Clean up Crew: Long lost knowledge

[ReubanBrightwood]

If a ghost could spit while it spoke this ghost would be. "Thieving conniving, disrespectful arrogant children is what they are." Is this ghost throwing a tantrum? "The defectors are the worst, they know better." A motion that could be grinding teeth. "They know better." The focus on members of the Mysterium who have defected, which was not an insignificant number when the council of free assemblies formed and is not unheard of even to the present day. That seems to be where the questioning has lead so far.

A bitterness that does not relent at the news of dead libertines. "It's what they get meddling with things beyond them, they lack the proper respect and are forced to pay price to high when it comes due." This raises a good question, did he let the intruders live by choice or happenstance? "Yes the node, very useful, very rare much to study about that, but no my area, no not my area at all." Leylines and nodes like any magical phenomena have a lot of potential some even theorise that they are of the fallen world itself, magic of its own.

Having given up it's attempts to interact with hidden library the ghost begins to move over towards a ladder built into the far wall, leading up. "Never enough of us to manage everything is there, and we are needed in oh so many places. So much to do." Between gathering, storing, securing and studying knowledge in all its forms not to mention the teaching experiments and preservation efforts and all the rest the Mysterium like every diamond order is hard pressed for quality membership to achieve it all. "Sleepers is one thing but they are hardly our only troubles, the other awakened behold our troves and stores of knowledge with a vicious envy, always seeking to exploit us, wrest knowledge the yare ill prepared for away from us." Sounds like this particualr mage had some issues with the other orders as a whole.

[Aurora]

Well then, feelings were noted. “I have heard stories passed along of defectors. And while I have not encountered any myself, they will be handled accordingly.” There was a story there, and more questions might give her the whole picture. But what would it give her? Was there anything to gain? “Was such an arrogant child the cause of this?” a gesture to the skeleton. Seemed like a logical question, given the obvious anger.

Now that went against what she had been taught, and her head gently tilts to the side, “Interesting. Would you have issued the killing blow yourself if given the chance?” she wasn’t afraid to ask the question. “I know little of them, but I can study them, they can be useful. They can also lead others to this location, which is a dangerous thing, especially if left unchecked. I don’t want to see others find this. If this vast collection fell into the wrong hands I cannot even begin to think of what could happen,” a shake of her head, “it’s simply not to happen.” She didn’t want to let it happen.

“You are right, there is never enough of us, but we have to make do with what we have. If that means putting personal lives on hold, then so be it. The Order needs us, and we must answer the call and do what needs to be done, there is no room for failure.” If it meant putting her personal pursuits on hold, then so be it. But the Shaman sounded quite certain. “I have yet to have another Order come for knowledge, but I’m also considered fairly young in the Order. But the other Orders have not dealt with me yet and my determination to see the Mysterium succeed in Sacramento and raise to its rightful place. I might be young, but I have been through more than most Awakened, and when I want something, I get it. They will be in for one hell of a fight from me.”

Health:
Mana:
WP:
Armor 5
Defense 3

Vulgar 0
Active Spells: 4/4
Personal Spells: 0/8

[5] Pulse of the Living World (Mage Sight 16)
[5] Organic Resilience (Armor 16)
[2]Paths of Power(2)
[1]Speak with the Dead(3) (Cast with Spirit 1)

Leather jacket, purse containing: cell on vibrate, cash, dedicated magic tool(multi-color cooper arm band) feather, notebook, pen and pencil

[ReubanBrightwood]

Stopping by the ladder leading back up into the house proper the ghost looks when Aurora mentions a defector being the cause of this. The body long having had the flesh rotted from its bones sits slumped over the table quite dead and the ghost looks confused, its voice takes on a distant and slightly discordant tone. "Oh who's that friend of yours? The other order member you mentioned?" Not for the first time it seems to be unable or unwilling to process both the state it is in and the fact that their is a body plain as day sitting there.

Presented which such a direct question, forced to confront the issue so brazenly seems to have stripped the ghost of capacity in the moment as its spectral features shift flicking in and out of focus contorting in inhuman ways. Aurora has hit something important now how will the Sharman utilise the ghosts behaviours?

[Aurora]

The blonde watches the ghost for a moment, thinking on its lack of answer, or avoidance.

Interesting.

Eyes drifting between the two, debating how to best handle this. Casting might be seen as hostile, and wasn’t an action she wanted to take unless absolutely necessary. But then again, did ghost really do that…flicker?

