"That would seem very helpful indeed. I would very much like to hear about your progress in the future. I haven't had much training in the elements and it came as a surprise to me when I first heard that Intellego could be used on them just as they can be used on Corpus or Animal, or Herbam for that matter. Those Forms deal with living things and I thought that was the barrier to even try to learn intelligible things from them." Menatia says to Animus.
As Eduardo and Hildegarde starts their arguement Menatia just smiles complacently as she listens to them. Then she leans towards Animus and whispers. "There is a Tytalus in everyone."
Hildegarde answers with a disappointed tone "I'll have to disagree with you Eduardo, triumph without peril brings no glory. Fighting without honor is meaningless and only weakens the value of the cause you're fighting for. But I agree that one should go to great length to stay alive a I just find It unsavory to seek victory using dirty tactics at every occasion."
Animus looks at her, starts to speak but stops himself. A moment later, he says, "I suppose it is part of human nature to have darker side lurking inside of us." There is, perhaps, the hint of a smirk on his face, "Of course, whether we struggle against it or embrace it is a choice each of us need to make."
(OOC: There is no way all of these discussions took place while we were moving between the hall and the library, as they are fairly close to each other, so this was probably spread out throughout the visit of the covenant, IMHO.)
"No Animus, there is no choice. Just the struggle. Always the struggle." Menatia smiles.
(OOC: Yes I suppose so too that this discussion has been over a more extended period. I also assume we have got the promised tour of the main parts of the castle?)
Theres plenty of peril, a keen eye, not enough poison to twist the humors, hell you could be unaware of a guernicus having an afair with your rivals courtesan and kill the wrong person. Besides...whos more glorious Damhan-Alliadh or Pralix? The answer is simple...Pralix because one of didn't get pressed into the grave a little earlier than their earthly allotted time. The raising of an army against such a rival is cunning by using all those that were wrong by him, Cunning wins the day. He grinned at Menatia, picking on the Tremere as they all moved along.
After an hour or two Adele returns. She spends a few minutes resting when she gets back. Then she goes looking for the others, asking around the covenant to find out where they've all gone. When she finds them she says, "Well, it looks like there was someone impersonating Felix. House Mercere isn't happy with this, either, so I'm sure they'll do some investigating from their end." She fills them in on what she found out about the real Felix, false Felix, and the letters. "What have you all been up to this morning?"
"It must have been a really good impersonator then, if he managed to trick the Redcaps at Fengheld as well." Menatia concludes with a slight hint of admiration after Adele has told them what she found out. "It's a good thing House Mercere is doing some investigations as well. I guess it won't be good for their reputation if this spreads too widely. What is our next step? Is it worth looking for the real Felix? No one seems to know where he is, he might even be in Egypt if that Horst heard him correctly. Can we send out a question somehow to ask where Felix was last seen or heard of, both the real and the fake one?"
Then she answers Adele's question what they have been up to. "It has been a wonderful morning actually. We have got a tour of the main keep and especially the library is a true wonder. Then we have got to know each other better. We have our differences but that must be better than if we all thought the same, don't you agree?"
"Trying to locate the real Felix would seem to be the obvious next step. If Horst mentioned that his absence was related to faeries, then the impersonation might be related to that as well. Or perhaps it was the real Felix who delivered those letters, as some sort of price paid to the faeries for restoring his Gift. So this might be a faerie plot of some sort." Animus looks at the others, "Do any of you have knowledge of faeries?"
"We might also try to retrace all of the place that he visited since Felix went on sabbatical. That would mean visiting all of the covenants of the Tribunal. Perhaps in one of those places we might be able to find an arcane connection to the one who delivered the letters."
"That is all that I can think of. Any other ideas?"
"I have basic knowledge of fairy, not that I'm really interested in the subject, I hope I can be of some help, but I'm afraid searching faeries capable of impersonation will bring a large list, let me think of It, maybe by crossing criteria... "
Hildegarde adds " searching for places where He's been seems quite time consuming, maybe keep It as a last option because It will also bring unnecessary suspicions on Redcaps " Turning to Adele She asks "Did they perform a test on the Stewart bringing the letter to check If her memory has been changed, maybe we could find residual magic or magical Sigil."
In response to the query about the steward Adele replies, "I don't know if they examined the steward. I'm also not sure how forward it would be to ask if we could. Some Creo-Mentem effects to strengthen the steward's memory of the real Felix and the meeting with the imposter at the same time could allow the steward to compare memories well. Yes, your suggestion of checking the steward for active Mentem effects could be good, too. But I wouldn't want to step afoul of another covenant in asking."
