Chapter 1: Interesting Times

[Grey]

Hulbrad Fortesque


Face blank and paler than usual, Q sits back, still holding the stone in one clenched fist.


"It's his. It is his!" He cries, triumphant. And then settles again, frowning. "And with it, more mysteries and riddles."


He sets the stone down again, staring speculatively at the secret box that had contained it.

 

[Silvertongued]

The stone's container is a modified book, an index listing for a collection of memory stones. These collections are generally held together, fastened within large shielded containers to protect them from contamination from the magics of the Library.


The index is for a collection of twenty one stones on magical law, specifically "The Use, History, and Allowances of Etheric Magics within Historical Legal Systems, Vol. II".

Spoiler

If anyone wants to examine the book proper, roll for Investigation.

 

[The Fuzz]

Davore





Davore's speech is wry.


"[without expressing undue affection] This physician is glad that his bag of remedies may remain closed."


He looks to the stone.


"What did you witness? What memories are caged within?"

 

[PixelWitch]

Cled


He says nothing, a looming silent presence observing everything going on. Neutral expression his natural scowl. He fights the urge to place a hand on his weapon. He's seen stranger things come leaping out of smaller objects.


Bloody chronomancers.

 

[ZombieKitty]

Cecilia Arrington





Cecilia waits expectantly for their Hulbrad host to speak and tell them of what he saw. She clasps her hands in front of her, a picture of patience even as she resists the urge to shake him to make him stop with the suspense. Such behaviour would never be seen of a proper young lady, as her mother would say.

 

[Grey]

Hulbrad Fortesque


"Praise for having found it, followed by rambling about an enemy - referred to only with some vitriol as 'her' - and idea of where further stones lie."


He taps the 'book' and then tents his fingers.


"It seems more may hide in this one's sister volumes."

 

[Teh Frixz]

Yrva Andran


Ceasing her pouting, Andran slinks back over to the group at large. Her wanton loss still weighed heavily down on her but she was slowly forcing the thought of that whole ordeal out of her mind. It was just, losing...it hurt something that wasn't mental or physical inside of her. The need to have what she desired was shaping her and the more she thought about it, the more she didn't like that.


A deep breath and she leans into the conversation. She didn't have much input onto old volumes full of dust and mystery but she did have the means to locate them. She clicks over to Cled, standing and staring at everyone and everything.

 

[The Fuzz]

Davore





"Perhaps this assumption is a little mundane but.....does it include reference numbers and catalogue entries?"


Davore is quietly amused by the idea that a dreadful mystery might have been lurking in plain sight for the best part of a century, disguised by dead end entries in the library catalogue. How very Hulbrad.





Also.....I take it there are no servants remaining in the study, right?

 

[Grey]

Hulbrad Fortesque


Q nods. "It might indeed. It will take some searching for the other volumes - followed, no doubt, by the discovery of some obscure clue in this very tome which points somewhere else entirely," he says, with a faint smile.

 

[The Fuzz]

Davore





In a single moment of contemplation, Davore sees his intentions laid out before him, crystal clear. He is intrigued. He wants to be invited to help with this. He wants to be a little reluctant about it, to insist that he's just a doctor. He would protest that he has studies to attend to, and that his assistance will be only here and there, now and then. Because he wants to be involved, but he doesn't want to put himself forward, to ask, to intrude.


It's dishonest. No more of this nonsense.


He speaks up.


"Well, cousin....Where and when do you intend to start? I hereby offer my assistance and my complicity, whole and unalloyed. My curiosity is genuine, and I possess the need to commit myself to a project."

 

[ZombieKitty]

Cecilia Arrington





"I would also like to offer my assistance into this endeavour. These notes and research are exactly what I came to find leads and clues about. This is a most fortunate turn of events, petrified servant aside of course. I would be most honoured to be included." Cecilia smiles brightly at Fortesque and Davore, eyes lit with excitement at having stumbled across something possibly more important than she could have hoped to find alone.

 

[PixelWitch]

Cled


He raises a thick brow at Andran's proximity, but has no comment for it.


For Little Miss however she seems very excited, "Mind filling me in?"

 

[ZombieKitty]

Cecilia Arrington





"Oh, of course." She beams at Cled. "The memory stone belongs, as the good doctor mentioned, to a man Fortesque refers to as Ancestor Vedomosti. He was the first Chronicler. Apparently his research was about the very foundations of the universe and the true nature of magic." She claps her hands together. "Oh, it's so exciting. It's exactly what I've been researching myself!"


"However, Vedomosti was convinced someone was hunting him, someone he referred to in the stone as 'her'. He and all of his notes vanished. But this memory stone appears to hold clues as to where they might be, possibly even where he went himself. More memory stones may even be in the same series of books as the one we found. I've asked if I can be a part of looking into this, it could be incredibly important."


