Cut and Dry (wizard adventure school, oc setting)

[filigree]

Bio
Name: Jackie Frost
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Species: High Northlander (transmutant human: +20% size, cold climate preference, faster fluid loss in warm climates)
- Height: 6'5"
- Weight: 198lbs

Spoiler: AI image by NightCafe

Character Traits
Technocrat: You hold steadfastly to the idea that the greatest good stems from the unflinching pursuit of knowledge. You do not gain degrees of corruption as long as you were acting on academic interests at the time.
Cautious: You take great care to include safety features and fail safes in your spellwork, so that your spells will not cause unintended collateral damage.
A Pound of Flesh: You don't let a little pain or injury get in the way of your ambitions, and can risk harm to yourself even when you aren't desperate or the stakes wouldn't normally call for it.

Class Grades
GPA: n/a
Evocation
- Elementalism:
- Theory of Force:
- Constructs and Artifice:
Illumination
- Divination:
Transmutation
- Alchemy:
- Transformation:

Studies
(You've learned nothing yet, though a projection of your future work suggests your highest aptitudes will be in transmutation and divination.)

Sigils
(You've learned nothing yet, though a projection of your future work suggests your highest aptitudes will be in transmutation and divination.)

Potions and Reagents
- 3x Solution of Winter Crown: An organic solution containing the dissolved antlers of a northern elk. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. This is a fairly common reagent from the frozen north, where the barren land means hunting is still necessary.
- 2x Solution of Polar Hide: An organic solution containing the dissolved fur, fat, and stoutness of a polar bear. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. Such a reagent could only come from the frozen north, where the people believe one must hunt to earn their take.
- 2x Solution of Mammoth Might: An organic solution containing the distilled strength of a wooly mammoth. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. Such a reagent could only come from the frozen north, where the people believe one must hunt to earn their take.
- 2x Solution of Saber Fang: An organic solution containing the dissolved fangs and claws of a saber-toothed tiger. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. Such a reagent could only come from the frozen north, where the people believe one must hunt to earn their take.
- 1x Solution of Wyrmfrost: An organic solution containing a frostwyrm's magical ability to chill the body and air. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. A reagent of this caliber could only come from the frozen north, and the cost of obtaining it must have been terribly high.

Spellbook
(You've learned nothing yet, though a projection of your future work suggests your highest aptitudes will be in transmutation and divination.)

Spoiler: Predicted results of first year, via magical divination

Class Grades
GPA: 2.7
Evocation
- Elementalism: C
- Theory of Force: C
- Constructs and Artifice: C
Illumination
- Divination: B
Transmutation
- Alchemy: A
- Transformation: B

