A Corny Postcog

[Thirteen]

Chambers had made a request of her: Perform a postcognition spell to view the night of the house explosion that had killed Philip Crosen and put Corn in hospital. The Hierarch offered a future favor in exchange. Thirteen had agreed to the deal. She was curious about the Hunters' trap, anyway.

She'd not been to the site before, and didn't really need to be there, but she had looked the address up on Google maps just to have a passing familiarity with the location. The real connection would come from the late Corn himself.

"You keep an awful lot of pieces of other people in your house," Jinx commented from his wooden bird perch. "On TV they call that serial killer behavior. Do I need to call the FBI and have them check the freezer?"

The Acanthus smirked as she readied the ritual, amused by the familiar's banter this time around, "It's only two people, and just hair and blood samples. And you just want in the freezer for the ice cream."

"I deny that accusation!"

"Mm-hm." All seemed in readiness. Her ritual pentagram was still intact, spray-painted on the cement floor in a graffiti-style that would give the Diamond Orders conniption fits. In the center Thirteen had added a small pillow. Her bum was sore after the last time of spending nearly four hours sitting on the concrete of the backroom.

After running through a mental checklist, she nodded. Supplies were arranged, the Sanctum was locked up, she'd relieved herself a few minutes ago. Dressed in just shorts and a tee shirt for comfort, the floor was cool and hard beneath her bare feet.

"Okay. Same as last time. Just hang around and keep an eye on me, because-"

"-because you can't see or hear during your magic thing, and I'm to peck at your head if an emergency arises. I remember..." Jinx yawned like a petulant teenager. "I'll do my job, Merida. Go ahead and do yours."

The redhead grunted in acknowledgement and sat down.

First, the High Speech. A half an hour of chanting was tiring in and of itself, but she did it anyway without complaint.

Then came the real test, trying to slip the vulgar ritual past the attention of the Abyss.

Paradox pool: 2 (Gnosis 3). -1 rote, -1 dedicated tool, -1 spell is 3 dots or less = Chance die

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-07-01 10:30:57	Thirteen rolls 1 to Paradox check (10 Again, Chance)	9	failure

The Abyss did not intervene. This time.

Next, the actual casting. Corn's body sample, which she had taken from his cell in the Circle some time ago, would give her the sympathetic connection she needed. She knew he'd been there that night (unlike Cartwright, who was a maybe), so he was the safer bet. Three hours of gathering the arcane power to pierce the sands of time and reach across distance to the time and place of the night of the house explosion. The energies welled up.

During this procedure, Thirteen lifted a hammer and brought it down on a small electronic alarm clock by her side. The plastic shattered, internal wiring sparking briefly as the device died. This was the sacrament, the sacrifice of a symbol of time.

Postcognition rote (+ Space): Intelligence 2 + Investigation 2 + Time 3 + High Speech 2 - 2 Sympathy (Intimate) = 7 dice pool. Extended spellcasting: 3 rolls (Gnosis 3). Extended Spellcasting Factors: 1 for Basics, the rest to Potency. Other factors don't need more. Duration is concentration for this spell. At Time 3, she gets to view 1 minute of the scene per success to Potency.

14 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-07-01 10:39:34	[03] Thirteen rolls 7 to Postcognition (10 Again)	4, 3, 8, 9, 5, 9, 10, 6	4 successes
2026-07-01 10:39:34	[02] Thirteen rolls 7 to Postcognition (10 Again)	4, 4, 10, 4, 8, 10, 7, 8, 9	5 successes
2026-07-01 10:39:34	[01] Thirteen rolls 7 to Postcognition (10 Again)	10, 10, 5, 8, 8, 3, 10, 3, 6, 4	5 successes

When the spell finished, the perfected glyph - mixed grey and cyan in color- form before her. The Imago was very strong, more so then she had expected! The Enchantress' senses were thrust to a far off place, years into the past. It was trippy, no joke. Her sight, hearing and smell no longer perceived Jinx and her home...

[Thirteen]

Bookkeeping

[ReubanBrightwood]

If I read this right you set your target number for the ritual at 1, to get the basic success for each factor. Or you have not set a target number for the ritual? In the first instance you would need to spend a WP to benefit from the excess successes (all suxx after the first), in the second instance A WP would need to be spent to change the imago of the spell one way or the other.

So if you want to use 1 suxx for the basic factors we are all good to continue, if you want to benefit from the excess you will need to spend the WP point

Everything else is spot on, could not be better!

