Back to the Bismark

[ReubanBrightwood]

Orianna Aurora

Nothing had changed, this is the way it has always been. So almost all mages in Sacramento would say. Almost all. One mage still lingers who has the ghosts of memories that say otherwise. Tantalising recollections of a different city, a different Consilium. A different time.

When the Seers truck much was lost. Mages vanished overnight as if they had never been. Infrastructure was lost, history, records and memories of it all. Gone. The awakened of Sacramento where dealt a mighty blow managing only to cling on to survival by a thread and the grace of the circle of the creation.

The last mage left in the city who recalls otherwise Faye Aurora as she became, was and is unique in these events. She did not vanish, nor was she left believing this shattered and desperate state was all the awakened had ever been. No, she was changed, set on a new path, and she remembers. Remembers enough to know otherwise.

But when you have to competing realities in your head how can you know what's real? what was meant to be and what is a result of the Seers meddling? A chance for clarity came when the highly respected mage and one time hierarch of the city Campanella found something. The Bismark.

Only what once was a hotel, with it's own bloody and storied history to the awakened, owned by the silver ladder and used to conduct it's various meeting, gathering and experiments was now a mixed retail and residential building, a hotel no more! Shorter and all to clearly utterly mundane to inspection.

Still it as all they had and three mages went in. Faye and she was still calling herself at the time, Oculus and Tuesday. Faye encountered a spirit that liked to talk, Gentle Aroma In The Middle Of Contented Conversation, and from it learnt of the recent upheaval in the spiritual courts. How Morning rush had replaced Mr.Pargeter, how the choir of greed was always warring with itself and the choir of the grey tower, that the information choir hung out in the basement where a new duke ruled, humming metal vortex silent metal vortex duke of the choir of the warrens.

Then later thanks to a deal struck by Tuesday, The unicorn in black, Faye Aurora and Sand infiltrated the basement of the Bismark. There the found a wall that concealed another wall, preventing access to the older construction. A hidden construction that according to Tuesday sung with destiny. In fact a lot of the construction seemed odd, strange angles, narrowed corridors and walls that did not seem to fit the ceiling. A literal labyrinth of basements, prior construction and sub levels.

As the trio continued to investigate they encountered a spirt that had lost the path and in following it they crossed over a verge into the shadow realm itself, where in due course they came upon the choir of the warrens in all of its horrific, terrible glory. The Duke silent metal vortex a nightmarish abomination of an abandoned lift shaft crawling on multiple legs ending in dapper shoes with spats. Reported by the first spirit not to speak. Did in fact speak. From the tense and dangerous conversation Aurora learnt it had eaten Mr. pargeter and now it and its choir walk the path of that which has be hidden and it would only treat with emissaries of choir in good standing or with those who serve a throne. Those who had helped build the choir and with whom the choir had an accord. Part of which was to hunt the rebel flesh that refuses to bow before the throne.

Silent metal vortex hinted at a history, awareness of a change and a name Mirriam. After this the choir continued on its grotesque parade around the path.

And now years later, Aurora stands outside the building that she remembers being so different once again. As good as confirmed things were not as they had once been. The seers had involvement, had meddled here silent metal vortex confirmed as much. But what was there to find? What could She do? more over what did she want to do? Could it be reversed? should it be reversed? The lock had been quite for so long, was the Seers attacks through time over? Should reality be left alone?

Please include all relevant stats, spells and equipment in an occ box or spoiler box with each post and finish any glimpse or sheet prep before psoting in!

[Aurora]

The day had arrived, revisiting the Bismark. A place she hadn’t thought she would be going back to. One that had haunted her, one that had changed for some, and had changed, in a way, for her. But she would always remember how it had once been.

Before things had truly changed. Changed in a way no one could truly understand.

The difference for her, would be Spirit sight instead of Life sight. She was, after all, looking for Spirits, and so, before calling an Uber, she casts Spirit Sight on herself. Only way to find the Spirits was to have her sight on for them after all.

6 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-03-10 22:12:23	Aurora rolls 10 to Second Sight(Gnosis+Arcana) (10 Again)	8, 2, 6, 6, 1, 10, 7, 8, 8, 10, 6, 9	6 successes

In her messenger bag she had a leather-bound notebook, pen and pencil, her cell on silent, a bottle of water, small flashlight and her dedicated magic tool on her right arm. In her pocket she had some cash, about one hundred in small bills.

And here she stood, hands shoved in the pockets of her leather jacket, trembling. She was once again stepping into a part of her past, poking at pieces of it that still remained, even if the Seer’s had tried to erase it.

Would walking in a Master of Spirit, wiser with more experience uncover anything? Or was she walking into something that was better left alone? Or maybe, there was nothing here to be found.

Questions upon questions, and the only way to answer any was to open the doors and walk in, which is what she will do.

Stats/Spells

Health:

Mana: 15
WP: 4
Vulgar 0

Spell Tolerance: 2/4
[5] Second Sight(Mage Sight)

[5] Organic Resilience (Armor 16)


Spell Control: 2/8
[5] Second Sight (Mage Sight)
[5] Organic Resilience (Armor 16)

Equipment

Notebook, pen/pencil, dedicated magical tool, cell phone on silent, small flashlight, water bottle, one hundred dollars in small bills

[ReubanBrightwood]

Exciting the uber Aurora stares at the building, one that should invoke something, But now as before no flood of memories, no dawning revelations. People pass on the street indifferent to her trembles, to her plight. Living lives that they don't even realise have been altered.

They enter and exit the doors to the Bismark a few likely residents of the middle and upper floors most for the retail shops or headed for the café so stylishly placed upon the mezzanine.

Aurora's sight tells her that here in the city a dense urban area the gauntlet is a near impenetrable wall although strangely within the Bismark itself it seems to weaken just a little.

On the street the Gauntlets strength is 5 imposing a -3 penalty to any spells that need to pass through it. In the Bismark, the parts she can see from outside the gauntlets strength is 3 imposing a -1 penalty to spells that need to cross it.

Of course the shaman knows of the verge in the basement a place where the gauntlet does not exist at all and both mortal an spirts can cross without difficulty, often unintentionally. She all so knows of the spirt that answered her summons in the cafe, Gentle Aroma In The Middle Of Contented Conversation, a being both capable and powerful enough to talk to her in English from across the gauntlet.

The gauntlet is expected in all but the rare occurrences of a verge it is present across all of fallen reality, separating it from the shadow realm. Otherwise the building looks to hold no resonance, nothing of note it is totally mundane under her mage sight. As if nothing significant has ever happened here. Which for a building of its age is rather out of place in and of it's self.

She knows to this is not true, with spirits in the shadow and all that is going on in the basement this building does have history, it does have tires to the supernatural, to the supernal. The apparent mundane is it part of the ruse? Is it what the Seers want the building to be? That is a much harder question.

But a more immediate one is at hand. How is she going to enter? Through the front, will she try the sewer entrance again? Does she have another plan?