Ivory tree coven - IC

[S@tanicoaldo]

Info: LINK (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?558060-The-Ivory-tree-coven-of-witches-and-wizards-A-simple-D20-with-frefrom-elements-game)

OOC: LINK (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559212-Ivory-tree-coven-OOC&p=23084564#post23084564)

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/98/03/f8/9803f83692959e4129d644938f44ca0d.jpg

The Mirrorwalker and The Spirit venture themselves through the streets of the city , the twists and turns in this extremely hot evening it’s dark and the moon is bright, people are happy preparing for the harvest festival, despite the colorful flags and preparations there is a forbidding air around the city, whispers of betrayal and heresy, the more polite merely put the covens presence in question on private conversations other openly mock and curse the covens in bars and the social sphere.

As shadows in the night The Mirrorwalker and The Spirit make their way to the 13th street and arrive at the 13th house, a simple a modest building, no one would suspect it’s home to the coven if it wasn’t for a little wooden plaque with the symbol of a white tree.

https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/images/101/25039419-1505382328.png

As they enter the house they see complete darkness, sounding the Ivory tree created by the founder of the coven to prove his powers are several shadowy figures, the remaining members of the coven.

These figures are led by The Seer an elder with the stereotypical appearance of wizard, long robes of a fating blue color, long white beard and a bald head, his facial expression is of harsh but fair teacher, his left eye is missing and he doesn’t go out of his way to hide it, the damage seem to be stuck in time since the scar seem pretty fresh and bloody despite the fact he has been like that for decades, talking to him can always be kind of intimidating since the darkness inside his left eye socket seem to be forever staring at the deep secrets of the other person’s hearth. As his Allies indicate his specialization is divination and he acts as the informal leader of the group.

"Good evening Mirrorwalker and Spirit we were waiting for your arrival. I’m afraid the other older members of the council will not be joining us. My divinations reveal to me that they decided to turn their backs to us and rethread while they could, before the arrival of the inquisition."

He paused briefly, you are all aware that a great pain in his heart.

The conjurer, the love of his life, someone he never had the courage to confess his true feelings has left him without saying goodbye.

He’s trying his best to hide his broken hearth as regain the severe and serious posture he’s known for but it obvious for all to see that her absence took a severe tool on his fortitude.

After this small pause he continues.

"Our situation is dire, not only the inquisition is on their way but they plan to use the northern castle as a new base of operations, the perpetual presence of the inquisition right next to our city will bring an end to the golden age of this coven."

"Their hatred and disdain for all things mystical, magical and supernatural put us all in grave danger."

He grabs his wine and after a small sip he beginnings.

"I thank you all for coming, after all these years I feel we have grown above a mere group of likeminded individuals, I’m glad we are going to face this together, as a group, no… As a family."

He raises his glass of wine a drinks it all in once.

“I have devised some plans considering all the possible outcomes and probabilities, any ideas, comments, insights and suggestions are more than welcomed. First of all we can attack their base, show them that they are not welcomed here, this will be a suicide attack where we’ll die in the glories flames of magical combat. There is no way we can take all of them down but we can take as many as we can with us to the afterlife. I do hope this is not our course of action…”

“Our second possibility is to escape, the influence of the inquisition will take over the entire known world in nothing but two years, so the only safe places are the new lands to the west or other planes and dimensions. Both will be equally dangerous and complex trips to an unknown land that will pose problems as conflicts that may prove to be just as bad as or even worse than the inquisition.”

“Our final plan is to hide here in the old world and find a way to wait for inevitable fall of this new ideology, all things rise and fall, the inquisition won’t be any different.”

“We could also join them, I heard they tend to be merciful with magic users who don’t fight back and end up recruiting those who have useful spells to fight against runaway mages.”

Says the Geomancer In the corner.

“Is that how you see yourself in the future? Hunting your own kind out of fear? Betraying the fraternity and serving as the inquisition hunting dog until you outlive your usefulness?”

“It was just an idea” The geomancer whispers back.

He turns to the rest of the council looking for both validation or alternative solutions.

[Obscuraphile]

Gareth, Shadow, steps forward. His features, lean to begin with, are made gaunt and hollow by the shadows. The darkness almost seems to cling to his face, collecting under his cheekbones and his brows. "I, for one, will neither run nor cower. The people have long respected and cherished our order and those like it. If we could simply remind them of this it would have the potential to defang this inquisition," he spits the word as though it were the vilest of curses. "I believe that we have many dark days ahead of us, but the greatest battle that we face is not one that will be decided by strength of arms. We war for the hearts and minds of the common man. It is they that will decide our ultimate fate. I say we protect our own and we rally them to our side."

Gareth's thin form seems to sag slightly as he melds back into his place in the circle with a final thought, "Perhaps such a victory could even restore the faith of our own who have abandoned us."

[Holy-hunter]

"Sounds like long-play."
A sturdy voice trails off from the corner of the room. The silhouette of a man can be seen in the moonlit window frame. Reluctant to leave his point of vision and join the table. He bows his hooded head for a moment and continues his reply.

"Sorry Shadow, but that plan was as about as solid as your name. Sure it was well said, strong and rousing. There were even some nice notions like 'the heart of the people'. But this is a bloody coven and not a temple so leave your acts of faith outside." No longer looking outside his gaze catches those at the table and with a single step closer to them, his armour softly reflects the light of the dancing candle flames.

" So you propose what then? That we have faith in the average person, the very same people that are currently filling the ranks of the inquisition and brought it right here to our bloody doorstep.

That we just wait for these good people to gather together against the majority and rise up, to get involved in a war that doesn't involve them. For them to lay down their own lives just to protect us? Us! Us who are sworn to protect them?"
There was a clear agitation and frustration growing in the young mans voice as he got swept up in his own words and moved closer. With a confidence as strong as his it was easy to forget just how young he truly was. It was a stressful time for them all right now and he truly had nothing against the man Shadow.

"So we what? We just show the people, we remind them we are just and kind, then we wait until the day were hopefully someone rises to a position of authority and power and can somehow make the change in the world that we couldn't make ourselves? "

His words had brought him all the way across the room to the table. He slams his hand down with a fiery passion and conviction.

"Your right. It's not running, nor fighting, it's hiding! I for one will not hide behind another.
We have to be smarter than that, waiting isn't an option, we need actions!
The longer we allow this to happen the more of our brothers and sisters are hunted down like animals. This will be a long game, no doubt, but not one we will sit idly by twiddling our thumbs, waiting on others until it's too late.

We need to be active, NOW. To understand our enemy. Their numbers, their motives, their methods. Who they are, where they are! This is already a war and they are no doubt having the same discussion about us if they haven't already."

Behind all the bravado there was a hidden fear. Recognisable to those of some wisdom or that knew him well. It was the fear of losing people that he cared about. His greatest fear of all. No doubt this could lead him to reckless behaviour if he wasn't careful.

[Obscuraphile]

"I leave my faith nowhere, Maahes. I wear it as a cloak and wield it as a weapon. My faith, that all things will come to an end. But I in no way wish to hide behind the people. By all means we should oppose this inquisition and speed it to its end, but if we create a vacuum it could be filled by something worse. Things can always get worse. So we should temper our actions and make ourselves appealing to those who have cast us out, unless you mean to place them among the enemy?"

Gareth takes a breath regarding his fellow coolly. "It is as you say, we have an obligation to the people, to protect them. We must take great care that our actions do not bring them to peril. Like you I have no desire to let the inquisition continue its work, but we should not oppose them so openly. We cannot be seen as the aggressors. We cannot allow blood to run in the streets or magic to ravage these cities."

[Holy-hunter]

As usual Shadow was right, this was no time for rash decisions or to begin disregarding the consequences. With too much pride to admit his faults or rashness in interpretation, Ryder simply growls and shares a face full of disgust before slapping the table and walking away, back to his resting position beside the window.

He would continue to listen in but watch his words and emotions more closely. As his gaze floated to the starry night sky outside and his mind wandered through the darkness beyond, beneath his robe his fingers curled around the hilt of a dagger as he mindlessly thumbed the sharp steel blade.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

The large puppy of a man dressed in browns and greens known as Spirit, or just Bas to friends, was listening to the discussion. The Seer's announcement had not been news, they had gathered here explicitly to discuss it, but it was still something else to hear him say it out loud. He had weighed of the options, and despite how optimistic this was probably still going to sound, he didn't like any of them. After a few minutes Bas spoke up, even if he wasn't sure it was his turn yet, being one of the newer members here.

Okay, so fighting isn't an option, and running is only worth it if we can make fighting an option inside of a few years. That would be nice, but I don't see how. But they can't hunt what they can't find right? In the entire city there's our modest group, plus maybe some smaller pockets and private practitioners, mostly with weaker magic. We're not that easy to find. Since the inquisition is not here in this kind of numbers to leave empty handed, they will get aggressive soon, and they will make mistakes. If they screw up enough, the population might drive them out themselves. The only way that's not going to happen is if they know something we don't know they know. They might have sent spies here months ago, or got into touch with someone willing to sell others out. I would like to humbly suggest that our first priority is finding out what they know, because it's vital. I just don't know how to do it. Following up on that the second order of business should be to have backup plans. If our intelligence efforts pay off and we find out they're going to arrest someone we need to have a system in place to warn that person and pull them out of the city. Maybe hide them at other people's places, or set up a refugee camp in the southern woods. It's not too close to the castle and there's space for some loops and illusions. Since we won't always be in time, we also need to develop the ability to strike. Break people out of prison and such. We've got the skills, we've just never needed to organize ourselves like that, as competent as most of you are at defending yourselves. And when we develop a strike force anyway, we can start using it to strike proactively as well. Disrupt deliveries of food, messages or even weapons, maybe even help the civilians these guys will lash out at when they don't get the results they wanted. That would send a lot of good worth of mouth out about us. A short pause falls. It's never ideal not to have the biggest muscles in town, but we're too outnumbered to operate in the open.

[Sicarius Victis]

"Faith, brother Shadow? Faith in what? That the Inquisition will crumble, 50 years from now? That in a few more centuries, nobody will have ever heard the name 'Minwu Charlamagnus'?"

Erin, firespeaker, Firebrand, leans forward to speak. Until now, she had been relaxed and unfocused, seeming to pay little attention to the gathering. As she speaks, though, her eyes begin to focus on her fellow witches and wizards, one after another, before finally settling on Gareth's own sunken eyes.

"It's a beautiful sentiment, I'll admit that. But faith will get you nowhere. Action gets results, not faith.

That being said, the rest of your statement is a decent plan of action, and I do agree with it. If we choose to hide, then how better than to hide in a way that lets us keep helping, keep fighting?"

Leaning back, Erin spreads her hands, in a gesture similar to a shrug.

"If t were just me? I'd fight. I'd fight, and burn their Inquisition to the ground. They'd like to see us all burn, why shouldn't we watch them burn? I'd burn them down, and in the process I'd burn as well. That's all I could really hope for.

However, it's not just me. It's all of us, and the people we need to protect. As such, I'll defer to the council's decision here. However, I will say now: whatever is decided, I will not run. I will not abandon the people we need to protect."

[S@tanicoaldo]

Oh yeah guys, can you guys put your character Alias in the begning of every post as a title? That really helps. Thanks.
"Regaining the people’s favor may be beyond or capabilities at this point"

Says one of the shadowy figures as he approaches the light.

"The inquisition acts by slowly poisoning the minds of the common folk against us, they attack and many covens leach out when facing certain doom."

It's the Stargazer, an extremely thin man that almost appears to have a skeletal appearance around the curves with pale skin and really dark red lips. He has green eyes and eyelids. His hair that reaches to her shoulders with a large balding spot in the front. He's wearing a dirty dark blue robe and holding a opera cigarette holder.

"This happened to the people of Westhincha, they were ready to kill their own coven convinced that they were evil and working against the population, the mages decided to fight back and summoned a chaotic horror that devoured everyone in the city but only after doing unspeakable, depraved and repulsive things with all of them, no one was spared, when rumors of what happened there and in other coven reach the cities we are done for, it's an ororboric situation, the fear creates hatred and the hatred makes the mages figth back, the violence justify the fear and the cycle beginning again, we have no way out, we must run while we can just as the other members of the coven did."

As he finishes this he smokes his cigarette from which a vibrant green smoke rises, forming a snake eating his own tail.

Images of the chaotic creature attack fleshes in everybody’s minds.

http://www.lotfp.com/RPG/uploads/images/RefCrowdfund/slipcaseadisplay.jpg

"And who took down the creature? As the shiny knights taking down the dragons of legend? The inquisition."

"We still have a chance" says The Beast, a large and brutish wizard who can turn intro animals by wearing their skin.

"We can prove that those covens were peaceful and benign and the only reason they did what they did was the inquisition's presence."

He puts a map of the region on the table showing the distance between the castle and the city.

"I say we split some of us try to gather allies, powerful people in the city that can be on our side while the other group gather intel on what the inquisition plan to do, they often try to use something the coven did against them, twisting past events and situations to fit their narrative and act first, we have magic on our side let’s use that as an advantage."

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdpxcBaVAAEhfeb.jpg


"I say we run" Says The Fey a powerful conjuror and maybe the second most powerful member of the coven, a beautiful woman with hair as black as the night and using a long lime green dress.

"The Seer spells are not able to see the future clearly and every time he sees the future it changes, maybe the inquisition power will never subside now."

"The changes my gaze cause in future events are not that significant they can stay in power for even less time for all we know" Says the Seer.

"It is too much time still, we are powerful magic users, we have nature, chaos and the universe on our power we are not made to hide like rats, the rise of the inquisition is just a prove that mortals of the material realm are not compatible to higher truths and notions, we must leave, there is an entire universe of planes out there nothing is keeping us here, if our beloved people turn their backs to us I say there is no reason to stay."

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

Then go ahead, Fey. Run. Abandon your people. You already seem to have forgotten the shepherd's role to the sheep; maybe if you run fast and far enough, you'll be able to forget everything else that matters, too."

[S@tanicoaldo]

"Tell me Firebrand what is the name of a shepherd who takes care of wolves as if they were sheeps and lambs? That's right, such thing don't exist because such fool would be dead.”

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Title: Firebrand


"Tell me Firebrand what is the name of a shepherd who takes care of wolves? That's right, such thing don't exist because such fool would be dead.”

"That shepherd, dear sister Fey, would be the leader of the pack. The one who proves themself strongest above all challengers. Such as Charlamagnus, or such as us.

And our flock are not wolves. Our people are sheep, the Inquisition the wolves they need to be protected from."

[S@tanicoaldo]

As Firebrand says Charlamagnus name a silence emerges on the room. This is not a name someone can just drop like that so casually, some members of the Coven adimrie him but many hate what he represents.

Roll for Interaction with a -3 bonus(this is a good thing), if you win you have most of the Coven in your side if you lose people will start thinkming you are an order of reason sympathizer.

You have to roll bellow 16. Roll a D20.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit

Bas figured he saw where this was going. If the plan was to hide and run an underground campaign, but it needed to be called fighting for people to get on board, he was fine with that. He just really wished that stupid father of dogma hadn't been used as the example. Yeah sure, he invented some stuff, the politics being waged in his name still sucked. Bas looked around. He then stood up and tried to measure off the exactly right amount of enthusiasm as he exclaimed "Yes, work with the city! This is our turf!"