[Thirteen]

Hmmm, I'll spend the WP. Seems a shame to let all those successes go to waste!

[ReubanBrightwood]

A sign of her progress and the outcomes of her efforts Thirteen is here and now able to scry on consili shaping events from before her time, things that have haunted and dogged the steps and moves of mages in the city for over a year now from the safety of her own sanctum while being watched over by her loyal familiar. She has come far indeed.

The first of the two events the Hierarch request is paradox free and very potent, casting her awareness back through time and space.

She is in .. a car up close to her target Corn. Also here is a man she does not know and perhaps surprisingly Witch.

Corn is typing on his Phone and she can see the message.

Mothisa's life form and Darren's life form

While he openly frets about not calling Rockwell in.

The unknown man speaks about their main objective being to find Darren and Mothisa. Corn casting a golden glyph confirms that they are here.

The unknown man pushes Witch continuously about some earlier comment of her about screwing up, which seems to frustrate the Moros, while he casts a golden glyph of his own. Witch adds in that the guy here is a computer nerd, they need to be careful when going into retrieve ... she does not finish the sentence.

Corn is most forthcoming with contextual information.

I was looking for him, specifically, and for an Indian woman of the age Mothisha was. Because that's what I get when the riding situation happens. I do not know why she could try to hitch a ride with me, and not with anyone else. Perhaps they don't approach him. Regardless, Daren is alive. I don't know in what condition. Furthermore, once the police nabs Rockwell, perhaps they will follow the same rabbit hole Reggie did and decide to investigate these people. Perhaps not or perhaps they won't be as diligent as our friend

Corn speaks of handling the cameras and casts another golden glyph of his own however then the unknown man shoves a phone into corns point of view.

I asked Fate to disable Grentheme`s entire camera and alarm system for the whole time we`ll be here. No doubt the price`ll be expensive, and fun will hit when least expected, as it always does

Witch casts a vulgar brown glyph targeting herself and clothing changes to something more like a repair persons uniform. Meanwhile Corns own phone dings , an alert about a gas leak in the area and instructions for all residents to evacuate their homes until fire and rescue services arrive.

Corn then asks the man to do some research on the cameras, the man casts a golden glyph on himself an begin to trawl his phone.

Witch casts another golden glyph on her self as the shadows of her clothing deepen to mask fine details and then she exits the car and is out side this temporal viewing.

Corn calls off the info search and casts yet another golden glyph. But the unknown persists seemingly stubbornly determined to perform the task.

Corn hammers out a text while admonishing the unknown man who he calls Reggie.

I can't see inside. Perhaps pretend this is a message from your superiors if it helps your situation? I will try to delay the arrival of the Emergency services a bit.

This text is sent to someone in his address book under the name Morgan. Before casting another spell of his own.

Reggie ignores Corn and keeps trawling his phone.

Corn fires off another text to this Morgan.

Gunner in attic, across house, aiming. I don't know target, gas may blow by spark. Vent the place!

Before quickly telling Reggie to move the car or risk being shot.

Reggie then moves the car away from its position as Corn lowers the window and begins loudly shouting for people to move away from the house because of the gas as they drive past.

Once the car is moved Reggie sits stock still for nearly twenty seconds before muttering about what has he done. Then continues to drive leaving Witch further behind as another golden glyph is willed into reality. Only taking a hand off the wheel to turn on the radio which plays the high school musical classic, were all in this together.

Corn closes the window and suggest moving back closer, not to close as to be in danger just a little closer. Reggie agrees and the two tool up grabbing odds and ends from around the car before getting out, locking it and running into someones back yard, from which they begin hoping over fences in the direction they had just come from. It is not a heroic looking effort and takes them multiple attempts to scramble over the obstacles in their path.

Finally arriving in a garden wit ha shed in the back, where Witch is already bent down examining the lock and working to get it open. Corn turns to the house and wills a Brown glyph into being within the Kitchen. The second time it actually forms.

Reggie shows Corn his phone screen.

Did you notice the smell of the air suddenly changed, too? And I`m curious, what did you just do? I just hope this isn`t some sort of trap caused by Mothisa. And besides, can those individuals even do that? And, do you have any further ideas on what I could expect from her, in general, besides them taking control?

And a golden glyph from Witch pops the lock open.

Corn types a message back to Reggie.

took care of Methane. It still leaks though, it just bought us some time. The spell on what the thug was carrying ended!

