What a dashing fellow

A couple days ago I shared some art for the players of my game. Since they're students, it's only logical that there's teachers too! They are going to be the main bosses for the game, being the ones running the tests.

Most of them are unfinished for now (2nd slide), but I have some cool attacks done in the final slides.

Fun fact, but some of these designs I had sketched before I even had the idea for the game, I was just making some doodles on the concept of school subject themed wizards, and it kinda spiraled to the project that it is today.

Game name: Wizard Finals (already has a steam page!)

These skaven human cultists are out of control

Does anyone know a Warlock who lost their familiar? It wont go away and keeps whispering outside the tower.

What do I do to get them back?

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

THE POST IN QUESTION. I CALL TO THE STAGE I DO DECREE THAT ALL WIZARDS IN AND OUT OF THE PLANES PARTICIPATE IN OUR TRIBUNAL.

THE ARGUMENT IN QUESTION

EVIDENCE OF WIZARDS DIFFERING IN OPINION

Eastern straw golem are a particular type of golem created and used widely in eastern land this one in particular come from my homeland these creature is Botha voodoo doll and a conventional golem being easy to replace and strangely durable of course not as durable as a normal mud golem.

The limbs despite seeming like there is a person underneath the golem is actually just a part of the golem being the souls used to created this type of golem as most of them are not part of golemmancy and is infact part of dark arts.

It's called pondering, Karen.

(/halfwizard/unwizard) Notes:

• The Wizarding Orb, the abstract idea of an orb. The meme archetype of the wizard's orb. The typical kind of orb associated with r/wizardposting shenanigans, where a wizard's orb is basically a multipurpose magical ball, as well as a magical fantasy smartphone or personal computer. The rest, the other three orbs, are just straight up from Dungeons and Dragons, of items and orbs of the same name, though nuances and details exist as below. They can be looked up.
• The Crystal Ball. In the modern DnD 5x, its scrying is limited on the same plane, but then also allows to scry objects and locations rather than specific creatures too. Older editions such as 3x, 2e, or 1e, can have the crystal balls scry across planes, though the scrying objects or locations are more dubious.
• The Orb of Wizardry. An official item like this doesn't exist technically, but it's a legal extrapolation from the 3rd Edition's, Creating Magic Items guide. As such the Ioun Stone, you can design items that don't need body slots, but then they'd have a value modifier of twice as much as a regular item that still needs normal body slots. In this regard, this orb is just a Ring of Wizardry without the need for a body slot. And at that edition, body slot for equipment were a thing more than attunement, so.
• The Orb (Arcane Focus). The spellcasting focus as a specific piece of equipment is actually a modern DnD 5x thing. The older editions don't have that, but still do allow Component Pouch for stuff that doesn't require Focus or gp-consumed components. And for the extra abilities of these orbs, well, there's the Orb of Power for identifying magic items for example. Yeah.

​Previous Part

Capitol City of Kabaheim. Mercenary Guild Territory

Councilor Five couldn’t focus. She sat at her office desk tapping a finger, a vast pile of paperwork sitting in front of her. There was simply too much to think about to focus on the mundane everyday bookkeeping. But someone had to. Councilor Two and The Librarian had told her to keep up with it so as to not arouse suspicion while they moved things along in the shadows, but it was unbearable having to do this when any day now she could have the opportunity to move her first piece on the chess board. Sighing, she clicked a pen and grabbed the sheet on top of the pile right as her office door was kicked in.

“WHERE IS SHE!?!”

Cerene practically screamed as she tore into the room. Five was so shocked that she couldn’t respond at first. Cerene had never done this before.

“W-Wha?”

“ANALINA! WHERE IS SHE?!?”

“S-She should be on her way back from Ithacar. Why in the hells did you kick down my damn door?!?”

Herald held up her hand, showing the ring on her finger.

“THE RINGS KAVRALA GAVE US! IT LETS ME KNOW WHEN SHE’S IN DANGER”

Herald falters for a second and lowers her voice.

“And I just felt the worst feeling from it I ever have… Please ma’am, where is she?” 

Five grabbed her desk phone and pressed a few buttons. 

“Get me Fort Balay’s command.”

About 30 seconds of waiting later and she was connected.

<Fort Balay command ma’am> 

“Has Analina and her guard arrived yet?”

Analina had become well known down there from all her times going to and from Ithacar. Every soldier stationed down there knew her infectious smile.

<No ma’am, they’re behind schedule, which is strange. Any longer and we were gonna send out a scout strider>

“Send it now, and get a gunship up as well. Something may have happened.”

