Dark Academia

Having found support and a home in Pod 9, it is time for Arzet to put their plans into action. This may be a nest of extremely dangerous entities, but Arzet has information, allies, and clear goals.

The Second Month

Somasha granted Arzet access to the Hazardous/Cursed Material Disposal Site, where the Amulet could be disposed of reliably. Arzet just had to catch it. Arzet spent a week preparing to ambush the cursed item, before it finally arrived in the night. Arzet was able to catch it slithering by, and through luck and skill snuck up behind it and bagged it. While the amulet did see Arzet doing this, they were disguised as Under-Secretary Jeb - a disguise that they also used to bluff their way through the Disposal Site without being noted or investigated. Finally, the immediate pressure of the False Chimera was lifted.
For the rest of the month, Arzet focused primarily on tracking down the mysterious solar near Darza. While this project took much of their time and energy, a combination of good luck and less looming pressure from the False Chimera allowed them to improve their grades and sustain their relationships. 
The solar turned out to be a powerful wizard named Samaya Saraja, and she seemed inextricably linked to the strange machines of the university - these cloaking machines were powered by sarcophagi, which contained sleeping clones of Samaya. The elusiveness of the University was entirely coming from her, but how and why?
Arzet figured out that Samaya frequented the Divine Influences Research Lab during her free time, and decided to spend as much time there getting to know the Lab Assistants and making his presence normal (despite him not having clearance at all). The Lab was dedicated to studying the formal, mechanical limits of the Lunar Pantheon and paladins - what qualifies as a lunar phase, when that specifically changes, and how paladins and Gods communicate. There was also a sealed-off gate to a high-security wing of the lab, which Arzet could not get into. Finally, Arzet was able to catch Samaya while she was transporting papers into the High Security wing, and the two had a conversation. Samaya was friendly, explained that she did create the obscuring presence that made Gods unable to see in, and was quickly whisked away by Darza to go on an expedition. Arzet was able to steal some of the papers that Samaya dropped during the whisking-away, and found mention of an "Observer" which generated the field and seemed to be able to see in. Curious - but whatever research explained more was inside that High Security wing.

The Lost Star

Arzet dialed back the time investment in Samaya the next month (and got much better grades for it), but still put in the effort to meet with them. The second meeting with Samaya was much more confrontational - Arzet probed at Samaya's unhealthy relationship with Darza, and Samaya pushed back. Samaya explained that her family, notably Haru, didn't take her choices seriously and instead pestered her in condescending ways (calling the University a "cult"). Samaya removed Arzet's tracking chip on request, and told them to leave the University and leave her alone; Arzet was no longer welcome in the Lab. 
Despite this resistance and the increased suspicion of his peers, Arzet kept trying. He finally managed to get Samaya to talk for a third time, and Samaya took him into a private demiplane. Arzet revealed his true nature as the Chimera, and Samaya seemed unusually willing to believe him (or at least entertain the idea). He tried to appeal to Samaya's sense of duty and optimism to save the world, which Samaya reacted badly to - she rejected any notion that people have a duty to help others, that there is any responsibility to a broader 'world', or that she was anything more than just a person. She revealed that the University's plan was to escape this world into space, where they would plant the seeds for a new world and be free from divine interference - it would be the stepping stone for the greatest of wizards to escape into the stars and the planes, unbound by common limitations. A lonely world, but Samaya seemed to revel in loneliness. Arzet respected Samaya's choice to stay and do this, and Samaya offered him a Sending Stone for future communication. 

Final Season

Month four, the last of this opening semester, began with a small holiday with the Pod. Arzet focused on finals and socialization, and got great grades. Their ultimate placement was in the middle of the list, safe from academic probation. The entire Pod escaped Probation, though just barely for Umashti. Purmaya, the goth necromancer, got the best grades of the Pod - high enough to have to deal with class politics from here on out. 
At the end of finals, before the Asalay field trip, Arzet decided to try and break into the High Security Wing of the Divine Influences Lab. The wing was protected by wards and spells, which were keyed to a small pool of individuals and several access keys. Arzet would need one of those keys to enter - and was able to track down one in use at the Lab. They snuck in and tried to palm the key while their familiar made a distraction - but they were caught in the process. They tried to use Sleep to knock them out, to no avail. Arzet they ran with the key, even as the invisible wizard followed them. 
Arzet waited several days for the heat to go down - and noticed that their Pod was now being investigated (especially Somasha, their room manager). Arzet decided to just go for it - the next day was the field trip, their escape plan, and this was their last chance. They walked into the lab and then into the Security wing. Their key worked, they faced no resistance. The High Security wing seemed dedicated to studying both Samaya's natural abilities and the more experimental approaches to manipulating the magic around the Lunar Gods. Arzet focused in on the research about the Observer, and went to reading.

