[IC] Thornwood Academy for the Eldritch Arts

[Sorceress]

THORNWOOD ACADEMY FOR THE ELDRITCH ARTS


Principal: Grissom Crane
(Order of Azazel, First Class; Dread Warlock of the Ninth Ring)

Dear Mr/Ms. [Your Name Here],


We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Thornwood Academy for the Eldritch Arts. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.


Session begins on September the 1st. We await your raven by no later than July the 31st.


Yours sincerely,


Calamity Bloodgood
Vice Principal






BOOKS and EQUIPMENT

DRESS CODE

We are pleased to announce that this year will be our third year of having a relaxed dress code. Students are allowed to express their personal styles should they wish, in their day to day affairs at the Academy. However, for formal school events, all students must possess at least one school uniform in the school colors of Ebony and Bone.

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have ONE copy of EACH of the following books:


Ars Magna et Ultima (by Ramon Llull)
The Black Rites (by Luveh-Kerafph)
Daemonolatreia (by Remigius)
De Furtivis Literarum Notis (by Giovanni Battista della Porta)
De Vermis Mysteriis (by Robert Bloch)
Of Evill Sorceries done in New-England of Daemons in no Humane Shape (by Derleth)
Occultus (by Heiriarchus)
Thesaurus Chemicus (by Roger Bacon)
Unaussprechlichen Kulten (by Friedrich von Juntz)


OTHER EQUIPMENT


1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 magnifying glass
1 set brass scales
1 crystal ball
1 set tarot cards (rider-waite)

PET POLICY

The Academy allows the student one companion/familiar animal, but it must be either a Raven, Cat, Snake, or Spider.





https://s17.postimg.cc/8p4vskyov/thornwoodcastle01.png




Monsterhearts: Thornwood Academy for the Eldritch Arts will be played using the Monsterhearts 2 book, and using the Core Skins only -- in play-by-post format on the GiTP forums. It is not set in our world, though to many it might seem so. No, a world not unlike our mundane one exists like the film on a soap bubble, with a world of dark magic and monsters hidden beneath.

Your characters may have been part of that dark world before, a world of black magic and curses, faeries and demons. Or they may have lived lives untouched by the occult before selected to attend the Academy. But whether they were monsters before or are recent arrivals to the Eldritch World, they now each have an opportunity to grow until their full Dark potential -- together.

Setting Facts


Not every NPC student is a Monster, but they’re all there to study the Eldritch Arts.
The school is located near the fiction town of Dunham, Massachusetts, in the United States, where many of the characters grew up.
The school is in a castle, hidden from the real world by Glamours and Geasa.
Ravens are the most popular companion animals, and they also deliver messages.
Students live at the Academy, but they can often get day/night passes to visit Dunham as well.
You start off not knowing any spells yet, nor how to use your wand properly.


Campaign Moves

There are no Sex Moves, they are Fade to Black Moves instead.

When you Lash Out Physically with Your Wand, roll Volatile as normal. Wands inflict 1 harm, or 2 harm if you have a +2 or higher Dark. On a 7-9 add this to the list of choices: Your wand shatters.

When you Cast a Spell That You Know, roll Dark. If you get a 10+, the spell works without issues. On a 7-9, it works imperfectly: choose 1 glitch. The MC will decide what effect the glitch has. On a miss, you lose control of the magic. This never ends well.

Glitches:

The effect is weakened.
The effect has short duration (only for affects that don’t already have short durations).
You take 1-harm ignore-armour.
The magic draws immediate, unwelcome attention.
It has a problematic side effect


Reference Sheets and Core Skins (http://buriedwithoutceremony.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/reference-sheets-and-core-skins1.pdf)




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4





Professor Draven Finch

Reminds people of a rat.




A

Zephyr Black
Pretty and bored by you.
Shoots down all advances.

Alexander Finch

Smartest, and he knows it

Ryan Cortez

The Class President

Pamela Lynx
Basket-case with crazy eyes.
Held back from the previous year.



B

Luna Hunt

She often stares lovingly at Zephyr.
Very empathic.

Teresa Montoya

The Mom Friend (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mom%20Friend).
Recruits people to play D&D.


