The Halls of Medeia - Chapter 1

[Ail]

Alastor does not notice anything particular. The shock has certainly affected him more than he thought, and nothing in the scene jumps at his eyes. Young professor Guicciardi agrees Niles and congenially says

"You are right, father. We should. Well, in any case, we need some kind of stretcher, don't we?"

Prof. Driscoll quickly disposes of his jacket to cover the student's body, while Mrs Frost goes back to college and organizes a couple of staff men to help carry the body. The rest of the students are kept at bay, following the previous orders, and a sad party brings the student to the chapel.

When they arrive, the Chaplain has already finished with the basic preparatives of the place. He gives the holy rites to the body, and invites Niles to stay and assist him.

How does Alastor answer?

Meanwhile, George finds the library open. There are very few students there, and a young woman is behind the desk. She is probably in the mid twenties. What does George do?

Christine spends about an hour preparing her nightly excursion, and maybe another pondering whether she should go on with her plan, whether she will be courageous enough. It's still not evening, so how does she spend her time?

[steveflam]

George is looking for any information on the town, strange occurences or unexplained phenomenas. Also anything considered occult.

[A G Thing]

Christine spends her time studying her school work while thinking on how best to go out to visit the gypsies and to speak with them on what has occurred. She would have to sneak out but be careful not to be spotted so her lantern could not be on for much of the trip. The best path though she worries not the safest anymore would be the woods normally but perhaps she could sneak out. She would have to deal with these problems when she came to them though.

She has set herself to doing this tonight and does not think of second guessing herself even if those thoughts are easy to call to mind as she pushes past them. She had found few answers to any mysteries she studied with George and the only place she could think to look is with her wandering kin. The danger to others and herself however made her want answers.

She stays in her room and puts her readied things in a pile in the top of her trunk until she needs them.

[Alastor]

"Anything that can be done to help, Father" Niles replies to Father Richard.

[Ail]

George is looking for any information on the town, strange occurences or unexplained phenomenas. Also anything considered occult.

Does he look for himself, or does he ask the assistant?

[Ail]

The old chaplain looks even more tired as he makes the preparations with Niles's help. He is silent, and the air hangs heavy between them, but at last the chaplain lets some words out of his chest, words that seemed to have been piling there for a long while.

"Loss of life is always sad, but when it comes this young... it always brings on me a heavy burden, a loss of hope, as if I were one year closer to my own death.
Did you know this lad, Niles?"

[OOC: roll a die. Odd says Niles had never seen him, evens say he has once sought Niles's pastoral counselling.]

Father Richard continues.

"He came to me once, last year. Very peaceful, very unassuming, but always in the shadow. He did not stand out, in groups and classes he was the sort of person to be picked last. I don't suppose he had many friends.

When someone dies, you want to look back at their life and think, did it make sense? Was it something that had to happen because of how he lived his life? Or is it just cold cruel luck, an accident of fate?"

Niles can see the priest has stopped in his work and looks at him with moisten eyes.

------------------------------

[steveflam]

George is looking for any information on the town, strange occurences or unexplained phenomenas. Also anything considered occult.

Does he look for himself, or does he ask the assistant?

Assistance first.

[Ail]

George approaches the young librarian and asks her about the topics that tickle his interest. The librarian nods and says

"Most of our books are scholarly, you know, dedicated to the arts & sciences, but we do have some about local places and customs. Come, I'll show you."

She leads the way, while prattling about how she has been in the library only since the start of the year and how she does not yet entirely know it.

"I do like to keep the volumes in good order. I have been writing paper slips with a rigorous index for the books, but they're so many I'm still far from finished. I do not understand how the previous librarian managed, he must have had a prodigious memory for knowing where the books were."

She leads George to a shelf that seems almost like a local almanac. It is mainly dedicated to local events and books about the surrounding region. From a casual glance, they seem to encompass geography, natural history, and possibly a bit of history itself.

"This could be a good start for you, if you are interested in the local region. But that is a pretty vague interest, I think. We have many shelves on History, but that tends to be older material, the classics and then English history. I'm not sure there will be anything dedicated to this place per se."

[steveflam]

"Thanks much. I'll read this an if I need anythin else I'll be askin ye." George grabs the book and finds a seat and table to read at.

[Ail]

George starts leafing through the books and magazines the librarian has left there. For the most part, he learns that the villages around are small and rural, although they do seem to have a very lively life. People regularly gather on Sundays to play sports at Elmsbrook's village green, but this activity stops from around October to March as the weather gets rough.

The main congregation seems to be the church of St James in Cadborough, but there are smaller chapels both in Ladymere and Elmsbrook.

Ldaymere holds the main produce fairs in the region, and is also on the border of the great lake of the same name. On the far side of the lake, there are some stately estates, and one sanatorium.

There are several pubs in the area, the main meeting points where stories are exchanged and nurtured.

There are train stations in Elmsbrook and Ladymere, which have changed life in the area remarkably. With stops on the line from London to Reading, now access to main markets is faster, and many people began finding work nearer the capital, in more affluent places like Richmond and Twickenham. This has began to bring some new customs to these villages, and the students in the new school also caused some new services to appear. While Ladymere has increased as a destination for couples on romantic escapades, or dandies from London, Elmsbrook became the calling point for
students, with some new services showing up to accommodate these, mainly sellers of fashion clothes, gastronomical crafts and school material. There are also a couple lodging houses.

