Let’s Be Coppers

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, TristiaLeave a comment

After a short rest, we head back to the cistern, to start back at the beginning. There’s a man at the top, furiously turning a spigot. He finishes and ducks into a tunnel, slamming the grate behind him. Water and sewage begins to pour from all the tunnels down on top of us, and the water begins to rise.

I get Maribeth and Dalish to grab ahold of me, and I levitate up to the place where he disappeared. While they start working on the spigot and the grate, I levitate Gerhardt and Remy up to join us. Klyce climbs up the ladder on his own. Dalish puts oil on the stubborn spigot, and Klyce tries to turn it, but it worried it will just break off. Turning to the grate, Klyce tries to rip it open with his alter self claws to no avail. Remy downs a strength potion and manages to finally pry the grate open as the water reaches us.

We rush into this tunnel, and so does the sewage, and slide down to a grate over another cistern, but we are safe for the moment. Safe enough to start arguing over who that man was, and why he is trying to kill us. We decide that he was probably the one killing those people and leaving them for the redcaps, but we’re far too late to track him.

Heading topside, Remy, Gerhardt and Dalish go to the inn the police will send reports to. Klyce, Maribeth, and I go back to school. The sewage has made us all ill, so we head straight to Raltus. There, we find that he has given Nat some paper and pens. She has been drawing furiously in her unnatural sleep. Mostly black pages, but some images: A white mask, a sandy scene with a cowskull and horse, a well-dressed man turning a spigot by a tunnel, a bejeweled goblet, three beautiful white women feasting upon a man lost in pleasurable agony. That seems awfully creepy and prophetic. Raltus gives us all some medicine and we head to wash up and bed.

We’re all pretty rough in the morning, so the boys come back to school to check on us. We tell them to leave us alone for the day, so Remy spends time going over the police reports. Maribeth and I feel better in the evening, but Klyce doesn’t feel better until the next day. Dalish gets called to help Rictus, and tells us he’s been playing with the life-filled bits of Malden’s exploded body. Oh dear gods, No!

We talk about the different police reports, and Nat’s drawings. We make about five different plans, but decide that we should first go to the station and ask for any news from the police. They tell us that there were two more sites the night before. One was just a patch of blood when they got there, the other had body parts. We decide to go check out the latter.

There is some faint magic where the bodyparts lay, and when we look around more thoroughly, some magic up on a nearby roof. Remy says it’s illusion magic. Dalish finds some green fabric on a nearby sewer grate. When we go check out the other site, it is much the same. Figuring this is a more immediate threat, we head back to the station to await the next body pile report.

We are put up in their break room. Remy goes out and gets us lunch while Dalish goes back to the school to leave a note for Rictus that he won’t be down to the lab that evening. Maribeth and I look over the case notes, and when I look at the map, I notice that the locations of the bodies draw out a fertility symbol. We extrapolate from there, four locations that might be next. Then we have a big arguement about what to do with this information.

In the end, we decide to go out and scout these locations before dusk. We go for a brisk walk around the district. Checking traffic paterns, sewer access, ambush points, and any other details that might help us not die tonight.

That evening, a young street boy is brought to the breakroom to speak with us. He says a nice carriage pulled up near him. When he went to offer them directions, a man went into an alley with a big sack and then came back out and left quickly. When this boy got there, there was a big mess of bodies in the alley. Remy asks about the man and the carriage. The man wore a white shirt and dark coach. The carriage was black and really nice, with brown horses.

It’s a trap, we know it is, but we have to go. As we get close, my stomach starts to growl with hunger, just like last time. This is super creepy. The sewer grate in the street is wide open and there’s movement in the alley. Klyce closes the sewer grate with a loud clang. The redcaps all turn to look at us, and I immediately grab the air and slow them down. In all the ruckus of the fight, several of them get back into the sewer, and Remy and Dalish follow. There are explosions and fire erupts from below.

I begin to levitate up in case the ground starts to fall. Glancing around up here, something looks off about the building across the alley. I push off the building I’m next to and pass right through an illusion. I see one black and one red armored knight, staring back at me.

