Legacy of the Stone Assembly, Chapter I: The Cabal, The Quill, and the Concord

[Shayuri]

"I, uh...what?" Thorn asks, taken completely off guard for a second. Then she catches up with events and chuckles, shaking her head.

"Sorry, lady. You're a bit dead for my tastes. So..." she looks around the room briefly. "Seems like a nice place. How come you're hanging around? Who are you?"

 

[Hella_Tellah]

"I, uh...what?" Thorn asks, taken completely off guard for a second. Then she catches up with events and chuckles, shaking her head.

"Sorry, lady. You're a bit dead for my tastes. So..." she looks around the room briefly. "Seems like a nice place. How come you're hanging around? Who are you?"

The woman on the bed gasped. "I am not dead!" she cried. "I'm very much alive, thank you. I've been good, so daddy is letting me stay on this side of the Gauntlet."

She appeared to think of something she thought was rather clever. "I'm cold, though. If you'll come over here and warm me up, I'll make myself a solid body you can play with. I can even make it a boy body, if you like boy bodies. Some of the people I play with like boy bodies."

[sblock=rolls]Seeing what Thorn knows about this creature: Intelligence (2) + Occult (3) + Spirit (2) = 7 dice, 2 successes[/sblock]
From the way the woman spoke, Thorn could tell this was a spirit of some kind. Ghosts usually didn't realize that they were trapped in the Twilight--they usually just tried to go about finishing their business on earth. This creature knew what it was, and it wanted something. And from what Papa Chango had taught her, spirits usually only want one thing: essence to feed on.

 

[Shayuri]

Thorn's cheeks color slightly even under her tan coloration and she smirks. One of those spirits. She felt fairly safe in assuming this one probably wasn't the one The Nemean wanted disposed of.

"I'll let your 'daddy' know you're cold," she tells the spirit. Then she pauses. "Hey, do you know anything about the little kid in the closet a couple of bedrooms over?"

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Thorn's cheeks color slightly even under her tan coloration and she smirks. One of those spirits. She felt fairly safe in assuming this one probably wasn't the one The Nemean wanted disposed of.

"I'll let your 'daddy' know you're cold," she tells the spirit. Then she pauses. "Hey, do you know anything about the little kid in the closet a couple of bedrooms over?"

The spirit sighed in resignation, then laid down flat on her back. "Nope. I've never been anywhere on this side of the Gauntlet, 'cept for this room. But whatever it is, it's either trapped, or not a spirit. Daddy says I'm the only spirit in the whole house that gets to go to the Other Side whenever I want. All the other ones are stuck."

The spirit sat up, and tried her best to readopt the coy pout she had put on before.

"I'll be here for a while, if you decide you want to cuddle," she solicited, with a puckish bite of her lip. "Or if you know anyone else who wants to cuddle."

 

[Annalist]

"My investigation so far points to music as an important element in finding the spirit. May have something to do with homesickness, as well. I heard Levanna say something about a piano--do you think these clues might be related?"

Mitchell shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine," he replied. "But yeah, there's a piano in the next room if you want to check it out."

"Be careful of its sheet music though. It has some kind of compulsion," he warned.

"But what of this weird stuff you have found? Have you found a spirit, which resembles the spirit of revisionist history we seek?"

"Uhh, yeah we found it!" Mitchell shouted back, feeling a bit guilty for the semi-lie. He wasn't actually sure what he and Levanna had found, but he knew that he'd feel more comfortable if the mages investigated it together. Pooling all of their resources seemed like the safest bet in this particular instance.

"Jeremiah and Levanna are looking things over as we speak, if you want to join us."

 

[magic_gathering2001]

"Actually, it looks as though my partner has found something else of interest. Perhaps when we finish up here, we will come down to assist, but for now it seems as though there are other spirits about, and your promising lead may end in futility."

Prometheus will head off in the direction Thorn went, trying to find her.

 

[Annalist]

"..."

