Art of the Octangle (4)

Advancing widdershins from our last stop in the octangle, just as we arrive in front of the Squilltemper building, we come in the the corner where congregate the conjurers of a demonological familiars, be they Sages of the Unknown Shadow or Black wizards:

Despite the size of Unseen University's main Octangle this area manages to seem almost cosy, between the clock tower to the north and the ancient chestnut trees whose boughs spread over the cobbles, the manicured lawns, and a dramatically gesturing statue.  The Tower of Art rises to the west, and the main gates sit northeast of here, while the studded oak door to the south leads - in theory - into the Squilltemper Building.

Here stands an ominous black oak bench under a chestnut tree, and trying to sit on it, being what I am, gives the following result:

You sit on an ominous black oak bench.

> The bench suddenly changes its shape to become a steep slope, sending you sliding down onto the grass.

You stand up.

The summer heat gently radiates from the ground.

The bench changes back into its normal bench-like shape.

The obligatory statue for the archetypal Sage of the Unknown Shadow is close at hand:

With a characteristic flair, this cadaverously thin wizard appears to be calling some sort of horrendous demon from Hell - an impression aided, admittedly, by the horrendous black marble demon forcing its way through the earth at their feet.  The carved black marble robes of a wizard of the Sages of the Unknown Shadow contrast sharply with the wizard's gothically white marble hands and face.

Yet another toy is available here, in the form of some musical chimes that can be played for curious sounds, but only effectively by better percussionists than myself:

Spired and fretted like some deconstructed and inverted Borogravian castle, this assemblage of tubes - some blown from glass, some carved from crystal in a multitude of swirling colours, and some of octiron - chimes and twinkles in each passing breeze.  They hang from a plate of solid octiron, inlaid with glyphs and bearing a dedicatory inscription.

Sparkles of octarine light constantly bloom and dance around the chimes.

It appears to have something written on it.

read chimes

You read the set of octiron and crystal wind chimes:

Written in flourishing letters:

Octavius Semelustrius, Professor of Musicology, set me here on this day the 17th of Grune, Year of the Concussed Ocelot, for the delight and edification of All Wizardry.