There seem to be no libraries except in the school, although there seem to be some a a handful of bookshops around.

Going back in time, there are few marks of relevance. The old church of St. James dates back centuries, apparently, but although it is now in use, it seems it was abandoned for a long time until it was rebuild only after the great fire at the castle.

The castle is the university nowadays. As its conversion to the use of education is only fairly recent, these texts do not refer to it as such. For the villagers, the place where it is build is still "Castle Hill", and the building is often known as simply The Castle. This seems to be ignored in the goings-by of everyday's life, and the only referrences ever made to it seem to be to the great fire somewhere in the past.

[steveflam]

"Well if that wasn't a waste of me time," George mutters to himself as he returns the books to the librarian.

"Thanks Mum, but it weren't helpful in me research. I be lookin fer more occult or strange occurrences like wass' bin goin
on aroun' 'ere lately. If ye don't gots none, it be fine."

[Ail]

The librarian looks at George with a strange look

"What do you mean happening recently? There's the odd tale of ghosts in the pubs, but those are not recent of course. If you want something more of unexplained mysteries... well, the castle fire itself is mysterious enough, no one ever managed to explain me how it happened, but neither have I managed to find any explanation in here.

As for traditions... I can not remember any specific to this region here, but there might be something on general ones here in the library... Let me see if I can find something..."

[Ail]

At the first signs of dusk, Christine prepares to leave her room. She gauges the weather, improvises something to eat and waits for nightfall, while picking the way she'll take to the camp. One hour or so after dark, she sets off.

OOC: what road will she take?
She has to leave the grounds of the university to reach the gypsies, but the front gate is closed and in any case that is not the most direct route. Walking towards East through the open fields of the college she will reach the boundary wall, which she could try to climb. She can also try the forest, it is possible the wall does not fully extend into it, but she is not certain she could find the way after that.

[A G Thing]

Rolls for the DM

VIEW CONTENT:

Disguise Check
Die roll for Christines Disguise Check
Rolled on: Dec. 24, 2014, 10:05 a.m.
1d20+12 → [8,12] = (20)
Link
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4744984/

Perform Acting Vocal Mimicry Check
Die roll for Christines Perform Acting Vocal Mimicry Check
Rolled on: Dec. 24, 2014, 10:18 a.m.
1d20+31 → [14,31] = (45)
Link
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4745011/

Hide Check
Die roll for Christines Hide Check
Rolled on: Dec. 24, 2014, 10 a.m.
1d20+1 → [11,1] = (12)
Link
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4744981/

Move Silently Check
Die roll for Christines Move Silently Check
Rolled on: Dec. 24, 2014, 10:03 a.m.
1d20+7 → [9,7] = (16)
Link
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4744982/

Spot Check
Die roll for Christines Spot Check
Rolled on: Dec. 24, 2014, 10:15 a.m.
1d20+1 → [2,1] = (3)
Link
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4744997/

Listen Check
Die roll for Christines Listen Check
Rolled on: Dec. 24, 2014, 10:13 a.m.
1d20+3 → [4,3] = (7)
Link
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4744995/

Christine wearing her disguise. A mens cap with her long hair tucked up into it, a pair of woolen pants held up by a leather belt, kid gloves worn to cover her thin hands, a simple cotton shirt, hiking boots and a oil slicker to further hide her body. She also took her woolen shirt from her trunk and while using the padding of the excess material to make her upper body look a little bit bigger under her outfit she wrapped one of the sleeves over her lower face as if a scarf obscuring the rest below her slicker and the cotton shirt. Her chest bound uncomfortably to limit her figure being noticed as well, she forces herself to breathe carefully so as not to strain the binding.

Her efforts at disguise are also accompanied by the application of makeup so as to better obscure her features should she be forced in close and to make her seem older and male. The blackening of her normally red eyebrows as well as a few false wrinkles made by lines on her face seem effective enough. Her glasses must remain on for now and her lantern she has somewhat shielded by the slicker so as to block its light until she reaches the forest.

As she sets out she begins to head toward where the boundary wall meets the forest with all the combined haste and stealth she can comfortably manage. She plans to follow the wall into the forest looking for a way through and then following the other side of the wall out of the forest afterward. She has been thinking of a male sounding voice she cobbled together just in case she is noticed and her practice of it mentally and somewhat in her room went well enough she feels confident she can manage to fool any listeners. She based it on the voice of an older man she met who had delivered milk to the school but had also used what she knew of the few snippets of voices of the workers in the area. She had changed it a bit in its creation but the accent and tone should fool anyone while she works how to bluff or flee she hoped.

[Alastor]

In the chapel, another long stretch of silence lingers before Niles finds the heart to respond to Father Richard's words.

"No," Niles finally replies to the older priest, "We had never met. One wonders now if it might have made a difference if we had. If someone had reassured them, he and the others might not have chosen to flee unwittingly into peril."

"A lonely young man surely couldn't be blamed for trusting whatever friends he found, even if they led him astray. In that at least, he did have poor luck. Let us hope at least that they were better friends than examples, and stayed by him in his final hour."

Niles allows this soliloquy to trail off, realizing he had been verbalizing his thoughts and changing the subject. "Anyroad, his family will wish to honour him presently. Ought I to write them whilst you compose the funeral sermon?"