Studies
Evocation
- Evocation Formula: The fundamental formula of evocation, which holds that all matter and energy are equal and interchangeable. Much of evocation magic works by converting one kind of element into another, or by imparting motion to an element at rest. (You know enough about evocation to begin making spells for it.)
- Input and Output: The part of the evocation formula which deals directly with conversion. The input of one element becomes the output of another, until the input is spent. (You know the sigils for fire, water, earth, and air, and you know the spellwork for turning one element into another.)
- Magical Force: The part of the evocation formula which deals with the motive force by itself. A wizard's magical reserves are used to start off the conversion of one element to another, but can also be used as the input or output directly. (You know the sigil for mana, and you know the spellwork for using it as an element in an evocation formula.)
- Magical Crafting: A way of specifically defining elemental output to match a design, rather than a lump of stuff. At its most basic level, a wizard could craft a sword, ring, or the like out of a single mineral or metal. While it's possible to craft items from fire, water, or air, these tend to immediately disperse. (You know the sigils for iron and diamond, plus how to change a spell's output into single-part shapes like a sword, ring, or shield.)
Illumination
- Illumination Formula: There is no official fundamental formula of illumination, but students of the arts will often become familiar with the common ideas running through all its schools. (You know enough about illumination to begin making spells for it.)
- System of Astrology: All divination magic begins with the revelation that no two people see the same night sky. Divination is the process of deducing what a person's star signs might mean, though the means of viewing those stars without their help is a more advanced matter. (You've learned enough about astrology to predict a person's destiny from their star signs.)
- Primordial Light: A study on the properties of light, and particularly on the methods of viewing starlight as another person might see it. This forms the basis of all large scale divination magic, such as the kind the academy itself employs. (You know how to tune something reflective or refractive so that it views a particular person's astrological signs, and can then use it as a stand in for knowing that person's astrological signs in your spellwork.)
Transmutation
- Transmutation Formula: The fundamental formula of transmutation, which seeks to break a living being down into a set of discreetely defined properties, which are then changed into a desireable result. Much of transmutation magic works by blurring the distinctions between one body and the next, so that the properties of one can instead apply to the other. (You know enough about transmutation to begin making spells for it.)
- Vancian Bridge: A method of dividing a spell formula into parts which can be completed independently of the others, but which do not complete as a whole until all parts are completed. This is a necessary step in alchemy which also revolutionized casting in other fields, especially in regards to counter magic. (You know how to build a Vancian Bridge into your spellwork.)
- Alchemic Inscriptions: An extension of the Vancian bridge method which forms the basis of all alchemy. Tattooing the end step of a transmutation formula onto the receiving body allows a potion to "complete" when consumed. This practice makes alchemy accessible to the masses, and has caused transmutation to standardize heavily, since a person has to consider carefully how much skin space they have for the potions they want to be able to use. (You know how to prepare a body to be affected by the sigils you've learned.)
- Theory of Dissolution: An advanced application of alchemical principles, which holds that a living body is an expression of an ongoing transmutation formula. Any part of the whole is a part of the formula, and a wizard doesn't necessarily need to know the equation for, say, a heart, when they have the heart itself on hand to use. (Allows you to substitute a sigil you don't know with the organ or flesh in question, and carries over to organs or flesh dissolved in organic solutions.)
- Ouroboros Solution: The basis of all transformation magic, which holds that life sustains itself by consuming itself. The transmutation formula doesn't stumble at all when portraying species as individuals and individuals as properties, and the realization that you can dissolve an entire living being to use as a property in a formula opened up many possibilities. (You know the methods to dissolve part or all of a living being into an organic solution, which can be used as a medium to transfer those properties.)
- Advanced Transformation: An advanced application of alchemic and transformative principles which uses the results of multiple completed transformations as new inputs for the spellwork defining a second-stage transformation. This method was originally developed in elementalism, and is an example of how all magic shares common principles. (You know how to design complex spells which cast automatically after all their component spells have been completed.)
- Elemental Potions: An advanced alchemical principle which identifies the elemental properties within life. The method of breaking life down into its constituent elements is difficult to master, but opens up many new possibilities. (Allows you to use a body's properties as the input for an evocation spell.)
- Body of Mana: An advanced transumative principle, and the realization of the theory that a person's innate magical ability is a property by birth. This is one of the more difficult principles to master, but it allows the wizard to include a body's magical capabilities as properties in a transmutation spell, and forms the basis of all higher magics in the school. (You know how to apply the mana sigil in a transmutation formula.)
- Chemical Properties: An advanced transmutative principle which studies the properties of nonliving materials. The curious blend of artifice and alchemy defies the old notion that life is a fifth element, and instead supports the view that life comes from a balance of the four primary elements. (You are able to use construct and artifice sigils in your transmutation spells.)
- Blood Magic: An offshoot of divination that uses pooling blood as a reflective medium. All things that reflect and refract can serve as a means to scry destiny, and in alchemy all the parts of a thing are parts of its whole. (You can use a person's blood, skin, hair, or other samples as though they were reflective or refractive materials pre-tuned to that person. The more personal and identifying the sample, the better the result.)
- Balance of Humors: An offshoot of divination that uses a body's alchemical makeup to influence their behavior, and thus their destiny. This is the origin of such things as love potions, but also immortality elixirs. (You can use a person's star signs as properties in your transmutation spells.)

