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day 2 network (late afternoon)
Good afternoon, everybody. I hope you're faring well today, or at least better than before.
I'm pleased to announce that as of now, Mister Mystery's Menagerie of Magecraft Miscellany (MMMMM for short) is up and running. What that means for you, good folks reading this and stranded alongside yours truly (Caster/Mister Mystery/Mister M/just M), is that I'm offering my services to take any materials you may have gathered, from demons or otherwise, and use my magecraft to, well, craft you something more usable out of them instead. Within reason, of course.
I won't bog you down with boring details, but the main thing to know is this: One of the core tenets of magecraft is equivalent exchange. I can't make something out of nothing, so you'll need to provide the proper materials while I handle the rest. Regarding what counts as "proper", here's an example.
[ Merlin starts the video feed, which shows a table with two things resting on it: what looks like a clump of red leaves, and a small tub of medicine. ]
In legend and folklore, the Mandrake is a poisonous plant that's also used as an ingredient in potent healing potions and other restoratives, when used properly.
[ With the hand not holding the COMP, he points to the left side of the table, a clump of Mandrake leaves. ]
So naturally, the test product I thought of making—and succeeded in making—from the leaves of one of them was a medicinal salve.
[ He points to the right, a tiny tub of faintly reddish medicine, the tiny container itself pilfered from the hospital. The lid is off, allowing people to see the topical salve inside. ]
Another example... Perhaps, tired of all those pesky wind spells messing up your perfect hair, you want to make that the demons' problem instead? Then, obtaining some feathers from those helmed goose demons strutting around should be enough for me to create a condensed wind spell mini-bomb of your very own.
[ He pans the camera and points, momentarily, to a small, unnaturally green stone resting on the table as well. It's hard to capture on video, but an extremely faint breeze is wrapped around it, rustling the nearby papers ever so slightly. ]
In the end, it's mostly about the elemental properties of whatever you've got, really.
[ With that, he shuts the video feed off. If he sounded somewhat winded while presenting all of that, it's because he is. Guess who spent most of his day trying to figure out his limits and ended up expending a lot more magical energy in the process, for far less than he'd expected, than he's used to? This guy. ]
Got all that? Don't be shy about asking. Like it or not, we're all in this sticky situation together, so I don't see much point in me keeping these capabilities to myself. My workshop's in the church, the rightmost small study in the corner among the other rooms.
[ Yes, he claimed a corner room. ]
Just don't overwork me, okay? There's only so much I can do right now in terms of both magical energy as well as complexity. If I die of exhaustion, YOU'RE the ones who'll have to go down to the underworld to pluck my soul and bring it back to the world of the living ☆ Or something.
[ ooc: TL;DR, item synthesis unlocked. Sidequests unlocked. Characters do NOT need to thread things out or even have CR with Merlin to utilize this; it can be handwaved. Merlin will generally be perfectly fine simply taking provided materials and synthesizing whatever basic items your character might need (as long as it isn't eyebrow-raising), no questions, no muss, no fuss, regardless of whoever comes knocking.
For stuff from demons, the materials also don't have to be demon parts wholesale; getting bits and bobs from negotiation (e.g. asking a demon for some of their hair in exchange for something) work just as well as procuring said bits forcefully. ]
action (church);
I'm pleased to announce that as of now, Mister Mystery's Menagerie of Magecraft Miscellany (MMMMM for short) is up and running. What that means for you, good folks reading this and stranded alongside yours truly (Caster/Mister Mystery/Mister M/just M), is that I'm offering my services to take any materials you may have gathered, from demons or otherwise, and use my magecraft to, well, craft you something more usable out of them instead. Within reason, of course.
I won't bog you down with boring details, but the main thing to know is this: One of the core tenets of magecraft is equivalent exchange. I can't make something out of nothing, so you'll need to provide the proper materials while I handle the rest. Regarding what counts as "proper", here's an example.
[ Merlin starts the video feed, which shows a table with two things resting on it: what looks like a clump of red leaves, and a small tub of medicine. ]
In legend and folklore, the Mandrake is a poisonous plant that's also used as an ingredient in potent healing potions and other restoratives, when used properly.
[ With the hand not holding the COMP, he points to the left side of the table, a clump of Mandrake leaves. ]
So naturally, the test product I thought of making—and succeeded in making—from the leaves of one of them was a medicinal salve.