[Sicarius Victis]

I have to roll low? I was born for this!

[roll0]

Edit: Nice! A natural 1!

"What's wrong? Are you all afraid to say his name? Fear of a name is nothing but weakness, sisters and brothers. Charlamagnus is strong, even if just as a symbol rather than a person. That's how the Inquisition became a threat in the first place, is it not?

Dancing around the subject, fearing to speak his name - where would that get a discussion? If you're too afraid to discuss things openly and freely, what what the Hell is the point of a discussion in the first place?"

[S@tanicoaldo]

The People see Firebrand’s point.

The Seer tries to calm everyone down.
"Brothers and sisters calm down, I believe the consensus here is that we must gather information, we must know how the inquisition is going to strike no matter if we are going to run or stay."

"How do you plan to accomplish this? Need I to remind that the inquisition employ magic users as well? If we get cough they can use that against us."

"They will probrably go after the magic users in the outskiers, the pariahs, hedge mages and apostates. Then use their existence against us. We need to get to them first."

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees

"There's a simple solution that we are all dancing around." Ryder finally adds in from his spot beside the window, gazing out over the town he sucks his thumb to clean the blood from it.

"Since this is not a debate of action, it's just what action, and most can already agree we need more knowledge of our enemy. Sure send scouts to the already fallen towns, look at our future holds. But we need to be on the pulse here!
-
Geomancer already said it, knowingly or not. Someone needs to join them. Someone with useful magic.

I'll do it."

[S@tanicoaldo]

"Geomancer planed to genuinely join, you plan to trick the inquisition intro accepting you? Are you mad? Do you think you cna hide your true intention form the inquisitors? Do you think you cna just walk in looking for a job opportunity? Are you mad? Or maybe you are just a fool who sees himself as more important than you really are."

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees

"Well if I'm not important it shouldn't matter if I try!" Ryder snaps back as he slams an open fist against the wall in protest.

"It's better than just sitting around here blindly. Anything we do could be the wrong action.
They might already know who we are, or banding together might just paint targets on our backs.
No, we get in there and cut the head of this beast before it grows, or at least die trying.

Better to die by our own foolish actions than getting jumped unaware and out numbered.

They could have spies anywhere throughout the whole bloody town. Just waiting to take down a magic user for some coin. Anyone." his voice trails off and his eyes go distant as a thought creeped into his mind. He shares it in a soft mumble not daring to give it life.

"They could even have someone in here already."

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit

Bas thought it over. Ryder definitely wouldn't be the worst person to go. He could go undercover as a simple magical entertainer from the merchants quarter. "I think he even has some kind of magic to get messages back out, right?" And it would be the best way to get insider info, even if it would take some clever team theatrics to get them to trust him, it was extremely risky and there was no way he'd get to the real top of the ladder where the juicy stuff goes around anytime soon.

But it can't be our only approach, Bas said, almost skipping over the part where they'd decide it was too dangerous. we need to coordinate with our allies. A person on the inside will give us valuable information about some of the ops they're running, but we need to be able to act on any of the ops they're running. Because even a broken rat finds the cheese twice a day. He switched lines of thought and said :What options do we have to stall? To prevent them from being up to full power for as long as possible? Any hard logistical parts to their move in particular? Katarina, you have some experience from the other side right? Didn't your civilian persona basically move the whole outer district inside the wall during that raid when I was little? Any ideas?


OOC: Okay, how are we going to prevent splitting the party already? Because the idea is solid, and all going undercover is just weird.
OOC edit: I also didn't react to the "they could have someone in here already" because I got ninja'd by that post (and I need to check while typing more often). Feel free to pick up that line of thought.

[S@tanicoaldo]

The suggestion that there could be spies among the council makes everyone nervous.

"It does metter sicne your foolish actions could compromise the whole Coven they know we know and are waiting for us to make a mistake so they can profit on that, I vote that we keep our distancem either we try to escape or try to reach to the non-coven magic users before the inquisiton get them."

"If they find out we are ploting with heretical and unethical magic uers of the outskirts, couldn't that be used against us?"

The Geomancer asks.

"Maybe but we got to do something. And I vote for that."

OOC: Not spliting the party sounds lieka great idea D:

Edit:I also got ninja'd by your post but I think the reactions make sense this way.

[Orcus The Vile]

Don't we need to choose what spells we have prepared? What level are we?
The Augur
"Ha! Look at you casting doubts and uncertainty in this group, are you trying to tear this family apart? What is your end goal here? Putting we against each other?" Says The Augur joking.

"All these problems can be easily solved by me, my magic allows me to see all and know all"

The Augur strikes his cane on the floor, an aura emerges and the shadows of everyone present spring to life.

I cast "Shadow confession" and ask:

“Is anyone here a spy for the inquisition? Or any other organization for that matter?”

[S@tanicoaldo]

The shadows answer a resounding no.

Too bad relief is no one's emotion of power because that's the feeling that takes over the room.

OOC: That's true. Silly me. Everyone is on Level two. Add a prepered spell list. On your sheet. You guys can prepere two spell and cast both spells or the same prepered spell twice. Orcus you used one of daily spells.

[LordArgon]

Mirrorwalker
I am no spy, but if it is a spy we need, my magic will come in handy. As for what we can do Spirit, we can hijack their food shipments, poison their water, or knock off a lone inquisitor. If we are going to fight them, we can't do it out in the open. We cannot let them turn us into monsters by causing collateral damage by flinging around fireballs and blowing up a families. If we fight, it must be in the shadows. Now as for the unaffiliated magic users, we must get them out. No house will be safe, and some do not have the self control to not blow up a city block when confronted. if we can successfully remove them, it will make it that much easier to turn the public on the inquisition.

[Orcus The Vile]

The Augur

"I agree Mirrorwalker, we must not act against them, they have done no move yet we must try to minimalize their influence and play safe. What do we know about the unaffiliated magic users, how many are there? How powerful they can be?"

He strikes his long black beard with his long bony fingers.

"As for The Beast's plan, I could use my second spell to see the castle, what you think about that? I believe they haven’t arrived in full force yet but I may be able to see something. Should we risk it?"

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit

Okay, if those are the most important things for them right now, food, water, and personnel traveling alone, then let's go do those things. They're not here yet right, not all of them? I for one am up for some out of city action. Even if we only go out to spy on their troop numbers, maybe spot any large materiel or VIP's.

"Although it would be kind of cool if we got a chance to blow up a shipment of gunpowder", he thought to himself.

As before, except this time I'm actually accidentally sort of addressing that last post.

[Orcus The Vile]

The Augur

"That sounds like the perfect plan, by going there in person I won't have to waste my magical power and we may not be dected by their own magic-user traitors, I rather not go out of the city personally, is there anyone in the city we can seek as an ally?"

The Augur thinks to himself.

>The Coven would be lost if I wasn't here to solve things out, I rather not go outside the walls and deal with those lowborns but I fear that if a group does leave the city I must go as well to prevent these young fools from getting us all killed.<


Maybe the NPCs can go check that boring stuff and we stay in the city seeking allies?

[S@tanicoaldo]

The Seer seems happy with the group’s enthusiasm.

"We have the guild masters, they profit from our protection and it would be good to remind them of that, they meet at the guilds hall every night."

"We the merchant’s fraternity, they are not as influential but they have the money and resources to make their voices heard."

"We have the clerics in the temple district who are just as concerned with the inquisition as we are.
The guard’s captain is a strong willed young man whose mother was a witch."

"Finally we have the elder, the city's regent, he’s a kind old man but the true power of the city resides on his advisor a young man with great diplomatic skills he’s the one calling the shots."

"The unaffiliated magic users of our region on the other hand, consist in three weak shamans, their power are mere cantrips nothing to worry about but still we cannot allow the inquisition to pressure them or they may end up resorting to risky casting and that could be a disaster of unimaginable proportions."

"Besides them we have some powerful or evil spell casters that may be trouble."

"The Corruptor a powerful alchemist and transmuter who lives in an extra dimensional space inside an obelisk in the woods, he mostly keeps to himself, trying to reach godhood with his powers over matter, he does engage in trade with the merchant’s fraternity, trading gold for goods."

"Then we have the Seeker, my young master and the master of many magic users of the coven, he lives in solitude in the mountains and don’t like to be bothered, someone has to warn him of the inquisition’s presence."

"We also have the trouble makers. The illusionist and The Midwife, they were too powerful for the founding members so they could not be defeated they had to be sealed away or bound by contract."

"The Midwife formerly known as the River Witch is an extremely powerful, cunning and dangerous evil witch who used to engage in blood magic and gore rituals her followers used to spread chaos, death and plague, now she lives a humble life in the woods bound by a contract that forces her to behave. But she will not hold back against an inquisition attack since she’s allowed to use her terrible powers in self-defense."

"The illusionist…" He pauses for a moment the mere name of this magic user is enough to bring a somber to the place. "Is a complete psychopath, a monster, sealing him away in a sub terrain cave in the river took the life of many founding members if the inquisition find out about him we are done for, he’s alive but sealed away I sincerely have no idea on what to do about him."

The Seer sits down exhausted by the mere thought of seeing the Illusionist again.

I talked about how magic works briefly on the first posts I’ll post here again:
All the player characters will be chaos magicians, and this is how magic works:

This magic system uses THERE ARE NO SPELL LEVELS

All spells are considered equally difficult, and the level of the spell’s power is determined by the caster’s level. The more powerful the spell is the larger the area of effect, duration and magnitude are.

The caster does not have to cast a spell at full power; she may decide to cast it at a lower level of power (a 5th level caster choosing to cast a spell as if she was a 3rd level caster, for instance).

BEGINNING SPELLS: Magic-Users begin with three spells they are free to create, these spells are open ended so rather than a simple fireball, a spell that can only be used in combat, a magic user can cast “Create and control fire” and use roleplaying to define its effects, a fireball can never be used to light a cigar for example but a control fire spell can, these openended spells seem a lot closer to how magic is portrayed in fantasy, a magic user who can control fire can use it in many ways rather than being stuck with an explosion effect,.

PREPARING SPELLS EACH DAY: Magic-Users can prepare/memorize one different spell per caster level. These can be prepared from the caster’s own spellbook, or any understood spell scrolls or spellbooks created by other Magic-Users.

CASTING SPELLS: Magic-Users has one spell slot per caster level that they can use with no risk or penalty. The Magic User can cast any number of prepared spells in any combination up to their casting limit before they must prepare spells again. For example, they can cast every spell they have prepared once, or one spell multiple times, or any combination thereof, as long as they don’t hit their casting limit.

RISKY CASTING: Spells can be cast under conditions which risk catastrophe. When one of the following conditions is met, the spell may still be attempted. However, the caster must make a saving throw vs. Willpower. On a failure, roll on the Miscast table. Spells cannot be ended early on a Miscast. Every additional valid condition means a –1 penalty on the saving throw. Casting a spell after the usual level-based casting limit has been reached. Casting a spell that has not been prepared that day (this can only be attempted with a spell that is in the caster’s own spellbook).

Casting a spell that is being read directly from an understood scroll or spellbook, that is not by the caster’s own hand that has not been prepared that day.

Casting a spell while carrying beyond the safe level of encumbrance .

Casting a spell the same round as taking damage (non-instantaneous spells may still be affected after casting, but before the spell takes effect!)

Miscast results are rolled when the spell takes effect, not before.

Casters may miscast on purpose, but the player may never choose the miscast result.
Besides the risk of miscast, casting a spell not prepared by caster or that has exceed the number of spells per level may risk facing the unpredictable forces of chaos.

Chaos magic is not an exact science, is more like a form of art, often you won’t get the same effect for the same spell and the scientific method would never work, chaos is a dangerous and unpredictable force so even if you are able to cast the spell you must roll a D20.

If the result is too low the spell is undercharged with your will and it can act in an unpredictable or weaker way, if the result is too high it may be over saturated with energy and cause a catastrophic result. Note these only apply to spells that worked while risk casting.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

"You are too casual in your application of magic, Augur," Gareth says quietly to him alone, with the faintest edge of rebuke in his voice. "We have other methods of achieving our goals, and these days, more than those that have come before, are ones in which reliance on our gifts could be another nail in our collective coffins."

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees

Ryder listened to the others speak and took a deep breath before deciding it was again his turn. With that single breath his attitude and demeanour changed drastically to one more rational and calculating. With his emotions in check and his mind levelled he once again approached the table.
During his pondering silence he had taken pen to paper and started drafting his thoughts.

He had come to the conclusion that, and decided it was better to assume rather than not, that the inquisitors were ahead of them at this game. That after all their experience that they would not walk into a new location blindly. Surely this was not the first coven that opposed them. Surely there were others just as powerful that had fought against their tyranny.

It was most likely that the inquisitors had mages on their side and most defiantly spies. At least it was better to prepare for such things anyway.

Every precaution had to be taken.
Ryder drops his notes on the table without a word. It was not an end all solution but it was a start.




"COVEN RULES AND REGULATIONS
for everyone's safety."

1, We no longer use the coven for meetings or discussions relating to magic. A new and alternating location will be given.

2, No one is to travel ANYWHERE alone. Minimum companies of three residing at the least likely and inconspicuous residence.

3, Magic is not to be used lightly and should be avoided at all costs. Only do so if you are willing to justify your actions to the council.

4, Always assume you are being watched and heard. Always.


"Moving forward."

Augar, Firebrand & Mirrorwalker.
Remind the Guild masters of our strength and that they need us.
Convince the Merchant fraternity we are a profitable bet. If required, let them no we can make or break them.
Lastly the Clerics, make them see we are more alike than different. We will be stronger unified.


Geomancer, Fey & The Seer.
Find the Elder and the Seeker. Let them know what is going on and plea for their aid.
get Spellbook


Shadow, Spirit, Mahees.
Travel into the forest and find the 3 Shamans. Try recruit them. Find out where they stand in all this.
Most importantly approach the Corruptor with care and caution. Buy his loyalty if we have to, do what ever it takes to stop him siding with 'them'.


The trouble makers... [i]everyone ignore them for now.


As for the Others not present,
They can scout the towns of already fallen covens for info on what happened and how.



He gives a dismissive shrug and softly says "Just an idea." Before casually walking back to his spot beside the window. Leaving the others to deliberate over his thoughts.

[Amazon]

The provider

After a while observing the others share their ideas, The Provider decides to speak.

I don't think leaving the trouble makers is a good idea, they may be the first Inquisition targets. I think we must go after them first, the guilds and the others can wait, they won't go anywhere but if this witch and monster do something wrong we and all forms of magic are doomed.

She aproches the light reaviling her face.

If they are as powerful as the Seer say we must go there as a group.

Come on, facing a powerful illusionist and an evil witch sound a lot more interesting, the other option are basically just talking.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit

Go talk to a wizard so dangerous he's been kept locked away in complete isolation since before you joined up, so mad as one will get from being locked up that long and so powerful he still hasn't died from it? Maybe ones we have more information, when we find something we have to offer him.

The midwife could be an idea though. If she signed a contract she's open to reason, and she might be secretly happy to have a good excuse to fire up her magic again. And if we can you know, amend her contract a little to fit the situation and get her at least mostly on our side others might have more faith in our ability to win as well.