Oh dear…

Studies and Redcaps

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, TristiaLeave a comment

Unsure what to do with ourselves, we decide to stick to schedule as much as we can. Heading out to exercise before breakfast, we discover that Klyce has upped the difficulty with some weird ladder-jumping contraption. I stand ready with featherfall spells as the rest of them try it out.

At breakfast, we are approached by Professor Cambrank, who wishes to speak with us after we are done. Heading over, we discover that he is also going away, to help in the war. However, he has prepared materials for those of us left behind, to continue our studies. Well, their studies, pointless for me. He also lets us know that Werther, Weest, and Occusio are leaving, too. It really doesn’t look like we’ll have a school much longer at this rate.

Dalish and I go see Werther about alchemy homework before he leaves, but he has nothing prepared. He suggests we look over our book and ask Gerhardt for help. He does promise we can have access to materials for healing and resistance potions, but nothing more dangerous. Remy and Maribeth go see their other professors, too, but it seems only Cambrank thought of the students.

We all decide on a study and exercis routine to keep us going. Remy suggests I study Cambrank’s materials, too, for my “different point of view,” but it seems pointless. None of these diagrams make any sense to me. McAllen is still hanging around. He’s organizing the Sanctum league still, and helps us run a few practice games.

Things toddle along for a couple weeks, until Philomena gets tired of us all. She insists we can’t just sit around, even though that’s exactly what we decided we were going to do. She says we have to Do Something about all the fae that Remy released. Her family was nearly ruined by one, and she doesn’t want that to happen to other families. Jerrick has been hunting the ones in the forest, but what if they went further?

Dalish goes back to the papers and pennydreadfuls, looking for hints of chaos in the city. He finds a story about a deranged cannible cult in th northern slums. That seems relevant, so we head out. The slums are full of Royalist propaganda and thugs, and sufficiently lacking in regular police. Until we reach an alley where there is a small cluster of them.

Remy sends in his little lizard to spy and hears them talking about people being chewed up and the mages not helping. We quickly decide on a scam – Remy will pretend to be a professor to offer assistance. They’re surprised, but somewhat grateful for the help and follow his instructions fairly quickly.

There is a pile of body parts here. Chewed body parts. With both large and small teeth. It’s disgusting, and everyone gets super worried about why they’re here, and where the other scenes were. What if it’s symbolic, what are they trying to do? And on and on and on. Maribeth finds tracks leading from the street to the bodies and more tracks leading away, in two directions. Booted tracks and tiny tracks.

Pembrooke tells us that thre have been five body piles this week and a few the week before. Remy sends for the reports on all the bodies and tells them which inn nearby to deliver them to. I have to remind everyone that we have tracks to follow several times before I can get them moving. So worried about symbols, they forget there is action to be taken.

The small tracks lead us to a sewer grate, and we head down carefully. Well, some of us go carefully, others just jump into the muck. Dalish finds scratches going to the right, so we head that way. After not too long a time, I start hearing whispers and my belly starts growling. The sewer is disgusting, but I’m suddenly starving.

I let the group know that we’re going the right way, but don’t explain too much. We eventually get to an open space up and down, someone called it a spillway. There are tunnels above and below, and everyone else can hear the whispers now, too. The ladder looks pretty unsteady, but we all manage to make it down to the bottom. The voices are coming from a tunnel down here.

We creep forward as quietly as we can. There’s a break in the tunnel and, looking in, we see a campfire with four small men, all wearing red caps. I look around at everyone, seeing if they’re ready, and then cast my new slowing spell into the center of that room. It actually works pretty well! The fight that ensues is pretty bloody. These little red-capped men are vicious!

As with most of our battles with the fae, they do not attack me. But they do cut down my friends, so, when I’m not keeping up the slowing winds, I smash a couple with Nat’s staff. When one falls under my blow, I don’t feel hungry anyore, and in fact, feel stronger. This does Not feel good at all, as my mind flashes back to the old hag’s words: your power is because of Murder!

