This episode begins with the team preparing to enter into combat. Several dog-sized animals begin to approach from an upper-level. The creatures, quadrupeds, have strong muscular bodies to tolerate the harsh 1.2G environment, and feature a large jaw that they appear to be able to hold liquids in. Out-of-game, the players discuss some combat specific rules such as how initiative, AC and making attacks should be handled.

Rolling into initiative, V1CK3 starts first. She uses her laser pistol, but fails to land a shot. Rayner considers teleporting closer to one of the creatures, but opts to run forward instead, closing some of the distance. Billy moves towards the raised platform holding the administrative consoles, and aims using his slug pistol, but also fails to hit. RV-96 expresses no confidence in taking a shot, but tries anyway, also failing, deciding to not try again any time soon. He considers if they can make some cover using equipment in the industrial area. One of the creatures approaches and engages into melee distance with Rayner. It strikes, hitting him for one damage. A larger variant of the creatures approaches and aims itself towards Billy. Using its jaw, it spits up a type of acidic liquid in his direction, but he easily avoids it. A final creature approaches from another direction towards V1CK3, but doesn't close enough distance to attack her.

In round two, V1CK3 fires at it in retaliation, but again fails to hit. Rayner, now in melee range, decides to punch, making an unarmed attack against the creature, dealing enough damage to see it fly off a side railing onto the floor far below. RV-96 creates a make-shift barricade to help protect the team from one side. Billy fires his slug thrower again, but misses. The larger creature makes another spit attack, but also fails to hit Billy. The creature coming from the south continues to move towards V1CK3, almost within striking distance.

Round three sees V1CK3 attempting to step away from the approaching creature, and shooting again. She misses, but gives herself some distance. Rayner attempts more punch magic, but doesn't get enough juice to hit through the larger creature's armour. Billy makes another shot, still missing, and decides to move away from the larger creature as much as possible. RV-96 asks M.I.R.A. if she can provide security assistance, but the system is limited while in reserve power mode. RV-96 tries with the pistol again, but fails. The larger creature steps forward, trying another spit attack, but only just misses Billy. The smaller creature, in melee range now with Rayner, attacks and gets an eight.

For round four, things finally get interesting, with V1CK3 getting a critical hit against one of the creatures. The single shot is enough to take it out. Rayner walks heroically up to the remaining creature, and makes a single wide swing with a punch attack, getting another critical.

With the creatures defeated, the team assess the situation and move to ensure it is defensive. V1CK3 continues the required works on the electrical feed, needing several hours to get it done. RV-96 explores, finding a large opening that appears to have been open with explosives, presumably by the Grashnar when they were sealed in by M.I.R.A, and would explain how the native creatures got inside the station. Several hours pass and V1CK3 hits the switch, bringing main power back to the station itself, with lighting and other non-critical machinery spurring back to life. With power restored, M.I.R.A. has regained additional access and directs them via an elevator suite to the atmospheric control chamber on an upper level. M.I.R.A. coordinates for the researchers to be brought up as well with their equipment, and they regroup in the room.

Inspecting the new room, they find a large open chamber with several tanks of atmospheric elements, stored in different liquid or gaseous states. The researchers note that M.I.R.A. doesn't appear to have access to the atmospheric controls, and that something may be blocking it. While not technically in contract, RV-96 offers to review the situation. The team walk up to a main console and see an alien device connected to the machinery, faintly sending off a signal, and possibly performing an override over local controls. Reviewing the controls, they see it has been set to a mixture of Nitrogen 50%, Methane 30%, Hydrogen 12%, Carbon Dioxide 3%, then trace gases. RV-96 knows that this sounds like what the Grashnar home planet consists of, and assumes the device is intending to maintain an override and report on the status to the initial team that came to the station. They elect to change the controls back to a human-preferred mix, tweaking the percentages accordingly. The team inform the researchers that with the change, the Grashnar may return, but they could activate M.I.R.A.'s defences and give the team a call if they get into trouble. The researchers send the agreed amount, a total of 3000 credits, and begin to review their equipment and examine the terraforming station machinery.

The team travel back to the ship, and fly it back to the open dockyard they had parked it in earlier, on the outskirts of Kallisto. With some more money, they debate on what to spend it on. Billy checks his voicemails, finding dozens of messages made by Datum, expressing concern on the return of the Argo. The voicemails play, including at the time the ship took off, the day after, and eventually a threatening voicemail from Keelex, the hot-headed leader of the other party. Billy approaches the team about this, and they decide that they need to deal with the situation. Billy calls Datum, continuing the lie of being a government inspector, and indicates that the ship can be returned, but only for an absurd amount of credits. He hangs up and blocks Datum's number, hoping the situation has been dealt with.

They consider how the ship could be tracked and agree to get it repaired, making it capable of operating as a vacuum once more, and also decide to re-paint and formally rename it. See The Ship for more details. They update the transponder with new details, using the name of "Victoria" as captain, and change the ship's broadcast name to Argocadian, painting the ship a mixture of olive green and brown. They pay the necessary cost for the ship parts and spend a day and a half getting it repaired. As the episode ends, the players recap having accomplished player goals, having now reached a level-up in Stars Without Number, and their intention to follow-up with Stavros on the radio signal.

The story continues with the team debating on how best to make some credits, while they wait to hear from their first client on some further work in a couple of days. Out of game, the players discuss character advancement, and confirm some goals for their players. Most notably, everyone wants to make money. Some long-term goals include V1CK3 wanting to pilot a large ship, while RV-96 wants to explore more the concepts of what it means to be an android, and what it means to be human.

The team review the planet-wide data net, and find a series of available jobs:

• A salvage enterprise on Dakia, "Spritos Salvage and Sons", has exclusive rights to salvage the crashed space station Pantheon, which once served as the administrative capital of Woll before the collapse. The company subcontracts short term workers for as little as a day at a time, paying standard rates per cubic ton of scrap recovered. Additional reimbursement is provided for acquisition of pre-tech artifacts, trinkets and technology from the untouched sections of the station.

• The government of Syros is readying for an annual celebration, recognising their establishment as an independent power on the planet. In preparation for the day's events, the government has an open tender for starship captains that can transport goods from outer regional towns to the capital, though chatter on the datanet indicates that some locals aren't too friendly with the hardline Syros government.

• A group of research students from Yunsa, home to the Courtesans, are seeking a chartered flight to take them, and their bulky equipment, to one of the functional terraforming engines on the planet which has started to give off odd readings. They are presently stuck in a port bar in Kallisto.

They elect to take on the last job, and reach out to a woman named Decima Marcia Aurius who posted the job, agreeing to meet at Orion's Bar & Grill within Kallisto itself. The team express some concern that the ship, technically-but-not-really stolen from its former occupiers, could be tracked and choose to disable the transponder completely, and temporarily names the ship from "Argo" to "Argofuckyourselves". V1CK3 takes the ship up, and they fly towards the city, seeking a landing pad to go to Orion's. To their surprise, without an active transponder code, most legitimate businesses avoid dealing with the ship, leaving V1CK3 to take the shuttle craft down in a less reputable yard further away from the city, where the owner is happy not asking any questions. They pay a small landing fee and head into town.

As the team arrive at Orion's they find the interior is laid about with ancient spaceship parts, presumably used during the liquid fuel era. Rayner makes his way to the bar and immediately orders whisky and ribs, taking the entire bottle. Billy looks around, and spots what looks to be their contact for this job, a woman wearing a dress with gold thread, conversing with two male figures in similar formal attire. With his experience, Billy overhears them speaking in Latin, the 'formal' language of the aristocrats of the Courtesan society in Yunsa. Billy introduces himself, before bringing the others into the conversation. The Courtesans introduce themselves as Decima Marcia Aurius (or just Marcy for short), Mamercus Juventius, a short, red-haired eager technician, and Lucius Antius, a tall figure with dark hair, armed with a laser pistol. Marcy explains that they are research students from Yunsa, eager to learn more about pre-tech terraforming machinery. Recently, they were informed that a terraforming station a few hours outside the city started giving off odd readings, and received clearance from the local government to investigate it. They explain the job itself is straightforward, to deliver their large research and monitoring equipment into the terraforming station itself. The team agree to the job, and have the students bring their gear to the shuttle for transport, taking off a short time later.

In mid-flight, the team find time over the two-hour journey to raise questions to the students. RV-96 makes the most of this opportunity, speaking with Mamercus about the intricacies of the science behind it. Approaching the tower itself, they see a large dark green tower that sticks out of the ground that rises several stories high. V1CK3 finds a suitable location to land, and they begin to unpack the equipment. Stepping outside, the team notice that the air smells foul, with V1CK3 and Billy picking up a strong gassy smell, which is determined to be higher concentrations of Methane. The research students indicate it is possible the station is putting out an incorrect atmospheric mix, and everyone prepares appropriate breathing gear to tolerate the interior of the station. Walking up to the main door, they find it appears to be in a 'lockdown' state, with a large, bulky security door in-place. Rayner approaches and connects via a small terminal to see the technical abilities of the station. He finds the station itself is in a low-power mode, with the station keeper program, M.I.R.A, on standby to conserve power. Rayner proceeds to lift the lockdown on this main door, but notes that many other doors will also need a manual override without a station-wide network online.

Entering into the station, RV-96 warmly indicates that the details of the contract have been fulfilled in that the equipment has been delivered to inside the station. The research students express some concern, given they can't proceed further past the lockdown, and renegotiation updated contract terms to have the team investigate the problem and get the equipment to the atmospheric mix room. The team look around and follow some signage that directs them towards M.I.R.A, finding in a small room a single terminal with a blinking console. As he approaches and begins to type into it, a static, friendly voice fills the room and introduces itself. It asks for valid authorisation for the team to be present, so Rayner quickly hacks an input terminal to produce a fake reading. M.I.R.A. accepts this, assuming they are a technician that is over 600 years late for the scheduled maintenance. M.I.R.A. indicates she cannot lift the station-wide security lockdown until power has been restored, as she is currently operating on emergency reserves. They enquire more on why the lockdown came into effect, and find on some security footage that several bipedal creatures, grasshopper-like in appearance, walked into the station several weeks ago using a pre-tech access pass to walk in. RV-96 notices these bipedal creatures as the Grashnar, a species indigenous to the Kraz system, one jump away from Woll. RV-96 mentions to the party that the Grashnar's home planet does have a higher concentration of methane in its atmosphere, which could indicate what the mix has been changed to. For now, they decide to fix the power problems for the station so that they can get the equipment to the right location.

Travelling under the station, they eventually arrive in what appears to be an industrial area, designed to perform some sort of power generation for the station. They walk up to the main administration console, and find a dog-sized native animal dead next to a set of high-voltage cable lines, presumably having tried to chew through them. Looking around, they do see signs of more of these animals being present, including animal droppings and marks. V1CK3 leads the charge in getting the electrical repairs fixed, getting some initial works done first to get additional lighting back into the industrial area. The others seek out some spare equipment from a storage closet M.I.R.A. directs them to, bringing it back for V1CK3 to work with. RV-96, continuing his steadfast managerial duties, notices in an upper railing several additional creatures, similar in appearance to the dead creature near them, are approaching rapidly down a set of stairs. RV-96 informs the party, and they prepare to enter into combat.

The story continues with the team onboard the Argo, attempting to unload two large boxes of pre-tech parts, as well as a military crate labelled "FORCE DOME". They hear footsteps coming from the above cabin, with a voice shouting out, asking if they are Keelex or Sasha. Billy quickly moves out of a hiding position and takes on the persona of a government inspector for the Kallisto government. RV-96 approaches, showing the military crate they found in the smuggler's hold. Datum expresses concern, indicating it isn't his, trying to pull up data on his drone to show he didn't bring it in. Rayner releases his control of the drone, but Datum is surprised that there is no recent history of the team walking up to the ship. Billy indicates he should invest in some high quality drones and passes him his business card.

RV-96 and V1CK3 begin to carry the FORCE DOME crate off the shuttle, indicating they intend to confiscate it for inspection. As they carry it down the cargo ramp, RV-96 notices what looks to be Keelex and Sasha arguing with a service technician on the other side of the hangar bay. He hastily brings the crate back onto the ship, much to Billy's surprise, and indicates the FORCE DOME has been 'activated' and they only have minutes before it goes off. RV-96 indicates they need to commandeer the ship to get to a safe distance, requesting V1CK3 take over. They manage to convince Datum into following the false situation, getting him off the ship, and walk upstairs to the rest of the shuttle craft. V1CK3 makes her way to the pilot's chair but finds that the ship's hangar bay release is locked, pending payment. The team quickly call Yanis Markopolis, the owner of the landing berths, and relay the 'situation'. RV-96 implies the illegal weaponry is targeting the admin building where Yanis resides, which scares him enough to release the hold on the ship.

The ship takes off, with V1CK3 a little rusty but comfortable enough to get it into the air. To ensure the 'show' continues, they decide on firing something off the back of the ship for show. They inspect the cargo hold and find a number of large batteries. Opening the cargo door, Rayner throws a battery out the back, with Billy shooting it with his laser pistol. He hits, causing a minor explosion that, they hope, will fool those on the ground looking up at the ship. The ship flies off, with their destination being the radio telescope operated by their client, Stavros.

A short time later, they arrive in the upper mountains just outside Kallisto, and bring the ship down near the main administration building in an open field. At this point it is late at night, so Stavros approaches in his pyjamas. He expresses some concern with the time of day they arrived, but is overall thankful on their quickness in recovering the pre-tech spare parts. He sends them the remainder of their promised funds, 500 credits per person, and asks if they'd consider helping him install the parts around the telescope in the morning. They agree to rest for the evening, with the humans of the party offered accommodation inside the administration building. Rayner seeks out some late night food by raiding a vending machine, V1CK3 starts to perform a full diagnostic of the ship, and RV-96 secretly installs some monitoring devices, designed to pick up a copy of the expected 'signal' that is due to be received in the next few days.

In the morning, Stavros eagerly assigns the team to different tasks, including physical repairs using the parts on the telescope itself, as well as re-programming the ancient mandate-era control terminal to re-position the angle from the horizon. RV-96 helps Rayner with the programming, able to find some old reference manuals which discuss the required button mashing. V1CK3 handles the physical repairs outside. Billy is asked to wake up Stavros assistant, who is known to be unreliable and lazy. As Billy approaches to wake him up, he realises this is one (of many) of the people who owe him a bit of money. He pushes him to help Stavros, and expects payment when he sees him next.

With the work complete, Stavros thanks the team and indicates that if they are nearby, he expects to have further work for them once the radio signal is received in a few days and has been decoded. As they regroup on the ship, V1CK3 looks through some data on the ship and finds out it has been wiped in the past few months, but the overall hardware indicates it is of mandate-era design. They decide to look for some smaller jobs in the meantime to make some credits, repair the ship and get it capable of operating in a vacuum.

Tales from Trantor presents: Stellar Drift, a Stars Without Number podcast series, using the revised edition ruleset, created by Kevin Crawford.

The cast for this series include:

• Ben, the Game Master/Referee for the game.

• Jackson, playing William "Billy" Lapp, a fast-talking human with a shaded past he seems to be running from.

• Luke, playing RV-96, a humanoid VI with managerial experience.

• Michelle, playing V1CK3, a worker bot VI with expertise formerly in piloting ships, but most recently making coffee.

• Ze, playing Rayner, a tall, brutish human specialising in computer programming and psionic teleporting.

The story begins in the year 3208, on the habitable moon of Woll, in the system of the same name (see the Sector map for more details), which orbits around a large gas giant called Filru. Through one reason or another, the characters have found themselves in the capital city Kallisto, looking for work on the public data net. Each of them have enquired and agreed to speak with a contact, a government employee named Stavros Makris, at a location called the Last Light bar, to learn more about the job. Looking around the bar, the team introduce themselves and what they look like:

Billy is middle-aged man, hunched over in a corner of the bar, nursing a whiskey, visibly uncomfortable with the 1.2G standard gravity of Woll. V1CK3 a VI worker bot, leans against the wall monitoring the room. Her flat, dome-shaped head clearly makes her stand out as a robot of some design. Rayner has positioned himself in a dark corner of the bar, his data pad providing a small source of illumination, searching for details on Stavros online. Finally, RV-96, a humanoid android, walks through, clipboard in hand, surveying the room.

After some time, an elderly man with a beard wanders in, dressed in the aqua blue uniform that identifies himself as a government employee of the Kalistan government. He looks around the room before walking up to what appears to be a set of rowdy adventurers, assuming these are the group that agreed to his job. He begins to introduce himself and moves to explain the mission. Billy strides in, mistaking at first whether or not the others in the group are in fact the people who signed up, but quickly confirms with Stavros that he has approached the wrong people. Enquiring around the bar, he finds V1CK3, RV-96 and Rayner who identify themselves and move to another table.

