After watching Nathan leave, and shifting his shoulders and an odd, eerie sensation that someone was watching him (which fades when Nathan passes through the doors), Phil turns his attention to the books, contemplating asking the librarian for help finding specific volumes.
Dracos, eventually overcoming his natural tendancies with his engrained training, turned to the librarian. "Where are the oldest archives that are held here? Anything from around the time of the original dreadmarch attacks?"
Dracos
The librarian looks up from his tome and blinks. "Those archives?" he asks thoughtfully. "No ... we don't really have much that old ... those books have crumbled to dust long ago. I have re-creations of some of the histories...." He looks contemplative for a minute, and then carefully marks his place and closes the large tome. "This way."
Marching into the wings of the library, he locates a specific shelf (Phil could have sworn he walked by it twice and saw none of the books the librarian indicates). "Here we go. These are the records of the Dreadmarch wars from the begining," he says, pointing at a single slim volume, "and then, successive sieges." More books follow. He pauses in his sweeping gesture, a finger pointing at a specific book, which must be as wide as it is deep. "And this is the saga of Hadrick ... and then up through the last," he completes, pointing across an array of smaller books, until he gets to a medium-sized book at the end of the shelf.
Blinking somewhat lazily, he asks, "Is there anything else? I have parchment if you need to take notes ... or could record them for you. And of course, you can borrow anything you need."
"Thank you. I don't think I'll need it for now."
Dracos...began... by checking on Hadrik's tale, swiftly reading through and trusting to his general recollection to pick up on mentions of Archanoe, the crystals, major battles, or his sword.
Dracos
Hadrick's tale is a mainstay -- he was revered above almost all other heroes of, well, almost any other Dreadmarch. The man was a living legend, because he slew not one, but two generals.
Apparently that's quite a feat.
But the book mentions about twenty other 'Heroes of the land' at the time. Melnichor Strong-Arm, the Emissary of Kith wrestled a Troll to the ground, apparently, while Hadrick was taking a breather.
Looking at the number of 'heroes' usually involved with any given fight does certainly explain why Kevin was so grim about only having Breke and Dorian on hand ... and both of them are dead now.
Either way, the ceremony of the crystal is mentioned in passing, but this is mostly a history text. Really, it's a glorified fairy tale.
The person to ask for old stories would probably be Durant ... but he's not around at the moment, so that could be a mite difficult.
Dracos quickly goes over one of the general fights if it's detailed looking for any notice of the teamwork that's generally been used and considered acceptable practice as far as he knows from the beginning.
Dracos
Not much evidence of teamwork ... looks like the closest they came to proper teamwork was tagging in and out of a fight with a General.
Dracos quickly looked for any information on Hadrick's sword.
Dracos
According to the annals of history, Hadrick's sword granted the strength of twenty men, shattered lesser weapons, destroyed armor, and glowed. It was pretty keen.
Further back in history (and there's lots on Hadrick) the sword was evidently created by the Archonae for use in the final war -- it was the First Sword. No other weapon was ever created in the history of the world before that blade, and its twin was the Last Sword, which the Archonae also forged.
Not much information is availible about the sword's evil twin, though.
Also an interesting note, Hadrick evidently journeyed to Soth on the wings of an eagle to claim the sword from an Eldest Brother whom he bested in a drinking contest. That part's kind of hard to believe, though.
Dracos pondered and decided to go look for Rez.
Dracos
The librarian puts all the books back away while Phil leaves the library and searches for Nathan.
Phil now moves to Masquerade (http://www.pishoque.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=41476#41476).
After returning to the library to wait for Nathan, Phil finds that the librarian has returned everything that Phil had leafed through back to its proper shelf.
Dracos skims over that area, looking for any books that seem to be dedicated to the crystals or famous magical artifacts in general.
Dracos
The closest thing that Phil can find is a small document that seems to be about Lorekeepers.