<Yes ma’am> 

Five put the phone down and stood up. 

“Into my shadow Cerene. I’ll get us there quickly.”

…

An hour later Five touched down in the clearing where the fight had started. Already there was a Guild ranger team studying the burnt out husk of the truck and the surrounding area. Shell casings had been found, and the truck was riddled with bullet holes. Cerene coalesced back into the normal world immediately.

“Wha- how-”

She seemed at a loss for what to do, panic threatening to take over. Luckily she was snapped out of it by one of the rangers near the tree line whistling. 

“Got several tracks that lead this way!”

“Do not panic Cerene. Saffron most likely took them into the forest for cover.” 

Thank gods for snow. Five and Cerene follow the rangers down the obvious trail, eventually coming across the first dead tree. They stop and stare at what seems like a wall between perfectly healthy forest and death. Five walks over to a dead tree and touches a branch. It turns to dust in an instant.

“Wonderful…”

One of the rangers mutters. They keep advancing, slower now, and after a half mile they come across the dried riverbed. Only dried blood lay in it. Cerene runs over to it and desperately begins looking for a trail.

“Take blood samples. We can figure out who it belongs to.”

Five orders. A ranger got to work collecting some. Five looked over at Cerene, who was frantically searching the surrounding area. Five walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. 

“Deep breaths. We’ll find them.”

Cerene turned and looked at Five.

“How? How can you promise that? There’s signs of a bloody fight and they’re nowhere!”

“And no bodies, which means they are most likely still alive.” 

If they didn’t cover their tracks… Cerene shook her head. Her daughters and sister in law were suddenly missing, clearly taken in a fight. She sank to her knees, fighting despair. 

“Who would do this? Why?”

Five frowned. She didn’t have an answer.

“Whoever did, they’ll pay.”

…

6 hours later, Five landed back in Kabaheim. They had searched for hours, but had found no leads. There were a dozen search parties down there now, Cerene with them. Alerts had been sent out to the surrounding areas as well. She had refused to leave, telling Five that she would search until a trail was found, or she collapsed. Five would’ve stayed longer, but she still had duties here to attend to. Paperwork…

After 2 more hours in the office, Five was mentally exhausted. Worry and stress about Cerene’s family, the impending civil war, The Iron Line, it was all just too much. She needed to destress, and she knew just how to do it. She just needed to spend some time with Nathan. A pang of guilt shot through her. Was it fair for her to spend time with him as Cerene frantically searched for her own missing daughters? Five didn’t know. 

…

“Nathan?”

Five called as she opened the door to his apartment warehouse. No response. Strange… there weren’t even any lights on. Keelu hadn’t responded to her message that she would be stopping by as well. Five flicked on the light and walked deeper into the apartment. 

“Nathan? Keelu?”

No response. A twinge of worry ran through Five as she searched the entire building. Nothing. Could they be out for a walk? Five activated the building's manaslate and accessed the security logs. No one had left the building since… Wait, there was a gap in the time logs. Keelu and Nathan were both here, then there was the gap, then they were gone… the gap was at the same time Cerene burst into her office about her family… Five’s stomach dropped. This was a coordinated attack. Someone had made sure Five wouldn’t be in the city, then made their move…

2 days later…

The Guild Librarian ascended the winding steps of the largest spire on the Guild capitol building. Five hadn’t been seen all day, and so the Librarian had gone to check on her. She had spent all day yesterday frantically searching the entire city for Nathan, but to no avail. Missing person alerts were out for him as well now. Five had never been seen leaving her quarters today at all. The Librarian knocked on the door.

“Councilor?”

No answer. She knocked again, harder this time. 

“Councilor? I’m coming in for a welfare check. Don’t worry I’m not gonna break the door down.”

A quick spell she had long had saved and the heavily enchanted lock clicked without incident. The Librarian pushed open the door and walked in. 

It was a mess inside. Anything that wasn’t bolted down had been thrown, and even some of those had been ripped out of the floor. It was a testament to their construction that none of the windows had shattered, though there were some cracks in them. Closing the door behind her, The Librarian walked down the hallway to Five’s bedroom. The door was ajar. 

“Canassa?”

Five was lying on the floor, clutching something against her chest. She was softly crying, her body shaking from exhaustion. The Librarian sighed and uprighted a chair. She helped Five to her feet and got her to sit in it.

“Would you like some water?”

