Chapter2: Patrick and the Magic Trough

[MTKnife]

At this, Viola fixes Patrick with an intense stare, before finally replying, "Old goats that no one wants otherwise? I suppose. But I hope I don't find you feeding healthy animals from your trough."

Scott

[amul]

"Well, we'd talked a bit about doing chickens, too, just to increase the pool of subjects, but if ye can make a strong argument 'gainst it, I'd certainly consider yer words. But ye concede the original point while leaving my latest riposte unanswered. From where does morality stem? Do we have some inherent right to call things good or bad, nevermind what the critters themselves think? 'Tis not a question I ask lightly, you understand. Nay, 'tis perhaps more'n the point of these experiments than the effects on the animals the'selves, but our human reactions to them."

[MTKnife]

Viola replies to this, trying to conceal an exasperated sigh: "Let's...not argue moral philosophy. But if it hurts the animals, I think it's bad...yes, because they think it's bad, especially if they end up half-blind or sensitive to sunlight. Leave it at that?"

Scott

[amul]

Patrick would just heave a giant depressing sigh, and mutter, "Let's not talk moral philosophy, she says," as he walks away looking like the most singularly wronged human being on the planet.

[MTKnife]

Maybe if Patrick proves nice they can have a discussion about it later...."Moral philosophy" is Viola's specialization in Philosophiae just as it is for Patrick.

Scott

[MTKnife]

Patrick is gone, and presumably took his warped goats with him, but a review of this thread indicates that he's apparently left us with some warped vermin, including "Vole Wranglers", which, judging by Patrick's character sheet, are intelligent voles armed with metal shards.

I could rule it never happened, since the SG gets to pick the effects of Warping...but it's just too entertaining to get rid of.

Scott

[ironboundtome]

I think perhaps get the magi together "at some point soon" and discuss it.
Patrick has created a nice little in-character thing for us to resolve. It would need the member Magi to really have any authority in the choice.

Adding this here so you don't have to go looking for it outside the thread:

@Patrick-background-info

Near the (northwest?) edge of the plateau on which Tanais rests lies a grassy field suitable for grazing, surrounded by a makeshift fence. The ruins of a farmer's hut (really, two walls and part of a ceiling, supported with a post) houses Patrick's "sanctum" tent though he claims the entire fenced-in area as his laboratory. The ruin itself is encircled with several raised circles used to ward against various calamities, and the area inside the circle is etched with a hexagonal pattern due to a side effect of one of these wards. Dozens of small clay pot-lanterns keep the field lit and warm, apparently with an unending fuel supply. Two slop-troughs and a few large wooden cages can be seen, though the trained Hermetic eye would see their placement as haphazard. Much else is placed carelessly, as well : barrels of animal bones, corked clay pots labeled in Latin, and strings of drying herbs lay scattered about.

One of the feeding trough is magical, named The Trough of Alteration (lesser brother to The Cage of Changes), and it slowly twists and warps the creatures which feed from it with magic. A horde of voles discovered this daily feast shortly after Patrick arrived, and quickly transformed into a variety of useful, if pestilent, magically-warped animals. Some of these voles became twisted mutants, whose muscles, bones and humors prove surprisingly useful in laboratory work. Other voles grew cannibalistic and intelligent enough to start thinking about population density, and offered their services to Patrick as guards, runners, and herd-wranglers. Armed with metal shavings from the blacksmith's forge, they hunt down the more dangerous mutant voles and keep the population in check, and bring the magically twisted parts to Patrick for use in his lab work.

[Salutor]

Has Patrick taken the trough with him when he leaves, or do we still have it? If the latter, I assume no one's bothering to refill it (if they haven't out-right removed it).

[MTKnife]

I think some of the other magi might actually have been insistent that Patrick take it.

Scott

[Salutor]

That's entirely fine by Gregorius.

He doesn't have quite the same revulsion towards it that some Bjornaer / Merinita might have but it still seems...distasteful? Pointlessly cruel?