings. They all stood there for a moment letting that fact sink in, much as they had done when they met their dragon companion. This was the second of many occasions where the party would find themselves amazed at being face-to-face with something they weren’t sure existed.

The party had a mission here though, and quickly got back to it. They went over and inspected the remains of the fire in the middle of the clearing. The fire was made using seven pieces of wood that were arranged in a fashion that appeared to be physically impossible. Parts of them were in the air supported by each other, but the party couldn’t figure out how they weren’t falling over. Clarence reached out and touched one, which apparently broke the magic on all of them because it caused them all to collapse and lie normally.

The other point of interest was the seven-pointed star drawn in the dirt around the fire. Thinking back to what they saw in the scrying, the party determined that the points were where the hooded figures were standing. There was no sign of the man who had been in the middle of the fire, and the party could not determine if that was good or bad. Regardless, the party had evidently taken too much time in getting there and missed the show and so they decided it was time to figure out what happened to Hayate.

The party made a beeline back to the last place where they knew that they had seen him, which was the great white tree. Once there, Shanris found a set of tracks he determined belonged to Hayate. They followed them for a good half hour before Shanris, at the lead of the party, put his forehead down and slapped himself in embarassment. He had been following the party’s own previous tracks. Again they backtracked and attempted to find where Hayate had deviated, but they were unable to find such a spot. With no hope of finding Hayate, the party decided to head north to the river, where they had agreed to meet Triana once they were done.

As the party was traveling to the clearing for the first time, Hayate saw a beautiful butterfly and had followed it for a ways. Not watching where he was going, he fell in hole and found himself in a gigantic cave. He yelled and yelled, but he had gone too far off the path for the party to be able to hear him. With no means of getting back up through the hole from whence he came, he decided that he must find another way out. This cave had a river flowing through it. Hoping that it led to the coast, he followed it. It took him several hours, but he eventually emerged from the cave along the coast. It was nightfall by now and he was soaking wet. Given that it was the beginning of winter, he should have been very uncomfortable to say the least. This was not the case though. He could tell that he was wet and knew in his head that he should feel cold, but instead he felt normal. He determined that his must be a pleasant side effect of his power.

After some searching Hayate found his way up the cliffs that bordered the coast and follow the river back west, knowing that it lead to the spot where they had agreed to meet Triana. After several more hours of travel, he reached the campsite the rest of the party had set up, who had all made it there several hours before without incident. Triana was there as well, and the party had been discussing the day’s events and discoveries with her.

Triana was able to tell them that the zombies they found were the product of some necromantic ritual. She also asked Clarence to remove those stones from her forest as soon as he was able. She also suspected that this was the work of some coven of witches, as the number seven is very important to many of their rituals. Much to Percival’s delight, she also informed the party that the following day she was to meet with a great bear who lived in these woods. This bear supposedly knew of some strange happenings by a cave in these woods and was willing to discuss them with Triana. That would all have to wait until morning though, as it was very late and the party would need their rest if they were to stand a chance against what they would face tomorrow.

This was the morning the party had agreed to meet Triana at the underground exit from the school, at the end of the tunnel. As they approached the exit, it was determined that Shanris should stay behind with the elixir and ring, while the rest of the party would go on ahead and make sure they weren’t walking into a trap.

They proceded to the end of the tunnel, and there Triana was. She was able to verify that she was the one who talked to the party earlier, so the party went and retrieved Shanris.

The party explained the situation to Triana, and she offered her assitance through several scrying rituals. First she offered to try and find Tybalt Eckhardt, Percy’s brother. She explained that the ritual would require Percy to drink some of his own boiling blood. As painful as he knew it would be, he agreed as it seemed the only way to find his brother, whom he cared deeply about. The vision showed Tybalt chained to a wall in some dark cave, clearly beaten and bruised. It was a circular room, and there appeared to be several other chained to the wall, and some beast they couldn’t quite see chained to a post in the middle.

Next, Triana attempted to scrye on Deidrick Barrister. This was much easier, as the party had a few of his belongings which could be used in place of the drinking boiling blood part. The image this scrying produced was rather disturbing. It showed seven cloaked figures standing around a fire, apparently involved in some elaborate ritual. Inside the fire was the shape of a man on an altar made from seven pieces of wood. It was unclear to the party if Deidrick was the man in the fire, one of the hooded figures, or simply somewhere nearby. The party’s glimpse at this unpleasant scene was cut short, however, when one of the coven members noticed that they were being scryed on. As soon as he looked at the point of view the spell was allowing the party to see from, the spell was cut short.

