Back to school: Arahom Academy IC

[wadledo]

Another year at Arahom Academy begins, and with the school parked on the material plane for the day, most of the new students are arriving in the entrance hall. The Dean presides as best he can over the induction ceremony, dropping a number of the crests that signify academy membership onto the faux stone floor.
You all, on the other hand, stand quietly against the wall or are entirely absent, preferring to work on your own projects rather than deal with a horde of nervous freshmen.
The first few days in a term are sooooo much fun.

[Lochar]

Pixil

Pixil prefers to hover quietly in the top corner of the room, hidden from all but the best eyes, even if he isn't invisible at the moment. He does, of course, want to see if anyone can actually spot him.

Last year's batch was pitiful. I mean, not a single one saw me. There's got to be someone here with at least a small amount of talent.

After a few very long moments of looking at all the students, he grins when one of them finally looks up straight at him. And then chuckles as the lizard looking freshman pulls a dagger and makes to throw it at him.

Letting himself turn invisible and stepping into the shadows, he appears on the odd lizard's shoulder. "Now, now. No attacking the teachers until after you get processed. What's your name?"

"Kizzar." The lizardman says, swatting at Pixil.

Another laugh as he slips back through the shadows, his last sentence echoing. "All you are is potential right now, Kizzar."

[Vaynor]

Aryana dances playfully around the large group of new students playfully, swinging her Rod of Wonder to and fro, causing several students to turn purple and some growing grass on their bodies. The returning students stoically stifle snickers, knowing that a laugh in her direction will result in several dead students; Professor Tirac has a temper. The freshman look in her direction confusedly, not quite sure what they're seeing. Aryana continues to dance around the students obliviously.

"Balstran! ...Balstran! BAAAAALLSTRAAAAAAAAAN!"

The angel turns to Aryana and sighs, well before the first calling of his name has finished, "Yes, ma'am, I can hear you." Yet she continues screaming, in a whining voice.

"Balstran! There's new students!" she says as she points, gasping at her companion. "Did you see them Balstran?"

"Yes, I can see them," he says, looking around at the largely noticeable crowd of well over ten thousand. Students expecting an irritated look in his eyes instead see a lovingly knowing look governing his face.

Aryana giggles and continues on her way, summoning an elephant with her rod, hopping on top, and turning it pink. Her familiar, Jenkins, teleports up to sit next to her. Jenkins looks like an ordinary dog, except for you can never quite tell where he is at any given point. Oh, and he has tentacles sprouting from his back, which is covered in amorphous blobs and drooping skin. Balstran jumps into the air and flies above the elephant (which is currently plowing its way through unsuspecting students), worriedly changing students back to their normal size, color, and shape.

((Pink elephant!!!))

[wadledo]

"BOBO! ATTTTTAAAAACCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!"
A young looking kobold boy, his glasses askew and eye's slightly crazed with battle fever, stands directly in front of the elephant, his arm outstretched and pointing in what he thinks is a heroic pose.
"Tolin, Sir."
Tolin's golem moves quickly in front of the boy, forming a solid wall of mithral against the pink elephants charge.

Meanwhile, the shower of luggage caused by its dash from the far side of the room sends hundreds large suit cases and trunks into the air.

The Dean also seems to have finished giving out the crests, and has begun a rambling speech that involves why he believes lead lining should be baned from every bathroom in all the multiverse.
A few of the 15000 new students cheer, before a cat-folk wilder uses ego-whip.

[Tacitus]

Hans, The Oracle That Said So

The fluttering of a dozen wings branching out into a dozen more wings each with a giant smiling face at the center echoes around the strange professor. For most taking the shape of a beast beyond most mortal imagining but the quirky little divinations instructor had a knack for more obscure shapes. He'd seen it the last time the school passed through the elemental plane of air and was relatively sure its bits and pieces were scattered about the school undergoing various tests. The exact wing structure was changed slightly and he had added a face but it was effectively the same creature. The strangest part of all was the damned giddy smile the thing had.