Stavros explains that he is a radar technician, and he is offering a time-sensitive mission where he needs to acquire pre-tech - technology from the Mandate, pre-scream - equipment that can be used to repair the radio telescope he maintains on a mountain just outside of town. He explains he had hired a team to acquire the parts originally, but they fled upon finding out they could make more money offering the pre-tech parts to other interested buyers. He reiterates the time-sensitive nature of this job, as the telescope must be able to receive an expected radio signal arriving in approximately three local days (60 standard hours). He offers them a small amount up front, with the remainder when they deliver the pre-tech parts in person to his telescope. Stavros goes into detail about the original 'team', consisting of Keelex Bane, Sasha Fury and Datum, a team who had signed up to his first posting, but have since ignored his calls and have begun offering the goods on the local data net. The team take the initial payment, and begin with a lead Stavros suggested, that the 'other team' are located somewhere within Fogtown, an industrial and seedier part of the city. They depart, with RV-96 calling a taxi to take them to their destination.

After some shenanigans with getting into the taxi itself, the team arrive in Fogtown a short time later. They pay the driver and start to consider where the other team may be lying low. V1CK3 searches the data net, finding several rental cube hotels that are frequented by short-stay travellers intending to cut costs. They begin to walk and check out a nearby hotel. They enter inside, seeing a young receptionist at the counter. Billy walks up, and attempts to introduce himself as Keelex Bane, and associates. The woman expresses confusion, as she believes she checked in Keelex yesterday, and Billy fails to convince her of the deception. The team consider other avenues to check out the rooms, with Rayner stepping aside to go to the bathroom. RV-96 provides an informative discussion that cooperation is in her best interest, with her agreeing to print an access card to get them into the room hosted by Keelex and Sasha. At the same time, Rayner steps back out of the bathroom, activates his psionic abilities to teleport, and shifts to immediately behind the woman, knocking her unconscious. They express some concern over the way they handled it, but move on to inspect the room.

Walking upstairs, the team find the room that unlocks from the access pass. They find several physical mail notices with "Overdue", "Final notice" "Payment required", indicating that they have a history of avoiding payments or avoiding creditors. From the interior of the room, it is quite clear it is hosting just Keelex and Sasha. Rayner finds a data paid inside and attempts to hack it, finding it is several versions behind on its operating system. Gaining access, he realises this belongs to Sasha, and acquires some information, including that they have a shuttle craft called the Argo docked in a nearby landing berth, along with conversation logs with several interested buyers wanting the pre-tech parts. They elect to scout out the ship, assuming this is where the parts are being kept.

The team make their way to a landing berth in Fogtown, owned and operated by Yanis Makopolis, and find a number of technicians, humans and robotic, working on or moving to repair or inspect starships. They approach a main office, meeting with Yanis himself, and pretend to be delivering parts to the shuttle. Yanis expresses relief, but indicates he won't release the hold on the shuttle craft until the owners pay their fees. He directs them further along to a hangar bay further down the corridor. As the team approach, they see a small drone operating in a fixed, repeating scout pattern, monitoring signs of approach to the shuttle itself. Rayner attempts a difficult check to remotely access the drone, but finds the drone itself is also behind a few versions, and gains access to run simple commands. He plugs the drone's camera feed into his own data pad, and guides the rest of the team on approaching the shuttle without being caught. V1CK3 uses an access panel on the rear of the shuttle craft to open the cargo bay doors, and they step inside.

Reviewing the contents of the cargo bay, they find the pre-tech parts in two large crates, which they prepare for transport. As RV-96 inspects the room, he notices what looks to be a fake wall and inside a smuggler's hold, intending to conceal the contents from cursory inspection. Looking inside, RV-96 pulls out a large green crate labelled "FORCE DOME". A subtitle reads: "IF FOUND, RETURN TO THE NEAREST MANDATE MILITARY BASE. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OPERATE THIS DEVICE WITHOUT PRIOR TRAINING". The team express some interest in taking this back with them, but with four pairs of hands for three large and heavy crates, they struggle to consider how to do this without additional help. As they move content around the cargo bay, RV-96 accidentally knocks something, and they begin to hear footsteps in the main cabin above move towards the cargo bay...

The party prepare themselves for battle, facing off against Vasarus, the recently reanimated mage that once caused the Necrophage. Roman shouts to the party to help him, asking them to set aside any differences they may have with his intentions. The party roll for initiative.

In round one, Grae starts off by casting Ice Knife, which hits the skeletal figure, but it passes a saving throw and takes no damage. Vasarus, examining the room with cold undead eyes, uses some of the newly gained necrotic energy to reanimate the bodies of the deceased in the crypt, with three skeletons and a zombie climbing out and entering into combat. One of the skeletons approaches towards Trix, and she attacks it with her rapier on her turn. The zombie wanders up, striking at Trix and attacking her. Khorvus retaliates, dealing a strong strike against the zombie with his war hammer. On the north side of the room, a skeleton tries but fails to attack Grae. Roman casts Bane on the three skeletons in the room, but only one fails the saving throw to be affected by it. Edolkar casts Reckless Attack and jumps over the balcony railing, striking at one of the Skeletons, but fails spectacularly.

For round two, Grae moves quickly using Kinetic Jaunt. She strikes with her short sword against of the Skeletons on her way, invoking Booming Blade, cursing it to take damage if it moves. The skeleton immediately begins to follow on its turn, and takes thunder damage. It continues on its path toward Edolkar, but fails its attack. Vasarus casts Flaming Sphere, centring it on the collective group of Trix, Khorvus and Roman on the top of the balcony. One of the skeletons approach Khorvus and strikes, but fails to hit through his armour. Trix lands a strong blow against the zombie, which would normally be enough to destroy it. Due to a condition called Undead Fortitude, it makes a saving throw and passes, leaving it remaining in the fight. The zombie attempts to strike back with an unarmed whack, but fails. Khorvus attempts another swing with his war hammer but fails, and moves to avoid the damage from the flaming sphere. The zombie gets an opportunity attack and hits Khorvus and he steps away. A skeleton makes an attack with advantage (thanks to Reckless Attack working both ways), but both attempts fail to hit. Roman, continuing concentration on Bane, casts a cantrip of Firebolt against Roman to maintain his concentration on the more powerful spell. Edolkar enters into another Reckless Attack, this time succeeding and destroying one of the skeletons in a wide swing of his great sword.

In round three, Grae having now positioned herself north in the room, runs forward and behind Vasarus to cast Burning Hands. Vasarus passes a saving throw, but still takes some damage. Vasarus moves the flaming sphere as a bonus action, ramming into Khorvus who fails a saving throw, taking some damage. For its main action, Vasarus casts Magic Missile, targeting Edolkar, Trix and Grae. Both Edolkar and Trix take a small amount of damage, but Grae finds that the brooch sold to her by Mama Kama protects her from the attack and nullifies the force damage. One of the remaining skeletons attacks Khorvus, fails, and then tries to move to also avoid damage from the flaming sphere. Khorvus takes an attack of opportunity and destroys this skeleton, sending bones flying. Trix casts Dissonant Whispers against the zombie, who fails their Wisdom saving throw. They take psychic damage and immediately move away from Trix. They re-roll for their Undead Fortitude and remain standing. Khorvus follows behind the zombie, activating Divine Smite, and destroying it with radiant energy, which nullifies undead fortitude's ability. The remaining Skeleton attacks Edolkar, and gets what would be a success, but the attack is reduced to Bane and fails. Roman shouts to Edolkar, seeking his approval to cast a spell, and casts Enlarge on him, making Edolkar grow in size, nearing the height of the crypt's ceiling. Edolkar tries to make use of this new-found strength and size, but fails on his first attack against the skeleton. He decides to move for the more important target, and runs towards Vasarus in the centre of the room. The skeleton makes an attack of opportunity and easily hits the large body of mass.

Grae runs up in round four to strike at Vasarus with her short sword, but fails. Vasarus moves the flaming sphere as a free action, now ramming into Trix. She rolls a saving throw and fails, taking damage. With Edolkar close by, Vasarus uses its main action to cast Poison Spray against him. Trix moves towards Roman and shoots an arrow off at the remaining skeleton. Her attack lands and destroys it, leaving just Vasarus remaining. Khorvus hurls a javelin at Vasarus from a distance, and it lands into the rib cage of the skeletal figure. Roman once again tries to maintain concentration on spellcasting, and casts another Firebolt on Vasarus. Edolkar activates Ensnaring Strike, Kinetic Jaunt and enters into a Rage, with protective dancing lights appearing around him. He attacks twice, but neither hit Vasarus.

For round five, Grae strikes again with her short sword but fails to land a hit on Vasarus who is too dexterous. Vasarus dismisses the flaming sphere, instead casting Spirit Guardians, which emits from a circle centred on itself. Shadowy spirits begin to fly around in a sphere around Vasarus, threatening to harm anyone who draws too close. Trix shoots an arrow at Vasarus, hitting him. Khorvus runs in with war hammer raised. He fails his saving throw and takes necrotic damage. Continuing with his attack, getting a critical hit. He applies Divine Smite, dealing a single, radiant-powered strike against the undead foe. Roman casts Healing Word on Khorvus, trying to treat some of his wounds. Edolkar starts his turn and passes his wisdom saving throw, but still taking some damage. He lines up a strike, following Khorvus' lead, and gets a critical hit as well. Using his increased strength, he cleaves through Vasarus' skeletal shoulder and watches as the bones collapse to the ground.

Out of combat, Roman (Orson) approaches the remains of the body, slightly panicking, realising he will be unable to recover the necrotic energy. Grae asks why he brought Vasarus to his castle. He takes a moment, explaining that in his youth he died from an accident fleeing the carnage of Vasarus raiding his village. Orson continues to provide information on his backstory before eventually collapsing over, dead. Grae goes upstairs and finds Jhazaal and asks for his help, bringing him back down to the crypt. He examines Orson, before also reviewing Vasarus and the other reanimated undead. They discuss what to do next, taking his body to his bedroom. The party move to wake up Amelia, but find that there are multiple lights alight in her room. Grae enters cautiously, hearing crying. As Grae and the party enter, they find that her once glazed over eyes are normal, and that she is looking at the party. They conclude that at the same time that the necrotic energy seeped into the basement, radiant energy must have risen into the upper floor where Amelia was resting. She speaks with the party, seeing them for the first time. Grae provides the news about Roman, but they try to avoid mentioning the details of his true intentions. The party take a long rest to recover from the day's events.

In the morning, the party regroup, and help Jhazaal and Amelia with preparations, then have a small service. Grae says a short speech, thanking him for helping train and control her magic power. Grae asks Jhazaal to prepare the carriage to take the party to Rutledge. They pack up their equipment and say goodbye to Amelia. Sometime later, they arrive at Rutledge and go to the Mages Hall. They speak with Dorqen, and provide the Bulette carapaces they agreed to fetch for him in exchange for the bag of holding. He willingly accepts the additional carapaces, and offers it as a fair trade for the bag of holding. He offers them transport back to Strixhaven, but the party pause for a moment as Grae decides to remain in Tenahmir for now. She explains that now might is a good time to visit her gnomish family and seek to end her forced exile. The three say goodbye, offering for her to come back soon, and are teleported back to the plane of Strixhaven.

Grae begins her walk home and finds herself walking past Mama Kama's Knick Knack Imporium, but finds that it is boarded up with a sign out front indicating it is closed. Looking through a window, she sees Mama Kama who informs her she has closed her shop because she had a feeling she should go back to visit family. She asks if the brooch helped, and Grae enquires on her history with the Eldrakes. Grae asks if she knows Katria, finding out that she is Katria, who has aged gracefully to an old gnome over the course of hundreds of years. She offers for Grae to join her, and shows willingness to help set the story straight on why magic being forbidden in their culture needs to be reconsidered. They walk out of Rutledge, heading to their homeland.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading (and hopefully listening to) Students of Strixhaven!

As the party prepare to depart from Inkaran, Grae quickly runs back to the forge to speak with Ezan. She recalls him mentioning _Katria Clearseek_er, and wants to know about why her clan are so afraid of magic. Ezan provides some further context, explaining that he fled with Katria and Peta to her homeland, seeking to hide from Orson. Orson followed, bringing a large mercenary force, and in the ensuing chaos, the forest spirit guarding Katria's home intervened, splitting the artefact into two and enforcing a barrier of magical dampening to prevent the forest from being harmed again. Orson recovered the rod, while Ezan fled with the top-end (the sphere), and continued to move from place to place before returning to Inkaran. She thanks him and says her final goodbye.

Meanwhile, Edolkar has been spending time reviewing the shipping ledger he recovered, and attempts to correlate a location from the guidebook they recovered back at Strixhaven. He struggles to comprehend some concepts in the Dwarven language, but thinks he will be close to a solution in the morning. The party collectively take a long rest, heading off before dawn. At the same time, there is a brief side-step reflecting on Ezan's last moments as he prepares the forge to overheat.

Later in the day, as the party hit the road, they come back to where they left Jhazaal and the carriage. They find him hidden, anticipating possible bandits, but welcomes them back warmly. They take off, headed back to Castle Eldrake, and determine to stop at the lost shipment location. A short while later, they stop the carriage and begin to walk on foot again, searching what they believe to have been the location of a lost shipment hundreds of years go. Khorvus finds a few clues that leads him to a location where he digs, finding what appears to have been a travelling chest and the remains of a few dead guards. He calls over the party and they find some gold and trade goods. Reviewing the bodies, Khorvus finds that a cloak on one of them seems to still in good standing, and has not begun to decay. Examining the cloak, they find it has a number of sewn on patches, featuring items like a window, ladder, buckets, gold pouch and dogs. As a test, Khorvus holds the cloak and pulls off one of the dog patches. He watches as the patch lights up in a blast of magic, and sees a regular looking mastiff dog standing in the spot of the patch. The dog is friendly and seems to have some natural affection for Khorvus, who he excitedly deems their new travelling companion. Reviewing the cloak in greater detail, they determine it is a Robe of Useful Items. They save the remaining pouches for a suitable time, and travel back to Jhazaal, along with their new companion. Once together, they travel the rest of the way to Castle Eldrake, also trying to determine Jhazaal's loyalties to 'Roman'.

A day or so later, the party arrive back at Castle Eldrake, meeting again with Old Lady Amelia, who greets them. She goes off to prepare another feast, this time to celebrate their return and presumably accomplishing the task of finding the artefact Roman has sent them to find. As the party once again settle into their accommodations, Grae, concerned with an upcoming confrontation with Roman, has a panic attack. Trix hears her and tries to comfort her. Later, dinner is served, and the party enter into the large feast hall, noticing that Roman is once against not present. He eventually arrives, and is thankful to Grae for her work in recovering the sphere. He begins a short speech in which he indicates he wants Grae to help takeover the Eldrake Academies, to which she expresses some discomfort and doesn't provide an immediate answer on her intentions. The dinner continues until Roman excuses himself, asking Grae to help him take the artefact back to his laboratory on the ground floor.

Dinner wraps up shortly afterwards, with most of the party staying in proximity to Roman. Grae sees some bright lights from under the door, and knocks to ask if Roman is okay. He ushers her in, and she sees him using Sovereign Glue to magically fuse the two halves of the artefact together. As the two halves combine, the necrotic and radiant energies intermix and shatter, causing a cracking of the artefact. As Grae and Roman look around, they see the broken remains of the artefact. Radiant energy has begun to rise upwards, while the necrotic energy seeps into the ground. As Roman in a panic asks Grae what she did, she explains that she knows who he is: Orson Eldrake. She asks what good the necrotic energy of the artefact could have achieved. Orson explains that he intended to learn and develop what Vasarus had originally intended, thinking he could control the magic to help people achieve extended life, if not immortality itself. While this happens, rumbling is felt coming from below ground. Orson asks Grae to set aside her problems with him for now, and help him get to the crypt below the Castle. She begrudgingly agrees, bringing the party with her.

The party enter into the crypt, and find out that Orson was trying to 'learn from the source'. They see that the necrotic energy, seeping in, is now dripping onto the coffin in the middle of the room. The coffin's chains begin to rattle and it breaks open. A headless corpse, filled with necrotic energy, rises up and attaches its head. Orson shouts in horror, indicating that this is Vasarus, the creator of the necrophage. He shouts for the party to prepare for combat and to help him destroy the figure before the corpse gains too much necrotic power...

Arth is back (for a short time!). We take a moment to briefly review what Arth has been up to, including meeting with Professor Deekah on Quandrix campus. She asks for his assistance with a special project, and directs him to review the contents of the room. She indicates it is very important he focuses on and remember the features of the room, as they will be important later on. The features of the room include:

• The room itself is painted in a bright, mustard yellow.

• The illustration of an Aardvark.

• The letters 'forty-two', written in Common.

• An empty family crest.

Deekah again encourages Arth to retain his memory of the room, then ushers him down the hall. Entering into this room, he sees shapes drawn on the floor, similar in design to a teleportation circle. Deekah explains she is working on an advanced form of magic that can teleport a subject to another location, without their being a physical 'binding' at the destination, much like how some spells require a pre-existing teleportation circle. To accomplish this, she needs to ensure the subject focuses on the destination, which in this first test will be the room down the hall with the odd features. She indicates he should not think of anything else. Professor Deekah begins a ritual casting, with the room beginning to hum and lines begin to entwine around Arth in fractal patterns. As the ritual continues, a gust of air blows a stack of papers Arth had placed nearby, and shortly before the ritual completes Arth notices a group assignment with the names of his friends and his mind wanders. Within a moment, he disappears and Deekah walks down the hall, puzzled as to why he didn't arrive where he was supposed to.

