The White Towers of the East
By Drewkitty ~..~
Andre'eth riding a rowen mare crested the pass, reviling the valley below. It was a wonders view, but riding half way back in the caravan had done nothing for mood, for the dust and grim that now covered her from head to toe. It was three months since her parents sent her away to some school not one of her friends had ever heard of had set her in a horrible mood to start the journey off with. And the way that visiting wizard had a knowing smirk when her parents told him they had enrolled her at his school. It was not till the caravan was several hundred yards down from the crest that she did realize the tall gleaming white towers stood before her on the other side of the valley. Seeing their destination before her eyes filled her with both relief and dread. Relief that this long slog of a journey to the towers was almost over, and dread of an unexpected and uncharted time of life was about to begin.
Among wizarding circles the White Towers school are well known throughout the eastern territories and is heard of by many in the western empire. The Towers is one of the top schools of the magical sciences in the world. With students coming there from all over the world to study magic. The main entry requirement for enrollment is that the tuition be paid. That the student has no talent whatsoever seems not to matter to the school. For there have been many inept and magic nulls that come and gone through the halls. Some of these ended up teaching mundane subjects such as economics, the arts, and cartography, having failed so horribly they were disowned by their magic using families, while others becoming Ministers of Finance for nations.
Located in a valley protected by the magic of the towers, they can not be reached by any sort of travel magic. Any such attempts to use magic to arrive at the towers by magic end up dislocated several hundred miles off course. Sometimes this means they end up several miles offshore. This will happen no matter how well the magic user may otherwise be at traveling by magic. Because of this the students and all the supplies from the outside come in via caravans lead by trusted masters traders. That keep the location of the school in their hearts, telling no one. this is not that no-one else knows where it is. It is to keep out those that seam to think it’s their right to put their noses into everyone else’s affaires, and getting themselves blown up because they were where they shouldn’t of been.
Once the students arrive at the Towers they are sorted into learning groups, sleeping halls and tested for their basic knowledge base so they can be placed in the right classes & daily work assignments. To mark each study group, each group are assigned bracelets: wyvern, condor, bear, stag are some of the study group names. Study groups can be from 3 to 7 students. To many these new experiences: of studying, of working, of the mixing of social classes and genders. In their first year of their training is mostly filled with basic education classes to fill in the gaps and get them used to working in groups. Along with the forced socialization, this forces the lazy to get over any sedentary habits they might of developed. During their first years a student’s study groups can change without much notice, as new students arrive and as the students complete their basic education in each field or as they reach their limits in those fields without practical applications. It is said that only the headmaster was able to skip over the first year’s classes cause he was already competent in all the courses taught to first years.
After their first years the students are somewhat free to choose their study groups during the year. The main limitation that they can only trade places with another student that also wishes to switch groups. In their Second year, their magic training is started in earnest, learning the principles of magic and a few cantrips. Building up their reserves and sharpening their focuses. And even though they might not notice it…working on their teamwork throughout all of this.
With the third year of the schooling each of the students works on their magic studies independently while also taking their mundane courses within their study groups. Even the senior students have their work assignment,. However, these assignments are more closely associated to their field of specialization than the basic chores assigned to the lower class-men.
The School itself occupies 30 acres of land surrounded by The Elcor, a 30 foot tall wall encircling the school proper. Along the inner edge of the Elcor there are seven Anchor Towers, which anchor the magic protecting the valley and the school from both traveling magic and detection from afar. The magic protecting the school is bound into the stones of the towers so that even if just one tower remains standing the protections will remain standing.
The twelve Core Towers, rising to two hundred feet over the the hundred foot Anchor Towers house the school's class- and research rooms along . These towers are made of near indestructible stone that remains pure white even after the centuries it has been exposed to the elements. Rumors have it that the stones are impervious to any and all magical effects and were transported from an alien world to build the school. If you talk to the advanced students who are more aware of the magic around them, they might tell tales about how magic splashes off the walls like water splashes off stone. The effect is that each room is mystically isolated from each other except for what leaks through the wooden doors and the minimal windows. There have been many magical accidents that have been contained by the walls, protecting those just a few feet away in the next room. At the Top of the Core Towers there are some that are open air observation platforms where the astrology classes take their sightings and and others used as meditation areas. Inside the Core Towers is the Central Tower, 50 feet taller the the Core towers and made of the same stone, houses most of the magic teaching staff and their magical research laboratories, the armory, and other restricted areas.
