Strixhaven: Campus Kerfuffle

First-Year Level Advancement

A Standalone Adventure

If you're running this chapter's adventure as a standalone, the corruption of Sedgemoor's waters is not the result of a sinister plot. Rather, a surge of wild magic caused the corruption, but the outcome is the same.

First-Year Encounters

First-Year Courses

Biblioplex Features

The Biblioplex has the following features:

• Ceilings. The ceilings throughout the first floor of the Biblioplex are 50 feet high. The second- and third-floor ceilings are 30 feet high.

[image: Many students employ deep concentration techniques to help them tackle their rigorous class schedules]

• Magic Stairs. As in all Strixhaven buildings, the stairs and steps leading into and within the Biblioplex are enchanted to move and reshape for full accessibility. See the "Strixhaven Accessibility" sidebar.
• Transport Circles. A runic circle is painted on the floor near each staircase in the Biblioplex, as well as at the top and bottom of the steps leading to the main entrance in area B1. These circles are permanent, customized teleportation circles. When a user moves onto a circle and mentally focuses on the floor to which they wish to travel, they are transported to the destination floor, arriving at that floor's runic circle for that staircase. (Students are all aware that entering the second floor is forbidden without permission from a faculty member.) The circle at the bottom of the front steps transports users to the circle at the top of the steps and vice versa.
• Students and Professors. Students of all years and colleges can be found in the Biblioplex, as can professors from all the colleges. See chapter 7 for stat blocks for first-year students, and for apprentices, pledgemages, and professors from the different colleges.

B1. Main Entrance

Enchanted marble steps lead up 5 feet to a small plaza at the Biblioplex's entrance. The double door's vertical handles are each carved in the likeness of a robed scholar. During the day, the doors stand open. At night, the doors are closed, locked, and sealed with an arcane lock spell. A successful DC 25 Dexterity check using thieves' tools opens the lock (DC 35 while the arcane lock is in effect). Only the Biblioplex's reference librarians and certain faculty members know the arcane lock's password.

B2. Biblioplex Lounge

Luxurious couches and sturdy tables furnish this spacious area. Students, employees, and staff members often use this lounge to relax between shifts in the student store (area B5), the Biblioplex café (area B6), or elsewhere in the library. Each table holds piles of magazines, newsletters, flyers, and nonmagical scrolls from around campus. A character who examines these materials finds recruitment flyers from 1d3 Extracurriculars. They also find "Help Wanted" ads for the Jobs at the Biblioplex. Extracurriculars and Jobs are detailed earlier in the chapter.

B3. Student Café Seating

This area typically holds 21 (6d6) students, all of them studying, eating, chatting, or even sleeping. Many enjoy food and drinks from the café (area B6).

B4. Information Desk

Three faculty-appointed reference librarians work at each of these circular desks (use any of the professor stat blocks found in chapter 7 if needed). All are expert scholars and powerful mages. They can provide helpful instructions for where to find any public location or collection in the Biblioplex.

B5. Student Store

This small shop is stocked with books, equipment, and gear useful as academic supplies. The store's manager is Groff Lundquist (neutral good human commoner), a friendly Strixhaven staff member known for his ability to fashionably mix and match items of university apparel. Students can buy hats, scarves, tunics, robes, gloves, and other apparel embroidered with the Strixhaven star or with the sigil of any of Strixhaven's colleges. Costs range from 5 cp to 5 gp or more, at your discretion.

Once a character chooses a college at the start of second year, they receive a set of college robes, a knit hat, a scarf, a tunic, and gloves free of charge. (This set normally costs 5 gp.)

In addition to nonmagical gear and clothing, the store also contains the magic items from the "Magic Items" section of chapter 2.

B6. Biblioplex Café

One wall of this area is covered with a mural made from a living tree's roots, which move occasionally and make the entire place feel alive. The ceiling is covered in painted leaves, which change colors depending on the season thanks to a permanent illusion effect. The magic also prompts painted squirrels to run up and down the mural's roots, and painted birds to chirp among the leaves.

Up to ten students are typically present here during the day. Ordinarily, three more students work here, but during orientation, the café's manager, Aisla Fitzbottom (chaotic good gnome commoner), is working alone. She is charmingly perky and has a mind like a steel trap when it comes to recognizing students. However, her organizational skills are somewhat lackadaisical.

