[IC] [Mage: the Awakening 2E] The Supernal Suburbia

[DArchon5]

Fatewise

Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: None | Spells: Exceptional Luck (Potency 5, One Day), Exceptional Luck (Potency 6, One Week)
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/6 | Mana: 11/11
Conditions: Shaken, Charmed (x2), Informed (Valentine, The People Targeting Us), Steadfast | Tilts: None | 3 Beats/Exp: 1/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 2/0

---

Morganna
Fatewise
You cast a blessing on the entire cabal, including yourself, and admire your craftsmanship of the Imago as it settles into place. You feel a sense that things are going to go just right, that you are ready for anything that Fate might send your way.

Your warning to the cabal that Fate is fickle is incredibly apt. As soon as you cast your next spell, despite Fate’s blessing and all of your burgeoning experience as an Acanthus, your worry about your family and your own future interfere with your next divination and taint your Imago. The clock-like mechanism you pictured yourself deftly twisting and manipulating instead becomes wound too tightly, and it collapses upon itself. A feeling of dread seeps through your psyche.

Take an Arcane Beat for the dramatic failure, and gain the Shaken condition (Mage 2E, p. 317).

As the Imago of her Divination collapsed in on itself, Rene's worries, the ones that corrupted her spell, came rushing to the forefront of her mind. Visions of tragedy and misfortune befalling her family played through her mind's eye, all with the surety that it was all. Her. Faul-

Breathe. Just breathe. Ignore the terrible doom visions and focus on your lungs expanding and contracting.

Fatewise still felt shaken from the experience but managed to hold off any incoming panic. For now.

It's all going to be okay. These visions don't mean anything. Just your worries getting amped up by a backlash of Time magic. They're just possibilities, nothing bad is going to happen to them.

Even in her own mind, the words were unconvincing.

Someone may have called out, but Rene was too distracted to listen as she made her way out of the safehouse.

[rwknoll]

Morganna
You fall easily into the role of the matronly leader in the group, and it helps that you easily cast your spell with speed and efficiency. The Imago settles on you and the rest of the group, and you can almost feel your body itching to move, like a lion ready to pounce.

Lynx
It’s frustrating, you know precisely what you want to do, but the spells require so much focus and the Imago is so complex for each that it takes a few tries apiece to will the magic into place. You eventually do successfully, and you feel a very strange sensation as the scales and setae form on your skin. Everyone’s skin ripples as the animal features from your Life spell appear. It’s a very jarring experience at first, but it feels natural for you to climb the wall when you attempt it, as if you were born with this ability.

Caliginosa
You begin to wander through the safe house, trying to evaluate it from a tactical perspective in preparation for any potential threats that might arise.

Go ahead and roll Wits + Investigation. I think your “casing” specialty relates to this? If you think so, go ahead and add 1 to your roll.

Eurydice’s Heir
You expertly craft your Imago, and you feel a lurching but invigorating sensation as your perception exponentially expands into every perceivable dimension at once. It takes a moment to get used to, but once you let go of the Lie and accept that space is so much more than a three-dimensional construct, you and your cabal gain a fantastic view of the entire room and even adjacent hallways.

Per our conversation earlier in the thread, feel free to pick your own Condition for the exceptional success. If you’re unsure of what to pick, I can pick one for you, or you can pick a relevant skill/roll (e.g., Wits + Composure roll for perception) and you can resolve the condition to take a one-time +2 on that rol.

Fatewise
You cast a blessing on the entire cabal, including yourself, and admire your craftsmanship of the Imago as it settles into place. You feel a sense that things are going to go just right, that you are ready for anything that Fate might send your way.

Your warning to the cabal that Fate is fickle is incredibly apt. As soon as you cast your next spell, despite Fate’s blessing and all of your burgeoning experience as an Acanthus, your worry about your family and your own future interfere with your next divination and taint your Imago. The clock-like mechanism you pictured yourself deftly twisting and manipulating instead becomes wound too tightly, and it collapses upon itself. A feeling of dread seeps through your psyche.

Take an Arcane Beat for the dramatic failure, and gain the Shaken condition (Mage 2E, p. 317).

Everyone
Several hours pass as Fatewise casts her ritual spell. There are no disturbances, and no visitors to the house, enemy or otherwise. Valentine has not texted or called with any updates. There is a tension hanging over you as thoughts of the future and your safety weigh on your mind.

