Frosty's adventures in magic school!
(This is my writeup of "College of Wizardry" a larp about learning magic in a castle in Poland! You can learn more here.)
I had so many adventures these two days at Czocha. It seems like 2 weeks, honestly! There was so much happening. I ran through secret passageways in the middle of the night. I fought a duel with a goblin. I danced with a faun. I cheered for our fireball team. I played a prank on a professor and was awarded with house points for my trouble! I accidentally read a fellow students mind and got a ball date out of it (sorta). I got confused about the location of my ritual magic class and ended up sword fighting in PE instead! I can go on. There was fun and friendship and pranks. But there was one evening that was more intense than anything else I did at Czocha.
But first I should tell you something about house Molin. Their house traits are loyalty and cunning, but really it's about family. In Molin you're not classmates. You're relatives.
One day we were having lunch, when two marshalls (both heavily armed) burst into the hall. They wanted to arrest Zoe, who is a werewolf, and in house Molin. Immediately her entire house stood up in front of her. As other people noticed what was happening, people from other tables stood in front of her as well. Soon half the school stood in front of Zoe, while the other half was pointing their wand at the marshalls. Even the two Faustians who had done nothing but look down on the other students, were ready to help their schoolmate. When the teachers arrived and managed to get rid of the marshalls, the entire hall rang with the Molin chant: "Blood makes us related, loyalty makes us family!" it was glorious.
Buuut that's not the story I wanted to tell right now. This just goes to illustrate the spirit of house Molin. What I want to tell you happened a bit earlier.
Being in the right place at the wrong time
It was the night of the sorting. Juniors had gone into their new houses and after a wonderful initiation ceremony I was happy to have found my place with my fellow Roosters in Durentius. Durentius is about valor and diligence, but really it's also about pranks, fun and being very, very loud. We had a wonderful welcoming ceremony and were up in our common room celebrating.
Well, that's not entirely correct. House Molin was giving a party in their common room next door, and the roosters had pretty much invaded it. Our prefect was loudly singing songs and everyone was having a good time.
I was hanging out with my friend, who had been sorted into house Faust, the house that's about wisdom, ambition and might. While everyone was still celebrating, we snuck away from the party. Two of my classmates, a pair of siblings of indeterminable gender, had asked for our help. Apparently there was a third sibling who had died (there was talk of werewolves and spirits) and they wanted to summon him using shamanistic magic.
This of course seemed like a fantastic idea to an adventurous and curious junior and so I agreed to help them.
My friend and I were supposed to meet them on the bridge outside of the school, and time was running short. We hurried down the stairs, when the Durentius prefect, who had followed us, called out to us from above. "Hey Faust boy! Want to hear the Durentius part of your song?"
And he began to sing:
"Oh, come tell me, mighty dragon
What your feast has been tonight?
Well, I ate a noisy rooster
In the early morning light
He kept crowing about valor
And he was a sorry sight
But devouring him has added
To my wisdom and my might"
https://soundcloud.com/liselle-angelique-krog-awwal/wisdom-and-might-faust-at
Of course he did not stop here and by the time he reached the third refrain the two of us were singing along.
When we finally made it to the bridge, the siblings were nowhere to be seen. There was a lot of commotion, however. Rumor was that witch-hunters had attacked the school and several teachers and seniors were walking around with torches, going to restore the schools wards.
For a moment we were undecided, but then decided to head towards the forest, hoping to catch up to the siblings.
We were rather nervous. Juniors are not allowed in the forest and there were teachers walking around with torches, but we managed to evade everyone. Near the forest gate, we came along a few more curious students who had heard rumors of a ritual being performed tonight and wanted to see what was going on. Explaining everything would take too long, so we passed through the gate and into the very, very dark forest.
This was probably a bad idea
At first we didn't hear or see anything, but as we ventured a bit deeper, we heard chanting and drums from somewhere below us. There were multicolored, moving lights visible near the source of the sounds. It was, all in all, rather unsettling.
But we did not come all this way for nothing! We continued down the slope, which was incredibly hard to do in the dark. I hesitantly brought out my lantern and lit our way, but we made very slow progress. Down below us the ritual was reaching its peak and the intensity of the chanting and the drums increased. By now it was clear we were too late to help, and this all started to feel like a rather bad idea. The people who were with us and who didn't know what was going on were even more freaked out, and we decided to head back. Just then there was a chilling howl and several werewolves appeared on the hill above us, silhouetted against the castle. There was an answering howl from below us, where the ritual was taking place. We were not supposed to be here and we were completely boxed in! It was utterly terrifying and we hid among the trees, huddling together.
