deercountry | and the world was gone || April Catch-All

[Arguably, Palamedes has too many projects. He has a vested interest in too many things, and they overlap in a few places, but not enough that he has fewer than a dozen books sitting in ostensibly random piles on his table back here. They put up with him, the locals working at the Archives, because he's quiet and returns his books eventually and makes a point to bring them the occasional pastry to show his appreciation. It's the done thing.

But he has too many projects, still. His dozen-ish books are accompanied by several notebooks, a few open at once to cross-reference himself, and he is presently filling the entire surface area of a tiny adhesive note (off brand), which he has hunched over in deep concentration. If she makes the effort to read his tiny handwriting upside down, it appears to be something about bloodstone acquisition.

There are a lot of question marks, but in a good way, maybe.

He looks up mid-sentence, using the back of his hand to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose instead of his terminally ink-stained fingers. Ah.]

I probably do. [there are a lot of books here,] Which one?

[Roll a perception check.

(PERCEPTION CHECK: 4+6=10. Fail.)

She caught just the faintest glimpse at the small written words, but not enough to really get an idea what he's working on. She's not quite eagle-eyed enough to be able to read upside down without difficulty, after-all.

Never the less, she gives a small smile to announce that she isn't mad, in case that wasn't clear.]

It's a bit less of a book and more a lot of maps. Annotated with locations of interest regarding an old cabal of blood witches I'm researching. It's titled... "Secret Societies of the New World," I believe?

Edited 2022-04-18 02:06 (UTC)

[He takes a second, then-]

Oh; the big one. Hold on, it's under the rest over here.

[The Pile, which is indeed piled high with several thick books and a few loose papers, one notebook... he extracts the book of maps from it, wider and flatter than the rest, and nudges his open notebook aside to thunk it down in the middle of the table in the notebook's place.

There it is. The big one.]

I didn't flip through it all the way to the end, or I'd point you to the cabal spots. What do you need old blood witch rituals for?

[She takes it with a nod and a smile. Only struggling to pick it up a little. Her strength stat was raised to be in the positives and not the negatives thank you! She may be extremely average in this regard but she's not a weakling!] Thank you. Yeah, it's um... large.

[Actually, in a moment of teenage uncertainty, she decides to gently lay it back down while they're having a conversation.]

They had some old rituals that I'm looking into to restore my own magic from back home to it's full strength. And there's some weapons and tools that have been lost for a long time that could come in handy for a lot of people here. Plus... I don't know, I just think exploring the tunnels and secret passageways left behind by an ancient secret society is kind of cool, I guess?

[She's a nerd, what do you want from her, sir.]

[Please, no shame, he moved this book several inches and he will not be able to move it again. He was built only for moving pens and little pads of paper. She says 'tunnels and secret passageways left behind' and he thinks of horrible Lyctor basements, and he says,]

You'd be surprised.

[But holds his hands up a moment later, like, no, no, ignore him; he is merely curmudgeonly out of habit.]

Don't let me spoil your investigation; take the book, I won't need it. You're talking about mix-and-matching the magic, aren't you? Blood magic and how it meshes into our own. [He's looking through his notebooks as he says this, somewhere in here there are notes he scribbled down from Sayo's ideas of cracking the blood magic puzzle.] Oh— what tools?

[She blinks at his initial reaction, wondering if there's something more to it.

Roll an insight check.

(INSIGHT CHECK: 4+2=6. Fail.)

She decides it's ultimately not her business. If he has a concern, he'll bring it up. Probably. She's never been good enough at reading between the lines when it comes to people and not mysteries. So she continues, with a simple nod. It's a little more complicated, probably, but close enough.]

Most of my magic isn't something that comes from within me, it's just a practiced extensive ritual, that we then translate into more... minute casting practices. Chanting, wand writing, incantations, rune summoning. So, not being in my world, it seems I need to figure out how to translate some of it to this world's own understanding of magic before they'll function as intended.

[It's very frustrating, and very tedious. But at least the pursuit of these resources is interesting to her.]

I don't know the full details behind it, just the accounts of what they were able to do with it. They were able to track corruption and beasthood all over the city with a crystal ball, apparently. And they supplied the architects of the time a way to modify gravity within locations, uh, they had something that let them grow crops that just don't grow in Trench. Those are only a few examples, though. They seem to have made a lot of things between all the murders.

Edited 2022-04-19 13:46 (UTC)

[Ooh, magic with a medium. Palamedes nods; he's more or less familiar with the concept of medium-based magic, if only in the sense that necromancy has... materials. Obviously materials used as supplement to innate talent are a wholly different thing, but there are only so many different ways to create large-scale magic.