Sigils
Evocation
- Fire: A sigil which denotes the element of fire. By itself, this allows the conversion of things from or to fire.
- Water: A sigil which denotes the element of water. By itself, this allows the conversion of things from or to water.
- Earth: A sigil which denotes the element of earth. By itself, this allows the conversion of things from or to earth.
- Air: A sigil which denotes the element of air. By itself, this allows the conversion of things from or to air.
- Mana: A sigil which denotes magic as an element. By itself, this allows the conversion of things from or to magic.
- Iron: A sigil which denotes the sub-element iron. This can be used to convert elements into an amount of iron in a particular shape.
- Diamond: A sigil which denotes the sub-element diamond. This can be used to convert elements into an amount of diamond in a particular shape.
- Frost: A sigil which denotes the sub-element frost. This is normally only taught in advanced storm magic classes, but someone with a highly focused mind found their own way to learn it.
Illumination
- Allure: A sigil which seeks to draw a concept to a particular result. For example, one can attract the standing "Dean of the Academy" to the result of passing their midterms, which if the academy didn't already protect iself from that sort of thing, would at least have people considering you for the position.
- Repel: A sigil which seeks to distance a concept from a particular result. For example, one can repel a particular form of death as the outcome of an experiment or dungeon delve, which is always the first actual spell taught to students of divination.
- Prosperity: A sigil which works off common ideas of success and abundance. It could be money, but also bountiful harvests, or social popularity.
- Standing: A sigil which has to do with titles and hierarchy. Those destined to be knights or nobles will often have this sign prominently in their astrology.
- Death: A sigil which has to do with the end of things. This doesn't always mean a mortal end, and can also establish a destiny as temporary or lasting until a condition is met.
Transmutation
- Healing: A sigil which identifies a body's healing properties. This can be adjusted to speed or slow the natural healing process.
- Thermostasis: A sigil which identifies a body's ability to regulate its temperature. This can be adjusted to raise or lower that amount.
- Strength: A sigil which identifies a body's muscle and growth. This can be adjusted to increase or decrease physical strength.
- Hardiness: A sigil which identifies a body's ability to withstand physical or elemental force. This can be adjusted to improve or diminish that resistance.
- Mana: A sigil which identifies a body's magical reserves. This can be adjusted to improve or diminish magical ability.

Potions and Reagents
- 3x Solution of Winter Crown: An organic solution containing the dissolved antlers of a northern elk. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. This is a fairly common reagent from the frozen north, where the barren land means hunting is still necessary.
- 2x Solution of Polar Hide: An organic solution containing the dissolved fur, fat, and stoutness of a polar bear. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. Such a reagent could only come from the frozen north, where the people believe one must hunt to earn their take.
- 2x Solution of Mammoth Might: An organic solution containing the distilled strength of a wooly mammoth. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. Such a reagent could only come from the frozen north, where the people believe one must hunt to earn their take.
- 2x Solution of Saber Fang: An organic solution containing the dissolved fangs and claws of a saber-toothed tiger. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. Such a reagent could only come from the frozen north, where the people believe one must hunt to earn their take.
- 1x Solution of Wyrmfrost: An organic solution containing a frostwyrm's magical ability to chill the body and air. It can substitute for a body with this same property in transmutation spells. A reagent of this caliber could only come from the frozen north, and the cost of obtaining it must have been terribly high.

Spellbook
- Winechill: A trivial use of transformation magic meant to chill an alcoholic beverage. Someone has gone over this spell with an eye for safety, to an unnecessary degree... perhaps as practice.
- Bloodscry: A spell which uses blood, hair, or other samples to reveal the properties of the body they come from for transmutative purposes. This is the invention of a highly focused mind for the sake of research.
- Frost Breath: A particular application of the wyrmfrost reagent to grant a body frost breath. Only one with significant cold resistance can safely use this.
- Wendigo: A second level spell that combines the winter crown, mammoth might, polar hide, and saber fang partial transformations into a full body transformation called Wendigo, in which those transformations are defined as the new form's properties.
- Adversity: An advanced divination spell that seeks to use one's own hardship as the basis for social prosperity and social standing. Whoever designed this clearly thinks their success should be measured by how closely they flirt with death.
- Frostblade: An evocation spell that uses an advanced sigil in a basic manner. Water in the air is converted to a sword of frost hardened to antarctic temperatures, becoming harder than steel for the few minutes it lasts.

