Wintersummerschool

Wintersummerschool is a pre-recorded oneshot that was released on May 09, 2022 on all podcasting platforms as well as YouTube, as a video episode. It is an "Oops all Wizards"-Oneshot set in the Arcane Academy and DMed by Gus, and features special guest Zac Oyama.

All of the characters are level 3 Wizards and students at the Arcane Academy in Tyle. They take their final exam in the required module of Basics of Adventuring with Professor Annie Wintersummer in the summer term of 136 AE, and after this exam, they will pass the module and gain their adventuring license.

## Characters and Players

**DM** - Gus (He/Him)

**Tissa Ouai** (She/Her) (played by Haley - She/Any), a small Aarakocra that looks like a barn swallow with blue feathers and a reddish face, is a Wizard from the school of Necromancy and technically only supposed to take the class in the following term. She's a good student, maybe a bit of a teacher's pet, and head of all the study groups. She also organised a study group for this exam, but only Ellia showed up.

**Ellia Forrester** (She/They) (played by James - She/They), a Satyr that aesthetically looks more like a deer than a goat and more like a Druid than a Wizard, is a Wizard from the school of Enchantment. She is a bit nervous about the upcoming exam, and joined Tissa's study group. Accompanying her is her familiar, a little lizard named Basil.

**Marius Anavan** (He/Him) (played by Sean - He/Him), a High Elf wearing all black, is a Wizard from the school of Bladesinging, and a dancer. He is nervous, but tries to not show it outwardly, and instead just does some stretches in the centre of the room. He did not know about the study group.

**Chuck Breezy** (He/Him) (played by Zac - He/Him), a Dwarf that is mostly interested in the physics of his Slinky, is a Wizard from the school of Graviturgy. He is smart, and seems pretty studious, but is mostly focused on studying the slinky and less so on the course he is taking, which is why he also did not know about the study group.

## Plot

The oneshot starts with the characters sitting in the more or less bowl-shaped class room, waiting for their professor to arrive. They talk a bit, Marius does some stretches, and Chuck for the first time manages to have his slinky go down the whole stairs from the top to the bottom centre, the area where the professor normally teaches. Then, Professor Annie Wintersummer enters the class room, apologising for being late, and repeats the rules of the exam.

The exam is a practical exam that takes place inside an illusion she will create for them. They have to be careful with their spell slots, but should be prepared for combat as well as using social and support spells. She reminds them that the exam is graded as a group project and supposed to be pass or fail, but is willing to give Tissa a letter grade, too, so that her report looks cleaner, and that they were allowed to prepare together and agree on who takes which spells, which they did not really do. She summons Charles, and tells them that their task is to save him before she transforms the class room into the illusion.

As the room transforms, the seats and stairs go into the walls, which transform to be three storefronts, one being The Tavern Bar, one The Barrelmaker, and the third one The Book's Place. The middle of the room, where the lectern was, transforms into a platform with a rune, a lever, and two empty slats. The fourth wall of the room is a big rustic sign that says "Welcome to Rune Circle".

The students decide to go into the Tavern first. There, they meet the tavernkeep, a Human woman with colourful tattoos that insists that they don't serve adventurers. Marius, whom she accuses to be a Bard, leaves, the other three convince her that they are not actually adventurers, and then notice the heavy smell of wine all around the tavern. She tells them that someone slashed her wine bag, and that she had the wine sit on her floor for weeks and has no idea how she can put it back into the wine bag without it spilling out again. Chuck proposes that she should store the wine in a barrel instead, and they leave the Tavern Bar to go to the Barrelmaker.

There, they find the cooper, a burly red Dragonborn with a beard, working on another barrel, all the while mumbling about that his life has nothing but barrels for him. They ask him about the tavern, and he explains that he tried to tell Mips, the Human woman, for a long time that she could use barrels, but that it's a bit of a family tradition for her to store wine in bags. Additionally, he tells them about what happened: a group of adventurers came into town, slashed the wine bags, and stole the town owl, which is why Mips is not too happy about adventurers at the moment. When they ask him for a barrel, he tells them to just take however many they need for free, since he doesn't get many customers anyways since the place is just an illusion. He really wishes he could think about something else than barrels all the time, and they introduce him to the concept of boxes, which he finds intriguing, but doesn't quite understand yet. Before they leave again, Ellia gives him a flower that he can put into his beard.

They bring the barrels they got to the tavern and help Mips fill the wine into them. She apologises for kicking them out prematurely and promises to work on her prejudices about adventurers, and while they sit at the bar, she tells them more about the ones that stole the owl. They call themselves "The Champions of It", grabbed Charles, and said they were going to the border of the Ethereal Plane. They also had potion bottles on them, and Mips has four left, which she gives them: they contain a blue-ish white liquid and some lightning, and the four can identify them as Potions of Lightning Resistance. Last, Mips tells them that Fjarg might know more about the Ethereal Plane, since "he's a nerd", so they go to the Books Place.