The party now had a decision to make. Percival obviously wanted to find his brother as soon as possible. However, that cave could be literally anywhere in the world; though Triana recognized that the type of rock the walls were made of could be found in this area. While Triana did seem to care deeply for the well-being of Tybalt and those being held with him, she was obviously more concerned about the Headmaster and seemed to recognize the area that scrying on him had shown. She asked the party to go there and investigate while she consulted with some of her woodland contacts to try and determine whether the location of the cave containing Tybalt was nearby. She even offered to teleport the party to the site to save time.

The party agreed and preparations were made, which included informing Denise of their intentions. She felt that somebody should stay at the school and said she would defend it as best she could by controlling the golems, which she had apparently gotten better at.

Once everyone was ready, the party went back to Triana and she drew the outline of a doorway in the air with her staff. Once the drawing had been completely, it glowed brightly and she asked the party to step inside. One by one they all went through, arriving safely on the other side. The trip through was very disorienting, however, and everyone took a few minutes to get their bearings straight.

While they were all safe, it was quickly apparent that this was not the right area. They weren’t sure why Triana had sent them to the wrong place. There was nothing to do at this point though except try to find the correct location and find their way back to Triana from there.

They spent the better part of the day systematically exploring the woods. While doing so, they discovered a number of interesting things. For one, the woods were quiet. Too quiet. Much like the tower had been several nights before, there was no noise whatsoever; no birds, no bugs, no deer, nothing. If any member wasn’t on their guard before, they certainly were now.

All throughout their searching, Shanris had been periodically climbing trees to get a better vantage point. When the party approached a very large white tree, he figured it would be an ideal tree to look from. It was much taller than the other trees and extended above the canopy. However, their were no low branches on this tree. After some trying though, he and Clarence were able to get a rope around the “lowest” branch (which was 30 or 40 feet off the ground). As soon as Shanris had finished climbing the rope, he found himself face-to-face with, well, a face. There was a child’s face in the tree looking right at him. This startled Shanris and he jumped back, almost losing his balance and falling. Not wanting anything to do with this seemingly magic tree, Shanris quickly scrambled back down, followed closely by the face, which had moved to the trunk to descend with him. Percival attempted to communicate with it, but with no success. When he put his hand on it, however, it was like his mind was transported somewhere else. He found himself in a beautiful forest standing face-to-face with a beautiful (and nude) Nymph. Again he tried to talk with it, but was unable to get through. However, he could sense what it was feeling. It seemed to be concerned for this area, but Percy was not able to figure out why. Removing his hand from the tree, Percy was immediately back in reality. During that time, the rope they had tied to the tree had fallen back down to the ground while Shanris and Clarence were discussing how they would get it back. Since there seemed to be nothing they could learn from the tree, the party moved on.

After several more hours of searching, the party came upon a clearing that looked very similar, if not identical, to the one they saw during the scrying. They were not the only ones there, however.

I, Shanris, was unable to make this session and thus aren’t entirely sure what happened. Hopefully it will be updated soon though, with some assistance from the other party members.

The party agreed that they simply couldn’t leave the tower abandoned though. Percival still had hopes that his brother would return to it, and the tower was the closest thing to a home Shanris had (though he didn’t tell the party that). Suspecting that there was a lot about the tower they didn’t know, the party went to the library to try and find whatever books they could on it. At the very least, they hoped to discover if there was any significance to the tower beyond the school they knew it as.

While browsing through some books, Clarence noticed that a school handbook he had briefly skimmed through several days before had a slight glow to it. He picked it up and began to look through it. At the beginning of the book, he noticed that there were 5 pages that had not been there previously. He called the rest of the party and Denise over and they began to read it together. These pages seemed to be emergency instructions. On them were instructions on how to get the school’s magical power (and defenses) back online, as well as instructions on how to control the golems (which were disabled after the destruction of the crystal). The book said there was a room in the second floor of the basement that they should take an alternate power source to. This was confusing to the party, as they had no idea what could be used as an alternate power source; or that the school even had a basement for that matter. Further reading revealed that there was a secret enterance to the basement in the cold storage room, just off of the kitchen, but did not explain what to use as a power source. The party decided to find this room first and hope that there would be more clues in there as to what to use for power.

