Nazareth Awakened - Chapter 02: Wives of Solomon

[Rubberneck]

Law steps forward.

"I got this."

He moves towards the chained up door and grabs hold of the chain. He then casts Decay Object on the chain. (OOC :: I believe that is a Lvl 2 death spell. I'm on vacation as everyone knows and don't have the books in front of me.)

 

[TillForPie]

Law takes the chain in hand and focuses his imago. In his mind's eye he can see the chain decaying, rusting away to powder in his hands... all he has to do is make it real. But he sees something else in his mind's eye: A ravenous emptiness staring back at him. He's seen it before - the black sea between him and Stygia, the land of the watchtower of the Moros. It's a gulf that surrounds the physical world and it stirs at his attempt to modify reality.

The others can feel the pulse of his spell, but it's different than all the other times. They can feel reality rippling around them, attempting to compensate for Law's magic, to reject the spell. All four mages know at once what they're experiencing, even if they've never felt it before: It's Paradox, moving through the waters of reality like a shark, displacing the surface as it hones in on the use of vulgar magic. It hasn't manifested, but it might. That's up to Law.

A member of the group is attempting to use vulgar magic for the first time and must check for Paradox (Heads-up: There's a house rule pertaining to Paradox Backlash damage, described in the first post of the OOC thread - it doesn't change how the likelihood or strength of a Paradox are determined, however, nor how a mage goes about mitigating one with mana).

Law has a Gnosis of 1 and thus has a base Paradox dice pool of 1. He's not using a rote nor a magical tool and there aren't any sleeper witnesses, so the pool remains unmodified. Law can choose to spend one point of mana to reduce the dice pool by 1. In this case the dice pool would be reduced to exactly 0 and a chance roll (10% chance of failure, rather than 30%) made. If a Paradox pool is ever reduced to less than 0, there is no chance of Paradox.

Rubberneck: Will Law spend a point of Mana?

 

[TillForPie]

Law reacts quickly to the brewing Paradox and channels mana through his body in an effort to ease the spell's birth into the world (Rubberneck let me know to do so outside the thread). [sblock=Paradox Roll]Roll: Chance Die = no Paradox with 0 successes
There is no Paradox[/sblock][sblock=Spell: Decay]Roll: Death 2 + Gnosis 1 = success with 3 successes
The durability of the chain (default: 3) is reduced by 3 (to 0)[/sblock]Just as quickly as the potential Paradox had arrived to make its presence known, it's gone again. In the same instant that Law had first grabbed the chain he's tearing it away from the door with a grunt. It's completely rusted-through and half of it crumbles to tiny chunks before raining to the ground, steel reduced to the consistency of soft clay in the space of an eyeblink.

The heavy doors groan when Law pushes them open, his and Harper's lights dimly illuminating the hall beyond. There are more scattered beer bottles here, as well as food wrappers and a condom. Doors marked CLASSROOM lead to the left and right, and then MEN'S (to the left) and WOMEN'S (to the right) bathrooms beyond them, and STORAGE (left) and OFFICE (right) beyond those. At the end of the hall is another set of double doors, left opened into the sanctuary. The backs of pews are just visible through the dusty haze at the edge of the range of the flashlights.

Everything is dark and still.

 

[Shayuri]

"That is so cool," Chance murmured as she peered at the chain apprehensively. "Terrifying, but cool."

She squinted into the church, revealed by the questing, bobbing discs of Law and Agnasci's flashlights.

"Looks like a teen hangout. There must've been another way in. At least it's not currently occupado." She laughed. "That coulda been awwwwwwkward."

With that she pulled her hoodie back and strolled into the deserted house of God as if she had an invitation in her back pocket. She produced her key chain, which had a tiny flashlight on it, and swept the blue-white beam around the ceiling quickly, looking for cracks or falling dust or other warning signs.

Then she went to the double doors to the sanctuary.

"Well, this is the obvious spot for something called a hallow, don't you think?"

 

[GlassEye]

Harper, Thyrsus mage

[section]

Harper flicks the flashlight side to side taking in all the signs and debris in the dilapidated structure. He's a bit saddened by the state of the building and the lost church that it represents. He may not believe the same way that he did when he was younger, nor did he have any affiliation with this particular church but to him the loss of belief was very personal and he felt a bit of longing for the surety those beliefs provided.

