La Maison Soloumbre: Evening of April 10th

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Glim
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Post by Glim »

Also scribbling furiously, the Rajian in the front wishes for his abbacus because he's precisely following the Umbra, and wants to check certain things. The topic at hand is interesting, but requires calculations to be made, at least in Shadiirs mind. Instead of flicking beads to and fro, he now scribbles small formulae in his book that, when combined provide a complex answer to back up the Shadowcloak's words.
Last edited by Glim on Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:20 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

"...ripples, or echoes, which are perceptible as wave-forms damped by the natural resistance of the dimensions or strings..."

The Shadowcloak's presentation, originally quite fluid if extremely abstruse, now proceeds in fits and starts; it seems that he is now contemplating some addition to his theory, and is essentially thinking out loud. He has generated an illusionary grid of sorts, in which he is manipulating a series of lines and whorls in a way which seems quite arbitrary to most of those present (although those such as Shadiir and Hazan, whose interests lie along these lines, appear to be fascinated).

As he continues the lines gain definition, and their end points become apparantly three dimensional--they are tiny human forms, which have left behind them a long trail of light.

"Huh," Tarnos Shadowcloak says. Waving a hand, he abolishes the illusion, turns, and seats himself, gesturing brusquely to Mikkelson. Nodding, the Valachani Father stands and takes his place at the podium.
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Post by Glim »

Those figures... he wasn't trying to..? Surely not here... not now!

The Rajian finished whatever notes were left... admitted, the sudden ending of the lecture left him with incomplete data, but at least he was able to distill the general gist of it all. Quite interesting in fact.
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

Mikkelson gazes out over the audience for a long moment, then begins to speak: "It has long been noted that the un-dead are peculiarly resistant to those forms of magic which influence the mind, regardless of whether or not they are capable of cognition. It is not, perhaps, surprising that a near-mindless creature should be, as it were, deaf and blind to the subtle arcana of illusions; but even creatures capable not only of perceiving, but of employing, illusionary magic are often quite resistant to its effects. In pondering this difficulty I was drawn to what might initially seem to be an entirely unrelated fact--that animals are often resistant to illusions which deceive humans entirely. It requires quite a skilled practitioner of illusion, for example, to fool a dog for any length of time.

"Two reasons for this immediately spring to mind. First, the senses which the dog uses to perceive the world are (usually) quite different from those of the magician, and secondarily (and closely allied to the first) the magician tends to design an illusion which he, himself, would find difficult to penetrate. The illusion must be tailored to its recipient to have the desired effect, and not tailored to the caster's preconceptions.

"With this principle in mind I turned my attention to the art of glamer in relationship to the un-dead, and I am pleased to report that I have found it a fruitful line of research. I speak this evening on the topic of how one may design illusions which "speak", if you will forgive the metaphor, to the perceptions of the un-dead..."
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

Mikkelson develops his theme at some length; it becomes apparent as he does so that illusions designed to fool the undead, although possible (if his claims are accurate) have some interesting limitations--most importantly, that they usually no longer fool the living, and that they require the expenditure of significantly more magical power.

He draws his lecture to a close, then says, "We will now entertain questions--only a limited number, I'm afraid--for any of this evening's speakers."
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Post by Glim »

Cursing his natural shyness, the Rajian professor realises that if he wants to have any kind of private talk with Shadowcloak, he needs to get the man's attention, by asking something interesting now. But what...

"A question for Father Shadowcloak, if I may Father Mikkelson."

"First let me compliment you on the clevernes, sir, befooling reality itself. Though this bluff of yours reveals a couple of flaws -oh pardon me- inaccuracies, that produce some interesting paradoxes..."
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

Glim wrote:Cursing his natural shyness, the Rajian professor realises that if he wants to have any kind of private talk with Shadowcloak, he needs to get the man's attention, by asking something interesting now. But what...

"A question for Father Shadowcloak, if I may Father Mikkelson."

"First let me compliment you on the clevernes, sir, befooling reality itself. Though this bluff of yours reveals a couple of flaws -oh pardon me- inaccuracies, that produce some interesting paradoxes..."
"Inaccuracies?" Shadowcloak says, not rising from his seat. "Do tell." Something in his tone of voice warns the Rajian mathematician that he had better really say something of interest now, or the attention he gets from the Father will be of exactly the sort he doesn't want.
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Post by Rotipher of the FoS »

Crow relaxes through the first two lectures -- even if his work doesn't get him killed before he can master such power, shadow-magic isn't anything he'd sully his hands with, and arcane mathematics strikes him as one of the few topics even duller than necromancy -- although he does find some entertainment-value in seeing such a large fraction of the audience pretend to comprehend Tarnos Shadowcloak's obscurantist ramblings. Buchvold's enthusiasm seems excessive, but not alarmingly-so -- again, he'll have to look into the Borcan's motives soon -- and the incredulous dismay in Kingsley's demeanor, during Loder's speech, is exceedingly gratifying: again, good for her, if the Zherisian's faith in the vipers -- or at least, their single-minded idolatry of intellect uber alles -- is truly starting to fray.

