Shadows of San Fran: Friendly Counsel

[Skye]

Chuckling now that was a good description of the woman.
”Ill see if my plans will work with him, but do not want Athena to counted out until we know what happened. I have a bigger belief in her than Anubis myself.”

Softening her look ever so slightly with a shake of the head. ”That proclamation was the right thing, especially had the meeting gone of as intended. If they start to get involved in sorting disputes for independent ones, and handles Consilia affairs for the city in general so will that give a bad look.” And having seen the woman flaring up was not exactly unpleasant.

Shifting her look over towards the Hierarch.
”Apologies, digging to deep into a web before you´re ready is not wise, thanks for stopping my racing mind.” Taking a deep breath, knowing she would just try and spread herself to thin if she kept to many thoughts swirling for this.

Rolling her eyes with a sigh.
”The last fool has not yet been born.” Unfortunately enough for them in this situation. ”That is the operative word there, might not. But suspicions would be far from unlikely, and that is why I want to use it.” With limited skills unfortunately. ”If I manage to meet with Leo and he tries to indicate it to confirm it for himself then there is a chance he is trying to make me spill information about myself to ensure their suspicions. And whilst he might just be personally curious so will establishing a baseline where he speaks and where they speak be instrumental to know if he is just trying to use the situation to fool me and gather intel.” Finding that difference though would likely need her to run the evening back far to many times.

Turning her gaze towards her own Councilor.
”No, I have dealt with the physical injury caused by Athena, please consider the spiritual matter as completely unknown and untouched. Knowing she would have been fully unable to do anything about it herself. ”It was there at all times, had a tug of war with it whilst trying to pull Duke out from its grasp, it did however never actually touch me to cause this affliction.”

[Aurora]

The raised eyebrows didn’t bother her, “It’s a valid question. Ghosts and spirits cause different ailments, and not knowing Jinx saw anything, and not knowing if you have the ability to see spirits outside of having him there, it’s important.” Her tone emotionless and to the point.

Nodding to the bird, “Thank you.”

Then back to Thirteen, “Glad it’s not a spider, I hate those things.” But she wasn’t completely sure about what she describing. It wasn’t something she had come across.

She then stands and crosses her arms as the back and forth continues, “I was under the impression that this was a pressing matter?” looking from the other two to Skye. “If you guys want me to come back, I can.” But no one else was acting like Skyes condition was a huge thing. And if they don’t think it was, then who was she to question them.

The urge to roll her eyes and throw up her arms was strong, why would you not look at the spirit part of things, “You have studied spirit right? You do know how important and valuable it would have been to take the time to look at it before calling me right? If what is afflicting you is life threatening, eliminating every possibility while calling me would save valuable time.” would have saved her time and let her use other spells. “Tell me, if you had a tug of war with it while trying to pull whatever out of its grasp, how did it actually never actually touch you to cause this?” her arms still crossed.

But she still had a job she agreed to do, and calls upon a different Arcana, wanting to see something.

4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-04-26 11:32:47	Aurora rolls 9 to Supernal Vision(Gnosis+Arcana) (10 Again)	8, 2, 5, 2, 6, 8, 10, 7, 10, 7, 6	4 successes

[Thirteen]

Agreeing with Chamber's points, she merely nodded and left it at that. The Libertine didn't have anything more to add there.

Instead, she looked towards Aurora, "Another point, the leader of the Goldies used vulgar Spirit magic to try and control the beastie. Bright yellow glyphs. It was a tough one, too. Her first attempt failed. As did a curse I threw at it." That had been deeply annoying. "Eventually, she brought it to heel."

The Enchantress gave Skye a baffled look, "Not count Athena out? Girl, she tried to feckin' murder you!" The redhead replayed events with the spirit in her head, trying to recall the exact moment the tendrils had made contact with the Arrow... and she came up with nothing. "Damn, you're right, though. It never had physical contact with you. But it did do somethin'. I remember it pulled itself up over the door frame, I think to get a clear look at the area, and it seemed to focus on you. My Unseen Senses tingled, and then you immediately went grey. It used some sort of magic. A numen or somethin'."

"Sorry," she held up an apologetic hand to the Master Shaman, "Didn't mean to distract."

"Yeah! Sorry!" Jinx added, in a whisper.

[Chambers]

Inclined to agree with Thirteen on the matter of this Athena who by the sounds of it had attempted murder in the streets that night. "She sounds frankly volatile and dangerous, not someone we would want to extend any measure of trust to." Not when they had notably better sounding options.

