Café de Nuit

The Whistler wrote:“Why, Professor Mourneswaithe!” Celeste looked tickled pink at this particular list of resources—she seemed to take very well to being Lia’s Watson. “And I was under the impression that my little notebook was comprehensive! Ah, well; pride goeth before a fall, as they say…I am more than pleased to defer to your more expert contacts upon this matter.”

"I thank you," Lia says, her tone of voice lacking in enthusiasm. "However, given the current climate, I would not be surprised if you soon also will make the acquaintanceship of such creatures. I but hope they will be less... ah... that you will meet them under less stressful circumstances."

"Sooner? You mean, before last night?" Darius responds to Tomas' question. "Before last night, I were not sick. Not physically, anyway. I would have said...cursed perhaps. But last night I began to feel ill before the hounds appeared. Perhaps I was susceptible because of what happened in March, and was infected by some contagion which the rest of you were immune to."

Tomas wrote:"But if you are telling me that the disease has a tie to that night in March, why didn't you or Darius tell us sooner? Or am I misunderstanding?"

"I'm afraid you are mon ami. Like the good Dommer I also felt fine until we arrived in this delightful country retreat. Now you may say that in itself is more significant, perhaps it is I do not know... But none others were sick before the hounds arrived. It is easy to believe these beasts carry contagion but we both were sick before their presence manifest, so what links the Dommer and I?"

He leave a quesion hanging again whilst coughing into a handkerchief. Wiping his mouth he looks up "As convivial as his company is I doubt we share the same vices or tastes in drink, food or venues of entertainment, therefore I agree with the Dommer; the first supposition that springs to mind is that we were both abroad and afflicted on that night and may be perhaps more susceptible to this malady because of it. I feel somethign missing, something within me, call it feverish hallucinations if you will, but I cannot ignore it."

"But its a theory, I have no answers, and even this is the product of a fevered, irrational and less than logical at the best of times, mind. Hell lets test the water, I'd vastly prefer that to be the source of it, or contact otherworldy denizens for advice, or conduct rituals, afterall what do we have to lose, our lives? Better that than we wait around for sickness to consume us."

It was quite obvious frustration was getting the better of Nicholas, frustration at the sickness, at not grasping the grander scheme at work and at hoos own helplessness to any damn thinga about it. This was of course unfortuante for any early spring blooms within reach of his cane at that moment.

Cyrus frowned deeply and remained quiet. This whole mess did not sit well with him. Maybe it was because his brother fell deathly ill. Perhaps it was the challenge to the rightful law and order of this domain. Or maybe it was that these people were seriously considering the word of a criminal and harlot. The more Cyrus thought about it, the more he hated this country. He hated their ideas of free expression. He despised their loose system, their inability to govern themselves properly. It was their own fault they were having problems and they openly defied the Lawgiver's guiding hand at every turn.

The priest suddenly realized he was clenching his fists. He forced himself to release his hands.

"If Death is 'dead,'" he asked in slow, measured tones, "Then what does that mean for people that are dying or killed?"

"I see three options," Lia replies, "one of which is deeply... unpleasant and highly dangerous, and another is atrocious. The dead may be stuck in the limbo of undeath, either held in the Border Ethereal or wandering about our side of the Veil confused.

Or they may be cast into Oblivion, lost forever.

It is to be hoped that the 'death of Death' is not affecting the souls of the deceased and they can somehow move on, but we can not know at this point. ...

There is a scholar in Port-a-Lucine whom I might question on the subject, but it is at least two hours on horseback to the city, then two hours more to get back and who knows how much time to peruse his knowledge. I will go, if the group desires it, but I would worry for you all in my absence."

Nicholas shrugs at that suggestion. "I might just know a song to speed you on your way if this is your chosen course of action Mademoiselle, but I think it foolhardy for you to travel alone."

Piece said Nicholas looks around aimlessly for a moment letting his eyes linger over the graves, when a thought hits him. "A question occurs, why here? I mean why was Anne-Marie here? Because of us or does she perhaps have some further connection to this place, something to do with why the hounds are here?

OOC:
In other words Travellers Chant is on offer if needed
History for anything on Anne Marie or her family name: 20
Streetwise for the same and anything relating to Troischamps: 23

Darius settles into a crouch, his face set, then glances up at the sun. "Noon," he grunts to Cyrus.

Moving a bit away from the others, the twins bow their heads and begin chanting in Vaasi, at times in unison and other times in a sort of call-and-response, as if Cyrus were asking questions and Darius answering them. After a couple of minutes of this, Darius takes the role of questioner; then both draw their swords, salute the sun, and drive the blades several inches into the earth. Kneeling, they pray silently, heads bowed; then Cyrus prostrates himself once, rises, cleans his sword and sheathes it. A minute or so later Darius does the same.

