The Avium is a college of magical arts with a wide range of subjects available for study. The free transmission of knowledge is one of the Avium’s core principles, but the College nonetheless maintains a certain degree of secrecy regarding some of the more dangerous magical tomes it safeguards.
Admittance
All races are welcome within the Avium’s halls, although admittance is granted only by the will of the headmaster and a council of senior staff. Prospective students are tested for their skills, but also the motivation for their studies. The College takes great care to ensure its members will positively represent the legacy and reputation of the Avium out in the world.
The application process is demanding, and the curriculum rigorous. Few make it to graduation.
Lectures
While the curriculum is diverse, the College does impose certain limitations, most notably regarding
Necromancy. As inhabitants of the Wood, the Avium’s primary staff members originate from a culture with great respect for nature and the cycle of life. As such, the necromantic arts are taught mainly in a theoretical sense. Practical application of necromancy at the College is highly regulated, and available only under strict guidance.
Students are, however, encouraged to explore other schools of
Magic to their fullest potential. Breakthroughs in elemental theorems, teleportation methods, and advances in practical
Transmutation have been pioneered at the Avium. The application process is demanding, and the curriculum rigorous. Few make it to graduation. For those who prove their grasp of the arcane, endorsement from the Avium is among the highest of honors.
Description
At the heart of the Avium is the central building, made from the trunk of a petrified tree. It is orbited by four terrariums and a dozen or so smaller towers. Each structure which orbits the trunk does so at varying heights and speeds, between one rotation every 10 minutes, and one rotation every half hour. The orbiting structures each have gliding platforms and moveable bridges, which correspond with bridge sections on other structures and connect at regular intervals to form complete overpasses. These structures stay aligned for 10 minutes, allowing for crossing by foot.
If ever in doubt about how long it will take for the route to an orbiting structure to connect, roll
3d10 and use that number in minutes to decide when the next favorable rotation will be.
There are many places in the Avium for guests to explore, and characters can spend their time here however they wish. Those who so desire can learn new spells or concoct potions.
To track the party’s activities, let the players know that each day they spend in the Avium consists of eight hours within which they can benefit from all the College has to offer. After this time, several campus areas close their doors to students, and only those with special faculty amulets can get past security. Studying at the College can grant one of the following benefits:
- Wizards who study here can add any spell on the wizard’s spell list to their spellbook, but they still require the necessary amount of coin and time to do this. Spells are only granted to wizards deemed worthy of their power, meaning only spells of a level the wizard could cast will be made available.
- By spending a full day studying and practicing, any bard, ranger, sorcerer or warlock can swap one spell they have learned previously for another of the same level that is on their class spell list.
- Additionally, any character proficient with a herbalism kit can avail themselves of the campus potions laboratory, which stocks reagents needed for potion making. Creating a potion can be done for the normal cost (to help cover the expenses associated with growing so many magical herbs) and only takes one day of brewing instead of the normal amount of time it would take to craft such an item.
Amulet
Guests, professors, staff, student welcomed in the Avium carry an amulet, this amulet when presented to a door their allowed to open etche the door with the symbol drawn on the amulet, unlocking it (Arcane lock, DC 28).
Guests amulets
Amulet made for guest researchers allow the guest to freely roam around, in addition guest may access the dormitory chambers prepared for guests. The guest amulet grant free meals at the campus dining hall. Guests are also free to sit in on any lectures they wish to attend around campus, as well as to peruse the more conventional libraries housed in the orbiting structures.
Central Building
Faculty offices, most lecture halls, the large communal dining hall, and the infirmary are all located in the central building. A Perch Guard station near the middle of the central building serves as the headquarters for campus security forces.
Entrance
Four gigantic circular stone platforms float alongside several towers and spires in the air above you. These structures slowly rotate around a leafless and branchless tree trunk made from solid stone. The trunk towers hundreds of feet high, and the orbiting structures appear to connect to stone bridges which jut out of the trunk near its upper levels. You see two Perch Guards in crenellated watch posts above the entryway to this petrified trunk.
A large central gate is the only visible entrance into the structure. Behind the door is an interior lounge. A main desk sits near the far wall, behind which a scribe is busy with tottering piles of paper. Several chairs and couches are situated around circular tables throughout the room, which is lit comfortably by floating braisers containing magical flames. Portraits of wizened fey hang from the walls, each one wearing robes of the Avium.
Behind the main desk is a spiral staircase that leads down. The staircase is flanked by a pair of large spider statues (stone golem), one of which bears the likeness of a spider whose portrait hangs from the west wall. Opposite this staircase, a circular platform rests in its own cylindrical alcove.
