"I said something the very moment I came in, but what is this about a succubus? Is that the nature of the spirit herein? If so perhaps we should leave quickly, before it attempts some mischief."
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Picture for Prometheus
Last edited by magic_gathering2001; 7th December 2008 at 03:03 AM..
"It's already 'attempted mischief,'" Thorn tells Prometheus impishly, making little scare marks in the air around the last two words. "And I dunno if it's really a succubus, but it's definitely some kind of sex spirit."
Not that I'm any kind of expert on THOSE, she almost adds, but bites her tongue. That'd definitely fall into the 'TMI' category.
She lingers in the hallway, waiting for Prometheus to catch up before moving on to rejoin the others.
When Thorn and Prometheus reached the bottom of the stairs, Jeremiah was just finishing explaining his findings to Gabriel.
"I was just telling Gabriel here that, although the pages of sheet music you see over on the piano, yonder, have not been subject to any spells, they have been...ahh...subjected to some supernatural force. I'm afraid it's beyond my arts to say just what, but I'm now quite certain that the pages are both highly important and related to our search. Would you like to have a go at them?"
He set his glasses back on the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, then gave a small bowed gesture of welcome, like a waiter showing his patrons to their table.
Everyone was here now. Finally. Mitchell rubbed his tired eyes. "I think it's in the piano," he replied.
What would Melchior do in this situation? he wondered. The older man had such a way with spirits. They actually did what he asked or commanded. Which was a heck of a lot more than what Mitch was able to accomplish on his own. The thought of the thing wailing back in the kitchen still set him on edge. Some exorcist I'm gonna be, he snarked.
"Jeremiah thinks we might be on the right track," he repeated, like a broken record. "I figured that we should all be in this together, if this happens to be the spirit we're searching for. I've got a feeling we're close though."
Briefly, Thorn considered picking up the pen on the piano and taking notes on what the spirit was saying, using the sheet music as a notepad. She decided instead to leave the papers alone.
"It boasts the first National Historic Site designated by Congress, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, which protects Salem's historic waterfront. Born in Salem, Massachusetts to housewright Joseph McIntire and Sarah (Ruck), he was a woodcarver by trade who grew into the practice of architecture. The Bowditch House is significant both architecturally and historically."
Quote:
Originally Posted by OOC
The preceding was heard only by those who have some method of hearing creatures in Twilight, which I believe includes Gabriel, Thorn, and Levanna.
"It said it was the catalog of the events of 'the alpha,'" she reports with a confused shake of her head. "That makes no sense. And then it just starts jabbering like a tour guide, talking about historical sites."
She looks at the sheet music curiously, then picks it up to get a closer look, wondering if anyone else had actually used the thing as note paper for the whole diatribe.
"It said it was the catalog of the events of 'the alpha,'" she reports with a confused shake of her head. "That makes no sense. And then it just starts jabbering like a tour guide, talking about historical sites."
She looks at the sheet music curiously, then picks it up to get a closer look, wondering if anyone else had actually used the thing as note paper for the whole diatribe.
The sheet music had two sets of bars, one with a kind of giant apostrophe, and one with kind of a weird "G" at the front. In between, words were written, probably lyrics. They were strangely specific; they described three houses in the small coastal village of Howard's Rock, Massachusetts.
rolls
Knowing what "Alpha" means: Intelligence + Occult + (Undisclosed difficulty factor)
Gabriel: Failure
Jeremiah: 1 success
Levanna: 1 success
Thorn: Failure
Prometheus: 2 successes (you will receive a PM)
"Alpha--that's kind of weird," said Levanna. "There's this pamphlet I read a few months ago, a bunch of Sleeper mythology, that divided everything into Alpha and Beta. Like, part of the world is Alpha, and part is Beta, and only really enlightened people know the difference."
"I believe that pamphlet was an excerpt from R. Davisson's A World Divided," said Jeremiah. "Claptrap, if you ask me."
Last edited by Hella_Tellah; 9th December 2008 at 11:15 PM..
"It reminds me of a certain novel by Kilgore Trout, I read as a youth. The plot left much to be desired, but 'alpha' was a term used to refer to an alien planet that much resembled our own earth. I do not think that qualifies as sleeper mythology per se, but I fail to see how it pertains to the spirit in the piano. It may impliy that we must do something in a world that much resembles our own, possibly the realm of the spirits."
She looks up at the others, having caught only a portion of what they'd been saying.
"So it's what, like a parallel dimension?" the young mage asks. "A world where things happened like ours, but with differences?"
She considers that.
"It'd explain why he's 'revisionist,' I guess. The history he's talking about would be different from ours, so anyone here would think he was making it up."
Thorn then waves the sheet music. "Maybe this is from The Alpha. Can anyone play the piano?"
"Did you say something about historical sites earlier? If the spirit did mention the Cormant House, then perhaps we must find the difference between the true Cormant House, and the one described by the Spirit. That said, I do not believe I have the talent to play anything beyond a rudimentary level."
When no one else steps up to the plate, Thorn rolls her eyes and puts the sheet music on the little stand on the piano...and takes a seat.
She squints at the page, trying to remember how this went from her muzzy memories of taking some music lessons when she was twelve. It hadn't lasted long, but in theory it was still in there somewhere...
Haltingly, Thorn picked out the tune from the sheet music. It had all the dull, 3/4 dreariness of an Episcopalian hymnal, without the sweepingly grandiose lyrics.
"It looks to me like a Master of Spirit bound this spirit into the piano, and did so permanently," Levanna said. "If this were a normal case of the spirit inhabiting the object willingly, I could perform a simple exorcism and we'd be on our way. Unfortunately, it looks like we'll need to dispel the binding in order to remove the spirit entirely. We'll need someone with an understanding of Prime and Spirit to accomplish that--or we'll have to form a casting circle. Luckily, the spell isn't all that potent, so it should be pretty simple to break."
"That does leave the question of what we'll do with the spirit once it's released, doesn't it?" Jeremiah remarked. "After all, we're tasked with sending this spirit on its way."
"Although I boast some small mastery of the Prime, I know my skill in matters of the Spirit to be lacking indeed. Thorn, we seem to have worked well together thus far, would you be so kind as to assist me in unweaving the binding?"
rolls:
Gnosis 3 + Prime 3 = 6
I'm not really sure how circle casting works, but I'll assume for now that Prometheus uses Prime, and Thorn uses Spirit
"Uh...whoa there," Thorn urges, looking up from the music. "This is all mysterious and everything...but are we SURE this is the right one? We haven't even -looked- in the attic yet. And if it IS the right one, undoing the binding won't necessarily make it leave. I don't know enough to just exorcise it yet, so we'll need to figure out why it's here and what it wants. Which could be harder if it's free to run around."
"That point is sound; we know not for sure whether this spirit is the correct one. The Nemean did say we were not to break anything, so it may be best that we ensure the Nemean did intend us to search for this spirit."
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