World's End Academy

As you try to adjust the function of an ancient and powerful artifact you barely understand with slightly more than a week of training... while sick... you stumble across one of the most important lessons of magic and spell creation. It's always easiest to start with a metaphor. Visualize what you want and how you can act on it.

In this case, you find yourself visualizing your human disguise crosseyed and holding a sledgehammer, looming over your fireball-shaped true self and getting ready to push you through a distinctly un-fireball-shaped hole.

With a wordless and primal scream, the metaphorical hammer comes down... and you slam your head on the desk in front of you, ears ringing and vision spotty.

As your senses slowly come back, you catch the tail end of the teacher chiding somebody about falling asleep while attempting focused meditation, and then you realize you're the one being addressed.

You open your mouth to protest, only then to realize how much you can FEEL your lips. The sensation of touch is so much more sensational, sounds are so much more lyrical, and suddenly your skin is -yours- rather than a lens of illusions.

And the nausea is so much more nauseating.

Instead of words, you use your open mouth to be violently sick and are quickly excused from class for the remainder of the session, with sympathy.

You spend the rest of the day trying to acclimate to your new body. The ring you wore now was nothing but a bit of copper. You realized that you'd never really -looked- at it before, ivy-like bands twining around your finger and it feels like part of its misdirection was keeping the eye away from focusing on it. Now it's just a souvenir... you think.

[Artifact transformed: Ring of Humanity into Ring of the Hiding Trellis
Effects: ?????]

[Mystic Secret Gained:
Dual Form Identity:
In an instant, you can change your nature between that of a monster and that of a human. Currently, it works just like your disguise did, costing just as much to stay human, but with practice, this technique can easily be developed into partial transformations or other esoteric tricks.]

You wake up feeling especially terrible on the morning of your first refutation class. Your very first experience with a 'real' body happening while you are sick meant going from 'Oh hey, I have organs!' to 'oh gods my organs' much faster than most people have to worry about. Part of you wants to just stay in bed and get used to your changes and maybe sleep off the fever, but your roomies bug you awake. Beatriz pokes you with something cold until sleep is a distant memory [and your head feels just a little less hot] while Ada forces you to eat something hard and starchy anyway.

You'll probably appreciate that later, but for now, you're barely awake as you wander into the intro refutation class. Fortunately, the refutation facilities are actually in the market district, and you don't have too far to go. A boxy, formal building full of plain classrooms and sterilized labs that houses your class, and once you get in and sit down the teacher isn't far behind. A muscular, squat dwarf with very long blonde hair and an equally long beard.

"Hello, class." he starts with a slight nod, "Good to see most of you back, and some new faces as well. Well, for a quick overview to catch up with our new students, refutation is the school of counters and antimagic. With it, you can suppress the spellcasting of an enemy, remove curses and enchantments, turn magical items into loose mana crystals, and much more. Certain monsters can even be outright unmade with the right refutation spell. Last week we practiced the most basic concept in refutation - sensing the movement of magic in others. This week we will be continuing just that, but with a twist, by the end of this period you will be expected to identify the spell I cast -before- I have actually cast it."

"To demonstrate, please watch me closely with your mana sight while I demonstrate the three spells I will be switching between."

You do just that, looking carefully at the teacher and very grateful that the class you missed was something that you were already quite capable of... only to slightly reconsider that position as the difference between seeing the effects of a spell and seeing the casting of a spell starts to sink in. The professor is nothing but confusing spirals and knots of gold, the dazzling sunniness of it a little much for when you're already sick.

[Resilience Check 1d100+15 = 53+15= 68 DC 50]

Fortunately, you're not that much of a wimp.

[Studiousness Check 1d100+13 = 31+13=44 Breakpoints: 45/60/75]

Unfortunately, you still can't really tell the difference between 'Barrier-Shattering Hammer' 'Stone of Attraction' and 'Sober Up' no matter how many times the teacher casts them. Your vision is swimming and they all just look like great big buckets of magic swirling around with only the barest sense of direction. By the end of the class period, you have to resist the urge to imagine that the teacher is looking right at you, as he suggests that anybody who missed the first class practice on their own time to make up for it.

