Angelo headed into the room set up with the golems and took a position near the safe zone, waiting there while the kids filed in. Each of the four golems had
'מת'

carved into their foreheads, each was missing the final glyph that would bring them to life.

They were also currently missing the 'shem' which was the paper with the 'magic formula' denoting each specific golem's task. These, Angelo held concealed in his hand.

"Take a look at the golems up close if you'd like. They won't hurt you." Not yet. "They each need to be activated before they can do anything. Once you all get a chance to take a look, I'll go over the safety rules, place the shem in their mouths, and activate them with the necessary glyph, and you'll all have a chance to see controlled golems in action and have a go at taking them out."


Should be fun.

"Those of you who don't want to participate in actively battling a golem, may sit in the safe zone." Angelo gestured at it. "Its an area protected by runes, the golems can't pass through it. However, if you choose to sit out, you can still participate by using your brain, help your classmates by using the provided books and your notes to figure out how to defeat each golem, taking into account its material and also that they may each have slightly different magically invoked strengths and weaknesses."
And of course if anyone had questions they could probably get them in right now too.

ooc: this is your chance to get your charrie settled. You can have them go up and examine the golems while it is safe to do so, or stay away if your character is afraid

Nat had come into the room and stopped at the door. Her eyes widened at the sight of the room. Quickly she wished it was the small clay objects that would have come to life to battle because these were a lot bigger and scarier then she wanted. Her eyes went to the man that was in the room too and she glanced around for Professor Hirsch. Freezing as the man spoke she let her eyes move to the spots he mentioned. A safe zone was something she was ready to go and be in, but she didn't want to look like a wimp either. So she stood frozen to the spot not sure what to do.


Chewing her lip and just looking from the statues to the man Nat stayed near the door she finally slowly walked over toward the statues, not getting to close but closer. She looked at them and wondered if she was talented enough in defense to even stand a chance. She had been practicing with Hirsch to get better, but was it enough?

Deciding that maybe she wasn't Nat headed for the safe zone feeling incredibly lame and basically like a first year, but maybe if she just watched for a moment she could jump in if she felt comfortable. Could you do that?

"Excuse me? She said quietly towards the man, "If we come to the safe zone are we stuck here the entire time or if we start to feel comfortable enough to try could we jump in and give it a try?"

Jace quietly entered the room, and was not disappointed with what he saw. It was going to be a game, wasn't it? There were flags on the left and the huge golems on the right. The Ravenclaw huddled closer to the group as he carefully listened to Mr. Toussaint. As he spoke, the information that was fed to him a while back came buzzing in his mind and could not help the excitement he was feeling.

Given that two grown men were there to watch everything, Jace decided to give one of the golems a very good look. Surely...there was something written on its forehead...the word 'emet' but without the aleph to make it come to life. See, he'd been recording everything in his brain even without actual note taking.

The Ravenclaw took a step back and got curious about the shem. Will it contain runes? Or a bunch of numbers?

Can they start now? Yes?

omg omg omg omg were they going into battle with the golems?? omg omg omg omg

Genny was practically skipping her way to the other room behind the professor. The arena looked so promising with the flags and the big figures on the other side of it. She stood on her toes trying to see properly from over taller students' shoulders as Angelo told them to get acquainted with the figures. Without missing a beat, she shot forwards toward the statues. Her mouth opened at how majestic all four of them looked, then her hand touched the wooden one while her eyes were mesmerized and looking up at its head. "Whoa." She moved on to inspect the other three.

Azura'S mouth dropped open as she headed into the room.. Hey! She had been right! They could use them for teaching purposes and that was exactly what looked like what was happening..

Cool..

She looked around in awe before smiling a bit.. They were going to have to defeat them somehow weren't they? She carefully took note of each material they were made of.. it would come in handy later before moving over to the blue flag.. She was nervous and scared.. But she trusted her Professors wouldn't let anyone get TOO hurt.. so here she was.

"Wicked!" Kitty exclaimed excitedly as she saw the four magnificent golems, seven feet tall and made of ice, stone, glass, and wood. She knew that they would probably become terrifying in moments but for now they just liked beautiful decorations one might place outside a mansion. She took out her camera and snapped a few pictures.

"Erm...I might stay in the safe zone." Kitty was very relieved to hear that there was a safe zone. Fighting wasn't really her thing, it was way too physical and there were too much risk of getting hurt. "Unless you REALLY need me, then I'll fight." She felt she had to make the offer since she was a prefect.

((woo! I'm early! ))

Jonas joined the others in the arena. He looked and as the professor talked, he stepped closer to get a better look at the golem. He had never seen one in real life before. It looked like a house elf. But....he knew it wasn't.
Geez he had a weeeeeiiird imagination. O_o....

