Session 29 — 27 September 2026
Ruben sets an application box outside the dorm, with a list of requirements above it. Joining the heroes of Strixhaven is going to take more than enthusiasm.
Mage Tower, the university's magical competition, allows teams of up to five, and students have been eager to fill the heroes' spare place. Ruben has investigated what makes a team win. In an earlier competition, the winning side committed to their roles and collected the fewest fouls, while the losing side kept changing plans. Harm another player or a mascot, and a teacher can send you off the field. He wants somebody who can help with transport, concealment or defence, communicate well and resist the temptation to settle things violently.
Over the next few days, he narrows the applications to twenty-four plausible candidates. Sszethik and Nymri are among them. Daiki, meanwhile, asks his fellow cheerleaders where teams get their mascots. The university supplies them, apparently, and Professor Sharpbeak is the person to ask. She also registers teams for the competition.
Before they choose their fifth member, Ruben makes an offer. If somebody would do his job better, the others should choose that person instead. He will not take offence. They want the best team, and he will happily step aside if he is its weakest link.
Lana squints at him. Why would he say that? They are a group. Competing as the heroes of Strixhaven without all four of them would be very strange.
Ruben thinks it depends on their aim. Do they want to participate together, or win?
“But we are the best team, Ruben,” Daiki says. “Don't doubt yourself.”
Daiki does have one reservation of his own. Last year, something bad happened almost everywhere they participated. Perhaps the heroes should stand by, ready to rescue everybody when Mage Tower goes wrong. But the competition only happens once every four years, and he soon warms to the prospect of becoming defenders of Mage Towers and captors of flags.
Lana settles it: they will enter as the four of them, with a fifth if they find somebody suitable. She could certainly use the prize money.
Ruben asks whether she will write polite replies to the rejected applicants. Lana had expected to be asked to review them. Yes, that too. They sit on the couch with the papers while Daiki goes to his room and starts moving belongings out. Magic sizzles behind the door. The room is under construction.
With Ruben's requirements in mind, Lana marks dubious claims, interesting experience and gaps that need explaining. About fifteen candidates look promising. A Quandrix student could round out their team; the four of them already represent the other colleges.
Sszethik makes her cut. He has been frightened in fights, but he has still fought alongside them, tried his best and helped save them. Nymri's grades and experience do not meet the same standard. Lana is sad about it, but leaves her out.
Then Nymri knocks on the door.
She finds Lana and Ruben surrounded by papers. Daiki offers student counselling, but she has come on Professor Sharpbeak's behalf. The professor wants to see all of them.
Daiki wants to know whether this is their first official quest. Nymri has no idea; he should relax. She offers to meet them later at Bow's End Tavern or the Firejolt Café, and mentions a team already practising in the stadium. For a competition that forbids violence, it looks remarkably violent.
Daiki understands how hard it must be to part from her favourite roommate. Nymri does prefer them to her new one, and she is jealous that they get to stay together in this lovely dorm. Still, she will manage, and she will visit. Daiki assures her she is always welcome.
Lana puts the applications safely on Ruben's desk, and they head to the Biblioplex.
Professor Sharpbeak is alone in a classroom, doing paperwork. She peers over her reading glasses and comes forward to greet them. She has not seen their Mage Tower application yet. Is that correct?
Ruben explains that they are considering a fifth member. The professor assures him there is still time. She has a more immediate problem.
The mascots are supposed to be tagged and contained, so that teams can get to know them before choosing one. Sharpbeak put them on an island in Sedgemoor. Before she finished cataloguing them, half a dozen escaped. With the first-years about to arrive, she is buried in work. Who better to retrieve them than the heroes of Strixhaven?
Ruben wonders whether helping with the competition would look like favouritism. Sharpbeak assures him that she does not decide its outcome. She would love them to compete, and she would also love their help. Perhaps a voucher for a magical item could reward them. Something useful for their studies.
Ruben and Lana are willing. Daiki is almost persuaded too, but remembers the beginning of their first year. Sharpbeak was the first professor involved in that mess, and now another mess involves her. Is she simply asking students to help, or is something else going on?
Lana notices him studying the professor and helps him consider her through their mind-link. She shares his concern. Looking over her glasses, Sharpbeak seems embarrassed and eager, hoping somebody will put things right. Daiki's impression is that she has made a mistake and badly wants their help.
He also realises that the reward is one magical item between them. Their reputation is growing; people want their assistance all over campus. Could they not each have an item, so that they can do more for Strixhaven?
Lana supports him. Ruben has an honours programme, she has applied for one herself, and Daiki combines his studies with work. Helping the professor will cost study time. She ought to make the errand attractive enough to justify it.
Sharpbeak offers them a choice: three common magical items, or a single rarer item.
Daiki will take that.
