Twisted Wonderland - Fairy Gala: Operation Steal the Show

Chapter 1: Magestone Missing

One day in the interior hallways, Kalim and Jamil run down the halls in a frantic state, and soon find the headmage.

Kalim calls out, "Excuse me, Headmage! We've been looking for you. Something strange is going on. Scarabia's usually warm year-round, but it's getting a bunch of snow."

"We shoveled enough to get out of our dorm, only to find the Hall of Mirrors as hot as an oven," Jamil adds.

"Asim. Viper. It's happening at your dorm, too?" Crowley responds, "The temperature has been aberrant in my office as well. It's so cold in there, why, my feathers could freeze over! Temperature control on this campus is handled by fairies, who draw power from a highly valuable magestone this school maintains. Perhaps someone's vandalized it in some fashion."

"Then we should go check on it, on the double!" Kalim says.

Soon, the three rush to the Mirror Chamber.

"So this magestone you mentioned is stored in the Mirror Chamber?" Jamil asks.

"Yes. It's strictly forbidden for anyone to enter without my permi—" Crowley answers, but stops to notice something, "Hm? Wait a minute..." He rush over to the Mirror, and exclaims in shock, "SWEET MERCIFUL SEVEN! Gone... GONE! The precious magestone that supplies the fairies with magical power is GONE!"

"Huh? I-it is?!" Kalim asks, shocked.

Crowley quickly turns to Jamil, "Viper, summon every housewarden to the headmage's office at once. I'm calling an emergency meeting!"

Shortly after...

All the housewardens of the dorms have gathered in the Headmage's office. However, the room is very cold.

Leona shivers, "Brrr! Why's this room so cold?"

But Azul says, "Oh, thank goodness. Octavinelle's been so unbearably hot all day, I feared I was on the cusp of dehydrating into octo-jerky."

"It's a sauna in Ignihyde!" Idia answers from the tablet, "What if this fries our PCs? Requesting we shut the dorm down for emergency maintenance, sir!"

Quiet in the office!" Crowley shouts, "As you are no doubt aware, we are presently unable to regulate the temperature in buildings across campus. The cause, I'm afraid, is that the magestone acting as a fairy power supply is missing."

"That's the thing you were yelling about, right?" Kalim asks,

"Just so," Crowley answers, "Our campus buildings are kept pleasantly livable all year round by virtue of the magic of fire fairies, water fairies, and wind fairies... just to name a few of our many fae benefactors. With the magestone gone, we cannot fuel the fairies' magic, and thus cannot control the campus's air conditioning. I kept it stored in the Mirror Chamber to avoid this precise scenario, and yet... Someone has undoubtedly stolen it. The nerve—the AUDACITY!" and it's clear that he's upset about it.

"You just said that the stolen object is a magestone that supplies the type of magical power that fairies favor. Wouldn't it follow, then, that the fairies would be our first suspects? As I recall, there's a fae right here among us. A rather tall one, at that," Azul says.

Then Malleus says, "That's a bold implication you're making, Ashengrotto. Are you suggesting that I, the heir apparent of Briar Valley, would stoop to common thievery?"

"Perish the thought! Pardon me. I meant no offense, of course," Azul questions says.

"Dude, the amount of power you could get from a magestone would be a drop in the bucket to Malleus," Idia says, "He's already a balance-breaking character with that auto-filling MP gauge of his."

"Yeah, for sure," Kalim says, "Nobody here would think for a minute that you're behind this, Malleus. Just, y'know, if you happen to know anything relevant, it'd be nice to hear. Like, does anything fae-related come to mind? Or anything else along those lines?"

And then Malleus says, "You know... When I was out on a stroll last evening, I did glimpse some fairies around here—a kind that I don't see very often. They were palm-sized, and clad in leaves. There were two of them, and they were struggling to carry an iridescent stone—"

Hearing it, Crowley says, "Why, that's it! That must be the missing magestone! Draconia, which way were they headed?"

"Toward the botanical garden, I believe," Malleus answers.

"We depart at once, everyone! Make haste!" Crowley says.

And with that, the housewardens and headmage head to the botanical garden to solve the mystery.