The Scholomance

The Scholomance is a fabled school of magic hidden deep within the Carpathian mountains, in the region of Transylvania. It is run by the Devil teach magic, the language of all living things, the secrets of nature, how to ride dragons, and control rain. Seven, ten, or thirteen students are took in at each time from the local population, taught for seven or nine years, and with one chosen out of each group to be the Weathermaker. During the whole time, none seen the sun and lived totally inside the single hidden cavern.
The cavern itself is below a mountaintop lake south of Sibiu. It is warm with a fire burning in the middle of the cavern, and a faint whiff of brimstone from it. Candles burn here and there, with the wicks made out of woven hair from the remains of unbaptised babies, and tallow made from their fat. A cooking station is beside the fire, along with a sacrificial table. Spread around is the sleeping places for the initiates, tables for reading, writing, and experimentation, along wit any tools they may need to use. Two smaller caverns are off to the side. One is for general storage, and has a hole in the middle dropping down into darkness, and used for disposal purposes. The other is used for any test, experiment or spell requiring any ranged parts.
At the end of their time the initiates must record all their knowledge of humanity into a Solomonar's Book. The one chosen as the Weathermaker is given a dragon brought out of a lake and called Zmeu, and if it looks at any cloud it will cause rain to fall. According to legend, if Zmeu was to land or crash, it would devour a great part of the earth. Some claim the dragon would be a Balaur, a many-headed dragon.
There is the rumour that many vampires hunt out the Scholomance to learn magic, and to commune with the Devil himself. They appear to be linked in some way with the school, as there are many vampires in the surrounding mountains. The current thinking is that there is some type of magic in the mountains, and both the School & vampires are naturally attracted to it. Some go as far as postulating that there might be some type of portal there too, exactly to where nobody knows.

Type

School