Apparently, there are two kinds of Lorekeepers, though. There are the primal lorekeepers, who use the four elements of the world, and then the celestial lorekeepers, who use the more advanced concepts of the world.
It's kind of vague, and there's not a lot in it ... but it seems to indicate that the majority of lorekeepers are elementalists, while those few that have other abilities tend to be much weaker. One does wonder at the validity of this report.
Dracos tries to see if there's some kind of general time frame the report is referencing.
Dracos
It's not dated, but it looks pretty old. Probably at least forty years old. Then again, it's somewhat difficult to date these carved wooden pages....
Dracos makes a mental note of it and then looks for any information in this specific area that focuses on the Archanoe (or at least appears to from a cursory cover scan).
Dracos
You find no useful information on the Archonae. All you find on them, really, is where they were mentioned in the books on the sieges of ages past.
Before you can find anything else of interest, Nathan walks into the room -- at least he didn't leave you waiting long.
"Heya Nathan." Dracos remarks as he notices him, gesturing him over.
Dracos
"Heya."
Nathan wanders over, checking quickly if there's anyone obviously in earshot before continuing.
"Looks like I won't have to steal your scoutmaster," he continues in a (very) quiet tone, "Paul tells me it was Lindsey who broke him out, and apparently the knife really was significant."
"Lindsey? So she basically framed him while getting him out? Share." Dracos gestured to the bookshelf, visibly looking over it while he talked quietly.
Dracos
Nathan moves over to look at the books himself.
"Effectively, yes. Bitch. Paul's around. He can use the knife to make himself invisible," Nathan taps a random book thoughtfully, "May as well say hi."
"Anyhow, it's good to know straightforward that the they are actually moving to screw us up. " Dracos pulled out the book he'd read earlier on Hadrick. "This I believe you'd find interesting." He handed it to Rez.
~And...in the most cautious of senses...I think it's time for us to plan to remove one of them. Dangerous, but they've already shown themselves willing to play dangerously. At the least, it'd be good information for later. At the most, it'd handicap that squad. Since we have no reason to worry about playing the good faith game, though we'll still do it, we should plan to try and remove that team from the field before they try something similar to us.~
Dracos
Nathan takes the book, then jumps visibly as Drac starts 'talking'.
His surface thoughts, as Drac looks in, go rapidly from curiousity as to the book to panicked, which is quickly quashed.
I wish you'd warn me before you do that. And I'm loathe to start actively plotting against them. I might be tempted to hang them out to dry, but if we start actively plotting against them they'll start against us, and I'd rather not break the status quo unless we know we can get away with it. We still don't know two of them, and they're entirely capable of screwing us over.
"Maybe I exaggerated a bit. Was kind of more a tag team effort, but see what I mean? Almost no 'we piled onto the general fifteen strong to bear him down by force of numbers'."
~Sorry, Really am. But only reason I chose this method was to take the absolute minimal risk with at least one invisible walker fellow around. I don't mean actively planning how to do it, because you are right, that'll cause trouble. And especially not before you get back from that place. Instead I'm more thinking "helping deadly accidents to occur" if we see the opportunity. We're on a stinking battlefield where folks are dying all the time. Sometime the opportunity to take a shot at one of them cleanly is going to make itself open.~
Dracos
Nathan looks over the book thoughtfully. "Hm."
I . . . no. I can't go along with this, sorry. I've killed people, I'll kill more, and that's bad enough, but I'm not going to sink to outright murder. There are limits.
~Hum... I don't really think of it that way. They are trying to fuck us over and obliterate us eventually. But at the same time, yeah, I can see where you are coming from. Bleh. Anyhow, either way, we have to watch our back doubly now. They have effectively someone who can pretend to speak for either me or you to the storm riders to cause havoc if need be. They have someone who's highly placed within the priests and priestesses. And they've got someone sitting in the wizard's tower. Hum. We can't tell Gin. Even if he should know, he wouldn't be able to keep a straight face about it. Have you told Bjorn?~
Dracos
Liandral is deniable from our perspective. Notice how we haven't been using him in that capacity lately? Lindsey . . . no. Lammermore and Kevin don't trust her, notice last meeting when they told her about Paul in order to try and catch her doig something? She's under suspicion, and it'd be all too easy for us to cast more on her. She can be neutralized. Serril . . . well, I suppose Gin is our counter there. Again, he's not that highly placed and Radagast is our ally.