At the base of the towers, there are low, three story, buildings that house the students and non-magic staffing. Including in these is a great hall and the store houses where the provisions for years are stored. Even with all these buildings within the Elcor over half the grounds inside the walls is green space with trees and gardens. The valley surrounding The Towers is made up of farmlands that provide most of the staples for The Towers.
The Headmaster of the school is alway comes from the family that owns the school. At times this is the head of the family and at other times it is the one who best at managing the school, or at times, the one who was the one who didn't want the job the least. The last headmaster was a head mistress that goes by the name Laylaya Amberdrake, an archmage retired from adventuring. She is a no nonsense sort of person that ran the school with a firm hand when it came to disciplining the students. Let the staff handle things till it was apparent that her heavy hand is needed for the disciplining of a headstrong student who wouldn't take the mild corrective actions the staff were allowed. Miss Amberdrake retired from being Head Mistress When the Current headmaster married into the family.
There are from 50 to 325 active students at The Towers at any one time. Most are in their first or second year of courses. The rest are upperclassmen and upperclasswomen that have ether found their specialization or are working toward a well balanced wizardry knowledge base. Outside these two groups, there are those that find they have no talent for magic and those that just can't believe that they can make magic. Those underclassmen that appear to be unfit for the higher coursework are encouraged to return home with what education that they may of obtained during their time at the towers to save their parents or guardians the tuition that continuing at the towers would incur. Even that do well enough to graduate as full wizards, are also encouraged to leave to seek their fortune in life.
The really talented wizards, that are not bound to serve their sponsor, are encouraged to stay and and help with the teaching. Not everyone goes away as they are encouraged to do. For a fare amount of the school's students, from all levels of ability never again leave the valley. Living out their lives productively as the support staff of the school. Sometimes even filling in spaces in the school's staffing requirements. that can suddenly open up. But there are fields and orchards to tend and ground to maintain, so these lost souls do have places to fill.
The Mistress of Students Alithia; is the one who has the responsibility to make sure each of the students is well fed, healthy and clothed; was one of the mediocre students when she was taking her courses. Now she is an accomplished mage specializing in cloth magic and everyday household magics.
The groundskeeper Magelkn: Is one of the students turned staff by the unfortunate events of life. The first when learning to cast counter-magic spells, the magic turned sideways and twisted on him. Turning him into a magic antipode: negating any magic around within three feet of him. And not three days after, a scarred retainer of his family brought news that his family was gone. Bandits or War he did not know. The home was burnt to the ground when he returned to the family home from purchasing supplies, all the people gone or dead. Now; as a groundskeeper; he is available to cancel out the magic of any troublesome or magically ill student may splatter on their classmates.
Not all their reasons to stay as staff are profound. Most reasons are quite mundane, like a couple, the pairing not approved by the parents, letting their passions have their head and ending up with a child on the way. It is only those that are expelled that have to leave. these troubled individuals inflicted with a curse of ‘never to return’.
Other Notables:
Head Master Earendur: some say he is a high elf but there is no proof. Lacking obvious connections to the world outside the towers, their governance he has run the school for the last 50 years. He teaches many of the advanced classes, but misses many of them due to his headmaster duties (students are expected to sell study during these times.) Even thou the rumors about him no-one can really say he isn’t an upstanding person with an honest face. Most of the rumors are about how he deals with students that become trouble makers or caught in the trouble.
Once he brought someone caught in a petrification accident into a class room as a practice target for those learning how to cure petrification. The underclass-woman was there for two weeks before she was cured. The student that had thought it funny to let the Basilisk out of its cavern, it was said he was sent home with the rest of his tuition transferred to the girl’s account. But someone later said he found a statue of that student years later in aa storage closet on an unused level of the fifth tower. When the intrepid explorer went back with others who knew the troublesome student the statue wasn’t there anymore.
