David Rex the Freshman Mage Student of Blacklight Towers:Skills:
++++ Sleight of Hand
++++ Gymnastics
++++ Memory
++++ Learning
+++ Public Speaking
+++ Art: Drawing
+++ Animal Care
+++ Reading
++ Writing
++ Math
++ Swimming
++ Endurance
+ Speed
+ Strength
+ Sciences
0 Potion Making
0 All Skills not mentioned as + or -
- Driving, All Advance Science Skills, All not mentioned Non-Mundane Skills
Inventory:
-Pint of Party Cheer Potion
-Suite Key
-Samsung Chromebook
-Cell Phone
-Wallet (School ID, Meal Plan Card, 200 USD)
-Assorted Mundane School Supplies
-Assorted Fake Magical Supplies
-Small Cage
-5 Weeks worth of Birdseed
-George Oscar, The Pet Dove
-7 Academy Uniforms
-Pajamas
-Formal Suit
-Swim Trunks
-Street Clothes
-Various Socks and Undies
Schedule:
Saturday - No Commitments, 5/5 Actions Available <--- Current Day
Sunday - No Commitments, 5/5 Actions Available
Monday - Magical Gear and Equipment, Non-Mundane History, Illusion Magic, 2/5 Actions Available
Tuesday - Enchantments, Time Travel Techniques, Potion Brewing, 2/5 Actions Available
Wednesday - Magical Gear and Equipment, Non-Mundane History, Illusion Magic, 2/5 Actions Available
Thursday - Enchantments, Time Travel Techniques, Potion Brewing, 2/5 Actions Available
Friday - No Commitments, 5/5 Actions Available
Contacts:
Mr. Key: Your Potions Instructor. Young and Friendly.
Dr. Vargas: An important enchantments professor. Active in the affairs of Blacklight Towers.
Herald Jones: Your RA. A cool enough guy with few rules and a stash of 'party supplies' he is willing to sell.
Charlie Burke: Your Roommate. A solid jock through and through.
Betty Gunderson: Your Suite-mate. An aspiring writer and pianist.
Cynthia Beake: Your Suite-mate. Transhuman studies major. Would have preferred to live in the catacombs.
Bruno Tar: Third Year Earth Magic Student and Athlete. Looking to seek revenge against the Barracks in on the Sandball Court.
Timothy Grain: A student in your potions class. Comes from a wealthy old family. Wants to be a great Ice Mage. Dislikes Gina Torres.
Gina Torres: A self determined second wave feminist in your potions class. Wants to be a great Fire Mage. Dislikes Timothy Grain.
Delfina Wolfe: A student in your enchantments class. Major gamer geek. Undecided on what she wants to study.
You clean up for the day, get dressed, ask Herald to show you where you can get some food, and then head off to meet up with Dr. Vargas' tour group.
Dr. Vargas is a tall middle aged woman with a bright smile and festive dress. She introduces herself as the head curriculum writing for the Academy's illusion magic program, as well as a Blacklight Tower Alumni. The tour group consists of about 20 other freshmen, but Betty is the only one that you recognize.
The tour first shows you around the tower. Aside from the lounge and suites, the building also contains a computer lab, a student store, and a rooftop swimming pool.
Next you are lead out the back door into Blacklight Canyon, a narrow and well shaded opening in the mountains surrounding campus that can only be accessed through the tower. Dr. Vargas informs you that the canyon is usualy 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the campus during the day.
A small stream, which the students and staff call The Waters of Invigoration, cuts through the heart of the canyon, ending at the tower's moat. Dr. Vargas informs you that the stream is magically kept stocked with several magical and mundane fish species, and that fishing gear can be purchased in the tower store.
Directly behind the tower are the three canyon gardens. The Black Garden is a well decorated outdoor patio area in which parties are often hosted. There are also plenty of tables at which students can sit and work when there are no festivities going on. The Blue Garden is less fancy, and off limits to freshmen without special permission. 2nd and 3rd year students use the Blue Garden for class projects. The Red Garden is the same, but for upper class-men and professors.
You are then lead through the canyon. Dr. Vargas explains that it is a 40 minute walk from the Tower at one end of the canyon to the Waterfalls at the other. The trail offers a beautiful view of both desert plant-life and pine trees. You are warned that sometimes Mountain Lions prowl the area, but most of them are smart enough not to fuck with a student of magic. Every once in a while, something even more nasty will show up, so it is advisable to hike the canyon trail in groups of at least three at night.
Halfway down the trail is a large wooden building that Dr. Vargas explains is the Alpine Lodge. The Alpine Lodge is where elven students from High Desert stay when visiting campus for an event. When there are no elves around, Tower-Dwellers may book a luxury room in the lodge for 50$ a night. It is a popular place to take a date, or to escape the party culture for a weekend to focus on work.