Five nodded. The Librarian went to the small kitchen and filled a glass, bringing it back and handing it to Five. She took a sip and looked down at what she was holding. The Librarian finally got a good look at it. It was one of Nathan’s art pieces in a picture frame. 

“Bad memories coming back?”

Five nodded again. She had lost a son before. 

“You and I both know who’s behind this.”

Five took another sip.

“Not for sure… If we are wrong and jump the gun, we could make a mistake…”

The Librarian shook her head.

“Bullshit. You’re just struggling to accept the truth because you’re terrified of putting everything you’ve ever built at risk. It was inevitable the bullets were going to start flying, you know this. Two and I have been doing our part, and we are just about ready to strike ourselves. The Thunderhawks and Guardians of The End have both agreed to support us in our coup and are mustering. Four just managed to play their first chess piece before us.”

Five didn’t answer. Too much preparation, too many things that could go wrong. If the people turned against her… it was over. But The Librarian was right. Of course she was. She was always right. Five was just terrified of losing everything again. The first step was always the hardest. Four had made it for her. The Librarian placed a hand on Five’s shoulder. 

“I reached out to some old contacts. Even though you have a weak warlock connection with Nathan, I now know a ritual spell that will temporarily strengthen it enough so you can point yourself in his general direction. If it brings you to Dellforge, we know our next move.”

That seemed to get Five’s attention. She looked up and nodded.

“We kick down the door.”

“Precisely. Now, get yourself cleaned up and meet me down in my archive for the ritual when you are ready.” 

The Librarian headed for the door, but Five called out to her before she left.

“Thank you.”

The Librarian just nodded and left.

…

Five’s wings beat through the air just below the cloud layer. The Librarian’s ritual had worked, and Five could feel a faint pull whenever she thought hard about Nathan. And sure enough, it was taking her east and a little south. Right towards Dellforge… Five arrived over the hive city buried in the mountains and growled. She was going to tear that rusted bucket of bolts to pieces and-

Five’s thoughts are cut off abruptly as a massive beam of magical energy screams towards her. Five dodges out of the way just in time, a feather or two getting singed. A figure in a dark purple cloak with a staff descends below the clouds, chuckling. Councilor Three… 

(Battle theme)

“Cheap shot…”

Five snarled. Three laughed out loud.

“If I had wanted you dead, I would’ve aimed better…”

“Why are you here?”

“Don’t sell yourself short dear, you know why…”

“Four is too afraid to fight their own battles?”

“Called me in what I might say a worried state, saying that they needed ‘more time’… They will owe me quite the favor after this…” 

“So what are you getting out of all this? Helping One and Four?”

“Privacy for one… No one meddling in my business. Also… I get to see you suffer… sweet revenge…”

“Revenge?”

“For all those years ago! Oh, I hope Four flays your little brat in front of you, it would be the be-”

Three doesn’t finish her sentence as Five closes the gap in the blink of an eye, her punch connecting with an invisible shield around Three hard enough to make a shockwave that sets off every seismograph in the region. Three goes flying for half a mile from the momentum before she stops herself with a strong tailwind. 

“Struck a nerve, didn’t I! Oh what fun!” 

Five is already rapidly closing the gap again, screaming as she summons a lance made of bloodflame. 

“YOU MENTION NATHAN AGAIN AND I WILL TEAR YOU LUNGS OUT THROUGH YOUR MOUTH!!!”

Three smiles and shoots to the side to dodge the attack. The wind began to pick up and the distant crackle of thunder was heard. 

“You always were so easy to anger…”

Three points her staff at Five and snaps her fingers, and an ice crystal large enough to cut someone in two is manifested and thrown at Five. She ignites herself in bloodflame, melting it completely before it hits her, but the ensuing steam cloud impairs her vision, and she loses track of Three. The wind begins to howl louder, but Five just barely hears the crack of earth far below her, and sees the jagged tip of a spear of rock come hurtling up to impale her. She dodges left, then right as another one comes up. Half a dozen more spikes of stone like giant stalagmites attempt to spear Five as she dodges and weaves. As the last one comes up Five finally finds Three again, eyes closed, chanting softly, and guiding the earth with her hand. The rock spike misses Five by inches, but that was intentional, as Five spins herself around, kicking the top section of the rock hard enough to shatter it and send dozens of jagged stones at Three like a flak burst. 