It didn’t take too much searching to find the trap door in the floor into the basement since the book told them where it was. It was pitch black down there, so the party grabbed some torches before heading down. It was rather warm down there, with the air thick and musty. After they were down the stairs, the party found themselves in a long hallway. They could go either left or right, and decided to go left. After going maybe 50 feet, they came to a corner. The only direction they could go here was right, so right they went. About 30 feet down this hall, there was a locked door on the left. Shanris and Clarence both tried to pick it, but with no success. Their picks were too flimsy to move the components in this heavy lock. As they had done before, Hyate froze the lock and Shanris bashed it with his longsword. It took several tries, but they eventually weaked the lock to the point where the door could be opened.

Inside, they found a desk with some papers scattered about it, along with some filing cabinents and various shapes and sizes of animal cages scattered throughout the room. The party examined the papers. They appeared to be records of people checking things in and out. It was all in shorthand and the party couldn’t understand most of it, but from what they gathered, it was talking about animals.

The party left the room and continued down the hallway. Another 20 or so feet down, they came to a fork where they could either go left or continue to go straight. They could see that the left path came to a T almost right away and decided to investigate that. Neither the left or right path at the T continued on down very far; only about 20 feet in either direction. Both paths lead to very large barred metal doors with several locks. Shanris went to take a look at the locks on one of them. Before he started to look into picking them, he heard movement on the other side of the door. He signaled for everyone to be quiet and continued to listen. Whatever was behind that door was very large. While the party was very curious as to what was being held back there, they decided it was too dangerous to risk letting it out and moved on.

They went back to where they were and continued down the hallway. It too came to a corner and lead to the right. They got the impression that the basement was set up as a rectangle at this point. About halfway down this hallway, there was another staircase leading down. The party decided to bypass it for the time being and fully exlore the level before moving on to the next. They continued down the hallway until it came to a corner, at which point they went right again. About halfway down this hallway, there was another hallway leading to the left. It too came to a T right away, and the party decided to explore it. When they arrived at the T, they noticed that the back wall had numerous small cages built into it. The party stood there examining them for a few minutes when Shanris and Clarence both heard a shuffling sound coming from down the hall to their left, just out of visual range. Everyone drew their weapons and proceded cautiously down the hall. They were relieved to discover that the sound was coming from inside one of the cages as opposed to outside of it, and what a curious source of noise it was.

Nobody in the party had ever seen a dragon or knew if dragons had babies or if dragons even existed, but they all imagined that if dragons were indeed real and did have babies, this is what they would look like. Inside the one of the cages was a winged, scaley lizard. It was a dull green color and just about 3 feet long. It gave them a curious look but didn’t seem to be alarmed by their presence. Hayate ran upstairs while the rest of the party stood there in amazement at the creature before them. Hayate returned about a minute later with several chunks of frozen meat in his hands, which he had gotten from the freezer. He tossed a piece of the meat into the dragon’s cage. The dragon sniffed it and then licked it. As soon as his tongue touched it, he reared his head back and wrinkled his face. He put his mouth close to it again and spouted a small burst of fire onto it, quickly unfreezing and cooking it. Again he licked it and, apparently satisfied with his culinary skills, gobbled it up. He then stared at Hayate and seemed to want more. Hayate wanted to keep feeding it, but the rest of the party wanted to exercise more caution. From what they knew of dragons, they were dangerous, so they decided to turn around and let it be, continuing their search for the power room.

Just as they turned the corner to go back from where they came, they heard the shrill sound of iron being quickly shredded or cut. They heard some shuffling coming from the same direction and before they knew it, the dragon was behind them staring up at them. With the whole party unsure of what to do, Hayate tossed it what was left of the meat he had. The dragon torched it once more, which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy, and quickly devoured it. Hayate cautiously approached it and went to pet it after it had finished eating. The dragon seemed nervous at first, but let Hayate pet him. After a bit of that, the dragon wandered into the party and seemed to expect everyone else to pet him too. Not wanting to anger a dragon, even a baby one, the party all pet the dragon. He seemed to enjoy the attention. Hayate instisted that they take the dragon with them. The party agreed, if only because it seemed the dragon was bent on following them anyway. Hayate picked him up and they continued down the hall.

