Amber of York: session 22, 1/17/2006
Role call:
- Dan: Laurens of Rocque
- Brad: Thomas Gray
- Brett: Gwynedd
Alan: Sir Martin Neville- Patrick: Gabriel of Brittany
- Makul: Donal Rourke
- Mike: Vivienne Avondale
- Dave:
SirEric of Devonshire
Three Ways of Seeing
Start Date: Morning, Monday, May 28th, 1431
Team Good
The ruins of the covenant outside of non-existent Egremont.
Gwynedd is fixing the damage wrought by V/Q. Gabriel is searching through the ruins for books and baubles that can help free Quillius. Egremont gets the look of a stirred fire pit. Gwynedd helps Gabriel after she finishes. They find useful stuff and set it aside.
Team Looking for a Path
Sir Martin and Sir Eric are searching for survivors of Egremont.
Team Evil with Team Huh?
York Castle, Quillius’ chambers
Gabriel gave his report in a message to Thomas who delivered it to the Chancellor.
Vivienne has Thomas begin sketching Quillius. She begins scouring the library for information. Laurens has joined them.
Thomas: “I guess a sketch is a good start. We can do something more significant with it later like make sure we don’t pull Vincent.”
Laurens: “How long is this going to take?”
Vivienne: “I don’t know. We’ll have to see what we can find out.”
Vivienne remembers a glass sphere that she is to use if things get particularly bad. She continues looking through the library for spells that will help with the separation. She also looks for books that mention using Thomas’ talents.
Laurens: “You are going to have to think in broader terms. Because, if there was a book that described how to get a possessing spirit out of someone, odds are you would have used it on Vincent.”
Vivienne: “That’s true.”
Vivienne is uncertain her search will be fruitful. She is becoming desperate.
Laurens goes to threaten guards to find out where the prisoner is. They have heard that he is coming, but that is all. He tells them to hurry up. When he gets bored with taunting the guards, he goes to see the Duke.
Laurens arrives in the Duke’s chambers to see him eating breakfast and reading a letter.
Duke: “Greetings, Laurens.”
Laurens: “Greetings, your Grace. Quillius has been possessed and sealed in a vault. We are endeavoring to separate the evil spirit from him and free him from the vault.”
Duke: “We?”
Laurens: “Well, the members of the group who are proficient at the arcane arts.”
Duke: “What chance of success do you think they have?”
Laurens: “They’re still evaluating that. They don’t seem to know what they’re doing right now. I don’t know if there is any other outside aid you might bring to them. But under the circumstances of ...”
Laurens gives a report of what happened.
Duke: “Well, if they remain at a loss, I can certainly think of one at least who’d lay claim to being able to remove spirits.”
Laurens: “Who’s that?”
Duke: “The Archbishop.”
Laurens: “Hmm. Quillius didn’t really seek his aid originally with the boy.”
Duke: “No. Quillius has a blind spot when it comes to things like that.”
Laurens: “Will the Archbishop be willing to aid Quillius like that?”
Duke: “I think the Archbishop could see some benefits to that. But, give your people their chance. Keep me up to date.”
Laurens: “Very well.”
The Duke goes back to eating. Laurens leaves and returns to Quillius’ chambers.
Vivienne sets up a spell of protection then tries to scry into the vault containing Quillius. When Thomas sees Vivienne start working the spells he moves further away. Vivienne is trying to see if any of the separation intended in the original spells worked.
When the scrying is cast Vivienne sees the ruins of the covenant. There she sees Gabriel and Gwynedd digging in the rubble and “moving” rocks out of the way. She is unable to see into the chamber at all. She closes the spell and lets it go.
Vivienne: “I tried to scry into the chamber to see if any of our attempt to actually separate Quillius from Vincent worked and perhaps retrieving Quillius would be simpler, but I can’t even see into the chamber.”
Thomas: “Huh?”
Laurens: “That’s good. You sealed the chamber very well.”
Vivienne: “Maybe too well.”
Laurens: “We should see if after the Artist finishes his sketch whether we can make contact with him.”
Vivienne: “Okay.”
Thomas: “Huh?”
Vivienne: “Finish your drawing.”
Sir Eric has seen Sir Martin change into several different forms. The latest is a fox which bounded further off into the woods. Eric searches on his own. He comes across a small boy.
Eric: “Hello, there.”
Boy in a daze: “Hello.”
Eric: “Is your family about?”
Boy: “I don’t know.”
Eric: “Did you get separated from them? When was the last time you saw your dad?”
Boy: “I don’t know my dad.”
Eric: “When was the last time you saw your mother?”
Boy: “She melted.”
Eric: “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Boy: “... Yes.”
Eric: “Do you know when you saw them last?”
Boy: “I don’t remember. Can I go home now?”
Eric: “Why don’t you come with me. We’ll see if we can find your brothers and sisters. Do you have a brother?”
Boy: “Yeah.”
Eric: “Older brother or younger brother?”
Boy: “Older.”
Eric: “How much older?”
Boy: “Five seasons.”
Eric: “That’s quite a bit older. Why don’t we see if we can find your brother.”
Eric picks up the boy and puts him up on the horse. Together they head to the nearest town, Cockermouth. He looks for other refugees along the way. He gets the boy food and tries to coax more family information out of him.
The Dolmens were south and a little east near Morcamb Bay.
