[Vienna, March 22nd, 1262, 11:00 PM] [You all set off on your journey on March 1st to Lord Jurgen's court in Hungary. You are now about three weeks into the journey and have stopped in Vienna to visit with the Tremere Council before continuing on.] [Gravina insisted that Eliana and her new student visit the council, and Mithras agreed that it would be fruitful to the upcoming attack on Moloch to find out what the council has discovered. The massive Tremere chantry of Ceoris in Vienna is a smaller castle on the outskirts of the city with a giant tower. As you approach the building two of the gargoyles that stand on the front-facing towers come to life and descend, blocking your path. Eliana, being given a letter from Gravina, hands off said letter, as she was told to and the gargoyles proceed to escort you inside the building. The inside of Ceoris is like many other smaller castles. It houses a large dining room, a great hall where entertaining is done, several wings of bedrooms, and an enormous library which encompasses the entirety of the east wing and the giant central tower. In the back of the castle is a giant circular council chamber which includes seven thrones in a semicircle in the back. Throughout the chantry are statues of Hermes, a nod to their history in the Order of Hermes, and at the moment the chantry itself is very busy with Tremere moving from room to room with research in hand or having discussions in corners or at tables. You all, though, are supposed to make your way to the council, and so you are escorted there. Only four of the seven thrones are filled. The seat all the way on the left is empty, as is the one in the center and the one to the right of center. One of the Tremere on the left, a man, reads over the letter as the gargoyles deliver it to him and then turns at once to Eliana. "Gravina has sent word that you are seeking information about Moloch's ritual. What is it you would like to know?"] [Begin.] 06* Moriel stays very very quiet in the background, at least for now. Fortunately, that's completely normal for him, so it shouldn't be remarked. 06* Rolf has a sweet cloak. But he's not the one supposed to be talking, so he's looking around instead. 06* Eliana was looking around quite a bit as they walked through the castle, unable to entirely curb her own curiosity, but upon entering the current chamber she became all (or more) business. She bowed to the council as a whole upon entering, and then, upon being asked, nods to the man on the left. "Yes, Lord Etrius. There are forces mobilizing from London to march on the Vatican. In order for them to succeed, they will need as much intelligence as we can gather." 06* Anstace stands quietly in the back, near Moriel. Taking in as much information as she can about this clan which did not exist before she slept, but now does. The homages to Hermes, however, did not go unnoticed. [Etrius (The man who addressed Eliana) turns to the woman to his left. "Meerlinda, what do you know of this?" The woman nods. "It is true. Gravina has sent word that says as much. Mithras is sending forces to deal with the problem and, for the moment, ignoring the war to the north." Etrius nods and Meerlinda turns to Eliana. "We will assist you with what we can, Eliana. If you have any specific questions we can try to answer them now, if not, we will allow you access to our libraries. Be warned that the Council of Seven is very busy, now especially, so we will most likely not have time to speak to you again during your short stay here."] 01 Certainly. I feel it's an honor to have been granted any audience at all. 06* Eliana pauses a moment, then asks, "Do you know any further details on this ritual? Where the focus is located, or exactly how close it is to completion?" [Meerlinda nods. "We have some idea. Our researches have been working hard to discover all they can about this ritual, and we have been attempting to scry the area as much as possible. Moloch has put up wards, of course, but we have managed to break through a few of them. We have caught a glimpse of a demonic entity that seems more powerful than the others. We can only assume that this is Moloch himself. While we could not hear his conversation, he seemed confident. And our brief glimpses of the ritual chamber lead us to believe that the ritual is very near completion. It will most likely be completed in less than 5 years. Maybe even as soon as one year with the escalation we are seeing in the numbers of disappearances around the Vatican."] 06* Eliana frowns. "A truly significant increase, then. Could you find the location of the ritual chamber?" [Meerlinda shakes her head. "We know that it is somewhere in the mountains in the south of the peninsula. We have been unable to locate its exact location, but it would not take a real search party long, probably. We have not sent physical forces for fear that they would not return and we would not have the force necessary to defeat what we find."] 06* Eliana nods. "Thank you." She looks to the others, to see if they have any questions. 06* Moriel has no questions, no. He's practicing being unobtrusive to the point of being invisible. 06* Anstace looks at Eliana, and then at the woman who was speaking with her. "you said the numbers of disappearances has increased. do you have numbers?" [Meerlinda turns to Anstace. "Ah... I have heard of you Miss Winter Rose... It has been some time since anyone has seen one of your kind... fascinating. As to your question, we I do not have them off hand. We know that reports have been growing in their frequency."] 