(PRP TH) - Treasure Hunt!

[Aurora]

Damn.

Prime was just not something she had worked on.

“I haven’t been able to relearn anything that would help with that.” Mind was a bit more difficult now than it used to be.

“But I can tell you this thing is still pretty damn potent. And if we have to, I say we break it.” Why not? They were here, it was there, seemed like a good thing to do. “Though I have to say, I don’t have any skill in the Arcana needed to break it.” Dispelling had never been in her bag of tricks. But maybe it should be. She was proving to be pretty useless in this endeavor.

“I can offer to provide us a little more privacy should we need, or use a bit of Space to try and pinpoint the exact location of the choker.”

[Aeolus]

The beautiful thing about Magic? It was the unique work of an Awakened soul, every Spell one of a kind like a fingerprint. This veil being an improvised attempt to hide whatever Corn could make out what made this Mage's signature seem special. A flourish here, a small detail there - the Necromancer was sure that he could recognize this resonance given enough time. He was also fairly certain that he could remember the spell for what it was, should he ever run across that one.

Belle meanwhile took the more practical approach and used the Awakened equivalent of taking a quick selfie of the rune. Maybe her own handwriting added her personal flair, but it would be good enough to compare it to something similar.

Now the Mystagogues knew that they probably weren't too far off, and they had another lead to follow. The next riddle for them to solve seemed to be how to get past that. Would brute force suffice?
And how long have they wandered around the garden, looking for this location? It wasn't like Crypto had become more trustworthy as time went by, so with each passing minute the chances to come up empty handed (or be caught red-handed) increased.

Sorry, I might have been unclear: knowing it's just an illusion gives you the opportunity to just straight up attack/destroy it mundanely - at least, that's how I read the spell description. It is good enough to deter or hide, but not really a big hurdle once the jig is up.

[Corn]

"We don't know how much time we have before other clients of Crypto, mages or relic hunters show up. " He could totally see Eulogy showing up with Phoenyx or something to get the relic. And these are councilors. Corn thought he had a good chance to win a duel arcane against Mordenchai, but he held no illusions that he could beat Phoenyx - and that assumes those two didn't simply pull rank to get the artifact disallowing a duel arcane. And by the time this was brought to consilium, everything could have happened.
No. He liked Mordenchai and Phoenyx good enough, but it was far better if they didn't get the artifact before the Mystagogues.

"I will try to destroy the rune, before Mordenchai or whomever shows up. I like the guy, but I am not giving that choker to the ladder. They have enough toys."

And with that, Corn grabbed a large stick with a pointy edge from nearby - better not touch a rune directly, you never know - and since he hasn't seen any ghosts so far, he ended the speak with the dead spell.

He speaks in High Speech for a few moments gaining power and strengthening his connection to the other side. He passed his lead medallion from one edge of the stick to the other as he concentrated.
His will materialized, he held the stick above his head and said loudly.
"Behold, my lightsaber!"

And with that, he viciously attacked the rune with the stick, now enchanted to treat stone like butter but still looking as unimpressive as ever.
At least, those two saw my resonance for some Special Effects, he thought.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-16 08:11:54	Corn rolls 1 to PaRAdoX (10 Again)	3	failure

4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-16 08:13:34	Corn rolls 7 to Armor Piercing: Gnosis+Matter+High Speech -2 (potency) (10 Again)	10, 9, 9, 1, 10, 4, 7, 4, 3	4 successes

Corn doesn't know the other consilium mages will not be contacted, thus the talk about them.
Speak with the dead spell ends. Corn holds an "enchanted" Item (the stick with Armor Piercing 2).
Paradox counter increases by 1.
The Armor piercing stick has 5 blows; 4 from successes +1 from the extra potency. I don't know how much damage it does and whether to roll str+weaponry+? vs the rune.

[Belle]

Belle turns to Corn with just a bit of confusion in her eyes. Mordechai? Silver Ladder? Was there some inter-Covenant friction she didn't know about? Or was it the nature of this artifact that drove Corn to action? Either way, he's got a point. We're best equipped to contain this thing to make sure it doesn't drive people love-crazy, or love-crazier.

As Corn whips out his 'lightsaber', Belle calls upon her knowledge of Prime once again. God, what I wouldn't give to be an Obrimos right now. She turns to finesse while Corn turns to force, plying her will against the fading magic of the illusion rune. "Gotcha, time's of the essence. Maybe a little privacy wouldn't hurt?" She looks gratefully to Aurora for her suggestion. Personally she preferred her smash-n-grabs to have the wiggle room for an escape portal, but between the three of them she trusted they had the skills to make this work...

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-16 13:45:26	Belle rolls 4 to Improvised Dispel Magic (Gnosis + Prime) (10 Again)	10, 5, 1, 10, 1, 5	2 successes

[Aurora]

There was a simple nod to Corn. Time was of the essence, they needed to move quick and not draw attention.

Her mind quickly going over what Arcana she had at her disposal, figuring Death was going to be the best option in this case.

Then eyes squint at him, “Uh, I don’t think he’s going to show up, and even if he does, I can take care of that.” How? She wasn’t sure yet. But she could come up with something. But talk about random.

Eyebrow arches, lightsaber? Huh, well, you do you.

As Belle speaks, she brings the Shaman’s attention back to the task at hand.

Right, privacy.

Well, she’d never really tried this before, but there was a first for everything and she was hoping it’d work. If not? Then she might have to get a little more dramatic and creative.