Reggie types back

Good work with the gas. As for the other thing, let`s just hope the guy`s in custody by now with whatever was on him, if it`s what I think it is. Otherwise, this won`t bode well if he gets away and recognises us.

By now Witch continuing to put in one hell of a shift is inside the shed and beckons the others in two show them a trapdoor she has found leading to a home made tunnel towards the house under the garden.

Corn heads in and catches Witch up from his end of things.

"I got glimpse of a sniper facing the house. He or she can't see us here, but he seemed to be aiming right to your head when you were in the house. " "Reggie, do you have the sky masks? I don't want Darren to see my face if I can avoid it." He looks at the open tunnel and pulls his flashlight. "We can hide here till the emergency services leave, as long as we take care of... any complications down there. If the Scooby doo group tries to show up, we can make sure they cannot open that door" "I may have to do something... drastic... to make sure the rider goes to where she is supposed to be. The ring is the key." He looks at Witch . "If there is a way to destroy the ring that won't cause questions, so much the better. Else, we can remove it from Daren's hand and you two make sure he doesn't look while I do what has to be done. I can't think of anything else. Can you?"

Reggie says he only brought the one mask. And Witchs Voice cracks as she hears of the sniper.

However she is first down the tunnel none the less, Corn heading behind is cramped and squished and dark and with Witch blocking the light in front it hard to tell what is going for a bit, Witch. He does confirm however that"She" IS here and calls out to a Mothisa. Just as Witch calls out to Darren.

Corn can hear the sound of a muffled maybe gagged voice and then a deeper gruffer voice exclaiming in surprise.

Witch and the sound of something metallic maybe a grate shifting is heard as she tries some general platitudes to no effect because from what Corn can see by the sudden jerky motions someone outside the dark tunnel has grabbed Witch. The two now fight, Reggie calls out in anger and a flash of a golden glyph follows somewhere in front of Corn.

Corn casts on himself and Philip begins to shimmer back out of the tunnel. While Witch fights Corn uses a torch to try and distract or blind her assailant.

This continues for several seconds until Corn materializes a tranquiler gun from literally nothing with a vulgar casting. However as he fires it disbelief must have set in because the thing and its ammo vanish as if they never were.

Corn then casts forward again and the sound of chains unraveling is heard as it seems he might have freed the bound victim as Witch continues to fight with the other person in the basement. However she is able to slip free and out into the room Allowing Corn a better view of the angry racing driver self named Hercules, a skinny new age hippy looking guy with mis matched eyes still in the chair he had just been bound to and opening the door at the top of the stairs a coughing and wheezing Reggie.

Witch calls out about the gas, reminding everyone of the very prominent danger, and Hercules turns of the still coughing Reggie. But fails to land the hit.

Corn pulls himself out into the basement and takes a swing of his own at Hercules, missing the brute entirely.

Witch Runs to the hippy man and begins to guide him to the stairs and out while casting a golden glyph that makes the shadows move and deepen in the room.

Corn and Hercules begin to trade punches as Reggie recovers himself before joining the punch up, despite it being two on one the angry race car driver seems to have the upper hand.

Corn casts to heal himself while mocking the angry hunter. Who swings back and begins to cough as the gas has nearly filled this room as well. Despite this Corn and Philip persist in the fight until moments later ....

A ear splitting explosion that leaves those that a hear it deaf and in shock a fire ball engulfs the room white hot and blinding. Thirteen is not immune as she is witnesses these events her vision and hearing as impaired as those standing in the room would have been. Only she doesn't actually suffer the heat or the shock wave or any actual damage. The post cognition around Corn goes dark for a time until just before it ends the sound of scrapping can be heard and Witch a little frantic, a little desperate digs through the rubble and earth to pull a dying Corn from the crater.

This is the entire vision Thirteen gets. She can re-watch, replay, slow down and examine as she wishes.

[Thirteen]

Thirteen didn't do drugs (not beyond the occasional joint), but she imagined Arcadian magic was pretty close to tripping balls. It was a senses-spinning rush before the past settled into her perspective. Now it was like watching a video recording, filmed from the viewpoint of her target. As if Corn had a Go-Pro strapped to his forehead that evening.

Witch was there. Right, she knew the Guardian would be.

The names in the text meant nothing to her, but she made a mental note of them.

Rockwell? The Hunter? The one Witch framed and got arrested?

What spell did Corn just cast? What Path was he again? If he was confirming the presence of two people, it was probably a Life effect.

Who was this jackass needling Witch?