"Interesting. Very interesting. I don't really have time to go through it right now, though, but I'll make sure to look sometime when I have more."
Nathan hums.
"I haven't spoken to Bjorn yet; I may not get the chance before we go. Make sure to pass what I said along to him. I'll take our mutual friend along as the second person, I think."
~My concern isn't that they'll link to us, but that they are in, while not positions of great power, just placed well enough to cause some notable friction or snipe one or two of us while under the cover of 'verrick'. We can't have paul going around killing people, but if their miss invisible does it, she has the perfect cover for it. Anyhow, I'm going to make insane plans quietly and continue to learn whatever I can. Don't worry, I won't crack and lead a march of death while you're gone.~
Dracos nods. "History is always an important teacher. I'll certainly pass it along."
Dracos
Don't worry. If their Miss Invisible does do anything of the sort we can implicate her in Paul's escape. I reckon she's already a prime suspect, even if they aren't saying anything . . .
Dracos turns considering, promptly lapsing into smalltalk with his lack of anything detailed to add at this point. "How goes getting the team ready to go?"
Dracos
"Like I said, really. Just me and our mutual friend, providing Radagast is agreeable."
Dracos blinked, not quite having comprehended that before. "You two be careful. You wouldn't like to stare at me depressed from the afterlife. It wouldn't be a pretty sight. Anyhow, I'm going to go head to see if Radagast has gotten that information I asked for. Care to come along that direction?"
Dracos
"Sounds like a plan. And really, how much more dangerous can it be?"
Nathan rolls his eyes theatrically.
"At least there's not four million archonae."
Dracos smiled as he lead the way towards Radagast's tower.
Dracos
It doesn't take long to go from the Library to Radagast's tower, though before reaching the doors to it, Nathan feels a tug at his sleeve, and a very quiet voice whisperes, "I'll stay in the library ... don't want to be seen just yet."
Nathan nods acknowledgement, but doesn't respond verbally, and continues towards the doors without breaking stride.
The guards eye Nathan and Phil, and ask that weapons are left at the door before entering.
Dracos shakes his head and hands over his blade.
Dracos
Nathan grimaces. Noticably. He places his blade on the ground beside the door, nonetheless, though.
Dracos, barring furthering annoying conditions, heads in to find Radagast.
Dracos
After collecting weapons, the guards allow Nathan and Phil within, where they find the wizard sitting at his desk and exchanging notes with Eske. The pair looks up when the Storm-riders enter, and Radagast says, "Greetings, friends. How can I help you?"
"Greetings. A question, I know we have plans for acquiring both remaining crystals right now, but...what is our plans when we get them?"
Dracos
"That's exactly what we were discussing," Eske says, sighing. "I don't know much about it, but Radagast thinks that he can determine what the process is to ... unlock their true potential, as it was."
"I have confidence," Radagast says, nodding. "There are hints in the ancient hold books. One would suspect the younger gods saw this coming, and left clues behind...."
"Hmm... I have a thought, and it's an odd one but hear me out. The crystals are wrapped in magical wards, correct? As an alternate solution... we do have a wardsmaster under lock and key. He is, as far as I understand, the most skilled person around in wards. We could convince him to attempt to break the wards with the obvious incentive that the gods would be able to end his cursed life. Yes, it has the downside of using a known traitor, but at the same time in case the act of opening the crystals kills the one who does it from the release of all that magic power, I'd much rather be having someone like that doing it than then yourself, Radagast."
Dracos
Radagast and Eske arch eyebrows in unison, and Radagast looks about to say something when Eske cuts him off, opining, "That idea has some serious merit to it."
