Patizamo and Raknar each hit once, their combined assault doing just enough damage to disable the construct! The crowd cheers as you prepare for the final bout!
As the second round finishes, Baldrek takes a look on the wounds, trying to patch both up for the final bout.
Raknar grumbles when Baldrek does little more than look at his injuries, but tends to Patizamo completely.
I should have expected that. Not a surprise he finds a way to keep me out of the last round.
As Patizamo and Mokhasi prepared for the final bout of their turn, Raknar sat on a ledge and watched quietly as he held a hand over the injury he received.
Mokhasi and Patizamo step forward as the leshys bring out their most powerful construct for the final bout--a towering wooden suit of armor with an enormous maul! Two smaller sicklehand constructs flank their champion as the battle begins!
As they prepare for the final bout, Patizamo casts a spell, imbuing his blade with a magical enchantment.
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Mokhasi is contemplative as they wait to prepare for the final bout. Muto seems to exercise vigorously on his shoulder, the little stone man stretching and preparing himself.
When the time comes for the bout, he nods at Patizamo - ”Mildred the kangaroo will come to visit us again” noting this as if it made sense.
*****
Mokhasi bowed politely to the leshies and entered a ‘fighting stance’ which was obviously ungainly. Nonetheless, magic thrummed through him as he conjured a line of grease to trip up and slow the constructs down, and then beat a hasty retreat.
The larger construct maintains its balance on the grease, but the smaller ones both slip and fall! As Mokhasi retreats, the champion steps carefully off of the grease and swings on Patizamo. The sicklehand constructs get back to their feet and step off of the grease before striding to flank the magus.
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Mokhasi mutters, ”clever leshies, but it is unfair that we are outnumbered.” From the earth of the arena, the same kangaroo that others have seen before emerges, bouncing on its back feet. Mokhasi is sweating a bit, but the creature emerges to flank the large construct that just pummeled Patizamo. Muto gestures and the kangaroo salutes the little stone man in a comical way, kicking out.
In a rather inconvenient position, Patizamo steps out of being flanked by all three leshies, and then casts a fiery spell into his sword before striking at the large, hammer wielding construct.
Patizamo's attack comes up short, but the summoned kangaroo scores a hit, kicking the construct's legs. It turns to face this unexpected foe, swinging its maul.
The maul hits with a powerful *WHUMP*, and the kangaroo vanishes! It turns back to Patizamo, slamming its maul into the magus.
The sicklehand constructs reorient themselves to attack Patizamo. This time, one of them lands a light blow!
The flames of the spell dissipate, but Patizamo manages to hold onto some of them to empower his attacks. He then decides to try and get clear of the surround, and he calls on a a trick. He suddenly disappears and then reappears behind maul-wielder, striking with his blade. He then darts away and puts distance between himself and the constructs.
Mokhasi scorches the big construct with flames, then Patizamo delivers a fiery strike before darting away! The leshy piloting the hammer-wielding construct releases the controls and puts their hands up in surrender, not wanting their creation to be completely destroyed!
The remaining sicklehand constructs split up, one each giving chase to Mokhasi and Patizamo. They leap over the patch of grease as they close into melee range, but fortunately, both miss with their attacks!
"Thanks!" Patizamo calls as Mokhasi fires off a blast of flame at the one attacking him. Focusing his own attention on the sickle construct, he casts his own spell of flame and strikes with his blade, hoping to channel the spell through the weapon. He then put distance between himself and the sickle-wielding leshy.
Patizamo's flaming blade slices clean through the construct attacking him, cutting it into two smoldering pieces! Mokhasi burns the one in front of him, and the leshy inside the scorched machine surrenders as well.
The crowd goes wild as you emerge victorious! Your dorm mates cheer loudest of all. Teacher Ayuwari congratulates you on your victory. "A fine perfomance, initiates! And here is your prize!" He presents you with an onyx dog wondrous figurine.
Patizamo exhales in relief as the fight ends, allowing the arcane fire to fade from him. "Ooohhh...wow. That...ow...that one hurt." He says to the others, "Why doesn't one of you go accept the prize? I'm gonna go sit down for a minute." He moves off towards the seats and gingerly sits down. The one with the maul was quite bruising.
