Scott came to his senses at the sudden clap of thunder that berated the relatively mundane world. He felt he'd been speaking only a moment ago, though of what, or to whom, he did not know. While he vaguely contemplated the possibility of hypnotism, which wasn't a far-fetched idea for a prank at a place like Chamber's College, Scott's gaze swept the room again; the library of the Faculty House.
The storm loosed its rain without relent and gave Scott further reason not to return to his dormitory, as late as it was. The tapping on the windows was loud enough that perhaps no one had heard him talking in his sleep (if, indeed, that was what he'd been doing). Either way, he seemed to be alone in the library for the moment.
He rose out of the armchair and tested the fire with an ornately crafted poker, finding the chemical process to be little more than a bed of embers within the monumental fireplace. Luckily the house lamps had been left on, and he shuddered at the though of waking up in complete darkness in a very unfamiliar place. It was odd that he'd dozed off at all. Nothing yet he'd seen in his first three days at Chamber's had failed to confuse or amaze him. Scott was visiting Chamber's on a temporary research grant. His focus was graffiti studies, or graffiti as an interface between the world and human experience. The college itself was particularly famous for its scrawled esoterica and heavily tattooed desks. Scott had until the end of the year before his grant ran out. By then, though, Scott hoped to be accepted with a full-time position.
Most recently he'd been brushing up on the old school charter, which was practically an item of folklore itself. In addition to the bland yet bizarre text, there were several modern additions which revealed how the school had fared over the centuries.
He read again from the beginning, both admiring and suffering through the supernaturally long sentences:
'It is hereby ordained and corporally established, on this day of July seventh, of the year MDCCXI of the Christian calendar, that the College dedicated to the late Sir Filbertus Chamber, in accordance with the terms and conditions of his last will and testament, is founded and granted the express rights of academic sovereignty, to organize and facilitate the research of subjects that are greatly under-appreciated at mainstream institutions, including astrology, mysticism, superstitions, symbology, numerology, extinct linguistics, cryptology, paradoxical studies, illusion studies, and many others that it does not do to list in full because we think they may be indefinite, and furthermore, to set the geographic limits of this College within the 113 acres of Sir Chamber’s estate, the ample grounds of which, with woods, many streams, hills, and wild country, are dedicated for the use and expansion of this College, however, not to the detriment of these natural wonders, nor any unnatural wonders since there are reports of many faery rings and standing stones of neolithic origin in the region, with due reverence to these wonders not to be precluded or ignored since they were of noteworthy value to Sir Chamber himself, furthermore, with these improvements to be funded by Sir Chamber’s own fortune, following its dedication for such in his will, which has since been lost, and also in recognition of the dedication of his extensive library and works of art for the college’s enrichment, in addition to the house of his estate, and all other existing improvements on his property, including the stables and his prized zebras, the alleged golf course, though it has never been found, and including his tomb and family cemetery, which is off-limits to all, and as for the governing of the school, a Deanship shall be acquired through inheritance according to the longest held office within the Council, that body being those officers numbering seven elected by a popular faculty vote, and whose decision making process shall be resolved by a simple majority vote, and shall hold the responsibilities of adopting college guidelines, vetoable by the Dean unless unanimous in the Council, as well as admissions of new faculty and students under adopted guidelines, always given that an odd number of councilmembers are present, each with their own alternate in the case of an absence, with a quorum of five, and this body shall convene on the first and second Tuesdays of each month, with additional meetings to be scheduled as needed, but never under the harvest moon, or on any popular holiday, and never if the council members are too inebriated to find the council chambers, or in any significantly altered mental state, and for the buildings of the campus, construction of a faculty house shall begin immediately, followed by student dormitories, and for the time being lectures and other meetings will be held in the existing spacious drawing rooms and sitting rooms of the Chamber House, until plans can be drafted and approved for such additional structures as a main lecture hall, refectionary, library annex, et cetera, and these buildings shall correspond to the underground network of tunnels existing on the site, as they may prove useful in future times, and students are only to make use of student-approved subterranean tunnels, therefore, may it be resolved that the aforementioned ordinances be ratified and executed by the undersigned, as explicitly chosen by Sir Chamber himself in his will, and this charter be thus finalized and recognized by the signatures below for the foundation of this Chamber's College, ab absurdo, ab antiquo, ab extra, cognosco de omni re scibili et quibusdam aliis.'
Blinking himself back awake, Scott caught himself from slumping unconsciously out of the chair just as someone strolled in from the corridor. Somewhat bashful that he couldn't stay awake in a place where it seemed like no one ever slept, he got to his feet and was going to replace the charter on its shelf. The storm grew especially thunderous the next moment, the whole room seemed to shudder, and all the lamps faded out, leaving the large room lit only by a terribly faint glow from the fireplace.
Scott froze in his tracks and heard the new entrant to the library pause as well. Scott hadn't recognized them, or even noticed a single detail about their appearance. He knew next to no one and hadn't gotten to explore much of the campus hangouts yet. Who ever this person was, they were only a few yards away, and now they were both just standing there, afraid to trip over a footstool or something. However, if he blurted out how unnerved he felt only to have the lights come back on within seconds, how foolish he would look. But the lights stayed off, and the continuing silence was growing creepier. Trying to salvage a sensible course of action, Scott broke the silence.
"Well, we're sort of trapped, because I can't see a thing. My name is Scott Newlock by the way; I just got here three days ago. Who are you?"OmenScribe 07:25, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
The person didn't respond, just took his hand and began to run, fast. Scott was confused by it all, but decided that putting up a fight was probably useless. The person climbed onto a wide bookcase and dropped down into a hole in the wall, crawling into the insulation, Scott followed out of curiosity. The person silently sat at a table, and took out some dice. It pulled out a board and smiled.
"Care for a game of DnD? The fays move some of their pieces when you use the board from the burial grounds."
Scott was set off by this, and wasn't surprised to find a DnD freak at this very peculiar place. But to setup the gaming area here, that was odd.
"Sure...why'd you set your base here?"
The person smiled, and took out some cards and well crafted pieces.
"Its where the knowledgeable fays are, its hard to communicate with them when they are of another plane. They control the silver wire figurines best."User:Serprex 23:40, 25 March 2007 (UTC)