We remained hidden for a long time and eventually things turned to normal. The wolves vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. Or so we hoped. We remained hidden as the siblings passed us by. No one had seen us. When we were sure they were gone, we slowly began to make our way back to the castle, still wary of every shadow.
Alex
We were only steps away from the safety of the castle gate when something jumped out at us from the shadows and our little group scattered. Most students ran for the gate as fast as they could and I really can't blame them!
Only my friend and I stayed and found ourselves face to face with the person who had so startled us. He was brandishing a large axe and seemed to be thinking about using it. Seeing how he was not a werewolf, or a troll, I tried to defuse the situation by showing I meant no harm. He was not in a reasonable mood, however. It soon became clear that this was one of the witch-hunters that had attacked the school! A religious fanatic first class, who believed us to be demons and would rather kill us than negotiate. That is... if there hadn't been something he wanted.
After some back-and-forth, he finally told us his name. Alex. Alex refused to lower his axe, or let us approach. All he wanted was to talk to someone called Jade.
Even though I didn't know her very well, I recalled Jade was a Molin prefect. However I was still rather hesitant, because this was a maniac with an axe, who put a strange emphasis on the word "talk". It was only after he mentioned that Jade was his sister, that I agreed to go and find her.
I rushed back to the castle and ended up in front of the Molin common room, where people were still celebrating.
As I could not enter the Molin common room uninvited, I had to shout for Jade. She came out to meet me and the moment I mentioned her brother, her facial expression completely changed. It didn't take long for her Molin friends to rally around her and soon a small group followed me to the forest. On the way I asked Jade some questions and found out she accidentally injured her brother when she was a child and discovered her magic, causing her to leave her family and eventually end up at Czocha.
Blood makes us related, loyalty makes us family
Alex was waiting for us. He would still let no one but Jade approach and we reluctantly let her go to him. They engaged in a heated discussion. Alex wanted his sister back. He believed she was taken by this school full of evil demons. Jade passionately plead with him that these were her friends now, her family. This was who she was. But it didn't have to be this way. She wanted to be part of Alex' life again. She wanted him to be a part of her life.
Just as it seemed Alex might be persuaded, he suddenly grabbed her and put his axe at her throat. He would take his sister out of here by force, if needed! As one, we moved forward, wands pointed at him. Alex was cornered and he knew it. Behind him was nothing but a long drop down. He backed further and further towards the edge as we tried in vain to reason with him.
"I'll jump and I'll take her with me!" he threatened. "At least then it will all be over!"
Recognizing the danger in his desperation (and he really looked quite unhinged by now), we stood aside. Anything to get him and Jade away from the cliff's edge. He hesitantly moved through the space we made for him, glancing at us warily. Still threatening Jade, he slowly backed towards the school gate. Attacking him seemed extremely dangerous, considering his weapon that was close enough to her throat to draw blood.
In the meantime Jade's housemates kept trying to appeal to Alex.
"Who here is her true family? You? You threaten to kill her! We want what's best for her! We love her! Please let her go! This is where she wants to be! This is where she belongs!"
At the gate, Alex hesitated. He looked torn.
Suddenly a new voice rang out. "Ah! You caught one of those foul creatures! Good work Alex!"
Another witch hunter! This newcomer had the look of some kind of priest or inquisitor and air of authority around him. We now faced two foes, and they still had Jade, who was pleading and sobbing while Alex was shouting at her to shut up.
The inquisitor spoke to Alex, trying to get him to resolve his faith. "She has to be purified, Alex. She is possessed."
"Fine then!" we retorted. "Do your exorcism right here, right now! It will not change anything!"
We let the inquisitor guide Alex through the exorcism. Alex spoke passionately, entranced with religious fervor. He ended with an "amen" that rang out over the surrounding hillside and no doubt woke up several people in the village below.
Yet nothing happened. Jade remained Jade.
"Do you see now Alex? You've been lied to! His rituals have no power, yet you've seen us perform miracles! Your sister is not cursed! She is blessed! Don't take that away from her!"
Everything Alex believed in was crashing down around him. He roughly shoved Jade in our direction, where she was caught in a warm embrace. She was crying. Her housemates were crying. I have to admit I felt tears sting my eyes as well.