I agree with finding something we can do together (although I'm fine with holy-hunters task division if we do split up), but maybe we shouldn't start by releasing a high level boss and skipping all the way to "the inquisition is gone but you have a bigger problem now". The only hold we have over the guy is his prison,
and we need to release him from there for him to start doing something, leaving us with no leverage at all.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

Stepping away from Augur's side, Shadow goes to read Mahees' note. Pushing back his greasy hair, he sighs pensively.

"Perhaps we can find subtler ways to steer the inquisition away from trouble and by doing so save ourselves the headaches. If we could find some way of coaxing them into expending their resources on fruitless pursuits, this would relatively strengthen our position while at the same time protecting the gifted and avoiding bad exposure. However, if we are caught playing puppet masters..." Gareth lets the implication of his words hang.

[S@tanicoaldo]

“There is no need to worry about safety; this is the safest place we could be.”

The room the council is standing in is not in the humble building that houses the public face of coven but on a pocked dimension created by mixing chunks of the storm realm and the material plane. This is The Mother’s place of power, the most powerful member of the Coven and the only founding member that remains, no one is able to enter this place without her authorization no scry spells can beat her protection barriers.

"But anyway, there may be a reason to seek out The Illusionist..."

Says The Seer.

"His spellbook. The founder members considered it far too powerful and dangerous to be kept here, so they locked away in the cave, The Seeker's instructions were clear, only bring back the book in the case of a daring emergency."

“Speaking of spellbooks…” says The Fey.

“I believe the corrupter stole one my books, my book of true names to be precise, I’m unable to enter his domain thanks to a covenant we both established long ago but I believe one of his minions stole the book from me, if you ever find it bring it back to me. I’ll make sure to reward anyone who could bring it to me“


The Seer strokes his long beard and says.

"I guess we can start voting on who will act and where they will go, some of us must remain here to provide tactical support and strategy others will be field agents.”


At this moment you guys have a list of quests to do and places to go, you guys can do the things in any order but remember time is at the essence since the Inquisition is in their way, which place do you guys want to start investigating or exploring?

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit

So, proposal one, Bas summarized, we split up and do the quick jobs first, visit the reasonable people and establish some form of a citywide convenant. Proposal two is we go after the strongest potential allies first, starting with the Midwife. We'll need a strong group for that one. Proposal three is we focus on arming ourselves, we go after the spellbooks. Here as well we'll need one stronger group. I call for everyone to write down their first and second choice. If there's no majority for any of the three options based on first choices the least popular option gets dropped and those votes will be sorted by their second choice. I myself think we'll need allies more than spells, so that's what I vote for.


First choice: Option 2 (Strong allies/Midwife)
Second choice: Option 1 (Split up, many allies)

OOC: If I missed anything important please speak up, we'll retcon those options in. I'd also propose that the PC vote results just happen to accurately represent the overall results including NPC's.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Nope this seems fine.

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees

Mahees just stares over his shoulder at the seer expectantly. Waiting for him to shut down the ridiculous idea of confronting the midwife or illusionist. But he didn't.

with a look of disbelief and disappointment he took in the ongoing scene with sense of irritation. Walking back over to the table with his pen out he scrawls the words 'get Spellbook' under the the second group who already only had two tasks.

Looking up at the circle he was once again in he shares his opinion for the last time, hoping everyone would see reason.
"This is not their first rodeo, they would not come here unprepared. They already have a plan and method. How do you combat the versatility of magic? With careful planning and preparation. I bet they already know who is the most dangerous of us and what we can do. Our habits and meeting locations, previous battles, all of it. Our own fame is now our worst enemy.

We need to unify all our friends and allies. Gather more spells and resources than we have ever had access to before. For every faction or witch that is not aiding our cause becomes a loss and hinderance. Not to mention potential enemy. Even if not directly, they may offer supplies, knowledge or even a moral victory, even if unwilling. All of those will help those bastards gain advantage over us.

Wasting all our time and resources on one trouble maker who we cannot trust and will inevitably betray us, will only put us behind and at a disadvantage. The midwife has not changed who she is at heart. If she wants to fight them, she will fight them regardless of if we approach her or not, and if they do provoke her, well guarantee they chose to for a reason. I stand by this this." Mahees drops his finger onto the note on the table. "It's the best foundation building move we can make."

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

"If we start an arms race with the inquisition the situation will go from bad to worse in a flash."

Vote 1: Split up
Vote 2: Strong Allies

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

"You're correct, brother Shadow, in that simply arming ourselves isn't the best choice of action. However, more spells aren't what we need most anyways. What we need is knowledge. And that, brothers and sisters, is something we can't have too much of."

Vote 1: Proposal 3 - Spellbooks
Vote 2: Proposal 1 - The City

"And can I ask why anyone would think that the Illusionist's spellbook is safer locked away with the psychopath that uses it than it is with the coven who's supposed to protect people from said psychopath?"

[Amazon]

The Provider

"Brother Mahees I believe you are overestimating the inquisition, look at what happened to Westhincha, do you really think that's the result of a cold and calculating organization with lots of planning and preparation? They are bigots, nothing more, their main weapon is numbers, even the most powerful mage can't face an army alone, that's why they recruit the commoners and locals, you worry too much."

She points to the map The Beast brought to the table.

“Let’s reach a compromise here, the city and their members such as the elder, merchants and guildmasters are not going anywhere, we don’t have to worry about them for now… Let’s solve the problems outside the city walls first, and we do it quickly, discreetly and orderly according to the proximity of the targets, it seems that the Corrupter with Fey’s book is the woods, the midwife as well, after that we seek the illusionists book by the river and go to the Seeker’s home in the mountains, maybe someone can use magic to take us there. After that we seek the three shamans, that’s everything outside then we focus on efforts inside and if the inquisition arrives it won’t looks as suspicious and most important the risk of the Illusionist’s presence being found is lower the quicker we act, if we decide to seek him after the inquisition is on our toes the chances of them founding out about a powerful and evil magic user is higher and that’s an advantage they could use against us that we simply must prevent form happening at all costs. The earlier we deal with him the better otherwise we may be followed or something and if what The Stargazer showed us is the usual practice for the inquisition, they may end up freeing the monster and then not only we but all people we vow to protect are done for.”


Vote 1: Seek stuff from outside the city walls. Proposal 2.
Vote 2: Seek The illusionist’s book. Proposal 3.

[Orcus The Vile]

The Augur

"Well we are in the city already why not solve the things here first? But I do see your point the sooner we deal with the evil people the better otherwise people may accuse us of conspiring with evil mages and wtiches"

Vote 1: Proposal 3 - Spellbooks
Vote 2: Proposal 1 - The City

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees
Mahees had become like a yo-yo. Bouncing to and fro from the table, mumbling with frustration each time as he went back and forth. Wanting to stay away but drawn back in each time by an unknown gravitational force.

He uttered curses about underestimating your enemies. He quoted old lines that shunned confidence or assuredness as a fools folly. He wasn't sure what was getting through to people. They seemed to be going around in circles.

As he continued to pace back and forward clearly biting his tongue and withholding harsher words, the impatient young man scratched at an itch trapped beneath his armor.

Ignoring the others Ryder eventually came back to the table once more. Leaning over it he looked upon the map that lay sprawled out before them.
A serene silence overtook him as he fell deep into concentration, studying the providers plan with a sudden purpose, interest and intrigue. His mind ticking over intently as he eyed the markers, logistical calculations running through his head. Oblivious to all else a strange defiant excitement filled his face.

Finally his finger fell to the location marked for the three shaman. With a slow steady sureness he traced a twisting path of roads and rivers to the location of the Corrupter. It was a fair distance apart and one now stained by the smear of blood.
His spell material.

Without raising his head he looked up past his hanging hair as his lips twisted into an insatiable grin. A sly slither of pearly white teeth creeping across his face. He had been caught.
The shadows that once plagued his features, cast by his heavy hood, slowly gave way to a faint orange glow. It was his eyes. His eyes burned with a vibrant erratic energy, swirling around inside his irises. Fuelled by an unruly defiant excitement and purpose they were literally luminescent. A sign of the rising chaos burnin within. Intoxicating it filled him like a drug. Boiling in his veins. Completing him. Clarifying and simplifying the world around him. Now he was alive.

He called to it. To the powers of chaos beyond and it was listening. Ready to accept his offer. He would give himself to it, for it to take him away.

A thin arc of green lighting trickled down his finger to the painted parchment beneath his hand, softly singeing the paper at his final destination.

"I'm going from here to there." He said casually. "I'd really appreciate if someone could get the merchants to send a letter of support before I arrive. It, it would be... awfully helpful.
" His voice was now overly confident and dripping with mischief. It was riddled with a faint belittling subtlety. He spoke loud, clear and slow demanding everyone's attention. "After that I can make my way to the mountain if it is not already covered off."

After that he raised and turned his hand, holding it out open and upright. Stained with blood, rolling lines of multicoloured magic danced across the smeared red crimson liquid. Mahees the blood Mage was waiting no more.
"I can take one person with me, maybe two.
" He said with a faint chuckle. Invigorated by the magic starting to course through his veins, prickling his skin and causing his hair to stand on end,

Then it started to consume him as it materialised in the physical plane. The air swirling around the room fluttering papers and loose debris. A strange light show and soft thrumming sound soon accompanied it.

Then with a sudden pop and bright flash of light, he was gone. Ryder and anyone holding his hand had instantly vanished. Swallowed by a powerful torrent of wild erratic energy, plucked straight from existence and plunged deep into the stream of a wild rapid river of swirling madness.

No roller coaster, extreme sport or hallucinogenic trip could ever even nearly compare to the wild gut wrenching ride they had just embarked on. Mahees really should have warned them first, but even he hadn't rode it for this long before. Luckily for him his stomach was already empty...

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit

Okay, the votes are in, and Ryder's idea won. Too bad he just teleported out, after stressing we should all stay in groups of at least three at all time no less. Uhmm, let's see...

i suggest the rest of us start by going to the seeker. He is an important ally that needs to be warned, it's not too far from where Ryder's going in case he needs backup, and we do have a bit more haste in warning the people outside the gates, they will be running into inquisition first, and the inquisitors won't be as likely to show restraint in an area with few witnesses. I say it's time to pack up, and move out.

In case people agree:
Bas repocketed the trinkets he'd been playing with and swung on his cape. There were some goodbyes and be carefuls between various members of the coven, and then a group of people slipped out of the unassuming door on thirteenth street and into the night.

Do the city gates close at night? It's probably not going to be a mayor obstacle to a group of witches, but it's nice to know if we walk or sneak out.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Mahees and Anyone else

The chaotic energies twist and turn revelaing that you are somewhere else.

You used one of your spells.

You find yourself in the entrance of a small village outside the city walls. The village is in terrible condition and is a miserable place.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeD25z4X4AAyvzV.jpg:large

The dawn is almost coming and the air is still hot and dry, some people are celebrating the harvest in the local tavern a mix of smells, backed goods, freid goods and piss takes over the air.

What do you do? Where do you go?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeD5iwAWkAAwlKZ.jpg:large

The Coven hall

As Mahees teleports himself out The Fey decides to do the same she claims to be preapering a pwoerful ritual to Assist the coven later on.

What do you guys want to do? Where to go?

[Amazon]

The Provider

"Well, let's hope that fool won't get himself killed or worst captured."

The provider gets up and says

"I'm going to do my part, the city is our last line of defense, we must be prepered. Let's talk to the Elder, then the merchants and then the guilds, whoever wants to come is mroe than wlecomed to do so, the rest stay here and provide us suport."

If that she leaves the Coven into the city.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

After Mahees and any companions vanish Shadow rolls his eyes. Everybody is so eager to bandy magic about like a child's plaything. Could it be that our enemies have a point, in principle if nothing else? Troubled, the young man shakes his head. Perhaps this whole planning session had gone on to long, and there didn't seem to be much consensus among them members of the coven. All such different people, bound together by fate and chance, with just a tiny dash of power and far more potential than is sane.

"I believe that for now, possibly, men can do more than magicians," Shadow says to the group turning for the door. "You know how to find me."

Leaving the coven Shadow heads towards the low town, hoping to get in touch with some less than legitimate businessmen that he knows.

[S@tanicoaldo]

The city of Aurum

As you live the Coven’s hall you find yourself in the walled city of Aurum, named after its gold mining origins.

The city is a hub for trade and commerce and produces some of the finest smiths of the realm, nowadays the city gold reserves in the mines are empty and the mining consist mostly of iron but the whitesmiths still work with gold and silver brought by the merchants.

You are in the 13th street, a place of mystery and the occult here is where the herbalists, glassmakers, apothecaries practice their trade right next to the Coven and the mercenaries guild.
A Youngman dressed as a guard approaches you, you recognize his face, he’s Alexander Prokofiev, or Alex for short, a gentle boy who do not care for fighting, because of that the Elder often employs him as a messenger rather than an actual guard.

After a small reverence he speaks.

“The Provider, The Shadow, it’s a pleasure to see you again, I’m here to deliver a message in the name of Lord Icarus, I know it’s late but he’s aware you are all in the city for one of your meetings so he asked me to summon a representative to the city hall to discuss certain important matters, would you be able to accompany me this instant or should I wait for someone else?”

Lord Icarus is the elder’s assistant and the true power in control of the city, he’s also the second youngest person to ever be elected as an elder and the one who put the city back in shape.

You see the kingdoms are divided by the kings and queen is smaller sections ruled by lords, the lords grant control of the cities to the city elder that answer to the lords and the lords answer to the king.

It used to be a Gerontocracy where the oldest member of the city would administrate it for the lords, but with the medicinal advances brought by the Order of Reason this changed, without so many people dying the members of the city started to getting older, without a clear oldest elder the cities decided to start voting on the elder the believed would best represent the interests of the city, the candidates started getting younger and younger a soon a proto democratic process was born where anyone(as long as they are literate) can be elected an Elder.

The former Elder was a ruthless and corrupted man, he spend all the cities resources and mine reserves in trivial and frivolous pursuits leaving the city of Aurum with a crippling debt.

As the elections arrived no one wanted to become the elder and deal with this problems, that was the perfect opportunity for Icarus a 18 years old youth, the son of a blacksmith and an apothecary to run for the position of elder, the boy was a brilliant strategist and diplomat and his plan to solve the city’s debt was bold and dangerous.

His plan to end the debt was to spend more money, he created the first and last Aurum great lottery, promising a insanely large number of golden coins for anyone who would win, he also allowed anyone to participate not only members of the city itself, something unheard of until that day, with such a huge prize everyone form the simplest peasant to the richest merchant started to gamble and in a few days’ notice they had enough money to pay for the prize, the debt and still save some for the city treasury and infrastructure, after that he used his silver tongue and economical savvy to create deals and contracts with merchants and guilds putting the city in the route of many caravans.

With the financial problem solved he elevated the glass maker’s guild status by mass producing crystal glass and selling it to rich nobles from other cities, all these deals solidified the city of Aurum as one of the richest and most prosper cities of the realm.

After his term ended he was appointed an advisory role to the new Elder, Lord Colean is a nice and gentle old man but lacks Icarus vision and insight.

The guard approaches you two with respect but also fear, all the guards and messengers prefer to wait outside the Coven rather than try to enter it, the coven has a public face building that is not in the pocket dimension but the common folk still fear the place and avoid it like the plague.

