Ivan the Somewhat Terrible was a fourth-level Arch Vice Sub-Chancellor at the University of Evokia at Kletva, College of Runes and Curses. He’d idly thought about getting into necromancy to see if he could get the “Somewhat” dropped, but then again at least dead languages didn’t stink. On the other hand (the one with four fingers) he did dabble in alchemy, which had its own choice smells.
Many of his fellow wizards were into astrology but he wasn’t about to let a bunch of stars order him around. He’d make his own plans, thank you very much, or lack thereof. However, you didn’t need precognition to recognize the looming potential problem of Blackmountain’s orcish army invading right when Arcanus–the moon of magic–was in eclipse.
At the moment he was working to see if he could replicate the now infamous Skyrian hildr powder. He was pretty certain that the ash and brimstone were fine, so really saltpetre was the issue. He did know a reliable way to get it, but it smelled worse than even necromancy. Well, maybe he could get a grad student to deal with it. After all, wasn’t that what they were for?