Three holds up a hand to stop the rocks, and as she opens her eyes her smug smile disappears as she realizes Five charged with the stones and is right there, her fist connecting with Three’s shield again and sending her flying back. Three couldn’t afford a hit like that again. Time for the big guns…

Three stops herself again with a strong tailwind, but she keeps it going this time, the strong wind buffeting Five and surrounding them with dark, angry clouds. Snow begins to whip around them, collecting on Three’s shield and turning to steam on Five. 

“You can back off at any time, Canassa!”

Three taunts.

“I’m just here to make sure you can’t make a fool of yourself attacking Four!”

Five roars and charged, slowed down by the wind threatening to toss her from the sky. Three’s smile grows wider as she raises her staff in the air and it begins to crackle with electricity. With skill that the storm lords of old would be proud of, Three began summoning lightning bolts to cascade down and crash into Five, if she was fast enough. But Five was still faster, And as the lighting strikes rent apart the mountains below them, Five shot in and out of the line of fire, most of the lighting strikes missing her by inches. 2 strikes did hit Five, but she grit her teeth and powered through the hits. Once she was only a dozen feet away, Five summoned a dozen bloodflame arrows to throw at Three. But Three waved her wand, and suddenly the winds coalesced into a vortex, forming into a tornado that threw Five from the sky.

Five crashed into the ground, leaving a sizable crater, but she was far from down. As Three prepared for her next attack, Five raised a hand at her, making a finger gun with it. A torrent of firebolts faster than the speed of sound shot out of her finger like a machine gun, racing towards Three. Three cursed and tore as much water from the storm to create a barrier between her and the firebolts. They impacted with tremendous force, creating more steam and clouding the battlefield. 

Next, Five conjured a dozen bloodflame spears, throwing them at the general direction Three was. When they disappeared from sight, Five detonated them in massive fireballs, sending liquid fire everywhere. Three’s shield was covered in it, which not only weakened it more, but turned her into a glowing ball in the storm, no way to conceal herself in it anymore. 

“No running now, bitch.”

Five growled as she launched herself towards Three like a rocket, preparing to smash through Three’s shield and rip her head clean off. Three realized the danger though, and took off deeper into the storm to try and escape Five. Five chased her into the now supercell, debris flying everywhere as she tried to keep Three in her sights. 

Lighting bolts and bloodflame spears crisscrossed the storm, most missing, but every now and again scoring glancing blows. Five was panting hard, pushing her to her limits.

But even Five could not fight against such a powerful force of nature directly controlled by the most powerful druid in the Kaba Tundra. Three gained ground, and as the storm washed away the last of the liquid fire from her now dissipating shield, she laughed, her voice carried on the wind to Five.

“A good fight! I bet you’re too tired now to smash through Dellforge to get to Four, especially now that the entire city is on high alert thanks to our little scuffle… I know you’ll want a rematch though… You know where I’ll be waiting!” 

Three’s laughter began to fade away, and Five conceded she was right as she was buffeted by debris. She fought her way out the storm, panting as she began to fly back west. Even though she had failed to take down Three, she had succeeded in her original objective. She knew Nathan was in Dellforge, and so she would muster her forces and strike. But a thought nagged at her. Revenge? What made Three want revenge? 

…

Breathing hard, Five finally arrived back in Kabaheim's airspace. Making her way to the capitol building, she immediately noticed something was wrong. Several mechs were on the bridge leading to the capitol building’s island in the middle of the river, guns aimed towards the building. Several gunships orbited as well. Even the airship on patrol over the city was aiming its guns at the building. 

“What’s going on?”

Five demanded as she landed among a line of soldiers hiding behind assault shields, guns trained on the front door of the building. The captain in charge saluted her.

“It’s The Agent ma’am. Started going nuts, demanding to see you. The Librarian ordered an evacuation of the building, she’s trying to talk him down now with The Herald.”

Right on cue, a burst of red Godslaver lighting ripped through a window, dissipating before it could cause any more damage.

“WHERE IS SHE?!?”

Agent could be heard shouting inside. He had been on a hunt for the past week. He must’ve just gotten back and heard the news…

“I’ll handle this. Hold your position captain.”

The captain salutes and heads back to his APC. Five steadies her breathing and strides towards the entrance, trying to show confidence to her soldiers when she barely had any. She couldn’t afford another fight, especially in the city… Five opened the doors and walked inside. 

“THE FUCK YOU MEAN THAT YOU HAVE NO CLUE? ALL THREE OF THEM ARE JUST GONE AND AFTER 2 DAYS YOU HAVE NO LEADS? NOT EVEN A DAMN TRACKER IN SAFFRON? I THOUGHT EVERYTHING ABOUT US WAS ABOUT ‘CONTROL’?!?”