((Jonas is going to participate by defeating the golem plz))

The glass golem had drawn Junia's attention and she moved toward it confidently, head tilted to the side. She couldn't help but think that her grandfather would've enjoyed this activity. Hassan, too, she imagined.

Perhaps the best place for her would be in the safe zone, trying to help her classmates by giving direction. Merlin knew she was good at bossing and access to books during the activity was important, given she was still learning all kinds of things that the older students might already know about. Yes, the safe zone was the right choice.

They were moving. Chloe wasn't really sure why as she was half-listening. Not on purpose. Just because Hirsch's face was making other things blurry. She almost certain that he was teaching something relatively important for exams but, merlin, he was pretty.

So without much prompting she got up and followed the crowd. Mostly Hirsch.

But her attention was diverted when she saw the statues. They looked innocent enough but she went to Hogwarts and knew what came of assuming things were safe and innocent. Lots of people had died at this school. And she was no lion. She was not going to get a closer look and be the next on that very long list.

THEN Angelo said something about not participating with the golems. She assumed they'd be battling them. Haha. No.

She was going to sit in the safe zone, thanks.

------

Jonas walked around the arena a bit. He wondered why nobody else was coming closer to see the golem. He thought it looked awesome, to be honest with you. Yeah. He walked over to a Ravenclaw.
"I don't know why you're scared. It's behind a barrier or something," he said to Cloe somewhat offhandedly

Noelle ventured into the other room along with a lot of other students. Her eyes shone bright as she looked around at the flags and the golems. Her eyes focused on one golem at a time until Angelo started talking. Then her eyes went to him.

Safe zone? No thank you.
Noelle wasn't one who backed down from a challenge. It was kinda scary to go up against the golems, but there were a crowd of students here and four golems. They could do this.

Tying her hair up, Noelle kept her wand in its holster on her side. She'd try her best to not use magic, just as she was told. She looked over as people took the safe zone, and another asked if they could come out of the safe zone at any time.

Now, to examine the golems closely. Noelle went up to each one. She examined them closely. Her mind rolling over ways to stop them once they were alive.

Clay dragon looking about as realistic as possible, given she wasn’t exactly an artist, Brooklyn had cast a protection charm over it before she’d moved to the other room. Besides, she’d wanted to make sure nobody went through her things, either, as she left her bag behind and only took her wand. It wasn’t as if she actually had notes to worry about bringing along. She figured whatever professor Hirsch was going to throw at them couldn’t be much worse than the dummies when they’d practiced hand-to-hand.

Once she’d arrived with the others, she’d merely eyed the golems from a distance, focusing particularly on the one made of ice and the one made of glass as Mr Toussaint had explained a bit about the activity. Those seemed the most dangerous, for some reason. Maybe it was the thoughts of the white walkers, but she knew she wasn’t going to let those get close to her. The golems, that is. Although she wasn’t about to cower in the safe zone either. None of the golems was a spider after all.

Angelo's lesson was coooool. Granted, it was obviously the brainchild of the very handsome Hirsch, but Katy wanted to give credit to her older cousin. He was clever (too clever to be a Ministry hack) and probably had contributed greatly to this activity.

And they were gonna fight some golem things! It wasn't like Katy was a fainting delicate thing, and she was interested in trying her wand skills against the beasties.

For now, though, she was content to stand at the feet of the ice golem and punch its thighs with her tiny, ineffectual fists. TAKE THAT, BEASTIE.

No, bruh.

A battle was just what she needed to get the juices flowing again. After the previous unpleasantness... Olivia required a little physicality. So, SIGN HER UP, Angel Angelo. She desperately needed to fight something.

So, no safe zone for us. She was just going to go take a stance near Katy.

Entering the room where the activity was to be held Hadleigh stepped off to the side as much as possible. First things first she was going to be listening quietly to what Angelo and their professor had to say. No mistakes were going to be made if these Golem's were going to be advancing on them, attacking them. Everything that was being said was mentally noted and hopefully was going to be put to good use.

Hazel eyes strayed around the room taking in the four Golem's spending equal time looking each one over. From top to bottom. Bottom to top. Taking special notice of the cravings on their heads as well her mind already going to work at trying to figure out what it meant. Soon enough she would be finding out.

Folding up her parchment that contained her notes Hady tucked it away in the pocket of her robes. She wouldn't be needing that right now, she had no plans on staying in the safe zone. Raising her hand she felt for her wand that was snug in it's holster on her wrist. As of now she was ready and set to go. There was nothing more to be done then to wait and keep checking out those Golem's for the time being.