Meanwhile, the party are preparing for the imminent arrival of creatures from below the deep. Grae stands ready to shoot a firebolt, but happens to hear Arth shouting out for Deekah. Puzzled, she encourages him to stand aside and join the party away from the explosives. The party hear screeching, and begin to see six-legged creatures running down from one of the entrances. Grae shoots off her firebolt, lighting the fuse near the explosives, and setting it off, which collapses a further part of a tunnel. Trix triggers an explosive near her also causing more debris. The party roll for initiative as they see the six-legged creatures approach, with Arth recalling that these creatures are called Kruthik, monstrosities from the underdark.

Into round one, a young Kruthik approaches Edolkar and stabs him. Arth casts Shatter, centering it on two Kruthiks. One saves, with one taking some thunder damage, the other being destroyed outright by the blast. Another Kruthik crawls towards Edolkar, but misses. Khorvus casts Shield of Faith, providing a protection prayer on Edolkar. He then focuses on a Kruthik and strikes with his war hammer, destroying it with one hit. Trix casts Dissonant Whispers, but her target saves against it. Another Kruthik strikes Grae. Edolkar enters into a rage, activating his wild magic, and causes roots to grow around him creating difficult terrain. He attacks, striking with his great sword, and cleaves the Kruthik in half. Grae casts Booming Blade, then runs underneath and slices another Kruthik.

For round two, further creatures can be heard digging through the ground underneath. A Kruthik lunges to attack Grae, but misses. Trix and Arth hear the shifting of stone, with Ezan shouting for the party to come quickly. Arth moves into the forge, meeting Ezan, and sees two more Kruthiks burrowing through towards the heat and noise of the forge. Arth casts Vicious Mockery, then steps to a weapons bench and grabs a short sword. One of the newly-arrived Kruthiks storms into the small room containing Edolkar and Grae. It moves to strike, targeting both of them, with both party members getting hit. Khorvus strides over and takes another strike with his war hammer. Trix slides underneath and kills a Kruthik, slicing the underbelly open with her rapier. A younger Kruthik runs down and strikes at Arth. Edolkar engages with the larger Kruthik that has just ended the room, making a reckless attack, and immediately slicing it down with one swing of his great sword. The remaining larger adult Kruthik approaches Trix, with one of its attacks striking her. Grae casts Firebolt, but it doesn't do much damage.

Into round three, Arth casts Silence in an area around the forge, with the clanging of Ezan's metalwork immediately changing to an eerie silence. He tries to shout out to Trix but finds himself wrapped in a fractal magic, then in an instance finds himself back on Quandrix campus with Professor Deekah standing in front of him. She debriefs him, but is relieved to find he has returned in one piece. Khorvus throws a javelin at the large adult Kruthik which hits it in the body. Trix strikes but fails to break through the creature's hardened carapace. Edolkar walks forward, his vines following him, and makes a strike with his great sword. The Kruthik gets a critical success on an attack against Edolkar. Grae dashes forward, using Burning Hands in a cone against two Kruthiks, with the younger Kruthik successfully avoiding the attack.

Khorvus uses his war hammer again, lining up another strong, successful strike. He jumps up Grae's back and boinks the Kruthik on the head, taking it down. Trix aims for the final Kruthik and skewers it through the eye.

With all Kruthiks defeated, Ezan approaches, walking outside the sphere of the Silence spell. He thanks them for their help, including the mysterious fellow that appeared suddenly then vanished, and explains that he was given sufficient time to complete something. He walks them over to the forge and presents a similarly shaped sphere to the one that saw earlier, which held necrotic energy. Ezan explains he was able to re-use the materials and a spare spherical mould, but in its present state it is devoid of any necrotic magic. He stands aside and whispers a short prayer to Moradin, with the sphere filling with a bright, glowing light. Ezan explains that he has filled it with radiant energy, the inverse of necrotic energy, and perhaps this could help the party to destroy the other half of the artefact by creating a reaction. Grae asks about what will happen to Ezan. He explains that with his half destroyed, he will likely succumb to illness in a matter of days. Likewise, when Roman's half is destroyed, he will suffer the same fate. They ask about his final intentions. Ezan explains he has some concern that if the party fails, Roman may be able to send people here and find information in the forge and enchantment room next door to reshape a new artefact. He indicates he is willing to overload the forge once the party have reached a safe distance outside Inkaran, and will wait until dawn tomorrow.

He encourages them to wrap up their remaining tasks in Inkaran. The party ask about the locked vault door, to which Ezan explains it used to hold a number of treasures, but has been slowly using the gold to buy supplies every few years. With a whisper, he lifts the Arcane Lock covering the door and lets them inside. They find a selection of sellable items that they pocket. On the way out, they explore a room they missed, which appears as a room dedicated to accounting. Searching the room, Grae finds two Sending Stones, capable of providing the ability to use the Sending spell once a day. Khorvus finds a bottle of ancient whisky, and Edolkar finds a ledger indicating a shipment was lost several hundred years ago further back down the valley. They pocket these items and make their way outside, preparing to camp and rest after their long day.

The story continues with the party deciding to make camp in the outskirts of the dwarven settlement Inkaran. Trix wraps up collecting the carapaces required for trade with the mage Dorqen back in town, and the party find suitable (but a little cramped) accommodation in a nearby house. They decide on how should run camp watch over the night, with Trix taking the last watch.

Overnight, Trix begins to hear what appears to be faint whispering coming from outside. She steps out to investigate, but as she gets closer to what appears the source, finds nothing of interest. She considers if this could be done via magical means, and returns inside. As the party wake up, they discuss the noises, but agree to travel into the interior of Inkaran itself.

They enter through a main set of doors. Cautiously, they check for traps and find a tripwire connecting to a split beam above their heads. They carefully sidestep around it, moving into a large room with a dining table and chairs. They determine that this likely held nobility of some kind, but find nothing of importance move on, next finding a kitchen. The party find that the oven and grill has been used recently, but finding nothing else of importance, move on further to the east. They enter into an armoury, with a large locked door etched into the wall on the south side. They check some of the remaining containers and cabinets and find a collection of older dwarven weapons. Trix decides to 'dump' them into the bag of holding. Moving on to inspect the door, Trix determines the door is locked by the use of an Arcane Lock spell, and trying to pick it would be almost impossible.

Moving further east, they find a room with Elvish features and a large set of tiles with interconnecting lines. In each corner, elvish text reads "Life, Death, Transfer/Movement and Stable". A podium stands in the middle of these tiles, designed to fit some sort of spherical object and rod. At this stage, through further attempts to investigate it, the machinery seems to be inert and doesn't do anything.

Meanwhile, the party begin to hear shuffling and movement from a room to the north. Edolkar looks to investigate and sees an open room with a large forge with walkways winding above it. He spots a small Dwarven figure attempting to hid along the walkway. Trix tries to move in closer, working her way into the room. The figure seems to cast something, with the room becoming engulfed in a sphere of light. The figure seems to take this as an opportunity to run, moving westward. Khorvus, Grae and Edolkar enter into the forge trying to track down the figure. Trix tries to shout to the figure to indicate they are peaceful, but he ignores her and continues to flee. Khorvus sprints to try and catch him, with Edolkar coming from the other side. The figure turns into a small room, with the party quickly following behind him.

Entering into the room, they see the figure stands in a room designed to store coke and coal for a furnace. They try to speak with him, finding that he has a serious, hearty cough and appears to be sick in some way. Khorvus asks on what happened, with the figure indicating creatures from beneath the earth began to attack the dwarves, with the intensity increasing over the years. He indicates he wants to 'die in peace', and declines their offers of aid when prompted. Khorvus approaches slowly, and casts Lay on Hands which appears to have no effect. The figure continues to insist nothing can be done for him, but does relax somewhat, lowering his forge tools he armed as weapons. Grae indicates her mission, to find information on and retrieve an artefact for Roman Eldrake, but hearing this sends the dwarf into a fury once more. Grae asks how he knows the Eldrake family, with the figure indicating he knows Orson. Trix, recalling her sketches from Rutledge, realises the dwarven figure matches the appearance of Ezan Pathfinder, one of the four heroes that stopped the necrophage hundreds of years ago. Grae expresses some initial confusion, given that Ezan was considered an 'old man' at the time of the necrophage event 400 years ago, this would put his age to nearly 800 years, which is considered impossible for a dwarf. They move onto why Grae and the party are here, with Grae indicating they are working for Orson's great-grandson Roman, who has been afflicted by a sickly condition. Ezan laughs, and indicates he knows the artifact, but will ensure Roman won't get the artefact any time soon. Given the circumstances, he asks if they can move to another room, and they work their way to the great hall near the entrance.

Ezan prepares some light snacks of foraged berries, and serves them around the large table. Grae asks about the artefact, with Ezan indicating that Roman knows exactly what it is, given he already has one of the two parts, but they are no longer fully functional without being combined again. Grae enquires on what they do exactly, with Ezan explaining some information about Vasarus, an elvish mage who was the cause of the necrophage crisis. He explains that the elf used necrotic magic to raise an undead army. The party of four, including Orson, Ezan, Katria and Peta, used some of this magic against Vasarus to ultimately defeat him.

Grae has a moment of realisation, with Ezan indicating that Roman is Orson, with bothing them still alive since the time of the necrophage. Ezan pulls out his 'half', which is a small spherical object. When asked, Ezan indicates that the difficulty they faced when confronting Vasarus was his ability to use necrotic, life-draining magic against anyone who approached. A small team designed an artifact, designed somewhat like a staff, that would be able to drain life from volunteers, which the party could use as a 'buffer' against their own lives to get them close enough to Vasarus to kill him. The plan worked, with all involved wanting the artefact destroyed. Orson worked in secret to take it, secretly killing some people that were a part of the project. Ezan, Peta and Katria spent years trying to find an opportunity to steal it, finally finding an opportunity and then fleeing to Katria's homeland amongst the gnomes. Orson followed with mercenary forces, determined to reclaim it. During the middle of a large battle, magical forces within the forest split the artefact itself into two, a sphere which Ezan was able to flee with, and the rod which Orson retained. Individually, these pieces do not have sufficient energy to harvest more life-draining energy, but they can continue to provide what was already stored to those influenced by it. Ezan explains that Orson's goal has always been to retrieve the other half, so that he can repair the artefact and can extend his life again.

Ezan has dedicated the rest of his (extended) life to ensuring that doesn't happen, and now resides in the place of its creation, having tried several times to destroy it. He indicates that while he thinks there is a process to do this, it will involve the use of the great forge, which will draw attention from creatures that now live below the surface. Grae asks about destroying just this half of the artefact, to which Ezan explains that it will mean the end of his life, likely in a few days as his body plays 'catch up', but it would prevent Roman from using the magic again. He does express concern that given more time, Orson may be able to find out information on the creation process and could try to create the other half.

They begin to construct a plan, with the priority being to destroy Ezan's half of the artefact, the sphere which he carries with him. He explains that they will first need to 'dampen' the magic, using the same enchantment magic that still resides in one of the rooms. With the magic weakened, the device should be sufficiently capable of being destroyed by regular means through the heat of the forge. Doing this will attract attention from creatures deep beneath the ground, so they consider how they can fortify. They ask Ezan for explosives, and place a few in key locations around the interior, including a tunnel and another large opening near the forge. Trix begins to funnel coal into the bag of holding (having emptied it first), and brings it closer to the top of the forge upstairs in the room.

They move back to the room with the Elvish writing and tiles, and find that Ezan's sphere fits into the middle of the platform. From what Ezan explained, they know that they have to move the tiles to ensure all four enchantment pieces connect to the control crystal (see above for the image). They spend a bit of time on the puzzle, learning how to rotate each puzzle piece to get all four corners connected, and watch as the necrotic, magical energy in the sphere begins to dampen, and now susceptible to damage. Ezan, very quickly becoming ill, directs them into the forge next door.

Trix begins to prepare the coal at the top of the forge, funnelling it out of the bag of holding. Ezan instructs Trix to also place the dampened magical sphere in when the time is right. Grae casts Firebolt to begin warming the furnace, and uses Control Flames to keep it contained. Edolkar and Khorvus each take a side of the large bellows in the room, and begin to bump warm air into the underbelly of the furnace. It continues to warm, reaching an optimal temperature, and Ezan instructs Trix to place the sphere inside, watching it roll down the mechanical slide. As the sphere begins to crack, a wisp of necrotic energy is released. Ezan goes to a side opening and begins to pull out the raw materials. He instructs the party to make any final preparations necessary, as the noise and heat will soon draw the attention of creatures from below the mountain. Edolkar and Khorvus position themselves in a choke point near a crack in the foundations. Trix and Grae check the explosive charges, also positioning themselves in preparation for combat. They begin to hear the pattering and clattering of noises coming from below...

Preparing to travel to Inkaran, an abandoned dwarven settlement, the party consider their resources. They ask Amelia for some snacks for the road, and realise they can detour via the city of Rutledge, which might be suitable to stock up on some other supplies. As they go to the carriage, they speak with Jhazaal and Yu Man, a short goblin who begins inspecting their pockets for something to steal. Thankfully, the party are alert enough to notice and he withdraws, leaving to find other work to do. Grae discusses a few more details about Inkaran with Roman. They depart on the road heading to Rutledge.

About a day and a half later, they arrive again back at Rutledge, searching for some supplies. Edolkar asks to speak with Dorqen, the wizard at the mage's hall, seeking assistance with restoring spell slots. He offers such a potion that can help to recover used spell slots, which Edolkar purchases for a steep price. The party ask if he is selling any magical items, to which he rattles off on a few that he has currently. Upon hearing they have a Bag of Holding, the party enquire, but find it is too expensive. Dorqen offers them a deal; they can take the bag now (minus a deposit he will retain for now), as long as they collect the carapace of an animal known to inhabit the mountains they are intending to visit called a Bulette. They agree and take possession of the bag (for now). Grae detours via the port, and pulls out the pouch she identified as a Dust of Dryness pouch. She places a pinch into the sea, quickly capturing the compressed pellet that is created from the magic. Edolkar buys a faux coat to keep warm in the colder climate of the mountains. They meet back with Jhazaal and depart to Tenahmir mountains in search for Inkraran.

After a good most of the day, they eventually arrive via carriage to a rough, rugged part of the mountains. Jhazaal indicates that he will need to stop here, as he won't be able to travel via horse any further. The party agree to travel by foot, relying on Grae's book to find the 'landmarks' that indicate a path to Inkaran. Towards the late afternoon, they find what appears to be the outskirts of a dwarven city, embedded into the hillside. They walk in further, finding it abandoned. Edolkar surveys the area, and by cross-referencing the book, the party determine that the Bulettes may be nearby, having dug some large holes recently. They consider the deal they made with Dorqen, and elect to try to draw the attention of the creatures. Grae casts Firebolt, with Trix wafting the flames further into the burrows. Khorvus uses his Glove of the Aestarians, shooting more ball bearings into the ground. As expected, this draws the attention of two young Bulettes and the party enter into combat.

In round one, Grae lunges in after activating a blade song, striking with her rapier. One of the bulettes makes a reactive attack, making a strong swipe with its claws. Edolkar also runs it, swiping with his great sword. The bulette embeded with booming blade energy steps forward, taking damage, and attempts another bite which misses. Khorvus casts Compel Duel, which fails to succeed against one of the bulettes. Khorvus then steps forward, striking with his war hammer, and activating divine smite, killing one of the bulettes outright. Trix aims and throws an oil flask at the other bulette, which shatters against the ground.

Moving on to round two, Grae uses firebolt to set the oil alight, along with damaging the bulette itself. She casts Kinetic Jaunt to escape the proximity of the creature. Edolkar strikes with his great sword, hitting firmly, but is not enough to take it out. The bulette makes a bite attack against Edolkar in retaliation which lands. Khorvus makes another attack with his war hammer. Trix enters back into the fray and slashes with her rapier again. The creature, realising it should have taken fire damage, burns and succumbs, falling to the ground.

They exit combat and review the situation. Agreeing to the deal with Dorqen, they inspect the bodies of the bulettes and begin to dig at their hard carapace. Trix and Khorvus work in tandem to extract what they need from the corpses. Meanwhile, what appears to have been the parent to these two young bulettes, a parent bulette digs itself out of the ground and moves in to attack the party. Khorvus uses the glove again, this time shooting out corrosive ball bearings, that form a pool of acid.

Into combat (for the second time this episode), starting with round one, Trix casts True Strike, ensuring her next attack against the creature has advantage. Grae casts Scorching Ray, with one of the blasts hitting against the creature. Khorvus hurls a javellin at the bulette, which misses. As a bonus action, he casts Shield of Faith on Edolkar. Edolkar enters into a rage, with a bolt of light shooting from his chest. The bulette attempts to shield itself, but fails with a critical failure, becoming blinded temporarily. Edolkar continues his attack, swinging successfully to hit. The bulette blindly flails towards Edolkar in retaliation, but fails to strike him.