 

[filigree]

Explaining Magic 101

Overview:

In generic terms, each school of magic is a single, broadly useful spell, which is then adjusted to have different uses or effects as needed. A school's root spell is called its foundational formula, and the parts of a formula that can be altered are called its principles.

To use evocation as an example, its foundational formula could be called a matter-energy conversion equation, and its principles are elementalism (the "engine"), theory of force (the "spark plug"), storm magic (the "intake" and "output"), and constructs and artifice (magitech). It's a very popular school of magic since its use is the closest to classical physics, and has few practical limits on what it can't do as long as you know how to modify the equation correctly.

These are things the main character knows, and does on their own as part of the writing. For readers it isn't necessary to do, but doing it anyways will give you a more direct hand in spell design if you want it.

All spellcraft starts at one of these foundational formulas, then manipulates its principles to achieve specific results. Going back to the evocation example, the formula which is essentially matter-energy conversion could be made to magically convert air into fire by inscribing the sigil defining air to the formula's input and fire to its output. This would ordinarily just flash-convert all air in the spell's area to fire, which is absurdly dangerous for a wizard who hasn't figured out how to specify distance or direction yet.

By including additional sigils to define which air is being used as the input, the spell can be changed from converting all air in its area to converting a specific pocket of air, and then the output can be changed from producing fire in an undefined output to producing fire in, say, a forward stream. This is a typical flamethrower spell that creates a stream of fire from a reserve of air, and once cast will continue to spew fire until the air reserve runs out. A variation on this can create a stream of air from the reserve of air, essentially just moving the air around.

Most spells work with existing materials and resources, and so aren't very taxing for the wizard to cast. The personal cost of magic is comparable to a spark plug starting an engine, with the engine then running on gas (the intake) afterwards. Larger, more complex spells with multiple formulas will require a bigger initial spark to start up, but even then the bulk of the difficulty comes from spellcraft as a skill, not so much the actual casting.

The catch is that spellwork only rarely uses actual number math. The evocation formula is the most well researched, and cleanly works by manipulating definitions of objects, locations, and sets, and by exploiting 1:1 efficiency ratios. The less researched illumination spells appear to work by changing how destiny applies to a person. Transmutation spells work by defining a body or ingredient as a set of properties, then modifying those properties or transferring them into a separate set of properties.

Magical theory is incomplete; there is no sixth sense for magic, so wizards only know how a spell works by comparing the real results against what they expected from their equations. Whole chunks of the curriculum are guesswork built on assumptions, but all an adventuring party asks is that the spells work as expected. Some wizards will pursue arcane secrets their whole lives in a quest for true understanding, but for most it's enough that they can live to see the next dungeon delve.

Foundational Formulas and their Principles:

The evocation formula, as the example above, is an equation for matter-energy conversion. Build the magical equation from known sigils and known interactions, pay an upfront mana cost to start the process, then it operates continuously until it runs out of intake.
- Elementalism's principles takes evocation and focuses specifically on the conversion part of it. Turning rocks into fire, fire into water, water into air, or otherwise. This same process can also be used to 'convert' an element into an active state, such as causing a boulder at rest to be a boulder in motion.
- Theory of Force focuses wholly on the "spark plug" part of the evocation formula, separating it from elemental reactions to instead turn magic input into magic output. This is much more taxing on the caster since their magic reserves are the intake, but magical force behaves however you want it to, as long as you can foot the bill for it.
- Storm Magic focuses on the intake and output parts of the formula to create escalating phenomena. Their output is usually a convergence or chain reaction of several varied and synergistic inputs, and often feeds back into the system to further prolong it.
- Constructs and Artifice is the physical, mechanical application of other evocation principles to create tools, weapons, and in some cases near-magitech with elemental properties. This includes golems and flaming swords, but also horseless carriages and indoor heating.