Auroras reprimand was rather valid he felt. "I wasn't there, I'm getting filled in on the details same as you." And consequently it was not his place to answer any questions about what had actually happened, those who had been present would know best. "But yes I would say it is a pressing matter." A sharp look of his own given to Skye, having had to coerce to heal a bleeding wound already that night. He had also told the arrow to start diagnostics herself, something she had refused. "One of several." His voice carrying some of heaviness of a mind trying to juggle and download a great many things.

A nod to Thirteens direction as she provides an actual explanation. "A Numina or maybe exerting its influence. Those would be the most likely causes." Even he as a Moros had a basic enough grasp of spirit to narrow it down to that. And if it was powerful as seemed to be the implication, either of those was not a good outcome.

[ReubanBrightwood]

Aurora invokes her will and brings the world around her to life as supernal vision enhances her senses to all things magical. The circle itself despite being clearly, and obviously magical is so well cloaked it appears to be utterly mundane even under this most powerful of tools. Void of resonance, void of magic , void of well everything really, and that complete absence stands out almost as if it was a bright blazing beacon of magic.

To get a good look at Skye, her condition, the resonance around her and what could be affecting her, Aurora will need to perform the act of scrutiny and/or other magics.

Anyone with mage site up can make these checks if they want to as they are reflexive:


Around chambers:
Wits+occult -5
Wits+occult -4
wits+occult -12

Around Thirteen:
Wits+occult -6
Wits+occult -6

Around Skye:
Wits+occult -3
Wits+occult -3
Wits+occult -8
Wits+occult -7

Around Aurora:
Wits+occult -16
Wits+occult -16

[Skye]

”She did yes, but until we know the full story of what exactly transpired up there should we be ready to judge her ?” Who knew what had happened? ”We have time and again spoken about a possibility of what Cartwrights death might have meant. Yet we have not gone into the thought of how he likely died and its effect on an individual, if he is dead Athena is a likely cause. Before that she was not instantly to wanna kill us, recall the words.” Giving a pause for the Enchantress to recall the moment. ”Leo saying Athena no, and her answer we need to. Why did she choose those words? Until we have managed to see what happened or understand so are there to many unknowns to give anything a certainty. That is not to say that she shouldn't be considered dangerous and heavily unlikely, but I prefer a full understanding before counting anything out.”

Feeling the weight of the look, knowing it was being dragged out for to long and well the discussion had calmed down more than enough to actually begin focusing.

Locking her eyes upon her Councilor.
”Apologies I do am downplaying matters that is true, the matter is more pressing than I show.” Not exactly having wanted to let her duties of reporting and following along in the talks be put secondary, rather put herself there foolish as it were. ”My proficiency of the Spirit arcana has not improved much since last I told you my degree of mastery in it no, regretfully leaving this fully out of my grasp to be able to affect.” Not certain if she recalled what she had said during the meeting, nor really believing they had all told all there was for that matter. ”It did not need physical contact to enact this affliction, from what we gathered it could use its tendrils to grab and pull, or do this more in a sight ranged manner numina, if memory serves it was the same for Cartwright it went for this first, then attempted to grab him after.”

”I will need to chant a bit, my current state is making it a bit harder to resist the contagion on at the moment” Finding it best to warn them before starting to weave the imago a quill from the symbols floating in the air around them to shot into her eyes.

Spirit tongue, 3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-04-27 11:24:55	Skye rolls 6 to Spirit tongue (Spirit+gnosis+ex+HS-3/tol) (10 Again)	5, 6, 9, 9, 8, 5	3 successes

”I can begin and look into how it registers physically but the spiritual is as said beyond what I can do more than this about.”
Beginning to draw her ever trusted allies to herself, wrapping her body in them, knowing this might take her a while still she had said she would do it and breaking her word was not her style.

Healers trance self, 1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-04-27 11:28:11	Skye rolls 8 to healers trance (life+gnosis+ex+hs-4/tol) (10 Again)	3, 8, 1, 2, 5, 7, 1, 7	1 success

[Aurora]

Nodding to Thirteen, “Vulgar?” sighing, “Ok, thank you. Always with the vulgar magic.” Shaking her head, “But good to know.” See, someone had the right idea, filling in her in on the important information. The stuff she needed to know.

Spirits had other ways to attack, it was why she brought it up. And the blonde nodded to Thirteen. “Spirits can be nasty to fight against, and don’t always play fair.” It’s why there were different ways to protect against an attack from them.

Shaking her head to Thirteen and then to Jinx, “No, you have both given me very important information about what happened, information I need to narrow down a very wide scope of spells to cast. So I thank you for that.” Not wanting them to believe her frustration was directed at them.

To Chambers, “I’m only concerned with the spirit and what it did and didn’t do. I don’t care right now about anything else that happened. All that is background noise for me. I have one pressing matter that I need to focus on, once that handled, then I can leave and you guys can go back to everything else.” Once she knew her fellow Shaman wasn’t going to die, she could relax. But right now, she needed that handled.

