Akorinil's Secrets

GAME: Zeke rolls perception: (19)+4: 23
GAME: Zeke rolls spellcraft: (9)+4: 13
GAME: Seldan rolls perception: (8)+25: 33
GAME: Seldan rolls spellcraft: (4)+18: 22
GAME: Zeke rolls knowledge/nobility: (12)+2: 14

Finding Akorini's inn room is not that hard. The question is WHICH inn room. She has many throughout the city. Some in lovely establishments, some in more ... salacious environs.

Fortunately for the color of Seldan's cheeks, the one you've finally settled on to investigate, the one that seems likely to have been her *primary* residence, such as it could be in such a place, is on a quiet corner in lower trade district. More unassuming than you'd expect.

Having gently bullied your way past the innkeeper into the buildings, you stood outside her door to check for magical traps and tricks. None here, none yet.

The interior is posh. It looks like she had some of her more personal materials here. Designed for comfort. A portrait of her daughter, Faiza, hangs on the wall. She looks much more Taaran than she did when Seldan met her. It's tasteful and elegant, but definitely different look for her.

There are books all over the writing desk, looking like they were left there. Some of them are ... well, take a guess. Some are not.

A map of the world hangs on the wall. There are scrolls in their scroll cases EVERYWHERE.

GAME: Stjepan rolls perception: (1)+24: 25 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Stjepan rolls spellcraft: (12)+5: 17

Zeke looks around the room, curious to learn more about this woman. Her hints about the Crimson Pen were... Perhaps too subtle for the sith-makar. He didn't understand what the purpose behind the riddles were, beyond making it more difficult for anyone other than those she wanted to find the information of course. But he himself had never read a copy of the books, and certainly had never had anything to do with their creation or their subject.

"Thisss one sssenssses magic from within the sscroll casssess." He murmurs, keeping his voice down and moving toward the scrolls in question. He is careful not to touch anything just yet, but keen observation might tell him what the scrolls are meant to do without him needing to handle them at all.

Seldan trails behind the other two, still glancing behind him as the door closes gently. He looks around with his usual cool composure, but the announcement of magic is enough for him to turn his head towards Zeke. "What school?"

Stjepan peers after Zeke, stooping and spending a lot of time making sure he doesn't touch anything in here. His eyes glow blue, and there's a moment before he registers Seldan's question: "Protective magics." He takes a moment to remember: "Abjuration magic." There, the technical term!

"A lot of it." Zeke states with growing interest, his eyes darting from one scroll to another. He looks at Stjepan curiously. "More perhapsss than can be accounted for in the sscrollsss alone? Or perhapsss they work together towardsss a goal?"

GAME: Stjepan rolls spellcraft: (19)+5: 24
GAME: Zeke rolls spellcraft: (7)+4: 11
GAME: Seldan casts Detect Magic. Caster Level: 16 DC: 18
GAME: Seldan rolls spellcraft: (3)+18: 21

_Abjuration. Well, it could be worse, it could be evocation._ With swift, simple gestures, Seldan also invokes the spell of magical detection, then peers at the room through the gold/silver/blue film that appears over his eyes. "This is most strange," he observes. "It surprises me not that such a one as she desired to hide her activities - but such concealment was likely to have been quite costly. What was she hiding to make such expense worthwhile?"

He starts towards the scrolls with slow steps, eyes roving carefully to see if he can determine what other spells might be in play in the room.

Stjepan nods slowly. "Well, she was playing a lot of games -- that much was clear. Hiding from /whom/ might also be a reasonable question. Not just Alexandrians, I would imagine."

Zeke shifts, squatting comfortably, and watching the motion of his tail to be sure he doesn't knock over any stray scrolls. "Thisss one thinksss that it wasss an effort to hide what ssshe wasss cassting here. The magic of the dissspell hasss been cassst too many timesss for thisss one to tell what elssse sshe might have been doing." He looks up at Seldan - a rare thing given his height. "Do you think it ssafe to touch the ssscrollss?

It'll take some time. There's a *lot* of scrolls.

...but as you go through them, you find a lot of spells meant to ward things off. Mind blanks, for example, non detections. Way more than she could ever need alone. She was spending a great deal of time putting these together. A variety of protection spells, particularly from the forces related to order.

But a *lot* of spells meant to conceal the presence of people. Who, though? Was she saving them for a rainy day? Or, more likely, how many agents did she have that she was providing these to?