[Lochar]

Pixil

Giggling quietly to himself, Pixil looks over the pink elephant, before teleporting to Aryana's side. "You know, pink is really overdone. Polka dotted purple and green would be entirely better."

Frowning when the elephant is stopped, Pixil shouts out to the student. "No stopping the teacher's charge, please. Allow the elephant through."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

The tall shape of the vampire lord drifted down through the grand hall, robed in silken vestements of red and black. He slipped through the riotous chaos of move-in day with a practiced ease. As insane as the school was, after a millennium or so, one got used to its rhythms. He walked along the crowded floor as if he were taking a quiet stroll in a garden, pausing now and then to quietly appreciate an especially interesting or exotic flower before walking on, much to the disgust, or at least seeming disgust of the feline perched on his shoulder. He was mentally reviewing the courses he was teaching this year, and his planned cirricula. He had a feeling it would be another interesting one at the Academy.

Gently tuning out the dean's ramblings, he stopped to appreciate a gaggle of drow and half-fiends who were already working on enslaving a few of the lesser students. Ah, youth. He did like the precocious ones.

[Vaynor]

Aryana turns to Pixil and giggles, "But his name is Pinky! It would be silly to call him Polka-Dotted-Purple-And-Greeny, it's much too long. Anyways, he likes being pink, don't you Pinky?" she says as she turns back to the elephant, giving it a pat on the head and smiling. Pinky gives a small trumpet ((what noise does an elephant make? :smallconfused:)) and continues charging through the students, rapidly scrambling out of the way.

After a while longer, Aryana sighs, "Pinky, that's enough, let's leave the students alone now," she says decisively. The elephant disappears from under Aryana and she flies off, circling just above the heads of the students (one sprouting leaves "Oops!").

Swooping back towards Pixil, Aryana says "New students are fun, huh?"

She releases a stream of butterflies in his face, giggles, and flies off.

((I love that effect, 600 butterflies! :smallbiggrin:))

[Lochar]

Pixil

Pixil laughs, being covered in the butterflies. "New students aren't bad. As long as we actually have a set this year that don't fail out in the first few hours of their classes."

Considering the butterflies are almost the size of Pixil's head, swatting them does him no good, so he just lets them fly around.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Catching the last snatches of the conversation as he drifted up behind Pixil, Zamark gave a wry smile, his eyes glinting. Teaching is a bit like refining ore... you have to melt away the slag and the impurities before you get to the good stuff. And if you make the penalties for failure stiff enough, either you straighten out a student, or you get rid of them. Either way, clearing out the deadwood is a good and natural thing. Gives you room to focus on the students who deserve it.

Meanwhile, on his shoulder, his familiar watched the multicolored butterflies with the predatory interest of cats everywhere. Zamark gave her a curious look.

You know, my dear, it's curious... you're smarter than some of the students, yet you can't resist the urge to pounce on the first shiny, fluttering thing that passes by.

And you're a millenia-old walking corpse, yet you can't seem to resist eyeing or pouncing every pretty thing in a metaphorical skirt.

Touche.

[Lochar]

Pixil

"I know Z, but it's a pain weeding 'em out. I mean, most of them haven't even gotten their deposits in for resurrection magic, and then you know the casters are always hovering around, looking for bodies to raise. And it gets annoying having to shoo them off as well."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Zamark nodded, looking around thoughtfully. I can understand your point. Generally I don't deal much with the lower forms, as I teach more advanced classes, as you know... Honestly I try to ignore them unless they seem to be something special. As for dying off - He gave a brief shrug Then they've proven themselves unfit to survive if they don't have some sort of contingency for that. Again, just weeding out the dead. Besides he grinned the corpses are useful for the necromancy students. Shooing them off, though? I generally find a good application of a spell or two takes care of them. Wrack is a particular favorite, and it ensures they won't be doing it a second time.

He looked around briefly. He saw a couple of ogres engaged in that perrenial favorite, Kick the Kobald. He grinned when the kobold, growing tired of the sport, shot a few unerring Magic Missiles directly upward into a very sensitive portion of one of the ogre's anatomies.

