The Great School of Magic: The Spell Pit
The Spell Pit is a fighting arena beneath the Great School of Magic in Glantri City. It was constructed at the same time as the school itself and measures some 200 feet in diameter. Around the edge of the arena are elevated rows of seats with enough room for at least a few hundred people. Special booths are reserved for noble guests, the Masters of the school and of, course, the Grand Master.
Spell Pit was constructed as a training ground where the students could learn the art of using their spells in live combat situations. Many students want to try the "real thing" but are either too comfortable or to busy with their courses to go on adventures. The Spell Pit offers a (fairly) safe taste of what magical combat is like.
Monsters are hunted all over Glantri, and sometimes even further away, and brought to the dungeons below the school via a special Gate controlled by the Master of the Spell Pit. That way, the City Constabulary does not interfere too much because no monsters are transported through the city itself. Needless to say, security in the dungeon is very high. Guards with wands of Disintegration and/or Charm Monster patrol the area, doors are magically locked, key junctions in the corridors are trapped etc. Furthermore, all guards and monster handlers working below the school are of course members of the Monster Handlers' Syndicate.
The tuition fees at the Great School of Magic cannot cover all the expenses of running the Spell Pit alone. Therefore to fight a monster a student must pay 100 gold ducats per Hit Dice of the creature. Special monsters such as undead or outsiders cost an additional 200 gold ducats.
For inexperienced students the monster is magically controlled by higher-level students and teachers of the school of enchantment. But once the student is ready he can begin fighting uncontrolled monsters and sometimes more monsters at the same time.
In any event, the Master of the Spell Pit and a few of his helpers are always around for the fights to stop any monster from actually killing a student. (Although that does sometimes happen).
Most fights are against animals such as black bears, mountain lions and snow apes or humanoids captured in the mountains.
More rarely, an experienced student will try his hand against more exotic creatures such as carrion crawlers, lycantropes or trolls.
A few times each semester the Master of the Planes and the Master of Necromancy (not to be confused with a Death Master of the Circles!) will supply elemental creatures or undead for the fights.
On very rare occasions a high-level wizard or even one of the Princes will appear in the Spell Pit, usually to fight young frost giants, small dragons or ice horrors. Such events are always the centre of much activity at the school and every student crams into the seats around the Spell Pit to watch the fight.
The Spell Pit in Glantri has inspired numerous other schools across the Known World but most lack the proper resources to imitate it. However, in 997 AC the Collegium Arcanum in Thyatis City finished building the Arena Magicus and undoubtedly Alphatia has several similar facilities.
Well, what do you think?
Any comments are welcome!
:-) Jesper
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Most fights are against animals such as black bears, mountain lions and snow apes or humanoids captured in the mountains.
More rarely, an experienced student will try his hand against more exotic creatures such as carrion crawlers, lycantropes or trolls.
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hmm, really ?
This is a school of magic, so better learn how to fight agaisnt magical creatures. for the common one, there are plenty of people knowing how to handle them.
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wands of disintegration
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Wow, too cool. you really gives this kind of wand to guards ... why not just hold monster (or spell variation from AD&D like the magical sphere which prevent a creature from doing anything)
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The Spell Pit in Glantri has inspired numerous other schools across the Known World but most lack the proper resources to imitate it.
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yes, important point
Why not simply re-purpose the duelling grounds?
Originally posted by Arghis
Intreresting idea
Thanks
hmm, really ?
This is a school of magic, so better learn how to fight against magical creatures. for the common one, there are plenty of people knowing how to handle them
Yeah, maybe. But magical creatures are more difficult (and expensive) to obtain. For testing a Magic Missile or an Acid Arrow I'd say a mountain lion would do just fine.
And in the wilderness you can't always depend on the fighter being around when a wild cat wants to tear off your face *LOL*
Besides, fighting magical monsters would probably required some complementary courses in advance, learning about weaknesses etc. etc. But I agree that fighting magical
wands of disintegration
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Wow, too cool. you really gives this kind of wand to guards ... why not just hold monster (or spell variation from AD&D like the magical sphere which prevent a creature from doing anything)
Well, considering that the city constabulary has clubs+1 and the general level of magic in everyday Glantrian life I don't think 5-10 wands of Disintegration is too powerful. Considering that these guards are themselves students at the school and helpers of the Master of the Spell Pit. Had they been you average 1 HD thug jailors, yes, then it would have been too powerful. If you run a campaign with less magic you can give the guards/helpers wands of Hold Monster / Charm Monster / Magic Missile or even Arcane Lock (and then just put a lot of iron doors everywhere in the dungeon)
I don't know the AD&D spell that you are referring to?
Originally posted by katana_one
The School of Magic already has a duelling arena, making the addition of the "spell pit" kind of redundant, don't you think?
Why not simply re-purpose the duelling grounds?
Well, the duelling grounds in Gaz. 3 are not permanent. It is a modification of the School's garden for special occasions. I my opinion it would not be practical to have duels and monster fights taking place in the garden several times every week. It's noisy and takes too much time and effort to prepare. That is why I came up with the Spell Pit instead.
Of course, duels along with hallucinatory terrains, pits, chained invisible monsters and such can all be placed in the Spell Pit if one wishes so...
:-) Jesper
The School of Magic regularly tests students, and these tests can be quite lethal for one who is not prepared (at least, that's how I remember it). Even so, these tests are conducted under tight scrutiny by the instructors. I would find that these same instructors would find activities such as those you describe occuring in the Spell Pit to be unnecessary, and against regulations.
So what if a few of the less reputable students (and maybe even the more sinister members of the faculty) have initiated these events in the Spell Pit in secret? Sort of a mage's version of Fight Club that is kept hush-hush and only occurs in a secret chamber (or series of chambers) known to members.
I can hear it now:
"The first rule of the Spell Pit is, no one talks about the Spell Pit …"
If the Spell Pit is illegal I doubt it would be on School property but it could be somewhere in the slums of Glantri City - perhaps run by the People's Spellcaster Company?
Anyway, you can toy with the Pit as you see fit in your campaign, I'm just happy if I could provide some inspiration
:-) Jesper