Another time an upperclassman said he say him being chased around the red garden by a woman clad in…the light of the silvery moon light. What he found weird was that it looked like the woman was talking to the headmaster but he couldn’t hear even a cricket chirping from the red garden that night. In the morning there was nothing in evidence of a midnight run in the garden.
Most of the other rumors run along the lines of him being a dragon that was permanently transformed by a goddess or him protecting the school from monsters from the outside the school.
GM Notes: Earendur is an elf from a place he calls ‘The Three Galaxies’. He was stranded on this world when part of his ship broke during a magical storm on a ley line. This same storm changed Earendur and hasn’t aged since then. Earendur’s real name is Jack Burton…no, I jest. But that was what his friends called him and what it said on his piloting license. He is not a nice guy if you get on his bad side but he keeps the school organized and running as a place of refuge.
Potions Master James Ledgerwood, a human alchemist that graduated from the towers in his youth, returned to the towers looking for work after his business failed in three different cities. He teaches potions to those with an aptitude for them (along with other classes). He tests each new student and retests once a student reaches their fourth year at the towers. If they have the talent then they are enrolled in his classes, even if just a first year. Thou finding them in their first year hardly ever happens. He currently has four students for potions from different age groups.
Master at Arms Irensaga, a dwarf from the old kingdom. Irensaga is a retired adventurer that has worked at the towers for ten years. Gruff as normal for a dwarf, but willing to give comment when a student shows progress. He has both elf and human assistants to help with teaching in fighting styles that rely more on speed and maneuvering than the typical dwarf hit hard hit harder fighting style.
Captain of the Guard Milkir Grayrat, a former Imperial Janissary from the western empire. Of course he is a spy for the empire, but who wouldn’t want a spy in an important place like the towers. In full formal Society he is Sir Milkir Coomb Grayrat Knight of the realm. However, Milkir hates being, as he says it, trussed up like a pheasant on a spit. As such, it is only during graduation when he dresses up in most of his regalia. He is also a practitioner of an almost lost sword art that has been passed down in his family since its founding several hundred years ago. Grayrat’s Sword art gives him paired weapons swords, +2 initiative, & +3 to other combat rolls when paired with one of the three typical hand to hand trainings. If he finds a promising lad or girl within the student population, he takes them under his wing to train them in his family’s Sword Art. This procedure is to take the youngling into training that brings their training up to the martial arts level by the end of their training. Currently He doesn’t have any appropriated trainees.
Head boy Garnet Appledale, a human male in his last year at the towers. Garnet is a level headed man (20 yr) with green eyes, that the current students say can see when someone is lying. This is only partly turn, for his speciality is truth-saying magics , and always casts his own See Truth magic (@ spell str. 16) before confronting a miscreant student that is brought before him. This magic only sees if the person is knowingly lying. But if those who are talking believe what they are saying then the magic will not catch an untruth. When he leaves the towers he is planing on adventuring his way back to his home on the isle of Lopan. With him on this trip he and his intended, intend to marry along the way.
Head Girl Amber GhostLimper(the name she is enrolled under), a female elf (Alcariel Aerandir) from the flowery isles. She is a good student and is a good role model during normal times. Excepting that if it is snowing, she rarely goes outside. Amber’s speciality is potion crafting. She has already mastered the making of the all the typical potions (PF2 core book page 253)….excepting that she has yet been able to set the potions to last more than a years time. Most of her potions are good for 4+ 2D4 months. Amber has also mastered the making of Sneezing and Itching powders. them being byproducts of making potions by her methods. She has also learned the secrets the ‘Heart of Flame’ powder and ‘Goblin Dust’. After graduation Amber has plans to travel the world. While she herself doesn’t realize it, she doesn’t want to marry anyone ‘back at home’.
