Session 3
8 July 1999, 6:30pm
Attended by: Jason, Scott, Chris, Merwin, Steve, Ken
StoryGuide: Ken
Logged by: Jason
Game
Iseus has been listening to Socrates expound upon the Five Pillars of Wisdom while the group has been out...experiencing the city. Socrates had just concluded explicating the second Pillar (Industry; Prudence is the first) when the group returns to the covenant and Iseus rejoins the other apprentices.
(The formal name of Constantinople Covenant is Breath of Divine Wisdom.)
Later that evening, Claudius begins exploring the covenant and marks well its means of lighting. Apparently, the covenant itself is enchanted as a magic item, and it is clear that there may be many other effects invested in it. If so, then this is a vast experiment--it occurs to Claudius to speculate what the side-effects of an enchantment (or enchantments) of this magnitude might be.
The lighting itself is encoded into the walls of the covenant with complex magical traceries along the walls. There are no shadows. (Subsequent experimentation by various of the PCs reveals that the introduction of a second light source (such as a candle) restores the shadows, but that such shadows do not behave at all as expected.)
Claudius found a door going down. Inside the corridor, there were strange shadows which disturbed the Criamon sufficiently to retreat and close the door behind him.
Meanwhile, Iseus has a vision at the ruined fountain while the others among the group are somewhat sobered by their experience and speak little of it to the Elementalist.
The entire group of apprentices spend the night before their Oath-taking in exploration of the covenant. The shadows are of particular interest to Marcus, who encourages a venture down the stairs, where doors are found.
Purros, in touching the knob of one such door, leaves the group promptly. His feet take him back upstairs, and down a different corridor where he knocks on a door with a sanctum marker. A magi answers, and Purros is compelled to say what he had attempted to do. The magi plucks a hair from his head and closes the door.
The servant girl is discovered to be named Ophelia, and there are copies of her wandering the covenant halls.
At night, certain of the apprentices espy a prowler.
[Not sure who saw it when.]
Claudius found a room in which to sleep. Others found their own rest as they could.
The following morning, they were roused before sunrise by a colorful--and loud--talking bird, familiar to a very bird-like magus.
Aurelia, somewhat subdued, was there with Helen, her mistress. And if Aurelia was pretty, Helen was absolutely stunning. Her gowns contained markings of triangles and squiggles--very strange, and clearly symbolic.
Magnus, Claudius's master, has no tatoos (at least, none visible to normal scrutiny).
Socrates, outfitted splendidly, led a processional which gathered attendees from side corridors as he walked through the covenant, swinging a bronze brazier, casting a long portal spell. The corridor seemed to grow in length, much larger than the covenant itself. At the moment of climax, the lights blinked out--and all found themselves in a new place...
Easily the largest room anyone has ever been in, it could contain 50 palaces. Its walls were of stone, but gilded with luxuriously reflective gold work. It is a Christian building. At the top is a glorious golden dome, crowned with a picture of Christ as God. Light was everywhere, though outside it was not yet morning. The paramount image is of Christ sitting in judgment, and it is stunning and incredible. The ink upon the walls itself is reflective, as if made from liquid gemstones.
In the room, too, are about 100 magi.
In the front of this place, the Hagia Sophia, is a man in strage robes, with a face and manners unknown to us. He speaks very strangely accented Greek, and Socrates asked him to read from the Book of Changes.
He casts some coins, finds a passage, and reads from the book.
"The mountains and the lake.
It furthers man to go on the journey.
Great misfortune.
It furthers man to stay where he is.
No blame."
[Merwin, if you have a more accurate transcription, bring it on...]
Many magi reacted to this inauspicious reading.
Finally, it came time for the Oaths, and they were taken in this order:
After the new magi take their places among their sodales, the vast, heavy doors to the cathedral open as if pushed by giants, and in strides a dark figure who cries out in a heathen accent,
"I assume I have a place here?"
Updated on 4 August 1999
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