Shinji Himura

The Ghoul
Rejected

Alice Cottingley

The Fae
Touched by the Gift


C

Skyler Lovelace

Conspiracy Theorist

Laura Warwick

The Werewolf
Favored by the Moon

Ada Leech

The Vampire
Taken this Century

Diedre

The Mortal
Nobody


D

Vesh Dupree
Fancies himself a Duelist.
Captain of the school debate club.

Agnes Slipknot

Like, super conservative and old money.

Avira

The Ghost
Murdered in Hot Passion

Wendell Crane
The Principal's privileged great-grandson.
Hates being the Principal's great-grandson





Academy Life was supposed to be the easiest class of the day, or at least that's what all the older students told you. However, today, the Professor was running late, and the students were running early. And that many young people in one confined space was a recipe for disaster.

It started out poorly. When you arrived, Pamela was already in a verbal fight with Ryan.

"Just shut up. Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP!" Pamela shot a wild sideways look, a warning look, at the handsome class president sitting next to her. "You TALK TOO MUCH!"

Ryan was taken aback, as if this verbal assault came out of nowhere. "Woah, settle down Pam."

"DO NOT CALL ME THAT!" She shrieked and slammed her head down on the desk.

"But it's your name." He complained, with just a hint of smarmy.

She stopped her dramatics and froze. Her unkempt hair seemed to frame her wild face, with smudges of something eldritch (or just nasty) on her cheeks instead of make-up. Her jaw was clenched tight. She was wound up tightly like a spring, ready to go off at the slightest provocation.

And Ryan didn't seem like he was going to let this drop.

"What's that smell anyway?" He said. And it was clear that the proverbial poop had just hit the fan.

[Mr. E]

Ada, the Vampire
Harm: 0/4
Experience: 1/5
Strings;
Alice: 2
Avira: 1
Laura: 2
Shinji: 2
Diedre: 4

Ada drops her backpack on the floor, sliding it beneath her desk with a sigh. She flicks her hoodie back and runs one hand through her close cropped hair. A frown creases her features as the volume from the front row increases. At 8:30 in the morning, it is, to her mind at least, far too early for anything louder than whispering, and whispering this ain't.

She rolls her jaw around, letting her fangs descend for a moment, razor sharp teeth sliding down to tickle her tongue. They hang for a moment more, eager to strike, until Ada, with another sigh, dismisses them. Letting them retreat back into her jaw, she frowns with the promise of bloodshed deterred, leaning back in her seat. Looking at Ryan with sleepy eyes, she reaches up with one hand to wipe them, yawns with a mouthful of perfectly normal sized teeth, then snaps tiredly.

"Ryan, mate, just don't. It's not worth it, 'specially not at this time of the morning."

Alright then, first roll of the game. Going to shut someone down:

[roll0]

Or then again, maybe I'm not :smallwink:

[Sorceress]

Ryan glanced at Ada. His jaw had a bit of a lantern shape, but in a way that seemed somehow proportional to his beautiful, chiseled features. "Mate? What am I? Flypaper for freaks?" His eyes sparkled.

In in that simple proclamation, he labeled Ada a freak, such was the power of a popular boy in his own domain.

"I'll show you what a freak looks like!" Snarled Pamela, lifting up her wand, perhaps with the intent to menace Ryan with it. The students hadn't been taught how to use those yet, but remember -- she was held back a year. Who knows what she might be capable of!

Ada may be a hottie, but even hotties are subject to the whimsical rise and fall of popularity. She gains the Freak condition. She needs to be seen comfortably socializing with some cool kids in a future scene to clear this condition.

Good news, Freak: You get to Mark Experience whenever you fail a roll!

Bad news, Freak: There's blood in the water, and you're surrounded by sharks.

[Raine_Sage]

Shinji, The Ghoul
Conditions: N/A Harm: 0/4

Shinji has been watching all of this unfold with mild disdain, but he's not particularly keen on getting in the middle of it. He's not particularly impressed with Ryan goading her on into a confrontation, nor her responding outburst. However once the wand comes out it's really kind of too dangerous to ignore. He just got here, he's happy to be here, he's not about to have them all reduced to match sticks so early in the school year. He steps up to Pamela and takes her wrist as she brandishes the wand and locks eyes with her.