Anyway, looking forward to this years classes? Anything interesting on your plate for this semester?

[Vaynor]

Aryana pipes in after listening intently to their conversation, "This semester I'm having potatoes! Me and Jenkins that is, Jenkins likes potatoes. Balstran won't eat potatoes, he's a vegetarian. Plus, a moose stole his lunchbox," she says in a matter-of-fact way. She smiles up at them, then starts spinning around laughing.

[elkhantar]

Skaveress

A shadow stalks the newcome students, focusing on those that seem to rely less on the arcane. None of them seem to see him, although he realizes a few of them managed to notice his presence. Their uneasy movements and nervous looks at the empty air gave it away. Hmm tremorsense? blindsight? intuition? pure and sheer dumb luck? seems we have several interesting students this year he thinks as he walks away.

Skaveress jumps a few yards away as pinky, ignorant of his presence charges where he was standing a few moment before. The large hulk of the black humanoid can be seen as he flies through the air, far from the shadows that were concealing him.

The astral stalker grins at the mayhem that Aryana causes wherever she passes by before disappearing when he lands, in the middle of another small crowd of students. Several punches by an unseen aggressor seem to stop dead a small melee among three humans and two orcs right after it started.

I dunno, Zamark, I haven't been introduced to my students yet. He pauses to see one of the humans is standing up after his punch and punches him again. They seem determined, at least he adds, as he knocks the human down.

[wadledo]

The Dean motions for the melee to cease and activates the massive teleport circle, transferring everything that's not immune to magic to the auditorium.

The luggage begins to fall back down onto the auditorium floor........

[Lochar]

Pixil

Immediately when the circle lets go of them, Pixil teleports a few hundred feet in a random direction. "Blasted dwarf." he mutters to himself.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Zamark, irritated by the sudden sensation of being ripped to the center of the room and clustered amongst the students, easily levitates himself vertically above the press, noting others doing the same. He spoke to Skaveress, seeing him nearby Yes... determination is absolutely essential, provided its paired with skill and natural ability. We'll just have to see how they shake out.

[wadledo]

Pixil: You end up inside a hollow tree.
The dryad who's head you're sitting on asks tentativly "Umm, hello?"

Zamark: Your sudden ascension puts you directly in the path of a large fluorescent pink suitcase.

[Lochar]

Pixil

Pixil grins. "Just checking to make sure the drapes match the carpet." he says before dimension dooring away again, this time only forty or so feet, enough to get lost in the crowd.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Zamark arched an eyebrow at the bright pink suitcase hurtling suddenly towards him. Extending a hand palm facing upward, he made a sudden upward motion with his hand, altering the trajectory of the suitcase so that it flew harmlessly over him

Telekenesis spell like ability, used to apply some pressure under it to lift it safely over my head

[Tacitus]

Hans

With the smile never leaving his face the ball of feathers bats away a few students and flutters around a bit. He never truly seems to come in contact with any of the students unless batting them away and moves almost as if he were expecting every last motion. He tumbles up into the air with as much ease as one would merely walking forward.

[The_Snark]

Lacile

In the shuffling mass of figures trying to adjust to the sudden shift of location, one of them manages to slip through, leaving polite yet perfunctory apologies in her trail. Eventually, the white-haired figure of the student counselor becomes visible, wearing school colors as usual on these occasions.

"All right—come on now, settle down, somebody's going to get trampled if you keep milling about like that!" She gestures, encouraging people to stop, and the chaos of new students immediately around her starts to slow down in the fact of an apparent authority figure. The flying figure of Zamark, gracefully sliding out of the way of a falling suitcase, catches her eye.

"Zamark dear, would you mind helping to make sure these suitcases get down without hitting too many people? We're never going to get anywhere if we can't get everyone to stop milling around." A cantrip helps her words make it over the din.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Zamark gave an evil grin in response But Lacile my dear... if they can't dodge the suitcases, how will they last a week here? He sighed, then rolled his eyes. Still, I suppose they are only adding to the discord... very well. From one of the innumberable pouches around his person, he pulled a feather, and, with a simple gesture, created a truly massive pillow, with which he began to scoop up the flying luggage and return it safely to earth.