Hooray.

[You have discovered: Homework! One regular action can become up to three Homework actions each turn, taking a homework action allows you to retry any failed classwork or spell learning check already covered in a class with a stacking bonus for each time you've tried. Everybody loves Homework!]

The illusion classroom is almost suspiciously normal, being the cleanest of any you have been in so far, and tucked away in a part of the library quarter with large white walls. Three rows of three students sit politely in a square before a long flat desk, some with books out, but none seeing anything notable. Even the guest professor seems on her best behavior, which is doubly unusual because you've had another class with Archmage Hana and she did not simply walk into the room last time.

"Hello, class. My name is Hana, I'm the current dean of illusions here at the academy, but elven titles are a mess nobody wants to wade through so it's fine with me if you stay casual," she begins. "Illusions are one of the most maligned schools of magic, and it's true that they have a number of weaknesses. And that they're far more effective against your fellow man than against monsters, which doesn't typically foster confidence. They can even often be dispelled with a simple touch, which doesn't exactly seem powerful, and most of the 'legendary feats' of magic performed with illusions consist of either morally terrible activities or replicating things other schools could do more easily."

The professor is much more animated than she was in the, er, Magic Laziness class. Pacing about the front of the classroom, and pointing with a small wooden wand at various students as she punctuated her points with jabs. There's something bright and... laughing? In her pale eyes that wasn't in them in the last class.

"Well, it's bunk! Illusions are amazing, and you're all skipping the usual lesson today so I can tell you three reasons why. Reason one is personal amusement. Every other school of magic has few to no spells it's ENTIRELY safe to use recreationally. Even soulsight, forever looking inward, doesn't have anything you can cast on yourself 'just because you're bored' without potentially risking long-term psychological damage. Not so with illusions. If you have free time and know the Lotus Land spell, just make sure to set a time limit on it first and enjoy an instant vacation."

A few students around the classroom look especially hungry at this knowledge, though you personally, are unclear how well it would mix with the 'doesn't work well on monsters' part.

"Reason two is training. There's no better school than illusions for training the fundamentals. Want to practice chain casting until you drop, do it with an illusion, being benign and visually obvious will let you pick out when spells start to warp with no danger. Heck, you want to train something completely unrelated to magic? You can conjure yourself an illusory swordfighter and have an instructor or fencing partner on your off time. You didn't hear it from me, but the Inquisitors actually make extensive use of illusion magic to train prospective recruits in resisting torture and corruption."

In... inquisitors? You quickly look around the classroom, you see a few curious eyes, some stoic nods, two people looking even hungrier, and precisely nobody else who responds as if totally unfamiliar with the term.

"Reason three is POWER. Yeah I know, you thought I was just chicaning you, phrasing all the ways that illusion spells being useless could count as a positive, well tough. At the highest level, illusions actually, have some of the highest return of investment from effort spent to effect gained. The arts of Shadow, Mirror, and Haze are all considered advanced evolutions of the school, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a knight of any country who doesn't fear a Mirrormage, while Shadowmages can often replicate the feats of any other magic user. Not perfectly, don't get me wrong, a Necromancer will always be better at Necromancy than an Illusionist, but versatility matters kids."

"As for Haze magic... well... watch this."

The professor waves her hands in an extravagant gesture, sending motes of light to the four corners of the classroom as reality begins to peel away. Smoke pours from the violent violet light, covering everything as a ripple of stars crosses the wall, wood rapidly replaced with a picture of the night sky through a low hanging fog.

"Haze magic can do amazing things with mist, in fact, you'll probably hear at some point that every school of magic has their own method of transport, and this is ours. Behold! The Misty Path!"

The professor points her wand to the ex-wall, and a long brick road extends into the space where a building once was, tracking miles into the distance... before there's an impossibly distant 'thump'.