There is no unified illumination formula, since core aspects of the school are proscribed for a variety of honestly pretty good reasons. In this case, keep in mind that what is called "formulas" are actually principles of a formula for a school that isn't formally unified.
- Divination began as astrology, but also includes water scrying, crystal balls, and other methods that reflect or refract the cosmic light. No two people see the same night sky, so prisms, mirrors, and lenses are used to approximate how another person sees the sky-spanning equations of their own infinite possibilities.
- Enchanting changes how a person is affected by the destinies of others. This can be used to create love or hatred between friends and enemies, to cause a person to fail against another when they would have succeeded, or to steal their fortunes away from them.
- Observation was at one time called abjuration, and was thought to work by forcing a particular interpretation of another person's destiny onto them. This changed following a paradigm shift in how stars were perceived, from points of light on a flat surface to points of lights in a three dimensional space, and now the principle is thought to work by changing another person's destiny relative to the observing wizard's.
- Conjuration, in technical terms, seeks parallels between the signs of the casting wizard and a cooperating extra planar being to tie their fates together. From there, and with further cooperation, the two can work with their shared signs to create an agreement that can only be broken at significant cost. Every conjuration student's first lesson is to not make contracts with beings who can afford to break them.
- Necromancy is a school that seems to exist in opposition to the other illumination schools, and is the biggest obstacle to a true unified theory. Necromancy's formula divorces an observer from their destiny entirely, trapping the living and dead alike in a state that is neither life nor death, in a lightless fate where past and future have no meaning.

The transmutation formula is softer than the hard maths of evocation or the determinism of illumination, and must be inscribed directly on the body or reagents being affected. Its foundational formula is an equation to define a body or group of reagents as a set of properties, with the wizard then using the sigils for which properties they want the spell to act on, and then closing the formula with how the spell is meant to act on those properties.
- Alchemy separates the formula into two parts, with the set of definitions being inscribed on the bottle of potion, and the closing effects being inscribed or tattooed on the wizard. This system of a separated formula that the wizard casts by "bridging" is also used in the other schools to simplify complex spellwork.
- Fleshcrafting alters the properties of a mass of flesh directly, reshaping it into homunculi with just enough biology to be alive and fulfill the purpose they're made for. The principle is certainly capable of more than this, but the royal crown is having none of that.
- The Chimeric Arts require a double ended version of the foundational transmutation formula, each end of which is inscribed on a separate body, and which when completed must resolve into an equivalency. This isn't saying each body must be identical, but rather that the additions and subtractions of properties to either body must equal one body between the two of them. From there, the two then have to be surgically conjoined to match the completed formula, and the result is a living chimera that breeds true, for reasons not yet known.
- Transformation rewrites the foundational formula as a closed loop to define a property in a reagent or body which is to be altered or transferred. Unlike the chimeric arts, this doesn't change the fundamental nature of anything involved, and any changes made can revert if the inscriptions are removed.

Sigils:

Every wizard's spellbook is written from a lifetime of research and practical testing, all in the pursuit of learning how to represent ideas or things within a magical equation. A sigil is that representation, and they are written into a formula's principles to create a spell that behaves as written. You'll learn sigils from classes directly, but can also experiment on your own to create new sigils for things you don't know yet, or for things the academy isn't likely to teach you.

tl;dr: formulas are a sentence, principles are the blanks, sigils are words you can put in those blanks. Wizards make magic by playing madlibs with the universe.

 

[filigree]

Chapter One: Scarify​

It's only winter in the north.

One could say it to mean many things. That life is only hard in the north. That houses are still buried under ice and snow in the middle of spring. That growing used to hardship means being less used to comfort.

It's the third one, this time. The plush benches make even a rickety old train car an uninteresting ride. The meals are dainty and fine, meant for lips that never sullied themselves on dried meats. The air is perfumed with strange, exotic odors, supposedly to improve focus and heighten intellect.

The very air is plush. It feels like breathing thick fur. Not at all like the crisp, thin air of home.

Plush. Stifling. Hot. It's difficult to keep this half-crumpled letter free of sweat.

Welcome, Jackie Frost, to the Arkham Institute of Astral and Magical Discovery!

The letter is boisterous and arrogant. Do they hope to irritate people into joining?

As you well know, our world is one of unrivaled opportunity, where aspiring adventurers can find glory in the clash of kingdoms, where dragons gather hoards of unfathomable wealth, and where dungeon diver–

It crunches satisfyingly into a ball again. Meaningless though the gesture is.