Alex turned to the inquisitor with murder in his eyes. He raised his axe, and the inquisitor spread his arms wide, seemingly welcoming his fate. He spoke tauntingly at Alex. "I do not fear you, because I have not abandoned my faith."
Of course we could not let this happen and we tried once more to reason with Alex. "Don't let this man control you anymore!"
Alex hesitated for a brief moment. Long enough for the inquisitor to draw a wand and fling a spell at Alex. Alex crumpled to the ground.
The inquistor moved forward, but Zoe was between us and him in a flash and the man fell back, having impaled himself on her sword.
Alex was in a bad shape, and desperately needed help. We knew he didn't have long. And there was no healer among us! Fortunately we were near the school gate and we quickly managed to get the attention of some of the staff and healers. I remained in the background, because suddenly I remembered that as a junior I was not allowed to even be here and the head Guardian was questioning people.
Alex was brought back from the brink, but he had no memory of what had happened. His anger had melted away and he was mostly confused. He was taken in by the staff and we were told to go back to the castle. Jade was still upset and overwhelmed with the avalanche of emotion she'd just been through, and the rest of us weren't faring much better. But the Molin family stood strong and comforted each other. In that moment, they truly were family.
As for me, now that the danger had passed, I became aware that I was the only non Molin there. I started to feel a bit out of place and considered leaving. Just then, Jade came up to me and gave me a hug. "Thank you so much!" she said. And I felt a bit of Molin warmth seep into my Durentius soul.
And then...
That was not the end of the story. Alex and Jade had more adventure that weekend, including an unfortunate deal with a Fey Lord. But it was the end of this story for me as I went off to sleep.. Or at least I tried to, but then I ran into a friend of mine who was talking to magical runes professor Wraithwood about the master rune we'd discovered in the dungeons, earlier, and the professor wanted to see it right away (that and my hallpass, since it was past curfew) and.... Well, let's just say it took a little while longer before I found my bed.
--------------------
During the entire scene I describe above there was nothing at all that was even slightly out of character or immersion-breaking. The setting was amazing, the werewolves (from a distance, silhouetted against the castle) looked entirely convincing and terrifying, and the guy playing Alex was fantastic. It was some of the most intense roleplaying I've ever done, and it rocked! This goes for the entire event, really. I've never been this immersed in another world before. I really did go to magic school. I fully recommend this institute of magical education!
I had so many adventures these two days at Czocha. It seems like 2 weeks, honestly! There was so much happening. I ran through secret passageways in the middle of the night. I fought a duel with a goblin. I danced with a faun. I cheered for our fireball team. I played a prank on a professor and was awarded with house points for my trouble! I accidentally read a fellow students mind and got a ball date out of it (sorta). I got confused about the location of my ritual magic class and ended up sword fighting in PE instead! I can go on. There was fun and friendship and pranks. But there was one evening that was more intense than anything else I did at Czocha.
But first I should tell you something about house Molin. Their house traits are loyalty and cunning, but really it's about family. In Molin you're not classmates. You're relatives.
One day we were having lunch, when two marshalls (both heavily armed) burst into the hall. They wanted to arrest Zoe, who is a werewolf, and in house Molin. Immediately her entire house stood up in front of her. As other people noticed what was happening, people from other tables stood in front of her as well. Soon half the school stood in front of Zoe, while the other half was pointing their wand at the marshalls. Even the two Faustians who had done nothing but look down on the other students, were ready to help their schoolmate. When the teachers arrived and managed to get rid of the marshalls, the entire hall rang with the Molin chant: "Blood makes us related, loyalty makes us family!" it was glorious.
Buuut that's not the story I wanted to tell right now. This just goes to illustrate the spirit of house Molin. What I want to tell you happened a bit earlier.
Being in the right place at the wrong time
It was the night of the sorting. Juniors had gone into their new houses and after a wonderful initiation ceremony I was happy to have found my place with my fellow Roosters in Durentius. Durentius is about valor and diligence, but really it's also about pranks, fun and being very, very loud. We had a wonderful welcoming ceremony and were up in our common room celebrating.
Well, that's not entirely correct. House Molin was giving a party in their common room next door, and the roosters had pretty much invaded it. Our prefect was loudly singing songs and everyone was having a good time.
I was hanging out with my friend, who had been sorted into house Faust, the house that's about wisdom, ambition and might. While everyone was still celebrating, we snuck away from the party. Two of my classmates, a pair of siblings of indeterminable gender, had asked for our help. Apparently there was a third sibling who had died (there was talk of werewolves and spirits) and they wanted to summon him using shamanistic magic.