What do the rest of you do to fill the time while Fatewise casts her ritual spell? Once she finishes, what else do you do or plan to do?

[DArchon5]

Fatewise

Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: None | Spells: Exceptional Luck (Potency 5, One Day), Exceptional Luck (Potency 6, One Week)
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/6 | Mana: 11/11
Conditions: Charmed (x2), Informed (Valentine, The People Targeting Us), Steadfast | Tilts: None | 3 Beats/Exp: 1/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 1/0

---

As the spells of her Cabal settled int their Patterns, Rene let out a small sigh of relief. At least now they're better prepared for what's to come. As some of her worries evaporated from her frame, freeing her thoughts to stray a bit, a realization struck her.

She hasn't told her family anything.

Now, that by itself wasn't anything out of the ordinary, at least in Rene's experience as a mage, she keeps secrets from them all the time. Most of the time its to stop them from worrying, like those times she almost got ran over by a train, the bruises she'd occasionally get from falling, heck, she still hasn't told either of her parents about her worries regarding her brother.

No, Rene wasn't worried about her parents not knowing that their daughter is being hunted by a shady group of reality warpers that secretly ran the world. Or the fact that those shady reality warpers wanted to kill and/or dissect her. Or that she had joined another group of reality warpers that was equally shady, but at least said they were opposed to the first group. In general, Rene's parents were better off not worrying about her troubles, she has too many of them for them to deal with.

So adding the worry of their daughter disappearing, in an area where such is known to happen, is something Rene isn't willing to pile on their shoulders.

Of course, contacting them will be... difficult. For one thing, Rene's made a habit of leaving her phone behind whenever she goes out for mage-related errands. The thing is too easily tracked.

That meant she had to leave the safe house, which risked running into the people she's trying to avoid. Or leading those same people to her family.

She can just find a payphone and call them from there, maybe tell them she's staying over with a friend, but that still risks an encounter with whoever's hunting her Cabal.

She needs more information before she'll make the call.

She began weaving and winding the divination instrument, the same one she had used earlier that morning. And since she's already watching her future, she might as well look at the others' as well.

Weaving a spell whilst already keeping a few active was difficult, but like any self-respecting Acanthus Rene knows the Rote like she knows the back of her hand. Even with that handicap, using it was cake.

Rene will use the +5 Investigation bonus she has from the first boon and one of the 9-Agains from the second boon.

Divination
Primary Spell Factor: Potency
Type: Rote
Target: 5 People
Potency: 3
Duration: One Day
Casting Time: Instant
Yantras: Mudra, Mantra
Base Dice Pool: Gnosis 2 + Time 1 + Mudra (Investigation, Mysterium Specialty) (4) + High Speech (2) + 5 (Boon) - 6 (Potency) - 2 (Duration) = 6
Reaches: +1 Advanced Duration, +1 Advanced Scale, +1 Instant, +1 Complex Questions, +1 Extra Spell Control
Free Reaches: 5
Total Reaches used: 5

Divination Casting: 0 Successes.

...shit. That's Rene's first failure. And I really don't want her to just try again. That seems cheap.

I guess I'll turn this into a Dramatic Failure then. Rene gets a beat for that right?

[Second Chances]

Euridice's Heir
Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: None | Spells: Suppress Aura, Soul Armor
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 4/5 | Mana: 10/11
Tilts: None | Beats/Exp: 2/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 2/0

---

Feeling Fatewise's blessing seep into his pattern, the Heir's confidence comes back. "Well, let's at least make it harder for them to sneak up on us," he murmurs as he begins casting, targeting the entire Cabal with Space magic. "Hang on a second, this might get a little weird. It's not exactly protective magic, but I can do that too."

The Heir begins chatting in a mixture of ancient Greek and High Speech, asking for Athena's blessing to grant them her wisdom and her owl's sight.

Dropping Suppress Aura to free up some spell control. Taking the +6 on Spellcasting from Exceptional Luck and using one of them to help cast Outward Inward Eye.


