Arcane Collegium

Composed of two small courtyards and a dozen two‑story buildings (with a mix of gray and yellow stucco and red tile rooftops) housing masters, apprentices, alchemists (near the river), and clockwork servants, the Arcane Collegium opens its doors but rarely.
The most common means of entrance are the Steam Gate that leads into Arcane Square, just across from the Hedgehog tavern, and the Water Gate at the docks, which uses a set of stairs down the embankment to a single pier. The stairs are always slippery and guards and other traps make them impassable to the unwelcome.
Even when the Steam Gate does open, those visitors admitted are most often hired help or someone seeking to offer great treasures in exchange for the Arcane Collegium’s wisdom, rather than townsfolk with a casual interest. The interior includes the two courtyards and buildings, as well as a black tower, the large gray hall of the summoners, underground labs, and sturdy alchemical bunkers. The buildings have tarnished silver runes inscribed along the eaves, gates, and windows.
The grounds are protected by clockwork traps, gargoyles, and even undead under the control of the masters of the collegiums. Those masters are: Guildmaster Clockwork Mage Orlando (CN male human wizard 15 Master Necromancer Konrad von Eberfeld (NE male human wizard 7 Master Illusionist Ariella Scarpetti (N female human wizard [illusionist] 9 and Master Diviner Rudwin Whitstone (N male dwarf sorcerer 8).
The positions of Master Summoner and Master of Stars and Shadows are currently vacant and were last held by Linnea Thorn and Sariel of Morgau, respectively. Mistress Thorn was recently murdered, and Master Sariel retired to the mountains.
The Collegium itself has roughly two dozen apprentices studying under the masters, including kobolds, tieflings, dwarves, and humans. The staff numbers about 40 and includes alchemists, scribes, maids, cooks, a chamberlain, language tutors, arcane tutors, clockworkers, a priest of the Gear Goddess, a few clockwork scullions, and even a falconer from Siwal named Kaashif al-Rashid.
Its fields of study are peculiar, with an emphasis on clockwork magic (sometimes called gear magic), dwarven forms of alchemy and divination, and the school of illumination, sometimes called star and shadow magic. It is led by Collegium Guildmaster Orlando, a wizard of deep insight and peculiar habits, prone to whimsy and to powerful intuition. Other masters of the collegium specialize in divination and illusion, but the outside world sees the Zobeck Collegium as both inventive and frankly bizarre, with little respect for the traditions and practices upheld elsewhere. At the same time, it’s hard to argue with results, and the Arcane Collegium turns out excellent students with shocking regularity, keeping up with the much more cutthroat schools of Bemmea and Runklestad.

Type

College / Academy

Parent Location

Zobeck, the Crossroads City