Rocking back on his heels, he shakes his head and whips his forehead. "Too much we don't know," he mutters. Turning to Thierri, he asks, "So, if it weren't here...is there anywhere else that might be suitable to necromancy in the near vicinity?"

Dommer Isfanani wrote:"So, if it weren't here...is there anywhere else that might be suitable to necromancy in the near vicinity?"

"Dommer Isfahani, sir, if I may..." Celeste had looked thoughtful for the past several seconds; it was the kind of thoughtful that looked as if it took about as much effort as open heart surgery aboardship. Celeste did not do this particularly often.

"The graveyard, thanks be to our Lady, is safe--and long may it stay so! But our...difficulty, this night past, was encountered upon the banks of a stream..." She took a moment to think through what had obviously been an ironclad conclusion several seconds ago. "Perhaps...if we were to follow the stream to its source?"

Yep, that was the conclusion. "Oh, that is how a contagion may be located! It is, is it not? And it shall be such a pleasant ramble in the mean-time!" Celeste looked inestimably happy to have helped.

Sorry to steal your idea, Doc; I figured someone should say it

"Conjecture as to the causes of the troubles, while stimulating and perhaps helpful is at the moment clouding the issues.
But we must not lose sight of potential solutions. Philosophical gymnastics will only get us so far, let us do what we can to gather more information about exactly where and when the blight started. We know it spread from Hotonnes to Pointe Espirit, but that still leaves a gap of its path, have any of you heard which vector the blight took?"

"The stream branches off from La Selune which itself is a tributary of the Musarde proper. Ms. Viardot's suggestion should at least be explored." The Borcan bent over to a patch of un-blighted greenery and carefully plucked a handful of longer wild grass blades. "Besides," he said, "I have an idea." With that, and not having much more interest in an unexceptional graveyard, he began to walk out the gates and back towards the nearby stream.

Streetwise 15 to figure out the blight's path, can anyone else do better?

Cemetery on the outskirts of Troischamps, Midday of April 21st, 770
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"The anathema see through tremors in the ground, it was said. But when we met the first, it avoided us. At the stream, the abominations only attacked when we stopped moving," Katja recalled, after a moment's thought. "I do not think we should assume that the lack of attacks means the anathema were not around."

Darius wrote:"Did he rise through the ranks of the gendarmerie?"

Thierri shrugged. "I never asked," he said.

Nicolas wrote:"Some credit please monsieur, you may think me a useless drunk of loose morals but I'm not completely stupid."

Thierri raised his eyebrows with another shrug, unfazed. "I had thought you in ignorance, since you referred to him as Monsieur le Marquis to his face," he stated simply.

Kerrian wrote:He then turned to Thierri "We..don't look dull, do we?"

"If we do, it bodes ill for the rest of our accompaniment," the magician muttered under his breath.

Thierri twisted his wrist, flipping a pair of thin rectangular spectacles out of nowhere and handing them to Kerrian. "The accessories make the man, yes?" he suggested, folding his arms.

Nicolas wrote:"I might just know a song to speed you on your way if this is your chosen course of action Mademoiselle, but I think it foolhardy for you to travel alone."

"I do not think anyone who is ill should return to the city without good cause," Katja said, setting a fist on one of her hips. "We are not restricted from leaving Troischamps, but it would not look well for us if we appeared to be spreading the plague."

Darius wrote:Rocking back on his heels, he shakes his head and whips his forehead. "Too much we don't know," he mutters. Turning to Thierri, he asks, "So, if it weren't here...is there anywhere else that might be suitable to necromancy in the near vicinity?"

"Most places are suitable for necromancy. If they are not, they can quickly become so with a few murders." Boucher leaned back on the gravestone, exhaling from his cigarette as he thought. "For something on this scale... I have heard there are places in the King's Wood, but they are dangerous enough to give even a necromancer pause. There is the lighthouse, Widow's Walk, and the ocean itself, but there is a lack of loose earth in those locales, so we may rule them out. There are also the underground catacombs. However, for our purposes, the place to look would be Leon Cemetery. If not there... then the abandoned Opera House."

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"Hullo!"

The voice was, on the whole, remarkably recognizeable. It was a kind of deep bellow that nevertheless managed to sound cheerful, amiable, and eminently friendly, despite nevertheless being a bellow.

"Hullo! Finally found you!"

Similarly, Christophe Renier was a stout, brick wall of a man who was cheerful, amiable, and eminently friendly, but nevertheless remained a stout, brick wall of a man. He came striding up along the bank of the stream from Troischamps, looking to be if anything a bit sunburned by all the time spent outside.

