Turn 2: In which some teaching occursDealing with the paper golemsFor the magical action, Vids will involve himself with the war on the paper golems, organizing a project for both classes to capture golems. Students who successfully capture golems will be publically congratulated on their work in front of their classmates. Then, Vids will lead a demonstration on how to disenchant golems, teaching magical golem theory as part of the demonstrations. On days where no golems are captured, he will simply explain how golem minds work, attempting to attach the theory with the real-world activity of capturing golems.
Magic action: Provide the students with a demonstration of dream combat magic by destroying any paper golem I can find.
Channel the instinctive knowledge that one has in dreams to locate the paper golems, use the spatial warping that often occurs in dreams to chase them down, and then use dream combat magic in a variety of ways to destroy them. I suppose I'm showing off; using Adept-level for the destruction.
Vids assembles both classes, and explains to them that they will be spending a good deal of time capturing paper golems, so that he can demonstrate the
disenchanting of golems. The children nod: understanding your enemy makes strategic sense. Before the children can rush off to construct traps, Magim strides into the clearing and explains that he will be dealing with the golems using dream magic.
Blasting apart a few paper golems would normally be easy work for a combat mage of any variety. Magim, however, has decided to show off.
[6]
He starts by walking behind a tree. As soon as he's gone from view, a loud whoop is heard, and the students look up to see him leaning out of the door of a classroom thirty feet in the air. A paper golem swoops towards him and he catches it with ease, tearing it in half. Several more fly out of the classroom, and he hurls a flurry of magical missiles at them, dream magic manifested as shimmering, rainbow-coloured bolts, the spells homing towards their targets and disintegrating them into showers of confetti. His building is climbing towards the top of its orbit, and he springs off and onto another, dropping an astonishing distance to land on the roof in a cat's crouch. A handful of paper constructs converge on him armed with pencils and rulers, but a sword of multicoloured dream energy appears in his hand, and he decapitates the golems with ease.
After several more displays of acrobatics and swordsmanship, Magim finishes off the last few golems by hurling a ball of crackling arcane energy at a lecture room desperately defended by the remaining paper constructs. He drops to the ground and bows to polite applause, as the pink smoke cloud enveloping the lecture room dissipates and scraps of paper fall to the ground.
Teaching the studentsNon-magic action: Teach the students about Arts, Affinities, and any similarly fundamental magical concepts.
[5]
You spend a month explaining the fundamentals of magic to Class A, which is all you have time for. Luckily, the students absorb the information quite well, and now have a pretty clear idea of which branches of magic each teacher specialises in.
Teach the children about Plant Magic and Wild Magic
You only have time to teach one class about one subject - teaching twenty students magic is HARD. Much easier to teach a specific class.
You start by teaching class A plant magic.
[2]
Sadly, it does not go well. None of class A seems to have any particular gift for plant magic, and only Irene, a quiet girl from the mountains, manages to grow a single weed. The students are disappointed by this setback, some openly wondering if they have any actual magical ability at all.
You also attempt to teach class B wild magic, though not with any particular affinity. As this class takes to magic very quickly, channeling the natural power of the site, you decide to let them go for it on the spell front. Or perhaps they rush off in excitement before you can say anything. It can be hard to tell.
[6]
This does not go well at all. The majority of the students manage to pull off some kind of spell, in a wild and uncontrolled manner, and with consequences that have nothing to do with the intended effects. Even worse, several of these spells were performed outside the school grounds, or somehow escape into Ockell. Mild chaos ensues.
The stones of one of the main streets are suddenly covered in a thin layer of melted butter, resulting in many small injuries. Several pots and pans in a tavern kitchen grow legs, absconding through an open window. A plump tom cat being lovingly groomed by the daughters of a local merchant suddenly develops a red, scaly tail a foot long, and runs off like the whole world is after him. The wooden mast of a ship in Ockell harbour swells with thick branches and green leaves - at least one student here can do plant magic. A blacksmith's anvil suddenly levitates fifteen feet into the air, and refuses to come down. One of the thick tomes of city records in the mayor's office is transmuted into pure silver, while another is covered in indescipherable numeric codes and highly detailed star charts two million years out of date. Similar events happen all over Ockell, too many to recount, let alone track down and reverse. Luckily, the damage is minimised by the fact that the students are still very weak mages. Nonetheless, town feeling is decidedly against the little scamps.
