The Drissoire incident

Rune Introduction module

by Master Adélaïde Jameux

The Drissoire incident: a case study of bad decisions

All rune students and practitioners should keep the Drissoire incident in mind: a full squadron of officers, all wiped out in a few seconds because their arrogance led them to think they were above basic runework practice.

Circumstances

This occurred during the First Spanish War, 45 years ago, to a group of 92 officers. They were all recent and promising graduates from the top French universities (Lille, Paris, Lyon and Marseille) forming a squadron of the elite brigade charged with protecting two battalions of our troops during their march towards Madrid.
On the day of the incident, this officer squadron was given the simple task of creating a protective ward around the battalions' encampment.

List of mistakes made

Calculations
Used the wrong calculation unit when scaling up the runic design

Chalk & Paint
Wrong choice of paint for the specific design they were tracing

Terrain
Not adapting the ward scheme and tracing for the uneven terrain

Collaboration
Not adapting their rune work to blend with each other's writing style

Consequences

All these mistakes were small and seemingly inconsequential on their own, but they should have been beyond first year rune students, let alone the top graduates of the country. Each mistake created an imbalance of energy, and all built up against each other to create a chain reaction of destabilisation, resulting in an explosion of magic with cataclysmic effects.
The squadron was completely destroyed, as well as the two battalions they were supposed to protect, and even part of the mountain where they were camping.

Lesson to take from this:
Do your homework and pay attention in class, no matter how talented you think you are.