Who cares about wizards, really? A third of everyone is born with some magical ability. Most never manage more than an inkling of what the Arkham Institute of Who Gives a Shit is promising.

Wizards make potions. Magic swords. They fight their enemies from as far back as possible, and act like they did as much as anyone else when they aren't even winded.

Someone born with the potential for magic doesn't have to be a wizard. They could be anything else. Destinies are suggestions, not absolutes.

The paper makes an unsatisfying crinkle as you smooth it out on the table again. Your name, age, species, personality, aptitudes, potentials...

Destinies are sometimes very insistent suggestions. With a hint of malice thrown in.

Wizards are assholes. Arrogant, pompous assholes. They would never lift a finger to put food on anyone's plate. They would never leave their plush towers without a slew of body guards to protect their sad, spongy frames.

They could never survive without anyone else, and here they were, in writing, making it sound like you couldn't survive without them.

Not that they'd say it out loud. All those deaths had just been accidents. Very tragic. How would–

A dainty knock on the train cabin's door puts that thought to rest. The voice behind it is just as dainty.

"Hello? Forgive me, I don't mean to intrude..."

The door starts to slide open. Slowly. A few inches give way, revealing a plain white robe with the intricate silver designs of an initiate diviner on the sternum and shoulders, partially hidden under a mess of mint green curls.

The elf on the other side must have felt like she really was intruding, because she peeks in shyly before committing any further.

Of course, she isn't intruding. These train cabins are meant to be shared. Her eyes go wide when your baritone voice says as much.

The letter crunches satisfyingly again as you crush it. For how little good that does.

Her eyes go wider at the sight of hands the size of dinner plates squashing paper into pulp.

They follow the damp little ball as it hits the wall, bounces out the window, and disappears to who knows where out in the hellish green sauna this place calls spring.

Her eyes go back to you, two perfectly round saucers on a rigid plane of a face, watching you lean back and settle in as best you're able on a bench that's starting to squelch under you.

Her mouth opens, to no avail. For a moment, you wonder if she got stuck that way, but then words come out after all.

"Never... I think I'll, uh... find another cabin. Sorry to disturb you."

The door slides shut just as slowly as it first opened. There's barely even a click as she closes it, and locks it with magic. Which she might have meant to be considerate.

Wizards. You're a wizard, Jackie Frost, you try to tell yourself.

It would take too much energy for it to not sound bitter. The noble daughter of a warrior line is a wizard, because the stars aligned to funnel a stream of hot piss from the very edge of the cosmos onto you.

Nobody back home would respect a noble who didn't earn her scars. But nobody would respect a noble who shirks her duty, either.

***

The train station bustles with countless tiny radiators who haven't figured out where they're going just yet.

People. They're actually all people, but a throng of hot bodies in hot weather may as well be a gathering of radiators. Standing head and shoulders higher than most makes them all seem tiny, as well.

You could stuff any one of them into your satchel, if you had a reason to. The satchel gifted to you by your father, packed with everything he'd thought a fresh wizard might need.

Namely, reagents the few traders wandering north ask for to bring back to the cities. Extracts of beasts common to the northern wastes, where nobody who isn't born into the cold would ever dare to set foot. Most were listed in a book once gifted to the clan by an indignant wizard, who hadn't felt the ingredients he'd sent a merchant to barter for were to his standards. A simple mirror rounds out the set, once blessed by your mother as part of a divination ritual, and decorated to remind you of home.

Plus a heaping sack of dried meats and fruits for the journey, and a full jug of berry liqueur.

Just a glance over all the luggage carts shows the truth. You're horribly under prepared for whatever it is that requires a personal library per person. Of math, apparently, and studies on the constellations, and on the particular aspects of the elements... the list goes on.

Perhaps the alcohol will be useful, after all.

Nevertheless, it's a sour mood that leaves a bitter taste. You're already loaded down with the guilt of everything your father's holdings could spare, only now to find it couldn't be enough.