At the start of round two, Trix shoots with her bow. Grae approaches again, this time casting Firebolt, before using Misty Step to re-position herself. Khorvus strikes again with his war hammer, which lands easily. As Edolkar's turn starts, he reapplies his blinding effect, with the creature failing the check with another critical failure. He strikes again, dealing another successful strike against the creature. The bulette tries to strike back, but fails. Still blinded, it attempts to move away, but doesn't know the location it will go. Rolling randomly, it leaps, granting Edolkar and Khorvus an opportunity to make another attack. In combination of both their attacks, the creature is cut open as it leaps over them and collapses to the ground.

The story continues with the party in the city of Rutledge, talking with Jhazaal in Malthus Tavern. As Jhazaal steps away to grab drinks, Trix enquires on Grae's relationship with Jhazaal, finding out he is a trusted advisor and guard to Roman. When he returns, Grae asks about Roman's health, finding that his condition is somewhat stable, but he has become more reclusive, having relocated permanently to his castle in the north-west of Tehahmir. Jhazaal mentions that he needs some time to finalise business in town, but can take them back on his carriage. He recommends they visit another tavern for accommodation called the Groaning Goat, and agrees to meet them near the city gates tomorrow morning.

As they leave the tavern, Khorvus, reviewing a local city map, asks if they can visit "Mama Kama's Knick Knack Emporium". They head in that direction, passing a large statue in an open courtyard. The party inspect it, noticing four figures, Elf, Dwarf, Human and Gnome, and a plaque: "The people of Rutledge thank the mighty heroes who fought back the Necrophage". Grae notes that the elf-like figure has some resemblence to Roman Eldrake. Trix asks Grae about the Necrophage, learning that it was a time period about 400 years ago when a powerful elf named Vasarus raised a powerful (mostly undead) army. The four figures were able to work with a resistance force to defeat Vasarus, using a powerful device that combated the necrotic energy that Vasarus channeled. Shortly after the victory, the four figures quickly disbanded and were said to have gone their separate ways.

Arriving at Mama Kama's they find a small store filled with trinkets, gifts, and other odds and ends. They introduce themselves, meeting with Mama Kama, a small, elderly gnomish woman. She shows them a variety of odd items, including a small unicorn figure which Trix purchases, the top of an old Triton trident (which Khorvus purchases at a good price). Mama Kama enquires on their conduct in town. When she finds out that Grae is conducting business on behalf of the Eldrake family, she offers an 'old family heirloom', a brooch, which she sells at a cheap price. Grae uses insight to examine Mama Kama's behaviour, determing that she is holding something back, but is otherwise being earnest. Finding out that Mama Kama has a 'lucky dip' bag, the party spend some more time trying to get something good. They ultimately get:

• (Trix) A waving fan, that shows a picture of a sleeping cat

• (Edolkar) A small wooden statuette of a smug-looking halfling

• (Khorvus) A tiny gnome-crafted music box, that reminds Khorvus of a child melody

• (Grae) A gold monocle frame, missing then lens

Eventually, the party depart and visit the "Groaning Goat" where a dwarf welcomes them and introduces himself as Bandon Edgecore. He provides them with drinks and offers accommodation for the party to stay the night. Khorvus enquires on the tavern's name, finding that Bandon is unsure of the origins, though encourages them to find out. In true RPG fashion, the party get sidetracked and search the tavern, finding behind some furniture a portrait commisioned of an event. Reviewing it further they see what appears to have been the opening of the establishment, with a human-looking man standing excitedly with a small goat, mouth agape. They excitedly share this news with Bandon, who offers them free drinks for their detective work. During some downtime, Grae uses the Identity spell on the brooch received from Mama Kama, finding out that it is a Brooch of Shielding, which provides force resistance, and immunity from Magic Missile spells. Grae expresses her confusion on why Mama Kama would so cheaply sell a powerful item, but is delighted otherwise with the new item. The party wrap up and prepare to retire for the evening. Khorvus spends sometime seeking assistance from his Triton (extended) family to repair his shield, making his way to the water near the docks. He enters in, and uses his conch to call out under the water, seeking a scout or representative of his Triton clan. He finds that no Tritons are nearby on this side of the great ocean, so resigns to that no one is available right now to help repair his shield.

In the morning, the party depart from the tavern and head towards the city gates with Jhazaal to find his horse-drawn carriage. He introduces his two wolves, Aptra and Theofania who accompany him on his travels. The party load onto the caravan and head towards the north-west, venturing towards 'Castle Eldrake', which will take 1.5 days. The party spend time reviewing the books they acquired. Trix reviews her book on the Aesterians, while Grae reads more on the Lorehold expedition into the Tenahmir mountain ranges. They stop over for the night in a small town called Halhaven, before resuming their journey and making their way to Castle Eldrake the next day.

Arriving through a winding, snow-filled valley, they come upon a large cold castle that stands in contrast to the native environment. Jhazaal leaves to hitch the horses, asking them to speak with 'Old Lady Amelia', another attendant. As they step into the castle, an elderly blind woman introduces herself as Amelia. After brief introductions, Amelia goes off to coordinate a feast to celebrate Grae's return, indicating that Master Eldrake is unwell, but will be available at dinner to be informed of Grae's findings. While they wait, Grae showcases some of the features of the castle. Time passes, and they regroup for dinner, seating themselves in a large dining hall. It takes some time, but Roman Eldrake, a sickly, middle-aged man, walking with a limp and relying on a walking cane, eventually arrives and introduces himself to the party. Grae indicates her discovery, the book and information detailing Lorehold expeditions into the Tenahmir dwarven settlements and strongholds. She mentions that a settlement was named specifically, called Inkaran, which may hold further information on the artifact that Roman seeks. Roman expresses some knowledge of this place, and expresses further interest in finding a way or path through the mountains to reach it. The dinner continues, with everyone retiring for the evening sometime later.

The next morning, the party regroup. Roman meets with the party and indicates he has stayed up most of the night, and following Grae's finding strongly believes that this 'Inkaran' settlement is worth an inspection for finding the artifact he needs to cure his illness. He provides Grae with information on an 'orb-like' device he is looking for, specifically from what might be a dwarven forge somewhere in the settlement. He asks if the party are willing to go, which they readily accept. Roman offers money and supplies for the trip, and Jhazaal once again offers his services via carriage to take them to their destination. The episode ends with the party 'hitting the road', headed east towards Tenahmir.

The party quickly move to review Khorvus' wounds, as he was left unconcious from the last battle. Arth (with Luke being absent, the GM takes over) casts Aid, granting Khorvus both temporary and restorative hit points. He wakes up, slightly disorientated and takes a moment to rest and heal. Trix tries to listen for other possible threats in Gondel Wing, and hears what sounds to be chittering from small creatures off in the distance. The party move off to inspect the locked display case on the other side of the main exhibit hall, finding a single gauntlet marked under the name Glove of the Aesterians. Trix attempts to use her thieving tools to open the case, but loses her focus and jams her lockpick. Edolkar elects to use force, smashing the hilt of his sword against the glass of the case. This frees up the case, but activates a glyph of warding, causing an alarm to sound throughout the room. Trix picks up and casts Identify on the item, understanding that it three charges a day, and is designed to have the hand extended with an open palm towards a target. Khorvus elects to hold onto it for now, and they proceed forward into the other parts of Gondel Wing.

Moving on, they find a locked door with a sign saying "Exhibit Storage", and determine the sounds they heard earlier must be coming from this room. Edolkar continues his force-based approach and kicks down the door. Examining into the small storage room they realise two Rust Monsters have broken in and are eating at and corroding sets of ancient armour. They quickly move into attack, entering into initiative.

Round One: Grae starts off, shooting a Firebolt against one of the Rust Monsters and hitting it successfully. One of the Rust Monsters approaches, trying to bite Edolkar, but fails. Khorvus grabs a javellin and hurls it against one of the monsters. Edolkar has a similar mindset, using a javelin as well in a melee strike. As this strikes, the monster's Corrode Metal ability applies, causing the javelin's quality to decay and become corroded. Trix switches to her bow, firing off an arrow, which hits as well. One of the Rust Monsters looks toward Khorvus' shield (made of metal), and uses its antenna to corrode the metal, causing part of it to decay.

For round two, Grae casts Burning Hands. The affected Rust Monster fails a saving throw, and is burnt by the flames. Khorvus tries to move in, but fails his attack. Edolkar tries to hurl another javelin, but misses. Trix shoots another arrow off which hits. The remaining Rust Monster tries to bite Khorvus, but he just avoids taking damage.

For round three, Grae casts another Fire Bolt, roasting the other Rust Monster, leaving them both engulfed in flame. She uses Control Flame to extinguish the flames so that the party can enter into the room. They walk in, finding a cramped and slightly singed storage space. Most of the room is dedicated to armour, but they find a crate that says "Next time this goes out on display, put out a note that says 'DO NOT TRY TO....'". The rest of the message has been lost to the fire. Opening up the crate they find a small pouch filled with an ash-like powder. Grae offers to take the pouch to try and examine it later. In another crate, Edolkar finds some bone dice that he pockets.

Leaving the room, they decide to check the rest of Gondel Wing for anything of interest. Walking down a hallway to the east they find a door marked 'Administrator's Office'. Checking it, they find it unlocked and walk in. Trix examines some papers which look to be paperwork to handle and manage upcoming exhibits in the main hall. Khorvus checks the main desk within the room, finding a Potion of Healing. Before they leave, they debate on what the glyphs they saw in the main exhibit hall were meant to describe, referring to a book they found earlier titled "Empires of Sand and Stone". A figure appears throughout the glyphs, which they believe is a character titled Ummon, but something happens in the fifth glyh that seems to indicate a replacement or exchange of people via a ritual. The changed figure appears to have been encased in the final glyph, and was likely the Gladiator they fought that came from the sarcophagus.

They make their way outside of Gondel Wing, and briefly discuss how to get back up to the top of the chasm and into Lorehold campus. Looking up, they decide they can climb up the rocky terrain, relying on Trix (given a head start being thrown by Edolkar successfully) to fly up in advance to place some rope for the party to use as a climbing tool. With the first footing established about halfway up the cliffside, the party make their way up. Edolkar struggles to climb due to his size, but the rest of the party continue their climb without issue, with everyone resting on a small staging area. Trix flies down and offers her pitons, which he uses as a part of his climb and makes his way up. Edolkar launches Trix into the air again, allowing her to land near a bridge next to Pillardrop, and wrap the long rope around a column. This time the entire party make their way without issue, with everyone safely making their way back to the main campus grounds. Trix offers to Grae to join the party back at their lodgings and review the book that Grae found about Tenahmir. As they regroup, they review and find the book, titled "A Study of Shared History Amongst Dwarves of the Tenahmir Mountains" is comprised of several chapters:

• The Heart of the Tenahmir: Life Among the Mountain Dwarves

• The Great Departure: Chronicles of the Dwarven Exodus

• Whispers in the Depths: Unearthing Ancient Secrets

• The Guardian of the Forgotten: The Tale of the Last Sentinel

• Pathways Through Stone: Navigating the Tenahmir Ranges

• Echoes of the Past: Legends and Lore of the Lost Settlements

• Beneath the Mountain's Shadow: Encounters and Dangers

• The Legacy of Stone: Artifacts and Relics of the Tenahmir Dwarves

• The Fractured Clans: Political Dynamics Post-Exodus

• Reclaiming the Stone: Visions of a Reunited Homeland

Grae immediately expresses interest in the chapter titled: The Legacy of Stone: Artifacts and Relics of the Tenahmir Dwarves. Briefly reviewing the chapter, she finds that some key details continue to discuss a Dwarven settlement called Inkaran, a place that supposedly helped to create powerful artifacts several hundred years ago through the use of their ancient and magical forges. After some further reading, Grae feels confident that this book is what her mentor is seeking, and it might provide further glues on the artifact they have been tasked to find. The book also provides some general pointers on how one might get to Inkaran, but references landmarks and natural passages that would only be useful if already navigating the Tenahmir mountain ranges. When asked, Grae indicates that she is due to depart back home tomorrow. The party (excluding Arth who we'll say is busy with studies) offer their help with her adventure, and agree to meet Grae at the Strixhaven teleportation chamber in the morning. Grae departs, and the party retire for the evening.

The next day the party quickly take care of some important matters, with a few members of the party visiting the student store to stock up. Grae finds herself purchasing a 'lucky dip' potion, unsure of its contents, and pockets it for later use, and a medical kit. Trix stocks up on arrows and pitons. Meanwhile, Khorvus walks to an open field with the Glove of the Aesterians, intending to give it a test run. He stretches out his hand, his palm facing towards the sky, and sees that the glove releases several small, spiked ball bearings that fly upwards before falling back to the ground at high speed. Grae spends time examining the ash-like powder she found in the crate, determining it is Dust of Dryness (with six uses), a powder that can absorb a great quantity of water and replace it with a small marble-sized pellet, which can be shattered at a later time to release the water contained within.

Later in the morning, the party and Grae regroup outside a large chamber which during busy periods serves as a transportation hub. They find lines going to several 'hotspot' worlds on the material plane, such as Toril and Kyrnn, along with multiversal hubs like Sigil, and join a line. As they queue and travel the line they speak with Darius who is travelling home to visit family and take part in what he refers to as a "Gnomish Battle Royale" with his family. As the queue is processed they make their way to the front of the queue, speaking with two designated professors providing teleportation services. The teachers, Professor Deekah, who they know quite well, and Professor Tivash, a human of the Decay school of Witherbloom, chat with them briefly before directing them to step into the middle of a circle which is embued with energy, being channeled from a location below the chamber. Deekah informs them that they can come back via asking the mage at their destination location to prepare a ritual to bring them back to the demiplane of Strixhaven. The party, now considering Grae as an addition, indicate they are travelling to Tenahmir, located on the world of Toril on the Material Plane. The professors prepare to teleport the party, choosing the largest populated city of Rutledge, and in a moment they are surrounded by an encompassing magic before disappearing from the chamber.

From their perspective, the party are surrounded by a white light and instantly find themselves in a small room somewhere in Rutledge, with an elvish mage named Dorqen directing them to move away from the circle in the middle of the room to make space for others arriving. The party are ushered off and walk outside a set of doors to a chilled air, finding themselves in the coastal city of Rutledge with a small market running nearby. Trix, struggling with the cooler air, purchases a scarf for herself. Grae notices a courier shouting off in the distance, presumably searching for her, and receives a letter penned by her mentor Roman Eldrake. The letter indicates that Roman has directed Jhazaal, his hobgoblin captain of the Eldrake private security militia, to travel to Rutledge on some important matters and he will be able to provide transport back home. In the letter, Roman indicates Jhazaal is likely spending time in a tavern somewhere in the city, so the party decide to inspect the taverns, starting with the most popular, known as the Malthus Tavern.

Entering inside the party find the tavern is packed, with a rowdy crowd of mostly sailors drinking and enjoying their shore leave. Grae walks up to the half-orc bartender, ordering a round of mead and asks if he is seen Jhazaal. The bartender serves them their drinks and directs them to the 'back', warning them he is on a winning streak, so is likely too busy to be bothered with other matters. They find their way to the 'backroom', finding a dozen figures standing around a small circle. Inside the circle are two men standing apart from each other, with a third figure watching over them. Grae notices one of the figures is Jhazaal, who holds a paddle with two coins. Grae brings the party in to watch, and they try to determine how the game plays out, noticing that many watchers outside the circle are making sidebets on what might be the 'outcome' of the game. Jhazaal clears space around the circle and then flips the paddle, with the two coins knocking into the air. The coins clearly show two sides: One has the simple of a wolf, the other side has a large red cross (X). The crowd watches tensly before the coins land on the ground, with both faces showing the cross shape. About half of the crowd along with the figure opposing Jhazaal cheer, with Jhazaal reluctantly handing over coins to the figure who he calls Keegan. Jhazaal steps out of the room and introduces himself to the party, finding out what Grae knows about Roman's highly-sought artifact and the book he uncovered in Strixhaven. Jhazaal offers to teach the party how to play No Chance In Howl. He asks the party for a few gold, collecting four gold pieces, and offers a quick lesson on how to play. He explains the basics in that:

• Two people enter the circle, with a third person overseeing the transaction and bet to ensure fairplay, acting as a moderator or referee.

• One of the figures takes and holds the paddle, and places the coins. They make a bet against the other figure, intending for the outcome of the throw to be two 'wolf-side' coins on the ground (or heads, if using normal coins). The opponent wants the opposite outcome, for both coins to be crosses (or tails).

  • If successful with two wolf-sides, the paddle holder win the bet from the opposing person.

  • If they fail and two cross-sides appear, they lose the bet and must pay up to their opponent.

  • If a mixed result (one wolf-side and one cross-side), the paddle holder re-throws both coins until two coins have matching faces.

  • Side bets are allowed (and encouraged), for those watching outside the circle.

• For Australian listeners, you might know that this is a game called Two-Up! The coin sides (heads and tails) have been modified to bring a version of this game into the story and setting.

