The Pit (Of Knowledge)

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==== "Wessex Hall" ====

"Wessex Hall" at the University of Salamander is actually an isolated circular stone
building with a domed stone roof, just large enough to contain a mid-sized auditorium. 
Its construction was financed by a bequest from the late Baron Frederick Wessex.
Disappointed one season when on safari hunting Goosebears and not finding any sign of
them, he reasoned that it would be convenient if there were some way to magically
induce a Goosebear, or any other hunted subject, for that matter, to appear on command. He set about arranging to sponsor the development of a Summoning program at the
University, which included a dedicated building for the conduct of sorcerous summoning
research and development. Sadly, he was savaged to death by a rutting dire-squirrel the
following year and didn't live to see its completion, but they did name the building in his
honor. 

Wessex Hall and the Summoning program at University of Salamander are entirely run by
the sole surviving faculty member with substantial summoning experience, Professor
Gerald Fletcher. 

Professor Fletcher has been working hard to develop and refine a systematized
summoning-wizardry method compatible with the generalized wizardry system taught by
the rest of the University's various sorcerous studies departments. He has been
researching and experimenting on this project for several decades now, and is still alive.
Despite being somewhat wrinkled, bald, and grey-bearded, in addition to being a bit
scarred here and there, if one sees him walking around the campus it is obvious he is still
in an athletic condition. His physique is lean, wiry-muscled and he's precise in his movements.
He routinely wears a form of the standard scholarly wizarding-uniform robes, but heavy from modifications
such as strategically-placed plates of metal and patches of chainmail. His wizarding-staff
is unusually long and topped not by the traditional smooth knob, gem, or exotic symbol,
but rather what appears to be a boar-spear head, which aside from a few alchemical
embellishments is precisely what it is - when testing a new summoning-circle design, it is
useful to have a backup method for keeping unhappy subjects at a safe distance until
they can be banished back whence they came. 

It is quite likely that this is the most dangerous course of study that University of
Salamander offers - aspiring students are actually required to swear binding oaths that
the University will be held innocent in any harm that may come to them as a result of
participation - and although Wessex Hall has space for at least 50 observers in the
elevated seats around the center, there are usually no more than two or three students
present for the lectures presented by Professor Fletcher.