Polymorph Any Object to create the pillow, Telekinesis to move it about

[Vaynor]

Aryana giggles at the pillow, then, raising her rod of wonder, blows air from her mouth, which is expelled with the force of a windstorm. The pillow is knocked out of the air as the suitcases fall to the ground, causing much confusion amongst the students. "You're forgetting that without chaos, this would just be another one of the Dean's boring speeches," she says, smiling lazily. "After all, where's the fun in a civilized environment," she adds as Zamark grows leaves from all over his body.

[The_Snark]

Lacile

"You've got to give them a little time to grow, Zamark. They're not all in advanced classes just yet." She looks a little piqued as Aryana disrupts the efforts at suitcase-catching. "You know he's going to wait until things are quiet and then give the speech anyway, Aryana," she says practically. "It'll be quicker if we leave the chaos until classes start."

[elkhantar]

Skaveress

Listen to Lacile, Aryana! suggests a growling coming out of nowhere. Some of us would rather have less chaotic classes than yours he suggests, trying to hide from the loose end of the rod of wonder.

[Vaynor]

Aryana sighs, "Fine, I'll leave them alone," and flies off to the corner and sits down, awaiting the speech.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Zamark sighed, looking down as he sprouted leaves. With a snap of his fingers, the leaves were engulfed in an ebon flame that quickly defoliated them down to dust, which drifted down from his body. Dusting himself off, he gave Lacile a slight smile. Agreed, they need some time to mature and learn, and can't be expected to do everything right away... but it's no use coddling them, either.

[Vaynor]

"Exactly, if they can't cope with some chaos how will they ever survive in this school? They need to learn fast and learn smart, if they don't start learning the second they come here they'll fall behind." Aryana grins and flies a little higher, trying to get a look at the headmaster, waiting for the impending speech.

[wadledo]

"Ethem....."
"Eighty nine thousand score and 4 years ago, I brought to this school a new order, conceived of bloodshed and spells cast from the bowels of my enemies.

We are now engaged in a new school year, and those bight faces I see before me bring me nothing but sadness and hatred.

It is in this, I announce my retirement.

May you all have a good day."

The dean disappears in a puff of smoke.

The crowd of students and faculty begins to mob at the news.

[Lochar]

Pixil

Quickly turning invisible, not that it would help against some of the smarter students, Pixil dimension doors over to Skaveress. "So, you think it's a new twist on his speech, or did the old coot actually retire?"

[Tacitus]

Hans

The feathered mass tumbles about until he hears the announcement, whereby his wings stop fluttering entirely and he falls to the ground, likely coming rather close to crushing at least a few. One of his wings scratches at the top of his face as though scratching his head, "I should have seen that one coming."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

The ancient vampire arched an eyebrow at the news. He had to admit, it was... surprising. Of course it could be just another moment of irrationality from the rather... eccentric headmaster. Hmmm... well, there are any number of possibilities. It could be simply a random act of insanity.. or a clever ploy. Possibly both. In any case, as I'm sure you've all realised... if this is real, then the obvious question become who takes his place.

[elkhantar]

Skaveress

What the feth? swears the astral stalker. The news had shocked him, since the dwarf had given no clues of what he was about to do. Skaveress looks at his pixie colleage and considers his words for a moment. Well, that didn't sound as fake to me he says Although that doesn't mean the old man comes back if he ever grows bored of whatever he plans to do now. Skaveress pauses shifts his weight, uneasy.

When Zamark raises his question, it's not too hard for him to reply. Well, I'm not the overlord type, and I guess some of you he points at the magic versed teachers are better prepared to deal with running this god-corpse-plane so as long as you don't interfere too much with our classes he shrugs I don't really care.