The café always serves coffee and tea, which costs 1 cp per cup. The sandwich of the day varies. Roll below to determine which sandwich is available on any given day in the café.

B7. Lecture Hall

Each of these halls hosts interdisciplinary lectures for Strixhaven students. The seats magically grow or shrink to comfortably accommodate students of any size or body type. The halls' acoustics are magically enhanced to amplify the professor's lecture and minimize the disruption of side conversations. While a class is in session, each hall holds a professor and up to thirty students.

B8. Study Area

These open study areas feature simple wooden tables and chairs. During the day, up to thirty students can typically be found here.

If the characters pass by the western study area before orientation, members of the Live-Action Roleplaying Guild are pulling costumes and props from a half dozen old trunks. The guild is preparing for an event later on the Biblioplex's lawn: a game they call Beholders versus Behirs. Rosie Wuzfeddlims (chaotic good gnome first-year student; see the "Fellow Students" section) is directing students as they cobble together beholder and behir costumes, as well as visual effects made from sheets, blankets, wooden frames, tin plates, and illusion magic. (This preparation erupts into chaos during "That Trunk Has Teeth!" later in this chapter.)

B9. Book Garden

In these quiet areas, students sit on the grass and study among lush foliage. Sometime last year, three awakened shrubs wandered in here and settled in each garden, and the university has welcomed them to stay. Members of Witherbloom College typically tend this space, and three Witherbloom pledgemages (see chapter 7) can be found here most days.

Members of the Fantastical Horticulture Club often relax in this area and hold meetings here from time to time. If the characters explore this area before or after orientation, Urzmaktok Grojsh (neutral orc Witherbloom apprentice; see the "Fellow Students" section) is here, recruiting first-year students to the club.

[image: The Biblioplex is a storied hall of learning on campus as well as a meeting place for friends of all stripes]

B10. Main Stacks

Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves fill the center and the east end of the library's first floor, with the denser east stacks under a magic effect that shifts them when students approach, creating space to stand single-file between them. These books are mostly introductory texts, and first-year students are often directed here by their instructors. In each of these areas, two cogwork archivists (see chapter 7) busily shelve returned or misfiled books.

Characters who browse these shelves unaided stumble on what they need with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check. However, it's always easier to ask a reference librarian (area B4).

B11. Hall of Oracles

This hallowed hall is filled with statues of the university's past Oracles. At the center of the hall, a pulsing ball of magical energy—the Strixhaven Snarl—fills the area with bright light. See the book's introduction for information about snarls and the Oracle.

The "Orientation Challenge" event later in this chapter starts here.

B12. Student and Alumni Art Gallery

This crisp-looking room features white walls and columns that stretch from floor to ceiling. Displayed on or within these are art pieces representative of various media. Students from Prismari College typically tend this space, and three Prismari pledgemages (see chapter 7) can be found here most days, either cleaning the gallery or studying the techniques used in the displayed pieces. A storage area at the back holds supplies and artwork waiting to go on display.

The Distinguished Society of Fine Artists often meets and holds discussions here. If the characters explore this area before or after orientation, Cadoras Damellawar (chaotic good elf first-year student; see the "Fellow Students" section) is here recruiting first-year students to the society.

B13. Amphitheater

This impressive stage is used for lectures, for assemblies, and as a gathering place in case of emergencies. Magic steps lead up to the stage from the floor of the library. Members of the Playactors Drama Guild often use this stage to meet and rehearse when the Rose Stage on Silverquill's campus is unavailable. If the characters pass by this area before or after orientation, Quentillius Antiphiun Melentor III (neutral human first-year student; see the "Fellow Students" section) is here recruiting new students to the Playactors Drama Guild.

B14. Student Activities Center

This room is filled with tables and chairs and is available to any student organization registered with Strixhaven for use as a meeting place, rehearsal facility, or crafting site, or for other approved purposes.

If the characters explore this area before or after orientation, it is set up to promote Extracurriculars, the rules of which appear earlier in the chapter. The tables are covered with flyers from the Dead Languages Society, the Dragonchess Club, the Dragonsguard Historical Society, Future Entrepreneurs of Strixhaven, the Intramural Gymnastics Club, the Intramural Silkball Club, the Intramural Water-Dancing Club, the Mage Tower Cheer Squad, the Strixhaven Iron-Lifters Society, the Strixhaven Show Band Association, the Strixhaven Star, and Student-Mages of Faith, and are staffed by the students listed in "Extracurriculars" as being associated with them.