Stjepan pulls out a notebook, and starts taking a census of the scrolls found. "A network, then." He pauses. "I wonder if anything else is here."

"Such spells would not have turned aside her quarry's eyes, for his magics are of greater power still," Seldan observes, evenly, setting aside yet another scroll. He'd been sorting them in piles by spell contained. "A good question. She tracked these most meticulously, and it is therefore in my mind that, did she offer them to others, that she tracked their recipients with equal care."

Zeke helps with the sorting as much as he is able. He is not the mage that Seldan is by any measure. Yet he is here to lend what aid he can. "We are a large group." He opines thoughtfully. "Perhaps ssshe intended sssome of thessse to aid usss? But if they will not turn asside the eye of the one we hunt, then we are not aided." A frustrating round of thoughts.

GAME: Zeke rolls Wisdom: (15)+4: 19

Stjepan starts scanning for other ledgers, documentation, something else that could be corroborating evidence. As he searches. "Us? I'm not so sure. This seems more like a network of spies, than aid." He shrugs. "Maybe not -- but I'm... oh. Oh. What's that other Charnese player's name? The one who knows everything?"

"Nay." Seldan's response comes at once, and in no uncertain terms. "I do not doubt that she used my cooperation to her own ends." He looks up, and over, at Stjepan's remark. "Grauthis the Griever is the name you seek. Keep it close, and speak it not lightly, lest his eyes be drawn. We know not who his spies may be."

He turns around, and scans the room again, each magical item, considering something.

As you peruse the scrolls, you begin finding personal documents.

A map of the world is unfurled, but it's a Runish map that marks ley-lines across the face of the known world. There are several quill marks on them, noting areas of interest.

Scrawled on the map are also notes like 'dead' and 'low' and 'entangled'.

There are also personal documents and notes. Most of them seem to be about the nature of leylines and magic. It's highly esoteric, but the notes on the margin by Akorinil seem to indicate she thinks magic itself could be 'failing'.

For a moment Zeke frowns. "No. Thisss one isss almossst sscertain that thessse were meant to aid usss. Ssshe intended that we ssseek her out and find thessse thingsss. Sso they are here with purpossse for usss. Perhapsss they are sstronger or more ussseful than we ssee."

Stjepan nods curtly. "Protection against him. She plays the angles." He, notably, doesn't use the name himself. He starts to sketch out the notes and map. He blinks, and looks at Zeke. "Come to her, ask a favor, and..." He exhales. "That's a good angle, for sure." A pause. "If she wanted us to have them, do they come with us?"

GAME: Zeke rolls perception: (12)+4: 16

Stjepan looks up from copying the notes and the maps, and points. "These look like places Asumit was." He gestures at some of the locations, "And this is the... confrontation-place, right?" A pause. "Which means the Void is eating the Sea of Mana, roughly?" He works it through as he looks towards Zeke, tilting his head.

GAME: Zeke rolls Spellcraft: (14)+4: 18

"No." Answers Zeke gently, but firmly to Stjepan's initial question. "Even if she intended thessse thingss for usss, we can not be _scertain_, and we can not take what rightly belongsss to her kin. Her mate if ssshe hasss one."

Zeke looks at the map in question and considers it carefully. "Thessse wordsss. 'Dead', 'low', 'entangled'. Doesss ssshe mean the laylinesss?" He seems unsettled by the very thought. If magic is failing in this world... That threat is a huge thing. Larger perhaps even than the threat of the Griever. "Yesss. The Void may be ssseeping into the Sssea of Mana." It makes him sick to even say it.

He motions toward the desk then. "Thisss one believesss there issss a hidden compartment in her desssk. Thisss one iss not familiar with sssuch thingsss, can you open it?"

Stjepan pauses for a moment. "I'm good at opening things drastically." He tilts his head, and lets his eyes glow for a moment, looking for magical protections. "It's a pretty one-way process, though."

Zeke holds up a claw. "Thisss one would rather not ussse forssce, but it ssseemss there is no other choice. Try not to desstroy the whole desssk? Thisss one will pay to have it repaired." He sighs.

Stjepan nods. "It's just so... fiddly. I mean," he exhales, and looks at the desk, lifting it up rather casually to study it. "Where do you think the compartment is?"

The blue-scaled sith winces at the casual lifting of the desk and motions to the secret compartment. Or around where it should be. He can't be certain of its location until they get a better look at it really. Maybe dismantling it was always the only option.