When Eric and the boy arrive at Cockermouth, they head for the local church. Eric tells the priest that the town was burnt to the ground.
Priest: “Egremont was burned? By whom and how?”
Eric: “I don’t know the details.”
Eric tells the priest that when he arrived the town was burned to the ground. Eric hands off the boy.
Eric: “As we’re finding refugees, I’d like to send them this way until we get things settled.”
Priest: “Of course.”
Eric: “And possibly rebuild the town.”
Priest: “But, I must understand. Is there some danger to our town as well? Were these pirates that attacked?”
Eric: “I don’t know.”
Priest: “What sign did you see?”
Eric: “I saw the smoking ruins of the town.”
Priest: “No sign of attack? No sign of ...”
Eric: “None that I could see.”
Priest: “I must understand for the safety of my town as well.”
Eric: “And I understand that. And I don’t know what caused the tragedy. I couldn’t see signs one way or another whether there ... what sort of force may have done it. Or even whether or not it was a massive accident. I don’t know.”
Priest: “Very well then, Sir Knight. Return to seeking for more. I will ... I will question the boy.”
Eric: “Thank you.”
The priest starts talking to the boy about what happened. Eric heads out of town back toward Egremont.
Gwynedd and Gabriel continue to sift through the rubble for useful books and baubles. Gwynedd occasionally has to tell Gabriel not to put items next to each other. Gabriel listens every time. When they get hungry, they happen to reveal some food under the rubble.
Thomas finishes the sketch of Quillius.
Thomas: “I have these wonderful ideas. Oh, so wonderful ideas! Boiling/distillation helps to separate ...”
Vivienne finishes her search and finds nothing of use.
Laurens: “So, there is nothing here that will aid you?”
Vivienne: “No.”
Laurens: “If there is nothing here to aid you, we should go back.”
Vivienne: “Quillius left an object that I should use if the situation became dire.”
Laurens: “Do you know what it does?”
Vivienne: “I have no idea.”
Laurens: “Great. Okay. We should go back to the site and try the Artist’s card.”
Thomas: “... And you wear the helmet. And then we have the prism, to focus, so we only pull Quillius ...”
Vivienne: “Maybe later.”
Laurens: “If there is nothing here to aid you, I don’t want to open a portal or whatever it is into the sanctum into the middle of York inside the Duke’s castle.”
Thomas: “If Vivienne’s going to do it, I need to turn this into a painting.”
Laurens: “Oh, you can do it.”
Vivienne: “I can do it. You’ll make it more powerful.”
Thomas: “Yeah, the painting will be more powerful.”
Laurens pulls Vivienne aside.
Laurens: “He’s expendable.”
Vivienne: “I think if you let him do it, he’ll be expended.”
The two turn back to Thomas.
Laurens: “All right, how long will it take you to turn it into a painting?”
Thomas: “Two or three days.”
Vivienne: “Let’s see what we can learn with the sketch if anything.”
Laurens: “Well, he is the only one who can use it if anything. And if whatever is on the other side decides to launch into a battle of wills ...”
Thomas: “I’ll fight them off valiantly.”
Laurens: “Yeah, okay. In about three or four days we’ll be heading there.”
Vivienne: “Very well.”
Laurens: “I just hope Quillius’ soul is not torn apart by then.”
Vivienne: “Me too.”
Thomas: “We need some soul thread to put him back together.”
Laurens: “The Duke had the suggestion of seeking out the Archbishop to see if he could exorcise the demon out of Quillius. Now, in gauging whether you should seek out the Archbishop or consult the sphere, Quillius might consider that a dire circumstance. So, if you have a little bit of an ambiguity about whether you should consult the sphere or not, my guess is you can safely consult the sphere.”
Vivienne: “There is little reason to trust the church.”
Vivienne sighs.
Vivienne: “Well, we can have Thomas finish his painting and I can see what I can learn from the sphere.”
Thomas returns to his quarters to create the painting. Vivienne goes to consult the sphere.
Laurens: “Don’t get distracted. You need to paint. Quillius will be very upset if he’s trapped forever in eternal damnation with an evil spirit inside a vault.”
Vivienne: “I’ll be very upset.”
Vivienne goes to the sphere and picks it up. She focuses on it. It begins to warm in her hand. Then, Vivienne feels a presence through the sphere similar to one of Thomas’ cards. She hears a woman’s voice in French.
Woman: “Hello? Quillius?”
Vivienne: “This is Vivienne. I’m his apprentice.”
Woman: “Vivienne, you were but a child when last we met. You feel much stronger now.”
Vivienne: “Who am I speaking to?”
Woman: “Unimportant. Names are such a fluid thing. But, if you need one, you may call me Veronique.”
Vivienne: “Veronique. Ah, Quillius is in some trouble ...”
Veronique: “When is Quillius not in trouble?”
Vivienne: “When was he last possessed by an ancient spirit and sealed into a cavern that I can’t access anymore.”
Veronique: “I’ll be right there.”
The sphere goes cold.
There is a knock at the door. There is a woman standing there. She is very attractive. She looks like she is in her mid to late twenties. Well made up. Her hair is long brown with hints of auburn.
Vivienne: “Come in.”
Veronique walks in.
Veronique: “Explain this to me. What did you do to him? And be very careful in your answer.”
Laurens: “Yes, Vivienne, what did you do to Quillius?”
Veronique: “Who is this?”
