4 Tytalus from Luctatio have been marched at the Grand Tribunal, and a war council gathers to hunt them. All magi are welcome, and the spoils will be split by all who participate, a great potential source of resources for any mage errants in need. The council gathers at Luctatio covenant, where a Guernicus will ceremonially(non magical) remove the sanctum markers when he arrives tomorrow.
[OOC. Does the invitation reach Malta in time?]
[OOC2. What might me know about the four targets?]
yes, the invitation reaches Malta in time, thanks to Serafino forwarding the delivery with his regular trade routes.
2) at this point that they are 4 Tytalus mages from the Luctatio covenant who have been marched for commissioning a magical plague which was used to stop Fredrick Barbarossa from invading Lombardy a couple of decades ago.
Were the Tytalus magi, especially Kronos, participating in the grand tribunal and left from there before it got to the march or did they flee from Luctatio? Trying to assess how much in a hurry they were?
Do the invited magi get an Aegis token?
From what I know about Kronos
- how is his sanctum protected?
- how likely am I still excluded from defensive spells?
- is there anything particularly important to him that he still might have left there, due to whatever reasons?
You are 7 years past gauntlet, so he has probably added new defenses since then and removed your exclusion from some, if not all of them. Invited magi do not generally get an aegis token, as they cannot compel the covenant to give them out. You however can get a token, as they know you.
Generally his sanctum was protected with perdo spells and mechanical traps.
As he strolls around the covenant on the day of his arrival, he will come about the sanctum of Kronos - still bearing Kronos sigil as a marker that this was his. Memories of his childhood arise and he approaches a wall that should be an outer wall of Kronos laboratory. Leaning against the wall he casts Prying Eyes without voice or gestures. Besides a general look inside to assess the situation inside, he looks out for things that Kronos might need or that could lead to his location.
The first thing you notice is that his traveling trunk is gone- a trunk which always stayed in his sanctum to which your master kept an arcane connection to allow him to transport things in and out from anywhere. What might have been in it at the time is hard to guess, and he may have grabbed it with the same arcane connection. Your old parens was a master of Re, and was nearly fanatical about collecting arcane connections...
… you also see many of his old traps are active- the doormat which casts a peCo spell on whoever steps on it is laid out inside the door, as well as the thief trap- a large ruby on a four foot diameter plate that you were simply told never to touch. The animated armor which is supposed to attack anyone in the sanctum when Krono wasn't there, unless Kronos himself deactivated it for a day at a time. he never went into exactly how that item was enchanted, but you do know that despite watching carefully you were never able to deactivate it yourself, and that it was not a spell that deactivated it. It looks like most of what remans is general lab equipment, and you would guess he has been here to collect what he wanted to escape with.
Between the doormat, the ruby and the animated Armour, what would be the best to spoil to the hunters to show my support while hurting Kronos the least? I would currently say the armour - people won't be surprised by it attacking, but it will attack either way.
From what I see, did he forget any potential arcane connection to himself?
The only arcane connections that Kronos had to Prometheus was given as a gift when Prometheus finished his gauntlet.
The armor is obvious, the doormat will kill anyone who steps on it, it might arouse suspicion if he doesn't mention it.
I meant arcane connections to Kronos. If I recall correctly, ACs develop naturally by having certain things around you and using it. Now, something might have become a habit to Kronos without him really noticing. Like preferring a cup over others. An apprentice however, observing him during 15 years, might have noticed.
Most things which might be arcane connections seem to have been taken with him, though his lab has been comparatively neglected, and there are a few things there that he uses habitually because they are within easiest reach when he is in his lab that could be arcane connections.
The next morning, Prometheus casts an Aura of childlike innocence on himself without using his voice or any gestures.
Prometheus watches the ceremonial removal of his parens' sanctum marker from up close. It feels strange... should he protest, openly support his parens' case? But no, this is the best he can do.
When the group enters the sanctum, he warns the others about the doormat and the animated armor. The former would be potentially fatal and he could hardly play innocent. The latter is pretty obvious anyway.