The spy's attention grows far more focused on the third lecture -- not that he lets on about this, of course; by all appearances, 'Brother Crow' has all but dozed off in his chair, by that point -- as he's curious how closely the Father's research might parallel his own Society's numerous experiments in this field. Not very, it would seem: the Valachani's discourse seems directed solely toward the issue of sensory modalities, and not the larger quandry of an undead target's near-impervious psyche. Good to know you're not as far along as we are, the bard muses, and makes a mental note to warn Perseyus to watch herself, just in case the dark-skinned Umbra's "research methods" should turn uncivilized.

(Odd, really. He'd dreamed about Mikkelson, of all things, the night before. Only briefly -- the bard's own subconscious would not spare him its hauntings for long -- but he'd recognized the face. Crow'd not thought the new-raised Father impressive enough for that, given some of the other evils he'd faced, without his usual nightmares' making way for them. The blood-samples of the previous day could have been used as a conduit for dream-roving....

(Oh, well. It'd been the Il Aluk dream again, not one of the others; even if the Father'd seen it, it contained nothing that contradicted 'Brother Crow's' story. And if anything, he probably owes Mikkelson a favor: point of fact, it'd been the soundest night's sleep Crow'd had since St. Ronges.)

The last lecture winds to an end, and the bard "rouses himself", smiling unapologetically to his neighbors in the audience as he sits back to watch the timid Rajian squirm. Not quite the response you'd calculated, friend, he mentally quips to the little mouse of a mathematician, his wits reinvigorated by this evening's brief hiatus from scheming.
Last edited by Rotipher of the FoS on Sun Oct 29, 2006 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Glim
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Post by Glim »

"There are many different theories on the possibilities of time paradoxes. Throughout the history of civilization, many a mind has pondered on it, and some treatises have been written on the topic. To try and pay homage to each idea in its completeness would fill quite a lenghty volume..." The rajian is on a roll here. Finally something that interests him, _and_ he's got the Father's attention.

"What I'm trying to say is that, if it's possible to travel to the future, that would mean that the future is static, predetermined. Nobody in this room likes that idea. The fact that it's possible to alter past events implies that it's not static, which is a relief. There's a 'but' though, and that's where paradoxes come in.

Everybody understands that if I go back, and kill myself as a child in the past that that's impossible. Since I couldn't have grown up to kill myself later on. That's logic, and just an easy way to explain the conundrum we have here. The real scope of it is more massive, what impact would my death have and what events would it set in motion.

If it's possible to change a train of events, it's likely that something will go wrong and will result in something else than the desired result in the long run. Theoretically it's possible to predict the effect of changed events, but the factors involved in such an equasion are too many for anyone to handle. I hope you had considered this?" Brother Tuyuz bows in the traditional Rajian matter and seats himself again.
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Post by Moral Machivelli »

Buchvold winced when the Rajin starts to explain.

Idiot, their was a reason Shadowcloak spoke in such a matter. If everyone knows...

Buchvold then notices precisely what the Rajin has said.

Brilliant, quite brilliant. Buchvold is unable to contain a crocodile smile.

This can and will work to my advantage. Admitantly, any reputation of this "Tuyuz" as a serious arcane scholar is going to be shot to pieces (How many of those present are going to offer any credance to the idea of time travel, which the Rajin has just unwittingly associated himself with, as he appears to be offering the Shadowcloak conciliation on why the latter’s idea will not work?), but it's no fault of mine.

OOC: Sorry Glim, but time travel dosen;t sound like the sort of thing to meet widescale aproval from the FoS.

1 it sounds like Plebelean fiction, as opposed to a serious project.

2 It is a material matter, as opposed to a metaphysical one.

Shadowcloak's Idea is a bit more complex, but Tuyuz's sumary strips it to the point in which it will be affected by the above Factors.
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Post by Glim »

OOC: Figured as much, wish I had a shred of subtlety in me that I could consult in these matters. I guess shadiir's just the same blunt boor that his player is :/
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Post by Moral Machivelli »

OOC Ah, I see, Sorry.
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Post by Rotipher of the FoS »

[OOC: Cheer up, Glim; your PC gives us a refreshing contrast to all the obsessive schemers and conspiracy-addicts on this board! :D (So says one of the worst of them. :wink: ) So let Shadiir keep bulling along: he's a natural 'straight man'.]
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

Glim wrote: "If it's possible to change a train of events, it's likely that something will go wrong and will result in something else than the desired result in the long run. Theoretically it's possible to predict the effect of changed events, but the factors involved in such an equasion are too many for anyone to handle. I hope you had considered this?" Brother Tuyuz bows in the traditional Rajian matter and seats himself again.
"Yes," the Shadowcloak replies. After a long pause, it becomes apparent that is all he intends to say in response.

It occurs to Shadiir that it is probably a tactical mistake to ask yes-or-no questions--if he can ask a more open-ended question quickly enough, he may yet salvage the opportunity he's been given...
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Post by alhoon »

Draxton keeps notes and remain silent throughout the exchange. Interesting theories and interesting lecture. Perhaps he will be able to combine something to affect the undead mind. After all, he knows how the skeletons and zombies understand the world. There are spells to fool their perceptions or even command them. He may not have the first, but he has even prepared the second this morning.
Last edited by alhoon on Wed Nov 01, 2006 7:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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