People at Uni - Mirodar

You see Mystic Mirodar the Red.

He is a strapping young human lad.

 

He is obviously a wizard. With the overly-ostentatious clothing there could be no other possibility. Judging by the tatty state of his attire though, it would appear that he's not a very good one. The dust and grime coating show that he is well travelled and the restlessness evident in every muscle indicates someone who is not comfortable unless he's busy. 

He looks strange, probably due to extra arms growing from the top of his head and the centre of his stomach. 

Holding : a Klein bottle (top hand) and a jagged coral dirk (stomach hand). 

Wearing : a pair of mirrored sunglasses, a pair of padded leather socks, a pair of climbing gloves, a smuggler's longcoat and a leather gorget.

Hedging your bets (and 3)

So here we are, in the magical tree! After you've crossed the stained glass door, it transforms into a curtain of woven creepers, and you find yourself in the following landing:

This is the interior of a massive tree, with natural wooden walls rising around you and sturdy roots burrowing into the ground below.  Archways to the east and west look to lead to a study area and some sort of shop, respectively, while an earthen staircase leads down beneath ground level.  A doorway of woven creepers appears to lead outside.

There are four obvious exits: east, west, down and out.

Although not obviously visible, checking the walls and the vines and branches therein gives a hint of an upper floor, with a series of smaller branches forming a crude ladder of sorts that gives access to the upper area. It does require some tree climbing skills (164 bonuses are enough, although you'll have to try a couple of times) for going up and down. We've already shown the wooden platform there, along with the hedge grimoire it contains.

Back to the landing, the western room contains a cosy magic shop, with Celestia the Blue tending to it (actually, she spends most of the time daydreaming). It stocks some wands, new and fancy jewellery, inks, a couple of new staves and some golden spheres one can use for creating some magical effects in the room beyond a magical portal.

If instead one moves east, you enter a little study area were young hedgies can learn some skills and commands from Jesse the Green, along with some desks and a bookshelf teeming with volumes about magic, hunting and fieldcraft, woodworking and finesmithing.

Should one choose to go downstairs in the landing, the earthen staircase takes you down to the roots of the matter, and you find yourself in another landing with directions up, down, east and west. Going down proves to be restricted to hedgies, though, and if you try, you'll get to the same place you were in already: You descend the stairs into the mist.  As the mist slowly clears, you see that you've managed to descend the steps into the same room you were just in.

On the western side there is a wood and ironworking workshop, tended by Camanor the Brown. Besides repairing stuff, there are tools for sale related to these handicrafts, some of them new.

If, instead, you choose to go east, you encounter the typical gym-training facility of most wizard guilds, including the Beginner's tome of magic and the trapped demon:

The lichen-covered walls and the wooden floor in this room have a strange, unnatural pattern to them.  Scuffed runes dotted around the floor glow with a faint, sickly light, adding to the overall feeling of unease that this place exudes.  The focal point of the room is the multitude of giant octiron chains shackling a foul-looking demon to the ground.

There is one obvious exit: west.

Ny'Ogre is shackled here with great octiron chains.

An open tome is sitting on a lichen-covered shelf.

>

look demon

Pinkish-red, rubbery skin and an unnaturally wide smile make this repugnant creature truly unpleasant to behold.  Its eyes are no more than blood-red pinpricks that look at risk of being engulfed by a hideous, oversized maw.  It is shackled here with the help of great octiron chains, covered in runes of warding.  With the way it is smiling, you could almost believe that it is happy about its current predicament, or perhaps it is just preoccupied with thinking about what it might do were it to escape.

It is in good shape.

It is shackled here with great octiron chains.

Finally, although non-hedges cannot access what is presumably an exclusive lounge, there is a room to the west of it that may be used for teleporting around the Disc, and getting to at least three other wizard guilds (Unseen University, Creel Springs and Ephebe), and which can be accessed by others through a portal and subsequently blorpled. As for the lounge, Aiden was kind enough to provide the following description:

This room seems to be the one concession that the local hedge wizards have made to comfort and aesthetics inside the tree.  Sturdy rustic armchairs are dotted about the place, and a few thick, fur rugs have been placed in front of them for added comfort.  A long bar takes up most of the north wall, with various cabinets and cupboards behind it. A curious hatch occupies the east wall near the bar.

Ands finally, the teleport room looks like this:

This room is bare enough that it would look downright boring were it not for the huge, complex octogram covering most of the floor.  The only other feature of note is a mist-shrouded archway in the east wall.

Hedging your bets (2)

 

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, branching off in six directions towards wildflower-strewn pathways, and a green door leads into the modest hut to the south.

It is a very cold autumn prime's afternoon with a gentle breeze and some puffy clouds.

There are seven obvious exits: corncockle path, daisy path, dandelion path, larkspur path, lily path, poppy path and south.

