OOC: Alright... if we're doing this:

 One person make Gnosis + Prime, one person make Gnosis + Spirit, one make Gnosis + Space, and the last one make Gnosis + Highest Arcanum (to act as a stabilizer for the spell).

 You each need to get 10 successes total without botching to tear open the crossroads of the Bermuda Triangle (which is massive, by the way). If anyone botches, then you can stop.

Argentus looked at Promethius with one eyebrow raised.  "You do know what they say about assuming things, right?  I have little need for the Space Arcana - I can travel quickly to and within the Spirit realm, and I can cast spells at any range on any being in my court."

He considered the project at hand.  "I will not be part of a plan that - if somehow all goes well and it works it works - rips open the Bermuda Triangle.  There has to be another way."

He used spirit sight and prime sight to examine the area they stood, and to look for any way to artificially trigger the doorway with Spirit magic directly.

Noah squinted a bit and sighed. "Have to cut teeth another way then." He set the bottle of Girl and Dragon wine down and clapped. "Young lady, I am willing to trade you one memory from my collection, a copy. And access to both my normal customers and one hour use of my market license."

"That should net you a coin you can otherwise spend as you see fit. I would just offer you a coin but they raised my vault. All for you to see us there and back."

 Niri shys backwards. "Nu uh! My wing scales are what let me fly... also, you stuck me in a battery and blew me up!"

Argentus rounded on the Dragon, fury on his face.  "You can sit your scaley butt down and wait just a coin-flipping minute before interjecting again.  Even if you hadn't imprisoned and exploded one of my vassals, *I'm* the Spirit mage here, and this is my wheelhouse.  Let me handle this."

He stepped forward and poked the scaled giant in the chest with his finger.  "I don't throw lightning bolts at the tech you're working on.  You don't need to resolve your frustration at not getting to end the world as a solution to a small problem by offering to pay something to let you torture it.  Not everything is for sale.  Ever."

Noah got quiet as his eyes zeroed in on Argentus. His neck craned down, down, down until he was level with Argentus. "Theft of the Kiju system without notification, theft of gold without asking. You do throw lightening in my work, its just covered in fur." He reached down and tapped the flask of death with a claw. "When you think to say such again, reconsider that I go out of my way to lift you up."

"Do not assume I would torture anything. I need just a single scale to print more of them as we need them. One scale, if she sneezes its good enough. I was offering to pay for it."

"Think before you try to put that evil on me. I cannot expect everything I ever run into to be your vassal at some point."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:21, Fri 21 Feb 2020.

"My appologises Argent. I was assuming that Noah would only risk himself or me in this, rather then those who don't actually work for him." He glared slightly at Noah.

As the two start to argue, Prometheus is silent for a moment, although its clear he is getting annoyed at Noah feeling hard done by after admitting that this fae wasn't lying, "Noah, most people don't think that trapping and exploding sapient life is acceptable.... The fact Niri became Argent's friend afterwards is irrelevant."

Turning to Argent he said, "Do you have Prime? Prime, Matter and Spirit together would be able to create Pixie Dust... but Prime and Spirit alone should be able to simulate its magical effects. You maybe able to force it with Spirit alone like Grey said though."

Mistral glanced at the bottle of Girl and Dragon wine and shook her head as an enigmatic smirk touched her lips.  She weighed in, "This ritual would indeed have conséquences périlleuses if done poorly, but with Grey's aid we will mitigate the worst of the risk.  Success would provide leverage against Seigneur Pan."  Mistral shrugged and remarked with dispassionate calculation, "The utilization of pixie dust would be far less risky.  It is an unsavory solution, but one must weigh this against the stakes.  There are other pixies besides Niri."

A crease formed in Mistral's brow as an altercation erupted between Noah and Argentus, and she crossed her arms to observe with interest.  She commented drily, "This does not benefit our mission."

Mistral then gazed thoughtfully toward the distant wall of fog and suggested idly, "Consider that rather than enter by force, we might enter by invitation.  Our path must cross Seigneur Pan à la fin, no matter our approach.  Parley could be a more direct means to our desired end."