If you guys go seek Icarus you will be able to make it to the Guilds or Merchants since they are up until late today because of the harvest festivities otherwise everything would be closed. But everything will be closed at noon for the festival.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

Gareth purses his lips and considers the messenger's request for a moment. I suppose we should consider our priorities he thinks to himself. My contacts can wait.

Turning to the provider shadow extends a galant hand with a shallow bow. "Will you allow me to escort and accompany you to this audience, sweet lady?"

[Amazon]

The Provider

"Most certainly."

Says The Provider, smilling as she grabs his hand.

While they make their way to Lord Icarus she tries to engage in small talk with the guard.

"So tell me young Alex, are you excited for the harvest festival? Heard of any interesting things happening around the city?"

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees - small village

Ryder dropped to one knee as the world settled around him. Vibrant blinding colours fading into dull simple shades. His head slowly stopped spinning but the resounding thudding ache remained. As he stood his stomach grumbled, there was a stumble in his first few steps but his balance quickly returned. The trip quickly faded from his memory as the sight of the incomprehensible always does but the feeling of unease would remain for a while. He recalled at least one hand taking his. He could still feel the warmth of their grip, but he couldn't see anyone around.

'Damn, what happened! Where are they?' he though to himself. Who ever it was must have let go which means they could be anywhere nearby. Ryder gathered himself and went to the tavern, at least for a drink if nothing else. It would prove to be his starting point, hopefully here he would find some info on the shaman and it was an obvious enough place for his companion, who ever it was, to look for him.

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

Erin, at this point more than a bit grumpy, wasn't actually all that surprised by Ryder's stunt. She expected that someone would end up doing something stupid. Thanks to that, she managed to get to him before the spell took effect, to join him in the travel. Reckless or not, he's still part of the coven, and so she wouldn't let him go get himself in trouble on his own.

She recovered fairly quickly from the teleport, all things considered. She did not, however, recover quite as quickly from not knowing where she was, nor did she have any idea where her fellow mage was. Looking around, she eventually managed to figure out where she was, as she seemed to have landed near a rather familiar-looking tavern.

At this point, Erin decides to go to the tavern. If Ryder is there, it would be good to find him. If not, she knows most of the regulars of the tavern, and she figures that it might be a good place to pick up whatever information she can find.

That, and a drink. At this point, she definitely wants a drink.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit

Bas, who retroactively came out the door together with The Provider and Shadow, walks with the small group. He hadn't been around for that long, getting invited as a representative to the city council, well, as a tag-along anyway, still seemed quite cool. He let his eyes wander across the city as Katarina asked some well disguised inquisitive questions. Change was coming, maybe he'd already spot some since of what was to be.

[S@tanicoaldo]

As you make your way to the city hall you pass thought the town’s square.

Sprit notices that the place is the site for Old Pete’s latest invention.

Old Pete, also known as Smelly Pete or Pete the Heretic is the winner of the grand lottery and a former member of the order of reason.

Mr. Peterson Smith is an inventor who uses his vast fortune to create new machines that will help and assist on people’s daily life, with many degrees of success, still he is a good person trying his best to bring comfort and prosperity to all people both high and low.

His latest enterprise is the creation of a public light system with his gas tubes; the idea is that he uses a network of gas tubes to fuel the flames in the light poles.

The Order of Reason hated his explorative mind and banished him, and he’s now only tolerated because of Icarus’s intervention.

Despite that, the new public lighting project had to be shut down since many leeks, accidents and explosions happened all around the city, and maybe he’s using the wrong type of gas leaving only the main square with gas lighting.

Still, the blue light created by the flames give the town’s square an eerie and unique feel, many families had decided to go to the square to play card and dice games in this unusually hot evening, the whole place has a very peaceful and pleasant feeling of happiness.

-----

Alex:“Well, not many things ma’am, I won’t be having much fun unfortunately since I’ll be on duty, the city’s festival is very famous so we will have many visiting dignitaries, because of that the new captain wants us all to look sharp, just in case something happens, which I’m sure it won’t.”

He says that as he does the Nameless God sign.

As you guys enter the city hall you are greeted by Lord Icarus. Alex assumes his post as the city hall guard and bid you farewell.

Icarus’s dealing with some paper work and invites you two to come to his office. He's a lean and handsome youth now around twenty five years old, he has dark short brown hair and a muscular frame thanks to his blacksmith upbringing, he wears a fur-lined cloak, black silk gloves, black leather boots, silvery-grey lambswool breeches, a white leather belt, and a black velvet doublet embroidered with the city's coat of arms.

“Greetings representatives of the coven, it’s a great pleasure to see you again, I’m sorry to summon you so late and I really hope I’m not interfering with you meeting or arcane dealings but as you know the harvest festival is going to happen tomorrow and among our visitors we are going to have a representative from the sub terrain domain.”

The sub terrain domain is the land of dwarfs, long ago these subterranean creatures singed a non-interference agreement with the humans now Icarus seek to end this agreement and engage in trade with these cave dwelling creatures.

“Their representative is going to bring some artifacts their smiths have been working on as a gift to the city, the dwarfs ability to bend chaos intro mental is well known, but if the legends are correct these inhuman creatures have a twisted morals and ideas of right and wrong and a wicked sense of humor so I’m afraid these artifacts may end up cursed rather than blessed, that’s why I need one of the members of the coven to inspect the artifact beforehand. Do any of you have the skills for such task?”

The Village

The Barkeeper recognizes Firebrand and welcomes them to one more private table.

The tavern is full of people, mostly hunters and miners they are all singing and celebrating.

In the most recluse corner of the tavern you can see a man wearing a breastplate with the symbol of the moon. You recognize this as the symbol of one of the tactical forces of the inquisition.

The inquisition is dividing in many sectors.

There are the inquisitors in the investigation sector.
The scholars in the research sector.
The brutal force in the field sector.
The Grand Inquisitors in the strategy sector.
And the tactical forces divide in three great orders of knigths.

The Mourning knights wear a group of former black knights who decided to serve no other lords but decided to serve no other lord but the ideal of reason, they are the inquisition’s wild card, a bunch of Zealots willing to do anything for the order. They claim to be mourning the death of the old world of superstition and welcoming this new world of reason.

Then we have the mirror knights, represented by the crescent moon symbol; they claim to show a mirror to the face of chaos and show the corrupt how truly degenerate they are. They are the ones employed when chaotic havoc is at place.

And last but not least we have the Knights of pure thought, the elite knights armed with fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to reason and science.

The presence of a mirror knight around these parts could mean that either the inquisition got here already or that they sent some knights ahead to scout the place either way he does not seem to recognize you.

The tavern keeper anmed Daniel approaches your table, he's a big old man with some balding spots and blind of one eye.

“What brings such prestigious members of our society to my humble tavern? Looking for some ale? O maybe some of the latest rumors? I have good eyes and ears and many travelers pass thought my fine establishment."

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - City hall with The Provider and Shadow

Bas couldn't quite think of anyone with any magic that would be really useful, but he figured Gareth or particularly Katarina might have enough experience to do it the normal way. He decided not to speak up on the Provider's behalf given the present company, but he was listening to catch more info. If the information the city needed couldn't be extracted by a hard look and an old book, maybe Bas himself could find a way to science the answer out of it.

[Orcus The Vile]

With nothing to do I decide to seek the merchants.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

As the trio proceeds without Alex, Shadow notes the sign and marks out the young guard as religious. Something to keep in mind for later. I doubt the order will long suffer faith once magic is dispensed with.

Shadow acknowledges Icarus with a courteous bow and a thin smile. "A bit warm for furs is it not, Lord?" he asks making polite conversation. Once the conversation has moved on to more serious topics he taps a finger against his lips and nods slightly to the Provider, recognizing her superior talent in what is being requested.

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees - village tavern

Tonight had been a night of surprises, and they were not done yet. He had never considered that the other traveller may have landed closer than he, but that was the way of chaos.

As Mahees entered the joyous ruckus of the warm tavern he noticed the familiar short black hair and tanned skin of Firebrand. A small smile came to his face. Of all the people he was glad it was her, for one he didn't mind holding her hand and two her skills seemed well suited to the task at hand. And just then as proof to his thought the barman gave her a special booth. If there was any information here she was sure to get it.

Mahees decided to hold back and watch over the scene as a whole. Sticking to the shadows and blending in he looked to see who might be watching her. To gage the reactions of the other patrons. More specifically to be on the lookout for other inquisitors.

Playing the part Mahees ordered some ale and joined in on the odd chorus of a merry sing song where he could.

Awareness 15 [roll0]
Interaction 15 [roll1]

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

"At the moment, what I would most like is a drink, good sir. After that, I would appreciate any interesting rumours you may have heard that you'd be able to provide me with."

Leaning forward, voice dropping even further than before, she continues:

"In particular, anything you may have heard concerning the presence of a mirror knight would be quite appreciated."

With all that said, Erin will lean back in her chair, affecting carelessness. While doing so, she'll keep a eye on the rest of the tavern, watching both for her wayward companion and for any movement from the mirror knight.

Awareness: [roll0]

[S@tanicoaldo]

The Augur

As you make your way to the merchant’s fraternity you are surprised by one of your old merchant friend on the way.

You two make your way to the Spice Merchant’s hall where the meeting is taking place.

Because of its location; Aurum is seen as a gateway of commerce and culture between the east and west, and the north and south. The city has become wealthy due to it's location and trade, but this growing power of the merchant’s faction seems to be at odds with the Guilds, the guilds main objective is to force the Elder and city council to lower the price of goods and materials while increasing the payment for services such as blacksmithing, masonry, herbalism and other guild trades.

The objective of the merchant’s faction is the opposite and now they plan to use the annual city council meeting after the festival to out vote the guilds and prevail.

They seem to be looking for support, if the coven supports the merchants they would undoubtedly be on the coven’s debt but that would put the coven at odds with the Guilds, it seems there is no way to please both factions and the Coven will have to choose who they want to support.

It seems that the most merchants are fighting and arguing without getting anywhere none one seems to agree on what the best plan is.

http://www.bartleby.com/86/5201.gif

The City hall

Icarus smiles and says.

“Oh this? This was a present from Ursula Sucharda, she just left actually, saying that I will need one soon, honestly I don’t know what she’s thinking but it feels really comfortable and despite the hot wave we are facing I feel as if I wasn’t wearing any furs, weird hun?”

Ursula Sucharda also known as “The Duchess” is a powerful noble woman she has a great interest in magic and the occult and once tried to join the Coven, but her arrogance and impatience made her a poor apprentice and she was unable to learn a single spell, still she has a lot of arcane knowledge a great collection of eldritch artifacts on her household, she is a great ally to Icarus and was thanks to her contacts he was able to buy a minor noble title without having to marry, they are often seen together trying to create new money making schemes, she is not a declared enemy of Coven but is not a sympathizer claiming that the coven turned their backs to her magical potential.

The Tavern

After ordering the drink you remembered that Mahees teleportation spell was too much for your stomach and you are still feeling sick.

Still it matters very little since the celebration is interrupted by Paul Shutter, the ferryman, he enters the place shouting and screaming.

“They are here! They are here! Just as Alonso Molinsky said! The dead are back! Coming from the cold waters of the river! The dead walk again and they want to kill us all!”

At this moment you notice that the Mirror knight gets up and leaves the place immediately almost as if he was expecting this or something like this to happen; people seem confused, a mix of shock and disbelief, Paul Shutter is a serious and reasonable man of good sense, he would never make jokes with such nonsense unless it was real.

“Someone call the guards!”
“The priests! Someone call the Priests!”
“The dead can’t walk that goes against reason.”
“Maybe the Coven can help us”
“They may be behind it!”
“May god saves us all”
“It’s the end days! Just as the priests of the nameless god said”
“May the old gods saves us all!”

People start leaving the place in a mass confusion.

What do you do?

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees Town, tavern, river.
'!!!' As the chaos and confusion erupted in the bar Mahees grit his teeth in frustration. Where was that smug bastard calmly going? Was he behind this?
He could see the plan unfurling before his eyes. The knight would save them and blame the coven. Right or wrong, the thought infuriated him.
Ryder threw down his untouched mug of ale and quickly pushed his way through the crowd to get to Firebrand. He had that spark of chaos in his eye, he held out his hand to her.

He knew he couldn't make that decision right now. To use his magic or not. So he left it up to her. It wasn't far, they could just run, but every second may count. If this was some sick plan to foil their good name then perhaps beating the knight there was a good thing. But it would be his last safe spell...

Or was this an opportunity to win the crowd, to calm and assure them that the coven is here to help. Alonso Molinsky, he committed the name to memory. Who was that? he thought.

Ignoring the questions and plots for now he held onto his rage and anger, he would use it against his foes. Right now he looked to Erin for answers. Firstly they had people to save.

Awareness 15 [roll0]
Athletics 15 [roll1]

[Amazon]

ooc: Great the action lies elsewhere *rollseyes* LOL I'm joking.

The Provider

She smiles back at icarus.

"I must confess I'm not an expert on Dwarven artifacts but as long as they use Chaos and Arcane magic I can certally be of use, you can rest assure my lord."

Interesting, she wonders what sort of shenanigans this duchess could be up to... Well we still have more pressing matters to deal with.

"Although I must say, your summoning was quite opportune, I believe you must be aware of changes that seem to be coming our way, the Coven would like to know what is the Elder’s position in such matters?”

Says The Provider alluding to the incoming threat without actually naming it.

[S@tanicoaldo]

"Are you referring to our new guests the in the north wind castle? Well, if I was you I would not worry, I have meet many inquisitors and they are not the monsters some people paint them as, they are reasonable and their goal is pure, they only seek out to destroy evil and harmful magic users not all, they even employ magic users themselves, they are not against all forms of magic that's a misconception."

He pauses and stares at the three of you.

"And they don't hunt down covens, they just happen to find out most covens had a benefactor’s facade to hide truly evil and hideous actions and that's not the case in here.... Rigth?”

He stares The Provider in the eyes.

"But rest assured you have the Elder support in case they try something against your group, there are many terrible monsters and nightmares lurking in the shadows of this land, it's good to know we have people who can understand them and fight them in equal footing, besides if you are all gone I won't have anyone to inspect dwarves artifacts and that would be bad for the business I'm trying to set up and that would be bad for the city."

He gets up from his chair and looks outside his office window.

“But there is only so much I can do, that castle and the land around it were given to the order by the king himself, we have little say on their presence here, but this stil isl our city and we won’t let outsiders dictate our rules even if they are members of the order of reason”

He looks back at you.

“Still the population may end up in their side, and that’s something you can’t allow, as long as the population is in your side you can count of the Elder’s support.”

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit

Bas thought it a little weird that the man would ask them to check a diplomatic gift for security issues, and before the job was done had started subtly accusing them of being secretly evil. "If we weren't such upstanding citizens, he'd just earned himself an artifact with both dwarven and coven spells on it", he thought without breaking his pokerface.

Then he decided to speak up.

Speaking of support, when would be a good time for us to support you by going over the artifacts, as I understand they haven't arrived yet? And is there anything in particular that worries you about them? We can make our own estimates of what kind of magic could be on diplomatic gifts, but any information helps. If you'd like I could also set up some basic tests of material properties. Density, hardness, toughness, conductivity, flux capacity. Those tests in themselves won't identify the kind of magic used, but they could give away if something is wrong. And some of it might be useful information going forward in a trade relationship as well. If you know what they can make, you know what they can sell.

