conversations: human
conversations:  MAGE the AWAKENING 2E  
     The Shades of London   
   
    "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic with never find it." 
   - Ronald Dahl 
  
   
  
   
   Spoiler: London by Night 
  
   Imperial College: 
  
  [b]
   
  
   
   Spoiler: Cast 
  
   Juliet Childes: 
   Neville Berkshire: 
   
conversations: Erulasto:
conversations: human
conversations:  OOC: Peter Moon 
   
   Spoiler: Character Sheet 
   Character Sheet 
   
  
   
   Spoiler: Character Description 
  Peter is a 19 year old American from the suburbs of New York City (a town known as Bronxville). He has a gaunt face, with wavy brown hair and dark small brown eyes, though he does require strong prescription glasses. Peter is tall and lanky. He's a bit of a no-it-all, and he leans heavily on his higher than normal intelligence to feel better about his lack of social skills and social acceptance. In High School, one of the football players told Peter that he was voted to have "The most punchable face in school". Peter has come to London hoping for a fresh start after eight years of bullying, shame, and loneliness. Unfortunately, he hasn't yet developed the social skills to improve his situation in college. So instead Peter has thrown himself hard into his Medical School studies, and work as an EMT, using his academic successes and career path to feel superior to classmates he can't seem to connect with.
   
  
   
   Spoiler: Touchstone and Friend 
  Peter's Touchstone is another Medical Student, Juliet. She's in a number of Peter's classes, and could probably be a model. She has almond skin, long luscious brown curls, and a beaming smile. Peter is absolutely smitten, even though he's never spoken to her. In classes they share, Peter is extra-vocal, showing off his intelligence in a (rather impotent) attempt to gain her attention. Juliet comes from Rome and speaks English with a heavy Italian accent. Despite his complete ineptitude and lack of experience, Peter is somehow convinced that he and Juliet are destined to be together.
  
  Peter's only friend (if you can call him that) is Neville, a rather jolly, though slightly dim witted boy that Peter met in his elective Italian Language class (I'll let you guess why Peter chose that class). Neville is short and rotund, with bright curly red hair and a pudgy freckled face. Neville is equal parts emotional support and punching bag for Peter, and mostly allows "his friend" to get away with this behavior, because Peter is pretty much the first friend Neville has ever really had.
   
  
   
   Spoiler: Peter's Hollow 
   The Hollow is located in the school library, and Peter found it during his studies. The walls of this Hollow are lined floor to ceiling with towering shelves of title-less books. Mana drips like syrupy ink from the pages of the thousands of tomes that pile up in this strange part of the library, coagulating into a parchment like substance glowing with runes and power.
   
  
   
   Spoiler: Aspirations and Obsessions 
  Aspirations:
  1. Use magic to hasten the death of a patient rather than save them
  2. Go on a date with his Touchstone
  3. Further Medical School training
  
  Obsession :
  1. Find the key to immortality
   
  
  
  @Erulasto: Let me know if there is anything else you want me to include. Do you want me to make the character box or do you want to keep track of it.
conversations: Bennosuke:
conversations: human
conversations:  Prelude 
   Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of in. 
  -Haruki Murakami 
  London.
  
  October 31st, 2019.
  
  Halloween.
  
  Of  all  the nights to draw the short straw on the shift rotation duty roster, this was it.
  
  Traditionally, the night was a busy one – full of people needing medical assistance. It ranged from kids who’se parents were freaking out about how much they were vomiting and sure there was  something  horribly wrong with them instead of recalling it was  the parents  who let them consume so much candy. There were the more serious cases, like panic or anxiety attacks from people who don’t handle being scared all that well. Or alcohol or drug related shenanigans. All in all, it wasn’t a shift many paramedics or EMT’s liked working.
  
  But that is exactly what Peter found himself doing.
  
  He was sitting in the cab of an ambulance, engine idling along a side street near a residential complex while his partner for the night – Kit Burnham – ran into a nearby coffee shop to get some tea and doughnuts as a snack. It was only eight in the evening, but the streets were packed with kids in bright costumes, or frightening masks as they skipped and cavorted, door to door, gradually increasing the mass of candy carried in pillowcases, or decorative bags.
  
  A textbook sat in Peter’s lap. Pathophysiology of Heart Disease, third edition. Hints had been dropped across the week that there was going to be some sort of quiz on aortic dissection.
  
  A knocking was heard, as if someone was drumming on the hood of the ambulance. It drew Peter’s gaze up from the book as his eyes searched for some sign of what it was.
  
  There, upon the hood of the ambulance, was a crow. The biggest that Peter had ever seen. A dead mouse was sitting on the hood as well, and the crow had been tapping on the metal of the hood as if to get his attention.
  
