Smogwarts
Ran on Friday the 15th July 2022
The introductory brief, as it was read to the characters.
It is late evening on the last day of Autumn,
the last classes of the day have ended,
And students and faculty alike are filtering out of the castle
into the Autumn leaf strewn grounds,
on their way to the nearby village of Smogsmead,
to celebrate the Festival of Candles,
an ancient celebration of life and family,
but today it is mostly associated with feasting and drinking through the night,
on the candle lit cobble streets of Smogsmead,
as vendors and entertainers from far and wide ply their trade.
Already the castle hallways are eerily silent,
without the familiar murmur and jostling of students,
trying to reach their dorms before curfew.
As you find yourselves in the classroom of Professor Crumble,
in the Extra East Wing of the Castle Smogwarts,
it feels as though you all might be the only students,
not participating in this years Festival of Candles.
Our four students found themselves in detention.
Screech the wingless Aarakocra Artificer, had stolen a pair of winged boots.
Aslyn the Eladrin Warlock chose not to conform to the linear nature of time and was frequently late to class.
Rushi the Elven Wizard was performing alchemical experiments without supervision and turned themselves into a sentient wooden spoon.
And Elara the Tiefling Druid was caught with toxic spores.
As Professor Crumble dozed off, the students tried to sneak away.
But it was past curfew, and in the Extra East Wing of the castle curfew is magically enforced.
Opening any door will open to a random room instead of the room that would usually be there.
Which room would appear was determined by a dice roll.
The students knew they would need to magical door pass, an enchanted token with the power to command a door to open to a specific room, in order to leave the castle, and this they believed was in Professor Crumbles office.
The first room they opened into was the Underdark Garden maintained by Floomph the Flumph, a pleasant floating jellyfish like creature who communicated telepathically.
Elara the druid determined that the magically sensitive Black Root Grass that grew in the room was emotionally disturbed by some sort of unusual presence in the castle and was determine to find its source.
The students discovered that the castle held four riddle rooms and each held a metal key of copper, bronze, silver and gold.
The students managed to win the Copper, Silver and Gold keys but could not find the Bronze key as it was missing.
Along the way they discovered a fellow student by the name of Krimp who was trying to find the keys for someone called the Dark Master.
Krimp had gotten himself in over his head after tagging along with another student called Gutter who introduced him to this Dark Master.
The students convinced Krimp to follow them, and eventually the stumbled into Gutter being chastised by the Dark Master.
Despite the Dark Master being a much more powerful wizard, and the students discovering a traitor among them, they managed to defeat the Dark Master at great cost by trapping both themselves and the Dark Master inside the magically sealed vault, with the only keys out put into a bag of holding that was then destroyed, causing the contents of the bag to be spilled out into the Astral Plane.
