(Mimir's Well) Next Steps

[Aenigma]

Continued from here

After having secured the tass blade and Jack's corpse, Aenigma had sent a text to the rest of the team so they could finish what they had started. He had asked them to meet him and Toren in conference room A, so they could all discuss how to move forward with the investigation. Carrying his loyal messenger bag with him, the young Censor stepped into the room, holding the door open for Toren .

"Got any bright ideas on what to do next?" he asked his Cabal mate, as he evaluated the information they had acquired so far in his mind.

This is proving to be a lot harder than I had expected.

[Toren]

Toren thanks Aenigma as he enters the room first. "No, but I just thought of something. We probably could have etched some Runes in place that would have helped the ward casting. Twenty twenty hindsight I guess," replied Toren, laughing a bit at himself. "Well I think we just have to go over the facts as we've discovered them and see if any solutions or realizations occur." It was much like the scientific process of formulating hypotheses and testing them against their logic and understanding.

[Cryotic]

Orpheus entered the room not long after Nantale, finding the room was fairly easy for the Obrimos. He gave a quick "Hey." to everyone in the room before taking the nearest open chair. The murder had been foremost in Orpheus' mind since leaving the office, it felt weird, finding a dead body and knowing that the police couldn't help you. From what he and the group knew, the body had various minor appendages dismembered and drained of blood. The next thing was that the corpse had been apportated into the office, and a tass blade placed inside the body at some point in time. Didn't Toren also say what the guy actually died from? He tried to remember if Toren had figured out the cause of death. "We take what we know and figure out as much information as we can from that." He stated simply in response to Nantale's question. More than likely there wasn't much more the group could get from the body unless somebody did a full out autopsy, which propaply wouldn't reveal much itself.

[Aenigma]

Aenigma chuckled at Toren's words, giving him a single nod. "Yeah we could've...so I guess we keep that in mind for the next time," he said to the Moros, giving him an encouraging smile. "You are right, going over the facts together may shed some new light on the case." After saying those words, the young Censor turned his attention to the rest of the team as they started to pile up into the room.

He listened as each spoke in turn, taking their suggestions and concerns into account. "Well, I think this is pretty much uncharted territory for most of us," said the Warlock to the other mages. "But I am confident that together we can come up with a solution." As usual, he gave them all an encouraging smile, trying to keep the group's morale high.

"I do believe there is a connection between Jack's murder and the others one that have taken place," he said in response to Kiko's question. "For one thing, all of the victims held some sort of position of importance at one point or another. Also, from what Toren mentioned earlier about what Ariadne had said, the circumstances see to match the other murders."

Aenigma paused for a moment after saying those words, considering the information they had been able to gather so far...which wasn't much, but at least it was something. "Best thing we can do now is go over what we know," he said to the group at large, giving them a quick nod. "We know a thing or two about our mysterious killer's MO. For example, we know that he is capable of making use of the Space Arcanum, beyond some of the basics." The Censor paused for a moment, his expression becoming slightly darker for a moment.

"We also know that the tass blade he used was tainted with some sort of Abyssal energy," he added, looking around the table at the other Mystagogues.

[Toren]

Toren took a seat at the table with the others. "The presence of Tass suggests a Prime user, doesn't it?" asked Toren to the whole group. "But what could cause this Abyssal energy, this Taint? Could it be some elaborate ritual? Some dangerous faction? Before Councilor Rosh's murder he had spoken out against the presence of Seers in the city. Only shortly after that was he assassinated. Could this be connected to that somehow, that they would be behind this? This seems rather elaborate for just one person to perform, so an organization seems more plausible in my opinion."

Toren took his phone out of his pocket and set it on the table, just in case he got a call during their meeting. If they could get Ariadne to contribute to their investigation or at least find someone who had dealt with the other murders it might put them closer to the right track. "I had phoned Ariadne before coming to the conference room. As I mentioned before she may have information about the other murders. But for now let's proceed with the assumption that we're on our own in this. I agree with Aenigma though that the manner of the blade's arrival seemed to be spatial. But the timing of the arrival also seems strange. It's as if it were waiting for us to discover the body first. Do you know of any willworkings that could have been used to trigger the event?"

[Cryotic]

Orpheus listened as the others in the room went on, carefully memorizing the things he had missed into his own memory of the event. To confirm what Toren had said about the possibility of a Prime user, he speaks up when no one else was "Yeah, creating Tass from a mages mana reserves takes I think an Adept of Prime to accomplish. Although it's possible he could have taken the Tass from a hallow, since the stuff forms there naturally. Or at least as naturally as the physical manafestation of mana could be anyway. "Honestly, I'm not sure we're dealing with a single mage here, I mean, this guy would need at least what? An Adept level understanding of Space to teleport the body in right? Space definitely wasn't the Obrimos' strong point, but around that level was probably correct. "If the tass was mage-made, that would also mean he has an Adept's understanding of Prime, along with the knowledge of Fate and or Time Nantale pointed out. Two or more mages working together would be more likely than a single mage with such a spread out understanding of so many Arcana, "Although... That all works under the assumption that the person we're dealing with isn't some incredibly old and experienced. So that last bit may not be entirely true. He shook his head a little, Orpheus hated the fact that he could start hightailing on a train of thought and then completely disprove himself immediately afterwards, but that was pretty much his entire profession after all.
"Hmm? I could've sworn the seers encouraged creating paradoxes? Not to sound rude or anything, but considering that the seers apparently seek to prevent awakenings, making the Lie strike out more often seemed like something the Seers do in their spare time along with anything else Seers do in their spare time, if they do anything at all really." He gives a small shrug, Little things I guess...

[Aenigma]

Aenigma listened closely to his Cabal mates as each spoke in turn, paying close attention to what each said. He nodded in agreement to Nantale's words. "It would make sense that the individual we are dealing with someone who is at least an Apprentice of those two Arcana," he said before turning to Orpheus. "We may be dealing with an Adept of Space, but the killer would only need to be an Apprentice in order to apportate a dead body." The Warlock paused for a moment, considering the theory of the murders being the work of more than one mage, which was certainly a possibility.

"Well, we could be dealing with a group, or it could just be a powerful willworker, or one who is knowledgeable in a variety of Arcana," he explained to the others. "I mean, it could be an Adept of Prime who has enough knowledge of other Arcana to apply conditional triggers to his casting, and do so sympathetically." It wasn't that he was ready to dismiss the other theory, but they really didn't have concrete evidence that they were dealing with more than just one individual at that point.

The young Censor shook his head in regards to the Seers. After all, he was fairly familiar with how some of they operated. "I do not think Seers are necessarily behind this," he said to the group as a whole. "They tend to manipulate Sleepers and use them as pawns, but willingly creating paradoxes just for the hell of it doesn't sound like their M.O." He paused once more, considering something for a moment. "That sounds more like something a practitioner of Abyssal magics would do, to be perfectly honest."