A most feline discussion

[Albert Baker]

After the exchange of letters with Mr. Krait, Al had taken the time to tidy the rooms up in preparation. With great difficulty he had moved furniture and the rug on the floor to provide a space in case the specimen mentioned would be actually brought. Once that had been achieved he put the mixture of wall trunk and humidor where he kept his most valuable and precious books, just in case they might be needed. While he left the building and sat in the gazebo to wait he thought on the meeting and its possibilities.

Perhaps the Temple would have been better for this, as there would be the altar and chains, if fixation was necessary... Though the Farm is public and known, the Temple is not. It remains to be seen whether the question of subduction isn't purely academic...

Shrugging the thought off he took a newspaper out of his briefcase and began solving crossword puzzles.

[Jacque]

The Lord arrived at the familiar location, opting to use his SUV over the roadster due to the more remote location. His garment was a bit more relaxed on this evening- an oversized sweatshirt in a tan color and slacks to pair. His Rolex was found as normal, but aside from that he was far more casual than usually seen.

Approaching the gazebo with nothing more than a notebook and pen he greeted, "Good evening Mr. Baker."

Small talk aside, "I was hoping you could refresh me on your limited interaction with the feline."

[Albert Baker]

"Good evening, Mr. Krait. Please have a seat."

Al closed the newspaper and put it back into his briefcase along with the pencil, while gesturing for his guest to take a seat.

"That is quite easily done, I'm afraid. I have received a report about the interaction of Ms Wood with it. I haven't seen it myself so far, but as I'm not able to use telepathy yet and most of the things I reckon the cat might be are slightly outside my area of expertise. At the moment I can't you anything you don't know already."

He thought for a while before hopefully offering an adequate and helpful idea.

"I could take a look at it and consult a few occult tomes I happen to own in case they may provide some help."

[Jacque]

The Lord nodded, "I recall reading the report from when I was serving as Seneschal." He sat as it was offered.

"Excellent, that was what I was hoping for this evening," a finger traces upward, "There was mention that the feline serves as a familiar and in such a manner that it would fall into the realm of some sort of witchcraft."

I intend to make a research roll using occult in place of academics given the topic. Wanted to check for any dice modifiers before doing so. Seryna Thank you!

[Seryna]

@Jacque Please use a -1 modifier. Thank you

[Jacque]

The Lord scans past page after page, writing notes on the side as he picks up anything that could be relevant to the subject matter at hand. The search goes on for two hours.

8 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-04-09 12:10:54	[04] Jacque rolls 5 to research occult (Int + occ - 1) (10 Again)	10, 10, 8, 7, 6, 7, 3	3 successes
2024-04-09 12:10:54	[03] Jacque rolls 5 to research occult (Int + occ - 1) (10 Again)	1, 3, 7, 2, 6	failure
2024-04-09 12:10:54	[02] Jacque rolls 5 to research occult (Int + occ - 1) (10 Again)	8, 10, 3, 3, 10, 2, 9	4 successes
2024-04-09 12:10:54	[01] Jacque rolls 5 to research occult (Int + occ - 1) (10 Again)	1, 3, 7, 9, 6	1 success

[Albert Baker]

​Al nodded with a small smile as this promised to be... interesting.

"Splendid. It'll take a moment to get the books into the van and then we'll be ready to see the animal in question."

He disappeared inside the building and after quite a while reappeared with something that resembled a wall trunk on wheels. With some difficulty he put it in the back of his van before returning to the gazebo.

"Well, then. Ready when you are, Mr. Krait."

[Seryna]

As the research was started, the first text read was “Cats and Witches, a Magical History.”
An excerpt follows: Of all the ancient civilizations that revered cats, Egypt is perhaps the most well-known for it. Cats were held in such esteem that their souls were thought to encounter the same afterlife as human souls. Many tomb paintings feature cats alongside human families. While often portrayed as hunting companions, cats are also depicted as companions and housecats, residing comfortably besides their owners in domestic settings. There was no distinction between a wild or domestic cat – all cats were welcome in the home.

Cats were connected with feminine deities. Two widely venerated Egyptian goddesses, Bastet and Sekhmet, are feline deities. Bastet is quite literally the goddess of cats, depicted as a cat or a woman with the head of a cat, and presides over the home, fertility, and protection. To harm a cat was considered a crime against Bastet herself. Cats were considered incarnations of the goddess, and were kept by priests at her temple. And Sekhmet, depicted with the head of a lion, is the the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians and protector of Pharoahs, leading them into warfare.

Both daughters of the Sun god Ra, Bastet and Sekhmet are associated with the Eye of Ra, also known as the All-Seeing Eye. It is regarded as a symbol of protection, but also associated with the destructive heat of the sun. Cats were viewed with a similarly dual nature: domestic companions that protected the home, and lethal predators.’
Further reading turned up this information: “in the 14th century, black cats were reportedly worshiped as gods as some. As time went on, their reputation quickly changed. During the Middle Ages, the black cat became affiliated with evil. Theories on this today conclude this stemmed from the cats being nocturnal animals.
Cats are nocturnal and roam the night, which lead to the belief among the superstitious people that they were supernatural servants to witches. When the black cat was linked to the devil, it lead to many of them being killed during the Black Death pandemic (although the cats were actually helping to kill the rats that spread the plague).”
The promising tome that was turned to yet yielded up “There have been many superstitions regarding cats and the ill, sick and young babies. The term ‘witch cat’ has been coined to refer to a cat that steals the breath of those unable to fend off a cat. Common sense tells that the cat likely investigates the smell of milk on a baby’s breath. Cats have been known to visit those close to death and depart soon after a person’s passing.
There have been some accounts of people claiming to be students of magic that cats who serve as familiars to a witch can perform certain magical acts, such as conveying magic or life force from a mortal to a witch.

[Albert Baker]

Upon another thought Al put on some white gloves and took a few of the old tomes out of their storage again, looking for information on the subject to be found.

Roll 1

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-04-17 16:21:10	Albert Baker rolls 6 to Int+Occ -1 (10 Again)	8, 8, 5, 5, 3, 3	2 successes

Roll 2

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-04-17 16:25:56	Albert Baker rolls 6 to Int+Occ -1 (10 Again)	1, 6, 8, 4, 1, 7	1 success

Roll 3

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-04-17 16:26:38	Someone rolls 6 to Int+Occ -1 (10 Again)	2, 2, 4, 4, 6, 3	failure

Roll 4

6 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2024-04-17 16:27:24	Albert Baker rolls 6 to Int+Occ -1 (10 Again)	8, 9, 10, 9, 8, 3, 10, 4	6 successes

[Jacque]

"Hmm, listen to this:" the Lord announced as his finger traced the lines of the tome.

"There have been many superstitions regarding cats and the ill, sick and young babies. The term ‘witch cat’ has been coined to refer to a cat that steals the breath of those unable to fend off a cat. Common sense tells that the cat likely investigates the smell of milk on a baby’s breath. Cats have been known to visit those close to death and depart soon after a person’s passing. There have been some accounts of people claiming to be students of magic that cats who serve as familiars to a witch can perform certain magical acts, such as conveying magic or life force from a mortal to a witch."

His eyes lift to Albert, "The earliest signs of the cat was the trend that cattle that had been fed from were turning up dead shortly after. This superstition would fit that scenario almost perfectly." Eyebrows lifted to Albert to query his opinion.