As you turn to leave the headmaster bursts into the room, the young male student that was showing you to the bar hot on his heals. "Whats going on in here...Seska...I should have known." he says as he rushes towards the student.
The headmaster seems to calm down a little at Elrond and Zantis's words but he still looks upset. "Seska...I've told you a thousand times to be more careful. What would you have done if these adventureres were not hear to clean up after yet another one of your messes. Please come to my office later today so we can discuss this matter further...its not approperate to get into in present company."
The girl bows her head "Yes headmaster." she says and quickly makes her way out of the room.
The headmaster turns his attention to the group. "Thank you for stepping in and making sure she remained safe and that no further damage was done to the campus. I assure you things like this are not common on campus but do usually happen around festival time as competition between students tends to get the better of some of them. Seska is..." He pauses for a second and takes the pipe from his pocket and takes a long draw from it. .."One of our more troublesome students but she shows promise if we could just get her to focus. Anyway please accept this as a token of my appreciation" he says as he reaches into his pocket once again and pulls out a pouch of 900pp coins.
"Well if you want to continue on to the bar, follow me the young man that was escorting you before says. The headmaster thanks you one more time and then heads back out to his office.
You make your way from the administrative office and out onto campus. You see the sidewalks are busy with students rushing here and there trying to make final preparations for tomorrows events. In the large field by teh administrative office you see a large tent-like structure being erected as well as several rows of bleachers being set up. You make your way towards a bar. The sign on the door says 'The Inkstain'.
Entering the bar you see several students huddled around tables, books in front of them. There is an empty table in the corner if anyone wants to have a seat. Your escort quickly joins a group of his friends, living you on your own.
Doran filches a peice of platinum from the bag and storms up to the bar leaving polgara in the dust. He slams in down on the bar and demands:a round of drinks for all! Doran is in town and its time we all celebrated! Then quietly to the bartender. make it the cheep stuff.
Elrond politely denies the booze. He pulls out his spell book and starts studying. "We need to be prepared for whatever comes up tomorrow, and I personally don't want to get caught unprepared."
"Perhaps I'll set the portal up just around the side. YOu group can come and go as you please. Just know that if you have any sort of romantic liaison they won't be able to enter the event horizon. I plan to have a glass of wine to help me sleep then prepare in the morning. "
At time permits Polgara will set up the Mages Mansion portal just off to the side somewhere discrete.
Doran has a good time with the students Asking them all to tell him great stories of their exploits and experiences. He makes sure to bless them all in Desnas name and doubly so before each chugging contest. He takes it all in, never pressing anyone for information, knowing full well to force it would reveal his ineptitude with proper social graces. He shares his own stories and waits for the alcohol to work it's magic, perhaps he will catch a slip of information without having to work at extracting it.
no diplomacy cuz doran doesn't know how, hes just a chill dude. Perception to hear/decipher any drunken babble that may be useful: 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (5) + 25 = 30
The eyes are instructed to spread out and look for anything of insterest (remember they know what Polgara knows and will have the same definition of interesting) in the 1Mile radius as she steadily and progressively moves. They are to do everything they can to stay within range. When she gives the command they are to all return for "upload."
[ooc]my appologizes for not posting sooner. If you don't mind I am going to summarise the nights events and move things along a little.
As Zantis and Doran socialize at the bar and Polgara does her searching outside you are able to gather the following information:
Information on the Acadamae:
The acadamae is one of the oldest institutions in Korvosa. The average time of study is 10 years but only about 70% survive the full decade. The school was founded in 4473 by Lord Volshyenek Ornelos and was set up so that it could support the needs of facuilty and student alike without any assistance from the outside world. Usually visitors are strictly prohibited except during the Breaching Festival or if they have direct business with the school. Messengers, deliveries, and even repairs are watched with the utmost scrutiny for fear that the secrets of the school might somehow leave its grounds or that the many wards protecting the outside world from the magic being cast on campus would somehow be damaged. Being that the Acadamae doesn’t limit what its students study if some of the magic being studied were to get out and infect Korvosa it would be very devastating, especially with the amount of students studying necromancy.
For the first 3 years of a student’s stay in the Acadamae they are treated much like slaves. They are mear apprentices to the more powerful Wizards on campus and are asked to do many mundane tasks such as: mop, carry books, clean clothing, and other mental tasks. 20% of the students do not survive these first years as they fall victim to magic traps, wayward spells, or durderous imps. Those that survive the first three years are then asked to choose a specialization and then move on to their actual studies. Divination is considered a universal school and is taught to all students but restricted as an area of focus. The examinations that lead to graduation are protentially fatal and help contribute to the somewhat high mortality rate on campus. Durring their last year on campus students usually apprentice themselves to senior faculty, serving as tutors to younger studnets and learning what they can from their masters. The final test a student must pass in order to graduate is to summon a devil(lemure or higher power).
Information on people:
Headmaster Toff Ornelos: Toff has served as headmaster for almost 30 years and is among the most skilled wizard in Varisia. He has recently become rather preoccupied with finding a winner for the Breaching Festival because he’s always suspected that the last winner had cheated and that doesn’t’ sit well with Toff.
