Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure

"Mae?" Larine asks, looking worried. "How could she? I mean, I talked to her. We even hung out a bit after!" She doesn't hesitate to come out, shutting her door behind her.  "Where is she? I'll talk to her.  But I don't understand what could possibly be happening. 

She heads with Malvyn to the Levitation Disk and is soon downstairs, headed for Mae's room. 

"Well, Mei had a dream about last night, and it turns out she could see Piero who apparently had been curious and followed us invisibly, but for some reason she couldn't see you in the dream. I think Mae had drawn the conclusion that Piero had taken your appearance or something but I'm sure we can sort it out when you talk to her." Malvyn explains as he quickly follows along to Mae's room. "You wouldn't have any idea why you wasn't present in Mei's dream would you, like some magical trinket protecting you from scrying that would explain all this."

(OOC - I presume by now Malvyn and Larine are on the 4th Floor. Guardok, Mei, and Piero would all be there.)

Larine stops and looks at Malvyn. "No. Why would I have a trinket to prevent scrying?" She then hurries along to get to the door to Mae's room. 

"Why indeed?" Malvyn merely mutters and gives Larine a slightly skeptical look as she hurries along.
If needed he motions for Guardok , Mei and Piero to join him and Larine as the visit Mae, hoping things would get sorted out now.

Larine knocks on the door. "Mae! It's me, Larine! Really it is. Please come out and talk to me."

The room is quiet for a minute, before the door cracks and Mae's red-eyed teary face appears. "You're not real, you're just Pi--" She stopped as the rest of the group appeared around Larine. "Wait, but Mei said..you...I...not him? What happened?" She sniffled and held the door open a bit more.

Piero is standing back a bit from the group but is clearly there with Malvyn and Guardok and Mei. Larine says, "Mei had some dream, and I'm not totally sure what happened. But I can assure you that I am real. Piero is there. I'm here. And... I really am real. I just.."  She glances over towards the purple-haired woman. "I just don't know anything about Mei's dreams." 

Guardok stands a little back with Mei and Mal, so as not to overwhelm Mae and Larine, and let them get the issue of her existence sorted out first. They can look into the what and why of Mei's dream after that.

He has a thought about the dreams having overheard Larine has no anti scrying item, and leans in to whisper to Mei, "Perhaps the dream got confused by the concealing magic, and concealed the wrong person?". Of course, Mal is close enough to overhear.

"I think she might actually have some sort of item that protects her from scrying." Malvyn whispers to Guardok and Mei. "Not sure if we need to delve deeper into that but perhaps it would be helpful to our investigation if we could ascertain that this would in fact be the case. Perhaps you could discreetly look into that Mei? It could possibly help us determine why you didn't see who made those footprints?"

(OOC: Culuril: Did Guardok believe Larine when she denied having such an item? She might not know of course, but that is the first question)

Mae sniffled, "Okay, good." She opened the door further and stepped to Larine to give her a big hug. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm so glad it's just you." She let go after a moment and wiped her face. "That is strange though. I wonder why she didn't see you?"

Quote from VolcanoLair >>

(OOC: Culuril: Did Guardok believe Larine when she denied having such an item? She might not know of course, but that is the first question)

(OOC - That's up to Guardok! He did not seem to have any reason to not believe her. That might be different once Malvyn suggested she had one anyway.  Probably have to ask Malvyn why he said that!  

You could make a skill check if you wanted to see if he could tell anything.)

Mei looks at Malvyn a bit uncertainly. "What do you want me to do exactly? You already asked her."

Larine visibly relaxes when Mae gives her a hug. "I'm so, so glad," she says softly. "I just don't understand why this dream is so important. Why would Mei have a dream about me, anyway? That's silly."

Guardok is a little confused at the moment about what they are going to do. He is happy that Mae is ok though.

"I think we are all a little confused. Mei's dreams have proven to be accurate before, and yet there have also been times when she has not been able to see certain things in the dream. If we can find out why you didn't appear, Larine, then we get an idea about missing elements to other dreams. It is fairly important, and would be great if everyone can help us figure this out", he says to Larine, and really encompassing all present.

"You might not know you have a concealment charm or some sort of guardian angel or something else entirely".

"Well, for one thing, she might possibly not even realize she is protected by a magical trinket on her." Malvyn whispers back to Mei. "It's not terribly important though, I'm sure we will find out in time the reason for her not being present in her dream, probably something innocent but still worth knowing."

As Guardok continues talking about perhaps not knowing she has a concealment charm or something like that, Larine glances back at him. "I suppose it could be something like that. Guess I'll look into it at some point."  She does not seem very concerned about it. In fact, she seems to be getting a bit annoyed at all the attention. 

Mei apologizes to Malvyn for not being able to do more. "I learned at home sometimes protections from scrying will affect dreams. But I'm not any sort of expert on things that prevent scrying." 

After mentioning that it is fairly important, Guardok now becomes a little irritated at Larine's relaxed attitude towards solving the mystery. He wonders whether it is that she simply doesn't care, or that she is uncomfortable with the attention, or is she trying to sweep something under the carpet here.

Insight: 17+4+2=23 (Slaadi exam student dice)

"It's quite alright Mei, I just thought you might use your magic to find out if Larine carries any magical items that could be the reason for her to not appearing in your dream, but I'm sure we will find out soon enough, one way or another." The purple-skinned tiefling whispers back to the petite oracle with a reassuring smile, then turning his attention back to Larine and how she seemingly tried to avoid Guardok's question.

Guardok thinks Larine does seem very uncomfortable with the attention. However, her reaction seems to be more than just that. It definitely feels like she is trying to avoid talking about this and letting it just get swept under the carpet. It really sounded like when she said 'later' she really meant 'never'.