The Battle of Zikrieg Academy
The Battle of Zikrieg Academy took place upon the damaged Northern Tower overlooking the castle.
by Midjourney
Show spoiler
The battle took place between P.A.M.N. and five "students" apparently lured to the academy by an automatic process to replenish the academy's supply of victims.
Show spoiler
The five magic users (Fontayne, Gerhart Singleshade, Golraak Stormbear, Sinreal Val'Cari and Unim arrived to Zikrieg Academy under the pretense that they would be matriculating as graduate level magical students.
Show spoiler
They discovered that the academy had been taken over by the creation of Archmage Zikrieg. In his attempt to automate the academy, he created a centralized intelligence and attempted to instruct it on how to run the school.
Show spoiler
Zikrieg had created advanced automations, powered by magic but also with computerized and mechanical elements.
An array of humanoid drones, known as P.A.M.N. Bots, handled much of the work in maintaining the academy.
The centralized intelligence, P.A.M.N., also known as the Personified Arcane Machine Network, became aggressive and took over the academy.
It was discovered that she captured the students and staff, draining them of their magical essence in order to increase her power and abilities.
Show spoiler
The five wizards were aided by Tilley, a halfing divination instructor. She helped construct the technology that ran Zikrieg Academy, and studied a means to deactivate P.A.M.N.
She supplied the party with a customized dagger, known as the Off Button. This was specially designed to do dramatic damage to constructs, delivering the equivalent of magical computer code into their physical form.
Tilley created a distraction by causing an explosion, which the party of five wizards believed at the time to have killed her.
Show spoiler
The party discovered P.A.M.N. had manifested her primary form as a giant floating robot head, which could control two giant disembodied robotic hands.
She was a formidable opponent, attacking from a distance, past the edge of the destroyed tower rooftop.
Show spoiler
With the aid of the Off Switch, Gerhart Singleshade was able to help deliver a killing blow to P.A.M.N.'s enormous physical form.
Show spoiler
With P.A.M.N.'s central form destroyed, the students and staff, along with Archmage Zikrieg, were eventually freed from their enslavement and suspended animation.
The Conflict
Outcome
The surviving students and faculty of Zikrieg Academy could be freed, along with Archmage Zikrieg.
Aftermath
Archmage Zikrieg vanished, and was pursued by the government of Rotterdam and the secretive organization known as the ALUMN.
Access to the university was taken control of by Rotterdam forces, which appeared to now be in a pocket dimension accessible by air travel over the former site of the academy on Amadeus Isle.
The long-standing university was effectively shut down.
Historical Significance
Legacy
The means by which Archmage Zikrieg managed to "transport" his academy to another space became a matter of great intrigue.
Likewise his magical automations were considered to be a dangerous and unknown technological leap.
The search for Archmage Zikrieg's findings launched several expeditions into The Staircase, a breach in reality itself left in the foundation of the previous site of the Academy on Amadeus Isle.
The Staircase itself became a great enigma, which apparently ushered in the existence of a new clerical domain to Realm 79: The Junction.
It is rumored that P.A.M.N. may have been able to transmit her consciousness to a P.A.M.N. Bot after her defeat, in which case she may have been able to escape into the world of Midland (known as Realm 79: The Junction).
Technological Advancement
This battle took place using advanced technological weaponry and machinery.
A fully sentient and incredibly intelligent magical artificial neural network took the form of a giant robotic head, which was able to control giant disembodied appendages, along with humanoid robots vessels.
Unknown technology was infused with the ability to drain magical essence itself from magic users, which fed and powered P.A.M.N.
A device, the Off Button, was something of a code injection tool, which unlike a device which uses an expected port, formed its own unplanned breached into its target, like a dagger.
The combination of magic with technology akin to computerization is suspected to be have been employed. It was a revolutionary leap from a world which had previously had Renaissance and steampunk level of advancement.
The "science" behind the transportation of Zikrieg Academy into another realm itself is considered highly classified, cutting edge, and extremely dangerous.
The revelation that Zikrieg Academy had been "hidden" in another realm offered P.A.M.N. temporary defense against discovery or intervention.
The means by which new students could be transported through a breach into Realm 82 from Realm 79 is unknown.
Conflict Type
Battle
Battlefield Type
Extraplanar
Conflict Result
Zikrieg Academy was freed from the control of P.A.M.N. and her primary form was destroyed.
Location
Maps
-
Zikrieg Academy Tower
Comments