Keegan, the human figure who opposed Jhazaal, welcomes Khorvus into the circle. The third person, watching over the bet, handles Khorvus the paddle and directs him to make a strong throw upward. Khorvus throws, immediately getting two crosses, resulting in him losing the bet. Keegan laughs sharply, happily taking the gold before wandering off. Jhazaal apologizes for their loss and directs the party to join him back at the main bar so that they can discuss his findings. The party introduce themselves as the episode ends...

Welcome to School's Out, an eight-part story arc featuring members of the Strixhaven series on another D&D adventure. This arc includes our first 'guest' on the podcast, a good friend of the group: Chris! If you haven't listened to the podcast before, not a problem. While the characters may reference some events from the school year, this arc is considered a standalone adventure, so you don't need to have listened to the previous season to enjoy it. Consider checking out some resources on the Schools Out page on our website for more information.

The party (excluding Edolkar who is running late to the recording tavern) head to the Bow's End tavern, celebrating the completion of their end of year exams. They try to find a table in the busy establishment, locating one near the back with a single person. The student - a young gnomish woman - carries a shortsword across her back, and wears orange attire. Trix goes to order some drinks and food, while Khorvus speaks some of the regulars like Snorge and Nihal.

The party approach and introduce themselves, discussing how they felt the school year went. As they unwind, they also discuss what everyone is planning to do over the school break. Grae mentions she is intending to travel home to Tenahmir, a lesser-known continent on Toril. Arth expresses his intent on keeping up with his studies (having doubled-up on some subjects), but the rest of the party have fairly open schedules.

While they wait for a round of drinks to arrive, Trix asks Grae a bit more about what she is going to do back in Tenahmir. Grae indicates that part of the reason she has come to Strixhaven is to search for an artifact, and she believes that there may be a book or resource at Strixhaven to point her in the right direction. Information on the artifact is scarce, but she believes it may be in a mine somewhere back in Tenahmir. Records indicate that Lorehold scholars once visited Tenahmir to document information about the Dwarvish clans, and she believes this might be a valuable resource to help her in finding what she is looking for. Trix offers her assistance as she works at the Biblioplex part-time, and the party agree to meet tomorrow afternoon to look into it further.

As the party drink, they begin to drunkingly question some matters at the tavern, including if Rat Ratatouille (the special again this week) contains rat, or if the chef is being secretly controlled by a rat, and cheer Khorvus on as he tries to play the piano.

The next day, the party (having recovered from their collective hangover) re-group at the Biblioplex. Trix brings the party to a large index, and begins searching for keywords like "Tenahmir". Eventually, they find the index indicates for Tenahmir to refer to "Lorehold Archives: XXXXXX", with the last half of the line intentionally crossed off. Perplexed, they try to see if there could be a way to intrepret the words. Edolkar flips the page, and finds a way to read it 'backwards', comparing it to the light. Reading the words, he indicates the crossed off words are: "Gondel Wing". Trix, hearing the phrase, expresses concern, indicating it is a source of bad luck and it is seldom spoken of amongst Lorehold students and professors. She explains that Gondel Wing was a building on Lorehold campus, installed alongside the chasm wall, and served as a large archive for ancient societies. A long time ago (seemingly out of nowhere) the entire building fell into the bottom of the chasm, and those who have investigated it since have reported it as cursed. They determine that further infomation on what they are looking for might be in this "Gondel Wing", if they can find out where it is. They consider asking Osgir, a Lorehold professor and academic.

They organise to take a clockwork carriage from the main campus to Lorehold. On the short ride, they find time to talk a bit more. When asked, Grae mentions that her motivation for finding this book (and artifact), is to help her mentor, who suffers an unknown illness who believes this artifact can heal him and save him from death. Finding Osgir's office, they ignore the many signs indicating it is currently 'closed to students'. Trix, knocking anyway, greets Osgir and asks for his help. He indicates his workshop is closed while they examine the 'dode door', which the party helped to acquire from Vestan, a third-year student, earlier this year. When Trix asks about Gondel Wing, Osgir is distraught, warning her not to speak of such things while they are not on 'solid ground' (as many buildings overhang the chasm). Osgir indicates that to be able to speak of these things freely, they must help him acquire some items for a ritual. To his surprise, the party already have all the items and hand them over, and they move to 'solid ground'.

Osgir directs them to follow his instructions while he prepares a circle, which consists of lighting candles, pouring salt, and ringing a loud bell. Once done, he indicates he can speak freely on the taboo topic of Gondel Wing. Asking where it is, Osgir points them in the general direction, but indicates they would need to find a way down (and back up), providing some suggestions. He reminds them that rumours persist that the place is cursed, so they should be cautious and plan accordingly. He shares that Pastraisers, a specific group of Lorehold academics, were known to frequently re-awaken the dead of ancient societies to question them in Gondel Wing, and their odd habits of re-awakening dead souls have only fueled the belief in curses in the fallen ruins even more. He recalls an exhibit was being held for a society called the "Aestarians", but was never opened due to the building collapsing. They finish the ritual, and Osgir walks them along the chasm wall until they reach a point somewhat above where Gondel Wing resides. He wishes them well, and departs. The party discuss how best to go down, with Trix offering to cast Feather Fall, casting on the party. Everyone jumps off, and as they descend see a few possible entry points. They decide on a crack in a roof within the middle of the building and "gracefully" land, the magic's power preventing them from taking any serious damage. As the magic dissipates, their collective weight breaks the roof and they fall into the interior of Gondel Wing.

Finding their bearings, they look around and find that they have landed in what appears to be a small student bar. Finding nothing of importance, they move past a door and into a large exhibit hall, which was at once point used to showcase an ancient society of some kind. Stepping into the room they hear metal scraping against stone from a pathway to the south. Searching the room, they find a large sarcophagus, with its lid left ajar, slightly open. The sides of the exterior are comprised of hieroglyph-like symbols, which they examine to try and determine what may have been inside:

Meanwhile, Trix sneakily proceeds further into the exhibit hall, making her way into a library. She sees a glimpse of a figure in metalic armour wandering about, carrying a long spear-like metal object. She informs the party of her findings, and they try to consider what information they can find on the Aestarians, as well as search for Grae's book. They find a plaque, identifying the figure that was in the sarcophagus as Ummon. Grae goes to the library, and finds a book called Unseen Faces of the Changelings, but keeps searching for something on Tenahmir. Khorvus wanders up to a locked display case, finding a single glove inside. Edolkar inspects a cannon that appears to have been left on display, noticing a cannonball has been left inside. Arth proposes a theory on this "Ummon" being buried within the tomb, but is still puzzled about the later glyphs.

As they continue searching, Grae searches through more archives and finds: "A Study of Shared History Amongst Dwarves of the Tenahmir Mountains", which she thinks is what they are searching for. Khorvus finds a book titled "Aarakocra: Sky Cities and their Soaring Cultures" and Edolkar finds one called "Twisted Legacy: A Re-telling of Historical Events from Lived Experiences". The metal scraping sounds continue, and begin to come from the north. Arth thinks he spots it, and Khorvus wanders back into the room, not noticing the figure. He tries to quickly hide, but fails (with a critical failure), and draws its attention. The figure, dressed in a beak-like mask, approaches towards Khorvus and the party enter into initiative!

Round One: Arth moves into the exhibit hall and sees the figure. He shouts for everyone to get out of Gondel Wing now that they have the book. The figure, referred to as the "Gladiator", steps forward to engage with Khorvus, throwing the spear-like object at Khorvus, which misses hitting a weapon rack at the back of the room.It steps forward again, moving to pick up the spear. Edolkar approaches and uses Ensnaring Strike to stop the gladiator, but this fails. As he is close to the figure, he realises it is wearing a belt embedded with gems and jewels. Grae uses Misty Step, teleporting across the room, and slashes with her sword, embued with Booming Blade energy. Getting a critical success (Natural 20), she deals a strong attack and applies the boom, meaning if the gladiator moves it will take thunder damage. Trix dashes into the room and makes a quick strike with her rapier which hits. Khorvus casts Shield of Faith on himself, boosting his AC. He swings with his warhammer, but fails to land a blow.

Into round two, Arth considers how best to exit the situation, and again encourages the party to flee. He works his way to the north of the room, seeking another exit. He casts Aid on Grae, Edolkar and Khorvus who receive a temporary hit point bonus. The Gladiator makes a multiattack, first striking against Khorvus, but the attack fails against his heightened AC. The second attack strikes Grae successfully, but is somewhat mitigated by the temporary hit points of Aid. Edolkar enters into a Rage and uses Reckless Attack. Casting Ensnaring Strike again he swings his greatsword, but still fails to land a hit. Grae casts Kinetic Jaunt, increasing her walking speed and preventing opportunity attacks. She slashes with her sword sword while running to the other side of the room, but still fails to land a successful strike. Trix runs in, striking, before running to a safe distance. Khorvus lines up his warhammer for another attack which fails again.

For round three, Arth casts Vortex Warp, shifting the Gladiator further south into the room towards the archives. The gladiator runs back into the room and hurls its spear at Edolkar, which hits his thigh. In retaliation, Edolkar uses Kinetic Jaunt to try and seek an exit, but finds the door directly to the north leads to a dead-end. Grae casts Scorching Ray, trying to aim directly at the belt around the Gladiator's waist, but all three attacks fail. Trix runs in and slashes, but also fails to hit. Coming in 3 for 3, Khorvus fails his attack, too.

Round four sees Arth cast Shatter on the south side of the room. It fails its saving throw, and takes thunder damage. Without realising, the spell also effects the cannon, which now begins to prepare to launch a cannonball, due to go off in one round. The Gladiator strikes at Khorvus with an open hand, which hits. Edolkar rushes back into the room, making his way towards the cannon, and aiming at towards the Gladiator. Grae casts Ice Knife, launching it towards the belt, but misses. Trix attempts to use her Mage Hand to grab the belt. Maintaining her focus, she begins to unbuckle the belt, but would need to continue to focus on the task to fully remove it. Khorvus tries to swing his warhammer again, but continues to miss.

At round five, the cannon, aimed towards the gladiator, shoots the cannonball. The blast radius encompasses both the Gladiator and Khorvus. Khorvus saves on this saving throw, while the Gladiator fails. Both are sent flying, but are both still in the fight. Arth uses Dash to try and find an exit, seeing that the northern-most hallways lead to the outside. Arth finally casts Bardic Inspiration on Khorvus. The Gladiator makes two quick attacks against Khorvus, with both attacks successful, knocking Khorvus down. Edolkar moves to stabilise Khorvus, but fails to do so. Grae tries to physically unbuckle the belt, moving to grapple, but can't get enough leverage. Trix strikes again with her rapier, dealing a few quick blows against it. Khorvus pasts his first death saving throw.

Into round six, Arth provides Bardic Inspiration, this time to Edolkar. As a main action, Arth casts Vicious Mockery, dealing a small amount of psychic damage. The Gladiator picks up its spear and moves to strike Edolkar. One attack lands and deals a significant hit against Edolkar, which he absorbs some of thanks to his rage resistance. Edolkar makes a Reckless Attack, which results in him landing the final 'killing' blow. He brings the sword around and strikes at the Gladiator's neck, splitting the helmet and body into shattering pieces as they fall to the ground.

Now out of combat, Trix and Arth run up to Khorvus and try a Medicine check to stabilise his wounds, which is successful. They determine that he will need further medical help, magical or otherwise...

The party stand in the security office at Quandrix, with Vestan having just been plane shifted away by an unknown assailant. They wrap things up with Captain Annette Dawn, with her taking the 'tuning fork' for safekeeping and asking the party for their discretion on the events, to avoid a panic among the student body.

A few days later Arth approaches the party. He confides that he lied about Vestan taking the chest, and that he still has it, having kept it a secret from Captain Dawn. They discuss what to do with it, and agree to research the spell it is apparently tied to. Trix recalls coming across a book discussing Conjuration magics, but can't remember the specific name. Sometime later they make their way to the Biblioplex and look through the shelves. They eventually find a dusty book called The Writings and Musings of Leomund. Reviewing the book in greater detail they find a chapter about Leomund's Secret Chest and read about what it does:

You hide a chest, and all its contents, on the Ethereal Plane. You must touch the chest and the miniature replica that serves as a material component for the spell. The chest can contain up to 12 cubic feet of nonliving material (3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet).

While the chest remains on the Ethereal Plane, you can use an action and touch the replica to recall the chest. It appears in an unoccupied space on the ground within 5 feet of you. You can send the chest back to the Ethereal Plane by using an action and touching both the chest and the replica.

After 60 days, there is a cumulative 5 percent chance per day that the spell’s effect ends. This effect ends if you cast this spell again, if the smaller replica chest is destroyed, or if you choose to end the spell as an action. If the spell ends and the larger chest is on the Ethereal Plane, it is irretrievably lost.

Leomund's Secret Chest (D&D - Player's Handbook)

They consider what to make of the information, and realise that if Vestan hasn't yet chosen to end the spell, or if the spell's effect hasn't ended, they might be able to access the contents of the real chest on the Ethereal plane if they can find it. Arth mentions he might be able to ask Professor Brenneth Blackstone for assistance with inter-planar travel, but that they might also need to use a Locate Object spell scroll once they arrive. For now however they agree to focus and deal with their pending end of year exams which are coming up in two days time.

Two days later, the party are in the midst of preparing for the exams. First up is Magical Physiologies, their shared class taught by Veralda Lang. They walk into the exam hall and sit down for the first part of their exam, which is multiple choice about the disposition and habits of Owlbears. The party (excluding Arth) do well, passing the first component. The second part of the exam is a written essay about taming, training and handling Owlbears, consisting of an animal handling check. Both Arth and Khorvus do well, with natural 20s, they feel empowered to write lengthy articles about what they know of the monstrosities. Edolkar struggles a little bit, still adapting to long-form written theory, while Trix panics, writing instead about Owls, and not Owlbears. As the students leave, Khorvus enquires about why they couldn't do another physical exam like for the Slaadi (thanks to Changeling Professor Rixi) and finds out that Athena, Trix's cousin, put in a complaint. The party then move off for their individual exams.

First up, Khorvus goes to Silverquill campus for Introduction to Oratory Techniques. To change things up a bit, each elective class has a unique sort of puzzle involved, instead of just rolling more dice. Khorvus' challenge consists of a crossword puzzle, which is included below for you to attempt as well:

Across

1. The founder dragon of Silverquill
2. One of three components for spellcasting
3. A component used for Minor Illusion
4. Absence of light, also a popular 2nd level spell.

Down

2. One of Silverquill's philosophical foci
3. The source of raw magic for arcane spellcasters
4. The Silverquill Dean of Shadow

With the assistance of the out-of-game players (and in-game Edolkar who happened to be walking past who coughs out an answer), Khorvus is able to complete the crossword puzzle and gain access to Silvery Barbs, a powerful counter-spell.

Arth undertakes a simple written examination on Quandrix campus for his Introduction to Forms and Fractals class with Professor Deekah, before being directed to leave through a set of doors towards the rear of the examination hall. As he walks through, he finds himself in a locked courtyard. The door he stepped through is firmly locked, and in front of him is a weird triangular-shaped door, filled with a number of smaller triangles. Can you figure out how it should open?

Arth makes use of his knowledge of fractals and exponential equations to unlock the door, stepping through and learning Vortex Warp.

Edolkar travels to Witherbloom campus for The Danger of Misidentified Spell Components with Professor Willowdusk. One by one, students enter a small laboratory hut until it is Edolkar's turn. He enters and is given a puzzle task of preparing exactly 5 cups worth of Honeybark Extract, a spell component. He is given only a 7-cup jug and 4-cup jug, so must carefully balance and pour between the two. Edolkar is given access to a sink to tip contents out, and can fill the cups as much as needed from a tap, but must provide to WIllowdusk _exactly 5 cups wor_th. Can you figure out how to do this by pouring and filling between the two jugs?

Edolkar makes quick work of the challenge, finding a suitable way to pour and empty between the two jugs to reach 5 cups worth exactly. He provides this to Professor Willowdusk who congratulates him on passing the course, and helps him to finalise learning the Entangle spell.

Trix travels to Kollema Hall on Lorehold campus, to attend her exam on Examining and Identifying Historical Arcane Artifacts, taught by Osgir. This would normally be held in his workshop, but it is currently closed while he inspects the 'dode door' in greater detail. Trix's puzzle takes place in the form of a logic puzzle, which is included below.

GM Note: This was my first attempt at making a logic puzzle (which Michelle enjoys), but we quickly realised during play I didn't construct enough clues correctly to reach a full answer. The clues provided below have since been modified to be solvable. I hope you enjoy!

Updated Clues:

• Of the artefacts discovered by Futsil Eagerhorn and Felstrum Stormbane, one uses Conjuration magic and the other uses Evocation magic.

• The artefact discovered in a busy market square uses Transmutation magic.

• Neither Kalandriel Mooreseeker nor Ethan Myers discovered the Gem of Brightness or Daern's Instant Fortress.

• The artefact that Abjuration magic was discovered in a forgotten society.

• Only one of the following is true:

  • Futsil Eagerhorn discovered an artefact in the foothills of a kingdom.

