Waterdeep:Dweomercore Students and Staff

Dweomercore is a school for magic run by Halaster Blackcloak, located within Undermountain. Information about the students and faculty during your tenure at the school is collected here.

Underclassmen

There are currently 95 underclassmen in the school, a number which previously included Finn Wisegrove, Ludwig, Noctus Vrii-Bildiik, and Randolph Vistar. (Cúthalion Dúath is not an arcane spellcaster, and so could not enroll, but still remained with the rest of the Delusionals as a bodyguard or servant.)

Underclassmen sleep in dormitories located in demiplanes separated by house, with entrances located around the school.

Upperclassmen

There are currently 7 upperclassmen in the school, and there exist upperclassmen dormitories to accommodate up to 10.

Class rankings. The upperclassmen are continuously ranked by the headmaster. Their scores rise and fall for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Most students will tell you that only the top three are able to graduate, while others will be tormented by the Mad Mage for years to come.

Cephalossk

Deceased

Cephalossk is a mind flayer, and since it requires the sustenance of brains, does not typically join in mealtimes in the dining hall.

Cephalossk promised to share secrets about Undermountain in exchange for getting rid of Dumara, so that it may get the opportunity to eat Spite's unique brain. However, Randolph Vistar killed the mind flayer during the High Wizard Tournament, before it could pay its debt.

House. Muiral

Elan Tanor'thal

Deceased

Elan is a drow who claims that he is the rightful heir of Skullport. He seemed quite friendly when you first met, but he also warned you that everyone in Dweomercore is insane. Cúthalion Dúath killed him during the High Wizard Tournament.

House. Trobriand

Karstis

Deceased

Karstis was an upperclassman at Dweomercore... until he met his untimely fate in Slitherswamp at the hands of the Delusionals.

House. Nester

Nylas Jowd

Deceased

Nylas is a bald human covered in tattoos, who stalks the halls of Dweomercore in red robes. In your first meeting with him, he was plotting to curse Turbulence for the terrible crime of being a tiefling.

House. Nester

Skrianna Shadowdusk

Deceased

Skrianna is a human woman who appears to be rude, stuck-up, and privileged. She is accompanied at all times by a shield guardian bodyguard and a grell valet. Skrianna was killed during the High Wizard Tournament by Cúthalion Dúath.

House. Rantantar

Spite Harrowdale

Deceased

Spite is a 12-year old human boy who is nonetheless a magical prodigy. He walks the halls of Dweomercore with a half-ogre bodyguard named Dumara, who has been with the boy for most of her life and treats him like an older brother. Finn Wisegrove killed him during the High Wizard Tournament, by forcing him into a symbol of death using Bigby's hand.

House. Arcturia

Turbulence and Violence

Violence is Deceased, Turbulence Survives

Turbulence and Violence are a pair of tiefling sisters attending Dweomercore. You know little about them, save that Violence did something to warrant detention, and Turbulence was confused as to why you would warn her about Nylas's plotting.

House. Both sisters are in Nyghtsteel

Yarek

Deceased

Yarek was an upperclassman at Dweomercore... until he summoned a bone devil to attempt to kill Skrianna, and was killd by it first.

House. Arcturia

Houses

To honor the Seven (the Mad Mage's original apprentices that came with him to Undermountain) the student body is divided into seven houses. New students are welcomed with a ceremony in the dining hall during which they are sorted by the Arbiter Cap, a sentient magic item which declares which house the student is to be assigned to when placed upon their head.

House Arcturia

Named after perhaps Halaster's most ambitious apprentice, House Arcturia is for those that aren't satisfied with their current status—whether it be physical, social, or magical. House Arcturia often dominates the school's politics, driving them into deep conflicts with Houses Nester and Nyghtsteel.

Symbol. A skeletal hand represents House Arcturia. Its forefinger has flesh; its middle finger is clawed; the ring finger has been bitten off; its pinky is a rusted key; and its thumb is a pristine wand.

Dorms. The entrance to House Arcturia's private quarters is located across the door to the Transmutation Classroom. Throughout its years, Dweomercore has held transmutation classes in several locations; the doorway to House Arcturia's quarters always materializes without fail. To open it requires casting a transmutation spell while within 5 feet of it.

House Kestellharp

This house has lain barren ever since Jhesiyra Kestellharp disappeared from Undermountain nearly a century ago. The Delusionals, however, are inexplicably thrown into this house.

Symbol. Historically, House Kestellharp's symbol has been a wisp in a moonlit wood. The only portrait bearing this has been shredded, found in the house's dormitories.

Dorms. After Jhesiyra's disappearance, Halaster did some remodeling of the House's dormitories to symbolize his anguish and disgust: its entrance is in the academy's garbage room. Characters within there can spot a ladder dipping into the refuse pit. Halfway down is a precarious ledge set before a door that opens upon the House's pocket dimension-dormitories.

