Welcome to Elemental College (Playthrough of Big Book of Madness)

The young man sat down easily in the small, plastic chair.  He had been here before, many times in fact, and was no longer fearful of the giant oak desk in front of him nor the balding man sitting behind it.  The man looked like he was in his late 50s, although he was probably closer to 500.  Professor Henry Spark had been the headmaster at Elemental College for well over a hundred years, but that fact didn't intimidate Phil.  Sometimes it felt like his entire school career had been spent in the school office.  That probably wasn't much of an exaggeration.

"Do you know why you're here, Philip?" Professor Spark asked.  Adults were always trying to use Phil's full name to let him know he was in trouble.  He already knew he was in trouble and didn't really care.

"Did you find those princes that I turned into frogs?" Phil replied with a smirk on his face.

"Yes, yes Philip, you've been as busy at this school as you have at your other schools and it has nothing to do with schoolwork.  You think you're pretty smart, pulling pranks on your peers and staff members.  It's fun for now, but eventually you're going to regret your actions and wish you had put more effort into your studies."  Blah blah blah.  He had heard it all before.  He found magic exciting but school boring.  He wished the teachers would stop treating him like a child and really experiment with his powers.  Maybe his childish pranks were counter intuitive to be treated more like an adult, but at least it increased the entertainment level of being in a magic school.

"This isn't about your childish pranks, however,"  Spark went on.  "This is about the enormous mistake you almost made yesterday, putting your own life and the lives of everyone at this school in danger."  This statement didn't make him afraid, but it did pique his interest.  He hadn't heard a professor or headmaster speak this seriously before.  Usually it was all about wasting his life turning his classmates' pants invisible or changing the water in the toilets into jello.

"Ok, you've got me.  What is this about?"

Professor Spark almost smiled at the fact that for the first time in his tenure here, Philip seemed to be interested in something.  Unfortunately, this matter was too serious to smile about.  Instead he frowned.  "If it weren't for one of your classmates informing us about your actions, you would have opened the Big Book of Madness in the library!"  

Phil relaxed.  "Oh, is that all this is about?  Some ancient text that we're all supposed to tiptoe around?  I'm here to learn to use magic, Spark, and so far you and your faculty haven't taught me anything.  Maybe that book will."

The professor leaned back in his chair, sighing.  "If I hadn't been here as long as I have, I might be inclined to agree with you.  However, you are not the first child who's been foolish enough to try and open that book.  Let me tell you a story."  Phil rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"60 years ago, a very promising young earth bender fell in love with a girl.  Her specialty was manipulating the wind, as well as manipulating his heart.  As I'm sure you're aware, boys will do stupid things for the girl they love.  They were studying in the library and the boy wanted to show her that he was fearless.    He walked to the pedestal that the book sat on.  She told him not to open, that she didn't want to get in trouble.  He said he wasn't afraid and threw the book open.

"The boy was thrown across the room as magic energy shot out of the book.  Mists swirled around in a frenzy as a giant, crab-like creature with many eyes began to emerge from the book.  The girl screamed and fired a wall of pure air to push the creature back from whence it game.  Her magic was not practiced enough, however, and he shattered the wall and knocked her against a bookcase.

"Seeing the love of his life in danger, the boy leaped back to his feet.  He was a better student than his romantic interest was and he had more spells at his disposal.  Being an earth and plant worker, most of his spells encouraged growth and supported other mages.  He used these spells now to try and save, what he thought was, the love of his life.

"What both of these young people didn't realize, though, was that the big danger of the Big Book of Madness was not the creatures that resided inside, but the madness that spread out from them.  Battling them, defending against them, even seeing them, caused one's mind to slowly go mad.  As they fought for their lives, their judgment began to get clouded as sanity began to slip away.

"To the boy's dismay, another creature exited the book, this one a living version of the plants he had come to love.  This creature's power was to enter your mind and remove memories of spells, leaving your useless to defend yourself.  He used his power on both of the students, leaving them weaker and a little bit more mad.

"While the creature's focus was mostly on the boy, the girl collected herself and weaved together the elements of earth, wind, water, and fire to undo one of the curses that had been placed on them.  

"She followed that spell up with a powerful water spell, created to undo another of the creature's curses that would have driven the students even more mad.

"An evil jester arose from the book next.  Not only did he launch a series of curses towards our accidental heroes, but in order to defeat each curse they would need to let go of themselves and give in to the madness.

"I hope you are getting the gravity of what happened, so I'll speed up the store and bring it to its conclusion.  Three more creatures entered the library that day.  It was far too much for our young lovers.  And no, they didn't die, they went insane.  The battle destroyed their minds and they both fled the school.  It took the entire school faculty, a combined 3000 years of magic experience, to force those creatures back into the book.  It wasn't until the job was done and the book was closed that we even realized the two love birds had gone missing.  We used every spell at our disposal but we could not locate them.  And you know why?"

Phil sat there in silence.  He really wanted not to believe the story, but the rumours of it had been around for a long time and Spark's story filled in the gaps that the stories left out.  He didn't want to be afraid, but he couldn't deny that he was.  He realized the professor had asked him a question.  "Huh?"

The professor let his lips form a small smile.  "I asked if you knew why we couldn't find them."

"No.  Why?"

"The book and its denizens had driven them so mad, so insane, that they were no longer connected to their old consciousness.  Locating spells did no good because they were no longer themselves.  So, next time you're pondering whether you should open the book or not, please come and talk to me first.  I'll show you the scorch marks in my room that we have been unable to remove in the last 60 years."