peckenpaugh | DEFENSE SESSION (Reply)

defensive magic session

what's up? Though it was rather hastily announced last Friday, the defensive magic session set for today is not at all unusual — Duelling & Wandwork Club typically has a year end exposition of everything they've learned. It just seems this year the show is a bit more interactive.

Students gather in the auditorium late this afternoon for a training session that goes on for several hours. Along with Mr. Purcell, Ms. Gunzenhauser and a couple of aurors, top DADA students and members of Duelling & Wandwork Club are recruited to help students master basic defensive spells like Protego, as well as the freezing charm Glacius and the Patronus Charm.

At the end of the practical part of the session, Ms. Gunzenhauser devotes about twenty minutes to lecturing the gathered students on what she knows of the behavior of the strange vines and purple flowers. What she drives home is that these are not vines, and can appear in a variety of forms, some of which are vulnerable to frost, some not. She even calls the plant-like nature of the being into question. It's all theoretical, and threaded through with urges not to go searching for trouble, for the students' own safety. While the aurors in attendance make no comment, Mr. Purcell eventually wraps the lecture and session up.

volunteer slots! Mr. Purcell personally taps [DUELLING & WANDWORK MEMBER A] to lead the way on instructing the Patronus charm. He puts club president Presley Mondragon in charge of a demonstration on spell accuracy which involves turning Glacius into a spray and a single projectile. DADA TA Bijou Pascal is put on Protego (and oopsie poopsie accident) duty, a true multitasker. Ms. Gunzenhauser has her TA Patrice Tang do a demonstration of several spells, rapid fire and alternating, including Glacius, Expelliarmus and Bombarda—it's quite a light show!

[DUELLING & WANDWORK MEMBER B] & [DUELLING & WANDWORK MEMBER C] are tasked with walking a herd of freshmen through the motions on the Patronus Charm. While it's utter chaos, and [D&W MEMBER B] winds up with a bruise on their arm from...god they're not even sure what, every single one of the freshmen manages to at least manifest an incorporeal mist, if not a full Patronus. Prodigious little shitheads.

The redhead specialist auror is in attendance today, and offers some rather unorthodox tips to Eddy. Knowing Morse code and being able to conjure olive oil in large quantities seem to be particularly useful skills in his opinion. When they part, Eddy may not know that much more about Patronus summoning, but they do receive a cereal box decoder ring wrapped around a newsletter about aliens.

By contrast, [CHARACTER E] who is very nervous about getting this right winds up working with the curly haired specialist, who though obviously shy has quite a bit to say about summoning Patronuses. Also about seances. And how much trouble they seem to cause. Y'all should be safe if you haven't done a seance, really. (Whoops.) At the end of their exchange [CHARACTER E] feels a great more confident in their abilities (and will receive a bonus to their Patronus roll).

During a subsection on formal duelling, Aristotle is brought up to stand against Mr. Purcell, and actually manages to disarm him with a well timed Expelliarmus. Mr. Purcell is first utterly shocked, and then positively thrilled.

[CHARACTER G] is really struggling, for one reason or another, with even effectively mastering Glacius. Ms. Gunzenhauser comes over to assist them with some one-on-one instruction, and even throws in a bit of instruction on the proper way to deliver a kick that will debilitate an aggressor while putting space between you and them, "Because sometimes a boot to the chest is more effective than any spell."

The stage has been pushed back to create more room, leaving the door to the sorting path exposed. Viola leans against the wall nearby at one point and gets a sudden, unsettling sensation, like they're being watched. It fades as they move away from that part of the auditorium, but the memory of it hangs heavily in their head for the rest of the day.

While Gemma has manifested a corporeal Patronus before, they find that today they cannot.

At the end of the session, [CHARACTER J] overhears Mr. Purcell and Ms. Gunzenhauser quietly discussing the value of speculating, especially in front of the students. "You don't understand, Lancelot. You don't remember. They need to know to be safe."

how this works! ⬥ Welcome to the Defensive Magic Session! This event takes place in the afternoon and lasts for around three hours. During this time, students will learn and review primarily: the freezing charm Glacius, the Patronus charm, the shielding charm Protego, and various duelling spells.

⬥ Students who attend this session will at minimum be able to cast Glacius and Protego with ease.

⬥ While Ms. Gunzenhauser is around, and clearly still retains the memory returned to her by Eddy Waxweiler, based on how she talks about the "threat" throughout the session, she will only provide advice to students on how to protect themselves from the vines. She will not give details on how to locate or root out the creature in question, partly because she, herself, doesn't have all the answers, but mostly because she refuses to put students in danger.

⬥ Because the Patronus Charm is so notoriously difficult, canonically prior to this point only those students who passed a check in the last IC/OOC were able to manifest a fully formed Patronus. However, we’ll be doing rolls to see whether or not you can now! It will be slightly easier this time.

⬥ Please refer to the Patronus session IC/OOC to see if you succeeded. Yes, you can reuse the same form as before.

⬥ Fill out the form below and paste it under the PATRONUS CHARM header.

NAME: Who’s trying?
YEAR: soph/junior/senior
ARE YOU IN DADA, CHARMS, O&L, or DUELLING CLUB? Go ahead and let us know if you’re in honors, also.
PATRONUS: Your character’s patronus animal. You can tell us a little bit about why that is their patronus, too, if you want!
HAPPY MEMORY: What happy memory are they tapping into to attempt this spell?
EFFORT: 1 - 10. How hard did they try? Were they distracted, or expertly focused?
ANYTHING ELSE?: If you want us to auto-fail you, let us know here.

⬥ Students will make a 1d100 difficulty roll, and will receive positive modifiers for the following:

YEAR: Older students will have a slightly easier time than younger ones.
CLASSES/CLUBS/HONORS: DADA, O&L and Duelling club all receive bonuses, Charms students receive a small bonus. An additional small bonus will be afforded if you are in Honors for DADA or Charms.
CHARACTER’S EFFORT: Try harder, roll higher.
ETC: we may afford an additional small bonus for particularly thoughtfully written entries.

locations! ⬦ PATRONUS CHARM: Post your forms to this header to get a roll!

⬦ AT THE PRACTICE SESSION: Students meet in the auditorium. The area has been cleared out, and even the stage has been pushed back so that there's ample space to practice. Unlike last time, Mr. Purcell, Ms. Gunzenhauser, and their volunteers are right there with students working actively to ensure they learn as much as possible. Despite the chaos, it's soothingly warm inside and the smell of mint fills the air. An array of snacks and drinks have been set out for participants, finger foods, sweets and veggies, soda and several pitchers of ice tea.

⬦ ELSEWHERE & AFTER: The Defensive Magic session lasts around three hours, and the sun is still up when students leave the auditorium. Plenty of time to wander around campus.

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

DEFENSE SESSION

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