Extracurricular groups not here can be found elsewhere in the Biblioplex, along with their student NPCs—the Live-Action Roleplaying Guild (area B8), the Fantastical Horticulture Club (area B9), the Distinguished Society of Fine Artists (area B12), and the Playactors Drama Guild (area B13).

B15. Student Council Hall

Filled with wooden tables and benches, this room has a flag displaying the Strixhaven star symbol hanging on its back wall. Here, a student council publicly debates Strixhaven policies that most affect the student body. The leaders of the school's Extracurriculars come to the council to conduct matters of business, and the council usually meets on the first day of every month. Outside those meeting days, the room is used for other official university business or stands empty.

B16. Advanced Student Stacks

Rooms on the Biblioplex's second floor can be accessed only with keys held by faculty members, or that the reference librarians in area B4 grant students on a case-by-case basis. Typically, students don't receive keys to these stacks until they're studying for their final thesis during their fourth year at Strixhaven. The arcane knowledge in the books here is not public—and is sometimes dangerous.

To prevent overly ambitious mages and Strixhaven's enemies from teleporting into and accessing this area, two shield guardians patrol at all times. Both the guardians have sleep as their stored spell, and their control amulets are in the possession of two of the librarians on duty in the Biblioplex. Students with permission to work here are given passwords by which the Constructs recognize them as friends.

B17. Advanced Student Office

These private offices are for students working on their theses, accessed using the same keys that allow access to area B16.

B18. Advanced Student Lounge

This rest area is designed to help stressed-out senior students unwind. Large tables are set up for gaming and shelves are filled with recreational reading material. The area can be accessed only through the advanced student stacks (area B17).

B19. The Compendium

This area on the library's third floor holds copies of most of the mundane, widely available written works in the multiverse. The books are inscrutably cataloged, so it's almost impossible to find anything without requesting information from a reference librarian (area B4). Characters who look for information without obtaining help discover what they're looking for only with a successful DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check.

At the center of this area stands a statue depicting a mighty, benevolent dragon. The magical statue reads aloud the contents of most books placed in front of it if a character makes that request verbally or mentally. (The magic of the statue can assess text such as verbal curses that present a danger if read aloud, and the statue ignores requests to read such text.)

[image: Cleaning up after students is often a harried undertaking. Luckily, the many Biblioplex assistants are up to the task]

Ending the Threat

If all the characters fall unconscious during the fight, Professor Mavinda Sharpbeak (neutral good owlin Silverquill professor of radiance; see chapter 7) arrives on the scene at the start of the next round and finishes off the mimic. If the characters defeat the mimic, Professor Sharpbeak arrives on the scene shortly after the group dispatches it. She carries a bag of potions of healing, which she administers to any injured or unconscious characters.

A guidance counselor at Strixhaven, Professor Sharpbeak was overseeing the orientation activities, but the mass of fleeing students prevented her from responding to the incident immediately. When she has assisted any wounded characters, she introduces herself.

If the characters chat with the professor, she reassures them that this was an unfortunate incident—but sadly, not an unheard-of one, since strange monsters often find their way onto campus. Still, it's nothing to worry about. Before she goes, she reaches into her bag and gives each character 1 platinum piece, thanking them again for their help and welcoming them to campus.

Firejolt Café Features

The café has the following features:

• Ceilings. The café's ceilings are 20 feet high.
• Doors. At night, the exterior doors to the café are closed, locked, and sealed with an arcane lock spell. A successful DC 25 Dexterity check using thieves' tools opens the lock (DC 35 while the arcane lock is in effect). Only certain faculty members and Ellina Tanglewood, the café's manager (see area F3), know the arcane lock's password.
• Magic Steps. The steps marking the edge of each tier of the study area are enchanted to move and reshape themselves for full accessibility. See the "Strixhaven Accessibility" sidebar.
• Students. Students of all years and colleges can be found in Firejolt Café. See chapter 7 for stat blocks for first-year students, and for apprentices and pledgemages from the different colleges.

