Eternal questions (Ithea)

[Merc]

"Any plans for that? Besides the obvious and surely painful method that I will definitely protest against?"

Ithea moves towards Sylvie and then out of nowhere flicks her hard on the forehead. "Also, now that you have less existential angstiness to muse over, we should probably help Tepen with his research on Taelfagn's chains."

[Anastasia]

"Ow," Sylvie rubs her forehead and glares at Ithea, "Yes, yes. I suppose we should, shouldn't we?"

[Merc]

"Well, chop chop then! Us mere mortals don't have all eternity you know!" Ithea exclaims as she gestures to the exit with an amused grin. "Look, I'm already getting wrinkles waiting on you!"

[Anastasia]

Oh, that gets Sylvie to crack a smile. A small one, but a real smile. "Too late for that. Don't think I haven't noticed your wrinkles. Sharess must be scandalized."

[Merc]

"Hey! I'm only twenty. I don't -actually- have wrinkles," Ithea says with a dismissive sniff and an upturned nose. "I'm still young and beautiful and in the prime of my life."

[Anastasia]

Sylvie goes to crack her neck, "Yeah, and...my neck's not stiff," Sylvie remarks, rubbing the back of it with her hand. "I'm not tired at all, actually." she starts to head to a portal, "Not having to sleep's going to be nice. I'll have more time to read."

[Merc]

"Well, we do have a pretty big library," Ithea notes as she follows after Sylvie, closing the door to Medi's quarters behind her and following her to the portal.

[Anastasia]

From there, you find Elder Magi Tepen. He's sitting in the library, an ice pack on his head. He sips from a mug of something cold, chill mists rising from it. Nearby Ellese is buried in piles of parchment, reading them and scribbling on others. "Quietly," Tepen says as you approach, "Attempting to read information on such Hellish aligned magic has powerful psychosomatic effects from trying to process it. Overheating, parched thirst, burning sensations and..." A wince as he goes to adjust the ice pack, "Headaches."

[Merc]

"We wanted to share our insights having seen that magic in effect up close, and help out where we could with the research, Tepen. Sylvie probably got some feedback of sorts from 21 blasting away the chains on my portal and just being around them, and I analyzed them briefly as they attempted to corrupt my gate. Hopefully a shared headache isn't as bad?"

[Anastasia]

"Go on," Tepen waves a hand, "Help yourselves."

Go ahead and make a spellcraft check, Ithea.

[Merc]

[12:29] <Merc> roll d20+40+5 Spellcraft+Inspiration
[12:29] <Serith> Merc roll for Serith < 61 > [d20=16]

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d20+72 Sylvie spellcraft (+22 factotum)
<Serith> Koaway roll for Serith < 76 > [d20=4]

Will save, Ithea. Sylvie as well.

[Merc]

[13:51] <Merc> roll d20+33+11 will+inspiration
[13:51] <Serith> Merc roll for Serith < 52 > [d20=8]

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d20+46 will (+14 inspiration)
<Serith> Koaway roll for Serith < 59 > [d20=13]

Hours of hard study pass. A few things are abundantly clear. Firstly, this is intensely complex and difficult. Secondly, you indeed get a headache from it. Third, it's not being done soon. The sheer amount of work, decoding and analysis is staggering. But you do feel like you grasp the principals there.

Ellese looks up, face screwed up in concentration. "I think that's enough for today," she says, massaging her forehead, "I can virtually feel chains on me after all this."

[Merc]

"Agreed. A dip in the hot springs will probably help relax, followed by a nice filling dinner," Ithea says as she stretches, a few popping noises getting released as she does so while standing up fromthe chair she was at. "Anybody else want to join me? We can come back to this later after we've gotten some proper rest."