“I didn’t really mention them.” She says, watching, “And what would that have to do with the question I asked? Seems to me you would want justice. For someone to be left in such a state, to tarnish a valuable book,” a shake of her head as she trails off, “I would want them found and brought to justice.” Eyes then turn back to the ghost, “Yet you keep avoiding any discussion of it,” pausing, “why is that?” she had a theory, but a theory could be dangerous unless more cards were revealed.

So lets poke a bit more.

Health:
Mana:
WP:
Armor 5
Defense 3

Vulgar 0
Active Spells: 4/4
Personal Spells: 0/8

[5] Pulse of the Living World (Mage Sight 16)
[5] Organic Resilience (Armor 16)
[2]Paths of Power(2)
[1]Speak with the Dead(3) (Cast with Spirit 1)

Leather jacket, purse containing: cell on vibrate, cash, dedicated magic tool(multi-color cooper arm band) feather, notebook, pen and pencil

[ReubanBrightwood]

Would the ghost even be able to witness a spell being cast? Did it still have access to mage sight or the sixth sense of every awakened? a lot of unknows to work with here.

The ghost for its part continues to move between visible, translucent and invisible states at a rapid speed, none of this dissonance of form however seems to have any effect on tis speech ,e ach word as clear as any other has been thus far. "The other mystagogue destroyed a valuable tome? That needs to be punished, sweeping duty for six months if I had my way." The disconnect between what is Infront of it and what it can comprehend is palpable what it can't justify seems to go entirely ignored, words have worked well to get it to this point, but ghosts don't form idly or easily and it seems that more then words will be needed to force this the undead echo of a once living person to confront it's own demise.

[Aurora]

It would never be said that Aurora wasn’t one to take risks and push things. Spirits were her things, Ghosts were not. But, how does one learn about them? Well, you take chances.

This whole rapid change of being visible and not was bizarre, at least, to her. If she wasn’t able to figure it out, it was something to ask someone with more experience about. She takes out her notebook and makes a quick note about it.

Lets see what she can learn about it.

4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2025-12-17 10:35:19	Aurora rolls 9 to Analyze Spirit(Gnosis+Arcana)(Adding Death) (10 Again)	4, 9, 8, 1, 10, 4, 6, 7, 3, 10, 1	4 successes

“You don’t consider spilling blood on a book tarnishing it? Possibly destroying it? For someone who talked of how important these books and Tomes are, that doesn’t sound right to me.” Watching the Ghost, “Does it sound right to you? Knowledge is power, these books are power. Preserving them, protecting them. How can you not be angry about that?!” pushing. "Something feels...off."

Health:
Mana:
WP:
Armor 5
Defense 3

Vulgar 0
Active Spells: 5/4 (-1)
Personal Spells: 0/8

[5] Pulse of the Living World (Mage Sight 16)
[5] Organic Resilience (Armor 16)
[2]Paths of Power(2)
[1]Speak with the Dead(3) (Cast with Spirit 1)
[2]Analyze Spirit(4) (Cast with Death)

[ReubanBrightwood]

Spell results

Ghost do not have rank of influences.

It's most prominent numina are:
-- A range of abilities to control light, electricity, heat, fire and sound.
-- A powerful telekinetic claw attack
-- To a lesser extend it can control inanimate ephemera and create a ward like barriers.
-- Perhaps most scary the ghost can create a manifestation of its vice manifesting a spirit from its own incomplete sense of self and giving it form to act.

In shot a series of powers that seem to duplicate or mirror supernal spells, maybe those it favours most in life?

The ghost has:
power 3
finesse 4
resistance 4

Corpus: 9/9
essence: 12/15
Willpower 6/8
Defence: 4

Initiative: 7
Speed: 17

Vice: Wrath
Virtue: Temperance

Aurora works her will to better understand the ghost Infront of her, a vastly different experience then analysing a spirit despite sharing some commonalities before her conjunctional spell the ghost as it seems to flicker or fade in and out the ghost suddenly seems statically charged, worms of electric like essence burrowing through it. These worms have a pattern to them an outline even.