But then... if you can succeed in spite of that, wouldn't it make for a good tale of its own? It might not be a useful tale to the people back home, but maybe beating the wizards at their own game would be good for a few laughs. At least until you finished wringing anything worthwhile out of it.

The flicker of hope doesn't last. Scars aren't just for show, and hunting stories aren't just for tell. The marks show you were there, and the tales are useful for the others to learn.

What could be learned here, at a wizard's academy, that might be useful to a tribe of so-called barbarians? Least of all to the brute meant to lead them?

Someone clears their throat, and somehow it can be heard clearly over the overstuffed train station. There's an ever so slight lull to the hubbub, but they pick back up again, and louder for it.

A tinny chime fills the air with an electric stillness, and it's a moment before you notice it wasn't something natural at play. The air is even stuffier, if that was possible, and it hesitates to leave your lips. One by one, mouths cease to flap soundlessly as each of the others picks up on it, too.

"Your attention, students. Your attention, please."

An aged, extremely bearded man was speaking from his own private podium on the far side of the station. His heather robe reaches from his shoulders to the floor in a pile, and there are so many glittering crystal baubles strung from its gold pauldrons and the sapphire blue sash from his shoulder to belt that, by all rights, the whole mess of it ought to have fallen off from its weight.

Of course. The stuffiest wizard of all still gets to talk.

He taps on the clear pane topping his podium, right in the center of its circular spell diagram. A ponking noise like the sound of a drum full of water gets the whole crowd's attention.

That seems to finally satisfy him. The old man clears his throat before continuing.

"Students. Today marks the first day of your illustrious future at the Arkham Institute of Astral and Magical Discovery. The best among you will become the greatest of wizards in the Dichin Kingdom. The rest will sadly have suffered completely avoidable deaths. Please try to learn from their examples."

The hushed pall over the gaggle of radiators feels less unnatural, now. The letter had said the same thing, but it's different when they send someone to come down and stop everything just to make sure you got it the first time.

It's enough to raise the spirit, if only a little. There may, actually, be something worthy of a warrior's time, here.

Whether that's true or not, the rest of the speech might as well be hot air in a cauldron already bubbling over with it. The elderly professor spends a full turn of an hourglass going on about the accomplishments of many famous past students, and how everyone here can aspire to such great heights, too.

By the time he's out of breath, everyone around you seems to have forgotten the dire warning he opened with. A certain mintette elf especially.

"I can hardly believe it. Here, at the Arkham Institute of Astral and Magical Discovery! Isn't it just exciting?"

She steps up into a cheerful twirl. It ends with her saucer eyes looking up at yours expectantly.

What can you say? You doubt it's that amazing. You're here, after all.

Her minute frown is on the polite side of perturbed. "Surely you must have a spectacular talent to be admitted here, of all places? They wouldn't let a... I mean..."

She looks you down and up. From your loose blond wave to your densely toned calves. The thick leather and furs in between make it too clear how hard she's searching for a kind way to put it.

The gathering had started to follow their pompous old grape a while ago, and it's no effort on your part to catch back up. The titter-patter of dainty little cloth shoes following after tell a different story.

Why is she spending her important time on you, anyway?

"The air smells of, ah... speech. Your perfume reminded me of the fields back home, is all. Forgive me."

That's not perfume. It's sweat.

You can see the revulsion creeping in at the edges of her polite smile.

A few strides later, she's just a distant memory.

***

The academy is an impressive sight, at least.

A black stone obelisk of a tower juts up from the dead center of a verdant glacial valley. Five smaller spires surround it at equidistant points, each braced by and connected to its three neighbors with suspended corridors. An open-top observatory of many rotating lenses forms the head, and the smooth, angular walls gradually break down into blocky classrooms that sprawl out further as they reach the base, eventually engulfing the smaller spires and seeping out into the surrounding land.

This is, primarily, a school for divination, and those lenses aren't meant to look skyward. Every one is aimed down at the classrooms during their slow and unceasing orbit around the tower's peak, sometimes overlapping another lens, sometimes changing course to point higher and outward for a half turn, before once again settling back down to gaze at the student body below.