After they are all down, someone sets up a rope trick for us all to rest.

Madmen and Duels

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, TristiaLeave a comment

I woke up secured to a table with Nat secured on another table beside me. What the fresh hell is this? Professor Garian came into my vision, glad to see me awake. He says he doesn’t usually use humans down here, too messy. I try to tell him that Nat isn’t like me, that she won’t be useful to him, but he just laughs and says I’m not the only special one.

He wiggles his fingers and strange little man appears, floating above his hand. What are you? I wonder in the strange monster tongue, but it just giggles, and together, they walk over to a glowing orb. Oh man, not another one. The strange little man puts his hands on the orb and everything goes white with pain. There is only screaming.

For a very long time.

After an eternity of pain, Maribeth’s voice creeps into my head. I must be hallucinating, and all I can do is scream in response. Over and over again. Her voice comes and goes, time doesn’t mean anything. Eventually, mercifully, darkness claims me.

Then I am awake, removed from the table. There is fighting all around, but I can barely stand. Nat is still unconscious, so I go to her. She’s still breathing, but barely. I pull her out into the hall, away from all the fighting and shouting. I think Malden is in there with all my friends, but I cannot bear to look.

Soon enough, they all come out into the hall wondering if it is finally over. That’s when Professor Rictus arrived. Everyone starts arguing about killing us for knowing about Garian’s experiments. Rictus starts to cast a spell on all of us, but Malden blocks him. Challenges him to Certimun. Nonononono! Not Malden! He can’t die for us! He’s the only one who cares about us, who believes us.

Rictus leaves and everyone babbles at Malden, but I just stare at him, unable to process the words. He ushers us all up to see Raltus in the infirmary, and I have to levitate Nat to get us there. I don’t know how I manage it, but I do. Everything is a blur until I wake up the next morning.

This can’t be real. Nothing about the last six months can be real. I didn’t get magic. I didn’t go to mage school. I haven’t been putting my life in danger every damn day to save people. This is not my life. I don’t get charged with Treason. I’m just a silly little girl. This has to be a dream. No, not a dream, a nightmare worse than every nightmare I’ve had so far. Treason? Certimun?

The others scramble to study and learn – trying to find a way to help. Trying to decide if we should run. Run now, or run if things go poorly. We can’t. There’s nothing we can do. Rictus is too powerful. We head down for breakfast. I decide, since it’s my last day on earth, that I get to eat all the sweets I want. I spend the day in the dining hall, drowning all this year’s pain in pastries.

When evening comes, I put on my most formal dress and we all head to the Theatre. It is packed full of people. Even my parents have come, along with everyone else’s. The don’t look concerned, though, just confused. James, Philomena, even Klyce who didn’t come with us, is there. We all have to stand along the back of the stage. Aleria, once she gets us in place, waits for Rictus and Malden. Malden is slow to arrive, his age weighs on him. He looks so weak beside Rictus.

Aleria tries to get Rictus to back down, but he will not. Malden refuses as well, he will not let us be killed. Aleria has the basin filled with mana, now more precious because we have destroyed the machine that fueled the fountain. She casts the ritual, closing the circle, and the Certimun begins.

Malden immediately animates, moving just as quickly and fluidly as Rictus. The battle rages fast and furious. Too fast for us to follow. To fast to know what is being cast and countered. We’ve been in fights before, but nothing like this. Nothing that took this long. They cast and counter, cast and counter faster than we can turn our heads.

The mana is nearly gone when they both pause to take a breath. Malden casts a single line of blue at Rictus, and rejoices in his hit. Rictus, however, seems unphased and casts a green bolt at Malden. Malden begins coughing. Coughing up dust. Dust and more dust, and then he begins to turn to dust. Malden’s entire form turns to dust and then nothing.

There is a stunned moment of silence before Aleria steps forward and announces Rictus as the victor. Rictus smiles for the first time, and turns to all of us, raising a hand. A blue light flashes behind his eyes, and he turns away, back towards the crowd.

