Also, SHE FLEW! She grew wings and flew!
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I think finding the book is definitely paramount. If we can retrieve the book, then that’s one step closer to getting it to Deirdre, where it belongs.
At the same time, I’m not sure why we shouldn’t share the information with Lauren. The pages will have to be scanned anyways, so we’re not really losing out on anything by giving her the same thing she (unwittingly) gave us. She doesn’t need to know anything about who retrieved the book, or even that we have people in New York to help us, so there’s no need to put anyone in danger. If she had some kind of magical way of finding the book, then wouldn’t she have done so already? So, for that reason, I don’t see the harm in anonymously emailing her the pages.
As far as what to do with Cags…It kind of feels like right now we have two choices -
- Let Cagliostro die, or lose their soul, or whatever is going to happen.
- Let Lauren cast some magic to shield Cagliostro from the magical influence from the people controlling them, which may or may not make a difference in their fate.
I want to believe that it’s not so black and white, that there’s something in the book that can help us come to another conclusion. At the very least, I think we should try. If we do end up assisting Cags and Lauren through this, then we may very well gain some powerful allies and, most importantly, we would have helped save someone’s life.
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I mean, the second choice is the best for us at the moment, because with this Cagliostro we know, sort of, with who/what we are dealing with, and the next one might be worse.
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Okay yes Eaves you’re right that’s pretty damn amazing. But come on, this is a man’s life we may be able to save.
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We’re all putting the cart before the horse here. We’re not going to have a say in anything unless we find that book. Any ideas, no matter how insane (I mean, look at some of mine) are welcome.
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Well that was fun while it lasted. Laureen knows where the book is.
The Morgan Library
From l@thecagliostro.comAdd
That’s where he hid the spell. Right here in the city.
It’s closed until Tuesday. I tried to break in but nothing worked, immaterial doorway, unclasping, nothing. Why?
And cag’s reply.
A clever nook to hide a spell. The Morgan is a unique place. It is what we call “a well”, a place deeply connected to the other side of the veil and therefore filled with echoes of memory and magic. And it is also a library. Wells are disorienting for all but the most experienced of magimystics and libraries can be dangerous as well.
I would suggest you leave this be as it will most likely be a waste of your time, but I feel I know what your answer will be.
So I will mentor you as long as I am able. If you insist on going I will guide you from here but your telemancy and our connection may be compromised while you’re inside.
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Shoot! What can we do? We have to get the book - I think Lauren will do whatever she has to to get the book because she believes it can save Cags.
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Either figure out if there’s a clue we are missing and solve or go there and tear the place apart ourselves I guess. Those are the only options I see.
Edit: She may not have the final clue either, but she’s local and could basically sit there all day, every day for the next week looking at every single book. Although she may not be able to detect the book if her powers are interfered with.
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Since her telemancy won’t work while she’s inside a “well” that most likely means they’ll communicate via email which we can read. So we’ll be getting the same information she’s getting at the same time. We’ll just have to move faster than she does.
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I tried to come up with my own original post about what we should do about the book, Cags, and all of that, but Robert pretty much summed up my thoughts on the whole situation. The unknown group of people, Cags willingness to accept his fate, his unwillingness to live in a world where he doesn’t know magic, the fact that we don’t know Lauren. There are a lot of unknowns right now, and I feel like we are potentially getting ahead of ourselves. The book should be our first priority, and then if we are able to beat Lauren to the book, we can cross all these bridges when we get there. We have until the 31st before all of this goes down.
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New things from Cags and Lauren
Lauren:
The Book
There’s nothing in it, physically or otherwise. It’s just a book.
I felt your hope. I’m so sorry.
Do they knew I was looking for a way out for you? Is that why they sent someone to get it?
I don’t know what else to say but I’m sorry.
The final piece of The Translation arrived today. Ten in total.
I’m here for you.
Yours,
Lauren
Cags:
Lauren,
You did what you could. I am impressed and honoured. Those who’ve governed me all these years cared little for the man within this power. They care only for what I can grant them and how best this power can serve them. Your effort, not your intention, gave me hope.
Please, let us turn our attention to other things. Tomorrow we will be within the witching hours of next week’s performance and I would like to revisit The Translation with you. As I told you, I have only scratched the surface of what the object is capable of, and its true purpose. Will you help me attempt to unravel its final mysteries?
Lauren:
Of course I will.
But you have to tell me one thing first…
How will they do it? How will they kill you?
Cags:
It’s actually very difficult to kill a Cagliostro. Nearly impossible.
Soon after the performance they will call for me. There will be a final supper. They will toast me, congratulate me, thank me for my service to them.
Then they will drain most of the blood from my body. Not to kill me, but to feed my replacement when he takes on the mantle. His first meal as The Cagliostro.