So much for solidarity, Mitchell mused. Well, whatever. These were the kind of people he was going to be stuck in a cabal with. Possibly. Great, just great. He spun on his heel and steered himself back towards the gallery, rejoining Levanna.

"Find anything else out?" he asked. "Jeremiah thinks we might be on the right track. The spirit we're looking for is tied to music and maybe homesickness." I wouldn't mind going home myself, he thought. I did promise Lin I wouldn't be out all night, especially with her stuck taking care of Mags.

Turning to Jeremiah, he hesitantly probed, "Hey, aren't you versed in the Mind Arcanum? Maybe you can scrutinize the sheet music and tell me if I was right about its weird urging. Or if I was just imagining things."

He knew that he wasn't imagining things. But having some kind of confirmation would be nice. Though having to ask Jeremiah for his help stung a little. Wounded pride. Get over yourself, Mitch, he grimaced. Let's just find the damn thing and get out of here.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Prometheus will head off in the direction Thorn went, trying to find her.

Prometheus joined Thorn in the master bedroom's doorway. He didn't see anything particularly out of the ordinary--burnt-down candles, a bed with a crimson comforter and black satin pillows, and a lingering smell of incense.

The spirit looked up at him with an excited grin. "Oooooh!" she exclaimed with a shivering shimmy. "He must be your cuddle-buddy!"

[sblock=rolls]Spirit: Compulsion Numen, 7 dice, 2 successes. Prometheus: Resolve (2) + Composure (5) = 7, 3 successes.[/sblock]
She licked her lips and made a "come hither" motion with her finger toward Prometheus. Prometheus felt a small tingling in his loins, but it dissipated as rapidly as it came.

"Oh, poo!" the spirit pouted.

Turning to Jeremiah, he hesitantly probed, "Hey, aren't you versed in the Mind Arcanum? Maybe you can scrutinize the sheet music and tell me if I was right about its weird urging. Or if I was just imagining things."

"Cautious minds think alike," Jeremiah replied. He walked into the sitting room and muttered a few words of pseudo-latin formulae while closing his eyes. He re-opened them, and scanned the sheet music for evidence of mental compulsions.
[sblock=rolls]Mind Mage Sight: Gnosis (1) + Mind (2) + High Speech (2) = 5 dice, 3 successes.
Scrutinize Resonance: Intelligence (3) + Occult (2) + Density (1) = 6 dice, 2 rolls, 5 successes.[/sblock]
With the combined power of his Mind and Fate sights active, Jeremiah examined the sheet music. He saw no evidence that the music had been affected by any spell of the Mind arcanum, nor any spell, for that matter. It was subject to supernatural forces, of that he was certain, but he couldn't say just what it was. Its resonance had an odd quality; it felt as though this music did not belong in this world, that it was out of place. With Sybil's Sight, he noted that this music had a powerful destiny as part of something grand and world-altering.

He looked back at Gabriel, removing his round eyeglasses significantly. "It's no mental compulsion, of that I'm certain. In fact, I doubt it's a spell at all--although I'm ashamed to admit I'm not sure what else it could be. We can be certain of one thing, though: it's supernatural, and it's part of something very, very important."

 

[Shayuri]

Thorn snickered, though privately she was rather impressed that Prometheus had resisted the spirit's power.

"This isn't the spirit we're looking for," she tells Prometheus. "I think that's it for this floor. Attic's next. What were the others yelling about anyway? I couldn't make it out from here."

 

[magic_gathering2001]

"Hm... It appears as though I can see this one. Thorn, what--" Prometheus begins as he enters the room, but stops once he hears the spirit speak. He manages to keep the slight confusion off of his face, along with the other much less welcome urges, which he mistakenly associates with the statement itself, instead of any form of compulsion, "Actually, we are nothing of the sort. So, what manner of spirit is this?"

"This isn't the spirit we're looking for," she tells Prometheus. "I think that's it for this floor. Attic's next. What were the others yelling about anyway? I couldn't make it out from here."

"Oh, yes. The others believe they have found the spirit, and called for our assistance on the main floor. I think that if we have no further business here, we should return to them."