"Hullo Mr. Agale." The Richemuloise young man came to a halt near Agale and waved towards the rest of you. "Sorry it took me so long, I got lost. Again."

"Anyway, I talked to Bertriz and to our...uh... friend. He'll see you." Christophe said, taking a breath. "I can take you to him, but he won't be in the area for long, so it's today or not at all."

Discussion has brought up a large number of options, so here they are. As always, if you think of something else, just let me know.

• -Alchemical examination of the stream water. I'll call this a Nature roll, but with a very high DC due to lack of any kind of equipment (of course, supernatural or odd abilities may mitigate the DC increase). Alternatively, you can undoubtedly find a chemist in Port-a-Lucine with a lowish Streetwise roll, though this will cost you some time and some money, roughly a day and 100 gp respectively.
  
  -Summoning up an otherworldly entity, whether ghost, Fey, elemental, or odder will be treated as a Ritual that takes one hour, costs 100 gp worth of reagents, and requires a roll depending on what you're trying to summong (Religion for ghosts, Arcana for Fey or Elementals, etc). We'll keep it simple and say that you attract the nearest entity of a certain type, unless you have something that would let you summon a specific entity (a ghost's personal belonging, a faerie's name, etc). Note that this just brings the entity near you, it doesn't oblige the entity to have anything whatsoever to do with you. I also recommend prepping a Magic Circle.
  
  -Heading into Port-a-Lucine to chat up some scholars just takes time, no rolls involved.
  
  -You can follow the water upstream. Just throw me a Nature check from each person doing this.
  
  -You can go with Christophe to see his 'contact'.
  
  -You can go to Leon National Cemetery.
  
  -Use Streetwise (to find blight-affected towns) and/or Nature (to find blight-affected areas) and try and figure out where the blight started.

NeoTiamat/Thierri Boucher wrote:"Most places are suitable for necromancy. If they are not, they can quickly become so with a few murders. For something on this scale... I have heard there are places in the King's Wood, but they are dangerous enough to give even a necromancer pause. There is the lighthouse, Widow's Walk, and the ocean itself, but there is a lack of loose earth in those locales, so we may rule them out. There are also the underground catacombs. However, for our purposes, the place to look would be Leon Cemetery. If not there... then the abandoned Opera House."

"What about the sites of the old battles between Dementlieu and Falkovnia?" Lia suggests. "All the fighting and killing would create the proper atmosphere. Were the bodies of the slain Falkovnians properly interred, burned, or just shoveled into ditches? And where are the corpses of those who die in Montmort deposited? If there is some charnel house beneath it, it would be the perfect resource for a necromancer - or a summoner."

Tomas crosses his arms, and nods. "Alright, Christophe." He didn't hear about any contact, but it SOUNDS decisive. That's the only thing on a time limit(besides their lives, a dark part of Tomas thinks.) and they can always troll the stream later. "Thank you for the aid."

Kerrian put the spectacles on with a bit of a grin, trying to find some humor despite his illness. Of course, if the spectacles lent him a dignified professorial air, or just made him look like someone trying to appear more academic than they were, well...the jury was out.

"I could check the water. I don't have any tools with me, but it can't be that difficult, right?" Several chemists in the capitol likely let out a sigh of exasperation just then, and didn't quite know why.

"Or...I could try invoking a great spirit. I mean, I know it can be done, and one would likely be rather interested in getting whatever it is that's causing this out. But.." and there was always a but "I'd have to do something similar to what I did before this all really started, and I'm kind of worried about whatever that was. So I'd need some kind of defense.."

Considering that it nearly killed Kerrian last time, even suggesting similar spoke highly of the urgency of the situation. Or perhaps foolhardiness brought about by fever. In these trying times, who truly could say?

M. Eisenwald wrote:"Alright, Christophe. Thank you for the aid."

"Splendid! Let us make it a trio!" Celeste's tone of voice indicated that, no, she had absolutely not considered that she might not have been invited, or that Christophe was being extremely shifty about this contact, or that it could have been ludicrously dangerous. There was talking to people involved! This could not possibly go wrong.

Tomas is equally confident that this surely could not be a trap where they all meet their deaths, though this is largely on account of his assurance that there is nothing in the immediate area more terrible than he is.

"Is someone writing some of this down?" Tomas asides to the academics, "I'm jumping on this because there's a time limit, but in case it doesn't work out I think a solid list of the most ready locales would be the operative thing to have."

There's a bit of a sigh on his lips. "I guess we'll have to check the haunted lighthouse out on another adventure. Tell me, Celeste, do you know how to identify the major breeds of fish-humanoid hybrid? Its incredibly useful for any trip to the seashore or on the water..."