Soul Bound

1            Soul Bound

1.1          Finding her Feet

1.1.5        An Inscrutable Mastermind

1.1.5.16     Group skills

Wellington: “What skills did people gain or gain levels in?”

Wellington: 3 Group Performance, +2 Performance, +1 Mage

Bulgaria: 3 Group Performance, +1 Performance, +1 Necromancer

Kafana: 3 Group Performance, +2 Performance, +4 Mage, +3 Working Buff, +4 Speed buff, +2 Mage Sight, +4 Gain Aggro buff, +3 Learning buff, +1 Running, +1 Intimidate, +3 Stealth Performance

Alderney: 1 Group Performance, 2 Analyse Enemy, +2 Scout, +2 Eagle Eyes, +2 3D Thinking, +2 Throw Objects, +2 Danger Sense, +3 Cat Eyes, +3 Chameleon Eyes, +1 Drop Kick, +4 Brachiating

Bungo: 2 Group Performance, +4 Warrior, +3 Shield Bash, +3 Dodge, +4 Draw Aggro, +2 Block, +4 Throw Objects

Tomsk: 2 Group Performance, +2 Warrior, +2 Captain, +4 Longsword, +3 Lead, +2 Maneuver, +2 Dodge, +1 Block, +2 Identify Vulnerability

Bungo: “Alderney, you gained a lot.”

Alderney: “A lot of the ones I gained in were sight related. You can keep those going while doing other stuff. This graveyard is full of herbs. Did you keep your harvesting detection turned on at all times?”

Wellington: “Good point, we’ve all got something sight related.”

Kafana: “We’ve still got 10 minutes of harmony and learning buff left. Gather around in a circle, turn on every sight ability you have and look at each other. I want to try something.”

She turned on her Mage Sight with the analyse ingredients option and held hands with Wellington on her left and Bulgaria on her right. There were lots of songs about seeing through people’s eyes, but none exactly right. She stole some lines and mixed them until they seemed appropriate, then improvised a torch-song-like tune:

Just take a look through my eyes

Everything changes

You'll be amazed what you'll find

Just take a look through my eyes

see it all through my eyes

its just no mystery

Hold on to the beauty

There's a better place somewhere out there

don't let it go

just let it show

through my eyes

through your eyes

through our eyes

Her vision changed. She could now see behind her, see smaller details, see further, see which parts of the corpses around her could be harvested and where their combat weak points had been. She could see the mana inside everyone as before, but that would be new to Alderney and Tomsk. She could sense the shapes of 3D objects, even the parts facing away from her. She could anticipate which way things would move next. If it wasn’t for the learning buff, she’d be gibbering on the floor in overload. As it was, she took it all in.

“I’m going to try letting go, then holding up some items to look at. Don’t only use your eyes. Try to hear things, smell things, sense things with your whole body.”

She let go, and was relieved to see she still kept the enhanced sight. She took out some food ingredients and cooked meals and laid them on the stone slab they’d gathered around. Bungo picked some herbs and put them there too. Wellington drew the 8 primary runes, glowing with the different mana types. Bulgaria summoned a spirit to talk to. Alderney threw daggers at moving objects behind her without looking. Tomsk exchanged some slow practice blows with Bungo, showing vulnerabilities and how to anticipate where an attack was coming from.

[Group skill gained “Combined Senses” - may only be invoked during formations and other group performances. Usage 1/day. Duration: a single performance]

Wellington: “Tomsk, we killed over 200 monsters. Why’s there no loot?”

Tomsk: “Good question. Maybe we need to search for it. Bulgaria, while you have your spirit there, can you ask it if there’s anything unusual buried or hidden around here. Or what has changed in the last month?”

They waited around helping Bungo gather ingredients and Alderney search for hidden passages, while Bulgaria performed a ritual involving candles, bells, incense, blood, lots of chanting and some dark iron items best not thought about. Talking to the dead was, apparently, not a fast process. He eventually dismissed the spirit, using salt, herbs and some sort of clear liquid from a silver aspergil. The graveyard seemed colder and darker now, with the ground mist swirling at waist height, only the tips of gravestones poking out of it.

Bulgaria: “I got back a piece of poetry, some visual images, and a name. Can anyone see a mausoleum for House Lantric?”

Alderney, who’d done an impressively thorough job of searching the area, had every inscription she’d seen already indexed on their shared map, so a blue star path to their destination immediately appeared. The lock on the mausoleum door was surprisingly free of rust, and Alderney investigated it for traps while Wellington checked for traces of magic.

Wellington: “My mage sight is showing a runic pattern on the far side of the door. Can we get in another way?”

Tomsk: “Not unless we want to bash through the wall, or perform some major magic. Can you do anything to help us avoid curses or remote effects being triggered?”

Wellington: “In theory, if the runes are drained of all mana and there is none being pushed into them, they should have no effect. Give me a minute, then I’ll want Bulgaria and Kafana to put their hands on my shoulders and concentrate on performing with me.”

They set up and he carefully inscribed a pattern of air, shadow, earth and order runes, which started to glow.

Wellington: “Ok, don’t push mana into them. Instead, concentrate on sucking mana back into your body from my runes. I set mine to resonate with theirs. If our combined levels are higher than those of the caster, I think this has a chance of working.”

They tried, and Wellington’s runes pulsed dimmer and dimmer, eventually not re-lighting at all. Drops of rain started to fall.