No, I don't have a big plan for where I'm going with this, but I'm going to try and use that 18 as often as I can.

[S@tanicoaldo]

"I'm not sure about it... It has been years since any dwarf had contact with someone from the surface, what we have are mostly legends now, but the legends swarm us that their logic and morality is quite different from our own. One of the legends claim that they gave a king a sword enchanted to end the life of any foe, the problem is that the enchantment would make him a berserker that attacked and killed anyone he disagreed with, including his family members and loved ones because to these creatures disagreement is a reason to fight."

He looks at Spirit.

"I just don't want something like that to happen here, these could be only legends but there is enough of them around to raise some concern, the artifacts seem to be wonderful magical relics, things that the gods would use, a knife that returns after being thrown, a sword that can cut thought anything, horseshoes that don't touch the ground and a flask of unlimited water, they sound harmless but we never know, we can never be too cautious when dealing with the unknown and arcane."

He smiles at you trying to reassure you his intentions are benign.

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

"Hold that thought on the drink, barkeep. I expect I'll be needing one once this is all over."

Erin was getting... Well, not so much angry, yet, but certainly fairly irritated. She had, of course, come to a similar conclusion as Ryder did. A trick or a trap by the Inquisition, to either slander the Coven for not helping or to draw the mages out if they did help. That being said, it was a trap she was willing to fall into. Standing up, she finishes crossing the distance to Ryder, and grabs his hand.

"We both know this is a trap, one way or another. So just be on your guard, got it?

Now, you ready?"

[S@tanicoaldo]

As you exit the tavern you find the village in complete chaos.

This is the layout of the village.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/ca51bc7038f33283c92d7b40e3723a67/tumblr_p9ic8vp0zk1veme87o1_1280.png

1-Ferry house.
2-Blacksmith.
3-Miners guild.
4-Inn.
5- Tavern.

All the other buildings are houses.

And this is where the foes are:

https://78.media.tumblr.com/20dd520f5d65009943b713779c4a5ad3/tumblr_p9ic8vp0zk1veme87o2_1280.png

Red: The mirror knight who was in the Tavern, he's surrounded by four zombies; he is able to shoot one down with his arquebus. Next to him is a young squire wearing a Buff Coat and armed with a short sword.

Purple: Another group of knights, two mirror knights and one black knight seem to ignore the undead and head to the inner village in a hurry.

Orange: Another group of undead, around twelve leaving the river.

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees - village

Mahees came bursting out of the Tavern dragging Firebrand behind him. Quickly surveying the scene he leapt to action.

"Everyone! In your houses and lock the doors. Quickly. Stay calm. Arm yourselves if you can, stay in groups. It's going to be ok." Ryder yells at the top of his voice over all the commotion, taking an authoritative and assuring tone.
"Stay calm."

He turned to address his partner. "Firebrand, you take the group at the river, and if you have time, help that bastard over there." he points to the surrounded knight.
"I'm going see where those other guys are going!"

Flinging around his light crossbow to his hands, Ryder loaded and cranked it with an expertise ease.
Before charging down the main street he grabbed Erin by her shoulder, addressing her one last time. "Be careful, stay safe and watch your back."

With that he bolted after the black knight towards the inner village. Stopping once to get one clean and clear shot at a zombie approaching the young squire.

It was now that Ryder wished he had taken the time to bring more people, but at the same time if he hung around debating they would have been too late. No, they could only move forward now.

Fight 17 [roll0]
Interaction 15 [roll1]

[S@tanicoaldo]

The Village

Maahes is able to calm and inspire some villagers around him. They run to their houses and hide.

You try to shoot the zombie but fail, something you would probably blame the effects of the teleportation spell.

As you turn around you notice that some villagers saw you and now you will take a +1 moral penalty on your next shoot.

The knights approach the inn where a nobleman has a woman at sword point against the wall, they quickly have the woman surrounded, she standing next to the corpse of another knight, she has long black hair a beautiful and provocative face and is wearing masculine clothes.

As the knights drawn their swords their leader shout.

"Call back your abominations witch! The good people of this place won't be killed by your foul sorcery."

She just laughs and points at the leader.

"I'm not afraid of you, your guy attacked me first, I only defended myself."

The man dressed in noble clothes barks.

“We know you are a wanted rogue magic user, surrender now peacefully or suffer the consequences!”

One of the knights says, "You’re not our first witch, we deal with, we will deal with you just as we dealt with the others"

The leader draws his sword.

"This is your last warning!" Says the leader in an intimidating tone.

“You only killed and butchered innocent and weak magic users; let’s see how you fare against a real challenge!”

The noble man dashes and strikes her with his rapier, with one gesture she casts a spell and he falls down to his knees and starts screaming as his living flesh starts to rot.

One of the knights attacks, she gracefully dodges and with another gesture he becomes static completely paralyzed and unable to move, she shouts arcane worlds as his dagger and sword levitates, turn against his allies and fly towards them hitting and killing the leader of the knights, he falls to his knees bleeding heavily while only hitting the other knight in the shoulder with the dagger.

Two knights are down while two knights and the mysterious magic user remain in your way.

What do you do?

https://78.media.tumblr.com/f7e23df8c5fb9d1f0b1c93c483e0455d/tumblr_p9iso9ta2s1veme87o1_500.jpg

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

At this point, with the amount of zombies to deal with, Erin comes to the conclusion that subtlety is right out the window. And so, with a sigh of irritation, she dons her mask, and begins to unleash her spell, engulfing the zombies in a roaring flame.

Erin's casting Shape Flame, to create a fire engulfing the zombies emerging from the river, with the intent of sustaining the fire around them however long it takes to destroy them.

Modifiers: Erin currently has access to, and is using, both her medium and her catalyst.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

"And why now, of all times, should our estranged neighbors return to us, and bearing gifts no less?" Shadow tugs at an ear, a nervous habit of his as he absorbs the conversation. Our allies at court will sway whichever way the wind blows them, it makes them rather lack luster allies then.

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees

Things didn't look good, Ryder didn't have enough information to takes sides and he couldn't allow his sympathy or biases to control him.

"ENOUGH!!!" He boldly roars as he charges between both parties putting himself in the middle. In one hand he pointed a crossbow at the woman while the other was open and facing the remaining knights, flaring with the vibrant arcing energy and glowing swirls of chaos magic.

"Thats enough." He repeats, regaining his breath. "Everyone just stop what you are doing. This ends here, there will be no sentence of death here without trial, I don't care who you are. Also any crimes against the innocent will not go unpunished."

Ryder barks the order as his eyes dart from side to side watching both sides. He focuses some more energy into his hand to cause it to crackle and glow more brightly as a warning.

"Weapons down, no more magic. I'm aware of the inquisitors prejudice against magic so she will be trialled by the coven in the presence of the elder and appropriate town and village representatives. You guys are not free from scrutiny either. There better be a bloody good justification for your attack." The last of his words come out with a bit of a snarl.

Next Ryder projects his voice even louder now addressing the whole town.
"On my word and oath, if all oblige this will be handled orderly and civilised, with justice, fairness and the towns future safety top priority."

He then turns his gaze to the Knights and questions them. "You are civilised law abiding men are you not?"
Deep down a part of him was just begging them to attack. It would vilify them and their order to object to such a reasonable and peaceful request.

Lastly he turns to the woman. His crossbow was not pointed at anything vital but he still lowered it further. "Please, please just come with me. Don't make things any worse. It's not too late. If what you say is true it needs to be known."

Interaction 15 [roll0]
If anything happened before he finished his speech I will retcon my post.

!
'God damn' my rolls, Aggghhhhh

[S@tanicoaldo]

The city hall

"Oh, well it's thanks to me that they will come to us, I have sent a representative of our city, with all the goods and pleasure form the surface. You see the dwarves live underground, their food consists mostly of fungi and small creatures who live in the dark, they hate the other sex and find it unappealing, they are found of beer and other alcohol beverages but lack the means to produce them."

He snaps his fingers.

"I saw that as the perfect opportunity, we could trade our surface goods such as food, beer, wine, prostitutes, fruits and art while they provide us with magical artifacts capable of doing the impossible, it seems like a fair thread to me since to them those things are mere trinkets part of their everyday life."

He gets up and bid his farewells.

“I guess that’s all I really need from you, thanks for coming, I need you to come here during the celebrations at noon, hope to see you here. Farewell.”

It seems the negotiations are done with the elder representative, he seems willing to help but he won't go against the will of the people but perhaps doing him a favor could prove the coven's usefulness once and for all.

You three gain a Interaction level and may allocate it on that skill.

Firebrand

You use your power to engulf the twelve zombies in a magnificent blaze, they take some damage and their rotting flesh catches fire, but all their feelings and senses have long rotted away and the keep marching even while on fire.

They make their way past the river and start marching towards the blacksmith shop, will you keep the spell up?

Since your using your power tools you may reshape the flame at will without needing to create new flames as long as you can remain focused on the spell.

Mahees

The knights and the woman are not impressed.

"Fool! Get out of the way! She may look like a woman but she's actually a monster and a wanted criminal!"

The woman smiles and gesticulate again casting one more spell.

The blood from the leader of the knights bleeding corpse springs intro life forming two tendrils one attacks the paralyzed knight in the throat killing him, the other tries to the same with the remaining knight but his able to dodge.

The blood from the living knight wound forms another tendril and it goes against your throat.

With this she starts to run the opposite direction towards the river.

Roll Reflex with a -5 bonus since you were waiting for something.

Roll Fight with a +1 penalty if you try to shoot her, remember this is your critical failure penalty, if you miss you will start having doubts about your skill with the crossbow and another +1 will be added for every mistake until you are able to hit a target, if you do the penalty will be removed.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Bas partakes in the formal goodbyes you reserve for high level civil servants, vague business acquaintances and that one aunt or grandma every family has. Young people need to watch how they handle those things a little, even though this man didn't seem to really stand on formality himself. Walking out the door he greets guard Alex and takes a moment to convene with his colleagues.

"The night is still young, and we were headed for the Elder. What say you we keep going that way?

Aside from that, Katarina, have you got this artifact stuff down, or shall I take bring some testing equipment tomorrow just in case?

Assume I walk with the others until proven otherwise.

P.S. Can that map with all the current objectives get a prominent place somewhere, maybe in the opening post of the OOC thread?

[Amazon]

A level up? Awesome?
The Provider

"Well I have never done that before, I have never seen a magical artifact so all the help is welcomed, I'm not even sure if I'll be able to do that but we most certainly can't let him know that. What you mean? Who do you picture as our next target?"

After gaining some distance and checking to see if no one is around to hear.

“I certainly didn’t like his attitude, he’s young and thinks he got life all figured out, but we can’t afford to be picky about our allies now. He doesn’t trust us and we don’t trust him specially if he’s plotting something with the duchess maybe we could go check what she’s up to? Or do you have any other ideas?”

[Orcus The Vile]

The Augur

He's making his way back to the Coven as he see the rest of the group. He joins them.

"Hello, were you able to find out anything useful? I regret to say that by what I can gather both the guilds and the merchants will soon be at each other's throats, we won't be able to have one as an ally without having the other as a foe."

He starts walking with them.

"I’m actually kind of worried about the ones that left the coven to go after the Shamans, do you guys think they are ok? Should I use my spell to check on them or it would be better for me to not waste it and wait for another target?"

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees

And just like that a man died.
"No!" He cried, watching as the already paralysed man was unable to defend himself.

'It's her.' he thought.'The river witch! He recalled what was said about her earlier that night at the coven.


"The Midwife formerly known as the River Witch is an extremely powerful, cunning and dangerous evil witch who used to engage in blood magic and gore rituals her followers used to spread chaos, death and plague, now she lives a humble life in the woods bound by a contract that forces her to behave. But she will not hold back against an inquisition attack since she’s allowed to use her terrible powers in self-defense."
He hadn't wanted any one to die. Not because of his involvement. Mahees was now torn. She didn't listen. 'Was this all considered self defence?' Another tendril came lashing out at him now, he released a crossbow bolt shooting at the witch. He couldn't let her get away. He couldn't let her go to towards the river.

Fight 17-1 [roll0]
Reflex 15+5 [roll1]

Ryder readied his last spell. He drew in all the energy he could. Watching, waiting. He ran after the witch. As soon as she tried anything or anyone else's lives looked endangered he would teleport just the two of them as far out of town as he could, and pray that if he wasn't aggressive her contract would stop her from killing him. There was now plenty of blood surrounding them. Something that probably made both their magic stronger. He didn't want to but he admired her magic. Somewhere deep down he knew he had to kill her, first he just had to make sure it was her.

[S@tanicoaldo]

ooc: Wait, did you add the bonus and penalties correctly? Or am I supposed to do it now? Anyway you seem to pass either way and now you are not subjected to the penalty.

You are able to shoot her in the leg, she struggles to continue walking.

The surviving knight draws his dagger and cuts the tendril emerging from his wound. He grabs his matchlock pistol and starts aiming at the struggling woman.

“Die you disgusting bi---"

A zombie shows up and grabs him by the leg.

He tries to shoot the zombie's face but miss, he's helpless against the undead foe who is ready to bite his face off.

What do you do? Keep going after her? Or help the knight out?

[Holy-hunter]

You my friend are a master of conundrums and tricky decisions.
Alias: Mahees

Seeing the knight in danger, Ryder quickly changed his path. Drawing a knife he charged the zombie. It didn't matter who this knight was, Ryder wanted to protect people. The witch was injured, he could catch her later.

He would use his magic if he had to. First he had to try undo the damage he had caused.

Fight 17 [roll0]
Awareness 15[roll1]

[S@tanicoaldo]

ooc: Thank you :D I hope you meant that as a compliment. Anyway guys, everybody when fighting please specify where you are targeting you attacks otherwise I have no idea of how to go on, did you attack the zombie in the Arm? Neck? Head? There is no way to know, same with the witch, when you shoot her with the crossbow. Tell me where you are aiming the attack next time please.

You are able to get there just in the nick time to save the knight’s life.

As you too get up four more zombies approach from the south, luckily a man armed with a hand axe appears and takes one down.

"Aim for the head, that's their weak spot!" says the man to the two of you.

He's dressed in shamanic robes and has a fierce look in his eyes.

"Be gone undead abominations, I'm Alonso Molinsky the spiritual guide and protector of this village purity and I won't let you harm anyone else!"

With his battle cry he jumps into the next target with his axe at hand striking it down with a strike to the head.

The knight prepares his gun for another shoot, leaving one remaining zombie for you to strike.

Meanwhile the witch reaches the river but hesitates, she looks back at the inn almost as if there was something important there, but make up her mind jumping in the cold and dark water of the Aurum river and disappearing in a flesh of chaotic energies.

[Amazon]

The Provider

"I don't think that's a good idea Augur, they were sent out in a mission and we have our own, since we will need a group consensus on how to deal with the guild and the merchants I think we are done here. We could go see the captain of the guards or head straight to the forest, the others must be done with the shamans for now and we must regroup there to seek The Corrupter."

ooc: Besides wasting your spell the action would be already over when we got there, better just head to the corrupter and midwives’ location and meet over there in the forest.

