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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 1248851" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the SeventeenthThree… Two… One…Professor Alexandra shuts the door on her class of third-year students and looks around at the group of adventurers crammed into her office.“Does the name Jordan Hampton mean anything to you?” Anvil demands.“Yes, he’s one of my first year students.  What is this about?”“We think he’s the one who told Jelliana you had sent us to get the diamond.  May we speak with him?”Professor Alexandra rubs the bridge of her nose and sighs.  “I take it you’re asking as a Justicar, not a private citizen?” she asks.  Anvil nods.“Excuse me a moment.”   Alexandra closes her eyes and mutters a brief incantation.  This is followed by a short whispered exchange with someone only she can hear.  After a few moments she opens her eyes again and regards the party.  “Meet me in the administration building.  I’ll go get him out of class.”**********    In his prime, Edmund Worthington II possessed one of the finest arcane magical minds the Halmae has ever seen.  His early theories of levitational magic eventually led to the creation of the spells fly, levitation, and feather fall.  Sadly, those days are long past, and the wizard who sits behind the richly carved mahogany desk in the wood-paneled Chancellor’s office is a frail, white-haired old man, with a very quiet and conciliatory nature.Professor Alexandra and Jordan arrive a few minutes behind the party.  Jordan is a skinny fifteen-year-old, with freckles and an awkward manner.  He takes a seat and Anvil focuses on glowering down at him with every inch of Justicar intimidation at his disposal.  Reyu stands on his other side, wearing an expression that suggests she eats human babies for breakfast.  Jordan gulps.“What is your relationship to the Priestess Jelliana?” Anvil demands.(Thatch leans over to Dennis and whispers, “Umm… I thought that was kind of obvious?”)“We…” Jordan stammers, “We’re in love.”“Love,” Reyu repeats, her tone flat with disblief.“Yes.”  Jordan repeats, sitting up a little straighter.“She was planning an attack against the Mage’s Academy.”Jordan is unsure for only a second.  “You’re lying.”“We’re not.  We found the plans in her room at The Lion’s Head.”“What were you doing there?”  Jordan scans the room, looking for an ally.  He finds none, but then, “understanding” dawns.  “I know what this is… you’re just jealous.”Lira looks at the young wizard and puts on her most dazzling smile.  “Come on, we’ve got no reason to lie to you…  Maybe she’s just fallen in with the wrong sort of people,” she suggests.  “Tell us what you know, and we can help her.”Jordan is only partially reassured.  “She wouldn’t plot against the Academy,” he insists.  “She wanted to study magic.  To be a wizard.”“Did she ever ask you to bring her anything from the Academy?  A scroll of charm person maybe?” Jordan gulps.“Tell us the truth,” Anvil says, “Kettenek’s Justice demands it!”“I… I… got her a couple scrolls.  One of them might have been charm person.  I… didn’t want to, but she said she needed them.”“What spells were on them?”“I don’t know!  I just grabbed some out of the Professor’s cupboard.  I’m sorry, but you can’t blame her, this isn’t her fault!”Professor Alexandra blanches at the revelation of the theft.  “What sorts of scrolls do you keep there?”  Reyu asks.“Just some student work… nothing higher than second level.”The party exchanges glances, that’s still higher than any of them can cast.    The interview continues for a few more minutes, but the party is soon satisfied that Jordan’s complicity in the conspiracy was limited to following his hormones instead of his head.  Despite all of their efforts at persuasion, they are unable to convince Jordan that Jelliana was not as in love with him as he was with her.    After Jordan returns to class, the Chancellor mostly seemed annoyed that Professor Alexandra has asked the party to intervene in the matter of Gurn Stoneshaper and the diamond in the first place.    "I told you to let that go!" the old man practically shouts.  "And you just went ahead, stirring up trouble."    "But," Reyu points out, "If not for our intervention, the plot against the Academy might never have been discovered."    “If it wasn’t for people” the Chancellor eyes Professor Alexandra meaningfully, “making unnecessary problems—”Anvil interrupts him.  "You should send the students home."    Chancellor Worthington blinks for a second before wheezing, "Out of the question!  Create a panic over nothing.  We don’t bother anyone.  Why should anyone bother us?"    Lira speaks very slowly, just in case the Chancellor has trouble understanding Common. "We’ve found evidence that group of unknown size and unknown arms is planning something at midnight tonight, and if you don't do anything, lots of people are going to die.  Don’t you care?"    The Chancellor stares back at her.  "Do you think it would be possible for you to have a little less information about this ‘plot’?” He waves a hand of dismissal.  “People will always dislike us.  These are rogue misfits.  I'm not going to create a panic over nothing."And with that, the discussion is closed.    Professor Alexandra sees the party out of the Administration Building.     "That man," says Anvil, with characteristic tact, "is a fool."    Alexandra does not agree openly, but her look speaks volumes.    "We have to protect the students," Reyu urges her.    Alexandra nods tightly.  "I'll talk to the other professors.  We'll be on guard tonight, and we'll do whatever we can as far as spell selection.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of time to prepare.  I suppose that students who live locally can go home; although I don’t know how many of them will agree to.  Only a handful of them have families that live within the city…"  She gives a helpless shrug.  "It's all we can do.  Let's hope it's enough."**********    By sunset that evening, the party has secured several major allies:  Tenacious has spoken to King Orin who has called out the City Watch in force.  The Pillars of Kettenek have come through with a well-armed squad to assist in the academy’s defense.  All together, eight squads of four or five roam the grounds, keeping an eye out for any sign of trouble.  The Givers of Life have healers with several of these groups and their hospital stands ready for casualties.    Finally, Dennis has paid five of the city's less-reputable citizens to scout out the sewers and report back with what they find.    One by one, the spies return.  The first has found nothing.  Neither has the second.  Nor the third.  Nor the fourth.  The fifth does not return.Midnight is only minutes away.    The party is in the Divinations Building, where Professor Davis is keeping his crystal ball (the good one, with sound, Lira notices) focused on the muster-point marked on Jelliana's sewer map, as he has for the past hour.    Nothing.    "I'm telling you," Thatch tells no one in particular, "we should have gone into the sewers ourselves.  Rooted them out."    Maybe they should have.  At the time, facing an unknown enemy in unknown numbers didn't seem worth the risk.  Now, waiting, with all the academy in readiness, knowing that in a few minutes something is going to happen, the party wracks their brains for the thing they have forgotten, the thing they could have done.    Two minutes to midnight.    One.    Dennis clears his throat, a loud noise in the otherwise silent room.    "I don't know if this will help, but could you try to scry for the fifth guy I sent out?"    In seconds, the Professor is refocusing his crystal ball and locates the man Dennis describes.    "I've got him." As the scene comes into focus the Professor Davis’ voice becomes more and more agitated.  "He's... unconscious, or dead, I can’t tell…  It's underground, somewhere in the sewers, a room or junction of some kind... the space is filled with barrels, I can't tell..." He stops, then, almost in a whisper, "By the Gods! The fuse, it's-"    The sound of an earth-shattering explosion rocks the building.</blockquote>

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