On days where no golems are captured, he will simply explain how golem minds work, attempting to attach the theory with the real-world activity of capturing golems.
For the nonmagical action, Vids will teach classes on anatomy, medecine, and the rudimentary basics of life magic.
During both actions, keep a special eye out for students who are particularly interested in the subjects, or show particular talent. Vids would rather have a few dedicated apprentices than a gaggle of disinterested children.
Vids starts by attempting to teach class B golem magic, using a couple of carefully created non-insane paper golems, disenchanting them at the end of each lesson.
[6]
Again, class B takes well to the magic - perhaps too well. Rather than absorbing any magical theory, they rather seem to learn by imitation, mimicking the spells used to create the paper golems in making their own constructs out of mud and leaves. The pitiful little things generally fall apart after a few seconds, but the students are developing very quickly.
At the same time, Vids starts to educate class A in some basic ideas about life magic and the human body. A competent fleshworker, he is capable of aiding explanations by gently peeling back his own skin and muscle to expose the workings of a limb, before returning the flesh to it's original position unharmed.
[3]
The lessons progress slowly, as the children struggle to keep up with the constant flow of information and variety of different topics. By the end of the month, the class has a rudimentary medical understanding of the human body.
Non Magic Action: Take the students boating. Lecture on the delights and dangers of contractual magic. As Homework, require each child to develop a practice contract, that they will bring to me. I will role play the being with which they seek to contract, and will respond as that being would. Make sure failures are felt most painfully. Also, make sure each of my class sessions has an excellent shared meal. Food is important to a growing body, mind, soul, and community.
You hire a barge for the month, and take class B on pleasant excursions along the Gef. You explain the ins and outs of contractual magic, a subset of the ritual Arts, and ask each child individually to develop a practice contract. Any that leave dangerous loopholes in the contract or agree to bad terms are given a sense of what an eternity of servitude to a Deep being might feel like by being pushed into the freezing waters of the Gef, to be fished out shivering by their comrades. It's a warm enough season that nobody develops hypothermia.
[4]
Not too many children are pushed in, as the majority of them understand the dangers involved, and come up with minor contracts for small favours. Unusually for class B, the students don't immediately try to practice contractual magic for real, instead taking a very sober attitude towards what they have learned. They do seem a little intimidated by your teaching methods, as well as the horrific stories of contracts gone wrong.
The shared meal is a nice little event each evening, that quickly turns into a school custom. Few teachers supervise the meal. The food itself is provided by an Ockell kitchen... apparently the Administration set this up for you too.
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You set up one of the floating teaching rooms to your satisfaction. Most of the children have been taught reading, writing and mathematics, just at a rather basic level, and haven't developed them much. They're all fairly smart and hardworking, so their skills develop quickly as you use the blackboard. If you want exceptional mathematicians or students that read at a university level, you could probably hire someone to teach that. You are going to have to accept that you can't give these children the same all-round education you received... though come to think of it, a lot of your classmates haven't achieved much of note, so perhaps all those years of Algebra of Thaumaturgy modules were wasted on them anyway.
You only have time to teach Class A the basic theory behind tinkering, mechanics and kinetic magic, almost reaching the stage at which they start to do small magical practicals. As it is, they do get to assemble a few non-magical devices involving gears, levers, inclined planes and so on.
[1]
The students understand the material alright, but during the last few days of the month, stage a general strike, refusing to learn more unless the school comes clean with them. They have a keen understanding of the difference between magic and magical theory, and are aware that no matter how exciting a pulley system or mathematical proof might be, it does not constitute an act of wizardry. They seem to have come to believe that their entire class is incapable of performing magic, and is being educated under false pretences, perhaps to become some sort of civil engineers or non-magical professionals, or as the control group in some kind of experiment. The theories vary, but all of them rest on some sort of dishonesty on the part of the teachers.