This hall lead to another corner and, after turning right once more, led them back to the stairs from which they came. More than satisifed with their exploration of this floor, the party decided to head down to the other flight of stairs they found with their imaginations running wild with thoughts of what it would hold.

As the party approached the door, Shanris again protested against breaking in. This time, the party was talked out of it; though it was by the door and not Shanris. When they checked to see if it was locked, the door spoke to them and politely informed them that the Headmaster was not in and that they should try back later. After some conversation with the door, the party decided that they shouldn’t try and break in. None of them knew what else the door could do and didn’t care to find out first-hand.

The party then decided to head back downstairs. They noticed that the stairs down were not blocked by any walls, so they proceded down them. Interestingly, as soon as they went from the 16th floor down to the 15th floor, a wall blocked them from going back up. This continued until they were down into the dorm floors.

At this point it was evening and the party went to the local tavern, as was their custom at this point. The first thing they did was speak to the local guardsmen, informing them of the events of last night and that they anticipated an attack. The guards agreed to move their base of operations into the tower. Denise accompied them back to the school, preparing a room for the two guards that were not on duty yet and setting patrol routes for the other two who were.

After that, the party passed time as they normally did until they decided it was time to head back to the school. Once they had arrived, they split up. Shanris walked around outside the walls of the school keeping watch, while the others were out in the courtyard listening to Denise play. It was then that the calm ended and the storm began.

The tower began to vibrate, as if an earthquake was happening. Suddenly, three beams of light shot out from the crystal and into three separate points in the woods. The vibrations continued to increase and the party was dumbstruck. Aside from Hayate, that is, who was just dumb. While the rest of the party stood staring, he ran into the tower and climbed the stairs as high as he could, making it all the way up to the 10th floor before the vibrations increased to the point where he lost his balance and was thrown out a window. Miraculously, he was able to grab onto a flag pole after falling a story or two. His troubles were not over yet, however.

It was at this point Shanris noticed that large amounts of the spirits they had seen the night before were coming from all around and headed straight at the school. Unlike the night before, they had no intention of being hidden. There were hundreds of them, and they all formed a circle around the tower. Once their circle was complete, they all charged the tower and all hit it at the same time. This caused the crystal to shatter, sending crystal shards high and wide.

Shanris came out of his awe-struck state and, realizing the danger he was in, rushed the outer wall of the tower as fast as he could and was able to tuck and roll up against the wall in time to avoid the shards. Denise, Clarance, and Percy had witnessed Hayate’s accident and were already inside the tower running to his rescue, putting them out of harm’s way.

Hayate, however, could do nothing to avoid the shards and received severe lacerations all over his body. However, his life was in danger and that sense of urgency gave him the willpower and strength he needed to hold onto that pole in spite of the pain until the other party members arrived to rescue him. The party regrouped outside in the courtyard, taking care to watch where they step. The rest of the night was spent watching for an attack, but nothing came. The damage was obviously done though, and it was determined that the town should be evacuated first thing in the morning. Whatever power had set itself against the Academy had shown that it was more than a match for it and that any defense the party could muster would be a minor inconvenience at best.

The party went down the stairs and found themselves on the 15th floor of the tower, which is where the offices of the Headmaster and other top school officials were located. Shanris went down first, followed by the ever-curious Clarance. As soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs, they stopped and listend. From down either end of the hallway they could hear a rhythmic pounding, like metal on stone. It seemed to be getting closer, though from that distance it was hard to tell.

Rather than wait for the source of both noises to find them and have them flanked, the party went down one of the hallways to meet the danger head on. When they reached the end of the hallway, the noise was very clearly coming from around the left corner. Shanris peaked around the corner and discovered the source of the noise; a very large golem. The golem took up most of the hallway and had very ornate armor. It looked like it was a statue at one point, and Denise later revealed that it was one of the statues that was normally located on either side of the Headmaster’s office door. Also notable was the gigantic obsidian sword it wielded. It was definitely not something you wanted to be on the business end of.

Unsure what to do, the party was frozen with indecision until the golem came around the corner. It seemed to not notice them, for it turned the corner and went right past them as they hugged the wall to avoid it. At that point they looked back down the hallway and noticed another, identical golem coming from around the opposite corner as the first one.

