Czocha College of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Part 2

We're currently in Vienna and planning on moving on tomorrow, but I still need to catch up on my memoirs from almost a week ago before I can talk about what we've just done. We've been setting a rather busy pace and I haven't had as much downtime as I would like in order to craft these long posts. I might be able to catch up in Budapest. We'll see.

In recent news we've decided to alter our travel plans. We will no longer be traveling back to Poland. There are no overnight trains available from Budapest to Krakow, and taking a train back through Vienna ends up being a waste of a travel day, plus all the cheap flights we had looked into previously have suddenly rocketed out of our price range. So instead we're going to follow Rick Steves' plan and continue on to Ljubljana, Slovenia and parts beyond after visiting Budapest. We'll be taking a flight from Ljubljana back to Berlin before coming home. I'll miss not revisiting Krakow and getting to share it with Kat, but Rick makes Slovenia sound pretty amazing too and we're both excited to give it a try.

For now let's get back to Czocha. When we last left I was going to be early on the first night of the game. Aletha had been out running around with her housemates and getting up to some sort of magical mischief and was out late. I was pretty tired so when finally she came to bed and tried to explain something about rituals, doom-spiders, and ghosts in the Dark Forest I just replied with a noncommittal "Uh huh," and rolled back over to go to sleep.

We both woke up early the next morning, anxious to start our first day of classes, put on our costumes and got back into character before heading downstairs. One nice thing about having a private room to ourselves was that we could take a break from it all and go "off-game" and "out-of-character". We were just Kat & Jeff again instead of Aletha & Dorian. Even though our characters were very similar to ourselves there was still a certain amount of separation and distance. I needed that time away from the game with Kat to recharge.

When we got downstairs that first morning there wasn't any sign of anyone else. They had all probably been up way past curfew partying and what-not so we decided to make full use of our new found freedom by searching for the castle's many secret passages. Aletha found one in the library and then got spooked when I said I thought I heard someone coming just when she was opening it. We didn't want to lose any points for our houses by being caught in secret passages where Juniors were not allowed.

The noise turned out to be just the hotel staff setting up the breakfast buffet so we regained our courage and proceeded to explore. Our adventure took us all over the castle and into the cellars below where we discovered someone had left a trail of flowers all around. Unfortunately when Aletha picked one up to examine it she triggered a curse that had been placed on it causing her to think she was one of the more strict professors. She began interrogating Dorian as to what thought he was doing by sneaking around the castle. Thinking fast, Dorian drew his wand and terminated the hex, restoring Aletha to her proper self. Forewarned, the pair avoided touching anymore of the booby-trapped flowers for fear that they might contain more dangerous curses.

Running around with Kat that morning was one of my top experiences at the event. We felt like we had the whole castle to ourselves and got to have some fun with just the two of us. Soon it was breakfast time and then classes began.

I should say that most of my pictures give the impression that the castle was practically abandoned all the time. That wasn't the case at all. Although there were times you would find yourself alone they were few and far between and almost always your solitude would be interrupted by a group of students wandering through, by staff accosting you, or even by goblins chasing one of the cats out of the castle. I intentionally tried to avoid photographing other players during the game since it seemed like not something I should do. It wasn't specifically forbidden, but I felt like every time I took a picture I was breaking character. For a moment I was on vacation and staying at a castle rather than playing a returning student in a magical boarding school. I didn't want to break the magic for anyone else so I tried to be discrete with my picture-taking.

My first class, which turned out to be one of my favorites, was Alchemy in the cellars where I learned how to construct recipes and craft potions based on the symptoms you wished to cure or cause in the imbiber. There was a very mathematical approach to it that made it sort of like solving an intricate puzzle and then you actually got to make the thing. Every ingredient in the lab was edible so you got to sample your potions once they were finished. One of my recipes ended up requiring warm alcohol and peppercorns. It was pretty intense.

I can't possibly explain every cool thing that happened at the event and still get some sleep so I'll try to give you a few of the remaining highlights. Dorian joined the house "Fireball Dragon" team, a game somewhat like keep-away and dodgeball all rolled into one, and took up the "Spirit Guardian" position, much like a goal-keeper. Our team didn't get to go on to the finals, but I had a blast being part of it. Dorian and Aletha managed to get lost trying to find the one class they had together, Demonology, and ended up climbing to the top of the tower for some quality alone time and a photo-op. Dorian slipped out into the Dark Forest twice without getting caught. The first time I had to cleverly sneak by an in-progress class while they were distracted battling some sort of giant boar-man. Dorian also ran for student council, but lost by a few votes to his nemesis Ray Frost. He faced his greatest desire and worst fear as his exams in Magical Defense and Demonology respectively. Dorian danced the polka during Rituals class and he almost got caught disposing of alchemical waste in the Faust common room shower. He raised many a glass in toast with his Faustian brothers and sisters in the castle tavern. He watched helplessly as Aletha was attacked and nearly killed by the spirit of a dead ancestor possessing the body of one of her closest friends and then later found her scared and alone in the cellars fearing another attack, but with the guidance of the kindly Runes professor he cast spells to help restore her confidence.

The event concluded on the third night with a grand ball to celebrate the end of mid-term exams and the awarding of the cup to the house with the most points. Despite our hard work and discipline, Faust lost the title of First House to Libussa in a surprising upset. Aletha and Dorian attended the ball together dressed in their fanciest attire (that would fit in our travel bags) and waltzed to a number of songs until they slipped off to join the misfits and trouble-makers at the anti-ball in the tavern for a few drinks before returning to the dance floor.

At the end of the dance everyone gathered in the Knights Hall one last time for final announcements and to sing the school song. Then the game was concluded and a big round of cheers and applause went up for the organizers and everyone who help make this a thing. There was a debriefing period, for new people and old, to give folks a chance to discuss their experiences and decompress a little bit. Most people slipped right into the after-party while Kat and I headed up to our room to get some sleep and get ready to go on our next adventure.