Solomon ignores Ludwig's antics and turns to Odo, "Odo, I understand that you have a lacunae here, yes? If we could go there, and Eras follows us, I might be able to speak with him."
Once escorted down to the basement he speaks to the air, "Now Eras, once I near the end of the ritual I will need you to touch me as I cast."
(Using Marko's math in the Table Talk thread plus this 8 should be good enough)
Lucia glares at Ludwig, glances quickly at Carmen, then glares some more at the goblin. [color=gray]"You and me, later, you little runt," she says, [color=gray]"when la doña's not around to save your scrawny ass."
[color=red]"Lucia," Vibria says sternly. [color=red]"Attend to the luggage. Accompany it to our room, unpack everything and put it away. And stay there until I come. There will be no fighting."
[color=gray]"Yes, maga." Lucia shoots daggers at Ludwig one last time before she does as she's told.
The grogs and porters go about their tasksdropping off luggage and setting up guard posts and all that good stuff. Matteu assigns a handful of staff to see to your needs: Thomas the concierge and steward to obtain whatever you need, Eric and Angel are a pair of stooges to run errands and perform odd jobs, Lillian is a maid and contact for all services at the inn. Then Matteu assigned two thugs as extra security, a tall Polish kid named Jacob and a chubby Englishman named Mathew. Jacon takes special care to keep an eye on Ludwig.
Only magi are invited downstairs, and I will presume they all do.
Solomon, Vibria, Carmen, Tiana, Odo, Farusca, and the ghost of Eras Pavo. Is that correct?
Odo gives a quick tour.
There are several layers of ruins to this building. The wooden structure has been built and rebuilt over the past few hundred years. The one wing is less than twenty years old, rebuilt after the battle between Metron and Trentus. The central stone structure is far older, and itself was built upon or growing from an older Roam structure. Earlier generations, while repairing the foundation and digging out the sub-basement, discovered the artifacts and ruinds that can be traced to the ancient Cult of Mercury. So what we have down there is more than a Lacunae. It is a Magic Aura of respectable strength, originating from ancient magic established long ago.
Here in the first basement is a lacunae of sorts I suppose. There is no Magic aura but no interference of the Dominion either. We replaced the trap door with a spiral staircase, and I combined the gallery with the gallery chamber.
Now if you follow me further down these stairs...
We sealed off that old lab after the incident...; the artefacts in there need further study. I turned the old gallery into two new labs. Our library is now in the hands of Carles who circulates books and obtains what we need. There are those few books that cannot leave a magic aura, or to valuable to be kept outside. But we don't store them here in our old library room. This is now used as a Casting Chamber. It is here that is the best place to try your spell.
And that little tour there was mainly for the benefit of those who have the old ToH-Iberia book, and refers to the map on page 86 and the changes made over the years. To those who don't have that book and/or don't care, read it as simply blah-blah Casting Chamber in the Sub-Basement where there is a Magic Aura of 4.
:mrgreen:
As a room specially designed for such, the casting time is reduced to only one-minute per magnitude. So it takes only 5 minutes to hold your séance. And your casting total is sufficient and does not require spending a point of Confidence. In fact, gain a point for your stunning success.
You sit at a table, Ouija board in front of you 
, Eras Pavo sits opposite of you with his ghostly hands in contact with yours. You can ask your questions directly out loud though (please do), and he will reply directly with his voice in your mind (no need to penetrate, this is your spell on him).
He info dumps the accurate version of everything he told Ludwig. Now it is u to you as to how to proceed with your investigation, and be mindful of Concentration.
As a side note, before you proceeded downstairs, Marta came back from checking Eras Pavo's room. No body or signs of any recent activity. Still tidy from the previous day's maid service. Eras Pavo never made it home last night.
I know you got it. Just making sure Ludwig gets it.
"These friends that you were out with, are any of them magi? Have you, or anyone at the covenant, received any threats recently? Do you remember where this sherry you were drinking came from?"
Back at the hospital...
Cynara is done here, but there was a paitient she was helping and she wants to make sure he is allright.
And he is just fine.
But there is someone else on the next bed screaming. Not in pain, but in anguish...
Why? Oh God why did he do it? I did nothing to stop him! Oh my God save my soul!
No, none were magi. And I don't recall any threats. The sherry..., I was with Bob and his friend Ken. Ken is the one who brought the bottle. I remember how good it was, but not much after that.