Returned student Timonthy FarVale, is a male human (35) that returned to the towers to learn the magic of the written word. Mage FarVale has mastered most types of incantations and came back to the towers thinking to rent out one of the unused cottages within the valley to have the solitude from the world to go about creating new spells. (Many wizards who have graduated from the towers rent a cottage, it comes with home-keeping service, to focus on making new magic. Part of the cost is to teach the new spell to the staff and have it recorded into the school’s library…restricted section. It saves the wizards 10% of the normal time it would take to develop new spells.) It was only when he was looking at the costs of the different options did he discover that he could learn a whole new type of magic for less, and if he taught classes to the young students the tuition was greatly reduced. Mage FarVale has learned the basics of the magic of the written word but is still in that knows enough to get in trouble stage of learning the form of magic.
Notable Places
The Grand Hall, this multi-use space is where meals are served for the whole of the school (excepting the security staff) and many of the grand events take place. There are more than a few wards built into the walls of the hall that the headmaster and the staff can activate. Some of them are called: the quiet room, negate all magic, the speaker (podium) will be heard, and the calmness. The tables and benches that typically fill up the the grand hall are designed to be stored in spaces along the walls of the grand hall.
Teaching Rooms, Depending on the subject they can be as big as the grand hall and have no chairs or desks to a lecture hall to a midsized room filled with desks & chairs. Since the number of students attending changes from year to year….even month to month… the staff to student ratios change often. Because of all of this most students’ experiences of the towers are different from each other unless they arrive in the same month.
Anchor Tower One, is off limits to everyone but the headmaster. Anyone that enters the tower, other than the headmaster, are never seen at the towers ever again.
The Red Garden, are off limits after sunset. There have been many sightings of apparitions, from floating specters to full body apparitions. They are rumored to be former students that died in the garden. Even during daylight the staff hardly can be seen in the red garden. Some of the upperclassmen were at the towers just after the last student had to be rescued from the red garden. What they heard from their upperclassmen was not pretty. Not wanting to traumatize their juniors they vows not to tell their tales to the youngsters. But each student when coming to the age of 15; an age the headmaster has determined that is the most dangerous time to be ignorant of this; is brought to the headmaster’s Hall and they are told the tale and shown a few memory fragments of those involved. For there is a real danger to students in that garden after the sun sets and not a place for tests of courage.
The Blue Garden, is designed to give people a bit of privacy to talk, the lay in the sun or to study alone or in groups. If there are any rumors about this garden it is about who is doing what with whom.
The Dorms, are in the buildings around the base of the Central Towers. Each building in use as an underclassman dorm that year are segregated between boys and girls. Upperclassman dorms are gender segregated by floor with a curfew of midnight between floors. There is no same floor curfew, to allow for late night study groups. Even so, some upperclassmen are assigned to be house monitors for underclassmen. There are from 3 to 5 students per dorm room, with only the house monitors having their own rooms to facilitate them both their studies and to be available when needed. Upperclassmen are treated somewhat like adults being on the honor code. Except at the Midnight curfew when they are to be on their own floors are they sorted. That the genders are inter-mixed is not a terrible problem except for the disturbances separations cause. Unknown to the students, their study group bracelets block any results of fraternization between the genders.
The Cottages, are rented out time to time for the seclusion they provide. Built at a time before the current headmaster, they were originally retreats for the staff when the day to day work got too much for them, & for the odd dwarf who needed seclusion from other dwarves because of developing a connection to the universe that provided magic to them. Whether they stayed and worked on staff or they decide to return to the world sure they could control their abilities was not an issue. Not so many dwarves with this problem come to the towers these days. When one of these cottages needs replacing the whole school turns out for a house raising once the woodworkers finish the crafting of all the framing members. In preparation for the house raising, the usual coursework is modified to be in relation to the practical application of that subject on the house raising. From how long of ropes to use, to how many students on each rope, to why the roof is pitched just so instead of a lower pitch, to the use of magic in the process.
Ides
The new student
Invasion
New Teacher
The Bully
The underwear thief
A little light reading
Summer vacation homework
spring beach trip
Mind swap
The missing student
sports, & magic festival
Inter-school competition (magic or academic decathlon)
