Session 5
22 July 1999, 6:30pm
Attended by: Jason, Scott, Chris, Merwin, Steve, Ken
StoryGuide: Ken
Logged by: Jason
Game
The magi have breakfast, most of them together. Today is the day that the magi are to pay their respects to the Emperor.
(Ken describes magic books when Scott asks him if tearing a page out of a volume of such would harm it. They can be weird, as they are not simply a summary of their words. Random scribbles can be important, for instance, as can any number of properties, such as the number of pages, the types of ink used, and so forth.)
To the group, Purros suggests that the group investigate the night prowler, as a means of garnering favor with the host covenant. He is met with lukewarm response.
The magi met with the senior local magus with the loud colorful bird (whose name is Polyhedron). This magus, whose name the PCs did not discover, reports that the prowler is likely to be among a group of "magi, or close enough" who were Wizard's Marched some 50 years ago at the "emergency" tribunal of 1070. (Interestingly, one of the subjects of this action was Nicha' Azif's own parens.)
The bird magus also speculated that the prowler must have 10 or 12 magnitudes of Parma Magica to survive the roof's defenses. He advised the new magi not to confront this creature directly, for it would surely overpower them. He thanked them for bringing this to his attention.
Kurpat did not recall any such "emergency" tribunal, and queried Tomas, his parens, who did recall it, and noted that the records were kept hidden. (One of the keepers of this information, it seems, is the bird Polyhedron, who can recount it verbatim--but must start at the beginning and proceed through the entire record to do so.)
The group dispersed, and thought to gather sometime later, in the afternoon.
Claudius went into the city in search of a fountain by which to sit, and for other purposes. He bargained with a kabob merchant, and discovered deep arithmetic truths.
When the group finally gathered to make their way to the Imperial Palace to pay homage, they encountered Alexander filius Basil, follower of Jerbiton, who spoke of Imperial homage protocol. He advised the group that the hour was growing late for their purpose, and would have gone on for quite some time had Kurpat not interceded by reminding this extremely well-attired, exquisitely-spoken magus of the timeliness of their purpose. However, the group did learn that such magi as did pledge loyalty were required by the Code to pledge themselves in a non-Hermetic capacity: as the representative of a guild, or a mundane group, and so forth. The new magi grew wary at these tidings, and were puzzled.
Met at the palace gates, only Purros and Kurpat passed muster: Purros by claiming to be the chosen representative of the artisans of Lindos, and Kurpat as a representative of the apparently little-known Order the Oak and Cross.
In their pledges, Purros gave the Emperor the gift of a modest ring, and the Emperor seemed not displeased on the surface, but compared to the gifts from the others in his realm, Purros' ring was more poor than modest. For his part, Kurpat gave the gift of his service as a man of God and the sword.
Kurpat recognized the Emperor as the wealthy and mysterious man the group (save Iseus, who was detained speaking with Socrates back at the covenant) met two days earlier at the culmination of the first day of the Hippodrome Affair.
Meanwhile, the balance of the group (Aurelia did not go with them) headed back to Constantinople Covenant by way of alternate roads, so they could use this time to see some small portion of the city.
A detour down a road containing some number of astrologers' signs was taken. Iseus showed interest, and paid a modest sum for a reading from the proprietor of the house, an old, blind woman who nevertheless showed unerring instinct in disciplining Claudius for his misplaced curiosity. She produced a substantial reading for Iseus in which the brooding nature of Saturn was all but everywhere...
Finally, everyone returned from the city to their rooms in the Covenant. Along the way, Kurpat was approached by a representative of Ararat Covenant, which makes its abode in the caves of that most tall and blessed of mountains. This group, if the representative spoke true, is engaged in a search for Noah's Ark itself. Kurpat said he was honored, and that he would deeply consider the magus's offer.
Updated on 4 August 1999
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