Cynara looks annoyed at the screaming patient. Telling him with a certain lack of compassion in her voice:
Its alright, you are safe here, you will be alright...
Before walking over to him if he doesn't calm down.
"What do you know about Bob and Ken? Is it possible Ken drugged you?"
[color=red]"Who are Frederique, Douglass, and Kenneth?" Vibria asks. [color=red]"And has anything...unfortunate happened to them, or just you?"
Erus can hear everyone, but he can only answer tough Solomon. And ghostly contact does feel strange. It is almost as if he is making your fingers move across the board. You should market this idea 
Frederique and I have been l...friends a long time. We go way back. He owns a tavern called the Gold Gryphon[sup]1[/sup]. Frederique puts so much of himself into the Gryphon and to support the night culture of the city. His wife Golda, she is like my very best friend in the whole world. Bob, Ken, and Doug. Three crazy guys. Ken is my old friend. We are currently... working together on a project. I know Bob from back in the day. He and Ken used to work on a project together awhile back. Doug is his new friend. They were talking about some treasure map and what a jerk their boss is. They work as cooks at the Pearl Peacock. Doug swiped the sherry from there he said.
[sup]1[/sup][size=50] The Almogavars from the Vibria Company, the band we hired is called the Gold Griffon Division. This is no coincidence. Their officers, the ones who named their Division, used to get drunk here and up and down this street all the time when they were young. Other bars on this strip include the Brass Bull, the Pearl Peacock, Mother's IV, BAR Barcelona, and the Blue Moon Lounge.[/size]
That was the second response. You have a Concentration of 3. After his next response, I will require you to make a Concentration roll of 6+ or loose the spell (this presumes that no one disrupts your concentrating)
I should mention that Carmen has this awkward look on her face, like she knows that everyone expects her to know something but she doesn't know anything nor is she surprised that she doesn't.
She whispers aside to Vibria as to not disturb Solomon's concentration.
[size=85]I really don't know much about my mom's personal life. I usually hang out with her in a family setting. I know her husband is gay. It is a sham marriage and they are each free to flit about as they will. He owns a bar, she works there. I think she was a barmaid. Now she runs a parlor in the basement where she reads palms and tarot cards and junk. I've seen her do that. She's pretty good actually. Watched her perform a séance once. She said she faked it and already knew what the client wanted to know and she helped him find what he was looking for. Some lost deed or something.[/size]
He doesn't. Actually he becomes hysterical.
The Devil made him do it! And I was too cowardly to do anything but watch. Hear my confession! Tell the wizard at the Silver Rooster that Erat Caecus...
gaaak!!!
and with that, he keels over dead.
(For what it's worth, if it may help you, marko, someone may remember that Arachné makes no mystery of being able to cast Incantation of Summoning the Dead. Someone may remember this if you need a seance. Of course, should it pause a problem, it's easy for no one to think about it)
(My charsheet isn't up to date, either, since she learned Coerce the Spirits of the Night in 1231...)
Are you sure? My understanding from the book is that this isn't the case. From ArM5, pg 82, "Note that, if a spell is designed to let the magus do something, doing that thing does not interfere with concentrating on the spell. This applies to spells that let the magus talk to animals, plants, or water, or to spells that let the magus run very quickly." To me, this spell falls directly in line with that.
Because that's all it lets him do, Solomon is NOT currently relaying what he is hearing from Erus, so everyone can only hear Solomon's side of the conversation.
"A treasure map? What do you remember about this treasure map? Did they say what it led to, or where they found it?"
No, that's not my worry. And it is no big deal. I just seem to recall somewhere that default is 15 minutes per point of Concentration and that you have to check after that.
Withdrawn, no worries.
Tell him? Tell him what? Gruzefix!
Cynara curses in her native tongue as she cant prevent the guy from dying right in front of her.
She quickly peers around to see if anybody is watching to determine if she can risk a casting of "Whispers trough the black gate" to make him talk again.
[If yes, she rolled a 4 for a total score of 5... Guess that wont cut it in the dominions aura eh? ]
Divine Aura of 3, so that's -9 for a total of negative 4. So no, it won't cut it 
Cynara mumbles something incomprehensible and then follows proper procedure for deceased patients.
Well, pretty much at least... She is too curious and checks if the dead guy had any personal stuff left that might give further hints what that all is about.
In the evening she plans on visiting the Silver Rooster to find out about Erat Caecus.
All he has on him is an empty bottle of sherry
So at sunset, you reset your Parma and head off then?