She gives her bodyguard a pleading look. "I know books aren't really your thing and there is a slight language barrier with our hosts but I'm most grateful for having you here. There's no telling where further clues may lead and I will of course keep to our arrangement as long as you are willing to help me out. Does that suit?"

 

[PixelWitch]

Cled


His thick brow thickens further as he debates and weighs the risk. A hand the size of a dinner plate scritching his grizzled chin, "Well, if it's what you're wanting, Little Miss, then I have no objections..."


He pauses, asking more to everyone present, "So... where do we go from here?"

 

[Grey]

Hulbrad Fortesque


"Gratitude-is-freely-given-for-agreeable-souls. We should first conclude whatever business we might today, and early tomorrow begin searching for companion tomes to this one."


Of course, for Hulbrad, early normally means well after dawn.

 

[The Fuzz]

Lybar Davore





Davore nods and continues inquiring.


"Would it be more agreeable to meet you in the library, or here at your office?"


It had briefly crossed his mind to ask "So where are we starting the search?" but years of working with Hulbrad have left Davore with a keen sense of how not to stoke the fires of paranoia and get his fellow Scions concerned that he might steal an early start on them, or, worse, imply that they have no plan.

 

[Grey]

Hulbrad Fortesque


"I'm sure the Library will suffice." He replies. "We can start by finding the rest of the legal tomes."

 

[The Fuzz]

Davore





Oh, good. Legal codes. Ah, well, intrigue is as intrigue does and all that.





"[Following-the-lead-of-an-equal] in this, I will meet you there in the morning."


The doctor looks around.


"How do we stand on looking for more signs in the Library tomorrow, starting with legal texts? We are looking for a false lawyer, a criminal book concealing itself among judicial treatises."

 

[ZombieKitty]

Cecilia Arrington





"That is fine with me. I was planning to spend a few days here nonetheless." She smiles at Davore, then dipping her head politely in Fortesque's direction.


"My bodyguard and I will meet you in the Library in the morning. We hope to be of help. This should be a most intriguing search."

 

[PixelWitch]

Cled


"So, we're stayin then?"


He tries and for the most part fails to hide his exasperation. A shrug of his colossal shoulders, making his armour clink.


"Very well. Best make yourself comfy," he offers to lead Little Miss out of the room and towards the guest quarters.


She. She will be comfy. Comfy is weird to him.

 

[Silvertongued]

The night passes quietly, silent save for the odd whispers from no where, and the occasional scrabbling of what one would hope is rats in the walls.


In time, morning light suffuses through what few windows there are, filtering blood red through the mists of Shaydensea, and the Black Rose slowly returns to the steady semblance of daily life.


Each of you are greeted by breakfast in bed by servants at the crack of noon, with offers of aid for cleaning, dressing, even being carted to your chosen location.


Eventually, the group of you manage to coalesce at the library, those of you not of the House paired once again with your respective "guides".

 

[The Fuzz]

Lybar Davore





Being a cunning sort, Davore made two cups of coffee and ambushed Hrune, offering her coffee before she could make the same offer to him.


Hrune's response was no doubt perfectly decorous.


In any case, the result is a bright eyed and bushy tailed Davore waiting to greet folks in the library in the morning.

 

[Grey]

Hulbrad Fortesque





Q enters the library second, a servant whose name he cannot recall in tow, dressed in lighter robes than usual.


"Greetings, excellent surgeon of enviable punctuality," he says, and yawns. He addresses the servant - "Two cups of coffee in a a thermal jug, a chunk of energized ginger, a dose any intellect enhancer synthesized in the last six months, and one of those raspberry flavoured uppers."


He takes a seat at a nearby table and gestures for Davore to join him.

 

[PixelWitch]

Cled


The Orc looks grumpy. This is hardly a change from the norm. He always looks grumpy.


He had spent most of the night at the foot of Little Miss's bed, slouched on the floor, head knelt on the butt of his rifle. Too paranoid of the place to achieve a peaceful sleep.


He was awake long before the servants came a-knocking, shooed them away at the thought of them helping him dress - not that he ever left his armour the whole night anyway - and his cat tougue lurched at the strong coffee offered, instead preferring iced milk.


He stood by, waiting for Little Miss to finish his affairs before accompanying her towards the Library.

 

[ZombieKitty]

Cecilia





The cryolite was rather glad for Cled's presence, and the cool, reassuring form of the ice golem that watched over while she slept. She woke an hour after dawn, also long cleaned and dressed before the servants had come by. It had given her a chance to read a little beforehand.


After sipping her coffee, of which she doused with sweet things to make it a little more to her taste, she walks with Cled to the library, perhaps only a minute later than Davore and Fortesque because of wanting to see some of the decor on the way.


Creepy, dark...but very fascinating indeed.


She pats Cled's arm in thanks as they step through the doorway, tailed by a servant guide yet again. "Hopefully this won't take too long." She murmurs kindly to him before turning her gaze on the two already there.


"Good morning, gentlemen. I hope the day finds you well." She greets cheerfully with a bright smile.