He declares that he has no further grievance with us, that we are innocent of all charges, and under his protection. Any who seek to harm us must first go through him.

Everyone stares, stunned. Maribeth and I start sobbing, and the boys usher us all backstage. There is a babble of voices around me. He did it? He dominated him? Can it be broken? What does this mean? We should stay out of trouble. We don’t need to deal with the fae that escaped. We should just go to class tomorrow. I don’t understand, I just cling to Maribeth as we head back to the dorm and to bed.

In the morning, they tell everyone that classes have been cancelled indefinitely, due to lack of sufficient professors. If they can’t find enough professors, the year will be declared complete. Those who wish to stay, may do so, as the school remains open until a final decision has been made. Professor Rictus has taken a sabatical of indeterminant length.

What do we do now?

New Semester, Same Troubles

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, TristiaLeave a comment

It’s a new semester, so a new class list. I’ve picked Philosophy and Logic back up, and added Alchemy and Astronomy. Science at least makes sense when nothing else does. Even if Alchemy is two parts science, one part magic. We’ll see if I can make that work right, at least.

In Fundaments, Malden is teaching the others to overcharge without passing out. Or at least he’s guiding them into it and back down again. They don’t seem to be able to do it themselves. I spend about half the class trying to steal control of the mana for myself, just because I’m bored. That gets boring after a bit, and I start cheering on my classmates. It gets super fun after that. In Philosophy, Gerhardt starts yelling at me, so I curl up in my chair and just try to hide. Why is he so mean today? We finally get to play Sanctum again, but everyone is all over the place and we lose. Badly. That night we all just go to our rooms to study.

The week goes on, and everyone seems to be acting crazy. I know we’re all stressed out, but people just need to calm down. By Thursday, I’ve taken to staying in my room, studying away from everyone else. No reason to share my notes or my time with any of them. Except Maribeth. She’s My best friend!

Remy tries to get everyone all together to talk about what’s wrong, but I just open my door to listen. The boys start arguing pretty quickly, and Maribeth runs right into my room. Philomena comes charging after her, but Maribeth is My friend, so I slam the door in her face. Philomena starts attacking my door! I shout at her to go away and leave me and my things alone, but it takes a while for her to stop. There’s still a bit of shouting and it sounds like Klyce is kicking in someone else’s door.

I feel a tickle of magic and suddenly I feel so much better. I open the door and Gerhardt and Klyce come to help Maribeth. But when we turn around, she’s not there. Instead, it’s a gray hazy distortion in the air. I toss a coin and it disappears, so Klyce goes running in, and I follow. It’s Maribeth’s secret towers and books place. She tells us we have to write about ourselves and what information we are looking for. I write about my quest to figure out where my magic comes from, and I feel a pull towards one of the towers. I don’t think it understood, though, because I only find books on farming.

When we all feel like time is running out, we gather back to our dorm. Remy and Dalish say that they found out all about fae creatures, and they’re real and can mess with people’s emotions. We talk about it only affecting us, so we make a plan to leave campus on Friday and see if it’s also location based. We’ll meet at the Rollery at 5pm the next day. It’s Thursday, so after that’s decided, I head to Astronomy before sleeping.

Friday is rough, even though we know what’s wrong, but once we get off campus, everyone’s heads clear. Maribeth says she shouldn’t have let us in the tower place, and won’t again. We know we have to find the source, but we don’t know how. Remy speaks up and tells us that he learned Garian lost a dryad once, and that the only way to kill one is to find and destroy its tree, which the professor didn’t do. We’ll have to go into the forest and try to find her and see if we can get her to stop this crazy-making.

Someone mentions that Nat’s also been missing all week. Great! She probably went after her brother again. One thing at a time. We head back to campus, and the strong emotions don’t overtake us. Good, it must happen while we’re sleeping. Maribeth leads us into the forest. There are no animals about, the forest feels dead. As we head in, the forest gets denser and even heavier with death. Until we crest a small rise and look down upon a pond, with green grass and flowers, and a single large tree.

