The White Lotus Academy
The final few miles to Ithulios was rather uneventful compared to previous legs of thier journey. Te arrived at the city mid morning and were in awe of the beauty of the ancient Eladrin metropolis. The white marble parapets and buildings shown bright against the dark green and grey pine covered mountains to the west.
"Arrangements have been made for you to stay at the White Lotus academy, but if any of you should need supplies or other services you'll find those down here on the lower levels." Announced the Eladrian commander as he guided them trough a crowded market square. Ballimor spotted a friendly look in tavern and made a beeline for there mumbling that he would meet up with the others later.
The rest of the party marched on to the academy where they were greeted by an older human male who the Eladrian commander introduced as Proffesor Malek, headmaster Taverns right hand man.
"Welcome my friends to the Academny, I have heard that you have had quite the journey to our humble institution. Well rest assured that accommodations have been laid out for you. Allow me to show them to you and allow you to get settled. The. We can see of we can arrange a meeting with the headmaster himself." Malek led them over to a dormitory building where an entire flat had been reserved for the group. They settles in for a few hours while they waited for Malek to return. Sometime latter Ballimor wandered in, half drunk and mumbling about some bloke at the bar he had meet.
Finally Malek came to bring them to the headmasters quarters. The headmaster had an entire building reserved for his use. A two story square structure with. Large courtyard inside flanked by balcony a on the wings. Malek lead them into the main hall of the building and down a flight of stairs to the basement where the headmaster workshop was.
The headmaster was an elderly human male who appeared to be in poor health at the time. His hair was unkept, his eyes sunken and black for an odviois lack of sleep and his arms were frail and sickly. He was studying a time when the arrived but was more or less lost in some sort of tranche, mumbling in in audible and in coherent thoughts to himself. It was several minutes before he even noticed that he had visitors, only glancing up when Malek ventured a few very loud throat clears to get his attention.
"Oh what is it now Malek, Visitors? Can't you see I'm busy, go tell them to take thier concerns else where." Muttered the headmaster without even a glance towards the assembled crowd.
"Headmaster, my friends and I have traveled a long way seeking advice on some very rare and extraordinary magical artifacts. We mean you no harm but I must insist you give us just a few moments of your time." Replied Adrick in his most diplomatic tone. The headmaster turned to Adrick for a moment and cracked a sad half smile. For a second it seemed sanity had resurfaced in the old man, but as quickly as it came it was gone again. He turned back to his book and continued his muttering trance completely oblivious to anyone else's protests.
Malek escorted them out of the building and promised to work on te Proffesors mode. He explained that Taveric had not been well of late and his sanity comes and goes with the wind. He offered te group free reign of the accademy while he tended to the headmaster.
Fighting Dummies for Dummys
With the headmaster clearly preoccupied, Marek sent the group with Professor Orel, a dwarf instructed on alchamey, who lead the group over to the practice range to witness a student duel that was about to commence. Upon arriving at the range Orel bid the party farewell and went to make arageme ts for their accodations. An Eladrin female and an elvish male were already in the midst of a headed due when the party arrived. The were overseen by an older male human instructor who guided their efforts from the side lines. Within moments of the patties arrival the practice dummies that were on the field sprang to life and began assaulting the assemble crowd of students. The members of the last drop wasted little time in coming to the students aid.
Ballimor and Adrik moved to intercept the charging dummy's whilst Ruhdon and Lucan assisted te students in beating a retreat. Once the young ones were clear of the fighting the group concentrated their attacks on the dummies bringing them down in short order. The dummies proved little challenge for the group, esspocally with the aid of the istructor and fellow students. But this did not stop Ballimor from complaining some more. The dwarf who was already weary of mages before now openly complained about their incompetency. The re appearance of professor Orel some minutes later only served to fule his tirade as the instructors of the academy were very slow to responded to the danger.
"I'm sorry master dwarf, we would never expect such a thing to happen. Niall my long years here I have never heard of the dummies acting in this way. I can only assume some powerful wizard penetrated the magical wards surrounding the field in order to animate these objects. Perhaps you can help in gathering evidence for us. I had just spoken to master Marek before coming here and he sends his regrets for the incident. He is busy attending to these issues and the headmaster and asked if you could help is by venturing into the libraby of secrets to find an old volume on the history of the school. He hopes that the original incantations for the dummy's and the field in their will lead us a clue towards soling this mystery." Explained Orel.
"Ohhh, just a venture into the lost secrets library. I wonder what "secrets" we will encounter in there. Perhaps magic book cases that can spew books at lighting far pace, or armed statues or a flipping dragon!" Snidded Ballimor.
"Yes we will be happy to help." Replied Adrik, openly ignoring the rudeness of his fellow dwarf.
