The Halls of Medeia - Chapter 1

[Ail]

The student does not calm down.


"I want a confession, Father. I say nothing until then! Is it not true that what you hear in a confession is a secret between you and God?! Then surely He will not allow my words to reach others... it has to be a confession, Father!"


He is pleading, down on his knees, tears emerging from his eyes. He looks truly desperate.

[A G Thing]

Christine sits and thinks for a moment, twiddling her hair betwixt her fingers, but then after a time answers Oliver. "I think I have some ideas as well on who. Perhaps the headmistress or her sister, but I don't want to jump to conclusions either without evidence. I think we need to get back and investigate."

Looking to the elder she smiles again. "Thank you elder again for the help. I think we really now have a better sense of direction at least."

Christine stands up and looks to Oliver again. "Are you ready to head out? We do need to work towards heading back eventually."

[Ail]

Christine sits and thinks for a moment, twiddling her hair betwixt her fingers, but then after a time answers Oliver. "I think I have some ideas as well on who. Perhaps the headmistress or her sister, but I don't want to jump to conclusions either without evidence. I think we need to get back and investigate."

Looking to the elder she smiles again. "Thank you elder again for the help. I think we really now have a better sense of direction at least."

Christine stands up and looks to Oliver again. "Are you ready to head out? We do need to work towards heading back eventually."

"Yes, Christine, I am ready. Let's go back to facing the real world. And maybe we should just gather up with everyone who might be able to help with this mystery and draw a plan, when we get back up to College. What do you say?"


Taking their leave of the Elder, the students start their way back to school, up the hill.


"Shall we try to climb the wall and hope that no one has noticed our escape, or do you prefer to go back by the main road?"

[Alastor]

Niles looks at the student for a moment, silently considering, then says solemnly: "If ye chose to unburden yer conscience to me, what ye said would remain in confidence between us until ye chose to reveal it to others, just as if ye'd shared yer story with a priest fully ordained. But that is as a matter of simple trust - I know little of whatever mysterious power ye fear may overhear. If a full confession is needed, as ye say, let me take ye to Father Richard or the priest in town, both good men who will keep safe whatever secret ye have."

With that ernest entreaty, the young deacon makes a gesture as if to escort the other student to the chapel straitaway.

[A G Thing]

Christine smiles to Oliver and after she has thanked the elder once more and they depart and she answers his new inquiry. Her tender ankle gives her pause for a second.

"While I don't eagerly want to scale the wall again, I think whatever path leads us closer to father Niles might be best... I don't know who else we might speak with but perhaps he can help soften the blow when we have to face the music. And I think he is at least somewhat on our side."

She looks to him hoping he knows which wall they would have to hop over to end up near where the good father was. She was trying to remember herself with the myriad thoughts circling in her head as she questioned what they had learned.

Of course then she remembered something else.

"Didn't you say you had somewhere you wanted to go to, while out here Oliver?"

[Ail]

The student presses on


"Father Richard is old, and he would do nothing. He would not understand! But you are young, you care, I'm sure you could help.... Look, maybe you don't want to confess me, perhaps you're not ordained yet? But you surely must know the rites, you surely must know how to invoke God's protection.

Please, please", he begs earnestly, he kneels, "I beseech you father, say the words, so I can speak!"


At that moment he takes his hand to something that hangs from his neck and Niles had not noticed yet, as if trying to hide some malefic influence.

=================================

Oliver does not answer immediately, and keeps silent to a point that Christine feels unnerved, all the while choosing the fastest way from the camp. When they are a safe distance away, he stops and says:


"I wanted, yes, Christine. I wanted to go to the gypsy camp. I wanted to see if anyone was there. And I saw they were not. The same days they leave the school's guard they also leave their camp, and you pretty much told me they went to the forest. Now, I wonder... those sounds we heard... what do you think they were?"

[A G Thing]

Christine turns to Oliver and gives him an appraising look after hearing his question. He certainly needed an answer and she considered how best to tell him without giving him the wrong impression but also so as to avoid him using that information against them.

"Oliver. If I tell you this, you must promise to not speak to another about it. You have witnessed the edge of something even I know only slightly more of, but you would do great harm to my kin if you speak further about this. It is not something to be taken lightly nor is it something you will ever be able to know of completely. Do you promise to keep this to yourself?"

If Oliver does promise then Christine speaks further.

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"I am only telling you this so you don't get the wrong idea, so please understand that if you tell any others what you know here you may hurt my kin and certainly hurt me. The gypsies have traditions that have to deal with the full moon. Spiritual and sacred traditions that deal with things most consider now to be superstition or pagan... But it is part of them and their beliefs to the point that it cannot be separated just as the church and the resurrection. These traditions that I as an outsider was never allowed to take part in are not meant to harm anyone though there are risks. I was warned by those who I considered kin, that to show up on the night of the full moon was dangerous to any who are 'not of the blood' and that it was a sacred thing. I can say that if we had tried to find them then we would have been in unintended danger, but the one of the blood I consider my sister, Tamara told me that they do not seek out or harm others during those nights. It is only those intruding that are at risk and they thus stay to the wild lands near their camp. I know how it sounds but they never harmed me in my time with them and I never heard of any events around the full moon to make me question they had intentionally harmed others. I trust they are not behind what is happening here. I am sure that something else stalks on the full moon around the school."

