(Dry Hallow) Following Threads

[Yumyumcrow]

Abacus opens his Sight. The box, still slick with bodily fluids and crystalline Tass, still carries a certain metaphysical weight.

So does the farm house and its outbuildings - nothing obvious and nothing as crass as an aura of danger, but there is something sinister in the way the buildings hunker down and an evil cast to the light where it is cast into the night.

Anima moves off into the thick scrub at one end of the property. His head aches. His muscles scream as yet another spell is added to his already overburdened Pattern.

Somewhat woozy, the Shaman finds himself in the middle of the scrub, surrounded by overgrown grass and trees. Twigs crack underfoot; his passage is slowed by chocking, tussocky, vegetation. He is very... loud.

[Winter]

Well, ladies and gents, this is 3/5th of the Sacramento Council in session.
He was glad he was out.

Maybe he should bake them a few tass marshmallows and light a campfire, then they can sit around it and swap stories of their latest magical trinket like a patrol of good boyscouts. The resident Obrimos will - of course - excuse himself to get actual shit done.
Whatever, he shrugs.
Time to stay low. But first, he needs to borrow something from those old cars.
And in the night, he disappears.

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-13 01:55:38		Winter rolls 5 to Stealth (10 Again)		10, 3, 5, 5, 2, 5		1 success

Spells: Unseen Shield Forces [pot 1], Supernal Vision [pot 1]
2mana left, 3WP (Since the thread began before the new WP rule, I assume we're still using the legacy rule until the scene wraps up)
Inventory: Wedding Band, moleskin notebook with pencils, black stones catholic rosary, kevlar vest (thin), wallet and phone, muscle car

[Anima]

Active Spells

Gain Skill Stealth (dropped at the end of the turn) Peer Across the Gauntlet, Second Sight, Org Res

Anima rustles his way through the brush, trying to do so sneakily, but he's no good at it. His only hope is the bait he left standing in the middle of the road.

He stops and takes a break, relieving himself of some of the weight in his aura, looking back he watches for a moment. His fellow Councilors and all their wisdom, are still standing on the side of the road, and holding the magical artifact out in the open. He doesn't know how sympathetic connections work with magical implants, but he knows he can look at his phone and it will tell him where his car is. And mundane implants all have serial numbers and can be tracked pretty easily. You know, in hindsight, I'm quite grateful that Councilor Abacus swiped it from my bag. However, I will be taking measures to ensure that cannot happen again in the future.

From his new position he looks around, gathering more information.

  failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-13 10:14:21		Anima rolls 2 to Hide (Dex+Stealth) (10 Again)		6, 2		failure

  2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-13 10:24:32		Anima rolls 6 to Perception (10 Again)		10, 7, 5, 4, 8, 4, 7		2 successes

[Abacus]

There was the urge to preserve the self. Give it to Pixel and let whatever possible ramifications ravage him. Study the results and plan around the variables. Maybe even attempt replication. Measure. And then there was the urge to know Truth for himself. How the boon of elucidation was the Jacob's Ladder for those of the Mysterium.

"Hold on a tick."

Who says the two couldn't be reconciled?

  4 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-13 12:47:44		Abacus rolls 6 to Perception (10 Again)		5, 8, 6, 2, 10, 8, 9		4 successes

He took in his surroundings, minding his hands and tried to be subtle. He felt around for a seam or a hinge. A Fallen option first. Could it just be opened? The absurdity of a stubborn pickle jar came to mind. He hoped to avoid it.

[Pixel]

Responsible steward was responsible. Pixel certainly appreciated not having his hands melt off, but he was sure that wasn't going to happen.

...probably...

As Abacus looked about Pixel did the same. Not because he thought it necessary, but to say that he had. Twice.

  1 suxx perception

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-15 16:04:50		Pixel rolls 4 to Perception (Wits+Comp) (10 Again)		8, 1, 5, 6		1 success

[Yumyumcrow]

Like Anima before him, Winter slips away in the quiet gloom of the night.

Pixel sweeps the area one last time as Abacus focusses his attention on the box, the mystery, and their prize.

The box is composed of two halves but it becomes quickly obvious that they are meant to be sealed. Once the muck has been largely removed, Abacus can tell the box is made of a polished wood - an aromatic wood now the object had been cleaned off.
The box was featureless apart from one side which is composed of a glass bottle or canister type attachment. The glass is fractured, cracked, and barely holding together - it is from here that the Tass is sourced.

The glass canister was designed to collect the Tass but had obviously failed as more and more of the crystalized Mana had been collected. The container had burst and the Tass had begun to form outside the box - no doubt infecting the poor woman they had found and now staining the Enchanter's hands.

Metal plates comprised two opposing ends of the box - carefully tooled and inscribed with a set of glyphs. Not Atlantean the Mystogogue breathes but obviously alchemical.

Despite having failed Pixel can tell that the object was well made and built to withstand some punishment.

The exact mechanism that allowed the box to draw out and collect the Mana was still hidden deep inside the box.