Vivienne: “This is Laurens of Rocque. He works for the Duke.”
Laurens: “I work for Quillius. And then the Duke.”
Veronique: “Laurens of Rocque, your reputation precedes you. How much of it is true?”
Laurens: “In a sense, it’s all true. And in another sense, it’s all false.”
Veronique: “I love mysteries.”
Vivienne tries to quickly bring her up to speed. Starting with Leeds and ending with the sealed font in Egremont.
Veronique: “How were you able to achieve this. You couldn’t even detect its nature? How were you able to seal this thing.”
Vivienne: “With some assistance from others in our company.”
Veronique: “I don’t remember this in the stories.”
Laurens: “It seems that fate has driven me toward working in a group.”
Veronique: “How unlike you.”
Laurens: “Very.”
Vivienne: “Quillius’ hand brought us together some time ago.”
Veronique: “Well, let me meet these others, then.”
Vivienne: “They’re still in Egremont.”
Veronique: “Well, I suppose we need to travel there.”
Vivienne: “Should I bring Thomas?”
Laurens: “Sure. I don’t think we need the picture anymore.”
Vivienne: “Oh, and Donal is in York, too.”
Donal returned to the Brothel to see whether Catherine has considered his offer to relocate and get her away from the attention she would get if she remains in York. She’s not against the offer, but she has been in York a long time.
Donal: “It’s going to be uncomfortable for you here, now.”
Catherine: “Really? You’ve seen what I can do. A new face, a new place. I’ll be back in business in relatively short order.”
Donal: “A relatively nice new place. Suffolk is a beautiful town.”
Catherine: “Not exactly the center of power that this is.”
Donal: “There are a lot of bad things in this town.”
Catherine: “I know. I’m one of them.”
Donal: “That’s the problem.”
Catherine: “Are you trying to make this town nicer?”
Donal: “There are people who will be making this town nicer.”
Catherine: “We’ll see.”
Donal: “You’d only be able to hide for so long.”
Catherine: “You’re this determined to be rid of me.”
Donal: “I am this determined to deal with you as a potential problem.”
Catherine: “Certainly there are better ways of dealing with that than being rid of me.”
Donal: “Not that I trust.”
Catherine: “I’m sure we can think of a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
Donal: “I’m sure there are many arrangements which would be quite beneficial for you.”
Catherine: “And you.”
Donal: “But, they don’t meet my goals.”
Catherine: “What are your goals?”
Donal: “I don’t know if thats of any concern of yours.”
Catherine: “Perhaps, I could help with them. Perhaps, they will coincide with mine.”
* Dan: “Dude! Kill her!” *
* Makul: “That didn’t go so well last time.” *
* Dan: “But, now I have a magic sword.” *
Donal: “You bring a little too much chaos to the playing field.”
Catherine: “I always thought a little chaos improved the playing field for people like us.”
Donal: “I don’t have any confidence that I could trust nor direct what you bring to the game.”
Catherine: “Sometimes, I take orders very well.”
Donal sighs.
Donal: “And I’m sure that sometimes you take orders and do your own thing regardless.”
Catherine: “I have to be mysterious.”
Donal: “See there you go. No actually you don’t.” A thoughtful pause. “What are you gaining by affecting you clients.”
Catherine: “Information. Good times.”
Donal: “There has to be more to it for you.”
Catherine: “Thrill. Adventure. Joyous banter.”
Donal: “The fact that you didn’t come and talk to me to begin with ...”
Catherine: “When would to begin with be in fact? I have been here longer than you by a lot.”
Donal: “Then you know what I’ve been doing in the city.”
Catherine: “Bits and pieces. I’m curious to hear more.”
Donal: “And you’ve been keeping to yourself the entire time?”
Catherine: “I didn’t want to seem too forward. But, now you’ve approached me ... Coming in like a priest with your ‘Begone foul beast.’ Where’s your sense of adventure?” A silence. “I have a proposal. We can play for awhile. I tell you a secret then you tell me a secret. If it stops being fun, I’ll leave town.”
Donal: “I came to talk to you to give you the opportunity to get out of here safely. I don’t know how long you can work within the town without drawing greater attention than just me. I will be the only one to talk to you.”
Catherine: “Understood. Thank you for the warning. I have my escape plans if I need to use them. So far, I don’t feel threatened enough. I’d still like to play, though.”
Donal: “A secret shared is no long a secret.”
Catherine: “You haven’t shared any secrets.”
Donal: “If you need to reach me, you can send a message to the docks.”
Catherine: “Okay.”
Vivienne, Laurens and Veronique go to Thomas’ room. Laurens knocks.
Thomas: “What I’m working as fast as I can. Oh, hi, Laurens.”
They walk in. The cat hisses at Laurens. Veronique looks around at Thomas’ work.
Veronique: “These are beautiful.”
Thomas: “Thank you.”
Thomas gets up to show her some of Lansing.
Thomas: “There’s a beautiful one here with a moor.”
Veronique: “I’m a true admirer of art.”
She looks over and sees the book and the cat. She pets the cat. It doesn’t hiss.
* Brad: “Of course. She’s a person of quality.” *
Vivienne introduces Veronique and explains Thomas’ part.
Vivienne: “It involved polishing the cavern walls.”
Veronique: “Polishing?”
Thomas: “An inner looking image. By polishing the walls it creates an image of the inside of the cavern to make everything outside reflect back inside. Increasing the influences.”