Julaei Cangi: Julaei is the dean of the school of Abjuration. As the head of the school she is ever concerned with the protection of the school grounds and the students, teachers, and staff within. She takes her job very seriously as she understands what would happen if a ward were to fail.
Messida Vost: Messida is the dean of the school of Conjuration. There are many rumors that she is trying to summon a powerful demon but has yet to be successful. These rumors have created some tention between her and the other deans especially Julaei Cangi.
Norva Allesain: Norva is the dean at the school of divination. She is the youngest serving dean and has quicly rose through the ranks of faculty. Some of the other deans often wonder how she always seems to be in the right place at the right time for promotion.
Heresta Tarlan: She is the dean of the Hall of Charms and is rumored to be many students favorite teacher despite her gruff demeanor and her classes’ extreme difficulty.
Salgar Irevotnin: Salgar is the dean of the school of Evocation and is only 1 of 3 male deans at the Acadamae. He has a reputation of ending arcane dules with deadly force. This reputation helps him maintain order in the classroom and it is said that he has threatened disobedient students with a single round of combat against him if they don’t behave.
Rombastle Falgeringer: Rombastle is the only nonhuman dean on campus, but he doesn’t seem to let his gnome blood stand in his way. He is the dean of the school of illusions and he remains an air of seriousness around his peers to avoide undue prejudice against his kind. There is a rumor that he has several persistant images of his colleagues ating out elaborate and embarrassing charades.
Orianna Delmore: Orianna is the deal of Necromancy and there are rumors that she is in a constant foul mood because as of yet she has failed to attain lichdom.
Elgian Remorri: Elgian is the oldest dean at the acadamae. He is the dean of the school of Transmutation and he grows uneasy when things remain static for to long.
The Breaching Festival:
It has been over 150 years since the festival has seen a winner. All participants have started the event and then never returned. It is also widely believed that the one and only winner, a human by the name of Dyson Fordyce cheated to win the festival. However try as you might you are not able to find any evidence to support these rumors. The festival has grown out of the Hall of Ward’s claim that their traps and defenses were undefeatable and so far this claim has been proven true(except for the actions of Dyson). Each year Julaei Cangi and a hand picked group of students set new traps and wards in the hall for the festival and no one else knows what these wards are until the festival is underway. In the past any mannor of magical traps, particularly those that summon monsters or use glyphs and wards, have been used. The younger students at the Acadamae are responsible for the traps and challenges with in the other halls that the students must travel through to collect the key-lights needed to gain entry into the Hall of Wards. The festival has grown in popularity over the years and it has become customary for nobles from all over Korvosa to attend the festival. IT is even rumored that Queen Ileosa has been stopping by to watch the events of the day unfold.
You all eventually make you're way back to the quarters Polgara set up for all of you on the lawn.
The Acadame wakes to a single sharp ringing of the campus bells at the break of dawn. While you're pretty sure that The Breaching Festival officially begins an hour after dawn, you soon hear the sound of eager spectators beginning to gather on the surrounding walls and the campus’s southern quad even before sunrise. You gather you're things and head out to meet in front of the Hall of Summoning.
Hundreds of common folk sit or stand atop the Acadamae’s southern walls, while vendors of refreshments and souvenirs wander nosily and often through the mass. Important observers, such as aristocrats
and other prominent locals and nobles, are allowed to gather at ground level among several large and colorful tents and pavilions erected overnight in the quad just south of the Hall of Summoning.
Forty-five minutes have passed since the bells originally tolled to wake you up and a large group of nobles arrives to excessive fanfare. As the crowd starts to part you see none other than Queen Ileosa and several royal attendants making their way into a tent that was reserved for them. The queen waves as the many people take notice of her but she looks generally disinterested in the days events. If you take a close look at her you even notice a book tucked under her arm.
Another ten minutes pass and then three of the four people you met in the headmasters office show up. The loud dwarf is flanked on either side by a female human and a male human. The female human looks rather upset and the male halfling that was with them the day before is no where to be seen.
Finally the bells toll the hour and Headmaster Toff Ornelos arrives in a blast of multicolored smoke. He lifts his hand to signal silence, and after the crowd quiets, he speaks aloud to the crowd, but especially to the contestants.
“Welcome one and all to this year’s Breaching Festival! I know the contestants are eager to begin, so I shall keep this introduction short. This year, as every year, one must enter the Hall of Wards via its eastern entrance after solving several minor conundrums our professors and spellcasters have set up at the other seven halls that surround us. The first contestant to emerge from these doors” Toff pauses to indicate the large doors in the Hall of Wards’ western facade, facing the quad "shall be declared the winner of the Breaching Festival. If no winner emerges by dusk, there can be no winner for this year’s festival. Yet should one of these brave contestants accomplish what no one has accomplished in over 150 years, that person will walk away with more than 150,000 gold sails!”
The crowd erupts into cheers for several seconds. When the roar dies down, Toff places his hands inside the front of his robe and withdraws a glowing, fist-sized sphere of shimmering light that he holds aloft. The sphere dances and bobs an inch above his upturned palm.