The professor fetches a cheesecloth bag from behind her desk, but Lana steps forward before she hands it over. They have only a verbal agreement, witnessed by the interested parties. Shouldn't they put the arrangement in writing?
Sharpbeak would rather the body of deans did not discover that she has mishandled the mascots. Her reputation would be ruined. She prefers no contract, but promises a reward.
Ruben is prepared to trust her. If they cannot trust their professors, where does that leave them?
In his mind, Lana reminds him that the professors themselves have told them to doubt their teachers at certain points.
Daiki has a practical question. How do they catch the mascots? Magical balls? Berries?
Sharpbeak takes six woven bands from the bag. They must discreetly slip a collar around each escaped mascot they find. Most are around Wiltroot Hall on the Witherbloom campus. She is sure the heroes can manage it.
Her notes are less reassuring. She believes at least one of each kind escaped, but cannot quickly establish what the sixth was.
Outside, Lana points out that it is already late afternoon. Sedgemoor is hardly a place to visit at night. Ruben argues that the longer the mascots roam, the harder they will be to catch. Daiki thinks they can manage.
Lana runs to the tavern to let Nymri know that she cannot join her for a drink yet. They have something to fix, and she will come as soon as she can. She keeps the errand's details to herself. Hero business, Nymri presumes. She chuckles and agrees to see Lana later.
From near the Biblioplex, the stadium offers a distant glimpse of Mage Tower practice. Two figures shoot into the sky amid fire and light, with an inkling mascot leaping upwards too. It is too far away to make out exactly what they are doing.
At Wiltroot Hall, the smell of rot is much harder to miss. The hollow trunk of a dead tree towers over the marsh, little windows set into its sides. Smaller thatched buildings stand around it, among roots and wooden walkways.
Their first discovery is two students consulting a book beside pools of yellowish liquid. One is blue, with a much taller, tree-like companion. They belong to the Fantastical Horticulture Club and are collecting cuttings for extra credit, but do not recognise the yellow substance.
Daiki is fascinated by the taller student. Is he a dryad? Hello! Who is he?
The student nearly winces and gives a tiny wave. His companion explains that he is shy, and offers to do the talking.
Daiki flies over the yellow pools. They are looking for things too, he announces, but it is top secret, so they cannot share.
The blue student is interested. A special mission? Secret double-crosses?
Lana apologises; they are not inclined to discuss it. Their friend seems very inclined, the student points out. Daiki tries to explain that their things could be anything. Perhaps treasure.
Lana's voice reaches him privately.
“Daiki, I mean this with all the respect and all the love that I can give you. But please shut up.”
Ruben is wondering whether the yellow liquid could be a mascot when a piece rises from the pool and lunges at Daiki.
It misses. There are two ochre jellies, however, and Daiki is within their reach.
He splits into four. Three magical duplicates appear around him, while bolstering flames give him some protection. The students back away, leaving the heroes to handle their discovery. Pseudopods strike through one duplicate, then another. Daiki and his last image are left between the jellies.
Ruben remembers from his studies that these creatures sometimes split when attacked. Unfortunately, he cannot recall which attacks cause it. He opens his spellbook and holds his hands to his temples.
“A man's greatest treasures are his illusions.”
His Phantasmal Force makes one jelly believe a trapdoor has opened beneath it, dropping it into a vicious trap. Ruben flies higher while the creature struggles against something only it perceives.
Lana considers slashing the jellies, without knowing what that would accomplish. The awkward marshy ground changes her approach anyway. She sends a dreadful, high violin screech into the mind of Ruben's target. She does not know about its imagined trap; when it tries to flee her Dissonant Whispers, its body strains against an invisible obstacle and stays stuck.
Daiki slips away and strikes the other jelly with a bright Spellfire Flare. The creature recoils, then advances towards Lana. Ruben plucks a feather and sends magical force into it. Lana calls down Sacred Flame, but the jelly avoids it.
She curses under her breath. It is more dexterous than she thought. A little help, please?
Daiki giggles, troubling the creature's mind with his magic, then catches it with a Sacred Flame of his own. It survives. Flying back towards the two students, he asks why they are retreating. They wanted a specimen, didn't they? Here is their chance.
The students keep watching.
The jelly punches Lana in the face. As its pseudopod draws away, acid burns into her skin.
“Oh, my beautiful face.”
The trapped jelly finally bursts under the force of its imagined injuries. Yellow goo splatters across the marsh. Ruben draws Lana's attention to the effect, delighted, before turning his magic on the creature beside her. That one bursts too, covering her in more goo, although it is no longer as acidic.
Daiki cleans her up. Lana urgently asks whether her face is all right. Her glasses too?
The glasses seem fine, Daiki says, but her nose looks less promising. There is a crack as she uses her healing magic. Daiki merges with his surviving duplicate, and Ruben releases the illusion. The students can safely collect their specimen now.