At the far end of the Canyon, the Waterfall Building rests against the mountains. Inside is a large foyer that contains the 3 story high waterfall that is the source of the Waters of Invigoration. Dr. Vargas says that the building contains a few classrooms in which some nature classes are hosted on Fridays, a few Suites for upper-classmen Tower Dwellers to live in, the outdoor recreation center where students have access to free guide service and loaner supplies for hikes and other such adventures, and a restaurant and brewery that Dr. Vargas describes as the best place to spend meal plan points.
As if to prove her point, Dr. Vargas buys everybody lunch at the restaurant. The wings and fries are amazing. You share a table with Betty and two other students who you get to meet.
Delfina Wolfe is a student from the Old Yucca Barracks who decided to crash the tour upon hearing that there was a free lunch involved. She is a self described gamer geek who, unsure of what she wants to do at the academy as of yet, is taking all four of the basic classes. You do learn, however, that she is in your enchantments class. You quickly and successfully deploy the timeless 'lets exchange phone numbers so we can update each other should one of us miss a class' trick on her. Her choice of lunch is the shrimp and pasta.
Bruno Tar is a 3rd Year student who got kicked out of the Barracks at the end of the previous school year, and had to change residence halls. He is an earth magic specialists and an athlete who hopes to make the Blacklight Tower Varsity Sandball Team so that he can exact revenge against his old hall on the court. He speaks in complex non-mundane terms, so you have a real hard time following most of what he says. He enjoys a chef's salad and a protein shake for lunch.
Betty spends most of the meal eating her pizza and drinking her shake quietly. Afterwards she confides in you that her encounter with Bruno would make an interesting short story.
---
Returning to the Tower, you decide to skip the early stages of the party and enjoy an afternoon nap so that you may stay up late. You wake up at 4:30, flag down a student on a golf cart, and ask him where the extra credit party and workshop is held. Instead of telling you, he agrees to just give you a ride.
The dinner takes place in the instructor residence village dining hall. Mr. Key is a young man in his mid twenties and seems nice enough. He arranges you all into tables of three and serves a hearty beef stew for dinner.
"I picked up most of what I know about Potion Making from my mother, who was Russian," he explains as you all eat, "In the Eastern European Style, there isn't a whole lot of difference between making a Potion and making a stew."
Once the food is completed, Mr. Key passes out a bunch of potion making supplies and an instruction sheet. He promises that once class starts properly he will explain everything, but tonight he would rather you try to follow the instructions and figure it out on your own, so that he can 'see who the quick learners are'.
Sadly, your table runs into trouble. Both your table mates are type-a personalities who want to control the project, and both quickly learn that they cannot stand one another.
Gina Torres of Goldrush Lodge is one of those young ladies who can and will do anything to succeed in all that she does, while Timothy Grain of Clark Memorial Catacombs comes from an old and wealthy family of casters, and is by no means content with taking orders from some girl from a more mundane background.
By the time the workshop is over, your table has utterly failed in producing a potion. Both your tablemates have tried to get you to take their side against the other, but luckly you have done a fairly good job at remaining neutral. On the bright side, you do feel like you have gained some very rudimentary understanding of the potion making process, and Mr. Key is kind enough to give a bottle of Party Cheer to anybody who has failed to produce their own supply.
+1 Pint of Drought of Party Cheer---
You return to the tower to find the party in full swing. Almost all 700 Tower Dwellers and at least half as many party crashers from other halls are in attendance. Some groups of people are more or less behaving themselves, while some corners of the party make the toga party scene from
Animal House look tame.
It doesn't take much effort to track down Charlie, who is just wrapping up a conversation about magical sports with a few upperclassmen. He decides that he is down for whatever you want to do next.
It is Saturday still. You have two actions to spend at the party. What do you want to do? What sort of people do you want to meet? How hard will you party? Ignore the following list for now, it is just there to make re-posting it easier when it becomes relevant again...1-4 Actions - The Blacklight Tower Beginning of Term Party runs today from noon until dawn in the Tower Commons, and the Black Gardens. Freshmen are encouraged to attend, get to know their fellow tower dwellers, and get the obligatory hazing out of the way.
1 Action - Mr. Normandy's 2nd-3rd year Medical Magic course has too many unfilled openings. Freshmen interested in getting ahead of the game can visit Mr. Normandy's office, in the Old Yucca Office Building, anytime this weekend to plead their case as to why they should be allowed to take such an advanced course.
1 Action - Mrs. Hazen's 2nd Year+ Dream Interpretation course has too many unfilled openings. Freshmen intrested in getting ahead of the game can visit Mrs. Hazen's office, in the Student Services Building, anytime this weekend to plead their case as to why they should be allowed to take such an advanced course.
1 Action - The Student Government is offering campus golf cart tours by appointment, or walk in, through the first week of school.