[Ail]

Oliver looks back with a dubious gaze.


"If you say so, Christine. Certainly those sounds were strange, kind of bestial if you ask me. I'll keep my mouth shut.


He hesitates just a bit and then changes the subject completely.


"Well, let's get up there then, shall we?"

[Ail]

"The chaplain lives near the chapel, of course",

Oliver says as they go up the hill.

"I suppose Father Niles will do as well, but that also is the most watched part of the school. One way is to follow the main road without entering the school grounds, and try to slip through the main gate. But that is always guarded, isn't it?"

But there is a secret way few people know. If we climb the wall as we did last night, we can dash for the boiler house There is a tunnel there that leads to ground floor of the buildling, near the servants' rooms. Want to try that?"

[A G Thing]

Christine nods to Olivers reply and punches him lightly in the shoulder.

"Thank you fer trusting me Olly boy! Me gypsy kin tend ta get a bad reputation... But they don't deserve it!"

She smiles at him and adjusts her hat while testing her leg. At the mention of a secret path she looks at him both questioningly and a bit impressed.

"Any path that doesn't lead to us getting caught before we meet father Fiachra... I don't know if we will get away with this as it is but it would be best not to get caught by the staff before hand... How did you learn of such a useful secret path Olly?"

[Alastor]

Sympathetically, Niles says, "Surely we can pray together for aid with whatever is causing ye such distress."

The young assistant chaplain fetches his copy of The Book of Common Prayer from the nightside table, where it was stacked with a number of similar religious texts.

Kneeling next to the other student, Niles opens the book to the Evening Prayer and reads this passage:

LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
OOC - Source:
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bc ... Prayer.htm

After they've prayed together, Niles again asks the other student what troubles him.

[Ail]

Under the influence of the prayer, the student seems to calm down. He firmly believes that the holy protection invoked by the words can protect him here.


"Father, I'm afraid... There's this special course work I have... a teacher. I study with her... but that is not all. She takes and gives... other things... "


The student is on the verge or break down. There is something he wants to say but can't quite come to it.
In a staggered and muffled tone, as if he forcing his way through a tunnel full of sand, he adds


"There's books... but there's also blood and naked flesh... "


He suddenly yanks something from his neck and leaves a medallion on the table.



"Look! She gave me this! This marks me as hers."


It's the same design as the medallion of Basil Gribble.

==================================

Oliver leads Christine to the wall of the university. Doubting his own words, he says


"Let's just hope no one has noticed."


They clamber up the wall and stay in its shadows. In the distance they can hear the baying of hounds. Maybe a search party?


"The boiler house is up there. That tunnel is not really that secret, it is used by workers. It leads to under the building and so the workers and servants can go up there without bothering the students. If we can reach the tunnels then we should be safe... I hope."


OOC: Spot (DC 15) and Move Silently (DC 10) check for Christine

[A G Thing]

Christine follows after Oliver as best she can as they clamber over the wall. She favors her good leg on the landing but manages to muffle the landing. At his words she speaks low in reply.

"Don't worry so much Olly. I think were being pretty sneaky! Besides... I think I have a bit of an idea to get out of this mess. Just let me do the talking when we get to the good father Niles!"

True to her word Christine manages to make it through quite quietly on their way to the boiler tunnel and keeps her eyes peeled, adjusting her glasses as they both go. She does all this while thinking of exactly what to say to perhaps blunt the offense of what they did sneaking off.

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OOC:
Rolled these on the Pazio website as whenever I try to use the roller on this one it malfunctions to where I cannot edit my post afterwards. These are the rolls I randomly got unaltered from that sites roller.
Spot: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15
Move Silently: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

[Ail]

The duo advance safely across the grounds. Christine spots someone higher up the hill, apparently a girl in school's uniform, looking in their general direction then moving away slowly as if searching for something. It seems she did not see them.

In approaching the boiler house, Oliver leads them to a spot near the wall where they can observe the place. There is some activity there, of men unloading a cart with coal sacks.

[Alastor]

The unexpected clang of the medallion against the table, as well as the terror in the mysterious students face and voice as he reveals it, causes Niles to start momentarily from the the table. In the next moment, the theology student recovers himself, recognizing it was the now familiar emblem resting on the table rather than the venomous snake suggested by the way the other student had torn it from himself.

After this glance, Niles turns his gaze back to the young man, saying "Ye'r no one's but by choice - chose to reject whatever ye've been lead into and seek help from the Lord. That's proof enough that ye'r not hers."

Seeking to further reassure the other student, Niles continues "Others at this school already suspect something amiss. Tell the story from the beginning and, God willing, we can help them bring this to an end."