Laurens: “Kind of like the inside of your skull.”
Veronique: “I see.”
Thomas: “So the contents are constantly translating back inside themselves.”
Veronique: “Interesting. I look forward to seeing this up close. And what are we going to do now? Are we done?”
Laurens: “We have one more that we need to find.”
Vivienne: “Donal? We can summon him to Egremont ...”
Veronique: “Are we taking a slow method of doing this? Where is Donal?”
Laurens: “That’s a good question.”
Veronique: “Can you not seek him? What has Quillius been teaching you.”
Laurens: “That’s what I’d like to know. "
Vivienne: “I could cast a spell and seek him out that way which I will do.”
She beings chanting. 10 seconds in Veronique interrupts.
Veronique: “No. With your mind. You don’t need a spell. What I sensed upon your contact was much more than this. Send a summons. Bring this Donal to you.”
Vivienne: “All right.”
Vivienne concentrates and seeks out Donal’s mind inside of York. She singles him out from the other rather quickly. She senses Donal walking in the streets.
Donal’s amulet tingles. He tries to lock down his mind.
Vivienne loses the sensation. She gets a dull sense of where he is. She feels like she could walk there.
Vivienne: “I know where he is. But, he’s shielded. I can’t seem to get through to him.”
Veronique sighs.
Veronique: “Give me a sense of him.”
Vivienne does. Veronique concentrates.
Donal is holding the amulet as he’s walking down the street. The amulet shatters in his hand. He has shards embedded into his palm and fingers. He suddenly feels a very strong compulsion to run as fast as he can back to the castle. He begins running back to the castle with all speed. He is using all of his skill to get through the crowds. He approaches the castle and breezes right past the guards. He finally arrives at Thomas’ room and knocks.
Thomas: “Come in.”
Donal enters and the compulsion leaves him.
Donal: “What was that? And who are you?”
Thomas: “Do you need a bandage for that hand?”
Donal: “The uh ... locket didn’t hold up.”
Thomas: “Huh.”
Veronique: “You didn’t tell me he was fair to look upon.”
Donal: “Who are you?”
Veronique: “You may call me Veronique.”
Donal: “And, who are you, Veronique.”
Veronique: “Apparently, in the midst of this company, Quillius’ savior.”
Thomas gives Donal a clean towel for his hand.
Veronique: “I apologize. It was urgent. They told me you are necessary for this. And seemed unable to contact you themselves.”
Donal: “That was you poking around in my head?”
Vivienne: “I was trying to contact you.”
Donal whispers to Vivienne: “You should figure out a different method for that.”
Donal: “Why am I needed?”
Laurens: “We must go save Quillius. You are part of the covenant. You took the oath.”
Donal: “And, she’s going to help us?”
Laurens: “In case of dire situations, Vivienne consulted a crystal ball, and it lead to Veronique. If this all goes badly, it’s Vivienne’s fault.”
After eating lunch Gabriel and Gwynedd are back to work. At one point they both get the weirdest sensation of being watched. Gabriel looks around, but the feeling is gone as soon as it came. Gwynedd had the feeling of some sort of magickal something. It went away before she could analyze it.
Gabriel: “You felt something, too?”
Gwynedd: “Yeah.”
Gabriel: “... I mean ... It’s bound, right?”
Gwynedd: “I don’t think it was what’s in there. We might have attracted some attention with what we did.”
Gabriel: “Or with what it did.”
Gwynedd: “Yeah.”
Gwynedd and Gabriel both decide to stay more aware in their various ways of their environment. Gabriel gathers up the stuff and makes it ready to be moved.
Vivienne: “Let’s go to Egremont.”
Donal is staring at Veronique. She turns and looks at him.
Veronique: “Did you not accept my apology? They said you were needed. If you’re not, then go back to what you were doing.”
Donal: “Sorry, who exactly are you again? Quillius’ savior?”
Veronique: “Apparently. I’m still not clear on all the details on how he got himself into this mess.”
Donal: “We’re taking her back to the site?”
Laurens and Vivienne nod.
Donal: “Okay.” Thinks. “What part of France are you from?”
Veronique: “Who said I was from France?”
* Patrick: “Your outrageous french accent.” *
Donal: “I’m sorry where are you from then? I just took from your language that you’re from the other side of the channel.”
Veronique: “I think most of us are from the other side of the channel. Are you going to be helpful in this or no.”
Donal: “Extremely helpful.”
Veronique: “Excellent. Anyone else?”
Vivienne: “No.”
Veronique: “Then should we be going or would you like to leave him there longer?”
Vivienne: “Let’s go.”
Laurens prepares for the ultimate betrayal so he loosens the sword in its scabbard.
Donal: “What are we waiting for?”
Laurens: “Nothing. Let’s go.”
Veronique turns and looks at Vivienne. Thomas does as well. Vivienne sighs.
Donal hands Laurens back his “improved” sword.
Donal: “I’m not going to use this. It’s really, really not my usual style.”
Thomas points at the sketch. Veronique seems to be getting impatient.
Vivienne: “Thomas has a sketch.”
Veronique turns around. “Interesting.”
Donal tries to assess Veronique’s attitude toward each person present.
Veronique: “One of Devereaux’s students?”
Thomas: “Why yes.”
Veronique: “Excellent. Take us.”