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Mokhasi congratulates the leshies for a good fight, and wipes off his brow, smearing a bit of the white paint that he draws every day. ”Confounded…” he mutters, then louder ”it was a hard duel friends. Your armor is formidable.” He checks on the bruised Patizamo and finds him little the worse for wear, and pats the magus on his shoulder, ”we were a good team. Go rest!” He adds cheerfully when Patizamo indicates that’s the plan.
He approaches Baldrek and Raknar, ”come - let us accept this prize together - it was only rotten luck that you were both knocked out of the running” he says, cheerily, noticing Raknars doldrums.
After claiming your prize, Esi gives Baldrek a big hug. "Hey! You were great out there, o! All of that sparring practice is paying off!"
Haibram claps Raknar on the back. "Yeah, loved the double-weapon action! Slice, slice! You kicked those leshies butts!"
"Was that a dimensional assault spell?" Mariama asks Patizamo. "I've studied the theory behind that fighting style but I've never actually seen somebody use it in combat before! That was intense!"
Baldrek enjoys Esi's hug, the high point of the day for him. "Grandfather would disagree with you, Esi. He would say I still need to practice, until I do not get hit anymore." He shrugs, then laughs. "O! What am I doing, thinking about grandfather now, when I have my arms around you?"
Reluctantly, Baldrek leaves Esi to offer Patizamo some help, so the four of them can claim the prize. "Let's go! We offered a good fight and a good show! Lets enjoy the moment and then I'll look at your wounds once more."
Raknar looked down at Haibram and grumbled. ”This wasn’t a real test of skill. There was no cover. No stealth. Nothing realistic. Just four people fighting in a field.”
"If the skill of a hunter was in test, yes, you'd be correct, Raknar." Baldrek points out. "However, not every battle requires cover and stealth. Take a clash of armies as an example, or a trial by combat, or even a prey that resists the first assault of the hunter. I believe it is quite common to see two combatants studying and fighting each other in a field. We do not always have the luxury to choose our battlefields."
”If you don’t have that luxury, Bald Wreck, then most likely you are the hunted, not the hunter,” Raknar says curtly before heading back towards the dorm.
Patizamo smiles despite the pain in his ribs. ”Yes, it was dimensional assault spell. My teacher in magical theory before coming here had several books on teleportation magic. It was a struggle to learn even as much as I did - teleportation magic is very complicated. I am not surprised it is uncommon to see people using it, but I can try to teach you, if you would like.”
"Yes, that would be fantastic!" Mariama says to Patizamo. "Sparring practice after celebratory drinks?"
"You know I've got plenty to go around," Chizire says with a happy purr.
***
Mariama trains hard with Patizamo over the next few days, quickly getting the hang of the dimensional assault spell and his fighting style. The friendship between the two of them has deepened.
Patizamo's sparring with Mariama helped quite a bit on his studies, and he was able to progress very well with his studies thanks to that. He was able to pick up on quite a few things as he did so.
Not very happy with his performance neither as a combatant nor as a healer, Baldrek spends more time than usual with Haibram, deepening his knowledge about the Rain-Scribes.
Baldrek aces his tests, as discovers his past experiences are much more aligned with the Rain-Scribes than with the Tempest-Sun Mages. He has no intention to change branches however, even if his studies would probably be easier.
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Mokhasi watches as Patizamo trains with Mariama. They had defeated the leshy constructs together and he seemed to hope to take more of an interest in the energetic nature of the cascade - in case more danger arose.
On his first pass, Mokhasi tripped over his sandals, spilling Muto and making a mess of himself. Embarrassed, he stood up and nodded, ”again. A wizard and a storyteller of the Magaambya may not bury their nose in a book. I must take my ‘lumps’.” He breathed heavily and tried to keep up with the pair - an exhausting endeavor! The next day he repeated the process. And then again. Practicing stances and styles which he thought might protect him. Noticing how Mariama blended different schools of magic and how easily Patizamo picked it up.