Whoaahh!! Tenacius looked at the awesome arena before him. "This is awesome!" he bounced around gleefully, running to each of the four gollem to check them out as Mr Toussaint did the explaining.

Sit this one out? Heck no! Things like these is what the Gryffindor Ace lives for. He ran back to the two Defense Instructors, excitement bleeding out of every pore "What do we do what do we do??"

So this was interesting. They were going to be battling the golems, and the things were all made of different things. Would that affect what they could do or anything? Rula supposed they'd find out.

She stepped closer to each of them, looking them up and down for anything that might help once they were able to move. Because she was definitely going to participate in fighting them. No way was she going to just sit and watch.

A line of golems. At first, Blaise hovered at the door, figuring that if they started rampaging he'd just exit stage left and head for an early lunch. However, a closer look revealed they were still immobile.

Curiosity was a hard thing to deny. It pulled the Fourth Year closer to the statues that he would otherwise want nothing to do with. Not even gonna lie, they were pretty neat up close and the boy found himself knocking at one. Pretty sturdy by the feel of it.

While he carried out his inspection, he listened to the words of the YATI. Battling these? The Professor said to take their wands and now they're be a battle? Uhhhh......how about no? Not unless it was more of a physical battle in which they all used teamwork to take down the golems. The good old fashion tackle with useful weapons...not this....flick of the wrist, flash of light stuff. No thanks.

Sounded like he'd be in the safe zone. His inner Gryffindor cringed at the thought but at the same time, no wand anyway. There was nothing he could do.

So they were using the dueling arena. Or maybe not that arena, but another. Cassie looked around, taking a good look of her surroundings. Mostly empty but 2 sets of 4 things on either side, the colors of the flags lending the Ravenclaw to believe they were to be divided by house. Maybe some sort of group activity. The auror trainee finally spoke up, dragging her attention back to the shapes on the other side identifying them as larger than life golems.

Okay…she had a bad feeling about this.

Taking them out? It didn’t seem to easy an idea, especially enchanted by someone experienced in the matters. And no, she did not need to move closer to the golems for the moment. If she was right, they’d be plenty up close and personal soon enough. Cassie would just be waiting for her turn as it no doubt would arrive at some point. And hope she didn’t get too overwhelmed.

Once they were asked to head into the next room, Henry got up and headed over. And as he entered the room, the first thing he noticed were the rather tall figures with the unusual symbols on them. His eyes surveyed each of them for a moment as he lingered in the doorway, then moved out of the way to stand with the other students.

Oh, so the figures were golems. He didn't feel the need to examine them up close, but he did turn his attention on the guest speaker as he mentioned a few things about them. Henry wasn't going to hang out in the safety zone either though. It sounded like battle game that they'd be playing and that sounded like all sorts of fun.

Angelo judged that they'd had long enough to look at the golems up close so it was time to start the activity. Hopefully they'd enjoy it and work together to succeed.

"Alright listen up. The goal here is to stop the golems from attacking. They have all been charmed so that if they make contact with anyone and actually hit you, it won't hurt you - they're cushioned essentially, but you might get the wind knocked out of you and get thrown back if you are hit with enough force. Remember that they absorb magic so you can't attack them with spells directly, however you might just be able to effect the environment in a way that could stop or slow them down. You can also use certain shielding spells to protect yourself and each other, Impiriano is a good one to protect yourself, and Contego is one that is quite suited to casting on a friend to protect them from a hit." Did that make sense? Angelo wasn't going to be teaching anyone to use those spells though, that was up to Hirsch or the older children.

"This is a competition of sorts in that you are going to be trying to score for your house. Those four flags will each change to show points you earn -not house points but competition points- as you work toward the goal of destroying golems. In other words, you all work together for all four golems, but for your participation, you'll score for your own house." That way they could work with friends from other houses, but still do their parts to compete as a whole.

"Use your strengths, subject-wise. For example if one of the golems seems extra fast, perhaps you might try and use arithmancy numbers to represent slowing things down. Perhaps you can invoke a rune or two to be helpful. Of course in order to do this you need to be able to mark the golems somehow...." Angelo helpfully summoned four tins of paint, one in each house colour, each appearing under its corresponding flag, several brushes alongside for those who weren't inclined to get their fingers covered in paint. Probably they'd all get pretty painted up though, honestly.