Anima moves with exaggerated care and folds himself - badly - into the shadows by an anaemic and furious thicket. He is closer to the farm house and outbuildings at the centre of the property. Close enough to see movement - two men are working on the engine of a van (an ice cream van!) and a lumbering hulk of a giant shifting a cart filled with large boxes. There are other vehicles too - a battered old car, a truck from a haulage company, and garishly yellow volkswagen beetle.

Faint strains of wagner from a tinny music centre waft, brokenly, on the air.

As he settles in, Anima spies something shiny in the tall grasses, winking up at him like an evil eye.

[Winter]

He couldn't help but wonder that there was something peculiar about the whole arrangement. It was a randown lot, skeletons of cars lying abandoned like an elephants' graveyard. Yet, at the same time, the buzzing of the elecrical currents alerted him that somebody cared.
He looks around, scuttling from shadow to shadow and straining his Mind's eye in search for something that might still contain a core of truth.
And then he finds it, a large pickup, a four seater a bit larger than a SUV, or at least its carcass.
His mind yearns... no aches to bridge the divide between Sein and Sollen, the religious symbol his hand clings to, remains the only anchor to this world of flesh. What is, and what should be.
In a show of lights, a white matrix of vectors hovers above his head, and rarefied matter is boiled and rendered into its basic components. Ebullient mana flows to his pattern. All around, the clanking sound of metal turned to dust at the utterance of a single word of power, fills the night.

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-16 07:41:00		Winter rolls 6 to Perception (wits + comp) (10 Again)		4, 1, 4, 10, 3, 7, 7		1 success

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-16 07:45:37		Winter rolls 5 to Stealth (dex + stealth) (10 Again)		5, 6, 1, 3, 9		1 success

  failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-16 08:02:01		Winter rolls 1 to Paradox (4 dots, 2nd Vulgar, Imp, - MT) (10 Again)		1		failure

  2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-16 08:11:11		Winter rolls 11 to Siphon Integrity Imp HS (10 Again, WillPower)		1, 2, 1, 2, 9, 6, 4, 6, 1, 8, 1		2 successes

Stats - trailing the three threads

Vulgars: 2
2 Mana (+2 if absorbed correctly) = 4, 2 WP Left
Spells: Unseen Shield Forces [pot 1], Supernal Vision [pot 1]
Equipment:Wedding band, moleskine notebook + pencils, black stones catholic rosary, brass knuckles, Kevlar vest (thin), Muscle Car (2017 Mustang Shelby gt350r), wallet, Iphone, flashlight.

[Anima]

Active Spells

Peer Across the Gauntlet, Second Sight, Org Res

If thy eye offends thee, pluck it out. See a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck. Unless you can throw it away don't pick it up.
Magic? Conjured tricks? One thing is for sure a storm is coming, but what will it bring. A hail of bullets? A fog of arrows? The winds of change?

The choices are tempting, but the doctor is cautions. You have to explore the area around the tumor before you can safely remove it.

Anima exercises caution, attempting to get a better look at the object rather than just picking it up.

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2020-04-17 12:50:57		Anima rolls 4 to Investigation (Wits+Investigation) (10 Again)		6, 2, 9, 3		1 success

[Abacus]

"Here."

He offered the device to the Mastigos. He wondered if he had any insight into the design. He doubted it. But still...wonder.

"It's a broken siphon. Too much buildup caused a breach. Awfully steampunk. I'd wager that our victim was either a mule, or a guinea pig. Both options leave me uneasy."

"Are we playing look-out?"

[Pixel]

Pixel takes the wrappings Anima had wrapped the box in and wrapped it back up. He placed it in his messenger bag and flipped the bag over his shoulder.

"Think a breach means no exploding item? The whole thing has me uneasy. We've been ignoring the question of why anyone would need to gather so much mana in the first place."

He didn't comment on the guinea pig part. He made his feelings about the woman clear when he tried to rescue her and commenting further, particularly about that, felt uncomfortable to the Warlock.

​"Remember what Star said a while back? About Anima?" It was hard to forget when someone mentioned the guy you share a chapter house with likes to blow up buildings with people inside. "I'm thinking we keep a safe distance from anything with an engine or a gas tank."

His hands wrap around the strap hung across his chest, his fingers tapping as he looks at the property and thinks.

"I can try and scry into the buildings from afar or we can try sneaking up. I'd imagine the two that wandered off are going big and heading for the main house or the barn, leaving the sheds and greenhouses be. We can cover our bases and check those out or try for the main prize from a third uncoordinated angle. Or scry it and hope the others see the gold glyph and realize they ditched a Space mage to get a close look at something. Though that might alert someone if they have mage sights up."

Fingers settle into place as Pixel returns his attention to Abacus.

"Your call."

Spells- Dark Matter, Untouchable, Incognito Presence
Equipment (being left in the car)-messenger bag, sketch pads, colored pencils (No bonuses for quality), Hallow chomper thingy.