This of course seemed like a fantastic idea to an adventurous and curious junior and so I agreed to help them.
My friend and I were supposed to meet them on the bridge outside of the school, and time was running short. We hurried down the stairs, when the Durentius prefect, who had followed us, called out to us from above. "Hey Faust boy! Want to hear the Durentius part of your song?"
And he began to sing:
"Oh, come tell me, mighty dragon
What your feast has been tonight?
Well, I ate a noisy rooster
In the early morning light
He kept crowing about valor
And he was a sorry sight
But devouring him has added
To my wisdom and my might"
https://soundcloud.com/liselle-angelique-krog-awwal/wisdom-and-might-faust-at
Of course he did not stop here and by the time he reached the third refrain the two of us were singing along.
When we finally made it to the bridge, the siblings were nowhere to be seen. There was a lot of commotion, however. Rumor was that witch-hunters had attacked the school and several teachers and seniors were walking around with torches, going to restore the schools wards.
For a moment we were undecided, but then decided to head towards the forest, hoping to catch up to the siblings.
We were rather nervous. Juniors are not allowed in the forest and there were teachers walking around with torches, but we managed to evade everyone. Near the forest gate, we came along a few more curious students who had heard rumors of a ritual being performed tonight and wanted to see what was going on. Explaining everything would take too long, so we passed through the gate and into the very, very dark forest.
This was probably a bad idea
At first we didn't hear or see anything, but as we ventured a bit deeper, we heard chanting and drums from somewhere below us. There were multicolored, moving lights visible near the source of the sounds. It was, all in all, rather unsettling.
But we did not come all this way for nothing! We continued down the slope, which was incredibly hard to do in the dark. I hesitantly brought out my lantern and lit our way, but we made very slow progress. Down below us the ritual was reaching its peak and the intensity of the chanting and the drums increased. By now it was clear we were too late to help, and this all started to feel like a rather bad idea. The people who were with us and who didn't know what was going on were even more freaked out, and we decided to head back. Just then there was a chilling howl and several werewolves appeared on the hill above us, silhouetted against the castle. There was an answering howl from below us, where the ritual was taking place. We were not supposed to be here and we were completely boxed in! It was utterly terrifying and we hid among the trees, huddling together.
We remained hidden for a long time and eventually things turned to normal. The wolves vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. Or so we hoped. We remained hidden as the siblings passed us by. No one had seen us. When we were sure they were gone, we slowly began to make our way back to the castle, still wary of every shadow.
Alex
We were only steps away from the safety of the castle gate when something jumped out at us from the shadows and our little group scattered. Most students ran for the gate as fast as they could and I really can't blame them!
Only my friend and I stayed and found ourselves face to face with the person who had so startled us. He was brandishing a large axe and seemed to be thinking about using it. Seeing how he was not a werewolf, or a troll, I tried to defuse the situation by showing I meant no harm. He was not in a reasonable mood, however. It soon became clear that this was one of the witch-hunters that had attacked the school! A religious fanatic first class, who believed us to be demons and would rather kill us than negotiate. That is... if there hadn't been something he wanted.
After some back-and-forth, he finally told us his name. Alex. Alex refused to lower his axe, or let us approach. All he wanted was to talk to someone called Jade.
Even though I didn't know her very well, I recalled Jade was a Molin prefect. However I was still rather hesitant, because this was a maniac with an axe, who put a strange emphasis on the word "talk". It was only after he mentioned that Jade was his sister, that I agreed to go and find her.
I rushed back to the castle and ended up in front of the Molin common room, where people were still celebrating.
As I could not enter the Molin common room uninvited, I had to shout for Jade. She came out to meet me and the moment I mentioned her brother, her facial expression completely changed. It didn't take long for her Molin friends to rally around her and soon a small group followed me to the forest. On the way I asked Jade some questions and found out she accidentally injured her brother when she was a child and discovered her magic, causing her to leave her family and eventually end up at Czocha.
Blood makes us related, loyalty makes us family
Alex was waiting for us. He would still let no one but Jade approach and we reluctantly let her go to him. They engaged in a heated discussion. Alex wanted his sister back. He believed she was taken by this school full of evil demons. Jade passionately plead with him that these were her friends now, her family. This was who she was. But it didn't have to be this way. She wanted to be part of Alex' life again. She wanted him to be a part of her life.
