One Gish, Two Gish, Red Gish, Blue Gish [IC]

[Snowbluff]

Diael

"That will not be a problem for me, then. What do we do when we have lured the targets?"

[PairO'Dice Lost]

"Wow. That's a lot of money," whistles Tarnoc, who after all is still a teenager (albeit almost an adult) with a teenager's low income. "Not that the Academy students will have trouble paying that, with the silver spoons in most of their mouths," he adds with a grumble. "And you say 'luring the targets', Diael, like we're hunting animals or something. These are fairly smart students, I assume, since you have to be to study magery--or, well, most of the time you do. Some slackers are just born to it," he says with a friendly smirk aimed at Varthok and Kuruk. "So we can just explain the situation once we've got them all and take them, I don't know, wherever. Anyplace outside the Iatirroch borders where any traitors they might have won't be able to talk to anyone and where the Inquisition won't just bump into them."

[Autopsibiofeeder]

Aat

While he was enthusiastic in the beginning, his fellow resistance members took over with their hobbies: Semanthics and discussing for the sake of discussing. So, Aat started to do what he prefers to do: Sitting back and observing. Now, however, he decided to place a comment.

"Hang on. How exactly is who going to teleport ten people that are not aware of being teleported? Under observation, even? What about the practical side of matters? The circus sounds like a good cover and possible distraction, but maybe it would be easier to ensure that the ten students we are looking for will be the few not attending the show?"

[herrhauptmann]

Armand:

"I don't know of any teleport spells that allow you to move someone without their consent. I suppose we could knock them out somehow, then teleport their unconscious bodies like sacks of grain, but that would be counterproductive. Likely we'll have to tell them who we are, and give them a single chance to come with us."

[Autopsibiofeeder]

Aat

Aat nods. "So, it would be reasonable to seek them out and offer them an extraction and further education if they desire. For example, during one of their secret meetings." He turns to Josiah: "How and where do they meet? Would that be feasible?"

"I believe we have the resources and the manpower to set up and supervise a temporary camp for them for the first period. The circus would then be a perfect occasion to extract them without notice, at least for a short while."

[Getsugaru]

Ghola put down one of the bundles he'd completed and gave Aat a reproving glare. "What part of 'I can't have there be any connection between the circus and the resistance' and 'I refuse to put them at such a risk' was unclear?"

[Autopsibiofeeder]

Aat

"All of it was kind of unclear, seeing how it followed a suggestion by yourself to use a visit to the circus as a good moment to meet up with them." He shrugs. "If you feel that strong about avoiding the apparent involvement of your circus in this whole thing, which is understandable, it would make sense to either cancel your circus shows or postpone this mission for quite a while." He looks at Ghola with the most honest and earnest of intentions. "Don't get me wrong, but despite being misguided, inquisitors are smart enough to add one and one. A traveling group of people with extraordinary talents and mysterious beasts visits town right when a group of students disappear, who they may or may not suspect to have affinity with illegal magical practices. If you were one of them, wouldn't a few bells ring?"

[Snowbluff]

Diael

"They aren't members. They are our objective. Target is appropriate until we have more information."

"If you are worried about the circus, we could stage a bombing. Faking the deaths of the... 'recruits' should be no problem."

[Autopsibiofeeder]

Aat

"A bombing? Surely we can manage to be more subtle than that? Also, I think we have to consider the possibility of this not working out as well as we plan. In that case the rumour that witch rebels attacked a circus and endangered the innocent spectators will not do much good to our cause, will it?"

[Snowbluff]

Diael

"You seems to be missing the finer details of what I said. The purpose of the statement was to present a plan that would not endanger the traveling circus. It would be quite simple. Contact the targets. If we can convince them to join us, cause an explosion in the academy to fake their deaths. The probable we would implement could vary from an alchemical explosion to the students destroying themselves while pursuing the arcane arts. The plan lacks a certain finesse, but makes up for it by giving a reason for the sudden disappearance of the students."

[herrhauptmann]

Armand,
"There's a second risk we should plan for as well. What if one refuses to come with us?"
He looks around the room. "If that happens, we've got a non-member who can identify us. I'm planning to alter my appearance, wear a mask, and stay invisible, just in case. What other options do we have to protect ourselves? Suggestion or Geas might do the trick, perhaps with the command to 'Go about your day and speak of tonight to no one.'"