Being the only one who can speak to these creatures, I go forward, to see if the dryad is home. When she appears, I ask for her help, and offer to help her if she’ll tell us what’s going on with our emotional swings. She says that she cannot answer such questions, but offers that there is one who can, the Old One in a hut not far from here. She won’t tell me where unless I give her some of James’ blood. Oh, poor James.

I call him over, and ask him if he is willing to help. I tell him that she wants something from him, but I’ll tell her no if he isn’t willing. He says he is, that he wants to help. So, I tell her she can have some of his blood. She sinks her teeth into his neck, and while she drinks, the grass grows further from the pond. When she releases him, she points off in a direction away from the pond, and we go.

We find the hut fairly quickly after that, and when I approach, a voice calls out that I must come in alone. When I go inside, I find an old crone of a woman, and she offers to answer three questions for me, for free because of what I am, and calls me Lady. I ask her if she knows how we can stop the rampant emotional swings that have been happening this week. She says Yes. I ask what is the solution to this problem. She says there are many solutions. We could kill all the teachers; we could burn down the school; or we could leave and never come back. Then I ask what is causing the problem. She says it’s the experiments the professor is performing.

That’s my three questions, but I have so many more. She asks what I offer her. The color of my eyes? My first love? Well, Oliver has been completely ignoring me this whole year, so why not him. I tell her that I offer my first love, so long as it doesn’t mean his life. She accepts and shakes my hand. There’s some sort of glamour on her, because the hand I shake is wicked and clawed to the touch, but not the eye. I ask if it will stop if we stop the professor. She says possibly. Well, that was a waste of my question, at least it wasn’t a no.

For the next question, she says she will set the price, but I must agree before she tells me what it is. I agree and she tells me that “From now on, you cannot refuse the hospitality of other and cannot eat dogs.” This seems a Very strange thing indeed, but I ask my next question. What creature is causing the disturbance? Man, she tells me. Duh, Tristia, ask better questions. I offer her the color of my hair to ask, Can we offer you anything to put an end to it? But there is nothing we could offer her.

I feel like I’ve failed at getting any useful information, and I haven’t gotten to ask her the most important question. But she offers me one more, because of what I am and how polite I have been. I should have asked her what I am, or why she calls me Lady, but instead I ask her What is the source of my magical abilities? The answer should not have surprised me, but it did. She said the source is Murder, that I have my abilities because of Murder. I very nearly flee the house after this, and in sort of a daze, try to tell the others everything she has said.

They all decide we need to go interview each and every professor we can find, to ask them about experiments they might be performing, or know of. We decide to stop by Aleria’s office first, to see what she knows about Nat being missing, and if she knows about the emotional disturbances. She says she doesn’t know, that certain professors are shrouded from her vision, and that Nat is, as well. We go see Malden, and he says that Rictus is more likely to be shrouded from Aleria than he is. So, we head down to see Rictus, giving Dalish strict instructions about what he is and isn’t allowed to say. He does a good job and we don’t get murdered by an angry necromancer, but it isn’t him either. Next, we head up to see Lyon in the astronomy tower, but he only says he certainly isn’t powerful enough to hide from Aleria, and that Professor Garian hasn’t been sleeping well.

Dreading it, but figuring we have no other choice, we head to Garian’s office. He just suggests we let the emotional disturbances run their course, surely it’ll be over soon. We leave Remy behind to talk to him privately, and when he comes back to us, he says that it’s definitely him, and that he’s planning one last big push tomorrow night.

We head off to Klyce’s to sleep for the night, away from campus, so we’ll be clear headed tomorrow. The plan is to stop Garian from performing his final experiment. I hope we don’t all die.

Finishing the Semester

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, TristiaLeave a comment

Finally back at school after that horror show of a fall break. It seems strange to be wandering the halls and going to classes. What are we even doing here? Everything is chaos, and here we sit, learning about math and history. Oh history. We’ve got a new teacher, and he just makes fun of all the “rich kids” in the class. Klyce seems much happier with this, at least. I just tuck in low and try to avoid notice as much as possible – it’s just like every other class now.

