Exam: Chamber 1 (RP)

Alakassandra is full of confidence as she approaches the first challenge gate. Not only has she been placed in a team with a whole bunch of really powerful magic-users who should easily be able to overcome these challenges, but she also heard a rumor that the final challenge is to fight a dragon. And honestly, fighting a dragon can't be all that tough. There's not even any barbells in their size so how would they work out?

Anyway, of course there is the risk that they'll all get found out, but she knows enough proper wizard magic that she should be able to disguise herself. And so do the others, hopefully. She's not quite sure if one of them being discovered as a fake will get all of them punished, but teamwork is great, so she's certain it will all work out.

However, as they enter the first chamber, Alakassandra finds herself confused. There isn't any enemy to fight here, just some pots and ovens. "I didn't sign up for a cooking competition," she grumbles as she tries to push through the heat and approach the closest oven.

Abby had also heard about dragons. She trusted her companions though, especially those who shared her fashion sense. And didn't seem bothered by her....appetites. Seeing all this fresh produce....was this a will power test just for her...?
Her mechanical crow familiar loudly cracked its mechanical feathers. it didn't like the steam.

Catin wobbled into the chamber in the middle of the group. They had a plan, and the first part of it involved letting others face any danger first. It wasn't as though they didn't care for their fellow companions, just that they would be a lot more useful to the group if they were a lot less dead. That and physical labour wasn't the easiest when you had to count on fellow familiars for hand eye coordination, rather than yourself.

On the subject of rumours, Catin had heard many. This came naturally to cats and bats, the former who passed into rooms undetected and the latter who could hear from great distances. Most of what they'd they didn't begin to entertain, but some whispers from the feet had started when someone returned after overhearing the grand wizard talking about a puzzle involving clocks, which were the famous rivals of felines.

They watched their fellow teammates to see what they would do, or rather Fuzzypaws watched and whispered to the others, while they braced themselves on a table. They did cast a sideways eye over the ingredients while they were at it, just in case...

Her hand darts out for a large parsnip, and her fangs extend. She pauses a moment before biting. Does it smell safe?

Standing in front of the plain looking door, Ari goes through all the mental notes they prepared for the practical exam. Having easily aced the written exam with a mixture of hard work and illusion tricks, it was easy to pull off some "favourite student" strings to end up on this team, with Hooligander.

Tough once the door opens and they see the strange scene inside what appears to be a kitchen in a pocket dimension, Ari hesitates. Maybe what seemed to be the perfect opportunity to finally get noticed by the target of all their affections will turn into a major fiasco. Well, at least this is not the dreaded whack-a-bowl challenge the alumni kept talking about! Ari is not sure how they’ll be able to focus with bowls flying everywhere!

Time to be a team player! We stand or fall together now. "Any idea what this is?" Damn! That’s was far too lame a question 🤦🏻‍♂️ think think. Come on do something!

Ari decides to put down their tome of magic on a table and open it. "Gosh, it’s too hot don’t you think?" they flip the pages and then start to rearrange the vegetables into a arcane symbol, following the instructions for the spell, hoping to at least get the temperature down. The heat source seems out of control and you can’t cook anything like that!

Thinking about cooking… "Anyone sees a recipe we need to prepare?"

Alakassandra lifts the pot off the heat. "Maybe we need to cool down this room," she suggests. "I could use my magic to turn off the ovens and the stoves. But I don't think we could turn them back on again afterwards."

"Well now, ain't this a right kicker? Expecting' some magic and poof! it's a cooking challenge!" Hooligander puts a hand on his hip and waggles his other finger at the stove. Well now, it's clear this is an easy test. The soup is clearly finished cooking so we don't have to do anything other than remove it from the heat source to prevent the sauce from boiling off. Now then, we take a whiff and a look, and see what soup we got. Then we make a side dish that pairs great with it. For example if this soup were chicken noodle, we only would need some bread and butter for the perfect side. So then, let's see what we got." Hooligander sticks his head over the pot and takes a big whiff to guess the soup.

something fishy... puts it down, and looks around for recipes, notes, or instructions

"Maybe wrecking, I mean, bewitching the ovens to shut off isn't the right course of action just yet," Alakassandra muses out loud. "I could use my... whirling spell to make sure the soup doesn't burn. What do you-" She stops mid-sentence when she sees Ari. "What the hex happened to you?"

While the others are discussing plans of action, Catin gives in to temptation, as all cats do, and ambles over to the table with the fish. They hold up each fish they find to sniff and test the quality, before placing the best smelling one on the table in front of them. They clap their hands together and rub them in anticipation, while they think of the spell best suited to cooking their fish. The current task at hand is somewhat forgotten.

"Well, it was a good attempt, Ari! Maybe let's try some mundane methods first, yes?" Turning away from the slowly melting wizard he takes a few sniffs. "Does anyone else smell that bread? And look, butter! Bread plus butter plus soup equals a magical meal. I think this is a test to see if we're over-thinking! I'll find the bread and take it out before it burns and then put some butter on it." Hooligander follows his nose to the oven with the bread baking. While heading over he looks around for a butter knife.

"Ooh, that's toasty. Luckily I have collected a pair of magic gloves that chill anything they touch!"

Abigail looks for control knobs to see if there's a way to calm the heat, she has decided to munch the parsnip.

Ari would have blushed at Hooligander supportive comment, were they not frozen. So maybe failing the spell wasn't so bad after all. They nod and wait to see how the bread looks like.

ABBY will attempt to summon a gentle rain around the fire to extinguish it. (I think that's a wizard roll)

A warring sense of self interest and obligation, and the rather more loyal bat party, forces Catin to watch what their allies are doing. They observe the spells while gently gnawing at the fish in their hand, deciding the heat they've already got cooked it well enough.

