Prochorus whips out his drum. He looks around to make sure there are no mundanes about, starts gurgling like a scuttling barge, and does a little dance around the bone. In the end he touches it gently.
youtube.com/watch?v=evd_IWzVQYo
Lifespont InCo base 5 +1 touch = 10 against total 15 w/o aura (we are doing this next to the lab cabin up on Oberland). I'm most interested in the age and history of the bone, but want to know anything else I can get.
(No botch on the spell. As this is happening off stage, the number of Fatigue Levels doesn't have any impact so I didn't bother calculating the exact total.)
The bone is a rib from a man. The bone itself is about seventy years old and the man was in his forties when he died. The bone has been in the sea since the violent death of the man and was picked clean by fish and other sea creatures. It became wedged into the crevice where you found it and became infused with magic on that spot. The bone doesn't really know how that happened, but things have brushed on it numerous times since it became wedged there.
Prochorus relates all of this to the others.
So it became magical only after hitting the seafloor. So much for my theory. There might be something that generates vis down there, though. Have to keep an eye out like I intended to. Anyone make anything else out of this? If not, I'll show Japik the spot.
I'm not diving back there for sightseeing purposes, though, so keep to the surface. And protect yourself.
When Japik investigates the spot, he discovers additional human bones buried in the sand around the rocky outcrop. None of those he brings up to the surface contain any vis, and most of them seem relatively old. A few, however, prove to be more recent, less than a year old...
(Considering that Bearlord is not active at the moment, this leaves the focus of this thread on Prochorus, unless he wants to involve someone else.)
Prochorus tries a different approach next. He goes to perform at the docks again, and discreetly casts Posing the Silent Question on people. He begins by asking "Why do people throw bread into the sea?" Total 20 before aura, target 20, formulaic.
He composes a new song for this, "The Wet Wench's Thousand Abyssal Teeth."
He basically gets variations on...
"To fend off the evil spirits that live in the sea..."
"To gain good luck and avoid storms..."
"Bread? I don't throw no (expletive) bread into the sea... I can barely afford to buy any here."
"The old legends say it prevents monsters from attacking our ships, so I don't take any chance..."
"I don't want to have my heart eaten by sea monsters..."
He tries "When do you throw bread into the sea?".
"Whenever my ship goes near (name of the spot varies)..."
"In the deep winter is the best time..."
"Before winter, since we don't travel much in the stormy season..."
"I don't throw bread, they (it is vague who is 'they') say it is better to throw a slave overboard..."
(Forgot I already had that information)
Prochorus realizes he doesn't really have any idea what he is trying to accomplish and gives up.
He shows the bone to Konrad and tells him everything he knows.
You were so smart last time. Any ideas about what could be going on here?
I think it's proably some of Iku-Turso's octopus ilk down there. What I don't get is how the corpus vis gets into the bone after it's already sitting on the seafloor. Could it be just the bread that people are sacrificing? Seems doubtful. Some of the people on the docks mentioned sacrificing slaves. That seems a stronger contender, although I don't know where they get slaves in this day and age.
If you don't have any better ideas, I'm just going to go take a peek in there a year from now and see if there's more. The source would probably yield better if we figured out the trigger, but Ukko knows I won't try feeding people to the octopus monsters any time soon.
Konrad nods and listens to a run down of the bread sacrifice and the human rib that was found. then offers his observations.
"You say that the locals speak of a place not too far off shore where sailors throw offerings in the ocean to appease the spirit of the sea. These offerings usually take the form of baked food, often in the shape of a very small loaf of bread. This is said to decrease the hunger of sea monsters, so that they don't attack those sailing these waters. I wonder. Could they, knowingly or unknowingly, be trying to appease the octopus-men, or perhaps Iku-Turso?"
It's sailors who do the sacrificing. You say they throw their offerings into the sea at the based of a rock off some way to the north (beyond the pillars). Mostly in the spring, before the busier sailing season, but some do the same at various times of the year. Could spring be an important aspect of the ritual? Or perhaps there's something else about the timing of the offerings that might be important, random, but more common in the spring? Maybe after a storm or the like."
"The sacrifices are made by a fairly small outcrop of rock, beaten by waves, at the limits between the deep waters of the sea and the shallower area closer to Denmark. The shallow area gets wider as one moves south, but at this point it is probably 10 to 15 miles wide. So to the south and east of the rock the sea is shallow, less then 10 paces deep — with many sand banks, marshes and temporary islands — while to the north and west it is much deeper. The obvious conclusion is that something from the deep sea comes up to this place - the closest it can easily approach."
"Have we checked the area around the rock for a magical aura? If infusion of vis is at all a regular thing there, the place may be a weak aura."
"In any case, you say that while inspecting around the rock, you noticed that it forms an overhang at one spot. Swimming there to get a better view, you saw that there is an entrance below, much like a cave. Further inspection revealed that the small cave is quite shallow as well as unoccupied. There were a few bones lying on the uneven floor of the cave. The bones are on the large side. Small ones probably get carried away by the tides since the shallow cave isn't protected from the movement of the water.
