Repelling Nuisances 101 (Ritual Class 2)

The room is quiet as the class files inside, encircling the center of the room where the summoning circle had laid previously.

However this time the symbols are different, one depicting a sort of shield, another depicting a mountain.

The class murmurs amongst themselves as you push to the front of the crowd, theorizing what todays lesson will be, after what had transpired yesterday, you fear what is to come.

In the center kneels Professor Fulani, eyes shut and hands laid palms up on her knees as she mumbles under her breath, a low droning escapes her lips every once in a while leading you to believe this must be her native language. “Stutav icmixtil… yit tow almonoga…. zist da locan dullum gai”

A silence falls over the room, save for the echos of her evocations reverberating across the chamber.

And then, a column of white light shoots up from the lines on the floor, the glyphs projecting a barrier between you and her.

Her eyes flutter open, twin emerald gems breaking through the monochrome field of energy.

“The circle of safety is the pinochle of protective rituals, a field that ruins whatever dare pass through them, breaking them down into their smallest parts again and again until nothing remains, very few entities in known existence can survive passing through the circle, and those lost to the fields energy are beyond help, not even the power of necromancy can salvage their soul”

“All of this goes to say, this is an important lesson you must know, before you graduate from this academy, with that, let us begin” she mumbles something under her breath and the energy dissipates before your eyes, as though the integrity of the field has faltered with chunks fizzling away, returning the the grand wheel of arcana.

You study the glyphs as the professor guides the first students through the process, her words ringing clear through your racing mind.

“This ritual requires a vocal component, a phrase that holds weight and power in the life of the creator, for it is from the weight of the vocal component that the field derives power”

The student who kneels in the circle a dwarf, his robes does nothing to hide the muscles that lay beneath, a miners physique.

There’s a moment of silence as he searches himself for words of significance, a phrase that will strike a cord with the forces of the arcane.

“Break your back against the mountain…For the mountain” the miners oath, a promise to their people that no matter their burdens, they shall provide.

The sigils glow and a yellow light shoots up from the sigils carvings, creating a barrier similar to that of the Professor, as a test one of the students tosses a balled up piece of paper into the field.

The balled up page doesn’t burn or even turn to dust it simply ceases to exist as it passes through the barrier, leaving nothing on the other side.

“As I’m sure you can imagine, not many would be foolish enough to pursue conflict when faced with this ritual… however it is not without its sacrifices, this rituals power is absolute, nothing in and nothing out.”

The class moves on, each person having a turn in the circle, some manage to find the words to power the circle, others don’t.

Finally, it’s your turn, you kneel in the circle, gently placing your hands onto the stone work of the circle, your eyes fluttering closed as you search your mind for a phrase of value, something that means something, at least to you.

It’s a line from an old children’s book your mother read to you once a lifetime ago that percolates to the surface of your mind.

“And the mother said to her newborn babe; ‘Find the beauty in the world and you shall never know despair…’”

Your eyes flutter open as you feel energy surge from around you, as though you were a part of a great machine, around you is a perfect ring of pink energy, you furrow your brow in curiosity, wondering why a couple dozen people who used the same ritual circle gain different results.

The field drops and you step out of the circle as the Professor begins to speak again.

“As I’m sure some of you have noticed, many of you got different colored energy fields, this is NOT random”

“The significance of the phrase feeds directly into the color of the field, a bitter memory is blue or red depending on the nature of the memory, a green field might denote a connection to the natural world, so on and so forth…”

“And a white field.. Professor…?” You ask, pointedly, the room is quiet for a moment before the professor answers.

“A white field typically means that it is NOT your concern” she says before rounding around the summoning circle and stepping back to her desk.

“Class is dismissed.. I think we’ve made some nice progress today…” she says, her eyes lingering on you for a moment as you and your fellow students file out of the room.

[Gained: Circle Of Safety]