Argentus rolled his eyes as more people stood up to interfere with his work, and let his frustration carry him away.  "No!  In the name of any of the thousands of gods!  Let Me Work.  We're not torturing any pixies, Niri or otherwise.  And we are still not doing a conjunctional spell that could rip a hole in the world.  And trying to get a Supernal fey to come down here to squelch on his own secret deal?  Not likely."

He started to cut Promethius off, but physically bit his tongue for long enough to hear the other man's full schpeal.  "Yeah.  I know, Prom.  Now let me work.  You are all overcomplicating things."  Argentus tried to pretend he already knew what the Thyrsus suggested, but anyone with a half-trained eye would see through his facade.   (1 success at lying)

He pulled out a sheet of paper and began scratching some notes down.  Over his private bond, he reached out to his own Sprite.  "Niri, please fill me in on all the details of molting.  Is it painless and safe?  Is it determined by season for all Sprites and Pixies, or is it an individual schedule?"

 When the group looked up from their argument, they found that Grey was gone and instead there were two pixies near the door, one silver and one gold. Niri seemed a little freaked out by the sudden appearance of a second pixie. "Wha-? What are you doing?"

 The little silver pixie looked down at its tiny hands and flittered its wings to test them. The voice that came out was Grey's. "This is weird. Anyway, you came back from your battle to save my brothers and sisters all banged up and you rested and cooked here... so I have samples from when you rested. I thought I could make pixie dust if I turned into a pixie... but mine aren't magic."

 She frowned, deep in thought as she flexed her tiny wings slowly.

 Niri backed away from Grey slowly. "Riiight… anyway, we pixies have a yearly molting in the spring where our scales fall off. It's generally not a fun time for us as our wings are really itchy. The dust usually gets gathered up rather quickly after the molting and used for whatever other creatures use it for."

Noticing that she had interjected yet again, Argentus turned on Grey next.  "Et tu, Grey?  Sit back and let me handle this one!"

Noah slapped the deck of the ship with his tail. "The hell man?" He moved to impose himself between Grey and Argentus. Holding out a claw to support her pixie self. "Sorry Grey, he isnt himself."

He walked with Grey to sit by Mistral. "If you want to be 'The Spirit Mage' and fix it solo, then fix it. If you want to be Argentus who is a member of a group, then do it. But do not yell at Grey. She just wants to help and is doing a good job of it."

Argentus flatly ignored the dragon, tail-thump and all, and stared out to sea.

 As the group continued to fight, the fog gathered more densely around the ship. Though Grey's instruments never failed, it quickly became clear that they were not where they should be. A sudden impact on the front of the ship got their attention. Grey had hit a wrecked ship (though she plowed strait through it seemingly without damage).

 There was crunching and grinding as the massive ship hit thing after underwater thing, unfazed by the collisions unlike the hundreds of ships that had come before. Lights flashed in the depths, mostly hidden by fog and shaped passed by beneath the waves, barely distinguishable.

"There.  Welcome to Faerie."  He gestured around at the fog.

He turned back toward the group, looking truly sad.  "And I'm sorry, all of you.  The safest way through the portal was for one of us to give in to our basest self.  Somewhat ironically, pushing you to let me open the gate - if done as an utter jerk - could itself open the gate.  I didn't want anyone else to be hurt, risked, or risking have to do that with whatever their basest drives are, so I did it myself without consulting you.  Please forgive me."

The argument grew strangely heated from mild-mannered Argentus, but then the fog rolled in and there was a subtle shift in atmosphere, followed by less subtle collisions.  Mistral went to the ship’s rail and looked overboard at the lights in the deep, and then Argentus explained.  Her slow clap echoed through the mists, and she remarked, “Assez ingénieux.  I liked the assertiveness, even if it was a pretense.  You might consider indulging your basest self more often, mon ami.”