An incantation can causes the entire stone disk to rise from the ground and propel its passengers upwards through the tree trunk. A few windows occasionally zip by on the way up, showing glimpses of the Wood and just how high the magical elevator is traveling.
Dean's Office
Located Halfway up the central building, this large office belongs to the Dean. More than just his private study, it is a historical part of the building, having been used by every headmaster of the Avium since the College’s founding.
A round stone office. It is surrounded on all sides by windows, through which several spires and large circular terrariums can be observed slowly floating by. The many tables inside the office are filled with disorganized piles of books, and the desk is in a similar state of disorder.
Dormitories
The central building houses dormitories for students and faculty. The student rooms are near the lower part of the tree, and are divided by an individual's standing within the Avium, with those in their first year having rooms closer to the ground. The faculty dorms rest above these, in areas off limits to students.
Lower Library
The lower library consists of a series of rooms and corridors, shaped from inside the tree’s stone roots. Unlike many of the classrooms in the central building, which have been remodeled, much of the lower library remains unchanged since the days of the Avium’s founding. It contains the most dangerous and rare books in the Avium, and only high ranking faculty members and a few special guest researchers are privy to the contents within. The sturdy stone shelves here are molded from the same stone that makes up the floor. They tower with books and require little in the way of care beyond dusting (though some sections are clearly overdue for it).
The staircase near the entrance leads down to the lower library. This area is only accessible to those with the appropriate pass, at appropriate times of day. A trespasser attempting to enter the library will awaken the two stone golems that guard the entrance (the spider statues on eiter side of the stairway) will come to life and attempt to stop them. The golems seek only to restrain the tresspasser until Perch Guard authorities arrive. If the trespassers attempts combat, the golems will defend themselves, but they will strike with calculated force. Any trespasser reduced to 0 hit points by the golems will remain stable, since the sentries are under strict commands to incapacitate intruders, not kill them.
At the bottom of the long and winding staircase, emerge a room filled with rows upon rows of large stone shelves, each containing several hundred books. Magical braisers illuminate this area, but their light strains to reach every nook between the large bookshelves. A librarian sits reading behind a desk in the center of the room.
Secret rooms
Investigating the lower library with a successful DC 15 Investigation check will reveal a hidden door. The door opens when pushed inward, causing a stone slab to recede into a groove, revealing a secret path. Some hidden mechanism resets the door after five seconds have passed. A lever on the opposite side of the door can be used to open it again.
Behind the door is a small hallway, dimly-lit by motes of magical light which float in slow, random patterns near the passageway’s ceiling. The hall continues downward into darkness. Twenty feet ahead, to the left is another door.
Study Room
The study room is accessible from the hallway revealed by the secret door in the lower library.
This small stone room smells musty and old. Bookshelves line the walls, though they are mainly empty, and there is a table against the right wall. A cushioned chair sits in the middle of the room. Most of the furniture is old, except for the chair, which appears to be a new addition. A simple wooden door lies to the left.
The study is clean, thans to recent use and a large wooden door to the left opens into a closet.
Old Classroom and laboratory
At the end of the hallway is an old classroom. The door opens into 40-foot-wide, 80-foot-long classroom. There is a passageway to the west of the desk that leads to a staircase down to a laboratory.
An assortment of bones lays strewn across the tables, and foul-smelling liquids bubble in pots. The stench of death is gut-wrenching.
The Terrariums
The four terrariums are circular stone structures with bowlshaped bottoms and mostly flat surfaces. They are contained in magical spherical fields, which allow matter to pass through, but are designed to shield and contain magical blasts. This keeps the surrounding structures safe in case of an accident. Three of the terrariums are 200 feet in diameter. They contain different biomes and are used for natural research. The fourth is smaller, only 100 feet across, and is located higher up. It houses a security building, as well as a cell, both overseen by the Perch Guard
The Towers
The floating towers are between 40 to 80 feet across, and they are the oldest structures orbiting the central tree. Some house libraries and small classrooms on niche subjects, mostly for advanced students of a particular school of magic. Other towers contain laboratories for practicing spellcraft, testing established arcane theorems, and brewing potions.
History
The Avium was once a living tree that was home to a birdfolk village, a perch known for producing some of the
Feywild’s most legendary scholars. After the tree’s
Death, a group of wizards from this perch decided to found the Avium here.
They used transmutation magic to artificially petrify the tree, and then shaped it into a building capable of housing the largest mage college in the
Color Forest. Controlled by magical fields, the College’s many structures float in circuit with one another: a collection of towers, courtyards, and observatories all hover around the huge central building, each equipped with a bridge that lines up with the main building at regular intervals. Those not gifted with flight must harness their magic for transportation, or wait until the archways align to allow for foot traffic.
Notable members
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