It was a struggle but at the end of their training, Mokhasi - now with his braids untied and splayed about his head regularly - had some insight and passed the associated tests with flying colors.
********
In his free time, Mokhasi listens to Okoro and Noxolo whenever possible. He writes down whatever tales he can, and reads the likely apocryphal tales from the library each evening. He tries to tease out the truth - and also attempts to write his own tales of his journey in the school - continuing the metaphor of the mephit but also rewriting parts of it. Now the mephits live in a city of planar conjunction- a place where each element balances each other in harmony - and one where there is neutrality to resolve disagreements.
He writes and rewrites the story - with each piece as a point of view of each mephit. These pieces he submits nervously to both Okoro and Noxolo, offering to help them with whichever tasks they require in return for their criticism and review. This includes aiding Noxolo in her “clinic” as Mokhasi is still thankful about how the woman saved Mokhasi’s life earlier in the year.
Okoro and Noxolo are eager to look over Mokhasi's story, offering encouragement and constructive criticism where appropriate. The more time Mokhasi spends with Noxolo, the more he gets to know her.
Noxolo fled from her home to escape her overbearing family, who had planned out every aspect of her life. Whispers from dead birds and cow bones told her she could find freedom at the Magaambya, and so she went, not knowing what to expect. What she discovered was a far bigger world than she’d ever dreamt possible, and a chance to unravel the mysteries of the strange whispers she hears. Though highly prone to spacing out during lectures, Noxolo does her best not to take her acceptance at the Magaambya for granted. The transition has been rougher on her than she likes to admit, however, and she often finds herself wracked with homesickness and guilt for leaving the family who cared enough about her to plan her life in such detail.
Noxolo dressed as a man to avoid being tracked down while traveling, noticing that many overlooked someone who appeared to be a man if they were searching for a woman. By the time she reached the Magaambya, Noxolo found she preferred her new look and has begun to experiment with various fashions and hairstyles. She enjoys dancing and singing about what she's doing when she's excited, and sometimes she will pause for several minutes just to watch motes of dust float through the air, finding beauty in their movements.
Her pet "snabble" is always by her side. The bizarre fuzzy crocodile/bear's origins remain a mystery.
***
At one point during the semester, Teacher Zuma calls upon you to pay him a visit. There are those who might call Teacher Zuma eccentric. He would, most likely, correct them with a deeply—if questionably—referenced rant about the need for alternative methods of information gathering and dissemination within the current political and magical climate. The teacher’s intellect is sharp, and his mastery of defensive magic is superb. Zuma’s ability to distinguish strands of truth (though perhaps, at times, picking up “truths” where none exist) qualified him early on for the Emerald Boughs, and he’s now one of that branch’s most colorful members. Zuma’s classes range from details of eminently useful rituals to utterly nonsensical ramblings, often within the space of only a few minutes. He’s well liked, although few students (or teachers) have the mental fortitude to interact with him for long. Tzeniwe, normally gracious and caring with everyone, has little patience for Zuma because she sees “when a web of thoughts is poorly shaped from insufficient foundations."
Zuma has one of the few offices in the Elephant Museum. He insisted on an office here, among the Uzunjati teachers, because of powerful but undetectable defenses he believes Jatembe imbued into the building named after his greatest chronicler.
“Ah, are you the new volunteers?” Teacher Zuma gives an eager grin and rubs his hands together. “Volunteerism is a sign of…” The half-orc seems poised to launch into a rambling rant, but he shakes his head and returns to the subject at hand. “No need for you to be nervous about this little process, this shouldn’t hurt anyone too much. At least not if I carried the five in the formula, ah?”
He guffaws as he opens a door from the sprawling mess of his office to an even-more-chaotic laboratory behind it. A bright-green liquid burbles in a flask and travels through a dizzying network of spiraling tubes until it becomes something dark and swirling in a much smaller bottle. Pinned to the wall are several scraps of paper, each bearing a separate piece of an impossibly complex alchemical formula.
“Your role here is simple: just sit still and focus while I attempt to prove my theorem that it is possible to entangle and connect the magically inclined essences of multiple persons in such a way that they may, in fact, be able to affect each other’s dependent natures and cause independent changes on those who are part of the created system of magically inclined individuals. Perfectly logical and natural, of course, when you think about it.”
