Mage: The Awakening PbP - Preludes

[Shayuri]

(OOC - She was actually showing him the Eyes. She'd put them back under the warded floorboard before she came out to see him. Just FYI)

Thessaly nods at Daniel. "Okay, that's not a problem. Just...yell or something if you need help or if anything goes wrong, okay?"

With that, she retreats back out to the store and sits on the stool behind the store's computer, thinking back on that strange man at the funeral...on Cymbeline...on strange magical artifacts and not least of all...on her grandmother. A legend. That was a big set of shoes to fill. But things were starting. Tonight she'd meet some other mages, even if they were a little weird. From there, who knew?

I wonder if gramma found anything about those eyes herself, she muses. She might hav hidden journals or something. I'll have to doublecheck the sanctum and see if there's anymore of those disguised nooks...

With a sigh she gets up and starts tending to the store, cleaning here, reshelving there. Waiting.

 

[Tokiwong]

Daniel

Daniel gets 1 success on the Improvised spell, he then gets 1 success for ten minutes of study on the Intelligence + Occult roll.

Daniel focuses his senses and begins pouring over the artifacts. He can immediately see that whatever these things are, they are incomplete or only piece of a greater mechanism or artifact. It is difficult to tell but they seem incomplete he can’t actually figure out what they do, beyond being ominous.

Thessaly

Assuming she uses the dead time to study... Thessaly makes an Intelligence + Academics + Library; she rolls 6 times, and gets a total of 11 successes, taking 3 hours of research.

Thessaly does some research searching the web and pouring through texts at the Sanctum she is able to pull up one tidbit that may be useful. The poem is tied to an old legend referenced in one of the tomes in her library in an oft reference.

The first two stanzas of the poem are said to be attributed to a legend about an entity called the Dethroned Queen. As the legend goes, she was a being of great power that forsworn magic and dared to challenge the gods in the supernal world.

But a conflicting story/legend she found that also referenced the Dethroned Queen says that she was a whore in ancient Egypt who claimed to have fallen from the Heavens as punishment for her wicked ways. It is said that she was once an Exarch in this version of the story and swore to never use magic after she returned to the Fallen World.

For the remainder of the day a few customers come and go, and a few sales are made before it is time to close up shop. All in all even though the volume of customers is not large the clientele is loyal and the books are rarely cheap.

Officer Brady’s police car drives by slowly, he pauses in front of the Monkey’s Paw and then continues driving down the road. It looks like he is looking for wayward students from the university again to hassle.

 

[Lichtenhart]

(OOC - She was actually showing him the Eyes. She'd put them back under the warded floorboard before she came out to see him. Just FYI)

Sorry, I misread your post. Edited accordingly.

"It's no use, Tess. They are part of something else, something bigger, and I can't figure ot what it is just with them. I couldn't shake off a sense of... imminent threat looking at them. They kept making me want to watch over my shoulder. We'd better keep them hidden until we know more about them. You think you can replace the wards? I'll study a way to hide their aura as it was before."

Daniel, noticing Thessaly is onto something with her researches, lets her work, he gets them the book she thinks she needs, and minds the shop while she's busy.

When he's not otherwise occupied, he tries to find something about Cymbeline's dreams. Out of curiosity, he checks if in what Thessaly uncovered there's any mention of the Dethroned Queen wearing purple, or anything else that could like the two thing. Daniel doesn't believe much in coincidences. Neither did Winnie, he seems to remember.

Not sure what to make of this. Either Intelligence + Investigation (5 dice) or a simple Research (still 5 dice, I think).

 

[Tokiwong]

When he's not otherwise occupied, he tries to find something about Cymbeline's dreams. Out of curiosity, he checks if in what Thessaly uncovered there's any mention of the Dethroned Queen wearing purple, or anything else that could like the two thing. Daniel doesn't believe much in coincidences. Neither did Winnie, he seems to remember.

He tries to find any more links but the library that the two have on hand is limited. Most likely if they want more information they will probably have to seek out another source. Daniel heard that Project Eclipse maintains a large library of lore and artifacts from their excavations and journeys although he has never actually seen it.

But that would mean trying to get access to Mysterium resources… which may prove difficult, given their nature to keep their knowledge available to whom they deem worthy.