There, they meet Fjarg, a Dwarf with no beard but a sharp, chiseled jaw, who is jumping from bookshelf to bookshelf, sorting out a cart of books in different places. They ask him a few questions, but soon realise that Fjarg has a big crush on the cooper, and decide to set the two of them up. Ellia and Marius go back to the Barrelmaker, find out that his name is Ruthen, and ask him to come to the Tavernbar, telling him that Fjarg is interested in talking to him, and that he might find some new interests and hobbys when talking to someone who has so many books. Before he goes, Ruthen gives them two cylindrical metallic items, and then leaves, excited to think about something else than barrels. Chuck and Tissa at the same time help Fjarg pick out books he could recommend to Ruthen and also tell him that the boxes he gets his books shipped in might be a good conversation starter. Fjarg, hopeful for the little date, tells them that the adventurers used the lever in the middle to fo to the border of the Ethereal Plane, but before they did, they put something into the slots. He also warns them that the lever mechanism is a bit unstable, telling them that they should be careful, and then goes to the Tavernbar.

The little party meets back in the middle, realises that the metallic containers function like batteries, and put them in the two slots. The circular rune lights up with brilliant blue light, and the lever starts to hum. They all take their Potions of Lightning Resistance, and Marius pulls the lever. Despite the effect of the potion, they still each take 5 lightning damage from it, but because they did so well in the first part they also each gain a point of Inspiration as the room changes again.

They now stand in the border Ethereal Plane, and the circular rune in the middle has become a big stone pillar, atop which three cages are sitting inside each other. The outermost cage is yellow, the middle cage is blue, and the innermost cage is purple and contains Charles, who is awake and happy to see them. Also, there are the three hostile adventurers, each wearing a padlock with no keyhole around their neck: a Goliath with a mallet wearing a purple padlock, a blue Aaracokra with a longbow wearing the blue padlock, and a Gnomish Sorcerer in yellow robes wearing the yellow padlock. The Goliath confidently claims that they will defeat the students, and combat begins.

The Gnomish Sorcerer spins in a circle and creates a magical twister that requires a Strength saving throw or makes someone be blown backwards, fall prone, and take some Force damage. The Aarakocra magically pulls Tissa towards her, closer to the bow, and then fires at her. Tissa casts Sleep on the Gnome, thus making him fall asleep and taking him out of the combat, but the lock and cage still remain intact. Marius downs the Aarakocra, but her body stays floating in the air, and Tissa flies to her and steals her padlock, which doesn't change anything either. Basil, Ellia's familiar, soon realises that the cages containing Charles don't seem to have locks or places where locks would go, but they do have magical energy, it seems as though nothing has to interact with the cages itself to open them. The padlocks seem like a solid block, there doesn't seem to be anything to go into or out of it, but they feel very magical. They seem magically linked with the cages, but the party struggles to find out what exactly they have to do with the locks. Chuck tries to talk to the Goliath and make him tell them what they have to do with the padlocks, which doesn't work, instead the Goliath bops Chuck with his mallet, making him go unconscious. Tissa finally defeats the Goliath.

The three still standing students decide to wait for the Gnome to wake up, with Marius standing there with his sword at the Gnome's throat to threaten him, but when he wakes up, he immediately casts a spell, downing Marius, so Tissa and Ellia down him.

Tissa and Ellia try to figure out the locks, while Charles can only tell them that they don't need magic. During the time it takes them, Chuck and Marius wake up again, after they were stabilised by the amuletts Annie gave them for their safety. Chuck realises that he has to try something with the lock of the Goliath that fits to what the Goliath did, and bops it with the mallet, making the purple cage break open. After this realisation, they twist the lock the Sorcerer who liked to spin and twist wore, and pull the blue lock, like the Aarakocra pulled Tissa into the air. Both cages break open (they are a reference to the Bop It! game), and Charles is free.

With this, they have passed the exam, and the illusion ends. They see Annie Wintersummer smiling at them, she tells them that she is proud, and they get their adventurer's licenses.

After that, everyone gets a quick chance to describe what their character has planned now that they have their license. Neither of them actually wants to become an adventurer, but Tissa plans to go to grad school, and the license looks good on her resume, Ellia, after spending the rest of the summer with her family in Dryad's Crossing, finally switches her major from Enchantment to Evocation, Marius is finally allowed to follow his passion of modern dance, and Chuck returns to the mines he came from and sees how far down his slinky can go.

## Trivia

* The Bop It! game was already referenced in The Curious Case of Coldwater Crater, but there it was not actually the answer to the riddle, but just a joke that was made.
* James forgot to mention that Ellia was trying to switch her major from Enchantment to Evocation at the top of the episode.