Radagast scowls, but says nothing, looking at Eske consideringly.
"I doubt we have the capacity to actually resolve Mattias's curse," Eske continues, "but he wants a cure. If we can trust him with something that powerful, I think he would be more knowledgable about it."
"I think I might ask him for his consultation," Radagast grudgingly agrees. "With his input I would probably unravel the riddle more quickly."
"I mean no insult to you or your abilities, Radagast. It's simply I realized the possibility that opening such things could be fatal and started pondering ways around having one of our best play martyr for the world. I admit, It doesn't matter if we can resolve Mattias cure but if he believes we can, we might be able to use his efforts to help. Either way, if we do, we have to be careful."
Dracos attempted in his own way to placate Radagast.
Dracos
Radagast grunts. "Either way," he says, changing the subject, "we have to retrieve the crystals before it becomes an issue."
"Which brings me to my main question," Nathan queries, "if I'm going to pass as a Lorekeeper for more than two minutes . . . what am I going to need to know?"
Radagast winces, as does Eske. "There's a lifetime of questions that lead up to that," Radagast finally says. "For what it's worth, however, the elder Archonae, which are those we must worry about the most, view all humans in the same light regardless."
Eske frowns at this.
"As long as you're polite, and address the Archonae as superiors, there should be no problems," Radagast concludes.
A nod. "So basically, be polite, follow your lead, and if I value my life don't get into conversations without one of you around. Gotcha."
Nathan frowns thoughtfully, lapsing into silence, glancing at Dracos and tapping a finger to his temple in a thoughtful gesture.
~Ye have an audience, what can I do ye for that these two can't hear? Or did I misread your gesture?~
Dracos
Tell Radagast I need to speak to him alone about the second person I'm taking.
"Anything much you can tell me about layout and the like, or is this pretty firmly a 'work it out when we get there' plan?"
Dracos brushed his beard and switched mental gears to Radagast, listening to the planning.
~Radagast, Nathan would like a word with you privately at your nearest convienence. It's in regards to the other person he's going to be bringing along.~
Dracos
"That will work," Radagast says, breaking the extended silence. Turning to Eske, he asks, "Gatemaster ... I suspect it would be best if you were to speak with Mattias ... at least initially. To find out if he's even willing to cooperate with us."
Eske nods. "I may as well do that now," he says after a moment. Rising to his feet, he rubs his chin. "We should really hurry, if we intend to accomplish this." Nodding at Radagast and the Storm-riders, Eske walks out of the room.
Radagast frowns, and smooths his beard somewhat. "Now," he says peevishly, peering at Phil and Nathan. "What's this about?"
"The fifth member of our merry little band," Nathan says quietly, "just got in touch with me. He'd be exceptionally helpful if we could bring him down south, and nobody could tell the difference between one person and another if you're cloaking them in an illusion."
Radagast raises an eyebrow. "Very well," he says after a moment, shrugging. "Who is it?"
"Paul."
Radagast stares at Rez for a long minute, his jaw slowly dropping open. "But-" he sputters, before stopping himself, shaking his head, and staring in silence again. "Well..." he trails off.
Catching himself, Radagast shakes his head and takes a deep breath. "I see," he says quietly. "Before this can even be considered, I must ask you. Do you believe, in all confidence, that he can be trusted? I suspect your answer, but I also suspect it hinges on facts which I do not yet know...." He looks expectantly between Nathan and Phil after he trails off.
Nathan nods slowly.
"Yes. I honestly do. It . . . well. Paul's one of ours, so I know I'm very much predisposed in his direction, but . . . yes. I don't believe he was responsible for the massacre in the dungeons. He claims he wasn't, and I believe him. The man isn't insane. I can't prove that it wasn't him, but . . . well. He claims it was Lindsey, and I think he's telling the truth. He's trustworthy, and he's on our side. I'm willing to stake my life on that assertion - I have to be. I wouldn't be here otherwise."