F1. Study Tables

These long benches sit atop two raised tiers with magic steps between them, affording easy access to the seating area below. Some thirty students are typically here during the day, studying quietly.

F2. Seating Area

This area is usually more crowded than the café's study tables. At least fifty students sit sociably in groups, chatting and having tea and coffee. The open spaces in the north part of this area are typically filled with students waiting to join the queue at the barista station or scouting for a good place to sit.

F3. Barista Station

This bustling service counter is the demesne of Ellina Tanglewood (chaotic good elf mage), the Strixhaven employee who manages the café and serves as its chief barista. Ellina typically works alongside five older student employees, one from each college, though she sometimes hires younger students who express interest in working for her (see the "Jobs" section earlier in the chapter).

The front counter of the barista station is a whirl of chaos while Ellina and the other employees deal with the orders of dozens of students and faculty members. The back of the station is calmer, and includes a small break area for employees as well as shelves for personal belongings and café supplies.

The café strictly sells coffee and tea, but Ellina and the other talented baristas can make nearly any form of those drinks on request. A relatively common coffee or tea costs 1 cp, while a more complicated order might cost 2 cp. The café's signature Firejolt latte costs 10 gp; it confers resistance to fire for 1 minute after drinking it, and it can be brewed only by Ellina using her fire magic.

F4. Newsstand

This small store inside Firejolt Café sells magazines, knickknacks, posters, stickers, and other decorative and leisure items. The subjects of the magazines are all magic themed, with titles ranging from Mages Monthly to Potions! Potions! Potions! to Spells and Caster. Staff members at the barista station take turns working the newsstand, which sometimes closes when the café is particularly busy. Most items here cost 1 cp, though higher-end items might be available at your discretion.

F5. Fireside Lounge

Much more comfortable than the café's other seating areas, this lounge is filled with sofas and armchairs where students can relax away from the hubbub. Fireplaces in the northern corners are lit by continual flame spells. Some twenty students are typically found here, using the tables to study quietly.

F6. Quiet Room

As with the fireside lounge, these rooms are quieter than the café's main seating areas. However, with large tables and more functional chairs, they're more oriented toward studying and completing classwork. Up to ten students are typically found in each of these rooms, engaged in quiet study.

Participating in the Race

A character can participate in the fun in one of the following ways:

• Race a Frog. A character might coach one of the frogs, encouraging it toward the finish line with words, gestures, and other antics. The character can urge their frog to victory with a successful DC 12 Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. Encourage a player to really sell this scene by naming their frog and coming up with ways to inspire it. If one of the characters succeeds on this Wisdom check, that character's frog wins the race. (If more than one character succeeds, it's a tie, and those characters split the 30 gp prize.) If no characters win the race, roll a d4 to randomly determine which frog wins.
• Cheer a Coach. A character might shout encouragement to one of the coaches. If the encouraged coach is another player character, that character gains advantage on their Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to coach the frog. If the coach is an NPC, any characters racing a frog receive disadvantage on their check.
• Heckle a Coach. A character might taunt one of the coaches. If the heckled coach is another player character, that character has disadvantage on their Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to coach the frog. If the coach is an NPC, that student's frog automatically loses the race.

Relationship Encounter

At the race, characters might mingle with other students. If there are students the characters wish to earn Relationship Points with, treat this as a Relationship encounter. Have players note the results of this encounter on their copies of the tracking sheet.

Ending the Threat

If all the characters fall unconscious, café manager Ellina Tanglewood (chaotic good elf mage) rushes onto the scene and subdues the frogs. She has two potions of healing behind the barista station and can administer them as needed if anyone gets hurt.

Bow's End Tavern Features

The tavern has the following features:

• Lighting. The magical lights inside the tavern are muted, but creatures can still see normally in all areas.
• Ceilings. The tavern's ceilings are 20 feet high.
• Doors. After closing, all exterior doors to the patio and tavern are closed, locked, and sealed with an arcane lock spell. A successful DC 25 Dexterity check using thieves' tools opens the lock (DC 35 while the arcane lock is in effect). Only certain student employees and Tulk "The Bulk" Tusktooth, the tavern's manager (see area E3), know the arcane lock's password.
• Magic Steps. The steps marking the boundary between the overflow seating area (area E4) and the main dining room (area E2) are enchanted to move and reshape themselves for full accessibility. See the "Strixhaven Accessibility" sidebar.
• Patrons. Students of all years and colleges can be found in Firejolt Café. See chapter 7 for stat blocks for first-year students, and for apprentices and pledgemages from the different colleges.