The Outward and Inward Eye (Space 1)
Primary Spell Factor: Duration
Target: The Cabal (5 individuals, Reach)
Potency: 1
Duration: 1 Week (Reach, -4)
Casting Time: Instant (Reach)
Yantras: High Speech (+2) and Shadow Name (+1)
Base Dice Pool: Gnosis 2 + Space 1 + High Speech 2 + Shadow Name 1 + Expectional Luck 6 - Duration 4 = 8 dice
Reaches: Advanced Duration 1, Instant Cast 2, Advanced Scale 3

Paradox Dice Pool: 2 dice
Release/Contain: Contain
Roll for Paradox: 0 success - https://orokos.com/roll/875779
Roll for Wisdom: n/a

Spellcasting Roll: 4 successes on a Praxis, I'll take a Condition for the exceptional success - https://orokos.com/roll/861362

Benefits: You can perceive from every point within your sensory range simultaneously. All range, cover, and concealment penalties (but not darkness) are reduced by 1. All attempts to ambush or surprise us are reduced to a chance die.

"Whoever is after us, that should make their lives a bit tougher. I had actually wondered about trying to call the ghost of someone who had died in the Deathstorm, or of one of our unfortunate missing peers. We don't know if they are living or dead, and even if it's the latter, they may not have left a ghost... but it could be a chance to get some information. I could also suppress our Auras to make us appear as Sleepers or guard our souls against tampering with Soul Armour."

"You should know though, while we in Valentine's a Supernal Being's gaze fell upon me. I do not know if the specter was drawn by our circumstances, the Deathstorm, our foes, or by me simply prying too deep into the Supernal World. But there you have it. Those above are watching us."

[squidheadjax]

Caliginosa
Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: None | Spells: Supernal Vision (+all paranormal)
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/5 | Mana: 11/11
Conditions: None | Tilts: None | Beats/Exp: 1/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 1/0

---

"...whoa," Callie blinks as Morganna's and Lynx's spells take hold. "Oh wow. Um." She flexes her fingers in front of her face and moves her hand around. "Everything feels slower and faster at the same time..." she murmurs, before reaching her arms out to stretch and getting one briefly caught on the wall. "I'm... I'm gonna go explore the house while we're waiting on Fatewise's spell. Maybe then I can figure out something that'll be useful... Still trying to figure out how to make one of those anti-spell wards. I could make us all invisible, but that would be awkward, or make us all kick or punch or shoot really hard... I have one that lets you reflect bullets like a Jedi but only if you're fast enough to see bullets in the first place which... We're not that fast now, right?" She scuttles up the wall and onto the ceiling while she's talking. "Look, I'm Spider-Gwen!" she declares with a little giggle, unable to avoid the bit of levity, before scuttling off.

Hmm. What to roll to map out the most defensible bits of the house, weakest entry points, etc?

[DArchon5]

Fatewise

Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: None | Spells: Exceptional Luck (Potency 5, One Day), Exceptional Luck (Potency 6, One Week)
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/6 | Mana: 11/11
Conditions: Charmed (x2), Informed (Valentine, The People Targeting Us), Steadfast | Tilts: None | 3 Beats/Exp: 1/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 1/0

---

"Perhaps the rest of you should await my Spells before casting your own. The Rote I use is more than capable of enhancing Spellscasting."

Rene gazed into the world of strings and began to reweave destiny

To recap: Fatewise had Exceptional Luck and Divination on her Spell Control. Divination got used up, so its just Exceptional Luck until the end of the Day.

Boons: The Charmed condition, the Informed condition, and +5 to 3 rolls (2x Occult, 1x Investigation).

Her boons can be used to affect Spellcasting, so that +5 Occult is being used here.

Exceptional Luck
Primary Spell Factor: Potency
Type: Rote
Target: 5 People
Potency: 6
Duration: One Week
Casting Time: Ritual (3 Hours)
Yantras: Mudra, Mantra
Base Dice Pool: Gnosis (2) + Fate (3) + Mudra (Occult, Mysterium Specialty) (5) + High Speech (2) + Occult Bonus (5) - Spell Factors (Potency 3, Duration 2) (10) = 7
Reaches: +1 Advanced Duration, +1 Advanced Scale, +2 Affects Spellcasting
Free Reach: 4
Total Reach Used: 4

Exceptional Luck Casting: 3 Successes.

Boons: 9-Again on up to 6 rolls of your choice, +6 on a Spellcasting roll (x2), the Charmed Condition, the Informed Condition (The People Targeting Us), and the Steadfast Condition.

Over all that's either 9-Again on any six rolls you want or the ability to turn a chance die into a single dice instead, +6 dice on any two spells you want, one lucky break that either gets you a lead or reduces an attack to 1 damage, one guaranteed success or exceptional success against the people targeting us, and one condition to turn a failed roll into one success instead.

