Afina and the brain trust (Afina)

[Anastasia]

Finding Sylvie isn't hard - she's just emerging from her quarters after a quick bath and change of clothes. From there it's to the library. The only other one you're able to round up is Sage Vul'lath, everyone else quite busy.

"Ahem," the gith clears his throat, "So what is it you need studied immediately?"

[Ebiris]

"Wide scale planar rifts," Afina answers, trusting Sylvie to provide more technical terms as needed. "Preferably ones involving more than two planes - in this case we have Limbo and Gehenna both intersecting into the Astral. We need to know where this sort of thing's happened before, and what was done about it if anything."

[Anastasia]

"Similar in theory to a spiritual wound on the Prime," Sylvie adds, "But unlike the Prime, the Astral won't unravel due to it. It was expanding when we left and may continue to do so. Overall stability isn't clear, though the size suggests it won't fade entirely on its own, even in the most favorable scenario."

Sage Vul'lath leans back in his chair, hands steepled before him, "You caused this? The essence of devils and your own essences could potentially be in play as well, though likely overwhelmed by the planar emissions. The high quantities of undead could provide a note of connection to the Negative Energy Plane, though that is likely overwhelmed as well."

"Probably," Sylvie says, "Afina and I are spirits, the Master and Tannin are not fully mortal and Cresiel is a solar. Which I do suspect saved us from the worst of it. Mortals always come out the worst in those sort of things." There's a drawn pause here, "It's so strange talking like that, that I'm not one of them anymore."

"Quite." Vul'lath says shortly, snapping his fingers. Books begin to fly from various shelves, "Anything else to add, Afina?"

[Ebiris]

[18:55] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+35 rolling arcana on just what that green stuff was
[18:55] <Kobot> Ebiris rolled 1d20+35 rolling arcana on just what that green stuff was --> [ 1d20=19 ]{54}

[Anastasia]

As they settle in, Calleigh flutters on up towards the party.

Another post coming, this is just getting Tryll in and giving the party a chance to react.

[Yuthirin]

Calleigh waves cheerfully to those assembled. "Hiiiiii!"

[Anastasia]

Afina isn't rightly sure. Whatever it is was toxic to both the living and the dead. Yet the devils seemed to be able to control it. Afina can guess it's some sort of magic that's probably customized by Lixer and his cronies or something really obscure. She's 100% sure it's nothing normal, so it has to be unique or obscure by definition. Probably unique on thinking about it.

Considering that most of Lixer's Necrolytes focus on necromancy, one idea does come to mind. Some sort of absolute energy that destroys period, a sort of similar to...disintegration! The same green beam. It clicks in Afina's head, some sort of variant of that?

[Anastasia]

"Ah, hello," Sylvie says, pausing from the conversation. "Do you need help with something or...Tryll?"

[Ebiris]

"Well, the thing the devils were trying to bring under control was some sort of wide area disintegration magic - I saw it vapourise a few necrolytes, although when it touched me it didn't do anything so it probably failed against my magic resistance. We expected they'd fail and it would bring the whole building down, but Tryll," she nods to the newly arrived cloud and its attendant fairy, "Finished manifesting a chaotic rift everything exploded. Had some strange... dreams or visions, I suppose, before waking up? Something about 8 and 9 if you go in for that numerology business. Lots of nonsense about broken clocks and porcupines and singing... could just be the imaginings of a dazed mind, but that's all I can tell you for now."

[Yuthirin]

"Well, we heard you were recruiting brainy people and Tryll is REALLY smart and stuff and he even looks like a giant brain sometimes and we came to offer to help! If you want."

[Ebiris]

"Makes sense, he did have a... tentacle, in causing this," Afina says, stumbling a bit over the correct vocabulary for unbodied beings. "Tryll, has anything like that happened in the past when you've used that ability?" she addresses the cloud directly.

[Anastasia]

"Yes, I'd like to..." Vul'lath blinks and gives Afina a disapproving look, but quickly recovers. "Ahem. I'd like to know that as well. What precisely did you do and is this normal for it?"

[Yuthirin]

"Broadcasting!" Calleigh chirps.

The mist detaches from Calleigh, taking the shape of a non-descript human. Though he makes the motions, his voice is in the heads of those assembled. "Ah, yes. Hello! Sorry, people tend to react better when they have something to talk to. As for your question, unfortunately not. It's rather curious that the rift caused the reaction it did, though it creates a zone of wild magic so it's not outside the realm of possibility that the rift could have interacted poorly with the ambient magic. "

[Anastasia]

"Yes, quite," Sage Vul'lath remarks, "Devil magic and chaos never mix well. Has it ever done that with devil magic before or otherwise worked awry?"

[Yuthirin]

"No, and the reaction is quite interesting. I'm rather fascinated with the idea of replicating it. "