The party decided to observe them for a moment, and watched as the two golems met up in the middle. As they did, they both turned sideways and walked past each other to resume their patrol. As the second golem approached the party, Clarance said hello to it. He got no response, and the golem kept on walking. When he told it to halt, however, it stopped and looked at him.

The party then spent a good deal of time talking to the golem trying to get information out of it and command it. When it could not process a request, its eyes would glow red. The party was able to determine that the golem could tell the they were students, which was probably why it paid them no heed unless commanded to do otherwise by them. The party also suspected that the reason that the golem would not follow all of their commands was because it was able to recognize them as students rather than teachers or other high-ranking faculty.

After they realized they weren’t getting any further with the golem as long as it saw them as students, the party decided it was time to inspect the rooms. As they went down the hallway, they noticed that all of the doors were still locked and seemingly untampered with, much like they had been on the party’s previous trip up there. Only this time, the party decided that breaking and entering was in their best interest and proceded to do so. Shanris and Clarance were able to pick many of the locks. In each office they investigated, everything seemed to be in order.

Some of the locks, however, could not be picked; at least by the novices that were trying. One such lock was that of the head of security for the school, Jonas Andres. The party still wanted to get in, however. It was at this point that Hayate offered to demonstrate is his power, which was a form of ice magic that allowed him to cool the air around things and freeze them. He thought that might allow the party to smash the handle and make their way into the room. Shanris protested for multiple reasons, but was overruled by the rest of the party. He kept an eye on the golems while Hayate froze the door handle. After some time, it was frozen and Clarance hit it with his sword. It took a few swings, but the plan worked. The golems either didn’t notice or didn’t care, as they kept up their normal patrol route.

Inside the office, everything seemed fine. No papers were out of order, no drawers were open, and the closet was closed. There was one strange thing though. Inside his desk, the party found his badge that marked him as a school official. As the party would later discover, this badge allowed access past the magical defenses of the school and unlocked several more advanced and powerful commands to the golems. The party thought it was very strange that Jonas would leave it behind. To put it in modern terms, it would be like locking your keys in your car.

A similar situation occurred as the party entered the office of Antony Smith, the school’s archery professor and a renowned bowyer. The lock required breaking, and once inside everything appeared to be in order. His badge was also found inside his desk, which was again very confusing. Later, the party would find the badge of a low-ranking library worker in an office attached to the library.

The party had many theories on why the badges were left behind, ranging from kidnapping to conspiracy and everything in between. However, more information was needed to reach any sort of definition conclusion. The party made their way to the headmaster’s office in hopes of finding such information.

The party gathered up some things from their rooms and went to the library. It was determined that it would be much safer if they all slept together in the lower levels of the tower, and the library was just such a location. Shanris had already meditated that day, so he voluteered to keep watch while the others slept and, in Clarence’s case, meditated. It was a good thing somebody stayed awake, or else there wouldn’t have been anybody to notice the strange things that happened to the others who were asleep.

The first thing Shanris immediately noted was that Clarence had fallen asleep. This is notable because Clarence is an elf and elves don’t sleep. Nobody seemed to be sleeping very well either. They were all very stiff, with restless looks on their faces.

Something felt wrong with the air too. It was very thick and still, much moreso than it should have been. The tower was covered in an eerie silence as well. There were none of the creaking sounds, bugs, or anything else you would expect to hear in a tower. Shanris stayed alert all night with his weapons at the ready, patrolling the room, looking out the windows, and checking the hallway. As foreboding as the situation seemed, the night passed without incident.

At the crack of dawn, everyone awoke with a start and the air returned to normal. The normal noises one would expect to hear in a big empty tower resumed as well. Those who awoke seemed like they hadn’t slept at all. After talking about it briefly, everyone who slept revealed that they had had some sort of dream where they were traveling to a destination but never reached it. They just keept passing the same scenery over and over. Everyone thought this was rather suspicious, given that there was speculation that something was preventing people from reaching the school. No definitive conclusion could be reached however, so the party decided to have breakfast.

