Volume One: Number Theory

[veekie]

"Well that was weird." He looks around, "I probably should get my deliveries done befor something actually starts exploding."

[VennDygrem]

"And I should really get back to the Funeral. It's probably a zoo by now, but I can't just leave Ziggy there in the middle of it. Ziggy, by the way, is supposed to be mentoring me. The priest sort of collapsed earlier, before I came here to find out what was going on with the weather. Anyway, to make a long story short, I need to get back there and figure out what's going on. Ziggy might also have some idea what to do about that cult." Leo takes a deep breath after rambling so long. He's never been terribly good at organizing his thoughts on the fly, especially with so much going on. He much preferred to prepare such things slowly in advance.

[Agita]

"Sounds good!" Kitty grins. "Let's go talk to that Ziggy of yours. Then the fairy footboy can make his deliveries, and then we get lunch!"

[Bozwevial]

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It's been a few days (read: eight) so I'm assuming you guys are pretty much done here.

The half-demon fox, the earth wizard, and the fairy prince all walked into a bar.

Well, not a bar so much as a small cluster of paramedics surrounded by curious lingering mourners. Most of the crowd had dispersed, and in fact Otto's casket was still sitting uncovered at the bottom of the grave. Police nearby were shooing off what was left of the crowd--at least, those not otherwise engaged in rounding up stray dogs.

As the three approached the unfortunate priest who had been eulogizing, one of the paramedics began waving them away irritably. His arm flapped once before coming to a halt in the vice-like grip of Ziggy, who smiled calmly up at the man."It's quite alright, the boy and his friends are with me."

The paramedic hesitated, then nodded in agreement, turning back to his work. The elder wizard's smile faded as he bustled over to the trio. "Well, did you have any luck? And who are your friends?"

[VennDygrem]

"This is Lilly, and that's, um... Philion? He's the one who caused the downpour at the park, apparently. It's... a bit of a long story. We might not want to discuss it here." Leo looked around, paramedics and police alike trying desperately to control the situation.

[Agita]

Lilly gives Leo's mentor a broad smile, offering her hand to him. "You must be Mr. Ziggy, then! Lilly Dachner, nice to meet you. Friends are allowed to call me Kitty." She doesn't make the least effort to hide her mother's mark upon her.

[Bozwevial]

Ziggy took Lilly's hand in a surprisingly gentle grip, his eyebrows threatening to fly up enough to meet his receding hairline. "Oh ho, so that explains it! Pleasure to meet you, young lady." He turns to Phil.  "Philion Quilos, perhaps? I believe I may know an aunt or three of yours, though not particularly well.

But yes, fine point, this isn't the best place to talk. Come with me back to my shop, and we can have a bit of a meal. You three look famished."

[VennDygrem]

"Very well, lead on." Leo simply shakes his head, trying to clear up what's going on.

[Bozwevial]

Around an hour later, the three found themselves in the stifling embrace of Ziggy's hospitality. The shop had been closed for the funeral, and Ziggy had instantly lit a roaring fire as though in defiance of the fact that it was July. Coffee, tea, cake, and various other foods were threatening to snap a creaky little table in half, and more would appear seemingly from nowhere if it looked like there was a slight chance that they'd run out.

"And then, and then...he goes and buys it a pizza!" Ziggy chortled, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "Can you believe that? The things Americans think of sometimes!"

[VennDygrem]

Leo sits back with his arms crossed, unsure whether to feel proud or insulted at the way this story is being told. All in all it didn't matter. The subject of the story is well known to be reckless and after everything going on recently, also his fault, it's not surprising to hear other wizards telling stories about him. Leo didn't want to think about it, any of it, especially the possibility of running into any vampires out looking for revenge against Wizards. Let alone a lone American one out of his element. And don't get him started on Faeries.

A shiver runs up and down Leo's spine.

"So... there's this little matter of the local cult infestation..." Leo rubs his temples as though it might help him focus.

It doesn't.

[Agita]

Lilly, for her part, gladly indulged their host, laughing along to his stories and sampling just enough of his pastries to provide an excuse for him to keep replacing food. One had to wonder where all that sugar and fat went, considering her slight stature. Upon Leo's change of topic, she clapped her hands. "Ah, yes, yes, right! So, this guy tried to set himself and a tree on fire after checking the time. That'd have been... a bit after eleven. He talked about three people, counting himself; crackling flame, hungry earth, creeping air. He said, um... 'They transform life to death, and death brings forth life, but only at the appointed hour'. So the date and time is important. It's 16.7.11, and it was around 11 o'clock... Any of you know some numerology?"

