<@Dreol> [Something like a month before the last session for MAXIMUM Confusion... that is to say...] <@Dreol> [Farmhouse, January 30th 1262, 3:00 AM] <@Dreol> (Which I guess is more like 2 weeks before the last session) 03* Arwen is now known as Eliana <@Dreol> [You have all received information about Kali's Fang from Matriarch Salianna. The information is essentially that the fang can mortally wound a kindred very easily, perhaps even killing one outright if the dagger pierce's his or her heart, it was at some point in the posession of Lambach Ruthven, a Tzimisce in Transylvania, where it may still reside. She has not brought this to Mithras' <@Dreol> attention, choosing, instead, to give you the information to do with as you wish, though she clearly believes that the Fang warrants more attention that Mithras is currently giving it. You have all left for the farmhouse so that you have a private place to discuss this new infortmation.] 06* Rolf arrives, shaking himself off from the snow before Jill takes his stuff. He gives her a wide smile and says, "Yer lady making you busy for once, little lady?" <@Dreol> [Begin] <@Dreol> (Swap) 06* Moriel smiles at Jill as he enters, but follows the books and scrolls (i.e., Eliana) to the table. He wants more information about the exact effects of the Fang. 01 [Jill smiles back at Rolf, blushing slightly. "Yes, Lord Rolf. Um. There's always something to do, but yes." She moves to take Moriel's outerwear as well. "Good evening, Mister MacRae."] 06* Anstace doesn't smile (it's not personal, Jill. she never smiles) but nods to Jill before following Moriel in. 01 [Jill gives the new woman a curtsy. "You must be Lady Anstace? Can I take your cloak?" Never mind that she didn't take Eliana's cloak.] 06* Moriel nods at her, his smile deepening. "Good evening, Miss Leftherder." And then he's vanished into the next room. 06* Eliana , herself, has since gone straight into the dining room and started to lay out research, spacing tomes, scrolls, and documents over the table in some organization system or another. 06* Rolf heads to join the work room, grinning slightly at Jill and her comical stack of outerwear. Then he looks to Eliana. 06* Moriel watches over Eliana's shoulder, but is careful to stay out of her way as she arranges it all. So that li'l pointy dagger's magic, huh? How it get to be magic in the first place? 06* Rolf scratches his head. "I mean, I never really got it. Some guy makes a great sword, he can make ten great swords. But you only ever have one good magic dagger?" Or magic trinket or... whatever. 06* Moriel bends over the table, skimming the documents until he finds something like what he's looking for. Half-distracted, he murmurs, "Perhaps because magery is more costly than swordsmithing?" 01 [Behind the others, Jill wobbles only slightly under the outerwear. She's stronger than she looks, but it's quite a lot of stuff to negotiate!] 06* Anstace picks up a document that looks a little older than the others and skims through it. "in every age there have been items which have been touched by the gods. it just depends on which one and for what purpose" 06* Rolf frowns a little. "So ya think some god touched it? Guess... uh... they don't do that much." 06* Anstace looks up from her documents. "sure they do. you just have to make the proper sacrifices." 06* Moriel tilts his head at Anstace and says quietly, "Given the rarity of such artifacts - so far as we are aware - however, it seems that if gods do intervene, they usually do so in some other fashion." 06* Rolf sighs a little, then shakes his head. "So what's our chances of gettin' this dagger from the skeleton?" 06* Moriel straightens up. "I expect more information about him would be required to answer that question." 06* Eliana shrugs with one shoulder. "It depends on our resources and his foreknowledge. How much effort do you suppose Prince Mithras will throw into finding this Fang?" Uh... well, I mean... depends how much people make him. that depends entirely on how well he is convinced that it is important to the task at hand 06* Moriel nods. "Matriarch Salianna did seem to think so. And thought perhaps we might sway him, it seems." are we even decided that our recommendation is to try to acquire the fang? Right... so it's only worth tryin' to convince him if that'll get him to do it. 06* Rolf gestures idly. "That's why I asked if we could do it." 06* Eliana places a hand on the tome she was scanning to keep its page. "How much can one dagger even do? Certainly, it looks like it has the capability to kill Moloch or Troile. But whoever holds it still has to strike them." Yeah. And they're faster than anything I've ever seen. Mm. Still, it's not a weapon one wants in the hands of one's enemies. 01 Certainly. 06* Anstace shrugs. 06* Eliana glances around. "Where are they," she says, more to herself than anyone else. 06* Moriel raises his eyebrows at Eliana and asks anyway, "What, precisely?" 01 Ian Hargrave and Ysabeau Bellamy. The latter I'd expect to be distracted by the first bauble she sees, but the former... 