NPC: George

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Due to multiple options when speaking, text below may not be in comprehensive order.

*You see a man tending some bushes. As you approach, he turns and you are taken with his rEL-DB.comuddy complexion and leathery old face framed by snow white flowing hair.* Hello stranger.

Hello old-timer.

Old-timer indeed! Humph! I may be old but I can still teach you a lesson in manners!

I meant no offense!

Well, luckily for you, none taken. I am old after all. Now, what can I do for you?

What is this place?

Why, this is the Tarsengaard Magic School. All the great magicians have learned their trade here over the years. I should know. I've seen many of them in the time I've been here. How I came to be here, like those great magicians, is a story that may be similar to your own, or as different as different can be. My name is George. I'd like to share my story with you. Perhaps like you, I am not originally from

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this place. I was born on the continent of Irilion. From an early age, I felt a strong connection to trees. As I grew into a young man, that connection only grew stronger and I felt a need to always be around trees. For some strange reason, I could tell what it is a tree needed. As a result, I made my first real home in a tree in a jungle. In time and in various places, I would eventually have four such homes.

You're George of the Jungle?

It's strange how often that question has come up of late. I doubt I'm the George you're referring to, though. Anyway, back to the story. One day, as I was tending to the trees, an odd gust of wind came up suddenly and was gone by the time I turned around. There was Jerun. He smiled at me and brushed his hands over the bark of the trees I was tending and told me he loved the air they were making. I thought he was

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nuts. Trees don't make air. Everybody knows that. Air bends them in the wind. He stayed with me helping me tend to the trees the rest of that day. Then, that evening I brought him to my home where we shared a meal. Over supper is when our long-standing friendship began. More than seeming to understand my relationship to the trees, Jerun completely accepted me for who I am. That is a rare quality indeed.

Jerun

I didn't know it at the time, but I'd just met Jerun, the grandmaster of air. He runs this school, by the way. If you venture inside you may meet him. Anyway, time passed and I moved around from place to plaEL-DB.comce where I felt the trees needed me, but every once in a while, a stray gust of wind always announced Jerun's arrival. I don't know how he was able to find me each time, but I got so I looked forward to his

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visits. At his last visit, he told me he needed my help. You see, he knew of this tree that stopped singing and he needed it to sing again. Now I'd never met a tree who could sing. Most of them just groan with the wind or whisper pleasantly in a gentle breeze. Since he was my friend, I agreed to help him. He smiled with a relieved look on his face and then he asked me if I trusted him.

Did you trust him?

I did, but what happened next was very unexpected. He came behind me and wrapped his cloak around me. The next thing I knew we were up in the air! I could see farther than I'd ever seen before. Higher and higher we went until I could no longer make out single trees, and from up there, I noticed something. Perhaps it was how Jerun first found me, but the color of the leaves on the trees within the area where I

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lived and worked was more vibrant than the trees beyond my range. The next thing I noticed was that while we were traveling through the air, around us there was only a gentle breeze. It was like we were surrounded in a bubble of air. In a few moments, Irilion vanished below us and we were flying above the ocean, then above another continent. Eventually we slowed down and landed near this very spot.

And the singing tree?

Jerun showed me the tree and she was not well, but not critically ill either. I gathered up the things I needed; some dung, health, magic, earth, and water essences; and then I worked my own special magic. That helped cure her immediate sickness, but even at that moment, I knew something still was not right with her.

Can you teach me magic?

It won't work for you. I've tried to teach my magic to others, even Jerun, but it only seems to work for me. Anyway, I stayed with the tree to be nearby in case she relapsed and to listen to what she had to say. From her, I sensed a profound sadness and in time I came to understand that her depression came from her inability to bear fruit which she loves deeply. Give her an apple and you'll hear her sing.

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I shared my understanding with Jerun who cast a spell over this land so that people passing by her are required to hand her some fruit and she's been happy as a lark ever since. But, she wasn't the only tree here and from what I could see, Jerun needed me to stay on a while longer. Well, it has been nearly forty years I've been here. My hair has turned white, but Jerun looks today like he did when we first met.

Why doesn't he age?

I asked him that myself. He said he does age, but for him it happens much more slowly for some reason. It's a good thing too. He's surrounded himself with some very good people here: Itilli and AuEL-DB.comrora, they're related, by the way, Huytan, Donegal, Warzorm, and Lustra, just to name a few. There are many more people here, though, who can help you learn many things. It is a school after all.

Who are they?

Itilli and Aurora are Draegoni cousins. Itilli runs the bookstore while Aurora takes care of anyone who gets hurt. You'll need to be able to find her if you get yourself in a pinch. Huytan is the cook and he's probably the best cook there is. Professor Donegal teaches potions here. Have a care, he can sometimes pay more attention to favorite students. Then there's Warzorm. We've spent long hours in the garden

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looking up at the sky during the day and at night. You could learn a thing or two from him. Finally Lustra is Jerun's assistant headmaster. She has an abiding love for all things Irilion. She's spent hours and hours asking me all kinds of questions about the places I've lived.

There's a garden here?

There most certainly is. I'm quite proud of how it has turned out, in fact. I stumbled across it shortly after Jerun brought me here. Fair warning: the inside of that school is far larger and grander than it appears from the outside. I've gotten lost in there many times. Besides the garden, you can easily find Itilli's bookstore. It's practically just inside. Aurora's clinic

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is a bit harder to find, but the door is clearly marked. You'll know it when you see it. There's a library of course and a grand lecture hall, a vast kitchen where Huytan works and an even larger dining hall. There are dormitories for the students. In short, all the things you would expect to find in a school. What you don't expect are the other things here. Places where I have gotten hopelessly lost!

Where did you get lost?

I was looking for a storage room to pick up some supplies, but took a wrong turn and ended up in a maze. Now, I'd heard about this maze and a particular tree that could use my help, but in all the times I went back in there, I never found it. Maybe you'll be able to find it for me someday. Anyway, I wandered through the maze looking for that tree.

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One time, I suddenly found myself teleported out of the maze and into a city. Shortly after that, I learned I was in White Stone City. Ahhh... You've been there I see. My trip back here was long and unpleasant. The Forest of the Fall made me shudder. The trees there are healthy enough, but it's as though they're in a coma. In spite of that, there is also an abiding peace that lives there.

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Another time I was in the maze, I found myself at the top of some stairs. I don't know what I touched, but I suddenly found myselfEL-DB.com in an other-worldly place. So, when you go exploring inside there, be careful what you touch. Even an old boot can be a port key.

Where were you?

When I described the place to Jerun he told me that it was a teleportals room, but it was like no room I've ever been in. It has short little walls, but no ceiling! Inside, based on the flags, there are portals to every region of Seridia! The only one I recognized, though, was the flag for Tarsengaard, so that's the portal I used.

What's a port key?

A port key, according to a wizard friend of mine, is an ordinary-looking object that can instantly take you somewhere else, like a teleportal.

What else is in there?

Places to hold prisoners, places to learn combat, places where you can be killed, places where you can become hopelessly lost can all be found inside, along with places where you can learn much from the people inside, if you are patient, read everything you find, and pay attention in class. Jonna found out the hard way about that.

Who is Jonna?

She's one of the students here. Perhaps if you enroll, you'll be in some classes with her. But anyway, it's time for me to work more of my magic. The flowers, plants, and trees need me and it's the only way one person can care for so many of them.

Goodbye

Take care.