[center] [img]https://i.imgur.com/C7nwoGY.png[/img] [b]Words:[/b] 1,892 (+3) [b][color=ea590c]Edward Portsmith: Level 9 (22 cells) (2 level ups stored)[/color] [/b][color=ea590c]/////////////////////////////////////[/color]//////////////////////////////////////////////////// (37/90) [b]Location[/b] Frozen highlands - The Midnight Walk [/center] [center][b]Lecture Hall[/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/vtQo0Me.jpeg[/img][/center] Through the other door in the Archmage’s quarters Edward discovered a long chamber with a hammerbeam roof high overhead, its sturdy wooden arches connected by lengths of bronze chain. Two dark wood galleries, each with three tiers of benches, opposed one another with an open floorspace between them. Many candelabras, whether hanging, freestanding, or perched upon the lecterns, added to the natural (albeit dim) light let in through high stained glass windows. Painted portraits of sorcerous staff members were arrayed beneath a wooden walkway that ringed the whole room to form a second story. Books and other academic materials scattered around the room, as well as outcrops of an odd, dull purple crystal. Over the center of the room hung a huge astrolabe in an elaborate frame, glowing from within, and closer to the headmaster's pulpit (identifiable by the opulent gold-and-purple banners) was curled a [url=https://i.imgur.com/lgk8R20.png]huge wolf[/url] with rich orange-red fur. At the sound of Edward's intrusion, the beast's ears pricked up and it raised its head cautiously. Edward had entered the chamber just as cautiously, a squad of copper golems ahead of him, his magelock pistol drawn, somadrix slipping in behind him. Still, just because he had his gun out, did not mean that his finger was on the trigger of it. For one thing that was just good gun safety, but it was also representative of his mindspace. The maze had yet to simply toss him into danger yet, and the possible threats within had turned out to be not so (or at least, more frustrating than dangerous). Thus, he was of a mind to not jump to violence here, and instead holstered his weapon, stepped past his golems’ spear wall and raised a hand with an offer of [color=ea590c]”Peace?”[/color] Trying to do diplomacy with an oversized beast might have seemed a little silly to some, but they did have a goddess in wolf’s clothing on their side, and that was before you got to Edward’s experience with cooperating with various non-humanoid peoples Sadly Edward's entreaty met with no understanding as the wolf pulled back its teeth and began to growl at the mob of intruders who had entered with drawn weapons. As its bristly hackles rose, it summoned a curved sword of rosy amber magic between its fangs, and gave a snarl that made its intentions clear. [center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyGoea560lU[/youtube][/center] Edward responded with a sighing [color=ea590c]”Very well”[/color] and began to move a hand to his weapons again, only for his eyes to go wide when the wolf leaped high into the air. It hung there for a moment, before it came crashing down towards him to deliver a mighty [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/d44480bf99d7.png]metoric swing[/url] with its mouth held blade. The Dreadnought hurled himself to the side of the blow, vanishing into a portal and appearing again at the side of the room as he did so. The blade, thus, instead crashed down into the ranks of copper golems he had been standing in front of, cleaving clear through half their number before shattering on the floor. The surviving golems did not flinch one inch however, and instead immediately lunged their spears towards the wolf, scoring thin cuts on its furred face. They got a few more stabs in as it plunged in towards them in turn, jaws snapping and crushing, a tactic that fared far poorer than the blade had vs their metal forms. A re-summoned blade slashed in a cleaving arch meanwhile put an end to their existence, though not before they had scored several hits on the beast. As it finished slicing the constructs apart however, it felt a chill as reinforcements moved in towards it. From the door it had finally squeezed through came the somnadrix with its absolute zero antlers, while from the side (summoned by Edward using his newly acquired staff) was a hulking [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/fa93b1145d45.png]Frost Atronach[/url]. The somnadrix was faster and used its long neck to swing its antlers at the foe in an attack more like an ax swing than a goring charge. This unorthodox strike from the similarly sized impossible creature caught the wolf off guard enough that the freezing strike smashed into it, knocking it towards the Frost Atronach and leaving flash frozen blood on its freshly frosted fur. The Atronach in turn delivered a stab with its icicle-like arm to its other side while its stamina sapping chilling aura inhibited the wolf’s ability to recover. Fortunately for the wolf, there was a bit of an anti-synergy in Edward’s magic, as the follow up blow from the Atronach’s club arm ignited it thanks to his searing weapon enchantment, which inadvertently warded off the cold sapping its strength. Energised by the burning heat, the wolf summoned a blade, swung it through the Frost Atronach, and then used the magically enhanced momentum of the swing to leap back towards the pulpit it had been resting by. It landed gracefully, only to immediately recoil when a solid round, crackling with archfire, slammed into it courtesy of Edward’s smiting bishop magelock rifle. The rifle‘s shot then ignited the ground beneath it with a pool of electrical fire, prompting it to leap clear once more. This wasn’t just an evasion strategy, but also an offensive one as it formed a quartet of starry blue knives to form in the air along its path, which hung there for a moment before lancing towards Edward. Sadly for it, the man’s response to this was to grab his frost staff that he’d rested against a book case and to then fully sprint into the shots, causing a fiery aura to devour the magic and to ignite the wolf with a faster burning dot for each attempted attack. Just as these