The name Mothisa again. Wait... who she was? Not is? There were mentions of 'riding.' Death magic and ghosts were not Thirteen's forte, but she had some knowledge of the supernatural and it sounded like Mothisa was an undead spirit. Hadn't the ghost of Corn's late wife killed him? The way Corn spoke of her led the Acanthus to think it was a different ghost, though. She could be reading into the Mystagogue's words, however.

Fate? Was this stranger an Acanthus? Wait, was this guy Philip Crosen? Thirteen had never met him, but she knew he died here this night. It would make sense that he'd be with Corn and Witch at the start.

Witch in a uniform and an alert for a gas leak. Sounded like a good plan for getting into someone's home without suspicion. The redhead tried to remember that trick for the future. Although... given the impeding explosion, a gas leak alert now sounded very ominous.

Reggie? Maybe this wasn't Crosen, after all. Unless Reggie was a pseudonym he used, like she used Violet.

Was Morgan Witch?

The infiltration continues. Witch finds a trap door in the garden shed? That's very Scooby Doo.

The Hunter's had a fucking sniper?! That sent a shiver up her spine. She hoped that would end up being the dead one.

The chaos of the sudden fight was difficult to watch clearly. She had to rewind a couple times to make sure she understood the proper flow of events. That Corn had to try and materialize a tranq gun from pure magic annoyed her. Why not bring a weapon for something like this? That felt ill-prepared. Easy for her to think, watching from the future.

Right, Hercules. That was the dead Hunter. Not the sniper, apparently. He'd been a disgraced race car driver. Dammit. Who was the sniper, then? Not Gretheme or Millie. They didn't seem the type. Maybe Rockwell? He was some sort of bricklayer, if she recalled correctly, but maybe he had previous military experience. He felt the sort.

Why did 'Reggie' go the long way around? Through the gas? Was Corn blocking the tunnel too long?

"SHITE!!" she screamed as the explosion blinded and deafened her for a few moments. This caused Jinx, whose mind had been wandering out of boredom, to startle in a flurry of feathers, "Wha? What?! Hey!" Thirteen couldn't hear him, or much of anything.

The darkness after the BOOM helped her regain her senses. Realizing her familiar might be worried, she spoke aloud, "I'm okay... just the explosion of the house. I knew it was comin' and it still caught be by surprise. I'm fine, birdie." She couldn't hear his response as she rewound the whole scene to the beginning and watched it again.

There was so much happening, so much being said. Thirteen wished she could take notes as she watched, but writing blind was not a skill she had. She considered, for a split second, asking Jinx to take dictation for her, but he couldn't write at all. It was hard to do without hands. He could peck at a phone keyboard, she supposed, but it would be very slow going and too much of a distraction while she kept this techne operational. In the future, she decided to set up a speech-to-text app on her phone. For the moment, maybe there was a compromise.

"Jinx. I'm assumin' you're there and not off watching the telly. Remember some of this... Mothisa... Darren... Reggie..." The Libertine would go on reciting information to the crow, who, though annoyed, did as told and tried to remember as much as he heard.

This watch-through, she was ready for the explosion and skipped past it. After a third rewatch, and more data being related to Jinx, the Enchantress paused to study the prisoner. The one the Magi freed and Witch helped out of the house. Who was that? A Sleeper? Well, she could ask Witch, she supposed.

Then it was over. The spell ended. The Scottish girl rubbed her eyes as her senses returned to the here and now.

"Welcome back. Ears ringing?"

"Not anymore..." Rising to her feet, Thirteen stretched and then quickly went to grab a notebook and write down as much as she could recall. "Repeat what I told you, much as you can remember," she asked of the bird. Jinx obliged, reciting most of it. Between the two of them, the scribbled notes should be as complete as possible. She hoped. "It was... a lot."

"The hunting humans have a sniper?"

Thirteen nodded.

"That is so cool!"

She scowled at the crow.

"And by cool I mean awful and scary and I'll shut up now."

The Libertine looked back at the mess of the ritual. "Chambers wanted another thing postcogged, but that'll wait for another day. I'm knackered." She grabbed a broom and dustpan and started sweeping up the remains of the sacrificed clock. "Good thing these wee clocks are cheap. I bought a few of them for stuff like this."

"So was this Reggie guy the Crosen guy?" the familiar inquired.

"Had to be. He died in the explosion alongside Hercules."

"Hercules! Hercules!" Jinx chanted in amusement. Thirteen gave him a confused look.

"It's from an Eddie Murphy movie," he sighed, "Nevermind."