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Consider this to be passing the tag on Numerology Cult With An Elemental Fetish to whoever wants to take a shot at this with Lore. Ziggy and Leo will have the highest Lore here, so go for it. And because I might as well, here's my own:

Lore (4d3-8+4=3)

[veekie]

Phil having delivered the package along the way, helps himself to the food, but stops short of Lilly's volume. You never know when you have to make a run for it, and its easier to run on empty than on full.

"Well, everything has a number, but the question is when are they counting from? Its not like the Sidhe pay that much attention to what mortal authorities declare to be the day and hour, against the turning of the seasons and the moon." He pauses, seeming to consider applicable cycles. "Nothing like the death and rebirth of seasons to count by."

OOC: Lore (4d3-8+4=4)

[Bozwevial]

Ziggy mulled the news over, blowing on his third cup of coffee. "Some sort of elemental ritual? It's peculiar that there's at least one element missing. Two, perhaps. Certainly the ones your cultist mentioned are more closely associated with death than with life or spirit." He took a long drink, then continued, wiping his mouth on a napkin. "I can tell you this, that fellow who was giving the eulogy at the funeral may have been in on it. He died because he took cyanide tablets."

Agita:

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You know that the Chinese system of classical elements consists of air, water, fire, wood, and earth, of which water and wood (the two elements which correspond most closely to life) are missing from the cultist's ramblings. You also know that four is considered an unlucky number in Chinese because the word is a homophone for death or suffering.

veekie:

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You know everything in Agita's block, plus you know that eleven is considered fortuitous (as a set of paired numbers--good luck comes in pairs), that one typically stands for certainty, three for live/life, and five for the self or nothing. The whole thing sounds like some sort of resurrection ritual based on Chinese numerology--but where does the "creeping air" enter into things, and what happened to the other element(s)?

[VennDygrem]

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Not sure if I've got this right, but here we go:
Lore: 4d3-8+5=6

Assuming the +4 at the end of your guys' rolls was your skill aptitude (both are +4 (Great) right?)

Leo furrowed his brow a bit, trying to recall the chain of events. "Wait.. don't those things work pretty quickly? He'd have to have slipped one into his mouth without anyone seeing him... unless he had a capsule in his mouth already, like in the movies. Do people really do that?"

[Bozwevial]

Venn:

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As both of the above, plus! With what you've heard about this sort of thing, you're able to deduce that for a resurrection ritual, it would make sense to split the five (self) elements into the three (live) corresponding to death and the two (easy) corresponding to life, rather than one (sure) and four (death). More importantly, the smallest magically significant gap between the two groups under this system would be some unit of eleven, whether seconds, minutes, hours, or days.

Ziggy scowled faintly. "Dashed stupid way to go, really, but there you have it. What with the dogs running past I'm not sure if he took it on the spot or had it in his mouth already."

[Agita]

Kitty coughs discreetly at the mention of the dogs. "Well... he can't have planned for the dogs, so if he was planning to commit suicide from the start, he'd have had to have them in his mouth." Taking a slice of Sacher cake, she looks at her coffee pensively. "Hmm... the 'crackling flame' tried to set himself and a tree on fire... if it hadn't been raining, he might've set the whole park off with that. What could 'hungry earth' be? Some kind of sinkhole? 'Creeping air' sounds really worrying, sounds like poison gas or something."

[Bozwevial]

"I've been around long enough to know that this isn't a coincidence. Not with something like this. Maybe the funeral was part of this cultist's plan? Sounds close enough to the 'hungry earth' you mentioned, at any rate."

[Agita]

"The old Habsburg playing the part of Earth? Hmm... then the Creeping Air would've happened at the same time too." Staring pensively at her coffee, Lilly suddenly looks up. "Do you have a TV or a radio here? There should be news about the funeral, maybe they'll say something about the 'Air' too."

[Bozwevial]

"Oh, goodness me, no. In here? I'd have to replace it every day."

[VennDygrem]

"Really, I miss being able to play video games without them fizzling out. I've never really had much problem with radios, though. Anyway, we might be better off heading back downtown, given the proximity of the events to each other. There's definitely something big going on. I mean, the numerology angle can't be missed, here." Leo goes on to explain what he's been able to piece together about the numerology and resurrection ritual components.

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Basically just read my private spoiler from just above.