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

Erin, realizing her own stupidity, laughs bitterly. Redirecting her spell, she attempts to concentrate all of the heat and flame she's currently controlling into a single point, directing it towards the zombie in the lead.

In effect, she's concentrating all of her current firepower - so to speak - in an attempt to quickly destroy the lead zombie, rather than slowly torching the entire group.

Also, on emotions of power: I'm not sure if you have to be feeling the emotion at the casting of the spell, or if feeling that emotion later on while controlling the spell is enough, but if it's the second one, then it's worth noting that Erin is certainly feeling rather angry at this point, and anger is her emotion of power.

[Sicarius Victis]

ooc: Thank you :D I hope you meant that as a compliment.

It may not be meant as a compliment, but I believe it ought to be taken as one either way.


"Aim for the head, that's their weak spot!" says the man to the two of you.


Not sure if Erin would have necessarily heard that, being a bit further away - and a bit distracted with her fire - so just to be sure:

Awareness 18 [roll0]

Well, f***.

[S@tanicoaldo]

The zombie combust intro flames leaving nothing but ash and a terrible smell of burned hair and rotting flesh in the air.

Since your using your power tools you may reshape the flame at will without needing to create new flames as long as you can remain focused on the spell.

The other eleven zombies notice you are the source of the flames and start marching towards you in a large group if you don’t do something fast you will be overwhelmed.

You hear the scream of the squire as the zombie bites him in the neck ripping his flesh apart; his master has trouble keeping his cool and is unable to rearrange his gun fast enough, the remaining two zombies start to circle him ready to attack.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow


“I certainly didn’t like his attitude, he’s young and thinks he got life all figured out, but we can’t afford to be picky about our allies now. He doesn’t trust us and we don’t trust him specially if he’s plotting something with the duchess maybe we could go check what she’s up to? Or do you have any other ideas?”

"He doesn't have the political clout to back us at the moment," Shadow says, clearly not happy with the situation either. "I had the feeling something was off about her ladyship as well, maybe you could find an excuse to examine that cloak of his when you inspect those artifacts."


"Hello, were you able to find out anything useful? I regret to say that by what I can gather both the guilds and the merchants will soon be at each other's throats, we won't be able to have one as an ally without having the other as a foe."

"Useful? Not hardly. More worrisome than anything else. There is a new faction in play. The dwarves are coming. And they bring gifts."


"I’m actually kind of worried about the ones that left the coven to go after the Shamans, do you guys think they are ok? Should I use my spell to check on them or it would be better for me to not waste it and wait for another target?"

"Mahees might be headstrong and rash but he and Firebrand should be able to take care of themselves. We will have to trust them to it."

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees Village

'So that's Alonso Molinsky... The one who had warned the towns people of this.'

Ryder didn't have time to contemplate, he heard the scream of the squire and had to act quick.

Fight 17 [roll0]
Fight 17 [roll1]
Fight 17 [roll2]

With three rapid thrusts he stabbed at the last zombies head repetitively trying to ensure it was down, then with a quick warning he spoke to the knight and shaman."Relax, quick, take my hand, we have to go help!" He quickly reached out and attempted to teleport them all towards the river.

If the others tried to reject it he would leave them out. Being a short distance they shouldn't be sick from the trip.

Ryder quickly tries to assess the situation.
Awareness 15[roll3]

[S@tanicoaldo]

You successfully teleport with your two allies.

You see two zombies ready to attack the knigth near the tabern, he's too far away for you to do anything, the young squire is dead, a zombie is feasting on his corpse.

You see Firebrand controlling flames in the air with her magic, eleven zombies are making their way towards her.

Note:
The Augur used one of his two daily sepells.
Firebrand used one of her two daily spells.
Maahes used two of his two daily spells and won't be able to cast anymore without risky casting.

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

With the zombies' attention now squarely on her, Erin will start backing up, attempting to lead the zombies away from the others. She redirects her flame towards the two zombies attacking the knight, hoping that even if she doesn't manage to kill them, she'll keep them occupied for long enough that the knight can take them down.

[S@tanicoaldo]

You run! as the zombies are struck by the flames they change their target and start running after you, on fire.

The knigth quickly regains his compusture and shoots one of the zombies in the head. that zombie is down. After that he draws his sword and goes to his squire corpese seeking revange.

The zombie continue to stumble towards you now with most of his flesh burned out being mostly a half-skeleton half-corpse in flames, this image could make a great metal album cover if such things existed in this setting.

Alonso Molinsky tackles one of the eleven zombies and on the floor cuts his head in half with his axe.

The Knigth tries a shoot at one of them but miss, drawing the atention of the creatures to the new group.

The city of Aurun

As the group is making their way through the city they hear a piercing scream, something is going on the city jewelry, as you get there you four hurry to the place you can feel a powerful magical energy emanating form the place.

Two people leave the place. One is short, a dwarf as in a human with dwarfism not an actual magical demi-human creature, with blond hair and noble clothes and a tall and fat woman with a long and greasy black hair wearing long black robes.

As they notice you they smille and continue to make their way to the city gate, everyone around seem to in a catatonic state.

What do you guys do?

Go after the strangers?
Check the jewelry?
Somethign else?


https://i.pinimg.com/170x/cc/ce/6a/ccce6a4ffebb6d4e3f49ad0816bb629b--digital-paintings-game-of.jpg

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

Gareth jerks out his rapier and looks to the guardsman at his side. "I've got the runners," he says coolly casting a meaningful look at the escaping individuals.

Whoops!

[S@tanicoaldo]

ooc: Well you guys are far away from the city hall and Alex is on guar duty, so he's not here.

As you run after the strangers the noble look at the other one and says soemthing in the lines of "Take care of them".

The noble keeps going while the woman remains.

She looks at you and smile and says with a very deep and masculine voice.

"You guys sure are fast, but we can't deal with you now, you don't want to stand on my way."

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees

Ryder noticed the Knights predicament.
One quick shot at one of the zombies, hopefully the knight could hold off until and after then.

Fight 17 [roll0]


It might be too little too late but he had to try. Hopefully the sudden flames bought them time."See to your comrade!" He quickly orders the knight he had brought with him.

"Alonso, with me!" Ryder quickly moves to put himself in a position between Firebrand and the zombies. Readying his push dagger. He will try parry away any attacks and then aim for the brain, going through the jaw or eye socket.

Fight 17 [roll1]
Fight 17 [roll2]
Parry 13 [roll3]
Parry 13 [roll4]

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - the city

Bas doesn't feel comfortable antagonizing the woman too much by casting his mind control spell on her, since he doesn't know the situation and there don't seem to be any lives immediately at stake, but he does have his stun spell prepared. Weaving through the catatonic bystanders at a brisk walking pace, staying a bit behind Shadow who's drawing the woman's attention, he quickly grabs some herbs from a pocket, rubs them together between two small coins (OOC: his catalyst) and let's the energy flow through him. The barely visible ray, looking a bit like hot or distorted air, flies towards the woman.

Assuming the ray hits and works, he runs over to catch her. Prevent her head from hitting the ground. Maybe tie her up or something. I'll come back to that based on what happens.

Go, he says to Shadow, if this is a robbery, that guy has the loot.

If The Provider doesn't go running off with Shadow and/or the Augur, he speaks to her next. Could you check inside, if everything is alright?

(OOC: If the stun spell does not work as intended, everything after the word "Assuming" is void.)

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

With the sudden arrival of allies, Erin will start redirecting the flames towards the zombies at the back of the mob, hoping to thin it out one by one without accidentally blasting her own allies.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Village

There is no need to put yourself between Firebrand and the zombies since they already changed targets.

They start to surround you, Alonso still hitting the dead zombie in the head until his head becomes nothing but a disgusting mush.

The knight prepares another shoot and hit one of the zombies in the head.

You are able to take two of the zombies down and parry to of their attacks but you are starting to get tired of doing so many consecutive actions.

Take a +7 penalty on your next physical roll.

Firebrand’s flames fly thought the air as if a great serpent of legend, engulfs one zombie and bur it to cinders after that it leaves to another one burning it as well and after that the flames fade, it seems that when you moved you lost concentration, the spell only lasted as long as it did afterwards because of your arcane tools.

You have spent one fo your two daily spells.

The City

The woman falls down, it seems overconfidence was her biggest mistake, she is now unconscious, not ready to counter a spell she didn't saw coming.

What do you plan to tie her down with?

You have spent one fo your two daily spells.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - the city.


Assuming the ray hits and works, he runs over to catch her. Prevent her head from hitting the ground.

Go, he says to Shadow, if this is a robbery, that guy has the loot.

If The Provider doesn't go running off with Shadow and/or the Augur, he speaks to her next. Could you check inside, if everything is alright?

While speaking the above sentences Bas takes his "bind in front of your face to look like a bandito"-cloth from one of his many pockets (that's going to complicate slipping away in anonymity when things go south) and ties the woman's hands behind her back. He then quickly checks the woman's vitals in case of weird spell effects. (It's practically routine for him, no use experimenting on a soiled rat.) Then he moves her out of the middle of the road, towards the shop she came out of. He checks out the closest bystander, trying to figure out what's wrong with them, while positioning himself in such a way that he keeps a constant eye on her.

Diagnosis falls under science right? So that's my 18. I could have inspected the outside of the store instead, but that might have been my awareness of 6.
[roll0]
(Also, thanks for the map in the OOC opening post.)

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Also for the knot I should probably roll my wilderness of 16, that doesn't seem to work in an edit of the previous message.
[roll0]

[S@tanicoaldo]

The woman seem fine just knocked out.

After a quick examination you conclude that they are are under the effect of some sort of spell, the magic energies seem to be doing something with their minds, they seemed to have been pushed out of their bodies to somewhere else.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

Nodding briskly to Spirit, Gareth makes use of his long legs to chase after the much shorter noble man. "You there! Stop!" he calls keeping his sword at a high ready as he runs.

[Amazon]

The Provider

I nod to my allies and enter the store trying to find the source of the scream, energy and anything out of the ordinary.

ooc: I'm kind a of a noob to this forum pbp section, how do you roll a d20?

Awareness: 14 1d20

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees Village

Mahees was beginning to tire, he could feel the exhaustion in his muscles. He had been pushing himself hard. But it was his oath to protect people so he would not give up yet, not ever. However, he could not keep going on like this.
With one last attack he tries to put down one more zombie before retreating back and gathering his breath.

"Everyone alright?" He asks, while reloading his crossbow. Next, with a wide berth he would go around the zombies and lead them back towards the river. Giving his allies an opportunity to attack them from behind.

Fight 17 [roll0]
Athletics 15 [roll1]
(+7 included in both roll)

[Amazon]

Re-roll: Awareness: 14 [roll0]

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

Not wanting to burn her other spell slot just yet, Erin readies her staff, before rushing forward to attack the zombies.

Fighting 12 [roll0]
Fighting 12 [roll1]

Targeting the heads, because the head is Erin's default target anyways.

[S@tanicoaldo]

City

The stranger stops and turns around noticing how easilly his ally was knocked out he stops and raise his hands. "Hummm... I guess you guys got me."

As the provider enters the store she notices the owner of the store paralyzed in a catatonic state. His wife in the floor screaming in shoock and pulling her own skin out in horror.


Village

You are able to take the zombie down but as you try to escape you stumble and a zombie grabs you, do a athletics roll or suffer damage.

The shaman jumps on the one zombie as they try to pile on Mahees and with one strike he decapitates the undead foe.

The knigth is able to shoot the other one in the head, killing it.

Firebrand joins the fray taking down the other two one of the undead with her staff.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

"Let's take this nice and slow." Shadow says resting his free hand on his hip and settling into a proper guard. "You're not going anywhere so don't try anything. Step out into the street and keep your hands where I can see them," he orders circling around to cut of the short man's escape.

Is he holding anything, does he have a canvas sack with a gold coin stenciled on it?

[Amazon]

The Provider

This is bad, I have no spells that could help me here. I try to calm her down. While checking if anything is broken or missing.

[S@tanicoaldo]

The city

He looks at you.

"Look lad this is above you and the likes of you but trust me, we are in the same side, we doing what we can to end this looming threat."

Inside the store you do what you can to calm her down but she won't stop screaming, over the counter you see an opened box and a not trhat reads.

"Indeed, the stone seems to be of the same unkonw material as the other one you have, in all my years I have seen nothing like it, it's almost as if it wasn't from earth."

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

"Oh are we?" Shadow asks raising an eyebrow and not dropping his stance. "Pray, which side and what threat would that be?" Shadow plays for time putting on what he imagines to be a fierce grin while glancing over the dwarf's head looking for his allies.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - city

Bas decides he'd rather not leave his captive or his spot near the crime scene where he might hear or see if something goes down inside. He calls over to Shadow. Could you bring the gent over here? I'd like to know what happened to these people, if they'll be alright. They seem a little... absent.

I don't like our odds of an advance inquisition party arriving sometime really soon.

As a side note, the stun spell earlier was meant to diffuse the situation, not to keep her down for a long time. Please do inform me when she wakes up.

[S@tanicoaldo]

The city

"The ignorants, the fanatics, the foolish, can't you see we are on to soemthing great here? Somethign divine? Soemthign ordianry people won't be able to comprehend unless we we push their eyes in the raw embers? We must end this before they get here so I beg you please let us go." He says to shadow.

"Their minds are stuck on the astral plane, they will come back tot heir senses soon and won't remmber a thing, I swear we mean no harm but they can't stay on our way, they are unable to understand, to see the big picture." He shouts to Spirit.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

Gareth shakes his head, "Lofty words are always used to justify base deeds. What right have you to force such things upon the unwilling? We are not of the same side, and I will not allow you to leave."

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - the city

Bas thinks it sounds a lot like rambling, not something with a point he'll discover soon. But he can't speak for everyone.

So the options we have are: pass judgement here and now, for which we don't have enough information, get them to the city guards, who have the authority to stand up to the new kids on the block if they're willing to spend political capital but who don't have as much expertise dealing with magic as would be preferable, or whisk these two off to the coven which has the disadvantage of making every member guilty of something.

The summary he came up with did not inspire confidence. The city guards were the proper authorities and would usually have been quite fair, but there are some big political heavyweights breeding down their neck to let the inquisition handle things right now. Still, if this went well it would greatly improve the covens working relationship with the city, and all they had to wager were some people they just caught pulling off a heist. Bas was against people dying for nothing on a mild principal basis, but if he had to pick someone to do it... He stopped thinking about it and called out:

Katarina, what do things look like in there?

The alien stone which is probably some sort of (level appropriate but story related) powerful artifact is going to be another matter in itself. Luckily for Bas he doesn't know about that one yet.

[Amazon]

The Provider

"Not great"

I try to hold the woman's arms so she won't hurt herself anymore.

"I could use a little help, there is someone here udner the effect of some sort of spell, she seems to be hurting herself and I lack any magical means to stop her, bring the strangers in and let us deal with it here."

[S@tanicoaldo]

Village

The Zombie grabs you and bites your shoulder, you are now hurt.

The knigth takes a risky shoot and is able to hit him in the head.

The Shaman takes care of the last one.

All the zombies are dead.

The knigth looks around to certify there are no other remaining undead.

The Shaman approaches Mahees.


"Oh my that's a nasty bite, you better take care of it before it gets infected. But that was a great job back there, thanks for the help, are you are also a magic user? I have been telling the folk aroudn ehre those damn undead spa were all around us but no one paid attetion to my warnings, now we got death on our hands."