After three hours of work, their destinies have been appropriately aligned. "Alright, to sum it all up. Fate will be much more favorable upon us, enough to nudge things in our favor and to ward away any misfortune upon us. We should also be quite fortunate against our assailants, whoever they are. Just remember not to rely on these boons too much. Fate is quite fickle, especially when dealing with something like this."

[Kvitebjørn Kong Valemon]

Lynx

Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: None | Spells: Body Control (Potency 5, 1 Week)
Health: OOOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/5 | Mana: 11/11
Tilts: None | Beats/Exp: 2/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 1/0

---

Lynx listens to Morganna's flurry of instructions, pondering his capabilities.

"I don't know how speedy I can make us, but I can heighten our reflexes. if you want flexible movement, I have some wild ideas. Huddle up a bit closer, I'll be using this to infuse you all with Life."

Lynx finds his copper cup and some bottles of water from his backpack, pours some water into the cup, and runs his fingers across the surface.

"First up is Body Control. It'll... well. Give you control over your body. Heightened control, I mean. Reflexes and stuff. You'll get what I mean."

He lets go of the Body Control spell he cast this morning, and recalls the words Raven sang when she taught him his rotes. With a deep breath, he chants as he gestures for everyone to huddle up closer, and he offers the cup to each of them in turn to take a sip. As his mantra finishes, he concentrates and imposes his Imago unto the group. As his Nimbus flares, his shadow warps momentarily into the shade of a lynx... and then the shadow reverts to normal. With a defeated sigh, Lynx chuckles.

"Oh well. Guess you'll have to enjoy some more water. Let's try again!"

Body Control
Primary Spell Factor: Duration
Target: Self + Group (5 targets total)
Range: Touch
Potency: 5 (-8)
Duration: 1 week (Base)
Casting Time: Instant
Yantras: High Speech, Rote
Base Dice Pool: Gnosis 2 + Life 3 + High Speech 2 + Rote 3 - Potency 5 (-8)
Free Reaches: 4
Reaches: +1 Advanced Duration, +1 Instant, +1 Scale, +1 Advanced Potency
Total Reaches used: 4

Paradox Dice Pool: 0

Final Dice Pool: 2

Spellcasting Roll: Body Control - 1d10o10h8 = 0 successes [2d10o10h8=6, 2]

Spellcasting failed, defaulting to Take 1 due to no paradox risk. Also messed up the number of Yantras I could use, so did two rolls. Both failed regardless.

After (if) the spell eventually succeeds - following probably too many attempts, and with dwindling supplies of water, Lynx caresses the cup quietly as he stows it away.

Benefits of Body Control

You are all affected by Body Control, Potency 5, for a week:

With this spell a mage can control her subject’s bodily functions to a degree that would make even the most inwardly-focused monks envious. She can do far more than slow heart rate; she can control her subject’s metabolism, heighten reflexes, and consume less oxygen. For the spell’s Duration, each level of Potency gives one rank in each of the following:

Breathing: Each rank slows down the subject’s breathing, halving the amount of oxygen she needs to function normally.

Heartbeat: By slowing down the subject’s heartbeat, she can double the interval at which a toxin affects her.

Metabolism: Regulating the subject’s metabolism allows her to subsist on half as much food, and doubles the amount of time between checks for deprivation or fatigue.

Reflexes: Add +1 to the subject’s Initiative. (+5 Initiative)

Scent: The mage can change the subject’s scent to any that her body could naturally produce, eliminating (or increasing) body odors, controlling pheromone release.

Each level of Potency also halves the healing time of bashing wounds by controlling internal bleeding, preventing bruises or helping them to heal quickly. With Potency 3, for example, she would recover one bashing wound per minute.

"Okay. Next up, I'll enhance our bodies. Strengthen our immunities and let us see in the dark. Couple of other things too. Think I got a grasp on my limits, spellcasting-wise too, so if you absolutely hate it, well, we can figure something out. Oh, and don't be alarmed! It'll be strange at first, but it's quite the experience!"

He grins as he gathers everyone for a second time, his mantra different. His Nimbus flares once more as his eyes momentarily flicker, the shadow warping and twisting, sprouding many scaled legs - a veritable chimaera of spiders and lizards and rats and cats - as he bites his lower lip in anticipation...

...and then it fizzles again. Lynx rolls his eyes.

"Wow. I suck at this." He sighs again, though his grin is everpresent. "Once more, with feeling!"

