The Campaign

Alright everyone! Here we're going to record the history of our Rowans Campaign thus far. Remember, anyone can add anything at all and no detail is too small. If you remember it please put it in. We'll start from the first session and work our way through. 

First Day at Rowans
Everyone’s received their initial Alexai tests after being recognized as being magically sensitive. Ginny and Kaya were at their homes comfortably, Richter had probably been returned to his home after being tested and told to make preparations and Circe was probably being temporarily housed in one of the earthside facilities Rowans operates. Everyone then received their acceptance letters from Rowans. Everyone took the train, Stumper talked with Richter on the train, then everyone got to Etnia. They saw the castle on the hill rising up above the water, they saw a dragon moving inside a cave across from the school. Everyone got off the train and was welcomed to Rowans by... Glenda??? and told to get into groups as names were called. Yui showed up to the players and explained to them what a circle was and that these were your circle mates and then told them she’d take them on a tour. She first took them to Rowans tree and told them its history and circled around its book filled outer ring all the way to the top (Ruby said “It’s like you took something directly from my dreams”) where she showed them the library up there and the observatory nooks (people argued about the definition of “nook”) and pointed out the main buildings on campus. Next they went to the pools and the Zoological building which everyone just calls the zoo, then Yui says she’s a little behind and everyone runs up to the gallery where they see a painting of Drakkenov when he was young and the painting of Amelie Pearlwing and Diadem and Mjolnir (Yui explains that they call it Mjolnir, it totally does have lightning magic and also it looks exactly like the Mjolnir of legend so *shrug*) then they’re shown the Keystone which was an artifact that Glenda took from the Nightking when the Nightking made an assault on the school during the Spirit War. She couldn’t kill him but she managed to drive him off and take an artifact of his they think is supposed to be the key to some powerful weapon of his.

At some point in all this Yui tells everyone that all the tour guides agreed to tell the students, just between them and not the staff, about why they should be careful. There’s loyalists and spies for the White Witch and you don’t know who’s who so don’t assume everyone in charge at Rowans has your best interests, to do the best they can with things they find out and only go to the staff if its too dangerous to keep to yourself. Yui also invites everyone to a pool party happening at the end of the night. I assume these two things weren’t back to back as that’s a real tonal shift. Also during this walk they saw Chetna Chopra and Ginny declared a crush on her immediately. I THINK they also saw Sadie the Centaur and handsome handsome Colt who Flynn was racist to but that might have been next session.

Everyone then went to the dining hall, Glenda welcomed everyone with a little speech and introduced Drakkenov who walked in all sparks and strength, he was then seen to somewhat deflate in his chair a bit after. Glenda then introduced the Headmaster of the Scholomance: Faust. Faust entered all spooky looking and told everyone they would be sorted into their houses and began calling names alphabetically. As students were sorta into houses the table for that house cheered and called them over and was all friendly and invited them in to cheer more students. The houses had chants they’d do in between the waits of a students sorting sometimes just keeping the energy hyped like a big sporting event.

Richter stepped up first and Faust asked him if they had met before. He also told Richter he was one of the more obvious Taurenhearts he had ever met. Richter talked about feeling like he might be a wildthorn or….something else. In the end Richter asked Faust what he thought and Faust reiterated how confident he was but Richter could choose whatever he pleased. At that Richter went with Taurenheart. Richter went over to the Taurenheart table where yui hugged him and Clay high fived him. I believe Yui told Richter how exciting it was they could see each other all the time

Ginny was next and decided between Pearlwing and Taurenheart I think. When Ginny went over the the Pearlwing table Chetna was next to her and gave her a nod

Kaya was next and decided between Pearlwing and Sphinx Amin, settling on Sphinx Amin

Circe was next and decided between Sphinx Amin and ...maybe Taurenheart? Or Wildthorn? She got to join Kaya at the same table.

After the sorting everyone brought their stuff back to their room. Kaya and Circe roomed together, Ginny roomed with Sadie the Centaur (who I assume they met earlier, or maybe that was decided later), then after an eventful evening everyone went down to the pool and had a cool night hanging with Clay and Yui and a few other cool kids. 

Next morning the gang took their first magical battle class, met Chloe Castle, and learned magic missile and Clipeum (shield). Ginny and a Wasserman dueled and the Wasserman won. Possibly this is where everyone met Lindsey lyle? Or maybe she was introduced earlier. I definitely remember plans to put spiders in her bed being made very early on. Then the gang went to their first Zoology class. They met Ulfric and Rumble, Ulfric’s bear. And were told about the Nightkings terrain and how it buts up against the school and how the spirits were expanding. Finally Ulfric made some calls and introduced everyone to a Bearhound. He says “They’re intelligent, about as smart as onna you if you never had any schoolin. They’ll form a pack usually but have huge territories, so are often encountered alone. If they need help, or are hurt and need to communicate they’ll give a long resonant call, somewhat haunting. Sometimes mixed with barking if they’re in dire danger.”

Then Ulfric tells them they’re expected to make their own way back, as basic navigational abilities will be an important part of their skill in the wild. (Flynn mentions victoriously here that he has a compass! Before realizing that he has no knowledge of which cardinal direction the school is in) Ulfric tells folks the general direction and everyone gets walking. The Wassermans made fun of someone here and ran off towards the school.

The gang eventually gets a bit lost and later hears a long haunting howl which they tentatively decide to investigate. It turns out to be a bearhound being attacked by a terrifying spirit of the night kings. Everyone uses their knowledge of magic missiles and shields to fight it as well as someone (Richter?) hitting it with branches and/or rocks. Eventually they drive back the monster and head back to campus with the bearhound to direct them. Someone hears a Sending from Kahn directing them to fire a spell into the air, which they do, and some staff members do the same directing the party towards the school. Khan is there to meet the students who he scolds, telling them every other student managed to make it back without issue and using up time and resources of the staff. Ginny gets mad and responds about how they were attacked by a spirit and Kahn asks for details. He is still somewhat hostile but does say that an attack by a spirit this close is noteworthy and concerning, then sends the students back to their rooms and to not delay as they’ve taken enough staff time already.

The Nightking Arc
In brief, so I don’t lose my place. That’s the end of session 1. Session two starts with a new day, going into town, visiting castilles and seeing Circe’s treasure room, circe being given a guiding glove at curios, a wand sorting, an attack by the nightking, the gang going into one of the high towers to get a better look at things, them seeing nightking minion going for the keystone, attacking the minion, disarming it of an object which turns out to be the orb of the nightking, “ruby noting that they stopped the actual attack, and that that the frontal assault was a diversion” then investigating what the orb is after some people recognize it. They find it in the case downstairs. Then they go to the library, meet scruggs, and do SOMETUFF, then delve into the library guided by circe’s glove, a worg attack, then them finding the book about the 3 artifacts of the nightking.