(Body at Bismarck) Poison of Interest

[Animus]

The Thyrsus fidgets uncomfortably. He didn't like any of it.

"Vector seemed to have the most direct involvement." The name comes out with no small amount of venom. "Asian mage, for all the help that is. Very skilled with Prime and Forces."

"Some sort of taint in his fingertips. Just like the tass. It feels similar to magic, but not quite." More nervous movements. The next words come out hesitantly, with a hint of fear. "Probably abyssal, from everything else we know."

And then another nervous thought. Cook had been hit the hardest, but they'd all felt it. And that meant ... what exactly? He didn't want to find out, but he had to know. Eyes flick between the others, searching with a creeping dread.

  What's the prognosis?

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2012-10-09 01:03:52		Animus rolls 11 to Healer's Trance @self (10 Again)		3, 9, 7, 4, 7, 10, 5, 6, 8, 2, 2, 4		3 successes
2012-10-09 01:03:38		Animus rolls 11 to Healer's Trance @Ixidor (10 Again)		9, 4, 4, 1, 8, 10, 1, 4, 10, 1, 1, 2, 4		4 successes
2012-10-09 01:03:23		Animus rolls 11 to Healer's Trance @Gallows (10 Again)		9, 10, 9, 9, 8, 7, 4, 1, 3, 9, 7, 4		6 successes

[Key]

Animus

Animus, you fee just fine, and although the feeling of faint abyssal taint seems to be dancing around your fingertips, however it seems to be fading. Gallows has a similar touch of taint, but is otherwise generally okay, he seems to have some faint imbalance. Ixidor has a greater imballance, and to a point it’s amazing that he’s standing, and the taint is there as well, however not as strong as Cook’s

[Gallows]

"Vector," muttered Gallows, thinking. He didn't remember any such mage he had encountered since arriving here. "I guess we'll need to keep an eye out for him, then. But until we can find him, we need to do whatever damage control we can." He looked at the unconscious Proximus. "If Cook shows an Abyssal taint, then I suppose--putting aside the possbility he is himself a Scelesti--that he got the taint from either being in the presence of the Hallow or using mana from it."

[Animus]

Half-remembered stories, snatches from books he sometimes wished he could forget having read. And each piece that flicked through his mind made him more worried.

A rough shake of the head. "No, it was from whatever reaction we set off back there. It touched all of us, but ... I think I managed to turn it back, but the rest of you ..."

His shoulders slump, insides churning. I was supposed to protect them. Instead ...

[Gallows]

Gallows coughed, but then waved his hand. "I'm fine, Animus, really. Don't worry about me--we need to worry about Cook, and about whoever did this to us. And to Rosh and Qadesh." He stretched his legs out and started to pace. "But I still have no idea how to find them."

[Animus]

The Thyrsus' dark musings only bring up confused nightmare-imagery in place of any directly useful anecdotes.

He never quite meets Gallows' gaze, eyes slightly unfocused as he considers. "The bridge might be the closest thing we have to a lead right now, but if it's ground zero, who knows how dangerous it could be? Certainly not somewhere we'd want to just charge into blindly, although the Sleeper traffic might keep things from getting too overt.."

A heavy sigh, and a hesitant suggestion. "My book collection might have something relevant, if we look hard enough." A visible shudder. Those tomes were more than disturbing enough even when the content was just some abstraction. To skim through them, imagining each horror as something that could actually be released on the mage community ... needless to say, it wasn't a happy prospect.

  slippery knowledge is slippery

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2012-10-10 22:59:54		Animus rolls 2 to Int + Occ + sp - 6 (10 Again)		5, 7		failure

[Gallows]

"I'm always up for some bookwork," Gallows said with a sigh. Truth be told, he had grown very accustomed to it during his Lictor career, but that didn't mean he liked it. "And I think I'd rather do some research before running after whatever or whoever killed two of our Councilors. Let's just make sure that Cook is alright and somewhere safe before we do--or do we want to take him with us?" He wasn't sure about the idea of dragging the unconscious Proximus along with them, but it didn't seem right to leave him here alone. Clearly, this place wasn't safe. After all, someone had broken in and--

"--oh, shit," Gallows swore. "We need to do something about that body."

[roadnottaken]

Ixidor Wolven Pryde

[MichaelH]

OOC

Should we continue?

[Animus]

OOC

Sorry for the delay. School hit me hard this week.

A heavy sigh. So much danger at once. "For now, perhaps we should bring both of them to our sanctum. Cook will at least be safe there, and Qadesh, ... he deserves a proper burial, whatever it takes to make that happen."