[Getsugaru]

"When I suggested we make use of the circus being in town, I was meaning more in a 'distracting the inquisitors while you meet up with the targets' kind of way. Specifically, I was thinking of you guys meeting up with them en route, talking to them, and setting up a meeting for later. Then, they'd go to the show, have a good time, and have some time to think it over. Then, you could instruct them to go to the circus again the next day, meet them en route again, and find out their answer. All without the circus ever being truly involved. Plus, it gives you a time that you can approach them unseen, since everyone will be heading that way anyways." Taking a deep breath, Ghola relaxed his face, carefully taking another bite so as to not spill on Varthok's freshly picked herbs. Is this plan agreeable, Aat?"
I just don't want them to get hurt, he thought to himself. They're like family to me. I can't let them get directly involved in this, if I can avoid it...

Looking over in Diael's direction, Ghola smiled. "After all of that's taken care of and we've confirmed whether or not they are on our side, then you can come up with a plan to fake their deaths. Heck, if we can make good enough dummies and disguises for them, I might be able to smuggle them out to another base as Val's assistants, learning about taming and training animals and magical beasts. What do you guys think?

[Autopsibiofeeder]

Aat

"Well Ghola," Aat replies, "while your circus is not involved this way it still might very well appear involved. Which can be just as bad. That risk is yours to take of course." Then Aat adresses the whole group again. "I still think the plan is, as is, a bit simple. We assume things. Will they travel in a small group of magic users, neatly separated from whoever else might go to visit the circus, or will they travel individually? Maybe they will come with a big group of thirty students. How do you single them out?" He pauses a small moment. "They meet in secret, which means at set times they will be together, without other students or teachers present. That is the kind of situation we need. They provide it, why do we not make use of it? We have the means to sneak up on them, observe them and convey a message. In person, through telepathy or otherwise. Give them an offer which they may then decide to refuse or not, with instructions on what to do if they wish to leave the academy and learn more about magic."

[Snowbluff]

Diael

Diael nods at Ghola's suggestion.

Zoe pipes up again. "I could do it. I can use my telepathy to talk to the students individually."

[Getsugaru]

"If we make sure to have meetings take place during the show, far, far, away," he added, "then the circus has nothing to do with it. Both in appearance and reality. Especially if we make it look like we've been planning to meet for a long time, and were using the circus in town as an opportunity." Looking over to Zoe, Ghola smiled once again. "As for my absence, I think I have a solution..."
Reaching into his pocket, Ghola pulled out a small, Amethyst crystal the size of his palm. Tossing it into the air, the crystal suddenly transformed into a nondescript human-like construct. "He can take on my form, and I can communicate telepathically with him over a range of a mile. I can have him be my proxy, my 'Avatar,' if you will." Suddenly, the mechanical human turned into an exact replica of Ghola.
"I promise to meet your expectations, but can we get going? I'm not so sure of the security of this place..." The replica spoke with the same tone as Ghola, only with a twang of nervousness.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Tarnoc looks like he wants to respond to Armand's suggestion to assault the students with a long angry rant, but he takes a deep breath, restrains himself, and for the sake of not sidetracking the meeting settles for sending an I fundamentally disagree with you on every level and am not talking to you for the foreseeable future glare in his direction.

"My contact hasn't given me an exact location, probably in case I'm an Inquisitor looking to entrap them," Josiah responds to Aat, "but I do know they meet within the Academy, at different randomly-changing locations each time. If we wanted to set up a distraction or an 'accident' to help with the extraction, I'm sure something could be arranged."

Kuruk jumps in surprise at seeing Ghola's psicrystal transform into a replica of him. [That's amazing!] she chitters in her native Draconic. [I hope I can polymorph my mind-shard like that some day. But...aren't you worried about the priests seeing through the disguise? Whenever there are big events in the city, the Thothites and Aurifans are on extra-special alert for troublemakers, and I'm sure they'll have some clergy stationed around the circus and at the gates looking extra-hard for illegal magic.]