  • Felstrum Stormbane discovered Daern's Instant Fortress.

• Kalandriel Mooreseeker did not discover an artefact that uses Transmutation magic.

• The artefact discovered in the depths of an unexplored cavern uses Evocation magic.

• Daern's Instant Fortress, the artefact that uses transmutation magic, and the artefact discovered in an unexplored cavern were discovered by Felstrum Stormbane, Ethan Myers and Futstil Eagerhorn.

• Ethan Myers and Futstil Eagerhorn discovered the Universal Solvent and the artefact that uses Conjuration magic.

Trix successfully recalls the information she needs to pass the exam, and promptly answers the questions. With everyone having completed a 'challenge' for their final exams, the party all walk to the Bow's End Tavern to celebrate the end of the year (and the end of this season of the podcast!).

Recovering from their long night hunting down and capturing Vestan, the party travel back to their dorm and rest. Out of game, this presents an opportunity for the party to level up to level 4! The players discuss what this brings for each character. At level 4, players can usually choose between increasing character attributes, or taking on a feat, which can provide some benefit for certain situations, like a new spell or ability.

• Arth (College of Lore Bard) develops his Charisma (+2). As a Bard he gains access to more spells including Vicious Mockery and Aid.

• Edolkar (Path of Wild Magic Barbarian) takes the feat of Great Weapon Master. This allows him to apply a negative modifier to attack rolls (-5), but if the attack hits, apply an extra 10 points of damage.

• Khorvus (Oath of the Seas Paladin), having swung his war hammer repeatedly over the past few weeks, further develops his Strength (+2).

• Trix (Arcane Trickster Rogue) takes the feat Feytouched. This grants an increase to Charisma (+1), along with learning Misty Step, and a spell of her choice. She chooses Dissonant Whispers, a 1st-level enchantment spell.

In the early morning a student approaches and leaves a bundle of mail at the door. Trix brings this inside and finds a parcel addressed to her, with a number of postal stamps from strange places affixed on the outside. She opens the parcel to find a small box and letter, written by her father, a postman and courier. He indicates that he has just returned from the City of Brass on the Inner Plane of Fire, and has included some cookies he purchased from a bakery. He expresses caution, as they are expected to remain hot for some time. The smell intrigues the rest of the party, who one-by-one approach and try one of the cookies. This has mixed results, with Arth, Khorvus and Edolkar failing their saving throws and not digesting it well. Darius and Trix meanwhile have no difficulties, and enjoy the treat.

Sometime later they go to a security office on Quandrix campus at the request of Nils. They find Nils and Lianna chatting, with Nils informing her of the night's events and the arrest of Vestan for his seemingly nefarious activities. Nils excuses himself, leaving the party to speak with Lianna and fill in the gaps of the story, including Edolkar encountering Rodane and his blight seeds, the missing professor robes from the student store, trying to uncover what his 'Collective for Strixhaven Development' club is about, and the counterfeit spell scrolls. As they detail what happened last night, Trix's mention of a 'purple-coloured' side to the 'dode door' artifact piques her interest. She calls in a woman from a side room, and the party see a tall woman with brunette hair approach, wearing decorated armour. The woman introduces herself as Annette Dawn, a captain of the Dragonsguard, and indicates she is leading an investigation into external threats to the demiplane of Strixhaven. While early into the investigation, she has some reports of unknown agents operating from an undisclosed location on another plane or world. She believes the purple represents both the attunement colour of the plane, and their livery colours. They discuss the dode door in more detail, with Captain Dawn specifying it has been assigned to Osgir - the stone giant professor of Lorehold campus - for further analysis in his workshop. They wrap up the conversation by indicating the Dragonsguard should monitor the drop points for the spell scroll racket, and watch Elias as his motivations seem in question. Captain Dawn shows the party that both Elias and Nordon and being held for questioning in another room, but permits them to speak with Vestan to see what else they can learn. She informs them the interior of the security office is protected by a dispel magic system in the ceiling, to prevent using magic as a means of persuasion or coercion of confessions, which goes against Strixhaven regulations.

The party enter into a small holding room, consisting on one side of a large two-way mirror used for observation, along with a bed and set of furniture. Vestan, pacing up and down the room, welcomes the party with his usual confidence. Khorvus leads a round of questioning, with Vestan dodging direct questions about who is working with. He expresses concern when told he is likely going to be facing serious charges, but indicates he must be careful with what he says, as representatives of the organisation he works for are everywhere on campus. As Khorvus pushes further, Vestan shows willingness to make a deal: get him safely away from Strixhaven, and he'll share what he knows. He says that he has kept some correspondence in a safe location, and asks the party to 'look for a boat' in his rooms, which will hold the information he can trade with the Dragonsguard.

The party split up, with Khorvus remaining with Vestan. The rest of the party take a short walk to the senior-level dorms, going up to Elandra and Vestan's shared dorm rooms. Elandra greets them before leaving shortly afterwards, leaving them with time to survey the room. Edolkar detects a faint trace of some type of magic in the room, and Arth narrows this down to a small toy pirate ship sitting on a shelf on Vestan's side of the room. He hastily cracks it open, finding a small gem-covered chest within the interior. They find the chest is not designed to be opened directly, and too small to hold anything of importance. Collectively, they agree that the chest is likely tied to a high-level spell called Leomund's Secret Chest, which uses conjuration magic to link two items together. They quickly depart back to the security office.

Meanwhile, Khorvus speaks briefly with Captain Dawn, who agrees they can provide certain freedoms to Vestan in exchange for the correspondence in the chest. He surveils the room again, and notices out of the window the shape of a student standing near the security office. He investigates further, seeing that is a constructed image made through magical means, and calls to Vestan to move away from it. Around the same time the rest of the party are walking back to the office. Towards the eastern side of the building, they only briefly see activity before part of the wall explodes, going up in a fireball blast. Khorvus directs Vestan to stay close to him, rushing to inspect the damaged side of the building. He finds that Elias, Nordon, Lianna and Captain Dawn were caught in the blast, but are okay aside from some minor scratches. Captain Dawn directs them to another part of the building while she reviews the damage with Khorvus just as the rest of the party arrive. Darius suggests they could put out the flames with Khorvus' help, but would need to disable the Dispel Magic system that is blocking magic use in the building. Trix looks outside and sees two masked figures approaching, clad in mystical armour with silver and purple livery, matching what Captain Dawn had detailed earlier. In a surprising show of fury and anger, Trix shouts to the figures to stop, which causes them to hesitate, given the party a moment to prepare. As this happens, Arth promptly suggest to Vestan that they need to gag him, just to ensure he doesn't do anything, which he reluctantly agrees to. With Vestan secured, Annette disables the device and Khorvus casts Create Water within the interior of the building, dispersing the flames and giving them visibility to see the approaching figures, and the party enters combat!

Into round one, Darius approaches Khorvus and casts Magic Weapon, granting him a bonus to his attack and damage rolls for a short time. Trix uses Misty Step to shift behind the two figures. Lianna directs Elias and Nordon to follow her out of the room to a safe location. Unknown Figure 1 fails to see Trix, so directs an attack toward Khorvus near the building. They cast Eldritch Blast, striking him for some damage. As a bonus action, Khorvus casts Compel Duel against the figure, compelling them to fight only him. He runs forward and strikes with his war hammer, landing a solid blow. Edolkar enters rage, and is granted a Wild Magic ability to teleport up to 30 feet. He teleports, then strikes towards the figure. With his weapon mastery ability, he deals a significant chunk of damage. Arth, still inside and near Vestan, directs Vestan to stay in the cell. Around a corner he casts Minor Illusion, creating a replica image of the chest they recovered from the dorm. Still suspicious of Vestan's motivations, he shows Vestan the false chest. Vestan motions for him to pass it, but Arth 'puts' the false chest in a pocket, ensuring Vestan sees this. Captain Dawn approaches closer to the two figures and casts Bless on Edolkar, Khorvus and Trix. Unknown Figure 2 casts Dimension Door, saying "Take me to Vestan" before disappearing from view. To Arth's surprise, the figure appears in the room near Vestan.

In round two, Darius continues to try to find a way to help. This time, he casts Magic Weapon on Arth's rapier. Trix, still unseen at this stage, lunges out of a small bush she landed in, but misses her attack. Unknown Figure 1, still compelled to duel Khorvus, casts Gust of Wind in an attempt to push Khorvus back, creating a small, focused wind channel that pushes against him. Khorvus is able to hold his ground in the wind, but fails to land a hit against the figure in retaliation. With only one figure remaining in his line of sight, Edolkar launches another aggressive attack towards Unknown Figure 1. The attack lands, dealing a significant blow. Arth, seeing Unknown Figure 2, un-gags Vestan, directing him to help and asking who these people are. He only briefly gets a chance to explain they are a group known as the "Oriq". Arth casts Silence, which engulfs half of the security office. Captain Dawn checks in with the members of the party outside, confirming they have the situation under control, then moves back towards Arth and Vestan. Unknown Figure 2, distraught by being caught in the sudden zone of Silence, casts a spell which does not require sound. Casting Bloodlash, it strikes Arth dealing significant damage, and preventing him from regaining hit points until the figure's next turn.

Darius starts again round three, he casts Firebolt, but misses. Trix, making use of her Bless from earlier, strikes with her rapier at the figure's knees. Unknown Figure 1, now heavily blooded, pulls out and grabs an item in their hand, then casts the Plane Shift spell, disappearing in a haze of purple smoke. Khorvus uses expeditious retreat, while Edolkar 'rides the wave' of the windgust, bringing both of them closer to the interior of the building. Edolkar also makes use of his teleport ability to land into the silenced room with Arth, Vestan and the remaining Unknown Figure. Arth disengages, leaving the effect of the Silence spell. Captain Dawn tries to cast Cure Wounds, which fails due to the ongoing effect of Bloodlash. The remaining Unknown Figure smashes the two-way mirror, and attempts to grapple Vestan. Vestan fails to resist, and becomes restrained.

For round four, Darius approaches Arth and casts Healing Word, which now succeeds, healing him slightly. Trix also 'rides the wave' of the windgust, trying to make her way to the silenced room. Khorvus also approaches Arth, casting Lay on Hands and healing him further. Edolkar continues to strike the Unknown Figure in a blind rage, but fails to find a suitable spot with Vestan being used as a shield. Arth makes his way down to another room in the security office towards where the Figure is headed with Vestan. He draws his rapier, preparing to strike at the next opportunity. Captain Dawn casts Cure Wounds on Khorvus, encouraging him to get into the fight. The Unknown Figure continues to slow shift with Vestan out of the effect of the Silence spell. This grants an attack of opportunity for Trix and Edolkar, who both manage to land a hit. The figure, struggling with just one hand free, starts to prepare to cast Plane Shift. Vestan attempts to break free one final time to break free from their grasp, but fails. Just as the they shift away, he knocks the 'tuning rod' component used for the spell which clatters to the floor of the room. In a similar puff of purple smoke, both Vestan the Figure disappear.

Arth quickly moves in to inspect and pick up the rod. Captain Dawn approaches, checking on the party, before speaking with Lianna and the others. The party discuss the chest that they found earlier, with Arth indicating that Vestan took the chest from him during the battle. He reports this to Annette when she returns who expresses disappointment that they've lost this potential lead, but confirms she will hold onto the tuning rod to enquire more on its origins.

The party take a moment to heal and assess the situation, having just fought off a Shadow Demon, summoned by Vestan. As they prepare to leave and find where Vestan teleported to, the automata that fell down the stairs early returns, bringing Shaile Talonrook, the Dean of Radiance as 'help'. Shaile immediately expresses concern for the damage to the teacher's lounge, but moves to help heal the party. As the party bring her up to speed, she agrees they should find him, but to do so safely.

Once outside the Biblioplex, Trix (with the help of Edolkar) is hurdled high into the air, and begins to survey the surrounding area. While she doesn't see Vestan, she does see Elias sprinting in an outer courtyard near the student dorms. She lands, and they agree to grab him and find out what he knows. Tracking him, they eventually catch him going back to a first-year dorm. The party confront him and confirm Arth's suspicions that Vestan intends to go to a Snarl, likely on Quandrix campus. They agree to go to the Arithmodrome, where Vestan hosts the CSD meetings, but consider going to the Crystalwind Snarl as well. They bring Elias with them on a short rope.

On the way, they encounter Nils (in his pyjamas) who has just been woken up by Shaile. Unamused with their actions so far, he questions their judgement, but permits them to continue their 'investigation', agreeing to meet them at the Arithmodrome once he is properly dressed. The party make their way to Quandrix campus via a clockwork carriage, and make their way into the Arithmodrome. They spend some time examining the interior, a void-like spanning array of vines and branches, but don't find him. Around this time, Elias breaks free of the rope and flees. The party follow at a good pace behind him, following him to the Crystalwind Snarl, located on the outer edge of Quandrix campus. As they arrive, Elias shouts to Vestan, kneeling over the device he used in the teacher's lounge, with Darius and Nordon standing near him. The party see that the device appears to be channelling energy from the Snarl, preparing to do something. In a confrontation with Vestan, they engage in combat with him and two Fractal mascots.

Into round one, Khorvus shouts briefly to Darius, asking him to join the party and make the right decision. He prepares and hurls a javelin at one of the fractal mascots, piercing it. Arth discusses a battle plan with Khorvus briefly, before casting Minor Illusion. He imitates Nils voice from a short distance away, implying that he and Shaile Talonrook are close by and ready to join the fight. Vestan sees that Edolkar is not in cover, and casts Ray of Enfeeblement, but misses. Edolkar enters a rage, and casts Kinetic Jaunt to lunge forward. With his wild magic path, as he enters rage a number of coloured lights appear around him, protecting himself and allies close by. He sprints and strikes at the other fractal mascot, hitting a powerful blow against it. The other fractal approaches forward, attacking Edolkar, but fails.Trix uses Cunning Action to sprint forward and engages the fractal in melee distance. Striking with her rapier, she lands a critical hit dealing a stunning blow and destroying the fractal outright. The other remaining fractal tries to attack Edolkar, dealing a little bit of damage. At the end of the round, the party see Darius step forward. He gives a small wink, and casts Burning Hands against Vestan.

In round two, Khorvus throws another javelin which breaks through Vestan's mage armour. Arth continues with his Minor Illusion trickery as a bonus action, pretending to be Nils casting a Fireball spell. For his main action, he casts Silence, centring on Vestan. Vestan is quick to realise that most of his spells won't work (requiring at least Verbal component to cast), so attacks with Exponential Lash, focused on Darius. The attack lands, and the attack deals additional damage against another target: Khorvus. Edolkar disengages from the fractal mascot, moving towards Vestan in an attempt to grapple him. Due to the effects of the silence, Vestan doesn't hear him coming and is easily tackled down the ground. Darius moves to inspect the artifact still drawing in power. Trix runs to the single fractal mascot remaining, and deals some additional damage, but does not destroy it outright. The fractal attacks in retaliation, dealing damage in return.

At the start of round three, Khorvus rushes to the fractal, attempting to swing his war hammer but misses. Arth joins Darius with inspecting the device near the cliffside. Vestan tries to break free of the grapple, but fails. Edolkar picks up and moves Vestan slightly closer to Khorvus. Darius tries to shout something to Arth about the device, but realises this is fruitless due to the effects of the Silence spell. Trix tries to finish off the mascot, dealing a final strike which destroys it and ends combat.

Trix leads Elias and Nordon away from the area, encouraging Nordon to find Nils at the Arithmodrome and bring him here. Arth and Darius step outside the Silence zone of effect, and discuss what they can do with the device. Darius indicates that from what he heard from Vestan, the device harnesses power from the Snarl to do something, but it appears to have already drawn too much power to be shut off. Edolkar and Khorvus tie up Vestan, keeping him firmly in the Silence spell's area of effect to prevent him from teleporting away again.

The party consider what to do with the dodecahedron-shaped device, passing notes within the Silence zone to facilitate communication. As Trix inspects it, she realises the device is set or 'attuned' to a particular side, with the colour of deep purple emanating from the interior. Trix investigates and figures that she could switch the side of dodecahedron that is 'active', which would change the associated colour and presumably whatever sort of inter-planar magic the device seems to be preparing. Trix relays this to Arth via notepad, suggesting they change the side to a different colour. She indicates the current 'purple' option is possibly dangerous, and questions what they could change it to. The think back to earlier in the evening, remembering the Shadow Demon came out of the rust-coloured side. Inspecting the sides, she sees the full list of colours that lightly glow:

• Copper Red

• Pure Red

• Jet Black

• Pale Blue

• Magenta

• Dark Blue

• Rust (this was what the dodecahedron landed on in the teacher's lounge)

• Granite

• Olive

• White

• Silver

• Purple (currently selected)

Arth steps out of the Silence area of effect, asking Trix if the portal is designed to take something there, or bring something here. Trix isn't sure, but urges for them to switch it to anything besides purple. They debate for a short time on what colour would be best, but struggle to make a decision. As the device begins to appear to almost finish powering up, Trix chooses to randomly 'roll' her choice (though taking care to not land on Rust or Purple). As she rolls, she gets a 3, meaning the device re-configures to the colour of Jet Black just as it activates. A metre away, a portal stands vertically in the air, bordered by a jet black colour. The party look through the portal and see into a different plane, which they suspect is the chaotic plane of Limbo. They see large chunks of rock and other elements smashing into each other. They realise the portal opened on a small floating rock, and have attracted the attention of some Death Slaad, who quickly approach. Just before the Slaadi can make it through the portal, the device loses charge and the portal closes suddenly.

