Session Summary

AI-Generated Recap

When last we met...
We began immediately following the extreme ground tremors that violently shook the foundations of the school. Our Hufflepuff trio returned to the collapsed corridor outside the School Kitchens.
In the ruined kitchens, chaos reigned:

Headmaster Dippet quickly summoned residents to the Great Hall to coordinate the investigation. Cassie seized this moment to relate her prophetic "glass-map" vision to Jackdaw Finch (seemingly within Dippet's hearing), confirming her knowledge of Specialis Revelio. As Cassie unloaded her worries, Jackdaw tried to reassure her: she had "not condemned two places, but saved one," referring to Locharbor, the nearby Muggle village. Dippet immediately tasked the trio with finding Professor Mirabel Garlick, who had rushed to the Herbology Greenhouses. Cassie also received a portrait reply from Newt Scamander regarding her Niffler, Bernard: "Return everything with someone's name on and keep the rest!".

At the headmaster's request, the trio proceeded to the Herbology Greenhouses as instructed, finding the plants growing wildly. They encountered a dangerous hybrid of Venomous Tentacula and Devil's Snare, which they evaded using Lumos. They found Professor Garlick trapped near a hazardous experimental plant cultivated by Slytherin NEWT student Sean Perton. After Vi's magic misfired while attempting an Accio on a sentient Thaumatagoria plant, Basil attacked the plant with Devicto to protect a Mandrake root. Garlick eventually contained the dangerously overgrown flora and ordered the students out.
Outside thegrrenhouses, Vi plucked up the courage to intentionally touch the mysterious crystal stolen from Septimus Finch's Cold Plant Room desk, causing her physical body to fall inert while her consciousness was pulled into a deep inner vision. During which

  1. Vi travelled through a timeless void toward a Strange & Ornate Vanity Unit.
  2. Basil used Flagrate in the real world to communicate, prompting Vi to respond with silent Lumos and Nox signals from her body.
  3. Vi guided Cassie to cast Alohomora on the vision's mirror, allowing her consciousness to access a cavernous underground workshop.
  4. Vi briefly glimpsed an Ancient Goblin Artificer/Engineer muttering about "another failed attempt".
  5. When the Artificer threw a substance at the crystal, Basil intervened, wresting the crystal away from Vi's hand (which had been loosened by Cassie casting Digitus Wibbly in the real world) just before Vi awoke,.

The trio deduced a clear link between Ancient Magic, the powerful disturbances, and Vi's inherent abilities, recognizing that the area beneath the Room of Requirement likely used this same ancient power. Finally, climbing the Clock and Divination Towers, they observed widespread magical disturbances, including the Black Lake violently roiling.

Most dramatically, they witnessed an ENORMOUS sinkhole (100ft in diameter) that had completely swallowed the road leading to Hogsmeade Village. Basil subsequently gained one level of exhaustion from the continuous stress.

Session Events

Event:: Cassie, Vi & Basil return to the destruction above ground after the (first?) magical seismic event. Navigating the rubble they arrive at the corridor outside the School Kitchens. Cacophonous noise comes from behind the wall as the DIADEMs Wingardium Leviosa the ticklish pear back into place and restore the only painting of one now very happy portrait wizard

Event:: Vi helps a group of Hogwarts Kitchen Elves extinguish a fire caused presumably by the earthquake or perhaps (as becomes apparent) by the evident misfiring of the House Elves natural magic. In helping them, Vi realises that her own magic, whilst still casting from her wand, is augmented by random additional effects - conjuring coins, a temporary Veela Charm, giving Cassie a Periculum-red glow for about 13 minutes.

Event:: Cassie frees Liam Flaherty from beneath a butchers block in the seismically ruined School Kitchens. With a crafty use of Vera Verto she transmutes the weight holding him.

