To go further, here’s a custom Google map of what we’re looking at.
Google Map
I’ve made a polygon connecting the points, but I’ve not dug into what might be in the middle, if anything.
And, of course, we may be waiting for more points.
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I’m betting we’re looking for more points. The current middle of the points seems to be be roughly here. If it is the park, the Johnstown Mausoleum is in it. I think the park is called Calavary Cemetery. Also, there is an Atlas Obscura on it.
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P.S. The map settings are now open. I think I forgot to do that.
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I’m not sure how relevant this is, but the “Whispering Column of Jerash” being from the Temple of Artemis could indicate another astrological connection, like the obelisk and Venus, because Artemis/Diana was often associated with the moon.
Also, the Ephesian Artemis, which said temple was dedicated to, was a distinct visage of Artemis, and she traditionally wore a zodiac symbol, which could indicate even more how important astrology is in this situation?
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I hope you had a great time with your mom this weekend, and that if anything magiqal happened it didn’t weird her out. 
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Hey Mounties! First off, everything is fine here. We’re just homesteading and getting excited that the weather is finally, sloooooowly warming up. Once the ground thaws, we’ll have a lot more to do/explore, what with forests to hike and forage, seeds to plant, and (hopefully) getting a few solar panels installed outside. I wouldn’t risk putting anything on the roofs of this place.
Anyway, I checked in last week and saw Ash’s reply about Marty and realized she might be onto something, so I emailed him as your official middle man to the non-magic world.
He followed up last night with a quick note (he’s on vacation with his family, squeeeeeee) so here’s the relevant part:
“Lauren either delivered those objects to me or had me otherwise “procure” them. She knows she’s got me on a string so had me hotfooting all over New York. What can I say, I have a soft spot for that centuries-old demigod.
She “said” that with the end of magic in the Book of Kings, most of the old leylines had also disappeared or died. She had me plant those “objects of personal and noted power” near those columns to create temporary leylines between the column material’s points of origin and their final forms. Stone hangs onto memory longer than almost anything else, apparently. She then did some mojo which helped her get a better sense of what was happening with magic. From what she could see, many or most of the rules of magic are being rewritten or possibly being realigned with their once “true rules.” And according to what you’re saying, we’re in the new age now, then that’s already happened.
Old rules out, new rules forthcoming. I hope you’re all well. Make me happy to hear that Mounties are still hopping all over Manhattan, physically and virtually.”
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Thank you, @Ashburn! And thank you for the update, @Eaves, that gives me a better idea of what to look for. I just sent my mom off to the airport after a happily magiq-free weekend, so now I’m finally heading up to Queens. Hearing that my excursions were making Marty happy was the motivation I needed. 
Will report back soon!
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@Eaves, quoting Marty:
I’m a new kitten here, and mindful about reading more than one posts at first, but it seems like the connection between each “point of origin” and the “final form” is important, in addition to the triangles we can see on the maps.
I’m not good (yet?) with manipulating Google Maps, but if one connects each “point of origin” to the “final form,” do the lines happen to intersect?
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Food for thought, Marty notes that in Lauren’s words she called the objects Marty planted “personal and noted power”. The question is whether the personal nature of the objects is respective to the Cagliostro or Lauren herself.
In addition, if those columns were meant to trace temporary leylines, perhaps those leylines were cemented with the actions of you all bringing about this new age of magiq?
Seeing as the origin points are all in the eastern hemisphere, a projection from them to the points in NY should create an intersection, possibly where another object of power is located? The intersection of 3 leylines, temporary or not, would be a place of exceptional power.
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Made it to Queens, which was an adventure in its own right. (If anyone wants a laugh, Google how complicated it is to get to this place from Manhattan on public transit.)
Totally worth it, though. The park is huge, and gorgeous. I admittedly did very little research before going out there, so I didn’t know that it had been created to host the 1939 World’s Fair until I got there and read some signs. Or that the Jerash column was even more recent (to New York, at least, the plaque says it dates back to a Roman temple from the second century AD), as a gift from Jordan for the 1964 World’s Fair. Apparently Queens loves their World’s Fairs.