One of the curved bones, stuck in a crack in the rocks, contained one unit of Corpus vis. The bone is a rib from a man and is about seventy years old. Magic revealed that the man was in his forties when he died."
"So, what happened there seventy years ago that might have been important? Have we asked around to see if anyone on the island can remember stories about that time? Or was the coprus infused in the last seventy years since the bone got there? In that case, our options for investigation are much wider."
"The bone has apparently been in the sea since the violent death of the man and was picked clean by fish and other sea creatures. It became wedged into the crevice where it was found and became infused with magic on that spot. The bone doesn't really know how that happened, but things have brushed on it numerous times since it became wedged there. Did one of the things that brushed against it infuse it with vis, or were they just fish nibbling on the rotting flesh around the bone?"
"The spell Image of the Man revealed that the bone belonged to a middle-aged man, with a weathered face and the body of someone who had lead a hard life, though not a warrior, as he didn't bear the type of scars that come with battle injuries. The conclusion would be that the man was a sailor or fisherman of some sort. He apparently had that look about him, even though without clothing it was hard to be certain. I know they lose fisherman from time to time. But have we tried to figure out what fisherman might have been lost out there? Perhaps that investigation can be tied to finding out what happened seventy years ago."
"Additional human bones are buried in the sand around the rocky outcrop. However, none of those investigated contained any vis, and most of them seem relatively old. A few, however, proved to be more recent, less than a year old. Are the fact that they are human bones enough to explain the fact that the rib was infused with Corpus vis, or is there something else humanoid involved? The recent bones may come from a storm or other tragedy a year ago. We should check that out too. Could something that happened then have triggered the bone being infused? Have we swept the area to see if there is any vis remaining in any of the other bones? I know that you cheecked some of the bones. How much remains unexplored?"
"So," Konrad concludes, "Those are my thoughts. I know I simply raises more questions. But hopefully those questions will point us in the right direction."
Prochorus nods appreciatively.
You are one useful fellar.
I'm damn near willing to bet my southern testicle on that. The question is more whether this is the magical monstrosity Iku-Turso and its hench-octopi down there, or whether it is just a second-rate fae charade.
Yeah, I thought about that. I just don't see any way to find out. If spring is the thing, there should be vis there next year.
Good catch about the depth, again. The other alternative would be that something comes from the shore and can't go deeper. But I'm pretty sure it's the other way round.
Never occurred to me. Whoever goes there next should check.
Seventy years is an eternity. Even if we find anyone old enough to have memories from that time, I would have to help a bit. Besides, I doubt the event we are looking for would be something particularly memorable. It's just a dead sailor. Happens every year here. Most of the bones weren't human, so it's not like we're talking about some town-shaking massacre.
My guess is that the monsters take a sailor here, a fisherman there. That's why people sacrifice the bread. They know these things happen, and they want to live. Whether it's a faerie feeding off of the ritual or a magical creature that doesn't care - who knows.
Not a bad idea. Probably one of your jobs again, Mr. Gentle.
Pretty sure I got 'em all. Had a hearing-range detection spell active, and the cave isn't that huge.
So all in all, I think the only thing we can do is to add finding out about the dead sailors to your growing list. It may take us somewhere or not, who knows.
OOC: I'm not sure if you're waiting on me to do anything. But just in case, here's a post.
For the next day or two, Konrad settles himself and his nephew into the new covenant. After that, he makes another visit to the village below to see what he might be able to acquire in the way of healing supplies. He'll introduce himself as a medical man who's come to live at the new residence on the hill. He'll ask the normal questions someone new in the area would ask. He'll also ask what kind of healers or apothecaries there are on the island currently. He won't immediately start asking questions about stories. He's looking to spend some time getting to know the locals first. If there's any kind of local hangout (e.g., the house of someone in town who brews beer), he'll show up there (if he's welcome) and act just like a newcomer trying to fit in (which he is). He will, however, keep his ears open.
OOC: My intention for Konrad is to actually spend the next two seasons setting up a lab. Given everything he should have most of what he needs to do so. The rest, furniture, etc., should be things he can get made locally. He started with 3/5 mythic pounds worth of hard-to-get lab equipment. Then he bought everything he could think of that he might need while he was on the mainland. (He had more than 2 pounds of silver, so that shouldn't have been a problem.) From what I understand, it was only the large fixtures that were missing, which he should be able to get build over the next six months. So, it's a dull half a year ahead for him. But it's got to be done.
(Is Konrad trying to meet and talk to people in the village called Ober -- on the plateau and nearer to where the labs will be set up -- or in the larger town of Meden, where the ships arrive and where the covenant has a haunted inn?)
OOC: He'll start by introducing himself to the villagers in Ober as new a healer at the settlement, offering his skills if they need them. But if he's looking for anything resembling an apothecary or a tavern, then he'll have to go to Meden. So I imagine that the bulk of his time trying to get to know the locals would be spent in Meden, at least to start. In time he'll try and make nice with both groups. But we'll start with Meden. Being a town not a village, they're likely to be more willing to accept outsiders.