Around this time the Silence spell expires, with Arth being the first to scream "Jet Black... Jet Black??". With the silence spell lifted, they also begin to question Vestan but fail to get much from him. Nordon approaches with Nils and Shaile who inspect the scene and are brought up on the recent events of what just happened. Arth tries to pocket the 'dode door', but Nils quickly questions where the device is and asks for it to be handed over. Nils indicates he plans to raise an investigation with the Dragonsguard and try to find out what they can from Vestan, who remains tight-lipped. Nils requests Khorvus help bring Vestan to a security office on Quandrix and the party agree to regroup in the morning...

Seeing Elias meet with Vestan in the park, the party decide to follow Vestan, possibly finding where he goes using his 'professor' robes that make up his Rodane disguise. He eventually arrives at the Biblioplex, and makes his way to a hallway that leads to a variety of classrooms and storage areas. The party are able to avoid the attention of a Lorehold 'mascot 'spirit statue, mumbling to itself, who seemed eager for a chat, and find a door marked 'Faculty Storage and Lounge'. They reason that Vestan is likely in here, but find that a Glyph of Warding has been configured around the door frame, and looks to be set to activate an Alarm spell if the conditions of someone passing through the frame are not met. They are able to open the door and see it leads down a staircase, but don't walk through the door frame.

The party consider their options, and debate if they could use some of the clockwork automata around them to either activate the alarm or use them as a decoy in some way. Khorvus casts Create Water, causing a small rain cloud to appear in the hallway and a puddle to start to drip down the stairs into the faculty room. Sensing a mess, the automata activate from the hallway to begin cleaning up. The party notice the automata can pass through the door frame without issue, so Khorvus decides to jump on the back of one of the machines, riding it through the door frame and onto the other side. To everyone's surprise, riding on the back of the automata doesn't set them off, so the rest of the party try to follow Khorvus' lead. While he waits, Khorvus notices there is a switch with a small embedded Dispel Magic, designed to deactivate the alarm spell, on this side of the wall. He chooses to watch the party struggle a little before turning off the alarm...

Arth struggles to mount automata, and receiving a powerful kick from Edolkar goes flying through the door frame and down the stairs into the Faculty lounge. Khorvus deactivates the alarm, following the rest of the party down the stairs. As they arrive, they help Arth up and look around, seeing Vestan, shocked by their entrance, staring at them. Quickly surveying the room, the party see that Vestan has been working on constructing a spell scroll using components from the Faculty lounge, and is standing close to a small snarl, embedded into the middle of the room almost like a fireplace. The party confront Vestan, who continues to try to make excuses on his behaviour and why he is in the room. Realising the party won't buy into his false claims, he pulls out a small, 12-sided device and hurls it at the floor. Trix tries to use her mage hand to stop it, but Vestan counteracts her attempt. The device lands, where a rust-like colour begins to fill the room. In a bright flash of light, a shadow demon appears to crawl out of the dodecahedron. The party roll for initiative!

Entering into round one, Vestan starts off first. He activates the handles of his device, which draws the dodecahedron 'back' to the handles, and casts Mage Armour. Arth tries to immediately 'disarm' Vestan by casting Tasha's Hideous Laughter. The attack fails, not affecting Vestan. The Shadow Demon, awakened and annoyed with being summoned to this plane, moves to attack the closest target, Edolkar. The swipe with its claws fails, with Edolkar dodging the strike. Trix lunges forward, striking with her rapier. Edolkar enters a rage and tries to rehabilitate against the Shadow Demon, but fails with his swing. Khorvus moves against the Shadow Demon as well, landing a successful hit. They quickly learn that the Demon has resistance to all types of normal weapon damage, making the fight more difficult. Khorvus casts Divine Favour to ensure his next attacks add additional radiant damage on the creature.

Into round two, Vestan moves into the back corner of the room, then casts Plant Growth. Many of the succulents and pot plants within the room grow to a terrain that will be difficult to traverse through. Arth tries again to cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter, but fails again to affect Vestan. The Shadow Demon changes targets to Trix who dealt the most damage last time. The claw attack fails, with Trix easily dodging. Trix strikes again with her rapier, landing more decent damage against the fiend. Edolkar tries again to strike, landing the hit within his rage and striking true, but not yet dealing enough to kill it outright. Khorvus lines up another strike, hitting the fiend and dealing radiant damage which it is weak to.

In round three, Vestan shoots a Firebolt across the room, hurting Arth who wasn't expecting the blast. Arth shifts his strategy to helping his allies, casting Bardic Inspiration on Edolkar as a bonus action, then casting Shatter against Vestan, shooting lightning across the room. Vestan passes his save, but still takes some damage. The Shadow Demon makes another strike against Trix, swinging its claws and hitting, almost knocking Trix down completely. She panics, fluttering away to a perch on her turn. She casts True Strike, then monitors the situation from a distance. Edolkar realises his Magic Surge ability should have activated, and gains access to an ability to teleport once per turn. He uses this as an opportunity to warp next to Vestan, and strikes with his great sword, making use of Bardic Inspiration granted to him. The strike lands, dealing a significant blow into his shoulder. With his allies having flown or teleported away, Khorvus stands alone against the Shadow Demon. He makes an attack with his warhammer, filling it with radiant light. He makes use of Divine Smight, allowing additional damage against an undead or fiend. In a single strike, he obliterates the fiend.

Round four starts. Vestan panics, both from seeing the Shadow Demon be utterly destroyed so swiftly, and from having taken damage himself. He chooses to flee, casting Dimension Door as he shouts to "take me somewhere safe". The party realise that as a part of this he has teleported up to 500 feet away, so will still be nearby. They take a quick moment to review their wounds. Khorvus casts Lay on Hands, almost bringing Trix back to full health. They review what Vestan had been doing, finding that he was working to construct a copy of a Lightning Bolt spell scroll. The party prepare to depart up the stairs to chase Vestan...

Leaving Garak's warehouse with some additional coin and spell scrolls, the party go back to Snorge to let him know their side of the deal is done. Snorge is surprised on their speed to complete the task, but says he'll have their requested Fireball spell scroll available in a few days. The party take time to rest, catching up on their classes and extracurriculars, before returning two days later to get the spell scroll.

With the Fireball spell scroll in-hand, they consider tracking down someone who can help 'decode' the scrolls to try and find a source or indication of the original maker in the underground scroll racket. They agree to speak with Professor Deekah on Quandrix campus, and drop-in one afternoon after Arth finishes up a class with the teacher. Khorvus introduces himself, having not met Deekah before, and asks for assistance with investigating the origins of some of the spell scrolls being distributed on campus. Deekah expresses interest, but indicates another professor, a Dwarf named Estus Burrowbane, would have the knowledge and resources to help. Deekah leads the party to a set of rooms below Torus Hall that serve as private study rooms or labs for professors and academics on campus, eventually arriving in Estus' workshop. Inside, they find a small dwarf, working away at a mechnical contraption in the middle of the room. Deekah introduces Estus, then excuses herself to address other matters. The party ask if Estus can help identify the source of spell scrolls, and he accepts the challenge willingly. Taking their spell scrolls he begins to analyse the spells, including Fireball, Pass without Trace, Entangle and Conjure Animals.

After sometime, Estus determines that the Fireball and Conjure Animals scrolls, both fairly powerful (3rd level), appear to have been constructed hastily, with signs of poor workmanship or made by someone with insufficient experience. Estus reveals that for the Fireball powder, what should have been pure Sulfur was replaced instead with Pyrite. Simiarily, the Conjure Animals spell (in the form of a song), is missing a stanza that would grant the caster the ability to control the animal summoned. Estus indicates that the other two scrolls, both of lower level, appear to be safe, and have an indication of being made by the underground trading racket. The party consider how to proceed, and thank Estus for the help before departing.

Back at their student housing, the party consider what to do next. Knowing that Snorge is involved in the racket somehow, they decide to follow him at the next available opportunity and determine why some of the scrolls are becoming 'bad'. Arriving back at the Bow's End Tavern, they find a spot to sit on the other side of the room, but keep a watchful eye on Snorge, who maintains conversations with several students throughout the night. Khorvus approaches a friend, Nihal, and pretends to be interested in what he has to say, while secretly listening to Snorge on a neighbouring table speaking with a young human student. The student orders a spell scroll, provides payment, and Snorgge indicates to expect the scroll to be made-to-order and delivered to him in several days.

After sometime, later into the evening, the party see Snorge depart the tavern and begin to follow him. At a distance, they notice he gets into a carriage heading to the Silverquill campus, and make their way on a carriage themselves. The party continue following, eventually setting themselves up in useful vantage points overlooking a courtyard where Snorge is sitting and waiting. Snorge waits for an opportunity where there appears to be no-one around, then cracks open a piece of stone, placing a piece of parchment and a bag of coins inside, before patching the hole back up and departing. The party wait a few minutes, then approach. Arth cracks open the same piece of stone, finding the parchment and coinpouch. Reading the parchment, they see it is a list of spells, presumably written by Snorge, to notify his associates of what to manufacture:

• Lightning Bolt, Lorehold Tablet form

• Enhance Ability, Witherbloom Potion

• Faerie Fire, standard spell scroll

Arth deducts that the coin pouch is delivered along with the parchment to the actual manufacturers of the spell scrolls. He suggests they take out five gold pieces, with the party split on whether this is a good idea or not. He continues, making a note of the spells, and taking some gold, before putting everything back into its place. They decide to wait around for who comes to collect. After waiting some more time, they spot a hesitant and cautious elven student approaching. Arth recognises the student as a first-year named Elias, a member of the Collective for Strixhaven Development. Elias finds and opens the cracked piece of stone, and begins to read and make a copy of the parchment inside, not touching the coinpouch. He quickly places everything as it was before running away. Arth directs Trix to continue following Elias, but the rest of the party decide to stay and see if anyone arrives. A short time later, another figure approaches, but seems to have done this before, sticking to the shadows for the most part and not showing any signs of nervousness. They quickly and smoothly open the crack, taking out the parchment and coinpouch, before ducking back out. Arth tries to follow the figure, but loses them.

The party regroup with Trix, and decide to continue trailing Elias, who is preparing to travel to the Central Campus. Like earlier in the evening, they cram into a clockwork carriage, keeping their distance from Elias and wait until they arrive. Elias walks to one of the many courtyards on Central Campus, before taking a seat on a bench. A humanoid figure approaches, wearing Quandrix attire, and sits down next to him. The party realise that this figure is Vestan, the leader of the Collective for Strixhaven Development group and supposedly also professor "Rodane" who gave Edolkar the blight seeds.

Having agreed to 'put the heat' on some students that owe Snorge's employers, the party travel to a nearby warehouse where Garak Tolade and a group of students known as The Cogs work out of part-time. Trix runs off to the lost and found bin at the Biblioplex, and searches for a variety of equipment that the party can use as a disguise. Trix returns, surprising the party at first, and dishes out costumes. They construct fake names to use:

• Arth becomes Septilius B. Nellenmor

• Edolkar becomes Bovinus

• Khorvus becomes Kevin Fittlesworth

• Trix becomes Grubney Hollowhop

They debate on how they should proceed, with Trix asking to try a friendlier approach first.

Entering inside the warehouse, they see a well-dressed Genasi student working in a book at the front desk. The party introduce themselves (as their alter-egos) and ask to speak with Garak. The blue Genasi, Bennett, indicates Garak is busy, so is likely unavailable to speak with anyone at this point in time. The party insist this is on 'urgent matters', causing Bennett to leave into the back of the warehouse. Khorvus jumps over the desk and begins to browse the book Bennett was writing in, finding a mixture of agreed upon jobs to move goods between campuses., but nothing that seems illegal. Bennett enters a short time later, indicating Garak doesn't know them (at least, by their alter-ego names). They continue to push to speak with Garak, eventually intimidating and forcing their way into the back of the warehouse. As they enter, they see a human in student clothes floating in the middle of the room, tied to a long piece of rope. Continuing to walk in, they see a half-orc woman, Garak, but at half the size you'd normally expect, likely shrunk down by some type of magic.

The party introduces themselves (again under their false names), and Khorvus indicates that Snorge has sent the party to talk about their overdue payment. Garak laughs, expressing that she has no intention of giving Snorge his money, given what the last batch of scrolls he gave them did. Garak indicates that both herself and Richmond (the human stuck floating in the air) used an Enlarge/Reduce Person and Fly spell respectively, but the results were... less than ideal. Without access to someone who knows Dispel Magic, they have no idea how long these unexpected side effects will last. Khorvus tries to persuade Garak that they need to investigate this sort of behaviour further, and she agrees to pay what is owed to Snorge if the party can help with an outstanding courier job they had intended to use the scrolls for. Garak also offers the other spell scrolls they haven't used yet, and a few gold pieces each for their work. Asking about the job, Garak tells them that a Silverquill professor hired them to store some crates into a location called the Furygale Repository for a couple of days, before taking them to their office on Silverquill campus. To their surprise, when Garak and her team returned to the Furygale a few days later, the elementals within the cave appear to be very interested in the crate's contents. They purchased some scrolls to prepare for a fight, which backfired. Garak requests they grab the crates and bring them back to this warehouse, where she should be able to organise the rest of the delivery. The party depart for Prismari campus.

After a short transit via clockwork-horse carriages, the party arrive at the Furygale Repository, located towards the outer-edge of the campus. Inside, they see a faintly lit cavern system, which opens up to a vast area of naturally carved stone. Scattered around the interior are remains of now-forgotten student projects. Trix spots what appears to be some of the elementals further off towards the back of the cavern. Khorvus uses Divine Sense to try and identify any evil creatures, but is unable to detect anything. The party press further to find the hidden chamber holding the crates. Arth finds himself in a side passage and approaches an earthly statue of a knight in armour. As Arth walks up and inspects it, the statue comes to life and strikes at Arth. The party enter into combat!

Into round one, Trix starts off and casts True Strike at the statue, granting advantage on her first attack against it on another turn. Edolkar runs forward, attempting to strike with his great axe, but misses. Arth disengages, preparing to cast a spell on his next turn. Khorvus switches to a javelin and deals some damage. The statue steps off it's foundations and tries to strike at Edolkar with two swings. Fortunately, both miss.

Into round two, Trix lands a strike against the statue, then runs back to leave room for Arth's spell. Edolkar follows suite, stepping away from the statue. Arth casts Shatter, causing an electrical charge to surge through the suit. The suit takes half-damage, but is still knocked back somewhat. Khorvus casts Divine Favour, granting a boon on his weapon attacks for a short time. Khorvus swings and smashes against the armour. In retaliation, the armour strikes back at Khorvus but both attacks fail. Trix tries to strike the armour but misses. Edolkar switches to his great sword, but misses as well. Arth casts Bardic Inspiration, granting a blessing to Khorvus. Khorvus makes use of this, running up the side of the wall, blasting the armour with a large blast of radiant light, destroying it. They inspect the remains, with Khorvus taking a part of the helmet, then proceed further down the Furygale.

The party walk further until they come close to two Prismari Art Elementals, dancing with each other. Edolkar edges close to them, following their movements. Trix tries to sneak past but draws their attention. With the Elementals distracted, Arth and Khorvus search along the back wall of the Furygale for the stone Garak told them about it. Khorvus finds it and presses it, with a small side-cavern opening up. Inside, Arth and Khorvus find several heavy crates. Arth opens a loose crate and finds several bottles of some type of purple liquid. Arth and Khorvus begin to stack and carry some of the crates. As they begin to walk out and swap (with Arth and Trix continuing to dance), moving the crates appears to attract Magma Mephits, which crawl out from a nearby pit. They step forward to engage and attack.

Edolkar enters a rage. He lunges forward with his great sword, striking a powerful blow at the creature. Khorvus attacks with his war hammer, just landing a hit thanks to his previous Bardic Inspiration boon. One of the mephits breathes fire on Edolkar, who fails his saving throw and gets slightly burnt. Arth is concerned that if they stop dancing the Art Elementals might join the fight, so he focuses on dancing but uses a bonus action to cast Bardic Inspiration again, this time on Edolkar. Trix tries to follow along with dancing, but doesn't impress them. The other mephit, fighting with Khorvus, casts Heat Metal, causing his armour to burn. He is able to endure enough to continue wearing his armour, but takes some damage.

Into round two, Edolkar swings his great sword again, and deals enough to take it out. The mephit bursts into flames, damaging both Edolkar and Khorvus who are caught in the blast. Khorvus tries to strike the remaining mephit but misses. Arth and Trix continue to struggle with keeping the Elemental's attention, but hold on for another round. The remaining mephit breathes fire, with Khorvus dodging most of the flames and damage.