Hearing about what they've all been up to she replies, "It seems I've missed an interesting morning. I'll have to catch up on getting to know you and the covenant. At least I was able to get things moving quickly at Fengheld, though."
Indeed this would be a breach of etiquette to ask to do It ourselves, I was just asking If they already did It themselves.
Hildegarde turns to the group and adds [b]"We could probably investigate what Felix's project was more precisely by asking some of his more intimate acquaintances If they could tell us more about his project to recover his gift and the fairies he was suppose to deal with. If I remember well He was based in Harco. Maybe we could use the Mercere portals to get there fast. I don't remember the cost required to use them, but maybe we could negociate a free passage considering the reason of our visit.
I don't want to become paranoid, but there's a slight possibility that we're not investigating the right realm of power, tricking someone in fool's bargain by promising to give him some kind of power by healing his gift could also be infernal deception..."[/b]
"Maybe it's time to report to the senior Magi, now that we have the seed of a plan. Lets hope they can bring some pieces of advice, an provide a wagon to Harco." Hildegarde then starts following the grog Guide to meet Daria and Remi, followed by any magus who wish to join her.
Upon arriving She greets the masters and explains the situation "It seems that as we thought someone was impersonating Felix and he was good enough to Trick both the Redcaps and Fengheld. It seems that he was given a year off duty to investigate a possibility of restoring his gift in Egypt, this story seems to involve faeries so we thought this might be the source of the trickery. We're planning to split into 2 groups Animus and Adele want to visit other covenant where false Felix has been to try and find arcane connections. Menatia and I haven't developped long distance magical transportation yet so we plan to travel to Harco using mundane means to find out the real Felix's project. I'm sure Menatia's gentle gift will be a great asset for this" She turns to Menatia and smiles, then adds " and I hope I will be able to help Identify those Egyptian faeries thanks to my basic knowledge of this realm." the then asks the 2 covenant members :"What do you think of our plan of action ? Do you have any guidance to provide ?"
OOC : I took the liberty to make the report, feel free to stop me and make modifications.
(OOC: I'm good with this, although we would probably have also told them the details of the meeting with Horst. This might help them provide us with some clue. But Animus will let the others talk, particularly Adele, as he has no first-hand information to add except conjectures.)
Menatia agrees to the plan and fills in where she can. A trip to Harco sounds very interesting but she really hopes they can aquire a wagon as means of transportation, not that she will complain if they don't though.
Daria considers the question. The she replies: "It may help to inform a quaesitor and gain his permission to use an Arcane connection to find Felix. There is usually one at Harco to help the redcaps with the paperwork. I also think it is likely that you can find an active Arcane connection to Felix either at Fengheld or at Harco. Just don't use any Arcane Connections before you have the permission to. I could cast "The inexorable search" for you, "but it would be both faster and more efficient if one of you knew a similar spell."
She also points you to a volume on fairies, but although (some of) you are quite familiar with the topic, you fail to see any connection between Egypt, Fairies, and Felix. You briefly wonder if the restoration of Felix' Gift is symbollically linked to the rebirth of the Egyptian Fairie King Osiris, but find absolutely no evidence for such a far-flung idea.
Hildegarde nods [b]"That's indeed a wise reminder. I hope we can find a Quaesitor in Harco but even If there's none, I'm sure they will know where we can find one.
I'm afraid I can't provide a spell to find Felix with an arcane connection, maybe we'll have to rely on the help of the quaesitor to cast such a spell for us. [/b]
After consulting the volume on Faeries, She seems doubtful " Maybe someone more knowledgeable on the subject could come up with something concerning the faeries, but this seems quite inextricable to me. I hope once we get more precise information It will become clearer"
Frustrated by the size of her own spell repertoire and her lack of usefulness for a moment, she dispels this thought and try to turn her attention to the next step :" Is there a wagon with horses and a driver you could spare for the time of the travel or shall we ask the villagers ?"
(OOC : can we assume we carry a small amount of money (amount ?) with us or shall we also ask for money to Daria ?)
(OOC: Menatia spent her last season before coming here as her merchant persona (something she hasn't presented to the others yet though) and then she may have earned some money which was part of the idea for her adventuring that season. If Pralix doesn't want us to have much money then she managed to spend it all just before she came to Triamore I guess. However if she does have some money she is willing to spend it for whatever mundane means the group needs.)