I will be weak. They will take me to a place far from civilization. A place with no doors. A place only accessible by magic. It is a dark place. A place they keep a terrible and powerful thing. A device that rends all matter, even impervious flesh and iron bone. A device they bade the first Cagliostro conjure. After all, what good is power without control?
My successor will be waiting just beyond this place and when the fire finally leaves my torn body it will find the nearest person to contain it. And he will be The Cagliostro.
I have seen this dark place. I have lived that moment all my life. I would rather spend my final days not dwelling on it, but as I did when I was young, exploring magic. And I would like to do that with you.
Lauren:
Tell me about The Translation.
Cags:
As I’ve told you, The Translation is an object that was constructed in the time of Menkaure. It is a towering tetrahedron engraved with bestial symbols. I have been in possession of its ten parts for centuries, but the conjuration which I’ve collected through the ages, or the manner in which I recite it, remains incomplete.
The result of my partial efforts is dazzling to be sure: the wall between our world and that of the dead crumble around the assembled icon, allowing contact from the beyond. It makes for a rousing finale but I have never unlocked the object’s full potential, or true purpose. There is an aspect of it within my reach, but I have yet been unable to grasp it. Some believe it is a door to the realm of the dead, others believe it is a channel to the Gods of old. Both theories could simply be early Egyptians interpreting the magic around them.
This is the incantation I have pieced together from scrolls, stories, and Egyptian death rites:
Mythelismus crack the bone
When trembling flesh sings tender tone
For Kemetide brings waves of thunder
Lightning to rip hearts asunder
By Orid’s eye begins our rending
Brave, and bold, our bodies bending
Now Ra-el bleeds horned souls start breaching
With tooth and claw through veil they’re reaching
And so unburied, unbound, blind
We bring forth the beasts combined.
I will also upload select recordings to the index of my attempts at perfecting the incantation.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Have hope Lauren, your life of magic has only begun.
Yours faithfully,
AC
Plus, multiple new audio files in the index in a folder titled The Translation.
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Oh god. So creepy and terrible.
Do you think we can still help Cags if we share our knowledge? Obviously the spell we have isn’t one time use only, so maybe Lauren and Cags could use it? Maybe we could even help them with it?
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I have hope it could be used to help them. Let’s let it work on Deeds first. When it does and if the pages and scans still survive we could talk about sending themail to her.
Edit. Oh as a favor once we send the scans we could ask for the book for Deeds.
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The last two attempt recordings are really neat. This must be our next spell.
Edit: do you think we should just contact Cags and Lauren to open the door for negotiation/discuss what we know? We only have a week-ish until Cags’ blood draining.
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If performing the spell obliterates all trace of it…and I put nothing past magiq at this point. We are undoing the magic after all. We will have nothing to give them and will have given them false hope.
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But if it obliterates all traces of it, the whole journey for Cags and Lauren would change - they would likely have never known of Sullivan or Deirdre and the existence of this spell or the Monarch Paper volumes?? You think it could have the ability to remove all traces of itself from our minds and essentially eliminate this plane of reality?
If there is no spell, there is no path to the last fragment piece we found, nor would we have seen the various Monarch Paper volumes - so we would lose a lot of information going back to the start of this fragment. Our course would drastically change, don’t you think?
Going back while writing this, I think I’ve figured it out - it is either actually a one time only spell that can be reversed once, or it can be used again but only by Mountaineers (since we are part of the six guilds required in the spell) and to use it again we would have to sacrifice everything and likely be blown to the “six corners” like the Mountaineers of the past, which sadly, to save just one man, likely isn’t worth it.
Am I making any sense whatsoever?
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You are making sense. And you convinced me. it’s probably not going to be rewritten from history.
Also, I wouldn’t presume to ask our Mountaineers to be the grounding hex for her spell. I think that’s uncalled for. I’d let her use her own peers or just use the grounding hex inside the loft.
If it did harm her though, I’d feel horrible, but she’s seen the same warnings we’ve seen at this point.
If you want to start talking to her, I’m on board. Anyone else feel strongly?
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Holy crap, you guys have done so much today. 
So will sharing the spell with Lauren keep everything we’ve done intact? I feel like, if that’s the case, we should just send it to her. I mean, that death sounds so gnarly…if it’s not going to hurt us, then I feel like we should at least give them the option to change their fates. That seems like the kind thing to do, and Cags is certainly magically adept enough to weigh the pros and cons of casting the spell.
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@Kelsey and @Robert have me thinking… Sullivan mentioned several times that the reason Deirdre could potentially find and reverse this spell is because his secret intentions for her to know the truth are buried inside it.
My thought… what if this only works on DG? What if it could actually hurt anyone who isn’t DG?
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Yeah, but what if it doesn’t…
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