Into round three, Edolkar lands a furious and final blow against the mephit, which explodes into flames. Edolkar and Khorvus thankfully dodge most of the blast, but still come out of combat in bad shape. Khorvus casts Lay on Hands, healing Edolkar's wounds. Arth casts Heroism on Khorvus, who then casts Cure Wounds on himself. The party slowly grab the crates and disengage from the Art Elementals, making their way back to the central campus.

Sometime later at the warehouse, they walk in and deliver the crates to Garak. She thanks them, opening one of the crates and offering a bottle of Pican's Glaze, a magical alcohol that needs to be diluted by being in the Furygale for several days. She agrees to sort out her owed payment to Snorge, pays them a few gold coins each, and hands over the remaining spell scrolls they got from their previous order with Snorge. This includes:

• Conjure Animals (in the form of a Silverquill Song)

• Pass without Trace (in a pouch as Prismari powder)

• Entangle (Witherbloom potion, in a bottle)

The party say farewell to Garak and depart the warehouse...

Celebrating their recent win in Silkball, the party come back to their schoolwork. For this third and final trimester, everyone chooses an elective of their choice:

• Arth: Introduction to Forms and Fractals (Quandrix)

• Edolkar: The Danger of Misidentified Spell Components (Witherbloom)

• Khorvus: Introduction to Oratory Techniques (Silverquill)

• Trix: Examining and Identifying Historical Arcane Artifacts (Lorehold)

Their shared class, Magical Physiologies, continues with a focus on Owlbears. Sometime into the trimester, Khorvus is asked to attend a meeting of Dragonsguard Corps volunteers and members. Lilliana Flametounge welcomes everyone, and introduces a guest to speak with the group about some important developments on campus. Nils, the dean of discipline, approaches and indicates he needs assistance with investigating the rise in an underground trading racket of spell scroll distribution on campus. Nils informs the volunteers that while a formal, official method of purchasing spell scrolls for classes and studies exist, some students choose to use to purchase through these unknown buyers at a reduced rate. He doesn't expect to completely eradicate the racket outright (lest they go into hiding and pop back up again), but encourages the volunteers to keep an eye and ear out for possible agents.

Sometime later, the party discuss how they should keep investigating the Collective for Strixhaven Development (CSD). Continuing to go to the discussions, Arth notices that Vestan has been speaking more frequently with the other students, and one student that was attending regularly, Barthilda, hasn't been attending for some time now. Still with access to the copied list of names Vestan had written down, Trix checks with Arth and Darius on students that are listed, but haven't been to the group meetings. One student, Farshine, is known to Edolkar and shares a class with him this term. They decide to try and learn more about her and why she has been 'targeted' for the CSD.

Edolkar and Trix team up to find a way to engage her in conversation, coming up with a plan to 'steal' a book from her bag to return it to her later. Later in his shared class with Farshine, Edolkar creates a distraction giving Trix, waiting near a window outside an opportunity to use her Mage Hand to grab the book from a distance and pull it through the window. With the book in hand, Trix disappears and regroups with Edolkar and the group after classes finish for the day. They find the book is a collection of study notes, interspersed with random musings and thoughts on the day's events.

At the next opportunity, the party travel back to the Witherbloom campus and 'run into' Farshine to return the book. They quickly find she has an innate sense of 'auras', and everyone requests a reading into what she senses. They enquire on her sense of Vestan, and why she didn't join the Collective for Strixhaven Development. Farshine indicates that he approached her early in the year, but she associated him with dark, brooding colours, and thinks he is purposefully trying to hide his true 'colours' from others, so she stayed clear. With no experience with the 'CSD', she encourages them to speak with some other members, and the party agree to go find Barthilda Boulderflask, who hasn't been attending for several weeks.

On the central campus, the party arrive at the Temple of the Divines, an on-campus centre of religious study and devotion for the devout. Outside on one of the temple walls, the party see and approach a stocky Dwarven woman cleaning some graffiti. Arth knows Barthilda, but the rest of the party introduce themselves, finding out she worships the Dwarven demigod Haela Brightaxe. When they approach the topic about why she hasn't been turning up to the collective meetings, Barthilda indicates that after a meeting some weeks ago he began to ask very intrusive questions about the temple, including how they use their religious artefacts, focus items, and other items of power during services and events. While Barthilda tried to change topics, Vestan continued asking questions, which led Barthilda to leave outright with no plans to return. She expresses concern over those remaining in the group, and asks if they could check in with Nordon, who she believes still regularly attends CSD meetings. They finish up and depart to the General Studies hall.

Arth spots Nordon within a small crowd of first-year students and approaches him, introducing the rest of the party. It is very noticeable that he appears to have singed skin where one of his eyebrows would normally be. Edolkar asks about it, and Nordon explains that a fireball spell unfortunately backfired, but could have been worse. Arth encourages Khorvus to ask about the 'backfiring', and learns that Nordon uses spell scrolls excessively due to his inability to communicate with his warlock patron and develop his abilities. As the party press further, they find out that Nordon goes through a contact, Snorge, to purchase spell scrolls and decide to speak with him to learn more about the operations.

Fortunately, they find Snorge at the Bow's End Tavern (again). The party discuss who should approach as the 'buyer', and Khorvus volunteers. Meanwhile, Trix orders some food for everyone and sits at a separate table. Arth walks up and introduces Khorvus to Snorge, and indicates Nordon directed them to come here and speak about spell scrolls. Snorge says he can help, but when Khorvus asks for a third-level Fireball spell, they find they don't have enough money to afford it, even at Snorge's reduced prices. Snorge offers them an option to help cover the cost, such as putting 'some heat' on some other buyers who owe him on a line of credit. Alternatively, he knows of some light-headed third-year students that just bought a bunch of spell scrolls they could steal, if interested.

The party discuss and agree to 'put on the heat' to these other buyers, to try and get them to pay up to Snorge. The party do share some concern about what this could entail, but come back to Snorge and agree to the request. Delighted, Snorge directs them to a half-orc woman named Garak Tolade, who leads a group known as The Cogs in a warehouse on the central campus. Trix happens to recall that The Cogs are a group of students that work part-time to move and distribute boxes, crates and artefacts for classes, exams and presentations all around the campuses. The party pack up and depart to meet with Garak.

The episode continues with the party arriving at the Silkball stadium. The best way to describe Silkball is like a combination of dodgeball and lacrosse. For those interested, Ben and Michelle have created a set of rules for the game which you can download for free here, along with some game maps:

Here is a summary of the rules/gameplay:

• Teams play to best of three game rounds, meaning a team must win at least two game rounds to win the game outright.

• Players can win a game round by:

  • Getting all players of the opposing team 'out' (hitting them with a silkball); or

  • Scoring three goals in a game round

• Attackers make an attack with their 'Silkball Stick', which is a weapon, so it allows a character to use their strength modifier. If the character is proficient in Silkball, they can also apply their proficiency modifier.

• Defenders make an opposed Acrobatics check against the attacker's attack roll to avoid getting hit by a silkball, winning ties.

  • If the defender beats the attacker and does not already have a silkball in their net, they can roll a 1d10. On a 9 or 10, the defender has caught the silkball in midair, and the attacker is out and must immediately leave the field. Rolling a 1-8 means the silkball has landed near the defender.

• An attacker may shoot at the goal with a silkball, which is opposed by a goalie if one is present. If successful, up to two players on the attacker's team may re-enter the field if they were previously 'out'.

• Roll modifiers apply depending on the distance between attacker and defender.

The field itself is 120 feet in length, with a dotted line at the half-way mark. On opposing ends of the fields, large posts are set up with freshly woven spider silk, which makes for the goal netting. Aurora, the fifth player for their upcoming game, approaches and asks them if they are ready. The party enter into a short training montage with Edolkar and Aurora showing Arth, Khorvus and Trix on how to use the 'Silkball Sticks'.

Sometime later, Lerrv, the small goblin wizard, approaches along with his team. His team include Oldys, Shri, Tolfkin, and Malathion. Khorvus and Edolkar saunter up, trying to intimidate the group. Khorvus flexes, much to the delight of Nihal watching in the audience. Two large humanoids, made of metal, approach the groups and introduce themselves as One and Three, warforged beings that will be facilitating as referees for the game. Trix asks what happened to "Two", and is stared at by Three. Trix knows that these constructs are native to the world of Eberron. As each group is directed to their sides of the field to start the game, they are asked for their team names. Lerrv indicates his team is the Witherbloom Wyrms. The party debate quickly on what to call themselves, and reply with: The Bow's End Bashers.

The pre-game round initiative roll commences, which decides the first five players to receive a silkball from the field. For game round 1, this is: Aurora, Edolkar, Khorvus, Malathion and Shri. The players position themselves on the field, intermixing throughout their sides of the field. Arth chooses to stay in the goalie zone for their side, while Thofkin stays in the goalie zone on the opposing side.

Everyone re-rolls initiative to kick off the game. Aurora is up first and throws her silkball at Malathion, making a weapon-based attack with her Silkball Stick. Malathion dodges, and doesn't get a chance to catch the ball as his net is already full. Oldys runs up, grabs the silkball which has just landed on their side, and throws the silkball at Aurora, getting her out. Trix moves forward, grabbing the same ball, and pegs it at Shri on the opposing side. Shri dodges, but doesn't catch the ball as she also has a ball in her net. Khorvus approaches, throwing a ball at Malathion and gets him out. Shri scoops up a ball, and pegs it towards Trix. Trix dodges, but doesn't catch it. Lerrv approaches, also throwing towards Trix, and gets her out. Thofkin stays in the goals, and chooses to Remain Vigilant, providing a defensive bonus at the next incoming goal attempt. Edolkar throws from a distance towards Shri. She catches it in midair, sending Edolkar out and bringing Malathion back in near the end of the field. With many members of his team now out, Arth spends his main action Remaining Vigilant, to defend against an incoming goal. As a bonus action he uses Call to Arms, and encourages Khorvus to take a shot at the goals on his next turn.

In the next turn order, everyone re-rolls initiative. Trix is out, so delays her turn until if she gets back in. Khorvus follows the recommendation by Arth and throws long to try and hit the goals. Even with the bonus from Arth, it is not enough to beat Thofkin. Fortunately, Thofkin doesn't catch it and Khorvus remains in the game. Malathion sprints, finishing his turn closer to the middle of the field. Thofkin passes one of the nearby balls closer to his team, and chooses to Remain Vigilant. Oldys throws a silkball at Khorvus. Khorvus dodges, but doesn't catch the ball. Lerrv also aims at Khorvus, and Khorvus dodges again, but he can't quite catch it. Shri attempts a third shot from their team towards Khorvus, which hits and sends him off the field. This leaves just Arth remaining on the field for the Bow's End Bashers. On his turn, Arth lines up and takes a goal-to-goal shot, which fails spectacularly. Somehow, Thofkin fails to catch it, keeping Arth in the game (for now).

Into the third round, Shri begins and tries for a shot at the goals. Arth defends, but misses his chance to catch the ball. Arth swoops in, grabbing the ball at his feet and tries for another goal-to-goal shot. To everyone's surprise it lands and he scores a goal! Two players from the team are eligible to be brought back in, so Khorvus and Edolkar step back into the field. The silkball remains attached to the goals, and one of the warforged referees throws a new ball into the middle of the field. Malathion chooses to remain defensively on the field. Oldys runs in to grab the fresh silkball, remaining in the No Throw Zone. With no balls, Lerrv stands awaiting a volley. Edolkar and Khorvus positions themselves closer to the middle of the field.

Entering into the fourth round, Oldys steps out of the No Throw Zone, and pegs his silkball towards the goals, scoring successfully. This leaves this game round at 1:1 for goals. Edolkar steps forward, passes a ball to Khorvus and steps closer to the middle of the field to peg another ball at the goals. Thofkin catches the ball and sends Edolkar off to the sidelines. Khorvus runs forward with the silkball passed to him by Edolkar, and lands a hit on the goals, leaving the score at 2:1, in favour of the Bow's End Bashers. Trix and Edolkar step back into the end of the field. Shri moves in, grabbing a fresh silkball from the No Throw Zone. She throws it at Khorvus and misses, but he doesn't catch it in time. Arth grabs a nearby ball, passing it to Edolkar, and Remains Vigilant. Thofkin passes a silkball to Lerrv and Remains Vigilant. Lerrv throws a silkball at Khorvus, which he dodges but doesn't catch. Trix, freshly into this round, steps forward and takes a shot at the goals. Thofkin isn't quick enough, and she lands a hit, giving them third and final point they need to win this game round. The referees blow their whistles in unison, and the small crowd gathered in the stadium cheers the Bow's End Bashers on as they regroup and take a short break.

During the break, Aurora congratulates the team on doing well. Khorvus tries to cast Bless to provide a bonus to a few members of the team, but draws the attention of one of the referees who approaches and checks for magic casting with Detect Magic. The party are able to bluff their way out of the situation, and Khorvus ends up blessing a jug of water instead. As a part of the bluff, Edolkar sculls the water, becoming the sole beneficiary of the spell.

The two teams prepare themselves on the field for the next game. Pre-round, they roll off and determine who gets the balls to start: Oldys, Thofkin, Lerrv, Aurora and Trix. The players position themselves before kick-off. Oldys starts, and hurls a silkball at Arth. He dodges, but doesn't catch it. Aurora throws a ball at Thofkin and gets him out. Lerrv pegs a ball at Arth, and gets him out. Trix passes a ball to Aurora, grabs another ball, and throws it at Lerrv. Lerrv dodges, and doesn't catch it. Shri aims at Trix, misses, but Trix misses the ball. Malathion stays in the goals and Remains Vigilant. Edolkar lines himself up in the goals, and uses Call to Arms to inspire Aurora to "hit someone holding a ball", as well as using Remaining Vigilant.

In the next turn order, Trix grabs and passes a ball back to Khorvus. She moves, grabbing another ball and throws it at Shri. Shri dodges, but doesn't catch it. Oldys grabs a silkball off the ground, aiming at Trix. She dodges, but doesn't catch it. Lerrv moves towards the centre of the field, grabbing a ball and hurls it at Trix, but she fails to catch again. Shri tries another attempt towards Trix, and gets Trix out. Khorvus aims for the goal net, which skips past Malathion and hits the corner of the net, scoring one point for the Bow's End Bashers in this game round. Trix and Arth are brought back into the field. Aurora hurls a ball at Shri, and gets her out. Edolkar steps forward, passes a ball to Trix, then moves back to the goal zone and Remains Vigilant. Malathion Remains Vigilant, and uses Call to Arms to encourage Lerrv to take a shot at the goals. Arth sprints into the field, grabbing a silkball from near the middle of the field.

Moving to another turn order, Trix passes a ball to Aurora. Malathion continues to Remain Vigilant, and maintain his previous encouragement to Lerrv. Arth comes in, and belts the ball at Lerrv. Lerrv sidesteps, but doesn't catch it. Aurora attempts a goal shot, but fails. Malathion catches the ball and Aurora is sent to the sidelines. Khorvus sprints inward, grabs a ball, and runs back to further onto their side of the field. Oldys proceeds forward and targets a more stable target: Arth. He gets out and sent to the sidelines. Edolkar grabs a ball, then pegs it to the other side, landing a goal in one of the corners where Malathion can't reach in time. Arth and Aurora step back into the field. For this game round, the Bow's End Bashers lead with 2:0. Lerrv sees an opportunity given Edolkar did not remain vigilant, and shoots for the goal. He hits, bringing the score for this game round to 2:1, and bringing Shri and Thofkin back into the field and sprint closer to the middle.

Proceeding onwards, Malathion remains in the goals and Remains Vigilant. He shouts to Thofkin to hit Edolkar and get him out. Khorvus lines up a ball, and just misses, with Malathion swooping in and grabbing the ball in midair. Trix grabs a ball and passes it back to Arth. Aurora sprints, grabs a ball and finishes in the No Throw Zone. Thofkin grabs a ball and passes it to Shri. Arth hurls a ball at Lerrv and gets him out. As Lerrv begins to depart the field, he whispers something under his breath while looking at Arth. One of the referees notice, and shout that magic has been cast. Lerrv speaks privately with the warforged, who then announces Lerrv's team has been penalised for trying to cast Deafness. Malathion rolls across his silkball to the party's side of the field, and play resumes. Oldys grabs a ball and pegs it at Aurora, who gets out. Edolkar, who still has access to the Bless bonus, lines up a short to try for the game-winning goal. The ball flies through the air, with the crowd going quiet as they watch in anticipation. This quickly changes into cheers from the crowd as it lands in the goal and the Bow's End Bashers win the game.

Most of the opposing team congratulate the party and shake hands. Lerrv however remains stubborn, and directs his posse to withdraw after a few hostile words. The referees, One and Three, approach, congratulating them on the win and record this in the College records. Darius, carrying Fleet, approaches and shares in celebrations. Jeremus, having mostly recovered from last night's poisoning, wanders up to the group. He indicates he had arrived in time to watch the last few minutes, and praises Edolkar for his Silkball skills. Jeremus offers to purchase the first round of drinks at the Bow's End tavern, and the party begin walking off the field.