"...Thump?" the professor asks.

Rapidly the path starts crumbling away, bricks in the distance of clear space falling into the void as Hana's eyes go wide and she starts shaking her wand.

"Nobody panic! This happens sometimes. When connecting two places sometimes something on the other side comes through, but you can rest assured that a fully qualified..."

She trails off as the bridge rapidly breaks more and more, an indistinct, shadowy figure rushing across it, not breaking the path, but USING it, heavy footfalls shaking the classroom even through the portal as it dashes at impossible speeds.

"A fully qualified wizard can handle anything, I just have to add on a layer of barrier protection and voila!"

Hana mutters under her breath and a pane of what looks like glass appears over the wall, only to almost immediately shatter as an enormous, scaled black hand reaches forth, light glinting off of claws of jet as it squeezes around the elven professor and she lets out a squeak.

Her mouth opens to speak... then her body compresses and nothing comes out, neck falling limp as she gets yanked back through the portal, the stars peeling back as she goes.


You don't even really have time to parse what happens, in fact, you almost have a heart attack as you feel something touch your head. Feeling like you can HEAR your new bones creak as you look up...

To see the professor walking around the classroom amusedly tousling the hair of each of the students, walking from desk to desk across three rows of three...

Then passing through another wall, which fades away, as the classroom opens up to a much larger affair of six rows of six.

"And that brings me to the fourth advantage of Illusion. The unexpected. NOBODY is ever as prepared for illusions as they think they are. Even if a single touch would dispel it, even if the only thing they know about you is that you're good at illusions, nobody is ever prepared to have the basic notions of reality yanked out from under them. The path to mastering illusions is a long one. And difficult. I won't argue that at all. More than magic, if you want to be a true Illusionist, you'll have to master acting and psychology, sound design, and artistry. You'll have to know yourself and others. It's why we actually run a theater around here, so to get you better used to steering yourself and your audience. But if you can do it, well..."

Hana leans casually against open air, flicking her wand as four desks at the head of four fake classrooms disappear to reveal one large podium in one.

"Five senses stand between every living thing and the rest of the world. I can teach you how to steal eight of them."

The professor might be a bit of a drama queen.

You suspect that being able to make anything might make Generators bad at communication.

The class is ostensibly supposed to be taught inside an actual classroom, yet when you get there it is strangely deserted, save for a few other confused students. Until, a chime sounds, shortly before the class is set to start, and an image of the class's teacher, a tall bald man with a bushy mustache, appears from a crystal.

"This is a notice for all students who are joining us for the first time, and for anyone who didn't pay attention to the end of the previous lecture. The majority of the class's first unit will be taking place with a practical element and thus we will be meeting in the white gymnasium. You will not be punished for tardiness but do try to make a good time."

Any other time you would be scrambling to get there before the class starts but as sick as you are the best you manage is to trudge your way across campus to the dungeon quarter and through the double doors of the gymnasium only a few minutes late. A gust of cold air rushes at you, chilling you to the core, just as a ball of ice and snow introduces itself to your face. You've been practicing heeby jeeby nonstop for lack of anything else to do with your magic, so it figures that you'd be attacked on one of the occasions where it always goes off that you'd gotten used to ignoring.

The gymnasium has been coated in more snow than… ever. You have no frame of reference for this much snow. Each step you take has you sinking in past your ankles. A stark white cloud floats just below the rafters adding a constant fall of even more snow. The shouting of spells is mixed in with the cries of people playing as students run around casting and throwing snowballs. Cordoned off, off to the side by a twinkling barrier is the teacher going over the class's spell with the other new students and anyone else having struggles.

[Learning Snowball with opposing affinity DC 45 16+13=29 Failure]
[Spell Progress: Snowball 0 of 3]

Snowball, according to the teacher, is the most simple thing you can do with generation, as most living things have at least a weak natural connection to water on top of most people having a strong sense and memory of what is being created. You don't have either. Snow has always been an ephemeral thing never lasting longer than a few moments even in the coldest days in the swamp. And the less said about anything water-related coming from a ball of fire the better.