[ He points to the right, a tiny tub of faintly reddish medicine, the tiny container itself pilfered from the hospital. The lid is off, allowing people to see the topical salve inside. ]
Another example... Perhaps, tired of all those pesky wind spells messing up your perfect hair, you want to make that the demons' problem instead? Then, obtaining some feathers from those helmed goose demons strutting around should be enough for me to create a condensed wind spell mini-bomb of your very own.
[ He pans the camera and points, momentarily, to a small, unnaturally green stone resting on the table as well. It's hard to capture on video, but an extremely faint breeze is wrapped around it, rustling the nearby papers ever so slightly. ]
In the end, it's mostly about the elemental properties of whatever you've got, really.
[ With that, he shuts the video feed off. If he sounded somewhat winded while presenting all of that, it's because he is. Guess who spent most of his day trying to figure out his limits and ended up expending a lot more magical energy in the process, for far less than he'd expected, than he's used to? This guy. ]
Got all that? Don't be shy about asking. Like it or not, we're all in this sticky situation together, so I don't see much point in me keeping these capabilities to myself. My workshop's in the church, the rightmost small study in the corner among the other rooms.
[ Yes, he claimed a corner room. ]
Just don't overwork me, okay? There's only so much I can do right now in terms of both magical energy as well as complexity. If I die of exhaustion, YOU'RE the ones who'll have to go down to the underworld to pluck my soul and bring it back to the world of the living ☆ Or something.
[ ooc: TL;DR, item synthesis unlocked. Sidequests unlocked. Characters do NOT need to thread things out or even have CR with Merlin to utilize this; it can be handwaved. Merlin will generally be perfectly fine simply taking provided materials and synthesizing whatever basic items your character might need (as long as it isn't eyebrow-raising), no questions, no muss, no fuss, regardless of whoever comes knocking.
For stuff from demons, the materials also don't have to be demon parts wholesale; getting bits and bobs from negotiation (e.g. asking a demon for some of their hair in exchange for something) work just as well as procuring said bits forcefully. ]
action (church);
[ True to his word, Merlin has monopolized a small study room in the corner of the church, the rightmost room among the other abandoned rooms in the church that BB cleaned up the other day.
Honestly, there isn't much in there at the moment. There's only the mage himself, his staff propped up in the back corner alongside a small cushioned armchair (especially monopolizing this), a set of drawers, a table in the back where a stuffed lion plushie, and his bag and its assorted miscellany sits on, a table near the entrance, and two regular chairs to accompany the latter. The bookshelves containing the local scripture have been untouched, for the most part. In normal circumstances, the current setup would be considered a poor excuse for a mage's workshop (and to the Holy Church, heretical at that), but these are certainly not normal circumstances.
The door's open. ]
no subject
I plan to investigate it first, rather than bolting through. Our captors may have eyes on any possible exits. I also plan on reporting back to everyone here if I find something viable.
[ Not that he would share the information on this network. He's guessing their captors are monitoring it in some capacity. ]
no subject
[ Smart move on Dimitri's part. They're being watched, that's for sure, and they can't claim to know the motives of their observers, benevolent or malevolent. ]
Not in particular. It's merely a possibility I wanted to bring up. As a general rule of thumb, walls aren't only built to contain, but to protect from outside invaders as well, so we'd be remiss to rule it out completely.
[ The void, for one. The demons in question not being native to this land, for another. ]
That said, it's mere conjecture, and... To be honest, very flimsy, at that. If this place was supposed to be a front line for a battle for survival, with walls constructed to defend instead of contain, it would've been a poor one.
There's no information on any potential outside threats in any of the writings or records here.
There are no weapons or smithies/manufacturing found in abundance, which you would usually expect from a town in wartime.
The only thing even remotely resembling a supply route from outside is the train, and its tracks apparently lead to a dead end. It doesn't make much sense to send a supply caravan of sorts somewhere with no return path.
If the "last batch" before us was supposed to be troops, it sounded like they were underprepared and/or untrained, to die so quickly.
[ If it sounds like he's got experience in wartime, it's because he does, and not simply because of what was going on in the Isle of Britain at the time. Uruk would put this place to shame a thousand times over. ]
If anything, all that we've found so far about the happenings of this place points to what you've surmised: imprisonment, observation, containment, quarantine.