Zuma has already completed most of his preparations; he has followed his formula and produced a bottle of special tattoo ink. When applied to skin, the ink is supposed to permit your inherent magic to “talk between yourselves,” amplifying individual effects.
Patizamo wasn't so sure about entangling individual magical essences - for starters, causing independent changes to those who were connected in such a way could inadvertently result in distinctly unnatural results - like humans growing tails. They could even be deadly, such as if a human grew gills and lost the ability to breathe air. Amplifying the effects of beneficial spells was good as well, but this theory could easily go the other way and amplify the effects of harmful spells. He privately felt that Tzeniwe might be slightly right in her analysis of Zuma, but he dutifully assisted anyway.
Zuma wasn't one of Baldrek's favorite teachers, mostly because of his chaotic mind, which he had difficulty to understand. He was aware that he wasn't the smartest of the group, so perhaps that was the reason for his troubles with following Teacher Zuma's ramblings.
However, Baldrek was wise and he knew to speak his mind when in doubt, specially since he believed he'd probably be a hindrance in the ritual. "Teacher Zuma, I must apologize, but I do not understand what I'm supposed to do. If my help is essential, I'll try my best, but I feel your chances of success will increase with me just watching."
Raknar spent the next several days absorbing himself in studying under Koride. Her teachings in ecology and the natural order was right in his own field of interest, so his attention was at its peak in her classes.
Unlike his time spent with Teacher Zuma. The man was all over the place. And, when he asked them to assist him in his research, Raknar’s attention was similarly lacking.
Zuma carefully crafts a small temporary tattoo of a mouth on the back of each of your hands as you concentrate on your magic as instructed. Once he is done, the half-orc nods. "Alright, let's see if it worked."
Zuma asks each of you to cast one of your spells at the highest level you
can. When this casting proves to be no higher a level than you can normally cast, he scribbles several notes and asks you to try casting a spell you've seen one of your companions cast but which you can’t cast yourselves. When none of you can cast in this way, he anxiously scribbles more notes. Finally, he asks you to try to communicate with each other silently. Unfortunately, you are unable to do this, either.
"Hmm... Yes, yes. The ritual did not work, alas, but I have some good notes on how I can improve the ink formula. Perhaps I'll make another attempt in a few months' time.
"Thank you for your time. Here, take this." He offers Baldrek a cheap-looking costume hat. "It will protect you from unwanted mental influences!"
"... and from unwanted or wanted female influences as well..." Baldrek muses as he inspects the hat. Nevertheless, it was a gift, so he should not be complaining at all. "Apologies, Teacher Zuma. I should be more grateful. Thank you for you kind gift."
"Thank you, Teacher Zuma, for your instruction, and the gift."
Once outside Teacher Zuma's office, Patizamo says, "Do you think we'll be asked to come back for the next test?"
”Lets hope not,” Raknar says. ”I don’t like being a test subject.”
Another week passes after you assist Zuma. This time, Teacher Takulu Ot calls you into his office in the Heron Archives. “I have a favor to ask of you.” Teacher Ot looks up from the many books arranged around him with a furrow in his brow. “Some research materials I need are missing from the usual reference libraries. I’ve had initiates look for them with no success, and I’ve spoken with the other professors to see if perhaps what I need has landed in their more private collections. Again, no success. I now know where they aren’t, which tells me where they must be.” He pulls out a detailed map of the Magaambya’s grounds. “This building here—” he places a lens from his desk over what appears to be a round dormitory, magnifying it, “—hasn’t seen use in…” He trails off and shrugs before continuing.
“It was carved from an enormous stump as a dormitory but was being converted into a library before the project was abandoned. Please see if these five books are there.” Teacher Ot provides a short list. “Return them to me regardless of their condition. I would appreciate anything else you feel would be relevant or worth salvaging.”
Takulu seeks the following five works.
• Studies on the Habits and Migration Patterns of Birds and Drakes of the Continent of Garund, recorded in a leather-bound book.
