Chap 12: The Schoolhouse

In the time before the Beast, those servants of the Beast titled Tasha the Pumpkin Farmer, Khazam the Magicman, Duff the Diabolist, and Taz the Transporter were all student mages known simply as Tasha, Khazam, Duff, and Taz. They studied together at the Schoolhouse, a magic academy rising as a tower on a small island on Lake Barking. As the Beast came to power, the four friends on the verge of academy graduation noted that any fellow student of theirs who turned their magic against the Beast met an untimely end. As the four were both highly skilled and highly pragmatic, they offered their services to the Beast at once. They lived and flourished in pursuit of their powers and hobbies under the Beast. Their schoolfellows and teachers perished.
Theirs was the last class to graduate intact. After they left their magical home of childhood, the Schoolhouse soon closed and fell into disrepair. They standing empty for ages, it was recently taken into new management, semi-restored, and opened once more as the Schoolhouse. Save that no child nor adult student has ever been known to study therein.
The Schoolhouse has been taken over by a wealthy eccentric by the name of Langley. His idiosyncratic dream is to reeducated all the animals of the wild so that they can better integrate into the civilized world. To this end, he has gathered his students and even found them a teacher, Miss Langtree, who left Tavern Town and her beloved Jimmy Brown for answers to the problem of the Beast. She hasn't found them. She is now trapped in within the tower along with her 'students.'

Approaching the tower
The Edelwood forest has swallowed up the road that once led to the Schoolhouse. Now only a wide dirt trail remains.
Text: 'You come to a cold mountain lake enclosed by rocky bluffs and Edelwood trees exhaling thick fog that creeps across the dark, still waters. The trail ends at a grass-covered causeway that stretches a 100 yds across the lake to a flat, marshy island with a stone tower on it. The tower is old, decrepit, with rickety scaffolding clinging along one side.
Near the base of the tower, within sight of the entrance, is a giant turkey wagon led by a Fungai.'
The Fungai has just dropped off a shipment of food for the people and animals as arranged by Langley. They leave as the PCs approach.
THe tower stands 80 ft tall. It has four levels (each 20 ft high). The uppermost level overhands the levels below and has window boxes.

Spell drain
To protect the students of the magic academy, the mage professors warded the tower so that only students and teachers could cast spells near and within the tower. The effect is identical to an antimagic field centered on the tower and extending 5 ft from it in all directions. The effect doesn't apply to the magicks within the tower created by the professors and even students.

Areas of the Schoolhouse
The following correspond to labels on the ORIGINAL CoS map of Van Richten's Tower on pg 170.

V1. Turkey wagon
The Fungai has parked their wagon in front of the tower while they unload Langley's shipment of provisions. If the PCs investigate the wagon:
'Mud and mulch coat the wagon frame like layers of thick, clumpy paint. The two giant turkeys hitched at the front gobble at your approach.'
The wagon contains nothing of value, but the food and provisions left in crates by the door are edible.
These can be used as bargaining chips against Langley if the PCs hide them before the clay golems come to collect the shipment and/or wrest them away from the clay golems. The Fungais only bring the shipments once a month. Langley will do anything to retrieve the supplies as everyone he's trapped within the Schoolhouse in the name of education will starve without them.

V2. Tower door
Text: 'The tower door is made of solid metal with no visible handles or hinges. In the middle of the door is a large, embossed symbol-a connected series of lines with eight stick figures set around it. Carved into the lintel above the door is a name that has been scratched out.'
The door is magically locked and trapped, however, four clay golems are coming down the stairs to pick up the shipment and will open the door from the inside if the PCs wait five minutes after the Fungai has departed.
A creature that touches the trapped door causes lighting to envelop the tower. Any creature outside the Schoolhouse and within 10 ft of it must succeed on a DC 15 Dex save, with disadvantage if wearing metal armor, taking 22 (4d10) lightning damage on a failed save, or half on a successful one. As long as the effect persists, any creature that enters the lightning's range for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there takes 22 (4d10) lightning damage. The lightning lasts for 10 minutes or until the door is opened from the inside.
The clay golems do not attack the PCs unless the PCs disturb the food in their presence or attack them. If the PCs attempt to enter through the door while the clay golems are picking up the shipment, they clay golems don't notice their entrance unless they fail a DC 10 Stealth (Dex) check. If any of the characters fail, Langley is alerted to their presence at once.

V3. Rickety scaffolding
Text: 'Rotting wooden beams support the scaffolding, which groans and creaks with the slightest breeze. A series of ladders and platforms lead to a hole in the northwest wall on the 3rd floor.'
Langley has been attempting renovations to make the Schoolhouse more animal-friendly but used wood for scaffolding and left it out over months of rain. It's now no longer safe for his clay golems to use, so renovations are currently suspended until the golems finish the new scaffolding Langley has them making. They are taking the wood for the new scaffolding from the floorboards of the tower itself.
This old scaffolding can't support more than 200 lbs. If it collapses, anyone standing on it falls 20 ft to the ground, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage per 10 ft fallen pluse 2d6 piercing damage from debris. A creature under the scaffolding must make a DC 13 Dex save or take 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage from falling debris.