  He’d heard stories of crow’s bringing  gifts  to people before, but this was a bit creepy.
  
  The crow cawed loudly, head twitching to and fro as if it sought to keep eye contact with the young medical student.
  
  Then, the door next to Peter was flung open, and the crow fluttered away in a furious thrashing of wings.
  
   ”Goddamn lines. Sorry Peter. Took longer than I thought!”  Kit said as he slid into the passenger seat of the ambulance cab and set two large tea’s into the dashboard cup holders.  ”Christ on High! What the hell is  that ?”  He asked, finally noticing the mouse carcass on the hood.
conversations: Erulasto:
conversations: human
conversations:  " A present? " Peter says with a shrug and an anxious lilt to his voice. Peter knew that Kit thought he was a "strange one", though the man was friendly enough with the medical student. He had overhead Kit gossiping about Peter at the water cooler a while back, and it had hurt to hear how uncomfortable he made some of the others... Not that it mattered anymore! Peter knew things none of them did, could do things none of them could. Peter was special, he knew that now. Peter had  powers! 
  
  This thought helping to stabilize his confidence Peter says, " There was a raven on the hood just a second ago. You must have scared it off. I guess it left the mouse for us. "
  
  Peter leans over and actually sticks his head out the nearside window to see if he can catch a glimpse of the bird, and see where it flies to.
conversations: Bennosuke:
conversations: human
conversations:  Kit looked at Peter a little curiously – strangely – before shrugging with a heavy sigh and cracking open the filmy plastic lid to his tea. He took a small sip, and set the cup aside before checking the dispatch computer on the dashboard to see if anything interesting had come up.
  
   ”A raven, eh? Is that some kinda  ill-omen ?”  Kit asked with a noticeable scoff in his voice. It was exactly the kind of weirdness that Kit would associate with Peter.
  
  As Peter leaned out the window to glance up and down the street, he managed to catch a glimpse of the black feathered bird perched atop a street light just a block away. And it wasn’t alone.
  
  In fact, now there were three other birds.
  
  And all of them were sitting over or near a flight of stairs that led down into the depths of a local subway station.
conversations: Erulasto:
conversations: human
conversations:  Peter ignore's the man's glare, instead following his gaze out towards the gathering of black birds. " I'm sure it is, " Peter says offhanded before adding, " and I think a group of ravens together is called a... Murder! "
  
  Peter's curiosity getting the better of him, he opens up the Ambulance passenger door to step out and get a better view. Absent-mindedly moving towards the ravens, Peter activates his Death Mage sight.
conversations: Bennosuke:
conversations: human
conversations:  A murder of crows.
  
  The notion may have piqued Peter’s curiosity, but as he stepped out of the ambulance, he felt a cold chill run down his spine as if the Reaper itself had run bony fingers across his skin. With his senses expanding into the realm of the Dead, Peter saw the fog in his mind’s eye part like a great, billowing curtain of mist. That mist seemed to cling to the cold, damp stones of the street. It hung off the walls and dripped ominously from street lights and window sils.
  
  In the shadows of the subway tunnel entrance, Peter thought he saw movement. Sibilant, slithering  things  in the dark.
  
  The crows themselves seemed to carry a palpable aura of doom upon them, and through his active observation, they seemed to be half-rotten – missing feathers – with wriggling worms just beneath the skin.
  
  There was  death  here.
  
  Deep, in the dark below the city.
  
  And it was singing a haunting lullaby, beckoning Peter to walk that stygian path.
  
   
   Spoiler: OOC 
  
  
  Active Mage Sight is free for the Ruling Arcana, so no cost for Death Sight. Typically, it shows the Anchored condition. Which, Peter does. Something deathly is hanging out below.
   
conversations: Erulasto:
conversations: human
conversations:  Peter's curiosity was piqued. His sense of responsibility as an EMT was overwhelmed by his desire to explore this phenomenon further... and besides, if there was death lurking below the city, perhaps it was his job as an EMT to try to help... right? Peter is going to look for some sort of access to whatever is lurking below the city, like a manhole or a subway entrance (if either of those is appropriate).
  
   
   Spoiler: OOC: 
  I don't know a perception roll is needed to find something so obvious, but in case you want it. Peter's base perception is 4d10, but will roll extra dice in case there is a positive modifier:  (7d10)[ 1 ][ 10 ][ 5 ][ 8 ][ 7 ][ 2 ][ 5 ](38)  and 10 again  (7d10)[ 9 ][ 1 ][ 6 ][ 8 ][ 2 ][ 7 ][ 9 ](42) 
   
conversations: Bennosuke: