Sith Lords & Sorcerors

After months of preparations with all the proper vaccines and clothing, much obtained through abducting people from the countryside with tractor beams, Darth Valefar was ready to send eight of his hand-picked students to his homeworld of P'Taria. Landing on the islands of the north where he was native to, they made their way south by boat to the Konarian Empire and then to Stormfall Citadel. The leader of the Sith made their way to the army's recruitment center and asked, "I am Marcus Tullius Rikke. My friends and I wish to enroll in the conjurer's school."

The receptionist, a auburn-haired woman of about twenty-five years of age, sighed and mumbled something about overly impressionable youths and having to file more paperwork. After looking around in a file cabinet, she grabs eight forms out of a stack and hand them over to the Sith students. Finally, she said to them,

"Fill out these forms and return them to me with proper Imperial birth identification documents. When you're done, sit in waiting room that's down the hall, and wait for Lieutenant Rathe to call your name over for the magical examination."

The Form:

The Form:

After filling that out, they turn them in to the receptionist and go to the waiting room.

After a moment, a dejected looking young man leaves the examination room, and Lieutenant Rather, clad in a embroidered robe, follows shortly after. He then says as he returns to the examination room, "Which one of you is Marcus Rikke? Follow me back to my room."

Marcus stands up and follows.

When he enters the room, he sees Lieutenant Rathe seated at a desk with some forms and a small and very thin book on the desk. Lieutenante Rathe informs Marcus, "That book is a book containing the spell Magic Dart and that spell only. I want you to read through it and memorize the spell."

Then, pointing at a small painted red dot and then at a human-shaped target, he then continues, "Stand on that dot and try to cast Magic Dart as many times as you can. That will give me an understanding of your basic magical aptitude, and whether or not you should become an Imperial Army conjurer."

He picks up the book and starts reading. After a few minutes to make sure the contents of the book are copied verbatim to an implant in his brain, he puts the book down. He makes his way to the red dot and fires a dart at the target. He continues doing so, only farting out twice in several minutes.

Lieutenant Rathe nods, and says, "That's actually pretty good, actually, considering that you've said that you have no previous experience. I suppose you could be lying, but if it turns out that you are, the academy authorities will have you removed if you fail to preform adequately. You are now eligible for education in Conjuration for the Imperial Army."

Assuming the others preform similarly, they would also be accepted.

They do worse but still more than adequate.

Once they have all concluded testing, they are brought to the Imperial Conjuration Academy. There, they are made to choose which House of Conjuration they would like to join - the Blue House, which focuses on the more versatile Ice and Air magic, or the Red House, which primarily focuses on raw power in Fire and Earth magic. Nowadays, the first is recommended over the second, due to technological advances rendering much of the second unnecessary, though the second still has a fair number of students.

"What does either entail, if you don't mind me asking? I wish to learn more before I make a choice."

He is given a brief overview of the schools and the spells taught.

(OOC: I really don't feel like actually describing all of the spells. Generally speaking, the first has more utility spells and the second is more destruction oriented.)

They opt to go with the second school. They figure they can get the books for the first school later.

There, they begin to learn conjurations of the earth and fire varieties. First, they learn the basic theory of conjuration, which is using mana to temporarily create new objects, and infusing them with elemental energy in some cases. They progress from the very simple and weak spell Fire Tounge and go all the way up to Bolt of Fire, the strongest fire spell the Academy offers, and in the earth school they go up to Iron Bolt. In the pure conjuration school, they also pick up the spell Orb of Destruction, which creates a homing orb of great destructive power. It takes three months, but they have completed the standard course of the Red House and have implanted copies of their spell books. Only problem is now that they are actually expected to fight for the Imperial Army.

And every night, they transmit their lessons to their master. When they are finished with their course, they receive orders to go along with it for now in order to maintain their cover in the hopes of learning more. Still, they make plans to desert at some point so they can learn from Ermarian under new guises.

They're deployed to the Western Territories to help break up rebel groups with shock-and-awe tactics, but they don't really get a chance to learn more as the military keeps them constantly doing missions. The lifestyle also isn't exactly great, considering what they're probably used to. Every now and then, though, they can occasionally borrow new spellbooks from other magic users in the area. They get to implant the Book of War Chants, the Book of Enchantments, and most amusingly, the Book of Party Tricks, but that's about as much as they can get.

One night, they make an attempt to desert. In the dead of night, they sneak their way to several of the guards keeping watch and stab them in the back with their lightsabers. They then try to sneak horses away and break through the northernmost of the four gates and make for the rendezvous point a half hour away. Undoubtedly, however, the alarm is sounded at this point, if not over the dead guards, then over the breaking down of the gate.

Much cursing is had and a group of mounted Imperial Garde in charge of keeping order in the camp and Conjurer support give chase. Freezing Clouds are dropped on the Sith and then Bolts of Frost and Lightning Bolts are fired, while the Imperial Garde fire crossbows, recently added to Imperial Garde training and standard equipment to give them ranged capabilities.

Four Sith in the rear start firing back with their blaster pistols. The accuracy isn't that great, what with the bumpiness of being on a horse, but there's not exactly a need to reload after every shot. One of the them is hit by a Lightning Bolt and thrown off his horse, where he lands wrong and breaks his neck. Some of the others start pulling out their lightsabers to deflect and further lightning bolts. To free their hands, they use the Force to hold the reins as they blast back with Force Lightning. Marcus Rikke throws an Orb of Destruction behind him, though he doesn't really care if he takes out any of the Imperial Garde. As long as it impedes them, it's OK by him. Near the end of it, a gunship descends from the sky and lands. They leap off their horses and make their way inside while the guns of the ship start laying down covering fire. Once all the survivors are on board, it flies off.

The blaster pistols catch them by surprise and manages to take out a good quarter of the group, as it's something they have absolutely no clue how to deal with. In addition, the deflection of bolts of lightning and the usage of their own lightning, coupled with the Orb of Destruction, forces the group to rout. The Sith escape, though later a group of Imperial Garde collect the "artefacts" the dead Sith had and the news of what happened is sent by courier to the east and to the Emarian port.

They thank the Konarians for the information and put those new weapons on the list of banned items that will be searched for, especially among new recruits. Nothing happens for a few months, however, as the teachings of Konarian magic are spread among the Sith, where they attempt to experiment with it.