As he looks at you his eyes flash with chaotic energy.

"What brings folk such as you and your friend to our village anyway?"

The city

The short man looks at Shadow.

"The what's your plan? The spell will break soon and they will wake up, if you just let me go no one will know, but if you keep me here I'll make a scene and bring the attetion your little group of amateurs can't aford to have in a time like this. Let me go and I'll continue my marry way and bother you folk no more."

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - city

Bas notices two things about these remarks. One: Short stuff didn't actually mention his companion. So they're not really best buds or anything. Two: He is actually afraid of people turning up, meaning those people got a look at him before the spell went off or there is other evidence tying him to the crime.

Allright, inside you. We're going to need a little more information then just threats to let you go.

If he does go in, Bas tries to bring the woman who should be slowly waking up by now inside as well.

[S@tanicoaldo]

The Shop

You all enter the shop.

The witch starts to walk up while her ally look at her with disapproving eyes.

The short man look at the screaming woman with disappointment.

"So what do you want? The townsfolk will come back tot heir senses soon and I must be on my way."

He says as if all this was a mere small inconvenience.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

"Perhaps you could start by telling us what you stole and why. Then you could cover who taught you the spell that you have laid over these people." Shadow's sword remains drawn and ready as he places his back to the door, but he's not happy about how cramped his fencing form will be indoors with such a long blade.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - shop with Shadow, Provider and (presumably still) Augur

Shadow looks like he's anticipating a fight. Bas figures he'll look nervous if he pulls out his cutlass now, but he does casually slide his cape onto one shoulder, as it is common to do indoors, so he'll at least be able to quickly fend something off with that. He quickly eyes his knot to confirm the woman is still minorly inconvenienced if she's planning to cast something. (OOC: I'm sure it's still there having rolled a 4, but Bas didn't know that before he checked.) He doesn't speak up because he would like to hear the answers to Shadow's questions.

[S@tanicoaldo]

"Something that was stolen from me first! And this spell is not my doing but of my colleague, we are magic suers just like you but unlike you we are not trained like domesticated dogs to serve munddies."

Among some magic user circles munddies is a pejorative term for non-magic beings.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - Store

Okay, what was stolen from you, what does this note mean and what the piss is wrong with this woman? (=The shopkeepers wife.) As you said yourself, the clock is ticking.

[S@tanicoaldo]

"A magical stone that was stolen from me, the thief hired this Mundy to analyze the stone."

He pauses for a moment.

"She resisted our first spell for some reason, probably an amulet she found or something so we had to cast another spell, my companion used a very harmful spell, the effect will pass but the harm she did to herself will not, I’m very sorry but there was nothing I could do, may I go now?"

[Amazon]

The Provider

"So you really expect to just leave after harming a citizen of a city under our jurisdiction? You really think such action will have no consequences? If this a arcane problem or even crime as you claim you could have contacted the coven and we would be able to deal with this thought legal means but your actions have broken the law and now you will suffer the consequences"

She poits at him.

"You are in the name of the city of Aurum authorites, you are under arrest for cirmes agints the city citizies, use of unauthorized magic and possible possession of stolen goods. We shal investigate your claims and you be judged fairly, if what you say is true and you are innocent you ahve nothing to fear, now come with us you will remaian a porisioner until we cna get tot he bottom of this."

Occ: Do I need to roll anything?

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees Village

Gathering himself and rounding up everyone together, Mahees replied to Shaman. Gripping his bleeding shoulder tightly.
"Thankyou, I will look after it. You were an excellent warrior yourself, I don't know if we would have faired so well without your aid. How did you know they were coming?
We are here to find the three Shaman of this area."

"Knight, what are you and your people doing here?

While his voice and demeanour were valiant and confident in victory, a faint vacancy in his eyes hinted to the turmoil within. His pride had been damaged.

Beneath his smiling facade, Ryder's pride slowly cracked and crumbled. The recent reckless and amateur fumble left him to be saved by one of the knights. Blood still coursed from that wound as a reminder.

He was saved by the very same Knight who's comrades died. Their attempts to stop the evil witch thwarted by Ryder's own actions as he enabled her to escape. He allowed her to get away.
It was because of Ryder's interference that those Knights died in vain.
Then there was the squire, his scream echoed out in Ryder's mind. He could still hear it as clear as when it happened. Another calamity of his failings. The body lay not too far away. The body of a boy he could have saved if his aim was true.

[Orcus The Vile]

Shop - The Augur

I cast shadow confession on the man while he's talking but this time I don't make it public only I'll see.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Shop

The tied up woman barks.

"You hold no authority over us!"

The short man looks at her with disaproval.

"Very well we want no trouble, we didn't expect your presence here so what is done is done, we are going to cooperate the faster we deal with this the faster we are able to leave, no need for violence just take us where we need to go."

His shadow gains life and tells the following to The Augur.

The stone he stole was never his, it belonged to the Duchess, it's a fragment of a very powerful chaotic spirit that was sealed away long ago, he among with his followers are looking for all the fragments in order to summon the creature, this spirit is very powerful and they plan to use his power to open a gateway to pure chaos. He doesn't plan to cooperate since he knows soon a catastrophic event will befall the region and he will use that to escape.

Village

"Well I'm one of the three Shamans responsible for this village safety, people call me The Hunter because I hunt the undead but I'm a tracker and guide in these woods most of the time, I let my friends do the whole spirital thing. I'm not a very powerful magic user but I'm able to use magic to detect the undead with my eyes and trust me they are verywhere, theya re comming the end times I tell you the dead are returning and they want nothing but to eat and consume our souls, they are jealous of the living, they come in amy forms, some are invisible to the eyes of the mundies others are able to wear human skin as we wearing coats, today I was acting as a guide to a group exploring the woods and all of them were undead mascarating as normal humans, after I took care of the group I knew I had to come back and help the city."


The knight approaches Mahees and Erin.

"Thanks you for the help, it seems we had few casualties but the witch got alway, my friends let their emotion take over and didn't act with reason that way they died, emotions are the mind killers."

"We were sent here as scouts, there is a big group of inquisitors making their way to this region and we ended up stumbling on a wanted rougue magic user and some weird magical activities, we were hunting her down when one of the gorups acted on inpulse and confronted her while I was tring to gather infor on why she was here."

He calls his own squire who was amiing sure people were safe and handle his arms to him.

"Now if you excuse me I have to take care of my companions bodies and proceed with my investigation, a good day to you sir, madame"

[Orcus The Vile]

Shop - The Augur

Wait a second, I know they have committed crimes against our people and they will judge and will pay for those crimes, but first I believe we must address the fact they were also victims of a crime themselves, they said the reason they did what they did was because something was stolen from them first, I believe we must get to the bottom of this incident first and then deal with the harm they did to our community.

Says the Argur, trying to speak in a way that makes him seem sympathetic to the criminals so that they will cooperate with him.

But in order to help you two we must know who are you, who the criminal is, why they did what they did and what they stole in the first place. Can you guys provide us with these informations?

The Argur knows that if he confronts the two prisoners with questions no matter what they say, even if they lie he'll get important intel.

With this data we can go confront the criminal and provide you with justice, alas you must also pay for your criminal actions but justice will be done nevertheless, we are on your side and could have helped you if this problem was brought up to us.

The Argur says while trying to indicate to his companions that this is just an act to get more information.

But most important I believe we must leave this shop, whatever spell they used on the population won't last forever and if the shopkeeper wakes up with all of us meeting with suspicious strangers while his wife mutilates herself won't look the coven's reputation, we must leave quickly since unfortunately there is nothing we can do to help his wife, even if we took her to a healer the fact that we were the ones taking her there won’t look good on us and we can’t afford to do that, not when the inquisition lies so close.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Roll twice for Interaction once to play good cop with the strangers and the other to signal to your teamates that you have a plan.

The second one you get a -5 bonus since your teamates know you well to get you signal.

[Orcus The Vile]

[roll0]

[roll1]

Interaction:15

10- pass

6-5 = 1 Critical?

OOC: For a second I was "Oh my god I failed both" then I remembered we have to roll low. :smallbiggrin:

[S@tanicoaldo]

You are able to convince them that you could be on their side.

Your teamates understand that you know what you are doing.

"Fine, if anything let's go to a tavern, the old gods know I'm in need of ale after this failure of a mission. If you really want to help us out I'll be willing to tell you all about our plan." says the short man.

[Amazon]

THe Provider

"Not to fast, I don't think we want to be seen interacting with you publicly, we still don't know who you are or what your background is, that can cause the wrong idea, we are making our way to the forest to deal with some issues you two will come with us, that way we can finish this negotiation more privately."

ooc: I think we got to use this window we hve since everyone is paralysed to leave the city without anyone noticing it and confornt them outside.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - shop

With the criminals calmed down, Bas steps in in helping the Provider. He ties the clothing of the shopkeepers wife together as best as he can to prevent her from doing more harm to herself. He only uses her own clothing to prevent leaving evidence.

Wilderness 16 [roll0]

Bas would be fine with taking the criminals to the Coven, but forests are at least an environment he's probably more at home in then they are, so he nods in approval to the Augur's and the Provider's plan.

As he finishes the tying up he says: "Okay, let's go."

[S@tanicoaldo]

City

As you all agree with the plan you leave the city and head to forest undetected and just in time, since the people of the city start to return to their normal and daily life nowhere of what just happened.

Forest

"Very well, where should I start? You can call me The Mouse, and I was not originally been this terrible monstrous form, I was once a woman mocked and bullied by my appearance I took refuge in studying the arcane and became an accomplished magic user I started to look for other oppressed and judged women and uniting our knowledge we formed a sisterhood, to protect each other and live our lives carefree, soon our little group grown and grown until we formed an entire community, we used magic to shield or presence for curious eyes, provide us with comfort and happiness and we lived in a real earthbound paradise."

The shadow remains silent indicating that she is not lying or at least she believes that what she is saying is true.

“But happiness was short lived for the inquisition soon appeared and murdered almost all members of our community, they burned our city to ground and only a few survivors escaped, their leader cursed me, transmuting me intro this male form for he knew my spells had the distinct characteristic of only being usable by women, now I’m powerless and trapped in a gender I don’t belong.”

The shadow remains silent indicating that she is not lying or at least she believes that what she is saying is true.
The fat woman starts talking.

“That’s when she started recruiting us, teaching us the spells she could not use herself and promising a new and better future, one of the survivors of the old sisterhood had a vision, one of her many visions, describing an ancient and power being sealed away in this region, we found and claimed one of the stones that’s when our stone was stolen and we were getting it back when your lot showed up, we are not doing anything wrong we just want what is rightful ours and a better future for all of us.”

The shadow tell The Augur that the stone did not belong to them, the visions told about the creature and the location of all the other stones, there are twelve in total and they plan to gather all of them by any means necessary, the shadow also says that the presence of the inquisition on this region is not a mere coincidence, they are aware of the creatures return and plan to stop it.

[Obscuraphile]

Shadow

"So, you're telling us that the leader of the inquisition is a powerful mage?" Gareth looks around at his companions with a worried expression. "What are you hoping to do with these stones and this ancient power?"

It also occurred to him that perhaps the coven could gain a powerful ally if he were to unravel the curse laid upon this woman. Although, despite his instinctive desire to help, if she couldn't be reasoned with it might be best that she not have her powers available to her.

[Amazon]

The Provider

The Provider had faith in her plan, there was a reason why she insisted in meeting up with the criminals in the forest outside the city walls, now they were at her Place of power and all was going according with her design.

She knows these criminals can't be trusted but she also knows they had no time to deal with them now.

She uses her Place of power, Medium and Catalyst to discreetly cast a very powerful version of her "Transmute light intro hive mind" to create a very small but supernaturally durable Apis florea, she is able to control the bee, see and hear everything around it, she's going to use it to keep an eye in the criminals while they deal with more important matters, she commands the bee to fly intro The mouse's belongings and hide there until reaches base of operations, this will provide the coven with the location of her foes and may even allow her to find out about their plans and agenda .

"Very well, we will do our best to assist you while dealing with the criminal who stole your stone, but we won't be able to deal with this right now so you two are free to go for now, but we expect you to answer for your crimes to the city after the festival this afternoon, we'll be waiting for your presence at the Coven's headquarters to ensure you won't escape in the meantime we will confiscate the stone and only return it when the crime is solved, now head over the artifact."

The provider reaches out to get the stone.

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees Village

Ryder simply nodded in silence to the knight. Condolences for his loss apparent in his eyes. When the man was gone Ryder turned to address the hunter.
"I had come to warn and ask you about the inquisitors. There are some concerns about their intentions and motives. I hadn't expected to learn of the threatening advances of the undead. Where have they come from? Does it coincide with the appearance of the inquisitors?

Lastly could you help us find the remains shaman? If you do I will aid in stopping these undead."

[S@tanicoaldo]

“It’s the end times I tell you, everyone is possible undead agent nowadays, we can never be too careful, maybe they infiltrated the high ranks of the inquisition that’s not impossible in my opinion.”

He considers your second proposition but looks at you with a serious tone.

“And what are your interests in all this? A powerful magic user shows up at the same time an undead horde attacks my city, helps me out and starts asking weird questions…”

He seems suspicious of you.

“How do I know you are not in the undead side? A necromancer as they call? Who are you after all?”

He seems ready to grab his axe at any moment. Do an Interaction check.

Forest

The Provider also needs to do an Interaction check.

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees Village
"You tell me, you're the undead hunter, the expert on these matters. The only one who seems to know where and when they will be."

Ryder rolled his eyes, irritated by the paranoia making this man irrational. With his mind in this state he would be of little use.

[roll0] Interaction 15

[Amazon]

The Provider

Here we go, hope this works.

Interaction: 10

[roll0]

Dang it! >:@

[S@tanicoaldo]

Village

“Very well, I guess I can trust you for now.”

He leads you and Firebrand ( I just checked she’s still in the game) to a small hut on the furthest section of the village, inside you are greet by the other two shaman.

A girl wearing weird cloths decorated with bones and animal skins and a young man of short fair hair.
She was meditating while the man was playing around with a small ball of light.

They present themselves as this village shamans and spiritual protectors, they explain their functions of protecting the body, mind and soul of the people.

You two quickly realize that they are not very powerful, the woman is the most powerful member, able to cast a weak healing spell she sues to heal Mahees and a small divination spell she refuses to use that allows her to see one hour in the future, she is the protector of the body.

The blonde man is the protector of the mind and claims to be able to resist any mental assault, after further inspection you realize that he’s only capable of creating a small sphere of white light to light dark places and has no other power what so ever. He claims that soon he’ll be a powerful magic user.

After meeting up and talking for a little bit they understand the risk the inquisition poses and wonder what they should do next.

Alonso Molinsky insists that the undead have taken over the inquisition but the other two dismiss that idea.

“It’s quite clear to me that this witch that was being hunted by the inquisition is the real source of the undead legion that attacked our village”

The girls says.

“What do you suggest we do now? Should we run? Should we fight? Should we seek shelter in the coven? What do you two suggest? Whatever it is please take these as gifts for you touching concern with us low level magic users.”

They hand over some scrolls they prepared themselves.

You guys receive:
Tree scrolls of light.
Two scrolls of healing.
Tree scrolls of detected undead.
What do you tell the shamans to do next?