 

[Shayuri]

Thessaly checks the hidden board in the floor again, to see if the wards and cloaking spells on that spot are still there, or if her meddling has disrupted them.

"You know, Daniel," she remarks. "I've been looking up references online and it struck me that there was nothing in that poem about 'eyes of salt,' even metaphorically. It seems kind of funny that Grams would give us this poem on one hand, and this device on the other...and that they have no apparent relationship to each other."

She shrugs. "I guess in the end, it all depends on what these are part OF. Anyway...regarding the Dethroned Queen, I didn't see anything specifically noting the color of her garb. She was treated as an almost mythical figure by one resource. The other was more specific, and I tend to believe it more, but it only dealt with her after her return to Earth."

Thessaly taps the poem's page. "This is supposedly referring to things she had. Items of power, I guess...maybe to make up for the fact that she swore off using magic herself. So far, I haven't seen much about the items. Just enough to link them to the Dethroned Queen."

Finally Thess sighs and turns to look at Daniel. "We're stumbling in the dark here. Grams must have made SOME progress in her own researches. I think we should search the Sanctum with that magic sight spell of yours. It makes sense that if she's uncovered secrets, she'd hide them separately. That way, if someone managed to find one, it wouldn't be useful until they found the other."

Abruptly Thessaly's eyes unfocus and she stiffens where she is. "No way," she breathes. "That would be WAY too easy." Then she refocuses on Daniel and asks, "These eyes...they're part of something else, right? Would you say that means they have that...that sympathetic resonance with other parts? Could we use these to track down the rest?"

 

[Tokiwong]

Abruptly Thessaly's eyes unfocus and she stiffens where she is. "No way," she breathes. "That would be WAY too easy." Then she refocuses on Daniel and asks, "These eyes...they're part of something else, right? Would you say that means they have that...that sympathetic resonance with other parts? Could we use these to track down the rest?"

The store phone starts to ring. The time of evening is just after eight o’clock in the evening. Outside at the coffee shop across the street several students are seated and looking to an outdoor patio stage where someone is giving a reading.

It is Saturday night, which means it must be amateur poetry reading night.

 

[Tokiwong]

Morrigan

Two days ago

The dojo was situated at the top of the high rise. It was a place of elegant violence, both a sanctum and a center of learning. The structure was built along traditional Eastern design mixed with Atlantean inspired architecture.

Krishna was the master and two students listened to his words. They were few as was his nature. He was a Perfected Adept, a master of the body and mind honed to one singular will and motion. He was a simple and focused master, and his students were few.

“Morrigan,” Krishna speaks sitting in a contemplative lotus position, his students training behind him. He pauses for a long time as if giving her time to contemplate her own shadow name, “I have trained you, seen to it that you have a proper understanding of the Order and given you the tools to survive.”

He pauses again, breathing almost impossibly slowly. He speaks again letting the air out of his lungs, “We are students of death from the moment we are born we are fated to die. But we understand death better then most. In the hour that I awoke, I learned the day I would die. I have always had a talent for knowing when death when take those close to me.”

“I have a final task for you,” Krishna says slowly.

Outside the Monkey’s Paw

Arriving in James Cove is a definite change of pace for Morrigan. The sleepy little town is a far cry from New York. A police car follows her for a good ways into town before moving on to follow a speeding out of state vehicle. Morrigan finds the store she was looking for, the Monkey’s Paw, as if fate was guiding her.

The store is closed, it looks like she just missed closing time by about 15 minutes. There are lights on inside the store though. Hopefully this is the right place, it was an odd request to come all the way out to this sleepy burg and help protect some newly awakened mage. Even if she is the granddaughter of her Master’s friend, it still seemed an off request perhaps even beneath her notice, but it was her final task, and duty was everything to the Adamantine Arrow.

It was the maxim that Krishna lived by, ‘It is our duty to defend the Mysteries; through service to others we master ourselves’. Perhaps he was trying to teach her this final lesson? Well at least she had a photograph, depicting Winifred McDouglas and her granddaughter Allison.

