The old woman is difficult to read, but Celene did see a flicker of emotion cross her face when the gem started glowing... anger. It seemed like Eseriel was angry.



Celene makes an effort in the library but see just isn't able to find anything useful. All the references she finds on the ceramony just talk about the gem shining or not, and the colour depends on the rank the cleric seeks to advance to and what type of gem they are using. i.e. to become a Magus a red ruby is required and this would obviously give off a red light. Nothing on an unexpected colour being spotted.

OOC: only  +2 bonus from the library. Celene isn't that familar with it yet.



The young adept, now wearing the full grey ropes of a cleric of Wee Jas enters into the office of her mentor. What does she want to ask?

Closing the door carefully behind her, the new adept straightened and held her arms as steady down her frame, as she held her eyes steady upon the Magus at her desk. With no hint of being snipe nor aggressive, she planly stated "Magus Eseriel, something out of the ordinary happened today. You know what, and why. Kindly tell me, as you obviously know more about me than I do myself."

Eseriel sighs. "Yes Celene, I think I know a little about what might be going on and you deserve the truth. Come, sit down and I will tell you what I know." The pair retire into two of the comfortable, although worn, red armchairs in the sitting area.

"What I think may have happened is that your innate natural powers, your sorceress bloodline as it were, interfered with the ceremony. That is why the colour was wrong. It should have been white but because your sorcereous powers deal with fire, the hue of the light was modified and ended up being orange."

"I know about this because I have seen it once before - at my own initiation ceremony." She sees the adepts surprise. "Yes, you didn't know that did you! I also had wild powers in my youth, that is one of the reasons why I took you in. But these faded in time, and now I just have my clerical powers from the goddess. I am not sad about it, the Lady's powers are much more reliable and stable than anything my bloodline might have granted me."

Celene looks into the old woman, trying to get every ounce of information from her, words as well as somatics. Thinking over her tale, a few points confuse her. "But Magus, my crystal did not shine orange - it was purple."

Waiting for her response at that notion, she later adds "Blessed mother, I submit to your experience and knowledge, but I still cannot understand how something as trivial as a sorceress bloodline can interfere with a divine ritual, overseen be a High Magus, and sanctioned by the goddess herself - or what that portends about me and my bloodline! I mean, to disturb or interact in the affairs of our divine mother would take something... equally divine?

"Come now Celene. Orange, or whatever shade of purple it was makes no difference. And it was not disrupting, just... influencing the proceedings, like a pane of coloured glass altering the hue of a beam of light. The light beam is still there, it is just a different colour, surely you can see that?”

“And forget any silly thoughts about intercession from another divine power. We are in the center of the Temple of Wee Jas – only one goddess held sway over that ritual, and I am sure which one it is.”

Celene was quite assured that it made quite a difference. She was tired of veiled statements and those things not said discussing with Eseriel. She was tempted to plainly ask "and which goddess was it then?", as Eseriel again had elegantly avoided speaking plain out with full certainty, while still implying all was just fine. But Celene was sure either another evasion or an angry rebuke would be the only outcome.

Instead, she tried another avenue towards information, as perhaps more knowledge of her own situation may be gained be comparing with another. Remaining in the almost docile state, she inquired with intrigue "Blessed mother, I cannot explain how utterly relieved I am at knowing others have experienced all this before me, and may guide me. What powers of arcane magic were your's to wield before they faded? And what colour did your quartz shine?"

"Oh, I had similar powers to yours. Fire, yes, that sort of thing. As for the colour of the gemstone... I can't remember! That was so many years ago."

"Look Celene, I don't feel I can help you any further, this is just something you must work through yourself. I am here to support you," Eseriel looked stern. "And that is something you should appreciate. You need powerful friends now that you are an adept, even more than when you were a novice."

Feeling the wellknown tightening up of the Magus, Celene knows no good will come from probing further. Several questions more left unanswered, Celene resigns. "Yes Magus, I understand. Should you one day wish to tell me more of your experience and how you learned more of your bloodline, I would happily take part in it. It is one of the largest mysteries of magic to me." With that she leaves with a bow.

She decides to spend the rest of the day in study. Particularly, she is interested in something that has been bothering her: that stunning magical rapier, Czarina, now held by that dubious characer, Vorsh. Such a magnificent creature of magic must be mentioned in the temple library. Also, perhaps there was something on sorcerer's bloodlines to be learned. She turns down the hallway towards the study hall.
OOC: any rolls for that?

OOC: Sure, give me a history check. You can get a +2 bonus due to the extensive library in the temple which has records dating back to the founding of the city.

OOC: If she can already make use of her new spells at this point, it'd be with at least a +1

quote:

20:34, Today: Celene rolled 19 using 1d20+7. History check.

Yes she can so is that a 20 in total?
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:54, Tue 11 Aug 2015.

At least, but more than that depends on your answers to my PM question reg. her abilities :-)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:11, Tue 11 Aug 2015.

Oh man, you mean those two pages of notes/questions you send me? Ok, I'll have a look tomorrow.

OOC: Yeah ;-) Sorry, but being the new one at this PF, I can't just go along by experience, as those rules are complex - which you showed me indirectly in the earlier pm :-)

So those extra ++ may be decisive? Hm, though one...
This message was last edited by the player at 19:30, Tue 11 Aug 2015.

Well, 20 is the top result. You get at least that right?

yes.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:56, Tue 11 Aug 2015.

Celene heads into the temple library and uses it to research both the mysterious mithral rapier that called itself ‘Czarina’ and also sorcerous bloodlines.

OOC: Well, you only made a knowledge: history check, so in reality we’ll only be addressing the first question. You can only spend so much time in the library you know!