[The_Snark]

Lacile

Lacile looks rather cross. Really now, would two weeks' notice have been so hard?" she mutters to herself. A moment later, she's all smiles again, casting a simple spell.

A voice echoes into the Dean's podium and across a good bit of the auditorium. "And thank you to the longstanding Dean of Schools! Please, quiet down; you'll be able to ask questions of your counselors after student orientation."

"As you've been informed, there will be some changes in the school administration, and we're considering more. None of these will interfere with your classes, however, and we hope to make sure that all of them are beneficial to the school."

"Now, all freshmen please make your way to the exits and form into groups as directed; the assistants will take you to your rooms. Aquatic students, please make your way to the headmost exit—currently northeast, in Prime directions. Students requiring sunlight-rich environments, please..." Lacile's voice continues directing students in a calm, assured manner, exactly as they were directed every year—first the freshmen, who always took a while to get to their rooms, and then the upperclassmen, who were more used to navigating the school (and could answer questions for lost-looking first-year students).

Not that Lacile is actually saying any of this; the illusion is maintaining itself. "Nothing's going to interfere with classes," she says softly to the nearby teachers. "We're going to keep on as if nothing were different, at least for the first day or so, and once we have the students settled in and persuaded that this is all normal and was planned for, then we'll see what needs changing or replacing. All right?"

Persistent Image used to do the voice; Diplomacy [roll0] to try to get things quieted down and orderly.

I'm assuming that there's some sort of organization to these assemblies and getting the students into place, because really, if there weren't one already Lacile would have set it up. In the absence of actually knowing what it was, I've made something up; if Lacile actually set it up, that's quite appropriate.

[Vaynor]

Aryana gasps, then quickly hides it, trying ery hard (and failing miserably) to hide her reaction. ((not exactly a prime diplomat, what with the -10 modifier to bluff checks)) She flies over to the rest of the teachers and whispers to them, "I wonder what will happen now? Who should be the new dean..."

[wadledo]

A Formian Queen who teaches sewing and minion management begins to herd the students to their dorms, her taskmasters only occasionally using their whips.
A large number of other higher powered teachers begin to slip away up the esophagus/library, heading for the brain and the deans office.

[The_Snark]

Lacile

"That does seem to be the question of the day with the teachers, now doesn't it," Lacile says briskly. "Really, I don't see that it matters that much; we can live without someone to decide policy disputes for a few days. Nevertheless, I think it's time we have a faculty meeting before we end up with a faculty civil war." She casts a spell, gesturing to indicate that those nearby should take her hands, and teleports them into the hallway leading to the old dean's office, just outside his door.

Greater Teleport.

[wadledo]

You land in some brain tissue, right outside the door where a cat-folk receptionist chews gums noisily and asks in a voice like thousands of dying glass golems; "Yehs daharling, vhats can I do for you today?"

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Zamark sighed, taking Lacile's hand in his own. As she prepared to cast the spell of teleportation, he remarked dryly In my younger days, I would have lept at the chance... anymore, though, it's far too much of a headache to bother with. Besides that, I enjoy teaching too much... that comment about a civil war wouldn't be too far off, though... and given the nature of this place, it might be a far more literal metaphor than we would like.

When they arrived at the desk, he moved over to the desk, giving a polite smile and positively oozing charm. Yes, the dean has... mmm.. well, apparently taken an unexpected leave of absence. Would you kindly allow us to look around his study for a moment to see if he left any instructions as to how the school should be run in the interim?

[roll0]

[elkhantar]

Skaveress hurries to grab Lacile's stretched hand. She had successfully managed to handle the awkward situation the dean (well, ex-dean) had caused, and seemed to know what to do. Come, Pixil. Lets see what this year brings. The Astral stalker's brain worked very fast. He could already imagine making some adjustments to his classes. Perhaps the new dean would approve if he brought some new, dangerous quarries... a small increase in the death rate of his class shouldn't be too troublesome.

[wadledo]

"Of course daharling, just go right through those doors."
The secretary fluffs her bee hive hair-do and begins to file her nails.