V4. First floor
Text: 'The flagstone floor is cluttered with stacks of books and piles of parchment. Several desks stand near the east wall as well as makeshift scaffolding.
A 5-ft-sq indentation in the center of the floor contains 4 pulleys attached to taut iron chains that stretch up through a similarly sized hole in the wooden ceiling.'
Langley is here, hidden by the desks as he is crouched to inspect the scaffolding. If not alerted by the clay golems, he pops up at the first noise, banging his head against the underside of the desk.
While Langley is friendly and welcoming of the players, offering them a tour, he means to trap them here with the help of his clay golems and force them to teach his animal pupils along with Miss Langtree.
The characters cannot use the elevator without the help of at least one clay golem. Pulling on the chain, a clay golem can lower the platform then raise to whichever one is specified.
The elevator ride isn't smooth. The platform jerks up or down 5 ft per round.
If all golems are destroyed, the elevator is no longer operational, but the chains can be scaled with a DC 15 Str (Athletics) or Dex (Acrobatics) check.
Langley (CN mage, any race) attacks the PCs if they attempt to leave in his presence or if they are hostile to anyone in the tower.

V5. Second floor
Text: 'Dust and cobwebs fill this otherwise empty room, the wooden floor missing almost all of its planks.'
In the middle of the room is a large opening in the floor and ceiling. Chains extend all the way from the bottom floor to the top through the hole. The 5-ft-sq sections of floor around the hole are weak. They can support 150 lbs each, but any more weight causes the section to collapse, and any creatures standing on it to fall 20 ft to the ground floor.

V6. Third floor
Text: 'Every square inch of this chamber has been subjected to carvings-names, pictures, and messages. The wooden floor has been almost entirely dismantled.'
This room once served as the dorm for student mages. Tasha, Khazam, Duff, and Taz have all carved their names here as well as written messages to or about each other. Such graffiti is left to the DM's discretion, but it may be used to reveal information about them:
-Duff and Taz were best friends.
-Khazam had a crush on Tasha (which developed into unrequited love while they worked in the Elder Edelwood).
-Tasha had a love for all things botanical, especially pumpkins, and essentially turned the dorm into an indoor garden.
-Duff had a love for demons and practiced minor illegal demonic conjurations in his spare time.
-Taz had a love for teleportation matched only by his love for sleeping in and having to teleport to class in his pajamas to avoid tardies.
-Khazam had a love for evocation and the elements and was somewhat pretentious about it, holding evocation AoEs as the highest standard of destructive magic.
The graffiti can also function as glyphs for programmed illusions of the four students presenting such information themselves.
The 5-ft-sections of the floor are extremely unstable. Any weight over 50 lbs causes the section to collapse, and any creatures standing on it fall 40 ft to the ground, smashing through the second floor on the way down.

V7. Fourth floor
Text: 'The gamey stench of animal stings your nose at the first whiff. A woman stands at a desk and blackboard, drawing a diagram and formulas for a triangle in chalk. Across from her, beasts and fowl, in clothing, sit quietly in two rows along the wall.
A bed occupies one corner while a foldout table and wooden chest occupy the one opposite. Mounted to the rafters are pulleys around which hange iron chains that support the tower's elevator platform.'
The woman is Miss Langtree (NG commoner, any race) who mouths "help me" at the PCs if accompanied by Langley and while Langley has his back to her. She hails from Tavern Town and was trapped here by Langley when she came across it in her travels and entered, believing it to be a tavern of some sort. She reveals her circumstances to them if they can convince Langley to have a word with her in private. She will gladly help the PCs as she can if they promise to help her escape.
The wooden chest contains spare clothes, metal bowls and utensils, and the teacher's chalk. None of it is valuable.
If your card reading reveals a treasure here, its hidden in the rafters, which must first be scaled before they can be searched.

The Schoolhouse, Special Events

Pack Attack
If the characters activated the lightning sheath around the tower or caused any part of the tower to collapse, the sound echoes through the valley as far west as Pottsfield and as far east as Tavern Town. The disturbance attracts the attention of a group of 2d4 fog-touched fey and 2d4 dire dogs which arrives after 1 hour.
They attack any characters outside and attempt to enter the tower itself. They don't know about the lightning, but after it they will attempt the scaffold if it hasn't been destroyed. They can smell the animals within the tower and will stay outside until they are killed or at least three 'students' are delivered up to them.
Development
Any harm or suggested harm to the student will cause Langley to attack the PCs and set the clay golems on them. If Langley is killed the clay golems go berserk on every living creature in the Schoolhouse.

Beatrice's Retreat
Beatrice rides in on the back of a stolen giant turkey from the Fungai camp outside Tavern Town. She's come from the Elder Edelwood and an encounter with the Beast from which she barely escaped with her life.
She's being pursued by 3d4 swarms of Business Bats and seeks refuge within the Schoolhouse. She can't make it to the door and instead leaps off the giant turkey onto the scaffolding. She hides and waits there until the Business Bats fly off after five minutes.
Her altercation with the Beast has left her with only 30 hp and she graciously accepts any healing.
Development
If alive, Langley will take her into the tower and try to trap her here with the PCs.
From this moment, the Beast gains a new goal: kill the meddling Beatrice. He relies on druids and the Beast's fog-touched fey in the Edelwood forest as well as his spies and other servants to help him find and kill her at any of the settlements in the Unknown.
If the Beast learns that she and the PCs are working together, he invites the characters to the Elder Edelwood, expecting Beatrice to accompany them. They receive the invitation in a letter from a spy (see appendix F).
PCs who afterward head toward the castle encounter no threatening random encounters along the way.
Bloody Reunion
This event only occurs if the PCs have Jimmy Brown with them.
Jimmy Brown and Miss Langtree will recognize one another instantly and rekindle the great love they once held for each other. Jimmy Brown, determined to aid his beloved, will ask Langley for a wizard's duel. Langley will accept and the PCs may spectate or use the distraction for what it is. The outcome of the duel is left to the DM.
If Jimmy Brown dies, Miss Langtree will teach the animals through a lament for him. If the characters ask Miss Langtree to accompany them after her rescue, she will if they mention their intentions against the Beast and may be frequently heard humming or singing this same lament.
Song reference on YouTube.