"Oh excellent, excellent. I can't tell you what a relief this is, follow me right this way and I'll show you the entrance." Said Orel.
"Oh boy, I can't wait to see what lovely things await us in this library." Snarled Ballimor.
The Library of Lost Secrets
Much to Ballimor's prediction, no sooner had the entered the rare book section, were the assaulted by an angry poltergeist and their ghost compatriots. The specters but up. Steep resistance but before long they we we also put down. With the room now secure the group went about searching for the title the needed.
After some time Ruhdon spotted the volume using his knowldge if magical items. Content that they had the right book the party head back out and suddenly found themselves in trouble. The doors and hallways in the libraby seemed to change at random and Adrick sensed for the first time that the librabry might have some sort of mind and that it was holding us here against our will.
In a panic Hazlo started running from room to room searching for a way out, but only sereved to confuse the group more. They spent over an hour trying to look for answers, but found nothing. Finally Adrick struck on the idea to try and trick the mind into thinking what it's not expecting us to do. He started walking towards one of the door near by and the suddenly bolted for tr door on the opposite side of the room. Here flung open te door and recognized the room, becoming the rest the followed soot and room after room the cleared by tricking it with bluffs and miss detections. Finally te came upon a magically sealed door. Hazlo tried to pick te door but found it unpick able. Next Ruhdon studied the door for some time until finally determined the right counter spells for those on the door. Soon they were back in the building looby, just in time to see an exacerbated Orel approaching up the hill.
"Oh my friends in glad you found the book, Marel will be pleased. He asked me to let you know he can meet with you in the gardens in a few minutes, here I'll point out the way on this map I have." Said Orel.
"Well this augt to be great fun.." Remarked Ballimor.
Just Doing Some Gardening...
"Aye, it's a trap alright," replied Lucan, "only question is who's the hunter."
"Well I'd say its that Marek character," chimed Ballimor. "Think about it, headmasters been I'll, he takes charge. Then he tells us to go see the match when the match is rigged. And then he sends us to the library knowing full well about the ghosts and magic doors could have done us it. Now he wants to meetin this outfox the way spot... If this ain't a trap, I ain't a dwarf."
"So what should we do, shouldn't we just seek out Marek instead and save us the trouble?" Questioned Ruhdon.
"Nah, I want to see what he's planning for us next, don't you?" Said Ballimor. The group nodded in agreement and readied for battle as they approached the gardens. Once inside everyone was on alert. It was no great surprise when Marek was nowhere to be found. As they approached a section I the garden dedicated to swamps and wetlands the group was assaulted by plant monsters emerging from the water. This time the group was more than ready and dispatched the threat immediately. Within minutes the monsters were gone and the group was worked into a lather.
"Allright, I've had enough, it's time for us to meet this Marek and give him a piece of my ax." Stated Ballimor as he charged out of the garden.
Confronting the Imposter
No of them had ever seen a creature like this before and Ruhdon had no knowledge of such a foe frim any of his past studies. Still it was evident that this was a creature of immense power, a fact that the succeeding battle bore out. The group struggled to subdue the creature from the get go, it's multiple arms allowed it to cast several spells simultaneously, keeping the five party from bring their full might to bear upon it at once.
From the start the the creature targeted Ruhdon and Hazlo the most, continuously sending Ruhdon to an alternate plane of existence were he could do nothing but wait until the spells effect wore off. Hazlo was hit by a powerful mind effecting spell that caused him to strike out against his fellow team mates again an again. He fought with all his might to resist the creatures influence but found his will power to low to do so. Ballimor charged the creature and nailed it with a strong blow, but it simply teleported on to the balcony so as to keep out of reach. Frustrated, the dwarf charged into the headmasters lodgings and climbed the stairs to reach the balcony level. This delay allowed the creature time to recouped are and strike out against Lucan and Adrik. When Ballimor reached the balcony he again charged the creature landing another solid hit, but again the creature fled out of reach of the fighter.
It was evident that the group was not going to be able to bring their full might to bear on their foe, so they settled for picking off peices as they could. Adrick and Ballimor positioned themselves on opposite floors and Lucan scaled the stair to get a better shot radius from the balcony. Before long Ruhdon had returned to the material plane and skillfully avoid direct contact with the creature again.
The fight was long and chaotic and very much in doubt until Ballimor landed a stunning blow that knocked the creature out, followed by a hail if arrows and shells from Lucan and Ruhdon. Ballimor finished Malek off with a decisive blow and silence returned to the courtyard at last. Orel and many of the other teachers arrives shortly after to look in on the commotion, while Adrick rushes to attended to the Headmaster. Peace had long last come to the White Lotus Academy, but in its wake left a furry of questions yet to be answered.