A lot of the upperclassmen have volunteered for the war, so the halls are a bit more empty now. Maribeth talked to her brother before she left, and then moved into my dorm room. She says he was probably involved in the mana ring, and he said she should stay close to me. I don’t think his motives are good, but I do trust Maribeth.

Someone left Dalish unattended and he told Malden all about the spellbook we found. Everyone but Klyce got really mad at him, but Malden only took out the Dominate Person spell and gave everyone the paper and ink they need to get all the spells, so I don’t see what the big deal is. Everyone knows Dalish can’t lie to save his life.

After all the fights we had at Nat’s place, and with a war looming, I give into the peer pressure and start getting up early with everoyone else for extra physical training. I’m not so sure about this crossbow anymore, not after what it nearly did to Remy, so the boys start teaching me to use a staff instead.

Klyce wants to go spell hunting one last time, so we head to the stables. When we tell the servires why we’re there, they all leave in a huff. Dalish notices some conjuration magic in one corner, so we mess around with water buckets, feedbags, and a horse, but we can’t get anything to happen.

Looking over the horse, Dalish notices something odd about the teeth, and with my help to keep it calm, sees that there are runes on its teeth and writes them out. Maribeth looks at the bridle and notices some similar runes. Looking over the tack, we notice bits of runs on different pieces of each set. Apparently, I’m the only one who knows anything about horses, so I set to work dismantling the sets and create a single set with all the runes and kit up the rune-teethed horse.

Nothing happens, so Remy casts his detect and sees that it’s an illusion spell of some sort, and putting it all together has created a unified aura. Looking around, he also notices the conjuration in the corner is an unseen servant like he has, so we leave that one be for now. We try riding around on the horse. We try casting an illusion on the horse. Nothing works.

Looking around the stable a bit more, I notice there’s a stall with runes inside it, too. So, I lead the horse in, with Remy nearby. The horse screams in pain and its leg buckles. With help, I quickly get it back out of the stall and unbridled. Gerhardt rushes over with healing potions to help, noting a lot of scratches around where the saddle and reins were. While we’re helping the horse, someone grabs all the kit and puts it in the stall. Phantom Steed appears in the air and they all hurry to copy it down. When the servires come rushing at the sound of screams we glare at them and they wander off again, but we’re done for now anyway. I fear for that horse, even though we saved it. There are only two left in the stables.

Something is wrong with Remy, but it takes him awhile to tell us. We all gather up in the dorms. Remy tells us that Professor Garian has been taking him down to the catacombs and making him use a machine that conjures weird mana beings, like the ones we fought around here. The machine then drains them, screaming, of all their mana, collecting it to fill the Fountain. Garian wants to roll out this method of collecting mana to the entire country. He is also using it for personal gain, juicing himself with mana, trying to become a god? Remy says one of these creatures killed the guy in his head, the memories the wierd gods gave him.

We all argue about whether the creatures are “real” or not. Whether they are just manifestations of mana that somehow hold more mana than was used to create them, or whether they are real, live, sentient beings. We talk about how all the ones we’ve seen have been trying to kill us, so why shouldn’t we kill them first. We talk about the gate the ones under Philomena’s house were trying to open.

Once again we consider just walking away, it’s none of our business. Klyce says Remy should walk away, too. I’m worried that he won’t be able to, that something bad will happen to him if he tries. Then the suggestions go off the rails. Destroy the machine. Kill Garian. What if it’s worth it. Maribeth wonders if her brother knew about the machine. He’s gone now, but not all his friends are. Klyce wants to talk to them, find out what they know.

Nat wants to help Remy learn more about his memory man, so they share the tea her Baba gave her. I sit with them, to make sure they wake up. Remy says people in his dream worshipped the Tempest, and we’ve been at war with these creatures for a very long time. I stop listening at this point, distracted by what my dreams could mean in this context.

She approaches, Shining as the Sun

She approaches, Burning as the Sun…

Fire … Destruction

Death … Rebirth

World Without End