Session 6 - Group 2 Report

Nosgoth is gone, but a new adventurer has arrived in camp. The half-goblin, half-gnome who calls himself "Weasel" seemed to settle right in with the others and made himself at home, taking the departed Orc's place in a tent with Leopold. Before departing, Nosgoth, claiming he was not necessarily leaving forever, left behind the silver medallions and even the magical shield recently acquired from the Academy; while Khiss claimed the shield, the medallions were given to Weasel and their purpose was explained.

Fully rested and restored, the party returned to the Academy in the morning. Their plan was to see what was lurking behind the boarded-up Dormitory doors on the third floor, so they headed straight there. Upon arrival, and listening carefully, they heard the same scratching sounds at the door perceived the last time they were here. Expecting this to be a sign of more gremlins, Khiss, Leopold, and Matryx prepared themselves to deal with the tiny pests while Weasel set to work with a crowbar to pry the boards off the doors.

None of them were prepared for the sight of the two skeletons that shoved the doors open once the boards fell away and the door latch was lifted. The two skeletal creatures, with tattered rags hanging from their shoulders and glints of silver chains around their necks, surveyed the scene quickly before immediately setting upon their two nearest opponents: Weasel and Khiss.

The swinging blows of their arms, which ended in sharp, almost claw-like bony tips, were surprisingly strong, but the two adventurers were able to brush them aside. Khiss then attempted to counter with a blast of raw Nature magic, only to have something go terribly wrong. Instead of casting the Nature's Spark spell he had prepared, the Taxlatl found himself uttering the words of a Restore spell intended to refresh a companion!

Khiss quickly decided to rely on his spear instead of his magic for the remainder of the battle. It took a few exchanges of blows, but some well-placed blasts of elemental earth from Matryx and a few accurate arrows shot by Leopold ultimately ended the battle, shattering the bones of the attacking creatures.

After relieving the fallen foes of the medallions around their necks, the party looked again toward the doors. The recovered medallions were identical to those found in their previous foray into the Headmaster's Office. Khiss confidently strode through the dormitory doors and into the hall where 5 of the suits of armor stood at attention holding their halberds. They paid him no mind, but when Weasel tried to follow, the armor constructs immediately moved to block his path. At this point, Leopold noticed that he was the only one wearing one of the medallions from the Headmaster's Office; the others were wearing the Visitor's badges that had allowed them access to places thus far.

After removing those and donning medallions bearing the open book symbol, the group was allowed to pass the armor constructs. THey found themselves in the center of a not-quite-circular space, with 9 archways leading into what appeared to be the debris of former sitting/reception areas. The central area was lit with a dim white light emanating from a glass globe in the center of the ceiling; each of the 9 rooms around the center were similarly lit, but each was lit with a different color light. The far walls of each room were adorned with different symbols as well - symbols that seem to have been made by veneering gold into patterns etched into the stone walls. Finally each of the rooms featured a circular stairway leading down into the darkness.

The party recognized some of the wall symbols, and Matryx quickly surmised that they represented the classical 9 schools of magic - something that "modern" magic wasn't quite so strict about. They recognized some: the bubbling flask was Alchemy... the the shield was Abjuration. They had seen the "stars-in-octahedron" pattern on the first classroom they ever entered, but weren't completely sure what it stood for. They assumed the skull in the most dimly lit of the rooms was for Necromancy, and the circle and star of the red-glowing room was for Summoning. As to the others, they had no idea.

Tired from their battle with the skeletons, the group decided to regain their stamina here before picking a "school" and heading down the spiral stairs.

The session ended here.