Inside, he tries to get a hand on the potential arcane connections without raising suspicion or attention. He will 'search the laboratory for any helpful' clues without finding any, moving the equipment around and taking those Kronos used regularly. [I would like to use guile rather than stealth as a method of doing so while nobody cares.]
roll com plus guile
who else is on the hunt, and are they also going after Kronos or after one of the others?
Assuming stress die, it was still no botch. So we are at 6 or 9 depending on the applicability of aura of childlike innocence. And he'd spend one or two confidence points if necessary.
Marcus has spent the Summer studying the Intellego primer. When Serafino arrives, he is contemplating what to do next. One day he will have to make himself a lab, but it is such boring work, and he is simply not in the mood for it.
He thinks long and well about the invitation to the hunt. Battle magus he is not, but the invitation stated everyone. Maybe his arts could be useful as an Urban scout. Maybe. His curiosity and helpfulness get the better of him, and at the last minute before Serafino's departure, he runs towards the ship to get passage as far as he can get.
Hopefully, he can bring a maid and a shield grog, for menial tasks and security.
If the route takes him through Naples, he will try to get whatever information he can get about the conviction, the marched magi, and their covenant from his family and other redcaps. Serafino, presumably, act normally enough not to raise any suspicion.
Not knowing the procedure, he will mainly watch what happens when he arrives at the covenant. He will be the last one into the sanctum of the youngest of the four magi.
Without forewarning for the youngest magus' sanctum the going is much slower into Leo's sanctum than into Chronos', and there are also few magus involved since there is less loot presumed to be within. The two Tremere and the Guernicus heading the investigation of Leo's sanctum have a much easier time keeping order, and mange to t least document everyone's house before the mad rush inward. Marcus is assigned to go through Leo's letters and correspondence to look for hints as to where he might have taken refuge. Implicit in this is that he will be allowed to keep any of the correspondences he feels might be of hermetic value. You are able to discern from the letters a number of identities that leo kept, and some idea where each were centered, including parts of provence and Thebes as well as a few identities which were located in and about Rome itself, one in Venice and one which had been in Pisa until last year, when they apparently moved to Palermo.
If any take note of Prometheus takings they do not mention or act on it at this time, as most seem too focused on taking what they ca of value for themselves. the room in general seems more traps then things of actual value- the one book left behind was the one spelled to slay any who opened it, and the only vis turned out to be some sort of hermetic illusion w apparently had not been trapped and one of the magi takes with an interest in investigating how it was done. After a few minutes the room has largely cleared out either from fear of more traps or disinterest in a sanctum that was clearly cleaned out before anyone arrived. The Guernicus who opened the room stand surveying the room, flanked by two hoplites, and asks "So what do we know now that we did not know when we opened the room?"
After the first overview of the documents, Marcus lifts his head and looks around. Does he miss a lot of the more lucrative business? Probably not much he can do about it, but he wants to know nevertheless, or at least he thinks he wants to know. Is there anything he could and should try to grab?
If nothing catches his attention, he returns to the letters to see if he can discern more about the character in Palermo. Is there any links to persons or places that he has seen?
You realize the Guernicus and Tremere are keeping a tight control on the pillaging, and some of the better finds are being kept back until after the marched magus has been killed. You also realize that with the quantity of correspondence you are going through there are probably several tractatus worth of information contained within.
The character who moved to Palermo seems to have been that of a courtesan who has developed a relationship with a well placed scribe in the court of the Holy Roman Empire, who eventually was placed I the service of Constance.
Satisfied that they work as a team, Marcus keeps reading, starting to consider if he should claim the entire pile of documents, or if there is something he can discard as rubbish. He is going to volunteer to go to Palermo, to check out the lead he has, but he is not going to be the first one to burst out with his idea, unless asked.
Suddenly he realises that he has forgotten the names of all the characters, was it Theo they were investigating? He turns the pile over, grabs a pen and a clean piece of parchment from the magus' writing desk, and starts writing down all the names that he may need to remember.
«We know that Kronos planned to take his leave», Prometheus says and with a sarcastic smile he adds «and that he added even more traps after I had left.»
Did anyone take this?
If he would have left me a note, were had he placed it? Do I remember anything from apprenticeship that could be of help here? This would require that he would want to communicate, but who knows...