The huge door to the left of her looks vaguely ominous.
It also has the rune in old-dwarvish for chicken on it.

[Lochar]

Pixil

Pixil has gone along with the game so far, watching the other teachers bemused. "Civil Wars are no fun. Well, not usually. Teachers usually end up barricading themselves in their offices, living off of summoned water and the occasional passing student. And it's so hard to dig them out of their entrenchments."

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Umber leaned forward, examining the door carefully with Detect Magic to see what sorts of enchantments might be on it before he did anything so rash as touching a likely-protected magical portal.

Speak for yourself - the last one was quite engrossing. also one of the best chances I've ever had to teach guerrilla tactics and asymmetrical warfare. Lost seventy-five percent of that year's class, but I'll be damned if every single one of the remaining didn't pass the final. Of course, their graduation ended up being somewhat delayed until we could clear out the last pockets of resistance, but it was one of the best EVL 403's I've ever taught.

[wadledo]

Zamark: Depending on how long you watch the door for, you sense:
1st round
Magic, everywhere

2nd round
37 auras on the door alone, with an overwhelming aura on the old-rune

3rd round
All the magic is transmutation.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Zamark sighs and rolls his eyes. Ugh. Some people have absolutely no taste. Should I be turned into a chicken, kindly find a way to change me back...

Zamark braced himself and reached out to open the door...

[The_Snark]

Lacile

Lacile glances at the door briefly, eyes flaring with a little bit of magic. "Just a moment, Zamark. Let's see what they are first, shall we?" She moves closer to the door, examining it without actually touching it.

Using the loremaster's true lore ability to get an Analyze Dweomer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/analyzeDweomer.htm) effect on the door.

[WhiteKnight777]

Zamark

Zamark pauses in mid touch, smiling and pulling back his hand before making contact with the door. Thank you. As you know, my magical talents aren't quite as analytically focused.

[wadledo]

The door causes a cursed magical item, the Chicken Hat of Dancing, to appear on every odd numbered persons head when they travel through the door.

[elkhantar]

Skaveress

Are the doors or the walls warded against teleportation? asks Skaveress, stating what would be an obvious defense for him. It makes sense, although perhaps the old man was so sure of himself that he didn't worry he suggests.

Due to his total lack of magical skills, the astral stalker had to rely on the other teachers to determine the properties of the dean's doors

[The_Snark]

Lacile

"Hard to tell from the outside," Lacile says absently. "A ward of that sort wouldn't need to extend past the walls." She sighs. "Oh, now this is a silly thing. Let's just try the teleporting." She carefully steps to the side of the door, so that the teleportation won't be interpreted as going through it, and casts the spell, motioning to the others to take a hand.

Yay for having more spell slots than you know what to do with! Teleport.

[Vaynor]

Aryana takes Lacile's hand, grinning. "Ooh, this certainly is exciting..."

I have some teleport's prepared too, if you need them.

[elkhantar]

Skaveress

Ok, let's try it. agrees the Astral Stalker. I guess if there's several of us in there we will be able to better handle whatever the dean left inside he adds. And perhaps there are other teachers (or students) in there already, so let's hurry!. Skaveress gets closer to Lacile, waiting for her to cast her spell.

[Vaynor]

Bump! What's going on, Wadledo? We need some action here!

[wadledo]

2 people need to post.:smallannoyed:
And you need to say where you are.:smallmad:

[Lochar]

Pixil

As stated earlier(in OOC), Pixil is sitting, or at least floating above Skaveress' shoulder.

[Tacitus]

((Sorry, I forgot and then got hit by a ****ton of school, work, and family events.))

Hans

The ball of feathers with a giant smiley face is upside down in the center making a big a mess with his wings as he can.

[Vaynor]

2 people need to post.:smallannoyed:
And you need to say where you are.:smallmad:

I realize that, but waiting on two people for 15 days and doing nothing about it isn't helping much.

[elkhantar]

Well, it was partly the fault of all others also, since he stated OOC that he needed to know where we are (relatively to Lacile) and we didn't answer so...