Those classrooms, if seen from above, would form the wings, tail, and head of a bird if drawn from crude lines. The splayed tail would be dedicated to the study of evocation, and many brilliant blue spheres the size of comfortable homes shine like suns among its feathers, generating the elemental power that gives the whole academy heat, light, and running water.

The wings would be dedicated to transmutative and alchemical studies at their fringe, with the inner parts meant for lesser studies such as summoning, enchantment, and necromancy. The more developed arts would be in toward the body at the tower's base, for the practices of illusion, time magic, and the secret workings of the heavenly bodies. Individual classrooms float in the empty air between the ground floors and the spire peaks, some motionless and some orbiting, for seemingly no reason but to reduce how many walkways are needed to connect them.

The surrounding countryside is made up of farmland, a small town near the south foothills where the train lets off, and a mining village spread over the western mountain range. Much of the valley is undeveloped, with a broad, open field that may have once been a lake bed in its southeast end, and a long, dense forest following the eastern half of the valley up to a wide delta which by now is a fetid swampland.

Countless inns line the streets near the train station, their names an exercise in every imaginable pairing of animal and innuendo. The student body has lost all cohesion by now, filtering out into the town to spend their allowance on lodging, food, entertainment, and company.

All it takes is a glance to know they'll find plenty to spare. The town seems to have nothing but, in fact. Bars for the drunkards, song and dance for the merry, merchant stalls for the discerning, and all manner of less reputable things in between. Even in sight of the train station, there's an ongoing slave auction for chimeras, debtors who sold themselves to cover their families' dues, and prisoners bought from the gallows for any price better than death. Other stalls offered hard drugs chemical and magical alike, among which were proudly marketed love potions, which anywhere else would be deathly illegal.

"Isn't it incredible? No law save the crown's, all in the name of study."

Any more debauchery in this place, and you might have been too distracted to keep from coldcocking a suspiciously familiar mintette elf out of sheer surprise.

You're starting to wonder if this is why a full third of the student body dies before graduating.

She seems put off by the very idea. "O-oh. Well... surely not, when these grounds have the highest survival rates of any academy?"

For a place that claims to record the future of everyone in its walls, any accident seems like a lie by omission.

Her mouth is tightly pursed at the idea. She hums something that isn't a word in reply, and begins to walk down the street with her personal book cart in tow to meet the last waiting stage coach.

The station is mercifully silent with its second to last passenger gone. The train's wizard mechanic gives the grounds a look over, checks a bauble on his wrist, cocks an eyebrow at you, then shuts himself behind the exit hatch. A short wait later, and you can hear the arcane flame engines slowly building heat for the trip back.

Three months from now, another train will come through with another class of students. Then another, a few months later. And another.

A third of all people show some degree of magical aptitude. Only the best are invited to academies such as this one, with rare exceptions for those who show outstanding promise.

Or, it seems, exceptions for the daughter of a petty lord of an inhospitable fiefdom that was established as an experiment and virtually forgotten. Where a magical act, one which was later forbidden by royal decree, allowed people to adapt and eke a living from the frozen wastes, and to pass those changes down to their children.

If you'd been born to anyone else, you might be on sale with those unfortunates at the auction. But someone chose a different destiny for you.

A quick hoist brings the satchel of things comfortably back on your shoulders, then it's off to do what needs to be done. For your homeland, if nothing else.

~~~

View your character sheet here.

You are in the academy's entrance town. It's a little after morning now, and you're expected in the academy tomorrow morning to start your classes. Your classes were chosen for you already, based on what you would have picked if given the choice. They didn't bother asking you first.

You have 150gp in your bag, and everything described in the chapter is available to do. For the market, you can name virtually any non-unique magical or non-magical object and expect to find something like it at suspiciously affordable prices. If it would be worth more, it's probably fake but a passable imitation. Lodging for your first day is free but limited by availability, as long as you are a student of the academy.

If you want to buy a person, you'll find the characters who didn't win the creation vote hit their final bid at just under 150gp. You can choose to free them after buying them if you have morals, or you can buy them as a menial, companionship, test subject, or "comfort." Lewd scenes are fade-to-black unless it happens three times, at which point the thread will continue on NSFW.

Now, then...

[] What do?