"Pamela," he says softly, though the words carry a certain kind of weight behind them. "I really wouldn't. You should sit down. And you..." he turns to look at Ryan, "should stop provoking her. I assumed the class president was supposed to know better than this."

We'll shut down Ryan here since on balance I think Shinji is being meaner to him than he is to Pamela right now. [roll0] Ah excellent, I'll take a string on the class prez then.

[Sorceress]

Ryan frowned. "Fine, whatever." He grumped. "I was done with her anyway." He said, as if the whole thing were sour grapes.

Pamela, on the other hand, jerked her arm away from Shinji and she shot him a stink eye. It wasn't clear if this was over with her, or not. But pushing her might just provoke her into action. Then again, waiting to see what she does might be just as big a mistake.

Zephyr took her seat and her raven followed her in, flapping over people's heads before landing on the desk in front of her. She fed it some sort of nebulous meat-like treat that it snapped up. It tilted its head to look at her curiously. When she smiled at it, the room seemed to grow a bit lighter.

Luna, who was sitting behind Zephyr, just sighed, and had a weird smile on her face.

[Xenopax]

Diedre, The Mortal

Diedre had been watching Ryan and Pamela go at it. Their yelling stopped him from drifting off to sleep. He'd had loads d work to do last night so he didn't get much sleep. Diedre was worried for a second that he'd have to try to defuse the situation before watching Shinji do it for him. Diedre nods appreciation to the Ghoul. He then stretches to banish any further sleepiness.

When Ada comes back to her seat he inquired about her emotional state. Being called a freak Infront of the whole class probably wasn't the best of experiences.

[Konatsat]

Avira, The Ghost
Experience: None
Conditions: None
Harm:0/4

Avira - who had been staring off into space at her desk - is brought back to reality as the argument escalates noticeably. She frowns slightly finding the whole ordeal an unnecessary conflict. As the argument develops, she grows more uncomfortable, trying to decide between attempting to stop the argument and likely making a fool of herself or letting her classmates fight. As she searches for a solution to the dilemma she begins to slightly hover out of her chair, again losing herself in thought until she realizes that the argument had already stopped and it was likely Shinji who had stopped it. Thankful that someone had succeeded in stopping the conflict but slightly disappointed in herself, Avira resettles in her desk, waiting for the Professor to appear.

[LeSwordfish]

Alice's desk was directly behind the altercation, and so she sat back sharply when Pamela kicked her chair away and stood. Alice was thin and near-androgynous, pale-skinned and with rich sea-blue hair. She tended to be quiet, usually only speaking when addressed - and she seemed hard to rattle, even now only leaning back away from the growing brawl, adjusting the guitar case by her chair so it wouldn't get knocked over.

"Pamela." Perhaps her full name would help. Alice's voice had a slight celtic lilt - mystifying in a girl from Missouri. "You won. You got him. Nothing to keep fighting for now."

[Raine_Sage]

Shinji, The Ghoul
Conditions: N/A Harm: 0/4

He just brushes past Pamela to get to his seat. If she has a problem with him intervening it's clear he's not interested in engaging unless she forces him to, though he does spare a glance at Avira before sitting down.

"Frankly it's too early for any of this." He says it half in reply to Alice, half as a general statement to the room.

[Xenopax]

Diedre mutters silently so that only he and maybe those in the desks near him can hear,
"It's too early for anything"
Then he says louder so that the others can hear,
"Anyone know what's taking the Prof so long?"

[Sahe]

Laura's arrival in class was heralded by her running footsteps on the polished floor of the academy halls. She had enjoyed the hot shower for a moment too long and now she was late for class, only a bit but still late. It was only this weird "talk about your life at the Academy" class, but still. She knew Alice would be there, what would she think of someone that was late? Probably nothing, she probably didn't even know she existed.

A problem Laura most likely unintentionally fixed a few moments later when she suddenly burst into the class, pushing open the door so fast that it rebounded and slammed shut behind her with a loud BANG! Laura felt like all eyes were suddenly on her. "Sorry" she said and gave a weak excusing grin and then scanned the room in turn. Her eyes shortly resting on Alice before realizing the the teacher still wasn't here. A bit flustered she made her way through the classroom and slumped down on her chair.

