Con Spells Cloaked
Supreme Aug:Pre+3 Man+2 dur 12hrs;Skill Mastery Socialize+2 Persuasion+4 dur 12 hrs
Nothing is ok. The room itself was fighting to accommodate its new state, caught as it was between two state transformations.
The acidic smell of gastric juice and those visceral sounds only accentuated the eerie feeling. "Don't get too close", he says.
Coiled in the corner of the room is a woman with brutally short, red, hair. Her skin is clammy and pale. She is still quivering as the last retch claws through her body. About the only thing she can say is an inarticulate grunt. The woman eye's the mages like a cornered animal - but whether that animal is a rat or a deer is unknown at this point, perhaps even to herself.
She is waring the clothes Winter described with his phantasmal spell.
She is the terminus of the thread Abacus has been so diligently following.
Pixel knows she is the one he seeks with Finder.
Anima can tell the woman is giving off a highly volatile Resonance right now.
@Mark right idea, wrong spell - Healers Trance (1st ed Core, p181) is what you are thinking of. Mage Sight studies Resonance
The white whale. The tablets on the mount. The end of the line. Fruition truly was sublime. But to see the result of his destined query writhing before him--like a starving animal wracked with a pathogen that wouldn't let it feed--was nonetheless discomforting. Curiosity twisted in his stomach along with his nerves. But the nature of this so-called person would remain a mystery until he was otherwise informed, for it was the purview of Life that one could discern the state of one's biology, not Matter.
He would have to rely--potentially haphazardly--on Anima. He spoke softly, unable to pry his eyes away from his query.
"She's the fish at the end of my line. What about the rest of you?"
The Doctor keeps out of arm's length as he studies his new patient.
"Someone use their eyes to study the patient please, while I try to discern what is wrong."
The imago is a simple one he uses almost daily, and he summons it into his mind easily. Usually he futzes around with medical devices while he studies his patience, covering his covert Spellcasting with the expected routine that's almost become a rote for him. But the jangling doctor's bag was left in the car, so he's left to stare openly at the patient while his magic covertly works.
4 successes
Don't know the dice penalty so I threw the first roll, subtract from the right as needed, Anima knows there is something very wrong, so he'll continue the trance until he thinks he's found the problem or the situation no longer allows. Just let me know the number of turns he can study her.
Yup, she was the one. The jury was still out on whether she was suffering from a case of Coronavirus or some form of magical backfire. "Stay Away"
He takes his time to read her aura.
3 successes2 successes
The Shaman stays back, but continues his diagnoses of the patient.
5 successes
He focused his Sight. Maybe he could peel back a layer or two by leaning on his own understanding. While he trusted the perceptions of his peers, he always believed in carving out a corner for himself. His little node of truth.
1 success
Pixel simply watches the doctor begin his diagnosis as he puts his own lens on. The Finder spell fades as a another circle forms and opens his mind to the psychic presence of those around him. He then turned his attention to the girl, looking to be sure it was only her in the corner.
2 suxx sense consciousness
Abacus and Winter confirm that the woman is a Sleeper. Her aura and resonance might be fluctuating like a pulsar right now, but she is definitely an ordinary human being.
The Guardian manages to keep up with the spinning kaleidoscope of Resonance and picks out that her dominant resonance is Fear. The pulsating Supernal energies that twist and warp her Resonance are from something else, something buried in the fabric of her being.
Anima can tell the woman is... very sick. Her organs are being pushed to their maximum capacity and many are - damaged (and that damage is getting worse as he watches). A wave of rapid healing burns through her nervous system and cleanses her muscles as he watches but the deeper damage remains.
There is a foreign object within her physical form.
Pixel focusses on the space around the woman and confirms there are no other conscious presences - hidden, obfuscated, or otherwise on nearby plane. It is just the woman and them.
With a jerk, the woman's limbs flail one last time. She shrinks into a foetal shape, too spent and exhausted to even engage them.
With a last flurry, the room which had been going through several layers of repainting and sudden appearances / vanishings of office furniture, snaps back into being an empty and largely abandoned space. As if to emphasise the point, the doors creaks and shifts on suddenly damaged hinges.
The Shaman squints, curious.
Anima calls his second sight into being, then struggles to untangle the pattern of the woman's existence. Looking for a spiritual assault that could be causing her body to be going through so much.