House Muiral

"House Pariah," as it has been famously known, is named after Muiral the Misshapen, the former bodyguard of the Mad Mage that turned his godly-given form into a monstrous half-man, half-scorpion abomination. The Arbiter Cap places outcasts and insecure individuals into this house. Its members are disjointed and rarely interact with each other. Whenever Muiral guest lectures at the academy, House Muiral conveniently has the flu.

Symbol. House Muiral is represented by an eight-fingered fist, one of which is tipped with a ghastly claw. It's set upon a violet field.

Dorms. House Muiral's frigid quarters can be entered through a mirror in the hallway between the alchemy workroom and the bladesinging classroom. Students must face their own reflection for ten seconds in order to enter their dorm.

House Nester

Shame has befallen House Nester ever since its founder failed to achieve lichdom—a failure that hounds its members day and night. Nester himself yet remains in the academy, teaching the foul art of necromancy. He delights in embarrassing and tormenting House Nester students that don't meet his exacting standards. Sadists petrified of death and pain are often hurled into this house.

Symbol. House Nester's symbol is, unsurprisingly, a spectral skull floating above a tombstone.

Dorms. House Nester's abode can be found just south of the statue in Medusa Junction. The wall there is caked with blood, as entering the dormitories requires slicing your palm and smearing the blood on the wall. House Nester students thus develop terrible scarring on one or both hands, and always carry some kind of blade.

House Nyghtsteel

Named after Marambra Nyghtsteel, this House symbolizes the cultivation of raw power. The Arbiter Cap places individuals that hunger to prove themselves to their peers, detractors, and even the world, into this house. Bullies and those that wield their arcane power as a cudgel are also placed here.

Symbol. House Nyghtsteel is represented by a violet flame within which lightning dances.

Dorms. All members of House Nyghtsteel carry a small trophy of theirs—anything that has been won over competitors, be it a medal, a seal of approval, a wolf's fang, or even a rock won in a schoolyard brawl of one's youth. To enter their dormitories, these members must place their trophy in the empty trophy case in the hallway outside the multipurpose lecture hall, which then teleports them and it to their dorms.

House Rantantar

Its founder devoted to trickery, House Rantantar is crowded by the pride and arrogance of its members. Theirs is a rigid hierarchy where subordinates are expected to obey—but scheme against—their superiors while exacting their frustration on someone beneath them. Every student here comes from nobility or privilege of a sort and chafe under the authority of another. No person in Dweomercore is more miserable or abused than the lowest person on House Rantantar's totem pole: a human mage by the name of Jacob Anderbrood.

Symbol. A gnarled wand in a cloud of miasma represents House Rantantar.

Dorms. To enter the house's dormitories, one must hurl themselves into the correct alcove outside the guest lecturer's quarters, sinking into the wall on a success. The alcove changes randomly throughout the day, explaining the chronic frustration and many concussions Rantantar students seem to develop.

House Trobriand

Devoted to innovation above all else, members of House Trobriand are derisively called "metal heads," after their founder, Trobriand the Metal Mage. The Arbiter Cap tends to place those mad or adventurous enough to experiment with magic in this house.

Symbol. House Trobriand is represented by a steel scorpion on a gray field.

Dorms. The entrance to House Trobriand's dorms is hidden in the Steel-Sheathed Hall. A student must find the steel scorpion hidden among the plates attached to the walls and press it, which causes the scorpion to animate and stab them before they are admitted entrance.

Faculty

Headmaster

Halaster Blackcloak himself serves as headmaster of the school. He does not appreciate being disturbed in his office for trivial matters, and his chair is terrifying.

Bring

Professor Bring is a sentient magic item known as a professor orb. It can cast mage hand in order to carry itself around, speaks and understands four languages (Abyssal, Common, Dwarvish, and Terran), and teaches classes on four subjects (three of which most students completely ignore):

• History of Undermountain
• Grooming habits of shield dwarves
• Gemstone identification
• Xorn

Professor Bring's voice, in any language, is dull and droning, and even when students attend its classes, they often find themselves unable to stay awake.

Figment

Professor Figment is a tiefling man who teaches illusion classes in a room which appears to be a noble's estate on the surface. While most students assume that the room itself is illusory, popular rumor among the student body is that Professor Figment himself is also an illusion. Nobody has dared try and dispel either, though.

Medley

Professor Medley is a plump, cheery old woman chronically dressed in pink. Her voice is so sweet, it's sickening. She regularly teaches potions and poisons.

Nester

Nester was once one of Halaster's original apprentices, and he attempted to become a lich. He failed, however, and became a boneclaw instead. He now acts as "Professor Nester", teaching necromancy classes. Nester's lectures have become macabre experiments in agony and death, and he punishes insolent or failing students with the former, and captives with the latter.

Guest Lecturers

The headmaster periodically brings in temporary guest lecturers. The most common guests are his own former apprentices, those whose names are borne by the seven houses that students are sorted into. (Of course, Nester is a permanent fixture among the faculty, and Kestellharp is missing.)