Thomas decides to take Laurens and Veronique first because of how difficult it is take Laurens. The rest he will pull there. Thomas concentrates on the picture it comes to life.
Veronique: “Splendid.”
Thomas, Veronique and Laurens appear at the compound.
Gabriel and Gwynedd get a prickling feeling. Gabriel turns to face the feeling with a dagger at the ready. Gwynedd recognizes the feeling. They see Thomas appear out of nowhere and stumble followed by Laurens and Veronique.
Vivienne: “I stayed here in case we need to teleport.”
Donal: “You shouldn’t take her attitude. ... It’s the classic power trip. She’s holding it over your head, so you don’t know what your doing.”
Vivienne: “No. I don’t know what I’m doing it.”
Donal: “She doesn’t know that.”
Vivienne: “...”
Gabriel: “What’s up Thomas? What’s up Laurens?”
Thomas: “Vivienne may have actually found someone who can help rescue Quillius. Why don’t I pull Vivienne through, and she can explain everything.”
Gwynedd sees a woman that looks very similar to Quillius. Thomas pulls out Vivienne’s sketch and begins pulling her through. Veronique sizes up both Gabriel and Gwynedd, looking at Gwynedd quizically. She bows.
Veronique: “Greetings. You may call me, Veronique.”
Gabriel: “I am Gabriel.”
Veronique: “Gabriel? I’m very pleased to meet you.”
Gwynedd introduces herself.
Veronique: “Gwynedd.”
Gabriel: “Where’s Vivienne, Thomas?”
Thomas: “I’m getting her now.”
Thomas: “Are you and Donal ready to go?”
Vivienne: “Yes.”
She extends her hand to Donal. Thomas pulls them through.
Thomas: “I’ll make you a new amulet.”
Donal: “Let’s talk about the cost next time.”
Veronique looks around. “What happened here?”
Laurens: “We don’t know exactly what happened. We found it this way. We found Quillius possessed by the spirit in the town that is now a pile of glass.”
Veronique: “I know this place. Or what it was. Why didn’t you restore it?”
Vivienne: “I didn’t know we could.”
Donal shoots Vivienne a look.
Thomas: “We wanted to show you what it looked like before we did anything.”
Donal: “We haven’t had time to deal with the rebuilding, yet.”
Laurens: “Actually, we capped the magical font as a way to seal the prison. So whether or not it can be restored without the font of energy is open to debate. In the meantime, that little bump in the ground over there is where Quillius is trapped underneath possessed by a spirit.”
Gwynedd: “The spirit wanted to open a gate to bring through others like him.”
Veronique: “I’m sure. Where’s Quillius now? Down there?”
Vivienne: “Yes.”
Veronique: “Then let’s go speak with him.”
Vivienne: “Open the seal?”
Veronique: “Is this too much for you?”
Vivienne: “I’m just concerned about the enemy within. It was hard enough to entrap in the first place.”
Veronique: “And you have no way to speak with him other than that?”
* Dan: “You’re never going to complain about Quillius, again.” *
Vivienne: “I tried a scrying spell, and it didn’t work.”
Veronique: “He(Thomas) made sure of that.”
Laurens pulls Vivienne aside. “Maybe you can try to touch his mind in the same way that you tried to touch ... Donal.”
Gabriel notes Donal’s hand. Donal recounts his passage to Thomas’ room. Gabriel asks him about going to see Catherine the Bawd. Donal explains a little.
Veronique: “That’s why trying a scrying spell wouldn’t work. He sealed everything in on itself.”
Vivienne: “All right. I could try contacting Quillius’ mind directly, but I’m concerned about ...”
Veronique: “Do you sense him now, then?”
Vivienne: “I can’t sense anything.”
Veronique: “Exactly. That won’t work. You left no opening when you two designed this prison?”
Vivienne: “There wasn’t much design to it.”
Laurens: “Actually Gwynedd helped ...”
Veronique: “And what did you contribute to this, Dragon Child?”
Gwynedd: “Structure, stories.”
Laurens: “You know she changed the rock, too. I’m the helpful one of the group.”
Vivienne: “At the time, we didn’t want to leave an opening.”
Gwynedd: “If you tell them a story maybe you’ll hear something in return.”
Veronique: “I’ll return shortly.”
Veronique gestures and the ground widens before her. She starts walking down, and it closes behind her.
Thomas: “Cool! Can you do ...”
Donal: “Where did you get the ...”
Gabriel: “Someone was watching here a while before you came. It felt like when you guys showed up, but different.”
Vivienne: “It was probably me. I was trying to see into the cavern.”
Gabriel: “Okay.”
Gwynedd: “She seems to be about as strong as Quillius. And she’s willing to use it.”
Donal: “You don’t know who this is?”
Laurens: “Apparently, she knows Vivienne. But, Vivienne doesn’t seem to remember her.”
Gabriel: “We found books and baubles that may be able to help.”
Donal: “May I see?”
Gabriel: “It’s all in the bag.” Then, realizing who asked, “Make sure they all stay in the bag.”
Gwynedd: “What happened to your hand?”
Donal: “Thomas?”
Eric of Devonshire comes riding up.
Thomas: “His mind became overwhelmed and the amulet sacrificed itself.”
Gabriel: “Interesting timing you have. Everyone arrived just before you did.”
Gwynedd unwraps Donal’s hand to take a look. She doesn’t think it is that bad.
