Ulrich returns the caresses, pleasantly surprised. It's finally clicked that Thera is indeed Viscaria's familiar, but she looks pretty good in that outfit, she's intelligent (i.e. not a beast), and for all he knows she may be able to assume human form at will. It's the first time that he's been able to get this far with a woman without coming away temporarily maimed, and he's hoping it gets better.
Does the name "Valerian" ring any bells with Ulrich?
Ulrich watches her leave and return with a smile, very appreciative of the view.
I remember having stumbled across the Catalog, but can't find it now. Where is that, again? And is the mirror just what is says – a perfectly ordinary mirror?
Regulus is within Apollodorus' sanctum, Alexei and Deykin both have reason to believe he is dead. Retrieving him would be retrieving a corpse. Is Thera going to cross a sanctum marker when there appears to be conflicting accounts as to whether Apollodorus is dead?
Alexei heaves a sigh. He was far too wrapped up in his personal issues, how could he not know who was the boy's master? And for God's sake what was that talking spider doing at the table?
"We need to find Fiona, confirm if she lives or not. Now then, we have a prisoner. Everyone should take a swatch of this bloody cloth, it is an arcane connection to him." he stands and walks over to the wizard and moves the hood and robes to expose his face. "Has any seen him before? Valerian was here before, has this one as well? Can we discern anything of his origins? When he gains consciousness, can anyone interrogate him effectively? We need to find the author of this attack, who let Valerian off his leash?"
Yes. She's aware of the legality issues, but she has also been around this covenant long enough to know that she's probably the only one besides the quaesitor who has any knowledge of the law. She's confident that she could talk herself out of legal trouble. Determining the health of the familiar will determine the health of the wizard.
And while she has no ability to detect magic, she assumes that any traps inside the sanctum will not be triggered by her intended actions (open door, walk to cat, retrieve cat, close door.
A less hurried observation of Apollodorus suite is the studio which show cases much of his artwork, none of which is particularly inspired, but it is good quality painting and sculpting. Within the sanctum Thera spies the body of Regulus near some substance on the floor. There are many books within Apollodorus sanctum, several are in a different alphabet. Part of the bookshelf is covered with another piece of wood, like a door without a latch; it doesn't appear to be able to be opened in any way that's readily apparent.
One book is within a case that has a lid with a clear glass pane, the book has a light shimmer to it and seems to pulse with its own light.
Thera retrieves Regulus' corpse. It's apparent that there was a battle within the sanctum and there is evidence of ectoplasm near the corpse. Most of this was missed before due the hurried nature of the arrival and the subsequent battle with Valerian and his coterie.
"I thought I heard the cat say he had already defeated the spirit before he retreated to the sanctum. Didn't he say something about a book...?" Thera tries to recall.
If the cat is truly dead (and spiders should be able to tell the difference), then she will leave him and the rest of the studio alone, returning to the meeting to inform them of her discoveries.
"No doubt you will want to investigate these books, particularly the glowing one."
Thera never heard Regulus say anything, as that was within Apollodorus' sanctum. Where the battle took place, is apparently within the sanctum. However, there is a trail of blood leading from outside the sanctum, in the studio area into the sanctum.
I am Officially Confused(tm) about what I know and what has or has not been ret'con'd.
I also once again repeat my request for Thera's OoHLore 5, MT Lore 5, and CoH 3 Lore to shed some light on the situation. Perhaps if I roll dice, you'd be willing to answer specific questions?
She witnessed the battle within the sanctum, while being hidden outside Apollodorus' suite. After the battle one of the magi stomped Regulus when he tried to run out and past them. He made his way back inside and the door closed. She observed that the three magi were unable to enter the sanctum. Once the cat was back within the sanctum she saw the three make their way out of the studio, and then one of them blast the parapet in a fit of rage.
You indicated, as a player, that Thera was going to the library to search for info on this situation. I asked for clarification on what Thera thought the situation was. I was trying to get you to refine a research topic. I'm not sure what Thera is looking for. You also can't go wrong making a die roll. I'll inform you whether it is necessary or what was the result. I really dislike rolling for players.
To speed up things a bit, if she's looking for history of magi conducting a raid like this previously, she doesn't find any cases of a similar nature.
Okay, thank you. That was really unclear to me before, and its been so long since the beginning of this thread, that a lot of details are hazy.
A-ha! And now I understand what those words were about...
Questions she has for the library:
[] Legal terminology and definitions describing this sort of attack (killing a fellow wizard-in-good-standing of the Order, offensive magics within an Aegis, etc). I know, as a player, that things like Certamen and Wizards War were created to avoid these sorts of attacks, but (to borrow examples from modern law) explaining to our prisoner the concept of "felony murder" in proper legal terms is a pretty powerful interrogation technique. (Tangent: felony murder started in the 12th Century)
[] Who is Valerian? Xenophon? What are these Duresca Scrolls?