Now then, cool magic items. His eyebrows go up at tracking corruption and beasthood, oh, that one would be interesting to study. Maybe he should have looked at more maps.]

If you're talking about gravity, I'd guess that has something to do with darkblood— applied, of course. I made a chalkboard float out of a window with only a couple well-placed smears just the other week. If there's a device that does the same, renewably, I'd be interested in seeing it. Blood magic existing independent of its originator is something I've been trying to play with.

[Between all the trauma, as it happens. Hmm.]

You aren't going to get blood everywhere without a plan, are you? I have to ask; you understand.

[some folks around here are a little irresponsible!!]

That was my thought as well. Though I suppose you could create an illusion of as much with paleblood. It would be ideal if there was a way to replicate blood magic without spilling blood. It's a necessary sacrifice but each time it's done the world becomes more and more unstable. So I think magic done through the use of items is a good alternative to that.

[She blinks at that question. He does have to ask, it's only fair, though she'd be lying if she said she wasn't the slightest bit offended anyway.]

I'm not a complete incompetent nutcase, no.

That's good! Anyway, if there weren't any blood involved, it wouldn't be blood magic anymore. I'd guess that the blood-as-medium can be harnessed and used more than once, the way coldblood can be applied to weaponry and so on, but I've no idea if the magic is as potent when removed, literally, from the source.

[Presumably it isn't, but equally presumably: not enough to matter, if magical items with blood rituals involved have existed. Why, exactly, would they stop using them, then... hmm.]

Are you going on a treasure hunt anytime soon? I'll come, if you need another set of eyes. [A beat.] I'm Palamedes, by the way.

Sometimes the blood doesn't need to be taken out of a subject's body, though. A coldblood could press their fingertips against a glass of water and use their magic to cool it down or heat it up. That doesn't involve bleeding.

Architects use their blood to infuse items often, and I think some blood mages carry samples of other blood types to borrow some of the magic properties inherent to them. But you're right, I don't know if it's as powerful or if it even could be. But clearly if used in the right way... [She gestures toward the maps with a shrug.]

Oh, I was planning on going tomorrow. Plan the route today, actually follow through with it tomorrow. You're welcome to come, I'd appreciate the backup.

Oh, I'm uh, Adaine. Probably should have introduced myself sooner.

Sure. My schedule is both completely packed and mysteriously flexible; I can pencil in a treasure hunt.

[He drums his fingers on the table, considering options— for blood magic, not for treasure hunting. That's good, he can do that.]

The goal would be total equivalence, wouldn't you say? To take an ultimately finite thing like blood magic and extend it into what can be used longterm, by those who lack the innate ability entirely...

[Giving the blood magic to the people, more or less. If it can be done with minimal blood pollution and the corrupting aspects reined in, why not!]

Let's assume the power degrades outside of its source, or over time. Or it doesn't, and the problem is managing an unfettered chunk of magic. I can't imagine why these items would fall out of use besides inefficiency or disaster.

Great. [She smiles. She's not used to making... well, positive acquaintances this fast? She's not sure if she'd be so bold as to use the word friends but talking to people about magic is always enjoyable.]

That's the idea, yeah. I figure actually saving this world from steady decline would take a lot more work, and probably some kind of miracle. [She'd never be so arrogant as to say she could do that, eventually, because more likely she'll have died or gotten sealed in some horrible fate long before she's at the level of wizards like that. But she thinks it's a goal that would be worth it eventually.] In the meantime, making the magic more viable longterm seems like a good middle ground. Since without it, we have very limited protection from the beasts or the more malicious Pthumerians.

[She thinks Bud Cubby would appreciate her redistributing the power to the people. Down with the Sleeper class.]

Well, I think either option is reasonable. Though, these specific items were locked away in a series of hidden tunnels so that only members of the coven could reasonably reach it. There's other items that are more openly available. Forging magical weapons is a sizable amount of what architects do. But making the effect last forever might be the reason why the artifacts of extraordinary powerful fall out of practice more quickly, or why they're hoarded by groups and individuals.

Hmm— I don't disagree. The bare minimum security is a pretty intolerable way to live. There's obviously something wrong here, but it seems downright ghoulish to let a chunk of the population fend for themselves without defensive magic.

[Down with the Sleeper class, indeed. He taps the end of his pen on his notebook, heedless of smudging ink on the page. Hmm.]

The blood magic being finite poses an interesting problem to solve. If these artifacts of yours can be found and still work, reverse engineering the mechanism should be easy enough. ["easy enough"] Then again, it could also explode in our faces. Do you have any defensive options? I can handle that, if not.

and the world was gone || April Catch-All

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