Event:: The Doughnut Plant hastily conceived by the Hogwarts Kitchen Elves for Basil goes wild after the earthquake of Oct 1939. Expanding constantly it begins to fill the Hogwarts Kitchen Pantry forcing the under elves to flee to the surface kitchen. Basil partially deflates it with Devicto before a quick thinking Cassie (and a quick Accio-ing Vi) use salt to arrest the expansion. Vi's magic misfires again.

Event:: Shonky, in a genuine attempt to be helpful, casts a spell that misfires, instead creating a swarm of Cornish Pixies that immediately set upon Cassie

Event:: Cassie takes a heavy blow from the Pixie Swarm and is rendered unconscious amidst the chaos of the misfiring Kitchen Elves magic and quake-ruined School Kitchens

Event:: Vi bravely throws herself upon the prone form of Cassie, sustaining a Protego shield around them as she casts Episkey to restore Cassie to consciousness. As both spells once again trigger a random magical side effect for Vi nothing too awful befalls them.

Event:: Basil demonstrates commendable cricket skills as he chopping-board-paddles a dozen Pixies

Event:: Cassie removes all but one of the pesky Pixies, using Digitus Wibbly which affected their wings as much as their fingers

Event:: Vi, still covering the recently-recovered Cassie, is attacked by the last remaining Pixie (Cornish). Using Aguamenti, Vi fires the Pixie off her neck (and directly into Basil's veg)

Event:: In the aftermath of the magical seismic event of October 1939, Headmaster Dippet calls all residents of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry to The Great Hall from where the rescue and investigation attempt is being coordinated

Event:: Cassie shares the detail of her vision of the glass-map Hogwarts Valley with Jackdaw Finch but is unable to get him away from Armando Dippet as she does so and presumes he overheard at least some of it.

Event:: Cassie reveals to both Jackdaw Finch and Armando Dippet that she knows Specialis Revelio. She did not explain specifically that this is somehow attributable to her Elder Wand.

Event:: Jackdaw Finch reassures Cassie that "if you truly can exert some influence over events consider that a blessing. You did not condemn two places, but saved one. And a noble one at that." (in reference to Locharbor). Cassie remains troubled by the undeniably troubling events however.

Event:: Armando Dippet requests the help of Cassie, Vi & Basil in locating and retrieving Mirabel Garlick who rushed to the Herbology Greenhouses to check on her plantlife charges

Event:: Cassie receives a reply from Newt Scamander (by way of his his portrait) regarding Bernard's kleptomania. "Nifflers do as nifflers will. Return everything with someone's name on and keep the rest!"

Event:: Cassie, Vi & Basil head to the Herbology Greenhouses in the aftermath of the seismic events of October 1939 in search of Prof. Garlick. They find all of the plants to be growing wildly and exhibiting strange behaviour

Event:: In one of the ancillary (upper year) Herbology Greenhouses, Cassie, Vi & Basil encounter a strange hybrid of Venomous Tentacula and Devil's Snare. Using Lumos to evade the tendrils, they move away before the Tentacula flowers become an issue.

Event:: Cassie casts her Grindylow Bones to help Vi divine a way to access the Herbology Greenhouses and find Prof. Garlick

Event:: Cassie, Vi & Basil hear Prof. Garlick from afar, saying she is caught in a large and dangerous plant. The project of Sean Perton, a Slytherin NEWT student of hers.

Event:: Vi interacts with a strange variation of Thaumatagoria - a sentient plant that, when Vi tries to Accio some earmuffs and her magic misfires, seems to try to prevent her doing so.

Event:: Basil fires Devicto into the strange Thaumatagoria-like plant in the Herbology Greenhouses after it reaches to unpot a Mandrake root. Seemingly angered, the plant reacts by targeting Basil with the Mandrake.

Event:: Making some headway in communicating with the wildly overgrowing plants in the Herbology Greenhouses, Vi is interrupted by Prof. Garlick ordering them all out as she is about to cut her way out. Vi grabs Mandrake (Vi's mandrake) and books it to safety with Cassie & Basil. The party leave the Herbology Greenhouses and head into the small 'garden' space between it and the main castle.