[Getsugaru]

"Master has a simple solution for that." Charging over to the opposite end of the room, the psicrystal quickly arrived at the opposite wall. As quickly as it had taken on Ghola's form, it changed back into a small crystal. Within an instant, Ghola teleported from one end of the room to the other. Picking up his psicrystal, he immediately teleported back to where he was before.
"I can do that over a range of over 1000 miles," he said with a grin, "and can teleport myself even further when my psicrystal, Thufir, is at my side." In the instant he picked up the small amethyst stone, his appearance had changed. Blue runic lines had sprung from his forehead, spreading down his body to his right hand, in which he still held his psicrystal. These same runes were also upon the stone, gleaming with a beautiful, light-blue light. "One of you can carry Thufir with you to the meeting. Then, when he gives me the signal, I'll teleport in and morph him into my doppelganger. Then, I teleport back to the show and direct Thufir through our telepathic link. Better yet, if a fight breaks out within twelve minutes of our 'chat,' I won't have to show up to the fight, as Thufir is as good at combat as myself, if not better. Especially since he likes to morph into a nimblewright."
Tossing the crystal once again, it once again transformed into a nondescript human-like construct. Rather than turn into his master again, however, he instead took on a different appearance.

Spoiler

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Working on a description of this new form now, but he basically looks like this.
Explanation of what happened: Thufir ran over to the opposite side of the room[move action]. Ghola manifested Temporal Acceleration [Swift action]. Using Standard Action of Temporal Acceleration, Manifest Inconsistant Location [Standard action]. Temporal Acceleration Ends. Ghola uses Move action as a Swift to utilize Inconsistant Location. Teleported over to Thufir, then Teleports back with Thufir in hand [Psionic Teleport, Standard action]. Spent Psicrystal's Psionic Focus [already focused for self and psicrystal] to activate Psicarnum Infusion[target=Azure Talent]. Regain Power Points. Catches breath.

[Autopsibiofeeder]

Aat

"This contact of yours, Josiah, is that one of the students we are discussing?" He waves his hands at the locations Ghola just zipped and zapped around. "Forget the details for now, I am sure we can handle the situation well with all our resources, but what about the basic questions: Who are these people, how do we find out about that, and how will we establish first contact and offer them a deal?"

[herrhauptmann]

Armand

"Aat does have a good point Josiah." Armand states in agreement. "On the off chance that this is actually bait for us, perhaps a group of approved mages acting on the Inquisitions behalf; I think that I'll go in tomorrow to continue copying a book of Astronomy. While there, I'll check for any other arcane auras."

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Moriah lets out an unladylike snort at the implication that the students would be Sanctioned Mages working for the Inquisition. "Oh, please. Those are so rare that until we ran into Jheska, Josiah and I thought they were only a myth. Actually, even after we met her he thought they were only a myth and that she was lying. Cousin dearest, remember how you bet her she couldn't prove it, and when she did you had to--?" "Yes, yes I do, thank you very much for reminding me," Josiah interrupts hastily, "but that's not what we're talking about now. Which isn't to say that you shouldn't try to spy on our potential allies, Armand, that's actually a good idea and the more we know about them the better.

"Yes, my contact is one of the students," he continues to Aat. "The rest are all students as well, but I've only met my contact in person because the others don't trust me. The only reason my contact does is that I discovered her practicing cantrips in what she thought was an obscure room that no one used. We can offer the group a deal or a plan through her, but I'm not privy to their meeting schedule so I don't know how long it would take for them to agree or disagree and get back to us."

[Snowbluff]

Zoe

Zoe drops from Moriah's head and onto her shoulder. "What did she do? What did she do? I've gotta know! You can not leaving me wanting!" She frowns as best her dragon-like face allows.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Moriah grins evilly while Josiah buries his face in his hands.
"Well, there he was," Moriah begins.
"Oh, no," Josiah sighs.
"--going on and one about how she just had to be lying--"
"No, no no."
"--when she said, fine, if you really think so--"
"Moriah, you promised."
"--put your money where your mouth is--"
"You are such an ungrateful sibling."
"--and make a bet on it."
"I should have known better than to take you in."
"He'd had a few drinks too many, as usual--"
"Seriously, sis, this isn't funny."
"--so of course he agreed to a bet...."
"Godsdammit, here we go."

Moriah goes on to describe a rather amusing incident involving seven high-ranking priestesses, manacles and silk rope, inopportune polymorphing, several magical rings, a large bribe, potion allergies, and a cursed sword.

"...but what he didn't know was that Jheska had cast a scrying spell through one of those pre-Cataclysm memory crystals, so she'd recorded the whole thing! She refuses to tell him where she has it stashed, and she's never let him live it down."

Josiah, who by this time is just sitting there with a resigned expression on his increasingly-red face, waits for the applause and laughter to die down before half-seriously growling, "That's it, I'm taking you out of my will."

