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A City In Turmoil

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[X] You'll grab the books and take the binder to Dishevel. It has to be important, and maybe it will get you into his good graces?
 
[X] You'll grab the books and take the binder to Dishevel. It has to be important, and maybe it will get you into his good graces?

We make a great pair. One for dakka, one for dodge.
 
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That was Sudden
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    • [X] You'll grab the books and take the binder to Dishevel. It has to be important, and maybe it will get you into his good graces?

    You make a snap decision. Getting involved might be the kind of thing that can get you killed in Diadem, but you've already touched the note and binder, so the odds of getting out of this okay by just putting them back were about fifty-fifty anyways. Your best bet is to take this to Dishevel like the note says. He would know what it was and what to do. Besides, he was powerful, right? In charge of a whole program at the college, capable of making people just disappear- if he couldn't protect you from whatever was going on here you doubt anyone short of a council member could. Anyways, time to go. No sense hanging around to get caught in the crossfire from the fight over the faculty dorms. The books, note, and binder quickly vanish into dimensional pockets and with a nod to Raffia you're off. You choose not to comment on the pink frilly pillow Raffia handed to you as you were storing the books and just put that into a pocket as well.

    Luckily, Dishevel's laboratory was fairly close to the TA's room. Getting into the faculty section that way would have been a problem given how exposed the courtyard between the two was, but leaving... Well, no one wanted to risk missing and landing a spell somewhere Dishevel didn't like. You pause before you knock on the door and turn to Raffia.

    "Just let me do all the talking to Dishevel, okay? I don't want to risk anything upsetting him."

    She raises an eyebrow. "You seem awfully worried."

    "I don't think he likes students very much is all I'm saying. I've only spoken to him twice, both times to present a project, and I kind of got the impression that if I spent a single word on something not relevant to the presentation he was going to murder me."

    She considers this for a moment. "I'll leave the talking to you then."

    With a deep breath, you straighten up and knock on the thick steel door to Dishevel Vino's laboratory as hard as you can.

    "Professor Vino! Sir! I need to speak with you, it's urgent!"

    There's a long enough pause that you seriously consider knocking again, before the thick door opens inwards and reveals Dishevel Vino. The first thing you notice is that he doesn't look good. Every time you had seen him before he was immaculately dressed, not a wrinkle anywhere in his clothes and not a single hair out of place. Now however, his robes are wrinkled enough that you're pretty sure he hasn't changed them in days, his normally well kept short black hair is sticking up in every direction, and he's begun to grow some stubble where before he had always been clean shaven. In other words, he looked like a complete mess.

    His eyes however, still glowed with their normal intensity, and it's all you can do to quickly swallow before rushing into an explanation as fast as possible before he can demand one.

    "In the TA's room sir, we found this note," here you quickly pause to open your dimensional pocket and pull out the note and binder, flinching as Dishevel's fingers twitch sharply for a moment before halting, "telling us to get this binder to you and that it was very important."

    You proffer the binder to him and he takes it gingerly before opening it and looking at the first exposed page; a diagram that was almost familiar to you as the standard personal pocket dimension calculations, but heavily altered in such a way that it was almost unrecognizable. He pales when he sees it and begins flipping through the pages, looking vaguely sick at whatever it is he's understanding that you didn't. Abruptly he closes it and it vanishes from his hands. He steps back and slams the door closed behind him.

    You and Raffia exchange a worried look. She opens her mouth as if to say something before the door opens again, once more revealing Dishevel, only this time he's holding something in his hands. It looks a bit like a tuning fork, except golden and intricately carved with a clear gem at the end of each tine.

    You want to ask a question, but he's already speaking.

    "Take this, go to the square where Diana's body is. Get it to the place where she appeared. Her body is big enough that somewhere on top of it should be good enough. You'll know you're there when the gems change color. Whatever you do, do not put this in a pocket dimension."

    You try to vocalize an objection, but he's already speaking again. "If I'm right, it should identify whoever killed Diana. Bring it back here when you're done and I can promise you that the city council will reward you beyond your wildest dreams."

    "Uh," you try again to interject, but he suddenly interrupts again and thrusts his hand out at you, pushing something else into your hands. You look down, seeing

    [] a fragile looking silver bauble. You can feel space warping in its presence even with no magic running through it. With a focus like this, you think you could open and close pocket dimensions much more easily and quickly- maybe even fast enough and large enough to capture arrows and magical attacks before they can hit you.

    [] a small crystal orb inscribed with runes. The TA had demonstrated with one of these in class- they let you see the outside of pocket dimensions from the inside. This one seems slightly modified- you think it can also become a doorway between the inside of a pocket dimension and the outside if you activate it.

