Astra's Story

General Summary

Astra waking up, finds herself in a school room. Rudely awakened by what appears to be the teacher, Astra takes her time to observe the room, seeing people who look vaguely like old classmates. Morning announcements come through over the intercom. Astra's ears perk up at a warning from the student councill that the timetraveller currently residing in one of their students should not eat the cake.   The teacher starts talking about a group test which is taking place today. At this point Astra notices the boy behind her is glancing at her. As vague memories and doubts prickle her, she momentarily struggles to maintain control and quickly tries to determine the motives of the people around her. Unable to assess the people she decides to observe. The teacher assigns her and three other people to Group 4 for the exam. The other group members are Casandra, a waifish elf who always has her head in the clouds; Herne, the easy going champion of several varsity teams despite his lean stature for an orc; and Ealdun, the boy sitting behind Astra, a typical human delinquent and based on the rumours best avoided. Each member of the group specialises with a different school of magic: divination, transmutation, illusion and conjuration They are instructed to pick up their exam instructions at the library. Not knowing what to do Astra follows the group to the library.   At the library the books are flying around attacking students. It is breeding season afterall, the books are always more violent at this time of year Astra remembers fondly. The group sneaks around following Cassandra. There is a small fight but the books are scared away. They find their task, it is to make a potion. So Ealdun brings the party to the greenhouse, where he bribes the gardener with some of his stash to give them most of what they need, while Herne gets the last ingredient by using mage hand. Ealdun approaches Astra and shows her the small leafs in his hand and asks if she has a light. She says she does but they should wait till they are outside.   Ingredients obtained, Cassandra decides to consult her Harrow cards for hints of the remaining parts of the exam. Meanwhile Ealdun approaches Astra and asks her for that light she promised. He seems so familiar to Astra, but she can't quite place what it is. She conjures a light and asks if the school rumors about him are true. Over a drag, they open up to each other. Ealdun says the rumors aren't exactly true. A student in his group did die during one of his past exams, but he didn't kill them, a monster got loose. But he might as well have, as everyone treats him like he did. He doesn't think Astra would understand, but Astra hints that a similar thing happened to her. After a little prying, she says she drinks, ever since one of her friends committed suicide because of bullying.   Despite, running a bit late by this point, Cassandra tells the party that the shortcut over the field would leads to trouble, the party avoids it and goes to the potions classroom. On the way they meet a dwarf in tears as she has lost her beard due to a faulty potion. The group calm her down and try to get more information about the exam from her. It turns out some of her teammates disapeared because of the potion. Inside the classroom a group of elves are working at the cauldron; stuck-up, rich kids who pick on and mock other students. The type of person Astra has long carried a special loathing for. While they wait for their turn at the couldron the party decides to bribe the teacher based on Casandra's Harrow predictions. They leave flowers and beer near his desk along with the box of chocolates he had bought for his date that night. As the elven group leave Astra and Ealdun decide to give them a taste of their own antics and make it look like the elves soil themselves.   When the party finishes their potion, Cassandra doesn't think it's quite right and the group dithers. Ealdon decides to take action, and after a quick kiss with Astra downs a vile of potion. He grows horns and dissapears. Alarmed, Cassandra goes to ask the teacher if the potion is correct. The teacher reasures her it's been made correctly, and the horns are probably just from a reaction with another substance in Ealdon's body. For Astra though, with the kiss everything falls into place, and doubt of how she feels, how she has always felt for him melts away. With this realization, Astra swallows the potion.   Following Astra, Herne and Cassandra drink the potion and they get teleported to a dueling room. Astra notices she's grown a beard and quickly makes it dissapear. Without it her blushing is more noticible. Astra puts her feelings aside and focusses on the task at hand. At the other end of the arena Gaerdir stands smugly surrounded by his lackeys.The party quickly wins the duel. Astra easily puts two of the opponents to sleep as a starting shot. Herne, shows his athletic prowess, turning into a panther and taking the other lackey out. Gaerdir, seemingly resistant to all spells thrown at him, concedes after he is punched in the nose, running off crying for his parents.   When the party win, the spider that Cassandra had somehow pulled out of her bag, grows to a great size, and offers the party cake while talking about their future education. Astra doesn't eat the cake and watches the others fall asleep. Before sleep finally grips them, she says goodbye and whispers into Ealdun's ear, “Goodbye old friend it was nice seeing you again.” The great spider ask Astra if she has learned anything, She answers by saying "I think so, but knowledge untested is just the belief of having knowledge. But it was nice seeing my old friend again"