I was a little stumped at first, seeing that the column looked like any other ancient column with nothing odd physically attached to it, so I went back to Marty’s message. The line where he says Lauren had him “plant” the objects made me think maybe I needed to be looking down.
Tucked into some shrubbery at the base was a weird little plant that stood out from the rest, barely half an inch tall. When I looked closer, I realized it wasn’t a plant at all, but something that looked like a clump of horse hair buried in the ground. I loosened some of the earth around it and (gently) pulled, and what appears to be a very old paint brush emerged, a little dirty but otherwise in tact. I’m not sure how old it is, but the bristles are stuck to the end of the wooden handle by cloth and some kind of string or thin leather.
And now I’m back on the train to the office with another casual “object of personal and noted power” just hanging out in my bag, wrapped in some leftover Chipotle napkins for protection.
…Really glad I didn’t have to explain this one to my mom.
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I liked this idea, so I checked it out on google earth, but either I’m bad at Google Earth (totally possible) or the locations are mostly too clustered to really get a solid triangulation. Also because the Earth is round, the lines you draw are curved to be “straight,” but it’s possible that if you drew actually straight lines you’d find a neater intersection.
I also found that Crete is almost in the center of the three origin points. I’m not convinced that means anything but I thought I’d mention it.
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Without the haft, the “spearhead” looks a lot like a palette knife, especially if it was thin enough to be wedged into a crack in stones. And now that you’ve found a paintbrush …
… I wonder if there’s an artist involved?
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Could be? Your guess is as good as mine at this point.
It’s gonna take me a minute to get back to the office and service is spotty on the subway, but let me know if you guys have any ideas on what in the name of Herman I’m supposed to do with this thing. I’ve got a couple theories, but I trust your magimystic instincts better than mine.
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Well, our friendly emailer said their friend put the ring on and it turned to sand…
You (inadvertently) stabbed something with the spearhead and it turned to sand…
Something tells me that using these items the way they’re intended gets them to turn to sand… 
Not sure if you actually want to put anything on the paintbrush or just try to paint without anything on it first.
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By way of follow-up: I looked to see if there was a significant broken column near the Pompeii marker. The marked location is right next to “La Casa della Caccia Vecchia”—the House of the Ancient Hunt.
As you can see, there are a lot of paintings on the wall for which one might use a smooth plaster knife. And there also seems to be a broken column near the center.
What I can’t find is an astrological connection, like the other two (to Venus and the Moon). I’m still not sure whether this is a wild goose, uh, hunt.
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The hunt depicted (if I recall correctly) involves Artemis (one of the myths where she turns someone into something for peeking), which would then link to the moon and all the other astrological things. 
Edit: That made me want to check on the obelisk again. If we’re correlating places/objects with celestial things, we have a sun and two moons (or one and half/two of each depending on how you count the Hunt; I lean towards moon since Artemis was goddess of the hunt.).
I’m now half suspecting that we’ll have three more moons if that’s a thing. 
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There’s also a mural depicting Apollo, so both of the twins were represented. Maybe it’s a marker for the sun and the moon?
Edit: looks like there’s a ton of Greek figures represented, from Artemis and Apollo to Zeus, Venus, and Mercury (don’t mind my Greek/Roman blending please! Just reporting from sources)
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Yes, trying to use the paintbrush as a paintbrush is a fabulous idea! Maybe put down a tarp first so the sand doesn’t get everywhere? 
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A tarp would’ve been smart, although it wasn’t so bad this time.
I don’t have any paint here, so I got out some printer paper and just dipped it in water. I got about halfway through a brushstroke before it disintegrated. Except this time, there was nothing in the sand, so now I’m just feeling guilty over destroying an ancient artifact for nothing. 
Into another Ziploc it goes…
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“Ilya stumbled through the woods with a bright and beaming smile on her face, and a single phrase running over and over in her mind: The great silver bells have finally rung.”
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