Wellington: “Done. All yours. Pick the lock or bash down the door. You should be safe from magic.”

Alderney unrolled a leather rectangle that contained a variety of bits of bent metal of various thicknesses and lengths. In under a minute she had it open. She shrugged:

“Renaissance level of technology. Once you remove magic as a factor, it isn’t a challenge.”

*CRACK-THOWWWW*

The sky turned white and lightning blasted into the roof of the tallest mausoleum.

Alderney muttered: “Sky deities, they’re all bloody drama queens.”

Bungo alarmed: “Alderney! Stop raising death flags!”

Alderney giggled, having succeeded in winding Bungo up, and gave Wellington a high five which he solemnly returned.

Kafana: “Bungo, it’s just lightning. Ignore them. Let’s go inside.”

The rain was pelting down now, and they took her advice.

Bulgaria: “I recognise this from the image I got from the spirit. Tomsk, could you push against that sarcophagus while I put pressure on these three carvings on the wall?”

The sarcophagus slid smoothly aside on hidden runners, to reveal stairs leading down into a crypt. There were fresh tarred torches in a bracket alongside a box of kindling and a steel striker set. This obviously saw regular use. This time Alderney led the way, using her Cat’s Eyes to see in the dark, straining to listen ahead and sense any danger or traps. Wellington, behind her, kept a mage eye out for magic she wouldn’t spot. A couple of minutes later they returned and Alderney declared it safe and lit a torch. They followed her down.

It was more of a warehouse than an Aladdin’s cave. Everything was boxed for transport in sturdy crates with rope handles designed to be carried by two people. Many of them looked like they’d been sealed to survive a sea voyage, and cryptic numbers and letters were marked on in a clear firm hand. Presumably if you knew the code, you’d know what they contained and who to deliver them to. The clasps had wax seals upon them, showing some kind of flower, probably to deter the smugglers from trying to find out what they had been transporting. Stones had been removed from one of the crypt’s walls, revealing a damp tunnel leading in the direction of the walls of the city.

Bulgaria: “Options: We could take everything as loot. We could abandon it and forget we saw it. We could alert the guards at the gate and turn it all over to Lelio. We could follow the passage. We could booby trap it. We could set up a magic resonance, hoping to track where the crates get taken, and to leave no traces that we’d been here. We could stake the place out or hire someone to do so on our behalf. Opinions?”

Bungo: {What gets us the most money?}

Alderney: {What would be fun and funny? I’m curious. I want to know what’s in them, and play around with interesting stuff.}

Tomsk: {What will improve our reputation with the key NPCs and advance our plots?}

Kafana: {What’s most dramatic and will grab the viewers and make them want to keep watching?}

Wellington: {What will take least time? I’m hoping we can get the big quest from the nearby village done this afternoon, and possibly find someone selling goats at the same time. That will both increase our reputation, be fun and cool to watch, and advance our quests with both Vittoria and Lelio who are key NPCs.}

Bulgaria: “I suggest Kafana cast luck, then we pick one to leave as evidence for Lelio, one that we feel will be fun to open now, put the rest in our inventory and then seal the place up and get out of here. We notify Lelio the first chance we get, and leave tracking or stake outs up to him.”

Alderney: “That gets my vote. Let’s pick two as evidence. The gatehouse is nearby. I can take one evidence crate, bounce over there and leave it for Lelio and return, before you guys are even halfway down the road.”

Kafana: “Rather than casting luck, I can cast twice, customizing the visualisation for what we want to pick, maybe with help from Wellington and Bungo providing ‘Seer’.”

Wellington: “Works for me.”

Bungo: “Me too.”

Tomsk: “I’ll keep watch so we don’t get ambushed.” {Nice compromise Bulgaria, a little in it for everyone. Were you deliberately trying to model a group decision process for viewers?}

Bulgaria: {Any of the solutions could have been made to work. There probably isn’t one best or ‘right’ solution. It is more a case of listening to people, being flexible and non-perfectionist in achieving a consensus without wasting too much time or railroading anyone, and then everyone being willing to put their enthusiasm behind it even if they think it isn’t perfect and someone else gains more out of it than they do.}

They picked the two that would be most helpful to Lelio in finding and incriminating the people involved first. One was long, about the shape and weight of a human body. The other was sealed very tightly, and had a note saying not to drop it or turn it upside down. Kafana didn’t like the look of the mana associated with either of them.

Then they tried for one that would be fun to open, full of treasure they’d might want to use themselves. One crate in particular flashed brightly, so they summoned Tomsk and all gathered around. Alderney removed the seal and opened the lid.

It looked like the contents had been discarded by a magpie. Everything was shiny. Some of it was worthless. Some were rings of gold and broaches of silver. On top there was a note, in the same hand that had labelled the crates “From the ghoul’s nest.”

Bulgaria: “Wellington, when we’re somewhere nicer, can you try your Identify skill on that, and also pick out anything that’s magical?”

Wellington: “Sure, let’s get out of here. Alderney, you take the evidence crate, Bungo, Tomsk and Bulgaria should take the others. I’ll look at the shared map and the pattern of ghoul locations Alderney marked on it, and see if I can pick a place for Kafana to cast a nest searching spell as we pass. If that’s ok with you Kafana?”

Kafana: “Sure. I think I even have a tune in mind” She smiled.