fires burned out, the cold came again, the somnadrix coming in with its own leaping strike, frozen antlers coming crashing down towards the wolf. The beast in turn lunged to the side, getting clipped on the hind thigh, causing it to stumble. The half missed strike meant the somdadrix’s antlers smacked into the floor, stunning it momentarily, but its frosted thigh and the threat of the incoming Frost Atronach restricted its ability to turn and take advantage of this. Thus it instead hobbled forwards, summoning it’s blade in maw and cleaving into the lumbering Frost Atronach with two wide swipes followed by an overhead slam that left the summon cracked and broken. A moment after, it shattered into shards, but not in delayed response to these attacks. No, instead a cannonball came slamming straight through its chest before it (along with a shower of icy shrapnel) collided with the wolf as well. The source of this was Edward’s magelock cannon that he had commanded to roll over to the doorway in order to provide fire support, the man entirely willing to sacrifice an expendable summons in the name of landing a good shot. The bleeding, burning, electrified and armor sundered wolf staggered, barely able to hold itself up, and was then brought down when the somnadrix raised up its long neck and delivered a frozen guillotine of a strike to it, scattering its ashes to the floor. [color=ea590c]”Go in peace”[/color] Edward said as the fight came to a close, and he returned his magelock rifle to its holster before moving to collect the fallen spirit. He already had an idea of a use for it, he just had to hope he would find her in one piece in the maze somewhere. With the guardian of the room put down, Edward set to work exploring it for useful artifacts. Naturally he was first drawn to the books and parchments scattered around the area. These, from a skim reading, appeared to all relate to fields of study known as ‘conspectuses ‘ that were taught at a place called the Academy of Raya Lucaria. The texts themselves were rather unwieldy, and all he could really glean was that the paintings on the walls were of ‘primeval sorcerers’ who had discovered/defined these fields of study. He then took a look at the crystal cluster growing to one side of the room, but these seemed to be mundane and, due to being rather glassy in appearance, likely not worth much of anything. They did at least shatter in a satisfying way upon failing a hardness test via the but of Edward’s staff. An even more satisfying shattering followed soon after, as Edward cracked open the astrolabe hung above the chamber, seeking the source of a magical glow radiating from its heart. This source of this turned out to be a [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/153317df8c68.png]Star Globe[/url], which seemed to be a sort of casting catalyst that was sadly missing some key component needed for it to function as intended. Regardless of this, Edward had it stowed just in case the missing half could be found. Having flown up to the astrolabe in order to crack it open, Edward was in position to take a look at the ring of balconies set just below the frosted over windows. Despite their ornamentation, however, these seemed to exist mainly for maintenance purposes, be it cleaning the windows or servicing the now broken astrolabe. As such, there was little of note to be found, other than, of all things, a bird’s nest. This nest contained several eggs, one of which was both much larger and [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/c103bd8c68d9.png]weirder[/url] than the others. The bird in question, however, was nowhere to be found, though Edward supposed it might be hiding as a result of all the noise he had been making since entering the room. Edward took the large speckled egg partially as an apology to said bird (as he assumed to belong to a cuckoo), and partially out of curiosity regarding its odd nature. He then descended back down to the ground floor, where his somnadrix had sniffed out something interesting beneath one of the benches: a bookbag. Within he found three things of note. First a [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/e16905bf0205.png]Glintstone Cometshard spell scroll[/url]. Second, a [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/49737047029d.png]Condragon Tome[/url] that contained magics specialised in killing dragons. Thirdly, a note about the tome being being a piece of a puzzle, with the other pieces of said puzzle being able to be found in the Arcaneum. Upon reading this, Edward’s eyes immediately lit up and, upon returning to the drawing room and using the Condragon Tome therein, so too did the drawing of a dragon found therein. [color=ea590c]”One down, two to go. Now to find this ‘Arcaneum’ mentioned in the note”[/color] said, before turning and returning to the Lecture Hall, intending to open and lock down one of the two other doors found therein. [hider=Edward has found] Spirit of the Red Wolf of Radagon [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/153317df8c68.png]Star Globe[/url]: a casting catalyst wielded by Astrologians in conjunction with magical cards [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/e16905bf0205.png]Glintstone Cometshard spell scroll[/url]: with the scroll equipped, a mage can conjure [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/5525100fbbec.gif]Glintstone Cometshards[/url] using their casting resource, which deal moderate amount of pure magic damage, and leave a briefly lingering damaging trail behind them. These can be fired individually, briefly charged for extra damage (at no extra cost), or swiftly cast in a pair of spell shots. [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/49737047029d.png]Condragon Tome[/url]: a moderately powerful casting focus that causes spells cast with it to do extra damage to dragons. [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/c103bd8c68d9.png]Weird Egg[/url]: while equipped has a 10% chance, every ten seconds in combat, to spawn a permanent friendly fetus companion (details found [url=https://mewgenics.wiki.gg/wiki/Weird_Egg]here[/url]) that will persist until death. [/hider]