The first topic proves time consuming to pursue, but very illuminating. In fact, the main problem is the volume of information found. Celene uses the magical indexing function in the library to search through all of the records of Sasserine events - the temple is careful to magically transcribe everything reported in any of the city newspapers into a magical register for future reference, and this has been done faithfully since the founding of the city with very few interruptions. When she tries ‘sword’, ‘rapier’, ‘mithral’ and ‘Czarine’ there are a lot of possibilities for the first three terms and she has to wade through them all to find the info she needs.

The recentness of the first  ‘hit’ surprises her – it was just a few days ago and on the night of the ‘Aubrek Heist’! A man was seen being chased in the Noble district down to the docks by a gang of men in black skin tight uniforms, when he reached the harbor he threw something into the water and then continued running – the gang of men jumped into the water for the object. Was that Vorsh being chased? By ninjas?

Then there were multiple accounts about people claiming to be possessed by weapons. But not just rapiers… Flails, rods, daggers… Apparently this is a common problem in Sasserine.

Then fifty years ago a Paladin in the temple of Kord went berserk and slaughtered a dozen of his comrades – when he was finally caught a couple of months later, he blamed it on a ‘mithral sword named Czarina!’.

Past that she finds a few more reports, going all the way back a hundred years to the time just before the Thyatian occupation – where the trail abruptly comes to an end at the mention of a matriarchal gang who called themselves the ‘Cabanites’. They were brutal and bloodthirsty, but could not hold out against the power of the Thyatian Empire and were hunted down until only a few were left. But it is the name of their leader that makes Celene’s blood freeze. Valora, the self-styled Cazrina of the city!

The library is closing and there is no time to continue researching. Any hints into what strange bloodline she may have inside herself will have to wait for another day.

OOC: closing... Pft. Lazy bastards.

Well, celene would definately want to inform Logan about this (if he is interested?). Can they do that during the breakfast at Lavinia's in the morning after - and use this thread for it?

OOC: Cool idea, if you want to role play it. Actually, I would be interested in his reaction since your guys really did have a close shave in the basement under the Aubrek mansion - I still can't believe that neither of you got taken over.

OOC: two questions:
- what word was a hit for the first story (man being chased)?
- how old seemed Vorsh to be?

1) Ahhh, yeah. Good question. OK, the witness eyeballed the object being thrown into the harbour. It was a sword.

2) Vorsh seemed to be about 50 - in good shape though.

During the second breakfast at the Vanderboren manor, at a moment alone with Logan.
"Logan, I have come across some ominous revelations regarding our nightly visit to a cellar the other day. Unless you prefer to remain unknowning about the whole affair, I would like to share them with you? I would understand, as it was a frightening night, and one that very nearly cost you your life, and both our sanities, I think."

Assuming Logan doesn't fidget or complain too much, Celene continues. She basically lays out all she learned at the library (OOC: Just assume Logan hears all she learned during her search above).

 "Some of it is odd, some of it is hard to interpret, and some is downright scary.

A man was hunted by dark-clad men on the night of our heist, and was seen throw a sword in the harbour. This could likely be Vorsh, except he struck me as zealous to the point of fanatical about the sword - I doubt he would throw it - or her - away once he had her. Unless it was another decoy, as I guess the one you picked up was. Of course I wonder who those dark thugs may have been. I did not have time to investigate if they have been sighted elsewhere. Perhaps you have heard of such gangs in black, skin tight, uniforms?

But whoever now holds the sword, I fear may bring bad news to the city. Or return bad news, as the other tiding hint they've been around for a while. And not just Czarina, apparently there are numerous other weapons around in the city, able to possess their wielder. It's very odd, but still very hush-hush, as at least I have never heard of it before.

To add on this, there is this old story of the 'Cabanites', their leader being czarina Valora. That is no coincidence, but I am baffled about what it means. Was their leader simply possessed by the rapier, and used her name? Or was the leader somehow trapped in or transformed into a magical rapier?

Oh, and one of the stories was about a failed paladin of Kord. I wondered if it was about Vorsh, maybe that's his backtory with the rapier - they were well acquanted. Could he have been a paladin you think? He seemed quite able, but was he religious? Also, he didn't seem old enough for that, as it was fifty years ago. He'd have to be older than he looked now - about Angati's age, right? Perhaps if he'd been kept younger somehow, but...

I don't know. Maybe we should just mind our own business here, but I am both frightened and intrigued about these stories. Of top of these Lotus Dragons, then there are hidden weapons possessing people, and apparently creating chaos in the city, at least according to Vorsh. What do you think?"


OOC: are paladins of Kord Lawful as other paladins, or chaotic as Kord? If it's not too meta-gaming, and Celene would know (I don't)? Religion roll?

Logan listened to Celene's report, face serious.  The rogue had often wondered about the long-term effects of his petty crimes, but never before the Aubrek job had he done something he felt could actually have long-term, serious consequences.  Finally, the rogue breathed a ragged sigh and spoke: "That's been working at the back of my mind, too.  I was more worried with what Vorsh had planned with the whole thing.  He was careful not to touch the sword, maybe he did just want it safely removed?  Or maybe he was retrieving it for someone else.  I have to think that it didn't end up at the bottom of the harbor.  Certainly no one who was carrying it would do that, if they were controlled by the sword, I don't think."

Logan pondered a little more, wondering about the reports of the black-clad people chasing the wielder.  "Off the top of my head, I don't know who that could be, but asking around never hurt, right?"

OCC: Actually, Vorsh did grab the sword but seemed totally immune to its domination.



OOC: Yes, that was a lot of effort for him to go to in order to retrieve the sword and then just throw it in the harbour...

In reply to Dungeon Master (msg # 28):

Ah, I was mis-remembering.