"Other than remembering that the golems will absorb a direct magical attack, you need to keep in mind that the marks on the forehead ought to be a target." Which was fun because they were seven feet high. "Additionally, in the mouths of each golem there will be a piece of parchment that you must remove to fully disable the golem. You don't have to get it through its mouth if you can figure out another way though." So. He walked over to the first golem and used his wand to etch the symbol 'א' alongside the symbols that were already there. They glowed and Angelo beckoned the golem with one finger. It bent almost double and opened its mouth. Angelo put a piece of parchment inside and the golem seemed to swallow before straightening up. He went down the line and did the same for the other three golems until all four were stood with:


'אמת'

glowing and carved in their heads.

Time to begin.

The flags each flashed with a great big ZERO.

0_______________0______________0______________0

ooc note and instructions:
WHEW. Hopefully this isn't going to be too complex. The idea is for you guys to have your charries think creatively and logically and work together to defeat the golems.

Those who are in the safe zone can cast shields on their friends if they wish (contego is good for this according to SS canon, you just say contego [person's name/object being cast on] in order to do that) or they can use the books and their own notes to come up with ideas for what people can try and paint on the golems.

speaking of the paint, feel free to have your charries use their fingers or a brush, depending on their preference.

Spells CAN and should be used, but not on the golems themselves. The floor could work. Conjuring useful things could work. Try and be creative!

The golems are additionally cushioned/charmed so that if they hit anyone (and they will!) that it won't damage your character, or seriously hurt them in any way. They might be knocked over though, or have the wind knocked out of them. NO SERIOUS INJURIES ARE TO BE RP'D. There are TWO adults on hand who are here to intervene if necessary!

Your character can step into the safe zone at any time, or out to join the battle!

Finally, there is a golems account, so please react accordingly to it, and don't RP outcomes! And have fun!

Arithmancy:
ss textbook
Any number meanings found in here can be used on the golems, as long as your character justifies the reasoning behind the number choice (if they want to take the arithmancy route) for example if you wanted to bring a golem that flies (none do, this is an example!) down to the earth again, you could literally use a number (or number sequence) that means 'down to earth'. As long as you can justify the number's application in some way then it might just prove useful. Chaldean and Pythagorean are both acceptable.

Ancient Runes:
a resource (but feel free to google and use whatever)
There are rune meanings that you could use here to combat the golems. For instance if you want to slow down a golem that seems to be quite fast.... there is definitely a rune that could help Don't forget to invoke the runes

You have until the 11th of October, 11:59pm GMT+1/BST to make as many posts as you'd like!

The wooden golem shuddered and then began to move. Its arms stretched and snapped out quickly like whips and it attacked the nearest student, aiming to grab it by the ankles.

___

The ice golem shivered and took a step, leaving an icy footprint behind it. It turned its head and breathed out a blast of coooooold air.

___

The glass golem shimmered and then, like a chameleon, seemed to disappear. It was, if you looked VERY closely, still visible as a slight shimmer around its edges though....

___


The stone golem ROARED and then with a crash began a lumbering but seemingly unstoppable charge towards a group of students....

Jace carefully watched Mr. Toussaint, noting the way he commanded each of the Golems. The third year was at awe as he momentarily looked at his own hand. If he learned how to make a proper golem...then he’d be able to do that? Eyes up front again, Jace discreetly took his wand out from his arm holster and eyed the heads of each golem. Back in his first year, he had fun climbing the topiaries at the tower patch so climbing a 7-foot tall golem wouldn’t be a problem. However, he thought that it was the easy route to take. He figured that his teachers have worked hard to equip him with the right information to execute and defeat creatures or beings that are dark in nature.

As he eyed the aleph on the wooden golem, Jace assumed the basic fighting stance in kendo with his cherry wand pointed straight at the golem’s head. As his usual in any kendo match, Jace was fully aware of his opponent, his senses automatically heightened. The sweeping movement of the golem’s hand was somehow anticipated as he saw the shift on the golem’s shoulder, and Jace quickly jumped back to avoid being hit.

There must be a way to stop the golem. There’s no way he could aim at the aleph and nick it out easily. Eyes still on the wooden beast, Jace reached out to the nearest student and shook his...or her arm. “Distract the wooden golem! I have an idea!”

Huh..

Azura still wasn't sure how to fight these things and she bit her lip a little as they started moving! Ackkkk! Okay! Maybe she should have stayed in the safe zone?

But then an arm grabbed hers and she turned to look at Jace.. distract the wooden Golem? Howwwwww did she do that, brilliant best friend? But she nodded..

"I'm on it! " She said with a nod as she picked up her wand and darted closer to the wooden Golem.. For the love of the Fwoopers please don't let her fall! She moved as close as she dared before pointing her wand upwards and saying "Avis!" She had been practicing that spell with Noelle.

Birds shot out of her wand and she bit her lip..

Was this a distraction?