 

[Aenion]

Morrigan had checked into a cheap motel earlier and left the rental car there, not wanting to give the local cops anymore reasons to shirk their duties. It was a beautiful, summer day, perfect for a nice stroll through town. She quickly changed out of her travel clothes, into a black top and black leather pants, hiding her lucky knife in her boot and pocketing the two lead coins. Her .44 stayed in her bag, this town seemed like vacation compared to where she lived in New York, where crossing the street could get you shot.

One final task he had said, she never expected him to send her on vacation... Not that she couldn't use one, she hadn't had any time for vacation since her parents had died, always working to make ends meet, to graduate, to keep a smile on Mary's face, to make sure she got the best care possible. Training with the Adamantine Arrow wasn't exactly a walk in the park either, that's why this task puzzled her. The town was too quiet, too peaceful. Or maybe she was too used to living in the bustle of the city. When she first arrived New York had seemed relatively free and open compared to London, where everything was packed together in too little space.

She lit another cigarette as she hit the street, Mary hated her smoking, she always said it'd get her killed. She might be right, but then that Vampire should have beat it to it and the leaden coins in her pockets weren't too healthy either.

She took some time to casually walk through town, in the meantime checking out any emergency exits to the Monkey's Paw. She checked her watch when she saw the 'Closed'-sign, she'd hoped to enter before it closed, apparently she had taken a bit too much time, Damn, I should have drove here afterall. Let's find out who this girl is, she casually flicked her cigarette into the drain before approaching to the door. Rubbing the two leaden coins together, she concentrates for a moment as she attunes herself to sight beyond life. She took one last look at the picture and gently knocked, "Uhm...Hello?" she asks peaking through the window.

ooc: casting her Grim Sight rote: 8 dice

 

[Tokiwong]

She took some time to casually walk through town, in the meantime checking out any emergency exits to the Monkey's Paw. She checked her watch when she saw the 'Closed'-sign, she'd hoped to enter before it closed, apparently she had taken a bit too much time, Damn, I should have drove here afterall. Let's find out who this girl is, she casually flicked her cigarette into the drain before approaching to the door. Rubbing the two leaden coins together, she concentrates for a moment as she attunes herself to sight beyond life. She took one last look at the picture and gently knocked, "Uhm...Hello?" she asks peaking through the window.

ooc: casting her Grim Sight rote: 8 dice

Morrigan scores three successes on her Grim Sight rote.

Morrigan opens her eyes to the death all around her. Not so much death itself, but the weight of death that burdens, or perhaps supports the fallen world. The Monkey’s Paw itself has a burden of death about it, the walls seemed to seep with death…

When she glances into the window for a moment she sees an older woman glancing back and mouths a quick word. She blinks and there is nothing but her reflection and the amount of death that weighs down her soul. It would be unnerving if she did not understand death so intimately.

 

[Lichtenhart]

Finally Thess sighs and turns to look at Daniel. "We're stumbling in the dark here. Grams must have made SOME progress in her own researches. I think we should search the Sanctum with that magic sight spell of yours. It makes sense that if she's uncovered secrets, she'd hide them separately. That way, if someone managed to find one, it wouldn't be useful until they found the other."

Abruptly Thessaly's eyes unfocus and she stiffens where she is. "No way," she breathes. "That would be WAY too easy." Then she refocuses on Daniel and asks, "These eyes...they're part of something else, right? Would you say that means they have that...that sympathetic resonance with other parts? Could we use these to track down the rest?"

"You are right. Tomorrow I'll help you search the whole house for it. Maybe I'll dream of her again, and she will give us more hints. I could also ask Martin about letting us use their library, but... there's nothing they value more than knowledge. I don't know how they would react."

"I don't feel too comfortable about you looking for sympathetic ties with the other pieces. Winnie kept them hidden, muted their aura, and put wards around them. I am afraid that someone dangerous, maybe in possess of other fragments, could be able to follow your link back to you if you try. I'd rather keep that option as a last resort."

As the phone rings, Daniel stands up and stretches.
"I'll take it."
He goes back to the store and takes the phone.
"The Monkey's Paw bookstore. How can I help you?"

That's when he notices the young woman standing outside and peeking in. He gestures her through the window to wait just a minute.

Is Supernal Vision still active?