The ghost rounds now on Aurora. Preferring to take Umbridge with her her words then face or interact with the dead body. "Where you not moments ago praising my efforts, saying how well I had protected this collection? And now you claim I have allowed harm to even a single book in here!" Having grasped onto the excuse to prevent it from having to confront reality the ghost seems to glower as it it once again takes on the opaque spectral form she had first encountered. "Yes something is starting to feel off." Goading it seems however well intentioned had set the Sharman back. Still another piece in the puzzle of what makes this ghost tick.

[Aurora]

The information from the spell was interesting, and she hoped she wouldn’t need it. But it was good to have, better if she could use it. It was just figuring out how.

Seeing how different it was to study Ghosts and Spirits was eye opening, an experience unlike any she had seen before. Something worth studying in more detail, but maybe not with this one. More notes were taken, because if anything, this was worth reporting at some point.

The ghost won’t find her shying away from it, she knows what she’s said, “I was, until you started to blatantly avoid my questions. You say all the right things about the Mysterium and protecting what we as an Order hold dear. Yet when I ask you point blank about that book,” pointing to the one on the table, “the one with a substance on it. And then the questions about the skeleton with the knife in it, you avoid it all yet again. So tell me, are you going to tell me what happened?” had death wiped any memory it once had? Or did it not want to remember?

“But yes. Something,” pausing, “is. Off.” But what exactly. And those worms seen in the ghosts pattern just weren’t right. But she couldn’t put her finger on it. She had two ideas, and decides to go with the first.

Health:
Mana:
WP:
Armor 5
Defense 3

Vulgar 0
Active Spells: 6/4 (-2)
Personal Spells: 0/8

[5] Pulse of the Living World (Mage Sight 16)
[5] Organic Resilience (Armor 16)
[2]Paths of Power(2)
[1]Speak with the Dead(3) (Cast with Spirit 1)
[2]Analyze Spirit(4) (Cast with Death)
[1]Discern Phantasm(2)

Leather jacket, purse containing: cell on vibrate, cash, dedicated magic tool(multi-color cooper arm band) feather, notebook, pen and pencil

I should have rolled with a minus 2 dice, was looking at the wrong sheet for stats

[ReubanBrightwood]

The dice roll

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2025-12-18 15:13:30	Aurora rolls 7 to Discern Phantasm (Gnosis+Arcana) (10 Again)	1, 8, 10, 7, 2, 1, 1, 3	2 successes

for discern phantasm. it was rolled just did not paste over correctly from the link, two less dice does not change the outcome.

Adding to her already burdened pattern Aurora adds another spell, a useful one to identify any prime based illusions at work, perhaps it fortunate but nothing flares into her senses all is as it seems, the worms of electricity in the ghost having been revealed by her previous analyse spell are likely some tie or indication to the many forces like abilities the ghost has. The book, the body the long dried blood, all very real, very present and very clearly discernible. Whatever issue the ghost has in perceiving them is something only it has.

Much like forcing a trauma victim to confront the roto cause of their distress Auroras insistence at pointing to the book, calling it out forcing the ghost to in the tiniest way acknowledge it's existence bring on a nasty change, the ghosts visage seems to rot and decay its eye hollow out the already thing and skeletal form becomes thinner and less substantial, teeth rot and crack. "A mEre NeOkoRos DAre acCuSe me Of NegLigEnce!" Whether it was the result she wanted or not the ghost has been sufficiently agitated or backed into a corner to provoke a vicious wrathful response.

Initiative 11

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2025-12-18 17:50:46	Ghost rolls 1 die for initiative	4

Roll Initiative

[Aurora]

Well, that settles that then. She would have lost that bet, and that shows why she wasn’t a betting girl anymore.

Annnd….whelp, things were happening.

It was pissed, which was…fair.

Was it her plan? Not really, but it was the plan now and she wasn't backing down.

Int 15

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2025-12-19 14:08:36	Aurora rolls 1 die for initiative	8

Health:
Mana:
WP:
Armor 5
Defense 3

Vulgar 0
Active Spells: 6/4 (-2)
Personal Spells: 0/8

[5] Pulse of the Living World (Mage Sight 16)
[5] Organic Resilience (Armor 16)
[2]Paths of Power(2)
[1]Speak with the Dead(3) (Cast with Spirit 1)
[2]Analyze Spirit(4) (Cast with Death)
[1]Discern Phantasm(2)

Leather jacket, purse containing: cell on vibrate, cash, dedicated magic tool(multi-color cooper arm band) feather, notebook, pen and pencil