    [] what looks like one of the papers from the binder. You hadn't seen it in your first cursory glance through, but you think you can actually understand this. It describes a much simpler way of creating stable pocket dimensions. Just reading it, you think you could create a pocket dimension that looks like a simple dimly lit room with about as much air. With practice, maybe much more.

    "Go, quickly. We might not have much time." He slams his door shut again before you can ask any questions. This time, you don't think it's going to open again.

    Raffia speaks up. "Well. I'm pretty sure we're screwed. Thoughts?"

    [] This is so far over your head it's in another galaxy. Leave the tuning fork outside the door and quietly retreat to your dorm.
    [] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.

    Amusingly, for picking the character option least involved with Diana's assassination, you sure managed to pick the combination of options that would get you right back there the fastest. Seriously, deviate by even a single choice and this wouldn't have come up for a long time.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] a small crystal orb inscribed with runes. The TA had demonstrated with one of these in class- they let you see the outside of pocket dimensions from the inside. This one seems slightly modified- you think it can also become a doorway between the inside of a pocket dimension and the outside if you activate it.

    Amazing utility, not being able to see whatever is going on outside when we use magic is a big liability. Also we should look into getting an oxygen tank.

    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.
     
    [X] what looks like one of the papers from the binder. You hadn't seen it in your first cursory glance through, but you think you can actually understand this. It describes a much simpler way of creating stable pocket dimensions. Just reading it, you think you could create a pocket dimension that looks like a simple dimly lit room with about as much air. With practice, maybe much more.

    Might be able to make our own external view with practice. And possibly make a room with two doors. That open to different places.

    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.

    On the one hand, rewards, so that's good. On the other hand, tossing this could get him on our case, which would be bad. Also whether we do it or not, we are involved enough that anyone trying to stop this would be after us anyway.
     
    [X] a small crystal orb inscribed with runes. The TA had demonstrated with one of these in class- they let you see the outside of pocket dimensions from the inside. This one seems slightly modified- you think it can also become a doorway between the inside of a pocket dimension and the outside if you activate it.

    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.
     
    [X] a fragile looking silver bauble. You can feel space warping in its presence even with no magic running through it. With a focus like this, you think you could open and close pocket dimensions much more easily and quickly- maybe even fast enough and large enough to capture arrows and magical attacks before they can hit you.

    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.

    We have artillery girl with us. As long as we can keep space shielding, we can make it.

    Scrying is nice long term, but we can only stay in a pocket for a minute tops. And cannot bring the tuning fork in.
    Extending the air in a pocket would help, but there is no time.

    The instant pocketing is the most immediately relevant to getting to the corpse FAST. We cannot use our normal defense as the fork cannot enter a pocket
     
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    [X] a fragile looking silver bauble. You can feel space warping in its presence even with no magic running through it. With a focus like this, you think you could open and close pocket dimensions much more easily and quickly- maybe even fast enough and large enough to capture arrows and magical attacks before they can hit you.

    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.

    So whose ready to almost most certainly die in return for graduating?
     
    [X] a fragile looking silver bauble. You can feel space warping in its presence even with no magic running through it. With a focus like this, you think you could open and close pocket dimensions much more easily and quickly- maybe even fast enough and large enough to capture arrows and magical attacks before they can hit you.

    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.

    Maybe if we tell her nicely that the assassin will come out if we desecrate the corpse, she'll let us? :whistle:
     
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    [X] what looks like one of the papers from the binder. You hadn't seen it in your first cursory glance through, but you think you can actually understand this. It describes a much simpler way of creating stable pocket dimensions. Just reading it, you think you could create a pocket dimension that looks like a simple dimly lit room with about as much air. With practice, maybe much more.


    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.
     
    [X] what looks like one of the papers from the binder. You hadn't seen it in your first cursory glance through, but you think you can actually understand this. It describes a much simpler way of creating stable pocket dimensions. Just reading it, you think you could create a pocket dimension that looks like a simple dimly lit room with about as much air. With practice, maybe much more.

    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.
     
    [X] a fragile looking silver bauble. You can feel space warping in its presence even with no magic running through it. With a focus like this, you think you could open and close pocket dimensions much more easily and quickly- maybe even fast enough and large enough to capture arrows and magical attacks before they can hit you.

    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.
     
    [X] a fragile looking silver bauble. You can feel space warping in its presence even with no magic running through it. With a focus like this, you think you could open and close pocket dimensions much more easily and quickly- maybe even fast enough and large enough to capture arrows and magical attacks before they can hit you.
    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.

    Of course we'd get to the assassination asap. Why wouldn't we. Alright people, we have a quest!
     
    [X] a fragile looking silver bauble. You can feel space warping in its presence even with no magic running through it. With a focus like this, you think you could open and close pocket dimensions much more easily and quickly- maybe even fast enough and large enough to capture arrows and magical attacks before they can hit you.
    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.