Gabriel: “Where is Sir Martin?”
Eric: “He turned into a fox and ran off.”
Donal goes to throw rocks at targets.
Eric: “I did find a lone refugee and took him to the next town. Shaken obviously, but unharmed.”
Gwynedd followed Veronique’s progress into the vault. When she reached the vault, she seemed to vanish.
Gwynedd: “Umm, I don’t know where she is anymore.”
Thomas: “Probably within the mirror’s influences.”
Donal: “Can you sense Quillius?”
Gwynedd: “Quillius? There is stone and within the stone there is nothing I perceive. Past the boundary of the stone, nothing I ...”
Thomas: “He’d be really disappointed if we lost two people inside.”
Gwynedd tries to listen to the fire at the boundary and through the stories. She can’t hear the stories or sense the fires.
Gwynedd: “Can you check and see if this place is ours, anymore?”
Vivienne: “I can’t sense anything where the cavern is.”
Thomas is thinking that is obvious.
Time passes. Gabriel goes back to digging in the rubble. He is careful to hide his strength. Thomas gets a piece of stone and polishes it. He’s going to make a lens that sees into the vault using the sympathetic resonances.
Gwynedd: “Does anyone understand what we did?”
Vivienne: “Not I.”
Thomas: “Well, it’s obvious. We combined three completely incompatible schools of learning to create a giant monstrosity that somehow functions in strange and unusual ways.”
Gabriel: “So you made a giant mouse trap, a prison and a mirror, right?”
Gwynedd: “If our prison’s so good, how’s she suppose to get out?”
Gabriel: “Well, was it a one way in prison?”
Gwynedd: “Well, most of the castings were designed to hold the spirit. And there is the stuff you put in to let Quillius out.”
Vivienne: “Uh, huh.”
Gabriel: “So her body could get in, but her spirit would be stuck?”
Gwynedd: “But, does it trap their magic and if they walkout would they be dead? I mean how does any of this ... I don’t understand any of this magic.”
Vivienne: “Neither do I.”
Thomas: “To view inside it, we obviously need to combine our three. I’ll make the resonating mirror. You’ll infuse it with song and stories and we’ll give it to Vivienne as a scrying device. Simple.”
Gabriel: “You need to make a window ...”
Laurens pulls out his sword. “All right, we already opened the door, let’s go.” Laurens begins loosening up and feeling the balance of the sword.
Gwynedd does her best to sing a song that is sympathetic to the magic she put into the prison. Donal begins smiling as he thinks that Veronique may have trapped herself.
Vivienne takes the fragment of rock that was polished by Thomas, and sung upon by Gwynedd. She chants to attune it to the cavern. Eventually, Vivienne begins to see colors take shape in the polished rock. Finally, she sees a fuzzy image that shows the vault room. She sees Veronique kneeling on the floor next to Quillius’ body. The water that was left in the room is gone. Veronique upon closer inspection seems to be crying.
Vivienne: “I don’t think things went well down there. Shall we go(down there)?”
Gabriel: “Aren’t we trying to bring things out? Not put things in? Isn’t that what you came to do?”
Laurens: “Can you contact her?”
Vivienne: “I can kind of see her through the barrier. I can try.”
Vivienne concentrates. She makes contact through a long tunnel.
Vivienne: “Do you need help? Should we try to retrieve you?”
Veronique looks at Vivienne through the long tunnel, “You killed him ... My son is dead and you killed him.” The contact breaks.
Vivienne: “She said I killed Quillius.”
Donal: “She actually said Quillius is dead?”
Vivienne: “No actually, no. She said I killed him. That I killed her son.”
Laurens: “You can never trust a wizard.”
Eric: “Especially once you start killing their children.”
Thomas: “Was there anything left after Vincent took over Quillius?”
Vivienne: “Quillius’ body, but there wasn’t any sign of Vincent’s original body ... Is that what you mean?”
Thomas: “No. I’m wondering if Vincent killed Quillius. And if there was ever anything to save?”
Vivienne: “I don’t know.”
Gabriel: “How do you know Quillius is dead?”
Vivienne: “Well, I saw his body lying there.”
Gabriel: “Okay. You saw his body. Does the world work the same inside that hole as it does out here?”
Gwynedd: “Where’s the spirit?”
Gabriel: “Isn’t it bound?”
Vivienne: “I didn’t see it. I didn’t sense ...”
Thomas: “Did Quillius’ spirit get caught up in the binding?”
Vivienne: “Well, I tried to use the binding to separate out Quillius’ spirit.”
Laurens: “All right, we’re going in.”
Gabriel: “Okay.”
Laurens: “No talk, no magic. It’s time to swing a sword at something.”
Gabriel: “There are some rocks over there.”
Gwynedd: “The spirit is in her now, maybe?”
Gabriel: “If you can see in now, can’t you see in and see what you did? Because part of the problem you have is that you don’t really know what you did?”
Vivienne: “Hmm.”
Gabriel: “Both of you. You don’t really know what the results of the work was. Except that we bound a spirit. Right?”
Gwynedd: “I understand nature. This is beyond my sight.”
Vivienne: “But, you do have a sense for what is magic?”
Gwynedd: “Some magical things are completely beyond my notice unless it’s right in front of me and even then sometimes it seems difficult. If the ... Vincent was standing in front of me, I could see and I could see there was not a whole lot of Quillius. Not anything that I could read.”
