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

[Hella_Tellah]

Thorn frowns and stands up again.

"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.

[sblock=rolls]Thorn. music theory: Intelligence (2) + Academics (1) = 3 dice, 0 successes.[/sblock]
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.

[sblock=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)[/sblock]
"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."

 

[magic_gathering2001]

"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."

 

[Shayuri]

Thorn frowns as she reads the sheet music. Weird.

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?"

 

[magic_gathering2001]

"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."

 

[Shayuri]

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...

(Trying to play the piece, Wits 3 + Expression 2)

 

[Hella_Tellah]

[sblock=Playing the Piano]

(Trying to play the piece, Wits 3 + Expression 2)

1 success[/sblock]
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.

Gabriel recognized the tune as "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus."

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Levanna took a long, hard look at the piano, and especially at the lock, which extended into the Twilight.

[sblock=Rolls]Scrutinize, Intelligence (2) + Occult (4) + Density (1) = 7 dice, 3 rolls, 5 successes[/sblock]
"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."

 

[magic_gathering2001]

"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?"

[sblock=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
[/sblock]

 

[Shayuri]

"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."

 

[magic_gathering2001]

"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."