Hooligander secretly slips on his magic mitts and activates them, producing a layer of ice over his hands, hiding the mitts from all but the closest inspection. He opens the oven door and quickly removes the bread, placing it on the counter next to the butter before the ice melts. He puts his hands back into his robe pockets and slips the gloves off.

Back to their normal shape, Ari gasps as they notice Hooligander hit the force field! "Wait! The heat doesn’t cross that field?" Ari rushes from the corner of the kitchen closer to the oven to check the flames. "Maybe we can control the heat with another force field!"

After seeing that Ari has returned to normal and otherwise watching the proceedings for a moment, Alakassandra returns to her own plan of just keeping the soup from burning by stirring it really fast. Of course, she can't show that that's what she's doing, so she quickly digs through her many pouches to find a piece of wood that kind of resembles a wand. She puts it into the soup and loudly announces, "Whirlify!" before beginning to move her hand as quickly as she could in a spinning motion, stirring the pot with her 'whirling spell'.

However, the muscle mage seems to be using a bit more enthusiasm than warranted as she manages to knock the entire pot over dramatically in a not very wizard-like way.

Calling on her druid skills Abby wiggles her fingers at the flames, points, and snaps. a tiny storm cloud forms over the fire and rain begins to fall.

Seeing the spilled soup from Alakassandra's all too powerful spell, Catin decides it's time for them to finally intervene. After all, even a collection of fur brained critters know that spilled soup underfoot is a disaster in a kitchen, let alone boiling soup, and what better to clean it up than four hungry cats?

They move forward to investigate the damages.

"Maybe we need to cook the starters before we can cross that field?" Ari says absent minded as they try to regulate the heat from the oven with the very short field they created.

Trying not to get noticed, Catin attempts to set a leg and an arm cat free to eat the soup. Ostensibly, they are casting summon familiar. The intention being once the familiars are free, they slink up to the soup and enjoy the taste with reckless abandon, as is only right for cats in such a situation.

Noticing his cold gloves penetrating the barrier, Hooligander says, "I think this forcefield is temperature sensitive. Anything hot cannot penetrate the barrier."

"Guess that means I have to stay on this side," Alakassandra comments in response to Hooligander's words.

"Right....but where does that leave us? Do we need to cook something else? Weve all tried to modulate the temperature O that isnt it....

Ari was looking for the ingredient for the a roasted figs with parma ham and goat's cheese amuse-bouche when she heared Hooligander comment the temperature sensitivity of the force field. They put down the tome once more and start looking for force field variations, rolling their eyes as Alakassandra comments which side she should be "Cool down Alaks"

"oh!" Ari cries out suddenly as they get an idea. "Hooligander must be completely right about this test. I wonder if we are even being evaluated on magic here or just on our wizardly refined taste." Ari gives a side glance at Catin, whose summon familiar spell seems to have doomed the little hopes they could have had for the soup. "We need those toasts buttered properly!" Ari stands up and quickly shifts is magical shield, moving it from the flames to Alakassandra. She's the strongest so, all things going wrong, maybe she can just break the barrier in front of them... thought that might melt the butter...

"Quesaoadius Foroyiule Nomayule" Ari starts bablling some arcane from their tome and pointing at the flames where he cast shield, then waving his arms around to end in Alakassandra. "whoosh" The spell ends with a big icy bubble surrounding the muscle girl.

"Alaks, my shield spell should protect you from the heat. Maybe you can move through the barrier now?"

The huge, burly wizard makes her way towards the shield and tries to step through, now not quite as hot anymore as before.

"I think I'll add a bit of magic to your spell, Ari, to further power it up!" Alakassandra tells her ally. She begins a simple chant, pretending to power up the frost spell, then just rams her shoulder into the shield to try and break through.

Unfortunately, Alaks just bounces off the shield, unable to get through...

While the others are handling this, attempts to put together a charcuterie board with the veggies and some cheese, occasionally nibbling and tasting the blood juice of the veggie bits that she cuts off because they're too large for the board.

"Don't feel too bad, I am sure this wizard magic is potent indeed. As is our wizard magic," he adds quickly with emphasis. "Now then, I will cool off my body and test my own theory, as is proper for a, er, proper wizard." He nods to himself. He waves his hands in what he hopes is correct paterns and mumbles, "Arcturio iciclus freeza!" Something didn't go as planned as he waits and nothing happens. "Well, I, uh, guess I may have gotten the word order mixed up!" he says sheepishly.

👆 that's my wizardly disguise :D

As soon as Ari pronounces the arcane words like an annoying wizard girl TM, frost patches start to slowly form around the kitchen's furniture as the temperature slowly drops... maybe a bit too much.

"I'll save the bread!" Alaks exclaims. She picks up all the bread, then tries to light a singe cantrip on her finger to keep it from freezing while she carries it over into the protected area.

While the resulting poof of fire may look pretty cool, anyone with any wizarding experience will recognize it for the failed cantrip that it was. Alaks hopes that Ari's antics distracted the judges enough that they didn't notice. Luckily, she didn't fully burn the breads, just crisp them up a little bit, as she tries to now get them through the heat shield.

Alakasssandra puts down the bread. It's slightly warm from her botched spell so she tries to use that opportunity to spread some butter on the bread. Once that is done, whether the butter managed to melt slightly or not, she then puts it down, presenting one part of the dish.

Ari half walks into the force shield but then stops, checking Hooligander, who's a bit behind. Noticing they are empty handed, Ari quickly turns back and grabs a couple of vegetables and sauces to make a quick side salad.

Finishes arranging the least wilted veggies and loads up her board to present.

"Well, it looks like this came together rather nicely in the end!" Hooligander says as he steps through the barrier and sees everyone being so productive.