Stjepan studies it a little more, then puts it down again and pauses. "If this bothers you, look away." Then, he inhales deeply, exhales, then inhales again and just pulls the top surface off of the desk in a fluid and rather final motion. Then, he peers inside.

Zeke does not look away. Even though he feels an immense amount of guilt over the destruction of the furniture, he has already resolved to pay to have it fixed if it can not be easily mended. It is more important right now that they find out what is inside. So he watches, to reaffirm in his own mind that this is in part his doing; his responsibility. Partly so that he can see where the compartment is, and hopefully what is inside.

Tearing the desk apart is more than doable.

Inside, after some time is spent gently a...ppealing to its better nature, you find several manuscripts?!

Apparently, Akorinil really enjoyed writing adventurer fiction -- ... oh no. She couldn't be...

There is also a box. Inside the box is something that *immediately* lights up the room. It is a golden scales, but to those with magic, it is immediately recognizable as a shard of Animus. It simply can not be anything else.

"Oh. Shit." Stjepan looks at the table-top in his hand, and carefully leans it down against a wall. I mean, the Crimson Pen is cool and all, but... he closes his eyes against the glare. "I mean, I guess it makes sense."

Zeke stares at the object with a mixture of fascination and horror. "We mussst place it in sssafety immediately." He rubs his claws together, a signal of nervousness alongside the flick-flicking of his tail-tip. "The manussscript may hold information. It mussst be read, but thisss... It can not remain in the open."

Stjepan nods. "I have an extraplanar space that we can use." He glances at the manuscript. "That looks like a hardship, make sure you get some good red wine to go with it." Then, he gets ready to transfer the box-with-the-shard.

"Why would one drink wine while reading a book?" Zeke asks Stjepan curiously, not arguing in the least about the dissemination of the shard. He has no interdimensional space himself, and he can think of no safer place to put it than in one of their hands in a place where few would ever consider looking. Stjepan is a ready warrior at that. One who had proven themselves at his and Seldan's side.

Stjepan treats it like a poisonous insect, really, and takes ample care not to touch the damned thing. "The only problem is, I don't want to cart this thing around if I can avoid it." He closes his eyes. "Where have the others been going -- the temple of Eluna?"

"Thisss one can undersstand your caution. Thisss one can not think of a sssafer place for sssuch a thing however. The templesss have not proven able to keep sssuch treasssuress entirely ssafe. We can asssk the Resssurrectionissstss, they may want it however and thisss one doess not trussst them. The temple isss much sssafer than them." Zeke states thoughtfully.

Stjepan nods curtly. "You're right. But, then, nowhere is going to be safe right now." He cracks his neck from side to side, trying to relieve some of the tension that seems to have gripped him, then puts the table top back on the desk with a sigh, and uses a couple of meaty palm-smacks to knock it back as into-place as he can manage.

Zeke winces as Stjepan smacks the desk back into shape. Or something resembling the shape it once held. "We ssshould be on our way. Before we draw sssussspicion." He replies gently staring at the desk. "Thisss one will sssee to the repairsss sssoon." With that he heads for the door.

"You're a kind one, Zeke." Stjepan closes his eyes, tucks his notebooks away, and leaves the room, turning back only once to utter:

"Fuck."

When Stjepan curses, Zeke turns toward him, looking at the other with curiosity. "Thisss one hasss heard sssuch usssed asss a word of dissspleassure, and as a sssuggesstion of mating. Isss sssome-thing on your mind Ssstjepan?"

Stjepan closes his eyes. "I think I can feel the universe getting ready to take without asking, Zeke." He exhales. "Dead gods make me profoundly nervous. Especially since it's not clear to me if 'dead' is a super meaningful word for them; the mana-fraying is worse."

Zeke looks at Stjepan seriously, his green eyes dark and his gaze impossible to evade. He has a sith face, hard to read and harder to understand. "It isss. If magic isss failing usss, then the portal to Am'sshere may be next. If magic isss failing usss what might be next? The magic that connectsss usss to the godssss? The magic that sssome are bound to intrinssssically? It isss no light thought Ssstjepan. Creaturesss, the People, all of uss are bound to magic. With-out it... we will die."

With that final thought, Zeke turns and continues down the street silently. He will say no more on the subject, but then... he's said more than enough already.

-End