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/darksouls/images/a/af/Rosabeth_of_Melfia_Artwork.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140418144303
https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/8686-1-1328872278.jpg

Forest

The Mouse seems unimpressed by The Provider.

“Look I see now that you can be on our side and fight for our cause, but I don’t trust you enough to just leave this precious artifact with your care. Let’s reach a compromise, I’ll leave the stone here in this hollow tree, only you and we know of this, after the crime is solved we can return here and grab the stone. If the stone disappears I’ll hold myself responsible for it and surrounded myself to your coven.. What says you?”

The shadow says that they will know the location for the stone and that will give them enough time to find the others while knowing the location of this one, the stone is also protected with many spells and can be easily located if stolen.
Caring the stone around is dangerous because of it enormous power it can mutate any human that touches and greatly increases the magical energies for magic users, both for their own spells and incoming spells making the user an easy target for magical attacks.

“What says you? Do we have a deal?”

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees Village

Mahees very politely thanks them for all of their assistance. He offers them the coven's protection should they ever need it but reminds them that this village probably needs them. He gives them some money to pay for errand boys or messengers and tells them to keep in touch.
He will also try to extend any benefits the Coven receives to include the shaman for as long as they help.

"Any idea where this woman can be found? I need to know if she is behind the rise of the undead or not. Right now it is the threat unknown that worries me." his face mimicked his concern. Undeath was a field he knew very little about.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Hut

The young woman tell you:

"I believe she may be one of the appendices recruited by the witch in the forest, she has been recruiting disfranchised young women not only form this region but form all over the country and teaching them magic, she tried to recruit me but her magic seems too unsavory for my taste, maybe she's working for her? I guess it's worth a try."

[Amazon]

Forest

"Wait a minute..." says The Provider just to keep the apparences sicne now hshe had full control and would knew everything The Mouse would do in the future.

"How can we be sure you won't simply come here and take the stone? Or if anyone else will just show up and find it? Or that you will come here get the stone and claim that someone else found it?"

She didn't really care about it ince she would know if she took the stone or if she ordered soemone to do it.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Forest

"Well, as I said we used a spell on it that will make invisible and undetectable for the Mundane, and about another magic user finding it... I guess that a risk we will have to take to reach a compromise, you have my word we won't seek the stone. What says you do we have a deal?"

EDIT:

The Shadow says nothing it seems that she is tellig the truth, but it adds that after they find allt he other stones they will come get this one.

[Orcus The Vile]

ooc:

Is the witch's shadow still under my spell?

[Holy-hunter]

Alias: Mahees Hut


"Alright, well I guess thats where we are going next." Mahees says to Firebrand.
"The old witch might be bound by contract but her pupils are not. We'll have to be careful."

Before leaving Mahees makes one last request of the shamen.
"There will likely be some more mages coming through this way looking for us. Please let them know what happened and where we are going. If we find out anything about who is behind the undead I'll be sure to let you know.."

Ryder heads of towards the location of the old blood witch and her recruits. He was nervous about what lie ahead but there were young woman he had to save from her evil influence.

[Amazon]

The Provider

"Very well, we have a deal, meet us at the coven after the festival and we will asist you with the resolution of your crime, be honorable and suffer the consequences of your own dreads afterwards, run away or try to escape and suffer the consequences. We will hunt you two down and made you pay for the damage inflicted to the citizens of Aurum, now be gone we will deal with this some other time."

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit, tree

EDIT: O, wait, crap, I'm forgetting a lot of stuff we were going to do out here. I can't fix it right now, just assume my character has been paying attention and did not basically suggest that we're done here.

Sounds like a plan. As a sign of trust from our side I'm telling you now that I'll be adding an additional layer of security by naturally regrowing the tree around the artifact, so we can chop it out without much effort,
but nobody will find it on accident and no animals will run off with it. I don't have what I need to do it with me, but I'll handle it soon.

The thing Bas doesn't have with him is the right prepared spell. He doesn't quite want to reveal the exact limitations of his powers to the whole wide world, and he feels pretty sure that even if they catch him in that little lie by omission types like these won't judge a guy for keeping something in reserve.

EDIT: So basically, ignore everything in the next spoiler.
After their newfound acquaintances leave, Bas feels like it's time to be headed in the direction of home for the night but changes his mind after thinking about it.

If I'm going to mutate this tree I might as well do it first thing tomorrow. I'll catch some sleep in a tree or something. Even in the worst case scenario where we completely misjudged these guys and they'll circle back to kill me I still have a spell left for today I can use for some extra security for the night. After the mutation thing I'll swing by my hut to get the gear I need to give the artifact a check-over. It's not as important as a decent magical scan, but we should probably be thorough. Or do you think we need to discuss this whole thing at the coven before we tuck ourselves in for the night?

OOC: I wrote my mutation spell to apply to animals and humans, but after getting a feel for how useful and broad spells are in this setting I feel like a tree should be a valid target, maybe with a penalty of sorts?

[S@tanicoaldo]

ooc:

Is the witch's shadow still under my spell?

Yes, I added it. Sorry.

Forest

"Then it's settled, we'll meet here after the festival and try to solve the crime, after that we will surrender ourselves willinin to your judgment for any persived damage to your community, I'm glad we were able to reach a agreement and that we can count on your assistance on catching the criminal"

The shadow tells you again there is no criminal and they will be too powerful to be stoped when they have all the stones and free the dorment spirit.

The fat woman is fred and reaches for the stoen in her robes, it's a big chunk of green rock with weird rune on it, you can feel powerful magical emanations coming from it applying all sorts of mystical energies around it.

The woman deposites the stone in the tree.

"Excellent, we bid you farewell for now, good luck on your endeavours we will meet again after the festival. We do hope you honor your end."

The two of them leave.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/a/ad/FFT_Sagittarius.gif/revision/latest/fixed-aspect-ratio-down/width/240/height/240?cb=20100701205124&fill=transparent

[Sicarius Victis]

Alias: Mahees Hut


"Alright, well I guess thats where we are going next." Mahees says to Firebrand.
"The old witch might be bound by contract but her pupils are not. We'll have to be careful."


"Well, it's your call. Remember, I'm just here to keep you from getting yourself killed."

[Amazon]

Forest- The Provider
After amking sure the witches are long go The Provider has a sigh of relief.

"Ok, I'm glad we are done with this, having to deal with other magic users and the inquisition would not be interesting, let's avoid more conflict and make as many allies as possible, or at elast not gather more foes."

She looks at Spirit and tell him.

"Well, I'm not sure if your plan will be necessary since I used my powers amplified by this forest to place a scrying bee on her so if she ever tries to get the stone we will know, but I guess we can never be too sure in special now that we know the elader of the inquisition is also a wizard."

She looks around.

"Well, where to now? this is the forest where two of our targets reside The Corruptur and The Midwife, where should we go first?"

[Orcus The Vile]

The Augur

After the witches have left The Augur share with the group the information he was able to obtain with his spell. He also warms them that he's out of spells for now and will only be able to use magic by risk casting.

"I suggest we seek the corruptor, he seems to be a more reasonable target since he's not an outright trouble maker, still his name makes me believe we must proceed with caution."

He also remarks that:

"Fey also claims he stole one of her books, we can't forget to confront him about that and if anything that shows he's not as harmless as we may think let us be careful".

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - forest

Going for the alchemist over the mad bomber, suits me just fine. I'd like to meet a colleague. He's supposed to live in an obelisk right? That'll be this way. There's one of those where the energy somehow never really focuses right. It had never occurred to me this was because of another practitioner.

If they all agree, Spirit starts leading them there, unless someone else leads them harder.

[S@tanicoaldo]

As the group make their way to the corrupter’s obelisk they start to notice some small changes in the landscape.

They say that the corrupter is only found if he so desires and it seems he accepted the coven’s presence in his domain.

The color of the sky started to change to a sickly green, the leafs of the tree a bloody red and the stones start to show an almost skin like color and the grass gowns pale, it seems you have entered his domain and things will only get weirder form here.

On the way throught weird mutated environment, you meet up with Mahees and Firebrand who are also making their way through the forest.

[Orcus The Vile]

The forest

The Augur welcomes his fellow mebers of the coven, he seems glad that they are safe.

After a warm welcome he updates them in the latest events, he tells them about the stones and the gorup of magic users that may also pose a threat to the coven's stability, in special now with the inquisition presence looms ever closer by the second.

He seems happy and relieved that more allies appeared in special now that so many spells have been cast. There is power in numbers.

[Amazon]

The forest

"So how are you going to approach this? Are you simply going to go there and try to convince him to help us? How are we going to deal the stolen book fact? Are going to confront him directly or are we going to wait for the right opportunity?"

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - forest

The greetings are all around pleasant. Bas reacts to Amazon's questions.

How about we start with an exchange of information? It can't easily be interpreted as condescending like a heads up/warning can, but it isn't too close for comfort either like how an actual alliance proposal could be taken. From there on in... Maybe we should agree beforehand on who takes the lead in our moves after that?
Like maybe someone with some people skills?

And that's all, you know, assuming we haven't been under active surveillance since we past the first magical plant life and this whole preparation is moot. We are dealing with a powerful alchemist with a set territory and by the looks of things a decent grip on permanent spell effects after all.

Bas at this point half expects a disembodied voice to acknowledge their presence, but at the same time knows he'd be surprised by it anyway.

[S@tanicoaldo]

The Corrupted Obelisk

As the party move deeper and deeper into the forest they start noticing the place is mutated beyond repair.

Rocks gain the appearance of pulsating hearths, plans have a lungs bronchioles appearance and everything thing looks organic, the sky has gained a weird shade of green.

Among the forest stands the obelisk a tall and red structure of unknown material, you can feel magical energies related to space around it, it seems the interior of it is bigger than the outside but unlike the coven's base it doesn't house a gateway to a demiplane but it compresses and fold space around it until it fits more in the inside then the outside, this sounds and looks dangerous but was done skilled enough to appear stable.

A small entrance lies on the top of it with a long chain coming all the way to the base of the pillar.

What do you do?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DizWJc-XUAA0-R0.jpg

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - forest

Sooooooo... We think we're welcome there? Should we call out or something, or shall I just start climbing, have a look around and see if I can fashion a more ladylike way to the top?

Bas inspects the tower and its surroundings, by looking, listening, smelling and feeling a couple of things. He pays particular attention to the material of the obelisk and the chain. Does it seem to be secured well? How large are the chains? He does so while still paying just enough attention to what the others are saying.

My awareness is 6, knowledge 9, technology 8, wilderness 16, science 18. I'm not sure which one of those applies, but I think it's awareness.
[roll0]

OOC: The Provider, who I think is the only character here that looks like she might have a hard time climbing, has a better athletics score then Spirit himself does, so I don't think I'm going to need to need to help anyone up. But that's player knowledge.

[Sicarius Victis]

Name: Erin
Alias: Firebrand

"Well, that's f***ing creepy. First river-zombie-things, now a demon-obelisk-eldritch-thing? Is the idea of reality just making sense really too much to ask for?"

Erin shakes her head. This day just keeps getting worse and worse.

Same as with the zombies, does anything about this seem familiar to Erin?

Knowledge 13: [roll0]
Perform Profession (Storyteller) 15: [roll1]

I'd also go for Awareness, but I think Spirit's got that in the bag.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Well, dang it! :(

Obelisk

Spirit notices the chain appears to be made of metal but has a soft feel to it, almost organic as if it was the long tongue of a large creature.

It seems secured by but inspecting the tower further you notice that the pattern of energies around the entrance is quite different from the rest of the structure, the entrance carries heavy and negative energies almost as if… That’s it, you realize the entrance on top on the tower is a trap; it would render the visitors powerless and probably lock them away in a dungeon or something.

No… The real entrance is the tower itself, its walls are mere illusions but composed of beginning space distorting energies, it looks very dangerous clearly not he work of mere dabbler but a real master of his craft. The obelisk is solid and has the texture of cold marble.

But as you to touch the obelisk surface knowing it’s the entrance to the Corrupter’s domain, you find that it is effectively not there. Your hand pass straight though where the Obelisk seems to be without resistance or affecting the surface of the tower.

Erin doesn’t recall any stories about such obelisk but you have heard a legend of an island in the south that slowly turned to flesh and bones until it wake as a living creature and devoured the population of a costal port until it was put down by the locals.

You also notice that the energies of the obelisk are welcoming while the ones in the entrance are dangerous and corruptible, it seems this whole place is a test to verify if the visitors are worthy of the Corruptor’s time.

As the group enters the obelisk they notice they are in a very weird place, the walls are made of an weird unknown material most likely constructed by folding and warping space around itself, the shape and color of the many corridors give you the impression of being in the Bowels of some large creature but unlike the outside it doesn’t feel as organic and wet, on the contrary, it’s smooth and sterile almost alien like, the whole place, it's colors and ligths are quite disorienting.

Before you is a small orb of green like energy, it seems to serve as guide thought the maze like interior of the obelisk.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/d868c5d3c0ca2ab7b2e4c6aeca65cd4c/tumblr_pcjowuNEdD1veme87o1_540.jpg
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[Amazon]

The Provider

Unlike Firebrand The provider was much more comfortable with the idea of a environment artificially changed by magic, she herself has indulged the idea in her mind more than once despite the fact this place was a lot more pleasant then the bloodfilled outside, this was too much.

A whole space distortion tower??? That's insane, if the inquisition get to this place they would get justifiably out of their minds!

She knows that the corrupter probably has defensive spells preventing normal humans from getting in but now they know the leader of the inquisition is a powerful magic user she's not sure what to think of this place.

How could the coven allow such irregular use of magic right by our doorstep? If this obelisk is found this could be the end for all of us, she's not so sure if the corrupter is not really a big trouble maker rather than a possible ally.

This is not safe at all in the inquistion get their hands on this obelsik, in special thanks to it's freakish nature they could use it as leverage to hunt donw all sorts of magic users even the non malignant ones.

After mediating on these ideas for a second she reluctantly approaches the orb.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Spirit - obelisk

Bas is hesitant to step inside at first, but goes with the group. He doesn't know any magic like this, but the living aspect is undeniable, and there is definitely some faint connection to alchemical energy sources, although that's probably traces of creation rather than a current connection. Is that a little actual sun energy he feels there, the golden rays of a heart? At moments like these he really wishes he had some sort of way to focus these energies to better study them. Bas shortly considers casting his second spell for today, using his mind influencing abilities to see if this thing has a mind, and to make it welcoming to them. He puts his hands down though as he figures the tower is being reasonably welcoming, not eating them or such, and someone might get a little upset if they realize what's happening. Never piss off a building while you're inside.

Bas steps toward the orb, as it moves to stay ahead of him. Bas takes another step, and so does the orb, curving in the direction of the right hand tunnel.

Bas turns to his companions. So, trap or welcome sign? Any bets? He turns back, and decides to try something, not being sure what he even expects to happen. He mixes a little living water with some general mild balance inducing herbs and a little iron rich dirt, just the kind of pleasant mixture life typically enjoys the energy of. He holds out his hand towards the green orb, and splashes just a few droplets on it. This thing doesn't seem to speak, but it might be open to a more alchemical way of communicating.

I have no idea what kind of roll this would be (my science is still 18...), but I feel like you might like me to roll for something.
[roll0]