06* Anstace finishes with the document she was looking at. "people are much easier to hit if they are not moving and you are," she says to nobody in particular. 06* Anstace picks up a book and begins to leaf through it. 06* Moriel gives Anstace a sharp look. "Could you arrange for Troile to be frozen as you froze the flames in Moloch's lair?" 06* Anstace looks up. "not the same way, but it is possible" How do you mean, not the same way? it is less of a command and more of a manipulation 06* Moriel tilts his head. "Can you explain that further?" 06* Anstace blinks. she turns her head to the side, thinking for a moment. "with the fire, i simply suspended the flow of time relative to it's existence. with a person, you actually have to alter the flow" objects to not perceive time. people do. 06* Anstace goes back to reading. 06* Moriel blinks. He clearly did not completely understand that, but the important bit, that Anstace could do something similar to Troile, seemed pretty clear. 06* Eliana looks interested. "Are you saying that one's perception of time affects time itself?" 06* Anstace taps her finger on a fact in the book she finds particularly interesting. "no. time is a force. like the wind or the waves. if you have the skill and the knowledge, you can build a wall to stop both" 01 But a wall - a physical wall, made of stone or wood - can stop both the animate and inanimate equally. In contrast, a wall that stops time would differ depending on whether or not you were stopping something capable of perceiving it. 06* Anstace looks up again. "if you throw a rock at the wall. the rock does not know that there was a wall. it simply stops. if you throw a person at a wall, it stops to ask why you threw it at the wall because it objects" 01 I was not aware that my ability to ask questions had any affect on whether the wall would stop me upon impact. you would attempt to stop yourself from hitting the wall, correct? 06* Eliana tilts her head. "Had I the capability, yes." 06* Anstace goes back to her book. "exactly. the rock cannot" 06* Eliana nods, thoughtfully, and files that information away as she goes back to her own documents. 06* Rolf holds up documents correctly as he reads them, because he is a student of the ancient words. Words like 'rolf'. Look them up. 06* Eliana blinks at something she's reading, then moves to something else and starts frowning. The more she reads, the deeper the frown. Fortunately, Eliana is capable of impressive frowns. 06* Anstace sets down her book with a small "hmmmmm." she then reaches for another document and begins to read it. 06* Moriel gets into serious reading with the others. He handles the documents as carefully as he can, just his fingertips touching, since a lot of them are quite old. He starts glancing up at Eliana periodically once he notices her deepening frown, however. 06* Moriel sets down the latest scroll he's finished reading, rubbing at the lines of concentration and frustration etching themselves into his forehead. "All I can find is that it was forged by an Assamite named al- Ashrad. Were any of you more successful?" 06* Anstace looks up again. "al-Ashrad was embraced around the first century," she adds, nodding to Moriel. "but it would seem that the fang existed prior to that. this is rather unusual" 06* Moriel looks at Eliana. That frown suggests she found *something*. 06* Eliana keeps frowning for a few more minutes, until she lowers the book and looks to the others. "He was a mage." 06* Moriel blinks. "Before he was embraced?" 01 Yes, and a powerful one. Mages are capable of living over a thousand years, if they have enough skill and power. 06* Moriel 's eyebrows climb. "I had not realized that." 06* Rolf squints, then says, "As if we ain't got enough problems." 06* Anstace does not look impressed as she continues to read. 06* Eliana nods. "Certainly. It was-" She stops abruptly and switches gears. "al-Ashrad proceeded to develop or learn some version of magic after his embrace, which is not especially surprising. I doubt it is as strong, however." 01 Kali's Fang would have been a weapon he created before that time. that certainly makes more sense of the timeline 01 Mmm. It says here that he is missing his left eye and arm - the eye was replaced by a diamond. I'm curious as to if there's any significance, but that would be research for another time. 06* Moriel frowns, tapping the table. "But what does this weapon he made *do*, besides kill? It weakened Moloch, according to what Belit- Sheri showed us. How?" 06* Anstace continues to read through the document in front of her. "are you asking how a weapon works or how this particular weapon works?" How this particular weapon works. In what precise fashion it weakened Moloch. Did it render him unable to feed properly, unable to utilize his blood properly, physically weaken him, what? 06* Anstace nods. 01 It seems it kills instantly upon piercing the heart. I assume a different wound weakens the victim somehow. <@Dreol> [You all continue to research into the night and resolve to bring this information to Mithras' attention at the meeting in two weeks.] <@Dreol> [Session End]