Radagast closes his eyes and heaves a sigh. "Very well," he says, raising his head and looking between Phil and Nathan. "Perhaps he will be an asset to us. Hmm. I trust that you can ensure he will not be seen as who he is until the time we pass through Eske's gate?"
"I know that was an unpleasant thing to be asked, with what you've heard of late, but . . ." Nathan shrugs helplessly, "You know by now which side we're on, and we don't intend to screw this up. But I honestly think I'm going to need his help, or I wouldn't have asked. As to preventing him from being seen . . . there is the question. He can keep himself invisible and hide, which should keep him clear of trouble, but if we could get you to place your illusion on him out of sight of everyone else . . ."
"Mine and Astryd's," he corrects. "And she will need to see him to create that illusion properly."
"Oh. Uh-oh. I bet the glasses-and-moustache trick isn't going to work here, either . . . ah, Astryd is one of those who know about us, isn't she?"
Radagast looks uncomfortable. "I know she knows of Parthipan, at the least," he hazards. "I do not know if she will be willing to aid in this endeavour."
"No, I was just trying to clarify if she was the lorekeeper I was thinking of or not. And you're quite probably right . . . gah."
Nathan chews his lip thoughtfully, glancing at Drac.
Dracos brushed his beard thoughtfully. "Does she really know Paul's face? Perhaps you could hide it under disguising both of you to look more the part of a lorekeeper instead of a guy who lifts weights half the week."
Dracos
"He's not exactly going to pass as a stormrider," Nathan notes, "and I'm not willing to bet she doesn't know his face. He's not entirely an unknown in the keep . . ."
"Aside from which, lorekeepers are not so uncommon as to not all be known by one-another, here," Radagast adds.
"Yes, but the lorekeepers and loremasters have been largely staying out of mingling with the public, as part of the heavy security here. It might be possible not to pass him off as a stormrider but as someone from the keep. He could pass for that. While you still should think of how to handle it if she sees through it, it may be your best bet just to do some minor disguise work on him, non-magically, and pass him off as soldier that looks similar. If she's sharp enough on the ball or has seen him enough to recognize him anyway, then you'll be stuck explaining it to her anyway. Anyhow, just a first idea, hum... what to do if she can't be fooled long enough for everyone to be on their way... I don't know. The truth will be hard to swallow." Dracos paused shrugging for a moment as he continued trying to think of a way.
Dracos
"This plan is not without its risks," Radagast says slowly. "However, I trust that you know what you're doing. If you're firm in your convictions ... and believe that Parthipan supports you ... then I suspect that he can convince Astryd to accept it."
"Parthipan will pretty certainly do it if he's informed." Dracos hummed in agreement. "Either way, worst case scenario is that she figures it out and is totally unwilling to keep her mouth shut. The question then goes, what do we do to minimize damage in that case? Paul can likely just vanish off, but there are those who would almost certainly leap on the opportunity to to cast blame and doubt where we really can't afford any. We'd likely have to rely on Parthipan then to help convince her it's in the best interest of the keep that it doesn't get out."
Dracos
"Unless you can convince Eske to join our fold, I can think of no one better to convince her," Radagast returns.
"I agree. I was just considering aloud what to do if things go wrong. I'll talk to Parthipan while you two finish planning. Or is there more needed?"
Dracos
"Not that I am aware of," Radagast admits, shaking his head. "Though, it is entirely possible."
"Where is Parthipan, then? In the same room as before or somewhere different? I'll go talk to him."
Dracos
"I did have one question," Rez interrupts quickly, "but when are we leaving, and where do we meet?"
"We should ideally leave within an hour," Radagast says. "From this room."
"Alright then," Nathan looks across at Drac, "Let's go find Gin."
Dracos nodded and lead the way to where he last saw Gin.
Dracos
Radagast hurries along after Phil and Nathan, frowning.
Phil and Nathan now go to Cloud Age Symphony (http://pishoque.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=41748#41748).