Forbidden Knowledge

What Arzet found was that there were two things being studied here: the Observer and what they called the Aberration. The Aberration is the Static, the raw material from which the apocalypse was made. The Observer is some kind of mind fashioned out of the Aberration that was made to observe the world (streaming information back to the Aberration) and create original designs for the Apocalypse. These designs in their base form were sent out centuries ago, along with guidelines for how to tweak them according to new information streamed from the Observer. The Observer was then to shift from design to coordination - a manager to keep the nemeses dedicated to their tasks and working together in the most efficient possible manner. 
The Observer and their descendants are anchors of semi-refined ethereal Aberration - the energy of the Static swirls around them, nullifying any attempt by Gods to see them. These are what Darza and Samaya call "Projection Fields". These Fields work against the Lunar Pantheon (and, as Arzet learned, the Nemeses), but not against the Observer - or, obviously, the Aberration. They can be expanded or minimized. Currently, Darza and Samaya are attempting to create an extra layer of defense: a "Possibility Ward" that could scramble data to prevent the Observer from parsing it. Essentially, the Observer doesn't just see the world as it is, they see multiple timelines and possibilities; they live in a cloud of presents and almost-futures that bleed outward. Darza hopes that she could create a device that could use this to overwhelm the Observer by creating too many possible paths so that the noise would drown what was actually happening. Whether this is possible is unknown, and Darza is trying to get a physical sample of the Observer to test with - but has had no success whatsoever on that front. 
The research into the Aberration was more nebulous and uncertain. The research staff seems certain that there is some kind of intelligence either to or within the Aberration, depending on whether this is an organism, a substance, or a place. The Observer's plans and data were transmitted somewhere, after all, and they were themselves created with some intent. However, until extremely recently, the Aberration was only detectable in this world in an abstract and refined way (the Projection Fields, the Observer). Less than a month ago, a beach in the Sunekan Republic of Sicalco was observed to have physical manifestations surrounding a planar anomaly (an extremely weird thing, given the beach's distance from any known God or Apocalypse), and the University set up a research lab to contain the event, collect samples, and conduct experiments on-site (to avoid transporting the material somewhere that it could cause mass harm). 

Academic Withdrawal

As Arzet was studying, the laboratory quietly sealed itself. This was, of course, a trap. Darza, the great wizard herself, entered the room to look at this intruder and what they were studying. They sat down next to Arzet, and made it clear that escape was out of the question now. Darza projected an air of casual calm, and offered Arzet whiskey while they talked. Darza had researched Arzet's activities, and apparently even listened to recorded conversations with Samaya (indicating that she had bugged Samaya's demiplane somehow). They accepted Arzet's plan to leave, and would be happy to let them walk out of here alive - but with a few stipulations. Darza would be taking Arzet's sending stone - Darza did not trust Arzet, and felt this would only be used by Samaya's brainwashing, manipulative family - and would also be cloning Arzet to study the properties of his body (if he was an Architect - if not, the clone would be dumped). She toyed with the idea of modifying memories to keep Samaya and Arzet apart, but ultimately decided against it. She made it clear that she had no intent or occupying Arzet's body, though Arzet did realize that this would give Darza a powerful sympathetic connection to curse, scry on, or otherwise cast spells at Arzet. With the clone made and the stone taken, Arzet was let go. 
Arzet told their story to the Pod and wished them all good bye. Most of the pod was skeptical, but wished him luck outside the university. And so, the next day, Arzet left for Asalay for what was to be 3 days of field training with the Conjuration class. 

The New Apprentice

The class teleported to Asalay's wizard college, where each student was paired with a paladin of Ishkibal (to protect them and keep an eye on them for the local Temple) and a new student from the local wizard college (to inspire local students to make connections with the Darzan University, and to help them show off their knowledge to someone less powerful). Arzet's paladin was a bit of a wizard-hater named Kevadi, and his assigned acolyte was a girl his age named Ezia. 
Arzet immediately told Ezia that he wanted to slip away, and an opportunity soon presented itself: guards began swarming the college teleportation areas, preparing them for some big event. Ezia, who seemed worried that Arzet was being held against his will, leveraged some palace connection she had to the paladin to get him to let them wander the city, and it seemed to work. 
The three went to a bar in Asalay's Hightown, where Ezia asked about Arzet's story. The two talked, and bonded, and went to go hang out at Ezia's dorm in the Arcanum. Arzet learned that Ezia was the companion of another Architect - Makar - and that Ezia had been steadily growing more freaked out by the changes to Makar and their relationship ever since they began fighting the Apocalypse. Ezia felt useless and isolated, so Arzet offered to be her wizarding mentor. Ezia introduced Arzet to another member of the crew, a goth mercenary named Zofara, and they learned about some big event coming up the next day at the royal court that may involve another Nemesis showing up. 
Tune in next time for the ultimate crossover! We are only a few sessions away from the whole party meeting up! The Architects are almost in business!

