Osric: Magic U (15)

While Dan recovers from his Deathly experience the party cools it's heels in Shadowdeep. They decide to head to the tower of sorcery to follow up whether the thin wisp of cloth that survives of the robe of eyes (ignited by a duergar psyker) is at all redeemable for any useful purpose. As they are crossing the grounds of the school they see a group of mages engaging in youthful shenanigans. One is drinking dead from a flagon while casting some sort of spell that seems to involve a golden glowing fire catterpillar creature. He buddies are helping him by chanting......CHUG CHUG CHUG....

<hiccup> Something terrible happens. The caster explodes. The fire caterpillar suddenly grows dramatically in size, while bystanders flee, and promptly destroys the other boys. Jane briefly has a moment to curse the fraternities at the school that always seem to ruin everything. Then the beast is upon them. A blast of glass


particles shreds the party knocking out Jane as she attempts to cast a spell. Jenks manages to stay upright but loses his spell as well. Another few rounds see Renault go down under a flurry of claw and bite attacks, Jenks crashes to more glass shards, and Scabs is nearly dead while still attempting to fire arrows at the beast. A 11th hour rescue occurs as finally the faculty manages to blast the creature with a salvo of magic missiles (and worse).

Invisible servants quickly haul the party to the infirmary where a priest to the god of magic is able to render them some aid. The headmaster meets them in the infirmary and arranges a private meeting by the expedient of demanding everyone not unconscious leave. After thanking the group he offers a quite reasonable bribe for the groups silence......no sense in worrying the town at large and/or creating an environment for more regulation. We take the moment to request the headmaster examine our remant of the robe of eyes and discover it can function as a blindfold of eyes. An impertinent comment by Jane ends up gaining her some demerits and loss of her section of the bribe. It turns out she has another 3 months of work term before she can complete her credit transfers and finally write the sorceress test. After the talk Jane hurries off to the registration building to follow up on some school matters.

In another bout of tying up loose ends, Jenks notes he still has a sheaf of papers recovered from the late merchant Dabas' house. Some appeared to be deeds, but they were written in legalese. Jane recommends a barrister in town who gives student discounts and is known for getting mages free of reckless endangerment charges. The party heads over to the barrister Lionel Hudson......who has a side business of cobbling. The papers are shown to be all owned by the late Dabas.....with the exception of a silver mine. Often mine speculation results in such frequent transfers that it's easier to have a bearer bond type situation. The party now appears to be the owners of a mine that is located to the Northwest of Shadowdeep, about a day north of some nameless village. Lord mayor Scabs snickers.....sounds a lot like Compliments. The remainder of the documents are left with Hudson to return to the Dabas heir.....contingent upon a finders fee. 2 Weeks of opulent adventurer living and the party is ready to leave town with a mostly recovered Dan.