The talkative student is impressed by the heroes. It is a pity Daiki has cleaned Lana already, but he gathers goo from the walkway instead, then goes back to taking cuttings. Ruben asks what the jelly might sell for. His new acquaintance is more interested in extra credit. The teachers will surely be impressed. Ruben would appreciate the heroes receiving credit as well.
Daiki tries Sylvan with the quiet student, but language does not seem to be the problem. He wants to be friends, and tries to grow a flower in the student's hair with Druidcraft. The encounter remains awkward.
Ruben asks the other student whether he has seen a mascot that has run away from one of their friends. He has not, although plenty of people are looking for them. Caring for a mascot is a serious responsibility.
Daiki quietly asks Lana whether he has just insulted Professor Sharpbeak without knowing it.
Before they leave, Daiki asks their names. The talkative student introduces himself as Urzmatok and his companion as Melwythorne. Urzmatok explains that his companion is homesick and doing better now that he has joined a club. Melwythorne moves towards him, trying to stop the explanation. Daiki waves goodbye.
Something is falling inside a nearby hut. Ruben finds no windows and opens the door.
An art elemental is decorating every available surface. Brushes lie on the ground, watercolour palettes are scattered across a table, and more supplies remain in its grasp. There is no collar around it. It looks up and waits.
Lana proposes commanding it to freeze while they put on a band. Ruben suggests trying a friendly approach first. Daiki knows these creatures from Prismari, where they take all sorts of shapes. Perhaps his enthusiasm will help.
He greets it and asks whether it misses its friends. If it comes to him, he can take it back to them.
The elemental rises playfully, showing itself off. Daiki feels an enormous pull towards its beauty, towards everything it seems to embody about Prismari. Then he recognises that the attraction is magical. The creature is trying to charm him.
“Okay, I know you're beautiful, but you're no dragon.”
It stamps and displays itself some more. Daiki remains unimpressed. The elemental does not come to him, and he is reluctant to approach. Lana can try her plan.
“Freeze.”
Flames and gems shift as the elemental turns into an icy sculpture. It keeps watching her, playful and mischievous.
Lana had meant stand still.
She approaches more carefully, bowing as she might to a horse. The elemental comes forward and bows in return. It sniffs at her outfit as though looking for food or something interesting, and she feels its cold while it investigates. With it close enough, she slips the band around it and fastens the clasp.
The elemental looks up, then steps gracefully outside and heads north, towards where they presume the island lies.
Ruben thinks Prismari is a good match for both Lana and Daiki. Lana agrees that her art classes and violin must help her connect with these creatures. With one mascot tagged, they continue towards noises in the north-east.
Shrubbery hides the source. Ruben and Daiki fly while Lana crosses creaking boards below them. Heavy stamping comes from the foliage, and two giant elks burst out, charging her.
She steps out of the first one's way. They close in on either side, however, and one strikes her hard.
Lana does not want to kill them. They are animals, even if they are angry, confused animals intent on hurting her. She commands one to leave.
It keeps watching her, just as angry as before. With an elk on either side, she cannot retreat safely.
Ruben hears her objection to hurting them and opens his book again.
“Let dreams shape the world.”
He casts Sleep over both elks and Lana. She resists its pull, while the animals begin to falter. Ruben warns her not to strike them, and suggests getting away.
“You don't have to tell me twice.”
Daiki sings a lullaby as he moves back. The elks doze off. Lana leaves a ration for each and walks away, looking for somewhere they will not immediately spot her when they wake. Ruben's spell will keep them asleep for only a minute.
Flying over the foliage they emerged from, Ruben tries to work out why they were angry. The creaking bridge seems to have provoked them, although he cannot establish why they were so aggressive. Near the foliage, though, a small, spiny creature is quietly crawling along: a pest mascot.
Ruben dives from above and changes his flight at the last moment to slip the collar around it. The spines make fastening it awkward, but he is used to Herald crawling around their room. He manages without pressing himself onto the sharp points.
Two tagged. They move on.
The ground grows firmer to the north, where pink, blue and green flowers mix their scent with the earthy rot of the marsh. Daiki studies the planting, hoping to find a pattern that might conceal a fractal mascot. For a moment he thinks he has spotted one. A closer look reveals a gem among a pink flower instead.
He picks it up. The emerald gives him a tingle of magic, although he does not yet know what it does. Remembering the last time he found gems in a temple, he thinks of putting it away for Kroak.
Ruben flies around another thatched hut beside a clearing. Mushrooms, fungus and vegetation form strange bulges on its south-eastern side. He calls the others over. There is fungal growth here, although he is not sure it has anything to do with a mascot.
He comes down to inspect it, and Lana approaches. There are two creatures beside the hut, elephant-like shapes with skulls over their heads…