Gabriel: “Seems to me you made Gordian’s knot, and you don’t know if you tied it right. You should be able to see the strands now.”
Vivienne scries again to get a better sense of the magic in the vault and to understand what happened to the font and water. She senses nothing of either the font or the water. Of the magic she placed on the cave, it is what she intended it to be. It is something to contain this magical being and to allow Quillius to pass through it. She’s not clear on what Thomas and Gwynedd contributed. She needs further study. Vivienne doesn’t sense the spirit. She only senses Veronique and nothing extra as far as she can tell. She sees Veronique stand up and float upward.
Vivienne: “She’s coming back”
Gabriel: “Gwynedd, look at her as soon as she arrives.”
Gwynedd: “Okay.”
Veronique arrives out of the ground. She seems unchanged to Gwynedd.
Laurens: “How did Quillius fall? And what happened to Vincent?”
Veronique: “I destroyed that when I got there. It was all that was left.”
Laurens: “How did Quillius fall?”
Veronique: “There was none of Quillius there.”
Laurens: “Did he flee?”
Veronique: “I had no sense of him there. Given the nature of what I saw there, it is possible he was devoured entirely.”
Laurens: “Why couldn’t he kill Vincent?”
Veronique: “I don’t know. He had better training than this.”
Laurens: “And he had a covenant of mages with him. How were they overpowered?”
Veronique: “I wasn’t here. I don’t know.”
Laurens: “Are you that much stronger than them?”
Veronique: “Strong enough to destroy one trapped spirit. As contained as it was. You did do that well for Quillius. It was sealed from its powers or the greater portion of it.”
Laurens: “So the prison is empty now?”
Veronique: “No.”
Laurens: “What is contained in the prison?”
Veronique: “The body of my son.”
Laurens: “Then we should open the prison to bring out his body to honor him.”
Veronique: “It’s where he fell. Leave it.”
Laurens: “No. I think the Duke will want to honor it.”
Veronique: “You will leave it.”
A long silence.
Laurens: “I think the Duke will very much want to see Quillius’ body. We can reestablish the compound in his honor. His spirit can live on.”
Veronique looks at Laurens and shakes her head. Then, vanishes.
Laurens: “Open it up.”
Laurens looks around the group.
Laurens: “Do you trust her?”
Donal: “No.”
Laurens: “Okay.”
Gabriel: “Can you sense the path of the stream, Gwynedd?”
Gwynedd senses it goes under the prison and out to the sea. Gwynedd goes to where the stairway was and begins clearing it. The others help clear the way. When they reach the cave they find Quillius’ body, beaten and broken. Gwynedd doesn’t sense the spirit of V/Q or Quillius. She does sense the magic of the prison.
Gwynedd: “There’s nothing.”
Donal: “He was alive when we imprisoned him.”
Thomas sets about trying to playback the images in the mirror wall.
Gabriel: “Where does the stream come out?”
Gwynedd: “It goes below.”
Gabriel: “Where does it come out?”
Gwynedd tells him.
Gabriel: “I’m going down there. If you need me, call me.”
Gabriel goes to look for Olta.
Thomas: “Vivienne, would you mind giving me a hand with a ... I’m trying to scry the past that’s recorded within these walls. And Gwynedd, I’m trying to get the tale that they contain. Maybe you could assist me there.”
Gwynedd: “Stories are just stories, there’s no better ...” She trails of realizing there is more to it.
Thomas: “That chunk of stone seems like a good starting place to sort of key in the combined ... sort of a key to the chambers.”
Thomas, Vivienne and Gwynedd work on the idea.
Gabriel goes down to the mouth of the stream down at the ocean. He calls out to Olta and gets no response. He then swims up the stream with the sword out to give light. Gabriel works his way up to where the vault is and finds nothing.
After spending sometime on the playback machine, the three manage to create something. They start it working and they see images that are narrated in Gwynedd’s voice. It tells a tale of what’s happened. They see the tale of what happened since it was sealed. They see V/Q railing against the prison. He grows frustrated after awhile. The spirit rises out of Quillius. Quillius collapses to the ground. The water spirit fights with the ancient spirit. The three see this battle proceed until Veronique arrives. She lashes out at both and destroys them. She then goes over and examines Quillius. She spends a while at his side.
Gwynedd: “Where’s Quillius?” She thinks for a time. “Vivienne can you search out Quillius’ spirit? And ...”
Vivienne: “Yeah, I should ...” She concentrates and tries to contact him like she did Donal.
Gwynedd: “Vivienne, you seem uncertain. FIND HIM!” Gwynedd lights a fire in her with the words. “You’re Quillius’ apprentice. There is only one solution to this and you will find it. Do it.”
Laurens: “While Vivienne looks can you heal Quillius body for its spirit?”
Gwynedd: “Bodies are made of earth, I don’t need a spirit.”
Vivienne reaches out, but doesn’t sense anything.
Thomas: “You might want to try outside the chamber.”
Vivienne realizes she is being blocked by the chamber. She goes outside. She concentrates on contacting Quillius’ essence. She focuses, but doesn’t get anything but a mild sense of disappointment.
Gabriel begins heading back to the compound. Thomas is making notes on their wonderful invention.
Gwynedd begins making the body whole again. She discovers that the body is not as dead as it would seem.
