Timeless Tradition

The Northwind Adventurers Academy is a prestigious school with students coming from across the world. Teenagers, as young as 13, that show incredible promise in one of the many adventuring arts may be lucky enough to be among the student body. The academy has many former students that have gone on to become heroes. Some of the more well-known are members of the Jade Ravens, Jace the Champion fighter, and Zedd the Circle of the Moon Druid. More recent graduates, Morthos the bard, Argus the barbarian, and Norbert the Evoker, are members of the Trollskull Syndicate who one year ago stopped the Ashen Manticore. Norbert went on to become King of Nightstone when he married princess Sameria.

Every year before the first day of classes the Northwind Adventurers Academy hosts its annual autumn fair. It is one of few times of the year that the campus is open to everyone. The people of the city of Northwind look forward to the annual event, especially the competitions. There are duels, wild shape competitions, but the most anticipated event is the wizard’s competition, where wizards compete to create the most spectacular displays of magic.

This year the autumn fair is rumoured to include a member of the Trollskull Syndicate as a guest of honour. Rumours suggest it is Argus the Barbarian and his faithful companion Hellstorm. The fair is in full swing as students run between the vendors stalls and carnival events. Izutsumi and Sharkie were excited to see each other again. The two druids became fast friends in their first year and were looking forward to their second year. While walking around the fair they met up with Dray, a second-year student like them, but he was in the fighters’ college. They were walking and talking with each other as they walked past the ring toss game. There Lord Rufus Chesterfield was defying the odds by landing every ring he tossed perfectly on the bottle.

There was talk about getting some cake, when Sharkie noticed a strange shimmer in the air. She could not tell what it was right away but then noticed it looked like a bubble. The bubble was getting bigger, and bigger at what seemed to be an ever-increasing pace. Sharkie could tell the bubble was magic in nature but did not know what it was. Sharkie mentioned the bubble to Izutsumi who could not see it at first, so she cast detect magic.

With the aid of her detect magic spell Izutsumi could now see the expanding bubble, it glowed with an intense violet aura indicating that it was transmutation magic. She was surprised that nobody else seemed to notice the bubble, then she realized that everything inside the bubble was stone still.

“We have to go” she told the others but even as she said it, she realized that the bubble was now moving faster than they could run, they were going to be caught. Sharkie grabbed a rock from the ground throwing it at the bubble in the hope that maybe it would somehow pop. The rock passed through the bubble but created a small hole. A blast of wind and amethyst tendrils of magic burst from the hole washing over the four friends just before the magical bubble passed over them. Everything around them was still, the rock that Sharkie had thrown was hovering in the air. The five friends looked at each other, somehow, they were unaffected by the magic that now held the world around them perfectly still.

“I need some cake,” said Rufus walking to the vendor stall next to the ring toss.

“Cake! The world is completely frozen around us and your first thought is cake,” said a surprised Dray.

“Yeah. I mean it won’t fix the problem but at least I will have cake” said Rufus as he grabbed five pieces of cake. He walked back to the group and handed everyone a piece of cake.

“He is not wrong” said Izutsumi “the cake is pretty good”.

“Okay the cake is good, but shouldn’t we be doing something to try and figure out how to fix this” asked Dray.

“Like what” asked Sharkie. Izutsumi walked over to a vendor stall while the rest of the group stood there for a minute looking around. They really had no idea what they could do.

“Look what I found” said Izutsumi hold up two jade druid pendants she found at the vendor stall. “Here this one is for you” she said handing one over to Sharkie.

“It’s very pretty” said Sharkie as she put on her new necklace. She shared a smile with Izutsumi, then a voice from behind her almost made her jump.

“You look like second years, am I right” asked Hiram Maynard. Hiram was a fourth-year student from Paladin College. He was well known around the campus and considered one of the most promising students by many of the professors, but Izutsumi thought he was a little too stuck up. She shared a look with Sharkie that suggested her friend agreed with her assessment. Dray, on the other hand, thought the older boy was a role model, though he believed that when he was Hiram’s age, he would be a much better fighter than him.

Regardless of how each person felt about Hiram, when the older student told the group that they were going to stay together and search for any other students not affected by whatever magical calamity was happening. Hiram also had a plan. In the heart of the wizard’s campus was the Zelladium Arcana. Most knew it as an advanced training ground where magical illusions could be conjured to test students. Though not real, the illusions could cause sensations of pain, so the Zelladium Arcana provided a testing ground with consequences, while also ensuring student safety. The entire structured was powered by a Large magical crystal in the basement of the Zelladium Arcana. Hiram had been told that there was a way for the gem to emit an anti-magic pulse as a safety mechanism. If the group could get to the basement and trigger the anti-magic pulse it might disrupt the magic causing everything to freeze.

The group, led by Hiram, started walking towards the wizard’s campus with the intention of activating the anti-magic field in the Zelladium Arcana. Then they heard a scream. They saw Bobby Spongewood, an aspiring wizard, running from a group of goblins. Some of the goblins were carrying bound but squirming students over their shoulders. A large wyvern rested on the grounds with baskets strapped to its side. The squirming students were being placed into the baskets.

“This is no magical accident,” said Hiram.

“It’s just Bobby, can’t we let them have him” asked Rufus, but Izutsumi was already starting to go towards the goblins. Hiram stopped her.

“It’s to dangerous, you four need to go to the Zelladium Arcana, I will see what I can do to stop this,” said Hiram. Izutsumi wanted to follow, in part because she didn’t want to listen to Hiram but also because she wanted to fight real goblins and be a hero.

“If we can put an end to this magic the masters will be better at stopping the goblins, but we will still be heroes,” said Dray.

“Does anybody know where the Zelladium Arcana is” asked Sharkie?

“I do, I snuck in once just to check it out” said Rufus “I didn’t take anything though” he added quickly. With Rufus leading the way the group started running towards the wizard’s campus.