[Sorceress]

Agnes cast a momentary glance at Avira, or maybe she was just looking past Avira toward the door, impatiently waiting for the Professor's arrival. Better a rat-like stodgy old guy droning to the class than to put up with her classmates' adolescent dramas. Seeing that there was no sign of the Professor's arrival, she sighed and looked down at her phone, to express her dismay at Thornwood now letting in people from all walks of life.

Pamela turned her crazy eyes to stare at Alice. "If only you could see. But you're blind. You're all blind." Then she sank heavily into her seat and lowered her head to the desk with a thud. Her wand was returned to her oversized purse, filled with all sort of scary things.

Skyler was the only one to answer Diedre's question. "Maybe he's watching us right now, seeing how we act when he doesn't show up on time. It could all be a test."

Laura's late arrival wasn't all that remarkable, but the bang that accompanied it was. It drew a great deal of attention. And all those eyes, silently judging, criticizing. Too much attention like that was dangerous. She was under scrutiny, and would have to be careful what she did because even the smallest mistake could be magnified.

[Raine_Sage]

Shinji, The Ghoul
Conditions: N/A Harm: 0/4

"That seems incredibly unlikely." Shinji responds to Skyler's slightly paranoid theory as he takes out notes for his next class and starts reviewing them out of boredom. "I've never known a teacher willing to go through that much effort to confirm what they already know. If he needs to spy to know students goof off when the teacher is absent then he'll be amazed when he figures out water is wet."

[Mr. E]

Ada, the Vampire
Harm: 0/4
Experience: 1/5
Conditions: Freak
Strings;
Alice: 2
Avira: 1
Laura: 2
Shinji: 2
Diedre: 4

"Maybe," Ada says, with a shrug, "maybe Finchie is just as bored as we are. I bet he doesn't want to hear about my s***ty weekend either. Gotta say that seems more likely than him 'evilly plotting' in the caf."

Unzipping her backpack, she extracts a notebook and begins to rapidly scribble inside the front cover. Tearing out the front page, she begins to write a note, frowning at the letters. Biting her pencil, she mutters to herself and turns it over, starting again. She scrubs it out twice more, then finally finishes it, folds it up, and puts it in her pocket.

[LeSwordfish]

"This may not qualify as normal "goofing around"", Alice said quietly to Shinji. "Cortez trying his best to get his head blown off, for example."

She caught Laura's eye as she came in, and furnished her with a polite but slightly distant smile. Her eyes sparkled, but they always did.

[Sorceress]

Skyler narrowed his eyes in a challenge at Shinji, but that look faded slowly into a misguidedly confident smirk. "That's just what they want you to think." Skyler announced. "I've heard things about the way this place is run. Remote viewing. Hypnotic conditioning." And then his voice lowered to a stage whisper for dramatic effect. "I even heard that some of the students here may not be ... human." And he smiled tightly.

Ryan puffed up a bit. "Come on, just let it drop already." He said to Alice. "She started it anyway." He was referring to Pamela.

Pamela responded by lifting her head a bit, and snarling, before lowering her head back onto her desk.

Alexander decided to take this opportunity to chime in. He turned around to face the rest of the class, but mostly directed his comment to Skyler. "Vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's monster -- trolls, elves, goblins -- if you took a moment to get a preview of the required reading material, you'd come to expect to encounter all manner of things that go bump in the night, and those are just the tip of the iceberg. What we really should be concerned about is an infiltration of Things Unfathomable. When one dredges the Source Immaterium, sometimes we shed a light on things best left undisturbed."

Teresa responded with wide eyes. "Well, let us all agree to dredge neither too greedily, nor too deep." To which Alexander smiled appreciatively at the reference.

[LeSwordfish]

Alice shrugged at Ryan, and went back to fiddling absently with her guitar pick. She scowled into her desk at Skyler's talk of Things Unfathomable, suspecting a little that she might be one.

