Member
Morose
Scrawl Banditta
Lucid Dreaming
Kirah
teenangstlife
TokyoPewPew
ImagineTheStars
bleedonme
Simply Not Real
@Achronum@Trainerblue192@Morose@Blizz@Kirah@PatientBean@Teyao@KazAlkemi@kittyluna45
Late Morning - Fri. Nov. 1st, 2040
A new day dawned on Strange Academy. The Academy gong ushered in the break of dawn, its magic traveling through the halls and deep into the bones of its students. Nightmares and dreams both shattered beneath the weight of its enchantment and students were dragged to the waking world once more.
While the rest of the students grumbled in their beds and woke to morning meditation or physical training classes, those who contemplated the Mysteries were permitted more freedom. The early morning was theirs, before the dining hall opened for morning meals and the students were expected at their Mysteries. Some may find sleep again, others wander the grounds, and some who'd been here for some years, may seek the comfort of familiar locales.
The Statue of Ardyon
Connie, Barty, Jake
The Archive boasted a number of ancient, powerful, and cursed artifacts from across the universe, carefully contained and countered in every way manageable. Long, chained lights dangled from its vaulted ceilings and creaked as the tiniest vibration caused them to sway. The walls were dominated by tiny, tiny filing cabinets, the font of each written in a strange script that most would need a magnifying glass to even attempt to decipher. On a perch above it all, The Archivist watched unblinkingly. The Owlfolk sorcerer was as old and dusty as their note cards, their robes long faded and the color of their feathers long stolen by time. Still, they watched and hardly breathed as students came to peruse their Mysteries or the artifacts on display.
Four glass cases dominated the area, warded and locked, displaying the Wand of Watoomb, The Eye of Uatu, The Ka Stone, and Dragonfang.
Door number 12 was beyond that, in a narrow crowded hallway designed to dissuade wanderers from traveling. Black wrought iron numbers hung on the doors, guiding the coven members down, and although resistant, would reluctantly permit the Coven to pass.
Inside was a simple room. Bland white walls were covered with thin black veils, six floor length candelabras each boasting 7 candles that lit as the door opened. Incense on the single table caught flame and soon rosemary, basil, and thyme filled the room and four pairs of white gloves, each sized appropriately, sat neatly stacked next to the incense holder. A series of circles, lines, and symbols carved into the floor surrounded the center piece:
The Statue of Adrolyn.
Depicting a man curled around a cubic object, The Statue of Adrolyn perfectly captured the distress of its subject. Each wrinkle in the skin, the look of horror and resignation, a hand held up to deflect or to beg, and clothing disheveled and torn at pointing to struggle. Lines and glyphs, different that those in the floor, were also carved into the statue and they pulsed with a faint red glow.
Professor Croan stood across the room from the incense, contemplating the statue. Without offering a greeting, Croan spoke. “Don your gloves and examine the statue. Any means is acceptable; it is indestructible.”
A Trip through Magic
Willow, Nicky, Callaghan, Cassiopeia
Professor Mikkail's sitting room was as flamboyant as one could expect. Large windows along the wall let the morning sun filter in, intricate designs along the heavy purple and gold curtains tied neatly aside. A light purple velvet sofa sat beneath an oil painting of a long, lithe silver dragon wrapped around a metallic ship in the center of an amethyst lake. Two armchairs matching the sofa flanked it, a coffee table with a pink and green table runner running down it and a matching china tea set laid out with cakes and sandwiches. Delicate looking vases hosted large blooming harcross flowers around the room and vines with large leaves trailed down from the ceiling.
At the far end of the room, a small solarium sat with its glass doors shut and locked. Inside, a variety of glowing flora soaked up the sun and a rocking chair held a heavy quilt, a well loved paper back neatly settled on top.
A gramophone played in the corner, where several bookshelves with small silver dragons inlaid into the shelves hosted a measly portion of Mikkail's writing and scrolls. Several writing instruments and kits were packed away on an intricate writing desk, a small music box the only dusty thing in the room.
On the coffee table, the Coven would find handcrafted leather note books. Each one had their name embossed in fine gold with the pin symbol beneath it.
Callaghan Silver
Cassiopeia Belfontaine
Paedrus MacLeod
Willow Ojos
Into the Unknow
Rohan, Finley/Dysphoria, Frankie, Annika
The journey to the heart of the Academy was as challenging as any task they'd been set so far: deadends, blind turns, ans vanishing staircases some of the more mundane obstacles put in their path. Still the directions proved mostly true and admist a hallway where no sound carried, a reinforced steel door with runes visibly crackling with eldritch power sat nestled between six massive suits of plate mail and oddly enchanting landscapes of a mountain and a frozen tundra where multicolored lights drifted across the canvas. Periodically, something moved in the distance of the paintings but it was too difficult to see properly.
The crackling energy stilled, one rune at a time, and blinding light spilled out of the doors. Sariel, wearing knee high boots, an unbuttoned lab coat over her clothes, and goggles dangling around her neck, stepped out and beamed. “Good morning, Coven! We have plenty to do so we'll jump right in. Take one of the lab coats here and a pair of safety goggles; you won't know what you'll be working with until you see it so better to be over prepared. Gloves will be available once we're fully inside.” Sariel gestured to a coat rack where a variety of sized coats and goggles were available. The space was in fact a circular hallway that enveloped a main chamber inside. A door, locked tight, could offer quick access but Sariel was already moving away from it as the doors shut behind the Coven.
“This is the primary artificer laboratory. It requires special permissions as the work done here is dangerous to more than just the body. If something goes wrong, it can affect the mind and even the soul. Do not attempt accessing this space recklessly.” Sariel warned. Inside tubing and wires covered the ceiling, pulses of the same eldritch energy skittering across the web like spiders. Equipment of all shapes and size hummed, hissed, and screeched but the most everyone catching were three large hour glasses suspended in the center above three flasks sitting on agitation tables that swirled impossibly slowly. Still, Sariel wasn't stopping.
“Due to the secure nature of this facility, and for your own safety, you will only have access to the primary material for one hour three times a week. Over exposure to the material can, and has, caused significant damage to individual's magic. Sometimes their health but that is usually repairable. You will, in lieu of unrestricted access, will have access to a section of the Library you typically would not. We'll go over that more once you understand the nature of your role.” Sariel stopped at the opposite side of the circle, where a plain wooden door was set into a blackened stone wall, and opened the door.
The room inside was twice the size of he previous one and the feeling of magic was nearly overwhelming. An archway stood in the center, ancient stone overgrown with strange, ethereal tendrils set into a floor of marble pavers that were only broken by a ring of brown-reddish brick with runes carved into them. Similar wires and tubing covered the vaulted ceilings and hummed with eldritch power that scattered into the next room. A workbench ran the length of the room and above it a variety of strange artifacts of all materials were carefully arraigned in specific patterns that, to an unobservant eye, seemed pointless.
“Welcome to the heart of the Academy - The first gate to the Neverish. And in this mystery you'll be diving into its very depths!”