"Who knows what form the hallow will take here," says Harper more to himself than to the others. He's not exactly sure how to go about finding it but imagines the spectrum of his sight shifting to include the things of the spirit and the gauntlet.

​

[/section]

[sblock=OOC]cast Second Sight; Spirit 2 + Gnosis 1[/sblock]

 

[TillForPie]

Chance doesn't find any worrying damage in the ceiling when she examines it. For now the group seems safe from being crushed by a crucifix.

Though Harper's spell doesn't allow him to actually see spirits or into the Shadow, with it he can tell that the Gauntlet, the barrier separating this world from the Shadow, is as thin here as it is miles out into the desert. Usually the Gauntlet grows thicker where people have constructed things. As far as he can tell there's nothing significant about this, the Gauntlet is still there, but it's interesting how this small man-made structure can have become a part of the natural landscape once abandoned and given time. He detects nothing magical.

Chance advances a short ways ahead of the group, her key chain light providing a thin beam of weak illumination for her. She steps into the open doorway leading into the sanctuary, where an aisle cuts through two sections of black pews. There are six pews on each side of the aisle, each about 15 feet long. At the far end of the sanctuary is a raised stage and the outline of what may be a podium on its side - it's difficult to make out detail through the darkness without continuing further. There's some more discarded trash here, though not as much of it as in the hall.

A chill runs down Chance's spine as she stares into the darkness of the sanctuary. She can see her breath hanging in the air - not all that rare for a winter night in Arizona, but tonight in particular hasn't been very cold. She turns her flashlight to the ceiling at the sound of creaking and sees dust stirring among the exposed rafters, like something's moving up there. It might be Harper's bird.

Outside, the others are greeted by Crow's return. It lands on the ground and quickly struts a few steps into the church. Right on cue Agnasci feels a drop of rain hit his face. He looks up to the black sky - looks like it'll be raining again tonight.

 

[Shayuri]

Chance grimaced and waved her light up at the sanctuary's ceiling...the beam was too weak to put more than a dim, faded disc up there like the moon on a cloudy night.

"Ugh. Something's up there. Bats maybe. Is that a belfry? I think it's a tower though, so no..."

She looked back at Harper.

"That's not your crow is it? I didn't see him come in..."

(OOC Note - I didn't mention this before, but I was assuming she was using her temporal shield spell today due to the biker gang thing. That'd be a pool of 3. If my forgetting to mention it means she forgot to cast it before, she'll definitely do so now. )

 

[GlassEye]

Harper, Thyrsus mage

[section]

Harper shakes his head then realizing that Chance can't see if from her position ahead of him steps forward. "No, he's back here. Just come in out of the rain." He flashes the stronger light up where Chance is pointing.

​

[/section]

 

[TillForPie]

(OOC Note - I didn't mention this before, but I was assuming she was using her temporal shield spell today due to the biker gang thing. That'd be a pool of 3. If my forgetting to mention it means she forgot to cast it before, she'll definitely do so now. )

I started to type out info to everyone about how if they'd used a mage sight spell around her since morning they would have seen that Chance had a spell on her, but just to make it easier on us we'll say Chance casts it now. If it had mattered earlier I would have let her have it up already. This saves you a point of mana, too.
[sblock=Spell: Temporal Dodge]Roll: Time 2 + Gnosis 1 = Failure with 0 successes
Reroll: Time 2 + Gnosis 1 = Success with 1 success
Chance provides herself with 2 points of armor. I'll probably always roll for armor spells so that we can determine their potency, as unlike sensory spells, armor spells could be common targets for dispelling. I might just start assuming one success when used outside of combat/time-critical situations, like with sensory spells. We'll see![/sblock]The others can feel it as Chance weaves protective magic about herself. They can even see the spell on her thanks to their mage sight - it's churning very slowly over the surface of her body like a murky soup (OOC Note: When looking at a spell with mage sight it's possible to examine it using the scrutiny rules I've mentioned before, described in full starting on page 277 of the Mage: The Awakening rule book).

Harper shivers hard for a moment when he joins Chance in the sanctuary. Is it colder in here than outside? Harper adds the strength of his beam to Chance's. As far as they can tell there's nothing in the rafters.

 

[Mosier]

"Ugh. Something's up there. Bats maybe. Is that a belfry? I think it's a tower though, so no..."

Although Agnasci has been mostly silent until now, he becomes wary at Chance's comment. He casts Sense Consciousness to see if any other minds are nearby.