"Letsss look around."
Rost couldnt believe how fast his new companions took out the Retriever...these men...and woman...he corrected himself having just now recognized the devilish female amongst them...are formidable indeed...
Does anyone require healing? I have such gifts.
"Nice job fellas. Made short work of that student's failure..."
Jeska looks around with the others.
The masked figure states simply:
"My name is Raven."
"Name's Darnak. That was a nice bit o' shootin' there, Rotann. It's a good thing you're on our side."
"Letsss look around."
Turning his attention to Angelo, "I'd be up for lookin' around this place. Who knows what else might be lingerin' about."
Does anyone require healing? I have such gifts.
"Nope, I'm good."
"Let's have a look at what the place looks like, shall we."
Headmaster Toff calls out to you just as you are preparing to move.
"Gentlemen, wait please." He moves over to your side.
"And Lady, of course. I have been talking with my staff and it has been pointed out to me that there was significant risk and opportunity in this event to cause significant damage to the campus. Thanks to your speedy and competent intervention, not only was the damage avoided, but no one was injured, and even the foolish student involved should make a full recovery. As a result, I believe a reward is appropriate under the circumstances. If you see my assistant, he will authorize the payment of 1200 pp to your persons, to be divided as you feel appropriate, as a show of gratitude. Again, thank you."
With that, he departs, back in the direction of his office.
After retrieving your monetary reward (2000 gp each), you move out into the campus at large, looking around and learning a bit more about the facility.
By asking and reading dedication plaques you are able to find the names of all the different buildings. The interiors of the buildings are filled with classrooms, lecture halls, labs, and more of the like. The most distinctive building is probably the Hall of Induction, where evocation is taught and practiced. In is a square building referred to as 'The Cube' by local students, and it has no regular walls or classrooms within, but instead spaces created by walls of force designed to contain the types of spells being practiced there. Before long, you have explored most of the available space.
By hunting around town, a Wand of Rejuvenate Eidolon, Lesser can be found for the price of 825 gp. However, this is a less common spell (only Summoners can cast it), and so only one appears available for sale. You do find someone capable of making them, and he would be willing to create another for you or a team member. It would be ready first thing in the morning. However, the rush job would increase the price to 1125 gp.
Angelo will look for a pair of googles of minute seeing. After doing his shopping he will go to his chambers to mentally prepare for the challenges ahead for the rest of the night.
The goggles can be found. The merchant is asking 2750 gp.
When Sunday morning arrives, the Acadamae wakes to a single sharp ringing of the campus bells at the break of dawn. The Breaching Festival officially begins an hour after dawn, but eager spectators begin gathering on the surrounding walls and the campus’s southern quad even before sunrise. 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. It is in this area that you and other contestants are expected to gather, waiting for Toff to begin the competition with his opening speech at precisely 7:00 a.m.
At 15 minutes before, a large group of nobles arrives to excessive fanfare—this is none other than Queen Ileosa and several royal attendants. She is escorted by numerous guards and associates, including a massively rotund individual sitting on a floating platform. The queen greats the crowd with waves, but appears on the whole disinterested in the festival.
As you gather on the quad, you see four of the other contestants waiting, however, there is no sign of the skittish halfling who was here yesterday. Apparently, his courage evaporated as the contest grew nigh.
At 7:00, the bells toll the hour and Headmaster Toff Ornelos arrives in a blast of multicolored smoke, to the enjoyment of the crowd. 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—” here 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!”
Here, 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 stations hidden among the seven other Halls on the grounds where the keys can be harvested. Each contestant needs his or her own key-light to get into the Hall of Wards, and each hall will issue one only once per hour. 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, let the contest begin!"
The other contestants scatter, each heading for the hall they seem to have selected out in their own minds ahead of time.
"I vote for the Hall of Induction. Lets get the fireballs and lightning out of the way before we handle the tricksy stuff."
"I second that sentiment Rotann!"
"I can accept that. I have ssskill at disssarming trapsss, but I fear that I might not be good enough to ssspot all of them. Pleassse keep your eyesss peeled for anything unusssual." Angelo says to the others.
"I vote for the Hall of Induction. Lets get the fireballs and lightning out of the way before we handle the tricksy stuff."
"Sounds good ta me."
"I can accept that. I have ssskill at disssarming trapsss, but I fear that I might not be good enough to ssspot all of them. Pleassse keep your eyesss peeled for anything unusssual." Angelo says to the others.
"Ya got it, lad."
Raven enjoys the rest of the day, wandering around the campus, exploring all the nooks and crannies that he can easily access; the Acadamae prides itself on Summoning, after all, so he takes a great deal of interest in whatever he can find.
