Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure

"Oh!" Mei says. "I guess I could try." She casts Detect Magic and tries to look closely at Larine. 

Larine notices the spellcasting and reacts immediately. "What are you doing?" Standing near Mae, she looks at her friend as though pleading for protection. The green-haired girl tries to slip into Mae's room. "You can't just cast spells on me!"  It's clear to everyone that the spell wasn't being cast on or at her. But the green-haired girl still seems quite agitated. 

Mei appears a bit apologetic. "I was just trying to detect any magic. I don't see any on Larine. Though that robe sitting behind Mae certainly is! Definitely abjuration magic." 

Mae starts to look a little frustrated and uncomfortable too. "Okay, that's enough for now maybe. I'm sure we can figure out what's going on. It was a strange night, and as odd is this is, let's let Mei and Larine decide how they want to investigate this if they want. Of course Larine will be willing to help, but not now, okay? Can we just, give a rest for a bit? We have exams coming up too and I really need to pass these so I don't get stuck in tutoring all the time like I have been recently." She puts her arm around Larine and keeps her a little closer as Larine would allow.

"Hold on, Mae", Guardok pipes up. "This is important to us, so let's not dismiss it so quickly. It's not like it's going to take ages to sort out, if we just work together".

"Larine, you are being really defensive, and I am pretty sure there was no conviction in your voice when you said you would look into this later. So what's going on with this anti scrying business? Why don't you want spells cast near you? And I mean near you, not at you. You know more than you are saying, otherwise you wouldn't be acting like this", he asks outright.

"You want me casting spells at you!" Larine retorts at Guardok. "Mae, can't you just make them go away?" she pleads. Still looking agitated, she then glares at Guardok. "I don't need to explain myself to you. Just go away. Or do I have to make you?"  

"I can understand that this is stressful for you Larine, but we wouldn't ask this if it wasn't important." Malvyn says with a calm pleading tone. "Perhaps calm down with Mae and think this through and we'll talk more tomorrow." He continues, then looking at Guardok, hoping the earth genasi would agree to the compromise. He could sense and understand Guardok's frustration with Larine's behaviour but pressing on now didn't seem to get them anywhere and he didn't know what Larine might resort to if further pressed.

Mae looks irritated as well, and also quite shocked at the sudden impulse to cast detect magic at them. "I don't care about the stupid dress!" Mae steps inside a moment and throws it at the group. "Just leave us alone!" She'll then grab Larine and pull her inside the room and slam the door.

The purple-skinned tiefling frowns and shakes his head, picking up the robe that Mae had thrown at them. "Could it be that Larine wore this last night?" He mutters as he inspects the dress for anything that could divulge it's origin. "It is unfortunate that Mae and Larine can't see the importance of cooperating to solve this mystery with the incidents on campus." He continues to mutter. "Can you tell us anything more about the dress Mei?" He asks the petite oracle without taking his eyes of the dress in his hands.

Investigation of the robe: 6 + Student dice: 1 + Guidance: 4

The door to Mae's room closes with Mae and Larine both inside. 

Outside, Mei muses, "You know, Detect Magic is a Divination spell. If something is preventing Divination, then that spell isn't going to indicate anything."

Mae had thrown the robe out of the room. It is brightly colored in yellow, red, and orange colors. Picking it up, it is not difficult to sense that it is a magic item. You don't see anything inscribed or marking it that would give you any clues. Mae had indicated she got it just today out of the book that you found at the manor. If that's true, it would have been impossible for Larine to have been wearing it the previous night. You aren't sure how you would have missed the brightly colored garment, though it's possible that it could change appearance since it is magical. But you have no idea that it would be able to do that.  

Mei could reiterate that the robe shows only abjuration. She doesn't get anything else from looking at the robe.

Guardok merely shakes his head at Larine's over the top reaction and threat, and sighs when Mae turns on them as well despite Mal trying to placate Larine.

"Larine is hiding something, Mal. She isn't going to suddenly help us tomorrow. And chances are Mae already knows what it is all about. And as for that dress, that's Mae's reward for getting that book. Our reward for helping her and risking expulsion it turns out is a door slammed in the face", he says motioning at Mae's door.

With that he turns and walks away to his room, furious at how Mae has treated them.