Components

Goals

QUEST GOALS:

• Learn more about the False Chimera
• Escape the clutches of the False Chimera (COMPLETED)
• Regroup with fellow Gods
• Explore the Darzan University
• Escape the Darzan University (COMPLETED)

Relations

Protagonists

Arzet: The Chimera incarnate as a Kobold Wizard (Conjurer Wizard, Sage Background). Born in the village of Adov, Arzet has spent most of their mortal life with small scale. Arzet also has the ability to summon vestiges, ancient spirits of the dead, to aid them - a random spirit has added to the roster every level. Knows Find Familiar, Magic Missile, Grease, Sleep, Thunderwave, Identify, Catapult, and Tenser's Floating Disc

• Darana of Nefka: Darana is an ancient Vesper Priest of Deraksa, the Bat-Seer-Goddess of the religion of Zirun . She lived in ancient Nefka , a distant city of horrors, where she opposed the violence of the ruling regime. For her outspokenness, she was chained and thrown into The Vault of Nightmares as a terrible execution. This left her with a very deep distrust of authority, as well as a kind of cynical hopefulness. Grants the ability to speak with the dead and resist fear.
• Kiji the Wanderer: A Kobold explorer born in the Kingdom of Karama in Inahng and loyal to the Empire of Calazen . A builder of bridges and maker of maps, curious and optimistic to a fault. Was a pitiful fighter, who died fighting in the Karaman civil war. Quite liked Mavara , who they briefly met. Grants the ability to jump a distance equal to the amount of movement spent in a turn (so 30 feet unless dashing, when it becomes 60 ft), also the ability to resummon thrown weapons.
• Sarwin the Studious: A Dryad academic from Eastern Garadel, who devoted their mortal life to the study of the natural world and spent their afterlife being absorbed into Orchid of Blue 's spiritual apparatus. Sarwin is vaguely Zihari and rather anxious. She grants advantage on checks to research or search libraries, as well as the ability to see disease auras. She comes at the cost of having Arzet write everything down/journal.

Allies

Ezia of Aizari: Ezia was a neighbor and childhood friend of Makar. She is shy, bookish, and curious, always drawn to learning more about foreign lands and new things but held back by her social anxiety. Much of that anxiety melts away when she is around her friends, who she will follow to the ends of the Earth. Ezia comes from a brewing family with connections to The Circles . Went to the Arcanum of Asalay to study wizardry, only to find a new wizarding mentor in another God: Arzet!

Neutrals/Bystanders

Darza: Greatest wizard of all time, abrasive and deeply vain regarding their own superior intellect. Arzet has only worked with a Darza copy, however that works, not Darza 'prime'.
Pod 9: Arzet has gotten to know all of them fairly well. The prefect is in her mid-late 20s; the peers are all older than Arzet but not by too much (around 18-20).

• Prefect Somasha: a Samvaran dryad in charge of the dorm area of Pod 9. Very rules-centered and strict, but understanding when Arzet was caught breaking those rules. An idealist who believes that she can use the University to improve living standards around the world. Abjurer.
• Ruzalu: a Sunekan human who struggles to talk about things that aren't some kind of work, duty, or career-related thing. Well-meaning but bad at boundaries and often talks over people. Diviner.
• Hopisu: A shy Maradian prism that mostly just wants to do their research in peace. Horribly anxious about the competitive structure and has terrible social anxiety. Ruzalu is their self-appointed guardian. Diviner.
• Belarik: An adversarial starspawn-human boy from Eketen , a bit angsty, who makes a point of breaking rules and pushing limits. Decent to their peers as long as said peers don't try to enforce rules on them. Evoker.
• Purmaya: A goth prism with a spooky familiar who lies about where she is from to try and make herself sound like a powerful mage. Fairly quiet, sees herself as intimidating and is quick to lash out against those who push against her boundaries too much. Not as much of a rule-breaker as Belarik or Umashti, mostly a loner. Necromancer.
• Umashti: A chipper and slightly-clownish dryad girl from Zerua , charismatic but bad at math. Wants to unionize Pod 9, and is actively trying to mediate the tensions between the dormmates. Illusionist.

Samaya Saraja: A solar of the Saraja Family, Samaya is a lesser demigod of sorts capable to obscuring the perception of Lunar Gods and Nemeses alike. She is a founding member of the Darzan University, and she holds great power within the organization. She is nice enough, but she is also rather callous and self-isolating.

Adversaries

Verkohn, the False Chimera: The Adversary who shall end the world. Seeks a world of endless chaos, where the fantasies of the powerful contest each other in defining reality and where life and death are meaningless. Resides in a nightmare labyrinth pocket dimension that will eventually enter the real world as a third crimson moon if Verkohn makes enough progress

Plot type

QUEST

Parent Plot

Welcome to Wizard School

Related Organizations

• Saraja Family
• The Darzan University

Related Locations

• Asalay