Transform Life
Primary Spell Factor: Potency
Target: Self + Group (5 targets total)
Range: Touch
Potency: 5 (-4)
Duration: 1 week (-4)
Casting Time: Instant
Yantras: High Speech, Rote
Base Dice Pool: Gnosis 2 + Life 3 + High Speech 2 + Rote 2 = 9
Free Reaches: 3
Reaches: +1 Advanced Duration, +1 Instant, +1 Scale
Total Reaches used: 3

Paradox Dice Pool: 0

Final Dice Pool: 1

Spellcasting roll: Transform Life - 1d10o10h8 = 0 successes [1d10o10h8=3]

Spellcasting failed, defaulting to Take 1 due to no paradox risk.

Intended features of Transform Life
1 Potency - Immunities and resistance: To toxins and poisons.
1 Potency - Leaping: Stronger and springier feet to jump higher.
1 Potency - Senses: Primitive infravision (Intent is effectively darkvision).
1 Potency - Senses: Keen sense for vibrations.
1 Potency - Wall-Crawling: Lizard setae on hands, feet, knees and other limbs that would make wall-crawling possible.

After (if) the spell is completed, Lynx checks his hands, now coated with setae and small scales. His pupils have slits, and his legs are subtly altered. He kicks off his sandals and bounces on the tips of his toes. "Okay, so, we're cat-lizard-spider-rat hybrids now. Exciting, isn't it? I don't know if we're necessarily faster now, but! "

Lynx approaches the nearest wall and touches it with his bare hands. With an excited look, he starts to climb up the wall without difficulty, like some bizarre type of lizard, crawling up to one of the corners to rest as he gazes down at the group. "No idea if this'll be useful, but you should give it a go."

Benefits of Transform Life

The mage can transform life by giving it features normally exhibited by other organisms. She can grant herself claws or gills, change a harmless herbivore into a venom-spitting killer, or impart limbs and air-breathing lungs to a shark, among other changes. She may grant one feature per level of Potency. A transformed target instinctively knows how to use its new aspects to the best of its ability. The magic is capable of affecting even microscopic organisms, if the mage can perceive them, but for obvious reasons most microbes cannot benefit from aspects like armor, limbs, or senses. The mage can grant viruses and bacteria increased Toxicity, or the ability to replicate or survive in environments that might otherwise kill them.

Intended benefits, Potency 5:
Immunities: Rat aspect: resistance to toxins or poisonous materials.
Leaping: Cat aspect: the target gains a bonus to jumping rolls, increasing the distance leaped by each success on the Athletics roll.
Senses: Spider aspect: A keen sense for vibrations, granting a bonus to Perception rolls where applicable.
Senses: Cat aspect: Nightvision, granting a (non-stacking) bonus to Perception rolls where applicable.
Wall-crawling: Lizard & Spider aspect: The subject gains the ability to climb on surfaces without equipment or even handholds, provided the surface can bear her weight.

[DrSteve]

Morganna

Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: Steadfast| Spells: Pierce Deception (Potency 1, Duration 1 day),Enhance Skill (Athletics)(Potency 3, Duration 1 Week).
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/6 | Mana: 10/11
Tilts: None | Beats/Exp: 2/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 2/0

Morganna takes a moment to think at what seems to be a clear dismissal. Damn, he didn't give me pictures of the missing. That's going to limit things a bit.

Alright. Let's take a look around this place and see what their is to see. On Valentine's suggestion we ward each other I can do up a spell that will make you the local dodgeball champ, which might help throwing or dodging spells. I'm trying to remember what everyone can do. Fatewise, there's some fate spell that will give you a turn of luck just when you need it, might be good in this situation. Lynx, maybe a spell to add speed and stamina. Emphasis on speed, we need to hold out until the cavalry arrives. EH and Callie, I'm not really sure -- any ideas? If we could go out and about, maybe something to summon ghosts that died in Nam or something and we could give them ARs - scary as that thought might be. Honestly, I can think of a shopping list of things I would like to have, but if we're going to be here we're just going to have to make do.

Enhance Skill (Athletics)
Type: Praxis
Casting: Ritual
Primary Factor: Duration
Effect: Provide 3 Extra Dice in Athletics not to exceed 5.