Her first attempt was shit. Nothing happened. Biting her tongue, to stop her from screaming in frustration, she tries again.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-16 17:11:30	Aurora rolls 6 to Shadow Sculpting(Gno+Death) (10 Again)	7, 1, 1, 6, 7, 3	failure

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-16 17:12:08	Aurora rolls 5 to Shadow Sculpting(Gno+Death)-1 (10 Again)	8, 7, 1, 1, 6	1 success

Aurora casts Shadow Sculpting: A simple success allows a mage to shape a one-yard radius area of shadows or darkness into shapes of his choosing, or he can thicken its gloom, making shadows deeper even under bright light. The Storyteller assesses the quality of existing shadows, categorizing them into three degrees: from light to dark to complete darkness. Each success deepens the darkness by one degree. Once complete darkness is achieved, additional successes impose dice penalties to perception rolls on a one-for-one basis for anyone peering into the area.Aurora is choosing to thicken the shadows already provided by the tree they are under

[Corn]

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-16 22:04:24	Corn rolls 5 to str+weap + 2 (club) (10 Again)	8, 1, 10, 10, 1, 4, 6	3 successes

Corn's attack has +2B after consulting with the ST. Ignores 2 durability. So... probably 3 structure damage except if the rune is etched on iron or something

[Belle]

Belle sees out of the corner of her eye that Aurora has the shadows on her side. Nice! Corn, meanwhile is doing his best Jedi Knight impression and hacking away at the run in front of her. And not a bad hit either; his magical enhancement of his 'weapon' had paid off.

Just remember, it's not a contest...

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-17 22:30:42	Belle rolls 3 to Improvised Dispel Magic-2nd Attempt (Gnosis + Prime - Retry) (10 Again)	10, 3, 3, 1	1 success

Perhaps not...but Belle plies her own assault against the rune's defenses with another Prime sapping attempt. Just a bit longer and we'll be golden. Or bone, I guess. She smirks a bit at her internal joke.

Belle has 3 total suxx now on Dispel Magic, so 2/5 potency on the rune unless I'm mistaken.

[Aeolus]

The three Awakened each fell into a moment of concentration, with only the Moros disturbing the serene silence of the hideaway by his chanting.

Corn called upon his skills in Matter to turn a simple stick found laying around into a verified weapon of destruction. Brown lines of glowing power engulfed the wood, making his light-saber legally distinct enough to keep him from running into legal trouble with Disney yet cool enough to impress fellow Awakened SciFi-enthusiasts.

After a short mental stumble Aurora continued to borrow some power from Stygia: the cozy dim light of streetlights and the moon that filtered through the foliage seemed to grow darker and somewhat more threatening. Soon enough, the Mystagogues found themselves in a dome of almost complete darkness. It would definitely prevent anybody else from peeking - although it also impaired the vision of the people within. With what little light managed to pierce the purple tinted shadows only vague outlines and - in contrast to everything else - bright Resonances could be seen.

Belle meanwhile tried to oppose the willpower of a supposedly much stronger - albeit much deader - Mage. Her spell tried to use the weak-points in the structure of the illusion, to slip into the cracks and break it wide open and failed. Just as she wanted to try again Corn scattered the Imago she was forming in her head by shouting out his battle cry and stabbing.. the ground. While it might have looked unspectacular for sleeping eyes (provided they could see in the dark), through their Supernal Sight they could see a shower of sparks and a swarm of white wisps bursting from the point of contact.
After the proverbial dust has settled the three Awakened could see - well, nothing because it was pretty dark. If anyone would get real close or dared touching the space where the illusion was they'd see the outlines of something solid and mostly flat, they'd feel the rough texture of wood.
With the illusion destroyed, the spell belonging to it fully dissolved.

Just to save some time in case they are able to see

A wooden board was lying on the ground, probably to cover something up. It didn't appear to be secured in any way or hide any other traces of Resonance. Was it Hubris or carelessness that made someone trust in just one potent illusion?

Aurora you'd need to spend another point of Mana for your second attempt at casting an improvised Spell.
Since it was specified that the shadows should be thickened, the area beneath the willow-branches is now in almost complete darkness. Until you find a way to see in the dark/create some light or drop the spell, everyone gets a -3 penalty for actions requiring sight.

Undoing Belle's second attempt because there was a misunderstanding - as with Aurora her next expenditure of Mana has been paid for.

[Aurora]

She was tired. Leaning against the tree, she knows her supplies are running empty.

Taking a deep breath, “If you guys are unable to break the spell, I can give it a go, but it’s going to take a lot out of me.” She hadn’t pulled mana from her body in a few years, and it was not pleasant then and wouldn’t be pleasant now. But she sounded tired, spent.

Last time she used this much; she had a Cabal at her disposal. Now? It was just her.

Sorry about that, here I was excited I remembered to subtract a dice...lol!

[Corn]

Not able to see in the dark, Corn prodded the area where the illusion has been with the sticksaber, hearing a dull thud of wood on wood. Not wanting to destroy whatever that was - a container or trap door (and not getting close enough to see it was a seemingly innocent board) and after telling the other Mystagogues - or better, Dadouchos & Mystagogue wannabe - that he hit wood in case they didn't hear the thud, Corn turned to Aurora and asked.
"Aurora, could you perhaps change the shadows from an opaque sphere to a 'curtain' of shorts so we could be able to see better while still hidden from outside? While I don't pick up any spell that doesn't mean there are not mundane traps. "