The purple-skinned tiefling merely nods at Guardok's words. He did share the genasi's sentiment but he couldn't see any way forward with this for the moment. The women behind the door were both quite upset, that much was clear, for what reason was something he would need to take steps to find out, it was quite clear that Larine knew more than she was sharing. Finding himself with Mei and Piero he gives them a shrug. "Well, that was dramatic, thank you both though, at least we made Mae understand that Larine still exists." He says with a calm smile before returning to his room. He is unsure what to do with the dress but unless disturbed he would try to attune to it in order to at least find out more about it's purpose.

Guardok and Malvyn each head to their rooms. Mei returns to hers as well while Piero decides to just head to the Study Room with a book to read for a bit.

Malvyn spends the time trying to understand the robe that Mae had thrown out of her room. (OOC  - you say 'attune' which is different than trying to learn the properties of an item. Depending on what the item does, attunement may not automatically tell you the properties, although you'd get the benefit. Determining what the item does would not attune you to it though.  All this presuming the item is even attunable. If it's not attuneable the attempt would do nothing. So, which did you intend to do?)

(OOC - Ah, sorry, trying to learn the properties of the dress it is then :-)

Malvyn is able to determine that the robes are able to control the temperature the wearer feels. It keeps you comfortable as if the temperature were that of a balmy day, so you suffer no ill effects from the weather’s temperature extremes. In addition, it provides resistance to cold damage. It requires attunement to function though. 

(OOC - I have placed the item into Malvyn's Inventory since he has the item.) 

Once Malvyn has determined the purpose of the dress he proceeds to neatly and meticulously fold it up and place it by Mae's door. There was nothing to suggest the dress had anything to do with Larine not being present in Mei's dream, and nothing else seeming sinister about it either. He was still confident that Larine knew something she hadn't told them yet, something she might be embarrased over but didn't quite see the relevance of sharing. He would find out though, it seemed other's thoughts came to him easier and easier now.


(OOC - Thanks, but it wasn't taken for keeping, just to find out what it was and if it had any relevance for the mysteries :-)

(OOC - Feel free to move it to group inventory if you like. Since you learned what it is I wanted to add it so we don't forget.) 

It's a while later when Larine slips out from Mae's room with the bard right with her.  She knocks on both the door for 403 and 404. 

In the intervening time, Guardok had been out for a run to work off the pent up energy he had been feeling after the heated discussion earlier.

He hadn't gone far, choosing speed over distance on this occasion. As has become his custom he had used the outside steps to get in and out of the fourth floor. This was partly because it made the run a little longer, partly because he didn't have to make conversation on the lift whilst getting in and out of 'the zone', but also because he really didn't like heights and he liked the idea of facing that head on.

When he returned he had showered and is now sat on his bed with his lute in his hands.

He is playing a simple, descending scale that repeats over and over. It's a slow, soothing loop of notes that has no beginning and no end.

By the time the knock on the door comes, his agitation from earlier has mostly dissipated. He places the lute down beside him on the bed, jumps down and wanders across to open the door.

Rising from his bed where he had been pondering over the recent events, Malvyn steps over to the door to 403 and opens it. 

Mae stood next to Larine with a nervous, but resolute look on her face, taking a glance at Larine before looking back at the others. "What we are going to share with you must be kept with the utmost secrecy, please, excepting Mei, of course. And before we go on, I didn't know any of this until now, so this is all new information to me too." She looked at Larine again for a moment and took a breath. "She is protected from divination, at least to some degree, and she has a mask, like what you found near Silkmeadow, which allows her to change her appearance." Mae put a hand on Larine's should and took another breath. "These gifts were given to her by a clandestine organization. It seems this group finds the school and professors here...inept, I guess, and want to expose or disrupt them. Larine has been tasked with a few pranks, such at that chest we stopped shortly after arriving here. Please know she doesn't want to hurt people, and is very scared of retribution, including being kicked out of school. This group pulled her in when she was alone and vulnerable, but perhaps, together, we can help her and perhaps learn more about this group and what is really going on here at the school."

"Okay, so tell us about this group then Larine. Who are they and how do you keep in touch?" Malvyn asks calmly while his mind tries to make sense of what he's been told.

Guardok listens to Mae, quite astounded by what she says. He had no idea that Larine was actually behind the dangerous pranks, let alone that the people behind the mask he found would be involved.

He had seen first hand what it means to be involved with that group.

He doesn't say anything, he is not sure how he feels about all this yet, so he simply waits for Larine to answer Mal.