Reaches: Advanced Scale (base 5 people, left at default), Advanced Duration (Raised to Duration 3 due to favored arcanum so duration one week)
Reaches, 1 free + 1 overreach

Targets: 5
Duration: 1 Week
Potency 3 (1 base +2)

Yantras: Shadow Name (+3), Dedicated tool +1
basic Dice Pool: Mind 3 + Gnosis 2
Dice Penalties: -4 (+2 Potency).

Dice Math: 3 + 1 + 3 + 2 -4 = 5 dice.

Casting Athletics Buff: 5d10h8 1 spell is cast.

Paradox: +2 dice (overreach), -2 dice (dedicated tool) = chance dice.

Paradox Chance dice roll: 1#1d10 9 Nope on the chance dice.

[rwknoll]

Fatewise
Valentine nods at you. ”Fair enough,” he replies. ”I am no Acanthus, but I have some training in Fate and understand what you mean. Let’s hope that nothing changes drastically in the short term, and that you have at least some time to prepare for whatever it is we might encounter tomorrow.”

* NEW SCENE *

Everyone
Still standing in his demesne, Valentine pulls out a small mirror from his pocket, intones in High Speech, and raises his hand. You all feel a ripple of energy with your Peripheral Sight as the air twists and splits, and suddenly there is a window to another room projected onto the wall almost like a TV screen. ”This is the safe house. I’ll keep a scrying window active for now, so I can more easily contact you and communicate if needed. At the very least, it should save me some mana for casting spells into the area.”

Valentine turns to look at all of you. ”We still don’t know what you might be up against. My cabal makes a habit to use Shielding spells on each other so we can employ multiple forms of protection that we might not otherwise have from our own training of the Arcana. I might suggest that you do the same, at least for today if not routinely.”

Valentine makes several rapid, rhythmic motions with his arms and another spatial warp appears, this one in the form of a door. You see the same room before you that is showing on the scrying window: It’s a medium sized living room with two couches and several chairs arranged around the room, and you see a hallway that leads to a kitchen on the edge of the viewing. ”There is a ward around the house that deters unwanted guests, currently Keyed to only allowing Pentacle mages in. It also provides some protection against Sympathetic casting on anyone inside. It’s not immune to tampering but it’s certainly helpful.”

Valentine waits to see if anyone has any questions, then motions for you to walk through. ”I will meet up with you all again soon when my cabalmates and I have taken care of some business.”

Once all of you have walked through the Iris, it vanishes a few moments later, leaving you alone in the quiet house.

[DArchon5]

Fatewise

Mage Sight: Active (Fate, Time) | Conditions: None | Spells: Exceptional Luck (Potency 5, One Day)
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/6 | Mana: 11/11
Conditions: Charmed, Informed (Valentine)|Tilts: None|3 Beats/Exp: 1/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 1/0

---

Fatewise
At the mention of your divination results and the timeline surrounding when you might encounter a potential threat, Valentine looks uneasy. ”I am not personally skilled in Time magic, but I do know that the future is always in motion, and even casting the divination in the first place might change the most likely future or set something else in motion. Have you tried asking the same question again?”

"I had saved up the divination spell until after I heard your explanation, since I didn't know what to ask at first. I don't think the future had changed over the last..." Fatewise vaguely waved her hand, "What? ten, twenty minutes?. I usually wait at least six hours before doing another Divination. Give Fate the Time to revise the plot, so to speak."

[rwknoll]

Caliginosa
Valentine shakes his head slightly. ”It shouldn’t be an issue. To any other observer but a mage or Sleepwalker, a quick glance would simply have shown you walking into the house. I can create an Iris back to the inside of the actual safe house and no passerby should be able to tell. If someone is already watching the house with magic…” His expression darkens again with anger. ”Well, I will have a talk with them.”

Morganna
You feel a hum of power in this room that you can tap into easily when you focus. By incorporating the demesne into the Imago of your spell, you create a temporary but pure link to Pandemonium. You press your will into the spell, Reaching to enhance it, and you do so effortlessly without any apparent risk of Paradox. A few moments pass, and everyone else in the room feels a change in their Peripheral Sight, or views the pulse of Mind magic around you if they watch with Active Sight, as you complete your spell.

You light the candle and watch its normal orange flame with half-lidded eyes. You don’t meditate into the Astral to cast the spell, and you certainly don’t enter the Oneiros of any of the subjects you dwell upon. But while you concentrate on the candle in your hands, you also “daydream” into a hallway in the Astral Realm, with Valentine and the rest of the cabal standing behind or beside you. Valentine reads a list of the names for the missing Nameless mages and shows you their pictures. ”Dr. Asphodel...Binder...Moonstone...”