[Getsugaru]

Ghola hadn't laughed. It wasn't that he hadn't heard them, but his social ineptitude and lack of experience made him not see it as being funny. Blushing, Ghola interjected a question. "So, wait. What did they do with the sword?"
"I mean it, sis. I will make you pay."
"You know what, never mind. I don't want to put Josiah through any more pain, and it's clear he wants us to change subject. So back to the main issue..." Placing his hand on Josiah's shoulder, Ghola continued. "Josiah, do you have any samples we can use to assist scrying?"

[Snowbluff]

Zoe

Zoe giggles. "I have to try that sometime. Life is so interesting!"

Diael sneezes, but otherwise manages to maintain his composure.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Josiah twitches at Ghola's touch, relaxing when he realizes that the topic has changed. "Yes I do," he replies, blush slowly fading. "They aren't advanced enough in their studies to start taking precautions against scryers, so grabbing a few stray hairs when she was distracted wasn't difficult. I'm no diviner, obviously, so whoever wants to handle that can have those."

[Failed Phantasm]

As Josiah revealed the hairs he'd obtained, Varthok looked up from his nearly-completed work, his wings extending outward to accommodate his shift in position. "Josiah," he began with a hint of amusement in his voice, "if you want us to start completing these meetings in a timely manner, you really need to tell us about the important things first. We'd have fewer arguments and you, Varthok stopped for a moment, unable to repress a slight chuckle in spite of himself. "...would have kept your dignity intact." To be honest, Varthok did not find the tale of Josiah's misadventure particularly funny. Except for the part about the cursed sword. When he finished speaking, Varthok rose from his seat and put the bundled herbs back in the basket.

He stretched out for a moment, feeling slightly stiff after sitting for so long. Then, he beckoned for the others to follow him. "There's a small pond that I maintain just outside the entrance. Very clear and clean. I can perform the scrying there, but it would be a great help if you told me everything you know about this person from whom you took the hair. Even second-hand knowledge will be very helpful." He turned and left the chamber where they had met and strode off at a brisk pace towards the pool, assuming that at least Josiah, and perhaps some of the others, would follow. The spell took an hour to cast, so he would need to start as quickly as possible. 'I hope the others use this time to cool their tempers. That was not the most productive meeting we have ever had,' he thought with a slight frown.

[Getsugaru]

"I'll join you guys," Ghola said with a smile. "The moon should be quite beautiful tonight;" leaning in towards Varthok, he whispered into his ear. "and this meeting was pretty counterproductive. Is every meeting I miss while traveling like this?"
Waving his hand while he walked, Thufir responded by returning to his normal form. At the same time, the runes on Ghola's head (which had disappeared after the display of power had finished) flashed into existence for an instant; beautiful, spider-like legs of ectoplasm formed on the sides of the psicrystal. Running across the floor, the small crystal stopped and jumped in place in front of Zoe. "Hey Zoe," said the crystal in a gleeful tone, "let's go play outside! It'll be fun!"

Spoiler

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I may not have made it quite clear yet, so to clarify: Thufir the Psicrystal has the nimble personality, and, due to this, also represents the child in Ghola. As such, I'd call a description of the magnified personality of Thufir to be "childish: playful, but highly sensitive to what goes on around him."

[Autopsibiofeeder]

Aat

"You have to gain her trust, Josiah," Aat had produced some tools and was now working on an arrow shaft, "can we perhaps give her something? A token, to gain her trust. Something that puts you in her eyes in as much danger as she thinks she is in by confiding in you. An arcane scroll, spell knowledge, perhaps something that might help them stay hidden from the inquisition while practicing." He looks up. "With the promise of more, of course."

[herrhauptmann]

Armand,

Wincing slightly at the rebuke in Varthoks words. "When you said 'your contact,' I was under the impression you were operating under second-hand knowledge. Varthok, I'd like to join you at the pool shortly, there is the chance I know the student."
"As for gaining trust, Aat has the right of it." He nods his head. "Even if they don't trust us, they would still welcome our knowledge. I suggest practical knowledge like ensuring that hair clippings are burnt to avoid being used as a scrying focus. And of course, new spells. Something that well help them survive danger like Shield or Expeditious Retreat. Alter Self would also be useful, but you've said that only one has the skill for the second circle. If there are no objections, I can do that myself after I visit the academy tomorrow." Having said that, he stands to follow the Gnoll outside.

[Autopsibiofeeder]

Aat

"There is a spell that creates an alarm upon trespassing, right?" Aat grins. "It caught me once. If it can catch me, it can catch inquisitive inquisitors."