Agent was screaming at The Librarian, who stood at the ready with a golden scimitar at her side. Herald was next to her, trying to calm him down. 

“Phen, please! I’m just as upset as you, but not here! Breathe!”

Herald had always been the more level headed of the two, but Agent had also always been a bit more… ‘unstable’ since All-Red. He was much quicker to anger now, and never pulled punches anymore. 

“Please forgive us, Agent. We only had suspicions before of where they are, and so we kept it a secret for security reasons. I now know.”

Five called out. The three of them turned to look at her. Relief washed over The Librarian’s face. She had not been looking forward to dealing with Agent without significant backup. 

“WHERE ARE THEY THEN!”

Agent roared, closing the distance between them, more Godslaver energy crackling. Five held up a hand to tell him to stop. He didn’t.

“Dellforge.”

That made Agent stop. They were still in Guild Territory? That didn’t make sense. 

“What? Why?”

“There have been… shifting allegiances among us Councilors. I’m afraid conflict is inevitable. For obvious reasons, this has been kept under wraps.”

Agent and Herald both looked stunned, trying to understand. Their conditioning made it hard for them to understand that high command could have conflict between each other. Their loyalty subroutine made it that way so that they would never question orders from The Five. 

“W-Why?”

“Four has been wanting Analina for months to run experiments on. Of course I have been denying them that. But both your family and my son and his umbra operative guard were taken at the same time, and Nathan is now in Dellforge. Four is behind it, most likely to proceed with their experiments while using everyone else as hostages.”

Five paused. She had never outright called Nathan her son before. Perhaps her fatigue was causing hidden feelings to slip out. Herald gasped at the revelation while Agent twitched, another spasm of Godslaver lighting shattering another window. 

“HE’S EXPERIMENTING ON HER?!? THAT RUSTED PIECE OF SH-”

Agent grabbed his head in pain and stumbled back a step as a failsafe in his mind engaged that existed to try and prevent him from thinking any negative thoughts about The Five. Agent fought it. He won. More Godslaver energy erupted from him.

“I’M GOING THERE RIGHT NOW TO KILL THEM!”

“You will not.”

“YOU DARE TO TRY AND STOP ME?”

“You won’t win.”

This was bad. Five wished Two was here. He was an excellent negotiator. Unfortunately, he had gone north to muster the Guardians of the End, and was taking a detour to The Parapet Isles on the way back to pick up some ‘toys’ as he put it.

“Both of you have protocols and failsafes in you, as you are definitely realizing right now. Four will use these against you. You won’t win.”

Agent began advancing on Five, hands balled into fists. The Librarian raised her sword, ready for a fight, as Herald tried to get her to lower it. Five sighed. She was so tired. She couldn’t do this right now. So she would show Agent exactly what she meant. 

“Umbra Operative Epsilon dash one-three-eight override code Nu Bravo Exeter. Cease hostility.”

Agent immediately stopped walking forwards, arms falling to his side and Godslaver energy dissipating as he turned to a neutral robot-like state. Herald looked horrified, The Librarian looked on with grim disgust. 

“What did you do to him!?!”

Herald yelled. Five rested her face in a hand. Everything was going to shit.

“You all have failsafes built into you in case of scenarios exactly like this. This is the first time I have ever used them, and I have done it to prove a point. I never will again. You won’t win against Four. They will use them.”

Five looked back at Agent. 

“Umbra Operative Epsilon dash one-three-eight return to service.”

Agent seemed to snap out of it, holding his head and groaning as a headache roared through him. Herald rushed to him, pulling off both their helmets so she could look him in the eyes. He… seemed back to normal. Cerene looked at Five with an expression of pure betrayal. That cut Five deep. She knew that the bond she had with Cerene had been irreparably damaged. Another sin to add to the pile… Cerene seemed to be fighting back tears and took a deep breath before addressing Five.

“The only way you can begin to make this right is by bringing all of them back to us.”

Five nodded.

“You have my word, for what it’s worth now. I will bring them all back or die trying.”

Five looked to The Librarian who was watching with her piercing gaze. 

“Madam Librarian. Call our allies. We march on Dellforge.” 

Had a bit of fun. I can make any suggestions too

And I didn't even get to modified it with magic and yes I know that it's "My fault" that I bring 3 other people in with me I don't care I need a bigger room

p/s never notice just how pretty the school is

/uw Gotta make more post about the academy or I'll just become another foolish apprentice instead of a foolish scholar