Persuading Class A that they are in fact capable of magic, or otherwise dealing with their suspiscions, will be necessary if anyone is to teach them anything.
Diverse other matters
Magic Action: Buy grape seeds and use magic to speed up their growth, focusing on yield and taste if possible.
Non-Magic Action: Research the market for wine in the town, and get into contact with local brewers. Are there any magical spirits/creatures known for brewing?
The town could certainly do with more wine, the harsh climate of most of the West Isle making growing grapes difficult and risky, while imported stuff is expensive and hard to come by. It is regarded as something as a luxury even in Ockell, although in truth the taverns and clubs serve mostly rough year-old reds and cheap whites from Merril. Several town brewers exist, all of whom are keen to work with a wizard. There is a lot of improvement possible here.
Magical brewers, eh? The faries of the Mosswoods are said to create marvellous black wines, strange and heady, using grapes grown from the limbs of thousand year old oaks. Few humans have ever tasted such a thing, and those that have are said to have shared in the knowledge of the fay, understanding the forces of fate and destiny. The Bull of the Usk is the patron deity of the few winemakers of the South of the island, the only place grapes easily grow. A blessing by the Bull tends to result in a marvellous year for any crop or livestock, though no vineyard has been so lucky for several decades.
You purchase some cheap grape seeds and plant, then use plant magic to start forcing the resulting vines to grow fast, plentifully and well. Your specialism in shapeshifting is of no use to you, so the process turns out to be quite tricky.
[5]
Despite the complexity of the task, you now have half an acre of flourishing red grapes, sweet, juicy and ideal for wine-making, which the students mostly leave alone. Hmm... better get these picked soonish. You could use local labour. Or even child labour, if that doesn't clash with your ethical beliefs. A few Class A students dispiritedly suggest that they might have been sent to Ockell to help with the grape harvest, rather than to learn magic at all.
-
[2]You create a rather weak broom, capable of slow, short flights. It fails to particularly inspire the children, as other mages have done far more impressive things in front of them. So have you, in fact.
It stops working after a few days.
Magic Action: Perform a fey ritual to attract wood sprites from Mosswood to take up residence in our living facilities.
Fairies are wilful beings, and never easy to manipulate. Nevertheless, the thick greenery created by the plant mages looks hospitable enough, despite being in the centre of a town, and the site does have an attractive hum of background magic. Perhaps you can tempt a few Mosswood denizens here.
[2]
Despite your invocations, ceremonial burning of Mosswood timber, and magic digrams, no wood sprites appear, nor anything else. This was pretty ambitious, and fay do prefer contact on their own ground. A visit to the Mosswoods could produce more success, perhaps?
Teachers
All - Little to record yet. Each has a little gold of their own, the necessaries for praciticing their magical specialism to a reasonable degree, and draws a teacher's salary in monthly offworld gold payments.
Magim Somar'ahneiro - Dream-based water purifier.
Students
Class A Strong understanding of fundamentals of magical theory, but haven't successfully performed any. Rudimentary understanding of human body and mechnical principles. Believe themselves to be generally incapable of magic, refuse to continue learning until this is discussed and acknowledged.
Class B Have successfully cast spells, though lacking in any technique or understanding. Worrying confidence with golem magic. Basic understanding of contractual magic, especially its dangers.
School building
Living wood and plant bedrooms and dormitories.
Floating teaching rooms and studies, held up by a Kinetic Negator made by Dr. Kansei Ifto.
Room of Dreams, accidentally created by Magim Somar'ahneiro.
Reputation
The wizards are well thought of in Ockell, thanks to the impressive construction methods used. Vids is particularly liked, after helping in the local hospital.
The students are less liked, due to a series of accidents involving wild magic.
Author
Topic: Re: Wizard School RTD: Turn 4 (Read 12658 times)