“These glowing spheres are the keys to your fate and fortune, worthy contestants. This is a key-light—there are seven of them hidden among the seven other Halls on the grounds. Each contestant needs his or her own key-light to get into the Hall of Wards. So find yourself a key-light, use it to enter the Hall of Wards, and you will have your chance to enter history!”
With that, Toff bows to the contestants, then signals to several other students standing nearby. They aim fireworks into the sky, and with a touch of magically conjured flame to fuses, a colorful set of pyrotechnic fire bursts signal the start of the Breaching Festival!
Okay so what hall do you guys want to visit first?
with all the new info im just going to change my spells a bit, im down for illusion hall though.
illusions are a good choice for first. We must trust nothing and noone for a time, and then when we succeed the trust between ourselves will be greater because of our experience.
with all the new info im just going to change my spells a bit, im down for illusion hall though.
illusions are a good choice for first. We must trust nothing and noone for a time, and then when we succeed the trust between ourselves will be greater because of our experience.
Polgara speaks to the group as she walks with purpose
As other contestants scatter across the campus you quickly make your way to the Hall of Lies. The hall of lies is where acadamae students learn the art of illusion and its known to shift its appearance on a daily basis. Today its appearance undulates much more rapidly. You enter the building through a door that quickly disappears as the last of you is through and start making you way down a hall that quickly shifts in direction. After an hour of many more of these frustrating changes you make your way into a hall with a classroom at the end of it. You start making your way down the hall when the classroom disappears and you are suddenly faced with a dead end. A second later a green key-light appears and starts to dance and weave about at the end of the hallway.
Seeing your ultimate goal you start making your way towards the light but you become weirdly disoriented. IT seems to be growing in length and the faster you go the faster it grows. I will need will saves from anyone who is trying to make their way to the key-light.
Polgara and Zantis you eventually make it to the key. As you reach out and try to take the key I will need a Will save and a fortitude save out of who ever touches it.
Anyone who sees them touch it can make me a spellcraft check as they touch it.
Doran you make it to where they are if you reach out to touch the sphere I will need another will save(the first one you gave me got you to the sphere).
Polgara as you bring the sphere closer I will need a perception check from you. Zantis and Doran can make perception checks as well if they wish.
As Polgara looks over the key as she pulls it towards her she realizes its trapped just as Zantis reaches out and touches the sphere(I'm assuming based on the will and fortitude saves that he rolled). A bright light flashes and Zantis seems to freeze in place, a look of great fear and panic stretches over his face.
Unfortunately Doran isn't able to identify what just happened.
Zantis:
You see an image of the most horrific creature you can imagine. You think to your self that it can't be real but then it reaches out and touches you and you swear you can feel its skin against yours. Your heart freezes in place for a second before the image fades and your mind clears once again. You take 3d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 5) = 15 points of damage from the experience.
SPellcraft 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (17) + 24 = 41 to identify what just happened to Zantis. She also telekinetically lifts the sphere out of anyones reach. her arm moving visibly and dramatically upward to do so.
Zantis shakes his head. "I guess it's trapped, then," he says, reaching into his backpack and pulling out some tools. "Let's have a looksee, then. I have some experience with traps, you know, magical and otherwise."
Zantus you're able to disable the trap and the first key-light is yours. Now you just need to discuss amongst you're party members which of you is going to carry it.
that was too easy. Are we sure this is the right thing. I was expecting a bit more from a master of illusion... I at least wanted to feel like i was on something special. Keep your wits about you as we exit.
that was too easy. Are we sure this is the right thing. I was expecting a bit more from a master of illusion... I at least wanted to feel like i was on something special. Keep your wits about you as we exit.
"Good point." Brehna pulls out the orb and holds is so that she and others can thoroughly examine it.
As far as you can tell the key-light still has a heightened Phantasmal Killer spell cast on it. Zantis was able to keep it from being activated for now. Other than the spell it looks like a normal key-light.
Some of these rooms have a lower CR than others...this one was only a CR 11 so not much to see here...though had he failed his save he would have died instantly lol.
"We should be fine. Just no one touch the orb. It's still dangerous." Polgara says as she floats it into her bag. "Lets move on. I'm heading to the evocation college." She says as she exits the way they came.
You make your way to the Hall of Evocation and search the entire hall for the better part of an hour before you find what your looking for. You enter the final classroom that needs to be searched. The air in this room smells acrid, making your eyes water. The source is a large brazier of burning incense in the corner of the room. A curious set of glass pipes connects two vats of bubbling liquid. One vat has green liquid in it, the other has a red liquid in it. The key-light can be seen flowing back and forth in the glass pipes. It changes colors between red, green, and yellow depending on what color liquid its in.
"I wonder if the keys are fragile? You're going to want to turn away when I do this. "
Making sure none of her companions are in range and Fairly certain that she know's whats going to happen Polgara lobs something dense telekinetically at the glass tubing.
She'll avert here eyes and makes sure she's out of the blast range.