[Mr. E]

Ada, the Vampire
Harm: 0/4
Experience: 1/5
Conditions: Freak
Strings;
Alice: 2
Avira: 1
Laura: 2
Shinji: 2
Diedre: 4

Ada smiles at the description of her and her kin as "the tip of the iceberg." An appropriate description, really. Cold and very, very sharp. The smile is equally cold, directed at her page. The discussion does, in addition, provide an excellent distraction to slide her note across to Shinji's desk.

She tells herself that she doesn't care, but deep down she'd rather not attract any more gossip. No need to be called a freak twice in one day.


Can we talk? I feel like I owe you an apology. At lunch?

There's no roll for slipping notes, although I feel there almost should be. Ehh, what could possibly go wrong.

[Xenopax]

Things Unfathomable. Source Immaterium. Who named these? It sounds like something out of an old novel.
Diedre scoffed at the naming of these things. While he understood that giving them gothic names made them more mysterious, he couldn't understand the point of doing so. It was like calling a werewolf "The Wild Ones" or a Vampire "The Night Hunters", It was Stupid and Unnecessary.

[Sahe]

Alice had smiled at her! If Laura hadn't been flustered before, she certainly was now. She reached down into her pocket and pulled out the scrap of paper she had written her stupid Haiku on and read it once more.

Moonlight shining bright,
Blue hair girl, angelic voice.
I don't want to feast.

She smiled, maybe it wasn't so bad, maybe she should just give it to Alice. But that smile quickly faded when she realized in what condition her little poem was. The paper torn apart and taped back together, the word more scratched into the paper than written down. She did not have pretty handwriting.

Laura was taken out of her thoughts when she heard the others discuss werewolves, among other things and suddenly she felt very visible. Even in her human form she had some features, her ears were different though often hidden beneath her hair and even now her fangs appeared longer and canine. Not to mention the way she carried herself and her general behavior some would describe as feral. It wasn't unusual for Laura to sniff the air, picking up scents, like the one unmistakably belonging to Alice.

Looking over to her she didn't seem happy with the current discussion. Was she perhaps a wolf like her? No, she would have picked that up in her scent. Alice didn't smell like a wolf, didn't move like a wolf. Maybe she was different in another way. Either way she felled compelled to speak up, "Who cares if some are human or not? We're still people."

"****!", Laura thought as she realized that she had just let slip that she was different, hopefully, nobody had caught that. Oh, who was she kidding? Everyone had just caught that.

[Xenopax]

Diedre heard Laura speak and took a second to comprehend what she said. "We're still Human," as if she was one of the those who had been spoken. She seemed too pretty to be an Ogre. Not that he had seen one before. Diedre was relying purely on what his grandfather had taught him. Maybe a Goblin? Vampire? or perhaps a Wolf. He quickly wrote up a note and gave it to Ada and requested her to pass it to Laura. He wasn't friends with Laura, so nothing was lost if he was just overthinking it and she became offended.

"We're still human,"

[Konatsat]

Avira, the Ghost
All the talk of the unnatural beings worried Avira slightly. She had imagined that going to a school of magic would be populated with some manner of mystical beings, however, she had found no evidence of that being the case. This lead to her considering multiple hypothetical situations if she were to be found out and what the subsequent fallout would entail. Perhaps she would be ostracized, or expelled, or worse, the person who found out could use it to control her, forcing her to do whatever they wished. She shuddered slightly at her own musings, too caught up in her own thoughts and wishes that class would start soon to realize what Laura had said.

[Mr. E]

"Sure." Ada takes the note, not so subtly reading it as she picks it up, then looks across at Laura's desk. She looks the other girl up and down, noticing the hints of muscle hidden beneath her clothing. Staring back down at the note, she contemplates it for a moment more, before scribbling an addendum on the other side of the scrap of paper. Shrugging, Ada turns in her seat, reaching over to slide it over to Laura's elbow.


From Diedre;

Mission completed, she turns back around to look at Shinji's response. After all, it was hardly her problem if Laura was something that didn't take kindly to whatever kind of obscure blackmail Diedre was trying to run.

Ada is very good at assuming the worst of everybody, hence her conclusion that Diedre must be trying to blackmail Laura.