Gwynedd: “Vivienne! He’s not really dead entirely.”
Laurens goes up to get Vivienne.
Laurens: “Have you focused on the body specifically at all?”
Vivienne: “I can try.”
Vivienne goes back down. Vivienne doesn’t sense anything, but a dead body.
Thomas asks Eric, “What did you do with the kid?”
Eric: “I took him to the church in Cockermouth.”
Thomas: “Vivienne, would you mind humoring me and sensing off to the north, I just had a wild idea. You’re looking for maybe a younger version of Quillius, maybe a little confused.”
Vivienne comes back up and tries. While she is trying Laurens tells her a story of when he was in the far east. He tells her of monks who would meditate. And instead of focusing on something they would try to spread their spirits as far as they could. So rather than searching in one spot, have her make her awareness spread wide.
Vivienne: “I can try that.”
Thomas: “So, I guess the kid that you found wasn’t the reincarnated Quillius.”
Eric: “Well, that’s a relief.”
Thomas: “Oh well.”
Eric: “The child did say that he had family in the town. Melted family.”
Vivienne tries to spread her awareness. She not really getting a sense of anything in particular. But, there might be something out there.
Laurens: “Quillius is hiding then. Let’s go find the boy.”
Donal: “The boy that Eric found?”
Laurens: “Sure.”
Donal: “To what end?”
Laurens: “Did you see anyone else survive that?”
Donal: “I didn’t look.”
Laurens: “The town was full of charred remains. What did the boy look like?”
Eric describes him. This boy is not the same as Vincent.
Vivienne studies the structure of the binding further. It filters out Quillius. But, she wonders where Quillius’ spiriti was suppose to go. She realizes that if the spirit actually got out, it flew in a million directions. She decides to tries to summon his spirit.
The group carries out Quillius’ healed body to the surface.
Donal: “Does the font still have power?” He’s looking at the three.
Vivienne: “The font seems to have disappeared.”
Gwynedd: “We pretty much broke it.”
Vivienne: “It couldn’t handle the triple play of magicks.”
Gwynedd: “Well, it probably burned out Vincent pretty well. She went in and just waved her hand, and made it go poof.”
Laurens: “Should we try and uncap it?”
Donal: “If it was a source of power before that you could access, it may give you some benefit to summon or find Quillius.”
They can’t sense the font. It may be used up temporarily.
Vivienne tries to summon the spirit. It doesn’t seem to work.
Thomas: “We have the white and black swords. They are a source of power.”
An aside:
Dan/Laurens: “It was fine when we contacted Vivienne first thing and pulled her back.”
Patrick/Gabriel: “Yeah.”
Dan/Laurens: “Sort of life and death. Light and Dark.”
Gabriel returns to see Quillius’ body on the ground.
Gabriel: “What’s going on?”
Donal: “Thomas was able to bring back images of what occurred, and it appears that the spirit vacated the body over the course of the imprisonment and was engaged in something with the water spirit, and Veronique went down and destroyed both. And now there seems to be some hope that Quillius is out there.
Thomas contemplates the prison. Gwynedd tries to unwind it. She seems to think it is a botched up mess. Thomas likes it.
Gwynedd: “Do you know how it works?”
Thomas: “More or less.”
Gwynedd: “The whole thing?”
Thomas: “Enough. It’s elegant, kind of, in a three legged stool kind of way.”
Gwynedd: “Can it do anything it was supposed to do?”
Vivienne: “We’re trying to retrieve Quillius’ spirit somehow.”
Vivienne thinks the summoning spell should do what she wanted it to do, but she’s not sure she understands how he got dispersed in the first place.
Gwynedd: “Let’s unwind this ...”
Thomas: “Let’s unwind this monstros ... I mean this wonderful creation.”
Gwynedd: “We have the images of what happened. We can try to trace it with all three of our visions and try to understand what happened to him. And then maybe we can do something that will bring it back together again. So if you can show us what’s happening, I can ...”
Vivienne: “So revisit the closing of the binding spell?”
Gwynedd: “From when he fell and the spirit might have gone out so if we can follow that cause I can’t see spirits, but you can. But, I might be able to see how it ... my parts may have affected it. You might be able to see how your parts may have affected it.”
Vivienne: “Okay.”
The three start studying it through the stone. They can each see how their piece was done. They can’t understand how each part affects the other. But, they’re certain they are all involved in returning him.
Gwynedd: “Do you know a summoning spell?”
Thomas: “Do I have a summoning spell? I have a Quillius image.”
Gwynedd: “And, I can certainly sing him home as best I can.”
Laurens: “And we have two magical swords that were lying at the point of power of two ley lines. So maybe the two swords correspond to the power of the two ley lines so that we could tap the power of those lines with the swords?”
Gwynedd: “I think we can use them.”
Vivienne: “The swords?”
Gwynedd: “Yeah.”
Thomas: “Okay.”
Gwynedd: “Okay. Use your image. Start your summoning.”
The swords are aligned with the ley lines and crossed at their crossing. Vivienne definitely feels a sense of the lines again. Quillius is laid down on top of the intersection point. Thomas concentrates on the image. Vivienne begins performing the summoning spell. Gwynedd sings to the wind to a homecoming song and sings to the earth to prepare the body and sings to fire to wake him.
Time passes.
Quillius sits up. He shakes his head and looks at Vivienne. “Finally.”
Stick Figure Theater