Bow's End Tavern Locations

The following locations are keyed to map 3.3. All descriptions assume the characters are in the tavern during its hours of operation. Outside of those hours, the tavern is locked and devoid of other students or staff, except for Tulk Tusktooth and a few staff members who perform cleaning duties during the day.

Wizard Gizzard!

Characters following the student who invited them to play Wizard Gizzard are led to the main dining room (area E2) of Bow's End Tavern. Read or paraphrase the following:

The devices on the table are called wizard gizzards. Instructors use them to help student-mages practice their aim with magical rays. When a character strikes the top of a wizard gizzard, it shoots a sphere made of magic out of its attached funnel. The sphere dissipates whenever it touches anything—a ray, a creature, or a hard surface, for example.

These minor magic items have a short life span, and as they age, they begin to emit loud clucking noises when they shoot their spheres. Students joke that the spheres begin to look like gizzards, hence their name. Every term, students collect cast-off wizard gizzards that have grown too unpredictable for classroom use and then use the wizard gizzards in the game of the same name. This night at Bow's End Tavern is the first such event of the term, and enthusiasm is running high.

Chaos in the Kitchen

Even as the game of Wizard Gizzard ends and a winner is declared, Bow's End Tavern erupts into pandemonium. Read or paraphrase the following:

When the characters enter area E6, they find the kitchen's student cooks unconscious on the floor, while four steam mephits fly around the cauldrons. As in the previous scenes, one of the cooks can be another student the characters have interacted with, filling in for an absent cook for the evening.

The hostile mephits attack as soon as the characters appear, but they aren't the only threat in the kitchen. Horrid masses of summoned skittering bugs suddenly pour out of bags and boxes of ingredients in the food prep areas, just as other students storm into the kitchen behind the characters. While the characters take on the more dangerous mephits, describe their friends and fellow students working in the background alongside them to help clear the bugs out of the kitchen. As soon as the mephits are dispatched, the magic flaring up in the kitchen fades.

Examining the Cauldrons

Once the mephits are dispatched, a successful DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals the same oily black substance on the cauldrons that the characters might have seen belched out by the frogs before the Firejolt Café race and found on the trunk during orientation. If the characters ask either Tulk Tusktooth or Curtie Axechucker about the substance, both suspect that one of the many magic unguents used on campus might have gotten corrupted. They have no way of knowing that Murgaxor's corrupted eldritch balm is the unguent in question and no idea what else might be affected.

Studying Phase

The day before the Exam, a character can study the course material. A character can use any ability check and skill during this Studying phase.

Once you've asked each player how their character is approaching the Studying phase, resolve that phase by having each character who studies make a DC 12 ability check. Make sure players keep track of their characters' rerolls from this phase and apply them during the Testing phase.

Testing Phase

On the day of the Exam, each character makes two ability checks related to parts of the test:

• Owlbear Disposition and Habits. Choosing the correct multiple choice answers regarding owlbears' hunting, eating, mating, fighting, and living habits requires a successful DC 12 Intelligence (Nature) check.
• Owlbear Companions. Writing short essays on common methods for taming, training, and handling owlbears and on keeping owlbears as companions requires a successful DC 12 Wisdom (Animal Handling) check.

Have each player note their character's Exam results—how many Student Dice they gained and what skills they used during the test—on their copies of the tracking sheet.

Classroom Gossip

After the exam, the characters overhear their peers talking excitedly about certain magical and monstrous creatures' likenesses being used in the upcoming Rose Stage Festival, an improvisational outdoor play (see "All the World's a Stage" later in this chapter).

Sassy Sally Jane

The talk of the campus for decades, Sassy Sally Jane is a pink-haired doll in a patchwork tartan dress. Inside the doll is a voice box that some clever students rigged to repeat rude phrases whenever the doll's hand is squeezed. Jokesters used it to irritate faculty and staff members extensively before it was confiscated. The doll has sat in the attic of Captain Dapplewing's Manor ever since, alongside other broken, malfunctioning, or forbidden items.

An Exclusive Enclave

Captain Dapplewing's manor house is used as a learning annex by esteemed dual-college faculty members and their favored students.