Mistral went to the prow of the S.S. Grey and proceeded to conduct a number of supernal investigations to understand their present status and surroundings.  She then went to the collection of bundled ‘to-go’ provisions and spent a time scratching a circle of Atlantean runes into the deck of the ship, followed by an incantation of cryptic words of power.  Following this she picked up one of many cases of individual bottled waters and whispered a supernal incantation upon it.  The case appeared to refract and then fold inward upon itself until it vanished into a place-between-places.  Mistral repeated this process for each bundle of provisions until all were sequestered safely away.

Noah closed his hand over pixi Grey, "I'll ask you to not yell at Grey next time." His body temp had risen to the point one could cook an egg on his back and he had a look that he was directly considering throwing Argent overboard. That was his biggest trigger, attacking the people closest to him. "Even if the ritual had failed Grey can sail the abyss. There was no risk in an alternative."

"Dont apologise, make it right."

 Grey sat in tiny pixie form  on Noah's shoulder, pouting as the massive ship crunched into a new wreckage. Off in the distance, they could see a lockheed electra (a type of old plane) crashed into the shallow waters.

Noah closed one eye as he brooded. "Grey, would you mind collecting what you can? You should have a giant cargo now and there will likely be relics worth a fortune to buyers."

"With any luck there is an old military sub you could eat the core out of. Healthy chunk of power."

Mistral went to pixie-Grey on dragon-Noah’s shoulder and touched her tiny winged back with a finger in what she hoped would be taken as comforting.  She said quietly, “Do not take it to heart, ma fille.  This realm is built upon strange capriciosité, and we may be made to play by such rules to survive.  We all understand that you only seek to help.”  She noted the heat radiating off the dragon and gave Noah a supportive nod, though she herself kept somewhere between him and Argentus to discourage any violent impulses.  By her own cold calculus Argentus’s feigned outburst was entirely justified by its success and unworthy of taking offense over, but she also much appreciated Noah’s steadfast defense of those he cared for.

With a sigh Mistral reported, “My sight is constrained in this realm... I cannot scry much further than my own eyes can see.  I sense that this place is far less... constant than our own world.”  Out across the waters Mistral caught sight of the wreckage of a distinctive aircraft design that seemed oddly familiar.  She pointed to the wreck and said, “That.  I would see it more closely, if we can maneuver in that direction.  I believe I may recognize that craft.”

 Grey seemed a bit sullen but nonetheless turned the ship ever-so-slightly in the direction of the plane. It was a wreck... but was in better condition than most crashed planes, considering its age an that it had been soaking in salt water for a very long time.

Sal said, "What's done is done. If one of us had to give into our inner darkness to get here, we should all be glad the worst he did was yell at Grey. I'm sure he feels terrible about it. A guilty conscience is punishment enough." Sal's own conscience may be a threadbare ruin of what it was when he was alive, yet still it stained everything he did.

Mistral was a firm foundation and if she didn't want a fight, Noah wasnt going to fight.

Noah clapped his claws and started a working. If all low tier magic could allow a mage to take in various forms of perception, emitting it was the same effort. He created a small ball that was made up of every school of magic. He blew a falme into its core to give it the light needed to cut the crossroads hidden nature.

A magical spotlight that would allow mages to ignore the fog for their other senses. He offered the ball to Mistral, she being the only one who has seen Noah use the tail scale to handle magic, lending to her using her nails to handle it rather than other methods that take more work.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:06, Sat 22 Feb 2020.

PM

Mistral looked over the rail to the wreckage and then requested of Grey, “Mademoiselle Grey, would you take this aircraft into the hold?  Keep the wreck as intact as possible, s’il vous plaît.  Do you wish to aid me in its analysis?   I believe it to be of importance historique.”

Mistral received the glowing sphere from Noah with an inclination of her head.  She looked out into the thick fog surrounding them, then removed from a jacket pocket a dog-eared paperback book, The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan.  Mistral then started toward the ship’s bridge, saying as she went, “Now, the purpose for which we came.  I will attempt to descry the Doctor.”  Mistral arrived in the bridge and arrayed on a table before her a round brass mirror, the spotlight sphere, and the book.  She then stood overlooking these, closed her eyes and breathed in.  Then, she began a ritual of flowing gestures and words of supernal power to cast her sight afar to wherever Doctor Lennis may be.