Introduction to the Spiritual Arts
The following content is a synopsis of Act I – Chapter 1 of Volanthia Divided, a campaign set in Norlanin and played by members of the Realm of Strife Patron’s Guild.
The new students arrive at the lecture halls for their first class for the semester, Introduction to the Spiritual Arts, with Mastermage Alonsus Wetherby. He is middle aged mage with a caring face and kind demeanor. He goes through the basics of magic and its laws, as well as some discussion regarding the Realms of Origin. He finishes the class by showing the students a strange purple ooze beneath a class case, claiming it to be a creature from the Realm of Wonders.
As the students head to lunch, unbeknownst to anyone else, an older boy named Roland Hardwick steals the creature and puts it in an unsuspecting classmates drink as a practical joke. It is Woggugat, a misshapen Orc runeweaver and former circus freak, who is the butt end of the joke. The purple slime reacts with the Orcs spirit infused physiology and begins growing and replicating inside his stomach.
The young orc vomits himself unconscious, spewing purple slimes all over the cafeteria, while Roland and his group of friends run off laughing. Fellow classmate Merek Hughes is displeased, his own father in prison for being an Orc sympathizer in a nation where Orcs are reviled as the enemy. Merek decides to go after them, regardless of the odds. Valleen Waycrest, knowing Roland for the bully that he is, asks some of the others to go with Merek for his own safety.
Dwahain and Marimas agree with her and go after them while Valleen, Arthur and Hadrian stay behind to deal with the purple slimes. They receive some unexpected assistance from the quiet young Kayden student named Shariekk, who stays hidden and strikes from the shadows.
Sure enough when challenged Roland and his friends turn on the three that went after them, letting Roland’s vicious pet dog loose on them. Dwahain isn’t intimidated by the unpleasant beast and quickly knocks it unconscious, enraging Roland. Things quickly get out of hand but Roland and his friends are soundly beaten, and left humiliated, bruised, bloodied and mostly naked tied up in a fountain.
Meanwhile despite their best efforts in the cafeteria, the purple slimes continue to grow and multiply, quickly getting out of hand. Eventually Mastermage Alonsus Wetherby arrives and unleashes powerful magics to destroy them.
While he is impressed with their bravery and the fact they they defended their fellow student when he was being picked on, he asks that next time, they go for help instead of trying to deal with it themselves. After learning about how the bullies were dealt with he sends Merek, Dwahain, and Marimas to see the headmaster for punishment for getting carried away with their vengeance. They each receive a “strike against” in the schools strict three strike policy, and are also assigned additional cleaning duties as punishment.
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