A two-story home, the house is located on the central campus and serves as both faculty offices and the setting for lavish dinner parties and intellectual gatherings. A character knows all the information in the "Captain Dapplewing's Manor" section later in this chapter with a successful DC 12 Intelligence (History) check.

Recover Sassy Sally Jane

Once the characters are prepared, they can make their way to Captain Dapplewing's Manor. It's easy to find on the central campus, since a well-lit path leads right up to the house, and a few students are milling around outside. Once they notice the characters heading their way, these students get visibly excited.

Another student is part of this scene—ideally a student the characters have interacted with, or you may choose another student from the "Fellow Students" section.

When you're ready to begin this event, read or paraphrase the following:

One student turns to another and says in a stage whisper, "I told you they'd arrive! Now pay up, you goof!" Turning to the characters, the student points to the manor house and says:

Captain Dapplewing's Manor

Tucked at the end of a leafy path on the central campus, Captain Dapplewing's Manor is a quiet relaxation spot for elite faculty as well as a place of academic meditation and counseling for their students. The manor dates to the earliest days of Strixhaven, when the owlin mage and military veteran Captain Raymous Dapplewing held faculty appointments in both Lorehold and Silverquill Colleges. Wanting a quiet place to retire in the evenings—and to host lavish dinner-parties-turned-colloquiums—the professor used his significant military pension to build this manor house on campus.

Upon his death, Captain Dapplewing bequeathed the manor to the university, which honored his legacy by giving the house his name and keeping most of its original furnishings in pristine condition. The house's upper-floor libraries were converted into offices for esteemed dual-college faculty members, and those faculty members meet here with students on academic matters during the day. In the evenings, the manor is the site of dinner parties and elegant cocktail hours for those faculty members, their most promising students, and visiting alumni.

Since no one permanently lives in Captain Dapplewing's Manor, the building is closed and locked from 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. Because it holds many valuable antiques and volumes of sensitive research, security measures are in place in the manor, as described below.

Manor Locations

The following locations are keyed to map 3.4. The descriptions assume the characters explore the manor after class hours. During the day, the manor is open, with students and faculty throughout.

Post Quest

If the characters retrieve Sassy Sally Jane, the students waiting outside Captain Dapplewing's Manor cheer quietly. All the students can easily steal back to their dormitories without getting caught. The characters' peers are true to their word and pay for the characters' lunches for a month. Further, the characters can keep Sassy Sally Jane. (However, obvious use of the doll around faculty members results in Sassy Sally Jane being confiscated again!)

If all the characters are reduced to 0 hit points inside the manor, they spend the night unconscious and are found by members of the faculty in the morning. The characters are taken to the infirmary in their respective dorms, then formally chastised and made to attend special behavioral courses that prevent them from participating in any Extracurriculars or Jobs for the rest of this academic year. All the characters immediately lose any benefits from these activities.

Studying Phase

The day before the Exam, the characters can study the course material. A character can use any ability check and skill during the Studying phase.

Once you've asked each player how their character is approaching the Studying phase, resolve that phase by having each character who studies make a DC 13 ability check. Make sure players keep track of their characters' rerolls from this phase and apply them during the Testing phase.

Testing Phase

On the day of the Exam, each character makes two ability checks:

• Otyugh Lair Evidence. Choosing the correct multiple choice answers about physical signs pointing to the presence of an otyugh, including large piles of particularly noxious trash, deep vats of liquid dung, chunks of carrion scattered among filth, and incongruous noises coming from the trash, requires a successful DC 13 Intelligence (Investigation) check.
• Otyughs as Guardians. Writing short essays about the details of which intelligent creatures might use otyughs as guardians requires a successful DC 13 Charisma (Persuasion) check.

Have each player note their character's Exam results—how many Student Dice they gained and what skills they used during the test—on their copies of the tracking sheet.

Rose Stage Locations

The following locations are keyed to map 3.5. All descriptions assume the characters are present in daylight hours during the Rose Stage Festival. At night, the area is devoid of students and the doors to the annex building are locked.