Once you are beyond the northern exit of the aforementioned shed/hut, you will find yourself face-to-face with a hedge maze, with different meandering paths and glades. Each path contains one main type of flower, and you will need some basic foraging skills not to get sidetracked.

If properly followed, the larkspur path will bring you back to the start of the maze, from which you can go back south into the shed. As for the other ones, this is where they'll take you:

Corncockle

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, leading up to an open glade.  A carved wooden statue of a stag grazes peacefully in the centre, proud head lowered to crop the grass.

Not much to be seen in this clearing, beyond a nice stag statue. I have found no secret passages or ways of doing anything to the stag. Its antlers are pretty sharp!

Dandelion

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, encircling a flourishing vegetable garden.  A tall apple tree grows from the centre of the circular garden, boughs spreading across the plants.  A selection of garden tools hang from nails driven into the trunk, and a water butt sits at one side of the glade.

There's a little garden here with some vegetables and herbs, which some tending to the space (by watering or by weeding) may allow you to gather. 

Lily

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, leading up to a broad pond surrounded by rushes.  A carved wooden bench sits by the pool, beneath a willow tree whose branches brush the surface.

This is a lovely, meditative spot! Also, explore it carefully to find a two-way ticket way of travelling to the Bes Pelargic L-Space bubble.

Poppy

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, leading up to an open glade.  A carved wooden statue of an elderly wizard stands here, looking over the glade with a beneficient air, and a tall-backed bench stands by the eastern hedge.

Another lovely spot with some statuary, but unlike the in the stag glade, careful looking around here with grant you a (one-way, I think) passage to the Artificer's Guild, in Sto Lat.

Daisy

Tall hedges surround this small clearing, their autumn-brown leaves feeling like a protective wall against the outside world.  Fallen leaves and round grey gravel lie underfoot, leading up to the trunk of a gigantic tree.  Set into the trunk is an arched doorway, within which a beautiful stained glass door offers entrance to what looks otherwise like a perfectly normal - if extremely large - tree.

There is the residual taste of magic in this place.

It is a very cold autumn prime's afternoon with a steady breeze and some puffy clouds.

There are seven obvious exits: corncockle path, daisy path, dandelion path, larkspur path, lily path, poppy path and enter trunk.

Arguably the most interesting space you can go to, in this glade you will find a gigantic tree which you can enter, and where the secrets of hedge wizardry will be exposed to your sight. But those inner recesses we will explore in our next and last entry on this topic. We may conclude today with a little glance at a colour-changing feline you will encounter in these walks around the forest:

l tubbstable

Mr Tubbstable Puddlesworth IV is a large and fluffy orange tabby cat, with bright green eyes and inquisitive whiskers.  He has white front paws and a white tail-tip, and he usually has mud in his fur somewhere.  Rescued from the rooms of the Dimity Professor of Counterintuitive Zoology at Unseen University, where he had been living on a diet of fish paste sandwiches, milky tea with too many sugars, and escaped lab experiments, he now lives his best and happiest life with the hedge wizards in the forest of Skund.  Despite the many examples of creatures exposed to ambient magic developing human-level intelligence, all Tubbstable has acquired from his experiences is the ability to walk through closed doors and manifest the occasional basic spell.

He is in good shape.

He is stretched out lengthwise.

He looks very magical in his little pointy wizard's hat.

Wearing : a tiny wizard's hat.

> Tubbstable the Formerly Violet returns to his natural colour.

Hedging your bets

So, the Hedge wizard's main place in Skund Forest has been made accessible! In a series of posts, we will be taking a look at it, and giving some snapshots of what you can expect to encounter on your way there. You've already seen the topmost platform of a certain magical tree, but let's start from scratch.

You should first head your steps towards the village of Pekan Ford. From there, you should travel in a general northeast direction, past the wolf trail, until you get to a crossroads from which a small building can be discerned:

Here, the deep rutted, well used road continues off into the distance.  The odd spring flower lines the side of the road, a welcome change from the churned up muddy trackway and dense coverage of fallen leaves.  Skund Forest spreads out to the east, southwest and southeast, a small building lies to the west and some plains lie to the north and northwest.  Ten miles to the northwest are the Carrack Mountains.

It is a very chilly autumn prime's afternoon with almost no wind and scattered puffy clouds.

There are three obvious exits: west, journey south and journey northeast.

>

l building

The building looks well-constructed, albeit rather more elaborate than one might expect to find in the middle of a forest.

Taking the route to the west, you go through a  deeply shaded holloway, a leafy tunnel of sorts with high earthen banks that takes you towards the mysterious construction.

The path ends on a shaded dell outside an unassuming building that looks like little more than a garden shed, with a bench, lamp and book scraper outside. The look of the last one should starting ringing your alarm bells, though:

Some hedge wizard with quite the sense of humour has forged this boot scraper in the shape of a pointy hat, complete with the Unseen University crest on it.