In the morning, he joins the others, and is more than a little impressed when the Queen herself shows up for the opening festivities.
Hmmm... There must be a *lot* more interest in this than I was giving it credit for...
When the time comes to select the first target, he listens to the others, and then nods.
"Evocation is fine by me as a starting point."
Rost had enjoyed the respite after the mornings encounter and wandered the Academy grounds with the others. Often lost in his own thoughts and daydreams of stars and the cold of space...I feel drawn there...as if its where I began...one day perhaps I will find out...; the Aasimar didnt notice the minor details around him seeming to be apathetic.
I concur, Evocation is a good place to begin.
After spending the day understanding the layout of the place, Darnak takes care of some last minute business with his reward money and turns in for the night.
Meeting back up in the morning with the others, "Aye, sounds good ta me."
The Hall of Induction’s challenge is located in a classroom in the building’s northern side. It takes a while checking through every part of the Cube in order to find the right location, but at last one of the team spots the key-light within the classroom.
The air in this room smells acrid, making the eyes water—the source is a large brazier of burning incense in the corner and a curious set of glass pipes connecting two vats of bubbling liquid (one green, one red). The key-light in this room is traveling back and forth inside of the glass tube—although the light itself is yellow in color, it appears variously green or red as it swims through the fluid, looking yellow in the middle.
"Well, we found it. Now all we 'ave ta do is get it. We could just bust those pipes." Darnak suggests, shrugging.
Angelo laughs, "Sssomething tellsss me it won't be that easssy. Thisss is the hall of evocation. Maybe if thossse two fluidsss mix they explode?"
The synthesist casts a minor spell and concentrates on the various objects in the room.
"That's what I was afraid you say... and figured as much." He responds as keeps his concentration on the fluids, wondering how they're to get past them.
"If it is merely an explosion, I could shoot it out. The rest of you could wait in the hall and I can make a barricade of these tables and such. Even without them, I could likely avoid much of the explosion anyway."
Raven shrugs.
"You are welcome to try."
He then moves to outside the doorway, just to be on the safe side.
There is a potent aura surrounding the green fluid. It registers as Strong.
"Angelo, do you prefer to attempt to disarm it? If all are agreed I am fine doing as I volunteered to do."
"Sounds good ta me." Darnak will follow Raven's lead.
Rost studied the contraption with more than casual interest but just couldn't determine its function. He shrugged his slim shoulders and added his agreement to the plan before finding cover with the others.
Seems we have no other options.
"The device is simple, but simplicity leaves less room for creative solutions. I see no way to get the key without breaking the glass. When we do, those liquids will mix, bringing about whatever consequence is intended to kill the intruder. If the device can be defused somehow, I have no problem letting someone try, and therefore assume the risk; but if there is no alternative solution to be had, I will then try mine."
"You may certainly try. I will wait outssside with the othersss."
Angelo's well developed Knowledge of Spellcraft tells him that the magic of the Green fluid was indeed crafted with Evocation magic, and is enchanted much like a magic item. The magic involved used around a 15th level caster.
Angelo sighs, "Actually, I cannot allow you in good conssscience to take the risssk when I could do ssso myssself. I will attempt to disssarm the trap. Clear the chamber pleassse."
With the glass cutter from his thieves' tools, Angelo cuts a small circular hole at the base of each pipe. The liquid sprays out on to the floor, and Angelo arranges a few obstacles to direct the flows in opposite directions. As the pressure ebbs off, the key is left sitting at the top of an empty pipe, while the two liquids gradually recede. A few deft cuts , and he is able to snap as small section of pipe free from the rest of the contraption, and the key comes with it. While the fluids on the floor may yet meet, we will be long gone before that can occur.
"Perhapsss conjuration next? Dessstroying another sssummoned creature would be a relief after sssuch tedious work."
Raven nods.
"Agreed. Well done, by the way."
"I wasss lucky. Thanksss though."
"No explosions? I'm a tad disappointed. Killing something sounds like a refreshing change, though."
Searching through the Cube took around 12 minutes to locate the room with the Key; add in discussion and equivocation, and the time to defuse the trap, and around half an hour was spent on the first encounter.
The team moves on to the Hall of Summoning next, the largest of the buildings on campus. As a result, the search takes a little bit longer. . After a little more than half an hour, the key light is found. This room presents an unexpected wrinkle though — there are not one, but five glowing red key-lights in this room, each floating above the center of one of the five tables in the room. Presumably, only one of these key-lights is real, and touching any of the others will trigger the trap.
Angelo looks at each table carefully, seeing if anything gives one away as the correct key.