06* Rolf growls a little and says, "How many others are there? What kind of forces have you, uh... scryed?" that is a pity. with hard numbers, we could figure out how much time remains [It is the man on the far right who talks now to answer Rolf. He is an older gentleman with grey hair a somewhat lengthy beard that goes down about 4 inches below his chin. "We have scryed a few other demonic forces, and some other kindred. The chamber appears to have about two dozen demons of various types that we can see. Some of them may be Baali, of course, but some are definitely actual demons. Moloch must be testing smaller scale rituals to summon lesser demons."] 06* Rolf nods along a little and growls to himself. 06* Moriel , hanging out in the back, frowns in thought. He still doesn't talk, though. [Meerlinda speaks up again. "If there are no further questions, we have alerted the librarians that you may be visiting the libraries and to allow you full access to all but the most restricted sections. You will understand if we keep some secrets, of course. And we have arranged for dormitories for all of you in the west wing."] 06* Eliana smiles slightly and bows again. "Thank you, Lady Meerlinda." She straightens. "May we borrow a messenger to send word to the forces marching east?" 06* Anstace looks at Meerlinda passively excited, you know... the way a marble statue looks when someone comes to polish it with soft cloth. 06* Moriel looks up at the mention of library access, becoming less invisible as interest sparks in his eyes. [Meerlinda nods. "Feel free. We have several well trained messengers. We were part of the Order of Hermes, after all..."] 01 Of course. By your leave. 06* Eliana bows again, then heads on out if nobody else has questions! 06* Moriel bows as well, still silently, and follows Eliana out. 06* Anstace notices Moriel bowing and curtseys before following the procession to the library [The council nods as you leave, and outside the council chambers you find yourselves in the large great room. There are tables at which are seated Tremere doing research in various tomes and scrolls. To your left is the door to the great library, and to your right is the hall that leads to the dormitories.] 06* Moriel looks at Eliana. She's the semi-native. 06* Anstace notices the door to the library and begins making her way in that direction. 06* Rolf tromps along with them, scratching the back of his head with a low growl in his throat. 06* Eliana shrugs and smiles, saying almost (but not quite) bashfully, "This is my first time in Vienna." She heads for the library; they can check out the dorms later. [The library is enormous. It takes up several rooms on the ground level and is filled with tables and benches to read on. It takes up the entirety of the east wing and wraps around the back of the castle where it meets with the large central tower which houses a spiral staircase lined with books and scrolls. At the very top of that tower is the restricted section of the library that no one but the Council of Seven and those that they give express permission to is allowed to enter. Apart from that, you have access to anything. There are several librarian ghouls who wander the library and would be happy to assist you in finding resources on a particular topic.] 06* Eliana looks up, and she looks around, and she smiles. This is what home should always be. 06* Anstace also looks at the library, quite taken though expressionless. This is what Alexandria used to be. 06* Moriel 's expression is still closed, but his eyes lighten as they enter the library. The emotion in them is hard to pin down; whatever it is seems bittersweet. Then he glances at Eliana, and his mouth curves up at one corner almost imperceptibly. 06* Eliana looks back at the others, smile still lingering in her eyes. "Let's see if we can get an edge on this count." She waves a ghoul over and starts ordering them to assist her to gather materials to do exactly that. [The ghoul is happy to assist Eliana, and takes her to a section of the library on kindred of note in the east. She finds several tomes and scrolls to pour through.] 03* ChanServ sets mode: +o Dreol <@Dreol> [There is some new information that is found on Count Lambach Ruthven of Transylvania as you are all looking through this research. You find out that he came into possession of a strange weapon about 1000 years ago. No one in his court knew its origins, only that it was guarded well. It is reported, though, that he has never been seen killing anybody with it. The blade as stayed clean the entire time it has been in his possession and all of the reports of Lambach in combat describe him as ripping through opponents with his claws with the blade strapped to his side. Most of these reports come from other kindred writing descriptions of great battles, though, so they could be going with the descriptions that they feel are the most exciting.] <@Dreol> [Additionally, he possesses a large castle in northern transylvannia. It stands on a mountain so he can overlook the landscape below and also to protect him from intruders. He has been one of the Tzimisce lords in direct conflict with Lord Jurgen for several centuries.] 06* Eliana hmms, going through the tomes and translating for others as necessary. But most of it's probably in Latin, as it's the Tremere's favorite language, so... 06* Anstace reads quietly to herself, right at home in the library. <@Dreol> [In her research Eliana learns that the blade was forged during a particularly violent time for Mages and Vampires. It was clear that it was designed to kill vampires and help the mages. And Anstace was in the zone with research, just finding good source after good source. She learns that while the Fang has been possessed by several owners throughout the ages, there are no reports of it having ever successfully killed any kindred. There was one attempt to kill Moloch with it, but it just missed his heart. Only wounding him badly. Soon after that, it disappeared for a long time until it showed up in Lambach Ruthven's possession.] <@Dreol> [Session End]