The spell being incredibly simple should be enough to compensate for that, yet everything is falling apart from the moment you start casting. Attempt after attempt has you call the mana to your palms, ask it to become snow in some abstract faux pas, and then watch it fade from your body entirely. If you had to hazard a guess your inherent nature is kind of… melting… the spell before it gets formed?

[Making something out of the class Prowess 52+20= 72]

There has to be something you can do with the class though… There is snow on the ground, you have a new batch of frustrations to work through, and you can see a handful of other students are supplementing their spells with normal snowballs. You've seen enough older students talking to know that 'aim' is half the battle for some spells.

Scooping up a handful of snow, it feels… weird. Looser than even the loosest peat but somehow even softer than that. It starts to slowly melt in your hands until you try to hold it together, squeezing it tight, at which point it's suddenly more like a clay that makes unpleasant noises when you shift it. While you consider just playing around with the substance a bit, you get a heeby jeeby just soon enough to shift your head, dodging a snowball as a streak of white whizzes past it.

A quick scan shows it to be the same guy that had hit you when you first came in, well, if he wants to pick easy targets, the least you can do is teach him to get better at figuring out which ones those really are.

Why he's been picking on the unaware is quickly apparent, while he can cast the spell he takes longer to aim than some flowers take to bloom. The second ball he threw wouldn't have hit you even if you hadn't started to dodge while he was still casting. You're not quite familiar enough with snow'balls' to form perfect projectiles, but after heaving three chunks of compacted ice at his center of mass in the time he took to throw one - and getting all three to connect somewhere for that matter - he quickly disappears into the crowd leaving you to muse on your victory.

…Your hands are cold and you're still not sure where the teacher is… but you enjoyed yourself.

[Skill Progress: Aiming, basic 1/3]


Your second Farsight class is quite a bit less shameless than the first, although Professor Bungin still lights up like a gas vent. When she comes in this time, she sets down a collection of glass bottles behind a curtain and instructs you through what is apparently half of a spell, asking the class to practice perceiving them in their own way before moving on. Once you finally manage to see it yourself - a task that takes most of the class as you're still getting used to spells - you find that it looks... completely normal to your farsight. Maybe it's because you didn't have senses other than light sense and vibration sense until recently, so when you successfully use magic to see a knobbly glass bottle beyond normal sight, you see a knobbly glass bottle.

Listening to the rest of the class is a bit more interesting. Apparently, Farsight doesn't directly translate to actual vision for most people. You're hardly -alone- in seeing the whole thing as an actual visual image, but you're hardly in the majority either. Some people first perceive the texture, some the color, others get the purpose. One rather strange student got the taste, a discovery which quite alarmed them due to it being the rim of a bottle filled with very strong liquor, and the composition of their bottle. You're not sure you would consider 'Sand, potatoes, and seaweed' a valid method of seeing a bottle of spirits, but the professor just took a proud puff and gathered the class' attention.

"Fun fact, about statements like that: how you 'see' something can actually get more 'pure' as your farsight gets stronger. This is another reason the famous oracles are either stodgy scholars who nobody listens to or mysterious druggies who are impossible to understand. It takes a lot of practice to kind of 'wind forward' your vision and see what you're actually looking for. Seeing the world as it "truly is" is surprisingly impractical in most situations. Tracking the intricate web of all things really just gives you a headache."

She singles out the student who saw the mix of raw materials, "You in particular I'm gonna have to warn. Don't look at divine miracles being used with your magic without a LOT of practice controlling it first. Seeing what the gods have in place of a face will wreck your whole weekend, hell, just that sentence is probably more off-putting than some of you were hoping for."

Hmm. Seeing all those bottles, you hope heavy drinking and farsight mastery are only correlated, not causative.