“Either one of those is a strong possibility. Which could have been looked into on the way here and either eliminated or confirmed.” Cause if it had been herself, she would have been casting before the car started to know what the fuck was going on. Fuck everything else.

First time cast means it takes her a second to adjust. The Circle was…new…but not unexpected. They were safe here, which means it wouldn’t stand out, it would be cloaked and even she wouldn’t even be able to pierce it. It brought an odd sense of comfort to her.

A heavy sigh, “Why? Why are you downplaying what very well could be a life-or-death situation for you? You don’t know if what you are afflicted with could kill you in a matter of days or hell, even hours. And you are playing it off like it is nothing.” She emphasized the word nothing, making sure Skye knew the gravity of it. “Your life is nothing to take lightly and toss aside to give a fucking report and play with. I cannot tell you or make you do things differently, because you’re an adult, but know this, I take others lives very seriously, including yours, and I expect them to take their lives seriously as well. If you don’t care what happens to you, and want to throw your life away, then don’t expect me to care what happens in the future and come running.” Her eyes set and cold. “I’ve seen very good friends die, and I refuse to see it happen again due to you simply not caring or thinking giving a report was more fucking important than your own life.” She would not watch someone die again.

“I won’t lie or sugar coat it, I don’t care what it did to this Cartwright person, they are not my concern. You are my concern; they can be dead as far as I care.” Harsh? Yes, but it was true.

“How many active spells do you have on you currently Skye?” she knew how many she saw, but which were Skye’s? Were any not hers?

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-04-30 10:43:15	Aurora rolls 10 to Spirit Tongue(Gnosis+Arcana) (10 Again)	5, 5, 5, 1, 3, 2, 5, 5, 9, 6	1 success

Spells

Mana: 14
WP: 4
Vulgar 0
Spell Tolerance: 3/4
[5] Pulse of the Living World (Mage Sight)
[5] Organic Resilience (Armor 16)
Spirit Tongue


Spell Control: 3/8
[5] Second Sight (Mage Sight)
[5] Organic Resilience (Armor 16)
Spirit Tongue

[Thirteen]

She gave a nod to Aurora, and tried to add anything else she thought might help. "I think the spirit was the Goldies' guard dog. Set loose to subdue anyone in the buildin' that's not part of the Golden Consilium. It only ever came after me, Skye and this Duke bloke. All of us outsiders. The Goldie leader had to work damn hard to get it to back off of just Duke. Her control was... tenuous."

"Who let the dogs out?" Jinx sang, and he might have launched into a full rendition, but a look from Thirteen nipped that performance in the bud.

The Arrow, meanwhile, received an incredulous look, "That psycho-bitch bulled her way out the door and made a beeline for me first. She was intendin' to stab me. She diverted to you because you were closer after I moved to help Duke. So yes, I can damn well judge her! If her pinstriped arse comes anywhere near me again, I'm not goin' to give her another chance to gut me. I will shoot her in the face." The Acanthus was clearly a touch indignant about the situation. "The simple solution is she didn't want witnesses to their veil breaches and other feck ups. She was actin' to protect her pseudo-consilium. Occam's razor, Skye."

The crow looked at his mistress curiously, "Those home security upgrades coming sooner than planned?" Thirteen responded with a firm but silent nod.

[ReubanBrightwood]

Skye and Aurora both open their senses to the spiritual side of twilight in which yes the Circle of creation stands tall, solid, fixed but utterly devoid of essence, barren of resonance, they hazy shapeless grey scale stark and life less. If a spirit got trapped here it would be would certain to starve until it was forced back across the gauntlet.

Skye tries and fails to cast the healers trance, a spell that requires ritual casting (casting action: Extended) which in turn requires the creation of an Atlantean pentagram with optional sacraments.

[Chambers]

The hierarch's brow furrows, had Skye also taken leave of her senses? "I would be inclined to say Thirteen has the right of it. She attempt to murder both you." That was not the sign of a stable, reliable person. "If that is her go to when problems begin to stack up, she is dangerous." While he does not condone the use of lethal force himself, he also does not speak up to stop Thirteen's declaration of shoot first sort it out later. "Mages will go to great lengths to cover their folly, hubris, mistakes." Often resulting in a spiral of catastrophes but there you go.

Torn between snapping back at Aurora or being grateful she was prioritizing the most immediate issue at hand that could be resolved, he chooses patience and calm, steadying to keep an even keel, as best can, with so much running through his own head. "And I am very grateful you are hear to apply to your great expertise." Best leave it at that and keep focusing on the rest with Thirteen as Skye received ministrations.