Both Reyna and KFC try reasoning with Squid, who is expressing completely antipathy toward Beckaylee. Nothing can convince the child to change their opinion about the diminutive gnome, who seems very upset about Squid’s change of heart. Beckaylee, hurt and angry, retreats to her room and slams the door.
Reyna tries to lighten the mood by changing the subject with the child.
”What have you stolen lately, Squid?”
”Borrowed. Titania says it’s wrong to steal.”
Squid uncrosses his arms and tells Reyna, “I borrowed something that you might find interesting…”. From his pocket he draws a torn sheet of paper and hands it to Reyna, who reads an article about the theft of a rare obsidian blade. A nosferatu, the same type of creature that spewed blood all over the inside of their tour bus, has sworn vengeance on the thief.
Reyna gulps, and says, “Well, that’s not ideal.” She leaves, worried, with KFC.
Titania stares at the child and notices that there is a new mark on the child’s arm…almost like the card drawn from the Deck of Many Things by Beckaylee. Hmm. What could it mean? Could it be that Squid’s new dislike for Beckaylee is tied to the card?
Deciding she will head to the Biblioplex, Titania wants to see if she can teach herself a Remove Curse spell. Maybe that will help Squid lose the hatred of Beckaylee. She calls into the main room of the hex, “Does anyone want to come with me?”
Squid volunteers, and the two go off together across campus.
At the Biblioplex, the cogwork archivist inquires as to what Titania is looking for. From its abdomen, it dispenses a strip of paper that bears the book’s call number. Titania tears it off, then nattering she heads to the stacks. They turn, expecting to find Squid behind them. Instead, they turn to discover Squid, across the vast expanse of tiled floor claiming his own strip of paper from another cogwork archivist. The child ducks beneath a chain to head into the restricted section. This are is filled with books containing dangerous and powerful magic and can only be accessed by Strixhaven instructors, never the students. Stealthily, Titania joins them as Squid tears page of a thick, musty book. The child notices and crams the page into their mouth.
Titania holds out her hand, expectantly. Squid spits out the paper. She flattens it and reads the title of the spell, Conjure Inferno, twice as devastating as the Wall of Fire she is more familiar with.
The cogwork archivist arrives just in time to throw them out.
⚔
Squid, looking depressed, has thrown themselves upon the floor. KFC crouches to inquire what might be bothering them. “Our room is a wreck,” complains Squid, “Titania burned it down and now I hate being in there! She ruins everything!”
Not being particularly good at comforting children, KFC offers to help Squid learn a bit of sword play out on the hex lawn. Gratefully, Squid follows the aarakocra outside to learn combat using the practice swords.
⚔
Hester heads over to the theater to repair the hole in the stage that has too long gone unaddressed. As she enters, it smells like that someone has been smoking in the building. Angry, she storms into the darkened house. A red glow issues through the hole in the stage. Hester, on her knees, calls down, “Hey, there’s no smoking in this building!”
A deep and resonant voice call back to her, “My mistake. Have you seen the musician, Debbie?”
Puzzled, Hester calls down that she hasn’t.
“Would she be at her dorm?” the voice weedles.
“I don’t think so, “ says Hester, suspiciously. She is surprised by the mutters of a spell that may be Locate Creature. It echoes upward from the darkness below.
Rattled, Hester leaves whoever it is in the theater’s cellar to return to the hex, just in case Debbie has returned. This voice in the cellar, whomever it belongs to, can’t mean anything good for the singer, and Hester did not wish to confront it to throw whoever it was out of the theater.
⚔
The sun has nearly gone down as Reyna prepares quickly to go to work cooking late night at the Firejolt Cafe. A pounding at the hex door alerts Reyna. One of Debbie’s drow musicians, the lead singer of Darkvein, lets her that a very frightening looking creature, a nosferatu, entered the inn asking about someone answering to Reyna’s description. The quick-thinking drow drummer sent the creature to the other end of campus, but it seemed to be tracking by scent. Reyna should be careful.
Grateful, Reyna thanks the musician and begins walking toward her job. She doesn’t get far when just outside of the Hex, when Reyna spies a tall figure approaches her at speed, the creature’s face hidden by its cloak. As it gets closer, Reyna can hear snuffling.
The figure suddenly stops and draws itself up to its full height, well over six feet. From deep within the hood, a deep, harsh voice rasps, “You have something of mine! I can smell it!”
“I won it fairly,” protests Reyna.
“It is mine, stolen from me!” croaks the creature, and rushes towards Reyna.
The sound of combat between Reyna and the terrifying nostferatu draws first KFC and Squid, then Hester, who is returning to the Hex looking for Debbie.
Spells fly, the creature slashing and glaring, when suddenly an enormous glowing figure, flying low over the campus, freezes everyone with its unexpected approach.
It is an enormous horned devil blasts mere feet over their heads, racing in the direction of Witherbloom Campus.
⚔
Meanwhile, Debbbie races through the Central Campus toward the Quandrix campus. Here she is told by the Kianne, Dean of Substance, a stern faced elf with a waterfall of black hair. The Dean is able to Conjure Water, but Debbie has no means of transporting the 30 gallons of water she will produce.
“I only have a waterskin,” exclaims Debbie. Dean Kianne asks why Debbie does not just fill the skin from the sink, or even the fountain in front of the Biblioplex.
Losing hope of saving face, Debbie blurts out, “Well, can you cast Bless?”
Redirected to the Witherbloom Campus several miles away, Debbie trudges through the fading light back through Central Campus. The landscaping of Witherbloom is wilder, less colorful than other of the Strixhaven Campuses. Rising out of the center of a rough quad is an enormous, grey tower that stabs upward into a misty sky. In the entryway,
Debbie finds the directory of faculty. Lisette, Dean of Order, is on the 23rd floor.
Debbie eyes the old fashioned, two person elevator suspiciously. It is more like a wire birdcage, and rises at a glacial pace upward from some subfloor below the lobby in which Debby stands. She elects to take her broom to tap on the Professor’s window.
Dean Listette listens sympathetically to Debbie’s plight.”Rotten luck to be pursued by such a powerful devil,” commiserates the Dean. Debbie passes the silver power gifted by Dean Kianne to Lisette, who prepares to perform the hour-long ritual over the water in Debbie’s now-full waterskin.
Debbie, settling in to the window seat, admires the view from the high above the Tower.
In the far distance, a fiery blaze is making its way at speed toward the Witherbloom campus. The figure approaches: an enormous scarlet-skinned humanoid figure with wide, bull-like horns upon its head sweeps its leathery wings with powerful strokes.
Debbie pales. “I’ll be back for the holy water,” gabbles Debbie, and she leaves to rush down the spiral staircase, reaching the bottom just as she hears the flapping and rush of brimstone fumes.
Panicked, Debbie finds the door to the cellar, and slips inside. She is unsure if the devil can fit through the tower’s door, but does not wish to stay around to find out. The door cracks, then falls in with a crash. From her hiding place at the bottom of the cellar steps, Debbie watches the devil into the tower. As quietly as she is able, Debbie pulls the door closed and makes her way to the bottom of the stairs and into the cellar of the Witherbloom Tower.