[Raine_Sage]

Shinji, The Ghoul
Conditions: N/A Harm: 0/4

He's somewhat surprised by the note Ada passed him. Both because she didn't seem like the sort of person who offered apologies freely or easily, and also because he personally felt she didn't have much to apologize for. He was the one who'd thought it would be a good idea to harass a vampire on what was always a long shot at immortality. Still, he's curious.

He writes "Alright" on the paper in neat even cursive before handing it back to Ada. He raises an eyebrow in inquiry but otherwise seems content to wait for lunch in order to talk properly. Especially with everyone else tittering about monsters now.

[Sorceress]

Professor Draven Finch arrived. He rushed in through the door, and shut it quickly. He dropped a couple of rumpled-up looking letters, and he bent over to pick them up, dropping some more paperwork in the process. He was, in other words, quite disorganized. Zephyr cast him a rather curious, but critical, gaze, and Professor Finch lifted his head up, pushing his round-lensed glasses up on his short nose, and squinted a warning at Zephyr.

Finally, he got his stuff together, and managed to present himself at the front of the class.

"There have been ... some unfortunate developments today. The senior class has -- disappeared."

Murmurs spread through the class, this was clearly unexpected, and the Professor's disarray only added to the sensation that this might, in fact, be something to panic about.

[Xenopax]

“Disappeared as in? Were they there one second and the next second not? No one can find them? They might just be off having a party somewhere where the Magics haven’t found them yet. Or is it actually serious? More importantly is it our problem?”

Finally, something Interesting! All of the theories about Laura were swept aside with theories of what happened. He hoped to high heavens they weren’t just partying somewhere that they haven’t found them yet.

[LeSwordfish]

Alice sat up sharply. "They... they didn't just all go out for ice cream or something?"

[Sahe]

Laura read the note, Ada had given her (from Diedre) and rolled her eyes. Of course somebody had caught that. Well she was used to being the weird kid, the misfit. Back when she was going to a normal school people had given her crap for being poor, for being black, for being the kid with the stripper mom and the crazy grandma. Well, now she could be the weird girl that was also a wolf sometimes, whatever screw it.

She was just about to turn to Diedre and snarl at him, clearly showing her canine teeth as an act of defiance when the door flew open and Professor Finch hustled in, awkwardly shuffling around and dropping his papers for a moment before addressing the class with the strange news that caught everyone's attention. Laura thanked the moon for that, feeling she just dodged a silver bullet worth of awkwardness right there.

"Maybe the ****ed up a spell", Laura vocalized her thoughts, "you know, shrinked themselves to the size of ants, or managed to wish themselves out of existence or whatever."

[Raine_Sage]

Shinji, The Ghoul
Conditions: N/A Harm: 0/4

"I suppose anything is possible but that is still... unfortunate."

He's not really sure how to process this, though that's mostly because no one knows what's happened yet. It could be anything from them deciding to play a prank, to some sort of dark magics, to a class assignment gone wrong. It certainly sets the tone though, anything really could happen to them couldn't it?

[Mr. E]

"Well then," Ada says, with an expression that hovers between appropriate pity, concern and hunger, "who eats children round here?" She says it quietly, not loud enough for the teacher to hear, because you never know who the monster is, really.

Then she straightens up, looks around the class with her manicured expression, and asks a question, with just a little bit of fake fear (and maybe some real fear lingering underneath) in her midlands accent. "Are we safe? Could it happen again?"

[LeSwordfish]

"Maybe the ****ed up a spell", Laura vocalized her thoughts, "you know, shrinked themselves to the size of ants, or managed to wish themselves out of existence or whatever."

"Is that... possible?"

[Xenopax]

“It’s Magic. Who knows? ****e doesn’t make sense. Although Wishing themselves out of existance probably would take a lot of energy,”
Another Headache. Where Magic came from. Normally he’d be agonizing about it for the rest of the period but he had better things to do for now.

[Konatsat]

When the professor finally arrived, Avira focused on staying focused, believing that the lesson would be starting soon only to find that something much more interesting had happened. She hoped that the senior class members were safe and that they would be found soon, it would be horribly sad if they were suffering.