Just as it seemed Alex might be persuaded, he suddenly grabbed her and put his axe at her throat. He would take his sister out of here by force, if needed! As one, we moved forward, wands pointed at him. Alex was cornered and he knew it. Behind him was nothing but a long drop down. He backed further and further towards the edge as we tried in vain to reason with him.
"I'll jump and I'll take her with me!" he threatened. "At least then it will all be over!"
Recognizing the danger in his desperation (and he really looked quite unhinged by now), we stood aside. Anything to get him and Jade away from the cliff's edge. He hesitantly moved through the space we made for him, glancing at us warily. Still threatening Jade, he slowly backed towards the school gate. Attacking him seemed extremely dangerous, considering his weapon that was close enough to her throat to draw blood.
In the meantime Jade's housemates kept trying to appeal to Alex.
"Who here is her true family? You? You threaten to kill her! We want what's best for her! We love her! Please let her go! This is where she wants to be! This is where she belongs!"
At the gate, Alex hesitated. He looked torn.
Suddenly a new voice rang out. "Ah! You caught one of those foul creatures! Good work Alex!"
Another witch hunter! This newcomer had the look of some kind of priest or inquisitor and air of authority around him. We now faced two foes, and they still had Jade, who was pleading and sobbing while Alex was shouting at her to shut up.
The inquisitor spoke to Alex, trying to get him to resolve his faith. "She has to be purified, Alex. She is possessed."
"Fine then!" we retorted. "Do your exorcism right here, right now! It will not change anything!"
We let the inquisitor guide Alex through the exorcism. Alex spoke passionately, entranced with religious fervor. He ended with an "amen" that rang out over the surrounding hillside and no doubt woke up several people in the village below.
Yet nothing happened. Jade remained Jade.
"Do you see now Alex? You've been lied to! His rituals have no power, yet you've seen us perform miracles! Your sister is not cursed! She is blessed! Don't take that away from her!"
Everything Alex believed in was crashing down around him. He roughly shoved Jade in our direction, where she was caught in a warm embrace. She was crying. Her housemates were crying. I have to admit I felt tears sting my eyes as well.
Alex turned to the inquisitor with murder in his eyes. He raised his axe, and the inquisitor spread his arms wide, seemingly welcoming his fate. He spoke tauntingly at Alex. "I do not fear you, because I have not abandoned my faith."
Of course we could not let this happen and we tried once more to reason with Alex. "Don't let this man control you anymore!"
Alex hesitated for a brief moment. Long enough for the inquisitor to draw a wand and fling a spell at Alex. Alex crumpled to the ground.
The inquistor moved forward, but Zoe was between us and him in a flash and the man fell back, having impaled himself on her sword.
Alex was in a bad shape, and desperately needed help. We knew he didn't have long. And there was no healer among us! Fortunately we were near the school gate and we quickly managed to get the attention of some of the staff and healers. I remained in the background, because suddenly I remembered that as a junior I was not allowed to even be here and the head Guardian was questioning people.
Alex was brought back from the brink, but he had no memory of what had happened. His anger had melted away and he was mostly confused. He was taken in by the staff and we were told to go back to the castle. Jade was still upset and overwhelmed with the avalanche of emotion she'd just been through, and the rest of us weren't faring much better. But the Molin family stood strong and comforted each other. In that moment, they truly were family.
As for me, now that the danger had passed, I became aware that I was the only non Molin there. I started to feel a bit out of place and considered leaving. Just then, Jade came up to me and gave me a hug. "Thank you so much!" she said. And I felt a bit of Molin warmth seep into my Durentius soul.
And then...
That was not the end of the story. Alex and Jade had more adventure that weekend, including an unfortunate deal with a Fey Lord. But it was the end of this story for me as I went off to sleep.. Or at least I tried to, but then I ran into a friend of mine who was talking to magical runes professor Wraithwood about the master rune we'd discovered in the dungeons, earlier, and the professor wanted to see it right away (that and my hallpass, since it was past curfew) and.... Well, let's just say it took a little while longer before I found my bed.
--------------------
During the entire scene I describe above there was nothing at all that was even slightly out of character or immersion-breaking. The setting was amazing, the werewolves (from a distance, silhouetted against the castle) looked entirely convincing and terrifying, and the guy playing Alex was fantastic. It was some of the most intense roleplaying I've ever done, and it rocked! This goes for the entire event, really. I've never been this immersed in another world before. I really did go to magic school. I fully recommend this institute of magical education!