• An Expanded History of the Lesser-Known Peoples of the Mwangi Expanse, recorded on vellum and bound by leather cords.
• The Worlds Between Worlds: Exploring the Planes and Demi-Planes, Volume 4, recorded in an extraordinarily large leather-bound book.
• Treatise on the Various Communicative Methods of Non-Vocally-Projecting Entities, recorded on a scroll that whispers eerily when unrolled.
• Collected Field Notes of the Druid Mata Digemari, a small chest with cramped writing covering its wooden surfaces.
Takulu also seeks any other texts that seem interesting, regardless of their condition; he’s no stranger to both magical and mundane restoration efforts, so he doesn’t mind if the texts are damaged.
”Thank you, Teacher Ot, for this task. We shall work to accomplish it as quickly as possible.”
Baldrek nods in agreement with the task, even if he doesn't comprehend how such different tomes could be used for a research. "I'd be honored to help you, Teacher Ot, since I owe you so much."
Raknar gives a silent nod as the others in his initiation group profess their help to the task.
The abandoned dormitory‐turned‐library is in an overgrown section of the campus grounds. Wrapped in overgrowth, the stump of an enormous tree squats on the Magaambya grounds. Its upper surface features several lightning scars, though it’s unclear whether these strikes killed the tree or occurred later. Windows, just visible beneath the concealing vines, are covered with thick films of dust on the inside. The vegetation around the door has recently been hacked away, providing an easy entry. A chain of silver bells lies discarded on the front step.
Patizamo knelt down and examined the chain of bells lying on the ground. Frowning, he said, ”This looks like one of the chains of bells from the ritual to drive off gremlins. Between this and the cut entrance, I don’t think this will be as simple as we thought.” He stands, easing his sword in its scabbard.
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Mokhasi breathes steadily and calms himself down. "I have substituted all of my fire spells today. I will not tempt myself to use such things in this place." Mokhasi's grey eyes are clear, but he is obviously excited to be exploring an abandoned library. "It is a strange thing that this library has not seen use recently. And these bells - this warding was broken many years ago. Curious, yes?" He examines the bells when Patizamo allows him to look at them.
He pulls out a book, and writes a note, saying to himself, "the four mephits found themselves bound by a mortal wizard - drawn to a mage tower floating high in the sky - a discomfiting thing for the one of earth..." He taps the quill on the page, and then continues to write, silently for a moment as he waits for the others.
Baldrek draws his ranseur. "Based on our last encounter with the fey, I do not believe we'll have a peaceful one ahead of us, but we could try nevertheless." He then agrees with Mokhasi about the books. "I agree it is strange to leave all these books behind, specially in a place where knowledge is so important."
He then knees and inspects the ground, looking for signs of wildlife.
Unfortunately, Baldrek is unable to determine what sort of creatures might be nearby. The garland of silver bells, though tarnished, is still worth 10 gp.
Once you are ready, you step into the library's main room. A quick glance around shows that the circular room has been packed with shelves in every space that could viably fit one, and a few where it can’t. Books are wedged in sideways or simply thrown on the floor, their pages smeared into illegibility. Seven closed doors lead to other rooms. Surprisingly, little dust sits on the floor or shelves.
You spot four ink-stained gremlins lurking atop the shelves, getting ready to ambush you! These short, spindly creatures have gray leathery skin coated in smeared ink.
Seeing the pests and their advantageous position, Raknar considers climbing up with them. Seeing how little space there is though quickly rules that out. So taking their advantage away seems the best play…
Patizamo decides to let the gremlins know that their height is no protection, casting a spell to crest an electrical blast between two of them.
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Mokhasi sees the four gremlins, and noting that Green is unattended, attempts to conjure a new animal - "the fire mephit was strong and tough - and loved to barrel around. The air mephit could fill his lungs up with terrible gales. The water mephit was steady and reliable. But the earth mephit could only go at the speed of the earth - sometimes quickly as with an avalanche, but most often as a mountain moves." Muto acts out each of the mephits behaviors with mimicry. Meanwhile, Mokhasi summons a grey spider that appears to be made of clay on the spot adjacent to one of the gremlins. The spider tries to bite them!