    We're really restricted given we can't bring the tuning fork into a pocket dimension, so may as well take the option where we're more likely to get to the corpse and back in one piece so we can get other rewards.
     
    [X] a fragile looking silver bauble.
    [X] I guess we're going to the city and somehow getting past someone a dragon considered worth having as a bodyguard to stand on top of said dragon's corpse.

    Normally, as a student of the college of Jewels going into the city proper was fairly safe. Not to say that you couldn't get mugged if you did something exceptionally stupid, but if you did the Lawkeepers were paid to care. The criminals mostly stuck to either the run of the mill citizen that the laws of Diadem very explicitly and in much detail did not protect, or tried to pull off grand heists on the wealthiest citizens of the city. A student of the college is just in the worst part of the risk reward comparison; very high risk, usually very low reward.

    Right now however it's not even a matter of being mugged, it's a matter of being lynched. With Diana dead almost all of the main treasury vaults are locked down, and no one has yet been able to get in. This means most of the lower class of the city isn't being paid, which in turn means that there are a lot of very angry people looking for answers right now. With the city council having taken a temporary leave of absence, that left the College of Jewels as the place most of the city was looking to for those answers, on the generally false assumption that anyone there had any idea what to do either. And unfortunately, the closed vaults meant even the Lawkeepers were no longer being paid quite enough to risk their necks to protect you.

    So. That meant that you and Raffia had to sneak past the small mob outside the front gates of the college, through the entirety of the city without getting murdered, and then finally past Viola so that you could stand in plain view on top of an incredibly large dragon's corpse and wave around a tuning fork until it did something. And then get all the way back. Somehow. To make matters ever so slightly more dire, Raffia's contribution to planning this began and ended with 'set everyone on fire' so that left you to figure all of this out by yourself. And then hope really hard that Raffia didn't start throwing around fireballs anyways, because her and subtlety got along like a very literal house on fire.

    So. A plan.

    Phase 1: Escape the College

    [] Much as you hate to admit it, Raffia's plan here isn't terrible. It's only a very small mob after all, and you're pretty sure they'll run away quickly. Unfortunately this will also mean that literally the entire city will know that someone left the college.

    [] You do still have those textbooks and the lesson plans... You might be able to bribe another Dimensional student to help you. Maybe even an upperclassmen depending on how many copies of the books they had between then.
    -[] Sophie, an acquaintance you've worked with before on projects. Working together with her and using the silver bauble, you're pretty sure you'll be able to temporarily displace the mob outside the gates so you can run past. Still not the most subtle thing in the world, but much more so then Raffia throwing fireballs. (Cost: Books and Lesson Plans. Reward: Sophie's help for this update and until you get back to the college.)

    -[] Devon, an upperclassmen you sort of know from when the TA had him do a demonstration for the class. He's not interested in the lesson plans, but in exchange for the books he'll create a dimensional gateway you explain you have something with you that can't be taken into displaced space. He seems to take this as a challenge and after vanishing into his room to dig around for something comes back reading what looks like some kind of research paper. He'll make a corridor of real space surrounded by a thin layer of partially displaced space. The effect is an area that can't be observed or entered from the outside except at designated points. (Cost: Books. Reward: Stealthy entrance into the city proper.)
    --[] If you let him see whatever it is you can't displace, he'll give you the research paper. (Cost: Letting Devon see the tuning fork. Reward: Research Paper.)

    -[] Surprisingly, when you mention bribing dimensional students Raffia has a suggestion. Apparently there's an upperclassmen named Aphelia Stars who shares Raffia's love of destruction. She's spent a great deal of time studying how dimensional magic changes and warps space and she can use this knowledge to create spatial shears that can tear just about anything into pieces. If you let her examine and experiment with the Silver Bauble for an hour, she'll create a distraction for you to sneak out under cover of. (Cost: An hour of her examining the silver bauble. Reward: A very large distraction.)
    --[] Let her keep the Bauble, and she'll agree to be your muscle when you're out in the city. (Cost: The silver bauble. Reward: A lot of extra firepower for whatever might happen in the city.)

    [] Sneak out the back of the college over the wall to avoid the mob. A simple solution. Unfortunately the college is rather large and the sight-lines at the front of college are massive so you'll have to sneak out very far away from where you want to be going. Pro: Avoid the mob. Con: More city to go through to get to where you want to go.
     
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    -[X] Surprisingly, when you mention bribing dimensional students Raffia has a suggestion. Apparently there 's an upperclassmen named Aphelia Stars who shares Raffia's love of destruction. She's spent a great deal of time studying how dimensional magic changes and warps space and she can use this knowledge to create spatial shears that can tear just about anything into pieces. If you let her examine and experiment with the Silver Bauble for an hour, she'll create a distraction for you to sneak out under cover of. (Cost: An hour of her examining the silver bauble. Reward: A very large distraction.)
    --[X] Let her keep the Bauble, and she'll agree to be your muscle when you're out in the city. (Cost: The silver bauble. Reward: A lot of extra firepower for whatever might happen in the city.)