Rose Stage Festival

Characters following the student who got their attention can make their way to the Rose Stage for the festival, where another student catches their attention. This person should also be a student the characters have interacted with previously. Read or paraphrase the following, altering the text to incorporate the student's name or other details:

A familiar smiling figure approaches the characters. Brandishing a kazoo and laughing, the student says:

The Rose Stage Festival is an improvisational performance that the Playactors Drama Guild puts together every year, and everyone on campus is invited to participate. The goal is to create as much hilarity and fun as possible, and the antics of some festivals are talked about on campus for years.

Exit, Pursued by an Owlbear

After the characters have all had a chance to take part in the performance, read or paraphrase the following:

The owlbear prop turns into an actual attacking owlbear. Assume the owlbear is on whichever side of the stage is closest to the most characters. The player characters must jump into action quickly to defend the other students. When they do, if a character made a successful ability check during the Rose Stage Festival, they have advantage on their first attack against the owlbear.

Further, because the characters learned about owlbears in their second Exam event of the term, any character who aced that Exam has advantage on all attack rolls during this encounter.

At the same time the characters are dealing with the owlbear, the other performers and stage crew step up in the background to deal with lesser threats as other props animate and begin to fly around the stage.

Once the characters defeat the owlbear, it turns back into a wooden prop and the magic infecting other objects in the area ends.

A Professor's Appreciation

Once the characters have participated in the Rose Stage Festival and dispatched the owlbear threat, if she's not already on the scene, Professor Totsky approaches the characters and applauds them. She thanks them for dispatching the threat, and she compliments any character who made a successful ability check during the performance. A lover of theater who is immaculately dressed, the professor tells the characters that she recently commissioned a new cloak; she offers the cloak she's wearing in appreciation of the character whose Charisma (Performance) check to perform on stage was highest. The cloak is a cloak of protection.

Examining the Owlbear

Once the threat is ended, the characters can examine the owlbear to learn more about this incident. If they do, they find the same oily substance they might have found on the trunk during orientation, seen belched out by the frogs before the Firejolt Café race, or spotted on the cauldrons in Bow's End Tavern.

If she hasn't already entered the scene, Professor Totsky arrives while the characters examine the substance. She initially shrugs it off as irrelevant, given that its magic has already faded. But if the characters explain everything they've seen at the past year's strange events to reveal the unseen connections between those events, Professor Totsky realizes what's going on.

She explains eldritch balm to the characters and says she believes it's likely that the Sedgemoor waters used to brew the latest batch of eldritch balm were corrupted in some way. She doesn't necessarily suspect foul play but mentions that, in the past, students have been caught practicing forbidden magic in the more remote parts of Sedgemoor, the bayou that encompasses Witherbloom College's campus. Such sinister magic might be responsible for the balm's corruption, but a random surge of wild magic is an equally likely explanation in her mind. In any case, this corruption must have caused objects treated with the eldritch balm and creatures that came into contact with it to take on temporary—and dangerous—magical properties.

Professor Totsky gives the characters a flask of holy water and explains that pouring it into the underwater spring whose waters are used to create eldritch balm will settle the waters and prevent further corruption. She describes the location of the spring (area S7 on map 3.6) to help the characters find it. She urges the characters to take on this task so she can immediately track down the rest of the contaminated balm and remove it from objects on campus.

Collecting Spell Components

The characters start out at the southeast corner (area S1) of the Sedgemoor map. They can collect the spell components from areas S2, S3, and S7. At the start, allow only one successful check per islet, to encourage the characters to explore. Once all three islets are explored, the characters can make any number of attempts to gather components on any islet.

Sedgemoor

Encompassing Witherbloom College's campus, Sedgemoor is a wild bayou known for the range of strange creatures that call it home. It is also a rich source of fungi, herbs, spider silk, and other prime components for spells and potions.

Sedgemoor isn't usually dangerous, and it's routine for students to be sent here as part of their coursework.

Sedgemoor Locations

The following locations are keyed to map 3.6. All descriptions assume the characters are exploring this area during the day.

Area S7 holds the contaminated spring that is the root cause of the strange manifestations of magic on campus over the previous months. If you're running this as a campaign, Murgaxor's journal is also in area S7. As the characters explore, you can have them spot the bubbling of the underwater spring in that area to draw them in.

End of the Year

After the characters complete their investigation of the Sedgemoor spring, no more significant events happen before the end of the year. Wrap up any ongoing roleplaying scenes or Relationship interests the characters are pursuing this academic year.