[[the_event]]

The Event

After the first long, luxurious summer holiday back at home with your family, you had returned to the college dreading the renewal of the insufferable grind of doing 2-3 hours work a day, but were at least eagerly anticipating the (in)famous welcome feast, unconvincingly promising yourself that you would drink slightly less port this time.

On arrival, you found a notice requesting all students to gather in the great hall an hour before dinner began for an important announcement. Queries to your friends and acquaintances surfaced a vague rumour that the Faculty had discovered something amazing during their researches over the four month holidays (traditionally when most actual work gets done, what with the lack of pesty undergraduates to get in the way), and were intending to a demonstration for the returning students.

By about half an hour after the listed time, the hall had finally filled up with the majority of the student body, lured by a mixture of curiosity and (tragically misguided) expectations of pre-dinner drinks. A magical hush descended over the babbling audience, and the august college master, clad in his finest robes began to speak.

Obviously aflush with pride, he announced that, thanks to pioneering research by the department of Magical Physics, and the elucidation of the function of a trinket in the College vaults previously thought useless, the faculty had prepared a ritual of unprecedented size to achieve a feat previously unaccomplished – travel to a world beyond your own (the existence of other worlds having been theoretically proven at least a decade ago). Unbound by the normal limitations on the number of participants in such a conjuration, the ritual was to use the power of the entire faculty and (to the obvious surprise of some standing near you) that of the third year student body.

All had been prepared ahead of time, and the third years were asked to join the faculty in adjourning to the quad, where the ritual was to take place. Meanwhile, in the hall, the waters from the great scrying pool in the centre rose up and formed an image of the proceedings, and glasses of exquisite Champagne appeared in the hands of all gathered. After ten minutes of logistical wrangling and instruction (and the more eager of the freshers discovering that the college's champagne flutes are self-refilling), the one hundred odd people outside joined hands to form a twisting, inscrutable pattern along lines that had been etched onto the grass, and begun to chant.

At the centre of the ritual, touched by five of the most powerful sorcerers in the college, the mirrored orb that was acting as a focus began to glow, and let out a keening screech. And that was when things started to go wrong. Some of the third years began to collapse to the ground, while others were lifted off their feet by an invisible force. Glowing rents began to wink open and shut around the edges of the quad, closing in on the gathered casters. As they reached the outermost parts of the ritual, they began to affect the unfortunate students in various ways. Some were simply sucked through the rents, while others exploded into a variety of interesting substances, including flowers, confetti and, for some reason, penguins. Brief snatches of…other places could be seen through some of the larger rents, but these were fleeting at best, as the openings snapped shut around lecturers and students alike.

The faculty members closest to the centre had enough time to start reacting, but their desperate flurries of defensive spells availed them little, the rents swallowing even them as they closed in on the orb. Less than thirty seconds after the ritual had begun, no one remained standing in the quad (other than a gaggle of disgruntled penguins). Finally, a single, more stable rent opened behind the sphere, which slowly rose, and floated through into whatever lay beyond. This final rent then slammed shut, and as it did, a wave of light radiated out from where it had stood.

In the great hall, you and your fellow second years fell to the ground as something reached into your heads, tearing through parts of your memories, overwriting what was there with something else entirely. At the same time, the university began to shake violently, and through the windows you could see the sky outside start to shift and discolour. The last thing you remember before you blacked out was golems coming alive around the walls, enchanted tongues repeating:

“Warning. A significant magical accident has occurred. Students are asked to return to the great hall, and remain calm. Warning. A sign….”

You woke up in another part of University. Flickering faerie lights guided you through the silent corridors back to the great hall, into which other students were trickling. Some stood by the gates, arguing with a college ghost, who was barring their way through. One of your friends broke off from the group and ran up to you, excitedly proclaiming: “You're not going to believe this. It worked! We're in another world!”

The Aftermath

In the wake of this, conversations with fellow students have established that the following is now the case:

  1. No trace of any of the faculty or the third year students has been seen. As far as can be ascertained, most of the first and second years are now gathered in the hall. What has happened to the non-faculty staff has not been discovered.
  2. The second year students universally blacked out, and woke up in various corners of the college after the event. The first years seemed to be unaffected, and conversations with them have established that the university appeared to be travelling through an infinite void of light and colour for roughly six hours, and that the second years vanished in flashes of light around the time just after they all passed out.
  3. None of the second years can recall or cast any of the spells that they learnt in their first year. However, each of them now has almost instinctual knowledge of a single spell etched across their minds.
  4. College golems and ghosts have been preventing anyone the first years from leaving the great hall, either out into the rest of the college or, since the shaking stopped, out of the front gate into the new world beyond. Second years have been informed by some of the more lucid ghosts that the college's 1834 year old “Inter-dimensional Accident Statutes” are in effect.
  5. The Headmaster was last seen as a small flock of Penguins scattering into various parts of the University.

Extracts From the Inter-dimensional Accident Statutes of Our August Institution

Article 1

1.i

In the event of an inter-dimensional shift, no student is to leave the college when present in a world other than are own for a period of not less than three (3) hours following arrival in a previously undocumented world.

Article 2

2.i

An exception to article 1 shall be made for no less than three (3) and no more than five (5) individuals of at least the second year, allowing the state of the college's new locale's and environs to be ascertained, following the provisos set down in articles 3.i-3.ix.

Article 3

3.iii

The greatest time that may be spent in an uncharted world under the allowances of articles 2.i-2.iv are to be set at the following levels: 2nd year students: a Short Period of Time. 3rd Year Students: thirty (30) minutes. Junior Faculty: one (1) hour. Senior Faculty: indefinite. These limits will be enforced by enchantment.

3.vi

Any student member leaving the premises as set down in article 2 must wear a college scarf at all times while outside the college grounds. This restriction will be enforced by enchantment.

Article 5

5.ii

Except as permitted by the rest of these statutes, no student is to leave the great hall and immediately adjoining sub-chambers (excluding corridors) for a period of not less than three (3) hours after a dimensional shift.

5.iv

A student finding themself outside the great hall for any reason other than those permitted by these statutes during the aformentionned period should make haste to return.

5.v

Excessive tardiness may result in disciplinary sanctions.

5.vii

An exception to these rules shall be made for a single group of up to five individuals whom are in possession of a valid writ of passage with there names written upon it.

5.ix

A writ of passage shall be available from a college door-golem under these circumstances.

5.xi

Once presented to a door-golem to leave the chamber, a writ of passage shall remain valid for a Short Period of Time. This restriction will be enforced by enchantment.

the_event.txt · Last modified: 2011/02/23 21:49 by james
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