As Valentine reads the names, the flame remains its usual orange. In the dream-like overlay to the waking world, you see a nondescript hallway that stretches in either direction for as far as you can see. There is nothing else to see. ”Phoenix...Ragnar...Ouroboros Ophis..”

Until the final name is read: ”...Ankh.”

As you shift your focus to this name and picture, an ornate door materializes out of the brick wall in front of you in your mind, and the flame on the candle suddenly turns a cobalt blue. For a moment, you can almost feel the iron-like door as you press your hand out towards the wall. But after a short period of time, the door suddenly vanishes, sinking back into the wall, and the flame turns orange again.

Valentine startles abruptly. ”Ankh,” he repeats in surprise. ”She’s alive. She was asleep, but I think she woke up while we were watching.” He turns to Morganna and nods at her with a look of respect. ”You’ve given us our first real lead, I think. Well done.”

Fatewise
At the mention of your divination results and the timeline surrounding when you might encounter a potential threat, Valentine looks uneasy. ”I am not personally skilled in Time magic, but I do know that the future is always in motion, and even casting the divination in the first place might change the most likely future or set something else in motion. Have you tried asking the same question again?”

Lynx
While speaking with Valentine as an aside from the group, he nods and offers a comforting smile. ”No offense taken, Lynx. I would probably feel uncomfortable if the roles were reversed, too.”

As you step back to the rest of the group, Valentine shrugs and replies, ”Truthfully, I don’t know if you’ll have time. My cabalmate, Mathias, will hopefully be able to answer your questions to a degree that satisfies you better.”

[Kvitebjørn Kong Valemon]

Lynx

Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: None | Spells: Body Control (Potency 5, 1 Week)
Health: OOOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/5 | Mana: 11/11
Tilts: None | Beats/Exp: 2/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 1/0

---

Lynx rubs his temple as Morganna and Valentine delve into the topic of the Astral Realms, clearly uneasy. As he follows Valentine into the Demesne, his headache intensifies, and he wobbles within the presence of the Mastigos-infused room. When presented with the photos of the missing mages, Lynx remains quiet, staring at them in an uncertain reverie.

”Someone or something is likely to come after you, and soon. If you ignore this warning and go about your business, you’ll be in serious danger. But if we lay a trap, and prepare for some kind of attack, we instead have the chance to disrupt their plans and prevent any further danger to you and to any others. Call it what you will, but I think it’s the best course of action.”

“That's fair.” Lynx runs a hand through his hair. “You and Morganna are right, it's better to be proactive. And thanks for being honest about it.”

Lynx smiles faintly at everyone, before before he drags Valentine aside.

You pull Valentine aside, and he seems to grow more confused and concerned as you ask questions about possibly having met him before. ”No, Lynx, we’ve only ever met at the Consilium meetings,” he replies with a frown. ”Are you...feeling well?”

“No,” Lynx replies, gritting his teeth. “It's... it's probably just this place. Mind magic being my inferior and all. It's fascinating, don't get me wrong, it's just, I wouldn't spend an afternoon in this place unless I had to.” Lynx pauses and touches his pendant. “No offence to your soul stone or sanctum or demesne.”

Valentine looks to each of you in turn. ”What do you say?”

“I'm in.” Lynx looks at everyone. “Will it be possible to... do things first? Only I need to inform my landlord that I'll be gone for a bit, and I do have to talk to my professors, college and all. And I'd like to talk with Raven too, if possible.” Lynx rubs his beard. “I can commune with the spirits of the area outside, maybe they can help keep a lookout for us. Maybe the mage-nappers use spirits too, in which case it'd be wise to remain vigilant. What else could I do..."

[DArchon5]

Fatewise

Mage Sight: Active (Fate, Time) | Conditions: None | Spells: Exceptional Luck (Potency 5, One Day)
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/6 | Mana: 11/11
Conditions: Charmed, Informed (Valentine)|Tilts: None|3 Beats/Exp: 1/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 1/0

---

Valentine nods at you with a pensive expression. ”Yes, you make a good point. It is possible that a supernatural being or other ephemeral entity of some kind was involved, or perhaps something even more unusual or dangerous than that. Or perhaps it is a new Mystery or supernatural phenomenon altogether. But the people who have been investigating these disappearances are good at what they do, and I trust that they looked for evidence of interference by something other than mages.”

