[img]https://i.imgur.com/WXPjgTI.jpg[/img][hr]Conventionally speaking, the death or expulsion of students en-masse would be a time of mourning for an scholastic institution.

For Umbra Academy, it was an invitation to celebrate with bombastic enthusiasm, those who passed given a reprieve to revel in their success while the compost heap by the greenhouses got a bit of freshening up. The skies were dotted with fireworks, only to be swiftly overshadowed by actual explosives and displays of bombastic sorcery, and the grounds bellowed carried the heavy perfume of freely flowing wine.
As this chaos swept across the campus there was a circle of relative sanctity amidst a structure styled in the vein of a Roman senate. Tiers of seats arrayed before a central speaker, one who commanded the respect and envy of all who gazed upon her [url=https://imgur.com/juQRE5H]diminutive visage.[/url]

[color=burlywood]”Congratulations to all who have surpassed their limits and rose beyond the success and failure of days gone past to continue to exceed my expectations!”[/color] The Headmaster of Umbra declared, her voice echoed through the gaping maw of the demon at her side like a living loud speaker, providing a rumbling cadence to the speech. [color=burlywood]”I do hope you can forgive some of our more botanically and necromantic-ly inclined staff for bearing a small grudge to you surviving students, but such is our lot in life. Truly, you aren’t making progress if someone isn’t trying to stick a trowel in your backs.”[/color]

She chuckled at her attempt at humor, something which was then distorted to sound more akin to the grinding of metal upon rock till one was born to dust. The Headmaster retrieved a heavy tome from its chain dangling at her side, the leather wreathing in flame upon her touch and roiling with infernal energies only a warlock such as she could find pleasant. 

[color=burlywood]”As a reward for your exemplary performances I’ve arranged for the rest of the day to be open to you off campus. I’ve found you an…interesting playground, so please, enjoy it to the fullest.”[/color] Her words warped from congratulatory to sadistic, snickers of impish delight passing between words. The incandescent warp fires of her tome flashed brightly at the apex of a silent spell and disgorged a torrent of flame into the air above her. It drew itself into a thin line, hovering level in place without issue, before spreading open like reptilian eye with a yawning void of inky darkness betwixt the walls of flame. 

[color=burlywood]"Go forth my students, and let your revelry bring the darkness to the hearts of all!"[/color] The Headmaster cackled, her open palms raised to the hellscape above with dramatic flair undercut by the put upon exhalation of the demon bound beside her. As the warlock lost touch with reality it shooed them towards the portal with a flicking of its claws.