[] What can Thera deduce about the magi from their magics? Can she identify their sigils?
[] Does she know of anyone within the order that is strong in Intellego but isn't associated with the Quaesitors? We need someone to collect evidence.
Note that, as a player, part of the reason I was asking for the legal aspect of things was because Laetitia was no longer in the campaign. If she has re-joined the campaign then Thera is no longer the only PC with a concern for the legal aspects of this assault, and I can re-focus her on the politics and intrigue-web of the situation
((I was vague earlier alluding to the rapid action, and then I can come back in and fill in if something isn't unclear. I go with vague descriptions because players will often fill in blanks that I never thought were there and sometimes they come up with awesome ideas that I wasn't even contemplating. I realize it can be frustrating at times.))
Killing a wizard outside a Wizard's War is a High Crime. Period.
Valerian is the Chief Hoplite of the Normandy Tribunal and of the House of Guernicus.
Xenophon was apparently Apollodorus' former identity, there isn't any information in the library.
There are some volumes attributed to Xenophon according to the catalog, but they also have a notation that they are written in Greek.
No, the sigils were not evident at all. Nor were any other identifying marks.
Marcus is strong in Intellego.
((Arya is back, we're Beloved Rivals, we've agreed to give each other the benefit of the doubt and resolve issues in a more friendly fashion.))
Alexei invited any Magus that was still at the covenant, and then any person of interest might be brought by any magus at the meeting if they had something to add.
"Regulus has passed on. I could not ascertain whether this was from injuries during the fight with the magi and their spirit-minion, or due to the passing of his Sibling. There are several books in his study which I was not aware of from the library catalog. One of these books is glowing. This may be a trapped book, meant to assault the minds of intruders. I have a tool which may help us avoid that danger, if we wish to investigate the book.
"Unless one of the magi present is strong in Intellego magics, we will need to wait until the war party returns -- I believe Marcus went with them? It may behoove us to assemble a list of questions we need the magus to answer with his spellcraft. For example, if we can determine their sigils, that may prove an evidentiary boon.
"We must all be sure we understand the situation we are in. We have just been assaulted by the leading members of the Order's disciplinary force. It will be trivial for them to pretend that they were on some lawful business here. The legal system of the Order cares not about justice, but only about stability.
"My lord Alexei, this situation falls quite securely within your duties. Guide us. What must we do now?"
During the middle of this meeting, one of the guards who'd been stationed to watch the remaining attacker reports that the magus has died. and "The chiurgeon reports smelling bitter almonds around the mouth of the dead body."
Alexei is absorbing the various details as best as he can. So many events occurring, so many secrets revealed. And now their prisoner is dead. He sighs and decides against taking another glass of wine.
"We need to interrogate his spirit then and hopefully they have not come up with a method to confound that. We will be making an attack and soon, once our target is found. It's a little much, all of this. It wasn't long ago that I would have possibly been one of the magi involved in such an attack. I wanted to join the Hoplites. But everything has changed. Jacques. Get the turb assembled, every man, and put them on a war footing. I want all comings and goings scrutinized and a state of suspicious awareness on everyone. We will be implementing a series of secret phrases to bolster security. It will only help so much, as Mentem experts can side step those with some effort, but it is my experience that the more steps in place the greater chance even a master infiltrator may make a mistake.
"We must patch walls and make things secure. Those able to do so must go about this with all speed. I want all regio entries guarded with extra men, sealed off if possible. We need to find everyone that is residing within the covenant and if they are not present, like Fiona, we need to know where. I am sure she has not joined with the enemy, but we must find her, she might be in danger.
"I will likely make entreaties to my House's Primus and the see what the MIlites are doing. If I can convince them of what has happened we might be able to mobilize them, if so, then our covenant might become host to them."
"I would hear other suggestions, things I might have missed. Who is able to speak with the dead? I want that traitor's spirit thoroughly questioned."
Part of me would like to see Alexei go and knock some heads, but that is logistically difficult We'll presume that Alexei cools down a bit, or Mufarjj slaps him silly, privately. In this particular thread Jacques is the only magus present, Ulrich is an apprentice, and no one else has magical power.
Theraphosa would definitely council a long term revenge plan rather than immediate action on Alexei's part.
I don't feel like we're quite ready to end this chapter yet, even if .2e is only a few days after this point. The chapter stalled because qcipher had been offline for a bit, and this is now his chapter, with other players running supporting characters. (I feel like that wasn't immediately obvious.)
Key questions remain:
Do we report this to someone? Who?
What do we do with the body? (Theraphosa votes we store it somewhere so that Viscaria can turn him into Bob The Skull as punishment for invading our home as soon as she gets back) (hey, is that legal?)
-Do we investigate A's sanctum immediately or wait until Marcus and others get back? That glowing book should probably be dealt with immediately.
What evidence can we collect / preserve immediately?