Entering into is the cosy wooden hut - almost a shed, really - you find yourself in a comfy country kitchen.  The walls are hung with colourful paintings of various herbs and vegetables, and a sideboard bears a vase of dried flowers flanked by a steaming teapot and a plate of scones.  A window looks out into the Forest of Skund by the south door, and another provides a preview of the gardens to the north. Trying to eat some of the scones (delicious, by the way!) gives you more clues about the magical unnaturalness of the place:

You take a tasty-looking scone from the plate.  A drawer of the sideboard slides out with a pointed creak, and you drop 10p into it.  The drawer closes again with a satisfied sort of noise.

> 

l drawer

The drawer is made from the same Skund pine as the rest of the sideboard.  It absolutely definitely does not have teeth, or any arboreal equivalent of them.

The hut also includes in another room The Multicoloured Swap Shop, tended to by Madrigal the Red, who is also rather talkative and willing to give you a few tips about wizardry and the place you've arrived to:

The overwhelming theme of this shop is colour.  Well, and shelves, but mostly colour.  The north wall has been painted in swirling patterns of red and brown, splashed with occasional touches of gold, while the west wall is green and blue.  A square purple counter sits in the southwest corner, completely failing to unify the blue and green with the yellow and white flowers that cover the south wall, whilst the east wall is painted in jagged stripes of light and dark grey.  Overall, the general effect is like being entirely surrounded by a herd of zebras on strong acid.

There is one obvious exit: east.

Madrigal the Red is lounging beside the counter.

A cluster of glimmering stars is swirling overhead and a polygonal crate is sitting in a corner.

> 

l madrigal

Relatively short and slender, with a waxed and curled moustache and a perfectly groomed beard, Madrigal Ogg has come a long way from Lancre Town.  Since even the most tomboyish of young girls' best chance of escaping wifedom and motherhood was to become a witch, and a keen analytical mind could only be an asset, that seemed like an obvious choice... until Granny Weatherwax laid eyes on him.  "Entirely the wrong mindset for witching," she said.  "Go and be a wizard instead.  Heaven knows they need some good Lancre oak around the place.  And another thing.  You're not a girl.  Stop listening to everyone's expectations and go be who you really are."

He is in good shape.

He is lounging beside the counter.

Holding : an oak walking staff (left hand).

Wearing : a pair of poppy-field boots, a pair of black jeans and a moorland Ohulan tweed jacket.

Leaving the hut through a different door from that which you entered it leads just just opposite a magical hedge maze, but what lies inside and beyond will the topic of another entry...

Books - Pracktical Hedgecrafte

A new wizard guild has been discovered, hiding in a magical tree close to Pekan Ford! It is the glory of hedge wizardry, and in the following days, I will be describing it in detail. For today, just take a look at the topmost platform I've been able to climb, which holds a new grimoire for wizardry, and 4 new spells!!

This wooden platform is most certainly not a library.  It has no rows of shelves, no desks, no chairs, no densely-packed volumes or tomes and certainly no reason for the already mind-bending physics of this giant tree to be stretched even further with the introduction of any of that L-Space nonsense.  There does appear to be one single, solitary book though.  It sits on a wooden lectern in the centre of the platform.

There are no obvious exits.

A closed bark-bound book is on the lectern.

> You hear a faint scratching sound, although it's impossible to pinpoint which direction it's coming from.

l book

This book looks more grown than manufactured.  A thick layer of bark serves as a front and back cover, and the pages seem less like paper and more like impossibly-thin layers of wood, as if cut directly from a thick tree trunk.

Motes of octarine light dance around the book.

It appears to have something written on it.

It is closed.

> 

read book

You read the cover of the closed bark-bound book:

Written in dark lettering:

Pracktical Hedgecrafte.

open book

You open the bark-bound book to page 1.

> 

read book

You read page one of the open bark-bound book:

 Table of Contents 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  2 ... Luquayle's Longevity-Enhancing Ballast

  3 ... Ridcully's Travelling Furniture Manufactory

  4 ... Feyfirkin's Errant Trainee Collection Herbage

  5 ... Ralstorphine's Refreshing Draught

People at Uni - Ynnb

You see Ynnb Marshmallow the Green.

Companion to The Nellie.

Ynnb is almost entirely hidden in a voluminous green cloak.

She is in good shape.

She is lying on the leopard print steel grey sofa.

Her skin looks as hard as rock, although it seems weaker around the face.

She looks unusual, probably due to an extra arm growing from the centre of her chest.

She has a giant turtle shell floating around her.

Holding : a crystal-bladed dagger (left hand), a jagged coral dirk (right hand) and a Klein bottle (chest hand).

Wearing : a pair of forest green gloves and a fine forest green burnous.