After breakfast, the party decided to venture out into town and see if the townsfolk had seen or experienced anything during the night. Several villagers reported seeing the strange spirits, and all of them seemed very tired. Those who were questioned revealed that they had a strange dream the previous night, not unlike the ones experienced by the party. It is worth noting that the bartender seemed perfectly fine and did not have any strange dreams. The party could not figure out why, though they didn’t spend too much time on it. After their trip to town, it was lunch time and they returned to the school.

After eating, the party decided it would be prudent to investigate the upper levels of the school, which were still sealed off by what they assumed were magic walls as a part of some sort of school security system. However, with some clever thinking and resourcefulness, the party was able to bypass the walls by getting rope onto the roof. They all climbed up to the roof, which is where the big shiny crystal was located. A few of the more curious party members touched it, and noticed that there was a warm sensation all throughout their bodies which made them feel healthy and refreshed.

Eager to make sure everything was fine in the upper floors, the party ventured down the suspiciously unwarded door located on the roof.

The following morning was the first day class. Or rather, it should have been the first day of class. The school was still empty, save for the party, Denise, and the groundskeepers. At this point, any hopes that still remained of everything being okay were gone. Something was wrong, and the party intended to find out what.

The party decided to investigate the tower further and see what they could discover. They went up the tower into the faculty levels. However, all of the faculty offices were locked (which was not entirely unexpected). Deciding that breaking and entering was not their best course of action at that time, the party went back down and went to see if anybody in the town had heard anything new.

Unfortunately, the peasants were just as useless that morning as they were the previous day. They could hardly be blamed though, as it was the general consensus among the party members and Denise that something was preventing people from reaching the town. Whatever it was though remained to be seen.

At this point it was time for lunch. There was an official school lunch scheduled for that afternoon, with several notable speakers from the school giving speeches on various topics. Denise had prepared the dining room for the event despite circumstances, but to no avail. The food was delicious, but it did little to offset the uneasiness of the situation. A group of five sat, eating in a giant dining area set for hundreds of others whose fates were unknown and presumably dire. The tone was somber, and the meal went on in silence. The students left the dining area as soon as they had finished hastily eating their meals.

The afternoon was uneventful. Some of the party went back into town to try and gather more information, while others searched the tower for clues. Shanris decided to spend it meditating, anticipating that trouble was coming and that it was more likely to come in the dark than in the light. Unfortunately, not only was he was the only one who was successful in his rather mundane endeavour, his anticipations turned out to be were correct.

That evening, the party went out into town after dinner. It’s not that they expected to find any useful information out in the town or that they felt like having a good time, it’s just that the tower was becoming an increasingly unnerving place to be in and everyone was happy to leave. After spending a few hours in the local tavern, the party decided it was time to go back to the tower.

Upon leaving the tavern, the party noticed that the few people who were in the street seemed very uneasy. The party happened to pass Clarence’s father and his wagon on the way, and he beckoned them over. He explained how people had been seeing “ghosts” out of the corner of their eyes all night, and that he had even seen one himself. He said it seemed as if the ghosts were trying to sneak through town and make their way to the tower. The party decided to investigate the town, as it could be a threat to the school and they were the only ones there to defend it.

As the party explored they town, they felt like they were being followed but could never verify that. Eventually, Shanris climbed on top of a taller building for a better view of the city. He spotted quite a few of the “ghosts” and quickly reported that information back to the party. He then climbed down and the party went after the nearest one. They were not able to catch it. The party then rushed back to the school to try and defend it.

When the party arrived, they could not see any of the spirits outside. Assuming that they had already made it inside the building, the party rushed in. As the party entered the tower, there was a distinct smell of sulfur in the air. They didn’t spot anything on the first floor, so they went up to the dorm rooms. Here, the smell of sulfur was much stronger than before. Looking through a keyhole, Clarence was able to spot one of the spirits inside a room. The party gathered around the door and burst into the room. As soon as they entered, the spirit looked at them and then disappeared, leaving behind a repulsive sulfur stench.

A lot more of the same happened as the party climbed the tower until they reached the 11th floor. As they climbed the stairs, they noticed that the opening to the 12th floor (which leads to the faculty offices) was now sealed off by a stone wall, which was not unlike the rest of the walls in the tower. This wall had definitely not been there before, though the party could not decide if it was some defense spell built into the school or part of the perceived attack.

Deciding to investigate it further in the morning, the party decended back down to the library for what would be an uneasy night’s sleep.