Event:: Cassie, Vi & Basil deduce a probable connection between Ancient Magic, the natural magic of the Forbidden Forest, the power of the Hogwarts Kitchen Elves, the plants in the Herbology Greenhouses and Viola Thorne herself. That the area around the Room of Requirement seemed so affected by the seismic event raises the question of whether that may utilise the same ancient magic too

Event:: Vi touches the crystal Cassie stole from Septimus Finch's Strange Latrine-like chestchest in the Cold Plant Room. Her body is outwardly calm and peaceful but Cassie and Basil are unable to rouse her. Cassie nudges the inert Vi with a foot before casting a 'safe' spell on the crystal (Alohomora)

Event:: Vi's conciousness is transported to an endless, timeless void. After what could be a moment or an eternity, a small pinprick of red light appears in the distance as a sense of space and geometry returns. Vi wills herself towards it, revealing a Strange & Ornate Vanity Unit with a matching stool and a mirror surrounded by red bulbs. In the mirror is a vision of a long, dark tunnel

Event:: Willing herself 'into' the scene in the mirror, Vi's consciousness enters into a long, dank tunnel deep underground somewhere loamy. Travelling along it she finds the same Strange & Ornate Vanity Unit. This time the mirror shows a vision of her own inert body back at the school with Cassie and Basil. As Cassie nudges Vi with her foot, the entire tunnel swings and snakes wildly, throwing Vi off her feet.

Event:: Recognising the connection between body and mind, Basil cleverly uses Flagrate to communicate with Vi. Vi used Lumos & Nox to respond, as spells cast (wandlessly) within the 'vision'/'dream'/whatever-this-was seemed to have no effect there, but did affect her body in the 'real' world

Event:: With rudimentary communication established, Cassie, Vi & Basil collectively get the mirror in Vi's mind to spin, revealing a reverse image of a door, which Cassie Alohomoras from the real world as Vi strobes brightly on and off in yes/no communication.

Event:: Vi's consciousness steps through the mirror and arrives in a cavernous undergrouns workshop. A mix of mundane, magical and muggle devices dotted around. Vi glimpses an Ancient Goblin Artificer or Engineer or something and hears him mutter "another failed attempt. I suppose I shall have to try again then, perhaps elsewhere"

Event:: The Ancient Goblin Artificer senses Vi's consciousness intruding and as it turns and throws something at her - a potion or liquid of some kind. As it splashes over the crystal - now somehow in the hands of her unconscious self here Vi is transported in the blink of an eye to a dark field or meadow. All senses return, as if she is back in the real world until she is again torn away a split second later, this time by Basil

Event:: Basil wrestles the crystal from Vi's grip, weakened by Cassie's familiar use of Digitus Wibbly (causing it to 'appear' in the other realm where Vi's consciousness resided, for her to hold out before the Ancient Goblin Artificer)

Event:: Vi awakens, obviously disturbed, but seemingly whole. Concerned, Basil & Cassie escort her back to the castle, but the pull of adventure is strong and they instead climb the 8.9.02 Clock Tower and the Divination Tower to look upon Locharbor and the road to Hogsmeade Village in particular

Event:: Cassie observes the landscape and identifies ancient magical disturbances (if that is what they are) in: The Forbidden Forest (where sparks and lights flare upwards and downwards seemingly at random), the Herbology Greenhouses which are running rampant, the disused wing around the Room of Requirement and towards the School Kitchens and also the 8.4.09 Black Lake which is roiling and rolling as if shaken from below

Event:: Cassie, Vi & Basil see for themselves the ENORMOUS sinkhole that has swallowed the road from Hogwarts School to Hogsmeade Village. Easily 100ft in diameter it sinks to a depth unseeable from the castle. Determining to get some sleep, Cassie & Vi manage it, but Basil gains 1 level of exhaustion