"I... guess I'll trust your judgment on this." Fatewise's shoulders slumped back as she tried to relax. The Orders have handled things like this before and know way more about the supernatural than her, they what they're doing.

Despite the reassurance, her hands refused to unclench.

Valentine gives you a concerned look, and you can tell from his expression that he knows exactly who you are talking about. ”I don’t know, Callie,” he answers softly. ”But if it is them, they will regret ever coming near you.” His tone hardens to steel as anger edges into his voice.

Fatewise raised an eyebrow at that but didn't say anything. Probably a personal matter anyway.

When you push Valentine on the subject of being bait, he winces and shakes his head with a sigh, then holds his hands up in a defensive manner. He turns to you and explains, ”Someone or something is likely to come after you, and soon. If you ignore this warning and go about your business, you’ll be in serious danger. But if we lay a trap, and prepare for some kind of attack, we instead have the chance to disrupt their plans and prevent any further danger to you and to any others. Call it what you will, but I think it’s the best course of action.”

...

While Morganna reviews the materials in the room with the missing mages’ pictures and names, Valentine says, ”I would like to offer the personal protection of me and my cabal, the Shields of Dawn. That now includes just me, an Acanthus théarch named Mathias, and an Obrimos Arrow by the name of Boomer.” A brief pained expression flashes across his face and is quickly replaced with a stoic expression, and he moves on quickly. ”If you agree, we can use the safe house that you walked up to but didn’t actually enter. It has some defenses, but not so many that it will deter away a serious threat. You can stay there for a day or two, and if no one or nothing comes to find you, we can talk then about a longer term plan.”

Valentine looks to each of you in turn. ”What do you say?”

Fatewise took a moment to gather her thoughts

"Considering the things my divination say, I think that would be for the best." Before anyone can ask what she meant, Fatewise explained herself, "I did some divinations earlier since being called by an acquaintance's mentor isn't exactly a normal occurrence. The first part of the divination just said that you were going to warn us of some dire threat," She sighed, worry radiating from her form, "the other part of the divination said we'd meet the threat by next dusk at the earliest."

[DrSteve]

Morganna

Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: Steadfast| Spells: Pierce Deception (Potency 1, Duration 1 day) Stat Boost(+2 Wits, +1 Compsure, 1 scene).
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/6 | Mana: 10/11
Tilts: None | Beats/Exp: 2/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 2/0

As you turn to the rest of the group and suggest a creative Mind spell to find the other mages, Valentine nods along and smiles. ”Either you have done your research, or Vivian has taught you well for being such a newly Awakened mage. Searching for their Oneiros is a creative way to determine if they are still alive and to glean more about their whereabouts, and one option that I admittedly did not consider.” Valentine chuckles.

Morganna mumbles softly "Awakened aren't the only ones who can astral project." She gives a slight shiver when Valentine mentions the demense being closer to pandemonium. It may be the source of her power, but she's not sure she wants to get closer to hell -- even not exactly hell.

In response to Valentines offer "Ok. Let's see what happens with this spell."

It seems like this spell is effect is mainly described by reaches, that don't really matter in a demense. By my count the dice pool is Gnosis +2, +3 Mind, Shadow Name +3, +1 Yantra, -2 to extend the spell to 10 to include our cabal + valentine. So 6 dice.
Spell roll: 6d8h8 2
Spell is successfully cast.

[squidheadjax]

Caliginosa
Mage Sight: Peripheral | Conditions: None | Spells: Supernal Vision (+all paranormal)
Health: OOOOOOO | Willpower: 5/5 | Mana: 11/11
Conditions: None | Tilts: None | Beats/Exp: 1/0 | Arc. Beats/Exp: 1/0

---

Caliginosa
Valentine gives you a concerned look, and you can tell from his expression that he knows exactly who you are talking about. ”I don’t know, Callie,” he answers softly. ”But if it is them, they will regret ever coming near you.” His tone hardens to steel as anger edges into his voice.

"Thank you," Callie replies softly to him. While she'd love to get a few punches in herself, she'd seen the strength of the magic that Pylon had worked before everything collapsed on them.

Valentine looks to each of you in turn. ”What do you say?”

"I've hid out in worse," she offers. "Can you send us back with more, um... magical subtlety? Like, someone looking the right way, with the right sort of eyes, would have been able to see we got whisked away, right? So if it's harder to see us come back..." She shrugs. "If someone saw us at all, but... yeah."