    We are promised a reward beyond our wildest dreams. That is, if we live. Now is not the time to get greedy. And we get to use the bauble for the duration of our adventure.

    Also, I am very much in favor of Raffia's suggestions. I'd be fine with fireballing our way through the city if not for the bodyguard.
     
    [X] You do still have those textbooks and the lesson plans... You might be able to bribe another Dimensional student to help you. Maybe even an upperclassmen depending on how many copies of the books they had between then.

    -[X] Devon, an upperclassmen you sort of know from when the TA had him do a demonstration for the class. He's not interested in the lesson plans, but in exchange for the books he'll create a dimensional gateway you explain you have something with you that can't be taken into displaced space. He seems to take this as a challenge and after vanishing into his room to dig around for something comes back reading what looks like some kind of research paper. He'll make a corridor of real space surrounded by a thin layer of partially displaced space. The effect is an area that can't be observed or entered from the outside except at designated points. (Cost: Books. Reward: Stealthy entrance into the city proper.)

    Time to be sneaky.
     
    -[X] Surprisingly, when you mention bribing dimensional students Raffia has a suggestion. Apparently there 's an upperclassmen named Aphelia Stars who shares Raffia's love of destruction. She's spent a great deal of time studying how dimensional magic changes and warps space and she can use this knowledge to create spatial shears that can tear just about anything into pieces. If you let her examine and experiment with the Silver Bauble for an hour, she'll create a distraction for you to sneak out under cover of. (Cost: An hour of her examining the silver bauble. Reward: A very large distraction.)
    --[X] Let her keep the Bauble, and she'll agree to be your muscle when you're out in the city. (Cost: The silver bauble. Reward: A lot of extra firepower for whatever might happen in the city.)

    Setting everyone on fire seems like a great idea too (I mean what problem can't be solved by setting it on fire?), but this is something more solid. And I like the "Lot of extra firepower" bit.
     
    [X] Sneak out the back of the college over the wall to avoid the mob. A simple solution. Unfortunately the college is rather large and the sight-lines at the front of college are massive so you'll have to sneak out very far away from where you want to be going. Pro: Avoid the mob. Con: More city to go through to get to where you want to go.

    A fight, even with backup, is not good for us, due to the risk of attracting MORE people, and escalating.
    Just do a bypass where possible.
     
    [X] You do still have those textbooks and the lesson plans... You might be able to bribe another Dimensional student to help you. Maybe even an upperclassmen depending on how many copies of the books they had between then.
    -[X] Devon, an upperclassmen you sort of know from when the TA had him do a demonstration for the class. He's not interested in the lesson plans, but in exchange for the books he'll create a dimensional gateway you explain you have something with you that can't be taken into displaced space. He seems to take this as a challenge and after vanishing into his room to dig around for something comes back reading what looks like some kind of research paper. He'll make a corridor of real space surrounded by a thin layer of partially displaced space. The effect is an area that can't be observed or entered from the outside except at designated points. (Cost: Books. Reward: Stealthy entrance into the city proper.)
     
    [X] You do still have those textbooks and the lesson plans... You might be able to bribe another Dimensional student to help you. Maybe even an upperclassmen depending on how many copies of the books they had between then.
    -[X] Devon, an upperclassmen you sort of know from when the TA had him do a demonstration for the class. He's not interested in the lesson plans, but in exchange for the books he'll create a dimensional gateway you explain you have something with you that can't be taken into displaced space. He seems to take this as a challenge and after vanishing into his room to dig around for something comes back reading what looks like some kind of research paper. He'll make a corridor of real space surrounded by a thin layer of partially displaced space. The effect is an area that can't be observed or entered from the outside except at designated points. (Cost: Books. Reward: Stealthy entrance into the city proper.)
     
    [X] You do still have those textbooks and the lesson plans... You might be able to bribe another Dimensional student to help you. Maybe even an upperclassmen depending on how many copies of the books they had between then.
    -[X] Devon, an upperclassmen you sort of know from when the TA had him do a demonstration for the class. He's not interested in the lesson plans, but in exchange for the books he'll create a dimensional gateway you explain you have something with you that can't be taken into displaced space. He seems to take this as a challenge and after vanishing into his room to dig around for something comes back reading what looks like some kind of research paper. He'll make a corridor of real space surrounded by a thin layer of partially displaced space. The effect is an area that can't be observed or entered from the outside except at designated points. (Cost: Books. Reward: Stealthy entrance into the city proper.)
     
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